Spring
Slowly waking up, the first thing I saw was a white ceiling until a familiar face appeared.
“Wallflower, you’re awake!” my mother exclaimed happily, taking me into a hug. “I was so worried for you!”
Before I could take in what had happened, my mother already detached herself from me and bombarded me with questions.
“Mum,” I murmured, hoping that she’d stop, but she didn’t.
“Are you hungry? You must be! My poor, poor sweetheart, why did you only run away? I asked every student you knew about you, but you weren’t anywhere. Did that fever come from the storm? Why didn’t you take more warm clothes with you?”
I sighed quietly and focused on recalling how I got here, as she left me no time to answer any questions anyway.
Someone probably found me as I was becoming sick. Even now on this soft mattress that felt like a cloud given from heaven, I felt awfully tired and cold. Sniffles flew down my nose, but luckily I saw a box of tissues next to me and reached for it.
“Here, let me help you,” my mother stopped in her flood of questions and took it. Holding it on my nose, she said, “Blow.”
If not for my state, I would have ripped the napkin away from her and used it appropriately myself, but I followed her order and freed my nose.
“Oh, dear Wallflower,” my mother wailed. “My poor, poor child.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, my voice hoarse.
“No, Wallflower, it’s me,” my mother replied, taking my hands. “If only I could see how my gossip made you detach from your friends, how you isolated yourself, how—”
Shaking my head, I interrupted her. “No, Mom, it’s all my fault. I was the one who overused the Memory Stone. I was the one who ran away…”
Tears welled up in my mother's eyes as her lips formed into a smile before she took me once again into a hug.
At that moment, I couldn’t contain my emotions anymore and hugged her back. Seeing how much she took care of me now, how happy she was to see me, it made me realise that she indeed had that motherly love for me that the fairy had told me about, and that her warning me about the students was also showing her love—in a strange and warped way, but it was still her love.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked her.
“Busy with paperwork,” she replied. “But he’ll come soon.”
I nodded slowly, gathering my courage to meet him.
“How did he take it? I mean, me running away…”
My mother chuckled softly. “He remained calm for me. You can’t imagine what panic I felt.” She sighed and looked out of the window. “But even in my panic, I saw how scared he was for you. Sure, he was also angry at you for leaving us in this mess—child protection services got in contact with us—but he guessed that you wouldn’t return on your own.”
I bit my lips, ashamed of how true this statement was.
“But you’re back now,” my mother continued, “and that’s all that matters.”
Principal Celestia’s raised eyebrow only showed slightly what she was thinking when I had told her everything. Was it doubt? Or was she judging me for how low I had let myself fall?
“That’s quite a story,” Celestia said and reached for a folder behind her. “And you found that stone behind the school’s parking lot?”
“Yes, in the garden of my garden club,” I replied.
“You seemed to have erased a lot of memories of you. I don’t recall having approved the garden club—” She opened a page from the folder. “—four months ago.”
“I, um,” I rubbed my arm, “erased your memories of it because it was awkward that I wanted to form it alone.”
“I see. Now, about Trixie…” Celestia looked me deep in the eyes, making me uncomfortably worried. “I can’t imagine how such a nice girl would steal that stone.”
My eyes widened. “But Principal Celestia—”
Celestia raised her hand, interrupting me. “I can understand how that might be her having used that Memory Stone. She had been acting strange in the last few days, and your story would fit a lot of puzzle pieces together.
“However, I don’t have the power to do anything without any evidence or an investigation, but would you want me to call and interrogate her?”
I shook my head. “The stone is way too powerful.”
“That’s what I thought,” Celestia responded. “I’m gonna believe you, but only because I don’t remember seeing you despite you being on the yearbook’s committee for years. We’d run the risk that she’d use it not only on me, but also you. Do you have any suggestions on how to approach it?”
A sigh of relief escaped me. Celestia believed me—or at least considered the Memory Stone being real.
“I’ve taken notes at home and my parents know about her,” I explained. “It’s the only way to not forget. My first approach would be figuring out where she hides the Memory Stone and coming up with a plan to separate it from her.”
Celestia nodded in agreement. “Sounds good. You should also get the Rainbooms involved as soon as possible; they have experience in magical incidents.”
Pressing my lips together, I didn’t reply. It had already taken enough courage to walk into the Principal’s office, but now also ask for help from those I had stolen their geodes from?
“I strongly suggest you consider talking to them, at least,” Celestia said, “but do as you think is best and keep me in the know. You’re free to go.”
I stood up and was about to leave the room, but before I touched the doorknob, Celestia added, “And Wallflower, if you think about using that Memory Stone again for yourself—”
“I won’t,” I interrupted her, my voice firm. “I broke enough of my life with it, and I won’t repeat that mistake again.”
