Memory Lost and Found

by BoredAuthor817

Chapter 16

The girls let out a collective sigh as they watched the cop cars and detectives drive away.

“This is bad” Trixie said, “This is real bad.”

“Tell me 'bout it” replied Rainbow, “With Sunset's memories, who knows what Wallflower may be doing.”

“I just got a text off to Twilight, letting her know what's going on.” Rarity said, pocketing her phone. “We just need to make sure our stories are straight.”

“What stories?” asked Trixie, “Barely any of us saw Wallflower yesterday.”

“Yes,” replied Applejack, “but we also gotta make sure ta keep Equestrian magic out of it.”

“I sincerely hope you do.”

The girls jumped around to see Principal Celestia standing over them. She stood tall; arms crossed firmly across her chest. Every student at Canterlot High quickly learned that whenever the principal struck this pose, she meant business. However, there was something a bit off-setting, almost humorous, about seeing their principal in casual street attire.

“Principal Celestia!” Rainbow smiled nervously, “Fancy seeing you here!”

“Unlikely, though, not improbable. Yes, I can think of other things to do on a Saturday. But,” She let out a brief sigh, allowing her posture to drop slightly. “Luna is ever the avid animal lover. And, if I'm to keep peace in office and home, I must indulge her.

“However,” She resumed her stoic attitude. “that is not why I'm here. I assume you know about Wallflower Blush.”

“Who?” Trixie quickly asked. But, a quick eyebrow raise from the principal quickly proved that they could no longer feign ignorance.

“So,” Rarity said, “I can only assume that the detectives spoke with you as well?”

Celestia nodded. “Both Luna and myself.” She let out another sigh and allowed her hands to fall to her sides. “Look, I don't know what has been going on the past week, nor do I want to know. Given that now police are involved, the less Luna and I know, the better.

“Another thing, and they may be unrelated, but Sunset Shimmer's absence may be brought into question. No doubt, Detective Doyle would want to look into the student attendance records. Naturally, a sudden disappearance of another student would draw suspect.

“Again,” she emphasized, “I don't want to know where Sunset is, or what she's doing. All I'm saying is, if you girls want to keep all this as low profile as possible, Sunset Shimmer had better resurface soon.”

---

“Principal Celestia wants us to make Sunset appear” said Rainbow with a mouthful of food, “Short of finding her version in this world and parading her around town, how are we gonna to do that?”

“It does sound like quite the predicament” Twilight's voice came over the speakerphone. Rarity's cellphone sat in the middle of the table in Fluttershy's dining room. Around it, sat six girls enjoying a well-deserved pizza dinner. “In my conversations with Princess Twilight, she has made it quite clear that Sunset is in no condition to make public appearances. Much less, cross the portal.”

Applejack let out a huff. “I suppose even somethin' like a phone call is out was well.”

Rarity shook her head. “That would still involve getting Sunset somehow over here and coaxing her to say the right things.”

“If only there was actual magic here” Trixie mused, “we could just make a duplicate of Sunset.”

“True,” replied Pinkie, “but, according to Sunset, even in Equestria, that rarely turns out well.”

“Maybe, we can create a double...” Twilight sounded thoughtful.

“Woah!” Rainbow cried out, throwing her arms into the air, “Mad scientist alert!”

“Not really” Twilight explained, “Principal Celestia just wants Sunset to make some sort of appearance. From the way you all make it sound, something as simple as a phone call will do.”

Applejack gave a frown. “Did you not hear us just now? There's no way on Earth or Equestria that you can get Sunset Shimmer ta make a phone call.”

“Yes, I can.” When there was silence from those around the table, Twilight continued, “Listen, thanks to the Rainboom's recording sessions, and Sunset's online gaming channel, we have several samples of Sunset's voice. I should be able to input that into a voice synthesizer, so that anything we type will be said in Sunset's voice.”

