Sunset's Isekai

by Wanderer D

Unstoppable (The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments)

Sunset's Isekai
Unstoppable (The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments)
By Wanderer D

Leaving the Wasteland behind (hopefully for the last time) Sweetie Belle allowed herself to fade out, the wavering figures of Lil Pip and Midnight Shimmer slowly dissipating into nothingness. She expected the sudden rush of moving to another world, but for some reason that did not happen.

She waited a little bit longer.

When she finally opened her eyes she was… nowhere. Darkness spread all around her, and the fae whispers were conspicuously silent. Was she… dead? Was that last jump the one that had finalized her travels somehow?

After a moment, a soft, purple light gently grew in front of her, until a very familiar pony stood there, smiling at her. Unlike the original pony, this one appeared to be made of the purest crystal.

She had hoped too soon, it appeared. She still would have to pretend that everything was alright. That she was good to go. That punch, after punch, after punch in the gut would not stop her. That she was strong. She held back a shudder.

"Twilight," Sweetie said, forcing a smile. "I see I found another piece of you."

"Of sorts, Sweetie Belle," Twilight replied, stepping forth to warmly embrace the young mare. "I am the Twilight Fragment that you found with Lyra and BonBon, at the lake. I am now more fae than pony."

Sweetie's eyes went wide, and she raised a hoof to point at the translucent Twilight. "You're the one that sent me to the other worlds without Fragments!"

Twilight nodded. "That's right. My intention was to help you grow… to help you see that you had done good, and that you could move on past your guilt over the first Fragment's decision to tell you to absorb us."

Sweetie closed her eyes. It still stung. It had changed her… but it was worse than that. "She basically told me to kill you."

Twilight shook her head, smiling gently. "We've told you before, Sweetie… her choice was to try to help you. As you were… you could not survive, and in the time you were her apprentice, Twilight grew to love you as a sister too. She could not allow her BLSF to be powerless in the infinite possibilities that awaited you."

"But…"

"Sweetie… our choice was to protect you. Because we love you. Like any love, familial or otherwise, it takes a bit of sacrifice to make it work."

Sweetie Belle sucked in a breath, clenched her teeth and looked away. "I was killing you little by little."

"We sacrificed parts of us to help you live… and now you are able to gather what remains out there and bring Twilight Sparkle back to your world." She shrugged. "From our point of view, some experiences, memories and power were well worth it to keep you safe."

"So why did you send me off to other worlds without Fragments?" Sweetie demanded.

"Because, unwittingly… we were destroying you." Twilight sighed, then tilted her head as she tried to look Sweetie in the eye. "What you had suffered up to the point you found me in the lake… what you were going through… it was breaking you, Sweetie. Your body changed, your magic changed, your life, your power, your understanding… all of it in such a short time. The only chance you had had to find some balance was with Blueblood… but Blue Belle's Fragment killed you both over and over with her sadistic games." She shook her head. "And then things became worse, didn't they?"

Sweetie didn't reply. She didn't need to.

"When I looked at you, I realized that you needed to grow in order to not be overwhelmed by us… by everything. Even if the latest fragments are not within you, our influence is strong within you. And you were very close to losing yourself. I tried to send you places where you could heal, even if it wasn't always pleasant… places where you could re-establish your own identity and discover yourself."

Sweetie closed her eyes. "Including… Vision?"

Twilight hesitated. "No." She looked away. "Not Vision. You were redirected there. That place was the opposite of what you needed. You fell prey to it because you were in a vulnerable state, and I couldn't pull you out." She held her head down in shame. "I'm sorry, Sweetie."

Sweetie closed her eyes, holding back an angry retort. Holding back the urge to lash out and hurt Twilight, reminding herself that someone or something had done this to her. Eventually, she managed to look at Twilight again. "I betrayed everything about who I am there. I lost. Completely."

"Sweetie…" Twilight shook her head.

"Anyway, what now?" Sweetie spoke up quickly, sensing that this Twilight's Fragment was struggling to apologize. She didn't need another apology. She wouldn't know what to do with it. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

The fragment studied her for a moment, seeming to know what she was thinking, but thankfully dropped the topic, choosing to go back to her original topic.

"It is time for you to move on to the next world… but Sweetie, I will not be joining you."

Sweetie reeled back. She had not expected any Twilight Fragment to make such a statement. Did she need to convince her, like she had convinced Blue Belle's Fragment? "But… why? Don't you want to be whole again?"

The Fragment's ghostly form sat back. "There are a few reasons, Sweetie… you do not need my power, and I am… too much myself now, and too little of the original Twilight Sparkle from your world." She shrugged amiably. "If I was meshed with the other fragments, their entire personality would be destroyed."

"How did that happen?" Sweetie asked, narrowing her eyes. "Even other Fragments that had been in their respective worlds for a thousand years were still not…" she motioned at the apparition with her hoof.

Twilight smiled. "The lake where Bonbon, you, and Lyra found me had very special properties… it sends beings to the past. But I couldn't get out after being returned to the present, so I… was sent to the past again, where I would stay there until I arrived again, and we were sent to the past, to wait again… Time has passed and started over again many times over for me. So much so, that my power went beyond the realm I was trapped in… and when I found out my beloved apprentice was drifting between worlds, I knew I needed to plan and act. I even reached out to an old friend who I helped you meet."

"And old friend?" Sweetie asked. "And I met them? But wh—" she gasped, almost taking a step back due to sheer surprise. "Discord?!"

Twilight smiled, nodding. "He's… different from other Discords. His origin there was as a being of extreme order. I met him during one of my time travels, and we became friends. I dare say that there was much of my influence in what prompted him to separate from the others and become free of their dogma. I thought you meeting him while helping XCOM and Twilight seemed like a good idea."

"Well, it was one of the nicer places, even with the death bugs. I did get to play with the crusaders and relax for a bit. Oh, and witness myself have the most adorable crush on a griffon prince." Sweetie sighed, thinking back on Discord's last discussion with her. "So that's what he meant."

Twilight nodded. "You are close to getting the last fragment, Sweetie… at least the last fragment that you can take back home and use to bring me… well, Twilight back. Just remember: She will be a bit different from what the others and you remember. All Fragments have lived through much, and some… some are part of someone else now."

Sweetie nodded somberly. "I've… wondered what the endgame is, if there's any. Will she and I be our true selves at all, or just… shadows of who we're supposed to be. I wonder how much of her I took in me that she'll never get back."

Twilight tilted her head. "Are you okay, Sweetie?"

No. "I'll be fine."

Twilight studied her in silence. "You've been through so much, Sweetie. There is one big last challenge that faces you… a being as old and powerful as I am. I had thought to send you forward, prepared as you are to get the last Fragment."

Sweetie frowned. "Did you change your mind? Are you saying that now you don't think I'm ready?"

"I believe you are. And you will go there, I promise. But first, before I let fate and destiny take you back in their arms, there is a place I would like you to visit."

Twilight stepped to the side, revealing behind her a door with an unfamiliar cutie mark on it, and a more-familiar folding blackboard listing some of the day's specials.

"A bar?" Sweetie asked, narrowing her eyes. "You know how that has worked out for me in the past."

Twilight laughed. "Not just a bar. It's a very special place, with a very special someone there… someone that you haven't encountered on your trips yet. Well… not exactly… but who is also a constant in the multiverse… maybe even beyond. It belongs to a friend of mine who has yet to meet me."

Sweetie sighed. The phrasing had indicated too much, and usually that meant a headache if she tried to dissect it. "Will you be gone when I'm done there?"

"No," Twilight said, shaking her head, then meeting her eyes with her own. "I'll meet you again," she promised, tapping with her hoof the non-existent floor. "Right here."

Sweetie hesitated. "What's going to happen? Who is this pony you want me to meet?"

"Just someone that can lend you an ear. I believe that you need a breather, Sweetie Belle." Twilight nuzzled her before stepping back and clearing the way for her to walk through. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Sunset heard the bell chime as someone new entered the bar. There was a pause and then she wondered if she had imagined the door opening. Usually by now she would have heard whoever was coming in, and even been able to tell if they walked on hooves, paws, feet or other appendages.

Thus, she had just started relaxing when her guest walked into the bar area, still without making a sound.

The young mare was somewhat familiar to Sunset Shimmer. Sweetie Belle was not an unfamiliar sight. She had known the human version of her while attending Canterlot High, and later on met several versions of her as visitors, not even counting her business partner's sister.

And yet.

Her body was unusual for a Sweetie Belle; thinner, taller, with some resemblance to Fleur De Lise's body type. She walked cautiously, but with a practiced surety, head held high like a noble pony would, but body loose and ready for a fight.

She made no secret that she was there, yet still her hoof steps made no sound, even on the hard wood of the bar's floor.

Sunset had been about to greet her with the usual welcoming spiel, but something stopped her as she studied her guest. Something tugged at her heart when seeing her, something she couldn't quite identify. She could feel a knot in her throat… she knew enough about Fate and Destiny to know that this was someone that she was meant to meet.

Sweetie's coat looked relatively normal at first glance, but somehow… it wasn't. For, even as it moved like normal hair follicles would, Sunset could tell it was something else… marble, white marble, and here and there, tiny pieces of onyx poked out, as if someone (or something) had stabbed them into the otherwise pristine coat.

