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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset frowned. “M… me?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Princess who?

There was something wrong. Sunset clenched her fist.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Remember what?” Sunset asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh by the stars,” Rarity wheezed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Princess Twilight Sparkle took another bite of her sandwich, wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin, and lowered her eyes to the stacks of paper before her. She read in silence. Numbers filled rows and columns, and a few graphs in the corner provided insights on trends and expectancies.

She ruffled her wings as she came to a particular set of figures which, when considered, pointed toward a discrepancy in the numbers of bits that actually existed.

And those sorts of things made her blood boil. She groaned.

A unicorn mare, standing near a portion of the bookshelves that ringed around the room, glanced over while adjusting her glasses. “Huh?”

Twilight glanced over and smiled. “Oh, nothing you need to worry about, Moondancer.”

“If you say so, Twilight,” Moondancer said as she picked a book from the bookshelf. She trotted over to the table and took her seat next to Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes trailed to the empty teacup in front of her friend and she then smiled. She lit her horn and levitated the teapot over and refilled the cup.

Moondancer glanced up and chuckled. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Twilight said before taking another bite of her sandwich.

She returned to reading the rest of the notes and figures, stopping to digest the occasional diagram. Finally, she resorted the stack of papers and levitated them up. “I guess that sudden reappropriation of vital funds will delay things after all.”

A third mare, who sat across from the both of them, took those papers within her own magic. “It will take some time to fix it. Accounting for it will require redoing the ledgers.”

Twilight sighed and nodded all the same.

Moondancer looked up, pausing to stare at the scar across this mare’s right eye. She ran her eyes over the gradient of cerise and violet that was this mare’s mane and tail, and finally over the horn protruding out of her head. Moondancer then sighed and stuck her head back into the book in front of her.

The mare leaned forward. “I see that you noticed the fund discrepancy.”

“I did,” Twilight said. “And I guess you know how to fix it?”

“I already have. You’ll see it when the updated ledgers come about. But that will take a couple of days. That is the earliest time the board will approve your proposal.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You think they’ll approve?”

The mare smirked. “Oh, they will. I will make certain of it.”

Twilight smiled in response. “Excellent. Is that everything that you had for me?”

The mare stood up and, after quickly adjusting her vest, she shook her head. “That’s everything. I’ll try to get those revised J-17 forms to you as promptly as possible. If you need anything else, I’ll be back at City Hall.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The mare turned and trotted out the pair of double doors, pulling them closed as she went.

Moondancer chuckled. “What’s all that about anyway?”

Twilight sighed, took a sip from her own teacup, and turned to face her friend once again. “Oh, I’ve been thinking about building a friendship school nearby. But it has to clear Ponyville’s zoning board first.”

“Huh. You can’t just build it on royal authority? Or with a magic chest?”

“No, I can’t. I may be the Princess of Friendship, but I still have to follow some rules. And I’d hate to break the rules.”

Moondancer smirked. “I’m just glad you at least have some time to do this collaboration with me. I’m sure being a princess means you’re pretty busy.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh, I’m pretty busy, alright. But I’m never too busy for friends.”

Moondancer smiled.

Twilight levitated another stack of papers over and, while stuffing another bit of sandwich into her mouth, she began pouring over their contents. She sorted out a few pages from the top and eventually set the others on the table. “Anyway, I was thinking a little more about the introduction that you blocked out. I like it so far.”

“I’m glad that you think so,” Moondancer replied. “I think it’s some of my best description. But…”

Twilight shifted in her seat. “But, there was one thing that stuck out to me that we might want to look at again.”

Moondancer adjusted her glasses. “Was it the source of the error in the low-x region?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “It was! So you noticed it too.”

“I did,” Moondancer said. She levitated some pages over and flipped through some before selecting one from the bunch and passing it over. “I think we had some magical resonance and that always has some nasty effects. I’m pretty sure that’s what has brought on this undesired behavior.”

Twilight took the sheet and scanned it. The page itself was an ordinary line graph joined by a couple of equations at the bottom. The graph itself gave a distribution; somewhere in the middle, the line rose up toward what looked like a spike and then fell again. The equations told her where that spike was.

“I think you might be right,” Twilight said.

“I wanted to mention it too, but I just haven’t been able to figure out how to parse it. If you know what I mean.”

Twilight nodded and set the paper down. “Okay, okay. Do you know specifically what was resonating?”

Moondancer shrugged. “I’ve narrowed it down. But I don’t have the resolution to really peg it down.”

Twilight sighed and rubbed her face with her hooves. “So then… we might not be able to solve it. We might just have to live with having these large error bars. I hate this.”

Moondancer shook her head. “We still have better results than every other paper on the subject before this.”

Twilight threw her hooves into the air. “I guess.”

Moondancer took a sip from her teacup and returned to her readings.

Twilight looked through a few more of the papers, taking bites from her sandwich all the while. Her eyes occasionally wandered to a large object near the back wall: a large apparatus of idle pumps, empty tubing, and electrodes surrounded a large and ornate mirror. The more time that passed, the more she found herself looked in its direction.

Moondancer caught onto Twilight’s glances and looked up as well. “Uh, Twilight? You okay?”

Twilight jumped in her seat and then looked over. “Oh. Yes! I’m fine. I think.”

“You’re looking a little bit distracted, Twilight; you keep looking at that mirror over there.”

Twilight shrugged. “Well, that mirror is actually an invention of Starswirl’s. It’s a portal to another world.”

Moondancer tilted her head. “Really?”

“Yeah! I’m not entirely sure of the specifics, since all of my books on Starswirl don’t have anything in them about the mirror, but it’s definitely a portal to another world.” Twilight giggled. “I’ve actually been to that other world a few times these past few years.”

Moondancer gagged on the tea mid-sip. “Seriously!? What’s it like over there? What kind of ponies live there? Are they even ponies at all?” Moondancer asked between coughs, not bothering to wait for either her coughing to stop, or for the answers to her inquiries before firing off multiple follow-up questions.

Twilight blushed. “Uh, it’s... different, but not so different… it’s a little hard to explain. I can tell you they aren’t ponies at all, though.”

“Wow…”

Twilight scratched her head and said, “I have a friend over there who came by the other day because of a friendship problem, and I’m just a little worried since she hasn’t written me back yet.”

“You’re friends with ponies from another world? Stars, that’s... wow...”

“Technically, I’m friends with several people from another world,” Twilight giggled. “But the one I’m talking about is actually from our world. Her name’s Sunset Shimmer—”

Moondancer gasped. “Oh. Oh! I know of her. She was Celestia’s student before you were, right?”

“That’s the one. I’m a little surprised you know of her. She hasn’t been in Equestria for a while.”

“Please Twilight, I may have been a total shut-in for a few years, but it’s not like I’m not aware of this kind of stuff,” Moondancer said with a smug grin. “So, hey, was that why I saw you in Canterlot?”

Twilight jumped. “Uh, yes! You saw me!?”

“I was there in the library. You know, revisiting some materials for the paper.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh my goodness. You should have said something. I would have come over to say hi.”

“I figured I would come find you later. But I looked all over that library and couldn’t find you anywhere.” Moondancer threw her hooves into the air. “And I know that place like the back of my hoof.”

Twilight giggled. “Oh my gosh. You are not going to believe where we went. There is a section of that library that I didn’t even know existed!”

Moondancer frowned. “Must be really well hidden, then. I’ve spent hours in there, and this is the first I’m hearing about it.”

“It was amazing!” Twilight sprang to her hooves and was in Moondancer’s face immediately. “They had Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-one!”

Moondancer shot to her hooves. “No! You’re kidding! That’s when it gets good!”

Twilight laughed. “I know! Oh, if only I could show you myself. It’s a restricted section, though.”

“Restricted!? You’re going into the—” Moondancer took a long and deep breath and finally met Twilight’s eyes. “Okay, you have to tell me what happened now, if you’re going into a restricted section for it.”

Twilight backed up, nodding all the while. “Let’s see…”

Sunset Shimmer withdrew into herself even more. The chair she sat on, which consisted of a hardened material she didn’t recognize, felt alien underneath her. It was incredibly strange that her hind legs, if they could even be called that anymore, were draped over the front.

The person sitting at the desk across from her was impossible. This Princess Celestia look-alike was impossible. Rather, she was Principal Celestia. Sunset had to continuously tell herself that she did not know this person. She knew a pony like this person, but that pony was not this person.

Principal Celestia folded her hands together and nodded. “I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

The woman standing next to her, Vice Principal Luna, nodded. “We may all have seen enough of this Equestrian magic by now to accept this. We shall have to have quite a few words with this Wallflower when she comes into school tomorrow.”

The six strange girls from wherever they had just come from were also there. The strange transformation had apparently worn off, but that did Sunset no favors. They nodded in response.

Principal Celestia sighed and shook her head. If she was anything like the Celestia that Sunset had known, this was her way of expressing disappointment, and/or frustration. She had seen Princess Celestia act similarly during those chance few royal meetings she had attended as her pupil not too long ago.

Well, to her, they weren’t too long ago. According to everyone else around her, however, this was far from the case.

Principal Celestia opened a notebook, which Sunset assumed was some kind of day planner or something similar, and jotted a few lines down. “I’ll inform Mr. Doodle to have her come to my office first thing.”

