Celestia had been running after that odd colored figure for quite sometime. Curiosity that had fully taking the filly as She had already ran hours until she realized just how deep she had encroached past the tree line. A moment passed where she reconsidered heading out in fear of how her parents would disciple her, but with the creature’s footsteps still audible she followed the noise. She found herself standing in front of a disheveled castle. Celestia wondered if it was a safe idea to go into such a spooky looking place, she was alone after all. But her mind was made up when she heard the sound of howling,maybe even hungry creatures close by. Her gold hoofed slippers mad a high pitched *tink* noises as she trotted slowly further into the vine-choked castle. With closer inspection it looked more like the castle was half built, then forgotten about, like its creator was too bored to finish. Celestia reasoned though, that if there was a castle being built in the forest, then there may be a pony nearby. She judged solely by the shimmering stained glass windows, and the fairly polished marble accents around her. The little princess marveled at one of the windows that was shining due to the moon’s light.
It depicted a brown alicorn smiling at two smaller ponies. One of them was a white pegasus and the other a violet unicorn. She could tell they were good friends from the grinning smiles carved on their muzzles.With even closer inspection she noticed that somepony had added the smiles. She wondered what the other windows had on them. Then an echo of hooves could be heard and the filly turned sharply to the noise. “He-hello?!” She asked meekly. A group of birds cawed and made their escape to the grand archway, where royal guests would have walked in if it was complete. As Celestia watched them fly away, she took a step back only to step on something stiff, her head slowly turned to see what she had done.
“You are the first filly to find my sorry excuse of a home, dear Celestia.”
“Y-you know my name?...”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Who are you then?”
“I’m an old friend.”
“Old friend of who?”
“..Well of yours of course!” The night was making it hard to figure out just who this being was, what she stepped on felt stiff like a hoof. None of the window’s light reached where she looked. A goat walked into the moonlight with its crossed eyes staring at Celestia. It gave a loud *Bahh* at her and walked away.
“I-I don't remember you...” Celestia ducked her head and squinted to see if that would help.
“Of course, you wouldn’t remember an old goat...That, however isn’t me. Don’t you see, It’s a little puzzle!” The voice gave an odd cackle.
“But..I don’t have time to play puzzles...I think my parents are going to get worried.”
“Your par-whents....They’ll be fine without you...They’ve been doing fine without me, Oh-” The voice started to giggle as if he given away a secret.
“My parents know you’re here?”
“Who do you think brought ponies to help build my castle? I’m so far away from peering pony eyes I can almost understand why your parents seem to fumble around. It’s as if-if every important pony isn’t in the Canterlot palace, they just don’t exist!”
“Don’t make fun of my parents! I’m sorry if they don’t see you often maybe you should move to Canterlot if you really miss them.”
“You’re missing my point little filly!" the voice groaned menacingly. "Maybe it’s best if you go back to your royal cushions...” The voice became bitter to her innocence.
Celestia saw a bright green glow around her, soon she was surrounded by a swarm of butterflies.“Wait!..Who are you!...”
“The Guardian of these forests.”
She could feel the magic through these insects. Whatever he was he could make creatures with magic! The young princess floated with the aid of the flying insects out of the thick woods, to the edge of the forest. She watched the forest’s fauna spring to life as she passed by. It had to of been from the green magic below her, since she had a hard time interacting with animals.
“Celest'!” Morpheus exclaimed in apprehension. “I’m glad you’re safe! Wandering in the forests at night! Don’t you remember, the forests are guarded by unfriendly creatures?!” He stomped a hoof. It was just a tough act so that Celestia would learn better but as he saw the tears start to flow from his daughter, his ears lowered.
“D-Daddy!” Celestia hugged Morpheus’ foreleg. “I’ll never do it again...I’m sorry!” The pink haired princess started to hiccup from the stress of her tears.
“Dear...oh...Celestia...Celest’. Calm down dear.” His voice soothing as a soft rain. He used his mane to lift Celestia, rocking her in a cradle-like motion. It calmed the filly down so well they could hear the baby frogs and crickets chirp.
“She did a nice job....There’s so many stars!” Celestia smiled widely at just how her sister had outdone her father’s night sky.
“Luna and I had a blast. Maybe someday soon I can teach both of you how to paint stars...I still have quite a bit of open space that needs a bit of light.”
“You don’t think Luna would mind?”
“I’ll just have to show you in the morning when the moon is still out, that way it’s still ‘your turn’.” The night alicorn chuckled. He didn’t forget that she had been placed outside the forest by Pan’s magic, he wondered just how much she knew.
“Celestia before I forget to ask. Did you meet a pony in the forest?”
“No.” Her head shook as she spoke.
“You...didn’t? But I saw you float out of the forest on a field of glowing butterflies.”
“I saw nopony. I did see a goat, and heard a voice call himself 'The Guardian of the forest'.”
"That’s Pan for you." Morpheus thought. “-but you saw no pony..only a goat?” He asked once more, just to make sure as his voice became soft. He worried about interrogating his little filly outside of Pan’s forest.
“I promise.” She smiled looking to her father’s eyes she noticed that he was worried.“Who is he daddy?”
“Exactly what he told you dear, the protector of the forest, that’s all.” Morpheus was impressed how Pan had not thrown himself freely to Celestia, but he did reveal his powerful magic. It was unlike Pan, he craved attention! Morpheus put his worries to aside for now. He had a daughter to take care of. “I think it’s time for us to get some shut eye, don’t you think?”
