Retrograde

Chapters

Prologue
2 - Gathered Fragments
3 - Fragile Figures
4 - Stuttered Progress
5 - To Remember or Forget
6 - Erase Me
7 - The New Normal
8 - The Haze That Follows
9 - Garden of Regrets
10 - Prograde Pathways
Epilogue
1 - Lost Positives

Prologue

Sunset Shimmer’s world was somewhere between a total black and a total haze. The last thing she remembered was stepping through the portal into some strange place she had never gone before, strange creatures calling her their friends, undergoing some magical transformation, and then something or somethings had exploded.

And there were several reasons why any part of that was impossible.

Her world came to and she found herself looking up at the sky. She groaned and rolled over, glancing up to consider the creatures standing over her. These so-called friends (yet another impossibility) all blinked and cringed and otherwise tried to shake the daze out of themselves as well. Whatever these creatures wore around their necks—strange stones by the looks of it—had lit up like a thousand suns and done something, but she couldn’t piece together what that something had been; had they shot a beam of magic at somepony?

Sunset looked up and spotted another girl across the way. The girl’s long, green, and shaggy hair accentuated the disoriented expression she wore on her face, and Sunset couldn’t readily tell if the color had drained from her face or if the pale-ish green color was her face.

How did she know they were girls? The voices and tones and tongues were sounds that she recognized and their soft and vibrant faces, strangely shaped as they were, looked delicate and feminine. But these creatures were strange. They stood on two legs and wore varied clothing and had strange appendages on the ends of their forelegs—could she even call them forelegs?

The six of them glanced at each other and let out a few pointed exclamations before cracking smiles and wide grins and jumping up and down.

“Hoo-wee!” The one with the stetson exclaimed with a thick voice. “Ah remember everythin’!”

“Me too! Me too!” another exclaimed. If cotton candy had been given a body and a personality, this girl had to be it.

Another one of the girls, who looked sleek and stylish and carried herself with a confident air, nodded. “And I as well. I would seem that whatever that memory stone did to us has worn off.” She turned and looked down at Sunset with a large grin on her face. “Looks like we have you to thank for that.”

Sunset frowned. “M… me?”

Another girl came forward. “Yeah! You!” This girl contained every color of the rainbow and, with the way she was built and subsequently carried herself, Sunset was sure this one could carry her easily. “That was awesome what you did!”

The girl with the large glasses, however, gasped. “Sunset Shimmer! Your geode!” she exclaimed, pointing at her neck.

Instinct prompted her to look down where she finally saw the remains of a necklace dangling off of her supposed neck. An orangish rock lay shattered on the ground in front of her.

The last of the girls stroked her long and flowing rose-colored hair. “Oh my…” she whimpered.

The rainbow-haired girl frowned, bent down, and picked up a rock shard. “Oh. Yeah. That kinda sucks. I guess her geode’s gone.”

The fashionable one raised an eyebrow; a few folds appeared in her meticulously applied eyeliner. “Oh. So I suppose that means no more mind powers, hmmm?”

“Aw, shucks, Rarity,” the one in hat said. “At least she’s okay. We’re all okay.”

“Well excuse me, Applejack, if I like to think about all the details. Besides, that geode is pretty important.”

The rainbow-haired girl picked up a few more pieces and then turned. “Hey, Twilight,” she said as zipped over to the girl with the glasses. “You think that we could fix this?”

Twilight adjusted her glasses and then waved her hands; the pieces responded by floating in front of her face. She examined them closely, groaning all the while. “I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. I’m not exactly an expert on these.”

“Maybe we could ask Princess Twilight about it,” said the rose-haired girl with a voice like a lullaby.

Princess who?

There was something wrong. Sunset clenched her fist.

“Huh,” Applejack said. “That don’t sound like a bad idea, Fluttershy.”

The cotton-candy one zipped over to examine the cracked geode floating in front of Twilight, stroked her chin, and then zipped over to Sunset. “You know,” she said, “now that I think about, maybe we could all go there and talk to her in person. I’ve always wanted to go there and—”

“Hold your horses, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity said. “Going to Equestria might be a bad idea.”

Now Sunset was sure of it. There were several things wrong.

Her hands balled into fists and she growled under her breath.

And, all at once, the six of them turned to face her. Any hints of smiles disappeared from their faces; a couple of them even shrank.

“Sunset?” Applejack asked. “You feelin’ alright?”

“No,” she sharply replied. “I have several questions.”

Twilight frowned, shot a brief glance at the lonesome girl a distance away, and then nodded. “Of course. What do you wanna know?”

Sunset Shimmer looked across them and snorted. “Okay. Who are you? Where am I? And what is going on?”

A long moment of silence passed between them as the six girls initially grimaced and exchanged raised eyebrows and worried frowns.

“S-sunset Shimmer, t-that isn’t funny…” Rarity quivered.

“And that’s another thing: how do you know who I am?”

Fluttershy gasped and folded together. “Sunset… we’re your friends. We… we’ve known you for three years.”

Sunset crossed her arms and snorted. “And just how is that possible? I just got here.”

Fluttershy shrunk down even more and whimpered. “Oh my…”

Rarity blinked and leaned forward, looking into the pits of Sunset’s eyes. “You… you don’t…?”

Twilight’s jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh… Don’t tell me…”

Several sets of eyes trailed down to where, intermingled with the remains of the supposed geode, lay the shambles of what had been a grey-ish slab of rock. Their faces grew paler with every piece that their eyes crossed over.

Pinkie Pie grabbed Sunset by her shoulders and held her to face. Her eyes shook in their sockets as she looked over every inch of Sunset. “Sunset. It’s me. Pinkie Pie! Don’t you know?”

Sunset blinked and scanned the creases on Pinkie Pie’s face and how they accentuated her stare. It made a shiver run down her spine. “No,” Sunset replied, instinctively slapping Pinkie Pie’s hands away. “I don’t know who you are.”

“Oh for land’s sakes!” Applejack cried. “She doesn’t remember!”

“Remember what?” Sunset asked.

“Oh gosh!” Twilight screamed. “Oh gosh!”

“Sunset Shimmer!” Rarity shouted, shoving her way between Pinkie Pie and Sunset. “You look at me right now and tell me that you remember!”

Sunset blinked and scanned their faces again. They each looked like the life had been sucked out of them.

And no one, pony or otherwise, had ever looked at her like that before.

“No way!” Rainbow Dash clutched her head as her eyes darted across the ground. She finally settled on the stone remnants scattered across the ground and she practically threw herself onto them and began scooping them up. “Maybe we can put it back together! Maybe we can get her memories back!”

Fluttershy also bent down to collect the pieces, although not before wiping some moisture out of her eyes. “Oh dear! Oh dear…”

Applejack whirled. “Twilight! We can fix this, right?”

Twilight, who had already started hyperventilating, fell onto her haunches.

As the six of them continued shouting and crying and otherwise fumbling over each other, Sunset turned her eyes again to the girl across the way. She looked similarly spooked, judging from the way she stumbled backward. Sunset could spot the bits of moisture in her eyes and the tremble in her features.

This girl, whoever she was, glanced about every direction at once and then turned to the opening in the fence behind her. She stumbled and fell onto her face, but she immediately got up and, without even stopping to brush herself off, bolted down the path and disappeared into the woods.

Some bits of Sunset’s breath left her as she considered the departure. Who was that? And why had they reacted like that?

Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. But now she had no clue. And it was only then that an uneasy sensation, a twisting, manifested somewhere within herself.

Several million questions clouded her mind, especially as she turned her attention back toward the group of girls in front of her. She now studied their faces closely and tried to make sense of them. Who were these people and why did they know who she was? Why were they concerned about her? What were they concerned about?

Sunset frowned. How had she ended up there? Had she really just stepped through the portal? Was that what she really remembered?

She shuddered once more and then straightened up. While Pinkie Pie and Rarity backed away, Applejack knelt next to Twilight and held her tight.

Rainbow Dash growled. “That Wallflower! It was her! She did this!” She glanced where the departure had once been standing and then looked around the area. “Where is she!?” she seethed, standing up in a huff, “When I get my hands on her…”

Rarity turned to look down at Rainbow Dash. “Oh, absolutely. I have a few choice words for her!”

“Easy there, ya’ll. We got more important problems,” Applejack said.

And then, finally, words fought their way up Sunset’s throat before she became even aware of them. “Will somepony please tell me what’s going on!?” she screamed.

All at once, the girls fell silent and turned to face her. Those on the ground rose to their feet (with some needing help). They exchanged uneasy glances.

Rarity sucked in a breath. “Is… going through the portal really the last thing that you remember?”

Sunset blinked. “Yeah. It is. What of it?”

“Oh by the stars,” Rarity wheezed.

“You make it seem like I don’t remember something. So… what?”

Applejack adjusted her Stetson, stepped forward, placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sugarcube… you… coming through the portal was a long time ago. You don’t remember any of the last three years and change…”

Something went thump in the pit of Sunset’s stomach. “I… what?”

“You’ve lost all your memories,” Rarity quivered. “You don’t remember all the time you’ve been here. You don’t remember us!”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

At that point, Twilight stepped forward. “Sunset Shimmer… I think we have a lot of explaining to do.”

2 - Gathered Fragments

The seat that Sunset Shimmer now sat in, she decided, was decisively different—much softer, for one—from the hardened chair she had been in before, but that didn’t make the manner in which she sat in it much easier to wrap her head around.

There had been a number of things she had herself done with the ease of breathing that she knew she had never done before. Walking on two legs had been one of them. Getting into this seat had been another. Now these hands moved over the books in her lap without her even having to think too hard about it.

It didn’t make sense. This body didn’t make sense.

This seat seemed to be in a carriage of some sorts if said carriage wasn’t pulled by anything she could readily discern—it did, however, make a lot of sound! It had a red coat and the cabin, which she now sat in, took up the front half; Sunset was sure one could place a large object or several into the open rear half.

The woman in the seat next to her, Vice Principal Luna, drove this carriage down the road. She had heard the word truck thrown about; perhaps that was how they called this type of carriage. Luna’s hands gripped the truck’s steering wheel as she navigated down grey, crack-ridden roads. She remained quiet all the while, opting to focus on her driving. The smooth tones of violins and twangs of a harpsichord mixed together into a melodic tune that several speakers around the cabin whispered out.

Sunset took a moment to watch the scenery go by; she studied the architecture of these simple houses that lined both sides of the street, noting the uniformly-cut lawns that seemed to sprawl in front of every dwelling, all of which lined both sides of the road.

She opened one of the yearbooks and flipped through the pages. She saw pictures of teenagers from page to page but the earliest ones were ones she didn’t recognize. Their corresponding names hung in the margins but she couldn’t recognize the names either. She had never seen these people before. She had never heard of these people before.

She flipped through more and more pages, noting that this book apparently had the graduating class first and then the preceding grades followed. It was only as she neared the end of the picture portion of the book that she started finding the girls she had seen at the school. She scanned their faces, noting how much younger they looked. They all wore the same young and naive smiles that everyone else wore.

And then she found a picture of herself. She had the same red and yellow hairstyle as herself, had the same lush cyan eyes as herself, and even had the type of confident smile that Sunset knew she’d wear. The girl in the picture was her spitting image in every way. And, in the margin, the name Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset swallowed. “That’s… me…” she said under her breath.

She flipped through more pages where she reached the end of the student pictures and found a picture of the staff. Her eyes immediately drew to Vice Principal Luna’s picture and Principal Celestia’s picture, both of which sat right next to each other. She took a few moments to study their faces, especially as the truck took a turn onto another street.

Sunset turned through a few more pages where the book showcased the various clubs, groups, and events within the school. She more or less flipped through the pages now, taking time only to give the pictures cursory scans for anything she could recognize. She saw a few more pictures of five of the other girls (but could find no trace of the final one with the glasses). She saw herself a few more times, apparently seated in some class or working in the library.

Had she really done all of that? Did she really remember none of it?

Sunset flipped through to the end of the book and then started on the next one. She found herself again, she found five of the other girls again. They all looked older, more mature, but she could see chinks in their smiles.

She flipped through more pages, finding herself more and more. The girl in these books was definitely her. These girls in these books were definitely the girls she had seen; they were younger but, beyond that, she had no doubt it was them.

She clutched at her head with her free hand. Did I really lose my memories?

She flipped the third book open. She found the same pictures and supposed memories within, all showing her and all showing the others. They looked so real to life that she couldn’t doubt their authenticity.

Her remaining hand joined the one clutching her head. And I made everyone’s life miserable? And now some girl named Wallflower Blush still hated me enough to do this to me?

Her features darkened and a raging fire crawled up her spine. I don’t… understand. How… dare…?

“Sunset Shimmer,” Luna said.

Sunset’s train of thought dissolved and she tentatively looked over. “Uh, yes?”

Luna turned the steering wheel, taking the truck around another corner. Gone were the grassy lawns that had previously lined the streets; the buildings now practically pressed up against the street and right up next to each other.

“We’re about to arrive at your apartment. I don’t suppose that you will remember this place, or how to even get in.”

Sunset listened in silence.

Luna’s features tightened. “I don’t even know myself if we’ll be able to get you in. We’ll do what we can. But if you are like me, and many others, you keep your keys on your person.” She then looked over and met Sunset in the eyes. “Kindly check your pockets and show me what you find.”

Sunset frowned and looked down at the leather vest hanging about her midsection. She reached into the pockets on the sides and felt an item in each of them. The one from her right pocket was a hard device with a glassy surface; a screen by the look of it. The object from her left was, in fact, a key ring. She held them up. “This?”

Luna cracked a smile and nodded. “We may be in luck.”

* * *

The dull sound of the tumbler of the lock clicked as she turned the key, and Sunset felt a small sense of ease fill her. The feeling of the doorknob in her grip brought with it a sense of eerie familiarity as she turned it. It was like she had been here before, and given what Luna had told her, this was where she lived. The thought of this place being her home made her feel somewhat unnerved, but also at ease.

“Are we going to head inside, or are you content with staring inside?”

The sound of Luna’s voice caught Sunset off guard. She had all but forgotten that she wasn’t alone. The vague feeling of nostalgia at the smell of the air from within the building had ensnared her mind.

“Sorry, I just... still feel a little strange about all of this...” Sunset said. She shook her head to recenter herself on the moment. Part of her felt like she didn’t want to come off as rude by not inviting Luna into her home. Of course, the fact that Sunset didn’t remember ever living here made the whole notion of 'being rude' feel a bit off. She stepped aside, allowing Luna by. “After you.”

Luna smiled and nodded. “Thank you. I’m glad to see that your newfound manners didn’t get erased with the rest of your memories.”

Sunset snorted at what she perceived as the older woman’s attempt at humor. Well, at least she hoped it was a joke. She had found that it was difficult to tell with the way Luna often spoke.

Before she could once again get lost in her thoughts, Sunset entered the building.

The entryway looked like a simple common area, with some drawers as the only pieces of furniture. An oil painting sat in a wall-mounted frame in the center of one of the room's sky blue walls. It showed a sunset over the skyline of a lake, shimmering on the water. Sunset wanted to laugh at the fact that it was sort of on the nose, even for her. She wondered where she could have gotten the painting.

Had one of those girls from earlier given it to her? This was, according to Luna, her home; the key she had used to open it had come from her pocket after all. They had all insisted many times that they were her friends. Maybe one of them did it for a quick laugh?

Then again, Sunset thought, they did say that I’m boarding here, so it could be another tenant’s painting. Well, if there are any others.

Deciding not to worry about it, her body seemed to move instinctively as she proceeded to take off her shoes. The vague notion that she had done this a million times in the past once again clawed at her mind. Coupling with that came the feeling of unease she had been feeling all day.

“Your room, from what I recall, is the first door on the right at the top of these stairs,” Luna said, having already removed her own shoes while Sunset was adrift in her thoughts. “I remember having to bring you home after the Fall Formal. My sister and I had to make sure you stayed out of trouble for the remainder of that night.”

“Fall Formal?”

“It’s an annual dance at Canterlot High. This past one was quite the... interesting event, to say the least.” Luna chuckled. The older woman began climbing the stairs, with Sunset following after her. “That was the first time magic had ever made its presence known to our world, or so I would assume.”

Sunset’s expression hardened. “Why do I get the feeling that ‘magic’ had something to do with me?”

“Because it did. You were actually at the center of it, but I’d rather save that story for later,” Luna said. “I’m not the most informed on the goings on of that night, or at least a large part of it, no thanks to being a zombie.”

“A zombie? How did... nevermind,” Sunset muttered, throwing her hands into the air. “I get the feeling I’ll find out later.”

The two made their way up the stairs in silence, with Luna several steps ahead of Sunset. Sunset felt like the woman in front of her knew more about this place than she herself did.

Stopping in front of a worn wooden door, Luna turned to look at Sunset. “This should be your room.”

“Oh, okay,” Sunset said with a nod. She gripped the knob and attempted to give it a quick turn, but it wouldn’t budge. “Looks like it’s locked.”

“This is a boarding residence, so that isn’t surprising. You should have a key.”

Sunset slapped her own forehead. “Ah, right. Forgot about that for a minute.”

Reaching into the pocket she had placed it after opening the front door, Sunset withdrew the key ring, and selected the key that probably fit from the three she hadn’t used on the front door.

Opening the door and taking in the sight of the room, a wave of homely nostalgia came over Sunset. It was akin the way she felt after a long day studying under Princess Celestia; it was oddly relaxing.

“It certainly feels like my room...” she muttered, before clearing the path for Luna to enter. “After you.”

Luna simply smiled and nodded, before entering the room. Sunset followed, shutting the door behind her.

The room was bigger than the impression of the building had given from the outside. It looked as though the only thing missing in the room was a kitchen, which was likely downstairs somewhere. Another missing thing was a bed, but that was something she could see being up on the balcony above her, accessible by a set of wooden stairs that, in a way, split the flat down the middle. The area underneath the balcony had a little workspace which sported several objects she couldn’t place. A large sofa dominated the other half of the flat, facing a large device that was just as strange. With a bookshelf on one wall and several guitars on the other, it looked like a complete living space.

But there was one thing that truly caught her eye. Her expression twitched as she walked over to it.

A medium-sized terrarium rested on what looked like a coffee table in the opposite corner of the flat. The tank wasn’t the most extravagant thing in the world, with a fake image of a desert lining the back wall. The sand looked a little rough, with fine rocks peppering it with a little extra color. Several dark, dry-looking stones sat every few inches, and a piece of driftwood was resting on the rear wall.

Perched on the piece of wood was a small, sleeping leopard gecko, no bigger than her hand. The lizard rested happily on its makeshift wood bed. Sunset could feel her face forming a smile as she stared at the small creature. It seemed content, its tiny smile warming her heart the longer she looked at it.

And then she realized that she had no memory of the gecko sleeping in the corner of her supposed room and blood just about ran cold. If this was, in fact, her room, then the lizard was, without a doubt, hers. Yet as she had determined earlier, if this was her pet reptile, then she had lost the memories of even getting it.

While she had felt a little bad hearing that she had lost her memories of her supposed friends, this felt worse. The fact that Sunset had no recollection of her own pet made her feel like she had forgotten the name of her own child.

As if sensing her distress, the lizard woke up. Sunset watched as it looked at her, and felt her heart break as its little eyes seemed to glitter at the sight of her. It didn’t know that its owner had forgotten it. How could it? She could feel her eyes begin to water.

She felt a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. Sunset looked up to see Luna's concerned-filled gaze staring back at her. “Are you alright, Sunset Shimmer?”

Sniffling, Sunset shook her head. “I... I don’t know...”

* * *

Principal Celestia clicked the send message on her text message as she walked down the hall. She then turned to the older gentlemen walking next to her. “Anywho, that is the long version.”

Mister Cranky Doodle, who had an eternally hunched-over stride, rubbed his chin and nodded sagely. “I see. That is quite a pickle.”

“Luna is taking Sunset home right now. I’m waiting to hear if they actually were able to get inside.”

“Alright, so what are you going to do? I take it you have something in mind?”

“At the moment, I’m expecting her friends to check back with me. After that,” Celestia said, hanging her hands on her coat pockets, “I‘m not too sure. I would go over there if I could.”

Mister Doodle raised an eyebrow. “And you can’t because...?”

“I gave Luna the truck,” Principal Celestia explained.

“Ah, that’s right. You two carpool to save money on gas.” Mister Doodle took a moment to adjust one of the sleeves on his sweater. “Well then, I’ll be in my room for a while. If you need to get over there, let me know and I’ll drive you over.”

Principal Celestia cracked a smile as they approached the end of the hall that led right up to her office door. “Thanks, Cranky. I appreciate it.”

Mister Doodle nodded and then turned into the hall, hanging his hands on his belt loops. “Anytime, Tia.”

She meanwhile turned back to a wooden door whose textured window made everything past it a kaleidoscope of browns and whites. The words Main Office were emblazoned on it, their former shine lost to scratches and paint tears. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. She walked around the side of the front desk and opened one of the drawers, sifting through a few of the folders inside. She drew out one of the documents.

She took a seat in the rolling chair and opened the folder. Wallflower Blush’s file is not that big. We don’t even have a recent picture… she thought as she skimmed the contents.

What would drive this girl to do this? What is going on?

The phone in her jacket pocket vibrated and she pulled it out. She read the text message and nodded to herself. She then sent a couple words of acknowledgement off and then returned to the folder.

The folder itself consisted of the basic information; name, birthday, address, and the most recent transcripts. Those told her nothing. Some folders, especially for the more troublesome kids in the school, contained discipline reports and detention notes—she knew that Sunset had at least a few, most of which came about after the Fall Formal. This folder contained none of that. In fact, aside from what student folders typically started with, she found nothing else.

She reclined in her seat and sighed. I don’t think I’ll get very far with this.

The office door clicked and then swung open. Principal Celestia stood up as several bodies filed into the room. The first six she readily recognized. The next looked similar to the Twilight she saw every day in the halls in classes, but she readily knew this one as well from her long and free-falling hair; it had to be Princess Twilight from the other world.

The last two were new. The former wore a pink, star-filled beanie and some ripped jeans. She stood at nearly her full height but the expression she wore was far from bright. The crossed arms didn’t help either.

The latter wore a large black sweater, equally black and blocky glasses, and had her hands curled tight. She managed to remain standing despite her legs bending at strange angles. She looked like she was trying to be as small as possible and her large eyebrows further accentuated the dead-lock stare she now gave Principal Celestia.

“Princess Twilight,” Principal Celestia said. “Good to see you again.”

“You too, Principal Celestia. May I introduce you to Starlight Glimmer and Moondancer?”

Starlight Glimmer waved. “Hi.”

“Hi…” Moondancer wheezed.

Principal Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I take it that you two are from Equestria?”

Starlight nodded. “Yes Ma’am. How could you tell?”

Principal Celestia’s lips twitched and she considered them closely again. Two Equestrians had already done a number of things. Now there were four of them walking around. She then sighed, and her lips formed a soft smile. “The fact that you came here with Princess Twilight was my first clue. I hope you’ll be comfortable here during your visit.”

Twilight placed her hands on her hips. “Where is Sunset Shimmer?” she asked with a firm tone. “I want to see her.”

“I can certainly understand why you do, especially given the circumstances,” Principal Celestia said as she opened the drawer and slotted Wallflower’s folder back inside. “I had Luna take Sunset home to her apartment. Speaking of which, you should know that they made it there okay.”

The congregation before her, for the most part, gave a collective sigh of relief.

“So what do we do now?” Sci-Twi asked.

Principal Celestia crossed her arms. “We are going to need to have a lengthy discussion on just that. Even I am not sure on how to go about this; there is no precedent for magical memory loss around here.”

Starlight frowned and scratched her head. “Uh, I don’t think it’s commonplace in our world either. There’s probably a few laws preventing this sort of thing from happening.”

“There are,” Moondancer said, breaking her nervous form of silence. “It’s Section 86B in the ‘Provisions of Magical Laws and Limitations Act.’ It’s an interesting read.”

“Well, as... interesting as that sounds, Moondancer, we have more important things to be talkin’ about right now,” Applejack said. “But before we get too into it, we oughta get Sunset, so we can include her in the conversation.”

“And Vice Principal Luna,” Sci-Twi seconded.

“Then maybe it would be a good idea for all of us to reconvene at her place, hmmm?” Rarity suggested. “It’ll make for a much more... comfortable venue for the discussion than a school, wouldn’t you say?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I’ve got some things to tell all of you and I suppose Vice Principal Luna too. It’s stuff that I told Sunset about too, but…” She shivered. “If she’s really forgotten…”

“Right. We need to make sure everyone is on the same page,” Rarity said.

“Princess Twilight,” Principal Celestia said, “I hope you have an idea of how we might restore Sunset Shimmer’s memories?”

Twilight’s face went pale and she shrank down and shook her head.

Principal Celestia’s heart skipped a beat. She sighed and hung her hands on her jacket pockets as she walked around to their side of the front desk. “Well then, I am afraid that the conversation that we will all need to have will not be a simple one. There will need to be things figured out. And there will need to be arrangements made.”

Twilight nodded solemnly.

Pinkie Pie’s hand shot into the air. “Oh! Oh oh! It’s almost half-past five, though.” She looked at the others and asked, “Should I order pizza?”

“If you do,” Principal Celestia said, “then I will pay for it. But enough about this, let’s not waste any more time.”

* * *

Twilight Sparkle watched as Mister Doodle’s minivan pulled out of the parking lot. A few of the others stepped away from their own parked vehicles; Applejack stepped out of her truck along with Rainbow Dash while Fluttershy stepped out of her pink mini-cooper with Pinkie Pie. The apartment was across the street; several cars crisscrossed the road at the moment, giving Twilight time to think.

In her several visits to this world, Twilight hadn’t seen Sunset’s home prior to today. She had wondered about where her dear friend was living for quite a while. Twilight could only imagine the numerous hurdles that Sunset had to clear to get a home here.

According to what Celestia had told her on the way over, Sunset lived in a boarding unit. It made sense to her; Twilight had no doubt that Sunset wouldn’t be able to afford much else. Sunset only worked at some kind of restaurant, or at least that’s what she could remember from their Journal conversations.

The traffic presented an opening and Twilight darted across the street ahead of the others. She practically threw the door open and dashed inside. First door on the right at the top of these stairs, she thought as she found said stairs and raced up those. Her legs moved in ways she didn’t want to and she even tripped and fell onto her face; she didn’t even stop to dust herself up as she scrambled to her feet again and continued up.

She arrived at the door in question and threw it open. And she immediately spotted two bodies on the couch.

And the both of them whirled to face her and promptly stood up.

Twilight froze in the doorway. There she was; there Sunset was. Yes, they had just seen each other the other day. She looked Sunset hard in the eyes. She tried to find a light anywhere inside Sunset’s gaze.

And Sunset’s expression didn’t soften up. Instead of the usual expression she had come to expect when seeing Sunset, Twilight was greeted by an expression of confusion. There was none of the usual warmth that Sunset’s face usually held. In its place was something Twilight could only describe as ‘confused and distant.’ It made her heart twist and tighten in her chest.

“Sunset Shimmer…” Twilight wheezed.

Sunset frowned. “Hi…”

Twilight listened carefully to the way Sunset greeted her. It had no emotion or joy to it. It was like how one would greet a stranger.

If Twilight understood everything right, then she really was a stranger this time. The thought made her blood run cold, and the twisting of her heart worse.

The other nine slowly filed into the room behind her. Moondancer, in particular, had one arm draped across Starlight’s shoulders as the latter supported her.

Twilight stumbled her way across the flat. Sunset still stared her down with the same nervous frown as before. Twilight, meanwhile, felt all of her strength leave her the closer she got. Finally, she came face-to-face with Sunset.

Twilight swallowed and tentatively asked, “You… you don’t remember me, do you?”

Sunset shook her head. “No. I don’t. Sorry.”

Twilight shuddered. She could feel her knees wobbling, struggling to keep herself standing as she tried to remain composed.

Sunset’s lip quivered and she sighed. “Who are you?”

Twilight folded her hands together. “I’m… My name is Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer. I’m… a very dear friend of yours.”

* * *

“That’s everything that I know about the Memory Stone,” Twilight finished. “At least, that’s all I could find out about it. If there’s anything I’m missing, I couldn’t find it.”

The rest of the people in the room either sat on the floor, leaned against the wall, or took those precious few seats on the couch; it was rather Sunset, Starlight, and Moondancer that occupied it. A few empty pizza boxes lay in a stack in the corner of the flat along with a few damp paper plates. A few still had pieces of pizza on paper plates in front of them.

A plastic bag filled with small rock pieces sat in the middle of the table. It was at this point that all sets of eyes turned toward the remains of the Memory Stone and considered it.

“Sooooooo,” Pinkie Pie said before stuffing the last bit of her slice of pizza into her mouth. She chewed, swallowed, and then waved at Twilight. “Anyone else wonder what else has been around here for over a thousand years?”

A few hands shot up. Celestia and Luna, meanwhile, exchanged uneasy glances.

“We all saw what happened,” Applejack said. “This thing took them memories from us. And when we destroyed it, those memories all came back to us.”

Sci-Twi crossed her arms and nodded. “That’s right. That all suggests that the memories were stored in the stone when it was still whole. That… that also means that none of those memories are in Sunset in any capacity.”

“And if they did not return,” Celestia asked, “then where did they go?”

Rarity groaned. “I have no idea.”

“Me neither,” Fluttershy seconded. “I don’t remember seeing anything else come out of it. There was a green ball of light when it exploded and then all of our memories came back to us…”

“Sunset’s memories should have been freshly inside it,” Twilight said. “Well within the three day limit. So why…?”

Luna shook her head. “As interesting a discussion it would be to theorize how everything occurred, I doubt we will get very far at this point. What I would suggest we do is come up with a plan.”

“Yes, I agree,” Celestia said. “What may we do now?”

“There has to be a way to put it back together. A spell, maybe,” Moondancer suggested. “From what you’ve told me, this isn’t the first time that you’ve had to deal with an ancient relic being shattered.”

Starlight jumped in her seat. “The relic reconstitution spell. Twilight, you know it, right?”

Twilight groaned. “I vaguely remember. Yes. Well, I also know what book it’s in. But…” She paused for a moment to scratch her head. “I don’t know. Even if I do have the spell, I am not sure if it would be that simple.”

Starlight sank into the cushion. “Right…”

“Why would it not be simple?” Moondancer piped up.

“Well, for starters, if the Memory Stone is at least from the time of Clover the Clever, then it’s at least a millennia old, maybe even a few.”

Applejack crossed her arms. “What difference does that make? That spell sounds like the sorta thing you’d be after.”

“We had to use that spell to repair a similarly old relic,” Starlight explained. “And doing that was beyond just that spell; we needed something particular to the relic itself.”

Twilight threw her hands into the air. “I don’t even have the slightest idea where we’d find something like that for the Memory Stone!”

After a moment’s silence, Luna pointed toward a similar plastic bag containing another broken object. “What about this geode here?” she asked.

Eyes turned toward the remains of Sunset’s geode.

“Oh!” Rarity said with a gasp. “That’s right! I think this broke during all of the hoopla. There must have been some sort of interaction between the geode and the Memory Stone, don’t you think?”

“That doesn’t make it particular to the Memory Stone,” Twilight curtly replied. “I don’t know. Maybe we could try it as a last resort, but that’s an awfully long shot…”

Moondancer sighed. “Come on. All of this assumes that the spell by itself won’t work. Maybe it will. We haven’t even tried yet.”

Twilight straightened up. “You’re right. You’re right. But here’s the other thing… Even if we manage to put the stone back together and everything…”

Twilight shuddered. She couldn’t bring herself to say it. Saying it meant admitting it as a possibility. That was a possibility that she didn’t want to think about. She needed it to not be a possibility.

“You think that even if you went through all of the trouble of putting it back together, the memories were destroyed with the stone,” Sunset said, sitting up straight. “My memories are already gone forever.”

It felt like Sunset had just stood up and punched her in the chest. It might as well have happened.

“No,” Rainbow Dash said.

Sunset sighed and rose to her feet. “Listen. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. But if I made my way in this world once, I can do it again. Memories or no.”

Twilight frowned. Her hands balled into fists. “I know you can, Sunset. That’s not it…”

Applejack stepped forward. “I’m thinkin’ about that Sunset I watched power through everything everyone threw at her after the Fall Formal.”

“I think about that Sunset who still stayed true to us through thick and thin.” Rainbow Dash slunk her shoulders. “Even in that one time when we just… flat-out abandoned you.”

Sci-Twi nodded. “I think about that Sunset who took what she went through and used it to save me in return.”

“Truly, you rose above and became one of the brightest and best that our school has ever seen,” Celestia added.

“You liked to think of yourself as a student of mine,” Twilight said, “but in reality… I’ve learned so much from you. I’m actually envious of who you became and the journey that you took to get there. Memories are so important… they define who we are and who we’ve become.”

Sunset crossed her arms. “So what’s wrong with who I am now?”

The room fell silent. Several expressions fell and many held their breaths as they stared Sunset down. Sunset’s eyes remained on Twilight all the while, her frown just as deep as it had been throughout the whole meeting.

Twilight sighed and hung her head. “Nothing, Sunset. You’re perfect in every way,” she murmured.

Sunset narrowed her eyes and finally sighed. “Twilight… I know you don’t mean that.”

Twilight shuddered. “N-no! I do! Really!”

“It’s okay. I know what you really think.” Sunset crossed her arms. “You think that I was more than what I am now. I mean… this… me that you’re talking about. ...She sounds really cool.”

“Sunset…” Starlight said as she stood up from the couch.

“I could say that I’m missing a part of my life right now.” A little bit of color disappeared from Sunset’s face as firmness in her voice faded. “But then I’d also have to say that everything happened and… someone did this to me.”

“Yeah…” Pinkie Pie said, also deflating. After a moment, she jumped up again. “But we’re your friends, Sunset. And we’ll get you through this!”

“Hear hear,” Rarity seconded.

Sunset nodded solemnly. “Sure, I guess. If you think it’s worth trying to get part of my life back… What next?”

“Maybe you should come back to Equestria with us, Sunset,” Starlight suggested as she too stood up from the couch. “We could look into this Memory Stone stuff there a little more and maybe we’ll find something there.”

“You have a way to go there?” Sunset asked.

Pinkie Pie stuffed the last bit of her slice of pizza into her mouth while making sounds all the while. “Yup! There’s a portal in the base of the statue in front of the school.”

Starlight nodded. “That’s where the mirror portal comes out.”

“And how long might she need to be over there?” Luna asked, crossing her arms.

Twilight made a non-committal sound and shook her head.

Luna turned to her sister. “We’ll need to excuse her from her classes then.”

“I briefly mentioned the situation at the staff meeting so they know something about it already,” Celestia explained.

“Excellent,” Luna replied.

“Principal Celestia?” Sunset asked. “What’s going to happen to this Wallflower person?”

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances.

“We can’t officially tell you anything about that,” Luna replied. “That is between us and her.”

Sunset hummed in response.

Luna glanced at Celestia and then shrugged. “Unofficially, we don’t know yet. After all, you yourself did many expellable things at the Fall Formal, but here you are.”

Celestia’s expression twitched but she eventually nodded.

Twilight looked at Sunset again. “Well, we can go whenever you’re ready. I realize you’ve probably had a long day and all, but…”

Sunset sighed and walked through the edge of the circle. Her hands made their way to her hips as she looked around her flat; she ran her eyes over the various paintings, the potted philodendron hanging from the ceiling in one corner of the room, the little work area she had yet to fully explore. And then there was Ray, still watching in silence from his terrarium.

“This is my place…” she murmured.

A few nods came about.

Sunset turned. “Yeah. I’ve probably had a long day. I think I want to stay here for tonight, at least.”

“Okay… but only if you let me sleep on the couch down here.” Twilight blushed and played with her hair. “W-well, I mean, if that’s okay. I don’t mean to impose and it’s okay if you don’t want to me—”

Sunset held up her hands. “No, that’s okay. You can stay the night if you want.”

Moondancer raised her fist into the air. “Uhm, I think I’d like to go back now if that’s okay.”

Starlight reached down and helped Moondancer stand. “Maybe you and I could go back then and maybe get some things going.”

“This sounds like a good idea. We’ll make sure that you can get back tonight,” Celestia said to Moondancer and Starlight. She turned to Sunset and Twilight. “We’ll be by first thing in the morning to pick you up.”

“We’ll be ready,” Twilight replied. “Thank you.”

“I’ll probably spend the rest of the night looking through these yearbooks,” Sunset said. “Maybe I’ll look around this place a little more. There has to be a lot of stuff about me here. It’d be like discovering myself.”

Twilight smiled and walked forward. “Then what’s say we discover you together?” she asked as she held out a hand.

Sunset nodded and took Twilight’s hand in hers. “Sure.”

3 - Fragile Figures

Her feet ached from all of the running, though Wallflower Blush couldn’t stop running. Her lungs burned, and her eyes watered; she was not in the best shape, but she still ran. She hadn’t a clue where she was going, and had lost track of how long she had been moving. All she knew was that she had to get away from Canterlot High; away from her mistakes.

What have I done?

Those words echoed through Wallflower’s mind. The events of the past few months weighed heavier on her thoughts the further she distanced herself from the high school. Still, she couldn’t stop running.

All she had wanted was for people to see Sunset the way she had been convinced Sunset was. Sunset Shimmer was a jerk and a bully; she was someone that you silently hated out of fear of what she’d do to you. Sunset had been like that for years, yet people just forgave her. As if nothing ever happened.

Wallflower’s stomach churned at the thought.

Of course, she felt that her hatred for Sunset Shimmer was totally justified. After all, there was a point in time that everyone hated Sunset Shimmer. Wallflower knew a lot of her own hatred was more as an observer, but she had plenty of reasons to doubt the girl’s sudden change of heart. Sunset had spent the bulk of her high school experience aggressively manipulating the school’s population to hate one another for her own amusement! Wallflower had seen it all happen first hand.

So why do I feel so guilty right now?

