7 MONTHS AGO
The quiet town of Canterlot often saw its fair share of dreary weather, it was one of the many things that disappointed Sunset Shimmer in regards to her new home. Of course, Equestria had a great deal of storms and less then desired weather, but it was still controlled and maintained by the phenomenal pegasi of her old home, and the mighty Princess Celestia saw that the sun rose every day, casting the land in its bright golden blanket. Despite the painful memories they carried, she missed those long-forgotten times, and when Princess Twilight told her about Lunas reformation and return to active duty of the night, she sometimes ached to return... but she knew better. Regardless of the life she built here in her new home, despite the certainty and beyond doubt of her reformation, she knew she couldn’t face Celestia.... especially not after what just happened.
On days like today, when the curse of being so far up north in the United States brought about the dreariest weather you could imagine, it never helped when she was down, and right now she felt she was at her lowest point. It was times like today that she yearned to return to her magical world, a world of wonder and amazement. A sort of fantastical element was lost in this new world, and whenever she felt sad and alone, she couldn’t just teleport to beautiful landscapes full of bright, mighty rainbows, seas of flowers and skies of color like she could in Equestria. No, in this world she was confined to the limitations of humanity's reality, and her setting was at the mercy of mother nature. So, she sat on the park bench, alone as the pounding of raindrops pelted her head.
She kept her jackets hood up and she clutched the folds on her jeans, letting her boots drown in the puddle of water rising under her feet. With tired, weighted eyes, she watched as people ran into the nearby cafe for shelter from the shower of raindrops, but she continued to sit, debating to herself if she should move somewhere less wet, or continue to let the weather punish her. She opted for the ladder.
What am I going to do? I’m such an idiot, she thought to herself. A streak of lightning flashed across the dark grey clouds, but this too didn’t fill her with any sense of urgency to seek cover. Instead, she continued to replay the events that happened earlier in the day. Why did I do that? What’s wrong with me? Timber’s a nice guy, and he makes Twi genuinely happy, so why did I just confront him like that? The image of Twilight running out of the room in tears sped across her mind, and Applejack telling her to leave her house followed. Of course her friends weren't going to hate her forever, but she knew that she had to set things right... even if it met losing Twilight as a friend. First things first, I need to apologize to Timber, whether he accepts it is obviously out of my control, but that doesn’t matter... but I doubt Twi is going to forgive me anytime soon...damn me.
Having a set objective in mind, Sunset took a deep breath and regained her nerves before rising off of the bench. Placing her hands in the pockets of her jacket, she turned to face down the sidewalk she was on, and began walking towards the park's entrance. Unbeknownst to her however, high above the clouds, the dancing of lightning began to speed up, entangling the clouds in bright webbing. The lightning then morphed colors into yellow, then to pink before landing on a bright purple hue. Sunset didn’t notice the phenomena until the entire sky began to erupt in an explosion of purple, like missiles erupting over the clouds. She stopped in her tracks to stare up at the sky, dumbfounded by what she was witnessing.
“What the... I’ve... I’ve never seen anything like this,” she mumbled to herself. As the sky continued to ignite in purple lightning, her eyes shot open as a stray lightning bolt shot out of the clouds, and struck the tree next to her. She threw her hands over her ears, blocking out the deafening sound of thunder that followed. With the bolt landing so close to her, she could feel her hair begin to stand, even from under her hood. As panic began to fill her, she felt her insides become lighter, and a static shock trickled down her body.
“Oh no,” she mumbled to herself, as she was aware what this feeling met. But before she could react on it, the sky erupted again, and the last thing she saw was another bright bolt of electricity hurl right at her.
****
“Dad! Is she alive? Hey Dad, is she still alive?”
“Quiet boy, I think I can hear her heart beat.”
After a few seconds, Sunset Shimmer’s eyes shot wide open, and she quickly leaned up from the wooden floor she was lying on, throwing up water in the process. After a few hacks here and few coughs there, her heavy breathing slowed as she looked around like a startled cat.
“Wha- where am I? What happened,” she began mumbling, though her eyes wouldn't blink nor stand on one spot as her mouth moved like a boat motor.... speaking of boats. As the girls' eyes began to readjust, and her panicked induced state started to return back to normal, she realized that she was on a boat. A very.... peculiar boat. It was no bigger than one of her school's classrooms. The deck of it, if you could even call it a deck, was taken up mostly by bolted down barrels that acted as seats to a bar that was placed about three quarters across the boats deck. Behind the bar was the cabin, but the cabin was laid out like an overhead shack with no front wall. Inside the cabin, Sunset could see the smoke emanating off of a stove that exited through the range hood overhead. At the top of the cabin, the range hood continued through what looked like a little chimney near a pole that had a black flag tied around it that read, ‘Garo’s and Sons Sushi stand.’ Basically, it was like a little tiny floating sushi bar.
