Meanwhile, back at Paradise Estate, Firefly and Medley were getting ready to take Megan and Julie back over the rainbow. Julie was crying her eyes out.
"Julie, witches are bad and that's all there is to it," Gusty said, trying to explain.
"Glinda the Good Witch wasn't bad!" Julie cried. "She was a good witch!"
"Glinda the Good Witch wasn't real," Megan explained, calmly.
"Not all witches are bad!" Julie shouted.
"All of them around here are," Gusty said. "I think it would be best if you stayed away from that little witch."
"But she's my friend!" Julie wailed.
"Julie, the Witches from the Volcano of Gloom aren't anyone's friends," Firefly said. "I agree with Gusty. Even their relatives must be mean and evil and nasty."
"Megan!" Julie yelled.
"I happen to agree with Gusty," Megan replied. "We've had too much trouble from those witches."
"But . . . . but Morning Glory . . . . Morning Glory said you have to find the good in people!" Julie protested.
"Yeah, but there's no good in those witches!" Gusty shouted. "You'll thank us for this someday, Julie."
"It's all for the best, anyway," Medley said. "Witches can be dangerous."
And with that, Firefly and Medley flew into the air, and over the rainbow. Julie cried all the way home. She thought everyone was being so unfair. She didn't think it was fair she couldn't be friends with Winnie, just because she was a witch.
The next morning, Megan and Julie returned to Ponyland. Julie was still upset that no one would let her play with Winnie. She spent the day holed up in the Estate, with only Twinkles the cat to comfort her.
"Julie, we're all going over to Flutter Valley," Buttons said, walking into Medley's room. "Want to come?"
Normally, Julie would have jumped at the chance. She loved Flutter Valley. It was one of her favorite places in Ponyland. She loved Morning Glory and Peach Blossom almost as much as she loved Medley. But that day, she didn't want to go.
"I wanna play with Winnie," she said, tearfully.
"Winnie is a witch," Gusty said. "And witches are dangerous. That's all there is to it."
"But Glinda was a good witch," Julie said. "She . . . . she gave Dorothy the ruby slippers."
"Julie, that was a movie," Buttons said. "That wasn't real. This is real life."
(Whatever you say, Buttons)
"But Winnie's really nice!" Julie continued.
"Forget it, Julie," Gusty said. "There's no way you're gonna convince me that the little witchlette you met is good."
"See you later, Julie," Buttons said, and she followed Gusty out the door, and they were on their way to Flutter Valley. Julie threw herself face first on Medley's bed and cried into her pillow. Twinkles jumped up on the bed, and rubbed against her hair.
"Mew," she said, and the purred a little, as if to say "don't cry, Julie. It'll be all right."
"It isn't fair, Twinkles!" Julie shouted, leaning up. She sniffled. "Winnie's not a bad witch. Why can't I be friends with her, just 'cause she's a witch?"
Twinkles mewed again, and leaned against Julie.
Back at the Volcano of Gloom, Winnie was throwing a temper tantrum. She was stomping on the floor, and screaming at the top of her lungs.
"I WANNA PLAY WITH JULIE!" she shrieked. "I WANNA GO BACK TO PONYLAND!"
"That's not gonna do you any good!" Reeka yelled, while chewing a chopped bat wing sandwich (ew, yuck!)
"Yeah, Hydia will never let you go to Ponyland," Draggle said. "Witches hate little ponies, and we hate people who like little ponies."
"But that's just plain stupid!" Winnie shouted.
"We're witches, and that's the way it goes!" Hydia said. "You're a witch, and you're not supposed to like little ponies or their friends!"
"What am I supposed to like?" Winnie asked, with a pout.
"Things that are dark, dank, and dreary," Hydia said. "And dirty!"
"You guys would make a fortune in laundry soap," Winnie grumbled. "But I still wanna go to Ponyland and play with Julie! I WANNA, I WANNA, I WANNA!"
"She takes after our side of the family," Hydia said with a sigh. "Oh how I love to hear children throwing temper tantrums. Winnie makes me so proud!"
Winnie realized throwing a tantrum wasn't getting her what she wanted. So she tried another tactic.
"Dear, sweet, Auntie Hydia," she said as sweetly as she could muster. "May I please go to Ponyland and play?"
"AAAHHHHH!" Hydia shouted, horrified. "Young lady, I ought to wash your mouth out with soap!"
"She said the P word!" Draggle gasped.
"Boy, is she gonna get it!" Reeka shouted.
