Crystal Heart Attack

Chapters

1 The Cockatrice's Victim
2 The Chaotic Journey
3 The Proper Punishment

1 The Cockatrice's Victim

Twilight Sparkle was often awake at a late hour and this time, it was because a question occurred to her while she was lying half-awake in her bed. She opened one of her favourite books and wrote her query onto the first blank page she found.

“Hello, Sunset. I want to know if you saw anything strange about the alternate moon at all since you left Equestria,” she recited as she wrote. “After all, no one uses magic to raise and lower the sun and moon there.”

She sat with Princess Celestia’s old correspondence book open in front of her wondering how long she should wait for Sunset Shimmer to write back. It was unlikely that she would be awake at this hour, but twice, back when Twilight was avoiding her new home in Ponyville Castle, she once asked Sunset if she could spend the night with her in the alternate world, and they’d been up until about 2AM on both occasions engaged in pillow talk. After half an hour, there was no response, and Twilight was finding it hard to keep her eyes open. She spent the rest of the night back in her bed.

Celestia’s book was her alarm call the following morning. Twilight zipped from her bed and opened the buzzing book to where she’d left off.

“Hey, Twilight. Yes, I have seen the moon here do strange things. Four times,” Sunset’s spidery scrawl was flashing. “Three times, the moon stayed in the sky during the day. The first time it lasted all morning, the second time it lasted two weeks, and the third time it lasted all day.”

Twilight blinked. She couldn’t think what that two-week-long period could have been. The morning-long one must have been from the time Nightmare Moon had escaped from her lunar prison. And the all-day one was obviously the time Equestria was under threat of takeover by Plunder Plants. But no recollection of a night that lasted two weeks came to Twilight.

“And once, for a whole night,” Sunset’s message went on, “the sun was up.”

“The sun?!” exclaimed Twilight.

“It stayed sitting on the horizon all night. I still hear people talking about that weird night from time to time,” Sunset’s reply finished.

Twilight quickly wrote back asking if Sunset was sure about that two-week-long day moon and the night-long sun on the horizon. This time, she waited for a reply for hours. It then occurred to her that school must have started at Canterlot High and Sunset would be busy now. Prompted by Spike bidding her good morning and requesting breakfast, Twilight went about her business.

During breakfast, Spike burped a scroll onto Twilight’s plate. For the second time that day, Twilight was delighted to get a reply. This one was from Princess Celestia, and it was about a search party she’d formed.

“Do you think they found Crosspatch and Lazybug’s parents?” asked Spike.

“Let’s find out,” Twilight said as she unrolled the scroll.

“Dear Princess Twilight,” the letter said, “my investigation team was succeeded in finding Pulp Puree and Winter Squash.”

“They did it!” cried Twilight.

Spike beamed, but frowned when he saw Twilight’s face fall.

“However, they have requested to not arrange any sort of reunion with Crosspatch and Lazybug,” the letter went on. “I am sorry to say that they do not share your view that their children have redeemed themselves for trying to claim Sweet Apple Acres for themselves by means of the Zap-O-Lantern.”

“I think Pulp Puree and Winter Squash are ashamed of their children for their crimes,” Twilight said glumly.

“Sounds like they’re not as forgiving as you are,” said Spike, remembering the aftermath of his birthday rampage.

Twilight read the last part of Celestia’s letter and felt worse and worse.

“I shall leave it to you to decide how to proceed with this news. As the Princess of Friendship, the choice is yours. Farewell for now.”

“I’ll have to tell them that their parents don’t want to see them,” Twilight groaned. “But I don’t know how.”

An opportunity came to Twilight that evening, as Crosspatch arrived at the front door of the castle. Spike lead her in and took her to Twilight.

Crosspatch bowed. “Evening, your Highness.”

“Good evening,” Twilight nodded, hoping she didn’t look nervous.

“I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen any spiders around since I was last here,” said Crosspatch.

Twilight’s worry that she wasn’t keeping a straight face was intensified by the fact that Crosspatch was having trouble keeping her face straight herself. It seemed that Crosspatch’s real reason for coming was wanting a status report, and she clearly thought it’d be awkward to just ask.

“No, I haven’t,” said Twilight. “And, um…”

Another visitor entered the room. Spike looked taken aback. Very rarely do ponies barge into the castle. Twilight was sure that this meant there was urgent news.

“Princess Twilight! There’s an emergency!” Flitter cried, panting. “A cockatrice is running around town turning ponies to stone!”

Twilight gasped. Crosspatch grinned and pelted towards the door.

“Leave it to me!” she called before running out of the room.

The castle’s front doors banged open, and Crosspatch zoomed out into the red glow of the evening. Many yards away were three stone ponies. There stood the statues of Amethyst Star, Golden Grape, and Rarity, all of whom looked very shocked. Crosspatch squinted around. There was a sudden movement. Crosspatch shut her eyes, but then she heard a voice that told her that it wasn’t a cockatrice.

“It turned Rarity into a statue and then ran that way!”

Crosspatch opened her eyes and saw that Sweetie Belle was peering behind her rock-solid sister and pointing back towards the castle. She looked back at the large front doors just as Twilight, Flitter and Spike, who was carrying the spritzing bottle she’d left behind, ran outside.

“Careful!” Crosspatch called to them. “The cockatrice might be…!”

Flitter heard a fierce squawk and turned to see a chocolate-and-cream coloured chicken/snake hybrid staring her in the face. She had no time to look away before she was petrified. Spike jumped to his left to avoid Flitter toppling onto him.

“Shut your eyes!” shouted Crosspatch, running towards the scene.

Twilight and Spike did so, and Crosspatch copied them while still running. She skidded to a halt and listened for the cockatrice’s wing-flaps and footsteps.

Crosspatch opened her eyes. The cockatrice squawked and flinched. Twilight and Spike shuddered. They still had their eyes shut, yet they felt uncomfortable.

“You think you can come bursting into this town and turn ponies to stone just because you feel like it?” Crosspatch growled at the quivering cockatrice. “Think again. There’s a new pest pony in town. So you can just turn everyone you’ve looked at back to normal and go on home. Get me?”

The cockatrice nodded and walked gladly away from the intensity of Crosspatch’s gaze. Twilight and Spike opened their eyes and watched the cockatrice scuttle towards Flitter’s statue.

“You can use the Stare?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah. Didn’t Fluttershy tell you about our Staring contest in the schoolhouse?” asked Crosspatch.

Flitter wasn’t too disoriented. The first thing she saw when she was restored was Fluttershy flying as quickly as she could towards the castle.

“I’ve only just heard!” she called to Twilight.

“Everything’s under control, Fluttershy,” grinned Crosspatch as Fluttershy watched the intruder returning Rarity to normal. “Sorry to leave you outta the fun.”

“Oh, well I’m just happy there’s another pony in town who can keep others safe from invading Everfree creatures,” Fluttershy smiled.

Her smile faltered.

“Anything wrong?” asked Twilight.

“Um… no…” said Fluttershy. “I just have this funny feeling that this kind of thing has happened before.

Twilight grinned. “You mean the time I was turned to stone that day you were foalsitting the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

Fluttershy shook her head.

“Well, what do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know, but something’s telling me that animals from the Everfree Forest have attacked Ponyville before.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “What did that happen?”

Fluttershy looked like she was sucking on a sour candy. “I can’t remember.”

She watched the cockatrice move from Rarity, to Golden Grape, to Amethyst Star.

“Maybe I’m just remembering a nightmare I had once,” she decided.

After Crosspatch, Fluttershy and Twilight had watched the cockatrice leave the town and return home to Everfree, Crosspatch was thanked by several ponies as she made her own way back home. The following morning at the schoolhouse, Sweetie Belle was telling all of her classmates about how that cockatrice had popped out of thin air and looked her sister square in the eyes rendering her immobile. Lazybug seemed quite interested as well.

“Didn’t Crosspatch tell you about it herself?” asked Gilt Eyes.

“No, she never said a thing about yesterday evening,” replied Lazybug.

“That’s funny,” remarked Twist. “Why wouldn’t your sister tell you something like that?”

“I dunno,” Lazybug shrugged. “I mean I know she can use the Stare, so I don’t think she’d be worried about surprising me or anything.”

“She probably didn’t want to make you jealous,” said Diamond Tiara. “You can’t use the Stare, can you?”

“Uh… I’ve never tried,” said Lazybug.

“Try it on Diamond Tiara,” smirked Scootaloo.

He never had the chance, as Cheerilee had arrived and called for silence so she could begin her lesson for the day.

After hours of explaining why the city of Clopley Hill often has unseasonable snow flurries, the recess bell was due to ring.

“If anyone has any questions before recess begins,” said Cheerilee, “I’ll be happy to answer them.”

Lazybug looked around. He was glad to see no one had raised their hooves. He was keen to go out and see if he could use the Stare on someone.

“Alright, have a good break,” said Cheerilee.

“Does anyone ever ask the teacher a question before recess?” Lazybug asked Diamond Tiara.

Diamond Tiara looked confused for a second, but then she said “No way. Nopony likes a short recess.”

Lazybug wasn’t convinced. Something about the look on Diamond Tiara’s face suggested that she was doubting her answer.

The school ponies began to leave their seats and gather their things, but the bell didn’t ring.

“Hm. I wonder what’s keeping Daisy,” Cheerilee said, walking to the door to see to the pony who’d volunteered to ring the bell that day.

Cheerilee shut the door as quickly as she’d opened it. She hastily ushered Button Mash, Snails and Dinky, who were closest to the door, back towards the desks.

“There’s a cockatrice outside!” she exclaimed.

“Another one?!” cried Sweetie Belle.

Most of the foals gasped, but Lazybug beamed.

“I’ll get it!” he called.

By the time Cheerilee realised what she was seeing, Lazybug had bolted to the door and opened it.

“Hey, I think it’s the same one!” Lazybug shouted.

This cockatrice had the same chocolate down, cream comb and purple eyes that Sweetie Belle had described in class. He was looking all around him, no doubt searching for someone to turn to stone.

Cheerilee appeared in the doorway as Lazybug was sizing up the situation.

“Lazybug, get back inside!” she cried.

She made a grab for Lazybug’s tail with her teeth, but Lazybug shot forward and she missed.

“If my sister can use the Stare, so can I!” he shouted as he bolted towards the cockatrice.

“Lazybug! Stop!” Cheerilee called after him.

