"One..." the girl counted, seeing a leaf, falling from its branch:
"two...", she went on saying, as another one did the same thing:
"three...".
It was the day of the fall equinox and the fresh breeze, gently touching the girl's cheeks, carried within the cool of the incoming winter. Bushes of violets had sprouted at dawn and their pollin filled the air with its delicate scent, large pansies showed off their bright yellow-mulberry tint, while a few nigellas attracted the last bees of the season and ,as always, reddish leaves had began to leave their places on the trees and decorated the road in a rainbow of colors.
Sunset adored spending Sunday mornings at the city park; the idea of relaxing away from all the fuss and noises, caused by people running the street every single day, was the best thing she could picture in her mind.
She was there, sitting on her favorite bench by a pond, feeding the park ducks the remainder of her sandwich, smiling at them, as they happily enjoyed their food. A rather small cedar grassnake, hidden in the dry field, carefully neared the water to drink: its black eyes matched the color of the stripes it had on the back, then quickly disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived; Sunset liked it, since she had a thing for reptiles.
The girl breathed, filling her chest with that chilly air, then took her guitar from the baggage and started playing a nice tune: on this one she had been working particularly hard, it was supposed to be rock and sweet at the same time, but no matter what she tried, even after a full week, she had still been unable to get what she wanted.
“No, no, no!” Sunset exclaimed nervous.
“this will never work!”. Once she had calmed down, the girl got back on her bench, put the instrument away and picked a black note book from the handbag she had brought along with her.
“Where have I done wrong?” Sunset wondered: “I checked and rechecked...I don’t even know how many times, but this song is still imperfect, but I just can’t figure out why”.
She kept gazing at the blank pentagram in front of her, holding a pencil in her mouth, raking her hair in a desperate attempt to find the right inspiration.
“Ah, nothing” the girl sighed after a while.
“perhaps I should let this go: there’s no sense in keep trying now; maybe I should ask Fluttershy to help me tomorrow”.
Having thought so, Sunset picked her guitar up and began to stroll across the park, headed home: some kids were playing soccer by the fountain and, from the looks of it, they were having a lot of fun, while their mothers calmly mingled nearby. The young girl giggled, seeing them; they looked so innocent and happy.
“they certainly don’t need to worry about saving the world, anytime there’s a magic trouble, coming from Equestria!” she said to herself, leaving them to their game.
The street was curiously peaceful and calm that day; it looked like everybody had decided to stay in their nice cozy beds.
“I must have woken up early on Sunday morning again: I can’t really see to get used to sleep in, even when I have the chance” she pointed out, noticing that her watch indicated it was only six am.
“maybe I should stop playing all those video games at night...”.
Truth was, the reason why Sunset had not been able to sleep was a different one.
“So, we were at Sweet Apple Acres and AJ insisted we should make apple fritters for that occasion” the girl wrote down on her journal.
“it was the annual apple family reunion, after all, and she kept saying that all of us were just as important as the rest of her relatives, when she invited us and, and as you can imagine, we couldn’t possibly refuse”.
“Sounds great” Sunset read loudly, after some words had appeared on the following page of the book: “what happened then?”
“We gathered near the barn to cook up some pastries, but it turned out we were out of flour. After Applejack had complained furiously, Big Mac rushed to reach us, dragging two heavy bags, yet he was such in a hurry that he slipped on a puddle and we all ended up covered in flour! You should have seen the that: we were all walking funny, attempting to clean up our eyes!”. While the girl laughed her mysterious interlocutor wrote her back.
“Ha, ha, ha, yeah, it must have been hilarious!”
“You bet!”
“And what did you do next?”
“Oh, well...after we got cleaned, not only did Pinkie use all the flour at once, cooking, but she also devoured the apple fritters in one bite”
“How does she do that all the time?”
“Don’t ask me: I was just as surprised as you probably are right now”
“Yeah, probably”
“Say, how are things back in Equestria?”
“Oh, Sunset, if you only knew: I need to get everything ready for a friendship summit in Griffonstone; it’s all very tough”
“I can only imagine, but, hey, you are the princess of friendship: great power and honor come with great responsibilities; everypony knows that”
“since when did you become so lecture?”
