> Forgotten Friendship
>  by CJ Esmerio
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Narrator - In the land of Equestria and beyond, there are as many stories as there are these incredible creatures who inhabit it.

Some remain secret to all those but a select few…

A cloaked vigilante, known as the Twilight Warrior, is standing on top of a tower while overlooking a city.

Others have become the stuff of legend…

The Pillars of Old Equestria, along with a long-lost friend, exploring another part of the world that they've not seen in more than a thousand years.

…and there are those who were born of our dreams.

Princess Luna observing the dreams of various ponies, dragons, and others in the Dream Realm.

Like the Equestrians themselves, these tales have survived the test of time, and with each passing day, countless adventures unfold from the top of the world to the bottom of the sea.

Princess Skystar swimming around and having fun in the sea underneath Mt. Aris with her fellow hippogriffs-turned-seaponies.

In the main part of Equestria itself, there are four powerful princesses. Celestia for the day, Luna for the night, Cadence for family, and then, there's the most important princess of all: Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, who makes sure that everyone feels like they belong, enjoying their lives in a magical world of friendship.


##########


And she doesn't do it alone... helping her along the way on this amazing journey are Twilight's closest friends, who along with the princess herself, all represent the Elements of Harmony - generosity, honesty, laughter, kindness, loyalty, and magic.

Over the years of friendship that they've shared together, the Mane 6 have been able to help several realize the error of their ways, and those include the Princess of the Night herself, as well as a draconequs that represents chaos, a powerful unicorn that is now under the mentor/friend-ship of Twilight herself, and an entire race of transformed Changelings, as well as an Earth Pony botanist that is currently trying his best on creating new memories of friendship and happiness.





"Um, Mr. Sunburst, sir?" Everyone looked back at the platform, and saw that the voice was coming from an Earth Pony... that had been flattened like a pancake because of the large crowd.

"No worries, I got this!" Pinkie Pie walked over to him, placing one end of a "bendy" straw in her mouth, and the other into his.

Then, she began to blow air into him as if she were blowing air into a balloon until, eventually, there was enough air for him to...

Poof!

"There ya go!"

The restored pony coughed a few times, and said, "Thanks... ow, my head..."

Sunburst smiled, and said, "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my assistant, Casey."

"An assistant?" Starlight said, surprised. "Wow. Is Flurry Heart that much of a handful?"

"You'd be surprised," admitted Sunburst. "But he helps out with other things, as well, and it's nice having somepony to give lessons to."

The country-speaking Earth Pony walked over to Casey, and shook his hoof. "Pleasure to meet ya, sugarcube. My name's Applejack, and this is my little sister, Applebloom."

"Howdy, Casey, nice to meet ya!"

Sweetie Belle introduced herself next, followed by Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Starlight, and Rarity.

Then, Twilight came up to him, and said, "Hi, Casey, I'm Twilight Sparkle."

The two of them shook hooves, and Casey said, "It's a pleasure to, um... finally meet you, Twilight."

Rainbow suddenly frowned, and muttered, "He never said that to us."

Applejack looked at her, and she replied, "What?"

Sunburst walked over to stand by the princess, saying, "He's a big fan of yours, Twilight."

Casey began to blush, feeling embarrassed. "I-I mean... well, I've seen so - I mean, heard so much about you... ever since you defeated Nightmare Moon..."

Twilight gave him a warm smile. "You don't have to be nervous, Casey. I enjoy making new friends."

Casey simply nodded his head, which was still red, and whispered, "Um... thanks."

"Wow, and I thought you were the shyest pony in all of Equestria," said Rainbow Dash, looking at Fluttershy.

"Oh, leave him alone," replied Fluttershy. "He can't help it if he has a crush on Twilight."

All of a sudden, everyone except her was now looking at Casey. "Uh-oh, did I... say that out loud?"

While Rainbow Dash slowly started laughing, an embarrassed Casey began to quickly walk away.

"Um, I will just... see you all later..."

Woosh!

Then, all of a sudden, he took off in a flash, leaving a gust of wind behind.

"I'm sorry," whispered Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash was still laughing silently, to herself, until Twilight gave her a look that made her stop immediately. "Me, too."





They've also made friends with a young Earth Pony that goes by the name of Casey, whose entire life prior to their meeting is a mystery itself. He eventually became the special somepony of Princess Twilight, and even made a best friend of his own - a gold Earth Pony that represents balance between chaos and harmony.


##########


But not all intentions are pure… there are others that remain in the darkness, with hopes to achieve goals of control, domination, and power.

A shadow-like pony makes his way into a cave, and stops when he reaches a wall made entirely of andesite.

And that is where our story begins, with a misguided search by a relentless stallion, hoping to fulfill his lifelong wish for revenge.


BOOM!


After disposing most of the wall, the sinister pony took a few more steps, and then, a smile appeared on his face once he chose to remain still. In front of him, carefully wedged into a pile of boulders, was a magical and mysterious shiny object.

What he unearths instead is an even bigger mystery, and an even greater power that could make his wish come true.


###########


"Come on, Sunset! You'll have plenty of time later to write to Princess Twilight!"

"Almost done!"After writing just a few more words into her Friendship Journal, Sunset closed it up, and hurried out of her front door, where she found all of her friends waiting for her. "Alright, let's go."

Sunset Shimmer has wishes of her own; first and foremost, is to learn what she can about friendship while living her life in the new world that she calls her home.

Originally from Equestria, and once filled with evil desires, Sunset now spends her time being with her friends, who are the human counterparts of the Mane 6, and they have dreams and wishes of their own: to discover new friends, to explore the world, to perform amazing music, and to eat lots and lots of sugary treats.

"What? He never said that all of our wishes have to involve friendship."

Heh, heh, of course, Pinkie Pie… but do you want to know what the funny thing is about wishes? Sometimes they really do come true, and that is why you must be extremely careful for what you wish.

Because you just might get it.
> Time for Others
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Da-dum, da-dum, awesome! It's time to be awesome…"

It was currently a sunny day in Equestria, and right now, Casey was sound asleep in his room, dreaming (and singing) about a fun memory that involved a song that Rainbow Dash had thought up.

Little did he know that his wonderful dream was about to be interrupted by a certain unicorn that had a sly grin on her face because of what she was about to do.


CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!


"Rise and shine, Casey! Come on, let's go, time to get up and out of bed!"

While she continued to use her magic to bang two frying pans together, an awakened Casey let out a groan, and he muttered, "Alright, Starlight, I'm up."


CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!


"Okay, okay, I'm getting out of bed," said Casey, and once he was standing on the bedroom floor, Starlight made the pans disappear. "Did you have to wake me up like that?"

"Not really, but I thought it'd be fun to do it," replied the amused pink unicorn, and Casey rolled his eyes. "Come on, Twilight's waiting for you in the library."

The young stallion followed Starlight out of his bedroom, and they began to walk over to the library.

"I seem to remember me telling you several times to not be my darn alarm clock," muttered Casey. "And you couldn't have picked a more simpler way to do it?"

Starlight continued to giggle, in amusement, and she said, "Seemed pretty simple to me."

Casey just let out a sigh, and thought to himself, Just you wait, Glim Glam. One of these days I am going to get you back for this.

They soon made their way into the library, where his special somepony was currently looking through various notes of hers. "Here you go, Twilight, he's wide awake and ready for ya!"

"Somewhat awake," growled Casey, rubbing his face around with his hoof to erase any signs of tiredness, but he still managed to smile at Twilight. "But, yeah, I'm ready for whatever made Starlight wake me up so abruptly this morning."

Aw, these two act so much like siblings, thought Twilight, now organizing the pages of her notes. "Good, Casey… so now, we're going to talk about on how you've been handling your time with your friends."

What the young princess meant by that is there was a lot of missed time that Casey could have spent with his friends in his own world, but instead, he had spent that time hanging out with mostly his best friend, who was a golden Earth Pony by the name of Stardust Balance that also lived in a parallel dimension, and this had almost cost him his life several times, as well as hurting the feelings of Starlight because she had come to establish a sister-brother relationship with him.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that my progress went way up since our big adventure a few days ago," reminded Casey, who was referring to the events that took place when Twilight had held her first-ever Friendship Festival. "Not to mention that I invited Beck myself to enjoy the event… and, in return, that all convinced Kronos to allow me to go back into Stardust's world… which, by the way, he says was also due to a certain alicorn having a long talk with him?"

"I, uh, wonder who that could be," replied a sheepish Twilight before getting back to the topic at hoof. "Also, yes, I'm very proud of the time you have spent with everyone in Equestria since your birthday…"

Casey nodded his head, a proud smile appearing on his face, but it went away after hearing Twilight finish her sentence.

"However, there is one friend that you haven't spent time with since almost a year ago back when we all met you at the Crystal Empire."

"And, that friend would be…?" wondered Casey, and he got his answer from Twilight showing him a group picture that had been taken at Pinkie Pie's alternate-world-saving-and-making-new-friends-from-other-worlds party, with her hoof pointing at one particular pony.

"Sunset… Shimmer?" Twilight nodded, but Casey still felt a little confused. "Well, I mean… yeah, I became friends with her after that day she and the others helped us take care of Midnight… and I also went to her world to invite her to the festival, but aside from that, I just assumed she was busy doing other important stuff."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "So, what's the difference, then, between her and Stardust? He lives in another world, too, and we know that he does important stuff, as well, since he represents the balance between chaos and harmony, but you make time to spend with him."

Point taken, thought the young pony, but she wasn't going to win this so easily. "Well, what about you? You know her better and longer than me, anyway Twilight, so-"

However, the purple alicorn already had an answer to his question. "But she knows how busy I am as a princess, Casey, along with my own time that I spend with everyone I know here. I almost have to remind myself twice every day to check in my journal what she may have written to me in case it's important. There's also friendship problems I have to handle, events I need to plan… you get the picture, right?"

A sheepish Casey nodded, and he replied, "Yeah, I do, Twilight… but I can't exactly pop over into her world, and see if she's available to hang out or whatever. What if Sunset's busy at that one place I can't remember right now that Stardust hates so much-"

"Well, today's your lucky day," interrupted a smiling Twilight, while Casey tried not to groan, much to Starlight's amusement. "Sunset actually has some free time on her hands this week, and doesn't mind you coming over to spend time with her and her friends."

Think, Casey, think. He didn't actually mind on spending some time in Sunset's world; it just wasn't what was on his schedule for today. Oh, I got it!

"Why not send Starlight, then? She's always trying to find ways to visit her whenever the opportunity comes."

Said unicorn had an answer for Casey's question. "Unfortunately, I can't today because me and Trixie are going to see how Thorax and his brother are doing… you're more than welcome to come if-"

Casey quickly shook his head, and he replied, "The last time I was near Trixie, she almost blew me up with a damn rocket-shaped firework, so I'd rather go to Sunset's world than be with-"

"Great! All settled, then," said a satisfied Twilight, while Casey glared at Starlight in irritation, and the pink unicorn gave him a small shrug. "And before you ask, I won't be able to spend time with her today because I still need to learn what I can from the books in Queen Novo's castle library. Plus, Pinkie keeps forgetting the way to get there, so…"

"Yeah, alright, I know when I'm beat," muttered Casey, giving one more "I'm getting you for this" glare to Starlight before giving Twilight a quick kiss good-bye, and then, he let out a chuckle. "I'm starting to wish that I'd never met Stardust because, then, I wouldn't have had to worry about this in the first place."

But, on the other hand, thought Casey, while Twilight shook her head in amusement. He did help me get comfortable enough into asking Twilight out in the first place... and I guess there's no harm in being another friend to Sunset.

So, after letting out a sigh, the light-orange pony walked through the Crystal Mirror, and all of a sudden, it felt like everything around him was spinning and swirling at a very frantic pace.

Then, a few seconds later, Casey found himself stumbling out of the solid marble base that once held a Wondercolt statue, trying his best to remain standing up so he wouldn't collapse. "I've got to get more used to this."

"Can't argue with that." He turned to the side, and found himself looking at the former unicorn pupil of Princess Celestia, who was now helping him stay balanced. "Alright, just… there you go! Better?"

After shaking his head a few times to get rid of his dizziness, Casey replied, "Uh-huh, I'm good… er, nice to meet - see you, Sunset." He had no idea on whether or not to give her a hug, shake her hand, or just a friendly wave, but luckily, the bacon-haired teenager solved that by giving him a quick embrace.

"Heh, heh, sorry, I just… uh, I didn't wake up right this morning," said the young teenager, giving her a sheepish smile.

"It's fine, you should see how me and the others are like on Mondays," said Sunset, who was now making a gesture to the building in front of them. "Come on, you can help me out with editing some parts of the CHS yearbook."

That doesn't sound so bad, thought Casey, and he began to follow her inside. "Uh, that's kind of like a school's version of a photo album, right?"

Sunset let out a chuckle, and she nodded, saying that his answer was close enough.

"By the way, um… did Twilight's festival really not start off so great?"

Casey started to laugh, and he replied, "Everything pretty much went downhill after Pinkie caused a giant cake to fall on the two of us."

Sunset began laughing, as well. "Twilight didn't mention that part to me."

Oh? As the two friends entered the yearbook editing room, a sly smile appeared on Casey's face, and he said, "I'm betting there's more stuff that she didn't mention to you."
> Everything Changes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"These sure are some pretty cool photos you've got here," said Casey, looking at all the various camera-taken pictures that were all laid out on a desk in front of him. "What do you do with the ones that don't make it into the yearbook?"

Sunset, who was making adjustments to the selected yearbook photos with some help from the rest of her friends, replied, "We keep them in a safe place in case we're able to use them again for next year."

Casey nodded his head, and as Applejack finished with adjusting one of the photos she had picked, she asked, "How's that one pony friend of yours doin', by the way? The purple one who went up against that one dragon we all fought."

"Starlight? Oh, she's alright," answered the young teen, who was now walking around the room. "I'm actually glad to not be with her for today since - oof!"

Suddenly, Casey found himself bumping into a teenage girl that had bushy light-colored forest green hair, wore a faded striped sweater, had pale green-colored skin, and as she began to rub her forehead, he quickly gave an apology. "Sorry! I didn't even notice you there… are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine," answered the young teenager, speaking in a low and soft tone. "I mean, I was technically already in here before you ever came-"

"Casey? Everything - oh, hello," said an arriving Sunset, who was now offering her a handshake. "I'm Sunset Shimmer, president of the yearbook committee, as well as the editor-in-chief. You here to join? We're always looking for some extra help."

The soft-spoken teenager began to rub the back of her neck with her hand, and she replied, "Thank you, Sunset… my name is, uh, Wallflower… and I've also been on the yearbook committee since the beginning of the year."

Sunset let out a sheepish chuckle as she brought her hand back. "Of course! Forget I said that; I was just, uh… sorry, it feels like today's the first time I'm meeting you, for some reason."

Wallflower blinked her eyes a few times before saying, "We've literally had almost all of the same classes since you first started coming to CHS…" Sunset's apologetic smile grew a little wider. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to hand this over to you. It's a list of all the yearbook's superlatives that were voted on by the students."

Taking the paper out of her hands while also hoping to not say anything worse to Wallflower, Sunset began to read out what superlatives were on the list. "Most Likely to Succeed, Best Smile, Class Clown… well, look at that! Guess who won in the 'Best Friends' category!"