Lazybug did just what Sweetie Belle said Crosspatch did. He skidded to a halt in front of the cockatrice with his eyes shut, and when he was sure that the creature was right in front of him, he opened his eyes and looked at him with his fiercest gaze.

The cockatrice didn’t flinch or squawk. He just looked puzzled. Lazybug’s eyes began to water. He tried holding his eyelids open, but he soon found he had to close them.

“Uh, oh,” he groaned as the cockatrice looked at him.

He was surprised to find that he was still intact. The cockatrice started squawking.

“Lazybug, come back!” Cheerilee shouted. “You’ll be turned to stone!”

Some of the other students were looking out of the windows.

“Hey! Lazybug’s OK,” Apple Bloom grinned.

Twist opened a window. “Did ya use the Stare on it?!”

“No!” Lazybug called back.

“Then how come you haven’t been turned into a statue?!” asked Twist.

“I don’t know! I think he wants something!” Lazybug called.

When Lazybug looked back, he saw why the recess bell hadn’t rang.

“I think Daisy fainted when she saw the cockatrice!”

He pointed to the school rooftop. Cheerilee could see one of Daisy’s forelegs hanging over the side of the gutter.

The cockatrice started squawking at Lazybug again.

“What does it want?!” called Twist.

“I don’t know! I don’t speak cockatrice!” Lazybug grunted. “Maybe someone should go get Fluttershy!”

“I’ll go!” Scootaloo left the open window and cantered to the door.

“Stay away from the cockatrice now,” said Cheerilee as Scootaloo exited the building. “Lazybug, would you please come back in now?!”

Lazybug didn’t move. “Am I a pest pony or not?! I’ll just keep an eye on him!”

Scootaloo had collected her scooter from the bike rack outside the school and was now racing away towards Fluttershy’s cottage. The wind she created as she scooted away blew a newspaper up to one of the windows. Gilt Eyes caught it with his magic.

“Daisy must’ve dropped that when she saw the cockatrice,” said Apple Bloom.

The photograph in the headline article caught Twist’s eye. It was a pencil drawing of a shaggy-haired mare with talons coming from its hooves.

“This says there’s a rumour going around the Crystal Empire,” she told the others. “Someone said they think they saw an abominable snowmare outside the city.”

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was that article that made Daisy faint rather than the cockatrice,” Silver Spoon chuckled.

The cockatrice understood that the ponies were sending for a translator, and was sitting patiently with Lazybug out in the grounds. Eventually, Lazybug asked for somepony to toss him his water spritzing bottle. Apple Bloom collected it from his desk and tossed it out of the window.

“Careful!” Lazybug shouted as the cockatrice squawked in annoyance at almost getting hit by the bottle. “If you make him angry, we will turn us to stone!”

“You were supposed to catch it!” Apple Bloom retorted as Lazybug hydrated himself.

The cockatrice settled down.

It was twelve minutes before Scootaloo returned.

“I found her!” she called to Lazybug. “And Crosspatch was with her.”

Soon enough, Fluttershy and Crosspatch ran towards Lazybug and the cockatrice. Fluttershy looked concerned. Crosspatch looked incensed.

“Lazybug, did you really try to use the Stare on an animal?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yeah,” Lazybug’s face turned red. “I guess I can’t do it.”

The cockatrice jumped at the sight of Crosspatch.

“Looking for a rematch?” she growled.

The cockatrice started squawking again. Fluttershy nodded as he did so.

“He says he can’t find one of the ponies he turned to stone,” Fluttershy said to Crosspatch and Lazybug.

“What? But everyone he looked at last evening is fine now,” said Crosspatch.

“He says he turned somepony to stone before last night,” Fluttershy continued.

“Huh.”

Crosspatch wasn’t using the Stare on the cockatrice, but he was still squirming.

“Who was this pony?” asked Lazybug.

The cockatrice squawked his answer to Fluttershy, who raised an eyebrow.

“Well?” asked Crosspatch. “Who’s left?”

“He says,” Fluttershy spoke, “that the pony he’s looking for is an alicorn filly with a black coat, purple mane and tail, turquoise eyes, and a blue shield cutie mark.”

Crosspatch and Lazybug hadn’t lived in Ponyville long, but even they knew that this sounded odd. They’d been told that no hereditary alicorns lived in Ponyville.

“Are you making that up?” demanded Crosspatch.

The cockatrice shook his head.

“That doesn’t sound like anypony I know,” said Scootaloo thoughtfully.

Over at the schoolhouse, everyone else was thinking the same.

“A black alicorn filly with turquoise eyes?” Apple Bloom asked. “Sounds like a young Nightmare Moon to me.”

Cheerilee gave a start.

“Do you know somepony like that, Miss Cheerilee?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I… I don’t think I do,” replied Cheerilee.

It was Tuesday, so Crosspatch offered to bring this news to Twilight while Fluttershy was entertaining a certain chaos spirit. Lazybug, who was often excused from class to attend to pest control jobs, accompanied Crosspatch as she ushered the cockatrice towards Twilight’s Castle.

Twilight had been trying to make herself look busy all morning, fretting all the while over how to break the news of Pulp Puree’s and Winter Squash’s refusal to re-join their children. By now, she was on one of the balconies looking through her telescope at nothing in particular.

Spike stepped out onto the balcony with a plate of cheese and crackers. “Crosspatch and Lazybug are here.”

“Oh, no,” groaned Twilight. “They’re just gonna keep coming. I’ll have to…”

“They have the cockatrice from last night with them.”

Twilight jumped. “What?! Why?”

“Appearently, it’s got one more pony to turn from stone to normal,” said Spike, “and nopony knows who this pony is.”

“Well, OK. Bring them up,” Twilight nodded.

Twilight tried not to look uncomfortable with having a cockatrice on her balcony. It helped that the beast looked just as unnerved as she was. It seemed intimidated by Crosspatch, even though she wasn’t using the Stare.

“This guy swears there’s one more pony he needs to restore,” said Crosspatch, nibbling on a cracker. “An alicorn filly.”

“Alicorn filly? That doesn’t sound right,” Twilight scratched her head. “But I’ll send a missing pony report to Princess Celestia.”

Twilight’s heart jumped. She hoped this wouldn’t start Crosspatch and Lazybug on how the search for their parents are going. When it became clear that the matter and hoof was still on their minds, she asked Spike for a quill and paper.

“Dear Princess Celestia…”

Lazybug wandered around the balcony inspecting Twilight’s telescope.

“I have reason to believe that somewhere in Equestria, someone is missing their foal.”

Lazybug peered into the telescope.

“There is an alicorn filly described by a cockatrice who is black and purple and most likely petrified.”

“I don’t think that telescope will make your stare any more intense,” chuckled Crosspatch.

Lazybug shouted. “Crosspatch! Look at this!”

Twilight looked away from her unfinished note. “What is it?”

“It’s Mom!”

Crosspatch’s eyes went wider that last night when she’d Stared down the cockatrice. She zipped to the telescope and looked where Lazybug was looking. There in the eyepiece was a short, dumpy earth pony mare with a dark green coat and light blue mane and tail. She was wearing inappropriate clothing for springtime.

“It is our mom!” cried Crosspatch. “She… she found us!”

Twilight was puzzled. “Um… I’ll fly down and invite her to the castle. You three head down…”

The cockatrice uttered a slightly annoyed grunt.

“Uh, you four head down to the atrium,” finished Twilight.

It took a while for Spike to convince Crosspatch and Lazybug to leave the balcony. The two pest ponies kept fighting over the eyepiece to see Twilight approach their mom. The heavily dressed old mare looked rather confused, and even more so when Twilight approached her. Crosspatch was finally convinced to head downstairs when the cockatrice gave her what might have been an encouraging chirp. Lazybug wasn’t far behind her as she galloped down the stairs.

“My, it’s warm in here,” Winter Squash was sweating under her woolly hat, scarf and boots as she entered the castle.

“Uh, you can take off your hat and scarf if you like,” said Twilight.

Winter Squash goggled. “Huh. I completely forgot I was wearing all this. Um, could you give me a hoof, please? I can’t seem to remember how to undo a scarf.”

Twilight magiced Winter Squash’s snow apparel off of her, Crosspatch, Lazybug, Spike and the cockatrice burst into the atrium.

“It’s really her!” exclaimed Lazybug. “Cutie mark and all!”

Crosspatch recognised the large yellow gourd as well.

“Wow. She sure aged well,” Crosspatch caught herself saying out loud.

“Oh, yes. She doesn’t look a day over twenty,” Winter Squash replied, looking a pink-faced Twilight over.

“Uh, I was talking about you, Mom,” Crosspatch thought Winter Squash would have been more pleased to see her and Lazybug.

“Mom? My name’s Winter Squash,” chuckled the old mare.

Crosspatch and Lazybug looked slightly alarmed.

“Don’t you recognise us?” asked Crosspatch.

Winter Squash squinted at Crosspatch and Lazybug, and tilted her head.

“I think she has amnesia, you two,” said Twilight.

“Mom, it’s me. Lazybug.”

Winter Squash shook her son’s hoof. “Nice to meet you, Lazybug.”

“She’s doesn’t know me,” frowned Lazybug.

“Yes, I do,” insisted Winter Squash. “You’re Lazybug. You just told me.”

“Mom, do you remember your husband Pulp Puree?” asked Crosspatch.

“Uh… no,” Winter Squash answered.

“Do you remember what kind of farm you used to live on?” asked Crosspatch.

“Um… a potato farm?” Winter Squash guessed.

“No,” said Crosspatch. “Do you know where you came to this castle from?”

“Uh… Cloudsdale?” guessed Winter Squash.

“No, Mom. You couldn’t have lived in Cloudsdale,” said Crosspatch. “You’re an earth pony.”

“I am?!” Winter Squash looked at her wingless sides with shock.

“Is there any way we can jog her memory?” Lazybug asked Twilight imploringly.

Before Twilight could answer, Crosspatch slammed the floor with her hoof.

“I know!”

Crosspatch crouched down on the floor and looked up at Winter Squash.

“Really, Mom and Dad?” asked said in a high voice. “I’m gonna have a brother?”

Winter Squash’s mouth hung open a bit.

“Oh? You’re gonna name him Lazybug?” Crosspatch went on squeakily.

“I remember that!” cried Winter Squash. “You’re… you’re…”

The old mare shook her head a few times and gave her mane a scratch.

