Meanwhile, back on the beach, only a few hours had passed by since Sunset and Casey's departure. Most of the girls were resting their bodies across Rarity's beach blankets, and Sci-Twi had lifted up her sailor's hat to see how bright were the rays of the sun, but found herself looking at the smiling face of Pinkie Pie instead.
"You know, we have been out here in the sun for quite a while," pointed out Pinkie, now backing away a little bit. "Time to reapply!"
But instead of using a sunscreen bottle, the young teenager pulled out a cupcake from her bag that had her special edible sunscreen frosting, smeared it all over her face and arms, and hurried off to whoever knew where.
Sci-Twi just decided to continue looking out across the ocean, lost in thought because there was something that just did not feel right to her.
"Should we be worried about Sunset Shimmer?" She asked, with her friends not knowing how to answer the question, and unfortunately, a response came from someone else who wasn't them.
"Yeah,worried she comes back!" The girls looked over at a nearby Trixie, who was laying down in a reclining lawn chair underneath an umbrella a few feet away from them, and she was also being fanned by a pair of giant palm tree leaves that were held by Snips and Snails. "I think it's such a shame the way that she's been treating you all, pretending to be your friend. She's obviously up to something. Sunset Shimmer thinks that the whole school class exists just to serve her."
Then, she took a moment to quickly snap her fingers. "Water, please!" Snails handed the illusionist a water bottle while Snips continued to fan her, and all of the girls either rolled their eyes or shook their heads. "Speaking of which… seeing as how the yearbook president seems to having a bit of an identity crisis, I believe that means the vice president takes over. That'd be you, Rarity!"
The white-skinned teenager, currently laying in her own fashionable beach chair, shook her head as she replied, "If this is your way of asking me to put you as 'Most Great and Powerful' in the yearbook, the answer is no." Suddenly, Rarity began to feel very strange, almost looking look like she had gotten a headache. "Didn't we talk about this just yesterday? I can't quite remember."
Her friends all shrugged their shoulders, but Trixie wasn't about to give up. "Maybe we did, maybe we didn't. Memories can be a fickle thing sometimes… you'll never know when you forget something. Like how Great and Powerful I am, which is why I need to be in the yearbook!"
This girl just will not give up, will she? thought Rarity, who let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright, I will think about it."
A succesful smile appeared on Trixie's face, and she spoke with false sweetness. "That's all I ask."
Then, she snapped her fingers, and Snips and Snails continued on with fanning her, while Rarity was trying to remember still what had happened yesterday.
"Ah, now, sugarcube, don't strain yourself or anythin' like that," said Applejack, seeing the look of deep concentration on her friend's face. "I'm sure whatever you're tryin' to remember ain't that-"
"... Applejack? Applejack, where are - oh, there you are!"
To the girls' surprise, Applejack's grandmother suddenly came running over to them, with an object in her hands.
"Granny? Wha - what are you doin' here?" asked a confused Applejack.
"I came by to bring you your special bottle o' sunscreen that you forgot on the table at home," explained Granny Smith, placing it in her granddaughter's hands. "You know that you can't be forgettin' to put that sorta stuff on you every so often! Last time we all was here back when you were younger, almost your whole body became as red as an apple!"
Rainbow tried her best to not laugh out loud after hearing that, and an embarrassed Applejack just muttered underneath her breath as she began to apply the sunscreen lotion to herself.
"Ah, yessir, now you don't got to worry 'bout burnin' up or anythin' like… huh…" Granny Smith looked around the beach a few times, trying to find a particular person. "Where's that one gal friend of yours, AJ? Um, what's her name… Sunflower Brimmer, Seafood Dinner, Sundae Creamer -"
"Sunset Shimmer?" corrected Applejack, raising an eyebrow. "She ain't my friend, Granny."
"That's what name I said the first time," replied her grandmother, with Applejack trying to avoid rolling her eyes. "And what do ya mean that she ain't your friend? Why would we help her practice drivin' in my truck for her drivin' test a while back, then, if you two weren't friends?"
