Forgotten Childhood

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The first thing I remember, is how happy I was that someone was paying attention to me. The shadow people, everyone ignored them, like they ignored me.

"Are you ghosts, like the Friendly Ghost on TV?" I asked.

~~"Ghosts were once alive, we never were,"~~ said the little girl my age with violet skin and orange hair. ~~"Our mommies and daddies never met, or had a different special someone."~~

I remember hugging her, even if it made my little body feel numb.

"Can we be friends?" I asked.

~~"I'm sorry, we don't have hearts, we can't be friends... but... I remember what it was LIKE to have friends."~~

"Please tell me."

= Kingdom Hearts OST - Hollow Bastion =

They couldn't be my friend, but I tried to be their friend. We were alike...and they actually paid attention to me. That's why I considered them my friends: they might have said they couldn't feel anything...but at least they could look at me and remember me next time we talked.

People have always pretended I was never there. It’s been like this through all of my life. You think being an only child, I'd have my parents' attention all to myself. Instead, it was like I wasn't even there. I took the bus to and from school. My parents weren't there when I came home. They came late, whether they were being out with friends, or late with work, it didn't matter. We didn't see each other for dinner, and we didn't see each other for breakfast.

I wasn't like the bad kids, I didn't tease anyone, I didn't get in trouble... so why did they get more attention? I even tried misbehaving, but my parents just didn't care. I tried being the best daughter possible. They didn't care. Or didn't notice. Being exceptional or being rotten didn't matter...

On a field trip through the woods in the first grade... I got separated from my class... The only place that didn't look like everywhere else was this creepy cave that didn't make me feel sick just by being near it... When I found my way back, the teacher and my class hadn't even noticed I was missing.

Or the time I was at the beach... I... that wave came out of nowhere... I was so scared... I cried for help... the lifeguard didn't hear me... I thought I was going to die, when I felt something push me back on land. Nobody realized I was in danger.

Third grade, I'm sure you've heard of this girl next, no matter how hard your tried to forget. Trixie Lulamoon. Her big sisters were in the grades above us, and her younger sisters below us. It was hard to forget them too.

I remember during break when Trixie would make frogs vanish. She didn't have the money to buy grown up frogs, and her parents wouldn't let her go to Froggy Bottom Bog, so she had to raise her frogs from tadpoles. How do I know that? It's amazing what you learn when no one notices you.

I heard how she tried to get into this fancy private school for prodigies, but they didn't want her. That was the first time I saw her cry, she never cried when she thought someone was looking.

I came to her, and I spoke to her. "I'm sorry you didn't get in."

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Wallflower Blush."

"I'm the One and Only Trixie... But from now on I'm gonna be the Great and Powerful Trixie!" I gave her a hug. She hugged me back. "I don't wanna be invisible."

"I don't either... maybe we can be invisible together?"

"Okay... "

The next day?

"Hi Trixie!"

"... Who are you?" She asked like I was a stranger.

"I-It's me, Wallflower."

"Trixie's never heard of you."

The first bell rang and she ran to class without so much as a look back. I tried. No one asked me if I was okay.

Try my hand at public speaking? Only like two people show up, one leaves before I get past the first page of my notes, and the second can't even remember it the next day...I kept trying again and again because I DO have things I want to see change...but no one cared.

My garden?... Flowers don't pretend they don't see you. My flowers, at least they depended on me. Without me, these domesticated plants would meet their end as their roots were crowded out and the sun blocked out by their older, bigger, and wild relatives. They needed me. They listen to me. Who else could say that about me?

My freshmen year in high school was the same as every other year in my life, but there was one high point... my english class, not the class itself, but one of the students who joined. She was isolated too, but because she looked down on everyone and managed to hide it from the teachers perfectly. I think I'm the only one who heard or saw that she considered them the same as the rest of us 'barbarians.'

Canterlot High School under Sunset Shimmer... How I saw how she subtly subdivided the school into circles, except me, I was a circle of one.

I remember hoping she'd bully me, target me, pay attention to me, I'd be her little minion, I'd be her obedient little hench-girl, I'd take the brow beatings when she needed someone to blame for things going wrong. That she'd use me as a shield when a cake came flying her way. That she'd use me a scapegoat if she got caught. I'd be useful to her. And she'd never ever ignore me.

Except she always did... for three years she ignored me... I was actually jealous of those she'd bully around me. What did Snips and Snails have that I didn't? Maybe I was just too average to be of any use to her.

And Twilight Sparkle, she came from nowhere. I wonder if she realizes that she was so well known because Sunset Shimmer set up that smear campaign in the first place. And so when Twilight held her makeshift prep rally, people actually knew who she was, and we were impressed at anyone standing up to Sunset Shimmer, especially this new girl.

And Sunset Shimmer... because that thing, that Nightmare, Nightmare Inferno is what they're calling her on the internet isn't it? ... And she rewarded Snips and Snails for their loyalty by making them demons like her. She turned the whole school into her zombies, including the teachers, everyone was under her power... so why me? Why?! Let me be a part of it! I don't care if we're just a distraction for her go back to her magical world and get away in the chaos. Please!

... And she ignored me again. I was no use to her again. Even the devil herself didn't want me.

Then Twilight Sparkle... who was a princess from the same magical world that apparently Sunset Shimmer was from, with five random girls, zapped her back to normal, and her grip on the school was broken.

Snips and Snails changed sides before the rest of us had finished breakfast, and with all the hate directed at Sunset Shimmer from years of her tyranny, they were too small fish to fry, no one even noticed when they eventually chose to become Trixie's minions instead. They were still of use to someone.

Except for Twilight Sparkle's five friends, the rest of the school got their revenge on Sunset Shimmer.

I... I never took part in any of the hazing... I thought that maybe, just maybe if she saw that I wasn't trying to hurt her... give her a second chance unlike everyone else... maybe then she'd finally be a friend... I even joined the yearbook club to help her. Except she never noticed. I could have been part of the in-crowd, united in our hate of Sunset Shimmer, but no, I had to be the good girl, I had to take the higher road... and it was like I might as well have not done anything at all.

At least each night... I could come back to those that I was friends with, even if they weren't friends with me, they said my light made them feel a little bit more real.

I was very confused when everyone started acting everyone for themselves when the Dazzlings first came to Canterlot High ... except me... I saw the Dazzlings corner Derpy and... do whatever it was they did to everyone else. I told teachers, of course they ignored me. Derpy? She's the 'special' girl, so of course she gets more attention than the rest of us. That faceless crowd that grows up, grows old, and dies, and is forgotten, like you never existed to begin with. I don't blame her, she never had a choice to begin with.

The Battle of the Bands was less about who was the better musician, and more about who was the bigger bully. I saw band mates looking at each other like they were expecting them to turn on them, and even friends and family looked ready to start a fight... except me of course, even with paranoia in their eyes, they, just, saw, through me! I even went to Twilight Sparkle to offer any help I could ... she didn't even look up from that note book she was frantically scribbling in.

I spied on the Sirens, somehow they didn't notice me either... Ever heard of the pronoun game? The truth is, when you're listening on someone's conversation when they all know what the others are talking about? They don't spill anything and everything they know in one chat, they throw around 'they', he', 'she', and 'it' like nobody's business. But I still got the big finals would be how they'd 'get their magic back' and Sunset's friends were the key somehow.

I tried to warn the Rainbooms, Sunset Shimmer's friends were too busy arguing to even hear me.

One of the shadow people, ~~Starsong~~, told me that the Dazzlings weren't always bad girls. Well, they're certainly bad girls now!

The finals happens, and everyone was turned into zombies, again, except me, again. Why am I no good? Twilight Sparkle and her friends tried to beat the Dazzlings... But the Dazzlings simply had more magic muscle apparently. Then somehow, Sunset Shimmer's singing, she began to glow like the others had when they defeated her!

Then... they summoned this giant glowing winged unicorn, or was that a horned pegasus? Whatever, point was that it was made out of glowing stars, the Sirens were terrified of it, and just looking at it made me feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. And it blasted the Sirens' monster fish ghost servants away, and their jewels, and they were left with the voices of frogs, and ran away, and no one even tried to follow them.

I followed the Dazzlings after their jewels broke, and I saw what happened to them, and that's all I'm going to say and all you're best left knowing.

Of course everyone was happy, the monsters were beaten, and it was treated like what happened to them after was nobody's concern at all, like they'd simply poofed out of existence... nobody cared. Nobody was in a rush to find them and offer them a second chance, how noble.

But it wasn't as big a celebration for me. The shadow people... they said they couldn't come near anymore... They said the magic released by Sunset and her friends had hurt them. They didn't have hearts, but I did, and it shattered ...

Sunset Shimmer...

I got the job for being Sunset Shimmer's vice president for the photo club... maybe finally I could be useful to someone. And not only could she never remember my name, she couldn't remember I was even there! It felt like a slap in the face!...It was just like home! I try to make myself noticed and all I do is stay invisible!

That was also the time I found the Memory Stone. A final gift from the shadow people. They told me where it was, where to dig, but they didn't need to, I was drawn to it, like it was a part of me, or maybe I was a part of it. I was worried for a minute I was going to turn into a demon or something when I touched it. But nothing happened. I also found the notes that came with it, don't ask me how I could read them. It wasn't in any language I should have known.

I did realize one thing, that Magical World Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle came from had been using Earth as a dumping ground for cursed objects and their worst criminals for hundreds of years. Like we didn't matter. How dare they. Guess being apathetic to the harm you cause others is just how things go with those guys...

The shadow people weren't the only things I saw, but the only ones who would speak back to me. The clockwork spiders, the eyes, the kid in red with the book, and sometimes, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadowy mass of darkness with two glowing eyes, shaped like a wolf. I never felt scared of it for some reason, some part of my brain, it never clicked.

I took the Memory Stone with me wherever I went. I never lost or misplaced it, it was like it was drawn to me by some mystical thread of fate, if that didn't sound anymore crazy than everything else that's happened at this school.

I wasn't used to anyone seeing me, let alone interacting with me, so I was shocked when I felt a hand on my shoulder on the way home from school. I turned around to see that college girl big sister of Pinkie Pie's... oh right, Maud Pie. She was staring right at my bag with the Memory Stone in it.

"You should be careful... Collecting rocks like those never leads to happiness."

It was strange; with her nearby, I felt like the Memory Stone's presence got stronger somehow.

Then she went back to answering the question from this violet skinned woman with purple hair about the finer details of setting up a commune with a copy of the communist manifesto under her arm.

"Wait! What is it that you meant?!"

"Oh, who are you again?" Maud asked.

I felt my blood pressure rise, wiped her memory, and I walked away towards home.

-
Maud didn't remember their chat, but it had nothing to do with the Memory Stone.
-

The Diamond Diggers, those boys convinced there was some buried treasure around the school, dug up through my garden looking for it.

"Sorry, not realize this was someone's garden, plant are plants." they said like it was no big deal, weeks of hard work ruined. I made them forget about their treasure hunting nonsense, you're welcome.

I have to say, I think my social skills did improve with the Memory Stone. I could just erase every awkward conversation, every misplaced word, every unwitting faux pass, it actually let me learn a lot! I could practice and no one would remember! Yet at the end of the day... I was still alone... no one cared about my garden, or gardening at all. I tried to share the one happy point in my life... and no one cared.

We might be called a high school, but Middle School was a part of our system as well. What, did you think Apple Bloom and her friends were just high school freshmen? It also meant a lot of us REMEMBERED the last time Crystal Prep utterly humiliated this school. While it was called the 'Friendship Games' a better term for it might have been 'Crystal Prep Gets To Show Off How Much Better Private School Is Than Public School,' and everyone knew it.

It might have been nice if the Crystal Prep kids had thought me WORTH teasing... but I was beneath their notice.

I was shocked as anyone to learn there was a Twilight Sparkle in our world... And she was a spineless bookworm who was apparently along for the ride meant only to win the academic part of the competition. She was no princess, no princess. (So why the Hell did she get magic wings too?! What did she ever do to earn them!?).

I'm sure you've heard all of this part before right? Native Twilight Sparkle's mad invention feeding off the magic of Sunset's friends... I was careful never to use the Memory Stone around her after I saw what her invention did. Given what her gizmo did with what it got, I think everyone should be thanking me. She accidentally brought plant monsters into our world. And she accidentally made her dog intelligent. Then all the magic her contraption had eaten up backfired on her, and she turned into what the internet had dubbed Nightmare Midnight. And she began ripping holes in the universe for no apparent reason except for the fun of it. Seriously, if her plan was to just go to that world of magic, why didn't she just go through one of those portals? I think it was just an excuse for her to rip the universe apart for the fun of it.

And Sunset Shimmer saved the day again... becoming a demi-goddess or something, absorbing magic and breaking native Twilight's crazy invention. Why didn't she just smash the thing before then?... Okay, I didn't either. That's the worst part... I think I've become... almost used to being just part of the background, not doing anything, being just another shadow of existence, haunting these halls.

I heard some of the students say that Nightmare Midnight was stronger than 'Princess Sunset' because the pony her was the rightful owner of the magic Sunset was using... so because someone else had something, that made a look-alike be the rightful owner of things?

Still... Spike, her dog, managed to distract Nightmare Midnight long enough for 'Princess Sunset' to talk some sense into her. I think I'm the only one who noticed the little dog's contribution.

Oh, and Sunset Shimmer got wings...

And that was the beginning of the end. I think I'm the only one who noticed. How Twilight transferred to Canterlot High School, instead of Crystal Prep that obviously needed her help more, and girls who had gotten a rude awakening of how their 'everyone for themselves' attitude had backfired, and seen how little their principal cared for their lives.

Instead... she became friends with the same girls Princess Twilight Sparkle had... with a talking dog too... Am I the only one who noticed how easily she just, slipped into her shoes?

Oh, and it turned out that Cinch 'quit' not long after...but being the fly on the wall I tend to be, I know 'quit' is just a nice word for 'was allowed to step down with her dignity intact rather than have charges pressed for enabling bullying of a student and blackmailing them.'