“I feel like I know who you are, but… I can’t place it,” she sighed.

Crosspatch stood up. “It’s no use. She just can’t remember us.”

“It’s alright, everypony,” said Twilight, magicing a bookshelf on wheels into the hallway. “I can cure her amnesia with this potion.”

She magiced a book off the shelf and opened it to a page on a memory retrieval draught.

“If you could just give me an hour or so…”

“Sure, Twilight,” replied Lazybug. “Uh, you don’t mind me calling you Twilight, do you, your highness?”

“It’s alright, Lazybug,” smiled Twilight. “Spike, why don’t you fix everyone some lunch while I work on this potion?”

“Sure thing,” said Spike, stepping towards the kitchen. “Come on, ponies. Any requests?”

“I feel like soup, if you don’t mind,” said Winter Squash.

“Alright. What kind?” asked Spike.

“Oh, I’m not fussed,” said Winter Squash.

She probably can’t remember any types of soup, thought Lazybug.

“How about celery soup?” suggested Crosspatch.

Twilight and Spike didn’t say or do anything for a moment. Crosspatch seemed to have touched a nerve there. But in seconds, Spike was leading the way to the dining room, and Twilight was heading to the castle laboratory to gather the ingredients she needed to make the memory recovery potion.

Before they’d all left the atrium, Twilight watched with slight discomfort as the cockatrice scuttled past her carrying Crosspatch and Lazybug’s spritzing bottle in his beak.

“I forgot about him,” said Twilight.

Crosspatch felt a tap on her hind leg before she crossed the threshold into the dining room.

“Oh, thanks,” she said, taking her bottle from the cockatrice.

Winter Squash turned around. “Whoa! Did that thing come from the Everfree Forest?!”

“Uh, yes,” said Crosspatch, eyebrows raised.

“You remember the Everfree Forest?” asked Lazybug.

“Yeah! It’s full of dangerous things! You’ve gotta send that beast back!” Winter Squash snapped. “We can’t have it hanging around ponies!”

The cockatrice trembled. He looked even more disturbed at Winter Squash than when Crosspatch had Stared at him.

“Mom, we have to keep him around,” said Crosspatch. “He turned somepony to stone a while ago and I got him to promise to undo the damage if we can find this pony.”

“Oh, so he’s been causing trouble, has he?” frowned Winter Squash. “How do you know he won’t creep up on you unawares and turn you to stone, like he did to that filly?”

“He’s too creeped out,” Crosspatch insisted. “I subdued him with the…

“Hey,” Spike interrupted, “how did you know it was a filly he turned to stone?”

Winter Squash screwed up her face. “Not sure. Who was this filly?”

“We don’t know,” sighed Lazybug.

“Come on. Let’s just eat. Mom will have her memories back soon,” said Crosspatch, steering herself and her family towards the table.

“Still working on it, Twilight?” Spike asked after the party had left the dining room and their empty soup bowls.

Twilight was pacing in front of a cluttered table in the lab with two small cups of strange liquids hovering alongside her.

“Almost done,” said Twilight. “But I’m a bit worried. I got stuck on some of the instructions. This potion’s more complicated than I realised. There’s a warning on the last page that says if it’s brewed incorrectly, it’ll cause severe heartburn.”

“Whoa! I don’t want our mom drinking something that might give her heartburn,” Crosspatch’s eyes were wide.

“Uh, actually, you don’t drink it,” said Twilight. “You rub the foam on yourself.”

Spike looked on the table. All of the containers on it (he couldn’t tell which was the potion Twilight was making), had any foam on the top.

“What foam?” he asked.

There was a ding. Spike spotted a timer on the table.

“Well, now that it’s done sitting for six minutes and twenty-four seconds,” said Twilight, magicing the cups of liquid over one of the containers.

She poured a measure of each liquid into a brown mixture. It frothed instantly, spilling over the side of the container a little bit.

“There. It’s ready,” grinned Twilight.

“So how do we tell if it’ll cause heartburn or not?” asked Lazybug.

“I’m sorry, but the only way to know is to take the potion,” frowned Twilight.

“We can’t let Mom take it,” said Crosspatch. “That’d be a heck of a Welcome Back, wouldn’t it? How about I test it?”

Twilight scratched her chin. “I don’t know. You and Lazybug are a lot more absorbent than other ponies because of your mutation. If I made this potion wrong, the heartburn it’ll give you will be a lot worse.”

“Well, someone’s gotta test it,” Crosspatch looked around the room for a suitable guinea pig.

The cockatrice shuffled towards Twilight’s levitating potion container sticking out a shaking wing.

“Hey, hey, hey. No need for that,” Crosspatch waved the cockatrice away. “You don’t have to be my slave or anything. I’m only gonna Stare you down again if you refuse to fix that filly. No, no, you keep your wings to yourself. There’s a good boy.”

The cockatrice stepped back looking relieved and grateful.

“How about I test it?” asked Winter Squash.

“Mom, you’re the one we want to test it for,” Lazybug reminded.

“I’ll test it,” said Spike. “I’m a dragon. I’m made of tough stuff.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Spike snatched the potion, stuck a claw into it, and wiped it on his arm.

“Hmm,” Twilight wasn’t happy about Spike being the test subject, but now that the deed was done, she figured she might as well role with the experiment. “Well, it might take longer to take effect on you. With your thick scales, it’ll me a few seconds before it soaks in.”

“Say, what will that potion do to him?” asked Lazybug. “Spike hasn’t lost his memory.”

“It won’t do anything,” answered Twilight. “It doesn’t affect someone not suffering for amnesia at all. Unless it’s not brewed right. Then it’ll still case heartburn.”

Spike’s legs gave way and he sat down hard on the floor.

“Spike? How do you feel?” asked Twilight.

They looked at him. He didn’t appear pained, but rather shaken. He was breathing with his mouth open and his claws were clasping his knees.

“Is it heartburn?” asked Crosspatch.

“Are you alright?” asked Twilight.

Spike breathed, “Nyx.”

Author's Note

Inspired by "Past Sins" by PenStroke, which I was prompted to have a peak at after all the hate I got for Amber Aldis. Hence I really ought to thank all the people who gave me such a hard time. If it weren't for you lot, I wouldn't have developed an interest in that amazing story.

2 The Chaotic Journey

“Nyx?” Twilight repeated.

“Yeah!” Spike stood up sharply and grasped Twilight’s foreleg. “Nyx!”

Twilight thought for a second. “What? Like Nyx of the Night? I love that stor…”

“No, not Nyx of the Night!” Spike exclaimed. “I mean your daughter!”

“My daughter?!”

“Your adopted daughter, yeah!”

“I never adopted a daughter,” frowned Twilight.

“Twilight, you need to take some of that potion,” Spike insisted.

Spike slid the container, which he hadn’t broken or spilled on his trip to the floor, in front of Twilight.

“Um, what will I remember, Spike?” asked Twilight.

“Lots,” Spike’s head bowed. It seemed to weight of what the potion had done to him was still affecting him.

Twilight eyed her concoction. She was sure she’d brewed it wrong, although not sure what exactly it had done to Spike. She decided to take his suggestion. He did seem rather serious about this “Nyx”. She dipped her hoof into the container and rubbed the potion on her foreleg.

“Funny how you don’t need to rub a potion for memories on your head,” observed Lazybug.

At once, images, feelings, emotions and sounds surged into every organ and extremity Twilight had. Frightened and unable to see or move while voices whispered about a resurrection. Calmly putting a spell on a pair of spectacles to alter the shape of somepony’s eyes. Tense at the sight of a cheap play adaptation of the Tale of the Two Sisters out on by school foals. Startled at a few well-known faces sporting turquoise, snake-like eyes. Staring amazed at a large castle sitting next to Ponyville. Content to stand on a ledge with a noose around her neck. Dizzy and trying to wrap her head around something being removed from inside her head. Determined to shield her fellow townsfolk from the monsters stampeding from the Everfree Forest. Relief that Princess Luna had not sent a prisoner to the moon.

“What happened to Nyx?!”

Crosspatch and Lazybug watched with concern. Spike and Twilight were both on the floor clutching their chests.

“I think she made it wrong,” said Lazybug. “They’ve both got heartburn.”

“Lazybug… it’s not heartburn… it’s heartache,” shuddered Twilight. “I’ve lost my daughter. AGAIN! I keep losing her! I failed again!”

Twilight clutched her chest tighter and shook, eyes shut tight.

“M-maybe it’s both heartburn and heartache,” she murmured.

“Yeah, I think it’s both,” Spike winced.

“Um… if…” Crosspatch bit her lip. “If you’re not too upset about… Nyx, do you think you could… uh, try making that potion again?”

“Hey, we both just remembered some really serious stuff!” snapped Spike. “Give us a break. If you took this potion, you’d feel just as crazy as we do.”

“Not they wouldn’t, Spike,” said Twilight. “They weren’t around when Nyx was here. They were stuck inside that composter at Sweet Apple Acres. But do you think everyone in Equestria forgot about Nyx?”

“Of course!” said Spike. “No one would just never talk about her. She had a huge effect on Equestria. It’s… it’s because of her that Princess Luna looks so much more regal now. I can’t believe I never questioned that.”

Twilight nodded and looked at Crosspatch, who evidently regretted asking if they could redo the potion.

“I just need time to process all this, Crosspatch,” she said. “When I’m ready, I can try and make the potion properly.”

“Thanks,” smiled Crosspatch.

“Why don’t we get my husband?” asked Winter Squash. “He can easily make a memory potion.”

Crosspatch and Lazybug’s heads jerked towards their mother.

“He’s a chemist,” she told them. “He used to mix his own pesticides before we had to sell our old pumpkin farm. He got a job in potions after we moved to Clopley Hill.”

“Our dad’s around too?!” cried Crosspatch. “He-- uh, you two live in Clopley Hill now?”

“Yeah, uh, I think,” replied Winter Squash.

“Is our dad still there?” asked Lazybug.

“Uh…” Winter Squash’s eyes went out of focus for a second. “I don’t know. Who’s our dad?”

Crosspatch and Lazybug both smacked their foreheads. For a bright, happy moment, it seemed Winter Squash’s amnesia had lifted. But it had merely subsided for a bit.