"Granny, we never… uh…" Applejack was about to deny her grandma's statement, but she soon found herself remembering a tiny part of that day. "Are you... Sure that…"
A chuckle came out of Granny Smith's mouth, and she replied, "Sure I'm sure 'bout that! It's not like the truck was drivin' all by itself that day, right?"
Before Applejack could give her a response, the elderly woman cried out, "Wait a minute! What time of the day is it, y'all?"
"Uh… it's a quarter past twelve on a Saturday?" answered Sci-Twi, and Granny Smith face-palmed herself.
"Ah, shoot! I'm goin' be late for the bingo… g'bye, Applejack, and make sure ya don't let yourself burn up like a crisped apple, ya hear?"
Then, as Granny Smith hurried off to the parking lot, a snickering Rainbow glanced over at Applejack, who was now trying to cover up her face with her hat.
"Huh, and you all thought that I was being silly for bringing these cupcakes with edible lotion icing!" cried Pinkie, who was now munching on said sugary treat.
Twilight! You remember me, don't you? We've been through so much together… please!
Sunset's words of plea towards her kept on replaying in Sci-Twi's mind, and she resumed looking out across the ocean.
If Sunset was someanand wasn't their friend, then why would she sound sohurtand say that she was?
Back in Equestria, the trio of ponies had just finished explaining to Princess Celestia what they had discovered about the Memory Stone.
"We should get back to my world, Casey," said Sunset. "Maybe now we can convince my friends that I'm telling the truth since we know what it is to look for."
Placing a drawing of the ancient stone in his saddle bag, Casey looked over at his special somepony. "You sure you don't want to come with us, Twilight?"
The princess of friendship shook her head, and said, "But don't worry, I'll stay here in the library, and search the entire restricted section from top to bottom until I find a way to get back the memories of Sunset's friends."
"If it's even possible," muttered Sunset, letting out a sigh.
"Oh, it's possible, or my name isn't Princess Twilight Sparkle," assured a confident Twilight. "I'll figure it out, even if I have to reorganize the whole library by subject, or maybe even chronologically. Oh! And fix the broken catalog machine…"
I'm really starting to love it whenever she talks like that, thought Casey, a warm smile appearing on his face.
"Thank you… all of you," said Sunset, speaking to Twilight, Casey, and Celestia, whom she was now glad to have finally made amends with.
"This is quite a contrast to the last time that the two of us parted ways," reminded the royal alicorn, smiling down at her former pupil. "With every choice you make, you prove yourself to possess a kind heart."
Sunset's cheeks turned a little red as she placed a hoof behind her shoulder, and looked over at Twilight. "I guess I had a good teacher."
"You were a good student," said a smiling Twilight.
Then, they heard Celestia clear her throat, and the three ponies saw a frown appear on her face.
"Are you saying that I wasn't a good teacher?"
The two mares quickly began to try explaining themselves, but then, Celestia started laughing in good-natured humor, and it wasn't long before they all joined in themselves.
"Wow, Princess Celestia has a sense of humor?" remarked Sunset, taking a moment to pause, and she looked at Twilight. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's changed."
And they both continued on with their giggling, while Casey just happily watched them interact with each other, not really feeling like he even needed to say anything… until Celestia headed back into the castle and Sunset started to walk away, which is when Casey went up to Twilight.
"You think maybe, um, I should ask… Stardust or his Twilight if he knows anything about this?"
Twilight looked at him in confusion. "Huh? Who are you talking about?"
Before Casey could answer her question, a pink limb wrapped itself around the young stallion, and a returning Pinkie said, "Come on, Casey, we still have, like, three more chapters to get through!"
"Alright, Pinkie, I… wait, what did you sa -aaaaghh!"
#############
"I'm not holding back this time!" yelled Rainbow Dash, almost about ready to serve the volleyball that was in her hand, while her partner - Applejack - rolled her eyes.
As she stood on the other side of the net, Fluttershy gave a nervous gulp, and spoke in a worried tone. "That's what I'm afraid of!"
"Bring it on, Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed her partner, who was Pinkie Pie. "You and Applecrisp just bought your team a one-way express train ticket to You're Going Down!"
