Sunset was sure that the hardest part of leaving home -for second time now- was saying goodbye, it had happened before after all so she had some idea of what it meant. Although she should have seen coming what ended up happening.
It was pretty normal for the Crystal Gems to work on the clean up after a corrupted gem attacked the city, well, more like it was Sunset’s job to do that considering that none of them –excepting Steven- even dignified themselves with that job. Garnet was not someone who would help in post gem hunting cleaning because she was too cool for things like that, while Amethyst because she was… Amethyst and there was no way in Tartarus Sunset would trust Amethyst with something like cleaning. Pearl would have helped considering how much the thin gem loved cleaning and doing chores, but sadly Pearl didn’t have a good opinion of humans no matter what Sunset did, so there was little to no chance of getting help from her.
So with an arduous job ahead of her Sunset began to take the broken pieces of rocks and the like, later on she would have to call several masons to fix the damage on the stone hand half buried in the sand. With all the jobs the guys did for Sunset and the Crystal Gems -alongside carpenters and a whole construction crew- she had them on speed-dial for events like these.
Princess Twilight stood gawking at Sunset work, being completely blown away at the ease in which the redheaded woman grabbed a piece of granite half her size and which was probably several tons in weight. Sunset didn’t even grunt when she took it on her hands and began to walk as if it was only a hollow prop. Twilight was no stranger to acts of strength; she had seen both big Mac and Applejack do some ridiculous stuff back in Ponyville, but that paled out in comparison to what Sunset was doing.
“And done, I swear, things like this never get easier, maybe I should star t considering joining the others in Gem Hunting so I can get some battle practice again.” Sunset said dusting her hands before turning around to look at her guest. She also realized that although the long haired princess had been capable of getting her data, she didn’t have much of a chance to get to know the Earth and the humans that inhabited it. So far she had only met the rest of her family and gotten herself into a dangerous situation -although considering she was now an Alicorn Princess, maybe she was used to the last one-, maybe she could do something for her before going back to Canterlot? “Hey Princess, wanna go and grab lunch?” She said finally making Twilight blink and shake her head to focus again.
“Sure, I would like that, and you don’t have to call me Princess.”
“I’ll try, is just that, you know… you have the wings and all.” Sunset answered back, for her it was still a little hard to think about the moment she met the young pony. To know that another had taken her place at Princess Celestia’s side was heart breaking… for half a second. After spending almost half a century alongside the Crystal Gems it made the dream of being an alicorn herself feel small in comparison.
“No, really, please… I don’t know if I deserve the wings.” Twilight's face said it all for Sunset, she knew very well those second guessing moments.
“Why don’t we go for a donut? I know it isn’t Donut Joe’s but believe me, The Big Donut ones are amazing.” she told Twilight making the magenta haired girl shyly smile at the prospect of a sugared treat. A couple of minutes later found both girls inside The Big Donut, finding Sadie behind the counter receiving them with her usual killing smile.
“Hi Sunset, nice to see you again, so did you decided to come back and live in the city again?”
“Not really Sadie, but I think I will be visiting home more regularly.” Sunset said to the short blonde, she then turned around to see her companion look at the different stuff around the store, probably surprised at how similar this donut shop was to the ones back on Canterlot “hey, let me introduce you. This is Twilight Sparkle, Twilight, this is Sadie MIller, a good friend of mine.” she said while the other girl waved. Sadie simply grinned at the introduction.
“Hey, nice to meet you, any friend of Sunset is a friend of The Big Donut.” the perky personality and welcoming aura of the short girl gained The Big Donut its nice reputation, this time it wasn’t any different since twilight visibly relaxed “so, what’s the occasion?”
“Nothing much, she just came with me to meet the family.” Sunset knew she had made a mistake at phrasing the situation in that way, even someone like Sadie would read it in the wrong way. Just looking at Sadie’s smile growing at her words made Sunset flinch at what would come next.
“Oh wow, I suppose things are pretty serious between you two,” Sadie said in her usual peppy way making Sunset groan while Twilight simply looked confused at what the two were talking about “how long have you two been together?” then it finally clicked in Twilight’s head what was the apparent topic of the conversation and she exploded in the brightest blush Sunset had ever seen. It would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so mortifying at the same time.
“I didn’t mean it like that Sadie. I know you had good intentions so is okay; she simply accompanied me so she could take notes about Beach City due to a project” Sunset said trying to fight back her own blush while the redhead wondered how it was possible for her as a gem to blush considering she had no heart to pump blood to her face. Thankfully Sadie took it in stride -probably a side effect from dealing with Steven and the rest- and promptly served them an unhealthy dose of sugar and deep fried flour.
With a tall cup of cappuccino for Sunset and a regular house brew for Twilight, the redhead decided to attack the problem from the root.
“You are not sure what to do as a Princess.” Sunset started talking, taking Twilight by surprise just as she was about to take a bite off her glazed donut. She simply blinked at Sunset's words and what was the meaning behind them.
“Excuse me?”
“How long since you became an alicorn?”
“I… just a couple of days.” The teenage girl said without the excitement she had shown while their lives were in danger. Sunset simply sighed knowing that the problem was a deep one and somehow she knew that she could partially blame Celestia for this one.
“Let me guess, you didn’t even know you could become an alicorn or wanted to become a princess, Celestia simply appeared and talked with you?”
“More like singing while praising me for what I have accomplished while simply giving me a pair of wings and throwing me back to the world as a princess with no idea what to do next.” Twilight said clearly scared about her future. Her expression was bad enough to make Sunset sigh once again.
“Look Twilight, I know we haven’t known each other for a long time but… I know a little bit of what you go through, how it feels to be thrown into the unknown with no idea of what to do or how to act. But I also know that it gets better,” Sunset said smiling gently at the -very much- younger girl in front of her "believe me, I have a bit of experience on that department.” she said finally getting a short laughter from Twilight.
“Thank you Sunset, this whole travel has been amazing, not only because I have found a new research project… but because I made a new friend.” Twilight softly said making Sunset feel better. It was true that Twilight’s fears would not go away that easily, but they started the road to get better and Sunset felt proud of that fact. So with their donuts ingested and a nice coffee shared between friends, the two of them began their journey to the temple with Sunset ordering a box of donuts to share with her friends back in Canterlot.
Sunset was sure that the hardest part of leaving home -for second time now- was saying goodbye, but it was harder due to having to drag Steven -who had basically glued to her left leg- and having to grab Amethyst by the head to stop her from eating the donuts.
“Garnet, Pearl, would you please-”
“Already done” the thin gem said to her taking a downtrodden Steven on her arms, while Garnet took Amethyst and put her under her arm while the purple gem pouted at the injustice of having donuts so close to her and be unable to eat them.
“Thank you guys, I’ll see you later.”
“NOOOOO, I don’t want you away!” Steven was basically crying at that point but Sunset smiled to her little brother.
“Come on silly, I’ll come back in a couple of days, besides, with the warp pad in Canterlot fixed we can see each other every time, so don’t worry Steven, I'll see you later.” The redhead said and with one last wave and goodbyes from the rest of the gems, the two girl originating from Equestria vanished in a column of light. It was a weird sensation to be transported with a warp pad but a couple of seconds later both girls found themselves in the basement of Canterlot High with five other girls all around the room.
“Sunset darling! We were getting a little worried since you told us you would come back an… hour ago?” The melodic and refined voice of Rarity -which Sunset knew was thanks to hours of practice-, welcomed Sunset back.
“Hey girls! I brought donuts… what? What happened?” Why were all her friends looking at her like that? And was that blood coming out of Rainbow’s nose?