Twilight, or rather Sci-Twi (if Sunset had indeed heard that nickname right), looked at her friends. “Should we come to the office too? We were there when she stole Sunset’s memories, and we’re also her friends, so—”

“Perhaps that would be a good idea,” Vice Principal Luna said. “We’ll need all accounts of what happened, for one. And, as a matter of fact, Sunset may have to rely on you to even explain what happened…”

A silence fell on the room as Sunset glanced up and met Vice Principal Luna’s eyes. Sunset’s frown deepened as she considered the other’s face, and Vice Principal Luna, in turn, regarded Sunset’s almost imperceptible tremble and the way in which she pressed herself as far into the chair as possible.

Vice Principal Luna sighed and crossed her arms. “I am… unsure if you even comprehend what has happened to you.”

Sunset hung her head. “Everypony is telling me that I’ve forgotten everything. I don’t... know,” she said. “They tell me I’ve been here for years and that I know everypony here but I don’t. I don’t know what I’m supposed to believe.”

“You can believe us,” Twilight offered.

“And believe that this is what happened to me? You’re telling me that it’s been three years or so since I hopped through that portal? I don’t know if I want to believe it!”

Principal Celestia nodded. “I can understand it. It is okay if this feels like a lot to take in.”

Sunset slammed her fists against the desk. “How do I know? You all say that I came here, ruled this school for a while, and then I supposedly turned a new leaf, but someone who probably didn’t believe it decided to take revenge. How do I know that any of that happened?” She slammed the desk again. “How do I know that I’m not being lied to?”

Principal Celestia met Sunset’s eyes for a few long moments and then took a brief glance at the clock. With a sigh, she stood up and walked toward one of the steel cabinets on one side of the room. Its top served as a small bookshelf of sorts. She picked a total of three similarly-constructed books off of it.

The other girls made a few cooing sounds under the breath.

“I won’t try to convince you of everything you are seeing and hearing is the absolute truth; not unless you feel like you want me to. But these are yearbooks from past years. They aren’t definite records of the past by any means, but maybe they’ll be useful to you,” Principal Celestia said as she turned and held out the books for Sunset.

Sunset stared at the yearbooks for a few moments more and then tentatively reached out for them. Her hands automatically (and impossibly) reached out and gripped them perfectly. She pulled the yearbooks into her and examined them one by one.

Principal Celestia crossed her arms. “For now, there is one thing that I must convince you about, and it is that you have a home here, in this world.” She briefly exchanged glances with Vice Principal Luna before adding, “And it is our responsibility to make sure you make it home safely tonight.”

“I… do?” Sunset wheezed.

“The apartment,” Rarity said. “You have an apartment here.”

“Yes,” Vice Principal Luna said as she offered her hand. “So, if you would stand up and come with me, I will take you.”

“Uh,” Applejack began, “you know where she lives?”

“Given everything that has happened since the Fall Formal, we have had to,” Vice Principal Luna said with a sigh.

“Riiiight,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her arms.

Vice Principal Luna turned. “Keys?”

Principal Celestia reached into her jacket pocket and handed a set of keys over. “I’ll be out of the staff meeting at five.”

Vice Principal Luna nodded, twirling the keyring with her finger. “I hope we’ll be able to get in by that time. If not, we’ll have to figure something else out. Come along, Sunset Shimmer.”

As Vice Principal Luna opened the door and led Sunset out of the room, Celestia returned to a cabinet under her side of the desk and reached in for some folders. “I have to prepare for my meeting, but I will be here once I get out. Feel free to stop by. In fact, please do.”

“So what are we supposed to do about Sunset’s memory?” Rainbow Dash asked as they walked down the hall. “I mean, even if Wallflower actually shows up tomorrow, the Memory Stone is broken. We don’t know the first thing about Equestrian magic...”

“Sunset Shimmer should still know about Equestrian magic! She only lost her memories of high school, right?” Pinkie asked. “She was calling for her world’s version of Principal Celestia, remember?”

“I do, but would she even want to help us?” Fluttershy said as she twiddled her fingers together.

“What do you mean, Fluttershy? Why wouldn’t she? We’re her friends!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“I know we are, but she doesn’t remember being our friend.”

Sci-Twi hung her head and let out a long and dejected sigh. “True, and we didn’t exactly trust her when we lost our memories of her.”

“But that’s because we only remembered her for who she was, and not who she had become,” Rarity said, pausing a moment to examine a nail. “We only remembered the bad things she’s done, but not the good memories we shared with her.”

“What about the journal she uses to talk to the Princess?” Sci-Twi asked. “The Memory Stone was using Equestrian magic, and she’s the only other person we know that knows as much as Sunset on the subject.”

Pinkie Pie leaped and bounded around the group. “If there’s anyone who can solve a friendship problem, it’s Princess Twilight! She is the Princess of Friendship, so this will be a cakewalk for her!” And, just like that, her mouth began to water. “A cakewalk sounds really yummy right about now.”

“We can get cake after we notify Princess Twilight, dear.” Rarity giggled. “We just need to find Sunset’s Journal.”

Hearing this, Pinkie stopped bouncing, and shot a confused look at Rarity. “Wait... find it? Didn’t she have her bag when she went after Wallflower?”

“I don’t think so...” Fluttershy mumbled. “At least, I don’t think she did.”

A puff of smoke from down the hall briefly caught their attention where, when the smoke cleared, they witnessed Trixie Lulamoon glancing about her person, jumping for joy, giving the door behind her a swift kick, and practically running further down the hall.

“Maybe she left it in her locker or something?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“If it is, we’d need her combination. Otherwise, we’d be up a creek without a paddle,” Applejack said. “As easy as it’d be for me or Twilight to use our magic to rip the door open, we’d probably get in trouble for breaking school property.”

“So what? We just ask the custodian to break the lock off. That should be easy enough, right?”

“We can’t without Principal Celestia’s permission, and she’s in that staff meeting,” Applejack said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t think we’ll be able to ask her until after.”

Sci-Twi frowned. “And this assumes that it’s even in her locker, to begin with.”

Rainbow Dash tapped her foot and groaned. Her eyes wandered over the entire hallway. Her eyes fell on the door they had just seen Trixie in front of and she gasped. She zipped over to it quicker than a lightning bolt and pressed her face against the glass, trying to peer inside.

Pinkie Pie was next to her in seconds and she too also peered into the room. Aside from Twilight’s selfie detecting drone on the center island, they found nothing of note—not within where they could see, anyhow.

Rainbow Dash tried the handle but it jiggled in place. “Locked.”

“Is it in there?” Fluttershy asked as she and the others walked up.

Pinkie Pie made a noncommittal sound and shook her head.

Applejack threw her hands into the air. “For land’s sake. That journal could be anywhere in this school. And I don’t know how we’re gunna find it.”

Fluttershy folded her hands together. “We don’t have any other ways to get in touch with her, do we?”

After a moment, Sci-Twi’s eyes lit up. “Maybe we do... Maybe the portal is still open...”

“Okay, let’s see if I got this right,” Moondancer began, attempting to sort through what Twilight had just finished explaining. “Sunset Shimmer’s friends, whom are that other world’s version of our friends, had their memories stolen with an Equestrian artifact that Clover the Clever hid in that world?”

“Yep,” Twilight replied.

“And you didn’t go over to that world because...?”

Twilight sighed. “It’s... complicated. Well, not really, but it’s weird, you know?”

“What’s weird about it? You’ve been over there before, so what’s the big deal?” Moondancer asked. “Not to mention that you’re the Princess of Friendship, and probably one of the most magically gifted ponies I know; this is kind of in your wheelhouse.”

“Yeah, but it’s—”

The creak of the library doors opening interrupted Twilight before she could finish her thought. Looking over, she was greeted by a nervous smile as a pinkish-coated mare stepped into the room.

“Hey Twilight, Moondancer,” Starlight Glimmer said. “I’m not bothering you right now, am I?”

Twilight offered her friend a smile and a gesture that told the mare to come right in. “Not at all, we were sort of just chatting about my recent trip to Canterlot.”

Starlight’s face twisted a little in confusion. “You went to Canterlot? When?”

“The other day. I was gone quite a while.”

“I went to the spa with Trixie, I think.”

Twilight nodded. “Oh, that’s right, you weren’t at the castle that day. Did Spike not tell you? I could have sworn I told him to let you know.”

“I thought he went to go help Rarity that day? Or am I remembering wrong?”

Twilight lightly smacked her forehead, just below her horn. Of course she’d forget something as small as that; Sunset had visited that day, and she had gotten caught up in the idea of helping Sunset smooth things over with Princess Celestia, and had forgotten to leave a note for Spike or Starlight to explain where she had gone.

“...I forgot about that. I was a little too absorbed in helping Sunset that I—”

Starlight jumped. “Wait, Sunset was visiting? Why? Is something wrong over there?” she asked, a slight tremble to her voice.

“Hold on…” Moondancer interjected as she narrowed her eyes. “Starlight, you’ve been over there too? Am I the only one here who didn’t know about Starswirl’s mirror portal?”

Starlight blushed, smiling sheepishly as her face darkened to a shade of pink that matched the color of the Element of Laughter’s mane. “Yeah, but I haven’t been there as much as Twilight has. I think I’ve only been over there twice.”

“Twice? I thought it was only the one time?” Twilight asked, confused. She leaned across the table. “Did you sneak over there recently without telling me?”

