Whipstitch

Chapters

Strange Days
Boredom and Summons
A Lesson in Chaos
The Second Meeting
Hair, Death, and Getting High
Close Encounters of the Chaotic Kind
The Hair (and the Plot) Thickens...
The Recovery
Talk Is Cheap, But Worth A Lot...
Inquiry
Sickened
Old Stories

Strange Days

To be honest, Princess Celestia had no idea what she was doing in the small shop on a side street from Ponyville's main hub. She knew what she was supposed to be doing, of course, but she had no idea what she was getting done by being at "Whipstitch's Repairs." There were assorted colors of thread everywhere, including under her hooves.

If I needed a dress repaired or refitted, I could easily ask Rarity. Not only is she better-known, but her work has gained quite a bit of reputaion... This "Whipstitch" seems as if she may have set up shop in the wrong place.

Her mind flashed back to Pennington Inkwell, her sister's student and a pony that Celestia had come to know rather well over time.

Oh, ask Whipstitch! She can fix just about anything! The author replied enthusiastically. She's an old friend of mine! "Birds of a feather," as they say.

"Hello? I'm looking for a Miss... Whipstitch?" Celestia called out, readying herself to leave the small, seemingly abandoned shop.

"OH! Hello!" A mare's voice called out from the supply closet. The door was shut, and Celestia couldn't see any kind of light coming out from the crack at the bottom. "I- I'll be right there! Just give... me... a... MINUTE!" As the strain in her voice grew to a climax, a light-pink pony with a long, black mane came flying out of the closet, landing in a heap at Celestia's hooves. Through the open door, a small mouse scurried out, shot across the floor, and into a hole broken into the base of one of the walls. The hole was quite odd in itself, looking as if it had been made by some kind of projectile and accented by stains from some kind of red liquid. If they hadn't looked so much like blood stains, Celestia may have dismissed it as a mouse hole.

"Oh! Princess Celestia!" The pony, obviously the mysterious "Whipstitch," scrambled to her hooves and did the best bow that she could without planting her horn in the Princess's hooves. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Celestia rolled her eyes, expecting another flank-kissing pony who wouldn't even move unless commanded. To her surprise, after making her quick bow, Whipstitch jumped up again and ran to the hole, trying to peer into the darkness.

"You got lucky today, Mephistopholes, but just you wait! I'll get you eventually!" She waved her hoof at the hole for emphasis, gave the wall a good glare, as well, and retreated back to the Princess, looking up at her with her large, grey eyes. "I'm sorry that you had to see that, Princess. How can I help you?"

"Well, first of all, I could give you the number for an exterminator, if you need one... He's great with mice." Celestia was still eyeing the hole in the wall, trying to discern the source of what couldn't possibly be blood stains.

"That was no mouse... But I'll have him out of here in due time." If looks could kill, Whipstitch would have blown the entire wall to bits when she looked back. "In the meantime, what are you doing here? I mean, it's obviously an honor to have royalty here, but you wouldn't be here if I couldn't do something for you!" She walked back and shut the closet door, hiding away whatever secrets might be inside.

"Yes! Well, I'm afraid that something rather valuable was broken earlier this week..." Celestia reached back into a small bag and pulled out two halves of a large tome. "Pennington Inkwell told me that you were the only one that he trusted to repair the bindings on his older volumes, and I was wondering if you might be able to repair this. It's a 300-year-old lawbook from the Canterlot Archives." She levitated the two halves onto a nearby desk, where the pink unicorn immediately began to inspect it with a large magnifying glass.

"It looks like it was struck by lightning... A few minor singes around the edges, but mostly seared straight down the middle..." She looked up at the princess, her face furrowed in a scowl. "How did this happen?"

"Well..." Celestia's eyes rolled towards the ceiling as she tried to determine the best way to say it. "We have a new guest staying with us at the castle... And he's very excitable. When he gets startled, it's usually best to duck."

"Right..." Whipstitch looked down at the book again. "Give me a week, and you'll have your historical artifact back, as good as 300 years old! I doubt that you would want it as good as new if it's a museum piece..."

"So, you can fix it?" Celestia looked around at the thread, spools, and sewing needles laying around the store. "It doesn't seem like books are your specialty..."

"Your highness, I can sew anything from cheeseburgers to wedding dresses!" Whipstitch gave her an enthusiastic wink, letting her long, straight mane fall down and into her face. "If it's broken, I can fix it, don't you worry. Be here in a week, and I'll have it done for you!" With a quick exhale, she blew the strands of hair back out of her face and set herself to work.

"And... How much will it cost?"

"Eh, I'll figure it out later. Somewhere under 40 bits..." She muttered, already engrossed in her work. "Don't worry about it, your highness. It won't be much."

Not nervous around royalty, a bit strange, and all-business when it comes to her work. No wonder she and Pennington are friends! Celestia thought as she gave Whipstitch a polite nod. "Thank you, Miss-"

"Whipstitch! Just call me Whipstitch." The pink pony smiled and looked up from the volume, a small magnifying tool already fixed around her eye. "And don't worry! Just one week. That's all I need!"

"I'll be back in a week, then!" Celestia smiled, feeling a bit cheerful as she walked out again. And, if I hurry, I can even catch the train back to Canterlot!

Whipstitch's thoughts in the next few minutes were few and scattered. This is the same color as sandwich bread... She thought as she examined the thread that she was pulling out of the torn binding. I wonder what kind of sandwich I'll have for lunch today... She gently used a light amount of magic to dissolve away the remnants of the glue that had been used to hold the binding together. Maybe I could have some hay and- Her thoughts were instantly cut off as a new sound entered the room. It was a low buzzing noise, and grabbed Whipstitch's complete attention.

"Where are you?" She whispered, picking a single pink thread up from the floor with her magic. "Where... are you?" She knew that her query was close: the buzzing was obviously coming from inside of the walls of her home. All of her senses were primed. She could feel every tiny air current in the room, smell and even taste the tiniest scents wafting in the slight breeze. Every detail was glaring, and, most of all, she could hear the buzzing coming from the back corner of the room.

She turned slowly, trying not to startle her target. Her breath came slowly, not making a sound as she exhaled. I mustn't scare it... She thought as she advanced on the corner of the room the noise was originating from. A tiny black dot was flickering back and forth behind the curtain, silhouetted by the window's light.

She gently used her magic to pull back the curtain, revealing her prey: a bumblebee gently bumping back and forth against the glass. "Oh... There you are!" She whispered, a grin lighting her face like a spotlight. "Now, just hold still..." With the quiet hum of magic, the thread that she had picked up levitated and curled around the bee, tying itself around the bee's fuzzy abdomen. I... LOVE... BEES.

The bee, somehow recognizing her intention, turned away from the glass and hovered above her nose.

"I'll call you... Buzby!" She grinned and tied the other end of the string around her wrist and gently guided him back to her work table. "The other ponies on Tumblr are going to LOVE you..."

Theere shall bea no singel eunicorne that shall trie too affect the sunne.

"Wow, this old phonetics-based Equestrian is REALLY funny-looking!" Whipstitch laughed as she glimpsed one of the pages that she had set aside for the re-assembly of the book. It had been three days, mostly filled with small orders that kept her only momentarily distracted from her main project. Now, the book had been completely stripped to its most essential, undamaged pieces.

She didn't even notice the door open as she picked up one thread that she had saved from the binding. With a simple thought and a whisp of magical energy, the thread quickly unraveled into tinier and thinner pieces of string. With another pink aura of magic, she picked up an eye-held magnifying glass and placed it in front of her right eye and cringed to hold it in place.

"Hmm... It's aged poorly. There's hardly anything left of the original color."

"You say that as if it's stopped you before!" A familiar staillion's voice called from the open doorway.

"Hey, Penny!" Whipstitch grinned, but didn't look away from her work. After all, she knew what her friend looked like: a dark-blue unicorn with violet streaks in his upturned mane. "Thanks for the recommendation, by the way!"

"Don't call me 'Penny,' Whips!" The second unicorn rolled his eyes, but didn't seem to hold a grudge. "And, you're welcome! I was just coming over to see how that was working out!"

"Well, it's coming out rather well..." Whipstitch gently set the disassembled thread and the magnifier down on her working table and began pacing through the room, eyes locked on the thread-covered ground. "And your work at Inkwell Commissions?"

"Poor." Pennington leaned down, trying to follow her gaze. "I may have to go to Scorching Quill for some... financial help, again."

Whipstitch looked up for a moment, taking a brief but intense look on her friend's face. "You know that I could help you if you ever need anything, one friend to another." After a few seconds, she went back to looking at the floor. "We've both had problems getting buisness, but you just decided on something a bit more... specialized than me."

"That's alright, Whipstitch. Thank you, though! It's a writer thing. We all have our good times and our bad times, and we'll usually help one another when we need it." Pennington looked puzzled as she began to pace around the room again. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for a thread... One that matches the original." She muttered, using her hoof to push aside several strands of string, then to pick up a light, sand-colored one that seemed to please her. "Wonderful!" She quickly trotted back to her workbench, setting out every piece in some semblance of order. "So, how can I help you, Pennington?"

"Oh! Right!" Pennington jumped a little as his original train of thought came rushing back to him. "I need some help... Advice, really." His voice dropped with the verification, making Whipstitch look up at him.

"Advice? That's a first!" Whipstitch cringed as the friendly sarcasm fell flat. "No laugh? Must be bad... So? Talk to me!" She placed the magnifier back in her eye and began her work. She always focused better while she was multitasking.

"Well, I need some help... With Twilight." Pennington seemed almost ashamed to say it. "We got into a fight again. It's stupid, but she's refusing to listen to me! She insists that she's right when she's not!"

Whipstitch rolled her eyes. Stubborn. These two were made for each other. "What is the fight over?"

"Well, I bought her a gift, but she thinks it's too expensive! I try to tell her that she deserves it, but she keeps telling me to take it back!" Pennington sat back on his haunches and folded his front legs across his chest like a child. "I tell her that I bought it for her, that she really is amazing enough, but she just won't believe me!"

"What exactly did you get her?"

Pennington balked at the question, looking nervously from side to side. "Umm... A jeweled necklace?"

Whipstitch raised an eyebrow, turning her magnified eye on the stallion and watching him squirm. "And... exactly how expensive of a jeweled necklace are we talking about?"

"Pfft! Does- Does the price REALLY matter, Whipstitch? I mean, come on, Twilight's just overreacting, right?" Pennington did his best to avoid making eye contact, but his stare kept drifting back to Whipstitch's unwavering gaze.

"How much, Pennington? I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

"Um... Three hundred bits..." Pennington mumbled, looking at the ground again. His face blushed with shame as Whipstitch dropped the magnifier in shock.

"Three hundred bits? Three HUNDRED bits! You just told me that you're going to have to go begging to Scorching Quill for money, and then you turn around and spend three hundred bits on a gift for your girlfriend?" Whipstitch's horn began to glow brighter as the threads around Pennington's hooves tied themselves into knots around his legs. In a matter of seconds, he was hanging from the ceiling by a mess of colored strings like a piñata. "You go and return that gift right now, get your bits back, and pay your own mortgage!"

"Look, Whips, I really think that you're overreacting..." Pennington hardly even seemed fazed by his sudden inversion, a fact that both frustrated Whipstitch and inspired a small amount of respect. "Maybe it's best if I just left."

"Pennington Inkwell, if you can't manage your own money, I swear, I'll walk into your store and start looking for things to sell until you break even again!" Whipstitch glared him in the eye, then sighed. "You know what your problem is, Penny?"

"That's Pennington..."

"I'm mad at you, I'll use whatever nickname I want!" Whipstitch walked back to her worktable and resumed her work on the binding. "You can't focus."

"That's rich, coming from you..." Pennington sounded as if he were going to continue his sarcasm, but a sudden death glare from the pink pony shut his mouth tightly.

"What color thread was I using?" Whipstitch asked as she tested shutting the newly repaired binding.

"Sort of tannish... Old-looking."

"Who's your favorite Princess?"

"Luna."

"What's your favorite Daring Do book?"

"Daring Do and the Dangerous Descent Into the Dragon's Den."

"What color's your mane?"

"Blue."

"What color's my mane?"

"Black."

"Where's Discord?"

"Frozen in stone in the Canterlot Gardens!" Pennington groaned and rolled his eyes. "Whipstitch, what is the point of all of thi-"

"One more question!" Whipstitch held up a hoof in protest to his protesting. "What color thread was I using?"

"Well, it was..." Pennington stopped cold as his brow furrowed. He started to speak, stopped, thought more, then sighed again. "Okay, you win this one."

"Aged tan, like parchment." Whipstitch shook her head in disappointment as she put another mark on a nearby chalkboard. "That places me ahead by ten points, now. You're so obsessed with living in the moment, you forget to think ahead! Return the necklace, pay your bills. Twilight would rather have you soundly provided for than a pretty piece of metal twisted around a bunch of gemstones..." Content with her work on the binding, she looked back up at her friend. "That's what you need to do."

"Well... Thanks, Whipstitch." Pennington finally smiled again as the threads untied themselves and he landed gently on the floor. "I guess I just needed somepony to set me straight. I'm going to take your advice right now!" He stopped at the door and a smug grin spread across his face. "I'm going to change my ways! I'll be a new pony!"

"You're not going to do a single thing I told you." Whipstitch didn't miss a beat, not even looking up from her work at this point.

"Not even one!" Pennington laughed, then walked out. "See ya, Whips!"

"Bye, Penny!" Whipstitch waited a moment, then smiled. "Well, he must not have heard me... Chalk another point up for Whipstitch!" The chalk moved again, striking through a set of five tallies. "Borrowing money from Scorching Quill, my hoof!" She looked over at Buzby, who was hovering at the edge of her desk. "You can't borrow money from yourself! I wonder when he'll realize that I know his little secret?"

Buzby only hummed in reply, his tiny wings somehow keeping him in the air.

"You're right! I need to get back to work. The Princess will be back here in a matter of days!"

"Whipstitch! I did it again!" An all-to-familiar voice rang through the shop with the sound of the bell above the door chiming.

"Just a minute, Derpy!" Whipstitch called as she trotted into the room, a Styrofoam cup held in the air by her magic near her head. "I was just having a little lunch."

"What were you eating?"

"Ugh, microwave soup again... It's not bad, but I don't understand how Pennington eats this stuff at every meal..." Whipstitch took a sip of the broth and shuddered.

"Yeah, I don't like how microwaves taste either!" Derpy grinned, and Whipstitch smiled in return, despite not understanding what the grey-coated Pegasus could possibly be talking about.

"So, what can I do for you today, Derpy?"

"Oh! Here..." Derpy reached into her saddlebag and removed a large mess of canvas fabric. "I broke my mailbag again..."

Whipstitch rolled her eyes, then smiled as she set the tattered bag on her desk. The holes were simple enough to fix, and with the help of a little magic, Whipstitch could fix them with almost no thought at all. "So, what happened this time?"

"Well, I saw Rainbow Dash coming, but I swerved left, and she swerved the same way!" Derpy shook her head. "We landed in a tree, and I guess the branches ripped it."

"Well, don't worry, it won't be any problem, Derpy!" Whipstitch bit off the end of one thread, then moved on to the next hole.

"Thanks, Whipstitch! By the way, I love your new pet!"

"Oh, you mean Buzby? Yeah, most ponies don't like bumblebees, but I LOVE -"

"No, I meant your mouse!" In that moment, the wall-eyed mare held in view the one creature that Whipstitch despised more than anything in the entire world.

"Mephistopholes!" Whipstitch growled as she jumped up onto the desk. Her hackles were raised and her teeth were bared, growling like a mad dog. "Grab him! Grab him!"

It was too late, however. The mouse jumped out of Derpy's hooves and began to skitter across the floor. Derpy, no more confused than usual, took her own leap. She sailed over the mouse, however, and slammed into the wall.

"Good job! You covered up his hole!" Whipstitch shouted as she jumped down to the floor. Derpy, however, was more concerned with the mouse. Mephistopholes had stopped when she had landed in front of him, but was beginning to walk forward again. The mouse's body began to grow longer and thinner, morphing and changing color and shape until it had become a viscious-looking snake. Derpy watched in horror as it slithered towards her, then coiled and prepared to spring.

"Oh, no you don't!" Just as the snake was about to bite into Derpy's face, a jam jar slammed down over it, trapping the now-snake under a transparent barrier. With a single deft movement, Whipstitch turned the jar upside down, slammed a metal lid on top, and given it a definitive twist.

"Ha! Take that!" Whipstitch didn't notice her friend's horror, reveling in her victory. Inside of the jar, the snake was now dissolving away into a black smoke that spun and slammed against the sides. "Not today, my friend! This one is airtight!"

"Wha- What IS that?" Derpy asked, shakily rising to her hooves.

"My sworn enemy..." Whipstitch grinned maliciously and set the jar firmly between two couch cushions. "You're not going to get out of there!" When she was sure that the jar wouldn't fall onto the floor, she turned to Derpy. her eyes lighting up with glee. "We did it! We did it! Oh, thank you, Derpy! I can finally get that stupid thing out of my hair! I'll tell you what, I'll repair your bag for free for the next three weeks!"

"You will?"

"Of course! Do you have ANY idea how long I've been trying to catch him? That little demon has been driving me nuts! I'll tell you what, let's go and get some muffins to celebrate!"

There was nothing that Derpy wanted more than to go and get some muffins, and despite the fact that she still didn't understand what had happened, she was happy to see her friend so excited.

It was time. Princess Celestia had waited the appointed week before returning to Ponyville. Now, she was back in front of Whipstitch's shop, ready to pick up her order.

Only two things had changed about the small shop. One: most of the threads on the floor had moved. Two: there were a few boards over the mouse hole in the wall, but they appeared to have been gnawed through by something akin to a chainsaw.

"Excuse me? Whipstitch, are you here?" Celestia called, listening for a reply.

"Uuuughhhh. Just a minute..." The moan came from somewhere in the back of the shop. Whipstitch emerged, bags under her eyes and dragging her hooves. Her mane was a ragged mess, and her expression made her look as if she had just tasted something bitter. "Oh, good morning, Princess. Your order is ready, give me just a minute..." She gave a weak curtsey, then dragged herself back through the door.

"Did it keep you up late? I know that book restorations can be a challenge at times." Celestia was more than a little concerned. This was a far cry from the vivacious pony that she had first met when she came to have the book repaired.

"Oh, no! No! I was up all night trying to catch Mephistopholes..." Whipstitch's voice was low, but still reached Celestia from the other room. "But he always plays dirty. I catch him in a jar, he turns invisible so I'll open it. I try to smoke him out of his hole, he messes with my central heating to make me freeze all night. I use Holy Water, he sets my house on fire. I set up a ring of salt, he puts anchovies in my midnight snack... It's all-out war at this point."

This is no ordinary mouse... "Are you fighting a demon, Whipstitch?"

"It seems to respond to demon-fighting techniques... and ghost busting techniques... and kryptonite." Whipstitch finally emerged from the door again, this time with a wrapped package. "Honestly, the only things that I haven't tried are the Elements of Harmony and burning down the house!" She gave a small laugh as she seemed to finally wake up completely. "But here's your order, nonetheless! Completed!"

Celestia looked down at the package, then pulled away the brown wrapping. There was the book, ancient as always, but looking as if nothing had happened to it. it was only upon close inspection that she was able to pick out a thin line where the spine had been split.

"This is fantastic! It's beyond anything that I expected!" Celestia smiled and placed the book in her saddlebag. "I do believe... that this may cover the cost?" She pulled a small box out of her bag and placed it on the counter. With a single thought, she pulled up the lid to reveal two solid silver earrings, each one in the shape of a large hoop. When she did, Whipstitch's eyes lit up with excitement, banishing nearly all signs of exhaustion.

"Princess, these are worth much more than what I was going to charge! Even one of these would cover it with bits to spare!"

"But they come as a set. Don't worry, Whipstitch, I pay what I think the job deserves." Celestia smiled. "Besides, consider the rest to be money to hire a good exorcist..."

"Thank you, your highness!" Whipstitch gave another short bow, then a long yawn. I think that I'm going to go to sleep, now, if you don't mind..."

"I'll put up the sign to say that you're closed." Celestia winked, then turned to the door. "Whipstitch. I can see why Pennington would recommend you to help me. I'll come to you again if I need another repair!"

"It's an honor, your highness!" The pink-and-black pony gave her a wink before disappearing through the door. "I'll treasure the earrings!"

"I just can't wait to get my ears pierced!"

Celestia barely heard the words as she shut the locked door behind her. She paused for a moment, trying to remember whether or not Whipstitch's ears had ever been pierced when they had been talking. Then, with a smile and a chuckle, she shook her head and walked away.

"Looks as if, once again, I've met a pony who is truly one of a kind..."

Boredom and Summons

Whispstitch let out a long sigh as the clock on the wall ticked its way along to 6 o'clock. The day had been relatively uneventful, considering the fact that she had only had two customers come in to have something repaired.

"Even you have been suspiciously quiet..." She muttered, glaring towards the hole in her wall where Mephistopheles lived. "I don't like it..."

However, as she looked up to the clock once again, she realized that the day was over. It was six in the evening.

"Closing time!" She cheerfully grinned as she turned around the small sign in her window.

Well, we aren't OPEN, so do the math!

If it's a real emergency, you can find me at home.

-Whipstitch

With a smile, she packed away the rest of her things, mostly the tools and supplies that she had been too lazy to put away after making the repairs that had been asked for today, and prepared to lock up the shop. "Good night, Mephistopheles! I hope you die in your sleep!" She chirped. In response, a loud hissing came from the hole, indicating that the creature had both heard and understood her. It wasn't meant to be cruel, of course, but the banter had become a kind of end-of-the-day tradition between the two of them to quietly acknowledge their rivalry.

"Come on, Buzby!" Whipstitch grinned as she tied her pet bumblebee's "leash" around her horn. The thin thread was almost unnoticeable, and the bumblebee was content to hover above her head like a balloon.

As she stepped out to lock the front door, Whipstitch felt a small portion of the tension of the day return as she remembered that she still had work to do at home. I still have to fix the ENTIRE kitchen... I can't believe I tried to cook ramen without adding water! That was a really bad day for me. Well, I suppose a little detour wouldn't hurt, just to put off the inevitable! Making up her mind, she nodded to herself. "Well, I suppose going over to se Pennington would be a good idea. I haven't seen him the past few days, and that's plenty of time for at least one of us to get into a heap of trouble!" With a smirk, Whipstitch set off for an evening walk until the sun set.

Inkwell Commissions was always, in Whipstitch's eyes, a very simple shop for a very complex pony. She reasoned that this was why he was inconsistently gone from the town, sometimes leaving for a day or even a week. Somehow, though, Whipstitch never found herself staring at his "Closed" sign. She always knew when he was there or not.

"Hello? Pennington?" She called out as she stepped through the front door.

"Oh, so, you're looking for him, too?" Whipstitch was surprised to see another pony already waiting in the small lobby of Pennington's shop, impatiently tapping her hoof on the counter. She was a grey earth pony with a black mane, well groomed and with a thin Canterlot accent. She was wearing a formal-looking white collar and light purple bow tie to match the color her eyes and her cutie mark: a treble clef.

"Octavia! What are you doing here?" Whipstitch smiled as she recognized the musician. She had met Octavia a few times before when musicians from the Canterlot Orchestra had needed repairs done on their instruments.

"Well, I'm supposed to be picking up some song lyrics for Vinyl, but the author doesn't seem to be here. He must have gone home early..." She rolled her eyes in frustration as she searched in her bag for a small scrap of paper. She handed it to Whipstitch, revealing it to be one of Pennington's receipts.

"Vinyl asked him for something... 'Hard hitting and deep, like my bass.' That's certainly not very specific..." Whipstitch thought out loud as she read over the receipt.

"She thinks that if she doesn't give specifics, she has a better chance of finding something to build a song around that she never would have thought of. A rather poorly thought out plan, even for her." Octavia shoved the paper back into her bag with a sigh. "But it looks as if I'm going home empty hooved. He's not here."

"Well, that makes no sense!" Whipstitch rolled her eyes as she recognized what was probably going on. "He lives upstairs! There's no way to miss him!" Without a single scruple about wandering behind the counter, and invading the rest of Pennington's shop/home, Whipstitch climbed up and over.

"Um, are you sure that you're supposed to be back there?" Octavia asked, leaning to keep an eye of Whipstitch as she moved through the door in the wall of the lobby and into Pennington's house. "I don't think that it would be a good idea to just walk into his home like this. I could really just come back tomorrow!"

"Well, Octavia, I have a motto! 'When in doubt, walk around like you own the place!' Nopony will ever question your authority." Whipstitch shouted over her shoulder in return.

The first place that Whipstitch entered was Pennington's kitchen. "Microwave, sink, a few spoons, and ramen everywhere. Nothing's changed here..." She muttered, carefully picking her way through the mess that covered the counters and parts of the floor. Dried soup, crusty noodles, and Styrofoam cups everywhere was almost enough to make her swear off the microwave meal altogether, but she had been inside of Pennington's house before, and she had known to brace herself before entering the kitchen.

After the kitchen came the hallway. Pennington had never been very big on interior lighting, and the narrow corridor was lit by only one dim lamp on the far wall. She slowly walked down the hall with a small amount of nervousness, mostly because of the darkness. Whipstitch had never liked the dark, and it made her nervous sometimes. Other times, she might be completely fine, a concept that she had never understood about herself, but unpredictable fear made life interesting, so she didn't ever resent herself for it.

