Memory Lost and Found

by BoredAuthor817

Chapter 20

Celestia awoke refreshed. She gently lifted her head and glanced around the bedchamber. She was in a different room from Sunset's. It was about the same size, but different layout. The curtains had been drawn to shut out most the light to allow for a better sleep. Though, a small amount of sun was allowed through. The angle of the light filtering into the room alerted her to the time of day.

She slowly slipped off the bed onto the floor. Once free, she shook off and stretched her joints. She had no idea exactly what Luna did to her, but she was very grateful.

With another stretch, she left the room and made her way down the hallway. As she walked down the stairs to the main floor, she encountered Twilight on her way up. The former student's expression indicated she wanted to talk. They stopped with a few steps between them. Celestia slouched, averting her student's gaze.

Twilight released a long, hard sigh. "I see no point in telling how upset I am with you. It's clear you already know. Let me just leave you with some advice you once gave me: You have a lot to think about."

Celestia only fell further.

"At any rate,” Twilight continued, “glad to see you're awake. I thought you'd sleep the whole day. Seems to be a theme around here today.”

Celestia cocked her head. “Really? Where are Moondancer and Sunburst?”

“In their rooms, sleeping. I hope. They've been working on this nonstop since yesterday and I didn't want them to run themselves rugged. Starlight just went to bed herself.”

"What of Sunset?"

“Twilight!” dual voices cried out.

Twilight turned in the direction of the voices to see two mages galloping down the hall, levitating papers trailing behind them. “What's all this?”

“We've done it!” grinned Moondancer, “We've cracked the coded code!” She placed several papers at the princesses' feet. Each sheet filled with text and drawings.

“Look here,” Sunburst pointed to various portions of the notes, “it's an activation for a spell of some kind. We think it's to the spell infused in the scroll!”

Twilight's whole body drooped. “You two didn't get any sleep, did you?”

“Oh, quite the contrary,” the stallion pushed up his glasses, “we've had quite the night's sleep.”

“But, how did you...?”

“Princess Luna was kind enough to give us a shared dream" Moondancer explained, "by which, we could work on this while our bodies rested.”

“Efficient...”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Moondancer pulled Twilight with her magic, “Starlight and Spike are already in the library. Let's go!”

---

The doors to the library opened to reveal Starlight and Spike preparing for a ritual of sorts. Starlight was finalizing a spell circle just as the group stepped in.

Twilight looked around the room. Everywhere, were hung papers with various spell diagrams and circles.

“Well,” Starlight smiled, putting the chalk away, “that's the last of it. You filled her in?”

“Pretty much” nodded Moondancer.

“I'm still a little fuzzy” Twilight replied.

“It's simple” Starlight smiled. She wrapped a hoof around her mentor and ushered her around the room, beginning with the original parchment. “We know there is a spell infused with the Memory Stone Scroll. The coded message on the back tells us how to activate it."

"Turns out," Spike added, "it wasn't a message written in Old Ponish, or a spell. It was a whole list of them!"

Starlight nodded. "Technically, it was a collection of spells, diagrams, and the instructions to set them up.”

“That's about as far as I got" Twilight said, "But, what are we activating, exactly?”

“That's the fun part” pranced Sunburst, “We don't know!”

“Just consider it an adventure!” Moondancer quipped.

Uncertainty churned within Twilight's stomach. Not that she was adverse to an adventure. Rather that, now, they didn't seem to have the luxury for such things. Plus, in the past when things like this happened, they almost always didn't end well. “You sure about this?”

Sunburst shrugged. “About ninety-nine percent.”

Twilight swallowed. Despite the one percent uncertainty, she was still satisfied and wholly trusted her friends. Still, that did not prevent the butterflies from fluttering within her as she took her place in the spell circle.

Celestia and Spike took shelter in a corner of the library. Not entirely sure how the spell would work, it was decided to have them observe and, if necessary, intervene.

