The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

Chapter 1

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten
Chapter 1

"Always have a messy mane when you get up, huh, Twilight?” Spike smiled as he passed by with a large stack of books in his claws.

Twilight Sparkle pulled herself out from under her covers and giggled.

“You’re up early, Spike. Usually I have to wake you. Any reason?” she asked, walking over to her vanity mirror and beginning to tame her mane with a hairbrush enveloped in her magic.

“I just wanted to finish shelving these books early so I’d have a bit of time to rest before you start studying Starswirl the Bearded again.” Spike shuddered. Just remembering the number of books he had to clean up last time she read up on her favorite unicorn scholar made his claws ache all over again. He instinctively started to rub his hands along his arms to soothe the nonexistent pain.

“Well, no need for that,” Twilight laughed. “Today I’m going to take a break from my studies. I want to go out and get to know the other ponies of Ponyville a bit better.”

Twilight set down her brush and straightened her bed sheets and pillows. Her magic made the task take only a few moments, giving her time to scrutinize the sheets to be sure they weren't wrinkled. When she was positive her bed looked its best, she turned only to look with dismay at a few pillows that were still scattered around the room. She hurriedly positioned them back on the bed so Spike wouldn't notice. Unfortunately for her, he did notice. He chuckled quietly to himself, mentally filing the occurrence away as part of living with a bookworm.

"So essentially, you have the day off," she continued. "I mean, so long as I don't think of something else for you to do."

Spike sighed with relief while Twilight trotted downstairs, only to yell in surprise as his stack of books swayed and collapsed, burying him in the volumes.

The purple unicorn hummed merrily while levitating a pile of lists she had created the night before to a table. "Just because I'm going to meet ponies doesn't mean I can't work, right?" she reasoned to herself while packing the scrolls into a bag. She paused suddenly when a scroll wouldn't fit in properly. Looking down to see what the holdup was, she realized that the bag was already bursting at the seams from the large quantity of paper and quills.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't try and work while I make friends. It might distract me." She released the bag from her magic so it would gently plop down onto the table, then quickly scribbled a note for Spike to ensure that he completed the tasks on the scrolls in her place. He wouldn't mind, right? After reading it over and making sure it was to her liking, Twilight tucked it neatly by the stacks of paper and walked out the door.

“Wow, what a gorgeous day!” Twilight gasped while trotting down the cobblestone street towards the town square. “I wonder what everypony is doing to enjoy it?” As she walked a bit farther she saw everypony hard at work as usual, but they didn't let that get in the way of enjoying their day. She smiled in contentment. Rose was watering her flowers, Applejack was selling apples, a few ponies were admiring Daisy's new outfit from Rarity...

“That’s right!” Twilight cried, her eyes shrinking to the size of pins. “Rarity asked me to hurry and come by the Boutique early this morning!” She started running frantically, panicking about the importance of her attendance. Other ponies jumped out of the way in surprise, and even thought she felt bad for shoving her friends aside, Twilight kept running. Before she knew it, she was on her friend’s doorstep. She quickly threw the door open.

“Rarity!” she yelled, sweating and trying to catch her breath.

Rarity seemed startled at her friend’s hectic behavior and rushed to her side.

“Twilight, dear! Are you alright?” she asked concernedly.

“You said you needed me! And I was worried that I was going to be late, and that I was needed for something important, and that I—” she paused to gasp for air.

Rarity sighed with relief and her normal composure returned.

“Oh, darling, it was nothing too drastic. I just needed you to go ask Rainbow Dash for a tuft of cloud for an order I'm trying to fill. In fact, I’ve been taking a bit longer than I predicted sewing this dress, so I don’t have to attach it yet, but I do still need you to get it.” She paused and inspected Twilight a little more. “I’m sorry I put you through all of that stress.”

Twilight finally got her breath back and her adrenaline stopped pumping.

“Oh no, it’s fine. I needed a little rush to get me awake anyway.” She smiled.

Rarity looked questioningly at the purple unicorn, who was still struggling for air but wore a confidant smile nonetheless.

“Well, alright then,” she said hesitantly. “If it’s really not that big of a deal, then can you go get that cloud from Rainbow?”

“You can count on me!” Twilight Sparkle winked. Then she turned and trotted out the door.

Rarity paused to collect her thoughts, then turned back to her dress.

“Oh, I really wish Twilight wouldn’t stress out so much,” she mumbled as she picked up her needle. “Sometimes I wonder if she could survive without us and the Elements of Harmony.” She sighed and started sewing again, diligently working on her customer's commission.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called for what felt like the fifth time. It was hard to locate a pegasus who could be anywhere above Ponyville at any given moment. She threw her head back and yelled again. “Rainbow! Where in Equestria are you?”

“Will you shut up already?” Rainbow Dash shouted back from an innocent looking cloud that Twilight had overlooked. The rainbow pegasus stuffed more clouds in her ears. “Some ponies are trying to sleep!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight smiled with relief. Then she paused and added, “It’s the middle of the day; you’re the only pony trying to sleep at this hour.”

“Yeah, well, whatever, that’s still one pony,” she waved off as she lay back on her cloud. “Now be quiet.”

“But I need you for something!” Twilight yelled, stamping her hoof impatiently.

“Ugh, fine!” Rainbow cried as she threw the clouds out of her ears, “Forget napping! What does Twilight Sparkle need that’s so much more important?”

Twilight puffed her cheeks out at the comment. Rainbow's attitude was clearly not at its best at the moment, but that may just be because she had just woken up.

“I just need part of a cloud for Rarity’s dress,” she mumbled.

“Fine, I’ll get you a cloud if it’ll make you leave me alone,” Rainbow said. She begrudgingly flew up into the sky, which was dotted here and there with clouds. Suddenly, she stopped. “What the hay...?”

Her eyes were full of shock, but Twilight couldn’t see why.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked frantically, but her words didn’t get through to the stunned pegasus, whose eyes were now wide as saucers. Twilight started sweating, so many questions rushing into her head. Was her friend okay? Did she see a giant monster? A dragon? An Ursa Major? It had to be something bad, considering that her grumpy attitude had vanished in an instant upon seeing it. She began to panic. “Rainbow, say something!” she shouted worriedly.

Twilight could barely see the pegasus's lips move, and she had to strain her ears to hear it, as Rainbow Dash was only able to mutter a few words.

“Cotton... candy... clouds...”

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy, nothingtoseehere, and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 2

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 2

Twilight’s knees locked to keep her from falling over in shock. Cotton candy clouds. Such a simple thing had led to the near downfall of Celestia’s reign only a year earlier. If they were back, then only certain doom could follow. There were so many things that would have to be done to keep things in order, but her mind was racing so fast she could only think of one thing to do.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said distinctly, but not in a yell, so as to get Rainbow’s attention but not frighten her. “Go get the others. Bring them back to the library. We have to stop this disaster before it starts.”

Rainbow collected herself, nodded, and sped off.

As soon as she was out of sight, Twilight ran as fast as she could back to the library. She shuddered as memories of Discord's previous attack on Ponyville flowed through her mind. Her friends were turned against her, and the magic of friendship was forgotten. Twilight looked up to try and force the thoughts away, but nothing seemed able to get her mind off of her recollections. The blue sky became as grey through her eyes as the Spirits of the Elements had been when all hope was lost. The hairs of her mane that whipped by her face even seemed plain. What if things were already out of their control? What if the princess had already lost? But there was no time to ponder any longer, as she had reached her doorstep.

“Spike!” she cried as she threw open the door. “Spike, where are you?” She paused for a response, and then remembered with regret that she had left a long list of errands for him to do in the middle of town. He wouldn’t be back for awhile, and she was already losing precious time. “I can’t go get him now,” she mumbled to herself. “I’ll just have to try and keep myself level-headed until the others come.”

After a minute or two, Twilight's worried pacing was interrupted by the other ponies rushing through her door and collecting in the middle of the room.

“Okay, everypony,” she began.

Fluttershy dragged herself through the door, gasping for breath. The others hardly even glanced at her; they were too focused on the task at hand. “A few minutes ago, Rainbow—”

“We know, sugarcube,” Applejack said sadly, “Rainbow told us th’ whole story.”

Twilight looked over at Rainbow in acknowledgement and continued.

“Well, it’s quite obvious that we need to do something to stop it,” Twilight stated in a businesslike way. “But I believe that since Discord has already tried to wreak havoc on Equestria on multiple occasions, we already know what measures have to be taken. So I vote we—”

“Wait a second!” Rainbow interjected.

The other ponies turned to her, rather surprised. “Sure we know everything that he does, but now he knows everything we do. And what if he’s gotten stronger?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie added. “Like, what if instead of chocolate rain, he has dark chocolate rain?” Pinkie licked her lips at the thought.

Twilight rolled her eyes and continued the meeting.

“Rainbow Dash has a good point. I suppose all we can do is expect the unexpected, give it our all, and keep the magic of friendship fresh in our minds and hearts. Now let’s move out!”

The ponies smiled bravely and walked to the door. Twilight threw it open with her magic and gasped with surprise.

Spike was balled up on the doormat, wheezing and sweating, and was holding up a letter as if his life depended on it.

The other ponies gathered around.Twilight grabbed the letter and opened it, eying it quizzically. Then she began to read to the others.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle and all of her friends,

I need you all at Canterlot Castle immediately. Something urgent has come up and the Elements of Harmony are needed. Hurry before the matter worsens.

Your Faithful Teacher,

Princess Celestia"

The ponies all gasped. Of course they knew that they would be summoned to Canterlot, but the urgency of the letter seemed a bit unnerving. Without a word, the group ran to the train station.

After boarding, they solemnly sat down in seats opposite to each other, not in the mood to socialize. The ponies turned and stared out the windows as they thought about the possible challenges ahead of them.

Remembering the past difficulties of Discord’s chaos seemed to drain a lot of their energy. What horrible gimmick would he use this time? Would they be able to defeat him? Last time he seemed to make victory easy for the ponies, and he wouldn’t have returned if he knew that doing so would be in vain. Their minds raced as they tried to come up with an explanation. It didn’t seem long before the train came to a stop at their destination. They all slowly walked out onto the bustling street, doing their best not to knock into the cityfolk. A dark feeling hung over all of them as the task ahead weighed on their minds.

“Well,” Rarity said, speaking for the first time since the journey began, “I’m going to break the ice here and try to make the load a little lighter. At least Princess Celestia might know what Discord is up to this time. Maybe she’ll even be able to help us!” The other ponies lifted their heads and smiled at the glimmer of hope Rarity had given them, but they couldn’t think of anything cheerful to add, so they again fell silent until they were at the closed door leading to the throne room.

“Okay, everypony.” Twilight smiled as she turned to face the rest of the group. “If we're lucky, then maybe behind this door lies all of our answers. So let’s keep our heads high and our hopes up!” After a few cheers and salutes, she pushed the door open and they walked happily inside. But after getting halfway into the room, Twilight stopped, which made the others run into her.

“What is it?” Applejack asked as she picked her hat back up off of the floor.

“Something isn’t right,” Twilight whispered. “Even if Celestia is in another room...”

“But she sent us that letter, she’s expecting us!” Rainbow argued. Twilight was about to reason with her, but stopped dead in her tracks as a laugh echoed through the room.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, I always knew that you had a thick head,” the being behind the laughter cackled.

“Hey!” she yelled back, “Show yourself! I can take you!” The ponies turned their attention towards a stained glass window to the side, which depicted the ponies as they defeated Discord only a year earlier. They watched as the Discord in the stained glass begin to move and swim across the different windows.

“Discord!” Twilight shouted angrily. “Get out of that window and tell us what you did to the Princess!”

“Oh, fine,” Discord sighed. “I’ll skip the fancy introduction and get to the point.” Then he disappeared out of the stain glass, reappearing in his regular form before the ponies. “I suppose you think you already know why I’m here from the last time we’ve met, know why I’m here, but let me assure you that I’ve changed my approach since the last time we met.” Rainbow Dash snorted and flew up to him.

“Tell us what you've done to the Princess, you freak!” she cried. Discord frowned disapprovingly.

“My, you’re impatient. Fine, I’ll tell you. I’ve put her under an enchantment. She’s not hurt or anything, but she’s not going to come and help you like last time.” He grimaced as he remembered how Princess Celestia had ruined his whole plan by sending Twilight her friendship letters and all of that gunk.

“But, then how did she write that letter to me?” Twilight asked. Discord’s face lit up and he burst into laughter. It took him a few moments to recover before he was able to talk again.

“Y—you actually thought that was from Celestia?” he mused as he wiped away a tear. “You really are an egghead!” He rolled around in his fit of laughter, the ponies looking on and frowning.

“Look, it doesn’t matter how much you think Twilight is an egghead, even if it’s true,” Rainbow said angrily. Twilight shot her a look, but she continued nonetheless. “But why did you want us here so badly that you sent a fake letter?” Discord finally collected himself and was able to talk without noticeable giggling.

“Oh, right. I just wanted to let you all know that any efforts you may make to defeat me won’t work. Now, I’ll just be on my way—”

“Why? Did ya' hide the Elements again?” Applejack asked, her words like venom.

“Oh, no, they’re right here. And you can have them. It doesn’t matter,” Discord said indifferently. He threw them the intricately engraved box that Princess Celestia kept the Elements in. It opened upon impact with the ground and the jewelry clattered onto the floor. “But I do need one thing.” He smiled.

“Wh—what?” Twilight asked nervously. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted up off of the ground.

“You.” He grinned evilly. Twilight was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of dark blue smoke and disappeared, blacking out instantly.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 3

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten
Chapter 3

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a start. She saw before her what looked like a black void. No, wait, her eyes were just closed. She opened them slowly and the hazy image of a grassy field came into view. After her eyes adjusted, she could see that it suddenly dropped off with what seemed to be a very steep fall. She tried to get up, but she felt numb all over. Had she fallen here? No, Twilight would have remembered. Thrown? A possibility. But besides how she got here, was this place even safe? The small area that her eyes could scan without moving didn’t appear all that menacing. In fact, it looked perfectly normal. Maybe she was still in Ponyville? Twilight pondered as she observed a butterfly resting on a nearby blade of grass, when suddenly it flew away, as if scared of something moving towards it.

“Hi!” a loud voice said from immediately behind Twilight. Startled, the previously unmoving unicorn quickly stood up and turned to the speaker. Before her stood a mint green earth pony with rose pink eyes. Her hair was a pale pink with a white streak.

