A Time Apart

by gentleheart

Rating: teen
Tags: Death, Twilight Sparkle, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, King Sombra, Crystal Ponies, Adventure, Violence
Length: 2054

Starlight Glimmer’s spell goes wrong and not just a little wrong like it originally did by creating multiple bad futures but wrong in an even worse way. It didn’t just send twilight back a few years but rather it sent her back to the far flung past.

Starlight Glimmer’s spell goes wrong and not just a little wrong like it originally did by creating multiple bad futures but wrong in an even worse way. It didn’t just send twilight back a few years but rather it sent her back to the far flung past. To when Sombra ruled over the crystal kingdom.
Now she must return to her own time or make a new path unlike any other set before her.

Published 2018-06-05 01:50:12 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-01 03:10:40 UTC

Blizzards and spells gone wrong

Twilight Sparkle screamed as she fell through the portal into soft powdery snow. She leaped to her hooves in preparation to once more attempt to stop Starlight Glimmer. she stopped as she noticed that where she had landed. She hadn't landed at junior speedster flight camp like she was meant to, but rather in a cold and frozen landscape. She let out a small shiver as strong wind smacked into her. Twilight let out a small sigh of relief as she saw her brother's kingdom in the distance. She began to move not noticing the something didn't look right. That there were many things different about the crystal kingdom. In the growing storm Twilight couldn't see what was wrong in her hopes of finding shelter in the familiar. Fear and worry clouded her thoughts and swarmed around her like angry bees. she wondered what had happened to Spike. Had he been caught in the spell, had he been erased, or had he simply been left behind. What about her friends what had happened to them. All these thoughts and more filled Twilight's head as the snow began to fall and thicken.

Twilight hastened her pace. As she walked through the beginnings of a blizzard and the frozen wastes. Twilight began to hears the sounds of misery. The soft rattling of chains and heavy hoof beats. Twilight froze a hundred feet from the entrance. She could now see just what was wrong. She could see the crystal ponies heads low in exhaustion with barely the strength to lift their hooves as the trundled on at a steady pace. Twilight hesitated this was not her brother's kingdom. Twilight steeled herself and prepared for a fight, remembering the first timeline. A pony with a white coat froze as her eyes met Twilight's. She shook her head frantically.

"No, run." She whispers frantically to Twilight. She then tilts her head in the direction of a garden of statuary. The faces of the ponies frozen in fright making it clear of what happened to those who rebel. Twilight grimaced but shook her head vehemently and then it happened. A pair of guards galloped towards them. Twilight did as the crystal pony had asked and ran. A silent promise in her eyes to free the other pony and those like her. Determination filled her heart as she led the guards of the crystal empire on a chase through the massive city. She manages to lose the guards long enough to hide in one of the once extravagant structures.

Twilight sighs softly as listens to the harsh hoof beats of the guards pass her by from the other side of the door. the building is silent and all of the furniture is covered in the dust. The building has three floors the ground floor bearing the visage of a shop and leading up to an apartment. Below those two floors is a basement cellar. That was once used to store various wines. The family that used to own was well off before they had been taken if the signs of what had been a struggle were anything to go by. Strewn across the floor of the shop were various bottles in differing states. Twilight used her magic to pick up the shards of broken glass and move them into a nearby bin. Twilight was grateful that there hadn't been a great number of major technological advancements since Sombra's tyranny over the crystal empire other than a few advancements in the kitchen such a refrigerators and coffeemakers. She would have to be careful not to be caught if she ever wanted to make it home. If she could that is.

Escape

Twilight managed to reach the slave barracks under the light of Luna's moon. she didn't know if Luna could see them, but she hoped she could. Twilight crept into the barracks. She found the lack of guards suspicious. She was tempted to leave and return later after a bit more research. After all she didn't have the princesses nor the elements of harmony to help her. After all the princesses didn't know her and without her friends the elements would be useless, but she had to try. She spotted the white pony from before. The mare was shackled to a heavily scarred powder blue stallion. She woke them first. there were about fifty ponies in all. she gave the pair a shushing motion as she unlocked the manacles around their hooves. She motioned for the two the help her wake the others.

Once the 48 other ponies were awake she unlocked the rest of the manacles as well. she knew there would be a lot of but she was certain there would be more.

"Where are the others?" she asked the the white mare quietly.

"In the mines Sombra decided it would be better if we worked in shifts. so we can get more work done." She replied softly.

"He was tired of everyone collapsing in the middle of their shift. They work from dusk to dawn." the blue one filled in bluntly.
Twilight couldn't wait that long. She would have to hope for a chance to free the others, but for now she would have to get the ones she could out now. The ponies began to get nervous as Twilight Sparkle began to channel magic through her horn. She began to her noises from outside as she struggled to pull the spell together. After all she had never cast a teleportation spell this large before. As the guards slammed the doors open the spell was cast and all fifty one ponies vanished in a bright pink flash of magic.

