• Published 11th Jul 2018
  • 9,229 Views, 176 Comments

Memory Lost and Found - BoredAuthor817



Alternate ending to "Forgotten Friendship". The Memory Stone has been destroyed and everyone's memories have been restored. Except for Sunset Shimmer's.

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Chapter 8

Twilight Sparkle flipped through the pages of Sunset Shimmer's journal, silently rereading various passages of Princess Twilight's letter. Around her sat the rest of the Rainbooms and Trixie. Having had read to them the full update on Sunset, the group sat solemnly, contemplatively digesting the new information.

“So, Sunset is, like, an Equestrian teen now?” Rainbow spoke up.

Twilight let out a sigh, closing the journal. “It would appear so.” She leaned against the statue base, sadly; the book hugged close to her chest.

“But, I thought Wallflower was just going to erase our years of high school” pondered Trixie, “That should have brought Sunset back to the point of freshman year, or, to when she first came through the portal.”

“Not exactly” Fluttershy said.

“That's true” added Rainbow, “Flutters and I have been friends since middle school. Fifth grade, wasn't it?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Though, we really got together in sixth.”

“So,” Rarity deduced, “in order for Wallflower's spell to work on you two, it would have had to take memories from roughly three years before high school.”

“Therefore,” Pinkie Pie blew thoughtfully on her bubble pipe, “it took Sunset's memories of not only CHS, but also a little over two years of her time in Equestria.”

“Well, that explains why Sunset is where she is” smiled Applejack, happy to finally get an answer to something. "Still, though, not tellin' Sunset what's up just don't sit well with me."

"I'm sure whatever they're doing, darling," Rarity tried to rationalize, "it is all in Sunset's best interests."

Applejack looked shocked. "Lyin' to her is in her best interests?"

"Maybe it is" Fluttershy gave a heavy sigh, "Maybe Princess Twilight was right. Maybe Sunset Shimmer is gone. We all saw how she was at the Sweet Shoppe. She seemed like our Sunset, but..."

"...at the same time, she wasn't" finished Pinkie.

The farmer threw her hands in the air. "I can't believe this!"

"Do you really think it would do Sunset any good to know she's missing nearly a decade of memories?" asked Rainbow.

That gave Applejack pause. She sputtered silently, opening and closing her mouth, trying to come up with an answer. Eventually, her shoulders fell in defeat. "I dunno..." she said, softly, "But, if it happened to me, I would like to know."

Rainbow folded her arms. "I'll keep that in mind. But, my stance is: As long as Sunset is happy, I don't care what they tell, or don't tell her."

"You really think she's happy?"

Rainbow only shrugged. "You ever hear of ignorance is bliss?"

"You ever hear of honesty is the best policy?"

"So, they tell her. Then what? Sunset walks around, lost to who she is?"

"She already is lost to who she is" Pinkie Pie pointed out, "In fact, she's back to who she was. I'm kinda with Applejack on this one. If we were only talking a few months, maybe I would agree. But, there's no denying Sunset has changed so much that she's not the pony she thinks she is now. She, at least, deserves the right to know."

"But, you're speaking as if you know her" said Trixie, "That's part of the problem, is it not? We don't know this Sunset."

"Doesn't mean we can't try to do right by the Sunset we know" replied Applejack.

"And, if she's gone for good?" She slightly shrunk back. She didn't really want to bring it up, but she felt she needed to bring it up.

"Can we please stop?" yelled Twilight; her voice choked with tears. "I don't want to lose Sunset! Just the idea of it..." She trailed off as more tears fell. Rarity and Fluttershy were quickly at her side.

"It's okay, darling" Rarity said, gently stroking Twilight's hair, "We're all a bit on edge. This whole ordeal has got us quite scared. We just need to have faith in Princess Twilight and her friends, and do all that we can over here."

“But we're still no closer as to finding out what happened to Sunset's memories” Rainbow whined, “And, with Wallflower out again today, I feel like we're losing valuable time.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow. “You think the three-day rule still applies?”

“Believe me,” replied the athlete. She rested her hands behind her head. “We deal with a ton of things that have a three-day deadline.”

“If that's true,” said Pinkie, “then that would make tomorrow the third, and last, day.”

An uneasy air fell over the group as growing sense of urgency suddenly set in.

“Does anyone know where Wallflower lives?” asked Fluttershy.

“No,” Trixie gave Twilight a sly look, “but I'm sure we can find out.”