"Pennington? Are you in there?" She called, knocking her hoof on the hallway's one door: Pennington's personal study. "Penny, you have a customer waiting!"

"DON'T call me Penny!" A familiar-but-angry voice cried out. Whipstitch smiled in amusement as what must have been at least half a dozen locks were undone from inside. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a dazed-looking Pennington. His blue-and-violet mane was a shaggy mess on top of his head, and dark circles hung under his eyes.

"What is it, Whips? Do you need something?" He mumbled, looking unhappy to have been dragged out of his cave.

"Octavia is here for Vinyl Scratch's commission, Pennington, and she seems to have been here for some time." Whipstitch jerked her head towards the front of the house. "And how many days have you gone with out sleep?"

"Oh! Well, thanks! I'll go get the lyrics." Pennington shut the door again, tactfully avoiding the question. When he emerged, he was carrying a sealed scroll. "Here we go!" Without another word, he took off at a slow trot to the front of the store.

Whipstitch followed, still a bit critical of her friend. "Pennington, you have to stop depriving yourself of sleep like this! It's unhealthy!"

"Whipstitch, I wouldn't expect you to understand..." Pennington chuckled as he emerged back in the shop part of Inkwell Commissions, where a slightly surprised Octavia was waiting. "Here you are, Miss Octavia! I am extremely sorry for keeping you waiting!" He never seemed to pick up on Octavia's surprise, however, moving to the cash register with practiced ease.

"That's alright, Mister Inkwell... But, are you feeling well? You look sick." Octavia looked to Whipstitch in the awkwardness of the moment. Whipstitch offered no help whatsoever, simply motioning to Pennington, crossing her eyes, and spinning her hoof in circles around the side of her head to indicate insanity. Another point for me...

"Oh, I'm fine! Just a little caught up in my work at the moment!" Pennington gave a big grin as he accepted the small bag of bits Octavia placed on the counter. "Send Vinyl my best!"

"I... will. Thank you, Pennington."

"You're more than welcome! Feel free to come back any time!" Pennington called as Octavia left the shop. He was just starting to head back to his study when Whipstitch moved into the doorway, stopping him short.

"How long, Pennington?" Whipstitch narrowed her gaze, making Pennington squirm. "Don't make Buzby sting you until you talk..."

"Look, it hasn't been that long, okay? A few late nights here, an all-nighter there, it's nothing!" Pennington rolled his eyes and walked to the door, holding the door open. "I'll tell you what. Since you broke my creative streak, anyway, I'll go to bed early tonight. It's closing time anyway, right?" She could tell that he was trying to hold himself back from snapping at her, probably out of grouchy tiredness. His tone implied that he was pleading to make a bargain, but it held a forced edge of exasperation.

Whipstitch pouted at the hollow victory. "So, then, I guess you're not up for spending some time to hang out? I didn't want to go home yet."

Pennington raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "Well, no. I only have two real choices right now: go to bed or finish my next book."

"Fine..." Whipstitch muttered as she drudged out the door. She considered calling him out on being rude, but, despite her talent for chewing ponies out (often cussing them out in the process, as well), she knew that, while half-asleep, the author wouldn't hold back, and he knew bigger words than she did.

"I can't always foalsit you, Pennington! You need to start taking better care of yourself!"

As she left, Whipstitch shook herself out of her gloom. "Okay, then! If Pennington's busy, there are plenty of other ponies to go see! But... Who?" She paused as she began running through her mind, remembering all of the different ponies that lived in Ponyville. "I could go to buy some candy from Bon Bon, and I'm sure Lyra would be there, too!"

With this in mind, she took off at a slow jog down Main Street. She didn't meet many other ponies along the way, it seemed as if most of them were either still at work or had gone home for the day. I'm just trying to put that off... That was of the reasons that Whipstitch had chosen six for her closing time: a quiet, peaceful walk home.

After a few minutes for walking, "Bon Bon's Candy Castle" finally came into sight. Like Pennington, Bon Bon actually worked at home, but her store was a second building that looked as if it had been glued on to the front of her house. The name of the store was painted in an array of bright colors on the large glass windows facing the street. Whipstitch licked her lips as she caught a glimpse of the delicious-looking candies lining the shelves and the glass panes under the counter.

A small bell chimed as she pushed open the glass door, welcoming Whipstitch with a gentle tinkling sound. The sweet smells of sugar, melted chocolate, and vanilla washed over her in waves, and there was a quiet hum coming from a back room somewhere. She must be making taffy. Whipstitch hadn't even reached the counter before Bon Bon had popped out from under the counter.

"Oh, hello, Whipstitch!" The cream-colored pony gave her a wide smile as she discretely shut the display that she had been refilling. "Are you here to buy some more honey for your bee?"

"No thanks, Bon Bon." Whipstitch returned the smile. "I really just came for a little company. Pennington blew me off..."

"Who?" Bon Bon looked confused for a moment, and Whipstitch remembered her friend's hermit-like tendencies.

"Oh, just an old friend..." Whipstitch rolled her eyes. "He blew me off because he was overworking himself. So, I had to 'put him to sleep.'" She winked at the candy maker. "After that, I was feeling a little down, so I came to see how you were doing!"

Bon Bon seemed a little surprised at Whipstitch's choice of words, and Whipstitch chuckled at her befuddled expression.

"So, what's popular?" Whipstitch was nearly drooling now, from both the smell of the shop and the array of delicious candies just a few inches below the glass counter.

Finally back to something that didn't seem to have a double meaning, Bon Bon's demeanor lit up again. "Well, the fudge has been selling really well, lately!"

"What flavor?"

"Well, chocolate has been selling like the classic it is, but mint has really been growing in popularity!"

Whipstitch pondered the choice for a moment, mulling it over in her mind. "If business has been okay, how have you been?"

"Well, I've been keeping busy!" Bon Bon chuckled. "But, I love what I do, so good business means I get to spend more time doing it!"

"Well, that's good to hear!" Whipstitch smiled. "You know what? Could I have some of those baked honey sticks?"

Bon Bon looked surprised again, then smiled. "Always the unexpected choice with you, isn't it?" With her bemused grin, she went to a shelf on the back wall and picked up a few centimeter-thick golden bars, then laid them on the counter in front of her. "I'll tell you what, these ones are on the house! After you fixed my taffy machine, I was back in business... You saved me in a pinch!"

It was Whipstitch's turn to be surprised, but it quickly faded to a pleased smile. "You really don't have to, you gave me more than enough for that!"

"I insist!" Bon Bon pushed the candies towards Whipstitch. "From one friend to another!"

Whipstich's stubborn nature, however, refused to let a gift go unmatched. She slowly lifted one of the candies into the air, meticulously unwrapped it without breaking the cellophane, and slowly closed her mouth around the sweet, allowing the thick, sweet, aromatic flavor to spread out into every corner of her mouth.

"Mmmm.... Honey: another reason that I love bees." She mumbled through the corner of her mouth. As she opened her eyes again, she watched Buzby float down out of the air and land on the other end.

"I'm glad you both like it!" Bon Bon chuckled as she watched Whipstitch cross her eyes in an effort to watch the insect. "I can give you a couple more, if you like." Before she could get a response, however, a buzzer sounded from the other room, announcing that the new batch of taffy was finished.

And it was then that Whipstitch had an idea. Her smile of pleasure turned into a smug grin. With a small flick of the candy to send Buzby back into the air, she climbed up and over the counter, following the pony into the other room.

"Hey, Bons, what do you say I show you where the problem was last time? That way, you can fix it yourself if it happens again!"

"Whipstitch, you don't need to give me payback!"

By the time that Whipstitch had finally arrived at home, she was still humming Lyra's melodies, and the tastes of honey and warm taffy were still lingering in her mouth. The sun was setting, outlining her home in an array of red and orange hues.

Whipstitch lived in what was technically the lowest value property in town, but, to her, it was the most beautiful place she had ever known. It had originally been planned to be a house inside of a hillside built by early settlers, but soon after the house's completion, the original owners had been driven out by timber wolves. Over the years, what had once been a tiny sapling had grown into a beautiful weeping willow, draping its fronds over and around the house like a protective shield. What had once been a rain runoff had drifted and eroded until a small stream ran through the center of her home, powering a large wooden water wheel and filling her house with the sound of moving water. Although she worked and made her living in the town, the fact that her home was on the edge of the forest and was powered by a water wheel, rather than central electricity, gave her a real feeling of "living off of the grid."

She stopped again and inhaled deeply, taking in the natural perfume of the flower garden that she kept in the front yard. This, combined with the taste of honey, the sound of running water, and the music still strumming in her mind, created a sense of tranquility that nearly overwhelmed her. With a deep sigh of relief, she untied Buzby from her horn, allowing the bumblebee to fly freely among the dozens of others that she kept the flowers for. Whipstitch was sure that they had built a hive somewhere nearby, but she had never managed to find it.

"Finally, we made it home, friend..." She smiled as she slowly walked to the door. She didn't drag her hooves, but there was very little effort in her movements, signaling that she was already well into the process of "unwinding." "Same time tomorrow?"

Whipstitch was reaching for the door handle when she finally noticed that something was different. Taped to the front of her door was an unfurled scroll, with neat, smooth hoofwriting and embossments along the edges.

Dear Whipstitch,

I apologize for not coming to see you personally, but Luna and I have both had our hooves full at the moment. I would greatly appreciate it it you would be able to come to Canterlot to make some new repairs. Our "visitor," the same one who nearly destroyed the book that I brought to you, has clumsily torn some of our tapestries in the Grand Hall. I noticed that thread and fabric seem to be your specialty, and I am hoping that you may be able to come and fix them here.

Any and all of your needs will be provided for, including materials for the repairs, and you can rest assured that you will be justly rewarded for your services if you could come. There will be a pair of guards to meet you at the train station, and you'll find a ticket enclosed in the attached envelope.

If you cannot come, all that you would need to do would be to take a letter to my student, Twilight Sparkle, in the library. She will send it along to me.

Hoping to see you soon,

Princess Celestia.

Whipstitch grew increasingly excited as her relaxation was washed away in waves of anticipation.

"The princess... Wants me to come and work at the castle!" As she looked behind the letter, she discovered the envelope that Celestia had mentioned. At this point, she could no longer hold back a squee of excitement, and she ran into her house, grabbed a set of sewing needles (She made it a personal point never to be without them, at home or at work.), and slammed the door shut behind her again.

"I'll see you later, Buzby! I'm off to Canterlot!" With an overdramatic flourish, she stuffed the sewing kit into her bag and took off running for the train station.

By the time that Whipstitch had boarded the train, arrived in Canterlot, and been escorted to the Castle, darkness had fallen and the moon was high in the sky. Whipstitch had never been inside of the Royal Palace before, but the spacious rooms, traditional decoration, and stained-glass windows gave the entire castle a very enigmatic feel, and the lack of electric lighting in a majority of the rooms combined with the efforts made to make it look natural in the rest, left Whipstitch feeling as if she had stepped back in time.

When she walked into the Grand Hall, Whipstitch passed through a gigantic pair of doors and into the most beautiful room that she had ever seen. Once-silver moonlight swept through the arrays of stained glass that made up the characteristic murals of Canterlot, bathing any shadows in the room with an array of calm, relaxing colors. The Grand Hall was as well-lit as possible, of course, with bright torches on the sections of wall between murals and chandeliers lit from within, but there was a shadowy darkness, ever-present but strangely comforting, lurking in the corners of the room and along the bases of the walls that allowed the tinted moonlight to shine visibly. There were tapestries hanging in the sections between the walls as well, long, complex, and featuring a dazzling array of colors. They were what Whipstitch had often aspired to create, but had never had the time to even begin to attempt something like that. Some of them seemed to have been enchanted, occasionally moving in a nonexistent breeze or passing through a torch's flame without harm. Each tapestry met and complimented the colors and tone of the stained glass windows next to it, giving the walls a feeling of having an ever-changing gradient of colors to border the white marble flooring, red carpet, and golden trim and accents of every other piece in the room.

"You must be Whipstitch!" A voice that Whipstitch knew well from Nightmare Night rang through the air as a dark-blue pony made her way out from behind the throne in the back of the room. "Welcome to the castle! I trust that you had a pleasant journey?"

"Princess Luna!" Whipstitch's heart nearly skipped a beat, and she quickly gave a humble bow of her head. "It was wonderful. From the train, I was able to watch the moon rise! It was a beautiful sight..." She kicked herself a little, knowing that, if she weren't so excited and nervous, she could have found something much better to say. Just keep it cool, Whipstitch... Relax and act natural.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it!" Luna obviously didn't seem dissatisfied with Whipstitch's words. With a flick of her hoof, she motioned for Whipstitch to stand up straight again. "I suppose that we had best get down to business quickly. I trust that Celestia told you about our 'special guest?'"

"Well, not exactly. Only that they seem to be good at creating lightning and destroying things..." Whipstitch placed her hoof on her chin in thought. "Is it a unicorn?"

Luna seemed to be a little surprised at her reaction, and subtly bit her lip in thought. "No, not a unicorn... I suppose that you could say that he's not a pegasus, either..." Still thinking about her words, her horn dimly glowed as a lollipop floated into sight from one of the shadows in the corner. Without seemingly thinking about it, she unwrapped it, placed the candy in her mouth, and glanced around to find a trash can for the wrapper.

"What flavor?" Whipstitch felt less nervous, now, seeing how casually the Princess was acting.

"Hm? Oh! It's... a Parasprite Pop, actually." Luna chuckled, apparently drawn away from her train of thought.

"Parasprite?" Whipstitch's nose scrunched up in disgust as she remembered the insects that had nearly destroyed Ponyville. "Those weird bugs?"

"Well, yes!" Luna laughed, finally tossing the wrapper into the same dark corner. "It's actually pretty good! The kind of taste you grow to like over time..."

"Do you have any more?" Whipstitch ventured the question with nonchalance, the small talk having finally stilled her nerves. She's still just an ordinary pony at heart, I guess.

"Oh! Of course, our friend gave me a few!" Her horn glowed again as another lollipop materialized from the shadows.

As Whipstitch unwrapped one and placed it in her mouth, Luna nodded for her to follow. The lollipop itself was actually surprisingly good. The flavor was peculiar, tangy and sweet, with a slight hint of wood smoke and an unidentifiable taste that lingered afterward. I'll have to ask Bon Bon if she can make these!

"The real problem is here..." She nodded to the area above the throne. For the first time, Whipstitch noticed three of the tapestries had been torn across the center. Again, the damage seemed unique, as if some kind of laser had haphazardly shot through the room and sliced through them, leaving a clean cut.

"And... How did this happen?" She asked as her eyes followed gravity downwards towards the other pieces, which were lying on the floor.

"Our guest. He tends to have panic attacks whenever a pony walks in on him unexpectedly..." Luna rolled her eyes. "Celestia and I are working on that..."

Whipstitch considered asking again about exactly what species their guest belonged to, but Luna didn't seem to want to tell her.

"Well, I think that I could rejoin the pieces... Do you have thread of matching colors?" When Luna pointed to a large array of spools on a wooden rack being carried in, Whipstitch smiled. "In that case, consider it done. It may take a few days of work, but I can do it."

"Take all of the time that you need, we only would expect quality work to take time." Luna's smile became more relaxed, despite the fact that Whipstitch hadn't even seen her become tense again.

Sounds as if this 'visitor' is a real hoof full...

"Oh, and Whipstitch!" Luna called back as she walked towards the door. "A few last bits of information! If you need Celestia or I, we'll either be in our bedrooms or the medical ward! You can ask a guard to take you anywhere, including the room that we prepared for your visit, which is in the Northern Wing. And as for the final, most important thing to know:

If you see anything that looks like Discord, just leave it be! Don't stare, don't speak, don't touch!" Luna acted as if she were trying to play at the point lightly, but the instructions left her with chills.

Discord?

A Lesson in Chaos

After Luna left, there wasn't much to do except work. After laying out all of the pieces, including those that had been left hanging, she began matching up the halves of the tapestry, trying even to match every thread's end to the corresponding match on the other half. It was tedious work, and required a longer attention span than she usually devoted to a task, but it was the only way to determine which threads could be mended and which would have to be replaced.

Luckily, Whipstitch had more motivation than usual: she didn't want to let down the princesses. Meeting Luna had been an unexpected, if not foreboding, delight.

"She told me to keep an eye out for anything that looked like Discord..." She muttered as she joined two of the less singed thread endings with magic. "I always wanted to meet Discord..."

It was true, she had been one of the few ponies who enjoyed Discord's short reign. The chaos had been unpredictable, entertaining, and often hilarious, all of which Whipstitch loved. Anyone who could not only create chaos like that, but also enjoy it the way that she did, was definitely worth meeting! When the Elements of Harmony had returned Ponyville to "normal," she felt like the only one who had been disappointed, and had discretely been hoping that he escaped again ever since.

"You're sorely mistaken to want that..."

A low voice echoed through the room, making Whipstitch jump with surprise. "Hello? Is anypony there?" She had expected the voice to have come from one of the guards, who seemed to keep walking in in spite of her "Do not disturb!" sign on the doors. To her utter puzzlement, however, there was no guard in the room. She was still alone.

"Nope, no pony is here..." This time, when the voice spoke, the chandeliers that provided most of the light began to flicker. Every time they turned off and back on again, they would shine a different color, creating a semi-disco effect for about thirty seconds, when they all became dark, leaving her with only the torchlight and moonlight as darkness swept in where light had given way. "But that doesn't necessarily mean you're alone, now does it?"

This would have been enough to scare any other pony to pieces, but Whipstitch took it all in stride, acting as if nothing of importance had happened. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to scare me! I work in a shop with a demon living inside of the walls!" Her cry was rebellious and held no bluff, revealing her lack of fear to whatever this strange entity was.

There was a moment of silence before the voice returned. This time, it sounded less threatening and more surprised.

"...Really? A demon? I didn't know that those things existed."

"Neither did I, but Mephistopheles knew something I didn't..." As Whipstitch's eyes adjusted to the lower level of light, the torches quickly snuffed themselves out, leaving only the moonlight and stained glass to provide her with sight. Unwilling to be caught off-guard, her eyes flicked from side to side, and she quickly spun around for a 360 degree view. She was still the only one in the room.

"Well, I'm afraid that Discord would still not be very pleasant to meet. I'm afraid that he's gotten quite bitter in his old age..."

Finally, the voice was coming from a definite direction. Whipstitch spun around one more time, spinning to face the same corner that Luna had originally pulled the lollipops from. There, in the misty darkness, were a pair of blazing blue eyes. The whites seemed to glow from within, as well, creating a very cartoonish appearance of a pair of floating eyeballs. The irises were differently sized, creating an off-balance feeling that both chilled and intrigued the unicorn.

"Who are you?" Whipstitch asked, trying to use her horn to provide extra light. It didn't seem to help, though, as all of the energy seemed to bottle up at the tip, creating an uncomfortable pressure.

"Well, that depends on who you ask, I would suppose." The eyes rolled sarcastically, obviously playing some kind of game with her. "To a long-extinct race, I was known as first a savior, then a destroyer. To their neighboring country, I was known as an invader and a bringer of storms... Chocolate milk storms. I am known to some dragons as the summoner of chaos, and to others as the great coward who hides behind a cotton candy maelstrom." The eyes rolled again in a formless shrug. "I have a name, but it really doesn't matter in the long run, does it? We're all remembered for our actions over our names, in which case, I'm nobody."

Whipstitch had been trying hard to keep up with this sudden theology, and the small hints in his words all seemed to point to the same conclusion.

"Y-you're Discord?" She instinctively took a step back, surprised at how different the encounter was from how she had imagined it would be. He was surprisingly somber, and nothing seemed to have exploded... yet.

"Oh, no!" The eyes scrunched up as the creature behind them chuckled. The light from the eyes spread outward, revealing an entire head. He looked an awful lot like Discord, and obviously belonged to the same species, but the only similarities between them were obviously physical. "If I were Discord, you would already be inverted, distorted, or converted into something that he would consider far more entertaining!"

Whipstitch relaxed a little more, and she realized that she had braced herself for... anything.

"If you're not Discord, then who are you? No one is nobody, after all."

"If you're asking my name, then I'll tell you. I am Tumult. Eclipse Tumult, actually." A lion paw and arm materialized next to the head where the arm would normally have been and gave a flourish as if he were bowing with the introduction. "And if may be so bold as to ask your name?"

"Whipstitch..." The pink unicorn hesitated for a moment as she remembered the Princess's warning. "Luna told me that if I saw you, I shouldn't stare at, speak to, or touch you." She raised a curious eyebrow. "Now why would she tell me that?"

"Eclipse" as he called himself, didn't seem to understand for a moment, but a look of resolution quickly lit up his disembodied face. "Ah, Luna... She's actually trying to protect me, not you! I told her that I like my privacy, or more specifically, that I don't like ponies. She probably assumed that you might see me around here, so she tried to stop you from scaring me out of my wits..." A long neck and shoulders appeared as he spoke, allowing him to shrug again at the end of his statement and connecting the lion's paw to the rest of him.

Whipstitch, however, was more preoccupied with his words than his actions. He had stated his dislike for ponies as nonchalantly as if he were talking about the weather.

"Why don't you like ponies?" She was starting to feel a little frustrated with the draconequus, who seemed to be refusing to tell much of anything about himself.

"Did you see what they did to the last guy like me who showed up here?" He jabbed his thumb towards a nearby stained glass window. As Whipstitch shifted her gaze, she found herself staring at the stained-glass window that illustrated Discord's first defeat. Celestia and Luna arced around Discord, with the former above and the latter below. Both were glowing brightly with the power of the Elements of Harmony, a brightness that was shining onto the petrified Discord, who was frozen in stone.

As she watched, though, the scene began to move. Color returned to Discord's body, and he began to writhe in some kind of strange agony. The halos around Celestia and Luna's horns shimmered and shifted as they began to move in their orbit around him, the scene changing from day to night as they progressed.

"Chaos shall no longer live in our land!" A younger-sounding Celestia's voice cried through the air, making Whipstitch jump.

"The time has come for harmony to prevail!" Luna's voice called in return.

Discord was shaking his head in fearful denial, even as the color began to drain away from his feet. "No! You silly little ponies could never-"

"Silence, Discord! Your time has ended!" Celestia's voice thundered over Discord, drowning him out.

"The ponies of Equestria shall no longer be subject to you!" Luna cried as the greyness of his petrification spread. "Your rule is over!"

"No! NO! NOOO!" Discord began to struggle as the stone reached his waist, and soon returned to his first position in the window as his arms, then chest, and finally his neck and head froze in place. His final scream sent chills through Whipstitch's heart and echoed throughout the Grand Hall. Celestia and Luna continued to circle around until they had once again returned to their original positions, as well, leaving the stained glass unchanged from its original state.

Whipstitch's fixation on the window finally ended, allowing her to look back to the corner where Eclipse had been. He was more there than before, now featuring a torso beneath his shoulders. To her complete surprise, there was a wrapping of gauze around his chest.

"I watched it happen..." Eclipse whispered. "I knew Discord well, and he had lost himself in his desire to rule. It was not pleasant, but it was necessary."

"...What happened to you?" Whipstitch asked, taking a hesitant step forward towards what she now recognized as an injured creature.

"I ran. I ran and hid in Everfree-"

"No, to your chest!" Whipstitch shook her head. "How did you get hurt?" She continued to walk forward until the draconequus held his hand up, indicating for her to stop.

Eclipse raised a questioning eyebrow, then shook his head. "An unfortunate encounter with Princess Luna's favorite dessert. I'm highly allergic to zap apples." With a smile, he put his hand down again. "I'm just here trying to stretch my metaphorical legs now that my powers are coming back. So, why would you care enough to ask?"

That would explain the lack of apparent chaos... "Because you seem nice. Bitter about the past, but nice." Whipstitch shook her head and tried to walk forward again, choosing her words carefully. "You may not like ponies for what they did to Discord, but that doesn't mean that ponies won't like you for what Discord did to them! You need to give ponies a chance!"

As she drew closer, Whipstitch began to hear light beeping sounds, and vague, unfamiliar shapes began to appear in the darkness.

"I don't hate ponies." Eclipse seemed to be growing nervous as she continued walking, glancing from side to side. "They-they scare me, alright? But why do you think that I'm here?"

The statement made Whipstitch stop again. "Ponies... scare you?" Her hoof flew to her face was she realized the obvious. "You're the princesses' 'special visitor,' aren't you? The one who broke the book and tapestries?"

"Yes." Eclipse relaxed a little when she stopped coming towards him again. "I came at their request... they're taking the same opinion that you have: that I need to give ponies a chance..."

"Wait, so you're the reason that the Princess came to me for repairing their things?" Whipstitch thought for a moment, then smiled. "You really helped me out, you know. I've wanted to come here, to meet them, for a long time."

"Well, then perhaps chaos isn't all bad." Eclipse had stopped materializing at the waist, and one of his arms was still cut off at the shoulder. Somehow, though, the sounds were becoming louder, and Whipstitch could see definite shapes behind him. "I never really enjoyed being a creature of chaos. It's only brought pain."

