As Sunset Shimmer ran, she looked back down the alley. The stallion was still hot on her trail, getting closer each second as they ran. He moved like a cheetah, so running was just prolonging the inevitable. Shimmer looked around for something to slow him down, but all she could find were trash bags. Her horn glowed as she threw one bag at the incoming stallion and watched as he tripped over the plastic, his body slamming to the ground.
That did the trick.
A smile spread across Sunset’s face as she saw her gateway to freedom, a large gap between the buildings. The opening revealed cars driving back and forth, ponies walking by the exit. All that was waiting for her, she just had to not get caught. She looked back again to see the stallion wasn’t on her tail. Either that was a good sign or bad, Shimmer didn’t care.
The mare slowed her pace down into a trot. The breeze cooled her down, drying the sweat on her forehead. The sky had cleared, except for a few scattered fluffy clouds in the wind. The light from the sun was blinding at first, but Sunset’s eyes adjusted and it became bearable.
Since the stallion wasn’t chasing anymore, Sunset figured she could stop to catch her breath. After all, she might need to run again when she’s out the alleyway. She stopped and leaned her back against it, catching her breath. She inhaled and exhaled, then repeated it over again until she stopped hearing her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Shimmer pulled on her cloak to get a look at it. The holes were growing, spreading everywhere. She sniffed at the foul odor coming from somewhere near where she stood. She brought her muzzle near the cloak and took a sniff, pulling back as the smell grew stronger. It smelt pungent, like she’d been in a sewer, which, in a way, she kinda was. Waking up laying on top of mud could do that to an pony.
There was no time for a bath, no time to look into the mirror and refine her reflection into perfection. She only had time to figure out how to survive in a new and very different world. What the hell was happening? Sunset had never seen anything like what she saw earlier.
Whoever the new alicorn was has proven to be a more difficult threat than Shimmer ever could imagine. She didn’t know what she was going up against, but she knew for sure it didn’t involve magic. At least she had that on her side.
Sunset grabbed her head as her ears exploded from an ear-splitting noise filling the air. The unicorn turned around when she heard another sound, like something screeching. A black-coated carriage sat at the entrance, closing the gap between the buildings. The dark alley was suddenly brightened by the red and blue lights that sat on the hood of the carriage. Two stallions wearing the same blue uniform came out of the carriages and stood near it.
Sunset Shimmer’s horn brightened as the two stallions simply stared at her, mocking her with their silence. The only sound accompanying them was the loud screech from the carriage. The larger one stepped forward and pulled out a new pair of shackles in his magic, walking slowly towards her. “Come on now, don’t make this harder on yourself.”
“Touch me and I’ll break your hoof.” Shimmer growled.
The stallion stepped forward only to be blasted with a spell. His partners shielded their eyes from the blinding only to look in horror as a frog hopped out of the hat laid out on the floor.
Sunset couldn’t help but chuckle.
The stallion pulled out a black stick and charged at her with it. Sunset looked to her right. Nothing that she saw could hurt the stallion until her eyes landed on a stick lying in a puddle. Grabbing it she turned around in time for the stick to connect with the stallion’s head. The stallion dropped to the ground and groaned as he held his head.
Shimmer turned in time for her to be tackled on the ground, her head slamming down hard. The skies looked blurry from the view on the ground. She couldn’t tell if it was because the headache pounding inside her head or because how she was positioned. Her ears popped as his partner laughed. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or may do can and will be used against you in court,” the other cop said.
Sunset couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening to her. Furious, her horn glowed a dangerous green. The stallion released her, stepping back cautiously. He could feel his eyes burning from the light that erupting from Shimmer’s horn. He rubbed his eyes, groaning from the pain he must feel from the light. “Ugh!” Shimmer saw his eyes were red, tears building up inside. “Get her!”
Before the stallion charging could lay a hoof on her, Sunset Shimmer blinded the stallion with a flash from her horn. Sunset shook the dizziness from her vision as she turned towards the other cop as he bellowed and ran towards her. Shimmer’s horn glowed as picked up a metal pole from the ground and swung it right into the other one’s stomach, making him fall to the ground, gasping for air.
