A/N Well, hello there, RM fans. Fair warning, this story's not written very well, but again, if enough people like it, I might start working on it again. So here it is. DISCLAIMER: I don't own this series.

Oh, and supercooldemonicizzywhich, this is dedicated to you.

Prologue

On a certain island there is a forest.

In the forest there is a clearing.

In the clearing there is a willow tree.

And under the willow tree is an old black pot.

This pot has existed since the beginning of time, and it has a very special job to do. But the pot had been sleeping for nearly one hundred years.

Then, early one morning, on a day before you were born, the pot reawakened.

And someone saw it.

There was a knock on the door.

"It's probably Red," said Cantaloupe to her sisters, getting up from the kitchen table. She crossed the living room and opened the door. Sure enough, there was the girls' eldest sister, hovering in the air, back from her daily morning flight.

"Good morning," Red said as she and Cantaloupe entered the kitchen.

"How's the weather out there?" Lemon asked.

"Warm and sunny. Doodle must have been in a good mood this morning." Red took her seat between Cantaloupe and Plum, smoothing down her red leather dress. "What's for breakfast today?"

"I made your favorite, French Toast," Kiwi told her.

Red looked at Kiwi in surprise. "What's the occasion?"

Kiwi shrugged. "Dunno. Today just feels magical, that's all."

"I've been feeling the same way," Lemon put in. "I wonder why. The Midsummer Ball is still a week away."

"You're just getting early jitters," Red teased. "After all, I'm sure you're just dying to dance with that one elf, now what was his name—"

"I am not!" Lemon interrupted hotly, a pretty blush as crimson as Red's dress creeping up her cheeks. "You know I hate dancing!"

"Alright, you two, that's enough," Plum cut in. Although she was the youngest sister, Plum was the best peacemaker, and could usually solve arguments pretty quickly. "Red, stop teasing Lemon and eat your breakfast."

Red rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother." They all laughed.

And so for the next fifteen minutes, the usual chatter resumed around the table. At one point, Kiwi told a funny joke she had learned from her best friend Spring the Mist Fairy, and all seven sisters burst out laughing. All that is, except for two.

Cantaloupe, ever the observant one, was the first to spot it. "Hey, Blueberry, Blackberry," she said to the twins. "You guys have been rather quiet. Anything the matter?"

"Yeah, neither of you have said a word all morning," Lemon added. "What's up?"

The two girls in question shared a look, and the others knew that they were holding one of their silent conversations, most likely about whether they should share what they knew with the others. Finally, they seemed to come to a consensus, and as one turned to face their sisters.

Blackberry spoke first. "Blue and I discovered something this morning, before you guys were up," she said rather ominously.

"Is it serious?" Red asked patiently, a look of concern crossing her sharp features.

They both hesitated, then nodded. "Show 'em, Blue," Blackberry said.

Blueberry, looking a little nervous, lifted up both of her hands to her head and pulled back her silvery-blue hair from the left side of her face, exposing her hairline.

The other girls spotted it immediately, and gasped. Finally, Kiwi said in disbelief, "Is that what I think it is?"

Blackberry nodded. "Yup. It's a blemish."

"Do you think the rest of us have them, too?" Plum said in a small, quivery voice. Then, after a moment, as if by some signal, the girls simultaneously bolted out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, where they crowded around the washbasin to peer in the large mirror.

It wasn't long before the others found them, too. Blackberry had a zit in front of her ear, and Cantaloupe spotted two whiteheads under her jaw. Lemon, always fussing over her appearance, gave a shriek of horror in finding a sprinkling of blackheads across her nose. Plum, upon discovering a pimple on her cheek, drew back and spoke to Red with a pitiful look in her eyes. "Do you think this means that . . . . that—"

"OW!" cried Kiwi, doubling over as if she had been punched in the stomach.

Brushing past Plum, Red helped Kiwi up. She had long known that Kiwi was very sensitive to pain, so it probably wasn't that bad. But an uneasy feeling settled over her as she noticed that Kiwi was clutching her chest. Afraid she already knew what the problem was, Red asked anyway, "What is it, Kiwi?"

"I don't know! I just got this weird twinge, and—oh." A look of understanding crossed Kiwi's face. "Here," she said, taking Red's hands into her own and pressing them against her chest.