“Oh! Hello,” Twilight replied awkwardly. The earth pony stared hard at her.

“Why don’t I recognize you? Are you new to Ponyville?” the pony inquired. Twilight gave her a puzzled look, considering she had lived in Ponyville for well over a year, why would this pony think she was new?

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight stated, as if it was obvious. The green pony blinked, but then smiled.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle! My name is Minty, and boy do I love meeting new ponies!” The pony apparently called Minty held out her hoof and smiled.

Twilight looked and saw the strange pony’s cutie mark, which was, indeed, three peppermints. She eyed the pony’s hoof again, frowned, and started walking down the hill.

“What’s wrong?” Minty asked, her smile faltering as she started to follow her.

“Well, I'm not exactly sure what's going on right now. I also have no idea who you are, and why in Equestria are you asking all these silly questions?" Minty gave Twilight a worried look.

“Gosh, I didn’t realize you hit your head so hard. Maybe some of the ponies back in town can help you.” Minty held Twilight’s hoof as if she was a sick little animal. Twilight pulled her hoof away and looked at Minty in bewilderment.

“Why do you think I hit my head?” she glowered.

“Well, first of all, Ponyville doesn’t have a library. Secondly, no one ever comes up here, so you must have fallen on something and wandered up this cliff in your confusion,” the earth pony explained matter-of-factly. Twilight began disliking her more and more every minute.

“Well, why are you here? Does that mean you hit your head, too?” Twilight asked petulantly. Minty smiled.

“It’s a funny story, actually,” she giggled. “You see, Sweetberry was talking to Cotton Candy, and they said that up here there are mint leaves. Of course, I had to come see for myself. But I can’t seem to find any.” Twilight had no idea who these ponies that Minty was mentioning were, but brushed it off. They walked in silence a little while longer.

“Well, you’re still wrong about one thing,” the irritated unicorn said, “There IS a library in Ponyville.”

“Are you sure about that?” Minty smirked.

“I’m as sure about it as I’m sure that Rainbow Dash can fly!” Twilight stamped her hoof angrily. Minty suddenly started laughing, which made Twilight all the more upset.

“You must really be unsure, then,” the pony giggled.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight angrily insisted. Minty held a hoof to her mouth to keep herself from having a laughing fit.

“Rainbow Dash can’t fly! She’s an earth pony!” Twilight froze in her tracks, and Minty walked a few steps further before noticing.

Maybe, this isn’t Ponyville, the very confused unicorn pondered, Well, maybe I am in Ponyville, but Discord changed it... That must be it! And this poor pony is in denial about it!

“So, uh, we’re close to town, we shouldn’t give up walking there now.” Minty laughed nervously, frankly unsure of what she was going to do with this odd pony. Twilight snapped back to attention.

“Oh, yes! Right...” Twilight smiled awkwardly. Minty was surprised at her sudden change of attitude, but didn’t see anything wrong and shrugged it off. The duo continued wordlessly, and were soon in the middle of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle tried to shake the feeling of the other ponies staring at her and giving odd looks. Maybe they’ve all had their memories wiped and have a new set of memories to replace them, she contemplated.

“Hey,” Minty said abruptly, once again snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “So, I thought that we should probably go to—”

“Oh! It’s Sugarcube Corner!” Twilight shouted upon recognizing the bubblegum pink building, promptly running towards it. “Discord may have fooled everypony else,” she cried as she burst through the door, “But not—” She skidded to a halt in the middle of the store. “Me?”

The bakery looked completely different from Sugarcube Corner. All of the ponies that had been previously talking and eating stopped to stare and mumble amongst themselves. Twilight looked around frantically, trying to find the pink pony that ran the store. She spotted her behind the counter. “Pinkie Pie!” she gasped happily, tired from running, and walked over to the counter.

“Oh, Pinkie! You don’t know how much I’ve been through!” Twilight smiled, happy that she was finally able to talk to her friend again. However, Pinkie Pie looked at her fairly confused. “Pinkie?”

“Sorry, Cotton Candy.” Minty came up to the counter. “I found this pony up on the hill where you said the mint leaves were. She must have hit her head or something, because she’s saying all this silly stuff.”

“I’ll say.” Cotton Candy frowned, and Twilight felt a tinge of embarrassment for mistaking this pony for Pinkie.

Minty laughed nervously, hoping that nopony would find the situation awkward. Luckily for her, the mood in the establishment quickly shifted to the normal happy theme it usually had.

“So are you going to eat?”

“Well, we didn’t come to your cafe for nothing, right?” Minty grinned. Twilight looked around and saw a sign that read “Cotton Candy’s Cafe”. So this wasn’t Sugarcube Corner. Well, it could be, considering that Discord could have changed everything.

“Twilight Sparkle, let me introduce you to everyone!” Minty said as she slung her foreleg over Twilight’s shoulder. “This is Cotton Candy, that’s her assistant Sweetberry, and this is Sparkleworks, Wysteria, Sunny Daze, Razzaroo, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash! Everybody, this is Twilight Sparkle!”

“A new pony?” the pony named Razzaroo asked worriedly, “Oh, I’m going to have to add a new page to my birthday book...” The other ponies ignored her, and a white earth pony with yellow and pink hair named Sunny Daze walked up to Twilight. Only, she didn’t walk on her four hooves, she instead stood on her front legs like some sort of acrobat, as if it were perfectly natural.

“Woah, Mints, that’s awesome,” she said coolly, doing a flip to get back on all fours. “So where is she from?” Minty frowned and turned to Twilight.

“Yeah, where ARE you from, anyway?” she inquired. Twilight scowled.

“I’m from Ponyville, you already know that,” she mumbled.

“Silly, you already are in Ponyville!” Minty smiled. Rainbow Dash walked up. She looked the same, except she was an earth pony, and her hair was groomed more elegantly.

“Now, go easy on the poor darling,” she said comfortingly, “Darling, what darling place did you use to live in, darling?” Her personality was definitely different.

“Well, I used to live in Canterlot,” Twilight explained, “But that was over a year ago.”

“Canterlot?” Pinkie Pie asked from the back table, “Is she making stuff up?” Her voice was pretty nasally and a bit annoying. She wasn’t the bubbly pink party pony she used to be.

“I’m not sure,” an orange pony said. Her name was Sparkleworks, and her hair was pink and full of glitter. “But if she is, she’s really good at it.”

“Look, I’m not lying, and I’m not sure exactly what’s going on right now, so could somepony please help?”

“Well, if you need help,” a soft voice came from the back. “Why don’t you talk to Kimono?” The group parted so Twilight could see the speaker, who was a light lavender pony with similarly colored streaks in her white hair. This was Wysteria, who was holding a flower she had just sniffed. “You know, she is the wisest pony in the land.”

“Good idea!” Minty smiled, “I’ll take her to Kimono right now!”

“No, it’s okay, but, I really think I should go on my own.” Twilight frowned.

“But what if you get lost again?” Minty worried.

“Trust me, I’ll be fine,” Twilight half-heartedly reassured her. After sadly agreeing and giving her directions, Minty sat down at a table and watched the purple unicorn go. Sweetberry gave her a strawberry shake. After sipping it, Minty gazed off into space.

“You know?” Minty said absently to nobody in particular, but loud enough so everyone could hear, “She’s such a strange unicorn, isn’t she?”

“Unicorn?!”

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 4

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 4

“I swear, if this ‘Kimono’ pony is anything like those other ones, I’m gonna scream,” Twilight mumbled to herself as she tried to find the residence of the alleged ‘Wisest Pony in the Land’. The directions were pretty simple, but this pony lived quite a ways out of town, and Twilight’s hooves were starting to hurt from all of the day’s excitement. Just as she was about to give up, she finally found the large colored rocks that lead to a blue gazebo type structure. It didn’t look exactly like a house, but Twilight couldn’t care less either way. After jumping from rock to misaligned rock, she hopped onto the ledge of the building and collapsed.

“So,” a calm, seemingly 'all-knowing' type voice started behind her, “Are you the pony who is in need of my assistance?” Turning her head, Twilight saw that the speaker was a similarly colored purple earth pony with a dark purple mane. Her cutie mark, upon closer inspection, appeared to be two yellow paper lanterns.

“I take it you’re Kimono?” Twilight asked as she scrambled to her feet. The other pony eyed her suspiciously.

“Yes,” Kimono continued, “And you are a unicorn...” Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

“I—Is there something wrong with that?” she inquired nervously.

“Well, no. It’s just, why are you in Ponyville if you’re a unicorn?” Kimono looked rather puzzled. So much for Wisest Pony in the Land.

“Well, where am I supposed to be?” Twilight was equally confused.

“Well, Unicornia, of course. Why wouldn’t you know that?” Kimono asked.

“Unicornia? That was Princess Platinum’s proposed name for Equestria. Am I on an alternate timeline or something? Is this the Equestria where we didn’t learn the magic of friendship on Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Twilight brainstormed. Kimono stared blankly at her and vigorously shook her head as if to clear it from all of the information.

“Quite frankly, you’re being more confusing than Minty when she asks for advice.” She laughed slightly. Twilight recounted Minty’s annoying antics. Maybe this pony wasn’t so crazy after all?

“Well, in any case, I need your advice. The other ponies were no help, and you are the only lead I have left.” Twilight stated in a way that left a sour feel in the air. Kimono seemed rather oblivious of the negativity.

“I know all that. I don’t exactly understand it, but I know it,” Kimono slowly answered, like she was making sure that everything she was about to say was the truth before she dared speak it.

“How do you know?” Twilight asked, for this pony was obviously not a unicorn. A small smile came across Kimono’s face and she turned to face the sky.

“The winds carry all of this world’s secrets. They tell them to every pony they pass, but I’m the only one that understands them,” Kimono recalled mystically. A gust of wind came after she finished. She reared up onto her hind legs to let all of the wind get in her hair. When the wind died back down, she got back on all fours, looking happy and refreshed. “Oh, I’ve wanted to tell someone that for ages, but none of the ponies really care for philosophy. They just gave me the title of Wisest Pony in the Land and called it a day.”

“Well, I don’t have time for your philosophy, either.” Twilight stamped her hoof impatiently. “I have no idea what’s going on, nothing here is the same, I am somehow out of the loop of everything, and everypony here seems to have a lower IQ than normal, and-”

“Why do you do that?” Kimono cut in abruptly. It was unlike her to interrupt another pony, but the question had been itching away at her mind for awhile. “Why do you say ‘everypony’?”

“Come on, it’s basic Equestrian!” Twilight rolled her eyes, since the answer was so obvious to herself. Kimono, once again lost, chose not to try and figure out what Twilight Sparkle meant.

“Well, in any case, I think I know what to listen to to solve your problem.” Kimono smiled warmly.

“Ugh, finally,” Twilight mumbled under her breath, but Kimono paid no attention to her as she braced herself and squeezed her eyes shut. Twilight raised an eyebrow questioningly, but decided it was best not to interrupt. After all, as long as she figured out what was going on, she didn’t care about the method of retrieving the information.

A gust of wind suddenly swirled around the ponies, even though there was no sign of a breeze before. The ponies’ hair flew around in all directions, but the mystic purple earth pony didn’t move. Her mind was set at finding the answers, and nothing could distract her. Twilight looked around worriedly. She had no idea how long this process would take, and she was already losing precious time. Thankfully, however, Kimono lifted her head and her mane laid back comfortably around her neck. The wind left as mysteriously as it had came.

“I have your answer,” Kimono started. Twilight beamed with excitement. Was this finally the break she was hoping for? “U—unfortunately...” her voice faltered.

“What? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked worriedly. Kimono kicked the ground awkwardly.

“I—I’m not the one that can help you,” she admitted. Twilight’s panic soon turned into anger.

“So you made me go through all your cryptic windy stuff, and then you don’t give me the answer to my problems?!” she exploded. Kimono wasn’t exactly scared, or surprised, for that matter.

“That’s because I can’t give you your answer,” Kimono finished, “But someone else can.” Twilight’s bad mood lightened a bit, but she was still pretty ticked. “Her name is Skywishes, and you can find her near the edge of the valley a bit closer to town then where you showed up.” Twilight sighed and turned to leave wordlessly. She slowly hopped along the multicolored rocks back to the mainland, before turning to the right back to town.

“Yeah,” Kimono sighed, “Goodbye to you, too...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ve been going from pony to pony for the past three hours!” Twilight shouted out to nopony in particular. She knew that none of this Ponyville’s population would listen to any negative thing she had to say, so she was safe to go on about anything out loud without worrying that anypony else would overhear. “If the next pony sends me to ANOTHER pony, I’m just giving up. What was that pony’s name again? Skywishes? What kind of talent could a pony with that name have?” Twilight may have been in a bad mood from all of this commotion, but she really did wonder about the talent of this pony. Could she make wishful thinking a reality? Could she summon energy from stars? The more she thought about it, the more dangerous this pony seemed to be. In fact, she started getting a little hesitant at meeting up with her.

After navigating the candy colored streets (which were quite an eyesore), Twilight finally got to a patch of land where things seemed normal, albeit covered with multicolored butterflies, but at least the grass was green and the sky was blue. In fact, there were barely any ponies at this mountainside, and all of them seemed to be running to other places to be with friends. Twilight looked towards the edge of the ravine and saw a pinkish pony with dark magenta hair sitting and staring at the sky. Then the pony mumbled to herself, and started running haphazardly close to falling. After a minute or two, she stopped, shrugged, and sat back down.

“Eh, excuse me?” Twilight asked timidly, “D—do you know where I might find a pony called Cloudwishes or something?” The pony’s ears perked up and she turned around.

“Oh, hello,” she greeted in a squeaky and grating voice which made Twilight wince. “I’m Skywishes, and from what I’ve heard, you’re Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight sighed, but at least was a little content that Skywishes didn’t notice that she got her name wrong.

“Ugh, yeah, what crazy things have you assumed about me? That I’m insane?” Skywishes sat up and smiled sheepishly.

“Um, actually, I believe your whole story. About the other Ponyville and everything.” A bit of time passed before Twilight was able to word her thoughts into a sentence, and even then it wasn’t that well.

“B—but, what? But, it’s just so... far fetched... for everypony...” Twilight stumbled over her words as she tried to make her point as nicely as she could.

“Well, I’ve believed in something that everybody thought was crazy before, and I was right! So now I believe in everything I hear, even if it’s really crazy.” Skywishes stopped to think over what she said, then started laughing. “ESPECIALLY if it’s really crazy! Oh, you know what I mean.” Twilight laughed nervously at this pony’s philosophy, which she thought was a rather bad one, and also that she had ended with such an odd statement.