"Are you joking?" Whipstitch almost laughed and slowly stepped forward, as if she were approaching an injured animal, trying not to scare him with her advancement. "Chocolate rain, a life of surprises, and even being stronger than the princesses is a curse to you? I would love to be able to do what you can do!"

Eclipse had obviously noticed that she was drawing closer, but seemed to be trying to cope with it. "Well, if we ever meet again, I could give you chaos tutoring, or something..." Whipstitch could tell that it was just nervous rambling to put off the tension, but the offer nearly blew her mind.

"Really? You mean, I could learn how to create chaos?" Subconsciously, her pace sped up. Eclipse looked as if he were about to say something in return when suddenly, the entire world changed.

It was as if she had been teleported, because the dark Great Hall that she had been standing in before had vanished. Now, she was standing in some kind of hospital room, with clean black and white tiles on the floor, windows with the curtains pulled, and several empty beds.

Even for Whipstitch, this was a bit too much.

"What- What's going on? Where am I?" She took a few scared steps back again, but this didn't change her new location.

"Well, I forgot to warn you not to come too close... You're just in the medical ward. Still in the castle." Eclipse was visible in his entirety, now, and his appearance was even more of a surprise. Now that she could see him entirely, it became apparent that he was sitting in a hospital bed, his lower half covered by thin sheets. His other arm, with an eagle claw, was hooked by a thin tube into a purple IV bag that slowly dripped fluid into his bloodstream.

"I was never really there, I was just talking to you from here. You walked straight through our connection." He shrugged. "It's really a simple spell for being in two places at once, but it's all that I can manage right now."

Whipstitch took a few seconds, trying to process what he was saying. "So... I'm still in the castle?"

"Yes." He nodded towards a large wooden door behind her, "There's even a pair of guards right outside of that door."

Whipstitch calmed herself again as she tried to get her bearings. "You really weren't kidding about that zap apple allergy, were you?"

Eclipse chuckled and nodded. "I've tried to convince them to let me out of here, but the Princesses are pretty insistent that I recover fully, first." He seemed to pause for a moment. "You know, they're surprisingly nice to me... And so are you."

Whipstitch smiled, in spite of the situation. "I'm just another pony. Most ponies would do the same thing." She slowly walked to the bed, placing her front hooves on the side so that she prop herself on her back legs and come a little closer to his height. "So, you would really teach me how to make chaos?" She felt like a foal in a candy shop at the thought of being able to summon the powers that she had seen Discord using.

The question seemed to stump Eclipse, who pondered it thoroughly. His eyes first rolled up towards the ceiling, then down to the bed sheets. They paused for a moment to look at her, then rolled back to the ceiling. Whipstitch laughed a little as one eye began to roll without the other, which seemed to hurry to catch up.

"Well, it's not going to be fun and games if that's what you want..." He finally looked back down to her with a tired-sounding sigh. "It's not going to be a piece of cake..."

On cue, a piece of chocolate cake on a plate appeared in his lap. He rolled his eyes again, this time out of frustration. "Of course, that power still works. I don't even like chocolate!"

Whipstitch tilted her head in confusion, but picked up the cake and began to eat. "What do you mean? Didn't you want that to happen?"

Eclipse shook his head. "Puns and figures of speech kind of just... Happen around me." He shrugged. "Just another part of the chaos."

"Which you're going to teach me?" Whipstitch still hadn't gotten a definite answer, and she was starting to worry.

"If you're really determined..." Eclipse looked down at her again, seeming very solemn. "Then, I suppose that it might be worth a shot..."

"YES!" Whipstitch jumped up and down with glee. "Yes, yes, yes!" In her glee, she jumped up and hugged the draconequus, ignoring his grunt of pain. "Thank you!"

"Well, I guess this means that I've made three pony friends..." Eclipse muttered with a smile. "Well, I hope that all ponies are as nice as you, Whipstitch, but it's getting late. We should both get to sleep."

Whipstitch stopped celebrating, though her grin remained plastered onto her face. "You're certainly different, Eclipse Tumult, but I think that Equestria is going to like you if you give it a chance. Goodnight!" She waved to him as she walked to the door.

"Well, I'll just focus on not being scared to death of it, for now..." He waved in return, then pulled shut the curtain around his bed.

When Whipstitch opened the door, she indeed met a pair of guards, and after stating that she had gotten lost looking for her room, they quickly took her there.

As she looked up at the ceiling from her bed, she couldn't sleep from the excitement coursing through her veins. I'm going to learn how to make chaos! How cool is that?

The Second Meeting

"Ah! Whipstitch! It's good to see that you're an early riser!"

In spite of being half-asleep, Whipstitch jumped almost a foot in the air when Celestia walked into the Grand Hall, and nearly tore the tapestry that she was working on with the sudden movement, as well. For a split second, the memory of Discord's defeat came back to mind with her voice, and she imagined that she was in some kind of danger. The feeling passed almost instantly, though, when she regained her senses.

"P-Princess! You startled me..." Whipstitch chuckled at her own folly as she turned back around to give a quick bow. "I wanted to get an early start so that I could have more leisure time later. Canterlot has some very... interesting characters." Eclipse had told her that their encounter should be a secret, and that he had planned on surprising Celestia later on with having made a friend on his own. Whipstitch had agreed, of course. It's not often that you manage to pull one over on the Princess! That's worth at least five points, even if I'm not fooling Pennington.

"Yes, Canterlot can be a very entertaining place sometimes..." Celestia nodded with a smile. "Perhaps I could recommend a place for you to have lunch?"

"Oh..." Whipstitch shook her head with half-closed eyes. "I actually was planning on joining another old friend of mine for lunch, Princess."

"Well, that's even better!" Celestia gave her a warm smile, showing no disappointment. "Good company is always the best thing to have, no matter where you are! If you get the chance, though, you may want to stop by a small place called 'Royalties.' It has some of the best daisy sandwiches in Canterlot!"

Whipstitch nodded, easily committing it to memory. Suddenly, from the dark corners of her mind, a question came. She hesitated to ask, but the Princess seemed as if it were impossible to put her out of a good mood, anyway. Definitely a "morning pony..."

"Your highness, may I ask you something a little personal?"

Celestia, who had been walking back to the door, stopped and turned back around with a small smile on her face. "Ask away. If I don't like it, I just won't answer!"

Whipstitch took a deep breath to banish any kind of self-conscious fear. "What was it like the first time? When you and Princess Luna imprisoned Discord for the first time? I spent a lot of time looking at the murals last night, and that one stood out to me in particular..."

The question did seem to catch the Princess off-guard, and for a moment, Whipstitch was sure that she would turn around again and leave. After a few moments of thought and a long sigh, Celestia sat down and smiled.

"You're right, that is rather personal. I'll give you the abridged version."

"Discord was an absolute tyrant. To him, ponies were like mice to a cat: fun to play with, but they eventually needed to be removed. He had tried to 'remove' Luna and I several times while we were searching for the Elements of Harmony, and slowly but surely, ponies were disappearing. When we had finally found a way to defeat him, Discord began to feign horror. He put on a good show, but we didn't feel any kind of pity for him after all of the ponies that he had made... disappear."

At this point, Celestia frowned. "The whole time, I felt as if he still knew something that we didn't. Like he had some kind of last ace up his sleeve. I never got over it, and I kept insisting that we double-check to make sure that he was secure..." With the suddenness of snapping out of a memory, Celestia smiled again. "I was right, in the end! Discord got free eventually. But, luckily, we had the Elements of Harmony to put him back in his place!" She rose to her hooves again with a smile.

"The guards told me that you were in the medical ward last night. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yeah, I was just trying to see if you were there. It sounded like the only one there was a sick pony behind some curtains."

Celestia eyed her with some small amount of suspicion, and Whipstitch wondered if she could see straight through the lie.

"Well, like I said, just ask a guard to take you to us, you don't have to go looking." When Whipstitch nodded, she finally walked out of the doors again. As soon as she had left, Whipstitch let loose the enormous yawn that she had been holding back. The yawn seemed to climb up from deep in her chest, and took its time finishing its work, sending shudders down her body as she stretched in a catlike manner. As her mouth finally closed again, Whipstitch looked down at her work, pondered it for a moment, then walked to the door. As there always had been, there was a guard outside of the door.

"Can you get me some coffee, please?" She asked, half-mumbling her words.

"Yes, ma'am." The guard replied with a curt nod.

"Extra cream. Extra sugar. I need four large cups." Whipstitch didn't wait for an affirmation of the order, pulling her head back through the door and shutting it, ending any sort of conversation over the matter.

After only a few minutes, Whipstitch heard a knock on the door. Refusing, in her mind, to let anypony else enter, she walked to the door and opened it herself. There was the guard, holding a small tray in his mouth containing four tall ceramic cups with thin plastic lids, each radiating steam from the top.

"Piping hot!" The guard mumbled around the tray.

"Thank you." Whipstitch smiled as she picked up the tray with her magic. Without another word, she whisked the tray inside with her magic and shut the door again, already pressing one cup to her lips.

"Eclipse! Eclipse Tumult!" A few hours later, Whipstitch had finished mending most of the threads that didn't need to be replaced in the tapestries and decided to take a much-needed change of scenery. Without waiting for any kind of accompaniment from the guards, she had taken off at a fast, caffeine-fueled trot down the halls, finding her way back to the medical ward with ease.

As she was about to enter, though, she was met by a different pair of guards from the night before, still standing in front of the doors.

"Good morning, ma'am." One said, quietly turning from his sentry-like position to look at her.

"Hello!" Whipstitch smiled, trying to walk past them. She found her way blocked by a firm hoof. "What? What's wrong?"

"Well, the Princess has requested nopony enter this room without her permission. Firm orders, I'm afraid."

Whipstitch's lips pressed into a firm line at the predicament. "But I was just in there last night!"

"Well, I'm afraid that Princess Celestia hasn't told us of any new developments, so you're not supposed to be in there."

"Well, I think that I may have left one of my favorite needles in there! I need it if I'm going to go any further in the repairs!"

The two guards looked at one another with uncertainty. "Well, we're not actually allowed in... either..."

"So you don't know what's in there? You don't know what you're guarding?" Whipstitch asked as she tried to walk around them again.

"We just know that the Princess asked us to guard it, that's all that matters to us." The guards stood resolute again, keeping their position and refusing to let her through.

"I know what's in there, guys, I really couldn't do any kind of damage!" When her argument fell on deaf ears, Whipstitch groaned, rolled her eyes, and stormed away back down the hall. Once she had turned the corner, though, she found herself in the same hallway, except without the guards. She blinked and shook her head, trying to understand what had happened. She turned back around and walked around the corner again, and found herself in the first hallway, complete with guards, both of whom stared blankly ahead, refusing to acknowledge her again. In her mind, she retraced her steps, and remembered exactly what hallways she had gone through to reach the medical ward. With a short nod to herself, she turned back around.

This time, the doppelgänger hallway was directly in front of her, at a direct right angle to the original hallway. Whipstitch continued to think for a moment, then shrugged and walked to the doors, pushing them open with one hoof.

"Lesson one! Perspective. An individual's perspective can be the greatest tool that you can wield, with or without the ability to manipulate reality!" Eclipse's voice seemed stronger, now, and Whipstitch grinned as she found herself back in the same medical ward that she had seen the night before, and the draconequus was still laying in the same bed, though his IV bag seemed to have been refilled. "Learning to see through the eyes of another lets you change what they see."

Whipstitch hadn't even said "Hello," but he seemed to already be giving things for her to ponder in silence.

"You're not talking about a spell, are you? Just managing to understand what someone else sees can be powerful, magic or no magic." She smiled as the truth of the matter set in. "So, you took the fact that I wasn't looking behind me to change what was behind me!"

"Anything is possible if nopony can see it." Eclipse grinned. "But that's more advanced. For now, let's stick to the basics." He reached under the covers, seemingly into some kind of pocket, and pulled out a lollipop. With a less happy expression, he tossed the sweet to her. Whipstitch caught it with her magic, and immediately noticed something. While the parasprite pop that Luna had given her had obviously come from the same source, this one didn't have the same dark grey wrapper. This one was wrapped in what seemed to be a doctor's prescription.

"What's this?" She asked as she unwrapped the candy and, with a gentle nod from Eclipse, popped it into her mouth.

"A parasprite pop, but on steroids. Just a little something I thought of this morning while you were working." Eclipse seemed more than smug as he watched her. "The originals are just flavored with a dash of chaos, but that little sucker has some punch to it! It's going to prepare your body to handle a new type of magic. It's not always going to be gumdrops and roses, but if you manage to eat that one all the way to the stick, your body will be fully prepared for our later lessons."

Whipstitch nodded, even as the lollipop turned sour in her mouth, nearly making her face turn inside out as she puckered her lips. "Ith tour!" She managed to mumble. "und i juth half to trutht yoo?"

"Well, aren't friends supposed to trust one another?" Eclipse asked, having absolutely no problem understanding her. "Here I am, bedridden and completely open to attack, letting a pony into my room!"

As the sourness faded back to the original smokey taste, Whipstitch rolled her eyes. "I told you I wouldn't hurt you!"

"And I have to trust you on that, so I am!" Eclipse rolled his eyes again, as if dealing with a child. "Whipstitch, I don't know much about friends, but I do know about trusting someone. And trust only builds as you act on it."

She almost spoke up with indignation as he rolled his eyes, but he had made a good point. Realizing that he was right, she changed the subject. "So, if you're like Discord, why aren't things floating upside down and stuff like that? I thought that you were the embodiment of chaos, but you've hardly been doing anything at all!"

Eclipse's brow furrowed for a moment, then his face lit up with understanding. "Oh, you mean like 'checkerboard hills and giant card houses' chaos? The type of chaos that could rip apart Equestria? Well, I could do things like that, I suppose, if I tried hard to unlock my full potential, I guess, but Discord always explained it this way..." With a snap of his fingers, the room transformed. The walls began to melt away, revealing Whipstitch's shop. Thread was scattered over the floor again, half-finished projects dotted the walls, and even Mephistopheles's hole was there.

"What would you call this mess?" Eclipse asked from his bed, motioning to the area around them. "Disarray? Cluttered?"

"Well, I suppose that I would call it... my way of doing things! It's not a mess, it's meant to be this way!" Whipstitch was beginning to wonder if Eclipse was just trying to insult her.

"Ah! So it's chaotic, but still organized." With another snap of his fingers, Eclipse changed the scene that they were standing in again, this time to the center of some great maelstrom. Whipstitch cringed as a cascade of flames flew up past her and into the vortex above, promptly followed by a flock of rubber duckies.

"This is sheer chaos!" Eclipse shouted over the cascade of noises that were sounding off in rapid succession. First there was a horn sounding off a sour note, then a wolf howling, promptly followed by a thunderous laughter... or perhaps it was the thunder itself laughing.

Waving his hands again, the illusion faded like smoke, and they were back in the hospital.

"Discord is like utter chaos, uncontrollable, powerful, and overwhelming." Eclipse settled back into the bed, his eyes still fixed on Whipstitch. "I'm more like 'organized chaos,' if you can understand such a concept. More docile, slightly more predictable, and perhaps even easier to influence with what's around me. Do you understand?"

"So, you're the Yin to Discord's Yang?" Whipstitch muttered.

"Exactly!" Eclipse grinned again, clapping his hands together in satisfaction and picking up a glass of chocolate milk that had materialized on the table next to his bed.

"That makes it sound as if the two of you are related..." Whipstitch cringed as chocolate milk sprayed out of Eclipse's mouth, raining onto the floor in front of her with a series of popping sounds. As he continued to cough, first bubbles, then a small storm of fireworks, and a large amount of peppermint-scented smoke came out of his mouth. After a few seconds of this coughing fit, he retched one final time, and one last object flew out of his mouth. Whipstitch watched as the object flew forward, then began to hover in the air. Whipstitch quickly identified the creature as one of the insects that had tried to devour her shop in the past: a parasprite.

The parasprite, on the other hoof, seemed only to be growing more confused, glancing first at her, then Eclipse, then back to her, and then back at Eclipse again.

Eclipse cleared his throat and snapped his fingers. The parasprite froze in place, then withered and shrunk into an apricot-looking fruit that dropped into his lap. He picked up the fruit and popped it into his mouth, chewing for only a second before swallowing again.

"I'm sorry. A little bit of my lunch came up there." Eclipse cleared his throat again, looking uncomfortable. "Yes, I'm actually Discord's little brother, if you can believe it. You catch on to things pretty quickly, Whipstitch."

Whipstitch shrugged with a small amount of satisfaction. "Well, it seemed to make a lot of sense. You sound like you knew him pretty well, and there's a strong resemblance between the two of you." When Eclipse nodded in agreement, she made another deduction. "So, you two are like the Celestia and Luna of chaos?"

The question seemed to surprise him, and his shaggy eyebrows darted upwards in suspicion. "That's a nice sentiment, Whipstitch, but we weren't rulers among our people. We were just another commodity of the land." He shook his head. "It's a long story, one that you really look too hyper to sit down and listen to."

It was true, caffeine was still coursing through Whipstitch's system, and she was beginning to sway from side to side to release some of the pent-up energy.

"Before you go, there are going to be a few side effects to that lollipop!" Eclipse leaned forward, trying to grasp her full attention. "The most serious of them will be dizziness, occasional nausea, and perhaps the occasional unpredictable fit of chaotic symptoms that I can't predict."

Whipstitch nodded, her attention quickly shifting to the lollipop again. "This tastes like raspberries now..."

"Well, just don't stop eating it until it's finished, which will be around ten tonight. After that, you can sleep off most of the negative effects. Then, we can start learning a little beginner's chaos."

Whipstitch nodded again, then began to trot to the door. "So, we're going straight to the magic? I mean, this isn't going to be like 'Kung-Fu Foal' or something, where there's a bunch of mundane lessons before we work our way up to the big stuff?"

Eclipse's yes narrowed in confusion, and Whipstitch realized that the movie reference had fallen on deaf ears.

"No, the best way to learn chaos is to make some, to be honest." The draconequus shuffled around in bed, trying to make himself comfortable again. "I want to go with you! I've been stuck in bed for days!"

"Well, just get up, then!"

"I can't..." Eclipse motioned to the IV in his arm. "If I get outta this place, Celestia will not be happy with me. She'll probably tie me down and force me to stay here until I'm completely healed."

Whipstitch nodded, grinning as she imagined the two fighting, with the tall white pony trying to pin down the draconequus. "That would be a sight..."

As she trotted out the door, Whipstitch found herself face-to-face with the two guards again, this time from the other side.

Just as they were just about to say something, a voice rolled through the hall, one that only she seemed to recognize as Eclipse's a few octaves down.

"She may pass..."

The two guards, now thoroughly spooked, said nothing as Whipstitch smugly trotted past.

"Ugh! Now it tastes like dirty socks!"

Hair, Death, and Getting High

"Whipstitch!" A familiar voice called out through the air as the unicorn in question, and Whipstitch looked up from the flower stand that she had been standing in front of to find the source.

"Lily!"

Coming into view through the crowd was another pink unicorn that Whipstitch had known for many years. Unlike Whipstitch, her coat was a more faded shade of pink, and her mane was a robin's-egg-blue that fell down to her shoulders in a much shorter style than Whipstitch's, though the hair of her tail was a bit longer, barely long enough to drag on the ground. She was waving enthusiastically to Whipstitch, and had taken up a trot to meet her.

Whipstitch laughed as the two of them collided in a firm embrace, happy to be reunited again.

"How have you been?" Lily asked, releasing the hug after a few seconds. "What are you doing here in Canterlot?"

"You're not going to believe this..." Whipstitch grinned sadistically as Lily's eyes rolled.

"Whipstitch, we're in Canterlot. Anything can happen here."

You're telling me... Whipstitch thought as her lollipop changed flavors again, this time to a bitter lime. "I'm doing repairs for the Princesses. They needed their tapestries repaired in the Grand Hall." She grinned in spite of the bitter taste as Lily's jaw dropped. "And how have you been? I business holding up well?"

"Well you know how these Canterlot ponies are... A new mane for every day of the week. Since the new summer season is coming out, the hairstyling business is an industrious one." Lily smiled brightly and nodded in the direction that she had come from. "Come on, I saved us a couple of seats!"

Whipstitch nodded and easily made her way through the crowd. She stopped only once, when a sudden, painful tug at her head brought her to a screeching halt.

"Hey, watch your hooves!" She shouted at a nearby stallion, who had mistakenly stood on her mane. She kept it long on purpose, and over the years, it had grown with her tail to be long enough to drag on the ground, though she always made sure to subconsciously levitate it when the conditions called for it. She was proud of her mane, despite the occasional Rapunzel-related nickname.

"Well, maybe you should get that rat's nest trimmed!" The yellow-coated stallion replied, picking up his hoof as if he had just stepped in a mud puddle.

"What did you just say?" Immediately, Whipstitch's eyes lit up with fiery indignation as she spun back around to face the antagonist. Lily had learned a long time ago not to try and tamper with Whipstitch's hair, and even telling a joke about it would be like stepping into a minefield. "Why don't you say that to my face, you motherbucking plothole!"

"Whipstitch!" Lily hissed, grabbing her friend by the shoulder to try and restrain her. "Watch your language!"

"Hmph! Obviously not from Canterlot. Not just unkempt, but uncouth." The snooty stallion didn't seem to care about her anger, instead turning to walk away. As he did, he purposely stomped his front hoof down on the hair of her tail, giving it a swift, 90-degree twist to grind it into the dirt. With a smug grin, he walked away again into the crowd.

This took a few moments for Whipstitch to process. When it did, though, Lily began to detect a faint smell of something burning. When she looked over, she saw a faint smoldering glow in Whipstitch's hair, as if dying embers had been sprinkled in her hair that morning.

Uh oh...

With a quick sudden, snappy motion, Whipstitch moved her flank back and forth. Her offended tail picked up into the air with the motion and flew out into the crowd with a loud cracking sound.

"Ga-AK!"

Like a fisherpony retrieving his catch, Whipstitch pulled her tail back again, bringing the stranger back into sight. The black strands of her tail were wrapped around his neck in a noose-like loop, and he was quickly dragged face-first to the ground.

"You little bucker... You got somethin' to say to me?" Whipstitch bore down on him like a wildcat, placing a hoof on the top of his head to stop him from getting up. Her hair was now clearly smoking, creating a small black cloud above her head.

The stallion now looked as if he feared for his life. "I-I-I guess that I just need to say... It's a lovely mane! Quite lovely! Charming, even!"

"And should I cut it?" Whipstitch growled.

"N-NO! No! Don't cut it! It's perfect just the way it is!" He cried, quickly switching between looking up at her and down at the ground again. "If anything, you should grow it out even more!"

"That's what I thought." Whipstitch gave her hoof an identical twist, grinding it into his forehead, before letting him up. "Watch yourself the next time you feel like insulting somepony's mane..."

The stallion nodded quickly, then ran from the smoldering unicorn, shoving ponies left and right in his panic.

"You haven't changed, have you, Whips?" Lily walked up next to her and inhaled deeply. After holding her breath for a second, she turned and blew on Whipstitch's hair, snuffing it out like a candle. "Your hair certainly hasn't. Still shows your magical heritage..."

As the smoke cleared, Whipstitch turned back around and began to walk again, the ponies around them now giving her a wide path to the small café that Lily had come from.

"I see you've perfected your 'tail whip!'" Lily laughed as she caught up to her.

"They don't call me Whip-stitch for nothing!" The second unicorn chuckled. "It was 'super effective,' wasn't it?"

"You're kidding, right?" Whipstitch sighed. "I just saw him last night! He looked terrible, as if he hadn't slept in days!"

"That's usually when he starts getting his absolute worst ideas..." Lily shook her head, as if talking about an unruly foal. "But I saw him this morning. He came in to say hello and pay me in advance for his next few visits."

"And where did he say that he was going?"

"He said something about visiting 'going camping.'"

"Well, that doesn't seem so bad."

"Yes, until I looked in one of his bags while he was distracted... He had his self-drawn map of Everfree" Lily groaned and rolled her eyes almost in sync with Whipstitch.

"I swear, Callalily, that foal will be the death of us..." She took a large bite from the sandwich on her plate, chewing thoughtfully. "On the other hoof, maybe if we stopped worrying about Pennington Inkwell so much, he might stop doing these crazy stunts? If we give the dog a little more leash, he might stop pulling..."

Both of them held a straight face for all of three seconds before bursting into uproarious laughter.

"So... Are we really going to try to figure out how to get him to stop?" Lily asked as she wiped a tear of laughter from her eye.

"Well, Lily, I've learned something from Pennington, in all seriousness." Whipstitch smiled as he lollipop changed to a flavor that reminded her of the thread that she so often nibbled on during her work. It was a familiar taste. "And that's that sometimes, ponies leave." She shrugged at the simplistic statement. "Whether he's Pennington Inkwell or Scorching Quill, he can't keep still. He might leave for a day or a month. He never gives any notice, so one day, he might be there, and the next, he's gone. Just like that." She took a long sip from her milkshake, allowing the vanilla-bean goodness to mix with the flavor of fresh thread.

"But, he could die out there!" Lily shook her head in denial, gently pounding her hoof onto the table in frustration. "He never takes that seriously! One day he could be here, and the next, he's dead!"

