Rainbow carried her to the front door of Donut Joe's shop. When she turned around to look at Sunset, she fell to the ground, laughing. She held her ribs while pointing at Sunset's mane. It was ruined by the Sonic Rainboom, blown back straight like a head of flaming straw. "What the hay is with your hairdo?! If Rarity saw you like this, she'd faint." She took a deep breath, then straightened up on her hooves. "Let's head in. I'm starving."

Sunset shook her head, putting her mane back in place. "My stomach is still in Ponyville because of you. By the time we've ordered, it will have made the trip here," she said with a mischievous smile.

They entered the store. As Rainbow walked towards the counter, the smell of the morning doughnuts invigorated Sunset’s memory. It was like going back in time. Nothing had changed. The chequerboard floor. The light blue and apple-green contoured counter behind which Joe took the orders. The round tables and their wooden stools. She joined Rainbow at the counter.

Joe watched in amazement and delight as Sunset approached. "If I hadn't been told you were back, Miss Shimmer, I'd think I saw a ghost."

Sunset looked at Rainbow, but the pegasus simply shook her head. "It wasn't me," she said, as astonished as Sunset was. They turned to Donut Joe.

Joe briefly looked at the entrance. "I heard it from a reliable source."

The pegasus that had just entered the shop moved closer to the counter. "But if it isn't Sunpest I see there... So, finally back from the lost maze, girl? It's about time you came home," she said with impertinent malice.

Rainbow reacted immediately, turning to defend her new friend. But as she was about to speak, she immediately took a step back.

Sunset put a hoof on her shoulder, giving her a warm smile. "Don't worry, it's all right," she whispered. She glanced at the interested party. "Yeah, I'm back. Why? Do you mind? Don't make a big fuss about nothing, Shitfire,"

Spitfire was out of her Wonderbolts uniform. She stood with defiance, looking stern. "Do I mind? Yes, it does bother me. Canterlot's daily life has been pretty quiet lately, but with you around, I have the feeling that it won't last long. So, be a good filly for once, and go back to where you came from," she ordered dryly.

Rainbow stood silent, not knowing what to think of the scene before her. She glanced at Donut Joe. The stallion was also watching, a discreet smirk on his face. She turned again to the two antagonists facing each other.

Sunset and Spitfire were facing each other like statues. It wasn't long before their lips twisted into a smile, and they shared a hoofshake that ended in a shoulder-to-shoulder slap.

"Wait—do you two know each other?" Rainbow asked, leaning forward with her wings spread.

"Yes." Sunset said, "Spitfire was a friend of mine when I was a student at the school for gifted unicorns."

Spitfire laughed. "You mean, the only one crazy enough to hang out with you back then. But let's talk about old times in a little bit. Joe, can you bring us our usual orders, please?"

"Right away, miss," Joe said.

The three of them settled down at a table. Sunset and Spitfire sat face-to-face. Rainbow sat on the side, so was fortunate to be sitting beside one of her idols.

Donut Joe brought three meal trays. For Spitfire and Rainbow, the tray contained a fruit salad, coffee, a glass of milk, and several slices of toast with two squares of butter and two individual jars of jam. For Sunset, a green tea, a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries accompanied by a pitcher of milk, and a whole avocado. When he saw Sunset's surprised expression , he smiled. "I memorised your breakfast. I hope you still like it. Ladies, enjoy your breakfast."

Sunset wanted to respond with the term she'd learned in Japan, but settled for a simple, "Thank you." She turned to the two pegasi. "Enjoy your meal too."

After some polite exchanges, Spitfire began, "So, what's the story of your little stroll?"

Sunset cut the avocado with the knife. "I wandered all over the world until I ended up in Japony. It was a nice place, so I settled down. New culture, a way of life so different from here. But being a gaijin isn't easy there, even if there are advantages to being a ronin," she thought aloud, watching her reflection in the knife. She realised Spitfire was looking at her oddly. "Gaijin means ‘stranger’, and a ronin is..." She was going to say samurai, but that would make it harder to understand. "...A warrior who serves no ruler. A mercenary, sort of. Over there, the country is divided into clans, each with its own chief—the correct term is daimyo—and its warriors, which are called samurai. In the beginning, it was easy for me to get a job in the sake parlours, making sure the customers didn't get drunk." When she finished dicing up the avocado, she saw that the two mares were lost again. "The local alcohol, made from fermented rice. After that, I was offered a job by a magistrate, who is the equivalent of a criminal investigator. That's when I started making enemies and being on the lookout for intruders," she said, looking at Rainbow.

