//------------------------------// // A Lost Crystal Gem 04: One Shard // Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer // by ratedoni //------------------------------// Everything was dark at the beginning. An endless void of black ink that took everything on its path and hid it in the deepest corner of Sunset’s mind and let her float among the dark sea she was in now. No ideas or fears, no recriminations or guilt that could weight her down or make her doubt her place on her new home. It was that last sentence that made Sunset slightly move in reaction. She had a home, she was sure of that. But it wasn’t Canterlot or even Equestria, there was something else out there that she called home, but what was it? She was sure there was a place for her, or was that also a lie? A dream that she constructed in her mind to keep herself sane? A simple lie she told herself to survive the cold of the night? She was exiled from Canterlot; at least she knew that much, but where was home now? Sunset tried to bring the memories back but the darkness didn’t want to give up, as if she was its prisoner and any thought of escaping was forbidden. If there was one thing Sunset was not was a pony that followed the rules so she fought back with every ounce of energy she had to remember the place she called home, and there it was. The huge temple carved at the side of a mountain just in front of the sea. She could almost smell the sea breeze with its saltiness that reinvigorated Sunset every time she took a walk along the shore, then she remembered where she was, where her home was. Sunset finally opened her eyes and took a long breathe coming back to the real world with no idea what she was doing at the beach and why everything hurting on her body. “Thank goodness you are awake,” the soft and melodic voice of the woman at her left took Sunset from her ruminations. She was also very impressed that she hadn’t seen Rose Quartz at her side, the woman was kind of hard to ‘not’ see considering the size and girth she had, not to mention the amount of hair that Rose Quartz had. “What-” Sunset tried to talk but her throat felt parched and even moving her jaw was painful for some reason. The teenager tried to make a fist just to see how much energy she had but her movements were lethargic for some reason “what just happened?” “Please, don’t try to move too much, I may not know all that much about human biology but even I know that you should rest.” The usually calm and collected woman said with real worry on her voice which in turn made Sunset worry. Something must have been very serious for the leader of the Crystal Gems to react that way and Sunset groaned knowing that it must have been something related to her. Just her luck. “Rose, tell me I didn’t lose a leg or something like that” Sunset said half seriously knowing that anything could happen at Beach City, crazy stuff was part of its appeal. “Well, no, you didn’t lose a leg.” Rose answered back making Sunset feel a little less worried, still not to the point of being perfectly fine but it was better “you lose something else?” “Please don’t say that I lost my dignity, that is usually Amethyst’s job.” Sunset tried to joke but it didn’t make Rose giggle like every time she tried humor in a situation. This was definitely not a good thing in the opinion of Sunset who have never seen Rose this worried before, although it was true that she had met the quartet of crazy aliens just a year ago so she lacked knowledge about space rocks. “It was a little worse than that.” Another voice told Sunset as a tall dark skinned woman with an afro walked in their direction. If Garnet was the one saying that then it TRULY was bad. Making an effort to see how bad the damage was Sunset tried to rise up but her body was still too tired for some reason and it took longer than she wanted to even move. After a couple tries she finally saw something that left her feeling even worst, because her favorite shirt -she only had four since she arrived at this dimension- had a hole on it that made her blink several times in surprise. The position of the hole was what made Sunset whimper in fear and worry since it was directly where her heart was… or used to be, Sunset had no idea of what had happened. “Rose… what's going on?” She asked to the giant woman in a voice that made Rose Quartz want to hug the young girl in front of her until everything was alright, but she knew she had to be sincere and couldn’t cuddle her no matter how much she wanted. Maybe later tonight. “There was a… monster attack, it was very fast and you were hurt.” “Hurt how? I don’t even remember what just happened! Besides, I’m not stupid enough to get in the way of one of your fights!” Sunset almost screamed but she quickly regretted that action as the world began to spin around her. Garnet -thankfully- helped Sunset by letting her lean on her which made the nausea disappear quickly. “It wasn’t your fault, you were hurt being a hero.” Sunset groaned once again at the usage of one of her forbidden words. “Oh, don’t use that word, you are gonna make me barf.” “Please don’t.” The fusion helping her said making