Comet continued to look out at the sky before fatigue from the nonstop work he had been doing eventually overtook him. The languid Auroricorn submitted to his body's desire for rest and slumped over on his desk, falling asleep. He then began to dream, his mind imagining himself submerged in total darkness…
"Ugh…" he grunted in the dream. "What's going on?"
He attempted to move his legs, but to no avail.
"I can't move my body…" he told himself in concern as something he could feel caused that concern of his to grow. "And I feel…anger…intense jealousy…hate…but these can't be my emotions…wait, what's this?"
All of a sudden, Comet could see something getting closer and closer in his field of vision…it was the sight of Izzy Moonbow, her friends, and a pony who looked just like him giving him a serious glare…
"What in the…?!" Comet said in shock upon seeing the pony who resembled him. "Is that pony me?! How can that be me when I'm right here?! Unless it's…him…"
Comet then saw a magical aura exuding from Izzy and the others and heard a soothing melody that caused something in him to feel relaxed. His field of vision then went completely white as he saw nothing but bright light…
"AAAHHH!" he yelled, awakening from his dream.
Instinctively, he put his front hooves on his mouth just like he had done last night. This time, however, his cry had gotten the attention of his friends, who were not far away from him, getting ready for breakfast in the other room. Izzy, always excited for Sunny Starscout's pancake breakfasts, had her once cheerful expression become one of surprise.
"That voice…" she thought, feeling a premonition.
"What was that noise?" Sunny asked in concern, having just placed a plate of pancakes she had made on the table in the kitchen.
"Sounds like it came from the guest room by the attic…" Hitch Trailblazer answered, eying said room.
"Looks like it's time for an early morning investigation!" Zipp Storm proclaimed with glee.
"NO!" Comet shouted in his mind, hearing what his friends had said and the sound of them approaching the room he was in.
Zipp then attempted to open the door, only to find that it was locked, the way Comet always left it.
"Hmm…" she said curiously. "That's strange…why would the guest room be locked from the inside? We've not had any guests over recently…"
"Not guests…" Izzy chimed in. "But a friend of ours has been living here lately…"
"WHAT?!" Comet cried in his mind in fear. "Oh no, don't tell me…"
"Friend of ours?" Pipp Petals inquired. "Are you talking about Señor Butterscotch?"
"Nah, Señor Butterscotch's always been living with us, he's listed as a permanent resident." Izzy blankly replied. "The friend I'm talking about is a blue Auroricorn who likes to study, trips over himself a lot, and knows how to make really good cocoa!"
"Urraa!" Sparky, whom Hitch was holding, exclaimed in delight.
Comet couldn't believe what he had just heard Izzy say.
"SHE KNOWS?!" he continued speaking frantically in thought. "But I've been casting spells to make them forget about me! Does Izzy have some kind of special power that makes her more resistant to memory loss magic?!"
"So…what's his name?" Misty Brightdawn asked curiously.
"That's the one thing I don't remember…" Izzy replied with a hoof to her chin. "However, another blue Auroricorn was in this weird dream I had last night about space. In it, that blue Auroricorn, who was nothing like the blue Auroricorn I just told you about, having a totally different sparkle, was with me at an amusement park that was somehow in space with all these brilliant laser lights and this cool laser cannon! He said the universe would only allow him to say certain things, but he was able to tell me about these special crystals that could make ponies remember long forgotten memories and let me in on one of the universe's biggest secrets!"
Upon hearing that, Comet was in a state of extreme disbelief, his mind being forced to process this completely unexpected turn of events.
"It can't be…" he thought to himself, flabbergasted. "Does she mean…did he…if his theories are true, that's beyond amazing! However…does that mean everything I've done to make my friends forget about me…been for naught?"
Like Izzy, he too felt a premonition…
"Even though the memory spells are not foolproof…could it be that the reason Izzy can still remember what she does about me not be because she has a special power that makes her resistant to the spells I've been casting…but because her destiny is intertwined with mine? Is she the one that..."
Comet then lowered his head in dismay, feeling foolish.
"If that's the case…" he said defeatedly in thought. "There's no use hiding anymore…first the comet now targeting Maretime Bay and now this…it's time to come clean…"
He then unlocked the door and opened it, just as Zipp was about to inquire about the dream.
