The Rainbow That Never Was

Ponyville. It had been years since Pinkamena had seen the small town. She’d been on her own that whole time, wandering, looking for a place where she belonged. So far, she hadn’t been able to find one. She’d found not a single pony who was willing to take her in; who was willing to try and make her smile. A smile. It’d been so long since she’d had one. She wasn’t even sure she could remember how to do it by now. She tried. Nope. Nothing. She let out a sigh before walking into the town before her. It was just the way she remembered it from when she had some here to sell rocks as a child. Even on a dark night like tonight, it was a vibrant explosion of color on the landscape.

    It almost made her happy to see the town again, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to any of the ponies there. In fact, she tried her best to avoid being seen altogether. As much as she wanted to talk to one of these ponies that might know her, she knew it was far too risky a chance to take. She was still a few years away from being an adult, and she was fairly sure that anypony who recognized her would tell her family, and she was not going back to them; not while they were on that rock farm. “Will I ever find somewhere to belong?” Pinkamena muttered to herself, drearily trotting through the town. She wasn’t sure where she was going to go next. She’d pick a road, she’d follow it for a time, and then she’d pick a direction and walk. She’d walk as far as she had to if it meant the possibility of a place to call home.

    She’d been walking for a good half hour now, and she knew exactly where she was. It was as if the place hadn’t changed at all in five years, she could hardly believe how much everything seemed to be the same. There was a road coming up. She knew where it went. The Everfree Forest was at the end of that road. She’d only heard stories about it, about ponies disappearing, and about things that shouldn’t exist existing. She’d never really been scared of it, she’d just never had a reason to go there, especially not when she’d been told not to by so many ponies. Now she had a reason to go in there. She was looking for something, and she didn’t know where it might be, and she wasn’t sure if anypony actually lived in that forest, but it was worth a shot. As she came to the place where that road split off, she stopped, taking a deep breath. She set off down the path.

    As she plodded ever onwards down the trail, she reminisced about all the years since she’d left her home. She’d found food where she could, she’d slept under the stars almost every night. She looked up at the sky now, thinking about how constant it was, and how it never abandoned her or turned away. The twinkling night was always there for her, even when other ponies were not; it had become her family, and the moon had become her best friend. A tree blocked her vision. She jumped when she looked back down and found herself right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, Ponyville far behind her.

    She took a step into the thick trees, and the shadows seemed to engulf her. She blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the dull light that filtered through the canopy of trees, and she could see a pathway that was falling into disuse, surrounded by thick trunks on all sides. “Nothing to do but go forward.” She said glumly, keeping her eyes on the ground in front of her as she walked towards the center of the forest. She tried to keep her eyes ahead for two reasons. First, she wanted to see where she was going. Second, she didn’t want to see where everything else was going. She was sure there were things moving around out there, and she didn’t really want to know what they were. Her imagination took on that job for her though, and every flickering shadow seemed a beast, waiting to pounce, every tree branch blowing in the wind seemed a limb reaching to grab.

    Suddenly, there was a noise. It could’ve been a twig snapping, it could’ve been leaves rustling in the wind. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it was a sudden, startling noise. Pinkamena bolted, practically flying away from the sound. She sprinted, weaving between trees and ducking under low branches, not considering that this flat out run would draw more attention to her than just about anything else she could do. She was scared; she was terrified; and she knew that she’d been lying to herself when she said she wasn’t. There was a reason ponies didn’t go into the forest. It whittled away at you, it got inside your head, and it wasn’t too long before it made you see and hear things, things that were there one second, gone the next.

    Suddenly, she burst from the trees. Suddenly, there was a cliff. Suddenly, she ground to a halt. She looked down as her front hooves rested right on the edge. She couldn’t see anything but cliff and fog down there. “That was a bit too close for comfort...” She muttered, sitting promptly down on her rear. Now that she wasn’t teetering over certain death, she had time to look around, and take in everything.

The chasm stretched about as far as she could see in either direction, before it curved away, seeming to wrap around the piece of land in the middle. Trees were behind her, and, across the chasm, in front of her. Other than the chasm, the only thing she saw that was of even minor interest was a rope bridge. It looked as rickety as they come, and she wasn’t sure she trusted it to hold a mouse, let alone a pony.

    Pinkamena pulled herself to her hooves, trotting over to the bridge. Looking across it, she saw a bright flash of light from the middle of the forest further on. “What could that be....” She asked herself, determined to find out. Placing one hoof on the first plank of the bridge, she pushed down. It was surprisingly sturdy, the board not showing any signs of bending. She tentatively stepped out onto the bridge, still stepping softly, just to make sure it was safe. As she placed her weight on the board, it creaked, but didn’t give. Pinkamena let out a sigh of relief, slowly stepping form board to board.

