“B-but but but…” Twilight was completely taken aback by Kronos’ words, and felt herself breathing faster than usual. “What do you mean he won’t exist anymore? There’s nothing like that mentioned in Clover’s scrolls, and Casey just helped in saving Equestria a few days ago, so why would-”
“Twilight, please relax for a moment,” said the elderly figure. “There is still plenty of time until sunset’s arrival in that world, and I’m sure that once you give them the message, it won’t be long until the stone is destroyed.”
The young alicorn opened her mouth to speak again but she felt a hoof placed on her shoulder, and looked up to see Princess Celestia’s sympathetic face, with her former teacher giving a small nod before using her magic to put the magical journal in Twilight’s hooves.
“Okay… okay, maybe you’re right,” said Twilight, now back to breathing at a normal level. “But who would want to erase the memories of Sunset’s friends, and keep Casey from ever existing? This seems like a lot of diabolical work for just one person to-”
Kronos shook his head, and he let out a sigh that almost sounded like one of regret. “It’s more than one individual behind this scheme, Princess, and if it’s who I believe it is… then, things are about to take a turn for the worse.”
As she sat at a cafeteria table, Sunset continuously drummed her fingers on it, wondering who else would have turned her own friends against her.
“You know, this… Starlight Glimmer person you’ve talked about sounds like someone that the Great and Powerful Trixie would be very interested in being friends with.” The teenage illusionist was having a conversation with Casey, who was wondering in the back of his mind why it wasn’t like this for him whenever he interacts with Trixie’s pony counterpart. “Would you happen to know where she lives?”
Before Casey could answer her, he noticed Sunset’s saddened expression while thinking of her friends, and he decided that it was time to re-focus on the matter at hand. “Alright, so who exactly would hate Sunset enough to erase pretty much everyone’s good memories of her?”
“If you go back far enough… everyone,” replied Sunset, remembering how it had been for her during freshman year before the arrival of Princess Twilight.
Pulling out a pen and small notebook from her sweater pocket, Trixie began to write down what she said. “Known enemies: All… but uh, there’s not really many students here in school on a Saturday, so how exactly would we be able to ask everyone that goes here about using a powerful magic rock to erase your friends’ memories?”
Sunset’s sadness turned into confusion while trying to figure out an answer to Trixie’s question, and luckily, Casey quickly thought of one. “We could first go to the yearbook editing room and look at all the student photos of everyone to see who’s even worth asking. That way we don’t exactly waste any kind of precious time asking each individual student here.”
The bacon-haired teeanger was about to tell Casey how that sounded like a really good idea, but an eye-rolling Trixie crossed her arms together as she said, “Oh, please, that idea sounds like a load of - wait! I got it… we should go to the room where Sunset does all of the yearbook stuff, and look at the photos of every student here to see who ought to be questioned! That way, no kind of valuable time will be wasted at all.”
And now she’s back to acting like her pony self, thought a non-amused Casey. “Great plan, Trixie.”
“You mean what a great and powerful plan, Crimson, but I appreciate your words of gratitude,” corrected Trixie, with Casey hanging his head down and Sunset giving him a sympathetic pat on the back. “And look, here’s our first official suspect!”
“Suspect for what exactly?” The three of them turned their attention over to the person who was now sitting at the edge of their cafeteria table. It was the grey-skinned sister of Pinkie, whose name was Maud Pie, and Sunset knew that this person was very smart.
“Is there anything you can tell us about this?” asked Sunset, getting the drawimg photo from Casey to show Maud. “Anything at all?”
Maud blinked her eyes a few times, and she replied, “I can’t really tell much from just a drawing…” The small glimmer of hope on Sunset’s face faded away. “But what I can tell you is that it’s felsitic intrusive ingenious, granular in texture, at least sixty-five percent alkali feldspar by volume…”
As Pinkie’s sister continued to talk, Sunset and Trixie cautiously backed themselves away from her but Casey was still listening out of honest curiousity until he felt Sunset’s hand take him away from the table.
“... with a melting point of twelve-fifty centigrade, plus or minus ten degrees,” finished Maud, also seeing that they were all now walking out of the cafeteria. “Sorry I wasn’t able to be more helpful.”
A few moments later
After tightening a few more loose screws, Sci-Twi (now back in her regular clothes) pressed the power button on her camera drone in hopes that it was fixed back to working order.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The intelligent teenager smiled after seeing it buzz into the air, flying in loops around the rest of the girls that were also no longer wearing beach clothing. “Good as new! Now it’s time for the eight attempt and second take of ‘Best Friends Yearbook Photo’, number thirty-six A!”
While her friends started preparing themselves for the picture, Sci-Twi found herself looking over to the nearby window of the yearbook office, where a sad-smiling Sunset Shimmer stood at, giving her a small friendly wave.