Of course, Wallflower knew the answer to that question. The moment that she had seen Sunset’s face after she had intercepted the blast from the Memory Stone warp in pain had burned itself into her memory. She had watched in horror as Sunset’s memories left her mind. She had heard the panic in her voice; the sheer amount of fear that left Sunset’s mouth as she writhed around, losing that which she held most dear. It had been terrifying, both because of the sight of how far she had gone in her fury, and the knowledge that she had sealed her own fate.

There was also, of course, the small part of herself that loved watching Sunset suffer. And that part of her was probably the most scary thing about the whole experience.

Her feet eventually stopped at the foot of her bed. She lurched forward slightly, her mind not quite catching up to where her feet had brought her. She didn’t bother trying to catch herself from falling, and opted instead to just collapse onto her bed. Her legs practically sighed in relief as her face made contact with the sheets.

Why did any of this have to happen? I just... wanted people to see her how I see her... she thought to herself with a groan. She could feel the tears begin to leak from her eyes as she buried her face further into her sheets. I didn’t want things to end up like this!

* * *

Sunset Shimmer watched in silence. By now the sun had gone down and the only lights available to them were the few lamps still turned on. And if that wasn’t enough reason to climb up the stairs and fall into the bed, the ever slight feeling of fading consciousness was. The purple pajamas she now wore certainly helped that along.

But she could be patient.

Twilight Sparkle, who wore a pair of yellow pajamas much like hers, gave the creature in her hands a small scratch underneath the chin. Ray, the leopard gecko, lifted his chin in time with it, a blissful smile spreading across his face. Sunset felt her chest tighten with what she could only describe as guilt, if only a little, at the sight of Ray’s content grin. She still felt bad; she hated that she had forgotten the little guy.

Finally, Twilight offered Ray to Sunset and she, in turn, held out her hand. Ray hopped into it and she lifted him up and over the side of his terrarium. Sunset gently deposited him on the branch she had first found him on.

She could help but keep watching even as Ray found his position on the branch. He turned and looked back up at her with a smile on his face.

Despite the guilty feeling still being there, Sunset felt warm, and she couldn’t help but smile back. He was like a little ray of sunshine.

She pulled away from the terrarium. She then exchanged “Goodnight”s with Twilight and shuffled toward and then up the stairs leading up to the bed. She stopped at the top and watched as Twilight took a seat on the couch.

Sunset leaned against the balcony railing, taking care not to lay her arms on the lights strung down the length of it. A lone book sat on the coffee table right in front of the couch. Twilight reached forward and picked it up, opened to the first page, and started reading.

Sunset’s mouth twitched. She had skimmed a few pages of it herself but it had quite a bit of length to it. From what she had seen of it, it had to be a diary. It had to be her diary. It had a pattern similar to that of the journal she had used to communicate with Princess Celestia on its cover, albeit with a slightly different design.

A faint sound pulled Sunset from that train of thought. She glanced down to the girl sitting on the couch, reading, and saw her quivering in the dull light of the lamp. The first thought that had come to Sunset’s mind was that of Twilight shuddering at the cool air of the apartment. This was a short-lived idea though, as Twilight was wrapped in the thick blanket that they had found for her not an hour ago.

It was upon hearing the faint sound again that Sunset figured out what the noise was; Twilight was crying. The other girl’s breath seemed to quietly hitch, and it was clear that Twilight was trying her best to not weep into the open pages of the book on her lap.

Sunset didn’t need to see the tears to know that the day’s events had probably caught up to her guest’s thoughts. Twilight was probably putting on a brave face, which had likely faltered in the relative silence of the night. She had apparently been one of Sunset’s closest friends; the loss of her memories was probably a huge blow.

Sunset wanted to go down and hug the girl, but hesitated. She didn’t feel right trying to comfort someone who was effectively a stranger to her, regardless of their apparent history together. Still, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for Twilight, and wished she could remember her time with Twilight to help stop the girl’s quiet sobbing. Sadly, that likely wouldn’t happen; the universe was rarely that fair.

Not knowing what else to do, Sunset flopped onto the bed. She briefly wondered if Twilight would find anything in the pages of her journal to help, but ended up shaking the thought away. If there was a solution in that book, they’d likely have already done something about her missing memories.

Perhaps she would have to read it herself later. Maybe learn some things about the gap in her memory; about the memories that had been stolen from her by some magical rock. Maybe.

* * *

Moondancer’s head spun as she tried to regain her footing, still recovering from being tossed across the room by the portal behind her. Both Twilight and Starlight had warned her that there was a chance of this happening, and she wished she had brought a hoofball helmet with her through the portal. Alas, she didn’t have that kind of foresight; clairvoyance spells were impractical to set up.

She heard the sound of, presumably, Starlight’s hoofs pad against the crystalline floor beside her. “You gonna be okay?”

“Ugh... yeah, I think so...” Moondancer replied. “My head’s... blgh... still spinning a little.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, since you did just fly into a bookshelf like a cannonball,” Starlight replied, wincing a little. “That happened to me the first time I came back too. I had a headache for a week.”

Moondancer groaned, softly rubbing her temples with her hoofs. “Ech, seriously? A week?”

“Unfortunately, though I did kind of hit my horn off of two shelves on the way down.”

“Yeah... that would certainly do that,” Moondancer said, wincing at the thought. “Well, at least you didn’t get a concussion, right?”

Starlight chuckled. “Mhmm! That would have been the worst. Trying to cast spells with a concussion is just asking for trouble.”

“You sound like you have experience with that,” Moondancer remarked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not personally, but back when I was a filly, one of the girls that I went to school with got one playing some sport. When she tried to levitate things, it ended up grabbing something nearby instead,” Starlight giggled. “If that’s what happens when you just try basic magic with a rattled brain, then I don’t even want to know what would happen if she tried something more complicated.”

“That must have been quite the sight.”

Starlight laughed. “It was pretty funny to see, even if the reason for it was probably pretty embarrassing.”

“I’ll bet.” Moondancer giggled, only to have the throbbing of her headache make her wince. “Does Twilight have anything for headaches lying around?”

“Yeah, she has some medicine for it in all of the bathrooms.”

“Thank goodness...” Moondancer sighed, climbing to her feet. Thankfully, the dizziness had finally subsided. She began making her way to the large doors leading out of the library, stopping just shy of the sofa near them. “Uhh... you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find a bathroom, would you?”

“Oh, that’s right, you aren’t familiar with the layout of the castle yet,” Starlight chuckled. “Yeah, there’s one just down the hall. It should be the third door on the left.”

Moondancer opened the door with a nod. “Alright, thanks.”

As soon as Moondancer left the room, Starlight took it upon herself to teleport to the kitchen to make some tea. It was relatively late, but she knew that she’d probably have a hard time sleeping without something to calm her nerves. She filled the kettle with water which she heated with a quick temperature control spell as she pulled two sleepytime tea bags out from the box on the counter.

Placing the kettle, cups, and the containers for various condiments on a tray, Starlight teleported back to the library. Moondancer was there, at the table she and Twilight had been sitting at earlier today, pouring over some book. Beside her were two evenly stacked piles of books of varying thicknesses. She looked up for a moment to acknowledge Starlight’s return, before returning to the book she was reading.

Placing the tray on the table, Starlight sat opposite Moondancer and prepared two cups of tea. “How do you take your tea again?”

“Milk and sugar,” Moondancer replied.

Starlight nodded and poured some milk and sugar into one of the tea cups. She placed it just left of the tome Moondancer was reading.

“Thanks.”

Starlight smiled, pouring some cream into her own tea cup. “No problem. What are you reading?”

“‘A Guide to Memory Disorders,’” Moondancer replied. She sipped at her tea, and sighed contently. “I wanted to look into some of the more easily accessible books on the subject before Twilight got back.”

“To help narrow down ways to help Sunset?” Starlight asked.

Moondancer nodded. “That’s right. I doubt I’ll find anything on magically-caused retrograde amnesia in anything publically available though.”

For the next few minutes, sans the occasional sound of sipping from their respective cups, the two mares sat in silence. The pair of unicorns seemed to be lost in thought; or in the case of Moondancer, lost in a dusty, likely very old book.

After several minutes of this, the sound of a faint crying pulled Moondancer away from her book. Looking up, she found Starlight’s face accented by fresh tears. They slid down her muzzle, and some dripped into the tea that was hovering in front of her mouth. Starlight’s face was wearing an expression that Moondancer recognized all too well, since it wasn’t all that long ago that she had made that face.

It was the face of someone feeling like they had lost a friend, and it was one that Moondancer was all to familiar with seeing. She had seen that expression in the mirror so many times in the past. She wanted to say something to try and help the poor mare, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.

* * *

Sunset’s body twisted and turned in ways that she knew weren’t natural. In fact, for a moment, she wasn’t sure if she had a physical body at all. If she did, it was likely in some form she wouldn’t have been comfortable with looking at.

Everything eventually came back to as she wobbled her way onto a platform. She immediately looked down and saw her current body—her old body, her pony body. Relief immediately flooded through her. This was the body she remembered having less than a day ago.

And her smile faded. That day ago had really been years ago.

She currently stood on her hind legs and she let herself fall forward so that her forelegs also touched the floor. Now with solid footing, she glanced around. This library she now stood in had shelves that ringed around the room and the crystalline architecture glistened in the morning sunlight that made it through the windows. It was fairly obvious that she wasn’t in Canterlot, nor was it the castle she had once considered to be a second home.

Sunset turned and looked up at the mirror. It looked exactly as she remembered it, although the machinery surrounding it was new. Her eyes wandered up to the book sitting in the niche above the mirror, noting how the book bore her cutie mark. That was probably the most recognizable thing here.

And Sunset finally turned to look at Twilight. Twilight had wings and a horn and had this earthly energy about her. She had seen it before.

Sunset narrowed her eyes. She had wanted it before.

Twilight regarded her with a certain frown. “Welcome back to Equestria, Sunset.”

Sunset snorted. “Where are we, exactly?”

Twilight motioned toward the room around them. “This is my castle in Ponyville.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Ponyville?” she tentatively asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Ponyville. This is the place I have called home for a few years now.”

The tall double doors at the end of the room swung open and a pair of figures entered the room. Squinting allowed Sunset to recognize Moondancer (at least, she was pretty sure it was Moondancer), but the baby dragon caused Sunset to doubletake. His purple scales complimented Twilight’s colors but the green in his spine and in his eyes gave him his own identity.

“Good morning, Moondancer, Spike,” Twilight said.

“Welcome back Twilight,” Spike greeted, briefly hugging the mare. He looked up at Sunset and folded his claws together. “Sunset… Hi…”

Sunset glanced at him for a moment longer and then nodded. “Hi.”

Spike groaned. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

After a pause, Sunset shook her head. “No. Sorry.”

Twilight frowned and then turned to Moondancer. “So, where are we at?”

Moondancer adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. “Well, Starlight and I spent some time looking through the books here to see if we could find anything out. We found a couple”—she shrugged—“of candidates, maybe, but I don’t think they’re anything that will completely do it.”

“I didn’t think so,” Twilight grimly said. “A lot of the books I have are more common than the ones in the restricted section. I probably should have brought a few back with me during my last visit to Canterlot.”

“Uh, we also sent some letters to Princess Celestia. She says she’s going to call in a few others who she thinks will help,” Spike said. “I think that means she’s gonna see if the Pillars will be able to help.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. Princess Celestia? Pillars?

“Oh, and she also says she’ll be over in a couple hours or so.”

Now Sunset shuddered. Princess Celestia coming here?

Her thoughts immediately turned back toward her last conversation with Celestia. She remembered the harsh and pointed words they had left each other on. Celestia’s sharp and piercing voice, one which she had never heard in full force before, lanced through her mind.

“N-no,” she said with a quiver.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Sunset?”

“I-I don’t know if I can—”

“Sunset…”

Sunset looked over and sucked in a breath. “Sorry. It’s just… the last thing I remember about her, we had a huge falling out and… I don’t know… I don’t know if I could be in the same room as her.”

Twilight sighed and nodded solemnly. “Well…”

“Like… I don’t even know if she’d want to see me.”

“But weren’t you all with each other here just a few days ago?” Moondancer asked. “Wouldn’t that mean that Sunset and Celestia are on good terms again?”

Twilight nodded. “That’s right. Sunset… you more or less reconciled with her. You two made up.”

Sunset flinched. She glanced between Twilight, Moondancer, and Spike. She studied their expressions, looking for cracks that she inwardly knew weren’t there. Her thoughts then traveled back to what she had heard last night. “I… did… didn’t I?”

Twilight nodded.

Sunset hung her head. “Right… So I guess I’m cool with Celestia. Even if I don’t remember making up with her…”

“I’m sorry, Sunset.”

Spike scratched his head and groaned. “Well, that sounds great. I even remember you talking about trying to make up with her even. Sounds like you’re not getting that back, huh?”

After a moment, Twilight shook her head and whirled to face him. “No. We’re going to get that memory back. And all of her other memories too. Just you wait.”

Spike narrowed his eyes and balled his claws into a fist. A fire appeared in his eyes. “Count me in!”

Twilight grinned and then turned again as a couple more figures appeared in the doorway. The former, Starlight, walked side-by-side with a tall mare in a vest. This latter mare sported a scar across her right eye and had bright colors to her mane and tail. The two of them stopped just past the doorway as Starlight imparted some last-minute words, causing her companion’s frown to deepen.

Twilight stood at her full height as the two mares now approached (the latter of whom turned her gaze fully onto Sunset). “Hello.”

The vested mare bowed. “Hello, Twilight. I… wanted to update you on the financial situation and how those ledgers have come along.” Her expression hardened. “But I can see that some things have occurred.”

Twilight sucked in a breath. “Yes. A big problem. Actually, I’m glad that you’re here. You might be able to help me out with this. Can we go someplace and talk?”

The mare adjusted her vest with her magic and nodded. “Of course. Lead the way.”

Twilight turned to Sunset and placed a hoof on her withers. “I’ll be right back,” she said before she led the vested mare toward the door and eventually out of the room.

Starlight watched the two depart and then turned back to Sunset with a shrug. “Everything okay in the other world?” she asked.

Sunset straightened up. “Uh, yeah. I guess. This is all really weird, though.”

Starlight nodded. “I’ll bet. Losing your memory would probably make everything seem at least a little weird, huh?”

“Heh, you don’t know the half of it. I’m still trying to process it all.” Sunset kicked at the floor. “I still don’t know if I really understand the place. It’s… weird.”

Starlight giggled. “Hah. Yeah. You and me both.”

“I hate to ask this… Starlight, but… when exactly did we meet?”

Starlight paused as something flickered in her expression. She too kicked the floor now. “Well… it wasn’t too long ago. You… you came over here for a replacement journal once, I ended up going back with you to the human world. You showed me around, we had a good time. You were worried about magic in the other world.” She cracked a smile. “Well, and then we got caught up in some thing where this angry girl trapped your friends in a mirror and she trapped you in a mirror and I had to talk her down…”

Moondancer raised an eyebrow. “Uh…”

Sunset snickered. “Well… that sounds like a thing.”

“Eh, I’ve been through way crazier things,” Starlight replied. “That mirror thing was probably the weirdest though.”

Sunset sighed and scratched her head. “I just wish I could remember it…”

Spike frowned and hung his head. “Yeah…”

Starlight nodded solemnly and then stepped forward and put a hoof on Sunset’s withers. “Well… if you want me to, I can tell you all about it.”

After a moment of silence, Sunset smiled. “Sure. Please?”

Starlight’s muzzle curled into its own smile, and she nodded. “Alright, so it started a little before we met, when you and your friends got to be on the set of a Daring Do movie...”

* * *

The fireplace lit both Twilight’s face and the face of the mare sitting in the seat opposite her. It cracked as one of the logs within split down the middle and fell to the side. The mares themselves sat in silence, not even affording the fire a glance as it fell apart.

“I see. So,” the vested mare said with a sigh, “you want my help.”

“Crystal Faire… I need your help.”

Crystal Faire adjusted her vest and sat back in her cushion. “Well… Twilight Sparkle…” she began as she folded her hooves together and narrowed her eyes. “While I want to… I don’t know if I can.”

Twilight’s expression fell. “Why not?”

“Well, I have my job at City Hall to worry about. That is not something that I can simply walk away from. Even now, I am on the clock.”

Twilight groaned. “I would think that they would understand if I needed you for a while.”

Crystal raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps. But this isn’t exactly the low profile I wanted.”

“I know.” Twilight stood up and pointed to the door. “But you know more about the ins and outs of magic than most ponies. I can’t go to just anyone for that. That mare in there… she needs help, and there is nothing more that I want to do than to help her. She means a lot to me.”

Crystal nodded. “Yes. I can see that.”

Twilight swallowed. “So…?”

Crystal sighed. “I happened to run into Starlight Glimmer on the way in. She told me that both Starswirl the Bearded and Sunburst of the Crystal Empire had agreed to come help you. I personally think they would be more capable of helping you than I am.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but shut it just as quickly. She then stroked her chin. “Well… Sunburst has done some really nice things and I know he’s capable, and then of course Starswirl is Starswirl the Bearded.” She chuckled. “And, I mean, you can’t go wrong with Starswirl the Bearded!He’s the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era for Celestia’s sake! And he’s the Pillar of Sorcery!”

Crystal pinched the bridge of her nose. “...Yes. I am aware. But their grasp of magical theory… truthfully… exceeds mine. And yours too, naturally.”

Twilight let out a long exhale and turned her eyes back onto Crystal. “But, unlike them, you actually live here. And you’re available. I’m looking to get all the help that I can get. So please…”

Crystal snorted and threw her hooves into the air. “Twilight Sparkle… Look. I want to help you. And I suppose that I can try… but that is not my issue. I do not think there is anything that I can do to help you.”

After a few moments of silence, Twilight narrowed her eyes and trotted forward, closing the distance between the two. “Yes there is.”

Crystal shook her head and looked away.

“I know for a fact that you have seen a great many things. You’ve probably seen something like this before. Right?”

At that, Crystal’s expression, which was already pale thanks to the very light fuschia that was her coat, turned even paler. “As a matter of fact… I have not.”

Twilight could feel her breath leave her body.

“And my expertise lies in preventing things from going wrong, not fixing things after they have gone wrong. If this could have been seen coming, that would have been one thing.”

Twilight hung her head. “But still…”

“Even from what you’ve described to me and from what I can glean… I don’t know what I can do about it.” At that, Crystal stood up. She closed the distance between the two of them so that she was nearly muzzle-to-muzzle with Twilight. And she said, with a voice at nearly a whisper, “But if I am to be perfectly honest… and I somewhat fear that these other ponies you want to bring in to help will say the same thing… but if this situation has indeed reached this point already… I think that you should be prepared for the worst possible outcome.”

And Twilight had nothing to say. She stared into Crystal’s eyes while her own expression slowly started shaking more and more. And the mare across from her stared back with an unflinching frown.

* * *

Twilight trotted down the hall with purpose in her step. Princess Celestia walked right beside her with a thoughtful frown. She practically glided down the hall, in contrast with Twilight’s slightly stiff gait. Twilight spoke as she went, and Celestia occasionally nodded in return.

“And that is about where we are now,” Twilight finished.

Celestia nodded solemnly. “I see. This is… awful. I could not have even imagined this outcome.” She paused. “I would not have dreamed of it.”

Twilight shook her head. “Me neither, Princess.”

“I do not know how long I will be able to stay and help; not today, anyhow. But I will do what I can.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

The two reached the doorway which opened into the library. Moondancer sat alongside Crystal at one of the tables on one side of the room; Spike sat on the table itself, munching on a solitary sapphire. Sunset stood in the middle of the room with two cloaked stallions. The first, Sunburst, cut his magic, adjusted his glasses and then turned. The latter, Starswirl, pulled on his beard as he ran a magic cloud over Sunset’s body.

Twilight and Celestia stood in the doorway. Celestia herself, on the sight of Sunset, looked whiter than she usually did and her features seemed to grow long. The two exchanged glances before entering the room themselves.

As Twilight and Celestia, Starswirl too quit his spell and turned. “Twilight Sparkle, Celestia,” he said, bowing.

Twilight watched his expression—it was hard to see past the grand white beard covering his muzzle—and shuddered. “Anything?”

Sunburst frowned. “Nothing doing. I’m sorry, Twilight. We can’t readily fix this.”

Twilight groaned.

“Although it has given me some ideas that I would like to try,” Starswirl added.

“And I might have one or two, loosely speaking,” Sunburst added. “Outside of a few ideas though, I’m not exactly sure if we can do anything about Sunset’s memory as is.”

“Well, that’s good, at least. We can talk some more about everything that we want to do,” Twilight said.

Celestia straightened up and now approached the mare in the middle of the gathering. Sunburst and Starswirl glanced at Sunset and then scooted backward. That left Sunset by herself where she met Celestia’s gaze and even shrank a little.

After a moment, Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said at length.

Sunset flinched. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again; the words seemingly stuck in her throat. And then, with barely any strength in her voice, she managed to utter a single question: “What are you sorry for?”

“Sunset Shimmer…” Celestia began as her frown deepened. “There are quite a few things, but… this happens to be one of them. I am sorry for you. I would have never wanted this. And I want you to know that I am here to help however I can.”

Sunset sucked in a breath and eventually stood back to her full height. “Really?”

Celestia cracked a smile. “Absolutely.”

Sunset smiled and then said, “I just… there’s something I want to ask you. If it’s okay.”

“Certainly.”

Sunset kicked at the floor. “You’re… you’re not still mad at me, are you?”

Celestia blinked. And then she trotted forward and wrapped a foreleg around Sunset, pulling her in close. “I never was.”

The two remained in each other’s embrace for many long moments and, when they pulled away, they shared smiles.

Starswirl, meanwhile, snorted and then trotted over to the table where Spike and the two mares sat at. A single plastic bag containing the remains of the Memory Stone. “Now now, let’s not dilly dally any longer. I want to start examining this much more closely,” he said as he picked it up with his magic and examined it.

“Right.” Twilight turned. “Starswirl, Clover was your apprentice. Did he ever mention anything about that stone?”

“On occasion. He never encountered the Memory Stone while he was my student, but he still visited often from time to time. We had many fruitful conversations about magic. In fact, I can recall that he came to me on a few occasions on dealing with that evil sorceress.” He lit his horn and levitated the various pieces out of the plastic bag. He held them all in front of his face, eyeing them closely. “He mostly came seeking advice.”

Celestia chuckled. “Yes. Indeed.”

“Did he ever say anything about coming up with something to counteract the Memory Stone?” Moondancer asked.

Starswirl hummed. “On that order, I believe. He told me that he had been attempting to come up with some magic that would reverse the Memory Stone’s effects on its own, without having to interface with the stone. I even recall seeing some of his notes.”

“But that method never came to fruition,” Crystal piped up. “He was unable to do it.”

At once, the whole room fell silent. All eyes turned to face her. Moondancer, who sat right next to her, even scooted away. Sunburst frowned and adjusted his glasses.

Starswirl finally turned to face her in full. “Yes,” he said at length, “that is right. How exactly did you know that?”

“I have my ways.”

After a few more moments of silence, Starswirl sighed. “Fascinating. Anyhow, that is correct. And in my conversations with him,” he said as he turned back to Twilight, “he mentioned that, at minimum, developing such magic would require an acute understanding of the Memory Stone itself. And with the Memory Stone now unwhole, even that avenue seems impossible.”

“So…” Starlight began, standing up. “What you’re saying is our best shot is putting the Memory Stone back together.”

“More or less,” Starswirl replied. “And even that task is not so simple. You are aware of this, are you not?”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “Y-yes. I do. But everypony here is among the brightest and best that Equestria has to offer. I am sure that between all of us, we can figure this out.” Twilight looked at Sunset. “We must.”

Sunset looked up, meeting eyes with Twilight. Her expression remained didn’t waver from the ever-present frown that she had been wearing.

“It would seem then that we know what the task ahead is,” Celestia said. “So, let’s get started.”

4 - Stuttered Progress

Trixie Lulamoon shuffled down the hall. Her eyes darted in every direction, looking at each person she passed by. She noticed some scratching their heads and she heard them speaking in hushed tones. She could hear the same conversation spreading across the student body and, from the way the teachers turned their heads and their ears and peered at all of them with careful scrutiny, they too knew what the conversation was.

Something had happened. Everyone knew that much. Now everyone was trying to figure out exactly what that something was.

With the large amount of simple and generic questions being thrown about (questions such as “Were you scared of Sunset too?” and “Why was I scared of Sunset?”), all of them were in the early stages.

Trixie herself knew better.

She smirked. She definitely knew more than them this time around. She was in a better position, for sure. She couldn’t wait to regale them with her heroic contribution! There was just one problem:

She hadn’t seen Sunset since yesterday. No one had.

She rounded a corner and stopped. Six girls stood at the other end of the hallway. She recognized them as Sunset’s best friends—or, rather, her other best friends. They all stood huddled together, whispering between each other. Trixie couldn’t hear a word that they were saying from her distance.

She looked closely and narrowed her eyes on noticing the absence of a certain individual. And so she clenched her fists and surged forward. “Rainbooms! Stop right there!” she thundered.

The six girls in front of her (as well as a few others at their lockers on either side of the hallway) turned.

Rarity crossed her arms and frowned. “Well, if it isn’t Trixie? To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Trixie ground to a halt in front of them. “You know very well what you owe the pleasure for. And you’re welcome.”

The six of them exchanged raised-eyebrow glances. Rarity was the one who voiced it: “And what exactly are we welcome for?”

Trixie snorted and put her hands on her hips. “You know exactly what you’re welcome for.”

Again, they exchanged glances. Applejack, with a raised eyebrow, spoke it this time. “Ah’m sorry, Trixie. We don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

Trixie’s eye twitched. She scanned their faces and found no trace of comprehension in their hanging mouths and their squinting eyes. “You mean… Sunset Shimmer didn’t tell you?” she asked.

“No?” Sci-Twi asked, a confused expression plastered on her face. All of their faces, in fact, held a similar expression.

“And what, pray tell, did she not tell us?” Rarity asked.

Trixie scanned their faces again and then smirked. She puffed her chest out and the hands on her hips curled into fists. “Well then! I will have you know that it was I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, that helped Sunset corner that despicable girl who took everyone’s memories!”

Several heads immediately turned. And several came forward.

“Excuse me. What happened to our memories?” one of the people in the crowd—Diamond Tiara, as it turned out—asked.

Trixie whirled. “Wallflower Blush happened! She used a memory stone to erase our memories. And get this!” she exclaimed as she swept her hands across the crowd. “She’s been erasing our memories for a long while. A little here, and a little there. And now, it turns out she hated Sunset Shimmer, so she went and erased all of our good memories of her.

“Because I know. I remember that Wallflower has been using a Memory Stone to erase people’s memories. I know that she’s been doing it for a while. And I know that she hated Sunset so much as to erase everyone’s good memories of her!”

Microchips stepped out of the crowd too. “Is it true?”

Pinkie Pie sighed and nodded. “Yepperoni.”

“Wow,” he said, grasping at his head. “That would explain why I thought she wanted my lunch money. That’d be something that the old Sunset Shimmer would do.”

“Now wait just a cotton pickin’ minute here,” Applejack said before snorting and pointing a finger at Trixie. “Weren’t you egging her on about some superlative for the yearbook at the beach? Why exactly would you turn around and help her?”

Trixie crossed her arms and turned her back to them. After a moment’s thought, she sighed. “Because Trixie knows a thing or two about the sort of situation she was in.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped and then she shook her head. “Wait. You’ve had your friends forget all about you before? Because I don’t think that happens to just anyone.”

Trixie whirled. “No! Not that! It’s just…” She examined their hardened expressions again and then let her own expression harden. “Nevermind. Where is Sunset Shimmer?”

Sci-Twi stepped forward. “She’s… she’s not feeling well. So she’s not here today.”

Trixie narrowed her eyes. “Really? Because she seemed just fine when she went out to confront Wallflower yesterday.” She threw her hands up. “Trixie is going to assume that she succeeded because we all remember all the good things about her now.”

The crowd hummed affirmatively.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “You betcha. We were there. We saw it happen. We got our memories of Sunset back.”

“And,” a male voice said from within the crowd, “Sunset lost hers in return, didn’t she?”

Several gasps (including and especially from the six girls in the center of the congregation) rose up and the crowd parted to reveal the source of the voice.

“Flash Sentry,” Sci-Twi started, “where did you—”

“I was sitting there in the parking lot when it happened,” Flash Sentry said. “I saw the whole thing. I nearly ran Sunset over with my car right before it all went down.”

Diamond Tiara stepped forward. “Is that true?”

Trixie whirled and closely studied the Rainboom’s faces. She noted the scrunching of their features and the loss of colors in their faces too. Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened to their fullest extent and Fluttershy folded her hands together. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, ground her teeth together and stared daggers at Flash.

And Trixie gasped and then shuddered. “I-it’s… it’s true. Isn’t it? It’s all over your faces.”

“N-no!” Microchips exclaimed.

Sharp gasps and pointed murmurs spread throughout the crowd. Several bodies then closed in, tightening the circle around Trixie, Flash, and the Rainbooms.

Trixie’s legs gave way and she collapsed. “H-how…? I don’t understand…?”

“What the hell happened to her?” Flash Sentry asked as he balled his fists.

The Rainbooms looked amongst themselves. Confused stares turned to solemn frowns as, one by one, they nodded.

Sci-Twi turned to face the majority of the crowd and cleared her throat. “Well, you see…”

* * *

Sunset Shimmer sat hunched over a book, but the pages looked like blurs. She looked up and noted where the sunbeams came through the windows; they now came through different windows at different angles. Her joints aching as well served to finish convincing her that she needed to move.

And so she stood up and looked around.

The library still hosted everypony that had joined the cause over the past few hours. Those numbers hadn’t changed.

Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer, and Starswirl stood in front of a chalkboard, discussing some magical equations and pointing to various diagrams across its face. They kept their voices down enough to keep the conversation to themselves but Sunset could hear their voices clear as day.

Sunset looked at Twilight’s face in particular and noticed the bags under Twilight’s eyes and the split ends in her mane. As far as Sunset could tell, Twilight had been in this room at every opportunity. Sunset wondered if there had been any sleep in there anywhere.

“See,” Twilight said, “my impression is that we should make use of isometric folding.”

Moondancer scratched her head. “I think we would need at least eight folds to get the desired effect,” she said.

“Ah,” Starswirl said, “but it should be limited to thirteen. Any more would cause thaumic feedback and that would overload the reconstruction.”

“Right,” Moondancer replied.

Sunset snorted and tuned her ears away from it, opting to glance around the room instead.

Princess Celestia sat at one of the tables along with Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer. Many bits of shattered rock lay scattered across its surface. The color of said rock shards split the table into two distinct pieces; the grey rocks took up a much larger portion than the orange ones. At present, the three ponies gazed at the former collection.

They sat in silence until, suddenly, Starlight moved. “That probably should go over here,” she said as she moved one of the pieces about. “See those lines there? They match up perfectly.”

Celestia chuckled. “That they do, Starlight Glimmer. Excellent observation.”

Sunburst hummed. “Wait, maybe there are lines just like that one running through adjacent pieces. Maybe we can follow that through and get even more organized with these pieces here.”

Celestia traced a hoof over some of the pieces and then pointed to a couple. “Here are some. Let’s see if we can find more,” she said as she moved said pieces with the others.

And thus they set to moving more pieces around. Sunset watched as they worked for a few moments.

And then Sunset turned her eyes to the oddity in the room. Everypony else were ponies that had earned their place here; Moondancer certainly seemed smart and, from what she had heard about Sunburst saving the Crystal Empire, he too. But the mare sitting by her lonesome on a cushion in the far corner of the room silently jotting in a flip notebook eluded Sunset’s reckoning.

How did she factor into all of this?

The mare with the scar (Crystal Faire, if she recalled hearing correctly) didn’t appear to be contributing to either group’s efforts, yet was still here. Given how not everyone in the group seemed to be very familiar with the mare, save for Twilight and Starlight, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder why she was here at all. Since Crystal was sitting alone, she could have faded into the background if she didn’t have that air of mystery circling around her.

Twilight appeared to trust the mare, meaning there was some degree of history between the two of them. Sunset could only imagine that Crystal knew more than she seemed to let on. Given her knowledge of Clover the Clever, she was, at the very least, informed on the subject of his escapades. Whether or not this meant Crystal knew anything about the Memory Stone beyond what everyone else knew had yet to be seen.

Sunset couldn’t help but wonder who Crystal was to her, and why she was helping. She could ask a similar question about the other ponies present, barring her former mentor and Twilight Sparkle, Sunset had no idea who any of them were. Well, outside of their names anyway.

From what she had been told, other than the aforementioned alicorns, they were all her friends. That, or at the very least, friends of her apparent friends. They hadn’t really bothered to fill her in on details, like how they met. All she got was a quick mention that the relatively new (at least in her eyes) princess, Twilight Sparkle, was the one who’d brought them together. The very same princess that had apparently stepped into her old role as Celestia’s student around the time she had apparently left for that other world.

Sunset wasn’t quite sure of the order of events, but she didn’t really think them to be false.

She wasn’t so naive that she could delude herself into thinking that this was some elaborate prank. There was no doubt in her mind that what they had told her of the current situation was nothing but true. Sunset was a former student of Princess Celestia herself; she may be stubborn, but she wasn’t blind to facts that were staring her in the face.

That, and even if she didn’t believe their words, the pained expressions on their faces looked way too real for her to brush off as them acting.

Especially the face of Twilight Sparkle, and the tears she had seen her shed the other night. The quiet sobbing had left quite the impression on Sunset; her heart felt like it had been ensnared by a basilisk’s crushing grip at the memory.

Sunset shook her head, breaking the train of thought.

“Still, I wish they’d just tell me more about what I’m forgetting,” she muttered in a tone barely above a whisper. “It’d at the very least help me understand why they’re trying so hard to help me...”

Sighing, Sunset turned her attention back to the chalkboard that Twilight was currently jotting something on. It took her a moment to recognize that it was the beginnings of a spell matrix’s structural equation, and it was looking to be a relatively advanced one at that. The fact she could still remember how spell structure worked was at least a sign that she hadn’t forgotten anything from her time as Celestia’s student.

Apparently, despite the fact that over three years had apparently passed since she had last seen one, she still able to understand complex magical algorithms without even trying. She was at least a little glad that her successor was at least on a similar level of magical theory as she was. Celestia sure knew how to pick them.

“A bit for your thoughts?”

At the sudden voice, Sunset jolted her attention away from the board. Turning her gaze to the voice, she found the mirthful smirk of her former mentor. “Geez, Princess, you’ve got to stop surprising me like that.”

Celestia chuckled. “I’m glad to see I still have that kind of effect on you after so long.”

“Well, considering you keep doing that when I’m super focused on anything else, I don’t really think it’s you specifically,” Sunset replied, rolling her eyes. “You’d think I’d be more prepared, given how often it’s happened before.”

“Indeed,” Celestia giggled. “Although, in your defense, it has been quite a while since the last time I pulled you from your thoughts like that.”

Sunset face fell. “Yeah, it’s been... over three years, right?”

Celestia nods, and offers a sad smile to her former protege. “And much has changed in the interim. The return of my sister, and the coronation of the Princess of Friendship, among other things.”

“Heh, yeah, I can tell a lot has changed since I was last in Equestria,” Sunset chuckled sadly. “It still feels a little like I only left you a day ago. Although, I guess technically, I did, right?”

Celestia simply nodded. “Yes, that is certainly true. However, our memories of the subject differ greatly at present.”

“You can say that again,” Sunset sighs. “To me, it feels like we argued yesterday.”

“It certainly puts a whole new spin on that old adage.”

Sunset chuckled at that. “No kidding. It’s strange to think that our argument over the direction of my studies was so long ago... and that I’ve apparently apologized for how I acted already.”

“I do wish that the memory of our reunion the other day had remained,” Celesia said, with what Sunset could only describe as a happy frown. “Alas, that’s not what ended up happening; otherwise, I doubt I’d be seeing you again this soon.”

“Why’s that?” Sunset asked. “If we made up, then why wouldn’t I be around more?”

“You have your studies in that other world to consider, for one,” Celestia replied, giggling.

The sight of the Sun Monarch of Equestria giggling was still an alien sight to Sunset. In all of her available memories of the Princess of the Sun, she only really remembered Celestia laughing once, maybe twice. At the time, it seemed like the alicorn had forgotten how to laugh. Her memories of her time under the alicorn’s tutelage, more often than not, gave her a completely different impression of her former teacher.

“Then, of course, your friends.”

Sunset’s attention snapped itself away from her memories, and back to the conversation at hoof. She felt her face twist with confusion. “ Oh... right... friends.”

“Ah, I see,” Celestia began. “You don’t remember them.”

“No... I don’t,” Sunset replied. She glanced over at Twilight Sparkle, currently deep in conversation with Moondancer and Starswirl. She was likely going over a part of her spell matrix with the two of them, seeing if they had any ideas for revisions. “I know who they are, but only because they had to tell me who they were so I wasn’t totally lost. I couldn’t tell you any of their names, if I’m being honest.”

Celestia’s gaze followed where Sunset’s eyes had wandered. “I see.”

“I remember seeing what looked like pony versions of them for a few minutes, but apparently they aren’t the same as the ones in that world,” Sunset sighed. She continued to watch Twilight talk with the two unicorns about whatever it was they were working on. “The only names I’ve memorized are the ones of everyone here right now. Well, except hers,” she said, pointing toward the mare in the corner, “but we haven’t really talked since I got here.”

Celestia briefly cast her attention towards the aforementioned mare in the corner, whom was currently twirling her writing utensil with her magic absentmindedly. She wondered for a moment what Crystal was working on, but decided to shrug off the thought for now.

“I must admit, I’m not entirely familiar with Crystal Faire either,” Celestia said, returning her attention to Twilight. “But Twilight trusts her, so I shall as well.”

