“Nyx? Who’s Nyx?” asked Cadance.
Pulp spoke before Twilight or Spike could.
“Princess Cadance, what would you say if I told you about a pony who overthrew the Royal Sisters, locked a bunch of foals up in a dungeon, and caused several happy families to be torn apart for months on end?”
Cadance gave a disturbed glance in Twilight’s direction.
“That’s not the whole story, Cadance!” said Twilight. “Nyx was…”
“Is that a cockatrice?!” Cadance exclaimed.
Twilight looked over towards the saddlebag. There was the brown and cream cockatrice scuttling around the mess of beakers.
“There you are, boy!” called Crosspatch.
“He’s your pet?!” asked a wide-eyed Cadance.
Crosspatch didn’t answer.
“Well, aren’t we squeaky clean?” Pulp Puree asked mockingly. “Keeping monsters from the Everfree Forest as pets.”
The cockatrice looked down at one of the beakers and kicked it towards the ponies. Spike caught it. It was full of a familiar brown foamy fluid. There was a hoofwritten label on it.
“Take this if you feel like you’ve forgotten something,” Spike read aloud. “This is a memory potion, right?”
“I brought it with me in case I got some amnesia potion on myself,” groaned Pulp.
Spike held the beaker to Cadance. “Rub some of this foam on your foreleg.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow.
“Go on, Cadance,” Twilight pressed. “Then you’ll remember who Nyx is.”
“Alright,” Cadance levitated the beaker out of Spike’s claws and poured some foam on her foreleg.
“Wait! The heartburn!” cried Lazybug.
Pulp Puree cleared his throat. “I am a professional chemist. My potions have never given anypony any awful side effects.”
“No, just awful intended effects,” frowned Crosspatch.
Cadance dropped the beaker, a shocked expression on her face.
“You remember?” Twilight and Spike asked together.
“Y-yes,” Cadance stammered.
“You remember the pony who took your husband away from you?” asked Pulp Puree.
“Yes, I do,” said Cadance.
“Well then, you know how it feels to have a loved one taken away from you,” said Pulp. “You know how my wife once felt.”
“What are you talking about?” demanded Lazybug. “Since when did you care how Mom feels?”
“Well, unlike you two wronguns,” Pulp frowned, “my illegal actions were a result of my mind being meddled with.”
“Hey! Our minds were meddled with, too!” snapped Crosspatch. “By the Zap-O-Lantern.”
“Asked for all you got, mucking with apples that shock you if you try and buck the trees,” said Pulp Puree. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Well, what are you talking about? You’re the one who’s been meddling with ponies’ minds,” said Lazybug.
“Wait. Were you given the Blessing?” asked Cadance. “Were you one of the Children of Nightmare?”
“Yeah, I was,” sighed Pulp. “I was forced to leave my wife to work for that wicked mare of darkness.”
“You mean the wicked mare who decided all on her own to remove the Blessing from all the Children of Nightmare?” scowled Twilight. “Was it her who give you the blessing in the first place?”
“No, it was that Grey Gale lady,” said Pulp Puree, waving a hoof. “She wanted my skills as a chemist to assist in the preparations for Nightmare Moon’s resurrection. And also to develop a draught that would prevent insanity among the citizens of Equestria. A prolonged deprivation of sunlight can cause that, you know.”
Twilight and Spike nodded, remembering their misadventure in the Blackout Shelter.
“I might have succeeded in creating that potion and keeping everypony from going barking,” Pulp went on, “but when I finally got my own will back and returned to my wife, I found she’d been utterly miserable without me. She thought she’d never see me again.”
“How could you hate Nyx when she’s the one who took the Blessing out of you and not the one who gave it to you?” asked Twilight, clutching her chest.
“Where do you think the Blessing came from in the first place, huh?” Pulp demanded.
“Nyx was punished after Princess Celestia and Luna came back, you know,” said Cadance.
Pulp Puree growled. “Nyx was NOT punished. The euphemistic language on that announcement made everypony think she had been punished, but do you call being reverted to foalhood and held in the custody of the most biased pony in the country a punishment?”
