Wish Gone Awry. Enter Equestria! Enter New Life!

Dashing deftly through the forest, Julius went on a nice, head-clearing run through the woods. Julius decided to practice some parkour while running through the woods, getting somewhat fancy. Flipping over a few exposed roots, swinging from branch to branch, bouncing off of tree trunks, Julius bounded through the forest with increasing speed and ease. As Julius made his way through the woods, something caught his gaze. A shimmering light seemed to hide in the corner of his eyes. Trying to turn his head towards the shimmer, Julius fails, only barely keeping it in his peripheral vision. Taking a few deep breaths, Julius slows and steadies his breathing before trying to follow the shimmering light.

Following the odd shimmering light was challenging. At times it moved extremely fast, seemingly plowing through the forest as if nothing was there; at others, it seemed to slow right down, as if letting him catch up or scanning the area. Staying firmly out of sight, Julius trusted his senses to tell where the light was. Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, Julius began rapidly looking around. Spotting a small drop with a large tree right on edge, Julius lightly smiled, resisting the urge to laugh.

"Well, it worked for the hobbits; why not?" Julius mirthfully thought as he ducked down under the roots of the tree. Julius steadied his breathing and attempted to hide, taking several slow deep breaths. Hearing no steps but hearing leaves rustling and branches breaking, Julius pushed himself as far back as he could, obscuring himself as deep beneath the tree as he could. Finally, taking a few moments, Julius covered his face in dirt and leaves to try to reduce any glare his skin might give off. Laying flat to the ground, Julius waited a few tense moments.

"Where did you go, friend?" A cheerful, feminine voice sang out as the crunching and snapping sounds got closer.

"Oh, it knew I was following it. That's comforting," Julius thought as he suppressed a sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Come out, come out where ever you are," the voice sang as the shimmering light seemed to float down in front of the tree.

"Well, fuck," Julius thought as he reached for the blessed salt that he brought. Swiftly throwing a sloppy circle of it around himself, Julius finished the semi-circle just as the light touched the ground in front of him.

"I could have sworn that I heard something around here," the voice said as it looked around. The light appeared to be a female pony, but somehow, it seemed off. "I know you're around here somewhere," the voice said as it looked around.

"Yeah, but I'm hiding," Julius mentally laughed as he calmed himself. "Time for a nap. Gotta try to get in touch with Luna," Julius thought as he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. It took nearly half an hour of laying still with his eyes closed as the creature looked around, but finally, Julius managed to fall asleep. Fading out, Julius let himself fall into his dream realm.

"Alright. Assuming Luna is keeping a watch for my dream sign, or however she tracks my dreaming, she should be dropping by pretty soon," Julius said as he looked around his dreamscape. A grayscale forest surrounded him with trees in various states of being, some bearing leaves, some with leaves falling, and others with budding leaves. Roots broke the ground and twisted and turned, violently toiling the land. Clouds swirled overhead, making an ever-changing kaleidoscope of shapes. And finally, somewhere off in the distance appeared a few rustic buildings. "This is pretty tame and normal for one of my dreams. I'm chalking it up to the forest," Julius laughed as a heavy-looking door appeared in his dream. "Should be Luna," Julius said as the door began to open.

"Ran into some trouble, I take it?" Luna knowingly asked as she walked through the door.

"Yeah, I did," Julius flatly admitted. "I followed a weird glowing light. It turns out that was a" Julius stopped himself as he thought what the light-being was, "spirit, ghost, thing?" Julius said unsurely. "I don't know what exactly it was, but it was the same thing that I've seen before, I know that much," Julius told Luna as she calmly yet sternly nodded.

"I see," Luna softly hummed. "I should be able to get to you fairly quickly," Luna told Julius as a dome of light rhythmically flashed around Julius's dreamscape.

"What's this?" A female voice rang out in Julius's dream realm. "There's something here," the voice said as the dome flashed in a seeming knocking fashion.

"Oh, unlucky!" Julius lightly sang before looking at Luna. "That's the voice of the thing I was following; I think it found me," Julius told Luna.

"One, two, three, on the stranger!" The voice sang out as the flashing continued.

"Yes, it did," Luna said as she made for the door. "Stay in that barrier. Whatever you do, do not leave it. Do not listen to whatever it might say. Try not to look at it in its eyes. If you feel like something is urging you from the inside, hurt yourself in some way, pain tends to help in resisting such pulls. Might I suggest punching yourself in the arm?" Luna instructed Julius as she started to leave Julius's dream. "Don't worry, I'll get to you as soon as I can," Luna said as she left Julius's dream.

