Chapter Two: The First Night and Breakfast

Rainbow Brite directed Starlight down the rainbow onto the top of the
Color Castle, then the ground in front of it. Canary Yellow and Spark were
walking towards the Castle, back from their shift in the Color Caves.
Canary waved.

"Hi Rainbow!"

"Konnichi wa!" Spark greeted her also.

"Hey there Canary!" Rainbow replied, but she wasn't paying attention.
Canary was studying Prism intently.

"Gosh, I know I've seen you before, but where?"

"Onna no ko Purisumatiku Raitu-san des ka?" Spark suggested.

"Don't be silly, Spark." Canary said, studying Prism even closer.
"Prism's been dead for over five hundred years." She then took a step
back. "I think...?" Patty O'Green walked up.

"Hey Rainbow, who's the new girl?"

"Moshi? Onna no ko Purisumatiku Raitu-san des!" Spark repeated. Patty
whipped her head around to look at Prism.

"It's really... oh my god it is..." she stood stunned for a moment
longer, then ran towards the girl and jumped at her. Prism caught Patty in
mid-jump, hugging her. "Prism! It really is you! Everybody thought you'd
died, but I knew... I KNEW you were alive somewhere!!!" Prism held the
girl, something she'd have never been able to do at Patty's old height.

"I've missed you too, Yuki." she looked up at Canary. "And you too,
Levana. I've missed everybody." Canary giggled.

"You still use the old names?" she asked. Prism shrugged.

"I don't know the new ones." Patty jumped down.

"You've got to see the others!" she turned to face Rainbowland Central.
"Sprites!" she called. A group of five Sprites came scrambling over. "Go
and get the rest of the Color Kids here, quickly, please!"

"Hai!" a blue one saluted and they all ran off. The first one who was
retrieved was Red.

"Red Butler at your service, Patty! What's the trouble?" Prism
practically fell off Starlight laughing. When she finally cought her
breath, she looked down at him.

"Oh *giggle* oh, you haven't changed at ALL, Inteus!" He looked over at
her.

"Did... did you just call me 'Inteus'?"

"Yup." He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. Patty put
her hand on his shoulder, an uncommon display of affection towards Red.

"It's Prism. She's back." He gaped at her.

"Oh my gosh..." then he turned away, blushing. "I can't beleive you're
seeing me like this." Prism giggled again and hopped off Starlight.

"Don't worry. I'm just amazed to be seeing you all again." She kelt down
and Red practically flew into her arms. After a moment, he realeased
himself.

"It's great to see you, sis." Rainbow shook her head vigourously before
looking back at them.

"S-sis?" Red let down his ego and grinned at Rainbow.

"Yup. Me, her and Liona are triplets." Rainbow groped for words for a
minute before finally just surrendering to a slightly exasperated sigh.
Red and Prism laughed.

"Are... are there any more relations I wasn't informed of?" she said as
she found her voice. Red looked thoughtful, but didn't get a chance to
respond because at that moment Tickled Pink and Moonglo came running up.
Moonglo stopped, but Pink ran right up to Prism and smiled up at her with
tear-filled eyes. She suddenly flung herself at the teenager.

"Big sis!" Rainbow hung her head.

"Of course... the red kid and the pink kid are related."

"Hey there, Flora! How've you been, sweetie?"

"Ok. But it's hard being the littlest."

"I know. But now I'm back to help you!"

"Really? To stay?"

"No doubt about it."

"Oh hooray!!! Say, where's Liona?"

"Uh... I'm not exactly sure. Is she still alive?" Pinkie cocked her head.

"Yes. I can feel her very strongly. Better than ever before." Moonglo
looked at them. Rainbow was watching Moonglo's expression.

"Hello, Prism." she said cautiously. Prism looked up, and Pinkie went
over to stand next to Rainbow.

"Oh. Hello, Valentina." There ensued a long, awkward silence.

"What's going on?" Rainbow whispered to Pinkie.

"Oh. At the time when the evil came, Prism and Valentina... er...
Moonglo, were at odds over something." she whispered back. "I think it was
because of Rosabel."

"Rosabel?"

"You'll figure it out really soon." The rest of the Color Kids arrived at
that time. As you might imagine, it was a momentary chaos while everybody
cried and hugged their long-lost friend. Finally everybody calmed down.

