She has been on Earth for a long time, she even died to save humans once. Rose Quartz gave her a second chance to live and now she is in the biggest adventure of her life; becoming a Crystal Gem helping raise Steven and mostly having fun.
60 years ago Sunset Shimmer went through the mirror connecting Equestria with the Human world, but instead of arriving at Canterlot the mirror had other ideas. Sunset found herself stranded in a little place called Beach City, a place that is being protected by a quartet of space rocks that can take human form.
Meeting Rose Quartz and the rest changed her life, turning Sunset from a moody and angry teenager to a caring, witty and a-little-too-much-ego kind of girl, but those idyllic days couldn't extend forever, because when a corrupted gem attacked the city and she was heavily injured saving human beings, Sunset turned into something no gem had seen before.
That was so long ago.
Now Sunset is Spinel, a hybrid that has a gem instead of a heart and whose powers are still a mystery to the surviving Crystal Gems.
This is her story.
Of how she became a Crystal Gem.
Of how she helped raise little Steven.
Of how she continues saving the Earth while making friends in Canterlot.
The blue endless landscape alongside the air smelling of salt brought back dozens of memories to her mind, some of them powerful enough to make her cry, the vast majority fighting the sadness that the redhead felt after coming back home and it also brought the nostalgia due to places she had visited countless times on the small city. The way the sand crumbled at her footsteps, the distant sound of the town alongside the multitude of old friends and acquaintances’ voices almost made her turn around to say hello and check on things after her time out of town. But she was here for something specific, something she should have done but was nervous about.
“This is so exciting! I have never been in this kind of situation! I mean, it is well researched the effects an upbringing of an alien species by ponies could do to them but I have never had direct information about the reverse scenario!”
“I heard the first time princess.” The reason was right at her side talking a mile a minute. All the time the two had sepdn time together was an incessant regurgitation of records and information which Sunset was not interested in knowing. The only thing Sunset wanted to think about was her imminent return back home and to the house/temple that saw her change from the self-absorbed moody little girl that she had been into the sarcastic, witty and slightly egocentric older woman that she was now.
It hurt to think about home; not the dimension where she was born, oh no, home was the little wood house that had been built on top of the gigantic Buddhist style statue carved out of the mountain. The last time she had been there was too long for her, she remembered how much her decision to go out into the world and get her diploma meant for the youngest member of the house, the idea that her big sister was leaving and probably won’t return. Well, he was still a kid when she left almost 3 years ago but now, here she was, walking the old beach road she took almost every day when she came back from eating a pizza or playing some games with her little tyke of a brother.
"I'm sorry, but this is somethng that has never happened before, to ge tin contact with another race! Especifically one from out of space and completely different from ponykind!"
“I get it, I get it, no need to say it a hundred times princess.” Sunset said masking her worry with her usual annoyed voice that she used so many times when dealing with people like Pinkie or Amethyst.
“Sorry, I guess I am just a little too excited about this.”
“You don’t say… sorry, I tend to get sarcastic.”
“No problem, Celestia told me that you used to be a little acerbic, said it was one of the reasons she brought you with her to court.” Sunset smiled at that, those were fun days.
“I’m surprised Princess Celestia told you stuff like that.”
“She told me a lot when I decided to accompany you here, she still remembers you fondly Sunset.”
“I don’t know why, I wasn’t exactly the best student she had, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the worst but still-”
“Celestia never forgot you, she even forgave you the moment you arrived at the Crystal Empire.”
“Yeah… I was prepared to fight my way out if she had declared me a traitor or something like that; I guess I was scared for nothing.”
“I think so too, she was so surprised when you told her you worked your way around the time limitation on the portal.”
“Hey, constantly playing around technology that is hundreds or thousands of years ahead of ponykind can help you find a lot of solutions, besides, I thought it was about time for me to come back home… listen, Princess Twilight-”
“Just Twilight please, you don’t have to call me by the title.”
“Humble too, anyway, thank you for coming with me, it means a lot even thought you were taking this trip more as an opportunity for research.” She said making Twilight blush slightly at the embarrassment of her initial outburst after hearing Sunset wanted to come back to the place she was ‘raised’ “and something else, my house is… a little out of the ordinary so don’t get frightened or surprised about what could happen, okay?”
“I’ve seen my share of weird and bizarre things before, I’m pretty sure nothing inside that house can surprise me… AHHHHHHHHH!” just like Sunset had predicted, something completely strange happened just opening the front door. In this case it was a green and black worm the size of a dog with big mandibles leaking acid into the floor that had jumped straight into both Sunset and Twilight. The former did a spin and struck the worm right in the face with a spinning kick sending it flying inside the house again.
“What is going on?” the question seemed to be useless since the three members of the bizarre family were currently engaged in combat with more of those worms, thankfully after another second the thinnest person in the room put a worm on a headlock and noticed both teenagers at the door.
“Oh, Spinel! You arrived! Sorry that we couldn’t go and meet you when you arrived but we had a little bit of a situation here.” Pearl said calmly before breaking the neck of the worm making it disappear.
“Hey bacon head! Who’s the girl? Your new girlfriend?” It was a little obvious who said those words. The short gem was currently running after another worm with a whip on her hand. For some reason it looked beyond comical for Sunset.
“Hey short stuff! Nah, she is just staying for a while.” Sunset said stepping on a worm, it seemed that the couple of years she had been away didn’t change a thing, she got back in the routine of bickering and fighting like before. For her part Twilight didn’t even notice the slight teasing on the part of Amethyst and was busy trying to write everything that was happening around the living room “So, I will repeat once again, what’s going on?” The tallest member of the family simply backhanded a worm with her usual aplomb before loking directly to the redhead.
“Centipeetles, welcome home Spinel.” The usually stoic dark skinned woman smiled at Sunset making her feel at ease, the so called centipeetles non withstanding. At that moment a young boy appeared from outside carrying on his back a bizarre mini fridge with a mascot drawing on it that Sunset remembered as the mascot for Cookie Cat.
“Hey guys, I’m home. Wait a minute, Spinel, you’re back!” the boy was about to launch himself into Sunset before noticing the dangerous creatures walking everywhere in the room “whoa, what are those?”
“Apparently, centipeetles.” Sunset said before a metal boot appeared around Sunset’s leg helping her crush the worm “and they don’t have gems, bigger worm out there?”
“Hello Steven, we wanted to get the house free of these things to welcome Spinel back, don’t worry, we will get rid of them.”
“Do you have to? They are cute.”
“Does he really find them cute? I mean, Fluttershy would probably love to get a couple of them but I don’t think anyone outside of Discord would enjoy their company.”
“Meh, this is Steven we are talking about Twilight, if he could have had the chance he would have found a way to befriend Discord before Fluttershy.”
“Anyway, we will get rid of that thing soon, don’t worry Steven.”
“Do you think I can help you with that?”
“Oh Steven, you know you are too young for that yet, you can leave saving the world to us.”
“Mommy Pearl is right, leave the world saving business to them, they have enough experience on that front.” Sunset said going back to her old joke.
“Although I am sure Spinel can help us hunt the centipeetle down.” Pearl said looking at Sunset with half lidded eyes in her patented 'mom is very dissapointed in you' glare.
“Oh come on, I just came back and you already want me to do that? Is this for the mommy Pearl thingy?”
“Of course not, I just think that it will be good for you to get some exercise in gem hunting, we don’t know how rusty you are right now.”
“Yes, it was the mommy Pearl thingy.” Sunset said to Amethyst making the short gem laugh at her misfortune. Meanwhile, Twilight found herself entranced with the interactions of the family members, it seemed that those three years of studying outside the city didn’t change the way they talked with each other; they even had their own inside jokes, it was fascinating.
“Hey, shoo, shoo, out of the fridge.” Steven waved at one of the last centipeetles while this one was trying to eat everything inside the fridge, Garnet took care of it and nobody found it weird to see a flying centipeetle before poofing out of existence “hey, no way, it can’t be!”
“What is it Steven?” Sunset asked her little brother openly curious about his reaction to what was in the freezer.
“These are all Cookie Cats! I thought they had been discontinued!”
“Wait, what? They discontinued Cookie Cats? But you love those things.”
“I know, guess there won’t be Sunday Cookie Cats anymore.” Steve said a little sad at what had become a weekly tradition with the taller girl, after all the time they had spent apart they won’t be able to go out every Sunday to buy each a Cookie Cat to eat in front of the beach.
“Is alright kiddo, we can always do something else, maybe even Twilight will like to help us.” she said finally bringing the seemingly normal teenager into the talk.
“Wait, me? I don’t even know this town.”
“Who is she?” Steven asked momentarily forgetting the cold snack on his hands.
“Sunset’s new girlfriend.” Amethyst said before receiving a slap on the back of the head courtesy of Sunset.
“She is a friend that will stay around for a couple of days, don’t worry Steven, go ahead and eat the Cookie Cat.”
“Alright.” Steven was easily distracted sometimes but when it came to Cookie Cats nothing was more important, so after taking a deep breath he was ready for his rendition of the frozen treat theme.
“Steven… you know how much I hate that stupid song.” Sunset said with her arms crossed and a slightly annoyed face on her.
“Oh right, sorry I forgot.” he simply said before taking a huge bite out of the Cookie Cat, his blissful face showed how good it tasted before a pink glow took everyone by surprise.
“Wait… is that your gem?” Sunset was more than a little surprised; last time she was here Steven wasn’t even capable of getting a spark out of his gem.
“Quick, is glowing! How do I summon my weapon? Oh! Is fading!”
“Calm down Steven, breathe, don’t force it.” it was obvious that he was doing everything he could to do exactly the contrary of what Pearl just said.
“Yeah, and try not to poop yourself.” Sunset was this close to slap Amethyst once again.
“Please,” but alas, the glow vanished and everything was back to normal “I was so close this time; can one of you just explain to me how to summon a weapon?” Pearls’ hand immediately went up.
“I’ll go first.” she said before grabbing Steven and basically drag him in the direction of their special rooms, leaving behind Twilight and Sunset after Amethyst and Garnet went their own ways.
“What did he mean by summoning a weapon?”
“Is basically a special ability the girls have, it has to do with the gem they all have in their bodies.”
“That sounds really interesting, do you think they'll mind if I also study about it?”
“I think they won’t, heck, Amethyst will love to have someone new to show off her abilities.”
“Do you think Steven will learn?”
“From this bunch? Are you crazy? He will only end more confused, then he will come to me and I will finally explain it in a way he can understand, believe me, things like this have happened before.”
“If you say so,” Twilight said finally putting her book aside, she would have more chances to research all the interesting things that had happened today “so, why did they call you Spinel?”
“Well, I think you have notice the naming pattern between the girls of the family, so Rose Quartz -you know, Steven’s mom, I told you and Celestia about her- decided that after becoming part of her family I needed a name to represent the change. Also, don’t worry, I’ll try to explain everything crazy around here, but I’ll try to do that alongside Steven. Believe me, some of the stuff you probably wouldn’t believe it if it weren’t because we are both dimensional travelers. Don’t worry Twilight, why don’t you rest? I can assure the rest of the day will be very tiring.” Sunset said speaking on experience, after all, every day was an adventure when it came to the Crystal Gems.
Seeing Twilight walk away to check the rest of the house Sunset finally let out a sigh, it felt wrong to lie to Twilight, especially about the name, but she knew she wasn’t quite ready to explain the truth to Twilight, some secrets were harder to say, she thought watching her reflection on the fridge, she then pulled down the front of her shirt, watching the red jewel that had grown on her skin exactly on top of where her heart should be.
With one last sigh, Sunset turned around, fixed her shirt and walked in a random direction, she was sure that with all this stress she was in need of a drink, maybe even a snack. It was time to check all the changes to the house, maybe even say hi to Greg.
The sound of waves crashing against the shore and the permanent smell of salt on the air made Sunset return to days where the only thing she had to worry about was what she would have for lunch. Back when the only thing she needed in her to feel perfectly fine was the hand of a pink haired woman on her shoulder. Back then it was the only thing Sunset needed to know that the future was as bright as Rose Quartz's smile.
Sunset sighed at the memories assaulting her as she continued to look at the shore and the way it never changed. The sea was unchanging as the other members of her family. Or at least that was what she once thought, before Rose Quartz had the brilliant idea of creating new life. It had ended so well for everyone living on the temple in front of the sea.
The redhead knew that returning home was a gamble after bottling up so many of her feelings. It was a volatile mixture of good and bad memories conglomerating themselves on her head that left a sour sweet flavor on her mouth. It was the mixture of every good memory she had of her family and of Steven growing up -his first steps, his first words, how much he enjoyed taking a bath and how much he loved to throw himself into mud before those same baths- that Sunset didn't even need to take the photo albums that she personally compiled so long ago from the bookcase. Every memory was inserted on her mind in a way in which she would never forget those moments, not the people on them or the situations. But on the other side of the coin she also remembered every bad moment she had in the temple.
She remembered the last time she gazed upon those star filled eyes and how much it hurt to say goodbye. All the moments where she had to held Pearl those first few years in which the thin gem took a look at the portrait of Rose Quartz, how she crumbled down to her knees and began to bawl her eyes out. Of how many times Amethyst took a hold of her while she was faking sleep just so she wouldn't be alone. Of the many talks that she had with Garnet -and even Ruby and Sapphire on occasion- and how in the end the fusion and the lost girl ended up being the pillars of the Crystal Gems. Sunset snorted at the memory, she herself one of the leaders of the Crystal Gems, a lost girl with no home or idea of what she was suddenly taking the reins of a dysfunctional family.
It took everyone so long to adapt to a world without Rose Quartz in it, so much that the first missions they had ended up being complete failures. Every single one of those missions ended with Pearl and Amethyst screaming at each other. It was so bad that Sunset had forced both gems to hold Steven and show them one more reason to protect the world, and who would have thought? It had worked so well that it had surprised Sunset, but she was sure Garnet had seen that coming -damn Future Vision- and simply gave her usual thumbs up.
Even now her heart ached for the loss of the woman she had grown up to call mother, but now she felt that same longing had become bittersweet and that maybe one day she will gaze into those star filled eyes once more, hopefully not soon. In the meantime, she will keep her eyes on her very crazy and strange family and will keep on protecting it to the end. And at the end she still ran away, just like she did from Equestria, all because she wanted Earth education and a degree. Even to this day she wondered if she had taken the right choice by taking that path, of changing the day to day gem hunting for the halls of Canterlot High. The redhead wondered if Rose Quartz felt disappointed for leaving the city.
Sure, it was only three years, but still felt as if she had run away from the pressure of constantly fighting and the stress of thinking about Equestria after living for so long in Earth. In the end, she caved and finally took the last step into opening the portal alongside her friends back in Canterlot High and take the plunge onto the last part of her old life, and lo and behold, first person she had met was none other than her ‘almost’ cousin Mi Amore Cadenza.
After several misunderstandings -and proof that her gem could work in another dimension- the worst was over and Sunset decided to go back home at last. The last surprise came with the decision of the newest princess -and boy, did that sentence hurt- asking Sunset to explore and research her new home. Sunset may have said no but just one look at those eyes full of wonder and excitement, Sunset felt like every time Steven used those same eyes on her. In the end she said yes and now she was back on her turf. Back at Beach City with its old town feeling and calm harbor that always helped Sunset relax.
