This sleepover wasn't going as well as Sunny had hoped, but overall everypony was having fun. Izzy was cheerful most of the time, Sunny just wished the rest of them would stop messing up and running things for her. Thank goodness Misty was here. The unicorn might not be familiar with every single thing Izzy's family did, but having another unicorn here was still a huge help.

The last game hadn't gone how Izzy wanted; they just couldn't play the game right without real horns. Misty had tried to salvage it, but there was only so much one pony could do. It was really late now so they'd moved over to their sleeping bags, but Izzy wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. Sunny couldn't blame her for not wanting to end the night on a bad note.

"Let's tell stories," Sunny suggested.

Izzy's ears perked up. "Oh, wow, Sunny! How did you know telling stories is something we do at unicorn sleepovers?"

Sunny giggled. "That's one tradition we earth ponies do too. I'll go first."

They all settled fully and Sunny began her tale. "Once, long, long ago, in the times of ancient Equestria, the three pony tribes lived in harmony. One of the ponies who lived in this time was a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's star pupil. Twilight and her friends, who were earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, became the Guardians of Harmony. They defended Equestria from many powerful threats. Eventually with the help of her friends, she proved herself worthy and was ascended to alicornhood, growing wings. Celestia named her the Princess of Friendship and-"

"What?! That's not how that works!" Misty gasped, then seemed immediately embarrassed by her outburst.

The rest of the group exchanged confused glances. "That's not how what works?" Zipp questioned.

"Y'know, alicorns," Misty clarified. "A normal pony can't just become an alicorn. You have to be born one."

Pipp tilted her head. "What? But there have always been stories about regular ponies becoming alicorns. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Snowy Swirl were both ancient Equestrian alicorn princesses that were originally pegasus. And Sunny's an alicorn."

"She's not really though," Misty argued. "She's only got a phantom horn and phantom wings sometimes. She isn't a real alicorn." Misty winced and hurriedly added. "N-not that I'm trying to be mean- it's still really cool but-"

"No, I get it," Sunny assured her, interrupting the unnecessary apology. "I would never compare myself to Twilight Sparkle or Celestia or any alicorn." She was nothing compared to the royalty of old. The mere thought of comparing herself to them was embarrassing. And Misty was right, she wasn't even biologically a real alicorn. "My alicorn magic comes from the Unity Crystals. I didn't really do anything special; the crystals just needed some help, and I was the pony there. But there really were ponies in the past who became real alicorns." Her dad had done so much research and found so much evidence of it. There was zero doubt in Sunny's mind.

Misty frowned. "How do you know that? That all happened so long ago. What if they only had phantom horns and wings like you? Or what if they were really alicorns the whole time and each tribe just claimed they used to be part of their tribe after the split to make themselves look better? All magic comes from alicorns, how could a regular pony get that type of magic when the magic they have comes from alicorns to start with?" What? Sunny had never heard of this.

"Who told you magic came from alicorns?" Zipp asked, bewildered.

"I-I don't know," Misty shrugged. "It's just- one of those things you hear at some point. Pony magic comes from alicorns and, um, since there are no more alicorns around, that was why we no longer had magic."

Huh, that was a theory Sunny had never heard before. She could understand how such a rumor might have started though.

"Well, that can't be true," Pipp noted, "because we have magic now without any alicorns around."

"How did you ponies bring the magic back?" Misty asked. "I've heard a few different versions of the story. Was it magical gems or…?"

"We reunited the three tribe's crystals," Izzy explained. "Then bam- magic."

"It wasn't just that," Sunny added. "The tribes had to rekindle their friendship for the crystals to fuse."

"The Unity Crystals are actually here at the Brighthouse," Pipp told her eagerly. "You wanna see them?"

Misty looked stunned for a second. "You really- I mean, yeah, sure, I'd love to see them. We unicorns love crystals and those must be some really fancy crystals."

"Ooooooh, they are!" Izzy agreed, jumping to her hooves. "Showing off your best crystals at a unicorn sleepover is a unicorn tradition and those are definitely the best ones. We can look at the stars while we're up there too."

"Great!" Misty cheered, "Can't wait! Super exciting."

They all went to the elevator and up to the Unity crystals. Misty seemed very impressed.

"Wow, those are fancy crystals," she exclaimed. "How are they floating there? Well, wait, stupid question. Magic, obviously. But wow! All the tribes' magic packed into those little crystals… Where did they come from?"

"We… aren't sure," Sunny admitted. "We are trying to find out, but magic returning and the tribes starting to interact again is keeping us very busy."

"Huh," Misty hummed, trotting a circle around the crystals then turning and walking up to the outer balcony. It seemed a bit abrupt. "Ooh, the ocean! And the stars! So pretty."

"I know, right?" Izzy squealed, skipping up beside her. "It's so pretty. I'd never seen so much water before." Izzy's ears suddenly drooped, and she sighed. "The moon's getting low. I'm sure everypony's tired, we should go to bed…"

Izzy galloped into the elevator before anypony could stop her. The mood of the remaining ponies plummeted.

"What are we doing wrong?" Sunny fretted. Had seeing the ocean reminded Izzy she was far from home? Had seeing the moon caused it to really sink in how late it was, and they wouldn't be able to do everything she had planned?