“Let’s just say, there are things about me you still need to find out, but don’t worry, you’ll be pleased with them, too”
“On that I have no doubt, but let’s just say I had quite enough surprises today”
“Really, why?”
“When you go to somewhere you are supposed to know all about and find out it’s the complete opposite of what you thought it can be pretty shocking”
“You mean Griffonstone?”
“Yeah I mean Griffinstone, according to my book it was the best town in all of the world!”
“I thought Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had warned you it wasn’t quite up to your expectations, the last time they visited the place”
“Sure, but I never thought it would be that bad”, reading those words, Sunset suddenly put on a frowning face.
“I am sorry about that, I didn’t think it had disappointing you so much”
“C’mon, don’t worry, Equestria is still full of other interesting places to see”
“Got anything specific in mind?”
“Have I ever told you about the time Rarity and I had to accompany Spike to the dragon lands?”
“You did, you said me he had decided to travel there to find out who he really was and...”
“No, not that one!”
“Then which one?”
“Y’know the time, when he had to compete in the Gauntlet of Fire”
“I don’t recall you telling me such a story”
“What?!” the other one exclaimed: “Are you sure?”
“One hundred per cent sure”
“Shoot, these princess duties are beginning to make me forget things! Maybe I should take a break...”
“You sure need it”
“You really think so?”
“Absolutely and, while you’re at it, you could drop by”
“Fine, I’ll take a break and check my schedule, so I can see when I’m free to come”
“It’s been a while now, since the last time we got to see each other and I do recall you saying ours was just a temporary goodbye back then”
“Okay, I guess I own you one: let’s see...how about I come next week?”
“That would be awesome!”
“It looks like I have some free time on Sunday”
“So, I can finally tell you the latest news from Canterlot High directly”
“I can’t wait, either!”
“Now, what was this Gauntlet of Fire thingy?”
“Oh, yeah: y’see it all started, when Spike’s scales started glowing...”
“Uh!” Sunset sighed: “I guess I should tell her we’d both need to move our regular chat to a different time of day, but it’s just so much fun writing to each other all night!”.
As she was reflecting upon these things, the girl took her beloved headphones, a one of a kind design, covered in pointy spikes, and raised their volume to the maximum level: if there was something she knew about herself, it was that she loved music.
Listening to the rock sound of the tune, playing in her ears, Sunset began to dance in the middle of the street, moving her hips to the rhythm of the music, waving her arms.
“Tum, tum, tum” Sunset closed her eyes, focusing only on one thing,
“Tum, tum, tum” she moved back and forward,
“Tum, tum, tum” her whole body started to dance, like it possessed a will on its own.
All of a sudden, while she was enjoying herself, the girl felt a painful sensation on her left shoulder, opened her eyes and noticed herself being violently pushed by a creepy clothed figure.
“Hey!” she shouted, having taken off her headphones,seeing them run away. “Come back!”; alas, the mysterious one ignored her and kept running on their way: “Such rudeness!”.
At that point it did not take long for a shouting voice to catch her attention.
“Thief, thief, help!” an elder lady, dressing in purple, shrieked: “He’s got my purse, help!”.
Hearing those words, Sunset quickly turned around and chased the suspicious guy around the corner of the street. “You, stop!” she shouted, getting closer to them; unfortunately the robber turned out to be quite fast and managed to climb up a hedge in the blink of an eye, then jumped in a house yard.
The girl followed them with no problem. “I told you to stop!” she exclaimed once more, hoping to catch somebody’s attention, hopefully that of police officer, patrolling nearby. “Give me back that purse!”.
Fast as lightening the thief reached the other side of the house and got back on the walking road with Sunset still chasing them, yet not for long. The reason why the girl did not manage to catch them was that just around the corner the path turned into a confused twisted maze, impossible to go through, at least for the ones who did not know the place too well.
In a flash the robber disappeared in one of those divisions, while Sunset, who was but a few inches behind, lost them, this time once and for all: “Shoot!” the girl gasped, breathing heavily.
“For a moment I thought I had them!”.
After cooling down, she renounced the thought of trying to chase the robber some more and got back on her way.“It’s not worth it” Sunset pointed out. “It’d be better if I get back home; I sure feel sorry for that lady, though” suddenly something strange crossed her mind for a moment:
what was an elder woman doing in the middle of the street at such an hour, anyway?