    It took Pinkamena a couple of minutes to get across, and she relaxed when she was finally on firm ground again, realizing how tense she had been. She looked down over the cliff, thinking what could’ve happened if just one of the planks in the bridge had been too weak. Her morbid thoughts were interrupted as a bright flash of light came from behind her, and she turned towards the source of it, reminded of why she’d crossed the bridge in the first place. A path away from the bridge, back into the woods, and in the direction that the lights were coming from. “Well, isn’t that just perfect...” Pinkamena muttered as she followed the path back into the trees.

    As she walked, she noticed the flashes of light getting more frequent. Instead flashing every five minutes or so like it had been when she'd first seen it, it was now lighting up the sky at least once a minute. Pinkamena wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought the flashes were getting brighter as well, which made her stop to think. Did she really want to meet whatever it was that was making these flashes happen? Yes, she decided, she did want to meet whatever it was. Those flashes of light had gotten her curious, and curiosity was something that she still found hard to contain. It probably wasn’t the best idea to continue down a trail towards something she could tell was immensely powerful, but she just couldn’t help herself.

    After walking for about ten minutes, the trees began to clear up, and she could see the trees thin just ahead. The flashes of light too, were just ahead, coming from somewhere very close-by. As Pinkamena broke free of the treeline, she was stunned by what she saw. Another steep cliff sat directly in front of her, but far more interesting was what rested on the very edge of that cliff. A palace. A palace sat there, built entirely out of grey stone, and as smooth as if it had just been built. Flashes of light periodically lit up the windows, and Pinkamena had to rub her eyes to make sure she was actually seeing this. Sure enough, it was there.

    Pinkamena cautiously approached the towering structure. “I’m sure somepony would’ve mentioned a place like this in the middle of the forest, wouldn’t they?” She asked herself, bringing herself to wonder how many ponies had actually seen this grand structure that lay before her. “Alright. Find where flashes are coming from. Check. Find out why flashes are happening. Not so check.” She sighed, knowing that she’d need to get even closer if she wanted to know anything about what was going on. She walked up the the large doorway that led inside, taking a deep breath before peeking around the corner.

    Inside, there was a large chamber, seeming to take up most of the structure. It was mostly bare, except for a few patterns decorating the floor. At the far end of the room, there was a raised platform that had what appeared to be a very limited planetarium on it. There were five spheres all attached to arms, seemingly at random heights and distances from the center. Far more interesting than all this though, was what was currently occurring in this room.

    There was an orb of purple light floating in the middle of the room, pulsing every so often and emitting a blinding light. It was a miniature star on the night sky of the darkness. Within it, the silhouette of a pony drifted, her hair floating calmly in all directions, her body tense. She was a unicorn, and couldn’t be much more than a teenager, by the look of her body. As Pinkamena peeked her head around the corner. The floating pony’s head whipped around, and she stared directly at Pinkamena. At this, Pinkamena quickly hid once more behind the door frame, trying to make herself hidden.

The orb drifted gently downwards, shrinking as it descended. As the star shrunk, the mare’s deep purple hair began to fall flat, hanging down straight as it left the confines of the orb. As she lightly touched down on the ground, the light shrank into her horn, which glowed for a second before the light faded into nothingness. She had a dark lavender coat, with exceptionally dark purple hair, with only a streak of pink breaking the pattern. Her hair was particularly long, extending almost to the floor, cut back in the front to reveal her eyes. She uninterestedly walked towards where she had noticed the pink pony.

“Hiding won’t do you any good now that I know you’re there.” She said flatly, her voice containing about as much emotion as your average brick. Slowly, Pinkamena walked out from behind door frame, looking nervous. “What are you doing here?” The unicorn questioned, her voice continuing its single tone path. “I, uh, I just wanted to see what all that light was about...” Pinkamena mumbled. “Oh. that.” the unicorn droned. “That was just practice. A beacon spell.” She said matter of factly, before turning quickly and walking away.

“But wait! Who... who are you?” Pinkamena asked, unsure what to make of this mysterious mare.

“I am Twilight Sparkle, the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.” There was no tone of pride in this statement, only the surety that comes with declaring a fact. Twilight looked back and Pinkamena, “You’d do well to remember that.” Pinkamena shivered at the coldness in Twilight’s purple eyes.

‘I know I don’t often feel anything happy anymore... but.... she looks like she doesn’t often feel anything at all.’ she thought to herself. “I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can just call me Pinka-”

“No time for that. The night is drawing closer to its end, and I still have much to go over with my teacher.” Twilight turned quickly, her hair creating a graceful arc, and walked back to the center of the room. “Well, at least let me ask this. Do you mind if I stay here?” Twilight offered up a slight shrug. “Do what you will, it doesn’t matter to me as long as you stay out of my way during the night.”

‘What a strange pony...’ Pinkamena thought to herself, already settling down in a corner to sleep the night away. ‘I get to sleep in a place like this though, so I’m not complaining.’ She scratched behind her ear and yawned, closing her eyes and preparing for the best sleep that she’d had in months.