“Hm, this could be a problem,” the older woman said standing on the roof of the school, looking up at the Wave Road, “The Dark Code is still spreading, meaning that Lucifer might still be in operation somewhere,” she closed her eyes looking down, “What a mess this is turning out to be.”
She looked at her hand, opening and closing it to test its synchronization with her will. She didn’t feel any different now. In a way, she was still herself, but there was something else. Something bigger within her, guiding her, sharing information with her, and speaking through her. She and this entity had become one consciousness, and even then she knew that the one on the other side of the mirror was also connected, too.
I am too big to connect to one without usurping your free will. My consciousness must be split in two, and you’ll both exist as my eyes. Is this acceptable with you both?
“Never thought I’d become a Goddess in my lifetime,” she muttered, thinking about the big job she now had. Viruses had already infected the school, and apparently caused a good bit of damage. Hopefully the ones who saw Trixie transfer in were deleted before they shared their information with-
Her phone vibrated, stealing her attention. She looked to see who it was, and then answered it, “Yes? Oh, sorry, I was just getting some fresh air on the roof. Is everything okay?” she listened carefully, closing her eyes, “Well, Fluttershy was able to vouch for her, so I say it’s okay to let them go,” she closed her eyes and sighed, “Hopefully it isn’t, but after the Friendship Games, we can’t be too sure. I’ll talk to Sunset about it,” she waited a bit, and then smiled softly, “I love you too, Luna.”
She hung up, and then looked up at the sky, and the translucent roads decorating it, “This might just be even worse than the Friendship Games, being quite honest… I’m counting on you, Data…”
After making sure Fluttershy was okay, and getting chewed out by Vice Principal Luna, they managed to make their way to the Music Room, which according to Fluttershy was their main hangout spot.
“There you are!” Rainbow Dash said running up to Fluttershy once they opened the door, “I was getting worried!”
“Sorry Dashie,” Fluttershy said softly, “Trixie and I ran into, um something on the way here, bu-”
“You’re okay, right?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking Fluttershy over, immediate concern radiating off of her. Trixie deduced they were super close.
“Mhm,” Fluttershy nodded, “Thanks to Trixie. She protected me.”
“Trixie did…?” Rainbow Dash asked, slowly looking at Trixie with wide eyes.
“I, just did what I felt anyone would do in the moment,” Trixie said rubbing her arm, “You girls are helping me, so…”
Rainbow Dash looked at Trixie intently, and then smiled, “Well, either way, thanks for looking out for her. Fluttershy’s my best friend, so if anything happened to her, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Then, I’m happy I could help her,” Trixie smiled back.
“Damn, you were right,” a new voice said, sounding a bit more mature than everyone else, “She really is a completely different person now.”
Trixie looked over at a desk in the music room, and saw two other girls there that she didn’t remember meeting earlier. One had long red and golden hair, almost like fire, and was wearing this really nice blue blouse, blue skinny jeans, black and gold boots, a black and gold leather jacket, and dark red lipstick. Despite having a look that screamed “don’t fuck with me”, her light blue eyes were gentle and friendly, putting Trixie immediately at ease.
Her friend sitting by the computer was almost the complete opposite. This girl has long purple hair with a pink highlight, and wore a purple sweater with an opening in the front to show a bit of cleavage, tight black skirt, dark sheer leggings, and purple high heels. Though her black glasses made her look more on the “nerdy” side, her rose red lipstick and sharp purple eyes gave off a somewhat darker air. Unlike the red haired girl, her focus was solely on the purple laptop computer on the desk she was working on.
Being honest, Trixie thought she was kinda pretty.
“Told ya,” Applejack said, sitting on a stool off to the side with Rarity standing next to her, “Makes ya wonder what that light did to her.”
“Knocked the bitch out of her, is what it did,” Dash said, walking back over to sit in a chair on the other side of the room, “I say this is a massive improvement.”
“Dash!” Rarity scolded.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” Dash challenged.
“No no, it’s fine,” Trixie sighed, “I don’t know what I was like entirely before, well, now, but based on what I’m getting from the other students, I was kind of the worst.”
“I ain’t gonna say you were the worst,” Applejack said, “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but ya were kinda the stereotypical mean girl.”
“Oh lovely...” Trixie rolled her eyes, going over to a desk and sitting down at it, letting her head fall on it, “Let me guess, had no problem lying and cheating my way to the top?”