"Then he dies." Whipstitch found no smugness in her continued simplicity, but she had fallen into a more contemplative mood after the caffeine of her coffee had finally worn off. "Lily, Pennington does what he wants because he loves to do it. Every pony lives their life the way that they want, and that makes every life amazing. Whether it's one hour or a thousand years, as long as a pony comes into life, they live it perfectly by their own standard."

Lily shook her head in confusion. "Whips, I don't understand. I have plenty of regrets, and I'm sure Pennington does, as well! Lots of ponies have regrets, so how can you say that every pony lives their life perfectly?"

Whipstitch's eyebrows came together as she thought harder, and she closed her eyes to bring her mind to a sharpened point. "I suppose that... Life is choices, right? Throughout our entire lives, we make a million choices. But, no matter what, we always try to make the best one for us. If it makes us happy to make somepony else happy, then we live a selfless life. If it makes us happy to be greedy, then we'll try to get things for ourselves our entire lives." She smiled and took a new bite of her sandwich, chewed, then swallowed, suddenly happy as her point gained new clarity in her own mind. "But, no matter what, we always try to make the choice that will make us the most happy. Our entire lives are nothing but choices that make us happy! So, when a pony dies, whether they know it or not, they've been making themselves happy their entire life. They would never have lived it another way, because they followed what they truly wanted. So, in a very special way, every life is perfect." She finally opened her eyes again, looking straight into Lily's. "That's my philosophy. If Pennington were to die, then he would die perfectly: living his life the way he wanted. We would have no right to take that from him."

This silenced Lily, who stared at her in absolute shock.

"Well, anyway, that's just what I was thinking." She decided to forego the straw, putting the glass of her milkshake to her mouth and taking large gulps until she had drained it.

"Whipstitch, that may have been the most profound thing that I ever heard you say..."

"Don't get used to it," she chuckled. "You caught me in the tiny window between caffeine high and caffeine crash."

"Eh, you never crash too hard..." Lily smiled as a unicorn waiter came to visit them.

"And how are you both enjoying your meals?" He asked, looking at each of their plates.

"Oh, it's lovely!" Lily chirped, putting on a cheerful face for the waiter. "Could I have a refill of my chocolate milkshake, please?"

The waiter nodded and put Lily's empty glass on a tray that he was holding in the air with magic. "And would you like one, as well, ma'am?"

Whipstitch pondered the glass for a moment. "Well, it's too early for martinis, but too late for coffee... I suppose another milkshake would be nice!"

"Those will be out in just a few minutes." The waiter nodded and walked away again, leaving them alone once more.

Whipstitch grimaced as a sudden wave of dizziness swept over her, nearly knocking her out of the chair.

"Whoa! Whoa..." She leaned against the back of the chair for support, trying to sit as still as possible as the laws of gravity seemed to gyrate around her.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked, getting up out of her seat and offering a steady hoof on her shoulder. This, however was the equivalent of stopping a carnival ride: Whipstitch's dizziness stopped increasing, but she felt like she had just been slapped in the face with something... something that made her extremely dizzy.

A "Dizzy bat..." I feel like I just got hit by a baseball bat that makes you dizzy.

"Yes... I'm fine..." Suddenly, she was struggling to keep her daisy sandwich down. "Just a new... Ugh... medication. It's supposed to have a few side effects..."

"Medication? Are you sick?" Lily asked, seemingly horrified at the thought. "Do I need to take you to a doctor?"

"No, no... It's passing." Whipstitch slowly at up again as gravity seemed to reassert itself in the proper direction. "And I'm not sick, it's for helping me learn to use a new type of magic..."

"A... new type of magic?" Lily asked as she walked back to her seat. "What other kind of magic is there than just... magic?"

"Well, it's a long and complicated story..." Whipstitch shoved the rest of her sandwich in her mouth and quickly chewed and swallowed it to calm her still-spinning stomach. "And I'm actually not supposed to tell anypony. He made me swear to secrecy."

"Oh... He?" Lily's expression changed from worried to bemused. "This is new, Whipstitch... I thought that your only crush was on Discord..."

Whipstitch laughed at their inside joke. Ever since they had first met in the Canterlot Gardens and she had mentioned her fondness for chaos, her "crush on Discord" had been Lily's teasing point.

"No, no! He's not Discord." Not by a long shot... "He's actually... Another... student of chaos!" She smiled as she finally thought of something to say. She hated to lie to Lily, but if she was going to keep Eclipse as a friend, she knew that no other ponies could know that he was there until he was ready for it. "He thinks that ponies are going to judge him if he's open about it, so he keeps it a secret. Made me swear not to tell anypony who he was."

Lily thought for a moment, rolled her eyes, then took a bite of her lasagna. "Whenever you want to tell me the whole truth, Whips, feel free."

Whipstitch cringed ad the off-handed remark struck deep. "I'm sorry, Callalily, but I can't do that yet. He made me promise to keep a few secrets, so I can't tell you the whole truth..." She stopped the apology as she became light-headed, brining a hoof to her forehead. "Oh boy, here we go... AGAIN?"

She was hovering in the air above her seat, and quickly beginning to rise. "LILY!"

"Don't worry!" Lily jumped up and grabbed a hoof full of Whipstitch's mane. "I've got you! How are you doing that?"

"I don't know!" Whipstitch cringed again, but this time, somepony touching her mane was doing it for a good reason. "It must be this stupid lollipop! He said that it would have side effects!"

"Well, take it out!" Lily shouted as her front leg stretched farther and farther as the pull on Whipstitch seemed to grow stronger.

Whipstitch, who was beginning to understand how a balloon felt, nodded and reached up to the stick of the candy. Sorry, Eclipse.

The sweet refused to move.

Whipstitch blinked, shook her head, then gave it a firm tug.

The sweet refused to move.

Using both hooves, Whipstitch grabbed the lollipop stick and pulled on it with all of her strength.

The sweet refused to move.

"It's- It's stuck!" Whipstitch groaned. It didn't seem to be attached to any point in her mouth, but refused to budge from its particular point in space unless it was moving with the rest of her body.

"You're joking, right?" Lily groaned as she held on with both hooves to prevent her friend from flying up into the sky. "I can't pull you down with magic, either! Every time I try, I can't touch you with it!"

Whipstitch folded her front legs in over her chest, now feeling entirely ridiculous. "Great... Fan-bucking-tastic."

"Um, Whips?" Lily grunted, trying hard to keep her grip.

"What?"

"There may be a bigger problem..."

"A bigger problem? You've got to be kidding me if you think that we've got a bigger problem than the fact that my body suddenly thinks that it's a Pegasus! If you have a bigger problem than the fact that I have a one-way ticket to Pluto, please, enlighten me!" As she spoke, however, Lily's back hooves finally left the table, and they both rose together into the sky, with Whipstitch providing the buoyancy and Lily as an unfortunate passenger.

"W-well, I think that we both have one-way tickets to Pluto..." Lily stammered whille quickly climbed her way up to Whipstitch's body and tightened her grip on one of her back legs.

Close Encounters of the Chaotic Kind

"Whipstitch?"

"Yeah?"

"Did anyone ever tell you that unicorns can't fly?"

"Yes..."

"Then why do you have to prove them wrong?" Lily shouted, throwing her hooves in the air in frustration. She had managed to climb her way up to her friend and lay herself across Whipstitch's back, gaining as secure a grip as she could as they finally leveled out about 15 yards above the tops of most of the buildings in Canterlot.

"Look, it's not my fault." Whipstitch was much more calm about the situation than Lily. "It's this stupid lollipop! Eclipse never mentioned that it would make me defy gravity!"

"Well, when I meet this 'Eclipse' pony, I'll give him a piece of my mind!" Lily growled, swinging at the air. Whipstitch chuckled as she envisioned the strong-willed unicorn staring down the draconequus in his hospital bed, chiding him like a child.

"Well, it will have to wait until after we get down there." Whipstitch whipped her tail around and downwards, pointing at the ground. In a sudden surge, she moved forward, shaking them both and forcing Lily into a death grip around Whipstitch's neck.

"What was that?" Lily sounded as if she were on the verge of screaming, barely keeping herself in check. "I don't want to fall off!"

"You... don't like... heights... do you?" Whipstitch grunted, trying to loosen Lily's grip. "I- I think... We may have just figured out our ticket out of here! Hold on!" With an adventurous grin, she swung her tail around again, the long hair flying through the breeze. Again, they moved forward. Whipstitch repeated the action, and the reaction followed just as quickly.

Lily finally seemed to be catching on. "A... propeller? Really? You're going to use your tail as a propeller?"

Whipstitch's grin widened. "Better than just sitting up here and waiting for it to wear off, am I right?" He began to steadily spin her tail, pushing them forwards. "So much for our milkshakes."

"Whipstitch, that is the least of my worries..." Lily whispered, still keeping a tight grip on her neck as the wind began to blow, guiding them towards the castle.

Time seemed to pass slowly after they both fell silent, being guided on the wind like a balloon, with Whipstitch pushing them forward towards some kind of destination.

After about fifteen minutes of tail-propelled flight, it seemed as if the two unicorns had reached "some kind of destination." They were floating above the castle, hovering in place. Somehow, the path that the wind had carried them on had avoided being seen by any kind of guard, and left them hovering some distance above a glass skylight, though the glare from the sun made it impossible to see through. No amount of tail-spinning seemed to be able to free them from the spot, and they had been sitting for a few more minutes after that in total silence.

"Well, this is a fine predicament..." Lily groaned, looking down the long drop to the roof. "This is the sort of moment where Pennington would joke about just jumping down, then really do it..."

"You're really fixated on Pennington, aren't you?" Whipstitch looked back at her friend with a curious and somewhat suspicious stare. "Anything there I should know about?"

"Well, the situation kind of reminds me of something out of one of his books..." She muttered, adjusting herself on Whipstitch's back in an action that looked more like nervous fidgeting. "Besides, he's like a brother to me... Why wouldn't I think about him?"

"Just strikes me that when you're in a situation where you're scared to death of falling, you would think of him..." Whipstitch grinned as Lily grew more anxious. Before she could press the subject, however, the skylight below them began to crack open, and she watched with anticipation as a face emerged.

"Whipstitch?" A pair of mismatched horns and blue eyes peeked out from under the glass, and Whipstitch breathed a sigh of relief. "Go ahead and float on down! I'm alone in here!"

"Eclipse Tumult, how the HECK do I get down?" Whipstitch wiggled her legs helplessly.

In response, a lion paw reached out and beckoned her to enter with one finger. In response, her body finally began to slowly descend towards the skylight.

"Whipstitch..." Lily whispered. "That's not a pony..."

Whipstitch chuckled nervously, trying to ignore her old friend's worries. "He's not going to exactly be thrilled to meet you, either, I suspect..."

As they fell through the window in the roof, Whipstitch found herself back in the castle's infirmary, though Eclipse seemed to be better, up and walking around now. Everything that had been around his cot, including the IV bag and other medical devices, was gone now.

"Well, I guess that took a bit of a shorter time than I expected... Just one day to finish the lollipop!" As Eclipse turned to face them, he froze. His eyes grew wide and his body paled, and he almost looked like the statue that he was so afraid of becoming. "Po-po-pony... Extra pony..."

Lily, on the other hoof, seemed to be having the same reaction. She stepped back from Eclipse, a look of panic contorting her face. "Whipstitch... That's a draconequus..."

"Yes, and he happens to be a very nice one..." Whipstitch rolled her eyes, more worried about Eclipse than Lily. "Eclipse, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring her here! She was trying to help me get back down again and wound up getting caught up in the-" She paused as she realized that Eclipse wasn't listening.

"Whipstitch, what are you doing with a draconequus?" Lily asked, starting to panic. "Do you have any idea what he's capable of? He could turn Equestria inside out!" She started to hyperventilate as she lost control. "I-I've gotta go tell somepony!" Just as she was about to leave, though, Whipstitch sprung into action, moving quickly with her tail. She snagged Lily's back leg and pulled her back again. She whipped her mane around, looping the hair between two of the cots and tossing Lily inside. After a few more movements with her tail, Lily was trapped in a hammock of hair, which Whipstitch began to calmly rock back and forth in a soothing manner.

"Callalily Curl, you are scaring him!" Whipstitch stomped her hoof, trying to call her friend back to her senses. "I happen to be trying to convince him that ponies aren't going to hate him if he came out of hiding!"

Lily glared out at Whipstitch from the nest of hair, but remained silent.

"So, I will need you to keep him secret." She continued, staring down the unicorn. "Before you say anything, the Princesses are letting him stay here, so they not only know, but they approve!" Seeing Lily still looking unsure, she rolled her eyes. "And... I'll give you some of those special leaves from my willow so that you can make that special shampoo..."

Lily finally seemed to relax inside of the hammock, and Whipstitch turned her attention to Eclipse, turning on a dime to look at him. The draconequus was still frozen in stone, and was quickly gathering dust.

"I'm sorry, Eclipse. Lily is a worrier, and she tends to panic when she's stressed..." Whipstitch walked up to him slowly, making sure that nothing changed out of his fear. She did notice a group of cotton candy clouds starting to form around his head. "But you can trust her. She keeps a secret better than most ponies. After all, who keeps a secret better than your hairdresser? You can tell them anything!" She thought for a moment, then pulled down one of the clouds with her magic and began to quietly munch on it. Raspberry flavored... It certainly washed away the taste that the lollipop had changed to, something that she could only identify as "doorknob."

She finally reached the statue, and she could finally get a closer look at him in his entirety. In the end, his resemblance to Discord was almost uncanny. The only major differences that she could spot were the fact that his eyes were a different color, his overall build looked more as if he had hadn't eaten in years, and where Discord had a goat's leg, Eclipse had a rabbit's. Judging from the look of him, that rabbit's foot isn't for luck...

Eclipse finally seemed to thaw out of his petrified revere, his normal colors returning. He gave Whipstitch a suspicious look, then shook his head. "This never would have happened if I had just stayed in the Everfree forest... But Luna asked me to try and trust ponies a little more. So, Callalily Curl... I'll give you a chance." With a snap of his fingers, Whipstitch's hair went slack and fell to the ground, and Lily had disappeared. Whipstitch considered asking where he had sent her, but she quickly wrote it off as irrelevant.

"So... I guess that you're here because you finished the lollipop?" Eclipse asked, looking down towards her.

"Well, I kind of just floated here, and the lollipop isn't finished..." Whipstitch muttered, trying to pull it out of her mouth once again.

"Well, let's just take a look then, shall we?" Eclipse reached down and took a hold of the stick. The moment that he did, Whipstitch felt the candy part melt away. When he pulled it out of her mouth, the stick itself had changed to an old-fashioned thermometer, which Eclipse took a careful glance at before tossing it into his mouth and seemingly swallowing it whole. "Yep, you're just about ready!"

"Ready for what, exactly?" Whipstitch asked, watching him with a mix of fascination and hilarity.

"Well, the last bit of the change requires a catalyst. A spark. Now this my be the slightly unpleasant part." He shrugged. "Of course, I've never tried to teach a pony like this, but it's only a minute tweak to your magic, so-"

"Wait. What do you mean by 'slightly unpleasant?'" Whipstitch narrowed her eyes. "You didn't exactly list 'defying gravity' under the symptoms, either, so I'd like the truth this time..."

Eclipse rolled his eyes, and Whipstitch rolled hers in return. Eclipse noticed and rolled his eyes again. Whipstitch, noticing the small game that he was beginning to play, rolled hers again. Eclipse chuckled and continued rolling his eyes, sending them into a semi-hypnotic spin. Whipstitch tried her best to follow suit, but she couldn't keep her eyes rolling for more than a single revolution before having to stop and start again. When she finally stopped trying, she looked back up at him. His eyes were a blue blur by now, and were quietly humming in their sockets. As Eclipse finally began to sway back and forth and put a paw to his head, the scene was simply too ridiculous for Whipstitch to restrain herself. She burst out laughing, her anger washing away. Eclipse finally seemed to grow tired of becoming dizzy and reached up with both hands. Whipstitch watched as he cartoonishly popped his eyeballs out of their sockets. When he tried to hold them, however, they kept spinning in his hands, generating a large amount of smoke and a palpable amount of heat.

"Ouch! Ouch! Hot!" Eclipse tossed the orbs into the air, blowing on his hands to try and cool the red-hot skin. His eyeballs, however, seemed to not want to come down, each sprouting a pair of wings and flying away out the window.

Eclipse seemed offended at this, and his dark and empty sockets narrowed in frustration. "Fine! Be that way! I don't need you anyway!" With a haughty grunt, he knocked his fist against the back of his own head, and a new pair of eyeballs rolled into place.

Whipstitch was rolling on the floor with laughter, now, and her eyes were watering with glee.

"Well, I'm glad that one of us enjoyed that..." Eclipse sounded grumpy, but his grin betrayed him. "But, as I was saying it's going to be like laying a second set of train tracks in your brain... So that you can use the two types of magic." He shrugged. "It's a necessary precaution, since trying to run both types of magic along the same 'tracks' would most likely either kill you or drive you totally insane."

Whipstitch finally calmed down as his speech grew more serious again. "You know a lot about the technicalities of chaos."

"Well, I was always a little more interested in how we did what we did because I was always trying to figure out how to be as strong as my big brother..."

Whipstitch's mind came to a screeching halt. "Wait... What did you just say?"

"Well, I said that I was always trying to figure out-" Eclipse was cut off as Whipstitch leaped up and grabbed him with all four legs, clinging to him like a cat to a tree and staring him straight in the eyes.

"Did you just say that you're Discord's younger brother?" Her face was one of sheer elation, and it almost scared Eclipse more than the idea of her being angry

"Umm... Yes?" Eclipse sputtered, taking a nervous step back. This did nothing to aid his situation, of course, and Whipstitch clung to him even more tightly.

"And... does that mean that you could help me meet him?" She asked, leaning in closer than most ponies would have even thought possible.

"Well, no..." Eclipse looked anxiously towards the door, as if he were hoping that a guard would walk through to free him. "I actually approve of his being trapped, and I couldn't free him if I tried..."

Whipstitch's expression sank and she begrudgingly let go of him, sliding back down to the ground. "Oh... And if he were to get free again... What do you suppose a pony would have to do to get his attention?"

Eclipse's eyebrows shot up in suspicion as he finally understood her intent. "You do realize that he's about three thousand years older than you, don't you, Whipstitch?"

"And?" Whipstitch seemed to have absolutely no problem with this whatsoever.

Eclipse let out a long sigh and groaned, "Look, can we stay on the topic at hoof?"

"Fine... But I'm going to want some inside info about him later." Whipstitch muttered.

Rolling his eyes one last time, Eclipse snapped his fingers, summoning a tiny arc of magical energy between them. Before she could say anything, he had snatched the tip of her horn, running the current through and into her body.

What happened next was an experience that Whipstitch would not forget for the rest of her life.

The world around her seemed to shatter like glass, with each piece exploding in a blinding burst of rainbow colors and a cacophony of sounds that she couldn't identify. She could feel herself blinking, but the images in front of her refused to go dark. By the time that she finally realized that the images didn't stem from her eyes, she stopped the effort and let them slide shut.

The entire world was different and yet exactly the same. Colors had shifted every which way, and never seemed to stay still for more than an instant, causing the reality around her to billow and shudder. Noises were suddenly new and alien, from ringing tones of sheer beauty to the grating sounds of the most unearthly surfaces being rubbed and smashed against one another. The sounds were all light, though, and provided more of a strange form of ambient music for this new world. Everything in the infirmary was still there with a definite shape, but nothing seemed solid or real. More shocking to her, though, was the sight of neon-lighted lines running through the air. While the entirety of reality seemed to be constantly rippling like fabric being pulled across an uneven surface, these lines seemed to billow and roll in some kind of invisible wind. With a curious hoof, she reached out to one of the nearest threads, gently brushing her hoof against it.

The moment that she made physical contact with the line, a sensation shot through her body with all of the force of an electric shock, but with none of the pain. Instead, she felt an exhilarating rush as her body was lifted up and off of the ground, and her head was filled with a dizzying sensation. It was just enough to allow her to think clearly without becoming disoriented. Through the thread, she felt a thousand miles of Equestria open up underneath her mind, and she felt as if she could be everywhere at once if she only wished to be there. Her body felt as light as a feather, as if it could have simply been picked up and washed away by those same winds that governed the threads, a sensation that lingered after she had pulled back her hoof. When she looked down at herself, she was surprised to see that she was, indeed, hovering at least a foot above the floor. As she continued to examine herself, she noticed that her own color of pink had been boosted to a near-blinding luminescence. Her hair, which was now floating freely, was composed of a slightly dimmed copy of those same exhilarating paths of light that had fully immersed her in this new world.

For the first time, Whipstitch thought to look back to Eclipse. The new vision of the draconequus nearly took her breath away.

Where once she had seen a sorry, skin-and-bones creature of mismatched parts, she now saw a pillar of shining blue flames. The inferno seemed to break beyond the borders of his outline, though, flowing outwards into the world like a fog that burned away almost as quickly as it formed. She could see every single line around them magnetizing towards him and flowing straight into his body. They still moved while within the draconequus, but always kept themselves inside of his outline. Wherever a thread touched him, fire raced along its length for a short time, quickly fading back to the shimmering whiteness of its originality. The longer that she stared, the more that she could see into the heart of the fire, where a solitary white flame burned, licking gently and then violently beating itself against the blue, barely contained by the mass of weaker flames. The longer she looked at this being filled to overflowing with the sheer essence of the omnipresent chaos, the more the impression that she had that she was looking upon a creature who was a god in his own right. She moved to touch him the way that she had the thread, but the silhouette finally moved of its own accord, raising what seemed to be his lion's paw in a motion for her to stop.

You're immersed in the essence of chaos right now. If we were to touch one who rules it naturally while in this state, you would lose yourself. Eclipse's voice was fuzzy and echoed, barely audible over the ambient noise. Your essence would enter mine, possibly never to return. He sounded as if he were shouting to her while underwater, and she nodded as she recognized the warning.

Are you ready to come back? Eclipse's voice was growing clearer now, as if he were drawing closer. All of the pathways have been made clear in your body and mind. By the time that he had finished speaking, his voice was as clear as if they were truly only the distance apart that they seemed to be.

"I- I don't know if I ever want to leave..." Whipstitch whispered. "This place is beautiful... Beyond anything that I could have dreamed..."

We all have to wake up sometimes, Whipstitch. You need to be careful. Right now, the forces of the universe are being channeled through your body, most significantly your brain. This is something that you'll have to work up to in small doses, or you could hurt yourself. Eclipse's tone held an undercurrent of worry, and Whipstitch could feel that he was right. She took one last longing look around the new world, wishing that she could stay longer. When she finally turned back to Eclipse, he was no longer the tower of flames, but the simple creature that she had met in a hospital bed. He smiled and extended a claw to her, indicating that he was now safe to touch.

"Is this... how you always see things?" She asked, hesitating to take the hand for a moment to ask the question.

"No, but I can see them this way when I wish." Eclipse's voice no longer held the ethereal tone that had accompanied it before. "These are the winds of chaos... You may know them as the winds of change." He gently fingered at a few of the threads, toying with them as a lazy kitten would with yarn. "These are what carried you and Lily here to me when you were ready."

"And they all pass through you?" She asked, stunned at the new revelation.

"Oh, heavens no! It would take one of our kind far stronger than Discord or myself to pull them all into one place. It may even be impossible... They stretch across the universe." He turned back to her with a serious expression. "But you have to let this go for now. I'll teach you to tap into it of your own will, but you're going to burn yourself out." He offered the eagle's claw again. "I'll be your teacher in chaos, if you'll be willing to trust me as I trust you..."

Whipstitch pondered for a moment, taking a final glance at the world around them. This is the point of no return, I guess...

"Eclipse Tumult... It would be my privilege to accept." She extended her hoof forward and took a firm grasp of the claw.

The Hair (and the Plot) Thickens...

Thunder Runner was having a good day. When he had come in for guard duty in the morning, his armor was clean and polished to a golden shine, he had gotten a good night's sleep, and even gotten in a little quality time with his son the night before. The morning had been bright and cheerful, without a cloud in the sky, and everything seemed almost perfect in the castle, making his job of patrolling the halls that much easier. In all honesty, being a Day Guard wasn't too hard, since most scoundrels attacked at night. I just can't imagine where they keep finding all of those volunteers for the Night Guard... The greatest threats that Equestria had ever faced had normally attacked in broad daylight, but the more insidious enemies, those who wished to strike personally at Canterlot Royalty, had a modus operandi of attacking during the night, when the Princesses were asleep and guards' eyelids began to droop. Despite their nocturnal habits, however, Luna always chose her own sleepy guards over those designated to assist her during the day.

"If there's any pony more at risk, it's really Princess Luna..." He muttered to himself as he continued to think.

"Oh, is that true?"

Thunder Runner froze, his wings pulling themselves tightly against his sides in nervousness at the familiar voice. He slowly turned himself around to face the source, and nearly died of fright at what was behind him: Nightmare Moon, with a wide, fanged grin, black fur and blue, misty mane rippling in the small breeze that had picked up in the hallway. She leaned down, fixing her catlike eyes on his and nearly touching his head with her horn. Her light blue armor caught the sunlight and refracted it across the walls.

"W-W-W-Well..." He stuttered, blinking several times, unable to regain his composure.