“... Maybe?” Starlight mumbled, her flushed face glowing like the freshest apple from Sweet Apple Acres. “It was only for a few hours, while you were away dealing with a Friendship Problem. I was back before you were, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. Sorry...”

Twilight smiled, and rested a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “No, it’s fine. I’m just happy that you’re getting along with the girls in that world.”

“Ahem!” Moondancer cleared her throat. “Not to interrupt, but Twilight, you were just about to tell me why you didn’t go over there to help with your friend’s losing their memories.”

“Wait, what!?” Starlight shrieked. “They lost their memories!?”

“It’s a long story, Starlight,” Twilight sighed. “The short version is Sunset’s friends had their memories stolen by someone using an artifact from our world called the Memory Stone.”

“That doesn’t sound so good,” Starlight replied.

“She’s working on getting those memories back,” Twilight continued. “I hope she succeeds.”

“Me too,” Starlight seconded.

“Well,” Moondancer said as she reached across the table, “if she’s anything like you made her sound, she should be okay.”

“I know,” Twilight said with a blush. “She’s smart… and capable… I have faith she’ll come through this.”

A crackling sound caught their attention. The three of them looked at the portal as magic sparks flew across it. Compressors hummed as they came to life and bits of magic flowed through many of the tubes that wound around the mirror.

Twilight stood up and made her way around the table. “That might be Sunset. But why…?”

Moondancer hummed and followed suit.

The apparatus continued to pump energy around its many facets and then finally shot two lasers into the face of the mirror. The face transformed into a swirling vortex of strong pinks. There was a flash and then the portal dumped several bodies across the floor.

Starlight jumped. “What the hay!?”

These six ponies—with one exception—looked just like the rest of Twilight’s friends, down to their coat colors, their manes, and the cutie marks on their flanks. The exception, however, looked much like Twilight as she had looked like as a unicorn, had her mane in an actual ponytail, and sported large black glasses like the ones Moondancer wore on her face.

And this strange Applejack was the first to stir. She wiped the stars from her eyes. “Hello?”

Twilight gasped. “Girls! You’re… here!?”

Rainbow Dash rolled over and then looked up. “P-princess Twilight?” she said.

“Uh, yes! Are you from Canterlot High!?” Twilight practically screamed. “What are you doing here!?”

Pinkie Pie immediately rolled over and then attempted to stand up on her hind legs. She wobbled and teetered about, not quite acclimated to the sudden shift of her center of gravity.

Moondancer’s eyebrows were raised to their fullest extent as she examined each of them. But, as she considered her own Twilight and Starlight, her expression loosened back up.

Fluttershy looked up. “Yes. Hi…”

Rarity looked up. “Hello, Twilight. Yes, we’re from Canterlot High. How are you?”

Twilight frowned. “Uh, wow. I did not expect this.”

Starlight’s eye turned to the unicorn Twilight who still lay relatively motionless on the floor. She frowned and scrambled over. “Hey, Twilight! Twilight! Sci-Twi!” Starlight exclaimed.

Sci-Twi rolled over and groaned. “Anyone catch the license plate of that bus?” she slurred.

Starlight sighed. “Gosh. I guess you are all okay, but—”

Slowly, but surely, the five most conscious ones took various glances at the way that Twilight, Starlight, and Moondancer stood and then looked at their own bodies. While four of them made various attempts to stand on their hind legs, failed, and then eventually settled into being on all-fours, the last shrank into herself.

“I’m naked,” Rarity grumbled.

“Sunset told us enough about Equestria. Still feels a bit weird, but it ain’t like we didn’t have any idea of what to expect,” Applejack said.

“Yes, well, I had assumed that the ponies over here wore clothes. Especially after hearing about Equestria from both Sunset and the Princess,” Rarity sighed. “I was so excited to see what kind of cute clothes little ponies would be wearing too...”

“No offense, Rarity, but now is definitely not the time to be worrying about how ponies dress," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not why we're here.”

“I do suppose that’s true.”

Twilight glanced between them and then stepped forward. “So, wait. You remember?”

“Yes!” Sci-Twi exclaimed as she suddenly rolled over. “Everything!”

Twilight clapped her hooves together. “I’m so pleased to hear that! After Sunset left to go find the Memory Stone, I couldn’t stop worrying about it.”

“These are the friends you were talking about?” Moondancer asked.

Twilight nodded. “These are my friends from Canterlot High. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and… me.”

“Hi, I’m Moondancer.”

“Hey! Nice to meet you!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, zipping over to Moondancer. She then looked at her own hooves and then at Moondancer’s hooves and then frowned. “Uh, what hand do I shake? How do I do this?”

Moondancer pulled back. “Uh, I’d rather not if that’s okay.”

“So…” Starlight began, “where is Sunset anyway?”

Sci-Twi eventually stood up and, while wobbly, trotted over to join her friends as well. “That’s just it. That’s why we’re here. She doesn’t remember anything! And we don’t know how to fix it.”

Twilight’s smile fell, and with it, the color seemed to drain from her face. “Sunset... lost her memories?” she asked, her voice cracking as the words left her mouth. She had questions; dozens of them floating around in her mind. And yet, her lips remained sealed to all but one word; to the simplest of questions to ask: “How?”

Sci-Twi gripped her foreleg, and her head drooped. The crestfallen look in her eyes only made her friends’ faces fall.

“Sunset... she dove in front of us to protect us... and she never got those memories back...” Sci-Twi explained, the guilt making her Equestrian counterpart wince with empathy. “That’s why we’re here... we don’t know what to do!”

“So she gave up her memories to save all of yours...” Twilight said, knowing it to be true. “She did tell me the other day that she would do anything to save all your memories. Listen, there’s this artifact called the Memory Stone. It’s a small rock about—”

“We know about the Memory Stone, sugarcube,” Applejack interrupted.

Twilight blinked and then eventually. “Oh, well that makes things simple. Just use the stone and restore her memories.”

“But that’s just it!” Rarity squealed. “We can’t! We destroyed the stone!”

Moondancer raised an eyebrow. Starlight gasped.

Twilight’s blood ran cold just as quickly as her jaw dropped out of place. She tentatively stepped forward as she scanned each of their faces. She looked for an indication she could find that they had said something inaccurate. She wanted them to be looking at Rarity with raised eyebrows and confused frowns, but instead, they stared Twilight down with pale expressions and held breaths.

“You…” she said at length. She couldn’t believe it. “You destroyed the Memory Stone?”

“Yes,” Rarity replied.

Starlight swore under her breath.

Twilight had to take a step back in order to remain standing. “No. You… destroyed the Memory Stone… and Sunset didn’t get her memories back?”

Rainbow Dash shuddered. “Yeah, you got it. Twilight, what do we do?”

Moondancer’s jaw also dropped.

Twilight began hyperventilating, and the sound of her heartbeat filled her ears. “No. No… that’s not possible. She should have…”

Rarity swallowed. “W-we can fix this… right?”

“Oh goodness!” Twilight exclaimed. It was wrong. It was very wrong.

All of the others exchanged uncertain glances and then, on considering her again, lost a bit of color in their faces amidst various horrified gasps and pointed exclamations. Their mouths moved, but Twilight couldn’t make out the voices through the drumming of her heart.

“Oh, goodness no!” she exclaimed. It could not happen. She needed it to not happen. “No no no!”

She scanned their faces one last time and found nothing but anguished contortions and increasingly wet faces. And then she fell to her haunches. “Please… no…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Sunset Shimmer,” Luna said.

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

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

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

Sunset listened in silence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Fall Formal?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starlight Glimmer waved. “Hi.”

“Hi…” Moondancer wheezed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight nodded solemnly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Sunset Shimmer…” Twilight wheezed.

Sunset frowned. “Hi…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rarity groaned. “I have no idea.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starlight sank into the cushion. “Right…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eyes turned toward the remains of Sunset’s geode.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No,” Rainbow Dash said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Hear hear,” Rarity seconded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Excellent,” Luna replied.

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

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances.

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

Sunset hummed in response.

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

Celestia’s expression twitched but she eventually nodded.

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

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

“This is my place…” she murmured.

A few nods came about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What have I done?

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

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

Wallflower’s stomach churned at the thought.

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

So why do I feel so guilty right now?

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

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

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

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

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

But she could be patient.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That must have been quite the sight.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Milk and sugar,” Moondancer replied.

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

“Thanks.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset narrowed her eyes. She had wanted it before.

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

Sunset snorted. “Where are we, exactly?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset raised an eyebrow. Princess Celestia? Pillars?

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

Now Sunset shuddered. Princess Celestia coming here?

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

“N-no,” she said with a quiver.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Sunset?”

“I-I don’t know if I can—”

“Sunset…”

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

Twilight sighed and nodded solemnly. “Well…”

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

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

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

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

Twilight nodded.

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

“I’m sorry, Sunset.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moondancer raised an eyebrow. “Uh…”

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

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

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

Spike frowned and hung his head. “Yeah…”

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

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

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

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

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

“Crystal Faire… I need your help.”

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

Twilight’s expression fell. “Why not?”

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight swallowed. “So…?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crystal shook her head and looked away.

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

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

Twilight could feel her breath leave her body.

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

Twilight hung her head. “But still…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thank you, Princess.”