“It was Princess Luna’s decision,” said Cadance crossly. “Not Princess Twilight’s.”
“They’re all biased. Princess Luna is Princess Celestia’s sister. And Princess Celestia was Twilight’s teacher,” Pulp said obstinately. “And my wife was certainly biased. Towards those two.”
Crosspatch and Lazybug hated being talked to in this way by their dad.
“That’s why she wanted to overlook their crimes, and not Nyx’s,” finished Pulp.
Spike scratched his head. “She hated Nyx too?”
“Of course!” Pulp exploded. “She lost so much sleep fretting over the possibility of never seeing me again because of that criminal.”
“So you both set out to make everyone in Equestria forget about Nyx?” asked Twilight.
“We didn’t set out to give Nyx a proper punishment,” said Pulp, prompting infuriated looks from Twilight and Spike. “There had of course been appeals and petitions sent from all over Equestria to the Royals about giving her an actual sentence, but they’d been rejected outright. Then the opportunity to make things right just came to us.”
“When?”
Pulp Puree pointed to the shiny city. “When the Crystal Empire returned.”
There were raised eyebrows all around.
“I was stocking some freshly made potions, when I looked out my window and saw a snowy area in the Arctic North was glowing,” Pulp explained. “I was curious, so I went out to have a look.”
“Oh, you were curious?” Lazybug smirked. “Like me and Crosspatch were curious about the zap apples?”
Pulp Puree looked like Lazybug had just spat on him. “You might say my curiosity nearly doomed me. I was spotted by Sombra. But Prince Shining Armour found me as well and managed to get us both to the Crystal Empire before Sombra got anywhere near us. Princess Cadance had already flown to the Crystal Castle and was casting her love spell to calm the crystal ponies. Prince Shining told me what was happening and asked me to help him assess the state of the residents of the empire. I was happy to help a fellow former Child of Nightmare. We talked to some crystal ponies and found that they couldn’t remember anything due to Sombra’s dark magic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a memory retrieval potion on me. What I did have was an anti-wrinkle draught, a giraffe-neck disorder solution, and an amnesia potion.”
“An amnesia potion! Is that what you used to make everyone forget Nyx?!” asked Twilight.
Pulp nodded.
“How?” asked Cadance. “How did you make your little jar of potion effect everyone in Equestria?”
“Well after we failed to find anything out from the crystal ponies, Prince Shining left me to find a place to wait while he went about his duties,” Pulp Puree told them. “I settled for the library. And since the librarian couldn’t remember where any specific books were, I browsed around, and found a book on the history of the Crystal Empire. I got to the page on the Crystal Heart, and…”
“The page on the Crystal Heart?” Twilight repeated. “But Sombra tore that page out of the book.”
“No he didn’t,” smirked Pulp. “I did.”
“You did?!” bellowed Twilight, Spike and Cadance.
“You bet I did,” Pulp grinned. “The book said when the Crystal Heart is powered up by the light and love of the crystal ponies, it spreads energy across Equestria and its residents become imbued with it. And I had an amnesia potion with me. And I heard Twilight and her friends come into the library. …And it came to me. …It was perfect. But I needed time to get everything ready. So I tore the page out to delay the main event of the Crystal Fair. Then I snuck out of the library and took out the correspondence book I had with me.”
“What’s a correspondence book?” asked Lazybug.
“I have one,” said Twilight. “I use it to keep in touch with Sunset Shimmer in the alternate world. You write something in a page in one book, and the words appear in the other book.”
“My wife and I both kept a correspondence book with us since we were reunited,” Pulp continued. “When I contacted her and she wrote that she was receiving me, I wrote to her my plan to see to it that Nyx was given a proper punishment for her crimes. I asked her to take a memory potion from my stock, catch a train to Ponyville, run to the Everfree Forest, and find a cockatrice.”
“A cockatrice? Was it that cockatrice?” Crosspatch pointed to the creature still standing by the mess of beakers.
