85. Nights in the Hazel Wood

THE ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED

When dawn broke, Jack, Thorgil, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all felt the changing of the hours and awoke without any need for notification. They washed up, fixed their robes (Jack making sure to fasten the cloak of St. Columba over his), and moved out through the main room to ask directions to the courtyard. That morning, it had taken only minimal cajoling to get Rainbow Dash out of bed, but it was still clear the morning wasn't easy on her.

By asking directions from the various white-robed bards milling about the school, the eight found their way through a hallway off the main room, down another lofty hall, and out into the courtyard, an area of stone tiles intermingled with dewy patches of grass kept within a square walled off by the school's gray stone halls. The sky was just beginning to shake off dusk. Taliesin waited there, nodding when he saw his newest students enter the yard. Before him were eight small braziers of iron.

"Line up there," he commanded, and Jack, Thorgil, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash obliged, standing in a line, the braziers marking a barrier between them and their master.

"Have you ever called up fire before?" Taliesin asked.

"I have," Jack said with a nod. "Many times."

"Ooh! Ooh! Me too!" Pinkie Pie squealed, hopping up and down in place.

"I've done it a bit," Twilight bragged.

"It is not something everyone will be able to do," Taliesin admitted. "At least not on the first try. But it is an important lesson. To call fire is to understand how to connect with the life force. That is why today, we are going to focus on fire.

"In order to call fire, the first thing you must do is (Once Taliesin had begun explaining, Jack gave a slight sigh, as he knew the process quite well and found the explanation quite redundant and, if he were to be frank, a little patronizing.) to find the life force deep within this world. Reach down into its core. Connect with it. Then bring fire up from it and into the brazier. A staff or a wand will help. You may begin when you are ready."

Jack was the first to set his brazier aflame, almost bored as he did so. The others needed more concentration. Pinkie Pie had thought at first instinct just to take out her wand and cast Incendio on her brazier, but she knew that wasn't at all what Taliesin was looking for. She wondered how she was supposed to connect to the life force in the first place. It couldn't have been any harder than making a new friend, she decided. That was how she would treat it. But where was it? It wasn't immediately visible. Pinkie Pie closed her eyes; if the life force wasn't visible, it must have been INvisible, she deduced, and therefore she would find it more easily without her eyes. After that, it was surprisingly easy. There was something very big and important going on down below the surface, below the grass and stones. The more Pinkie Pie examined it, the more she was sure it was the life force. She could sense within it shades of many different worlds. "FOUND IT!" she cried.

"PINKIE PIE!" Rainbow Dash snapped as Thorgil, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy all snapped out of their attempts to call up fire. "YOU BROKE MY CONCENTRATION!" This voiced the concern of the others.

Pinkie Pie wasn't listening. "Hi there!" she said, and to Rainbow Dash, it looked like she was talking to no one at all. The life force was enormous, Pinkie Pie realized, even more than she'd perceived in the first place. "I'm really sorry to ask this without anything to give to you," she said out loud, "but do you think you could give me some fire?"

Nothing changed, but Pinkie knew the great force had approved. It always had, really. She, however, would have to do the majority of the work. She drew her wand – Twilight strained to see exactly how she was holding it up without the use of fingers, wings, or a horn, but no matter what angle she looked from, it was impossible to tell - and wordlessly, she let the warmth flow up through the surface of the earth, through her body, out through the wand –

The brazier light up.

"WOOHOO!" Pinkie screamed, hopping around it. "I DID IT! I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT!"

Taliesin nodded, pleased. "That you have." He approached Twilight. "She and Jack have both mentioned an affinity with fire. So did you. But you have not called it yet."

"Well, I was waiting for the right time to show you…" Twilight said proudly. In a glimmer, her staff materialized; she levitated it with her horn. The staff twirled in midair, and the star-shaped top immediately caught flame. The staff then dipped into the brazier, lighting it up.

Twilight waited for Taliesin's praise, but the bard scowled. "I've never seen a staff like that," he admitted.

"It's kinda special," Twilight stated.

"That fire came either from it," Taliesin observed, "or from within you. You rely too much on the ability you already have. You made no attempt to connect with the world."

"Well, I…" Twilight was at a loss. "I know how to make fire with magic, and that was the point of the lesson, right?"

Taliesin shook his head. "You have traveled many worlds. It is better that you know how to sense the forces at play with all of them. Trust me, the better terms you are with the realms themselves, the easier travel among them will be. I know this better than almost anyone." He placed a hand on the staff. "There may come a day when you have to go without this, you know."