The look made Twilight fell very uncomfortable. She wiped her nose on a tissue. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“That little geode of yours” Trixie explained, pointing to the gem hanging around the bookworm's neck. “You can open locks with it. You can get us into the school, into the principal's office and school records.”

Twilight jumped to her feet in protest. “I'll do no such thing!”

“And why not?”

“You're talking about” she counted off on her fingers, “breaking and entering, invasion of privacy, possibly theft. I happen to know that they keep all that information on a computer database, so we can add hacking, and... and all sorts of illegal!”

“Now's not the time to play goody two-shoes pious chicken!” Trixie yelled back, “We're talking about your—our—friend here. You don't know what Sunset went through to get your memories restored. She nearly lost you and, now, you're about to lose her. And, even when all seemed lost, she never gave up.

"You owe her this much!”

Twilight took a step back. Her mind pondered as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger. The end result was a sigh. “I just don't like using my geode and power for doing things I know are wrong.”

Trixie looked confused. “But you broke into the school to let me out of the yearbook room.”

“That was... different. I needed to get you out, or you would have been there all night. I didn't have violate anyone's privacy to do it.”

“Look,” Trixie said tenderly, “if it helps, you don't have to look at the files. Just get me in and then the discrete and confidant Trixie will handle the rest.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, please” she muttered.

“I'm gonna have lean with Trixie on this one” said Applejack, “Yeah, what we're doin' is wrong and, if we get caught, we're gonna be in a whole heap of trouble. But, this may be Sunset's only chance. And fer that, I'm willin' ta gamble.”

Rainbow Dash rose to her feet. “You two go on ahead and see if you can find Wallflower's address. The rest of us will stand as your lookouts.”

Twilight and Trixie nodded and turned to enter the school.

“Just one thing before you go” said Fluttershy.

Trixie turned around to find the nature girl with a glowering glare on her face.

“What do you have against goody two-shoes pious chickens?”

---

“I thought she was kidding!” Trixie protested as she and Twilight walked down the hall towards the main office. She rotated and stretched her shoulder. Fluttershy certainly didn't seem like that kind of girl, but she could sure give a mean arm twist.

“Rule number one with Fluttershy:” recited Twilight, “Do not insult the animals.”

“There are rules to Fluttershy?”

Twilight didn't respond. Instead, she fired up her geode and began working the tumblers in the office door lock.

“You know,” Trixie whispered, “this place is really creepy in the dark.”

“I dunno” said Twilight, opening the door, “I kinda like it.”

You would” replied the magician, “You lived in the basement of Crystal Prep for how long?”

“It wasn't the basement” Twilight growled. She sat down at one of the office computers and booted it up. Once the login screen was up, she made a few taps on the keyboard and was soon in.

Trixie's eyes grew wide. “You're a hacking genius!”

“Not really” Twilight gleamed, “I've volunteered in the office a couple of times and have gained the trust of the secretaries. Mrs. Penpoint gave me the password to her computer. One of the perks of being a 'goody two-shoes pious chicken'.” She returned to the screen and opened a program from a shortcut on the desktop. “Okay, so this is the database. For security reasons, the school board IT department automatically resets and issues new passwords every month.”

“Okay...”

“Which means it's probably written down here somewhere. Look for a sticky note, or something.”

“Or, this” Trixie opened the desk drawer and pulled a piece of folded paper from underneath it.

It was now Twilight's turn to be surprised.

“Oldest trick in the book” Trixie shrugged, “Almost to the point of being cliche, actually.” She opened the paper and Twilight typed in the alphanumeric combination.

“Okay,” Twilight stood up from the seat, “my end is done. You take it from here.”

“With pleasure!” Trixie took the chair and began imputing her search parameters. In no time, she found Wallflower's profile and jotted down the listed home address into her notebook. She then quickly logged out and closed out any windows before shutting down the computer. “Okay,” she said, turning to her partner, “Let's get out of here.”

---

Trixie waved her notebook to the other girls as she and Twilight left the school building. They seemed to have understood her signal and began to emerge from their stakeouts.

“You got it?” Pinkie took the notebook and flipped to the address page, “Sweet! And it's not too far from here.”

“Good.” Applejack looked at the time. “It's pretty late as it is, and I'd hate to disturb anyone after dark.”

“Well, it's going on seven” said Rarity, “Hopefully, they're done with dinner by now.”

It was a nice walk in the brisk night air. Canterlot city didn't have much of a night life outside of the downtown on the weekends, so the streets were mostly empty.

