Twilight stared at the framed picture she held in her hooves with a puzzled look. She had found it while tidying up her study and didn't really know what to think. She saw herself in a tight group hug with five other mares she didn't recognize. On her right, a tomboyish rainbow-maned blue pegasus; a bright pink earth pony with an even brighter pink mane; another pegasus, this one with a soft pink mane and an equally soft yellow coat. On her left, an elegant white unicorn with a stylish purple mane and another earth pony with an orange coat, a blond mane in a red band, who was wearing a cowpony hat. They were all smiling ear to ear, including Twilight herself.
But she didn't remember ever meeting the colorful bunch of mares, let alone taking a picture with them. Even so, she was struck with a strange sense of familiarity while looking at them. She just couldn't put a hoof on why she felt that way.
Levitating the frame in front of her, not lifting her eyes from her strange discovery, she trotted down the stairs to the living room where Lyra Heartstrings was enjoying one of the really mundane romance novels she found in the dusty, unsorted top shelves of the library.
The teal unicorn briefly looked up from her book, gave the purple unicorn a blank stare, then continued reading.
"Watcha got there, Twi?" she asked without looking up.
"I'm..." Twilight paused for a moment. "I'm... not quite sure actually..." she slowly answered.
"What do you mean?" Lyra frowned and looked at Twilight.
Then her eyes fell on what she was holding.
"I found this strange picture in my stud—"
Before Twilight could finish her sentence, Lyra had gotten up from the couch, ran up to her, yanked the frame from her telekinetic grasp and after taking a quick look at it and wincing, was now holding it behind her back with her front hooves, surprisingly skillfully balancing on her hind legs, grinning awkwardly at Twilight.
"W... what the hay are you doing?" Twilight stammered. "Give it back!"
"Give what back?"
"Huh?" Twilight cocked her head in confusion. "The... the picture of course, what else?" Twilight said, still startled by her friend's sudden actions and the silly question.
"Ohhh this here? Ehm. Right. One question though: where did you find this?"
Twilight gaped at the unicorn, finally answering "Uh... It was in my study, in one of the desk's drawers, under a pile of notes." She quickly shook her head. "But what does it matter? Give it back!" she started to sound agitated.
"Why?" Lyra goofily countered, backing away slowly, still grinning like an idiot, trying to come up with a good excuse for suddenly snatching away something from the purple unicorn, tiny drops of sweat forming on her forehead.
"Wha- Why? Well, what do you think?" Twilight raised her voice. "It's mine!" she began, then, staring at the floor "Or... well I think it's mine... I'm not sure..." she said softly. "But that's not the point here! You can't just take it from me like that! Give it back!"
Her horn glowed a bright purple as she tried to get a levitation field around the frame, but without being able to see it, she couldn't get a hold of it. With an irritated grunt she gave up and threateningly started towards her teal friend.
As she got close, Lyra suddenly got back on all fours, making Twilight jump a few steps back in surprise. She levitated the picture frame and sprinted towards the library door. Opening it with her telekinesis she galloped out and was gone. As Twilight slowly recovered from her daze, all she could hear was the dying sound of hooves on the cobblestone roads of Ponyville.
Twilight dropped to her haunches, and all she could mutter while she stared at the open door was: "What the buck just happened?"
***
Bon Bon looked up as she heard her name being called out from somewhere further up the road, and saw her marefriend running towards her with panic in her eyes.
"Bon Bon! We got a... We have a..." She tried to get words out in between pants and heavy breathing. "We... have a... situation!" she finally managed to get out as she came to a halt in front of Bon Bon, almost running into the beige earth pony. Bon Bon, looking both puzzled and concerned, tried to meet her friend's eyes while Lyra paused to catch her breath.
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" she asked, pulling up an eyebrow, impatiently waiting for the mare to get her breathing under control to explain herself.
"We didn't... we didn't get all the... the pictures!" she panted, still not completely recovered from her non-stop gallop from the library all the way to the other side of Ponyville. She hovered the picture frame in front of Bon Bon's face.
Her eyes went wide. "Did she see it? Tell me she didn't see it." But she already knew the answer. The defeated look on her friend's face was confirmation enough and she let out a long sigh and put her front hoof to her face.
