As the day went on, Farren trudged through the forest, his thoughts absconding to the past. He remembered his times with the royal family, watching them grow, witnessing his nieces during their coronation. Weeping with his eldest niece at the loss of the youngest...and then, that night. That single nightmarish night. If he did not still bear the scars he would of written it off as mere nightmares, but such was not to be. The darker the paths he wandered in his mind, the darker he became, the shadows seemed to gather around him again, animals ran in fear, monsters cowered in their lairs. It seemed as if he had become a being made of pure shadow, drifting through the now unnaturally dark woods, trailing whips of emerald flames bursting forth from two hellish burning slits that had become his eyes.

If one had the courage, or foolishness to listen in close, one would hear a faint chant being whispered. Though the voice was deep, dark, and thunderous in its nature, its whispers were like silky shadow, a multi-voiced phantom of speech that made the skin crawl in abject fear.

Again and again this whisper of a voice chanted, but it only said two words: "Never again....never again...never again...."

For hours this dark figure chanted, gliding at a steady pace towards home. At the sight of said home, the figure relaxed. The shadows receded once more, the animals came back, and the sun shone once more through the treetops. With a heavy. world-weary sigh, Farren once again stepped into his cozy little hobbit hole. Going through the motions, he once again hung up his cloak, set aside his shillelagh, and put away his satchel. Then, without further ado, he sat down once again in a comfy armchair, the same one he had arrived with all those millennia ago.

"Well old friend, at least your still here." he said, patting the armchair with a nostalgic look in his eyes.

Picking up a book from the table to the side, he opened its contents, and lost himself in its story. With each chapter his dark thoughts and haunting memories were pushed aside, to be deliberated upon at a later date. Looking up momentarily from his book, Farren realized that the house felt empty and all too quiet without his three guests, and it made him feel empty himself.

"Music, thats what I need. A little music to head off this loneliness." he said to himself.

Standing up from his chair, he reaches over to a small box on the table, opening it, he pulls out a finely engraved pocket watch. After sitting back down in his chair, he presses the button on the top, opening the watch with a little "click!" A tune begins to play from the music box inside. Settling back into his seat, Farren closes his eyes, and begins to softly sing a lullaby, one he had sung many times.

Close your eyes, fill your head
Rest your body on the bed
Dream of roads that lie unlead
Dream of words unsaid

I will keep you safe at night
I'll turn every wrong to right
And I will stay from dark to light
And I will hold you tight

Though you're young and free
You're a part of me
To you will come no harm
While you're in my arms

Close your eyes, fill your head
Rest your body on the bed
I will keep my child in sight
I will hold you tight....

With a sigh, he looked to his book, and picked it up once again, "hmm, much better, now where was-"

"Uncle Farren...."

"Celestia? Luna?" His breathing quickened, and his eyes widened in fear.

Suddenly, he froze, hands clasping the watch shut, cutting off the music and breaking the spell. In that moment, a flood of repressed memories, dark thoughts, and a black pit of despair, once controlled and kept at bay, now slipped past his mental defenses that had slackened in surprise. There was the sound of glass breaking; the void had claimed him, and now the whispers came back:

"Did you think you could escape?"

"It was only a matter of time..."

"Should of never trusted those fillies"

"They're here to take you back to the room, that damnable room!"

"You wont let them, never again, never again, never again, Never again, NEVER AGAIN!"

...
...
...

"Never again will I be made a prisoner of Ponies, they will NOT take me alive..."

With each passing moment, his madness grew like a weed, worming and rooting itself deep in his mind. With a reluctant gait, he stumbled to the door, a small part of his mind hoping that he was wrong. But as soon as he opened the door and looked outside, that small part of him was dragged screaming into the void, and he knew no more...

As the group followed the emerald flames, they noticed that with each passing moment the flames grew brighter, signifying that they where getting closer to the source. As they pushed through some bushes, they stumbled into the familiar secluded clearing, the bright sun streaming down seemingly out of place in the dark forest they had just traveled through.

"Here we are! Thats the place princess!" Scootaloo pointed towards the homely looking hill with a door in its side, a sliver of smoke rising from a small metal chimney at the top.

"Odd looking home if you ask me." said Rainbow Dash as she hovered near the group.

"I must say that it looks wonderful, very homely and neat." replied Rarity, appreciating the picturesque little garden next to the round green door.

As they got closer and closer to the door, they suddenly stopped in their tracks as the musical tinkling of a music box was heard through the door. Cellestia and Luna's eyes widened in recognition of the tune, hadn't they heard this same song, when they were just fillies afraid of the dark? Then, a stallions voice filtered through the midst of the music, softly singing a lullaby. The lullaby had different effects on the ponies, most listened and got lost in the words, smiling pleasantly. Some, looked drowsy and felt safe for some reason, as if the singing had chased away the dangers of the forest. But for the princesses, the effect was most dramatic. Both had tears in their eyes, a mix of pain, longing, joy, and nostalgia fixed upon their faces, their mouths silently singing along to the stallion's voice, each word mirroring his. At the close of the song, they had tears streaming down their faces, their minds not believing what they where hearing but their hearts knowing who it was that was singing.

