//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten // by FlanChan //------------------------------// 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.