Sunset turned as the other one pulled out a strange device and pointed at her. A large green bubble expanded from Sunset, ignoring any non-living thing as the green surface phased through the walls and garbage. The stallion posed in a shooting stance and pointed at Shimmer. “Last warning before I shoot!”
Sunset groaned as she held the bubble. The headache pounding in her head was screaming for her to stop and surrender, but she couldn’t, her pride wouldn’t allow that. She growled and shouted, “Take your best shot!”
An ear-splitting thunderclap wracked orange mare’s ears. As it died down, it rang out a second time. She opened her eyes when she saw the stallion holding a strange device in his magic, smoke flowing out of the tubes. The stallion advanced towards her and kept firing. Each hit punctured holes within her bubble.
Even though the shield protected her, the things punching holes in her bubble made it feel like something was pounding against her head. She grunted with each shot the stallion fired, losing the battle to hold the shield. To Sunset’s surprise, the bubble popped with a sharp sound like shattering glass. She didn’t have time to respond as the stallion knocked her to the ground with a punch to the face.
Sunset Shimmer groaned from the stinging feeling on the side of her cheek and lifted her head to see the stallion along with the other two looking down on her with a smug grins. The one in the middle Shimmer assumed was the leader, grin disappeared as his hoof slammed down on her face, making blood fly from her mouth.
The stallion still had blood shot eyes as he lifted Sunset up from the ground and pinned her to the wall. He pulled his hoof back and swung it onto her cheek, the force of it making Shimmer fall to her hind legs. She heard the other officers laugh in the background. Their laughter ignited the fuel of her rage. The leader lifted her up from the ground laughed right her face.
Shimmer growled and spat blood to wipe that stupid grin off his face.
The stallion wiped off the blood that stained his cheek. He looked off to the side for a couple seconds before he looked back at Sunset, Anger clearly burning in his eyes. Without warning, he viciously shoved her against the wall with his magic, knocking the air right out of her. His grip tightened around her neck, sending her into short coughs and raspy gasps.
He growled as he tightened his grip. Shimmer tried her hardest to keep her eyes from shutting so she wouldn’t pass out, but she could feel her vision beginning to fade.
“Hey, that’s enough!” one of them shouted.
“Shut up!” the stallion yelled back as he shot a glare at the other officer. He turned back to Sunset and gave hard squeeze around her neck before he let go and slammed a hoof against her face. Everything went black.
Sunset Shimmer groaned as she recovered from passing out. The light that shined in her eyes caused her to grimace. She lifted herself from the chair and saw the two stallions that beat her to a pulp calmly seated before her. She looked down to see chains cuffed on both her hooves to the sides of the door.
She tugged on them, but to no avail. They didn’t budge.
Shimmer grunted as she tried to move, but the shackles would tighten every time she did. She bit her to stop herself from screaming as she wiggled her hooves around in the shackles. This got the stallion’s attention as he turned back. “Hey, cut that shit out!”
Sunset growled in response.
She studied how he would turn the wheel gripped in his hooves and how the carriage would automatically turn the direction he pointed it to. How he flexed his hind leg further forward and pressed a pedal sticking out of the wall ahead of him. Everytime that happened, The car would push through the mud faster and roll forward, rushing out into the damp streets. Shimmer watched as the landscape passed by rapidly, in a manner not unlike the way things looked when Sunset traveled into the future.
Shimmer turned back to the front after she heard static coming from within the carriage. Ten-one-four, we’ve got a shooting on Hall Street, requesting back up. Whoever spoke on that sounded like a mare, the only question was how she was talking to them without the usage of ink or scrolls.
The rest of the ride was silent. Nopony had anything to say to each other, it wasn’t needed. The message was loud and clear; Shimmer was going to die unless she did something to prevent that.
These weren’t the regular guards she was used to dealing with. These guards were something else. They were corrupt, willingly to kill to erase the dirt that stained their society. Sunset Shimmer looked at the front to see if either one of them was staring at her, but their eyes were stuck on the road.
