The Discordian's Daughter, Part 2

by Pumpkin Patch

Chapters

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7

Chapter 1

There was an eerie silence in the hospital as Twilight Sparkle made her way through it. It was very late in the evening. A majority of the staff had gone home and any inpatients were asleep behind locked doors. Thus, the hallways of the entire building were left mostly empty with nothing to see, let alone hear.

The hallway lights were still on, however, and Twilight had no trouble finding her way. Besides, the path she was on was one she had navigated many times now. She stayed on the first floor, making her way to the far back of the building.

Her destination was a small corridor that few ponies travel down. It was situated at the very end and to the left of another, much longer hallway and it often went completely unnoticed by patients and visitors alike. The doctors and other hospital staff members, however, knew this pathway very well, as well as the room it lead to.

Making a left at the end of the longer first hallway, Twilight came upon a set of large double doors that she was just as familiar with, doors shut and blocked by a solid steel beam. And, like every night, two of Princess Celestia’s soldiers stood by them, one on each side of the sealed entryway.

Twilight approached the guards. “Hi, Sharpeye! Hi, Javelin!” she greeted them.

Javelin, the guard on the righthand side of the door, widened his eyes. “Well hello, Ms. Sparkle!” he said pleasantly returning her greeting.

“Not used to seeing you here this late. What’s up?” asked Sharpeye.

“Oh this can’t wait any longer,” said Twilight. She tilted her head and directed the guards’ attention to the satchel she was carrying. “It’s ready,” she whispered excitedly.

“You don’t say!” exclaimed Javelin. He turned to his partner, “Let’s get these doors open!”

“You said it!” said Sharpeye.

“Would you two be able to follow me in just in case, you know, something happens?” asked Twilight humbly.

“Absolutely, Ms. Sparkle,” Javelin assured her as he and Sharpeye turned to face the doors they were guarding. “Trove and Whitehoof are on the other side as well.” He turned his head and looked Twilight in the eyes.  “You’re in good hands. You’ll be safe.”

Twilight returned his gaze. “That’s good to know. Thank you.”

Slowly and synchronously, the two guards lifted the heavy steel beam off of the ominous doors and set it aside. They then very cautiously pushed the doors open.

On the other side, the aforementioned other two guards, Trove and Whitehoof, were waiting.

“Oh, hello Twilight!” greeted Trove.

“Good Evening!” said Whitehoof. “What brings you to the Greenhouse at this hour?”

Behind Trove and Whitehoof was the room itself. It was enormous, closer to the size of a warehouse than a hospital unit. Perhaps more unusual, though, was the decor. The floor was coated with a green, well-maintained grass — yes, grass —and a plethora of trees and plants of all types were scattered throughout. It was the great outdoors captured inside four walls, and since one of those walls was transparent and showing a view of the beautiful countryside bordering the hospital, it was difficult to tell that this area was even indoors at all. That is why the hospital staff as well as the guards gave this curious room the nickname The Greenhouse.

Such an unusual room would likely have been a major attraction and source of notoriety for the hospital. However, there was one glaring problem with this place, a problem that made the hospital all but deny the room’s very existence: it’s occupant.

“That you, Smarty Mare?” a pony called out to Twilight, her head popping up from a bush a short distance away from the Greenhouse’s entrance. Even with her head fully exposed, she was still barely visible to her guest. Her body was a light green and her hair a darker green, perfectly blending in with the Greenhouse’s foliage. The darkness of the evening sky seeped through the room’s transparent wall and cloaked the pony even further. The only thing that gave her position away was the pair of large yellow eyes that were fixed on Twilight and the others.

        When Twilight’s eyes finally met the camouflaged pony’s, she jumped. However, she quickly regained her composure upon realizing who it was. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Willow, I really wish you would stop doing that.”

        Willow laughed as she emerged from the bush and approached her visitor, her long green hair dragging on the ground as she walked. “Mare, I would but that look on your face is always so priceless.”

        Twilight didn’t respond, but her facial expression was one of mild scowling.

        Willow cleared her throat. “So, you’re hangin’ here a little later than usual. What’s up?”

        Twilight’s scowl transformed into a smile. She lifted open the flap of the satchel that she was carrying. She then pulled out a small black box from the bag. “This is what’s up!” She answered enthusiastically as she levitated the black box over to Willow, stopping just shy of her face. She commanded the box to open in front of Willow’s eyes and reveal its sole contents.

It was a large collar, golden in color but otherwise very plain. It was sized just right for putting around a pony’s neck, a very specific pony’s neck.

“Mare, is-is this it?” Willow asked excitedly, “Is this what you’ve been workin’ on — the thing I’ve been waitin’ for?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Yup. This is it!”

Willow stared at it for a moment, then looked back up at Twilight with one eyebrow raised. “Looks tacky.”

        Twilight looked like she had just won second place at the science fair. “Oh no! Is it really!?” Quickly, she levitated the collar over out of the box and yanked back it towards herself, letting the box itself drop to the floor. She stared at it with wide open eyes while rotating it in the air anxiously in every direction possible. “I-I tried! I’m so sorry! Maybe I should have had Rarity touch it up a bit..”

        Willow put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Chill, mare. It’s all good,” she said while chuckling. “After all this time, I wanna know more about its function than its fashion.”

        Twilight continued to stare at the evidently tacky piece of jewelry floating in front of her, but at least the rotations had slowed. “Well, I wish I could say that I know it’ll work, but I’ve never made anything like this before. I don’t think anypony has.”

        Willow’s mouth bared its tiny smile. “If anypony can do it it’s you, smarty mare,”

        Twilight returned Willow’s smile. “Thanks. And yes, let’s stay positive. If this does work, you’ll be yourself as long as you have it on. You’ll be able to leave the hospital, to finally live a normal life!”

        “I can dig that,” said Willow. She shook her head and let out a small giggle,  “Mare, can I ever dig that!”

        “I know it’s been hard for you, Willow,” said Twilight consolingly. “You’ve been in here a very long time.”

Willow nodded. She paused, then blurted out, “Well, what’re we waitin’ for!?” As quickly as Twilight had ever seen her move, Willow reached out and snatched the collar out of the air. She shook her head to get her hair out of the way and began to wrap the golden piece of jewelry around her neck.

As it neared her throat, the collar lit up like a faint glowstick and sparks of magical power could be seen dancing around it. Twilight smiled. The collar’s magic was reacting.

But suddenly, there was a loud, screeching voice yelling “No!” and the green pony thrusted the collar into the air. It landed somewhere out of sight amongst the Greenhouse’s brush.

The guards tightened their stances and Twilight jumped as her jaw dropped at the Willow’s unexpected behavior. Her eyes tried to follow the collar in the air, but soon lost sight of it among the trees and plants. They quickly turned their attention back to the pony that had thrown it. She gasped.

The pony’s eyes had turned a hot white and the pupils had vanished. The color of both her mane and body had darkened. Her teeth had changed from flat to jagged and were being displayed inside a wide, malicious grin.  

“Nice. Try. Nerd!” the pony taunted in a sharp, piercing voice. It was as loud as it was screechy.

Twilight backed up against the nearest wall. “D-Despise!” she cried, trembling.

“Time to finish my circus act!” Despise quipped. Then she charged towards the cornered unicorn.

The guards returned the demented pony’s charge. Javelin moved directly in front of her to protect Twilight, but Despise drove through him like a battering ram. However, the impact with the guard slowed her down just enough for the other three. Quickly, each guard grabbed the leg of Despise closest to him and held onto it with all his strength. Javelin, springing to his hooves joined them and grabbed the final flailing limb. Despise let out one glass-shattering scream after another as four of Celestia’s finest wrestled her to the ground.

Javelin turned his head towards Twilight, who was still pinning herself to the wall nearest the double doors. “Ms. Sparkle! Go! Now!” he shouted.

Twilight didn’t move at first. She stood frozen in her defensive position, her teeth clenched and her eyes shifting back and forth. Then suddenly, the look of fear on her face began to give way. Her eyebrows lowered and her trembling settled. She pulled herself away from the wall and marched deliberately to the double doors.

Javelin’s eyes stayed fixed on Twilight as he continued to help the others hold Despise down. As soon as Twilight turned to face the double doors from where they had entered, the soldier’s face showed a small hint of relief.

        But then Twilight’s horn lit up and the two doors flew back into position, slamming themselves shut. The sound of a large metal object being placed on doors’ hooks could be heard coming from the other side.

        “Ms. Sparkle! What are you doing? Get out of here!” Javelin pleaded to the now locked-in unicorn.

        Twilight turned around and looked the guard calling out to her in the eyes. “No! This ends now!”

        Twilight’s horn lit up and a long purple beam shot out of it, pointing at the far left corner of the room. Then it started moving, creeping over the Greenhouse’s flora like a shadow. It passed over Despise still struggling to free herself of the guards and continued on to the opposite side of the room. When it had almost reached the far wall, the beam of lavender light stopped and aligned itself with one particular bush.

        “There you are,” said Twilight to herself.

        She raised her head and forced the beam coming from her horn upward. The bush it had settled on shaked and rustled as if something inside it was trying to escape. Then, once the ray of magic light had cleared the bush, that something was revealed. It was the collar. Twilight wrapped the magic beam around the shining object and began to pull it towards herself.

        But then Despise let out an even louder, more blood-curdling scream and Twilight’s focus was broken as Whitehoof’s body flew past her line of vision in the air and landed on the ground like a thrown rock. With her concentration shattered, the beam of light from her horn disappeared and the collar fell back to the ground, landing right beside the bush Twilight had just pulled it from.

Almost simultaneously she heard the sounds of three other large ponies being slammed into the dirt. Twilight nervously turned her eyes back to the spot where the guards first were, and where Despise still was. Her eyes widened. Despise was free and standing upright now, her glaring eyes and vicious grin aimed directly at Twilight. However, even that demonic face could not compare to the horror that was hovering above it.

The hairs of Despise’s mane were floating above her head, as though she were underwater. The hairs grew longer and longer as they swayed like the waves of a flame. The hairs of her tail joined those of her mane in the swaying. Despise’s long, dark green hair was dancing in the air, almost as if it were...living.

Twilight began to shiver as Despise at last spoke a single word, “Run…”

A strand of the floating hair formed itself into a spike and launched at Twilight, stretching itself to cover the distance. Twilight jumped out of the way at the last the second. The hair stabbed the wall behind her which shook with the impact. Then another strand shot out, forcing Twilight to dodge again. Despise’s hair continued the assault, firing strand after strand like a barrage of arrows. The blades cut through any plant life that stood in its path, including the trees. Twilight was managing to stay unscathed, but it wasn’t easy.

Several seconds and countless dodges later, Twilight’s legs could take no more. Her movements slowed and one strand of hair finally made contact. Nicking her on the shoulder while in mid-jump with a powerful force, the sharp extension sent Twilight flying through the air. Her body flipped twice before hitting the ground with a loud thud.

 Struggling to get back to her feet after the hit, Twilight lifted her head and looked in Despise’s direction. Her eyes widened as she saw one last piece of hair coming straight towards her face. Instinctively she closed her eyes, as if that would somehow soften the blow.