"Now, where are my favorite twins?" Buddy squeezed through the crowd of
Kids and Sprites, bursting forth into the empty cricle around Prism.
"Kado!" She gave him a quick squeeze. "Where's Rosabel?"

"Oh, she took to herself a LOT after you disappeared." Rainbow had
decided that this 'Rosabel' must be Indigo. It would have made sense in
her mind, the two blueish color kids being twins, and the comment about
seclusion. She looked around.

'No... wait, Indigo's here. Who could it be then?" Suddenly thunder was
heard along with the wild neigh of a horse. Within seconds, Stormy had
ridden down. She looked at Prism for a long moment, who stared back. Then
she jumped off Skydancer and walked semi-calmly over to her.

"Sorry I'm late, Prism." There was another long silence in which the two
looked at each other and then they embraced.

"No worries, Rosabel." she replied. Rainbow looked pathetically at them.

"Listen." She said. "I really hate to break up a reunion of apparent best
friends, but I need to get this sibling thing straight." They all looked
at her.

"Oh. I'd forgotten you don't know about all this." Violet commented.

"Oh, it's ok I think. Just give me a second here." She looked at them
all. "Ok, so Red, Prism and the apparently still-alive Liona are triplets,
and Pinkie is their little sister." the others nodded. "Now I found out
that Buddy and Stormy are twins?"

"That's right!" Stormy replied cheerfully, casting an arm around her
twin's neck.

"So is that it?" Rainbow asked.

"Not quite." Canary said.

"Yes." Patty chimed in. "Me and Canary are sisters. I'm older by about a
hundered years."

"Oh great." Rainbow replied.

"Is this too much for you all at once, Rainbow?" Moonglo asked. Rainbow
nodded.

"I think so."

"It is getting late." Moonglo continued. "I shoud be starting the night
soon. Maybe we can sleep now, and you'll feel better in the morning." To
everyone's surprise, Prism stood up.

"Well THAT is definitely a super idea, Valentina!" She said. "Let's all
go." Moonglo smiled back at her, a rare occurance. Everybody went their
own ways, until only Rainbow and Moonglo were left.

"Thanks, Moonglo." She said. Moonglo walked over to her and placed a hand
on one of her shoulders.

"You gonna be ok, Rainbow?"

"I think so. You really saved me there."

"It was no problem. I could tell you were really getting frustrated."

"Yea. I guess I was." There was a long moment as they watched the sun set
the rest of the way.

"Well, I'd better get to work." Moonglo said.

"Yea." Rainbow looked down.

"Um, well, I'll see you."

"You know, I think I'll watch. I need to ponder some stuff." Moonglo
looked surprised.

"Ok."

"I'll be right over there on that hill." She motioned to a small grassy
knoll.

"Alright. You don't stay up too late, now."

"I'll try not to."

"Good." and Moonglo disappeared. Rainbow walked slowly over to the hill
and lay down on it's gentle slope. About two hours later, Moonglo
re-appeared from her work. Rainbow was on her side, curled up, asleep on
the hill. Moonglo smiled and went over and lay down near her and stared up
at her hard work. Before long she, too, was asleep.


Prism stretched and walked out of the Color Castle, where she'd spent the
night rooming with Stormy. She smiled at the Rainbow Land dawn, something
she hadn't' seen in over half a millennia. Deciding to get re-familiarized
with the land, she set out on a walk. She passed Sprite houses and
playgrounds. Schools, shops, and the Color Cave. Just as she was about to
re-enter the Color Castle, she spotted two figures out of the corner of
her eye. She looked to see Moonglo and Rainbow, where they'd fallen asleep
the night before, watching the stars. She smiled in a way that made a
nearby yellow Sprite wonder if there was something ironic about it.

'Maybe I won't have any more problems with her after all...' She thought,
and then shrugged and walked into the Color Castle. It was all alive with
activity and feeling normal. But at the same time, there was a significant
change in the atmosphere. Stormy was there, looking happy and hanging
around with Buddy. Red and Pinkie were working together, Pinkie looking a
little like the younger sibling she was (slightly bugging the older one).

"Hi Prism!" Lala called. Prism looked over at the small girl, still
slightly at awe that she was acting like a little french girl (something
completely in contrast with her older self).

"Hi Ululani! Er... what's your new name?"

"Lala Orange." she giggled out.

"Oh yea. Lala." she set that in her mind. "I'll try to remember that."