"Hah, so, that cliche stuff does work, neat," Julius said as he slowly woke himself up. Eyes slowly fluttering asleep, the first thing Julius saw were large, glowing pony eyes staring right at him. Biting his tongue hard, suppressing his voice, Julius rolled over to look at the dirt.

"Come on out from in there!" The voice sang as her hooves knocked at a barrier around Julius. "I know you're in there!" The voice continued to sing as it continued to knock at the barrier.

"Why me? Why all the time me? My name's not Reginald, and I'm a reasonably good person. So, why me?" Julius lamented in thought as he endured the knocking and singing commands. After a rather annoying amount of time, Julius finally heard a friendly voice.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" An extremely stern Luna commanded as she landed outside Julius's hiding place.

"Oh, were you the one hiding in this cave?" The creature asked as she turned around. "No, you can't be; I still sense something in there. Oh, are you a friend of the thing hiding in there?" The creature asked as she approached Luna.

"Enough!" Luna tersely commanded as she charged her horn. "You will answer my questions!" Luna firmly demanded. "Why are you here? What is your purpose?" Luna demanded as she leveled her horn at the creature. "Ghosts don't normally exist here," Luna stated as she readied herself for a confrontation.

"Ah, so you could tell? Well, I suppose it's pretty obvious," the ghost laughed. "I'm still around because of a curse on my village, or, well, I suppose my former village," the ghost forlornly said. "I've been lurking in these woods for; I don't know how long, trying to find somepony to lift the curse. I remember when this forest was bright, beautiful, and benevolent, whatever happened to it?" The ghost wistfully sighed.

"Wait, you remember when this was the Everbright Forest? How long have you been here?" Luna asked, surprise evident in her voice.

"A long time," the ghost laughed. "I don't suppose you can lift the curse on my village, can you?" The ghost asked as she looked at Luna.

"Yes, and no," Luna told the ghost. "While I can lift the curse, due to the twisted magic of the Everfree Forest, the curse will just come back. In order for the curse to remain broken, the Everfree Forest would have to become the Everbright Forest again. Sadly, I do not know how to make that happen," Luna told the ghost.

"Oh, I see," the ghost sadly said. "But, even with the curse being temporally lifted, it would be enough for the others to get some rest, correct?" The ghost asked.

"For a time, yes. They will come back, though; I don't know how long that'll take," Luna told the ghost.

"Hey, that works for me!" the ghost happily sang as she bounced around. "Here, follow me!" The ghost happily sang as she started to prance away.

"Very well," Luna sighed. "Stay hidden," Luna shouted out as she followed the ghost, "I'll be right back."

"Got it, Luna," Julius quietly said as he lightly stretched his body. "Please, hurry up. If you don't, my everything will be stiff," Julius groaned as he stretched his body. "Oh, this is cramped," Julius complained in a grunted sigh.

After waiting for what felt like days, but it was only an hour or so, Julius finally heard something not natural to any forest. Julius heard the sound of lasers being fired in the distance. Julius stayed firmly in place, resisting every urge telling him to rush towards the sounds; Julius stayed firmly in place.

"Luna doesn't need my help; I'll only get in the way," Julius kept telling himself as the sounds of lasers continued. After several moments Julius sighed. "I really wanna see what's happening," Julius lightly whined as he heard a loud burst. "Well, something just happened," Julius laughed and sighed as he tried to get comfortable. Waiting several moments, Julius eventually saw dark blue legs and hooves land outside his hiding place.

"It's alright; the ghost problem has been resolved, well, for now," Luna told Julius as she looked into Julius's hiding place.

"Good," Julius firmly said as he crawled out of his hiding place. "The was really uncomfortable," Julius said as he cracked his body.

"I can imagine," Luna lightly laughed as she heard Julius stretch his body. "After you limber up, I need you to follow me," Luna told Julius as he stretched.

"Why, what's up?" Julius asked as he rolled his shoulders.

"That ghost's village has been cleansed. But it's only temporary. Even with my magic, the ward would have to be refreshed now and then. I'd like to see how well your blessed salt and holy water works in reinforcing such a ward. I would test them myself, but they seem faith-based, so I'm not too sure how well they'd work if I tried to use them," Luna told Julius.