Applejack just hung her head down while Rainbow's eyes widened up a little bit, and the surprised athlete said, "Wow, nice game face, Pinkie Pie."
"Thanks, I've been working on it all day," replied Pinkie, and she turned around to grab onto the camera drone that had been hovering around their heads. "Did you hear that, little camera? You're in my house now!"
Frightened by the pink teenager's actions, the Selfie Sensor quickly headed over to where Sci-Twi was, floating behind her while a growling Spike leaped off of Rarity's chair to walk away.
"Ohhh, looks like someone is jealous," teased Rarity.
Twilight's pet dog rolled his eyes, and he said, "Please! Call me whenever the flying can opener knows how to fetch… huh?"
It only took a moment or two for the camera drone to bring over an open can of dog food, and Spike just looked at it with an uninterested look. "I so hate you right now."
The Selfie Sensor made a series of sad-like beeps as it flew away, and after he made sure no one was watching, Spike began munching on the tasty food that was inside of the can while Rainbow started their match by serving the volleyball.
"Alright, it's game time!" The young athlete made the ball arch over the net at a high speed, with Fluttershy cowering in fear and covering her head, but Pinkie Pie quickly frog-leaped over her friend to spike it back over the net. "I got it, I got - oof!"
Rainbow jumped backwards in order to try and get in contact with the ball, but she ended up falling down, and was now laying against the sand while the white circular object rolled away from her. "I don't got it."
Applejack let out a chuckle as she went to go and retrieve the ball, but then, all of the girls saw Sunset Shimmer sprinting towards them, Casey not too far behind.
"Okay, great news!" said Sunset. "I figured it out. Someone erased the good memories that you all had of me with Equestrian magic! You don't remember, but we're still friends!"
None of the girls said anything to Sunset, choosing instead to either remain silent or glare at her.
Casey handed over the drawing of the magical stone to Sunset, and she showed it to the six of them. "This is the Memory Stone. Do you remember it?"
"..."
"..."
They all looked at Sunset as if they had no idea what she was talking about.
"Um, I think whoever used it on them might have also made them forget ever having seen it," said Casey, and Sunset looked at him. "Just being honest here."
"... Oh, right, sorry," Sunset replied, putting away the paper and taking out her cellphone to swipe through several photos of them being together - having a sleepover at Pinkie's house, welcoming Sci-Twi to CHS, and the one that had been taken yesterday. "See? This is proof that we are friends… and I have this, too!"
It's dance magic, once you have it
Let your body move, step into the music
Sunset's phone was now playing the music video that they had created alongside a few of the girls from Crystal Prep, and the bacon-haired teenager could see that they were having trouble trying to deny what was being shown to them-
"Oh, please, this is the same girl who made flawless fake photos of your friend trashing the gym."
Casey groaned as he saw who the nearby person was that had spoken, and muttered, "Why did this have to happen now?"
A smug grin appeared on Trixie's face, and arms were crossed, with Snips and Snails nearby trying to pack up her huge umbrella. "And she probably found a way to insert herself into the video, as well, considering what kind of things that technology has to offer these days. She is the yearbook editor for a reason, am I right?"
"You know, she has a point," Pinkie whispered loudly, and the girls went back to looking at Sunset in disbelief while she and Casey glared at a cackling Trixie.
"Then I guess my work here is done. Trixie out!" The illusionist threw done one of her smoke bombs, causing Snips and Snails to cough and rub their eyes. Once it cleared up, everyone saw her standing by the entrance steps. "And don't forget, Rarity, you promised to put me in the yearbook!"
"Wait, you did what?" cried Sunset, taking a step back as she looked at Rarity for an answer, but then, she accidentally stepped on top of the volleyball, sending it flying behind her while Sunset was about to fall on the sand-covered ground.
"I got you - gah!" Casey quickly hurried over to try and catch Sunset, but he suddenly found himself appearing right behind her, and she ended up collapsing on top of him.
"Oh, no!" As the two teenagers stood back up, they saw Sci-Twi run past them in order to check on her now-damaged camera drone, which had been due to getting struck by the volleyball, and it let out multiple beeps until the noises slowly died out.