Spitfire was amused by the second part of the story. "Sunset Shimmer, the royal meanie, now a representative of justice. If anypony but you had told me, I'd have laughed in their face."

Rainbow poured some of her milk into the coffee and mixed it with two sugars. "The... what?"

Spitfire turned to Rainbow. "Sunset Shimmer was the worst student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Oh, of course, as a pupil of Princess Celestia, she behaved impeccably towards any authority figure. But as soon as there weren’t any adults around, she became a completely different mare."

Sunset took the blame, but sought to defend herself. "You're exaggerating. I wasn't as much of a bully as you say I was. Okay, I admit that I had a shitty mentality at the time, but not that much. I was still a student of Princess Celestia, after all."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Spitfire had a laugh. "I think you're idealising your past, because, believe me, your name is still being mentioned at the school today. You've become an urban legend."

Rainbow stepped in, eager to know more. "But how did you two meet in the end?"

Sunset happily put aside the ongoing conversation to answer Rainbow. "At the time, this venom-spitting viper was looking for a unicorn to train in live combat. So when she went to see Princess Celestia, she naturally thought of me."

Rainbow turned to Spitfire again. "Real fight with a unicorn? What for?"

"The pony who desires peace prepares for war. And when you see what unicorns can do with their magic, you must be prepared to fight one of them at any moment," Spitfire explained.

"By the way, has that training paid off?" Sunset asked before eating a few spoonfuls of her oats.

"So-so." Spitfire set her cutlery aside and leaned over the table, chin in hoof, looking out the windows to the sky. "Soon after you left, I became Squadron Leader and Chief Instructor of New Recruits." She looked at Sunset and smiled impertinently. "I think it's fair to say it has been useful to my career."

The oats Sunset had gathered slipped from her spoon and fell back into the bowl. She put the spoon on the tray and took a sip of her tea. "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order."

"Don't bother. I'm too used to Sunpest. I might take it as sarcasm."

"Stop it, Spitfire. You were one of the few I was straight with," Sunset grunted.

"I admit as much." Spitfire looked lost in her memories, amused. "Do you remember the first year who kept following you around?” She wouldn't say their name, thinking Sunset forgot it. “You'd make her carry your things, send her shopping, whatever, and she'd ask for more, always ready to oblige. What was it she said when she talked about you? I don't remember," she pondered aloud.

Rainbow remained silent as she finished her meal, letting her friends talk about the good old days—even though it was hard to imagine that Sunset could have been as Spitfire described.

Sunset had to think for a moment to remember. "Yes, I know who you mean. That young unicorn with the light-blue coat and silver and blue mane, she was all over me back then. Trixie, I believe? She said I was the ‘Great and Wonderful’ Sunset."

You have better to suggest? Following everywhere is not better

Spitfire suddenly looked up at Sunset with an amused, nostalgic smile. "Yes, that's it, exactly!"

Rainbow spat out the coffee she was drinking. "You knew Trixie when she was young?!" she shouted.

"Uh... yes? Why? Do you know her?" Sunset asked warily.

"Are you kidding me? She's had Twilight in a rage since they first met! She even tried to use the Alicorn Amulet to defeat her in a magic duel and banish her from Ponyville!" Rainbow explained.

"After you left, she began to consider herself the most powerful student in the school. But nothing could be further from the truth. The episode with the artefact briefly made her more powerful than Princess Twilight. Back then, she was still a unicorn," Spitfire added.

Sunset had a vague recollection of the artefact bringing power to the wearer, but the wearer’s spirit would become corrupted as it was used. "Is she all right now?" Sunset asked, worried about Trixie's fate.

