Nothing in the room was very eye-catching. The walls were an empty white and the floor was plain, gray stone. There was an old stove sitting behind the counter at the front of the room, but it was colorless and dull as was the rest of the kitchenware around it. The only other object in the room was a butter churn.
At least, that was the only other object Willow could see. Her eyes had been scouring the room for some time now, but they were no closer to their goal of getting their owner’s bearings.
The fact that it was so dark was of no assistance. What little Willow could see was thanks only to the faint bluish moonlight that was leaking in from the outside through various tiny cracks in the walls and ceiling.
“Uh, hello?” she called out, hoping to get assistance from some unseen pony nearby. The only response, however, was silence. This place, wherever it was, was so quiet that making any sound at all felt disrespectful.
Willow’s eyes eventually landed on a portrait hanging on the wall to her left. Starved for information on her own whereabouts, she walked towards it to get a better look. Once there, she noticed that the painter hadn’t picked a very exciting pose for his subject. It was just a plain view of an old gray pony from the shoulders up. He had a blonde mane that was starting to fade and he wore bifocals in front of his big yellow eyes. A red sweater vest covered his torso. His smile was small and a little crooked, as if he wasn’t sure if he should be smiling.
Upon seeing this, Willow’s own facial expression was more one of bewilderment. The portrait gave her no concrete answers as to where she was, but at the same time there was a certain…familiarity to it. And soon, that sense familiarity spread to her thoughts of the room itself as well. Had she been here before?
Willow turned her head to the left to observe the side of the room previously out of her vision. It was just as plain. However, one piece of furniture caught her eye: right behind the point where she started was a wooden china cabinet. Inside the cabinet there was some gold — or at least gold-painted — china. Willow felt drawn to it, as if it were a road sign made to guide her.
She walked over to her latest discovery, her eyes never blinking. Her sense of deja vu gradually narrowed as she approached. At first, the cabinet in general seemed familiar. Then, a specific shelf stuck out to her. Finally, her senses locked on to one particular teapot on that same shelf.
Willow stared at the teapot. Before long, she felt an instinctive urge to pull the spout of the teapot like a lever. After pulling it towards herself a few degrees, there was a loud click.
The floor immediately began to shake and Willow quickly backed away. She stopped her backtracking only after she saw the source of the rumbling. A large square piece of the stone floor started sliding back into the wall with a loud grinding noise. After it had opened as far as it could go, the vibrations ceased, ending with another loud click.
Willow had no way of knowing if the strange process had actually stopped or merely paused. She stood frozen in place for what seemed like minutes. Nothing else happened. The eerie silence had resumed.
Cautiously, Willow crept up to the opening in the floor that the sliding stone had left behind and peered down it. It had revealed a staircase, a staircase which lead down into another room. Willow couldn’t see much of this room from where she was standing, but she could see that it was faintly lit by something other than moonlight, possibly a candle.
Her common sense was warning her about going even deeper to a place only vaguely familiar, but then there was that continuing sense of deja vu that had only grown stronger since she touched the teapot. Ignoring caution, Willow stepped forward and made her way down the stairs.
The room it lead to was a small but nonetheless odd. The floor, the ceiling, and everything in between was coated in bright, clashing colors. Part of one of the walls was red, the next part orange, and the part beyond that pink. The stone floor was painted seemingly at random with streaks of blue, magenta, peach, neon green and various other shades. There was no clear pattern for anything. Colors simply started and stopped at whatever point they wished as if the room’s painter did his job blindfolded.
Willow’s senses were just as much of a mess. On one hoof, this room was bizarre and ominous to her. On the other, it also felt like...home.
Willow decided to move forward and survey the room. It was rectangular in shape, with bookshelves lining both of the longer walls. Small end tables were placed beside each of the shelves. On these end tables were beakers, vials, and burners, many of which were filled with unknown fluids.
However, all of that seemed to vanish once Willow caught a glimpse of the object on the far back wall. It was a large glass tube, twice as tall and wide as her. The tube was mounted in between two pedestals, one on the ceiling and one on the floor. It was filled with a murky light blue substance which moved unlike anything Willow had seen ever before, at least to her recollection. It didn’t flow like liquid, but it didn’t puff like vapor. It was somewhere in between.
Willow crept closer to the strange container. Her eyes squinted, as if that would somehow clarify what she was looking at. Once she was right next to it, she decided that sight alone wasn’t enough. With a trembling hoof, she reached out and touched the glass.
The instant her hoof made contact, a dark purple fog came swirling out from the middle of the tube. It grew larger and larger, swiftly consuming the blue chemical around it. Within seconds, it was the only thing inside the container.
Startled, Willow backed away from the tube while keeping her eyes fixed on it. However, it wasn’t long before she broke her gaze entirely, turned around and galloped for her life.
