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!”