"I don't know. I haven't seen her since we took the amulet from her. She left Ponyville shortly after. That was last year."

Sunset gave a quiet sigh of relief. "I see." She ate a spoonful of oatmeal before resuming, "I'm not proud of it, but it's all behind me. It was fifteen years ago. I'm not the same pony anymore. I'm not going to let the past stop me from moving forward."

The three mares resumed their meal in silence. Donut Joe approached the table to clean up the coffee that Rainbow had spit out moments earlier. After a stern look, he cracked a teasing smile. "Miss Dash, if the coffee isn't to your liking, just say the word. I’ll brew a new pitcher to change yours."

Rainbow was embarrassed, rubbing her neck with a hoof. "No, it's not that. I just heard something huge about Sunset's past."

Joe hid a laugh behind a hoof. "Anypony who knew her would have a lot to say about Miss Shimmer. Even I'd have a few anecdotes to tell about her."

Sunset let her astonishment override her annoyance. "Even here? What have I done?"

"Didn't you ever notice that my dad had a new intern almost every week?" Joe asked.

"I don't remember," Sunset admitted after a period of reflection.

"You were a difficult client at the time, abusing your status as Princess Celestia’s student. . Your unpleasant comments made the interns give up rather than put up with you for another day. In the end, my father pushed me to personally take care of your orders. I remember the difficulty I had in preparing a breakfast that you liked." He laughed nostalgically. "Those were good times. I don't know if I would've gotten my cutie mark without your fussy demands, but I had to be just as fussy to make my doughnuts."

Spitfire held back a laugh. "I remember the day you threatened to bring in a health inspector and shut the shop down if the intern of the day dared to ever serve you an avocado that wasn’t freshly picked again. He looked so freaked out the rest of the day. Good thing it wasn't a pegasus, or it would have rained lightning bolts on your head once you left the shop.”

With a story like that, Rainbow smiled up to her ears, which she could hardly hide behind her hooves.

Sunset remained silent, memories of the same sort streaming into her mind. She lost her appetite, putting her spoon down, her eyes screwed on her plate. When she felt Joe's hoof on her shoulder, she turned her gaze to him.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Miss Shimmer. I brought that up just because you don't seem to be the same. You haven't made a doughnut in your life." He smiled reassuringly. "When you eat a doughnut, the last bite ends behind the first. You're right back where you started, so to speak. Which you haven't done. I’m certain that if Princess Celestia hadn't disappeared, she'd be proud to see the mare you've become."

At the thought of Princess Celestia's disappearance, Rainbow and Spitfire lost their smiles and ended the meal. Sunset, who regained a slight smile, thought about the precept with interest. "’Don't live your life like a doughnut.’ That's an interesting bistro philosophy you've got there, Joe.”

"Sold two bits each, six days a week. Twenty bits by the dozen," joked Joe as he walked back behind the counter.

Breakfast now over, they paid the check and left the store. Spitfire turned back to Sunset and Rainbow. "If you don't have any plans, I'd like you to come with me. Shouldn't take more than an hour." With those few words, she flew off, climbing above the tallest house in the area. The two mares stared at each other, then flew into the skies after Spitfire.

"I'm beginning to think this meeting was planned," Sunset said as she flew to the left of the Wonderbolt, Rainbow on the other side.

"It was, more or less, but seeing you two together at Joe's is more luck than anything else. It's true we used to have breakfast there. And since Soarin made it the Wonderbolts' unofficial coffee shop, I was sure Rainbow Dash would be there. I thought I'd send her to get you."

"Unnecessary, since she literally dragged me to Joe's. Now that we're out of eavesdropping range, you wanna give us a briefing?"

Spitfire smirked. "As eager as ever, I see. Sunpest isn't as dead and buried as you'd like to think. Joking aside, the day after Princess Celestia disappeared, I found an envelope in my office. The letter contained instructions from Princess Celestia. That's how I knew you were coming back one of these days."

"I've got a pretty good idea who the delivery pony was," Sunset said between two flaps of her flaming wings

"Head to the Altostratus Zone," Spitfire said, ignoring the remark.