MY LITTLE PONY: EQUESTRIA GIRLS—FORGOTTEN FRIENDSHIP

Alternate title: “Most Likely to Be Forgotten”

Written by Nick Confalone

Produced by Angela Belyea

Story editing by Nick Confalone

Directed by Ishi Rudell

Co-directed by Katrina Hadley

Transcribed by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)

Notes:                This transcript has been prepared from the version of the special that is available

                (in five segments) on the Hasbro YouTube channel. It includes several scenes that

were cut for time when the special premiered on Discovery Family.

The Discovery Family airing contains no title card, while each YouTube segment

does, under the alternate title shown above.

                This special premiered after the start of the Digital Series; refer to the set of

                Volume One transcripts for details on the characters’ everyday outfits.

                        An extended version of the song in Act Four is included at the end of this

transcript.

OPENING THEME

Act One

(Opening shot: fade to black from the title card, then in to a long shot of the rear entrance of Canterlot High School. A parking lot lies between it and a stretch of woods, at whose edge the camera is placed, and a snatch of blue morning sky is visible through the treetops. Zoom in slowly as Apple Bloom hurries across the grass to greet the waiting Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.)

Upbeat acoustic/electric guitar melody with keyboard and drums, moderate 4 (D major)

(Fade to white, then in to the front steps and tilt up past the doors as Micro Chips and Sandalwood trade a high five. Stop on the large eight-pointed star set in a tall window above the doors; this flares white to fill the screen, after which the view fades in to the busy lobby. Sunset Shimmer stands in the middle of the floor, camera in hand to snap a picture of the two boys as they wave and pass. Zoom in slowly on her.)

All Rainbooms except Sunset:                Ah, ah-h, ah-h, ah, ah-h

                                                Ah-h, ah-h, ah-h-h

Electric guitar out

(She sets off down a hallway, on the hunt for other good shots, and finds an athlete and eco-kid only too happy to strike a pose.)

Sunset:                Back in the day, I used to walk these halls

                        Acting tough, but all alone

(Stopping near a corner, she spots her six friends and Spike hanging out just around the bend and gets a round of welcoming smiles, as well as an enthusiastic wave from Pinkie Pie. Sunset grins from ear to ear and moves to join them.)

                        I needed a friend to lend me a helping hand

                        I couldn’t do it on my own

(The seven girls and dog cluster in as Sunset holds her camera at arm’s length and aims it at them. A flash fills the screen with the resulting snapshot; she floats up past it, the view wiping behind her to Twilight Sparkle and Spike in the school library, hitting the books hard.)

Electric guitar in

Rainbooms:                We’ve come so far together, got memories to treasure

(Bookworm and pooch make goofy faces behind/beneath their reading material, and the camera flash deposits their picture on the screen. A soccer ball flies past it to another that shows Rainbow Dash defending one of the field’s goals; zoom in past the frame as she catches it and the image starts to move.)

                        I look at you, stories come back to life

(She tosses the ball up, ready for a kick—and then Pinkie catches her with a hugging tackle from behind just as the flash goes off and the two are captured on film in a midair tumble. A rainbow streak curls past them to a shot of Applejack and Rarity seated at adjoining desks in a classroom; the designer has the farmer’s hat in hand and is stitching on it as two green eyes shoot her a slightly annoyed look. The picture border fades away as the action resumes.)

                        And if I need reminding, I know where I can find you

(The headwear is set back on the tousled blond hair, and a flash captures Rarity’s beaming face and Applejack’s happy reaction. A flower/vine pattern has been applied to the brim, while apples and a large pink heart adorn the crown. Blue gems rain down past the photo, the camera following them to one of a kneeling Fluttershy and Sunset on the school lawn; Fluttershy cuddles a mildly irked Angel. Zoom in through the frame as the motion resumes; as soon as she passes him over to Sunset, he smiles and nuzzles her cheek, and a flash yields a picture of the three.)

                        In these pages you’ll last forever

(The four snaps just taken tumble down past the camera, the background behind them changing to the entire group in the hall. Sunset lowers her camera, and they head off down the way; cut to within a room, whose closed door swings open to admit them. A zoom out frames computers and printers, a string of pictures tacked up on one wall, and a cluttered bulletin board.)

All Rainbooms except Sunset:                Ah, ah-h, ah-h, ah, ah-h

                                                Ah-h, ah-h, ah-h-h

Electric guitar out

(Sunset sits at a keyboard and clicks the mouse, triggering a flash of white that fills the screen and subsides to a flashback to the end of Equestria Girls: the battered, teary-eyed girl climbing out of the crater into which Princess Twilight and company blasted her. The view is white-edged and rendered in soft focus, with washed-out colors.)

Sunset:                Remember when I, I lost the crown?

(The ponied-up violet teen pulls her to her feet with a gentle smile.)

                        You didn’t leave me out in the rain

(Another flashback, this one to the end of Rainbow Rocks: pan slowly across Sunset and the ponied-up Princess Twilight and Rainbooms, performing to bring down the Sirens.)

Vocal harmonies behind lyrics

Rainbooms:                We still have songs to sing

(Extreme close-up, the end of Friendship Games: energized by the magic of her friends, Sunset takes Midnight Sparkle’s hand in hers, and a wisp of healing energy makes its way up the violet arm as a tear dissipates from the purple eye above it.)

                        Magic transforming

Harmonies out

(Fade to white, then in to the seven touching down on the grounds of Camp Everfree after defeating Gloriosa Daisy in the climax of Legend of Everfree. They have ponied up and are clad in the “hero” outfits bestowed on them by their newly acquired magic pendants.)

                        Special in every way

(The seven crystals whirl into view before them; cut to a slightly earlier moment when all but Twilight are receiving them.)

                        The gems chose us by name

Electric guitar in

(The screen flashes white and clears to give a full-color, normally focused view of Twilight in the here and now. She is holding Sunset’s camera, and a bit of telekinesis extracts its memory card.)

Rainbooms:                We’ve come so far together, got memories to treasure

(Fluttershy jumps fruitlessly to get at some boxes stacked on top of a storage cabinet.)

                        I look at you, stories come back to life

(She finds herself being hoisted up by a grinning Applejack, whose hat is back to normal. Close-up of an emerging printout; Rarity considers it with some bemusement, then laughs upon realizing that Pinkie has been using this printer to run off copies of her face with tongue stuck out.)

                        And if I need reminding, I know where I can find you

(Rainbow blurs past the two and slides to a stop so she can pass the memory card off to Sunset.)

                        In these pages you’ll last forever

(Plug it in, a twinkle of magic playing around the fingers; the screen fills with the five pictures taken during this song.)

Other Rainbooms:                Ah, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h

Sunset:                        Forever

(The printer turns out a sheet with text and pictures, which meets with Rarity’s approval.)

Other Rainbooms:                Ah, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h

(Fluttershy reads through a yearbook as Sunset carries another copy and some notes across the workroom and gives a thumbs-up to a working Twilight.)

Sunset:                        Forever

Other Rainbooms:                Ah, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h, ah, ah-h

(Slow pan across the group; Pinkie throws a paper airplane to Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow are sharing a book, Applejack sets a box on a countertop. Sunset allows herself a satisfied smile.)

Sunset:                        In these pages you’ll last forever

Song ends

(So they are working on the current yearbook, then. The red/gold-haired girl begins to cross the floor, so blissed out that she utterly fails to notice a living body coming straight at her. The camera angle leaves nothing visible of this second individual but a mass of long, unkempt, dark green hair and a sliver of sweater striped in two shades of light brown. They collide head-on, tumbling to the floor amid a snowstorm of loose pages; the yearbook thuds down at Sunset’s feet, and she finds herself staring at a girl with pale green skin and a scatter of freckles under each dark brown eye. In addition to the sweater, she wears jeans and two-tone, striped gray moccasins. This is Wallflower Blush, who speaks in a subdued, somewhat flat tone of voice.)

Wallflower: Excuse me.

Sunset: I’m sorry. I didn’t see you come in.

Wallflower: (dryly) I’ve been here for a while. (She jerks a thumb to one side; Sunset starts gathering up papers.)

Sunset: (sheepishly) I didn’t realize.

Wallflower: I’ve been trying to get your attention for, like, half the song.

(Being called out so bluntly ignites a heavy-duty blush on the yellow-orange cheeks. Cut to Applejack/Fluttershy/Rainbow at the computers; now Fluttershy has the camera.)

Applejack: Ain’t she a quiet one?

Rainbow: Yeah, and we know some pretty shy people. (to Fluttershy) Am I right?

Fluttershy: (puzzled) We do? Who?

(The speedster throws a knowing look to the blonde, who rolls her eyes good-naturedly at Fluttershy’s failure to pick up on their jibe. Back to Sunset, now on her feet and propping the dropped yearbook and a few pictures on the ledge of a chalkboard.)

Sunset: I’m Sunset Shimmer— (adding photos; Wallflower stands up) —president of the yearbook committee and editor-in-chief. Do you want to join? We could always use extra help.

Wallflower: I’m Wallflower Blush.

Sunset: Nice to meet you.

Wallflower: (dryly) I’ve been on the yearbook committee all year.

Sunset: (blushing, taken aback) Oh! Um…

Wallflower: We met in ninth grade English.

Sunset: (trying to play it off; blush fades) And I was saying it was nice to meet you then. You didn’t let me finish.

(The mousy girl rolls her eyes in clear disgust, and an uncomfortable silence follows. Sunset tries to break it by reaching for the yearbook, but hastily pulls her hand back at Wallflower’s next words.)

Wallflower: (giving her some pages) Anyway, I counted up all the votes for the yearbook superlatives.

(The other six Rainbooms are quick to cluster in around Sunset with a scramble of giddy audible reactions.)

Sunset: (reading) “Most Likely to Succeed…Best Smile…Class Clown…” (Gasp; zoom in quickly.) …oh! We won Best Friends!

(Cut to her perspective, shifting slowly down a page that shows individual photos of the other six and a block of text by each.)

Sunset: Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and me! (Back to her on the end of this.)

Pinkie: (hugging others) I always knew I liked you all, but now it’s official— (Close-up.) —in yearbook form! The people have spoken!

(Zoom out; she is now standing on a countertop. Twilight plucks the sheets from Sunset’s hands and skims them.)

Twilight: Oh! Good for Micro Chips! “Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion.” (trying to play it off) Not a reason to be jealous. Pfft! I’m not!

(She voices a strained, slightly unconvincing giggle through her teeth as Fluttershy offers a gentle smile.)

Fluttershy: (taking pages from her, patting a shoulder) Don’t worry, Twilight. We know you’re a genius.

Rainbow: Besides, it’s just the yearbook.

(Pinkie responds to this assertion by uttering a deep, stunned gasp, soon joined by Fluttershy, Rarity, and Sunset.)

Sunset: (needled) Just the yearbook? (Pinkie claps a hand to her own forehead.)

Applejack: (to Rainbow, groaning) Now you gone and done it. (Pinkie nods gravely.)

Sunset: (pacing) The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gathering their memories into the pages of this book. In thirty years we might not remember everything, but we will remember what’s in the yearbook.

Rainbow: Well, I’m entrusting you not to put us next to Best Muscles. (opening/shutting a book) Every time you close the book, it’ll be like we’re kissing Bulk Biceps.

(Rarity crosses to her and plucks the volume away with an audible shudder.)

Rarity: (setting it aside) Why don’t we take our picture at the beach on Saturday? (Pinkie grins…) Everyone’s bound to look adorable. (…and stands on the counter.)

Pinkie: (singsong) Beach day! (jumping down to Twilight/Fluttershy) I’ll make my world-famous “Fun in the Sun” cupcakes! (aside, to Fluttershy) The secret ingredient is edible sunscreen! It’s SPF Fun-Hundred!

Fluttershy: Yecch.

(Comes now the sound of the workroom door opening; cut to Trixie entering from the hall, her dander up.)

Trixie: The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to speak to the yearbook editor immediately!

Sunset: (glumly) Unfortunately for me, that’s me. (crossing to her) What do you want, Trixie?

(A blue hand snatches away the paper she holds, and the purple eyes race down the lines. The door is closed again.)

Trixie: Ha! Just as I suspected. (flicking it) I was not voted Greatest and Most Powerfullest! Explain yourself.

Sunset: (stroking chin) How should I put this? You didn’t win Greatest and Most Powerful because it wasn’t one of the superlatives.

Trixie: (smugly, picking up/leafing through an earlier yearbook) Hmm! Neither was Biggest Meanie— (holding it out to Sunset) —but that didn’t stop you from winning it our freshman year.