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight groaned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celestia cracked a smile. “Absolutely.”

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

“Certainly.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celestia chuckled. “Yes. Indeed.”

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

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

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

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

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

“I have my ways.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trixie herself knew better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Several heads immediately turned. And several came forward.

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

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

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

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

Pinkie Pie sighed and nodded. “Yepperoni.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The crowd hummed affirmatively.

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

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

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

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

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

Diamond Tiara stepped forward. “Is that true?”

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

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

“N-no!” Microchips exclaimed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And so she stood up and looked around.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Right,” Moondancer replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How did she factor into all of this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset shook her head, breaking the train of thought.

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

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

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

“A bit for your thoughts?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Then, of course, your friends.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh no…” Principal Celestia groaned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starswirl leaned forward.

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

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

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

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

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

“...You?” Starswirl asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Or straight up taboo,” Crystal suggested.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes.”

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

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

“Why’s that?” Sunburst asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Uh,” Sunset suddenly blurted.

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm?”

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

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

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

Crystal narrowed her eyes but said nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spike folded his claws together and looked up at Sunset.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crystal looked up, her expression now somewhat pale.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was the front door. Who could that be?

Wallflower swallowed. She didn’t want to know.

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

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

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

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

She needed it to not happen.

“Wallflower!?” Principal Celestia called again.

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

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

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

Please… please…

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

A minute passed and then several more after that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight nodded solemnly. “Did you sleep okay?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight shuddered. “Please.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight and Celestia exchanged glances.

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

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

Sunset frowned. “...No?”

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

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

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

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

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. I get it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset frowned. “Twilight.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset shrugged. “I’ll ask around.”

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

“Okay.”

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

“Okay.”

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

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

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

Sunset nodded. She turned and walked toward the portal.

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

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

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

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

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

Why do I care so much?

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

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

And for whatever reason, those words cut Trixie deep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Princess Twilight,

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

Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer

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

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

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

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

“Here we are,” Celestia said.

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

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

“Yeah.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Hello, Mrs. Cake,” Celestia greeted.

Sunset meekly waved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How so?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You can be honest with me, Sunset.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That wasn’t a thought Twilight enjoyed entertaining.

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

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

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

“Sounds frustrating.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Want Sunset to get her memories back.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starlight nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunset frowned. “Twilight? You okay?”

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight closed her eyes as she waited for it to do its thing. And Sunset continued watching it intently.

And then the light in the Memory Stone died, leaving it silent and still one more.

A flurry of quiet gasps passed over the group behind Sunset. Celestia and Luna exchanged wide-eyed glances. Applejack’s jaw dropped, followed by Rarity’s. And Sunset herself could feel something drop within her chest.

Twilight made a quiet squeak and looked down at the now-inert stone. Her eyes flickered between it and Sunset and, after taking a moment to readjust her grip and her stance, she held it up again.

The Memory Stone flickered to life again with the same greenish glow as before. Magic flowed through it just like before. It audibly hummed as it worked just like before.

And then the Stone died the same as before. And nothing happened still.

Now Twilight herself gasped, looking at the object in her hands with wide-eyed shock and increasingly sharp breaths. Her eyes shook between it and Sunset now. She made sounds like she was in the earliest attempts at forming words.

Rarity squealed as she latched herself onto the closest living thing that she could find, which turned out to be Sci-Twi who didn’t (and couldn’t) flinch in response.

Twilight took two steps forward. She held the stone up again and powered it up again. It worked for a few instants again and then died again.

A loud bang destroyed the relative silence as all of the air rushed out of Pinkie Pie’s hair. She collapsed to the ground, dragging a now-quietly-sobbing Fluttershy down with her.

Twilight continued inching forward with tears now starting to make their way down her face. The stone in her hands lit up, hummed, and then died again.

Trixie remained standing there with her hands stuck hiding her expression of teary-eyed shock. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, stood there shaking like a leaf. Both her hands had balled into impossibly tight fists and, with the way she bared her teeth, she looked ready to fight something or someone to the death. And Applejack removed her hat and held it in silence. Her own face looked wet now.

Twilight sniffled as she tried the stone again. It lit up and died again, just like before.

And Sunset continued staring at her.

And Twilight tried again. And nothing happened again.

Now Twilight was mere inches away from Sunset and her expression intensified as she pointed the stone right at Sunset, but when nothing happened yet again, her arms went limp. Twilight broke down into sobs. The Memory Stone itself remained clasped in one hand but her grip loosened on it by the second.

And then, finally, the Memory Stone dropped out of Twilight’s hand entirely. It bounced across the pavement and rolled to a halt a short distance away.

Twilight looked up to meet Sunset’s eyes for a moment, her expression apologetic, and then, with a punctuating wail, she flung herself onto Sunset. She wrapped her arms around Sunset, bawling into Sunset’s shoulder.

The girls behind Sunset similarly broke down, grabbing a hold of each other and crying into each other. The two adults in the doorway looked at each other and wiped some tears from their eyes but otherwise kept straight faces and held themselves high.

And, meanwhile, Sunset herself didn’t even react.

Sunset couldn’t even react; she didn’t even know how to react.

She stood there unmoving and unthinking, staring at someplace infinitely far away. She comprehended nothing and yet she comprehended everything. She didn’t know what she had lost and yet, through them, she knew what she had lost. She didn’t know what came next and yet she knew what came next.

Because this was it. This was the outcome. The terrible, incomprehensible outcome.

Someone, somewhere out there, had somehow won. Years now did not exist. An entire life was gone just like that. Sunset wondered if this was what it was like to die.

Because, for all intents and purposes, to many people, she had. And here she was. And here they were.

And then, finally, Sunset reciprocated and allowed her head to rest on Twilight’s shoulders.

The front steps of Canterlot High School sat in deathly silence. Several human girls sat on those steps, all surrounding two solitary figures in the center. Two adults stood watching over them from the tops of the steps.

Thousands of thoughts swam through Sunset Shimmer’s head; thoughts she knew she did not fully appreciate. Some of them were on the minute details such as what she had seen and what she had considered. But surely the past implied the future; the problem was that she did not have that past.

And she never would again. Not by her own account, anyway.

She returned to the thoughts that made her most shudder.

What was to happen now? Where were things to go from here?

By now, most of the sobs had faded into the afternoon. The impact had worn off but still no one made any moves to suggest the next steps (if there were any steps to make at all).

Twilight Sparkle, who sat next to Sunset, balled her fists even tighter. She finally sucked in a breath. “Sunset…”

Everyone stirred to look at her. “Huh?” Sunset said.

Twilight kept staring at the ground and pressed her fists further into her lap. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”

Sunset frowned. “For what?”

“I should have done more. I should have worked harder. M-maybe if we had done the tests over here, or…” Twilight swallowed. “There must be a piece that I’m still missing. Maybe we designed the integration matrix wrong.”

Sci-Twi pursed her lips. Trixie crossed her arms. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna exchanged glances.

Twilight snarled. “I knew I should have done more to resolve your geode with the Memory Stone. I knew that was the key to all this!” She then gasped and sat up straight. She grabbed Sunset by both of her shoulders. “Maybe I can still do that. I can finish what I had and incorporate it into a new spell. Y-yes. I-I could bring the spell up to a state the fully resolves both. Maybe we’ll get your memories back that way.”

Sunset swallowed and noted how red and wet Twilight was still in the face (although everyone present was in a way).

“I know it will work. I know it will,” Twilight continued. She glanced at the others. “Would you believe me if I said it would work? Because I would—”

“Twilight,” Sunset said, simultaneously brushing Twilight’s hands off of her shoulders, “stop.”

Twilight did a double take, blinking in the process. “W-what? Sunset?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Yes it does,” Twilight quickly replied.

“No, it doesn’t. It’s done. It’s over.”

Twilight smacked the steps. “I don’t take that. There’s gotta be something that I can do. There has to be more.”

“Twilight… it doesn’t matter.”

Tears started welling in Twilight’s eyes again. “Sunset… you don’t understand…”

Sunset sighed. Now it was her turn to place a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Look, Twilight… I know you care about me. I’ve seen it myself these past couple days. I don’t… know what it was like between us before this all happened, so I don’t know why. I mean… Twilight, you seem really cool and smart and… you know.” She sighed again. “I do understand, I think. But this is it, Twilight. I’m not getting my memories back.”

Twilight shook her head but said nothing.

Principal Celestia cleared her throat. “Princess Twilight,” she half-croaked.

Twilight and the rest of them looked up.

“We have to start talking about where we are going to go from here,” Principal Celestia said. “We have some decisions to make.”

Vice Principal Luna nodded. “I am sure there are others back in Equestria who also worked quite hard on this. I think they deserve to know what has happened.”

Sunset nodded and turned. “Yeah… Twilight… You should probably go and tell them.”

Twilight glanced toward the Wondercolt statue. She stared at it in silence. “I…”

Sunset glanced around, making eye contact with several others in the circle, and then she stood up. That prompted her friends to stand up as well. And now everyone was standing over Twilight.

“You should go tell them, Twilight,” Sunset repeated.

Twilight looked up, swallowed, and then stood up herself. She wiped her face clean and then nodded. “Okay. Alright. Let’s go, Sunset,” she said as she started down the steps.