“She did tell me afterwards that it had brown down, purple eyes, and a cream comb,” said Pulp. “I guess you did happen to adopt the same cockatrice my wife found.”
“We didn’t adopt…”
“Never mind, Lazybug,” Crosspatch waved her hoof at her brother. “What did Mom do to him?”
“Used the Stare on it,” answered Pulp.
Crosspatch grinned. She now knew who she’d inherited that ability from.
“I thought you and your wife were scared of the Everfree Forest and everything in it,” said Twilight.
“That’s why I asked her to look for the smallest Everfree creature I could think of,” said Pulp Puree. “She knew how perfect an opportunity this was, and couldn’t pass up the chance we wanted. So she caught the next train from Clopley Hill to Ponyville. When she got there, the first thing she said she saw was a goods train loaded with large stones. They were the last pieces of Nyx’s castle. She found it was all gone. It was even more perfect than we first thought. The next thing Winter Squash found was a kazoo.”
“Nyx’s kazoo?” asked Twilight.
“That’s what her little friend with the glasses said,” replied Pulp.
“Twist?” asked Lazybug, remembering that Twilight told him and Crosspatch that Silver Spoon had hated Nyx.
“I dunno. Winter didn’t get her name,” Pulp groaned. “Sure, we’ll just call her Twist. So Twist explained that she was setting up a scavenger hunt for her friends, and Nyx’s kazoo was on the list. She asked Winter Squash to leave it where she found it, but once she was gone, she grabbed it again and planted it close to the Everfree Forest. Then she stepped into the woods. Soon enough, she found a cockatrice…”
He pointed to the animal watching this exposition dump infold.
“That cockatrice… and Stared it down. With that cockatrice under her control, she ordered it to turn Nyx to stone when she saw her. Then she went back to Ponyville and looked for Nyx. When she spotted her, she dropped a hint to her that there was an item on her list near the forest. She was apprehensive at first, but Winter Squash said that the item wasn’t in the forest. So Nyx thought it was safe and went for it. She approached the forest, and that cockatrice did as he was ordered. Nyx was a statue.”
Twilight began welling up.
“Winter Squash then sent the cockatrice back to the forest and hid Nyx’s statue in some bushes in the forest,” Pulp Puree grinned.
“In the meantime,” he went on, “I wrote what I wanted everyone to forget in the foam on the top of my amnesia potion. Nyx and the effects she had on Equestria. I knew the Crystal Heart under the tarpaulin was a fake, but I was certain Twilight would find the real one soon enough.”
“And when we did find it, you somehow got it covered in your amnesia potion?” asked Spike.
“I hid in the impatient crowd. All the crystal ponies were too scared about Sombra to notice me. And when all the crystal ponies had knelt down to feed the light within them to the Crystal Heart, I tossed the jar at it,” Pulp Puree was clearly enjoying reciting what he considered his greatest work. “The heart not only got rid of Sombra and spread its powerful magic across Equestria, it also exposed everypony in the country to my amnesia potion. It affected me as well, but I’d written myself a note on that page I ripped out of the history book to remind myself to go home and take some memory potion. And over in Ponyville, Winter Squash had done the same thing. When she read the note she wrote to herself and looked around, she saw that everyone in Ponyville was watching the Crystal Heart’s magic spread across the sky. So she took her memory recovery potion and carried on with the next stage of the plan. She took advantage of the distraction to run to the schoolhouse and take Nyx’s name off the teacher’s register, and to the Library to get rid of all the photographs of Nyx. She then caught the train back home. I’d already returned and taken my memory potion. We met up at Steeds Central and congratulated each other on a job well done.”
Twilight sighed. “So Nyx is a statue and stuck in some bushes in the Everfree Forest.”
“That’s right,” said Pulp Puree.
“Wait. She can’t be still in the forest. Our cockatrice would have found her there,” said Crosspatch. “Out with it, you! Where is she really?”
“Here she is.”
Everyone looked towards the snow. Winter Squash was trotting towards them looking cross. Behind her, flying with great difficulty and sweating in the cold of the arctic, was Flash Sentry carrying a life-size statue of a filly with a red kazoo sticking out of her mouth.
