Can Time Stand Still?

by xXSheltieXx

Three: The Portal

Neo shivered in the cold. It was cold outside. So cold. She had to land, it was too cold, the wind was too heavy, she knew she couldn't fly anymore. She trudged through the snow, already about 500 miles away from her home. Neo bit her lip falling and tripping over a tree root. She couldn't go back. Not anymore. She'd been gone for 17 days. They wouldn't welcome her back with open arms.

She knew they would yell at her and ask why she came back, why she was there, why she hadn't stayed away. Neo frowned, her eye still throbbing and burning. Temperance didn't love her anymore. Black Booth didn't love her anymore. Flash wouldn't remember her. No one would remember her.

Neo's smile came back. No one would remember her. She started laughing, giggling as if it was hysterical, hilarious, something so stupid, so funny, that she had to laugh. She held the sides of her head, tasting the salty tears that teetered from her eyes, but not fully aware that she was crying. She laughed and cried and screamed and writhed, begging for something to happen, someone to say that they needed her.

She continued her struggle on the ground, beginning to slide down the side of the hill. She laughed as she rolled and fell, giggling like a hyena. Neo fell and landed face first, smiling as she looked at the blood that dribbled down her nose. She continued laughing, beginning to calm to a giggle as she continued her assault forwards.

Neo stopped smiling and laughing as she saw a blue swirl. It looked like a pool. She walked over to it slowly on her hands and knees, touching it with her finger slowly. Her finger came away with a dab of dust on it, silver in color. Neo opened her bag and found only her extra berries and carrots, all she had left, all she could afford.

She looked at the swirl, sitting down. She popped a berry into her mouth, sighing. Loneliness was driving her mad, insane. She knew she would go completely crazy if she was alone for too long. She blinked with a sigh, eating another berry. Her body shivered again, making her whimper. It felt like it was colder than ice, so cold. There was nothing but the cold. That's all there was. Cold. She shivered, seeing huge puffs of her breath swirl around her mouth.

Her cold eyes blinked slowly, feeling heavy. She dropped her food and her bag, beginning to huddle up. It was so cold... so cold it almost felt... warm. She gently touched the snow, recoiling as the cold met her skin, making it feel like it was warm. Neo's eyes became heavy, making her blink and yawn before her eyes rolled upwards and she fell down, exhausted from the cold, the walking, the flying, the loneliness.

She landed on the ground with a solid thunk, her breaths ragged and filled with cold air. Her body huddled itself together, attempting to maintain its warmth. But the swirl... the swirl seemed so warm and inviting. It looks like a pool of warm water in her glossed, hollow eyes. Her body wanted to reach out, but she couldn't.

Neo fell asleep, the sky beginning to cry for the cold she felt in her heart, soul, and body, laying her to rest with drops of snow. The snow collected at the top of the hill, and it gave way, pushing Neon into the portal, waking her from her slumber. She was very scared, very alarmed. Her wings were spread open as she tried to lift herself, but finding there was no end to her fall.

She looked around. Everything was white. Her breath hitched. Was she... dead? The thought left her head as she watched clocks pass her by. She tried to fly upwards, but found herself be pulled downwards twofold with each beat of her wings. All of this struggle gave her time to think.

Would running away solve everything? How would her leaving fix anything? What if it only brought more pain?

She frowned, realizing she'd made the wrong choice; she didn't have to leave. She could've been at home with her family. She flinched when something hit her forehead. "Ow!" She nearly screeched, rubbing her forehead. It was throbbing, like something pierced her forehead, but there was nothing to be found there, at least not by her hands.

Neo felt like she was falling for forever. Maybe it was a minute. Or an hour. Or a week. She couldn't really tell, she was never the patient kind of girl. She looked at the clocks and reached her hand out, touching one and making everything else stop around her. It felt like weights landed on her back, hitting her heavily as she held onto the clock's arms.

The clock seemed to read random numbers. 1.10.54. She didn't know what it meant. What it a time? One ten, fifty-four seconds? A timer? She couldn't tell, but the weights got stronger, making her breathe more. She pushed the clock's hand in, the clock seemingly opening and plopping her onto the ground. She rubbed her head and looked around, confused.

She was in the same spot where she had left... gotten into... whatever she was in. Her bag was missing, and there was a tiny bush growing beside the portal she came out of. She stood up and looked around, turning back to the portal to find it gone. Had she imagined it all? Had she passed out?

