//------------------------------//
// Everything Changes 
// Story: Forgotten Friendship 
// by CJ Esmerio 
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"These sure are some pretty cool photos you've got here," said Casey, looking at all the various camera-taken pictures that were all laid out on a desk in front of him. "What do you do with the ones that don't make it into the yearbook?"

Sunset, who was making adjustments to the selected yearbook photos with some help from the rest of her friends, replied, "We keep them in a safe place in case we're able to use them again for next year."

Casey nodded his head, and as Applejack finished with adjusting one of the photos she had picked, she asked, "How's that one pony friend of yours doin', by the way? The purple one who went up against that one dragon we all fought."

"Starlight? Oh, she's alright," answered the young teen, who was now walking around the room. "I'm actually glad to not be with her for today since - oof!"

Suddenly, Casey found himself bumping into a teenage girl that had bushy light-colored forest green hair, wore a faded striped sweater, had pale green-colored skin, and as she began to rub her forehead, he quickly gave an apology. "Sorry! I didn't even notice you there… are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine," answered the young teenager, speaking in a low and soft tone. "I mean, I was technically already in here before you ever came-"

"Casey? Everything - oh, hello," said an arriving Sunset, who was now offering her a handshake. "I'm Sunset Shimmer, president of the yearbook committee, as well as the editor-in-chief. You here to join? We're always looking for some extra help."

The soft-spoken teenager began to rub the back of her neck with her hand, and she replied, "Thank you, Sunset… my name is, uh, Wallflower… and I've also been on the yearbook committee since the beginning of the year."

Sunset let out a sheepish chuckle as she brought her hand back. "Of course! Forget I said that; I was just, uh… sorry, it feels like today's the first time I'm meeting you, for some reason."

Wallflower blinked her eyes a few times before saying, "We've literally had almost all of the same classes since you first started coming to CHS…" Sunset's apologetic smile grew a little wider. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to hand this over to you. It's a list of all the yearbook's superlatives that were voted on by the students."

Taking the paper out of her hands while also hoping to not say anything worse to Wallflower, Sunset began to read out what superlatives were on the list. "Most Likely to Succeed, Best Smile, Class Clown… well, look at that! Guess who won in the 'Best Friends' category!"

All seven of their names were on the list, and seeing that touched Sunset's heart in all of the right places, while a delighted Pinkie started clapping her hands. "I always knew that I liked you, but now, it's official - in  yearbook form. The people have spoken!"

A curious Twilight looked over a few of the list's categories, and the voted winner for one of them made her smile falter a little. "Oh… good for Micro Chips… voted 'Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion'...wonderful."

Fluttershy softly rubbed the back of Twilight's human counterpart, with a small smile on her own face. "Don't feel so jealous, Twilight. We all know that you're a genius, too."

Her shoulder placed against her soccer ball, Rainbow nodded in agreement to what she had said "Yeah! Besides, it's just an ordinary yearbook, so there'no reason-"

Sunset's mouth almost dropped to the table in complete shock after hearing Rainbow make that statement. "This is not just a yearbook, Rainbow. The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gathering memories into the pages of this book. In thirty years, we might not remember everything, but we will remember what's in the yearbook."

A worried look appeared on Wallflower's face as she said, "If I'm not in there, would that mean I wouldn't even exist?"

"Uh, not sure that's what she meant," replied Casey, trying to make her feel a little more comfortable.

"And now, thanks to everyone who voted for us," pointed out Sunset, who hadn't heard what Wallflower was saying. "We'll always remember that we're best friends."

The peach-skinned teenager looked down at the ground, and she said, "I kind of wish I knew what that felt like."

As for Casey, he noticed that there wasn't a photo for that category in the yearbook. "What picture's going to be put there, Sunset?"

Before the bacon-haired teenager could give him an answer, an excited Rarity cried, "I know the perfect place for us to take the Best Friends photo, darling… we shall take it at the beach!"

