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?!”