4 - Stuttered Progress
Trixie Lulamoon shuffled down the hall. Her eyes darted in every direction, looking at each person she passed by. She noticed some scratching their heads and she heard them speaking in hushed tones. She could hear the same conversation spreading across the student body and, from the way the teachers turned their heads and their ears and peered at all of them with careful scrutiny, they too knew what the conversation was.
Something had happened. Everyone knew that much. Now everyone was trying to figure out exactly what that something was.
With the large amount of simple and generic questions being thrown about (questions such as “Were you scared of Sunset too?” and “Why was I scared of Sunset?”), all of them were in the early stages.
Trixie herself knew better.
She smirked. She definitely knew more than them this time around. She was in a better position, for sure. She couldn’t wait to regale them with her heroic contribution! There was just one problem:
She hadn’t seen Sunset since yesterday. No one had.
She rounded a corner and stopped. Six girls stood at the other end of the hallway. She recognized them as Sunset’s best friends—or, rather, her other best friends. They all stood huddled together, whispering between each other. Trixie couldn’t hear a word that they were saying from her distance.
She looked closely and narrowed her eyes on noticing the absence of a certain individual. And so she clenched her fists and surged forward. “Rainbooms! Stop right there!” she thundered.
The six girls in front of her (as well as a few others at their lockers on either side of the hallway) turned.
Rarity crossed her arms and frowned. “Well, if it isn’t Trixie? To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Trixie ground to a halt in front of them. “You know very well what you owe the pleasure for. And you’re welcome.”
The six of them exchanged raised-eyebrow glances. Rarity was the one who voiced it: “And what exactly are we welcome for?”
Trixie snorted and put her hands on her hips. “You know exactly what you’re welcome for.”
Again, they exchanged glances. Applejack, with a raised eyebrow, spoke it this time. “Ah’m sorry, Trixie. We don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
Trixie’s eye twitched. She scanned their faces and found no trace of comprehension in their hanging mouths and their squinting eyes. “You mean… Sunset Shimmer didn’t tell you?” she asked.
“No?” Sci-Twi asked, a confused expression plastered on her face. All of their faces, in fact, held a similar expression.
“And what, pray tell, did she not tell us?” Rarity asked.
Trixie scanned their faces again and then smirked. She puffed her chest out and the hands on her hips curled into fists. “Well then! I will have you know that it was I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, that helped Sunset corner that despicable girl who took everyone’s memories!”
Several heads immediately turned. And several came forward.
“Excuse me. What happened to our memories?” one of the people in the crowd—Diamond Tiara, as it turned out—asked.
Trixie whirled. “Wallflower Blush happened! She used a memory stone to erase our memories. And get this!” she exclaimed as she swept her hands across the crowd. “She’s been erasing our memories for a long while. A little here, and a little there. And now, it turns out she hated Sunset Shimmer, so she went and erased all of our good memories of her.
“Because I know. I remember that Wallflower has been using a Memory Stone to erase people’s memories. I know that she’s been doing it for a while. And I know that she hated Sunset so much as to erase everyone’s good memories of her!”
Microchips stepped out of the crowd too. “Is it true?”
Pinkie Pie sighed and nodded. “Yepperoni.”
“Wow,” he said, grasping at his head. “That would explain why I thought she wanted my lunch money. That’d be something that the old Sunset Shimmer would do.”
“Now wait just a cotton pickin’ minute here,” Applejack said before snorting and pointing a finger at Trixie. “Weren’t you egging her on about some superlative for the yearbook at the beach? Why exactly would you turn around and help her?”
Trixie crossed her arms and turned her back to them. After a moment’s thought, she sighed. “Because Trixie knows a thing or two about the sort of situation she was in.”
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped and then she shook her head. “Wait. You’ve had your friends forget all about you before? Because I don’t think that happens to just anyone.”
Trixie whirled. “No! Not that! It’s just…” She examined their hardened expressions again and then let her own expression harden. “Nevermind. Where is Sunset Shimmer?”
Sci-Twi stepped forward. “She’s… she’s not feeling well. So she’s not here today.”
Trixie narrowed her eyes. “Really? Because she seemed just fine when she went out to confront Wallflower yesterday.” She threw her hands up. “Trixie is going to assume that she succeeded because we all remember all the good things about her now.”
The crowd hummed affirmatively.
Rainbow Dash nodded. “You betcha. We were there. We saw it happen. We got our memories of Sunset back.”
“And,” a male voice said from within the crowd, “Sunset lost hers in return, didn’t she?”
Several gasps (including and especially from the six girls in the center of the congregation) rose up and the crowd parted to reveal the source of the voice.
“Flash Sentry,” Sci-Twi started, “where did you—”
“I was sitting there in the parking lot when it happened,” Flash Sentry said. “I saw the whole thing. I nearly ran Sunset over with my car right before it all went down.”
Diamond Tiara stepped forward. “Is that true?”
Trixie whirled and closely studied the Rainboom’s faces. She noted the scrunching of their features and the loss of colors in their faces too. Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened to their fullest extent and Fluttershy folded her hands together. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, ground her teeth together and stared daggers at Flash.
And Trixie gasped and then shuddered. “I-it’s… it’s true. Isn’t it? It’s all over your faces.”
“N-no!” Microchips exclaimed.