(Her perspective on the end of this; she hands it over to Sunset, whose face registers real worry as she takes it all in. A close-up of the top half of the page tells all: a picture of an infuriated Sunset in a hall, reaching to grab the photographer’s camera as Snips and Snails smirk and laugh in the background. She wears the outfit she sported in Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks, and the caption is marked by a skull with flaming eyes, pegging the yearbook as one from her “cross me at your own risk” days. From here, cut back to her, Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity.)

Applejack: (stammering a bit) That was different. The whole school voted for her. (Sunset winces; now Pinkie leans in.)

Pinkie: (whispering) She was sooooo mean!

(Now the reformed bully slumps on her feet and turns her face away as the tactless pink teen ducks away, replaced by Twilight.)

Twilight: (patting Sunset’s shoulder, tossing book to floor) Of course, we all know you’ve earned the right not to be remembered that way.

Sunset: (smiling) Thanks. (Wallflower picks it up; she hardens her face and addresses Trixie.) We’re not having a “Greatest and Powerfullest” superlative. Sorry.

Trixie: Oh, you’re the one who’ll be sorry, Sunset Shimmer! When you least expect it, I’ll have my revenge— (Extreme close-up of her eyes.) —and then I’ll disappear, like this!

(Zoom out quickly to frame her and the Rainbooms; she stands with her back to the door.)

Trixie: (holding up a small ball) Behold—the Magician’s Exit!

(The item is thrown down, detonating into a thick cloud of gray smoke that fills the screen and sets off quite a few hearty coughing fits. The screen clears to give a close-up of Sunset, who directs a puzzled stare toward the door as the sound of its rattling handle is heard—caused by the would-be illusionist fighting like mad to get it open.)

Sunset: (smiling) Allow me.

(She holds up a key on a camera-shaped ring.)

Sunset: (walking toward door) We were actually on our way out. (She unlocks it for the scowling Trixie.)

Trixie: Hmph!

(Out she goes, followed by seven giggling friends. Cut to just outside as the last of them exit, leaving Wallflower alone in the workroom; the focus shifts to her.)

Wallflower: (calling after them) I’ll just finish up! (Sunset backs up into view.)

Sunset: (reaching in around doorframe; click of switch and lights go out) Ooh, forgot to turn off the lights!

(Off she goes again, the green-haired worker’s spirits dropping into her moccasins.)

Wallflower: In the dark.

(Dissolve to a long shot of Sunset’s room, first seen in the “Monday Blues” short. The camera is positioned at the end opposite the loft that holds her bed, giving a view of the entire space. Couch, rug, and end table set up facing a television, gaming console, and bookshelf; stereo speakers and an amplifier near a storage cabinet at the opposite wall; three guitars—one acoustic, two electric—hung on the wall by the steps leading up to the loft; boxes piled up under the steps and on top of the cabinet. The string of lights on the loft railing glows warmly, accompanied by a second one lining the underside. A computer is set up on the desk under the loft, and a bulletin board and corner bookshelf mark the walls around it. The night sky is visible through the floor-to-ceiling window that faces the loft, and Sunset is in her pajamas and lying atop her bed on her stomach, slippered feet kicking idly at the air. Zoom in slowly.)

Sunset: (voice over, dictating) “Dear Princess Twilight…”

(Close-up: she is writing in her magic journal and has removed her pendant. The zoom continues.)

Sunset: (voice over) “…I thought you’d be happy to hear that the girls and I were voted Best Friends in the yearbook today.”

(Seized by a sudden moment of worry, she pulls a book from the nearest shelf. The color of its cover gives it away as the one in which she won Biggest Meanie even before she opens it.)

Sunset: (voice over) “After all, if you hadn’t forgiven me, I’d still be the arrogant student I was when I left Equestria.” (She puts it aside, smiles, and plies her pen again.) “You gave me the second chance I didn’t deserve, and I’ll never forget it. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer.”

(Having eased her slippers off by this point, she closes the cover and raises her eyes to gaze gratefully toward the huge window. Cut to just outside it and zoom out as she puts the journal away and turns off the lights. Unnoticed by her, a reddish, ribbon-like filament whispers its way up past the roof of the building and is soon followed by many others of similar hue. They wind over the rooftops, circle the dome on the roof of Canterlot High, then descend on a particular spot in the woods behind the campus. The targeted spot glows red, then pale green, and sends out a brilliant white pulse that fills the screen.)

(Just as quickly as it came, the glare subsides to a close-up of the sun in a cheery daytime sky. Pan/tilt down to the sound of young people enjoying the fine weather, and stop on a lively stretch of beach. Twilight walks into view, having donned a one-piece purple swimsuit decorated in bright pink dots down the front and the attached skirt that covers her hips, as well as two-tone blue stripes and a five-pointed pink star across the bust. She is wearing the stone from her pendant on its original chain around her neck; all other girls will have their pendants on as well when seen next. A grin, a pose with one hand on hip and the other flashing a peace sign, and the screen flares white again. This time, the view clears to show her image on a small display screen, which goes blank as the drone to which it is attached veers away from the camera; now her star-marked pink flip-flops can be seen. The flyer settles into a hover before her and pivots to show the lens it used to get the shot.)

Twilight: Group picture! Practice run number thirty-six-A, attempt seven—success! (It bleeps wearily and sinks out of sight.) Oh, no!

(As soon as she gets fingers around the housing, it starts trying to tear itself away, prompting a tug-of-war as Applejack sets up a beach chair not far away. Her swimwear consists of a blue wetsuit crop top with gold/white trim and a red apple below the collar, above a close-fitting blue bottom with a red waistband and yellow trim at the hips. She turns to watch just in time to see Twilight pitch to the sand on her back and immediately haul it and herself back upright.)

Twilight: Your eyes do not deceive you! I finally invented a selfie-sensing camera! (as it tries to get away) It hovers into position whenever it detects a selfie opportunity!

(She drags it back to herself. Now Rainbow can be seen in the background behind Applejack: sleeveless black wetsuit crop top emblazoned with a yellow/green/magenta lightning bolt, black-trimmed magenta shorts, magenta cap sporting a sun and fluffy cloud.)

Applejack: I’d prefer to take selfies myself…ie.

(Pan away from her to the jock, whose footwear proves to be yellow flip-flops with magenta accents of a heart framed by an upside-down horseshoe shaped to its contours. She stands looking down at a kneeling Rarity, who has five beach towels spread out in front of herself—all nearly the exact same shade of white. Loose knee-length skirt in light blue, hung with paler gems; black-edged purple bikini top adorned with another such gem; broad-brimmed, dark gray sun hat with a pale blue band; brown flip-flops marked by the same accent as on Rainbow’s, but in pale blue. During the following sequence, she turns her head enough to show the hatband tied in a bow with one more blue gem attached.)

Rarity: Which beach blanket should we use for the photograph?

Rainbow: (slightly puzzled) You mean the white one or the white one?

Rarity: (scoffing indignantly, picking one up) This is toasted oat— (Another.) —and linen lamb’s wool. (Her perspective; she points from one to another.) Eggshell, warm frost, pale nimbus, and… (Both again.) …well, that one is white, I suppose.

Rainbow: (dryly) Yeah. That’s what I was talking about.

(A breeze kicks up, carrying one of the towels away before either girl can react. Cut to Spike, engrossed in digging a hole in the sand; he takes notice of the wafting, wayward textile.)

Spike: Don’t worry, Rarity! I got it!

(Off he goes after it, racing toward the surf; in close-up, two pink legs pull ahead to his surprise, their feet covered by pink/orange swim fins.)

Pinkie: No, I got it, I got it!

(Tilt up. Deep pink/white one-piece with lighter two-tone pink ruffles at the hips and gold bows down the front; a heart-shaped orange gem set in the largest bow just under her pendant; no hair decorations.)

Spike: (now o.s.) Nuh-uh! (The towel continues its escape.) I got it! I got it!

(As its corner just brushes the water surface, his shout mingles with hers and she topples forward. Both wind up in an undignified heap on the sand, Pinkie having landed on Spike; zoom out from them to frame the sodden towel just ahead of them.)

Pinkie, Spike: I don’t got it.

(The cloth begins to rise, carried atop a mass of drifting seaweed that emits a sepulchral respiration as the water streams down from it. Pinkie pulls in an affrighted gasp.)

Pinkie: Ocean monster! (running off with Spike; it plods toward them) OCEAN MONSTER!!

(What they fail to notice is that the creature’s lower legs are quite human—light yellow at that, and with pink/yellow swim fins on the feet. After a few steps, it stops and shucks off the covering of vegetation—actually a camouflaging blanket—to reveal Fluttershy. Seen from the shoulders up: diving mask and snorkel, black wetsuit with pastel blue/yellow sleeves and a magenta fish on the front, butterfly hair clip still in place.)

Fluttershy: (removing fins) Quincy the sea turtle says the tide’s coming in.

(She crosses to the other three: Pinkie and Spike hiding respectively behind and under a beach chair, Rainbow sitting on it, Rarity folding up her towels and stacking them on the end. The legs of the wetsuit reach past Fluttershy’s knees and carry yellow-edged blue patches.)

Fluttershy: We should take the picture soon or risk having damp ankles. Oh, he’s so thoughtful.

(She offers the blanket to Rarity, who voices her disgust at it. Cut to a close-up of Sunset making her way onto the beach, bag slung over one shoulder. From the waist up: dark gray bikini top marked by an orange/white sun, a yellow-orange gem at the throat, and matching spots on the edging; loosely tied skirt that shades from yellow-orange at the waist down to deeper reds and oranges, gold bracelet on left wrist. The sight before her—six girls messing around with Twilight’s drone and one dog snoozing on Rarity’s stack of towels—brings her around to a warm smile, and she quickens her pace to catch up. Fluttershy has shed her mask and snorkel and put away her camouflage. She and Applejack are wearing flip-flops in the same design as those of Rainbow and Rarity—yellow on pink and yellow-orange on red, respectively.)

(The drone gets a shot of a waving Applejack and a beaming Fluttershy, then one of Rarity blowing a kiss, and its next move is to target Sunset as Pinkie rubs Spike’s belly. A longer shot frames the sunburst pattern worked into Sunset’s skirt.)

Sunset: Oh, Twilight! You got the selfie sensor working?

(She grins broadly and adopts a cheerful pose—but instead of taking her picture, the drone pivots away and flies back past Applejack/Fluttershy/Rarity before taking cover behind Twilight. All four of these girls’ faces have shifted from “sun-kissed merriment” to “total lack of recognition” without even touching the clutch.)

Sunset: (puzzled) O…kay. (smiling again) So who’s ready to take a Best Friends picture?

(Cut to a slow pan across all six of the other girls, eyes broadcasting various degrees of incomprehension, fright, and barely hidden hostility. Fluttershy’s nerves get the better of her in short order, prompting her to hide behind Applejack as best she can.)

Sunset: (good-humoredly) Uh-oh, what did I do?

(Still nothing from the group, Pinkie shrugging her bafflement. She has ditched her swim fins in favor of flip-flops that match Rainbow’s, and Sunset has on a yellow-orange pair with black straps marked by gold-trimmed black stars. Spike has joined the girls, bringing the number of confounded onlookers to seven. Long pause.)

Sunset: Should we do it now, or did you want to swim first? (No response.) How’s the water?

Applejack: (incredulously) Sunset Shimmer, askin’ to be in our Best Friends picture? (chuckling dryly) Now I’ve heard it all.

Sunset: Am I missing the joke here?

Rarity: The only joke is whatever this is you’re playing on us, acting all nice like you’re our friend.

Fluttershy: (standing up) And it’s not funny.

Rainbow: Because you aren’t nice! (Pinkie turns her eyes away.)

Applejack: And we ain’t friends.

Sunset: Wait. What?

Applejack: You got applesauce in your ears? I said, we ain’t frie— (Sunset darts in and grabs her wrist.) —whoa!

(The new arrival’s eyes blaze white, the camera zooming in quickly, and her telepathy-by-contact generates a color-edged memory of her own pony-up moment in the battle against Gloriosa in Legend of Everfree. Zoom out to frame her five similarly transformed friends—all but Twilight at this point—but her own image fades away from the center of their line. A new recollection kicks up: Sunset throwing her arm around Twilight’s shoulder to welcome her to Canterlot High at the very end of Friendship Games. The next three lines reverberate slightly.)

Sunset: You sure can.

(As the other five gather in to hug the newest Wondercolt, she disappears once again. A slightly earlier memory: she and Twilight float gently down to ground level after their powered-up face-off, and her image vanishes to leave Twilight standing alone, glasses gone and hair fallen out of its bun.)

Twilight: (softly) I’m so sorry.

(Near the end of Rainbow Rocks: Sunset stands defiantly to face down the Sirens, microphone in hand and Princess Twilight and the Rainbooms tumbled behind her.)

