There was a very good reason the untamed Everfree was still so large. Wild magic was not something to trifle with. Even at the entrance of the forest, the change could be felt. To step into a wild magic zone was to step into the maw of a great beast. Magic was its breath, its blood, and its bones, and it was aware of every step taken inside of it. There was just no shaking the feeling that it didn’t really welcome the intrusion.

Something in the distance howled.

The vigor of the forest, the might of this creature, was evident in the density and color of the foliage. They were surrounded by walls of the deepest green, so tight it was difficult to move sometimes.

Pinkie didn't even pause her chatter as she bounced along. “Wow, this is looking like a crazy start. Four unicorns doesn’t seem like an optimal team for this run, but Rarity is a super lucky pull, and I think that could carry us all the way to the bridge, easy. Right? But you can’t tune out just yet. Who knows what we could still be missing.”

“Pinkie, darling, who are you talking to?” Rarity interjected.

“Anypony who’s keeping track,” Pinkie stated simply. “Trust me, it'll make more sense when we get there. Oh, look, we’re coming to a clearing.”

With no further elaboration, they stepped into a pleasant glade. Above, the stars were once again visible, and beautiful flowers sprouted all around them. The air felt less oppressive, and seemed almost to shimmer.

None of this made it any more relaxing to see, in the center of the clearing, a long banquet table with a luxurious golden tablecloth, with seven ponies seated around it, all facing the new arrivals. Throughout the space was the sound of strings and what sounded like an almost familiar foal’s voice singing softly, an indistinct tune. The ponies may have looked familiar to the locals, but they were unmistakably off; all appeared to be noticeably shorter than an average pony, and their faces and bodies were lumpy and asymmetrical, the obvious signs of a spriggan’s disguise.

At the head of the table was a light tan mare with a hot pink mane. She looked like she was feigning an air of authority and perhaps laughing to herself about it. Next to her was a white pegasus stallion, the oldest looking of the bunch, who nodded to them welcomingly. Next was portly blue earth pony mare wearing an apron, smiling gently.

At the other end, a purple unicorn stallion tipped his hat to them. A cream-colored mare beside him locked eyes with Lyra, holding a cup out to offer it. The next was a cerise earth pony mare whose eyes were fixed on the pony seated beside her at the middle of the table. And that pony was a gray pegasus mare with a blonde mane, who stood on two legs with her wings spread wide as she gestured to the table before her.

The pegasus mare’s eyes weren’t fixed on anything, and indeed seemed to be staring in different directions, yet her full attention was unmistakably on Lyra’s group. “Oh, welcome, welcome,” she said. “You’re all just in time for the feast.”

The uncanny sight might have been funny under other circumstances, or perhaps if the audience knew what the joke was, but here and now, it was terrifying. Ponies had lots of contact with spriggans, and it was quite common for spriggans to live among ponies, performing as funny caricatures of their hosts for little more than the affection of the ponies. Spriggan revels, on the other hoof, were never to be interrupted, least of all at midsummer. In the dark of the forests, they played games that would leave hapless ponies who wandered into them irrevocably changed.

“So,” the pegasus mare was saying, “we wish to honor the brave heroes of the forest. Come, sit, eat and drink to your—oh, but this won’t do. Where are the rest?”

Lyra looked around at the others with her. Pinkie Pie seemed to be hanging back, trying very hard to pretend she was a bush or a rock. Minuette and Rarity exchanged uncertain glances, each taking half a step back. Trixie met Lyra’s eye and nodded. Lyra was pretty sure Trixie didn’t know what to do in this situation, but there wasn’t really time to make a plan.

A sudden rustling of bushes interrupted Lyra’s thoughts as a life-sized plushie of a butter-yellow pegasus with a pink mane emerged. For some reason, this caused Rarity and Pinkie Pie to breathe an audible sigh of relief.