"At ease, soldier!" She chuckled, stepping back again. In a flash of white light, the armor disappeared, and Princess Luna returned to her "normal" form, not nearly so intimidating. "I was simply jesting with you..."

"Princess... you scared me..." He whispered with a chuckle, releasing the breath that he had been holding.

"Well, you seem to have enjoyed it..." Luna replied with a smile, giving him a small wink. "Now, what was it you were talking about, with my being at risk?"

Thunder Lane blushed, and quietly prayed that his redness couldn't be seen under his dark grey coat. "Oh... It was nothing, your highness! I was simply thinking about the Night Guard and the fact that they, with insufficient sleep, face more threats than some members of the Day Guard..."

Luna smiled, turning her nose up ever-so-slightly. "Every one of my guards endures weeks of special training, along with a magical adjustment of their bodies to be better-suited to the night... They could trounce any member of the Day Guard on level ground."

Thunder Runner rolled his eyes, knowing that she was referring to the monthly competitions between the two factions of guards. "For the record, we'll even out the score next month..."

Luna chuckled and nodded, walking past him and moving quickly on down the hallway. "By the way, would you be so kind as to deliver Whipstitch her morning coffee? Our seamstress extraordinaire seems to be fueled by caffeine..."

Whipstitch... The name struck a distant bell in Thunder Runner's mind, though he couldn't quite identify it. "Yes, your highness! Right away..."

Thunder Runner quietly carried the tray of coffee cups in his mouth, doing his best to ignore the smell filling his nostrils. The coffee wasn't for him after all.

"Miss Whipstitch? I have your coffee!" He called as he knocked on the doors to the Grand Hall. The pony had been there for a few days, now, and a multitude of strange sounds had been rumored to be coming from the cordoned-off area. Now, though, everything was quiet, with not even a response from the pony working inside.

Silent as the grave... Thunder shook his head, doing his best to shake the unbidden morbid thought from his mind. He knocked once again, harder this time. "Miss Whipstitch? Are you in there?"

The silence continued.

He looked up at the hastily-scribbled note taped to the door. "Do not disturb..." He blinked, considering the warning. Under a normal set of circumstances he would have simply taken a cup of coffee for himself and left the rest outside the door, but something seemed to be wrong. His first job had been to mark where lightning was likely to strike, and he had learned to follow his instincts, and right now he had a churning feeling in his gut telling him that something was wrong behind those doors.

He stretched out a hoof to the door, paused for a moment, then finally pulled on the handle with a firm grip, praying that he was just being paranoid.

The first thing that he noticed was that the door came out only with a massive amount of force, forcing him to flap his wings and pull on the handle with all of his strength. As he finally pried it open, he could see that the entire room inside was dark, with all of the windows somehow blocked out. As the door swung open on its hinges, a mysterious black substance spilled out, causing him to jump back in fright. The door was carried the rest of the way on its own weight, exposing the room to the sunlight. As he looked more closely from afar, he noticed the black substance seemed to splitting and revealing itself to be a mass of tiny black filaments. He slowly dropped to the ground, stepping forward and picking up a small hooffull of the unidentified matter.

"It's... Hair!" He cried, looking back into the dark room. "Whipstitch! Are you alright in there?"

"Help... Me..." The hoarse whisper slithered out from the darkness. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Thunder was horrified to see the twisted form of a pony hanging among the follicles, her body twisted and contorted into a terrifying shape that one would expect to see in a circus.

"D-don't worry! I'm coming!" He cried, taking a bold step into the hair-filled room. The moment that his hoof touched the ground, though, he realized that, much like a spider's web, these strands were taut. As his hoof pressed down onto them, the strands on the pink pony's body tightened and ground themselves into her chest, drawing a small trickle of blood. From deep inside the massive snarl of hair, he heard Whipstitch cry out in pain, a piercing cry that sent shudders running along his spine.

We're going to need a lot more ponies than just me...

"Hang in there, Whipstitch! I'm getting help!" He cried, stepping back out of the door and shoving it shut with all of his might, making sure that no other ponies would make his foolish mistake of stepping into the web.

"Princess Luna! Princess Celestia! Something's wrong!" He cried as he took off down the hall in the same direction that he had seen Luna walking in earlier. "Please, I need your help!"

Whipstitch was trapped in a nightmare. She knew fully well that she was unconscious or, at best, asleep. The last thing that she could remember was her eyelids drooping as she stitched together one of the last mends on the tapestries, and now she was someplace entirely different. She was back at her home: a city called Fairytrail. She wasn't in the city, though. She was in a crystal cave on its outskirts, away from every pony in the town, with several large boulders blocking the way out. She tried to turn her head and look around, despite knowing exactly was around her and why the exit was blocked, but her body didn't respond, instead acting on its own and turning back towards the rear of the cave, crawling up on top of a set of strands of hair near-invisible in the semi-darkness. She didn't feel her hooves touching the ground, and she was learning to look at herself out of the corners of her own eyes. Her body was tightly wrapped in her own extended hair, not only extending her own legs into long stabbing instruments, but creating four more legs made entirely from the hardened strands that moved in quick, spiderlike movements. She could feel a set of sharp fangs in her mouth dripping with venom as her tongue gently teased them with her own warm flesh. More than anything, though, Whipstitch felt the hunger that seemed to penetrate her entire body. Not only did her stomach growl and lash out for food, but her body ached with emptiness, the kind that could only be filled by feeding and consuming. The entire vision had a detached feeling to it, as if every sensation were being viewed through somepony else's eyes, or on a television screen that established every sensory input.

No... NO! No, I was never supposed to remember this! I NEVER remember this... Whipstitch seemed more to be pleading with whatever deities that existed to be able to close her eyes, to not see what she prayed that what she was thinking came next wouldn't come next. That all would be quiet and this memory of herself would just go hungry.

Her answer came in the sound of shuffling rocks near the entrance. Instantly, her body turned towards the source of the noise, a small unicorn forcing his way into the cave though a small hole in her blockade. He was a small, chubby yellow foal, hardly seven years old, with a brown-and-black mane that was always was arranged in some kind of matted mess on top of his head. Whipstitch's body let out a low hiss of pleasure and backed into the darkness, where both she and her web could pass unseen...

RUN! GET OUT OF HERE! GO! Whipstitch screamed within her own mind, trying her best to stop what she knew was unavoidable... What had already happened.

"Well, this is a fine mess..." The dark blue unicorn muttered as he slowly opened the door. "Any pony know what happened?"

"Well, Thunder Runner found her this way this morning..." Luna explained, trying not to cringe at being able to see every detail of Whipstitch's situation with her night-vision. "He wasn't sure what to do, and Celestia and I have never seen anything like this before... You're the one who recommended her to Celestia..."

"And it seemed as if the two of you were good friends..." Celestia continued her sister's statement, still trying to comprehend how her Grand Hall could possibly have come to such a state.

"So I was the first one you sent a letter to in order to ask for help." Pennington finished their words for them with a solemn grimace. "I suppose you were right to do so... Though I've never seen her in this state before." He turned to the dark-grey pegasus pony who had introduced himself as "Thunder Runner." "You said that you might have some helpful information?"

Thunder nodded, trying to overcome the intimidation of the situation. "Well, I think that I've actually heard about Whipstitch before, though we never actually met. She comes from a high-ranked family in a city called Fairytrail... My home, as well. It's really not our place to talk about it, but ponies in Fairytrail have... problems. Once a year, a wild magic awakens within them, transforming them physically and creating some kind of strange circumstance that they hide away from the rest of the world. This time is different for every pony, b-but this m-might be Whipstitch's-" He stuttered to a halt as Pennington shook his head in denial. "W-what?"

"I've seen Whipstitch's 'time of the year.' This is much, much tamer..." He muttered, taking a small step into the doorway as his horn began to glow and radiate a white mist. "When I made the mistake of following her into Everfree, she nearly ate me alive... literally."

This seemed to shock all of the ponies into silence, though the unusually somber pony shaped the mist into the shape of a cutthroat razor, with a large blade gleaming and casting reflections into the room. "Have you ever heard of the expression 'splitting hairs,' Luna?"

"Of course..." Luna replied quietly. "Are you seriously implying..."

"Just like getting through an ancient temple for Daring Do... It's just that it's somepony else's life on the line..." He whispered as he swung down the razor, slicing through one of the tensed threads of hair. "You have to disable every trap if you want to walk through..."

"Miss Whipstitch, are you in here?" The small foal cried as he looked around, walking deeper into the cave.

Run... Please, for Celestia's sake, just RUN!

Whipstitch could feel every thread in the room, including the ones that he was walking over. She knew that just a few more steps and there would be no escape for him.

"I saw you come in here, and I thought that you might get lonely camping on your own!" The tiny unicorn shouted, trying to see into the darkness.

With a sudden strike, Whipstitch's legs pulled together dozens of strands of hair, trapping his legs in a tight loop and pulling him up into the air with a terrified yelp. Before the youngster could react, Whipstitch's legs of hair began to turn him back and forth, wrapping his body into a tight cocoon, leaving only his head and neck exposed. To stop him from screaming, she dexterously looped a generous amount of black hair through his mouth, as well, effectively gagging him. The child looked up at her, eyes wide with mortal terror as she moved in for the kill. In his eyes, Whipstitch could see her own face reflected: eyes black, greedy fangs dripping onto a pointed tongue, all covered in matted pink fur and draped in black hair. It was a face of nightmares, filled with the joy of a monster about to kill.

What she did next was too disgusting and terrible for Whipstitch's mind to process, even in her dreamlike state, and she slowly caved in to a stupor of detached observation. Blood, screams (Some of her conscious mind, some of the tiny foal), and feeding were all that she knew for the next hour. The final vision to scroll across her vision was her prey's cutie mark: A bumblebee hovering over a yellow flower.

And then she woke up.

"BUZBY!" She cried as she sat bolt-upright in her hospital bed, taking deep breaths and struggling to establish what was real and what was the dream.

"Take it easy..." A familiar voice crooned from the darkness. "I think that the lollipop may have sparked some of your latent Fairytrail magic... You've been through quite the ordeal."

"E-Eclipse?" She asked quietly, doing her best to spot the draconequus in the nighttime darkness.

"The one and only..." He replied, revealing himself by pulling aside the curtain next to her bed. He was laying on the cot next to hers, hands folded in quiet contemplation. "I'm sorry, Whips... I had no idea that could or would happen..."

"Eclipse... Oh, Celestia, Eclipse, I killed him... All those years ago."

"Whipstitch, you've been having nightmares. Bad ones, by the sound of your screaming..." He whispered, obviously taken aback by her comment, but doing his best to hide it. "But right now, there are two princesses, a royal guard, and a very good friend of yours waiting outside of those doors." He jutted towards the hospital wing's doors with a smile. "That's more reception than I've had in a thousand years, and I make poor company compared to them. I'll be here to visit you tomorrow, though, so that we can discuss the continuation of your lessons... if there is to be any." With that, he stood up and walked to the doors.

"Whipstitch, this is my fault more than it is yours... And I am SO sorry. And whatever was in those nightmares... They're just nightmares. Who is real and who is here is what matters. So run from your nightmares... and run to your friends." With that, he quietly pulled the door open, disappearing behind it as it collided with the wall.

For the rest of the night, neither Whipstitch, Pennington, Celestia, Luna, or Thunder Runner slept. The night was one filled with hugs, rejoicing, and laughter at her safety.

And, in spite of her memories, Whipstitch found that she was still somehow able to enjoy herself. Two thoughts, however, lingered.

Why did I see those memories? I've never remembered anything that happened after my transformations...

And

Did Eclipse say that he was going to stop my lessons?

The Recovery

"Heck of a show you put on, Whips..."

Pennington was the first one to enter the hospital room, giving Whipstitch a sly grin. In spite of his smile, however, there was an uncharacteristic tiredness in his voice. "You had everyone pretty scared..."

Whipstitch rolled her eyes at her friend, taking some small comfort from the familiar face. "Well, I guess I left quite an impression... I didn't hurt anypony, did I?"

She let out a sigh of relief as Pennington shook his head. "No, you just kinda got strung up in a death trap of your own hair... They called me in to cut you loose."

Whipstitch blinked quietly as his words sunk in. "You... cut... my hair?"

Pennington waved off her concern with ease. "Only the ones threatening your life. I know, I know, 'If it just falls out naturally, it has special magic!'" His smile grew wider as he did a corny impression of her voice. "But you were caught in a sea of razor hair, though, so I had to cut a few! The rest started falling out the moment somepony managed to reach you." He gave her a quiet wink. "You'll have plenty to work with."

Whipstitch smiled and leaned back in her bed, slightly relieved. As soon as she started to feel comfortable, though, her mind flashed back to the images from her memories, and she started upright again.

"Penn... I saw my memories from killing Buzby..." She whispered quietly. "I must have been asleep or something during all of this, but I saw it... every detail." She looked to the blue unicorn, expecting him to have recoiled in disgust at the mention of the deed from years before. Instead, she saw a look of sympathy emanating from her old friend.

"Whips, that wasn't you." Pennington whispered in return. "Look, I know that it was your body, but it wasn't your mind agreeing to that! If you send yourself on a guilt trip, you're just going to get caught in your own web..." The unicorn gave her a empathetic smile, lacking his usual smugness. "If any pony knows about nightmares and losing control of your own body, you know it's us..."

Whipstitch nodded, picking up on his subtle hint at his own "condition." "I guess you're right... But it was just so horrible, and I know that I did it... Yours are just nightmares."

Pennington snorted in something like a disgruntled chuckle. "They're more than just that... But I see your point. We all do things that we regret, often without thinking or because of something beyond our control... Luna only knows how many of those choices I've made, but we have to move on." He placed a gentle hoof on the side of her cot. "I know that you can. You're one of the strongest ponies I know."

As her mind involuntarily began to wander, Whipstitch noticed that the only light in the room seemed to be moonlight coming in through a set of skylights in the ceiling.

"What time is it?"

Pennington laughed as the somber conversation drew to a close. "Let me put it this way: I'm not catching the train back to Ponyville. Lily said that I could spend the night on the couch in her apartment, 'if only so I can keep an eye on you!'" Pennington laughed as he mimicked Lily's characteristic scold and looked down at his front hoof, as if he had some kind of watch that only he could see. "Speaking of which, she told me that if you didn't wake up by... about three hours ago, she was going to lock me out. So, I'd best be going!"

Whipstitch shook her head. "So, the Princesses aren't letting you stay here?"

"Oh, they offered! Lily just has more of my favorite food... Ramen!" With a wink, the smug smile that Whipstitch was used to returned. "So... If you need anything, you'll know where to find me! Is there anything I can do for you before I leave?"

Whipstitch shook her head with a smile. "If you want to do me a favor, stop eating so much of that sodium soup!"

"Never!"

The two of them burst out laughing as their old banter returned, and the author-adventurer turned back to the door to the hospital. "You can expect both Princesses to visit in the morning..."

Whipstitch nodded and laid back in her bed again. Hey, Penn!"

The blue unicorn stopped just short of the door, turning to look at her one last time.

"You're a helluva friend."

Pennington simled and winked one more time, then walked out the door.

As silence descended on the room, Whipstitch quietly took up her nightly before-bed ritual. Reaching over to the small table next to her, Whipstitch picked up her precious brush and began pulling it through her hair, starting at pulling it through the lowest ends and slowly working her way up to the roots at her skull. As the fell into the familiar rhythm of brushing, the familiar gentle tugging on her head helped to wash away her cares. The brush itself was relaxing, as well, made from ivory (taken from a post-mortem mammoth), which made it cool to the touch, and sporting bristles made from boar's hair, which helped her to keep her hair glossy and healthy. The most important part of the brush, however, was the small inlays of gypsum on the handle and back, which glimmered in the semi-darkness, both reflecting the moonlight and creating their own light. The gypsum was a small amount taken from her home, where it served the purpose of restraining wild magic, such as the type that had triggered her strange episode.

The silence gave her a sense of serenity as she gently worked her way upwards. She refused to come to terms with what she knew she had done and seen in her memories, but she did take a few minutes to think about the unicorn foal.

His name had been Buzby, and Whipstitch truly couldn't have asked for a better pony to share her love of honey with. He had discovered his talent for beekeeping at a young age, and Whipstitch had been there to see the joy on his face when he had received his cutie mark. He would often take her unnecessarily large samples of his honey for a taste test, often resulting in the two of them eating his entire supply. Whipstitch hadn't known many children during her years in school, but Buzby had been the exception: a kindred spirit in a young child. He was only about a year younger than her, but, they had both been young at the time of "the accident."

She cringed as the brush tugged at a small knot in her hair, creating a small jolt of pain and pulling her out of her reverie. With a few more strokes, she had finished her hair, and moved down to her tail, which was even longer. The process would be much faster, of course, if she simply worked for the sake of her hair. She brushed her hair when most ponies would call it perfectly fine, simply because it was her time to reflect and relax; brushing her hair was Whipstitch's personal time, and as intimate a moment as she could have by herself.

She had always known what had happened to Buzby, it was no mystery that, against her orders, he had followed her to the cave where she exiled herself during her... "episodes." Until now, though, the memories of what had actually happened had been lost in the deepest reaches of her subconscious, tucked away in the mind of the monster, whom Pennington had jokingly dubbed "Spiderstitch."

Buzby's death, however, had been no laughing matter. Whipstitch had been the one to find his body, of course, almost a week later. It had been the most horrifying experience of her life, but she brought a desperate search by his parents to an end... She would never be able to stop the shame from the moment that she had to tell her grandmother, Gilded Filigree, the truth of what had happened, nor the guilt that she had felt when she had watched her grandmother speaking quietly with Buzby's parents, their faces showing every ounce of their devastation. Ponies in Fairytrail were usually very understanding of each others "problems," but as word invariably spread, Whipstitch had been shunned by her classmates, and only a few of the most understanding adults had been willing to try to comfort her. After Buzby had died, several of his bees had begun to stay around Whipstitch, and she had gladly welcomed them as some form of his memory...

Tears dripped down from her eyes and onto the fine hairs of her tail as she slowly finished brushing, once again placing her brush down on the table. She sniffled loudly, knowing that she was very much alone in the room, and quietly climbed back under the covers of her bed. As she stared up at the moon, a new thought crossed her mind, one that she hadn't realized until now.

How did my hairbrush get in here? I left all of my things in the Grand Hall! As she looked over again, she could see that it was, indeed, still there, as if magically summoned to her side when the time came that she needed it. She pulled her face into a melancholy smile as she realized the source.

Lesson One: Perception... I simply expected it to be there, and so it was. I didn't even turn my head to look at it...

With the quiet assurance that, despite her past, the chaos of the universe seemed to be watching out for her, she quietly drifted off to sleep.

True to Pennington's word, the Princesses both came to visit Whipstitch in the morning. Luna visited first, checking in quickly to make sure that Whipstitch was safe and sound. She didn't ask many questions, understanding that every pony had their secrets better than most, and simply inquired about her injuries. Their interaction was light and brief, and ended with Whipstitch mentioning that if they didn't let her out of the hospital by sunset, she would break out, herself. Luna had laughed, nodded silently, and promised her freedom soon.

Celestia was more personal in her visit. She walked into the hospital room with a warm smile on her face, quickly sitting next to her cot.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're alright, Whipstitch..." She said quietly, opening the conversation. "I've been told that you'll be out of that bed by nightfall."

"Yep! Back to work!" She chirped in return, tugging anxiously at the covers she was laying under.

"Are you sure that you're ready for that?" Celestia asked, leaning forward with a concerned look. "Most ponies would call that a traumatic experience..."

Whipstitch rolled her eyes and shook her head, putting on a happy smile. "I've been through much worse. Trust me, it takes a lot to scare me!"

Princess Celestia didn't seem convinced, but seemed to let Whipstitch's optimism outweigh her skepticism. "Well, if you're quite sure..."

"Princess... I can have all three finished by today!" Whipstitch winked and chuckled. "In reality, this is almost exactly what I needed to finish all off this! The finest thread in all of Equestria couldn't repair those tapestries to their full glory, but a few locks of Threadmane hair can!"

Celestia blinked quietly to herself. "Threadmane... I know that I've heard that before. It's a name that I haven't heard in many years, though..."

"Threadmane was my ancestor." Whipstitch smiled, happy in the fact that she knew something that the all-powerful Princess didn't. "She was Fairytrail's protector when Discord ruled Equestria, and saved the entire city from being wiped off of the map!"

Princess Celestia's face lit up with recognition. "Of course! Fairytrail! How could I have forgotten?"

Whipstitch smiled, remembering her city's rich history. She frowned, though, as Celestia grew more serious and somber again.

"Now, Whipstitch, I would understand perfectly if you didn't want to carry on... You could go back to Ponyville and no pony would mind."

"Princess, please! I told you, I'm fine!" Whipstitch bounced up and down in the bed to show her exuberance. "If it weren't for that pesky Doctor trying to ram stuff down my throat or shoot me up with heaven-knows-what, I'd be out of here right now!"

Celestia raised a questioning eyebrow as she looked to the doors, as if expecting the medical practitioner to walk through them at any moment. "You know, you're not the only one around here recently who's disliked being under medical care..."

"Well, that's because some of us are just a little more prone to being on the move, a little more chaotic!" Whipstitch folded her front legs across her chest, which still had a small wrapping of bandages across it. "And I'm undoubtedly one of them..."

Celestia looked at her once again, this time with a mix of suspicion and surprise. "What... makes you say that? Chaotic?"

"Well... wouldn't you describe yesterday as chaos?" Whipstitch realized that her slip of the tongue had nearly caused her to expose her meeting with Eclipse. "I mean, you had to bring up Pennington from Ponyville, I'm sure that everyone here was panicking, and almost no one had any idea what was going on, right?"

Celestia nodded quietly, but Whipstitch could swear that she saw a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Indeed... There's been a lot of chaos around here, lately..."

Whipstitch smiled widely as she stepped into the grand hall, treading gently over the masses of hair left over from the day before. Just as a good friend would, Pennington had made arrangements for the hair not to be cleaned up, but left as it was, which was exactly what she needed.

"So, how exactly does this work?" Luna asked as she and her sister stepped into the room, as well. "You told us that this hair had magical properties, but nothing more..."

"Well, your highness, it's simple!" Whipstitch was nearly giddy as she pulled out two matching pieces of tapestry from beneath the black hair, levitating them in the air, putting them end-to-end to line up the torn parts. "You see, I come from a lineage of very special ponies! Threadmane's descendants, specifically the females of the family, all inherited a part of her in their hair! If it is cut or taken by artificial means, then it's just ordinary hair, like any other pony. But... if it falls out naturally..." As she spoke, she pulled a very special needle, usually reserved for an occasion like this, out from her saddlebag and lifted up a single thread of hair. "...then it contains a very special magic that can be as different as the pony it comes from."

Without any more words, she threaded the needle, tied a knot in the hair to make the stitch stay, and ran it through both halves of the ancient tapestry, pulling them together. When the sewing was complete, Whipstitch stepped back, already threading new hair through two more needles.

The first piece of hair began to glow with a radiant white light, even as Whipstitch ran another through alongside and around it. There was a light musical note that began to ring through the air as she continued to work, diligently spinning and weaving the threads into both the tapestries and one another. As the glow grew- to near blinding, the resonating note began to shift and morph without any kind of melody, as if somepony were moving the tone up and down with no purpose. Whipstitch had closed her eyes at this point, quietly humming to herself in tune with the note as she worked with five needles at once, both stabbing and pulling at the delicate tapestry to bring the two halves together. In a massive flash, Celestia and Luna were forced to look away. The note came to piercing peak, then faded to a low hum as the light faded away, allowing the princesses to open their eyes again. Their jaws nearly dropped as they took in what lay before them: The tapestry had not only been repaired, looking as if it had never been torn, but completely restored, to the point where it looked as if it had just come off of the loom! When Whipstitch opened her eyes, she gave a smug grin at the vibrantly restored colors and neatly hemmed edges.

"And that's just the beginning..." She muttered as more needles, already threaded with her glowing hair, floated into the air around her. All together, they darted away, seemingly of their own accord, and set to work on the other tapestries. The glow built up to blinding more quickly this time, and this time several note rang out, producing a strange harmony that reminded them of a chorus of ponies running their hooves along the rim of a wine glass. Through their eyelids, they could see flashes of light all around them, and the songlike sound penetrated them to their core.

When they were finally able to open their eyes, their jaws dropped. Not only had the other torn tapestries been repaired and restored, but the newness and vivacity had spread to every tapestry in the hall, creating a brighter and more cheery display than had been seen in hundreds of years. The marble floor and maroon carpet under their hooves was positively sparkling, and every surface in the room (even the ones still buried under hair, they would later discover) had been restored to a shimmering sheen as if they were brand new.

"Threadmane was a seamstress, the best who ever lived. Our family motto is, 'Anything can be sewn!'" Whipstitch smiled, feeling more than smug at the obvious impression that she had left, both on the room and on the Princesses.

Celestia and Luna both looked at one another, then at Whipstitch.

"You know... Just when I think that I've seen everything... something like this happens." Celestia smiled, then began to quietly laugh to herself. Soon, she was joined by Luna, who nodded in agreement. After a few seconds, Whipstitch burst into laughter as well, and the three of them simply stood and laughed for a moment, releasing all of the pressure of the past few days at once.