“It’s her!” cried Twilight. “It’s Nyx!”
Twilight magiced Nyx’s statue out of Flash’s hooves and set her down on the ground in front of her. Her rock-solid adopted daughter had a surprised look on her face, but she was still the greatest sight Twilight had seen in a long time.
“A few days after we carried out our plan,” Winter Squash told her, “we both went to Ponyville and managed to sneak her statue out of the forest and to Clopley Hill. We knew you and your friends have a zebra friend in Everfree and thought you might stumble upon Nyx at some point. She’s been sitting in our attic for a while now.”
Crosspatch and Lazybug stared at Winter Squash. “Mom?”
“Nice cutie mark, Lazybug,” their mother smiled.
Crosspatch and Lazybug beamed and ran up to Winter Squash and hugged her.
“So, you got your memory back,” frowned Pulp Puree.
“After Flash here found our address and learned that you were a chemist, he found a memory potion for me when he brought me home,” Winter Squash said. “And I was able to tell him about our scheme and show him where we hid Twilight’s daughter.
Pulp snorted.
“That’s why you went into the Arctic snow, isn’t it?” Cadance demanded. “You weren’t looking for your wife. You were looking for a better place to hide Nyx’s statue.
“Yes, yes,” sulked Pulp Puree.
Crosspatch and Lazybug observed the statue sitting in front of Twilight.
“So this is Nyx,” said Lazybug.
“Yes… this is my Nyx…” Twilight gazed sadly at the stone filly.
Quite suddenly, her view was obscured by a brown and cream head. The cockatrice had wasted no time in stepping in front of the statue’s face and stared hard into its eyes.
“Ah! There’s a good boy,” grinned Crosspatch.
The stoney exterior vanished.
“Oh!”
The red kazoo dropped from Nyx’s mouth.
“What… what happened?!”
“She’s back!” Twilight and Spike exclaimed.
Nyx looked around. “Twilight… Spike… Princess Cadance…”
“Hi, Nyx,” Spike smiled. “It’s great to see you.”
Twilight was lost for words as Nyx looked up at her in amazement.
“Twilight… you have wings!”
“Oh. Yes, I do,” Twilight unfurled her wings so Nyx could get a better look.
Nyx looked around. “Where am I?”
“The Crystal Empire,” said Twilight.
“Wow,” Nyx looked at the shimmering castle and the glittering buildings around it. “It’s beautiful. But… how did I get here? I was having a scavenger hunt with my Crusader friends in Ponyville, and…”
She spotted Winter Squash and gasped.
“And she told me where I could find my kazoo.”
“Yeah,” Winter Squash frowned. “I’m sorry, Nyx. Me and my husband tried to get rid of you.”
Nyx began to shake. “What do you mean?”
It took a long time to explain to Nyx that she’d been away for a while because of a pair of dissenters. She was quite forlorn by the time she knew the whole story.
“Everypony still hates me,” she said sadly.
“That’s not true, Nyx,” insisted Twilight.
“Yes. Everyone’s forgotten all about you,” Pulp hissed.
“Knock it off, Dad!” snapped Crosspatch.
“Well, I’m sorry if I have an objection to bias!” barked Pulp Puree.
“Bias?” repeated Flash Sentry.
“Yes. Nyx has committed crimes against equinity and she got to live a normal life with Princess Twilight, the one who adopted her,” scowled Pulp Puree. “And my wife didn’t care about the despicable things those two have done to that apple farm. She was all for a reunion with those crooks.”
“He’s right,” Winter Squash was looking downcast. “I hated Nyx for what she’d done, but when I heard about what my foals had done, I just didn’t care. I suppose I am biased.”
Twilight considered. “Maybe I’m biased too. But I wasn’t biased when I had to decide what to do about Crosspatch and Lazybug’s crimes.”
“Wait, what?! Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash told you about what we did?” asked a wide-eyed Crosspatch.
“Well, yeah,” said Twilight. “How else did you think I found out about you two?”