The yellow pegasus quickly, but daintily, positioned herself between Lyra and the table, facing the center figure. “Forgive my intrusion,” she said with a small curtsy, “but I must ask that you allow all the ponies behind me to come with me.”

The revelers looked around at each other in apparent confusion.

“In return,” the pegasus added, “I offer my gratitude, my affection and my appreciation. Is that enough?”

The spriggan in the middle made a clicking noise, then nodded. “Very well. Go, then. And keep us in your memory!” All seven of the revelers raised a toast, and the yellow pegasus beckoned the group to follow her.

Soon they had left the clearing well behind. The sound of merriment didn’t seem to have faded, almost as if the music of the glade was following them. “Thank goodness you came along, Ranger Fluttershy,” Rarity commented. “I’m afraid we were quite at a loss.”

“I’m glad I could help,” Fluttershy said, bowing her head in response. “But why were you out here in the first place? This is one night when everypony should know to avoid the forest if they don’t want to get caught up in a spriggan feast. And anyway isn’t the town hosting the Summer Sun Celebration?”

Rarity sighed. “Oh, dear, you’ve been out here all night, haven’t you? I’m afraid Ponyville is much worse than the forest right now. The legend of Nightmare Moon turned out to be quite true. We’re on our way to the castle because the professors here,” she gestured to Lyra, “think there’s a clue to stopping her there.”

“In that case, I’ll see you through,” the ranger replied. “And I should teach you a song that keeps the fey away. I teach it to all the foals of Ponyville, but I guess I didn’t ever think the adults would need it. Here, sing with me. Oh, um, is that okay, Pinkie Pie?”

Pinkie nodded silently. The pegasus took a deep breath and began to sing.

Thank you for inviting me, my friends,
Thank you for inviting me, my friends,

But I'm starting to feel homesick, and I must go for a run,
I left the puppy in the wash,
The kitten stole my iron,

I've got to bring some sugar
To a neighbor who's alone,
And oh my gosh, you're just so posh
I fear I'd drag you down.

I must brew a pot of tea
That I can share with the bees
No matter how I’d like to stay,
Now I must really flee

But still thank you, thank you, thank you,
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Thank you, thank you for inviting me my friends

Falteringly, the group began to sing along, each making up new excuses on each repetition of the song, except for Pinkie, whose eyes seemed to become a bit unfocused.

It seemed like a very short time after that when their progress was halted again. This time, a physical barrier lay in front of them. They stood before a ravine, with the posts of a rope bridge on either end. The bridge itself clung to the near posts, the boards smacking wetly against the cliff somewhere below.

“Oh, my, somepony’s going to have to fly over there and repair the bridge,” Fluttershy wisely observed.

The others all stared at her.

“O-oh, right,” she said, realizing she was the only one present with wings.

“Before you go, there’s one thing we should take care of,” Trixie interrupted, and her magic seized hold of a bush about ten feet behind the group. She ripped it out of the ground, and six small ponies tumbled out, sprawling flat. “What do we have here?”

“Oh, um, did you not know you were being followed?” Fluttershy asked sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I should have mentioned it, I just thought they were with you.”

“Ow… did you have to be so rough?” Scootaloo complained, rubbing her head.

“We came to get our friends back,” Snails answered, shaking off the impact. “We overheard you saying you had a plan, so we followed you.”

“That’s right!” Button Mash proclaimed. “We’re adventurers, we can’t just leave this up to somepony else!”

Silver Soon adjusted her glasses. “The way I see it—oh, I think that’s a smudge.” She took the glasses off and began cleaning them as she continued, “As long as there’s hope, we all have to rally against the darkness, just like our friends did.”

Rarity shook her head. “It’s far too dangerous out here. I’ll escort you all home at once.”

This provoked Scootaloo to leap to her hooves and bound to the front of the group. “No way,” she declared. “Even if you force us to go home, we’ll just sneak back to the forest ourselves, and then we’ll be in even more danger. If you’re that worried about us, you need to keep us with you.”

