Down the Memory Hole

by chris the cynic

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Equestria Girls, Wallflower Blush, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Alternate Universe, Drama, Trixie, Mystery
Length: 1539

One day Sunset Shimmer wakes up to find that no one remembers she ever reformed. Retelling of "Forgotten Friendship"/"A Friendship to Remember"

Sunset Shimmer's entire world collapsed overnight. It did it without her even noticing. Upon finding out she has no idea why, and neither she nor Princess Twilight can figure out how it's even possible.

All she knows is that when she met her friends the day after, they weren't her friends. When she meets other students they still hate and fear her. When she tries to remind people that she's changed, they don't remember any of it, but they do remember all of the bad things with crystal clear quality.

Everything she regrets --from being a bully, to being a monster, to yelling at Twilight during the Friendship Games-- remains. Everything she's proud of is gone. With the entire world convinced the truth is a lie, no friends amoung humans, and time running out, Sunset races to understand, and hopefully fix, whatever has happened.

Meta Notes:

When A Friendship to Remember came out I remember being extremely underwhelmed. This is my attempt at taking the basic story and making it whelming.

Well, most of it. You see, most of the book (Chapters 3 to 23 of 23) is the official prose version of Forgotten Friendship, and that is the story here. I feel like the story, at its core, has some real potential, but it did not live up to that potential.

This is a straight up retelling, that means that while it is AU it isn't divergent. More . . . parallel. It doesn't spin off in a different direction, it just tells the same core story with different execution and details.

Published 2018-02-17 20:50:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-02-17 20:50:06 UTC

Before it all went wrong

With all the pictures spread around the yearbook office, it was probably natural that they all started reminiscing. That, however, didn't excuse Sunset bumping into someone because she got overly enthusiastic. She said a quick, "Oops," to the green girl.

"Excuse me," the girl whispered.

It wasn't her fault, so Sunset said, "I'm sorry." Besides, she was in the yearbook office to do a job, and that job did not involve ignoring the people who came to the yearbook office. "I didn't see you come in," she said.

The girl looked at the floor and said, "I've been here a while."

Ok, that was bad. Sunset started to apologize, "I didn't realize--" and didn't even make it to the apology.

"I've been trying to get your attention."

And now Sunset felt terrible.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn't help.

Applejack said, "Ain't she a quiet one?" completely missing that Sunset should be there for everyone no matter how quiet.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, "and we know some pretty quiet people," she looked at Fluttershy, "am I right?"

At other times Sunset might have commented on teasing Fluttershy, but making it about them was the exact opposite of what they should be doing. This girl was obviously here for a reason, and so far she'd just been bumped and, however accidentally, ignored.

Sunset tried to start from the top, introductions usually helped, “I’m Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “I'm President of the Yearbook Committee and editor in chief. How can I help you?" No response. Sunset felt like Wallflower should be on the Yearbook Committee, though she had no idea where the feeling had come from. She decided to go with it and asked, "Did you want to join?" If the answer were, 'No,' they could always move on from there.

Still no response.

"We could always use more help," Sunset offered.

"I'm Wallflower," the girl said, still looking at the floor.

"Nice to meet you," Sunset said.

"I've been on the Yearbook Committee all year."

Wait.

What‽

That didn't make sense. Sunset would have had to have seen her for ages. Countless meetings. This girl should be fixed in her memory, burned in by interacting time after time after time. Sunset searched her memory, and couldn't find anything. How could she have been so callously oblivious?

Sunset knew she had to say something, and tried, "Oh . . ." twice: "Um . . ."

"We've had literally dozens of classes together since we met in ninth-grade English," Wallflower said, and Sunset was afraid the girl might start crying.

Sunset probed her memory but didn't recognize Wallflower at all. There was just this fuzzy feeling of familiarity and a strange sense of deja vu.

That wouldn't help Wallflower. Clearly this was a time for lying.

"I-- I meant that it was nice to have met you then, which . . ." when had she gotten so terrible at lying? Well, she couldn't stop in the middle of a relative clause. She said,". . . is also when I remember us meeting," and somehow had it come out like a question.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, as if Sunset had accomplished anything there.

Wallflower just sighed and said, "Anyway, I counted up all the votes for the yearbook Superlatives," and handed Sunset a piece of paper.

There was just more train wreck here. Sunset should remember either assigning that task to Wallflower or giving it to Wallflower when the girl had volunteered. She remembered neither. And yet . . . if she hadn't done it then she would still think of it as something that needed to be done. She didn't and she hadn't.

It was like she remembered the idea that she gave someone the job without remembering actually giving it to someone.

