[Silver]

“It has to be around here somewhere…” Midnight muttered, mostly to herself.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Whisper said in response. Of course, nobody could hear her.

“Come oh!” Prism shouted, “We’ve been going in circles for hours!”

“Calm down, Prism,” Cider said. She gave Prism a hard tap to the side to shut her up. “It’s not like we’ve ever done this before. We’ll figure it out…  Right Midnight?”

“Yea, yea, of course we will,” Midnight nodded but she sounded unsure.

“Let’s try bouncing, then we’ll get there so much faster!” Magenta said. She began bouncing around as though showing everyone would encourage them to do the same.

[Silver]

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Inspire said.

She gently put her hoof on Magenta’s back in an attempt to pull her back down to earth, but instead she got dragged along for some of the bouncing too. By the time she freed herself, her mane was all scrambled up and full of leaves.

“Aaaaaugh!” Inspire shouted. She had been speaking quietly before, but now she was more than done trying to be the voice of reason. She stomped her hooves and let out a disgruntled snort that did not sound like it belonged so someone so cute. “Who has a real plan that will help us get out of here!?”

[Silver]

“I don’t think there is one,” Sunrise said, stepping out from behind a fern. She had been separated from the group for a little while so she could test a theory she had. From the look on her face, she was unsuccessful.

“Sunrise!” Midnight squeaked. She jumped out and gave her friend a hug. It was such a relief to see her again, even if she didn’t have good news.

“It’s okay,” Whisper said. Again, it didn’t seem like anyone heard her except for Sunrise whose smile softened slightly.

[Silver]

“What happened?” Prism blurted out, sounding clearly annoyed.

“I didn’t find anything,” Sunrise said, hanging her head. “I had a hunch that there might be something that way, but it was nothing at all. Just more grey.”

“Grey…” Magenta repeated, looking down at her own hooves. The greyness of the world was getting even her down. It was hard to be happy when everything was so… dull.

“Can we see the map again?” Cider asked.

“Good idea!” Midnight said. She pulled the map out and spread it over the leaves and foliage on the ground. It was tattered and old but it showed the general layout of the forest.

[Silver]

“Now… who knows where we are?” Prism asked after a moment where everyone was silent.

Cider shot Prism another dirty look, but she was a little relieved that someone finally asked. She had no  idea where they were, and she wondered if anyone else did, either. It really did feel like they had been going around in circles for hours.

“I think we might be around here,” Midnight said, tapping a spot on the map. “Remember that river we crossed a while ago? I think this is that, and we haven’t traveled for too long since then. If I’m right, then we have to head that way,” she pointed in the direction Sunrise had just come from.

[Silver]

“Are you sure? I was just over there and I didn’t find anything.”

“I’m not… totally sure, no,” Midnight said with a sheepish laugh. “But I think it’s our best chance, and it just… feels right, don’t you think?”

“I guess so,” Sunrise said, sounding doubtful. “That’s why I went that way in the first place, but I didn’t find anything.”

“Well then, we can do it together,” Inspire said. She was trying to sound hopeful lest she remember how miserable she was.

The gang headed off in the direction Midnight pointed in. It took them ages to make any progress at all through the thick jungle. The lack of color in the world made it even harder to navigate. Telling the difference between large, bendy leaves and solid tree trunks was more difficult than ever.

[Silver]

“I never thought I’d miss the color green so much,” Magenta said, sticking out her tongue and making a puttering noise with it.

“I sure did,” Whisper added. She loved the color green and how beautiful nature was. It made her sad to think that the world might be stuck this way. There were so many beautiful animals that she would really miss the look of.

Midnight and Sunrise pulled ahead of the others in order to have a private conversation about what was going on. Between them they had read every book in the entire continent, so one of them must have some kind of knowledge that would help them out of this mess.

[Silver]

“This isn’t the first time we’ve lost our color,” Midnight mused. She tapped her hoof on the ground a couple of times, trying to remember what happened. “Do you remember?”