But the blow never came. Less than a hoof’s length in front of Twilight, Whitehoof jumped in front of the projectile and blocked it. The collision dented his armor and sent him flying towards the ground once again.

“Run, Ms. Sparkle!” a voice yelled from across the room. Twilight’s eyes shifted and she saw the three other guards back on their hooves and closing in on Despise’s position. The very second she laid eyes on them though, Despise’s tail stretched out and wrapped itself around Sharpeye and hoisted him into the air.

        There wasn’t much time. With all the strength left in her, Twilight dashed straight towards the collar, which was still lying next to the bush she had found it in. Despise screamed as three more strands shot out in Twilight’s direction at once. They missed, but only just and Twilight was not about to stop running. As soon as she was in range of the collar she lowered her neck and scooped it up in her mouth, all while never ceasing to move her hooves.

        Despise whipped her tail with the captured guard still in it and sent him flying into the furthest wall, which he hit with the force of a cannon ball. Trove tried to grab her hind legs while the tail was distracted, but he only got kicked in the face and was immediately knocked down. Javelin made a leap aimed at tackling Despise from the torso, but Despise turned her head towards him and opened her mouth, catching him by his head with her teeth. The razor-sharp teeth sank into his helmet puncturing it and crushing it at the same time. Then she spat him out like an unsavory carrot and sent him to join Javelin on the farthest wall.

        The distractions gone, Despise leaped into the air and came down directly in front of Twilight. Twilight collided with Despise’s right leg and fell back onto the ground. The collar fell out of her mouth and landed about a hoof’s length to her left. She tried to reach for it, but a large wall of green hair came crashing down right in front of the collar and blocked it off.

        Twilight turned her head back to see Despise grinning down at her. “That collar is tacky,” she sneered, “and so. are. you!” She fashioned a strand of hair from each of her bangs into two enormous needles and aimed both of them at Twilight's head. She reared them back. Twilight began to tremble.

        “Stop!” yelled a voice from across the room. Despise paused her attack and looked up. It was Javelin. He was standing upright, albeit with shaky legs, near the doorway, his helmet still half-crushed. His eyes were locked onto Despise, with a look that was void of fear.

        Despise laughed with a cackle as piercing as metal scraping glass. “What did you just say?” she taunted.

        Twilight got up, turned around and headed straight towards the guard challenging the demented pony. While her pace was quick, she kept her head low and her hoofsteps soft, attempting to avoid regaining the attention of the now distracted creature.

        As she approached the guard, she noticed something that she hadn’t before. On the ground, near the doors and right where Javelin was standing was a small round button. It could easily have passed for a pebble to the casual observer.

        The guard lifted his hoof. “In the name of Princess Celestia, I command you to stop!” he declared. He moved his hoof into position over the button and then forced it down.

        A loud whirring sound could be heard, like working of a large machine. Despise’s eyes suddenly widened and her head twitched back and forth, “No! No! Noooo!” she screamed.

        As Despise cried out, Twilight noticed two cone-shaped metal devices lower from the ceiling, one on each corner of the wall to her right. She looked to the left and saw two identical objects appear on the opposite wall as well. Before Despise could even stop screaming, they lit up like light bulbs.

        Suddenly, the hairs of Despise’s mane and tail were split down the middle and pulled in two different directions as if fillies were using them for tug-of-war. Despise started screaming. Her hairs were then all stretched until they became straight. Finally, the different parts of her hair were lifted upward, taking their host with them. Despise was now hovering a few hooves off the ground. She continued her blood-curdling screams as she writhed in the air, trying to escape from the nonexistent strings that hung her.

        Twilight stared in amazement at the incapacitated creature while Javelin continued to look on with resolve. Eventually, the two turned their heads to face each other. The guard smiled. “She’s all yours, Ms. Sparkle.”

        With no further hesitation, Twilight lit up her horn and her magic connected once again with the collar. She levitated it over and upward, aligning it with the neck of the struggling Despise. She looked into Despise’s eyes, “The show’s over,” she said.  And with that she fired the collar straight at Despise faster than any of the projectiles Despise had shot at her. In the blink of an eye the collar was wrapped around the wailing monster’s neck and Twilight sent one final command with her magic that closed the collar and locked it in place.

        There was a nearly blinding flash of white light as Despise let out one last primal scream, a scream that still echoed well after it had been silenced. Once the flash cleared, Twilight and the guard could see that the pony suspended in the room was now completely still and quiet. Her eyes were closed and her hooves were dangling like wind chimes, though her hair was still stretched.

        Twilight and Javelin waited several seconds, but eventually Javelin pressed the button on the floor again and the four cone-shaped devices all went dim. The green pony’s body fell to the floor as the cones retracted into the ceiling. The pony’s long green hair covered her like a deflated parachute.

        Twilight started to make a step toward the large mass of vine-like hair, but then hesitated. “Is-is everypony else alright?” she asked aloud.

        Slowly and staggeringly, Sharpeye, Trove, and Whitehoof each arose one by one. All of them appeared to be fine, save for the limp in their walk as they approached Twilight. Trove was holding his head.

        Once the five of them regrouped, they slowly crept towards and then gathered around the green mound now splayed on the floor. Everypony stared down at it in silence.

        Twilight ignited her horn and its magic began to slowly sift through the hair on the floor. She parted it very delicately, like Rarity on the mane of a very important client. Eventually though, Twilight did uncover the head of the pony the hair was attached to.

        The collar was still around the green pony’s neck and still snapped together firmly. The pony’s eyes were closed and she looked to be sleeping peacefully. There was no sign of malice anymore.

        Twilight decided to get a little closer. She walked forward, stepping onto part of the scattered hair now in order to get nearer to the face that was now jutting out of it. Once she was right next to it, she bowed her head down and squinted her eyes to examine it better.

        Then the eyes opened and the head yanked up. “Ah! What happened!?” Willow screamed

        Willow raising her head caused the hair that Twilight was standing on to lift up with it. Twilight tumbled backwards as if a rug had been pulled out from under her. Her backside collided with the Greenhouse’s floor. “Willow!” Twilight shouted angrily once she caught her breath.

        “Woah, oops!” exclaimed Willow, “I swear that one wasn’t on purpose, Smarty Mare.”

        Twilight got back up onto her hooves and dusted herself off.

        Willow looked around and saw the four guards surrounding her. She saw that all of them were injured, and staring very contemptuously at her.

        Willow’s eyes widened, “Oh, oh no. It happened again, didn’t it?”

        “Yes,” said Twilight emphatically, “it did.”

        Willow’s lower lip began to curl. She lowered her head and her eyes met the collar around her neck. “So..it-it didn’t work…?”

        Twilight smiled, “Are you kidding? It worked great!”

        Willow’s expression suddenly flipped. “Wha...!?”

        “Well, Despise really didn’t want us to put it on, but once we got it on, she was finished!”

        The Greenhouse’s sole resident jittered as her draw dropped. “This-this is-far...out!” Willow shouted joyously.

Quickly, she turned around and ran to the nearest bush and plucked a leaf out of it. Then, she went over to a palm tree and yanked off a second leaf from it with her teeth. After that, she ran over to the maple tree and snapped a leaf off of it as well.

Twilight raised one eyebrow, “Uh, Willow, what are you doing?”

Willow, now some distance from Twilight gently laid the leaves that were in her mouth on the ground and turned to look at her inquirer. “I’m nabbin’ all my favorite greens. After that, I. Am. Out, mare!”

“Whoah, slow down there,” commanded Twilight.

“Why? What’s up?” asked Willow.

“Well, whether or not this means you get to leave the Greenhouse isn’t my decision, it’s Princess Celestia’s. We have to get her permission before we can release you.”

The guards all nodded in agreement.

Willow stood frozen for a moment at this news, then slowly lowered her head. “Mare, you really know how to kill a pony’s buzz, ya know?”

“I’m just telling you the truth,” said Twilight plainly as she walked over to the now-gloomy pony. She put her hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll check out with the Princess. Besides, she can probably be here tomorrow so you won’t have to wait long.”

Willow sighed. “Okay,” she consented. Then, her spirits audibly lifted, “Okay! I’ll chill in this pad for one more night, then I’m hittin’ the road!”

“That’s the spirit!” encouraged Twilight.

After some talk, Twilight mentioned that it was getting late and she should be leaving. A proud Twilight and a hopeful Willow said their goodbyes and the four guards escorted Twilight out of the Greenhouse.

Once they were outside, Twilight and Willow waved goodbye to each other as two of the guards shut the doors between them. Twilight could vaguely hear Willow saying something to the effect of “No hard feelings?” to the two remaining guards.

As soon as they were closed and the steel bar replaced, Twilight turned to her escorts.

“So I gather that’s the ‘anti-Despise’ security system you two were telling me about?”

“Yup,” said Sharpeye, “Pretty cool, huh?”

        “It sure is,” agreed Twilight.

        “I just wish we could’ve used it from the beginning,” said Javelin. “but it takes all of the hospital’s power while it’s on. Our orders are to not use it unless there’s no other choice.”

“I see,” said Twilight before she changed the subject. “Have-have you ever seen Despise suddenly appear like that?”

“No, Ms. Sparkle,” said Javelin in a tone that conveyed his own astonishment. “Willow normally goes into that trance state first.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Twilight. “That has me really concerned.”

Sharpeye shrugged. “Well, I think it may be a good sign.”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“Well, Despise came out faster because she knew that collar meant trouble. She was scared to death of it. I think that thing was her Achilles’ Hoof and she knew it.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Twilight.

Chapter 2

That night Willow got even less sleep than the guards assigned to watch her. As the Moon made its way across the sky, Willow bounced all over the room, tidying up each and every plant and clearing the walkways of any and all dust or debris. She adjusted nearly every branch of every tree, as if each individual leaf was a fancy bowtie that had to be just so.

Willow’s unusual amount of energy served as a source of amusement for Trove and Whitehoof all the way until their relief came early the next morning. The daytime guards traded places with Whitehoof and Trove as well as Javelin and Sharpeye who were keeping watch on the outside. The four night guards bid Willow good night and wished her the best of luck with Princess Celestia, should she ever show.

Willow stopped her Spring cleaning of her very Spring-like accommodations only enough to bid them farewell and then she immediately resumed her self-assigned chores. Eventually, the only thing that looked messy in the entire room was the pony cleaning it up.

It had been so long since Willow had combed her mane that whether or not she would even remember how was debatable. Her tail and body were in even worse shape. Frayed hairs and knots abounded in addition to the dirty ends that had been dragging on the ground. There were also more than a few locks that were strained from being stepped on or tripped over by their owner. Such acts of clumsiness were very common to Willow, especially throughout this night.

Every once in a while in her panicked effort to beautify the already aesthetically-pleasing Greenhouse, Willow would stop and try to fix up some of her mane’s imperfections. However, these moments were always cut off immediately when her wandering eyes spotted yet another plant that bothered her in some way. At such a sight, she would instantly drop whatever beauty ritual she was attempting to start and rush towards the offending flora.