Twilight took in a deep breath, summoning the magic she needed. To her side, she heard Sunburst begin the spell. Starlight and Moondancer followed not far behind. Focusing her strength, Twilight performed her part, activating her portion of the circle.

Almost instantly, she felt a magical feedback. She felt it flow back through her horn, down through her body, out her hooves and into the circle. Though it seemed awkward to have the magic flow backwards, there was nothing about it that told her something wrong. It was only the fact that it was a steady current that told here everything was fine. Twilight grit her teeth, pushing herself further into the spell. She closed her eyes tightly as she felt the magic build. With one final surge, her vision turned to white.

When Twilight opened her eyes, she was no longer in the library. With her were Starlight, Moondancer, and Sunburst, each equally as confused as her.

Sunburst took a few steps backward, bringing himself closer to the others. “Wha... What happened? What is this?”

The mares were trying to discern the same thing. They scanned their new environment, examining every detail. They appeared to be in some sort of swamp. Wherever they were sent to, they had landed in a small circular clearing. Beyond that, was a dense forest.

Eventually, Moondancer broke away from the pack. “Did... did we just get transported somewhere?”

Starlight looked about the clearing. With her preferred mode of transportation being teleportation, she had come know quite well the signature of a teleport. She knew well that one so large as to transport four grown ponies over a vast distance would have left quite a bit of residual magic. Yet, in her examinations, she found nothing. With no evidence of a teleport, it meant the only other explanation. “...I think the question is not as to where, but to when.”

“No” Twilight said thoughtfully. She ran her hoof through the trunk of a nearby tree. As expected, it swept right through with no resistance. “We're having a vision of some kind.

“I experienced something similar a few years ago when Zecora gave me a potion that allowed me to witness the night Princess Celestia banished Princess Luna to the moon.”

Two bespectacled ponies' jaws dropped. “What?” In an instant, they had descended upon the alicorn princess.

“Oh,” Moondancer said, pressing a hoof firmly into Twilight's chest, “we are talking about this later.”

Sunburst was quick to agree. “We are so talking about this later.”

Starlight couldn't help but laugh. “Okay,” she said, “so, then, where and when are we?”

Twilight shrugged. “No idea.”

The ponies jumped when they heard rustling in the forest.

“Someone's coming!” Moondancer yelped in a loud whisper. She quickly sought for a place to hide. Starlight and Sunburst were looking a little uneasy themselves.

“It's okay” Twilight calmed her friends, “Whoever it is, they can't see or hear us. They can't even touch us. Remember when my hoof went through the tree?”

The noises became louder before a unicorn stallion jumped into the clearing. He looked over his shoulder and around the clearing to be sure he was alone.

They watched intently as he reached into his bag and pulled out a scroll, which he laid out on the ground.

“Wait a minute," Sunburst stood erect, "isn't that...?”

“...the Memory Stone Scroll.” Twilight's eyes narrowed.

Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "But, it seems incomplete."

The stallion then pulled from his bag a quill and ink. Hastily, he wrote on the scroll till, finally, he let out an exhaustive sigh. Putting away the writing tools, he took out a smooth, round stone.

Twilight's eyes lit up.

Placing the stone atop the scroll, the stallion's horn ignited, causing the stone and scroll to also light up. Lightning began to spark from items.

Suddenly, the light in the clearing faded. A heavy wind blew in. In the sky, black clouds gathered.

Despite being in no danger, the four friends still huddled together. Around them, it looked like the beginnings of a mighty thunder storm. The wind became stronger. It kicked up leaves and loose dirt and threw them around. In glee of its destruction, it howled. Answering the wind's call, the trees circling the clearing joined in and swayed in a ritualistic dance.

It became so loud, Starlight and Moondancer had covered their ears. Sunburst was about to do the same until he heard it. A voice in the wind. He nudged Twilight. The look she gave him told him that she had heard it, too.