Finding a loud, exuberant magician turned out harder than I imagined, which made me more and more anxious. Wasn’t Trixie always craving attention? There was no way that one wouldn’t notice her appearance in the cafeteria!
As I was looking out for her, I didn’t notice a student sitting at my table and her waving a hand before me.
“Hey, um,” Mystery said, scratching the back of her head.
“Wallflower Blush,” I replied politely.
Mystery blinked. “Yeah, the name checks out. Have we met before?”
I nodded, getting anxious about what she’d say next.
“Strange, it’s like my memories of you are completely gone. Like, you were at my previous birthday parties and I still have photos with you of them, but…” Mystery trailed off, eyeing me up as she visually tried to recall any memories of me.
“It’s a long story,” I chuckled nervously. “But oversimplified, it was my fault using some sort of magic. If you wish, we could talk later about it because I’m a bit busy right now.”
“Oh, sure!” Mystery replied cheerfully. “If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask me!”
I smiled. I didn’t realise how much I’d actually missed her. She was too talkative, but her helpful side was something I had always appreciated. Even now, seeing how Mystery gave me a chance to start over with the friendship filled me with such joy that I would’ve hugged her weren’t it for my mission—and of course how it would be weird for her.
Speaking of my mission, I noticed Trixie at the counter taking her food and heading straight out of the cafeteria. Surprised by her action, I left my tray and followed her.
Keeping my distance so as to not be seen, I noticed something strange about her. Were it not for her typical blue outfit, I might not have recognised her: Her head and shoulders were lowered, her walking pace slow with her feet barely rising from the ground. The complete opposite of the overconfident Trixie.
Why was she distancing herself from everyone? This was too unusual for her.
As Trixie walked around a corner, I silently walked along the wall and followed, only to yelp in surprise when I saw her standing before me.
“And why are you following Trixie, fairy?” Trixie asked me threateningly and waved the Memory Stone before my face. “Want this back?”
Slowly raising my hands in the air, I took a few steps back. The first time I saw Trixie and I already failed at keeping myself hidden from her.
“You knew about this, didn’t you?” Trixie asked me, clenching her free hand. “You knew what it would do to Trixie?”
“Do… what?” I responded, tilting my head.
“Make everyone forget me!” she shouted and threw the Memory Stone at me. It happened so fast that I could only move my head to the side to evade it.
I didn’t dare to turn around and pick the stone up. Trixie’s eyes watched my every move with a murderous look, and her breath was loud and quick.
“Um…” I stammered, searching for the right question to not further enrage her. “What exactly did everyone forget about you?”
“Everything!” Trixie yelled and moved towards me, pointing her finger at me. “No one remembers me as a magician. No one remembers me speaking in the third person. As soon as I act like I always acted, they look at me strangely and ask why I’m acting so crazy!”
I gulped and walked backwards until I reached a wall. Trixie didn’t stop approaching me until we were standing face to face.
“When I saw you crying back in the garden, I thought it was you being pathetic. Now I know that it was the stone doing this to you. I despised you back then, but now…”
She trailed off, finally stepping back and looking to the side.
I didn’t dare to say anything, but I could figure out what happened. Trixie used the Memory Stone to erase anything negative about her, but due to her obnoxious behaviour whenever she played her “magician’s role,” people forgot exactly that part of her.
Now, she was just a normal girl for everyone at this school.
“Trixie did a magic show during the weekend,” Trixie said, her voice almost too quiet to be heard. “She used the stone to erase any trick that wasn’t perfect in her eyes. At the end, the spectators walked back home without a single memory of her performance.” She hid her face in her hands, but couldn’t hide her sobbing.
A wave of pity came over me for her. If there was someone who could understand her, it was me. I was less attention-seeking than her, so if me being a nobody hurt me so much that I clung to the fairy role no matter what, how devastating must it have been for Trixie that her stage persona had been forgotten?
Not knowing what else to do, I stood awkwardly next to her. Should I place a comforting hand on her shoulder? Should I say something to her? Or should I take the Memory Stone while I still could?
“Do you know how to reverse it?” Trixie asked me suddenly, wiping away her tears. “Please tell me you do.”
Pressing my lips together, I shook my head slowly.
“Do you think destroying it will work?”
Trixie’s voice was desperate, and her eyes screamed for the last hope, for me knowing how to reverse her mistake, but I could only shrug in response.
“Only one way to find out.”
Before I realised what she’d said, Trixie ran to a nearby fire extinguisher, took it and smashed it repeatedly onto the Memory Stone.