“Mmm...strange” the girl thought, walking. “I can’t seem to remember this place”, after taking a few more steps forward, she reluctantly had to admit to herself that she had gotten lost.
“Yep...” she went on saying:
“...I’ve definitely never been here before”.
That unexpected situation got her under pressure, which she did not like in the least: sure she was usually good at finding her way back home from everywhere, but being nervous was exactly what she did not need at that moment.
“Oh...boy” Sunset exclaimed, once she had looked around.
“I shouldn’t been here!”
One look at the place andanybody would feel terrorized: it was creepy, hostile, frightening even, the road was desert, nothing in sight but dirt and rubbish spread all around, a few houses with their windows shuttered and holed rooftops, still in one piece by some miracle, anticipated a long walking passage across an even less recommendable area from which the barks of hungry dogs could be heard.
“Well...”the girl gulped again: I’d better get going, before anything bad happens”.
For some weird reason the way back home seemed interminable and it felt like time had been stopped in that remote area of the city: not a single cloud crossed the sky, not even the weakest blow of wind; as a result, the air felt as humid as that of a swamp, not to mention the unbearable noises coming from all over, while pieces of walls were slowly following on the ground from those ghost buildings.
“Come on, Sunset, don’t freak out...”the girl whispered, doing her best to maintain a calm and collected attitude.
“there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a neighborhood like any other one. After all, it’s just what they always say: don’t judge a book by its cover, so, stop worrying; it’s not like anybody will harm you here, because this place doesn’t look friendly, right?!”.
Not in million years she really meant the things she had mentioned and that was pretty obvious, especially when she heard the loud noise of a pile of empty glass bottles, breaking on the ground.
Quicker than a deer, being chased by a predator, Sunset rushed to one of the nearby houses, moved away the remainder of the wooden door, blocking her path, and entered the horrible building.
It took quite a while for the girl to calm down, sweat was wetting her face, her skin had become so pale she looked like a corpse and her eyes conveyed a childish expression of fragility.
“It sounds like everything’s okay, now” she gasped.
“but maybe it’s not safe to go out, yet...I think I’d better stay in here for a bit: this place looks abandoned anyway”.
Pushed by both fear and curiosity, Sunset decided not to leave and climbed the staircase just next to her. While holding on the handrail, this one produced a terrible squeaking noise, giving the impression it would fall down any moment. The wall, on the other hand, did not look any better: its covering was spoiled by several black and greenish spots, as a result of humidity, and, when touched, felt thin as a sheet of paper; luckily she did reach the top, before anything unpleasant could happen.
As soon as she found herself in a room, having opened the door in front of her, the girl could not help but notice that the place stank of cat litter and old people.
“Ah” she exclaimed, pretending to be coughing.
“This smell is unbearable: when was the last time they did some cleaning here, never?!”. That room looked like a kitchen with its unusable sink, the vintage utensils and a table at the very center, covered in a dusty white cloth. Having sneezed, Sunset decided she had seen enough and got downstairs to the living room.
That part of the house was quite empty as well, if not for a couple of sofas with a bunch of blankets on them: no television or anything technological was there; even the light bulb on the ceiling did not work.
Sunset was about to turn around and walk away, as the sight of a mysterious dark room attracted her: it was not too far, just a few steps away really and, from where she was, she could see that the place was not completely obscured thanks to a fair light, probably penetrating from a window. In the end, although she knew she had remained in that unwelcoming house for far too long already, as usual, her curios spirit was stronger than her good sense.
She quietly approached the room, with her ears fully raised, so she would hear anything suspicious, careful not to get her newest black leather boots dirty,whilewalking: it was Rarity the one who had made them for her, after all.
Once she had entered, for who knows what reason, the atmosphere became much heavier, as Sunset could smell a ton of dust in the air which, of course, made her sneeze several times. The place she found herself in was not much different from the rest of the house, except maybe for the fact that was much smaller: a bed with lots of pillows on stood there, its sheets were undone and dirty, in some spots their color had turned from white to yellow, on the other handshe noticed a small desk and a wooden chair by the window.
