Golden Harvest’s nose twitched as the scent of pollen floated past her nose. “Oi… That was a rough one!” She shifted uncomfortably as she felt the small pebbles embedded in the rocky soil beneath her poked her in the flank. A high-pitched gust of wind whistled past her upturned ear, its strangeness coaxing her heavy eyelids to open. While waking up outside was hardly beyond Golden Harvest’s experience as a pub crawler, the ambiance was decidedly off-kilter. Brushing herself off, she took in the scene and was quickly filled with a feeling of absolute dread.

Before her lay a large field of stones ranging from foal-sized chunks of granite to more imposing Ursa Minor-sized boulders that towered way overhead, stuck in what was once a riverbed as far as Golden Harvest could tell. Not that she was in any condition to consider the matter soberly as she trembled at the sight. Begorrah! The faeries really have taken me! I have to get out of here and find Lily! Frantically, she looked for a clear path through the boulder field to avoid the stones as much as possible, which Caleponian legends stated authoritatively was where the Little People liked to hide — tiny ponies with insect wings who captured the big folk and dragged them into their faerie realm to keep as pets, never to escape. So strong was her people's faith is such legends they would divert a road to steer clear of areas like the one in which she found herself. Clearly, being left stranded here by her captor was intended to seal her fate.

Golden walked noiselessly, aside from the hammering of her heart in her dream self’s figurative chest, watching the stones out of the corner of her eye, fearing her gaze would draw the cruel fae out of hiding. In the distance, she could see a line of trees, not a welcome sight by any stretch with its berry bushes where faeries also hid but surely more secure than this taboo place!

Golden’s ears carefully filtered the air for sounds of impending doom: the sound of boulders shifting and the cries of tiny voices, but also anything of the more mundane sort. She came up with nothing but the latter, hearing the distant crackling of tree branches smacking together and the howling of the wind through the wide canyon, but even that was spooky without the chirping of insects of the songs of bird calls, which were missing despite the approaching trees being in full bloom. Noting the chill in the air and the enveloping darkness surrounding her, she thought there might be a storm coming, but she was greeted by something much worse when she looked up — an ominous bank of spiraling clouds like a great whirlpool in the sky.

Panic began to set in as the orange earth mare began to sob, pressing on slowly and hunched close to the ground towards the treeline at the end of the field as she crept past the hulking stone sentries. Her mind was filled with a terrible desire to call out for help that she forced herself to ignore. There was no help, only faeries, and this fight was personal anyway. Golden steeled herself as she thought of the harsh voice of Juniper Tree screeching threats at her and her friends. Clenching her jaw to prevent her teeth from chattering, she grimly marched the remaining fifty feet, which rose up slightly and disappeared beneath a canopy of trees. Hope blooming inside her chest at the prospect of escaping the worst, she made a dash to the canopy as her hooves hit soft moist earth which muffled her already quiet hoof clops further before coming to a halt.

There, stretched out across the entire length of the tree line, was a seemingly endless row of thistle bushes which blocked her path, their stems capped with purple flowers and covered with razor-sharp thorns. Supposing the forest only opened up in certain places like the Everfree, she scanned the area for any sign of a road or trail without luck.

Sobbing hard once more as she looked out across the field of boulders, she heard the sound of rocks falling from their piles in the distance. Resigned to her fate and feeling lightheaded from fear and hopelessness, she swayed lightly as if about to lose consciousness, but willed herself to remain standing and not faint. She snorted angry, as another sob escaped her. “Curse ye, little monsters! Come out and fight! I’m tired of yehr games! Face me, yeh cowards!” Her final exclamation echoed loudly off the walls of the canyon.

“Brave words, pony!” A female voice called out from behind one of the stone piles as no fewer than twenty Highborne mares, armed with spears and crossbows took flight from behind their hiding place, taking up position in a semi-circular aerial formation far out of the unarmed earth pony’s reach, covering any possible angle of retreat. Their leader, a yellow and blue spiral-maned horned thestral magus holding an electric blue bladed scepter and wearing an ugly smirk on her face, hovered over the defenseless pony with an imperious air. “Your ancestors would be proud of the way you bravely faced your paranoid delusions based on old, badly interpreted myths. It’s a shame all that bravery is going to get you is an eternity of slavery to me and my colony.”