Yeah, but where the buck did she find her, though? Sunset thought. She shook her head. “So, uh, when did you start teaching Twilight?” Sunset asked, looking to Celestia. “You must have taken her under your wing before I left, since she seems to be pretty close to my age.”

Celestia nodded in response. “I started directly teaching her around a year into your studies. She had caused quite the commotion when she had attempted to enroll in my school. I’m sure you remember the dragon bursting through the roof of one of the seminar halls?”

“That was her? No wonder you took her as one of your students,” Sunset laughed. “You always did prefer to work with the more directly with magically gifted unicorns. Otherwise, we may not have met.”

“Yes, well, I’d like to avoid another incident akin to the ‘Plushening,’” Celestia snickered. “Or the ‘Bramble Tower’ incident.”

Sunset groaned, her cheeks flushed. “Ugh, I was an overconfident foal back then! I thought I could handle- wait, did you just crack a joke?”

“Am I not allowed to find your early exploits in magic humorous?” Celestia asked, laughing. “They were quite funny, in hindsight.”

“Since when did you have a sense of humor?”

Celestia simply smiled. “A lot has changed in these past few years, my little pony.”

* * *

Vice Principal Luna threw open the Main Office door and dashed inside. She shut it behind her, adjusted her shirt, and then sighed. The Main Office lay vacant at the moment so she started for a door across the room; said door had the words Vice Principal emblazoned on it and a small sign to the side of it bore her name.

The door next to that (which had the words Principal) on it opened and Principal Celestia stepped out. Her eyes immediately found Vice Principal Luna. “Sister?”

Vice Principal Luna straightened up and met her sister at her doorway. “Sister, there’ve been some developments.”

Principal Celestia’s brow furrowed and she nodded. “Okay?”

“It would appear that the rest of the school is now aware of Sunset’s condition. It appears that there were witnesses.”

Principal Celestia shuddered and crossed her arms. “And what makes you say that?”

Vice Principal Luna frowned in return. “Well, some of the teachers mentioned conversations they overheard in their classes both today and yesterday but they couldn’t confirm anything.” She paused for a moment to scratch her chin and then continued, “And then, just a bit ago, Harsh just told me that one of the freshman explicitly asked about it.”

“Oh no…” Principal Celestia groaned.

“I started digging into it and even spoke with the Rainbooms. It’s come to light that Trixie Lulamoon had a hand in the affairs.”

After a moment’s thought, Principal Celestia nodded. “Then we will want to talk to her and see what she knows. Maybe she’ll even have some vital clue that will get Sunset her memories back.”

Vice Principal Luna rolled her eyes. “If only it could be that simple,” she said.

A loud clanging sounded through the room and the both of them instinctively looked toward the wall-mounted clock which neared the three o’clock mark. Their ears perked toward the door where they’d soon enough expect to hear locker slams, stomping feet, and energetic conversations.

Vice Principal Luna straightened up. “Anyway, have you had any luck talking to Wallflower Blush?”

Principal Celestia leaned against her still-opened door and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sighed and then sagely nodded. “Wallflower has not been spotted neither today or yesterday. I’ve checked with just about everyone, including her teachers.”

Now Vice Principal Luna crossed her own arms. She opened her mouth to speak but ended up gripping her own forearms instead.

“We still need to hear what she has to say. We need answers,” Principal Celestia continued.

“Yes, I know. Do you think she realizes exactly what she’s done?”

“I think she’s avoiding coming in. So she definitely knows.”

And, sure enough, the muffled sounds of footsteps and conversations made themselves known on the door’s other side.

“We might have to talk to her outside school, then,” Vice Principal Luna suggested.

Principal Celestia looked up and met her sister’s eyes. “That… is certainly an option. We have her address on file.”

“I took a look at the file too. I also did some digging. I believe she has that apartment all to herself.”

Principal Celestia nodded and relaxed her arms. “That’s… that’s good. That means we can talk about it with a bit of privacy.”

“Although,” Vice Principal Luna’s voice lowered, “that also assumes that she would be home when we go.”

Principal Celestia lifted herself off of the door and started toward the front desk, passing by her sister in the process. She hummed thoughtfully and, as she reached the end of the desk, she turned. “That is true. In either case, I think that we—” she pointed between herself and her sister “—should go over there later tonight and see if we can catch her.”

Vice Principal Luna frowned. “Perhaps we should. I suppose that’s the best we can do, given the circumstances. What should we do in the meantime?”

“Well, for now, there is one thing that we can do,” Principal Celestia said as she rounded the front desk and approached one of the devices that sat on it. She pushed a button and then spoke into the microphone. “Trixie Lulamoon, please report to the Main Office.”

* * *

As the sun had already gone down for the day, an array of candles lit the room instead. The dragon Spike stood in one corner, yawning as he shelved some books. And then there was Twilight hunched over a book at one of the room’s other tables. While she had her back to them, the candle on her table had since gone out; Sunset thus assumed that Twilight had fallen asleep over her book.

“So, Sunset Shimmer… what’s it like on the other side of that portal?”

Sunset looked up to find that it had been Sunburst that had asked the question. The previously open book in front of him now lay shut and he, actually, lit his horn and levitated it toward a pile at his side.

Starswirl, who sat to her left and his right, looked up from his own book with a raised eyebrow. In fact, he stared at her.

“The other side of the portal, huh?” Sunset asked again. She looked at both of them and gauged the severity of their expressions. She then turned toward the table’s final occupant who sat on Sunset’s right and Sunburst’s left; Crystal Faire remained writing silently in a notebook. Sunset frowned. “I don’t know…”

“I too am curious to know what it is like over there,” Starswirl said. “I did create this portal, after all. Neigh, I created the link to that world to begin with.”

“I mean, I asked Princess Celestia about it,” Sunburst continued. “She told me that you’ve been living over there for a while. You must know something.”

“That’s a very interesting thing to say considering she doesn’t remember most of it,” Crystal said while flipping one of the pages in her notebook.

A silence passed around the table where the three of them frown. “Uhh… yes,” Sunburst sighed, “that would be a problem…”

Starswirl stroked his beard. “But you were there for a short time between losing your memories and coming back here, hmmm?”

Sunset nodded. “Uhhh, I guess there is that. I just… I don’t know. I don’t know if I should talk about it?”

Starswirl leaned forward.

“Like… I don’t know. Okay. You designed the portal so you’re already in on this,” she said as she pointed to Starswirl. She then pointed at Sunburst, “And you asked, so… you want in on this. But you…” she said as she turned to Crystal.

Crystal looked up from her notebook, raising an eyebrow in the process.

“You’re… a clerk for the city or something like that and I don’t want to open a can of worms on you—”

Crystal smirked. “You would be surprised. This is hardly the first time I have dealt with other realities.”

The entire table went silent again as all three sets of eyes turned toward her. As they leaned across the table, Crystal glanced between them and frowned.

“...You?” Starswirl asked.

Crystal groaned. “Ah, I should not have said that. It is not important.”

“It sounds kinda important,” Sunset interjected. “And kinda cool.”

“It is, but not in any way that would ever be of use to you. And forgive me if I wish to not speak of such things.” Crystal straightened up. “What is important is that you need not worry about refraining from speaking for yourself on my account.” She motioned to the other two and said, “Go ahead. Satisfy their curious minds.”

Eyes turned to Sunset again and she sighed. “Alright. What did I see…?” She thought for a moment and then started speaking about the things she had seen in the school. She described the blocky architecture that she had seen in the neighborhoods and then contrasted that with the bold statements that Canterlot High made. She briefly went into the objects that she had encountered during her time there. She then started on the people that lived there.

“Everyone there walks on two legs,” Sunset explained. “They aren’t like you or me. They’re called… hoomans, I think. And they wear clothes all the time, I guess.”

“It sounds to me like not wearing clothes would be frowned upon over there,” Sunburst said.

“Or straight up taboo,” Crystal suggested.

“I didn’t really mind it, per say, though I guess I have years of experience,” Sunset said, “but… yeah. That was sort of the impression that I got. I mean… if that’s how their society works, then whatever.”

“These hoomans,” Starswirl said as he stroked his beard some more, “it sounds like they have a particular penchant for technology. These automated carriages are especially fascinating. To think that they have that degree of command over magic despite not having horns…”

Sunburst laughed. “Well, certainly, the idea that you can communicate with someone across the world in a instant…”

“And you can carry it in your pocket,” Starswirl added. “Truly fascinating.”

“It kinda looked like they have no idea how our magic works, though,” Sunset said. “The ones I talked to seemed to know of our magic, but that’s probably because they know about me and Twilight.”

There was a moment of pause. “Maybe they use a different kind of magic?” Sunburst asked, turning to Starswirl in particular.”

Starswirl hummed. “Perhaps. While I did form the connection to this place, I never actually traveled there. So I do not know. For all we know, all of their laws of reality may be different, at that.”

“Hmmmm, that is a good point. But… considering that we can travel there and back… that suggests that there is a coupling between the two.”

“You are right. In fact, if we understood the way these two worlds are coupled, an understanding of their magic would follow.”

“Yes.”

“However,” Starswirl continued as he set both of his hooves on the table and leaned forward, “I am personally more interested in the case where the laws of reality are the same.”

Sunset’s eyes flicked between the two and she couldn’t help but giggle.

“Why’s that?” Sunburst asked.

“Well, for practical purposes, of course. There is the immediate technological advancement without the hassle of conversion. And then, of course, their world would provide a nice laboratory to study magic under different conditions, especially if said magic is our magic.”

“Perhaps it would be more prudent to try and replicate such technologies using our own rules of magic, hmmm?” Crystal suggested.

Sunburst threw his hooves into the air. “And miss the opportunity for some intense study on the subject!? Please!”

Crystal snapped her notebook shut. “I can’t imagine the inhabitants of this world would be comfortable with you dropping in and poking around everything.”

“That… would be an issue,” Starswirl said with a groan. “But she is right, however. In fact, I have always made it a point to exercise caution. It would not be wise to muddle with their affairs.”

Crystal scowled and then leaned across the table. “Did you or did you not previously use that world as a dumping ground for all manner of magical creatures and artifacts just like the one we are now putting back together?”

Sunset burst in laughter, even going so far as to repeatedly bang the table. Sunburst, after a brief pause (during which his eyes centered on Sunset), let off a few chuckles.

Starswirl, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes and scowled. “Remind me. Who exactly are you again?”

Crystal raised an eyebrow. “Who I am has nothing to do with you answering my question.”

“On the contrary. Artifacts have been discussed, yes, but creatures have not been. While it is true that I have—”

Crystal smirked. “Thank you for answering my question—”

Starswirl banged the table. “The fact that you asked that question is simply impossible! You should not have known anything about that!”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “Ohhhh, that’s a good point.”

Sunburst folded his hooves together. “He’s right. How did you know that?”

Crystal sighed. “We all have our secrets. If you wish to know why so badly, you can ask Twilight about it. It is her call.”

“And why does she know?” Starswirl asked in a half-hissing voice.

“She knows my secret on account of her helping me once. It was something that, again, is more her call to say than mine. But it was quite important.” As both Starswirl and Sunburst opened their mouths to speak, she shot a hoof into the air. She then sighed. “Listen. Who I am or what I can or cannot do is not relevant. I am here because Twilight needs help. I would be remiss if I could not oblige.”

Sunset sat back in her seat. She thought about the words she had just heard. Even as the other three continued on with their conversation, it was but blurred speech as she focused on Twilight’s sleeping form instead.

She thought about what she had seen from Twilight when they had been at her apartment. She thought about what she had seen over the last couple of days. She thought about how she had seen Twilight act.

And, she thought about it, Twilight had indeed been in this room at every opportunity.

“I am pretty sure that Sunset here is the one that needs help,” Sunburst said.

“Uh,” Sunset suddenly blurted.

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm?”

“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “She doesn’t look too good if you ask me.”

Four sets of eyes drifted toward Twilight’s sleeping form and then four sets of frowns formed.

“Well,” Sunburst said, “she has been working pretty hard on this.”

Crystal narrowed her eyes but said nothing.

“But Twilight doesn’t usually work this hard,” a new voice said. The four turned to find that Spike had approached the table. “I mean, she works hard, but this is a whole different level than what I’m used to seeing. She’s really working to the bone on this one.”

Starswirl grumbled something under his breath. He then said, in a low voice, “Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw her outside of this room.”

Sunset straightened up. “I saw just thinking the same thing.”

“She hasn’t,” Spike said. “I mean, besides going to the bathroom and, you know… a couple other things here and there. She told me to wake her up if she fell asleep,” He folded his claws together. “I don’t know if I should.”

“I swear that she needs some help too,” Sunset said.

Sunburst frowned. “Well, if she does, it will probably have to wait. Tomorrow makes three days, I think.”

Spike folded his claws together and looked up at Sunset.

Sunset checked on Twilight once more to find that her head had finally hit the pages of her book. She stared for a few moments, thought about a few nights ago once again, and then turned and leaned across the table. “Listen,” she whispered, “when she came over that first night… she stayed at my apartment. And we came over in the morning. But while she was there… I could tell she was pretty upset.”

Crystal sighed and opened her notebook again. “I would not be surprised. Anypony would be upset to learn what had happened to somepony they care about,” she said in a similarly low voice.

Sunset shook her head. “No. This… I think this was more than that. I don’t know. We spent some time rummaging through my apartment to see what we could find. You know, cause I don’t know what’s there or…” She shrugged and chuckled. “I don’t know what’s there anymore. And we ended up finding my diary.”

Sunburst leaned across the table. “Your diary? Did you read it?”

“Not really. By then we had already decided I was going to come over here and try to get my memories back. I read a little bit. But it was all from when I was apparently a really really mean person. Ugh,” she said as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “it sucks knowing I was that way once.”

“Eh,” Spike said, “you really did change after that, though.”

“Either way, she wanted to read it and I wanted to go to bed so I said ‘okay.’ And she did. And so I went to bed and she was sitting on the couch downstairs and… she was reading my diary.” Sunset muzzle twitched and she looked up to see their faces. “And she started crying.”

Crystal looked up, her expression now somewhat pale.

Sunset threw her hooves into the air. “And now she’s obsessing over it. Look at her.”

All of them looked over at the mare slumped over her book. The table sat deathly silent as they considered Twilight’s form. Spike twiddled his claws together and Sunburst tugged at this cloak.

“Say tomorrow comes and goes and we fail,” Sunset said. “Say I don’t ever get my memories back. What does she do then?”

While Spike, Sunburst, and Starswirl exchanged uneasy glances and lost quite a bit of their colors, Crystal sat back in her seat with a blank and somewhat lifeless expression.

* * *

Wallflower Blush had turned off every light in her small apartment, including the one in her bedroom. The evening sun’s rays met the drawn curtains which left her bedroom in a relative darkness. Her laptop screen provided the only real source of light in the room and her eyes remained glued to it.

Now that the initial whirlwind of thoughts had finally subsided, she could focus a little more on things other than what was in front of her. Her room had a lot of wood in it; wooden floors, wooden desk, wooden chair, and even the bed frame was made of wood. She had accented the room with pictures of leaves and even some topiary painted onto the walls. She had needed help with that last one, in particular.

The desk itself sat on the wall opposite the window and a few steps away from the door. She had locked the door to her bedroom despite having the house to herself. Wallflower sat in that chair with a bulky blanket draped over her entirety.

In the internet browser’s top box sat the address for MyStable. Her mouse hovered over the Go button. She breathed in and out and, with a sigh, she clicked. The page changed and showed several boxes, with the one containing the feed in the center.

She wondered if anyone else knew about what happened; what she had done. She had to gather some information. In this case, it would come from the social medialites who accepted her friend request only to boost their numbers; they had no idea who she was.

She browsed through the feed, looking at their recent status updates. While most were the usual fare of minor annoyances and musings on current events and school-related topics (and even the occasional political post), she noted a lack of brightness in their words. She even, occasionally, found some status updates containing cryptic expressions of worry (such as “I sure hope everything turns out alright” and “This weekend felt really weird and it looks like things are just getting started”).

She narrowed her eyes and scrolled up and down the list. Odd. I would have expected to see one of Trixie Lulamoon’s posts on here, she thought. She’s always going on about her latest magic acts. But… she continued scroll down and down, looking at all the names that came up. Trixie’s was not among them.

She… knew what I had been doing. Did she… unfriend me?

Wallflower tapped the desk with one hand and supported her head with the other. Her eyes drew to a search bar at the top of the page. With a twitch of her lips, she navigated her mouse to that bar and typed in Sunset Shimmer. The very first result showed the face of the girl she had once so vehemently hated, looking right at the camera with a wide pearly-white smile across her face. Several other faces (Sunset’s friends, no doubt) poked their way into the frame, but Sunset’s took center stage.

Wallflower saw the posts then. There were well wishes, hoping that she would get better. Most said nothing but one or two made allusions to remembering.

She folded her hands together and laid her head on them. So… it actually happened. Sunset’s memories are gone. Her mind paused as it worked without her knowing. The… my Memory Stone was destroyed. Does that mean… she doesn’t have her memories back yet?

Did I… erase all of her memories forever? Did… did I really do that to her?

Wallflower put one hand back on her mouse and continued scrolling down. There were more and more well wishes and she found herself not batting eyes at these now. But then she reached one post that made her stop. She reached one post that made her heart drop. She looked at the name attached to it: Juniper Montage, a name she didn’t recognize.

It was short and it was simple but it told her everything she needed to know.

Who the hell is wallflower blush?

She shot from her chair so fast that it fell backwards, clattering against the floor. She stood over her screen trying to find her breath again.

Oh my… she thought. They… they know. They all know.

Wallflower jumped again when she heard a knocking. She whirled toward her closed door but immediately concluded that the knocking had not been at that door. Her mind pinpointed the general direction where it had come from. She heard the knocking again.

It was the front door. Who could that be?

Wallflower swallowed. She didn’t want to know.

Despite that, she unlocked her bedroom door and tiptoed into the living room, through that, and into the foyer. The front door of solid wood remained locked shut, but even then, she crept up to it. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach the peep hole, but she looked nonetheless.

And both Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stood side by side on her front porch. Their expressions were studies in sternness, and Luna, in particular, had her arms crossed as if accentuating the darkness across her face. Celestia didn’t appear as bright, either.

“Wallflower Blush!?” Principal Celestia called. “Are you home!?”

Wallflower had to force her mouth shut. They had to be here about the incident. They had to be. And she would have to face them—and the music that came with it—if she revealed herself. No, that couldn’t happen.

She needed it to not happen.

“Wallflower!?” Principal Celestia called again.

Back away! she mentally cried, forcing her legs to take her away from the door. A hand found the wall where she steadied herself in her retreat. She crept further and further backward, even glancing behind her to find her door again.

She heard another sharp banging at the door. It seemed like the house shook with it. She needed to get back to her room. She needed to hide in the darkest corner she could find.

She hand hit the doorframe and she practically hopped inside. She whirled and shut the door—quietly!—and then sprang onto her bed. She pulled the covers all the way over herself and then curled into a ball underneath them. She squirmed when she heard more pounding at the front.

Please… please…

More pounding, another callout, and then silence. Seconds passed. And then more seconds passed. But Wallflower remained curled impossibly tight.

A minute passed and then several more after that.

Wallflower was left to silence and she poked her head from underneath the covers. They had to have left by now, but there was no way she was going to leave the room to check.

She lay her head against the pillow and let out a long sigh. Her heart, however, still beat at a million miles a minute with no sign of letting up. Her mind, too, was a whirlwind. And yet, amidst all of that, one thought came to mind; she thought of what put her at ease. She tried her hardest to center on it in her mind.

And her expression firmed up. There was something she would need to do in order to put herself at ease.

I have to go see my garden, she thought. I have to see it.

5 - To Remember or Forget

Sunset Shimmer stalked into the library. Sunlight filtered through the windows at an almost-horizontal angle and a thick coffee aroma hit her in the face as she entered.

She stopped in the doorway and glanced around; everyone was there. Moondancer, Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl, and Sunburst gathered at the table with the coffee pot, leaning over a set of papers and occasionally pointing to specific passages. Spike, meanwhile, delivered a fresh cup to Crystal Faire in a corner of the room before sitting down himself.

Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia stood together, the both of them speaking in hushed tones in front of a chalkboard. The chalkboard itself had very little on it, sporting nothing of note but eraser smears and some half-erased diagrams and sentences.

Celestia and Twilight looked over and met Sunset’s gaze. After a few moments, which included an exchange of glances and solemn nods, Celestia waved Sunset over.

Sunset sucked in a breath and trotted to them. “Morning,” she said.

“Good morning, Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia replied. “How are you feeling?”

Sunset examined herself without expecting to actually find anything. “Uh… same. I guess?”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “Did you sleep okay?”

Sunset thought about what she had seen the night prior and then observed the bags under Twilight’s eyes. “Did you?”

Twilight groaned. “I… slept. I know I did.”

Sunset frowned. “Spike told me you didn’t want to. I’m glad you did.”

“I told him to wake me if I fell asleep,” Twilight half-growled. “And he didn’t. I’m not very happy right now.”

“Well, I agree with his call.” Sunset motioned over her withers. “So does everypony else.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and stalked up to Sunset. “Sunset Shimmer… you don’t understand. I want to do everything that I can to get your memories back.”

Sunset snorted. “That’s fine and all, but don’t kill yourself doing it. I don’t exactly want to be known as the reason a Princess keeled over, even if it was to help me.”

Twilight shuddered. “Please.”

Celestia inched forward just enough to tower over them—over Twilight in particular. “Twilight,” she said with hints of a stern tone.

Twilight glanced up at Celestia and then sighed and straightened up. “Sunset… you know what today is, right?”

Sunset considered Twilight for a few moments more and then she straightened up as well. “Yeah, today makes three days.”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “If the memories are still in that memory stone somewhere, today is the last day they will remain there. And if they are not…”

“That’s if you’re even able to put it back together,” Sunset said.

“No, we will put it back together,” Twilight said with the stamp of her hoof. “We will get your memories back.”

Out of the corners of her eyes, Sunset spotted several of the others looking up. Twilight wore a determined expression but everyone else’s worn and empty expressions contrasted that. Even Princess Celestia didn’t look so sure.

And yet Celestia nodded all the same. “Yes. We will certainly try.”

Sunset shrugged and looked back at Twilight. “Well, uh, anyway, I’m here. Is there anything that you want me to do?”

Twilight and Celestia exchanged glances.

Celestia scratched her head. “I do believe that’s what we were talking about.”

Twilight nodded and sucked in a breath. “Yes, we were. Uh, truth is, Sunset, I don’t have anything for you to do today.”

Sunset frowned. “...No?”

Celestia nodded. “Indeed. Most of the work is already done and we don’t need everypony anymore. I myself have to do some things in Canterlot today; I’ll be back this afternoon to check on things.”

“And they,” Twilight said as the motioned toward the table, “will be compiling the modified Relic Reconstitution Spell. I’ll be trying to figure out stuff related to your geode.”

“So where does that put me?” Sunset asked.

Twilight shrugged. “Well… you’re free to stay if you want, but you don’t have to. You could always go explore the rest of the castle, or you could go into Ponyville if you wanted. I mean, obviously, don’t go too far because we’ll need you around if we want to restore your memories.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. I get it.”

“But, it’s up to you what you want to do for the next few hours,” Twilight said. “I do want to know about it though so I know where to find you.”

I can go wherever I want, huh? Sunset thought, rubbing her chin in the process. Well, I could go into Ponyville if I wanted to, but there really isn’t any point. I don’t live here and, honestly, I don’t care. I could explore the rest of the castle… but I’ve already been here for two days.

Sunset’s muzzle twitched as her eyes drifted toward the mirror portal. “Well… Twilight, would you be okay if I went to the other world for a while?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “The other world? You want to go there?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied. She shrugged. “I mean, apparently that’s where I live these days, right? I mean… I’m not going to have another chance to explore it for the first time. I can’t think of a better way to kill a few hours.”

Celestia frowned and nodded. “That is very true.”

“You should… let Principal Celestia know that you are there,” Twilight said.

Princess Celestia’s expression twitched at the mention of her counterpart but she ended up nodding in agreement.

“In fact, if at all possible, you should stick as close to her as you can. Or anyone else that she can trust. I don’t want you going anywhere alone, okay?”

Sunset frowned. “Twilight.”

Twilight approached Sunset and poked her in the chest. “The last thing we need is you wandering off somewhere and getting lost. Right now, you just don’t know your way around this place. I’m not opposed to you exploring, but I need you to do so with someone who knows the place.”

“And perhaps it would be wise to have that message journal handy,” Celestia suggested.

“Message journal?” Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow. “Like the one you and I used to use?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes! It would be a good idea to find that. It… it will have a slightly different cover than you remember, but you shouldn’t have any trouble recognizing it otherwise. In fact… why don’t you make finding out where you left that the first thing that you do when you get over there?”

Sunset scratched her head. “Uh, where would I find that?”

Twilight groaned and scratched her head. “Well, I don’t know. Your locker? Your usual hangout places?”

Sunset’s expression scrunched up. “Uh… my apartment, maybe?”

Twilight giggled. “No. It wasn’t there, for sure. Uh… You’re part of a band, so it could be in the music room. Or… I think you told me you were in the yearbook club, so maybe it’s in the yearbook room?”

Sunset shrugged. “I’ll ask around.”

Twilight approached Sunset and lay a hoof on Sunset’s withers. “Just remember, the timer expires this afternoon. If what I heard is right, that’s right after school gets out. Which is about 3 p.m. You should plan on being at the school’s front steps then. In fact, be there a half-hour before then.”

“Okay.”

“And I will write to you in the journal before then to let you know that I am coming.”

“Okay.”

Celestia smiled. “We will be right back here if you need us for anything,” she said.

Sunset looked up at Celestia and smiled back. “Sure. I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?

Twilight nodded and stepped back and grinned for herself. “Yes. We will see you in a few hours.”

Sunset nodded. She turned and walked toward the portal.

* * *

Trixie sat in class, not really paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying. She had been having trouble maintaining her attention in class for the past few days, which would surely come back to bite her on the math test she had taken the day prior. Her thoughts were left to wander, thinking about what had happened earlier in the week; when, for but a brief few hours, she had a friend.

It wasn’t as if she had no friends prior to the Wallflower incident, but they were a little distant as of late. Trixie only briefly wondered why that would be the case; she was the greatest and most powerful friend out there. She shook away those thoughts more often than not, as she didn’t really see the point. She sort of preferred being alone anyway; it left her more opportunities to practice her magic tricks.

So why was it that Sunset’s loss of memory made her feel so empty inside?

It’s not like we were friends for very long, she thought. We were really only friends because she couldn’t spend time with her actual friends. We were only friends because of that dumb Memory Stone!

Despite telling herself this, and then reminding herself of this fact, it still hurt. No matter how many times she tried to convince herself that their friendship was one of circumstance, and not of a genuine bond, Trixie still felt hollow. The fact of her friend forgetting who she was stung more than the laughter of her peers at a failed trick, and the embarrassment that followed.

Why do I care so much?

That question haunted her mind and she couldn’t shake it. No amount of convincing herself of the objective truth, that they had only been friends for maybe a combined total of four hours, could dismiss the lingering problem: why did Trixie care? She shouldn’t care about a brief friendship ending, right? It didn’t make sense to her, no matter how she tried to spin it in her mind.

Trixie’s thoughts went to one of the last things Sunset Shimmer had said to her that fateful day: “At least when the sun goes down and everyone hates me forever, I’ll still have one friend.”

And for whatever reason, those words cut Trixie deep.

At the time, Trixie had been taken aback and then elated by the fact that Sunset considered a friend. She had never thought in a million years that the former “Biggest Meanie” would ever consider Trixie, an extremely braggadocious stage magician, a friend of hers. She didn’t think she would ever find common ground with Sunset Shimmer, of all people, yet she did.

After Sunset had left the scene to go stop Wallflower, she couldn’t help but wonder if Sunset said what she had said to get her to try the Magician’s Exit one more time. She wondered if Sunset was casually manipulating her, and those thoughts stung. Sunset was once the school’s biggest bully, so it would make sense for her to be a bit manipulative. Despite this, she couldn’t believe it to be true no matter how logical it seemed. Sunset had changed a lot since the Twilight from the other world came in and stopped her.

She didn’t want to believe that Sunset was playing her like a fiddle. The way she had called Trixie her friend seemed genuine; the pain of losing her friends that had been in her voice was the real deal, and the gratitude that at least someone would see her as a friend was there too.

I just wish we could have been friends for a little longer.

The bell rang, signifying the end of the last class before lunch. She snapped back to reality, shook her head for a second, and then gathered her things. Trixie watched as Rainbow Dash gathered her things, and instead of the usual way she darted out of the class, Rainbow left the class with a melancholic stride. Trixie felt herself frowning at the sight.

If it’s bothering me as much as it is... then it’s probably way worse for those girls.

Five of the six girls had been Sunset’s friends since she had renounced her wicked ways, with Twilight being her friend since the end of the Friendship Games. They had all been inseparable prior to Wallflower erasing their memories, and it had taken the loss of Sunset’s memory to get theirs back. Trixie could only imagine how much the loss of the Sunset they had loved hurt them.

I wonder if I’d have become friends with them if Sunset didn’t lose her memory?

Trixie sighed as she left the classroom and headed to her locker. As she walked, she noticed the six of them had gathered at Rainbow’s locker and were probably discussing what to do. Before she could stop herself, Trixie found herself standing about an arm’s length away from the group.

I’m not sure if they’ll let me... but I want to be there for Sunset, even if she doesn’t remember me.

* * *

Sunset watched as the houses went by. This was the same truck she had ridden in a couple of days ago but while she herself sat in the same seat, it was Principal Celestia who sat in the driver’s seat. As opposed to having a few yearbooks in her lap like last time, she now held onto a journal. The image on the cover has half of her cutie mark and, from what she gathered, half of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark.

Her eyes drifted to the dashboard. The clock in the center display read 12:06. Time was less than three hours away. The music had been turned off this time around, leaving Sunset and Principal Celestia to silence.

Sunset flipped to the next page in the journal. Most were simple correspondences, although one of the entries had mentioned Starlight Glimmer. That told her that Starlight had come to visit once already. What she couldn’t say was it that was the only time or if it was just the first.

She flipped to the next page and noticed that while the left sheet was full, the right one stopped half-way and contained a short conversation. She had reached the end of the journal.

So these were the last things we wrote to each other before I lost my memories, huh? Sunset thought. Her eyes skimmed over the conversation but it was basically a call for help. It said nothing new. She instead turned her eyes toward the previous entry.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I thought you'd be happy to hear that the girls and I were voted "Best Friends" in the yearbook today. After all, if you hadn't forgiven me, I'd still be the arrogant student I was when I left Equestria. You gave me the second chance I didn't deserve, and I'll never forget it.

Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset sat in silence, staring holes in the page all the while. She forced herself to read it again and then did so a third time. Her eyes lingered on particular sentences, namely where it spoke of best friends, of arrogance, and the notion of her never forgetting what she had received. One line, in particular, caught her eye and sent her mind reeling.

You gave me the second chance that I didn’t deserve.

Celestia took the truck around the corner and Sunset looked up to see that the buildings had changed from houses to businesses, just like it had a couple days ago. Sunset watched these buildings with greater scrutiny, spotting an eyewear shop and a shoe store. Unlike the suburbs where Canterlot High stood, cars practically owned these streets with how many there were. Pedestrians similarly dotted the sidewalks; she hadn’t seen a single soul in the suburbs.

They pulled into a parking lot. Celestia found a parking space and, after putting the truck into park, shut it off.

“Here we are,” Celestia said.

Sunset pushed the button that unbuckled her seatbelt, pulled the lever that allowed her to push the door open, and then stepped out. “Thank you, Principal Celestia. For bringing me out for lunch, I mean.”

Celestia stepped out of the truck for herself and walked around the front. “Don’t worry about it, Sunset Shimmer. You did want to explore, did you not?”

“Yeah.”

Celestia led Sunset toward the sidewalk. “Besides. I was planning on having lunch somewhere around here anyway, so this is no problem at all.”

Sunset tucked the journal under her sleeve as she followed. “Cool.”

The two walked toward the intersection, weaving through a few oncoming pedestrians as they went. While Celestia paid them no mind, Sunset regarded each one that they passed, noting their choices in clothing and hairstyles; it seemed like the females of this world wore their hair long and had far more variety in their clothing; the males generally had their hair short and played closer and tighter with their wardrobes. There were the odd few exceptions, of course, but not many.

They arrived at the corner where Celestia set her eyes on a white two-story building in the intersection’s adjacent corner. The traffic lights switched colors and the symbols on a sign across the way changed from a red hand to a white human (who appeared to be walking). Celestia led Sunset across the crosswalk then.

They entered the building which turned out to be a cafe. A few older people sat at the circular tables placed at the wedge-shaped room’s edges, enjoying cups of coffee, some smoothies, and, most prominently, baked items. They approached the counter where a plump woman with cupcake-like hair whistled as she worked.

And she turned at their approach with a jolly smile. “Oh, Miss Celestia. And Sunset Shimmer. How do you do?”

“Hello, Mrs. Cake,” Celestia greeted.

Sunset meekly waved.

Mrs. Cake glanced between the two of them again and then placed her hands on her hips. “Are you two out on a student-teacher luncheon?”

Celestia chuckled. “Something like that. I’ll have a slice of devil’s food cake, a pretzel, and a vanilla smoothie.” She looked down. “Sunset, what would you like?”

After taking a moment to consider the menu, Sunset shrugged. “Uh, same, I guess. Uh, can you make mine strawberry instead of vanilla?”

“Of course, dear,” Mrs. Cake said and turned around and rummaged through the various shelves and machines behind the counter, working to complete the order.

She knows who I am. Maybe I come here a lot with those girls? Sunset thought.

By the time Mrs. Cake arrived back with all of the food, Celestia had already set the money on the counter. And then, once she got her change back, Celestia led Sunset to one of the tables. The two took a seat.

While Celestia immediately dove into her cake, Sunset couldn’t help but sigh. She rested her head on her fist and gazed out the window, tentatively grabbing the pretzel in the process and chewing on that in silence.

Celestia downed her bit and then wiped some bits of brown cake off her face. “Are you okay, Sunset?”

Sunset’s expression swished from side to side. “I dunno. I mean, I’m just thinking about things.”

“I see.” Celestia cut off another bite of cake with her plastic fork and brought it toward her mouth. “I’m sure you’re probably wondering if you will get your memories back this afternoon.”

“Yeah. But it’s a bit more than that, I think,” she said before taking another bit of her pretzel.

“How so?”

“Well… these past couple of hours have been pretty neat. Because, I mean,” she said with the shake of her head, “I get to see a bunch of new things for the first time and it’s like… it’s amazing. Like that… uh… that thing that told you it was okay to cross the street here just a bit ago, that stuff is cool. And I’m sitting here going ‘What is that?’ and all.”

Celestia laughed. “Well, this whole rediscovering your home was your idea, wasn’t it?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I know. But… now I’m thinking about this prospect that I might have to rediscover it because I’ll have to.”

Celestia hummed thoughtfully and, after opening her mouth to speak and closing it again, took a sip of her smoothie. “Didn’t you say that they would fix this Memory Stone by the time this afternoon came around?”

“Yeah. I did. And I don’t doubt that.”

Now Celestia raised an eyebrow and set her plastic fork back down. She lay both of her arms on the table and leaned forward in her seat. After a moment’s consideration, she sucked in a breath. “You… you don’t think that they will be able to restore your memories, even with the Memory Stone?”

“Uh,” Sunset began, now actually meeting Celestia in the eyes. “Well…”

“You can be honest with me, Sunset.”

Cutting off a bite of cake for herself, Sunset turned her thoughts to what she had seen in the past few days. The talk had always been reforming the Memory Stone. Never once had the topic of it containing her memories once it was reformed been discussed at length. It almost sounded like the mere idea was an afterthought.

And, as she thought about it, the reason was that there was no control over that. Whether or not those memories would still be there was likely decided the moment the stone shattered.

But a single thought crept into her mind that caused her to frown: everyone else’s memories had returned when the stone shattered. That would have been the moment for it to happen.

And so Sunset, with a grim face, folded her hands together and looked Celestia square in the eyes. “Well… if I am being honest… I think…”

* * *

Whether or not it was because of her lack of sleep, or the stress of the situation, Twilight had a headache. Her head had been throbbing for the better part of the day at this point and showed no signs of stopping. It was only made worse each time the chalk was used on the nearby chalkboard, each one adding to the equations therein. She knew she should probably lie down, or briefly leave the room to get some kind of medicine to dull the pain, but she was just as stubborn to stay and see this through to the end.

After all, this was for Sunset; it was for one of the most important figures in her life.

“Here, you look like you could use it,” a voice said, as two dull-yellow tablets and a glass of water entered her gaze. Twilight took hold of it with her magic, before turning to look at the speaker. She was met by Moondancer’s soft, tired-looking smile, who had likely just woken up from a short nap. Last Twilight had checked, Moondancer had fallen asleep with her face in a book on the theories of how magic could affect memory from the restricted section. “Your head is probably killing you, isn’t it?”

Twilight smiled. “It is... how could you tell?” she asked before washing the pills down with the provided water.

“I’ve had several stressful all-nighters doing research in the past. I’ve seen my face in the mirror afterward enough times to know the signs when I see them.”

Twilight giggled. “Well, you’ve always been my equal when it comes to the sheer amount of time spent reading about complex theories and systems.”

“Please, I’ve probably surpassed you with how much reading I did after you first left for Ponyville,” Moondancer jabbed with playful sarcasm. “I had a lot of time to read before somepony broke me out of my shell.”

“Gee, I wonder who that could have been? They sound pretty rude to interrupt you with your studies.”

The two briefly shared a laugh before Twilight turned her attention back to the chalkboard and what she had been working on for the past few hours. Starswirl had since begun working with Starlight and Sunburst to finish their modified version of the Relic Reconstitution spell. This had left her to work out the specifics that had caused Sunset’s geode to shatter, and how it was connected to her subsequent memory loss. That, and try to formulate some kind of backup plan, should their initial plan fail.

