Forgotten

"Is she okay?"

"Check on her pulse!"

"It's normal, Doctor!"

"Oh, wait, I think she's waking up!"

Twilight groaned a bit and opened her eyes. She thought she saw four concerned ponies staring back at her. Her faculties didn't quite register them at first, so they looked like indeterminate blobs for a minute or two, but her eyes quickly adjusted and she realized that they were fellow ponies. In a second, all the horrific memories of her unhappy time in Ponyville flooded into her mind and she prepared for another tongue lashing.

"Please," she said, "if you must insult me…do it quickly!" She quivered as the four looked down on her. Their open mouths betrayed the shock they felt, but their kind eyes spoke compassion and love. One of the ponies, a gray maned stallion, spoke first. "We aren't going to insult you," he said. Twilight recognized his voice from before and determined that this was the pony they had referred to as "doctor."

"Are you a real doctor…or just one of those ponies who practices dark magic and puts the term on in front of their name to sound mystical and intelligent?"

The stallion laughed. "Oh, I'm a real doctor, alright. Dr. Manechester Greyhoof, at your service." He held out a polite hoof, and she managed to weakly shake it. "I do hope you're alright," he said, "we found you in that clearing completely passed out. Your unconscious state gave us no small fright and we brought you here. Don't worry, young mare. You're among friends."

"Friends…" Twilight almost sang the word. It was such a beautiful term, yet it seemed to have lost its luster over the course of her time in Ponyville. All of her friendships had been destroyed, and she was left with nopony to call a close confidant. She wanted so much to rush back to town and try and convince the ponies she loved that she was their friend and that they weren't who they always had been. A disloyal Rainbow Dash, dishonest and mistrustful Applejack, a mean and selfish Rarity, a cruel Fluttershy, and a bullying Pinkie Pie! The only member of my original group who actually understood friendship…was Starlight, and now she's in jail for it!

With a good deal of effort, she got back to her hooves. She wobbled a bit, but one of the mares next to her caught her. "Why are you out here?" She asked. Dr. Greyhoof's grizzled face took on a somber look. The new aesthetic caught Twilight off guard just a bit. She had expected him to give her an adventurous response. She thought they were tracking some rare and unknown creature or trying to find some mystical artifact. But Dr. Greyhoof spoke volumes with his new look, and it was a sound that grated on Twilight's psyche. As the Princess of Friendship, she always hated to see ponies sad and upset.

"It is because of Queen Celestia's evil decrees that we have gone into hiding, young one," he said.

"What decrees?"

His face went from sad to shocked. How on earth could somepony have not heard of the evil committed by this queen? I mean, after all, she's the one who killed friendship! "I'm sorry," he said, "but…are you ill?"

"No, I feel fine. What are these evil decrees?"

"Surely, you've heard some of them," Greyhoof went on, "I mean, there was the decree that banned the Summer Sun Celebration, then there was the decree that caused Equestria to go to war with Maretonia, then there was the decree that banished the true meaning of friendship!"

Twilight's eyes widened in horror. She knew that Equestria had somehow been made devoid of friendship, and she knew that it was Celestia who had done it. But to actually hear about how her oldest friend and former mentor had actually decreed these things and put them into law bashed her mind. She felt sick to her stomach and stumbled back a bit. The two mares ran behind her and caught her.

"You seem shocked at this," Greyhoof said.

"I…am," Twilight stammered, "you see, I'm not from here. I'm from a completely different Equestria. One where friendship rules and Celestia is a kind and benevolent princess. One where I am a princess as well. See these?" She stopped and fluttered her wings a bit. "These are a mark of my position in Equestria. But now, everypony seems to have forgotten me! All my friends in Ponyville, and everypony I've met so far has either ignored me, been rude to me, or tried to kill me!"

One of the mares gasped and her face fell. Twilight noticed that she was a rather pretty white one with green eyes. But she thought her face looked familiar. Then she turned, and her flank betrayed who she was. Twilight would know that cutie mark anywhere. Though she looked a little different, and was a full grown mare, she knew exactly who she was. "Sweetie Belle?" She asked.

The mare turned a deep shade of red and nodded. "Yes, it's me," she said, "but I'm afraid I don't know you."

"That's okay," Twilight said, "I've come to expect that. So I'll just have to reintroduce myself. I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. But you can call me Twilight."

"Wait…you're the Princess of Friendship?" Sweetie asked, and then gasped. "You can help us!"

"Well, I'd be glad to. How can I?"

"You see, Princess Twilight," Dr. Greyhoof said respectfully, "we are the Society of Ponies for Friendship, or S.P.F for short. We are a secret group of friends hidden throughout Equestria, and our numbers grow daily."

"Even though ponies aren't really friendly to each other anymore, we fight for a future in which things are returned to their original state."

Then, the other mare spoke up. She was olive colored, with bright orange eyes. Her red mane was done up and it was adorned with the biggest bow Twilight had ever seen. She also spoke with a thick drawl. "Ya see," she told Twilight, "ponies used to be right civil to one another. But then Queen Celestia went all crazy in the head, and she started passin' laws one after another restrictin' friendship. There were laws about what kind of friends you could have, what kind of games to play with yer friends, and even what kind of food to serve at social gatherin's!"

"But the last straw for us was law 32-B," Greyhoof said.

"What's 32-B?" Twilight asked.

"The law that banished true friendship from Equestria forever!" Apple Bloom cried, "it was a law passed in magic, and it took away the special bonds ponies shared!"

"It turned them inside out," Greyhoof said, "and created monsters out of every last one of them. They all acted completely the opposite of the way they had been acting. But we found a cure."

"We were in a group called-" Sweetie began.

"-the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Twilight finished.

"How'd you know?" Sweetie asked in shock.

"Because I remember you and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo as fillies," she said, "I was there when you received your cutie marks, and you work as friendship tutors at my school."

"That sounds right awesome!" Apple Bloom said, "I sure wish that we could visit that time!"

"But you can, because that time is right now."

"Huh?"

Twilight smiled at the two familiar ponies. "Let me explain. See, my friends and I had just defended Ponyville from a bear attack when this huge white wave came crashing down on us from Canterlot. When I woke up, all of this had happened."

The four friendly ponies all looked at each other in shock, and Greyhoof spoke up. "I trust you, Princess Twilight. I believe you are a noble and true pony who can help bring the joys of friendship back to our land. We can restore Equestria to the happy place it once was."

"Nothing would make me happier," Twilight said, "I will fight with every fiber of my being to restore friendship to Equestria!"

Then Greyhoof looked down the line at the fourth pony, a rather dull colored stallion with a mid-length mane. He looked to be a bit shy and awkward, but Greyhoof still gave him a friendly look. "Princess," he said, "I forgot to introduce the fourth member of our little group. This is Bumble Trot."

Twilight walked up and held out her hoof, "It's nice to meet you, Bumble Trot." She smiled at him and he seemed to perk up. He took her hoof and shook it. "The pleasure's all mine," he said. He gave her a friendly smile back and she retreated to her original position. "So, how can I help?" She asked.