Chapter Two

Twilight watched in awe as an ethereal glow covered Celestia’s horn. With a large explosion, a giant blanket of smoke covered the front of the town hall. A collection of groans were heard, followed by the crunching sounds of multiple bones snapping into place. As the cloud slowly dissipated, Twilight could distinguish the outline of five ponies. The unicorn strained her eyes as one of the black shadows flew out of the cover and landed gracefully in front of the crowd of onlookers. The new arrival’s rainbow-hued mane seemed to intensify in the sunlight, and a grin spread across the pegasus’s face.

“Buck yeah! Rainbow Dash is back, Ponyville! Hold your applause, I know, I’m awesome! But give me some time, ponies!” the pegasus shouted, mistaking the crowd’s confusion for applause.

Twilight stood in shock as her once-dead friend stood alive and well in front of her. As quickly as she could, Twilight Sparkle tackled Dash into a hug and began weeping into her mane. “Rainbow! You’re back!”

The pegasus struggled out of the hug. “Who the hay are you, and how do you know my name?” she inquired, a confused expression on her face.

“You’re kidding, right, Rainbow?” Twilight chuckled. “Yeah, you always were the joker! Good one, Dash.”

“Uh... I’m not kidding. I’ve never seen you in my entire life! Hey, girls. Have you ever seen this purple mare before?” Rainbow Dash asked, turning her head back to the dissipating smoke.

“I honestly can’t say ‘Ah have.”

“Oh, with that coiffure, I’m sure I would remember her. Talk about a fashion nightmare!”

Twilight brought her hoof up to her mane. Whoops, looks like I forgot to brush my mane this morning... but still, why can’t they remember me? she questioned herself.

“Umm... I can say that I’ve never seen her before...”

“I don’t know her, but I can get to know her! You see, I never saw her before, and if I never saw her before that means she’s new, ‘cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville, and if she’s new that means we have to throw her a party! Come on girls, we have to start planning!”

Rainbow Dash brought her hoof up to her forehead. “Pinkie... can you ever not think about parties?”

"No can do, Dashie!" came the same bubbly voice, before a pink mare with a cotton-candy mane bounced out from the smoke. “I love to make ponies smile, you know that! Look at her, she looks sad, silly filly.” Pinkie took a deep breath.

When you’re down there’s no need to frown!

Come with Pinkie, we’ll turn that upside down!

We'll start up a party, wait and see!

That there’s so much to enj-

Pinkie’s song was cut short as Rainbow Dash shoved her hoof into the singing mare’s mouth.

“Pinkie, this isn’t the time for singing. Save it for later, okay?” Rainbow said, removing her hoof after getting a nod from from the pink pony.

“Will do, Dashie! I’ll sing it at the party for... uhh, what was your name again?” Pinkie inquired, jumping over to Twilight.

“My name? Oh! My name... yes. It’s Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. You really didn’t know that?” Twilight asked.

“Nopers! You must be brand new to Ponyville, because, like I said, I know everypony! Well, glad to meet you, Twilight Sparkle!” Pinkie stated, before bouncing back towards Rainbow Dash.

“Where do you come from... Twilight?” asked a white unicorn with large, lavender, barrel curls in her mane as the last of the smoke began to disappear.

“Umm... I’m from Canterlot, I guess?” Twilight answered.

“Canterlot you say? With that fashion sense? You dress like a peasant, my dear. I highly doubt that you’re from such a place as Canterlot,” Rarity stated, emphasizing her point with a flick of her tail.

Twilight turned towards Celestia, who was sitting beside her with a solemn expression on her face. “What’s happening with my friends, princess? None of them remember me!” the unicorn asked, clearly exasperated.

Celestia turned her attention to her student. “This is the price you have to pay, Twilight. None of your friends will ever remember who you were. Can you live with watching them parade about as if you never did anything at all with them? I warned you of the consequences, but you paid no heed.”

Twilight turned back to her friends with a distraught look on her face. “This can’t be right, Princess. This is a sick joke or something, it has to be!” The lavender mare looked towards Applejack. “Applejack! You know me, right? We used to have fun together at Sweet Apple Acres, clearing trees for Applebuck season!”