“Well, I’ll just get straight to the point then. I just talked with Kimono asking for help, and she sent me to you saying that you have the answer,” she summarized.

“Oh, Kimono!” Skywishes giggled, “She never makes any sense, does she?” Twilight once again pondered how low this pony’s IQ was. The answer seemed fairly straightforward. Kimono saying that nopony here had time for her mystical wisdom turned out to be truer than Twilight thought possible.

“Well then, let’s just try and figure it out step by step then.” Twilight smiled awkwardly as she played along. “How do you normally help other ponies?” Skywishes’ face lit up with the dumb glee that these ponies usually had.

“Oh! I help make songs, make friends, bake cakes, decorate Ponyville, come up with party ideas—”

“Okay!” Twilight quickly cut her off to spare her sanity. “Uh, what is something that other ponies come to you for that only you can do?” Skywishes looked around to think as if the answer was in the sky.

“Well, um,” she stumbled. “Um... oh! I can wish things for other ponies, and then a kite comes, and, oh, you know the rest!”

“Uh, no, actually...”

“You catch a kite, and you catch a wish!” Skywishes shouted excitedly, obviously having said it many times before. Twilight laughed nervously.

“Oh, yes, right.” She flattened her ears. “Can you, uh, make a kite come for me?” Skywishes smiled a big toothy grin.

“Sure! What do you want to wish for?”

“Uh, for everything to make sense.” Twilight frowned as she tried to word her request in a sensical way. Skywishes once again didn’t question Twilight, and turned towards the sky. After a deep inhale for preparation, she asked for answers in her usual format.

“I wish, I wish, I wish, for Twilight Sparkle to get an extra extra special explanation about what’s happening to her,” she said in a quiet voice to nopony in particular. Twilight’s eyes darted around as she waited for something to happen, but it soon became evident that nothing would. The idea was kind of silly, because wishing for things never solves anypony’s problems, and she silently scolded herself for thinking that anything would come out of this. She sighed and turned to leave. “Oh! Look! There it is!” Skywishes cried out happily. Twilight abruptly stopped and turned to see a kite (covered with pink hearts, of course) drift through the sky, doing loop-de-loops as it made its way toward the ponies.

“Hurry! You’re going to have to catch it if you want your wish to come true! Well, oh you know what I mean!” Skywishes instructed as she pointed to the kite, which was now soaring just over the edge and flying determinedly to the right.

“A—are you sure I have to do this?” Twilight whimpered.

“Of course! And besides, what else, I mean, what could, oh, you know what I mean!” Skywishes giggled. Twilight didn’t really find any comfort in Skywishes’ response, but decided that she should chase after the kite, considering she had no other leads now and wasn’t going to return to that cafe to ask all of those ponies for more help. After running a bit to catch up with the kite, she strained a bit to get a small glow around her horn to catch the moving object. The kite slowed as it was enveloped in a pink cloud of magic, but Twilight gasped as she saw it break out rather effortlessly.

“The kite is magic? But I haven’t even seen any unicorns around here, and even if there were any, how, and why, would they make a silly kite stronger than my magic?” Twilight wondered aloud. She watched it drift carelessly ahead of her. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any pegasi here, either.” she mumbled. The kite seemed to have slowed down, appearing to even be waiting for her to catch up. Once Twilight started walking again, the kite ascended a relatively large mountain, up and out of her sight. Even though Twilight was running as fast as she could, she couldn’t seem to see anything at the top. After a few moments, however, she saw a lone tree. In fact, she realized that she had reached the top, which was much faster than she had expected. Twilight looked around desperately for the kite, and for a split second worried that it had gone over the edge. However, lucky for her, she saw that it was stuck up in the tree. Sighing with relief, she tugged it down and waited for her wish to be granted.

“Oh, I knew this was no use... Where am I, anyway?” she pondered. Looking around, she was quite a long ways out from Ponyville. The town was nestled off in the distance, and nothing else of interest was visible besides the rolling green mountains. That is, until she turned around and saw a majestic waterfall spilling off of an even higher cliff. It could’ve been just the light tricking her eyes, but Twilight saw that the water had a definite rainbow color. In fact, it seemed that the water WAS the rainbow, instead of the colors forming by the sunlight.

“What is this? I’ve never read about anything like it...” she gasped in awe. But just as she was admiring the grandeur of the falls, she was answered.

“Why yes, it is rather lovely, isn’t it?” a deep voice rumbled from nowhere. Twilight’s eyes dilated as she backed up at the site before her. Slowly, the picture of an all too familiar draconequus appeared on the rushing water. “But I do wish there was more cotton candy in it...”

“Discord! What are you doing here? What’s going on?” Twilight shouted angrily, though her tone seemed more worried than mad.

“What do you mean? You’re here in sweet old Ponyville!” he said with mock innocence.

“Did you change Ponyville and brainwash everypony like I figured?” Twilight accused. Discord stared blankly at the unicorn, unable to respond. “Ha! I’ve seen right through your plan! The gig is up, now drop the act!” Twilight smiled with pride as Discord said nothing, but then he laughed wildly.

“You never cease to amaze me, Twilight Sparkle! Even I didn’t come up with that! You should consider being my assistant sometime,” he chuckled. Twilight snorted.

“Okay, whatever, just tell me what’s going on!” She stamped her hoof angrily.

“Ugh, here comes the boring part...” he sighed. “Technically, you are still in Ponyville, but the Ponyville of another time. This world is the same, but completely different. Let me put it this way.” He paused before breaking out into an obligatory rhyme filled with riddles.

“This world is not of my creation.
There are no records of this time, with pony segregation.
This is eons before Celestia, even me!
But that also means, there are no Elements of Harmony!”

As the last line echoed around in Twilight’ head, she felt that her eyes wouldn’t function. Everything turned into a blur, and she couldn’t fight the pressure of a large claw closing around her. She couldn’t think, and could barely feel the pressure of the gallons of water pouring down on her as she was pulled into the rainbow tinted waterfall.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 5

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 5

“S—should we really be going this far?” Thistle Whistle shivered.

“Come on, it’s not like Star Catcher won’t let us explore our own island.” Coconut Grove rolled her eyes as she reached up and plucked a peach from its tree.

“Yeah, and besides, we might find a secret hideout or an ancient artifact or something!” Island Delight smiled.

“O—okay,” Thistle Whistle, true to her name, whistled. “As long as we don’t go very far...” The trio of pegasi continued through the tropical thicket, Coconut Grove occasionally stopping to pick another fruit or flower, which would give Island Delight enough time to drag Thistle Whistle back to the group, only to have her lag behind again once they started moving.

“I think—fwee—I think that we should go back now. We have enough—fwee—fruit to have a banquet that lasts a week,” Thistle suggested as she turned to leave.

“Aw, come on, we’re almost to the beach, there’s no point in turning back now,” Island Delight said as she put her hoof up to the tall weeds blocking her view. “It’s right pas-” She stopped and gasped. Before her was the bright sun and tropical water, but that wasn’t the only thing.

“Fwee—Is that a pony?” Thistle Whistle asked as she stuck her head through the leaves.

“I think so, let’s go find out,” Island Delight said as she hovered through the web of plantlife.

“Hey! W—wait for me!” Coconut Grove huffed as she struggled to drag her large bag of food across the ground. The two others ignored her and walked carefully across the sand. It was a pony alright, its hair was a mess and it was unconscious, but it was a pony.

“What do you suppose we do with her?” Coconut Grove asked as she caught up with the others.

“Why don’t we just leave her here? Fwee—It couldn’t hurt,” Thistle said flatly.

“How can you say that?” Island Delight asked, turning to the pegasus in disbelief.

“Well, how do you suppose we bring her back? Fwee—She looks awfully heavy.” She stared hard at the purple pony lying on the beach. “And if we do carry her, I’m not lifting—Fwee.”

“Well, um, why don’t we just carry her on our backs? It’ll take longer, but it’ll do the job!” Coconut Grove smiled hopefully. The others just stared at her; the idea was an obvious bust.

“Why don’t we just carry her in your bag?” Island Delight offered. “It’s really the only option.”

“D—dump out all of the fruit and flowers? Never!” Coconut Grove’s eyes widened as she clutched the large bag. Island Delight glared at her and Thistle Whistle backed up a little, preferring to stay out of any possible argument. Coconut Grove puffed her cheeks out defiantly, but turned around and untied the top of her bag, a colorful array of fruits and flowers spilling onto the ground. “Ugh, happy?”

Island Delight just smiled and nudged the unconscious pony onto the large surface the bag provided. Each pegasus holding onto a side, the three carefully flew high above the forest into the heart of Butterfly Island, which took a great deal less amount of time than when they had walked. They lowered altitude and brushed against the ground as they let go of the bag, but then took back into the sky away from it, scared that the pony within would now be awake and spot them. But after a few moments of the bag not stirring, they landed with worry.

“I—Is she alright?” Coconut Grove’s voice trembled.

“I dunno, maybe we should ask her.” Island Delight went over and started to unfold the bag. The lavender pony within was still unconscious.

“We need to get help! Fwee—Where’s Star Catcher? She’ll know what to do!” Thistle Whistle raised her voice in urgency. The other pegasi nodded and they took off into the sky in search of their friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight once again woke up in an unfamiliar place, but the breeze here felt warm and tropical. She felt sand in her mouth, which wasn’t very pleasant, and she was aching all over. She felt like she had been out for weeks, but knew better than that. Being unconscious for too long could seriously damage your brain, after all. Twilight’s head throbbed as she tried to think, but her mind was foggy. She also didn’t appear to be alone, because as her senses faded back, she heard voices.

“Are you sure she wasn’t there before?”

“Positive! She just showed up here, on the beach, a little while ago!”

“I wanted to leave her—fwee” Twilight stirred a little at the comment.

“Thistle! I—oh, look, she’s awake!” Twilight had wanted to go unnoticed for a while as she thought of means of escape, but she had no choice now but to open her eyes and slowly pull herself up to a standing position.

“Oh, no, if you’re tired, you can sit down,” one of the ponies said, her voice calm and airy. Twilight sat down and took in her surroundings. Before her were four pegasi, one of them a dark purple with shimmering blue hair, another a coral red with her mane half green and half purple. These two smiled at her warmly, one of the other two was back a bit, consoling the other.

“Now come on, please just come up and stand by her, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” the pegasus coaxed. The sight of this pony nearly took Twilight’s breath away. Her wings were much longer and elegant than the other ponies, and they seemed to have a bluish hue, which blended nicely with her snow white coat. Strange purple markings were on her forehead, base of her wings, and on her back legs. Her presence seemed to give off the feel of Princess Celestia herself, which was a bit ridiculous considering this pony wasn’t even an alicorn.

“B—b—but we don’t even know her,—fwee—a—a—and you promised that we had met everybody when we went to Ponyville.” The other pegasus shivered and went off on a whistling fit. She was a cerulean blue. (Her color reminded Twilight of Rainbow Dash, only a bit darker.) Her hair was yellow and red, similarly split like that other reddish pegasus.

“And remember how well that went?” The white pony smiled calmly. “Come on, I’ll be right there along with Island Delight and Coconut Grove.”

“Fwee—O—okay then,” the whistling pony accepted warily. They came up next to Twilight.

“Sorry it took so long for a proper introduction. I’m Star Catcher,” the majestic pegasus explained.

“I’m Coconut Grove!” the coral pegasus said.

“And I’m Island Delight!” the deep purple pony chimed in. The three ponies turned to the fourth, who was just frowning, and didn’t appear to want to say anything.

“I wanted to leave you there,” she said, her disapproving expression unwavering. Coconut Grove kicked her slightly.

“This is Thistle Whistle. She can be a bit...defiant of change at times,” Island Delight explained with an awkward grin as she tried to word her sentence as nicely as possible. Twilight waved her hoof slightly.

“So I suppose you want to know what happened, huh?” Coconut Grove rushed to the point, “It’s really a pretty cool story. You see, Island Delight, Thistle Whistle and I were just walking through the forest, when suddenly we came to the beach. And then we saw you on the ground, and we were so scared and confused! So Island Delight FORCED me to dump out my bag.” She glared over at the purple pegasus. “Then we used the bag to carry you all the way here, to the heart of Butterfly Island!”

“And then,” Island Delight picked back up, “When you still didn’t wake up, we started getting worried, so we went and got Star Catcher to help. But while we were explaining to her what happened, you woke up on your own!” Twilight stared blankly at the group in front of her for a few moments as she tried to process all of the information. She was in another new place? She was sick of all of these new ponies.

“So, how did you end up here? If you don’t mind me asking,” Star Catcher inquired. The tone of her voice made it hard to say no to anything she said. It was so silky and magical.

“Well, I...” Twilight started talking, thinking that the information would come easily to her, but when she was about to say everything, her thoughts became muddy. Where was she last? On a mountain, that was easy enough. Then she fell asleep, yes that was it! And she woke up here. This is nothing but a dream. Wait, no, another memory came into view. The rainbow waterfall, it had pulled her under. But wait, water can’t pull ponies, it was something else. It was a claw, one that she knew all too well. She remembered now, and he said something about this world, how there were no Elements...

“A—are you alright?” The purple pegasus eyed her worriedly. Twilight snapped back to attention.

“Oh, I just wish that I could understand what was going on...” Twilight said. She put her front legs to her head as she strained to think. The pegasi smiled and turned to Star Catcher, whose face lit up.

“Consider it done,” the snowy pony said, and suddenly Twilight Sparkle was engulfed in a vision of the past, similar to how Discord had done the first time they had faced him. Around her was the Equestria she knew, only it was so long ago that it wasn’t yet Equestria. There were few ponies, but the ones that were there were gathered around what appeared to be a younger Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Standing on a high cliff that overlooked a small river, they all were staring over to the other side. Twilight gasped as she turned to see that they were looking at the Ponyville she had been in for the past few hours, along with all of the other towns that that world was composed of, which stretched out as far as the eye could see.

“It is time, sister,” Princess Celestia said solemnly. Luna nodded, and the two started straining to get the large amount of magic through their horns. Instead of the gentle glow that normally surrounds a horn when a pony does magic, their horns were engulfed in a blindingly bright light, which, if you could keep your eyes on it long enough, you could tell had jagged edges as opposed to smooth waves. With a loud crack, all of the magic burst out, covering the other world like a bubble. It slowly faded out of view, replaced by a large terrain of steep mountains. The two ponies collapsed a bit as they finished, but spared no time for recovery.

