Two hours later, Spitfire was behind her desk in her office at the Wonderbolt Academy, signing papers when Sunset entered the room, having left the travel saddle at Twilight's library, but keeping the harness that held the katana in place against her right flank in its sheath and the purse that contained the few coins she had left.

Spitfire took a brief look at the unicorn, at the sight of the serious look Sunset had on her face, she knew she wasn't coming for a courtesy call. "Hello Sunset, what brings you here so early in the morning?"

"I need a favour."

The eyes of the pegasus widened, realising how important it must have been for Sunset to ask for help, she took off her sunglasses and stared straight into her eyes. "I'm listening."

"I'm trying to track down Pepper, but the device..."

"Sunset." Spitfire cut her off. "Get to the point. What do you need?"

"Cloudichalcum, one can be two ingots. And a place where I can make the tracker with it, piece by piece, without Princess Luna catching wind of it."

"Why the secrecy?"

"If she finds out I'm making a device that can track anypony with the accuracy of a metre, she'll ask for it and that would put Princess Twilight in an awkward position."

"Great, I give up, it only raises more questions, and I have the feeling that the less I know, the better. It's not like anypony could deny you anything given your credentials. You want access to the forge? You have them, you'll have them at your disposal. Two bars of Cloudichalcum is still something I can't just make disappear like that in the administrative paperwork. You'll have to forge a blade, you'll use the anti-magic metal for its core, but officially it will be made purely of Cloudichalcum."

"Why would you need such a blade?"

"It's not for me, it's for Dash. You'll never guess who was introduced to me by Princess Luna lately."

Sunset had an idea, but in order not to make a mistake, she replied in half words. "This pony seems terrible. Did you have bad dreams about it?" she asked with a mocking smile.

Spitfire understood the allusion without difficulty. "How long have you known?"

"The night I returned, she approached Princess Twilight in her dreams to ask her a favour."

"No wonder, given her return, that the Sandmare project was dug up by Princess Celestia. But Dash is going to need a blade and you're going to forge it for me, in return for the favour, Sunset."

"Relax Spitfire, I know and understand your eagerness to prepare for the worst, but from what I know, Nightmare Moon wants to be an ally of Princess Twilight, she asked for her help, and even revealed information hidden by Princess Luna."

"She plays her cards, nothing more."

"Fine, you want a sword, sure, I'll forge it for you. And since she’s been mentioned, how's Rainbow? Pinkie says she's changed since she became a Wonderbolt."

"Yes, I noticed a change in her attitude. I tried to talk to her, but I always hit a wall. I'm her superior, not her mother, I can't force her to tell me what's wrong or send her to a psych just because she's giving her all."

Sunset was torn. She wanted to build the tracker as quickly as possible, but Princess Celestia's last words during the time travel pushed her to intervene. "I'm going to have to get involved in this case, Equestria won't be able to endure two Spitfires. Where can I find her?"

"Catch her, you mean. The best solution would be to wait for her at home tonight."

Sunset reviewed everything she knew about the situation thanks to Pinkie. "Well, I have the afternoon to prepare my ambush."

"Anything you need for the ambush?”

"No, Mom." Sunset said impertinently. "I will come and start working at the forge as soon as possible." she continued more seriously. "I'm going back to Ponyville, see you later, Spitfire."

The day went by without incident. Sunset went to see Rarity, and gave her an impromptu lesson on kimonos. In the second half of the afternoon, she went to see Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres.

It was almost time for the sun to give way to the moon in the sky. To the east of Ponyville was a glade surrounded by cherry trees, their petals shaded from bright white to the brightest pink. Sunset was sitting there against a barrel of cider lying in the grass, a mug half full between the hooves, another on the barrel. With the harness detached, the katana rested against the barrel to the right of Sunset. She was facing the sun, her eyes closed, she was enjoying the moment, a peaceful smile on her lips.