The redhead had already taken a tour around several stores, just like The Big Donut shop in which she found Lars and Sadie working there now. Although she wasn’t against sugar and everything frosty like Pearl who basically counted every calorie that Steven ingested -she was sure that haven’t changed since she left- Sunset herself was more in favor of the salty snack variety and there was nothing like a good cheese ball while watching the waves and the beautiful sky. So it was at this point were both Steven and Twilight found her, sitting down at a conjured chair with her feet on the railing at the harbor.
“So let me guess; Pearl gave you the whole ‘Petal Dance’ back at her room?” the redhead said throwing another cheese ball into the air before munching on it when it came down.
“Yep.”
“And Amethyst was ‘oh you don’t need to practice’ and simply summoned her whip?”
“Yep.”
“And you also got the whole, ‘gather the power of the universe’ thingy from Garnet?”
“Yep.” The completely lost eyes of the chubby little boy made Sunset sigh knowing exactly how his mind had simply exploded trying to comprehend all the crazy stuff from the rest of their family. Looking at his side was the princess trying to write with her mouth as if she were an Earth Pony, although thinking about it, it probably was logical since she didn’t know how to write like a human.
“Well, I want you to forget everything that they told you”
“Done.” He said without even a second of delay making Sunset laugh at how similar he had acted to her own experience trying to summon her weapon.
“It was quite an experience isn’t it Steven?”
“It reminded me of how Princess Celestia used to guide me when I was learning how to control my own magic… although I’m pretty sure she also did that with you.” The princess said immediately blushing at the small faux-pas she had committed but Sunset simply smiled at the other girl.
“Wait, is she also a unicorn?”
“Yes Steven, she comes from my home dimension.”
“That is so cool! Can she transform like you?”
“Transform?”
“No Steven, she is a regular human being in here.” Sunset said placing her cheese balls’ container on Twilight hands before stretching her arms ready to show Steven her own weapon “Steven, what you have to understand is that every gem is different, we all have different ideas and tastes, that affects the way we look at the world around us and also our own abilities,” she said taking off her black leather jacket, she loved the thing and didn’t want to see it transform, after all, all of her clothes except the jacket were gem constructs “Our weapons and abilities are tied to what we feel, to what we want, what makes us… well, US, that’s why what they told you is right, that’s how they summon their weapons.”
“Ohhh, so that’s why I couldn’t summon my weapon like that, I had to do it my own way… but, how do you summon your own weapon?” She knew he was going to ask her that, cute little boy he was, just as curious as her.
“Let me show you” Sunset said extending her arms at her sides and slowly moving them up and down as if a slow wave traveled through her body, her hips moving along the rhythm in her head. Soon she was moving her feet and hands in a dance that seemed to be contagious by how Steven was nodding his head in rhythm with her. And just like that her mini skirt and spaghetti strap blouse changed to a full body black, red and yellow leotard with several stars on her chest as if they were moving at high speed through space.
The leotard went up to her hands completely encasing every finger except the middle and index. A choker necklace with a yellow star appeared around her neck to connect with the leotard as it left her shoulders and neck exposed and in top of them a black and neon red biker jacket with Sunset’s cutiemark stamped on the back. But the most striking thing were the thigh high metal boots that seemed to have made of metal plaques and moved as if they were leather instead of metal “I haven’t danced in a while but still got it.” Sunset said fixing the collar of her jacket as Steven grinned with the usual stars appearing on his eyes. At his side, Princess Twilight stood with her mouth open and her face completely burgundy due to her skin being naturally purple. Yeah, she still got it.
Dancing seemed to have been injected into her DNA now with the amount of happiness and peace that the action gave to Sunset. The amount of times Sunset lost herself to the music and let her body move on its own accord, simply following the rhythm inside her heart was very well known around Canterlot High. Pinkie simply loved when Sunset ‘owned’ the dance floor, at least according to the cotton candy haired girl. Even Rainbow Dash was left on the dust time and time again on their weekly ‘dance offs’ and that was one of the most athletic gifted girls on the city. Rainbow simply didn’t know when to give up, although Sunset had to give it to her; she looked less like a chicken doing a weird mating call every time they danced together. Sunset wanted to see how far she could push the girl into accepting to do Tango with her; she just wanted to see how long Rainbow could dance with her before quitting due to embarrassment.
Sunset began to check her own little attire change still amazed every time she did it. The difference in the way the material -or what could be called as material since it was made out of hard light- was clinging to her skin becoming a second layer of protection. It was eye catching, upfront and right in your face, just like Sunset when she was accepted by Rose Quartz and the rest of the family. It felt good to show her Crystal Gem battle mode once again.
The look on Steven’s face told her everything she needed to know; that she had entertained her little brother immensely and that he was a moment away from jumping up and down. It was a sight she had missed, especially after missions and chores. Although, now that she thought about it, Pearl was all ready to send her into another Gem Hunt so maybe she would have to shake some rust since she haven’t had to fight anyone seriously for some time. Having to show Gilda who was boss barely counted considering Sunset was used to fight monsters several times bigger than her.
“So, what do you think?”
“You changed your clothes!” Princess Twilight Sparkle said truly impressed by what Sunset had just done “I’m still quite surprised all the abilities this ‘humans’ can display.”
“Oh no princess, I haven’t been a human in a long time.” Sunset said remembering well the last few moments as a human she had spent and how much that hurt in the end, no matter all the benefits she got from dying that time.
“The jacket and the design is new” Steven said looking at the new jacket as he was wearing Sunset’s old leather jacket, looking both ridiculous and adorable at the same time in Sunset’s opinion.
“Yeah, I was ready for a change; you should have seen how those three looked before they changed their own forms.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, wow, were they all fashion disasters! Especially Amethyst, and don’t let me start with Pearl, do you know she has been using those shorts for decades?!” Just thinking about that made Sunset imagine Rarity fainting at the mere notion of wearing those things. If the teenager ever found her way into beach City she was sure the fashion battle would be one the Crystal gems had no hope of winning.
“How did you do it? I mean, I’m sure those are true clothes but the way you summoned them still eludes me. I saw the other… gems?” Twilight asked referring to the other girls back at the temple and Sunset nodded indicating that she was correct “I saw them get their weapons through the light of the gems lodged on different body parts. But how does it exactly work with you?”
“Oh boy, that’s a rather long story Princess and most of that story you wouldn’t even believe it.” The redhead said feeling quite comfortable in her battle leotard, she then decided to keep the change instead of returning to her school clothes. She wondered how much of an impact she would create appearing like that on school. The possible aneurysm she would give to parents and other adults would be quite entertaining.
“Is she a princess? So that means you are her knight?”
“Oh boy, isn’t that also a rather hard to answer question.” She said in response to Steven’s comment. She loved the boy but the way he looked at the world as if it were a big adventure book simply surprised her every time “tell you what kiddo, I’ll tell you what kind of things I have been doing in Canterlot City today and later on I’ll explain more about my original dimension, okay?”
“I’ll take that deal for now Miss Shimmer.” He said with his eyes closed and chest pumped almost like a businessman closing a deal. In response Sunset messed his head with a hand while grinning at the boy.
“You little rascal, have you been watching Lil’ Butler?”
“Not really, dad and Amethyst like to watch the show together so I don’t want to bother them.” Steven said as the two began to walk in the direction of the temple at the beach, leaving the pony turned human behind.
“What about Pearl and Greg?” She asked her only source of completely trustful answers in Beach City.
“They… are still working on their relationship; at least they started talking to each other.” The redhead knew that it was a huge step considering how bitter Pearl was for years after Rose and the human began to date and ultimately marry each other. Sunset had tried to help both in their recovery after losing such an important part of their lives but it was so hard sometimes.
“That’s nice, I just wish Pearl would finally get past her jealousy, is not healthy. Also, Princess, you can stop looking at my flank” Sunset said receiving only a squeak of embarrassment from the other girl. The redhead grinned from ear to ear knowing exactly the kind of effect she had in others, especially using such tight battle leotard.
Of course, things weren’t perfect as Sunset should have remembered, knowing that a perfect day was impossible back home as the three watched a huge centipede -or better said Centipeetle- erupt form the sand and began climbing the face of the mountain temple.
“I should have known” Sunset simply said watching the trio of Crystal Gems jump out of the house and prepare themselves to fight the Centipeetle. But just as they began to dodge the acid vomit of the huge monster, it turned its head in Sunset and Twilight’s direction. At least the redhead was thankful that Steven had listened to her and ran inside the house. He may have realized what it took to summon gem weapons but he was not ready yet for a fight like this “well, this isn’t good, look out princess!” Sunset could only say to the young girl as an acid torrent was poured in their direction. It seems that the girl was so focused on writing about the encounter that she hasn’t left Sunset’s side so the redhead had to take her on her arms before kneeling on the sand, dragging a scared looking teenager with her.
Instead of turning into a puddle on the sand, a section of her left boot detached as a small light began to create a complete circle in front of them. When the acid shot crashed against the circle Twilight quickly understood that Sunset had created a light shield in front of them.
“Well, nothing like an actual battle to remove all the rust from my system. Eat this you overgrown bug!” Sunset screamed as she began to do a middle kick with her right leg, just at that moment another section of the boot separated as a long chain made out of red metal shot out and with the momentum of the kick it impacted against the Centipeetle’s head stunning it for a second.
“Quick, now that Spinel gave us a chance!” Garnet said as the four Crystal Gems jumped and in a second the huge Centipeetle ceased to exist leaving only a small gem in its place. All in all, a very normal day in Beach City.
Everything was dark at the beginning. An endless void of black ink that took everything on its path and hid it in the deepest corner of Sunset’s mind and let her float among the dark sea she was in now. No ideas or fears, no recriminations or guilt that could weight her down or make her doubt her place on her new home.
It was that last sentence that made Sunset slightly move in reaction. She had a home, she was sure of that. But it wasn’t Canterlot or even Equestria, there was something else out there that she called home, but what was it? She was sure there was a place for her, or was that also a lie? A dream that she constructed in her mind to keep herself sane? A simple lie she told herself to survive the cold of the night? She was exiled from Canterlot; at least she knew that much, but where was home now?
Sunset tried to bring the memories back but the darkness didn’t want to give up, as if she was its prisoner and any thought of escaping was forbidden. If there was one thing Sunset was not was a pony that followed the rules so she fought back with every ounce of energy she had to remember the place she called home, and there it was. The huge temple carved at the side of a mountain just in front of the sea.
She could almost smell the sea breeze with its saltiness that reinvigorated Sunset every time she took a walk along the shore, then she remembered where she was, where her home was. Sunset finally opened her eyes and took a long breathe coming back to the real world with no idea what she was doing at the beach and why everything hurting on her body.
“Thank goodness you are awake,” the soft and melodic voice of the woman at her left took Sunset from her ruminations. She was also very impressed that she hadn’t seen Rose Quartz at her side, the woman was kind of hard to ‘not’ see considering the size and girth she had, not to mention the amount of hair that Rose Quartz had.
“What-” Sunset tried to talk but her throat felt parched and even moving her jaw was painful for some reason. The teenager tried to make a fist just to see how much energy she had but her movements were lethargic for some reason “what just happened?”
“Please, don’t try to move too much, I may not know all that much about human biology but even I know that you should rest,” the usually calm and collected woman said with real worry on her voice which in turn made Sunset worry. Something must have been very serious for the leader of the Crystal Gems to react that way and Sunset groaned knowing that it must have been something related to her. Just her luck.
“Rose, tell me I didn’t lose a leg or something like that,” Sunset said half seriously knowing that anything could happen at Beach City, crazy stuff was part of its appeal.
“Well, no, you didn’t lose a leg,” Rose answered back making Sunset feel a little less worried, still not to the point of being perfectly fine but it was better “you lose something else?”
“Please don’t say that I lost my dignity, that is usually Amethyst’s job,” Sunset tried to joke but it didn’t make Rose giggle like every time she tried humor in a situation. This was definitely not a good thing in the opinion of Sunset who have never seen Rose this worried before, although it was true that she had met the quartet of crazy aliens just a year ago so she lacked knowledge about space rocks.
“It was a little worse than that,” another voice told Sunset as a tall dark skinned woman with an afro walked in their direction. If Garnet was the one saying that then it TRULY was bad. Making an effort to see how bad the damage was Sunset tried to rise up but her body was still too tired for some reason and it took longer than she wanted to even move. After a couple tries she finally saw something that left her feeling even worst, because her favorite shirt -she only had four since she arrived at this dimension- had a hole on it that made her blink several times in surprise.
The position of the hole was what made Sunset whimper in fear and worry since it was directly where her heart was… or used to be, Sunset had no idea of what had happened.
“Rose… what's going on?” She asked to the giant woman in a voice that made Rose Quartz want to hug the young girl in front of her until everything was alright, but she knew she had to be sincere and couldn’t cuddle her no matter how much she wanted. Maybe later tonight.
“There was a… monster attack, it was very fast and you were hurt.”
“Hurt how? I don’t even remember what just happened! Besides, I’m not stupid enough to get in the way of one of your fights!” Sunset almost screamed but she quickly regretted that action as the world began to spin around her. Garnet -thankfully- helped Sunset by letting her lean on her which made the nausea disappear quickly.
“It wasn’t your fault, you were hurt being a hero,” Sunset groaned once again at the usage of one of her forbidden words.
“Oh, don’t use that word, you are gonna make me barf.”
“Please don’t,” the fusion helping her said making Sunset feel a little light thanks to their mutual joking. It was a great antidepressant after all.
“So what else? I know I won’t like the ending anyway,” the redhead said preparing herself mentally for the dark news.
“There were a couple of people around the harbor and they were going to be attacked by the gem monster out of control. Its gem was cracked and was acting recklessly.”
“And? Rose, don’t make the story longer than necessary.”
“It pierced you with its tail,” Rose said with tears on her eyes remembering that horrible moment when the appendage went through Sunset’s body. It had been a scene that Rose would not forget any day soon. Just remembering that she had lost the redhead for a moment filled her with sadness so deep that even she was surprised. Sunset had become a part of their little family so quickly that made Rose be thankful that she had started the rebellion so long ago, just so she could meet people like Sunset, who even thought had a lot of baggage, it was nothing compared to the rest of the Crystal Gems.
“Wait… what? You mean-” Sunset tried to finish the sentence but she had problems trying to think what it meant. Thankfully Garnet finished for her.
“That’s right; it pierced your heart, basically obliterating it,” Garnet never pulled her punches and this time was not the moment to break her consistency. Meanwhile, Sunset simply whimpered just thinking about the repercussions… and most importantly, HOW IN THE WORLD WAS SHE EVEN ALIVE THEN?!
Looking down at the hole in her shirt she also saw something gleaming with the moonlight and had to blink several times to focus her eyes on the small object currently growing around her skin.
“Did you… heal me with your tears?” Sunset had seen it two times, both having to do with Amethyst and her reckless behavior but with a single tear her gem was good as new, so maybe that’s what the tall woman had did? Looking at her still somber mother-figure Sunset knew that it was even worst what happened.