“Citizens, the old world is now raised. It is in its own dimension now, so it shall live on, but not conflict with our new lives,” Luna announced. Celestia stepped forward, and spread her wings out to their full extent.

“Welcome, my little ponies, to a new generation!” she announced. The crowd erupted in cheers and shouts, and then the memory faded away. Twilight was back in reality, on this island with these ponies.

“H—how did you do that?” she asked with a look of shock. Star Catcher smiled.

“Have you met Skywishes?” Twilight thought for a moment, then nodded. “So I suppose you know her tendency to grant wishes, and you’re probably wondering how she’s able to do it.” Twilight looked on eagerly. “Technically, she doesn’t grant them, I do,” Star Catcher continued, “Whenever she makes a wish, I send a kite over, enchanted with a special magic, and it leads to the answer. The same goes for the one for you.” Twilight tilted her head.

“So, you knew that Discord would be at the waterfall, and that I would show up on this island?” Twilight finally stood up.

“No,” The white pegasus laughed. “Like I said, it’s special magic. I don’t really control it, it just works.” Twilight raised an eyebrow, but decided at this point not to question the magical abilities of some ponies who were definitely not unicorns.

“Um, I guess you don’t have to tell us where you came from, if it’s too hard for you.” Coconut Grove smiled sheepishly.

“And now that you have your answers, we can guide you back,” Island Delight added. Star Catcher opened her mouth to agree, but then was interrupted by another pegasus coming from behind. She was light pink and her hair was the same color, only half of it was a darker pink and shared the same glittery trait of Island Delight. Her cutie mark and muzzle were covered in glitter.

“I—I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you have a moment, Star Catcher?” she asked.

“Of course, Hidden Treasure, what is it?” she asked calmly. Hidden Treasure leaned in and whispered something in Star Catcher’s ear, and whatever it was put a look of shock on her face. “Oh, that’s terrible!”

“What? What’s wrong?” Thistle Whistle finally spoke up.

“Our food supply is low, and we’ll have to go gather food all night to restock,” she informed. The other pegasi gasped.

“All night? But I need to get back now!” Twilight cried.

“I know...” Star Catcher drifted off in thought. “Okay, Island Delight, Coconut Grove, you join me and the others to gather food.”

“Fwee—B—but what about me?” Thistle asked.

“You’re going to help this pony get back home, and you’re not to come back until she's there,” the snow-colored pony ordered rather sternly.

“W-what?! B—but I can’t, there might be clouds...” she stammered.

“Well, maybe aiding someone will help you get over your own fears,” Star Catcher comforted. “And besides, you Pegasus Promised before that you would help in any way you could, and this is a big help.” Thistle made a long, sad whistle in defeat.

“Hop on,” the whistling pegasus said flatly.

“What?” Twilight looked at her like she was crazy.

“Look, either you ride, or hold on my tail really tight—fwee. Which do you prefer?” Twilight looked at Thistle’s wings, trying to determine if holding on to her tail really was a better option, but decided that riding would be easier. After mounting, the cerulean pegasus took off, flying high into the sky and circling around a bit. Twilight looked down and saw that besides the island they just flew up from (which curiously was shaped like a butterfly), the only other thing for miles around was just water.

“Uhm, how do we get back?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“By going through the rainbow waterfall, of course!” Thistle shouted.

“The rainbow what—ahh!” Twilight’s head flew back a little as her ride quickly sped forward into a rainbow arching over the island. When they flew through it, they weren’t over the island anymore.

Twilight turned and looked behind her.

What she saw was the rainbow colored waterfall.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 6

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 6

“W—what was that place?” Twilight stuttered as she tried to comprehend the present situation while gripping onto the cerulean pegasus.

“That was Butterfly Island, home of the pegasi—fwee!” Thistle Whistle explained in an upbeat tone for the first time since they had met.

“A—and the waterfall...” The purple unicorn trailed off.

“It’s what connects Butterfly Island to Ponyville,” Thistle continued. She seemed rather happy talking about her island, so Twilight decided not to change the subject and let her keep talking until they got into town. Upon reaching the cluster of buildings, they landed rather abruptly. “Okay, you’re home, nice meeting you,” Thistle said quickly as she turned to leave.

“Wait! But I’m not home yet!” Twilight shouted after her.

“Come on, it’s probably just a short walk away—fwee. You don’t need help walking, do you?” Twilight looked around and spotted the cafe.

“Well, why don’t we get treats first?” She smiled, trying to buy some time before she would have to explain her whole ‘going home’ predicament. Thistle’s eyes widened and she stopped in her tracks.

“D—do they have ice cream?” she asked slowly.

“I would think so—” Twilight just barely got her answer out before she was knocked over by the ecstatic pegasus. Just as she recollected herself and was about to follow, she was interrupted by another pony.

“Twilight Sparkle, it’s you!” Skywishes trotted up and looked at her with glee. “So, how did your wish go?”

“Well, I got led to Butterfly Island, and now I have that pegasus escorting me home,” Twilight explained, stopping to point at Thistle Whistle, who was trying to carry her twenty scoop high ice cream sundae to a table.

“Oh, you got to go to Butterfly Island? Isn’t it so pretty there?” Skywishes asked.

“Um, are pegasi supposed to eat that much ice cream, and that fast?” Twilight dodged the question with one of her own as she looked worriedly over at Thistle, who had already polished off a few scoops.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Skywishes giggled. “Ice cream is a pegasus’ favorite food, after all.” Twilight decided not to say how silly and unhealthy that was, and instead opted to keep quiet and observe this world’s culture. Since now that she knew that this place was from the past, but now is in another universe altogether, she didn’t think that all of the ponies were as crazy as she thought before.

“Wait, didn’t you say she was going to bring you home?” Skywishes inquired. Twilight nodded. “But aren’t you from that other Ponyville? In another dimension or something?”

“Well, uh, I haven’t exactly told her that yet,” Twilight admitted sheepishly. “So I came to the cafe to stall a bit...” A goofy smile spread across the earth pony’s face.

“Why don’t we go tell her now? In fact, let’s go tell everybody!” she cheered, grabbing the unicorn’s hoof and dragging her into the establishment, giving her no time to object.

“Look, darlings! The darling is back,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Twilight was still a bit unable to get over how different she was from the Rainbow Dash she knew so well back at home.

“Fwee—Just in time! I just got more ice cream, come help me eat it before it melts!” Thistle exclaimed excitedly. A light lavender pony with yellow and pink hair, who Skywishes told Twilight was Triple Treat, laughed.

“You might make us run out of ice cream for the first time, and we even made a sky high ice cream sundae before and didn’t run out!” she said in a less girly voice than was the norm here.

“You better start making more ice cream then, because bringing that up made me hungry all over again!” Thistle informed, which yielded laughter from all of the ponies in the cafe.

“Okay, everyone, settle down!” Skywishes ordered, even though she was still giggling a bit herself. “I have an announcement to make!” There were a few oo’s and ahh’s before everyone went quiet. “After asking around and gathering a bit of information, Twilight Sparkle here has figured out the fact that she, without a doubt, is from the Ponyville of another dimension!” The words were met with blank stares, and Twilight flattened her ears as she realized how silly it sounded, Skywishes making it sound like she was an alien or something was not helping. She decided to take matters into her own hooves.

“But just because I’m from another world, that doesn’t mean I’m any different than the rest of you,” she continued, stooping to their level of sappiness for the sake of the situation, “And I only bring it up so that somepony can help me get back home.”

“That sounds a bit hard...” the orange pony that Twilight vaguely remembered as Sparkleworks said, “Why don’t you just stay here?”

“Because, I have friends back at home. I would miss them, and they would miss me...” Twilight strained to keep her voice from faltering.

“Oh, right.” Sparkleworks slid down in her seat. Twilight nodded.

“So, is there anypony here willing to help me find my way home?” she asked, followed by almost all of the ponies in the cafe shooting their forelegs into the air. Twilight smiled. Maybe this could actually work!

“Hold on a second,” said Pinkie Pie, her sudden voice making all of the ponies turn to her. “Let me get this straight, you need our help to get you back to your home, which happens to be in another dimension?” Twilight nodded. “Okay, and doesn’t anyone here think that’s a bit risky? And how do we even get into another dimension?” The pink pony’s words hung in the air for a few seconds as most of the ponies slowly lowered their hooves. Suddenly a white earth pony stood up, banging her front hooves on her table.

“I don’t care if I have to travel to the ends of the earth!” she shouted, her voice reminding Twilight that this was Sunny Daze. “She’s our friend, and we help friends out, whether the problem is big or small!” A few ponies looked a bit less against the idea, but there weren’t any new hooves raised.

“Well, I’m going with the darling,” Rainbow Dash announced, sashaying over to Twilight’s side.

“Me, too!” Minty said, happier than she should have been considering she was essentially risking her life, but Twilight didn’t say anything.

“I think I should go, too.” Wysteria raised her hoof meekly. “I’m not sure if I’ll be much help, but I think it’d be right.” A few ponies turned and looked at her like she was crazy, but she just met their stares with a sweet smile.

“Fwee—And I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?” Thistle Whistle frowned as she set down her spoon. Normally this would have made the other ponies giggle until their sides hurt, but the current situation was just so shocking. Their friends were going to help a pony go to another universe. Would they ever see them again?

“C’mon everyone, let’s go bring Sparks home!” Sunny Daze announced triumphantly. She marched out the door, followed by the rest of the ponies in the party: Rainbow Dash, Minty, Wysteria, Thistle Whistle, and Twilight Sparkle herself, who wasn’t all that fond of her new nickname. They walked a few more feet before Thistle started having another whistling fit.

“Fwee—D—did you mean today? Fwee—B—because it’s awful late...” she complained. Minty turned around.

“Well I think that Twilight Sparkle would want to get home and see her friends as soon as possible,” she reasoned. “And besides, if it gets cold, I have socks!” Minty produced a good amount of socks, and Twilight had to wonder why she carried so many around.

“Well, don’t you think she’d want to meet her friends after a good night’s sleep—fwee?” she countered. They watched as Wysteria yawned, proving Thistle’s point.

“I suppose you’re right, darling, we’ll bring her home tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash admitted. The group followed Rainbow to her house, as she had enough beds to accommodate all of them. They walked into a hallway with three doors on each side, each one a different color of the rainbow, only instead of red, one of the doors was pink, which Twilight thought was quite curious.

“Now then, darlings.” Rainbow looked at all six doors. “Let’s see who should get which room...” She sat in thought for a while, and Twilight almost decided to just walk into one of the rooms and fall right asleep, but finally the cerulean earth pony smiled. “Wysteria, darling, you can have the pink one because I remember putting roses in there this morning.” Wysteria’s face lit up with gratitude, then she turned and trotted into her temporary bedroom. “Now, I’ll take the orange room because I just adore the pillows in there! Sunny Daze, you can have the yellow room, because you love the sun so much, and Minty can have the green room for obvious reasons!”

“Wee!” Minty squealed happily as she bounded into the room.

“Thistle, you can have the blue one, and Twilight Sparkle can have the purple one.”

All of the ponies walked into their respective rooms, said their goodnights, and then closed their doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight turned on a nearby desk lamp and couldn’t believe what she saw. The room she was in was positively covered in purple. The walls were purple, the ceiling was purple, the bed was purple, everything as far as the eye could see, purple! After a bit of gawking, she remembered how terribly tired she was. She climbed into bed and turned out the light.

It’s funny, really, because the last time she was in a bed was back in Ponyville, when the day seemed so normal and bright...

Twilight’s thoughts shifted to her friends. Where were they right now? Did they miss her? Maybe Pinkie was already planning a welcome back party, and had invited all of the ponies in town to come. The very thought made her homesick.

Then she remembered that Discord was still in Equestria, and he couldn’t be defeated again until she got back. She was so far from home. Maybe everypony was discorded again? All of her friends, now she couldn’t save them, couldn’t remind them of the magic of friendship. She was too far away. Too far from the ones she loved. She tried to hold back her tears until she finally pushed her head into the plush pillow and sobbed herself to sleep.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 7

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten
Chapter 7

Twilight awoke from a restless sleep at the crack of dawn. She mumbled a bit as she rolled out of bed and pushed her bedroom door open, turning left and into the kitchen. She didn’t exactly expect any of the other ponies to be awake yet, but she found Sunny Daze up already and making breakfast.

“How’d ya sleep, Sparks?” she greeted as she flipped a pancake. “Your hair is quite the sight.” Twilight remembered how she had tossed and turned all night, which was probably the cause of her messed up mane. The memories of it put a lump in her throat, but she didn’t call attention to it and instead grabbed a hairbrush with a cloud of magic.

“Do you need any help?” Twilight asked the white mare.

“Aw, no, it’s cool, you have your hooves full anyway,” Sunny waved off. Twilight looked down at her empty hooves.

“Um, I’m not holding anything,” Twilight said with a hint confusion.

“Well, aren’t you brushing your hair? You have a hairbrush righ—woah!” Sunny turned around and saw Twilight levitating the brush. “How do you you do that? That’s awesome!”

“Is it? Aren’t all unicorns able to do magic?” Twilight slowly set down the brush, feeling like she did something wrong. Sunny stared blankly at her for a moment before remembering.

“Oh, right! Minty told us that you’re a unicorn when you first left to go see Kimono! And we were all totally confused, because there aren’t any unicorns in Ponyville.”

“W—what do you mean?” Twilight asked with concern.

“You don’t know, darling?” Rainbow came up from behind, followed by Thistle Whistle. She was wearing an orange bathrobe, which seemed a bit unnecessary to Twilight. “All of the unicorns are in Unicornia, the pegasi are on Butterfly Island, and the rest of us are here!” she explained. The unicorn blinked as she remembered the conversation with Kimono and how Unicornia had been brought up, which seemed so long ago even though it was only yesterday.

Wysteria entered the room, a few fresh pink flowers woven into her hair. “Good morning everyone.” She smiled sleepily. The ponies greeted her and motioned her over to the table. They made simple chit-chat, which Twilight paid no attention to. She was too busy trying to think about how to get home to worry about Wysteria’s daisies or Rainbow Dash’s new rainbow lamp.

“Hey, Sparks,” Sunny Daze said after awhile, her nickname jolting Twilight to attention. “The pancakes are almost done. Can you go wake up Minty?” Twilight nodded and got up from the table. She turned to the hallway and pushed open the green door. Peering into the room, she saw the earth pony sprawled haphazardly over the bed, fast asleep. Socks littered the floor, and every piece of furniture seemed disturbed. Twilight stepped into the room.