“See me? See me hoof?” Golden Harvest waved a hoof threateningly at the lead thestral, noting with a pang of fear the thestrals exposed stallion equipment dangling from beneath her. What sorcery could have produced such a creature? Golden Harvest couldn’t help but wonder as she screwed up her courage for one final stand, reasoning a defiant showing would indeed please her ancestors, whatever these bloody bat ponies thought of them. “That’s all yehr getting from me by force!”

The sound of many bolts being loaded and drawn filled the air as the leader continued to speak. “Even with the possibility of so much more for the taking? I think not! You carry with you the gift of life, and my sisters have long desired an earth pony of their own to bear them foals. Why should your friend Roseluck have all the fun when you’ve offered yourself so willingly and fallen into our trap? Our Lady shouldn’t have all the fun, after all!”

Golden Harvest flushed as the realization hit home that hers was not the only life at stake; the prospect of capture now seeming infinitely worse than death. The hedge behind her was jagged and dense but would hardly be enough to kill her, though she’d endure no shortage of agony. If she failed to break through it, however, she knew she would face capture after retreating and an endless nightmare of forced breeding. On the other hoof, fighting showed little promise. She would fight them, but eventually be swarmed and subdued and likely violated immediately, judging by their leader’s uncouth manners. With no good options available to her, the earth pony resolved to stall for as much time as possible. If she was going to have any chance of escape from either her pursuers or this horrid nightmare, the more she knew, the better her odds would be.

Golden Harvest lowered her ears submissively and pawed at the ground in an improvised bow. “Please, thestral, tell me… Why are yeh doing this? We have no business with yehr kind. We have no quarrel with yeh, neither. Why take us now in our dreams after all this time?”

A smattering of laughter from the thestrals greeted Golden Harvest, clearly just as rowdy and ruthless as their boss. “You want our plan? What does that concern you, earth pony? All you need to do is surrender, or we can do things the hard way. Either way, we’re going to be enjoying your company! So what’s it going to be, my curly-haired cutie?”

Before she could respond, a mare’s voice sounded in her head. Golden Harvest! Run back through the hedge. I can remove the illusion to allow you to pass. Trust me! Wait for the sign in the heavens. It will signal your flight to freedom.

Golden Harvest’s jaw tightened but made no other outward sign of surprise as she scrambled to think up something to say to the voice that intruded on her mind. Faerie, I know not what your intentions are, but if you help me save me, friends, I shall accept me fate and pay whatever tithe to yeh, come what may, Golden Harvest thought back, assuming the voice was reading her mind with magic.“Please… If you know where Roseluck is, I need to speak with her! I’ll do whatever you want, but I need t’ know!” Golden Harvest forced out, nearly through her teeth.

“Oh, you’ll have plenty of time to catch up with her. After I’ve made a few modifications to ensure you don’t try to escape…” The lead thestral struck out with her weapon held in her aura, aiming to strike at Golden’s forelimbs.

A deafening thunderclap rang out from the swirling sky as the clouds began to rotate faster, glowing with magical light. Golden Harvest felt a tug if on her very soul, feeling her strength fade but for a brief second as if she’d just finished a marathon run. Looking up at the thestrals, they too had felt whatever it was, coming to ground heavily, still in their formation, looking up at the sky in shock. Noting their reactions to the event, Golden backed away from the thestrals a step, feeling the bristles drag across her the thick coat of her sturdy back.

Run, Golden! Now’s your chance!

The sound of thestrals shouting rang out briefly before Golden Harvest disappeared into the hedge and plunged herself into a whirl of pastel colors.

After a split-second of weightlessness, Golden Harvest’s hooves found purchase atop a cobblestone path in the midst of a dark, purple wood. A pale thestral was standing before her, face screwed up in concentration as she focused a magical beam on the treeline behind her; the glow of her horn casting her lovely agelessness in stark relief. Her horn was wrapped in three layers of bright green overglow as she worked to keep the passage Golden Harvest had entered from closing. Her long, green and white mane whipped about as if caught in a gale.

