They say that at the end of the rainbow, if you have the magic to find it, you will find Rainbow Land, the origin of all color in the world. The Color Kids, namely Ruby the Red Fairy, Amber the Orange Fairy, Sunny the Yellow Fairy, Fern the Green Fairy, Sky the Blue Fairy, Inky the Inky Fairy, and Heather the Violet Fairy, they work with the magical sprites to mine color crystals. These crystals are made into Star Sprinkles, which can be used to bring color to anything. Leading the Color Kids is Rainbow Brite, a brave and kind girl who protects them all.
Another 'they' will say that the origin of all color is the interpretation of wavelengths of light by the brain via the eyes. Different eyes see different colors, or no colors, or only some colors, or colors that humans cannot distinguish. This group of 'they' would tell you that most rainbows only have six colors and anyone who claims that it has seven colors is naive and pretentious. It's all a childish dream.
But 'they' have lost the imagination of children, haven't 'they'? 'They' don't remember a colorless world of atrophy, despair, and death. Which is how it should be. That world is dead and lost to the Dark. The childish dreams restored life and hope. So don't be so quick to forget them, okay? The Color Kids. When they were forgotten and ignored, the world was lost to Dark.
The rainbow has seven colors, as long as you remember to dream.
Let me tell you of a dream I had, that shows they still watch over the world.
One day, Fern the Green Fairy and a troupe of her spite friends showed up with a large box from Earth. "We got an apple!" she called out as the sprites put the box by a table.
"Just an apple?" Sunny called, coming into the room to see if maybe it was a yellow apple. Then she saw that the box was nearly as tall as Fern. "Huh? Is that a giant apple?"
"Not really, it's normal size," she said.
"But that would make a dozen pies by itself!"
Fern chuckled. "We're not making pies with it. Call the others in here! It's really exciting!"
"Okay!" Sunny said, still mystified at the size of the box for one apple. She left Fern and the sprites with the box.
A few minutes later, Rainbow Brite, the other Color Kids, and many curious Sprites had come into the room to find that Fern had some kind of television with extra things set up on the table. "Hey, that's not an apple," Red Ruby said.
"But it is an Apple!" Heather said, enchanted by the things. "An Apple computer. They're a big deal on Earth."
"Yup, I thought it could be useful and fun," Fern said, patting the screen part. "I found a school that was getting rid of this one to get more up to date computers, and talked someone into letting me take one."
"Are you sure it's more interesting than an apple you can eat?" Sunny asked. "Because it's not colorful and it's not doing anything."
"Well we got the TV to work, so I figured we could get the computer to work too," Fern said, putting a hand to her mouth. "Though, I don't know how to make it work."
"I can figure it out, I'm sure," Heather said, taking a cord in hand. "Though it has the same problem as the TV did."
Rainbow Brite clapped her hands together. "Right, I remember! Earth technology doesn't work right in Rainbow Land because of magic, but we can use our magic to overcome the interference. And when we do, it'll work better than on Earth."
"That's right," Heather said. "With some Color Sprinkles and some help from the Rainbow Belt, we should be able to get this running. Did you get a manual?"
"Yup, hang on," Fern said. She reached far enough into the box that she tumbled right in. Moments later, she held the book up in both hands. "Here you go! And Lucky and I have already claimed this box!"
Heather took the manual. "Great, I'll get to work on this right away!"
Sunny laughed. "Did you bring the computer back more for the box than the computer itself?"
"Maaaaybe," Fern said with a grin, gripping the side of the box.
Over the next week, Heather studied the manual and tried to get the Apple computer to work. A dose of every color of Sprinkle changed the computer from a plain tan box into a colorful apple-like device that fit right into the Color Castle. But it still didn't make the computer work. After a trip to Earth to get more books, Heather tried a mix of additional colors: red, blue, and green because they related to computers, and a pinch each of Heather and Inky, for intelligence and dreams. Then she asked Rainbow Brite to make a wish over the computer, that it could work just the same as computers on Earth.
