The darkened room disappeared from around Lily, replaced by a grassy field dotted with wildflowers; the sunshine and the distant sight of trees against a backdrop of tall snow-covered mountain peaks providing a much more pleasant atmosphere than before. Grass crunched under her hooves, which she looked down at and noticed were much smaller than usual.

I’m a filly! Lily observed as she surveyed what miserly slice of the scenery her short frame could offer. Unsure what to make of the phenomenon but strangely at peace with the situation, she looked around at the others standing with her, all foals like herself. I must be revisiting my life after what happened to me in that room. Am I really… dead? Her heart sunk at the thought of Daisy and Roseluck’s reactions.

A fully-grown adult mare led the foals, marching four abreast. Lily knew this was something that had happened before but it wasn't until the mare turned to check up on them that she recognized her face. Oh no. I know what this is. Why am I here? Have I been sent to Tartarus instead of the Summerlands? I don’t want to see this! Unfortunately for Lily, she had no control over the younger version of herself, who acted of her own accord. She was a passenger inside filly Lily’s head, along for the ride without the courtesy of an emergency exit in case of deep personal shame. Unable to stop what came next, she felt her head turn in the direction of her old ‘love interest’ — if such an expression could even apply to a foal. A blank-flank unicorn with the exact same colors as Roseluck, but her mane was pulled back in a Prench braid. Lily noted with her an uncomfortable lurch in her stomach she too had very prominent ears.

Celestia, help me, I can feel my younger self being turned on by a foal! Is there no end to my misery? Lily felt her younger self’s heart quicken at the sight of her red and pink locks all swirled together like a candy-cane and was filled with an overwhelming desire to run her face through them. Every now and then somepony would look over at Lily as they chatted amongst themselves leaving her to pretend to be looking at something else. When she thought it was safe, she’d continue her admiration from a distance, occasionally bringing her gaze upon private places that made Older Lily wish she were tuned back into the darkened room as she was being killed.

Mercifully, the horny filly stopped looking at her twelve-year-old sexual interest and on to the saddlebag she carried on her right flank, checking to make sure the zipper was secured. It would be an absolute disaster if the note she’d intended to give Divine were to fall out for all the class to see.

It’s going to be a disaster anyway! Older Lily thought to herself bitterly. Sadly, the older mare’s wisdom wasn’t getting through to her younger self, because the scene continued to play out unchanged from all those years ago. The same couldn’t be said of adult Lily who felt her juvenile libido hitting her with a force not felt in well over a decade. Every flutter within her belly, every muscle twitch in her tail seemed accentuated by the rush of adolescent hormones surging through her. Her earth pony teacher would occasionally say something, but Lily couldn’t hear what was said, having not remembered a word of it, only the barest recollection that it had happened. The afterlife could stand to be a bit more informative because all I’m learning is how desperately I wanted to roll in the hay with Divine Spark. I wonder what she looks like today? I hope she’s absolutely miserable!

The entire group stopped at the entrance to the wood. Lily looked up at the sign which towered over her, telling them they’d reached the Bittsburgh State Park along with a historical marker mentioning the park and its surroundings played host to the first skirmish between thestral farstriders and griffin army infantry during the early stage of the Griffin Imperial War ending their short-lived neutrality agreement. Adult Lily couldn’t help but find the sign portentous as the thestrals ended up losing badly in the following campaign which the teacher helpfully explained, sparing her young students the horrific details of the dragon-fueled scorched earth tactics that ended with a good portion of the forest between Bittsburgh and Canterlot incinerated. Didn't do the Everfree Forest's reputation any good either when fighting spilled over into it from the east.

The teacher’s voice came through clearly this time. “Alright, everypony. Now that we’ve finally made it to the forest, I want each of you to explore and find me one of the items on our list you were assigned to pick up. Just be careful about eating anything you find here that doesn’t look familiar. And for Celestia’s sake, Cookie Cutter, don’t go near the poison ivy this time!”

“Sorry!” one of the colts called back, while the teacher sighed ruefully.