Sunset scanned everyone else’s faces again. They, just like Twilight, looked like all the life had been sucked out of them. They looked at her in much the same way Twilight did. Twilight had them beaten, yes, but they were still distraught.

She thought about all that she had seen over the past few days. She thought about they had initially reacted when she had lost her memories. She thought about the memories captured in yearbooks. She thought about her apartment and the leopard gecko waiting for her there.

Sunset finally shook her head. “No. I’m not going.”

Twilight, who had reached a few feet across the lawn, turned. “What?”

Sunset turned to Twilight. “I think I’m going to stay here, Twilight.”

Twilight opened her mouth and closed it again several times as she tried to find words. “You’re… you’re not going to come home to Equestria?”

Sunset sighed. “The way I see it… this is my home now. This is where I made my life. So, I think… maybe… I should stay here.”

Twilight again went silent. A knot moved up and down in her throat.

Sunset’s friends closed in around her, laying their hands on her in support. The two adults still watched from the top of the stairs, nodding sagely all the while. Sunset herself found the strength to smile at them (and she even touched someone’s hand—Rarity, it turned out—in return). And then Sunset, now standing taller, looked back at Twilight.

Twilight watched from her position, but as she ran her eyes over them and their features, she also loosened and straightened up. Finally, she nodded too.

Moondancer watched the face of the mirror portal in silence. They all did.

Twilight had been gone for several minutes. And there had been no news.

She considered it. Certainly, she had gone through it herself just a couple of days prior. It had been a strange experience, yes, but it was doable. She could very well go and check herself. But, nonetheless, if it had succeeded, then it had succeeded.

And if it had failed, then it had failed.

Starswirl and Sunburst had since returned to the table and had taken their seats. They took those moments to simply breathe. Starlight Glimmer, on the other hoof, stood with Moondancer and watched the face of the portal with her.

The double doors at the foot of the room opened and three more bodies entered. The first, Crystal Faire, with some papers floating in her magic, retained a relatively straight face. The other two, Spike and Princess Celestia, contrasted her with colorless expressions. Spike held his claws together and Celestia’s mane, eternally flowing in some ethereal wind, seemed somewhat stagnant.

Starlight, for her part, turned, examined them, and then gasped under her breath and likewise lost a bit of her color.

Finally, the mirror portal shimmered and Twilight appeared out of its face. She bore a similarly lifeless expression. She teetered off the platform and into the room proper.

And that said it all. They had failed.

Celestia trotted forward to meet Twilight, followed closely by Spike. Sunburst and Starswirl stood up and angled themselves toward them. Starlight fell to her haunches are let her gaze fall to the floor.

They had failed.

While Celestia and Spike gathered around Twilight, Crystal came up alongside Starlight and Moondancer and looked on in silence.

Twilight finally looked up and glanced around the room. “Everypony… Listen…” She paused as she examined the faces. “I’m… sure that there is more that can be done. I just know it. I wasn’t able to reconcile Sunset’s geode with the Memory Stone, so I have a feeling like that’s the next step. I think I’m going to start working on that, and—”

“Twilight,” Crystal said with a stern voice.

Twilight flinched. She slowly but surely looked up.

Crystal straightened up. “It is folly. Don’t waste your time.”

Twilight blinked. “B-b-but…”

Celestia swallowed. “Do you really believe so? Is there really nothing that can be done now?”

“I’ve more or less been saying that for the past few days,” Crystal replied. “Sorry.”

“W-wait,” Starlight stammered. “I just…”

“No, I agree,” Starswirl said. “If she isn’t getting her memories back, then that is that. It’s time we move on.”

Twilight looked over at him with wide-eyed shock. She considered him and his words in full. In fact, the whole room did.

She eventually looked up at Celestia. “P-princess?”

Celestia’s eyes remained on Starswirl but she eventually nodded vacantly. “Yes… I think he’s right.” It was only then that she hazarded a look down at Twilight.

And Twilight took a step back, took another, but on seeing no change in Celestia’s expression, she nodded solemnly. “Okay… okay…”

“Twilight,” Moondancer said, stepping forward, “I think it might be a good idea if you went and laid down for a while.”

“But what about here?” Twilight asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Moondancer scratched her head. “Well. We could probably clean up and everything. And then we’ll just try and figure out what to do next.”

Starlight wiped her face clean and stood up. “Yeah. Yeah. We can… we can do that. Moondancer and I can get that going.”

“Indeed. Go rest, Twilight,” Celestia said. “We will take care of things.”

“Yeah,” Spike said. “Come on, Twilight.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but ended up sighing instead. She nodded again. “You’re right. You’re all right. I’ll… I’ll come back later.”

The others nodded.

Twilight started slinking toward the door. She took a long time between steps as she was in no hurry. She let her head hang because she found no reason to hold it high. She peered over at Sunburst and Starswirl who watched her from the table. She peered at Spike who walked right beside her. She looked at Starlight and Moondancer who watched her with solemn frowns.

Twilight stopped in front of Crystal and met her in the eyes. The two stared at each other for several moments before Twilight’s eyes flashed toward the papers in Crystal’s magical grasp.

Crystal looked at those papers as well and smiled. “Ah, yes. If it makes you feel any better, the plans for your school have been approved,” she said. “Especially considering all of the bureaucratic obstacles which have so far prevented it.”

Twilight didn’t even react aside from a solitary sigh. With a solemn, wordless nod, she pressed on, eventually exiting the room.

Crystal’s smile completely disappeared as she watched Twilight depart. Her muzzle scrunched into a confused frown and she even found herself looking around the room, looking at the rest of them for answers. She found none.

And the room hung in silence even after Twilight’s hoofsteps faded away.

Vice Principal Luna stuck the car keys into the door and twisted. She then opened the door to the red pickup, pressed a button in the door’s handle that unlocked the other side, and then closed the door. She then walked around the front of the side and opened the passenger side door.

She opened the glove compartment and fished around, eventually claiming her prize: a stack of blank bank checks. She counted out two of them—one for herself and one for her sister—and then shut the glove compartment. Her hand then made its way underneath the passenger side of the seat and she fished out a couple of elastic cables.

It was as she was bent over that she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She transferred the bank checks to the same hand carrying the elastic cables. She then fished her phone out and read the text she had received. After humming thoughtfully, she reached under the seat again and fished out another elastic cable.

She frowned. Sister’s text said four. Can we find another one please? she asked herself as she rummaged through the supplies down under. Surely there had to be at least one more.

Her frown deepened with every second her search turned up nothing.

She then stood up and sighed. It was only then that she spotted something moving through the cab’s back window. She glanced through it to find it to be a girl emerging from the nearby trees. And Luna frowned. Such as thing was not only odd for this time of the morning, it was odd period.

And then Luna, through that window, discerned the green hair and the green skin and had enough to determine who it was. By the look on the girl’s face, she had not noticed her yet.

Luna threw the items to the floor and made a mental note to close the door later. She then crouched and skittered her way to the back of the truck. She then passed a few more cars, watching the girl through the gaps. Once Luna was sure she had gained some ground, she finally dipped between two cars and right into the girl’s path.

And Wallflower Blush gasped. But before she could turn and run, Luna had already jumped on her and grabbed her by the arm.

“Hey!” Wallflower screeched as she fruitlessly tried to wrest herself free. “Let me go!”

“Wallflower Blush,” Luna said with a stern tone. “First of all, skipping school is against the rules. Second of all,” she leaned in and said, with a palpable sharpness in her voice, “we have been looking for you.”

All color disappeared from Wallflower’s face and she looked into Luna’s eyes. And then she shrunk down.

Sunset Shimmer gripped the straps on her backpack as she stared up at the school’s front entrance. She had seen this building on prior days, but now she was going to spend her day here.

Today, after all, would be her first day of school.

And this was a time when there were no first days of school. Everyone in that building knew so much more than she did and were much further ahead than she was. And they lived in this world, so that head-start was likely on the order of years.

Sunset wondered how it had played out the first time. She wondered how she had handled it the first time.

She glanced behind her to see Trixie Lulamoon leaned into a compact car, speaking with her father (who was nearly her splitting image) in the driver’s seat. They said a few more words, and then Trixie stood up straight and then skipping toward Sunset. The car, meanwhile, pulled away.

“Thanks again for the ride,” Sunset said as Trixie caught up.

“Trixie is the most greatest and most powerful friend! A simple ride to school is no big deal,” Trixie said with a dismissive wave.

Sunset nodded and returned to staring at the school’s front.

Trixie also looked at its front and she sighed. “So… are you ready?”

Sunset’s mind replayed the various scenarios that could possibly play out. For all she knew, the entire building had long ago made up their minds about her (and that meant trying to make a good first impression was out the window). She was at their mercy, and while she had been assured that she was on good terms with the school, there were those lingering demons from years ago she had also been told about.

What if there were more people who felt about her the way Wallflower Blush (whoever she was) did?

She solemnly shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Nervous?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah…”

Trixie cracked a smile, shrugged, and then lay a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Relax. You will be in the company of The Great and Powerful Trixie! There is no better person to spend the first hour of the day with you. Trixie promises that you will get through this,” she said, holding her hand up as if making a vow.

Sunset grinned. “Well, if you say so. Let’s go then.”

The two walked up the lawn and up the stairs. They could see silhouettes of teenagers through the school’s glass entry doors. Sunset paused on the last step, prompting Trixie to pull her the last bit of way. Finally, they entered the school.