“Uwa? Santa?” Minty awoke with a start, looking left and right before noticing the out of place purple unicorn. “Oh, it’s you,” she gasped as she caught her breath.

“Any reason why you thought I was Santa?” Twilight smirked (she knew what Minty was talking about because she had read up about Christmas before, even though Equestria didn’t celebrate it). Minty smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, I just like Christmas a lot. It has the most mints of the year!” Minty cheered. Twilight knocked one of the many socks on the floor aside.

“You’ve made quite the mess, huh?” she giggled.

“Are you going to scold me now for liking socks? Seriously, they’re the best thing ever!” Minty thought for a moment. “Besides mints of course. And green, I love green!”

“Care to explain that, too?”

“It’s the best color in the world! I just had to go around and look at every green thing in the room!” Twilight looked around contentedly. That explains the furniture.

“Well, I hate to tear you away from all of your green, but breakfast is ready, and I really don’t want you to starve,” Twilight teased. Minty laughed. She seemed to laugh a lot, now that Twilight thought about it.

“Don’t worry! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” The pair walked out of the behemoth of green and into a room with equal amounts of all the colors. The two sat down at the table, and the food was then passed out, but Sunny Daze interrupted before anyone could eat.

“Now that everyone is gathered, let’s talk about our plan!” she said like a drill sergeant addressing his troops. “What’s your idea about getting home, Sparks?” Twilight thought hard. She honestly had no clue what she was going to do, but she wasn’t going to let these ponies know that.

“It shouldn’t be hard,” Twilight lied. “It’s just that I’ve never read up on the subject, so I’m not exactly sure. And since Minty said there’s no library...” The other ponies were slowly chewing in thought, when suddenly Rainbow Dash’s face lit up.

“Darlings! There is a library!” she exclaimed excitedly. Twilight looked over to her in doubt.

“But when Minty found me, she said there wasn’t a library in Ponyville,” she interjected.

“Well, yeah.” Minty rolled her eyes playfully. “Because it’s not in Ponyville, it’s in Unicornia!” Twilight looked over at the mint green pony, unsure whether to be mad that she had led her to believe that there wasn’t a library, or to be happy that there was one. She decided the latter, as there was no time for petty arguments now.

“So, should we get going now?” Wysteria asked as she pushed her empty glass towards the center of the table.

“Yes, we’ll have to so I can return home as soon as possible,” Twilight stated.

“Well, I don’t exactly know how to get to Unicornia—fwee—do you?” Thistle piped up. A few ponies started to shake their heads.

“Wait, I know how! I went there before with Pinkie. And Rainbow, you were there before, too!” Minty cheered. Rainbow Dash looked at her worriedly.

“Yes, darling, I have been to Unicornia before, but I got there on the Crystal Carriage, so I don’t know the way,” she admitted.

“Well, I went in a hot air balloon, and I piloted it! I know the way!” Minty smiled as she got up from the table. The other ponies exchanged nervous glances, but Twilight couldn’t figure out why until Thistle whispered to her that Minty wasn’t the best balloon flier ever, and probably couldn’t even fly straight for the life of her. Twilight gulped.

“So, um, is everyone done with breakfast?” she asked as she tried to move the conversation forward. All of the ponies nodded as they pushed their empty dishes to the center of the table. “Wonderful!” She smiled. “Now, Minty, why don’t we go outside and you can lead the way to Unicornia.”

“With pleasure!” Minty giggled, accompanied by a silly salute. The six ponies filed out the door, Minty in the lead and Twilight close behind.

They walked through the town for a few minutes, their hooves lightly clip-clopping against the purple and pink stones that made up the pavement. Sometimes the native ponies would stop and wave to their friends before quickly being ushered to continue moving. Slowly the number of buildings dwindled and the road became cracked, bits of grass poking their way through until the stones disappeared completely. Twilight was staring at the ground for the longest time, trying to figure out how the rocks achieved their odd coloring, so she didn’t notice when Minty stopped and promptly bumped into her. She shifted her gaze upward and gasped, for before her was a large expanse of forest, not too different from the Everfree Forest.

“Wait, you actually have something foreboding and dangerous here?” she asked.

“Why of course, darling. But we never go in. It’d muss up my hair!” the cerulean earth pony said, her voice filled with fear.

“Well, I don’t think it’s that bad. The flowers in there are lovely,” Wysteria sighed happily.

“Enough talk! Mints, lead the way. Let’s do this!” Sunny Daze yelled. Minty nodded and led on into the large forest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A-are you sure you know the way—fwee?” Thistle asked, speaking up for the first time in awhile. The past hour or so was pretty uneventful, and was mostly composed of Rainbow Dash or Thistle Whistle screeching over a broken twig or a fallen branch. Minty was too absorbed in the task at hand to notice and Wysteria was off enjoying the exotic plant life, which left Twilight to comfort them, which wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the world. She was glad for a conversation on another topic, even if it was a negative one.

“Of course I know the way! Well, I mean, that’s what the map’s for, right?” Minty reassured.

“Well, I don’t see a map here. Where is it?” Twilight asked, joining the conversation.

“I put them next to my socks,” the green pony said proudly. Twilight lifted an eyebrow.

“Minty.” She frowned. “I know for a fact that you left any extra socks you had at Rainbow’s house. There are no socks here.”

“Well that would be silly!” Minty laughed. “No, my socks are in my sock drawer.”

“So what you mean.” Sunny Daze cartwheeled over for no reason in particular. “Is that at home, in your sock drawer, by your socks, you left the map.”

“Right!” Minty grinned. The other ponies stared at her in disbelief. “Right...heh.” She giggled nervously as the situation finally dawned on her. “Talk about deja vu, I swear I've had this conversation with Pinkie last time I went to Unicornia!” Twilight buried her face in her hooves.

“It’s hopeless,” she moaned. The other ponies gathered around to comfort her.

“N—no it’s not! All we need to do is look for the lights of Unicornia!” Minty informed. Twilight’s head shot up out of her hooves, her eyes wide.

“That’s it!” she shouted happily. “I can just use my magic to teleport us there!” The others in the group exchanged nervous glances.

“And how does this magic of yours work, darling? Does it hurt?” Rainbow swished her tail nervously.

“Oh no, not at all. You might feel a little pang, but then again that’s only because we’re traveling a long distance and there’s six of us.” Twilight waved it off. “All I have to do is cover us in a cloud of magic—”

“CLOUDS?!” Thistle shouted. “Oh no, if there’s clouds, I’m not doing it—fwee.”

“C’mon Thistle,” Wysteria nudged her comfortingly, “Maybe magic clouds are better than normal clouds.”

“Yeah? And maybe they aren't!” she yelled back. “And I don’t care to find out!” She squeezed her eyes shut and crossed her forelegs defiantly. However, with her eyes closed, she was all too late to realize that there was a pink magical cloud forming around her and the other ponies. “Gah! Clouds, no!” she wailed, before disappearing with the rest of them in a flash of light.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors MrJoshy and maskedferret for revising!

Chapter 8

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 8

“Don’t tell me we’re lost again,” Brights Brightly moaned.

“Okay, I won’t,” Rarity giggled, smiling at her own joke. “But isn’t this fun?”

“No, it’s not.” The yellow unicorn frowned, clearly unamused. “We might be stuck out here for weeks, maybe months!”

“But it’s an adventure! I like adventures,” Rarity cheered.

Brights Brightly sighed. Why did she, of all ponies, have to care for this pink coated and rainbow maned ball of energy? The two of them could be lost forever in this forest because of her antics.

“Let’s just find our way out and have things over with,” she grumbled.

“Good idea! You lead the way!” the young unicorn exclaimed, raising her hoof to point to the yellow mare.

“Bad idea, I don’t know the way!” Brights Brightly lowered Rarity’s hoof. The two sighed and frowned sadly for a few moments.

“So now that that’s over with, wanna play jump rope?” asked the ecstatic young filly.

“Ugh, Princess Rarity...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Calm down, Thistle Whistle. You weren’t hurt, and now it’s over,” Wysteria said, trying to comfort the blue pegasus crumpled in a fetal position on the ground. The group was huddled around her as she went through her fit of shock.

“I—it’s not that,” she stuttered, “B—but—fwee—where are we?” The ponies lifted their heads from the tight circle they made around the stuttering mare and looked around. Twilight said they were being transported to Unicornia, but they were just in another part of the forest, a herd of fireflies surrounding them.

“What happened to Unicornia, darlings?” Rainbow Dash asked, worried that the large kingdom had disappeared or had been transformed.

Twilight pondered for a moment before shamefully realizing the problem.

“I—it’s the way that the magic works,” she admitted, “Because we were looking for the bright lights of Unicornia, I just teleported us to the nearest place with a large amount of light, which brought us to these fireflies. Had I been to Unicornia before, I would’ve been able to bring us straight there, but since I haven’t...”

“Could you try again? We can just go from light to light, and we’ll find it eventually,” Minty suggested. Twilight shook her head sadly.

“That spell took quite a lot out of me,” she explained, “I’m not even sure if I can do something simple like lift a rock now, much less use such a strong spell so sparingly.” To demonstrate, she pointed to a branch on the ground. Stepping back, she started to struggle to get the magical aura around her horn. Her horn felt like it was ablaze after only a few moments, so she saw no reason to put all of her energy into the meaningless spell if it dealt such serious pain. Only a few small bursts got out, making the branch stir a little, before she collapsed.

The others rushed to her side. “See?” She gasped. “We’ll just have to go the rest of the way by foot.”

There was an objective groan, but nopony could think of a better plan.

“Alright, everyone, I vote we—” The six stopped cold, for a few twigs had just cracked in the thicket behind them. Then a few more, the sound growing louder. The ponies hardly dared to breathe. Was it a monster? The ponies had never really traveled here before, so they had no idea of what horrible creatures these woods could contain.

“Look, light! It must be Unicornia!” a muffled voice echoed out of the gloom. Its pitch reminded Twilight of Spike in a way, except that it was a bit girlier. Were there dragons here, too?

Their hearts stopped as a small pink hoof emerged, then another, followed by the rest of its body. A light pink unicorn stood before them, her hair the colors of the rainbow, but arranged differently than Rainbow’s (this pony had all of the warm colors in her mane and all of the cool colors in her tail whereas Rainbow’s mane and tail both contained all of the colors). She looked to be a filly, a little older than one at the most. She was followed by an adult unicorn, who was light yellow, and her hair was a mixture of orange and pink. Of course it had pink, everything here had pink.

“Minty! Rainbow Dash!” the pink pony squealed in the voice similar to Spike’s. Twilight’s excitement deflated a little. So much for dragons.

“Hello again, darling!” Rainbow Dash greeted. The rest of the ponies went up to the two and introduced themselves and complimented each other’s hair and such, while Twilight stood off to the side. How odd it felt to be an outsider in a world where everypony knew each other, even if they lived so far away.

The group chattered on for a few minutes longer before remembering the purple mare’s existence. After a bit of apologies about ignoring her, the two new ponies stepped forward.

“Hi there, I’m Rarity!” the pink unicorn exclaimed enthusiastically.

“And I’m Brights Brightly,” the older yellow mare greeted.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said, “It’s really a pleasure to finally bump into another unicorn. Now you can teleport us to Unicornia, since I assume you know the place.” Brights Brightly looked at her with a blank expression.

“Telewhat?” she inquired, “A-are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”

“Oh, please don’t tell me unicorns here can’t do magic!” Twilight groaned, “How are we ever going to get back, now?” The ponies hung their heads. Twilight’s cheeks flamed red and she kicked dust up from the forest floor. How could these unicorns not know magic? It was outrageous! They should have at least discovered magic on accident at this point. Did that mean that they would they be stuck here forever, then?

“Wait!” Minty shouted. “Rainbow, we made it to Unicornia before when we were lost in this forest, maybe we can do it again!”

“Yes, darling, but I already told you, we took the Crystal Carriage then,” she sighed.

Rarity’s eyes went wide with realization, and all of the ponies turned to her quizzically.

“Oh, right, heheh,” she laughed nervously. “A-and I called it, with this, didn’t I?” She pulled a star topped wand out of the tangles of her mane. It gave off a pink glow.

“Are you telling me that you had the wand the whole time?” Brights Brightly asked exasperatedly. Rarity smiled sheepishly.

“Uh, oops?”

“There’s no time for that! Wave that wand, Rare!” Sunny cheered. The small unicorn twirled the rod in a figure eight motion a few times, and before them materialized an intricately detailed carriage with two birds pulling it. Not the safest or smartest thing in Twilight’s opinion. Nonetheless, they all filed into the vehicle.

“Hold on, everyone, it’s going to be a bumpy rainbow ride!” Rarity giggled. With a flick of her wand, the ponies were lifted off of the ground. The carriage lurched forward, and they flew through the air faster than they should have considering they were being pulled by just two birds.

Twilight looked off of the edge to see a large expanse of forest stretching as far as the eye could see. The cold air whipped across their faces. There appeared to be nothing but outrageously large trees, but if she squinted a little she could make out a small speck of light in the distance. She watched as the glow grew bigger and bigger, and soon she was able to make out turrets and a large dome. Previously small blobs of color around it morphed into the shapes of ponies, along with buildings and bridges. A whole bustling economy slowly came into view.

The carriage made a sharp turn and pulled into a small prepared area. The ponies landed with a light thump and were met immediately by a plethora of unicorns with sponges and buckets of water. They started to vigorously polish the already spotless vehicle.

I could use my magic and help them, Twilight contemplated, followed by a sharp pain in her horn from just thinking about casting a spell. Well, they seem to be having fun, anyway...

Brights Brightly led the ponies out of the carriage and through the crowd of unicorns. They eventually made it up to the large gleaming castle, which Twilight could now see had the biggest rainbow she had ever seen arched above it. The mare knocked on the large double doors.

“Yes?” a lavender unicorn, not much unlike Twilight herself, answered. “Sorry, but the castle is closed to the public while we prepare for the Rainbow Celebration, so—oh, Brights Brightly, it’s you! And Princess Rarity!”

Wait, Princess Rarity? Twilight thought, apparently not getting the memo that such irresponsible fillies could be princesses.

The yellow pony trotted into the castle, followed by Rarity, but the purple unicorn at the door halted the rest of them.

“I’m sorry, but castle entry is strictly prohibited for ordinary ponies during preparation for the celebration,” she said bluntly.