Sharp gasps and pointed murmurs spread throughout the crowd. Several bodies then closed in, tightening the circle around Trixie, Flash, and the Rainbooms.
Trixie’s legs gave way and she collapsed. “H-how…? I don’t understand…?”
“What the hell happened to her?” Flash Sentry asked as he balled his fists.
The Rainbooms looked amongst themselves. Confused stares turned to solemn frowns as, one by one, they nodded.
Sci-Twi turned to face the majority of the crowd and cleared her throat. “Well, you see…”
* * *
Sunset Shimmer sat hunched over a book, but the pages looked like blurs. She looked up and noted where the sunbeams came through the windows; they now came through different windows at different angles. Her joints aching as well served to finish convincing her that she needed to move.
And so she stood up and looked around.
The library still hosted everypony that had joined the cause over the past few hours. Those numbers hadn’t changed.
Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer, and Starswirl stood in front of a chalkboard, discussing some magical equations and pointing to various diagrams across its face. They kept their voices down enough to keep the conversation to themselves but Sunset could hear their voices clear as day.
Sunset looked at Twilight’s face in particular and noticed the bags under Twilight’s eyes and the split ends in her mane. As far as Sunset could tell, Twilight had been in this room at every opportunity. Sunset wondered if there had been any sleep in there anywhere.
“See,” Twilight said, “my impression is that we should make use of isometric folding.”
Moondancer scratched her head. “I think we would need at least eight folds to get the desired effect,” she said.
“Ah,” Starswirl said, “but it should be limited to thirteen. Any more would cause thaumic feedback and that would overload the reconstruction.”
“Right,” Moondancer replied.
Sunset snorted and tuned her ears away from it, opting to glance around the room instead.
Princess Celestia sat at one of the tables along with Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer. Many bits of shattered rock lay scattered across its surface. The color of said rock shards split the table into two distinct pieces; the grey rocks took up a much larger portion than the orange ones. At present, the three ponies gazed at the former collection.
They sat in silence until, suddenly, Starlight moved. “That probably should go over here,” she said as she moved one of the pieces about. “See those lines there? They match up perfectly.”
Celestia chuckled. “That they do, Starlight Glimmer. Excellent observation.”
Sunburst hummed. “Wait, maybe there are lines just like that one running through adjacent pieces. Maybe we can follow that through and get even more organized with these pieces here.”
Celestia traced a hoof over some of the pieces and then pointed to a couple. “Here are some. Let’s see if we can find more,” she said as she moved said pieces with the others.
And thus they set to moving more pieces around. Sunset watched as they worked for a few moments.
And then Sunset turned her eyes to the oddity in the room. Everypony else were ponies that had earned their place here; Moondancer certainly seemed smart and, from what she had heard about Sunburst saving the Crystal Empire, he too. But the mare sitting by her lonesome on a cushion in the far corner of the room silently jotting in a flip notebook eluded Sunset’s reckoning.
How did she factor into all of this?
The mare with the scar (Crystal Faire, if she recalled hearing correctly) didn’t appear to be contributing to either group’s efforts, yet was still here. Given how not everyone in the group seemed to be very familiar with the mare, save for Twilight and Starlight, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder why she was here at all. Since Crystal was sitting alone, she could have faded into the background if she didn’t have that air of mystery circling around her.
Twilight appeared to trust the mare, meaning there was some degree of history between the two of them. Sunset could only imagine that Crystal knew more than she seemed to let on. Given her knowledge of Clover the Clever, she was, at the very least, informed on the subject of his escapades. Whether or not this meant Crystal knew anything about the Memory Stone beyond what everyone else knew had yet to be seen.
Sunset couldn’t help but wonder who Crystal was to her, and why she was helping. She could ask a similar question about the other ponies present, barring her former mentor and Twilight Sparkle, Sunset had no idea who any of them were. Well, outside of their names anyway.
From what she had been told, other than the aforementioned alicorns, they were all her friends. That, or at the very least, friends of her apparent friends. They hadn’t really bothered to fill her in on details, like how they met. All she got was a quick mention that the relatively new (at least in her eyes) princess, Twilight Sparkle, was the one who’d brought them together. The very same princess that had apparently stepped into her old role as Celestia’s student around the time she had apparently left for that other world.
Sunset wasn’t quite sure of the order of events, but she didn’t really think them to be false.
She wasn’t so naive that she could delude herself into thinking that this was some elaborate prank. There was no doubt in her mind that what they had told her of the current situation was nothing but true. Sunset was a former student of Princess Celestia herself; she may be stubborn, but she wasn’t blind to facts that were staring her in the face.
That, and even if she didn’t believe their words, the pained expressions on their faces looked way too real for her to brush off as them acting.
Especially the face of Twilight Sparkle, and the tears she had seen her shed the other night. The quiet sobbing had left quite the impression on Sunset; her heart felt like it had been ensnared by a basilisk’s crushing grip at the memory.
Sunset shook her head, breaking the train of thought.
“Still, I wish they’d just tell me more about what I’m forgetting,” she muttered in a tone barely above a whisper. “It’d at the very least help me understand why they’re trying so hard to help me...”
Sighing, Sunset turned her attention back to the chalkboard that Twilight was currently jotting something on. It took her a moment to recognize that it was the beginnings of a spell matrix’s structural equation, and it was looking to be a relatively advanced one at that. The fact she could still remember how spell structure worked was at least a sign that she hadn’t forgotten anything from her time as Celestia’s student.