"Whipstitch, you will be well rewarded. This work of magic is absolutely priceless..." Celestia smiled as she took a closer look at the tapestries.

"Well, your highness... What I really need is a way to get all of this hair home for other repairs!"

At Whipstitch's words, the laughter started anew.

Talk Is Cheap, But Worth A Lot...

Whipstitch let out a long sigh as she looked at her travel bags, several of which were now filled with her own hair, as she finished her packing. It was time for her to leave the castle, and the Princesses had already bid her farewell, but there was still one more person that she hadn't said goodbye to.

But how do I find him? She wondered, looking around the room. Think... Perspective. That was lesson one. How could I change my perspective to bring him here? On a thought, she closed her eyes, blocking out any thoughts of what her surroundings really were. She tried her hardest to picture herself nowhere, but the same nowhere as Eclipse. It was a twisted way of thinking, mostly due to the fact that Eclipse had to be somewhere.

But from my perspective, he isn't anywhere... Maybe if I-

"Feeing better, Whips?"

Pennington's voice shattered her concentration like a brick thrown though a glass window.

"Oh, sorry, did I interrupt anything?" He sounded almost as if he were trying to taunt her, but she could never tell where his usual smugness crossed over into sarcasm unless it was with obvious intent. "I figured that you were done working..."

"Penn..." She whispered, keeping her temper in check for the sole reason that he was in Canterlot entirely for her sake. "Please... If I put up a sign, read it."

With a mock salute, Pennington chuckled. "So, anyway, I was thinking about staying over in Canterlot for a few days, so I thought that I would let you know that I wouldn't be able to join you on the train back to Ponyville this afternoon."

"That's okay! I heard that Scorching Quill was having a book signing tomorrow, anyway, so I figured that you would be staying..."

Pennington's face changed to an expression of suspicion, then relaxed again. "Yeah... Not to mention, Lily said that she was going to have to buy ramen faster than I could eat it... So I've been issued a challenge!"

Whipstitch rolled her eyes as he changed the subject. The two of them both knew that she knew the secret that he was the famous author, simply working under a pseudonym, but they continued to act like she didn't. It was an unspoken rule between them.

"Well, just don't make yourself sick, and if you do, send me a picture so I can laugh at you..."

Pennington rolled his eyes as he walked back to the door. "Yeah, right... See ya, Whips!"

"Later, Penn!" She called in return. As he disappeared again, Whipstitch let out a long sigh, letting her tension flow away and a calm focus settle in.

Once again, she closed her eyes, trying to imagine herself in that same etherial world of nothingness. If Eclipse is nowhere to be found, I have to go "nowhere." She let the power of her thoughts overtake her senses, washing her away into the space between places. After the feeling seemed tangible enough, she opened her eyes.

The entire world had turned white. It wasn't just that the objects and walls around her had turned white, but she was standing in the middle of some sort of empty world. There was nothing: no sound, no objects, no wind, just her. Curious, she took a slow step forward. There was some kind of ground under her feet, like a seamless white tile, that let her walk forwards.

"So, apparently, this is nowhere..." She muttered as she picked up her pace. "Charming." After a few minutes of walking, she noticed something amidst all of the nothing: a tall figure that could only be one of two creatures, and one of them was locked in stone. Excited at the prospect of success, she moved a little faster, trotting towards the draconequus. "Hey, Eclipse!"

He didn't seem to hear her, carrying on with whatever it was that he was doing.

"Eclipse! Over here!" She called again, noticing that the area around him looked slightly different: there were objects around him, as if he were standing in a wallless room. The objects were the same pearly white as the rest of the world, however, and he continued to keep his back to her. As Whipstitch grew closer and closer to him, color began to fill the objects around him, and the world began to grow smaller. By the time that she had reached him, she was no longer in the nothingness, but instead standing in some kind of bedroom, complete with dressers, a forest mural on the walls, and a large bed that would fit a draconequus's body. Eclipse himself still didn't notice her, being more focused on a letter that he was reading.

"Ecliiiiipse...." She drew out his name in a singsong tone, happy to have found him.

"AUGH!" Eclipse jumped into the air in fright, nearly impaling his mismatched horns in the ceiling. In his fright, a bolt of energy shot out from his, scorching the ground in front of her.

"Hey! Whoah, Eclipse, it's me!" She shouted, jumping backwards to avoid another bolt of energy. "It's Whipstitch!"

Eclipse spun around, grabbing his chest in shock. "Don't... DO THAT! You scared me half to death!" On cue, he looked to his left, where a pony in a dark cloak and holding a large scythe was quietly staring at him from underneath a large hood.

"I said half!" Eclipse calmly waved away the apparition, which walked away through the wall, giving Whipstitch a chill.

After a moment, he looked over at the door to the room, which was shut tight. "How did you even get in here?"

"Chaos!" Whipstitch held her head high in pride of her accomplishment. "You were nowhere to be found, so I looked in nowhere until I found you!"

Eclipse blinked in surprise. "You mean... You not only used chaos to find me, but to move yourself magically?" He scratched his head lightly. "And you figured it out on your own?"

"Well, it was all a matter of perspective, really!" Whipstitch shrugged, refusing to show how giddy she was from the compliments. It was almost like receiving compliments from Discord himself. "Just like you taught me in our lessons... The ones that you really don't want to stop teaching me..."

Eclipse's smile fell a little as he gave her a slightly chastising look. "You mean the lessons that put you in huge danger just a few days ago?"

"That's over, now! Really!" Whipstitch moaned as she gestured towards herself. "Look at me, I'm fine! It was because of that stupid lollipop, you said so yourself!"

Eclipse's eyes narrowed as he scratched at his chin. "Well, you should have told me that you were from Fairytrail, to begin with..."

Whipstitch sighed in frustration. "I didn't think that it was important!"

"You didn't think that it was important?" Eclipse smacked himself loudly on the forehead. "Do you even know your own history?"

Whipstitch took a deep breath, slightly irked at the allusion to being ignorant of Fairytrail's past. "Of course I know my history! It just so happens that it's the history of the entire city, as well! Let me give you a crash course, shall I?" She walked over to a chair at a nearby desk and sat down. "Fairytrail: the city at the base of the mountains on Equestria's northern border. Started because the area was home to a rare resource: enchanted gypsum, a mineral capable of stopping chaotic magic cold! It was this valuable stone upon which the city was built, quite literally! The enchanted gypsum was the reason that Fairytrail was one of Discord's last targets in his attack to rule Equestria more than a thousand years ago. The city was the only place capable of restraining his power enough for ponies to fight back at him, and so he laid siege to them for months on end! Eventually, one pony was willing to go out and face Discord alone, one-on-one. Her name was Threadmane, a unicorn capable of doing almost anything with a needle and her own hair as thread." Eclipse looked as if he wanted to say something, but Whipstitch ignored him. "The battle raged for days, and by the time that everything was said and done, Threadmane had fought Discord to a standstill. Both sides retreated, leaving Fairytral victorious, but at a terrible cost. All of the ponies in Fairytrail had been left with a curse, whether intentional or not, that once a year, their bodies would change and warp into strange and twisted forms, some beautiful and some disturbing... Some even dangerous or life-threatening." She stood up again, having grown darker and more serious over time.

"I am a twenty-seventh generation daughter of Threadmane, one of the hoofful of direct descendants left, and I know my own history. I know what legacy stands behind me, and I know exactly what I am capable of: anything I desire." She walked right up to Eclipse, who was beginning to fidget nervously under her intimidating glare.

"So, if you would be so kind..." Her serious face melted into a pleading stare as she looked up at him, hoping to catch him off-guard. "Please teach me more?"

Eclipse blinked a few times, then let out a long sigh. "You know, I was going to mention that there was a strong family resemblance... Fine! We can continue our lessons!"

"Yes!" Whipstitch jumped up, grabbing Eclipse in a hug. "Thank you! Trust me, you're going to regret this far less often than you're not!"

Eclipse cringed when she jumped at him again, and stood stiffly while she hugged him. When she released him again, he relaxed only slightly. She furrowed her brow in confusion at his reaction.

"Are- are you afraid of me?" She asked, taking a step forward.

"Well, not afraid. Just nervous. Ponies make me nervous." Eclipse spoke quietly. "If I were to be completely honest, it's nothing personal, but you and the Princesses are the only ponies whom I would feel somewhat comfortable around, and even then I'm always on my toes..." He shrugged quickly. "You kinda came out of nowhere a few minutes ago, so I'm still a little nervous!"

Whipstitch nodded. "Well, I'll try not to sneak up on you again... And as for being less nervous, I do have one idea! There's one thing that I always stop to see whenever I'm in Canterlot: Discord's statue. Would you mind taking me to see it?"

Eclipse tilted his head in confusion. "You... want me to take you to see Discord's statue?"

"Well, yes! If you were his brother, you must have known him better than anyone! Besides, there have got to be more things to do out there than there are in your bedroom..."

Eclipse took a deep breath, finally relaxing completely again. "Alright, we can do that, but this time, I'll take care of the transportation." With a snap of his fingers, the two of them vanished, off to the maze in the Canterlot Gardens.

Whipstitch and Eclipse walked quietly in the maze, trying not to draw much attention to themselves. ponies often visited the gardens around the maze, but very few ponies ventured inside for fear of getting lost. It had originally been created as a challenge to any pony who wanted to try their hoof at a constantly-shifting maze, but the rules of no flying and no magic being allowed had combined with the utter difficulty of the maze to instead create a massive waste of time and magic that nopony entered very often.

This chaotic place was, ironically, where the Princesses had decided to place Discord's statued form, at the center of the maze. Somehow, Eclipse seemed to know exactly where he was going as they walked together, leading her in what seemed to be endless twists and turns. The silence was almost painful, so Whipstitch tried to think of something to say.

"So... where have you been these past few days?" She asked quietly.

"Oh, you know... Around." Eclipse thought for a moment. "You know, I found this really fun game called 'Space Invaders...' Luna and I kinda got sucked into a marathon championship."

"You've been playing video games this whole time?" Whipstitch's jaw dropped as she looked up at him in amazement.

"Well... I also went to my first party, but that was a near-disaster! Almost let loose a cotton candy storm that could have covered all of Canterlot out of sheer fear..." He shook his head.

"A party? I wish that I could have gone!" Whipstitch sighed. "And a little chocolate rain wouldn't hurt Canterlot, if you ask me..."

Eclipse shook his head. "You're certainly one of a kind, Whipstitch..."

"I try!"

"Well, after that... Well, Discord played a few tricks of his own on me, to be honest, even from so far away..." He seemed to become sadder at the thought of whatever it was that had happened. "He made me doubt a few things that I shouldn't have, but all of that is over, now. Celestia, Luna and I all worked through it together."

Whipstitch smiled. "So, you really do trust them?"

"Yeah, I do." Eclipse gave her a wide smile. "Now, my biggest worry is finding where exactly I fit in here... But I guess that will come in time!"

"Well, I'm glad you're staying. Equestria needs more chaos!" With a chuckle, Whipstitch grew silent as Discord's statue came into sight, still frozen into a horrified pose by the Elements of Harmony. She exhaled slowly, taking the sight in as well as she could and trying to re-memorized every detail.

"So, why the fascination with my brother?" Eclipse asked, sitting himself along the edge of the circular courtyard.

"Similar interests, sheer admiration, just the routine stuff, I guess..." Whipstitch shrugged as she slowly walked up to the statue, and began to pace circles around it. "Being from Fairytrail, most ponies that I knew when I was growing up had learned to coexist with the chaos in their lives, my grandmother even brags about her 'time of the year' because her hair glows with a blinding light for a week, then turns into pure gold... But me, I've never learned to control or to even remotely like what happens to me... I guess it was the fact that every account that I ever heard of Discord, aside from those that talked about him as a villain, made him seem as if he had a perfect understanding of the chaos in his life, and that he even reveled in it! I always wanted to be able to control what happens to me well enough to that point of actually enjoying it, or at least not hating it with every fiber of my being..."

"If you don't mind me asking-"

"I do." Whipstitch cut Eclipse off before he could even ask the predictable next question. She sat herself down at the base of the statue to talk to him, leaning against one of Discord's legs as she sat upright to look Eclipse straight in the eyes. "But I will say this much: I'll kill. I've done it before, and if I don't have some semblance of control, I will again. I have to barricade myself inside of a cave or something to stop myself from killing other ponies." She gave a forlorn sigh. "If I could learn the secrets that you and Discord seem to know as sheer instinct, then maybe I could understand how to change my own condition into something good! But for now, I'm stuck living with myself and my guilt."

Eclipse nodded quietly, looking up at Discord's statue with tears in his eyes. "See, Dizzy? Ponies aren't all bad..."

Whipstitch smiled and looked up, as well. "Anyway... That's why I wanted to learn about chaos so badly... Sorry it came out in a big, weepy confession."

"Don't be. Big, weepy confessions are always the truth." Eclipse smiled, looking back down at her. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."

With a nod, Whipstitch followed him back through another hallway in the maze, trusting his judgment on where to go. She felt ready to go home, now. She was finished with Canterlot, for now.

"How are we going to continue my lessons if I'm in Ponyville?"

"Well, the majority of them should be you experimenting on your own, but I'll send you letters with specific instructions now and then..." Eclipse was no longer teary-eyed, but instead seemed to be growing more cheerful. "But, I need you to send me letters describing what you do and what kind of reactions you get so that I can steer you in the right direction! Got it?"

Whipstitch nodded, a smug grin breaking out across her face.

"I can't wait."

Inquiry

In his many years in the Everfree forest, Eclipse had never seen anything like Whipstitch's reaction before. Even as far as far as fairytrail reactions went, he hadn't seen anything as horrifying and fascinating as that before. Not since Discord's main battle with Threadmane, the original reason for Fairytrail's "curse."

Nopony had seen him watching the events unfold from one of the stained glass windows, but he had seen the entire transformation unfold. He had watched his "student" suffer as her hair grew to enormous lengths and trapped her in its strands. He had watched this with both a mix of awe and horror, holding himself back from helping her for only one reason: he needed to see if there was any way that she could overcome it herself, almost as a test to see if she would be allowed to continue her lessons. She had managed to convince him in spite of her failure, but something that one of the other ponies had said had piqued his curiosity.

"I've seen Whipstitch's 'time of the year.' This is much, much tamer..."

The unicorn had been a friend of Whipstitch's, he knew that much, but he didn't know where the pony lived. Wasn't his name... "Penn-something?" Well, maybe I should have a talk with "Penny..." I have to know more about this, both for her sake and the sake of those around her. He looked side-to-side, checking to make sure that neither Celestia nor Luna were nearby, then snapped his fingers, disappearing from sight and existence.

Whipstitch let out a long yawn as she finally arrived home, happy to hear the buzzing of her bees and the running water in her house again. Canterlot was nice, but she wouldn't trade all the plush pillows and down comforters in the world for her home. With a flash of her horn, she pulled open her door and walked inside, using the magical glow to light her way in the rapidly setting sun. Setting her bags down to be taken care of later, she walked to her bedroom, exhausted.

As she pulled open the door, however, a small piece of paper fluttered to the ground. Despite her yawning, her curiosity outweighed her tiredness, and she picked it up to read it.

A challenge awaits you

to see the payoffs

of your formal training

as a "Daughter of Chaos."

If this special surprise

you wish to see,

take a quick trek

into Everfree!

Chaos waits you,

and many a puzzle.

So go to bed, wake up,

and get to work, on the double!

If you wind yourself troubled,

and don't know where to go,

here's my hint for you:

Follow winds that don't blow!

And if you don't like my riddle,

no need to say much!

I'm not Discord, got that?

When it comes to riddles, I suck.

Your Mentor,

-Eclipse Tumult

"Give this to Pennington, and he'll have a hernia..." Whipstitch muttered with a grin, placing the riddle on a nearby table. "That was horrible..." She slowly climbed into bed, picking up her special brush for her nightly care of her mane. "But, if a draconequus has a surprise for me, who am I to refuse? I guess I know where I'm going tomorrow... I should ask Penn if he could loan me his map of Everfree."

With that, Whipstitch finally ended her night and shut off the light, letting cozy darkness steal its way into her room and surround her, carrying her warmly into the land of dreams. Meanwhile, back in town, one pony was still awake, locked in his study with a softly crackling fire to provide light.

Pennington Inkwell sat up in his chair, looking down as he found that he had filled yet another scroll with text, from top to bottom. He reached for a new one to continue his most recent piece of fiction, only to find that he had once again exhausted the small supply that he kept in the study, and only the bare wood of the desk met his hoof in return. Rolling his eyes, he glanced around the room to find his normal supplier of scrolls, a young dragon whom he was only just getting used to having around.

"Moonstone, I need-" He cut himself off abruptly as he finally spotted the small dragonet. She had curled up in the fireplace, nestled among the coals and flames. The red glow nearly made it impossible to see her lavender hues, but Pennington couldn't hide a smile at the sight. Moonstone was usually watching him at all times, taking Luna's order to "watch for his well-being" more seriously than Pennington believed was necessary, but in this quiet moment she looked at peace, with her tail curled around her like a cat and the tiniest of smiles tugging at her lips. Her body slowly rose and fell with each breath, and the occasional purple flame out flash among the red. Pennington knew that he was going to have to put her into bed later but, for now, she looked as if she were dreaming of something good.

He smiled to himself and quietly slipped out of his chair, doing his best not to make a sound as he snuck across the floor and out of the door to his study. He kept the majority of his writing supplies upstairs, where he had his living space. At this moment, he regretted the dozen locks that he had installed on the door. He knew that they were there with good reason, but he also knew that the sound of unlocking them would probably wake Moonstone. As he continued to look, however, he noticed that the door was actually cracked open, and the locks had never engaged. He let out a long sigh, shooting a bemused glare at the fireplace. I'm going to have to remind her not to leave the door open...

With a shrug, he pulled the door open and silently stepped into the hallway.

Or, at least, what should have been the hallway.

Somehow, he seemed to have walked into the Canterlot gardens, instead.

"What the-" Pennington spun back around, but his study was gone, too! He had been somehow transported all of the way to the Royal Labyrinth. His eyes narrowed in suspicion of foul play, and a white mist began to leak off of his horn. As he formed his weapon, he took a moment to analyze his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be the Royal Labyrinth, though there were forces at work here that he obviously wasn't going to trust. The moon was high in the sky, casting everything in a milky glow and leaving long shadows that could be hiding any number of enemies, pony or otherwise. Looming over him, on the other side of a small courtyard, was Discord's statue, encased in stone and still in the grotesque position of horror that it had been in the last time that the Elements of Harmony were used against him. Even in his prison, though, Pennington refused to trust the deity of chaos. As the mist finally solidified into a short sword, specifically a scimitar, he saw a small object begin to emerge from behind the statue. Pennington's eyes immediately caught the movement, watching it intently for any kind of threatening action.

After a few seconds, he finally recognized what it was: a flag. A white flag.

Immediately, he looked to either side, looking for some kind of enemy to pounce while he was distracted. "I've had that trick used on me before! You surrender, then your friends jump out of the shadows!"

"N-no! Really! I don't want any kind of fight, I just want to talk..." As the flag continued upwards, Pennington saw an eagle claw holding it, and a pair of mismatched horns began to emerge. He watched in shock as a draconequus came out from behind the statue, moving slowly to avoid any kind of suspicion.

Immediately, Pennington stepped back, brining the glowing blue sword in front of him. It was easy to pick up on the fact that this wasn't Discord, they acted nothing alike. Where Discord had been confident and seemingly without fear, this new draconequus seemed almost afraid of him. He didn't want to take any chances, however...

"The last time there was a draconequus around, my study got flooded... with ink."

"I'm sorry if my brother caused you any trouble... he's gotten bitter over the years, I'm afraid." Eclipse replied, taking slow steps forward. When Pennington didn't retreat, Eclipse walked closer, waving the white flag every few seconds. When he was close enough, the draconequus extended his lion paw to Pennington in a friendly gesture. "My name is Eclipse. Eclipse Tumult..."

Pennington eyed the paw suspiciously, keeping his hoof to himself. "So, if you just want to talk, why transport me out of my home, away from where anypony could see or hear us? Seems suspicious to me..."

"Well, if you'll believe it, I feel slightly more confident about talking when I don't feel like there's a pony out to get me around every corner... I would have written you a letter, but this is slightly urgent." Eclipse frowned and let down his paw, realizing that the pony's suspicion wouldn't allow him a hoofshake. "Besides, from what I know about Fairytrail, this isn't something to be talked about in a place where others can hear." He sat back down at the base of Discord's statue, putting the tips of his fingers together. "Whipstitch recently came to me to learn more about chaos and how to use it to her advantage. I think that her episode in the grand hall may have been a result of that. You, however, mentioned that this was not what we would call a 'fully-fledged freak-out.'" Pennington finally began to put the pieces together, realizing Eclipse's next words before he even spoke them. "She made the choice to continue her lessons, but I need to know the full potential of what could go wrong. I need you to tell me what you know about Whipstitch's full transformation.

Pennington thought for a moment, then let his mental grip on the sword fade, allowing it to dissolve back into magical energy and float back into his horn. He shuddered when he did so, since it always left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth.

"Whips would kill me if I told you. You know that, right?"

"Judging from what you said to the princesses when you came to rescue her, she might kill somepony else if you didn't..."

Pennington nodded. "Touchè, Eclipse Tumult... Fine. I'll tell you about what happens to Whipstitch." He scowled as he sat back on his haunches, settling in for a while. "But I'll only tell you my way... As an author does anything: with a story." His scowl deepened, however, with the moonlight casting dark shadows across his face. "But let me warn you, Eclipse... What you're asking for isn't some pretty little adventure. It's a tale of horror. One from which I barely escaped with my life..."

"I'm serious, Penn! Don't follow me!" Whipstitch gave me her most serious glare, one which was almost enough to make me take her warning seriously. "I'm going to be in Everfree for about a week, and I need to be alone while I'm there! You can't be in Everfree while I'm there, okay? Okay?" She paused for a moment, forcing me to purposefully nod my understanding. "Now, I need you to take care of the bees while I'm gone..."

Immediately, I stopped nodding. I hated bees. "Your little monsters can take care of themselves! They do it in the wild all of the time!" I regretted the "monsters" comment almost immediately, as Whipstitch gave me a glare that left me somewhat concerned for my safety. She shifted her glare only slightly, as if expecting some kind of changed answer. "I told you, I'm not getting anywhere near them..."

"Fine. Just make sure nopony breaks into my shop or my house." She muttered, turning away again to lock her door. "If they do, I'm going to blame you."

I rolled my eyes, knowing that her things would be perfectly safe. There hadn't been a burglary in Ponyville in years, and no pony was going to rob Whipstitch's home, which was built into the trunk of a huge willow tree.

"Penn, I know what's going on in that sneaky little head of yours!" She suddenly spun around, poking her hoof into my chest. "Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to come into Everfree until I'm back home! Got that? Your life could depend on it!"

"Yes! Fine, Whips! I wasn't even thinking about following you..." I gently moved her hoof away from my chest. "I can take a hint, okay? You don't want me in Everfree!"

Whipstitch looked at me, still obviously unsure. She had good reason to be, because nothing was going to stop me from coming this time. She had done this every year since she had moved to Ponyville, making a mysterious trek into Everfree around late autumn, missing Nightmare Night, and returning looking beat-up and tired. I'd always wanted to know what she did out there, but something had stopped me every time. One year, my publisher had decided to pay me a visit about my next book, the next, Pipsqueak had made me promise to take him to the Nightmare Moon statue after trick-or-treating. This year, however, I had cleared my calendar. I had no visitors coming, no transcripts to be sent or commissions to be written, and no plans for Nightmare Night. This year would be the year that I unraveled the mystery, just as sure as the air was turning chilly and the leaves were changing color.

Little did I know that what was about to unravel was going to be the boundary between reality and nightmare...

This was it. I took a deep breath of the night air, feeling the crisp air fill my lungs and cool my pounding heart. I had been in Everfree many times before, and hardly batted an eye at the monsters and dangers within, but something felt different, this time. It was almost like the forest didn't want me to come in, sending me a subliminal message of warning that sent shivers down my spine.

I quickly shook off the feeling and began to walk forward, entering the dense foliage without abandon. Rather than the typical sensation of pushing my way through branches and vines, it almost felt as if I were being pulled inside, and the trees were simply pulling me in. I came to a stop until the feeling passed listening to the chirping of nearby crickets and other insects. For a moment, the thought crossed my mind that, while Everfree was familiar territory, I had never been in the forest on Nightmare Night, and there might have been some kind of change.

"Come on, Pennington! Snap out of it!" I whispered. "Nightmare Night was a holiday made by ponies for ponies. There's no supernatural phenomena about it! It's just another night..." My nerve regained, I pressed forward again, ears open for the sounds of dangerous animals and intently focused on my sense of smell. While most dangers would give away their position with noise, many of Everfree's resident perils, such as poison joke or a timber wolf, would be earlier detected by their distinct aromas. It was my normal frame of mind for traveling through the forest, keeping every sense keen and alert.

I was glad that I did, too. After almost an hour of trying to find some small remnant of whatever path Whipstitch must have taken, I detected a light trace of a familiar scent. It smelled like decayed wood and mildew, mixed with the sickly-sweet stench of rotting meat. My eyes grew wide with fear as I realized that I had to be close to a timber wolf.

Or that a timber wolf was close to me.

