Branches whipped Luna’s armored form as she ran. She held her wings up, protecting and keeping steady her unconscious cargo. She had lost a number of feathers from her exposed wings, and the trailing scratches and the blood only made it easier for her pursuers to track her.

She had gotten only a glimpse of them, and that was probably more than what would be afforded to ponies not gurgling their own blood. They were lightning in earthen stripes, latching onto trees or dashing through undergrowth with equal grace. Luna couldn’t tell how far behind her they were, too focused on evading them to be afforded the privilege to consider.

Reaching a gorge, Luna paused long enough to inspect what lied below: The ravine was deep and thick with foliage that hid its bottom. The opposing edge, however, a small flying jump away, was a welcoming open area. An empty, large dining room where the buffet would soon be laid out if only she was foolish enough to head for it.

She dove among the razor splinters of the gorge, her teeth gritting in anger and her horn sparking in readiness.

The princess fell like a short-lived comet with a seething inner core. How many times had she repeated herself to Fluttershy? Everything in this hellhole existed only for one purpose: The Everfree Forest had to feed. But noooo, one pretty sparkling light couldn’t possibly be a danger to the pegasus on her back. She just had to touch it, like a moth reaching for the dancing flames!

Shed her

This is my fault, Luna thought, her eyes darting at all sides in search of refuge. She heard water trickling beyond the tight confines of the ravine and headed for it, a dagger silencing a slithering serpent in her way. All she could think of was Raegdan’s promise he’d catch up. She had to take him at his word for the sake of the wounded pegasus on her back.

Nopony will know

It erupted out of the earth: An old terror that had been locked in the cellar, forgotten by you but not having forgotten you in turn. It spoke in a buzz of screaming wails for Luna and Fluttershy. It was old, ancient, riddled with marks of victory and countless victims. It didn’t reach for them as it was upon them, around them, in them, almost there, almost, almost…

Now Do it now

Luna teleported. Only a few meters away, just far enough to not sap her strength. She zipped out around a boulder and out of sight. The tranquility of the forest returned. The ancient stalker was gone as if it had never been more than a wisp, a fantasy. Luna ran faster, harder. She forgot about it already, having more fearful prospects to worry about.

Can’t carry her forever Not here Not now

He lied. He lied to her before and he may have lied again. She trusted that lie for the sake of this stupid yellow pegasus on her back that she ought to have—

Nopony will know Nopony ever did

No. That was the Luna of a thousand years ago. The Luna of a few months ago. She couldn’t be that anymore. She needed to be better, and she was better, and life would be better―sweeter, easier, and happier. She only needed to give it more time. It would work like everypony said. Any day now. She couldn’t go back to how lost she was. Never again.

Luna stopped running. There was quiet. Either she had shaken them or she was herded into a corner. She lifted her wings higher, holding the comatose Fluttershy in a protective cocoon, and made for the ravine’s exit.

Fluttershy stood still. She didn’t tremble, squirm, or fidget. Her chest barely moved to indicate she breathed while Mother inspected her newly appeared Cutie Mark.

Mother would stand on one side, making a show of actively not staring at the Cutie Mark her daughter had earned. She’d do a side glance, coughing in disappointment before walking to the other side and repeating. Mother would then circle back in front of Fluttershy at the other side of the table and try to catch Fluttershy’s eyes from behind her pink curtain of a mane before shaking her head and repeating her inspection.

It was like a game of sorts, one that neither found joyous. Fluttershy had learned to be patient. She’d also learned to not put up any fuss when Mother decided to educate her on how to be a Proper Pony. Mother didn’t like being interrupted, not when she was Right.

But… Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark gave her something important, and she wanted to keep it.

Mother sat across Fluttershy with a big, weary sigh. Mother always did that so ponies would know how much Weight she carried.

“This simply will not do,” Mother said.

Fluttershy pouted. “I like it.” Mother’s hoof slammed the table, and Fluttershy shut her lips tight.

“This has to be a mistake,” Mother mumbled. Her hoof tapped the table at an increasing rhythm.

It stopped.

A smile, very small like all of Mother’s smiles, pulled on Mother’s lips. “Of course. You simply have it all wrong, Fluttershy. Your Cutie Mark is—” Mother sighed with Weight once more, “—butterflies, and everypony knows how fragile you are. A light touch and—”

Fluttershy lowered her head. She tried to tune Mother out, but Fluttershy knew it all by heart by now. Mother had always been insistent on teaching her daughter how to be a Proper Pony, and that included a long list of Fluttershy’s weaknesses and what she should stray away from among all the other Litanies. Fluttershy’s lips moved imperceptibly, mouthing along how Fluttershy needed to be wary of causing other, more Proper, Ponies trouble. How she should be aware of how clumsy she was, always ready to apologize for what her clumsy wings, her clumsy legs, and her clumsy tongue wrought. Clumsy. Clumsy. Clumsy.

“—meant to display your… delicate way of flying,” Mother concluded. She waited for Fluttershy to agree.

Mouth dry, Fluttershy’s best attempt to reply only made Mother sigh deeper. Fluttershy took a deep breath, losing some of it in stuttering exhales, her muscles spasming with the effort it took to not run and hide. She remembered the bushes, like dark green clouds: Soft, but not as soft as clouds, and a warmth unlike them, as if the small branches held her in a protective embrace; they smelled better and kept the light out, making Fluttershy feel so safe for the little time she played in them.

She wanted to see bushes and trees again. She wanted to see the animals, both big and small. She wanted to walk on the grass and smell the flowers. She wanted to not be up here: The sun was always too harsh and everything was so… so wide! There wasn’t any place you could be… safe. Like a bird’s nest. Not even the birds stayed up in the sky forever. They sang and lived and slept on trees and ground. Why couldn’t she?

“I-I don’t think it w-was a mistake. I-I… I know what my Cutie Mark is. It’s not… flying.”

