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.
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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.