I’m… sorry, Sunset, thought Sci-Twi, and the bacon-haired teenager watched her friend turn away so that she could pose with the rest of the girls for the yearbook picture.
Once the bright camera flash had appeared, Sunset turned around, and walked over to the computer that would soon be showing her the taken photo via Bluetooth connection.
As for Casey and Trixie, they were finishing up going through the list of all the students in CHS that could possibly be in possession of the Memory Stone, and unfortunately, they had not been having much luck.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nuh-uh. Nope.” said Trixie, using a red marker to check off each individual student that would be less likely to be the culprit. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope… wait… nope… oh, how about-”
“Just put the check symbol, Trixie, cause I can’t think of any reason why three young kids would want to do something like that,” pointed out Casey. “Especially when it’s the younger siblings of Applejack and Rarity, and someone who’s like a younger sister to Rainbow.”
Trixie blinked her eyes for a quick moment and groaned as she did just that. “Well, this was a terrible idea of yours, Casey! We’ve pretty much crossed out every single other student that goes here except for me, Sunset, her friends, and… hey, wait a minute! Do you even go to this school? And how come you look less clearer than the first time I met you?”
“Uh, what exactly are you -” Casey began to say, but he noticed that Trixie was now looking at him suspiciously, and he closed his eyes halfway. “Seriously? It wasn’t me who did this, Trixie; I’m her friend, and I’ve been on Sunset’s side since the beginning.”
Trixie wasn’t entirely convinced just yet. “That’s exactly something what the culprit would say to us!”
“It wasn’t Casey, Trixie, believe us,” said Sunset, coming to her friend’s defense, and she looked through the pages of student photos that they had checked through. “I don’t get or understand why-”
“Oh, wait! Look, an empty photo,” called out the illusionist, pointing a finger at a certain area on one of the pages. There was an unchecked photo of a student, but for some reason, no student whatsoever was even there. All it had was a small piece of text underneath, which Trixie read aloud. “Not pictured: Wallflower Blush… who’s that?”
“I’m right here, you know,” said an almost quiet voice from the corner of the room, and the three friends turned their heads to see the green-haired teenage girl, who was sitting at a computer. It was the same girl that Sunset and Casey had met yesterday in the same room they were currently in now.
“Oh, hey Wallflower,” greeted Casey, trying to be polite. “Uh, how long have you been there?”
“Since you three first came in here almost a few hours ago,” replied Wallflower, giving him a small smile before glaring at Trixie. “And I’ve known you since third grade.”
Trixie went from being confused to pleased as she began to reminisce about her early school days. “Ah, yes, third grade! I remember it well… I mean, not you specifically, but what a grade it was!” Casey and Sunset both rolled their eyes simultaneously. “The Great and Powerful Trixie debuted her disappearing frog trick! You know, a lot of people don’t know how much hard goes into raising tadpoles.”
Sunset was about to say something in Wallflower’s defense when she noticed a soft magenta glow coming from her bag. Princess Twilight? The former unicorn pulled it out while Casey continued listening to Trixie’s rambling of herself. Maybe she knows who’s behind all this!
She swiftly opened up the journal, and read the message that Twilight had for her. Sunset, we think the Memory Stone was buried under this rock formation. In the middle of the sentences was an illustration of the rock formation. And if you don’t destroy the Memory Stone by the sun sets today, all those memories will be erased forever… also, have you noticed anything different about Casey?
Sunset glanced over at Twilight’s unamused special someone, and began to give a response to Twilight. Not really… I mean, he looks not as, uh, ‘clear’ as he did before, if that makes sense… and he somehow ended up going from the beach to my car without even going past by me-
Suddenly, her attention had been caught by the photo that was showing on Wallflower’s computer screen. It showed a rock formation that was very similar to the one in Twilight’s drawing, and for Sunset, it was like the wheels were turning in her head.
“Hey, uh, can I ask you a silly question, Wallflower?” said Sunset, giving her a falsified smile and grin. “Where did you take that lovely photo?”
“Oh, that’s my garden,” replied Wallflower, smiling after seeing Sunset notice the picture. “Well, the school’s garden, technically. I’m the president of the gardening club. I founded it too. I’m also the only member, and the only one who’s ever been to the garden. Or seen it… or even asked about it.”
“You’re not, uh, really into other people, are you?” asked Trixie.
Casey sighed, and he shook his head, much to Wallflower’s confusion. “Oh, no, I think your garden looks beautiful… it’s just that there is someone else I know back home whom I am not exactly fond of, and that also enjoys studying plants.”
A chuckle came out of the mouth of a blushing Wallflower, feeling touched by Casey’s beginning words. “Thank you… and, um, I was actually thinking about maybe adding this picture somewhere in the yearbook. What do you think?”