Mother wouldn’t have this. Fluttershy kept her head low again, letting the words pass her by, the admonitions, the list of Sacrifices Mother had made, the embarrassment she would face if her daughter revealed herself to have never been a Proper Pegasus.

For anypony else, that was an impossibility; impossibilities were unknown to Mother.

Fluttershy was pulled off her chair and into Mother’s cloud-like embrace. “We’ll fix this, Fluttershy. As long as there’s faith, there’s a way.”

“But… I-I like my Cutie Mark.”

“You think you do!” Mother spat ‘think’ as though it were an abomination.

It wouldn’t surprise Fluttershy to find out it was. Many things were considered an abomination to Mother. Mother knew what an abomination was and what wasn’t because she had an instinctive dislike of abominations. She could always figure out what was and what wasn’t, based on what she didn’t like.

Mother took her to the east terrace where she spent most of her time. She sat on a small cloud that was white, fluffy, cold and wet. She forced—guided—Fluttershy on one next to her.

“All we have to do,” Mother instructed, “is say the Words, and it will go away in due time.”

“I… I d-don’t want it to go—”

“You will say the Words, Fluttershy.” Mother’s eyes ran over Fluttershy’s reedy frame with disdain. “You will say the Words every morning with me. You will say them until this… Cutie Mark goes away and you get one fit for a Proper Pegasus, or you’re blessed and properly understand what it truly means.”

“But—”

“Fluttershy! You are a Pegasus, not some Earth Pony that crawls in the dirt like a— like a—” Mother stopped, took a deep breath, and exhaled. “... Unicorns cast spells, Earth ponies tend the land, and Pegasi sail the sky and soar towards the sun. Now, pray so you’ll get back on the right path. Pray until what’s Wrong becomes Right.”

Head and heart low, Fluttershy began reciting the Words. She prayed every morning; she prayed every afternoon; she prayed when the sun set; and she prayed whenever Mother didn’t believe she prayed vigorously enough. The Words came, an unstoppable tide, and—

… Was it truly unstoppable?

“I don’t want to,” Fluttershy whispered, raising her head. “I don’t believe like you do. I don’t want my Cutie Mark to change.”

Mother stared, trying to understand who this pony standing in front of her was, because it certainly wasn’t her daughter.

“My Cutie Mark doesn’t define me.” Fluttershy pointed at her chest, finding strength in her defiance. “I define my Cutie Mark! I like animals; I like being on the ground; I like when the leaves shield me from the sun; I like lying on the grass; I like my Cutie Mark; I like being me!”

Mother wisped into nothing, her wide eyes the last to vanish. The terrace also vanished, and the sun lost its harshness. Fluttershy was back on the ground, butterflies—the same butterflies which had carried her!—dancing around her, and birds singing amongst the trees.

“You… You refused her. She was your mother and you told her you’re not who she wished you to be.”

Fluttershy whirled around. Luna sat slack on a soft patch of grass.

“Princess? But… You’re not supposed to be here yet. I’m still too young for…” Fluttershy sat down, petting a squirrel that wandered close. She blinked, and her hoof was running down the soft plumage of a duckling. “This is a dream, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Luna said. “A nightmare, I believe. But you…” Luna looked at Fluttershy the same way Mother had: scrutinous, trying to decipher who exactly she was speaking to. “You didn’t know it was. For you it was reality. It could have been real...”

Fluttershy hid beneath her mane, holding the duckling close. “When did I fall asleep?”

“There was a golden light. You believed it safe, and allowed it to approach you. It fell upon you in a moment of distraction. It leeches on you as we speak, keeping you sedated and easy prey as to drain the fragments of your magic at your end. I carried you to a secluded area. It won’t survive your awakened mind.”

“I couldn’t tell I was—am dreaming,” Fluttershy said, picking a dandelion. “It didn’t seem strange that I was living it all again…” She blew, and a hundred thousand seeds floated away in order to become the stars.

“I… I owe you an apology. I had thought of you as… as little more than a coward, and I’m… you humble me.” Luna bowed her head.

“But… It didn’t happen like this!” Fluttershy said, gasping as she remembered reality and not what her dream insisted had been true. “My mother was never like… She was becoming more… intense as time went on, but I left home and—I never stood up to her like that! I was a coward! I showed her my Cutie Mark and then she—she sent me back to Summer Flight Camp the next year, and I stayed in Flight School until I finished, but… Did she think my Cutie Mark was so horrible? Since then?”

“You were fighting against the magic, and your mind presented your struggle thus. Your mother was harsher because the magic was fighting back harder, attempting to break you.” Princess Luna helped Fluttershy stand up. As she did, Fluttershy’s gangly legs filled out, becoming stronger and more sure-hoofed. “These dreams and the past share some similarities and some contrasts, like you and I do. But for now, the most important thing to do is...

“Wake up.”

Fluttershy inhaled, yawning and rubbing at her eyes. She felt immensely refreshed, the tiredness she had before gone. She blinked, willing her eyes to work. There was a fleeting glimpse of gold, defervescing as soon as she caught sight of it.

By the smell, she could tell she was inside a large hollow tree. She flinched at a slight movement at her side, but immediately relaxed: Luna was slowly stretching from where she had been lying, a weak light flickering at the end of her horn. Luna yawned too, but the bags under her eyes showed her time had been anything but restful.

Fluttershy stretched her wings out of habit. A sharp wave of pain echoing from her broken wing brought her to the ground, whimpering as she curled in on herself. Her stomach groaned. It took a while until the nausea passed.

Luna slowly rose in the exact same weary way Fluttershy had seen Applejack’s grandmother stand up from a bench, ready to begin the long journey home while lugging all her bags after a long day at the market.

Fluttershy broke the silence between them, sorrowfully saying, “I didn’t mean to touch that light. I thought it was safe...”