“We’re willing to take whatever risk,” Featherweight spoke up. “But we’d rather take the one that gets our friends back.”

The unicorn filly among them swapped places with Scootaloo, giving her an appreciative nod. “We all talked about this,” Dinky said, bowing. “Every one of us has friends and family who risked their lives for us tonight, and we have to return the favor, no matter what any of you say. So please, help us, or at least don’t try to stop us, because none of us are as scared of what could happen if we do this as we are of what could happen if we don’t!”

Rarity took a step back. “I… well…” She glanced uncertainly to Lyra.

Lyra looked Dinky in the eye. “You remind me of somepony I know,” she said slowly. “Somepony who cares deeply and doesn’t give up. Let’s be clear about this, we don’t know what’s on the other side of that bridge. There might be ghosts. There might be traps. We might find ourselves face to face with Nightmare Moon again, and she might even be more powerful than before. It’s not just that one of you could get taken or hurt. We might actually die. Or worse. One of you could die, and the rest will have to live with that. So I’ll give you a chance to decide. Are you ready to face something like this?” She looked over all the fillies and colts. “All of you?”

What she saw in their faces was not the steely resolve of a group of experts and fighters. If it had been, this would have been an easy decision. What she saw instead was desperation. Every one of these foals was scared out of their mind, and despite that, they all nodded frantically.

“They’re coming with us,” Lyra decided.

“Actually, Trixie would like to go home now.”

“Offer does not apply to Canterlot staff. Fluttershy, get that bridge in shape.”

“I’ll be right back.” The yellow pegasus mare dropped out of sight over the cliff, and with some effort managed to lift the end of the bridge up. About halfway across the ravine, however, a strong headwind suddenly kicked up. She tried flying faster, but the wind exactly matched her speed, stopping her motion entirely.

“What’s going on?” Rarity called out. “Where is that coming from?”

“It must be wild magic,” Lyra said. “Fluttershy, come back!”

The roar of the wind kept her voice from reaching Fluttershy, but the ranger seemed to have gotten the idea to do just that. However, as she turned around, the direction of the wind also changed, now preventing her from returning.

The pegasus’s eyes widened in fear as she realized the situation she was in. She frantically tried to fly in every direction, forward, backward, up, down, left and right, but the capricious wind kept her trapped there.

“Uh-oh,” Pinkie remarked. “Fluttershy’s never been a strong flyer. If this keeps up, she’ll get exhausted and then she’ll…” She risked a look over the edge of the cliff, and then flinched away. Fluttershy was beginning to slow down, hovering in place, and turned to look at the group.

Minuette’s horn lit up with a deep blue glow now. “Fluttershy! I’m going to cast haste on you!” she called. “Maybe the extra speed will be enough to break through!”

Fluttershy nodded and started flying toward the other end again as Lyra’s spell enveloped her. But although she was now flapping her wings at double speed, the wind speed still increased to stop her. As she realized she was making no more progress than before, she once again slowed down, shaking her head sadly.

Behind the unicorns, a pair of pegasi were watching intently. “Featherweight, you know what we’ve gotta do, right?” Scootaloo asked.

“Only one thing to do,” Featherweight agreed. He passed his camera to Button Mash. “Here, keep an eye on this, it’s, uh, on loan.”

The two charged forward. “Hey Fluttershy! Fly as fast as you can toward us!” Scootaloo shouted.

Fluttershy blinked, her eyes focusing on the voice, and suddenly gasped as she realized what the two were about to do. With a sudden panicked burst of speed, she strained to reach the edge she’d started from in time to stop the two foals, but it was too late.

Everyone was caught by surprise as Scootaloo and Featherweight leapt off the edge.

~#~#~#~

“Ground sharks?!” Twilight shouted, shaking Flash Sentry by his shoulders. “How can your biggest fear be ground sharks?!”

“They can burst from the ground to swallow you whole!” Flash protested.