"Ooh, the beach!" squealed Pinkie. "That means I can make my famous super-fun-in-the-sun cupcakes… and later on, we can have a beach party! You wanna come to that, Casey?"

Casey was about to respond to Pinkie, but then, he started to become nervous when he saw a familiar teenage girl angrily storm into the room, after making the door open up widely for herself. "The Great and Powerful Trrrriiiixxxiiieee would like to have a word with the yearbook editor immediately!"

Letting out a sigh, Sunset took a few steps forward. "That would be me, unfortunately… what's wrong today, Trixie?"

Taking the list of superlative out of Fluttershy's hands, the light-blue teenager quickly looked over it. "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected… I was not voted Greatest and Most Powerful! Would someone here care to explain that to me?"

Taking the list back from Trixie, Sunset replied, "The reason for that is because there wasn't even a Most Powerful and Greatest category for students to vote for."

"It's Greatest and Most Powerful, Sunset Shimmer," corrected an irritated and clearly annoyed Trixie, who was now grabbing one of the older yearbooks from a nearby shelf, and she pointed to one of the categories that the students of that year had voted for. "And there also wasn't a Biggest Meanie category, but that certainly didn't stop you from winning it our freshman year."

The picture that Trixie was pointing at showed Sunset Shimmer long before having ever met Princess Twilight, thus explaining why she looked like someone with a bad attitude, as well as having a scowl on her face.

"That was… different, Trixie, and totally unrelated to what's going on right now," said Sunset, who wasn't exactly starting to feel comfortable with remembering the many mistakes that she had made in the past. I'm not that kind of person anymore.

"Yeah, pretty much everyone in the whole school made the decision to vote for that since she was so mean," added Applejack.

Rarity nodded her head. "The editor had no choice but to make it official, especially since he had voted for that, as well."

"Sunset won Biggest Meanie fair and square," said Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy gave a nod, as well.

"Yeah, she was reaaaaalllllyy mean to everybody," said Pinkie. "Like, there was this one time at band camp-"

"Ahem!" They all turned their heads in Casey's direction, and the young teenage boy gestured towards an embarrassed Sunset. "You five aren't exactly helping her feel better about this."

"Oh… we're sorry 'bout all that, sugarcube," apologized Applejack.

After taking and releasing a deep breath, Sunset shook her head, tossing the yearbook aside as she - "Ow!"

"Aah, I'm so sorry!" cried Sunset, now feeling terrible again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be good," muttered Casey, setting down the yearbook that had smacked him in the face, and realizing his bad-luck-because-of-Trixie curse also existed in this world. "Say what you were going to say."

"Huh? Oh, right…" Sunset turned to look back at Trixie, with a serious expression. "Sorry, but we're not going to put in a Great and All Powerful category."

"It's Great and Most Powerful, Sunset Shimmer," exclaimed a frustrated Trixie, now glaring at the yellow teenager. "And it's you who will be sorry because I shall have my revenge on you… when you least expect it! I will have my photo in the yearbook-"

A sly grin appeared on Rainbow's face as she interrupted the illusionist by showing her a photo that had Trixie in it. "How about this one? Remember, you tried asking a group of birds up in the trees to tutor you because Fluttershy was able to-"

"Give me that!" growled Trixie, and everyone else but Wallflower were laughing and giggling in amusement. "You shall pay for this, Shimmer, I promise you that!"


Ka-boom!


The young teenage girl threw one of her smoke bombs in the middle of the room, and once the smoke cleared, everyone saw that the door was wide open again, with no sign of Trixie anywhere.

"Well,thatwas somethin', alright," said Applejack, causing the rest of her friends to laugh along with her. "Come on, y'all, let's go see if that one dinin' place is open yet."

So, everyone but Wallflower followed the farm girl out of the room, and after Sunset turned off the lights on her way out, the peach-skinned teenager spoke in a small, quiet voice. "Um… okay, yeah, thanks for the invite… sounds like fun."