Sunset: (singing, helping Princess Twilight up)         My friends are here to bring me ’round

(This is as far as she gets before going bye-bye once again. Cut to the group sleepover at Pinkie’s house earlier in this same film, panning slowly across the bedroom, then to the grouping of Fluttershy, Rarity, Sunset, and Spike as Rarity prepares to snap a selfie. For the fifth time, the Equestrian expatriate’s image fades away into nothing—and then the screen blazes white and returns to the present. Sunset gasps in horror and drops Applejack’s wrist, her eyes returning to normal and showing her that the degrees of fear, disbelief, and rancor have only increased on all fronts. Fluttershy has huddled down behind Applejack again. Zoom in slowly on Sunset.)

Sunset: It’s like I’ve been…erased!

(Cut to a “To be continued…” title card and snap to black.)

Act Two

(Opening shot: fade to black from the title card, then in to a long shot of the stalemate, panning slowly across. Cut to Sunset after a moment.)

[Animation goof: Her bracelet disappears briefly during this scene.]

Sunset: This has to be a bad dream. (hands to temples) Wake up, Sunset! Wake up! (Pinkie pinches her arm.) Ow! (Zoom out; Pinkie and Rainbow have moved in close.)

Pinkie: Nope. You’re awake. (She pinches herself.) Ow! (giggling) Me too!

Sunset: (to Rainbow) What about you?

(She seizes one blue wrist, triggering her powers to bring up a moment from the motocross leg of the Tri-Cross Relay in Friendship Games. Having just been knocked off her bike by the mutant vines erupting from Equestria into this world, she skids along the dirt track on her back. An over-shoulder glance affords Rainbow a good clear view of the crazed greenery looming over her dazed teammate—who promptly vanishes to leave only her wiped-out wheels. Rainbow steels herself and opens up the throttle as the flashback ends.)

Sunset: No! Rainbow Dash, you saved me in that race! (Rainbow shakes out of her grip.)

Rainbow: What are you talking about?

Sunset: I can see your memories, and I’m not in them!

Applejack: And exactly how is it you can see our memories, if you don’t mind me askin’?

Sunset: (fingering her pendant) With this!

Rarity: (scoffing, touching her own) Pfft! It’s obviously a cheap knockoff of ours.

Sunset: We got them together! You were there, remember?

Fluttershy: (softly, to Applejack) Why is she still talking to us?

(The unexpected outcast claps a hand to her head as if trying to get her stalled mental engine to turn over. It seems to work.)

Sunset: Pinkie Pie! What about when I came to your sleepover before the Battle of the Bands?

Pinkie: (scornfully) Hah! The closest you’ve ever come to a party of mine is freshman year, when you pretended to be Applejack and texted me— (imitating Applejack’s drawl) —“Your party is lamer than a hungry duck in snow boots!”

Applejack: Like I’d ever say that.

Pinkie: (normal voice, sadly) It really hurt my feelings.

Fluttershy: And wasn’t very nice to the ducks, either.

Sunset: That was a long time ago! (She shifts her attention to…) Twilight! You remember me, right? We’ve been through so much together. Please!

Twilight: I only met you once—when you yelled at me at the Games.

(The Friendship Games, that is—a reference to Sunset chewing her out after the Tri-Cross Relay.)

Sunset: (frantically, as Twilight turns away) Doesn’t anyone remember that I’ve changed?

(A slow pan across the six girls picks out the hard glares, averted eyes, and shaken heads that give her all the answer she needs. She is left speechless for a long moment until her brain kicks into gear again.)

Sunset: Maybe not anyone. I’ll be right back! (She hustles away.)

Rarity: (acidly, calling after her) Don’t hurry back, darling!

(Where the flame-haired teen ends up is underneath a lifeguard’s lookout booth constructed on stilts. Leaning against one of these, she extracts her journal and pen from her bag, but hesitates just short of putting ink to paper. A deep breath to steady her nerves, and she gets down to it.)

Sunset: (writing) “Dear Princess Twilight: This is gonna sound crazy, but…are we friends?” (sliding to the ground) “Am I…” (Close-up of the pages; she continues o.s.) “…nice?”

(Pen taps worriedly against paper, no more words forthcoming; back to her.)

Sunset: Please answer…

(She huddles miserably into herself, resting her forehead against the open tome. After several seconds that feel like an hour, a twinkle of light spooks her into sitting upright; cut to a close-up of the two exposed pages. One of them holds Sunset’s query, while words trace themselves onto the other, blank one in a bright pink glimmer of magic.)

Princess Twilight: (voice over, dictating) “Of course we’re friends!”

(Hope floods through Sunset’s mind, manifesting itself in a relieved smile and sigh in the pause before the response continues.)

Princess Twilight: (voice over) “Are you okay? What’s going on?” (Sunset writes.)

Sunset: (voice over, dictating) “Kinda hard to explain.”

(She breaks off to steal a glance at the others’ resumed leisure, then continues.)

Sunset: (voice over) “Might be easier in person—” (chuckling a bit) “—well, not ‘person,’ so to speak.”

(Dissolve to an overhead shot of Canterlot High as she steps up to the Wondercolt statue base and its portal to/from Equestria, then cut to a close-up. Now back in her civvies, she glances from one side to the other in order to make sure the coast is clear and puts a palm to the polished vertical face. It penetrates in a ripple of white energy, and she follows it through as the glare fills the screen. Her elongating form spirals down the whirling, vivid tints of the passage between worlds and away from the camera.)

(Cut to the library within the Castle of Friendship. Princess Twilight paces nervously before the apparatus that houses her magic mirror; power crackles from top to bottom, the glass flaring to life and bringing a smile to her face. Out comes Sunset as a unicorn, her shoulder bag having become a saddlebag as it did when she made the jump in “Mirror Magic.” This time, however, she is up on her hind legs and stepping out carefully, rather than careening across the room and knocking out most of the inventory.)

Sunset: Twilight! (She flails her forelegs and starts to totter.)

Princess Twilight: Sunset?

(Sunset yelps, losing her balance, but Princess Twilight is there to catch her forelegs and ground her safely.)

Sunset: Oops! (Weak laugh.) I was trying to hug you.

(After they do so, Princess Twilight backs off with a concerned look.)

Princess Twilight: So, what’s been happening?

(Dissolve to the pair walking side by side along a corridor away from the library.)

Princess Twilight: This is bad, Sunset. It’s way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of. (Sunset stops; she keeps on.) Although…

Sunset: (suspiciously) What? (Princess Twilight circles to face her.)

Princess Twilight: I just had an idea—but you might not like it. (She pointedly averts her eyes; Sunset leans in close.)

Sunset: I’ll do anything to get my friends back, Twilight.

Princess Twilight: There is one pony who might be able to help—but I don’t know if you two want to see each other.

Sunset: Who?

(The realization slowly settles in like a three-ton boulder sinking into quicksand.)

Sunset: Oh.

(Dissolve to a long shot of Canterlot, tilting down slowly from the opulent spires to the city’s drawbridge gate, then cut to a corridor within Canterlot Castle. Princess Twilight and Sunset advance toward a set of closed doors at which two guards are stationed. The yellow-orange mare has shed her saddlebag and is most definitely ill at ease, so the violet one gives her a reassuring little grin as the doors swing open. Beyond them lies the throne room, Princess Celestia standing front and center atop the dais and Princess Luna just to her left. A close-up picks out both sisters’ unsmiling demeanors, and the elder spreads her wings imperiously, prompting Sunset to shrink down into herself as undiluted terror roots itself in her brain. By the time she and Princess Twilight reach the base of the dais, she has her eyes firmly fixed on the red carpet they have been following.)

(Princess Twilight offers up a humoring grin in a room that is deathly silent except for the gushing fountains that flank the dais. Luna has now shifted down one step from Celestia’s level.)

Princess Twilight: (forced casual tone) So, Princess Celestia! (Laugh.) You’ll never guess who’s back. Actually, maybe you can guess, ’cause she’s right here. But, um…

(The stern, stony white face regards both of them through one visible, narrowed eye.)

Princess Twilight: (whispering, to Sunset) Am I helping?

(Not bothering to even attempt an answer to this incredibly dumb question, the prodigal pony cycles a deep breath through her lungs and steps forward to look Celestia straight on.)

Sunset: Princess Celestia, the last time we saw each other, I was your snide little pupil who betrayed and abandoned you.

(A camera shift on the end of this reveals that Luna is now standing two levels down from Celestia.)

Princess Twilight: (softly, to Sunset) I wouldn’t have said it that way! (Clear throat; address Celestia.) What Sunset means to say is— (Sunset cuts her off with a raised hoof.)

Sunset: I mean that I come before you a changed pony, humbly asking for forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge.

(The humorless solar sovereign folds in her wings and descends to floor level. Sunset’s eyes constrict in pure panic as she finds herself enveloped by the approaching shadow; all too soon, Celestia is looming over her and staring her down point-blank.)

Sunset: (hunching away from her) Or I can just go and you never have to see me again.

(She is absolutely not prepared for a gold-shod hoof to reach out and lift her chin gently—or for the white face to shift into a smile of warm acceptance.)

Celestia: I’ve missed you, Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset: (voice catching/breaking) I’m so sorry.

(She eases close enough to embrace one long foreleg, tentatively as though afraid it might shatter, and Celestia reciprocates by leaning down to wrap the other one across Sunset’s back. The wordless act of forgiveness prompts smiles on both visitors’ faces, Princess Twilight letting hers bloom into a toothy grin and a Pinkie-level squeal of barely contained glee. Dissolve to them and the royal sisters walking along a different corridor.)

Celestia: I am not familiar with the exact spell that could have erased your friends’ memories. (Close-up.) But it sounds like Equestrian magic is at work in your world. (Pan to the other three.)

Luna: Hmm. Indeed. The toilings of this nefarious enchantment could portend unimaginable catastrophe if left unchecked.

(During this line, Sunset begins struggling to contain a sudden outburst of laughter, unnoticed by Luna at first. Princess Twilight catches on fairly quickly, though, and finally gets her to can it with a wing-slap upside the head that draws a quizzical sidewise glance.)

Sunset: Sorry. I’m just used to hearing you say, “No student parking in the faculty lot.” (Weak laugh.)

Luna: This faculty lot you speak of sounds like a place of great power.

(She strides ahead as Princess Twilight and Sunset freeze in their tracks, confusion over Luna’s lack of comprehension giving way to a shared smile and laugh. A longer shot reveals that all four are now stopped.)

Celestia: The answers you seek are in the Canterlot Library.

(Dissolve to the exterior of this selfsame facility—as it so happens, the one Moondancer frequented in “Amending Fences”—and zoom in as the four climb the steps toward the front doors. A close-up picks out a Royal Guard stallion standing watch at the entrance; his coloration is an exact match for Flash Sentry, but he is an earth pony instead of a pegasus. The sight of him causes Sunset to do a double take, but he stoically holds his post. Inside, the camera tilts down from the glass-domed ceiling to the great rotunda beneath it, then cuts to a close-up of a crestfallen Sunset.)

Sunset: There’s over a million books in here. (Zoom out; Princess Twilight fidgets excitedly alongside.)

Princess Twilight: (laughing) I wish! (nudging her, backing off) But don’t worry. You’re looking at somepony who knows this place like the back of her hoof. (Sunset smiles at this; she glances away, puzzled.) Where are you going, Princess Celestia?

(The answer, revealed when the camera cuts to the siblings on the end of this, is “off down a long side aisle.”)

Celestia: To the restricted section.

Princess Twilight: (hyperventilating) There’s a…a re…a re…a re…

Sunset: (gently touching her) Breathe, Twilight.

(She goes after the pair, leaving Princess Twilight to compose herself and catch up. Soon enough, all four have discovered that the aisle in question terminates in a dead end lined with shelves. Celestia and Luna fire up their horns and tilt two side-by-side books toward themselves, then back into place—yellow with a sun and blue with a crescent moon, respectively. Two loud clunks of engaging machinery accompany the shifts; once the books are back in place, the entire section of shelves slides off to one side to reveal a stone-lined passage. Princess Twilight and Sunset stare as a billow of dust dissipates, their minds well and truly blown and Princess Twilight’s jaw falling full open. Sunset throws her a smirk, eases it closed, and follows the first two Princesses as the third one shakes her brain back into drive.)

(Dissolve to a torchlit stretch of the passage, Celestia and Luna leading the way as Princess Twilight and Sunset descend a flight of stairs to follow, then cut to the shadowed upper reaches of a vast chamber and tilt down slowly as bats flap and chitter through the expanse. Two immense doors trimmed in brass bar the way for the quartet. Celestia and Luna train their magic on the handles; cut to the other side as the doors swing open and all proceed through. Now both Princess Twilight and Sunset gape in unadulterated awe, the former pulling in a slow gasp that inflates her lungs to bursting. Cut to just behind them and tilt up slowly to frame the gargantuan cavern in which they have arrived. Shelves crammed with books and artifacts are carved into the walls at irregular intervals; ladders are provided to reach the very highest sets; flights of stairs on either side of the entrance lead up to a second-story balcony; a study table stands in the center of the smoothed stone floor, facing an immense blazing fireplace. The camera motion puts Princess Twilight out of view during the next line.)

