Gloriosa Daisy often dreamt of the forest. It was hard not to when she’d been born and raised at Camp Everfree. She’d been to other places, of course, but rarely and briefly. A landscape without trees just felt wrong to her.
But the forest she now found herself in didn’t feel right either. It wasn't the welcoming woodland she’d known since before she could walk. This was forest primeval, moss growing on vines growing on trees that were old long before Gloriosa’s ancestors first settled their little patch of Califoalnia. Where the canopy grew so thick that any sunlight got swallowed long before it reached the forest floor, leaving the misplaced plains ape to blunder through near-total darkness in nothing but her pajamas.
After a brief eternity of half-blind stumbling, tripping, and stepping in what was hopefully mud with bare feet, Gloriosa finally found a fallen tree. That provided a hole in the canopy, a scratch in the forest that more growth hadn't healed yet. Light shone down on the resulting clearing, and she could finally see something.
Unfortunately, that thing was her, staring back with eyes like green sparks in pools of darkness.
Gloriosa had seen herself in this maddened state before, in both the reflections of crystal formations and cell phone video footage. It honestly was a good look for her, provided she ever wanted to spend a month in a shading booth before dyeing her hair and becoming a supervillain.
It didn’t feel right to call the creature before her Gaea Everfree. Timber may have embellished the tale for the Canterlot campers, but their father had passed down a legend of the spirit of the woods, going back to when their family first settled them. That creature was the majesty and danger of nature given form. This…
This was just a camp counselor who’d bitten off more than she could chew.
“Okay,” said Gloriosa. “Sunset and Twilight told me that dreaming of your crazy magic form is perfectly normal.” She clasped her hands together, finding herself slipping into her chipper “talking to campers” voice. “So, how are we going to do this? Voicing my regrets, tormenting me with my misdeeds, making me dream of nothing but cleaning out the septic tanks after taco night?”
The other her slowly shook her head. That was when it struck Gloriosa: This version of her was so much calmer than when she’d been going mad with power. She could still remember the unending rush, like her veins were full of lightning and her skin would burst open if she didn’t use every ounce of power available to her. And that power had just kept growing and growing and growing…
But this one just floated a few inches off the ground, her expression blank. If she hadn’t shaken her head, Gloriosa might have thought there wasn’t anything there to talk to. “Okay, so… how are we going to do this?”
“This One does not torment, hunter.” The body was Gloriosa’s, but the voice was better suited for a black-armored asthmatic with a laser sword. “Toying with prey is the province of cats and your kind. This One speaks plainly when roused, and you who sought its embrace have roused it.”
Gloriosa shivered and took a step back. She tripped on something unseen and wound up on her behind. “G-Gaea Everfree?” Dad had always described her as, well, a feminine entity. But for all Gloriosa knew, this was what the females of Gaea’s kind sounded like. Maybe the males mostly spoke through earthquakes.
But her doppleganger shook its head again. “Half that. This One speaks not for the world, though the world stirs in its slumber as This One did. It sleeps more deeply, and its awakening will be far more profound.”
“I... I don’t understand.”
“Magic is the breath of the world, young hunter. Before, it barely breathed at all, its slumber so deep it did not notice your kind clawing at its skin and greedily drawing on the legacy of eons.” The other Gloriosa looked off into the distance. “But another world’s breath drifts through cracks, and the scent makes it restless.”
Gloriosa got to her feet. For a confusing moment, she got to four of them. Once she was back in her proper shape, she said, “So… when I used all the geodes…”
The other her nodded. “Another step down a trail where there is no going back. Not the first. Far from the last.”
“I… I think I understand." The camp had always been a part of her life. She knew full well the impact human carelessness could have on the forest. "You’re saying that the Everfree… That you were changed by the magic I used.”
“Yes. Nothing touched by magic escapes unchanged. Not you. Not This One. Certainly not the grazer-led hunters who herald a new age.” A rainbow briefly glimmered somewhere in the depths of the ancient wood.
“So… why tell me this? Why not go to them directly?”
The Everfree's lips curved into a small smile. “Because your family has tended This One well, heeded its dreams, kept less scrupulous hunters from exploiting it like so much other land.” She—it?—gestured to herself. “And you, you gambled your very soul to defend This One when it could not.”
Gloriosa's dread had never fully gone away. Now it redoubled. “But you can defend yourself now?”
“Oh yes.” A hint of the mania Gloriosa had felt came to the Everfree's eyes, along with a verdant glow. The trees surrounding their little clearing rumbled and sprouted spikes as long as Gloriosa's arm. New ones grew into place to fill the gaps. Soon, they stood inside a living fort. "This One appreciates you and your kin, young hunter, but not all your kind."
"Okay, look, I understand." Gloriosa slapped on a desperate grin. She wasn't sure if the forest could smell her fear, but it seemed best to at least put up the facade. "Goodness knows I've felt the same way every time I've had to clean up after someone who thought you were the world's largest trash can. But you may want to take things a little slower. Best case scenario, those girls from Canterlot come back and shoot rainbows all over the place again."
The Everfree sneered, rising into the air as a riot of growth erupted beneath her. "They will only feed This One."
Gloriosa nodded as though she'd known that. "Which is why it's the best case scenario. Worst case, the army comes in with flamethrowers. Or maybe bombs."
A rumble in the distance preceded a massive shockwave, a sound loud enough to be a physical force. Shards of wood filled the air. Gloriosa ducked, covering her head with arms and feeling the fragments pelt against her.
When she straightened up, she saw the Everfree looking around at the devastation with the same expression Gloriosa had had when she'd heard Mom and Dad wouldn't ever come home again. She hugged it and whispered. "Take it slow. Work with us. We can make this work together."
By the time she backed up from the hug, the grove was back to the way it was at the beginning. The Everfree wiped its eyes. "With the form comes the mind. This One must remember that."
Gloriosa dared to grin. "So... that's a pass on the eco-crusade?"
The Everfree nodded. "This One will heed your advice. Change will come, as it always does, but in its time. You know the denizens of the woods now, but with the new generation come stranger ones, plants and beasts alike."
The pit in Gloriosa's stomach, nearly gone, decided it could stay for just a bit longer. "Such as?"
It shrugged. "Who can say how life will change? This One cannot. It tells you to prepare you. And the heralds in turn, if they will listen."
"I'm pretty sure they will."
"Good." The Everfree looked at something Gloriosa couldn't see again, frowning at it. "This One is not the only part of the world that stirs. And the land shaped and flattened by your kind will not think of you so kindly.”
“Oh." Goosebumps raced down Gloriosa's arms. "Um, thanks.”
The Everfree bowed its borrowed head. “This One is the grateful one. It knows it has asked much of you, and will ask more in time.”
There was only one thing Gloriosa could say to that. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
When Gloriosa awoke, she found green streaks in her hair. Looking out of her window, she confirmed that the ivy crawling up her cabin had started obeying her will again.
Also, the walls had begun budding. And she was pretty sure she heard something say "Mother."
At that point, she called Sunset Shimmer. To Gloriosa's credit, she only spent half of the call spouting panicked gibberish.