Standing in front of Sunset was a middle-aged man with tan skin, black thinning hair and a big black bushy mustache. His tight white T-shirt exposed his surprisingly well-built physique, and his blue shorts revealed calf muscles that would make even Rainbow Dash and Applejack look weak. Next to him was a boy who looked no older than nine or ten. He had the same-colored hair and skin as the man next to him, though his hair was obviously thicker and more unkept. Light freckles dashed across the bridge of his nose, and he had on a baggy brown hoodie styled t-shirt and green cargo pants with black flip flops. Both were also wearing weathered aprons.
“Whoa now miss, calm down. You must’ve gone overboard. You know you’re really lucky that we found you,” the man said in a deep, husky voice. His mustache was so thick that you couldn’t even see his lips move as he talked.
“Overboard?” The haunting weight of that word began to dawn on Sunset, along with the setting that she found herself sitting in. As if an alarm bell rung out in her head, she stood up and rushed over to the edge of the boat, peering over the starboard of the ship. As her eyes laid upon the sight in front of her, she could feel her heart beat quicken, and her body began to shake. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but water. Water on every side of her, and with the distinctive smell of salt water feeling her nostrils, she knew that could only mean one thing. She was in the middle of the ocean. As her fingers clenched the decks wooden wall, she turned over to look at the man, fear building up in her voice.
“WHA- WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?”
“Whoa, relax miss. What are you talking about? We’re in the South Blue, just west of Miller Island,” said the man, raising his hands up to try and calm the terrified girl down.
“South Blue? Miller Island? What is that supposed to mean? How did I end up in the ocean? How far are we from Washingtons coast Line? Are we even still in US territory?” The man and the boy both looked at each other with confused faces.
“Uhm, did you hit your head or something lady? What the Hell are you talking about? The ocean’s everywhere! And what the Hell’s a US or Washington?” said the boy.
“Argo, language,” the man said, glaring at the boy beside him for a bit before turning his attention back to Sunset. “Listen, you must’ve hit your head or something when you went overboard. Please, sit, I’ll cook you something,” said the man, taking Sunset by the hand and leading her over to the bar. The entire time however, she was zoned out, a million thoughts crossing through her mind. The last thing she remembered was.... the lightning bolt.
The South Blue? Miller Island? I’m pretty familiar with the world maps, and I’ve never seen those places anywhere... and this ocean is way too warm to be anywhere near Washington or Canada. There’s no way I floated all the way to Cali or Mexico...from a lightning bolt? What the Hell....oh no, Sunset frantically thought to herself. That’s when a terrifying realization began to set in. She wasn’t an idiot, she’s traveled between worlds before, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together for her, and in her life, weird things tended to happen. But she just couldn’t process it.
“Hey, what’s the nearest country? What year is it?” she began asking.
“Well, the village of Konka is on Miller Island, and mayor Denzon governs us, but we’re not an established country or kingdom or anything. But the World Government still governs over us. Also, I’m sure you took a hard hit and are just forgetting things miss, but the year is 1522,” explained the man.
Did he just say 1522? The World Government? Kingdoms? Oh no... damnit no.
“Hey lady, what would you like? We got tuna, avocados, anything! Best sushi you’ll ever find around here,” said the boy named Argo.
“I don’t know kid, just give me four California rolls,” answered Sunset, putting her face in her hands as the situation began to weigh down on her.
“Sorry... but what is that? I never heard of a California roll; you’re not from the South Blue, are you?”
“Oh great... I really am somewhere else,” mumbled Sunset. She took a deep breath, thinking to herself as Argo just shrugged and decided to grab whatever ingredients he thought she would’ve liked.
Alright... calm down Sunset. I don’t know how, but it looks like I’m... Oh sweet Celestia, I’m in a different world or time period entirely. Just relax and get your shit together Sunset, you’ve been through this before. Granted, it was by choice and you knew exactly how you traveled and what the portal was... but you’ve been through this before. I still have my human body so at least there’s no new learning gap to get adjusted to.
She snapped out of her thoughts when Argo placed a plate in front of her. On the plate was four sushi rolls, with a pair of chopsticks and a brown cup of what looked like tea. Sunset examined the dish in front of her, using the chopsticks to turn one of the rolls around to get a better view of it. From what she could see, it looked like a standard dragon roll. Avocado, cucumber, unagi and shrimp tempura. All topped with cream cheese. Despite the situation she found herself in, she had to admit, the dish looked quite good. Feeling a painful rumble in her stomach, she broke the chopsticks in two and picked up one of the rolls, chomping it down after some hesitation. Upon the first bite, her eyes widened and her mouth began to drool, and she found herself scarfing down another.