That wasn’t a thought Twilight enjoyed entertaining.

“Do you know how’s the Relic Reconstitution spell coming along?” Twilight asked, her eyes not leaving the board.

Moondancer shook her head. “Not really, I haven’t checked since I woke up.” She looked at the board and hummed. “Looks like you’ve been pretty busy though.”

Twilight sighed. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to figure out the specifics for hours now, and I’m still no closer to figuring it out.”

“Sounds frustrating.”

“Oh, it’s very frustrating.” Twilight said through gritted teeth. “All we have for ideas is fixing an ancient relic, and hoping that fixes things. What’s worse is we only have maybe an hour left to fix the Memory Stone.”

“I’m kind of surprised that is our only option so far.” Moondancer sighed. “I mean, we have some of the smartest ponies alive in the room, including the legendary Starswirl the Bearded.”

“I know... and I still have no idea what Sunset’s geode has to do with any of this!” Twilight all but yelled. Her magic’s grip on the half-full glass of water tightened, but not enough to break the glass. “It’s probably the key to figuring this out, but I know next to nothing about the geodes, and the only pony that could help doesn’t remember anything about them.”

“Wouldn’t one of those... parallel world versions of our friends know how they worked?” Moondancer asked. “I mean, they all have their own, right? Wouldn’t Sunset have shared her findings on how the stones work with at least one of those girls?”

Twilight could feel a scream coming on but pushed it down before it could escape. The only visible sign of her frustration being her left eye twitching, but Moondancer wasn’t paying enough attention to notice.

“...I hadn’t thought of that...” Twilight said softly, lightly smacking herself in the forehead just below her horn. She had been too caught up in everything going on and hadn’t thought to ask one of the girls for anything they knew about the magic of the geodes.

Moondancer grimaced. “Well... I guess it’s too late now?”

“...Yeah.” Twilight sighed. “I just wish I had thought to ask.”

“Yeah, but there’s no use in focusing on ‘what ifs’ now, right?” Moondancer asked. “We should be focussing on what we do know, and work from there. We can always ask if we fail, right?”

Twilight’s grip on the glass tightening as she spoke. “Only if we fail.”

“Which is still a possibility,” Moondancer sighed. She looked at her friend and frowned. “There is a chance that her memories were utterly destroyed when her geode shattered. If I had to guess, the magical feedback may have—”

“She’ll get her memories back!” Twilight yelled, the glass in her magic’s grip shattering as she finished the sentence. Thankfully, the pieces of glass just fell to the floor, her magic not allowing the pieces to splinter in random directions. “Don’t you dare suggest that Sunset won’t get her memories back! We’re going to get them back, no matter what!”

Moondancer recoiled, not sure how to react. She sheepishly took a step back and hung her head. “Sorry...”

The sight of her friend looking so dejected at her words caused her guilt to flare up, and she placed a hoof on Moondancer’s withers. “No... I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I just...”

“Want Sunset to get her memories back.”

“...Yeah. She just... means a lot to me.” Twilight said, blushing. “Still, that’s no excuse for snapping at you like that. You were just pointing out a... very likely possibility.”

“It’s okay... I can tell how important this is to you,” Moondancer said, smiling sheepishly. “You have been working harder than any of us, after all.”

“Thanks for understanding, Moondancer.” The two friends shared a brief hug. “What were you about to say before I lost my temper?”

“Oh, I was going to suggest that Sunset’s geode itself may have caused magical feedback, which caused her memories to be lost forever.”

“Even if we fix the geode too?” Twilight asked.

Moondancer shrugged. “I don’t know, it could go either way, really. We don’t really get how they work, so I can’t say for certain if fixing it would do anything.”

Before the conversation could persist further, however, they heard the sound of hooves approaching them. Starlight held up a few papers.

“We’ve finished the spell,” Starlight said. “How’s the work on the geode stuff?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t have a complete understanding of it. I’ve scratched the surface but that’s all I have.”

Starlight nodded.

“I have enough that I can incorporate what I have into our Reconstitution Spell. Hopefully, it will help.”

Starlight glanced back toward the table, to which Starswirl and Sunburst intently watched her in return. “Well, you should make it quick. It’s almost time,” she said.

Twilight shuddered and glanced back at her own work. She truthfully did not know if understanding the geode and how it had interacted would have helped. But if it would have helped… if it would have meant the difference between Sunset getting her memories back or not, that thought shook her to her very core.

This was not the best case scenario. Twilight frowned. But it’s where we’re at.

Twilight nodded and levitated the papers into her own magic. She looked down the pages, humming thoughtfully as she went. At certain points, she turned back to the board and, after scrutinizing what she had written down, she took a quill and jotted some things onto the spell sheet.

She eventually reached the end of the papers, read through it all a second time, and then nodded. “This is it, then.”

Sunburst and Starswirl stood up and trotted to meet them in the center of the room; Sunburst, in particular, floated the fragments of the Memory Stone over.

Twilight watched as they set the fragments into the middle and then scanned the four faces looking back at her. And then she sucked in a breath and nodded. “Let’s put this Memory Stone back together.”

* * *

Sunset stared at the statue down the front lawn. Her friends sat on the steps with her. Their eyes remained on her and each other. At this moment they all lay silent. While six of them packed in closely to her, Trixie Lulamoon sat at a larger distance, hovering just outside the group. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stood even further back, hanging in the doorway.

Three days was almost up. Now it was mere minutes away.

And they were mere minutes away from having an answer, whether they wanted it or not.

Fluttershy pulled out her phone to look at the time and then whimpered on seeing it. She glanced at the rest of them and they regarded her with growing frowns.

Dark clouds hung overhead, casting the entire courtyard in a shadow. The air itself felt rather cool which was decisively not-so-warm. As such, the girls all huddled together without actually touching.

The statue’s surface glimmered and a figure stepped out of it. Twilight stood fully upright and unflinching. She clinched what looked like a roundish stone with both hands. It had to be the Memory Stone, fully reformed and ready for use. She wore a ghastly expression on her face and her posture was withdrawn.

And, all at once, the seven with Sunset shot to their feet. Sunset, after a moment’s hesitation, followed suit and then walked down the steps. It was when Twilight started in their direction as well that she decided to stop at the bottom of the steps.

Twilight shuffled up to them with her eyes glued to the ground. Only when she came near them did she look up and meet Sunset in the eyes. Twilight’s hair had several split ends and she had a bit of puffiness around her eyes. Her hands trembled around the Memory Stone which she gripped so tightly that Sunset wondered she would crush it.

This was the moment for her to get her memories back. So why did Twilight look so disturbed?

Sunset frowned. “Twilight? You okay?”

Twilight shuddered and somehow gripped the Memory Stone even tighter. “We did everything we could,” she said. “So… all that’s left to do is to try.”

Sunset nodded and stood up as tall as she could. “Okay. Then go ahead. I am ready.”

Twilight stared into Sunset’s eyes for a few moments and then straightened up and took a deep breath. Cautiously, she held up the Memory Stone. She held it with both hands, stretched her arms as far forward as she could. Her expression remained unchanged.

The Memory Stone lit up with a greenish glow as magic flowed through its leylines. It audibly hummed as its inner working twisted and churned and otherwise worked. It was, evidently, building up to whatever it did whenever it returned someone’s memories.

Everyone held their breaths as they watched it pulsate with energy. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie grabbed a hold of each other. Rainbow Dash lay her hands across her own head. Trixie folded her hands together in a pleading gesture.

Twilight closed her eyes as she waited for it to do its thing. And Sunset continued watching it intently.

And then the light in the Memory Stone died, leaving it silent and still one more.

A flurry of quiet gasps passed over the group behind Sunset. Celestia and Luna exchanged wide-eyed glances. Applejack’s jaw dropped, followed by Rarity’s. And Sunset herself could feel something drop within her chest.

Twilight made a quiet squeak and looked down at the now-inert stone. Her eyes flickered between it and Sunset and, after taking a moment to readjust her grip and her stance, she held it up again.

The Memory Stone flickered to life again with the same greenish glow as before. Magic flowed through it just like before. It audibly hummed as it worked just like before.

And then the Stone died the same as before. And nothing happened still.

Now Twilight herself gasped, looking at the object in her hands with wide-eyed shock and increasingly sharp breaths. Her eyes shook between it and Sunset now. She made sounds like she was in the earliest attempts at forming words.

Rarity squealed as she latched herself onto the closest living thing that she could find, which turned out to be Sci-Twi who didn’t (and couldn’t) flinch in response.

Twilight took two steps forward. She held the stone up again and powered it up again. It worked for a few instants again and then died again.

A loud bang destroyed the relative silence as all of the air rushed out of Pinkie Pie’s hair. She collapsed to the ground, dragging a now-quietly-sobbing Fluttershy down with her.

Twilight continued inching forward with tears now starting to make their way down her face. The stone in her hands lit up, hummed, and then died again.

Trixie remained standing there with her hands stuck hiding her expression of teary-eyed shock. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, stood there shaking like a leaf. Both her hands had balled into impossibly tight fists and, with the way she bared her teeth, she looked ready to fight something or someone to the death. And Applejack removed her hat and held it in silence. Her own face looked wet now.

Twilight sniffled as she tried the stone again. It lit up and died again, just like before.

And Sunset continued staring at her.

And Twilight tried again. And nothing happened again.

Now Twilight was mere inches away from Sunset and her expression intensified as she pointed the stone right at Sunset, but when nothing happened yet again, her arms went limp. Twilight broke down into sobs. The Memory Stone itself remained clasped in one hand but her grip loosened on it by the second.

And then, finally, the Memory Stone dropped out of Twilight’s hand entirely. It bounced across the pavement and rolled to a halt a short distance away.

Twilight looked up to meet Sunset’s eyes for a moment, her expression apologetic, and then, with a punctuating wail, she flung herself onto Sunset. She wrapped her arms around Sunset, bawling into Sunset’s shoulder.

The girls behind Sunset similarly broke down, grabbing a hold of each other and crying into each other. The two adults in the doorway looked at each other and wiped some tears from their eyes but otherwise kept straight faces and held themselves high.

And, meanwhile, Sunset herself didn’t even react.

Sunset couldn’t even react; she didn’t even know how to react.

She stood there unmoving and unthinking, staring at someplace infinitely far away. She comprehended nothing and yet she comprehended everything. She didn’t know what she had lost and yet, through them, she knew what she had lost. She didn’t know what came next and yet she knew what came next.

Because this was it. This was the outcome. The terrible, incomprehensible outcome.

Someone, somewhere out there, had somehow won. Years now did not exist. An entire life was gone just like that. Sunset wondered if this was what it was like to die.

Because, for all intents and purposes, to many people, she had. And here she was. And here they were.

And then, finally, Sunset reciprocated and allowed her head to rest on Twilight’s shoulders.

6 - Erase Me

The front steps of Canterlot High School sat in deathly silence. Several human girls sat on those steps, all surrounding two solitary figures in the center. Two adults stood watching over them from the tops of the steps.

Thousands of thoughts swam through Sunset Shimmer’s head; thoughts she knew she did not fully appreciate. Some of them were on the minute details such as what she had seen and what she had considered. But surely the past implied the future; the problem was that she did not have that past.

And she never would again. Not by her own account, anyway.

She returned to the thoughts that made her most shudder.

What was to happen now? Where were things to go from here?

By now, most of the sobs had faded into the afternoon. The impact had worn off but still no one made any moves to suggest the next steps (if there were any steps to make at all).

Twilight Sparkle, who sat next to Sunset, balled her fists even tighter. She finally sucked in a breath. “Sunset…”

Everyone stirred to look at her. “Huh?” Sunset said.

Twilight kept staring at the ground and pressed her fists further into her lap. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”

Sunset frowned. “For what?”

“I should have done more. I should have worked harder. M-maybe if we had done the tests over here, or…” Twilight swallowed. “There must be a piece that I’m still missing. Maybe we designed the integration matrix wrong.”

Sci-Twi pursed her lips. Trixie crossed her arms. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna exchanged glances.

Twilight snarled. “I knew I should have done more to resolve your geode with the Memory Stone. I knew that was the key to all this!” She then gasped and sat up straight. She grabbed Sunset by both of her shoulders. “Maybe I can still do that. I can finish what I had and incorporate it into a new spell. Y-yes. I-I could bring the spell up to a state the fully resolves both. Maybe we’ll get your memories back that way.”

Sunset swallowed and noted how red and wet Twilight was still in the face (although everyone present was in a way).

“I know it will work. I know it will,” Twilight continued. She glanced at the others. “Would you believe me if I said it would work? Because I would—”

“Twilight,” Sunset said, simultaneously brushing Twilight’s hands off of her shoulders, “stop.”

Twilight did a double take, blinking in the process. “W-what? Sunset?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Yes it does,” Twilight quickly replied.

“No, it doesn’t. It’s done. It’s over.”

Twilight smacked the steps. “I don’t take that. There’s gotta be something that I can do. There has to be more.”

“Twilight… it doesn’t matter.”

Tears started welling in Twilight’s eyes again. “Sunset… you don’t understand…”

Sunset sighed. Now it was her turn to place a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Look, Twilight… I know you care about me. I’ve seen it myself these past couple days. I don’t… know what it was like between us before this all happened, so I don’t know why. I mean… Twilight, you seem really cool and smart and… you know.” She sighed again. “I do understand, I think. But this is it, Twilight. I’m not getting my memories back.”

Twilight shook her head but said nothing.

Principal Celestia cleared her throat. “Princess Twilight,” she half-croaked.

Twilight and the rest of them looked up.

“We have to start talking about where we are going to go from here,” Principal Celestia said. “We have some decisions to make.”

Vice Principal Luna nodded. “I am sure there are others back in Equestria who also worked quite hard on this. I think they deserve to know what has happened.”

Sunset nodded and turned. “Yeah… Twilight… You should probably go and tell them.”

Twilight glanced toward the Wondercolt statue. She stared at it in silence. “I…”

Sunset glanced around, making eye contact with several others in the circle, and then she stood up. That prompted her friends to stand up as well. And now everyone was standing over Twilight.

“You should go tell them, Twilight,” Sunset repeated.

Twilight looked up, swallowed, and then stood up herself. She wiped her face clean and then nodded. “Okay. Alright. Let’s go, Sunset,” she said as she started down the steps.

Sunset scanned everyone else’s faces again. They, just like Twilight, looked like all the life had been sucked out of them. They looked at her in much the same way Twilight did. Twilight had them beaten, yes, but they were still distraught.

She thought about all that she had seen over the past few days. She thought about they had initially reacted when she had lost her memories. She thought about the memories captured in yearbooks. She thought about her apartment and the leopard gecko waiting for her there.

Sunset finally shook her head. “No. I’m not going.”

Twilight, who had reached a few feet across the lawn, turned. “What?”

Sunset turned to Twilight. “I think I’m going to stay here, Twilight.”

Twilight opened her mouth and closed it again several times as she tried to find words. “You’re… you’re not going to come home to Equestria?”

Sunset sighed. “The way I see it… this is my home now. This is where I made my life. So, I think… maybe… I should stay here.”

Twilight again went silent. A knot moved up and down in her throat.

Sunset’s friends closed in around her, laying their hands on her in support. The two adults still watched from the top of the stairs, nodding sagely all the while. Sunset herself found the strength to smile at them (and she even touched someone’s hand—Rarity, it turned out—in return). And then Sunset, now standing taller, looked back at Twilight.

Twilight watched from her position, but as she ran her eyes over them and their features, she also loosened and straightened up. Finally, she nodded too.

* * *

Moondancer watched the face of the mirror portal in silence. They all did.

Twilight had been gone for several minutes. And there had been no news.

She considered it. Certainly, she had gone through it herself just a couple of days prior. It had been a strange experience, yes, but it was doable. She could very well go and check herself. But, nonetheless, if it had succeeded, then it had succeeded.

And if it had failed, then it had failed.

Starswirl and Sunburst had since returned to the table and had taken their seats. They took those moments to simply breathe. Starlight Glimmer, on the other hoof, stood with Moondancer and watched the face of the portal with her.

The double doors at the foot of the room opened and three more bodies entered. The first, Crystal Faire, with some papers floating in her magic, retained a relatively straight face. The other two, Spike and Princess Celestia, contrasted her with colorless expressions. Spike held his claws together and Celestia’s mane, eternally flowing in some ethereal wind, seemed somewhat stagnant.

Starlight, for her part, turned, examined them, and then gasped under her breath and likewise lost a bit of her color.

Finally, the mirror portal shimmered and Twilight appeared out of its face. She bore a similarly lifeless expression. She teetered off the platform and into the room proper.

And that said it all. They had failed.

Celestia trotted forward to meet Twilight, followed closely by Spike. Sunburst and Starswirl stood up and angled themselves toward them. Starlight fell to her haunches are let her gaze fall to the floor.

They had failed.

While Celestia and Spike gathered around Twilight, Crystal came up alongside Starlight and Moondancer and looked on in silence.

Twilight finally looked up and glanced around the room. “Everypony… Listen…” She paused as she examined the faces. “I’m… sure that there is more that can be done. I just know it. I wasn’t able to reconcile Sunset’s geode with the Memory Stone, so I have a feeling like that’s the next step. I think I’m going to start working on that, and—”

“Twilight,” Crystal said with a stern voice.

Twilight flinched. She slowly but surely looked up.

Crystal straightened up. “It is folly. Don’t waste your time.”

Twilight blinked. “B-b-but…”

Celestia swallowed. “Do you really believe so? Is there really nothing that can be done now?”

“I’ve more or less been saying that for the past few days,” Crystal replied. “Sorry.”

“W-wait,” Starlight stammered. “I just…”

“No, I agree,” Starswirl said. “If she isn’t getting her memories back, then that is that. It’s time we move on.”

Twilight looked over at him with wide-eyed shock. She considered him and his words in full. In fact, the whole room did.

She eventually looked up at Celestia. “P-princess?”

Celestia’s eyes remained on Starswirl but she eventually nodded vacantly. “Yes… I think he’s right.” It was only then that she hazarded a look down at Twilight.

And Twilight took a step back, took another, but on seeing no change in Celestia’s expression, she nodded solemnly. “Okay… okay…”

“Twilight,” Moondancer said, stepping forward, “I think it might be a good idea if you went and laid down for a while.”

“But what about here?” Twilight asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Moondancer scratched her head. “Well. We could probably clean up and everything. And then we’ll just try and figure out what to do next.”

Starlight wiped her face clean and stood up. “Yeah. Yeah. We can… we can do that. Moondancer and I can get that going.”

“Indeed. Go rest, Twilight,” Celestia said. “We will take care of things.”

“Yeah,” Spike said. “Come on, Twilight.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but ended up sighing instead. She nodded again. “You’re right. You’re all right. I’ll… I’ll come back later.”

The others nodded.

Twilight started slinking toward the door. She took a long time between steps as she was in no hurry. She let her head hang because she found no reason to hold it high. She peered over at Sunburst and Starswirl who watched her from the table. She peered at Spike who walked right beside her. She looked at Starlight and Moondancer who watched her with solemn frowns.

Twilight stopped in front of Crystal and met her in the eyes. The two stared at each other for several moments before Twilight’s eyes flashed toward the papers in Crystal’s magical grasp.

Crystal looked at those papers as well and smiled. “Ah, yes. If it makes you feel any better, the plans for your school have been approved,” she said. “Especially considering all of the bureaucratic obstacles which have so far prevented it.”

Twilight didn’t even react aside from a solitary sigh. With a solemn, wordless nod, she pressed on, eventually exiting the room.

Crystal’s smile completely disappeared as she watched Twilight depart. Her muzzle scrunched into a confused frown and she even found herself looking around the room, looking at the rest of them for answers. She found none.

And the room hung in silence even after Twilight’s hoofsteps faded away.

* * *

Vice Principal Luna stuck the car keys into the door and twisted. She then opened the door to the red pickup, pressed a button in the door’s handle that unlocked the other side, and then closed the door. She then walked around the front of the side and opened the passenger side door.

She opened the glove compartment and fished around, eventually claiming her prize: a stack of blank bank checks. She counted out two of them—one for herself and one for her sister—and then shut the glove compartment. Her hand then made its way underneath the passenger side of the seat and she fished out a couple of elastic cables.

It was as she was bent over that she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She transferred the bank checks to the same hand carrying the elastic cables. She then fished her phone out and read the text she had received. After humming thoughtfully, she reached under the seat again and fished out another elastic cable.

She frowned. Sister’s text said four. Can we find another one please? she asked herself as she rummaged through the supplies down under. Surely there had to be at least one more.

Her frown deepened with every second her search turned up nothing.

She then stood up and sighed. It was only then that she spotted something moving through the cab’s back window. She glanced through it to find it to be a girl emerging from the nearby trees. And Luna frowned. Such as thing was not only odd for this time of the morning, it was odd period.

And then Luna, through that window, discerned the green hair and the green skin and had enough to determine who it was. By the look on the girl’s face, she had not noticed her yet.

Luna threw the items to the floor and made a mental note to close the door later. She then crouched and skittered her way to the back of the truck. She then passed a few more cars, watching the girl through the gaps. Once Luna was sure she had gained some ground, she finally dipped between two cars and right into the girl’s path.

And Wallflower Blush gasped. But before she could turn and run, Luna had already jumped on her and grabbed her by the arm.

“Hey!” Wallflower screeched as she fruitlessly tried to wrest herself free. “Let me go!”

“Wallflower Blush,” Luna said with a stern tone. “First of all, skipping school is against the rules. Second of all,” she leaned in and said, with a palpable sharpness in her voice, “we have been looking for you.”

All color disappeared from Wallflower’s face and she looked into Luna’s eyes. And then she shrunk down.

* * *

Sunset Shimmer gripped the straps on her backpack as she stared up at the school’s front entrance. She had seen this building on prior days, but now she was going to spend her day here.

Today, after all, would be her first day of school.

And this was a time when there were no first days of school. Everyone in that building knew so much more than she did and were much further ahead than she was. And they lived in this world, so that head-start was likely on the order of years.

Sunset wondered how it had played out the first time. She wondered how she had handled it the first time.

She glanced behind her to see Trixie Lulamoon leaned into a compact car, speaking with her father (who was nearly her splitting image) in the driver’s seat. They said a few more words, and then Trixie stood up straight and then skipping toward Sunset. The car, meanwhile, pulled away.

“Thanks again for the ride,” Sunset said as Trixie caught up.

“Trixie is the most greatest and most powerful friend! A simple ride to school is no big deal,” Trixie said with a dismissive wave.

Sunset nodded and returned to staring at the school’s front.

Trixie also looked at its front and she sighed. “So… are you ready?”

Sunset’s mind replayed the various scenarios that could possibly play out. For all she knew, the entire building had long ago made up their minds about her (and that meant trying to make a good first impression was out the window). She was at their mercy, and while she had been assured that she was on good terms with the school, there were those lingering demons from years ago she had also been told about.

What if there were more people who felt about her the way Wallflower Blush (whoever she was) did?

She solemnly shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Nervous?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah…”

Trixie cracked a smile, shrugged, and then lay a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Relax. You will be in the company of The Great and Powerful Trixie! There is no better person to spend the first hour of the day with you. Trixie promises that you will get through this,” she said, holding her hand up as if making a vow.

Sunset grinned. “Well, if you say so. Let’s go then.”

The two walked up the lawn and up the stairs. They could see silhouettes of teenagers through the school’s glass entry doors. Sunset paused on the last step, prompting Trixie to pull her the last bit of way. Finally, they entered the school.

The school’s circular foyer greeted them. Some balconies hinted at an upstairs, further solidified by the staircases flanking the main entrance. Countless students walked this way and that, engaged in hushed conversations. Two hallways branched off of this floor of the foyer and several more branched off of the upstairs portion.

She had no idea where she was going. She looked at Trixie.

And Trixie motioned toward the hallway to the right. “Come on,” she said.

As Sunset followed Trixie into the hallway, several of the students stopped to look at her as the two of them passed by. Their conversations died on their lips (although, in some cases, they turned into shared murmurs). Some even started in her direction but never made it more than a few token steps. Some clutched their books to their chests as the sight of her left them breathless.

And all she could do was smile and wave.

As they rounded the corner, a group of boys near the lockers looked over. One of them, with short blue hair, wearing a leather jacket over his white shirt and some blue jeans, immediately frowned and started jogging toward them.

Trixie made a noise and stepped to the side.

The boy approached Sunset. “Hey,” he said.

Sunset looked him up and down. This was someone saying hello. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Sunset Shimmer.” She inwardly cringed; of course they knew that, but it had just come out so automatically. “What’s your name?”

The blue-haired male before her cracked a crooked smile. “H-hi… I’m Flash Sentry. You don’t remember me… do you?”

Sunset solemnly shook her head. “I’m… sorry. I don’t.” She gripped her backpack straps even tighter.

One of the boys that Flash Sentry had been talking to also sidled up. He had rowed hair and a pin with a bunch of green arrows on his vest. “Hi. I’m Sandalwood.”

A girl wearing a large red beret and black gloves also approached, stashing a notebook under one of her arms. “Watermelody,” she said, extending her hand.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you two… again,” Sunset replied as she shook hands with Watermelody. She then did the same with Sandalwood.

Another boy walked up at that moment. He adjusted his large square glasses and sighed through his nose. “Hi, Sunset. I’m Microchips. Did they… you know, did they say anything about your memories? Is there any chance you can get them back?”

Several more eyes fell on her now. And it was at that point that Sunset noticed that several more students had entered this hallway and had since joined the growing crowd.

“Sunset,” Trixie whispered, “I think we should go.”

Sunset glanced at all the people again. They looked so interested to hear what she had to say now. And, for many of them, their first reaction was to come up and say hello. And now they were asking about her well-being.

She straightened up. She was at their mercy. She had told herself that much a few minutes ago. They meant well. And that meant they thought of her well. They cared.

The knot in her chest loosened up.

And she finally shook her head. “Actually, Trixie, wait.”

Trixie frowned.

Sunset faced the crowd, scanning everyone’s concerned frowns. “Listen…” she said at length. “I’m sure that I knew all of you at one point. At least, before I lost my memories. But…” She shook her head. “I’m not getting my memories back,” she said.

Many in the crowd visibly wilted at that.

Sunset shook her head and sheepishly kicked the ground. “I know I’ve lost the last few years of my life with this. I know I have a lot to catch up on. I… gosh, I know I’m going to stumble for a while. I just… hope you can all bear with me for a while. Okay?”

Flash Sentry nodded. “Sure thing. We’re all here for you if you need us, Sunset.”

Several people in the crowd nodded in agreement, flashing smiles of their own.

Sunset smiled and glanced over to Trixie. Trixie grinned in response and then nodded in the direction

“Thanks, everyone. I should probably get to class,” she said as she pushed through the crowd behind Trixie. She made it a few steps before turning and saying, “I look forward to filling in the blanks with all of you!”

The crowd shot back various affirmatives and began to disperse.

Sunset and Trixie continued down the hall. But now Sunset held herself much higher and that prompted Trixie to walk just as tall.

Maybe this won’t be so bad, Sunset thought. Maybe I’ll get through this okay after all.

* * *

Starlight stared blankly at the chalkboard covered in equations. It was a complex formula for the spell matrix required for the spell they had used earlier that day; the results of her teacher’s days-long attempt to save their friend’s memories.

The spell that had ultimately failed, and the Sunset they knew was gone.

Despite her assurances to Twilight the previous day that she and Moondancer would get started on what they would do next, they had called it a day not long after the Princess of Friendship had made it to her room. The two of them had indeed tried, but after talking it over with the others, they had come to the conclusion that they couldn’t really get anywhere in their current states. The whole of the group had been both physically and/or emotionally exhausted, and had opted to reconvene the following day.

The remainder of the day had been very quiet. The group had splintered off one by one, each heading back to their respective rooms, sans Celestia, who had to return to Canterlot, and sans Crystal who lived elsewhere in Ponyville anyway. Starlight was pretty sure Moondancer was the last one to leave, but she had been too tired to really know for sure. Although, given what she knew about Moondancer, it was a pretty likely possibility.

“Oh, Starlight. I didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

Pulling her gaze from the chalk-covered board, Starlight noticed Moondancer walking into the room with a mug ensnared by her magic. “Yeah,” Starlight replied. “I’ve always been an early riser. What about you?”

“Same, though I usually wake up a little earlier than this,” Moondancer replied, sipping at her coffee. “Did you want any coffee? I just made a pot.”

Starlight smiled but nonetheless shook her head. “No thanks, I’m not really much of a coffee drinker. I have to be in the mood for it.”

“Ah, alright.” Moondancer glanced at the board. “Still trying to figure out went wrong?”

Starlight shook her head. “Sort of. To be honest, I’m barely even registering what’s on the board right now. I’m still processing the past few days.”

Moondancer nodded, understanding what her friend meant. “Ah, yeah, that makes sense...” she commented, trailing off a bit before taking another sip of her warm beverage. “...Have you heard any word on Twilight?”

“Not really. Spike’s not awake yet, and I don’t really want to see her right now.”

The response caused Moondancer to cock an eyebrow as she took another swig of her coffee. “You don’t want to face her right now?”

“Is it really that surprising?” Starlight asked, her face falling. “After everything we did to try and help Sunset... it just doesn’t feel right to go see her without something to raise her spirits, y’know?”

Moondancer hummed. “Yeah, that does make sense. But even still, someone should probably check on her.”

“I know, but I’m still not sure what I’d even say to her,” Starlight remarked. Hanging her head, she continued, “I’m not exactly the best pony to ask when it comes to dealing with a loss of a friend. Last time I lost a friend, I kind of started a cult.”

Moondancer rested a hoof on her friend’s withers. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not exactly the best with this sort of situation either. Last time I lost a friend, I just became a shut-in.”

Starlight chuckled, bringing a hoof up to meet Moondancer’s. “Heh, I guess neither of us handle loss well... even if I handled it much worse than you did. Still, it’s nice to know that somepony else knows what it’s like losing a friend.”

“I imagine a lot of ponies know the feeling. It’s just... some are better at handling it than others,” Moondancer said, a knowing, melancholic smile gracing her face. The sad grin was something that Starlight mirrored, happy that someone else understood how she was feeling. “And I think it’s safe to say we’re both pretty bad at it.”

The two shared a chuckle before Moondancer freed her hoof from her friend’s withers. Smiling, the pair returned their attention to the chalkboard, opting to at least try and get something done before Spike woke up. That way, they could maybe offer some kind of good news to pass along to Twilight later.

An hour passed by in the blink of an eye for the two of them as they talked out hypotheticals and offered theories as to what they could do next. Starlight found the whole process a lot easier to work through than what had been done for the past few days. At first, she thought it was because now that they didn’t have a time limit hovering over their heads; the lack of a ticking clock really did make it feel less stressful than it actually was. Eventually, however, she had found that the reason the process was less taxing was more due to who she was working with.

Working with Moondancer alone on something brought her back to her time as a filly; working on various simple spells with Sunburst. As a foal, she had spent countless hours with him studying spells and coming up with fun little combinations. Said combinations weren’t anything special, or even that efficient when it came to practical application, but it was fun. It was something that had been missing from the spell crafting she did later in her life.

It was relaxing, in a sort of nostalgic way.

The sound of the library doors rushing open caused jolted the two from their work, bringing their attention to the source of the disturbance. They were met with the sight of Twilight, an expression on her face that had taken them aback.

It wasn’t as though the two of them had never seen Twilight get mad. Through their various interactions with the Princess of Friendship over their collective lifetimes, the two had certainly witnessed Twilight upset. They had seen her annoyed with the way a book she was reading had ended, or when she had lost her cool when doing her job as the Element of Magic. This, however, was different than any of those experiences.

Twilight seemed to be sparking with barely contained magical feedback. Her expression was empty, but her eyes spoke more with a single glance than any expression could. If there was ever a time the expression “if looks could kill” would ever fit the purple alicorn, it was in that very instant.

“... Twilight?” Starlight managed to squeak out. “What are you doing here? You should be resting.”

Twilight didn’t answer; she simply walked toward the mirror. Before she could set foot onto its base, she heard Starlight call out to her again.

“Twilight, what are you doing?”

Twilight turned to look at her former pupil, her expression blank. “They found her.”

Before Starlight could ask what Twilight meant, her former teacher had disappeared into the glowing swirl of the portal’s surface. All words seemed to die in Starlight’s throat as Twilight’s words finally made sense to her.

“...Oh,” Moondancer croaked.

Starlight shot to her hooves. She stared at the face of the portal for a bit more as a dread crept and crawled down her spine. She shivered. Her imagination gave her several versions of what was about to happen, but they all had a common theme. And it was bad.

She backpedaled a few steps toward the door now.

“Starlight?” Moondancer asked. “Where are you going?”

Starlight swallowed. “I’m going into town. I think I need to get help right now.”

* * *

Sitting in the chair in the Canterlot High staff room was something that Sci-Twi never really saw herself doing at her current age. It wasn’t as if she had never been in a staff room before, as she had gotten the privilege to eat with Cadance several times in the Crystal Prep staff room in the past. Unfortunately, this was far from the pleasant student-dean lunches she had enjoyed with her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

As such, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

There was a thick tension in the air, and her ears felt like they were ringing. The pit forming in her stomach was making her wish she could be anywhere else but here.

But she knew she had to be here; for Sunset’s sake.

The past few days had been quite the ordeal. She had lost her memory of a person, only for that person to lose their memories of the past few years of their life. It was the kind of situation that Sci-Twi had read about in fantasy novels, but that could be said about a lot of stuff in her life after she learned about the existence of magic. The whole thing had really flipped the script on how she understood the world, but being the curious scientist she was, she took to it pretty quickly.

Of course, that wasn’t why she felt as tense as she did. She had long gotten over the fact that magic did things that she, at one point, would have categorically denied the possibilities of. No, she was on edge because of one simple, yet important fact about her present situation.

Wallflower Blush was sitting on a chair not two meters from her.

The rush of emotions running through her at that moment had left Sci-Twi conflicted as to how to feel, so her body had more or less just settled on ‘extremely high strung;’ it was akin to the way she felt whenever she was forced to engage with Principal Cinch. Of course, this feeling was a lot more bittersweet with greater emphasis on bitter.

On one hand, Sci-Twi knew what it was like to end up doing something horrible, and immediately regretting it once the dust had settled. Wallflower’s actions, while not directly paralleling her own, did seem almost pitiable. While Sci-Twi couldn’t pin down the girl’s motives as anything but ‘self-serving,’ she could at least understand part of it. It sucked feeling alone, which was something she herself could relate to.

She was sure that if Sunset could remember her own, similar situation, then they likely would have forgiven her already. As Pinkie had pointed out after the magical mirror incident with Juniper Montage, they were a really forgiving bunch.

However, she was also furious with Wallflower for what she had done. Sure, while Sci-Twi could find herself sympathizing with Wallflower, she also found herself wishing she could have her put in jail for murder. While she knew it was a little bit hyperbolic to think of someone being afflicted with retrograde amnesia as ‘murder,’ it didn’t stop her from thinking that she had watched Sunset Shimmer die that day.

And the one that had held the hypothetical pipe in the foyer (or in this case, magical stone in the parking lot) that day was within walking distance from her.

Clearing her head with a shake, she turned to look at Sunset, who was sitting in her own chair with the Journal on her lap and a fountain pen in her hand. She seemed to be unsure as to what to do, or at least that’s the impression her expression gave. Sunset was absentmindedly flicking her pen back and forth, clearly anxious. She had written something in the Journal a few minutes ago.

“Anything yet?” Sci-Twi asked.

Sunset jumped in her chair, nearly causing the open book resting on her thighs to fall to the floor. It seemed like it took Sunset a minute to register who had broken the silence. “No, not yet.”

“Ugh, seriously?” Rainbow Dash groaned, earning a glare from Applejack. “She’s, like, the Princess of Punctuality! How is she not here yet?”

“Well, hold yer horses, Rainbow.” Applejack answers. “You saw the way she was when she left. She probably took it the hardest outta all of us.”

“Well, yeah, but still...” Rainbow muttered, hanging her head.

Sunset frowned and looked down at the journal. “She might not show up. I was there for most of the time she spent trying to fix the Memory Stone; she barely slept at all, so she must be extremely tired.”

“If that’s the case, perhaps it would be best to proceed without her?” Vice-Principal Luna asked, looking to the clock. “Time is short, and you all have classes to attend.”

“As much as I’m sure we appreciate the sentiment, Vice-Principal Luna, I think I speak for all of us when I say we wouldn’t be able to focus on our classes.” Rarity replied, smiling sadly. “It wouldn’t be fair to Princess Twilight to not include her in this.”

Principal Celestia nods in agreement with a small smile. “My thoughts exactly, Rarity. Of course, there’s also the more... pragmatic reason for waiting for the Princess.”

“Oh!” Pinkie exclaimed, sitting up in her seat. “Is it because we’re dealing with something caused by an ancient Equestrian artifact, and Princess Twilight is a princess over there?”

“That’s precisely the reason.” Principal Celestia replied. “While I’m not sure if her world has any laws regarding this sort of situation, it’s better to be safe and have her present, just in case.”

“Yeah! The last thing we need is to start an interdimensional war with talking magic ponies over this…” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Although that does sound kinda awesome.”

Fluttershy shook her head and frowned. “Oh, no, I don’t think that sounds awesome at all.”

“C’mon Fluttershy, doesn’t this sound like one of your weird overseas cartoons or something?” Rainbow asked, nudging Fluttershy with her elbow. “I thought you liked that sort of stuff.”

“I don’t like action anime...”

Before Rainbow can offer any kind of rebuttal, the door to the room all but slams open. Sci-Twi nearly jumped out of her chair, but she managed to catch herself before turning to the source of the sound.

Standing in the doorway was a figure akin to the one she saw in the mirror every morning. The girl was her double in more or less every way, save for a few small differences like hairstyle and the lack of glasses. Princess Twilight had arrived.

But something was off about her.