Apparently, despite the fact that over three years had apparently passed since she had last seen one, she still able to understand complex magical algorithms without even trying. She was at least a little glad that her successor was at least on a similar level of magical theory as she was. Celestia sure knew how to pick them.
“A bit for your thoughts?”
At the sudden voice, Sunset jolted her attention away from the board. Turning her gaze to the voice, she found the mirthful smirk of her former mentor. “Geez, Princess, you’ve got to stop surprising me like that.”
Celestia chuckled. “I’m glad to see I still have that kind of effect on you after so long.”
“Well, considering you keep doing that when I’m super focused on anything else, I don’t really think it’s you specifically,” Sunset replied, rolling her eyes. “You’d think I’d be more prepared, given how often it’s happened before.”
“Indeed,” Celestia giggled. “Although, in your defense, it has been quite a while since the last time I pulled you from your thoughts like that.”
Sunset face fell. “Yeah, it’s been... over three years, right?”
Celestia nods, and offers a sad smile to her former protege. “And much has changed in the interim. The return of my sister, and the coronation of the Princess of Friendship, among other things.”
“Heh, yeah, I can tell a lot has changed since I was last in Equestria,” Sunset chuckled sadly. “It still feels a little like I only left you a day ago. Although, I guess technically, I did, right?”
Celestia simply nodded. “Yes, that is certainly true. However, our memories of the subject differ greatly at present.”
“You can say that again,” Sunset sighs. “To me, it feels like we argued yesterday.”
“It certainly puts a whole new spin on that old adage.”
Sunset chuckled at that. “No kidding. It’s strange to think that our argument over the direction of my studies was so long ago... and that I’ve apparently apologized for how I acted already.”
“I do wish that the memory of our reunion the other day had remained,” Celesia said, with what Sunset could only describe as a happy frown. “Alas, that’s not what ended up happening; otherwise, I doubt I’d be seeing you again this soon.”
“Why’s that?” Sunset asked. “If we made up, then why wouldn’t I be around more?”
“You have your studies in that other world to consider, for one,” Celestia replied, giggling.
The sight of the Sun Monarch of Equestria giggling was still an alien sight to Sunset. In all of her available memories of the Princess of the Sun, she only really remembered Celestia laughing once, maybe twice. At the time, it seemed like the alicorn had forgotten how to laugh. Her memories of her time under the alicorn’s tutelage, more often than not, gave her a completely different impression of her former teacher.
“Then, of course, your friends.”
Sunset’s attention snapped itself away from her memories, and back to the conversation at hoof. She felt her face twist with confusion. “ Oh... right... friends.”
“Ah, I see,” Celestia began. “You don’t remember them.”
“No... I don’t,” Sunset replied. She glanced over at Twilight Sparkle, currently deep in conversation with Moondancer and Starswirl. She was likely going over a part of her spell matrix with the two of them, seeing if they had any ideas for revisions. “I know who they are, but only because they had to tell me who they were so I wasn’t totally lost. I couldn’t tell you any of their names, if I’m being honest.”
Celestia’s gaze followed where Sunset’s eyes had wandered. “I see.”
“I remember seeing what looked like pony versions of them for a few minutes, but apparently they aren’t the same as the ones in that world,” Sunset sighed. She continued to watch Twilight talk with the two unicorns about whatever it was they were working on. “The only names I’ve memorized are the ones of everyone here right now. Well, except hers,” she said, pointing toward the mare in the corner, “but we haven’t really talked since I got here.”
Celestia briefly cast her attention towards the aforementioned mare in the corner, whom was currently twirling her writing utensil with her magic absentmindedly. She wondered for a moment what Crystal was working on, but decided to shrug off the thought for now.
“I must admit, I’m not entirely familiar with Crystal Faire either,” Celestia said, returning her attention to Twilight. “But Twilight trusts her, so I shall as well.”
Yeah, but where the buck did she find her, though? Sunset thought. She shook her head. “So, uh, when did you start teaching Twilight?” Sunset asked, looking to Celestia. “You must have taken her under your wing before I left, since she seems to be pretty close to my age.”
Celestia nodded in response. “I started directly teaching her around a year into your studies. She had caused quite the commotion when she had attempted to enroll in my school. I’m sure you remember the dragon bursting through the roof of one of the seminar halls?”
“That was her? No wonder you took her as one of your students,” Sunset laughed. “You always did prefer to work with the more directly with magically gifted unicorns. Otherwise, we may not have met.”
“Yes, well, I’d like to avoid another incident akin to the ‘Plushening,’” Celestia snickered. “Or the ‘Bramble Tower’ incident.”
Sunset groaned, her cheeks flushed. “Ugh, I was an overconfident foal back then! I thought I could handle- wait, did you just crack a joke?”
“Am I not allowed to find your early exploits in magic humorous?” Celestia asked, laughing. “They were quite funny, in hindsight.”
“Since when did you have a sense of humor?”
Celestia simply smiled. “A lot has changed in these past few years, my little pony.”
* * *
Vice Principal Luna threw open the Main Office door and dashed inside. She shut it behind her, adjusted her shirt, and then sighed. The Main Office lay vacant at the moment so she started for a door across the room; said door had the words Vice Principal emblazoned on it and a small sign to the side of it bore her name.