Sunset feel a little light thanks to their mutual joking. It was a great antidepressant after all. “So what else? I know I won’t like the ending anyway.” The redhead said preparing herself mentally for the dark news. “There were a couple of people around the harbor and they were going to be attacked by the gem monster out of control. Its gem was cracked and was acting recklessly.” “And? Rose, don’t make the story longer than necessary.” “It pierced you with its tail.” Rose said with tears on her eyes remembering that horrible moment when the appendage went through Sunset’s body. It had been a scene that Rose would not forget any day soon. Just remembering that she had lost the redhead for a moment filled her with sadness so deep that even she was surprised. Sunset had become a part of their little family so quickly that made Rose be thankful that she had started the rebellion so long ago, just so she could meet people like Sunset, who even thought had a lot of baggage, it was nothing compared to the rest of the Crystal Gems. “Wait… what? You mean-” Sunset tried to finish the sentence but she had problems trying to think what it meant. Thankfully Garnet finished for her. “That’s right; it pierced your heart, basically obliterating it.” Garnet never pulled her punches and this time was not the moment to break her consistency. Meanwhile, Sunset simply whimpered just thinking about the repercussions… and most importantly, HOW IN THE WORLD WAS SHE EVEN ALIVE THEN?! Looking down at the hole in her shirt she also saw something gleaming with the moonlight and had to blink several times to focus her eyes on the small object currently growing around her skin. “Did you… heal me with your tears?” Sunset had seen it two times, both having to do with Amethyst and her reckless behavior but with a single tear her gem was good as new, so maybe that’s what the tall woman had did? Looking at her still somber mother-figure Sunset knew that it was even worst what happened. “Sunset... Rose’s ability only works on gems; there is no way for any of us to heal an organic being like you.” Garnet told the redhead making her even more worried about what just happened. “Then what just happened?” “The gem monster… went back into its gem when it attacked you. The harbor broke down and both of you felt into the water. Garnet and I found you alongside the gem of the monster; sadly it broke apart after falling into the water. When we took you out we found out something incredible.” Rose said regaining her smile “one of the shards of the gem touched your skin and began to heal itself with its help.” “Wait, what? Hold on a moment, are you telling me that I got healed thanks to a shard? From one of the corrupted gems? How is that even possible?! Ugh, I don’t feel fine.” Sunset said visible exhausted by her latest outburst. “Is okay Sunset, we might not know what it means now but I can promise you that we will find the answer all together” Rose said giving her million watt smile, the one that made Sunset feel happy and at peace. “So that means that the Grinch just got herself a heart?” Sunset joked making the fusion currently helping her up smile too. “That’s right, and I'm sure that it will grow three times its size.” The dark skinned woman said joking alongside Sunset, happy that she didn’t have to say goodbye to someone she had grown close to so soon. The three then began to walk in the direction of the temple –although Sunset was more half dragged- before Sunset was engulfed by two different gems. Amethyst was clinging to her waist in a second while Pearl was more controlled; the redhead put her arms around the other two gems while all of them ignored the quiet sniffing from Pearl. Once Pearl and Amethyst helped Sunset back into the temple to rest after being a hero, Garnet took Rose Quartz apart since she was curious about something. “The shard growing on Sunset’s chest is not the same from the cracked gem.” The three eyed gem said while Rose sighed once more, knowing well that she could not keep Garnet in the dark, sometimes Future Vision was a pain. “It isn’t, her body was using the shard to heal itself.” “Then what shard did you use?” “One that could be the difference between extinction for Earth and change for Homeworld.” “Homeworld? Rose, what are you planning?” “For now just helping Sunset grow and truly find herself on this world. Something tells me that the shard will grow beyond that small size.” “Do you mean… Sunset will become a hybrid?” “What does your vision tell you?” “Absolutely nothing; I cannot see Sunset with my Vision, maybe because she is from another universe. Is strangely comforting spending time with her, there is no noise on my head when I focus on her.” “Is quite possible, even after all the time traveling through space gems never really thought about the possibility of other universes. So what do you think? Would it be quartz?” “Sunset’s gem? No, I think it would have a spinel structure, so Spinel maybe?” Either way, Sunset’s future changed in one heroic act. And like that, our favorite redhead began her road to becoming a fully-fledged Crystal Gem. But that’s a story for another time.