In the few times that the two Twilights shared each other’s company, the pony princess had an air of kindness, understanding, and whether she intended to or not, royalty. She was the Princess of Friendship after all, so it was to be expected that she had that kind of presence about her.

Right now, however, the Princess’s normally warm and inviting aura was missing.

To anybody but Sci-Twi, Princess Twilight probably looked about as normal as she usually was, if a little annoyed at something. For Sci-Twi though, the little things stuck out like a blister on an otherwise perfect complexion. She could only surmise it was because they were, at least on some metaphysical, multiversal level, the same person, and as such, had similar ticks and quirks.

From the minute she laid her eyes on her double, Sci-Twi picked up on a number of small things. The way her eyes ever-so-slightly seemed to twitch, and how her lips creased into a very hard to notice scowl were the most apparent. Even the small difference in the way she clenched her fists conveyed how she was feeling, despite it being more like how Sunset’s hands clenched when she was upset, didn’t make it past her.

Princess Twilight was peeved. Extremely peeved at that.

“Hey, Twilight, you made it,” Sunset said, snapping Sci-Twi away from her frustrated parallel world counterpart. Sunset’s expression held a tiny, and quite sad, smile. “I didn’t think you got my message.”

“Where is she?”

When the words had left Princess Twilight’s mouth, Sci-Twi felt a chill run up her spine. There was no warmth in her words, no hints of the usual self present.

“Where is Wallflower Blush?”

The only thing Sci-Twi could feel in the princess’ words... was cold, bitter contempt.

As if in answer, the sound of someone falling off their chair all but yanked everyone’s attention away from the Equestrian visitor.

Wallflower Blush’s eyes were wide in disbelief. She seemed to have muttered something under her breath, but Sci-Twi couldn’t make out what it was. She could only assume it was something to the effect of ‘what the heck is going on?’

The next thing she knew, though, Sci-Twi felt something stir within her. It wasn’t an alien sensation; in fact, it was something that had more or less become normal in the past several months. It was something that she had once been afraid of, due to how she had first experienced it.

Her geode magic was active.

Looking down at her geode, she saw it giving off a dim glow. This meant it was obviously channeling magic, though in a way that was different than how it usually worked. The feeling was very different than it usually was.

Normally, when the geode’s power was active, it felt like an extension of herself; like a phantom limb that allowed her to do the impossible feats that her magic afforded her. Given that her magic was more or less a form of telekinesis, it required a decent amount of concentration to use effectively, so it was always very apparent when the magic was flowing through her.

This time, however, the sense of flow was off. Like it was just flowing past her, instead of going through her like it usually did.

She could still feel her geode’s magic grabbing something, but it was oddly distant. The sense of detachment from her powers made panic shoot through her mind at Rainbow Dash-like speed, and she focused as hard as she could on the direction of the flow. While her senses weren’t as sharp as, say, something who had been using magic for most of their lives, like Sunset, she could at least pinpoint the direction of where it was going.

Her eyes snapped to her double, and Sci-Twi saw something that made her blood run cold: Princess Twilight’s eyes had flashed a color that was all too familiar to the eyes she often saw in her nightmares. For that brief moment, which only seemed to last for a fraction of a second, her Equestrian counterpart’s eyes were the same as the part of herself that Sci-Twi hated.

They were the eyes of Midnight Sparkle.

The burning anger those eyes held in that instant was something she hadn’t felt in months; the fear of the monster living within. But instead of being a figment of her nightmares, it was here, physically staring her in the face.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy called out, her voice filled with concern. She wasn’t quite sure if Fluttershy was calling out of her or her peeved reflection. It didn’t take long to figure out who she was reaching out to, as she had quite literally reached out and placed a supportive hand on Sci-Twi’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Glancing over at Fluttershy, she gave a hesitant nod and smiled as best she could. “I’m fine...”

“Princess Twilight, we’ve been expecting you.” Vice-Principal Luna greeted. “You didn’t write back, so we had begun to worry you wouldn’t show.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to get here as soon as possible.” The words rang somewhat hollow in the ears of Sci-Twi, but she didn’t think it’d be wise to call out the Princess of Friendship; the last thing she wanted was to have the other Twilight’s frustration redirected at her.

“It’s okay Princess, please take a seat so we may get started,” Celestia says, a hand casually gesturing toward the seat across from her. Twilight wordlessly took her seat, her eyes pulling themselves away from the target of her ire, and softening slightly as she adjusted her skirt. “Now, shall we begin this meeting?”

Everyone nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, Sci-Twi could see Rainbow struggling to not let out a cry of relief.

“First thing’s first, I would like to ask if there has been any headway made on any alternative efforts on repairing the damage done to Sunset Shimmer’s memories?” Vice Principal Luna asked. “I understand it has only been a short time, but you have shown to be ever resourceful in situations like this, Princess.”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied, frowning. Her voice, while still somewhat distant, still carried with it a sense of weariness. “Everyone who helped with the Memory Stone’s repairs, including Princess Celestia, told me to get some rest shortly after I got back.”

“Ah, I see,” Luna hummed. “You did look quite tired when you arrived the other day with the stone. If your world’s Celestia is anything like my sister, then she would certainly all but force you to rest.”

Celestia chuckled. “That certainly does sound like me. I would like to meet my royal counterpart... but that can wait until another time.”

“I’m sure it could be arranged.” Twilight nodded. “But you’re right, this isn’t the time for that. We have much more...” she paused and directed her gaze back at Wallflower Blush who was trying to be as un-noticeable as her namesake, “... pressing matters to deal with.”

“Indeed, we do,” Luna affirmed.

“So, I have a question,” Rainbow started, looking around at the others. “Not that I don’t want to be here, but do we need to be here? I mean, this is about figuring out how you’re gonna punish Wallflower, right? Why do we need to be here for this?”

“Well,” Celestia hummed with a thoughtful expression. “You are all directly involved in this incident, and given the... special circumstances surrounding it, Vice-Principal Luna and I feel it necessary.”

“So... does this mean we’re gonna have say in how she is gonna get punished?” Rainbow asked. “Cause while I do like the sound of that, I don’t think you’d wanna hear what I have in mind.”

Sci-Twi couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are we here to help paint a better picture of what happened?”

“No, we have a pretty good idea in regards to what transpired,” Luna replied. “We simply wish for you to be here because it involves magic.”

“We also want to help devise a system to help prevent things like this from happening again,” Celestia added. “Luna and I know that the seven of you are the only ones capable of outright stopping magic, and we can no longer ignore the risks it poses to the students. Especially so given the school’s proximity to a portal.”

Sci-Twi nodded. “We’re here to help come up with ways to prevent similar incidents, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Seems a little late for that...” Rainbow scoffed.

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity yelled.

“What? I’m just saying, we should have done something about this sooner.”

“She does have a point,” Applejack said, reaffirming Rainbow’s stance. “This is the fifth magic-based crisis our school has had to deal with. Why the heck’ve we not had this conversation already?”

Celestia sighed, a somber smile forming on her lips. “The two of us have discussed this during staff meetings. But those conversations tend to not go anywhere. The topic of ‘magic’ tends to be very divisive amongst the other faculty members.”

Vice-Principal Luna nodded. “Indeed, but in any case, we can continue this part of the conversation after we address the main reason why we’re here.”

“Wallflower Blush,” Twilight said, her voice returning to its previously cold tone.

Sci-Twi watched as the previously mentioned girl sunk deeper into her seat, still trying desperately to appear as invisible as possible. She watched the girl freeze in place when Sci-Twi’s royal counterpart’s glare met hers. If she hadn’t known any better, she’d assume the world that Twilight came from was inhabited by gorgons, or at the very least, cockatrices. She made a mental note to ask Sunset about the existence of such creatures should the opportunity present itself.

“Yes, which brings us to why we asked Sunset Shimmer to summon you,” Celestia said, clearing her throat a little before continuing. “We want to know if there are any laws in your world about foreign lands being affected by your magic or relics.”

“You didn’t ask Sunset?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off Wallflower. Sci-Twi couldn’t help but notice the uncharacteristic rudeness of her double. “She should be well versed on the laws of Equestria, given that she was a student of Princess of Celestia.”

“They did, but because I haven’t been there in several years for longer than a few days, I wasn’t sure if anything had changed on that front,” Sunset replied. “The only new things I know right now are what you and Princess Celestia have told me, and that wasn’t a lot.”

“While we understand that only a few years of difference between what Sunset knows and the present is likely very small, we don’t want to step on the toes of another nation,” Luna said before pausing to drink from her coffee cup. “How laws are governed varies from nation to nation, let alone between different worlds.”

Twilight shook her head. “There have only been a few laws that have been introduced in recent times, but none of them say anything about foreign countries per say. They’re more based around my duties as the Princess of Friendship. The most these laws really do is make it so my friends and I can do our jobs.”

“And of the laws that existed prior to the most recent changes?” Luna asks.

“There aren’t any laws that can apply to parallel worlds, due to the specific phrasing. Even then, laws of that nature tend to be based around treaties signed. Equestria isn’t really the type of country to claim authority over foreign issues, unless it is a threat to their security. And to be blunt,” Twilight said, turning to Wallflower now, “you should be incredibly grateful for that fact.”

Wallflower shuddered. “W-why… should I be grateful?”

A crooked grin spread onto Twilight’s face as she now turned to face Wallflower fully. “Let me tell you something about Equestria, Wallflower Blush. There are many powerful creatures over there, the likes of which you could never hope of facing. And we Equestrians… we like to practice a doctrine of peace and friendship. So… I am fine with allowing chaos gods to roam freely among us, I am fine with breaking bread with a race of shapeshifters who invaded our country not too long ago, and I am fine with making friends with a pony who would try to erase my friendships by going through time.”

Wallflower swallowed.

Twilight’s hands balled into fists and she rose to her feet. “But you?” Her voice was shaking now. “If I had my way, you would be left to rot in a cell next to the monsters of Tartarus for the rest of your days,” she said, her voice coated in a thick layer of venom. “If you had been in Equestria when you stole Sunset’s memory, I would have made sure you regretted being born.”

The room went silent as looks of surprise and horror melted their way through all other emotions on the faces of those present. Nobody could say anything to that. Sci-Twi watched as Twilight stood up and walked the short distance between herself and the object of her contempt.

Panic filled Sci-Twi as she felt the magic drain from her, her geode glowing in a more obvious way than before. The color of its light, however, wasn’t that of a gem shining brilliantly in the light. It was instead glowing in a way similar to that of the eyes of her dark side. Air seemed to not enter her lungs as she saw Twilight’s eyes take on that teal hue she feared seeing in the worst of her nightmares.

It was then that she realized that it wasn’t just her geode that was active.

The other five girls that still held geodes seemed to lose all their energy, looking as though they had run a marathon. Their geodes shone a dull teal light, and it was clear what was happening.

Twilight didn’t move her arms, or even so much as a finger as the magic that flowed through her found its target. The energy of the magic sparked through the air, causing the two elders in the room to take several measured steps back.

Wallflower’s eyes couldn’t help but stare into the glow of the eyes that reached their way into her soul. Her throat refused to let out a scream of any kind.

“Of course,” Twilight said, her tone now somewhat otherworldly, “that isn’t stopping me from dragging you there myself.”

With those words, the magic flowing through the geodes sparked, and a dull, magenta light appeared around the princess’ hands. They didn’t move, but Sci-Twi knew exactly what was happening. It was obvious, given both the color of the light, and the fact that she had seen something similar whilst in Equestria shortly after this had all started.

Princess Twilight was intending to use her magic to drag Wallflower back to Equestria with her.

Sure enough, Wallflower’s clothes were ensnared by the grip of the spell that Sci-Twi knew all too well. The girl couldn’t help but kick the air in her panic, but it was met with her legs being stopped. The grip of her clothes kept her from moving, and Twilight simply smiled.

Sci-Twi was at a loss, not sure what to do as the energy seemed to leave her body.

And that was when the doorway suddenly flew open and two figures raced into the room. Starlight Glimmer, the first of them, let her eyes go wide. “Oh my goodness!”

The second, an unfamiliar woman in a business suit with a scar over one eye, observed the scene and then let her eyes narrow. “Twilight! Stop!”

“Sunset!” Starlight cried. “Grab her!”

Sunset shot to her feet and even started scooting around the table toward Twilight. “Twilight, stop! Please!”

A loud cracking sound filled the room, followed by silence. Sci-Twi felt like she got hit in the gut, all the air in her lungs pouring out. The sound of several small objects hitting the floor marked the end of the brief period of silence. Her entire body felt numb, but she was able to look to where her double had been standing as Wallflower fell to the floor with a thud. A second thud followed, which lead into the sounds of someone sobbing.

On the floor, two feet from where Wallflower lay, struggling to catch her breath, were two girls on their knees. Twilight sat on her knees, crying as she leaned into Sunset, who was holding her.

That was the last thing Sci-Twi saw before consciousness began to slip from her grasp.

Author's Note

Please come bug us on Discord so that we’re less likely to take so long on the next chapter~

7 - The New Normal

Principal Celestia examined the scene before her. Her heart had slowed, at least, but the tremors through her body hadn’t subsided just yet.

Sunset Shimmer remained on the floor, cradling Princess Twilight in her arms. Starlight Glimmer knelt next to them, monitoring them all the while. Wallflower Blush had returned, with some prior help, to her seat from before, where she now sat practically catatonic. Celestia hovered over her, both to make sure that Wallflower didn’t decide to simply run away again, but also to closely monitor Wallflower’s mental state.

Surely, Wallflower had been scarred for life, perhaps several lives. This nightmare would never disappear.

The lounge door opened again and Vice Principal Luna along with the woman in the business suit from before entered the room. The woman, apparently another Equestrian, strode over to Twilight and Sunset and Starlight and practically towered over them with a crossing of her arms and the hardened scowl on her face.

Luna, meanwhile, approached Celestia. “They’ll be alright,” she said. “We got them to the infirmary okay. They’ll be unconscious for a few, but they should come around soon enough.”

The knot in Celestia’s chest loosened up and she breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear that.”

Twilight, who had stopped crying by this point, glanced up. She met her eyes and some bit of her tear-soaked frown loosened up.

“Yes,” said the woman in the business suit. “That is very fortunate.” Her glare on Twilight intensified. “For you.”

Twilight shuddered. “Crystal Faire?” she croaked.

“What were you thinking!?” Crystal Faire barked. “I can only wonder what might have happened if Starlight had not come to get me and we had not arrived when we did!”

Starlight frowned, nodded solemnly, and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Do you even comprehend what the consequences would have been had you actually tried to drag this one,” Crystal said, jabbing a finger at Wallflower, “to Tartarus? Can you imagine the scandal you would have brought upon everyone, both sides of the mirror? Could you even begin to fathom how everything would have unravelled around you because of your foolhardy moment of weakness?”

For a moment, Twilight locked up. All eyes turned to her, waiting to see how she might respond.

Eventually, she frowned. “B-but… Wallflower… she…”

“I don’t care what Wallflower Blush did. I am talking about you, and what you tried to do.” Crystal bent down so that she was just above Twilight’s height. “In what timeline does any of this make what you just tried to do okay?”

Starlight shuddered. Tentatively, she looked at Twilight. “Gosh, Twilight. She might have a point…”

Twilight’s expression hardened. “S-Starlight! Don’t you… understand what she did?”

“Well, yeah!” Starlight exclaimed. “But I don’t think I could go and do that! Buck’s sake, Twilight, you taught me once how bad an idea that is. Don’t get me wrong…” She looked at Wallflower and narrowed her eyes. “I’d really like it if she ended up rotting in Tartarus for all eternity for what she did.”

Wallflower’s pale face paled even more as she met Starlight’s piercing glare.

“Starlight!” Crystal barked.

As all eyes fell on her now, Starlight threw her hands into the air. “What? I’m just saying I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it if she did end up getting locked up down there, not that I’d actually do it myself.”

“We are better than this. Why, Starlight, you should not forget the crimes you yourself committed… But you are still here. Think of the changelings. Think of Discord.”

Starlight deflated. “W-well…”

“So you think that Wallflower’s punishment should be greater than the slap on the wrist for invasion, mass enslavement, wonton reality warping, or malevolently charged alterings of timestreams?”

“Wallflower destroyed Sunset Shimmer,” Twilight coldly croaked.

After a moment’s pause, Crystal nodded. “And?”

“And so she deserves to get—” Twilight scowled. “What do you mean ‘And?’”

“And. Think for a second. Tirek and Sombra and Chrysalis, Twilight. Discord… Starlight, Sunset.” Crystal motioned to Wallflower. “Common thug compared to supervillain. Wallflower is nothing. She is hardly worthy of note.”

Wallflower made a squeaking sound. Celestia couldn’t help but take a few steps forward, unconsciously placing herself as close to being between Wallflower and Crystal as she could get.

“That is an objective fact,” Crystal concluded. “What Wallflower Blush did is inconsequential and insignificant.”

Twilight sprang up, thrusting herself into Crystal’s face. “Not to me, it isn’t!”

The force with which Twilight spoke caused Crystal to recoil. Hushed gasps escaped Starlight and Celestia. Luna straightened up, now glaring at Twilight. And Wallflower shifted in her seat with widened eyes.

Twilight glared holes through Crystal, her red, wettened face accenting her bloodshot eyes, but it was her firm frown that bordered on a defiant snarl that solidified it.

Crystal shook her head with disbelief. “What…?” she hissed.

“Crystal,” Starlight tried, looking up.

Crystal blinked for a few moments, chancing a glance at Starlight for a moment before she met Twilight’s gaze again. Eventually, she stood up and put her hands on her hips.

“I hate to barge in,” Luna said, “but I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t use such… uh, disparaging language.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes.”

Crystal frowned and eventually sighed. “I am sure that you would, yes.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes. Her hands balled into loose fists.

“The fact of the matter is, Twilight…” Crystal continued, “this is not becoming of you. What you just tried cannot be condoned. And I hope you realize that had you gotten further than you had… it would have been my job to fix it.”

Twilight shuddered. Starlight frowned.

“I don’t know,” Sunset began. “This sounds like something that would be up to Princess Celestia.”

“Trust me, Sunset. These scenarios are precisely within my purview.”

Sunset paused. “You’re a clerk at Ponyville City Hall.”

“At the moment, yes.” Crystal turned. “Perhaps you will recall me speaking of experience with other realities. I typically embark on grander escapades and solve problems all over. Clerking it at City Hall is merely... what I do in my downtime. It may do you well to think of me as a Daring Do type.”

“Daring Do?” Luna asked. “You mean, the adventurer from the movies?”

Crystal opened her mouth to say something but then paused. “Ah… yes. That. Of course. The lore over here is different.” She shook her head. “If that is how you would like to think of it, then by all means.”

Silence fell over the room. While Starlight returned her attention to Twilight, and Twilight spent a few moments trying to compose herself, all other eyes stared Crystal down.

Celestia pondered Crystal’s presence for a moment and then looked down. “Princess Twilight…” she began.

Twilight swallowed. “I… Sunset, can you help me up?”

Sunset nodded and (along with Starlight who lay a guiding hand on Twilight’s shoulder) lifted Twilight to her feet. Twilight stood there for a moment, only moving to wipe her wet face one more time. And Starlight, now on her feet and able to see across the table again, glared at Wallflower.

“Apologies, but you aren’t going to blow up again, yes?” Luna asked.

Twilight shook her head and sighed. “No. No. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Twilight paused. “Yes.”

Celestia carefully watched Twilight’s face for any hint of insincerity, but she found nothing behind the exhausted frown.

Sunset similarly watched and arrived at the same conclusion. She then looked around and spotted Wallflower again. Her expression didn’t change for a moment. “So… anyway, what’s going to happen to Wallflower now?”

Celestia exchanged glances with Luna and hummed thoughtfully. “We still need to decide that, don’t we?”

“Hmmm. Yes,” Luna replied. “We do. That’s where we were trying to get to before…”

“I see.” Crystal pulled out a few chairs and motioned for Sunset, Starlight, and Twilight to take seats. “Why don’t you all sit down, then? Let’s discuss. How far along in that conversation did you make it?”

As Starlight took a seat and Sunset helped Twilight into a seat before sitting herself, Luna rounded the opposite side of the table to rejoin her sister. There, she too found a seat.

Celestia remained standing but nonetheless steadied herself on the back of her own chair. “If you’re asking, we more or less determined that there is no legal precedent for any of this. So… it’s up to us to choose.”

“Excellent.” Crystal adjusted her tie. “If that is the case, I have a solution to suggest to you which I think you will find... highly appropriate. Perfect, perhaps.”

Celestia tightened her grip on the back of the chair and leaned forward expectantly. “And what might that be?”

Crystal smirked. She then turned her gaze. “Wallflower Blush,” she said. “It is… understood that you have spent a great deal of time keeping yourself out of everyone else’s eyes. You have taken great strides to remain invisible; ironic, given your desire to be noticed. You have harbored a fear of what your peers would think of you if they knew of your existence. To that end, you used the Memory Stone to continually wipe memories… and thus fly under the radar.”

Wallflower shrunk in her seat, plastering her eyes to the table’s edge directly in front of her.

Crystal paced around the outside of the table. “Well, safe to say, everyone knows about your existence now. And I must imagine that they have all formed the very opinions about you that you have feared all this time. I can only speculate as to if there is anyone else here that has… anything positive to say about you.”

She arrived beside Wallflower’s chair and stood right behind her. After a thoughtful pause, she chuckled. “It is most certainly true that we could find some sort of dark and devious punishment for you. But it is as you have just heard; there have been entities whose crimes far outclass yours, and they got off with a slap on the wrist. So, then, perhaps, we should follow precedent and, indeed… let you off with a slap on the wrist.”

Everyone in the room perked up at that. The color drained from Twilight’s face and she stared holes at Crystal.

Luna frowned. “How is that…?”

Crystal held up a hand, snapping her fingers before holding up her index in a ‘wait’ gesture. “That means… that you will return to your life here at this school… where, without a doubt, you will not be so invisible anymore. You will be... subject to the scrutiny and judgment of your classmates,” she said as she finally placed both her hands on Wallflower’s shoulders, prompting Wallflower to yelp and jump in her seat. There, Crystal leaned down so that she hovered right next to Wallflower’s ear. “You will finally face the music you have endeavored for so long to avoid. I can only imagine how they will treat you, now and forever. Some may… perhaps… go out of their way to show you how they feel.”

Celestia walked around the side of the table so that she could somewhat face Wallflower and Crystal and gauge their reactions. Crystal’s face, bar the scar, appeared almost featureless save for the faintest hint of a smug smile. Wallflower, meanwhile, sat so completely straight and so completely still. Her eyes looked so far forward that Celestia knew she was looking at nothing at all but the possibilities lay bare before her.

“Yes, Wallflower Blush,” Crystal said. “You shall be perfectly visible now. And there will be nothing you can do to erase it.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and balled her fists. She glared at Wallflower, only looking up to scan everyone else’s faces and offer a nod.

Wallflower outright shuddered in her seat and her eyes fell again. Her face had grown wet, and some idle tears had formed in her eyes which had yet to fall.

Luna cleared her throat and stumbled forward. “I can see the logic in your suggestion, Miss Faire. But I must ask… what about in the meantime? What is she to do when she is not at school?”

At that, Crystal paused. Her eyes flicked for a moment as she thought before she eventually released Wallflower and stood up. “What is her living situation?” she asked without the slightest attempt to make eye contact.

“She lives alone,” Luna tremulously replied. “She lives in a house about a couple of miles from the school.”

“Is that so?” Crystal looked back down. “Wallflower?”

After a moment’s pause, Wallflower meekly nodded.

A larger grin flashed across Crystal’s face. She closed her eyes and thought. “I suppose, then, you may resume your normal life outside of school.” She chuckled. “Well, whatever that may have consisted of. I see no reason to put you on a leash outside of school time. In fact… in the interest of the ongoing secrecy around here… it would be best to not bring any sort of leash into being. So, in a sense, the essence of the punishment is very little. All you have to do, Wallflower, is attend school each day. Everything else is discretionary.”

Crystal lay a hand on the back of Wallflower’s chair. She then gave it a kick while pushing on it, turning Wallflower and her chair away from the table. Wallflower screamed and recoiled into the table that was now to her side which kept her from falling out of her chair. Crystal’s other hand landed on the table, effectively blocking Wallflower off.

“But remember this. If you do not do as instructed… if you fail to show up… you run away,” she said with a certain sharpness in her voice, “know that I have dealt with the likes of you many a time and that I am an extraordinarily resourceful mare. Thus, you should maintain absolute confidence that I will find you.”

Celestia’s heart thumped in her chest and she couldn’t but shudder. Crystal’s tone of voice was approaching the venomous tones Princess Twilight had spoken in right before the explosion. She could feel Crystal’s razor-sharp glare from where she stood, saying nothing of the girl in the chair getting the full blast.

“And when that happens… I will then make it my mission to make sure Twilight can do as she desires with you without consequence. And I think you already have an idea of what she would like to do with you. I could personally do much worse to you, if need be, but I’m sure you’d find that hard to believe after she is finished.”

Crystal leaned forward. “Do you understand?”

Wallflower sniffled and kept her eyes forward. She did not respond.

Crystal pursed her lips and cupped Wallflower’s chin with her hands. “Look at me,” she hissed, drawing so near to Wallflower that she was just short of nose to nose. “Are we clear?”

Tears streaked from each of Wallflower’s eyes as she met Crystal’s gaze. And, finally, she sobbed and nodded. “C-Crystal…”

An ugly silence hung throughout the room. All eyes fell onto Wallflower.

At that, Crystal smiled again and said, with an otherworldly tremor, “Good.”

* * *

Twilight “Sci-Twi” Sparkle—she was sure that was who she was—woke up in a daze. She shook that out of her and sat up, trying to adjust herself and register her surroundings.

She found herself on a rolled-out cot on the floor. The nurse’s office had sterile walls and simple decorations, and only a couple of beds. She poked her head up to see Pinkie Pie sitting up in an equal daze on one of them and Fluttershy still passed out on the other. Rarity sat messaging her temples on a cot across from her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash sat on the edge of Pinkie Pie’s bed.

Sunset sat on a chair in the one spot of the room still unoccupied. She glanced up to see Sci-Twi and then gave a relieved sigh.

“Sunset?” Sci-Twi wheezed.

“I’m here. You’re okay.” Sunset paused. “Right?”

Sci-Twi felt at herself. Her head spun, and her neck felt tender and singed, but everything else gave no complaint. “I… think…? Is everyone else okay?”

Applejack motioned over to Fluttershy. “She ain’t woken up yet, but we all came to around the same time. She probably ain’t much longer.”

“But we’re okay?”

“Well, I feel like I’ve been hit by the broad side of the barn, but… I’m okay. I reckon we’re all okay.”

“Our geodes certainly aren’t, though,” Rarity added.

Twilight gasped and felt at her neck. There was no geode there. And then she remembered it shattering. “Oh. Oh my gosh! You’re right! That… happened!” She clutched her head. “So that wasn’t my imagination…”

“I’m sorry. I had no idea that was going to happen,” Sunset said.

“Goodness,” Rarity said, holding her head in her hands. “I don’t think any of us did.”

“Yeah. That was pretty wild!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “I hated it.”

A few others nodded in agreement.

“Damn that Wallflower,” Applejack hissed. But then she shook her head and sighed. “But yeah, I dunno if I like what happened there either.”

At that, Fluttershy groaned and rolled over in her bed. The six of them turned and watched Fluttershy groggily sit up and clutched her head. “Oh… What… happened?”

Applejack rubbed Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Hey now. How are you feelin’?”

Fluttershy wiped her face and still wore a grimace afterward. “Awful.”

“Yeah. Join the club,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“I probably should have been more careful with Twilight,” Sunset said. She crossed her arms. “She wasn’t in a good way ever since this all started. She was probably holding that in for… who knows how long?”

“Well,” Sci-Twi said, “if she is anything like me, and she is, she would have been feeling pretty stressed by all of this. She… probably didn’t get much sleep. Actually, she probably refused to sleep.”

Sunset pointed. “Got that in one.”

Sci-Twi giggled. “I thought so. That said…” She momentarily took her glasses off and wiped them on her shirt. As her frown deepened, her glasses came to rest in the creases. “I don’t think I would have done that.”

Rainbow Dash rested her hands on her head and nodded. “Yeah. I really didn’t know she had that in her.”

“Yeah. Who’da thunk, right?” Applejack agreed.

“Well…” Rarity tremulously began as she folded her hands together, thinking for several moments, “I must confess… I am shocked… and flabbergasted, like the rest of you. But surprised? I am not.”

At that, everyone in the room blinked and looked up at Rarity. Sunset half-expected someone else to question what Rarity was saying, but then she saw how comprehensive frowns appeared on their faces. They understood what Rarity had said.

“Uh,” Sunset hazarded, “why are you not surprised?”

And now they all looked at her. Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak but then glanced at Rarity for guidance.

Rarity donned a sad smile and shook her head. “I suppose it’s old news now. Nothing you need to concern yourself with, darling.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Sunset sat there, gauging their responses, unsure if she believed them.

* * *

Sunset silently listened as the group of boys sitting at the table with her—although, in reality, she was sitting at their table—spoke to her. Every face she passed over was focused on her, watching for her reactions.

The one currently speaking, Valhallen, had long, orange hair that covered his eyes; Sunset wondered how he even could see. In short order, however, he finished speaking.

And Sunset scratched her head. “And this Fall Formal is a thing that happens every year?”

“Yeah,” Valhallen replied. “You won that for three straight years.”

“And then Twilight,” Flash Sentry began before pausing, “uh, the other Twilight, she came and stole the crown.”

Sunset frowned. “I… I heard that I stole her crown or something. And that she came here to take it back and won it through the Fall Formal. Does that sound right?”

“Eh, probably,” Flash Sentry replied with a shrug. “And then you stole it again, and turned into a she-demon. Twilight and the others defeated you…”

Another of the boys, Thunderbass, who had blue skin and blue hair, leaned forward. “After that, you turned out pretty okay.”

At that point, Sunset folded her hands together and nodded. “Okay, okay,” she vacantly said. She took a few moments to consider what she had heard. She sat there in silence, nodding all the while. There were parts that she wanted to know more about. There were the parts of the narrative that had evidently never gone away. “So, I was wondering… could you tell me about who I was, you know, before the Fall Formal?”

At that, the boys at the table frowned and exchanged glances. Some unspoken conversation passed between them as evidenced by the occasional stealing of glances toward her.

Sunset sighed and waved for their attention. “Okay, listen. I know about me being a real bitch back then. I know that everyone hated me. Actually,” she said as she pointed at Flash, “I’m still not convinced on why you’d date me.”

Flash Sentry chuckled. “That’s complicated.”

Sunset nodded. “Anyway, I guess, I just want to get a sense of what made me so bad.” She sat up straight. “I want to really understand why Wallflower felt like she had to do what she did to me.”

At that, their expressions hardened, and they shared a round of glares.

“Wallflower,” Valhallen hissed.

Sunset’s expression twitched as she considered the shift in tone. She pocketed the thought for later. “I heard that I was pretty bad. What was I like?”

The boys looked between each other and shared shrugs.

“Uh, well, you had ways of ruining people that disobeyed you. You pretty much ran this school with an iron fist,” Valhallen said.

“Pretty sure you had Snips and Snails doing most of the dirty work?” Thunderbass said.

“Yeah,” Valhallen agreed.

“Who?” Sunset asked.

Thunderbass frowned. “Snips and Snails. They’re lowerclassmen. Uh, I think a few of us called them ‘The Dumb Cronies.’”

A few others at the table chuckled.

Sunset shrugged.

“Well, we all know they couldn’t really do anything on their own. You were the brains running the show, you know,” Flash Sentry said.

Sunset leaned forward. “And I ruined people?”

Flash nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much the whole school fragmented because of you. I think a couple girls transferred out just because of you.”

“I also remember what happened to Rarity at the Spring Fling,” Valhallen added.

Sunset shuddered. “I see.”

Thunderbass placed a hand on his knee as he leaned forward. “Anyone else remember what happened with Gardenia Glow? She graduated recently?”

Flash’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah…” He turned back to Sunset. “Uh… you did kinda out her from the closet.”

Sunset cringed. “Wow… really?”

Flash nodded. “Yeah. That was a big one. But… yeah, you were pretty bad.”

“You always managed to keep it real with the teachers, though,” Valhallen said. “Everyone had a hard time pegging you for the things you did. Honestly, sometimes, we just weren’t sure.”

“But you kind of still knew it was me.”

Valhallen shrugged. “Gut feelings, and whatever.”

At that, Flash scooted closer to her and even laid a hand on her shoulder. “But… after everything you happened, you really changed. You became a better person. Much better.” He shrugged. “Probably even the best of us.”

Sunset chuckled. “Because Princess Twilight gave me a second chance, huh?”

“Yeah… more or less. Honestly… Pretty sure no one else was on board with all of that. I think it was a pretty good while before anyone warmed up to you.”

“Battle of the Bands definitely helped with that,” Thunderbass added.

Valhallen did a flipping motion with his hands. “There were a couple of rough spots here and there after that. But you pulled through.”

Thunderbass shook his head. “Real talk, I… personally didn’t think you deserved a second chance. I kind of know a little better now, though.”

“Yeah,” Valhallen agreed. “You sure as hell made that second chance count.”

Flash nodded and turned to them. “Kind of makes me wonder… maybe second chances aren’t so bad.”

At that, Valhallen and Thunderbass nodded and hummed in agreement.

Sunset placed a hand on her chin and scratched it. Second chances… huh? I… wonder...

* * *

Sunset opened the fridge, reached inside, and grabbed a red delicious apple. She would have to thank Applejack for that later. She shut the fridge, gave the apple a quick wash in the sink, and then wiped it with a paper towel. Having to rip one off the roll still felt really weird, but that was how this world worked, after all. She threw that away and then took a bite.

She could taste the sweet juices within which mixed well with the wet skin. Sunset moaned with delight.

She made her way back into the living room with an apple in hand and sat on the couch. She sat there for a moment as she continued chewing and then took another bite and chewed that as well. She watched the ceiling for nothing in particular and turned her brain off, even just for a moment.

It felt nice, at least.

Ray crawled onto her lap and curled up there. Sunset smiled and stroked him with her free hand; he arched into her, smiling with delight.

Finally, she set the apple onto the coffee table and picked up the diary. She picked her legs up and rested her feet on the edge of the table; her legs now made a good spot for the diary to sit without crushing Ray underneath.

She flipped through a few pages to the one she had left off on. By her calculations and based on testimony, she was now within a couple of months of the present. The diary entries were something on the order of once a week; that was fine, at any rate. When especially harrowing things happened, however, the entries had been denser in time—the Battle of the Bands and the sections about Camp Everfree took up a bit of space. Most everything else described rather mundane things and had been briefer.

But there had been an odd pattern. Sunset thought back to some of the lines she had read.

“What would Princess Twilight do if she were here?”

“I thought about writing to Princess Twilight about it. But then I thought about it, and she’s already got so much on her plate. I don’t know how I’d feel about her dropping everything to come over here—because I know she would.”

“Ha. I bet if Princess Twilight was here, she would have said the same thing I did!”

Sunset frowned. Why did I bring her up in my diary entries so much? She wasn’t involved in any of those things. That’s kind of weird.

She shook her head and began reading.

Dear Diary,

Twilight is thinking about building a selfie drone. We talked about it over lunch. She knows how she could do it; she says she can feed it a bunch of pictures she thinks are good to help it learn what the optimal camera angle should be. It would be straight up building an AI from there.

If she puts that into a drone, I think it could work. I know it would work. Twilight’s smart like that. Well, she’s pretty booksmart. She’s more booksmart than I am, anyway.

She did beat me in a one versus one during the academic decathlon, anyways. Gosh, how did I get that angle wrong?

It’s strange. I can’t help but wonder if Princess Twilight could also succeed at building a selfie drone. She doesn’t know too much about this world’s technology. But if the Twilights are alike, I have no doubt she could do it.

Yours,
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset frowned. Huh. I guess that was a thing that happened, huh? They told me something about that drone, didn’t they? She got it working… The fingers holding the book drummed against the edges. But here I mention Princess Twilight again. I mean, sure, I guess I was making a comparison between counterparts. But… why? Why would I feel the need to include her in on this?

She flipped over to another page.

Dear Diary,

Yearbook superlative voting is next week. We have the obvious ones like most likely to succeed, best smile, cutest couple…

Pinkie Pie would be a shoo-in for class clown. I put in most likely to invent cold fusion in there for Twilight, too. But I’m really hoping we all win best friends together. If we win that, those categories will have to go to other people, since we want to spread the superlatives around.

Gosh, I know Princess Twilight would be thrilled to hear if we won that one. She was the one that set me on this path to friendship after all. I got that second chance because of her. She gave me to them, and them to me. It would be pretty vindicating to win that one. And she’d be proud.

Even now, I can’t help but remember how I got here. I can’t help but remember all the ups and downs, and the journey that I’ve been on. With this yearbook, we’ll be able to see it all.

Yours,
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset sat further into the couch and let her eyes drift upward again. There it is again. I guess the old me had some sort of fixation on her. I can’t… put my hoof on it.

She sighed. She seems to care about me quite a bit. I mean, everyone else I’ve met cared about me and who I was. I was probably important to all of them in my past life. She paused. But Princess Twilight has been really… especially caring. She put her entire life on hold to try and… get my memories back.

Sunset thought back to the first night when Twilight had stayed over. She thought about how she had climbed the stairs and gone to bed, while Twilight had stayed downstairs to sleep on the couch.

She broke from her thoughts to chuckle. A princess sleeping on a couch. That was a thought. Princess Celestia would surely never be caught doing something like that. She wondered if Princess Celestia had ever even considered that possibility.

Princess Twilight had slept on that couch, but not before she had read through Sunset’s diary.

Anything to help understand that past, Sunset reasoned.

But Twilight had shed tears. She had shed tears over this diary.

Gosh, I let her read through all of this. Sunset frowned. Did she figure something out about me?