Neo shrugged, brushing it off as hunger and frigidity. She opened her wings, kneeling closer to the ground before launching into the sky, easily breaching the clouds. It felt strange to her. Her muscles felt stronger; like she'd gotten an upgrade of stamina, like a video game character. Her forehead still hurt, but she didn't notice as she plunged through clouds. She felt so alive that she didn't even notice the bump forming on her forehead.

She smiled, feeling like every single problem she'd had was gone, left in the snow. Her wings even seemed longer to her. Or was that just her imagination? She didn't care; she was flying too fast to care too much. Neo seemed to forget what was wrong. She didn't- no, couldn't recall why she had left her house.

She remembered her mother, Temperance, and her father, Black Booth, and little brother, Flash. She knew she was upset about something, but the wound on her cheek and eye were almost completely healed as she soared closer to her home. Neo landed in front of the house, breaking the frost on the grass around her in about an eight foot radius. She smiled, loving how the frost seemed to break as she stepped on it.

The Pegasus shrugged; she could taste the feeling of her age on her lips. She left when she was about 18 or 19. But the wind tasted different; like it had changed or shifted somehow. She shook her head, walking up the steps toward the front door. She stopped when she noticed a small stake in the ground that had her full name on it.

Rest In Peace, Neon Feathers

She didn't like the sound of that. It was scary and dark, even though the stake was a light color of blue. She moved towards the house, opening the door. She didn't feel like she needed to announce that she was home; it felt like it was simply a few hours of being outside, but the taste felt longer.

She walked into the kitchen and pulled an apple from the fridge, taking a bite as she looked at the kitchen. She continued chewing her apple as she looked around, seeing pictures of her at games with trophies framed on the walls, and there was a picture of her brother, but it was wrong. It showed him going to Kindergarten... when they had tried to drown out noise in the tub, he was only four. He didn't have Kindergarten yet. It went all the way from Kindergarten to high school, stopping at what looked like a Junior, or maybe even a Senior.

But as the years progressed, his picture seemed very sad and distant. She saw pictures of her parents, but they looked wrong. They didn't have those wrinkles, and their hair wasn't gray. They didn't have the happy smiles or the dimples that went with them either. Everything she knew was gone as her family frowned, eyes red, looking at the floor, not the camera, hairs grayed, and pictures taken with such old film that they were almost black and white with age.

Neo dropped her apple, shaking her head. "No... this is wrong.... This isn't how I left everything." She murmured to herself, rubbing her temples. She picked up the mess she made, not noticing the young boy creeping down the hallway, a woman and man behind him, both very stiff. Neo sighed as she cleaned up the mess, throwing the apple away and dusting her hands off on her skirt. She stretched her arms and reached up into the cabinet, pulling down a can of corn.

She frowned and sighed, as she was never good with opening the damn cans. "Can opener..." She murmured, making the boy behind her stop and shiver. "Oh, third drawer, duh!" She knelt down and pulled the drawer open, rifling through the supplies and pulling out the can opener, opening the can and turning around to come face to face with the boy, making him jump backwards. "Can I help you?" She asked, raising a brow. He was skinny and his fur was brown with black hair, his eyes an amber color.

"Who are you?" He asked quietly.

"Uh, I live here?" She ended up asking it more than saying it. "Who are you?"

"You look like... who are you?" He asked, scratching his head.

"My name is Neon Feathers. Who are you?" She asked again. The boy suddenly hugged her, making her frown in confusion. "Uh, kid, you okay?"

"Mom, dad, she looks... she... she!" He whimpered with a smile as he hugged her tightly, his parents following into the kitchen, looking at Neon with wide eyes.

"Did I miss something or did you adopt someone before I left?" She asked, raising a brow, almost dropping her can of corn.

"N-Neo..." Temperance murmured.

"Yeah? Mom? What's wrong? What's going on? Why is everything... different?" She asked, opening the can the rest of the way. "And get off of me!" She yelled, pushing the unfamiliar kid away from her. "Jeez, no space, huh?"

They just looked at her, dumbfounded.

"What?" Neo asked. "Did I do something wrong?" No answer. "Hello?" She waved her hand, poking her mom's horn. "Mom, you in there?"

Her mother hugged her tightly, wiping at her tears. "My baby is back."

"Uh... where did I go?" Neo queried, looking at her dad. "Dad?" She looked at the boy and the word came to her. "Flash?"