“You can fly!” Rainbow Dash reminded him, flapping her own wings slightly more dramatically for emphasis.

“They’re unnatural!”

“That’s because they’re not real!”

“Girls,” Applejack interrupted, standing with two legs on a chair and her back against the wall, “not that y’all aren’t makin’ excellent points, but is this really the time fer this conversation?”

The shadowy fin of the ground shark protruded from a bulge in the floor that was circling the room. Suddenly, without warning, it rushed straight toward Twilight and Flash.

“Fly, now!” Twilight yelled, grabbing securely onto Flash. He in turn scooped her into his forehooves and launched into the air, just in time for the monstrosity leaping from the ground to barely brush his hoof.

“I don’t care how smooth you are,” Flash yelled at the monster, “you’re not getting anypony under my protection!”

Twilight stared at him flatly. “Sharks are rough. Their skin is covered with sharp bits called denticles, which makes their whole body like a giant cheese grater.”

“What? No way, sharks are smooth as hay,” Flash replied matter-of-factly. “I just touched one, it was the smoothest thing ever. That’s how they move through the ground so fast.”

“Can we just let it eat him?” Rainbow Dash complained.

“Hold on. Ah think he might have a point.”

“Not you too, AJ!”

“No, ah mean, this creature is based on his fears, right? So if he’s scared of smooth sharks, then this shark’ll be smooth.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, including the shark, which was particularly impressive as it was actively destroying the marble floor.

“Okay,” Twilight conceded, “so what does that mean for us?”

“It means,” Applejack explained patiently, “that we can wrassle ‘im.”

“Or we could just fly to the stairs.”

“Rather not find out what happens if this thing tries ta follow us upstairs, if it’s all the same to you.”

Careful not to move too much, the farmpony took her hat off and tossed it with as much force as she reasonably could. The room went silent once again as the hat sailed to the ground with a gentle “fwomp”.

The fin paused, twisting as if looking around. Then it disappeared under the ground. Everypony waited, holding their breaths for what they knew was about to happen.

With a deafening sound of shattering stone, the ground directly under the hat exploded outward as the shark breached the surface, its jaws clamping down on the cap. No sooner had it done so than a lasso slipped around its nose and bound its mouth shut.

“Ponypile on the shadow monster!” Applejack called, rushing in to secure the bonds. The pegasi remained stunned for exactly one second before they joined the attack, Flash releasing Twilight in the process.As Applejack turned and bucked the shark in the stomach with both hindlegs, Twilight landed on top of it and stomped.

Flash angled a punch directly between the shark’s eyes. When it recoiled, he grinned and began slamming its head repeatedly with his hooves as if he was playing the drums. Rainbow Dash swooped in for flyby hits as she darted around gathering up bits of moisture that she was able to condense into a cloud.

“Clear the way!” she called, giving the cloud a mighty kick and sending a bolt of lightning crashing down on the shark. The beat promptly began dissolving into its constituent shadows.

“Well, now that I’ve punched my fear in the face, I feel pretty good about it,” Flash remarked.

With a sigh of relief, Twilight straightened up. “Okay, now. No more distractions. We’re going straight to the top. Nothing’s going to delay us any further.”

~#~#~#~

“No, not even that,” Twilight declared as she approached the door to Celestia’s room. Unlike the solid but standard office door Celestia hid behind earlier in the day, the door now resembled a palace door, grand and imposing and very very heavy. But while Twilight had fired off so much magic tonight she’d need to down a bottle of Etherium to so much as turn a screw, one thing her magic was very good for at the moment was opening doors.

Only three ponies, by Twilight’s count, knew how to unlock Celestia’s chamber door, including the princess herself. Twilight was fortunate enough to be one of the other two. It wasn’t really a matter of power, but of resonance. All she had to do was match the magic she had remaining to the shape of Celestia’s locking spell. She knew it well enough.

