This story is a sequel to No Heroes: Life of Pie
A brief visit to an extra-dimensional bar helps Verity Fine Crime make an important decision.
A warm farewell to some beloved characters and an AU I am going to miss. And yes, I am considering this canon to the franchise. That said, I think (and hope) that newcomers will be able to grasp what's going on without having read everything that came before... although the effect might not be as strong without that context.
A collaboration with Wanderer D and crossover with his Sunset's Isekai anthology. My thanks to WD for letting me use the Isekai for this story.
This story is meant to be read together with the appropriate chapter of Sunset's Isekai. The second chapter links directly to it for ease of reading.
The No Heroes Series
Chronological from Top to Bottom:
Shadow Pony
Reddux the Tyrant
No Heroes Part I - The Roster
No Heroes Part II - The Journey Home
Lightning's Bolt
No Heroes Part III - For Dreams
No Heroes Part IV - The Crystal Empress
No Heroes: Beyond the Everfree
No Heroes: Life of Pie
No Heroes: Hot Chocolate at the Isekai
To My Uncle
But a farewell is goodbye, but not forever.
Are you truly gonna stop making these or no? I ask because when you put Isekai and MLP together, you get something you don't normally see in fanfiction, and I like that type of stuff.
At first I thought this was gonna be a No More Heroes crossover, but I guess I misread the title.
I just came here from Sunset's Isekai, and I have to admit this is a really good read.
Commander Twilight: Who dares call my favorite bar a mere coffee shop!?
Another Isekai crossover? Oh boy, interesting, I suspect this is going to have the feels.
I'm early on in No Heroes Part 3 right now though, catching up is going to take a while longer, blargle.
10822486
I doubt anyone from No Heroes will visit the Isekai again. At least not in a literary format; what they do in their own time is their business.
There's always the possibility of another No Heroes short. By now I'm aware of myself enough to know better than to say "never".
10822519
You're nowhere near the first person to make that mistake.
10822530
In Fine's defense, all he saw was some hot chocolates being advertised, so...
10822575
Let's just hope it's worth the wait!
Dammit, this had me tearing up. Fine and Pinkie's happy ending was a long time coming, and you two executed it almost flawlessly. Fine himself has arguably saved the world more times than Twilight, so he's more than earned his rest. The stallion gave up his knife and everything.
*me, finding one of these stories for the first time*
"This is a sequel."
"Okay."
"This is a sequel."
"Okay."
"This is a sequel."
"Okay."
"This is a sequel."
"...Okay."
"This is a sequel."
"Goodness."
"This is a sequel."
"Gracious."
"This is part 4."
"Holy shit." *clicks ahead to part 1*
"This is a sequel."
"What?"
"This is a sequel."
"Holy crap!"
*finally finds the very first one*
"FINALLY! Do I even want to bother getting started at this point though!?"
XD
Yeah. I came here from Sunset's Isekai. So I guess I'll put the first one in my queue. I do understand A Soul In Limbo's frustration, but hey I have a new series to follow. Of course that means delaying reading this story, though. Sorry about that.
10823844
10823861
Hah! Yeah, there's a lot of material. And then if you keep digging you'll discover... that it's only one of three timelines in the same AU. Yeeeah. You can probably see why this being declared the end means something.
Be gentle with the "Part I through Part IV" ones. I was young and ignorant.
Oh gosh, I'm about in tears over here. But they're happy, joyful tears.
Pinkie and Fine have been at the very heart of much of this AU, and despite all the trials and pain they've been through, Paul, you've always treated them with a kind of reverence I have rarely seen from any author in any story 'verse. Seeing this AU come to a kind of closure in this way is so befitting both of their characters: Unconventional, full of unexpected twists and turns, and so perfectly on-brand for both of them. Seeing them ride off into the sunset, not in the cliche way but in the Fine and Pinkie way, was a masterstroke of writing. Utterly perfect in its small, imperceptible to anyone else - imperfections. Just like Pinkie and Fine.
Bravo, Paul, on a job done extremely, extremely well done!
I did read the three first installments, I believe. It's been so long ago, I remember when we actually got a Twilicorn tag at the end of season three. I didn't even have an account back then, boy it was confusing.
This was a heartfelt, adorable and que romantic send off. Congratulations for sticking up to it, few stories get the closure they deserve
What an incredible send-off mate. I loved it. Thank you for bringing us on this adventure.