Sunset groaned as she felt a headache pounding in her head. What were the weapons they were using? Why didn’t they tried a spell to break the shield? How could that little weapon destroy such advanced shield?
Unless...
Shimmer’s heart stopped. No, that can’t be true. She used magic, he used magic, this wasn’t making any sense.
Shimmer had seen him use magic to hold that gun. One thing Celestia told Sunset that she always held onto was that magic would be around no matter what. So why didn’t he attack her with it? Fire a beam at her, turn her into a frog, something magical!
None of this was making sense. She hated when she couldn’t wrap her head around things. The headaches that came with it, the question mark floating around her head, begging to be answered.
Sunset Shimmer wiggled around in the seat, unable to stay still as the question bogged her mind. It felt like hours passed by as the silence mocked her, leaving her with even more unanswered questions. She couldn’t handle not answering them, it already felt like her head was going to explode. Her heart pounded against her chest as she watched the stallion driving.
She closed her eyes. Even though she was inside a carriage moving at a fast speed and teleporting send her anywhere was a bad idea, she didn’t have a choice. Her horn glowed within the carriage. She kept her eyes close as the stallion’s laughter echoed in her ears. When nothing happened her eyes shot opened. “What… what happened to my magic!”
“You thought we would be stupid and not secure that little horn of yours?” He laughed.
As the officer said that, Shimmer looked at her reflection in the window. She gasped as she spotted some sort of ring wrapped around her horn, a green light shining bright within her reflection. It felt like the device was draining her from her magic, leaving her feeling exhausted.
When she tried to focus on the magic, and headache would throw her off.
“What did you….” she shook off the dizziness. “do to me?”
“Let’s just say you won’t be using spells with that thing on,” he said, chucking. His partner joined in and both laughed at Sunset’s misfortune.
Out of all the situations, magic couldn’t be the easy ticket out.
She had to rely on her instincts. Asking nicely wasn’t going to work, so she had to perform another approach. One where she had to use force to escape. She looked down at the chains.
Shimmer launched out of her seat, wrapping the chains around the stallion’s neck. He gagged and let go of the wheel as he tried to pull the chains from his neck. Sunset felt her body move along with the carriage as it swirled around the street, screeching into the air, but she held onto the stallion’s neck with the chains. Shimmer saw out the corner of her eye he had a gun in this magical grasp.
“Let go of him!” the other officer shouted.
“Stop the carriage!” Shimmer shouted in the driver’s ear, tightening her grasp.
The stallion at the wheel coughed.“Shoot this crazy bit--” a sudden increase tightened around his throat, interrupting him.
“I’m counting to three!” the officer shouted.
Sunset struggled to keep her hold. The stallion’s was fighting back with all his strength, she could feel her grip slipping away. If that happened, she knew something worse was going to happen to her, but she didn’t care. “Stop the carriage now!”
“One!”
The driver coughed, scratching at the chains. “What the fuck are you doing!”
“Two!”
“Fucking shoot her already!”
Shimmer could feel the tense building up, sweat burning her forehead. She felt her heart skipped a beat when her ear twitched at the sound of the gun being cocked.
“Last warning!”
“Shoot her now!”
Sunset Shimmer couldn’t hear anything but a ringing sound as red splattered on her face. The mare’s head slammed against the window, knocking her out.
Sunset groaned as she regained consciousness despite the headache that pounded her head. Her head felt heavy and she just want to lay it down on a pillow, but not even that helps. The pain throbbed and pulsed in her skull, not a sharp pain like a knife-inflicted wound, but more of a dull pounding with a hammer over… and over… and over again. Her brain felt like it was on overdrive, but unable to process properly. Images and ideas and plans and deadlines ran through her head, but they're chasing each other round and round.
Shimmer lifted her head from the seat, shards of glass falling from her mane. She choked on her breath as she saw the officer in the driver seat, glass surrounded his hind legs and some were on his clothes, as well as blood. He stared at her, but with colorless eyes.