Sunset quickly began giving her an apology. "Twilight, I'm sorry, it was an accident! Here, I can help you fix it-"
"I think you've helped enough," exclaimed a frowning Sci-Twi, clearly upset with her.
The two former ponies looked back at the others, who were all glaring at Sunset, and they turned their attention over to a departing Trixie.
"Come on, I think I know who's behind this," said Sunset, now frowning herself, and led Casey away from the beach.
"Please don't have us blow up, please don't have us - oof!" Casey started to say, but the next thing he knew, he was walking up against the side of Sunset's car. "What the… how did…?"
A few moments later, Sunset arrived with a confused expression. "How'd you get here so fast? I didn't even see you walk past me."
Casey shrugged his shoulders, and as Sunset began to start the car, he replied, "I have no idea… but, uh, let's worry about me after we get the Memory Stone."
###############
Once they had entered the student parking lot of Canterlot High, Sunset hurried as fast as she possibly could inside the school, and started to look for Trixie once she was walking down the hall.
Alright, where are you, you little... thought Sunset, but her thoughts were interrupted after a fellow student - Micro Chips - accidentally bumped into her, and he fell down to the floor. "Oh, sorry, here…"
Sunset offered to help him get back up, but instead of feeling the grip of his hand, the nervous teenager placed a few dollar bills in her open palm instead.
"I don't want your lunch money!" exclaimed Sunset, now getting a little irritated about the fact that, as she looked around, pretty much all of the students were afraid of her just like it had been during freshman year. "I'm notmean! Got it? I'm not mean!"
After she handed Micro back his currency, the teenage boy scurried away from Sunset as fast as possible, and an approaching Casey said, "Um, Sunset, you might want to think about turning down your level of-" Sunset glared at him. "Never mind… oh, look, there she is."
Trixie was putting away some school books into her locker, and was about to close the door when Sunset did it for her hard from out of nowhere, causing Trixie to let out a small yelp of surprise.
"So, here we are," said Sunset, standing behind the door after it slowly opened back up, and she crossed her arms.
"Here we do are," replied Trixie, even though she had no idea what the bacon-haired teenager meant.
From where he stood a few feet away, Casey watched with some nervousness as the two girls silently glared at each other, looking like they were having a standoff.
…and where did that tumbleweed come from?
"You sure that you want to do this out here in the hallway in front of everyone?" questioned Trixie, with the rest of the other students that had been watching making themselves scarce.
"Up to you," retorted Sunset, trying to keep her temper under control.
Then, to her surprise, Trixie responded by pulling out an 18" x 24" poster of herself that appeared to be a mock-up of the yearbook's Superlatives page. "Behold! Canterlot High's Greatest and Most Powerful student!"
As Sunset realized that Trixie was only trying to get herself in the yearbook, Casey simply let out a sigh of relief that nothing bad had happened.
"If something as simple as a made-to-scale mock up doesn't convince you, Sunset," said Trixie, giving a small shrug. "Then I don't know what will…"
"Where's the Memory Stone?" exclaimed Sunset, now marching towards her in irritation, with Trixie beginning to back away. "You turned my friends against me just because I wouldn't put in the yearbook as Most Powerful and Greatest?"
Trixie rolled her eyes, and replied, "For the umpteenth time, Sunset Shimmer, it's Greatest and Most Powerful… also, what are you talking about? What memory stone?"
"The one you used to erase everyone's memory," growled an upset Sunset. "You manipulative, little… blowhard!"
Trixie blinked her eyes a few times before speaking with a grin, sticking the poster of herself against a locker door. "A stone that can make everyone forget all the terrible tricks that I've done… which is none! Your puny rock pales in comparison to the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
Man, I wish Starlight was here right now, thought Casey, also feeling that it was safe enough to make his way toward them.
As for Sunset, she couldn't believe what this meant for her. "You have no idea what it is that I'm talking about, do you, Trixie?"
"Um, nope, I don't. I'm sorry, Sunset," apologized Trixie, as well as suddenly noticing Casey walking over. "Oh hey, isn't your name, um... Crescent?"