“Outsider…” The thestral spoke laboriously. “Glad you came so promptly. I will teleport us to safety. We have much to discuss, but this is not the place! Stand next to me.”

Golden Harvest nodded, having no idea who her savior was but stepping into the field of light and magic. Feeling the tingle of magic on her fur, her vision obscured by a haze of sparks, she waited awkwardly as nothing happened.

“Ngh! Omicron isn’t so keen to let you go. She’s used her magic to block teleportation from here!” The visibly exhausted thestral mage finally said after a half a minute of suspenseful silence.

“That mingin’ auld tattyboggle!” Golden Harvest exclaimed as the thestral made a face at the pony’s odd expression. “What do we do?”

A shower of sparks erupted inward from the magical shield held against the forest entrance, then another — each blow seeming to weaken its caster. “We need to get out of the forest without them seeing us so I can teleport us to your friends. Omicron Velorum and her colony have already split up by now and entered the forest through other entrances so we’ll need to be quick about it. Argh!” The barrier’s strength flickered and nearly fell as the thestral closed her eyes to focus. “Head down the road and don’t stop running until I tell you! I can see what you see with my magic, but I’ll only be able to help you so much against such numbers. You have ten seconds before I lower the shield. Use them wisely!”

“Aye, miss, and thank yeh!” Golden Harvest turned to gallop away.

Call me Chardonnay should we get out of this situation. Good luck, outsider. May we meet again in peace… and in one piece! The thestral spoke through Golden’s mind as the earth pony set off down the dark road, passing lanterns lit by fireflies as she plunged deeper into the wood.

Golden Harvest had thought she’d known vibrant colors back in Ponyville where the locals decorated everything from houses to sweets shops in the most garish and painfully bright pastel colors imaginable.

I take it all back… was the only thought she could form as got further into the forest, realizing that not even the pony mind could have envisioned a forest more moody yet unmistakably alive with color than this one. The grass which covered the forest floor was as purple as Ponyville’s bookish librarian, interspersed with fragrant wild onions that stood up boastfully with their long green blades. The old oak trees, stout and tall, were cloaked with a dark mist that blotted out the sky, making Golden Harvest wonder if they had a magic all their own.

Houses dotted the landscape, some fashioned from the oak trees themselves, with extensions slapped onto their trunks to give them more living space. The purple and blue-slated roofs with matching stained glass windows combined with the more mundane greens and browns of the massive trees around them to form what Golden Harvest could best describe as an enchanted forest — though unquestionably not as sinister and dangerous as the Everfree even as it was disconcerting all the same. More exotic smaller trees mingled with pastel blue and purple leaves stood near the road, along with small pastel green bushes filled with red berries. Hungry though she was — and how could she even have an appetite in a dream? — the earth pony dared not stop to find out of they were edible or whether she would get ‘dream diarrhea’ from them.

Occasionally the road would intersect with others. Wooden signposts written in Thestralslovakian Cyrillic characters Golden couldn’t read but recognized immediately as a foreign language whizzed by her as she ran past. Even with the universally recognized left-right arrows indicating direction, there was no telling where each path might take her, so she just kept running straight until Chardonnay, goddesses willing, would tell her when to turn…

Assuming she was even still alive to guide her.

The hair on the back of Golden Harvest’s head stood straight up as two white, floating objects out of the corner of her eye came into her peripheral vision. The sound of wood splintering from somewhere behind her sent her leaping off of the road through a clump of tall weeds and splashing down into a small lake.

Chardonnay’s voice broke into Golden’s mind, confirming her suspicions. A wise decision. Looks like two of them snuck past me and took a shot at you. Swim to the other side of the lake straight from where you are. The grass will provide cover. Oh, and don’t worry about drowning. This sounds weird but you can breathe water inside the dream. I know right? Just a shame you can’t fly...