She looked down at the pages. She seems really smart. She’d probably pick up on me mentioning her so much. She would probably connect some dots.

I’m not entirely sure what this all means yet.

Sunset snorted and turned to the next page.

Dear Diary,

I’m losing my mind here! I can write a song. I’ve written songs. But I can’t seem to write this one for some reason, and I am really frustrated.

My drawer is practically overflowing with notes now. I probably should throw some of that stuff out. I don’t know. Maybe I wrote something down that comes a little close to what I want to have.

I think I know what the problem is. I want to get the songs I’ve written right, yes, but this one has to be perfect. I have to get this even more right than anything else I’ve written so far. And sure, I’ve been wrong before. I’ve written a couple songs that weren’t the best. No big deal. This one… I can’t afford to get this one wrong.

I need to be able to tell Princess Twilight how I feel about her with this. I can’t blow this.

Yours,
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset blinked. She blinked again. She read the last line over again. She read the paragraph preceding it again. She considered them together and what they said.

Oh no.

A shiver ran up her spine as she considered what it really said. It was not said outright, but the implication was there. She knew none of the words in the song. Any notion of that had vanished days ago. But, nonetheless, she knew who it was about, and what, and why.

Twilight had cried. Twilight had cried over what was written in this diary.

Twilight, who had been the most caring, most concerned, most desperate to help her, had probably cried over this page.

Oh no.

Sunset flipped to the next page and found it empty. This, then, was the last entry. She closed the diary, set it to the side, and stood up, careful to scoop up Ray in the process. She then ambled over to the alcove beneath her bed where her desk and bookshelves were. She set Ray onto the desk itself—he scampered off her hand and then looked up at her quizzically.

After a moment idly standing there, Sunset found the desk drawers. Those had to be it, after all. She pulled it open.

Dozens of crumpled balls of paper filled the desk drawer, with some even popping out and falling onto the floor. Sunset duly noted those and then grabbed a few, uncrumpling them as best as she could. She read one of them.

You have that certain sparkle that always has my eye.
I can’t look away from you no matter what I try.
You’re what I’ve wanted to be along with so much more.
That’s why I feel this way now like I have not before.

Another line started but vanished a few words in. The rest of the small piece of paper lay barren. Sunset thought about the words and how deliberately chosen they seemed. It more than hinted at something, for certain.

Sunset opened another piece and read it over. This one contained several lines, although most of them had been crossed out. The only legible line lay at the bottom.

Everything I am today, I owe to you.
You have given me a heart, now I am true.
You taught me about friendship, now it’s my core.
But I say to you, of you, I feel much more.

Sunset swallowed. This came so close to outright saying it.

Everything feels like it’s just too much.
But you have to let it in, even if it’s tough.
Know it gets better, know it gets better.
We push through the weather, together.

Sunset tilted her head. This one had to be another song entirely, surely. She chuckled and let that fall to the floor as well before uncrumpling another one. This one contained the first one she had read only with slight variation, and she chucked that one as well. She uncrumpled another.

You have a very special place in that
lonely little heart of mine that you saved.
You are she who could be my better half
and I hope I could somehow be yours too.
I want to keep you and the thought of you
and never want to forget about you.
If I did then I would do everything
to meet you for the first time once again.

Sunset froze.

Her facilities went practically blank.

All she could do was stare at the words.

This was it. It was there. It was so obviously, painfully plain. It somehow landed close to home, even.

This was how she had felt once. This had been the idea her past self had been chasing and grasping for and struggling to write a song for and find fruition in.

A heaviness appeared in her eyes and her hands trembled as she read the paper once more. She eventually let it fall to the ground and simply sat there.

The entirety of her interactions with Twilight Sparkle over the past few days finally snapped into place in this new focus. Every little compliment, every little bit of encouragement that everything would be okay, every little way Twilight turned to her. And, with that, the way Twilight fiercely and almost violently stood for her, the way Twilight had worked herself to the bone, putting her own life on hold just to help her, and the way Twilight had despaired throughout it all and as a result of it all.

This was what she had lost.

I… loved her once… and she loved me too...

Sunset swallowed as another thought occurred to her. She had indeed forgotten. And they had indeed met each other for the first time once again.

There had been no butterflies. There had been no enchantment. She had not been enraptured by beauty. She had not been drawn to virtue. They had met each other for the first time once again—as strangers, as separates.

Finally, the last bits clicked into place. This was the Memory Stone’s last taunt.

Twilight loves me… she still does…

But I… I don’t... Not anymore.

8 - The Haze That Follows

Sunset Shimmer lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. A string of lights wrapped around the railing of the balcony her bed rested on along with the stairs leading up to it gave the room just enough glow for her to see. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since night had come. She wasn’t sure how long she had been lying there.

She could have very well tried to fall asleep. She was sure it would come eventually. For now, however, the drive to sleep was not there.

Thoughts swam through her head. Thoughts she wasn’t ready to stop thinking about just yet.

There was the process of rediscovering the past, sure. That would take time, but she learned more every day. There was the process of catching up with everything academic she had missed. That was a little more complicated; she wondered if this would hurt her performance so much that they would have to hold her back a grade.

Did that even matter? What meaning did an education over here even have, anyway? She didn’t even know what doors it would open anymore; she didn’t even know what doors there were, period.

Sunset sighed. That was long-term. And besides, there was a good reason she had been able to become Princess Celestia’s protege once; with that, and with all the support she apparently had over here, she could make it work. She had before.

There were the real wounds from all of this to think about.

Sunset had heard of broken hearts before, but she had never felt what that was like. As far as her still-remaining memories gave her, she hadn’t even loved somepony like she had loved Twilight in another life, or like Twilight probably loved her. She hadn’t loved, much less had a heart broken.

Twilight was in pain, sure. That pain would probably never go away. At least, that was if the stories about broken hearts were true.

Sunset rolled over. If her past self had gone through this same thing, would she have been broken-hearted like Twilight was now?

There was only one way to heal Twilight’s broken heart, and that was to find love and return it to her.

Sunset sighed. That would be lying. Lying to someone. Herself. Or Twilight.

And then there was Wallflower Blush. Wallflower, who had been forever invisible and would now be among the most visible to everyone. She would now be visible to everyone for the one thing, the one terrible and awful thing she had done.

What was there to expect? How would they receive her? Certainly not like Twilight had.

Sunset shuddered. Hopefully not.

There had been the sharp and spiteful way her friends had looked at her. Even the principal and vice principal, while carrying themselves like the adults they were, hadn’t looked so kindly at her. It was likely that the rest of the school would follow the same pattern.

Wallflower was a nothing, undeserving of a second chance.

Sunset sighed through her nose; she too had apparently been in that exact spot. And yet here she was having had a second chance.

Sunset lay there in her bed, turning the thoughts in her head without actually taking them anywhere.

* * *

Wallflower Blush tried to step onto the curb and found, to some mixture of amazement, relief, and terror, that she could not. She shuddered in her sneakers as she gazed up the front lawn of Canterlot High School.

A few other classmates now walked up the lawn, thankfully heedless of her existence for now. But it was entirely possible that they would know soon enough.

Stepping forward meant facing a constant but somewhat-known judgment.

Stepping backward meant facing an unknown but potentially horrific judgment.

“Well?” said a voice from beside her. Wallflower whirled to see Vice Principal Luna towering over her with her arms crossed. “Go on.”

Wallflower shuddered again and turned her eyes back toward the school. Luna’s piercing gaze finally prompted her to take that step onto the curb. And then she took another followed by several more.

Eventually, Wallflower climbed the front steps and made her way through the glass doors leading into the school.

Several more students loitered about the school’s two-story foyer. Most were engaged in conversations about various topics, none of which seemed out of the norm, while others walked through on their way to their first-period classes. She had seen all this idleness before.

She then spotted a couple of girls, Lyra and Bon Bon, who chatted near the trophy case, pausing to look at her. Their eyes narrowed and their conversation descended into sharp whispers.

She shuddered and dipped into the hall. She found the same idle chatter and traffic in the hallways. She was prepared to let out a sigh of relief when she spotted another small group notice her and similarly turn cross. She sped up, intent to get where she was going as soon as possible.

Wallflower reached her locker and left her backpack inside, taking only the books she needed for her first class. She shut her locker, choosing not to linger when she spotted some more glares. And now at least one other person knew where she hung her coat.

She decided against outright rushing through the halls, as that would draw attention, so she settled for a brisk walk. It would get her there faster, at least. The halls had already started to thin out in anticipation of an imminent bell, so she received no more hardened or accusatory looks at least.

She eventually made it to Miss Harshwhinny’s classroom. She shuffled along the wall and made her way to her desk in the back corner of the room next to the window. Wallflower set her books down and slotted herself into her seat.

A few moments later, the bell rang. Miss Harshwhinny herself, dressed in her usual business attire, snorted and pulled the door shut.

“Good morning class,” Miss Harshwhinny said as she walked back center. “Before we get started this morning, there has been a change to the assigned seats. I will briefly summarize.” She approached the middle row and swept a line. “You two will shift over by one seat this way,” she said. She then walked to the end. “And this column, you will all move one seat back.”

Wallflower looked. Miss Harshwhinny was cycling the seats by a space. But there was nowhere for her to go.

“Wallflower Blush,” Miss Harshwhinny said in a stern tone—her tone was always stern, but this was especially so, even by her standards. She pointed to what would be the vacant seat at the front. “How nice of you to finally join us. You will be front and center from now on.”

Without looking—she looked anyway—Wallflower could tell that all eyes in the room were focused on her, glaring and staring and trying to pierce her. Their glares intensified as she stood up and shuffled to the front of the room, clutching her books tight against her chest as she stared directly forward as to not meet any of their eyes.

By the time she got up there, all the others had moved to their new seats, leaving her space to sit down. Even after she did, she could feel their eyes on the back of her head. She did not—she could not even turn to see them back, but they could see her; every moment of her.

She looked up. Miss Harshwhinny was staring down her nose at her. Her brow was always furrowed, but the glare in her eyes looked almost adversarial. Wallflower couldn’t help but wilt under her gaze.

“Good. Now, let’s begin. We will pick up where we left off,” Miss Harshwhinny began. She lingered before finally turning to the board to begin her lecture.

And just like that, Wallflower’s mind raced with predictions of what the rest of the day—no, the rest of her life, her miserable, possibly short life had in store.

* * *

Ponyville’s City Hall, with its yellow siding and red-bricked roof, looked like a carousel in shape. A spacious green surrounded it, broken only by a circular fountain with a statue of a mare in its center as well as the occasional busybodies and pedestrians.

Starlight Glimmer and Moondancer trotted inside. A spacious interior greeted them. Several balconies clung to the perimeter of the tall hall, while the floor space offered doorways to a few adjacent rooms. The two meandered toward one of the doors and stepped through there. They entered a small office space with a few desks, all of which were presently unoccupied, and a counter at which a lone mare sat.

That mare looked up. “Starlight Glimmer, Moondancer, good morning.”

“Crystal Faire,” Starlight replied. She placed a small set of papers on the desk. “I have Princess Twilight’s report on the state of readiness for Ponyville and the surrounding areas for the quarter.”

“Very well,” Crystal replied. She scanned the documents and then nodded. “This report is in-form and authentic. Just as I would expect. Thank you.” She grabbed a folder and slotted the documents into them. “You may inform her that it will be presented at the next meeting.”

Starlight glanced around, double-checking that it was just the three of them in the room, and then she approached the counter. “Crystal, we need to talk.”

Crystal slotted the folder into an organizer on a desk behind her and then stood there with her rear to them. She sighed through her nose. “I know.”

“You’ve been pretty unfair to Twilight, Crystal,” Starlight said.

“Yeah,” Moondancer agreed, looking at Starlight for approval.

After another moment, Crystal turned and returned to her seat. “Well, I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been giving her reactions to all of this some thought. It is… curious to me. In some ways confounding.”

“Confounding?” Moondancer asked. “What do you mean by that?”

“Confounding, yes. I’ve seen plenty worse out there than what has happened to Sunset. In fact, I do believe there are worse things happening right this second than what happened to Sunset. That is just reality. I would have expected someone as experienced as Twilight to be privy to some of those sorts of things.”

“But this is different, Crystal,” Starlight said. “This is close to home. This is somepony close to us.”

Crystal placed her forelegs on the counter. “Well… I suppose that is true. I cannot deny that. But it is difficult for me to relate. I am not one to be in that frame of mind. My thoughts are always on the big picture. The intricacies and nuances of individual ponies, including my own, are not something that I factor in, more often than not.”

“I mean...” Starlight threw her hooves in the air. “You know what? You’re right. You’re absolutely right. In the grand scheme of things, this really doesn’t matter. I guess Equestria isn’t going to fall into ruin because of this. This isn’t putting anypony in danger or anything.”

Starlight then pointed in the direction of the castle despite it not being visible. “But right now, this whole thing means the entire bucking world to Twilight. Come on, Crystal. In some roundabout way, she’s—”

“I know. I know.” Crystal sighed, cutting Starlight off as she rested her head on one of her hooves. “I’m just not sure why,” she muttered.

Moondancer frowned and finally propped her forelegs on the counter, bringing herself closer to Crystal’s height. “She’s in love. Can’t you see that?”

Crystal blinked. Crystal looked up. “What?”

“Twilight’s in love with Sunset. At least, I’m pretty sure she is...” She paused as she stole a glance at Starlight. “Well, I mean, I’ve seen these sorts of things in all the books that I’ve read. I’m not super familiar with what love feels like or anything.”

Starlight shrugged. “No. She’s right. Twilight’s in love.”

Moondancer turned. “Haven’t you ever been in love before?”

Starlight furrowed her brow as she read Crystal’s face for a response.

“I… cannot say that I have,” Crystal solemnly replied.

“Really? Never?” Moondancer asked.

“Not in the way that you are describing. And I truly doubt I will ever be so fortunate.”

“Don’t say that.” Moondancer shook her head. “I would have to imagine there is somepony out there for you.”

“No. There is not.” Crystal’s features fell as she averted her gaze. “I do think that it would be extraordinarily difficult for anypony to love somepony like me. You might perchance agree with that. And because of the nature surrounding my true job, I cannot imagine it would be easy for me to find somepony to love back.”

Moondancer wilted. “Well… that’s…”

“As it stands, there are very few ponies to whom I hold any significant sense of attachment towards, and just as few I would consider calling ‘significant’ in and of themselves.”

Starlight joined Moondancer leaning over the counter. “Okay. What about you and your mother, Crystal?”

Crystal paused. “What about her?”

Starlight threw a hoof into the air again. “You didn’t feel anything for her? She died in your forelegs, Crystal. Come on!”

Crystal shrugged. “Well…”

Moondancer blinked and then shook her head. “Wait. Wait wait wait. Hold on. What!?” As the other two looked at her, she stared at both of them. “What is all this?”

Starlight chuckled. “Oh. Right. You weren’t there.”

“What in the hay happened?” She focused on Crystal’s unusually untroubled expression and narrowed her eyes. “Did that actually happen? Are you for real?” Her voice turned sharp. “And you have no idea how Twilight feels?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Crystal snapped.

“Really? Then what was it like?” Moondancer paused.

“Conclusive. Inevitable.” Crystal narrowed her eyes. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to know what happened. That’s what.” Moondancer groaned, rolled her eyes, and turned to Starlight. “And how do you know about it?”

Starlight shrunk. “Uh… I was there. So was Twilight.”

Moondancer pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sure. So this must be that adventure I’ve heard things about. And no one will tell me about it.”

“And that is regrettable,” Crystal replied. “But I truthfully cannot say much about it without drastically altering your world view… and I do not think that now is a good time to do that.”

“I’d still like to know! I want to be able to ask!”

“You should sooner ask Starlight here about the time she dragged Twilight through time in an attempt to ruin Twilight’s friendships instead?”

Moondancer blinked. She looked over. “What?”

Starlight blushed and scratched her head. “Ah, you remember the time I said I started a cult? Well, Twilight and her friends broke that up. I got angry so I tried to go back in time and break her friendships before they started.” She flicked her right hoof a few times, as if to brush away the thought. “I was really awful back then.”

After a palpable pause, Moondancer giggled. “Wow. That’s… uh, impressive?”

“The adventure in which my path crossed with theirs was even more complicated. But those particulars will never be of any use to you, so I will spare you,” Crystal said, straightening up.

“You could tell her the important bit, at least,” Starlight suggested. “Right?”

“If I must. What is pertinent here, I suppose, is that for the longest time, I thought my mother was dead. I had long accepted that reality, Moondancer. But we did encounter her. It was a surprise, pleasant in some ways. But… I quickly realized that, due to the nature of our adventure… her death, her true death, was unavoidable.”

Starlight sighed. “Yeah…”

Moondancer frowned.

“Suffice to say, I had time to prepare. I went into that adventure thinking she was dead, and… I came out knowing she was dead. Yes, she did die in my grasp. But, again, it was inevitable... and conclusive.”

“So…” Moondancer groaned, “it didn’t hurt? Not even a little bit?”

Crystal grunted. “Well, it did hurt somewhat. But I believe I took it well.”

“I have to imagine a big reason you were able to take it so well is because Twilight was there to help you out big time,” Starlight said. “And you can’t even do the same for her in return.”

“I am not like her,” Crystal hissed. “You’re right. Twilight was very helpful. A rock, even. She is very good like that.” She pointed to herself. “I do not possess those skills. Physical support, I can handle. Emotional support, I haven’t the slightest clue.”

Starlight pursed her lips and then leaned across the counter, hovering over Crystal. “Alright, then how about this?” she said, her tone approaching a whisper. “How would you feel if one day Twilight completely forgot who you were and had no chance of remembering you? How would you feel if Twilight died?”

A long silence passed. Crystal Faire shuddered and met Starlight’s gaze. A knot formed and went up and down her throat.

Starlight hummed and drummed the countertop. “I don’t know about you, but if that happened… I would be beside myself. It would destroy me, Crystal. Do you understand?”

Moondancer sucked in a breath and stared Crystal down, reading for any small changes in her face that might indicate a response.

Crystal shrank under Starlight’s gaze. Her eyes flickered between several spots that didn’t exist. “Yes,” she eventually murmured. “I… understand. I do, completely.”

Starlight nodded. “Okay. That’s Twilight right now. She’s pretty destroyed right now. And you’ve been tone-deaf. Do you see what is wrong with that?”

After a moment, Crystal nodded. “I see.”

“Okay.”

Crystal swallowed. “Alright. Alright. I… Starlight, Moondancer, I must return to my work. I will need to think on this.”

* * *

Twilight Sparkle cantered into the library and then paused to straighten herself up and look presentable. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said.

Princess Celestia sat at one of the tables drinking from a teacup. The same table hosted a small workspace containing the remains of several small rocks of all sorts of colors.

She looked up and nodded. “It’s alright, Twilight. I realize this isn’t exactly a scheduled visit, but I found some room in my schedule for today, and there are one or two things that I wanted to talk to you about. Please, sit down.”

Twilight considered Celestia. Celestia’s expression had a certain hardness to it. The list of topics that Celestia would talk about with an expression like that, considering recent events, was short. Twilight wasn’t sure if she liked any of them. So she sighed and took a seat on the cushion opposite. “Okay. What would you like to talk about?”

Celestia’s expression remained unchanged, but she let her silence as she set the teacup onto its little plate speak for her. She folded her forehooves together. “For starters, I received a report from Crystal Faire about what you attempted in the other world a few days ago.”

Twilight shuddered. “Princess, I—”

“And I must... confess my disappointment in you, Twilight.” Celestia finally looked Twilight square in the eyes.

Twilight hung her head, anything to not meet her former mentor’s gaze. Inwardly, she wondered how nice it would be if she could turn invisible at that moment, or if one or both of them could forget all about it.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight replied. “I realize that I let my feelings get the best of me. I shouldn’t have done that. I almost caused problems for everypony.”

After a few more moments, Celestia sighed through her nose. “So long as you remember that, should a situation like that come about again.”

Twilight looked up. “You’re not mad? You’re so calm about this.”

“In a way, I do understand what prompted you to act as you did. I do not condone it, Twilight, but I do understand it. Plus…” She nodded from side to side. “I’m also aware that Crystal Faire gave you a, how should I say, a proper yelling at. So I think I can save my breath in this case. All I wanted to do was express my disappointment. Nothing more.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I must ask.” She pointed at the rock shards next to her. “Are these the fragments of those relics your friends from that world had?”

“Yes. I’m working on putting them back together using the same Relic Reconstitution spell we used on the Memory Stone. I’m hoping to have them ready soon.”

“I am glad that you are taking the time to fix these for them.”

Twilight sheepishly rubbed her leg. “Well, I was the one that broke them. I should make amends.”

“Wise choice, Twilight. Don’t keep them waiting too long.”

“I won’t.”

“Regardless, that isn’t really why I am here. Twilight, I would like your expert advice.”

Twilight let out a relieved sigh and straightened up. “Of course! What do you want me to help you with?”

“Well, let me ask you a question. Do you think I’ve been too distant from Sunset?”

Twilight frowned and leaned forward. “What do you mean by that?”

“I have been thinking about this since all of this started,” Celestia explained, pausing to sip some more of her tea. “It’s true that before all of this, Sunset and I had not spoken since she ran away. A good deal of that makes sense, as she was on the far side of the mirror portal, and that was closed for years. It was the time since we found her again and she turned over a new leaf which concerns me. I didn’t try to talk to her, and I certainly haven’t talked to her relatives for the longest time. I worry that I haven’t done enough to…”

Twilight, on hearing Celestia trail off, nodded. “I see. Well, it’s not too late to change that. Now that…”

Twilight caught herself. She replayed what she had just said in her head. Sunset, as Celestia knew her, had grown angry and run away for many years and then lived a portal away for some time after that. And then this had all happened. A soft gasp escaped her.

Celestia nodded solemnly. “Now I think you see it. That Sunset who I feel like I should have tried to reconnect with is gone, Twilight. It… it is too late.”

Twilight wobbled in her seat as the weight of it all hit her once again. Memories flooded through her and her expression turned distant and sorrowful as she reflected on all of it and on all she had experienced of Sunset. She eventually managed to croak out an “Oh.”

“I’ve been trying to unpack what our relationship was since then. I’ve told myself that, despite how easy it could have been for us to speak directly to each other, or to speak to each other through, say, you, we did not. I knew that she had been reformed, based on what you had told me. I’ve never truly stopped worrying about her, even before that.” Celestia finished her tea. “I can say that Sunset did not really try to make her feelings known to me.”

Twilight pulled herself back together and nodded. “I think she was a little bit afraid of you.”

“I suppose. I can understand that. I had no such fears.” Celestia hung her head. “I do not have such an excuse for not alleviating her fears. I could have reached out to her; I could have passed along a message that she could reach out to me. I did neither.”

Twilight scratched her head as she thought about it. “Princess, I think I understand. But, I think, you weren’t wrong for wanting to give her the space she needed, and the time to come around on her own. I don’t think you had to make the first move.” She paused as she pondered her response. “Maybe it would have been better if she had made the first move anyway.”

A relieved smile spread across Celestia’s face. “Oh. That’s good to hear. I’m glad to see you think that perhaps my choices were not so bad.”

“No. Maybe not. At least, not with her.”

“Oh?”

“But…” Twilight paused, noting a fading of Celestia’s smile, “I can’t recommend doing that all the time. You could still speak to her relatives about all of this and let them know what’s become of her. Let them know that… she’s… okay…” Her voice lost volume with each word.

Celestia blushed. “I agree that I have been rather bad at that.”

“Trust me, Princess, I’ve been on the receiving end of this too. I don’t want to offend you or anything!” Twilight held up her forelegs and waved them. “It’s just… you tend to stay silent on a lot of things that… I wish I knew about. I have to imagine you’re like this with other ponies, and not just me.”

Celestia hummed. “Twilight, what might you suggest for me, then?”

Twilight folded her hooves together and rested her muzzle on them. She sighed into her hooves as she thought. She looked at Celestia, offered no answer, and then looked back down.

“I don’t know how well my suggestion will help you. This whole thing has left me exhausted, Princess, and I’m not really in any state of mind to think these things through,” Twilight replied. “But… I guess one thing that I can say is that maybe you should try to reach out to ponies that might be waiting for you to reach out to them.”

Celestia nodded sagely. “I see.”

“You could reach out to Sunset’s relatives. If you can find them. Uh...” Twilight hazarded, “if there’s something you and Princess Luna really need to talk about, and you haven’t yet, you could start with her… I can’t think of anypony else off the top of my head, but…”

“I understand what you’re trying to say. Thank you, Twilight. That should give me somewhere to start, at least.” Celestia smiled.

* * *

Sunset swapped the books in her hands with a couple sitting on the top shelf of her locker. This part had become like second nature, at least. Calculus was next. That class was, thankfully, pretty easy; the great thing about mathematics was that it didn’t change between worlds. She had learned it all already.

So there was plenty of time to think about other things.

“I am really not looking forward to this test,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she and the others wandered up. “I hate pre-calc!”

Sci-Twi raised an eyebrow. “Well? Did you study?”

Rainbow Dash cringed. “Uh…”

“So that’s a nope,” Applejack grunted. “Come on, Dash, you reap what you sow.”

“Oh, like you’re going to pass.”

“At least Ah’m tryin’ to pass!”

Sunset closed her locker and turned to them. “Sounds like you three are in for some fun.”

Rarity chuckled. “I think I might do fine. Fluttershy, your notes from last year were so helpful,” she said, earning a smile from Fluttershy.

“Oh!” Pinkie Pie said as the seven of them started down the hall, “Let me guess… This is probably that stuff about series, right?”

Applejack glanced up. “Uh… yeah.”

“I remember that! That test was really bad!” Pinkie Pie laughed. “You’re doomed! Dooooooooomed!”

Applejack hid her face behind her Stetson. Rainbow Dash groaned.

Rarity shuddered and leaned close to Fluttershy. “She’s… not serious, right?”

Fluttershy’s smile faded. “Ummmm…”

“I wonder if I took that test once,” Sunset mused.

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. We had that class last year.”

Pinkie Pie hummed in agreement.

A thought flashed through Sunset’s head. She nodded. “I would not remember that.”

At that, the other six collectively frowned and shared some dejected sighs.

Twilight voiced it for them. “Yes… because of your lost memories…”

Sunset grinned. “No. Because that test would have been super easy. Why would I bother?”

Pinkie Pie snorted and burst into laughter. The others gave nervous chuckles in response.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “Hey, screw you, Sunset.”

“Suck less, Rainbow Dash.”

Applejack chuckled. “Hoo wee. Ah ain’t seen that sharp side of ya in a while.”

As the seven passed an intersecting hall, they caught sight of a small commotion down that way. Sunset paused as she tried to see what was going on, and saw many students standing, facing a single point in the hall. She followed their stares to where she saw several papers and a couple of books strewn about the floor.

In the middle of it all, Wallflower Blush rolled over, massaging her hip as she glanced about the bodies looming over her. Her moderate aquamarine hair had various tangles in it and hosted several foreign objects: chewed gum, some glue, and even a lollipop. The yellow striped sweater that was her usual wear had a large, purple stain that covered the entire side which still looked wet.

Sunset stared at them, watching them all carefully. Was this them going out of their way to show Wallflower how they felt about her?

Wallflower’s eyes darted between them one more time. She then crawled across the floor to collect her papers, with not a single soul bending down to assist her. When she approached one of her books, the boy standing over it kicked it across the hall, forcing her to chase after it.

The girls gathered around Sunset in watching the girl struggle with her school supplies. But while Sunset watched with a pensive, disturbed frown, her friends watched with glares.

“Come on, Sunset,” Applejack eventually said, pulling Sunset away. “She ain’t worth worrying about.”

Wallflower finished collecting her things and scrambled down the hall away from them. The seven turned and continued down their own hall.

“I got treated a lot like that, didn’t I?” Sunset asked.

At that, the others exchanged glances.

“Did she?” Sci-Twi asked. “This was before I came along.”

“Eeyup. We saw stuff like that quite a bit,” Applejack said. “Ya know, retribution for all the hell you—well, the old you put everyone through.”

“Yes,” Fluttershy agreed. “That was not so nice.”

“Well, based on what I read in my diary…” Sunset said, “I probably deserved that. That’s… what’s the word I’m looking for?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Justice?”

“Hmmm, yeah. Something like that. I took my lumps for a while.” Sunset scratched her head. “Not gonna lie… It was a little hard to read. I think my mind went to a pretty dark place when I was dealing with all of that.”

Pinkie Pie glanced around then flung herself onto Sunset. “Maybe you did,but we helped you out of that dark place!”

Sunset chuckled and shifted herself to support Pinkie Pie’s weight. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m pretty sure you did. I think I wrote about that a good bit.” As she eventually shrugged Pinkie Pie off, she glanced at all of them. “I’m really lucky to have all of you here to help me.”

“Of course, darling,” Rarity replied.

“No, really. I’m really lucky to have you all. I… really don’t know what I would have done without all of you.”

They all paused in front of some classroom doors and paused to share a hug and some giggles, all centered on Sunset.

After they broke off from their group hug, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity continued down the hall, while saying their farewells. Sunset, Sci-Twi, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy waved back and gave well-wishes on their upcoming test; they then entered the nearest classroom.

* * *

Sunset finished writing in the last answer on her worksheet. Integration by partial fractions tended to take a little longer, at least in her case, but they were done now. She sat back in her seat and observed the rest of the room. The rest of the room still hunched over their worksheets trying to work out the answers with some consulting their textbooks.

Sunset glanced behind her. Sci-Twi had her book open as well but Sunset guessed she was reading ahead; a theory strengthened when she saw Sci-Twi’s similarly completed worksheet.

A few thoughts that had swimmed about her head throughout the lecture resurfaced, and so she turned in her seat. “Hey, Twilight? Do you have some time?” she said at a reasonably low volume.

Sci-Twi set her book down. “Sure.”

“I need some advice. It’s about Princess Twilight.”

Sci-Twi placed a bookmark and shut her book. She then leaned forward. “Okay. I might be of some help here.”

“I want you to tell me… what do you think my thoughts were on her? How do you think I felt about Princess Twilight?” She paused. “And don’t hold back, okay? Because if you answer the way I think you’re going to answer… I’ve already figured it out. I just want to hear it from you.”

Sci-Twi seemed to stiffen as Sunset spoke and she eventually folded her hands together. She eventually sighed and nodded. “I see. Well, Sunset… Truth is… yes. You…” She twiddled her thumbed together. “I’m pretty sure you liked her.. I think that you probably liked her a lot.”

“You think?”

“It’s not like you ever outright said it or anything. But the clues were there. I mean, I… I knew what to look for, believe it or not.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and leaned toward Sci-Twi. “You?”

Sci-Twi frowned. “Y… yeah.”

Sunset studied Sci-Twi for a moment, her frown deepening with every passing moment. “You’re saying that like you had feelings for me.”

Sci-Twi blushed and scratched her head. “Well, if you’re asking me to be honest, yes, I did. A while ago.” She hung her head. “I realized kinda quickly that it wasn’t going to happen, because… you were already pining for her. So I got over it.”

There was the confirmation, at least. Sunset decided to come back to it. “Oh. I see. I… actually didn’t realize that. I was that in love with Princess Twilight back then, huh?”

“That’s the way I saw it, yeah.”

Sunset pursed her lips. “But you liked me?”

“You saved me when I was at my… lowest point. And we have a lot in common.” Sci-Twi shrugged. “But it’s the same with you and her, actually. She saved you. And you have a lot in common. It’s… easy to see why you went for her.”

Sunset grinned. “You’re not jealous of her, are you?”

“Jealous? Me?” Sci-Twi blew a raspberry. “What would I have to be jealous of? Certainly not of her, even though she’s pretty much a superior version of me, which makes her much more attractive than I am. Why would I be jealous? Pssssh, no.”

Sunset chuckled. “Sorry. I must be digging up old wounds here.”

Sci-Twi waved her off. “No. It’s fine. Like I said, I got over it. Besides… I think she really liked you back.”

Sunset nodded. “Well, see, that I am sure of.”

“The rest of the girls and I thought you were pretty close to becoming official. She liked you a lot. And you liked her a lot.”

“Yeah.” Sunset firmed up. “But that’s not true anymore, is it?”

Sci-Twi shuddered. Her expression fell apart. She met Sunset’s gaze and sighed. “No. I guess not.”

“That’s the problem I’m having,” Sunset explained, her tone somber. “And I don’t know what I should do about this. Do I let it go, and leave her in shambles, or do I try to get it back, and force myself to be someone I’m not anymore?”

Sci-Twi groaned and shifted in her seat. “Yeah… that sounds like a tough one. That’s… pretty complicated.”

“Yeah.”

Sci-Twi paused to think about it. “Well, I don’t think forcing it is the right answer. Trying to be something you’re not is… it’s just not good. Lying to yourself just to make her happy won’t make it… genuine.”

She drummed the desk. “But… I don’t think entirely throwing it away is a good answer either. It did happen. And it would be good to, you know, acknowledge it.”

“Like you did, huh?”

Sci-Twi blushed. “Yes. Like I did.”

Sunset frowned. “Would Princess Twilight think to do that?”

After a palpable pause, Sci-Twi returned the frown. “Probably not. She might keep it to herself, now that everything’s happened.”

“So what do I do?”

Another pause passed. Sci-Twi’s frown deepened and her expression lost some color. She eventually looked up to meet Sunset’s gaze.

“I don’t know,” she said simply.

9 - Garden of Regrets

A mixture of some string instruments, something electronic, and some percussion mixed together to fill the band practice room with melody. An occasional voice led the song’s message and other voices occasionally harmonized.

Sunset Shimmer sat on the room’s grand piano, watching as they played. She carefully watched Rainbow Dash’s fingers dancing along her guitar strings; she had played an instrument like that once. She had a few instruments like that in stands in her apartment. She mimicked the notes Rainbow Dash played with her fingers despite not holding an instrument herself.

To her amazement, she seemed to match Rainbow Dash at points. She didn’t know the song, and she was sure she had missed some notes. That would take practice. It would take a little time to get up to Rainbow Dash’s level—or the level she had once been at—but maybe it wouldn’t take forever.

The double doors opened and Princess Twilight stepped into the room. She paused in the doorway and watched as they continued their performance, bobbing in rhythm.

Eventually, the song finished and the room fell silent.

Sunset hopped off the piano and applauded. Twilight joined in after.

Rainbow Dash unslung her guitar and set it in its stand. “Princess Twilight.”

Twilight stepped forward. “Hi. Thought I would stop by to check in. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Not really,” Sci-Twi said, similarly stepping forward. “It’s nice to see you.”

“How are you all feeling? Are you… all okay?” Twilight’s expression fell. “I kinda did explode on you all last time we all saw each other.”

At that, the girls exchanged glances.

“Ah suppose,” Applejack said. “We’re feeling pretty okay now. Ain’t nothing hurting or out of place of anything. But the geodes…”

“I miss my geode,” Pinkie Pie lamented, slumping over the drumset.

“Yeah.” Applejack shook her head. “It’s a real pickle you done put us in, Twilight. Ah gotta tell ya that all of us,” she said, motioning to everyone else that wasn’t Sunset, “we get what happened. Somewhat.”

“It was really scary…” Fluttershy murmured.

“I know that must have been,” Twilight replied. “I’m very sorry. And I’m sorry it’s taken this long to apologize to you about it.”

“It’s alright,” Applejack replied. “We get it.”

“Quite. But it’s also like Applejack said… this had led to quite the development. Those geodes that we had were quite valuable… and…” Rarity sighed. “Oh! I do miss mine too!”

Twilight held up a hand. “Well, I’m working on putting them together, at least.”

They all perked up. “Really?” they all cooed.

“Yes! It… should be a little easier this time around. And not as stressful. It’s just…” Twilight pursed her lips. “I haven’t exactly been in a good frame of mind since this all started. So I haven’t been so prompt.”

Applejack placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Naw. Don’t worry about that none. You take all the time you need. We don’t want you going crazy or nothing.”

“But don’t take too long,” Rainbow Dash added, earning a couple of glares.

“I’ll try my best. Just wait a little longer, okay?”

“What about the Memory Stone?” Sci-Twi asked. “What is the situation with that?”

“Hey! Yeah!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, sitting up. “It feels like forever since we tried that and we don’t know what you did with it.”

“It’s locked away for now. It’s been put someplace where very few ponies could get to it. I’m… actually not one of them,” Twilight said, blushing. “Princess Celestia doesn’t entirely trust me with it. She… might be right on that.”

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Applejack said. “No more worrying about the Memory Stone.”

“So you didn’t destroy it?” Sunset asked. “Well, didn’t destroy it a second time?”

Twilight paused. “Uh… Actually, no.”

Sci-Twi blinked. “That’s… surprising. Although… maybe that’s not such a bad thing.” When everyone turned and gave quizzical hums, she continued. “Well, one thing that’s really worked in our favor is that Equestria is still a secret, by and large. And I don’t know about all of you, but it would probably be for the best if it remains a secret.”

“That was Princess Celestia’s thinking,” Twilight added. “There… is a situation where the Memory Stone could be useful.” She nervously smiled. “But hopefully we never get to that point.”

“Shoot. Ah really hope that don’t fall into the wrong hands again,” Applejack said. “Because that thing’s caused much more problems than it’s ever solved, Ah reckon.”

“Not to mention all the problems it could have caused,” Rarity added. “Really. I see this whole debacle and shudder at the thought of that girl and that she could have done all of this at any time.”

“Yes.” Fluttershy’s tone had hardened.

After a moment of silence, Sunset twiddled her thumbs. “But she didn’t, right?

Rarity crossed her arm. “No. But she could have.”

“On principle, yes,” Sci-Twi said. “But… technically, anyone with a weapon could do terrible things at any time. Not that I’m trying to defend her or anything; she did regularly erase memories, even if they were minor ones. She even said so on film! But… I don’t think she had plans to do something like what happened.”