Casey shook his head, but was still glad that this version of Trixie sort of knew what his name was. "It's Casey, actually."
As for Sunset, she walked over to the locker door opposite of the one that bore Trixie's poster, and slumped down against it until she was sitting on the ground. Now it feels like I'm back to Square One on figuring out whose responsible for this.
"Did someone really erase everyone's memories of you?" asked Trixie, and Sunset sadly gave a small nod.
"Uh-huh."
Then, Trixie walked over to a locker that was almost close to Sunset's, and she took a seat of her own. "So, even though we all know that you're the school's 'Biggest Meanie', you're saying you aren't like that anymore?"
"... It's complicated," replied Casey, with Sunset just giving her another small nod. He was also surprised to see Trixie acting so different in comparison to the other times he had interacted with her pony counterpart, as was the former unicorn.
"You have this idea of who you're supposed to be, but no one at school sees you that way," added Trixie, with the three of them noticing a pair of passing students stop by the illusionist's poster to point and have a good laugh before walking away. "Is that right?"
Sunset nodded again, and Trixie gave her a sheepish smile. "Trust me, I get it."
Am I still in the same world? thought Casey.
As for Sunset, she let out a sigh, and replied, "I can't believe that the only person in school who believes me is the one I called a manipulative blowhard… sorry about that."
"I took it as a compliment," remarked Trixie, getting up to her feet, and was now standing in front of Sunset, offering a hand. "Let me help you find the stone."
"What's in it for you?" asked Sunset, surprised but also suspicious at Trixie's offer, and the illusionist glanced over to her self-made poster behind them. It didn't take long for Sunset to put two and two together. "Oh, no, absolutely not! No way, Trixie!"
Trixie responded by giving Sunset a sly grin, and crossing her arms. "Well, if you want to continue being known as CHS' Biggest Meanie, that's perfectly fine by me…"
While Sunset was quickly thinking it over, Casey looked down at his turtledove necklace, and hoped that Twilight was having better luck than they were.
################
"I've looked everywhere! Why can't I find the missing pages?"
In the Restriced Section of the Canterlot Library, Twilight was standing in front of the table with piles of books all around her, and feeling very frustrated as she jumped up in the air, moving her limbs around in exasperation. "I've always been good to you, library!"
She then banged her head on the table, causing the wooden box to fall and shatter onto the ground in several pieces. The purple alicorn looked over to see what remained of it, and to her surprise, she saw a folded-up scratch of parchment stuck between two pieces of wood.
"This is it!" squealed an excited Twilight, with an approaching Princess Celestia smiling down at her, and she opened up the parchment across the table. It showed a drawing of what appeared to be a rock formation. "Clover the Clever must've buried the stone at this location, and I bet it's somewhere in the other world, but… it doesn't say anything about getting your memories back."
Twilight went back to the scroll that she had been reading earlier, and found something that made her eyes widen with concern as she read it aloud. "Perhaps if I had destroyed the Stone right away, then some of my memories would have returned, but when the sun has set on the day after a memory has been taken, it is erased forever."
She looked up at her former teacher, who was equally concerned. "You must warn Sunset Shimmer at once."
The young princess nodded her head, but just as she was about to write the warning message in her magic journal, a familiar voice suddenly spoke to them. "She and her friends are not the only ones in danger."
Both of the alicorns turned to the side, and saw a mystic swirl of blue-colored magic that soon transformed into the form of an elderly cloaked figure holding a staff that bore a miniature silver clock on the top.
"Kronos?" said Twilight, now feeling both concerned and confused.
"Greetings, princesses," said the Master of Time, delivering a quick and polite bow before explaining what he'd meant about earlier. "There has been a serious and threatening change that has been done to the timeline, courtesy of the Memory Stone… which has been tampered with… resulting already in a world parallel to this being erased from existence completely."
Before Twilight could ask what world he was referring to, Kronos finished his sentence in a sad and regretful tone. "And if the stone's not destroyed once the sun has set, not only will that erase the memories of Miss Shimmer's friends completely… your special somepony will no longer exist, remaining only a memory forever."