Fancy that. Golden Harvest thought to herself. Maybe I should just stay here in the water!

An arrow shot past her face, displacing a funnel of water before lodging itself at the bottom of the lake. Scratch that idea! Stroking with everything she had, and sending up a torrent of water behind her, Golden Harvest finally reached the bank as another arrow seared past the top of the head, taking a bit of her curly mane with it.

You won’t have to worry about those two anymore. I cast a spell on their bows to break them. From behind her, she could hear a pair of someponies with raspy high-pitched voices shrieking earnestly in a strange polysyllabic souffle of indiscernible gibberish so far removed from Equish it made Prench and Germane sound reasonable. If they catch me I’m really going to be in for it! That’s why you need to keep running. There’s a river north of your present position you need to cross. Don’t go anywhere near the roads now that you’re found out. And by the stars above, watch out for the monsters!

Three loud gurgling roars from one of the nearby lakes caused Golden to turn her head swiftly. Three bark and moss-covered creatures that blended in perfectly with the forest around them charged the pony atop their two wooden legs, beady eyes glowing with unnatural green fire, their arms outstretched.

“By Tartarus’ black gates! What are those things?” Golden Harvest changed directions and started running full speed as the hulking monsters’ wooden arms, each capped with four sharp digits reached out from its hideous body for pony flesh, but strength and speed were the hallmarks of earth ponies, and at a full gallop Golden Harvest was too fast for them. Their lumbering two-legged forms were simply no match for pony endurance. Unfortunately, the sounds of their fellows alerted others who rose out of the murky lakes all around her, trapping her inside a rapidly closing ring, their roars chilling her blood. “Chardonnay, help me!”

I’ve got you covered! Flying cover for Golden Harvest from somewhere near the treeline, the thestral took off like a shot, flying in front of the pony’s field of vision and launched an icy lance from her horn which struck the ground with a whiplike crack, freezing three of them to the ground. That’s the direction you need to go. Give them a good kick and send them back to Tartarus where they came from!

Charging forward as the three frozen monsters fought to break free of their icy bounds, Golden Harvest leapt at the nearest one and shattered it with a with a spinning two-legged buck. The monster let out a moan of anguish as it was battered by the Golden’s powerful buck as the evil magic left its lifeless, shattered form. Following up her success, she punched out the second beast with her forelimb and mashed the head of the third with another spinning kick, sending it flying off into the brush — its lifeless body falling over limp.

Taking the hint, the remaining tree beasts maintained their distance, allowing Golden Harvest a path of escape.

Chardonnay’s cheerful voice popped back in. Masterfully executed, my pony friend! I don’t think we’ll be worrying about that lot anymore. Let’s go before the real danger out there — curses! It seems you didn’t quite shake those last two thestrals.

Out from behind one of the oaks, a white blur flew out at Golden Harvest with her spear drawn, only to be cut down at the last second by a spell that paralyzed her wings and sent her hard to the ground, her spear coming to a rest in front of Golden’s hooves. The other enemy Highborne thestral sent out a loud screech, signaling her allies in the area before retreating.

Golden Harvest looked upon the spear and its owner who lay some distance away feeling guilty. Reminding herself the thestral was trying to kill her somehow, or worse, didn’t make the feeling go away.

Chardonnay landed a short distance from Golden Harvest, looking on the fallen thestral with an equally guilty expression. “She is alive, but unable to move. I... can’t bring myself to kill her. I… love her.” The thestral’s voice grew somewhat unhinged as she drank in her fellow thestral’s curvaceous body and the way the light leather armor formed so perfectly around her rump. “I love all of them! Please… leave us here! I can’t do this!”

Golden Harvest grit her teeth as she watched Chardonnay’s sanity began to unravel in front of her. “Are you okay? I think you’re right. We really do need to get out of here before she wakes up.” Golden Harvest waved a hoof in front of her thestral friend’s unresponsive face. “Come on, filly! Snap out of it!”