Twilight stood there dejectedly as the other pony wished her a good day and started to close the large doors, the two ponies that had brought them there in the first place already playing happily within the castle walls.

“Wait a second!” Twilight shouted as she stomped her foot forward, blocking the door’s path, “I don’t know if word of me has gotten to Unicornia yet, but I happen to be the star pupil and protege of my princess back at home. Not exactly what I would call an ‘ordinary pony.’ And who are you to say, anyway?”

The pony in the doorway looked taken aback, but didn’t say anything. She also didn’t seem to make an effort to force the doors closed, which Twilight took as a good sign and continued.

“If you have any sort of respect for your fellow pony, then you would let us in and forget about this silly Rainbow Celebration business keeping you from doing that!” Twilight paused, thinking she had nothing left to say, but then another wave of anger and sadness hit her. “I think that getting me back home to save my friends and my country is much more important than celebrating some stupid rainbows! I need to get to the library to find a way see my friends again...” Twilight sniffed as her vision started to blur. “I—I just have to!”

The purple pony guarding the door was speechless as she watched the foreign unicorn turn into a crumpled heap of tears before her. Sadness definitely wasn’t common in Unicornia, considering their princess’s motto in life was to just have fun, but she could tell that this pony was extremely distressed. A few minutes passed with complete silence besides Twilight’s weeping.

“I—I think that I can make an exception...” the native pony said slowly. Twilight lifted her head and managed to see through her cloudy vision that the pony’s hoof was reaching out to her. “Come inside and recover a bit. I’ll fetch you some tea.”

The five others, who had no idea what to say until this point, cheered happily and darted through the doors, immediately starting to play with Rarity and her wand. Only Wysteria and Rainbow Dash lagged behind a little to comfort Twilight, and only for a few moments at that. She couldn’t blame them in her disgruntled state, and followed after them.

The inside of the castle was very beautiful, and not much unlike what she remembered of the Canterlot Castle. The architecture was elegant and the furniture was intricately designed. The only complaint she could make about the place was that it was so pink. Twilight started poking around to look at the small decorations that adorned the rooms, when she saw the pony from before come up to her.

“Here, you can go rest up a bit in that room over there, and I’ll come in to check on you later.” She smiled warmly. “Oh, and my name’s Cheerilee.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight tried to answer kindly, but winced as she realized that her crying had plugged up her nose and distorted her voice. She sniffled to try and clear it up, which stifled a giggle from Cheerilee. Twilight smiled sheepishly and decided to go into the other room and recuperate.

The room was rather simple, containing only a few chairs, some diagrams, and, to Twilight’s delight, a small bookshelf filled with a few books. She immediately was drawn to the books that, upon closer inspection, were on very simple topics, and weren’t very thick for that matter. She skipped over the ones titled silly things such as ‘How the Unicorns Got Their Rainbows’ and ‘Blossom’s Big Day’, but she was a bit disappointed when a title interested her and the book turned out just to be another dumbed down foal’s story. She sighed and sat down on a chair on the other side of the room.

“If a few days ago a pony told me that I would be sitting in another dimension in a rainbow castle, I would have told them that they were crazy,” she said to herself, mostly just for comfort. She chuckled a little, but her thoughts soon shifted to a more pressing issue. It had been about three days now since she had came here. Or was it two? She was starting to lose count. So much had gone on in the past few days that it really didn’t matter. How had her friends held up? Discord obviously wasn’t defeated yet, and he couldn’t be until she got back home. Twilight shook her head. This was no time to worry about the future, but how to get there.

“Sorry, I hope you like daffodil tea. We were all out of rainbow berries...” Cheerilee apologized as she pushed a cart into the room with a tea set placed on it.

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Twilight reassured, “I need something to clear my mind anyway, and daffodils always seem to do the trick. And, um, I’m sorry for going off on you like that, I was just very stressed.”

Cheerilee smiled. “I completely understand. What’s on your mind? Anything you want to talk about?”

“I—it’s a very long story...”

“And I have a very long time until the next order of rainbow ribbons gets here.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So we came here to try and read up a bit on this kind of thing, but based on what I’ve seen of your book selection, I’m not all that confident.” Twilight motioned toward the bookcase behind them.

“Oh! No, those are just some stories that I have for Princess Rarity whenever she won’t listen to me when I’m trying to teach her about how to be a Rainbow Princess.” Cheerilee sighed. “I end up reading to her more than I actually teach her.”

Twilight’s ears perked up and she turned her head to the diagrams in the room, what Cheerilee must be using to educate Rarity. They were mostly of how to use the wand that Twilight had seen earlier, but there was one that was different from the rest that she was strangely drawn to. It depicted four shooting stars forming a rainbow.

“Hey, what’s this about?” she asked, pointing to the picture.

“Those are the four shooting stars that give us the colors of the rainbow. Every year, the Rainbow Princess, Rarity in this case, has to make the first rainbow of the season under the Crystal Dome—” She paused and pointed upward to the elaborate dome high above their heads. “—before all of the shooting stars come, or all of the colors will fade.

“Each star represents a pony. The yellow one is for Brights Brightly, the one who led you here. The purple one is for me and the blue one for Whistle Wishes, who you haven’t met. The last one, the pink one, is for Princess Rarity herself.”

Twilight gazed at the mural. All of the colors would go away if no rainbows were made? And here she thought that rainbows were just decorations for the sky.

“Have the colors ever faded before?” Twilight asked warily.

“There was one time, last year...” Cheerilee frowned. “Princess Rarity barely listened to the lessons at all, and ended up getting lost in Ponyville, for that matter. She almost didn’t make the rainbow in time, and some of the colors did start fading. Luckily, she was able to get the rainbow in right before the pink star caught up to us. Otherwise, all of the pigment of the world would disappear.”

The two mares sat in silence, pondering such a thing.

“You know, you remind me of the Cheerilee back at home,” Twilight reminisced.

“Really? There’s another Cheerilee?” the purple unicorn asked in amazement.

“Oh, yes. She’s a teacher, too. She’s very kind. Teaching is even her special talent,” Twilight complemented. There was a short pause.

“I’d very much like to meet her one day,” Cheerilee said in a bittersweet tone. They sat quietly for another period of time, unable to shake the depressing feeling hanging over them. Finally the silence was broken by the sound of footsteps coming up to their doorway.

“Cheerilee! The rainbow ribbons have arrived! And—oh, am I interrupting something?” another purple unicorn asked after bounding into the room. The only way you could easily tell her and Cheerilee apart was that this pony had streaks of purple, blue, and pink in her mane, as opposed to Cheerilee’s solid pink.

“Nothing at all, Lily, come on in.” Cheerilee motioned the pony to take a seat. “Twilight, this is Lily Lightly. Lily, this is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hello, Twilight. I’m the head of the Rainbow Lights Party, but I also help put together the Rainbow Celebration, which is why I came bursting in,” Lily Lightly greeted.

“Why exactly is there a Rainbow Lights Party?” Twilight asked, somewhat skipping her own introduction.

“It’s so that everyone can see the castle from miles away! I was just appointed the organizer because I had a knack for the thing, but it wasn’t until last year when I was dubbed the Princess of All That Twinkles and Glows that everyone really recognized me for it.” Lily paused. “I’m not a real princess, of course. It’s just a saying,” she explained.

“Actually, Lily,” Cheerilee cut in, “I think that the other unicorns recognized you because last year was also the year we found out about your horn.”

“Her horn? What about it?” Twilight inquired. It’s not like having a horn was out of the ordinary in Unicornia.

“Whenever I giggle, or have fun in general, my horn...” Lily started laughing to demonstrate, and it glowed a soft pink. “My horn lights up!”

“But can’t all unicorns make their horns glow?” Twilight wondered, “Or is that just where I’m from?” Cheerilee and Lily exchanged a few glances.

“Do you mean that your horn lights up, too?” Lily asked with wide eyes.

Twilight cocked her head to the side in thought. “Well, it doesn’t really light up, per se, but it gets surrounded by a magical aura whenever I do magic. If the spell is very strong, then the aura becomes very bright, sometimes even blinding.” She levitated her cup of tea to her mouth and took a sip, ignoring the other two ponies’ stares. “It’s completely normal for this to happen when one uses magic.” She paused and put a hoof to her chin as she inspected Lily’s horn, which was still emitting light.

“However,” she went on, “It appears that your horn itself is what’s shining. From what I remember, this is a very rare occurrence, and I’ve never seen it before...”

“Lily really is one of a kind, isn’t she?” Cheerilee smiled proudly.

“But Lily,” Twilight continued, “Cheerilee said that all of the other ponies just found out about your horn last year, which means that you had it before then, but you were keeping it a secret, correct?”

“Yes, I was worried that everyone would think I was too different,” Lily admitted shamefully.

“Well, if you really don’t like it, Illuminitis, what you have, can be easily cured with an herbal remedy. There are no side effects to Illuminitis, but if you don’t want your horn glowing whenever triggered, in this case when you giggle, than it can be fixed,” Twilight offered.

Lily shook her head and answered, “My horn lighting up is what makes me so special. It made me learn that being different is what makes us unique, and now I’m proud of my horn.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. She was a tad proud of Lily’s decision, even though she had no reason to be.

“Now, um, I really should go back now and put up the banners for the Celebration.” Lily got up and walked to the door. “Shine on, everyone, shine on!”

Cheerilee sighed and smiled warmly a few moments after Lily Lightly’s leave.

“You know,” she said, “We could really use you around here. None of us never even thought of the reason why Lily’s horn can light up. That really is quite the brain you have there.”

“I’m glad that you think so,” Twilight responded professionally, “But you know as well as I that I very desperately need to get home and save my friends and everypony else.”

“I understand.” Cheerilee nodded. “I’ll grant you access to our library. You can stay there, and all of your friends that came here with you can stay in the castle.”

Twilight flattened her ears as she remembered for the first time in awhile the five ponies that had come with her and that she had practically abandoned them. Luckily, when she peered out the door, she saw that they were still taking turns waving Rarity’s wand around.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Twilight said, “I mean that sincerely, but now I must get to the library and work.” She got up and trotted out of the room.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Cheerilee said, catching Twilight’s attention just in time and halting her. “Best of luck to you.”

Twilight nodded, and smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It was really nice of Cheerilee to let us stay in the castle, darlings,” Rainbow Dash said merrily.

“I dunno—fwee—I just hope I don’t have a room with clouds at the ends of the rainbows,” Thistle exclaimed, shivering a bit.

“Well, I’m just happy that Twilight Sparkle here finally found a library!” Minty smiled.

The ponies made a turn and before them stood a large, two story building. It wasn’t as bright and pink as the other ones that they had passed earlier, so naturally the others got a little wary.

“A—are you sure that’s the right house?” Wysteria asked.

“Positive,” Twilight confirmed. “Now come on! Time is of the essence!”

The six ponies bounded in, a few of them a bit more hesitantly than others, and ascended a large staircase up to a cluttered room. There were bookshelves stuffed to the rim with dusty volumes and crinkled maps.

Twilight smiled and pulled a book out to flip through its contents. Her eyes twinkled in wonder. “Yes! It’s just like the books I have back at home!” she gasped excitedly. “Now I can find a way back! This is amazing!”

The five others crowded around and hugged her tightly. For once, Twilight was happy.

“Find what you’re looking for?” asked an entity behind them. This pony actually had the distinct voice of a male, which startled Twilight even more.

She turned and saw before her a dark purple dragon. A dragon! So there were dragons here!

“Hello, Spike!” Minty greeted casually.

“Spike?” Twilight gasped. “I have a dragon back at home! His name is Spike!”

“Another dragon? Here?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically. “I’m sorry, but may I have your name?”

“Oh, yes! I’m Twilight Sparkle, and I came to read up on a way to get back home,” she explained.

“Well now, that explains it!” Spike said, clapping his claws together. “I heard about you. You’re that pony from another dimension!”

Twilight nodded, but was surprised at how well he was taking the news. Ponies from other dimensions aren’t the most common thing, after all.

“Well then, feel free to read as many books as you like. I won’t stop you since you have such a good cause.” The dragon smiled and turned to address the others. “Now, I suppose you all are wondering what you are to do while she’s looking through all of those dusty books.”

The ponies nodded slowly, a bit scared they would upset Twilight for thinking so, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“So, to keep you all occupied while Twilight is researching, I would be honored to give you all a grand tour of Unicornia.”

The ponies’ eyes went wide.

“But it’s already pretty dark. Are we really going to be touring all night?” Wysteria asked.

“I always found that the nightlife of Unicornia was much more exciting,” Spike answered, “That’s when they have all of the bright lights turned on!”

They giggled excitedly and raced out the door, talking about all of the things they’ll see and stuff they’ll buy, followed closely by Spike.

Twilight sighed with delight. For the first time in awhile, finally peace and quiet. She turned to the book before her and peered at the title. It was a history book, which seemed to be a good start. She opened it and began to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh, that bracelet you bought is gorgeous!” Wysteria complemented.

“Why thank you, darling!” Rainbow Dash grinned, holding it up to the moonlight. She was startled when she saw that they were already back at the library.

“Let’s see how Sparks is holding up,” Sunny Daze suggested.

The group trotted up the rickety staircase to the room their friend was studying in. They stopped and dropped their bags of souvenirs. With an audible gasp, they ran to the exhausted purple unicorn that was collapsed on the floor. Books were strewn about everywhere.

“Twilight!” Thistle Whistle cried, “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I—I don’t know,” Twilight sputtered, “I—I can’t find it...” She turned to look up at the group of ponies around her. She had tears in her eyes.

“I d—don’t know!”

Chapter 9

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 9

“Ungh,” Twilight groaned, “The sun’s too bright, Princess. Can’t you lower it for a bit longer?” She waited a moment and sighed. That’s right, Celestia wasn’t even in this dimension, so there was even less point to saying the same thing she would whenever she would wake up as a filly. Whenever she would stay up so late studying that she would awake around noon, and her teacher would pretend to scold her.

Twilight struggled a little to untangle herself from the grip of her bed. It was far too early for anypony to be up, but she didn’t care. She had work to do.

A soft glow enveloped her horn. She eyed a saddlebag in the corner of the room and gently glided it over and up to eye level. It was very simple, no fancy designs or added coloring, and appeared to not have been used for a very long time. It appeared sturdy, though, and would be able to perform its task of holding the few belongings she had acquired in Unicornia: a hairbrush, some assorted candies, a few packets of tea, a few slices of rainbow berry cake, and a few bushels of fresh rainbow berries.