Several Hours Later


When Casey returned to the castle library, he found Twilight sitting comfortably nearby in a reading chair, a book floating in front of her. "Hi, Casey! How was your day over in Sunset's world?"

"It was… pretty great, actually," admitted Casey, who now looked tired. "I'm even going back tomorrow because she and the others invited me to hang out with them at the beach."

A warm smile appeared on Twilight's face. "That's wonderful news! See what happens when you decide to spend your friendship time with others wisely?"

Casey rolled his eyes, and let out a chuckle as he said, "Alright, I'll keep working on it… but thank you, Twilight… I'd hate to know what it would feel like if I didn't have you in my life."

"What makes you say that?" wondered a curious Twilight.

"Eh, just something that happened today involving memories and stuff," answered her special somepony, and the two of them shared a quick kiss before he started walking out towards his bedroom, along with letting out a yawn. "Goodnight, Twilight."

"Night, Casey," replied the young alicorn, and went back to reading her book while Casey continued on to his bedroom, already knowing how it would feel to just hop right into bed, cover himself up with blankets, and go right to sleep after laying his head on the pillow.





After walking out of the elevator, Sunset began to head towards her apartment door, but stopped after a familiar voice said, "You have a good day at school today, Miss Shimmer?"

It belonged to the landlord of the apartment building she lived in, who was an elderly gentleman that Sunset always gave a greeting to either in the morning or at night since she'd first started making friends at CHS. "Sure did, Mr. Star, thank you for asking. How is your son doing, by the way?"

"Oh, just fine," replied Mr. Star, giving her an amused smile. "Carl's just crawling wherever his hands and feet can take him, so right now, my wife's giving our little boy a much-needed bath."

"Sounds like he had a whole day of fun, then," said an amused Sunset, now using her key to unlock her apartment door. "Well, have a good night, Mr. Star… and both and son, too!"

Mr. Star gave her a quick wave, and he replied, "Same to you, my dear!"

Then, after entering her modest apartment, it wasn't long until Sunset was tucked comfortably in her bed, writing to Princess Twilight about the day's events in her magic journal.

Casey sure is a great person to hang out with. I'm glad that he's your special somepony… and he always has such wonderful things to say about you… oh, and before I forget, I thought you'd be happy to hear that my friends and I were voted 'Best Friends' in our yearbook today.

Then, she took a moment to set down her journal, and get out of bed to pull out something from her desk drawer: a copy of the CHS yearbook from her freshman year, which she opened to look at the photo of yourself under the label 'Biggest Meanie'.

So much had changed since then, and a big part of it was because Princess Twilight had helped give her a push in the right direction.

After all, wrote Sunset after returning to her journal, if you hadn't forgiven me, I'd still be the arrogant student that I was when I came here from Equestria without even saying good-bye to Princess Celestia.

Writing the name of her former teacher made Sunset remember the night that they had met at Princess Twilight's Friendship Festival, and the sun-raising alicorn had suggested they meet at a later date in order to avoid taking away any time from visiting her friend.

"I think I'll just cross that out," muttered Sunset, not wanting to burden the Princess of Friendship with her regrets, and continued to talk about more positive stuff.

Then, she finished up her journal entry by writing, I hope you're having as great a week as I am… your friend, Sunset Shimmer, and put her journal and pen on her night table.

After letting out a yawn, Sunset turned off her bedroom light, and it wasn't long until she was fast asleep… unfortunately, this meant that she was unable to notice the swirl of dark magic appearing by her doorway, which formed into the hooded figure of a man that bore a sinister grin on his face.

"That takes care of both of them..." He watched quietly as sparks of magic began to fly all around Sunset's bedroom, and traveled out of her window, heading to wherever they needed to go.

With a quick snap of a finger, the stranger vanished in the blink of an eye while Sunset simply turned her body to the opposite side, and muttered some random words to herself.