“It’s alright. Just be more careful from now on,” Luna warned, grabbing Fluttershy’s front leg from the elbow and lifting it up. A golden light flittered along Fluttershy’s fur with the motion. “The magic hasn’t dissipated yet. If it gets a chance it may well attempt to take you once more.”

Fluttershy nodded and meekly followed after the Alicorn, hoping against hope she hadn’t disappointed the princess too much. Luna made it abundantly clear that Fluttershy was to keep her head down and do nothing but follow, yet her disregardfulness nearly thwarted their survival. In the event that there was danger, Fluttershy was to hide or run; she’d only get in the way in a fight.

Every movement Fluttershy made was pronounced with a golden glow, practically making her bioluminescent. Fluttershy sighed. Luna didn’t have to be so harsh. She was never going to be as brave as Rainbow or Twilight or any of her friends; she knew that. Despite this fact, Fluttershy came here all the same.

Just like the little gardener in the story, afraid and away from home, yet she moved forward to be there for her friends. That had to count for something.

… Right?

A river, wide and capricious, unlike the one that passed near Fluttershy’s home, flowed some meters beneath the semi-covered area they’d found in the embrace of a hidden gully. The water was unexpectedly loud in a way that made Fluttershy feel… safe. And, for once, she had an open view. There was precious little growing near the riverbanks and Fluttershy could see further than she had been able to since they’d entered the forest. She felt like a predatory stalker, setting her ambush near the waters her prey would sup from, blissfully unaware of the trap they’d walk into.

Spotting the discarded saddlebag, Fluttershy moved for it with an eagerness to display some kind of usefulness. “Will we keep heading for the mountain in a straight line?” she asked, hoping to fill the silence.

Luna nodded. “Yes. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can—Move!”

Luna’s armored mass tackled Fluttershy. She crashed on the ground, her tortured wing absorbing the impact. Every vibration produced a soundless gasp of unimaginable pain. She blacked out for a moment.

She raised her head, her stomach still heaving and her mouth full of bile. Screeches and wails of tortured metal resounded as Luna fought a feline nightmare of claws and fleshy, tail-like appendages that ended in wicked spears.

They tumbled and rolled over each other, the panther-beast raking its claws all over Luna’s backplate while it did its best to scrape out her guts through the mail with its hind legs. Luna, holding it close, kept it from aiming for her unarmored areas—like her face—with the bladed tentacles.

Both opponents roared and shrieked. Luna was able to gain the upper hoof and held the snarling beast down, trapping the long tentacles under its own back. She raised a free hoof, her armored shoe glowing with the same magic that rolled down her horn.

A second feline beast lunged at Luna from the side. Its huge displaced maw opened wide enough to grab Luna’s armored neck, and though even its pincer-like teeth couldn’t pierce the enchanted steel, it gave a good attempt at breaking the princess’ neck.

With her off it, the first beast’s tentacles got loose. They whipped freely around as the cat snarled and attacked Luna. They circled, gaining speed. One of them pinged off her helmet. The other found a chink in the armor, and sunk deep. Luna cried out, the pain causing her to stumble.

The tendril pulsed for a bit before withdrawing itself, a sickening white ichor dripping from the tip.

Blood stained the grass as the overpowered princess slowly lost the fight. She kept throwing them off, only for one to pounce back as she tumbled with the other. The beasts were taking turns savaging Luna so she didn’t have room to breathe.

Fluttershy watched from behind the safety of some rocks and ferns. She could see that Luna wasn’t doing well at all, no, not at all. She gulped. She had to get out there and help. She took a deep breath, and pushed her shaking legs to stand. Maybe… Maybe a distraction? But Luna said…

As if listening to her, Luna glanced at Fluttershy. She kept her attention on the beasts, while she calmly said, “Help me,” almost like Fluttershy was somepony she trusted. Somepony who could help.

Fluttershy jumped out from behind the rocks, screaming at the top of her lungs. The beasts turned to her, and Fluttershy dared them, advancing with a growl copied out of Rainbow’s book.

It worked. One of them turned to her, the other seemed confused as to who to pay attention to.

Luna’s eyes rolled to the back of her head for a second. She staggered. The second feline beast decided to ignore her and turned its attention to Fluttershy, whips thrashing the air menacingly.

Fluttershy backed off. The moment she did, they growled impatiently. Their hind legs’ claws caught the earth.

Golden lightning ran along Fluttershy’s spine, dancing along the edges of her wings and arcing down to her hooves in a spectacular display. The beasts howled in fright. They retreated rapidly.

Tightening her lips in order to hide her fear, Fluttershy pushed forward. She hoped the errant magic would continue its fireworks show. She edged closer to the beasts. Closer, closer. They kept their distance. Just a bit more, just a bit more and their nerves would fail them, she knew it. They were about to quit and run. They recognized this magic.

The glow vanished. Whatever switch commanded it had been flicked off.

The beasts growled. Fluttershy had gone too close, and the magic was no longer there. Every muscle went taut as they prepared to pounce.

Luna straightened, forgotten behind them. Her lips had gone white and her eyes burned. Her skin was a sickly green hue. Her horn flared with magic. She moved with speed, one moment there, the next behind the beasts. Luna’s legs wrapped tightly around one of them. Her magic caught the other one and dragged it close. Fluttershy wanted to cheer like she never cheered before.

But then Luna, holding the beasts close, threw herself and them together into the river below.

“Luna! No! No, no, no, no!”

Fluttershy shouted the Princess’ name as she ran. Caution, like the discarded saddlebags, was forgotten. She frantically searched for a place where she could climb down, tears of frustration running down her face as she cursed her battered wing. The river ran ferociously, taunting her.

She galloped like a mare possessed, ignoring the stabs of pain as she followed the whitewater river. Minutes later she saw one of the panther-like beasts dead, either drowned or having hit its head on the rocks that jutted out among the rapids. So far, still no sign of Luna.