The foals split up into groups of three, and walked out onto the smaller trails leading deeper into the woods, leaving Lily, Divine Spark and Divine’s horrible cow of a friend, Tootsie Pop, off on their own trail, the latter chattering away about mean-girl nonsense as Lily searched for an opportunity to get a word in edgewise with her unicorn crush. I think Roseluck is right; I’d have better luck if I didn’t walk way far back from everypony like that.

“Hey, Lemonade. Why don’t you ever say anything? You’re like, creeping me out over here!” Tootsie the corpulent, caramel-coated candy-themed catastrophe called back to Lily by her foal-given name in her usual insufferable upspeak. “Are you planning to kill us all or something?”

Lily’s ears splayed back angrily. “Leave me alone, Tootsie!” Lily’s eyes darted away from the horrible filly towards the ravine she knew she’d find the Lily of the Valley they’d come for, and with it her cutie mark.

“Yeah, shut up Tootsie! Why you gotta run her down all the time?” The unicorn shot her friend an ugly look before falling back to walk with Lily, whose eyes had gone wide with shock having never had anypony stand up for her like that.

Don’t get your hopes up, filly. Adult Lily thought to herself.

“Why? Because she’s a sneaky rat who hides under things and looks under our tails when she thinks nopony is looking. Pervert!” Tootsie spat hatefully at Lily, before turning her gaze back onto the trail. She disappeared behind a bend in the trail.

“I told you all it was an accident!” Lily lied, as she looked down at the trail, mortified. She knew it was a rather weak defense, but when one finds themselves caught staring from beneath the bleachers up a high-school cheerleader’s skirt during practice, there’s no real way of excusing it. It didn’t help the cheerleader she was ogling was Tootsie’s sister and further hurt her case that nopony was desperate to look up Tootsie’s skirt anytime soon lest they be turned to stone. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

“You don’t have to explain anything, Lily,” Divine replied to her, extending a hoof to block her path.

Wait, what? This never happened! What the hay is going on? Lily all but shouted inside the back of the filly’s mind, who seemed to be of the same persuasion regarding events despite never having not lived them yet. Lily looked back bashfully, her face getting warm. “Divine? You don’t hate me or anything?”

The unicorn responded by nuzzling the length of Lily’s neck and jamming her tongue roughly between her lips.

This. Isn’t. Happening! Lily felt her head swim as she felt her former flame pin her to a tree as she felt her tongue begin to fight back. A fire Lily had never known was lit within her loins and steadily began to grow. This is not good! I’m not getting turned on by this! I’m not going to be locked in Tartarus for eternity! Please, stop! The other filly was nowhere to be found as the pair slid away from the tree with a quiet yelp, tumbling a short distance into a soft mound of dirt covered with pine needles. After the pair untangled their legs, Divine smiled playfully and launched into another round of kissing while Lily lay beneath the taller filly, her muscles tensed with anxious anticipation as her crush proceeded to lick at her neck. This isn’t real… None of this is real! I need to wake up! Luna, help me!

I am what you’ve always wanted, my love… an unseen older mare’s voice with a smoky, seductive timbre replied back to Lily within her own mind, as Divine worked the rims of her ears with her long tongue. I am your dream come true. Give in. Accept that you are a sexual creature and find the pleasures of the flesh you have so desperately desired.

I am not! Who are you? Young Lily could feel her muscles begin to relax over time as she lost herself more and more to Divine who plunged once more into her mouth, their tongues sloshing wetly as the filly began to assert herself sexually. Whoever you are, please stop this. This isn’t right. This isn’t supposed to happen. This isn’t who I am. Please…

You will come to accept yourself… in time, my love, the voice spoke back, its tone almost mocking as it spoke the last word.

Luna, my protector; save me from this madness! Lily prayed, even as the lust began to consume her mind, a dark desire to remain growing deep inside her fragile psyche. Luna, my guardian; hasten to my side and banish the impure! Luna… Lily whimpered as Divine’s kiss broke, the unicorn swallowing their love spit indecently with the hardened stare of a serial predator, eyes trailing lower on her prize, contemplating the fatal stroke. This is it… It’s over. Lily closed her mind’s eye, hoping to lessen her judgment in the hereafter.

