The Generation That Even Time Has Forgotten
Chapter 11
The small group of ponies, comprised of Minty, Rainbow Dash, Sunny Daze, Thistle Whistle, Wysteria and Twilight Sparkle, along with the very few precious possessions in Twilight’s bag, approached the dark, looming forest before them. They stopped at the very outskirts, just before the shadows that the trees cast. For some reason, the scenery looked even more foreboding than before, even though nothing seemed that much different. The ponies tried to dismiss their fears as just the stress of the task ahead, but a pang of doubt of their own reassurance still strayed in the back of their minds.
“Alright everypony, this is it,” Twilight spoke up. “Based on our previous experience, I think that I should just teleport us back. Going by hoof would take far too long, and we simply don’t have that kind of time.”
“But Twilight,” Minty protested, cocking her head to the side in confusion. “Didn’t you say that you can’t teleport us across large areas or something?”
“No no no,” Twilight explained, “I said that I can’t go to places I haven’t been to before. I have, however, been in Ponyville, so it shouldn’t be any trouble.” She smiled reassuringly, but the others seemed skeptical. Nonetheless, the lavender unicorn planted her feet and bowed her head to the ground.
Her horn flared with magic, and for the first few moments the others weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen. The magical aura around her horn slowly grew more intense, getting brighter and more jagged. Twilight broke out in a sweat, struggling to channel energy. Suddenly the light dimmed and disappeared completely. Twilight was left to collapse, gasping as she tried her hardest to catch her breath.
“Twilight! Fwee—Are you alright?” Thistle Whistle cried, dashing over to her side. Twilight took the blue pony’s hoof and got to her feet.
“Heheh, I—I must have flubbed that one,” Twilight laughed nervously. “Let me try again.”
“Are you sure you’re in good enough condition? You look pretty shaken,” Wysteria said, her soft voice just loud enough to be heard over Twilight’s wheezing.
“I appreciate your kindness,” Twilight answered, steadying herself to perform the spell again. “But that last one was just a dud. I can do this, really!” The others exchanged unsure glances, but nervously decided not to interject.
Twilight Sparkle lowered her head as before, patting the grass flat with her hooves. She took a moment or two to collect her thoughts and take a few deep breaths, then focused all of her energy to the horn on the top of her head. After a few moments of slowly establishing a flow of magic, she began to visualize Ponyville. This was where her work became difficult, and even though her eyes were shut tight, she almost could see her horn ablaze with power. Sweat again started to dribble down her cheeks, but she continued nonetheless to push magic into her horn with all of her willpower.
Twilight’s head began to throb and she locked her knees to keep from falling. The physical strain was jarring, and was increased tenfold for every pony she tried to teleport along with her. The only motivation she had was that Equestria needed help, and she couldn’t let either set of friends down, the old or the new.
The other ponies kept their eyes locked with the sparks erupting from their friend’s horn that fizzled out just before they could reach the ground. The normally small glow of magic was instead a blinding light, and the effort to make it this way appeared to be enormous. Twilight’s constant audacity of her struggle through gasping and grunting was unbearable, and it was all they could do to keep themselves from rushing in and stopping her.
Finally Twilight’s horn appeared to be at its limit, almost appearing like it would burst if the magic it held wasn’t released. Thankfully for Twilight’s pounding temples, a small stream of energy was allowed out of her horn’s tip. The tiny beam quickly made its way to the grass a couple yards away, and, a few moments after establishing contact with the ground, slowly circled around the group. Instead of burning the blades of grass, however, it left a thin line of purple magic surrounding the six ponies. After the beam’s mini-trek was over, it snapped back to Twilight, who at this point was extremely exhausted. The spell was almost over, though. She couldn’t back down now.
Summoning all of the strength she had left within her, Twilight arched her shoulders upward and began raising a barrier up from the magic circle. As she did so, she felt like a giant boulder was crushing down on top of her, snapping every bone in her body, but she had to complete the spell. She could feel it, the dome was halfway done. She could do this! She had to, for Equestria!
“Gyah!” she cried out. She fell to the ground with a loud thud and a final strike of pain, though compared to what she had just gone through, it wasn’t much. Twilight managed to open her eyes just in time to see all of her hard work crash down before her, the magic’s energy flowing into the forest. She slumped her head down in the grass in defeat, but quickly dusted herself off and picked herself back up. “Just one more time...” she mumbled.
“Sparks, stop!” Sunny Daze shouted. “You can’t do this! It’s too painful for all of us to see you struggle like this!” She paused and walked over to the unicorn. “And even if you can do it, I’m not going to let you!”
“I... I’m sorry,” Twilight said, pausing as she realized the consequences of her actions. “I didn’t mean it, it was just...” Twilight lowered her head and tried her best to mask the hints of tears forming in her eyes. How could she have been so foolish? How could she have made such a big mistake?
“Now darling,” Rainbow coaxed, lifting Twilight’s head with a hoof. “All of us make mistakes now and again, darling, and we just have to make sure we learn from them.”
Twilight smiled and nodded her head slightly, wiping away her tears. She looked around and saw all of the other ponies around her, their faces glowing with hints of empathy. For the short time she had been around the group, they had bonded so much. The others even acted like they had been friends with her since they were little fillies. Twilight sniffed and wiped away another tear that was running down her cheek, only this time it was a tear of joy. She lifted her head high, planted her feet firmly on the ground, and brought back her brave and determined demeanor.