These many halted attempts at self-grooming in addition to running around the room like Pinkie Pie on expresso resulted in the Greenhouse looking more and more beautiful and its caretaker looking less and less so.

It wasn’t until well after the Sun became clearly visible through the transparent wall that Willow began grooming herself in earnest. She pulled at every knot, straightened every lock, and cleaned off every end. Granted, she had more success with some parts than others.

One knot in particular though, located halfway down her elongated right bang, became a particular obsession. She yanked at it with her teeth as hard as she could and pulled it in every direction possible, but it just wouldn’t budge. After countless vain attempts and several amused giggles from the onlooking guards, Willow assumed a battle-ready stance and took a deep breath. She stared intently and at the knot dangling just below her face like it was a mortal enemy. Then, like a cat pouncing on a mouse, she lunged at it and locked the knot in a death grip between her jaws.

Unfortunately, locking on to her own hair with such force while lowering her head so quickly caused her rear hooves to lift off the ground. Her body flipped into the air and sent her crashing down onto her back, her hair enveloping her. Willow now laid on the floor covered in hair, looking very much like a poorly-wound ball of yarn. She couldn’t see which guard was laughing.

However, the laughing stopped abruptly and it was instantly replaced with some very different noises coming from outside the doors. The Greenhouse’s watchmen stepped away in opposite directions in anticipation of the incoming party. Once the two external guards had finished pushing the doors open, the two internal ones faced the entrance and kneeled.

Princess Celestia held her head upright and her face straight as she gracefully stepped over the threshold. Once she was completely in the Greenhouse, the guards returned to their hooves. The Princess’s eyes scoured the room.

Not seeing what she expected, the Princess inquired aloud “Where...is Willow?”

“Um, I think she’s that wad of hair on the ground,” said another voice.

A single yellow eye popped out of the green mess. As soon as it confirmed the source of the second voice, Willow sprang to her hooves and shook the hair out of her face. “Smarty mare! You’re here!”

Twilight was standing right behind the Princess. “Long time, no see, huh Willow?” she joked.

        “Yeah,” said Willow, chuckling.

        “Well, I see you’ve been, um, active,” observed Twilight.

        “Huh? Oh yeah!” said Willow eagerly. “I was just, uh, ya know, tidyin’ up ma’ pad,”

        Twilight smirked, “Looks like it was a lot of work for you.”

        Willow’s eyes widened. She quickly reached up and felt her hair. There were still knots all over the place, and they were now joined with new hairs that were now standing up when they weren’t supposed to.

        “Uh, um, yeah. This is, uh, my new groove. Ya dig it?” Willow asked with an ill-confident expression as some loose hairs visibly bobbed up and down.

        The Princess chuckled, “It’s alright, Willow. This isn’t the Grand Galloping Gala,” said the regal and well-groomed alicorn.

        Willow jumped back, as if just now noticing that Celestia was there.

        “And what a relief that is. I’m in no shape for it!” declared yet another voice.

Rarity came into view in the entryway. At first glance, she looked like her usual well-maintained self, but closer examination revealed that a great deal of haste had been applied to her appearance. Her makeup job lacked its usual precision and some parts of her routine had obviously been skipped entirely. Then there were her eyes, which were struggling to stay half opened.

        “Oh, uh, hey there, Fancy mare!” greeted Willow with some hesitation. “You, uh, have a busy night too?”

Rarity was slow to respond. “Pardon? Oh, well, not at all, dear. It’s just that one isn’t usually awoken at this ghastly hour by a Princess and a purple Unicorn.” Her sentence was punctuated by a long, loud yawn. “I am glad to see you again, though.”

Willow smiled. “Me too, mare. Sorry, I didn’t mean for Smarty mare to drag you out of bed.”

Twilight laughed, “No, that’s all me. I just thought it would be nice if all of us were here. This could be a big day for you.”

“Uh, all of us?” inquired Willow.

“You heard ‘er right!” said another pony, this one with a familiar accent.

Entering the room just behind Rarity was Applejack, trotting at a pace that made the former pony’s stride look like a full gallop. She bared a smile at Willow as their eyes made contact, but she was having difficulties holding it up.

But while Applejack was busy holding up her face, Willow heard repeated grunts and groans coming from the hallway that sounded like somepony trying to hold up something much heavier.

The heaving revealed itself to be coming from Rainbow Dash as she very slowly and awkwardly hovered into Willow’s view. Her eyes and teeth were clenched and her entire body was strained. She was carrying a heavy object in her forelegs and she was nearly at her limit for doing so.

        That object was Fluttershy, who was fast asleep.

        As soon as the others made room, Rainbow Dash placed Fluttershy on the ground. Or rather, she just let the unconscious Pegasus slip out of her hooves.

        Flutteshy hit the floor with a thud. The impact woke her up, but much more gradually than expected. She took her time getting up, stretching and yawning in the process, as though she was simply continuing where she left off from her bed that morning.

        When her eyes finally opened, they quickly widened, “Oh, Willow!  Um, aren’t you supposed to be at the Hospital?”

        “We are at the hospital!” said Rainbow Dash loudly, “I’ve been carrying you since the train station!”

        “Oh, um, that wasn’t a dream?” asked Fluttershy timidly.

        The confident smile on Twilight’s face had been slowly eroding as her friends entered the room. Finally, she released it completely and sighed. “I’m sorry Willow. I thought everypony would be more excited.”

        “We are, Twilight, we are,” said Applejack right before letting out another yawn. “We’re just still wakin’ up is all.”

        “And I didn’t even try Spike,” added Twilight.

        Willow laughed, “Well, I don’t know what y’all’s deal is. I’ve been up all night and I’m still groovy!”

        “Me too!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she lunged at Willow out of complete nowhere and hugged her to the ground.

        “Ow!” exclaimed Willow while laughing at the same time. “Hey there, Funny mare!” Pinkie’s embrace tightened. Willow let out a suffocating cough, “Uh, you can leggo now.” Pinkie quickly obliged and Willow returned to her hooves.

        Stepping back, Willow saw how many ponies had come out to see her. She smiled. “Thanks, everypony, for real. Thanks fer comin’ out. It really helps with ma’ vibes.”

        “Hey! Now what did I tell you about talking like that?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically.

        “Heh, sorry Awesome mare, er, Rainbow,” Willow said correcting herself. Rainbow Dash had been meeting with her on occasion to discuss how to talk like “the cool ponies.” The pony from another era still wasn’t quite in the habit.

        Willow turned to Princess Celestia. “So...whattaya think of the new necklace, uh, yer highness?” she asked as she stuck her neck out to make the collar more visible.

        “...It looks fashionable at least,” replied the Princess hesitantly.

        “You don’t have to lie,” said Twilight.

        Celestia laughed. “Well what’s important is that it does what it is meant to do.” The Princess glanced behind at the doorway, “Where is Luna?”

        “I am here, sister,” Princess Luna called out as she came into everypony’s view. She had been dragging her hooves even more so than the others. Granted, she looked more regal doing it. “Forgive me, I am not accustomed to staying awake this late.”

        “Whoah, I don’t think I’ve seen you before,” said Willow greeting her latest guest.

        “This is Princess Luna. She watches over the night as I the day,” explained Princess Celestia.

        “Far out,” remarked Willow.

        Luna suddenly let out a groan. “‘Far out?’ It is true what my sister has told me, then. You are certainly one of them.”

        “Uh, one of who?” asked Willow.

        “You were a Discordian before, were you not?” said Luna. She sighed, “They all spoke like that, very uncouth they were.”

        “Sister!” Celestia shouted indignantly.

        Luna closed her eyes and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry — Willow, is it? — I meant no offense.”

        “None taken, Spooky mare,” said Willow accepting the dark Alicorn’s apology. Luna might have subtly rolled her eyes.

        Princess Celestia turned to her sister. “Well, shall we begin?”

        “Yes,” Luna confirmed.

        “Uh, begin wha?” asked Willow with a raised eyebrow.

        “We are going to perform a little test on you, Willow,” Celestia explained, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything and it won’t hurt.” The Princess turned to the other ponies in the room. “We need all of you to stand back,” she declared.

        The six ponies obeyed, albeit some more quickly than others.

        Princess Luna stepped forward and stood next to her sister. Willow’s eyes closed, her head sank and her teeth clenched as she prepared for a test she knew nothing about. The Princesses closed their eyes and each of their horns lit.

        Within seconds, beams of light shot out of the horns, a blue light from Celestia’s and a purple from Luna’s. As soon as the lights connected with Willow’s head, a white canopy of magic spread out from the point of contact and engulfed the green pony’s entire body.

        The two sisters held their lights steadily for several seconds. Eventually, Willow opened her eyes. Her body began to loosen. Princess Celestia hadn’t lied to her. There was no pain.

        The Princesses focused their magic onto Willow for only a minute or two longer before their horns went dark and Willow was freed from their aura. Celestia and Luna opened their eyes and looked at each other. A strange silence followed, as if neither was sure if she should speak.

        Willow, very cautiously broke that silence, “Uh...so what’s the story?”

        Princess Celestia turned her head to Willow, then turned it to the others. “Could you please give us a moment in private?” Without waiting for a response. she and Luna separated from the other seven ponies and walked towards the other side of the Greenhouse. They stopped only after they were out of earshot of everypony else.

        Willow and others could no longer hear the two royal ponies speak, but all of their eyes were fixed on the sisters’ lip movements. Not everypony can read lips, though.

        “Uh, whattaya make of it, Smarty mare?” Willow whispered to Twilight.

        “I-I can’t tell from here,” Twilight admitted.

        “Do-do you think it’s bad?” asked Willow.

        “Don’t worry, Willow,” Twilight assured the shaky pony, “It’s just a serious decision and they need to make sure they get it right.”

        Twilight and Willow fell silent again and rejoined the others in watching Celestia and Luna. Neither Alicorn’s face showed any emotion. They were focused and serious, as if strategizing for an important battle. However, while certain ponies may have thought that the conversation lasted a lifetime, the Princesses’ discussion was in reality very brief.

        After Princess Luna and Princess Celestia finished their private talk, they returned to the other ponies. The six other guests backed up towards the doorway to make room for them while Willow backed up in the opposite direction. The two Alicorns walked directly in front of Willow and slowly turned to face her.

        Willow didn’t speak to them, although her gaping mouth suggested that she wanted to. She was frozen in place, her eyes wide open and gazing at her judges.

        Those judges briefly looked at each other, nonverbally asking each other to start, but then switched back to facing the subject of their discussion.

        “Willow,’ began Princess Celestia, “We have decided that you will not be released this day.”

        Heavy gasps could be heard coming from all ponies in the room.

        Willow looked like she was melting. Her body instantly sank, her head bowed and the disheveled hair on her head dripped to the ground.

        Twilight spoke up, “What’s wrong?” she asked Princess Celestia. “Is the collar not strong enough?”

        “I don’t know, Twilight.” said Princess Celestia plainly.

        “And that’s precisely why we cannot authorize her release,” Princess Luna added.

        “Our test was inconclusive,” Celestia continued, “Neither of us detected any dark power per se, but her life energy is still...very strange, volatile.”

        “I have never sensed anything like it before,” commented Luna.