“But she did it,” Pinkie Pie growled. She finally stood and circled the drumset. “Wallflower Blush did things. She erased memories. She was going to erase all of our memories!”

“That’s right.” Twilight’s tone had grown stone cold. “She took things that weren’t hers to take. She messed with other people’s heads. And she tried to take your friendship from you.” Her fists trembled. “And then she all but killed Sunset.”

“Hear hear,” Applejack agreed.

“Speaking of, what is her situation right now?”

Rainbow Dash snickered. “Oh, it’s great. The whole school is really giving it to her, Twilight. You should see it.”

“She’s really getting some good ol’ fashioned justice,” Applejack added. “Well, best as we can really serve it up, anyway.”

“Good,” Twilight said with a sharp tone. “I’m glad to hear that. I wouldn’t want there to be no consequences for all of this.”

“Just between you and me... although Ah think Ah might speak for all of us here, Ah wouldn’t have minded all that much if you had been able to take her to whatever place you were talking about.”

“Tartarus,” Twilight answered. “And, well, just between all of us... me too.”

Rainbow Dash laughed.

Sunset scratched her head. “I mean, sure? But, uh… isn’t it true that there have been worse villains out there than Wallflower Blush? And they got to go free, right? I heard what I heard right... right?”

Twilight turned. “Well, see… here is the thing, Sunset…”

“You know… villains like… me?”

Everyone else stood around in stunned silence. After a pause, a few of them managed to exchange glances.

“Apparently?” Sunset sighed. “I’ve gotten the impression that I was really really bad. I didn’t... go to Tartarus, did I?”

Twilight cleared her throat. “No… No you didn’t. Sunset, the thing that you have to understand is that… you were repentant. You were… reformable. We saw that. So are a lot of those… uh, other villains.”

Sunset frowned. “Okay. So… They got second chances.”

Twilight nodded from side to side. “Well… yes.”

“Aha!” exclaimed a new voice. Trixie Lulamoon, dressed in her blue-ish ensemble but also boasting a purple magician’s hat, sauntered into the room. “Trixie knew that she would find all of you here! For she is all-knowing. Oh! Princess Twilight is here as well!”

Twilight turned. “Oh. Hello, Trixie.”

“Howdy,” Applejack greeted. “What brings you here, o’ Great and Powerful?”
Trixie laughed. “Ha! Many things! Many things. But mostly because something so intriguing has happened to Wallflower Blush.”

Everyone else stood at attention now, fully facing her now.

“Are you all aware of the garden that was so very precious to her?”

After exchanging glances with the others, Sci-Twi hummed. “That sounds familiar, actually. Why?”

“I do not know about this,” Twilight interjected. “What is this?”

“Apparently, there is a garden that Wallflower’s been taking care of out back of the school. No one else really knows about it. Well… no one really knew about it. We’ve learned that it’s there since then. It’s where she found the Memory Stone in the first place, after all.”

“She really cares about that garden,” Fluttershy added. “She’s like I am with animals when it comes to that place. I think.”

“Oh.” Trixie laughed. “That’s… that’s part of what makes what happened so spicy! You see… well, Trixie must confess that she was not there for all of this when it went down. She did not dirty her hands. But, she knows that it has just happened.”

Sunset leaned forward. “What?”

“They trashed it. They trashed Wallflower Blush’s garden.”

Sunset shuddered. She stepped closer to Trixie. She just about towered over her. “They did… what?”

Trixie’s smile faded. “They… well, they tore it all up. I’m pretty sure.”

Sunset stared her down. After glancing up to see how everyone else was reacting, and after seeing their surprised expressions, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “When?”

“Just a bit ago.” Trixie stammered. “I caught them as they were coming back in from doing it. They saw her going that way, so they cornered her there, and decided to tear up the place while they were at it.”

Sunset threw her hands up. “Wait. Hold on. They made her watch?”

“Y… yeah?”

Sunset’s eyes widened and she paced in place, trying to absorb what she had just heard. She wore a long expression like she had just heard the worst blasphemy against Princess Celestia she had ever heard.

“Sunset?” Sci-Twi tried.

“Where is she?” Sunset hissed.

Trixie glanced at the others for help and found none. “Wallflower?”

“Yeah.” Sunset approached Trixie again. “Where is she right now?”

“Uh, I don’t know. She might still be there?”

Sunset nodded and stormed toward the doors.

Twilight chased after and grabbed hold of her arm. “Sunset, wait! Where are you going?”

Sunset, after a pause, looked over her shoulder. “I’m going to go find her. I think it’s about time I went and had a talk with Wallflower Blush.”

A few hushed gasps from the other’s accented Twilight’s widening eyes. “You… are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Twilight firmed up. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

Sunset whirled and placed a hand on Twilight’s chest. “No. You stay. I want to go talk to her alone.”

“What? Are you crazy? Let me go with you!” Twilight threw her hands around, unsure of what to do with them. “What if something bad happens, or something—”

“No offense, Twilight, but the last time you talked to her, you tried to drag her to Tarturus. Stay the fuck out of this one.” Sunset pointed at everyone else. “Same goes for the rest of you. Don’t even think of following me.”

And with that, Sunset broke away and stormed out of the room before anyone else could raise any objection. Twilight managed to reach for the doorway, but she sighed and shook her head.

“I don’t like this,” she said, turning back to face them. “I don’t like this at all. Letting her go out there all by herself!”

“Ah agree!” Applejack exclaimed. “Gosh darnit!”

“Maybe we should go after her,” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“I’d like to!” Twilight cried.

Fluttershy shuddered. “I don’t know…”

“Oh man,” Pinkie Pie lamented. “I want to keep an eye on her too! But boy, I think she would get really mad if she found us out there.”

Twilight blew a raspberry. “That. Is there anything we can do?”

After a pause, Sci-Twi nodded. “Actually… yes. We can keep an eye on her without actually going out there ourselves. I have this invention, I call it the Selfie-Sensor…”

* * *

Sunset burst through the back doors and stormed across the parking lot. The side away from the school held nothing but trees and shrubbery. Somewhere through there was a garden. With any luck, it would be easy enough to find.

Her diary had said things about her time under judgment. There was rebuilding the front of the school brick by brick; others had sabotaged her efforts to get that done only for Applejack to set her straight. There was enduring torment by classmates; some had kicked her in the halls only for Rainbow Dash to shoo them away, others had tried to throw things at her only for Rarity to bat them before they could. There had been the support and invitations from Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy which had helped lift the spirits.

Sure, Sci-Twi hadn’t entered the picture then. But she had been as much a rock as the rest of them through the past few weeks.

And now a garden was destroyed in a most direct statement she could imagine. She had to see this.

She stepped onto a dirt path that led through the shrubs. She spotted several footprints pointing toward a gap in the bushes at which point she filed through, rustling the bushes as she went. Soon enough, she reached a clearing.

A few sunbeams shone upon the various structures within the clearing. The most notable were a trifecta of brilliant and sparkling cobbles. A few rock rings and even a stone terrace in the center hosted flowerbeds where plants and flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors could enjoy the sunlight.

At least, that was what the garden was supposed to look like. Sunset shuddered and could even feel the life drain from her face.

Dozens of flowers and small shrubs lay discarded about the entire clearing while the flowerbeds had been torn up and dug out and their dirt had been scattered everywhere. Some parts of the grass that otherwise dominated the clearing had been pocked and smothered by debris. The few vases that had once stood about lay shattered with some pieces well across the clearing.

Sunset paused to take it all in and then she centered on the lone figure sitting near the center. She couldn’t see Wallflower Blush’s face since she faced away, staring at the remains of the garden instead, but she could tell from the fading gasps and sobs that it was stained with tears.

Sunset sucked in a breath and stared. There she was.

There had been the erasing of memories, there had been the attempts of dragging to Tartarus, there had been the torment, and there had been the long days trying to repair magical relics. But all of that, however, had happened in the company of others.

Here, it was just her and her. There were no watching eyes to judge or hands to intervene. Whatever was about to happen would be of the most unfettered and unpressured candor between them.

What happened here would decide the course of the future for one or both of them. And, in the back of Sunset’s mind, there was the chance that she would shortly leave after slamming the proverbial door. Sunset puffed herself up and waited, watching to see how Wallflower Blush, who by all accounts had just hit rock bottom, would choose to take things.

Wallflower finally hazarded a glance back to see who else had entered the garden. Sunset could see her face exactly as wet as she imagined it. She looked forward again, away from Sunset.

After pause, Wallflower finally spoke. “What do you want?” she croaked.

Sunset didn’t respond.

“Tell me… tell me you didn’t come here to kick me while I’m down. You see what they did? They destroyed the one thing that means something to me. They killed the garden. And this is after all the other ways they’ve hurt me over the past week and…

“And now you decide to show up. You would show up when I… can’t go any lower than this. You picked this moment on purpose, so it would hurt the most. And you’ll tell me that I’m worthless and that I deserve all of this and that I’m the biggest meanie, just like you were.”

Sunset let her hands make fists. Her expression firmed up.

Wallflower slumped. “Part of me wishes I could say that. But now… I’m not so sure anymore.”

Sunset held her breath.

“You probably hate me. Everyone else already does. My classmates, my teachers, your friends…” Wallflower chuckled bitterly. “Even Princess Twilight hates me. She hates me the most. I didn’t… I didn’t even know that was even possible…”

Wallflower sobbed and gazed across the garden. “I didn’t think you changed. But… seeing you without your memories, as you really were… I saw the real you, or something pretty close.

“And… I was wrong. I was wrong.”

Sunset let out the breath she had been holding and hung her hands off her waist.

“I spent all this time thinking that you hadn’t changed at all. I thought that you were still the biggest meanie. I thought it was all a lie. But… I don’t know if that’s true anymore.” Wallflower shook her head. “The reason everyone liked you and thought of you as a friend… was because you were actually a friend. And I didn’t see that.”

Wallflower’s voice quivered. “And then I stole your memories and I killed you.”

Sunset hazarded a few steps forward and sighed through her nose. She kept silent, intent to let Wallflower finish.

“I became the biggest meanie… and I am worthless and I deserve all of this… and all it took was just… one moment.” Wallflower threw hands into the air. “I mean, sure, I took memories before, but… I was just trying to be invisible. That’s what I did. I didn’t make friends. I didn’t talk to people. I don’t have anyone.

“I… did want to be visible… but not like this. Never like this. This was… what I was afraid of all along. Now people know who I am. To them… I’m the girl who destroyed you. And that’s all I’ll be remembered as. And no one is ever going to forgive me for it. It was much better when I wasn’t trying to be part of anyone’s lives.

“Maybe…” Wallflower sniffed. “Maybe that’s how it should be. It would be better, for everyone, if I wasn’t a part of anyone’s lives anymore.”

Sunset shuddered. She stepped forward. “Wallflower.”

Wallflower glanced back out the corner of her eye. Her expression was extraordinarily serene but absolutely drenched. She shook her head. “I don’t even know why you’re still here.” She sighed. “But I guess that’s okay. I said what I wanted to say. I just…”

Wallflower Blush looked forward again. “That’s all. I’m sorry, Sunset. Please… leave me… so that I can rot with my plants in peace.”

A long silence hung within the garden. Sunset remained standing right at the edge of the clearing. Wallflower remained collapsed a little more inward. A small gust of wind blew through, rustling the trees and carrying some sort of whisper; the sunbeams subsequently flickered.

There it was. The choice, as candid a choice as there was, had been chosen. And it was over. If she said nothing or did nothing, Wallflower would sit there in silence. It was entirely possible to simply walk away. Such had been a possibility beforehand.

Sighing through her nose, Sunset Shimmer stumbled forward, approaching Wallflower Blush from behind.

And Sunset Shimmer gingerly lowered herself to the ground, feeling the grass crunch underneath her, and took a seat right next to Wallflower Blush.

For the moment, the two of them sat in silence.

“I’ve spent the last while getting to know who I was,” Sunset finally murmured after a few long moments.

Wallflower stirred. She averted her gaze.

“Don’t get me wrong, the things that you did were really bad. You messed with people’s heads; you messed with mine so hard that I became a completely different person. Some would call those kinds of things unforgivable.” She paused to note Wallflower’s shying away before she deflated herself. “But it’s not like I can pretend like I was much better.”

Sunset shook her head and chuckled. “Well, I kind of can, I guess. Because I actually don’t remember it anymore. But... I know it happened. And I know I did it. It was real.” Her lips quivered. “I committed treason. And I was going for a full coup d'etat. I made everyone here my actual slaves and was ready to march everyone on Equestria. That right there is bad enough. But if you think about all the years of torment and bullying and backstabbing that I did before all of that…”

Wallflower sniffled and shook her head.

“I want to imagine there were a lot of people that didn’t think I deserved a second chance,” Sunset said. “You know, a lot of people like you. And… I’m guessing that, back then… I didn’t think so either. I had a lot of the same thoughts that you’re having right now.”

Sunset jammed her hands further into her lap and looked at Wallflower. “The only reason I’m where I’m at right now… is because, even after all of that, even though I did not deserve a second chance… I got one. Because there were a small handful of people that I thought I could get one anyway.”

Wallflower looked up, still not meeting Sunset’s eyes. “I don’t have anyone like that,” she wheezed.

“I know. I know you don’t. But… I think…” she nodded, “maybe I’m ready to be the first.”

Wallflower’s eyes widened. She whirled and warbled with disbelief.

Sunset met Wallflower’s eyes. Finally, she had a good look of the red in Wallflower’s eyes and the black bags right underneath, along with the discolorations through her cheeks.

“What? You?” Wallflower croaked. “Why?”

“Because.”

“Why you? You… I hurt you, Sunset. You’re the one I hurt the most out of all of this. Right?”

Sunset shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. But honestly, the way I see it… sounds kinda silly that I got the second chance that I didn’t deserve… and I can’t even give the same to someone else.”

Some silence passed. The best Wallflower eventually managed were a few new sobs.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Sunset continued, holding her hands up. “There… has to be some justice. I got mine served. And it would make a lot of people feel better if you paid for what you did. So… I don’t think I should do too much to stop them right now. I probably should let them have their way with you here and there.”

She shook her head and motioned to the destroyed garden. “I wouldn’t let them do this, though. This is too much.”

Wallflower solemnly nodded in agreement.

Sunset then reached over and laid a hand on Wallflower. “Wallflower, what I want to say… is if you’re willing to take your lumps… and you’re willing to try to come out of this a better person, just like I did… I’ll be there to pick you up when you’re down. Okay?”

Wallflower’s eyes grew even wetter and she even let a few tears fall. After a few errant sobs, Wallflower shook her head. “That… sounds nice… but everyone still hates me.”

“Well, I guess that’s true. Maybe they don’t like you right now. Maybe they don’t think you deserve a second chance right now. And… this is something none of us should never ever forget about.

“But if you give them enough reasons to… they’ll forgive you.”

A knot went up and down Wallflower’s throat. She stammered out words without voice between sobs and searched the garden for words with her eyes.

Sunset laughed at herself. “Wow. I don’t know what it is, but that just sounds so right.”

Wallflower half-sobbed, half-giggled. “It probably does. I… would like to do that. But... I don’t know the first thing about friendship.”

Sunset felt a growing wetness in her own eyes. She ignored it for the moment. “Neither did I. I had some pretty good teachers though. And I made it out. If I could do it, I’ll bet you can too. I can teach you.”

“You will?”

Sunset leaned forward. “Is that okay, friend?”

Wallflower looked like she had frozen in place, contemplating Sunset in her entirety. Sunset, seeing this, smiled back.

After a pause, Wallflower flung herself into Sunset’s arms. While initially taken aback, Sunset eventually nodded and wrapped her arms around Wallflower in turn, holding her close. She retained her smile but let a few of her own tears fall as Wallflower found renewed strength to bawl her eyes out. She rubbed and patted Wallflower’s back as she cried.

Eventually, she found a peace of mind enough to close her eyes and lose herself to the moment as well.

Sunset and Wallflower remained there in their solemn embrace for a while, even as the latter’s wails devolved to sobs and to whimpers and to finally nothing at all. There would be a right time to move on from that moment, but both were content to wait for the right time to do that.

* * *

The yearbook room hung in silence. Seven girls gathered around a laptop, watching a scene in one of the windows. A title at the top of the window read Selfie-Sensor Live Feed and the image showed a destroyed garden with two girls holding each other and sharing some tears.

Sci-Twi sighed and leaned back in her seat. A quick glance around allowed her to register the frowns that everyone wore. Trixie’s frown had some hints of bewilderment in it and she even scratched her head. Fluttershy’s cheeks carried a shameful red to them. Rainbow Dash looked anywhere that wasn’t the screen. Pinkie Pie’s lips quivered as if she were processing what she had watched. Rarity held herself close as she stared completely at the screen. Applejack hid her face behind her Stetson.

Twilight sighed through her nose, hung her head, eventually nodded, and slunk toward the door.

Sci-Twi turned. “Twilight?” she murmured. “Where are you going?”

The others turned to look.

Twilight rested her hand on the doorknob. She pursed her lips. She eventually looked back at them. “I’m just…” she tentatively replied, “I need to go think about this for a while.”

After a pause, Sci-Twi tentatively nodded back.

And without another word, Twilight pulled the door open and disappeared outside.

10 - Prograde Pathways

Starlight Glimmer and Moondancer trotted into the castle library. They both regarded the small work area Twilight had set up for the geodes from the other world and made their way toward a separate table on which a few papers sat.

Moondancer sorted through a few of those papers and placed even fewer into her saddlebag. She paused to look at one of them.

“Gosh, seems like forever since Twilight and I were last working on this paper,” Moondancer said.

Starlight laughed. “You can say that again.”

“It will be nice to get back to this soon. I have been itching to finish it.”

“Stuff happens.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just surprised you’ve been really sticking around through all of this. You’ve been around here a lot lately. Not that I’m complaining.”

Moondancer giggled. “I have, haven’t I? It has been nice getting to work with you… and everypony else that came along.” She stuffed one final paper into her saddlebag and closed it up. “There. That should be everything I need to take. I can leave everything else here.”

“Can’t imagine Twilight would like it if you took everything.”

“Maybe not. But she’s going to be too busy working on putting those things back together,” Moondancer said, motioning to the geode shards. “I’ll probably be back from Canterlot around the time she gets done. Whatever. I have enough to at least be able to touch this stuff while I’m there. What will you be doing?”

Starlight rolled her hoof through the air. “I don’t know. I’ll probably go help out with building the school. Or something. You know, aside from all this that we did with the Memory Stone, I haven’t had much else that I really have needed to do.”

“Oh.”

“Life as a grad student is weird.”

Moondancer’s glasses slipped down her muzzle as she eyed Starlight. “Grad student? I don’t know if I would call you a grad student.”

Starlight frowned and turned to directly face her. “Huh? But I did graduate. And I’m still learning things here and there about friendship.”

“You’re not doing any of that in any official capacity, right?”

“No?”

“Sounds more like you’re a postdoc to me.”

Starlight blinked. “Postdoc…? Don’t you need a doctorate to be a postdoc?”

Moondancer tentatively nodded. “Yes… but—”

“I don’t have one of those.”

“Okay. But let’s be honest: you’re not actively studying anything. You’re not working toward a thesis or anything. You’re just here to do work. Gaining skills and experience to do things later on. You’re a postdoc.”

“You can’t call me a postdoc if I don’t even have a doc. I’m a grad student. But there’s no precedent for what I am since there’s never been a friendship curriculum before.” Starlight nodded. “At least not until we get this school built.”

Moondancer pushed her glasses back up and scratched her chin. “Then you’re interning. Or apprenticing.”

Starlight facehooved. “I mean I guess.”

“Come on. You can at least get your title right.”

“I don’t have a title, okay. I just—I live here. That’s about it. How about I’m Twilight’s roommate?”

“No. More like she’s the landlord and you’re some tenant.”

“Oh!” Starlight stamped the floor. “Buck this conversation. Buck it to Tartarus.”

“Sorry,” Moondancer said as she deflated. “I just like to be particular about some things.”

Starlight sighed. “I know. I know. That’s not really my speed. I do appreciate that about you though, Moondancer.”

Moondancer smiled back.

“You know what? Let’s talk about something else. How about that? You’ve still got a heck of a lot of time before the train leaves, right?” Starlight pointed at the documents. “What exactly is it that you and Twilight have been working on? I’m kinda curious to know what that’s all about.”

Moondancer grinned from ear to ear. “Since you’re asking, sure. I’d be happy to give a rundown on this. The broad purpose is pretty simple…”

* * *

Sunset Shimmer, carrying Wallflower along, stumbled out of the wood and into the parking lot. The two hobbled along in silence, taking their time with every step. The sun had dropped a little lower in the intervening time although it wasn’t quite close to sunset yet.

Sunset looked up. And she paused. Wallflower subsequently looked up.

The two spotted Princess Twilight sitting on the curb just outside the rear entrance to the school. Twilight sat there resting her chin on her hands as she stared at the concrete. Twilight looked up and broke from her stupor to stand.

Sunset suppressed a growl and led Wallflower over. The two approached and then stopped a few feet apart from Twilight. No one said anything at first. Twilight’s eyes briefly fell on Wallflower who shrunk in response.

“What are you doing out here?” Sunset eventually asked.

Twilight pursed her lips and kicked the ground. “It’s complicated. But I’m mostly just out here thinking about things.”

“It’s complicated?” Sunset narrowed her eyes. “You tried to follow me out here? Didn’t you? After I told you not to?”

Twilight held up her hands. “We didn’t! Not… physically, anyway. But… we didn’t want to risk you going alone either.” She pantomimed an object the size of her head. “So we sent this… flying metal thing out so that we could watch from a distance.” She chuckled. “Wouldn’t you know, it got stuck on some bushes, so someone has to go get it eventually.”

Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose. “You spied on us?”

“We did. We wanted to make sure you were okay out here. What if a fight broke out? What if something else happened, and she killed you again somehow? We wouldn’t know!”

“Twilight.”

Twilight retreated. “No! Really! We just wanted to make sure you were safe. I wanted to make sure you were safe. That’s what I’ve wanted all this time.”

Sunset let her head fall into her hands as she shook her head. After several moments of wiping her face, she let out a snorty sigh. “I know… I know. What did you hear?”

Twilight’s expression fell as she straightened up. “Exactly what we needed to hear all along.”

Sunset exchanged glances with Wallflower and then let go a frown.

“I’ve… well, not just me… we’ve been pretty hypocritical through all this. But me especially. I’ve just been so… overwhelmed. It’s gotten the better of my emotions. I don’t know if you really understand this, Sunset, but this… this hurt me bad.”

“Because you’re in love with me.”

Twilight shuddered. Wallflower gasped.

“You were and still are,” Sunset murmured. “And the real kicker is… we both know from reading my diary that I was in love with you back.”

Wallflower broke away from Sunset so she could see the both of them at once.

A grimace spread across Twilight’s face as she hugged herself. She eventually managed a solemn nod. “How long have you known for?”

“I figured it out a while back. Not long after you exploded. I get it, Twilight. Doesn’t make what you did right,” Sunset said.

“Yes. I know. I needed to be reminded of that. I should not have tried to drag…” she paused to glance at Wallflower as if acknowledging her presence for the first time, “you… to Tartarus. I was wrong. I should not have done that.”

Wallflower swallowed and nodded solemnly.

“Make no mistake,” Twilight continued, her tone sharpened, “my feelings about you haven’t changed. I despise you, Wallflower Blush.”

“I know,” Wallflower groaned.

Sunset made fists and glared daggers at Twilight, but Twilight made no indication she even registered Sunset.

Twilight stared at Wallflower for a moment more before her expression loosened up and she sighed through her nose. “But…” Her next words visibly climbed her throat. “Maybe someday, somehow, you’ll change my mind.”

Wallflower folded her hands together and kicked the ground. “I… understand. I think I do. I have a lot to make up for. I did a lot of horrible things, I guess. I took memories. I guess it doesn’t really matter that it was just memories of me; I took things that weren’t mine. And then I let it go to my head. And…”

Twilight stared.

“I have a lot of people to apologize to. Sunset…” She shrugged. “Her friends, the rest of the school. And I guess… you. I’m sorry, Princess Twilight.”

Twilight crossed her arms. “And?”

Wallflower’s eyes widened and she shuddered. “And? A-And…”

“Twilight,” Sunset interjected.

“I do not accept your apology,” Twilight said.

Sunset motioned at Wallflower. “She said she was sorry!”

“It’s going to take more than that!” Twilight snapped. “That’s why I am asking. And?”

Wallflower’s expression quivered and she sucked in a breath. “I… I don’t… I don’t know what I can do. I don’t have anything to offer. All I had was the garden. No one cares about that.” She paused. “The only thing that I do that anyone actually cares about is the yearbook.”

“Okay.” Twilight twirled her hands, motioning for Wallflower to continue.

“I… I can’t bring anyone’s memories back. Not anymore. I’m sorry! I know that’s what you’d like me to do.”

Sunset glanced between the two of them and then put a hand on Wallflower’s shoulder. “Maybe I could say something here. A big part of how I was able to learn a lot about the past was with those yearbooks. Those things were really helpful.”

Wallflower shook her head. “That’s… great. But I didn’t make any of the ones from the past few years. I wasn’t on the committee then. This is my first year making the yearbook. Which… it’s almost done. And it’s come along great!”

“You’re working to preserve the memories we do have, right?” Sunset asked.

Wallflower blinked. “Y… yeah.”

“Okay,” Twilight said. “That’s a start. But that only goes so far. Especially when they’re everyone else’s memories.”

“I know.” Wallflower kicked the ground again. “So I’ve never had anything of my own to share. I’ve never had friends before.”

“You’ve got a friend in me,” Sunset said.

Wallflower frowned. “Sure, but…”

“Maybe if we do some things here and there, we might get you some more friends. New friends.”

Wallflower opened her mouth to speak but then paused. Her eyes flickered as if the words Sunset had spoken were still processing. She blinked and gasped and looked up to see the two of them. “Maybe…”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Wallflower straightened up. “Princess Twilight… I know I’m not at all good at these things. I don’t know the first thing about friendship. I won’t know a lot of what to do.” She shook her head. “I can’t bring back old memories. I can’t do anything for the ones we haven’t already saved in the yearbook.

“But maybe… you know, if I get a little help… maybe I can make new memories?”

Sunset gasped under her breath and watched Twilight for a reaction.

Twilight’s expression remained unchanged for a moment. She leaned forward. “That’s what you want to try?”

Wallflower sucked in a breath and nodded. “Yes.”

After a long, uncomfortable pause, Twilight’s features loosened. And she nodded. “Alright. Then you’ll do that. Don’t let me down.”

Wallflower folded her hands together and cracked the smallest of smiles. That prompted an even smaller smile on Twilight’s face in return.

“Well,” Sunset said, motioning to Wallflower, “we’re going to go inside. You should go and… uh… get that metal thingy from the bushes.”

Twilight giggled. “Yes. I should go do that, shouldn’t I? I’ll let you go then.” She started forward.

“And Twilight,” Sunset said, grabbing Twilight’s shoulder as she passed by.

“Hmmm?”

“Uh… why don’t we chat later? About you and me. Okay?”

A bit more color appeared on Twilight’s face. She grinned and nodded. “Yeah.”

After giving Twilight a parting pat, Sunset led Wallflower toward the school. And she found herself walking with greater, taller stride and she likewise felt a smile on her own face.

* * *

Crystal Faire sat in the shadow of the Castle of Friendship, watching the water in the large pond before her. The pond itself had always been there, fed by a waterfall from the nearby hill, but the stone bridge now stretching across it was new as were some strategically placed rocks that created alternate albeit piecewise bridges. The skeletons of structures sat atop a mound across the way. A few ponies worked on moving bricks and wooden planks around toward their eventual homes.

She nodded and took a bite from her veggie sandwich.

“So this is the school,” said a voice, Princess Celestia’s voice, behind her.

Crystal nodded without looking back. “That it is. They broke ground a few days ago, if you would believe it. After all the hurdles, it’s coming together.”

Celestia walked up and sat next to Crystal. “Hurdles indeed.” She chuckled. “I can distinctly remember her trying to bombard me with questions on how to run a school. I just hope she still desires to go through with it.”

“Well, her mind was somewhat off it for a while. Surprisingly so.” Crystal nodded. “But I am sure she still wishes to do this very much.”

“I am glad to hear that. There are many schools out there, but this is the first dedicated to friendship—which I think is a marvelous idea to teach to ponies.”

“Not just ponies. With any luck we will see other kinds of students there; dragons, changelings… perhaps some others of that sort.”

Celestia grinned and nodded sagely. “Of course. Friendship is something that may be shared by all.”

Crystal nodded. She idly glanced at the construction. “Perhaps it would do me some good to take a class there someday.”

Celestia hummed and considered the construction as well. “Perhaps.”

After taking another bite from her sandwich, Crystal sat back. “I must confess… that I might need more than just one class. I do not know for sure, but it might do me well to go full-time… even if just for a while.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I have much to learn. I’ve already been made aware of how… unsupportive I have been for Twilight throughout these events. I have not been such a great friend.”

Celestia pondered it. “If memory serves, you did help our efforts to put the Memory Stone back together.”

“Ah, but that was physical work; that I can handle without issue.” Crystal hummed. “I was inconsiderate of how this affected Twilight on a personal and emotional level. I did not see the degree to which it had consumed her, even after our attempts concluded.”

“I see,” Celestia eventually said at length. “This has been especially hard on her. It was important to me, so I can somewhat imagine how important it was for her.”

“And that was where I failed. In the grand scheme of things, everything that has happened in the past weeks is not important.” Crystal paused and shook her head. “These things are trivial to me. But to the ponies involved, they are important, and I must remember not to treat that as trivial.”

“That is a wise lesson. Recognizing the feelings of those around you and legitimizing them is very important for keeping friendships strong.” Celestia scratched her chin. “I wonder if I ever received a friendship report from Twilight concerning anything similar to that?”

Crystal chuckled and took another bite from her sandwich. After some silence passed, she said, “Well, it is well. Perhaps, in some way, this has led to a change in me. Maybe it is not a trivial change.”

“I suspect many have changed as a result of this.”

“Ah, but I must feel that this is a change for the better. With any luck, we may all come out of this changed better.”

“It sounds as if you are taking your lesson to heart. Good for you.”

Crystal nodded. “I believe that it has been exactly that which has led me to reexamine what outcome there is to be for Wallflower Blush. Tell me, Celestia, what are your thoughts on her?”

At that, Celestia’s expression hardened and she straightened up. Her gaze fell idle on the reflection of the opposite bank and structures thereupon on the water’s surface. “That is hard to say as I have never met her. So the best that I can do is hope that the decision to have her continuing to live as she does is the right one.”

“I stood by that. But now… I am even more certain in it.”

“You are?”

“She was villainous. Not in the same vein as Discord or perhaps Nightmare Moon, even if they have come around. More so like Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer and…” Crystal chuckled. “Well, nonetheless, I am certain that she is redeemable.

“Certainly, there could have been any number of outcomes to all of this. Certainly, Wallflower Blush may have rotted in Tartarus in some timeline. Or she may have acted irrationally and against her punishment, and then would have made her life effectively… ended. Or perhaps she might have tried to achieve exactly that but on her own terms.”

Celestia’s expression twitched, hinting at a flinch.

“But after some thought, I know for certain that the outcome which might heal her the most; might heal us all the most… is if she does get that second chance and find redemption.”

“That won’t be easy.”

“No. This will follow her for a long time.”

After a pause, a grin appeared on Celestia’s face. “But, from the sound of it, Sunset Shimmer faced a similar dilemma and came out of it much better than she was before. There might be hope yet.”

Crystal grinned. “That is true.”

Some bits of wind blew through the area. A few nearby trees rustled in response. Across the way, a few ponies chased some loose papers across the dirt and shortly caught them.

“I too have had something to struggle with from all of this,” Celestia muttered.

“Do tell.”

“I’ve not always been the most communicative on matters that I really should have been. I have kept myself at a distance. I have done that with many ponies, Sunset Shimmer included. I did want to reunite with her, eventually, especially after she had turned around, but I kept my distance. It was only when she came to me to ask for my help that we reunited at all. That was right before she lost her memories.” Celestia shook her head. “I might have very well missed my opportunity altogether in some other life.”

Crystal hummed in acknowledgment.

“Ah, this much I told Twilight as well.” Celestia chuckled and batted the air. “I must say, though, that getting to reconnect with her when we were working on that Memory Stone was a treat.”

Crystal finished the rest of her sandwich and turned to face Celestia. “But it is not enough.”

Celestia similarly turned. “That is the struggle. I feel that I must amend this. I must change here.”

“It sounds like we both have been terrible friends.”

Celestia’s cheeks turned red and she chuckled through a sigh. “It does sound that way, doesn’t it?”

“Well, it is like you said, you waited for her to come to you. And that is the root of the problem. So, if you are ever to overcome this mental obstacle of yours, you must directly challenge that root. Thankfully, the solution is simple:

“You must take the initiative, Celestia. You must make the effort yourself.”

Celestia stared. Her prismatic mane, forever flowing in some ethereal wind, was about the only sign she gave that anything was happening with her at all.

“And let me stop you there before you try to object to my implied suggestion,” Crystal continued. “What I am suggesting that you do is not as dangerous or even unprecedented as you might believe.”

“I don’t know. I have to think about this. I can’t help but feel that what you are suggesting… would cause trouble.”

“Maybe.” Crystal shifted. “But it might be worth it to endure a small amount of trouble just to do what is right, don’t you think?”

Celestia blinked and straightened up. Her expression briefly turned toward the Castle of Friendship which glistened in the sunlight. “Are you certain?”

“You want to reconnect with Sunset Shimmer, right? So go reconnect with her.”

After still and silent thought, one broken only to cast another glance at the castle, Celestia swelled. “I think I will go do that then. Thank you, Crystal Faire.” She flapped her wings and took off.

“And one more thing,” Crystal said, prompting Celestia to pause and look back. She grinned and pointed. “Watch that first step. It’s always a tricky one.”

Grinning back and nodded, Celestia took off for the Castle of Friendship. As she flew, there came to be a moment that, at least from where Crystal sat, Celestia flew in front of the sun and appeared as a silhouette against it.

Crystal herself swelled as she watched for a while and then she eventually stood up. The possibilities of what could happen swam through her head. Some were better than others. But one possibility, one likely possibly, looked bright. That possibility looked right.

Crystal Faire smiled to herself and trotted back toward town. Well, now I have done all that I can. The rest of this is up to all of you, she thought.

* * *

The cafeteria, now that school had concluded for the day, remained empty. The staff had already cleaned all the tables down and locked the doors to the kitchens, so the whole room hung in relative silence save for a couple of separate conversations at two different tables on opposite sides of the room.

Principal Celestia, who sat at one of those tables, folded her hands together and nodded. “I see. That is a development indeed.”

“I suppose if you are willing to give this a chance, we’d be smart to follow your example,” Vice Principal Luna, who sat next to Principal Celestia, nodded. “We’ll be sure to pass this along to the other members of the staff as well.”

Twilight, who sat opposite them, nodded back. “Thank you. I know I don’t have the greatest feelings about Wallflower Blush. But it would be silly to want her to not succeed—hypocritical, probably.”

“That is true. Truly, we all do better when we raise each other up,” Principal Celestia agreed.

After a moment, Vice Principal Luna sighed. “As for those students who tore up Wallflower’s… erm, the garden—I didn’t know we had a garden.”

“We do,” Principal Celestia interjected.

“I would suppose we could give them a day of detention. Justice is one thing. But what they did there is out of line. Not that I’m particularly enthusiastic about having to find out who all was involved.”

“We’ll manage. We always do.”

“Seems like a common thread,” Twilight said with a smile.

She turned in her seat. The other table, some distance away, hosted a gathering of girls. The Rainbooms—Sci-Twi, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy—joined by Trixie sat at the table having a hushed, calm discussion with Wallflower Blush. Sunset stood at the end of the table, overseeing them. A small bout of giggles passed between them all.

“Things seem to always work out in the end,” Twilight concluded.

The glass doors at the front of the room and two new individuals stepped in. The two glanced around and then locked eyes on Twilight.

Twilight stood up. “Starlight Glimmer! Moondancer!”

Starlight waved. “Hey! Glad we found all of you!”

“What are you doing here?”

Starlight pointed over her shoulder into the foyer beyond. “Oh. We had a… friend come by asking if she could see the place. Or something.”

Sunset left the other table long enough to see past Starlight and Moondancer. Her features fell as she presumably caught sight of whoever was in the foyer. She blinked in disbelief. “What…?” she managed to get out before storming toward the doors.

Principal Celestia exchanged glances with Vice Principal Luna and the two similarly stood up. At once, everyone in the cafeteria made their way toward the doors. The foyer itself, with the halls leading from it and the stairways connecting its two levels, lay similarly deserted save for one individual in the center who examined every corner of the room.

Principal Celestia joined the others standing slack-jawed in the doorway joining the cafeteria to the foyer.

The figure stood at Principal Celestia’s height. Her long, flowing hair looked just like her own, containing a mixture of cyan, sapphire blue, aquamarine, and mulberry, and her purple eyes had the same sheen Celestia saw when she looked at her reflection in a mirror. Even the light magenta-ish skin tone matched. But what really caught her eyes was the long, flowing, elaborate gown, completed with gold ornaments, that she wore.

Slowly, majestically, she turned to face them.

“Princess Celestia?” Sunset tried.

Principal Celestia gasped. She even wiped her eyes just to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things. It was her! Or at least, a very good double of her.

And then she glanced between Twilight and Sci-Twi, two counterparts she had already grown accustomed to; somehow, despite how strange it all was. Here now was another counterpart: her counterpart.

“Yes. Hello, Sunset Shimmer,” Princess Celestia replied. “Hello to all of you.”

“Princess!” Twilight exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“Worry not, Twilight. This is nothing more than a social visit, I hope.” She chuckled as she ran her eyes over all their clothes and then at her gown. “But maybe I am overdressed for this.”

“Not that the portal really gives you much choice there it seems,” Moondancer quipped.

