Down the Memory Hole

by chris the cynic

Before it all went wrong

With all the pictures spread around the yearbook office, it was probably natural that they all started reminiscing. That, however, didn't excuse Sunset bumping into someone because she got overly enthusiastic. She said a quick, "Oops," to the green girl.

"Excuse me," the girl whispered.

It wasn't her fault, so Sunset said, "I'm sorry." Besides, she was in the yearbook office to do a job, and that job did not involve ignoring the people who came to the yearbook office. "I didn't see you come in," she said.

The girl looked at the floor and said, "I've been here a while."

Ok, that was bad. Sunset started to apologize, "I didn't realize--" and didn't even make it to the apology.

"I've been trying to get your attention."

And now Sunset felt terrible.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn't help.

Applejack said, "Ain't she a quiet one?" completely missing that Sunset should be there for everyone no matter how quiet.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, "and we know some pretty quiet people," she looked at Fluttershy, "am I right?"

At other times Sunset might have commented on teasing Fluttershy, but making it about them was the exact opposite of what they should be doing. This girl was obviously here for a reason, and so far she'd just been bumped and, however accidentally, ignored.

Sunset tried to start from the top, introductions usually helped, “I’m Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “I'm President of the Yearbook Committee and editor in chief. How can I help you?" No response. Sunset felt like Wallflower should be on the Yearbook Committee, though she had no idea where the feeling had come from. She decided to go with it and asked, "Did you want to join?" If the answer were, 'No,' they could always move on from there.

Still no response.

"We could always use more help," Sunset offered.

"I'm Wallflower," the girl said, still looking at the floor.

"Nice to meet you," Sunset said.

"I've been on the Yearbook Committee all year."

Wait.

What‽

That didn't make sense. Sunset would have had to have seen her for ages. Countless meetings. This girl should be fixed in her memory, burned in by interacting time after time after time. Sunset searched her memory, and couldn't find anything. How could she have been so callously oblivious?

Sunset knew she had to say something, and tried, "Oh . . ." twice: "Um . . ."

"We've had literally dozens of classes together since we met in ninth-grade English," Wallflower said, and Sunset was afraid the girl might start crying.

Sunset probed her memory but didn't recognize Wallflower at all. There was just this fuzzy feeling of familiarity and a strange sense of deja vu.

That wouldn't help Wallflower. Clearly this was a time for lying.

"I-- I meant that it was nice to have met you then, which . . ." when had she gotten so terrible at lying? Well, she couldn't stop in the middle of a relative clause. She said,". . . is also when I remember us meeting," and somehow had it come out like a question.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, as if Sunset had accomplished anything there.

Wallflower just sighed and said, "Anyway, I counted up all the votes for the yearbook Superlatives," and handed Sunset a piece of paper.

There was just more train wreck here. Sunset should remember either assigning that task to Wallflower or giving it to Wallflower when the girl had volunteered. She remembered neither. And yet . . . if she hadn't done it then she would still think of it as something that needed to be done. She didn't and she hadn't.

It was like she remembered the idea that she gave someone the job without remembering actually giving it to someone.

It was like she'd ripped Wallflower right out of her memories.

What was going on with her? How could she forget an entire person?

Still, there was work to do, she read off the winners of the Superlatives. There was a welcome bit of joy when she saw that she and her friends had been voted Best Friends, even if she felt like the category was kind of screwed up. What about Vinyl and Octavia? What about Lyra and Bon Bon? Did their friendships matter any less?

Pinkie Pie interpreted it in a very Pinkie Pie way, I always knew I liked you all, but now it's official! The people have spoken!"

Doubtless there was a party in their future.

"Oh, good for for Micro Chips," Twilight said in a way that sounded forced. "Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion."

Sunset felt a headache coming on. It was traditional for each Yearbook Committee President to write a letter that would be given to the next. She was going to have to put, in bold and underlined, "Don't allow write-in Superlatives."

Fluttershy was more focused on the here and now, and tried to comfort Twilight, "Don't be jealous," she said. "We all know you're a genius too."

"Besides," Rainbow Dash said, "it's just the yearbook.

Sunset heard Applejack grumble, "Now ya dunnit," but didn't care. If Rainbow Dash insisted on provoking her then she'd keep making the argument.

"Just the yearbook‽" Sunset said with Rarity-level flair. "The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gather memories into the pages of this book. Why? Because in thirty years we might not remember everything, but we'll always be able to look at the yearbook and remember what it chronicles. The year book is how we know --how we make sure-- that what we've shared will never be forgotten."

Sunset thought she heard something, but it was too soft to know what it was, she was going to try to locate the source but other things came up. Like Rainbow Dash responding that she was 'entrusting' Sunset not to put Best Friends opposite Biggest Muscles because then when the book closed it would, so Rainbow Dash claimed, be like they were all kissing Bulk Biceps.

That led to discussion about where to take their picture, and that segued nicely into Trixie bursting in, furious, and demanding to speak to the editor. Trixie hadn't, precisely, sworn vengeance on Sunset and the others after the Battle of the Bands, but she had definitely been the only one who remained antagonistic towards them after the Siren's magic was dispelled and the world was saved.

It was, as a result, always a unique experience dealing with Trixie. And of course she wanted to see the editor.

"Unfortunately for me," Sunset said, "that's me. How can I help you, Trixie?"

