When they got Sunset's things loaded in what little room remained on the Scouticus Maximus, the sun had dipped below the horizon, and the only light surrounding the vehicle was provided by the beacon lights on the top. When they got back in the cab, they saw that while they were in the castle, Hitch and Izzy had gotten the sleeping bags laid out for the last part of the journey south.
At this point, Sunset realized that she had not slept since the night before graduation.
"I know you probably have so many questions for me, but I think I'd like to lay down for a bit, if that's okay," Sunset told Sunny, unbuckling herself from her seat once they were clear of the forest and river, and onto more smoother, rolling hills as they turned towards the southwest.
"There's absolutely no rush. I've got a guest room at my place, and we'll get you situated, and you can take all the time you need," Sunny immediately replied.
With a tired smile, Sunset dropped from her seat down onto the closest sleeping bag. After making sure Ray was warm and content in the right pocket of her saddlebags, she laid her head down, and was out just moments after her head hit the pillow. Seeing the unicorn sleeping soundly so quickly just got the others yawning as well, so they stopped for a moment to let Sprout give the driver's seat over to Hitch, and Pipp and Zipp came in from the bed, making it rather crowded in the cab, but everypony soon got situated, with Zipp and Pipp on both side benches, Sprout on the back bench, and Izzy and Sunny just in front of him, as the vehicle continued driving into the night.
Sunset slowly came to as she felt a hoof gently tapping her shoulder. She opened her eyes, and her vision cleared to show Sunny smiling gently down at her.
"We've arrived at Maretime Bay. I can show you to the guest room at my house, if you feel you haven't gotten enough sleep, but we do have a walk ahead of us," the earth pony told her.
Sunset nodded with a smile as she got out of the sleeping bag. She and Sunny were the only ones left in the cab, other than Hitch, who looked like he was getting ready to pull the vehicle into some kind of underground garage. He turned to the two mares as they disembarked.
"I'll get this thing parked and turn in myself. We can unload after a night's rest and a good breakfast," he told them.
"Sounds good, Hitch. See you in the morning!" Sunny replied with a smile.
Once they were clear of the vehicle, Hitch put it into gear, and began moving it down a ramp. Sunset noticed that they had already offloaded her personal items into a small cart, which Sunny promptly hitched herself too.
"Alright, Sunset, right this way. Welcome to Maretime Bay."
They were in the rear parking lot of a large factory, and Sunset began going down a walk that went around the right side. The walkway was adequately lit with lampposts and security lighting, and it wasn't until they had come around to the front of the factory and down into the city streets proper that it got a little darker, and she noticed the starry night sky.
"What time is it?" Sunset asked with a yawn.
"1 AM," Sunny answered. "Kinda hoping we get back to sleep once we get to my place, otherwise getting through the entirety of tomorrow is going to be a chore. And just to be clear, please don't feel obligated to come along if you're not feeling up to it. This must be so much to take in, so if you want to just spend the next few days relaxing at my place, or taking in the city sights, please feel free."
"Thanks, I'm not really sure what I want to do yet. I honestly still feel out of place, not sure what I should do next. Maybe some relaxing would do me good, and if it doesn't, I'm sure you'll have plenty for me to help out with. Like you said, I'm sure there's a lot we can learn from each other," Sunset told her.
Sunny saw Ray poke his head out of Sunset's saddlebag.
"And if you feel like he'll need an enclosure, we can also swing by the pet shop when they open in the morning."
Maretime Bay was a nice enough looking place. The streets were sparsely populated this late at night, so it was no trouble at all getting the cart down to the southwest corner of town, where the streets turned to a dirt path as the relatively flat cityscape gave way to rolling hills. As the sounds of waves crashing against the rocks below grew, a lighthouse came into view.
Sunny unhitched herself from the cart when they came to the front walk, and Sunset lit up her horn, and levitated all of her stuff out of it as they approached the front door. Sunny slid her key into the lock, and pushed the door open. Stepping to the side to let Sunset in, she shut the door, making sure the picture of her and her dad remained straight; the fact that it did so was probably one of her favorite improvements of the rebuild.
