The sun was about to be risen. North of Ponyville, Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes, focused on the training she had long neglected. The travel teapot already on the campfire, the unicorn stood motionless on the plain, visualising in her mind imaginary opponents. Her telekinesis having a firm grip on the katana, which was still inside the sheath she was holding against her left flank, waiting for the moment to unleash the perfect strike. With the fluidity of water, she took a placement step to her right to improve the striking angle. She anchored her hooves in the ground, drawing energy from the plain. The fire of her heart, reborn from the embers of the consumed mourning, tried to ignore all thoughts. Suddenly, a wind blew from the south, carrying some yellowed oak leaves and playing with the mare's hair. She focused her attention on the sound, visualising in her mind the flight of leaves that were carried by the strong breeze. Sunset waited for the perfect moment, unloading the saya blade and striking a single blow. When she opened her eyes again, she realised that of the five leaves, one was still intact. At the time of the strike, her mind did not visualise the leaves, but Pepper's throat. Sunset lowered her head while putting the katana in its sheath in three movements. She had no excuse for such a result, trained to cut much smaller cherry leaves.

With Luna’s help, the moon shifted with the sun, the burning star now high in the sky.

Sunset walked towards the campfire, poured the tea into the tea cups, as usual after greeting the sun with a bow. She wasn't smiling, but pondering, trying to put her ideas in order. She sighed, before taking a sip of tea, not daring to look towards the sun. "Hello, Princess Celestia..." She sighed, raised a brief shy look at the sun. “... I thought I was far away from you. In the end I was just in denial, and our conversation, or should I say my last lesson, was the push I needed," she said with a brief embarrassed smile before getting serious again. "I promised to take care of Twilight, and I won't back down from my vow." She sighed again, looking down at her tea cup. "But to be a sun for Equestria? I can't do that. Not right away at least." She drank another sip of tea. "I'm just a ronin. If I had had the courage to return earlier, you could have been my daimyo, and I would have served you as the most loyal of your samurai. But here and now, I serve no pony, and as long as your death is not avenged, my heart will cry out for injustice, I would never cease, from now on, to hunt down your murderer until her death is proven. I may have to disappoint you once again, but I was never the kind of mare to be reasonable."

"Sunset! Hello," Pinkie shouted from afar as she pranced joyfully towards her, carrying a saddle with delivery bags from the Sugar Cube Corner.

The unicorn turned around on herself, leaning on her right front hoof, to look behind it. Seeing the earth pony coming in her direction, Sunset returned to her tea cup to practise an ersatz of the purification ritual. She concentrated on the steps she had to go through, soaking her mouth for a moment with the rest of the tea while driving away from her mind the current mood. Once this was done, she threw the contents of the cup onto the dying embers of the campfire and then turned back to the earth pony. "Hello Pinkie, what are you doing up so early in the morning?"

"Oh, just the daily delivery of pastries for customers who have ordered from the Sugar Cube Corner. Seeing you here makes me think that you're feeling better. Is it the same for Twilight?"

"Twilight was much more affected than I was, but in recent days I've noticed signs that she is about to fully recover from her apathy."

"That's good to hear!" admitted Pinkie Pie before a smell tickled her nostrils. But, being the Element of Laughter that she was, couldn't take it any other way than with a smile. "Oh, I'm willing to bet a breakfast that Fluttershy would love to take care of you right now."

A statement that left Sunset perplexed. "And why is that?"

"Because you smell like a manticore!" She said before laughing at her teasing.

The unicorn tried to smell her own coat of her forelegs. "In my defence, there's no room to wash anywhere at Twilight’s."

"She usually uses the Cake's bathroom. Come on, I don't think it's a problem if you do the same."

The idea of taking a bath did not leave Sunset indifferent. "I'm not going to refuse such an offer twice. Just wait until I get my stuff tidied up and I'll follow you, Pinkie." Without delay, using her telekinesis, the unicorn poured the rest of the teapot to put out the fire before putting the tea service in her bag. With the saddle on her back, the harness holding the katana against her right flank, she finally turned towards the earth pony. "Ready."

Pinkie observed Sunset, uncertain. "No need to take all this with you to wash, you know, the Sugar Cube Corner is at the end of the street."

Sunset was cut off in her momentum, she bit her lower lip for a moment. "As unicorns say in Japony, old customs never disappear." she says with a smile.

"You say that, but you left it to chase after Twilight when you got here," Pinkie said.

"Only because, back then, I didn't know how far our conversation would get me close to Canterlot, and I couldn't get too close to the castle, armed to the teeth," Sunset explained as she headed towards the Sugar Cube Corner.

"Ooooooooh.~" said Pinkie as she followed.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"What happened while I was away, has Rainbow Dash finished her training?"

Pinkie had a second stop, she lost her smile when the pegasus was mentioned. "Yes, she's a Wonderbolt now."

"Is something wrong, Pinkie?"

"Since she became a Wonderbolt, I've only seen her from afar, during her patrols. If I dare to call her, she looks at me two seconds before bolting in a sonic rainboom. Applejack doesn't see her anymore either. It's as if her friends no longer exist now that she's a Wonderbolt."

Sunset frowned. "She just has to devote herself entirely for her dream to come true, that's all." she thought aloud. "How are Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy?"