With each smash, more and more cracks formed on the stone until it glowed in a green light.
“Stop!” I shouted at Trixie, but she continued on.
With another smash, the Memory Stone crumbled into pieces, and the light became bright and formed itself into a blinding orb.
“Trixie, run!”
But Trixie didn’t. She watched wide-eyed the growing orb, seemingly paralysed. Before it could reach her, I jumped at her and pushed her to the side.
A lightning bolt emerged from the orb, hitting me right on my head.
The rain poured down in masses and trees ripped from the ground from the strong wind and flew right into the tornado that was rapidly advancing toward my garden.
“It’s over,” I heard the fairy say next to me.
“No, it’s not!” I declared and took her hand. “We have to run!”
Running against the wind was hard. Leaves and branches flew against my face, and only green lightning occasionally brightened the view.
The earth shook and I tripped.
“Get up!” the fairy yelled and pulled on my hand, but I was too stunned from the view behind.
My garden, my hard work. The tornado sucked every flower, every plant up. All was gone, destroyed in mere seconds.
“Quick!”
A bolt of lightning brightened the sky and revealed the ground opening up, the crack expanding in our direction. Before I could do anything, it reached us.
The crack went right under the fairy’s legs, sucking her in.
“Help!” she screamed.
I held her hand as tightly as I could. The fairy dangled in the air, the deep gap under her like an endless abyss.
“Don’t let go!” I yelled.
“The tornado!” the fairy responded. “It’s coming nearer!”
I pulled as much as I could, but when it seemed that the fairy was almost out, the ground shook again and the progress was lost.
“Let go of me!” the fairy said. “It’ll suck you in!”
“Never!” I retorted and pulled again.
“Wallflower.” Her voice was quiet, but I could still hear it. “Save yourself.”
“I lost you once, and I won’t lose you again!” I responded, my eyes welling up. “I won’t let the Memory Stone erase you once more!”
“Wallflower, look at me.”
Another lighting gave me the view of the fairy. The loosely sunroots around her body were all dried out, and on her head was a young sunflower sprout.
“You did everything you could,” the fairy said, her voice compassionate.
“I don’t care! It’s not enough!”
“Wallflower—”
“I won’t ever let go of you!”
A rainbow coloured light flew above us, going right into the tornado and encircling it. The wind got weaker and the rain lighter. Taking the chance, I gathered all my strength and pulled the fairy up.
An explosion launched us both into the air.
Coming back to my senses, the first thing I saw were the Rainbooms. They had transformed into their magical outfits and pony ears, and their gaze was upon me.
“Finally,” Rarity muttered and let herself fall to the ground, puffing heavily.
“That was too close,” Applejack added and sat down.
What happened? Taking a look around, I saw that we were in the cafeteria. The chairs and tables were scattered all over the room. The walls, ground and the ceiling were covered in leaves and sunroots.
Gulping, I turned my gaze to the Rainbooms. “I’m… sorry,” I said, ashamed of what I’d done.
“Don’t be,” Sunset responded, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. “We know it wasn’t you.”
“But the sunroots, the plants—”
“All because of the Memory Stone.”
My jaw dropped. How did she know? Where did she hear the name?
Sunset chuckled. “We may have forgotten the fairy, but we had taken notes. I also asked Princess Twilight about it and she found an old writing describing the stone.”
“But I have to ask,” Twilight interjected, “how were you able to hide from us so well? My readings showed that the Memory Stone’s magic was at school, but you were seemingly never here.”
I glanced at her with a confused expression before explaining, “I wasn’t at school. Trixie took the Memory Stone from… Wait, Trixie!”
Turning on my heels, I ran out of the cafeteria to where I had seen Trixie the last time. The hallway was covered in leaves and sunroots like a jungle, while the lockers were laying on the ground.
Hopefully, Trixie was fine.
Soon, I heard her voice calling for help. Going around the next corner, I saw her struggling to get free from clinging vines, cursing loudly.
“Trixie!” I called, approaching her. “Here you are!”
“Get away from me!” Trixie retorted, waving with her arms, but got only more entangled in the vines.
“I’m here to help,” I replied.
“You helped me enough,” Trixie said bitterly. “Trixie will free herself on her own!” She waved her arms and legs again, but it got only worse until she couldn’t move anymore.
“You really don’t want a helping hand?” I asked with a smirk.
Trixie groaned. “Fine, but don’t tell anyone about this!”
“Too late.”
Turning around, I saw Rainbow grinning at us, with the other Rainboom members also approaching.
“So here is where the corruption had started,” I heard Twilight mutter as she examined a root that broke from the ground.