On the table was a book, also covered in dust, yet decorated in a nice tawny leather, even if its edges were a bit spoiled; the girl looked at it with great curiosity.
“What’s this?” Sunset wondered, laying her gaze on the only interesting thing she had found in that dreadful house so far.
“It looks like a regular old book”; there was something more to that, though, she could tell, otherwise it would not have caught her attention so much.
She did want to sit down and open it, but the squeaky noise of the chair where she was about to sit, suddenly reminded her that she had somewhere else to be, so she grabbed the book and rushed out of that tremendous place without stopping anywhere this time.
“So that’s basically the point” Sunset said clearly. “I’ve been working on this new song for the Rainbooms all week, but I just can’t get it right, no matter what!”.
“I see...” a kind voice replied on her phone. “Well...I’ll be happy to help, after all, I would never leave you in distress”
“Thanks Fluttershy, you’re a real saviour!”
“Oh, you make me blush, see you tomorrow after school at my place, so we can see what needs to be done”
“I’ d really be lost without you!”
“You’re such a sweat!”
“Now, I must be going: see you tomorrow, Flutteshy!”
“See you tomorrow!”.
Having put down her phone, Sunset laid on her comfortable bed, tired from what had happened that morning: the scent of her sheets was delicate and filled her nose with a pleasant lavender aroma; plus inspired her a certain wish to get some sleep, after all, she had woken up quite early, yet the girl’s stomach did not seem to agree.
“Okay, okay, I get it” Sunset thought: “you’re hungry: let me just cook something up and we’ll have lunch”.
The girl headed to the kitchen downstairs, quickly got some ingredients from the fridge, then set up the oven so it would preheat at four hundred degrees.
She started mixing up yogurt and flour in a large bowl, added: turnip, cheese, salt, black pepper and potatoes and put the whole thing into the oven.
After thirty minutes she removed the mixture and, having made eight indentations with the back of a spoon, cracked an egg on each one of them, then finally returned it to the oven. It did not take long, just eight minutes actually, for the room to be filled with the moth watering scent typical of the Rosti Casserole, a recipe Sunset adored.
Having grabbed knife and fork, the girl made herself comfortable on a chair and dove into the exquisite food: each bite tasted better than the previous one, as the delicious flavor of the Gruyère cheese, together with the eggs and the warm sweet potatoes mixed up in her mouth.
“Delicious!” Sunset exclaimed satisfied, cleaning the dirty corners of her mouth with a hankie, after finishing her lunch.
“It’s a good thing I can cook properly, at least I don’t have to go all the way to a restaurant and wait for years in order to eat. Oh, perhaps I should make something special the next time the others and I hang out all together: I’m sure everyone would enjoy my food!”.
She climbed up the staircase to her bedroom, neared her desk and took a look at the calendar.
“Great, Pinkie’s birthday is next week!The girls and I are gonna have so much fun, plus, as Pinkie always works hard to get everything ready for our birthday parties, it’s only fair for us to be planning hers instead. What was her favorite’s dessert, again? The simple platter, but I’m sure the Cakes have got that covered already, maybe I should prepare...”
While pronouncing those words, she could not help but notice the dusty old book she had found earlier that morning, laying on her desk, calling for her to open and read it.
Sunset raised her gaze at the clock, hanging from the wall, and saw it was only 14: 30: “I still have some time, before our regular Sunday chat: I’m sure it’ll be enough to read it”.
Having sat down on her comfy chair, the girl opened the tawny leather book; the writing on the first page was a bit smudge, especially at the end, but she was able to read it anyway.
"You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes,
of those sighs on which I fed my heart,
in my first vagrant youthfulness,
when I was partly other than I am,
I hope to find pity, and forgiveness,
for all the modes in which I talk and weep,
between vain hope and vain sadness,
in those who understand love through its trials.
Yet I see clearly now I have become
an old tale amongst all these people, so that
it often makes me ashamed of myself;
and shame is the fruit of my vanities,
and remorse, and the clearest knowledge
of how the world’s delight is a brief dream."
"Great!" Sunset giggled in front of those initial words, adjusting the red curl, dropping on her face.
"the beginning sounds promesing enough!"