“They never told us they went to you about us,” said Crosspatch. “They said they wouldn’t turn us over to you if we promised to keep the nab turtles out of the hospital’s sting weed garden.”
“Well, they did anyway,” shrugged Twilight. “They told me all about the Zap-O-Lantern and your failed plan to take over Sweet Apple Acres. I asked them where you two were at the time, and they said you were keeping the sting weed safe so Applejack and Big McIntosh could have their lightning burns healed. I decided that since you realised you made a bad decision, apologized, and did your best to make amends, you shouldn’t be arrested. I’d never heard of you before Pinkie and Rainbow told me about you, and I had no personal reason to let you off lightly, but I did.”
She glared at Pulp Puree.
“I guess that’s just the kind of pony I am.”
Pulp snorted.
“Your highness,” said Winter Squash, “is there anything I can do to make up for my part in Nyx’s disappearance?”
“Oh for gourd sakes!” snapped Pulp Puree.
“Shut up, Pulp!” Winter Squash barked. “I do not want to be away from our son and daughter anymore! I’ve missed them! I still love them! Unlike you!”
Pulp Puree didn’t respond.
“Mr Puree,” said Cadance, “have you really lost your love for your son and daughter?”
“Their crimes may not have been as horrid as Nyx’s, your highness,” frowned Pulp, “but they were crimes nonetheless.”
Cadance’s horn lit up, and from it emerged a reddish-purple heart. It drifted towards Pulp Puree, settled on his nose, and vanished. Pulp’s expression changed. He now looked aggrieved.
“Do you remember now how important your family is to you?” asked Princess Cadance. “Think about it. You opted to protect them long ago and then never saw them again. Surely you do miss them despite the trouble they’d caused.”
Pulp Puree looked around. From Winter Squash, to Crosspatch, to Lazybug.
“Could, uh, could I have a minute to mull things over?” he asked, taking a seat on the grass by the path.
Cadance nodded.
Nyx had forgotten about the cockatrice until he popped up in front of her with her kazoo in his mouth.
“What is it?” asked Twilight at the sound of Nyx’s surprised yelp.
“Oh, their pet cockatrice was just picking up my kazoo for me,” said Nyx. “It’s nothing bad.”
“He’s not our…” Lazybug started.
“Good,” Twilight was unaware that Lazybug was saying anything. “Because I am never going to let anything bad happen to you ever again. From now on, I’ll never leave you.”
“Twilight,” said Cadance as her sister-in-law held Nyx in her hooves, “won’t that make it hard for the two of you to live your lives?”
“I don’t have a choice,” Twilight said. “Princess Celestia ordered me to help Nyx readjust to life as a normal filly. I have to stay with her.”
“But Twilight, you’re a princess now,” said Nyx. “Don’t you have royal duties?”
“Forget my royal duties,” Twilight shook her head. “I have you back and I’m not…”
“Twilight, you are kinda overreacting,” said Spike.
For a moment, Twilight looked like she was gonna blow up. Then she heaved a heavy sigh.
“Can you blame me? I’m supposed to help Nyx uphold her special talent. She wants to keep the ones she cares about safe. But she can’t keep herself safe unless I’m there to watch over her,” she said. “So how else can I keep all the naysayers away from her?”
Lazybug didn’t hesitate one second. “Leave it to me.”
“You?”
“Yeah. We’re the same age. We’ll both be in school together. I can keep an eye on her there,” Lazybug suggested. “Then there’d be no reason she can’t live a normal life.”
No one noticed, but Pulp Puree’s expression of contemplation was steadily morphing into a livid scowl.
“And if you and your friends have to go somewhere,” Lazybug went on, “Nyx can stay with me and Crosspatch until you come back.”
He turned to Nyx, who shuffled sheepishly.
“How’s that sound, Nyx? Would you be OK with me as your ponyguard?”
“I, uh, guess that would be alright,” said Nyx. “But… could we be friends as well?”
“Why not?” Lazybug shrugged. “Well, just try not to hold the class up before recess.”
Nyx turned red. “I’ll try. Oh! You could ask Apple Bloom if you could join the Cutie Mark Crusaders as an honourary member.”