        Willow’s shoulders were visibly twitching and while her head was obscured by her vine-like hair, the sounds of her sniffling made clear her feelings.

        Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack gathered around her. Rarity and Fluttershy each put a hoof on one of Willow’s shoulders. Twilight stood in front of her with her head bowed.

        “I’m so sorry, Willow,” Twilight offered, “I know how much you were looking forward to this.”

        “Don’t ya’ll fret none, though,” added Applejack, “this ain’t the end. Princess Celestia just needs more time.” She looked up at the two sisters, “...that right?”

        “That is correct,” Luna acknowledged.

        “Yes. I simply don’t feel comfortable enough letting her go at this time,” said Princess Celestia. “She only received the collar last night and I’m unable to tell if it solves her problem completely. I feel —,” she paused, then continued, “— I feel that she should stay confined a while longer, this time with the collar on. If there are no further incidents, then I will deem it safe to release her.”

        “Um, how long were you thinking, Princess Celestia?” asked Fluttershy gently.

        Celestia and Luna looked at each other briefly, then turned back to their inquirer. “30 days,” said Luna.

        “Did you hear that, darling?” asked Rarity, her hoof still on Willow’s shoulder. “You only have to wait 30 more days. You’ve already been cooped up here far longer. You could handle that little more, couldn’t you?”

        The sniffling coming from underneath Willow’s green hair slowed. “I...guess so..,” she stammered.

        “That’s the spirit!” encouraged Twilight. “That’s no time at all! It’ll be over before you know it.”

        “Ooo! Can we make it 27 days?” blurted out Pinkie Pie at the two Alicorns.

        “Why 27, Pinkie Pie?” asked Celestia.

        “Because that’s the day of the Canterlot Garden Gallop!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It would be a super-awesome way to celebrate her coming-out-of-the-Greenhouse!”

        Princess Celestia smiled. “I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose it would. Very well, 27 days!”

        “Woo-hoo!” shouted Pinkie Pie as bounced in place repeatedly

        “Wait wait..” said Willow as she regained her composure and shook the hair out of her face, “the Garden Gallow? That don’t sound too groovy.”

        “Willow!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

        “Uh, cool,” said Willow, correcting herself once again.

        “No! the Garden Gallop, silly!” said Pinkie to Willow while still bouncing up and down on a nonexistent trampoline.

        “It’s a mighty nice parade,” explained Applejack, “All of the Canterlot gardenin’ and flower shops make floats outta their stock and show ‘em off to everypony. The Apple family is helpin’ out with the Fruit House’s float, uh, naturally I guess.”

        “Am I’m tending to the float for Lady Flora’s Flower Boutique.” added Rarity.

        “I’m working on the float for Graceful’s Greenery,” declared Fluttershy.

        “You don’t say,” said Willow, “That sounds like somethin’ I could wrap with you on!”

        “Oh, um, I don’t know…” Fluttershy stammered, “Have you ever arranged greenery before?”

        Willow smirked, “You trippin’, Critter mare? Did you notice the Greenhouse this morn’?”

        Fluttershy looked around the room. “It’s...very pretty here,” she admitted.

        “That’s ‘cuz I was up all night dressin’ ‘er up!” Willow boasted.

        “Oh my! Well, I guess that’ll do,” conceded Fluttershy. She smiled at Willow, but then, she backpedaled, “Oh, but how are you going to work on it while you’re stuck here?”

        Willow thought for a moment, then turned to Princess Celestia, “Is there any way Critter mare and I can set up shop here, at least during the day or somethin’?”

        The Princess pondered for a moment herself, then answered “I suppose that could work as long as the guards were here.”

        “Far out!” said Willow. She turned back to Fluttershy and winked. “Maybe it’ll give us more time to work on our Rain Forest idea.”

        Fluttershy smiled and nodded.

        “That’s great!” said Twilight to Willow, “Maybe this way 27 days won’t seem so long since you’ll have something to do.”

        “That’s what I figured,” said Willow, “Hey, speakin’ of which, whatta ya’ll doin’ for the parade?”

        “Well, I’m a little too busy to work on a float,” Twilight explained, “but I am helping plan the parade route.”

        “And I’m doing what Pegusi do best,” said Rainbow Dash, “keeping the skies clear!”

        “Groov—er, uh, awesome!” said Willow, catching herself once again almost uttering one of Rainbow Dash’s forbidden words.

        Then, out of the corner of her eye, Willow spotted another pony that had been strangely quiet this whole time. She turned her head and looked at Pinkie Pie.“Uh, do I wanna ask what you’re workin’ on for the parade?”

        “Chocolate!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she pulled a chocolate figurine of a pony out of thin air. “I’m doing the float for Merry’s Marvelous Malts!”

        Willow raised an eyebrow, “Uh, don’t sound like it jives with the theme. I thought the parade was about flowers n’ plants ‘n stuff.”

        “Coco’s a plant!” declared Pinkie Pie.

        “Hmmm, touché, Funny mare,” Willow conceded.

        The ponies continued in conversation for some time, but eventually the talk came to a lull and each pony realized that she had matters to attend to. They all said their goodbyes to Willow and Fluttershy told her that she would talk to her later about the details of their project.

        Soon, the party of eight ponies exited the room and the guards shut the double doors behind them. While the six citizens of Ponyville lead the way towards the hospital’s exit, Princesses Luna and Celestia trailed a few steps behind.

        “What if she knows?” asked Princess Luna.

        “What do you mean?” Princesss Celestia asked in reply.

        “What if Despise is still inside Willow and is aware of what you just told her?” said Luna. “She could simply wait 27 days and then overtake Willow as soon as we release her.”

        “According to everypony who’s dealt with Despise,” explained Celestia, “she’s nothing but a mindless brute. I don’t think she would be clever enough to plan something like that. I believe that Despise will emerge the moment she is able.”

        “If she’s even still inside Willow at all,” added Luna.

        “Indeed,” said Celestia. “Hopefully, Twilight’s collar has performed its task and Despise is only a bad dream now.”

        As they neared the exit of the hospital, Princess Luna looked contemplative. “A bad dream…” she muttered.

Chapter 3

Nothing in the room was very eye-catching. The walls were an empty white and the floor was plain, gray stone. There was an old stove sitting behind the counter at the front of the room, but it was colorless and dull as was the rest of the kitchenware around it. The only other object in the room was a butter churn.

At least, that was the only other object Willow could see. Her eyes had been scouring the room for some time now, but they were no closer to their goal of getting their owner’s bearings.

The fact that it was so dark was of no assistance. What little Willow could see was thanks only to the faint bluish moonlight that was leaking in from the outside through various tiny cracks in the walls and ceiling.

“Uh, hello?” she called out, hoping to get assistance from some unseen pony nearby. The only response, however, was silence. This place, wherever it was, was so quiet that making any sound at all felt disrespectful.

Willow’s eyes eventually landed on a portrait hanging on the wall to her left. Starved for information on her own whereabouts, she walked towards it to get a better look. Once there, she noticed that the painter hadn’t picked a very exciting pose for his subject. It was just a plain view of an old gray pony from the shoulders up. He had a blonde mane that was starting to fade and he wore bifocals in front of his big yellow eyes. A red sweater vest covered his torso. His smile was small and a little crooked, as if he wasn’t sure if he should be smiling.

Upon seeing this, Willow’s own facial expression was more one of bewilderment. The portrait gave her no concrete answers as to where she was, but at the same time there was a certain…familiarity to it. And soon, that sense familiarity spread to her thoughts of the room itself as well. Had she been here before?

Willow turned her head to the left to observe the side of the room previously out of her vision. It was just as plain. However, one piece of furniture caught her eye: right behind the point where she started was a wooden china cabinet. Inside the cabinet there was some gold — or at least gold-painted — china. Willow felt drawn to it, as if it were a road sign made to guide her.

She walked over to her latest discovery, her eyes never blinking. Her sense of deja vu gradually narrowed as she approached. At first, the cabinet in general seemed familiar. Then, a specific shelf stuck out to her. Finally, her senses locked on to one particular teapot on that same shelf.

Willow stared at the teapot. Before long, she felt an instinctive urge to pull the spout of the teapot like a lever. After pulling it towards herself a few degrees, there was a loud click.

The floor immediately began to shake and Willow quickly backed away. She stopped her backtracking only after she saw the source of the rumbling. A large square piece of the stone floor started sliding back into the wall with a loud grinding noise. After it had opened as far as it could go, the vibrations ceased, ending with another loud click.

Willow had no way of knowing if the strange process had actually stopped or merely paused. She stood frozen in place for what seemed like minutes. Nothing else happened. The eerie silence had resumed.

Cautiously, Willow crept up to the opening in the floor that the sliding stone had left behind and peered down it. It had revealed a staircase, a staircase which lead down into another room. Willow couldn’t see much of this room from where she was standing, but she could see that it was faintly lit by something other than moonlight, possibly a candle.

Her common sense was warning her about going even deeper to a place only vaguely familiar, but then there was that continuing sense of deja vu that had only grown stronger since she touched the teapot. Ignoring caution, Willow stepped forward and made her way down the stairs.

The room it lead to was a small but nonetheless odd. The floor, the ceiling, and everything in between was coated in bright, clashing colors. Part of one of the walls was red, the next part orange, and the part beyond that pink. The stone floor was painted seemingly at random with streaks of blue, magenta, peach, neon green and various other shades. There was no clear pattern for anything. Colors simply started and stopped at whatever point they wished as if the room’s painter did his job blindfolded.

Willow’s senses were just as much of a mess. On one hoof, this room was bizarre and ominous to her. On the other, it also felt like...home.

Willow decided to move forward and survey the room. It was rectangular in shape, with bookshelves lining both of the longer walls. Small end tables were placed beside each of the shelves. On these end tables were beakers, vials, and burners, many of which were filled with unknown fluids.

        However, all of that seemed to vanish once Willow caught a glimpse of the object on the far back wall. It was a large glass tube, twice as tall and wide as her. The tube was mounted in between two pedestals, one on the ceiling and one on the floor. It was filled with a murky light blue substance which moved unlike anything Willow had seen ever before, at least to her recollection. It didn’t flow like liquid, but it didn’t puff like vapor. It was somewhere in between.

        Willow crept closer to the strange container. Her eyes squinted, as if that would somehow clarify what she was looking at. Once she was right next to it, she decided that sight alone wasn’t enough. With a trembling hoof, she reached out and touched the glass.

        The instant her hoof made contact, a dark purple fog came swirling out from the middle of the tube. It grew larger and larger, swiftly consuming the blue chemical around it. Within seconds, it was the only thing inside the container.

        Startled, Willow backed away from the tube while keeping her eyes fixed on it. However, it wasn’t long before she broke her gaze entirely, turned around and galloped for her life.

        In the middle of the glass chamber, two glowing white eyes appeared along with a wide mischievous grin, all attached to a nonexistent face in the purple cloud.

        That cloud leaked from the tube as cracks rapidly produced on its glass surface. The sound of each crack sent a jolt through Willow’s heard and made her double her efforts to get to the staircase. Once there, she began her ascent back to the main floor.