Her body told a story of horror and fighting… as pristine as it was, as almost immaculate as she looked, there were hints. Sweetie's Fleur-like body lacked the natural growth one familiar with ponies from Equestria would expect. It was just… a little bit wrong. A little too long here. Perhaps a little too thin there. Change had happened… and it hadn't been gentle or kind.

After taking a few steps into the bar proper, this Sweetie Belle slowly studied the place, seeming to relax slightly as she noticed they were alone. Her eyes drifted to the wall full of pictures of strange creatures and weird versions of familiar faces, but rather than the normal curiosity Sunset was used to experiencing, Sweetie gave a sense of… fondness.

This was not new to her. Perhaps the bar, but certainly not the unfamiliar familiar faces.

As her guest turned, taking in the sights, Sunset spotted a cutie mark. It wasn't the shield of the Crusaders. It was a familiar star, broken apart, as if being burst into pieces by an eighth-note. Just as she noticed that, her guest finally looked up at her and their eyes met. Teal-blue meeting literal sapphire irises.

Sunset couldn't help the smile that came to her face. It wasn't the usual energetic smile for newcomers. It was gentler. "Hi Sweetie," she said, motioning to the bar so that the young mare could approach. "Welcome home."

"Home?" Sweetie asked, blinking.

The bartender chuckled self-consciously. "I'm sorry, I just blurted that out. For some reason it felt natural."

Sweetie nodded. It had, which was strange. She had never been here before, after all.

"In any case," the bartender said. "Welcome to Sunset's Isekai." She opened her arms wide to encompass the entire place with the motion. "My little bar in the Omniverse. I'm Sunset Shimmer."

'There is something vaguely familiar about her…' Sweetie approached the bar and sat down, realizing that the seats were perfectly designed for pony use, even if Sunset was human. "And I'm Sweetie Belle, although it seems like you've met a few of me before."

"That I have, but none quite like you," Sunset said, and it was right then that Sweetie understood that this bartender could see her. The true her.

The scarred one.

The tortured one.

The scared and helpless… her.

Sweetie shrank back, feeling like her marble-like skin was electricity and fire, like it was boiling against her. "What happened to my glamor?!" she gasped as echoes of crashing crystal, of exploding obsidian flooded her memory. "You shouldn't be able to see me like this!"

She started breathing hard and fast, her eyes wide in horror at being so completely exposed in all her failures and forceful transformation. Triggered by her emotional response, the obsidian shards poked out of her skin marring her even more. Making her uglier. Allowing a complete stranger to see how broken she was, body and soul.

The purple and pink marble of her mane seemed to lose its luster and became more rock-like, like chalky limestone, cracking a little as she moved. Whispers and darkness pooled at her hooves as she felt the urge to flee. To dive under the nearest table and fade away.

When Sunset reached out across the bar and touched her cheek with her hand, caressing it gently and soothingly. the world seemed like it was frozen and she was about to die. But then Sunset's words made it through, like distant whispers through mist and rain.

"It's okay, Sweetie. I see you. I see you. And you're as beautiful as you have always been in any world. It's fine, don't lose yourself. You're safe here. All creatures are safe here."

Sunset's touch helped—it was something real to hold on to. Sweetie held onto her hand with her hooves, sobbing a little as the world ceased to be shadows and whispers. 'It's not the first time.' She whispered to herself. It's not the first time I've been seen. I am me. I'm me. I'm not an instrument for the bloody chorus. I'm not an exposed nerve to make me hurt. I'm Sweetie Belle. I'm me.

She gulped, forcing air into her lungs. Forcing herself to breathe; for her hooves to loosen up little by little. "I-I'm sorry, Sunset," she stuttered hoarsely, fighting back every slight hint of those destructive, self-deprecating thoughts that came to her so easily when she was exposed as she truly was to anyone.

"You don't have to apologize for anything," Sunset replied, "how about I get you something to drink? Is there anything you'd like? On the house, of course."

Sweetie trembled, then nodded quickly. She was back in control, although her body still twitched defensively. "Can… I have a Chocolate Martini?"

Sunset took Sweetie's hooves in her hands and gave them an encouraging, gentle-but-firm squeeze, as if the sharp obsidian shards were not even there. "Of course."

She pushed back from the bar and went over to fish out the ingredients as Sweetie concentrated on her breathing, slowly—but surely—controlling her instinctive reaction. Sunset had seen her like that from the beginning… she hadn't thought she was a monster. She had recognized her as Sweetie Belle.

It had been a long time since she'd had a reaction like that. Normally her glamor would protect her from others, or, if needed, she could use illusions to hide the worst of it.

Once again, Sweetie turned her eyes to all the pictures. All the Twilight Sparkles, the Rainbow Dashes, the Octavias and Princesses and the many Rarities and started to understand why the Twilight's Fragment had wanted her to come here. Or at least, part of the reason.

It wasn't even just that Sunset wasn't human in all the pictures, so she would know that appearance meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. It was that in… an odd way, Sunset was like her.

The entire place… the entire bar was living; a changing and evolving being that was part of Sunset. From the jar of Royal Jelly glowing faintly above the cashier, to the symbiotic spider busying itself in its terrarium to each and every picture in the room… everything was part of Sunset, but also part of the omniverse.

This truly was a place where her true nature—twisted by cruel magic as it was—wasn't only acceptable but appropriate. She had nothing to hide here because… Sunset understood.

Sweetie closed her eyes. 'I could have really used a friend like you when this all started. When I was afraid. Alone. Forced into Silence to survive, or struggling to come to terms with my fate.

Some, she thought, would be resentful that such a place and person hadn't been there for her when she had needed them.

But when she thought about it, when she looked at Sunset mixing liqueur, vodka and chocolate, she didn't feel resentment for that absence early on.

For everything she had gone through she had gained something (even when she hadn't wanted to), and as such being here, she could tell on some level that Sunset was also someone few could understand now in ways that her much younger self at the beginning of her journey could have. And it went both ways.

The bartender smiled at her and motioned with her head as she walked around the bar, not one, but two chocolate martinis in her hands. "Why don't we sit at a table to talk? It's only going to be the two of us this time around."

"Sounds good to me!" Sweetie said, shaking herself off of the last of her visceral reaction. She hopped down from the stool and trotted over to the table Sunset had selected for them. Sitting down, she raised her martini glass to Sunset, who grinned and raised hers as well.

Once that was done, she wasted no time in bringing the glass to her lips and taking a sip. She closed her eyes, a smile spreading on her lips as the flavor exploded in her mouth, liquor and vodka and sweetness and tartness coating her tongue.

It was amazing. If there was one thing she would never regret, it would be to have discovered the Chocolate Martini, and this one was just fantastic. She supposed it came with the territory… a bar that could be anywhere, anytime, would always be able to get the best ingredients.

It was the best drink she had ever had… and it brought the best memories of her travels with it. She felt a tear slide down her muzzle, a single, unnaturally fluid sapphire that fell onto the table, splitting into miniature little crystals that dissipated after a few moments.

"Hey, I didn't think it was that bad!" Sunset said across from her, making Sweetie snort and chuckle.

She used the back of her hoof to wipe away another crystalline tear. "No, it's amazing… It just brought back some good memories. And got me thinking."

Sunset nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

When was the last time that I didn't bluff? Sweetie thought, her eyes studying the human across from her. When was it? At the beginning? When I just… let it all out? Before things went this way? Before Blueblood? Was it really that long ago? A decade? More?

She saw in Sunset's eyes someone who would listen to everything. "I see you've been a little bit of everything," she said. Purposefully deflecting to her host. "Cat, unicorn, rat, wolf… demon? Are you a changeling?"

Sunset didn't appear bothered by the change in direction. She simply smiled. "I started as a unicorn. I was Celestia's student just before Twilight Sparkle. Probably even in your own universe." She took a glance at the pictures and one levitated over, so she could show Sweetie a picture of herself and others, including Princess Celestia. "That's her. My Celestia, that is. Mom."

"Mom?"

Sunset shrugged. "Took us some time to get around to it, but eventually it was made official. The reason you probably never heard of me was because I was… not a good pony." She chuckled. "Oh, I had reasons to be a brat. Plenty of them. As an adult I can see how things could've been different had this or that happened, but… those things didn't. And I left angry, hurt, and frustrated to another world, where I took it out on others."

Another picture floated over. It was Sunset with several other humans, but Sweetie immediately recognized Twilight, Rarity and the others. "I stole the element of magic and took it to this world, where we became human. Twilight… she showed me the way, but not before…"

Another picture floated over. This one the demonic version of Sunset, who was with another human-like creature. "...not before I misused it. The magic turned on me. It corrupted my mind and spirit, transforming me into a demon. Where before I wouldn't actually physically attack them, I was ready to kill them. I was ready to mind control everyone around me to use them as cannon fodder in some insane attempt to take over Equestria and probably Earth too."

Sweetie looked at her. "I take it you were rainbowed into submission?"

Sunset nodded, grinning. "With cheesy speech included."

Sweetie snorted.