“Wow, this is really good,” she exclaimed with bits of food still in her mouth. Argo crossed his arms and gave her a smug grin, as if he just heard something that he was already aware of.
“Told ya. Me and Dad make the best sushi in all of the South Blue. Hell, probably even out of all four seas,” said the boy.
“Argo, language,” scolded the man, rolling more rolls on a cutting board that was beside the stove.
“What did you put in this? Seriously I’ve never tasted anything like it! You know I work at a sushi bar too, and nothing we have is as tasty as your rolls!” said Sunset.
“Really? You have your own sushi boat too? Or do you work at a shop on an island?” asked the man.
“Uh, not exactly. I work at the Canterlot malls food court.”
“What's a mall? And where’s Canterlot? I’ve never seen it on a map,” said Argo, snapping Sunset back to the nightmare reality she found herself in.
“Never mind about it... I’m so sorry, you just saved me and I probably sound like some crazy woman leeching off of your food. I got your name kid, but what’s yours sir? What is this?”
“Well, like the flag says, my name is Garo, and this is my son Argo. This is our sushi boat. We travel near the coastline off Miller Island, catering to traveling fishermen, passing marines and even the occasional pirates,” explained Garo. The last two words made Sunset stop eating.
“Marines? Pirates? Now when you say pirates, you mean like Somalian Pirates?”
“Somalian? You’re really not from around here. That’s probably why you keep asking stupid questions, or boy did you hit your noggin hard. You know, pirates! Ships that fly the jolly rogers,” said Argo. Sunset looked down at the cup of tea in front of her, returning to the train of thought she barely managed to hop off of.
What the Hell? Jolly Rogers? So, I guess Pirates as in the argh kind then. I’ve read about famous pirates in the human world from centuries ago, and Equestria has had rumored sightings of sky pirates venturing the clouds in lands far away from Equestria... but... just where the Hell did I end up at?
“I guess you could say I’m not from around here. Anyways, thank you Garo and Argo for... helping me, here, let me pay for the meal at least.” She started to dig into the pockets of her wet jeans, only to freeze when she felt nothing. Frantically, she searched her other pockets, then the pockets on her jacket, before turning to face the ocean. “You guys found me floating in the ocean?” The two nodded, causing Sunset to curse under her breath.
Well, looks like I lost my wallet and my phone then... shit.... who knows if the phone would even work here, but... shit I don’t know what to do now.
She reached into the right breast pocket of her jacket, relieved to at least find the one item she held dearest to her. A photo of her and the girls all together after a concert. Sighing to herself, she put the photo back into her pocket and looked over to the father and son.
“I lost my money in the ocean... is there any other way I could repay you?” Garo just smiled and shook his head, returning his focus back to the cutting board.
“Don’t worry about it. Eat as much as you’d like, you look like you need it... miss?
“Sunset... Sunset Shimmer, and... thank you. You guys wouldn’t happen to have a phone by chance?” Yet again, as with everything Sunset had said, the father and son looked at each other with raised eyebrows, before turning back to her and shaking their heads in unison.
“What’s a phone?” asked Argo.
Right, if old school pirates are in this world, then I have to assume that technology isn’t that far ahead. It is 1522 after all. Damnit. Sunset thought to herself.
“It’s a device used to communicate with people from far distances, I just needed it to confirm something is all,” said Sunset, feeling disappointed as she nibbled another roll.
“Oh, you mean a transponder snail? Yeah of course we have one.” exclaimed Argo. Sunset raised an eyebrow, ceasing her eating as she stared at the boy with a puzzled look.
“A what now?” Argo went through the wooden door in the back of the kitchen that led to a separate room in the cabin, before shortly returning with something in his hands. With a big smile across his face, he placed the item down on the bar in front of Sunset.
“Here ya go!”
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!” Sunset shouted, falling out of her seat as she stared at the creature on the bar. It was a large snail, one of the biggest Sunset had ever seen. The shell of the snail was pearly white, and its flesh was a tannish color. But what really shocked Sunset was the mustache that the snail had... it almost looked identical to Garo. The other thing that perplexed her was the rotary phone dial on the side of its shell, and the green phone wire that came out of the side and ran to the top of the shell, where it seemed as if you could take the top part off. Sunset slowly stood up, staring at the creature with a horrified look.
“What? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a transponder snail, seriously where are you from,” asked Argo.