“Here, let me help you,” Rarity said and summoned a floating crystal. With a single hand movement, the crystal flew above Trixie and cut the vines easily, letting Trixie fall with a thump.
“Ouch, that hurt Trixie!” Trixie complained.
“You’re welcome,” Rarity replied with a scoff, crossing her arms. “And can you please stop talking in third person?”
“You don’t remember?” Trixie asked, standing up in an instant. “Please tell me you remember the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
The Rainbooms’ silence was heavy, answering the sad reality.
“We don’t,” Sunset said, sighing. “Any memories that were erased are gone forever after three days.”
“No…” Trixie fell on her knees. “This can’t be true.”
“I’m sorry,” Sunset replied, then turned to me. “Could you fill us in on what exactly happened?”
“Wallflower, dinner is ready!” my mother called me.
“Coming!” I responded and put my gardening tools and my gloves away. Tapping the dirt off my clothes, I entered the house and washed my hands before sitting at the kitchen table.
“How’s the front yard?” my father asked me.
“It’s doing great,” I replied with a cheerful smile. “The first flowers are already replanted, and over the weekend I plan to buy some plants you’d definitely like!”
“For a punishment, you enjoy the work a lot,” my father responded with a wink of his eye.
I chuckled. “It’s a lot of work to do, though. So far I’m still brainstorming what our garden should look like. I thought—”
“Don’t overwork yourself,” my father interrupted me. “You’re already busy with your garden club and the front yard, not even speaking about homework and exams.”
“Yeah,” I scratched the back of my head. “I shouldn’t get too carried away.”
“Speaking of school, how was today?” my mother asked me curiously.
“Mostly busy with cleaning the school from the plants my corruption caused. While Trixie and I had to do it, many other students helped also, including the Rainbooms.”
“The Rainbooms, huh?” my mother said. “Couldn’t they just use their magic to clean the school up? Shows how they wanted to see you—”
My father cleared his throat.
“Right, right,” my mother laughed nervously and took a deep breath. “No more gossip.”
“Also, Mystery offered me to visit one of her concerts as a way to compensate for not having invited me to her birthday party. Could I go, please?” I gave a wide, innocent smile. I didn’t particularly care for rock music, but it gave me the chance to start a friendship again—and this time correctly with me also doing something for it.
“What about you being grounded?” my father inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Please!” I begged him. “It’s for Mystery. She feels guilty having forgotten me.”
“Hm, what do you say?” my father asked, turning to my mother.
I watched her as her lips were searching for words. She visibly fought with herself, repeatedly rubbing her forehead—I was asking to go to a concert of the Death Grinders, after all—but at the end, she let out a long sigh.
“Alright,” she said, defeated. “But only under the promise that you’ll be careful out there, understood?”
“Thank you so much!” I cheered happily.
Biting my lips, I listened to the suggestions Roseluck made for the garden of our club. They weren’t bad, but her plan included removing the anemones I was too proud of, and a combination of flowers and plants I knew didn’t harmonise with each other. However, she and Muffins were the first additional members the garden club got, so shouldn’t I try everything to keep her?
When Roseluck finished telling her suggestions and gave me an eager and proud look, I contemplated how to reply.
Should I deny it and risk her getting angry and leaving me? What would it look like if I drove off a new member on the first day?
If only I had the Memory Stone with me…
Shaking my head to stop the creeping thought, I took my stance and replied firmly, “No.”
“No?” Roseluck asked, her voice tinged with disappointment. “But it would look beautiful!”
“It sure does,” I responded. “But you shouldn’t plant roses and bunchberries next to each other. Roses need sun; bunchberries, however, shade and lots of water.”
“Oh.” Roseluck scratched the back of her head. “You’re right, I forgot about that. But the foxgloves are great companions to roses!”
“They are, but…” Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage. “Could we, please, keep the anemones? I’m ready to change the garden to make it more reflective of all of us, but I don’t want to remove these flowers. They’re, um, personal for me.”
“Oh, sure!” Roseluck responded, to my relief. “We can come up with something else.”
Muffins pointed behind us and when I turned my gaze in the direction, I saw Trixie slowly approaching us. When the magician saw that we were looking at her, she stopped.
“Sorry,” I said to my other members, “I think she wants to talk to me. Will be back soon!”
I was right with my assumption. Trixie led me to the parking lot, where no one would bother us. I hadn’t seen Trixie smile since the destruction of the Memory Stone, and her current hopeless expression made me feel pity for her.
“How do you do it?” she asked me, her voice filled with sadness.
“Do what?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Be happy,” Trixie said.
I pressed my lips together, not knowing what to say, prompting her to continue.