The school’s circular foyer greeted them. Some balconies hinted at an upstairs, further solidified by the staircases flanking the main entrance. Countless students walked this way and that, engaged in hushed conversations. Two hallways branched off of this floor of the foyer and several more branched off of the upstairs portion.

She had no idea where she was going. She looked at Trixie.

And Trixie motioned toward the hallway to the right. “Come on,” she said.

As Sunset followed Trixie into the hallway, several of the students stopped to look at her as the two of them passed by. Their conversations died on their lips (although, in some cases, they turned into shared murmurs). Some even started in her direction but never made it more than a few token steps. Some clutched their books to their chests as the sight of her left them breathless.

And all she could do was smile and wave.

As they rounded the corner, a group of boys near the lockers looked over. One of them, with short blue hair, wearing a leather jacket over his white shirt and some blue jeans, immediately frowned and started jogging toward them.

Trixie made a noise and stepped to the side.

The boy approached Sunset. “Hey,” he said.

Sunset looked him up and down. This was someone saying hello. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Sunset Shimmer.” She inwardly cringed; of course they knew that, but it had just come out so automatically. “What’s your name?”

The blue-haired male before her cracked a crooked smile. “H-hi… I’m Flash Sentry. You don’t remember me… do you?”

Sunset solemnly shook her head. “I’m… sorry. I don’t.” She gripped her backpack straps even tighter.

One of the boys that Flash Sentry had been talking to also sidled up. He had rowed hair and a pin with a bunch of green arrows on his vest. “Hi. I’m Sandalwood.”

A girl wearing a large red beret and black gloves also approached, stashing a notebook under one of her arms. “Watermelody,” she said, extending her hand.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you two… again,” Sunset replied as she shook hands with Watermelody. She then did the same with Sandalwood.

Another boy walked up at that moment. He adjusted his large square glasses and sighed through his nose. “Hi, Sunset. I’m Microchips. Did they… you know, did they say anything about your memories? Is there any chance you can get them back?”

Several more eyes fell on her now. And it was at that point that Sunset noticed that several more students had entered this hallway and had since joined the growing crowd.

“Sunset,” Trixie whispered, “I think we should go.”

Sunset glanced at all the people again. They looked so interested to hear what she had to say now. And, for many of them, their first reaction was to come up and say hello. And now they were asking about her well-being.

She straightened up. She was at their mercy. She had told herself that much a few minutes ago. They meant well. And that meant they thought of her well. They cared.

The knot in her chest loosened up.

And she finally shook her head. “Actually, Trixie, wait.”

Trixie frowned.

Sunset faced the crowd, scanning everyone’s concerned frowns. “Listen…” she said at length. “I’m sure that I knew all of you at one point. At least, before I lost my memories. But…” She shook her head. “I’m not getting my memories back,” she said.

Many in the crowd visibly wilted at that.

Sunset shook her head and sheepishly kicked the ground. “I know I’ve lost the last few years of my life with this. I know I have a lot to catch up on. I… gosh, I know I’m going to stumble for a while. I just… hope you can all bear with me for a while. Okay?”

Flash Sentry nodded. “Sure thing. We’re all here for you if you need us, Sunset.”

Several people in the crowd nodded in agreement, flashing smiles of their own.

Sunset smiled and glanced over to Trixie. Trixie grinned in response and then nodded in the direction

“Thanks, everyone. I should probably get to class,” she said as she pushed through the crowd behind Trixie. She made it a few steps before turning and saying, “I look forward to filling in the blanks with all of you!”

The crowd shot back various affirmatives and began to disperse.

Sunset and Trixie continued down the hall. But now Sunset held herself much higher and that prompted Trixie to walk just as tall.

Maybe this won’t be so bad, Sunset thought. Maybe I’ll get through this okay after all.

Starlight stared blankly at the chalkboard covered in equations. It was a complex formula for the spell matrix required for the spell they had used earlier that day; the results of her teacher’s days-long attempt to save their friend’s memories.

The spell that had ultimately failed, and the Sunset they knew was gone.

Despite her assurances to Twilight the previous day that she and Moondancer would get started on what they would do next, they had called it a day not long after the Princess of Friendship had made it to her room. The two of them had indeed tried, but after talking it over with the others, they had come to the conclusion that they couldn’t really get anywhere in their current states. The whole of the group had been both physically and/or emotionally exhausted, and had opted to reconvene the following day.

The remainder of the day had been very quiet. The group had splintered off one by one, each heading back to their respective rooms, sans Celestia, who had to return to Canterlot, and sans Crystal who lived elsewhere in Ponyville anyway. Starlight was pretty sure Moondancer was the last one to leave, but she had been too tired to really know for sure. Although, given what she knew about Moondancer, it was a pretty likely possibility.

“Oh, Starlight. I didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

Pulling her gaze from the chalk-covered board, Starlight noticed Moondancer walking into the room with a mug ensnared by her magic. “Yeah,” Starlight replied. “I’ve always been an early riser. What about you?”

“Same, though I usually wake up a little earlier than this,” Moondancer replied, sipping at her coffee. “Did you want any coffee? I just made a pot.”

Starlight smiled but nonetheless shook her head. “No thanks, I’m not really much of a coffee drinker. I have to be in the mood for it.”

“Ah, alright.” Moondancer glanced at the board. “Still trying to figure out went wrong?”

Starlight shook her head. “Sort of. To be honest, I’m barely even registering what’s on the board right now. I’m still processing the past few days.”

Moondancer nodded, understanding what her friend meant. “Ah, yeah, that makes sense...” she commented, trailing off a bit before taking another sip of her warm beverage. “...Have you heard any word on Twilight?”

“Not really. Spike’s not awake yet, and I don’t really want to see her right now.”

The response caused Moondancer to cock an eyebrow as she took another swig of her coffee. “You don’t want to face her right now?”

“Is it really that surprising?” Starlight asked, her face falling. “After everything we did to try and help Sunset... it just doesn’t feel right to go see her without something to raise her spirits, y’know?”

Moondancer hummed. “Yeah, that does make sense. But even still, someone should probably check on her.”

“I know, but I’m still not sure what I’d even say to her,” Starlight remarked. Hanging her head, she continued, “I’m not exactly the best pony to ask when it comes to dealing with a loss of a friend. Last time I lost a friend, I kind of started a cult.”

Moondancer rested a hoof on her friend’s withers. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not exactly the best with this sort of situation either. Last time I lost a friend, I just became a shut-in.”

Starlight chuckled, bringing a hoof up to meet Moondancer’s. “Heh, I guess neither of us handle loss well... even if I handled it much worse than you did. Still, it’s nice to know that somepony else knows what it’s like losing a friend.”

“I imagine a lot of ponies know the feeling. It’s just... some are better at handling it than others,” Moondancer said, a knowing, melancholic smile gracing her face. The sad grin was something that Starlight mirrored, happy that someone else understood how she was feeling. “And I think it’s safe to say we’re both pretty bad at it.”

The two shared a chuckle before Moondancer freed her hoof from her friend’s withers. Smiling, the pair returned their attention to the chalkboard, opting to at least try and get something done before Spike woke up. That way, they could maybe offer some kind of good news to pass along to Twilight later.

An hour passed by in the blink of an eye for the two of them as they talked out hypotheticals and offered theories as to what they could do next. Starlight found the whole process a lot easier to work through than what had been done for the past few days. At first, she thought it was because now that they didn’t have a time limit hovering over their heads; the lack of a ticking clock really did make it feel less stressful than it actually was. Eventually, however, she had found that the reason the process was less taxing was more due to who she was working with.

Working with Moondancer alone on something brought her back to her time as a filly; working on various simple spells with Sunburst. As a foal, she had spent countless hours with him studying spells and coming up with fun little combinations. Said combinations weren’t anything special, or even that efficient when it came to practical application, but it was fun. It was something that had been missing from the spell crafting she did later in her life.

It was relaxing, in a sort of nostalgic way.

The sound of the library doors rushing open caused jolted the two from their work, bringing their attention to the source of the disturbance. They were met with the sight of Twilight, an expression on her face that had taken them aback.

It wasn’t as though the two of them had never seen Twilight get mad. Through their various interactions with the Princess of Friendship over their collective lifetimes, the two had certainly witnessed Twilight upset. They had seen her annoyed with the way a book she was reading had ended, or when she had lost her cool when doing her job as the Element of Magic. This, however, was different than any of those experiences.

Twilight seemed to be sparking with barely contained magical feedback. Her expression was empty, but her eyes spoke more with a single glance than any expression could. If there was ever a time the expression “if looks could kill” would ever fit the purple alicorn, it was in that very instant.

“... Twilight?” Starlight managed to squeak out. “What are you doing here? You should be resting.”

Twilight didn’t answer; she simply walked toward the mirror. Before she could set foot onto its base, she heard Starlight call out to her again.

“Twilight, what are you doing?”

Twilight turned to look at her former pupil, her expression blank. “They found her.”

Before Starlight could ask what Twilight meant, her former teacher had disappeared into the glowing swirl of the portal’s surface. All words seemed to die in Starlight’s throat as Twilight’s words finally made sense to her.

“...Oh,” Moondancer croaked.

Starlight shot to her hooves. She stared at the face of the portal for a bit more as a dread crept and crawled down her spine. She shivered. Her imagination gave her several versions of what was about to happen, but they all had a common theme. And it was bad.