As the flash faded the ponies realized they were somewhere else. All fifty ponies gawked at the massive halls of the great library of the crystal empire. twilight had selected this library because of it's massive halls and near endless corridors. not to mention that with the near endless storm just outside the empires walls and the number of ponies she had to teleport. she would only be able to get them so far outside of the empire and and safe havens from the frigid weather would be far out of reach. Twilight tried to take a step but her hooves gave out from under her. The ponies gasped as they saw what was hidden under Twilight Sparkles coat.

The white mare was the first to react racing to Twilight's side. The last thing Twilight Sparkle saw was the concerned look on the white mare's face.

possible rebellion

"When do you think she'll wake up?" A mare whispered.

"I don't know most unicorns don't survive magical exhaustion this intense." a nervous stallion whispered back.

"Yeah, well most unicorns don't have wings either." another mare responded to the other two.
Twilight Sparkle let out a soft groan that silenced any further conversation around her. Her eyelids felt like lead and her horn hurt.

The crowd of ponies went silent. Twilight pried her eyes open and eyed the small crowd of ponies the rest were milling about uncomfortably in the distant halls of an unused building. Twilight knew that there were thousands of ponies just like these and with how exhausted she was from saving just these few. She wasn't sure if she could save the rest. She wandered if she even had the strength to get even these few out of the kingdom. Before the spell Twilight Sparkle had her friends, her fellow elements, to help see her through. In the here and now though she just had herself and these scared ponies.
Twilight struggled to get up only to be gently pushed back down by the stallion who had spoken earlier. He was a soft yellow much like Fluttershy, but his mane was a dark teal.

"You shouldn't be getting up." The yellow stallion scolded a seriousness in his eyes.

"Oh, buck off Carrot Top. If she wants to get up, she should. She had the power to get us here after all" The mare who had asked about her snapped.

"Saphire Gleam. I am the doctor here. Now shut your muzzle and go get Diamond Dust." The yellow stallion, now dubbed Carrot Top snapped right back.

He then points his hoof at the other mare.

"And you now that we know she's alive like I said. See if you can find some damned blankets. The poor mare is likely freezing and you have been no help what so ever." He snaps out tersely.

Twilight grimaces a bit that has to one of the rudest doctors she has ever met but his methods seem to work as the two mares rush off to get things done within minutes twilight has a thread bare blanket over her and the white mare from earlier being led right to her.
"Glad to see our savior isn't dead yet." Diamond Dust jokes.
"Glad to not be dead and we're not done yet." twilight responds in kind.
"Your right, we've got to get sombra off that throne." Diamond tells.
"What, NO. We have you get all of you out of the crystal kingdom-"
"To where? the desert tundra right outside our door. Sorry to tell you this but there ain't nothing else out there."
"Yes, there is. we just have to get you to the Yaks or even better Equestria where we can contact princesses Celestia and Luna. They won't turn a blind eye to your problems here."
Diamond Dust snorts at Twilight Sparkle even if twilight had saved them. Diamond Dust Didn't believe that others would come do the same. Especially with the winter storms coming in.

Of rebellions and hope lost

Days had passed since Twilight had arrived in the past, and she had never missed home more. Twilight remained silent as she walked through the streets of the crystal empire her head hung low and her wings carefully hidden beneath a simple cloak. She had just left the food stocks and was making her way back to the shop she had made her own these past few days. She swiftly hid in the shadows her senses on high alert as a pair of guards walked past her. She let out a soft sigh as they didn't notice her. She began to move again once they were gone doubling her pace. She arrived back at the shop without any other problems. For days Twilight had been trying to come up with a way to usurp King Sombra. Idly she wondered just what her friends would do if they were there by her side. Rainbow dash would suggest charging up to Sombra's castle. Fluttershy would hide away somewhere or try to help the slaves when she could. Rarity would definitely clean up the shop while talking about how they could help the slaves themselves. applejack would talk rainbow dash out of fighting Sombra. Pinkie Pie would try cheering everyone up in her own way.

Then again her friends weren't there with her. They and everypony else she knew with the exception of the princesses were stuck in the future. depending on her to return home. Not to mention that the princesses didn't even know her. Twilight's thoughts kept circling as she put away what little she could get from the stocks without getting caught. She knew she couldn't wait for the princesses to act either or she would be trapped with the crystal ponies for a thousand years. Twilight Sparkle sighed as she finished putting away what little food she could steal. She looked out at the setting sun as a plan finally formed within her mind. She had lost the spell in the blizzard and she couldn't wait for the princess to help and or guide her to an answer.

She snuck out as the moon rose careful of the guards who would pass through this street every couple of hours. She cast a spell to silence her hoofsteps and galloped down the streets to where she had dicovered the guards kept the slaves if they weren't kept within their original homes. it was a mass quarters made to spefically house the slaves that had originally been homeless. Over time however due to it's proximity to the mines more slaves had been moved there.