Red had indeed been right about the cause of the pain, but still her eyebrows rose in shock. "Oh. Yeah, I feel them, alright." She slowly swiveled to look at her other sisters. They had all gone quiet, as the reality settled upon them. Yet, it still felt wrong, as if like a dream. Their time couldn't be up yet, it just couldn't! But all seven sisters knew the truth, that their worst fear—the one they had been dreading for nearly a century—had finally been confirmed: after being ten years old for nearly one hundred years, they had now turned eleven.

Which meant . . . .

"Girls," Red gulped, "I'm afraid that . . . . that we're no longer the Rainbow Fairies."

Then the doorbell rang.

Red, shaking herself out of her stupor, left the bathroom and walked mechanically through the kitchen and living room to the front door. Opening it, she peered out, only to discover that no one was there.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to find Cantaloupe standing behind her, ginger hair gleaming like fire in the morning daylight. "The doorbell rang, remember?" she reminded Red. "That means our visitor isn't a fairy."

Red gave her younger sister a blank look.

"Open the trapdoor."

"Oh. Of course." Red crossed the living room to the kitchen threshold, where the other girls were gathered, and lifted up the board. Then she brought out her red wand and tapped the gold tip in the center of the spot where the board was. Magically a section of the floor swung slowly upwards, exposing a flight of stairs. With Red leading the way, the girls climbed down them to the other front door.

If you haven't figured this out yet, let me explain. The fairies live in a toadstool, as you might expect. The actual living area is in the cap, and is pretty much like a two-story house. There are two entrances: one is off the ground and is found at the base of the cap. This enables a fairy to simply fly right up to the door and let herself in. But for visitors that don't have wings, such as elves or other creatures, there is a second entrance at the base of the stem. The stem itself has a spiral staircase carved out of it, which leads up into the cap, usually somewhere in the living room or kitchen, depending on the size of the toadstool. In this case, of course, the trapdoor was between the two rooms.

Red opened the door to reveal a big green frog in a purple uniform and wearing glasses. "Good morning, Bertram," she said, beckoning him inside.

But Bertram stayed where he was. "And to you, too, Miss Strawberry," he replied in a rushed tone.

Red's cherry-colored eyes flashed in annoyance at the use of her real name, but she said nothing. And even if she had, Bertram wouldn't have noticed, as he obviously had more pressing matters on his mind.

"What's the matter?" Blackberry said, elbowing her way to stand beside Red.

"You girls must come quickly," he told them. "There's something you need to see."

As her sisters filed out of the door, Red asked Bertram in a low voice, "I don't suppose it's anyone's birthday today, if you know what I mean."

Bertram looked confused for a moment, but then he realized what she meant, and softened his expression to one of pity. "I'm afraid so. A new generation is on its way."

Red nodded. "Thought so. Blue and Black discovered the signs this morning." Then she gasped as another realization hit her. "Then that means—girls!" The other six fairies crowded around Red to listen. "Bertram just confirmed what we figured out earlier, and this means that—" she swallowed, eyes brimming with tears, "it means Ruby and her sisters are . . . . gone," she finished in a small voice.

If the girls hadn't been distraught enough already, this realization was enough to do the deed. Ruby, Citrine, Zircon, Peridot, Aquamarine, Sapphira, and Amethyst had been the group of Rainbow Fairies in the previous generation, and as was customary after retirement, they had become mentors to Red's group. But now that there was another group coming, Ruby and the others had faded away, and simply ceased to exist. Ruby had been especially close to Red and her sisters, and the girls knew they would miss her the most.

By an unspoken agreement, the fairies knelt on the ground and shared a moment of silence for their mentors, while Bertram stood off to the side respectfully. Then Lemon, ever the optimist (she was the Yellow Fairy after all), stood up first and brushed the dirt off of her yellow dress, also smoothing down her long blonde hair. "Well," she said briskly, "I think we've had enough time feeling sorry for ourselves. Now let's put on our happy faces and go welcome our successors into Fairyland!" And with that, she took to her wings and started off in the direction of the rainbow.

"Easy for her to say," Blackberry muttered to Blueberry as the others followed Lemon's example.

Blueberry squeezed her twin's hand and brushed away a stray lock of blue-black hair. "Oh, Blackberry, you're always so negative. Lemon does have a point, you know. I'm sure you don't want the king and queen to see you sulking like this!"

"Well, I'm the Indigo Fairy," Blackberry replied indifferently. "What more can they expect?"

"Alright then, how about Madame Grey? She'll be there, too."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, point taken." Round One, Blueberry.