The unicorn didn't have to wait long, Rainbow Dash was returning at full speed from the Wonderbolt Academy after her daily debriefing. She stopped abruptly a few flaps of wings from the cloud on which her house was standing when she realised that Sunset was in the clearing. She hesitated for a moment, before giving in to curiosity, landing on the dry land beside her. "Hey Sunset, what are you doing here?"

With calculated nonchalance, Sunset opened one eye. "Oh, Rainbow, hello. As you can see, I’m appreciating a keg of Applejack's special cider cuvée. What are you doing here?"

When the special vintage was mentioned, the pegasus drooled a bit, but the question did not please her. "What am I doing here? That cloud above us is my home! There's my mailbox right there behind you," she said, pointing at it with her hoof.

Sunset took a look that was meant to be lazy over the barrel at the blue steel mailbox with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark on the side. She turned back to the mare. "You're the fastest pegasus, I bet you could place that mailbox and cloud anywhere in Ponyville in less than ten seconds."

"Of course I could! Wait..." She realised afterwards that this was not in her favour. "Nevermind, I don’t care, do whatever you want," she said frustrated, before taking off, flying toward her home.

"Do you want to help me finish the barrel?" Sunset calmly proposed.

Rainbow came back in a blink by her side. "Okay," she replied without hesitation. Nothing could have stood in her way of drinking a barrel of Applejack's special vintage. She grabbed the second pint, drunk the first fill bottom up, then refilled it before sitting next to Sunset.

Sunset remained deliberately silent, so that the growing silence between them would cause Rainbow Dash to feel uncomfortable, forcing her to speak.

And the expected effect did not take too long to come. "How are the others?" she asked.

"What others?" Sunset said, pretending not to understand.

"Well, the group! Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity."

"How should I know? They're your friends, not mine. You should know that. How are your friends doing, Rainbow?"

"Oh come on, you have just seen them!" accused the pegasus.

Sunset was only half surprised by this statement. She looked up and smiled. "How do you know?" she asked before taking a sip of her pint without taking her eyes off it.

Rainbow looked away, embarrassed. "Forget it."

Sunset tried to bounce off these words, looking at the bottom of her mug. "Life would be so simple, if we could just forget the unpleasant things on command, don't you think? There was a time when I wish I had forgotten my past. But in Japony, a master blacksmith helped me to accept it.”

"What did he do?"

"I'll tell you the long version. This is the day after my request to forge my katana was accepted, but before that, I had to go through a conversation with the master blacksmith, so that he would know who was making the request. I thought it would have taken five, ten minutes. It took all day. He made me say every thought I had from as far back as I can remember until the very day before. At the end, he told me: At the time I thought he would refuse me his sup-"

"Wait a minute, <-san>? ?"

"Ah. Yes. Do you remember the banner, Sunset-senpai the day I arrived? The suffix -san is used in the case of addressing a pony of equal or lower rank than our own, -sama for someone of higher rank, and, especially to address a princess, there is the suffix -hime. You following so far?"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"So... Twilight-hime to say Princess Twilight?"

"That's right. Can you fill up the pint for me, please?" she said, handing her the pint. "Regarding shadows, it's about the forging process. Five elements are determining factors in the quality result of a blade." She took back her full pint. "Thank you. The metal used represents the earth, the fire of the forge and the wind that keeps it burning, the water in which the metal is cooled and finally the blacksmith's ki. According to him, in view of my past, my ki, which is, to explain it simple to you, an internal energy unique to each one of us, was not the best there is insofar as I dragged my regrets and fears like a ball and chain attached to my hind legs, and no meditation could have helped me to drive them out of my mind." She looked at Rainbow from the corner of her eye." Meditation is a spiritual warm-up to empty your mind. Still, according to him, my ki would have impregnated my soul states in the blade."

"And so it was?"

"When the head of the family, who spent his youth learning from his father, who himself learned it from his father, and who will spend the rest of his life forging blades that are still praised today by all the clans of Japony, tells you that the blade will have shadows, you take his word for it, Rainbow."

"All right, all right, all right. Well, then, what did he say?"

"He told me: what you need to know is that the katana has in some way, a spirit of its own, in the image of the one who forged it.”

