Extract from the Records of Bright Heart Raccoon
With the turning of the years, time was not kind to the Care Bear family.
It's not my style to start off on such a depressing note, and Grumpy would probably say I'm stealing his lines, but there's definitely a reason for me to begin this way.
We Care Bears never changed, even when the times got tough. Some of us lost our energy as the people on Earth stopped respecting the attributes that gave us our names and our powers. Many of us fell asleep, sealed toward the day when light would again shine on the Earth.
True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse, our Leaders and Parents, slept with those that had faded, feeding them their pure energy to keep them from disappearing for good.
Still too depressing. I'm sorry.
Think of it like a flower. A flower is still a flower and has the potential to be beautiful and fragrant to everyone that goes near it. But if there's too much rain and not enough sun the flower will wilt. It's not giving up nor will it stop being a flower, but external forces are forcing it to bend down.
That was the situation of the Care Bears during that time. We were still the Care Bears, and we would do what we could... but the world hid itself in shadows that we couldn't dispel and refused our help. We never gave up. Giving up isn't what Care Bears do.
So when the time came that the sun broke through the clouds, we were still there, still ready to save the world. Just like when the rains go away the flower can once again lift up its head and bring joy to everyone around it. That was the wonderful process that started on the day we met the Bears with No Names...