All seven of their names were on the list, and seeing that touched Sunset's heart in all of the right places, while a delighted Pinkie started clapping her hands. "I always knew that I liked you, but now, it's official - in  yearbook form. The people have spoken!"

A curious Twilight looked over a few of the list's categories, and the voted winner for one of them made her smile falter a little. "Oh… good for Micro Chips… voted 'Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion'...wonderful."

Fluttershy softly rubbed the back of Twilight's human counterpart, with a small smile on her own face. "Don't feel so jealous, Twilight. We all know that you're a genius, too."

Her shoulder placed against her soccer ball, Rainbow nodded in agreement to what she had said "Yeah! Besides, it's just an ordinary yearbook, so there'no reason-"

Sunset's mouth almost dropped to the table in complete shock after hearing Rainbow make that statement. "This is not just a yearbook, Rainbow. The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gathering memories into the pages of this book. In thirty years, we might not remember everything, but we will remember what's in the yearbook."

A worried look appeared on Wallflower's face as she said, "If I'm not in there, would that mean I wouldn't even exist?"

"Uh, not sure that's what she meant," replied Casey, trying to make her feel a little more comfortable.

"And now, thanks to everyone who voted for us," pointed out Sunset, who hadn't heard what Wallflower was saying. "We'll always remember that we're best friends."

The peach-skinned teenager looked down at the ground, and she said, "I kind of wish I knew what that felt like."

As for Casey, he noticed that there wasn't a photo for that category in the yearbook. "What picture's going to be put there, Sunset?"

Before the bacon-haired teenager could give him an answer, an excited Rarity cried, "I know the perfect place for us to take the Best Friends photo, darling… we shall take it at the beach!"

"Ooh, the beach!" squealed Pinkie. "That means I can make my famous super-fun-in-the-sun cupcakes… and later on, we can have a beach party! You wanna come to that, Casey?"

Casey was about to respond to Pinkie, but then, he started to become nervous when he saw a familiar teenage girl angrily storm into the room, after making the door open up widely for herself. "The Great and Powerful Trrrriiiixxxiiieee would like to have a word with the yearbook editor immediately!"

Letting out a sigh, Sunset took a few steps forward. "That would be me, unfortunately… what's wrong today, Trixie?"

Taking the list of superlative out of Fluttershy's hands, the light-blue teenager quickly looked over it. "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected… I was not voted Greatest and Most Powerful! Would someone here care to explain that to me?"

Taking the list back from Trixie, Sunset replied, "The reason for that is because there wasn't even a Most Powerful and Greatest category for students to vote for."

"It's Greatest and Most Powerful, Sunset Shimmer," corrected an irritated and clearly annoyed Trixie, who was now grabbing one of the older yearbooks from a nearby shelf, and she pointed to one of the categories that the students of that year had voted for. "And there also wasn't a Biggest Meanie category, but that certainly didn't stop you from winning it our freshman year."

The picture that Trixie was pointing at showed Sunset Shimmer long before having ever met Princess Twilight, thus explaining why she looked like someone with a bad attitude, as well as having a scowl on her face.

"That was… different, Trixie, and totally unrelated to what's going on right now," said Sunset, who wasn't exactly starting to feel comfortable with remembering the many mistakes that she had made in the past. I'm not that kind of person anymore.

"Yeah, pretty much everyone in the whole school made the decision to vote for that since she was so mean," added Applejack.

Rarity nodded her head. "The editor had no choice but to make it official, especially since he had voted for that, as well."

"Sunset won Biggest Meanie fair and square," said Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy gave a nod, as well.

"Yeah, she was reaaaaalllllyy mean to everybody," said Pinkie. "Like, there was this one time at band camp-"

"Ahem!" They all turned their heads in Casey's direction, and the young teenage boy gestured towards an embarrassed Sunset. "You five aren't exactly helping her feel better about this."

"Oh… we're sorry 'bout all that, sugarcube," apologized Applejack.

After taking and releasing a deep breath, Sunset shook her head, tossing the yearbook aside as she - "Ow!"

"Aah, I'm so sorry!" cried Sunset, now feeling terrible again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be good," muttered Casey, setting down the yearbook that had smacked him in the face, and realizing his bad-luck-because-of-Trixie curse also existed in this world. "Say what you were going to say."

"Huh? Oh, right…" Sunset turned to look back at Trixie, with a serious expression. "Sorry, but we're not going to put in a Great and All Powerful category."

"It's Great and Most Powerful, Sunset Shimmer," exclaimed a frustrated Trixie, now glaring at the yellow teenager. "And it's you who will be sorry because I shall have my revenge on you… when you least expect it! I will have my photo in the yearbook-"

A sly grin appeared on Rainbow's face as she interrupted the illusionist by showing her a photo that had Trixie in it. "How about this one? Remember, you tried asking a group of birds up in the trees to tutor you because Fluttershy was able to-"

"Give me that!" growled Trixie, and everyone else but Wallflower were laughing and giggling in amusement. "You shall pay for this, Shimmer, I promise you that!"


Ka-boom!


The young teenage girl threw one of her smoke bombs in the middle of the room, and once the smoke cleared, everyone saw that the door was wide open again, with no sign of Trixie anywhere.

"Well,thatwas somethin', alright," said Applejack, causing the rest of her friends to laugh along with her. "Come on, y'all, let's go see if that one dinin' place is open yet."

So, everyone but Wallflower followed the farm girl out of the room, and after Sunset turned off the lights on her way out, the peach-skinned teenager spoke in a small, quiet voice. "Um… okay, yeah, thanks for the invite… sounds like fun."






Several Hours Later


When Casey returned to the castle library, he found Twilight sitting comfortably nearby in a reading chair, a book floating in front of her. "Hi, Casey! How was your day over in Sunset's world?"

"It was… pretty great, actually," admitted Casey, who now looked tired. "I'm even going back tomorrow because she and the others invited me to hang out with them at the beach."

A warm smile appeared on Twilight's face. "That's wonderful news! See what happens when you decide to spend your friendship time with others wisely?"

Casey rolled his eyes, and let out a chuckle as he said, "Alright, I'll keep working on it… but thank you, Twilight… I'd hate to know what it would feel like if I didn't have you in my life."

"What makes you say that?" wondered a curious Twilight.

"Eh, just something that happened today involving memories and stuff," answered her special somepony, and the two of them shared a quick kiss before he started walking out towards his bedroom, along with letting out a yawn. "Goodnight, Twilight."

"Night, Casey," replied the young alicorn, and went back to reading her book while Casey continued on to his bedroom, already knowing how it would feel to just hop right into bed, cover himself up with blankets, and go right to sleep after laying his head on the pillow.





After walking out of the elevator, Sunset began to head towards her apartment door, but stopped after a familiar voice said, "You have a good day at school today, Miss Shimmer?"

It belonged to the landlord of the apartment building she lived in, who was an elderly gentleman that Sunset always gave a greeting to either in the morning or at night since she'd first started making friends at CHS. "Sure did, Mr. Star, thank you for asking. How is your son doing, by the way?"

"Oh, just fine," replied Mr. Star, giving her an amused smile. "Carl's just crawling wherever his hands and feet can take him, so right now, my wife's giving our little boy a much-needed bath."

"Sounds like he had a whole day of fun, then," said an amused Sunset, now using her key to unlock her apartment door. "Well, have a good night, Mr. Star… and both and son, too!"

Mr. Star gave her a quick wave, and he replied, "Same to you, my dear!"

Then, after entering her modest apartment, it wasn't long until Sunset was tucked comfortably in her bed, writing to Princess Twilight about the day's events in her magic journal.

Casey sure is a great person to hang out with. I'm glad that he's your special somepony… and he always has such wonderful things to say about you… oh, and before I forget, I thought you'd be happy to hear that my friends and I were voted 'Best Friends' in our yearbook today.

Then, she took a moment to set down her journal, and get out of bed to pull out something from her desk drawer: a copy of the CHS yearbook from her freshman year, which she opened to look at the photo of yourself under the label 'Biggest Meanie'.

So much had changed since then, and a big part of it was because Princess Twilight had helped give her a push in the right direction.

After all, wrote Sunset after returning to her journal, if you hadn't forgiven me, I'd still be the arrogant student that I was when I came here from Equestria without even saying good-bye to Princess Celestia.

Writing the name of her former teacher made Sunset remember the night that they had met at Princess Twilight's Friendship Festival, and the sun-raising alicorn had suggested they meet at a later date in order to avoid taking away any time from visiting her friend.

"I think I'll just cross that out," muttered Sunset, not wanting to burden the Princess of Friendship with her regrets, and continued to talk about more positive stuff.

Then, she finished up her journal entry by writing, I hope you're having as great a week as I am… your friend, Sunset Shimmer, and put her journal and pen on her night table.

After letting out a yawn, Sunset turned off her bedroom light, and it wasn't long until she was fast asleep… unfortunately, this meant that she was unable to notice the swirl of dark magic appearing by her doorway, which formed into the hooded figure of a man that bore a sinister grin on his face.

"That takes care of both of them..." He watched quietly as sparks of magic began to fly all around Sunset's bedroom, and traveled out of her window, heading to wherever they needed to go.

With a quick snap of a finger, the stranger vanished in the blink of an eye while Sunset simply turned her body to the opposite side, and muttered some random words to herself.
> Return to Equestria, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The next morning


"Cause it's like I don't fit in at all," sang Casey, humming to himself a song from his childhood as he walked out of his bedroom with a towel around his neck, and his pouch carrying the rest of his beach-wear clothing.

After walking down the hall for a little bit, he stopped by the open doorway of the library, and made his way inside to find Twilight sitting comfortably in a reading chair, magically holding up a book in front of her that she was currently reading.

"Morning, Twilight… and um, also, I guess I'll see you later," said the young Earth Pony, and the young alicorn turned her head away from the book to smile back at him.

"Oh, good morning, Casey! Enjoy your day at the beach with Sunset and the rest of the girls," replied Twilight. "And let me know how it goes once you come back!"

Casey nodded his head, and made his way over to the Crystal Mirror, but before he entered it, the light-orange pony could have sworn for a moment that there was something different about the magical object. It seemed to be less…bulkier than when he first remembered seeing it after Twilight had helped him get out of virtual limbo.

Eh, probably just my imagination, thought Casey, now walking into the portal that would transport him across various dimensions, and as for Twilight, she was now reading the book with curiousity since the young princess was unable to recall when she had chosen to write so many things about an Earth Pony that was simply unknown to her.


#############


"I've got to get used to this," muttered Casey after he walked out of the portal, and he shook his head a few times. "Alright, now how do I get to-"


HONK! HONK!


Casey turned around, and saw Sunset waving towards him while sitting inside of a yellow-colored convertible vehicle that had red streaks on both sides. Huh, well isn't that convenient

"Got everything you need?" asked the bacon-haired teenager.

After placing his backpack in the back seats of the car, Casey made himself comfortable in the passenger seat, and gave a quick nod. "Uh-huh, all ready… to go… uh…" A sheepish smile appeared on his face. "You like pre… pretty... nice in your, um, beach outfit, Sunset."

"Aw, thank you," replied the former unicorn, both amused and flattered. "But you don't have to be nervous about it or anything."

As Sunset began to drive away from CHS, a slightly red-faced Casey gave a small shrug. "Yeah, sorry, I just… get like that sometimes when it comes to… um… so, what exactly does one do at a beach again? I've never really been to one in Equestria."

"Well, it just depends on how you feel once you get there," answered Sunset. "There's the open body of water to swim in, tons of sand to make sand castles and stuff with, a net for volleyball games… all that kind of stuff really, as well as whatever Pinkie has planned for the beach party."

Casey let out a chuckle. "I'm sure it'll involve lots of cupcakes… but hopefully not the ones with edible sunscreen in them - whoa!"


KAAAA!


Suddenly, a black bird that came from out of nowhere flew right past their heads, and after it was gone, Sunset told Casey that he could sit back up now.

"Thank you… sheesh, it was like that bird hated me or something."





Around half an hour later, after her vehicle was parked safely in the parking lot, both Sunset and Casey stepped out of the car to begin heading towards the nearby beach.

"So, where should I go in order to… you know, change into clothes more suitable for the beach," wondered Casey, with said clothing currently inside of his backpack, and Sunset pointed over at a nearby cabin.

"That's where the men's fitting room is, but before you do that, come so you can see us all take the photo for the yearbook," said Sunset, and Casey looked out towards the beach to see that her beach-outfit-wearing friends were already hanging out together, with a white camera drone flying around them in an attempt to take a picture.

"Your eyes do not decieve you," said a confident Sci-Twi, relieved that the mechanical device was finally working for the time being. "I have been succesful in creating a Selfie Sensing camera. It hovers into position whenever you're ready to take a selfie!"

As she laid back against a lawn chair, a confused Applejack asked, "Uh… what was wrong with doin' it the old-fashioned way? With our cell phone?"

Nearby, Rarity was asking Rainbow for her opinion on which of the four beach blankets she had laid out should they use for the photo.

"Uh, do you mean the white one?" replied Rainbow, pointing at two of them. "Or… the white one?"

Rarity scoffed at her friend's comment, and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh, honestly, darling! This one is toasted oat, and here is linen lamb's wool… we've also got ivory cream, and… well, I suppose that this one actually is white."

"Uh, yeah, which is what I said," said a laughing Rainbow.

At the same time, Sci-Twi's camera drone was still taking individual photos of the girls, and it ended up floating in front of an arriving Sunset, who became delighted after seeing it. "Oh, Twilight! You got the Selfie Sensor working?"

She posed for a photo with a big smile on her face, and there was a white flash, but it didn't come from the drone, which had zipped away from Sunset and was now hovering behind its creator, almost as if the machine was afraid of the pony-turned-teen.

"I, uh… didn't want to let an opportunity go to waste," explained a sheepish Casey, who was holding onto an instant camera, as well as a newly printed-out picture of Sunset posing. "I can get rid of it if-"

"No, it's fine, don't worry about it," replied Sunset, and she looked back at the others. "So, who's ready to take a 'best friends' picture?"

None of the girls said a word to Sunset, so she simply let out a chuckle, and crossed her arms. "Uh-oh, what did I do?"

A nervous Fluttershy went over to cower behind Applejack, and the farm girl looked over at Pinkie, who shrugged her shoulders in confusion, while everyone else was silently glaring at Sunset.

"Should we take the picture now, or do you all prefer to take a swim first?" wondered Sunset, while Casey became confused as to what was going on with her friends. "How's the water?"

Applejack let out a sarcastic chuckle, and she crossed her arms. "Well, I'll be… Sunset Shimmer, asking to be in our Best Friends picture? Heh, now I've heard it all!"

"Um… I'll just head on back to go and cha-" Casey began to say as he tried walking away, but Sunset turned to give him a look that meant 'wait just a sec' before going back to her friends.

"Am I missing the joke here?" She asked, looking from one girl to the other.

Rarity placed a hand on her hip, and replied to Sunset in a stern tone. "The only joke is whatever this is you're playing on us, acting all nice like you're our friend."

"And it's not funny!" cried Fluttershy, now standing up straight.

"Because you aren't nice," added Rainbow Dash, with a nearby Pinkie shaking her head in agreement.

"And we ain't friends!" finished Applejack.

"Wait… what?" Sunset couldn't believe what she was hearing, and Casey couldn't understand why the girls were being so mean to their friend.

