Grandma Megs held onto Sophie’s hands, pressing the small cloth bag into her palms and folding her fingers up around it.  Her grandmother’s hands were cold like dry twigs, and the IV tube taped to the front of her forearm was pulled at far as it could from the container suspended above her nursing home bed.  Her dresser had been only a few steps away, but it had taken Grandma Megs several minutes to get out of bed and move to it, driven as if it was the most important thing in the world.

“Guard it well, Sophia Megan McAllister,” she rasped, sounding far weaker than Sophie had ever heard her before.  “Tell no one, not even your parents.  It has been such a long time since it has been needed, but someday, the evil will return.  They will need you then.  They will—”  She broke off coughing, and Sophie helped her grandmother back into her bed.  Grandma was so thin and light even Sophie’s young body could lift the wasted form back onto the mattress and tuck her under the sheets, but Grandma Megs did not say anything more, not even when her parents returned from signing the papers or when the nurse escorted them out of the room.

It was the last time she saw her grandmother alive.

[hr]

She saw the rainbow as her parents were helping clean out Grandma Meg’s old ranch house, out in the middle of the green pastures and horse barns Sophie had spent so much time in over the last few years.  Rainbows were supposed to be mere tricks of light, seen in the distance as the water droplets reflected sunlight, but the rainbow she saw now reached down out of the sky to touch on Grandma Meg’s balcony as if it were solid.  It was so fascinating she almost missed the flicker of light in the sky above it, but not the elated cries of joy and terror as ponies began to slide down the rainbow, just as if they were at some amusement park.  

The ponies were yellow and blue and pink, just as her grandmother had described in many long days of storytelling, with wings and horns so different than the horses on her ranch.  They tumbled and rolled on their long slide, with shrieks of joy and panic, until one after another, they all landed on the balcony in a big heap, the last one shouting, “Again!”

The first pony who had landed, a large-eyed unicorn with a pale lilac coat and ruffled wings, struggled out from under the rest of her friends and looked up at Sophie with a blurted, “Wait!  Don’t panic!  My name is Twilight Sparkle and we’re looking for Megan.  Megan Williams.  We need her help!”

Despite the way her heart was thudding away in her chest, Sophie nodded and watched the rest of the ponies untangle themselves and line up behind the winged unicorn.  They were all so similar to the ponies her grandmother had described, but different in so many ways too.

“Is it Tirek?” she asked.  “My Grandma Megs told me about how she used the Rainbow of Light to defeat him.”

“Grandmother?”  Twilight Sparkle blinked several times while muttering, “So the timestream isn’t as asynchronous as I thought.”  She shook herself and added, “No, Tirek is in Tartarus and the Midnight Castle destroyed.  There is a far more dangerous evil threatening Equestria, and we need Megan to use the Rainbow of Light to defeat it.”

“My grandmother is dead.”  Sophia lowered her head, but reached into her pocket, took out the small bag, and passed it over to the unicorn.  “Grandma Meg said I should keep it until you needed it again.”

The unicorn lit up her horn and removed a heart-shaped locket on a chain from the bag, although the sad look on her face showed it was not the answer she was looking for.

“Ponies can’t use it,” explained Twilight.  “The prophecy said only Megan would be able to defeat the evil.”

A spark of light lit inside her chest, and Sophie reached out to the floating locket, feeling a shock travel all the way up her arm as she unwrapped the chain and put it around her neck.

When her parents went looking for Sophie later, all they could find was the empty bag and a note.



Gone to help the ponies.  Be back soon.

Love, 
Megan