How heavy was the armor Luna was wearing? What if Fluttershy passed her by while Luna was trying to reach the surface? What if she was on the wrong side of the river?

She kept going and shouting. She knew it was stupid―Luna would have her hide―but what else was there to do? Nothing had surfaced so far, so she kept going. Maybe nothing came for her because she was so loud? Hopefully… In a place so paranoid, a lone pony crying out could very well be a trap.

She’d take it. Oh goodness, she’d take it if that was the reason. Only for a little while, only until she found Luna, please.

Just… Please let Luna be okay.

Fluttershy ran for what felt like hours yet she saw neither hide nor hair of the Princess. She couldn’t… She couldn’t have gotten caught beneath something or hit her head and drowned, right? She knew that could happen; she avoided swimming in rivers ever since she learned of these dangers. Luna was strong, though. Luna knew what she was doing.

At the end she literally tripped over the unconscious Princess.

Luna had made it to shore on her own, most of her armor gone, stretched between water and muddy dirt. Fluttershy guessed she took the parts off on her own. The helmet and the thick back covers were gone. She spotted one of the abandoned armored shoes in the shallow still waters. Thousands of insects hovered over it, dancing in the air and on the surface of the water they used as a breeding ground.

Fluttershy did not even waste the time to rise from her fall. She crawled, her face caked in mud, and pulled Luna completely out of the water. Moving her a few meters was a struggle that left her breathless and quaking in pain. She put her ear over Luna’s muzzle; she felt her breath, rapid and short. Fluttershy shook her, calling her name. Nothing.

Remembering the poisoned barb, she checked the wound. There was a rivulet of blood streaming out of the circular hole. The tiniest drops of white were mixed in, foaming like pulp at the top. It seemed to blacken the blood in contact with it.

Panic started to set in. She didn’t want to see another pony poisoned, not like…

Wait. Maybe...

She wiped her eyes clean and looked. She wondered if it was possible: Yes, Luna’s horn was glowing, if only faintly! It was weak, so weak that it was almost imperceptible, but she was using her magic!

Fluttershy giggled and danced a little jig on the spot. She was healing herself! She was fighting the poison even while unconscious, like she did when Pinkie ate the poisoned sugar and Luna found out what the poison was by tasting it. Luna was going to be okay! She only needed to drain all the poison...

...out...

Oh, no. No, no, no. If Luna was unconscious while she fought the poison, what was Fluttershy to do? She couldn’t dare wake Luna up. It might make the poison worse… or would it be worse to leave her as she was? She had to move her too, but… she was too heavy for her to pull, and with her injured wing she couldn’t carry her on her back. And even so, where would she go? Luna knew how to find shelter. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, had no idea!

Out of the foliage, a massive white form emerged, and Fluttershy screamed in fright and threw herself over Luna. The creature, bigger than a cart, ignored her and headed to the water. More of them followed. Fluttershy shut her eyes and whispered for help, over and over.

Nothing happened. She peeked.

They looked like massive slugs hybridized with long worms. They were rippling with fat, and had rings of bruised purple spots at their sides. One of them squeezed its body, a tightening motion like a pony flexing all their muscles simultaneously, and long barbs bristled to poke its brethren away from trying to steal its turn at drinking from the river. They drank with long proboscides that poked out of their mouths.

As each drank its fill they returned to the rest of their herd, looking to each other for protection. All of them ignored Fluttershy and Luna, despite plenty of them eyeing the two ponies with wariness.

Fluttershy watched, fascinated.

Luna had repeated herself so many times that Fluttershy had believed her, and Fluttershy’s experiences thus far only served to cement the thought: the Everfree Forest was a monster-infested den and breeding ground, pure and simple. But…

The humongous slugs that weren’t quenching their thirst hung back, forming a rough circle, their barbs creating a protective wall. One of them moved, and from the center emerged smaller ones―juveniles, judging from their size―the rings at their sides mere pokes and slits that looked like they had never been used.

An adventurous one moved further away from the herd. One of the adults made a booming, bass sound towards it. The youngling ignored it and the adult seemed to contemplate going after it before finally deciding for the safety of numbers.

They were herbivores: They munched on fallen branches, leaves, anything within reach, picking the ground clean as they went. And it… it made sense. As dangerous as it was, the Everfree Forest―the one on the surface and the one underground―was still a forest at the end of the day. A weird forest, but could there be a cause for this? Fluttershy, in deep thought, splashed at the river water as if testing it.

The surface Everfree Forest looked so different: Spooky and scary, like a skeleton. A forest can’t choose to be… scary, though. Maybe? It wasn’t a spooky skeleton; it was… it was emaciated! If things kept falling, seeds and saplings and burrowing animals that were so needed, if soil was drained down here constantly—and wasn’t that which made the lights above so visible, like sun rays dancing through dust?—if the waters siphoned precious minerals and vitamins away only for the Underfree to eat them up...

No wonder the surface looked like that. It must have taken hundreds of years to degenerate to such a sorry state. Fluttershy would bet all her belongings that the Everfree Forest above was on the greener side a thousand years ago.

Forests have needs. Even the healthiest forests need fire to renew them, to expose the undergrowth to sunlight. Fluttershy wondered how many times ponies had saved—or punished—the Everfree Forest by stopping any natural fires for fear of the monsters within rushing for the safety of the countryside. No wonder it got so drained and stopped expanding.

This place wasn’t a… a nightmare or a prison or a hell of some kind. It was a forest. Filled with animals. An ecosystem which had rules of its own. And monsters… she had met monsters. She had taken care of monsters. They were just animals. Big, dangerous, and very, very clawy animals, but animals all the same.

And Fluttershy had a cutie mark that she loved, one she would prove to herself was true and useful, even if what she had said to Mother was but a dream. She spotted the smaller slugwyrm which had wandered away from the herd. A lone target for every predator. A part of the cycle.

Fluttershy smiled. She could convince an under-the-weather hydra to take its pills, each head separately. This? This would be easy.