Applejack raised an eyebrow, and pointed a finger at Sunset as she replied, "You got applesauce in yer ears or somethin'? I said that we ai - whoa!"

Deciding to go with the first solution that came to her head, Sunset grabbed onto the young farm girl's uncovered arm, and used the power that came from her geode to look through a series of memories in her friend's mind.

"But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don't know the first thing about friendship."

"I bet they can teach you."

The first memory that she saw was her apologizing to the girls after turning into a she-demon, but for some reason, only the past version of herself faded away while everything else remained the same.


My friends are gonna bring me 'round...


The second memory showed Sunset performing with the Rainbooms to defeat the Sirens, but she was gone from there as well in a matter of seconds.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

The third memory that Sunset saw herself disappear from was after Sci-Twi had given her apology for what she'd done as Midnight Sparkle.

"I'm sure that I can count on you girls to help her feel right at home."

"You sure can!"

After that was the memory of when she and the rest of the girls had decided to become friends with Sci-Twi after the young teen's transfer to CHS from Crystal Prep, but like all the others, Past Sunset suddenly disappeared into thin air.

"Thanks for helping me out, Applejack."

"Think nothin' of it! I've been lookin' for a reason to take a spin in the ol' jalopy."

"Who are you callin' a jalopy?"

The final memory was when Sunset had accepted Applejack's offer in helping her pass a driving test by practicing in Granny Smith's truck, with her past self suddenly vanishing from out of nowhere. She just wasn't in the picture for any of the memories.

Jerking her hand away from a bewildered Applejack, Sunset backed away in fear and deep concern as she realized what this all meant. "It… it's like I've been… erased!"

"...wow, this is heavy," whispered Casey, and he went back to drinking a bottle of soda that he'd taken out of his backpack while Sunset had been reading her friend's mind.

This has to be a nightmare, thought the bacon-haired teenager, now closing her eyes as she cried, "Wake up, Sunset! Wake up - ow!"

"Nope! You're awake," said Pinkie, who had pinched Sunset on her arm, and she did the same to herself. "Ow! Guess I am, too!"

"But… this doesn't make any sense!" cried Sunset. "I saw your memories, AJ, and I wasn't in any of them!"

Applejack crossed her arms, and asked, "Well, just how in the hay were you able to do that, if you don't mind me askin'?"

Sunset held up her geode necklace for all of her friends to see. "With this! We got these necklaces together at Camp Everfree, don't you remember?"

"Why is she still talking to us?" asked Fluttershy.

Rarity brushed Sunset's statement aside, and rolled her eyes as she touched her own geode. "Pfft! Oh,please, it's obviously just a cheap knockoff of ours."

Sunset's level of fear was starting to rise up a lot more. "Rarity, remember when I helped you out with painting the window display for Miss Hemline?"

"You did no such thing!" exclaimed Rarity, and she turned her head away from Sunset.

"How could… wait, paint… Pinkie!"Sunset looked over at the pink-haired teenager. "You remember that day you painted a portrait of me during art class at CHS, right?"

Pinkie shook her head, and replied, "I'd never paint something of someone that wasn't my friend!"

"But… but… Rainbow Dash!" cried Sunset, moving onto her next friend. "You saved me from being 'plant food' during the Tri-Cross Relay at the Friendship Games, remember?

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that you have no idea what you're talking about because that never happened," said Rainbow.

The next friend for Sunset to ask was Fluttershy, who was still standing behind Applejack. "What about the day that everyone took their pets to a shelter, but I didn't have one, so I agreed to let you help me find my own, and you showed me Ray?"

Fluttershy just shook her head, too afraid to speak, and the last friend that remained for Sunset to ask was Sci-Twi. "Twilight, you remember me, right?" Sunset felt her eyes almost starting to water up since the human version of Twilight was almost like a best friend to her. "We've been through so much together! Please…"

"I… only met you once," replied Sci-Twi, rubbing the back of her neck. "Back at the Friendship Games when you yelled at me."

"Doesn't anyone remember that I'm not a mean person anymore?" cried Sunset, and all of her friends shook their heads in response. "But… oh, wait a sec… Casey!" The light-orange teenager almost jumped after hearing Sunset shout out his name. "We all went into his world to help him fight off Mi - a giant dragon, remember?"

The memories of what happened on that day came back to Casey, and he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's right! Sunset told you all what to do and… wait, I mean, no she ordered… ok, never mind that! Twilight, you remember when I first talked to you and Sunset about it at your house, right?"

"I remember you being there, Casey," replied an almost regretful Sci-Twi. "But I don't remember Sunset being with us."

A nervous Casey gulped, trying to think of another memory for them to use, while Sunset was now feeling all kinds of terrible… until she realized that there was another friend who might remember her.

"I'll be right back!" She cried as she sprinted towards her car at the parking lot, and Casey quickly hurried after Sunset.

Once they had reached Sunset's vehicle, the bacon-haired teenager asked, "Casey, you remember stuff about me, right?"

"Yeah, of course," replied Casey. "But I don't know why none of your other friends can't remember anything."

"Well, you and the girls aren't my only friends," reminded Sunset, with thoughts of a certain alicorn princess entering her mind. "Did Twilight mention anything about being busy in Equestria?"

Casey thought about it for a moment before giving her an answer. "No, not really… she's probably still in the library, reading a book… why?"






A few moments later


Inside of her castle library, Twilight was still looking through the same thick-paged book from earlier, but just as she about to turn one of the pages, the young princess heard the activation sounds of the Crystal Mirror, and she looked away from the book to find her special somepony walk out of it.

"Well, you're back earlier than I expected," said a surprised Twilight, making her way over to him. "Everything okay?"

"Um, not exactly…" admitted Casey, and before Twilight could ask him anything, another pony stepped out of the portal.

"Twilight! Are we - whoa!" cried Sunset, who had been standing on her two hind legs, but she eventually went back to standing on all four of them, and the unicorn found herself stumbling a bit while trying to walk.

Luckily, Twilight was able to help her from falling, and once Sunset lifted her head back up, the yellow pony asked, "Twilight, this is going to sound crazy, but… are we friends?"

It didn't take long for the alicorn princess to answer. "Of course we're friends! Why would you-"

After hearing her say those words, Sunset embraced Twilight warmly with affection, and let out a sigh of relief. "You don't know how happy I am right now to hear you say that."

A smiling Twilight returned the favor by hugging her back, and as they did, Casey dug into his pouch to pull out his camera so that he could capture this touching moment of friendship.


CLICK!

> Return to Equestria, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So none of your friends remember any of the good things about you?"

After having finished telling the events of what happened on the beach to Twilight, a saddened Sunset shook her head, and Casey added, "Not even the time when she was the team leader and everything when they helped us take care of Dragon Midnight… it's almost like she's been erased from existence or something."

Twilight placed a hoof behind her head as she began thinking about a particular idea. "Oh, boy, this is definitely not good at all, and beyond anything I've ever heard of. Although… um…"

"What?" asked Sunset, and Twilight's expression became one of uncertainty. "What is it?"

"I just had an idea," explained the young alicorn. "But you might not like it."

Sunset placed a hoof on her shoulder, and pleaded, "I'll do anything to get my friends back, Twilight."

Seeing how determined and almost desperate that the young unicorn was, Twilight let out a sigh before saying what it was. "There is ony pony here who might be able to help… and she did say the last time you were here that it'd be best to meet at a later date."

"I did? Who are you… oh." It didn't take long for Sunset to realize whom the princess of friendship was referring to. "Well… if it'll help me learn why my friends are acting the way they are, then I'm all for it."

"Uh, great, then!" replied Twilight, even though she still looked a little bit nervous, and the three of them began walking out of the castle. "I don't think the Friendship Express has left the station yet, so it won't take that long for us to-"

"Oh, well, I just got my driver's permit a few weeks ago," interrupted Sunset, who soon realized the errors in her piece of advice. "So why not we take… my car that isn't… in Equestria… and I don't think ponies drive cars… here either… so… yeah, let's take the train."

Twilight nodded her head, and she was about to say something when they all suddenly heard a muffled boom coming from down the hall, followed by Spike's voice yelling out, "Everything's fine!"

The purple unicorn rolled her eyes, and she said, "Just give us a moment first, Sunset… Spike!" Twilight walked out of the library, followed by Casey, and headed towards the kitchen while Sunset looked back over at the Crystal Mirror, remembering how excited and happy they had all been yesterday for being voted 'Best Friends' in the CHS yearbook.

We've come so far together
Got memories to treasure
I look at you, stories come back to life

While singing to herself in a sad tone, Sunset walked slowly around the library, and grabbed ahold of a random book, imagining it to instead be a photo that she'd taken yesterday of herself with her friends.

And if I need reminding
I know where I can find you
In these pages, you'll last forever

"Sunset?" The unicorn turned around to see Twilight, standing and waiting patiently by the doorway. "You ready to go?"

She looked back at the book that was in her hooves, and gave a small nod. "Yeah… let's do it." Just like she had said earlier, Sunset was going to do whatever it took for her to get her friends back.


#################


A few minutes after leaving the castle, Sunset was now starting to tell Twilight about other events that she'd been unable to write to her about while Casey just listened to them quietly, but all of a sudden…

"Hi, Casey! Hi, Twilight! Hi, Sun… oh, hiya, Sunset Shimmer!" greeted Pinkie, happily bouncing towards them, and giving the unicorn a warm hug. "I haven't seen you in, like, forever!"

"Um, we all saw her at the Friendship Festival a few days ago, Pinkie," reminded Casey.

The pink Earth pony moved away a little from Sunset after she was done hugging her, and rolled her eyes. "Well, duh, you think I don't know that?"

Before Casey could say anything back, Pinkie asked, "So, how's everything going for you today, Sunset? How's the other me?"

"Well… not exactly great, if I'm being honest," replied Sunset, to the pink pony's surprise. "She doesn't remember any of the good things about me, and neither do-"

"They what now?" exclaimed Pinkie, causing Sunset to cover up one of her ears. "That's not great at all! Why would she not remember anything good about you? I thought you were a good pony now."

"Pinkie, this is kind of an emergency situation," interrupted Twilight, getting a tiny bit irritated. "We have to get onto the train to-"

But Pinkie wasn't done talking just yet. "The train? That left a few minutes ago, last I heard." Twilight just face-hoofed herself. "Besides, if this is an emergency, then I can help you get there the Pinkie Pie way!"

Sunset and Casey both shared a confused expression, and asked her what she had meant by that.

"It's simple enough, really; all you got to do is look up!"


Canterlot


Twilight sighed, and moved her hoof away as she looked up, but all that she saw was the blue-colored sky, which made her frown at her energetic friend. "Pinkie, please, we just don't have for stuff like this right now. We have to get to Canterlot to-"

"Um… Twilight?" said Casey, who was looking at the area around them. "We're already there."

"Casey, we're not in…" Twilight started to say, but after Sunset turned her head in the opposite direction, the princess' mouth almost dropped to the ground as she saw that they were no longer standing by Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville; instead, they were standing right by the front entrance steps of Canterlot Castle, and Pinkie was just smiling smugly with her eyes closed.

"You're wel-come," sang the pink Earth pony, and bounced away while the others all looked at each other in confusion.

"Um… I think we should just go inside the castle now," suggested Casey, offering the two mares to walk up the steps first. "I'm sure she'll be very pleased to see you."


#############


"I… guess I was wrong."

Inside of the throne room, a silent Princess Celestia sat calmly on her throne, with her sister Princess Luna sitting nearby on her own throne, and a few feet away from them were Sunset, Twilight, and a now-sheepish Casey.

Deciding to try and lighten the mood, Twilight cleared her throat, and said, "Soooo… you'll never guess who's back! Well, maybe you actually can guess because she's right here, but… um…" Celestia blinked her eyes, continuing to be silent, and Twilight bent her head close to Sunset. "Am I helping?"

Sunset sighed, knowing that this was something she needed to do on her own, and to Twilight and Casey's surprise, the yellow unicorn took a few steps towards her former teacher.

"Princess Celestia, the last time that we saw each other… long before the Friendship Festival, I was your snide little pupil who betrayed and abandoned you."

Casey gave a small, nervous gulp while Twilight was stunned at her friend's bold honesty. "I wouldn't have said it that way! Um, what Sunset means to say is-"

But Sunset held out a hoof towards Twilight, letting her know that she had it under control, and continued to speak. "What I mean is that I come before you a changed pony, humbly asking for forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge."

Luna turned her head over to look at her sister, who gave a quick nod before she stood up to begin walking towards Sunset, and once she was standing in front of her, Sunset felt her heart beating faster than usual as she lowered her head down. "Or I could just go, and you never have to see me again."

But to her surprise, Sunset felt a hoof being placed under her chin, and found herself looking up at Celestia, who had a small smile on her face. "I have missed you, Sunset Shimmer."

"... I'm so sorry," apologized Sunset, grateful that she hadn't been turned away, and as the two embraced each other, Twilight squealed with happiness while Casey happily sighed with relief.


################


The five ponies strolled through the castle, all trying to figure out what might have happened at Canterlot High.

"I am not familiar with the exact spell that could have erased your friends' memories," said Celestia, after Sunset had explained the situation. "But it sounds like Equestrian magic is at work in your world."

"Indeed," said an agreeing Luna, and as she continued to speak, Sunset was trying her best not to laugh, for some reason. "The toilings of this nefarious enchantment could portend unimaginable catastrophe if left unchecked."

After noticing Sunset's failed attempt at hiding her giggling, an amused Twilight used one of her wings to quickly slap some sense into her friend, and Luna turned her head in Sunset's direction.

"Sorry," said Sunset, trying to explain herself. "I'm just used to hearing you say to the students that they shouldn't park in the faculty lot."

A small frown appeared on Luna's face. "This faculty lot you speak of sounds like a place of great power."

Sunset, Casey, and Twilight all looked at each other before taking a moment to erupt into hushed laughter, and continued following after the Royal Sisters once they were done, with a smile returning to Celestia's face.

"The answers you seek are in the Canterlot Library."

So, a few minutes later, they were now entering into said location, and after looking around the grand and majestic library, a concerned Sunset said, "There must be over a million books in here, Twilight."

"We could be here for days," added Casey, but Twilight was hardly concerned at all with what they were saying.

"Ha, I wish there were that many books in here! And besides, it'd only take, like, twenty or forty minutes to find the book we're looking for." The young alicorn placed a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Don't you worry, Sunset, you're looking at a pony who knows this entire place like the back of her hoof!"

But then, to her surprise, she noticed that the Royal Sisters were now walking away from them. "Huh? Where are you going, Princess Celestia?"

A small smile appeared on her former teacher's face as she replied, "To the restricted section."

Twilight's eyes grew wide after hearing those words, and she started to begin breathing at a faster pace. "There's a… a re… a reehhh… a reeeehhhh..."

Sunset smiled in amusement while Casey began patting his girlfriend on the back. "Breath, Twilight, it's okay."

Once Twilight had settled down enough, the three of them followed Celestia and Luna over to the very back of the library, stopping in front of a cabinet filled with books, and Twilight became confused for a moment until she saw them magically pull down two books that had their Cutie-Mark symbol on the side, which caused part of the wall to slide away and reveal a secret hallway that would lead them to where they were going.

Twilight's mouth almost dropped to the ground, finding herself unable to say anything, and after Casey helped her close it back up, they followed Sunset into the revealed hallway.