"After that… I spent the last few years of my human highschool experience trying to make it up to everyone. I messed up over and over again. I had a lot to learn… and a lot to answer for." Her face softened into a sad smile. "It was so easy to justify things as real attempts, when I was only considering superficial discomforts… I was never actually violent. Until the magic affected me, I would threaten but it never came to blows… so I focused on things like that, never understanding how deep scars can go. How much damage bullying others and terrorizing them actually did." She sighed. "I was very lucky that, in my world… the bullying didn't take away people whose only mistake had been to cross my path."

Sunset reached with the back of her finger to stroke the forget-me-not flower growing from a pot on the table. "It's a very hard lesson to learn how close it was… and how, in many other places? I didn't stop. And people… good people were lost."

Sunset drew a deep breath. "Anyway, before I learned all of that, I eventually met a version of your sister, who helped me set this whole bar up. She's my business partner, and it's thanks to her that all you see here came to be."

Sweetie looked around the room again, nodding. "Each picture is a memory."

"And a promise," Sunset said. "That no one here will be forgotten. This bar has… taught me so much. I've gained a family through it, more friends, I've helped people other versions of me damaged, and I have helped other versions of me help themselves and others. And I'm sure it'll grow. I'm sure I'll be able to do more good. I'll take any shape, and visit any place where I can be a stepping-stone for those that need me to heal or find the strength to be better."

"So that's who you are."

Sunset shrugged and nodded.

Sweetie drank more of her martini. The alcohol was sadly not going to give her any sort of boost in confidence. Her body couldn't get drunk like that anymore. But it sure felt reassuring to sip that martini.

"I've… kept so much inside," Sweetie confessed, chuckling a little. "That even starting at the beginning feels… plain." She sighed a long, contemplative sigh. "How do I even explain? When… if I ever go back home, I won't be the little filly my sister loved anymore."

She shook her head. "I think, when I first became Twilight's apprentice… I think I was scared." She smiled, her hoof tracing a circle on the surface of the table. "It's been so long, but I remember… how I was barely showing signs of magical aptitude. I remember how I felt like it was a waste of time, but Applebloom and Scootaloo were growing and I was not.

"I was scared of not belonging when they found their calling. I was scared that my sister would be disappointed, or that Twilight would decide I wasn't worth the effort. I wanted to just… stay where I was. That nothing would change and I could play forever with my friends and not worry about being more than a dumb dictionary."

"A dictionary?"

"It was Scootaloo's thing."

"Ah."

"Anyway," Sweetie continued with a small grin and a shake of her head, "I eventually warmed up to Twilight. I started to actually understand and even love magic. And my respect for her grew and grew. I wanted to make her proud just as much as I wanted to make Rarity proud. That's when I just… was me. And I screwed up.

"I interrupted an experiment and watched Twilight explode into crystals and the next thing I knew, I was in another body, in another world… I had no idea what I was doing. If Trixie hadn't figured out what was happening…" she shook her head. "I… was out of my element, but Twilight's lessons, along with Trixie picking me up as a temporary apprentice, taught me enough to feel a little safer." She chuckled. "How wrong I was."

"You must have been so confused… how old were you?" Sunset said. "If you were just beginning to learn magic? Nine? Ten years old?"

"I didn't even have my cutie mark," Sweetie said, glancing at the mark with a small smile. "But… thinking back on it, although I was confused… I felt so guilty." She took a slow breath, staring at her martini rather than at Sunset.

"I thought I had been dreaming. I couldn't have possibly hurt Twilight." She licked her lips. "But when Trixie explained I was in another world… when the pieces fell into place, I realized I was personally responsible for the death of someone I'd grown to love and respect as a friend and teacher.

"She had been so proud of me, taking me in… and I had betrayed that trust by destroying her." She shook her head when she saw Sunset was about to speak. "I know. It was an accident, but sometimes knowing something doesn't mean… it doesn't mean you've accepted it, especially as a child. I think… that's why when I found the first of Twilight's fragments and it told me I'd be absorbing it to help her come back home, I never gave it a second thought."

"Hold on," Sunset said. "So… you were thrown into a world where one of Twilight's crystalized pieces had landed? And you were able to communicate with it?"

Sweetie nodded. "The local Twilight Sparkle had been foalnapped, you see, so Trixie and I went in search of her. When we found her, she was being held near a fragment. I could feel it, although at the time I didn't understand what drew me to it. We took it with us back to Ponyville and Trixie figured out we could talk to it… I used my magic and… Twilight… she told me it was what I had to do."

"Oh, Twilight…" Sunset sighed. She looked up with some pity at her. Sunset had understood immediately. But still, Sweetie wanted, no, needed to tell her everything.

"I… didn't know." Sweetie's shoulders slumped. She took a moment to recompose herself, raised her glass and sipped a good amount of martini, allowing the chocolate to kick in and cheer her up. "I think… Trixie knew. I think Twilight knew." She smiled. "I don't think Rarity did, but between them they made me a book to write spells and… do other things." She chuckled. "It's hard to imagine them not knowing, yet designing a book like that.

"In many ways that went over my head, that first world set up the foundation for my magical, emotional and survival education." She shook her head, almost really amazed. "Obviously they couldn't have predicted what would happen, but the forethought and care they gave me is an incredibly big part of why am even still alive today."

Sunset nodded, reaching out to take the now-empty martini glass. "Let's get a refill for you. I can see the alcohol will not knock you out."

Sweetie smiled. "Thank you."

Sensing that Sweetie needed a few moments to herself, Sunset stood up and walked behind the bar to make another couple of the chocolate cocktails.

It was then that she remembered one time Cinder and Allure had been here, discussing The Sweetie Belle.

"You'd know if you'd met her."

But… could it be? Allure hadn't given much of a description, yet, she and the others that had met "Chronicle Sweetie Belle" had all agreed that she had left a mark on them. That it would be impossible not to recognize her.

And maybe, the fact that right now she was putting that together meant that they were probably right.

"I think," Sweetie said, the moment Sunset had returned with their drinks and sat down, "that my biggest fear during my initial jumps lurked deep within me."

Sunset leaned forward, resting her arms on the table as she listened. "How so?"

Sweetie grunted, a grimace crossing her face. "The first few jumps were easy… although emotionally draining. I met the Elements of Harmony as immortals. I found a world where Nightmare Moon was hitting on Twilight, and they both were into it." She snorted. "I was too young to really see what was happening. I met myself as a male, in a world where everyone was the opposite gender. And I even went to the Wasteland… but in every place, I was either within the local Sweetie, or as an apparition…

"Where the Elements were immortal ponies, I was just… there, and the local Sweetie had died decades ago. In the Wasteland, I was long dead too… so, what did that make me?" She looked up at Sunset. "Even now I-I sometimes doubt that I'm real. Wherever I went, I was just… an apparition. Am I even really alive? It almost seems easier to believe I'm not… that I'm just a figment of someone's imagination and all the hurt I've caused is just… make belief."

Sweetie paused, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

"I understand that all too well," Sunset said. When Sweetie looked up, she found Sunset was smiling at her. "I can feel my breathing when I concentrate on it. The beating of my heart… sense the world around me. I feel when I'm touched and I feel… sadness and joy. But the Omniverse is huge. I've seen realities, entire concepts of the omniverse collapse… and I remain outside of that… but does that mean that I'm the real one?"

Sweetie smirked, nodding and looking down at her glass. "If I only exist through others, am I real?"

"How could a real being live as long as I have?" Sunset said softly.

"Even if I feel joy and the love of my big brother and big sister, do I really feel that? Or do I think I do?"

"Can I truly exist in every instance of the omniverse as a single, unique entity that's different from other Sunset Shimmers?"

"Did I really survive Twilight's experiment?" Sweetie whispered. "Or am I just a fleeting thought? A fancy notion that someone made up?"

"And if I'm just a thought… does my existence have value?"

The two fell into silence for a few moments.

"I live in a magical bar that opens its doors to anyone with good in them to rest and be heard," Sunset said. "I try to give advice learned through thousands of years of experiences, and yet I am as fallible and ignorant as the first day I stepped in here."

"I jump from life to life… world to world… in search of pieces of a pony that ceased to exist the moment I screwed up," Sweetie said, then took a deep drink of her martini before adding, "we're perfect examples of a creative imagination."

Sunset nodded.

"But… I have to admit," Sweetie said into the heavy silence, "that this chocolate martini is excellent."

Sunset snorted. She then took a deep breath. "There was an Earth Philosopher named Descartes who became very famous in part due to his existential theories." She tapped her fingers on the table, thoughtfully looking at Sweetie. "In a nutshell, it was popularized by the phrase, 'I think, therefore I am.'

"The actual theory has… a lot of additional implications about the independence of the being versus the purpose of it and its place in the grand scheme of things… but for our purposes I think we can borrow that phrase for now, even if we end up not taking it in the same direction it normally is."

Sweetie sat a bit straighter. This was a familiar feeling. Just like Twilight. Like Trixie. Like Octavia. Even Chrysalis. It was… very nostalgic.

"I am capable of thought," Sunset said, "and other people cannot truly know that to be true. Only I can be aware of this fact with absolute certainty, for I am the one doing it. That in itself—being capable of thought—is a declaration of awareness of action. If I am aware of my action, my thoughts… then, I am that action. That thought is mine and therefore real to me, whether others recognize it or not."