At the rainbow, each girl flew to her color's stripe, and off they went, with Bertram bringing up the rear. As you may already know, the rainbow naturally took them straight to the center of Rainspell Island (Fairyland's link to the human realm), where the magic clearing was.

"I haven't been here in so long!" Kiwi exclaimed, voicing the delight that all the sisters felt. Now if you've read the first seven books in the Rainbow Magic series, you'll know that this is the same clearing. But if you haven't, I'll describe it for you. Like I mentioned at the beginning, in the center of the island is a small forest, and in the middle of the forest is a small clearing. The clearing has a shaded, decent-sized pond on the right, and is said by some to have mystical properties (this, of course, is true). Next to the pond is an ancient but healthy weeping willow. And underneath the willow tree, concealed by its long, thick branches, is an old black pot laying on its side. This, of course, is the infamous pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow, but it's not full of gold. No, contrary to popular belief, this pot serves a different, special purpose.

And at the moment, it was bathed in a golden glow.

"I've never seen it do that before," Cantaloupe whispered to Red.

"Me neither. But this is probably normal. After all, we've never witnessed the birth of a new group of Rainbow Fairies."

"Yeah, because last time we were the ones making the grand entrance!" Cantaloupe paused as she noticed something else. "Hey, look, there's the king and queen. Let's go ask them."

Red agreed and, beckoning for the other fairies to follow, flew to the willow tree, where its long branches had been parted, and landed on the ground next to the pot, where King Oberon and Queen Titania stood. But they weren't alone: Bertram, as the head frog footman, had naturally joined them, and Madame Grey, wearing her usual grey dress with her silver hair gathered in a severe bun, was there, too.

Madame Grey is the headmistress of what is known as the Fairy Academy—a rather austere brick building in a place somewhat separated from Fairyland. The year after a group of fairies is born, they are taken to the Academy and are raised there for the next nine years of their life. Before the age of five, they are kept in a large nursery with all the other baby fairies. After their fifth birthday, the fairy sisters are moved to the dormitories, and their schooling officially begins. They are, of course, taught the same things that a human child typically learns in kindergarten through fourth grade (like Math, Reading, and Music), and are also taught how to use their special fairy magic. Finally, on their tenth birthday, the fairies will graduate from the Academy, and take on their duties.

Red and her sisters stood in a line and curtsied to the king and queen. "Good morning, your majesties," they said simultaneously.

Madame Grey cleared her throat expectantly.

Hastily the girls turned and curtsied to the headmistress. "Good morning, Madame Grey!" they said. Madame Grey smiled, satisfied.

The fairies had learned a long time ago that Madame Grey was very strict, and was not to be disappointed. Red's friend April the Rain Fairy had once asked Queen Titania why someone like Madame Grey, with her "iron fist", was the headmistress of the Fairy Academy.

"Well, we don't want any of our fairies growing up coddled, do we?" Titania had replied with a smile. "Besides, Madame Grey is also my sister." Many found this last bit rather hard to believe.

Back to the present. "Oh, it's so good to see you again, my dearies," Madame Grey gushed to the girls. "I'm so glad you came. It must be awfully hard to come and see the newborn fairies that will soon take your place!"

"Yes, Madame Grey," Red answered with clenched teeth. If this had been anyone else, Red would've accused them of adding insult to injury.

Fortunately, Queen Titania came to their rescue. "That's enough, dear sister," she said patiently, putting a hand on Madame Grey's shoulder. "Let's not make this any harder on them." Then the queen turned to the girls. "But truly, we are glad that you could come."

"It's our pleasure, your majesty," Lemon said.

"Yes, we wouldn't miss this for anything," Plum chimed in.

Suddenly there was a low humming sound, and everyone turned to see that the pot had started vibrating. King Oberon motioned for everyone to stand back. "We need to give the pot some space," he explained quickly.

As the vibrations turned to violent quivers, Red turned to the queen and asked, "How long is this going to take?"

"The whole process usually lasts the entire day," Titania replied. "Quite a bit of time passes between each fairy's birth."

"I have a question, too," Blueberry said, coming over. "How will we know when there is a set of twins?"

"There is a time limit we use," the queen said. "If two fairies are born within fifteen minutes of each other, then they are identical twins. If they are born within thirty minutes, then they are fraternal twins. Anything longer than that means that they are not twins."

Blueberry nodded. "Thanks, that's good to know. And there's always at least one set, right?"