Trixie noticed the list of Superlatives and snatched it away. "Just as I expected. I am not being included as the Greatest and Most Powerful! Explain yourself!"

"Is that actually a category?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, it is not," Twilight said.

Trixie then practically skipped across the room, pulled a recent yearbook from the archive shelves, and opened to a page Sunset knew very well.

"Neither was 'Biggest Meanie'," Trixie said as she showed everyone the page, "but that didn't stop Sunset from getting that title."

Sunset made a mental note. In her letter to the next President of the Yearbook Committee, in all caps, bold, and double underlined: "Don't allow write-in Superlatives."

"That was different," Applejack said. "The whole school did a write in campaign.

Thank you, Sunset thought with as much sarcasm as her internal voice could muster.

"The editor had no choice but to make it official," Rarity chimed in.

"Sunset won Biggest Meanie fair and square," Rainbow Dash said.

Helping so very much.

Even Fluttershy contributed with an, "Mmm-hmm."

And, of course, Pinkie Pie had to cap everything off in epic style, "She was soooo mean, remember?"

"Hopefully that's not how I'll be remembered," Sunset said.

"Of course not," Twilight said, giving Sunset a pat on the shoulder. "Everyone who knew you then knows you've changed, and there are plenty of people like me who only met you after you'd already changed."

"Anyway," Sunset said, "this isn't about me. Trixie, we're not having a 'Greatest and Most Powerful' Superlative. Sorry."

"You'll be sorry," Trixie said. "When you least expect it the Great and Powerful Trixie will have her revenge and then she'll disappear before you can strike back! Like this!"

Smoke bomb. There was always a smoke bomb.

When the smoke cleared, though, it didn't take Pinkie Pie to spot where Trixie was. She was fighting the door to the Yearbook Committee room.

"The lock tends to stick, Trixie," Sunset said. "Allow me." Sunset opened the door. "It's closing time anyway."

First Trixe ran away in a huff. Then others did. When the doorway was empty again, Sunset hit the lights and left.

Author's Note:

I wanted to get this out there before the special aired, you can see how well that worked out.

The point, however, is that this is based off the prose, not the animation. In fact, even though the special has come and gone I still haven't seen the part of the animation that this corresponds to. I only managed to catch the very tail end of the special.

Comments

[Galaxy of Equestria]

Retelling of "Forgotten Friendship"/"A Friendship to Remember"
This is lazy writing at it finest! Just tell what happened in the show.

[chris the cynic]

8741825
It's already different, and will become moreso. The special did a fair amount of tell not show, for example. Mixed in with "Tell, but show something that contradicts it." Not planning on doing either.

[chris the cynic]

8741825
Or, to take a different approach:

This is lazy writing at it finest! Just tell what happened in the show.

At its finest? Woo! I have achieved perfection. I wonder if I could expand into other areas. Maybe I could retell what people said in comments, with the same fast and loose style I used to adapt this story, of course. Let's start with yours.

You have earned a place in my Hall of Fame of Shame by being so lazy as retell what happened in a TV special that already had a novelization.

I have tried to attain absolute laziness for years, devoted countless hours to finding the precise minimum effort necessary to do things, and as a three-time World Laziness Champion I proclaim this act, telling a different version of the events depicted in the show, to be the absolute finest that lazy writing has to offer.

Wallflower Blush looked at the description and decided she wasn't even going to read the story before leaving her review. Ever since "A Friendship to Remember" had been published on December 5th of the previous year she had been constantly harassed by people who thought they knew her, and deemed her a monster for trying to destroy relationships by erasing memories.

Then came the animated version that completely failed to capture what it had been like for her to be completely invisible to the world for years on end, forgotten as soon as she was out of sight, always ignored, never acknowledged. As if the fact she'd been unheard, unnoticed, and unpersoned didn't matter.

Now someone was doing yet another version, this one using the novel and the animated version?

Why couldn't this "chris the cynic" girl just write her own damn stories? Why did she have to retell the already twice told tale of Wallflower's lowest point?

It was laziness. That's what it was.

Wallflower logged into her account, Galaxy of Equestria, and copied the relevant section of the story description, pasted it into the comment box, didn't use the quotation function (because she was a rebel, damn it!), and quickly punched out her message: "This is lazy writing at it finest!" (only boring people used pronoun declension, everyone else could tell from context whether it was meant to be nominative, possessive, or a contraction of "it is") and considered leaving it at that.

After some thought, she decided to add, "Just tell what happened in the show." True, she didn't know if the author had even seen the show, the book had been out for a lot longer, but it would take away from the cutting nature of her statement if it read, "Just tell what happened in the show and/or book."

Her work done, she hit "Post Comment" and moved onto other things.

Oh, what if I retell the comment in the style of epic poetry, as it would be composed if made by a pair of people who had been thrice displaced in the multiverse and don't like each other very much? Dactylic Hexameter means I don't even have to decide how many syllables are in a line on my own. And I don't have to think for myself because I'm doing it in the style of others.

Would that be even finer lazy writing?

[Uria the Sacred Beast]

8742904
Jesus christ.
Remind me never to piss you off

[HelgaButtercup]

8742904
Oh my gawd that answer is gold xD

[Ariel Schnee]

Why does Wallflower Blush remind me of Taylor Hebert?