I continued walking, trying to act as if nothing had happened, as my eyes darted from side to side, trying to spot a sign of where it was. Timber wolves never travelled alone, so it was safe to say that I had picked up the scent of a pack The main problem was, of course, that if I could see them, then they could see me, and that meant that I was not only being hunted, but they were confident enough to close in on me.

I had dealt with timber wolves before, true, but as the awful smell grew stronger, I could tell that there were more than a few of them. This was an entire pack. I finally stopped walking, letting my magic flow out and surround my body. As I felt the warm energy press against my skin, slowly solidifying into a set of spiked armor. The ability to form items out of magic had been a skill that I had learned years ago and put into good practice, but the tiredness that washed over my body reminded me of the sheer amount of energy that it took to create my armor.

A low growl rolled out of the darkness, and I snapped my head toward the source. A pair of glowing green eyes leaped out of the darkness, and a timber wolf erupted from the bushes, jaws open wide and snarling. I had been expecting this from the previous times that I had fought a timber wolf, and I remembered what it was that I needed to do. Ducking down, I grabbed one of its front legs and threw it over my head in a practiced motion. Instead of the usual clatter of the branches shattering from formation on a tree trunk or large rock, however, I was surprised to hear the sound of wood striking wood, and more low growls. I slowly turned around, and the smell of decay washed over me in a wave. Blinking, I saw my enemies for the first true time: five timber wolves were helping their comrade to stand again, and glaring at me with their eerie green eyes.

One wolf would have been simple. Two wolves, harder, but manageable. Three wolves would have been very dangerous. These six, in addition to even more that I could hear growling behind me, was a death sentence. I was surrounded, and the hairs raising on the back of my neck seemed to be telling me that the others were about to take their own turn to pounce. There was only one way out, and it was going to be risky, because the moment had fallen to a test of nerve. If I acted first, I risked spurring an overwhelming counterattack. If I waited for them, they could make it impossible for me to maneuver my way out of the situation.

I slowly bent my knees, trying not to provoke them. I was only going to have one shot. As the growling grew in volume I finally made my move, jumping up an launching myself as high as I could into the air. The wolves all jumped at me at once, and I made a desperate grab upwards, latching onto a tree branch just above my head. The timber wolves all crashed into a heap below me, and I pulled myself onto the branch, struggling to muster the strength as I let the magic of the armor melt back into my body. After a few seconds, the timber wolves all had stopped and looked up at me, some jumping up and trying to grab me from below.

"Ha! You guys only figured it out in three seconds! You're not as dumb as you look!" I laughed, waving down at them. It was too early to be celebrating, but it was either that, or let them hear my knees clattering. Acting overconfident steadied my nerves. "Tell you what! If you're good little timber wolves, maybe Santa Hooves will bring you all a little something on Hearth's Warming Eve!"

One of the wolves seemed to recognize my mocking tone, and slowly prowled to the tree trunk. With a small jump, it pressed its front paws against the trunk. I could almost see a smug grin in the wooden teeth as it dug its claws into the bark, and its eyes flashed with a brighter light. Suddenly, the branch I was standing on jarred upwards, knocking the wind out of my stomach and throwing me into the air. I cringed as I flew up, then down, and cringed as I slammed into the ground, having the breath pushed out of my body anew.

"Controlling trees... That's a new one..." I wheezed and staggered to my hooves. I had been thrown only about twenty feet from the wolves, who were beginning to advance, all smiling with the confidence in their victory. They moved forward very slowly, and I knew why they were doing so: they wanted to chase me. My heart was pounding, and my lungs seemed to be working again, so I nodded my understanding. If it was a chase that they wanted, it was a chase they would get!

"Forgive me, Pennington..." Eclipse interrupted, rolling his eyes. "I know that you're proud of you're visit to Everfree, but some of us know what timber wolves are like! Mean, nasty, can make a tree go from 'Weeping Willow' to 'Whomping Willow' in about three seconds... I want to know about Whipstitch!"

As Pennington seemed to grow angry, Eclipse's waning patience was pitted against his desire to know about Whipstitch. The desire for knowledge quickly won out.

"Look, what I mean is... You're not exactly making a long story short!"

It was the pony's turn to roll his eyes, as if Eclipse were some uneducated foal asking a stupid question.

"I'm an author, Mister Tumult. If you wanted a quick summary, you should have asked a journalist! I'm giving you all of the details, as if I were writing a book right before your eyes, and you seem to be intent on calling me out for it just before I reach the part that you wanted to hear!"

It's EXACTLY like he's writing a book. Can he not just tell a simple story? Eclipse took a deep breath, looked at the quickly-rising moon, then sat back down again. "Fine, but could you try to hurry it up a little?"

"You want the info? You get the story. You want the story, you get the whole story." Pennington spoke flatly, his awe of Eclipse having obviously worn off. "Now, do you want to know about Whipstitch, or not?"

Eclipse despised being talked down to like this, but he could tell that Pennington would be perfectly willing to leave and take his chances in the maze, not even batting an eye at what might happen if he didn't tell anything more. Folding his arms over his chest, the draconequus nodded his consent, even as his rabbit's foot tapped impatiently on the ground.

Sickened

I knew for a fact that it was likely that I was going to die if I didn't think of something soon. The timber wolves had been every bit as persistent as I had expected, and I was running out of options. I'd tried swinging on branches and climbing trees to get out of their reach, but they had simply used the tree to throw me off again. I'd led them through everything that I could think of, from poison joke to tar pits, but they had always been able to follow me around or jump over the obstacle.

At this rate, I was doomed.

My heart was pounding against my ribs, threatening to rip me apart from the inside before the timber wolves could ever reach me. I could taste phlegm in my mouth as my breath came in ragged gasps, and my legs felt ready to collapse. If it hadn't been for the occasional nipping at my ankles spurring me on, I would have fallen then and there.

Lily would have told me to stay home. She would have made me sit by the door and pass out candy... The thought occurred to me out of the blue as I realized that the wolves were getting closer and closer. I could be eating candy and hanging around the Nightmare Moon statue...

I could see a large cave up ahead, and I knew that it was my only chance. My throbbing chest leaped with joy. If I could just make it into the cave, I could have a shot at fending the wolves off one by one.

Just a little farther... I strained to keep running, and I could feel the muscles in my legs giving up and fading into limp weakness. As I threw all of my energy into my last few steps, my heart stopped, and my entire body seemed to become numb with fear. Boulders blocked the entrance, piled in a way that would be impossible to move without a levitation spell, and impossible to cast before I was torn apart. I quickly looked at which of the gigantic granite stones were the smallest, planning to climb up. As I reached the cave, I reared up onto my back legs to jump, but they crumbled beneath me and I simply slammed against the rock. There was a blinding pain as my head struck the peppered stone, and the already-dark world began to spin. I staggered back up, only to stumble and fall again as I felt my stomach wrench. All at once, I felt myself vomit, and sickly-looking bile and half-digested food splattered on the ground before me. As the world around me faded, I struggled to look up at the wolves, I saw nothing. I didn't know if I was hallucinating, but it looked like the wolves were gone. Vanished... I didn't have time to think about it for very long, however, before the world finally went dark.

The first thing that I noticed when I woke up was that I was in pain. My head was throbbing. It was still dark, just like it always was in Everfree, but my eyes had adjusted well to the thickly-filtered daylight coming from above. Another mystery was how much time had passed. With a head injury, I could have been asleep for hours or even days. Sleeping with a possible concussion, I was lucky to have woken up at all...

No time to think morbidly. Assess the situation. Everfree... I'm in Everfree. I was following Whipstitch, and then... I felt my heart skip a beat in fear, and turned my head back and forth as quickly as I dared, trying to examine my surroundings. There didn't seem to be any kind of immediate danger, but I couldn't imagine why the timber wolves would have stopped following me, especially after I had accidentally bashed myself into unconsciousness.

In fact, there must be at least a dozen other creatures that could smell my blood... Where are they?

Quietly thanking my lucky stars, I turned around to look at the cave behind me that had been so deceptive in the semi-darkness. Up close, I could see the boulders much more easily, stacked on top of one another as if they had fallen in an avalanche. They were heavy, too heavy for a pony to lift with sheer physical strength, but I thought that I might be able to move them with a bit of magic. On a thought, I picked up a small pebble with my hoof and tossed it into the air. As gravity brought it back down to earth, I caught it in a shimmering blue glow of magic. Surprisingly it didn't cause me any pain due to my injury. My head was still pounding, but I was starting to believe that the wound was simply cosmetic.

Whips always did say I was thickheaded... I thought with a smile. In the brief moment of levity, however, something caught my eye. Sticking out from the huge rocks was a tuft of eerily familiar black hair. Curious, I leaned in, hoping that it was simply coincidentally black fur...

Pausing with my face near inches away, I inhaled deeply through my nose.

Honey and flowers. Whipstitch's house was practically a nature reserve for bees, and she always managed to incorporate those elements into her hair care. She wasn't afraid to let ponies know about her love for bees, either, and had often forced me to sample her home-made honey for quality, despite my diametric dislike of insects... That was definitely her under those boulders.

"Whips? Whipstitch, are you in there?" I shouted, knocking on the rocks. The slightest of whispers replied, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't make out what was being said, but somepony in there was trying to speak to me, and it had to be Whipstitch. With a quick glace, I wrapped a magical grip around the topmost boulder and lifted it into the air, tossing it to the side. This opened a small hole in the top, which widened as I continued, stone after stone. When it grew wide enough, I leaned back down to the base.

"I've gotten a hole open! I'm coming in, okay?"

More indistinguishable whispers, slightly louder. With a slight panic beginning to build, I jumped up and began to climb, reaching the top in mere seconds. My strength had definitely returned, and the aching in my head had even begun to fade, as if the tedious task had washed out the pain like a bad taste from my mouth.

At this moment, Pennington took a moment and shuddered. Eclipse would have taken it as some kind of cliched storytelling device, but the pony seemed generally troubled, looking up at the moon, then over his shoulder, then finally at his own hooves. Eclipse took a step forward, slightly concerned. He had grown comfortable with telling his story about watching Discord become a garden decoration over the years, seemingly detaching himself from the event in his own mind, but Pennington was obviously still very involved with the memory. Pennington was kneading the ground a little with his hooves, letting out the occasional long sigh.

"I-I'm sorry... It just... It's really just hard..."

Eclipse nodded. "Take your time... But you know how important this information is..." His respect for the pony was growing, retelling a story that obviously stirred up bad memories for him. Eclipse had no idea what could have been so traumatic, but the reaction reinforced his need to know.

Pennington looked up after a few moments, eyes questioning. "You brought me here with magic... is there a way you could bring someone else? It's just my assistant... She might help steady my nerves."

Eclipse nodded. He could have brought her instantaneously, making the assistant appear next to the pony in a play on perspective, but he could tell that Pennington's nerves were already spread thin. He reached behind his back and felt a weight in his palm. He didn't know if it was the right weight, since he didn't know who Pennington's assistant was, but when he pulled his hand back out from behind, he was holding a small female dragon with lavender scales. When a smile spread out across Pennington's face, he knew that he'd gotten it right. As the dragon began to stir, he quickly placed her on the ground near Pennington. As the dragon stirred to live, she stretched in a very catlike manner on all fours, then stood up, looking around her new surroundings. She first looked up at Pennington, then around at the maze, finally turning around and seeing Eclipse and Discord's statue. The last sight seemed to take her by surprise, and she looked back at Pennington, who gave a short nod.

"What did you get us into this time?"

"Don't worry, he's friendly." Pennington chuckled. "He just wanted me to tell him a story..."

Moonstone looked at Eclipse, then at Pennington again, a somewhat worried look on her face. "And what about Discord?"

Eclipse raised an eyebrow in confusion, as did Pennington.

"Moonstone, Discord's locked in stone..." Pennington nodded to the statue.

"Well, then I guess this is another case of my having 'special eyes,' as you so fondly refer to them..." Moonstone crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Because I can see that he's watching us..."

Eclipse and Pennington both looked at the statue, each slightly disturbed.

"Is she... alright?" Eclipse whispered.

"She sees things others don't... Sees things that are hidden..." Pennington replied. Both of them were still looking back and forth between Discord and Moonstone.

Moonstone, meanwhile, was still staring at Discord. Suddenly, out of nowhere, she shook a fist at the statue.

"Oh, yeah? Well, same to you!" She shouted before turning to Pennington. "Well, what do you need me here for? You tell stories all the time! Seriously, you put a first-person narrative into everything, why wake me up in the middle of the night?" At this point, the source of her bad mood was becoming apparent.

"Well... I just wanted somebody else around who's seen Spiderstitch before..." In a moment, Moonstone's expression changed, and she nodded.

"To convince you you're not crazy?" The two nodded in a quiet understanding.

"Wait- wait- Spider what?" Eclipse asked, trying to process what he had said.

"Call it a pet name... makes it less threatening, I guess." Pennington chuckled to himself, now, as if acknowledging the irony. "But, yeah... I think I'm about ready to go on, now..."

Eclipse nodded quietly as Pennington put a hoof around Moonstone's shoulders and drew her nearer to his side. "So... where I left off. Entering the lair."

As I slowly set my hoof down onto the other side of the pile of boulders, where the light was much, much dimmer, I could feel a strange texture under my hooves. Though it was strange, I somehow recognized it right away: thin follicles of hair. My eyes were only just beginning to adjust, but I could already see from the pitch-black floor and walls that the entire room was covered in hair. The original scent of Whipstitch's hair was gone, and the room absolutely reeked with a variety of stenches that I didn't want to identify. Unfortunately, my subconscious mind did the work for me. There was the sickly stench of rotting meat again in the damp room, serving as the base to more pungent aromas, such as the stabbing, acidic stench of stagnant vomit or the metallic, sickening stench of pools of blood that I could see shimmering on the ground. I couldn't understand what Whipstitch would have been doing in a place like this, though I was still praying that it was her that I had heard as I climbed down to the floor. I couldn't even see the far end of the cave, but I kept a wary eye towards the darkness. This was obviously the lair of some kind of carnivorous predator, but it wasn't like any that I had ever seen...

"Whipstitch? Are you in here?" I felt the need to whisper, as if it would make some kind of difference. A low hiss in the back of the room caught my attention as I stepped closer to the center, trying to spy my friend in the darkness. The room was still covered with hair, even on the floor, and I could see a few small puddles around me. I focused onto the darkness in the back of the room, and I was beginning to see something moving in the darkness. I still was worried about what would happen if I tried lighting up the room with magic, knowing that whatever thing was in there was something that I didn't want to see. Something that I knew had created this disgusting lair and lived here.

"Whipstitch!" I whispered, slowly growing more and more nervous. "Come on! We're getting out of here!" I didn't want to take another step, but I still hadn't found my friend. I continued for a few seconds, trying to determine why I was so afraid. Normally, when I made brash decisions against bad odds, I knew what exactly I was going to be facing. This time, I was standing in a dark cave, vulnerable to some kind of carnivorous monster that I couldn't see. The hissing seemed to stop, but I couldn't tell if it was just the sound of my pounding pulse overpowering it. It was just a few moments later that I realized something.

This thing was a terrifying beast, capable of great violence and pain. It inspired fear in my heart to think of what this thing would do if it got a hold of a pony. There had been a snippet of Whipstitch's hair outside, but the inside of the cave seemed to belong to this creature, hair and all. If Whipstitch had seen this, she would have immediately known how dangerous it was...

And locked it away.

I had broken into a prison.

Immediately, I began to walk backwards, keeping my barely-adjusted eyes focused on the darkness of the back of the cave. I couldn't help but begin to notice frightening details again. Around the edges of my vision, I could now see a few small, mutilated corpses of assorted animals, torn open and flesh half-gone. It was disgusting, and I was almost ready to vomit, but I knew that I had to get out of there. I had almost walked back into the pool of light that had spilled out onto the floor from the opening.I had made. The opening I would have to close again.

I'm normally not bad at avoiding traps. In fact, I make a living from it. But in this case, my mind was in other places. I felt some of the hair tighten around my hoof, and I knew that I had fallen for a classic: the snare.

In a sudden blur of events, I was lifted up into the air and thrown into a web of hair near the ceiling. As I fell into the stringy prison, I could feel the threads of hair wrapping around my body, and the tension of my own weight tightened them, pinning my front hooves to my sides and my back hooves together, leaving me trapped and unable to do anything more than wriggle vainly. An ear-splitting scream tore through the room, like a deafening cross between a sentient scream and a mindless whinny. I struggled against the bonds, but I couldn't get free. As I stared into the darkness, I could see something stirring. Finally admitting that it was necessary, I began to use my magic, trying to form something to free myself. Instantly, I regretted bringing new light to the cave, because the creature was caught in the new light, and it was the most terrifying thing that I have ever seen.

Pennington had slowly been growing more and more agitated throughout the story, periodically tightening his grip on Moonstone and releasing her when she started to squirm. Eclipse had also noticed that his breathing was becoming more slow and deep, and his face was growing pale. His tail was flicking back and forth in rhythm with his breathing, and he would occasionally close his eyes for a few seconds before snapping them open again. It wasn't so much that he was trying to stay awake, Eclipse had often done the same when the images of Discord's defeat had intruded upon his thoughts. Pennington's mind was obviously fixated on what came next, and had been for some time. At this tantalizing cliffhanger, however, Pennington's flow of words finally broken into a fit of silence. Eclipse was just about to ask why he had stopped, but the pony held up a hoof, gesturing that he needed a moment.

Eclipse was surprised. The encounter must have been severely disturbing, paralyzingly traumatizing to any pony of lesser nerves... But this pony had been ready to challenge him when they had first met, head-on in a draconequus vs. pony brawl. Pennington had nerve, and judging from what he was seeing, that was probably why he was here to tell the tale.

As Pennington seemed to stop to focus on his breathing, Moonstone gave him a worried glance, looking up at the strikingly pale face with concern.

"Do you need to stop, Penn?" She asked quietly. "I've seen this thing, too, remember? I wouldn't blame you if you did..."

"I'm- I'm fine." Pennington said quietly, continuing his breathing. "I just need-" His eyes flew open wide and he slapped a hoof over his mouth as he began to vomit. With a sudden vigor, he jumped to his hooves and ran to the nearest bush, sticking his head between the leaves and heaving whatever it was that he had eaten for dinner back up through his mouth. While the pony was off vomiting, the dragon gave him an apologetic glance.

"Look, mister... He needs to go home and sleep. No matter what he says, I'm making this call: no more storytime."

Eclipse blinked a few times, trying to believe that this tiny dragonet was taking the entire scene into her own claws after only a few minutes in their company.

"This isn't just some storytime for my own amusement, I need to know about this! If my teaching Whipstitch chaos accidentally triggers an episode, I need to know what could happen!" He motioned to Pennington, who had stopped retching and was simply standing with his head in the bush."Or whatever it was that happened to him could happen to all of the ponies around her!"

"If you trigger an episode, you're going to have a lot of dead ponies on your conscience. That's what will happen." Moonstone gave him an angry glare. "And if you have a problem with Penn not being able to tell you the rest of the story, I suggest you take it up with his mentor!" To illustrate, she pointed up at the rising moon, not breaking eye contact with Eclipse. "She asked me to watch out for Pennington's well-being, and this is bad for him! So, I'm cutting it off before you start doing some real damage!" With this, she seemed to cut the conversation short, walking over to Pennington, who was only just beginning to pull himself back together.

"We need to tell him, Moonstone..." Pennington mumbled, walking back towards the center of the clearing. "But you're right... I'm out for the night." He looked up at Eclipse, slightly apologetic. "Can you bring us all back to my study? I think I have something that could help..."

Eclipse rolled his eyes and nodded, snapping his fingers. In a flash of light, the world around them suddenly shifted from a nighttime stroll in the garden to a small room in Pennington's house.

Pennington's study seemed to reflect a scattered mind, with pages of scrawled notes tacked all over the walls above them, connected with red yarn in a large, web-like structure that Eclipse could only imagine as some convoluted story plot. As he looked around, he also noticed an unbelievable amount of memorabilia about a khaki-colored pegasus mare with a compass rose for a cutie mark. For the first time, Eclipse looked at Pennington's cutie mark. It was the same compass, superimposed over a pair of unraveling scrolls. He watched curiously as Pennington walked up to one of the plush dolls of the character, lifting the wing and revealing a small key.

"Eclipse, I'm a writer. I do big, dangerous things, and then I write about them... When I had this experience with Whipstitch, it disturbed me greatly, as I'm sure you can already tell. So, I dealt with it the best way that I knew how to without revealing her secret to anyone... I wrote it into a story." He stepped down again, moving to the large, darkly colored wooden desk near the edge of the room. Bending down, the slipped the key into a small keyhole on the bottom left drawer and opened it, pulling out a stack of papers. Eclipse raised an eyebrow, and Moonstone seemed to have been silenced by the mysterious drawer, as well.

"This is where I keep what I don't want to read... Bad memories, disturbing imagery, narrations from the depths of depression... I lock it away in my little drawer. Not forgotten, simply out of mind." As Pennington sorted through them, Eclipse caught glimpses of a few titles. Daring Do and the Mystery of the Alicorn Amulet, The Lonesome Dragon, The Death of Sunlight... That title sent shivers down his spine, presuming it was about Celestia. As Pennington sifted and sorted papers, Moonstone stepped forward and picked up what looked to be a poem, Frozen. As her eyes quickly scanned the page, she looked up at Pennington, her face a mix of pity and curiosity.

"I never knew that you went through a 'blue period,' Penn..."

"Yeah, well, there are some things I don't like to remember..." Pennington pulled the page out of her claws and shuffled it back in among a stack of other poems. "Here it is!" He levitated a stack of hoof-written papers over to Eclipse, who gently plucked them out of the air. "A near-perfect account, with the exception of a change in the main character."

Daring Do and the Lair of the Spider Queen

The title was scrawled across the top in messy penmanship.

"There are two endings, one real, and one that I think will give you a shocking illustration of what she could do..." Pennington gave him a morbid smile. "I was dabbling in writing in a new style: second person. It's more immersive that way. My editor didn't think it was such a hot idea... but it helped me to detach myself from what happened. I hope that you enjoy reading it more than I enjoyed writing it... And bring it back when you're done! If Whipstitch knew I was making you privy to this information, she would rip both of our heads off without a second thought..." Pennington seemed to have calmed down considerably now that he was back home, and quickly locked all of the other papers back in the drawer.

Eclipse nodded, then felt a twinge of regret. "I am sorry if I made you sick by forcing you to remember all of this..."

Pennington chuckled and shook his head. "Moon Moon here tends to blow things out of proportion. I just got back from a frighteningly close call with an equally frightening mare in Everfree... Left me a bit under the weather." He chuckled, but the look that Moonstone was giving him made Eclipse worried about Pennington's safety after he left. "It's nothing, really... Any other day, I'd be able to tell it without such severe interruptions! I'm just still recovering from a rainbow to the face."

Eclipse nodded. "Well, perhaps we'll get a chance to meet again on more relaxed terms, Pennington..." There was a moment of silence as what Pennington said finally clicked. Immediately, his attention was riveted on the blue stallion. "Wait... Did you just say 'rainbow to the face?' As in, the Elements of Harmony?"

"Yeah... Twilight and her friends had to bail me out of a sticky situation..." He gave Eclipse a quizzical look. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, ponies are generally harmonic creatures, and by that principle, the Elements should have left you feeling better than you had in years, not sick!" Eclipse immediately gave the stallion an intense stare, but nothing out of the ordinary seemed to come to his attention. If anything, the pony looked more familiar to him than most others did. Shaking his head, Eclipse let out a long sigh. "You ponies never cease to confuse me..."

"Don't worry, Pennington is just 'special...'" Moonstone snickered. "That's why Luna asked him to send her letters, because his decisions tend to defy logic..."

"If I followed your logic, I'd never leave home..." Pennington muttered.

Eclipse chuckled. "I was never much one for logic, myself... Either way, I have some reading to do. Thank you for your help."

"Any time!" Pennington smiled as he walked to the door of the room. "If you need any more, I'll be happy to give it again! For now, though... I'm going to bed..."

Eclipse nodded and snapped his fingers, sending himself away again, back to the garden. As he stepped back into the moonlight, he looked up at Discord's statue. He had never tested exactly how much Discord could see or hear in his prison, but what Moonstone had said reminded him that his brother was still very much alive... Something that gave him hope.

"I suppose that you want to know how the story ends, don't you?" He whispered as he sat down at the base of the statue. "Well, I guess that means I'm going to have to read it out loud..."

Old Stories

"Penn, are you sure that was a good idea?" Moonstone asked as she settled back into her self-made bed in the fireplace, ignoring Pennington's exasperated sigh. "You know what Whips would do to us if she found out that we told somepony about Spiderstitch..."

"Look, if she finds out, we'll just move to Saddle Arabia." Pennington's words were joking, but his tone was believably serious as he settled in his study's large chair. "You can take the bed upstairs... Just get all of that soot off you, first! And that means a bath..."

"That's your bed, Penn. You need to stop sleeping in that stupid chair..." She muttered.