She smiled as she looked at the multi colored fruits. It was probably one of the only unique naturally growing food here, and they tasted absolutely wonderful. The outside layer of a berry tasted like buttercream frosting, only much thinner, but somehow keeping all of the flavor in. It was possibly injected with even more sugar for good measure. The juice was some kind of sugar water, only more sugar than water. It had a slight flavor based on the color of the berry, but that was just enough of a difference that it could be noticed.

She gingerly picked a plump yellow berry off of the vine and popped it into her mouth. It made a delightful crunching noise as her teeth broke through the skin and the juice exploded out of it. The fruit slid down her throat, leaving behind a pleasantly tart aftertaste, which tempted her to pull off another from the bushel. She managed to refrain from doing so. It was one of the only things that she could use to remember her adventure when she got back, and she knew that Pinkie would be ecstatic to eat them. Twilight frowned as she remembered her friends again, but stopped herself before she could think anything negative. She had a job to do, and she wouldn’t let emotions get in the way.

She set the bag back down so she could find all of her things, but was quickly distracted as her eyesight lingered to the large pile of books surrounding the room. She blushed, recounting the events of the night before. Taking it upon herself to clean them up, she pushed a spark of magic through her horn.

The ancient books fluttered to life and floated into the air, beginning to organize themselves and return to shelves in an orderly fashion. Every once and awhile a title would catch Twilight’s eye and the line of books would halt. She read through the book again, even though she had triple checked all of them the night before. She hoped that there was a page that she had missed that would explain everything that was going on. She had no such luck.

After only a few minutes, she already found herself poured into her fifth book: “The History of Earth ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi Alike”. It detailed pretty much everything that ever happened between all of the ponies, but she quickly grew upset at how confusing it got to understand some parts because they had no overall term for their country, like how she had Equestria. Maybe she would go propose that they do after everything was settled.

“Finding what you’re looking for this time?”

Twilight slammed the book shut and spun around, her heart beating a million miles an hour. She wiped a sweatdrop from her forehead as she realized that it was just Spike, or Kenbroth Gilspotten Heathspike. She silently smacked herself for actually remembering his full name.

“I take that as a yes?” Spike laughed, but soon shifted to a more serious tone, “What are you looking for anyway? You seemed terribly upset last night that you couldn’t find it, and I still can’t imagine what would be so important.”

Twilight stared blankly at him as she thought about how she could explain her situation. She actually had no idea what exactly she was looking for, now that she thought about it. She stepped out of the way as Spike walked over to her book and eyed the cover.

“Ah, yes, I remember this book. Very informative indeed, though it still is a bit depressing to read about the time that the three pony races got separated. I believe I was there myself, though, so that might have something to do with it...” Spike blabbered on for a while as he tried to reason through his thoughts about the event, while Twilight tried her best to block him out. Pony segregation is a pretty boring subject, after all.

Wait a minute, pony segregation? Isn’t that something Discord said a couple days ago? Twilight racked her brain to try and remember.

“This world is not of my creation. There are no records of this time, with pony segregation. This is eons before Celestia, even me, but that also means, there are no Elements of Harmony,” she recited in an almost trancelike state.

“I-I’m sorry?” Spike asked, his voice quavering a bit in fear. He wasn’t sure at all about what this pony was talking about, and he had heard quite a bit of strange things in his time. Twilight blinked, regaining her senses.

“Oh, um, well, a few days ago, Discord, who is definitely not one of the nicest fellows in the world, said that to me. He’s the one that brought me here in the first place, so I think that what he said was a clue to what I have to do to get out,” Twilight explained, trying her best to make sense to the dragon. After a few moments of processing the information, Spike nodded.

“So do you think that you’ll find something about him in my books?” he asked, “Because I can assure you that if there is such information that I would know about it.”

“Well, that’s not exactly it,” Twilight sighed, beginning to gather her things back up again, “I was just hoping I could find at least a word or two about the Elements of Harmony...” She put on her saddlebag and turned to the door. “I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

Spike nodded sympathetically and watched her leave, closing the door behind the pony. He hesitated for a moment and leaned on the door frame, deep in thought. He wished he could help her, but he had never even heard of the Elements of Harmony before. Wait, the Elements of Harmony...?

“Wait! Miss Sparkle, come back!” he cried, after a moment of striking realization. Twilight, who was almost gone from sight, stopped in her tracks and turned around. She bounded back to the door of the building and skidded to a halt.

“What? What is it?” she gasped, “Did something bad happen?”

“No, no, my friend,” Spike said, trying to calm her down, “It’s just that...” He collapsed to the ground in shock, his claws over his head.

“What? What?” Twilight worried, trying to squeeze the reply out of the dragon. He couldn’t reply, he was too shaken.

At this point Twilight turned to address another noise that came from behind her. It was her new acquaintances, who looked almost like they had just gotten up, galloping in her direction.

“Fwee- Twilight, Twilight! Are you alright?” she heard Thistle call. Twilight smiled. Even if they did get a bit annoying and weren’t that smart, she had to admit that she found some comfort in being around this new group of ponies.

“Darling!” Rainbow Dash cried after coming a bit closer, “Oh my goodness, are you okay? We came in last night and there you were on the ground and you looked so upset and tired and-” She stopped after reaching the entrance. “I-Is Spike alright?”

Minty walked up to the crumpled heap of dragon on the ground and poked him tentatively. He opened his mouth to groan, but no sound escaped him.

“Uh, I take that as a no,” she concluded.

“Woah, what happened?” Sunny Daze asked with a bit of awe in her voice, “Spike never gets this upset. What did you do to him?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Twilight insisted, “I just said something about The Elements of Harmony and left. Then he shouted for me to come back and proceeded to do this.” She motioned toward him.

Suddenly, Spike lifted his purple head to look up at the ponies.

“The... Elements...” he said weakly. Twilight turned back to him and paused to process what his fragmented statement could indicate. She then dropped her saddlebag without a thought onto the ground, kneeling down and cupping his face in her hooves.

“You know about The Elements of Harmony?!” she cried, shaking his head up and down, “How? There’s nothing about them anywhere!”

“B-but there is...” he exclaimed, finding the strength to get to his feet, “I have a book on it, it’s just that it’s such an important document that I had to hide it. If that book got into the wrong hooves, then the media will know information that they really shouldn’t know.”

“What does it say?” Twilight asked in a suddenly hushed whisper after realizing the gravity of the situation. Spike smiled.

“Perhaps it would be best that we head inside and see it for ourselves, shall we?”

Chapter 10

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 10

“Hm, I know that that book is around here somewhere...” Spike mumbled to himself while he paced back and forth in his dormitory.

“Come on, Spike! You’ve been saying that for the past half hour!” Minty whined.

“Well, why don’t you make yourself useful and help find it?” he asked, “It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do by yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Sunny Daze replied, followed by her cartwheeling over to a shelf of books.

“Hey, you guys! Fwee- I think this might be it,” Thistle Whistle offered, placing her hoof on a brick in the wall. It was engraved with six jewels arranged in a circle. The stone recessed into the wall a little under the pressure of her hoof, causing her to yelp and yank her foreleg off of it in fear. The block creeped back into its original position.

“Oh, yes! How could I have forgotten?” Spike smiled. He walked over to the brick, disregarding the shaking pegasus, and placed his hand over it. The stone sunk into the wall as before and, after a few moments, finally made it to the very back. There was an audible clicking noise as a mechanism was released, dropping a book into the recently revealed gap in the wall.

Spike extended his arm into the crevice and stroked the binding. “It’s been a very long time,” he whispered, partially to himself. He gingerly grabbed the book and teetered over to his bed, haphazardly dropping it on a cushion do to its weight. It landed in a puff of dust.

The ponies gathered around and inspected the cover, which depicted two alicorns, who Twilight recognized as Celestia and Luna, harnessing The Elements of Harmony. She tried her best not to be annoyed when the others identified them as ‘pegacorns’, for the term was only used by fillies and even they were quickly taught the proper word.

“Oh my,” Rainbow Dash gasped, fawning over the rainbow of color flowing down the middle of the vibrantly engraved picture, "That’s the most gorgeous rainbow I’ve ever seen, darlings!"

Spike nodded and reached out to open it, but soon realized the poor condition of the paper it was made of. It could possibly break if he applied too much pressure to it. He quickly tried to think of a way to read the fragile text.

“Allow me,” Twilight said with a small hint of a playful smile tugging at her lips as she realized his thought process, "Don't worry, it won't break. If I recall correctly, important books like these are always protected by magic, so even the oldest paper won't break." She effortlessly formed a gentle glow around her horn and surrounded the book cover with a similar aura, easily pushing it open to reveal the intricately decorated title page.

"Um, could you give us a bit of background knowledge on The Elements of Harmony first?" Wysteria asked, "None of us here know anything about them."

"Oh, of course!" Twilight smiled, lifting the book off of the bed sheets and closer to her face. "Let me just find the page quickly..." Twilight flipped through the book's contents, skimming any pages that looked promising, before finally locating the information she was looking for.

“Thank you, darling,” Rainbow Dash replied as the book was levitated over to her. She cleared her throat a little and put a hoof on the starting sentence, tracing it along as she went. She subtly bobbed her head along with the sentences. “‘The Elements of Harmony are an embodiment of the magic of friendship. When activated by the Element Bearers, they can create one of the most powerful bursts of energy known to ponykind, stronger even than the power of the princesses themselves.’” Rainbow lifted her head from the text. “Princesses? You mean like Rarity and Wysteria?”

The lavender mare’s face turned bright red. “I’m not really a princess,” Wysteria argued, “That was just what Spike thought back when we first found him.”

“Oh, yes, and I must apologize for that,” Spike replied, “I had just woken up from a thousand year nap, and I was still a bit woozy from it.”

“So who are these princesses?” Sunny Daze asked, “And what are these ‘Element Bearers’?” Twilight waved a hoof, indicating for them to continue reading. The ponies turned back to the book.

“‘The Elements of Harmony were first discovered by the princesses themselves,” Minty read, picking up where Rainbow left off, “Now Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, on top of having to raise the sun and moon respectively each day and night, had to keep the balance between order and chaos. However, when Princess Luna was turned into Nightmare Moon and was locked away by her own sister, their connection to The Elements was broken.’ Wow, talk about drama, huh?” Thistle Whistle kicked Minty a little.

“This is serious! Don’t go making jokes about it-fwee!” she scolded, “Let me read the thing!”

Twilight hesitantly brought the volume up to the hovering pegasus, not exactly sure whether having her read from it was such a great idea. The sentences might be butchered up because of her speech impairment. Luckily she was able to restrain herself from whistling long enough to read a fair portion of the text.

“‘Fortunately, The Elements of Harmony weren’t needed until 1,000 years later, when Nightmare Moon returned to make her revenge. She was soon vanquished and returned to her normal self by six ponies who had rediscovered The Elements. They inherited the task of being the Element Bearers, each representing one of the six Elements. Applejack represents Honesty, Pinkamena “Pinkie” Diane Pie represents Laughter, Fluttershy represents Kindness, Rarity represents Generosity, Rainbow Dash represents Loyalty, and Twilight Sparkle represents Magic.’”

“Woah! Twilight, you’re famous!” Sunny cried, “That’s like, so awesome!”

“I’m afraid that I’m not exactly ‘famous’, but I’m glad that you think so,” Twilight said with a smile, her cheeks turning a lighter shade than normal, “So, um, is that all of the information that you need? Because I really need to start digging in that book for some answers.”

“I think that we get the gist of it, darling. We wouldn’t want to keep you from getting back home,” Rainbow Dash answered, nudging the floating volume back over to the lavender unicorn. It drifted lazily back over and stopped in front of Twilight’s face, who only stopped to give Rainbow an appreciative smile before turning her complete attention to the book.

“Now let’s see,” she mumbled, skimming the paragraphs. After a few moments, she gasped in surprise. “There’s something in here about you guys!”

“What?” Minty asked, trotting over to Twilight’s side. She inspected the line of words that Twilight pointed to. “Oh my gosh, she’s right!” The others made an audible gasp.

“Let me see that,” Spike said, swiping the book out of Twilight’s magical grasp, somewhat forgetting about the book’s fragility. “It says, ‘Technically, The Elements were used before they were consciously discovered. One such incident is when the tradition of the Rainbow Celebration was started. The two princesses believed that it would be fitting for the unicorns to create the rainbows instead of just rely on nature for them, as it might heighten their appreciation for the multicolored phenomena. Therefore, the sisters used their magic combined with The Elements of Harmony to create the wand used for the celebration.

“The unique thing about this specific event, however, is that this decision was made after that world was ascended, so The Elements had to be used to temporarily create a breech in the barrier to allow the change to be made.’ Why yes, I remember that! I believe it was just before I was to begin my nap.” The dragon sighed as he recalled his memories.

“What does ‘ascended’ mean?” Wysteria asked slowly. Twilight scrunched her face in thought.

“It’s kind of like, um, where an area is placed in its own dimension,” she answered slowly, “However, I’m just going on what I’ve collected so far, and that definitely isn’t much...”

“So The Elements can go into other dimensions?” Sunny inquired, “That’s pretty radical.”

“Yes, but they were princesses after all,” Spike added. After a couple moments of pause, he concluded that nobody had anything left to say and began to turn the page.

“Hold on,” Twilight suddenly said, causing the dragon to freeze, “Read the last sentence again.”

Spike nodded, set the page down, and warily reread the line, “‘The unique thing about this specific event, however, is that this decision was made after that world was ascended, so The Elements had to be used to temporarily create a breech in the barrier to allow the change to be made.’” He lifted his head at her sudden silence, and saw that her face was blank. She put a hoof to her chin and tilted her head in all directions, as if trying to find the answer to whatever she was thinking of somewhere in the room. After a few moments, her face suddenly lit up and an audible gasp escaped her lips.

“That’s it! I know what to do now, everypony!” she shouted, bouncing around the room in her glee, “I know what to do! I’m going home, I’m going home!”

“Oh, darling, that’s fabulous!” Rainbow cheered. The rest of the group rejoiced in the lavender mare’s happiness. It really was the first time they say her genuinely ecstatic since Minty found her on the hill a few short days ago.

“So what are you waiting for?” Thistle Whistle inquired, “Tell us, tell us-fwee!” Twilight stopped her little fit of happiness and began awkwardly kicking the ground a little.