In the middle of the glass chamber, two glowing white eyes appeared along with a wide mischievous grin, all attached to a nonexistent face in the purple cloud.
That cloud leaked from the tube as cracks rapidly produced on its glass surface. The sound of each crack sent a jolt through Willow’s heard and made her double her efforts to get to the staircase. Once there, she began her ascent back to the main floor.
But all she found was a ceiling. The way back was blocked. Willow’s eyes widened and she instinctively began pounding on the ceiling. It was no use, though.
Then Willow froze as a bloodcurdling, high-pitched cackle came from the back of the room. It was followed immediately by the sound of the tube’s glass completely giving way, shattering into a thousand pieces.
Willow turned around and saw the demonic face charging straight at her, carried by the dark purple mist from which it had emerged. Unable to run any further, Willow dove down under it. The cloud was only a few hooves in length and she cleared it quickly, but her hair still had time to feel its ice cold mass as she passed.
Once she was through, Willow rose to her hooves and ran in the opposite direction of her attacker. However, she only made it a short distance before she once again tripped over her own hair and was forced back onto the ground.
Willow turned around to face her adversary. It didn’t charge at her this time. The evil face was still hovering in its purple fog near the staircase. However, the dark cloud was contorting, trying to change its shape.
Within seconds, the shape it was trying to create was made clear. Four pillars of smoke stretched out from the center, forming four pony legs. Some mist pushed the grinning face forward and formed into a pony’s neck and head. Then, some of the fog shot out on the opposite side, forming a tail. And finally, extensions shot out from the top of the newly-formed neck and head, forming a semblance of a mane. The mane and the tail splintered themselves into multiple strands of smokey hair that all swayed wildly like flags caught in a storm. The rest of the body convulsed as well, as if the cloud was struggling to maintain this new form.
The phantom pony leered down at Willow. “Nice to finally meet you, Willow,” it mockingly greeted its prey with its screechy voice.
Willow immediately returned to her hooves and resumed running. She dashed away as fast as she could and went as far as she could. But since the only way out of the room was blocked and in the opposite direction, that wasn’t very far. She ended up at the corner of the room furthest from her pursuer. The flight option not available, her fight reflex took over. Instinctively, she turned around and assumed the stance of a cornered cat. However, her noticeable trembling and the look of sheer terror on her face rendered her primitive intimidation tactic ineffective.
The trembling of her body extended to her voice, “Wha-wha-whaddaya want with me, mare?”
“Nothing much,” said the apparition, “just your body...All.To.Myself!”
Several extensions of the creature’s ghostly hair stretched out and shot at Willow like harpoons. Reflexively, Willow covered her head with her hooves. Her hair drifted into place, covering her completely, as if desperately trying to protect its owner.
She braced for impact... but the impact never came. Right when it should have hit, Willow heard a loud, bellowing sound, like a powerful gust of wind. The sound traveled in the opposite direction, towards her attacker. The creature let out a short but piercing scream of pain.
Willow released her head from her hooves and pushed the hair out of her face. Her eyes widened as she saw in front of her a tall, dark mare facing away from her. She bore both the wings of a Pegasus and the horn of a Unicorn. Her mane was long, blue, and sparkled with the stars of the night. Her cutie mark was that of the very moon itself.
Willow recognized her immediately. “Spooky mare!”
“My name is Luna,” said the Princess sternly.
“You stay out of this!” screamed the apparition.
“No! You stay out of her!” Luna commanded.
The ghostly creature grinned, “...make me!”
The creature shot it’s faux hair extensions out at Luna faster than any arrow. Luna lit up her horn and whipped her head from side to side. A beam of light followed her swaying horn and cut through the monster’s projectiles like a sword. The apparition jumped back, stunned. Luna then fired a beam of light directly at the center of the creature’s cloudy mass. There was a small explosion and the ghostly mass shrieked as it’s pony-shaped body unraveled. It was once again nothing but a cloud of smoke attached to an angry face.
That face gritted its pseudo teeth, narrowed its eyes, then charged itself head-on at Luna. The Princess lit up her horn once again and it emitted a blue light, not dissimilar from the one she had used on Willow at the Greenhouse. It captured and enveloped the evil mist right before it made contact with its owner, forming a magical shell around the dark cloud and suspending it in the air. The creature screamed and is struggled to break free.
Luna called out to Willow. “Child, go, now!”
“But the exit is blocked,” said Willow.
“Not anymore,” declared Luna.
Willow looked over to at the stairway. She could see a faint light at the top where there once was only the shadow of the ceiling.
She asked no further questions. As fast as she could Willow rose to her hooves and bolted towards the top of the stairs. Her head had cleared the stairway when she heard a shattering sound coming from the room below, but this time it was definitely not glass.