She was too stunned to scream or move away as his head dropped down through the dividing section between the front seat and the beat seat, his the neck bending at an unnatural angle. All the muscles in her body went stiff, and her mind couldn’t come up with any action for her to take.
The other officer sat in his seat, pinned down by a pole that struck through his stomach, blood still dripping. He had no wise jokes to crack, no comments about not caring about her life ending because she was a criminal. Funny how quickly karma caught up to him, but Shimmer wasn’t laughing.
A smile should’ve spread across the orange unicorn’s face, but none did. She wanted to feel some sort of relief or happiness, but the sight of his lifeless eyes staring back at her was sickening. Resisting the urge to puke became even more difficult, but the idea of lying in a puddle of her own vomit helped her stay in control. For now she kept quiet, staring at the stallion’s neck bent in an unusual manner.
Sunset resisted the urge to puke as his clueless eyes stared at her.
Without a second thought, her body acted on instinct and moved towards his body, reaching into his pocket. Shimmer pulled out the key with her mouth. She held her chained hooves in front of her face as she jerked her head forward, putting the key into the keyhole, then turning it, silently cheering as she heard the locks click. Sunset saw her reflection in the carriage's window, the ring wrapped around her horn gone. Pieces of the cursed thing littered the seat and floor of the carriage. Looks like the impact smashed it.
She could almost feel her magic coursing through her veins again.
Sunset’s hooves finally felt like they could move around as the chains fell. Scooting herself over to the open door and ducked her head down as she got out of the carriage. She hissed as her weight came crashing down on her left hind leg. She looked down to see blood trickling down from a hole in her thigh.
Standing outside Sunset saw a pole inlaid into the hood of the carriage, stabbing through the hunk of metal. She wobbled around, but she gripped onto the smashed surface for support. She limped around the carriage until she saw the pavement across from her.
Shimmer looked up. Her eyes widened as she saw a green sign standing tall, but it wasn’t the sign that shocked her, but what was written on it. Hall Street. It felt like she was ready to collapse with each step she took. Her vision was blurry, and she gagged as she almost puked. She held her stomach with one hoof and kept walking. Once she stepped onto the pavement, her whole body stopped and she tipped forward her legs buckled. The meager amount of food she had in her was spit onto the previously clear pavement.
She was thrust into the chaos this new world contained. She hadn’t been here a day, and already she had almost been killed and witnessed two deaths, Her tough act had vanished, killed alongside the stallions who died in the carriage, leaving nothing left but the real Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer, a scared and lonely mare with no knowledge of how things operate. No, that would be impossible, she could understand anything in a heartbeat. She wasn’t stuck in this time, that would mean she was wrong, and she was never wrong. She had a brilliant mind, one that Celestia used her for to strength her status as ruler. There was still hope, right now her thinking was too clouded.
Sunset wiped her muzzle on her leg and looked up, grimacing in discomfort from the light that emitted from the long pole above, shining right into her eyes. It looked like the sun from the ground.
It kinda reminded her of— No. Can’t think about her, she was the cause of all this. She was responsible for all of this. She lifted herself onto all fours and looked around. Nopony was around in sight because of the bunch of smoke surrounding her. She walked down the pavement, following the trail down to anywhere. She couldn't be near that carriage.
Sunset Shimmer kept walking without turning back. She stayed silent for a while, the sound of her hooves clopping on the pavement was the only sound that broke the silence. She stayed quiet until she couldn’t take it anymore and broke down into sniffles. She tried her best to fight it, but the tears came trailing down her face as she walked, clouding her vision. She lost the battle to contain her emotions.
Her city reduced a pile of dust, finding out she had been replaced, getting beaten to a bloody pulp and now this! She had bottled up her emotions the entire time, keeping it together in the new world.
And now all the emotions came rushing at her at once, overwhelming her heart. Tears fell from her eyes and her sobbing was interrupted by hiccups. The most talented unicorn in Equestria wasn’t here right now, only Sunset Shimmer. The mare who sobbed alone in an empty street, walking away from two dead bodies that sat in a carriage a couple feet behind her.