Trixie scoffed, and exclaimed, “Sorry, but Sunset doesn’t allow anyone to put things in her yearbook.” She walked over to stand by Sunset. “No matter how much they deserve it.”
But to Trixie and Casey’s surprise, Sunset contradicted the illusionist by saying, “No, you should do that, Wallflower, so, uh, don’t let us keep you from working on it.”
“What?” cried Trixie, glaring at the yellow teenage girl while Casey tried holding in his laughter. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is annoyed and… insulted!”
Letting out a soft and quiet chuckle, Wallflower turned her attention back to the photo on her computer screen, resuming her work… just as Sunset began to slowly walk over to the unsuspecting student.
I just need to grab onto her hand, wrist, or simply an arm, thought Sunset, needing to know right now what Wallflower was thinking, and by the time the green-haired teenager realized that Sunset was right next to her, she had already grabbed her wrist, which allowed Sunset to see certain past memories of Wallflower’s.
What she was seeing so far was Wallflower standing by herself in the shadows, being ignored by the rest of her classmates that didn’t even know she even existed.
However, there was one particular memory that had stood out to her above the rest.
###################
“Trust me, my dear, do as I say, and your wish of being noticed will come true.”
Wallflower was standing by her garden, the Memory Stone in her hands, and in front of her was an unknown floating entity in a black cloak.
“So… you want me to use this thing to erase all of the good memories that Sunset Shimmer’s friends have of her? Even those that aren’t her friends?”
“Correct, Wallflower,” replied the cloaked figure. “And as long as you don’t go overboard, you will get your wish granted at the end of the day.”
She nodded her head, but Wallflower still appeared to be hesitant about the whole thing.
“Is there a problem, my dear?”
“No, I just…” answered Wallflower, not wanting the stranger to be upset with him… despite the cloaked person already knowing how to take care of this.
“Well, wonderful!” With a hidden grin from behind his hood, the cloaked person raised up his right hand that was now glowing with dark energy. “And don’t be alarmed, this won’t even hurt a bit.”
Whoosh!
Releasing Wallflower’s wrist from her grip, Sunset backed away a little bit as she realized what the memories had informed her of. “You’re the one who erased everyone’s memories?”
At first, Wallflower was shocked at Sunset’s words directed towards her, but then, she glared at the bacon-haired teen with defiance. “Yes… I did.”
“Wait, who are you again?” asked a confused Trixie, and Casey slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand.
Wallflower let out a sigh, and turned back around to look at the photo of her garden on the computer.
You don't see me fitting in
I'm sitting here alone
Right beside my shadow
Always on my own
She was now explaining her unfortunate situation of feeling “invisible” in the world, with only Casey and Trixie listening in awe while Sunset was just glaring at her, hand placed on her hip.
If I could share my wildest dreams
Maybe they would see
I'm more than just a wallflower
There's so much more to me
I'm invisible, invisible
A droplet in the mist
Invisible, invisible
It's like I don't exist
As Wallflower continued to sing, Sunset took this opportunity to sneak her way over to the green-haired teenager’s backpack.
Right beneath my picture
This is what you'll read
A laundry list of nothings
Not likely to succeed
A yearbook with blank pages
That no one wants to sign
A memory forgotten
Until the end of time
I'm invisible, invisible
A droplet in the mist
Invisible, invisible
It's like I don't exist
Then, Wallflower took a moment to remain silent after finishing up her song, and Trixie was about to say something when Casey suddenly spoke first. “I’m… so sorry you feel that way.”
“Why do you feel sorry?” wondered Wallflower. “I’m sure you have a bunch of friends like Sunset and everyone else.”
Casey gave a quick nod. “This is true, but… it wasn’t always like that.” Wallflower gave him a confused look. “For four years, I didn’t have anyone to call a friend… there was only me, my parents, and the stars…. and for two years, I truly was alone in the world after my parent’s deaths… so I’m saying sorry to you because I understand where you’re coming from.”
Just as Wallflower was about to respond to Casey, the young teenager finally noticed Sunset searching through her backpack. “Hey! What are you doing?”
She pulled it out of Sunset’s hands before the bacon-haired teenager could grab the Memory Stone, and Sunset began pleading with Wallflower. “What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you!”
“Exactly!” cried Wallflower, now furious. “You had everyone fooled, but now they know you’re still the Biggest Meanie!”
Her glaring eyes blazing, Sunset started to walk towards Wallflower, with a deep frown on her face. “You’re about to see how mean I can get!”
“Whoa, okay, hold up there a second,” remimded Trixie, now blocking her from going any further. “Let’s not antagonize the person with the all-powerful mystery rock.”
“I don’t like confrontation,” said Wallflower, pulling the Memory Stone out of her backpack, and was just about ready to fire it at both Sunset and Trixie’s foreheads. “So let’s just forget that this conversation ever happened!”