Luna’s last words before going down that cliff were for Fluttershy to help her. Well, Fluttershy thought, steeling her nerves, she’s about to be helped harder than she has ever been helped before!

And it would be kind to do. That little youngling looked so cute!

“Cookie! Go back in the middle, please.” Fluttershy ordered from atop the biggest of the herd, a grizzled veteran she had named Bristleback. Poor guy was missing an eye but he was as tough as nails.

Fluttershy sprinted to Bristleback’s tail towards one of the younglings. The rascal wasn’t behaving. “Cookie, get back in place, now! Daisy? Daisy, keep an eye on Cookie before the name becomes too unfortunate, please? Cookie, listen to Daisy, okay, my little snugglepus?”

Cookie quickly crawled next to Bristleback and reached up with his proboscis, nuzzling Fluttershy back. “Who’s my little cutie pie? Who’s my little cutie?” Cookie squeed. “You are! Yes, you are!”

The young slugwyrm—she was getting fond of the name—chirped and followed behind Daisy, a female on the verge of maturity if Fluttershy guessed correctly. He almost looked like he was springing, reminding her of Pinkie Pie. Every now and then he’d wave with his thick proboscis at Fluttershy as if wanting her to see that he was doing as told and wasn’t he doing such a good job?

Fluttershy waved back every time.

The herd had been quite content to let Fluttershy and Luna join them after some convincing. Fluttershy felt quite safe. Sure, there was the occasional rustling, and eyes peered from the deeper shadows, yet nothing dared attack the herd. And with Fluttershy keeping watch, there had been no slugwyrms left behind to attract unwanted attention. So they were left alone.

The herd headed northeast. They didn’t mind being prodded towards a certain direction as long as they could fill their bellies on the way. Still, it was weird how she had to appeal to them repeatedly to head north. It was as if they took every chance to check if she had changed her mind. Fluttershy speculated it was simply them knowing something she didn’t.

There was a lot of that going on.

Like what was happening to Luna. She laid behind Fluttershy, nestled in between the creases of Bristleback’s body, unmoving and breathing weakly. Most of the time the Alicorn was dead to the world like this, sleeping or losing her frail grip on consciousness. At other times she would sit up with glazed eyes and collapse—dead to the world—again. She was catatonic, watching nothing, her mouth opening and closing with the crackling snap of her dried, weathered lips. Her eyes were foggy, and every now and then a drop of blood would trickle from her nose.

Her horn glowed all the while, however, intermittently as it did. Sometimes strong and steady, others weak and stuttering. If it was trying to signal a message, then what Fluttershy got from it was that Luna wasn’t doing well.

She didn’t know how to help Luna. A pegasus couldn’t magic out venom. She had to reach somepony that might know what to do.

Her task was obvious.

Coaxing the slugwyrms to move faster and as steady northward as they’d go, Fluttershy made preparations. She could tell they wouldn’t take her all the way. She’d have to be ready.

Hardy vines and strong roots could work as twine and rope. The bigger slugwyrms provided plenty of strong branches as they cleared the path. She convinced one of them to let her have some of the succulent berries she spotted. Her mouth watered at the sight of them, her stomach growling, but she had other plans in mind.

Fluttershy finished the crude stretcher on top of Bristleback. She fluttered off, dashing for the undergrowth with berries in hoof, and came back with a new, boar-like friend to help her.

When the time came that the slugwyrms would move north no longer, she moved Luna on the stretcher, and with her new friend, Plumba, dragging it behind her, she made for the mountain.

This had to be what Luna referred to as the “Heart” of the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy was certain.

Twilight had recently gone on one of her discourses, where she’d always be so passionate and fawn adorably at knowledge, even when she was the one teaching it; they tended to bore the rest of the girls, but Fluttershy liked them: they were Twilight’s way of sharing what she loved.

If only some of the things she shared weren’t so frightening!

Twilight explained that magic was everywhere. She called it ambient magic, and it just floated around ubiquitously like pollen in the springtime. But sometimes, that magic would clump up and behave unpredictably. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, you could tell by the very pale, almost unnoticeable, buzz of the air. It rarely covered an area bigger than a large room.

The trees in front of Fluttershy were shrouded in a thick, blue glow, massing like a mist. She could almost see currents in it. It stretched as far as she could see.

She tried to remember how bad it could have been if they made the plunge, according to Twilight: she remembered the dreaded words “transformative thaumaturgy.” She hoped its portentousness only extended to a coat color change, but she was under the impression it was a flight of fancy to hope for such a force to be so benign.

Entering the mist probably wouldn’t be a good idea. The slugwyrms had a reason they didn’t want to get close. Even Plumba was fighting the straps around his chest whenever she wasn’t actively soothing him.

No monsters had bothered them for ages, either.

She checked on Luna: She was not okay. She hadn’t been for some time. Keeping a brave face for Plumba’s sake, she had him follow her as she walked the treeline. It had to stop somewhere, right?

An hour of walking later, she started to have doubts. Despite them she trudged on, at one point facing a dilemma: would she risk both of them to reach help or keep vigil over Luna as she either lived or perished.

Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to make that choice.

She found a passage.

The fog of nocuous magic had a tunnel carved into it. Fluttershy didn’t see it until she was directly in front of it. The semi-solid air was clean and untouched by magic. It was as wide as about two ponies standing side by side and a bit taller than Princess Celestia. It pierced through, following the gentle inclines and avoiding trees like it had chosen the easiest, yet at the same time straightest, path to the mountain.

Fluttershy’s inhibitions about the serendipity of this path were erased at the sound of a pained wheeze of breath. She removed the makeshift ropes from Plumba, putting them on herself, and sent him off. The last thing she did was make sure Luna was held tight on the stretcher, using her cloak to ensure she wouldn’t slip.

She followed the hollow path.