All of them save for Twilight traded awkward glances, making Trixie groan.
This is even worse than I thought…
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” the red haired girl said walking over to Trixie, “I was way worse than you ever were, and I can safely say that very few of the kids here hold a grudge for long.”
“Really?” Trixie asked lifting her head up to the girl. She had a really mature and almost otherworldly air about her.
“So long as you make a genuine effort to change, you’ll have friends all over the school,” she continued with a caring smile, “And trust me, there’s no better place to start than with these girls.”
Trixie relaxed a bit hearing that. She didn’t know what this girl did, but she did kind of feel like they were similar in a sense.
“Let’s start fresh, okay?” she held out her hand, “My name’s Sunset Shimmer.”
“Beatrix, Lulamoon,” Trixie said, taking Sunset’s hand and shaking it, “But I guess my friends call me, Trixie, so…”
“That means we’re all obligated to call you by that name!” Pinkie chirped from the drum set, before folding her arms and nodding seriously, “It’s in the rule book.”
The smart looking girl sighed and turned to Pinkie Pie, “I’m, afraid to ask, but… rule book?”
“Uh huh. The rule book on how to make friends with anyone,” she pulled out a pink notebook that she clearly wrote in herself and presented it. It no joke, did say “How to Make Friends with Anyone” by Pinkamena Diane Pie, “Working title.”
The purple haired girl looked like she wanted to say something, but then just gave up, removing her glasses to rub her eyes, “S-sure. Whatever. Either way, my name’s Twilight Sparkle. I transferred to this school last month, and we barely even spoke then, so I have no preconceived impression of you.”
“Well, at least that’s something,” Trixie said, “Nice to know I missed out on making someone’s life harder here.”
Twilight chuckled lightly, seeming to relax a bit now. Trixie took silent notice.
“Well, now that Trixie’s here,” Rarity said, “I think now’s the time where we can explain exactly what happened, as far as we know.”
“Right. You all said that I was hit by something, right?” Trixie asked, “You keep mentioning a blue light.”
“It happened day before yesterday, right after school,” Rarity said, “I think you were leaving cheerleader practice, when there was an odd power failure at school.”
“We’d been having issues with electricity for a while here,” Twilight said, “But that day, it got so bad that the whole school blacked out.”
Trixie frowned, “Okay… but only at the school?”
“Yup,” Applejack chimed in, “I’d left early and was already drivin’ back home, an’ the city looked fine durin’ when they said the blackout happened.”
“Aliens…” Pinkie whispered dramatically, making Applejack sigh rubbing her eyes.
“Right. Pinkie Pie keeps thinkin’ its aliens,” Applejack groaned.
“Why do you think that?” Trixie asked, finally realizing she was dead serious.
“Because I saw where the light came from,” Pinkie Pie got up and ran over to Trixie, taking her arm and guiding her to the window, pointing to the sky, “It was right up there! There was a bright blue light that shot from the sky down toward the school, around the same time as the blackout!”
Trixie took a deep breath, tensing up a bit. Pinkie Pie couldn’t see it she was sure, but Trixie could. That light came from the strange road in the sky.
I don’t know, Applejack… I’m starting to think it might have been aliens myself…
“It was Rarity and I that found you,” Twilight said raising her hand, “We saw the light too, and ran to investigate where it landed.”
“And that’s when we saw you laying on the ground,” Rarity added, “You were unconscious, but was sparking with blue electricity. That led us to believe that you were hit directly with the light.”
“Hit directly with… Ah!” Trixie cried, holding her head as something came to her. She felt like, she could almost remember that. That or, that second was significant to her.
“You okay?” Sunset asked, all of the girls running to Trixie’s side to ensure she was okay.
“Y-yeah… it’s just… hard to explain I guess,” Trixie shook it off, “I don’t know why, but I feel like that light, did something to me. Have you been able to figure out what it was?”
“I can’t tell you what it was,” Twilight went back to her computer, “But I can tell you what it wasn’t.”
“It’s not Equestrian Magic, is it?” Sunset asked seriously.
“Not as far as these readings are concerned,” Twilight said, “I’ve been comparing the waves left over from that light with the magical waves you all give off when you activate your Equestrian Magic. These waves are definitely otherworldly, but they seem more solid. That’s not even the scariest part.”