And it worked, although better than she'd wished for. The computer changed itself, keeping up with what computers on Earth were capable of. The monitor upgraded to have more color after a few days, to the delight of the kids. Then it increased memory and power. Over time, its capabilities increased dramatically. It was an interesting novelty to most of them; the games it had were fun. Heather used it the most, in organizing schedules, keeping track of color crystal mining, and making documents for her research.
Then the internet came and things changed as if from black and white straight to true life color.
Space is like… massively, greatly, hugely big! Very very very very very big! It takes light, which is like the fastest thing ever, hundreds of years to travel between stars. When you look up at the sky, you are seeing a fraction of the closest thing to infinity. But science says that space is full of a lot of empty space. Light takes hundreds of years to travel between stars and it doesn't run into much along the way.
In the imagination, space is full of stuff: stars, planets, comets, aliens, stardust, Starfleet Captains and Jedi, maybe even giant trees, great oceans, and magical trains… and the Sphere of Light, making sure that life continued to have color and hope. Maybe you don't realize it, but the space of science and the space of imagination both exist. They're both important. How they connect, though, is something that everyone should discover for themselves.
You know what else is massively, greatly, hugely big? The internet! Put aside for the moment how good or bad or perfect or terrible anything is. Now, consider how many words, images, videos, programs, and more are out there in the depths of the internet. And not just the static information; the internet is made up of temporary and constantly changing information as well. If you put the internet out in space, scientifically speaking, would the internet fill up the emptiness of space?
It may be scientifically speaking, but it is a theoretical question. But here's something not theoretical, something that actually relates to this story. Just don't ask how. In the vast darkness of space, far from any stars, the stillness and silence was suddenly broken by an internet link releasing one of its own out into the wild.
This was a cat, perfectly suited to the depths of space because that was where it had been drawn. It continued the song it had been singing, joyful and wanting to spread that joy. As it flew along, a sparkling rainbow flew along behind it. The darkness of space was intimidated by the brightness surrounding the flying cat, scattering away out of its path. Once it noticed where it was, it flew in a quick circle to take a good look around. There was nothing close to it, so the cat flew straight away to the nearest light.
As the cat was in the space of imagination, this took a mere half minute. The light it had chased turned out to be a magical land, full of rainbows and joy. The cat was used to flying through space, but the land before it now seemed like a wonderful place. Whatever was there, the cat was sure to fit in.
The cat flew down into Rainbow Land, full of hope and joy.
One sunny morning in the Green Grange, Fern the Green Fairy took a break from checking green Star Sprinkles to lay on the ground, look up in the sky, and hatch a new scheme for a funny prank. Most of her jokes these days went online; it had been a while since she'd done something in person. She'd seen a story about putting things in bags and mixing up who had what. It could be funny. Her first thought had been to do it with Star Sprinkles. But on second thought, it probably wouldn't work. She could tell when green Sprinkles were near; the other Color Kids surely could identify their own colors. Though, could Rainbow figure out which colors were in bags? That could be amusing.
She heard a squeal from nearby before something streaked across the sky, leaving a small sparkly rainbow behind. It had been singing too.
"Wow, what was that?" Fern called, quickly getting onto her feet. However, the singing thing was already gone.
She started to run, hoping that it might stop and let her catch up.
Sunny kept a baking blog, recording recipes she tried and giving advice to readers. While she loved making things with lemons, apples, bananas, and other yellow foods, she did her best with other colors. She'd tried a blackberry buckle today, which was a bit red and a bit purple among what seemed like black sweet filling, all topped off by a browned crust. Not a bit of yellow… but she could fix that with a dusting of yellow sugar. That gave it a real golden brown crust. She took pictures, then sent off some Yellow Sprites to invite others to try it.
While waiting, she checked on the blogs of the other Color Kids. They didn't post about their work coloring the world; it didn't need to be a total secret, but it should be mysterious. Instead, they posted about their hobbies and interests. Sky had a fitness blog, while Fern's posts were loaded with puns and wordy tricks. Sunny followed all of their blogs even if she wasn't as interested in their hobbies. If nothing else, the conversations they had with people from Earth were usually good.