See you later, Shadow Pony.
I’ve been following this story since Part 1, before I had an account, glad to see that another, also excellent, story was able to make you bring this very long one to a final conclusion.
Well I was right about the feels.
Admittedly I spoiled things a bit for myself when this was first posted with the handful of lines that I saw before stopping. It was enough to see that Pinkie Pie was involved in some way with Fine Crime, strongly suggesting that the fling with Fluttershy wasn't going to pan out after all. Looking back on it all, it's apparent how Fine's interest in Fluttershy wasn't ever really romance, it was just what he thought had to be romance since he didn't know any better. It wasn't until he started to bond with Pinkie Pie that he truly understood what it meant to be in a relationship with someone, and Pinkie is actually compatible with him where Fluttershy was merely willing to tolerate him for the sake of his betterment.
The reveal of the timeskip was a big shocker. There's something intensely powerful about Pinkie Pie simply out-and-out saying "I'm thirty-five now" and then going on about how she wants to have kids. The age and exhaustion which Fine and to a lesser extent Pinkie are burdened with are present all throughout this story. I don't know if it was purposeful or not but I was getting strong The Last Problem vibes, and I don't think I could come up with a more appropriate way to tie a neat little bow on the No Heroes saga.
Only this time it's offscreen alicorn Octavia who's having to worry about outliving all her friends.We've already seen Fine Crime's journey of coming to terms with who he is and learning what he needs to be a fully functioning person, now we get to see the ultimate conclusion of his life's work before he settles for becoming an ordinary pony. Relatively speaking. This approach also still handily leaves the door open for more content, should the need ever arise--not only in the form of other adventures which might have taken place before this finale, but also raising the questions of what might come after Fine's retirement and marriage.Also whatever might be going on with Sunset Shimmer and the EqG world in this canon, considering I assume the events of the first EqG movie didn't happen.
I don't really have too much to say about Fine Crime and Pinkie Pie and their relationship that I didn't already say in regard to Life of Pie or prior stories. The amount of time that they've spent together is shown abundantly clearly here; Fine is fully capable of swinging with the punches of Pinkie's Pinkieness, Pinkie herself has gotten to be a little more mellow, perhaps largely because of the passage of time, but I think now that she's come to terms with her childhood trauma she no longer needs to be quite as over-the-top as she once was. In addition to "Fine's scars," there's now also "Fine's mane" which he was able to tease out of her--I love the detail of the streak of grey which, in typical Pinkie fashion, seems capable of changing position at random. Perhaps my only nitpick is that I almost find it a little hard to believe they didn't already get married long before this point, but I suppose as is usual for Fine Crime the stopping point isn't how much he loves Pinkie Pie as much as fretting over his obligations as Mane Archon. We don't know exactly what might have happened between Life of Pie and now, but who knows what other crises needed to be addressed during that timeframe, and Fine would never be able to accept that it would be okay for him to give up on his position, no matter how much it might get to be less and less appealing over time. It makes sense that Fine Crime would have to outgrow his marriage to his job before he could actually have a marriage with another pony.
I feel bad that I don't have very much in particular to say regarding the actual crossover that's going on. Other than the BPH crossover chapter, I haven't read any of Sunset's Isekai, so I don't have a lot of frame of reference for what this version of Sunset Shimmer is like or anything beyond the general premise of the bar. It does feel like an appropriate means of getting Fine Crime to this point, with how much he refuses to give himself a break it does seem like the only way to force him to take a step back and look at the scope of his life would be to completely take him out of the normal flow of space-time and sit him down with someone world-weary enough to help him sort out his thoughts. Leaving behind Sugarcube's dagger--his primary weapon of choice as well as a representation of his legacy as a Bloodmane--is a fitting way for him to put an end to his career as an Archon.
Obviously I haven't been with this series for too long, only a scant few months, nothing compared to those who have been following since its inception. My feelings about Fine Crime were a bit rocky early on, but in the time since he's really grown on me. I'm sad to see him and his companions go, but even if this really is to be the last we ever see of them, they all had a great run, I feel confident that they all ended up in a far better place than they were when they started, and that's the most any of them could ask for.
10905814
Heh. I was starting to think nobody noticed this little quirk.
Pleased as always by the commentary, and this time I don't have much to add save that no inspiration from The Last Problem occurred. Thanks for enduring the early bits to get this far!