“Chardonnay… I should have known!” the fallen thestral finally managed to raise her head to speak as the spell slowly began to wear off. “Tell me, blood traitor... What do you think the mistress is going to do to you when you’re finally caught? I could give her a few ideas she hasn’t tried, personally. Rut you with a spear for one!” she snarled out through bared and pointed teeth.

The explicit threat of torture seemed to do the trick for Chardonnay who finally broke out of her trance. She blinked her eyes rapidly before shaking her head, apparently having regained her bearings. Her eyes widened as she turned to Golden suddenly.“Oh no! Golden, you’re right. I-I lost myself back there… let’s leave her and get going! Follow me!” She flew off with Golden Harvest following close behind on hoof.

Out of sight of the enemy, for the time being, Chardonnay and Golden agreed on a change of plans, however reluctantly. With the time to prepare after escaping their first wave of trouble, the magus was able to weave a spell to make Golden Harvest untrackable and camouflage her to the forest. “I just wish I’d gotten to you sooner so we could have been a bit more creative about this.”

“I still don’t see how you creatin’ your own exit with magic is going to be anything other than a roll of the dice, but I cannae see another choice.” Golden Harvest sighed as the two slowly made their way to the border of the wood, which became progressively less colorful from the dead and dying trees and plants. Patches of purple grass appeared completely scorched as if by flame without any evidence of a forest fire. “Or for that matter, why can’t we simply walk out?”

“This forest isn’t a natural place where trees grow out of the ground, but a magical containment zone for something much more terrible, cut off from the rest of the Deep such that even I can't simply fly out. It’s not just the Highborne here in Our Mistress’ Deep,” Chardonnay explained as the two snuck past a group of patrolling demons whose appearance caused Golden Harvest’s guts to clench. They were unlike anything that's ever lived on Tellus: As tall as minotaurs but with smooth hornless heads topped by a helmet tipped with a long jagged spike. They walked confidently on two legs, their bodies covered in blue and gold suits of armor covered with massive spikes all save for their exposed fiery-red muscled torsos. To complete the sinister picture, they each carried a huge, lethal six-bladed axe in their talon-like paws as if their body armor wasn’t deadly enough.

Golden Harvest found herself staring at their strangely-placed teats mesmerized, not only at the placement so high up on its body but that they were present at all on such a masculine frame.

“She’s invited horrible creatures from across the Nether to live here as emissaries a short while ago, though she’s confined them to select locations like this one.” Chardonnay continued on, having snuck their way past unseen. “They’ve taken the liberty of corrupting parts of the forest itself into shambling mockeries like the swamp monsters you fought earlier in Juniper's moment of distraction with you outsiders. It’s only a matter of time before they betray her trust and turn on her. I don’t like the look of them at all…”

“I feel nothing but despair at the sight of ‘em!” Golden Harvest nodded in agreement in a haunted whisper. “There must not be any harmony at all in the world they came from!”

Chardonnay’s voice went grim as well as her face if Golden Harvest was able to see it through the camo. “If you only knew what was living out here, Golden Harvest. If you knew the kind of trouble that exists beyond your world… you would abandon all hope for the future of Equestria. You are all doomed once the dam breaks and these things come into your world. And one day they will, if not by the Mistress’ own doing than by somepony else possessing her avarice and lust for power.”

“If they come, we will fight. Ponies will always fight when foreigners invade our lands.” Golden Harvest proclaimed matter-of-factly, feeling a moment of pride in her equine legacy of determined and ultimately successful resistance to outside invasion. “And if necessary we will bring the fight to them in whatever way we can.”

The slight disturbance in the air where Chardonnay was standing indicated to Golden she was shaking her head. “This foe cannot be resisted once it sets its gaze on a target. Their numbers are endless and they form an invincible horde. Perhaps we can slow them down, but we must take the first step, together, and escape this forest.”

A line of impenetrable foliage greeted the pair at the edge of the woods. Two jagged obsidian structures that glowed with a green fire stood nearby on either side of them some two-hundred yards apart, guarded by more of the ax-wielding demons. “Strange… I wonder what they built all the way out here?” Chardonnay wondered aloud.