"Special crystals? Secret of the universe? Can you rememb…WOAH…"
She and the rest of her friends turned to face a disheveled Comet with looks of shock on their faces.
"Um…with all due respect, sir…" she continued talking, now speaking to Comet. "Who are you and what in the hay are you doing here?"
Comet then cast a spell to undo the effects of his memory loss magic.
"W-wait a second…" every pony besides Comet said. "…COMET?! What's going on here?!"
"I'll explain what happened over breakfast…" a distraught Comet answered, trotting towards the kitchen as his friends could hear his stomach growling. "I've not eaten in a while…"
All of his friends shared looks of concern with each other before they peered into his room.
"Hoofness gracious…" Misty reacted in shock, the sight of it making her tremble. "This reminds me of my room when I lived in Opaline's lair…"
The rest of the group was also taken aback by how Comet's room looked. There were no posters on the wall, there was no bed with only a pillow and a blanket lying on the floor where one should have been, and no trinkets or accessories Comet had a penchant for in sight. The only thing to observe in the room that gave it any kind of personality was the desk Comet worked at, having an assortment of notes, sketches, writing utensils, and books on top of it. Comet's copy of Forgotten Comet was not among these books, however. He had brought it to the Brighthouse from Starlight Ridge, but had made sure it was put in a desk drawer he had locked with a spell he had cast.
"Oh my glitter…" Pipp said in astonishment. "This place is #Drab! This room would be number one on my top ten list of places that need a makeover!"
As Pipp flew in the room and began taking pictures with her phone, Zipp and Hitch glanced over at the desk before looking at each other.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Hitch told her.
"Totally." Zipp replied. "We do what my sister's doing, but for investigative purposes…"
Soon, all of Comet's friends went to join him at the table for breakfast. Comet was sitting in one of the seven chairs at the table where a stack of pancakes on a plate laid in front of him alongside six other plates of pancakes by the other chairs. As soon as he saw his friends approaching the table, he asked Sunny what had been on his mind since he had seen all the pancakes she had made…
"Did you make one of these stacks of pancakes for me?"
"Yes…" Sunny answered in a slightly abashed tone, still trying to grow accustomed to what was happening. "I've been making an extra stack every morning for a while now actually…feels strange to finally learn the reason why…"
"So you really didn't forget me…" Comet replied, his tone conveying the mixed emotions he was feeling, dissatisfied with the shortcomings of his magic but also happy that his friends really did care about him.
"Of course not." Sunny bluntly replied as she and her other friends sat down at the table. "I don't know what kind of magic you cast on us, but know that no magic is stronger than the magic of friendship."
"I wonder about that…" Comet retorted, having resolved to at least disclose minor details about what was going on with his friends. "The reason I did what I did is because we're being threatened by a force that has plagued my kind for ages. It's a force far stronger than Allura, and even our friendship only narrowly defeated her."
"What is it?!" Sunny asked with great concern that was shared by her friends.
"It's a magical comet that comes to inflict destruction upon Starlight Ridge time after time…" Comet explained in a despondent tone of voice. "And no pony has ever been able to stop it completely, not even the most powerful Auroricorns of all at the cost of their lives. I cast spells on all of you because I didn't want to get you involved…I didn't want you to have to experience the pain of losing me forever…"
It was then that Comet began to cry, leading his friends to want to cry as well, feeling great compassion for their friend.
"Oh, Comet…" Sunny said sorrowfully, coming over to her friend to give him a hug. "We feel nothing but sympathy for you for what you've been going through…but you have to be willing to trust us. Being forgotten is worse than dying. We want you to be fully remembered and live on in our hearts to the fullest."
"Do…do you really mean that?" a stunned Comet asked, feeling flattered. "I mean, we haven't known each other that long…"
"You don't have to be well-acquainted with a pony for them to leave a lasting impact on you." Sunny told him serenely. "Sometimes, you find that even the simplest things ponies do can be unforgettable…"
"Hey…" Izzy interjected. "This reminds me of another part of my dream. I was telling a pony who looked just like Comet about how even a simple song could have great power if it was performed by true friends…"
After hearing this remark, Comet felt another alarm bell go off in his mind…
"You have to be joking…" he thought to himself in utter shock as his mind flashed back to the dream he had.