Camp Everfree?... I got a tent all to myself, isn't that just so much fun? I remember Gaea Everfree, trapping all the campers like we were pets for her to keep in a cage. I actually slipped out, I wasn't noticed. I actually went to the police for help... they ignored me... it didn't matter, Gaea Everfree was back to being Gloriosa Daisy by the time I got back, and of course everyone was now close friends with her after she tried to trap us all.

When the time came for school photos that year... they accidentally skipped me over, and didn't bother coming back to me... "It's was just a photo after all," is what they said.

I've always gone to the movies alone. And the movies I happened to like were not the box office smashes, or the box office flops (those at least had their tiny followings that always stuck close together), it was... always the movies that were just... average... not awful enough to joke about, not good enough to be gushing about. Nobody ever wanted to even talk about them.

I did go to the new Daring Do movie. I didn't get why Sunset Shimmer and her friends were on the movie poster, when all they had was a five seconds part, what about the supporting cast? So the big roles were important, the tiny roles were important... what about the middle ones?

The school year was coming to an end, or I think it was. I won't lie, I feel like time itself is screwed up somehow, and I'm the only one who ever notices. When I try to explain how it feels like we're stuck in High School forever or something, they just give me weird looks.

What I never expected was one day to be peacefully working in my little slice of peace and belonging, and have Bulk Biceps come at me with a steel baseball bat, vein bulging and his eyes crossed!

"You're fat, ugly, stupid, and your mother dresses you funny!" he snarled, frothing at the mouth.

"My mother hasn't cared what I wear since I was out of diapers," I heard myself say. I managed to dodge the first clumsy swing like he was a puppet on strings.

"You're the most horrid monster in the multiverse and must be destroyed!" He hollered so loud I wonder why nobody came, oh right, no one comes for me.

I'll admit, some part of me was excited, someone cared about me? Sure they hated me, but they cared whether I lived or died, that was... kinda an improvement really. But the joy had worn off by the fourth attempt to make a home run with my head and survival instinct finally took over, (living is a dance between the misery of life and the fear of death).

Finally, I grabbed the stone I always kept at my side, and reached into his mind, and searched out his reason for wanting to kill me. Except... he didn't have any, he didn't even know who I was (my eyes narrowed at that one). But there was something else. I used the stone and erased all related to enacting a course of action that led to me being beaten to a bloody pulp.

I saw a mass of what might been a bloated caterpillar ghost rise out of him. I heard something give a mental scream and die and it was sucked out of his head and into the Memory Stone... it reminded me of Ghostbusters.

Bulk Biceps blinked like a zombie and wandered off, I'd erased that part of his memory too... I mean, obviously that was the right and proper thing to do so I clearly don't need to explain why.

"Huh... wha... I uh..." He wandered away in a daze.

"What was all that about?" I asked to no one in particular.

"You erased from his mind the entity inhabiting him... it seems there are cliches even this world can't escape."

I blinked and turned around. "Diamond Tiara? ... When did you get magic?" I said seeing her wings. "Wait... why are you part of the shadow people's world? ... And what's with the goth outfit? Diamond Tiara would never wear... oh wait, you're the Diamond Tiara from the magic world aren't you?"

"... " She face-palmed. "I liked it better when people didn't figure that out in seconds, it's gotten trite, it's like those stupid Mare-Vel movies where the hero's secret identity gets exposed faster than the film projected on screen."

"Heh, yeah, they do seem to trip over themselves in seeing who can expose their secret identity the fastest..." I said, a part of me just happy to chat about something mundane with someone, even an alternate version of the richest (and most entitled) girl in school. How did I know that when I only saw the average movies? Because when nobody sees you everyone spoils every movie without a care!

"It's almost funny, it's not as annoying as you being able to see me, more like it's right and proper. Similar things can see similar things. So you can see into my world."

"I... I guess I have for a very long time... nobody thought I was crazy, but mostly cause nobody ever listened," I said. "So... you're a princess?"

"No, not really, I'm more like a devil really."

"I... I'm not a devil."

"No, you're not. But you are someone who walks the line between existence and nonexistence... For all the world you might as well not exist, and yet here you are all the same."

I felt a chill up my spine. "Why me? Why did, whatever that was, take over Bulk Biceps and want to hurt me?"

"You oppose those chosen by fate to be special. Or you will. What other reason does there need to be? I guess they just wanted you out of the way of their 'entertainment.' Such parasites are common, but they're normally dealt with quickly like a virus you've been vaccinated for." The way she said everything, no expression, no feeling, I almost mistook her for a robot. "I guess there must be something special about you after all."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"No you don't, and it's better that you don't. And I have a favor to ask. I want you to erase all of my memories from a year ago to just before I stabbed my Rarity in the thigh with a pair of scissors."

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

"The first in a long line of mistakes, I don't want this me to exist anymore."

My heart skipped a beat. I clutched the stone close. Still... she needed me for something, she had come to me... even if it was just for the stone... it was something. And she hadn't tried to simply take it...

I took a step closer to her.

A wolf howled.

"No," Goth Diamond Tiara said, and she just vanished. "Remember, some things are better off being forgotten."

A second later, for the first time, I saw the wolf in the center of my vision, a hunched over, bipedal mass of shadows with a wolf's head.

I felt dizzy, am I going crazy? Am I insane?

The monster stalked towards me on all fours, sniffing the air, I felt paralyzed, I couldn't bring myself to run. It sniffed about me, then it sniffed the Memory Stone, it gagged and jerked back.

It looked me in the eyes. ".yoU seeK meaninG .yoU seeK purposE .yoU desirE tO bE needeD .wE caN givE sucH tO yoU .thE poweR yoU holD cannoT bE toucheD bY uS .therE iS somethinG onlY yoU caN dO foR uS"

It told me what it wanted.

I paled.

"I... I don't know if I can do that... to anyone."

".youR worlD iS corrupteD !onlY yoU caN seE iT .blooD oF oblivioN .itS onlY fruiT iS ruiN ?dO yoU wisH iT tO continuE dowN thaT roaD .manY worldS havE fadeD froM sucH roT"

"... Let me think about it."

".verY welL"

And so I did.

I couldn't really do that could I? I mean sure, we'd been in the same class since 9th grade and Sunset couldn't remember my name to save her life... And Princess Twilight had come twice to help clean up the messes her world had dumped on ours... Even if she didn't ever show up again when our world's Twilight was here until the very end... I mean, it couldn't be right could it? Sure, I'd been treated with all the respect of wall paper my entire life, and Sunset embodied every single thing I hated about people raising up those who cleaned up their own messes instead of those who didn't make messes to begin with...

Then she locked me in the photo club room with the lights off... And that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"I'll do it."

The Wolf was in front of me in no time. All the other things nobody else could see but me gave him a wide berth. ".yoU havE madE thE righT decisioN"

"But first... could you please get out of here?"

+++

".yoU werE supposeD tO erasE alL memorieS oF theM"

"Later. This is for me first. I want to see her squirm. After all these years of watching people treat her like what she did never happened, while she continues to walk past students who need help and doesn't even see them."

"?wheN iS thE lasT timE yoU helpeD theM"

"... From what you've said, why can't you do this yourself? Isn't this your job?"

".thE infectioN haS rooteD itselF toO deeP .I cannoT withouT breakinG mY naturE"

+++

= Jem - 'Nightmare' =

My name is Sunset Shimmer. This has to be a nightmare. Wake up, wake up, wake up! I am NOT a bully anymore! I have real friends! The entire student body doesn't fear and hate me! This can't be real! I feel like I'm going insane. I know this isn't how the world is supposed to be! And yet, for everyone else this is normal and I'm the one that's wrong.

Everyone looks at me fearfully and hatefully... even ... even my friends look at me like I am some horrid stranger... no, an enemy. As much as Rarity once sugarcoated my "past booboos", I was truly and sincerely a horrid person once upon a time who thought she was entitled to becoming an Alicorn and that 'there's always a gray to everything' meant that anything I did had to be right since it was for the greater good, meaning me... But I grew PAST THAT! With a brutal wake up call, Twilight showed me how a Princess SHOULD act, and her friends here taught me by example. I recreated Trust because I'd changed! The old me never could, she didn't trust ANYONE but herself.

So why... so why is EVERYONE... from my best friends, to Principal Celestia, acting like nothing has changed since that prom night. It's like they don't even remember Princess Twilight telling them to keep an eye on me and help me rehabilitate. Or Fluttershy remembers helping me with rebuilding the front of the school's first few bricks as a sign of good faith.

I show up in front of my friends... all of them looking at me angrily or fearfully... And feeling a chill on my back, like there was someone or something watching me that I couldn't see. It's ... it's nothing compared to the silent screaming on my insides as I show my friends solid proof that we're friends, and they brush it off on the spot as being forgeries!

Spike actually bit me!

And... hearing them talk about how the things that happened without me there... getting their second wind against the Sirens... Human Twilight coming to her senses... even Twilight learning not to fear her own magic... All of it neatly happening without me. Applejack, she.. She was actually ANGRY, well, MORE ANGRY at me lying about them needing MY help to do any of that.

It wasn't just those at school, the Cakes were cold as ice to me, I emailed Gloriosa Daisy and she thought I was an internet stalker and blocked me! I visited Juniper Montague, and she thought I was a tabloid reporter trying to get the 'dirt' on her and her family and slammed the door right in my face! I had a feeling going to the Shadowbolts wouldn't have any better results.

The only one that seemed to want anything to do with me was that one kid, what was his name? Featherweight? He seemed to be following me around, but just seemed to vanish like a ninja whenever I tried to talk to him.

If not for the photos I still had, I'd think I might have fallen into an alternate universe, or somepony had gone back in time and altered history. Nothing unreal exists: magic, matter, space, souls, time, they all follow hard fast rules that can't be ignored, and if something exists, that is proof that it can exist. I studied some quantum mechanics and string theory while studying how the Element of Magic would react to the dimensional transfer, and, cutting out a lot of brain-meltingly confusing details short, until something is observed, on a quantum level it exists in all possible state at once. IE, the classic 'a cat in a box is both alive and dead until you observe it'. It was physics: if I observed the picture of me with my friends, then it HAD to exist...But just to make sure, I went to the school and checked the damage I'd fixed. You know, when you plaster something back together and paint over it, you don't unmake the cracks. The cracks are STILL there. So on the most confusing, mind bending level of reality known to man or pony, I MUST exist.

And Trixie walks away, laughing at how her revenge is complete. But... Trixie couldn't have done this, could she? She couldn't even do that stupid 'smoke vanishing trick' right. Her Equestrian self was an Element of Magic, but she needed other ponies to actually use it. Even if she'd absorbed some Equestrian magic like Gaea Everfree, she wouldn't be able to unlock its full power, would she?

I did the only thing I could think of, the one lifeline that I might still have. I wrote to Princess Twilight... and we were still friends! You have no idea how much of a relief that was for me! It was being trapped underwater underneath a sheet of ice and finally finding a crack to breathe through!

I rushed to the statue, relieved that it still worked... passing through realities never gets old... And neither does having to get used to walking on four hooves again... And forgetting that you don't have fingers, and your telekinesis back.

"Where's Starlight Glimmer?" I asked, she was my one other friend over here.

"She's with Trixie and some of their friends," Twilight replied. "Long story, involves Changelings and diplomatic stuff…"

Dang it... I admit, me and Starlight have had SO many debates since we met, enough that Twilight needed to give me a special journal just for it... but we respect each other and ARE friends despite that. I was kind of hoping she'd be here...

"...Does she remember me?"

Twilight gave a smile. "Of course. She said to tell you she'll be back soon if you came."

Well, that's a relief...

"I have an idea of who might be able to help us figure out what's happened to our friends... but you're not going to like it."

Twilight told me who our best bet going to was... and if that Hell wasn't waiting for me back on Earth, I wouldn't have had the courage to go... to go see my mother.

“Mother...”

“Huh? Don't be scared Sunset I'll be there right beside you,” Twilight said.

"No, my mother…"

I explained to her that Celestia had adopted me when I was a filly. Formally and legally, my last name was even Equestria (yes, the royal family's last name is Equestria, it's not egotistical, or at least it wasn't when Celestia and Luna did it... it definitely used to be for me)... Yes, technically that means I was already Princess Sunset Shimmer (like poor cousin Blueblood), but I didn't see it like that unless I had a crown, wings, and Earth Pony muscles... Then it turns out she had read about it from a journal Celestia had intended her to have if something went wrong, and had (thankfully it turned out Celestia WASN'T dead as Twilight had heartbrokenly thought at the time, "Long story," she said). Needless to say, it's a good thing the ones responsible for it were a pile of shattered rubble and redeemed turning him into such respectfully, or I may have been preoccupied from my mission lighting them on fire in revenge.

+++

".thE otheR onE musT bE lureD herE"

"Why don't you just eat the stupid portal and be done with it?"

"..." The wolf glared at me, and I regretted asking the question. ". ... iT iS botH parT oF thiS worlD anD thE otheR worlD .iT fallS withiN A graY areA ... likE yoU"

"I've got an idea for how to get Princess Twilight here."

+++

I wore the cloak at my own request, I didn't want ponies freaking out at seeing a new Princess, even if Twilight told me that Equestria's princess population was on the rise and that Ponies might not be freaked 'as much' as before. But I didn't have time to deal with a million questions with a million different ponies.

And... Celestia... ... Mama... She... It... it had been so long... she... she was as beautiful as I remembered... So magnificent... my legs were jelly, and my stomach was lead... for my friends... for my friends...

Twilight stepped aside for me... but She could see me easily before that... All the screws in every joint in my body threatened to pop out and for me to collapse in a heap. Twilight told me how she'd been afraid of being 'banished and imprisoned in the place she was banished to' for Fluttershy birdnapping Philomena (which I admit, got a laugh out of me, I know that little troll of a firebird better than anyone but Celestia). What I had done made that look like a drop of water compared to the ocean. So I was less imagining 'banished and imprisoned in Everfree' and more imagining 'banished and imprisoned on the other side of the galaxy in one of Auntie Galaxia's stars.'