"Yes, that's right." Then the queen's eyes widened, and she motioned for the girls to be quiet. "Hush. Here comes the first one."

The words were barely out of her mouth when there came a sudden flash of golden light, the pot jerked violently, and a tiny figure tumbled out onto the grass. The pot's shaking died back down to a barely noticeable vibration.

Red blinked to clear the glare from her eyes, and stared in surprise. "Oh! She's...adorable!"

Sure enough, it was a newborn fairy. She had a feathery blonde head and rosy cheeks. A white cloth diaper was already tied around her chubby hips, and her tiny, triangular wings were tinged with scarlet.

"Looks like she's yours, Red," Blackberry remarked upon noticing this fact.

Curious, Red swooped forward on her wings and scooped up the baby in her arms. The girl cooed as Red tickled her on the nose. "Oh, just look at her!" Red said to the others.

As everyone crowded around the baby girl, Cantaloupe cocked her head, clearly confused about something. "Wait a second. If she's the new Red Fairy, then why isn't her hair auburn, like Red's?"

Red glanced back at her own long hair, then at the baby's blonde head, and saw that Cantaloupe was right. "Yeah, why is that?" she asked, turning to the king and queen.

"Ah, I see that we forgot to tell you girls something," said King Oberon, stepping forward. "You remember when Madame Grey told you, back when you were students at the Academy, that uniformity was expected from each group of fairies?"

Madame Grey beamed at the mention of her name. The girls nodded, observing their matching and color-coordinated strapless leather dresses, cowboy boots, and hairstyles (long and straight, with no bangs or layers).

"Well, this generation is going to be a little different. Instead of focusing on consistency, we have decided that we want them to value uniqueness. This means that they get to choose their individual appearance."

"We also believe that each group of fairies will not all necessarily be of the same race," Queen Titania added. "You know that you girls are white; then some groups, like the Sport Fairies, are black; and other groups, like the Petal Fairies, are oriental. But this probably will not be the case for this generation."

"What else is different?" Plum asked.

The king and queen thought for a moment. Then Bertram spoke up. "I believe that this group isn't going to come in the usual sequence. Is that right, your majesties?"

"That is correct, Bertram," King Oberon replied. "The fairies in this group most likely are not going to be born in color order."

"Darn," muttered Cantaloupe under her breath. Everyone laughed.

"Hey, can I name the girl now?" Red asked.

"Not just yet," Queen Titania told her. "You must wait until her sisters are born. Then you can decide on a name."

Red nodded, even though she had already made up her mind.

The rest of the day passed slowly, as everyone waited for the birth of the new fairies. Sure enough, they weren't born in color order, and had unique hair colors. And instead of the customary single set of twins, there were two sets; one identical, and one fraternal.

On the sixth flash, which was around seven o'clock in the evening, a bright-eyed girl with fluffy hair tumbled out of the pot to join her twin, who had been born nearly fourteen minutes ago. No sooner had she been scooped up off the grass than the pot stopped shaking altogether, and its glow faded away.

"That's weird," Cantaloupe commented, absently pulling her baby's curious hands away from Plum's purplish-brown hair. "I never saw the Indigo Fairy's birth. What happened to her?"

At that moment Madame Grey shrieked, and everyone turned to see what was the matter. To everyone's shock, a baby fairy with cinnamon skin, tufts of blue-black hair, and indigo-tinged wings clung to Madame Grey's head! The baby girl was pulling strands of silver hair out of the headmistress's bun with one hand, and waving her spectacles around with the other.

Blackberry burst out laughing. "Now that's the kind of girl I want to raise!" she announced, crossing over to extract the baby fairy off of Madame Grey, who all but shoved the girl at Blackberry.

Meanwhile, Cantaloupe had noticed something else. "Take a look at the branches up there," she said, pointing up to the boughs of the willow tree.

Everyone looked. What they saw were what looked like splotches of indigo-colored paint running from the drooping branches directly over where Madame Grey stood, all the way down to the base of the tree trunk in a rambling path.

Bertram hopped over to the tree and prodded one of the splotches on the trunk with a webbed foot. "Looks like it's been here awhile," he said upon rejoining the group.

"Which means," concluded Blueberry, "that the girl was born quite some time ago." She frowned. "But we never saw her come out of the pot!"

"Then how in all of Fairyland did that happen?" Kiwi wondered aloud.

Queen Titania shook her head, thoroughly baffled. "Who knows? This new generation is going to be a mystery, even to us!" King Oberon nodded in agreement.

