It was a moonlit night. Daisy had spent the evening helping to plant flowers in a village north of the Unicorn Mountains. It had been light throughout her journey to the village, but now the sky was dark and a thick fog was coming down. Daisy hoped that she could still make it home to Ponyville safely.
The old mare standing next to her looked around and grimaced. “I don’t like the look of this.” she said ominously. “Whenever there’s fog about, strange things start to happen around the mountain tunnel. Be careful on your way home, dear.”
“Don’t worry.” Daisy replied. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’d better start heading home now, though.” And with that, she began making her way out of the village, along the steep and winding Route 15.
While the Friendship Express rail network is the most popular way to get around Equestria, it isn’t the only way. There is also a series of numbered highways, major roads connecting areas that the rails bypass. Route 15 was one of these, running from Ponyville to Vanhoover and passing through several villages along the way. Its most prominent feature was a long underground tunnel cut through the base of one of the Unicorn Mountains.
As Daisy made her way down the road, she found it harder and harder to see anything through the fog. Eventually, she saw the lights of the tunnel in the distance. “Oh, good. Not too far to go now.” Daisy said to herself. She was looking forward to getting home before visibility became even worse.
Daisy soon reached the entrance to the tunnel. Old, dead trees lined it on all sides, giving it a very creepy look. Suddenly, a cold wind shot out of the tunnel and nearly blew Daisy over. The magenta earth pony shivered and fought to regain her balance. Then all of the lights in the tunnel flickered out, leaving nothing but a pitch-black opening in the rock face.
“Well, that’s just great!” Daisy muttered. “And on the night I forgot to bring my flashlight, too!”
Daisy paused, as she heard a faint hissing voice. It seemed to be coming from within the tunnel, but she couldn’t make out any of the words that were being said. “Who’s there?” she asked. There was no reply.
Daisy slowly stepped closer to the tunnel’s entrance, but stopped when she spotted a solitary red light glowing far inside. The light started dim, but gradually grew brighter and brighter. Then Daisy shrieked in alarm, as she suddenly felt herself being pulled into the pitch-black tunnel by an invisible force. “What’s happening!?!” she cried. She managed to pull herself free, and went flying backward. She landed hard, but got back on her hooves quickly. She breathed rapidly and heavily, her face paler than the fog. She spotted a narrow road leading up an adjacent mountain, and took off as fast as she could. She wasn’t going anywhere near that tunnel again.
Daisy sprinted the rest of the way back to Ponyville, and arrived home breathing heavily. Her two sisters, Lily Valley and Roseluck, were shocked to see her in such a state. “What’s gotten into you, Daisy?” Lily asked with concern.
“I was… walking down… Route 15.” Daisy panted. “I couldn’t… see much… because of the fog. I was almost… in the tunnel… when the lights… suddenly… went out. Then there was this… one red light… that started glowing… and then something started… pulling me in! I managed to escape… and ran away. I don’t know… what was in that tunnel, but I’m not… going there ever again!”
Lily raised one eyebrow. “That sounds really weird. Are you sure the fog wasn’t playing tricks on you?”
“The fog wasn’t playing tricks on me!” Daisy retorted. “I know what I saw! And I know what I felt.”
But before an argument could break out, Roseluck stepped in. “You say you saw a red light in the tunnel, Daisy?” she asked. “And then you suddenly felt yourself getting pulled in?”
“Yes.” said Daisy. “But I don’t know what the light was coming from, or what was pulling me in!”
Roseluck sighed. “The light was coming from the horn of a unicorn. A ghost unicorn, who haunts the tunnel and pulls unsuspecting ponies in.”
Daisy was taken aback. “Are you serious?” she asked.
Roseluck nodded. “Yes. I am. Granny Smith told me the story a few years ago, but I never believed it until now. Do you want me to tell it to you?”
“Um… sure.” said Daisy.
“All right.” said Roseluck. And this was the story she told:
Many years ago, when the Equestrian highway system had just been built, there was a young unicorn mare named Rhubarb Crumble who lived in Ponyville. She ran her own little bakery in the center of town, but delivered her homemade pies and cakes all across Equestria. Her bakery started out small, but grew bigger as more and more ponies heard about it. Rhubarb was an amazing baker, and was cheerful and friendly to everypony she met.
One autumn afternoon, she received an invitation to a big bake sale in Vanhoover. She’d always been a small-town mare, but this was a chance to really put her business on the map. So over the following two days, she worked nonstop to bake a full cartload of all her best recipes. And when she was ready to go, she hitched herself up to her cart and set off along Route 15.