"Homey," Sunset complimented.
"Alright, kitchen is over there, that lift right there will take you to up to the light deck, and down this hall are the bedrooms and bathroom," Sunny began before taking her down the hall. "My bedroom here is on the left, let me know if you need anything, bathroom is second door on the left, and here we are..."
Sunny opened the second door on the right, stepping into a clean and furnished bedroom. There was a full-size bed, ceiling light, nightstand with a bedside lamp and alarm clock, a small desk, full length mirror, and a small closet.
"Have a good remainder of your night, Sunset. I'll see you in the morning."
"Thank you, Sunny. I'll find a way to repay you for this, promise," Sunset replied, setting her chest, guitar case, and saddlebags at the foot of the bed, before letting Ray down onto the blanket.
"Whatever you'll be able to tell me about Ancient Equestria will be payment enough, you don't know how much I'm looking forward to your insight."
With that, Sunny stepped back out into the hall and shut the door, leaving the unicorn alone with her thoughts. She sat down on the bed before taking a deep breath. The muffled sound of the waves would be more than enough to lull her back to sleep for a few hours, but her mind was still racing. She leaned over the front of the mattress, and opened the right flap of her saddle bags, taking out her barely-used magic journal, flipping to the last written page, confirming disappointingly that the last correspondence was with Princess Twilight shortly before graduation.
She then got up off the bed and unlatched the chest, opening the lid and pulling out the three new magical journals that she had been surprised with on graduation night. She opened the covers of all three, and her heart sank a little when each of the front pages were blank.
She took another deep breath, before levitating the top journal over to the bed, followed by a pen from her saddlebags, before settling herself down in front of it, and touched the tip to the top corner of the first page.
Dear friends,
It worries me to no end that none of you may see this, or that if you do, you may be unable to respond. I have arrived safely back in Equestria, although it was nowhere near where or even when I expected to arrive. I have no idea what went wrong, but I seem to have jumped hundreds of years, or more, into Equestria's future.
My mind is absolutely overwhelmed with unanswered questions, and the entire world around me has changed exponentially, but if there is the slightest chance of contacting all of you, I just wanted to let you know that I'm alright. I'm going to be taking things one day, or heck, maybe one hour at a time. I have already been taken in and befriended by some ponies who can hopefully help in giving me an idea of what has transpired.
Your friend always,
Sunset Shimmer
Thank you, the pace is wonderful. Just do us a favor, and don’t blow a gasket. Please?
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You say that like I have any gaskets left.
The more somber tone of this story is perfect.
I'm a little teapot, short and stout, here is my handle
and here is my Spout
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Thanks, fixed!
This is so good I can't wait for more. Especially as they visit the museum and cover the past. Sunset will probably be so emotional...
Keep going!!!
*continuously shovels idea coals onto your creativity fire*
Man.....she doesn't know what happened either. Not really. She's just kind of collateral damage of whatever did mess them up.
Really good job on this latest chapter. Definitely liked the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Very certainly liked how understanding Sunny was about the possibility that Sunset might want to take it easy at first to get a better feel for things. And the understandably bittersweet reaction to her journals being blank when she checked on them was a great touch.
For another possible idea, maybe Sunset COULD get a response on one of those journals if only to show that 1. her friends haven't forgotten about her and 2. even given how much time has passed on Equestria, only a few decades have passed in the human world, so her friends ARE still alive.
Other possible ideas could include Sunset working with Canterlogic on stuff for interdimensional exploration (or at least LOOKING and LISTENING into other universes without going in) via finding and researching other magic mirrors. Three of the alternate universes found could include one where Flurry survived and actually got to meet Sunset when SHE returned (a reference to the second ending of the previous story in this series on the end of Sunny and her friends), a universe based on the first ending of the previous story in this series on Sunset's end (i.e. where Sunset became an archmage) and a universe based on the original Generation 5 theories (Twilight being an Earth pony [and Applejack being more Urban South], Pinkie being a Pegasus and Fluttershy being a unicorn). At the very least, it would be a good nod to the multiverse being semi-canon in Eqeustria.