"How could this happen? Where did she get this? I thought we made sure there was not a single picture or letter left in the library! We turned the whole place upside down! Oh Goddesses, what if she loses it again? I'm not sure if we can calm her down a second time!" Bon Bon was almost screaming. Lyra turned her head away, tears in her eyes, trying not to look at her furious friend. "Oh Celestia, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you..."
"It was my fault, dammit!" Lyra exploded. "Twilight found it in her study, buried beneath her notes! I should have looked harder! I was in charge of the study after all! Equestria will soon be in ruins and it'll be all my fault! I'm so sorry!" Lyra suddenly broke into tears as she slumped to the ground, shaking, heaving and sobbing, covering her face with her hooves.
Bon Bon slowly trotted up to her inconsolable friend and kneeled down in front of her. "Lyra, it's not your fault, we double-checked all the rooms together, remember? She gently put her hooves around her, trying to calm down her bawling friend. "I'm sorry I overreacted. We were bound to miss something in that mess of paperwork she calls her study anyway!" Lyra let out a small snicker as she seemed to calm down a bit. "You can't blame yourself for this."
"I know that..." Lyra sniffed pathetically. "But I can't help but feel responsible. What are we going to do? What's going to happen to Twilight? What if she remembers? And what are we going to tell Celestia?" She stopped her stream of questions to look at Bon Bon with watery eyes, desperately hoping for her friend to tell her it'd be alright.
Bon Bon smiled warmly. "We'll think of something, don't worry. We're all gonna be okay."
***
Twilight paced around her library, furiously trying to find an explanation for her friend's peculiar behavior and the seemingly ordinary picture she had been part of but couldn't remember ever posing for. No matter how hard she tried to dig it up from her memories, she just couldn't think of anything even resembling the cheerful scene. But then how could she be hugging them so eagerly as if they were her best friends, if she's never even seen them before.
And then there was Lyra, acting like she'd completely lost it. In all these years they had been friends, she had never seen her friend acting so odd. It seemed like she was trying to hide something from her, but for what reason? It just didn't seem to make any sense.
Her best bet was probably to try and find Lyra or ask one of her other friends if they'd seen her, in the hopes of getting some answers.
It was a late summer afternoon, slightly humid, but the soft breeze made it a perfect day to take a nice stroll around the small town. Not that she had time to enjoy a stroll, she had to find someone. Twilight had tried her luck at Lyra's house, but she wasn't home and the neighbors didn't know where she was either. She continued her search, stopping the villagers politely as she passed each of them, asking if any of them had seen Lyra.
She didn't get much information on where Lyra had ran off to, despite having talked to a sizable amount of ponies, and she was considering returning to the library and trying to find her again tomorrow. Just as she was about to start her way back, Twilight spotted Derpy, trying to fit her mailbag with a parcel that was just way too big to even come close to fitting. It was a comical sight, and Twilight had to suppress a giggle as she called out to her.
"Hey Derpy!" The wall-eyed pegasus looked around in confusion, dropping the parcel and trying to find the source of the voice, then focused both her eyes and smiled as she saw the approaching unicorn.
"Hey Twilight! What brings you out here?" She asked cheerfully.
"I'm looking for Lyra. She high-tailed it out of my library with something I found, I was hoping you had seen her?"
"I have!" The pegasus replied gleefully. "I saw her talking to Bon Bon at the village well!" But then her expression turned to confusion. "But what was that? She took something? What happened?"
Twilight whinnied at the grey pegasus. "Well, I found the strangest picture while cleaning out my study! Me hugging a group of mares I've never seen in my life! Very strange..." For a moment she seemed lost in thought. "Anyway, as soon as I told Lyra she grabbed it and ran off with it. I've been trying to find her ever since."
Derpy suddenly looked really uneasy, losing focus on Twilight as both her eyes decided to spin in a random direction. She started to stammer. "Oh. That's... that really is strange. Heh. Hm. Well... err... I hope you find her! I err... I really gotta deliver this parcel now, see you around!" And before Twilight could answer, the pegasus flew off at high speed, with the parcel in between her front hooves, leaving a trail of envelopes slowly fluttering down behind her.
As she saw the pegasus disappear behind the buildings, Twilight said to no-one in particular as she raised her eyebrows: "Well that sure was weird!"