A minute or so later, the trio of ponies found themselves looking at a pair of tall doors, which were swiftly opened by Celestia, and once everyone had entered the room, a wide-eyed Twilight gasped in surprise. "Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

The restricted section of the Canterlot Library was almost as big as the library itself, filled with nothing but ancient books, dusty scrolls, and strange magical artifacts that were protected under glass.

"In 3… 2… 1…" muttered a smirking Casey, and he gestured for Sunset to look at Twilight, who couldn't remember the last time that she had felt this excited.

"So many books all unread! Ancient historical artifacts?!" Twilight placed a hoof over her chest while using her magic to bring over a few of the many books in the room, and began wheezing as she ran out of words to describe her current feelings. "I just… I thought… I can't…"

"Are you sure that you're up for helping me go through all this stuff?" teased Sunset, with Casey letting out a chuckle as a frantic Twilight embraced her unicorn friend.

"Don't take this away from me, SunShim!" yelled the young princess, making Casey burst into laughter while an amused Sunset rolled her eyes.

Then, Twilight flew over to the nearest balcony that she saw, and was skimming through all kinds of various books that caught her eye. "No way! Can you two believe that they have Canterlot Cantibles Volume Thirty-One? You heard me! It's not ten, it's not twenty, it's volume thirty-one!" She brought the thick, hard-covered book close to her chest, and squealed with pure joy. "That's when the series gets gooooood!"

Letting out a gasp, Twilight rushed over to the other side of the library, filled up completely with excitement, while Celestia, Casey, and Sunset watched and laughed with fond amusement. "Over here! An original Wendigo Weather Warning from the pre-Equestrian Era... I can't, I just can't!"






A few moments later


Sunset let out a yawn, and stretched out her limbs as she closed up another enormous and boring book that was all about the history of Equestria. It felt like they had been inside of the special section for hours. "Did you know that Chancellor Puddinghead tried to pass a low mandating Earth ponies drink carrot juice at every meal? I do… know that… now… how's it going for-"

"Zzzzzzzz…" Casey was snoring softly beside her, the young stallion's face lying in the pages of an opened history book, and a smirk appeared on Sunset's face as she used her magic to push the book aside, which caused Casey's head to drop down against the wooden table.

"Huuuuggee!" He cried, to Sunset's amusement, becoming wide awake for a quick moment until the orange pony remembered where they were at.

"What'd you read about?" asked Sunset.

Casey rubbed his eyes for a little bit as he replied, "All I can remember right now is, uh, something about some weird pony from long ago wanting to have a wall or whatever paid by Earth ponies to be built around Canterlot… I think…" He let out another yawn. "I just could tell that a lot of ponies didn't like him."

"Awww, sounds like you two got all the better books," said a happy Twilight, sitting nearby with her own pile of books around herself, and she let out a fake yawn. "I should probably take a break from looking…" Her friend and special somepony just responded by yawning, and Sunset using her magic to clear away the table. "...because I found something!"

The two of them watched with surprise as Twilight brought over a large wooden box, and pulled out a closed scroll. "Sunset, you're familiar with the Seven Trials of Clover the Clever, right?"

"Obviously," replied Sunset, even though that both she and Casey had no idea what Twilight was talking about. "Why?"

Unraveling the scroll alongside the table, an enthusiastic Twilight gave her explaination. "Well! For starters, these date all the way back to before the founding of Equestria… now, take a look at this."

She pointed a hoof at a drawing that was on the starting side of the scroll, and Sunset read the words that were written near it. "The Memory Stone… that sounds promising!"

Twilight nodded in agreement, and continued to share what she had learned. "It belonged to an evil sorceror who was practically invisible. With the Memory Stone, he could erase any memory from anypony. Even fragments of memories."

He looks… familiar, for some reason, thought Casey, taking a closer look at the design of the sorceror. "Wait, so does that include…"

"... fragments like memories of me being nice?" finished Sunset.

"Uh-huh," replied Twilight. "Clover the Clever knew that the sorceror had to be stopped, so he chased him across land and sea. But every time he got close, the sorceror would erase his memory and escape… though he'd always be able to find him."

"How?" The two other ponies asked, and Twilight gestured to the scraps of parchment that were still inside of the wooden box.

"He secretly wrote everything so that he'd know what happened and where to go next, even as he constantly lost his memories. Like a trail of bread crumbs."

"Well, that's clever!" said Casey, and then, he began to laugh. "Oh, right… Clover the Clever… haha, got it."

Sunset just rolled her eyes, and took a closer at a revealed drawing that showed the sorceror going through what looked like a swirling portal while being chased by Clover the Clever. "What happened on the other side of this portal?"

Twilight opened up the scroll a little more, but for some reason, there was nothing to be found. "The last page is missing. Clover must've hidden it to keep anypony else from finding the Memory Stone."

Casey took another look at the portal, which also seemed very familiar to him, and a realization clicked in his mind. "Sunset, what if the Memory Stone ended up in your world?"

"And what if," agreed Sunset. "Someone is using it to make everyone hate me again?"

Then, all three of them looked at each other, and exclaimed, "But who?"
> An Obvious Suspect
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back on the beach, only a few hours had passed by since Sunset and Casey's departure. Most of the girls were resting their bodies across Rarity's beach blankets, and Sci-Twi had lifted up her sailor's hat to see how bright were the rays of the sun, but found herself looking at the smiling face of Pinkie Pie instead.

"You know, we have been out here in the sun for quite a while," pointed out Pinkie, now backing away a little bit. "Time to reapply!"

But instead of using a sunscreen bottle, the young teenager pulled out a cupcake from her bag that had her special edible sunscreen frosting, smeared it all over her face and arms, and hurried off to whoever knew where.

Sci-Twi just decided to continue looking out across the ocean, lost in thought because there was something that just did not feel right to her.

"Should we be worried about Sunset Shimmer?" She asked, with her friends not knowing how to answer the question, and unfortunately, a response came from someone else who wasn't them.

"Yeah,worried she comes back!" The girls looked over at a nearby Trixie, who was laying down in a reclining lawn chair underneath an umbrella a few feet away from them, and she was also being fanned by a pair of giant palm tree leaves that were held by Snips and Snails. "I think it's such a shame the way that she's been treating you all, pretending to be your friend. She's obviously up to something. Sunset Shimmer thinks that the whole school class exists just to serve her."

Then, she took a moment to quickly snap her fingers. "Water, please!" Snails handed the illusionist a water bottle while Snips continued to fan her, and all of the girls either rolled their eyes or shook their heads. "Speaking of which… seeing as how the yearbook president seems to having a bit of an identity crisis, I believe that means the vice president takes over. That'd be you, Rarity!"

The white-skinned teenager, currently laying in her own fashionable beach chair, shook her head as she replied, "If this is your way of asking me to put you as 'Most Great and Powerful' in the yearbook, the answer is no." Suddenly, Rarity began to feel very strange, almost looking look like she had gotten a headache. "Didn't we talk about this just yesterday? I can't quite remember."

Her friends all shrugged their shoulders, but Trixie wasn't about to give up. "Maybe we did, maybe we didn't. Memories can be a fickle thing sometimes… you'll never know when you forget something. Like how Great and Powerful I am, which is why I need to be in the yearbook!"

This girl just will not give up, will she? thought Rarity, who let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright, I will think about it."

A succesful smile appeared on Trixie's face, and she spoke with false sweetness. "That's all I ask."

Then, she snapped her fingers, and Snips and Snails continued on with fanning her, while Rarity was trying to remember still what had happened yesterday.

"Ah, now, sugarcube, don't strain yourself or anythin' like that," said Applejack, seeing the look of deep concentration on her friend's face. "I'm sure whatever you're tryin' to remember ain't that-"

"... Applejack? Applejack, where are - oh, there you are!"

To the girls' surprise, Applejack's grandmother suddenly came running over to them, with an object in her hands.

"Granny? Wha - what are you doin' here?" asked a confused Applejack.

"I came by to bring you your special bottle o' sunscreen that you forgot on the table at home," explained Granny Smith, placing it in her granddaughter's hands. "You know that you can't be forgettin' to put that sorta stuff on you every so often! Last time we all was here back when you were younger, almost your whole body became as red as an apple!"

Rainbow tried her best to not laugh out loud after hearing that, and an embarrassed Applejack just muttered underneath her breath as she began to apply the sunscreen lotion to herself.

"Ah, yessir, now you don't got to worry 'bout burnin' up or anythin' like… huh…" Granny Smith looked around the beach a few times, trying to find a particular person. "Where's that one gal friend of yours, AJ? Um, what's her name… Sunflower Brimmer, Seafood Dinner, Sundae Creamer -"

"Sunset Shimmer?" corrected Applejack, raising an eyebrow. "She ain't my friend, Granny."

"That's what name I said the first time," replied her grandmother, with Applejack trying to avoid rolling her eyes. "And what do ya mean that she ain't your friend? Why would we help her practice drivin' in my truck for her drivin' test a while back, then, if you two weren't friends?"

"Granny, we never… uh…" Applejack was about to deny her grandma's statement, but she soon found herself remembering a tiny part of that day. "Are you... Sure that…"

A chuckle came out of Granny Smith's mouth, and she replied, "Sure I'm sure 'bout that! It's not like the truck was drivin' all by itself that day, right?"

Before Applejack could give her a response, the elderly woman cried out, "Wait a minute! What time of the day is it, y'all?"

"Uh… it's a quarter past twelve on a Saturday?" answered Sci-Twi, and Granny Smith face-palmed herself.

"Ah, shoot! I'm goin' be late for the bingo… g'bye, Applejack, and make sure ya don't let yourself burn up like a crisped apple, ya hear?"

Then, as Granny Smith hurried off to the parking lot, a snickering Rainbow glanced over at Applejack, who was now trying to cover up her face with her hat.

"Huh, and you all thought that I was being silly for bringing these cupcakes with edible lotion icing!" cried Pinkie, who was now munching on said sugary treat.

Twilight! You remember me, don't you? We've been through so much together… please!

Sunset's words of plea towards her kept on replaying in Sci-Twi's mind, and she resumed looking out across the ocean.

If Sunset was someanand wasn't their friend, then why would she sound sohurtand say that she was?





Back in Equestria, the trio of ponies had just finished explaining to Princess Celestia what they had discovered about the Memory Stone.

"We should get back to my world, Casey," said Sunset. "Maybe now we can convince my friends that I'm telling the truth since we know what it is to look for."

Placing a drawing of the ancient stone in his saddle bag, Casey looked over at his special somepony. "You sure you don't want to come with us, Twilight?"

The princess of friendship shook her head, and said, "But don't worry, I'll stay here in the library, and search the entire restricted section from top to bottom until I find a way to get back the memories of Sunset's friends."

"If it's even possible," muttered Sunset, letting out a sigh.

"Oh, it's possible, or my name isn't Princess Twilight Sparkle," assured a confident Twilight. "I'll figure it out, even if I have to reorganize the whole library by subject, or maybe even chronologically. Oh! And fix the broken catalog machine…"

I'm really starting to love it whenever she talks like that, thought Casey, a warm smile appearing on his face.

"Thank you… all of you," said Sunset, speaking to Twilight, Casey, and Celestia, whom she was now glad to have finally made amends with.

"This is quite a contrast to the last time that the two of us parted ways," reminded the royal alicorn, smiling down at her former pupil. "With every choice you make, you prove yourself to possess a kind heart."

Sunset's cheeks turned a little red as she placed a hoof behind her shoulder, and looked over at Twilight. "I guess I had a good teacher."

"You were a good student," said a smiling Twilight.

Then, they heard Celestia clear her throat, and the three ponies saw a frown appear on her face.

"Are you saying that I wasn't a good teacher?"

The two mares quickly began to try explaining themselves, but then, Celestia started laughing in good-natured humor, and it wasn't long before they all joined in themselves.

"Wow, Princess Celestia has a sense of humor?" remarked Sunset, taking a moment to pause, and she looked at Twilight. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's changed."

And they both continued on with their giggling, while Casey just happily watched them interact with each other, not really feeling like he even needed to say anything… until Celestia headed back into the castle and Sunset started to walk away, which is when Casey went up to Twilight.

"You think maybe, um, I should ask… Stardust or his Twilight if he knows anything about this?"

Twilight looked at him in confusion. "Huh? Who are you talking about?"

Before Casey could answer her question, a pink limb wrapped itself around the young stallion, and a returning Pinkie said, "Come on, Casey, we still have, like, three more chapters to get through!"

"Alright, Pinkie, I… wait, what did you sa -aaaaghh!"


#############


"I'm not holding back this time!" yelled Rainbow Dash, almost about ready to serve the volleyball that was in her hand, while her partner - Applejack - rolled her eyes.

As she stood on the other side of the net, Fluttershy gave a nervous gulp, and spoke in a worried tone. "That's what I'm afraid of!"

"Bring it on, Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed her partner, who was Pinkie Pie. "You and Applecrisp just bought your team a one-way express train ticket to You're Going Down!"

Applejack just hung her head down while Rainbow's eyes widened up a little bit, and the surprised athlete said, "Wow, nice game face, Pinkie Pie."

"Thanks, I've been working on it all day," replied Pinkie, and she turned around to grab onto the camera drone that had been hovering around their heads. "Did you hear that, little camera? You're in my house now!"

Frightened by the pink teenager's actions, the Selfie Sensor quickly headed over to where Sci-Twi was, floating behind her while a growling Spike leaped off of Rarity's chair to walk away.

"Ohhh, looks like someone is jealous," teased Rarity.

Twilight's pet dog rolled his eyes, and he said, "Please! Call me whenever the flying can opener knows how to fetch… huh?"

It only took a moment or two for the camera drone to bring over an open can of dog food, and Spike just looked at it with an uninterested look. "I so hate you right now."

The Selfie Sensor made a series of sad-like beeps as it flew away, and after he made sure no one was watching, Spike began munching on the tasty food that was inside of the can while Rainbow started their match by serving the volleyball.

"Alright, it's game time!" The young athlete made the ball arch over the net at a high speed, with Fluttershy cowering in fear and covering her head, but Pinkie Pie quickly frog-leaped over her friend to spike it back over the net. "I got it, I got - oof!"

Rainbow jumped backwards in order to try and get in contact with the ball, but she ended up falling down, and was now laying against the sand while the white circular object rolled away from her. "I don't got it."

Applejack let out a chuckle as she went to go and retrieve the ball, but then, all of the girls saw Sunset Shimmer sprinting towards them, Casey not too far behind.

"Okay, great news!" said Sunset. "I figured it out. Someone erased the good memories that you all had of me with Equestrian magic! You don't remember, but we're still friends!"

None of the girls said anything to Sunset, choosing instead to either remain silent or glare at her.

Casey handed over the drawing of the magical stone to Sunset, and she showed it to the six of them. "This is the Memory Stone. Do you remember it?"

"..."

"..."

They all looked at Sunset as if they had no idea what she was talking about.

"Um, I think whoever used it on them might have also made them forget ever having seen it," said Casey, and Sunset looked at him. "Just being honest here."

"... Oh, right, sorry," Sunset replied, putting away the paper and taking out her cellphone to swipe through several photos of them being together - having a sleepover at Pinkie's house, welcoming Sci-Twi to CHS, and the one that had been taken yesterday. "See? This is proof that we are friends… and I have this, too!"