“Hmm. Clopley Hill,” said Lazybug. “We learned about that city in school today. It’s the most northern city in Equestria other than the Crystal Empire. Sometimes, arctic snow blows into town and the weather team has to clean it up.”

He and Crosspatch remembered the heavy clothes their mom had been wearing when she turned up in Ponyville, and thought the town must be having one of its unseasonable flurries.

Twilight realised something at Lazybug’s words. “The Crystal Empire… the last time I remember seeing Nyx was the day the Crystal Empire returned. Before we went to Canterlot and Princess Celestia gave me that test.”

“That’s right,” said Spike. “She got spooked when you threw that fit and sent the Library into the sky…”

Twilight grimaced.

“And she said she was gonna go play with her school friends,” Spike went on.

“Oh! And she took her hollowed-out book with all her treasures in it with her,” Twilight grunted. “That’s why there was nothing to remind us of her when we got back.”

“Yeah. She was probably worried you’d blast that into the air as well,” said Spike.

“But why did we forget about her?” asked Twilight, standing weakly. “What happened to us all?”

Both Crosspatch and Lazybug were tempted to inquire further as to what the incorrectly brewed potion had caused Twilight and Spike to recall, but the way Twilight was swaying and panting held them back.

“We should go to the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said. “We might find an explanation there.”

“Can we wait until our heartburn goes away?” asked Spike.

Twilight’s horn glowed, but then it went out and Twilight yelped, clutching her chest tighter. She’d been trying to bring the book to her to see if it said how long the heartburn would last. The cockatrice stepped forward and gave the book a kick so it slid to Twilight.

“Oh. Thank you,” Twilight smiled to the Everfree creature.

The cockatrice nodded. Crosspatch thought he was just trying to make her happy out of fear of being Stared at, but the cockatrice didn’t look at her.

“The book says the heartburn will last over twelve hours,” Twilight groaned.

“You two really ought to take it easy,” said Crosspatch. “Twilight, you can’t cast any spells without aggravating your condition. And I’ll bet you anything Spike will do himself a mischief if he tried to breathe fire.”

“I’m not gonna try, that’s for sure,” Spike winced.

“Tomorrow,” said Twilight, “could we all catch a train to the north? You three can go to Clopley Hill to try and find Pulp Puree, and Spike and I can try and find out what made everyone in Equestria forget all about Nyx.”

“We can wait, can’t we?” Crosspatch nodded to Lazybug.

“Sure,” Lazybug agreed.

Crosspatch, Lazybug and Winter Squash helped Twilight and Spike get to their beds, and Twilight told them where the guest bedroom was. For hours afterwards, they both lay awake in their beds, hearts pounding and minds racing.

“Where are you Nyx? What happened to you?” These were Twilight’s last words before she and Spike managed to fall asleep.

On the day the zap apple harvest that nearly spelled the end of the Apple Family took place, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash introduced Twilight Sparkle to Crosspatch and Lazybug. They asked her if she could enchant their water bottle so it would squirt our water every ten minutes. This way, the two mutated ponies could keep hydrated while they slept. They usually stuck it on a shelf above their beds at night, but this guestroom only had a ledge for a candlestick high above the beds. Even with Crosspatch standing on the bed and Lazybug standing on her back, they could reach it. They didn’t want to try throwing it, as it might land facing the wall.

“Um could you please fly this up there?” Crosspatch asked the cockatrice.

The chicken-snake nodded, grabbed the spritzing bottle with his feet, and flew up to the ledge. He set the bottle a foot from the candlestick, and flew back down.

“Say,” said Lazybug just as Crosspatch caught herself extending a hoof to pat the cockatrice on the head, “Twilight said she last saw Nyx saying she went to play with her school friends. She must be around my age. Could she be the pony that cockatrice turned to stone a while ago?”

“Huh. Maybe,” said Crosspatch. “Let’s ask Twilight and Spike about her and all the serious stuff she did tomorrow on the train to Clopley Hill.”

Lazybug looked at the occupied guestroom bed. Winter Squash was already asleep.

“Do you think the same thing that happened to her happened to dad?” asked Lazybug. “Or something worse?”

“We’ll find out in the morning,” Crosspatch climbed into bed. “Let’s get some sleep for now. Want to sleep there, boy?”

Crosspatch gave the cockatrice a warm smile and patting the foot of the bed.

“Some pest pony you are,” snickered Lazybug as the cockatrice leapt onto Crosspatch’s bed.

“What am I supposed to do?” asked Crosspatch. “Let him outta my sight?”

“You’re gonna. You’re going to sleep.”

The cockatrice settled down into the duvet.

“So’s he,” grinned Crosspatch.”

“And that’s how Nyx came to Ponyville and almost became the new Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight and Spike weren’t in nearly as much pain as yesterday. Twilight wasn’t in agony when she tried to cast magic altogether, but she found she couldn’t manage the luggage they had brought on the train and concluded that she should avoid any complex or burdensome spells as best she could. She was feeling slightly better now that she had finished reciting her recalled memories for Crosspatch, Lazybug and Winter Squash. It was a lot to get off her burning chest. The rocking railway carriage was neither a help nor a bother to the ill alicorn and dragon, and for a while, it made the only noise they could hear. Crosspatch and Lazybug had been absorbed by the story she told them. Winter Squash seemed to have been zoning out regularly.

“Amazing,” said Lazybug at last.

“Yeah,” agreed Crosspatch. “But, uh, I think you talked for an awfully long time about what happened when you were pushed off that ledge. No offence, but we stopped at two stations before you finished that bit.”

Lazybug cleared his throat. “What happened to the castle?”

“It was being taken down…” Twilight gasped. “And they were finishing up on the day the Crystal Empire returned. There’s no question about it. There has to be an answer there.

Lazybug looked around. “Did all the other passengers get off while Twilight was talking?”

“I saw a bunch of them go through the corridor into other coaches,” said Crosspatch. “Bet they weren’t too happy with the idea of riding a train with a cockatrice.”

They’re little winged companion shuffled in his coach seat.

“They probably think we’re as crazy as Mom thought yesterday,” said Crosspatch. “Remember her reaction when she saw him?”

“Uh, huh. I hope Dad won’t be too put off,” said Lazybug. “If we find…”

“He’ll be put off by seeing you alright,” said Winter Squash. “He’s really ashamed of you.”

“Oh, no,” groaned Twilight as Crosspatch and Lazybug jerked their necks in Winter Squash’s direction.

“We got a message from Princess Celestia about you two, and Pulp Puree was really outraged when he read about those crimes you two committed,” Winter Squash said.

“He what?!” cried Crosspatch.

“I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this,” said Twilight, “but Princess Celestia sent me a letter saying your parents didn’t want to be reunited with you.”

“Oh,” Crosspatch sighed. “So you got Princess Celestia’s message about us?”

“Yes,” nodded Winter Squash. “Um, I don’t remember what we did with it, though. I remember… I remember me and Pulp had an argument… and… uh…”

Winter Squash’s memory had failed again.

“So Dad hates us for what we tried to do to Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and the Apples,” frowned Lazybug.

“Wait. An argument?” asked Twilight, sitting up a bit. “Could it have been about Celestia’s message?”

“Huh?”

“What if Pulp Puree was the only parent who was upset about what you two did and wouldn’t let your mom go to Ponyville to see you even though she wanted to?” suggested Twilight. “If he’s a chemist, he might have used some potion on her to give her amnesia to make her forget about you two.”

“Would he do that?” Lazybug asked Crosspatch. “To his own wife?”

Crosspatch had no answer.

“I think,” said Twilight, “that when we get to Clopley Hill, we should find him and question him.”

“So we’re not going to the Crystal Empire?” asked Spike.

Twilight paused, then said “We’ll have to put it off if we find out Pulp Puree’s been abusing his job.”

“Why don’t you two just leave our dad to us?” Crosspatch suggested.

“Us? But he doesn’t want to see us,” moaned Lazybug. “He thinks we’re wronguns.”

“Well I think he’s a wrongun if he’s been meddling with our mom’s memory,” said Crosspatch, determination radiating from her. “Twilight, Spike, we’ll see if Dad’s behind this. You go on ahead to the Crystal Empire.”

“Are you sure?” asked Twilight.

“You can’t tell me you don’t want to find Nyx,” said Crosspatch. “After that meltdown you both had yesterday, I know you’ve got your priorities. Come on. Our mom put her all into finding us when she found out we were still around. Even when her memory got all wonky. I’m sure wherever Nyx is, she’d be hoping that her mom’s doing the same.”

For a moment, all of Twilight’s heartburn-related aches and pains were relieved.

“You’re right, Crosspatch. Princess Celestia gave me a responsibility to Nyx. I have to find her.”

As soon as the train pulled into Steeds Central, it looked like the world was working against Twilight. When she and her party looked out the carriage window, the station was completely deserted. Spike went to open the door for Twilight, and a voice boomed as they exited the carriage.

“Crew! Take this train back to Neighagra Falls! This city’s in danger of attack! Passengers, stay in your coaches! You’re all…!”

Bump!

Twilight had nearly been knocked onto the platform the moment she stepped onto the platform. It aggravated her lingering heartburn like mad, but she did her best not to let on to the royal guard who’d run into her.

“Oh! Pardon me, Princess,” gasped Flash Sentry. “But can you help us? There’s trouble up in the arctic.”

“What is it?” asked Twilight, red in the face for several reasons.

“A giant snowmare’s left the mountains and is trying to attack ponies,” Flash explained. “And Captain Shining Armour can’t cast two separate force field spells at once. Can you cast one around Clopley Hill?”

“Um…”

“Don’t risk it, Twilight,” Spike insisted.

Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry, Flash. I’ve got severe heartburn and can’t cast any complex spells.”

Lazybug stepped off the train. “Abominable snowmare? So that rumour in the newspaper was true.”

“This sounds like another pest control job,” grinned Crosspatch. “Twilight, why don’t we swap? You can go find our dad and find out if he wrecked our mom’s memory, and we’ll go to te Crystal Empire and see what we can find out about Nyx.”

“But I gotta help my brother somehow,” said Twilight. “We’ll all go to the Crystal Empire.”

Winter Squash emerged from the coach.

“Flash, this is Winter Squash. Would you please escort her home?” asked Twilight.

“Yes, your highness,” Flash bowed.

“Thank you,” smiled Twilight, beckoning to Spike, Crosspatch, Lazybug and the cockatrice to head north.