"And that is saying something!" Bertram put in. The king and queen chuckled.

"Now hold on a minute," Lemon said, cutting their laughter short. "Don't we get to name our girls now?"

"Ah, yes," said King Oberon. "We did promise that you could name them when the time came, now didn't we? Well, go ahead then."

"Plum should go first," Lemon insisted. "We'll go in backwards order." The other sisters nodded in consensus.

"Okay," said Plum. "I've already thought of a name—I'm going to name her Heather."

"That's very pretty, Miss Plum," Bertram said.

She blushed. "Thanks. I thought of it this morning, when I saw the heather plant outside our house."

"My turn," said Blackberry. "Well, that little stunt reminded me of that time when Sapphira 'accidently' spilled ink all over Madame Grey's pile of pop quizzes." At this the headmistress shot Blackberry a murderous glare. The baby girl she was holding, however, looked up with a mischievous gleam in her dark blue eyes, as if this were the kind of thing she might do herself. "In fact, this little girl has Sapphira written all over her face. Anyhow, I think I'll name her Inky. It fits her personality."

Blueberry giggled. "Ooh, I like it! Now if only I could think of something that good for this little sweetheart." She looked down at the baby in her arms, who at the moment was gazing at the sunset with a dreamy expression on her face.

"Looks like somebody's about to fall asleep," Cantaloupe remarked. "At least she knows when her bedtime is!"

"No, I think she's just admiring the sunset," Blueberry replied. "And it's a very pretty one, too. It's not often that Magenta can paint something that pretty in the sky—hey, wait, that's it!"

"What, you're naming her after the sunset?" Kiwi joked.

"No, the sky! Her name will be Sky." Sky cooed to show her approval.

"Ah, that's even better!" Kiwi said. "Now as for you—" she patted her girl's brunette head, "—I'll name you after something in this clearing. After all, there's tons of green stuff here!" Kiwi paused to look around. "Hmm. Tree? No. Grass? No. Leaf? No. Bush? NO! Mm, Fern? Yeah, that works. You're Fern."

"Finally!" declared Lemon. "Alright, now let's see . . . . I think you deserve a cutesy name to match your cutesy face!" Lemon tapped the baby's nose, and the baby beamed, her hazel eyes twinkling. "Hey, look at her face! It's glowing, like sunshine. Oh, I like that—Little Miss Sunshine! But we'll do Sunny for short, okay?" Sunny let out a squeal that sounded like, "Yah!"

"Okay, it's my turn. Now I think—hey! What do you think you're doing?" The baby Orange Fairy was squirming in Cantaloupe's arms, apparently reaching for something behind her. Cantaloupe turned around and flew to a nearby maple tree. "Is this what you were looking at, huh?" The little girl got even more excited and even started feebly flapping her pointed orange wings, leaning forward so far she almost fell out of Cantaloupe's arms.

"What's she after?" Plum shouted out from behind.

"I think she's looking at the tree resin dripping down the side," Cantaloupe called over her shoulder. She flew closer and, sure enough, the baby girl plunged her hands into the sticky sap. A few moments later the girl drew back, clutching something in her tiny fist. As Cantaloupe flew back to join her sisters, she managed to pry open the girl's fist and pulled out a piece of hardened resin.

Everyone else crowded around to look at it. "Why'd she want that?" Blackberry asked in confusion.

But Cantaloupe had, of course, already caught on, and started to chuckle. "You're a smart little fairy, aren't you?" she said to the baby fairy, who giggled back. Cantaloupe turned to the others and explained. "It looks like Amber took the naming matters into her own hands!"

"Amber? What do you mean?" Lemon said, looking at Cantaloupe quizzically.

"Well, that's what this is," she replied, holding up the piece of resin. "Hardened tree resin is called amber. So, this must be what Amber here wants for a name!" She kissed the top of Amber's head, and the girl giggled again.

And now it was Red's turn. She looked down at the new Red Fairy, who was staring at her baby sisters with a solemn look in her ice-blue eyes. Again, Red was reminded of her old mentor Ruby, who had been fiercely protective of not only her own sisters, but Red's sisters as well. Red had always admired Ruby's courage and drive, and was constantly trying to mimic her. It looks like she'll be the same way, Red thought, feeling a bittersweet twinge of emotion as she gazed at her mentee. Then she looked back up at the other ten expectant faces, and spoke the name she had been pondering all day.

"Ruby."