"We did the best we could," Pipp insisted.

"I don't think there is a perfect cure for homesickness," Zipp sighed defeatedly. "But I think she did still have a lot of fun." No, they couldn't give up yet! There must be something they could do.

"Misty," Sunny pleaded desperately. "Can you think of any more unicorn things we can do to cheer Izzy up?"

"Yeah, Misty," Zipp seconded. "Can you?"

"Oh, um." Misty shifted on her hooves, biting her lip nervously in thought. Sunny felt bad for putting so much pressure on her on the spot like this. "We could- um, no, no, that wouldn't, um, we could… We- could do- a memory cascade?"

"A memory cascade?" Pipp repeated. "Sounds fancy. What is it?" Sunny couldn't recall Izzy ever having mentioned such a thing.

"Oh, um, it's kind of like a scrapbook, I guess," Misty told them. She pulled one of the crystals they'd been using earlier from her bag and studied it in her hoof. The smooth surface reflected her face. "Back when unicorns had magic, we supposedly had the ability to imbue crystals with memories. When something important or memorable happened in a unicorn's life, the unicorn would put the memory in a crystal and hang it from either a branch or tree roots. It builds up over time and that's your memory cascade. You could have cascades for different things: your friends, your family, more private memories, school, or just one big one that has everything. When we lost our magic, unicorns kept making memory cascades, but just used colors and shapes to represent the memory instead of the memory actually being in the crystal. Whatever you think will remind you of the memory."

"That sounds so pretty!" Pipp gasped. Sunny agreed. What had storing a memory in a crystal looked like? A picture or some kind of crystal-y video? Even with magic being back, they didn't know the spell used, so they'd just have to do the shape method.

"It is," Misty nodded, sounding wistful. "I'm not 100% sure if it's something Izzy's family did. I don't think every single unicorn uses them, but many do. It's a long-standing tradition. My great, great, some number of greats, grandmother was one of the first ponies to start making memory cascades, so my mom made sure I knew all about them."

"Wow," Sunny smiled. "That sounds perfect! So how do we make one?"

"Well," Misty assessed hesitantly. "I could probably throw something together if I had the right supplies. The branch and string is pretty easy, but I don't know what kind of crystal variety you have here. What memory would you want to do?"

"We don't have a lot of time," Zipp calculated, taking charge. "How about when we gathered the Unity Crystals for the memory? We could do crystals that look like the Unity Crystals, circled by crystals that look like our cutie marks." That was an amazing idea! "Would that be doable, Misty?"

"Um, probably," Misty nodded. "With some help…"

"Great!" Zipp rallied, flapping into the air. "I'll go find a branch we can use, you three start working on those crystals."

Things blurred as they all rushed to make the cascade. Pipp and Sunny gathered the supplies and helped Misty where they could. After watching her carve the first crystal, they understood the process enough to help with the simpler parts of the carving.

For the Unity Crystal replicas, the earth pony and unicorn crystals were pretty easy, it was the pegasus crystal that took Misty longer to do. They came out great. The cutie mark ones weren't exact copies of their marks, but it was still clear what they were. Izzy's was a blue heart, Hitch's an orange shield, a blue and pink gradient lightning bolt for Zipp, purple and pink music notes for Pipp, a pink star with a blue crystal representing the streaks for Sunny and-

"Why did you make one for me?" Misty asked, gazing at the light blue butterfly in confusion. "I wasn't there."
"It doesn't feel right to leave you out," Sunny told her. "And you said a cascade could hold lots of memories, right? This one can represent this sleepover and our first meeting."

Misty silently watched as Sunny hung the butterfly crystal.

"I think it came out great!" Pipp commented, flying a loop around the display. She was right, Sunny was thrilled with the result. "Let's go hang it up somewhere she'll see it."

Sunny took the job of leading Izzy into the room. The still gloomy unicorn spotted the new fixture immediately.

"Wha-?" Izzy gasped, trotting up to the decoration with wonder filled eyes. "Is that a memory cascade?"

"It is," Pipp confirmed proudly.

"Misty told us about them," Sunny explained. "It seemed like a good way to have a part of Bridlewood here in Maretime Bay. And as we keep making more memories, the cascade will grow. Do you like it?"

"Like it? I love it!" Izzy exclaimed. "I-" Her excitement faded into something more somber. "I- I'm sorry ponies. I've been the one making things not fun. You all put in so much effort to make me happy and to do all my unicorn things, and I still got the gloomy grumps whenever something didn't go perfect. I do miss Bridlewood, but I do love Maretime Bay and all of you. And you ponies really helped me feel some of that Bridlewood glimmer here. I shouldn't have been rushing through everything tonight, you didn't get to properly enjoy a lot of it. A perfect sleepover doesn't need every single sleepover thing in it." She glanced up at the hanging crystals. "We can always make more memories later."

"Ah, you don't have to apologize, Izzy," Zipp assured her. "We get it."

"Yeah, you were just trying to make sure we could do as many unicorn things as we could," Pipp agreed. "We still had lots of fun."

"We want you to feel at home in Maretime Bay," Sunny told her. She just wanted Izzy to be happy. "Anything we didn't do tonight, we'd love to do another time."

"Oh you girls," Izzy half cried, gathering them into a group hug. "You're the best friends a pony could ask for."