Flash didn’t get a chance to ask why they were accompanied by a cockatrice as they bolted down the platform. Or why it was carrying a water spritzing bottle. He also found he’d have trouble taking Winter Squash home, as she couldn’t remember where she lived.

The air in the arctic north was cold, but it did nothing to ease the panting Twilight and Spike. But soon enough, there came a distraction in the form of a rattling roar and a lot of shouting.

“It’s over there!” called Lazybug. “And it sounds like the guards are having a hard time with it.”

A black silhouette loomed in the snowy mist in the distance, twisting its head this and that way, and swatting at indistinct figures.

“Let’s go!” shouted Twilight, before coughing louder than the abominable snowmare had roared.

“Twilight, you’re still sick. You can’t fight the snowmare,” insisted Crosspatch. “We’ll get our cockatrice to turn it to stone. How about that?”

“Alright,” agreed Twilight. “Let’s go, Spike.”

“OK, guys,” Crosspatch said to Lazybug and the cockatrice as Twilight and Spike carried on to the Crystal Empire. “Let’s send that snowmare packing!”

Twilight and Spike run as fast as their heartburn would allow until the large unmistakable magenta orb that was Shining Armour’s force field dwarfed them. Once they passed through it, they heard more shouting. As they made their way to the city, they saw a hoofful of crystal ponies battening down the hatches in a rushed and panicky manner. Then Cadance appeared in the sky above some buildings.

“Please remain calm, everypony!” she called to her citizens. “We will keep the abominable snowmare out of the Crystal Empire and find the pony responsible for assaulting Prince Shining Armour!”

She spotted Twilight and Spike, and smiled as she landed in front of them.

“Is Shining Armour OK?” asked Twilight.

“He’s not hurt,” said Cadance, “But he was attacked when we found the abominable snowmare.”

“And he didn’t get hurt?” asked Spike.

“Let me explain,” said Cadance. “He and I were investigating a rumour about the abominable snowmare. And when we saw it, there was an old stallion nearby. Shining warned him to steer clear of the snowmare, and the old pony threw something at him. A potion or something. And now Shining Armour doesn’t remember seeing that pony at all.”

“This is terrible,” groaned Twilight. “I found an old mare with amnesia yesterday. This old stallion must be…”

“Pulp Puree!” Spike interrupted. “Cadance, did this old stallion have a yellow coat and blue mane and tail?”

“Yes.”

“And was his cutie mark a wooden spoon and pumpkin guts?” asked Spike.

“I believe it was,” answered Cadance.

“Crosspatch told me that’s what her dad looks like back when I wrote her request for a search party to Princess Celestia,” Spike said. “He must be responsible for making Winter Squash and Shining Armour lose their memories.”

“Please help me find him,” said Cadance. “He ran into the city after he threw that potion. I stayed with Shining to make sure he hadn’t been poisoned, and I lost sight of him. We’ve got to find him before he tampers with any crystal ponies’ memories.”

Twilight’s idea was to have Spike and Cadance patrol the inside perimeter of the force field to see if the snowmare was near, and send a signal if it was far enough away. Then Shining Armour could take down his shield against the abominable snowmare and cast one against the culprit. After she explained her plan to Spike and Cadance, she flew up to the castle balcony and let Shining Armour know what they were doing.

“Couldn’t you cast your own force field?” Shining Armour asked. “Your shields are just as good as mine.”

“I’ve got severe heartburn,” frowned Twilight. “I’ll make myself really sick if I try.”

Shining Armour nodded. “Alright. Let me know if you see the signal.”

And he added some power to his force field while Twilight scanned the sky.

Cadance and Spike both walked all around the shield. They met up on the other side, told each other that there was no sign of the abominable snowmare, and carried on covering the same ground on different sides. They rejoined again at the entrance.

“No sign of it,” said Spike.

“Same,” Cadance smiled. “Your friends Crosspatch and Lazybug must have been a big help to our soldiers.”

They decided it was safe for Shining Armour to take his shield down. So Cadance cast her pony signal into the sky.

“There it is, Shining!” said Twilight when she saw the blue heart shape in the sky.

Shining Armour cancelled his force field. “Uh, now what do I cast my shield to repel again?”

“Any pony who tampered with your memory,” Twilight reminded.

“Right,” smiled Shining, his horn lighting up.

A magenta orb erupted from his horn, and spread across the city. Twilight looked down at the streets. Sure enough, a figure appeared from within an ally. He soared through the air being shoved away by the shield.

“Who’s that?” asked Shining Armour.

Twilight knew by the yellow coat and blue hair, and the effectiveness of the force field, that it was the culprit.

The old stallion had been wearing a saddlebag, and the force of the shield caused it to fall off him as he reached the city limits.

“That’s him!” cried Spike, pointing to the flying and screaming earth pony.

Cadance took to the air and cast her magic to levitate the stallion to prevent him falling out of the sky.

“Got him!” Spike bellowed, bouncing excitedly and aggravating his condition.

More shouts came from behind him.

“Spike! We did it! We drove it away!”

He turned to see Crosspatch and Lazybug running into the field, flanked by several shaken soldiers.

“Great job, guys,” said Spike.

“You won’t believe how we did it,” grinned Crosspatch.

But Spike noticed something. “Where’s the cockatrice?”

“Oh. He got scared by the huge snowmare and ran off,” frowned Crosspatch. “But I’m sure he’ll turn up.”

“Guards!” Cadance called to the soldiers as she flew down to Spike levitating the perpetrator with her. “Report to Prince Shining Armour, and tell Princess Twilight to come down here. She and I will be questioning this stallion.”

The soldiers saluted and rushed to the castle. Crosspatch and Lazybug goggled.

“It’s him! It’s our dad!”

Pulp Puree looked incensed. “What in Meadowbrook’s zits are you two doing here?”

“That’s what I want to ask you!”

Twilight flew from the castle, observing the saddlebag Pulp Puree had dropped along the way, and touched down next to Cadance.

“Alright, Pulp Puree. What have you been up to?” she demanded.

Pulp knew he was cornered, and so he grunted and began his confession.

“Fine. Where do I begin?”

“I want to know what happened when you got Princess Celestia’s message,” said Twilight.

“Alright. My wife, Winter Squash, and I were visited by a search party from Canterlot…”

Pulp glared at Crosspatch and Lazybug.

“And they told us that you two had come back and committed awful crimes.”

“Did they mention that we’ve made amends at all?” asked Crosspatch.

“Yes, they lied,” nodded Pulp with a scowl.

“We did,” insisted Crosspatch. “We became pest ponies and kept the nab turtles outta the hospital’s sting weed garden so those apple farmers could have their lightning burns healed faster.”

“If you haven’t been arrested, you’re not in the clear,” frowned Pulp Puree.

“That’s not true, Pulp,” said Twilight.

“Huh. Winter Squash thought the same,” Pulp huffed. “While the search party waited in the hall, we had a quiet but serious row about the matter of a reunion.”

“So Mom did want to see us again!” growled Lazybug. “And you wouldn’t let her.”

“Why would anyone want to meet with you after what you’ve done?” scowled Pulp.

“Well, you don’t exactly have a spotless record, do you Dad?” demanded Crosspatch.

All eyes turned to the dropped saddlebag laying along the path to the city. Beakers were clearly visible inside the open bag and scattered around it.

“Look at that mess over there,” groaned Lazybug. “You forced a potion on our mom to make her forget all about us, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But it didn’t work right,” said Pulp.

“Did you make the potion wrong?” asked Spike.

“Certainly not,” Pulp glowered. “Never brewed a potion wrong. But I was in a hurry to fetch one from my cupboard in my basement lab. The way they work is you have to take a jar of it, get a tooth pick, and write out what you want the recipient to forget on the surface of the foam. I kept Winter Squash away from my lab and the search party members for a bit, but she walked in on me writing in my potion. I threw the jar at her before she could run off, but the potion only got on her tail. So it didn’t completely work. She forgot about Crosspatch and Lazybug long enough to say nothing to the search party when I told them we didn’t want to meet up with our foals. But she forgot a lot of other things as well. I tried to keep her in check, but I had to run out two days ago and she wasn’t home when I returned. I knew she’d be trying to get to Ponyville, but I think her amnesia made her take a wrong turn to start with.”

Pulp Puree paused to look out at the monster-free snowy arctic.

“I’m pretty sure she’s the one who attracted that abominable snowmare away from the mountains,” he went on. “Anyway, I came here to try and find her… but instead the abominable snowmare found me.”

“And you brought some more of your amnesia potion with you in case you were spotted, right?” Cadance inquired.

“Yeah. And if my aim had been a better,” said Pulp, “you wouldn’t have remembered seeing me either.”

“Well, that’s…”

Twilight coughed loudly.

“Heartburn still eating at you?” asked Crosspatch.

Twilight nodded and clutched her chest. “I am never gonna try and make a memory potion again.”

Pulp Puree looked shocked. “You’ve taken a memory potion?!”

“Me and her,” said Spike. “We tested one out to see if it was safe for your wife to take.”

“You found her?!” Pulp exclaimed.

“She wandered into Ponyville with her messed up memory yesterday,” said Crosspatch.

“Oh, now I really am in trouble,” Pulp’s face went white.

“Why? What else have you done?” asked Cadance.

Twilight and Spike gasped.

“You’re the reason everyone in Equestria lost all their memories of Nyx, aren’t you?!” Spike demanded.

Pulp Puree grimaced and gave a slight nod.

“What did you do to her?!” Twilight demanded.

Author's Note

If, like some of my DeviantArt followers, you haven't read Past Sins and are curious, I'd recommend the audiobooks. It's a longy.

3 The Proper Punishment

“Nyx? Who’s Nyx?” asked Cadance.

Pulp spoke before Twilight or Spike could.

“Princess Cadance, what would you say if I told you about a pony who overthrew the Royal Sisters, locked a bunch of foals up in a dungeon, and caused several happy families to be torn apart for months on end?”

Cadance gave a disturbed glance in Twilight’s direction.

“That’s not the whole story, Cadance!” said Twilight. “Nyx was…”

“Is that a cockatrice?!” Cadance exclaimed.

Twilight looked over towards the saddlebag. There was the brown and cream cockatrice scuttling around the mess of beakers.

“There you are, boy!” called Crosspatch.

“He’s your pet?!” asked a wide-eyed Cadance.

Crosspatch didn’t answer.