It was like a ride through a secret haunted house. Always careful not to overstep the boundary, the sights she witnessed at her sides slowly filled her with dread.

This heart of magic wasn’t empty: Creatures moved in and out endlessly. Expectant mothers returned to deep dens, birds rested in ancient nests to lay their eggs, and birthing cries dully filled the mist, turning them to a distant, ethereal chorus.

And the eggs would hatch. The newborns would burst out of the dirt. The children would take their first steps and their first flights.

Their parents absent. Their hunger, cold, and fear ever present.

Beaks would grow or change shapes. A youngling would come out seeking sustenance from the bodies of others, and they would respond by manifesting claws and teeth where there used to be none. Wounds would heal and what allowed them to be harmed in the first place would be replaced or improved. A fallen fawn-like newborn rose up, standing on six legs. A spider scampered away from a seeking mouth, suddenly able to camouflage like a chameleon. A lizard lost its tail and it was replaced by flames.

Yet, just like Fluttershy, so too would those new creatures veer away from their birthing grounds: the hearth and home that gave them strength might also be their end, so they abandoned it in order to surfeit and shelter themselves where it was less hazardous.

And the next wave would rise out of the ground, out of the eggs, out in the dark, sometimes more dangerous, sometimes completely different.

Fluttershy urged herself to go faster.

She was sweating a storm. She was almost running, and pulling Luna was no easy feat, not while making sure she kept the stretcher steady. Not while her muscles pulsed with agony, sending waves of pain up her mauled wing. Not when she didn’t know if one of the newly born might covet her. Not when the smallest slip might make her something not-a-pony anymore. The fear of this fate made her heart pound.

Fear was weird at times. Fluttershy was well acquainted with it. She feared a lot of things, some real, others mere concepts. But oddly, fear could be fought off with fear: Fear begets bravery, after all.

Luna started gasping in pain. Fluttershy’s fear was gone, concern taking its place and making her ignore any possible threat in this place.

The errant nosebleed had become a flood, the blood infected, dark and murky. Luna’s mouth was bleeding as well, her lips cracked and oozing droplets of blood, her gums a ghastly pallor and her dilated pupils almost wiping out all traces of white in her eyes.

Her horn was stuttering with broken glows of pale blue.

“Luna? Luna, can you hear me?” Fluttershy said, reaching to stroke Luna’s forehead. She was feverish. Before it got worse, maybe she could buy her friend some time by cooling her down. She didn’t have cold water, but they were bound to meet another river or stream, and until then perhaps she could make due with—

An arch of gold formed between her hoof and Luna’s horn.

She was trapped in an inferno of viscera and violence. The walls were hideous bodies that writhed and corpses that were gnawed on. The stench of blood, acrid and blasphemous, filled her nostrils. Shrieks and the wet gurgles of organs splattering the red mud assaulted her ears.

Scream and pain, scream and death, scream and victory, scream and food.

Fluttershy screamed too. She screamed and ran; she screamed and closed her eyes; she screamed and plugged her ears with her hooves; she screamed and stopped breathing.

Silence.

When the silence persisted, she peeked. It was all there yet: the horror, the madness. The abominable beasts and the horrifically mutated chimeras. The bloodletting. But now it was muted, blurry. It thrashed erratically, as if time hiccuped. There was almost no color to anything.

Except the blue Alicorn, fighting with hooves and magic. She was unburdened by the unconjoined time. Claws vanished and appeared, aiming for her, and she avoided them by a hair’s breadth. She evidently hadn’t been so fast or skillful every time: Her body wept with a thousand wounds.

A giant scorpion’s pincer made for her, and her magic sliced it at the elbow. The head of the creature was crushed under her hoof. A mutant horror, eyes and beaks and beaks and limbs fell on her. She fought and cut, she detonated its limbs, she took the pain the beaks delivered even as they breached her flesh. She killed and moved to the next, no different from the beasts surrounding her: All killed without prejudice, without thought, without reason. Meat sundered, blood spilt, life extinguished, all in this festering vortex of malice.

Everything fought and killed beside her. A vast melee that seemed to have no side, no objective but kill. Kill. Kill!

Behind the Alicorn, the mountain loomed. In front of the Alicorn, the forest roared.

Luna fought alone. Why, Fluttershy knew not. The Princess was only distinguishable from the monsters around her thanks to being the only spot of color in this gray world. She fought. She killed. She screamed. She cried.

“Luna!” Fluttershy shouted, and her shout was the voice of the heavens. The earth shook with her voice, the monsters around her flickered away.

Luna turned, and saw her. Fluttershy lifted her hoof. “I’m here!” she shouted again. “Can’t you see me? Are you okay?”

The Alicorn blinked. She stopped fighting and looked around her, dazed. “You’re…” she stammered. “You can’t be here! No one was ever—”

The plains of slaughter vanished.

It was a clearing in the Everfree Forest of the deep. Wide and open. The mountain was close, far more resonant than Fluttershy ever saw it, but not as close as before.

In the middle of the clearing was a rock. Fluttershy wouldn’t have noticed it save for the life and vibrancy it had. It was gray as rocks are, yet it seethed with importance. As if it was the only thing that was real, the only thing that mattered.

Luna burst from the edge of the clearing, her coat soaked crimson. Twin paths had been cleared upon her face from the tears pouring down them. Luna’s pain was obvious, her muscles at the end of their fortitude. But fear of what lay behind her pushed her on. She forced her body to work, and she ran. She ran as if hell itself was at her heels.

The rock waited patiently.

Luna reached it, but she never saw it. She tripped, despite Fluttershy crying out a warning. A warning swallowed by the dream. Luna fell. Her chin met another rock, and blood erupted from her muzzle. Another wound; another reason to bleed.

Fluttershy approached, shouting with no voice. Luna never saw her.

“I can’t,” Luna muttered, tears streaming down her face.

“Can you hear me?” Fluttershy asked, a question not even she could hear.