“Well, it’s a bit complicated, and to be totally honest, I’m not even sure it’ll work,” she confessed, “You see, because I’m the student of Princess Celestia, maybe I’ll be able to send a spell over to my dimension to communicate with the others. Maybe that’ll be able to activate The Elements to wear the barrier down enough for a short amount of time so I can walk through it.” She paused, and remembered that the group of ponies before her didn’t know how magic worked, and therefore had no clue how this would be dangerous.

“If anything goes wrong,” she clarified, “Something terrible might happen. Maybe once my spell hits the barrier it sends a shockwave back to me for trying to interfere. Or maybe the barrier could completely shatter and our worlds would combine together. No, this is not a good thing, even though it may sound like it to you all, because Equestria--where I’m from, if you didn’t catch that--is going through a terrible ordeal right now that I really wouldn’t want any of you to go through.” She sighed. “The only way to save Equestria, unfortunately, is with me there. The Elements all need to be present to vanquish the kind of foe we’re up against, and with every passing minute things are getting worse.”

The five native ponies pondered the possibilities for a moment. It was a little on the risky side, but they were willing to go through anything to help their new friend make her way back home.

“If you plan on getting back to Ponyville by tomorrow, I recommend that you leave as soon as possible,” Spike suggested. Twilight smiled and momentarily nuzzled his cheek.

“Thank you, Spike. You really are my number one assistant,” she said gratuitously.

“Glad to be of your assistance, M-Miss Sparkle,” he replied, trying to keep his formal composure but eventually failing. His face flushed crimson red.

“Come on, everypony, we have to save Equestria!” Twilight shouted triumphantly, managing to hold back her giggle from the blushing dragon who had now lost his balance and was sitting on the floor. She led the group out the large doors of the library, hoisting up the saddlebags she had strewn outside, and galloped down the Unicornian roads. Due to the general casualness of the rest of the bystanders, Twilight didn’t anticipate crossing paths with another pony going at a similar high speed. However, she met head on with a familiar unicorn, the two toppling backward with a thud.

“Cheerilee?” Twilight asked, “Is that you?” She helped the other mare to her feet.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Cheerilee cried. The two shared a quick friendly embrace, for they had grown rather fond of each other’s company after their discussion the day before.

“What are you rushing so much about?” Twilight inquired casually. Cheerilee hoisted the magical wand used for making rainbows out from a bag.

“Princess Rarity was fooling around with this earlier,” she sighed, mindlessly waving it around, “She ended up chipping its paint. Now I have to go find someone to fix it.” She pointed to the tip of the wand, which was shaped like a star, and Twilight could see that the pink paint stopped a great deal before the top point, revealing a shimmering gold color underneath.

“However,” Cheerilee went one, inspecting the point, “If she wrecks it again, I’m just going to peel the rest of the paint off.” She ripped off another small chunk of paint. “I’m growing quite fond of this golden color.” She subconsciously picked at the paint flecks for a few moments longer.

“Well, I’m sorry to say it, but we must go our separate ways now,” Twilight said.

“Separate ways?” Cheerilee asked. Twilight nodded.

“I need to go back to Ponyville, and Equestria in that case. I’m afraid I probably won’t be able to see you again...” Twilight trailed off. Cheerilee, instead of breaking out into tears, held her hoof out.

“It was such a pleasure to know you,” she said, “You were one of the most interesting ponies I’ve ever met.” Twilight grasped her hoof, but then opted into holding the other unicorn in a tight hug, forcing herself not to cry.

“If I ever find a way to come back, I promise I will,” Twilight exclaimed, her voice slightly wavering.

“It’s a deal,” Cheerilee replied. She stepped back. “But you must be on your way now! You have a dimension to save!”

Twilight nodded bravely and began to gallop away. When she looked over her shoulder a few moments later, she saw that Lily Lightly had walked up to Cheerilee. They were talking about something that she couldn’t hear, but she inferred that she was telling Lily about her departure.

“Shine on, Twilight Sparkle, shine on!” they both shouted in unison just before Twilight was out of earshot.

On that note, they once again entered the dark forest to begin their journey back to Ponyville.

Chapter 11

The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten

Chapter 11

The small group of ponies, comprised of Minty, Rainbow Dash, Sunny Daze, Thistle Whistle, Wysteria and Twilight Sparkle, along with the very few precious possessions in Twilight’s bag, approached the dark, looming forest before them. They stopped at the very outskirts, just before the shadows that the trees cast. For some reason, the scenery looked even more foreboding than before, even though nothing seemed that much different. The ponies tried to dismiss their fears as just the stress of the task ahead, but a pang of doubt of their own reassurance still strayed in the back of their minds.

“Alright everypony, this is it,” Twilight spoke up. “Based on our previous experience, I think that I should just teleport us back. Going by hoof would take far too long, and we simply don’t have that kind of time.”

“But Twilight,” Minty protested, cocking her head to the side in confusion. “Didn’t you say that you can’t teleport us across large areas or something?”

“No no no,” Twilight explained, “I said that I can’t go to places I haven’t been to before. I have, however, been in Ponyville, so it shouldn’t be any trouble.” She smiled reassuringly, but the others seemed skeptical. Nonetheless, the lavender unicorn planted her feet and bowed her head to the ground.

Her horn flared with magic, and for the first few moments the others weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen. The magical aura around her horn slowly grew more intense, getting brighter and more jagged. Twilight broke out in a sweat, struggling to channel energy. Suddenly the light dimmed and disappeared completely. Twilight was left to collapse, gasping as she tried her hardest to catch her breath.

“Twilight! Fwee—Are you alright?” Thistle Whistle cried, dashing over to her side. Twilight took the blue pony’s hoof and got to her feet.

“Heheh, I—I must have flubbed that one,” Twilight laughed nervously. “Let me try again.”

“Are you sure you’re in good enough condition? You look pretty shaken,” Wysteria said, her soft voice just loud enough to be heard over Twilight’s wheezing.

“I appreciate your kindness,” Twilight answered, steadying herself to perform the spell again. “But that last one was just a dud. I can do this, really!” The others exchanged unsure glances, but nervously decided not to interject.

Twilight Sparkle lowered her head as before, patting the grass flat with her hooves. She took a moment or two to collect her thoughts and take a few deep breaths, then focused all of her energy to the horn on the top of her head. After a few moments of slowly establishing a flow of magic, she began to visualize Ponyville. This was where her work became difficult, and even though her eyes were shut tight, she almost could see her horn ablaze with power. Sweat again started to dribble down her cheeks, but she continued nonetheless to push magic into her horn with all of her willpower.

Twilight’s head began to throb and she locked her knees to keep from falling. The physical strain was jarring, and was increased tenfold for every pony she tried to teleport along with her. The only motivation she had was that Equestria needed help, and she couldn’t let either set of friends down, the old or the new.

The other ponies kept their eyes locked with the sparks erupting from their friend’s horn that fizzled out just before they could reach the ground. The normally small glow of magic was instead a blinding light, and the effort to make it this way appeared to be enormous. Twilight’s constant audacity of her struggle through gasping and grunting was unbearable, and it was all they could do to keep themselves from rushing in and stopping her.

Finally Twilight’s horn appeared to be at its limit, almost appearing like it would burst if the magic it held wasn’t released. Thankfully for Twilight’s pounding temples, a small stream of energy was allowed out of her horn’s tip. The tiny beam quickly made its way to the grass a couple yards away, and, a few moments after establishing contact with the ground, slowly circled around the group. Instead of burning the blades of grass, however, it left a thin line of purple magic surrounding the six ponies. After the beam’s mini-trek was over, it snapped back to Twilight, who at this point was extremely exhausted. The spell was almost over, though. She couldn’t back down now.

Summoning all of the strength she had left within her, Twilight arched her shoulders upward and began raising a barrier up from the magic circle. As she did so, she felt like a giant boulder was crushing down on top of her, snapping every bone in her body, but she had to complete the spell. She could feel it, the dome was halfway done. She could do this! She had to, for Equestria!

“Gyah!” she cried out. She fell to the ground with a loud thud and a final strike of pain, though compared to what she had just gone through, it wasn’t much. Twilight managed to open her eyes just in time to see all of her hard work crash down before her, the magic’s energy flowing into the forest. She slumped her head down in the grass in defeat, but quickly dusted herself off and picked herself back up. “Just one more time...” she mumbled.

“Sparks, stop!” Sunny Daze shouted. “You can’t do this! It’s too painful for all of us to see you struggle like this!” She paused and walked over to the unicorn. “And even if you can do it, I’m not going to let you!”

“I... I’m sorry,” Twilight said, pausing as she realized the consequences of her actions. “I didn’t mean it, it was just...” Twilight lowered her head and tried her best to mask the hints of tears forming in her eyes. How could she have been so foolish? How could she have made such a big mistake?

“Now darling,” Rainbow coaxed, lifting Twilight’s head with a hoof. “All of us make mistakes now and again, darling, and we just have to make sure we learn from them.”

Twilight smiled and nodded her head slightly, wiping away her tears. She looked around and saw all of the other ponies around her, their faces glowing with hints of empathy. For the short time she had been around the group, they had bonded so much. The others even acted like they had been friends with her since they were little fillies. Twilight sniffed and wiped away another tear that was running down her cheek, only this time it was a tear of joy. She lifted her head high, planted her feet firmly on the ground, and brought back her brave and determined demeanor.

“Alright,” she said, the shakiness of her voice gone completely. “We’ll go by hoof. Are you all sure that’s in your best interests?”

“Anything to make things easier for you, Twilight,” Minty reassured her.

“Okay!” Twilight cheered, “Then let’s go in!” With a few happy rejoices, the group trotted into the unearthly forest, the potential dangers within now the last thing on their minds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Eck! Darlings! This moss is simply disgusting!” Rainbow Dash moaned, lifting a hoof and trying to observe it in the low light. “This darkness isn’t helping either. Are we ever going to find some light, darlings?”

Wysteria stifled a giggle. “Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll find some Panellus Stipticus,” she offered.

“Panel what now—fwee?” Thistle Whistle inquired, ducking so she wouldn’t fly into a branch.

Twilight smiled as she listened to the lavender earth pony elaborately explain to the others about Panellus Stipticus’ glow-in-the-dark properties. She even went so far as to explain how it could be used to help in medical emergencies. However, the others were too wrapped up trying to figure out what an ice cream flavor with that name would taste like to listen.

Twilight decided after a while to block out their noise and concentrate on the path ahead. Was it just her, or was it much darker than before? It was around noon, so the sun should have been directly overhead, and yet it was still as dark as night around them. Maybe Discord’s tampering with us, she thought, her forehead wrinkling. Actually, the others complaining about the dark is pretty funny.

Stifling a giggle, Twilight once again shifted her thoughts. Okay, let’s go over this again. Once I get back to that mountain, I’ll do some sort of spell so I can—

“Hey, Twilight?” Minty asked, putting the unicorn’s contemplation to an early halt. “I’m not gonna question you or anything, but how did that book back there have stuff about you? I mean, if you were in a book like that...”

Twilight smirked to herself. She didn’t expect any of the ponies to ask her such an intelligent question.

“Well, I’m not sure if I told you this before, but the princess back home—my teacher—is an alicorn, which is a pony with both wings and a horn. She was the one that split off our two realities in the first place, and she probably planted that book there in case something important came up.

“Since she’s an alicorn, she has very strong magic. She’s probably able to get through the dimensional barrier that separates us and update it with more useful information.” She paused to give Minty time to process all of the information.

“Oh, you have a princess!” Minty exclaimed after a few moments. “What’s her name—”

“SPARKS! MINTS!” Sunny Daze suddenly shouted. Maybe it wasn’t so sudden, considering Twilight had filtered out the others and had no clue what they had been talking about.

“What do you—gah!” Twilight cried as the soil beneath her started to crumble. After a few moments of horrible rumbling where large cracks spiderwebbed the forest floor, the whole ground seemed to give way. Minty and Twilight plummeted downward, the others safe on stable ground.

Luckily for the two ponies, the forest was dense, so an array of exposed roots stuck out of the side of the newly created cliff. They flailed their legs wildly as they tried to grab onto the plants, and managed to halt their fall after only a few yards of crazed panic, but it was still too far to climb back up.

“Thistle!” Minty screeched, holding on for dear life to a skinny root that looked like it would give way any moment. The cerulean pegasus heeded her call and ascended. With a final scream, Minty let go of the exposed plant just as it gave way. Thistle Whistle managed to catch her, but an avalanche of soil toppled on top of her from the root being pulled loose.

Twilight was able to make out her silhouette in the dust filling the air. It was difficult to see, but Thistle was definitely wobbling as she flew. Being assaulted by thousands of rocks would probably have that effect on a pony.

After the rumbling subsided and the dust settled, Twilight could finally hear the other ponies shouting among themselves. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, until another scream pierced through the air. Lifting her gaze, she was able to see another pony dangling above her.

“Rainbow! What are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Saving you, darling!” the earth pony called back. “I was trying to lower one of my scarves down to you, but the ground broke and I fell!”

Twilight tried her best to think of a way out of the situation, but her head still hurt from attempting to teleport earlier, so magic was out of the question. Their only pegasus also was in no condition to fly.

“Darling!” Rainbow hollered suddenly. “Grab onto my scarf! Then the other darlings can pull me up, and you with it!”

“I—is that safe?” Twilight stammered. “What if you fall, or the scarf breaks?”

“Trust me darling, it will work!”

Twilight was about to object further, but something in Rainbow Dash’s tone convinced her otherwise.

“Alright,” Twilight finally accepted. After a few moments, a piece of pink fabric invaded her line of vision. Once she grabbed on, the root she was using for support promptly was dislodged and plummeted. She waited a bit longer, and started to feel a distinct pull upward. Peering up, she saw that Rainbow had already reached stable ground, and after a minute or two, she joined her.

“Well, aren’t you the honorable pony,” Wysteria praised as Twilight finished shaking the dirt out of her coat.

“Oh, it was nothing, darlings. Now come on, Twilight needs to get home.” Rainbow trotted on ahead, the others following suit. Sunny Daze lagged behind with Twilight for a moment.

“You know,” Sunny whispered into her ear, “Rainbow Dash always throws a fit whenever she gets a speck of dust on her. I’m surprised that she didn’t even bring up how dirty she got after that rescue she did.” She paused and laughed quietly to herself. “Maybe you left an impact on her.”

“Isn’t that what friends are for?” Twilight replied.

Author's Note

Random shout out to the story Solitary Locust by the parasprite, which indirectly helped me write the first scene kinda.
Whatever, go check it out.