“Sunset... Rose’s ability only works on gems; there is no way for any of us to heal an organic being like you,” Garnet told the redhead making her even more worried about what just happened.
“Then what just happened?”
“The gem monster… went back into its gem when it attacked you. The harbor broke down and both of you felt into the water. Garnet and I found you alongside the gem of the monster; sadly it broke apart after falling into the water. When we took you out we found out something incredible,” Rose said regaining her smile “one of the shards of the gem touched your skin and began to heal itself with its help.”
“Wait, what? Hold on a moment, are you telling me that I got healed thanks to a shard? From one of the corrupted gems? How is that even possible?! Ugh, I don’t feel fine,” Sunset said visible exhausted by her latest outburst.
“Is okay Sunset, we might not know what it means now but I can promise you that we will find the answer all together,” Rose said giving her million watt smile, the one that made Sunset feel happy and at peace.
“So that means that the Grinch just got herself a heart?” Sunset joked making the fusion currently helping her up smile too.
“That’s right, and I'm sure that it will grow three times its size,” The dark skinned woman said joking alongside Sunset, happy that she didn’t have to say goodbye to someone she had grown close to so soon. The three then began to walk in the direction of the temple –although Sunset was more half dragged- before Sunset was engulfed by two different gems. Amethyst was clinging to her waist in a second while Pearl was more controlled; the redhead put her arms around the other two gems while all of them ignored the quiet sniffing from Pearl.
Once Pearl and Amethyst helped Sunset back into the temple to rest after being a hero, Garnet took Rose Quartz aside since she was curious about something.
“The shard growing on Sunset’s chest is not the same from the cracked gem,” the three eyed gem said while Rose sighed once more, knowing well that she could not keep Garnet in the dark, sometimes Future Vision was a pain.
“It isn’t, her body was using the shard to heal itself.”
“Then what shard did you use?”
“One that could be the difference between extinction for Earth and change for Homeworld.”
“Homeworld? Rose, what are you planning?”
“For now just helping Sunset grow and truly find herself on this world. Something tells me that the shard will grow beyond that small size.”
“Do you mean… Sunset will become a hybrid?”
“What does your vision tell you?”
“Absolutely nothing; I cannot see Sunset with my Vision, maybe because she is from another universe. Is strangely comforting spending time with her, there is no noise in my head when I focus on her.”
“Is quite possible, even after all the time traveling through space gems never really thought about the possibility of other universes. So what do you think? Would it be quartz?”
“Sunset’s gem? No, I think it would have a spinel structure, so Spinel maybe?” Either way, Sunset’s future changed in one heroic act. And like that, our favorite redhead began her road to becoming a fully-fledged Crystal Gem.
Sunset was sure that the hardest part of leaving home -for second time now- was saying goodbye, it had happened before after all so she had some idea of what it meant. Although she should have seen coming what ended up happening.
It was pretty normal for the Crystal Gems to work on the clean up after a corrupted gem attacked the city, well, more like it was Sunset’s job to do that considering that none of them –excepting Steven- even dignified themselves with that job. Garnet was not someone who would help in post gem hunting cleaning because she was too cool for things like that, while Amethyst because she was… Amethyst and there was no way in Tartarus Sunset would trust Amethyst with something like cleaning. Pearl would have helped considering how much the thin gem loved cleaning and doing chores, but sadly Pearl didn’t have a good opinion of humans no matter what Sunset did, so there was little to no chance of getting help from her.
So with an arduous job ahead of her Sunset began to take the broken pieces of rocks and the like, later on she would have to call several masons to fix the damage on the stone hand half buried in the sand. With all the jobs the guys did for Sunset and the Crystal Gems -alongside carpenters and a whole construction crew- she had them on speed-dial for events like these.
Princess Twilight stood gawking at Sunset work, being completely blown away at the ease in which the redheaded woman grabbed a piece of granite half her size and which was probably several tons in weight. Sunset didn’t even grunt when she took it on her hands and began to walk as if it was only a hollow prop. Twilight was no stranger to acts of strength; she had seen both Big Mac and Applejack do some ridiculous stuff back in Ponyville, but that paled out in comparison to what Sunset was doing.
“And done, I swear, things like this never get easier, maybe I should start considering joining the others in Gem Hunting so I can get some battle practice again.” Sunset said dusting her hands before turning around to look at her guest. She also realized that although the long haired princess had been capable of getting her data, she didn’t have much of a chance to get to know the Earth and the humans that inhabited it. So far she had only met the rest of her family and gotten herself into a dangerous situation -although considering she was now an Alicorn Princess, maybe she was used to the last one-, maybe she could do something for her before going back to Canterlot? “Hey Princess, wanna go and grab lunch?” She said finally making Twilight blink and shake her head to focus again.
“Sure, I would like that, and you don’t have to call me Princess.”
“I’ll try, is just that, you know… you have the wings and all.” Sunset answered back, for her it was still a little hard to think about the moment she met the young pony. To know that another had taken her place at Princess Celestia’s side was heart breaking… for half a second. After spending almost half a century alongside the Crystal Gems it made the dream of being an alicorn herself feel small in comparison.
“No, really, please… I don’t know if I deserve the wings.” Twilight's face said it all for Sunset, she knew very well those second guessing moments.
“Why don’t we go for a donut? I know it isn’t Donut Joe’s but believe me, The Big Donut ones are amazing.” she told Twilight making the magenta haired girl shyly smile at the prospect of a sugared treat. A couple of minutes later found both girls inside The Big Donut, finding Sadie behind the counter receiving them with her usual killing smile.
“Hi Sunset, nice to see you again, so did you decide to come back and live in the city once more?”
“Not really Sadie, but I think I will be visiting home more regularly.” Sunset said to the short blonde, she then turned around to see her companion look at the different stuff around the store, probably surprised at how similar this donut shop was to the ones back on Canterlot “hey, let me introduce you. This is Twilight Sparkle, Twilight, this is Sadie Miller, a good friend of mine.” she said while the other girl waved. Sadie simply grinned at the introduction.
“Hey, nice to meet you, any friend of Sunset is a friend of The Big Donut.” the perky personality and welcoming aura of the short girl gained The Big Donut its nice reputation, this time it wasn’t any different since Twilight visibly relaxed “so, what’s the occasion?”
“Nothing much, she just came with me to meet the family.” Sunset knew she had made a mistake at phrasing the situation in that way, even someone like Sadie would read it in the wrong way. Just looking at Sadie’s smile growing at her words made Sunset flinch at what would come next.
“Oh wow, I suppose things are pretty serious between you two,” Sadie said in her usual peppy way making Sunset groan while Twilight simply looked confused at what the two were talking about “how long have you two been together?” then it finally clicked in Twilight’s head what was the apparent topic of the conversation and she exploded in the brightest blush Sunset had ever seen. It would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so mortifying at the same time.
“I didn’t mean it like that Sadie. I know you had good intentions so is okay; she simply accompanied me so she could take notes about Beach City due to a project” Sunset said trying to fight back her own blush while the redhead wondered how it was possible for her as a gem to blush considering she had no heart to pump blood to her face. Thankfully Sadie took it in stride -probably a side effect from dealing with Steven and the rest- and promptly served them an unhealthy dose of sugar and deep fried flour.
With a tall cup of cappuccino for Sunset and a regular house brew for Twilight, the redhead decided to attack the problem from the root.
“You are not sure what to do as a Princess” Sunset started talking, taking Twilight by surprise just as she was about to take a bite off her glazed donut. She simply blinked at Sunset's words and what was the meaning behind them.
“Excuse me?”
“How long since you became an alicorn?”
“I… just a couple of days.” The teenage girl said without the excitement she had shown while their lives were in danger. Sunset simply sighed knowing that the problem was a deep one and somehow she knew that she could partially blame Celestia for this one.
“Let me guess, you didn’t even know you could become an alicorn or wanted to become a princess, Celestia simply appeared and talked with you?”
“More like singing while praising me for what I have accomplished while simply giving me a pair of wings and throwing me back to the world as a princess with no idea what to do next” Twilight said clearly scared about her future. Her expression was bad enough to make Sunset sigh once again.
“Look Twilight, I know we haven’t known each other for a long time but… I know a little bit of what you go through, how it feels to be thrown into the unknown with no idea of what to do or how to act. But I also know that it gets better,” Sunset said smiling gently at the -very much- younger girl in front of her "believe me, I have a bit of experience on that department.” she said finally getting a short laughter from Twilight.
“Thank you Sunset, this whole travel has been amazing, not only because I have found a new research project… but because I made a new friend.” Twilight softly said making Sunset feel better. It was true that Twilight’s fears would not go away that easily, but they started the road to get better and Sunset felt proud of that fact. So with their donuts ingested and a nice coffee shared between friends, the two of them began their journey to the temple with Sunset ordering a box of donuts to share with her friends back in Canterlot.
Sunset was sure that the hardest part of leaving home -for second time now- was saying goodbye, but it was harder due to having to drag Steven -who had basically glued to her left leg- and having to grab Amethyst by the head to stop her from eating the donuts.
“Garnet, Pearl, would you please-”
“Already done” the thin gem said to her taking a downtrodden Steven on her arms, while Garnet took Amethyst and put her under her arm while the purple gem pouted at the injustice of having donuts so close to her and be unable to eat them.
“Thank you guys, I’ll see you later.”
“NOOOOO, I don’t want you away!” Steven was basically crying at that point but Sunset smiled to her little brother.
“Come on silly, I’ll come back in a couple of days, besides, with the warp pad in Canterlot fixed we can see each other every time, so don’t worry Steven, I'll see you later.” The redhead said and with one last wave and goodbyes from the rest of the gems, the two girl originating from Equestria vanished in a column of light. It was a weird sensation to be transported with a warp pad but a couple of seconds later both girls found themselves in the basement of Canterlot High with five other girls all around the room.
“Sunset darling! We were getting a little worried since you told us you would come back an… hour ago?” The melodic and refined voice of Rarity -which Sunset knew was thanks to hours of practice-, welcomed Sunset back.
“Hey girls! I brought donuts… what? What happened?” Why were all her friends looking at her like that? And was that blood coming out of Rainbow’s nose?
“Girls? Ah, you’re making me a little uncomfortable with the way you keep looking at me.” Sunset said still worried about how much her friends kept staring at her. The five humane girls were still a little bit of a mystery for the gem hybrid since even though they had very little in common they still found out reasons to keep hanging out and ways to build their friendship and make it stronger. She was also really surprised by how quickly the five allowed her in their small circle and made her one of them.
“Ah think Ah speak for everybody for this question. What in tarnation are yah wearin’?” The stetson wearing girl said scratching her head while moving her eyes up and down across Sunset’s body. The redhead took a look at herself before she shrugged not really understanding what was going on.
“What do you mean? This is my battle leotard.” She said trying to see if there was anything out of order or anything bizarre.
“I think we can see that.” the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash made Sunset blink a couple of times, she also had to concentrate on understanding Rainbow since she was right now pinching her nose to stop the nosebleed while a very worried Fluttershy was trying to see if the sporty girl had injured herself.
“Don’t take this in the wrong way darling but, don’t you think this… ‘battle leotard’, is a little too much?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the outfit is really nice and eye catching but I’m afraid you’ll get arrested for public indecency once we get out on the streets.” The fashionista said trying to fight back a full body blush. All the students of Canterlot High knew that Sunset was extremely fit, being capable of strength fits that always left Professor Iron Will in awe. She was capable of doing things that the male students could only dream about when it came to sports and thanks to her usual tight fitting clothing for PE she was the receiver of a lot of looks. Now watching Sunset wearing a full body leotard showing exactly how fit and… full, she was in certain areas, well, even Rarity was awestruck.
Sunset then finally realized what the problem was and almost did a facepalm at what she had done. She had grown used to her clothes so fast that it surprised her. Seems that being away for three years for studying instead of gem hunting haven’t dull her battle senses, since apparently she took her battle leotard as natural again.
“Oh right, sorry girls, I forgot about that.” She said before she began to live up to her name as she began to shimmer as the jacket, leotard and boots disappeared in a shower of light quickly transforming into blue leggings, a long red sweater with no neck with a yellow star in the middle and a pair of heeled sandals “ta-da! I call it the Universe Casual, what do you think?” she said smiling at her friends as Pinkie threw herself at Sunset in a welcoming hug.
“Is so soft!” she said cuddling up to the gem while this one returned the hug with one arm as the other was still holding up the donut box “wish I could do that too, imagine all the costumes I could use for parties! Or what if I had to do a secret mission and I could change into stealth clothes, or what if I wanted to do a cheer or-”
“We understand my dear, no need to get too overexcited already and also, nice outfit, been watching Flashdance again?” Rarity said trying to regain some control as Sunset and Twilight walked down from the secret warp pad that Sunset had rebuild from the ruins of the old one. A year ago she had found out the secret storage room underneath Canterlot High and she had also found out the remains of a warp pad much to her surprise. After a lot of work she had finally restored it, sadly it had no recall function and that’s why Twilight and Sunset had taken a bus to the temple at Beach City. Using the original warp pad she could not only reactivate the one in Canterlot but also gain a quick access back home.
“Ah, welcome back Sunset.” the quietest of the girls told Sunset as she also engulfed the redhead in a warm hug full of love and care, one that Sunset was sure would make Rose Quartz proud. The gem was sure that she would have loved to meet her friends, especially Fluttershy since both had that same aura of peace, the same caring heart and the same love for creatures and animals.
“Thank you Shy, is good to be back.”
“So, how was your home?” A recovered Rainbow asked while they all sat down around a table that Sunset used sometimes while she was working on the warp pad. Around them there were a multitude of machines and working stations that filled most of the space in the storage room. Thankfully Sunset had shown the place to both Principal Celestia and her sister and quickly reached an agreement of making sure nothing wrong happened to the school. So far nothing had happened but now that the warp pad was working again and it was in direct contact with Beach City, well, Sunset was sure that the craziness will soon arrive at Canterlot.
The seven girls chatted for a while Twilight Sparkled used most of that time watching the other girls and the way they interacted, showing how similar they were to their Equestrian counterparts, feeling at home and ease among them. With them she was just another teenager, just one that belonged to another dimension, but that was all. There was no awkwardness or pressure, with them she was perfectly normal and equal to them, no crown and no responsibilities, it felt… nice as Fluttershy would say.
Sadly it soon came time for the girls to go their own ways, either with their families or back home in another dimension. Twilight sighed knowing that she was supposed to go back to her responsibilities, no matter how comfortable this Canterlot was. Thankfully the other girls saw the way her face dropped because she was soon at the center of a group hug.
“Hey, no long faces sugarcube.”
“Yeah, no way we will let you disappear you big nerd; that would be completely uncool.”
“That’s right! I still haven’t done a ‘Welcome to Canterlot Twilight Party’!”
“It would be nice if you could visit us again.”
“Indeed, I would also love to see you again Twilight, maybe next time you come I will be able to do something about your wardrobe. Maybe bowties are in vogue but you could shine with some changes to your wardrobe.”