"If I can taste this…" Sweetie said slowly, "and I can love it… if I could talk to Blueblood when I was in his world, and I could feel what it was like to have a loving big brother… if I could embrace Rarity in so many worlds and feel her unconditional love supporting me…"

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "If I feel like all of this is real. If it is real to me. If my words have an impact on anyone at all… doesn't that make me real?"

Sunset grinned. "This is where we take that statement a little further… If the thoughts and feelings we know we have when we help or talk to others reach them… when we suffer through or enjoy things…and they feel that with us, doesn't that mean we have value?" Sunset asked, her cocksure grin becoming an encouraging smile. "We doubt ourselves, like anyone else would, don't we?"

Sweetie blinked. "So every world we have been in…"

"And every visitor I've had…" Sunset added gently, nodding for Sweetie to continue.

"Has been real to us… and us to them…"

"And because the experiences they had and shared with had weight and were real to them and us and beyond that, related to others and mattered to them when we shared them…"

"That's real."

Sunset nodded. "Yes, it is."

Sweetie closed her eyes. A shiver of sheer relief washed through her. "Real." She slumped back into her seat. "This is going to take some time to truly process… but thank you, Sunset. That has been torturing me for… a long time." And yet, if she was real, so was all the damage she had caused.

"I'm sure you'd come to the same conclusion eventually," Sunset said, unaware of the dark thoughts bubbling under Sweetie's smile. "You just needed a place where you could talk and sort things out."

"Hah." Sweetie snorted. "You remind me of this alicorn I met again just recently in the Wasteland. She also liked giving me time to think and talk." She blinked. "Wait. You really remind me of her."

Sunset blinked. "I do?"

Sweetie nodded. "It was during my last jump…" She smiled a little. "Silly as it sounds, I just… hadn't thought about how much I had changed. I mean… physically, yeah… I look like I do now. But it just… hadn't dawned on me that Sweetie Belle… the little, innocent, hopeful and scared filly… was gone. Really gone."

"How did that happen?" Sunset asked, her voice soft. "How did you—"

"Break?" Sweetie interrupted.

Vision.

"I'm broken, Sunset," Sweetie said. "When I started jumping…I pushed down my fear with hope. I eventually found a sort of interim family that loved me for years before I moved on. I learned so many things, grew in strength and ability and knowledge… even when I was tortured and turned into… what I am today, hope and the belief of my purpose pushed me through." She shuddered, glaring down at her drink. "And then… and then I ended up in Vision. And I dared fall in love."

"Oh no." Sunset's hands went up to cover her mouth. Her eyes were wide with horror. "Are you talking about the City that Twilight and the others…"

She trailed off, but she didn't need to continue. The look of horror and the whispered shock behind the name was enough to tell her that Sunset knew that place.

"I… was confident," Sweetie said slowly. "I thought—I had battled monsters. And survived creatures from beyond comprehension and cruelty. I thought I could go somewhere and be someone and then, you know, move on." She sighed. "I… lost myself in Vision… until I—" she raised her hoof to her chest touching it right atop of where the phoenix amulet lay, enveloping her heart "—perished and came back to life, free of all the drug addictions and dependencies I had somehow fallen victim to. Something in that world corrupted whatever was left good in me, and I had to die and be purged by phoenix flames to be… me again."

"Vision is a place where corruption eats at what's good within any of us," Sunset said, "Rarity—my partner, that is—is the only creature I know that has been able to visit that place and be unchanged. But her nature is… different than ours."

Sweetie smirked sadly. "Were I able to have been different enough, even with this fae body, this alien heart, this changeling essence… I was too much of a pony to remain unaffected. I don't remember what happened."

Sunset's eyebrows came down as she narrowed her eyes. "Go on…"

Sweetie receded into her seat a little, as she pieced together what she had been unable to tell Lil' Pip and the others. "I… well, as I said I don't remember. But from the clues I gathered, and what Twilight said, I got addicted to drugs. Alcohol too, although I know that my body doesn't react to it like a pony. The drugs though… they somehow ate through me, magically and spiritually. The me of that time… she fell deeply in love and even married a mare named Swiftwing."

Sweetie raised her eyes, trembling with tears. "And Sunset... that mare was a saint. She stayed with me. She bathed me. She watched over my miserable self as I cheated and wasted away. I may not remember any of that but… I did that to her."

"Oh, Sweetie…"

"It's… it's not like I didn't know I could fall into an addiction," Sweetie confessed, her hoof sliding across the top of the martini glass. "Before I went there, I became addicted to alcohol for a time. I was so close to losing it, you know? But I got turned into this and non-magical alcohol became inconsequential."

She gulped and looked away. "I think—I thought I was strong enough to recognize if that was happening again." She chuckled mirthlessly. "Apparently not."

She straightened as she looked up at the Forget-me-not next to her on the table, unable to look at the bartender herself. "Do you know how much I let myself go? How much hurt I caused because I was weak and disgusting? Because I replaced alcohol with magical drugs?" She shook her head. "And I was a coward. I was such a coward that I chose to end my life… because I knew I'd get a new, free shot. Because the pain would be gone, and I would be okay."

She pushed the martini glass away. "You know who wasn't okay?" She gritted her teeth. "My wife who cared for me at my worst… and I didn't have the decency to even remember. My wife who succumbed to the same drugs that destroyed me. My wife and—" she cut off.

Sunset gently picked up the glasses and walked over to the bar. She was making something, but Sweetie didn't care. With a thought, her diary emerged from its pocket dimension and settled on the table. Twilight's fragments hovered around her, almost like curious little fairies taking it all in.

Sunset returned a moment later, setting down two gently steaming mugs of… something.

"It's called Klah."

Sniffling, Sweetie took it in her magic and got it close enough for a whiff. It smelled… sweet. Almost chocolate-like. She sipped a bit. "This is… this is good."

"Glad you like it."

Sweetie nodded, then took a deep breath. She needed to tell this to someone.

"After I… resurrected… I searched for clues and found out about all that I had done, who I had hurt, what had happened… and I found my way to Twilight and the way out of Vision. At the cost of not… of not saying goodbye."

"What… did Twilight say?" Sunset said slowly, and Sweetie could feel anger building there. She couldn't blame her.

"She showed me how I hadn't cared about others, how I had been a selfish, self-centered creature that had given myself to drugs to escape my frustrations and fears and anger. Who had betrayed ponies that loved her and gotten out of it by cheating at life and death." She was shaking.

"Tell me," Sunset said after a pause. "Did you put that Phoenix Amulet inside your heart?"

Sweetie looked up, frowning. "What? No. It was… just… put in me after Blackjack… um, killed me. Kinda."

"When you met these ponies that she used to prove you being self-centered, were you free of worries? Did you not have something that you needed to accomplish?"

"I—" Sweetie cleared her throat. "I mean, I was trying to find what had happened and—"

"When she judged you and expected your answers… did she give you your memories back?" Sunset asked. "Or did she hide more things from you?"

"She… didn't tell me."

"Didn't tell you about what?"

The answer caught in Sweetie's throat. She licked her lips and tried to speak again. She remembered the anger and helpless frustration when she had found out. The destruction she had caused.

"You played me!" she shouted, tears not even reaching the ground before they were blown away by the winds.

Twilight had seen right through her.

"You played me like a fool!"

Silent. Unable to look at Sunset, she slowly slid the picture out of the diary, facing down. Her hoofwriting clean and perfectly legible condemning her.

Distant Shores, 15th day of Fall, 12 AF.

Sunset didn't move at first, and Sweetie looked up. She looked pale and reluctant. But slowly, her hand came up and her fingers rested gingerly on top of the picture, before she slid it over to herself and turned it up to look at it.

Sunset's face lost all expression, and then tears slowly slipped out.

Sweetie couldn't help herself. She sniffled. She shuddered and then sobbed. "I didn't know. I—I'm a horrible pony, I didn't remember… and I didn't find that until… I had left."

Sunset winced and closed her eyes.

"She was right…" Sweetie sobbed. "I'm a self-centered monster… that would leave her own child behind." She fought the tears, forcing herself to control herself as she felt her anger slowly consume her guilt. "Or I was. I don't know what I was… but I know who I am now."

"She hid that from me. The one thing that would have stopped me. And my choice was final… I don't know how, but deep within me I know I can't go back… she made it so, somehow." Sweetie let a deep, guttural growl emerge, shaking her head in denial of that thought. "I will go back there somehow… and I will find my daughter."

The air around the bar felt heavy and slowly, Sweetie realized that Sunset's hair was fluttering slightly. When she opened her eyes, there was a light behind them. A terrible, righteous light that burned with a power that was beyond anything she had ever felt or encountered, even from the Twilight Fragment that had brought her here.

"You have… kids?" Sweetie ventured hesitantly.

Sunset nodded. "Adopted… Lena and Danni. My entire family is adopted… but if someone hid their existence from me and used it to torture me for some sadistic pleasure…"

Her eyes flashed and Sweetie knew that nothing would stand in her way. She nodded. "Then you know."

"This will not stand."

Sweetie sighed and remembered Pip's words. Midnight Shimmer's encouragement. Velvet and Calamity's kindness. Spike's empathy. "It's never going to be okay, even when I somehow get her back," Sweetie said, wiping away her remaining tears. "But I will be there for her. Somehow. When I figure out how to get her from the claws of that… monster."