It's dance magic, once you have it
Let your body move, step into the music


Sunset's phone was now playing the music video that they had created alongside a few of the girls from Crystal Prep, and the bacon-haired teenager could see that they were having trouble trying to deny what was being shown to them-

"Oh, please, this is the same girl who made flawless fake photos of your friend trashing the gym."

Casey groaned as he saw who the nearby person was that had spoken, and muttered, "Why did this have to happen now?"

A smug grin appeared on Trixie's face, and arms were crossed, with Snips and Snails nearby trying to pack up her huge umbrella. "And she probably found a way to insert herself into the video, as well, considering what kind of things that technology has to offer these days. She is the yearbook editor for a reason, am I right?"

"You know, she has a point," Pinkie whispered loudly, and the girls went back to looking at Sunset in disbelief while she and Casey glared at a cackling Trixie.

"Then I guess my work here is done. Trixie out!" The illusionist threw done one of her smoke bombs, causing Snips and Snails to cough and rub their eyes. Once it cleared up, everyone saw her standing by the entrance steps. "And don't forget, Rarity, you promised to put me in the yearbook!"

"Wait, you did what?" cried Sunset, taking a step back as she looked at Rarity for an answer, but then, she accidentally stepped on top of the volleyball, sending it flying behind her while Sunset was about to fall on the sand-covered ground.

"I got you - gah!" Casey quickly hurried over to try and catch Sunset, but he suddenly found himself appearing right behind her, and she ended up collapsing on top of him.

"Oh, no!" As the two teenagers stood back up, they saw Sci-Twi run past them in order to check on her now-damaged camera drone, which had been due to getting struck by the volleyball, and it let out multiple beeps until the noises slowly died out.

Sunset quickly began giving her an apology. "Twilight, I'm sorry, it was an accident! Here, I can help you fix it-"

"I think you've helped enough," exclaimed a frowning Sci-Twi, clearly upset with her.

The two former ponies looked back at the others, who were all glaring at Sunset, and they turned their attention over to a departing Trixie.

"Come on, I think I know who's behind this," said Sunset, now frowning herself, and led Casey away from the beach.

"Please don't have us blow up, please don't have us - oof!" Casey started to say, but the next thing he knew, he was walking up against the side of Sunset's car. "What the… how did…?"

A few moments later, Sunset arrived with a confused expression. "How'd you get here so fast? I didn't even see you walk past me."

Casey shrugged his shoulders, and as Sunset began to start the car, he replied, "I have no idea… but, uh, let's worry about me after we get the Memory Stone."


###############


Once they had entered the student parking lot of Canterlot High, Sunset hurried as fast as she possibly could inside the school, and started to look for Trixie once she was walking down the hall.

Alright, where are you, you little... thought Sunset, but her thoughts were interrupted after a fellow student - Micro Chips - accidentally bumped into her, and he fell down to the floor. "Oh, sorry, here…"

Sunset offered to help him get back up, but instead of feeling the grip of his hand, the nervous teenager placed a few dollar bills in her open palm instead.

"I don't want your lunch money!" exclaimed Sunset, now getting a little irritated about the fact that, as she looked around, pretty much all of the students were afraid of her just like it had been during freshman year. "I'm notmean! Got it? I'm not mean!"

After she handed Micro back his currency, the teenage boy scurried away from Sunset as fast as possible, and an approaching Casey said, "Um, Sunset, you might want to think about turning down your level of-" Sunset glared at him. "Never mind… oh, look, there she is."

Trixie was putting away some school books into her locker, and was about to close the door when Sunset did it for her hard from out of nowhere, causing Trixie to let out a small yelp of surprise.

"So, here we are," said Sunset, standing behind the door after it slowly opened back up, and she crossed her arms.

"Here we do are," replied Trixie, even though she had no idea what the bacon-haired teenager meant.

From where he stood a few feet away, Casey watched with some nervousness as the two girls silently glared at each other, looking like they were having a standoff.

…and where did that tumbleweed come from?

"You sure that you want to do this out here in the hallway in front of everyone?" questioned Trixie, with the rest of the other students that had been watching making themselves scarce.

"Up to you," retorted Sunset, trying to keep her temper under control.

Then, to her surprise, Trixie responded by pulling out an 18" x 24" poster of herself that appeared to be a mock-up of the yearbook's Superlatives page. "Behold! Canterlot High's Greatest and Most Powerful student!"

As Sunset realized that Trixie was only trying to get herself in the yearbook, Casey simply let out a sigh of relief that nothing bad had happened.

"If something as simple as a made-to-scale mock up doesn't convince you, Sunset," said Trixie, giving a small shrug. "Then I don't know what will…"

"Where's the Memory Stone?" exclaimed Sunset, now marching towards her in irritation, with Trixie beginning to back away. "You turned my friends against me just because I wouldn't put in the yearbook as Most Powerful and Greatest?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, and replied, "For the umpteenth time, Sunset Shimmer, it's Greatest and Most Powerful… also, what are you talking about? What memory stone?"

"The one you used to erase everyone's memory," growled an upset Sunset. "You manipulative, little… blowhard!"

Trixie blinked her eyes a few times before speaking with a grin, sticking the poster of herself against a locker door. "A stone that can make everyone forget all the terrible tricks that I've done… which is none! Your puny rock pales in comparison to the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Man, I wish Starlight was here right now, thought Casey, also feeling that it was safe enough to make his way toward them.

As for Sunset, she couldn't believe what this meant for her. "You have no idea what it is that I'm talking about, do you, Trixie?"

"Um, nope, I don't. I'm sorry, Sunset," apologized Trixie, as well as suddenly noticing Casey walking over. "Oh hey, isn't your name, um... Crescent?"

Casey shook his head, but was still glad that this version of Trixie sort of knew what his name was. "It's Casey, actually."

As for Sunset, she walked over to the locker door opposite of the one that bore Trixie's poster, and slumped down against it until she was sitting on the ground. Now it feels like I'm back to Square One on figuring out whose responsible for this.

"Did someone really erase everyone's memories of you?" asked Trixie, and Sunset sadly gave a small nod.

"Uh-huh."

Then, Trixie walked over to a locker that was almost close to Sunset's, and she took a seat of her own. "So, even though we all know that you're the school's 'Biggest Meanie', you're saying you aren't like that anymore?"

"... It's complicated," replied Casey, with Sunset just giving her another small nod. He was also surprised to see Trixie acting so different in comparison to the other times he had interacted with her pony counterpart, as was the former unicorn.

"You have this idea of who you're supposed to be, but no one at school sees you that way," added Trixie, with the three of them noticing a pair of passing students stop by the illusionist's poster to point and have a good laugh before walking away. "Is that right?"

Sunset nodded again, and Trixie gave her a sheepish smile. "Trust me, I get it."

Am I still in the same world? thought Casey.

As for Sunset, she let out a sigh, and replied, "I can't believe that the only person in school who believes me is the one I called a manipulative blowhard… sorry about that."

"I took it as a compliment," remarked Trixie, getting up to her feet, and was now standing in front of Sunset, offering a hand. "Let me help you find the stone."

"What's in it for you?" asked Sunset, surprised but also suspicious at Trixie's offer, and the illusionist glanced over to her self-made poster behind them. It didn't take long for Sunset to put two and two together. "Oh, no, absolutely not! No way, Trixie!"

Trixie responded by giving Sunset a sly grin, and crossing her arms. "Well, if you want to continue being known as CHS' Biggest Meanie, that's perfectly fine by me…"

While Sunset was quickly thinking it over, Casey looked down at his turtledove necklace, and hoped that Twilight was having better luck than they were.


################


"I've looked everywhere! Why can't I find the missing pages?"

In the Restriced Section of the Canterlot Library, Twilight was standing in front of the table with piles of books all around her, and feeling very frustrated as she jumped up in the air, moving her limbs around in exasperation. "I've always been good to you, library!"

She then banged her head on the table, causing the wooden box to fall and shatter onto the ground in several pieces. The purple alicorn looked over to see what remained of it, and to her surprise, she saw a folded-up scratch of parchment stuck between two pieces of wood.

"This is it!" squealed an excited Twilight, with an approaching Princess Celestia smiling down at her, and she opened up the parchment across the table. It showed a drawing of what appeared to be a rock formation. "Clover the Clever must've buried the stone at this location, and I bet it's somewhere in the other world, but… it doesn't say anything about getting your memories back."

Twilight went back to the scroll that she had been reading earlier, and found something that made her eyes widen with concern as she read it aloud. "Perhaps if I had destroyed the Stone right away, then some of my memories would have returned, but when the sun has set on the day after a memory has been taken, it is erased forever."

She looked up at her former teacher, who was equally concerned. "You must warn Sunset Shimmer at once."

The young princess nodded her head, but just as she was about to write the warning message in her magic journal, a familiar voice suddenly spoke to them. "She and her friends are not the only ones in danger."

Both of the alicorns turned to the side, and saw a mystic swirl of blue-colored magic that soon transformed into the form of an elderly cloaked figure holding a staff that bore a miniature silver clock on the top.

"Kronos?" said Twilight, now feeling both concerned and confused.

"Greetings, princesses," said the Master of Time, delivering a quick and polite bow before explaining what he'd meant about earlier. "There has been a serious and threatening change that has been done to the timeline, courtesy of the Memory Stone… which has been tampered with… resulting already in a world parallel to this being erased from existence completely."

Before Twilight could ask what world he was referring to, Kronos finished his sentence in a sad and regretful tone. "And if the stone's not destroyed once the sun has set, not only will that erase the memories of Miss Shimmer's friends completely… your special somepony will no longer exist, remaining only a memory forever."
> A Big Difference, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“B-but but but…” Twilight was completely taken aback by Kronos’ words, and felt herself breathing faster than usual. “What do you mean he won’t exist anymore? There’s nothing like that mentioned in Clover’s scrolls, and Casey just helped in saving Equestria a few days ago, so why would-”

“Twilight, please relax for a moment,” said the elderly figure. “There is still plenty of time until sunset’s arrival in that world, and I’m sure that once you give them the message, it won’t be long until the stone is destroyed.”

The young alicorn opened her mouth to speak again but she felt a hoof placed on her shoulder, and looked up to see Princess Celestia’s sympathetic face, with her former teacher giving a small nod before using her magic to put the magical journal in Twilight’s hooves.

“Okay… okay, maybe you’re right,” said Twilight, now back to breathing at a normal level. “But who would want to erase the memories of Sunset’s friends, and keep Casey from ever existing? This seems like a lot of diabolical work for just one person to-”

Kronos shook his head, and he let out a sigh that almost sounded like one of regret. “It’s more than one individual behind this scheme, Princess, and if it’s who I believe it is… then, things are about to take a turn for the worse.”





As she sat at a cafeteria table, Sunset continuously drummed her fingers on it, wondering who else would have turned her own friends against her.

“You know, this… Starlight Glimmer person you’ve talked about sounds like someone that the Great and Powerful Trixie would be very interested in being friends with.” The teenage illusionist was having a conversation with Casey, who was wondering in the back of his mind why it wasn’t like this for him whenever he interacts with Trixie’s pony counterpart. “Would you happen to know where she lives?”

Before Casey could answer her, he noticed Sunset’s saddened expression while thinking of her friends, and he decided that it was time to re-focus on the matter at hand. “Alright, so who exactly would hate Sunset enough to erase pretty much everyone’s good memories of her?”

“If you go back far enough… everyone,” replied Sunset, remembering how it had been for her during freshman year before the arrival of Princess Twilight.

Pulling out a pen and small notebook from her sweater pocket, Trixie began to write down what she said. “Known enemies: All… but uh, there’s not really many students here in school on a Saturday, so how exactly would we be able to ask everyone that goes here about using a powerful magic rock to erase your friends’ memories?”

Sunset’s sadness turned into confusion while trying to figure out an answer to Trixie’s question, and luckily, Casey quickly thought of one. “We could first go to the yearbook editing room and look at all the student photos of everyone to see who’s even worth asking. That way we don’t exactly waste any kind of precious time asking each individual student here.”

The bacon-haired teeanger was about to tell Casey how that sounded like a really good idea, but an eye-rolling Trixie crossed her arms together as she said, “Oh, please, that idea sounds like a load of - wait! I got it… we should go to the room where Sunset does all of the yearbook stuff, and look at the photos of every student here to see who ought to be questioned! That way, no kind of valuable time will be wasted at all.”

And now she’s back to acting like her pony self, thought a non-amused Casey. “Great plan, Trixie.”

“You mean what a great and powerful plan, Crimson, but I appreciate your words of gratitude,” corrected Trixie, with Casey hanging his head down and Sunset giving him a sympathetic pat on the back. “And look, here’s our first official suspect!”

“Suspect for what exactly?” The three of them turned their attention over to the person who was now sitting at the edge of their cafeteria table. It was the grey-skinned sister of Pinkie, whose name was Maud Pie, and Sunset knew that this person was very smart.

“Is there anything you can tell us about this?” asked Sunset, getting the drawimg photo from Casey to show Maud. “Anything at all?”

Maud blinked her eyes a few times, and she replied, “I can’t really tell much from just a drawing…” The small glimmer of hope on Sunset’s face faded away. “But what I can tell you is that it’s felsitic intrusive ingenious, granular in texture, at least sixty-five percent alkali feldspar by volume…”

As Pinkie’s sister continued to talk, Sunset and Trixie cautiously backed themselves away from her but Casey was still listening out of honest curiousity until he felt Sunset’s hand take him away from the table.

“... with a melting point of twelve-fifty centigrade, plus or minus ten degrees,” finished Maud, also seeing that they were all now walking out of the cafeteria. “Sorry I wasn’t able to be more helpful.”


A few moments later


After tightening a few more loose screws, Sci-Twi (now back in her regular clothes) pressed the power button on her camera drone in hopes that it was fixed back to working order.


Beep! Beep! Beep!


The intelligent teenager smiled after seeing it buzz into the air, flying in loops around the rest of the girls that were also no longer wearing beach clothing. “Good as new! Now it’s time for the eight attempt and second take of ‘Best Friends Yearbook Photo’, number thirty-six A!”

While her friends started preparing themselves for the picture, Sci-Twi found herself looking over to the nearby window of the yearbook office, where a sad-smiling Sunset Shimmer stood at, giving her a small friendly wave.

I’m… sorry, Sunset, thought Sci-Twi, and the bacon-haired teenager watched her friend turn away so that she could pose with the rest of the girls for the yearbook picture.

Once the bright camera flash had appeared, Sunset turned around, and walked over to the computer that would soon be showing her the taken photo via Bluetooth connection.

As for Casey and Trixie, they were finishing up going through the list of all the students in CHS that could possibly be in possession of the Memory Stone, and unfortunately, they had not been having much luck.

“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nuh-uh. Nope.” said Trixie, using a red marker to check off each individual student that would be less likely to be the culprit. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope… wait… nope… oh, how about-”

“Just put the check symbol, Trixie, cause I can’t think of any reason why three young kids would want to do something like that,” pointed out Casey. “Especially when it’s the younger siblings of Applejack and Rarity, and someone who’s like a younger sister to Rainbow.”

Trixie blinked her eyes for a quick moment and groaned as she did just that. “Well, this was a terrible idea of yours, Casey! We’ve pretty much crossed out every single other student that goes here except for me, Sunset, her friends, and… hey, wait a minute! Do you even go to this school? And how come you look less clearer than the first time I met you?”