“Okay, so what is?” Rainbow asked, folding her arms impatiently.
“The waves have settled and integrated with the tech here in the school,” Twilight answered, “I searched the whole school both today and yesterday, and I found those waves everywhere. I think I even saw them in town.”
“An’ yer sure this ain’t from Equestria?” Applejack asked slowly.
“Positive,” Twilight said, “Scary as it is, I think Pinkie Pie’s onto something.”
Pinkie Pie had the smuggest grin on her face hearing that, “Hate to say I told you so, but…”
Trixie looked down at her phone, and at the strange app now on it. The one that turned that weird armor on.
Fluttershy must have noticed, because she walked over to her bag and pulled out her phone, “Girls, you need to see this…” she walked back to the group pulling up a picture and showing it to everyone. On it was Trixie, only she was still wearing that odd short dress and armor.
Trixie blushed a bit at the length of the skirt. Surprisingly, it was shorter than the dress she was wearing now, and she was pretty sure this qualified as mini skirt length just about.
“What… in the world…?” Applejack asked slowly.
“Holy shit…” Rainbow Dash suppressed a smile, “You look like a fucking magical girl from cyberspace…!”
“Darling… what is this…?” Rarity asked, looking at both Fluttershy and Trixie.
Trixie took a deep breath, “Moment of truth time. Alright, so… I can see this… thing outside. It looks like an upside down city of some sort over our city, and a bunch of weird roads branching off of it and scattering around. I’ve been able to see it since yesterday when I left the hospital. When Fluttershy was about to bring me here, though, I noticed something that I think came from that weird road following us.”
“You’re not joking, are you?” Twilight asked softly.
“She’s not,” Fluttershy shook her head, “We led them to the gymnasium, and this weird wave went through the room, and these weird creatures appeared. They were about to attack me, but then Trixie held up her phone and said something about logging into somewhere, and then that armor appeared. She was able to fight the creatures easily with it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say easily,” Trixie said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head, “It didn’t come with a tutorial or anything, so I had to figure out how to use it myself.”
“How’d you use it?” Twilight asked, “As in, how’d you activate it?”
“The armor? I’m, not entirely sure myself,” Trixie said, “But I think it had something to do with this weird app on my phone now.”
She showed Twilight the app and handed her the phone. The cute and intelligent looking teen frowned at it, “That’s weird. Don’t remember seeing that at the app store,” she tried activating it, pulling up what appeared to be a screen with a blue orb of light spinning around, and the words “STANDING BY” in big, bold red letters in front of it, “What is this…?”
“Standing by?” Sunset asked, “Is it waiting for something?”
“I think it’s voice activated,” Trixie said, “I don’t know how, but in the moment, I felt like I knew how to use it. Or better yet, like I remembered how to use it.”
“Can I check something?” Twilight asked, “I’ll be careful, but I want to see if its connected to those waves.”
“Go ahead,” Trixie nodded, letting Twilight do her thing. The purple haired teen sat at her computer, connecting her phone to it via a small cord and tried to pull up the apps information. She then frowned, “What…? It’s not letting me access it at all.”
“Not even you can hack it?” Rainbow asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t think so. Not with this computer at least,” Twilight said, handing the phone back to Trixie, “But you said that you faced something in the gym, right?” Trixie and Fluttershy nodded, “Alright then. I’m going to head there to continue my research. See if anything was left over from there.”
“You girls mind if, I sit this out?” Trixie asked, “This has been, a whole day, and well…”
“Oh, of course darling,” Rarity walked over to Trixie and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Want to come back to my place, or should I escort you home?”
“I think, I’d like to see my place,” Trixie requested looking down, “Whether I remember anything or not, I kind of, want to see my Mom.”
Rarity smiled, “Of course. I’ll take you home then. Applejack, could I give you a call later?”
“Was gonna ask ya to, anyway,” Applejack said, wrapping her arms around Rarity and holding her close, “Be safe, alright?”
“I will,” Rarity smiled, kissing Applejack deeply on the lips, “I love you.”
“Love ya too, Rarity,” Applejack replied with a soft smile, turning to Trixie, “If any of them monsters show up, ya better keep my princess safe, ya hear?”