Golden Harvest sighed, looking forlornly out at the solid wall of brush and trees. “Either way, our chances of using your portal are about zero.”

The magus scanned the terrain more closely, her eyes catching on. “You’re probably right. But if my suspicions are correct, I won’t need to risk it. I just need to figure out where the exit is…” Chardonnay took to the air behind her invisibility spell and scouted the area more thoroughly before landing again. “This wasn’t the exit strategy I was hoping for...”

“Yeh found the way out?” Golden Harvest’s ears immediately perked up.

“Judging by the layout of the installation itself, those two towers are gatehouses, but since there’s no visible gate, that means the treeline itself is the gate...”

“So we need to go into the towers with the demons to open the gate,” Golden Harvest finished for her friend. “That doesn’t sound promising. Can those things even be killed?”

“Only a weapon enchanted to slay demons can kill a demon. I know the spell that can enchant any weapon to do the job, but… Well, I’m actually a demon myself. Pretty ironic, huh?”

“Begorrah… I don’t know what to say to that.” Golden Harvest’s stomach turned over as the gravity of situation fully struck home.

Chardonnay laughed nervously as she saw the look on her friend’s face. “Just don’t go poking me with whatever I bring back, okay?”

“Maybe we should try something else? Yeh were really keen on that portal idea earlier…”

“And you were right about it basically being a gamble,” the thestral interrupted. “The fact is even if we did escape using my portal spell, everything in this forest is going to be on our tail once we made it through, due to the massive shift in magical energy to my person while I cast it. Doing things this way, we get a head start before we really rattle their teacups.”

Golden Harvest groaned miserably. “Point taken, lass. Oh, this dream is going to be the end of me!”

“Well, look on the bright side. If you die, you’ll go to the Summerlands and live in Harmony forever!” For the first time since the two had met, Chardonnay actually smiled. “I’ll be right back. My wings will make getting a weapon a lot easier, I think you’ll agree.”

“Aye, right!” Golden grumbled skeptically, for all the good it had done since Chardonnay had already flown off for the cluster of jagged, obsidian buildings that formed the main part of the base. Five tense minutes of waiting later and the thestral magus returned with a black dagger that matched the look of the base itself perfectly, glowing with a faint red aura.

Chardonnay levitated the weapon over to Golden Harvest who grabbed the fiery-red leathery handle with a hoof. Yeeeech! Where has this thing been? Golden thought to herself, trying not to think about the fact the hilt was clearly made from the hide of some unfortunate animal, or worse, the hide of a demon as it didn’t resemble the skin of any animal the earth pony had ever seen.

“Looks good on you!” Chardonnay smiled awkwardly, thinking back to her earlier remark about being a demon. “Now the trick is going to be killing the two guards at the same time so neither can see what happens and sound the alarm. The controls likewise have to be triggered at the same time or else it won’t work and slaying the sentries puts us on the clock, as it were. I’ll speak through your mind to tell you when to do the deed. Assuming, of course, you don’t have four left hooves and get caught sneaking. In which case, there is always those glorious Summerlands for you!”

“The Summerlands sound overrated to me if you don’t mind me saying,” Golden Harvest grumbled. “Let’s just get this over with so I can have an alcohol-fueled mental breakdown over this later!” she stated, allowing herself a moment of respect that she hadn't already given in to despair and thankful for The Deep's lack of scotch. Placing her purloined blade carefully between her teeth, she set off down the forest path.

Golden Harvest was delightfully surprised to find the path to the guard tower to be entirely free of demons, though she moved carefully as not to attract attention to the light bending around her body, Chardonnay having warned her that rapid movement would compromise her camouflage spell. 'Being invisible doesn't mean you can't be seen' as she put it. The guard tower itself was accessed by an opening in the front in place of a door that went all the way from the ground level to the lip of the roof which was a flat disc-shaped surface surrounded by erratic, sharp, pointy, twisted, obsidian spikes that screamed of massive overkill on the part of the architect.