“You’re telling me that this thing is a phone?”
“Listen Shimmy, I don’t know what a phone is, but transponder snails allow you to call anyone from anywhere. That’s what you wanted right?”
“Shimmy? Did you just call me... whatever. Yeah, I... I guess this is what I asked for. How does it work,” asked Sunset.
“Well, you use the dial on the side to enter the number of who you want to call, then you pick up the receiver at the top of the shell and speak to it,” explained Argo. Sunset figured that would be how it worked given the cord and rotary dial... but she still had a hard time believing it.
How the Hell does that work? It’s a living animal that’s used as a phone! Is it real? It looks so real. But... how? Scratch the being in a different time period off, looks like I really am in a different world.”
Snapping out of her thoughts, she slowly touched the rotary dial, shivering as the snails' eyes blinked, confirming to her that it was indeed alive. Not wanting to question it anymore, she began to turn the dial until she fully entered Twilights number. After no sound from the snail, she looked over to Argo.
“Hmm, you probably put in the wrong number. Try again,” he said. Rolling her eyes, Sunset decided to try a different number. But when that input was met with the same silence, she tried again, until she eventually ran through all six of her friends.
“Never mind. I should have figured they wouldn’t work here. Guess I really am somewhere far away,” said Sunset, sitting back down on the barrel and slamming her head onto the bar.
“Dang, you’re kinda weird Shimmy. Seriously where are you from,” asked Argo, picking up the Transponder Snail as he looked at Sunset with a raised eyebrow.
“Look kid, I'm pretty sure I’m not from your world. I’m not sure how I got here, but I’m pretty sure it was through magical elements. So, unless your world has magical elements, which I doubt, I’m not really sure what to do,” said Sunset with a tone of defeat. But she shot her head up at the childish laughter from the boy, frowning a bit as her face turned red. After a couple of seconds of the boy trying to catch his breath, his laughter died down a bit as he wiped away a tear.
“Oh man, yeah that’s rich. Hey Dad, we apparently caught ourselves another worldly being,” mocked Argo. With her face now as red as a tomato, Sunset bopped the kid over the head, replacing his laughter with tears as he rubbed the top of his scalp where he was just hit. “HEY WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?”
“For laughing at me you little brat, I’m serious,” snarled Sunset.
“Oh you’re just one cuckoo little skank ain’t yo- OUCH!” Argo fell onto the floor as another fist slammed over his head, interrupting his insult. This time it was from Garo.
“I already told you, watch your mouth you little snot,” scolded Garo before he turned to look to Sunset. “Sorry about that, listen miss Shimmer, your claim is a little hard to believe to be honest... but I won’t deny that you yourself believe it. You’re not going to find anything weird here in the South Blue... or, I guess weird by your standards, whatever that is. I’m not sure what’s magical to you, but if you're looking for strange things, you’re gonna wanna head over to the Grand Line,” said Garro as he walked back into the kitchen.
“The Grand Line?” repeated Sunset. Argo stopped rubbing his head, and stood up quickly to look at his father, his eyes widened in fear and his mouth was hanging open.
“Whoa! Don’t even joke about that dad,” said Argo. The tone in his voice almost took Sunset back a bit, to her it sounded almost like fear.
“Wait, what’s the Grand Line,” asked Sunset.
“It’s the sea that splits the world in half. A strip of sea that wraps around the entire world. Folks say that it’s a strange, brutal and unforgiving place. Full of great power and unfathomable anomalies. Long story short, if you wanted to find weird stuff here, that’s your best bet,” explained Garo.
“Well, where is it? How do I get there,” asked Sunset, her voice becoming more assertive as this was the only lead she had.
“Just go east of here and you’d arrive, but you wouldn’t actually be able to get there kid. The Calm Belt would stop you. Acting as a sort of barrier on each side of the Grand Line is the Calm Belt, a part of the ocean that has no current nor weather. Like the name implies, it’s completely calm, and your ship would be dead in the waters, waiting to be consumed by the sea beast,” said Garo. Sunset leaned her head onto her palm as she planted her elbow onto the bar.
“Sea beast?”
“Seriously kid, I don’t believe you’re not from this world, I’m just going to assume you hit your head too hard. Everyone knows what a sea beast is,” said Garo. Sunset frowned and burrowed her brow.
“Well, just tell me how to get to the damn place then,” she snapped. But Garo just sighed and shook his head.
“Nope, you’ll get yourself killed. What you need is rest. I’ll take you to Miller Island where the doc will check you out. From there we can determine where you’re from,” asserted Garo. But this wasn’t what Sunset had wanted to hear. As annoyance began to fill up in her, she stood up from the barrel and slammed her hands onto the bar.