The door next to that (which had the words Principal) on it opened and Principal Celestia stepped out. Her eyes immediately found Vice Principal Luna. “Sister?”
Vice Principal Luna straightened up and met her sister at her doorway. “Sister, there’ve been some developments.”
Principal Celestia’s brow furrowed and she nodded. “Okay?”
“It would appear that the rest of the school is now aware of Sunset’s condition. It appears that there were witnesses.”
Principal Celestia shuddered and crossed her arms. “And what makes you say that?”
Vice Principal Luna frowned in return. “Well, some of the teachers mentioned conversations they overheard in their classes both today and yesterday but they couldn’t confirm anything.” She paused for a moment to scratch her chin and then continued, “And then, just a bit ago, Harsh just told me that one of the freshman explicitly asked about it.”
“Oh no…” Principal Celestia groaned.
“I started digging into it and even spoke with the Rainbooms. It’s come to light that Trixie Lulamoon had a hand in the affairs.”
After a moment’s thought, Principal Celestia nodded. “Then we will want to talk to her and see what she knows. Maybe she’ll even have some vital clue that will get Sunset her memories back.”
Vice Principal Luna rolled her eyes. “If only it could be that simple,” she said.
A loud clanging sounded through the room and the both of them instinctively looked toward the wall-mounted clock which neared the three o’clock mark. Their ears perked toward the door where they’d soon enough expect to hear locker slams, stomping feet, and energetic conversations.
Vice Principal Luna straightened up. “Anyway, have you had any luck talking to Wallflower Blush?”
Principal Celestia leaned against her still-opened door and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sighed and then sagely nodded. “Wallflower has not been spotted neither today or yesterday. I’ve checked with just about everyone, including her teachers.”
Now Vice Principal Luna crossed her own arms. She opened her mouth to speak but ended up gripping her own forearms instead.
“We still need to hear what she has to say. We need answers,” Principal Celestia continued.
“Yes, I know. Do you think she realizes exactly what she’s done?”
“I think she’s avoiding coming in. So she definitely knows.”
And, sure enough, the muffled sounds of footsteps and conversations made themselves known on the door’s other side.
“We might have to talk to her outside school, then,” Vice Principal Luna suggested.
Principal Celestia looked up and met her sister’s eyes. “That… is certainly an option. We have her address on file.”
“I took a look at the file too. I also did some digging. I believe she has that apartment all to herself.”
Principal Celestia nodded and relaxed her arms. “That’s… that’s good. That means we can talk about it with a bit of privacy.”
“Although,” Vice Principal Luna’s voice lowered, “that also assumes that she would be home when we go.”
Principal Celestia lifted herself off of the door and started toward the front desk, passing by her sister in the process. She hummed thoughtfully and, as she reached the end of the desk, she turned. “That is true. In either case, I think that we—” she pointed between herself and her sister “—should go over there later tonight and see if we can catch her.”
Vice Principal Luna frowned. “Perhaps we should. I suppose that’s the best we can do, given the circumstances. What should we do in the meantime?”
“Well, for now, there is one thing that we can do,” Principal Celestia said as she rounded the front desk and approached one of the devices that sat on it. She pushed a button and then spoke into the microphone. “Trixie Lulamoon, please report to the Main Office.”
* * *
As the sun had already gone down for the day, an array of candles lit the room instead. The dragon Spike stood in one corner, yawning as he shelved some books. And then there was Twilight hunched over a book at one of the room’s other tables. While she had her back to them, the candle on her table had since gone out; Sunset thus assumed that Twilight had fallen asleep over her book.
“So, Sunset Shimmer… what’s it like on the other side of that portal?”
Sunset looked up to find that it had been Sunburst that had asked the question. The previously open book in front of him now lay shut and he, actually, lit his horn and levitated it toward a pile at his side.
Starswirl, who sat to her left and his right, looked up from his own book with a raised eyebrow. In fact, he stared at her.
“The other side of the portal, huh?” Sunset asked again. She looked at both of them and gauged the severity of their expressions. She then turned toward the table’s final occupant who sat on Sunset’s right and Sunburst’s left; Crystal Faire remained writing silently in a notebook. Sunset frowned. “I don’t know…”
“I too am curious to know what it is like over there,” Starswirl said. “I did create this portal, after all. Neigh, I created the link to that world to begin with.”
“I mean, I asked Princess Celestia about it,” Sunburst continued. “She told me that you’ve been living over there for a while. You must know something.”
“That’s a very interesting thing to say considering she doesn’t remember most of it,” Crystal said while flipping one of the pages in her notebook.
A silence passed around the table where the three of them frown. “Uhh… yes,” Sunburst sighed, “that would be a problem…”
Starswirl stroked his beard. “But you were there for a short time between losing your memories and coming back here, hmmm?”
Sunset nodded. “Uhhh, I guess there is that. I just… I don’t know. I don’t know if I should talk about it?”
Starswirl leaned forward.
“Like… I don’t know. Okay. You designed the portal so you’re already in on this,” she said as she pointed to Starswirl. She then pointed at Sunburst, “And you asked, so… you want in on this. But you…” she said as she turned to Crystal.
Crystal looked up from her notebook, raising an eyebrow in the process.