“Well, I would love to come back but I don’t know if it would be possible.”
“Is alright Twilight, with the changes that I did to the portal on this side it would be stable and open all the time. I also worked around the time dilation effect on both of our universes, now it would be on par with yours.”
“Thank you to all of you, thank you for your friendship. This isn’t a goodbye; it’s just a goodbye until next time.” The princess said before stepping through the portal and disappearing for now. The rest of the girls turned to look at each other before Sunset stretched.
“Well, I’ll be leaving now, gonna go and take a rest.”
“Hey, not fair!” The pink menace said a little peeved “you didn’t tell us what happened at your home!”
“I’ll tell you all tomorrow at school, now I really want to rest for a bit because if I know my family they will soon start calling me so I could go back and help them in some crazy adventure or another, I just know it. See ya girls.” The redhead finally said starting to walk in the direction of her apartment. Soon the others also separated with Fluttershy and Pinkie carpooling with Rarity while Rainbow went into Applejack’s pickup.
“So, how much blood did yah lose this time?” The blonde girl said after starting the trek to Rainbow’s house; for all answer she was slugged on the arm by a completely red Rainbow.
“Don’t start AJ, I saw you ogling Sunset like there was no tomorrow.”
Sunset enjoyed the differences in weather that Canterlot offered her in comparison to Beach City, what with being right in the middle of land with no harbor in sight. The smells, the sounds and the buildings all just signaled something different. Instead of the lovely little town feeling she was now assaulted by the urban jungle.
She felt fine, in a way she hasn’t felt in a long time. Maybe it was just her letting go must of her guilt for thinking she had abandoned her family, but instead it was only shown that she had a place there like always. It did suck that Princess Twilight had to go back to Equestria, but maybe now she would be able to tackle her own insecurities about her new future.
Sunset continued walking until she was in front of her apartment block. Originally she had thought about having a house to herself but then came to the conclusion that was a little too much considering she would be living by her own. After spending a couple of days looking around she found out the perfect location; the price wasn’t much of a deal considering her own almost infinite pool of resources. The advantages of having something to do with the most influential companies and conglomerates in the world truly outranked the cons.
The redhead pressed the big button on the elevator and simply waited while listening to the incredibly clichéd elevator music. She still didn’t know why humans were obsessed in playing the same song in every single elevator but she just attributed it to humans being extremely weird.
Although living in Earth only a fraction of the time of the older Crystal Gems, Sunset was sure that her knowledge on human things was very good; maybe not to the Steven Universe level -that boy truly loved his cartoons and television- but very few people amassed the same amount of pop culture references. Thankfully, what Sunset did know was more than enough to allow her to live among human beings without any problem. She could go to a store or even a restaurant and nothing would be different, she just had to remember not to change clothes or shape-shift in front of them and everything would be alright.
She still remembered the first time she had shown that ability in front of her friends. Fluttershy had fainted at the surprise while Rarity had a light bulb go off on top of her head thinking about all the possibilities. Thankfully, students in Canterlot high were, or extremely laid back or maybe there was a weird aura that made them all think that everything was normal and alright. Whatever the reason, Sunset was very grateful for the opportunity of living as a normal teenager, even though she was old enough to be the mother of her friends.
With that last thought in her head Sunset finally reached her floor and several seconds later -and having to remember that she had stored her keys inside her gem- Sunset was back at her home away from home.
The tasteful decorations and enough space to host one of the sleepovers her friends were so fond of made Sunset feel relaxed already. There was something about arriving at your own space after a hard day at work.
The redhead turned her TV on and the jingle of a certain 80's Canadian show greeted her. She was heavily embarrassed that she had become hooked on that certain series after watching it for the first time at its premiere almost three decades ago. If any of her friends knew that she loved Camp Pining Hearts all of her friends will tease her to death, especially Rainbow who would obviously find the series extremely mushy and cheesy, but that was half of its appeal to her.
Sunset was ready to sit down at her couch and rest while watching the teenage sit-com in peace, but there was still something she had to do to consider herself back at home.
“Hey Lapis, I’m home” she said looking up at the teardrop-like blue gem floating close to her roof inside of its usual bubble.
Across the blue sky everything was silent. No planes ever traveled across that place so the construction floating harmlessly and mysteriously across the vast beyond was left to its own for hundreds of years. Once it had been the scenario of multiple fights, where warriors of great power and renown had come together to honor the Diamond Authority. Later on, it was used as the place where the rebellious gems said no more and fought back for every single living being in the planet. To say that it was important would be an understatement, with only a certain strawberry battlefield holding an even bigger importance to the Crystal Gems.
That had happened so long ago, before humans could remember, but it still shaped their lives without even knowing which was alright for Rose Quartz and the rest of her family. It was also a place that was of little use to the remaining Gems living on Earth, mostly a training location or a place to reminiscence about the past, and boy, did they have a past. Each of the Gems had several thousand years under their belt and whenever they went back memory line it could be quite far away.
Whatever the case may be, this morning was no different to any other, until a beam of light from the warp pad signaled the entrance of the newest member in the temple. The redheaded girl walked slowly from the pad, until she found herself looking at the four diamonds carefully build on the wall. None of the others had told her exactly what those symbols meant but for whatever reason Sunset knew that they were very important, something that represented the past and their original planet. Whatever they were it meant nothing to Sunset since she came from another dimension, in fact, she wasn’t even interested in the meaning of the diamonds and with a snort of contempt she kept on walking.
Sunset’s body still felt weak, each one of her steps was as much of a struggle as the last. That morning Sunset even had difficulty leaving the bed due to how tired her body felt. She was sure that the one thing she could point as the guilty party on all that was the shard right at the place where her heart used to be. Looking this morning at the mirror on her bathroom -well, more like the bathroom of the house she was renting, there was not much of a space in the temple for her so far- Sunset found out that the shard was growing bigger since last night and it had taken her several seconds to remember exactly the reason for the gem currently growing.
Whatever the case, Sunset knew that the shard would probably keep on growing until it was the size of the other Crystal Gems. What that would mean, not even the pink haired Gem could say, it was something that had never happened before and that was not good for Sunset. The redhead had prided herself as one who usually got every answer back when she resided on Canterlot; now, she was at a lost continuously, both from dealing with humans and even more due to gems. It left a bitter taste for the once prideful girl.
Finally climbing the stairs, Sunset began to take deep breaths through her mouth feeling the thinning of the oxygen around her. Being so far up on the atmosphere really did a number on organic beings. No matter, Sunset began to climb down in the direction of the arena not knowing exactly what she was doing at that place. It wasn’t forbidden for her to get access to places like this since she had already seen some of the places the Crystal Gems visited, like the Strawberry Field. Thinking back, Sunset was sure that the Strawberry Field was the first place she had visited alongside Rose Quartz, there was probably a big reason for all the weapons and how solemn the usually smiling Rose looked that day, but no matter how much she asked, the taller woman simply refused to open up about its importance.
Whatever the case may be, Sunset finally reached the open space of the Arena and tried to regain her breathe. Whatever may be happening to her body was doing quite a lot on her stamina because just walking that much left her breathless, even more with the altitude change. To think that the Gems could come and go and never get tired truly showed how alien they were, even in comparison with a girl that was literally from another universe.
The redhead finally regained some energy and took a long look around, truly appreciating the clouds and the way the sky looked from being so high. It must be quite the spectacle at nights, far away from manmade lights and pollution, looking so far away with many stars and constellations dominating the sky. Sunset shook her head slightly knowing that her mind was thinking so many different things. It was unlike herself or at least the Sunset that had lived in Canterlot, the one who was completely obsessed with the idea of becoming a Princess. Now, that same pony -or human or gem, who knows what was going on with her body- was looking at the morning sky wondering how the stars would look in the Sky Arena. Just one year alongside Rose Quartz and company and she had changed so much, who knows what would happen if she spent more time alongside them.
Thinking about that seemed to be the only thing she could, but not alone for long since Sunset heard the warp pad activating. A minute later, a dark skinned woman with a square afro walked into the Arena, quickly finding the redhead sitting at the edge of the ruins. Without a word Garnet sat down at her side.
“Did Rose send you?”
“Not really” the thick English accent of Garnet answered back. Sunset was very curious about how exactly Garnet had gained that way of talking but it was probably a story for later “Rose is still on the temple and none of the others know you left.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because we are all worried.” The mysterious Gem said in her usual calm and collected voice “When we saw the Gem pierce through your heart, it was as if the world had stopped for a second,” Sunset was quite surprised because this was the first time she had heard Garnet talk about their feelings “Rose and Amethyst had grown closer to you; it is something that had never happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because we will outlive every single human being on this planet, we have problems in our interactions with them. Rose may be the one who looks out and worries about human beings but is more in the general sense.”
“I know what you mean. Rose is… amazing, but sometimes she can be so hard to understand.”
“Is because she doesn’t know how to interact with others, she just doesn’t get human beings. To her they are curious creatures but nothing more, an amorphous mass that live on this planet and that are worthy of protection. Until you.”
“Why me? There’s nothing special in me.” Now that was something new, self-deprecation, what would Princess Celestia say if she saw her like this?
“You are an exile of your world, with no way of coming back; in the end, you are trapped in this place with no idea of what to do. That’s why Rose took you under her arm, because you remind her of herself.”
“How could I? She was exiled because she fought to protect a whole world… I was exiled because I was a freaking brat that wanted more power, Tartarus, I basically demanded more power.”
“But in the end you did the right thing; you could have let those people die but you did something amazing. You saved their lives with no desire beyond seeing them safe, isn’t that worth of praise?” Garnet asked Sunset with a smile on her face making Sunset blush at the words of the dark skinned Gem.
“I… thank you… do you want to know something Garnet?”
“What?”
“Since I sat down I have been holding my breath” Sunset said with her voice slightly shaking. Garnet’s eyes widened slightly behind her thick lenses in response “I only took air whenever I needed to talk, but beyond that I was fine, I didn’t feel any pain or panic, I just didn’t need air. What’s happening to me?” Sunset asked feeling tears already gathering on her eyes before a hand touched her shoulder. Looking at her side she saw Garnet giving her one of her very rare full toothed grins.
“Whatever might happen, you have to remember this; we will always be at your side, no matter what.” and with those simple words Sunset felt her worries vanish, knowing that with Garnet with her there was no foe Sunset couldn’t defeat. The two turned back to watch the clouds pass by, simply relaxing on the Arena, the gentle wind relaxing the redhead. She knew her adventures in this world were just beginning but never again will she be alone.
The light from the warp pad illuminated the alien construction inside the statue. Everyone in Beach City knew not to get close to it; not because it was dangerous but because they knew some very strange people -if you could call them people- were living there. One of those people materialized with the light, her thin frame hiding a great strength and her angular and refined face scrunching up in confusion at what was currently lying down at one of the stones they sometimes used as bench.
There, being covered in a thick blanket and with enough pillows to make a few castles was none other than the bizarre creature known as Sunset. Since she had fallen into their lives -quite literally if Sunset was right about the strange readings from the mirror at Canterlot City- the redhead was a veritable fountain of information that amazed Pearl.
Even though the thin Gem had been designed only as ‘eye candy’ as Sunset put it, she have become quite capable in the engineering science, enough to know that the way in which Sunset had arrived to their world was something not even Homeworld could. At least Pearl hoped they still couldn’t open interdimensional holes.
Although worried about the way Sunset and Pearl interacted she quickly found out that the redhead held no such thing as feeling for their leader. In fact, they sometimes acted like humans and their cubs, which was quite astonishing. Now that the redhead had been severely injured and subsequently revived by a gem shard questions about Sunset kept on piling up. But right now Pearl only had one.
“What in the world are you listening to?”
“Roy Orbison” The girl answered among the multitude of pillows, clearly relaxing after a miraculous survival. For her part, Pearl had to admit that the human singer was quite good, it had a weird magic on his voice that was quite soothing “nice dress by the way, finally changing attire?” The human girl said bobbing her head slowly at the rhythm of the song taking Pearl from her own ruminations.
“Oh right, well, thank you,” she said back looking at the attire she was wearing. For some reason she found the attire of a couple of teenagers quite nice, especially the combination of long poodle skirt and socks. There was something in that combination that seemed so… Pearl in a way so she had used the opportunity to upgrade her attire. Usually the gems did it once every couple of years to help them walk among humans without causing alarm once they realized that the organic's fashion sense changed as fast as they did. Sometimes it was a hazard but at the same time it was so fascinating that even Amethyst who was quite the procrastinator and free soul followed their lead and changed too.
“I think you would like the newest fashions, I believe sleek dresses are quite in vogue now, very chic.” The other girl smiled before closing her eyes once again in relaxation.
“Nice to hear that… ah, do you think Rose would like this?” Pearl asked obviously talking about her new look before Sunset sighed. She has been barely a year among them but even she knew most of the dynamics among the alien rocks.
“She’ll probably say you look great… before she starts walking away as if nothing had happened.” It almost hurt to crush Pearl’s enthusiasm but she knew it was necessary. Just looking at the way Pearl’s face fell at her words made Sunset’s heart -metaphorically speaking of course- twinge in guilt at ruining the thin gem’s mood. She was also quite surprised of how fast she had developed empathy for others. For her part, Pearl took a sit close to Sunset.
“Yes, she would say that. Oh don’t look at me; I know you didn’t mean it like that, not like Amethyst at least.” She said making Sunset stop worrying for now “anyway, why do you have so many cushions?”
“Rose.”
“Oh of course, I’m surprised she isn’t hovering all over you right now.”
“Garnet convinced her to give me some space so I could regain some strength.”
“Wait, do you mean you still feel weak? What’s wrong with you? Do you feel alright?” Sunset knew that look; she had seen something like that before when Princess Celestia had found Sunset with a small fever.
“Well, besides being legally death, nothing much. I think that the shard is taking a lot of nutrients from my body and growing into… something.”
“Does it hurt? Uh, so that means you are using a lot of calories, have you eaten recently Sunset?”
“Wait, what? How do you know about calories?” It was at that point when Pearl blushed a bit.
“Well, when Rose decided to bring you into the temple permanently I may have… read a bit about human beings.” Sunset felt some heat too but it wasn’t a blush, it was just the way that Pearl was taking her situation that made Sunset feel… happy in a way. Was that normal?
“Is okay, as long as I have some music and snacks… which I believe Amethyst took” Sunset said checking that she didn’t have the biscuit tin box anymore.
“Oh that Amethyst, but don’t worry, I’ll just go and bring you some snacks. I believe you are quite partial to those orange little round things; cheese balls I believe, now, don’t move.” Pearl said before standing up and walking out of the temple leaving behind a stunned Sunset.
“Unbelievable… not one year and I moan about not having a mother, now I basically have two, talk about irony” Sunset said already knowing that the next couple of weeks would be a nightmare with both Rose and pearl constantly checking on her, she just knew it.
With that said she once more closed her eyes and continued lazing on, happier that she could have ever imagined in her childhood.