Lazybug beamed. “Yeah! Well, after everyone in Equestria remembers you, that is.”
The look of utter outrage on Pulp Puree’s face went unnoticed by everyone.
“It’s very nice of you to offer, Lazybug,” said Twilight, “but do you really think you can keep Nyx safe whenever she’s away from me?”
“Oh, sure. I’m a lot like her, you know,” Lazybug smiled. “We were both affected by problems that happened years and years ago, and we’ve both found ways to make our lives better no matter what our pasts did to us.”
“He’s right, Twilight,” said Nyx. “He knows how it feels to be troubled by past disasters. Princess Luna may have taken her own memories away from me, but I still know how much misery I’d caused the ponies of Equestria. The two of us could be a great team.”
It took seconds.
“She cannot go free!” Pulp roared as he charged madly towards Nyx with his teeth bared.
“No!” Lazybug shouted, jumping between Nyx and Pulp with his hoof outstretched.
Instead of Nyx, Pulp grabbed Lazybug with his teeth. And then…
FLASH!
Nyx, Twilight, Spike, Cadance, Winter Squash and Flash Sentry couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Lazybug’s eyes glowed multiple colours. Electric sparks crackled all around him. Neither he nor Pulp were moving. Suddenly, Pulp Puree shot backwards. He sailed screaming above the ground, and landed several yards away from the crowd.
“See that?” Lazybug waved his bitten hoof around. “I’m the right colt for the job.”
Flash Sentry flew over the Pulp, who was groaning and trying to pick himself up.
“Pulp Puree, you’re under arrest for conspiracy, foalnap, substance abuse, and attempted assault.”
Pulp looked affronted. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a criminal! I…”
The cockatrice had flown over to Pulp’s landing spot as well, and before the old stallion could yell another word, he was a very angry-looking statue.
“Good boy!” called Crosspatch.
“Lazybug, how did you do that?!” exclaimed Twilight.
Lazybug grinned. “Me and Crosspatch got the protective power of zap apple trees from the Zap-O-Lantern. Tell them how you got rid of the abominable snowmare, Crosspatch.”
“Well,” said Crosspatch, “we ran up to it, but it turned out to be a lot bigger than it looked from a distance. It was massive. Our cockatrice wasn’t the only one who got scared of it… I, uh, sort of got scared stiff. The snowmare swatted the guards away and lunged for me. It grabbed me, opened its mouth, and tried to eat me. But it couldn’t. My body ceased up, my eyes went all glowy, there were sparks all over me, and next thing I know, the snowmare drops me and sails backwards. The next thing we all saw was its silhouette running into the snowy mist. It definitely ran back to the mountains. Didn’t want to try that on me again.”
Maybe it was because they had Nyx back, but Twilight and Spike’s heartburn went away quite quickly over the course of the afternoon. They were able to help Cadance, Shining Armour and Winter Squash with preparations for the following day. The first order of business was to have Pulp Puree formally sentenced.
“Pulp Puree,” said Princess Celestia, “you have heard the charges set against you. Have you anything to say before I pass sentence?
“I have a question, your highness,” replied Pulp Puree, shooting a dirty look at the witness’ table. “Do you call this a fair hearing?”
Princess Celestia sighed as she looked over her table, her gavel, and the jar of memory potion she’s dipped her hoof in earlier. Cadance, Twilight, Nyx, Lazybug, Crosspatch and Winter Squash were all looking eager to see Pulp take his medicine.
“Mr Puree, you seem to think everyone in this room is set against you,” Celestia said.
“We are!” burst out Lazybug. “He doesn’t care at all about what he’s done! He…!”
Crosspatch swiftly covered her brother’s mouth with her hoof.
“Send me to prison, and you’ll prove to the whole of Equestria how biased you all are,” Pulp Puree betrayed a hint of smugness.
“The sentence I am about to give you, Mr Puree, has nothing to do with my relationship with those who testified against you. It is with your own response to your actions,” said Celestia. “Your lack of remourse for the trouble you’ve caused your loved ones and your refusal to offer any redemption has made it plain for us all to see that you truly are a villain.”