“Incredible…” Principal Celestia wheezed as she stepped forward. The girls parted to let her approach her counterpart. Both carried awestruck, discerning gazes now. “I don’t believe it. You’re my… counterpart.”

“And you are mine. Goodness… Twilight told me about all the counterparts over here. But…” Princess Celestia paused over Vice Principal Luna who gave a nod and a cautious smile before meeting Principal Celestia’s eyes again. “I must say… even that doesn’t completely prepare you for it.”

“You’re not wrong there. We had trouble distinguishing our Twilight from Princess Twilight for a while. We’ve… had practice. It’s still amazing that you are here right now.”

“That it is. And I am glad that I made it. Now, if I may ask, I can readily recognize who most of you are.” Her eyes ran over the Rainbooms. “But I believe a couple of us have not met yet. Who are you?”

Trixie went wide-eyed and bowed. “Your Majesty! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, the greatest magician who ever lived!” she exclaimed, producing a shower of sparks and smoke from somewhere no one could discern.

Princess Celestia chuckled. “Charmed, O’ Great and Powerful.” She turned. “And you are?”

Wallflower shuddered under Princess Celestia’s gaze.

Applejack clapped her on the shoulder. “This here’s Wallflower Blush,” she said.

Princess Celestia tilted her head. “Oh?” She leaned forward. “So you are the one that stole Sunset Shimmer’s memories.”

Sunset jumped between the two of them. “Uh, yeah, she is. Uh, I should maybe tell you that we’re trying to get cool. Okay?”

Fluttershy also stepped forward, her hands folded together and her head bowed. “We are trying to do that right now. We were just talking about it.”

“Were you now?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Ah, yes,” Rarity said, stepping forward. “I know, it’s a surprise to us as well. But we’ve had a heavy reminder of what we all stood for once upon a time… which we somehow forgot about in this whole mess. So we’re doing something to rectify that.”

“First friendship outing!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Yeah. We been comin’ up with some ideas,” Applejack said. “Ya know, things we can do over the weekend. Maybe grow Wallflower like we did Sunset way back when.”

After a thoughtful pause, Princess Celestia smiled and leaned over all of them including Wallflower in particular. “I am glad to hear that. I hope you make some wonderful memories together.”

Wallflower cracked a smile and bowed. “Yes. We will.”

Princess Celestia then turned to Sunset. “It looks like you really are starting your life anew here. I must say that I am thrilled to see that you are moving on just fine.”

“Thanks, Princess. But, uh…” Sunset scratched her head. “Still, what are you doing here? It’s really strange to see you here.”

Princess Celestia straightened up. “Well, that is exactly it, actually.”

Sunset tilted her head. “Huh?”

“Sunset Shimmer, I have been ruminating on the past few years and how our relationship has evolved in that time. I watched you, as your teacher, grow from that filly I first met all that time ago into the... overly confident mare you became. And then you ran away, and that was the end. I still worried for you, of course, and I was thrilled to hear that you had turned yourself around, but I did nothing to try to repair the bridge between us, even when I knew it was something you likely wanted. I have been a teacher to you, Sunset, but I have not been a friend.”

Sunset and the others watched with somber frowns.

“Here you were having started your life anew,” Princess Celestia continued, “and I kept myself distant from it. I regret that. Now you are once again starting your life anew here; in many ways a second chance. So I would like to do things differently this time.

“Sunset Shimmer, I would like to be a part of your life.”

Sunset blinked and straightened up. “You… do?”

“Yes. I would. Even if it is a small part. This world is not mine, after all, and there is Equestria to take care of. But perhaps I can find time here and there to see how you are doing. Go out for tea, or whatever else there is that you do in this world—or Ponyville, for that matter. I want to be a pony that you can readily turn to if you need advice or if you need withers to cry on. All things I know you can find here, but you can get them from me as well.”

“That does sound nice.”

“I am glad that you think so. I’ve come here to see to that… taking the initiative, as it were. I want to see this world for myself, Sunset, so I know what your life is like. I want to see it so that I can understand it and you better.”

Sunset snapped her fingers and then glanced between her friends. “I have an idea. What’s to say we all give Princess Celestia a tour of the school?”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “What? Us? Uh, we could do that.”

“First thing we do with our new friend, maybe?” Pinkie Pie added.

“That’s a lovely idea,” Rarity said, jumping in place.

Wallflower cracked a nervous smile and nodded.

Sci-Twi walked up. “We’d be happy to show you around, Your Highness. If that’s okay, of course.”

Princess Celestia nodded and smiled. “That does sound like a wonderful idea. I would be thrilled to accompany you.” She looked up at Principal Celestia. “Would that be alright with you?”

A grin flashed across Principal Celestia’s lips but then she thought about what could happen during the tour. “Fundamentally, yes. I would like you to be able to connect. But it occurs to me that you might cause some confusion for anyone that happens to see you.”

Vice Principal Luna nodded in agreement. “That would be troublesome.”

Princess Celestia chuckled. “I expected that might be the case. But somepony I know told me something fairly wise right before I came. To do what is right might be worth a small amount of trouble in the end.”

At that, Principal Celestia laughed. “That may very well be true.”

“There are two of us already,” Sci-Twi said, motioning to Twilight. “It shouldn’t be that hard to explain.”

“I can always come with,” Twilight added. “I’d like to maybe do this with you all too.”

Principal Celestia shared nods with Vice Principal Luna. “Alright.”

“Then it’s settled!” Applejack exclaimed, shaking an affirmative fist.

Starlight stepped forward. “Moondancer and I are going to head back home, okay? Moondancer has a train to catch.”

Moondancer nodded. “Yeah. Is that alright, Your Highness?”

Princess Celestia looked down at them and smiled. “I do believe I am in good hooves. Thank you for bringing me here.” She turned to the other girls. “Well then, how about you all lead the way?”

With some jubilant cries, they all formed up around Princess Celestia and corralled her into a nearby hallway. They launched into some excited explanations of what the school was and what everything around them, certainly new and unknown to Princess Celestia, was about. And Princess Celestia glided along, enraptured by what they had to say.

Starlight Glimmer turned and slung her arm across Moondancer’s shoulders and the two of them, with one last wave, left through the front doors.

And that left Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna standing alone in the foyer.

After a moment, Principal Celestia chuckled. “Seems like Princess Twilight was right.”

Vice Principal Luna quizzically hummed.

“Things really do tend to work out in the end, don’t they?”

Vice Principal Luna looked down the hall where the girls and the princess had disappeared down and nodded, matching her sister’s smile. “Indeed.”

Epilogue

Sunset Shimmer sat on the front steps of Canterlot High School, kicking her legs as she waited. The sun sank lower in the sky, casting golden light across the green. The shadow of the Wondercolts Statue almost reached the school walls now. The front lawn remained otherwise empty.

Her mind remained relatively blank for the moment; perhaps there was actually a lot on her mind, but she had already sorted through it and rehearsed it. Only one real, calming feeling came to mind: resolution. This moment was where things moved forward.

The glass doors behind her swung open and Princess Twilight stepped out. Twilight sat down right beside Sunset. Both sat in silence for a bit.

“So now what?” Sunset asked.

“Well, I guess that’s what we should probably talk about, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Twilight turned. “Sunset… you are right. I did love you. I do love you. You’re smart, driven, and confident. We both come from similar backgrounds and all. And once upon a time, you were a rock when I was distressed for not having all the answers. And then you became a rock of friendship for so many others. Even now, you are.” She paused as some words got caught in her throat. “We’re so alike. You are… somepony I’m so very proud to know.”

“I understand that. I do.”

“I love you. You are… the one I care about the most. I don’t know if you…” She shook her head. “Well, you figured it out, so…”

Sunset chuckled. “It was pretty obvious, honestly.”

“Really?”

“You really tried to move mountains for me, Twilight. I am one hundred percent convinced… you are the Princess of Friendship and you would kill for me. You kinda sorta tried to.”

Twilight groaned and fiddled with her hair.

“I get the feeling we would have gone great together, you and I,” Sunset said. “It could still be possible. But we have to face the truth, Twilight. I don’t love you.”

Twilight nodded solemnly.

“I want to recognize that. I do. I want to recognize what we had. But… one thing I feel pretty sure about is that what I have now is not enough. All I have is the hoops we jumped through to get my memories back, and you trying to exact justice on my behalf, and you doing what you thought was right to keep me safe. Everything else is hearsay.

“I don’t have the experiences anymore. And without those experiences, I’m someone different, Twilight. I’m changed. I’m not the same Sunset you knew a few weeks ago. And the fact of the matter is… I’m not going to be beholden to you. I’m not going to lie to myself and pretend to be a different person just to make you happy.”

“No,” Twilight said with a solemn nod, “you shouldn’t. That wouldn’t be right.”

Sunset sighed. “Just as long as you understand that. Then there’s that, at least. I just… wanted to make sure that was clear.”

Twilight, looking somewhat pale in the face, then stood up and even stumbled down the stairs.

“Wait!” Sunset managed to grab Twilight’s arm. “Where are you going?”

Without looking back, she replied, “You… said what you wanted to say, right?”

Sunset shook her head. “Are you kidding? Twilight, I’m just getting started.”

Twilight hung in Sunset’s grasp.

Sunset kicked her feet together. “I am changed, but so are a bunch of other people. Princess Celestia has sure changed. I think Wallflower Blush will change. Heck, the old me changed from the person I was when I ruled this school. People change, Twilight.

“And I could change again. Things between us could change.”

Twilight swallowed and finally looked back.

Sunset stood up and, with a slight pull, prompted Twilight to face her. She looked into Twilight’s eyes and saw the slightest of shake in them. She tightened her grip on Twilight’s wrist, intent to not let go.

“Twilight Sparkle… I do not love you. But… if you give me enough reasons to,” Sunset Shimmer said, “maybe I’ll change my mind.”

A certain sparkle appeared in Twilight’s eyes and some color returned to her face. She stepped inward.

Sunset giggled and grinned. “But hey, if it’s meant to be… you shouldn’t have any problems doing it a second time, right?”

Twilight giggled in return. “Yes. You’re right. I shouldn’t.” She brushed her hair back as her cheeks turned flush. Now her eyes had fallen to the ground. “Actually,” she said, twisting one of her boots into the concrete, “would it be alright if I gave you a reason right now?”

Sunset tilted her head. “Right now? Sure?”

“It’s forward. Very forward. I don’t want to scare you!”

“Uh, okay?” Sunset chuckled. “Do it. Just do it.”

Twilight beamed and then she drew closer. Sunset saw her coming and leaned forward to meet her, propelled by a vague idea of what was about to happen. She finally spotted the quiver and movement of Twilight’s lips which prompted her to unconsciously reciprocate in kind. And Twilight closed her eyes.

At long last, Sunset’s lips met Twilight’s as Twilight pressed herself against Sunset. A sweet, heated sensation feeling passed between the two. Tingles shot throughout Sunset’s body and she could feel her heart fluttering. Eventually her whole body loosened up and she let herself fall a little more into Twilight. She eventually closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment.

After what felt like forever, Twilight finally pulled away. And the two looked into each other’s eyes, wondering what the other would say.

Sunset let out a deep breath and then nodded. “Wow,” she murmured. “You were right. That was forward.”

Twilight broke away. “I’m sorry.”

“No. That was... nice. You taste good. That’s a… convincing reason, Twilight.”

Twilight beamed again.

Sunset spent a moment longer processing what she had just experienced and how she had felt about it. She then flashed a smile back. “From now on, keep giving me reasons, okay? Never stop.”

“I promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight said, performing several fitting motions as she went.

“Okay. Don’t let me down.” She paused to look toward the adolescent sun and straightened herself up. “Alright. It’s getting late and I should probably start thinking about heading home.”

“Yes. Maybe I should do the same. I still have to work on those geodes and get those back to you all.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“But if you need me for anything… I’m just a portal away!”

“Yeah. I know where to find you.”

Twilight took a few more steps backward. “See you tomorrow?”

Sunset swelled. “See you tomorrow.”

With a wide smile, Twilight turned and ambled down the steps and across the lawn. Sunset steadied herself against the railing at the top of the stairs and watched Twilight approach the Wondercolts Statue. When Twilight Sparkle reached the base, she paused and turned to flash Sunset one last smile and one last parting wave before she walked into it, disappearing beyond the portal.

Sunset Shimmer sighed with content and patted the rail as she broke away and turned. She walked up to the doors and disappeared into the school—into what was, not actually but still in many ways, her home.

Author's Note

And with this, Retrograde has finally come to and end.

We hope you enjoyed this story! It has been a long road to get here, but if you are here, you have our sincerest thanks for sticking it out to the end. It is for you who this story is finished for.

Until next time~

RQK & Onyx Archer

For a post-script, see this blog post

1 - Lost Positives

Princess Twilight Sparkle took another bite of her sandwich, wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin, and lowered her eyes to the stacks of paper before her. She read in silence. Numbers filled rows and columns, and a few graphs in the corner provided insights on trends and expectancies.

She ruffled her wings as she came to a particular set of figures which, when considered, pointed toward a discrepancy in the numbers of bits that actually existed.

And those sorts of things made her blood boil. She groaned.

A unicorn mare, standing near a portion of the bookshelves that ringed around the room, glanced over while adjusting her glasses. “Huh?”

Twilight glanced over and smiled. “Oh, nothing you need to worry about, Moondancer.”

“If you say so, Twilight,” Moondancer said as she picked a book from the bookshelf. She trotted over to the table and took her seat next to Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes trailed to the empty teacup in front of her friend and she then smiled. She lit her horn and levitated the teapot over and refilled the cup.

Moondancer glanced up and chuckled. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Twilight said before taking another bite of her sandwich.

She returned to reading the rest of the notes and figures, stopping to digest the occasional diagram. Finally, she resorted the stack of papers and levitated them up. “I guess that sudden reappropriation of vital funds will delay things after all.”

A third mare, who sat across from the both of them, took those papers within her own magic. “It will take some time to fix it. Accounting for it will require redoing the ledgers.”

Twilight sighed and nodded all the same.

Moondancer looked up, pausing to stare at the scar across this mare’s right eye. She ran her eyes over the gradient of cerise and violet that was this mare’s mane and tail, and finally over the horn protruding out of her head. Moondancer then sighed and stuck her head back into the book in front of her.

The mare leaned forward. “I see that you noticed the fund discrepancy.”

“I did,” Twilight said. “And I guess you know how to fix it?”

“I already have. You’ll see it when the updated ledgers come about. But that will take a couple of days. That is the earliest time the board will approve your proposal.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You think they’ll approve?”

The mare smirked. “Oh, they will. I will make certain of it.”

Twilight smiled in response. “Excellent. Is that everything that you had for me?”

The mare stood up and, after quickly adjusting her vest, she shook her head. “That’s everything. I’ll try to get those revised J-17 forms to you as promptly as possible. If you need anything else, I’ll be back at City Hall.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The mare turned and trotted out the pair of double doors, pulling them closed as she went.

Moondancer chuckled. “What’s all that about anyway?”

Twilight sighed, took a sip from her own teacup, and turned to face her friend once again. “Oh, I’ve been thinking about building a friendship school nearby. But it has to clear Ponyville’s zoning board first.”

“Huh. You can’t just build it on royal authority? Or with a magic chest?”

“No, I can’t. I may be the Princess of Friendship, but I still have to follow some rules. And I’d hate to break the rules.”

Moondancer smirked. “I’m just glad you at least have some time to do this collaboration with me. I’m sure being a princess means you’re pretty busy.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh, I’m pretty busy, alright. But I’m never too busy for friends.”

Moondancer smiled.

Twilight levitated another stack of papers over and, while stuffing another bit of sandwich into her mouth, she began pouring over their contents. She sorted out a few pages from the top and eventually set the others on the table. “Anyway, I was thinking a little more about the introduction that you blocked out. I like it so far.”

“I’m glad that you think so,” Moondancer replied. “I think it’s some of my best description. But…”

Twilight shifted in her seat. “But, there was one thing that stuck out to me that we might want to look at again.”

Moondancer adjusted her glasses. “Was it the source of the error in the low-x region?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “It was! So you noticed it too.”

“I did,” Moondancer said. She levitated some pages over and flipped through some before selecting one from the bunch and passing it over. “I think we had some magical resonance and that always has some nasty effects. I’m pretty sure that’s what has brought on this undesired behavior.”

Twilight took the sheet and scanned it. The page itself was an ordinary line graph joined by a couple of equations at the bottom. The graph itself gave a distribution; somewhere in the middle, the line rose up toward what looked like a spike and then fell again. The equations told her where that spike was.

“I think you might be right,” Twilight said.

“I wanted to mention it too, but I just haven’t been able to figure out how to parse it. If you know what I mean.”

Twilight nodded and set the paper down. “Okay, okay. Do you know specifically what was resonating?”

Moondancer shrugged. “I’ve narrowed it down. But I don’t have the resolution to really peg it down.”

Twilight sighed and rubbed her face with her hooves. “So then… we might not be able to solve it. We might just have to live with having these large error bars. I hate this.”

Moondancer shook her head. “We still have better results than every other paper on the subject before this.”

Twilight threw her hooves into the air. “I guess.”

Moondancer took a sip from her teacup and returned to her readings.

Twilight looked through a few more of the papers, taking bites from her sandwich all the while. Her eyes occasionally wandered to a large object near the back wall: a large apparatus of idle pumps, empty tubing, and electrodes surrounded a large and ornate mirror. The more time that passed, the more she found herself looked in its direction.

Moondancer caught onto Twilight’s glances and looked up as well. “Uh, Twilight? You okay?”

Twilight jumped in her seat and then looked over. “Oh. Yes! I’m fine. I think.”

“You’re looking a little bit distracted, Twilight; you keep looking at that mirror over there.”

Twilight shrugged. “Well, that mirror is actually an invention of Starswirl’s. It’s a portal to another world.”

Moondancer tilted her head. “Really?”

“Yeah! I’m not entirely sure of the specifics, since all of my books on Starswirl don’t have anything in them about the mirror, but it’s definitely a portal to another world.” Twilight giggled. “I’ve actually been to that other world a few times these past few years.”

Moondancer gagged on the tea mid-sip. “Seriously!? What’s it like over there? What kind of ponies live there? Are they even ponies at all?” Moondancer asked between coughs, not bothering to wait for either her coughing to stop, or for the answers to her inquiries before firing off multiple follow-up questions.

Twilight blushed. “Uh, it’s... different, but not so different… it’s a little hard to explain. I can tell you they aren’t ponies at all, though.”

“Wow…”

Twilight scratched her head and said, “I have a friend over there who came by the other day because of a friendship problem, and I’m just a little worried since she hasn’t written me back yet.”

“You’re friends with ponies from another world? Stars, that’s... wow...”

“Technically, I’m friends with several people from another world,” Twilight giggled. “But the one I’m talking about is actually from our world. Her name’s Sunset Shimmer—”

Moondancer gasped. “Oh. Oh! I know of her. She was Celestia’s student before you were, right?”

“That’s the one. I’m a little surprised you know of her. She hasn’t been in Equestria for a while.”

“Please Twilight, I may have been a total shut-in for a few years, but it’s not like I’m not aware of this kind of stuff,” Moondancer said with a smug grin. “So, hey, was that why I saw you in Canterlot?”

Twilight jumped. “Uh, yes! You saw me!?”

“I was there in the library. You know, revisiting some materials for the paper.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh my goodness. You should have said something. I would have come over to say hi.”

“I figured I would come find you later. But I looked all over that library and couldn’t find you anywhere.” Moondancer threw her hooves into the air. “And I know that place like the back of my hoof.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh my gosh. You are not going to believe where we went. There is a section of that library that I didn’t even know existed!”

Moondancer frowned. “Must be really well hidden, then. I’ve spent hours in there, and this is the first I’m hearing about it.”

“It was amazing!” Twilight sprang to her hooves and was in Moondancer’s face immediately. “They had Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-one!”

Moondancer shot to her hooves. “No! You’re kidding! That’s when it gets good!”

Twilight laughed. “I know! Oh, if only I could show you myself. It’s a restricted section, though.”

“Restricted!? You’re going into the—” Moondancer took a long and deep breath and finally met Twilight’s eyes. “Okay, you have to tell me what happened now, if you’re going into a restricted section for it.”

Twilight backed up, nodding all the while. “Let’s see…”

* * *

Sunset Shimmer withdrew into herself even more. The chair she sat on, which consisted of a hardened material she didn’t recognize, felt alien underneath her. It was incredibly strange that her hind legs, if they could even be called that anymore, were draped over the front.

The person sitting at the desk across from her was impossible. This Princess Celestia look-alike was impossible. Rather, she was Principal Celestia. Sunset had to continuously tell herself that she did not know this person. She knew a pony like this person, but that pony was not this person.

Principal Celestia folded her hands together and nodded. “I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

The woman standing next to her, Vice Principal Luna, nodded. “We may all have seen enough of this Equestrian magic by now to accept this. We shall have to have quite a few words with this Wallflower when she comes into school tomorrow.”

The six strange girls from wherever they had just come from were also there. The strange transformation had apparently worn off, but that did Sunset no favors. They nodded in response.

Principal Celestia sighed and shook her head. If she was anything like the Celestia that Sunset had known, this was her way of expressing disappointment, and/or frustration. She had seen Princess Celestia act similarly during those chance few royal meetings she had attended as her pupil not too long ago.

Well, to her, they weren’t too long ago. According to everyone else around her, however, this was far from the case.

Principal Celestia opened a notebook, which Sunset assumed was some kind of day planner or something similar, and jotted a few lines down. “I’ll inform Mr. Doodle to have her come to my office first thing.”

Twilight, or rather Sci-Twi (if Sunset had indeed heard that nickname right), looked at her friends. “Should we come to the office too? We were there when she stole Sunset’s memories, and we’re also her friends, so—”

“Perhaps that would be a good idea,” Vice Principal Luna said. “We’ll need all accounts of what happened, for one. And, as a matter of fact, Sunset may have to rely on you to even explain what happened…”

A silence fell on the room as Sunset glanced up and met Vice Principal Luna’s eyes. Sunset’s frown deepened as she considered the other’s face, and Vice Principal Luna, in turn, regarded Sunset’s almost imperceptible tremble and the way in which she pressed herself as far into the chair as possible.

Vice Principal Luna sighed and crossed her arms. “I am… unsure if you even comprehend what has happened to you.”

Sunset hung her head. “Everypony is telling me that I’ve forgotten everything. I don’t... know,” she said. “They tell me I’ve been here for years and that I know everypony here but I don’t. I don’t know what I’m supposed to believe.”

“You can believe us,” Twilight offered.

“And believe that this is what happened to me? You’re telling me that it’s been three years or so since I hopped through that portal? I don’t know if I want to believe it!”

Principal Celestia nodded. “I can understand it. It is okay if this feels like a lot to take in.”

Sunset slammed her fists against the desk. “How do I know? You all say that I came here, ruled this school for a while, and then I supposedly turned a new leaf, but someone who probably didn’t believe it decided to take revenge. How do I know that any of that happened?” She slammed the desk again. “How do I know that I’m not being lied to?”

Principal Celestia met Sunset’s eyes for a few long moments and then took a brief glance at the clock. With a sigh, she stood up and walked toward one of the steel cabinets on one side of the room. Its top served as a small bookshelf of sorts. She picked a total of three similarly-constructed books off of it.

The other girls made a few cooing sounds under the breath.

“I won’t try to convince you of everything you are seeing and hearing is the absolute truth; not unless you feel like you want me to. But these are yearbooks from past years. They aren’t definite records of the past by any means, but maybe they’ll be useful to you,” Principal Celestia said as she turned and held out the books for Sunset.

Sunset stared at the yearbooks for a few moments more and then tentatively reached out for them. Her hands automatically (and impossibly) reached out and gripped them perfectly. She pulled the yearbooks into her and examined them one by one.

Principal Celestia crossed her arms. “For now, there is one thing that I must convince you about, and it is that you have a home here, in this world.” She briefly exchanged glances with Vice Principal Luna before adding, “And it is our responsibility to make sure you make it home safely tonight.”

“I… do?” Sunset wheezed.

“The apartment,” Rarity said. “You have an apartment here.”

“Yes,” Vice Principal Luna said as she offered her hand. “So, if you would stand up and come with me, I will take you.”

“Uh,” Applejack began, “you know where she lives?”

“Given everything that has happened since the Fall Formal, we have had to,” Vice Principal Luna said with a sigh.

“Riiiight,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her arms.

Vice Principal Luna turned. “Keys?”

Principal Celestia reached into her jacket pocket and handed a set of keys over. “I’ll be out of the staff meeting at five.”

Vice Principal Luna nodded, twirling the keyring with her finger. “I hope we’ll be able to get in by that time. If not, we’ll have to figure something else out. Come along, Sunset Shimmer.”

As Vice Principal Luna opened the door and led Sunset out of the room, Celestia returned to a cabinet under her side of the desk and reached in for some folders. “I have to prepare for my meeting, but I will be here once I get out. Feel free to stop by. In fact, please do.”

* * *

“So what are we supposed to do about Sunset’s memory?” Rainbow Dash asked as they walked down the hall. “I mean, even if Wallflower actually shows up tomorrow, the Memory Stone is broken. We don’t know the first thing about Equestrian magic...”

“Sunset Shimmer should still know about Equestrian magic! She only lost her memories of high school, right?” Pinkie asked. “She was calling for her world’s version of Principal Celestia, remember?”

“I do, but would she even want to help us?” Fluttershy said as she twiddled her fingers together.

“What do you mean, Fluttershy? Why wouldn’t she? We’re her friends!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“I know we are, but she doesn’t remember being our friend.”

Sci-Twi hung her head and let out a long and dejected sigh. “True, and we didn’t exactly trust her when we lost our memories of her.”

“But that’s because we only remembered her for who she was, and not who she had become,” Rarity said, pausing a moment to examine a nail. “We only remembered the bad things she’s done, but not the good memories we shared with her.”

“What about the journal she uses to talk to the Princess?” Sci-Twi asked. “The Memory Stone was using Equestrian magic, and she’s the only other person we know that knows as much as Sunset on the subject.”

Pinkie Pie leaped and bounded around the group. “If there’s anyone who can solve a friendship problem, it’s Princess Twilight! She is the Princess of Friendship, so this will be a cakewalk for her!” And, just like that, her mouth began to water. “A cakewalk sounds really yummy right about now.”

“We can get cake after we notify Princess Twilight, dear.” Rarity giggled. “We just need to find Sunset’s Journal.”

Hearing this, Pinkie stopped bouncing, and shot a confused look at Rarity. “Wait... find it? Didn’t she have her bag when she went after Wallflower?”

“I don’t think so...” Fluttershy mumbled. “At least, I don’t think she did.”

A puff of smoke from down the hall briefly caught their attention where, when the smoke cleared, they witnessed Trixie Lulamoon glancing about her person, jumping for joy, giving the door behind her a swift kick, and practically running further down the hall.

“Maybe she left it in her locker or something?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“If it is, we’d need her combination. Otherwise, we’d be up a creek without a paddle,” Applejack said. “As easy as it’d be for me or Twilight to use our magic to rip the door open, we’d probably get in trouble for breaking school property.”

“So what? We just ask the custodian to break the lock off. That should be easy enough, right?”

“We can’t without Principal Celestia’s permission, and she’s in that staff meeting,” Applejack said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t think we’ll be able to ask her until after.”

Sci-Twi frowned. “And this assumes that it’s even in her locker, to begin with.”

Rainbow Dash tapped her foot and groaned. Her eyes wandered over the entire hallway. Her eyes fell on the door they had just seen Trixie in front of and she gasped. She zipped over to it quicker than a lightning bolt and pressed her face against the glass, trying to peer inside.

Pinkie Pie was next to her in seconds and she too also peered into the room. Aside from Twilight’s selfie detecting drone on the center island, they found nothing of note—not within where they could see, anyhow.

Rainbow Dash tried the handle but it jiggled in place. “Locked.”

“Is it in there?” Fluttershy asked as she and the others walked up.

Pinkie Pie made a noncommittal sound and shook her head.

Applejack threw her hands into the air. “For land’s sake. That journal could be anywhere in this school. And I don’t know how we’re gunna find it.”

Fluttershy folded her hands together. “We don’t have any other ways to get in touch with her, do we?”

After a moment, Sci-Twi’s eyes lit up. “Maybe we do... Maybe the portal is still open...”

* * *

“Okay, let’s see if I got this right,” Moondancer began, attempting to sort through what Twilight had just finished explaining. “Sunset Shimmer’s friends, whom are that other world’s version of our friends, had their memories stolen with an Equestrian artifact that Clover the Clever hid in that world?”

“Yep,” Twilight replied.

“And you didn’t go over to that world because...?”

Twilight sighed. “It’s... complicated. Well, not really, but it’s weird, you know?”

“What’s weird about it? You’ve been over there before, so what’s the big deal?” Moondancer asked. “Not to mention that you’re the Princess of Friendship, and probably one of the most magically gifted ponies I know; this is kind of in your wheelhouse.”

“Yeah, but it’s—”

The creak of the library doors opening interrupted Twilight before she could finish her thought. Looking over, she was greeted by a nervous smile as a pinkish-coated mare stepped into the room.

“Hey Twilight, Moondancer,” Starlight Glimmer said. “I’m not bothering you right now, am I?”

Twilight offered her friend a smile and a gesture that told the mare to come right in. “Not at all, we were sort of just chatting about my recent trip to Canterlot.”

Starlight’s face twisted a little in confusion. “You went to Canterlot? When?”

“The other day. I was gone quite a while.”

“I went to the spa with Trixie, I think.”

Twilight nodded. “Oh, that’s right, you weren’t at the castle that day. Did Spike not tell you? I could have sworn I told him to let you know.”

“I thought he went to go help Rarity that day? Or am I remembering wrong?”

Twilight lightly smacked her forehead, just below her horn. Of course she’d forget something as small as that; Sunset had visited that day, and she had gotten caught up in the idea of helping Sunset smooth things over with Princess Celestia, and had forgotten to leave a note for Spike or Starlight to explain where she had gone.

“...I forgot about that. I was a little too absorbed in helping Sunset that I—”

Starlight jumped. “Wait, Sunset was visiting? Why? Is something wrong over there?” she asked, a slight tremble to her voice.

“Hold on…” Moondancer interjected as she narrowed her eyes. “Starlight, you’ve been over there too? Am I the only one here who didn’t know about Starswirl’s mirror portal?”

Starlight blushed, smiling sheepishly as her face darkened to a shade of pink that matched the color of the Element of Laughter’s mane. “Yeah, but I haven’t been there as much as Twilight has. I think I’ve only been over there twice.”

“Twice? I thought it was only the one time?” Twilight asked, confused. She leaned across the table. “Did you sneak over there recently without telling me?”

“... Maybe?” Starlight mumbled, her flushed face glowing like the freshest apple from Sweet Apple Acres. “It was only for a few hours, while you were away dealing with a Friendship Problem. I was back before you were, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. Sorry...”

Twilight smiled, and rested a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “No, it’s fine. I’m just happy that you’re getting along with the girls in that world.”

“Ahem!” Moondancer cleared her throat. “Not to interrupt, but Twilight, you were just about to tell me why you didn’t go over there to help with your friend’s losing their memories.”

“Wait, what!?” Starlight shrieked. “They lost their memories!?”

“It’s a long story, Starlight,” Twilight sighed. “The short version is Sunset’s friends had their memories stolen by someone using an artifact from our world called the Memory Stone.”

“That doesn’t sound so good,” Starlight replied.

“She’s working on getting those memories back,” Twilight continued. “I hope she succeeds.”

“Me too,” Starlight seconded.

“Well,” Moondancer said as she reached across the table, “if she’s anything like you made her sound, she should be okay.”

“I know,” Twilight said with a blush. “She’s smart… and capable… I have faith she’ll come through this.”

A crackling sound caught their attention. The three of them looked at the portal as magic sparks flew across it. Compressors hummed as they came to life and bits of magic flowed through many of the tubes that wound around the mirror.

Twilight stood up and made her way around the table. “That might be Sunset. But why…?”

Moondancer hummed and followed suit.

The apparatus continued to pump energy around its many facets and then finally shot two lasers into the face of the mirror. The face transformed into a swirling vortex of strong pinks. There was a flash and then the portal dumped several bodies across the floor.

Starlight jumped. “What the hay!?”

These six ponies—with one exception—looked just like the rest of Twilight’s friends, down to their coat colors, their manes, and the cutie marks on their flanks. The exception, however, looked much like Twilight as she had looked like as a unicorn, had her mane in an actual ponytail, and sported large black glasses like the ones Moondancer wore on her face.

And this strange Applejack was the first to stir. She wiped the stars from her eyes. “Hello?”

Twilight gasped. “Girls! You’re… here!?”

Rainbow Dash rolled over and then looked up. “P-princess Twilight?” she said.

“Uh, yes! Are you from Canterlot High!?” Twilight practically screamed. “What are you doing here!?”

Pinkie Pie immediately rolled over and then attempted to stand up on her hind legs. She wobbled and teetered about, not quite acclimated to the sudden shift of her center of gravity.

Moondancer’s eyebrows were raised to their fullest extent as she examined each of them. But, as she considered her own Twilight and Starlight, her expression loosened back up.

Fluttershy looked up. “Yes. Hi…”

Rarity looked up. “Hello, Twilight. Yes, we’re from Canterlot High. How are you?”

Twilight frowned. “Uh, wow. I did not expect this.”

Starlight’s eye turned to the unicorn Twilight who still lay relatively motionless on the floor. She frowned and scrambled over. “Hey, Twilight! Twilight! Sci-Twi!” Starlight exclaimed.

Sci-Twi rolled over and groaned. “Anyone catch the license plate of that bus?” she slurred.

Starlight sighed. “Gosh. I guess you are all okay, but—”

Slowly, but surely, the five most conscious ones took various glances at the way that Twilight, Starlight, and Moondancer stood and then looked at their own bodies. While four of them made various attempts to stand on their hind legs, failed, and then eventually settled into being on all-fours, the last shrank into herself.

“I’m naked,” Rarity grumbled.

“Sunset told us enough about Equestria. Still feels a bit weird, but it ain’t like we didn’t have any idea of what to expect,” Applejack said.

“Yes, well, I had assumed that the ponies over here wore clothes. Especially after hearing about Equestria from both Sunset and the Princess,” Rarity sighed. “I was so excited to see what kind of cute clothes little ponies would be wearing too...”

“No offense, Rarity, but now is definitely not the time to be worrying about how ponies dress," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not why we're here.”

“I do suppose that’s true.”

Twilight glanced between them and then stepped forward. “So, wait. You remember?”

“Yes!” Sci-Twi exclaimed as she suddenly rolled over. “Everything!”

Twilight clapped her hooves together. “I’m so pleased to hear that! After Sunset left to go find the Memory Stone, I couldn’t stop worrying about it.”

“These are the friends you were talking about?” Moondancer asked.

Twilight nodded. “These are my friends from Canterlot High. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and… me.”

“Hi, I’m Moondancer.”

“Hey! Nice to meet you!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, zipping over to Moondancer. She then looked at her own hooves and then at Moondancer’s hooves and then frowned. “Uh, what hand do I shake? How do I do this?”

Moondancer pulled back. “Uh, I’d rather not if that’s okay.”

“So…” Starlight began, “where is Sunset anyway?”

Sci-Twi eventually stood up and, while wobbly, trotted over to join her friends as well. “That’s just it. That’s why we’re here. She doesn’t remember anything! And we don’t know how to fix it.”

Twilight’s smile fell, and with it, the color seemed to drain from her face. “Sunset... lost her memories?” she asked, her voice cracking as the words left her mouth. She had questions; dozens of them floating around in her mind. And yet, her lips remained sealed to all but one word; to the simplest of questions to ask: “How?”

Sci-Twi gripped her foreleg, and her head drooped. The crestfallen look in her eyes only made her friends’ faces fall.

“Sunset... she dove in front of us to protect us... and she never got those memories back...” Sci-Twi explained, the guilt making her Equestrian counterpart wince with empathy. “That’s why we’re here... we don’t know what to do!”

“So she gave up her memories to save all of yours...” Twilight said, knowing it to be true. “She did tell me the other day that she would do anything to save all your memories. Listen, there’s this artifact called the Memory Stone. It’s a small rock about—”

“We know about the Memory Stone, sugarcube,” Applejack interrupted.

Twilight blinked and then eventually. “Oh, well that makes things simple. Just use the stone and restore her memories.”

“But that’s just it!” Rarity squealed. “We can’t! We destroyed the stone!”

Moondancer raised an eyebrow. Starlight gasped.

Twilight’s blood ran cold just as quickly as her jaw dropped out of place. She tentatively stepped forward as she scanned each of their faces. She looked for an indication she could find that they had said something inaccurate. She wanted them to be looking at Rarity with raised eyebrows and confused frowns, but instead, they stared Twilight down with pale expressions and held breaths.

“You…” she said at length. She couldn’t believe it. “You destroyed the Memory Stone?”

“Yes,” Rarity replied.

Starlight swore under her breath.

Twilight had to take a step back in order to remain standing. “No. You… destroyed the Memory Stone… and Sunset didn’t get her memories back?”

Rainbow Dash shuddered. “Yeah, you got it. Twilight, what do we do?”

Moondancer’s jaw also dropped.

Twilight began hyperventilating, and the sound of her heartbeat filled her ears. “No. No… that’s not possible. She should have…”

Rarity swallowed. “W-we can fix this… right?”

“Oh goodness!” Twilight exclaimed. It was wrong. It was very wrong.

All of the others exchanged uncertain glances and then, on considering her again, lost a bit of color in their faces amidst various horrified gasps and pointed exclamations. Their mouths moved, but Twilight couldn’t make out the voices through the drumming of her heart.

“Oh, goodness no!” she exclaimed. It could not happen. She needed it to not happen. “No no no!”

She scanned their faces one last time and found nothing but anguished contortions and increasingly wet faces. And then she fell to her haunches. “Please… no…”