It was like she'd ripped Wallflower right out of her memories.

What was going on with her? How could she forget an entire person?

Still, there was work to do, she read off the winners of the Superlatives. There was a welcome bit of joy when she saw that she and her friends had been voted Best Friends, even if she felt like the category was kind of screwed up. What about Vinyl and Octavia? What about Lyra and Bon Bon? Did their friendships matter any less?

Pinkie Pie interpreted it in a very Pinkie Pie way, I always knew I liked you all, but now it's official! The people have spoken!"

Doubtless there was a party in their future.

"Oh, good for for Micro Chips," Twilight said in a way that sounded forced. "Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion."

Sunset felt a headache coming on. It was traditional for each Yearbook Committee President to write a letter that would be given to the next. She was going to have to put, in bold and underlined, "Don't allow write-in Superlatives."

Fluttershy was more focused on the here and now, and tried to comfort Twilight, "Don't be jealous," she said. "We all know you're a genius too."

"Besides," Rainbow Dash said, "it's just the yearbook.

Sunset heard Applejack grumble, "Now ya dunnit," but didn't care. If Rainbow Dash insisted on provoking her then she'd keep making the argument.

"Just the yearbook‽" Sunset said with Rarity-level flair. "The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gather memories into the pages of this book. Why? Because in thirty years we might not remember everything, but we'll always be able to look at the yearbook and remember what it chronicles. The year book is how we know --how we make sure-- that what we've shared will never be forgotten."

Sunset thought she heard something, but it was too soft to know what it was, she was going to try to locate the source but other things came up. Like Rainbow Dash responding that she was 'entrusting' Sunset not to put Best Friends opposite Biggest Muscles because then when the book closed it would, so Rainbow Dash claimed, be like they were all kissing Bulk Biceps.

That led to discussion about where to take their picture, and that segued nicely into Trixie bursting in, furious, and demanding to speak to the editor. Trixie hadn't, precisely, sworn vengeance on Sunset and the others after the Battle of the Bands, but she had definitely been the only one who remained antagonistic towards them after the Siren's magic was dispelled and the world was saved.

It was, as a result, always a unique experience dealing with Trixie. And of course she wanted to see the editor.

"Unfortunately for me," Sunset said, "that's me. How can I help you, Trixie?"

Trixie noticed the list of Superlatives and snatched it away. "Just as I expected. I am not being included as the Greatest and Most Powerful! Explain yourself!"

"Is that actually a category?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, it is not," Twilight said.

Trixie then practically skipped across the room, pulled a recent yearbook from the archive shelves, and opened to a page Sunset knew very well.

"Neither was 'Biggest Meanie'," Trixie said as she showed everyone the page, "but that didn't stop Sunset from getting that title."

Sunset made a mental note. In her letter to the next President of the Yearbook Committee, in all caps, bold, and double underlined: "Don't allow write-in Superlatives."

"That was different," Applejack said. "The whole school did a write in campaign.

Thank you, Sunset thought with as much sarcasm as her internal voice could muster.

"The editor had no choice but to make it official," Rarity chimed in.

"Sunset won Biggest Meanie fair and square," Rainbow Dash said.

Helping so very much.

Even Fluttershy contributed with an, "Mmm-hmm."

And, of course, Pinkie Pie had to cap everything off in epic style, "She was soooo mean, remember?"

"Hopefully that's not how I'll be remembered," Sunset said.

"Of course not," Twilight said, giving Sunset a pat on the shoulder. "Everyone who knew you then knows you've changed, and there are plenty of people like me who only met you after you'd already changed."

"Anyway," Sunset said, "this isn't about me. Trixie, we're not having a 'Greatest and Most Powerful' Superlative. Sorry."

"You'll be sorry," Trixie said. "When you least expect it the Great and Powerful Trixie will have her revenge and then she'll disappear before you can strike back! Like this!"

Smoke bomb. There was always a smoke bomb.

When the smoke cleared, though, it didn't take Pinkie Pie to spot where Trixie was. She was fighting the door to the Yearbook Committee room.

"The lock tends to stick, Trixie," Sunset said. "Allow me." Sunset opened the door. "It's closing time anyway."

First Trixe ran away in a huff. Then others did. When the doorway was empty again, Sunset hit the lights and left.

Author's Note

I wanted to get this out there before the special aired, you can see how well that worked out.

The point, however, is that this is based off the prose, not the animation. In fact, even though the special has come and gone I still haven't seen the part of the animation that this corresponds to. I only managed to catch the very tail end of the special.