“Okay, that is new,” were the only words the young looking hybrid gem could say after watching the flying eye get closer and closer to Earth. Watching the big ship traveling through space and entering orbit was seriously freaking her out. She had been very confortable spending time back at Canterlot and her friends, nothing out of the ordinary when Fluttershy had seen the strange floating second sun in the sky. Immediately she had transported back to Beach City and she was sure that this time it was very serious. The thing in the air was none other than an eye ship back from Homeworld. She had studied the design after pestering Rose enough times until she allowed her to check the old information they had about their original planet “So two Suns; when this did become Star Wars?” Sunset quietly joked as she began to walk in the beach. She then found two members of her crazy family walking her way.
“Hey Spinel! You are back!” She was sure that Steven would have jumped in her direction but he had a very familiar bag on his hands.
“Are you still asking for the bits?”
“Hey you cannot beat a good fry bit while you walk on the beach and enjoy the two suns in the sky.”
“Come on Steven, what have you been eating? Two suns?” The laughter from Amethyst after such a sentence was obvious.
“Well, you better be careful what you say shorty because we have major problems in our hands.” Sunset simply said before Amethyst mouth fell all the way down to the sand in surprise. And I do mean it fell all the way down to the ground. In the next second the purple short gem held Steven on her arms and ran as if her life depended on it. Thinking about it, their life DID depend on it. Sunset simply sighed as she snatched the falling bag in the air and put the small bit of French fry in her mouth.
Following Amethyst she soon found the rest of the gems looking through a telescope and soon they began to do their usual Crystal Gems Pre-Ass kicking reunion.
“Look at the size of that thing, I had no idea these things were so big.” The thin gem said and Sunset just couldn’t contain the jokes almost pouring out of her brain.
“Maybe you should visit the internet; I think you can find bigger phallic symbols in there. Also, that’s what she said.” The answer to her joke were the grumpy face that Pearl send her way, Steven just watching the eye in the sky and Garnet and Amethyst containing their laughter -well, more like Garnet smirking a little bit and Amethyst trying not to roll in the sand laughing- was what happened “now, being serious, that’s obvious an unmanned scout ship, like the one I studied back when, do you think there is a way to drop that ship without destroying it? I really want to study an intact one.”
“One, I hope you never do a joke like that in the presence of Steven again and number two-“ Pearl started.
“We cannot allow that ship to crash on Earth; it will cause enormous damage to the planet.” Garnet said making Sunset grumble a bit about the missed opportunity.
“I’m pretty sure the damage it will cause will be minimal, besides, look at the speed that thing has. Is not trying to crash on Earth, it is just getting closer to get information. Like I said, it is a scout ship.”
“Scout ship or war ship, it does not matter, we need to get rid of it.” The leader of the Crystal Gems said finishing the discussion.
“If only we still had Rose’s light cannon.” Pearl’s words made Sunset furrow; she knew she had heard of that before.
“Wait, my mom had a cannon? How I didn’t know about that?”
“Oh, believe me, Rose was a junkie for weapons, hell, she had more weapons that I had computers in the house.” Sunset said making Steven’s eyes go wide with the information. At that point Sunset knew that Steven would keep asking her later on about those weapons.
“Yes Steven, sadly we don’t know where it is right now.”
“Hold on, you mean that thing that looks like a rose and shoots a laser?” Sunset said eating a fry bit before offering the bag to Steven who gladly started to share the salty treat.
“Yes, that one. Wait a minute, do you know where it is Spinel?”
“Well yeah, she left it with Greg for safekeeping, something about never hurting an innocent if Greg kept it.”
“Wait, my dad has it?”
“I can’t see Rose trusting Greg with something like that.”
“You’ll be surprised, so what do you say Steven? Wanna go visit your dad and get a Weapon of Mass Destruction all at the same time.”
“Wow, let’s go.” Just watching Steven’s eyes turn into stars was the best thing in the world as both human gem hybrids began to run in the direction of Greg’s car wash. Behind them they heard Amethyst complain.
“Come on, why do they get the chance to go on an adventure?”
“Because we will try to destroy that eye in case they fail.” Was the only thing the short gem got for an answer before Garnet held the other gem in her hands and threw her up into the air, this one screaming as if she was on a roller coaster. The last thing Sunset heard from them was the loud clang of Amethyst hard head colliding with the ship.
Shaking her head, Sunset held Steven on her arms before placing the small child up on her shoulders, then her boots became rollerblades and the two began their small adventure in search of Rose’s lost cannon just to save the world. Sunset was also wondering how Greg was these days; it had been some time since the both of them worked together. She couldn’t wait to show her father figure the new songs she had written, maybe it was time for Sunlight in Space to come out of semi-retirement.
Two nondescript walls in the back of the video show one thing on each. First, something is hanging on the wall of the left and it shows a music album hanging thanks to the magic of the green screen, showing a space painting with a bullet train traversing the alien terrain at high speed. In the other wall you can see an album collection with one particular album being used as highlight. The album shows a huge woman being made out of light as two small figures look up at her from the ground.
In front of the two walls there is a man with short hair and black thick rimmed glasses grinning at the camera “Hey everyone, Rockthony Spacetano here, the internet’s busiest music nerd and is time for a classic review of the Sunlight in Space album, Last Station before Midnight.
Sunlight in Space, are Multi-instrumentalists, producers, singers and song-writers and legendary rock duet from the east coast; the duet consisting of Greg Universe and Spinel, known for their very theatrical and instrumentally rich albums through the years, due to Greg Universe and Spinel’s guitar riffs and lyrics writing.
The band came to be known once then self-named ‘Mr. Universe’ parted ways with his manager at the time. Almost immediately he hooked up with the woman known as Spinel and they released their first single hit ‘Star Child’, which was then followed by the full album ‘The First Flight of Mr. Universe’, which was definitely a way better debut than the hilariously bad ‘Let me Drive my Van into your Heart’,” is that this point that the man tries to valiantly fight back a full on laughter, but he finally loses and the scene is cut down before continuing as if nothing had happened.
“Since the moment the band began to record together they showed great chemistry and it is clear from the sound of ‘The First Flight of Mr. Universe’ which shows a very smooth, rich instrumentation layered around some really good songwriting. The band has experimented with many genres like rock, R&B, funk, electronic and even some punk and through all of that they have encapsulated all this music with a feeling of space and stars, which yes, it is quite the gimmick of the band has considering the stories they tell on their albums.
And that is the case with this particular one; their fourth long play album, ‘Last Station before Midnight’ is the following album after their very successful ‘Atlas and the Company that Sold the World’,” The album hanging in the wall changes to show the cover of that particular LP, with a little girl on red graffiting a green dollar sign on a wall “which already played with some of the ideas that they brought into their next album, such as the moody, haunting sound of the guitars; the experimentation with the synthesizers which were very predominant at the era, just look at some of the songs that were very popular by the time this album was released. But what truly call the attention with the synths in this album are the long drawn sounds that they bring from them which only adds to the other-wordly sound of the album, making you think that you indeed are traveling through this lonely and haunting place.
So the album begins with the duo retaking the character of Mr. Universe, a bright eyed, egotistical rascal that is now being tortured and haunted by the memories of his time spent on the planet he has just left right by the time the revolution exploded at the last album. The intro song, ‘First class’, shows Mr. universe stepping into the train that appeared out of nowhere, a train that is taking him from the nightmares of the revolution from the world at his back, you can even hear the fires from the end of the Atlas album. It is a very gritty, dark, almost depressive with lines like: ‘I never thought life could become glass under the fires’.
On ‘Shows of Freedom’, a very funky, sexy song with a great sax at the back of the song, tells the tale of a man that felt in love with a model that he saw on an ad, but by the end of the track it is shown that it is only a story that Mr. Universe made on his mind after watching a skeleton dressed on formal wear; it is then shown on the next track, ‘Motor Running’, that Mr. Universe is the last one alive on the train, and the train is moving by itself, all accompanied by a very creamy, dreamy bass on the hands of Spinel alongside probably the smoothest voice performance by Greg Universe at the moment.
The next two songs, ‘Rose Dream’ and ‘Lady of Stars’, follow this funky and melodic ballad style with some very tight drum beats and crisp guitar before plunging into ‘Mount Eary’ and it retakes the theatrical, grandiose instrumentation and the story telling of the album, with haunting guitar riffs and both singers taking the role of both Mr. Universe and an ethereal voice from space.
The song ‘Blink and you Miss’ opens up with this one note keyboard key much in the same style of ‘Flash’ by Queen, giving the whole song a very sci-fi feeling with the help of synthesizers. The album shows a lot of the duet’s ideas about music and writing with a lot of harmonization, crescendos, tight crisp guitar leads, like in the song ‘Milky Way is that Way’ and what can almost pass as a combination of Glam Rock and Power Metal in ‘Captain Solo was Alone’ and ‘Liberties Taken’ in which at the end of the last one, the song turns right back into the gritty, moody and heavy bass line in which Spinel sings about lost love and a world that is closed to her, almost as if she was reminiscing about her life and the way she was banished from it, something that gets retaken at the end of the album in which the train finally reaches a new haven among the stars, right on top of a giant statue’s hand.
Is with this album that many of the key elements in their future projects, just like the dreamy sound of synths, the sharp, melodic ballads and that feeling of other worldliness that is a personal touch to their music.
Without a doubt this is a record that many should hear, with top notch production, over flowing talent on song writing and fantastic instrumentation coming from only two people. If you got the chance take a listen to it and the other records that these duo did together” with the video is over and you can now surf the internet free.
There was something magical about taking the scenic route through the beach into the city for Steven. It was something that he few times he could do and yes, he had his bike which was perfect for getting himself from point A to point B… and maybe point C if he was in the mood for pizza, which was basically always, or at least until he went for the bits, but really, who didn’t love the bits, although it was bizarre that he go them every time since they were good, so, even if they were good, maybe people didn’t want them.
I think that by now, you all understand that Steven’s mind sometimes went on different directions and didn’t go back. What you may take from all of his mental ramblings was that zooming through the beach on Spinel’s back as this one used her rocket powered inline skate boots -commonly referred as rockets by the rest of the gems-, was one of the things Steven firmly remembered from all the time he had spent alongside Sunset. Maybe the big pink eye floating in the sky was something new, but the feeling of wind on his face and the presence of his favorite ‘older sister/mother figure’ was a constant that never failed to bring a smile on the young boy’s face, not that it was hard for Steven to smile, the boy was practically a walking ball of sugar due to all the peppiness and optimism he radiated day by day.
There was something magical on his relationship with Spinel, something that wasn’t present on his interaction with the rest of the gems, but sometimes they acted a little too disconnected, as if acting like humans and maybe do silly things like family simply went over their heads. With Spinel, on the other side, she always listened to him and played with him when the other gems were busy with gem missions. Of course, to Steven, Garnet was the cool mom, Pearl the over protective mom, Amethyst the aunt that you should under no circumstances listen to and Sunset the older sister that was always there when you needed her.
It had hurt to be apart from her, but now here she was, already visiting and having adventures with the rest of the family like always. Even better, they were going to visit one of the coolest people in the whole town. His dad!
Slowing down, both Sunset and Steven arrived at the business known by all as ‘Is a Wash’ and immediately Steven began to jump up and down on a slightly beaten van parked in front of the car wash. Sunset simply watched Steven call for his dad until the man in question simply appeared from the inside of the car wash looking as confused as Sunset by what Steven was doing.
“Hey Steven, what exactly are you doing?” The tall man -for a human anyway- watched with an eyebrow raised which made Sunset think of her friend Applejack and how much she tended to use that same look with the antics of the rest of the friends.
“Hey dad, I’m trying to wake you up,” Of course, it took several seconds to make Steven realize that his father was not inside the vehicle and by that moment Steven jumped down and threw himself at his old man in a giant hug. Greg was prepared for that and caught his son in a huge hug obviously as happy as his son for the reunion “so, what’s the occasion? Wanted to spend some time with your favorite dad? Maybe learn some lessons of life in the process?” the familiar banter from Greg and son was fun to watch but time was of the essence here.
“We were wondering if you still have Rose’s light cannon,” Spinel said making Greg do a double take at the presence of the returning gem.
“Wait, Spinel?” The hug she received was as strong as Steven’s when she came back to town alongside Princess Twilight “look at you, got bored from the big city and came to visit your old man?” the man with the long hair -with receding hairlines due to age- and with his now omnipresent stubble asked, but Sunset simply pointed one finger on the sky, just at the right moment in which Amethyst was launched through the air and impacted the giant eye ball with a loud bong, which was pretty hilarious by itself.
“Oh, Gem stuff, well, I think I still have that cannon,” Greg said, and in just a couple of minutes, both Steven and Spinel found themselves in front of a storage unit with a mountain of stuff jammed inside.
“You still have this thing?”
“What can I say? Is a lot of stuff for my house, besides, you know how much I like to collect weird stuff,” Greg said as Spinel’s palm met her face.
“Wow, you golf?” the voice of Steven came from somewhere inside the container making both Spinel and Greg chuckle at the memories.
“Sometimes I go and golf with some friends every so often, I’m not that good, but is fun.”
“Is Alice still taking his boa to the golf club?”
“Yeah, is still as crazy as you remember,” the two old friends/ band mates/ father and daughter… kind of, began to remember the crazy stuff that happened when you put together people as crazy and extravagant as rock stars and other people in the medium. That was until they heard a small crack from somewhere inside the container.
“Is everything okay? Did you hurt yourself Steven?”
“I’m fine Spinel! I just found a photo of dad and mom together,” Steven’s voice came back.
“Oh, the hot dog one?” Spinel asked in return already having the image on her head.
“Yeah!”
“Man, that day was so fun… I can’t believe is already 12 years since… that day,” Greg’s voice said while Spinel nodded.
“Yeah, can’t believe everything started due to you doing a concert at the beach,” Spinel said remembering the night that started it all.
“And no one came except Rose and you,” Greg continued with a huge smile on his face “back when I was just a one man band, those were crazy days.”
“Not that the next few years weren’t crazy too.”
“Wow, I found a bunch of your records! How many albums did you two make?” Steven asked still looking through the container.
“Several ones, but I have an idea for our next one.”
“Wait, really? I thought Sunlight in Space was in hiatus.”
“Oh, I found a gold mine of musical talent at my school, you will love it!”
And it was like this that the canon was found, dragged by Sunset and accompanied by both Greg and Steven into the beach. The password was then said and everything was ready for the Crystal Gems to once more save the day. That is until a projectile being shot from somewhere close to the town pierced the thick armor of the Eye, sending it right into the ocean, leaving the five humans and gems completely frozen in shock.
It was the perfect morning, big fluffy clouds in the sky, sun but not too hot and most important to have the perfect morning, a blue calm sea sending placid waves and the smell of water and salt that made Sunset think of the times she played on this very same beach, either with a tall rose haired woman or with her son. This time might be a little different, but still had the same kind of feeling of discovering something new combined with calm and peace. Of course, there was one person -or rock really- who didn’t feel very calm or peaceful.
“Steven, be careful! We don’t know where that thing has been!” The voice of Pearl was not as exuberant as Amethyst, who could scream like the best, but her ability to sound as worried as humanly possible, or at least for a gem, was enough to Make Sunset roll her eyes at the sheer quality of ‘Worried Mom’ it had. The way she took care of Steven was amazing for a creature that was everything except organic. The amount of maternal care and affection the thin gem irradiated every day was something that made Sunset warm… and slightly worried too considering most of that energy for the first few decades she had spent on Earth had been directed at her.