Sunny then noticed that Inky hadn't posted in a week. That was odd. While she didn't post consistently, she should have made some post in that time. Sunny checked on the last post and found a discussion in the comments about whether or not Inky was a real part of a rainbow. The first post about it read, 'Thinking Inky is in a rainbow is stupid and childish, learn some science.' The discussion (or argument if one were to be blunt) was about how rude the post was. None of them debated whether Inky was or wasn't a part of the rainbow. Maybe Inky got upset about that?
She didn't show up with the other Color Kids who came in to try her buckle. Sunny talked with Rainbow and Heather about it. "Have you seen her today? Or recently?"
Rainbow nodded. "I saw her yesterday, but she seemed lost in thought. I didn't speak with her then; she seemed all right, but maybe she was upset? We should check on her."
"Yes, I can bring her some of the blackberry buckle," Sunny said, going to get a travel dish. "We should cheer her up, since nobody was agreeing with her."
Heather shifted her glasses. "Well technically, on Earth, an ordinary rainbow will only have six colors."
"But my rainbows always have seven," Rainbow said, snapping her fingers to summon a bubble. The rainbow sheen clearly had seven colors.
"That's how it's been ever since Inky came here, so I've heard," Heather said. "Science explains what is; magic explains what we believe. She may remember that, but it wouldn't hurt to check up on her. If you need some help, I'll be in the library. There's something I want to look into."
Something zoomed right between them then; it sang a few notes but zipped through one window and out the other before they could get a good look at it. A sparkling rainbow was left in its wake.
"Wow, what was that?" Rainbow asked, her eyes wide.
"That's it!" Heather said, pointing out where it had gone. "That's the thing I wanted to research!"
"Then you don't know what that was?" Sunny asked. "I didn't get a good look at it. But it left a six colored rainbow."
"So is it magical or not?" Heather asked. "It could be difficult to get a picture of, but I'm looking for a chance while trying to figure out what it is."
"Good luck, I hope you succeed," Sunny said. Once she had a piece of the buckle, she turned to Rainbow. "Come on, let's go find Inky."
It was a very nice day in Rainbow Land. There had been some rain last night, leaving everything bright and fresh today. From the singing around the path, they knew some Sprites were out enjoying the weather. Birds were singing too; other animals were out and about. Some came over to greet them and see if they wanted to play. Perhaps later, if it might cheer Inky up.
The Inky Fields were some of the furthest from the castle. On the way, Rainbow asked, "What was it like when Inky came? Was it like when I arrived?"
"Oh, no, not at all," Sunny said. "We get called for different reasons, but ultimately because we're needed. When Inky came, we had a different group in the castle."
"Other colors?" she asked, confused at that.
Sunny shook her head. "No, most of them were different kids. Blue was taken care of by Blue Belle, and Heather was taken care of by Vince Heather. There were a lot of different kids then; it was only me and Red who've been around long enough to remember when Inky arrived."
"Wow, I didn't realize you were one of the older ones," Rainbow said, impressed.
"Well, we're always kids," she said, smiling back. Then she put a hand to her cheek in thought. "Hmm, Red Ruby and I came to Rainbow Land around the same time. He changed his name recently. I mean, he changed it not long before you arrived, because he liked this actor we saw on TV. But when we were ordinary kids on Earth, the biggest city we knew of was Rome. Though, neither of us lived there."
"Was that when Rome had an empire? That was a long time ago!"
Sunny nodded. "Yes, that's right. Heather showed up during a cultural revolution; she wanted to study when girls weren't taught much. Amber and Sky showed up to escape revolutions of war, different ones though. Fern was the newest Color Kid when you arrived; I think she just wanted a change. Inky was kind of like Heather, in that she wanted to do more than she was allowed to as a girl. Since we're chosen by the Sphere of light to help others, we always figured that the girls were just as important as the boys."
"Of course," Rainbow said. "So what got Inky to arrive?"