However, even this meager feat still gave her quite the headache. To alleviate some of the strain on her magic, she elected to instead move her body, which would redirect her magic more naturally. She stood on her hindlegs, forelegs outstretched in an arcane pose as she focused her attention on making contact with the lock.

She got the odd impression that it was staring at her. In a way, she supposed, it was, watching for the correct magic. After a minute, just as her legs were starting to feel a little bit tingly and she found herself shifting positions to stay focused, the sigil on the door flashed and it grinded slowly open. She dropped to all fours again.

“Princess Celestia?” the professor called out as she trotted inside. The room looked, as she expected, exactly like the Princess’s private chamber in Canterlot. Luxurious bed, fireplace, and grand balcony were all exactly where they should have been. And on that balcony stood the princess.

But something was wrong. She looked taller than Twilight remembered, thinner, and as she turned to face the door she seemed in some way hauntingly beautiful. She seemed almost like a brilliant reflection of Nightmare Moon.

It took a moment for her eyes to focus on the mare standing in the darkened doorway. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. “What is it this time? Sniveling about some trifling fear? Some made-up story?” She shook her head. “Are you here to tell me lies about the castle again? Or maybe you just want to complain about some perceived insult? I’ve heard enough from you!” Her wings snapped wide open as she stalked forward and her mane seemed to become a roaring fire.

Twilight backed away as Flash rushed in and interposed himself between them. “Alright, that’s far enough. We’re not looking for a fight.”

Two balls of fire launched in an arc directly toward Flash, and he covered his face. The fireballs landed short and a wave of heat washed over him, and Twilight behind him.

“Okay, I guess you’ve got your own ideas,” he said. “In that case, I guess we’re doing this your way.”

As Flash launched himself through the fire, he spun rapidly, gathering up the flames onto himself. Cloaked in flame he impacted the fake Celestia, and used his full body to try and scorch her with her own heat. It wasn’t very effective, but it at least seemed to annoy her.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack ran to join in. Applejack swung her rope, grabbing a diamond chalice off the mantle to use as an improvised weapon. Rainbow Dash darted straight for the far end of the room, closing Celestia in as she began raining down strikes.

Twilight kept to the edge of the room. She had spotted a chest beside Celestia’s bed that she knew wasn’t in the castle. That difference might be the key.

Flash Sentry had somehow managed to suplex the princess, who made a very distressed “awp” sound. Applejack’s chalice was making clear hits as well, while Rainbow Dash kept pressing forward.

But now Celestia appeared to be getting even angrier. “You dare?!” she bellowed. The fires from her mane and tail soared higher, almost filling the large room. The walls were burning.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do!” Rainbow Dash replied, leaping and striking her in the head.

Twilight crept the remaining distance to the chest and put her hoof on it. Locked. That wasn’t an issue. After doing some quick calculations in her head, she turned and kicked it at a precise angle and the lock popped open, its bolt having fractured perfectly as predicted. She reached into the chest, and found that all it contained was a single raggedy doll.

It looked like a gray earth pony wearing blue shorts with white polka-dots. There was no telling if it had been brightly colored once or if it had always been this shade of gray. Its mane and tail were made of thick loops of yarn that resembled wild dreadlocks, and its eyes were two mismatched buttons, one purple and one blue.

It had to have been locked away here for a reason.

“Princess!” she called out. All four combatants froze in place, staring directly at Twilight as she held the doll aloft.

The Celestia nightmare’s eyes widened at the sight of the doll and she shrank back. “What are you…”

Although the power of the alicorn had faltered slightly, the fires seemed to spread even faster. The pegasi and Applejack were forced to back off, and Twilight eyed the approaching flames nervously. “This is important to you, right?”

The alicorn thing snarled and charged through the fire and took a massive leap. A hoof struck Twilight, shoving her back as the doll was ripped from her grasp. Gripping it tightly, the princess retreated and huddled in the middle of the room, hugging the doll tightly, tears streaming down her face.