Princess Twilight: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! So many books, all unread! (Back to her and Sunset.) Ancient historical artifacts! (Small gasp; she summons a few volumes to herself, short of breath.) I just…I’m not…I can’t… (Wheeze.)

Sunset: (smugly) You sure you’re up for helping me go through all this stuff? (Princess Twilight lunges across to grab her.)

Princess Twilight: Don’t take this away from me!

Celestia: (from o.s.) I should warn you, however.

(Cut to her, standing by a contraption of gears and inscribed horizontal rollers mounted within a vertical frame. Belts run over their axles, connected to a crank and a set of levers and pedals at floor level. Patches of cobwebs speak to a lack of use.)

Celestia: The archives’ mechanical catalog has not been…well maintained.

(Sunset crosses to the rig and pulls a lever to bring it to juddering, rattling life. Dust billows from the mechanism, causing her to give a muffled cry of shock and clap a hoof to her nose. It does her no good, though, and she goes into a coughing fit as belts break and rollers slide off their axles to clatter across the floor. Sunset and Celestia can do little more than cringe away from the wreckage, sharing a moment’s hopelessness.)

Princess Twilight: (with great enthusiasm, zipping over to Sunset) Guess we’ll have to read everything! Come on!

(In no time flat, she has flown up to the balcony and begun levitating books off the nearest set of shelves.)

Princess Twilight: No way! Can you believe they have Canterlot Cantabiles, Volume Thirty-One? You heard me—thirty-one! (blissfully, hugging one book) Sunset, that’s when it gets goooood! (Gasp; she charges off, towing the others along.) Over here!

(On the start of the next line, cut to Celestia and Sunset, trading a tranquil and knowing smile, respectively.)

Princess Twilight: (now o.s.) An original Windigo Weather Warning from the pre-Equestrian era! (Sunset shrugs and settles to her haunches; both laugh.) Oh, my goodness! I just—I just can’t!

(Dissolve to an overhead shot of the cavern floor, Celestia and Luna having departed. Sunset is at the central table, poring over one of several books piled up on and near it, while Princess Twilight is on the balcony and floating several items away from a full display case for close study. A dissolve shifts Sunset to one end of the table, where she sits to continue her reading, and brings Princess Twilight flying in toward the other. The next one frames Sunset on the side facing the fireplace and puts Twilight at a second case of items on the side opposite the first one. One more frames an extreme close-up of a book, whose cover closes under Sunset’s influence; zoom out to frame her yawning at the table. The volume is thick enough to serve as a stop for any type of door up to and including a bank vault, and a pile of scrolls takes up a good bit of the remaining table space.)

Sunset: (wearily) Did you know Chancellor Puddinghead tried to pass a law mandating earth ponies drink carrot juice at every meal? (Pause.) I do. Know that. (Slump down, head on forelegs.) Now.

(Pan slightly to bring an overly chipper Princess Twilight into view.)

Princess Twilight: Aww, sounds like you got to read all the fun books.

(Close-up of her, sitting amid a scatter of others on the floor.)

Princess Twilight: (yawning) I should probably take a break from looking.

(Back to Sunset, who heaves a deep sigh and floats her own scrolls and gargantuan text away.)

Princess Twilight: (giddily, zipping to her) Because I found something! (floating a small chest onto table) You’re familiar with The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever?

Sunset: Obviously. Why?

Princess Twilight: Well, first of all…

(Close-up of the container, an ornament of a bear’s skull worked into the front and positioned so that the edge of the lid separates upper and lower jaws. A medallion of a four-leaf clover is set into the front panel. As she continues, her magic opens the chest to extract a scroll from the cobwebbed interior and the camera zooms out to frame the pair.)

Princess Twilight: …these date back to before the founding of Equestria.

(Close-up of the slowly unrolling parchment; a block of glyphs is sandwiched between two drawings. On the right is a mare, while on the left is a stone carved with patterns that vaguely resemble an eye and surrounded by a ring of moons in various phases.)

Princess Twilight: (from o.s.) Look at this. (Back to her and Sunset.)

Sunset: (reading) “The Memory Stone.” That sounds promising.

Princess Twilight: (nodding, letting scroll drop to table) It belonged to an evil sorceress who was practically invincible.

(Cut to her perspective on the end of this, panning slowly from one section to another as she points them out.)

Princess Twilight: With the Memory Stone, she could erase any memory from anypony, even fragments of memories. (Back to her and Sunset.)

Sunset: (alarmed) Fragments like…memories of me being nice?

Princess Twilight: (nodding) Mmm-hmm.

(Her perspective again, starting with a four-leaf clover.)

Princess Twilight: Clover the Clever knew the sorceress had to be stopped and the Stone destroyed, so he chased her across land and sea. But every time he got close, the sorceress would erase his memory and escape. But he kept finding her. (The pair again.)

Sunset: How?

Princess Twilight: These scraps of parchment. He secretly wrote everything down, so he’d know what had happened and where to go next, like a trail of bread crumbs.

Sunset: Clever! (A pause as this word sinks in.) Ohhh! Clover the—yeah, got it.

(Close-up of the last revealed illustration: the sorceress passing through a magical gateway and staying just out of her pursuer’s reach.)

Sunset: (from o.s., pointing) What happened on the other side of this portal?

(Princess Twilight’s field pushes the roller along, only to find one last written passage followed by a torn-off edge.)

Princess Twilight: (from o.s.) The last page is missing! (Back to her and Sunset.) Clover must have hid it to keep anypony else from finding the Memory Stone! (A moment’s thought.) Sunset… (The picture again; she continues o.s. and points.) …what if the Memory Stone ended up in your world?

(Back to them on the end of this; the pieces start to click together in Sunset’s mind.)

Sunset: And someone is using it to make everyone hate me again!

Princess Twilight, Sunset: But who?

(Fade to black, then snap to a “To be continued…” title card and back to black.)

Act Three

(Opening shot: fade from the title card to black, which yields to a view of clear blue sky as if a cloth covering were being pulled away from the camera. A cut to an overhead close-up of Twilight, lying on a beach towel and tipping a blue peaked cap up from her eyes, picks the shot out as being from her perspective, lying on her back. The cap has a pink band marked by a matching compass rose and secured by star at one end and a bow at the other; surprise registers as she gets its bill clear of her eyes and realizes that she is lying in someone’s shadow. A longer shot and slow pan across the area confirm the source as Pinkie, standing at her feet with a cupcake in hand. Applejack and Fluttershy are sunbathing on towels of their own, Rarity lounges on a chair with a folding reflector under her chin, and Rainbow is setting up a volleyball net. Twilight props her upper body on her elbows.)

Pinkie: We’ve been out here a while. (Close-up; she starts smearing the treat onto her exposed skin.) Time to reapply!

(She finishes by daubing a swath across her face—evidently she was serious about the idea for edible sunscreen—and then bugs out, dropping the remains.)

Twilight: (to Applejack/Rarity) I’ve been thinking. Should we be worried about Sunset Shimmer?

Trixie: (from o.s., disdainfully) Yeah. Worried she comes back!

(Eyes/heads turn in the direction of this voice, Twilight’s swivel picking out the star on her cap’s bow; On the end of this line, cut to Trixie’s feet nearby, stretched out in black-starred violet flip-flops. The camera pans slowly to frame the rest of her—sleeveless blue crop top with white pinstripes and a darker bow secured by a gold-trimmed dark blue star; dark blue skirt speckled with gold moons and stars; purple-lensed sunglasses. She has arrayed herself on a lounge chair.)

Trixie: (lifting shades) I think it’s a shame the way she’s treating you, pretending to be your friends [sic]. She’s obviously up to something. (Lower; a palm frond waves over head.) Sunset thinks the whole school exists just to serve her. (snapping fingers) Water, please!

(Zoom out slightly. The frond is in the hands of Snails, while Snips scrambles up with a towel over one arm and carrying a bottle of water—both of them have been put on houseboy duty, it seems. They wear swim trunks and flip-flops, the pale skin on chests and legs testifying to how little time they spend in the sun. Trixie opens her mouth wide, a cue for Snips to pour directly into it from the bottle. This action earns a round of hairy eyeballs from the five girls in the immediate vicinity, Pinkie having cleaned her face and somehow buried herself in the sand to leave only her head exposed. A halfway decent sculpture of a mermaid covers the rest of her, with two seashells in place as a bra. She is first to dismiss the whole scenario and lets her head flop back with a blissful grin. Overhead shot of the entire tableau, panning slowly away from Trixie, whose sunglasses are again propped on her forehead.)

Trixie: You know, seeing as how the yearbook president seems to be having a little identity crisis, I believe that means the vice-president takes over. (Close-up.) And why— (A gasp of mock surprise.) —that’s you, Rarity.

Rarity: If this is your way of asking to be made the Greatest and Most Powerful, the answer is no. (She lowers her reflector.) And didn’t we have this conversation yesterday? I can’t quite remember. (Applejack and Fluttershy step up.)

Applejack: Uh…

Fluttershy: Hmm. (Trixie crosses to the girls.)

Trixie: Maybe we did, maybe we didn’t. Memory is such a fickle thing. You never know when you’ll forget something important, like how great and powerful I am— (with sudden intensity) —which is why I need to be in the yearbook!

Rarity: (groaning, covering face with reflector) I’ll think about it.

Trixie: (smirking) That’s all I ask.

(Dissolve to a long shot of Canterlot and the usual daily business surrounding it and zoom in slowly.)

Sunset: (voice over) I should be getting back to my world.

(Cut to the restricted section of the Canterlot Library, where she, Princess Twilight, and Celestia have gathered at its table. She has her saddlebag strapped on.)

Sunset: Maybe I can convince my friends I’m telling the truth, now that I know what we’re looking for.

(Close-up of an open book, across whose pages a sketch of the Memory Stone has been laid—the eye-marked rock from the scroll Princess Twilight found.)

Princess Twilight: (from o.s.) The Memory Stone.

(Her field plucks up the page and stows it in Sunset’s bag.)

Princess Twilight: (crossing floor) I’ll stay here and search the restricted section top to bottom— (smiling fiercely) —until I find a way to get your friends’ memories back. (Cut to an unconvinced Sunset.)

Sunset: If that’s even possible.

Princess Twilight: (from o.s.) Oh, it’s possible. (Cut to her.) Even if I have to reorganize the whole library by subject—or maybe chronologically. Oh! And fix the broken catalog machine!

(Cut to the remains of the mechanical catalog on the end of this line, a few gears still whirring and emitting spurts of dust. Zoom out slightly to frame Sunset, whose eyes shift from worry to skepticism as she transfers her attention to Princess Twilight. Celestia registers a measure of disbelief as well, the clang of a falling component drifting across to the three. She and Sunset direct good-humored smiles toward Princess Twilight as the latter blushes and clears her throat.)

Princess Twilight: I’ll figure it out.

Sunset: Thank you—both of you.

Celestia: This is quite a contrast from the last time we parted ways. (Cut to Sunset, downcast; she continues o.s.) But you are not that way anymore. (Sunset smiles; Celestia steps closer to her.) With every choice you make, you prove yourself to possess a kind heart.

Sunset: (glancing toward Princess Twilight) I guess I had a good teacher.

Princess Twilight: (blushing) You were a good student. (Both laugh.)

Celestia: (scowling) Are you saying I wasn’t a good teacher? (Next two lines overlap, both spoken hastily.)

Sunset: Oh, no! I-I wasn’t—I’m—what I meant—she didn’t say that, I, uh…

Princess Twilight: She didn’t say that! I-I…

(Cut to the glowering royal visage on the end of this scrambled response. It crumbles to the tune of a musical giggle that floors the two hearing it for a split-second, but they are quick to catch on to the joke and join in.)

Sunset: Princess Celestia has a sense of humor? Looks like I’m not the only one who’s changed.

(She and Princess Twilight break into another chorus of giggling. Fade to black, then in to an extreme close-up of Rainbow’s palm covering the camera lens. She withdraws it to frame an extreme close-up of her face on the beach, the image shifting and re-focusing slightly.)

Rainbow: (hushed) It’s been a grueling afternoon— (Zoom out; she stands holding a volleyball.) —but here we are.

(Longer shot: Twilight’s drone hovers just in front of the stripe-haired athlete. The previous view was through its camera eye.)

Rainbow: The final match. Next point wins. (The drone veers away…) A hush falls over the crowd of ten thousand fans. (…and stops near Twilight, who sits reading.)

Twilight: Go, sports!