Pennington let out a long sigh, and Moonstone wondered for the hundredth time why he refused to sleep in the upstairs bedroom. She could see when a pony was lying, but he had always told her the truth about it: that it held bad memories for him. That was all that he had ever told her, though, and she wondered what he meant. She watched the pony as he leaned back, then his ears twitched and he turned around, looking over his shoulder, then upwards. Moonstone's eyes rolled upwards, seeing what Pennington had noticed. A trio of bees stood on the edge of his skylight, the only way for light to enter the room. Pennington was giving them a suspicious glare, despite the fact that the skylight acted as a two-way mirror, meaning that the bees should not have been able to see him.

"Moonstone, you know that I hate bees..." He pointed upwards. "Could you fly up and fry those ones for me?"

"Go to sleep, Penn..."

"But-"

"Go to sleep before the stress opens up your old changeling injuries. It's too late for me to be applying bandages... And don't forget your pills!"

Pennington shot her a glare as he pulled a small pill bottle from his desk drawer and swallowed a pair of capsules without water, but it didn't last against her passive stare, since he knew that she was right. If his stress became to high, his legs would occasionally start bleeding where the changelings had tried to convert him, and she would always be the one who had to apply bandages to stop them. It was a crummy part of her job as his assistant, but Luna had specifically told her to keep a close eye on his well-being. The pills were simply to help with a sleeping disorder.

"Fine... But it's like the bees are her little henchmen..." He muttered, closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair. "I feel like they're going to tell her what we did, somehow..."

Moonstone shook her head disbelievingly, but she couldn't shake the feeling he was right. At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder about that draconequus that had suddenly shown up, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly asking questions about things that were supposed to be secret to almost all of Equestria, and demanding information about traumatic events from Pennington.

She didn't trust Eclipse Tumult. There were too many secrets, floating around him like little tendrils of darkness. She couldn't see what they were, but he obviously had a lot to hide...

Eclipse shuffled through the manuscript that he'd been given, examining the pages. He could tell easily that there had been many points where Pennington had needed to change between writing by hoof and by magic, apparently exhausting both from time to time.

Even if he was feeling under the weather, this must have been pretty bad if recounting the experience is enough to make him throw up... I can't remember the last time I saw a pony vomit... Eclipse noticed the page numbers in the bottom-left corners, and he wondered at how long the manuscript actually was, seeing as the scrawled letters would, on occasion, grow in size and messiness at moments when Pennington was obviously panicking. Curious, he pulled out the corner of the last page, glancing at the number in the corner. The number "37" was written in and circled, like every other page number had been, but a few short sentences were placed next to it, so hastily written, ink had splattered all around the letters.

It's over...

It's over.

I'm safe.

Never again.

Eclipse's eyes widened at the obvious self-assurance, again wondering at what could have shaken the pony so badly, when Pennington had seemed perfectly willing to challenge his own godlike power. He sat down at the base of Discord's statue, glancing over the first few pages and setting them carefully aside, recognizing them as Pennington's seemingly unrelated timber wolf experience. Soon, he found where the storyteller had left off. Just below, Eclipse couldn't help but notice that there was a large sketch in the center of the page, drawing his eye away from the words.

You can feel the bonds of hair tightening around your body, pinning your wings to your side with nearly enough force to stop your breathing altogether. You can feel the hair digging into you like piano cords, and you silently thank Celestia for the fact that you didn't get a strand caught around your throat, or you would already be unconscious or even dead. You struggle to try and free yourself, your hoof inching its way towards the knife that you keep under your wing. As the blade is nearly within your reach, a low hiss wound its way out of the darkness. Your eyes grow wide as a massive creature steps out into sight, and you can't help wondering if you've simply stepped into a nightmare.

The first thing that you see is a slender, sharpened horn, attached to a head shrouded in black hair. A long, sharpened leg, seemingly made out of the hair, stabs into the ground. You can tell that limb is meant for impaling... Impaling you.

Finally, you feel your hoof grasp around the knife, and you tear it through the hair, freeing yourself. Even as you fall to the ground, the creature lets out an unearthly howl, like the braying of a dying horse and an ear-piercing scream, rearing back its head in rage. Even as you watch in abject horror, the hair falls away from the creature's face, confirming the fear that had made your blood run cold:

It's Whipstitch. Twisted, deformed, and distorted beyond all recognition, the monster about to kill you is your best friend. Her eyes have turned completely black, and her teeth have parted to make way for a pair of huge fangs, each easily capable of slitting a throat on their own. The hair beneath your hooves begins to slither back and forth, as if writhing in pain, and begins to grab at your hooves, trying to imprison you again. Before the scream can even fade with the cave's echoes, you've already begun to sprint back in the direction you came from.

With your back to the creature, you can't see it, and have no idea what it's doing. Your heart seems to have clenched itself in your chest as tightly as it can, now a simple, unmoving lump, and your blood has turned to ice. Even as you jump from stone to stone, your normally cool head begins to spin with dizzying fear, and you swear that you can feel her hot breath at the back of your throat. As you leap out of the hole, wishing that your wings weren't bandaged to your body, the daylight seems to wash away the nightmare in the cave, and you return to the world of the living, collapsing on the ground as your heart begins to pound away at your rips, now trying to escape, itself. The sun is setting, and the fresh, cool air outside is sweeter than honey to your senses. You were knocked out longer than you realized, and darkness is setting in again.

I need to block the hole... The thought finally presents itself after several seconds. Nodding to yourself, you turn back to the pile of boulders, fully expecting to be able to fix the prison.

Whipstitch's thickened front leg is already poking through, already widening the gap by pushing aside other stones with the sharpened tip. You can see now that the hair is simply wrapped around her hoof, tapering to a point that could easily impale a pony entirely. You stare for a moment, brain hardly able to compute what you're seeing. As more of the stones fall away, you slowly turn back around, eyes wide and a serene grin of abject horror on your face.

"Nope." You walk forward, shaking your head. "Nope, nope, nope, nope! Nope, nuh-uh, No!"

Eclipse took a moment to stop in his reading. There seemed to be a change in the writing, but he simply needed to try and understand the imagery that he had been presented with.

That certainly sounds like her... But how is it possible? It's been more than a thousand years! He looked up at Discord with a glare, though the statue couldn't reply.

"I blame you for this, you know! If you hadn't decided to interfere with Threadmane and her friends, I bet that Whipstitch wouldn't have inherited anything like this from Fairytrail!" He let out a long sigh, trying to hold back the painful memories of the days when Discord had first taken Equestria under his thumb. Fairytrail had been the only city able to defy him, and Eclipse had even helped them as best he could without his brother knowing, but all of the fighting had made it ground zero for some of the strongest magic Equestria had ever encountered. He'd always known about the plights of the Fairytrail ponies, it was one of the many shameful secrets he kept of his days before he went into total hiding in Everfree. Threadmane, the city's guardian and apparently Whipstitch's ancestor, had even been his friend once...

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he let out another sigh.

"Well, this thing, whatever it is, seems to be really dangerous... Especially if she really is actually hungry for ponies!" He looked down at the scroll again, paying more attention to the change that had first allowed him to break away from the text to reflect. The first section seemed almost professionally written, as if with magic being used to gently glide the quill across the paper. In the next section, however, the letters were jagged and hastily scribbled down, definitely by a shaking hoof. Eclipse could tell at a glance that Pennington had swapped tenses, from second-person present tense to first-person past tense, as if he were writing in a journal instead of a manuscript. The heavy scratching into the paper and the large blots of ink almost seemed to imply that Pennington had been manic at the time of writing.

Night One

I keep hearing noises... I know that she's following me. Sometimes it's a snapping of a twig or a hissing in the branches above my head, but I know that she's there! The spider is trying to catch me!

SHE WON'T STOP HUNTING ME!!!

Sometimes it's a mess of her hairs hanging from the trees, sometimes I hear her screaming in the distance, like a savage wolf howling at the moon. I know that she's always close, though. Waiting for the moment that I drop my guard (or my sword), she's going to swoop in and kill me. She'll eat me alive. She's been eating almost constantly.

KILL COUNT:

SIX RABBITS, THREE (NON-TIMBER) WOLVES, DON'T KNOW HOW MANY SQUIRRELS.

I don't know if she even eats them all or if she just kills some of them for the glee of it... I don't know which is worse.

Sweet Faust, please let me get out of this alive.

I MUST NOT SLEEP.

Exhausted and about to collapse, you finally stop running as you reach a small glen. You've been running for hours, now, but you still haven't managed to get out of the forest. You sink to the ground, finally relieving your hooves of your weight, and begin to finally think with more than simple, blinding fear.

I must have taken a wrong turn... That's a good thing, though. The last thing that we need would be for me to lead it- HER- back to civilization. You take comfort in the thought that you could be preventing a disaster, but it does nothing to quell the fear that you are lost in the Everfree Forest with this creature hunting you. There was no mistaking that she was after you, the screams and howls of assorted animals being eaten and killed (most likely in that order), had been following behind you, though. Her pace seemed to be slower than yours, which was easily the only reason you're still alive.

A spider doesn't chase down their prey, they set a trap for it and wait. Spiders are patient. Your guard will need to be up at all times... More thoughts fill your mind, doing their best to ensure you stay alive. Okay, Daring... No sleeping. I don't know if she needs to sleep, or how much, but I doubt she's going to stop for anything more than a quick snack before continuing to chase after me. It would be easy for her to kill me in my sleep. Even as you nod to yourself, however, you can feel your eyelids growing heavy. Shaking your head, you rise up again on your aching hooves, a tiny speck of your vitality revived.

"Daring Do, you're in a heap of trouble... And you're going to get out of it, just like you always have." You whisper. But if it comes down to a fight, if you need to make the choice between your life or hers... You know what choice to make.

Night Three

She's right behind me... I know it. I run as hard and as fast as I can, but she's always there... She nearly got me tonight. I stopped to catch my breath, and I accidentally fell asleep standing up. Why is it that after all these years of sleeping in beds and laying down, ponies still can do that? IT NEARLY KILLED ME!

I woke up, and it was pitch black, though my eyes had adjusted enough to give me a faint outline of the trees. Not even Luna's moon could pierce the foliage... And it didn't take me long to figure out what had happened. When I realized I had fallen asleep, I cursed myself for my carelessness...

And there was a hissing from the bushes.

SHE WAS RIGHT THERE!

Your body froze as the sound slipped through the darkness, and you knew that you were as good as dead. In fact, you wished then and there that you could just be stricken dead on the spot. It would surely be less painful than what she would do to you.

Regardless, this isn't the time for waiting on miracles... I'm going to have to make my own. Painstakingly slowly, you reach back and pull your knife from your bag. In your mind, you try to think of what it could possibly do for you. It's a large knife, with a wide blade, typically one that you saved for trips where you would need to be traveling though thick foliage. Many ponies had told you that it was meant to be a combat knife, but you had always brushed off the comment with the fact that it was meant for whatever you choose.

I guess they were right... Well, no use letting her get the advantage of surprise. I'm going to have to start this... Taking a deep breath, you turn to face the source of the hissing.

"I- I know you're there! Come on and face me!" You can barely speak with your throat closing in fear, but you manage to choke out the words. The confidence of the words, no matter how poorly the voice may have conveyed it, gives you courage.

Another hiss came from the bush, and there was a sudden flash of blood-red light, painfully blinding you. You throw up your hoof in surprise, trying to shield your eyes. There is another scream like the one your heard in the cave, and a massive weight suddenly throws you to the ground, pressing down on the hoof holding the knife with near-unbearable force. Laying on your back and fighting blindly for your life, waves of disgustingly hot, sticky breath wash over you, filling your nostrils with the stench of all of her past meals, making you want to retch and scream. As your vision returns, you almost wish that it hadn't.

The force bearing down on your knife-holding hoof is definitely Whipstitch, though not from her hoof or even one of the extra legs that she created entirely from her hair. In her attempt to lunge for your throat, she had caught the knife in her mouth, and is now desperately trying to work her way around it to get at you. Flecks of disgusting spit fly out with her disgusting breath, and droplets of venom drip onto your cheeks from her fangs, already eager to destroy your body from the inside out. The tiny piece of metal was all that had saved your life, and you are still in danger. She is screaming at you as her teeth grind against the metal blade, and the harsh whinny-scream is almost enough to make you panic and lose your grip on the knife. Her face is even more horrifying up close, her black eyes showing no trace of humanity and her feral lunges at you revealing only one goal: to kill and devour you. Instinctively, you know that you need to get out from underneath her before she begins stabbing at you with her other legs, and you tilt the blade to one side while rolling in the other. Her sharpened fangs slide along the blade, pushing her head to the side. As her face reaches the tip, you feel the blade slice through her skin as the force of her attacks drives her forward and slams her head against the ground. The roll carries you between her lengthened legs, but the maneuver proves to be unnecessary as her headbutting the ground leaves her stunned.

You lay there for a moment as the shock of your near-death sets in, and the fact that you were victorious settles like dust after a gust of wind. Slowly, you stand up, your hooves barely supporting you. You stand still for a moment, unsure if you can walk in your current state. A low growl gurgled out from Whipstitch as the effects of the impact already began to fade.

Suddenly, you can run a lot faster, and disappear into the trees, praying that she can't come fully to her senses before you've put some distance between the two of you.

Day Five?

I'm slipping away... So long without sleep.

I can hardly run in a straight line... I can't hold any kind of magical construct together, not even my sword. In this state, she would bite straight through it, anyway.

Whipstitch usually doesn't come back from Everfree for a week. That means two more days of running at most. I already know I can't do it. Every time I stop for breath, I start to fall asleep. All I can do is keep walking, and run when I can. I can't count how many times I've vomited, but I haven't had the chance to eat. Dehydration is setting in, and I'm having dizzy spells that drive me to the ground and coughing fits that stop me in my tracks... My throat is raw, my hooves are in constant pain, and I think that I'm going to die out here... Whipstitch is just making sure that I can't fight back. The wound to her face seems to have convinced her that I'm not to be openly attacked.

A few days ago, I saw a flickering red light, and I started to walk towards it... It looked like a fire, as if somepony else were out here, and I could finally find help... I nearly fell into her trap. I was lucky, since an unfortunate cockatrice decided to try first. She was there, and she stabbed its tail like an hors d'oeuvre and drew it in. I ran from the sound of snapping bones and the tearing of flesh... I broke down and wept as I ran away, the hope of any kind of help has been ripped away from me... I'm either leaving this forest alone or not at all...

Training to be a guard didn't prepare me for this... I guess it's karma, since I didn't take the job...

You stumble over a root protruding from the ground, finally falling in a heap after running for only Luna-knows-how-long. Tiredness sets in, and you take a moment to rest, your spirits broken. No matter how far you seem to run, you can't seem to find your way out of the forest. You're trapped with a creature out of a nightmare following you, waiting for an opportunity to wrap you up and eat you alive, and you've finally lost. This was the first adventure to ever outlast your ability to walk, but you feel as if you can't get up. Whipstitch's hissing begins to come from behind you, and you wonder if you could go just a little farther, as futile as the efforts may be. Just a few more meters, just for the knowledge that you could have done no more as you die.

No... There's no point in continuing the suffering... You think to yourself as you roll onto your back, no longer willing to fight. I can't make it out of here... I've got to learn to admit when I've finally been beaten.

You watch the monster finally emerge and approach you, a smug, toothy grin lighting up her face as she looks down on her victory. You only pray that it will be quick.

Raising her foreleg, she brings her scythe-like appendage into the air, then swings it down into your chest. Your eyes widen with the shock and agonizing pain as flesh and bone give way, and the legs sinks through your chest and into the ground below you. The world almost instantly fades to black, with her twisted, bloody smile being the last thing you see.

In spite of the injury to her mouth, Whipstitch still uses her fangs and pointed legs to disembowel your body, eviscerating you and tearing the meat from your bones. Blood flows out from your veins and down her throat, quenching her thirst, albeit momentarily. The smaller of her eight legs pick away at your carcass, scrounging for every last shred of meat. You are left as only another set of shattered bones and a bloody smear in the Everfree forest.

THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE. EVERY HOUR, SPENT IMAGINING THIS. THIS IS WHY I KEPT WALKING, CONTINUED TO RUN. For the real ending, continue on to page 37...

Eclipse balked at the disgusting ending. Flipping through the few pages between the ending and the "real ending," he found sets of sketches, each one detailing the terrifying spider creature. He looked up at the statue of his brother, contemplating waving the drawings in from of his eyes. Shaking his head, he turned from page to page. The pony was obviously no artist, but the images were still startling.

Finally, he turned to the last page, the true ending to Pennington's story.

"After all, he obviously didn't die..." Eclipse muttered to himself. "Unless the other Pennington decided to kill him off and bring him back to life somehow... Stupidly overused literary device." He took a moment, then shook his head. "Guess I should leave the fourth wall intact, shouldn't I?"

It's too late for that.

Not waiting for the total destruction of the boundary between author and character, Eclipse began to read from the last page.

Whipstitch's hissing begins to come from behind you, and you wonder if you could go just a little farther, as futile as the efforts may be. Just a few more meters, just for the knowledge that you could have done no more as you die.

I'm not going to give up... I'm going to keep going until my body refuses to go any further. Let it never be said that Daring Do died giving up!

You try to rise to your hooves, standing on shaking knees. You take careful steps, making sure not to fall again. You know that if you fall, you won't get up again.

You step through the bushes, refusing to give in to the temptation to lean against the bush and rest again. As you step through, you spot a figure in the semi-darkness. You hesitate for a moment, trying to understand whether or not it was Whipstitch. As you step forward again, the figure becomes clearer, and you can make out a zebra's stripes.

"Is- is it you?" You call out to the figure, remembering the mystic that had greeted you on your way into the forest. "Please! Please! Help me!"

There was a short break in the writing, followed by a note from Pennington.

Will rewrite this as Daring later... Just need to experience the happy ending for myself again. No filters.

Eclipse nodded quietly to himself. Pennington had seemingly wanted to finish the story in the proper tense, but sometimes one's mental well-being had to come first.

Even as I saw Zecora's familiar face, Whipstitch seemed to realize that her patience was about to lose her a meal. I felt a few wisps of hair wrap around my back ankle, tighten their grip, and yank me backwards. As I fell to the ground, I began to desperately scramble forwards towards Zecora, screaming hysterically.

"Zecora, help! Please, she's going to EAT ME!" I shouted, trying to pull myself forward along the ground. Now, when my fate seemed inevitable and I was no longer completely alone, I finally lost complete control of myself, reduced to a quivering pile of pleas for help. I'd been completely destroyed, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Finally, the fear had forced me to cave in and crumble under the pressure.

Zecora didn't waste any time, dropping the basket of herbs she'd collected and running forward, grabbing my hoof and yanking me forward with more strength than I had left in my entire body. She didn't ask any questions as she pulled me to safety, only grunting with the effort.

With another horrendous scream, Whipstitch finally revealed herself in her entirety, leaping from the bushes and staring down this new opponent. Zecora only stared in return, sizing up the creature in front of her.

"I hate to face such a frightening beast, but this night, I shall deny your feast!" She glared as she reached into her saddlebags. Whipstitch gave a feral roar in return, beginning to advance. Without so much as flinching, Zecora threw her hoof downward. Whatever she had been holding created a small explosion, sending a column of flame up into the air between them. Giving her gut-wrenching scream, Whipstitch reared back, obviously as startled by the flames as any other wild animal. As I watched, Zecora smiled and reached into her bag yet again, not even needing to look at what she was doing. Just as the flames were beginning to fall and fade, Zecora took a deep breath and blew on the contents of her hoof, sending a cloud of shimmering green dust into the air.

"A spider you may seem, or perhaps a bad dream, but you need to be wary! For I can be quite scary..." Even as she spoke, the cloud began to move of its own accord, growing and flowing around Whipstitch. Whipstitch hissed at the smoke, obviously trying to understand what was going on.

"To attack my friend was quite a mistake! When angered, I can be quite the snake..." At her word, the cloud formed the image of a gigantic cobra, curled around Whipstitch and poised to attack. glaring at the conjured illusion, Whipstitch stabbed at the creature's body, her leg simply passing through. After a moment of confusion, Whipstitch smiled and looked back at Zecora, taking a confident step forward, her leg barely brushing against the ring formed by the body of the snake.

"What, do you think that I am through? That was only step one, now this is step two!" Stamping her hoof again, another explosion rose up from the ground, this time from beneath where the snake was reared up. The effect that followed was both powerful and shocking. The green dust caught alight, and the cobra burst into flame, the fire traveling down its length and creating a flaming apparition. Whipstitch's black eyes grew wide with fright, and she stumbled backwards, retreating back into the forest. Zecora snickered as Whipstitch disappeared, and the snake slowly burnt itself out.

"Now then, dear Pennington, let's get you inside! You look as if you have almost died!" She offered me a hoof, helping me to stand. Finally having support, I leaned on her shoulder, unable to even hold my own weight. "I believe that I have just the cure... Hot cider and a warm bed will help, for sure!"

Zecora never asked me any questions other than what she needed to know to treat me, and chastised me only lightly for being in Everfree on Nightmare Night. Regardless, I told her everything, if only to simply stop myself from going insane.

TO THE READER: YOU MUST NEVER ENTER THE EVERFREE FOREST ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT, OR FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK.

Eclipse set the papers down, quietly pondering what he had read. As the moon passed overhead, he thought long and hard. The fact that Whipstitch was already naturally so powerful was shocking, but even more shocking was the fact that she bore such a resemblance to her ancestor, Threadmane. Leaning back and closing his eyes, Eclipse let out a long sigh, remembering ages past. After a few minutes, the silence was broken.

"I thought I'd find you out here!" A familiar voice chimed. As Eclipse opened his eyes, he saw Luna floating down in front of him. She gave him a smile as she landed next to him, sitting down and leaning against the hedge wall opposite him. In spite of her smile, Eclipse knew that she still didn't trust Discord, even in his statue form. "Why is it that every time you go missing, we find you out here?"

"I don't know, why do you think that Celestia used to spend so much time staring at the moon?" He replied. "It's one of the places I can be alone without losing my brother's company..."

Luna's smile immediately dropped as she realized the implication to her own banishment. Eclipse shook his head, trying to banish the sudden sharpness of his attitude.

I'm sorry, Luna. That was kind of mean... I guess I'm still trying to adjust to not being able to see him each night..." He shook his head as memories of Discord manipulating his dreams resurfaced. At one point, he had even managed to turn Eclipse against the two sisters with his slippery tongue.

"No, I understand! It wasn't very long ago that we severed the connection he was using to trick you, after all... Deceiving or not, he's still your brother, and now you don't have any way to talk to him again." She nodded. "How could I not expect you to be hurt?"

Eclipse nodded, picking up the papers again to look at the sketches that Pennington had drawn.

"What's that?" Luna asked, standing up and walking over to him. She sat down at the base of the statue. Eclipse took a moment to look at her, then at Discord's statue, then back at her. She rolled her eyes.

"With you around, I trust that you would tell me if he was up to something..."

Eclipse smiled, then nodded. It had been such a short time since the princesses had taken him in from the Everfree forest, it was easy for him to forget that he was one of the members of their "family" now, which included trust.

"It's one of Pennington's unpublished works: a horror story that he once lived through." He tilted the page for Luna to see the current illustration, from which she recoiled in surprise.

"I've- I've never seen anything like it..."

"Yes, she certainly is unique."

"No, I mean, if Pennington encountered this thing, he should have told me!" Luna looked down in thought, then moved to examine the manuscript, herself. "He's supposed to send me a report on every dangerous creature he meets as part of his studies..." To her surprise, the draconequus held the text at arm's length away from her. With a snap of his fingers, the papers disappeared.

"Eclipse! What was that for?"

"He didn't send this to you with good reason, Luna. He's been sworn to secrecy over this, and he's already broken that oath once by revealing it to me! You can ask him about it yourself, but... It's not just about his experiences. It's a part of somepony's life that he can't just give away willy-nilly..." As he spoke, Luna's indignant expression faded to one of respectful curiosity. She quietly nodded, sitting back again. The two sat in silence for several minutes, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. After several minutes, he broke the silence.

"Luna, do you believe that anyone can be given a second chance?" He asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

Luna seemed surprised for a moment, turning to look at him, then looked back up at the night sky. "Well, I certainly got mine, didn't I? It took me a thousand years, but... even Nightmare Moon can be forgiven, I guess... But Eclipse, the last time I checked, Discord wasn't exactly ready to turn over a new leaf-"

"It's not about Discord, it's about me." Eclipse didn't even turn when he spoke. "There was somepony who was my friend a very long time ago... She trusted me, and we were close friends... But then, I accidentally destroyed a life that was precious to her, and she hated me until the day that she died..." He took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears. "It wasn't my fault, Discord tricked me, but... I turned her best friend into a monster. She never forgave me..."

"Now, I feel like I found her again, and it's like she's seeing me for the first time. I can never help the first victim, she's long gone, but... This pony feels like she could be my only chance at making something right after all of these years." He finally turned to look at Luna, the tears having silently broken free and rolling down his cheeks. "Do you think that it's really possible it could be her all over again?"

Luna stopped, staring at him with a mix of curiosity and pity. Slowly, the dark princess put her hooves on his shoulders, then pulled him into a tight hug.

"It's never too late to ask for forgiveness, Eclipse... If there's one thing I know, it's that there's no "due by" date for an apology, just so long as it's sincere..."

The two immortals remained in the embrace for a number of minutes, and once again, Eclipse knew that, when forced to choose between his brother and the two princesses, he had made the right choice.