“I’m so sorry, Luna,” she whispered to the doll, over and over, growing slowly louder and more pained. The flames surrounding the room seemed to react, flowing toward her. Then she threw back her head and sobbed openly. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve said, the way I’ve pushed you. I’ve ruined everything.”

She gave a wail of complete despair as the fire formed a tight vortex around her, completely obscuring her from view.

At the top of the spiral, the flames coalesced into a familiar shape. First they flowed into an oval shape, forming a striking red-and-yellow egg. From this egg burst two brilliant wings, with fiery feathers of the same color, and a bird’s head, a regal, dignified creature that looked down upon Twilight with a sagely gaze. All of the fire flowed into the bird, revealing the fake Celestia and her doll were gone.

In a last dazzling burst of flame, a scroll materialized and landed right in front of Twilight.

Fumblingly, the professor scooped up the paper with her hoof, tore the seal and unrolled it.

To the weary traveller,

If you are reading this, you have vanquished a bitter enemy and ended a long nightmare. There are greater troubles still to come before we can be free of this place, the Nightmare Dreamscape, but for now, my familiar, Philomena, will guide you to a place where you can rest safely. I will see you there. I have a selfish request for you when you arrive, and I hope that you can forgive me for it.

Princess Celestia

Twilight looked up at the phoenix, and then back down at the letter. “Finally, we’ll have some answers,” she said. “But before we go, Philomena, can you send a letter to Spike? I need him to know that I’m okay.”

The bird fluttered slowly down and settled onto the bed. With her beak, she opened the princess’s nightstand and produced paper. There was no ink, but Philomena had a solution for this. With the paper removed, she immolated the nightstand, reducing it to charcoal, then broke off a piece decently sized for writing. Twilight took it gratefully and began.

~#~#~#~

“Rose!” Shining Armor called out as Roseluck entered Town Hall. “I was about to send somepony to find you. It looks like the second wave of attackers is incoming, and we need to get you to shelter.”

“No,” Roseluck said, firmly.

“So if you’ll just follow… what?”

“Before taking Daisy and Lily to safety, I stayed long enough to see what those things were and what they’re capable of,” she said, tensing up slightly. “If you fight, I might never see you again.”

“That’s my job,” he reminded her. “I risk my life fighting things like that so that others can stay safe.”

Roseluck pressed her face into his shoulder. “Shiny, you know this time is different,” she pleaded. “I think I’ll be sick if I have to cower in a bunker knowing you’re fighting those endless shadows. Flowers have magic, and I want to use that magic to defend you.”

The captain put a hoof around her to draw her into a hug. “C’mon, think about what Flash would say if I let my girlfriend fight my battles for me.” That got at least a halfhearted chuckle from her. “But you’re right. I don’t have the soldiers I need. If you’re determined to fight, then we’re just going to have to watch each other’s backs. And I promise you we’ll get through this, together.”

On Shining Armor’s back Spike suddenly began to convulse, making a retching noise. “Oh, now you’re part of the conversation again?” the stallion asked. “If the mushy stuff is bothering you then you should—”

With a loud belch Spike coughed up a letter. It fell directly into his claw. “Blame Philomena’s rotten timing,” he wheezed. “And worse taste. What’s this about?” The letter, oddly, wasn’t sealed, so Spike simply unrolled it and began reading.

To my number one assistant,

“It’s from Twilight!” he shouted, nearly leaping from his seat in surprise.

The ponies who were taken by Nightmare Moon are safe. We’re in a place called the Nightmare Dreamscape. They’re trapped here, and I’ve only found a few of them, but they should all be free soon. For now, please just try to keep everypony there safe. I miss you,

He stared at the letter, and a look of determination came across his face. “Roseluck? I hope you’ve got a lot of flowers. We’re gonna need all the help we can get.”

Author's Note

Fluttershy's song takes its meter and most of its inspiration from Shel Silverstein's poem "Always Sprinkle Pepper". You may imagine whatever tune you like.