“Got it,” Trixie said immediately with a salute. She didn’t know if Applejack was joking or not, but she had a feeling she better take it seriously anyway. She seemed nice, but she also seemed like the sort who’d break Trixie in half if anything happened to Rarity.
“See ya, Trixie,” Rainbow said, hitting her lightly on the back, “Again, good job looking out for Fluttershy.”
“Thank you again, Trixie,” Fluttershy said, hugging Trixie tightly, “I’ll never forget this.”
“Y-you’re welcome,” Trixie said, hugging Fluttershy back. She had a feeling this was a huge gesture from her.
“Let us know if the aliens contact you,” Pinkie said, “And if they offer to take you to their home planet, call me fast, cause I wanna see it too!”
“Um…” Trixie wasn’t, sure how to respond to that. At all.
“You’re already a space cadet,” Sunset sighed with a smile, “See you, Trixie.”
“See you, Sunset, and thank you. All of you, for helping me,” Trixie said.
“Like I said, no better place to start than right here,” Sunset said warmly, “Twilight, I’ll go with you to the gym.”
“Alright,” Twilight said, stopping to briefly look at Trixie before smiling, “See you tomorrow, Trixie.”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Twilight,” Trixie said, her heart beating a bit faster for some reason.
After packing up everything, and going to her locker to get her stuff, she and Rarity made their way to the school gate. Outside they saw Rarity’s sister Sweetie Belle leaning against the statue, waiting for them. Seeing the gothic dressed teen made Trixie’s heart race for a different reason than Twilight, not helped by her sudden glare in their direction.
“Oh, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, visibly nervous as they approached.
“Rarity,” Sweetie nodded, turning to Trixie and scowling, “Beatrix.”
“H-hey, Sweetie Belle,” Trixie said, trying to be friendly, “So um, how was your-”
“Are you ready to go, Rarity?” Sweetie cut Trixie off, making her sigh in sadness.
“Actually, um… I’m not going to be able to walk home, with you…” Rarity said awkwardly, rubbing her arm, “I kind of, told Trixie here that I’d… walk her back to her place…”
“What?” Sweetie narrowed her eyes, “You still believe her sob story?”
“Sweetie Belle, it’s like I said yesterday, Trixie is serious about-”
“You know she’s an attention whore!” Sweetie argued, “For all you know she’s just doing this to get attention! And besides, what about how I feel seeing you all chummy with her?!”
Rarity winced, “I, I know this is hard, but based on what we’ve learned thus far, I think she might be-”
“Whatever,” Sweetie scowled turning away, “Go and have fun with your new “best friend”.”
“Sweetie Belle, please! I-” the young girl had already stormed off, leaving the two of them in awkward silence, “Oooooh, what am I supposed to do…?”
“Hey, I can just ask someone in the school for help,” Trixie said looking away, “If being my friend makes your sister hate you…”
“No Trixie,” Rarity said, turning to her and taking her hand, “I promised I’d look out for you, and I always keep my promises. Besides, by now Celestia and Luna have already gone home, and they’d be the only ones who could help you besides me.”
Trixie looked down somberly.
“It’s fine, darling,” Rarity said, caressing her cheek, “Let’s just get you home, alright?”
Trixie hesitated, but nodded. She hated knowing that she might be driving a wedge between Rarity and her sister, but she did need help, and the alternative wasn’t much better. Still, she had a feeling things were just going to get worse from here on between them at this rate.
Trixie’s home wasn’t that far from the school, but it was a bit out of Rarity’s way home. Realizing that made Trixie feel even worse, honestly, but anytime it showed, Rarity assured her that it was okay.
It was a shame that Sweetie was so against them spending time together, because Trixie was really starting to like Rarity a lot.
Most of the walk was in silence though, as Trixie kept looking at her phone, and the weird app on it. So far, it was the only thing that seemed familiar to her, but as far as she could tell, she’d never even seen this before the light hit her. Had the light changed her in some way fundamentally? Was she even Trixie? Or was she, someone else? And if that was the case, then…
“Trixie?”
“Huh?” Trixie turned to Rarity, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“I was going to tell you that we’re here,” Rarity said, rubbing Trixie’s back, “Are you sure you’re okay, darling?”
Trixie nodded, “Yeah, I’m alright. Just thinking about everything,” she looked up at the house, an odd feeling washing over her. It was a nice, two story house painted blue and white. The front was a large porch with a few wooden chairs and a matching table, and the door had a very nicely designed stained glass window in the middle. It was humble, but fancy.