“You’re… a clerk for the city or something like that and I don’t want to open a can of worms on you—”
Crystal smirked. “You would be surprised. This is hardly the first time I have dealt with other realities.”
The entire table went silent again as all three sets of eyes turned toward her. As they leaned across the table, Crystal glanced between them and frowned.
“...You?” Starswirl asked.
Crystal groaned. “Ah, I should not have said that. It is not important.”
“It sounds kinda important,” Sunset interjected. “And kinda cool.”
“It is, but not in any way that would ever be of use to you. And forgive me if I wish to not speak of such things.” Crystal straightened up. “What is important is that you need not worry about refraining from speaking for yourself on my account.” She motioned to the other two and said, “Go ahead. Satisfy their curious minds.”
Eyes turned to Sunset again and she sighed. “Alright. What did I see…?” She thought for a moment and then started speaking about the things she had seen in the school. She described the blocky architecture that she had seen in the neighborhoods and then contrasted that with the bold statements that Canterlot High made. She briefly went into the objects that she had encountered during her time there. She then started on the people that lived there.
“Everyone there walks on two legs,” Sunset explained. “They aren’t like you or me. They’re called… hoomans, I think. And they wear clothes all the time, I guess.”
“It sounds to me like not wearing clothes would be frowned upon over there,” Sunburst said.
“Or straight up taboo,” Crystal suggested.
“I didn’t really mind it, per say, though I guess I have years of experience,” Sunset said, “but… yeah. That was sort of the impression that I got. I mean… if that’s how their society works, then whatever.”
“These hoomans,” Starswirl said as he stroked his beard some more, “it sounds like they have a particular penchant for technology. These automated carriages are especially fascinating. To think that they have that degree of command over magic despite not having horns…”
Sunburst laughed. “Well, certainly, the idea that you can communicate with someone across the world in a instant…”
“And you can carry it in your pocket,” Starswirl added. “Truly fascinating.”
“It kinda looked like they have no idea how our magic works, though,” Sunset said. “The ones I talked to seemed to know of our magic, but that’s probably because they know about me and Twilight.”
There was a moment of pause. “Maybe they use a different kind of magic?” Sunburst asked, turning to Starswirl in particular.”
Starswirl hummed. “Perhaps. While I did form the connection to this place, I never actually traveled there. So I do not know. For all we know, all of their laws of reality may be different, at that.”
“Hmmmm, that is a good point. But… considering that we can travel there and back… that suggests that there is a coupling between the two.”
“You are right. In fact, if we understood the way these two worlds are coupled, an understanding of their magic would follow.”
“Yes.”
“However,” Starswirl continued as he set both of his hooves on the table and leaned forward, “I am personally more interested in the case where the laws of reality are the same.”
Sunset’s eyes flicked between the two and she couldn’t help but giggle.
“Why’s that?” Sunburst asked.
“Well, for practical purposes, of course. There is the immediate technological advancement without the hassle of conversion. And then, of course, their world would provide a nice laboratory to study magic under different conditions, especially if said magic is our magic.”
“Perhaps it would be more prudent to try and replicate such technologies using our own rules of magic, hmmm?” Crystal suggested.
Sunburst threw his hooves into the air. “And miss the opportunity for some intense study on the subject!? Please!”
Crystal snapped her notebook shut. “I can’t imagine the inhabitants of this world would be comfortable with you dropping in and poking around everything.”
“That… would be an issue,” Starswirl said with a groan. “But she is right, however. In fact, I have always made it a point to exercise caution. It would not be wise to muddle with their affairs.”
Crystal scowled and then leaned across the table. “Did you or did you not previously use that world as a dumping ground for all manner of magical creatures and artifacts just like the one we are now putting back together?”
Sunset burst in laughter, even going so far as to repeatedly bang the table. Sunburst, after a brief pause (during which his eyes centered on Sunset), let off a few chuckles.
Starswirl, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes and scowled. “Remind me. Who exactly are you again?”
Crystal raised an eyebrow. “Who I am has nothing to do with you answering my question.”
“On the contrary. Artifacts have been discussed, yes, but creatures have not been. While it is true that I have—”
Crystal smirked. “Thank you for answering my question—”
Starswirl banged the table. “The fact that you asked that question is simply impossible! You should not have known anything about that!”
Sunset’s eyes widened. “Ohhhh, that’s a good point.”
Sunburst folded his hooves together. “He’s right. How did you know that?”
Crystal sighed. “We all have our secrets. If you wish to know why so badly, you can ask Twilight about it. It is her call.”
“And why does she know?” Starswirl asked in a half-hissing voice.
“She knows my secret on account of her helping me once. It was something that, again, is more her call to say than mine. But it was quite important.” As both Starswirl and Sunburst opened their mouths to speak, she shot a hoof into the air. She then sighed. “Listen. Who I am or what I can or cannot do is not relevant. I am here because Twilight needs help. I would be remiss if I could not oblige.”
Sunset sat back in her seat. She thought about the words she had just heard. Even as the other three continued on with their conversation, it was but blurred speech as she focused on Twilight’s sleeping form instead.
She thought about what she had seen from Twilight when they had been at her apartment. She thought about what she had seen over the last couple of days. She thought about how she had seen Twilight act.
And, she thought about it, Twilight had indeed been in this room at every opportunity.