        But all she found was a ceiling. The way back was blocked. Willow’s eyes widened and she instinctively began pounding on the ceiling. It was no use, though.

        Then Willow froze as a bloodcurdling, high-pitched cackle came from the back of the room. It was followed immediately by the sound of the tube’s glass completely giving way, shattering into a thousand pieces.

        Willow turned around and saw the demonic face charging straight at her, carried by the dark purple mist from which it had emerged. Unable to run any further, Willow dove down under it. The cloud was only a few hooves in length and she cleared it quickly, but her hair still had time to feel its ice cold mass as she passed.

        Once she was through, Willow rose to her hooves and ran in the opposite direction of her attacker. However, she only made it a short distance before she once again tripped over her own hair and was forced back onto the ground.

        Willow turned around to face her adversary. It didn’t charge at her this time. The evil face was still hovering in its purple fog near the staircase. However, the dark cloud was contorting, trying to change its shape.

        Within seconds, the shape it was trying to create was made clear. Four pillars of smoke stretched out from the center, forming four pony legs. Some mist pushed the grinning face forward and formed into a pony’s neck and head. Then, some of the fog shot out on the opposite side, forming a tail. And finally, extensions shot out from the top of the newly-formed neck and head, forming a semblance of a mane. The mane and the tail splintered themselves into multiple strands of smokey hair that all swayed wildly like flags caught in a storm. The rest of the body convulsed as well, as if the cloud was struggling to maintain this new form.

        The phantom pony leered down at Willow. “Nice to finally meet you, Willow,” it mockingly greeted its prey with its screechy voice.

Willow immediately returned to her hooves and resumed running. She dashed away as fast as she could and went as far as she could. But since the only way out of the room was blocked and in the opposite direction, that wasn’t very far. She ended up at the corner of the room furthest from her pursuer.  The flight option not available, her fight reflex took over. Instinctively, she turned around and assumed the stance of a cornered cat. However, her noticeable trembling and the look of sheer terror on her face rendered her primitive intimidation tactic ineffective.

        The trembling of her body extended to her voice, “Wha-wha-whaddaya want with me, mare?”

        “Nothing much,” said the apparition, “just your body...All.To.Myself!”

        Several extensions of the creature’s ghostly hair stretched out and shot at Willow like harpoons. Reflexively, Willow covered her head with her hooves. Her hair drifted into place, covering her completely, as if desperately trying to protect its owner.

        She braced for impact... but the impact never came. Right when it should have hit, Willow heard a loud, bellowing sound, like a powerful gust of wind. The sound traveled in the opposite direction, towards her attacker. The creature let out a short but piercing scream of pain.

        Willow released her head from her hooves and pushed the hair out of her face. Her eyes widened as she saw in front of her a tall, dark mare facing away from her. She bore both the wings of a Pegasus and the horn of a Unicorn. Her mane was long, blue, and sparkled with the stars of the night. Her cutie mark was that of the very moon itself.

        Willow recognized her immediately. “Spooky mare!”

        “My name is Luna,” said the Princess sternly.

        “You stay out of this!” screamed the apparition.

        “No! You stay out of her!” Luna commanded.

        The ghostly creature grinned, “...make me!”

        The creature shot it’s faux hair extensions out at Luna faster than any arrow. Luna lit up her horn and whipped her head from side to side. A beam of light followed her swaying horn and cut through the monster’s projectiles like a sword. The apparition jumped back, stunned. Luna then fired a beam of light directly at the center of the creature’s cloudy mass. There was a small explosion and the ghostly mass shrieked as it’s pony-shaped body unraveled. It was once again nothing but a cloud of smoke attached to an angry face.

        That face gritted its pseudo teeth, narrowed its eyes, then charged itself head-on at Luna. The Princess lit up her horn once again and it emitted a blue light, not dissimilar from the one she had used on Willow at the Greenhouse. It captured and enveloped the evil mist right before it made contact with its owner, forming a magical shell around the dark cloud and suspending it in the air. The creature screamed and is struggled to break free.

        Luna called out to Willow. “Child, go, now!”

        “But the exit is blocked,” said Willow.

        “Not anymore,” declared Luna.

        Willow looked over to at the stairway. She could see a faint light at the top where there once was only the shadow of the ceiling.

        She asked no further questions. As fast as she could Willow rose to her hooves and bolted towards the top of the stairs. Her head had cleared the stairway when she heard a shattering sound coming from the room below, but this time it was definitely not glass.

Willow looked down the stairs she had just walked up and saw Luna running towards her.

“Go! Now!” she was yelling.

        Behind Luna, Willow could see the room slowly being filled up by a very familiar purple smoke. She once again obeyed Luna’s command and ran.

        As soon as she was clear of the stairs, Willow made a right towards the first door she saw . She pushed it open without breaking stride and made her way to outside.

        Willow had been so focused on escaping that it took her a few moments to notice that she was now running on...nothing. Outside of the mysterious place she had just escaped from, there was nothing but a black empty abyss. There was no ground, no sky, no nothing. Behind her stood the door she had opened to escape, but it wasn’t attached to anything. It was just a solitary door standing upright in the middle of the darkness.

        Soon, however, Willow heard a shout coming from that door.

“Halt, Willow!” cried Luna.

        The shout broke Willow’s concentration and she tripped over her hair again. She fell to the ground, or at least the empty space directly below her. Quickly recovering and standing up again, Willow turned around and faced the only other visible object in this space.        

Luna was flying out of the door and heading straight towards her. She could see dark smoke filling up the doorway. The place behind the door was slowly growing as black as the place outside of it.

        Luna flew passed Willow, then turned and landed right next to her. The Princess’s horn lit up and just as the darkness was crossing the threshold, her magic connected with the door and slammed it shut. Then the magic coursing through Luna’s horn changed color and the door was instantly covered in countless white sparks. The sparks grew larger and larger until they all exploded in unison. The door disintegrated.

        Now there was literally nothing besides the two ponies in this black, featureless void. The tall, dark one turned her head towards the shorter, greener one.

        “Are you all right, Willow?” Luna asked calmly.

        Willow was still recovering from the chase. “You tell me!” she managed to reply in between bouts of heavy breathing. “I think I’m trippin’,” she added.

        “You have tripped several times, yes,” said Luna.

        “Not what I meant, mare,” said Willow. “I mean, like, where are we?”

        “I suppose the most accurate answer is your mind,” Luna explained, “This is a dream.”

        Willow’s heavy breathing slowed, “So I am trippin’ then. Far out. Well, I feel way better now. So, uh, are you like a figment of my imagination or somethin’?”

        “Not quite,” said Luna, “I am very real. It is my duty to watch over the dreams of all ponies in Equestria.”

        “For real, mare?” said Willow with raised eyebrows, “No offense, but that’s...kinda freaky.”

        “You have no idea,” said Luna flatly.

        Willow laughed, “I guess it ain’t all sunshine and flowers for you, either.”

        “Absolutely not. I see the good dreams,” said Luna as her eyes focused on the spot where the door used to be, “and the bad ones as well.”

        “I guess I oughtta thank you for rescuing me from that whatever-it-was,” Willow said sincerely.

        “What you saw was Despise,” explained Luna.

        “That’s the thing that came outta me!?” exclaimed Willow.

        “Well, that was its spirit, yes,” said Luna.

        “Whoah,” Willow said as she hung her head, “I can see why ponies were scared.”

        “You needn’t feel guilty,” said Luna, her tone remaining as dry as it had been. “This creature was not of your making.”

        Willow’s head remained hung, but she nodded slowly. She stood silent for a moment, then asked “So..is it splitsville now?”

        “No, it’s still a dream,” replied Luna.

        Willow sighed, “Is that...that thing gone?”

        “No,” answered Luna.”I have managed to weaken it, but I still sense its presence.” She turned her body to face Willow completely.Willow followed suit. “Which is why, I am sad to say, I will have to tell my sister that the collar Twilight made  is not sufficient.”

        Willow started, “But-but...this is just a dream, right? I mean, it-it can’t get out...can it?”

        Luna spoke as calmly as she could, “I do not know, Willow. Despise is weak now, but in time her strength could return.”

        “But what if it don’t? Am-am I just gonna stay held up forever? I-I can’t live like this!” Willow moved in so close to Luna that their noses were nearly touching. “Can...can you just let this one slide? Ya know, not tell your sister?”

        “You know I cannot do that,” said Luna firmly.

        “Please!” Willow begged, “I can’t take this anymore, mare! We’ll-we’ll just keep it on the low and if something else happens, you can tell her then!”

        Luna stood silent for a moment. She stared Willow directly in the eyes. The desperate pony’s eyes were soaked in water and even her eyebrows were shaking. Luna bowed her head and the silence continued. Then, at long last the Princess spoke, “Very well. I will not inform my sister this time.”

        Willow’s exhale was so long that she may have been in danger of deflating. “Thank you Spooky mare! Thank you!” she exclaimed with palpable relief.

        Luna’s gaze was still fixed unwaveringly at Willow’s eyes. “Know this, though,” she said sternly, “I will be keeping a very close eye on your dreams. If Despise emerges again, I must inform Celestia…”

Chapter 4

        Luna’s words echoed in Willow’s head every single night. If Despise ever appeared again in Willow’s dreams, Luna would know and she would be forced to inform her sister of the potential threat. That would likely mean Willow having to stay imprisoned in the Greenhouse for a much longer time, perhaps indefinitely.

        And even if Luna was not aware if and when Despise re-emerged, Willow would be forced to deal with the spiteful mare’s ghost on her own.

It was unclear which scenario was worse, but it didn’t matter now. Either way, sleeping for Willow was very difficult. There were some nights where the troubled pony couldn’t sleep at all and on the nights when she could her slumber was light and short at best.

The sound of the doors to the Greenhouse opening previously filled Willow with an eagerness to see what visitor would walk through them. In her current state, however, it was just irritating.

Fortunately, the sound she heard immediately after the doors open was far more pleasant. "Um, are you there, Willow?" said the most gentle of voices.

Willow looked like she had been snapped out of a trance. Her mouth was curling upwards as she answered the soft calling, "Right over here, Critter mare!"

Fluttershy turned her head left and right, but couldn't seem to find the pony she was looking for. "Um...over where?"

Now that she was fully alert again, Willow realized that she had been staring blankly at the view outside the Greenhouse's transparent wall. This meant that her back was facing the entrance, a back that was covered in vine-like green hair. Quickly, Willow whipped her head around. "Over here!" she declared.

Fluttershy started a little as a lump of disheveled greenery turned around and looked her right in the eyes, but she quickly shook it off and walked over to her camouflaged companion.

"So, we ready to jam?" asked Willow.

"Yes we are!" said Fluttershy with an usual confidence.

There was a pause as Willow tilted her head to the left and to the right, trying to see around her visitor. Her expression turned curious when she saw that Fluttershy had just brought herself and nothing else.

"Uh... Aren't we gonna need some, ya know, stuff to cut plants with or something to dress up plants, er...?"

Fluttershy smiled. "Oh, that's coming."