“This is, my home?” Trixie asked softly.
“Does it, bring back anything?” Rarity asked carefully.
“Honestly I, can’t tell,” Trixie admitted, “I feel like there’s something there, but I’m not sure if it’s awareness that I know this place, or if… it’s a lack of awareness that I feel should be there…”
As Trixie looked down, Rarity pressed a finger to her lips in thought, “In your possessions, I believe there were two house keys for the locks. Why not try to open them?”
Trixie reached into her pocket, looking at the two keys connected to the ring in the middle, “But, I’m not sure if…”
“You may not remember consciously, but you’ve opened and closed this door so many times I’m sure its there subconsciously,” Rarity assured with a gentle smile, “Give it a try. What do you have to lose?”
Well, she was right about that, at least. Either she’d get it right, or she’d get it wrong. And hey, it wasn’t as if it mattered ultimately, right? If she had the wrong key, she knew what the right one was by process of elimination.
Trixie nodded, and walked up to the door carefully. In front of the door, she took a deep breath, and held a key to the door. She was about to insert it, but then stopped herself, looking at the key. Something about that, didn’t feel right.
She bit her lip, deciding to just take a chance on the feeling, and switched keys. This key slid right in without any resistance, and turned without a problem. Seeing that, Trixie’s eyes widened, and her heart leaped out of her chest. She remembered! It was small, but still, she definitely remembered which key to use!
“See?” Rarity said, going up to hug Trixie from behind, “You’re going to be just fine, darling.”
“Thank you, Rarity,” Trixie said softly, holding her hands and tearing up a bit, “Even if your sister despises me, I… I’m happy that we’re friends.”
“I’m happy we’re friends too,” Rarity smiled, kissing Trixie on the cheek affectionately, “And don’t worry about my sister. It may take longer with her, but I believe she will come around. So, want me to come in with you, or…”
“I appreciate it, but you should head back home to your sister,” Trixie said, “I think, I’ve got it from here.”
“Alright then. In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow, Trixie,” Rarity said, releasing Trixie and making her way back to her house, “And once again, darling. Thank you so much for saving Fluttershy.”
“You’re more than welcome,” Trixie said, “Um, get home safe, okay?”
“I will,” Rarity said, waving to Trixie one last time as she left the amnesiac teen alone on the porch. She took one more deep breath, and then opened the door.
Though she didn’t recognize anything, she did feel a sense of nostalgia. Like, there was a part of her that was at peace here, finally relaxing.
“Home…” Trixie said softly, looking around and taking everything in, “I’m, home.”
She walked through the main hall, eventually finding the living room. There relaxing on the couch, she saw a middle aged woman with hair similar to hers, red glasses, and wearing a nice dark green blazer, matching tight skirt, white blouse, sheer stockings, and black high heels. She looked like she worked in an office building.
Immediately, Trixie knew who this was. She didn’t recognize her in the sense of knowing, but she knew exactly who this woman was.
“M-Mom…?”
The woman gasped and sat up, turning to look at Trixie. She slowly stood up, approaching Trixie with watery eyes.
“Oh, Trixie…” the woman said, tears falling from her eyes.
“Mom…!” for some reason, Trixie burst into tears and ran into the woman’s arms. It was just like with the key. Consciously, she didn’t know, but unconsciously her body remembered. This woman was precious to her. She loved her.
“Shh… it’s okay honey,” her Mom said gently, rubbing her back even as she cried, “You’re home now.”
“I’m sorry…!” Trixie sobbed, “Even though, I know who you are, I don’t remember anything…! Your name… our relationship… anything…!”
“It’s alright, sweetie,” she said, lifting her chin and giving Trixie a smile so filled with love it hurt, “Memories or not, you’re my child, and I’ll always love you, okay? So take your time, remember what you can, and whatever you can’t, well, we can just make new memories together, alright?”
Trixie nodded, hugging her Mother again tightly. She had so many questions, but that was for another time. For now, she just needed this moment.
This was good, the tiny little program following her thought as he watched her embracing her mother. From what he’d gathered tailing her, she was going to have it rough from here on out, but at least this place was a safety net for her.
He sighed in relief, and smiled. Their talk could wait, a bit longer. No need to ruin this moment.