“I don’t want to. Not anymore,” Luna continued, sobbing. “I won’t win. I tried, and they nearly killed me. It won’t ever stop. They’ll keep coming, and I… I can’t. I just want to go home...

“But she’ll ask. She’ll ask and what will I say? How can I face her after what I’ve done?” Luna dug her hooves into the ground as she gritted her teeth. “She will judge. They all will judge. Not enough, never enough!” Her horn ignited, and the rock groaned before collapsing in on itself, naught but a fleck of dust carried away on the breeze. “They did this! Where are they? Safe and warm, and… and… damn them! Damn them all to Tartarus. Damn them for making me live a nightmare!

“You win. You win!” Luna lifted her neck, still lying flat and broken, and screamed over and over: “You win! You win!”

Her head fell back to the earth. “Your way, then...”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to say. Not to this misery, this defeat. Even if she could be heard, what did you say to somepony who was so… so…

Broken?

She said nothing. Didn’t even try. She simply sat next to the Alicorn, and hugged her.

Luna’s eyes snapped open, locking with hers. “You’re…” she stammered. “You can’t be here! No one was ever—”

Fluttershy knew that all color and all life had fully returned. But it didn’t matter. It would never matter here.

Everything was gray because that was the only color to find, apart from the distant blue orb that made you shiver with loneliness and want. There was silence because sound didn’t exist. There was nothing to smell, not even the ash-like dust that stirred from the desiccate bed beneath her hooves.

She felt alone and cold. More than she could ever imagine, more than she would ever think possible. She shouted, and she knew her voice would never be heard. Talking, shouting, begging would be absolutely pointless: You wouldn’t be heard. Not because of a magic that could fade. Not because there was no one here at this moment. No. Because this was the truth of this place: There was nothing for you, save to covet the blue world, your home, hovering in the distance, and know that all you wanted and craved was in sight but out of reach.

Fluttershy still gave it a shot. She didn’t ask for help; she called for her friend.

“...Luna?”

And her voice was there.

“This was earned,” Luna said, yet she was nowhere in sight.

Fluttershy jumped, spinning as she tried to locate her friend. “Luna! Where are you?”

“I’m here.”

“I-I can’t see you...”

“I’m here. You’re standing on me. What could be me. What I became. I never stepped hoof on the surface. I could never even see our home, but I could almost feel it, like a pull. Or maybe I imagined it.”

“You’re—”

“What I earned. I deserve this.”

“Luna, no.” Fluttershy said. “What this was, it was a mistake. Princess Celestia never meant for this to happen to you.”

“But I still deserve it. I tripped, Fluttershy. I tripped. That’s all it took. I tripped and became a nightmare for it. I failed so many throughout my life, you and your friends taught me that. All that was… I still believe I did the best I could. It wasn’t good enough, though. But this last mistake and the one before that, the fire and the betrayal… I tripped. I tripped long before that rock in that damned forest. And this is my debt: Eternity. To live forever, in the hell of my own making, alone.”

“No. This is… This is a dream! Do you remember? Like mine! The venom is trying to beat you, to beat your magic. Don’t give up, Luna. You can beat it, it’s just a dream!”

“No. You and your friends were the dream. I can see that now. I never left. I went mad, and I dreamed I was free: Walk. Breathe. Have a friend. But I know what I did. I always knew, and not even my madness would let me escape my hard-earned hell. I know exactly how I failed, how easily I ruined what I should have held close. All so I can better appreciate this torment.

“It was a nice dream, Fluttershy. I’ll miss it. I’ll miss you all… ” The stars, dim already, vanished one by one, evanescing like candlelight mournfully snuffed out upon reaching the vestige of the wick.

“It wasn’t a dream! You do have friends. Raegdan is waiting for you!”

“A dream.” The light of the sun, so far beyond, faded to nothing. Frost alighted upon the tips of Fluttershy’s wings.

“We all care about you!”

“A dream.” The marble of green and blue became smaller, fleeing from the moon.

“Your sister loves you and waits for you at—”

“A dream! It’s all a dream!” Black. All black. All nothing.

“I am not a dream!” Fluttershy rebutted. “Do you remember Harry?”

“Your… bear?”

“Do you know why he visits twice a week?”

“For a… massage. I… I saw—dreamed—it.”

“Do you remember what you told me? ‘I would have never dreamed this even in my craziest dreams.’ ”

Luna’s voice waned in its resolve. “I… I’m apparently unhinged enough to do so.”

“Remember when Raegdan found that dress a couple of days ago that Rarity was making, hoping to one day show it to Princess Celestia?”

“He… stole it and wore it to dinner for a laugh.”

“Would you, of all ponies, imagine somepony being that silly? Pinkie was a part of it, tell me how.”

“She… She arrived late because she had stolen the clothes Rarity was making for Raegdan, and wore them to that same dinner…”

“You were laughing so hard you couldn’t breathe. You didn’t even eat. Was this how you imagined being happy before? Would you ever dream such dreams?”

“I…” The darkness which threatened to consume everything began to scatter. Fluttershy brought a hoof before her face, discovering she had been trembling. Luna, fearful, said, “What is happening? Something’s happening.”

Fluttershy looked behind her. The sun, previously a distant orb of white was now on the moon’s horizon, huge and warm and golden, shining on the moon that slowly grew lush green plains and towering mountains, the blue of the sky smiling down upon the land.

“The sun is rising,” Fluttershy said, tilting her head.

“There’s never a… The sun doesn’t rise here...”

“It does now,” Fluttershy said, a small smile on her muzzle. Luna was now no longer just a voice, but her form was so faint Fluttershy had to squint to make her out. The Alicorn looked at the sun with widened eyes. “It’s tomorrow.”

Luna’s gaze never left the sun, but her ear flicked in response. “...It is?” she whispered.