Sunset heard the sirens go off behind her, shouts and screams from numerous officers. She started a limped faster as the noise grew louder, ignoring the pain in her foreleg. The flashing lights brightened the dark neighborhood Shimmer was in, coating the buildings with red and blue.
It sounded like a growl howling into the street, but when she turned behind her, she saw it was the same carriage she was locked inside. Only now there was more than one. She couldn’t count how many followed her, but the numerous sirens booming into her ears told her it was a lot.
Sunset stopped limping as the carriage sped up and drove past her just to make a swift turn and stop in front of her. The other ones did the same and blocked her only passage to freedom. She stood still and stared at the carriages, her horn glowing ready in case they made a move.
It felt like one of those stand offs in the books. The silence, the intense feeling in the muscles, itching to move when in danger, and the fear crawling in the back of her head. She took a stance. Her horn shined brighter than before and she kept her eyes locked on the stallion that came out of the carriage.
He held something in front of his mouth and spoke, sounding like he was using the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Make this easy on yourself and give yourself up! You’re surrounded.”
As he said this, a swarm of officers stepped up beside him in a formation, creating a long line. Shimmer found herself staring at the barrels of all their weapons. She could feel a bead of sweat trickle down the back of her neck. “Leave me alone!”
The sound of their weapons being loaded and cocked all sang at the same time like a chord. “One.”
“Leave me alone.” Sunset Shimmer mustered all the strength she had, pushing away the fear that would make her lose focus.
“Two.”
“Leave me alone!” Shimmer shouted, horn shining bright.
A streak of lighting formed above her, and grey clouds covered the empty sky. She grunted as she focused, summoning a cloud of mist that headed towards the officers. They stopped and turned around in time to be caught in the mist. Their screams turned into coughs as it flew into their lungs.
Sunset Shimmer steadied her balance and kept channeling more magic into the spell, ignoring the blood trailing from her nose. She watched as the officers staggered around as well, dropping to the ground.
Sunset stopped summoning the mist and grabbed her head. An intense headache pounded at her mind, but it was worth the pain when she looked up to see all the officers unconscious or on the ground still coughing.
However, when she thought she had won, the lead officer that held the device in front of his muzzle came walking towards her, still able to walk even though he was breathing heavily. He levitated the gun, the weapon shaking violently in his grasp, and aimed it at Shimmer.
Her mind caught up with her, but her body didn’t react in time. The gun fired, and a bullet pierced through her shoulder. She howled in pain and collapsed on the shoulder that been hit, slamming her weight down into the wound. She screamed even louder than before.
Sunset lifted her head up to see the officer’s coughs turn into violent ones, blood flying from his mouth. He held his chest and leaned his back against the carriage as he coughed and coughed, more blood splattering onto his uniform.
Finally his body slammed to the ground and, just like before, Shimmer was staring into the eyes of a dead stallion. However, no tears were shed, she couldn’t if she wanted to. She didn’t feel nothing as she saw the bodies, some dead and some barely even breathing.
What scared her wasn’t because the bodies itself, but the fact she felt no remorse.
Shimmer moaned in pain as she looked down to see the gaping hole in her shoulder, blood pouring out of it. It felt like salt and alcohol was smeared into it, increasing the burning sensation that increased the pain.
Her eyes fluttered as she tried to keep them open, but she found her grip was loosening. Never before have she experienced some much pain. Even spells couldn’t do what the stallion had do to her with his gun.
Sunset could feel herself slipping away slowly. Her backside had became wet as she bled out, forming a small pool out of her blood. Her heartbeats pounded in her ears, drumming at a slow and calming rhyme.
She couldn’t get up. She felt like her body was paralyzed from the waist down, pinning her to the cold ground. The moon looked beautiful from her point of the views, the stars shined brighter than before. She couldn’t tell if this was a side effect to the blood loss, but...she found it comforting.
A shadow in the form of figure stood over her. The moon’s light shined some of its light on the figure, and what she saw took the breath from her. What she saw, she never thought she would see in a million years, something ponies feared back in her time and was now standing over her, wearing a chef's apron.
She lost consciousness before she could utter a response.