"It's not just Izzy my destiny is intertwined with…it's all of them. That must be why the comet is coming to Maretime Bay! Our connection can't be changed…but I still must protect them…and that pony…I know for sure now…"
"Every pony…" Comet solemnly addressed his friends. "I'm sorry for my misguided attempt at protecting you, but there's something I must do when breakfast is over. I have to go on a trip."
"A trip to where?" Sunny asked curiously. "Are you going back to Starlight Ridge to help protect the Auroricorns from the comet? If so, we want to come with you!"
"I'm not going back to Starlight Ridge." Comet answered bluntly. "The trip I'm going on is to a place I need to go to in Maretime Bay so that I can confirm something."
"…Alright then." Sunny replied with a hint of uncertainty in her tone of voice. "But if you need to use the Nova Charm, please tell us first so that we can tag along and help."
"Of course…" Comet replied in a monotone voice, something that made his friends suspicious.
"You know, I've been thinking about using the Nova Charm to go to an amusement park ever since I had that dream!" Izzy exclaimed, trying her best to be her usual effervescent self as to not make Comet suspect them in turn. "Why don't I go get it as soon as we're done eating?"
"That's a great idea, Izzy!" Zipp declared supportively, also trying to talk as naturally as possible.
"I second that." Comet chimed in, slightly surprising his friends. "After all, there's something about the Nova Charm I wanted to confirm…"
Despite Izzy and the others finding Comet having no objection to the proposal strange, she still went to acquire the Nova Charm as soon as breakfast was over. Once she brought it to her friends, something peculiar happened…the cutie marks of her and her friends besides Comet began to glow.
"What the…?!" every pony except for Comet reacted in shock.
"I knew it!" Comet cried in his mind. "The Nova Charm is now connected to their elements!"
Comet then took advantage of his friends being caught off guard by what was happening with their cutie marks to cast a spell that would make his friends forget what he had told them about the Forgotten Comet. To keep them from following him, he left them with the memory of him saying he was going on a trip. He then cast a teleportation spell in quick succession while uttering the following in his mind…
"Universe…take me to where you intend to take Izzy!"
With a flash of light, he was gone. None of his friends remembered anything from the conversation they had with him besides what he allowed them to remember.
"Hey, what…?" Sunny asked in confusion, putting a hoof to her head. "I can't remember our conversation right…why would he just take off for his trip like that?"
"He must have cast another one of those memory loss spells on us…" Zipp said as she mused about the situation at hand. "But why only erase our memories of most of that conversation this time?"
"He must feel that there's no need to erase our memories of him anymore…" Hitch suggested. "The question is, what changed his mind?"
"Hmm…" Zipp hummed to herself as she pulled out her phone and looked over the photos she and Hitch had taken in Comet's bedroom. "I wonder…oh?"
Zipp then noticed that one of the sketches she had photographed showed six colored crystals and an arrow from them pointing at something that looked like the Nova Charm and had a question mark beside it. There was also a seventh gray stone with a question mark on it below.
"I have a theory…" she stated as she gave the Nova Charm a foreboding look. "This sketch seems to indicate he hypothesized about the Nova Charm being linked to these special crystals…elements. And he cast spells to make us forget something big we talked about and to teleport away after Izzy brought the Nova Charm here…"
"I think I get it now…" Hitch interjected in realization as he looked over at his cutie mark and saw that it was still glowing. "He thinks there's no stopping us getting involved in his business now. He's learned some powerful magic, memory spells and teleportation…I wonder if we could discover magic like that now too…"
"Regardless, let's leave him be for now." Izzy interjected solemnly. "The universe will naturally bring us together soon…I can feel it…"
Her friends felt a similar premonition…
Meanwhile, Comet had teleported himself close to the last place Izzy would use the Nova Charm to teleport to in her quest to cure herself of the Blockywockys, a place close to the Boardtrot.
"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind anymore…" Comet remarked to himself as he looked out at the abandoned amusement park from a hill. "I will bring him back. This is where our destinies will meet…"