And I see Auntie Luna for the first time... Princess Celestia's sister, the mare who went crazy, tried to conquer the world, was sealed in the moon for a thousand years, and then blasted with the Elements of Harmony back to her sanity. This was the mare that Princess Celestia had been grooming me to save, teaching all there was to know about magic so I could be her Element of Magic and with five friends bring her sister back to herself where Celestia failed. And once I was no longer an option, Celestia moved down the list… No no no, don't think that! I have only myself to blame for that happening. But still, seeing the goddess version of Vice Principal Luna, it was disorienting. And she was a reminder of everything I was supposed to have become, everything I should have done.

The second I see Her, I try with all my might not to fall to the floor in a heap or run out the way I came. My eyes trail around the throne room for anything else to focus on so I can gather my thoughts. I notice Shining Armor standing by the throne, this is my first time seeing the human version of him (Human Twilight had introduced us to her family before), but his shocked expression doesn’t help. All I can do is plow through.

"Princess Celestia... when we last saw each other... you raised me, you adopted me into your family with all your love and trust... And I abused that trust and abandoned your love... I come before you not for myself, but for my friends, I prostrate myself before you, asking only that you help those who have chosen to become my friends... please do this, and I will not tarnish Canterlot with my presence again, I swear."

Princess Celestia sternly marched towards me, I wanted to run away, but I couldn't, not again. She tore off the cloak... I tried to hide my wings. Celestia's eyes watered.

"I always knew you could do it, my little sun!" She hugged me. "Mama's missed you so much!"

"I... I missed you too! I'm so sorry!" I hugged her back. I was crying too.

"... So that's what we looked like," I heard Princess Luna whisper.

I wish I could have stayed in that spot forever... but I needed to help our friends. I told them the whole story again. Princess Celestia looked intrigued. Shining Armor suddenly seemed scared by my story, and I know it takes a lot to get to him. At least I got a good laugh out of PRINCESS Luna! Talking about magic and lore like it was normal to her. Opposed to Vice Principal Luna telling students not to park in the teacher's parking spaces. Makes me wonder how my friends would react to see Princess Celestia for the first time! ... My friends.

"We better hurry," I said.

"The information you need is likely in the Secret Forbidden Hidden Library."

I nodded, "Makes sense."

Shining Armor stepped forward. “Sunset, I…”

"Wait... what Secret Forbidden Hidden Library?" Twilight asked.

"Huh?" I blinked. "You haven't told her about the Secret Forbidden Hidden Library?"

Celestia looked sheepish. "Well... I kept meaning to get around to it before she became a Princess... but... other things kept coming up... and... after she became a Princess... she had so much smiling and waving to do..."

"Right, you didn't want a repeat of me... I understand." Me and Celestia both knew there were things I wasn't ready for that she'd taught me anyway. Like knowing I had certain aunts and uncles... One of which was Fate, who we were both so certain had a great fate for me... turns out she did, and I royally blew it, and she handed it to someone who deserved it better than me... I made myself worthy of the new fates she gave me with a lot of help. It was probably best Twilight was just learning this existed now.

"WHAAAAT?!" Twilight exclaimed.

“Sunset…”

“Shining Armor, not now!” Twilight rushed past Shining Armor, looking ready to go crosseyed. “There's a Secret Forbidden Hidden Library and I didn't know?!”

Shining Armor just sighed and walked away, muttering something about “I’ll never get through when she’s in research mode.”

...Filing that away for dealing with Sci Twi... if I ever can...

"Showme, showme, showme, showme, showme!"

Please tell me Celestia hasn't told her about one of my uncles' infinite library with literally everything in it. She would explode twice.

As I kept Twilight from fainting, Princesses Celestia and Luna opened the path to the Secret Forbidden Hidden Library within the normal Canterlot Library... you wanna hide a needle, hide it in a whole stack of needles.

On our way there, however, I met the Equestrian counterpart of Flash Sentry and I admit, I doubletaked. Granted, Royal Guard was decidedly something I could see Flash Sentry being, but it was still so surreal to see teenagers from Canterlot High as full grown adults!

Flash Sentry

So it was time for that with Wallflower Blush? Ugh! Why do I get a headache thinking about that? Why can't I remember when that happened? Just that it did!

Inside the Secret Forbidden Hidden Library, Moon Dancer looked up from the book she was reading. "Uh... Hi? I don't think this is the right section? This book I think belongs in the legends section, it keeps referring to Somnambula as an evil incarnate witch who stayed alive for thousands of years stealing youth from others... "

"Moon Dancer? How'd you get in here?!"

"Well, I kinda used that spell you taught me to teleport books that belong to you right to you... except it seemed to go strange, and teleported me to this book titled 'By Moon Dancer The First'... But it all seems to be fiction, myths, or fantasy... "

Even when Twilight teaches magic, it goes weird... Now I understand why things always go strange with Starlight!

Princess Luna said, "You can help us search, Moon Dancer!"

"Search for what Princess Luna and- another Princess?!"

"Moon Dancer, Sunset Shimmer, Princess Celestia's previous student. She's been living in another world. Yes, there are other worlds, remember those holes in the sky? But all her friends' memories of her before she was friends with them have been altered to not include her! We need answers now!"

I think Moon Dancer was having flashbacks to the Changeling invasion and nodded swiftly. I forgot how much insane stuff happened while I was gone. Did you know that Lord Tirek was real and came back? Cause that’s scary on a level I never thought possible.

Moon Dancer...KNEW OF ME. Granted, she knew the jerk I used to be, but she at least remembered me and accepted that I'd been redeemed.

With Moon Dancer's help, we managed to go through the Secret Forbidden Hidden Library's index a lot faster than we would have. Twilight had to resist reading cover to cover every book there. Personally I wondered why the Tartarus half these books were even in here, they weren't filled with unholy black magic... though a lot were...

"My pages hold true power if you but read me," said a scary face on the front page.

"Uh, no," Twilight slammed it shut fast, the book let out an "OW!" "Rarity already fell for that trick, even if took her awhile to accept she remembered it all."

...Yes, I listened to that book, and yes, I regret it. And so did the hired help who had to fix a wall I blew up... Oh, and some magical books are self aware, should have mentioned that. Not all of them are evil, some are quite nice.

I'd once read in this library about another Magic Mirror that let single ponies create foals in their image. And with no clue in Equestria who my parents were, I imagined the possibility that Celestia had used the mirror herself. I remember that Celestia adopted me after I got my cutie mark, when I rose the sun myself. But with all the knowledge Celestia let me have without reservation, I was frustrated and confused when she was evasive about Magic Mirrors. And right now wasn't the best time to ask that again.

'The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever' written before Equestria even existed, during the brutal age of the Three Tribes.

And the Memory Stone, not able to make new memories, but it could erase and edit what was already there. Owned by a witch pony who could do what she wished as Clover chased her... this book is weird, it calls Clover the Clever a he... but I was certain that every book I've read, including some from this library, (including a certain journal) referred to Clover as a she... maybe there was more than one? There were more than one Starswirl. Think about that later! Heck, apparently I could ask one of the Starswirls myself now. Ugh! And this is why Celestia letting me in here when I was an impulsive teenager was a bad idea!

The point is! This stone was dangerous! Clover never stopped chasing her! No one even knew where it came from. The only thing mentioned was 'a scale from the Mother of the Draconequus.' And for some reason that made Twilight turn white as a sheet... okay, apparently Celestia didn't tell me everything about where she's really from... Kinda glad.

"... Do I WANT to know?" I asked.

"... Imagine nothing. Then make a god that makes Discord look like a mortal out of it," Twilight said. "You... may have some idea of what that is?" she ASKED. Not to me or Celestia, more like she was SCARED to state anything about whatever it is. "She's... not evil, but you can imagine what anything made from a piece of her would be like."

Okay, what it also said was that the Stone COULDN'T actually destroy physical records! Making it a lot more dangerous in the olden days before the internet, photo IDs, dental records, banknotes, and everything else... But that didn't stop it from editing anypony's memories today! And the truth is... the encounter with my friends reminded me, we fill in the holes about our own memories all the time, we remember things how we want to remember them...

Clover used the limit of the Memory Stone to make sure that no matter how many times his memory was erased, he'd still find her. I wonder why she didn't just erase all of his memories and turn him into a vegetable, maybe the witch wasn't that smart, or maybe still had some scruples. Or knew that she might get the attention of someone who would just make her a statue without a word rather than just try to stop her.

No mention of what happened to the Sorceress or the Memory Stone, though it did mention Clover had tried every possible way he could think of to destroy it and none of them worked (looks like we might need the Elements if we want to destroy it)... seemed as if just like the Sirens, the Memory Stone ended up in the human world... what was it with those ponies and throwing stuff away on Earth?

"Until modern day, ponies had no clue a world without magic could harbor thinking life," Celestia replied. "And I imagine Starswirl never even realized we'd banished the Sirens to the same world Clover had buried the Memory Stone. Keep in mind the Sirens were thrown through a dimensional tear we and our allies forced open while this sounds like he chased her through the mirror portal."

"So basically how all the trash that ends up in the human oceans is being swept together by tides and ending up in huge islands made out of it out in the ocean?" I asked. "IE, dimensional 'tides' just happened to converge there?"

"It would seem."

Still, I wonder what happened to that witch. Dangit, who cared?! Thousands of years ago! Probably dead! We made a copy of the picture of the Memory Stone, and Moon Dancer would continue to search through the books for more information. Meanwhile, maybe meeting Princess Twilight to back-up my story would help. Twilight even engraved 'Smarty Pants says: Sunset Shimmer is my friend. Help her,' on the back of her front leg so even if she was zapped she'd know the message was from herself.

I gave Princess Celestia the biggest hug I possibly could. "I promise... I'll come back to visit!"

"... That... would be nice my little sun..."

Though Shining did catch up with us on the way back.

"B.B.B.F.F!" exclaimed Twilight, hugging her brother Shining Armor. "Where's Cadence? I didn't get to ask in the throne room."

"The Crystal Fair is happening, Cadence had to stay while I took care of some things with the Princesses," Shining replied.

Then Shining whispered something in my ear when Twilight wasn't looking...

"ALWAYS be where Twilight knows where you are, in line of sight if possible. And if you see a big wolf made of nothing, RUN! Don't fight it, don't talk to it, RUN to Twilight as fast as you can!"

...Well... that wasn't terrifying... Still, thanks for the advice...

When we passed through the portal, Twilight was confused when she got a buzz from her half of the friendship journal...

"Princess Twilight... help... come to the human world right now, no time to talk. Sunset." Twilight read. She instantly ponied-up and casted the changeling detection spell (apparently the good Changelings had actually helped develop it) on me.

"Really?"

"Had to be sure," Twilight said sheepishly. Her eyes widened. "This means, whoever did this to you..."

"IS IN THE SCHOOL!" We hurried inside. But more than that, it had to be someone who knew about the journal!

Everyone looked confused to see Princess Twilight here... and everyone was terrified of me. I bumped into a student, and he gave me his lunch money!... Yes, I used to do that, I never said I wasn't petty. And yes, I snapped.

"I DON'T WANT YOUR LUNCH MONEY! I'M NOT MEAN!" Yeah, that didn't win me back any popularity points.

We found my locker... someone had broken into it... But it looked like someone had clawed the lock open.

"The journal is still here," I found out. "Twilight, whoever caused this might have wanted you here, maybe it'll be safer if you just go back to Canterlot."

"No way, they're my friends too! I'm staying!"

'Twilight Sparkle is stubborn across the multiverse,' I thought. Pony Shining Armor did warn me to always have Twilight know where I was...And this is the guy who apparently tried to shoot Tirek in the face and faced down King Sombra to let his sister and her friends get to the Empire, so if something spooked HIM like that...

“Let’s think about this logically. Let’s say someone’s using the stone because they have a grudge against us. Who do we know in this world that would hate us?”

I gave it some thought. “Well, there’s the Sirens, but nobody’s seen them since the Battle of the Bands. Principal Cinch had less of a vendetta against either of us than with the school itself, and maybe your human counterpart. Plus, if she got a memory altering artifact, first thing she'd do with it would be get her old job back. Gloriosa’s camp’s been saved, so this doesn’t affect her at all. I can’t think of anyone else!”

Yes, I saw the little kid following me, but he wasn't at the top of my list of suspects given I'd not even been mean to him when I was a bad guy...He'd made the list though.

“All right, then if we can’t get the disease, let’s focus on the symptom and see where it leads. Let’s go see our friends!”

Our friends were still at the beach after we raced back there, or had we been so long at the library that they had come back the next day? Ugh! This makes my head dizzy for some reason!

Princess Twilight stood a bit back from me as I rushed up to my friends, eager to tell them the truth, they were reasonable people... whom my lies had fooled into thinking that they were enemies and would have remained so if Twilight hadn't gotten them to talk to each other... But that meant that with Princess Twilight here things had to work out!

For once I was almost grateful that I was 'invisible'. ... The Blank Wolf had been concise on what he wanted me to do... I'd already done a half job to see Sunset Shimmer get some payback... But... Princess Twilight? She had BEATEN Sunset Shimmer. She hadn't hurt anyone. Granted, she never did... anything to me, but at least she had the excuse of big world saving stuff whenever she was here... Could I really do this?

Princess Twilight stood behind me as I practically gushed everything I had learned to our friends, they looked at me like I was crazy, then they looked at me like I was trying to spin a yarn.

"Look, this is the Memory Stone! Have any of you seen it?" They all gave me blank looks. "I... I guess not."

Princess Twilight stepped out from behind me. "Come on girls, think, doesn't it feel like some things don't add up with your own memories? Don't you remember me asking you to take care of her after I went back to Equestria?"

Our friends looked at Twilight like they'd seen a ghost, and looked to her, then to Human Twilight, and back again.

"... Uh, who are you? And why do you look like me?" Sci-Twi asked.

Princess Twilight looked like she'd taken a piledriver machine to the chest... She fainted.