“Uh, what exactly are you -” Casey began to say, but he noticed that Trixie was now looking at him suspiciously, and he closed his eyes halfway. “Seriously? It wasn’t me who did this, Trixie; I’m her friend, and I’ve been on Sunset’s side since the beginning.”

Trixie wasn’t entirely convinced just yet. “That’s exactly something what the culprit would say to us!”

“It wasn’t Casey, Trixie, believe us,” said Sunset, coming to her friend’s defense, and she looked through the pages of student photos that they had checked through. “I don’t get or understand why-”

“Oh, wait! Look, an empty photo,” called out the illusionist, pointing a finger at a certain area on one of the pages. There was an unchecked photo of a student, but for some reason, no student whatsoever was even there. All it had was a small piece of text underneath, which Trixie read aloud. “Not pictured: Wallflower Blush… who’s that?”

“I’m right here, you know,” said an almost quiet voice from the corner of the room, and the three friends turned their heads to see the green-haired teenage girl, who was sitting at a computer. It was the same girl that Sunset and Casey had met yesterday in the same room they were currently in now.

“Oh, hey Wallflower,” greeted Casey, trying to be polite. “Uh, how long have you been there?”

“Since you three first came in here almost a few hours ago,” replied Wallflower, giving him a small smile before glaring at Trixie. “And I’ve known you since third grade.”

Trixie went from being confused to pleased as she began to reminisce about her early school days. “Ah, yes, third grade! I remember it well… I mean, not you specifically, but what a grade it was!” Casey and Sunset both rolled their eyes simultaneously. “The Great and Powerful Trixie debuted her disappearing frog trick! You know, a lot of people don’t know how much hard goes into raising tadpoles.”

Sunset was about to say something in Wallflower’s defense when she noticed a soft magenta glow coming from her bag. Princess Twilight? The former unicorn pulled it out while Casey continued listening to Trixie’s rambling of herself. Maybe she knows who’s behind all this!

She swiftly opened up the journal, and read the message that Twilight had for her. Sunset, we think the Memory Stone was buried under this rock formation. In the middle of the sentences was an illustration of the rock formation. And if you don’t destroy the Memory Stone by the sun sets today, all those memories will be erased forever… also, have you noticed anything different about Casey?

Sunset glanced over at Twilight’s unamused special someone, and began to give a response to Twilight. Not really… I mean, he looks not as, uh, ‘clear’ as he did before, if that makes sense… and he somehow ended up going from the beach to my car without even going past by me-

Suddenly, her attention had been caught by the photo that was showing on Wallflower’s computer screen. It showed a rock formation that was very similar to the one in Twilight’s drawing, and for Sunset, it was like the wheels were turning in her head.

“Hey, uh, can I ask you a silly question, Wallflower?” said Sunset, giving her a falsified smile and grin. “Where did you take that lovely photo?”

“Oh, that’s my garden,” replied Wallflower, smiling after seeing Sunset notice the picture. “Well, the school’s garden, technically. I’m the president of the gardening club. I founded it too. I’m also the only member, and the only one who’s ever been to the garden. Or seen it… or even asked about it.”

“You’re not, uh, really into other people, are you?” asked Trixie.

Casey sighed, and he shook his head, much to Wallflower’s confusion. “Oh, no, I think your garden looks beautiful… it’s just that there is someone else I know back home whom I am not exactly fond of, and that also enjoys studying plants.”

A chuckle came out of the mouth of a blushing Wallflower, feeling touched by Casey’s beginning words. “Thank you… and, um, I was actually thinking about maybe adding this picture somewhere in the yearbook. What do you think?”

Trixie scoffed, and exclaimed, “Sorry, but Sunset doesn’t allow anyone to put things in her yearbook.” She walked over to stand by Sunset. “No matter how much they deserve it.”

But to Trixie and Casey’s surprise, Sunset contradicted the illusionist by saying, “No, you should do that, Wallflower, so, uh, don’t let us keep you from working on it.”

“What?” cried Trixie, glaring at the yellow teenage girl while Casey tried holding in his laughter. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is annoyed and… insulted!”

Letting out a soft and quiet chuckle, Wallflower turned her attention back to the photo on her computer screen, resuming her work… just as Sunset began to slowly walk over to the unsuspecting student.

I just need to grab onto her hand, wrist, or simply an arm, thought Sunset, needing to know right now what Wallflower was thinking, and by the time the green-haired teenager realized that Sunset was right next to her, she had already grabbed her wrist, which allowed Sunset to see certain past memories of Wallflower’s.

What she was seeing so far was Wallflower standing by herself in the shadows, being ignored by the rest of her classmates that didn’t even know she even existed.

However, there was one particular memory that had stood out to her above the rest.


###################


“Trust me, my dear, do as I say, and your wish of being noticed will come true.”

Wallflower was standing by her garden, the Memory Stone in her hands, and in front of her was an unknown floating entity in a black cloak.

“So… you want me to use this thing to erase all of the good memories that Sunset Shimmer’s friends have of her? Even those that aren’t her friends?”

“Correct, Wallflower,” replied the cloaked figure. “And as long as you don’t go overboard, you will get your wish granted at the end of the day.”

She nodded her head, but Wallflower still appeared to be hesitant about the whole thing.

“Is there a problem, my dear?”

“No, I just…” answered Wallflower, not wanting the stranger to be upset with him… despite the cloaked person already knowing how to take care of this.

“Well, wonderful!” With a hidden grin from behind his hood, the cloaked person raised up his right hand that was now glowing with dark energy. “And don’t be alarmed, this won’t even hurt a bit.”


Whoosh!


Releasing Wallflower’s wrist from her grip, Sunset backed away a little bit as she realized what the memories had informed her of. “You’re the one who erased everyone’s memories?”

At first, Wallflower was shocked at Sunset’s words directed towards her, but then, she glared at the bacon-haired teen with defiance. “Yes… I did.”

“Wait, who are you again?” asked a confused Trixie, and Casey slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Wallflower let out a sigh, and turned back around to look at the photo of her garden on the computer.

You don't see me fitting in
I'm sitting here alone
Right beside my shadow
Always on my own

She was now explaining her unfortunate situation of feeling “invisible” in the world, with only Casey and Trixie listening in awe while Sunset was just glaring at her, hand placed on her hip.

If I could share my wildest dreams
Maybe they would see
I'm more than just a wallflower
There's so much more to me

I'm invisible, invisible
A droplet in the mist
Invisible, invisible
It's like I don't exist

As Wallflower continued to sing, Sunset took this opportunity to sneak her way over to the green-haired teenager’s backpack.

Right beneath my picture
This is what you'll read
A laundry list of nothings
Not likely to succeed

A yearbook with blank pages
That no one wants to sign
A memory forgotten
Until the end of time

I'm invisible, invisible
A droplet in the mist
Invisible, invisible
It's like I don't exist

Then, Wallflower took a moment to remain silent after finishing up her song, and Trixie was about to say something when Casey suddenly spoke first. “I’m… so sorry you feel that way.”

“Why do you feel sorry?” wondered Wallflower. “I’m sure you have a bunch of friends like Sunset and everyone else.”

Casey gave a quick nod. “This is true, but… it wasn’t always like that.” Wallflower gave him a confused look. “For four years, I didn’t have anyone to call a friend… there was only me, my parents, and the stars…. and for two years, I truly was alone in the world after my parent’s deaths… so I’m saying sorry to you because I understand where you’re coming from.”

Just as Wallflower was about to respond to Casey, the young teenager finally noticed Sunset searching through her backpack. “Hey! What are you doing?”

She pulled it out of Sunset’s hands before the bacon-haired teenager could grab the Memory Stone, and Sunset began pleading with Wallflower. “What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you!”

“Exactly!” cried Wallflower, now furious. “You had everyone fooled, but now they know you’re still the Biggest Meanie!”

Her glaring eyes blazing, Sunset started to walk towards Wallflower, with a deep frown on her face. “You’re about to see how mean I can get!”

“Whoa, okay, hold up there a second,” remimded Trixie, now blocking her from going any further. “Let’s not antagonize the person with the all-powerful mystery rock.”

“I don’t like confrontation,” said Wallflower, pulling the Memory Stone out of her backpack, and was just about ready to fire it at both Sunset and Trixie’s foreheads. “So let’s just forget that this conversation ever happened!”
> A Big Difference, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With Sunset and Trixie both knocked out on the ground, Wallflower turned her attention to Casey, who was being cautious as he spoke to her. “Just hand over the Memory Stone, Wallflower… please… you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into with that kind of power.”

For a moment, an expression of guilt was on Wallflower’s face as she said, “I’m sorry, Casey, but…” Then, there was a dark look in her eyes. One that was very familiar to Casey. “This is something I’ve got to do.”

“Wallflower, please, you-” Casey began to say, but he was cut off by the sudden appearance of a bright green light that was similiar to a camera flash, and the next thing he knew, he was lying down on the ground, not even knowing how he got there to begin with or how long he’d been there. “Ugh, my head… Sunset, how long have we - gah!”

Casey had been looking at his right hand to see if it had gotten injured somehow, and for some reason, it was almost completely transparent. He could see the whole entire door through it!

“... Casey? Why are you screaming?”

A dazed Trixie rubbed her head as if it had been hit, and Sunset was slowly opening up her eyes, feeling like she had woken up from a huge nap.

Casey was about to answer the former pony’s question, but he quickly noticed that his hand was back to normal except it was a little more faded.

“Uh… bad dream, Sunset,” said the young teenager, deciding to worry about his problems later while trying to remember why they were even in the yearbook editing room, but nothing was coming to him.

He got up to walk over to the door, but when he tried opening it, Casey became surprised to find out that it was locked.

Why in the heck is this even locked from the outside?

“No… no, no, no,” said a worried Sunset, hurrying over to try opening it herself but she didn’t have any luck either. “If we don’t get out of here and figure out who has the Memory Stone, in just a few hours it will be too late to restore everyone’s memories.”

Trixie sadly shook her head. “Um, hate to burst your bubble, Sunset, but it doesn’t really matter if we get out. How are we even supposed to catch someone who can erase our memory every time we get close to catching them?”

As Casey realized that Trixie had a point, Sunset found herself putting her hands in her pockets, and she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

“... we do it by being clever!” Sunset exclaimed, remembering what Twilight had told her about Clover leaving himself a trail of bread crumbs, and she showed the piece of paper to Casey. “Look, I wrote myself a note - Check the video.”

“Uh, what video?” asked a confused Casey.

Sunset walked over to the bookcase by the door that had several past yearbooks in the shelves, and one of them had a hidden camcorder that was still in recording mode. “Yes! It’s been recording this whole time!”

“Recording what?” Trixie questioned,since she had no idea what Sunset was trying to say.

“I don’t remember doing it,” explained Sunset. “But I must have realized that our memories could be erased, so I pressed record at some point!”

The three of them were now looking at the camera while Sunset began playing the recorded video from the beginning, and in the video, Sunset had given a thumbs up before going over to Wallflower in order to check her memories.

“Wait, who’s that?” asked Trixie.

“Wallflower Blush,” replied Sunset.

“Ohhh… yeah, name’s not ringing a bell to me.”

Sunset and Casey rolled their eyes at the same time, but before either of them could speak, they heard Wallflower starting her song about feeling invisible.

“Ugh…” groaned Trixie, and she pressed the fast-forward button on the camera, which had Wallflower singing at a much faster speed. “Long song, huh?”

When it seemed like Wallflower was done, Trixie went over to click the Play button, and found themselves seeing Casey talk in a comforting tone about him also having felt the way she did.

“... so was I, Wallflower, for almost two years.”

Casey became silent for a moment, with Sunset doing the same since she had seen through his memories before how terrible life had been for him during those years, and then, the video had reached the part where Sunset had confronted Wallflower.

“What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you!”

“Exactly! You had everyone fooled, but now they know that you’re still the Biggest Meanie!”

“You’re about to see how mean I can get!”

Sunset paused the video, and before she could even say anything, Trixie cleared her throat before speaking. “Um, you know… she’s kinda right about you.”

A slight frown appeared on Casey’s face, and Sunset gave a sarcastic response. “Gee, thanks.”

However, according to Trixie, she didn’t mean what Sunset thought she was talking about. “You said in the video that you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t!” exclaimed Sunset. “I wasn’t mean to her at all!”

While Casey was still trying to figure out how to open up the door, Trixie sighed before saying, “Maybe it’s not good enough to not be mean to someone.” Casey paused his attempt after hearing Trixie speak. “Maybe you have to be nice.”

Who is she? thought Casey.

Sunset took a look at the camera’s paused screen, which showed a frowning Wallflower, and back over at Trixie. “You’re right… but, uh, there’s still the issue of us all being trapped in here. Unless my Great and Powerful friend can magic us out of here?”

“What’s the point in trying?” said Trixie, sounding defeated because all that she had with her were smoke bombs. “You’ve seen enough of my tricks to know what’ll hap… wait… you think of me as a friend?”

Sunset glanced over at the photo she’d taken yesterday with her friends, whose good memories of her were almost close to being gone forever.

“Uh-huh… and one that I know I’ll still have at CHS by the end of the day.”

Feeling touched by Sunset’s kind words towards her, Trixie’s look of defeat turned into one of smugness. “You poor, unfortunate soul! You actually believed that I gave up? Mere stage banter! The Great and Powerful Trixie never gives up on herself, or her… her friends!”

Casey went over to stand by Sunset while Trixie backed away towards the door, speaking with a loud stage voice. “Behold! The Magician’s Exit!”

The illusionist tossed one of her smoke bombs down to the ground, and after it exploded, Trixie almost expected to find herself still in the room… but instead, she opened up her eyes to see that she was now in the hallway. “It worked… it worked! Yes, I’ve finally did it!”


Knock-knock-knock!


“Still in here!” reminded Sunset, who was standing behind the door.

Trixie smiled sheepishly at her friend. “Um, all part of the trick! Don’t worry, have you out in a jiffy!”

She tossed down another smoke bomb, but when the smoke cleared away, Casey was now in the hallway while Trixie was back in the room with Sunset.

“Again!”

Now it was only Sunset in the room by herself, with Trixie standing next to Casey outside.

“Um, third time’s the charm?”

After trying it again, Trixie found herself and Casey in the room while Sunset was now out in the hallway.

“You know what? Just go and do what you have to do! I’ll get Cody out of here in a minute!”

Seriously? thought Casey, letting out a sigh before gesturing to Sunset for her to go, and the young teenager gave a small nod of gratitude.

“I owe you one, Trixie! I’ll never forget this!”

“Never say never!” replied Trixie, as she watched her race down the hallway.

Then, she turned over to Casey, and asked, “Um… would you happen to have any extra smoke bombs with you?”

Casey opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly, his body deteriorated into pixels and letters, and Trixie let out a small yelp of surprise as he teleported from the room to out in the hallway.

“How is that even possible?”

That explains how I got to Sunset’s car so fast. The young man shrugged his shoulders, and started to run in the same direction that Sunset had gone in. “We’ll come back for you, I promise!”

Once Casey was out of Trixie’s view, the illusionist put on a face as determination while backing away a little from the door.

“I sure hope this door’s not too expensive,” muttered Trixie, gathering up all of her strength in an attempt to break the door down, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and resulted in a now-dazed Trixie.