"That's fair, though; they should work. They did for the jackass," Julius sighed as Luna looked oddly at him. "Right, I suppose I should explain," Julius said as he ushed Luna to lead him to the village. "So, back in my world, there's this thing called an ouija board. Supposedly, it lets you talk to the dead, but most of the 'talking' can be explained with science," Julius said as Luna gave him a stern look.

"I thought you said magic doesn't exist in your world? And either way, you shouldn't disturb the dead," Luna told Julius.

"I never said for sure that magic doesn't exist in my world, and I agree with you about the dead," Julius told Luna. "Anyways, using ouija boards is highly unrecommended; when you get Christians and Wiccans agreeing that something is a very bad idea, it's a very bad idea, don't do it. Sadly, a guy at my school didn't listen to Lily or me and used an ouija board. The first results were what we expected; the second results had all of us, save the first guy, going to church. That guy got fucked, until Father O'Sullivan purified his house; for good measure, Lily also purified his house. Despite the guy being an Athiest, the purifications worked," Julius told Luna.

"I see," Luna hummed. "What happened the second time you used the board, and how were you involved?" Luna asked as she led Julius to the village.

"Well, I just wrote down the results of the board. They were all typical answers the first time, which was expected, as nobody was blindfolded. The second time though, they were all blindfolded. Every answer appeared to be in gibberish, our Finnish friend though, he turned pale, well, even paler. The answers were in Finnish. He translated them for us, and that freaked us out. We ended the ouija session then booked it to church to confess, repent, and purify. But, the guy who started the whole thing, he didn't believe and didn't take any of it seriously. Long story short, he almost died, he reluctantly agreed to the purification, then, after it worked, and after all that, he still doesn't believe or even concede that something supernatural happened," Julius sighed.

"Well, if magic in your world is so rare, I'm not too surprised. Still, experiencing all that, I'd at least consider respecting such things," Luna said as the two of them entered the village. Skeletons of ponies littered the ground around the village.

"The hell happened here?" Julius asked as he looked around.

"Oh, cursed zombie ponies infested this village," Luna said very matter-of-factly. "I got rid of them, though, as you can tell," Luna told Julius.

"Yes, you did, though the bodies are still here. Might I recommend fire?" Julius asked.

"Wouldn't help. It's a curse; destroying the bodies would only worsen things. The spirits will be bound to bodies; without bodies, the spirits will be free to roam as ghosts, which are far harder to deal with. At least with bodies, they can be outrun, and they cannot possess you," Luna told Julius as she walked towards the town's well. "Here, try purifying this well," Luna said as she pointed at the well.

"Very well," Julius said as he walked up to the well. Pouring some holy water down the well, Julius said a short prayer as white-blue sparks flew from the well.

"Interesting," Luna said as one of the sparks hit her. "That's unpleasant," Luna laughed as she shook her head.

"Are you OK?" Julius asked as he finished his prayer.

"I'm fine," Luna told Julius. "The spark felt purifying, if that makes any sense. Now, follow me; there is another place that should be purified," Luna said as she went to a somewhat nearby house. Following Luna, Julius entered the nearby house. As Julius entered, Luna stood by a fireplace and pointed at it.

"Ah, the fireplace, I take it?" Julius asked as Luna nodded. "Very well," Julius said as he walked up to it. Looking inside, Julius looked back at Luna. "You're aware there's a skeleton in the fireplace, right?" Julius asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, that's the skeleton of the ghost pony that you saw. Now, imagine if she was hostile. That's what would happen if we destroyed the bodies," Luna told Julius.

"That'd be bad, very bad," Julius lightheartedly chucked. "Alright, time to purify the fireplace," Julius said as he flicked holy water into the fireplace. After flicking in the holy water, Julius drew unbroken lines of blessed salt around the openings of the fireplace. Julius said another short prayer; white-blue sparks once again bounced around the place, only, this time, they appeared to be contained in the fireplace.

"Interesting, very interesting," Luna said as she watched Julius. Finishing up, the two of them left the house.

"Anything else?" Julius asked as he looked around the village.

"No, that should be good," Luna told Julius. "Now, let's head back to Zecora's place. Best not to worry the others," Luna said.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Julius agreed as he followed Luna.

"Would you mind telling me about any magic from your world? Like things about it that are believed about it," Luna asked as the two walked back.

"Sure," Julius hummed in thought. "Guess I should start with what I know of Wicca, fitting considering we're going to Zecora's," Julius laughed.

"Why is that fitting?" Luna asked as the two walked through the forest.

"You'll understand when I tell you how they do magic," Julius told Luna as the two made their way back to Zecora's place.