“Yeah..” Her answer lead to a stretched out yawn, her eyes wiggling from closed to mid-open. Morpheus was helping her along, using his mane to calm her mind, it was one of the added perks of ruling the dream world. He wanted to visit the nature alicorn himself. With his wings out he got a running start and flew to the castle, Celestia was in a deep sleep by the time he made it over the entrance of Canterlot.
=====================================================================
Grue looked the zebras dead in the eyes, but they still hadn’t seen the hybrid. He was frozen stiff unsure if he should desert Fahdil in fear or still collect the items. “What’s the matter Grue?” She whispered back to him. She didn’t understand how serious of a situation Grue was actually in.
“I see Hofu’s gang..” He replied.
“You can get da’ desire though?” Fahdil asked in a hushed voice. Now she understood why he was nervous. If Grue could get that ingredient then they could get to the frog pond which was far away from Hofu.
“Yes...” He picked the flower with his muzzle and softly walked to Fahdil, but as he reached Fahdil she turned her head and her eyes winced.
“You-There’s... Poison joke all over you Grue..” She had been trying hard to hide any giggles of laughter in light of the situation.
“I’m sure Uchawi will have a cure.” She smiled sheepishly. Grue’s eyes were focused more on the blue spores that coated him like powdered sugar.
“Fadi-I don’t feel so well.” His eyes were becoming blurry.
“Grue? This isn’t a good time to fall asleep. Grue!” She watched his body become motionless as he thudded the ground. The tan zebra panicked but still understood what she needed to do. She wrapped him up in a improvised leaf gurney. A thick leaf was placed to keep him steady, while fluffy flower heads and nested up grass was used as bedding. She tied vines around Grue to keep him to the nature bed as she tried her best to tug him back to the village.
=====================================================================
An inverted colored zebra turned his ears to the sound of an odd thud on the ground and later a young zebra, his teeth almost jutting out to make room for a wicked grin. He knew just who it was grunting around in the thick brush so late at night. He gave a click with his tongue to signal his crew and headed to the noise. Fahdil was dragging something heavy and Hofu couldn’t make out what she would need to carry that was so heavy in the middle of the forest. He assembled his group of four zebras to sneak around her so they could barricade her in. With the plan in motion the gang scattered into the bushes. They gave her a moment since she was almost entirely out of breath, then they all struck. Jumping out of the bushes,while some of the group started booing at her spookily.
“Well, well boys....We’ve got a lost maiden in the woods!” Hofu cackled. Fahdil wasn’t afraid of the bully zebras however. She understood they tried their hardest to pick on whatever they could, if they thought it was weak.
“I’m not lost! I’m on my way home, after I bring the supplies Uchawi needed.” She stated assertively still trying to move her leaf gurney.
“That seems like an awful lot of ingredients...” He placed his black and white hoof on one of the dragging leaves.
“You don’t need to hurry just yet....It’s a beautiful night, Right guys?” His lackeys chuckling on cue. The tan zebra kept her guard up. She’d yet to fall for his tricks.
“I’m in quite a hurry, as I am-I’m already late.” Her teeth tugged hard, making Hofu slip and fall. One of his gang jumped in to catch the dark zebra from falling.
“What a kind zebra you are!”
“I’m not forced to be kind all the time and I’m certainly not kind to bullies like you!”
“...Let me fix that for you then.” The gang gathered around like hungry wolves. Half of the group targeted her leaf “bag”. The rest followed Hofu charging at Fahdil. She was only one zebra and not known for her speed or strength. Although she gave them a good run for their money, they ended up catching up to her. Then they gave a combined gasp of shock they noticed the heavy load she was carrying so diligently, but the gangs shock slowly built up in a fit of laughter to the unconscious Grue.
“I think I found your problem Fahdeek...You’ve got the blue freak taking a nap in your bag.”
“He’s not napping, he’s sick!”
“What if I took him off your hooves?”
“He’s got poison joke, I wouldn’t suggest touching him.”
“I wouldn’t suggest touching him either...He’s not even one of us. That’s why my father banished his. We should drag him all the way to his pony-kind!”
“That seems harsh even from you Hofu. Why do you hate him so much?”
“My reasons are my own! Hoof over the freak!”
“Neigh-ver!”
“What is going on over here!” A group of adult zebras made their way to the commotion.
“I’m glad we got some adults to help us out. Fahdil was just about to take Grue into the forest and wrapped him up in this leaf thing!” He gave a menacing grin to the tan zebra. “You’re through!” He whispered.
“Why would Fahdil do such a thing?”
“Maybe she’s only nice to Zebras? I can understand her motives but I doubt Grue could survive very long in the forest. He’s not very good at remembering the properties of plants.”
“Mmm...Your father brought that up, it’s one of the reasons he still lives with us.”
“I don’t want to hurt Grue...I’m trying to help him..” She spoke sheepishly since she found it hard to be assertive near adults.
“Come with us, young one...Hofu it’s good to see you come out of your shell. Make sure he gets to Uchawi’s if he is sick.” The adult zebras formed around Fahdil, they started trotting to the chieftain's hut. Fahdil’s head was dragging on the ground in shame. She was powerless against her elder-kind and she hoped when she explained her story to the chieftain he wouldn’t look with biased eyes to her case. Most of all she hoped she could tell Grue she was sorry, for all the trouble she had gotten him into.With the adults safely out of view, the gang reaped their spoils. A defenseless, different and unwanted Grue.