Another possible idea could be the human versions of the Mane Six (all a few decades older and wiser than when Sunset last saw them) dropping in to visit Sunset via one of Human Twilight's newest projects: A transdimensional portal generator. If one or more of the other Rainbooms have become teachers, they could also mention meeting the human versions of Sunny and her friends.
But, I can quite respect if none of these ideas would work.
At any rate, I'll most certainly be looking forward to more of this.
It's not a race, buddy, take all the time you need to think. Whatever you have on your mind, just write it down, you can fix it later. Take this advice into consideration: https://youtu.be/0d_5ZWsYwpo
Well it was a long journey for everybody especially for sunsets but they finally made it to Maretime Bay and it looks like the others find a place to sleep and for a Sunset and sunny they went to the lighthouse the rest out for the day poor sunsets this is going to take a long time for her to adjust to the world of the new generation hopefully there will be an answer soon we'll find out next time
Can't wait to see the next chapter!! It's going great, though I feel really bad for Sunset
Since you're open to suggestions, here's one off the top of my head. If the official Hasbro toys imply anything, then it seems Pipp does some gaming and streaming on a PC, so perhaps at some point later on in this story, she and Sunset could bond over such a shared interest (though I'm sure the kind of video games that likely exist in G5 Equestria might be a little different compared to games Sunset might be familiar with).
I'm sure I'll come up with some more ideas as the story progresses, but I think just that one to start off should be enough for now.
Take all the time you need
Wonder how Sprout and Sunset interactions would go.
What if Sunset helps Sunny uncover more secrets of Ancient Equestria while they're getting the portal fixed so that Sunset could possibly go home, and then they figure out that, like, Chrysalis or Tirek or Cozy Glow or the actual Grogar and not just Discord's impersonation is coming back and seeking revenge one Equestria or something. Or maybe it's a new villain.
Sooner or later, Sunset's probably gonna learn about Argyle and how's he not around anymore.
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I have this image of Sunset chasing Sprout with a rolled up newspaper while he runs around screaming "Unicorn attack!"
Pipp would then make a TrotTok video with the footage.
Thank you for keeping this awesome story going, don't over do yourself and take a break whenever you feel like it. You're mental and physical health is much more important then the story.
Hmmm perhaps the mirror just needed to work one last time before finally shattering.
wake me up when we get to the plot.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Here, authors need treats of encouragement. Have some!
I enjoy your forgotten-verse
The nice thing about slice of life stories is just taking things as they come. The time discrepancy and destruction of the mirror are still up in the air as later plot points, so for now you've got plenty of time to focus on the "adjusting to the future" arc.
Seeing as how this is a sequel to, not only your previous Forgotten story, but also What A Long Strange Trip, which the latter is a sequel to another one of your stories, Sunset and The Sun, this hiatus could be a good opportunity for your readers to read the last 2 mentioned stories, so that they’re all caught up with what happened with Sunset Shimmer, and possibly give you some ideas on what you could write for this story.
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HAHAHAHAHA! That would be a hilarious prank on Sprout. And who better to do it than Sunset
If you’re up for a little back and forth brainstorming, the idea I presented the other day about the possibility of a magical accident creating two identical Sunsets could prove to be a fun little experiment to keep the story’s ideas alive.
Apart of myself is worried they're not gonna work.
If Celestia dead who's controlling that sun?
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Everything is happening naturally again.
Well given she probably can't go back, that's 4 years of life she's not getting back.
I also realized if someone trips through the portal they're screwed.
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It was explained in the previous story that when magic went away it put the sun and the moon back into a natural rotation.
Although to be fair a canonical G5 answer has not been established
"And the third door on the left is either the library or Principal Celestia's office..."