That's the way it is with some witches. The word "please" was considered as bad as any bad word in the book, maybe even worse. And throwing a temper tantrum was the equivalent of a child asking nicely and politely for something to witches.
"Please, please, please?" Winnie asked. "I won't stop 'til you let me play with Julie!"
"Winifred Hogatha Witch, I will not tolerate that word on my volcano!" Hydia yelled. "NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"
Winnie began muttering under her breath and she stomped off to her room. Hydia sighed.
"Where do kids learn to be nice and polite?" she asked. "Such language! I ought to give her ice cream and cake for dinner tonight!"
"Eeewww, yuck!" Reeka shouted. "How disgusting!"
Hydia grumbled and went back to searching for spells to turn Ponyland dark, dank, and dreary.
In the meantime, Winnie was hopping on her broom, followed by her little black kitten, Midnight.
"If Aunt Hydia won't let me see Julie," she said. "I'll just go to Ponyland by myself!"
Winnie and Midnight took off. They flew to Paradise Estate, and tapped on the bedroom window. Julie sniffled, and looked up. She saw Winnie hovering on her broom, and raced to open the window.
"Winnie!" she shouted. "You shouldn't be here!"
"I know," Winnie said. "Aunt Hydia won't let me play with you."
"Megan and Gusty won't let me play with you. They say all witches are bad."
"I'm not bad! I don't like dark, dank, and dreary like my aunt and cousins do."
"I know you're not bad. But what can we do?"
"I know! Let's go someplace where we can play together and no one will ever know!"
"You mean run away?"
"Yeah! That'll show 'em!"
Julie thought it over. Then she grabbed Twinkles, and climbed onto Winnie's broom. She didn't care what Megan was going to think. She didn't think it was fair that she couldn't play with Winnie just because her aunt happened to be Hydia. Once the girls and their kittens were on the broom, Winnie took off towards the forest.
A few hours later, Megan, and some of the ponies returned from Ponyland. Peachy was waiting for them.
"Peachy, you look worried about something," Buttons said.
"What's up?" Gusty asked.
"It's good news bad news time," Peachy said.
"Uh oh," Fizzy said. "That doesn't sound good!"
"What's the good news?" Megan asked.
"Julie finally left Medley's room," Peachy said.
"What's the bad news?" Buttons asked.
"I can't find her anywhere."
"You WHAT?!" Gusty shouted.
"Twinkles is gone, too," Peachy said.
"Let's not panic," Wind Whistler said. "There must be a logical explination for this. I propose we go search for Julie and Twinkles and interrogate anyone who might have seen them."
The others agreed, and went off. They ran across the Bushwoolies in the forest and asked them if they had seen Julie.
"Yeah, we did," one said.
"We did, yeah, yeah, we did, yeah," the others chimed in.
"She was flying on a broom with a witch."
"Yeah, witch, yeah, yeah, witch, yeah, witch!"
"A witch?!" Buttons shouted.
"Oh no!" Fizzy cried.
"What did the witch look like?" Megan asked.
"And where were they going?" Gusty asked.
"The witch had red hair," the Bushwoolie said. "And she was little!"
"Yeah, little, little, yeah, little," the other Bushwoolies said.
"Then it had to be Winnie," Megan said.
"They went thattaway!" the Bushwoolies all shouted at once, pointing to the left.
Megan and the little ponies ran off in that direction.
In the meantime, Winnie and Julie had landed the broom in a small valley. The grass was green, flowers were in bloom, birds were singing, and butterflies were fluttering. The only thing about it was that the sky was a mix between pink and orange, like a sunset. Winnie was playing with her magic wand, and Julie was picking flowers and making chains out of them. Twinkles and Midnight were frolicking about, chasing the butterflies.
"Isn't this great?" Winnie asked. "I could stay here forever!"
"It's nice," Julie said. "But I don't know if I'd want to stay forever."
"Aw, come on! Nobody will let you play with me 'cause I'm a witch! But here we can play together forever and ever! We'll have lots of fun!"
Julie nodded, and sat down with a sigh. Twinkles and Midnight stopped chasing the butterflies, and walked over to Julie. Twinkles rubbed up against her. Julie picked up the little orange kitten and held her in her arms.
"What's the matter, Julie?" Winnie asked.
"I want to go home!" Julie shouted, and she started to cry. "I miss Megan and Medley! I don't want to run away anymore!"
Winnie felt bad. She hadn't meant to make her friend cry. She sighed, and started up her broom.
"Let's go back to Paradise Estate," she said. "The ponies are probably worried."