"What happens for now?" Sunset asked after a pause.

Sweetie pursed her lips as she took the picture back and slid it into her diary. "According to the last Fragment I talked to, I am close to the end of my journey. I'll bring Twilight back to my original world… and then I'll see."

She closed her eyes and let a long, slow breath out. "I'm so tired, Sunset. I've had amazing adventures, met ponies that I'd give my life for. Ponies I long to see. If I could have everything…" she chuckled. "If I could have everything. If only."

She looked up, feeling her resolve strengthen her heart. She knew what she had to do. One step at a time, Midnight Shimmer had said. "I will first return to my world and save Twilight. I will hug my sister and… tell her everything. Then I'll figure out a way to get Distant Shores out of Vision. I'll figure out a way to return to Blueblood for visits. I will have my family. I will make it whole!"

She paused. And then… Another deep breath. Another smile. "And then I'll figure out what to do with my life. I'm not who I was before… but whatever happens, I will have a home."

Sunset nodded. "And I'll help you." She slid a card out of her pocket, and leaned over to place it in front of Sweetie. "When you have gone home, and you and Rarity and Twilight are back together… use that card. I'm sure you all will need a drink."

Sweetie looked down at the card. "I can… come back?"

"Anytime," Sunset said, smiling. "And we can get your big brother here too. And your other friends as well. I think… you're all due to meet each other again anyway."

Sweetie stared at the card for a moment. Could she… change the past? Ask Sunset to show her everything? Make it so that she never interrupted Twilight?

She felt her tense shoulders relax. No. No. She couldn't do it… even if Sunset could make that happen, that would void away everything she had sacrificed and done. All the growing she had achieved… the good and the bad.

She didn't really buy Vision Twilight's arguments about many things, but there was one thing that, despite herself, she had to agree with. Someone strong would take responsibility and make change happen.

She was sure that resolution was not what Vision Twilight wanted, and that was just the cherry on top. But she was responsible for her decisions and mistakes. At least all the ones she knew about. And if there were more that would someday come to light… then she would embrace those mistakes too.

She couldn't ask Sunset to erase the past for her. Or demand that decisions and choices should be made void just for her own benefit. Even if it would be so easy if none of this had ever happened.

If the bad was gone, so was the good. Each act of kindness, and each thoughtful gesture from the wonderful ponies and creatures she had met and sometimes even bled with.

"When I'm done. I'll come back and introduce you to all of them," she promised, pursing her lips into a half-smile as she looked resolutely at Sunset, who nodded firmly. "But, I'd like to give you something back for all of this…"

"Oh," Sunset raised her hands, waving them gently. "It's no problem at all, Sweetie. You don't have to."

Sweetie chuckled. "Then let me do it because I want to." She took her bookmark out of her diary. "I'd like to play you a song."

Sunset blinked in surprise at the bookmark which suddenly grew into a full-sized cello case. "Well," she said, shaking her head in amusement, "how could I say no to a personal concert?"

Sweetie had stepped out of the bar to meet once more with the Twilight Fragment. Apparently there were details they needed to hash out before moving forward, but she had the card, and she would be coming back. That had been a promise between friends.

For her part, Sunset was silent as she hung out the picture she had taken with Sweetie. It was a special one. It had a spell that would show the glamour-ed version of Sweetie to those that were not ready to see her real self. And those that could see her… well, they'd know exactly the kind of soul they were looking at.

Sunset made sure it was straight, then stepped back, studying the picture. Danni had taken the picture: Sunset and Sweetie, both sitting on the table, where the diary rested, next to a few pictures that could be barely made out, although Sunset could tell which one was the one of the immortal Elements of Harmony, and the one of Sweetie's graduation with Octavia, but the last one, partially covered by the diary was the one that gave her pause.

She stared at the picture for a long moment, before narrowing her eyes.

"Do you want company?" Rarity asked. She was sitting on the table next to where Sunset stood. "Things can get a bit… rough," she added, sipping her tea calmly.

"No." Sunset said, taking a deep breath before turning on her heel and heading straight for the door. "No, I got this."

"We rescued a version of her once, you know?"

Sunset nodded. "I heard."

"Poor thing held so much resentment for Sweetie… she wasn't ready to understand. I'm not sure she ever will." Rarity sighed. "She might have been a fetch, but she was as wholesome as any pony. I thought until now we had gotten the original out."

"I know. And Distant deserved to get out too. Last I heard she was doing quite well as an engineer. But Distant Shores… Sweetie's biological daughter—not her fetch—is still there. But no longer."

Rarity gave her a look. "Why do I feel you're going to go to unnecessary lengths to confront Twilight about this? You need to understand, dear, that Twilight is the devil. Her intent is not just. She lies. She is the antithesis of what Twilight Sparkle should be."

"I know."

"Beating her at her own game is pointless, Sunset. Don't waste your time."

"I won't waste too much time." Sunset walked out.

The door opened to a grayed-out landscape of a city. Sunset didn't even feel herself change into her alicorn form. She normally wasn't too fond of it, since it made her look like a princess, after all. Yet, she didn't stop to think about it. She could feel the corrosive nature of this world all around her. From the stagnant air, to the toxic ground, walls and even the plants. But nothing reeked of corruption more than the empty promises of those additional cutie marks ponies here sought out.

She walked, unperturbed, across the dirty streets drawing more than one pony's attention. They stared at her. They made as if to follow her, but something kept them back. It wasn't Sunset's doing… they just… collapsed back into their misery. They were just a part of this world, and this world and its ponies had closed their doors to the outside to the point that hope was an ironic concept.

It was horrible, but this was caused by them and the Elements of "Harmony". The only ones that could pull them out of this were themselves, and almost none of them—Elements included—were truly inclined to do so.

But there was a discrepancy here. A pony that existed here where it shouldn't have. Her destiny and fate unraveled from this world from the moment of her conception.

Sunset stopped in front of an old, dilapidated husk of a building and looked up, studying the concrete structure for a moment. She could sense them here. Slowly, she made her way into the building and up the stairs to an apartment door past which she could hear sniffling and groaning.

The door was unlocked, and she could hear voices.

"Well, Blueblood is a complicated pony, you know? Definitely a good bad influence." A familiar voice said over a scratchy, clicking interference that distorted a snort and giggles.

"Oh?" Another voice said, amused, young, happy.

"There was this one time when he took me over to apprentice under Sapphire Shores a—"

The voice was interrupted by a click and the sounds became a high pitched jumble until another click stopped that.

"She's beautiful!" Sweetie's voice said, tired and joyful. "She's as beautiful as you are. I'm glad she's not inherited my… wait, are you recording this?"

"OF course I am, and what are you afraid of her inheriting? Your beauty? You would deny that to our child?" the other voice responded, teasing. "She is as beautiful as you, Sweetie, and I think your more exotic nature is a blessing."

Click. Whirr.

"I'm sorry," Sweetie's voice slurred. "Uh… I'll change, I dunno what's happening—"

Click. Whirr. Whirr.

"And what happened next, mommy?"

"...and your mom managed to escape that monster, breaking through space like it was a window. She and the shadow princess—cough—they…"

The voice faded. A click. Whirr. Click.

Silence.

Sunset stepped into the mostly empty room, where a single, young unicorn mare sat, holding a tape recorder in her hooves. She was a couple of years younger than Sweetie Belle, but he looked thin in an unhealthy way. A couple of cutie marks adorned her body, but thankfully hadn't corrupted her fully. She didn't look up. "I don't care what you want," she whispered as her horn lit up to lift a slightly bent pipe. "I will use this and you're going to be walking with a limp—"

Sunset couldn't help but smile at the unicorn's reaction. Her wavy blue-green mane seemed to shimmer as she stared at her unexpected visitor and shook her head in denial at what she was seeing.

The pipe cluttered to the floor.

"Distant Shores, correct?" Sunset asked, stepping fully into the room. Sure, she wasn't intentionally projecting her inner Celestia, but she could imagine how surreal the situation felt for the young mare.

The unicorn gulped, then nodded. "Y-yes, y—"

"Sunset," she interrupted her. "Just Sunset Shimmer."

Distant Shores could only nod numbly. Whether Sunset's attempt to keep things casual had helped at all remained to be seen.

"What were you listening to, Distant Shores?"

"I um," the mare looked down guiltily at the cassette player. It was a very old thing. Probably had gotten it very cheap. "It's a recording… of my mom Swiftwing… talking about my other mom."

"I see. It sounded interesting."

Distant snorted, but a twitch in her lips appeared for a second before it was replaced with scorn. "Apparently she was quite the adventurer. Except she was a drug addict and a failure that left me and my mom to take care of her until she died."

Sunset grimaced. This… was not going to be easy for Sweetie. "I'm here on her behalf," she said. She didn't want to rush things, but this place was slowly sinking its claws even past the natural resistance that Distant Shores had inherited from her mother.

Distant Shores didn't answer, but she looked up at Sunset.

"I'm here to take you away from Vision. Your mother, Sweetie Belle is searching for a way to come back for you. I think… I'd like you both to have a chance to figure where you stand outside of this pit of corruption and grime."

"How rude."

Sunset turned to the door, while Distant Shores gasped in fear. She jumped to her hooves and stepped back, making herself smaller against a corner of the room.