“I am pretty sure that Sunset here is the one that needs help,” Sunburst said.
“Uh,” Sunset suddenly blurted.
Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm?”
“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “She doesn’t look too good if you ask me.”
Four sets of eyes drifted toward Twilight’s sleeping form and then four sets of frowns formed.
“Well,” Sunburst said, “she has been working pretty hard on this.”
Crystal narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
“But Twilight doesn’t usually work this hard,” a new voice said. The four turned to find that Spike had approached the table. “I mean, she works hard, but this is a whole different level than what I’m used to seeing. She’s really working to the bone on this one.”
Starswirl grumbled something under his breath. He then said, in a low voice, “Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw her outside of this room.”
Sunset straightened up. “I saw just thinking the same thing.”
“She hasn’t,” Spike said. “I mean, besides going to the bathroom and, you know… a couple other things here and there. She told me to wake her up if she fell asleep,” He folded his claws together. “I don’t know if I should.”
“I swear that she needs some help too,” Sunset said.
Sunburst frowned. “Well, if she does, it will probably have to wait. Tomorrow makes three days, I think.”
Spike folded his claws together and looked up at Sunset.
Sunset checked on Twilight once more to find that her head had finally hit the pages of her book. She stared for a few moments, thought about a few nights ago once again, and then turned and leaned across the table. “Listen,” she whispered, “when she came over that first night… she stayed at my apartment. And we came over in the morning. But while she was there… I could tell she was pretty upset.”
Crystal sighed and opened her notebook again. “I would not be surprised. Anypony would be upset to learn what had happened to somepony they care about,” she said in a similarly low voice.
Sunset shook her head. “No. This… I think this was more than that. I don’t know. We spent some time rummaging through my apartment to see what we could find. You know, cause I don’t know what’s there or…” She shrugged and chuckled. “I don’t know what’s there anymore. And we ended up finding my diary.”
Sunburst leaned across the table. “Your diary? Did you read it?”
“Not really. By then we had already decided I was going to come over here and try to get my memories back. I read a little bit. But it was all from when I was apparently a really really mean person. Ugh,” she said as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “it sucks knowing I was that way once.”
“Eh,” Spike said, “you really did change after that, though.”
“Either way, she wanted to read it and I wanted to go to bed so I said ‘okay.’ And she did. And so I went to bed and she was sitting on the couch downstairs and… she was reading my diary.” Sunset muzzle twitched and she looked up to see their faces. “And she started crying.”
Crystal looked up, her expression now somewhat pale.
Sunset threw her hooves into the air. “And now she’s obsessing over it. Look at her.”
All of them looked over at the mare slumped over her book. The table sat deathly silent as they considered Twilight’s form. Spike twiddled his claws together and Sunburst tugged at this cloak.
“Say tomorrow comes and goes and we fail,” Sunset said. “Say I don’t ever get my memories back. What does she do then?”
While Spike, Sunburst, and Starswirl exchanged uneasy glances and lost quite a bit of their colors, Crystal sat back in her seat with a blank and somewhat lifeless expression.
* * *
Wallflower Blush had turned off every light in her small apartment, including the one in her bedroom. The evening sun’s rays met the drawn curtains which left her bedroom in a relative darkness. Her laptop screen provided the only real source of light in the room and her eyes remained glued to it.
Now that the initial whirlwind of thoughts had finally subsided, she could focus a little more on things other than what was in front of her. Her room had a lot of wood in it; wooden floors, wooden desk, wooden chair, and even the bed frame was made of wood. She had accented the room with pictures of leaves and even some topiary painted onto the walls. She had needed help with that last one, in particular.
The desk itself sat on the wall opposite the window and a few steps away from the door. She had locked the door to her bedroom despite having the house to herself. Wallflower sat in that chair with a bulky blanket draped over her entirety.
In the internet browser’s top box sat the address for MyStable. Her mouse hovered over the Go button. She breathed in and out and, with a sigh, she clicked. The page changed and showed several boxes, with the one containing the feed in the center.
She wondered if anyone else knew about what happened; what she had done. She had to gather some information. In this case, it would come from the social medialites who accepted her friend request only to boost their numbers; they had no idea who she was.
She browsed through the feed, looking at their recent status updates. While most were the usual fare of minor annoyances and musings on current events and school-related topics (and even the occasional political post), she noted a lack of brightness in their words. She even, occasionally, found some status updates containing cryptic expressions of worry (such as “I sure hope everything turns out alright” and “This weekend felt really weird and it looks like things are just getting started”).
She narrowed her eyes and scrolled up and down the list. Odd. I would have expected to see one of Trixie Lulamoon’s posts on here, she thought. She’s always going on about her latest magic acts. But… she continued scroll down and down, looking at all the names that came up. Trixie’s was not among them.
She… knew what I had been doing. Did she… unfriend me?
Wallflower tapped the desk with one hand and supported her head with the other. Her eyes drew to a search bar at the top of the page. With a twitch of her lips, she navigated her mouse to that bar and typed in Sunset Shimmer. The very first result showed the face of the girl she had once so vehemently hated, looking right at the camera with a wide pearly-white smile across her face. Several other faces (Sunset’s friends, no doubt) poked their way into the frame, but Sunset’s took center stage.