She backpedaled a few steps toward the door now.

“Starlight?” Moondancer asked. “Where are you going?”

Starlight swallowed. “I’m going into town. I think I need to get help right now.”

Sitting in the chair in the Canterlot High staff room was something that Sci-Twi never really saw herself doing at her current age. It wasn’t as if she had never been in a staff room before, as she had gotten the privilege to eat with Cadance several times in the Crystal Prep staff room in the past. Unfortunately, this was far from the pleasant student-dean lunches she had enjoyed with her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

As such, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

There was a thick tension in the air, and her ears felt like they were ringing. The pit forming in her stomach was making her wish she could be anywhere else but here.

But she knew she had to be here; for Sunset’s sake.

The past few days had been quite the ordeal. She had lost her memory of a person, only for that person to lose their memories of the past few years of their life. It was the kind of situation that Sci-Twi had read about in fantasy novels, but that could be said about a lot of stuff in her life after she learned about the existence of magic. The whole thing had really flipped the script on how she understood the world, but being the curious scientist she was, she took to it pretty quickly.

Of course, that wasn’t why she felt as tense as she did. She had long gotten over the fact that magic did things that she, at one point, would have categorically denied the possibilities of. No, she was on edge because of one simple, yet important fact about her present situation.

Wallflower Blush was sitting on a chair not two meters from her.

The rush of emotions running through her at that moment had left Sci-Twi conflicted as to how to feel, so her body had more or less just settled on ‘extremely high strung;’ it was akin to the way she felt whenever she was forced to engage with Principal Cinch. Of course, this feeling was a lot more bittersweet with greater emphasis on bitter.

On one hand, Sci-Twi knew what it was like to end up doing something horrible, and immediately regretting it once the dust had settled. Wallflower’s actions, while not directly paralleling her own, did seem almost pitiable. While Sci-Twi couldn’t pin down the girl’s motives as anything but ‘self-serving,’ she could at least understand part of it. It sucked feeling alone, which was something she herself could relate to.

She was sure that if Sunset could remember her own, similar situation, then they likely would have forgiven her already. As Pinkie had pointed out after the magical mirror incident with Juniper Montage, they were a really forgiving bunch.

However, she was also furious with Wallflower for what she had done. Sure, while Sci-Twi could find herself sympathizing with Wallflower, she also found herself wishing she could have her put in jail for murder. While she knew it was a little bit hyperbolic to think of someone being afflicted with retrograde amnesia as ‘murder,’ it didn’t stop her from thinking that she had watched Sunset Shimmer die that day.

And the one that had held the hypothetical pipe in the foyer (or in this case, magical stone in the parking lot) that day was within walking distance from her.

Clearing her head with a shake, she turned to look at Sunset, who was sitting in her own chair with the Journal on her lap and a fountain pen in her hand. She seemed to be unsure as to what to do, or at least that’s the impression her expression gave. Sunset was absentmindedly flicking her pen back and forth, clearly anxious. She had written something in the Journal a few minutes ago.

“Anything yet?” Sci-Twi asked.

Sunset jumped in her chair, nearly causing the open book resting on her thighs to fall to the floor. It seemed like it took Sunset a minute to register who had broken the silence. “No, not yet.”

“Ugh, seriously?” Rainbow Dash groaned, earning a glare from Applejack. “She’s, like, the Princess of Punctuality! How is she not here yet?”

“Well, hold yer horses, Rainbow.” Applejack answers. “You saw the way she was when she left. She probably took it the hardest outta all of us.”

“Well, yeah, but still...” Rainbow muttered, hanging her head.

Sunset frowned and looked down at the journal. “She might not show up. I was there for most of the time she spent trying to fix the Memory Stone; she barely slept at all, so she must be extremely tired.”

“If that’s the case, perhaps it would be best to proceed without her?” Vice-Principal Luna asked, looking to the clock. “Time is short, and you all have classes to attend.”

“As much as I’m sure we appreciate the sentiment, Vice-Principal Luna, I think I speak for all of us when I say we wouldn’t be able to focus on our classes.” Rarity replied, smiling sadly. “It wouldn’t be fair to Princess Twilight to not include her in this.”

Principal Celestia nods in agreement with a small smile. “My thoughts exactly, Rarity. Of course, there’s also the more... pragmatic reason for waiting for the Princess.”

“Oh!” Pinkie exclaimed, sitting up in her seat. “Is it because we’re dealing with something caused by an ancient Equestrian artifact, and Princess Twilight is a princess over there?”

“That’s precisely the reason.” Principal Celestia replied. “While I’m not sure if her world has any laws regarding this sort of situation, it’s better to be safe and have her present, just in case.”

“Yeah! The last thing we need is to start an interdimensional war with talking magic ponies over this…” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Although that does sound kinda awesome.”

Fluttershy shook her head and frowned. “Oh, no, I don’t think that sounds awesome at all.”

“C’mon Fluttershy, doesn’t this sound like one of your weird overseas cartoons or something?” Rainbow asked, nudging Fluttershy with her elbow. “I thought you liked that sort of stuff.”

“I don’t like action anime...”

Before Rainbow can offer any kind of rebuttal, the door to the room all but slams open. Sci-Twi nearly jumped out of her chair, but she managed to catch herself before turning to the source of the sound.

Standing in the doorway was a figure akin to the one she saw in the mirror every morning. The girl was her double in more or less every way, save for a few small differences like hairstyle and the lack of glasses. Princess Twilight had arrived.

But something was off about her.

In the few times that the two Twilights shared each other’s company, the pony princess had an air of kindness, understanding, and whether she intended to or not, royalty. She was the Princess of Friendship after all, so it was to be expected that she had that kind of presence about her.

Right now, however, the Princess’s normally warm and inviting aura was missing.

To anybody but Sci-Twi, Princess Twilight probably looked about as normal as she usually was, if a little annoyed at something. For Sci-Twi though, the little things stuck out like a blister on an otherwise perfect complexion. She could only surmise it was because they were, at least on some metaphysical, multiversal level, the same person, and as such, had similar ticks and quirks.

From the minute she laid her eyes on her double, Sci-Twi picked up on a number of small things. The way her eyes ever-so-slightly seemed to twitch, and how her lips creased into a very hard to notice scowl were the most apparent. Even the small difference in the way she clenched her fists conveyed how she was feeling, despite it being more like how Sunset’s hands clenched when she was upset, didn’t make it past her.

Princess Twilight was peeved. Extremely peeved at that.

“Hey, Twilight, you made it,” Sunset said, snapping Sci-Twi away from her frustrated parallel world counterpart. Sunset’s expression held a tiny, and quite sad, smile. “I didn’t think you got my message.”

“Where is she?”

When the words had left Princess Twilight’s mouth, Sci-Twi felt a chill run up her spine. There was no warmth in her words, no hints of the usual self present.

“Where is Wallflower Blush?”

The only thing Sci-Twi could feel in the princess’ words... was cold, bitter contempt.

As if in answer, the sound of someone falling off their chair all but yanked everyone’s attention away from the Equestrian visitor.

Wallflower Blush’s eyes were wide in disbelief. She seemed to have muttered something under her breath, but Sci-Twi couldn’t make out what it was. She could only assume it was something to the effect of ‘what the heck is going on?’

The next thing she knew, though, Sci-Twi felt something stir within her. It wasn’t an alien sensation; in fact, it was something that had more or less become normal in the past several months. It was something that she had once been afraid of, due to how she had first experienced it.

Her geode magic was active.

Looking down at her geode, she saw it giving off a dim glow. This meant it was obviously channeling magic, though in a way that was different than how it usually worked. The feeling was very different than it usually was.

Normally, when the geode’s power was active, it felt like an extension of herself; like a phantom limb that allowed her to do the impossible feats that her magic afforded her. Given that her magic was more or less a form of telekinesis, it required a decent amount of concentration to use effectively, so it was always very apparent when the magic was flowing through her.

This time, however, the sense of flow was off. Like it was just flowing past her, instead of going through her like it usually did.

She could still feel her geode’s magic grabbing something, but it was oddly distant. The sense of detachment from her powers made panic shoot through her mind at Rainbow Dash-like speed, and she focused as hard as she could on the direction of the flow. While her senses weren’t as sharp as, say, something who had been using magic for most of their lives, like Sunset, she could at least pinpoint the direction of where it was going.

Her eyes snapped to her double, and Sci-Twi saw something that made her blood run cold: Princess Twilight’s eyes had flashed a color that was all too familiar to the eyes she often saw in her nightmares. For that brief moment, which only seemed to last for a fraction of a second, her Equestrian counterpart’s eyes were the same as the part of herself that Sci-Twi hated.

They were the eyes of Midnight Sparkle.

The burning anger those eyes held in that instant was something she hadn’t felt in months; the fear of the monster living within. But instead of being a figment of her nightmares, it was here, physically staring her in the face.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy called out, her voice filled with concern. She wasn’t quite sure if Fluttershy was calling out of her or her peeved reflection. It didn’t take long to figure out who she was reaching out to, as she had quite literally reached out and placed a supportive hand on Sci-Twi’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Glancing over at Fluttershy, she gave a hesitant nod and smiled as best she could. “I’m fine...”