And ss soon as her current guest said so, Willow heard a familiar pattern of grunts and groans coming from the hallway. She looked towards the door. There, slowly and awkwardly coming into view was Rainbow Dash, carrying yet another object too heavy for her. At least this time, however, it wasn't another pony. Instead it was a very large but otherwise nondescript wooden crate.

It was clearly taking the same toll on its carrier as a certain pony did, however. Rainbow Dash looked like she may pull a muscle. She was descending rapidly to the ground as she crossed the threshold, eager to the place the box on the ground.

"Halt!" the guard to the left of the door yelled out suddenly. "What do you bring with you? You may not set it down here!" he said insistently.

Rainbow Dash, now hovering mere inches off the ground and still clinging to her cargo, made an attempt to answer the guard. Unfortunately, she was too strained to think or speak and all that came out of her mouth was "hhhnnnnnggggg..."

Fluttershy perked up and turned around. "Oh! It's okay," she said to the guard as she walked over to the barely-hovering box, I have a note from the Princess right he— " She cut her own statement short once she reached the box and didn't see what she was looking for pinned to the side of it that she thought it was on. She then moved to another side of the box. It was bare also. Her eyebrows raised slightly. "Um, Rainbow, is Princess Celestia's letter on top there with you?"

"Hhhhhnnnnggggg....," replied Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy circled around to a third side of the box and once again came up empty. However, on the final side she checked, the one facing the guard, she found what she was after. It was a small piece of parchment with hoofwriting on it so tiny that it was nearly invisible from even a short distance away. What was clearly visible on it, however, was a large hoofprint firmly pressed into the lower-right corner.

Fluttershy unpinned the note from the box and brought it over to the guard. The room was silent as the guard read the note, save of course for the groans of agony coming from Rainbow Dash.

Eventually though, the guard nodded his head, "Well, this is her Majesty's writing and her seal." He looked up at Fluttershy's one-pony delivery team, "You may lower the crate."

Rainbow Dash disobeyed slightly, choosing instead to drop the box like an anvil and collapse on top of it. Her gasping made her sound like she was just rescued from drowning.

The guard handed the Princess's letter of approval back to Fluttershy, who then walked back towards Willow. Willow met her halfway and took the princess's letter from her.

Willow briefly skimmed the document. "Didn't know this was all official n' stuff," she commented.

"Oh, it's not really," said Fluttershy, "I just asked the Princess for permission to make sure it wouldn't be a problem."

Rainbow Dash let out a louder, much longer groan that drew everypony's attention.

"I...I guess it's a good thing I did," said Fluttershy looking at the very winded Pegasus resting on top of the wooden box.

"Why did you have Awesome mare do all the liftin'?" asked Willow.

"Well, um...she volunteered," answered Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash rolled off the box and toppled onto the floor, landing on her back. In between several heavy breaths she managed to raise one hoof into the air, cry "No problem!" and then let her hoof collapse back onto the ground.

Chapter 5

        Once again it was dark, but Willow could still see clearly all the way down the cobblestone road in front of her. The street was lit by several lampposts evenly placed along each side of it. Also, many of the surrounding buildings had windows facing the road and some of them had the amber glow of candles shining out from them. The collective result was a dark street softly illuminated by warm, gentle light.

        Also gentle was the breeze flowing through Willow’s hair. It was cool yet not frigid, windy yet not blustering. The air carried on it the scent of autumn, as if colored leaves had littered the ground just earlier that day and were gingerly swept away by a good-natured groundskeeper.

        Willow decided that she would walk down this road, despite having no clear objective for doing so. The further along she went, the more sounds she could hear coming from the buildings on either side. Most of them were faint and muffled by the walls that separated their sources from the road, but Willow could clearly make out the crackling of lit fireplaces and the clanking of kitchenware.

Every once in a while, Willow could hear voices as well. She could never make out what they were saying, but the tones ranged from nonchalant to friendly and upbeat. Willow could even hear laughter in some cases.

Still, there was no indication that any of these unseen ponies were aware of Willow’s presence and there was nopony on the street itself either. It was empty for as far as Willow could see.

With nopony else in sight, she was left to her own thoughts. Those thoughts latched themselves onto the peculiar designs of the buildings in this town. While each of them looked charming and cozy in its own right, each they also seemed antiquated and primitive. Everything was made of wood and most of that wood was less-than-expertly crafted. Each construction had more than a few splintered pieces and some were so crooked that it was miraculous they were still standing. It was as if the ponies living or working in each structure had built it themselves, whether they had cutie marks for carpentry or not.

In any case, they were clearly confident enough in their own works that they chose to stay inside them this night. To Willow that seemed a poor choice. The temperature was comfortable and the breeze was refreshing. Additionally, there was the beautiful sight that Willows eyes had just connected with. The moon was hanging overhead, its reflected light natural and assuring.

However, Willow’s eyes also spotted something strange in front of the moon. It was a tiny black dot, or at least it started that way. It grew rapidly, until it was a large dark shadow. Soon, it was obvious that it wasn’t growing physically, but rather growing closer. It started to take a more descript shape and Willow could see the legs, body and face of a pony. This pony had a horn on its head, as well as two very large wings. As it drew nearer, its colors shown, though they were not much brighter than the darkness they had emerged from.

The pony was close enough now that Willow could confirm it was Luna. The Alicorn glided towards Willow, descending closer to the ground as she went. Finally, the Princess of the Night flew just over Willow’s head, turned around behind her and then gently landed by her side. She so gracefully switched between flying and walking when her hooves touched the ground that Willow didn’t even notice that it happened.

“Are you aware that you are dreaming again?” Luna asked the traveling pony.

Willow started slightly, “I...I guess I am now.”

“It is all right,” said Luna, “Most ponies do not realize when they are dreaming.”

“I guess seeing you should’ve been my first clue,” said Willow.

Luna’s mouth curled upward slightly, “I suppose so.”

The two continued down the road in silence. Neither of them looked at each other. Occasionally Willow’s walk staggered a little and Luna’s march forward was far too rigid to be comfortable.

At long last, Luna made an attempt to break the ice. “So...do you recognize this place?” she asked her long-haired companion.

“Nope,” said Willow plainly, “Never seen any digs like these.”

“Strange,” said Luna, “Typically, ponies’ dreams are made up of their memories.”

“I ain’t got no memories,” Willow reminded the Princess, “At least nuthin’ from before I got out of that tube thingy.”

“Hmmm, well this quaint little town would certainly have been an earlier memory than that,” remarked Luna.

“Whattaya mean?” asked Willow. “Ya know this place?”

“I cannot identify the exact town but it looks like one of the original Equestrian settlements. There were many places like this when my sister and I first began our rule.” recalled Princess Luna.

“Far out,” said Willow.

“What is far out?” asked Luna, “I see nothing in the distance.”

Willow sighed, “Never mind.”

“I apologize,” said Luna. “Is this ‘far out’ another one of your Discordian idioms?”

Willow shrugged, “Beats me. That’s just how I wrap.”

“What are you wrapping?” asked Luna.

Willow groaned.

Luna started, “Oh my. I did it again. I am sorry. I was raised to speak in the traditional Canterlot voice. I am not well-versed in these lower forms of speech.”

“Lower, huh?” said Willow grimly.

Luna started again, “Oh, well, that is to say, er, commoner speech.”

“Not much better,” Willow remarked plainly.

Luna hung her head. Willow said no more. The awkward silence resumed. Eventually, however, it was broken again, this time by Willow.

“So...any clue why I’m dreamin’ ‘bout really old places?” she asked her traveling partner.

“I am not sure, but—” Luna stopped her sentence and her eyes widened. “Willow! Look out!”

The Princess shoved Willow out of the way as a streak of purple smoke shot past them like a flaming arrow. Willow, caught completely off-guard by Luna’s shove, was still lying in a heap of hair on the road when she felt the projectile narrowly scrape the top of her head. It did her no harm, but it certainly grabbed her attention.

“Whoah! What was that!?” she exclaimed as she yanked herself off the ground, trying desperately to get her hair out of her eyes. Before she could complete that task, however, Luna pinned her down once again. She heard the whoosh of another streak of smoke passing above her and Luna.

“Stand still, you coward!” Luna demanded as her horn lit up and she arose from protecting her companion.

From the far opposite side of the street, the purple mist came shooting back towards Willow and Luna. This time, though, it stopped directly in front of them. Now that it was still, its glowing disembodied eyes were leering at the two ponies. The unnaturally wide mouth was smiling with demented glee.

“Okay, now what!?” Despise snapped rhetorically, “C’mon. What’re you gonna do?”

As soon as the phantom pony uttered the last word of her sentence, Luna fired a beam of light from her horn. Her aim was accurate, but the living cloud sidestepped it at the last second. Luna corrected her aim and fired again. The mist sidestepped it again. Luna aimed one more time, this time emitting a succession of three light blasts. Suddenly, Despise split her ghostly form into two pieces, each one with a copy of her malicious-looking face. Luna’s barrage of magic sailed between them, missing completely.

Then each of the two copies of Despise’s cloudy form split again, making four. Willow, now standing upright with her eyes cleared of hair, saw her multiplied attacker and gaped. Instinctively, she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

“Willow! Come back!” yelled Luna as she chased her.

Once Willow’s back was turned, the four dark purple clouds shot out into four separate directions, each going through a different alleyway among the nearest buildings.

Unaware of this, Willow made a right and turned down a different alley. She was galloping as fast as she could, but she was too panicked to avoid her unfortunate habit of tripping over her own hair. She landed face-first on the ground at the end of the alley, right before it met with another alley that led behind the buildings.

Willow struggled to get to her feet, an action that was quickened by screeching sound of Despise’s scream. It was coming from the back alley she was facing. As soon as she was stable, Willow took off in the opposite direction, the one she had just came from.

As she approached the main street again, though, she was met by another Despise turning the corner and heading straight for her. In a repeat performance from her previous nightmare, Willow dove and slid underneath the charging phantom. She resumed running as soon as she was clear of it.

She chose to turn right again and resume galloping down the main road. However, out from an alleyway a few hooves in front of her and to her left, another streak of dark purple wearing an evil grin darted out, made a sharp right turn and headed straight for her. Willow pushed her hooves forward in an attempted to stop herself, but she saw it was too late. The collision was imminent.

As soon as she closed her eyes and braced herself, though, she heard a loud clang in front of her along with a grunt from her approaching adversary. She looked up and saw a strange blue light spanning her view. It was transparent and through it she could see her misty attacker falling backwards, as if she had been deflected.

Willow whipped her head around and saw Luna approaching her swiftly with her horn lit. “Stay close to me, Willow!” commanded the Princess.

Willow obeyed without hesitation. She rushed towards Luna and got as close to her side as she could get, almost literally under her wing. She turned back to face the street she had attempted to run down. Now she could see that the blue transparent light she saw was part of a wall of magic the Princess had set up to protect her.

It wouldn’t be enough, though. Willow’s ears picked up the sounds of another living projectile coming from the opposite direction. Almost as soon as she heard it, Luna turned around and formed another wall of magic behind her and Despise’s prey. It formed so quickly that the self-aware missile had no time to react. It too collided with the barrier.