“Well, aren’t we squeaky clean?” Pulp Puree asked mockingly. “Keeping monsters from the Everfree Forest as pets.”

The cockatrice looked down at one of the beakers and kicked it towards the ponies. Spike caught it. It was full of a familiar brown foamy fluid. There was a hoofwritten label on it.

“Take this if you feel like you’ve forgotten something,” Spike read aloud. “This is a memory potion, right?”

“I brought it with me in case I got some amnesia potion on myself,” groaned Pulp.

Spike held the beaker to Cadance. “Rub some of this foam on your foreleg.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow.

“Go on, Cadance,” Twilight pressed. “Then you’ll remember who Nyx is.”

“Alright,” Cadance levitated the beaker out of Spike’s claws and poured some foam on her foreleg.

“Wait! The heartburn!” cried Lazybug.

Pulp Puree cleared his throat. “I am a professional chemist. My potions have never given anypony any awful side effects.”

“No, just awful intended effects,” frowned Crosspatch.

Cadance dropped the beaker, a shocked expression on her face.

“You remember?” Twilight and Spike asked together.

“Y-yes,” Cadance stammered.

“You remember the pony who took your husband away from you?” asked Pulp Puree.

“Yes, I do,” said Cadance.

“Well then, you know how it feels to have a loved one taken away from you,” said Pulp. “You know how my wife once felt.”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Lazybug. “Since when did you care how Mom feels?”

“Well, unlike you two wronguns,” Pulp frowned, “my illegal actions were a result of my mind being meddled with.”

“Hey! Our minds were meddled with, too!” snapped Crosspatch. “By the Zap-O-Lantern.”

“Asked for all you got, mucking with apples that shock you if you try and buck the trees,” said Pulp Puree. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Well, what are you talking about? You’re the one who’s been meddling with ponies’ minds,” said Lazybug.

“Wait. Were you given the Blessing?” asked Cadance. “Were you one of the Children of Nightmare?”

“Yeah, I was,” sighed Pulp. “I was forced to leave my wife to work for that wicked mare of darkness.”

“You mean the wicked mare who decided all on her own to remove the Blessing from all the Children of Nightmare?” scowled Twilight. “Was it her who give you the blessing in the first place?”

“No, it was that Grey Gale lady,” said Pulp Puree, waving a hoof. “She wanted my skills as a chemist to assist in the preparations for Nightmare Moon’s resurrection. And also to develop a draught that would prevent insanity among the citizens of Equestria. A prolonged deprivation of sunlight can cause that, you know.”

Twilight and Spike nodded, remembering their misadventure in the Blackout Shelter.

“I might have succeeded in creating that potion and keeping everypony from going barking,” Pulp went on, “but when I finally got my own will back and returned to my wife, I found she’d been utterly miserable without me. She thought she’d never see me again.”

“How could you hate Nyx when she’s the one who took the Blessing out of you and not the one who gave it to you?” asked Twilight, clutching her chest.

“Where do you think the Blessing came from in the first place, huh?” Pulp demanded.

“Nyx was punished after Princess Celestia and Luna came back, you know,” said Cadance.

Pulp Puree growled. “Nyx was NOT punished. The euphemistic language on that announcement made everypony think she had been punished, but do you call being reverted to foalhood and held in the custody of the most biased pony in the country a punishment?”

“It was Princess Luna’s decision,” said Cadance crossly. “Not Princess Twilight’s.”

“They’re all biased. Princess Luna is Princess Celestia’s sister. And Princess Celestia was Twilight’s teacher,” Pulp said obstinately. “And my wife was certainly biased. Towards those two.”

Crosspatch and Lazybug hated being talked to in this way by their dad.

“That’s why she wanted to overlook their crimes, and not Nyx’s,” finished Pulp.

Spike scratched his head. “She hated Nyx too?”

“Of course!” Pulp exploded. “She lost so much sleep fretting over the possibility of never seeing me again because of that criminal.”

“So you both set out to make everyone in Equestria forget about Nyx?” asked Twilight.

“We didn’t set out to give Nyx a proper punishment,” said Pulp, prompting infuriated looks from Twilight and Spike. “There had of course been appeals and petitions sent from all over Equestria to the Royals about giving her an actual sentence, but they’d been rejected outright. Then the opportunity to make things right just came to us.”

“When?”

Pulp Puree pointed to the shiny city. “When the Crystal Empire returned.”

There were raised eyebrows all around.

“I was stocking some freshly made potions, when I looked out my window and saw a snowy area in the Arctic North was glowing,” Pulp explained. “I was curious, so I went out to have a look.”

“Oh, you were curious?” Lazybug smirked. “Like me and Crosspatch were curious about the zap apples?”

Pulp Puree looked like Lazybug had just spat on him. “You might say my curiosity nearly doomed me. I was spotted by Sombra. But Prince Shining Armour found me as well and managed to get us both to the Crystal Empire before Sombra got anywhere near us. Princess Cadance had already flown to the Crystal Castle and was casting her love spell to calm the crystal ponies. Prince Shining told me what was happening and asked me to help him assess the state of the residents of the empire. I was happy to help a fellow former Child of Nightmare. We talked to some crystal ponies and found that they couldn’t remember anything due to Sombra’s dark magic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a memory retrieval potion on me. What I did have was an anti-wrinkle draught, a giraffe-neck disorder solution, and an amnesia potion.”

“An amnesia potion! Is that what you used to make everyone forget Nyx?!” asked Twilight.

Pulp nodded.

“How?” asked Cadance. “How did you make your little jar of potion effect everyone in Equestria?”

“Well after we failed to find anything out from the crystal ponies, Prince Shining left me to find a place to wait while he went about his duties,” Pulp Puree told them. “I settled for the library. And since the librarian couldn’t remember where any specific books were, I browsed around, and found a book on the history of the Crystal Empire. I got to the page on the Crystal Heart, and…”

“The page on the Crystal Heart?” Twilight repeated. “But Sombra tore that page out of the book.”

“No he didn’t,” smirked Pulp. “I did.”

“You did?!” bellowed Twilight, Spike and Cadance.

“You bet I did,” Pulp grinned. “The book said when the Crystal Heart is powered up by the light and love of the crystal ponies, it spreads energy across Equestria and its residents become imbued with it. And I had an amnesia potion with me. And I heard Twilight and her friends come into the library. …And it came to me. …It was perfect. But I needed time to get everything ready. So I tore the page out to delay the main event of the Crystal Fair. Then I snuck out of the library and took out the correspondence book I had with me.”

“What’s a correspondence book?” asked Lazybug.

“I have one,” said Twilight. “I use it to keep in touch with Sunset Shimmer in the alternate world. You write something in a page in one book, and the words appear in the other book.”

“My wife and I both kept a correspondence book with us since we were reunited,” Pulp continued. “When I contacted her and she wrote that she was receiving me, I wrote to her my plan to see to it that Nyx was given a proper punishment for her crimes. I asked her to take a memory potion from my stock, catch a train to Ponyville, run to the Everfree Forest, and find a cockatrice.”

“A cockatrice? Was it that cockatrice?” Crosspatch pointed to the creature still standing by the mess of beakers.

“She did tell me afterwards that it had brown down, purple eyes, and a cream comb,” said Pulp. “I guess you did happen to adopt the same cockatrice my wife found.”

“We didn’t adopt…”

“Never mind, Lazybug,” Crosspatch waved her hoof at her brother. “What did Mom do to him?”

“Used the Stare on it,” answered Pulp.

Crosspatch grinned. She now knew who she’d inherited that ability from.

“I thought you and your wife were scared of the Everfree Forest and everything in it,” said Twilight.

“That’s why I asked her to look for the smallest Everfree creature I could think of,” said Pulp Puree. “She knew how perfect an opportunity this was, and couldn’t pass up the chance we wanted. So she caught the next train from Clopley Hill to Ponyville. When she got there, the first thing she said she saw was a goods train loaded with large stones. They were the last pieces of Nyx’s castle. She found it was all gone. It was even more perfect than we first thought. The next thing Winter Squash found was a kazoo.”

“Nyx’s kazoo?” asked Twilight.

“That’s what her little friend with the glasses said,” replied Pulp.

“Twist?” asked Lazybug, remembering that Twilight told him and Crosspatch that Silver Spoon had hated Nyx.

“I dunno. Winter didn’t get her name,” Pulp groaned. “Sure, we’ll just call her Twist. So Twist explained that she was setting up a scavenger hunt for her friends, and Nyx’s kazoo was on the list. She asked Winter Squash to leave it where she found it, but once she was gone, she grabbed it again and planted it close to the Everfree Forest. Then she stepped into the woods. Soon enough, she found a cockatrice…”

He pointed to the animal watching this exposition dump infold.

“That cockatrice… and Stared it down. With that cockatrice under her control, she ordered it to turn Nyx to stone when she saw her. Then she went back to Ponyville and looked for Nyx. When she spotted her, she dropped a hint to her that there was an item on her list near the forest. She was apprehensive at first, but Winter Squash said that the item wasn’t in the forest. So Nyx thought it was safe and went for it. She approached the forest, and that cockatrice did as he was ordered. Nyx was a statue.”

Twilight began welling up.

“Winter Squash then sent the cockatrice back to the forest and hid Nyx’s statue in some bushes in the forest,” Pulp Puree grinned.

“In the meantime,” he went on, “I wrote what I wanted everyone to forget in the foam on the top of my amnesia potion. Nyx and the effects she had on Equestria. I knew the Crystal Heart under the tarpaulin was a fake, but I was certain Twilight would find the real one soon enough.”

“And when we did find it, you somehow got it covered in your amnesia potion?” asked Spike.

“I hid in the impatient crowd. All the crystal ponies were too scared about Sombra to notice me. And when all the crystal ponies had knelt down to feed the light within them to the Crystal Heart, I tossed the jar at it,” Pulp Puree was clearly enjoying reciting what he considered his greatest work. “The heart not only got rid of Sombra and spread its powerful magic across Equestria, it also exposed everypony in the country to my amnesia potion. It affected me as well, but I’d written myself a note on that page I ripped out of the history book to remind myself to go home and take some memory potion. And over in Ponyville, Winter Squash had done the same thing. When she read the note she wrote to herself and looked around, she saw that everyone in Ponyville was watching the Crystal Heart’s magic spread across the sky. So she took her memory recovery potion and carried on with the next stage of the plan. She took advantage of the distraction to run to the schoolhouse and take Nyx’s name off the teacher’s register, and to the Library to get rid of all the photographs of Nyx. She then caught the train back home. I’d already returned and taken my memory potion. We met up at Steeds Central and congratulated each other on a job well done.”