***
Derpy spotted Lyra and Bon Bon still talking next to the well. She began calling out their names as she began to descend, not realizing her dangerously steep flying vector. She crashed clumsily to the ground next to Bon Bon and Lyra, parcels and envelopes flying everywhere. As she groaned from the impact of the rough landing, she got up and shook her head, trying to clear her head of the twirling stars. They had stopped their conversation when they heard Derpy's panicked voice from above and had jumped back when the pegasus slammed into the road, missing the well by a hair.
"Lyra! I just talked to Twilight! She told me what happened and she's looking for you!" Derpy shakily pointed at the teal unicorn, still wobbling on her legs. "She's on her way here now." Lyra winced and without asking if the pegasus was alright, she started her outburst.
"You told her we were here? I can't face her! I'm not sure how I'm gonna explain myself." She looked around with shifty eyes, quickly putting the picture frame in one of her saddlebags. "I gotta come up with an excuse first! Why did you tell her we were here anyway?" She angrily blurted out, making the gray pegasus droop her ears.
"I kind of... accidentally told her." Lyra facehoofed. "I... I'm sorry! I didn't know she had found a picture!" she faltered apologetically.
"Okay, Here's the plan:" Lyra said decidedly as she looked at her friends. "She'll probably be here any moment. Derpy, you come with me, we better try to find Spike so we can contact the Princess. I'm sure he's somewhere around Sweet Apple Acres, wallowing in self-pity. Bons, you stay here and think of something to keep Twilight busy. Try and find Octavia and Vinyl and tell them to stay with Twilight, then join us as soon as possible." Bon Bon nodded, trusting her friend's judgment without question, and as her friends took off, she looked around for the purple unicorn. After a minute or two she saw Twilight turn the corner at the far end of the street, trotting towards her.
"Hey there Twilight" Bon Bon yelled with a forced smile while she waved. "Nice weather, huh?" Twilight glanced at the beige mare, then proceeded to look around to find Lyra.
"Mmhm, yeah, sure," she replied, not really taking heed of the question asked. She sighed as she didn't seem to spot her. "Have you seen Lyra? I just can't seem to find her."
"Lyra? Yeah, she just left with for the concert rehearsal in the town hall, practicing her part on the lyre," she quickly thought up.
Twilight frowned. "Rehearsal? I thought that was tomorrow." Bon Bon mentally hit herself on the head. Of course she knew her friend's schedule. She lives for schedules. She breathes them. "Yeah, but they needed to discuss some... music stuff, I dunno, prepare for tomorrow I guess?" she lamely added. "You better go catch up with her, she left only a few minutes ago." Bon Bon started to push Twilight in the direction of the town hall.
"Alright, thanks for the info, Bon Bon! But I'm pretty sure I can walk there myself, you know." She smiled awkwardly, not sure what to think of her friend's sudden determination to get her to move.
"Oh, right. Sorry. Take care now! Bye bye!" Bon Bon grinned and got a weird look from Twilight, but she decided not to give it much thought and sped away towards the town hall, regaining hope of getting some answers before the end of the day.
***
"Spike! Spiiihiiike!" Lyra bellowed through the laden apple trees as she trotted through the apple orchard. Derpy was flying overhead, trying to spot the purple baby dragon, having a better view of the orchard than the teal unicorn.
"Over there!" Derpy said and pointed a hoof. Lyra looked up at the pegasus and quickly galloped in the indicated direction.
Spike was laying on his back, staring at the clouds with an empty stare. He lifted his head and turned to the direction of the commotion. He only blinked sullenly as he saw the two approaching mares and dropped his head back to the grass. "Leave me alone, I'm not in the mood for talking," he stated coolly when they got close enough to hear his glum voice. "Unless you got some gems, I'm not interested."
Lyra clenched her teeth before opening her muzzle in anger "We don't have time for this, Spike! Twilight's in trouble. We're in trouble. We need your help." As soon as he heard 'Twilight' and 'trouble' in one sentence, he jumped up and melancholy made place for worry as he quickly shifted his eyes from mare to mare.
"Twilight's in trouble? What happened? Is she hurt? I should have stayed with her. Oh Celestia, why didn't I stay with her?" he ranted.
"Relax, Spike! She's okay. For now." Lyra tried to put the dragon at ease. "Twilight found a picture depicting her and her friends." Spike's pupils constricted to tiny black dots.