The redheaded gem hybrid was very well versed in how over-protective Pearl could be, but there was something endearing and almost funny the way she was always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which only aggravated itself with how adventurous Steven became as he grew older. Said boy was right now climbing on top of the eye that had been shut down last night.
“Mostly space,” the calm and smooth British voice of Garnet explained everything that was needed about the scout ship making Sunset quietly chuckle at the immortal banter of her family. Just listening to Garnet for a few minutes could give you moments of comedic gold with her dry wit and sometimes non-sequiturs that seemed so out of place for a gem that looked so in control of itself. Of course, that came with the territory of being a perfect fusion of two extreme personalities. There was such a great balance inside Garnet that Sunset tried to emulate, sadly with varied results. Sometimes she was all sage-like with her friends, sometimes she just faceplanted.
“And the bottom of the sea, I’ve heard that salt is a great disinfectant,” Sunset said looking outside of the ship and at Pearl who was right now biting her fingernails, which of course was something so strange once you understood that the original gems were simply hard light projections.
For his part, the young boy known as Steven Universe was busy climbing the side of the big eye, using the metallic behemoth as if it were an attraction at the carnival. If there was one thing Sunset was sure of was that Steven used every opportunity to have some fun and this was obviously the perfect moment having his gem caretakers close to him.
“This is so cool! I have never seen a real space ship, well, besides the ones on TV,” Steven said with the usual stars on his eyes, just like his mother. Sunset smiled at her little brother.
“Pretty amazing, right? Sadly there is not much space in this thing. Like I said, this was used as a scout ship, everything completely automated so no one was hurt beyond a startled fish down under."
“Aw, poor fishes, do you think they are alright?”
“I’m sure they are fine you goofball. Anyway, most of the data is still intact, just like the propulsion system and parts of the engine. I would need some time to get the computer working; salt water is never good for instruments like this.”
“Wait, are you saying that you can make this eye space worthy again? As in, it can go out into space?” Pearl’s eyes were starting to shine and Sunset knew why.
“Wow, not so fast Pearl, one thing is to get it to fly inside the planet, another is making it capable of surviving a trip into the stratosphere. Right now, even if I patch the hole on both sides, the pressure of leaving the planet will cause the ship to implode into itself,” Sunset’s explanation quickly made Steven’s eyes to grow unfocused just like when the gems were explaining how to get his gem weapon. Seeing this, Garnet came to his rescue.
“It means that the ship will go boom in the sky,” With the simple yet effective explanation Steven quickly nodded before Garnet went on with the important part of their work “but it still doesn’t explain what shot it down.”
“That’s right, this is quite the mystery, I mean, there is no way a human weapon could shot down a ship like this, right?” Pearl went from completely sure of herself to doubting what she had said in seconds.
“The only thing I know is that there is this huge hole on both sides of the ship and yes, it was made with a gun and there is only one big enough gun to make this hole,” Sunset said opening her school backpack and with the help of her laptop she showed Garnet and Steven -and Pearl too once she jumped into the top of the ship- a photo of one big gun and a huge bullet on another picture “this is an RT-20, one of the few guns in the world that can shoot that bullet, a 20mm caliber monster. But even with that kind of power there is no way a human gun could pierce this type of alloy.”
“You are not convinced.”
“Wish I could just do that, but there’s more Garnet. I checked the hole it left and it matches, I mean, I have no real confirmation, but if this is correct, there is a weapon on this world that can shut down Gem ships.”
“Wait a second, a gem ship?” Steven’s question took every gem by surprise and they turned to look at the small member of the family “there are other gems out there in space?”
“Oh boy, you never told him about your planet, right?” The way Pearl was avoiding Sunset’s eyes said it all. This was going to be even worse than she thought. How do you explain a little kid that once you initiated a revolution and fought against your own kind? That would be such a great bedtime story.
“So,” the voice of the one girl Sunset respected the most from her group of friends began to say. It was quite fun the way in which the two had started their friendship. Although Sunset had met Pinkie first, well, more like Pinkie saw her and then gasped and ran away, it probably didn’t count as the first meeting Sunset had with the alumni of Canterlot High. The first student she had a real talk with was Rarity which in itself was quite entertaining. So far, most of Sunset’s knowledge of fashion came from television and videogames, and although it was clear that Sunset’s fashion sense was not bad, it just needed some tips from a professional.
The look on Rarity’s face when Sunset morphed her clothes to the dress from Rarity’s magazine she had gone beyond insane. She was sure people back at home heard the squeal that came out of Rarity’s mouth; she wouldn’t be surprised if Garnet asked her about that one day. Since that moment Sunset helped Rarity with new designs, becoming basically a living sketchbook, not that Sunset minded it per se; after all, she gained so many ideas of attires while doing that, that it was quite common to see Sunset with something new to wear every day inspired by Rarity’s great sense of fashion.
Sometimes the redhead was a trend setter when it came to clothes. Sunset went back in time in a sense with her clothes, just like the time she went all 60s and used her favorite mini skirt and tall boots that she had used those days at the height of rock and roll. It brought so many memories to Sunset, like the time she heard that quartet from Liverpool live on the Ed Sullivan show, sadly the screams didn’t let her hear the music. Thankfully she met the four British boys later on and had a blast playing and singing with them.
Next was Applejack; good, reliable, honest and caring. She represented everything good about humanity in Sunset’s opinion and she had seen many good and bad examples of the species. She knew that the blonde wasn’t perfect, but that’s what made her so amazing. Applejack was stubborn and didn’t know when to give up and ask for help from others, but even in those situations she was still a great friend to whom Sunset could spend time outside of school to simply talk and relax. It didn’t hurt that her grandmother was someone she could talk and reminiscence with, which would be funny if anyone could see the old woman and the teenage-looking gem hybrid. Who would think that the two were almost the same age?
Next were Rainbow and Fluttershy, and it was impossible to find one without the other those days when she enrolled on Canterlot High. They were opposite, even more back then, with Rainbow’s ego getting the best of her, thankfully, Fluttershy was always there to reel her in and make her realize when she let her ego get the best of her. Underneath all that bravado, Rainbow was clearly overcompensating for something, maybe insecurity? But why? Sunset wasn’t still very sure. Anyways, both were great friends and although spending time one on one with Rainbow sometimes tested her patience with her multiple times she tried to brag -sometimes she reminded Sunset of a guy trying to impress a girl- she was one of her precious friends. The same with Fluttershy, who although made her name justice, she had so much love and respect for everything in life that made Sunset feel proud to call herself a friend of the shy girl. Seeing her with animals of all kinds, even predators and their natural preys, playing together and sitting down around her, it made Sunset remember Rose and her lions.
Last, but not least, was none other than Pinkie Pie, a girl that got Steven and Amethyst beat in terms of craziness and hyper energy. The things the pinkette could do simply baffled her and made her take a second look at what the girl could do. If she didn’t know better she was sure that Pinkie had some kind of magical power or maybe she was a gem in disguise. But no, the girl was 100% human, or maybe 100% Pinkie Pie would be better.
“So?”
“Is that one of yours?” Applejack said pointing at the weird salamander like creature playing with Fluttershy. The creature -that would be as big as the girls if it stood on its hind legs- was red and yellow that seemed more like lava than scales, with six stubby legs that moved fast for its size and weight. Its mouth was constantly salivating and its eyes were hidden amongst the dark scales of its head, almost as if it was protecting them from attacks. That creature, the same one that Sunset knew was a corrupted gem, was calmly running after the ball Fluttershy had thrown as if it were a normal doggie and it was having a nice relaxing day with its master.
How was Fluttershy capable of doing things like that? Sure, she knew that the timid girl was an ace with everything that was alive on the world, but apparently her gifts went beyond the planet and into other galaxies. Just how? But here she had the proof.
“Apparently.”
“What are we going to do with it? I mean, don’t ya and your family round these things up like rodeo cowgirls?” Applejack’s twang had a strange cadence every time she said one of her countryisms, but she was right, at least that’s how it went usually, maybe the corrupted gems had more of their original personalities that they thought.
“Let her keep it, they look cute together, besides, do you want to be the one to tell Fluttershy she can’t keep it?” Applejack immediately winced imagining the heart broken sweet girl and the kind of despair and tears that will simply break the heart of anyone on a one kilometer radius of it.
“Oh no, Ah know better than to do something like that,” The blonde’s reaction caused Sunset to guffaw before the redhead looked upwards and at her namesake. The sun was getting down and a quick check up on her phone, the one she always kept inside her jewel -the things were so convenient-, she noticed the day.
“Dammit! Girls, I need to go, my family is definitely gonna need me!”
“Whoa, wait, does that mean you are going on a mission?” Rainbow’s raspy voice alerted the redhead of the other one listening.
“Yeah, this is very important, it is a tower that the gems used as a place to talk and spend time together.”
“Cool, I call shotgun!”
“Wait, what?”
“Hold on a minute Rainbow, even Ah know that would be dangerous.”
“Thank you Applej-”
“That’s why Ah’m coming with ya” Sunset simply groaned knowing that this was a bad idea.
“Oh, I just know this whole thing is a bad idea,” the voice of Sunset was heard across the empty halls of Canterlot High as the three students walked among them. The lack of students or teachers made their steps echo slightly across the slightly utilitarian floors and painted walls. Sunset had half a mind of making a donation to the place just so they would be able to swap the slightly beaten lockers and maybe lighten up the place a little bit. She knew that Canterlot High was a really nice school; sadly it couldn’t quite compete with private schools like Crystal Prep when it came to the newest textbooks or the best tools to teach. Still, Sunset liked the school and she wanted to give back a little bit considering that both sisters let her keep the warp portal, not that they could do much about it since the school had been built on top of it!
“Come on, it can’t be that hard, just look at that thing Fluttershy got.”
“Rainbow, that’s only because she IS Fluttershy that she was not attacked immediately; do I have to remind you that I was killed by one of those creatures?” Sunset shot back while pulling down the neck of her loose fit shirt, letting the two girls accompanying her watch the gem that had grown just where she used to have a heart, in the literal sense of course. The sport oriented girl winced but didn’t lose her enthusiasm.
“Yeah, but come on, how dangerous could it be?” At those words, her other two friends immediately looked at each other with deadpan looks in their faces.
“Did she just say what I think she said?”
“She did sugarcube, but what can Ah say? She’s more of a doer than a thinker kind of gal.”
“Thanks, hey, wait!” Leaving the slightly enraged girl behind, the group quickly advanced into the newest basement of the school and into the room that contained the newly repaired warp. It was as shiny as she remembered and after some work everything was once more connected, at least on the planet. The powerful warps, those that could lead you right into another planet, were already deactivated and Sunset had no plans of working on them anytime soon.
“So, how is this thing going to work? Ah mean, is it going to take us apart and reconstruct us at the other side?”
“Nothing that dramatic AJ, by the way, where did you get that idea?”
“Big mac likes sci-fi movies.”
“Wait, really? I saw him as an action type of guy.”
“Oh boy, ya would be surprised pumpkin.” At the familiar nickname Sunset groaned knowing exactly where she learned of that ridiculous name.
“Oh, Granny has been talking I see, but you better keep that to yourself young lady,” she tried to say on her most ‘adult’ voice but soon the two simply begin to chuckle. Apparently their little banter was enough time for Rainbow to get back into control and get into the warp with them. Just as Sunset was about to activate the controls, her form begins to glow and like magic, her clothes had changed.
From the loose fitting grey sweatshirt with the CH emblem, skinny jeans and flats, she is now wearing a light blue pencil skirt, button up jacket, white gloves and high heels, not to mention a really cute hat on top of her head.
“Passengers will need to keep hands and feet inside the light beam at all times; in case of devastating disaster you are to scream like banshees as the world around you gets destroyed, thank you for flying with Gem Airlines, we know this is your only alternative,” Sunset said all of that with a smile on her face leaving both teenage girls looking at her in a weird mixture of feelings. Next second, they are all swallowed by a pillar of light, become as light as feathers and up they go. It feels as if they were weightless, like those videos of astronauts floating on their ships, but it is short and soon they find gravity is a harsh mistress.
As they rub their noses Sunset’s body glows once more and her attire goes back to normal and they begin to look at their new surroundings. The whole place feels weird, as if a house had been combined with a cave, the way the floor turned into stone. It was different, that’s for sure.
“Wait, this is your house?” Rainbow asked looking at the homey feeling inside the house.
“Well, is more like Steven’s house at this point, I mean, I have my own room, but unless you are a gem you get no access to it. Is a little hard to explain, but it works for us. You can check the fridge if you want, I’ll just go and check around,” and like that Sunset was off, leaving her friends behind as she went up into Steven’s ‘bedroom’, which was really just an open loft, but worked well for his needs. Maybe later they will make something, that is, if Steven grew like a normal human being.
Meanwhile, the two teenagers stood rooted to the floor watching the redhead walk away.
“Ah’m proud of you girl.”
“What do you mean?”
“She suddenly changes into a stewardess and your tongue didn’t roll out into the floor,” a teasing grin is present on Applejack’s face and the only answer she gets back is a fist into the arm.
“Come on, quit it, this is an adventure, just, look around you, this is Sunset’s home.”
“Yeah, not only that, but we are on another city, on another state even. Ah guess it’s just finally clicking in my head, the fact that Sunset is older than us and has been fighting for a long time.”
“I thought you had a talk with your grandma about Sunset.”
“Yeah but, Ah mean, it was just Granny telling us stories, but is just now sinking in, Ah don’t know,” Applejack shrugged, not quite sure of how to act at Sunset’s home and the fact she was -probably- an immortal space rock.
“So, we have a problem,” Sunset stood there, in front of her friends with what seemed like a small statue on her hands “if we don’t get this thing to the top of the tower I told you, it will collapse, and we don’t have much time, so, ready for a real adventure?”
Pure, white spiral that stood as a guardian in the middle of the sea; lost for all for centuries, never appearing in any map or photograph. Lost to every eye that had been born in the planet; as if it didn’t exist; as if it didn’t matter if it had been build or if it was simply a fever dream for everyone that even had an idea of what this place was. It was a strange thing to think that there were places as amazing as the spiral growing into the sky like a beanstalk made of marble and stone.
Looking at the gem-made titan, Sunset Shimmer felt herself being pulled towards the empty and lifeless tower. It was a weird feeling, as if there was someone or something standing in the same space as her that reacted to the forgotten lore of the planet. The first time the redheaded gem hybrid had seen something similar in importance, like the Desert Pyramid or the Sky Spire with the Heaven Beetle she had been more than just awestruck.
Something inside Sunset reacted to the immense constructions; to the other worldliness that they represented. It felt as she was a stranger in a land of giants, as if she truly didn’t belong. It felt alien in a planet that should be more than alien to her. Her first few minutes at all those old places build by gems had been the same. Stay rooted to the floor looking at the other-wordly location that had once been populated by creatures as fascinating as the rest of her family. Now, each and every single place had been abandoned; in many cases they had been overrun by nature. Forgotten and left to their own, the once mighty constructions from Homeworld gems now only ghosts of an age long gone.