(It shifts to hover just overhead as Fluttershy/Pinkie and Rainbow/Rarity square off from opposite sides of the net.)

Rainbow: (normal volume) I’m not holding back this time!

Fluttershy: (fearfully) That’s what I’m afraid of! (She whimpers as Pinkie bounds toward the net.)

Pinkie: (fiercely) Bring it on, Rainbow Dash! (pulling it down briefly) You and Rarity just bought your team a one-way ticket on the express train to You’re Going Down!

Rainbow: (impressed) Huh. Nice game face, Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie: (brightly) Thanks! I’ve been practicing all day. (She grabs the drone and aims it at herself, her intensity returning.) Isn’t that right, little baby camera?! You’re in my house now!

(Cut to a camera-eye view of her crazed face on the second half of the previous line, then back to all four players. She releases her death grip on the device so it can cruise back to Twilight, who has put her book away. Spike, in her lap, snarls and gives chase as it clears out. She is alone for only a moment before Rarity crosses to her with a giggle and sits on the edge of a beach chair.)

Rarity: (playfully) Somebody’s jealous. (Spike, now several yards away, watches the drone.)

Spike: (dismissively) Please. Call me when the flying can opener learns how to fetch.

(The pup with the power of speech gets quite a surprise when said airborne kitchen tool uses a pincer-tipped arm to set a can of dog food in front of him. Two narrowed green eyes shoot it a glare of profoundest contempt.)

Spike: You’re the worst.

(Once it has swung away with a few sad little beeps, he glances furtively around himself. Satisfied that the area is clear, he wastes no time in shoving as much of his muzzle into the can as will fit and chowing down. On the court, Rainbow—now playing solo on her side—tosses the ball up and launches herself after it to deliver a crushing serve. Fluttershy cries out in fear and covers her head with both arms; the ball bounces off them and is met by the leaping Pinkie’s monster spike. The shot follows a most unorthodox trajectory: into the net, slung back to bounce off her face, then over the net. Rainbow backpedals in a blur of blue legs and dives for the save, but ends up on her back as the ball hits the sand just out of reach. She voices a frustrated groan; cut to an extreme close-up of the ball rolling to a stop. The approaching sound of a person severely out of breath, and the sight of a foot in a dark gray boot landing close by, mark Sunset’s return to this world in human form.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) Great news, guys! (Tilt up; she is in her street clothes, bag over shoulder.) I figured it out! Someone’s erased your memory with Equestrian magic!

(She crosses to the volleyball net; Applejack and Rarity have joined the other three players, and the drone hovers overhead.)

Sunset: You don’t remember, but we’re still friends! (No response; she fishes out the Stone sketch.) This is the Memory Stone. (Cut to Fluttershy/Pinkie/Rainbow; she continues o.s.) Do you recognize it?

(Not even a flicker on these three faces, nor on those of Twilight/Applejack/Rarity when the camera cuts to them. Spike scampers over to the six as Sunset, facing them, lets go with a deflated sigh.)

Sunset: Right. Guess not. (She bags the sketch and pulls out her phone, facing it to them.) But look.

(Extreme close-up: it displays the group photo of the seven girls and Spike that appeared during the end credits of Friendship Games. On the start of the next line, Sunset swipes through two other pictures: the Fluttershy/Rarity/Sunset/Spike selfie from Pinkie’s slumber party one film earlier, then the group hug at the end of Friendship Games.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) See? This is proof! (Zoom out to frame her.) We are friends!

(Blue-green eyes broadcast a silent entreaty loud enough to carry for miles, but its intended recipients return only a scatter of noncommittal grunts and mumbles.)

Trixie: (from o.s., scoffing) Oh, please.

(She approaches the seven, accompanied by Snips and Snails. The former totes a cooler and the palm-frond fan and wears an inflatable floating ring around his neck; the latter hauls a bag of supplies and a furled blue/white beach umbrella topped by a gold-trimmed star in light blue.)

Trixie: This is the same girl who made flawless fake photos of your friend trashing the gym.

(Referring to Sunset’s attempt to frame Princess Twilight for the ruination of the Fall Formal decorations in Equestria Girls. Before the resident world-jumper can react, Pinkie has darted in toward her.)

Pinkie: (suspiciously, taking her phone) Yeah, wait a minute! Is this supposed to be me making such a ridiculous face? (shoving it back to her) Ha!

(Extreme close-up of the screen: the pink visage is contorted into a goofy scowl, one eye squinched shut.)

Pinkie: (from o.s.) I’d never make a face like that!

(A zoom out puts the lie to those words, as her features are set in this exact expression.)

Pinkie: Preposterous! (Delivered with enough force to blow Sunset’s hair back.) Fake, I say!

(Trixie’s malicious cackle cuts in right about here; close-up of her face, sunglasses gone.)

Trixie: My work here is done.

(Zoom out; she lifts the same type of smoke bomb she used for her botched Act One exit.)

Trixie: Trixie out!

(It is flung down to emit its payload in a screen-choking blast, but once again the view clears to leave her a bit short of success. She has only made it as far as the steps leading up from the beach, Snips has fallen over the cooler, and Snails has dropped his cargo and is rubbing his eyes to clear them. All seven Rainbooms goggle at this second failed escape as Twilight’s drone idles its way toward the trio.)

Trixie: (calling across beach, waving/dancing in place) And don’t forget, Rarity! You promised to put me in the yearbook! (Snails begins to pick everything up.)

Sunset: (to Rarity, backing away) Wait. You did what?

(Close-up of one boot coming down on the abandoned volleyball, causing her to stumble.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) Wh—? (To her, from the knees up.) Whoa!

(A sickening crunch drifts up from ground level, stopping her cold, and she turns to get a good look at the drone now pinned under her foot. Its camera lens is broken, one of the four propellers has been knocked off, and the housing has been severely dented As she shifts her stance, another prop sags at a very wrong angle and the device emits a few forlorn beeps and a wisp of black smoke from the sparking, exposed wires. Sunset cringes at the damage; Twilight rushes past her with a gasp of horror and drops to her knee beside it.)

Sunset: It was an accident! (Twilight picks it up.) I can help fix it!

Twilight: (icily) I think you’ve helped enough.

(With the exception of Fluttershy, the five still over by the net allow their faces to tell all their unbridled disgust. Sunset’s eyebrows lower over her grimacing mouth as she turns her focus to the departing Trixie and her flunkies.)

(Dissolve to the exterior of Canterlot High and cut to the interior of her locker, the camera pointing out at her grim-set features as she slams the door shut to black out the screen. Snap immediately to her proceeding down the hall, ill will replaced by trepidation due to the fearful murmurs and occasional dirty look from the students she passes. She runs into Micro and knocks him to the floor without immediately realizing it; her offered hand is met by a deer-in-the-headlights stare and a hastily proffered pocketful of bills and coins across her palm. The legal tender sparks her back to anger, and the yellow-orange fingers crumple it into a wad.)

Sunset: (pulling Micro up, shoving it against his chest; it falls away) I don’t want your lunch money! I’m not mean! Got it? (He flees.) I’m not mean!

(Trixie, reaching into her locker, observes these developments with a faint smile that brings Sunset storming across the hall. The door is slammed shut, coming within a hair’s breadth of smashing a hand and eliciting a surprised yelp. She is back in her usual threads.)

Sunset: So, here we are.

Trixie: Here we do are.

(Smugness gives way to a touch of embarrassment at having run roughshod over the rules of proper grammar, then a glare of clearest animosity. Sunset mirrors it, baring her teeth in a silent snarl, and both pairs of eyes narrow in alternating extreme close-ups. The camera cuts to frame both; Trixie’s locker is open again, and both girls brace themselves to throw down.)

Trixie: You really want to do this here, in the hallway, in front of everyone?

Sunset: Up to you.

(The few spectators back slowly away from the combat zone. Trixie is first to make a move—not to punch or kick, but rather to smile and yank out a rolled-up poster which she lets fall open. It depicts her standing amid a mass of clouds behind an opening stage curtain, hands outstretched in front of herself to manipulate a deck of playing cards spread out into a long, curling ribbon. The zip-up sweater gapes open in the front to reveal that her usual blue-violet skirt is now part of a dress whose front sports an open eye; a gold necklace and gold-edged stars in blue-violet adorn the collar. A circle of star/moon runes serves as backdrop, and the top edge displays a banner of text marked by a top hat and magic wand.)

Trixie: Behold! Canterlot High School’s greatest and powerfullest student! If a seventh-scale mockup doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

Sunset: (advancing on her with growing rage; she backs up) Where’s the Memory Stone? You turned my friends against me just because I wouldn’t put you in the yearbook as the Greatest and Powerfullest?! (sputtering) “Powerfullest” isn’t even a word!

(It takes a moment for the target of this outburst to figure out what to say next; when she does, it comes with a cocked eyebrow.)

Trixie: What are you talking about?

Sunset: It’s not a word!

Trixie: No. What Memory Stone?

Sunset: The one you used to erase everyone’s memory, you manipulative…blowhard!

(Trixie makes the leap from “baffled” to “excited” in record time.)

Trixie: A stone that could make everyone forget all the bad tricks I’ve done? (Gasp, catching herself.) Which is no tricks. (She hangs the poster on the nearest locker.) Your puny rock pales in comparison to the Great and Powerful Trixie!

Sunset: (floored, pacing) I don’t believe it. You have no idea what I’m talking about.

Trixie: (losing steam) I…don’t. Sorry.

(The pariah thumps her hand against a locker and slides down to a sitting position with a weary moan, covering her face with her palms.)

Trixie: (crossing to her) Did somebody really erase everyone’s memories of you?

Sunset: (nodding, uncovering face) Mmm-hmm. (Trixie slides down to sit alongside.)

Trixie: And even though we all know you’re the Biggest Meanie, you’re saying you’re not mean anymore? (She adds quotation marks with her fingers on “Biggest Meanie.”)

Sunset: It’s complicated.

(Close-up of Sunset’s crushed expression, panning to Trixie on the start of the next line.)

Trixie: So you have this idea of who you’re supposed to be— (glancing across at her poster; passersby laugh at it) —but no one at school sees you that way. Is that it? (Sunset nods; close-up.) Trust me. I get it.

(A barely audible, sardonic chuckle from the o.s. Sunset; pan to her, now smiling.)

Sunset: I can’t believe the only person who believes me is the one I called a manipulative blowhard. (Pause.) Sorry.

Trixie: (from o.s.) I took it as a compliment. (She stands up and offers a hand.) Let me help you find the Stone.

Sunset: (skeptically) What’s in it for you?

(To which the prestidigitator lifts one brow and shoots a glance back toward her poster. Sunset shoots to her feet, brimming with fresh ire.)

Sunset: No way! Absolutely not!

Trixie: Well, if you’d rather go on being the Biggest Meanie, that’s fine by me.

(Cut to Sunset and zoom in slowly on her glowering countenance and lowering eyebrows, then dissolve to the exterior of the Canterlot Library. Zoom in slowly and cut to a distraught Princess Twilight in its restricted section; the table here is stacked high with books, and the chest in which she found Clover the Clever’s account of the Memory Stone rests atop one tower.)

Princess Twilight: I’ve looked everywhere! Why can’t I find the missing pages? (hovering, forelegs flailing) I’VE ALWAYS BEEN GOOD TO YOU, LIBRARY!!

(She flops back down to her seat, thumping her face against the table. The impact jars the chest enough to make it overbalance and drop to the floor; Princess Twilight stares openmouthed, finding the lid broken, its skull ornament shattered—and a bit of parchment protruding from one of the pieces. Zoom in on this last, then cut to her approaching it with a soft gasp.)

Princess Twilight: (levitating it; Celestia steps up behind her) This is it! The last piece was in a secret compartment! (reading, alarmed) Clover the Clever buried the Stone!

(Cut to just behind her head, giving a clear view of the fragment: a picture of three stone towers arranged in a triangle, with spirals carved into their surfaces. The missing artifact is superimposed on the base of one of them to indicate where to look.)

Princess Twilight: This rock formation must be somewhere in the other world! (She turns away and thinks for a second.) But it doesn’t say how to get your memories back. (Gasp; she races back to the table and reads from Clover’s scroll.) “Perhaps if I had destroyed the Stone right away, some of my memories could have returned. But when the sun sets by the third day after a memory has been taken, it is erased forever.” (She glances worriedly up at Celestia.)

Celestia: You must warn Sunset Shimmer at once.

(Dissolve to Sunset and Trixie, both on their feet near the lockers and sharing a newfound camaraderie.)

Sunset: So, where should we start…partner?

Trixie: How about with what I call you? I’m thinking “The Great and Powerful Trixie’s Pretty Decent Assistant Detective Helper Person.”