Fluttershy walked next to Luna, observing the sunrise alongside her. “Yes. You may have tripped, Luna, but that was yesterday. It’s a new day, and we’re here for you, to help you stand back up. And if you ever fall again, we’ll be here for you tomorrow as well, and all the days after.”

A tear rolled down Luna’s cheek, shimmering like a silver star. “There are no new days here. There’s nothing here, no one was ever...”

“Then how come I’m here with you?”

Luna groaned. She opened and closed her mouth as if trying to speak. Fluttershy squeezed her soaked cloak, the only way she could think of to carry water since she had left their possessions behind, over Luna’s mouth. She had taken the liberty of cleaning the unsightly grime and detritus from Luna’s matted fur as the Alicorn rested. A smaller piece of cloth was on Luna’s forehead, remaining cold, the fever thankfully abating.

“Luna? Can you hear me?” Fluttershy asked gently.

“Yes…” Luna croaked.

“Do you know where you are?”

“The Everfree Forest.” Luna kept her eyes closed, and still seemed out of sorts. Her speech was slurred, and her limbs moved lethargically. “The one I really don’t like.”

“Do you feel better? Is the venom gone?”

“Almost. The poison’s almost gone,” Luna answered, shaking. She reached up, and Fluttershy leaned into the hug that Luna so desperately needed.

“They’re not here…” Fluttershy whimpered.

It’s not fair. She thought that as soon as they made it to the root of the mountain, their troubles would be over: Applejack and Raegdan would be there, both solid and dependable—both in very different ways but always sure of what to do—again both in very different ways.

“They will be,” Luna affirmed. She limped for the steep, bare incline. She had regained a little strength, and she insisted it was enough to walk by herself. And when Fluttershy argued about what they should do if they came across monsters, Luna said she’d make do. She always did.

Luna pointed up. The mountain lay before them. It looked inhospitable and lifeless. Nothing but rock and hard shadows, going ever higher. It made Fluttershy’s heart tighten with dread in a way nothing else so far had. The Everfree Forest held the lingering threat of a violent and messy death over your head, but the mountain seemed to shape the weight of a noose around your neck; perhaps this was why Fluttershy suddenly found it so difficult to draw breath in this place which disconcerted her so.

“We should ascend,” Luna said. “We might be able to spot them better when they arrive or they us. I don’t want to stay here either way: We’re too close to the Valley.”

Fluttershy shivered. She was glad the mountain’s mass hid it from sight. She had seen enough in Luna’s… dream—or memory?—of what lay in that valley. Of the unending charnelhouse.

She couldn’t help but morbidly wonder, though: What brought that to pass? Why would the creatures of the Everfree Forest slay one another in the hundreds in a senseless abattoir? What possible reason to exist could it have?

Everything else made some sense. Even the Heart, as a way of adaptation, though Fluttershy still had qualms about the changes she witnessed: Flight, stealth, numbers, all these were a better way of propagating a species, but in almost every case, the Heart encouraged offense, ferocity, and size. Were these truly the optimal survival tools?

Or were the Heart and the Valley connected?

Fluttershy had devoted herself to understanding the animals in her care, and even those that weren’t. But she wasn’t sure she truly understood the Everfree Forest in spite of her observations. What other mysteries lay hidden beneath the canopy?

She glanced back. The forest lay behind her and below, shielding its secrets. The columns held the stone roof as they always did. Flying forms and lights of gold and silver filled the air. It remained as it always had been.

Maybe there was nothing to understand. It was inscrutable because there was nothing behind the curtains; life was an end in and of itself, and here, death was only incidental.

Luna stopped to glance back as well, noticing that Fluttershy had lagged behind. “Do you see them?” she asked.

The secrets or our friends? Fluttershy asked herself. “No,” Fluttershy said, answering all three questions. “Do you think we’re high enough?”

The rock ceiling was a long way off. “Enough to be safe, but I’d like to go as high as I can. You may stay here and wait. I will search for a way to reach an exit once Raegdan and Applejack make it to us.”

“I’m coming with you!” Fluttershy called out, running behind Luna. “You’re not well enough go alon—”

With a sharp snap and a grinding groan, the mountain swallowed them.

Fluttershy, screaming in fright, fell down a stone gullet, her head hitting a squishy surface that throbbed. She fell down, slipped smoothly on a vein-filled tongue, and landed on a rock with her broken wing.

She barely registered the tsunami of agony before her brain collapsed under its weight.

“...Fluttershy? Fluttershy. Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy opened her eyes. She could see only blackness.

Her back was on fire. All sensation in her wing had deadened.

“You’re awake! Oh, thank the stars! Fluttershy, whatever you do, stay where you are. Stay on the rocks.” There was a rumbling, the sensation an avalanche thundering through the air around them. Luna went silent for a moment, but Fluttershy could hear her shifting in the darkness. Something moist and cartilaginous brushed against Fluttershy’s hind leg, causing her to seize in place. “They have no eyes, no ears, but I think they can feel what it feels.”

Fluttershy whimpered, her heart thundering in her chest. “Luna? W-What happened? Where are we?”

“I’m… I am so sorry, Fluttershy. I should have realized when Solid Charge told me about the third one. I should have realized. I shouldn’t be… I was too afraid to even think of this place. I should have seen it!”

“Luna, you’re scaring me. Where are we?” Stone crunched under her hooves, and Luna sharply urged her to stop moving.

A light flickered to life, courtesy of Luna’s horn.

Fluttershy saw them: she saw the black tentacles that were their bodies―some thin and others thick―the orbs of flesh which constituted their centers of mass, the flowers of teeth sprouting inside the jagged, cross-like wounds that parodied mouths. They slithered and clambered, glistening slime left behind their prodding feelers.

“We were wrong.” Luna’s voice trembled. “Fluttershy… Another Leviathan was here all this time, and nopony knew. Charybdis wasn’t the fourth...”

The Mountain pulsed.

The Mountain groaned.

The Mountain fed.