Wallflower saw the posts then. There were well wishes, hoping that she would get better. Most said nothing but one or two made allusions to remembering.
She folded her hands together and laid her head on them. So… it actually happened. Sunset’s memories are gone. Her mind paused as it worked without her knowing. The… my Memory Stone was destroyed. Does that mean… she doesn’t have her memories back yet?
Did I… erase all of her memories forever? Did… did I really do that to her?
Wallflower put one hand back on her mouse and continued scrolling down. There were more and more well wishes and she found herself not batting eyes at these now. But then she reached one post that made her stop. She reached one post that made her heart drop. She looked at the name attached to it: Juniper Montage, a name she didn’t recognize.
It was short and it was simple but it told her everything she needed to know.
Who the hell is wallflower blush?
She shot from her chair so fast that it fell backwards, clattering against the floor. She stood over her screen trying to find her breath again.
Oh my… she thought. They… they know. They all know.
Wallflower jumped again when she heard a knocking. She whirled toward her closed door but immediately concluded that the knocking had not been at that door. Her mind pinpointed the general direction where it had come from. She heard the knocking again.
It was the front door. Who could that be?
Wallflower swallowed. She didn’t want to know.
Despite that, she unlocked her bedroom door and tiptoed into the living room, through that, and into the foyer. The front door of solid wood remained locked shut, but even then, she crept up to it. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach the peep hole, but she looked nonetheless.
And both Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stood side by side on her front porch. Their expressions were studies in sternness, and Luna, in particular, had her arms crossed as if accentuating the darkness across her face. Celestia didn’t appear as bright, either.
“Wallflower Blush!?” Principal Celestia called. “Are you home!?”
Wallflower had to force her mouth shut. They had to be here about the incident. They had to be. And she would have to face them—and the music that came with it—if she revealed herself. No, that couldn’t happen.
She needed it to not happen.
“Wallflower!?” Principal Celestia called again.
Back away! she mentally cried, forcing her legs to take her away from the door. A hand found the wall where she steadied herself in her retreat. She crept further and further backward, even glancing behind her to find her door again.
She heard another sharp banging at the door. It seemed like the house shook with it. She needed to get back to her room. She needed to hide in the darkest corner she could find.
She hand hit the doorframe and she practically hopped inside. She whirled and shut the door—quietly!—and then sprang onto her bed. She pulled the covers all the way over herself and then curled into a ball underneath them. She squirmed when she heard more pounding at the front.
Please… please…
More pounding, another callout, and then silence. Seconds passed. And then more seconds passed. But Wallflower remained curled impossibly tight.
A minute passed and then several more after that.
Wallflower was left to silence and she poked her head from underneath the covers. They had to have left by now, but there was no way she was going to leave the room to check.
She lay her head against the pillow and let out a long sigh. Her heart, however, still beat at a million miles a minute with no sign of letting up. Her mind, too, was a whirlwind. And yet, amidst all of that, one thought came to mind; she thought of what put her at ease. She tried her hardest to center on it in her mind.
And her expression firmed up. There was something she would need to do in order to put herself at ease.
I have to go see my garden, she thought. I have to see it.
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Well, Wallflower Blush is officially screwed.
Big time.
Wallflower has gotten herself into a hole she keeps digging herself into. Avoiding this isn't going to help, especially since Trixie would be able to fill in some of the pieces thanks to the recording Sunset made. And poor Twilight, she's working herself so hard. It's good to see Sunset is adjusting to the situation well and hopefully things will start to look up for her, whether or not she gets her memories back. I can't wait to see what happens next. ^_^
Ooh a lot of interesting developments, also nice new cover art.
If they fail, they must travel to the past and tell the Equestria Girls over the menace, and that menace is Wallflower
Well in theory Wallflower could completely avoid dealing with them...assuming she has enough money to get a new identity and move to a different city. Gonna go out on a limb and say she doesn’t, so yeah she is hosed.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting Trixie to keep her mouth shut on her helping to defeat the latest magical threat.
Also, Wallflower definetely ended up in a major “Be Careful What You Wish For” scenario. She wanted people to know and remember who she is, and now people are going to know who she is because she attacked Sunset, tried to ruin her reputation, and gave her probably-irreversible memory damage for extremely selfishly petty reasons. So now everybody will remember her because they’re going to hate her for that.
I’s also assuming it’s NOT going to be pretty when Celestia, Luna, and the Rainbooms finally find Wallflower.
8992778
And this is exactly why it does not qualify as an AU. The world is not significantly diverged from canon; or, to put this more precisely, the state of the world does not depend on the outcome of Forgotten Friendship. It is incredibly small in scope.
And in reference to your other question, there is some minor Stardancer. I think.
8992783
8993187
I can confirm that there, indeed, is StarDancer. We just haven't hit the point in the story for it to actually really show up.
8992778
I've said previously that the idea of putting the AU tag on this fic is pointless, because it's technically not falling under the fanfiction classification of "alternate universe." In the context of fanfiction, and alternate universe is taking something like... I dunno, Nier Automata, and instead of it being a story about a war between two types of robots, it's suddenly a lovey dovey romance story about androids falling in love. i.e. it changes how you perceive the characters entirely due to the change in atmosphere and characterization, ignoring all stuff that happens in the source material.