It was unsettling, like the videos of people visiting abandoned cities and buildings. To see a place where other creatures had lived and interacted with each other now deserted and dusty; places barely holding on always affected Sunset, but not in the way the cities once populated by gems affected her. It was constricting to the heart, or at least that’s how it felt to someone that didn’t have a heart.
Sunset had theorized that whatever gem the splinter that had saved her life was part of originally was responsible. Maybe it was echoes of memories of a life once spend on a place like this. Once a gem had stood where she was standing, alive and well, a part of a group and part of a world that wanted to survive. A gem that many centuries ago had been alive, with friends, with memories, with a personality. All that had been stolen from that gem by Sunset and now the same young gem stood in the same place of that broken gem.
It was just a theory, with no real meaning and no real information about what happened. Not even Rose Quarts knew who exactly the gem that had been destroyed that night was. No gem knew the full price of the rebellion, with many gems simply disappearing rather than become corrupted. The worst part was that the gems that had been corrupted were not all Crystal Gems. At the end of the way, Homeworld had simply washed their hands on the gems still fighting and living on Earth; they didn’t care anymore from which side of the conflict they were before releasing the virus that changed everyone into monsters without mind or reason.
There was some good news, since none of the other gems were good engineers or researchers like Sunset. The Crystal Gems that were still left were fewer than when they started and none of them were part of the scientific caste. They were warriors, servants and oracles, but none of them were made for science in mind. Yes, Pearl had grown into the role, but even if her knowledge had grown by bounds, it was too slow, too composed. She did the best she could with technology, but even if what she knew could revolutionize Human knowledge, Sunset knew that the mortals in control of the planet will leave her behind in less than a century.
No, Pearl was no scientist and had no real love for it; sure, she could geek here and there in sporadic spurts, but even with only a fraction of the time the thin gem had been alive, Sunset was the true mind behind the beaker and lab coat. She had become not only used to Human technology and its head spinning way in which it grew and evolved; Sunset had become also a master of the few pieces still left behind by Homeworld Gems, so much that she had been able to reconfigure several machines.
So far, Sunset had some ideas about how exactly the corruption worked and even had a hypothesis of why Rose’s tears didn’t work. Tartarus, she even had a theory of why Rose’s tears even had those effects on inorganic and organic creatures, but there was something bizarre every time she worked on something from Homeworld, it was a pain in her heart, as if something was holding it that made her weary of everything that seemed to be connected with Homeworld.
The whole travel into the top of the Sea Spire she had felt it, as if someone was looking at her, judging her. It was disconcerting and she couldn’t enjoy completely the experience with both Rainbow and AJ. She still had enough concentration to help them and even be amazed by the teamwork the three had; first with the gravitational pull right at the entrance of the spire. Thankfully most things seemed to be already under control.
The bizarre crystal worms seemed more interested in bagels than in them and she already knew who was responsible for those. Then they saw a broken pillar being used as an impromptu bridge. In the end, it had been too easy, but exciting at the same time to the human girls. It was the perfect first experience for them and probably too for young Steven. But things were about to change.
As Sunset and her friends finally climbed, she was about to call the other Crystal Gems and show them the statue in her hands. It was at this moment that the statue was pulled by the Spire into its slot just at the moment the moon was on its peak. The light was blinding as Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash and Applejack began to float in the air. Three beams of color appeared around them and connected to the spire; one red, another blue and finally orange. As this happened, Sunset’s eyes became blank, with visions and images of the past, present and future.
She saw a woman with a metal right hand holding a gun, around her an armored woman wielding a spear, a girl with armor as black as her hair and herself. She saw a gem with multi colored treads attacking Lapis. She saw a pink jewel breaking in contact with the floor. She saw a machine working day and night, lost among the stars. She saw a crystal tree with five branches and three cutiemarks in its trunk.
As Sunset Shimmer had these visions, more things happened in the world. Lost in the middle of a forest, seven crystals vibrated with power, waiting for their right owners. Forgotten inside the room of Rose Quartz, the shard of a gem pulsed with energy. And in Sunset Shimmer’s house, the bubbled gem of a longtime friend popped out of it and clattered against the ground.
The teardrop shaped gem began to shine in a mixture or light and shadows as it changed and morphed in the shape of a woman who kept on sleeping and dreaming of days long gone, mixed with the promise of light blue eyes and red hair.
Life as a gem was without a doubt even more dangerous than anything a pony could live. It was true that gems could live basically forever thanks to the way their true body worked, allowing them to simply wave away time and not only shrug most damage that will rend a living completely death. You were stabbed? No problem, you only retract to your gem and heal away the damage; if the gem was the one struck? Well, tough luck kiddo, nice to meet you. It was this point that set Sunset and Steven apart from the gems. Sure, Sunset couldn’t be killed in the normal way if you stabbed her or crushed her or something similar. It was way messier and if you were unlucky enough to see her regeneration, I hope you don’t have anything in your stomach because you will soon taste your dinner for a second time.
It was a tough live in a way too, having to battle a ton of monsters and creatures that once were gems like them… well, gems like Garnet and the rest since she was a species all by herself. Even now, after half a century gone by since her transformation, many things were still a mystery about Sunset and her new biology; or would that be geology? Sunset’s brain right now was not firing all cylinders and was starting to make puns like Steven. That one was one of the worst parts of being a gem; there were so many unknowns and strange effects of having a carbon based form that didn’t know if it was organic or inorganic. Sunset had lost count of the times she had blacked out and woke up with a tremendous headache.
First time was when she woke up to find a hole where her heart used to be; that was only the beginning because it happened too many times to count through the years. After missions where she had been hurt, every time she tried to learn how to completely shape shift like Amethyst; safe to say she never tried in recent years.
This time she had been affected so much worse than usual considering the splitting headache. If Amethyst was the one that got hurt all the time due to how incredibly stupid she could be; Sunset had the bad luck of being the recipient of life altering effects. It was basically a running gag amongst the family now and they were already prepared when something similar happened.
She could feel Pearl’s hand over her head, brushing aside her long hair and that was the anchor Sunset needed to get out of the darkness that was imprisoning her. Long ago it had been Rose the one that brought her back from those moments, but the thin gem had grown into the role, showing how motherly she could be, sometimes too motherly with the way she smothered Sunset and Steven.
“How many times has it been?” She asked, not really expecting an answer, but of course, since Garnet was present that meant there was always the chance of a witty answer thrown her way.
“Lost count after sixty,” the afro wearing gem’s voice made Sunset smile as it was what she needed to come back from the mountain of data that had been introduced into her brain. Slowly opening her eyes, Sunset saw the starry night and put the pieces back together.
Sunset and her friends had arrived just at the right time to save the tower, probably from becoming an undersea attraction to fishes of every color. It had been rather simple to ascend considering that she had all the tools needed and her friends were fairly athletic, but what happened later still brought pangs of pain across her skull.
“Oh god, did someone write the number of the truck that ran over me?” the usually raspy voice of Rainbow Dash was now even stronger due to the way in which the teenage girl felt. She had come out of training sessions with less pain than today and that included the day she thought she would be able to bench press even more than Big Mac. That had been a huge mistake.
“Ah don’t think it was a truck, felt more like a meteorite in mah opinion,” finally opening her eye, Sunset got up with some effort, being basically carried by Garnet due to how weak she still felt on the knees.
“Is the tower still in place?” she asked softly as Amethyst simply pointed at the center of the summit and the statue floating gently as a pillar of light still was in effect around it “well, I guess that was a dumb question.”
“Guess you found out the statue, I put Mr. Queasy by mistake in my new bag,” a slightly chagrined Steven said, looking worried after what had happened.
“It was just a small mistake Steven; everything is fine… isn’t it?” Pearl asked as she helped Sunset’s human friends up as she looked at Garnet for confirmation, but the leader of the Crystal Gems was as quiet as usual, with no one knowing what she was thinking due to her eyes being hidden behind her special glasses.
“I’m not sure; this tower have never acted this way before, besides, seems like Sunset and her friends received a gift.”
“Wait, you mean those images? Were those a vision?”
“Probably, even after all this time we are not quite sure of what was the true purpose of the tower,” Garnet said as she helped Sunset recover some balance and soon, the redhead was up by her own forces “we know that it was a social hub, but beyond that most its purpose isn’t quite clear,” with Garnet’s explanation, even more questions were forming on their minds.
“I have no idea what this place is for, I wasn’t even born yet when this dumb thing was build.”
“Well, considering how old this tower is, that’s no surprise Amethyst. The only thing I knew about this tower was that many gems loved to spend time in here and talk. Oh, if only you could have seen how beautiful this place was in the past.”
“How long was that? A millennia or something?” Rainbow asked, truly excited about the story of the place; it was clear that reading Daring Do ignited a flame of history in her.
“Humans haven’t been born yet.”
“Okay, that’s old indeed, so what was that doohickey that Sunset brought with her, because Ah don’t know about ya, but this whole thing smells rotten. Ah mean, a tower that is capable of granting visions or something similar? Ah’m not sure who yer boss was, but whoever it was, it didn’t quite tell ya the truth.”
“Indeed, there is something hidden in the tower, so it was good that you could save it; do you remember what you saw?”
“Garnet, it was not like your future vision, it was wilder, just a bunch of info; something about gems in a forest, or something like that. It is vague for now and I will need your help to make any sense of it.”
“Future vision? What’s that?”
“It is something important that we cannot explain for now Steven,” as the young boy continued to pester Pearl for more info, Sunset and Garnet had the same idea and the same question. If the tower was only a place to socialize for the gems, then why put it all the way out here? Sure, they had warp pads, but it was ludicrous to create something so massive in the middle of an ocean. This was something that had been hidden from them for so long.
Just as the two gems were about to discuss it, there was a peculiar sound emanating from Sunset’s gem. A light began to flash and soon, an object was summoned from the inside of Sunset’s gem, like many other things that had been safeguarded there. It was her cellphone and to her surprise, the number of the caller was… her home?
“Hello?”
“Hey love.”
“Lapis?!” next thing everyone saw, was Sunset jump from the summit just so she could reach the warp pad sooner.
As a musician, Greg universe had always dreamed of making it big, or at least for a time; that was in his youth when he was in love with the lights of the stage and thoughts of rich and fame. He wanted to let people hear his music and know how awesome his whole Mr. Universe gimmick was. That was until he reached a small town in the coast and felt in love with his big woman. Yes, he had always had a thing for tall women and Rose Quartz was not only tall, she was beautiful, elegant and best of all, liked him too.
Once he met Rose, he didn’t care a bit about fame and fortune, he didn’t care about making it big in the city; he only wanted to be with Rose and make a life with her. Sure, it was hard at the beginning since not only was this their true relationship, a serious relationship, but because they were not even the same race; hell, one was organic and the other inorganic, how more differences did you need? But, they talked, they listened to each other and they learned. It was hard work, but Greg was enthralled by every single thing that he learned about Rose and that only made him fall deeper and deeper for her.
That first year that he got used to the strange things happening around the Crystal Gems was really crazy, but thanks to Garnet with her useful tips and Spinel, who understood him the most among the group, he had found a family, a place where he belonged. It didn’t hurt that Spinel was also a musician and that they decided to do a demo. It was just a crazy little thing, just experimenting with sounds, unlike his normal pop/rock at the time. They had dipped into Glam, Progressive, Psychedelic and so much more. That the album had sold was a surprise; that they reached platinum, well, that floored them.
He had gained a family, love, fame, all the things that he had dreamed about and it was thanks to Rose and the love that she gave him. He was a normal human being, a tiny, unimportant and infinitesimally young man that had felt in love with an eternal gem from outer space. She was older than him by millennia and he was sure that his lifespan would only be a blink for her, that he will die and then she will continue her life. How wrong they were, because he was the one that survived and had to learn how to live without her.
He poured everything that he felt; his love, his pain, his sadness and loneliness into music. Critics called it their best album; one of the best of all times they said as it sold everywhere in the planet; it would have made Rose so happy, she would have been so proud of him and their ‘daughter’. It was bittersweet, but it helped Greg to process what happened and to move on. After all, he had a son that he had to protect and raise by himself.
He wasn’t alone in that after all; he had the rest of his family and he couldn’t ask for a better one. Even Pearl, who had loathed him since he appeared was nice in her own way. It was funny how their relationship changed once Rose left them. Always with the dirty looks and the rivalry for Rose Quartz, not that Greg wanted to fight with Pearl, she was just so in love with Rose just like him. It was so tiring, but in the end they made a truce, for Steven; now, well, it was nice to see Pearl and talk with her from time to time, but he was sure that she still resented him, that maybe it was his fault that they lost Rose. Maybe one day they would be able to leave all their baggage behind.
Amethyst was so adorable sometimes and other times she was impossible to deal with. In a ways, it felt as if he was helping raise a young girl that had entered their rebellious phase. Well, Amethyst had been born on her rebellious phase, no question about it. Still, she was fun to be with and he knew that the hair style, her mannerism and how she looked were based on his and he felt proud of it.
Garnet, what could he say about someone as amazing as Garnet? The fusion was the rock of the family, dependable, always sure and confident of what will happen. When you are capable of seeing the future, you could be that confident, but she was also smart, caring and he knew that she loved Steven as if he was her son.
And Spinel, oh, what he could tell about that young gem, well, young in comparison with the other gems. She was quick witted, arrogant, funny, she was as free and indomitable as the sea, maybe that’s why she made such a good team with Lapis; well, before the black gem problems. Those days still made Greg shudder; he was grateful that Steven hadn’t been born yet because he didn’t want to imagine what would have happened.
He was taken out of his remembrance by a knock on his door; forget that, someone was basically pounding his door into splinters. There was probably only two people that would do that and it couldn’t be good news. He opened the door and in front of him were the two only people -or gems- that would hit the door that much and that fast.
“Amethyst, Steven, what are you doing out at this hour? Is this another gem mission? I thought that the whole eye thing was over; please don’t tell there’s another eye in the sky,” he looked in the direction of the sea, but thankfully, the only thing he could see was the night sky and stars blinking in harmony. No red, no eye, no ship from space, so what was the problem?
“Hey dad, Garnet says we need something called Black Helmet,” Steven said, obviously excited at the idea of another adventure, but the name of the item only made Greg blink in confusion at what he had heard.
“Excuse me Steven, but I thought you said Black Helmet, why would she even ask for something like that?!”
“Lapis is back,” Amethyst said, not even in the mood for jokes at this time, which showed how serious the situation was.
“WHAT! Wasn’t she supposed to be bubbled?!”
“Dad, who is Lapis?”
“Oh boy, this is a long story, you better get in; I need something to drink if I’m going to be involved with something like this again.”
Usually, your house is your sanctuary, the place where you went to find peace and calm after long days of working or studying. It was the place you made to fit your tastes, which will truly shine and show your heart to everyone lucky enough to see it. That was the theory that Sunset Shimmer had read after making Steven’s house and she tried to bring something warm and inviting for Steven, while at the same time bring some of that beach atmosphere inside with its wood floor and white walls. The furniture was simple and it was finally decided that it would have an upstairs loft for his bed. He loved it so much that the bedroom area was now the center of all things Steven related, like gifts and little toys that he tended to collect.