Almost as if not to break the sereneness of the still night, the girls walked quietly, engaging only in minimal chitchat.

"Do you really think Wallflower would be able to help us?" Fluttershy asked.

"It's hard to tell" Rarity replied, "Aside from us, she's the only other person who would have any memory of what happened."

"That is," added Twilight, "unless the Memory Stone backfired and took her memories as well."

"I just can't wait to give her a piece of my mind" Pinkie growled. Trixie had told and shown them the video recording made by Twilight's drone. It only made her blood boil. "Going after Sunset like that just because she wasn't noticed? I mean, who does that?"

"Romantic admirers" Rarity replied.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You need to stop reading romance novels."

Applejack fumed. "I just hope Wallflower is pleased with what she's done. If she really wanted to show that Sunset hadn't changed, she sure more than succeeded."

Twilight tried to calm her friends down. "Let's at least try to be civil until we can assess the situation." In looking at them, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and promptly walked into Trixie. Replacing her glasses, she looked up to see that they had come up to Wallflower's residence.

Quietly, they gathered in the enclosed front porch of the two-story craftsman home and Rarity rang the doorbell.

After a while of waiting, Rarity wondered if anyone had heard the bell. There wasn't a car in the driveway, but they could hear what appeared to be the TV from within the home. Just when Rarity was about to try the doorbell again, the front door opened and the girls came to face with a rather elderly man.

“May I help you ladies?” he said.

“Um, yes” replied Rarity, “We're looking for Wallflower Blush. Does she live here?”

“Who is it, Grandpa?” came a girl's voice from within. In a few seconds, Wallflower was standing beside the old man.

“These girls say they're looking for you” said Grandpa, “You know them?”

“Yeah,” Wallflower smiled to the visitors, “they're from school.”

“Oh...” Grandpa nodded, “Well, I've leave you girls to do girl things, then.” He turned and went back into the house.

Wallflower smiled again and gestured for the girls to sit on the seating area on the porch. “I'd invite you in, but Grandpa doesn't like anyone cutting into his Wednesday-night TV.” She closed the door behind her and sat down on a small wooden stool. “So, what brings you here?”

“Well,” Rarity began, “we heard that you've not been feeling well the past few days.”

“And, you just thought you'd check up on me, huh?” Wallflower crossed her arms, “Well, I appreciate that, but I'm just fine, really. I've been experiencing some headaches and Grandpa thought it best if I stayed home. That's all. I'll be back in school tomorrow.”

“Oh, that's good” Fluttershy smiled.

“But,” Wallflower raised an eyebrow, “I suspect you're here for more than just a wellness check.”

The silence out of the other girls only proved Wallflower right. A sadness fell over her. “This is really about Sunset Shimmer, isn't it?”

Again, silence.

Wallflower let out a sigh. “Look, I'm really sorry about what happened. I'm just as shocked and confused as you are."

"We were hoping you could give us some more details from that night" said Trixie, "Anything you may have seen that we may have missed."

"I'm sorry. I have no further answers for you. I told you everything in the parking lot.”

“It has been a few days,” Applejack coaxed, “has nothin' new come to mind regardin' the stone? Or, maybe somethin' you thought strange from that night?"

"Maybe it did something different from the other times you used it” added Rarity.

Wallflower only shook her head.

“I know this may be hard” said Twilight, placing a gentle hand on Wallflower's shoulder “But, we would appreciate it if you could try to remember about Monday night. If you remember anything, please let us know. It may help us find out just what happened Sunset's memories.”

“I'll do my best” Wallflower nodded, “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some chores to do before I can go to bed.”

After bidding Wallflower good night, the girls decided to hit the Sweet Shoppe for some much-needed liquid comfort.

“Was it just me,” Pinkie said, as they walked, “or was Wallflower acting really strange?”

“We've only just met the girl,” Applejack replied, “We don't really know what 'strange' is for her”

“...or what 'normal' is either” finished Twilgiht.

“She did seem a bit more assertive and confident” commented Rarity.

Rainbow scoffed. “That's nothing. You should see Fluttershy at her house.”

“Excuse me?” asked Fluttershy, “What are you talking about?”

“Just sayin'” Rainbow shrugged, “You're a different person in your home than in the world.”

“Well,” said Trixie, trying to sound optimistic, “we'll see how Wallflower is at school tomorrow.”

Author's Note:

Special thanks to Supernova2015 for the thought.

Take care, y'all.