Pulp Puree’s force contorted with anger. “A villain?”
Celestia nodded. “You think Nyx’s crimes are unforgivable, but I believe that your son and daughter have shown that it is possible to overcome the mistakes of the past to strengthen one’s self and move forward.”
Pulp Puree glanced at Crosspatch and Lazybug, who smiled up at the princess of the sun as she cleared her throat.
“Pulp Puree… you are sentenced to retirement from the chemist profession and confinement in the Piny Shades Retirement Home. An appointed royal guard shall be stationed at the nursing home to monitor you until further notice.”
She magiced her gavel up and slammed it on her table.
“I shall escort you to Piny Shades myself. Everyone else…”
She levitated the jar of memory potion and sent it hovering to Winter Squash.
“You may head off to the Crystal Empire.”
The witnesses thanked Princess Celestia and exited the court room. The last thing they heard before the bailiffs shut the doors was Pulp Puree grumbling “I can’t believe they’re really gonna do this.”
“Hello, everypony! Welcome to the celebration! We are here to congratulate Crosspatch and Lazybug for driving the abominable snowmare away from the Crystal Empire and back to the arctic mountains!”
The crowd of crystal ponies had their full attention on Prince Shining Armour making his announcement from up on the castle balcony. None of them saw Winter Squash walk right up to the Crystal Heart and splash a brown foamy liquid all over it.
“So please enjoy yourselves and have a wonderful time!” finished Shining Armour.
After a smattering, the crystal ponies roamed the city streets partaking on various foodstuffs and socializing with each other and the non-crystal ponies who were on hoof when the abominable snowmare was about. Crosspatch and Lazybug were looking up at the statue of Spike as crystal ponies passed by and offered them their gratitude.
“Think they’ll make statues of us?” asked Lazybug.
“Dunno. I don’t think they were as frightened about the snowmare as they were about Sombra,” shrugged Crosspatch.
Twilight walked up alongside a unicorn filly wearing a headband, a vest and a pair of glasses.
“Um, are Apple Bloom and Twist coming?” asked the filly.
“I’m sure they’ll be along,” said Crosspatch. “Spike’s gonna see if they caught the midday train.”
Apple Bloom and Twist entered the Crystal Empire, showed their invitations to the soldiers guarding the gate, and passed under the banner that read “Thank you Crosspatch & Lazybug.”
“Hey, you made it!” called Spike, making his way through the crowd to meet the two foals.
“Yeah. Uh, why were we invited to this party?” asked Apple Bloom.
“We didn’t have anything to do with that abominable snowmare,” put in Twist.
“Well, Crosspatch and Lazybug wanted you two to meet some ponies,” said Spike. “Come on.”
He led the way through the crowd of happy chattering crystal ponies. Soon, they found Crosspatch and Winter Squash, who were both drinking egg nog.
“Ah, you came,” smiled Crosspatch. “Mom, this is Apple Bloom and Twist. Girls, this is my mom, Winter Squash.”
“Apple Bloom. You’re Granny Smith’s granddaughter, aren’t you?” asked Winter Squash. “I hear things turned out alright for her and her zap apples.”
“That’s right,” said Apple Bloom.
“I also her she didn’t age as gracefully as I did,” Winter Squash grinned.
Apple Bloom was quite ambivalent about this remark.
“Where did you go after you lost your pumpkin farm, Mrs Squash?” asked Twist.
“Clopley Hill. But after this party’s over,” Winter Squash replied, “I’ll be moving in with my daughter and son.”
“And she’s not the only one,” said Crosspatch. “Remember him?”
Apple Bloom and Twist looked to their left. There was the cockatrice that invaded their playground. He had two cobs of crystal candy corn in his beak.
“Go on. He won’t hurt ya,” said a passing crystal pony with his mouth full of berries.
It seemed everypony who’d been told how the snowmare was vanquished knew that Crosspatch had a pet cockatrice. Apple Bloom and Twist took a cob each and thanked the cockatrice, feeling weird.