All Retrograde is, like most fanfiction, is taking an idea of "what if this happened instead?" and weaving a story around it. Yes, we've interpreted things in the canon differently, but again, all fanfiction does that, yet not all fanfiction needs the AU tag. We aren't changing enough of the canon up to the point of when the story starts to warrant a tag declaring it to be an AU. If you want it tagged that way, then you'd be taking away meaning from the tag, because by the logic you're using, all fanfics should have the AU tag, and that voids the purpose of said tag.
8994496
Not at all. If you write a story about, say, Applejack and Rainbow Dash going to the market together, you're not diverging from canon. If you wrote one where it turns out Shining Armor willingly aided Chrysalis during the invasion and only played at being hypnotised, that would be an AU. This story is much closer to the second than the first.
It's not my story, though. I do believe the choice not to tag it AU is wrong, but it's not the first time I disagreed with the writer's sentiment. I just want to point out the choice is not self-evident from the tagging system's wording.
8993187
Since we are all fighting over tags. While if it needs an AU tag is obviously contentious it definitely does need and OC tag.
8995547
I believe it's impossible to tag more than five characters in total.
8993187
A question, if Sunset lose her memories for ever, what will the humane6 help her?
8995569
Oh! I didn't know. Ok then. Thanks for telling me.
8995576
Don't mention it!
[Edit 6/20]In this post, I made responses and then attempted to shut down discussion on tags by way of deletion of successive comments. This position has since been reversed.
8995248
Per my previous response, the AU tag is reserved for major breaks from canon. The question of Shining's loyalty is not a major break; it is a minor one at best. The proposed scenario would only warrant an AU tag if is led to a status that is far removed from the status of canon.
8995547
Yes, five is the limit.
But no. Disagree. Said OC is not of enough importance to deserve a tag.
8994496
Yes, there is. I speak and type non-committaly. It's a weird habit of mine. There is definitely some shades of StarDancer, but it's low-key and not the focus of the story.
8995623
8995248
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/816207/the-alternate-universe-tag-when-is-it-applicable
I've taken it upon myself to make this blog post as the place to talk about the "AU tag" issue moving forward. This is because:
A) I want to make my position clear on the subject once and for all,
B) Because I think my collaborator's decision to silence the discussion is outright stupid as hell, as I firmly believe he shouldn't be making calls like that in regards to a collab's comment section without consulting his collaborator first.
As of this post, all discussion about the AU tag should be had in that blog entry's comment section. There is no exceptions.
8995547
8996365
8995595
So I was indeed bullheaded in my approach to this conversation. To put this shortly, I panicked. This was due to some number of reasons. As such, I am reversing my earlier statement and opening the comment section again.
I do want to point all parties toward Onyx's blog post as it does go into detail on this issue. It seems some of us are particularly interested in the nuances of tag usage (but I should also point out that excessive tags is an actual problem that some stories have so some tact must be taken regardless), so the blog post will provide some nice springboard for discussion.
In particular, I wanted to restore a comment that 8995576 made (which I deleted as I promised I would do in my previous comment) and also address it with more tact this time.
First, the comment:
And my response:
The reason we wouldn't add an OC tag is that she is not important story-wise. The only reason we've said so much about her in blog posts recently is that her apperance (or, particularly, the way in which she appeared) was contentous and, more importantly, there were significant changes to text. But nonetheless, even if there were no limit to character tags, there are several characters that outrank her in terms of importance; the Principal and Vice Principal, Princess Celestia, not to mention Wallflower Blush is are far more important to the story than she is. Probably Trixie as well.
8996365
8996798
No worries about me, I had no intention of continuing beyond the initial point.
I think you mean 'delude'. Dilute means, basically, to water something down.
8999950
Good catch. 'Tis been fixed!
Oh this is going to be epic!
9000821
Tell me, what will the humane6 do if they don't get Sunset's memories backs
9001695
We haven't yet reached a point where this question need be asked
I hope that princess twilight would destroy wallflower
Loving the new retrograde profile pic
9028278
Ok then i don’t now but it might be because of that certain hallway there in so it would change
If I were Juniper, I'd be wanting to trap Wallflower in my old magical mirror right now; torment the girl who took away one of my friends by means of seemingly-permanent amnesia.
See Wallflower, you didn't only hurt one ex-magical girl, You probably pissed most of them off.
Sunset shimmer Ex-magic crazed Demon
Sci-Twi Ex knowledge crazed Demon
Starlight Glimmer Almost destroyed the world cause of a cutie mark
Juniper Montage Ex Villian not afraid to mess shit up
The Rainbooms
Celestia
THE ENTIRE SCHOOL
The fuck is going on with your comment section my dude
9135913
It's kinda the result of us stumbling on things related in-story content and having trouble effectively and constructively communicating with readers (in other words, we didn't know how to deal with some things that came up). We're being a lot smarter about these things going in, though.
9136144
I'm so confused.
Hurry up and finish so I can read already.
Just what? You're missing a word there.
____________
Well, Wallflower, you started this mess because everyone was ignoring you.
Well they sure as hell aren't ignoring you now, are they? 😈
Well I would definitely say the student body is pissed off royally
Why do I feel like I can't trust Crystal Faire?
10239271
Seems trustworthy I guess, i mean that's twilight trusting someone, trusted sunset, trusted starlight, anyone she thinks is trustworthy is trustworthy