It was a calm sunny morning, and Rhubarb was making good speed along the road. She was soon far away from Ponyville and about to enter the long mountain tunnel. As she trotted into the darkness, she suspected nothing. But when she was halfway through, disaster struck.
Nopony knows what caused it, but as Rhubarb strolled through the tunnel, the rock ceiling above her suddenly cracked and gave way. Rhubarb ran as fast as she could, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. The rockslide poured down from above and buried her, killing her instantly.
It took the road crews five days to clear away the rocks, as well as the crushed remains of Rhubarb and her cart. The poor mare was laid to rest in a nearby cemetery. Shortly after, Route 15 was reopened, and things returned to normal – until strange incidents began to occur.
The following spring, all of the trees surrounding the mountain tunnel mysteriously died. The summer was unusually humid, and with the humidity came many foggy nights. It is said that on these nights, the lights along the walls of the tunnel would all flicker out, and a single red light deep within the tunnel would glow in their place. As a traveler got nearer and nearer to the tunnel, the red light would grow brighter and brighter, and then the traveler would be sucked into the darkness, never to be seen again. Those who did appear again were left broken and traumatized for the rest of their lives.
It is believed that Rhubarb’s spirit did not rest. She was angered by the decision to reopen the tunnel that had seen her killed. The anger of her spirit poisoned the soil around the tunnel, and on foggy moonlit nights, she appears inside the tunnel again, ready to punish anypony who dares to step inside.
Daisy was speechless. “S-so you’re saying it was Rhubarb’s ghost that I saw in the tunnel?” she finally stammered.
“Yes, Daisy.” Roseluck said solemnly.
Daisy simply nodded, and didn’t say another word. Lily, on the other hoof, rolled her eyes.
“That story was interesting,” Lily said, “but if you expect me to think any of it is actually true, you can think again. I’ve never believed in ghosts and I never will. There’s simply no such thing.”
“Suit yourself.” Roseluck replied. “But you didn’t see what Daisy saw.”
“I still think the fog was just playing tricks on her.” Lily scoffed. “But it’s getting late, so I’m going to bed now. Good night.” She turned and trotted upstairs to her bedroom.
Roseluck knew how stubborn Lily could be at times, and decided not to bother arguing with her any further. “Don’t pay attention to her.” she told Daisy. “I believe you. Tell you what – you can sleep with me tonight if you want.”
Daisy nodded, and Roseluck led her up the stairs. Roseluck crawled into her bed and let Daisy snuggle up next to her, just to make sure her sister would be safe that night.
Daisy returned to her normal self after a few days, and the next two weeks passed without incident. The three sisters spent most days tending to their own garden, as well as running their flower stand in front of their house. They all stayed together in Ponyville, and nothing more was said on the subject of ghosts.
Then one afternoon, a letter arrived on their doorstep. It was from the mayor of another village north of the Unicorn Mountains, asking for a dozen hyacinth bouquets to be planted in front of the town hall. Roseluck read the letter to her sisters, and as soon as she mentioned the location, Daisy began to tense up.
“No, no, no!” Daisy exclaimed. “I’m not going back up there again!”
Lily laughed. “I can handle this delivery. That tunnel doesn’t scare me.”
“If you really want to, then go ahead.” said Roseluck. “Just make sure you get back before dark.”
“Don’t worry about me, Rosie.” said Lily. “I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”
Lily loaded her cart with fresh hyacinths of all different colors. When she had twelve full bouquets, she set off. Roseluck and Daisy watched her leave, both hoping that she would return safely.
It was a warm sunny day, and Lily smiled as she trotted along Route 15. It wasn’t long before she arrived at the mountain tunnel, which was very well-lit during the day. “Haunted tunnel my flank!” she laughed as she entered. “There’s nothing scary about it! It’s as tame as a pet rabbit!”
But although she laughed outwardly, there was something about Roseluck’s story that she just couldn’t get out of her mind.
Lily eventually arrived at the village and found the town hall. It was much smaller than the Ponyville town hall. She helped the mayor arrange the hyacinths, and the mayor was very grateful for her assistance. When she was finished, she went to the village restaurant to get dinner before heading home.
Lily had planned to just grab a quick bite to eat, but service at the restaurant turned out to be excruciatingly slow, and it took half an hour for her to get her food. By the time she finished eating, the sun was already beginning to set. “No tip for you!” she called as she left. “Your service is too slow!”
The waitress shouted something back at her in response, but Lily didn’t hear it. All she wanted to do was get home as quickly as possible. She didn’t want to show it, but the thought of going through the mountain tunnel at night was making her nervous.