“Peanut… butter… crackers,” she mumbled before collapsing to the floor, with a row of periwinkle stars twirling around her head.





After searching everywhere in the entire school for Sunset or Wallflower, Casey finally went out the front doors and scanned the parking lot, where he saw all of Sunset’s friends standing by Applejack’s truck, as well as Sunset confronting a retreating Wallflower by the very edge of the campus, and a black car that he didn’t recognize.

“Wallflower, stop!”

The green-haired teenager bore an innocent expression as she stopped to turn and look at Sunset. “You remember my name?”

“I remember everything!” replied Sunset. “The Memory Stone! How I acted, all of it.”

“What? How?” exclaimed Wallflower, in disbelief. “I erased the whole afternoon!”

After she said those words, Sci-Twi and the rest of the girls all looked at Wallflower, remembering what Sunset had told them earlier about the Memory Stone, and Wallflower did a small gulp after realizing her slip-up.

“Listen, I used to be just like you,” begged Sunset. “Sure, I was popular, but I was lonely-”

“You’re nothing like me at all!” interrupted a glaring Wallflower. “And I’m not lonely cause I have… plants!” She blinked her eyes for a second, and placed a hand on her forehead. “That sounded less lonely in my head.”

“I’m sorry, Wallflower,” apologized Sunset, just as Casey was getting close to her. “Please, just hand over - Casey?”

“Uh-huh,” gasped Casey, taking a moment to catch his breath after running so fast. “Wallflower... please… revenge isn’t the answer. I’ve seen what it can do to someone… myself, included… stop now before you actually end up physically hurting someone.”

“I can’t actually hurt someone with this, Casey,” replied Wallflower, who had taken the Memory Stone out of her backpack. “All it does is erase memories, like last night when I did it to your friends, Sunset Shimmer!”

The other girls all gasped in shock after hearing Wallflower’s proclaimation, and the green-haired teenager was now growling with frustration once realizing she messed up again.

“If I can’t teach Sunset a lesson by erasing her friends’ good memories of her,” said Wallflower. “Then, maybe I can by erasing all of their memories from high school!”

An alarmed expression appeared on Sunset’s face, and she cried, “No, Wallflower, you can’t do that!

“If you did that, you’d be stealing their memories of each other,” added Casey, who was also trying his best to stop himself from glitching. “You have to listen to her, to me! Please don’t do this!”

For a moment, Wallflower gave Casey an apologetic look but it soon changed to a dark one, and after shaking her head, she turned her lips into a deep frown. “All I know is that they’ll think of one another the way that you’ve thought of me, Sunset, which is not atall!”

Then, she was about to fire a beam of the Memory Stone’s magic towards all of Sunset’s friends, but for some reason, the stone was suddenly snatched out of Wallflower’s hands. “Wait, what-”

“What did I say to you about going overboard?”

A sinister voice was heard throughout the CHS parking lot, with a black swirl of magic appearing behind the magical object that was floating in the air, and while Wallflower gulped nervously, both Casey and Sunset shared a look of confusion and concern.

“Teenagers these days, honestly.” The swirl slowly transformed into the shape of an unfamiliar person wearing a black cloak, his face covered up by its hood, and he pointed with a gloved hand at the young green-haired teenager. “I’ll deal with your impatience in just a moment... and may I say what a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”

Sunset, Wallflower, and the human versions of the Mane 6 all looked over at Casey, who replied, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, it’s not every day that you get to actually meet one of the few individuals you despise so much meet a tragic end,” said the sinister figure, now floating only a few inches above the ground. “Only a matter of time until you’re gone completely… unless…”

He slowly made his way over to Casey, and the young teenager was about to say something, but then, his glitching suddenly returned, and everyone else watched with horror as the young man’s body went back and forth constantly from its regular form to nothing but pixels and inked letters.

“I suppose this also works.” A hidden smile appeared on the cloaked person’s face

“Hey!” The unknown figure turned his head in Sunset’s direction. “I may not know who the heck you are, but leave my friend alone!”

“You still think of him as a friend? Someone who wasn’t even meant to exist in the first place?” He asked, though he was no longer moving, and Sunset nodded her head.

“Of course I think of him that way… and what do you mean he isn’t supposed to exist?”

Instead of answering her question, the cloaked figure simply backed away enough for Casey to only glitch occasionally, but he now looked a lot worse than he had a few minutes ago.

“Thank… you…” gasped an exhausted Casey, and it wasn’t long before he felt himself collapse, but luckily, Sunset was able to catch him before he got hurt in any way.

“Once I watch him vanish into thin air, I’ll be sure to do the same with the vigilante,” said the cloaked figure. “My only regret is that I can’t see it happen together.”

Casey looked up at him, and it was almost as if the dots were starting to connect in his mind. “You… are the reason why this is… happening to me.”

“Well, more or less, but yes,” answered the cloaked figure, and he gestured to the Memory Stone. “Amazing what this can be capable of after making a couple of major adjustments to it… such as restoring the balance of a universe to what it was originally meant to be.” He turned his attention over to Sunset. “To answer your question, my dear… if this were a t.v. show, I’d simply be erasing Casey from it because he’s only a self-inserted character that came from the mind of someone else… and does not belong in it whatsoever.”

While Sunset was trying to figure out how to respond to the cloaked figure’s statement, Casey was mentally calling out to the only person that he hoped would be able to help -

“There’s no use in trying to contact your beloved friend,” said the sinister man, as if he’d been hearing Casey’s thoughts. “His dimension is lightyears away from this one… and besides, his only existence are now in the pages of a book that Princess Twilight doesn’t even remember writing.”

He moved a few inches towards them, and as Casey’s glitching became more constant, a red ball of deadly energy appeared in one of the cloaked figure’s hands. “Let me ease the rest of your pain by putting an immediate end to your story… and I would say that you’d be reunited with your parents, but not even they exist anymore, so you will literally fade away into nothingness… also, I highly suggest that you move out of the way.”

Sunset was still holding onto Casey, and she took a moment to look back and forth from him to her nearby friends, but just as the sinister man was about to just fire his blast despite his warning, a familiar magenta streak of magic shot towards him from behind, causing the figure’s energy ball to dissapear.

“What the hell is…” said the elderly figure, turning over to see who had fired the shot at him. “Ah, how lovely it is for us to meet again, Kronos, you meddling imbecile… and I see you brought a friend.”

“Twilight?” Both Sunset and Casey spoke at the same time, surprised and confused to see the princess of friendship standing beside Kronos, but still in the form of an alicorn instead of a human being.

“Leave these innocent people alone, Xenos,” proclaimed Kronos, glaring at the cloaked figure while Twilight hurried over to check on her boyfriend.

“You okay?” asked the young alicorn.

Casey just nodded his head, not exactly knowing what to even say right now.

As for Kronos, he continued to speak to the dangerous being in front of him. “You have no business even being here.”

A laugh came out of Xenos’ mouth, and he shook his head. “Neither do you… now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some unfinished business with her.”

The sinister figure tossed the Memory Stone into Wallflower’s hands, and he pointed at Sunset. “Use it on her now.”

Wallflower remained silent, looking over at the bacon-haired teenager with hesitation, which made Xenos even more upset.

“I gave you an order, Wallflower. You wouldn’t have even gotten the stone if it weren’t for me.”

Casey looked at Kronos, wondering why wasn’t he doing anything to Xenos.

“Because the last time he tried, it almost cost him his life,” said the sinister figure, who was still glaring at a petrified Wallflower. “And was forbidden by a higher authority to ever go up against me like that again… which means that he can’t stop me from doing this.”

Casey’s fear grew at a rapid pace as he watched Wallflower suddenly rise up into the air, with only Xenos’ eyes moving at the same time, and it was because he was reminded of when Rowan had done the same to him.

“I’ll be taking this back,” said Xenos, with the Memory Stone swiftly floating towards him, and Wallflower’s eyes were now closed as she grunted in pain, dark psychic energy now surrounding and almost crushing her body.

There has to be something I can - wait a second! thought Casey, who suddenly found himself looking down at his special watch that he’d created some time after meeting Stardust, and a frown appeared on his face.

“As of right now,” growled Xenos. “Your services are no longer requ- gah! Who…”

From out of nowhere, the sinister figure was struck by a powerful electric attack, and that caused him to lose his focus on Wallflower, who fell down safely into the arms of Kronos. “ .. you abomination.”

“Stupid head.” A smirk appeared on Casey’s face, and he fired the same attack again at Xenos’ hands, causing the Memory Stone to fly away somewhere else.

Xenos’ hidden eyes started glowing with rage, but then, a sly smile appeared on his face. “Well played, Casey… but who do you think gave Rowan that power to begin with?”a

Before Casey could say anything to him, Xenos added, “Who do you think was the one responsible for you even entering Stardust’s world in the first place?”

The young man remained frozen in place, and Xenos grinned once he realized what needed to be said in order for him to hit it home. “I’m the reason why Rowan entered your world in the first place… and it was I who instructed him to ‘take care’ of your parents… isn’t that right, Kronos?”

Casey turned his head towards the elderly man, who was silent but had a sad expression on his face, and Xenos started to laugh. “You know, since we have… I would say, a few more hours until the sunset arrives, let’s have a little fun. What do you think, Princess Twilight?”

“You do... anything to her,” growled Casey, in between another unexpected glitch, and Xenos shook his head.

“I wouldn’t dare hurt the lovely princess myself… I’d give that honor to someone else, and since you’ve already done it in the past, I’m going to have her do it.”

Then, he glanced over at Kronos, with one eyebrow raised. “You think you’re the only one who can keep someone in their actual form?”

With a quick snap of two fingers, Xenos’ smile grew wider as the person who was standing next to Casey quickly became surrounded by dark energy that formed into the shape of an egg. “Another positive in tampering with the Memory Stone, which was used on you not so long ago, if I recall.”

Everyone else was too shocked at what was now going on in front of them to say anything, except for Sci-Twi and Twilight.

“Sunset!”

A chuckle came from Xenos as he said, “Time to see which one of you is more powerful.”

Twilight and Casey began to back away a little once the egg-shaped cocoon had vanished, revealing Sunset Shimmer in her unicorn body, but she didn’t look happy to see them.

“Sunset? Are you - whoa!” Twilight teleported herself out of the way to avoid an energy blast that came from Sunset’s own glowing horn. “Sunset, stop, don’t do this!”

“A little too late for that, princess,” replied the possessed unicorn, and fired another blast at the purple alicorn.
> The Power of Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Will you just… quit running away from me, Twilight!”

Sunset fired another blast at the defensive alicorn, and Twilight teleported herself to a different spot, with the blast swiftly passing by her. The two ponies had spent most of the time so far since Sunset’s possession repeating this process.

“I’m not going to fight you, Sunset!” exclaimed Twilight, who had no intention whatsoever in bringing any harm to her. “You’re my friend, and I - eeep!” The yellow unicorn’s response was another blast sent towards her that she carefully dodged.

As that was going on, a hovering Xenos was watching with a smile on his face, feeling very amused by his new possession trying to harm the princess of friendship.

Also, the human versions of the Mane 6 were watching with worried expressions, and Casey had gone over to Wallflower to see if she was okay.

“Sunset, listen to me!” begged Twilight, hoping that she’d be able to get through to her. “If we continue to do this, the sun will have already set, and we won’t be able to get back the good memories your friends have about you! Casey won’t even exist - yikes!”

A more stronger blast had come from Sunset, her horn glowing with dark magic, and instead of teleporting away, Twilight deflected it by surrounding herself inside of a force field.

“You’re such a weak princess, Twilight,” said Xenos, with Sunset now speaking at the same time due to her being under his control. “No wonder you’ve been captured so many times.”

The yellow unicorn fired another strong energy blast, but the young alicorn continued to remain standing in her force field bubble, and Sunset growled in frustration while Xenos began laughing.

“That won’t be able to keep you safe forever, Twilight… just deal with it - I'm smart, you're dumb; I'm big, you're little; I'm right, you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it.”

Before Twilight could say anything back, Sunset fired one more blast at her shield, and kept it going until she would be successful in penetrating her means of protection.

“Sunset… please,” begged Twilight, who was using as much power as she possibly could to keep up her force field, but like what Xenos had said, she had a terrible feeling that it wasn’t going to stay that way forever.

A worried and concerned Casey looked over at Kronos, and the Master of Time said, “Break the Memory Stone… it could be the only way to save Sunset, her friends, and your own self.”

Casey looked down at his hands after hearing that, and saw that they were now starting to become transparent again.

“But how am I supposed to do that if- huh?”

Suddenly, the powerful stone landed in front of them, and he looked up to see that it had been thrown by the person that had caught it earlier: a yellow-haired teenage girl with grey skin, gold-colored eyes that were crossed, and waved happily at him before speeding away on her bicycle.

“Um… okay… thanks, Derpy,” muttered Casey, and he tried to pick up the Memory Stone, but because of his hands’ transparency, all they did was go right through the stone. “Guess it’s time to make a Plan B, then.” He turned over to look at Wallflower. “I need your help… and I also need you to trust me.”

As for Twilight, she felt herself starting to sweat because her force field bubble was heating up like an oven, thanks to Sunset’s continuous energy blast, and Xenos cackled with glee as he saw the trailing edge of the sun’s disk start to dissappear below the horizon.

“Time sure flies when you’re having fun,” said the sinister villain, as well as Sunset, and he let out a chuckle. “Enjoy the afterlife, my little princess.”

A small crack appeared on the surface of Twilight’s force field, and she gave a nervous gulp, but just as it looked like Sunset’s magic would destroy the force field completely, a sudden whistle was heard that made Sunset stop using her magic to turn around.

“Hey, Zenon! Leave my girlfriend alone!” shouted Casey, glaring at both her and Xenos. “And if you want to have her hurt someone, a-hole, then go ahead and take your best shot!”

A sly grin appeared on Xenos’ face, and he said, “Well, then, don’t mind if I do… and sorry you two don’t have time to give a proper farewell.”

“What… Casey! Sunset, no!” cried Twilight, watching in horror as the possessed unicorn fired an energy blast at Casey… who glitched away from her attack at the very last second, resulting in Sunset’s magic being absorbed by the Memory Stone that Wallflower was currently holding in her hands.

Then, because it was too much power for the Memory Stone to handle, the magical object exploded into several small pieces and everyone watched as the memory strips that were inside go back to the minds of their rightful owners, which included Casey, Sunset, and the young unicorn’s friends.

After the explosion’s arrival, Wallflower found herself falling back again into someone’s arms, and she turned around to see that it was Casey, who was no longer transparent.

“Told you that I- oof!” He was cut off by an unexpected hug from the nervous teenager, and a few seconds later, she pulled away from him with a sheepish smile and a small red hue on her face while Casey gave an amused chuckle.

“Ohhhh… and I just got rid of my headache from before not that long ago,” moaned Rarity, placing a hand on her forehead.

“I second that, sugarcube,” muttered Applejack, in response, and the rest of the girls nodded in agreement.

However, for some reason, Sunset still looked possessed, and a confused Casey couldn’t understand as to why this was.

“Because aside from still being under my control, she’s the only one here that has something dark but also beautiful placed deep inside of her,” explained a smirking Xenos, with Sunset remaining silent. “And now it is time for us to all enjoy my most favorite part of today’s game… sudden death.”