Ahem! A gruff male voice inserted itself into Lily’s mind, making a loud and rather obnoxious throat-clearing sound. Mare-E had a little lamb. Little lamb, little lamb. Mare-E had a little lamb. Her fleece as white as snow! Whaddya think? Not bad, eh?

Lily’s eyes burst open as the scene disappeared into bright lightness as she felt an upward tugging on her soul, pulling her consciousness up out of filly Lily's body and into the sky. Lily gave a silent thanks to the protector of dreams as the scene completely vanished into a field of countless stars.

What? Impossible! The female voice returned, not so serene and detached as before. You mongrels managed to find that lowborn thestral? This isn’t over, Lily Valley! You will not deny your Master’s will! The voice shrieked with a deafening pitch as Lily felt pulled out of her own body, upward as she screamed internally.

*****

“Hey! Look, she’s coming around.”

Lily stirred, coughing as she inhaled an unhealthy amount of mold and dust up into her nose. The voice that had awoken here was definitely not coming from inside her head this time and sounded gruff and masculine.

“Lily! Yeh’re alive! Let’s get yeh back to me room so we can make sense out of all this.” Golden Harvest’s familiar voice brought the first real comfort to Lily she’d known since entering the room.

Lily opened her eyes and looked up to find her orange-coated friend, along with the thestral she’d seen earlier, looking at her with approval. She gave the pair a puzzled glance. “Was that… you? I heard a voice singing to me. I was doing something... terrible, and the singing made it stop…”

“Well. I couldn’t have done it without you!” The thestral exclaimed, punching a hoof in the air. “You totally saved my rump back there! I thought I was going to be stuck in the Deep Place forever. When I saw you’d been pulled into that foul dungeon too and couldn’t wake you, I found the hole in the wall and attempted to wake your friend, and she couldn’t be revived either! I was pretty desperate and I’d nearly panicked entirely when I remembered the musical notes that broke me out of there, and so I sang them to your fillyfriend. After reviving her I came back in here and it worked on you, too! A bad night all around, but things are starting to look up, I'd say!.”

Lily threw her forelegs around the thestral’s neck and hugged him tight, her breath shaking slightly, no longer caring about his scary appearance or predatory nature. “Thank you…” The earth pony got a proper look at the misunderstood stranger, taking note of the vivid orange ruff of fur around the exposed part of his chest and neck and subtle tan circles around his eyes and muzzle giving him the look of a bat wearing brown-framed spectacles. The combination of these features with his otherwise non-descript black fur coat and matching mane and tail called immediate attention to his face and Lily found it difficult not to stare.

“Hey, don’t mention it, filly. Sorry for the scare back there. Must have been a pretty bad one, huh?” he asked her apologetically, patting her gently on the back.

Lily reluctantly broke her embrace, sniffing gently as she revisited the ordeal in her mind again. “I thought you were going to eat me. What’s going on here? Why is a thestral stallion of all ponies trapped inside of some filly bar?”

“Reckon I’d like to know meself!” a clearly relieved, yet exhausted, Golden Harvest chimed in. “Seeing as how yeh’ve been so helpful, can yeh clue us in on just what the hay is goin’ on?”

“We don’t have much time if my hunch is correct, but I do think introductions are in order. I am Lieutenant Chest Candy of the Night Guard.” The thestral extended Golden Harvest an armored hoof.

Lily lifted an eyebrow. “Chest Candy?”

The soldier furrowed his brow. “That’s Lieutenant Chest Candy to you cake-eating civvies! The Night Guard’s most highly decorated officer. Just look at all those medals!” The diminutive bat-pony stood up proudly, displaying his chest and neck, which were decorated in all manner of ribbons and awards. “But we can talk about me later. The truth is, I can’t explain absolutely everything to you gals since I got knocked out and shoved into that room as soon as I got here.” Shaking the dust off, the three filed out of the musty room through the hole in the wall back into Golden’s suite.