"Well, some odd things began happening in the mines. Crystals seemed both blue and Heather at once. However, none of the Sprites could harvest them. They'd just turn to smoke, like when the colors don't match. Vince and Belle couldn't do anything about them either. The Star Belt belonged to a boy we called Chief Rainbow, and he could take the mystery crystals and turn them into Star Sprinkles. However, the resulting Sprinkles were weaker and couldn't color as much. Chief tried using some in Rainbow Land and only got a patch of blue-Heather grass.
"But over the next few weeks, that patch of grass kept growing. It pushed itself and other areas out into the Wastelands. When a mine entrance appeared in the blue-Heather lands, Inky the Inky Fairy and a few Inky Sprites arrived in the castle. She explained what the Sphere of Light had told her: dreams of a seven-colored rainbow were spreading among people, and so Inky was called out to be a color of dreams and imagination. So as long as people dream of a seven colored rainbow, Inky will be one of us."
Although, that was worrisome; Rainbow saw it too. "But then if people stop believing in seven colored rainbows, what happens to Inky?"
"I don't know," Sunny said. "I hope she stays."
They walked a little ways before Rainbow said, "I hope she stays too, but what happens to the Color Kids who leave Rainbow Land? You've seen a lot of them go, it seems."
She nodded. "Yes, but it's never been a bad thing. The Color Kids who leave grow up, that's all." Then she shrugged. "I don't get why they decide to leave, but sometimes they do. When they decide, they go speak with the Sphere of Light so that it can call on someone to replace them. I've spoken with a lot of my friends who decided to grow up on Earth and they seemed happy. They were allowed to keep a bit of magic, and they would make sure that others didn't forget about Rainbow Land. As a result, Rainbow Land is strong for many years, even if we're a little sad to see a friend leave."
"Because then people believe in this place and a seven colored rainbow, right?" she asked.
"I think so!" Though that reminded her of some bad things. "When people on Earth forget about us, or when some of us start feeling less hopeful, bad things come from the Wastelands. Like the King of Shadows who showed up a long time after Rainbow Chief had left. Even before he arrived, the colors had grown fainter and the lands had grown smaller. And he's hardly the only nasty thing that has come out of the Wastelands. Rainbow Chief had to defeat a Nightmare Dragon when he arrived."
"That sounds scary," Rainbow said, seeming thoughtful. "The Sphere of Light has told me to keep an eye on the Wastelands. Why're there bad things out there? Is it just because there's so little color?"
"Kind of, I guess?" Sunny said. To answer that, she had to think back to a long time ago. "Things always work out for the best. That's what I've believed since it always happens that way. No matter how bad things get, they'll get better again. But it seems like things weren't always that way. This land was once all the Wastelands, full of monsters and nightmares. Even the Earth was like the Wastelands. I didn't see that time, though. When I became a Color Kid, the time of the Wastelands was a long time ago."
"That's good. I can't imagine the whole world being like the Wastelands; it'd be horrible."
"I can't imagine it either." She smiled on remember some old friends. "When I arrived, the oldest Color Kid was Green Arbor and he had seen Rainbow Land's creation from the Wastelands."
"I hadn't thought of how Rainbow Land began. What happened?"
She thought abut it a bit longer, since she hadn't thought of that in a while. "Well… there's a book in the library with the full story. The original color Kids were a Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue, and they all followed Rainbow Star. Star was brave and determined, like you actually. She and the other four were orphans that had to survive a world full of dragons and monsters, where people didn't hope for much past surviving each day. Wanting to change that, Star and her friends chased after a rainbow looking for magic.
"Now normally, rainbows always keep out of reach. But like with us, the Sphere of Light saw that Star and her friends were good kids with hearts full of hope. The Sphere of Light accepted them, allowing them to approach the rainbow and climb it to reach Rainbow Land. It summoned the first Sprites in order to help the Color Kids learn the magic to bring color and hope to Earth. They created the first Rainbow Castle and helped the ancient heroes to defeat the dragons. When Earth's colors were vibrant and people were freed from dragons, they were all safe enough to make their lives better."