-
"Well of COURSE we remember you trashing the gym and blaming poor Twilight!"
-
"Of course she was there stopping the Sirens!"
-
"Principal Cinch blackmailed her into competing against her own school!"
-

And they said all those with a completely straight face, there were a million contradictions I could spell out for them... but from the looks on their faces, they wouldn't believe a word of them.

Still, it was their memories erased, not their hearts, and they helped Princess Twilight onto a bench where she could recover.

"I can't believe the nerve of you, bullying a lookalike into your fake memory scheme?" Rarity said.

... Memories... For an awful moment, I wondered what was the point of them? They were as fragile as names written in the sand with the tide coming in. Even without magic they could lie to us or be lost.

At least they all gave a sympathetic look at Princess Twilight. But they all had places to be.

Including Trixie. "My work here is done." And did her disappearing smoke trick. As per usual, it didn't work at all.

And... ugh, I don't like talking about this part. I asked Rarity what she meant by that, I found out about Trixie still wanting to get in the yearbook, I reacted badly, I didn't see Twilight's selfie-drone out of my field of vision, knocked it out of the sky along with a breaking crash... I offered to help fix it.

"You've helped enough," Sci-Twi said.

When Princess Twilight came to, she looked, well, how do you THINK she looked?

"Please tell me it was a dream?"

I hugged her. "Sorry. It isn't. They all think that Human you is the one who's been around since the beginning."

Twilight slowly hugged back.

"Sunset... have you ever read the Night Zone story, The Day The Sky Split Open?" Twilight whispered, clutching me harder.

"No, but there's an old TV show a lot like it here, just with fewer horse puns... "

"Three ponies travel beyond the dark side of the moon, and mysteriously vanish from Canterlot's scrying spells for four hours, and they don't remember what happened in that time. When they get back, they begin to vanish one by one, everypony except the next pony to vanish doesn't even remember them... all proof they ever existed just... disappears... the only clue is this feeling that they had that they didn't belong.' Sunset? I... What if this is just the world telling us to go away? What if this is the way the world was meant to be before you or I came here? They were never meant to be our friends."

I held Twilight the shoulders. "Princess Twilight Sparkle... look me in the eyes. I'm here. You're here. Solid proof still exists about us. We aren't vanishing. I was the one 'meant' to defeat Nightmare Moon, but I blew it before I even got to the starting line. Was Luna 'meant' to become Nightmare Moon? Whatever was meant to happen or not happen, this is what's happening now. And I wouldn't trade it for the world and I know you wouldn't either!"

I didn't realize Twilight's eyes had been misting up before she rubbed her eyes and said, "Right, let's go find that stone! I think I might have a lead!"

We left the beach for Canterlot High... when we did though, I got slapped in the face by another unpleasant shock.

Flash Sentry, in swim trunks, walked right by us without so much as a hello... He averted his eyes from me... But he didn't so much as look at Twilight... and she didn't so much as give him a glance. A chill went down my spine and I felt a hole in the pit of my stomach.

"Twilight! Why didn't you say hello to Flash Sentry?"

"Huh? That's human Flash Sentry?" She asked. She saw the look of alarm and fear in my face and began to put two and two together.

"The boy who stood up for you when I framed you for wrecking the gym! The guy who was nice to you when you first came to this world! The guy who provided strings for your little cafeteria pep rally?! The boy you almost kissed on the lips after you defeated the Sirens?!"

"But... I've only ever known the pony version of Flash Sentry... my friends all teased me about having a crush on him and... I..." Her eyes widened. "Oh no. Please... please tell me we weren't...We aren't..." She was shaking.

"It's complicated! Twilight! This means whoever had the Memory Stone had to be nearby when I... at the beach, I had my eyes off you for just a minute... it couldn't be..."

"But-! But why not erase my memories of us not being friends?! Of me saving you! Of me being friends with them?!" I looked at the message on the inside of her arm to confirm it was in her writing and it was real.

"... It's like whoever is doing this wants us to suffer. There's only one person I can think of right now that fits!"

Oh, and I erased Flash Sentry and Princess Twilight Sparkle's memories of each other... what? I was obviously doing them a favor. It was obviously never meant to happen, I was just cleaning up their mess. No heartache, no 'getting over it'. After so many boys I like ignored me or worse, actually accepted a date then forgot, I know how that feels. Maybe I should do this more often.

-
Later At Canterlot High, we hunted down Trixie, if the worlds follow parallels, then maybe human Trixie finding the Memory Stone was the parallel to pony Trixie finding the Alicorn Amulet! That gave her means, and she had motive (a stupid selfish shallow motive, but that fit Trixie), and the opportunity with her at the photo club and at the beach!

"Well, well, what do we have here? And who are you? Twilight Sparkle's long lost twin?" Trixie... looking so smug, so superior, not really all that different from normal... but my friends had had their memories violated, I had spent that day being emotionally tortured, feeling my greatest joy being reunited with Celestia, then seeing Twilight so hurt and scared... And she had bragged about having her revenge before... And there she was, just smiling about it!

I wonder if some part of me enjoyed an excuse to go back into my bad habits, and I slammed my fist into the locker next to Trixie's so hard it almost dented (I'm a fledgeling goddess, I admit I've torn off some door knobs and I guess I forgot that when I was that mad). The rest of the students scattered.

"Well, looks like somebody is in a bad mood," Trixie said.

“Yes. That's it Sunset, punch Trixie's face in. Show everyone what you're really like. And I can subtly fix something else in the meantime.”

".worK carefullY"

“Do I really need to do this?”

"?dO yoU wanT alL thiS tO bE foR nothinG .yoU havE delayeD foR faR toO lonG"

“I'm just not sure I can really do this.”

".you'rE thE onlY onE whO caN"

“It... it gets easier each time.“

".I wouldn'T knoW .I dO whaT I exisT tO dO .iT iS alL I eveR kneW .tO dO otherwisE iS to becomE likE thE infectionS"

"...So you're like a machine?"

".gravitY iS morE accuratE"

I was ready for anything! I wasn't about to let this little weasel get away with this! Twilight said something, but I wasn't listening. Trixie wanted to know if I was ready, oh you can bet your biscuits I was ready! There was nothing in her half-baked bag of tricks she could pull!

I wasn't expecting a big fancy poster of Trixie.

"What do you think? If this beauty doesn't convince you then nothing will!"

I stared in confusion for a moment. I exploded. I couldn't take this anymore! I was done with her and her stupid games!

"Where's the Memory Stone? You turned my friends against me just because I wouldn't put you in the yearbook as the Greatest and Powerfullest?! ’Powerfullest’ isn't even a word!"

Trixie gave me a look that just screamed “I don’t get it” that would have had Sonata jealous. "What are you talking about?"

"I said it's not a word!"

"No. What Memory Stone? And all words have to start somewhere I'll have you-"

"The stone you used to erase everyone's memory, you manipulative little small-minded... blowhard!"

Trixie didn't seem even phased by the insult. In fact, if anything, she looked, greedy, excited, eager, she actually leaned a bit closer to me.

Trixie began throwing questions my way about the Memory Stone and how it worked, mentioning 'erasing every spoiled trick she'd ever done, which was zero of course'.

... It was a... a let down. It had... made everything nice and simple for it to be Trixie. My life was spiraling out of control, and with Trixie, at least it gave me a focus, something to point my anger at, it was easy to hate Trixie, she was egotistical, arrogant, a show-off, and was ultimately all flash and no substance. I wanted to believe she was behind everything. And it HAD made sense with how things in the worlds naturally paralleled each other. (The school rumor mill had included mention of Vice Principal's... 'phase.' )

"I don't believe it. You have no idea what I'm talking about."

"I... don't. Sorry." I actually slid down to the floor. My temper evaporated. Our one lead, our one chance, poof...

"So... you really did become nice, but we got our memories of that changed?"

I nodded.

Trixie actually sat down next to me in the empty hall, we were likely missing class at this point.

"... So you have a you that you want everyone to see... but all everyone else sees is someone else?... Trust me, I know how that is."

"... I don't believe it. Out of all my friends in this world, it takes an enemy to believe me."

"Oooh! You thought of me as an enemy? Cool!" Trixie said smiling. ... It hit me like a brick. How desperate for acknowledgement was this girl? "Care for some help finding that magic rock?"

I may be reformed, but I wasn't born yesterday. "What's in it for you?"

She held up the poster.

"Oh no. Nuh-uh!"

"Welllll, if you want to continue your reign in the yearbook as Biggest Meanie..."

No matter the universe, Trixie is still Trixie.

"AHCHOO!" Sneezed the blue Alicorn.

"Princess Trixie, are you okay?" Asked one of the royal guards of the Princess of Humility. Having only recently recovered from her battle with the Queens (as it turned out, one 'new born' Alicorn versus two eons experienced ones and the Alicorn Empress of the Crystal Empire wasn't much of an even fight. Good King Sombra had barely gotten her out of there alive.)

"Somepony must be talking about me."

"... Welcome to the team Trixie."

"Thanks, I was thinking of you being the Great and Powerful Trixie's Pretty Decent Assistant-Detective-Helper Person... Hey, where’s Twilight's twin?"

"She's not Twilight's twin, she's Princess Twilight, she's from the same world as me, you've met her before, but whatever erased your memories of me also edited your memories so-, WAIT! What do you-" It hit me like a ton of bricks. Since when the hades had Princess Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn of Friendship, EVER stayed quiet for this long when someone was obviously opening up!?

I frantically looked around. "Where is she?!"

"I-I don't know! Wait! Twilight Sparkle in your universe is royalty?!"

"When did she leave?!" How had I even missed it?!

"I... I don't remember."

My blood ran cold.

The Battle To Be Remembered

View Online

Sunset Shimmer

Trixie and I stayed together, not daring to split up just in case. We almost randomly began to search hallways, until I thought that the statue was the best bet... Trixie managed to keep up. I saw that one kid and prepared to grab them (yes, he was a kid, but he was the only one left I kept seeing trailing me!)...but then we saw... someone carrying Twilight Sparkle to the statue and I took off after them instead... I shouted... something... they turned at me, they reached into their bag and...

They were gone.

Ugh! I was dizzy!

I looked around, nobody else was here.

"Trixie?" I asked quickly before checking on Twilight who was still on the ground.

"I... I feel like there are some... Ugh!" Trixie looked as disoriented as I felt.

"Twilight! Twilight, you there?" I shook her awake.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"Wh-who?"

Now my blood turned to ice. No. Nononononono! Not her too! Please not her!

She looked at her arm where she'd written her note. "Sunset... That's right... we're friends... "

Thank. You. Celestia!

"You... you stole the crown, I went in after you and... I came out telling Celestia you were in good... hands?" She looked at her own hands. "W-what?" She fell on her hands and knees, making fists, looking confused. "What's this place?! I... I... wrote... something about with you in Princess Celestia's journal... then... you came to visit over the... THE MEMORY STONE! Sunset... where is this?! Why-why are you a human? Why am I a human? And... Trixie, what are you doing here?"

"I go to school here."

"No you don't you go to... Ugh!"

Twilight. It looked like even the princess of magic, that Alicorn themselves weren't safe from that stone's power. Just what the heck was it?!... Right, Twilight had said it was related to a goddess that made Discord look like a mortal in comparison.

"Twilight! Listen! This is the Trixie of THIS world!" My heart was hammering in my chest. And so was Twilight's. "You made FRIENDS HERE! You..." I couldn't bring myself to explain Flash Sentry again. "You helped people, you left me in the care of the friends YOU made here! You were insecure about this world's Twilight replacing you..." I somehow kept my voice from shaking.

"Wait, so there's a me in your world? Is she royalty too?" Trixie asked. I gave her a deathglare.

"R-right, friend just had big part of her memory erased, bigger things to think about!"

Twilight got clumsily to her feet, fell over, and tried again. I helped her stand. Twilight looked horrified, holding her head. "I... I remember everything about me before and after entering the mirror... but I... I remember reading about the Sirens, the Memory Stone, getting messages from you about something... But..." Twilight looked around. "This castle? I don't remember after all."

I ignored Trixie's stupid snigger at Twilight thinking this was a castle.

"So... you remember everything EXCEPT anything to do with... this world?"

Twilight nodded.

"... But... why? Why not just make you think I never reformed too? It doesn't make sense... " I looked around and shouted at the top of my lungs. "THIEF! Monster! Where are you?! I know you're not some invisible ghost!"

Shows how much you know Sunset Shimmer.

"Twilight, you should head back to Equestria, you've lost all your memories of this world, it's not safe," I said.

We'd taken Twilight to a bench as she began to learn her locomotion again. And the shock of seeing ponies she knew as humans... I remember how that was.

"From what you've said... they were trying to send me through the portal anyway, so that means they DON'T want me here. So that means I stay," she said stubbornly. Memories erased or not, still the Princess of Friendship.

"But why WERE they trying to send you back through the portal? Why not just hide you in a closet? It's not like you couldn't just come back."

Trixie remarked thoughtfully, "They're trying to erase everything of Princess Twilight Sparkle..."

".I merelY servE thE wilL oF A higheR authoritY .I aM merelY cuttinG ouT thE infectioN sO thE wounD caN heaL"

"While they want you, Sunset, to suffer," Trixie finished.

“She deserves it!”

"?doeS shE"

“Whose side are you on?”

".thaT oF A higheR authoritY .I merelY seeK thE invasivE specieS removeD .sufferinG serveS nothinG herE .I dO noT punisH .I simplY dO"

I'd gotten Twilight to figure out how to Pony-Up, it didn't work work that differently from using the Elements of Harmony apparently.

"So whoever is doing this, for whatever reason they did this to Princess Twilight, they have a personal grudge against you Sunset. So the question is, who has a motive?"

"... I think it might be a shorter list if I mark off the students that wouldn't have a reason to resent me." That... actually explains now that I think about it why so many people were willing to believe I was the rumor monger when "Anon-a-Miss" was a thing. (Technically she still is, the name's become a signature for people wanting to spread dirt online.) The only specific suspect I had was that kid, and considering the one with the Memory Stone had been trying to take Twilight back to the portal when I saw him and that rock can't MAKE new memories, he was out... back to everyone.