Reaching the top from a set of stairs that wound around the outer wall, Golden reached the top and saw — and smelled — the demon himself (herself? itself?) who reeked of burning sulfur. With her mouth having gone dry and suppressing the urge to scream or puke, she approached the demon from behind, trying to imagine how in Equestria she was supposed to kill this thing. She could poke him through the exposed part of its armor, she supposed, but did it even have a heart and lungs?

OI, CHARDONNAY! I’m up here and I’m scared to death. How do I kill this thing? Golden thought to herself as loudly as possible.

Hey, you didn’t have to yell! Now my head is throbbing… Chardonnay sounded genuinely affronted. But we can make amends later. So the weapon only really needs to penetrate him to the hilt and the enchantment will do the rest. Think of it like giving him a needle, only the needle isn’t going to make him feel better, but make us feel better!

Beneath yehr lovely exterior yeh sure got a black sense of humor, m’dear.Black as night! Golden replied, more quietly this time, not realizing it was possible to scream at someone inside your head. Say the word.

The demon grunted, a faint sniffing noise coming from beneath his helmet.

The demon shouted something in the demonic tongue, his voice distorted and tinny. With surprising agility for such an ungainly looking creature it raised it’s ax and spun around to land a killing blow on the pony before receiving a dagger through the chest. Green blood poured from its gaping wound before it burst into flames, singing the earth ponies eyebrows as she withdrew the blade.

Okay, press down on the surface of the orb in front of him… now! Chardonnay commanded.

Doing as commanded, Golden Harvest pressed the orb when the wall of the forest vanished entirely.

Go! Go! Go!

Yeh don’t have to tell me twice, lass! Golden Harvest called back, her spirits rising and she descended the tower and took off, full tilt, towards the open gate. About halfway between the gatehouses and the opening in the forest’s perimeter an alarm inside the base sounded and demons — some carrying axes like the ones they’d killed and some that appeared to be some demonic version of guard dogs that ran on four legs and sported two long antennae — began pouring out from the base to see what was going on, but the two mares were too fast for them. Passing through the gate completely unscathed and undetected. Once on the other side, the two whooped for joy.

Chardonnay wasted now time, her horn already beginning to glow by the time she could speak. “I’ve had about enough of this place, you?”

“Me eyebrows are still smokin’...” was the only thing Golden Harvest could say before being pulled through time and space by the teleportation spell as the world around her disappeared into nothingness.

The two ponies reappeared inside of a small building built out of tree branches. Dizzy and slightly nauseated, Golden Harvest sat down on her haunches and began to rub the spots out of her eyes. “I’d ask if I’m awake, but I don’t feel quite lucky enough for that.”

“Well, we had luck enough to get out of there.” The thestral closed her eyes, going silent for a moment. “I have contacted your handsome thestral friend and told him you’re here. He told me… Well, he wasn’t as sweet about being contacted through his head as you were.” Chardonnay frowned. “He did say he’d come here and meet with us though.”

Golden Harvest smiled for what seemed like the first time in an eternity. The two enjoyed a comfortable silence, breathing in the somewhat smoky air of freedom as the forest continued to smolder around them.

“I’m kinda impressed by what you said back there,” Chardonnay finally let out.

Golden Harvest gave the Highborne a quizzical expression. “I beg yehr pardon?”

“Trapped and with no hope of escape, you were willing to appeal to me for the safety of your friends at your own expense. Any friend would be honored to know a mare such as yourself.” The horned thestral mare gave a pointy fanged smile and hugged the earth pony mare.

“Oi! Yeh're certainly friendlier than any faerie I’ve ever heard about!” Golden reciprocated the hug, avoiding the wings as best as she could as if she were a pegasus and had the same taboos about physical contact there. “About what you said about being a demon earlier and you’ll forgive me frankness, but have yeh truly come to help save me, friends?”

The thestral nodded, her face shifting from momentary joy to shame. “I am one of the Highborne who seek you out, but not to do harm… this time.”

Golden Harvest looked back at her warily. “This time?”

Chardonnay exhaled deeply, her gaze not meeting Golden’s as she went on, “In life, I did many… terrible things!” The thestral shivered and Golden harvest could swear she smelled a faint hint of her erotic essence in the air. “I am not a good pony, friend.”