"What makes you think I would allow such a thing, Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight Sparkle asked, stepping into the room. "What makes you think you have the right to take one of my citizens… one wilfully abandoned by her mothers?"

Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Twilight," she said curtly. "I'm not going to give you much of a choice."

"You know my power."

"And you can't begin to know mine."

Sunset was aware of Distant Shores whimpering. The noise made Twilight smirk. Almost lazily, she shrugged. "There are rules. When Sweetie Belle arrived here, she agreed to the rules of this place."

"Did she, now?" Sunset asked, not convinced. "That is very convenient. I wonder if she was aware of what you were imposing of her."

"Ignorantia juris non excusat," Twilight said, deadpan. "Unless you, of all creatures, wants to pretend there are no consequences for breaking the laws of the universe."

"Funny that," Sunset replied, snorting. "Because I hear you proposed a deal to Sweetie. A contract, if you would. What was it? Stay here forever to try to make it up to those she had hurt, or leave."

Twilight held her head high. "And what of it? She knew what she had done, and she left. I think her decision was very clear, the contract fair."

"Despite the fact that she had no memory of her life here past the moment she woke up?"

Twilight smiled. "My dear Sunset, I did not hide from her what she had done. She dug deep and found out everything she needed to know to make her decision."

"Did she know she had a daughter?" Sunset asked.

Off the corner of her eye, she saw Distant Shore's ears twitch.

"That is irrelevant," Twilight stated, shaking her head. "Her choice was to stay or leave."

"Stay and play a rigged game where you and your… friends… corrupt every living being here?"

"It's not unusual to play a game where things are in favor of the house… I believe you had casinos where you grew up, correct?" Twilight countered with a small smile. "At no point did I tell her it would be fair, but in what world is life actually fair, bartender?"

Sunset didn't bite. "You asked her to stay where she has no knowledge of the joy she brought, only the pain?"

"She brought many things," Twilight acknowledged, "but by the time she was done, all she had left others with was pain and betrayal. She fell for her own weaknesses."

"You preyed on them, you mean."

"Does it make a difference? The result remains the same."

"It does, because it's a lie." Sunset raised her head. "Did you tell Sweetie she had a daughter?"

Twilight's eyes flashed. "I was under no obligation to do so."

"Oh, but you see," Sunset smirked, "I'm not Sweetie Belle, so I know that there are rules and laws that have to be respected, don't they Twilight? Even the likes of Lucifer Morningstar, in all their power, play by those. And that does include you, doesn't it?"

Twilight's face contorted in anger for the first time.

"Oh, don't make faces Twilight," Sunset said, "I'm merely talking about the basic rules of contracts. You have those too, don't you?" She smirked. "And we both have them too. I just don't use them to trick creatures for my benefit."

"She agreed to my terms."

"A barely-adult mare with years of emotional trauma was abused and corrupted by your active efforts to doom everyone to your own fate. We are talking about a pony with a mental illness, who had no legal advice or representation; who didn't have the whole picture… you gave that pony a 'choice'."

Twilight's lip curled into a snarl.

"Let's be generous and call it a poor choice of words. But… you gave her the choices that would give only you what you wanted, wouldn't it?" Sunset raised her head and spread her wings, ignoring the almost savage anger the action brought Twilight. Sunset probably looked exactly like Celestia had at one point when she had been displeased with her student. "Ever heard of unequal bargaining power in a contract presented as equally beneficial?"

"Look at you, trying to speak legalize about souls and creatures" Twilight spat. "You won't stop an apocalypse and save millions, but here you are to save a single filly. And you dare talk to me about morality and honesty."

Sunset nodded. "I have many times allowed entire races to suffer the consequences of their world's actions. I could have overturned more than one war, changed the past, or erase invaders, this is true."

Twilight smirked. "And one filly is worth more than all of that?"

"This young mare…" Sunset smirked in return, "is irrelevant to all of that. A false equivalency is not going to magically save your position, Twilight. You know that you twisted the rules and presented Sweetie with a false choice under the pretense that it was fair. That makes your 'final' decision… well, invalid is a good word for it."

Twilight Sparkle lowered her head menacingly and glowered at her. "She is gone. There's nothing you can do about what happened."

"I can, but discussing your shortcomings is not what I'm here for. I am here, acting on behalf of Sweetie Belle, who is not a part of your world. Distant Shores would not have been born naturally here. Her existence is, should we say, displaced from your domain. She has no future in this place, and thus her value for the fate of this pit of suffering you have so carefully constructed is not just insignificant, but actually non-existent. She does not belong to you, and therefore I can save her, even if you tricked Sweetie."

"You cannot take her away."

"No, I actually can. You cannot stop me."

"Then why argue with me?" Twilight snapped, slamming her hoof on the floor.

"This might seem a bit childish, since this whole discussion was just so I could give you a piece of my mind, but I'm sure you know how good it can sometimes feel to corner a mare with her own words, don't you, Twilight?"

"So you just wasted my time and yours for your petty revenge?"

"Making a scammer waste their time is never a waste," Sunset replied. "Now hush."

When all the other mare could do was fume, Sunset shrugged, then turned to look at the other mare in the room. "There is only one pony here with the power to stop me from taking Distant Shores out of this hellhole. It's up to her."

Distant Shores had come to the old apartment out of spite, more than anything. Half submerged in salty water, she had followed her other mother here, a long time ago. When the mantle-covered unicorn had forced herself out of her room and slithered down into the ruins, Distant Shores had known something was up.

Not trusting either of her mothers, she had still some memories of the good days, and for whatever that was worth, following the wretch to make sure… of what? She hadn't known. But she had followed.

Her other mother, Swiftwing had stopped her. Asked her to stay behind and let Sweetie go. But Distant Shores had refused. She loved them both and she couldn't just… abandon her, no matter how bad it was. No matter how hard it could get.

Swiftwing had watched her go after Sweetie with a haunted look that had torn at Distant Shore's heart. She wished she could stay with her too… but her other mother also needed her.

Distant Shores had been surprised her unicorn mother even had the strength to form coherent thoughts, much less move. She had watched her drag herself in, up the stairs, to the very room she had walked into now.

She had heard scratches, the hollow, gut-wrenching coughs of her mother… and knowing that she wouldn't be moving out of there anytime soon, had trotted out.

That's when her life had changed. She had returned home to find her mother had had packed everything and left. Once Sweetie was gone… Swiftwing didn't want anything to do with her daughter.

A single note was all that was left. I wish you luck. You are very smart, you will be fine. I need to start a new life too. Find me if you need anything, I can't promise… and so on.

It had been a month now, since then. Somepony looking like her had taken over her job, and she didn't dare tell Pinkie about it. She had thought about going to the authorities but… Vision's 'police' were worse than starving to death.

And… she didn't have the energy. She had walked away, to the other side of the city, where she would never encounter the other two.

She had found the odd job, been offered (and been tempted) to take a mantle or two. But seeing what that had done to her mother… she had refused, no matter how easy her life would have been.

This had become her place to escape. When she had returned only to find an oily mark against the wall where something had burned, she knew she was truly alone. She had snuck into her home while her doppelganger was out and stolen a few things, including a cassette recording of the old times, when they had been a real family.

Occasionally, she would come here when things were getting too hard, and watch and listen to her mothers when they were happy. Before the mantles. The betrayal. Death.

After a couple of weeks, her other self had disappeared, but Pinkie wouldn't take her back. Something had gone wrong there, and her counterpart had been at the center of it. Pinkie did not want anything to do with it, as long as Distant Shores left with a smile on her face.

It was dangerous not to smile. So she had. And she had walked away, and come here to think and remember.

When an actual alicorn, looking glorious and royal and goddess-like had walked in, she hadn't even known what to do. She had heard the door open, assumed it was some wretch, here to try something… but this…

And then freaking Twilight Sparkle had arrived.

This was not normal. This was bad. Really bad. Just what had her mother done? She was now caught in a fight between two powers she could not help to escape, much less match.

As the conversation between two beings that clearly held her life in their hooves continued, she listened for clues on how to get out of there… but what she was hearing was…

"There is only one pony here with the power to stop me from taking Distant Shores out of this hellhole. It's up to her."

She stared, blinking blankly at the alicorn. "M-me? I'm not involved in whatever this is!"

"You've listened to what we have argued," Sunset Shimmer, the alicorn, said, "but that is irrelevant for now. I'm offering you a choice: come with me. I will take you away from Vision, and I will allow your mother, who is so desperate to see you, to meet you… no matter what this one wants."

Twilight Sparkle. THE Twilight Sparkle turned to look at her, anger in her eyes, although Distant Shores was glad to notice that most of it wasn't directed at her. "You were already abandoned by her once. And you were abandoned by Swiftwing. Going with her is exposing yourself to that again."

Sunset snorted, then shook her head. "I offer you a home. A job. A chance to make friends that don't want to betray you… and the chance to meet your mother if you wish."

Distant Shores turned to look at Twilight, who sniffed in disdain, then turned to look away.

Still. Distant Shores looked at Sunset. "And if I don't want to stay with you? Or see my mother?" she asked softly.

The alicorn walked closer to them and rested a wing on her shoulder, looking her straight in the eye. "Then I will help you find a home where you want to stay."

Twilight Sparkle started walking away. "Never come back. Either of you."