“I still remember you back in the garden, how you begged me to return the stone. You had even taken the Rainbooms’ geodes just so you could keep being the fairy. And yet, I see you living on, back to socialising with others and keeping up with your club activities.”
I sighed. “Trixie, the truth is, I had lost everything even before you took the Memory Stone from me. No one at school remembered me anymore. Your actions made me realise that.
“I’m building up everything again. The old friendships that were forgotten, my communication skills, my courage, it will take time and effort from my side. I’m lucky to get a second chance, and I can’t afford to waste it.”
“Glad you’re getting a second chance,” Trixie replied bitterly. “Trixie doesn’t. Every time she goes back to her stage persona, she gets weird looks or even ridiculed.”
“No, Trixie,” I said firmly. “You have a second chance. While you have to start from zero, you have already years of practice with your tricks and the people being honest with you. Use this chance to become a better magician, don’t do the mistakes you did before when you had started and focus on the things you know work.
“You have to change your approach, but if you see your situation as an opportunity, you can be even Greater and more Powerful than you were before.”
Looking to the ground, Trixie nodded slowly. “Trixie understands your point, but it’s also disappointing to see that what I achieved before was something no one liked.”
“Then take the chance to polish it,” I replied. “Adjust it to make it something everyone will love.”
Trixie turned her gaze to me, a slight smile forming on her lips. “The Great and Forgotten Trixie shall think about your words.”
Without waiting for a response, Trixie walked away, her pace more confident than before—even if not as in the past. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with the result of the talk. It was still up to Trixie to apply my words, but I was sure they’d help her.
Before I returned to the garden, I took a glance at a car’s window, looking at my reflection. The sunflower sat almost perfectly on my hair and needed only a little adjustment with my hands.
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A sweet ending, if a bit anticlimactic. Still, good work.
I think my biggest complaint about this fic is that we don’t really get to see Wallflower be the fairy much. We’re told that it became incredibly important to her, but we don’t actually get to see that happen, and I think that’s to the story’s detriment. Which, I suppose, is just me saying that I think the story should’ve been longer.
In any case, thank you for a good story!
11681693
I see the point, and while in my view she was shown to having become one, I see how it might be confusing to the reader: becoming the fairy didn't mean that she became the same fairy as in the first chapter, but that the bad traits of her that led to everything in the first three chapters are fought off and grown out (even if the creeping thoughts are still there). After all, the fairy was who she wanted to be, and her wish was to not be who she was right now. But yeah, it wasn't expliciatly stated or shown, so it's my fault with that
Nonetheless, thanks a lot for the comment (and also for the comment from everyone else), I really appreciate them
Edit: Turns out the comment meant Wallflower being the fairy in the previous chapters
In that regard, I was more focused on how it all started and what it caused afterwards (as I hadn't seen a reason on why also show it), but considering the by now multiple readers' expectations, it might have been worth it nonetheless
I agree with wanting to see more of Wallflower's fairy time. More as a way to show some more interactions with her and the other students. I did like the callback to Mystery and how things evolved at the end. I specially liked how the stone is not just something exclusive to Wallflower, and it's a temptation anyone can fall for. That's something the original never really got to establish clearly.
Overall, I liked this story. Good job!
This was such a thrilling story! Wallflower has always been one of my favorite characters - part of that's her design, which I really dig, part of it is empathy with her introversion, and part of it is what an interestingly different villain she is - not the usual demon who can have the corruption blasted out of her, but just a scared girl.
I loved Forgotten Friendship, but there was always an enormous hole in Wallflower's motivations - she was precisely the cause of her own problem, so taking it out on Sunset just didn't make a lot of sense. And hey, that could have actually worked if they explored the irrationality of Wallflower's anger, but the special likely didn't have time to get into that. So it's wonderful to read a fic that gets us deep into Wallflower's psyche and shows how she got to that dark place. I love how insidiously addictive the Memory Stone is, how it digs its user into deeper and deeper holes. It makes Trixie's plight much more scary, knowing exactly what the Stone would do to her if she kept it. Fantastic stuff.
This was an observation I made back when Forgotten Friendship came out - it's maybe the most powerful artifact in the entire show. Wallflower can use it at any time, without any effort, without consent, without eye contact, with no limit on distance, while people are in their beds, without them even knowing what's happened. In the hands of someone with an actual plan, it would be devastating.
This was wonderful. I love stories like this, that jump inside a troubled character's head and show us what the world looks like from their perspective. There were so many little details in it that I adored, like Wallflower deciding that her friend would be better off without ever having known her without thinking to ask her friend's opinion on the matter.
So yeah. Excellent work. Thanks for writing this.