Thirty Seconds / Memories From Beyond The Stars

Rainbow sat on her bed, alone. The only thing that kept her any company was the old shoebox that sat in front of her.

The house was silent, the only thing that she could hear was the faint ticking of a clock from another room, and her own thoughts.

She stared at the shoebox intensely, almost in a trance. As she stared she thought about all the times her and her father had together, both the good times, and the bad. She sat there, trying desperately to fully relive the past fifteen years in her mind.

A tear rolled down her face, but she didn't wipe it away, she continued to be lost in that box, and her memories.

She rested her head down on her hooves as she continued to stare at it. So many memories, all in such a small container. As she carefully watched the box. Her heart had secretly hoped her father would jump out of it and embrace her in a tight warm hug and never let go. But her mind quickly swatted that idea away, not wanting her to get her hopes up on unrealistic dreams.

She laid her head in her hooves and silently cried to herself. The deep breaths she took were the only sounds in the empty rooms and halls of her home. This continued for quite a while, her mourning the loss of her father, and dampening the fur on her hooves as she did so.

It was not so much that she was away from her father, but rather, she feared he did not even remember her. She feared, that because of this, her father didn't love her anymore. How could he love someone he had no memory of? How could he love somepony he didn't recognize? If anything this thought made her cry even harder. Her sobs were now audible throughout her entire house, thankfully she was alone, nopony else could hear her.

She lifted her head up and looked back at the shoe box, as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. She slowly reached a hoof towards it. As she passed over the lid she hesitated for a moment, then continued. She wrapped her hoof around the box and pulled it closer to her.
The box now sits right in front of her. She used a hoof to flip the lid open. Suddenly a surge of emotions overwhelmed her as she beheld the contents of that special box. Happiness, sorrow, nostalgia, and most of all...homesickness.

The tears flowed freely from her eyes, and yet, she didn't even notice. She was focused on something more important, substantially more important.

She flipped through the memorabilia the old container held. Like the Indy500 ticket and her old Spongebob night light. The one item that grasped her full attention though, was not one of these. It was towards the bottom of the pile. She shuffled around the items with a hoof until she could see all of it. A picture of her with her father, well, her human father. Although he wasn't her biological father, she treats him as if he was. To her, he was her real father.

The reason for this being, was because the memory spell Twilight used on Rainbow wasn't strong enough. It only was able to retrieve two and a half years of her equestrian memories. Twilight, unfortunately, was unable to retrieve any more.

Though, no one noticed until her equine parents tried talking to her. All they received from Rainbow was a cocked head and the words "Do I know you?" piercing their hearts.

Her mother had burst into tears as her father had tried to comfort her while holding back his own, and Rainbow, at first, couldn't understand why.

Princess Celestia got word of this and told Rainbow that she will have use a different spell to give her back the rest of her memories.

There was one problem though, a memory spell of this size had not been successfully done before, and would require a pony of Celestia's power AT LEAST to perform it. Celestia reassured Rainbow that she will use the utmost precaution when performing the spell, but that there is still a chance that she will lose her current memories when she receives her old ones.

Rainbow protested it of course, but Celestia said it had to be done, and Rainbow remembered enough to know not to argue with the Princess.

And that brings her to where she is now, lying on her bed, soaking in all of the memories she can. This could very well be the last time she will be able to look at these items and remember. This could be the last time, she will be able to look at these items and feel true joy.

Tomorrow is the day, the day she will remember...and forget. Although she doesn't want to believe it, she has a strong feeling she will.

She closes the box, places it on the floor by her bed, and gets under her covers. She turns to her window, and looks out into the night sky. Out beyond the moon and the stars. The place where her memories were made, where a good portion of her life had taken place.

"Good night Daddy, I love you." she says softly.

She then closes her eyes to fall asleep.

To dream...

To remember...

For one final time...