But then another came from the side. Luna put up another shield. Then, one came from above, raining down like a meteor. Luna sent yet another magical wall — or rather, ceiling — in to the air.

Her timing was perfect. Willow’s final two attackers couldn’t keep from bouncing off the barriers like misguided birds off a clean window. But then, each of the four apparitions doubled back and launched themselves again. Right in the middle of their charges, each of them split in two. The number assailants was now eight.

Quickly, Luna canceled the four barriers she had put in place and shot a beam of magic straight above her and Willow. It rapidly opened up and spread around them, forming a dome that touched the ground. All eight of Despise’s copies collided with the magical bubble and deflected upwards to the sky.

“Dang!” exclaimed Willow. “You’re pretty good at this, Spooky mare!”

“It has less to do with my skill,” said Luna, “and more to do with the incompetence of the enemy.”

Willow looked up at the sky beyond the transparent shield and spotted the eight ghostly projectiles, still traveling upward. Each of their trajectories was angled and they eventually collided with each other. The collision produced a loud crashing sound like the clap of thunder and flash of light more blinding than any streak of lightning. It forced Willow’s eyes to close.

While her eyes were shut, Willow’s ears were still at attention. However, they picked up nothing. The noise of the collision above her had dissipated and all that was left was silence. Her body relaxed as she opened her eyes once again. She returned her gaze to the sky and saw no sign of her attacker. The green pony bowed her head and let out a long exhale.

But then a new sound emerged from the point of impact. It started as a low rumble, but quickly grew into a earth-shaking roar. Willow looked up once again. She gasped. A single, dark purple cloud wearing that same old demented face was firing itself straight down at her and Luna. It was larger than any of the previous eight, as if they had all combined and compounded into one.

Luna clearly saw it as well and despite still being protected by her own magical shield ducked. Willow followed suit.

As soon as the cloudy meteor hit the shield, there was another explosion. Luna and Willow were both blown clear as the barrier of blue light shattered like glass.

Both ponies landed hard on the cobblestone several hooves away. Willow tried to get up, but she struggled. Luna, on the other hand, stood up immediately. She turned her head and saw Despise’s latest form still very much active. In fact, it was barreling straight towards them at full speed.

Quickly, Luna levitated Willow onto her back, spread her wings and took flight. Willow wrapped her forelegs around Luna’s neck and held tightly. It wasn’t long before they were soaring through the air, passing the lampposts and eventually the buildings themselves. As they ascended, Willow could see the bay area just outside of this evidently coastal town. It wasn’t long before Luna was directly over the water and Willow could see a reflexion of the moon itself in it. The sight made her tilt her head upward to look at the moon directly. It was closer and larger than she had ever seen it before.

A scream coming from behind drew Willow’s attention away from the scenery. She turned her head around and saw Despise still giving chase, launching herself into the air like a firework. Luna was maintaining her distance, but the malicious creature was picking up speed.

“Hold tight, Willow!” commanded Luna.

Willow clenched her legs around the Princess’ neck as Luna made a tight right turn, eventually turning her and her passenger completely around to face the town they had just escaped. Luna stopped and hovered in the air, her eyes fixed on the incoming enemy.

Despise continued to charge into the sky directly at her and Willow. Luna lit up her horn. The spark at its tip grew bigger and bigger as the Alicorn channeled more magic into it. It kept growing and growing as Despise flew closer and closer. Soon the spark on Luna’s head was a large as a boulder and Despise was so close that she could have easily swallowed both Luna and Willow. She was screaming with a wail so piercing that Willow felt like she was being scratched with bear claws. She buried her head in Luna’s back and braced herself.

        Right before Luna and Despise made physical contact, Luna released the enormous spark of magic from her horn. The spark hit Despise right in the middle of her demonic face. There was a deafening explosion punctuated by Despise’s cry of agony and huge burst of white light covered the entire field of vision. And despite not being on the ground, Willow was certain that she felt an earthquake.

        However, within a few seconds, all was silent again. Willow cautiously lifted her head up from Luna’s back. She saw absolutely nothing — no town, no Despise, no water. There was nothing save for Luna a very familiar empty blackness. She also noticed that Luna was no longer flying, but standing on a nonexistent ground.

        It took a few seconds for everything to register, but eventually Willow grasped Luna’s neck once again, this time in a hug.

        “Thank you, Spooky mare!” shouted Willow to Luna as she were across the room.

        Luna bowed her head and produced a timid smile. “You are quite welcome, my child.”

        Willow slid off of the Alicorn’s back and joined her on-hoof. “So...ya think we got her this time?”

        Luna briefly stood still and closed her eyes before answering. “I no longer sense her presence.”

        “Far. Out!” Willow said ecstatically. “So am I free? Can I go now?”

        “Not quite,” said Luna, “I still want to observe you for the remainder of the 27-day period that was discussed.”

        “Aw, mare!” pouted Willow.

        “Despise was clearly much stronger in this dream than she was in your previous one,” explained Luna, “and just because I no longer sense her does not mean that she is destroyed. She could simply have been severely weakened.”

        Luna then put her hoof on the clearly disappointed pony’s shoulder. “However, I feel far more confident this time that Despise is finished. I have decided that I will once again not inform my sister.”

        Willow smiled at her rescuer. “You know, you’re actually pretty groovy for a Princess.”

        Luna's smile was cautious. “Why, er, thank you. I am...glad that you believe I am full of grooves.”

        Willow groaned.

Chapter 6

“So...do-do you think it looks okay?” asked Fluttershy timidly.

        “Oh, you need to stop being so modest,” said Rarity, “It looks absolutely marvelous!”

        “Yeah, um, it looks very...green!” Spike remarked while scratching his head.

        “Really, Spike?” said Applejack through a raised eyebrow “Is that all you can say about it? I only wish my family’s float for the Fruit House was comin’ along this nice!”

        Fluttershy had mentioned to her friends earlier this day that she thought the float her and Willow were working on for Graceful’s Greenery was “almost done, um, I guess,” and that was enough to make them want to go to the Greenhouse to see it for themselves. Fluttershy may have protested, but if she did it was too quietly so for the other ponies to hear.

        Still, any hesitation on Fluttershy’s part was proving unwarranted. Applejack and Rarity’s mouths were both gaping at the sight of the parade float. Spike’s expression was much less dramatic, but it was far from a scowl.

        The float was comprised mostly of a beige foam. However, the foam had been sculpted to resemble the clay used in flower pots, and very expertly so. It even had imitation cracks and chips in it.

        The base of it was a simple flat platform, but stacked on top of it was a smaller platform pushed into the middle, giving the impression of a stair step. A pot was placed in each corner of the base and in each pot was planted a different type of bush or small tree. The smaller upper platform had two additional potted plants placed on the back of it, distanced from their lower-level kin just enough to make them stand out.

        However, the biggest attraction was in the absolute middle of the second platform. It was a gigantic pot, taller than a pony even if that pony were standing next to it. Planted inside this pot were two large bushes and those bushes were trimmed into two larger-than-life pony sculptures. The green leafy statues were waving in opposite directions with clearly visible smiles cut into their faces.

        “I certainly agree with Applejack,” Rarity remarked, “How in Equestria did you and Willow make this all by yourselves, and without magic no less?”

        “Um, well, Willow did most of the work, actually” said Fluttershy as she pointed her hoof at the green pony standing on the lower platform that looked almost like an additional decoration.

        “Nah, critter mare did plenty,” rebutted Willow in a noticeably louder voice. She then pointed at the two pony sculptures behind her. “Of course, I did do these two by myself!”

        “Whoah, that’s...pretty cool, actually!” said Spike.

        “No kiddin!” said Applejack. “Have the Graceful’s seen this yet?”

        “Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Graceful were here just yesterday.” Fluttershy explained.

        “And? What did they say, darling?” asked Rarity.

        It took a few seconds for Fluttershy to answer “Um, well, they said that—”

        “— We totally blew their minds, mare,” Willow interrupted confidently.

        “Yeah, something like that,” Fluttershy quietly agreed.

        Applejack chuckled, “You’re somethin’ else, Fluttershy.”

        “Indeed,” said Rarity. “It’s a good thing Rainbow Dash isn’t here, or you would get another earful on self-confidence.”

        “Yeah, and then I would say something ‘not cool’ and get an earful too,” Willow added. “Where is awesome mare, anyway?”

        “Her and Twilight are at the parade committee together,” Spike explained, “I think they’re finalizing the parade route.”

        “It’s almost time, ain’t it?” said Willow.

        “Sure is,” said Applejack. “And that means Celestia’s almost ready to let you outta this fancy jail cell, ain’t it?”

        “Uh, right,” said Willow hesitantly.

        Her hesitation was not unnoticed by Rarity. “Is something wrong, dear? I would think you would be more excited about that prospect.”

        “Uh, er, I am fancy mare,” answered Willow as she reached up and touched the collar around her neck, “I’m just, uh, a little beat after this workin’. Yeah...that’s it…”

        Suddenly, Pinkie Pie bursted into the room wearing a giant malt ball carton with Merry’s Marvelous Malts written on it and screaming “I. Love. Chocolate!”

Chapter 7

        It was once again night. Stars were all Willow could see when looked up at the black sky. She lowered her gaze to view the ground and she saw only grass. There was no empty house or cobblestone path this time. It was simply a large, grassy plain that stretched indefinitely in all directions with only a few small hills scattered throughout.

        The wind was once again cool and calm. It gently brushed through Willow’s excessive mane, allowing it to sway in unison with the grass on which she stood. She was tempted not to move at all and instead simply lie down and let her mind drift with the breeze.

        However, there was one curiosity that kept her from giving in to this environment’s seduction. There was a scent that traveled this gentle wind and it was a scent that felt very out-of-place to Willow. It was the smell of smoke and fire. It was faint to be sure, but potent enough in Willow’s mind to warrant investigation.

        Willow followed her nose try find the source of the burning odor. She walked around in circles, trying to narrow down a direction. She circled several times, each time widening the radius of her search. Then finally, she found the point where the odor was stronger in one direction than any other. She followed it to the East.

        Willow’s sense of smell lead her to climb a small nearby hill. As she climbed it, another of her senses was stimulated: her ears. They picked up a few vaguely melodic noises produced by unknown instruments, like a band tuning up before a concert. More curious though, were the occasional voices of ponies.  

Once Willow reached the top and she could see the other side of it, she no longer had to rely on her nose or her ears. The sources of both sight and smell were right before her eyes.

        There, in a small valley a short distance from the hill, was a campfire. It was still burning bright and releasing billows of smoke into the air. Willow, even at her distance, could still faintly feel its inviting warmth.

        However, there were five other ponies here who were much closer to the fire. Four logs surrounded the flame and on each one sat at least one pony, with one log supporting two. The two ponies that were sharing a log, one a stallion and another a mare, were engaged in a casual conversation with another that was sitting by himself. The remaining two ponies chimed in on occasion, but for the most part they were busy fiddling with their instruments — one of them had a guitar while the other a harmonica.

        From where Willow was standing, the scene looked very quaint and friendly. Still she remained cautious as she crept closer. There was still no way of telling how this group of campers would react to her presence.