“And why did yeh come here, mister?” Golden Harvest asked politely, fetching the stallion some water in a glass.

Chest Candy accepted with an outstretched hoof. “Thanks! I gotta say you ladies are taking this a hay of a lot better than most ponies would in your situation. You country folk are a tough breed!" The thestral smiled at the pair of mares, proudly puffing out his chest. Well, I suppose I should bring up the most pertinent fact of tonight’s events first. We’re all inside of a dream.” The two mares gasped.

“Wha… what?” Lily gawked at the thestral, who she noted was hardly taller than she was. I guess being part bat and part pony makes them naturally shorter than us. I bet He could still eat me though! “Golden Harvest and I were both asleep! All three of us can’t be asleep right now!”

Chest Candy extended a hoof defensively. “Whoa there! You need to let me clarify the situation before you try to make sense of it.”

“We’re listening,” Golden Harvest said warily. “But do bear in mind yeh’re inside of a fooler bar as a stallion and as a thestral we almost never see outside of Canterlot. What I mean to say is, yeh better have some compellin’ evidence for us or I might just call the paddy wagon for yeh!”

“Mighty stern words, civilian! If you were one of my soldiers, I’d make you drop and give me twenty right here!” Chest Candy’s voice was stern, but his smile betrayed his true feelings. “Now as I was saying —” the thestral took a drink “— This... is a dream.” he gave a sweep of the room with an outstretched limb. “I was sent here with a team of two other technicians to investigate a critical error that occurred shortly after the dream started. Most dreams are unique to the pony who’s having them, and the stuff that happens and ponies they meet inside the dream are reflections of what’s going on inside their noggin. A pretty basic program that doesn’t require much upkeep or maintenance. It’s basically a self-operating system that helps ponies process the previous day’s events and work through stress accumulated during waking hours.”

“Otherwise you’ll go completely insane within a matter of weeks,” Lily finished his thought, her ears dropped while contemplating the terror of being permanently warped by madness.

“Bingo. Now on the nerdy technical side of things, imagine the dream as a flat disc — two-dimensional with no depth — stacked atop an infinite number of other discs occupied by the dreamer and segregated one from the others, accessible only by Luna and members of the Dream Guard. The dream itself has no end but fills itself in as the dreamer explores it, dealing with their stress in the process. It doesn’t manage 100% of all our people’s problems, but it achieves close to that. Quite a bargain as far as government programs go if you ask me! Of course, our enemies from beyond the stars have little regard for what’s best for us. They’d even use a system designed to segregate ponies from their corrupting influence as a way to make them go crazy through subversive means. That place the three of us visited is a dark shadow of the dream we call the Deep Place; a dark, totally inaccessible network of dream stacks controlled by the demons. Not even Luna herself can go there.”

“A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind pony, Mister Candy!” Golden Harvest exclaimed, her eyeridges furrowing to a point. “So we’re in trouble then, is it? Have the faeries gotten us or sumthin? Explain yehrself!”

The thestral merely sighed and took flight, positioning himself near the veiled window which continued to shine its light down on the assembled ponies. “I’ll just get to the point then…” Punching the curtain rod off of its supports, the curtain tumbled to the floor, Lily squeaking with fright at the display of force. Unfettered by the curtain, the light now poured unfettered into the room, nearly blinding the two earth ponies who reflexively threw their hooves in front of their eyes only to realize hey felt no pain and experienced no blindness.

“By Hades Black Gate! What is happening out there?” Golden Harvest asked, her teeth clenched as she realized that not only was the thestral not lying but that she’d soon be wishing he was just a creepy fang-toothed pervert locked inside a bathroom door with magic.

“Need a better view of our present situation? Well, that can be arranged!” Chest Candy stated grimly before punching a hidden switch in the wall just below the window. An electric flicker of light emanated from the wall like the one from before vanishing completely. The mares looked out on the scene in stark terror. Outside of their room was not the night sky of Ponyville but a golden shaft of light extending from the darkness above them into the dark, empty void below them where the ground should be. “Look closer. Don’t worry about falling, the wall is still there, it’s just not lying to you anymore.”