"(hehe) Ok, Prism. Say, did you ever eat anything this morning?"

"No, I just got back from a walk around Rainbow Land. What ever happened
to the old Angel Palace? I know if we could find that, we could find some
Sun Crystals." Lala shrugged and began leading Prism to the Color Castle's
cafeteria.

"We never went looking for it. Too many memories." She continued walking
for a moment without saying anything, but her expression changed. "Or at
least... we never went looking for it together. Any given individual might
have on their own, or Buddy might have run into it on his runs."

"Ok... so Buddy is Kado, right?"

"Yep." An orange serving Sprite came up to them as they sat at a table.

"Ohaiyo gozaimasu! Nani fudu anatatachi des ka?"

"Pancakes with maple syrup and orange juice, please." Lala quickly
replied.

"Hai." the Sprite replied as she wrote it down. "Anata?" she turned to
Prism.

"Uhhh... I don't know what's served here, sorry." Lala giggled.

"Oops, I keep forgetting all of these new changes. But you can pretty
much order anything and they can make it."

'She forgets that I've been to intergalactic restaurants.' "Ummm, well I
think I'll have a bacon egg muffin, half a grapefruit, and green tea."

"Arigato." she said and scampered off with their orders. Prism watched as
she did, then turned to Lala and rolled her eyes.

"I can't wait till I find Sunlight. I can hardly understand what the
Sprites are saying!" Lala looked surprised.

"Really? Did you forget Happy Talk?"

"No, I never knew it."

"You didn't?!" Lala asked, astounded.

"She didn't what?" Violet asked as she walked past.

"Prism never learned Happy Talk!" Lala replied.

"Of course not." Violet reasoned. "The Sprites knew English back then,
like the ones on Spectra. It's only just been somewhat recently that they
started Happy Talk. Which, I might add, resembles greatly the Terran
language Japanese, though a very simplified form in which many of the
words are-"

"Ok ok I get it Violet!" Lala cut her off. Prism giggled.

"You didn't change either, Alette." Violet looked at them and motioned
towards a seat next to Prism.

"May I?"

"Please." Violet sat down.

"Actually, Prism, it would appear I've changed much more than may be
easily apparent. You see, my name now is Shy Violet." Prism covered her
mouth with her hand in an attempt not to laugh.

"Sh- shy?" she snickered out. "Whatever happened to Sage, Rosemary, and
Thyme? That would change anybody's mind that you were in any way shy." she
paused. "Come to think of it, whatever happened to all of the animals but
the Sprites?"

"We sent them away." Canary said, sitting down next to Lala.

"Away? Why? Where?" Prism blurted all at once.

"Well, we thought you were never coming back. That you were dead." Lala
offered. "We sent your Persephone, Apollo, Mithra, and Iris to the
farthest reaches of Black-and-White Island because they didn't want to be
here without you. The other animals voluntarily followed."

"What Black-and-White Island?" Rainbow asked and sat down at the head of
the table. There was a general groan.

"THIS is going to take some explaining..." Violet mumbled.

"You never saw the Black-and-White Island, Rainbow?" Patty asked as she
sat next to Canary. Rainbow shook her head.

"Not even flying over it on Starlight?" Canary asked.

"No. I've never even heard of it." Patty took a deep breath.

"Well, before the evil came-"

"That's another thing! Sorry Patty. But why is everybody suddenly
referring to it as 'the evil' and not 'the darkness'?"

"Because, Rainbow, darkness is not what overtook the land." Patty
continued. "The night is dark. It was evil that took over... it just
happened that this evil used the power of darkness and so you, by using
your bright rainbows, were able to pierce the darkness and defeat the
evil. That doesn't make the darkness evil."

"But... but we've been fighting the darkness for the past five hundred
years!"

"No, actually, we haven't." Indigo commented as she sat next to Violet.
"My color is dark. Moonglo is in charge of the night, which is dark. But
you haven't been fighting us."

"Rainbow, I know it's hard for you to understand." Violet began. "But
we've been fighting evil who uses darkness as it's power. But if the evil
had been using, say, illusion power, would we be set against it then? Of
course we would, because together, that's our duty!"

"So... darkness isn't evil? How... how do you know?" Rainbow asked,
stunned. Violet looked at her very seriously.

"Because, Rainbow, Liona's power was darkness."