        That is, if they reacted at all. The one male pony who was facing Willow’s direction kept turning his head and several times his eyes passed right by her. Yet he had no response. It was true that Willow’s body and hair were both as green as the hills around her, but the light from the campfire gave her a shadow and her presence should have been obvious. However, the group of camping ponies didn’t even acknowledge that she was there.

        Willow’s eyebrows raised. She stopped moving forward and decided to see if the ponies before her were not as deaf as they were blind. “Uh, Yo, everypony?” she blurted out. While her greeting was awkward and somewhat timid, she was certain it was loud enough to be heard.

        But once again, there was no reaction. The ponies carried on chatting and fiddling with their instruments as if Willow was nothing but another gentle wind blowing against the fire.

        She decided to get a little bolder. She walked straight up to the nearest pony, the one with the guitar who was facing away from her, and tapped him repeatedly on the back. Nothing.

        However, Willow did notice something through her attempts to touch the pony. It felt as though her hoof wasn’t actually making contact with him. In fact, she could have sworn that it had actually passed through him slightly. She was so sure of it that it made her inspect her hoof. There was nothing out of ordinary about it, so the difference must have been the pony himself.

        There was only one way to confirm it. Willow aligned herself with the back of the unsuspecting pony, reared back, and lunged at him full force. And at the point of impact...there was no impact. Willow’s body passed through him and landed head-first into the fire in front of him. Before she could scream in horror, though, she noticed that neither the flames nor the coals and wood they were emerging from burned her. The fire felt the same as the wind, gentle and painless.

        Willow stood up in the middle of the bonfire and looked around. Once again, there was no reaction from the crowd. The ponies’ evening carried on uninterrupted. Willow’s face resumed carrying a bewildered expression, but only momentarily. It was soon wiped clean by a shrug of the shoulders. Deciding to simply surrender to the madness around her, Willow brushed her hair out of her face and made her way to the log where the stallion and mare were sitting together.

        Having given up on her quest to make sense of anything, Willow's mind was now free to fully analyze the five other ponies around her. She noticed that two features were common among them: a laid-back, lazy demeanor and a long, disheveled mane.

        Other than that, each pony was unique. The one strumming randomly on his guitar was orange with a dark brown mane. His partner on harmonica was red and his mane a solid purple. The single across the bonfire from Willow was yellow, had an orange mane, and was noticeably more heavyset than the others.

        Then there was the couple that Willow shared a seat with. The mare's body was a familiar aqua-green color, though it was accompanied by a less familiar blue hair with white streaks running through it. She was clearly comfortable sitting very close to the stallion next to her, a stallion who was gray, had a blonde mane, and sported a pair of tiny, purple tinted spectacles.

        "So anyway, that's what I think it all means," said the heavyset pony sitting across from the couple, "You wrap with me, sister?"

        The mare of the couple closed her eyes, "Hmmm...dunno, that's not the vibe I'm getting sugar."

        "Really?" said the yellow pony in a raspy voice, "How 'bout you, doc?"

        "I sorta get your jive, but this ain't really my bag," said the stallion of the couple, "You'd best lend her your ear, brother."

        "Yeah, he's just the Doc," said the mare as she stroked the gray pony's mane, "He just makes the potions. I make the predictions. And I think you're groovin' in the wrong direction with this..."

        The strange ponies' conversation had Willow's attention, though it might have been mostly from their vocabulary. To date, she knew of no other pony besides herself who spoke that way. She wondered how frustrated Rainbow Dash would be if she were present.

        “Well, lay it on me,” insisted the pony across the bonfire.

        The supposedly insightful mare smirked. “I think he’s saying that you worry too much.”

        “Huh?” said this evening’s subject. “How do ya figure that?”

        “Well, you said they were all runnin’ back ‘n forth in your pad, right?” asked the blue-haired pony. “I bet the scene looked mighty busy. Your pad’s, like, a reflexion of your mind and you got way too much goin’ up there. Ya need to chill a little more.”

        The yellow pony’s eyes widened. “Whoah. That’s real deep right there.” He turned his eyes towards the ground. They shifted slightly as gathered his thoughts. “I-I guess I have had a lot on my mind lately. Dag. Maybe I do need slow the stage coach down a bit. Still, how’s a poor pony like me supposed to figure that all out. I mean, I respect him and all, but sometimes I wonder why he don’t just tell it like is, ya know? You’d think that’d be easier than floodin’ a pony’s pad with weasels.”

        The conversation went on, but Willow’s attention was starting to drift away from it. It was comfortable here. Her head was lifted towards the sky and it swayed left and right as her legs rocked back and forth. She let the campfire warm her body a her mane enjoyed the breeze and her ears tuned in to the sounds of nature and friendly conversation.

        ‘Yeah,” said the stallion sitting on the same log as Willow, “and besides, that’s just not his vibe. You know that, mare.”

        “And how,” said the yellow pony. “Ah well, he’s the master I gue—”

        The conversation suddenly stopped. Willow was so relaxed that she hardly noticed at first, but soon the lack of talking became too obvious. She lowered her head to look at her spectral friends.

She gasped. They were all staring directly at her, all with completely vacant expressions. Their gaze was stabbing and Willow found herself frozen, as if their eyes had physically pinned her in place. She couldn’t even force her own eyes closed.

And the next sight only made her wish even more that she could close them. Gradually, each of her onlookers’ mouths slowly formed into an unnaturally-wide grin and their eyes melted into a horrifyingly familiar hot white.

Then there came something else Willow knew unfortunately well. The ponies started cackling maniacally, but not in their own voices. All of them were laughing in that same awful screeching sound. As they continued to laugh and laugh, the laughing grew louder and louder until it was nearly deafening.

The cackling continued as Willow watched each of the ponies’ bodies distort, becoming wavy, transparent clouds of mist. And, like mist, they all drifted towards the sky, their laughing echoing over the prairie.

Dark clouds were moving in overhead from all directions, meeting in the middle and forming the eye of an impending storm. The nearly shapeless masses that once were ponies joined the clouds as if they were one in the same.

Just as quickly as the eye of the storm formed, it started closing, growing small and smaller until it disappeared entirely. Then, with a loud thunderous bang it reopened, this time in the shape of two large white eyes and a psychotic grin. Despise’s face stretched across the sky, larger than the moon itself.

...and she was staring directly at Willow.

Willow’s mouth was gaped in fear as her hair flailed violently. The wind was picking up speed, so much so that she felt her body about to tip over from the force.

Then she heard Despise scream down at her from the heavens, “Run…”

Void of any other option but to obey, Willow took off in the opposite direction. However, her gallop was broken at best. Between tripping over her own hair and being hit by the powerful gusts of wind, Willow spend most of her time being tossed back and forth across the ground. She had no more control over her direction than a tumbleweed.

After trying fruitlessly many times to get back on her feet, Willow gave in and simply allowed the violent gales to carry her. It actually proved less painful. She switched her strategy to trying to find something cling on to as she was rolled among the hills and valleys. The only thing she could see, though, was grass. She tried gripping her teeth on to a patch or two, but of course the common green plant was too weak to keep her fastened to the earth. Willow began whipping her head in all directions as she continued being tossed about looking for something else to help her, anything else.

And her eyes eventually did spot something else, but it wasn’t something that would provide aid. In fact, it provided the opposite. Shortly after Willow heard a loud rumbling in the sky, she saw an almost blinding flash of light as a streak of lightning hit the ground, just a few hooves’ length ahead of her. It barely missed her as she passed. She then felt a lightning bolt striking the ground near her in the opposite direction, or at least it was the opposite direction until the wind shifted her back towards it. Her eyes caught the tail end of the strike as she narrowly passed. The wind spun her around again and again, and in each direction she was tossed she narrowly escaped electrocution. Her vision was covered in spots from the constant barrage of bright flashes.

        Then suddenly, the wind weakened enough that it could no longer carry her. Willow hit the ground hard, but at least this time she stayed. However, she didn’t have time to feel any sort of relief. As soon as she shook the hair out her face and looked up at Despise’s visage still suspended in the sky, that horridly-wide mouth formed itself into a circle. Then, spewing from that mouth, came a funnel cloud.

        As soon as the tornado touched down, it immediately charged for Willow. Before she could get up to run, the winds picked up again and sucked Willow towards it. She entered the spinning winds of the funnel within seconds and her body was sent spiraling upwards. It was as though Despise was sucking her up through a straw. Willow’s body reflexively fought the wind, desperate get back to ground, but of course this was useless and she knew it. She had no means of escape and no one to help her. This was the end.

        But as these horrible thoughts spun through her mind like her body was spinning through the tornado, Willow felt an unexpected impact. It was sudden and painful, but she immediately noticed that she was no longer spinning in the air. In fact, after the collision she felt something solid underneath her, something furry.

        Within seconds she realized she realized that she was once again on Luna’s back. The Princess of the Night carried her out of the funnel and into the open air. As soon as they were clear, the Alicorn turned and faced the face in the sky. The eyes of Despise’s face twitched and the tornado immediately dissipated, although the wind was still strong.

        ‘You!” screamed the visage in the clouds. Its voice was as loud as a thousand thunderclaps at once.

        “Covering the dream with clouds to prevent my gaze,” said Luna. “Clever, but you have not stopped me!”

        From the mouth of the face came a deafening scream as the lightning strikes resumed. Luna dodged the first bolt and the next and the next as she made her way closer to Despise. Willow was barely able to hang on through the repeated shifting of directions. The strikes increased in number and speed as Luna flew closer. Despise was clearly panicking. and not without reason. After swerving past countless lightning bolts, Luna was a mere few hooves away from her visage, particularly her left eye. Then, with one final burst of speed, Luna darted forward and pierced through Despise’s eye. The impact was like the shattering of glass.

        Despise’s shriek was somehow louder than before, and it was accompanying by a low, rumbling sound. It was as if the sky was somehow experiencing an earthquake. Willow looked down and saw that Despise’s face was deforming and the dark clouds were breaking apart. As they broke into smaller and smaller pieces, the rumbling and screaming dissipated with them.

        Soon, there was nothing below Luna and Willow other than the pleasant prairie Willow had started in. Willow was relieved to see it, though it bothered her that even at the height she was at she could see no end to it.

        Luna began her descent and in a much gentler way that she had been taken up to the sky, Willow was now being taken to the ground. Once there, Luna bent her legs to provide Willow with an easy dismount.

        Willow, now finally on her own hooves once again, stumbled her way to the front of Luna and faced her rescuer. Before she could say thanks, though, Willow noticed a look of sincere pity on Luna’s face.

        “Uh, what’s wrong, spooky mare?” asked Willow.

        Luna didn’t answer and her expression didn’t change.

        Willow scratched the back of her head, “Um, thanks for saving me again. You...you think she’s gone for good this time?”

        Luna remained silent as she turned around and spread her wings.

        Willow began to worry, “Wait, we’re ya’ll goin’?” she yelled.

        Again Luna said nothing and her wings began to flap. It wasn’t long before she was airborne. She took off into the night sky, leaving Willow behind in the prairie.

        “Wait!” Willow kept calling out. “Waaaiiiittt!!!!”