The shaft of light which appeared to the eye to be a hundred years off or so had no visible source and no terminal point, plunging straight into oblivion below outside their island of artificial reality. Golden Harvest touched the barrier with a trembling hoof finding it stopped by an invisible force. She could see the structure of the building standing as if on solid ground, suspended atop nothing. The details of the outside were completely gone, even though she definitely remembered the green grass, the smell of pollen and apple trees and the faces of the ponies she’d walked past to get to the bar. The sky, or whatever it had become, was a murky black with frothy streaks of white moving slowly across its surface like freshly-poured creamer on a cup of hot coffee. Purple clouds that occasionally sparked with lightning zoomed across the endless horizon in all directions, lit by the flash of each bolt.

Lily attempted to scream, the sound echoing through her mind even as no scream was heard. Filled with utter panic, her eyes darted for the door. Before she could make her escape, the thestral flew swiftly in front of her path, blocking her with a steady hoof.

“Listen, I’ve limited the impact of sound in this room and I’m keeping us in here for a good reason. I’m a whole lot more worried about what’s inside this building than outside it! But now that I’ve got your undivided attention, I should probably explain a bit more before we get our flanks out of here!”

“Out of here? Out of here?” Golden Harvest shrieked as she gesticulated frantically towards the transparent wall. “Are ye daft? There is nae out there! We’re bloody trapped in here, yeh stoopid idjit! The Earl of Hades has taken us in our sleep!” Tearing up, she hugged her equally teary-eyed friend tightly.

“Roseluck! By the sisters, she’s still out there! We’ve got to find her before we do anything else. Please help us, stranger!”

The thestral raised a hoof in warning. “Now just hold on a minute, gals. You have no idea what you’re up against here! I need to get you out of this dream and call in for backup before the entrance is engulfed by the void.”

“And if you don’t?” Lily asked as her eyes darted around at the void-filled horizon.

“The dream’s been put into a shutdown state by demons for reasons I don’t yet understand, but whoever is inside when it does will descend into the Deep Place; it's a place controlled by the vilest souls imaginable —” Chest Candy fell to his knees with a grunt, seemingly pushed by an unseen force as the mares gasped. The room gave a violent shudder, the room’s only clock falling off the wall and landing face up in the center of the room, still displaying the time as 10:30. The stallion felt his grip on the room’s psychic defenses slip away.

A cold, feminine laughter filled the room, the sound emanating from the very walls themselves. “‘Vile creatures’, you say? Is that any way to address your Goddess' family? Kneel before me, lowborn and I may yet allow you to service me for all eternity! Defy me, and you will service my followers instead... As a mare!” The echoing voice cackled gleefully as a trembling Lily and Golden clutched one another for comfort.

A crackle of electric blue formed around the thestral’s outstretched hoof materializing in his grasp as a matching blue spear with a gleaming silver handle which he pointed at the door. “Juniper Tree…? Your cell in Tartarus is waiting, you hateful old witch! What is your business with these two innocents?”

The voice responded with a venomous hiss. “How dare you speak that name! I am Morning Star, your immortal queen, and you will scream that name from now into eternity once I’ve had my way with you!” The voice ceased, leaving the room silent save for the whimpering of the two earth ponies and faltering confidence of the party’s lone stallion. “My business, you ask? The same as it’s been since being locked in this dream when you dusky-coated weaklings failed to stop Celestia’s army from breaching the gates of the Stellar Citadel six centuries ago. I’m going to return to Equestria and finish the job. With the help of your adorable friends, especially the rose-colored one. Yes… that one shows great promise. Once she’s been molded into a useful vessel worthy of being... filled. The voice emphasizing the last word with a carnal need that chilled the ponies’ blood.

“What are you doing to Rose?” Lily squeaked as her shivering intensified.