Twilight sighed. “So Nyx is a statue and stuck in some bushes in the Everfree Forest.”

“That’s right,” said Pulp Puree.

“Wait. She can’t be still in the forest. Our cockatrice would have found her there,” said Crosspatch. “Out with it, you! Where is she really?”

“Here she is.”

Everyone looked towards the snow. Winter Squash was trotting towards them looking cross. Behind her, flying with great difficulty and sweating in the cold of the arctic, was Flash Sentry carrying a life-size statue of a filly with a red kazoo sticking out of her mouth.

“It’s her!” cried Twilight. “It’s Nyx!”

Twilight magiced Nyx’s statue out of Flash’s hooves and set her down on the ground in front of her. Her rock-solid adopted daughter had a surprised look on her face, but she was still the greatest sight Twilight had seen in a long time.

“A few days after we carried out our plan,” Winter Squash told her, “we both went to Ponyville and managed to sneak her statue out of the forest and to Clopley Hill. We knew you and your friends have a zebra friend in Everfree and thought you might stumble upon Nyx at some point. She’s been sitting in our attic for a while now.”

Crosspatch and Lazybug stared at Winter Squash. “Mom?”

“Nice cutie mark, Lazybug,” their mother smiled.

Crosspatch and Lazybug beamed and ran up to Winter Squash and hugged her.

“So, you got your memory back,” frowned Pulp Puree.

“After Flash here found our address and learned that you were a chemist, he found a memory potion for me when he brought me home,” Winter Squash said. “And I was able to tell him about our scheme and show him where we hid Twilight’s daughter.

Pulp snorted.

“That’s why you went into the Arctic snow, isn’t it?” Cadance demanded. “You weren’t looking for your wife. You were looking for a better place to hide Nyx’s statue.

“Yes, yes,” sulked Pulp Puree.

Crosspatch and Lazybug observed the statue sitting in front of Twilight.

“So this is Nyx,” said Lazybug.

“Yes… this is my Nyx…” Twilight gazed sadly at the stone filly.

Quite suddenly, her view was obscured by a brown and cream head. The cockatrice had wasted no time in stepping in front of the statue’s face and stared hard into its eyes.

“Ah! There’s a good boy,” grinned Crosspatch.

The stoney exterior vanished.

“Oh!”

The red kazoo dropped from Nyx’s mouth.

“What… what happened?!”

“She’s back!” Twilight and Spike exclaimed.

Nyx looked around. “Twilight… Spike… Princess Cadance…”

“Hi, Nyx,” Spike smiled. “It’s great to see you.”

Twilight was lost for words as Nyx looked up at her in amazement.

“Twilight… you have wings!”

“Oh. Yes, I do,” Twilight unfurled her wings so Nyx could get a better look.

Nyx looked around. “Where am I?”

“The Crystal Empire,” said Twilight.

“Wow,” Nyx looked at the shimmering castle and the glittering buildings around it. “It’s beautiful. But… how did I get here? I was having a scavenger hunt with my Crusader friends in Ponyville, and…”

She spotted Winter Squash and gasped.

“And she told me where I could find my kazoo.”

“Yeah,” Winter Squash frowned. “I’m sorry, Nyx. Me and my husband tried to get rid of you.”

Nyx began to shake. “What do you mean?”

It took a long time to explain to Nyx that she’d been away for a while because of a pair of dissenters. She was quite forlorn by the time she knew the whole story.

“Everypony still hates me,” she said sadly.

“That’s not true, Nyx,” insisted Twilight.

“Yes. Everyone’s forgotten all about you,” Pulp hissed.

“Knock it off, Dad!” snapped Crosspatch.

“Well, I’m sorry if I have an objection to bias!” barked Pulp Puree.

“Bias?” repeated Flash Sentry.

“Yes. Nyx has committed crimes against equinity and she got to live a normal life with Princess Twilight, the one who adopted her,” scowled Pulp Puree. “And my wife didn’t care about the despicable things those two have done to that apple farm. She was all for a reunion with those crooks.”

“He’s right,” Winter Squash was looking downcast. “I hated Nyx for what she’d done, but when I heard about what my foals had done, I just didn’t care. I suppose I am biased.”

Twilight considered. “Maybe I’m biased too. But I wasn’t biased when I had to decide what to do about Crosspatch and Lazybug’s crimes.”

“Wait, what?! Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash told you about what we did?” asked a wide-eyed Crosspatch.

“Well, yeah,” said Twilight. “How else did you think I found out about you two?”

“They never told us they went to you about us,” said Crosspatch. “They said they wouldn’t turn us over to you if we promised to keep the nab turtles out of the hospital’s sting weed garden.”

“Well, they did anyway,” shrugged Twilight. “They told me all about the Zap-O-Lantern and your failed plan to take over Sweet Apple Acres. I asked them where you two were at the time, and they said you were keeping the sting weed safe so Applejack and Big McIntosh could have their lightning burns healed. I decided that since you realised you made a bad decision, apologized, and did your best to make amends, you shouldn’t be arrested. I’d never heard of you before Pinkie and Rainbow told me about you, and I had no personal reason to let you off lightly, but I did.”

She glared at Pulp Puree.

“I guess that’s just the kind of pony I am.”

Pulp snorted.

“Your highness,” said Winter Squash, “is there anything I can do to make up for my part in Nyx’s disappearance?”

“Oh for gourd sakes!” snapped Pulp Puree.

“Shut up, Pulp!” Winter Squash barked. “I do not want to be away from our son and daughter anymore! I’ve missed them! I still love them! Unlike you!”

Pulp Puree didn’t respond.

“Mr Puree,” said Cadance, “have you really lost your love for your son and daughter?”

“Their crimes may not have been as horrid as Nyx’s, your highness,” frowned Pulp, “but they were crimes nonetheless.”

Cadance’s horn lit up, and from it emerged a reddish-purple heart. It drifted towards Pulp Puree, settled on his nose, and vanished. Pulp’s expression changed. He now looked aggrieved.

“Do you remember now how important your family is to you?” asked Princess Cadance. “Think about it. You opted to protect them long ago and then never saw them again. Surely you do miss them despite the trouble they’d caused.”

Pulp Puree looked around. From Winter Squash, to Crosspatch, to Lazybug.

“Could, uh, could I have a minute to mull things over?” he asked, taking a seat on the grass by the path.

Cadance nodded.

Nyx had forgotten about the cockatrice until he popped up in front of her with her kazoo in his mouth.

“What is it?” asked Twilight at the sound of Nyx’s surprised yelp.

“Oh, their pet cockatrice was just picking up my kazoo for me,” said Nyx. “It’s nothing bad.”

“He’s not our…” Lazybug started.

“Good,” Twilight was unaware that Lazybug was saying anything. “Because I am never going to let anything bad happen to you ever again. From now on, I’ll never leave you.”

“Twilight,” said Cadance as her sister-in-law held Nyx in her hooves, “won’t that make it hard for the two of you to live your lives?”

“I don’t have a choice,” Twilight said. “Princess Celestia ordered me to help Nyx readjust to life as a normal filly. I have to stay with her.”

“But Twilight, you’re a princess now,” said Nyx. “Don’t you have royal duties?”

“Forget my royal duties,” Twilight shook her head. “I have you back and I’m not…”

“Twilight, you are kinda overreacting,” said Spike.

For a moment, Twilight looked like she was gonna blow up. Then she heaved a heavy sigh.

“Can you blame me? I’m supposed to help Nyx uphold her special talent. She wants to keep the ones she cares about safe. But she can’t keep herself safe unless I’m there to watch over her,” she said. “So how else can I keep all the naysayers away from her?”

Lazybug didn’t hesitate one second. “Leave it to me.”

“You?”

“Yeah. We’re the same age. We’ll both be in school together. I can keep an eye on her there,” Lazybug suggested. “Then there’d be no reason she can’t live a normal life.”

No one noticed, but Pulp Puree’s expression of contemplation was steadily morphing into a livid scowl.

“And if you and your friends have to go somewhere,” Lazybug went on, “Nyx can stay with me and Crosspatch until you come back.”

He turned to Nyx, who shuffled sheepishly.

“How’s that sound, Nyx? Would you be OK with me as your ponyguard?”

“I, uh, guess that would be alright,” said Nyx. “But… could we be friends as well?”

“Why not?” Lazybug shrugged. “Well, just try not to hold the class up before recess.”

Nyx turned red. “I’ll try. Oh! You could ask Apple Bloom if you could join the Cutie Mark Crusaders as an honourary member.”

Lazybug beamed. “Yeah! Well, after everyone in Equestria remembers you, that is.”

The look of utter outrage on Pulp Puree’s face went unnoticed by everyone.

“It’s very nice of you to offer, Lazybug,” said Twilight, “but do you really think you can keep Nyx safe whenever she’s away from me?”

“Oh, sure. I’m a lot like her, you know,” Lazybug smiled. “We were both affected by problems that happened years and years ago, and we’ve both found ways to make our lives better no matter what our pasts did to us.”

“He’s right, Twilight,” said Nyx. “He knows how it feels to be troubled by past disasters. Princess Luna may have taken her own memories away from me, but I still know how much misery I’d caused the ponies of Equestria. The two of us could be a great team.”

It took seconds.

“She cannot go free!” Pulp roared as he charged madly towards Nyx with his teeth bared.

“No!” Lazybug shouted, jumping between Nyx and Pulp with his hoof outstretched.

Instead of Nyx, Pulp grabbed Lazybug with his teeth. And then…

FLASH!

Nyx, Twilight, Spike, Cadance, Winter Squash and Flash Sentry couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Lazybug’s eyes glowed multiple colours. Electric sparks crackled all around him. Neither he nor Pulp were moving. Suddenly, Pulp Puree shot backwards. He sailed screaming above the ground, and landed several yards away from the crowd.

“See that?” Lazybug waved his bitten hoof around. “I’m the right colt for the job.”

Flash Sentry flew over the Pulp, who was groaning and trying to pick himself up.

“Pulp Puree, you’re under arrest for conspiracy, foalnap, substance abuse, and attempted assault.”