Twilight pointed to the enchanter, and Sunburst was a little perplexed, until he noticed the lips. Then it all made sense. It was the stallion's voice he was hearing. He was chanting the spell. Immediately, Sunburst focused on the incantation, trying to decipher every word.

Suddenly, a bright light emitted from the scroll. It filled the area and exploded in a clap of thunder. In an instant, the storm as gone and all was calm.

There was a brief moment of silence before the air was filled with a female's laughter. “Stupid fool! I knew you could finish it!”

"If only to put an end to you" the male growled.

The group turned to eye the newcomer. She was a tall, slender unicorn, with sinister grin spread across her face.

"We'll just see about that" she said. With a charge of her horn, she sent a blast towards the stallion.

He skillfully dodged the magic bolt and threw up a shield. "Is that the best you've got?"

"Says the pony who put up a shield instead of firing back!" She charged her horn and released another blast. It took out the stallion's shield and a second round of fire pummeled him into the dirt.

The mare tsked as she surveyed her opponent. "I had expected so much more of a fight from you." She picked up the stone he had dropped and inspected it. “Very nice” she smiled, “Now, to see if you work.”

The stallion pushed himself up into his haunches with a low, painful growl. "You won't get away with this."

She only smiled as she closed her eyes and focused.

Twilight watched wide-eyed as the stone began to glow. A moment later, the stallion let out a cry of anguish as a long ribbon emerged from his head and floated the stone, where it was absorbed.

With the last of the ribbon from him, he fell back to the ground, exhausted.

The memory collected, the sorceress laughed in triumph. Though, she was quickly stopped by a voice calling out from among the trees.

“Barley? Barley!” A third unicorn jumped out of the forest and ran to inspect his friend in the ground. He wore a green, tattered cloak. But, his most distinguishing feature was his cutie mark.

Moondancer's jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh!” she cried, jumping onto Sunburst, “That's Clover the Clever!”

Sunburst proved to be equally as excited as he exclaimed, “I know, right?”

"Then..." Twilight mumbled, "that would make her..."

"By Star Swirl's beard!" Clover demanded, "What have you done to him?"

"Only what you would have had done to me!" the sorceress sneered. "And, now, to deal with you."

Clover stood his ground, but it proved useless. In a short matter of time, she had collected his memories as well. Clover fell, immobilized, next to his friend.

With nopony left to stop her, the sorceress picked up Barley's bag and disappeared into the forest.

Clover was the first to arouse. He let out a shout when he saw his friend lying beside him. "Barley?" he shook him, "Barley! Come on, wake up!"

"Steady on!" the other unicorn groaned, "Who is this Barley fellow?"

"Barley," Clover chided "now is no time for jokes."

"Who's joking?" he grumbled, "And who is Barley?"

A great wave of fear and concern washed over Clover. "Why, you're Barley..."

Just then, the whole world turned to white and Twilight found herself back in her library. She shook off the residual magic and glanced around at her friends. Starlight looked a little exhausted, but gave a smile that she was okay. Sunburst and Moondancer, however, were bursting with exhilaration. From the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Princess Celestia and Spike coming towards them.

“Everypony okay?” Spike asked, quite worried, “Your eyes all went all white and glowy for a second then everything died.”

“Yes,” Twilight smiled, pulling her assistant in for a hug, “we're just fine.”

“You know what just happened?” Sunburst asked.

Moondancer grinned widely. “Do you know what just happened?”

Sunburst's excitement escalated. “I think I know what just happened. I'm asking you what just happened to confirm that what I think just happened really happened.”

“Well,” Moondancer rose to meet Sunburst, “if you think what happened is what I think happened then:”

The two jumped in unison: “We know how to make a memory stone!”

“More than that,” added Twilight, turning to her mentor, “I think I know how it works.”

Author's Note:

We're in the final stretch, folks.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

So... Does this mean Sunset will be back to her unreformed self?

[TruePoindexter]

Enjoying this one a lot - please finish it!

[Csquared08]

Okay. ...Huh.