Then, to everyone else’s surprise-turned-horror, Sunset began transforming back into a human being, but her clothing had been changed to an all-red attire, and as she was rising up into the air, a swirling mass of flames had begun appearing behind her to form what looked like a phoenix.

“Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet!” cried Pinkie.

On one hand, the sight was absolutely beautiful to behold, but there was also the fact that Sunset still had an angered facial expression which made Casey feel extremely worried and give a small gulp.

“Try to dodge this, you meddlesome pest,” said Xenos and Sunset simultaneously.

“Oh, boy,” muttered Casey, and he hurried out of the way to avoid a fire blast that Phoenix Sunset had fired at him, but before he could take a moment to breath, the young teenager yelped in surprise after another incoming blast missed him by a few inches.

Xenos cackled with pure laughter and glee, feeling satisfied in knowing that he’d finally be able to exterminate Casey permanently, but just as he was about to have his new puppet attack, a familar teenager had decided to stand in front of Casey with a determined but also concerned expression.

“Sunset, please! This isn’t you! I’m sorry about what happened earlier today, but I believe you now! We all do!”

Phoenix Sunset lowered her hand that was currently glowing with her fire power after Sci Twi had spoken, and remained silent while Xenos rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you’re trying, Twilight, just stop before - oh, lovely, you’re all joining her.”

The rest of Phoenix Sunset’s friends came over to join Sci Twi, with all of them now standing side by side each other.

“Well, don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” said Xenos, and his smirk returned as Phoenix Sunset’s hand was raised back up. “Do it, Shimmer.”

A fireball had been created in Phoenix Sunset’s hand, and a smirk appeared on her face, as well, as she launched the fireball… but it wasn’t thrown in the direction of her friends.

“Ow! What… how is this even possible?!” growled Xenos, whose cloak was now somewhat singed after being struck by Phoenix Sunset’s attack. “You’re supposed to be under my control! Your power belongs to me!”

Sci-Twi shook her head. “Well, that’s not the case anymore, Xenos! And anything is possible with the power of-”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it,” interrupted Pinkie, and a wide grin appeared on her face. “Light him up, Sunset!”

Xenos looked back over at the transformed teenager, who was getting ready to send a massive fire blast at him. “Well, this certainly didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped… gah!”

The sinister villain moved back a bit after being hit by Phoenix Sunset’s attack, and everyone watched as his body started to disintegrate while being enveloped in flames, but before he was gone completely, Xenos gave a cold glare towards Casey and Twilight.

“You two haven’t seen the last of me.”

Then, the flames flickered away until there was nothing left, and Sunset began floating down to the ground, the phoenix behind her turning into a bright light that went into the young teenager’s body.

Once her feet had touched the surface, Sunset stumbled back a little bit, and placed a hand on her forehead. “Ugh… does anyone have an idea on how to get rid of a headache?”

“Sunset!” squealed an excited Pinkie, who embraced her friend with a tight and warm hug, but a few seconds later, small streams of smoke started to appear between them.

“Um, Pinkie Pie?” said Rainbow, pointing to what was happening.

The pink-haired teenager stepped away a little bit from Sunset, and saw that her clothes were now covered with scorch marks. “Wow, Sunset, you’re really hot right now!”

Rainbow started to laugh after seeing Sunset’s sheepish face turn red, and then, she said, “Oh, this ought to be interesting.”

“What do you-”

“... Sunset?” The young teen’s eyes became wide after seeing an almost baffled Flash Sentry walk towards her. “Princess Twilight?”

“Oh, uh… heh, heh, hey, Flash Sentry,” said Twilight, chuckling sheepishly since she hadn’t been expecting to see him at the school. “Er, long time, no see… me… seeing you… here… um, w-why are you here again?”

Flash gestured to the school behind him. “I came by to pick up my guitar that I left in the practice room, but then I saw Sunset running over here for some reason… then I saw him doing the same…”

Casey made an expression that meant “ohhhh” as he realized who had come in the black vehicle.

“... anyway, uh… so this is what you really look like, then?”

After taking a moment to release a deep breath, Twilight nodded her head. “Uh-huh, this is who I am.”

Flash placed a hand behind his head, and replied, “Got it… so, you’re a, uh, pony too, Sunset, minus a… pair of wings and title of being a princess?”

“Er, pretty much, yeah,” said Sunset. “In technical terms, I’m a unicorn and… uh, Princess Twilight is an alicorn…”

A smirk appeared on Rainbow’s face while crossing her arms. “Well, this must be awkward… ow! What was that for?”

Applejack rolled her eyes after thumping the teenage athlete on the back of her head, and said, “Sometimes you just need to know when is a good time to hush up.”

As for Flash, after looking back and forth a few times between Sunset and Twilight, he let out a sigh. “This… might take a short while to get used to… but, uh, I don’t intend on thinking about you two differently because, er… you’re not actual humans.”

Before either of the two could say something to try and put Flash at ease, Pinkie suddenly wrapped her arm around him. “Nah, don’t worry, Flash, you’ll feel better about this by tomorrow morning! I mean, you should’ve seen how me and the others reacted when Sunset told us that she was actually a pony. Well, technically, I already sorta had a hunch that she was a pony since there was that one time I saw her at the mall, so I had ‘hi, Sunset!’ to her, but then she just looked at me like if I was some crazy person, and it wasn’t until after Sunset had told us that I learned I’d actually spoken to the other her… but to make a long story short, you’ll feel better about all this in the morning.”

Sunset tried her best not to groan despite feeling glad that her friends’ memories were back to normal, and she said, “Okay, Pinkie, I think that’s enough… of… wait, what did you say?”

The pink-haired teen gave an exaggerated sigh. “Do I really need to say all of that again?”

“No, no, that’s fine, I got it,” replied Flash, shaking his head. “Anyway, uh, I’d better get going before I’m late to practice… so, um, I’ll see you all tomorrow or on Monday during school… and it was, uh, nice to see you again, Twi… Twilight.”

“Uh-huh,” said Twilight, giving him a polite smile, and Flash gave one small nod of the head before walking back into CHS to get his guitar. “Well, I… think that went, er, pretty okay.”

Pinkie nodded her head, and she said, “But if you don’t mind me asking, Princess Twilight, why are you still a pony instead of looking like us.”

“That would be my doing, Miss Pie,” explained Kronos, now holding up a necklace that looked like the one Twilight currently had around her neck, and he handed it over to the curious teenager. It held a silver clock-like medallion at the end. “I knew she would need this once I became aware of Xenos’ plan, and-”

“Coooool! I’m a pony now!” cried a gleeful Pinkie, who’d magically turned into her pony counterpart, and after taking it off, she was back in her original form. “Anybody else want to try?”

Kronos just chuckled as he took back the necklace from a sheepish Pinkie, and looked over at both Twilight and Casey, with the young man asking, “I, uh… just want to right now if-”

“Stardust’s world is fine, son,” replied the Master of Time, a small smile on his face. “You can check in, if you like, once you finish up here… for now, there’s an important matter elsewhere that needs my attention. Until next time, my friends.”

He then disappeared after a quick finger snap, and before Casey could say something to his girlfriend, Wallflower began to speak. “I’m… so sorry… to everyone.” She then handed over a small piece of the ancient object over to Casey, who looked at it for a moment before putting it away. “When I first started to use the Memory Stone, it was only to erase small things - awkward hellos, saying the wrong thing, literally any public speaking.”

“I’ve had plenty of awkward moments I wish I could erase, too,” said Sci Twi, nodding sympathetically since she understood what Wallflower was saying.

“But it’s no excuse,” said Wallflower. “I was so used to erasing memories that I got carried away… I’d rather be forgotten about or remain invisible than be remembered as a villain.”

Now it was Sunset that decided to speak. “We’ve all been villans to someone at one time or another, Wallflower. What matters are the choices you make today.” A small smile appeared on both of their faces. “Also, I’m sorry, too. I may have stopped being mean, but a great and powerful friend helped me realize that I still wasn’t nice to you.” Sunset then helped the regretful teenager up to her feet. “Everyone matters, Wallflower, no matter how invisible or insignificant they feel.”

Just as Wallflower was about to thank Sunset, a realization came to the bacon-haired teenager, and she looked over at Twilight. “Would you mind, um, coming with me to check on someone that’s locked in the yearbook editing room?”

“... I don’t even want to ask right now,” said a chuckling Twilight, who followed after her friend, and that left Wallflower to talk with Casey.

“So… you’ve been a villain at one point?” wondered Wallflower.

“Um, yeah, more or less,” replied a sheepish Casey. “But I learned my own lessons from that experience… and even though I don’t really see him as much, I have someone now that’ll always be my best friend.”

Wallflower nodded her head. “That sounds… great, Casey… and, uh, what are you going to do with-”

“The piece of the stone?” A sly grin appeared on Casey’s face. “Well, first, I’m going to get even with a certain someone back home that’s close to me… and I’ll figure out what to do next after that… anyway, I have a feeling Sunset’ll be able to help ‘grow’ your gardening club to what it’s meant to be. Maybe the next time I come back, you can show it to me? Heck, you could even finish the rest of that song from earlier, too.”

Wallflower’s smile grew as she nodded, and replied, “Y-yeah! I’d lo - like that… a lot… um, I’ll see you next time, then. Bye, Casey.”

“Bye, Wallflower,” said Casey, watching the green-haired teenager walk away to presumably her home, and he turned around to start heading towards the statue slab that would take him to his planned destination, but not before passing by a chuckling Rainbow. “What?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing, Casey,” answered the athletic teen. “Tell the other me in your world that I’ll be stopping by one of these days for a rematch.”





After stepping out of the Crystal Mirror, Casey placed a hoof on his forehead, and he muttered, “I guess everyone is getting a headache today… huh?”

For some reason, the library that he was in seemed to be more darker than usual, and the walls were decorated with things like cobwebs, plastic spiders, and other similar stuff.

“What in the heck is - gah!”

“Casey?

Suddenly, the library’s usual brightness returned just a quick moment after its owner had entered the room, and to Casey’s confusion, she was dressed up like some kind of mad scientist.

“Um… Princess Twilight?”

The disguised alicorn nodded her head. “Happy Nightmare Night!”

Talk about a major time difference, thought Casey, even though he was relieved to see that his girlfriend’s counterpart was fine. “Um, the same to you, Twilight… is-”

“Stardust! What did you and Spike do to my room?!”

“It wasn’t my idea!”

Twilight let out a sigh, and she shook her head before saying, “Jack’s supposed to be finishing up with cleaning the castle since-”

“Hey! Why are you still here?”

“Aw, come on now, Stardust! I thought we could still spend some time - whoa! Oh, don’t do this tonight, Stardust, it’s a holiday!”

“Not in your case, Zephyr, and this is also for mucking things up earlier!”

Then, the two of them heard the sound of the castle doors opening up, followed Zephyr letting out a yelp after being presumably thrown out by Stardust.

“Did I, uh, miss a holiday party gone wrong or something?” asked Casey.

“It’s a long story,” replied Twilight, now taking off the head parts for her costume. “So, what’s up? I can get Jack in here if-”

Casey shook his head, and said, “I’ll write to him later, I just, er, came to… make a short visit…” He then shared a quick hug with Twilight’s counterpart before going back to the Crystal Mirror. “Take care, Twilight.”

“You too, Casey,” said Twilight, waving good-bye at her friend. “And tell everyone else I said hi!”
> The End?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Several Weeks Later


"Aww, come on… seriously?!"

Sunset chuckled quietly as she watched Rainbow become upset about two certain pages in the CHS yearbook, and made her way over to the front of the school, where she saw that Wallflower was finishing up a conversation with -

"Oh, hey, Casey! How's it going out in Equestria?" greeted the mare-turned-human, noting that it had been a while since he had been in this world.

Giving out a sheepish chuckle, Casey gave a friendly wave to the departing (and blushing) Wallflower before answering Sunset's question. "Well, where do I start? There's a Friendship School now, an actual child was sent to Tartarus… oh, and I made a new friend."

For a moment, Sunset found herself speechless at the words Casey had just said, but then, she snapped out of it after hearing what sounded like a more deeper and rougher version of his voice.

Hello, Sunset Shimmer… So nice to finally meet you.

"Wha… who…?" Sunset looked around in confusion, seeing no one else nearby except for themselves. "Was that you?"

Shaking his head for a bit, Casey replied, "It's a long story, Sunset… anywho, I wanted to ask if you had any free time available today to spend back in Equestria? I'm sure 'Princess' Twilight would be happy to see you."

The bacon-haired teenager glanced back over at her group of friends, who were all trying to get Rainbow's mind off of the yearbook, and she nodded her head. "I think I've got some time available today."

"Awesome!" Casey replied, and he followed after her through the portal inside of the Chs base, with everything around them quickly becoming a gigantic swirl.

Then, when it was time for them to step into the library of Princess Twilight, the young and brown-orange stallion said, "I'm getting better at being used to that."

"Same here… almost," agreed a nodding Sunset, rubbing the side of her human-turned-pony head a little, and began to look around. "So, where is Twilight?"

"Let me see if she's at the school," replied Casey, with the young pony heading out of the room whilst Sunset continued to walk around.

Huh, wonder what book this is for, thought Sunset when her eyes became curious with a purple-colored book that had a familiar symbol on the front cover.

Before she could answer herself, the yellow unicorn heard a voice nearby say, "You wouldn't be interested in what's in there. Trust me."

Sunset turned around, and she became surprised to see a slighly older-looking Earth pony with gold as the color of its fur, as well as a dark blue cloak. He had just finished putting away a book back in its proper place, and a very small smirk was on his face.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you over there…" apologized Sunset, giving him a sheepish smile. "Hi, I'm -"

Nodding his head back to the doors of the library, the gold pony replied, "Yeah, they've all told me what you do in the world that's supposed to be Earth… anyway, it's nice to finally meet you."

Before Sunset could ask him for a name, the doors were suddenly opened wide, followed by an excited squee that came from a certain pink Earth pony.

"Hey, Sunset! Welcome back to Equestria! Wow, you've missed a lot since that day you turned into a hot Phoenix. Come on, let me show you… and wait 'till you see Spike's new wings!"

"Pinkie, I was - gah!" exclaimed Sunset, who was now being yanked away by Pinkie, and she gave the chuckling gold Earth pony a small wave before becoming out of sight.

Heh… nice meeting you, too…

Suddenly, his thoughts were cut short by a familar unicorn's voice. "I saw what was going on there, Stardust."

"What… hey, Glimmer, surprising whoever is in here from coming out of nowhere is my job," replied Stardust, now bearing a small frown of irritation towards the lilac unicorn. "And I think you're out of your mind cause there wasn't anything for you to see."

"Right, Stardust… if that's what makes you feel better," replied Starlight in a casual tone, but also trying her best to avoid grinning too much.

That simply prompted Stardust to roll his eyes, and begin to make his way out of the library whilst Starlight just chuckled softly before glancing at the book that had caught Sunset's eye earlier.

Using her magic, the young unicorn opened it up and flipped over to the latest page that contained writing, which bore a warning-like message from a Princess Twilight in a parallel universe.


If we don't stop it, then both of our worlds will be in utter peril… everyone must be united.


Starlight let out a sigh, knowing that what was being asked by Princess Twilight was not an easy task… and to possibly make matters worse, she could feel inside herself that the end of something would be coming to Equestria…

I just hope that we'll have enough time, thought the lilac pony, before closing up the book and disappearing in a flash of magic.