“Princess Twilight, we’ve been expecting you.” Vice-Principal Luna greeted. “You didn’t write back, so we had begun to worry you wouldn’t show.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to get here as soon as possible.” The words rang somewhat hollow in the ears of Sci-Twi, but she didn’t think it’d be wise to call out the Princess of Friendship; the last thing she wanted was to have the other Twilight’s frustration redirected at her.

“It’s okay Princess, please take a seat so we may get started,” Celestia says, a hand casually gesturing toward the seat across from her. Twilight wordlessly took her seat, her eyes pulling themselves away from the target of her ire, and softening slightly as she adjusted her skirt. “Now, shall we begin this meeting?”

Everyone nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, Sci-Twi could see Rainbow struggling to not let out a cry of relief.

“First thing’s first, I would like to ask if there has been any headway made on any alternative efforts on repairing the damage done to Sunset Shimmer’s memories?” Vice Principal Luna asked. “I understand it has only been a short time, but you have shown to be ever resourceful in situations like this, Princess.”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied, frowning. Her voice, while still somewhat distant, still carried with it a sense of weariness. “Everyone who helped with the Memory Stone’s repairs, including Princess Celestia, told me to get some rest shortly after I got back.”

“Ah, I see,” Luna hummed. “You did look quite tired when you arrived the other day with the stone. If your world’s Celestia is anything like my sister, then she would certainly all but force you to rest.”

Celestia chuckled. “That certainly does sound like me. I would like to meet my royal counterpart... but that can wait until another time.”

“I’m sure it could be arranged.” Twilight nodded. “But you’re right, this isn’t the time for that. We have much more...” she paused and directed her gaze back at Wallflower Blush who was trying to be as un-noticeable as her namesake, “... pressing matters to deal with.”

“Indeed, we do,” Luna affirmed.

“So, I have a question,” Rainbow started, looking around at the others. “Not that I don’t want to be here, but do we need to be here? I mean, this is about figuring out how you’re gonna punish Wallflower, right? Why do we need to be here for this?”

“Well,” Celestia hummed with a thoughtful expression. “You are all directly involved in this incident, and given the... special circumstances surrounding it, Vice-Principal Luna and I feel it necessary.”

“So... does this mean we’re gonna have say in how she is gonna get punished?” Rainbow asked. “Cause while I do like the sound of that, I don’t think you’d wanna hear what I have in mind.”

Sci-Twi couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are we here to help paint a better picture of what happened?”

“No, we have a pretty good idea in regards to what transpired,” Luna replied. “We simply wish for you to be here because it involves magic.”

“We also want to help devise a system to help prevent things like this from happening again,” Celestia added. “Luna and I know that the seven of you are the only ones capable of outright stopping magic, and we can no longer ignore the risks it poses to the students. Especially so given the school’s proximity to a portal.”

Sci-Twi nodded. “We’re here to help come up with ways to prevent similar incidents, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Seems a little late for that...” Rainbow scoffed.

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity yelled.

“What? I’m just saying, we should have done something about this sooner.”

“She does have a point,” Applejack said, reaffirming Rainbow’s stance. “This is the fifth magic-based crisis our school has had to deal with. Why the heck’ve we not had this conversation already?”

Celestia sighed, a somber smile forming on her lips. “The two of us have discussed this during staff meetings. But those conversations tend to not go anywhere. The topic of ‘magic’ tends to be very divisive amongst the other faculty members.”

Vice-Principal Luna nodded. “Indeed, but in any case, we can continue this part of the conversation after we address the main reason why we’re here.”

“Wallflower Blush,” Twilight said, her voice returning to its previously cold tone.

Sci-Twi watched as the previously mentioned girl sunk deeper into her seat, still trying desperately to appear as invisible as possible. She watched the girl freeze in place when Sci-Twi’s royal counterpart’s glare met hers. If she hadn’t known any better, she’d assume the world that Twilight came from was inhabited by gorgons, or at the very least, cockatrices. She made a mental note to ask Sunset about the existence of such creatures should the opportunity present itself.

“Yes, which brings us to why we asked Sunset Shimmer to summon you,” Celestia said, clearing her throat a little before continuing. “We want to know if there are any laws in your world about foreign lands being affected by your magic or relics.”

“You didn’t ask Sunset?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off Wallflower. Sci-Twi couldn’t help but notice the uncharacteristic rudeness of her double. “She should be well versed on the laws of Equestria, given that she was a student of Princess of Celestia.”

“They did, but because I haven’t been there in several years for longer than a few days, I wasn’t sure if anything had changed on that front,” Sunset replied. “The only new things I know right now are what you and Princess Celestia have told me, and that wasn’t a lot.”

“While we understand that only a few years of difference between what Sunset knows and the present is likely very small, we don’t want to step on the toes of another nation,” Luna said before pausing to drink from her coffee cup. “How laws are governed varies from nation to nation, let alone between different worlds.”

Twilight shook her head. “There have only been a few laws that have been introduced in recent times, but none of them say anything about foreign countries per say. They’re more based around my duties as the Princess of Friendship. The most these laws really do is make it so my friends and I can do our jobs.”

“And of the laws that existed prior to the most recent changes?” Luna asks.

“There aren’t any laws that can apply to parallel worlds, due to the specific phrasing. Even then, laws of that nature tend to be based around treaties signed. Equestria isn’t really the type of country to claim authority over foreign issues, unless it is a threat to their security. And to be blunt,” Twilight said, turning to Wallflower now, “you should be incredibly grateful for that fact.”

Wallflower shuddered. “W-why… should I be grateful?”

A crooked grin spread onto Twilight’s face as she now turned to face Wallflower fully. “Let me tell you something about Equestria, Wallflower Blush. There are many powerful creatures over there, the likes of which you could never hope of facing. And we Equestrians… we like to practice a doctrine of peace and friendship. So… I am fine with allowing chaos gods to roam freely among us, I am fine with breaking bread with a race of shapeshifters who invaded our country not too long ago, and I am fine with making friends with a pony who would try to erase my friendships by going through time.”

Wallflower swallowed.

Twilight’s hands balled into fists and she rose to her feet. “But you?” Her voice was shaking now. “If I had my way, you would be left to rot in a cell next to the monsters of Tartarus for the rest of your days,” she said, her voice coated in a thick layer of venom. “If you had been in Equestria when you stole Sunset’s memory, I would have made sure you regretted being born.”

The room went silent as looks of surprise and horror melted their way through all other emotions on the faces of those present. Nobody could say anything to that. Sci-Twi watched as Twilight stood up and walked the short distance between herself and the object of her contempt.

Panic filled Sci-Twi as she felt the magic drain from her, her geode glowing in a more obvious way than before. The color of its light, however, wasn’t that of a gem shining brilliantly in the light. It was instead glowing in a way similar to that of the eyes of her dark side. Air seemed to not enter her lungs as she saw Twilight’s eyes take on that teal hue she feared seeing in the worst of her nightmares.

It was then that she realized that it wasn’t just her geode that was active.

The other five girls that still held geodes seemed to lose all their energy, looking as though they had run a marathon. Their geodes shone a dull teal light, and it was clear what was happening.

Twilight didn’t move her arms, or even so much as a finger as the magic that flowed through her found its target. The energy of the magic sparked through the air, causing the two elders in the room to take several measured steps back.

Wallflower’s eyes couldn’t help but stare into the glow of the eyes that reached their way into her soul. Her throat refused to let out a scream of any kind.

“Of course,” Twilight said, her tone now somewhat otherworldly, “that isn’t stopping me from dragging you there myself.”

With those words, the magic flowing through the geodes sparked, and a dull, magenta light appeared around the princess’ hands. They didn’t move, but Sci-Twi knew exactly what was happening. It was obvious, given both the color of the light, and the fact that she had seen something similar whilst in Equestria shortly after this had all started.

Princess Twilight was intending to use her magic to drag Wallflower back to Equestria with her.

Sure enough, Wallflower’s clothes were ensnared by the grip of the spell that Sci-Twi knew all too well. The girl couldn’t help but kick the air in her panic, but it was met with her legs being stopped. The grip of her clothes kept her from moving, and Twilight simply smiled.

Sci-Twi was at a loss, not sure what to do as the energy seemed to leave her body.

And that was when the doorway suddenly flew open and two figures raced into the room. Starlight Glimmer, the first of them, let her eyes go wide. “Oh my goodness!”

The second, an unfamiliar woman in a business suit with a scar over one eye, observed the scene and then let her eyes narrow. “Twilight! Stop!”

“Sunset!” Starlight cried. “Grab her!”

Sunset shot to her feet and even started scooting around the table toward Twilight. “Twilight, stop! Please!”

A loud cracking sound filled the room, followed by silence. Sci-Twi felt like she got hit in the gut, all the air in her lungs pouring out. The sound of several small objects hitting the floor marked the end of the brief period of silence. Her entire body felt numb, but she was able to look to where her double had been standing as Wallflower fell to the floor with a thud. A second thud followed, which lead into the sounds of someone sobbing.

On the floor, two feet from where Wallflower lay, struggling to catch her breath, were two girls on their knees. Twilight sat on her knees, crying as she leaned into Sunset, who was holding her.

That was the last thing Sci-Twi saw before consciousness began to slip from her grasp.

Please come bug us on Discord so that we’re less likely to take so long on the next chapter~