"So, suspects... everyone..." Trixie said, writing it down.

A while bit later,

"So you don't know anyone who's been having memory problems?" Twilight asked.

"I'm sorry dear, no." Nurse Redheart said. Twilight had been trying her hardest not to stare at all the 'alien' versions of her friends that she was seeing again for the first time.

"That just means her memories of that could've been erased too," Trixie said.

"She'd still have a record of students having memory loss, remember?" I said.

"Oh, right."

Nurse Redheart then whispered to Twilight, apparently forgetting we were what, five feet away? "Dear, are those two bullying you into doing their homework or something? It's alright to tell me."

Princess Twilight startled. "W-what? No!"

"Well, you can come see me if there's anything you want to tell me... and are you wearing contacts? I can't even see them."

"She's just trying them out," I said quickly, not wanting to make things more complicated. Which of course just complicated things. Nurse Redheart gave me 'that look' before we left the nurse's office.

"Human me wears glasses?" Twilight asked, confused. I can see the gears turning in her head again, wondering why that divergence would exist.

Trixie got Snips and Snails to help ask questions around the school... Turns out Snails had taken up Yoga... Nice to see they have some hobbies outside of being pilot fish. I'd never bothered to learn about their interests. Twilight mentioned her world's Snails was actually an ace at this one game we didn't have here and on Ponyville's team. Who knew?

"Trixie, whatever happened to Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush? Maybe they can help too," I asked.

"We... still see each other of course, not... as often since the band craze burned itself out," Trixie said, uncharacteristically reluctant to talk about herself. "It's... like we were never friends." That haunted look in her eyes... So that's what I looked like.

"Maybe their memories were erased too?" Twilight asked.

"Not all broken friendships happen because something went wrong, sometimes it's because nothing happened," Trixie said.

With any option being a good option at this point, we offered Maud Pie a look at the picture of the stone, hoping she could tell us something, anything about it that might help. At least Maud Pie didn't look at me hatefully, but she never looks much of anything usually, and she'd been in college at the time I had my rampage, I was just lucky she was visiting Pinkie Pie.

"I can't tell much from a drawing. Except that it's felsic-intrusive igneous, granular in texture, most likely arranged in an equigranular matrix, with scattered biotite mica and amphibole, at least sixty-five percent alkali feldspar by volume, with a melting point of twelve-fifty centigrade, plus or minus ten degrees. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful."

How by Mom's Flanks did she get all that from a sketch?! Well if we can't get the Elements to destroy it, at least now we knew we could destroy it with a blow torch... if we had one. And no, throwing it into a volcano wouldn't destroy it, lava is only 1200 centigrade max, a blow torch is 1995 centigrade...Yes, I am trying to distract myself from my existential crisis.

We kinda began inching away from her at that point. One day spent looking for information on the Memory Stone. Then another day spent trying to find who had it.

That night in Trixie's room...

"So do you know anything about this Memory Stone?"

"Only that it's magic, unlike me, are not of this world. And it is very dangerous. Sadly not as dangerous as it once was ... what with annoying computer records and such things, heh, you humans trust your records more than your own memories, not that I blame you most of the time, but I suppose the Stone wouldn't be of much use if the victim was easily able to tell that something was wrong. You humans reinvent your own memories every time you remember them."

"So can you tell Trixie anything useful?"

"It would be safer for you to claim it for yourself than to destroy it, after all, a slight erasure, and it will be like the stone never existed... thankfully whoever has it clearly doesn't have much imagination, and is likely a teenager."

"Huh?"

"I say likely, everything points to one who is spiteful and emotionally reactionary. At least with Sunset Shimmer... This Princess Twilight on the other hand, why erase all her memories instead of making her think the same of Sunset as all of you do? Clearly there is a piece of the puzzle missing, they seem to have another goal." Surmised the black book with the red jewel on the cover.

"You said you'd teach Trixie power."

"That I did."

+++

Sunset Shimmer

We search the janitor's closet the next day just in case, nothing.

We were turning our brains inside out looking for a lead, and as fate felt like having it, I had my nose rubbed in it. Looking outside, seeing my friends, the six of them, all of them fitting together so perfectly. Taking their 'Best Friends' yearbook photo without me. And the sick feeling in my stomach, making me wonder, if the reason all those memories could have me wiped away without my friends even questioning it, that Sci-Twi could replace Princess Twilight in all those memories so perfectly... Because we were never supposed to be here.

Since I was still head of the yearbook club that meant I had access to all the photos on the server, which meant I could look at the picture of my friends with me looking out sadly in the window as much as I wanted. Telling myself this was what I was fighting for, and fighting against.

"You're just going to drive yourself crazy looking at that," Trixie said. I hate it when she's right. But it did give me an excuse to get back on track. "You need to think. Think Trixie, think!"

Twilight on the other hand looked terrified, I'm beginning to think her visits to the human world helped her in ways even she didn't get, as she was rocking back and forth.

I explained that I'd come back to the yearbook club room to try and see if there was anyone at all we'd missed, from students to faculty members. It had not been pleasant. The Crusaders acted like I was a demon from Hell. The teachers knew exactly what I used to think of them and treated me with as much warmth as the Arctic. With our extra help we'd managed to cover the entire school... And no clues for anything. I tried asking that one kid that trailed me if he knew anything even if he wasn't the one with the rock, but he disappeared somehow. Twilight says his Equestrian self's special talent is being silent.

Then Trixie pointed someone out to me in the year book, one that my eye had rolled over again and again no matter how many times I'd looked at it. It was startling.

"Wait. 'Not pictured: Wallflower Blush.' Who's Wallflower?"

"I'm right here, you know." We all startled. There she was, a pale green haired girl with freckles in a striped sweater... The kind of face you hadn't seen a million times. Had we met before?

"Uh, who are you exactly?"

I'd practiced that face enough to know she was boiling on the inside when Trixie asked that.

"Wallflower. I've known you since third grade."

Trixie looked a little uncomfortable, so she did what she does whenever she was uncomfortable and couldn't run away... she started to ramble, something about a disappearing frog trick and how you had to coddle tadpoles.

Twilight was still Twilight, and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, I uh, sorry, uh, have we met before?" Unlike the rest of us, Twilight at least had an excuse for that one. It took her only a second to realize she'd walked into that one. Strangely, Wallflower didn't really seem upset by the remark like she had with Trixie.

"I wouldn't expect you to remember me, no one ever does," she said.

".carefuL, you'rE goinG tO givE yourselF awaY"

What was that chill down my spine?

That was when there was a buzz from my journal. Twilight had left hers with Moon Dancer just in case she found anything new.

The message... was both good news... and awful news...

I had until three days had passed since the memories were erased to destroy the stone, or those memories would be gone forever! I have no idea how Clover The Clever figured that one out, and to be honest I didn't care! When HAD their memories been erased?! It could have been ANY TIME since I last saw them! I could have until tomorrow morning or less than an hour! Celestia-Dammit! It really was like fate was out to see me suffer!

The good news was that I was given a new sketch of where the stone had come from in the first place... So Clover The Clever really did come to the human world and buried it here. But wouldn't there have been natives already by that time? Or did he just have time to bury it and run back before the portal he used closed? Had the witch escaped to here? There were so many unanswered questions and none of them bloody mattered!

So I knew where the stone USED to be, and that was assuming it hadn't been paved for a hotel a hundred years back, that nobody had dumped it in a river somewhere and then was found by the seashore! Or been found in and put in a museum until some thief stole it! Ugh! It was still better than nothing! Maybe I could find something, ANYTHING! But where was I supposed to start looking for... the exact picture on Wallflower's computer screen surrounded by flowers?

My eyes narrowed. "That'll work."

And, for once in my life, I acted like the tactical thinking heir to Princess Celestia I was groomed to be. Had we found no clues? Or had we just had them erased? Well, we hadn't had any lost time before... But the stone's power had made it clear that meant almost nothing.

Next thing I knew... We were all standing in the club room, and time had skipped forward... We had been talking to someone I was sure of it! Why did my palm hurt? Twilight was rubbing her stomach.

Trixie tried the door... it wouldn't open.

You have NO IDEA how tempted I was to leave a sticky note on the door with a tongue sticking out with the antler hands gesture! I've told the teachers a hundred times to fix that door, but does anyone care what I've ever had to say? No.

We shouted, but nobody heard... or cared.

"Maybe I can teleport us out," Twilight suggested.

"Twilight stop!" I said quickly.

"You have no experience with how magic works in your human body, or how magic works in this world! At best it won't work, and at worst you'll end up in pieces! Even I haven't figured out how to do it or I'd be doing it already!"

"Oh," Twilight shivered. "But we can't just do nothing."

"Well, if we want out!" Trixie said dramatically then stopped. "Wait... did the windows here not have latches before? ... Trixie can't remember... Well, desperate times, desperate measures..." Trixie tried a chair on the window... the window wasn't damaged, but the chair got dented. "Since when do schools have glass this tough?"

.you'rE noT gettinG ouT

That shiver again. Wait, what shiver again?

"... There's something ELSE besides the Memory Stone at work here." Sunset said. "From everything, it couldn't affect the memories of living things, not places or objects."

Why was Twilight keeping her eyes glued on me like my life depended on it?

"Well! Like we needed anything else to worry about! How are we supposed to catch someone who can just erase our memories whenever we get close?!" Trixie exasperated.

That was when I felt something in my pocket that hadn't been there before. "... By being clever."

THANK YOU CELESTIA FOR SCI-TWI'S CAMERA DRONE! I left a note to myself to check the camera! I must have known our memories would get erased and turned it on then stashed its controls in my pocket!

I hit play back on the file, and here we go.

"Can I ask a silly question, Wallflower? Where did you take that lovely photograph?" I said in the video.

"Oh. That's my garden. Well, the school's garden, technically. I'm the president of the Gardening Club. I founded it, too. I'm also the only member. And the only one who's ever been to the garden. Or seen it. Or even asked about it." The girl, apparently Wallflower said with a broken tone. That was the picture of the place the Memory Stone was buried!!! It all came together.

In the video I touched her. I have no idea what I saw in her memories, but it was enough to shock me.

"You erased everyone's memories of me?" Video me shouted.

"Yes," she said simply.

Video Trixie asked who Wallflower was like she'd popped out of thin air.

= 'Invisible' - D-Side =

Then Wallflower began a Heart Song...

To call it heart wrenching would be an understatement. The way she described her entire existence, it was like she was a ghost.

I took the chance to go through the girl's backpack -- come on, if you're anything like me, you'd keep that close by no matter what. And she did! There it was! I grabbed the stone, and it burned me, or maybe it froze me! I looked at the red mark on my hand, that explained that.

We began a tug of war for the backpack. Trixie was too shocked to do anything. Twilight tried to hold her, but Wallflower elbowed her in the stomach, Twilight didn't see it coming.

This girl had destroyed my life? This stranger? Of all the people I had made miserable, it was someone I'd never even heard of? For what?!

"What did I do to you?! Honestly, I don't even know you!" I shouted.

"Exactly!" She hissed. "I see how everyone is when they think no one is looking! All the people you pretended to make up with, and you never even looked my way! You're still the Biggest Meanie!"

"Just because you haven't made any friends before doesn't mean you can't-" Twilight began to say.

Video me looked as angry as I felt, "... You're about to see how mean I can get!"

"Hey! Let's talk this out!" Trixie said, looking worried.

Princess Twilight shouted, "Why me though? I was never here enough TO not see you!"

Wallflower Blush said simply, "I was asked to."

"What?! WHO?"

"You were never supposed to be here, Princess, reality had scabbed over you." Twilight actually took a step back, looking like she'd had a knife stabbed into her, both in the video, and right now.

Wallflower just had to touch the stone with the tips of her fingers... and lights shot out of our head into the stone. "I don't like confrontation. Let's just... forget this ever happened! By the way, Princess? Big bad wolf."

"Don't erase—!"

And that put us back where we were.

"Big bad wolf?" Twilight said completely confused.

"I don't have a clue," I admitted. I was beginning to wonder if Shining Armor had known more about this than he'd let on...

Trixie shook her head, she had no idea either.

"We have to get out of here... there's no telling how much time I have left before their memories are all gone for good!"

My teammates looked at me shocked and confused before I explained the journal entry.

"Sunset, if that does happen, you can... just keep trying and become friends with them again? They were willing to give you a chance before right?" Princess Twilight said. I wonder if she was saying that to me, or herself.

"After they saw me break down in tears and you asked them to... Even then I had to save them from three ancient evils before the rest of the school knew I'd turned over a new leaf."

"Well given how our school seems to attract ancient evils lately, you'll be a hero again in no time." Trixie sneered.

"Ugh. Twilight, even if that happened, it wouldn't be the SAME friendship, the friendship I have... had with them, is going to be gone forever!" I put my face in my hands. I felt like I was being strung along. Only learning things too late, when they couldn't help me, and being cornered where I couldn't do anything.

"That girl had a point about you," Trixie said.

"Geez, thanks," I bit with sarcasm. Twilight glared at her.

"Not what the Wise and Moralizing Trixie means. You said you didn't do anything."

"I didn't! I wasn't mean to her at all!" I exasperated.

= Seven Songs for Seventh Saga: I. Wind =

"But maybe it's not good enough to not be mean to someone. Maybe you have to be nice. A wise man once said, 'the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.' Everyone at this school has been nothing BUT indifferent to her. I know what it is to be invisible."

"... You're right... The truth is, none of the students or the teachers here even MATTERED to me when I came here... well, those that I couldn't use. Flash was an alpha male, and Principal Celestia, I could pretend that it was Princess Celestia giving me the crown."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA?!" Trixie said, "How many princesses does your world have?"

"Uh... let me count," Twilight said quickly.

"Never mind."

"Not that any of it matters, we're trapped in here... Unless Trixie could disappear us out of here."

I'd just accidentally stabbed poor Trixie in a sensitive spot.

Trixie looked at us, and leaned her head against the wall and she touched it with both hands. "What's the point in trying? Since when ... " Trixie shivered. "Since when have any of my magic tricks ever worked? I... I..."