Fluttershy smiled “Then, all we'd need is Sunset's cellphone!”

“How soon can you get something like that set up?” asked Rarity.

“Depending,” Twilight's voice wavered, “Will take me a day... Probably looking at making our first call Monday.”

Rarity looked around the table. All the other girls seemed to be in agreement. “Sounds like a plan” she said.

“Excellent! We'll be driving back to town tomorrow afternoon, and plan to be arriving late. I'll get as far as I can on the program with what I have. If I need more, I'll let you know.

“Also, I'll need you to tell me who will be picking up Sunset's phone, so I can make arrangements with the princess.”

“You got it!” Rarity smiled. Her finger hovered over the “call end” icon, “We'll text you later.”

“Sounds good. Good-night!”

With the call ended, the girls sat around in silence and nibbled at their pizza crusts.

“So,” Trixie broke the silence, “What now?”

Applejack let out a sigh. “Not real much we can do. Until Twilight comes up with needin' somethin', we're just sittin' here.”

“Well, what about when she's done?” asked Fluttershy, “What are we gonna have Sunset Shimmer say?”

“Good question” agreed Rainbow, “She'd have to explain why she's been missing for the past week.”

“And make it believable” Pinkie added.

“Not only that,” Rarity put a finger to her chin, “It would have to be something that would be hard, or impossible, for the police to confirm.”

Trixie pulled out her notebook and a pen. “Sounds like we've got some writing to do.”

With pens and paper passed around, the girls began brainstorming possible story ideas. However, amidst the creative furry, Fluttershy could not bring herself to write. Instead, she curled herself into a ball and stared blankly at the table. Her withdraw didn't go unnoticed for long.

“Fluttershy,” Rarity said gently, “is something wrong?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I can't help thinking: What if Wallflower is in some serious danger?”

A silence fell over the table. Though none were willing to openly admit it, they were all worried about Wallflower's well-being.

“I'm sure she's fine” Applejack tried to sound consoling. “Even if she weren't, there's nothin' we can do today. It's already dark.”

“Plus,” added Rarity, “the police haven't asked for any help from the community. If we get involved now, it may seem suspicious. The best thing to do is to stay out of it and let Detective Doyle do his thing.”

Rainbow made a special trip around the table to Fluttershy's chair. “Don't worry, Flutters” she said, draping an arm over her friend's shoulders, “Look, chances are, she's not far and is just in the city somewhere. Heck, for all we know, she may be camping out in her garden.”

“That is a distinct possibility” agreed Applejack, “One of us may want to venture over there tomorrow just to be sure.”

“If not,” said Trixie, “then, hopefully, she is of the mindset to come to school Monday.”

Comments

[shadowknightmar]

9101506
Sorry, hard to phrase it. You don’t tell a person who they were right of the bat. They have to slowly discover little things they did since muscle memory and habits don’t tend to go away. Not sure how to explain it.

[diablo4000]

“Again,” she emphasized, “I don't want to know where Sunset is, or what she's doing. All I'm saying is, if you girls want to keep all this as low profile as possible, Sunset Shimmer had better resurface soon.”

.....Wow Principal Celestia has proven to be utterly useless again, and offering nothing but more stress and problems to the mix. WAY TO GO!

[sonicfan05]

9101575

[Queensarrow]

Has it occurred to anyone that Sunset can just use her geode to get her memories back from Wallflower?

[The Shadow]

9102182

Uh, small problem with that is the fact that she doesn’t even realize she has a magical geode. There’s also the fact that we don’t know if she could even access her own memories, since they are so tangled up in Wallflowers. Finally, even if they explained to her about her geode and how it works and she was able to access her own memories and not Wallflowers, she might just dismiss them as some sort of magical fabrication and think that everyone was playing some kind of cruel joke on her.

There are so many things that could go wrong here that it could fill up a book.

[Csquared08]

Great plan, SciTwi. Surely it will go smoothly. Surely.