Distant Shores looked down at the cassette player, using her hoof to brush her curly mane out of the way. "Are you telling the truth? I can see her?"

"Yes."

She felt… empty. She wasn't sure what she needed to say. Or what she should feel. There was much she wanted to say to her mother… and if Sweetie had been forced away… "Did… she not remember me?"

Sunset sighed, and Distant Shores thought she'd tell her that she'd find out everything only if she came with her.

Instead, the alicorn surprised her by sitting next to her on the old, filthy bed. "This will be hard to hear, Distant Shores, but… when Sweetie died, she was resurrected, and somehow—although I can imagine who was responsible—she lost the entirety of her memories here. She tried to piece things together, but all she discovered were the awful sides of her that had been cultivated by Vision."

Distant Shores looked across the room at the oily stain.

"Your mother is very strong," Sunset said, "but she's not perfect, and she's young. She's… really not much older than you are. She was not ready for this place… I don't think anyone really is."

"So when she ran away…"

Sunset shook her head. "She was put in a situation where the only things she had as evidence of her prior existence here were horrible acts that had severely hurt other ponies. Acts that she understood she could not take away… wounds that, to her understanding, would only fester in her presence. And if she stayed only to make things worse, no matter her intentions, she would be trapped here forever, unable to continue her mission."

Distant Shores snorted. "So she made the right choice, huh?"

"No." Sunset wrapped a wing around her and pulled her into a reluctant hug. After a moment of resisting however, Distant Shores sank into it. "No," the alicorn repeated. "It wasn't the right choice. There was no right choice for her to make… especially because she didn't know about you."

Distant Shores didn't look up from Sunset's chest. "What do you mean?" she whispered.

"I think, had she known, she would have made the right choice… and stayed with you."

Distant Shores closed her eyes tight. "I want to believe you."

"Give me a chance, then."

"Is it true that Twilight can't stop you?"

"That is true."

Distant Shores opened her eyes and saw, in that oily, burnt stain, what awaited her here, just like every other pony in Vision, and realized that Twilight had known exactly what she would choose, and that's why she had left.

She had never belonged here.

She sank into Sunset's coat and whispered… "Yes."

End Chapter

Author's Note:

I'll probably have to write a blog about this rather than just a note. Sweetie Belle from the Sweetie Chronicles is one of my favorite characters, and a tremendous source of frustration for not finishing her story. It's back on the works, but it's hard to do justice to something I love, after so long, and after also changing how I wrote, even if it might not be too obvious to people.

I honestly wanted to do my best to portray her and Sunset together... and celebrate the Isekai's 100th chapter. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

As for the title... I thought Sia's song was perfect for Sweetie:

Re: Distant from League of Sweetie Belles: I like her, but she is a deviation from the canon of where I wanted to take the Sweetie Chronicles, but Sunset's Isekai couldn't ignore the fact that she existed, therefore there had to be a reason… then I remembered.

Distant Shores is half-fae, and thus Fetch!Distant Shores was born. Personally I don't think Fetches are not real people/ponies, and if you slap a Mantle on one, well. You can't argue with the result, I guess.

I'm sure League!Distant lived a fulfilling life.

Comments

[RoboRed]

👏
A fine continuation to both stories, I must say. And just enough info for me here to recall enough previous events that have gone on because dear lord it's been a long time since I read any part of Chronicles. It feels like so long ago that Sweetie started this whole adventure off from humble beginnings as Twilight's student leading up to that fragmentation catastrophe. Almost makes me want to go back and read the whole thing again. (Or maybe at least the first few chapters because putting another 500k on my readlist feels a bit daunting right now)

I'm not sure what it says from the fact that I recall the events of Backwards Through the Mirror more than Vision. I guess I felt that was more of a fundamental change to Sweetie's being, but Vision was a dark time too. That talk that Isekai Shimmer and Chronicles Sweetie had was very beneficial to both of them, I feel.

Now, things are moving forward again (4 realzies?) and Distant Shores is being offered a way out. Yep, things are definitely changing.

[Big Slick]

Ok. This website is BS. Why can't we like individual chapters? This was beautiful and reminded me that I need to have a few conversations with a friend. Thank you for allowing us the beauty of your mind.

[Paaaad]

Ah, and it’s not just the hundredth chapter, it’s also the longest one yet, by 1,692 words.

I’m just going to leave this song here for now… Not sure if I’ll have much more to say, but it feels appropriate for such a milestone. The tone of much of the chapter feels like it fits too.

Edit: How the heck have I not hit the thumbs up on this story before now? Well I have now at any rate.

[DJMEGAMOUTH]

It’s been so long since I read sweetie chronicles yet I still remember this awful twisted city. I’m so happy to see it again. Has Distant Shores appeared somewhere else?

[PaintedPony]

I loved this chapter and I loved the Mente Materia reference and I loved the inclusion of Sweetie Bell in its canon and it was one of my favorite chapters and it made me go read the relative chapters in Chronicles. I never understood why some reacted so poorly to it. But then I like the Omniverse and Love Sunset's Isekai I will read all of Chronicles...eventually. Did I tell you I loved this?
Matt and Twilight need to visit the Isekai, they both need a drink.

[Booster Spice]

Only Pinkie as a mortal could truely understand these talking, but thats because of her eldtritch.

As for Vision, the Corruption of Harmony there appears to follow Glass tears rules.

Just the right amount of nudge in the right place, and the self imposed stresses will cause it to utterly disintegrate.

Or just use a vaccuum energy collapse pin. It would be quicker and cleaner for pretty much all the worst off.

[Fetch]

My name is Fetch. Are you saying I'm not real?

[Charedfirescale]

So, I recently watched, "The Sound of Freedom" and I reread this chapter because the last part where Sunset rescued Distant Shores reminded me of the movie. Sunset saved those that she could save and this time it happened to be Distant Shores so she could reunite her and Sweetie Belle. While it was easier in the grand scheme of things for Sunset to do. It ultimately made a difference for those she could save.

This chapter feels like a part 1 and I'm hoping there's a part 2 where we see Distant Shores and Sweetie Belle reunited in the Isekai.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Exquisite work for both stories. Sweetie desperately needed this, and Sunset there was to provide it. Thank you for some exemplary work, D.

[ToMahkAros]

I feel that this is appropriate for this milestone and the chapter!

[Paaaad]

11643616
I imagine any direct continuation from this would end up in Fragments. I get the feeling Sunset would end up as more of a supporting character in that then anything.

[Wanderer D]

11643010 thanks! I'm glad you liked it! It's especially important to me that fans of the Sweetie Chronicles could connect with this chapter. It's sometimes hard to remember how much time has passed, so I hope a few of them still around will feel like sharing their thoughts here. It's encouraging to see people still favorite or ask about updates, but much more so to see the remaining readers still taking an interest.
11643044 Sometimes I also wish I could upvote individual chapters! Lol, but alas, this is how it was designed.
11643066 Hm, I feel like those might be best saved for when the Sweetie Chronicles wrap up, but yeah... talking with Sweetie hits hard, even after all this time.
11643113 Distant Shores appeared in the Vision chapters for the League of Sweetie Belles, although as we have found out, that is the fetch version of her.
11643383 You have NO IDEA how many times I'm asked about the origins of the world of Mente Materia. Arad wanted to make Fragment Twilight's interference canonical, even though it would be referenced, not acknowledged as it being her... but then we had actual Sweetie visit the actual fic, so it became less indirect and more: "Here". Unfortunately that gave some people the impression that I somehow know everything that was in Arad's mind.
11643483 Vision is a nasty place.
11643559 I dunno. Are you?
11643616 Sunset only interferes when her interference will not tilt or change the direction the world is going if that is through the actions of the people living there. However, if what is happening is through visitors that shouldn't be there, or if a person's fate and destiny are resolved, she can do so while minimizing the damage she could potentially cause. So that's what she did here... except she took it into herself to throw some jabs at the devil before rescuing a soul.
11643632 Glad you liked it!

[Radiant Sparkle]

An awesome read. Even without having read the Chronicles, I understood enough to follow along. Now I'm curious enough to go take a look at it.

Also, when you mentioned Lucifer Morningstar, I suddenly had an image of Tom Ellis' character winding up in the wrong bar by mistake, and introducing himself to the cute, orange-skinned girl on the other side...

[alfonso_rd_33]

I don't know why, but watching Visions! Twilight lose was utterly satisfying (actually I just realized why and Creation is beautiful). Distant Shores always has been one of those OC that have a certain staying power (like Mila on "I read Bookworm when..., the variations of Rozemyne on Minette's fics, Isekai or Sunset Shimmer in Kamen Rider Unicorn), so watching her be freed of Discount Lucifer Morningstar Twilight Sparkle was uplifting...

[SommeOne]

I re-read The Sweetie Chronicles recently (shortly before you announced that you were working on it again) and I was amazed that I somehow love it more now than I did when I first read it (I was... What... 14 when I read the Backwards Through The Mirror chapters? I did not fully get it at the time and I'm honestly kinda thankful for that.)