As Lily began heading back the way she had come, the sun disappeared and was replaced by the full moon. Then, when she was within a mile of the tunnel, a thick blanket of fog came down. She struggled to see anything through the fog, and what little she could see looked very spooky.
“Oh, snap out of it, Lily!” she muttered under her breath. “It’s the exact same road you were on this afternoon. There’s no reason to be scared.”
But Lily had spoken too soon. As she approached the tunnel, she shivered as she looked around at the dead trees. They looked harmless during the day, but resembled large ghostly claws at night. Then a cold gust of wind blasted out of the tunnel, and the lights lining the walls all flickered out.
“Good thing I always bring a flashlight with me.” Lily said with a smile. She pulled her flashlight out of her saddlebag and turned it on. Just as she did so, a lone red light appeared deep inside the tunnel. Lily pointed her flashlight toward it… and let out a bloodcurdling scream that echoed across the entire mountain range. “WHAT IS THAT!!!!!!” she shrieked.
Then Lily suddenly felt herself being pulled into the tunnel by an invisible force. The walls of the tunnel gradually changed from pitch black to blood red. Lily desperately tried to pull herself free, but she was already too far in. She screamed even louder as she felt a pair of cold, slimy hooves grabbing onto her shoulders. The blood red light enveloped everything around her, she felt her body go limp, and then she fell silent. There was nothing she could do to resist.
Neither Daisy nor Roseluck slept well that night. They were both very worried for their sister who was yet to return home. The next morning, they were getting ready to eat breakfast when there was a loud thump at the front door.
“What was that?!” Daisy exclaimed.
“Somepony’s at the door.” Roseluck replied. “Hopefully it’s Lily. I’ll go check.”
Roseluck opened the front door and cried out in alarm. Lily had returned alive, but broken. The pink mare was curled in a fetal position on the doorstep. The lily in her mane had turned brown and wilted. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her amber pupils had shrunk down to tiny, terrified dots. She was whispering unintelligible gibberish in a pained, barely audible voice. The only words Roseluck could make out were “tunnel” and “Rhubarb”. Roseluck looked at the ground and sighed, as she understood the terrible fate that had befallen her sister.
“What’s going on out there?” Daisy begged to know.
“Don’t come outside.” Roseluck ordered. “You’ll only make yourself sick.”
“But what happened?” Daisy cried. “Is somepony hurt?”
“Yes, Daisy.” said Roseluck. She sighed sadly. “It seems Lily had an encounter with Rhubarb’s ghost. I’m going to call the hospital. Hopefully they can do something to help her…”
Roseluck picked up the phone and put in a call to Nurse Redheart. Within minutes, two medic ponies arrived at the flower shop and lifted Lily onto a stretcher. They headed to Ponyville Hospital with grim looks on their faces.
Daisy seemed to be on the verge of tears as she watched Lily get carried away. Roseluck put one hoof on her sister’s shoulder to console her, though she too was fearing the worst.
“I warned her.” Roseluck said quietly. “But she didn’t listen to me.” Then a horrible feeling of guilt struck her. “If only I hadn’t let her deliver those hyacinths… this wouldn’t have happened…” She gulped, and began to feel tears forming in her eyes too.
Lily remained in a single-bed room at Ponyville Hospital for the next six months. During that time, Roseluck and Daisy often stopped by to visit her. Lily gradually got her voice back, and Nurse Redheart eventually decided she’d recovered sufficiently to be released from the hospital.
Lily returned home to her sisters, but she wasn’t the same pony. The most peppery and headstrong of the Flower Sisters was now the most jittery and timid. She began having panic attacks over every little thing, and would often faint at the drop of a hat. It seemed that just as Roseluck’s story had foretold, she had been left permanently traumatized by her encounter in the tunnel. And to some extent, Roseluck and Daisy were as well. They too became prone to panicking and fainting. Not quite as much as Lily, but Rhubarb Crumble had left her mark on them too.
Never again did any of the Flower Sisters venture into the mountains north of Ponyville. Shortly after Lily returned home, a pair of nearly identical rockslides blocked both ends of the mountain tunnel. The road crews were well aware of the legend by then, and decided not to bother clearing away the rocks. Cut in half by the blocked tunnel, Route 15 fell into disuse. The following year, Twilight Sparkle arrived in Ponyville and a new era of Equestrian history began. Amid all the revelry of Nightmare Moon’s defeat and the rediscovery of the Elements of Harmony, what happened to Lily was all but forgotten by the town.
On some afternoons, however, you may see Lily sitting outside the flower shop, staring into the distance with a blank expression on her face. That’s when you can be sure that she is thinking about that foggy night many years ago, and the mountain tunnel, and Rhubarb Crumble.