Rainbow smiled brightly. "Great! It'd be scary to have to fight a dragon. But if that keeps Earth and Rainbow Land safe, then I'd do it. Maybe I should be prepared."
"As long as people have hope, it's usually not a problem," Sunny said. "But it couldn't hurt to be prepared."
By that time, they'd arrived in Inky Fields. The deep colors were strong, so it didn't feel like anything was wrong here. Past a hill, they found a group of sprites making Star Sprinkles and singing. Rainbow waved to get their attention. "Hello! Where's Inky? We're looking for her."
"She should be at Rainbow Falls," one of them answered. "She said she was going to paint there, unless she found the cat again."
"A cat?" Sunny asked. There had been some cats in Rainbow Land before, but not for a while.
"Yup, there was a cat here early this morning," the Sprite said.
"Not an Inky cat, a many colored cat," another Sprite said. "She went to talk to it and it flew away!"
"A flying cat?" she asked. That was new.
"Did it leave a rainbow behind?" Rainbow asked.
"Yup, a real strange cat."
Rainbow tapped her belt and got a postcard to appear. "We should let Heather know about the cat, then head for Rainbow Falls." She wrote a note, then sent it off with magic. As they moved on, she said, "You know, people on Earth told me that there's no such thing as dragons. But many of them also don't believe in magic. We're still here at the end of the rainbow, so there's still magic. We just need people to believe in it."
"We still have the beliefs of children," Sunny said. "They believe in seven color rainbows. We can rely on them."
"If we could post things online that people would believe in, that might help," Rainbow said. "But what do we post that people who believe in science will accept?"
"Maybe believing and hoping is enough, even if it's in science? Because you reminded us that believing in ourselves was important. Perhaps that important for people on Earth too."
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, it's important to believe in yourself! Because then you can do great things, more than you might expect. That could be what we post about to keep Rainbow Land strong."
"The King of Shadows did make us doubt ourselves, and so we became weak…" Sunny smiled and nodded. "Then that's what we should do! Believe in ourselves and teach others to do the same."
"You're believing in yourself by baking dishes that aren't yellow," Rainbow said. "Isn't that so?"
"Well, yes," she said. "Though it's also keeping myself from making the same kinds of foods all the time. It used to be you ate what was simple and cooked by fire. I was very excited when we got an oven here, even though it was outside and large. With that, I could make bread and roasts. As the ovens got better, I started cooking only yellow foods. But I really shouldn't make it a habit, to rely on just my power."
Rainbow patted her shoulder. "You're a great cook and baker. We have lots of good food every day thanks to you!"
"That's partly because life has gotten better everywhere, even since the time I was a normal kid."
They kept talking on the way to Rainbow Falls, about how to encourage others and what each of them might be able to do. When they arrived, they spotted Inky right away. She was looking over a painting of the waterfall and rainbow. "Oh, hello," she said on noticing them. "What do you think of this?"
"It's a beautiful painting," Rainbow said.
Sunny nodded. "Yeah, it's a happy painting that makes me feel the same way I do when I'm here."
"That's good," Inky said, turning back to her painting. "I want to show the people on Earth what it's like here, so they can dream of good things."
"Great, we were just talking about encouraging them," Rainbow said.
"And I brought you some of a new recipe I tried," Sunny said, offering the travel dish. "It's a blackberry buckle."
"Thanks, I'll give it a try," she said, taking the dish and the little fork that came with it.
"I hope you like it," she said. "Um, I saw a bunch of people arguing on your blog, and they were all talking like Inky wasn't a part of the rainbow."
"Oh yes, that's why I decided to do this painting," Inky said. She shook her head. "They were arguing so much that I just want to tell them that who's right or wrong isn't important. Actually, there's a lot I want to tell them. I just don't want to seem like I'm lecturing, so I'm going to try with art. Maybe with a series of skits, if you all will help me."
"Of course, it sounds great," Rainbow said.