Willow looked down the stairs she had just walked up and saw Luna running towards her.
“Go! Now!” she was yelling.
Behind Luna, Willow could see the room slowly being filled up by a very familiar purple smoke. She once again obeyed Luna’s command and ran.
As soon as she was clear of the stairs, Willow made a right towards the first door she saw . She pushed it open without breaking stride and made her way to outside.
Willow had been so focused on escaping that it took her a few moments to notice that she was now running on...nothing. Outside of the mysterious place she had just escaped from, there was nothing but a black empty abyss. There was no ground, no sky, no nothing. Behind her stood the door she had opened to escape, but it wasn’t attached to anything. It was just a solitary door standing upright in the middle of the darkness.
Soon, however, Willow heard a shout coming from that door.
“Halt, Willow!” cried Luna.
The shout broke Willow’s concentration and she tripped over her hair again. She fell to the ground, or at least the empty space directly below her. Quickly recovering and standing up again, Willow turned around and faced the only other visible object in this space.
Luna was flying out of the door and heading straight towards her. She could see dark smoke filling up the doorway. The place behind the door was slowly growing as black as the place outside of it.
Luna flew passed Willow, then turned and landed right next to her. The Princess’s horn lit up and just as the darkness was crossing the threshold, her magic connected with the door and slammed it shut. Then the magic coursing through Luna’s horn changed color and the door was instantly covered in countless white sparks. The sparks grew larger and larger until they all exploded in unison. The door disintegrated.
Now there was literally nothing besides the two ponies in this black, featureless void. The tall, dark one turned her head towards the shorter, greener one.
“Are you all right, Willow?” Luna asked calmly.
Willow was still recovering from the chase. “You tell me!” she managed to reply in between bouts of heavy breathing. “I think I’m trippin’,” she added.
“You have tripped several times, yes,” said Luna.
“Not what I meant, mare,” said Willow. “I mean, like, where are we?”
“I suppose the most accurate answer is your mind,” Luna explained, “This is a dream.”
Willow’s heavy breathing slowed, “So I am trippin’ then. Far out. Well, I feel way better now. So, uh, are you like a figment of my imagination or somethin’?”
“Not quite,” said Luna, “I am very real. It is my duty to watch over the dreams of all ponies in Equestria.”
“For real, mare?” said Willow with raised eyebrows, “No offense, but that’s...kinda freaky.”
“You have no idea,” said Luna flatly.
Willow laughed, “I guess it ain’t all sunshine and flowers for you, either.”
“Absolutely not. I see the good dreams,” said Luna as her eyes focused on the spot where the door used to be, “and the bad ones as well.”
“I guess I oughtta thank you for rescuing me from that whatever-it-was,” Willow said sincerely.
“What you saw was Despise,” explained Luna.
“That’s the thing that came outta me!?” exclaimed Willow.
“Well, that was its spirit, yes,” said Luna.
“Whoah,” Willow said as she hung her head, “I can see why ponies were scared.”
“You needn’t feel guilty,” said Luna, her tone remaining as dry as it had been. “This creature was not of your making.”
Willow’s head remained hung, but she nodded slowly. She stood silent for a moment, then asked “So..is it splitsville now?”
“No, it’s still a dream,” replied Luna.
Willow sighed, “Is that...that thing gone?”
“No,” answered Luna.”I have managed to weaken it, but I still sense its presence.” She turned her body to face Willow completely.Willow followed suit. “Which is why, I am sad to say, I will have to tell my sister that the collar Twilight made is not sufficient.”
Willow started, “But-but...this is just a dream, right? I mean, it-it can’t get out...can it?”
Luna spoke as calmly as she could, “I do not know, Willow. Despise is weak now, but in time her strength could return.”
“But what if it don’t? Am-am I just gonna stay held up forever? I-I can’t live like this!” Willow moved in so close to Luna that their noses were nearly touching. “Can...can you just let this one slide? Ya know, not tell your sister?”
“You know I cannot do that,” said Luna firmly.
“Please!” Willow begged, “I can’t take this anymore, mare! We’ll-we’ll just keep it on the low and if something else happens, you can tell her then!”
Luna stood silent for a moment. She stared Willow directly in the eyes. The desperate pony’s eyes were soaked in water and even her eyebrows were shaking. Luna bowed her head and the silence continued. Then, at long last the Princess spoke, “Very well. I will not inform my sister this time.”
Willow’s exhale was so long that she may have been in danger of deflating. “Thank you Spooky mare! Thank you!” she exclaimed with palpable relief.
Luna’s gaze was still fixed unwaveringly at Willow’s eyes. “Know this, though,” she said sternly, “I will be keeping a very close eye on your dreams. If Despise emerges again, I must inform Celestia…”