“... no,” Sunrise said stiffly. She had not been friends with all of them for as long as Midnight had. She often referenced things that Sunrise didn’t participate in.

“Oh… right, sorry…”

“It’s okay. I feel like I read something about a spell like this once before. But I think it only affected ponies, not the whole world. Could this be a more powerful version of that? I can’t remember what it was called…”

[Silver]

Whisper was just close enough to hear that last part. Her posture sunk a little as she realized that her friends didn’t seem to know what was going on at all. She thought that they had a plan, but they were still trying to figure out what the problem was. It made her scared that they’d never solve it.

“Are you okay? Did you step on something?” Magenta said. She grabbed Whisper’s hoof to inspect it.

“N… no, I’m okay.” Whisper insisted. She didn’t want to scare her friends even more, so she kept the info she heard for herself.

[Silver]

“Is everyone alright back there?” Midnight asked. She circled back to see what the others were up to, and why they had slowed down.

“I think Whisper is just a little tired,” Cider said.

“Yea, me too. This place is tough,” Prism grumbled. “Too bad a world saving cure to our problems isn’t hidden in the clouds or somethin’.”


“Yea, then you could go get it all by yourself and save us the trouble,” Inspire said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, you can always count on me to save the day!” Prism said. She flew in a circle to emphasize her point.

“Of course we can,” Whisper said softly with a tiny smile.

[Wild Pet Found]

[Silver]

“Well… let’s keep going,” Sunrise said rather tensely. “We should probably figure this out before it gets dark and it’s even harder to see.”

“What’s the difference? It’s going to be all blah and grey anyway,” Prism said, rolling her eyes dramatically.

“That’s not how light works, actually…” Midnight said. She looked like she was going to start explaining the difference between the ability to distinguish color and how light level affected vision, but everyone glaring at her at once was enough for her to turn around and abandon that idea.

[Silver]

“I’m sure if we stick together, we can figure it out,” Inspire said.

“We just have to keep going. Together,” Cider nodded.

“Together... “ Whisper said so quietly that nobody else could hear her.

Once again they headed in the vague direction that they had chosen earlier. All of them seemed to have faith that Midnight and Sunrise together could figure this out. They always had before! Everyone except Whisper, that is. She was still hanging her head and plodding along rather defeatedly.

[Silver]

“Hey, are you sure you’re doing alright?” Prism asked in a loud whisper.

“Yea, of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” Whisper said quickly.

“You just don’t seem like yourself. I’m worried about you.”

“We’re all tired,” Whisper said.

“If you say so,” Prism didn’t seem to believe her, but she wasn’t going to push it any further, either. She had a habit of being loud and obtuse, but she knew that she had to exercise subtlety and compassion when dealing with Whisper. They had been friends for a long time, after all.

[Silver]

Meanwhile, Sunrise and Midnight were still debating on what they should do. With all of the books they had collectively read and all of the spells they collectively knew, they couldn’t manage to recall anything like what they were experiencing. Maybe they should go back to the library after all.

“Do you really think there’s a clue out here in the forest?” Sunrise finally asked. She was much less used to working against all odds like the rest of them seemed to be.

“There has to be,” Midnight said. “We all saw that green blur on the way here, right? It had to be going somewhere.”

“Maybe wherever it went was even worse than here,” Sunrise kicked a twig out of her way a little more harshly than she should have.

[Silver]

“Hey, has anyone seen Maggie?” Cider asked.

“What? She was just right here,” Prism pointed to a leaf.

“That’s definitely not her, dear,” Inspire said. She had meant it as a joke, but it came off as dry and unfunny.

“I know that,” Prism snorted. “I thought she was right behind us! Where could she have gotten off to? Wouldn’t we have heard her?”

“Should we split up to look for her?” Cider asked. She was ready to charge into the forest after her friend.