"Trixie... you don't need to push others aside to be in the spotlight, you only need to do that if you don't believe in yourself... and since when does The Great and Powerful Trixie not believe in herself?" Twilight said.

"... Thanks Twilight." Trixie said with a smile.

"... At least I'll have one friend left in this world come tomorrow," I said.

"I guess having a princess for a friend isn't so much a consolation prize," Trixie said casually.

"I said this world Trixie... I meant you."

Trixie looked at me in shock... when was the last time anyone had ever called her a friend?

I thought darkly as I left the school, feeling so good. 'You know, this power I use came from another world too.'

".yeS, odD thaT I havE neveR helD thaT againsT yoU"

I felt calmly. 'You were planning on destroying it after I did my part?'

".ENTROPY iS thE samE concepT oF existencE acrosS alL worldlineS .thE fouR highesT pillarS arE beyonD thE concepT oF individuaL realitieS .thE wolF cannoT harm it"

"But you would if you could?"

".tO undO itS existencE maY undO alL yoU havE donE, I musT toleratE iT"

"... You want me to toss it back into their world when this is over don't you?"

The big bad invisible wolf growled.

"But I'm not on your list am I? You can't hurt me. So I keep it, as long as I want to."

".thaT poweR doeS noT belonG iN thiS worlD !creatE A firebreaK anD puT ouT thE flamE ,thE mixinG oF worldlineS caN onlY brinG ruiN ?nO"

He had somewhere else to be.

"You poor fool! You actually believed me when I was pretending to give up? Mere stage banter! The Great and Powerful Trixie never gives up on herself or her friends. I mean, her Pretty Decent Assistant-Detective-Helper People. Behold! The Magician's Exit!"

And... the smoke cleared and Trixie was outside the locked door?!

"I did it? I DID IT! I finally did it!"

Twilight and me looked at each other, did Trixie just do real magic?! Except... we were still inside.

If a book could have a look of triumph, on the horse head engraving upon it, the book in Trixie's room would have.

"Uh, Trixie, still in here." I said.

"Oh! Right! Let me try again!" And the smoke bomb went off again. "Ta-da!" And, Trixie was inside and Twilight was outside.

"Third time's the charm!" And Trixie was back outside and Twilight was back inside. Trixie did it again, and smoke enveloped me, and the next thing I knew, I was outside the door. That refused to open as I tried the knob. Okay, seriously, I'm telling Principal Celestia about this when all is said and done!

"Oh just go already!" Trixie shouted.

"You have to find her!" Twilight said.

I remember Shining Armor's warning of always being where Twilight knew I was, but nothing had happened when Twilight had been kidnapped, and I had no choice now.

I nodded. "I owe you one, Trixie! I will never forget this!"

"Never say never," Trixie said with a tone of resignation. I had my phone recording just in case.

+++

"I hope she'll be fine." Princess Twilight said.

And the world seemed to turn gray and faded, time itself seemed to slow down.

"!shE iS noT thE onE yoU shoulD bE concerneD witH"

= Prince of Persia Warrior Within - 'Escape The Dahaka' =

The Blank Wolf
Guardian of Continuity

"!thE wolF wilL draG youR amnesiaC bodY througH thE portaL itselF"

"W-what are you?" Twilight whispered, holding Trixie's hand.

It stood on two legs, its entire shape draped in smoky darkness, except for two glowing white eyes, but the shape of its head, its stance, its claws, and tail left no question what it was.

"Big bad wolf," Trixie whispered.

The monster lunged. Twilight had never been so grateful to have wings. She didn't have experience with this world's magic but she could still fly! She managed to pony up and hit the ceiling out of the thing's reach. Until the beast simply walked up the walls and on the ceiling towards her!

+++

Sunset Shimmer

Luckily, Wallflower was strolling triumphantly from the school parking lot still... I ran straight by Flash Sentry in his car, and by my six friends, who looked at me funny, wondering what the heck I was up to.

"Wallflower!" I shouted closing in. "Wallflower, stop!"

She turned towards me slowly, looking at me with awe. "You remember my name?" The look in her eyes... that was hope. I actually felt sorry to break it.

"I remember everything! The Memory Stone, how I acted, all of it!"

And there came the disbelief and anger. "What?! How?! I erased your memories of the whole afternoon!" My friends turned their heads in shock. And I got, and so did Wallflower I think, a reminder that in spite of everything she was still just a teenage girl with hurt feelings who got her hands on something too dangerous.

I should have felt overjoyed that she just spilled the truth in ear-shot of my friends, but if I couldn't reason with her, things would just go worse, she'd just erase my memories and run again, we could end up playing tag all night, and by then it would be too late!

"Listen. I used to be just like you. Sure, I had power, but I was lonely. Power isn't going to make all your problems go away, and neither is revenge!"

"You're nothing like me, I had friends once, but your stupid Equestrian magic drove them away! You've ruined the world just by being here!"

"... Wallflower, I'm sorry. Please tell me what happened, let me help you."

"You've helped enough! And you're sorry now, that I'm a threat! All you did was clean up your own mess. You twisted CHS' sense of community, then you glue it back together? That's all it takes to become a demigod and get loved by the school? Really? By that logic my mother must have given me cookies after I glued back together her vase after I broke it: She didn't notice either! Meanwhile people like me are treated like we don't exist because we never had messes to clean up, because we followed the rules, because we never did anything awful, yet it's weasels like you, Snips, Snails, and Trixie that get attention. Where's the logic in that?"

.wipE alL memorieS oF heR existencE iN thiS ,worlD I caN theN sweeP thiS invasivE specieS bacK tO itS owN dirT .anD finallY thE universE wilL bE restoreD tO whaT iT waS supposeD tO bE beforE thiS pathogeN invadeD realitY

Enough with your orders, I don't need you to tell me that.

.I wondeR iF yoU ,caN maybE yoU arE jusT a ghosT

"I... am not... A GHOST!"

I startled back at her in exasperation. My friends were getting closer, they didn't know exactly what was going on, and they don’t remember what kind of person old me used to be. Setting up something like this just to get their sympathy, that’s the kind of stunt old me would have had pulled off. But the look in Applejack's eyes... Who am I kidding? If Applejack had a gift like that, she'd have been able to tell instantly that I wasn't lying about us being friends before. But they definitely knew something was up.

Flash Sentry had stopped his car a while away too, he was watching this too, but he knew old me better than nearly anyone, he'd want to see if this was one of my old setups or not.

Twilight was thrown over the desk into the blackboard, the wind knocked out of her. The Wolf was relentless. It gave her no time to breathe and no time to think. It simply followed her, every strike meant to take her out. Thankfully the room wasn't gigantic, so the groundbound monster didn't have much room to maneuver compared to Twilight who didn't have to worry about crashing into a classroom full of desks and computers. Even if it could climb on the walls and ceilings, it could only use them to jump off of, Twilight at least had full motion through the third dimension. But every moment had its claws stripe at her back and teeth bite at her heels.

As for Trixie... she had screamed, and covered her head, scared out of her mind. Twilight wondered if she'd wetted herself. What had Twilight expected from her? This Trixie never fought monsters. She'd never faced the Heir to an Empire. She'd never helped save the world. She was a teenage girl who had bore witness to some epic things in her time, but had never been part of the actual fighting. She'd been relatively safe by being away from the friendly fire. Even when enslaved by Sunset and then the Sirens, then dodging for her life from Nightmare Midnight, she'd never had to fight, let alone be trapped in a room with one of these monsters. Twilight realized she couldn't think of her as a coward. And she didn't have time to think. She was a mouse in a shoe box with a cat! And there was no way out! And Twilight had no magical experience and... none of her friends to power her up and save her, she didn't even have her friends in immediate danger to fight FOR as the Wolf had completely ignored Trixie. Though the thing had seemed very confused that Trixie could see it at all!

Even when fighting Tirek, Twilight had managed with brutal difficulty to get a moment to think and plan, but that was a battle across Equestria's landscape where teleportation had been an option, but the Wolf here had denied Twilight access to her two greatest weapons, her friends, and her ability to analyze any situation.

Trixie stood on a theater stage.

"Finally ready to take Me up on my offer?" Asked a red-eyed, floating Trixie wearing a black magician's outfit and a pendant shaped like a winged unicorn's head, with a red jewel at its center.

Trixie said nothing.

"You have no idea what that monster intends to do to Princess Twilight, but it's safe to say it's not anything good. It might kill her, eat her, make it so she forgets her entire life and everything. Kinda like Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush all over again. Losing someone who seems to actually care about you. And Sunset... who KNOWS what's going on with her... " The second Trixie held out her hand. "But maybe if you had the power..."

Wallflower Blush

= Live a Live - Pure Odio =

"And here we are again!" I hissed. "I erase your memories, and you find me anyway. I erase their memories of you and they come to you anyway. I lock you in a room with no exit and you leave anyway! How am I supposed to get back at you if nothing I do matters?!"

I felt like I was going to explode. I finally had power, more than I knew what to do with, and she still came out like I didn't exist! Like we weren't even in the same universe!

"I hate you!" I snarled.

Sunset gasped... And... I felt strange hearing those words come out of my mouth, they feel wrong somehow... But I'm sick of this. I'm sick of her. The world isn't fair, so I'll make it fair.

"I wanted you taught a lesson before you were thrown out... But you know what? I've realized... I didn't just need to wipe Princess Twilight so the real her could live her life... I've never seen the human you here! And I'm the one who sees everything no one else does! So if I haven't seen her, she was never here! You know what that means? You aren't supposed to be here AT ALL!!! Memories of you just existing don't need to go! Everything you've ever done to your so-called friends, from all of high school need to go! Every day, every moment!"

"What?! You can't! You'll be erasing their friendships too!"

"They'll be back to how they were before you ruined them, so all the better for them! I think I'll erase MY memories of you when I'm done just so I can BE RID OF YOU! ... Then again, your friends will need someone to help fill in the gaps for the last four years... so why not me? ... It's time for those who mess up and fix it get real for thinking that means they deserve some kind of reward!"

Wallflower Blush
Memory Witchling

"Here's yer reward!" Applejack shouted, throwing a super strength punch at my stone rushing me! I blocked instinctively with the stone. Applejack shouted, the stone, nor me, didn't budge an inch, even if I felt a shock-wave behind me. But Applejack did cry out in pain and held her red hand.

Rainbow Dash zoomed by and tried to snatch the stone out of my hand, but she cried out as she felt it burn/freeze her fingers. She tried to trip me... but I felt the shade of the Wolf keep me from falling, and then knock Rainbow Dash back on the pavement. The Twilight that belonged here tried to grab the Stone, but she shouted and grabbed her head like she had brain freeze. Rarity tried to trap me in a box of her barriers, I knocked the stone against it, and the crystal box shattered.

Sunset looked at me in total shock.

"What? Were you expecting me to grow fangs and bat wings? Oh wait, that's you." I asked.

".thiS iS noT parT oF thE plaN"

Shut up. What do you know about being alone? About losing those you care about most!

= Evangelion OST - 18 The Beast =

"AAAH!" Trixie screamed, a red aura around one first, red eyes glowing, a red glowing star on her forehead. She struck the wolf in the face... and actually knocked it back into the wall of the room. The entire section of the school shook. Pony ears were on her head, as well as the cutie mark on her leg, and her hair having grown into a 'ponytail.' Her dress had also taken on a black, silver, and red color.

"Oh no." Twilight said, recognizing that magic signature, and wishing she’d never have to detect the Alicorn Amulet’s magic again. But there was no sign of the Amulet! And why would it exist in this world?! And the worst was, why did it feel like Sunset's gemstone had... like it was magic NATIVE to this world!

"!impossiblE"

Trixie actually leapt onto the beast, and began to actually tear at the aura of shadows protecting it, a blast of raw black magic hitting it in the face, it should have been retconned from existence the moment it came in contact with it. Instead, the white fur and yellow eye underneath began to show from the protective aura. The Wolf Man snarled and slammed Trixie back.

"!nonE havE defeateD thE wolF"

Trixie's response was to appear and disappear at random around the beast in puffs of red smoke. Now it was Twilight who was forced to watch or risk getting caught in the crossfire! Trixie teleported behind the Wolf, grabbed it, and jumped so high, so fast, and so hard that she smashed the wolf through the ceiling, sending them into the deserted class room above. Twilight quickly followed, wondering if she was more worried about Trixie losing, OR WINNING!

Fluttershy's animals tried to get close to me... but it was like there was an invisible barrier around me, a sacred threshold they didn't dare cross. Pinkie Pie threw a cupcake at me... it exploded. I was actually surprised to find my hands weren't blown off.

Pinkie PIe and I both looked at each other in shock for a moment.

"I'd say you'll thank me later, but even I don't like lying," I said.

"Lying, burying the truth, same thing." Applejack said, holding her hurt hand.

Sunset's super power, whatever that creepy mind invasion stuff was, I wasn't worried about it right now. I charged up the stone, I'd wipe it all away, a clean slate.

"NO!" And Sunset Shimmer actually tackled me, and covered the stone as much as she could with her own body as it went off... That... had never happened before. I looked up at her in confusion.

"I destroyed their friendship once before, I won't let that happen again!"

I pushed her off, and we looked at each other. Her memories should have all been erased by now ... yet... she was still standing, the aura of the stone covering her... She shivered and hugging herself. Was she... was she resisting the stone?! No one's EVER done that!

"Girls.... Please... don't forget me!" She said to them. Then they came out, one by one, like movie films... I've seen this a hundred time by now. As the stone eats them up one by one.

"Fluttershy!" She actually tries to grab them as if that will work.

"Applejack!" That's another. The look of terror on her face even if she doesn't know what she's terrified about. The look of terror and shock on her friends' faces.

"Rarity!"

"Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie!" Her screams... her SCREAMS!

"Twilight...." Why... why did she sound like a big sister who was never going to see her little sister ever again?

And she fell over... like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

Then she gets up... on all fours... Her hands clenched together. I remember... That Sunset wasn't human in the other world... Her body language, it wasn't human, not even in the slightest... I felt bile rise from my throat just a little.