Sunset’s house had also a little bit of that, but it had many other things; it had walls of cream color, insignias of the sun here and there on small statues or portraits hanging from the wall. It was her way of never forgetting her roots and where she came from, to show how important her cutie mark and her first teacher were. Even the small wind chime that she and Lapis had bought so long ago was present in the living room; the same wind chime that the blue skinned gem had on her hands.
The redheaded gem would have been ecstatic of seeing Lapis once more complete, if it weren’t for the water scythe that had been aimed at her head. The powerful weapon had struck Sunset’s light shield in a blink. Neither gem blinked while in the presence of each other.
Garnet would be at this moment focused on taking down the Homeworld Gem in a blink, or at least try to alongside the rest of the team. This was not their fight, this was not their problem, and this was Sunset’s responsibility.
“You kept the chime,” Lapis said with a small melancholic smile on her black lips as she caressed the spherical object in her hands as if it were a small pet. Her eyes showed all the emotions that the small object brought her and it would have been quite heartwarming if it weren’t because the first thing she had done once Sunset arrived at her apartment was to try to take her head.
“It was the first thing we bought together,” Sunset said pushing against the scythe; Sunset’s raised left leg tensing against the strength of the summoned water. Even after all this time, Lapis was as strong as ever, which was pretty obvious considering her abilities with water and the amount of that same liquid on a planet like Earth. With one push Sunset destroyed the water weapon, quickly getting into position to kick upwards and let two chains from the side of her metallic boots be shot in the direction of the dark gem.
Lapis reacted quickly, summoning her water wings, but instead of shooting backwards and escaping from the attack, the wings closed around her body and quickly solidified as the two chains struck the improvised shield. Lapis stood a second watching the way in which Sunset had attacked her.
“Last I saw you your chains didn’t have knives in the end,” she said as calm as ever; if anyone would have seen it they would be completely blown away by the way these two interacted. The way they talked, being so calm and almost warm truly clashed against the attacks thrown not to incapacitate, but to obliterate. It was quite the jarring situation.
“Is not a knife, it is a kunai, I’ve been practicing a bit since that day,” Sunset called back the chains, breaking a big chunk of Lapis’ shield in the process. As one the two put away their weapons and stood watching at each other for a few quiet seconds. Even after all those years, things were still the same between the two.
“You changed your clothes, I’ll miss the shorts,” the smile on Lapis showed how much she was fighting against her impulses.
“I wasn’t that partial to shorts, but that was the fashion back then, you kept the dress,” Lapis’ eyes twinkled at the words of Sunset. It was true that her look right now looked nothing like the time she had been saved from the mirror and instead of the sundress of yesterday, Lapis had her short dress with flared skirt around her tights with long black knee socks with white and blue rhombuses printed on them. It was the clothes she had when she changed, when her gem had been tainted.
“You liked it.”
“How would you know that?”
“You kept looking at my legs when we were fighting back then,” Lapis said before launching herself forwards, Sunset didn’t move, in fact, she just opened her arms as the dark gem barreled against her in a massive hug. For minutes, the two stood where they were, standing in the middle of Sunset’s apartment, holding each other “I’m sorry, I cannot fight, her whisper is still in my head.”
“I know; that’s why I don’t hate you… I couldn’t hate you.”
“You know I’m dangerous.”
“Yes,” as she kept moving her hand across Lapis’ dark blue hair, Sunset finally let herself relax a bit. Even now, with Lapis somewhat sane unlike the last fight they had fought, when the gem had become almost berserker after being tainted by that dark gem “but I still cannot give up on you.”
“You have too much heart love, is wasted in me.”
“After all the time I invested in you? No way am I gonna give up on you,” it was a weak joke, but it made Laps relax a bit more, the voice getting quieter inside her head.
“Thank you for talking with me every night.”
“Wait, you could hear me inside your bubble?”
“Time was… not important and I felt almost as if I was floating, but your voice was always there, keeping me focused."
“But why now? What took you out of the bubble? Not that I am not happy to see you.”
“Don’t lie Sunset, you didn’t want to see me like this, still wanting to take your head and murder every single human in the planet,” the way in which she said that would have made others start shivering due to how calm she just declared her desire to wipe out humanity “but I felt it, a calling of some kind; there are more gems out there, so many others and they are getting restless.”
“First the eye ship, then the tower, now you, there goes my quiet days.”
Nerve-wracking was not something that gems were used to feel, or at least until several decades ago when the unexpected arrival of a human that wasn’t a human affected their whole lives. Missions to rescue infected gems and discover new and strange things that gems left forgotten were not as strange as having to finally understand the strange things surrounding the main species of the planet, just for that jump several degrees in confusion with the knowledge that there were other universes out there and that suddenly they got a new member of the group.
Pearl had been the last of the Crystal Gems to truly embrace the teenage girl, but the pain of losing Spinel that night had almost broken her heart in half. If it weren’t for Rose and the strange magic that Spinel had, then Pearl didn’t want to think what would have happened; considering that they DID lose Rose several decades later, well, she probably would have reacted even worst.
She was a veteran in a long and difficult war, in which she had to say goodbye to many friends and gems across the years, but what happened with Spinel felt personal; so much that once she began to turn into a strange hybrid of human/gem, she began to truly take care of her.
The simple thought of losing another member of her family, even Amethyst, send Pearl into the very verge of depression and panic; so much that Garnet could barely contain her own panic at the idea of Lapis outside of her bubble.
It had been some time since the Crystal Gems had to deal with something as dangerous as Lapis Lazuli, and while it was true that around Spinel she tried her best at behaving, the way she had been affected by the energies from the Dark Helmet made her extremely unpredictable.
As one, the two Crystal Gems went inside Spinel’s apartment, this time using the front door instead of opening any holes on the walls. It had taken some time for Spinel to teach the Gems that they could try and use the wooden doors instead of making their own entrance. Inside, instead of furniture being destroyed or even worst, finding Lapis once more trying to kill Spinel, they were instead surprised at seeing only one gem sitting down at the sofa and watching the television.
They had never been on Spinel’s apartment, mostly because there was no reliable way of getting in contact with her, what with the warp pad at Canterlot being disconnected from the main network and in general trying to let Spinel live her own life; but even with the small knowledge of human architecture and interior design, they arrived to the same conclusion of it being a really nice cozy place to live in. Which is why the appearance of said gem was so surprising for them both.
Said gem was using her blue and white long velvet coat with a skin tight shoulder less purple blouse in the same design as the one Spinel used to wear. In the middle of said blouse, the gem was wearing the Crystal Gem star symbolizing her loyalties. Alongside the flared white skirt of Lapis and the long dark blue with deep red lines socks, the girl was a perfect combination.
“Hey girls, welcome to my… well, her apartment, is it mine also considering? Oh, right, do you guys want something to drink or is Amethyst the only one that drinks back at the temple?” The gem said only turning around to look at them as she rose one of her arms; in it, they could see a glass bottle with some kind of beverage on it. Considering who was the owner of the apartment, they knew it must have been root beer.
“Kyanite, well, this is… a surprise,” Pearl could only answer as she looked at the gem watching the television, not quite sure how to react at the whole situation. Thankfully, Garnet recovered quickly; she was a little happy to see a gem like herself present in the apartment.
“It’s been a long time, that you are here means that those two are finally healed.”
“Nope, but at least Spinel was capable of calming Lapis, but I don’t think they want to be bothered right now, you know how these things go, I mean, I’m sure Sapphire and Ruby like to have some private time too, right?” Kyanite’s four purple eyes twinkled with delight of finally being outside and having the capacity of moving around.
Garnet knew what the other fusion talked about; after all, the stronger the connection between the gems were, the harder it was to call them back from the subconscious, making it even harder to get them to unfuse, beyond the usual methods of stress or destroying the physical body. The afro haired fusion knew very well how hard it was to get Ruby or Sapphire to pay attention to the physical world unless it was something completely urgent.
“So what do you plan to do now?”
“I don’t know, I mean, I don’t have your future vision so I’ll just play along, maybe even go to school, I’ve never been to school, what about you? Anyway, did you know that there is a rerun channel? I can finally watch some series I missed back then, so I have some things to do at least,” It was clear just how much Kyanite was enjoying the moment because she was basically shivering on the sofa.
“What is your plan if you unfuse suddenly?” it was obvious that even Kyanite was nervous about something like that because even from here Garnet saw her gulp at the idea of something like that happening. Sadly for all, Future Vision never truly stuck with Spinel; there was something about that girl that just made the ability completely useless, but only when it came to her personally, which most of the time made Garnet -including Ruby and Sapphire in more than one occasion- completely scared for the second time in her life; bad enough that Ruby was more than ready to initiate a 24/7 surveillance of Spinel to make sure nothing happened to her.
It had taken a long time for Sapphire to convince Ruby to let Spinel live her own life, but in the end the hotheaded red gem finally relented and allowed Spinel to leave and study at Canterlot, not that the first few weeks weren’t nerve wracking, with only Sapphire’s constant presence calming Ruby. Even Garnet sometimes wanted to come and check on the redheaded gem hybrid.
“I’ll just wing it, that’s basically the motto of Spinel anyway, hey, now that I think about it, do you think I can meet Steven? I could even go on an adventure!” As Pearl began to admonish the fusion, Garnet kept thinking about the strange tower and Lapis.
Sure, the situation had been contained for now, but how long could Kyanite keep fused before the Lapis lose control like last time? She was a ticking bomb and they needed to find an answer. Maybe something at the tower had something to do? In any case, Kyanite would be a presence that they couldn’t keep hidden for long, but what could they do? This and other worried thoughts travelled across Garnet’s mind as the future became more and more uncertain.
Steven was young, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t intelligent, because for all purposes, even though his family wasn’t lying to him, he knew that there was something going on that they weren’t telling him and that in a way was worst. If Pearl of someone else had told him that everything was fine then he would have known it was a lie and he could try to get the truth out of the Crystal Gems or at least from his father, but that was not what was happening, not since another gem -just not a Crystal Gem and wasn’t that a surprise on itself- had pop up and put everyone on high alert.
He had spent a long time on his loft, being surrounded by Sir Teddington the Third and the rest of his stuffed bears, all of them acquired alongside Sunset when she still lived with them; it always helped him when he had to think about something or when a situation was too big for him, like every time he thought about his mother.
He didn’t quite understood what was going on, but for what he could understand from his father’s explanation, the artifact known as Black Helmet, a thing that looked like a tiara more than any helmet, like the ones he have always seen people wear when they went to space, or medieval-like armor. No, it was a small tiara of pure black with a space in the center for a jewel maybe, and that on itself made him shiver without knowing exactly why; but they had it back and when they brought back to the house, Garnet was there alongside Pearl, but no Spinel.
The taller of the gems took it on her hands and looked at the tiara with an expression he had never seen her do before; for someone that could always keep her cool, she seemed like she didn’t even want to see the tiara, which Steven couldn’t really understand why, besides the fact that it had been used by a bad guy long ago. Now that Steven thought about it, she seemed almost… disgusted with the thing; it was weird, but he thought that maybe it was for a reason that they had it hidden away alongside the other stuff on her dad’s storage.
Probably the only real good thing that came out of that day had been the fact that he had met Sunset’s friends and they were amazing. Both girls were so cool and nice too, so maybe everyone at Canterlot was like them. Applejack reminded him a little of Sadie in the way she was calm and friendly and with a smile that made him smile, not that it was that hard. Rainbow was also so cool and it was clear that she and Amethyst also got along, but due to what happened with Sunset they didn’t have much time to talk with them and instead they helped teleport back to Canterlot.
If everything went right, maybe he could visit Canterlot, because it would be way better than where he was currently, full of just sand and more sand everywhere he could see. If he had known the desert could be so… desert-like he would have stayed back home, with the breeze from the sea and maybe even a lemonade glass at his side. Oh, that was such a bad idea, just thinking about a glass with cold lemonade inside made him grumble due to the heat; seriously, who had the bright idea to have a gem hidden in a place like this?
For someone like Steven, who had abilities of gems but was mostly human, the heat was seriously weakening him and the dangerous part was dehydration, which was something that could be extremely dangerous in a location like the one they were in, but since the gems thought that they all needed some distraction from what was happening, decided to go for another gem, this one right in the middle of the desert.
It was easy for the gems to simply walk around in the hot sand as if it were nothing, but poor Steven just couldn’t take one more step in the direction of the temple because he was about to fall down; thankfully the other gems took notice of the way he was sweating and let him stay underneath a nice cool shadow that helped him recover some of his energies.
It was nice and quiet, just what he needed to think about all that had been happening these last couple of days, what with Sunset finally coming back and mysteries about the Gem’s past resurfacing; if he was honest, all of that seemed more like the plot out of a cartoon more than anything real, but it could be fun once he knew if Sunset was alright, besides, there was another Gem he could meet, because whoever this Lapis was, if she was staying with Sunset she couldn’t be that bad.
Just as he was about to fall asleep due to how tired he was, something happened, another creature was also using the shadows to cool themselves apparently and Steven was up and about ready to defend himself with… well, truthfully he didn’t have much in ways to defend himself so he could only raise his hands, close his eyes and wait for anything to happen, which amounted to nothing because whatever or whoever was also close didn’t react to him.
Opening his eyes, he was amazed at what he was seeing; it was a lion, but unlike anything he had ever seen before, because it was completely pink as in, natural pink, how cool was that? But it was the expression of the animal that amazed him, since it wasn’t looking at him, even though Steven knew he was a nice snack for a lion of that size; no, the lion was looking elsewhere, out in the distance and was making him feel a little tense to be sincere, which just became worst when the ground he was standing up began to move. If there was one thing Steven knew from the ground was that it didn’t move by itself so it could only mean danger.
Whatever was happening underneath him was soon seen by him and he wished he hadn’t seen it because it was as bad as or even worse than the centipede gem back at home; it was the same size, but even bigger teeth and pure red which fit technically since they were in the desert. Steven didn’t have much time to think about it because the creature focused on him and was ready to eat him.
Steven screamed knowing that there was no way to get out of this alive, since the other gems were busy with whatever gem they were looking for, but then, something strange happened, something that stopped everything in the desert, even the wind. It was the sound of a gun being fired; well, technically it was more like cannon than a shot considering the sound.
Looking at the creature, Steven was amazed at the hole that was now present on the monster which had been thrown back by the kind of power the gun had and in an instant, instead of falling into the ground or showering him in blood, the creature simply vanished, poofing out of existence, only leaving a red gem behind.
All sound had stopped alongside the wind, everything was quiet until Steven heard steps coming closer; it weren’t the gems, not even the lion that kept on watching the distance. Turning around to where the lion was looking he saw a figure, a tall one coming close and he could now see that it was a woman, wearing blue shorts with tight high stockings with boots of the same color, a yellow tank top with the word AIR in it and a bandanna around her neck. She wasn’t smiling and besides the attire, the two things that caught his attention were how shiny and metallic her right arm looked and the huge weapon that she had over her shoulder.