"But... but I thought we burned them all! I burned them all! I made sure of that!" It looked like he was reliving a painful memory, squeezing his eyes shut, grimacing. "Where in the world did she find it? Did I miss one?" He looked at Lyra with guilt in his eyes.
"You didn't miss one. I did. But that's not important right now. We have to contact the Princess as soon as possible. Please tell me you got paper and a quill somewhere."
Spike was holding a quill and scroll before she could even finish and looked at her eagerly, ready to start writing. Startled by Spike's sudden full attention, Lyra stammered. "Uh... Ahem. S... Spike, take a letter." She remembered Twilight saying that once, but it did seem superfluous now though. Spike slightly recoiled at the familiar phrase being uttered by another pony then he was used to. Lyra then began to recount the unfortunate incident.
***
Bon Bon was galloping through Ponyville, checking all the places she thought her musical friends could be hanging out. They hadn't been home. Her best bet was the park.
Luck was on her side.
There they were, standing in front of a bench, arguing with exaggerated hoof gestures, yelling at each other, scaring away the wild life.
"Vinyl! Octavia!" The bickering couple turned to Bon Bon with an angry look on their faces. "I'm so glad I found you guys! I need your help!" she announced, not caring the least bit about the subject of their argument.
"Help with what? Can't you see we're busy?" Vinyl countered irritably.
"Please listen to me! Twilight's in trouble!" Their anger melted away as it was replaced with dread. Without any further complaining, they turned their full attention to the unicorn.
"What happened?" Octavia asked in her distinguished voice. Bon Bon explained the whole ordeal to them.
"So basically, try to act as surprised as she is." Bon Bon finally finished. Octavia and Vinyl both nodded. "I'm gonna go join the others. If it gets out of hoof, you know where to find us. Good luck!" And with that, the trio split up.
***
As Lyra finished, Spike signed the scroll with Lyra's full name, rolled it up and with a small whoosh sent it on its way. Time seemed to crawl to a halt while waiting for the Princess' reply, especially without having the certainty of knowing she was even around to receive it. Lyra nervously paced back and forth and Derpy was tracing back her steps to collect the mail she'd scattered all over the orchard. The ones she dropped around town just had to wait. Bon Bon had arrived a few minutes after the letter was sent.
They finally all sat down under an apple tree and didn't say a word, they just waited for Spike to belch up the much-anticipated letter. They had decided to stay at the orchard, knowing Twilight was in the capable hooves of the DJ and cellist.
"Bon Bon?" Lyra whispered at her marefriend.
"Hm?"
"I'm gonna have to perform the spell, won't I?" She said with a vacant look.
"You can't know that for sure, Lyra. And even if you have to, I'm sure you would be able to pull it off just fine."
"I know that, I had plenty of practice in Canterlot. That's not what's bothering me. It's just..." she paused for second. "It's just that I'm starting to wonder if this is the right thing to do. You know, keeping her oblivious and the whole impersonating thing." She looked at her friend.
Bon Bon returned her look with a smile. "I'm sure Princess Celestia exhausted every other option before making her decision."
"I guess you're right." Lyra sighed.
***
Derpy returned as the sun was setting and just as she landed beside her friends, the letter arrived with a bright green blaze. Spike unrolled the scroll after breaking the royal seal and started to read it out loud, his hands trembling as he held it:
Dear Lyra and friends,
Thank you for your letter. You did the right thing in contacting me as soon as you did. I immediately arranged for an emergency meeting with my sister and the Grand Magi of Canterlot.
After brief deliberation, we unanimously concluded we have no other choice but to cast the memory manipulation spell on Twilight again, altering her memory so she doesn't remember any of today's events. I regret it we have to resort to using dark magic again, but I do not believe there is an alternative. Twilight simply cannot have knowledge of these small, but still very powerful snippets from her past. Unfortunately, the journey from Canterlot to Ponyville might take too long, even by flying carriage, and we have no indication of how rapid her mood will change or if any harmful memories will resurface. We cannot take that risk.
Lyra Heartstrings, I hereby grant you full permission on using the memory manipulation spell on Twilight Sparkle.
I'm hoping a second use will be as effective as the first, although, since the amount of memory needing suppression is not as vast as the first time, I am convinced it will work.