"What?... Where am I? How did I get here? Who... What are all of you?! ... What... what am I?!" She looked buggy eyed and horrified at the sight of herself. "Princess Celestia! Princess?! MOTHER! ...M-Mama?" She reminded me of a cornered animal.

I took a step back. This... What was this? I... I felt sick. I wanted to run, why couldn't I?

"Where do you think you're going!" Trixie hissed, tackling the Wolf by its legs.

"It's okay Sunset, we're here." The Twilight who belonged here said kneeling down.

Their memories are gone. They know what I did but... how can they look at her like that if they don't remember?!

= Hauser Hazard & I Look Up at the Sky Because You Are There - (Wild Arms 4) =

"Wh-who are you creatures?"

"We're your friends." Twilight said kindly.

"We may not remember you, and you might not remember us," Applejack said honestly.

"But after seeing what you just did." Pinkie Pie popped in.

They lined up like warriors as they spoke, ready to fight me for round two, but... but why do they think it'll be different this time? Why?

"And the sacrifice you were willing to make for us," Rarity added. They put their hands on her shoulders.

Fluttershy continued, "We'd be proud to call you-"

They all shouted together, "OUR FRIEND!"

Their gems glowed like miniature stars, symbols appeared on their thighs, and they each radiated like a star themselves. Each a different color. Their clothes changing into costumes that were different from the ones from Camp Everfree, I had to admit they were a lot less garish.

A gem appeared on the foreheads of Twilight, Rarity and Sunset. While wings appeared on Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Sunset too. Meanwhile their hair grew in length and took on a shape like ponytails, literally, while pony ears appeared on their heads.

I felt ill, like I was standing next to an atomic waste dump. I couldn't stand it, I felt like a ice cube in a desert! Go away!

"You okay Maud?" Asked Marble Pie, in one of the few times she spoke.

"Just felt ill for a second."

They floated above me like angels in judgement.

"Wallflower! You have magic you do not understand!" W-Who is she to tell me I don't understand this power? "But it is nothing compared with the Magic of—! "

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Light her up, ladies!" Pinkie Pie interrupted.

"How about I darken your day instead?!" I snarled.

Seven streams of light flew from each of them and became a rainbow that twisted about and fired directly at me. I held up the Memory Stone, and it was like a black roar came from it, like sounds could have colors. It shot out like a chinese dragon, and clashed with their lights...

... But darkness surrenders to the light... that is the nature of things... Just like it's my nature to never be noticed, and always forgotten. And for nothing I do, to ever affect the world in any meaningful way.

The dragon was overwhelmed, and the Memory Stone shattered, and it felt like a piece of me shattered with it. And when it did, all the memories I'd erased in the last three days, both good or bad, came flying out of it, all of them flying back into the heads of the people they'd been taken from... that I'd stolen them from.

When the light settled, only one tiny fragment remained, powerless and impotent, like me, like I'd always been. We remained one of a kind. I kept it close.

"Ow." Said human Maud Pie, feeling like someone had just pricked her finger. Pony Maud and Mirror Maud said the exact same thing at the same time in their respective universes.

In a shock wave... Twilight and Trixie both gasped as the memories of their encounter with Wallflower returned.

'Oh Celestia... this could have just as easily been me and Moon Dancer. I barely noticed her and look what happened? How easy could that have gone so much worse if she had an outlet like THIS for all that resentment and loneliness?' Twilight thought.

But that was NOTHING compared to the memories that came back next! Traveling to this world, freaking out at her human form, wearing clothes all the time, Spike as a dog, not having her horn, walking into the door that first time. Walking into the boy's bathroom... Meeting this world's Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash... restoring their friendship, giving the student body the push they needed to stand up to Sunset and choose someone else as their 'princess' that year. Choosing this world's safety over going home if she had to. Fighting Nightmare Inferno. Awakening magic. Telling the others to take care of Sunset, where she wouldn't be clamped in irons as she would on Equus, but where she could learn to be a better person and not be a danger to everyone.

‘Happy to come here a second time, facing the Sirens, trying to make a spell song that would beat them, not realizing that these girls didn't have the experience of my friends in Equestria. And... I had fun with them, that I most definitely did. And Sunset Shimmer and the rest of us, blasting the Sirens away and saving this world a second time!

‘Then of course... there was the Friendship games and meeting my other self, and taking the time to meet her family too... heh... that was fun. And I finally got to say 'I'm besides myself!' HEH!

‘And... there was Flash Sentry... Nice guy. Nice look. Nice music. Helpful. Friendly. Was willing to help even when he didn't need to. Dancing with him. Being heart broken when the Sirens twisted him with their magic... and ALMOST getting to kiss him if TRIXIE hadn't interrupted us!'

‘... My friends. Flash. This world... I may not be a native, this may not be my home... But they aren't replacements for my friends in Canterlot anymore than my friends in Ponyville or vice versa... all my friends are precious to me, whether on Earth, or Equus!’

Trixie stopped her attack at the same time as the shockwave, and so did the Wolf.

".yoU havE ,woN anD sO doeS thiS worlD losE .goodbyE"

And... the Wolf passed over everything, and in a moment... Everything was repaired... the chairs, the walls, the floor... everything... It was like the fight hadn't even happened.

A moment later, the red light flickered away from Trixie, vanishing like a burned out circuit, and her eyes returned to normal, and the other signs of Pony-upping vanished. Her clothes and body were back to normal. 'My twin plus another is not a good mix for us, we'll talk more later…’

"TRIXIE!" Twilight said quickly.

"Where... where am I? Twilight how'd we get out of there?" 'Trixie's acting was always better than most give her credit for. Trixie is... not proud of pretending to have no memory of what just happened to her new friend...'

"It's okay Trixie! Everything's fine!" Twilight hugged her.

= Brand New Days - Persona 4 =

I heard them recognizing each other, shouting each other's names, hugging, cheering, laughing, smiling, all the things friends do. All the things I never really did with the friends I once had or my precious flowers. They apologized for what they did, and Sunset couldn't have cared less for how they treated her, she was just happy their friendship was restored.

Sunset Shimmer

My restored memories weren't just of my years here on Earth... instead... I also remembered what I saw in Wallflower's memories.

= 'Invisible' - D-Side =

She was like a ghost, and her only company was ghosts... that the light of the rainbow drove away.

She had been at the dance, all of them, the battle of the bands, the concert, the Friendship Games... She might as well have not existed... like me in my friends' gutted memories.

And now... like so many of us ex-villains before her (including me) with her power gone... she didn't even try to run away... she just sat there... broken like the stone was.

"Wallflower..." I said as gently as I could.

"When I first found the Memory Stone, I only erased little things – awkward hellos, saying the wrong thing, literally any public speaking..." She sighed.

"How did yah erase the papers or videos about those?" asked Applejack.

"...No one ever kept any…"

"I've had plenty of awkward moments I wish I could erase, too," Swi-Twi said helpfully.

"... But when I was told what had to be done... I used it as an excuse... I WANTED to hurt you... but I didn't want to admit that it was all because I wanted to hurt you back for how... for how you’ve hurt me... I just made up whatever lie I wanted to hear so I could hurt you more... I'm so ashamed. I was given something important to do for the first time in my life... and I was just selfish."

"Wallflower... what do you mean 'important?'" I leaned closer.

"Haven't you noticed? Ever heard the phrase 'high school forever?' How long this school year has lasted? All this magic criss-crossing between worlds, you being here? The Sirens being here? The Magic Crown? Even the Memory Stone. It's all messed up this world of course... YOU ponies, you thought nothing magical you dumped here would matter... but it did... you threw things off course in ways we can't even figure out..."

"Wallflower, who told you all this?" I asked.

"I promised I wouldn't ever tell... suffice to say... there ARE spirits in this world Sunset, there are Windigoes, angels, demons, it's just unlike in your world, we just can't see them... or... everyone else can't see them... I always have..."

"... Sounds like Magic's been in this world a lot longer than when you brought Twilight's crown here," Rainbow Dash said.

"So... time's gone wonky because magic's gone wonky?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"More or less... I should have listened more closely... I didn't care... not really... I had the excuse I wanted to hurt you Sunset... I was supposed to erase everyone's memories of you, and your memories of this world, and be done with it... It was my idea to drag it out..."

"... The Age of Dreams." I whispered. I had a feeling what was going on. And it would take a lot longer to fix than just one harmony blast... but at least we now knew there was a problem, unlike those ponies. And me, two Twilights, Starlight Glimmer, and Moon Dancer have enough brains between the lot of us to find out how. Helps we knew two ponies who helped write reality's source code.

"Wallflower... I want you to know... I am sorry. I walked a mile in your shoes these last few days. I saw what it's like for the world to just sweep you under the rug... I may not have bullied you... but a Great and Powerful friend helped me realize I still wasn't very nice to you. I wanted to help those in need... but I didn't even SEE someone who desperately needed help right under my nose. Everyone matters, Wallflower. No matter how insignificant or invisible they feel."

I gave Blush my hand, and I helped her up, we hugged.

"CHALK UP ANOTHER TO 'VILLAINS REDEEMED!" Pinkie Pie cheered, she also hit a stop watch. "Oooh! I think this is a new record for 'last minute forgiveness' too!"

"GIRLS!" Twilight, PRINCESS Twilight, flew through the air, and hugged everyone before they even knew what was going on! She also hugged herself, literally. Heh!

"TWILIGHT!" They all shouted.

"So you know me! You remember ME!" Princess Twilight said tears in her eyes.

"Not going to forget you again." Applejack hugged her.

"Right darling." Rarity hugged too. And... you can really guess the chain reaction that couldn't be stopped at that point. Suffice to say... we had royal hugs and royal smiles all around! I'd tell Twilight what was going on with our two worlds LATER... right now, we could ENJOY our happy ending! Twilight didn't even question Wallflower Blush being there, she knew the stone was history... and with our track record, redeemed villains were the norm! Heh. Ya know what? I say that's a good thing! Call it cliche or played out all you want to, I'd rather save a soul from Tartarus than let them go there.

"TWILIGHT!"

"FLASH!"

And.... we gave them some privacy. I think they've both earned it You don't realize how precious something is until it's gone, it's not a lesson I'd wish on anyone, but it's sure dang effective! Rainbow Dash tried to record it on her phone, Applejack gave her a good whack for it.

"Hey... just trying to record precious memories," Rainbow said sheepishly.

... Yes, I did tell Flash he should move on... I'm not perfect, I know that now more than ever. Who knows?

(Sunset Shimmer Supplemental: Maybe one day they'd have a demigod kid who, being the kid of people from both worlds, makes a proper link and solves the Wolf's problem. Uh, DON'T tell anyone I said that!)

"Um... e-excuse me?" asked that little kid suddenly standing right beside us, causing us to jump. Even Wallflower had jumped! "H-Hi...I'm Featherweight..." he said, looking to Wallflower Blush and... well... blushing... wait... Oh... Oh, I get it now! He was never trailing me... Looks like somebody's got a puppy dog love crush... I'd say something, but Wallflower needs anyone who notices her. "M-Miss Wallflower, c-could I join the Gardening Club?"

Wallflower looked like she'd been hit by a meteor. "You... you want to?"

"I've... I've actually tried to ask you before... But I was always too shy... but... you looked like you could use a hand…"

Wallflower Blush... actually began to cry a little. "S-sure! Absolutely! Everyone is welcome!"

Wallflower

Featherweight told me later... he'd have been glad to help me... if I'd only noticed him... Had I been so caught up being bitter about nobody noticing me that... I'd not noticed the one person who actually wanted me to notice him?

".becausE oF youR ,selfishnesS whaT maY havE beeN thE onE waY tO heaL thiS worlD iS gonE"

"... If you're going to punish me for it... please do it... I've more than earned it."

".thE wolF doeS noT punisH ,iF thiS worlD fallS ,iT wilL bE punishmenT enougH"

"Sunset is confident they'll figure something, and given how many impossible things the lot of them have done, is it really a stretch? ... And if it does go to that... at least I'll see my friends again won't I?"

".yoU won'T carE"

"Maybe it's about time I tried looking on the bright side of things..."

".gooD lucK tO yoU anD youR neW friendS"

"Hello Sunset…" said Wallflower, cringing and expecting the same reaction as always.

"Hey, Wallflower, how are you doing?" asked Sunset with a smile.

Wallflower looked completely stunned. "You... you remembered my name?"

Sunset smiled. "Friends always remember each other's names."

Wallflower hugged her crying tears of joy.

Sunset Shimmer

Well... Princess Twilight and Flash Sentry went on a date...

And the year books came... Rainbow Dash went nuts over our picture being next to Bulk Biceps and having to be the ones 'kissing' him. HEH! Let me have a little FUN! HA!

Also,

"WHERE IS THE YEARBOOK CLUB PRESIDENT?! HOW'D THIS GET IN HERE?!" Trixie demanded storming in when she got her copy... and showing 'Greatest and Most Powerfulest Magician' there on a one page splash. She'd EARNED IT! We hugged.

Princess Twilight had told me to keep an eye on her for any 'dangerous magic' (and an eye out for a certain evil piece of jewelry), since we didn't sense any innate magic from her that wasn't her own and Trixie said she didn't remember anything. Oh, Twilight was jumping off the walls for the chance to test out to see if Trixie's stage magic was the real thing now and do all sorts of tests (yeah, like that got ME anywhere when I tried to figure out how the magic of my friends work!). But for now she was just Trixie: a great and powerful girl who helped save me and my friends, and had become my friend too.

Wonder when I should tell her that her Equestrian self is a national hero...maybe when her ego is a bit more under control.

I also had a yearbook delivery to Best Gardener, now with more than just herself here in her gardens. Pinkie Pie had also introduced her to her triplet sister Marble (I'd ask how they could be triplets, but Pinkie's other sisters were a stoic rock lover, a hot headed bundle of rage, a violin player who loves the spotlight, and the most hammy, high profile photographer in the entire school, Pinkie Pie couldn't be less like her sisters if she tried), predictably the two got along well...