"Uncle Farren..." they uttered in unison.

Suddenly, the music stopped. There was a silence, a long one. The ponies suddenly snapped out of their trance-like states and looked around in confusion, there was a feeling of tension in the air, coupled with a faint feeling of fear and dread.

"Celestia? Luna?" asked the voice from within the home, a faint trace of fear in his words.

The door opened slowly, silently, until a head peaked out from the doorway, emerald eyes wide, burning with fear and dread. Those eyes took one look at what waited for him outside, and they did not like what they saw. Quick as a flash, the door slammed shut once again, this time accompanied by a plethora of "clicks" and slams of locks and deadbolts being slid home up and down the door.

"NEVER AGAIN!" screamed Farren, "NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE MADE A PRISONER OF PONIES!"

"Uncle Farren! Its us, your nieces! Whats wrong?" asked Celestia, now realizing that something had gone very wrong.

All that could be heard was the sound of many things being thrown or shoved against the green door, he was barricading himself in.

"Princess Celestia, whats going on?" asked Twilight nervously, her panic rising with each moment.

"I do not know Twilight," replied the Solar diarch, "Farren was never like this, what happened to him?"

As the sounds of the desperate human barricading himself in faded, the three fillies went up to the door, leaning on it and looking to the now dark windows in worry.

"Mr. Farren, are you ok? Why did you close the door?" asked Sweetiebelle, her two friends nodding in agreement.

There was no reply, the house had become eerily silent. Again the ponies looked to each other in confusion and worry, wondering what had gone wrong.

"This is serious, Im going to have to teleport us in." said Celestia, looking to her sister, they nodded in agreement, and with a flash, now found themselves in a darkened hallway.

The house now looked nothing like what the fillies had described it. Objects and furniture was strewn about, either thrown aside or used as parts for the hastily made barricade against the door. The window curtains were all pulled close, plunging the whole home into darkness, and by this dim light they could see a faint green glow coming from a doorway infront of them. Cautiously approaching, they eased open the door a crack, and peeked through.

It was a bedroom, but it looked like a manticore had mauled it. The bed and chair where torn up and The source of the glow came from two burning green coals peering out from under the bed, all semblance of sentience gone from them, now replaced by an animal like fear and savagery.

"Uncle? Uncle Farren? Is that you?" Celestia tentatively asked, "what has happened to you?"

"Sister, look. Look whats written on the walls." said Luna with worry in her voice.

On the walls of the bedroom, what had once looked like claw marks now revealed themselves to be writing. One the walls there were things written in an arcane flowing script that they could not understand, while other messages were eligible, what they saw were things like "Monster" or "Never again."

That's when they heard it, that eerie whisper of a chant, "NeveragainNeveragainNeveragainNeveragainNeveragainNEVERAGAIN!"

The chanting reached a fever pitch, now screaming instead of whispers. With each word the burning green coals underneath the bed burned brighter and brighter, the shadows began to converge on the bottom of the bed, almost as if the figure underneath was drawing them in.

Looking to each other in worry and concern, the two alicorns then looked back at their beloved uncle, now brought so low by unknown means. It broke their hearts in a way like no other.

"Uncle please, come back to us. We mean you no harm. No one here wants to hurt you." Pleaded Celestia, tears in her eyes, voice thick with emotion.

The whispering stopped, and silence reigned once again in the little room. Then, from under the bed chuckling was heard, before the princesses could react, the chuckling turned into a twisted perversion of something between sobbing and laughter. The laughter then devolved into inane babble and giggles, each gasping and sobbing bout of laughter making it very clear that this was the laughter of the truly broken, the giggles of the insane. In between the fits interjected by demented mirth, the sisters were able to make out some sentences, but did not like what they heard.

"heHheheHEHeh,safe?wahtssafeSunnotsafe,moonnotsafe,faccnyponynotsafe,suntellliesSUNTELLLIESHAHAHaHahAHaHAHAHAHaHA!"

"Hes gone mad sister, just like Discord." Luna lamented.

"Yes, but like Discord he can be helped," said Celestia, determination now burning in her eyes, "I just hope we're not too late."

"The MindWalk spell?"

"Yes, hopefully we can repair the damage that has been done."

The room was then lit up in a warm golden glow as Celestia concentrated, the light chasing the shadows away. With a flick of her horn the bed was lifted off the ground and set leaning against the far wall. Now revealed from its hiding spot, the dark shadow looked around frantically for another place to hide, but before it could move, Celestia and Luna smartly stepped forward, and tapped their glowing horns to its forehead. Then, everything went white...

Author's Note

The music and pictures are not my own.
As for the music: Subscribe to this guy and show him some love.

How am I doin? Also, the MindwarpF***ery chapter is next. Imma gonna put in that dark tag now.