"If they spoke face to face, they wouldn't have argued like that," Sunny said. "But are you okay with them denying a seven color rainbow?"
"As long as their hearts believe in it, I don't mind if their minds believe otherwise," Inky said, then tried a bite of the buckle. "Hmm, this is very nice; I like the contrasts and subtleties of color and taste. You always do an excellent job, Sunny."
"Thanks," she said.
Just then, there was a shout of, "I got you!" from overhead. They looked up in time to see Fern leap off the edge of the cliff with something in her arms. They landed with a noisy splash in the pool at the waterfall's base.
Rainbow ran over to the edge of the pool immediately. "Fern! Are you okay?"
"Nyyoooooo!" something yowled.
"I'm fine," Fern said, releasing the odd cat in her arms. It hopped onto land as soon as it could, looking drenched and unhappy. "I'm sorry, kitty, I wasn't thinking."
The cat whined and held its head down. It was a very odd cat now that they had it sitting still, as its body resembled a flat pastry with light purple frosting on one side. But its head, legs, and tail were all of a blue cat with short fur. Although it was odd, it was cute too. "We can take you to the castle and dry you off there, kitty," Sunny said gently. "Want to come with us?"
"Yes, we'll help you," Rainbow said, holding her hands out to the cat.
The cat still wasn't happy, but it let Rainbow pick it up to bring over to the castle. Sunny fetched a towel while Inky got a bowl of milk for it. Once it was dry and had drank some, the cat purred once Fern petted it. "Nyao."
"I'm glad you're okay now," Fern said, smiling at it. "But phew, I got lucky to see you land. Why were you flying all over the place?"
"Nyan nyan nyan nyan!" the cat sang.
Heather came in while it was singing. "Oh, you found the cat," she said.
"Did you find out about it?" Sunny asked. "It's an odd cat, but it's very cheerful!"
"Once it was dry, yeah," Fern added.
Heather shifted her glasses. "Yes, I figured it out once I got the message that it was a cat. I'm still not sure if it's a magical cat or if it just does what it does, because this cat is an internet meme. Specifically, it's Nyancat. It flies in space while creating a rainbow, with the most popular version being to a Japanese song."
"Wow, what else can it do?" Rainbow asked.
"Um, that's it," Heather said. "It's still quite popular. I'm not sure how a meme gif turned into an actual Nyancat. Probably magic; we'll have to obsvere it for a few days to know more."
Rainbow nodded. "Well Nyancat makes rainbows, so it fits into Rainbow Land!"
"Nya!" Nyancat said.
Then Rainbow held a finger up to it. "But if you're going to live here, you ought to learn to make seven colored rainbows. Because in Rainbow Land, rainbows have seven colors."
"Nya?" Nyancat asked, tilting its head.
She tapped her belt, then made a seven colored rainbow appear between her hands. "Like this."
After thinking about it, Nyancat hopped into the air and flew in a circle. It still created a six colored rainbow. "Nyo…" it lamented as it landed back on the table.
"Maybe you need some Inky Star Sprinkles," Inky said, taking some from a pouch in her pocket. "I hope you get magic this way." She then sprinkled Nyancat with Inky.
Nyancat tried to catch one of the Sprinkles with its paws; the Sprinkles got absorbed instead, appearing like colored sugar on its frosting. When it flew around the room again, it caused a seven colored rainbow to follow it. The kids cheered and welcomed Nyancat as a new resident of Rainbow Land.
With the addition of Inky to its rainbows, Nyancat went on to spread cheer and color through the internet.
Sunny Yellow tried out a rainbow cake that had been suggested to her as she got comfortable with making other colors of baked goods again. It took a while to get one that looked right, but with some experimentation, she posted about improvements to the recipe to make sure the cake didn't collapse and had bright colors.
Inky the Inky Fairy posted a number of paintings of places around Rainbow Land to inspire people on Earth. Under her direction, the Color Kids began a podcast to encourage positivity, hope, and acceptance.
And that is another dream tale shared; I hope more dreams are inspired by it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a snack of a Poptart and tea.