The thestral gave a brief explanation of how Juniper Tree had risen to power with the help of her cultists, like Chardonnay herself, and had taken over Thestralslovakia after a coup d'etat. Golden Harvest was disgusted and horrified as she spoke, but still willing to trust her, feeling sorrier for her than afraid as her voice cracked with painful emotions. “I did not come to the dream along with her and her followers but committed my share of crimes in her name many centuries after she lived. My final act was to follow in her hoof clops, ending my own life in ritual sacrifice to join her within the dream so that I could serve at the side of the great champion and savior of the Highborne race. The details are less than pleasant, but suffice it to say I have lingered for far too long in this realm and now seek some small measure of redemption in death, even if it means I must finally answer in Tartarus for all my crimes.”

Golden Harvest covered her mouth as she gasped. “I cannae excuse whatever you’ve done in yehr life for such an evil tyrant, but it’s obvious speaking to you now you’ve had many years t’ regret yehr choice.”

Chardonnay whinnied softly as the smell of arousal inside the room intensified. “Alas, death would not bring me the peace I so desire now. Juniper was less than impressed with my sacrifice. She told me that as I had not borne the same burden her followers had and lived a life of safety and luxury as a pony collaborator that I was not worthy of the full honor of being her disciple.” Bitter tears began to roll down the fair thestral’s face, an expression of deepest loathing etched into her visage. “I was therefore to serve the cult for six-hundred years as a comfort horse, being rutted — sometimes for what passes for days on end to you living folk — by any and all who felt the need, which is at all times since everypony’s gone mad from constantly being lucid within the dream.”

Golden Harvest began to weep softly as centuries worth of pent-up misery began to pour from the Highborne’s enslaved spirit. “I’m three-hundred twenty-two years into my service, and even now part of me wishes to be filled by them again…” Chardonnay gave a high-pitched sob, wiping the tears from her eyes with her hoof. “...and I hate myself for it!”

Golden Harvest looked up at the desperate mare as she cried, and understood entirely now why she’d helped back in the boulder field. “We’re gonnae get you out of here too, Chard! Don’t yeh worry.”

The thestral gave another sob, more forceful than the last and hid her face from the earth pony. “No! I can’t go back! I have no body to return to even if we did escape this place because it’s already turned to ash within my grave, to say nothing of everypony I ever knew and loved. All I could ever hope to ask for at this point is for my soul to finally find rest and to end Juniper’s horrible reign over The Deep Place once and for all so nopony else has to suffer. I believe to achieve one I must fulfill the other, and so I will help you in any way I can. It’s the least I can do after all the harm I’ve done.”

“From what yeh’ve told me, Juniper has much to answer for,” Golden Harvest replied, gravely. “When this is all over and we’ve got everypony back, I’ll appeal to the Princesses themselves to pardon yeh if that’s what it takes. The Summerlands can’t truly be a paradise if all my friends aren’t there.”

Chardonnay gave the earth pony a wan smile, sniffing loudly and wiping the tears from her eyes. “It’s more than I deserve, but thank you.”

Ten minutes later, they were no longer alone.

The party of Lily Valley, Chest Candy, and Tulip Vale entered the makeshift home. Lily tackle-hugged the orange-maned mare, sharing a relieved cry with her as the dark thestral forced a polite smile for the Highborne’s spirit, receiving an awkward but earnest smile in return. Then, with the adventures of the evening discussed and occasionally strained pleasantries having been exchanged, the ponies mood turned grim as they contemplated the road ahead that would lead into the heart of Juniper’s empire.

Author's Note

5/24/2018 That's it! Grammarly has updated everything in my possession outside of my canceled story and The Scent of Prey which is going to be rewritten. Even my most recent work was pretty flawed grammatically and now it's not. It's a good day.

12/12/2018: Holy shit, I love this chapter. Did some editing work on it so it's even better. If I ever write a true World of Warcraft/MLP crossover I think it will be pretty decent.