"So your sword is like what, alive?"

"Yes and no. It is not alive in the same way as you and I are alive, but more in the sense that when we sing a song, we put our heart into it. A katana is a bit like the same idea. This weapon is imbued with my being, the one I was back then when I created it. Kind of like a copy of me. Do you understand me, or did I lose you there?"

"It reminds of an old book about your adventures in Japony, and also of my Element of Harmony that recognised my Loyalty to the group, am I right?"

Sunset needed to think, based on what Twilight had told her during their period of common depression. "It's kind of like that for the element except you didn't create it. But you understood a little bit the idea I'm trying to explain, very badly, I admit it."

"And so with the master blacksmith, what happened next?"

Sunset tried to find back the thread of the conversation. "He then said:

"Wait a second. Your katana has a name?"

"It is a bad omen for the newly forged blade of a katana to be immersed in water before naming it. In Japony, such a blade would be considered as soulless ... as a dead tree with only the bark left, the inside totally gnawed away by termites."

That image gave Rainbow goosebumps.

Sunset followed. "And so today, I have Spitfire ordering me to forge a blade especially for you."

"Shouldn't it be me doing it, you know, so the spirit of the sword can be a copy of me?"

Sunset smiles inwardly. "No, I'm not going to forge you a Rainbow katana, just a regular sword of the Equestrian army."

"Oh come on, you can't tell me all this about how swords are forged in Japony and then tell me you're going to forge a common sword for me."

Sunset's inner smile overflowed on her lips into a corner smile. "I guess you could probably convince Spitfire that as a special unit, you could have an unconventional weapon. But do you understand what this means?"

"Am I going to have to find a name for it?"

"No, before that."

"Uh, I'm going to have to learn how to forge?"

"No, before that."

Rainbow tried to remember. "No, I don't see it."

"We need to talk, Rainbow. The conversation that took me a day. But I'm only interested in one thing. I need to know what's wrong with you so you avoid your friends like you've been doing since you became a Wonderbolt."

"Oh, that."

"Yes, that. I talked to Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie today, and they can't explain it. So, please, help us understand what's wrong."

"Spitfire said it, Princess Celestia wanted me to be a special unit within the Wonderbolts. I'm a Wonderbolt because somepony I thought was my friend … did something that I can't even say. And I can't disappoint Princess Celestia, I have to dedicate myself, making sure everything is fine everywhere."

Sunset blinked several times, she couldn't believe her ears. She tried not to laugh, but could not hold back for long. "All of this for that?" Her laughter became louder. And Rainbow's offended face didn't help. "If I had known." She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"How can you laugh?!"

"Rainbow, you've got yourself all riled up so much, it's so absurd that it's better to laugh about it than to cry about it."

"What do you mean?!"

"I was there, Rainbow. Princess Celestia didn't choose you. Princess Celestia asked Spitfire to make a Wonderbolt into this special unit. Spitfire chose you."

The pegasus was troubled by this statement. "No. I'm sure of it. Spitfire said it was the princess' orders."

"Rainbow, don't make me drag you to the academy by the skin of your neck to ask Spitfire to repeat what she said. Please."

Rainbow's certainty ended up melting in front of Sunset's confidence. "So it's just because of Spitfire that I'm a Wonderbolt?"

"Did you really not listen to anything the other day? It's only for your achievements and talent. If your appointment to the active team had not arrived this month, it would only have been a matter of time. Fire Streak is about to leave the active team to become a teacher in the academy. You were at the top of the list to replace him."

Rainbow was lost, staring at the bottom of her pint. Not knowing how to react, she turned to Sunset, her eyes begging for guidance. "What do I do now?"

"Nopony forces you to be the guardian of harmony all the time, not even Spitfire, even if it makes her very happy that you give your all. Your friends miss you, three of them told me so. You're going to join the Running of the Leaves, because Applejack hopes to see you there, she told me it won't be the same without you." Her thoughts made her realise there was only one course of action. "Regarding the sword, I doubt a katana is what you need. Spitfire knows about Nightmare Moon, that's why she's asking me to forge a blade for you. But you are a guardian, Rainbow. When my katana was finished, the blacksmith's first words were: So tell me, in the event that Nightmare Moon possesses Princess Luna, would you be ready to kill her?"