Julie sniffled, and climbed onto the broom with Twinkles. Midnight was about to jump onto the broom, when she turned around suddenly. She let out a hiss, and the fur on her back bristled, and her tail puffed out.
"What's the matter, Midnight?" Winnie asked.
Midnight let out a growl, and the girls looked up. There was the biggest dragon Julie had ever seen in her life! It was as big as Dream Castle's highest tower! He didn't look very friendly, either, not at all like little Spike. The dragon let out a roar, and swiped at the girls.
"Let's get out of here!" Winnie shouted, and her broom soared off into the sky at top speed.
The dragon growled and chased after the girls, trying to grab them for a snack. Winnie increased the speed, and Twinkles and Midnight flew off the broom.
"Meeeewwww!" they shouted.
"Our cats!" Julie shouted.
"We'll go back for them!" Winnie shouted. "Once we lose the dragon!"
"Hurry, Winnie, hurry!" Julie yelled. "It's right on top of us!"
"We need a place to hide!"
Winnie looked around, and spotted a cave. She smiled, and sailed inside of it.
"We should be safe in here," she said.
Suddenly, the girls heard the pounding of footsteps, and then they saw a big, green eye looking in on them. They screamed.
"It's the dragon!" Winnie shouted.
The dragon growled and reached his paw into the cave, trying to grab the girls. They began screaming and backing farther into the cave, until they couldn't go in anymore. They were trapped, and they couldn't do anything about the dragon. Midnight and Twinkles watched from outside the cave, and looked at each other.
"What can we do?" Twinkles asked.
"I don't know," Midnight said. "We can't get them out!"
"Wait! I've got an idea! The little ponies! We have to get the little ponies!"
"What can the little ponies do?"
"Trust me, Midnight!"
Twinkles ran off. Midnight shrugged, and followed. The two kittens began mewing at the tops of their voices, trying to imitate an emergency siren.
Megan and the ponies continued along the path, looking for Julie and Winnie. So far, they had come to a standstill.
"The girls have got to be around here somewhere," Wind Whistler said. "It's impossible for them to disappear into thin air."
"Hey listen!" Buttons shouted. "Do you guys hear something?"
Everyone stopped in their tracks as they listened carefully to whatever it was Buttons was hearing.
"Sounds like a siren," Fizzy said.
"Sounds more like a couple of cats to me," Gusty replied.
Out from behind a rock ran Twinkles and Midnight, mewing like sirens. They were jumping all over the place, trying to lead Megan and the ponies to the cave.
"What are they saying?" Fizzy asked.
"I think they're trying to lead us somewhere," Megan said. "Come on!"
Megan, Wind Whistler, Buttons, Fizzy, Gusty, and Peachy followed the two kittens down the path until they reached the cave.
"Oh my!" Fizzy shouted.
"That's the biggest dragon I've ever seen!" Peachy commented.
"How do we get rid of it, Megan?" Buttons asked.
"Wind Whistler, you go and distract it," Megan said. "We'll get the girls out of the cave."
"Will do, Megan," Wind Whistler said, flying into the air.
Wind Whistler flew in front of the dragon's face and began tickling his nose with her tail. The dragon growled and began making grabs for the flying pony. Wind Whistler led him away from the cave. Winnie and Julie ran out of it, and directly to the little ponies, cheering.
"Let's get out of here before the dragon comes back!" Gusty shouted.
"Good idea!" Wind Whistler shouted from the skies.
The little ponies and their friends ran away from the woods as fast as they could and they didn't stop until they reached Paradise Estate. By the time they got back, it was time for Megan and Julie to go back over the rainbow, and it was time for Winnie to go back to where she came from.
"I have to go home now," she said. "Mama will be worried."
"You mean you don't live at the Volcano of Gloom?" Gusty asked.
"Nope," Winnie said. "I come from the Cauldron Caves. Hydia's just my aunt."
"Oh," Gusty said. But she didn't say anymore.
"Will you come back to play one day, Winnie?" Julie asked.
"I hope so," Winnie said. "You're really a great friend, Julie."
"So are you."
"I have something for you."
Winnie pulled up her magic wand, and waved her hand. A gold bracelet appeared on her wrist. Half a gold heart charm was on it. An identical bracelet appeared on Julie's wrist, complete with the half heart charm.
"If you keep your half, and I keep my half," Winnie said. "That means we'll be friends forever."
"Friends forever," Julie repeated, and she gave Winnie a hug.
Winnie climbed on her broom, and Julie climbed on Medley. The two of them went their separate ways, but waved goodbye to each other, both knowing that they would meet again, someday.
The End