(They walk o.s. on the end of this line, completely missing the gleam of magic that emanates from within a particular locker. Zoom in slowly on it and dissolve to Sunset’s bag inside, her journal aglow and a-quiver with an incoming message from Princess Twilight. Cut to a “To be continued…” title card and snap to black.)

Act Four

(Opening shot: fade to black from the title card, then in to the cafeteria at lunchtime. The rest of the Rainbooms save Pinkie have claimed a table, all back in their everyday outfits, and the missing sixth pops up behind Rainbow with a joyful little squeal. Light conversation breaks out as the camera pans to Sunset by herself at another table; she eyes her tray uncertainly, then pushes it away with a sudden grimace and sulks just before Trixie brings her own meal over.)

Trixie: (sitting, throwing arm across Sunset’s shoulders) A cafeteria full of suspects, two detectives, and only one Memory Stone. Seems impossible—but so does pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and I do that all the time.

(Sunset is somewhat less than impressed by this salvo of self-aggrandizement. Close-up of Trixie’s tray; she sets down a book and uses this to push it aside. The cover bears the same stardust-spreading wand as her skirt, and she flips through it to stop on a couple of note-filled pages.)

Trixie: (from o.s., producing/clicking a pen) Let’s talk motive. (Back to her and Sunset.) Who here hates you enough to erase everyone’s good memories of you?

Sunset: If you go back far enough… (deflated) …everyone.

(On the end of this line, cut briefly to her perspective—panning across the unfriendly stares coming at her from all directions—then back. She sighs quietly.)

Trixie: (writing) “Known enemies—all.”

(Dissolve to an extreme close-up of Bulk Biceps’ face, mouth open wide. A white hand places the end of a digital thermometer under his tongue, and he clamps his lips shut around it. The sound of a door being thrown open spooks him into letting it drop again; cut to his end of this room, the camera aimed at it. He sits facing Nurse Redheart—see the “Constructive Criticism” short—in her office, and Trixie has just burst in with a rather apprehensive Sunset in tow and book/pen in hand.)

Redheart: G-Good afternoon, ladies. Y-You feeling okay?

Trixie: That depends on how well you answer my questions. (Redheart gives her a dirty look.) Has anyone come in complaining of memory problems in the last few weeks?

Redheart: Not that I can recall.

Trixie: (pointedly) You can’t recall? (whispering, to Sunset) We’re too late.

(The “assistant detective helper person” rolls her eyes at this ham-handed approach to interrogation. Dissolve to Micro working at a computer, the camera aimed over his shoulder at the screen. Noticing the approach of the two girls’ reflections, he cringes into his chair and turns to face them with a cry. A longer shot frames all three in the library; he fumbles in the backpack resting by his keyboard and retrieves a carrot with a few bites taken from it. The sight causes Sunset and Trixie to recoil in clear disgust.)

Micro: Will you accept a half-chewed carrot stick?

Sunset: What? Ew! I told you, I don’t want your lunch money, and I definitely don’t want your lunch.

(But this does not stop Trixie from taking the used produce on the end of this line and biting down with gusto.)

Trixie: (to her, mouth full) Speak for yourself. (to Micro) Thanks.

(Once she has polished it off—leafy top and all—and swallowed, she leans down to do a bit of grilling.)

Trixie: Word around school’s you know a lot about erasing memory.

Micro: (adjusting glasses) I erased a ton of memory just this morning.

Sunset: You did?

(A quick spin on the swivel chair, and he has snapped a component up from the desk.)

Micro: Four terabytes of quanto-acelerflex memory, to be precise.

(Sunset gives Trixie a sour look and eye roll at having wasted time on this dead end, the latter jerking her thumb toward the exit to prompt both of them into leaving. Micro stares confusedly after them.)

Micro: How come no one’s ever impressed by that?

(Dissolve to an extreme close-up of the Stone sketch Princess Twilight prepared, held in a gray hand in a hallway. The edges of both girls’ hair are visible past its sides, and it is lowered on the next line to fully expose both of them.)

Sunset: Is there anything you can tell us about it? Anything at all?

(The holder proves to be Pinkie’s sister Maud.)

Maud: I can’t tell much from a drawing. (Cut to Sunset; it is passed back to her.)

Sunset: (crestfallen) Okay.

(She starts to leave, but freezes at further words from the flat voice; pan back to Maud on the start of the next line.)

Maud: Only that it’s felsic intrusive igneous, granular in texture, most likely arranged in an equigranular matrix with scattered biotite mica and amphibole, at least sixty-five percent alkali feldspar by volume, with a melting point of twelve-fifty Centigrade, plus or minus ten degrees. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

(Accompanied by the following. Sunset and Trixie exchange hopelessly bewildered glances; Trixie shrugs and Sunset cringes in reply; Sunset slowly backs off; Trixie offers a humoring little smile and follows suit.)

(Dissolve to the two sleuths in an empty classroom and zoom in slowly. Sunset stands staring morosely out a window, while Trixie sits at a desk with her book/pen resting before her.)

Trixie: Sure, it seems like we’ve only come up with dead ends, but…I mean, it…could be worse? (She nibbles on the pen; focus shifts to Sunset.)

Sunset: (sighing) It’s worse.

(Cut to just beyond the glass, a mild grimace contorting her features. The whirring of the propellers on Twilight’s drone can be heard.)

Twilight: (from o.s.) Good as new!

(Pan/tilt down to her and the other five Rainbooms gathered on the grass near this corner of the building. She has repaired the drone and gotten it airborne again, and Fluttershy has Spike in her arms.)

Twilight: (pulling out remote control) Best Friends yearbook group picture, take two! Number thirty-six-A, attempt eight.

(Her eyes flick upward and she winces a bit. Cut to inside the classroom, showing her and Sunset in each other’s line of sight, then to Twilight again. She turns pensively away from the outcast’s pleading little wave before the camera cuts to the room again. Sunset can only watch as the girls gather in, their backs to her.)

Other Rainbooms: (muffled by glass) Best Friends!

(Her features twist into a look of smoldering fury as she makes for the door, leaving Trixie to gaze uneasily out at the tableau. Dissolve to a close-up of the drone’s picture—six happy teens and one dog on the grass, a distraught seventh visible through the window—and zoom out. Sunset has pulled it up on one of the computers in the yearbook workroom; she stares gloomily at it as Trixie crosses to her, no longer carrying her own book/pen.)

Trixie: (pacing) Oh, stop looking at that! You’re just gonna wind yourself up. You can’t think if you’re wound up. (moaning, fists to own forehead; Sunset eyes some pages) Think, Trixie!

Sunset: I wanted to come in here to see who we’re missing.

(Her perspective of the documents in hand; the topmost displays a grid of nine students’ pictures, each checked off in red.)

Sunset: (sighing) But we’ve talked to everyone, A to Z.

(She fans them out as she speaks—three in all, identically laid out and marked off with one exception. The center square on the second page bears only a featureless head/shoulders silhouette and a label and is not checked.)

Trixie: (from o.s., pointing at it) Wait.

(Cut to both; she reads over Sunset’s shoulder. Wedges of Wallflower’s figure are visible past Trixie’s hip and the crook of her elbow, and the drone rests at the end of the countertop at which Sunset is seated.)

Trixie: “Not pictured: Wallflower Blush.” Who’s Wallflower?

Wallflower: (mildly irked) I’m right here, you know.

(As she speaks, the others turn toward her in surprise and the focus shifts to her, Trixie moving enough to give a clear view.)

Trixie: (smiling/laughing sheepishly) Uh…who are you?

(Close-up of the green-haired girl, at a computer whose desktop background shows a well-cared-for garden that borders on a forest.)

Wallflower: Wallflower. I’ve known you since third grade. (Cut to Sunset and Trixie.)

Trixie: Ahhh! I remember third grade—not you specifically, but what a grade it was! (Disgusted glare from Sunset.) The Great and Powerful Trixie debuted her disappearing-frog trick. (laughing, crossing o.s. to Wallflower, fading out) You know, a lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into raising tadpoles. You really have to coddle them to—

(As she passes out of view, the journal in Sunset’s bag—now resting on the counter—starts to glow and vibrate. She opens it to find the message she missed, which includes front and back sketches of the Stone, and a new one coming in from Princess Twilight. Trixie’s voice continues indistinctly in the background.)

Princess Twilight: (voice over, dictating) “Sunset, we think the Memory Stone was buried under this rock formation.”

(There follows a hasty rendition of the three rock towers from the hidden page she found.)

Princess Twilight: (voice over) “And if you don’t destroy the Memory Stone by the time the sun sets today, all those memories will be erased forever!”

Sunset: How am I supposed to find a rock formation—

(Cut to her perspective of the new drawing; she slowly lowers the journal and sees Trixie prattling on to Wallflower. They stand to either side of the latter’s computer, and the camera zooms in to a close-up on the next line to give a full view of three standing stones equally spaced around the edges of the garden’s circular clearing. Each is only a few feet high. The next two lines overlap.)

Trixie: —debuted her disappearing-frog trick. (Giggle.)

Sunset: —that looks like that rock formation! (Back to her, smiling with new determination.) That’ll work.

(The journal goes back in the bag, which in turn goes on the floor, and she reaches o.s. for a moment. A soft click drifts back, after which she stands up with an innocent smile and a raised index finger.)

Sunset: Can I ask a silly question, Wallflower? (pointing to screen) Where did you take that lovely photograph?

Wallflower: (smiling, sitting at it) Oh! That’s my garden—well, the school’s garden, technically. I’m the president of the gardening club. I founded it, too. I’m also the only member— (deflating) —and the only one who’s ever been to the garden, or seen it… (with slight bitterness) …or even asked about it.

Trixie: (dryly) You’re not really into other people, huh?

Wallflower: (smiling hopefully) I was maybe going to add this picture somewhere in the yearbook. (to Sunset) What do you think?

Trixie: (crossing to Sunset) Sorry. Sunset doesn’t let anyone put things in her yearbook— (acidly) —no matter how much they deserve them.

Sunset: No! You should do that, Wallflower. (Trixie’s eyes pop.) Um, so don’t let us keep you from working on it.

Trixie: What?!? The Great and Powerful Trixie is…annoyed and insulted!

(She turns away and crosses her arms in a fit of pique, but Sunset throws Wallflower a big encouraging grin and nod. The mousy teen returns to her work, rapidly becoming so absorbed in it that she fails to notice Sunset’s quiet approach or the hand that lashes down to grab hers.)

Wallflower: What are you—

(Sunset’s eyes fire up as her telepathy kicks in; a flash of white, and she is seeing a memory of Wallflower standing alone by the gym wall during the Fall Formal, staring at her shoes as Flash and a ponied-up Princess Twilight walk by. A dissolve, and she is seen in nearly the same spot during the Battle of the Bands kickoff party in Rainbow Rocks as the Cutie Mark Crusaders pass. Another, and she stands alone in the crowd during the Friendship Games kickoff party in that film. One more dissolve puts her on the move along the dirt path that leads through the woods behind Canterlot High. She idly kicks a stone into the undergrowth, hearing it clack against something out of view, and turns for a better look. Cut to just behind her, panning slowly across the thick carpet of foliage; a rock juts up from this, bathed in a shaft of sparkling light.)

(Wallflower leaves the path, pushing through the overgrown bushes until she breaks through to a relatively clear area at whose edge the rock stands. It is one of three equally spaced around the perimeter, giving this spot away as the future site of her garden; the other two rocks are dormant. A smile, a flash of white, and she has set herself to the task of cleaning away the unwanted vegetation and planting flowers. One turn of her trowel unearths a small, earth-stained bundle tied shut with a rope; when she undoes the knot, the covering unfurls as a sheet of parchment wrapped around a rock perhaps twice the size of her fist. Brown eyes bug out at the discovery—and a close-up pins it as the Stone, the accompanying parchment covered with drawings and runes. Disbelief and wonder settle in on the pale green face.)

(Flash to the Act One confrontation between the Rainbooms and Trixie in the workroom. The camera is placed next to Wallflower, who has turned to watch. The next five lines reverberate slightly.)

Applejack: (sputtering a bit) That was different. The whole school voted for her. (Pinkie leans in.)

Pinkie: (whispering) She was sooooo mean!

Twilight: (patting Sunset’s shoulder, tossing the yearbook Sunset holds to floor) Of course, we all know you’ve earned the right not to be remembered that way.

(After Wallflower retrieves it, the view flashes to a close-up of it lying shut on a countertop. She rests a hand on the cover, sits down with a sigh, and picks it up.)

Wallflower: Why should you notice me? (sarcastically, opening it) After all, you’re Sunset Shimmer. (bitterly, tossing it back) Everybody loves you now.

(Close-up of the “Biggest Meanie” photo page on the end of this, then back to her; she stands up with an infuriated huff.)

Wallflower: Why can’t they see you haven’t changed?