“Damnit, listen to me. I don’t know where the Hell I’m at but I need to get home. If this Grand Line shit you’re talking about has answers, I need to get there now!”
“HAHA, Shimmy you’re one crazy chick. Listen to my Dad, you’re just gonna jump into something that will get you killed,” said Argo. With gritted teeth, Sunset put one hand over the top zipper of her jacket, faintly feeling the outline of the geode necklace underneath before leaning over the bar and grabbing Garo’s arm.
“Fine, I didn’t want to do this just yet, but I need to know what this place is and I need you to believe me,” declared Sunset. Before Garo could even say anything however, he stopped as he saw the girls' eyes glow, and a red like aura escaped from underneath her jacket. After a second or two, Sunset’s eyes returned to normal, and she released the man's hand. However, something unexpected had occurred, something that had never happened before to the girl. She nearly fainted, and almost collapsed back onto the barrel, grabbing her head as she felt a throbbing pain pound on her skull.
“You’re... you’re bleeding,” mumbled Argo. Sunset was painting so heavily that she didn’t even realize the trickle of blood that oozed from her nose. Ignoring it, she glared up at the man, trying her best to catch her breath.
“Oh my God... what kind of fucked up world is this,” she said. Garo retracted his arm, holding it tightly with his other hand as he stared at the girl with a dumbfounded look.
“Wha... what did you just do?” Still breathing heavily, Sunset grasped her face with both hands, struggling to keep her nerves together.
“Who’s.... who’s Mera?” The words that left her mouth made both Argo and Garo freeze.
“What did you just say,” asked Garo in shock.
“Oh sweet Celestia, that was horrible... you’re wife? Argo’s mother? Holy shit, shit shit shit shit shit. What the Hell.” At this point, tears began to fall from Sunsets eyes as the pain in her head was becoming excruciating. “Why... why does this hurt? It never hurts when I use it. Oh my God the screams won’t leave my ears. What’s going on? Why won’t it shut off?” Sunset fell from the barrel and onto the deck, curling up into a ball as she attempted to cover her ears. The blood continued to rush out of her nostrils as her tears followed down her cheeks. Snapping out of his shock, Garo grabbed a bucket of fresh water beside the chopping table and hopped over the bar, kneeling beside Sunset as he took her head in his hand. Ripping off his apron, he drenched it in the bucket, before slightly tapping it over Sunsets head, attempting to cool the girl down as she felt warm. After a while though, her temperature dropped and the bleeding stopped. She eventually uncovered her ears and sat back up, still breathing heavily.
“Why did you say my mom's name? What did you do,” demanded Argo.
“I... I have a form of telepathy. I can look into your mind, see your past, your thoughts, feel your emotions... shit like that. But... but it never felt like that before,” said Sunset.
“You have a devil fruit then? They’re real? You used your fruit to invade my dad's mind then, you God damn skank,” shouted Argo. But Garo just raised his hand, silencing the boy as he stared at the still shivering girl.
“I don’t think it’s a devil fruit. I’ve never seen one before, but from what I’ve heard, the sea curses you and takes away your ability to swim. We found miss Shimmer floating in the water. Besides, I never heard of the devil's power hurting you like that,” said Garo. He stared at the girl intently, grabbing both of her shoulders gently as he attempted to calm her down. “Tell me miss Shimmer... what did you see?”
“You know what I saw,” said Sunset, finally looking up to the man. “Let’s just leave it at that and take that to our graves... you believe me now Garo?” The man sighed and stood up, crossing his arms as he looked out to the sea.
“.... I won’t say I completely believe you... but perhaps you swayed my opinion a bit, still, I can’t take you to -”
“Yeah, I know, you don’t know how. You’ve never left the South Blue... whatever the Hell that means,” said Sunset, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Garo looked down at her, sighing to himself as he sat down on a nearby barrel.
“Correct... I’m sorry. Listen, a marine vessel comes to Miller Island every three months to drop off supplies and to check that we’re okay. It came last month, so It’ll be here in two. I’m friends with the captain on board; he can take you to the Grand Line and perhaps help you from there. Until then you’re more than welcomed to stay with us.... just don’t ever do that technique again,” said Garo. Sunset just stared at the deck’s wooden boards, still shivering from what she just saw.
“Okay,” she said with a voice as quiet as Fluttershys. But Garo was still able to hear it. Nodding to himself, he jumped off the barrel and returned back to the kitchen, leaving both Sunset and Argo on the ships deck without saying another word. The quietness followed them until they reached Miller Island.