“Oh don’t fret, earth peon. She’s in no great pain. Unlike you, your friend knows a good thing when she’s got it. She will partake of the desires of the flesh in my temple of lust for all eternity! Now, come unto me. I am most generous when I am well-fed with the meat of the guilty. Surrender and know eternal bliss in my harem. Defy me… and I will build my celestial kingdom upon your desiccated souls!” The Juniper voice exclaimed as the void behind them lit up with purple flashes of lightning.

“M-meat of the g-guilty? T-temple of lust?” Lily’s legs had given way, leaving her cowering on the floor in front of the fallen clock.

“The mortal is born into this world with the will to survive, but having achieved her needs she exists only to serve her own desires. These mortals fatten themselves with excess until their meat is sweeter than honey: The meat of the guilty. The weak make a fine meal once left to pursue their own ends. Your Roseluck is a true example of your pitiable race; a mare fit to serve me.” Juniper’s air of smugness fell as the temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing. “But you, Lily Valley? You are an aberration, a defective. I give you a chance to live again through my dream; a chance to satisfy the one thing you’ve always desired, to fix that which was broken inside of you, and yet you reject it outright.”

“You wanted me to mate with a foal, you sicko! That thing you showed me isn’t real anymore! You’re just teasing me or trying to turn me into you!” Lily’s voice cracked as she shouted at the disembodied voice.

“She’s right!” Golden Harvest stood up defiantly, facing the door as if it were the maw of Juniper herself. “Yeh tried the same thing with me and Applejack inside of my dream! As if I don’t spend every day trying to drown that memory with every mug of ale I drink. Go away, yeh blasted faerie!”

Another crackle of light and a black helmet and face mask appeared over the thestral's head, now fully suited for battle. “We don’t want you or your illusionary paradise, Juniper Tree! You call us all guilty, but the only one here responsible for your madness is you! You declared war on Equestria after they helped the Highborne Thestrals gain independence from Thestralslovakia. You forced my people to fight despite your unjust warmongering. You watched the blood pour from your body as the last remaining vestige of your equinity was sacrificed in a sadistic ritual to escape justice!

“And now that you’ve shown yourself you have nowhere to run to! Know that the might of the Night Guard and Luna herself stands behind me and we’re ready to deliver you to your cell in Tartarus personally, demon!”

More laughter from the walls, frenzied and mirthless. “You’re not completely worthless, are you, dusky? Perhaps you’ll provide me some worthwhile distraction while I destroy what little hope you have of resisting my rule. You may even come to enjoy your existence as a mare more than you'd ever care to admit. If you three won’t accept mercy, then the rod you shall have instead. Farewell, foalish heroes! Until we meet again...”

The room gave another shudder, harder than before as the light outside the window began to grow wider, cutting it’s way closer and closer to the window.

“The door!” Lily shouted, finding it locked up tight. After a sharp kick to the door by Chest Candy revealed the door to be sealed up by a force field, the three began to move towards the hidden room when the entire length of the outer wall gave way, tearing away the bathroom in a horrible crunch of shattered wood. The harsh, chilling winds from the nether outside blew unhindered into the room, a veritable maelstrom that pulled at them, threatening to suck them out into the void.

Chest Candy grit his teeth, his pupils shrinking painfully at the blinding light pouring into the room. “Follow me, gals! We’re being pulled in! Grab hold of me, quick!” The two mares complied even as they sobbed over their certain doom. “This isn’t over!” The Night Guardspony shouted as the room dissolved into the golden light, the sounds of the building being torn to shreds fading into the distance.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. I'm working on chapter six right now which will bring things back to Roseluck. You can guess what she'll be doing, but with whom?

Thanks as always to Firesight, Denim Blue and Silentwoodfire for editing, advice, and banter: the holy trinity of shitlording!

5/24/2018: Grammarly edit pass complete.

12/11/2018: Chapter edited. It needed help badly, to be honest. At least two major contradictions and one bit that was pointlessly explained twice. By this point in the story's life cycle it's so long between updates I'm not even connected to the story in any meaningful way, creating these huge oversights like explaining what the Deep Place is twice and saying Lily is looking on from above as well as from the filly's POV. It's absurd.

Oh well. That's what this read-through is for.