(A brainstorm hits, and in no time she has snatched up her backpack and made a run for the door. Dissolve to her in the now-lush garden clearing at night; she kneels on the grass, sets her bag down, and extracts the Stone from it. After smoothing out the parchment on the ground, she takes the artifact in both hands, shuts her eyes, and concentrates hard. The carvings on the Stone begin to emit an eerie green light, a beam shooting skyward and a wave spreading over the ground. Cut to Twilight asleep in bed at home, the camera positioned to frame the end of her room not seen in the prologue of Legend of Everfree. Bookshelves line nearly every available square inch, including the area beneath a window at which a telescope is set up, and glow-in-the-dark stars and moons cover most of what is left. A flare of light spills in through the window, and Twilight briefly winces and moans as a ribbon of reddish energy issues from the side of her head and is drawn away. Printed on it is a sequence of diamond-shaped pictures of Sunset’s face—memories of her friend being stolen from her mind. Another such ribbon is taken from Pinkie’s head as she slumbers at home with her stuffed alligator Gummy; the same plays out with Applejack and Rarity in turn, the latter’s cat Opalescence snapping awake with a yowl and jumping off the bed as if to give chase. The purloined recollections swirl around the domed roof of Canterlot High and drop into the woods behind it, as seen in Act One; cut to a close-up and tilt down to follow them as they disappear into the Stone, whose carvings’ glow has gone from green to red. The beam it fired into the sky has stopped, and once the Stone itself goes quiescent, Wallflower opens her eyes and adopts a frightening little smile.)

(The extended flashback ends with a screen-filling flash of white that subsides to show Sunset; her eyes return to normal as the camera zooms out to frame Trixie and Wallflower.)

Sunset: (releasing Wallflower’s hand) You erased everyone’s memories?

Wallflower: Uh… (angrily) …yes. (Close-up of Sunset, plenty sore; zoom out to frame Trixie.)

Trixie: Wait. Who are you again?

(The forgettable girl picks up a photo of the seven Rainbooms goofing around on the front steps.)

Quiet, melancholy melody of reverberating electric guitar and synthesizer

Fast 4 (C major)

(She lets it flutter back to the countertop and sits at her computer.)

Wallflower:                    You don’t see me fitting in, I’m sitting here alone

(brushing fingertips over her reflection on the monitor)

                                        Right beside my shadow, always on my own

Light percussion in; intensity slowly builds

(standing, crossing room)

                                        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

Full percussion in

(Three broad stripes, each a different shade of green, sweep across to fill the screen and subside to frame her approaching a string hung with pictures of various students.)

Wallflower:                    I’m invisible, invisible, a droplet in the mist

(Three drift up past the camera, the view behind them changing to silhouettes grouped in twos and threes and more. She walks unnoticed through them.)

                                        Invisible, invisible, it’s like I don’t exist

Percussion drops back somewhat; backing vocal harmonies in

(Zoom out, her head/shoulders becoming the “not pictured” silhouette at the center of the page of photos noticed by Trixie. A green hand caresses it as Sunset and Trixie look on.)

Wallflower:                    Right beneath my picture, this is what you’ll read

(She turns off her computer and paces away; Sunset notices her backpack on the floor and begins to sneak toward it.)

                                        A laundry list of nothings, not likely to succeed

(Wallflower plucks a yearbook from a shelf, leafs through, and returns it; Sunset swipes the bag and nips out of sight, Trixie shifting to block her from view.)

                                        A yearbook with blank pages that no one wants to sign

(The pilferer opens the zipper and starts fishing around inside.)

                                        A memory forgotten until the end of time

Song ends abruptly

(The reason for the sudden halt is simple: she has caught sight of Sunset’s rooting.)

Wallflower: Hey! What are you doing?

(There ensues a vigorous tug-of-war over the backpack, which ends in Wallflower’s favor.)

Sunset: What did I do to you? Honestly, I don’t even know you!

Wallflower: Exactly! You had everyone fooled, but now they know you’re still…the Biggest Meanie!

Sunset: (advancing on her, menacingly) You’re about to see how mean I can get! (Trixie inserts herself between them.)

Trixie: Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. (to Sunset) Let’s not antagonize the person with the all-powerful mystery rock.

Wallflower: I don’t like confrontation. (reaching in bag) Let’s just… (pulling out Stone, facing it toward them) …forget this ever happened! (The carvings glow green.)

Sunset: (panicked) Don’t erase—

(Too late; the aura washes over her and clears a moment later. Sunset and Trixie are left standing alone and disoriented in the workroom, all traces of Wallflower gone. The magician is first to recover her senses with an airy smile.)

Trixie: (sighing) What was I saying? I’m sure it was something brilliant, but also—

(She voices an incredulous scoff upon noticing the time as given by a wall clock.)

Trixie: —how is it already three o’clock?

(To the door she goes, but it proves impervious to her assault on the knob.)

Trixie: (petulantly) Why won’t this door open? And what are we even doing in here?

Sunset: (with slowly dawning horror) I…don’t remember.

(Cut to a “To be continued…” title card and snap to black.)

Act Five

(Opening shot: fade to black from the title card, then in the exterior of Canterlot High. Zoom in slowly and cut to a rove through a hallway that is empty except for a student shutting her locker and walking away. The camera zeros in on a door at the far end, behind which a muffled pounding makes itself heard. The next line establishes it as the workroom.)

Sunset: (muffled, through door) Is anybody out there? Somebody! (Cut to her and Trixie inside; she is doing the pounding.) Open the door!

(She gives up the pummeling and turns to her fellow inmate in close-up.)

Sunset: If we don’t get outta here and figure out who has the Stone, in a few hours it’ll be too late to restore everyone’s memories! (sliding down against door into a heap) I’ll lose my friends forever. (Cut to frame both on the start of the next line.)

Trixie: How are we supposed to catch someone who can erase our memory every time we get close to catching them?

(Five yellow-orange fingers dip into a vest pocket, yielding a soft rustle that causes the blue-green eyes to go very wide. The cause turns out to be a wad of paper.)

Sunset: (smiling, holding it up) By being clever!

Trixie: What?

(Sunset stands up and straightens the thing out—a strip not much bigger than the ones found in fortune cookies.)

Sunset: I wrote myself a note! (reading) “Check the video.”

(Spotting Twilight’s drone, she picks it up, runs a worried eye over the electronics, and is very pleased at what she finds.)

Sunset: Yes!

(The thing is set down; close-up of its remote as she grabs it, an image of the bulletin board on its display screen.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) It’s been recording this whole time! (Button tap; cut to both.)

Trixie: Twilight’s camera? What are you talking about?

Sunset: I don’t remember doing it, but I must have realized our memories would get erased, so I pressed “record”!

(This, then, explains the o.s. click that was heard before she asked about Wallflower’s desktop picture. A bit of adjustment sets the video to rewinding for some seconds, to the point at which she began to explain it.)

Wallflower: That’s my garden. (Cut to Sunset and Trixie.)

Trixie: Who’s that?

Sunset: Wallflower Blush.

Trixie: Name’s not ringing a bell. (Sunset rolls her eyes wearily.)

Wallflower’s song begins

Voice of Wallflower:                             You don’t see me fitting in (Trixie groans.) I’m—

(She commandeers the operation with a tap that triggers an extended fast-forward.)

Trixie: Long song, huh? (Normal playback resumes after its end.)

Voice of Sunset: What did I do to you? Honestly, I don’t even know you! (Close-up of the screen on the end of this.)

Wallflower: Exactly! (Back to them; voice only.) You had everyone fooled, but now they know you’re still the Biggest Meanie!

Voice of Sunset: You’re about to see how mean I can get!

(Trixie cringes at this exchange, but Sunset’s expression hardens into barely controlled rage. A tap stops the playback.)

Trixie: (hesitantly) She’s kinda right about you.

Sunset: (sourly, setting remote down) Yeah, thanks.

Trixie: (smiling) Actually, the Wise and Moralizing Trixie was making a point. You said you didn’t do anything.

Sunset: I didn’t! I wasn’t mean to her at all!

Trixie: Well, maybe it’s not good enough to not be mean to someone. Maybe you have to be nice.

(The rage slowly dissipates into uncertainty tinged with a dash of regret as Sunset picks up the remote and stares at the image of a hopping-mad Wallflower on its screen.)

Sunset: You’re right. (vexed) Not that it matters; I’m still trapped in here. (sighing, smiling hopefully) Unless you can magic us out of here.

Trixie: (turning away) Oh, what’s the point in trying? You’ve seen enough of my tricks to know what’ll happen.

(Close-up of the image of Wallflower, being switched over after a moment to the Best Friends picture taken just outside the classroom in which she sulked during Act Four. A heavy sigh from the o.s. Sunset as she runs her fingers across it and looks up at the back of Trixie’s head; cut to her.)

Sunset: At least when the sun goes down and everyone hates me forever, I’ll still have one friend in the morning.

Trixie: Huh? (Sunset crosses to her without the remote.)

Sunset: (coaxingly; Trixie smiles) And, I mean, she is the greatest and powerfullest Canterlot High School has to offer, so— (thumping Trixie’s shoulder) —I guess I can’t complain.

(The smile turns into one of faux-mocking triumph.)

Trixie: You poor fool! You actually believed me when I was pretending to give up? Mere stage banter. The Great and Powerful Trixie never gives up on herself—or her friends. (She catches herself.) I mean, her Pretty Decent Assistant Detective Helper People. (A nervous laugh, then a fist raised high.) Behold—the Magician’s Exit!

(The fist comes down, generating dense clouds of smoke as in her first two attempts at this trick—except that this time around, she is not holding a smoke bomb. When the view clears, she finds herself standing in the hall, just outside the still-closed workroom door. It takes her a moment to fully comprehend what has just happened—and for pure elation to set in.)

Trixie: (jumping for joy) Yes! It worked! I finally did it!

(The celebratory tone comes to a grinding halt when Sunset’s hand reaches up past the bottom edge of the door’s glass pane and taps on the section not covered by the windowshade inside. Her mildly disgruntled face follows it.)

Sunset: (muffled) Still in here!

Trixie: Um… (Forced casual laugh.) …um, all part of the trick. Have you out in a jiffy.

(She tries again, with the result that Sunset ends up in the hall and Trixie rolls up the shade from inside—they have traded places. Two more blasts follow, each triggering another switcheroo; finally Trixie gives up and addresses Sunset from within the room.)

Trixie: (muffled) You know what? Uh, just leave me in here. Just go!

Sunset: I owe you one, Trixie. I will never forget this. (She hurries off.)

Trixie: (muffled, pressing cheek against glass) Never say never!

(Cut to the nearly empty parking lot behind the building. The only occupants are Bon Bon and Lyra talking, the other six Rainbooms gathered around Applejack’s pickup truck as seen in the “Driving Miss Shimmer” short, Flash pulling up in his car, and Wallflower walking across the pavement away from the school. Sunset throws open the nearest set of doors from inside and spots her quarry. The sky is darkening into sundown.)

Sunset: (voice raised) Wallflower?

(A new angle picks out the latter’s slung-up backpack. Sunset begins to close the gap, quails somewhat upon seeing the filthy looks from her six former friends—Fluttershy holding Angel—and then shakes it off. Cut to her target, seen from behind and almost to the edge of the woods.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) Wallflower, stop! (She does so and turns back, dumbstruck, Sunset reaching her.)

Wallflower: You remember my name?

Sunset: I remember everything. The Memory Stone…how I acted…all of it!

Wallflower: What?! How? I erased the whole afternoon!

(Half a dozen popeyed stares fix themselves squarely on her, and a mortified blush tints the freckled green cheeks as she realizes that the jig is well and truly up.)

Sunset: Listen. I used to be just like you. Sure, I was popular, but I was lonely.

Wallflower: You’re nothing like me, and I’m not lonely because I have… (A moment’s sputtering pause.) …plants! (hand to forehead) That sounded less lonely in my head.

Sunset: I’m sorry, Wallflower.

Wallflower: No, you’re not! You’re just trying to look good in front of your friends! (hands to head) And it’s working! (Frustrated yell.) How am I supposed to get back at you if nothing I do matters? I hate you!

(Those three words hit her and every Rainboom like a two-by-four to the head, Sunset drawing a frightened little shudder through her teeth.)

Wallflower: (removing her backpack) I wanted to teach you a lesson by erasing your friends’ good memories of you— (pulling out Stone) —but obviously that didn’t work. (The six spectators stare in mute horror.) But what if I erased all their memories of high school?

Sunset: You can’t! You’d be stealing their memories of each other!

Wallflower: (pacing past her) They’ll think of each other the way you think of me—which is not at all!

(She thrusts the Stone toward them, firing off a beam of lurid green light that lances straight and true through the air.)

Sunset: (racing toward them) NOOOOOO!!