The question shocked Rainbow Dash. "W-what?!! No!"

"In that case, explain to me in detail, why do you want a katana?"

"Because it seemed cool, considering the history of yours, the shadows and putting a bit of yourself in the blade and everything."

Rainbow's innocence made Sunset smile and start thinking. "Something cool that can fight somepony like Nightmare Moon." She thought about the conversations with Twilight. "If I could channel the energy of your Elements of Harmony into a blade. A magic sword of Harmony, how cool would that be?"

"Cool? Are you kidding me? That would be awesome," said the pegasus, waving her forelegs in a sudden upright position with her wings spread. "Do you think you can do that?" she asked after sitting down.

"I'll try. The idea is simple, but the execution isn't. I'll think about the concept, but I make absolutely no promises. In the worst case scenario, you'll have a Cloudichalcum sword."

“By the way, what’s its name?” asked Rainbow.

“My Sword? Danzan-maru. Maru is also a suffix, literally, it does mean , but it is often applied to swords and ships, with the implication that the item is something beloved. Danzan means .”

As Sunset cleared up the misunderstanding, they kept talking, and even after they had finished up their barrel of apple cider, Sunset continued regaling tales of her adventures in this far away country.

The next morning, Sunset set out to get Twilight out of her torpor, with the help of the group. A party was organised by them during the afternoon, while Sunset made the plans for the various parts of the tracker to be made, and all celebrated at nightfall the appointment of Rainbow Dash as a Wonderbolt.

When the components were ready, Sunset made the soldering of the printed circuit board itself before assembling the whole thing. Once this was done, she tried the device on Pinkie and this time it held on. Confident, she used the device and collected Pepper's magic print from the hair strand. However, given the time that had elapsed since Twilight received it, it was no longer possible to collect the magic print of the clotted blood. Sunset had to fall back on the three drop points Pinkie had mentioned to get a print. When she arrived in front of Fluttershy's cottage, she realised thanks to the leaves falling from the trees, that they delineated an area large enough to contain Princess Celestia herself no less, the waypoints forming a bubble that prevented organic elements from entering. Sunset then understood that these drop points had some protection, assured that one of them would prevent any creature from being inside if Pepper were to open the passage. At the same time, she set the tracker so that it would ignore them from now on. She realised that the Regicide had a sharp mind if she took these kinds of precautions, and this encouraged her to be more cautious. Moments later, she discovered the ruins of the two sisters' castle and after much investigation, the Tree of Harmony.

With the sword project still in mind, and seeing the symbols on the tree that seemed identical to the cutie mark of Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia, she was convinced that this tree had a connection with the Elements of Harmony. With great respect, she took one of the round, translucent gems hanging from the branches of the tree.

Back in Ponyville, Sunset spoke to Twilight about the sword project before asking for permission to manipulate the Elements of Harmony, and her help. After a few tests, the two students of Princess Celestia managed to find a reliable concept. Spitfire later approved this concept.

The day of the Running of the Leaves arrived very soon. Out Of the seven mares, Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight and Sunset were the only ones to participate: Pinkie and Spike were the commentators in duet from a hot air balloon that flew over the race, Fluttershy and Rarity, with their own reasons, did not participate. The idea behind the race was simple, the gallop of the participants would help the leaves of the trees to fall.

The next day, Sunset went to Fluttershy's cottage. She spent the day there, but towards the end of the day she went to get Twilight to show her the discoveries she made; that she could use magic to open Pepper's waypoints. She had to be aware of the specific place the waypoint was to use them. However, this only worked with the waypoints previously created by Pepper, the waypoints Sunset had recently visited. From the two sisters' castle, Twilight managed to open the gate leading to Fluttershy's cottage.