The cowpony stared at Twilight. “I can’t say I do, Ms. Twilight. Somethin’ tells me yer bein’ awfully dishonest though. So tell me, who are you really?”

“I told you already, I’m Twilight Sparkle, your friend! We beat Nightmare Moon and Discord together! We’re the Elements of Harmony! We were destined to be friends since before we were born!”

Applejack glared at Twilight. “I don’t like yer lying, Twilight. No good friend of mine would ever lie, and that’s enough proof for me to understand that you’re not one of mine. You say you live in Canterlot? Go back there, yer not welcome to drop by Sweet Apple Acres.”

“B-B-But...” Twilight stuttered.

“No buts, Twilight. If ‘Ah ever catch ya on my property, I’ll resort to force, d’you understand?” Applejack stated, giving Twilight such a fierce glare that she was forced to take a few steps back in fear for her own safety.

Twilight looked over at the only ‘friend’ that hadn’t spoken: Fluttershy. She walked up to the pegasus, who cowered in her presence. “Fluttershy... You remember me, right?”

“N-n-no... I... don’t...” Fluttershy managed, hiding her face behind her pink mane.

“Don’t you remember Spike at least?” Twilight asked.

“Who’s Spike? I... really don’t remember... him either...”

“He’s my dragon, don’t you recall?”

A scream escaped the yellow pegasus’ mouth, and she hid behind Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash glared at Twilight. “Nice going, Twilight. Not only have you been lying this entire time, but you’ve gone and scared Fluttershy! Don’t ever let me catch you in Ponyville again! Let’s go, girls. We need to go talk to some ponies,” the rainbow-maned pony stated, slowly flying away from Twilight.

Pinkie bounced up to Twilight, an angry expression on her face. “At first I thought you could become a good friend! But you’re nothing more than a liar and a meanie! I’m not going to throw a party for you ever!”

Twilight looked over to Princess Celestia, only to find that the princess was nowhere in sight. The crowd also wasn’t there, replaced by a void. Darkness slowly crept upon the unicorn, as she turned back to her group of friends that were putting more space between them and Twilight. The farther they were, the more Twilight saw darkness approaching from every angle, until it consumed all of Twilight’s vision.

“Hello?” Twilight called out. “Is anypony there? I can’t see... Will anypony help me?”

No response.

“This isn’t funny...”

Still no response.

“Can somepony help me?!” Twilight yelled, shooting up from her bed. She looked around, and found herself back in the welcoming embrace of her room. She raised her hoof to her forehead, only to find it littered with beads of sweat. “It was only a dream, Twilight,” she reassured herself. I’m going to have to ask Celestia about the price... if I’m subconsciously aware and frightened of it, that should be a good indicator that I have to know them.

Twilight groggily looked outside the window. Ugh... what time is it? she thought to herself. Her eyes widened as she saw the sun approaching the high-point in the sky. Dang it! It’s almost noon, I overslept! Twilight whipped the blankets off of her and rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Quickly hopping up to her hooves, she looked around her room, before catching her attention in the mirror. Oh wow, I do look horrible... grasping a her brush with magic, Twilight ran it down her mane multiple times, working out uneven tufts of hair. Good enough, I guess, she thought, content with how her mane looked. Grabbing a hold of her bedroom door, she pushed it open and trotted down the stairs. Looking around the library, she noticed a note attached to the table. She cantered over to it, before reading it.

Dear Twilight,

Celestia will be waiting outside town hall in case you do want to go through with this. She says she’s going to explain everything about the spell, from how it works to the risks involved. We’re just leaving you asleep, because it appears you were having one doozy of a dream. You nearly punched Celestia when you were thrashing about! So, once you wake up, hurry up to the town hall, and we’ll get this started.

Spike.

“Well then” Twilight said out loud. “Guess I better go, Celestia’s probably worried about me...” The unicorn pushed open the door to the library and began trotting in the direction towards the town hall, happily humming to the beat of the song that Pinkie had sung in Twilight’s dream.

                                      End of Chapter Two

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