(One desperate leap brings her squarely into the line of fire, and she goes down like a ton of bricks upon taking the hit. The other Rainbooms gasp in unison at the sight of her now-glowing, crackling form.)

Sunset: (with some effort) I ruined their friendship once before. I’d rather give up my own memories than let it happen again!

(As the others continue to watch, the energy surrounding her body fades and a glowing spot appears on her forehead.)

Sunset: Fluttershy!

(A yellow ribbon of memories, marked with copies of the animal lover’s face, is wrenched out of her noggin. She snatches feebly at the air as it is drawn away.)

Sunset: No!

(Into the Stone it goes; next out are Applejack’s orange-tinted thoughts.)

Sunset: Applejack! (A barely-suppressed yell of agony; here comes a white one for…) Rarity!

(Another cry rings out from her throat as both of these sets are vacuumed up. Cut to the horror-stricken reactions of Applejack/Fluttershy/Rainbow; Pinkie joins them very shortly.)

Sunset: (from o.s.) Rainbow Dash! (Back to her; now losing the bright pink memories of…) Pinkie Pie!

(Having fallen to her knees, she glances painfully back toward…)

Sunset: Twilight… (reaching toward her; these violet memories are extracted) …don’t forget me!

(The bespectacled genius can do no more than stare aghast and voice the softest of gasps as the cleanout comes to an end. Sunset is left half-collapsed on the pavement, eyes glassy and nearly closed, while the Stone absorbs her remembrances of Twilight. In due time, the very last of her strength fails her and she crumples bonelessly with a quiet sigh of sheer exhaustion. She manages to lift her head for a bleary squint and rises to all fours, keeping her hands balled into fists much as Princess Twilight did when she first tried to get about in this world. The blue-green eyes pop wide open as a terrible realization sinks in.)

Sunset: This isn’t Canterlot. Where am I? Princess Celestia?

(Wallflower recoils from the newly minted amnesiac, who uncurls one set of fingers and regards them with not a flicker of understanding. The Stone has gone quiet again.)

Sunset: What’s happened to me? Somepony…help me!

(If nothing else, the use of “somepony” clinches it: she has had all recollection of being in this world dragged out of her head. She looks up fearfully at the approaching Twilight.)

Sunset: Who…are you?

(The violet girl smiles gently down at her while Pinkie glares daggers across the lot.)

Twilight: (kneeling, touching Sunset’s shoulder) We’re your friends. (Her face hardens as she shifts her eyes up; each speaker joins them in turn.)

Applejack: We may not remember you…

Pinkie: …but after seeing what you did…

Rarity: …the sacrifice you made for us… (Rainbow steps up with Fluttershy.)

Fluttershy: …we’d be proud to call you…

All six: …our friend!

(Six hands pile up on the fallen Sunset’s shoulders; her pendant responds with a flare of light, surprising her and bringing a gasp from Wallflower. The energy lifts the dimensional commuter off her feet, a small copy of her cutie mark fading in on her right cheek. The same happens to Twilight as her pendant kicks in, followed by the screen tiling itself with five vertical panels. Each frames one of the other five from eyes to waist, the magic spreading to fire up their own jewelry; they execute a quarter-turn to their left so their newly emerging marks can be seen in full.)

(Full screen: a pure white silhouette in the shape of Twilight rises into view, deep pink wings and over-skirt flaring out as she ponies up. Full color radiates out from her chest to reveal an outfit quite different from the one her pendant granted in Legend of Everfree. The wings take on their usual light violet, while the over-skirt becomes a glittery, translucent pale blue layer open in front over a darker blue skirt that deepens toward the star-dusted hem. Deep pink tights, belt, wrist bracers with white stars, and hair band topped with a cluster of matching stars; knee-high purple boots with pink stars; sleeveless, high-collared. pale blue top shading to a darker hue at the belt and patterned with her cutie mark; pink band encircling the end of her elongated, braided hair tail. She stands ready for action atop a giant copy of her pendant, and the cutie mark is gone from her face.)

(The others pony up in similar fashion, a few portions manifesting in a dark hue that subsides as the colors come in; glitter is present on various portions of each girl’s outfit. Sunset: sleeveless dress with a sunburst-marked red/pink outer layer over a ruffled, two-layer pink skirt cut high in front; red-pink tights that lighten as they disappear into knee-high yellow boots with a dark red flame pattern running up the sides; form-fitting, dark gray sleeves that run from back of hand to just short of the shoulder; spiked bands on hair and tail. Rainbow: long, red-sleeved blue jersey set with her cloud/lightning-bolt and red/yellow/blue-striped trim; deep purple tights; red/yellow/blue winged boots styled as athletic shoes worn over red/yellow lightning-bolt socks; red/yellow/blue wrist bracers; blue skirt that covers only the back half of the jersey’s hem; hair in a ponytail with a red tail band. Fluttershy: open-fronted blue-green skirt decorated with tiny butterflies at hem over a sleeveless, knee-length purple wrap dress; butterflies at waist and neckline; flowers and butterfly clip in hair; green tail band; butterfly-accented slippers with low stacked heels. Pinkie, leaping happily from her platform: sleeveless, light blue dress marked by a blue sash, blue-violet hem on a puffy knee-length skirt, and a pink/yellow heart containing three pink balloons on the front; yellow gloves; short, yellow-soled, high-heeled boots that have yellow bangles and shade from white to pale pink toward the toes; hair in a ponytail with a blue scrunchie and tail band; light pink streak running down its length. Applejack: blue, short-sleeved work shirt with a red apple at each cuff; long red skirt cut high in front and secured by a brown belt with an apple buckle; short, brown, high-heeled cowboy boots set with red apples; pulling off a hat decorated with more of the same; blue bands tying back hair that has been partly braided. Rarity: knee-length, two-layer blue/purple dress whose skirt is cut high in front and sports a grid of gold embroidery; gold belt to match the bauble on one shoulder strap; three-gen clip on the other; short, deep purple cape streaming from the shoulders; gold bands gathering her hair/tail back and marked by her blue gems; elbow-length purple gloves; gold high heels with matching jeweled shin guards.)

(The freshly super-powered seven float several feet above the parking lot to stare Wallflower down, Applejack donning her hat again.)

Twilight: Wallflower, you have magic you do not understand. But it is nothing compared to the magic of— (Pinkie elbows her aside.)

Pinkie: Yeah, yeah, we get it. LIGHT HER UP, LADIES!!

(Seven vertical panels slide into view from screen top/bottom, each presenting an extreme close-up of one girl’s pendant against a gleaming backdrop of its wearer’s trademark color. A flare of white fills the screen and clears to show them floating even higher, hands joined to form an inverted V with Twilight at the apex. A beam of power shoots forth from each stone, joining to form a broad white beam framed by a multicolored helix that sings through the air and finds its mark in the Stone Wallflower holds. She keeps it in her clenched fingers as long as she possibly can, but the onslaught eventually forces her to let go an instant before it shatters. A small, glowing sphere of brilliant yellow energy floats in its place as she tumbles to her back.)

(The ribbons of stolen memories slither out from the surface and weave among the septet, Wallflower’s eyes wide open and staring from her spot on the blacktop. They return to the craniums of their rightful owners, one after another; once all are back where they belong, Sunset comes down in a crouch a few feet from Wallflower. She massages her temples with a grimace and stands to face the others as they return to earth, the sphere having now dissipated.)

Sunset: (hesitantly, but smiling) Twilight…Sparkle?

Twilight: (smiling) Sunset Shimmer!

(The two fall into a joyful embrace that quickly becomes a full-scale group hug, accompanied by a wealth of ecstatic squeals—the band is back together at last.)

Twilight: We’re so sorry.

Sunset: (voice trembling) I’m just glad to have you all back.

(Worried eyes turn toward the edge of the lot; cut to behind Wallflower, now facing the woods and rubbing her head. Sunset crosses to her.)

Wallflower: (miserably) I’m so ashamed. (She picks up a fragment of the Stone.) When I first found the Memory Stone, I only erased little things—awkward hellos, saying the wrong thing, literally any public speaking. (Bury head in arms; Twilight joins them.)

Twilight: I’ve had plenty of awkward moments I wish I could erase, too.

Wallflower: (lifting head) But it’s no excuse. I was so used to erasing memories that I got completely carried away. I’m sorry for everything.

Sunset: (smiling) It’s okay. I’m sorry too. I may have stopped being mean, but a great and powerful friend helped me realize I still wasn’t very nice to you. Everyone matters, Wallflower— (bending to offer a hand) —no matter how insignificant or invisible they feel.

(With a smile and blush, Wallflower clasps the fingers and allows herself to be pulled into a strong hug by the girl who went home and back again to crack the case. Dissolve to Sunset’s room and tilt down slowly to her on the couch, writing in her journal; she has powered down and changed back into her street clothes.)

Sunset: (voice over, dictating) “Dear Princess Twilight: You can add a new ending to the archives.”

(Cut to the parking lot behind Canterlot High. It is daytime, and she, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow are among the students idling away a few spare minutes; all four are back to their normal selves and outfits. A van backs into a nearby parking space.)

Sunset: (voice over) “The Memory Stone is no more.” (Vice-Principal Luna steps out.)

VP Luna: No student parking in the faculty lot!

(Sunset bites back on a giggle, doubtless remembering the way in which the woman’s equine counterpart misunderstood the nature of the area and inadvertently got it right all at once. All four girls move toward the van; cut to its interior, piled with boxes, as the rear doors are opened. Sunset opens one and brings up a yearbook hot off the press.)

Sunset: (voice over) “Thank you for your help. Give my best to Princess Luna, and of course—”

(Pan slowly across the front lawn, all of whose occupants are enjoying their own copies.)

Sunset: (voice over) “—thank my second-best teacher, Princess Celestia. Make sure she knows you’re kidding when you say that, though.”

(Long shot of her standing at the doors; zoom in slowly.)

Sunset: (voice over) “I’m happy to say everything is back how it used to be.”

(She lets herself in; cut to her walking from the lobby into a hallway. A good-and-angry Trixie strides up behind her, book in hand.)

Trixie: I demand to speak to the yearbook president!

(As she continues, she opens it and presents a page that displays the poster she put up in Act Three.)

Trixie: How did this get in here?

(Close-up of the copy, which she lowers to show a knowing smirk.)

Sunset: (smiling, bowing) A yearbook president never reveals her secrets.

(Trixie shuts hers with a smile, and the two set off down the hall together, having found some common ground at last.)

Sunset: (voice over) “Well, not exactly how it used to be.”

(Dissolve to Wallflower’s garden behind the school. She sets down a small potted bonsai tree, Derpy Hooves and Rose each holding another, and Sunset waves a book toward the group.)

Sunset: I’ve got a yearbook delivery for Best Gardener.

(The happy girl whose thumb is as green as her hair straightens up and accepts it. Her eyes widen upon reaching a particular page; cut to a close-up of it and tilt down slowly. It carries a picture of her at work in the garden and has been signed by every single one of the Rainbooms, cutie marks and all. Wallflower’s cheeks color with a blush as she shuts the cover—the latest inductee into this strange world of magical mayhem and friends who are always there to keep things from going too far sideways—and she and Sunset trade smiles of purest joy.)

(Dissolve to the Rainbooms talking and goofing around at the base of the statue, Fluttershy petting Spike as Twilight flies her drone here and there. Cut to a close-up of another yearbook being quickly leafed through, a few students’ pictures autographed, and stop on a full-page shot of the group in their swimwear on the beach. The camera pans away from this page to frame the facing one—a bare-chested Bulk flexing and kissing one of his namesake muscles. A burst of indignant sputtering from the o.s. Rainbow is heard, and the book is pulled away from the camera in her hand to frame her holding it, a fretful Fluttershy looking on. Like the others, both are back to their normally clothed, non-ponied-up selves.)

Rainbow: Oh, come on! (opening/closing it) Seriously?

(Her Act One fear of being put in next to Best Muscles has come true. Pinkie leans into view to watch her keep opening and shutting the cover as if expecting the book to douse her with toxic waste. “Iris out” to black, centered on the queasy blue face.)

“Invisible” (Extended Version)

Quiet, melancholy melody of reverberating electric guitar and synthesizer

Fast 4 (C major)

Wallflower:                You don’t see me fitting in, I’m sitting here alone

                           Right beside my shadow, always on my own

Light percussion in; intensity slowly builds

                           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

Full percussion in

                           I’m invisible, invisible, a droplet in the mist

                           Invisible, invisible, it’s like I don’t exist

Percussion drops back somewhat; backing vocal harmonies in

Wallflower:                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

Full percussion in; harmonies out

I’m invisible, invisible, a star fading at dawn

Invisible, invisible, won’t be long before I’m gone

Tempo slows greatly; quiet piano chords only

Won’t be long before I’m gone

Song ends on a chord in A minor