“I named him Scavenger,” Crosspatch told them. “He’s gonna help me with pest control in Ponyville.”
“Don’t you have your brother helping you with that?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Well, he might be a bit preoccupied with Nyx.”
“Who’s Nyx?” asked Twist.
“She’s a relative of Twilight’s,” said Spike. “She’s moving to Ponyville, too. Come see.”
Lazybug saw Spike leading Apple Bloom and Twist towards him and his friend with the glasses and vest, who gasped in delight.
“Wait for it, Nyx,” he whispered.
Nyx calmed herself as her old friends approached.
“Here she is,” said Spike.
“Hi, Apple Bloom!” Nyx couldn’t help herself. “Hi Twist!”
“Hi, Nyx,” said Twist. “So are you gonna be going to school with us?”
“Yeah, she is,” said Lazybug.
“Great. You’re gonna love Miss Cheerilee’s classes,” smiled Apple Bloom.
Nyx beamed. Twilight walked up.
“Ah. I see you’ve met my cousin.”
Twist hadn’t heard. “Wow. Look at the Crystal Heart.”
The relic had begun to spin. Twilight saw that Nyx wasn’t looking so cheerful anymore.
“What is it?” she asked when Twist and Apple Bloom weren’t paying attention.
“I’m… nervous,” said Nyx quietly.
Winter Squash had walked up and heard her. “Look, Nyx. That page Pulp Puree tore out of that history book was important. And so is the gap in Equestria’s history that you took up. If there are any ponies who still hate you when they remember, let them be mad. What happened happened, and history should not be whitewashed.”
Nyx smiled and nodded.
Cadance had been flying around observing the merriment. She saw that the Crystal Heart was picking up speed and decided to give it a boost.
“Three cheers for Crosspatch and Lazybug, our heroes!” she called.
The crystal citizens obliged, and wit the final chant of “Hooray!”, the Crystal Heart spun rapidly and shot a beam of light up to the top of the castle. Everyone watched as blue, red and yellow streaks spread across the sky. Twilight, Spike, Crosspatch, Lazybug, Winter Squash and Nyx knew that all over Equestria, ponies were now recalling many significant, life-altering events. Cheerilee would now know who resembled a young Nightmare Moon. Fluttershy would now know who had saved Ponyville from a stampede of Everfree creatures. And Diamond Tiara would now know who used to hold the class up before recess started. They could be sure of this because Apple Bloom and Twist were both looking dumbstruck.
“Th-that’s why I found that CMC cape in my room that day,” stuttered Twist.
“Our… our new club rule,” stammered Apple Bloom.
The two of them jerked their heads at Nyx, who promptly removed her headband, vest and glasses, revealing her wings and her abnormally shaped eyes.
“Nyx! You’re back!”
“Where have you been?!”
“We haven’t seen you in so long!”
Nyx had never been so happy to be tackled.
“It’s great to be back, girls,” she said as they hugged her.
“Nyx, you’re really coming back to Ponyville?!” asked Apple Bloom.
“You’re really coming back to school?!” asked Twist.
“Yes, I am,” replied Nyx. “And… I hope I can come back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
“You bet ya can,” beamed Apple Bloom. “I can tell ya right now, as leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that our new rule that non-blank flanks are allowed to become honourary members is back in effect.”
Twist glowed. “Does that mean I…?”
“Welcome back to the club, you two,” smiled Apple Bloom.
“Oh. Apple Bloom, can Lazybug join up too?” asked Nyx.
Apple Bloom looked around at Lazybug, who took a step forward.
“Wanna join the Crusaders, Lazybug?” she asked.
“Can I really?” asked Lazybug.
“Definitely,” Apple Bloom nodded. “You really shoulda been one from the start anyway.”
“Thanks, Apple Bloom.”
Nyx was happy to be back. She was aware that she’d have quite an adjustment to make and a bit of catching up to do, but she knew that with Twilight’s and Lazybug’s help, she would soon be well off. Although it did come as a shock to learn that her old Library home no longer existed.