"Applejack is training for the Running of the Leaves, she hopes the competition will attract Rainbow. Fluttershy helps animals prepare for hibernation. Rarity lacks inspiration for the kimono designs, she would probably be happy to have your " she says, imitating Rarity with a hoof gesture. "...to fix it."

"It's good to hear they're fine, but about Rarity... She'll have to wait until I have higher priorities."

"Like taking a bath?"

Sunset smiled. "Yes, it will be a good start."

A bath later, following Pinkie’s directives, Sunset presses on the pink candy of the ice cream cone which acts as a decoration at the bottom of the staircase, opening a hatch under her hooves, and making her fall on a slide that leads her into a room filled with a few monobloc files, holiday decorations and sweets.

"What is this place?" she asked, noticing her travel saddle next to the slide.

"The place where I organise all the parties for all the ponies in Ponyville."

"it must be a long-term task."

"Oh! You have no idea!"

Approaching the earth pony, Sunset noticed her standing in front of a door at the back of the room. "What are you doing?"

"I was hoping my friend would be here today, but he seems busy."

Sunset raises an eyebrow. "A friend? Behind that door at the end of the cellar? Does he have a name?"

"The time I asked him, he replied that I could call him Lazy Bones, but I think it's just a nickname. He's pretty nice, he always has a joke in reserve. We do competitions for the worst joke sometimes."

"Why don't you open the door and go see him?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Daaah~" She opened the door for a few seconds to show that it was not leading anywhere.

Sunset raised the hoof to the temple to contain a blooming headache. "It's really hard to keep a logical reasoning with you." She took a look at the pink-haired mare with a smile. "How do the others do?"

Pinkie laughs. "They never ask questions. And talking about questions, what are you going to do? You said you had priorities earlier."

"I'm going to hunt down this Pepper and avenge Princess Celestia."

"How do you plan to find her?"

"I brought back from Japony a device that I was using at the time to track down criminals, it captures the subject's magicprint and then indicates the direction in which it is located, no matter how far away."

"Try it on me! Try it on me!" said a Pinkie leaping on the spot.

"All right, all right!" Sunset capitulated smiling. "Give me a minute to get it out of the bag." With these words she went to look for a purple metal compass the size of the hoof. It wasn't marked like a normal compass, on the border of this device, there were twenty-four notches on each side, which was attached to a string. She returned to Pinkie Pie, then activating the magic print capture while aiming at the earth pony, the compass opened in two on the edge, sucking a cloud as pink as the mare's mane into her breast before closing suddenly. But the instrument overheated. Sunset barely had time to throw it away and set up a shield with its magic to protect them before it exploded. "Are you alright, Pinkie?"

Pinkie pouted, puzzled. "It exploded because my magic is beyond eight thousand?"

Sunset didn't understand what Pinkie was getting at, she was going to say no, but remembered that it was better to go her way without questioning it. "Yes, Pinkie, your magic print is off the charts, clearly beyond eight thousands."

The earth pony had a brief laugh that tore a contagious smile from the unicorn. Once the laughter subsided, she looked at what was left of the compass "Are you going to be able to fix it?"

Sunset picked up the biggest debris, thoughtful. "I don't think that's a good idea. You said Pepper was interested in your storage pockets, is she capable of the same kind of magic?"

"Yes. You can find her magic print near Fluttershy’s cottage, that's her nearest waypoint."

"What do you mean?"

"Rainbow Dash once told me that for Pepper the teleportation is more complex, while Twilight just needs to visualise the destination place in her head, Pepper has to take into account additional details, otherwise she would find herself on another planet in another dimension. As a result, she has waypoints, a kind of signal that makes her teleports easier but at the same time more limited. One close to Fluttershy's house, one next to the ruins of the two sisters' castle, and one in the armoury of Canterlot Castle."

"This information will make it easier for me to track her. Based on the ornament at home, I can eliminate her ghost prints from the tracker, I just need to make the device with a stronger material, so that it will support a magic print of your calibre. And I know which door I'm going to knock on. I will also take the opportunity to check in with Spitfire about Rainbow Dash," Sunset said, putting her travel saddle on her back.

"That would be great." Pinkie said.

Faint footsteps were heard from the back of the room, Pinkie smiled with a huge smile, ran towards the door, followed by a Sunset walking with a quick step.

"Lazy Bones! What took you so long? Bone tired as always?" Pinkie said cheerfully.

He answered only by slipping a sheet of paper under the door before the footsteps moved away, which amazed Sunset and left Pinkie perplexed.

The latter picked up the leaf and began to read it.

Sunset, with her curiosity aroused, could not help but take a look over the shoulder of the earth pony, but she could not read a word of what was written. "What language is that? Pinkie?" When she took a look at the earth pony, she was shocked to see her for the second time so deprived of joy.

With her mane turned smooth, her hoof on her mouth while crying in silence, Pinkie finished rereading. "It's Common, the writing used by humans. Lazy advises me to destroy the recipe of his decoction, as it has permanent harmful side effects beyond fifteen minutes. He knows it because, a human child has arrived in their world." She sniffed. "Killing everycreature. Unless he can change their mind, he says he's not going to make... old bones." She smiled hollowly as she said these last words.

"Can't we do anything?"

"This magic that allows me to talk to someone from another world is called but ironically, I can't go there."

Sunset could not find the words to ease Pinkie's pain, she lured her into her hooves, to comfort her. This event only reinforced her aversion to humans.