I was expecting it to take much longer for Sweetie to make it to the Isekai, but I honestly could not be happier with this chapter... It's overwhelmingly cathartic and I'm so incredibly grateful that you wrote this chapter for us (and both the incredible stories leading up to this point)

[Diokno44]

11644740
Thank you. Huh, Ill admit I never noticed. Granted I only know a bit about Voudon

[Diokno44]

11644745
Rozemyne on Minette? Got a link to these fics?

[alfonso_rd_33]

11646007
Just a couple...
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43397593/chapters/122478700#workskin
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32508865/chapters/80629576

[Wanderer D]

11646390 Oooooooh! I like! The first one hits a lot of my favorite tropes! Thanks for bringing them up!

[Diokno44]

11646390
Thank you

[alfonso_rd_33]

11646392
11646421
And this is one of the many things that make me love Bookworm... Ventutche is such a good shard of God that everything can be done under her providence...

By the way...

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3256824

[Diokno44]

11646646
Bookworm in general is great. I love how rather than be a standard save the world type, Myne focuses more on books and her loved ones

[GMBlackjack]

Well this was certainly an interesting read. I've been away from this for a while, but reading this brought back all the emotions. It really feels different when you've been invested in the happenings of these characters not just as a reader, but as an author as well. I feel a longing for The Sweetie Belle to complete her quest and find a home, I feel a longing for her problems to be worked through. (I actually particularly liked the philosophy "I think therefore I am" section). I felt many things--I have done my time in Vision as well, and I had hoped it had burned to the ground, honestly, but of course, the multiverse prevents that from actually being absolute. Alas. Maybe we can burn this one to the ground too.

Thank you for writing this. I may have drifted away, but revisiting old emotions is always welcome. And when you do finally get to The Sweetie Chronicles, I will come back once again to relive even more moments.

(On a side note, author-brain is going into overdrive considering what'll happen if/when Distant meets Fetch Distant. Fun times ahoof...)

EDIT: and oh look at that, you went and got me inspired to write something.

“So, you did see her,” Allure said.

Isekai nodded. “Without a doubt, but it took me a bit to realize.”

“Why didn’t you stop her? We could have hel—”

Cinder coughed. “Wasn’t time.”

“What do you mean it wa—”

“Wasn’t time.”

Allure took in a deep breath and let out a sharp sigh. “Okay. Fine. I’ll… I’ll accept that.”

Cinder nodded. Then, after studying Allure’s face for a moment, tilted her head. “You okay, Allure?”

Allure sat down at the bar and sighed. “I’m chasing a memory at this point, aren’t I?”

“She’s not a memory, she’s real,” Isekai said with a slight chuckle as she poured Allure a drink. “I can attest to that.”

“It’s been… so long. I was still a kid when we met, I just…”

“If it makes you feel any better, it sounded like she was near the end of her journey.”

Allure looked down at the drink, frowning. “But what does that mean for us? She hasn’t experienced the decades. Time is… annoyingly relative. You think I’d be used to it by now.”

“I have a thought,” Cinder offered. “It may be a long time for you, but she is near the end of her journey. Let’s be happy for her—it won’t be much longer from her perspective.”

Allure took a swig of her drink. It was something delightfully fruity, just what she needed at the moment, it turned out. She chuckled. “Yeah… yeah, you’re right Cinder. She’ll reach her end, and then we can be happy for her. Even if… it doesn’t feel the same since it’s been so long.”

“Maybe it’ll be better because of the wait?”

“…I… don’t know…”

“And there’s no way you can,” Isekai offered with a smug smile.

“Again, you’d think I’d be used to this by now.” Allure rolled her eyes. “Look at Cinder! She’s been doing this for a fraction of the time I have, and she’s got it all figured out!”

“I wouldn’t go that far…” Cinder said. “I’ve just got intuition.” She winked at Allure.

“Yeah, yeah…” Allure stood up. “Well… I guess we wait, then, and just… keep doing what we’re doing.””

“Sounds like living life normally,” Isekai pointed out.

“Yeeeeep…”

The doors to the bar bust open, revealing none other than Burgerbelle. “Cleanup in aisle four, we’ve got a continuity kerfuffle to deal with!”

Cinder giggled. “I think we already dealt with it.”

“Negative!” Burgerbelle did a twirl. “This is unrelated to the venn diagram of DOOM currently tormenting… Un1v3rs3 L337.” There was a beat. “Come on, is no one going to ask how I did that?”

“No,” Cinder said.

“Awwww…”

“Let’s go,” Allure said. “And Isekai, thanks for the info.”

“Anytime,” Isekai said, giving the Sweeties a wave as they scrambled off to deal with whatever crazy nonsense it was this time.

She really did hope that their wait would come to an end soon.

-GM, master of writings.

[gagaking]

I was so excited to see another TSC chapter after so long! But… why would Wanderer D, the amazing writer of TSC, agree to make a crossover with Wanderer D, the writer of some random story called Sunset’s Isekai? Is this even a crossover?

More seriously I like both stories and am very happy to see more TSC (and more SI which I realized I had accidentally unfollowed, hence the bad joke). TSC is one of the stories I’m most excited about on this site and openly talk about it to others and how ambitious and amazing it is, so I am very happy to see it returning. I still have hope Mente Materia will update and finish one day.

Onto the chapter, thank you for finally rescuing the (original) Distant Shores from Vision! And Sweetie needed the pick-me-up, so thanks for including that too. Now... the question becomes how are people going to insert this into their epub of TSC, since it is in a different story?

Has Sunset actually gone out into a world to do something like this in any previous chapters? I think she can only do this for those whose stories/destinies are finished or aren’t really supposed to be in that world but still.

11643559
I’m sorry you had to find out this way. On the bright side, you are at least real enough to be mentioned and cause others to react, and you MIGHT even be able to recieve alerts when someone replies to your comments. Though that might just mean you are able to act like an AI.🤷

[Kapuchu]

I was very surprised to see Sunset actually intervene, because she never does so outside of allowing multiversal counterparts to meet each other and share stories and experiences. But like she says, Distant Shores doesn't belong, so it doesn't really affect the universe she's in. I'm glad that she did, though, because this truly felt like one of those situations where, if she doesn't then the only conclusion is a depressing one.

I wonder if/hope there's gonna be a follow-up to this. It would at least be nice to see this little sidestory concluded on a properly happy note.

[Reese]

Congratulations on the 100th chapter of the Isekai and on continuing Chronicle Sweetie's story!
And I did indeed enjoy the chapter; thank you for writing. :)

This might be an error, though?
"A couple of cutie marks adorned her body, but thankfully hadn't corrupted her fully."
"She had found the odd job, been offered (and been tempted) to take a mantle or two. But seeing what that had done to her mother… she had refused, no matter how easy her life would have been."
There seems to be a contradiction there? Or did she eventually accept, and that wasn't mentioned?

[PaintedPony]

11649202

I still have hope Mente Materia will update and finish one day.

You and me both...and a lot of others I'd bet.

[ComradePresident]

I've read this chapter a while ago, but wanted to come back to comment this. Sweetie Belle is pretty unhappy with her new form and she hides it from others, since they would find it monstorous. But i can't help but think how different the reaction would be had she went to my totally-exists-i-swear-i'll-write-something-on-it CMC World Conquest timeline at any point after midgame Stellaris era. "Oh, you are made of Stone? Well i've never seen one shaped like a pony, but we got over a million of them in Faust-OOO alone. We call them Lithoids. I think i saw <insert name here> around recently. Wanna meet them?", or something like that.

[Wanderer D]

11663652 It's not just a physical issue for her, it's a psychological and spiritual change that happened to her through tremendous trauma and torture. She can deal with physical stuff, but exposing her damaged and changed soul to others is a very different thing to be comfortable with.

[ComradePresident]

11663674
Wasn't expecting you to respond. But yeah you are right. I haven't had the opportunity to reread TSC, it was one of the first fanfics i ever read. And only read this and the new chapters there recently. So i'm probably missing details. Thanks for the great work regardless.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Finally finished, and it's a good one!

[SvenFoxx]

Sunset's playing a very dangerous game. This Twilight sounds... incredibly skilled at contract law and legalities. I think Sunset may have forgot something really important in her anger.

Biologically... Distant Shores either cannot exist as a blood daughter of Sweetie Belle's, or required some kind of active magical aid found in Vision for her to come into existence. That means Distant Shores is either a natural born pony of Vision's world, only adopted by Sweetie Belle, or there may be more contracts waiting in the wings. Either way, I severely doubt this is the last time we'll see Vision Twilight.

[Nyerguds]

whooof. I didn't read the Sweetie Chronicles, but that was some really deep stuff

[ghostcyclone02]

"Poor thing held so much resentment for Sweetie… she wasn't ready to understand. I'm not sure she ever will." Rarity sighed. "She might have been a fetch, but she was as wholesome as any pony. I thought until now we had gotten the original out."

YAY THE FETCH IS OKAY! I hope she got therapy

[Greatazuredragon]

Amazing chapter, great work.
And the idea that Sunset is slwoly becoming the isekai bar is a very interesting one.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

A very Doctor moment. Waltzes right in and said, this is going to happen. no according to the LAW I have every right, it is happening.

I hope for the best.

[LightningBark]

Oh, this hurt and cleansed me at the same time. Isekai and Chronicle understand each other in a way few others do. Seeing Chronicle so resolute was perfect, and Isekai's motherly rage was beautiful. That verbal smackdown of Lucilight was so cathartic.