I am fully aware of the burden I am putting on your shoulders, Lyra Heartstrings, but the situation asks for timely action, minimizing the risk of losing containment a second time. Even so, I am deeply sorry you have to be the one carrying out this horrible task.
However, it has to happen tonight. Make it as quick as possible and please, try not to hurt her, I do not want her to suffer any more than she already has, even though she does not seem to remember anything prior to the first use of the spell. I just hope she can find it in her heart to forgive us in the remote event the spell fails.
Good luck, I'm counting on you. Keep me informed of your progress.
Yours sincerely,
Princess Celestia
The group of friends looked at each other, then all focused on Lyra, who hung her head and tried to hold back tears.
"Okay!" She said, having a hard time to hide the trembling in her voice. "It was only a matter of time before I had to put my training to use, and in fairness, we all knew this was gonna happen. Let's get this over with while I can still keep myself together."
Bon Bon trotted up to her friend, nuzzling her mane as the teal unicorn grabbed her in a tight embrace. As Lyra got back on her hooves, the group of friends slowly started towards the library, mentally preparing themselves for the morally difficult task at hand, the night slowly unveiling the moon and stars to the village below.
***
Lyra knocked on the library door, her friends right behind her.
A weak "Yes? Who is it?" came from the other side of the door.
"It's Lyra! I brought Bons, Derpy and Spike with me. Can we come in?" They heard the rapid clopping of hooves on the library floor and the door swung open.
"There you are! I was wondering when you'd show up. I couldn't find you anywhere, the people at the town hall insisted there was no rehearsal. I met up with Vinyl and Octavia there, but they didn't know where you were either. We just decided to wait for you to return here. I wanted to go looking for you but Octavia and Vinyl insisted we stayed here. But when Spike didn't return for dinner I really started to worry!" Twilight looked like she had been crying. The unicorn already seemed emotionally unstable, not at all like her usual self. They had only been away for four, maybe five hours. Vinyl and Octavia were standing in the back, relieved by the sight of their friends.
"But here you are. Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!" It looked like Twilight didn't care anymore about what Lyra pulled earlier, and was just happy to see her friends were okay. "Look at me, rambling like a mad mare. Come on in!"
Lyra swallowed. This wasn't going to be easy. Vinyl and Octavia trotted up to her, her other friends distracting Twilight as Lyra told them the plan. When she was done, she made eye contact with everyone, nodding at each of them, making sure they were ready.
With a loud "NOW!", the group of friends save Lyra grabbed the purple unicorn and pressed her to the ground.
"W... what are you doing? Get off of me!" Twilight shouted. Lyra quickly trotted over to her and held her horn a few inches from Twilight's head. A green glow enveloped her horn, but Twilight had started to kick and thrash, and the group had a hard time keeping her still.
With a bright violet flash, the whole group of friends was thrown back. Twilight swiftly got up and took a fighting stance, ready to lash out at anyone approaching her. Her eyes were brightly glowing, obscuring her irises and pupils, filling the room with an eerie white radiance.
It had begun. She was crashing. Again.
"What in Celestia's name has possessed all of you?" Twilight exclaimed while she slowly looked at each of her friends. "Why are you acting so weird?" Tears were running down her cheeks. Then her eyes fell on something on the ground. Lyra followed her gaze, then saw what she was focusing on. The picture frame! It had flown out of her saddlebags when she was thrown back!
Twilight levitated the cracked frame up close, gave it a long look, then smiled. Her hooves slowly lifted from the ground, notes were flying around her, magical lightning occasionally flashing in and out of existence.
"I remember now," Twilight said calmly. The group of friends looked at each other in alarm. "Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity. My best friends. My fellow Element Bearers." She looked up at the petrified group of imposters. "I see. You were protecting me from myself." Her voice didn't sound like she was mad or vengeful. Just sad.
"I think it's time for me to do what the Princess was afraid to do." The room was now teeming with magical energy, bolts of lightning discharging on the walls, books, paper and other loose objects twirling about. "Thank you for your kindness. I'm sorry for what I put you through. I hope you can forgive me. But it will all be okay soon. Farewell!"
And with a bright flash she vanished.
Light poured in from the windows. The group of friends ran outside to find the source. They all looked up.
High up in the sky a giant orb lit up the world, getting brighter and brighter, making it seem like daytime, blocking out the stars and moon entirely.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash and darkness slowly returned.