I swear Wallflower was talking with something I couldn't see when I delivered the book... But she cried tears of joy seeing all our names written inside...

Rarity had given Wallflower some tips on how to get people to notice her (If there's anything Rarity knew how to do, it was that), and they were doing her some good... but in all honesty? I think Wallflower's problem was she got so used to being ignored that she was afraid to even try, and when the Memory Stone came into the picture, it just enabled that. It was a magic she was perfect at using, but that may have been the problem... believe me, I know EXACTLY how that works. Now that she's got friends and the Stone is gone, she can finally move forwards.

= His Theme (build up version) - Undertale =
And speaking of moving forward...

"The spirits, ghosts, shades... you really did think of them as friends did you?" I asked putting a hand on her shoulder. She didn't shrug it off.

"They told me they couldn't feel anything, but being with me helped them remember what feeling was like. Even if they couldn't feel, they could make me feel..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." I didn't feel like reminding her that we'd been stopping the Sirens, I'd seen her memories, she knew that already, that didn't make the pain go away.

"That's the whole problem," she said with an edge to her voice. "You didn't know, none of you knew what damage your world's magic was causing in mine... Like people could step on me, and not even notice, like I was some sort of bug."

"...Want to know something Twilight told me when she realized we both knew a bit about where your friends came from?" I asked.

"What?"

"...If they're anything like the ones from Equestria, there's a little of them in everyone... Twilight used to be named Minty, Rainbow Dash used to be...well, Rainbow Dash, but a different one."

"...And you?"

"...I don't know... But Equestrian Pinkie invited me to come visit this place based off the world a lot of them came from and called me Sunshimmer... Those Shadows just want to be again, or be to begin with... and through some of us, many of them are... Maybe you can help them someday in ways no one else could... after all, why else would you be the only one who can see them?"
-
".somethingS cannoT bE ,saveD buT maybE beinG remembereD iS enougH"
-
"...You really believe that?"

"Wouldn't be the first one to restore something that should be gone for good…" I said, showing my geode. "... A really horrible monster named Discord shattered the Element of Trust and unmade it. My mother and her sister tried for a thousand years to fix it and couldn't... but I did. I brought it back when they couldn't... maybe you're the same."

"... I'm nobody…"

I looked her in the eye and smiled. "Nobodies don't exist, if you exist, you're the heroine of your own story... there are no background characters, only characters whose stories haven't been told."

She hugged me.

Oh, and me and Twilight are BOTH writing down our life experiences in both worlds... memories are precious, share them!

Life is a road, you gain stuff, and you lose it, but memories are irreplaceable, even if you gain new ones, they won't be the same ones, so take care of them. Oh, and I have a picnic lunch with Princess Celestia, Cadence, Luna, and Twilight... all the family together... Yeah, I just realized, Princess Twilight and me are cousin-in-laws now! HA HA! I can't wait to meet Flurry Heart... she can't be anymore of a handful than I was at that age.

A certain time later

Flash Sentry said to himself. "Twilight... here I come."

A beast of shadow and fangs rose between him and the statue. ".yoU dO noT belonG iN thaT worlD"

Flash Sentry said simply, "Out of my way."

~Full Circle

Supplemental, optional canon by Kendell2

View Online

This is a recursive fanfiction by Kendell2, and thus should be considered OPTIONAL CANON! And thus shouldn't be taken as irrefutable canon.

====

The plan to erase the corruptions from the other world had failed. Wallflower Blush was beaten and the Memory Stone destroyed.

That Fauna Luster allowed her powers to be used to ruin the plan through the Elements did not go unnoticed and drew attention.

The concept of empathy looked down at them all. "WALLFLOWER BLUSH WENT BEYOND THE PLAN AND BEGAN DOING MORE HARM THAN THE PLAN WOULD HAVE CAUSED GOOD. HAD ALL OF THE HARMONY BEARERS' MEMORIES OF HIGH SCHOOL BEEN ERASED, THEN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE LOST ANY PROTECTION AGAINST MAGICAL THREATS IN THE FUTURE, AND NOW THAT MAGIC HAS BEEN UNLEASHED, THERE WILL SURELY BE MORE...FURTHERMORE, SEEING THE PAIN AND SUFFERING IT CAUSED, I GAZED INTO THE WIDER WHOLE, BEYOND WHAT YOU MAY SEE, THROUGH MY OTHER EYES OF THE WHOLE THAT IS EMPATHY THROUGHOUT ALL TIME AND SPACE...AND I MAY HAVE FOUND ANOTHER SOLUTION."

"And what is that, Mother?" asked Rota Fortuna, knowing she saw the timeline but hadn't the context to know which one. She saw all timelines.

Pensilis looked up. He had been one of the Concepts rather adamant about finding some other way to resolve this. After all, it was his nature to not seek needless suffering on any good person.

"THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE PRESENCE OF SUNSET SHIMMER IN AND OF ITSELF. IN HER WORLD, A YOUNG HUMAN NAMED MEGAN WILLIAMS FROM ANOTHER WORLD WAS TAKEN FROM MEGAN'S WORLD TO SUNSET'S BY THEIR WORLD'S VERSION OF FIREFLY."

"Sound like that world is in love with meddling with other realities," said Currus, concept of honor, courage, conquest, and the status quo.

"BE THAT AS IT MAY MY SON, IT WAS EVEN MEGAN WHO DEFEATED THEIR LORD TIREK, NOT MAJESTY... AND WHILE HE WAS ALSO EMPOWERED BY MORNING STAR'S MEDDLING, THE DAMAGE HE'D HAVE CAUSED WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN GREATER. MEGAN'S PRESENCE HOWEVER BALANCED THINGS OUT, RATHER THAN LEADING TO THINGS SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL. THE DIFFERENCE IS, THE TWO WORLDS WERE JOINED AT THE HIP, NOT PERFORMING TRANSFUSIONS THROUGH A TUBE. THEIR WORLDS ARE MORE LINKED TO THE POINT DESTINY IS INTERTWINED. SUCH A THING IN OUR WORLD COULD POTENTIALLY FIX OUR PROBLEM PERMANENTLY RATHER THAN SIMPLY PUT A BANDAID ON A PROBLEM THAT COULD POTENTIALLY RESURFACE...AND PERHAPS LEAD TO AN EVEN BRIGHTER FUTURE...HOWEVER, WE SHOULD TREAD CAREFULLY TO ENSURE THIS HAPPENS THE RIGHT WAY, DOING IT WRONG COULD CAUSE HARM. AS WITH MANY THINGS, TAKING THIS CAREFULLY IS KEY."

"So the new plan isn't to separate things further but to connect them closer?" Pandora replied. "What a twist!"

"CHANCE, YOU ARE UPSET, I FEEL IT."

"...I ripped off Rota's wing for nothing..." she said looking down, almost on the verge of tears.

"INCORRECT. THE WOLF HAS ALREADY PURGED MANY, MUCH MORE MALEVOLENT INVADERS FROM OUR UNIVERSE. BEINGS THAT IF LEFT UNCHECKED WOULD BE FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE SIRENS. IT HAS ALREADY DONE MUCH GOOD. AS IT WOULD HAVE GONE TO DO WHETHER THE PLAN SUCCEEDS OR NOT."

"She's right, Chance. We've given the universe a guardian; even if the plan failed, the universe is better for that," Rota said, causing the counterpart to nod and give a small smile. The two hugged.

"Indeed, your sacrifice was not in vain, sister..." Pensilis said, being a comforting presence to both. "And I admit, I am happy Sunset and Twilight may not need to be sacrificed as well."

"Aren't you sacrifice incarnate?" Anarchy asked.

"Self sacrifice, Anarchy, and if it had been me who had to be sacrificed I would have done so without a moment's hesitation, as I have in the past...if all else fails and those girls choose to sacrifice their own place in our world of their own accord, I will stand by it...but I am not sacrificing the unwilling."

"Mother, if I may..." said Rota Fortuna, picking up the tapestry of reality, tiny threads that came rope as you looked farther away from it. She drew attention to one braid of rope... "This is the world that the pony Sunset Shimmer came from..." Another thread of rope drifted closer to it. "This is the reality of Megan Williams... Note that while the two have similar laws of biology, and social concepts, Megan's reality, like ours, is one where magic is incredibly rare as to be considered part of Pandora's domain by the majority of humans.

"But that is where similarities end. The two realities do not share parallel histories, or rather, where certain people and events in Megan's world exist in Sunset's world until Megan introduced them... like Robin Hood and firearms. In fact, Sunset's reality suffered a major self-inflicted reality-crash that required a forced reboot soon after the ponies of Sunset's world began to mimic and run parallel to Megan's world at the time of her visit!"

Currus took a closer look at the ropes. "And that's what we have to look forward to in a thousand years or so... a blink of an eye over the reach of infinity. And it would seem that the technological and cultural revolution Megan gave ponies also gave them the tools to try and remake their world into what they thought Father is, and instead nearly destroyed their own world line. This is why bleeding over between world lines is forbidden."

"And further more..." Rota Fortuna presented another braid of rope... this was... was much much closer in resemblance to Sunset's reality, even more so than their own universe was. "Note that this reality had much the same history... except... that Mother and Father there gave birth to Nature's Fury and Havoc and Entropy gave birth to Nature's law there for some reason... I think... looking at concepts from across worlds can be like trying to have a lens look upon itself This worldline, Sunset's Celestia visited almost constantly, Sunset's Celestia practical become a resident ... However... once they began to interact... "

The two ropes began to unbraid... threads going off and tying to each other, becoming more and more connected as time went on, and went they inevitably tried to go their separate ways, threads broke, snapped, and caused both ropes to randomly veer off course as they tried to override the other with the choices made from their counterparts, resulting in an equal and opposite reaction happening for more and more decisions across them, stripping both world lines of their complete free will. Until all... like an ambulation, Rota Fortuna forcibly cut free the two threads before they completely unthreaded each other into a rat's nest where no choice made any sense.

"I would propose mother, it was not the similarities between the worlds that were the solution, or the scale in which they were connected... but their differences. Megan's world was different enough to have a separate identity not corrupted by its neighbor, but at the same time, say unlike the Outer Concept's domains, ran on enough similar rules to compliment each other. On the other hand, the world line visited by Sunset's Celestia was simply too similar... I sense it's possible that as the two realities' threads began to be tangled, they became opposites of each other as a desperate attempt for both realities to keep their individual egos, ironically binding them further. And the mirror that Sunset's Celestia used was EVEN MORE POWERFUL than the one the alien Sunset Shimmer used to come here.

"And may I remind us all, that Nightmare Midnight DID create solid, much stronger portals that would enable beings to pass over without being adjusted to that reality's rules... And the results were... not good. I propose mother, that the key is not so much the strength or size of the binding of the threads... but our world be fortified with enough unique traits that both realities are able to sustain their own sense of identity."

Fauna Luster looked down at Rota in a way that left Rota unknowing if this whole thing was simply a means to get her to come to that conclusion herself or not. Of course Rota also knew her mother would admit to as much if asked, and as the Gods did such things to teach mortals to make good decisions on their own, it would be hypocritical to be angered by it. "WISE THOUGHT, MY DAUGHTER. HOWEVER, YOU MISS ONE KEY DETAIL ON THIS, THOUGH IT CHANGES THE VALUE OF THAT IDEA LITTLE."

"What is that, Mother?" Rota asked.

"MEGAN INTRODUCING THOSE IDEAS IN AND OF THEMSELVES DID NOT CAUSE THE REALITY BREAK, IT WAS THE PONIES' CHOICES OF HOW THEY USED THEM THAT DID IT IN THE END. LOOK INTO YOUR CONCEPT AND I BELIEVE YOU WILL FIND A REALITY WHERE THINGS WENT ANOTHER, FAR MORE BENEVOLENT PATH."

Rota did so...and found a thread of reality where the Wish Spell was a complete success. "...You are correct, mother..."

"THE QUESTION HOWEVER, IS HOW WE DO THIS, MY DAUGHTER?"

"...Hey! I may have one!" said Pandora, a light bulb appearing over her head. "Magic is acting all wonky down there due to this mess, right? It's acting wild, kinda like us Draconequi, right?"

Rota nodded. "That is correct."

"Well...what if we made it a feature and not a bug?" the embodiment of imagination replied. "IE, magic acting wild and free and needing guided, not controlled, is how it NATURALLY works? That'd make it completely different from how magic works in THEIR world and thus a fundamental way things work in very different."

"That...is an interesting idea..." Rota replied, tapping her chin.

"But we would require a Concept of Magic to make that decision," Curris noted.

"...We already have a good potential one..." said Puerilis, looking down at existence, at the alien Sunset Shimmer, her native self, and the humans Moon Dancer, and Trixie, in particular. "Make that at least four. And in our domain, where there is potential..."

"The alien Sunset Shimmer? Really?" Currus asked.

"Sometimes, the best way an oyster can deal with a grain of sand is to make a pearl," said a young nature goddess.

"So we have four candidates to become the idea of magic itself." Pandora said reminding everyone their guest was still there. "Strife will LOVE seeing which ones comes out on top!"

"LET US BEGIN OUR NEW PLAN...AND LEAD TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE."

When their children had dispersed, Oblivion arose within safe distance from Empathy. Beyond them the whole that was The Beginning and The End stretching out to infinity in all directions stood in the void between worlds.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THOSE MORTALS CAN FIND A WAY TO BALANCE THE WORLDS?" Entropy questioned.

"DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN A HAPPY END TO EVERYTHING?" Fauna Luster replied.

"WE BOTH KNOW THE ANSWER: I BELIEVE IN EVERY TYPE OF END, INCLUDING HAPPY ONES."

"AND I BELIEVE IN EVERYONE. INCLUDING THOSE MORTALS," Fauna Luster replied. "SO IN A WAY, WE BOTH BELIEVE IN THEM, DON'T WE?"

"IN A WAY...YES WE DO..."

Pony POV Series: EG Forgotten Friendship

by Alex Warlorn

Forgotten Prologue

Forgotten Childhood

The Battle To Be Remembered

Supplemental, optional canon by Kendell2