“Alright,” she said, the shakiness of her voice gone completely. “We’ll go by hoof. Are you all sure that’s in your best interests?”
“Anything to make things easier for you, Twilight,” Minty reassured her.
“Okay!” Twilight cheered, “Then let’s go in!” With a few happy rejoices, the group trotted into the unearthly forest, the potential dangers within now the last thing on their minds.
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“Eck! Darlings! This moss is simply disgusting!” Rainbow Dash moaned, lifting a hoof and trying to observe it in the low light. “This darkness isn’t helping either. Are we ever going to find some light, darlings?”
Wysteria stifled a giggle. “Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll find some Panellus Stipticus,” she offered.
“Panel what now—fwee?” Thistle Whistle inquired, ducking so she wouldn’t fly into a branch.
Twilight smiled as she listened to the lavender earth pony elaborately explain to the others about Panellus Stipticus’ glow-in-the-dark properties. She even went so far as to explain how it could be used to help in medical emergencies. However, the others were too wrapped up trying to figure out what an ice cream flavor with that name would taste like to listen.
Twilight decided after a while to block out their noise and concentrate on the path ahead. Was it just her, or was it much darker than before? It was around noon, so the sun should have been directly overhead, and yet it was still as dark as night around them. Maybe Discord’s tampering with us, she thought, her forehead wrinkling. Actually, the others complaining about the dark is pretty funny.
Stifling a giggle, Twilight once again shifted her thoughts. Okay, let’s go over this again. Once I get back to that mountain, I’ll do some sort of spell so I can—
“Hey, Twilight?” Minty asked, putting the unicorn’s contemplation to an early halt. “I’m not gonna question you or anything, but how did that book back there have stuff about you? I mean, if you were in a book like that...”
Twilight smirked to herself. She didn’t expect any of the ponies to ask her such an intelligent question.
“Well, I’m not sure if I told you this before, but the princess back home—my teacher—is an alicorn, which is a pony with both wings and a horn. She was the one that split off our two realities in the first place, and she probably planted that book there in case something important came up.
“Since she’s an alicorn, she has very strong magic. She’s probably able to get through the dimensional barrier that separates us and update it with more useful information.” She paused to give Minty time to process all of the information.
“Oh, you have a princess!” Minty exclaimed after a few moments. “What’s her name—”
“SPARKS! MINTS!” Sunny Daze suddenly shouted. Maybe it wasn’t so sudden, considering Twilight had filtered out the others and had no clue what they had been talking about.
“What do you—gah!” Twilight cried as the soil beneath her started to crumble. After a few moments of horrible rumbling where large cracks spiderwebbed the forest floor, the whole ground seemed to give way. Minty and Twilight plummeted downward, the others safe on stable ground.
Luckily for the two ponies, the forest was dense, so an array of exposed roots stuck out of the side of the newly created cliff. They flailed their legs wildly as they tried to grab onto the plants, and managed to halt their fall after only a few yards of crazed panic, but it was still too far to climb back up.
“Thistle!” Minty screeched, holding on for dear life to a skinny root that looked like it would give way any moment. The cerulean pegasus heeded her call and ascended. With a final scream, Minty let go of the exposed plant just as it gave way. Thistle Whistle managed to catch her, but an avalanche of soil toppled on top of her from the root being pulled loose.
Twilight was able to make out her silhouette in the dust filling the air. It was difficult to see, but Thistle was definitely wobbling as she flew. Being assaulted by thousands of rocks would probably have that effect on a pony.
After the rumbling subsided and the dust settled, Twilight could finally hear the other ponies shouting among themselves. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, until another scream pierced through the air. Lifting her gaze, she was able to see another pony dangling above her.
“Rainbow! What are you doing?” Twilight asked.
“Saving you, darling!” the earth pony called back. “I was trying to lower one of my scarves down to you, but the ground broke and I fell!”
Twilight tried her best to think of a way out of the situation, but her head still hurt from attempting to teleport earlier, so magic was out of the question. Their only pegasus also was in no condition to fly.
“Darling!” Rainbow hollered suddenly. “Grab onto my scarf! Then the other darlings can pull me up, and you with it!”
“I—is that safe?” Twilight stammered. “What if you fall, or the scarf breaks?”
“Trust me darling, it will work!”
Twilight was about to object further, but something in Rainbow Dash’s tone convinced her otherwise.
“Alright,” Twilight finally accepted. After a few moments, a piece of pink fabric invaded her line of vision. Once she grabbed on, the root she was using for support promptly was dislodged and plummeted. She waited a bit longer, and started to feel a distinct pull upward. Peering up, she saw that Rainbow had already reached stable ground, and after a minute or two, she joined her.
“Well, aren’t you the honorable pony,” Wysteria praised as Twilight finished shaking the dirt out of her coat.
“Oh, it was nothing, darlings. Now come on, Twilight needs to get home.” Rainbow trotted on ahead, the others following suit. Sunny Daze lagged behind with Twilight for a moment.
“You know,” Sunny whispered into her ear, “Rainbow Dash always throws a fit whenever she gets a speck of dust on her. I’m surprised that she didn’t even bring up how dirty she got after that rescue she did.” She paused and laughed quietly to herself. “Maybe you left an impact on her.”
“Isn’t that what friends are for?” Twilight replied.