Pulp looked affronted. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a criminal! I…”

The cockatrice had flown over to Pulp’s landing spot as well, and before the old stallion could yell another word, he was a very angry-looking statue.

“Good boy!” called Crosspatch.

“Lazybug, how did you do that?!” exclaimed Twilight.

Lazybug grinned. “Me and Crosspatch got the protective power of zap apple trees from the Zap-O-Lantern. Tell them how you got rid of the abominable snowmare, Crosspatch.”

“Well,” said Crosspatch, “we ran up to it, but it turned out to be a lot bigger than it looked from a distance. It was massive. Our cockatrice wasn’t the only one who got scared of it… I, uh, sort of got scared stiff. The snowmare swatted the guards away and lunged for me. It grabbed me, opened its mouth, and tried to eat me. But it couldn’t. My body ceased up, my eyes went all glowy, there were sparks all over me, and next thing I know, the snowmare drops me and sails backwards. The next thing we all saw was its silhouette running into the snowy mist. It definitely ran back to the mountains. Didn’t want to try that on me again.”

Maybe it was because they had Nyx back, but Twilight and Spike’s heartburn went away quite quickly over the course of the afternoon. They were able to help Cadance, Shining Armour and Winter Squash with preparations for the following day. The first order of business was to have Pulp Puree formally sentenced.

“Pulp Puree,” said Princess Celestia, “you have heard the charges set against you. Have you anything to say before I pass sentence?

“I have a question, your highness,” replied Pulp Puree, shooting a dirty look at the witness’ table. “Do you call this a fair hearing?”

Princess Celestia sighed as she looked over her table, her gavel, and the jar of memory potion she’s dipped her hoof in earlier. Cadance, Twilight, Nyx, Lazybug, Crosspatch and Winter Squash were all looking eager to see Pulp take his medicine.

“Mr Puree, you seem to think everyone in this room is set against you,” Celestia said.

“We are!” burst out Lazybug. “He doesn’t care at all about what he’s done! He…!”

Crosspatch swiftly covered her brother’s mouth with her hoof.

“Send me to prison, and you’ll prove to the whole of Equestria how biased you all are,” Pulp Puree betrayed a hint of smugness.

“The sentence I am about to give you, Mr Puree, has nothing to do with my relationship with those who testified against you. It is with your own response to your actions,” said Celestia. “Your lack of remourse for the trouble you’ve caused your loved ones and your refusal to offer any redemption has made it plain for us all to see that you truly are a villain.”

Pulp Puree’s force contorted with anger. “A villain?”

Celestia nodded. “You think Nyx’s crimes are unforgivable, but I believe that your son and daughter have shown that it is possible to overcome the mistakes of the past to strengthen one’s self and move forward.”

Pulp Puree glanced at Crosspatch and Lazybug, who smiled up at the princess of the sun as she cleared her throat.

“Pulp Puree… you are sentenced to retirement from the chemist profession and confinement in the Piny Shades Retirement Home. An appointed royal guard shall be stationed at the nursing home to monitor you until further notice.”

She magiced her gavel up and slammed it on her table.

“I shall escort you to Piny Shades myself. Everyone else…”

She levitated the jar of memory potion and sent it hovering to Winter Squash.

“You may head off to the Crystal Empire.”

The witnesses thanked Princess Celestia and exited the court room. The last thing they heard before the bailiffs shut the doors was Pulp Puree grumbling “I can’t believe they’re really gonna do this.”

“Hello, everypony! Welcome to the celebration! We are here to congratulate Crosspatch and Lazybug for driving the abominable snowmare away from the Crystal Empire and back to the arctic mountains!”

The crowd of crystal ponies had their full attention on Prince Shining Armour making his announcement from up on the castle balcony. None of them saw Winter Squash walk right up to the Crystal Heart and splash a brown foamy liquid all over it.

“So please enjoy yourselves and have a wonderful time!” finished Shining Armour.

After a smattering, the crystal ponies roamed the city streets partaking on various foodstuffs and socializing with each other and the non-crystal ponies who were on hoof when the abominable snowmare was about. Crosspatch and Lazybug were looking up at the statue of Spike as crystal ponies passed by and offered them their gratitude.

“Think they’ll make statues of us?” asked Lazybug.

“Dunno. I don’t think they were as frightened about the snowmare as they were about Sombra,” shrugged Crosspatch.

Twilight walked up alongside a unicorn filly wearing a headband, a vest and a pair of glasses.

“Um, are Apple Bloom and Twist coming?” asked the filly.

“I’m sure they’ll be along,” said Crosspatch. “Spike’s gonna see if they caught the midday train.”

Apple Bloom and Twist entered the Crystal Empire, showed their invitations to the soldiers guarding the gate, and passed under the banner that read “Thank you Crosspatch & Lazybug.”

“Hey, you made it!” called Spike, making his way through the crowd to meet the two foals.

“Yeah. Uh, why were we invited to this party?” asked Apple Bloom.

“We didn’t have anything to do with that abominable snowmare,” put in Twist.

“Well, Crosspatch and Lazybug wanted you two to meet some ponies,” said Spike. “Come on.”

He led the way through the crowd of happy chattering crystal ponies. Soon, they found Crosspatch and Winter Squash, who were both drinking egg nog.

“Ah, you came,” smiled Crosspatch. “Mom, this is Apple Bloom and Twist. Girls, this is my mom, Winter Squash.”

“Apple Bloom. You’re Granny Smith’s granddaughter, aren’t you?” asked Winter Squash. “I hear things turned out alright for her and her zap apples.”

“That’s right,” said Apple Bloom.

“I also her she didn’t age as gracefully as I did,” Winter Squash grinned.

Apple Bloom was quite ambivalent about this remark.

“Where did you go after you lost your pumpkin farm, Mrs Squash?” asked Twist.

“Clopley Hill. But after this party’s over,” Winter Squash replied, “I’ll be moving in with my daughter and son.”

“And she’s not the only one,” said Crosspatch. “Remember him?”

Apple Bloom and Twist looked to their left. There was the cockatrice that invaded their playground. He had two cobs of crystal candy corn in his beak.

“Go on. He won’t hurt ya,” said a passing crystal pony with his mouth full of berries.

It seemed everypony who’d been told how the snowmare was vanquished knew that Crosspatch had a pet cockatrice. Apple Bloom and Twist took a cob each and thanked the cockatrice, feeling weird.

“I named him Scavenger,” Crosspatch told them. “He’s gonna help me with pest control in Ponyville.”

“Don’t you have your brother helping you with that?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Well, he might be a bit preoccupied with Nyx.”

“Who’s Nyx?” asked Twist.

“She’s a relative of Twilight’s,” said Spike. “She’s moving to Ponyville, too. Come see.”

Lazybug saw Spike leading Apple Bloom and Twist towards him and his friend with the glasses and vest, who gasped in delight.

“Wait for it, Nyx,” he whispered.

Nyx calmed herself as her old friends approached.

“Here she is,” said Spike.

“Hi, Apple Bloom!” Nyx couldn’t help herself. “Hi Twist!”

“Hi, Nyx,” said Twist. “So are you gonna be going to school with us?”

“Yeah, she is,” said Lazybug.

“Great. You’re gonna love Miss Cheerilee’s classes,” smiled Apple Bloom.

Nyx beamed. Twilight walked up.

“Ah. I see you’ve met my cousin.”

Twist hadn’t heard. “Wow. Look at the Crystal Heart.”

The relic had begun to spin. Twilight saw that Nyx wasn’t looking so cheerful anymore.

“What is it?” she asked when Twist and Apple Bloom weren’t paying attention.

“I’m… nervous,” said Nyx quietly.

Winter Squash had walked up and heard her. “Look, Nyx. That page Pulp Puree tore out of that history book was important. And so is the gap in Equestria’s history that you took up. If there are any ponies who still hate you when they remember, let them be mad. What happened happened, and history should not be whitewashed.”

Nyx smiled and nodded.

Cadance had been flying around observing the merriment. She saw that the Crystal Heart was picking up speed and decided to give it a boost.

“Three cheers for Crosspatch and Lazybug, our heroes!” she called.

The crystal citizens obliged, and wit the final chant of “Hooray!”, the Crystal Heart spun rapidly and shot a beam of light up to the top of the castle. Everyone watched as blue, red and yellow streaks spread across the sky. Twilight, Spike, Crosspatch, Lazybug, Winter Squash and Nyx knew that all over Equestria, ponies were now recalling many significant, life-altering events. Cheerilee would now know who resembled a young Nightmare Moon. Fluttershy would now know who had saved Ponyville from a stampede of Everfree creatures. And Diamond Tiara would now know who used to hold the class up before recess started. They could be sure of this because Apple Bloom and Twist were both looking dumbstruck.

“Th-that’s why I found that CMC cape in my room that day,” stuttered Twist.

“Our… our new club rule,” stammered Apple Bloom.

The two of them jerked their heads at Nyx, who promptly removed her headband, vest and glasses, revealing her wings and her abnormally shaped eyes.

“Nyx! You’re back!”

“Where have you been?!”

“We haven’t seen you in so long!”

Nyx had never been so happy to be tackled.

“It’s great to be back, girls,” she said as they hugged her.

“Nyx, you’re really coming back to Ponyville?!” asked Apple Bloom.

“You’re really coming back to school?!” asked Twist.

“Yes, I am,” replied Nyx. “And… I hope I can come back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“You bet ya can,” beamed Apple Bloom. “I can tell ya right now, as leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that our new rule that non-blank flanks are allowed to become honourary members is back in effect.”

Twist glowed. “Does that mean I…?”

“Welcome back to the club, you two,” smiled Apple Bloom.

“Oh. Apple Bloom, can Lazybug join up too?” asked Nyx.

Apple Bloom looked around at Lazybug, who took a step forward.

“Wanna join the Crusaders, Lazybug?” she asked.

“Can I really?” asked Lazybug.

“Definitely,” Apple Bloom nodded. “You really shoulda been one from the start anyway.”

“Thanks, Apple Bloom.”

Nyx was happy to be back. She was aware that she’d have quite an adjustment to make and a bit of catching up to do, but she knew that with Twilight’s and Lazybug’s help, she would soon be well off. Although it did come as a shock to learn that her old Library home no longer existed.

Author's Note

I plan to start writing my next batch of ten fanfics after New Years.