"But – " Twilight bit her lip. She knew better than to argue. She doused the flame with a quick cold wind that emanated from the staff, earning another look of subtle disapproval from Taliesin.

"Now – " Taliesin began.

"I know," Twilight grunted. "The right way."

"It won't come to you if you call it out of frustration," Taliesin warned her. "That, or you'll end up summoning a wildfire that burns down the school."

"I GET IT!" Twilight snapped. She immediately regretted it: "Oh my gosh…I'm so sorry…I didn't mean…"

Taliesin nodded. "No harm done. Now. The fire."

"Yeah…the fire." Twilight returned her attention to the brazier. At first, it was hard for her to see the logic in going such a roundabout way, but soon, her knowledge-hungry nature got the better of her. Roundabout or not, calling the fire from the life force itself was something Twilight hadn't yet mastered, and she wanted to learn all she could.

Reaching out to the life force was almost overwhelming. Where Pinkie Pie had been able to touch the energy that radiated below the surface with a casual demeanor, Twilight reeled once she came into contact with it. For an instant, she thought she glimpsed the entire cosmos through the piece she saw. But the vision was gone before she could process it. Probably good, she thought. It might have been too much to take in. All the world – was this even a world, if it could encompass the dead? Was it still just a part of 616th Midgard? These questions briefly passed through Twilight's mind before she decided it was simpler not to delve too deeply into them for the time being – would let her be privy to was the fire. And the fire was there, waiting to be taken. Twilight let it flow up into her, through her, into her horn, into the staff.

The brazier roared to life…though the flame was smaller than the one Twilight had conjured simply on her own.

"Well done," Taliesin congratulated. "Though I must warn you to maintain balance. While relying too much on your own power and not recognizing the life force is dangerous, getting wrapped up completely in the life force has been known to drive more than one bard mad. You must always remember who you are, and not give that up at the promise of power – "

"AUGH!" Thorgil kicked over her brazier and stomped away in frustration.

"She's just angry because she doesn't have the knack yet," Jack explained.

"That's what I thought," Taliesin replied. "It will come to her…if she's willing to keep at it."

"She will," Jack sighed. "Trust me, she won't see the end of it until she's set enough fires to burn down the island." He set about righting the brazier.

"Okay," Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. "Can't just rely on the sword for this. Gotta do it the way they did it." She closed her eyes. The others all observed a small flame flicker up at the very bottom of the brazier. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to look. "Aw, man…I was hoping for more than THAT! Why'd it come so easily to Pinkie Pie?"

"Dunno!" Pinkie shrugged.

Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack eventually gave up; it was apparent the skill wasn't going to come to them that day.

"Taliesin?" Twilight asked.

"Yes?" the bard replied.

"Well…I was just curious," Twilight went on. "You said yesterday that you were the newly appointed headmaster. How'd you end up here, anyway?"

"Twilight – " Applejack began softly, unsure if that was the most tactful thing to ask.

Taliesin didn't seem to mind; he gave Twilight a grin, albeit a wistful one. "Were Dragon Tongue here, he would be most surprised to see me," he began. "I don't come from this world, or from any of the Nine Realms. After coming into my own as a bard, my world of choice for many years was actually one located far, far below the roots of Yggdrassil. It was called Annwn. The Unworld. Not a place I recommend going, but I know it better than anyone. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I recently had to leave."

"Unfortunate circumstances?" Twilight pressed.

"A certain witch," Taliesin confessed. "Ceridwen. Technically, my mother. She decided she wanted me out of Annwn, so…here I am."

"Wow," Twilight replied.

"I'm so sorry," Fluttershy added.

"Don't be," Taliesin responded, insistent. "Things have been less than orderly there as of late. I couldn't call it home now. It's more important that I be here."

"Well, we're very grateful that you're willing to teach us," Fluttershy said sincerely.

Taliesin briefly bowed his head. "It is my honor."

Jack gave a sigh. "I'd better check in on Thorgil. Knowing her, she's either sulking…or trying to set fire to the bookshelves near our sleeping quarters."

"We will resume lessons later," Taliesin decided.

...

When next they met, Taliesin decided the lesson of the day would be fog. Thorgil, however, insisted on dragging a brazier out to the courtyard and focusing again on fire.

"I WILL summon fire," she growled at everyone.

"You know, Thorgil," Fluttershy said softly, "it's all right if you can't – "

"I CAN AND I WILL!" Thorgil bellowed.

"You tell 'em!" Rainbow Dash cheered, swiping a hoof through the air enthusiastically.

"So…er…about that fog." Rarity attempted to redirect the conversation to its original course.

"Yes." Taliesin turned to look up at the sky. "You may recall yesterday that I began to give you a warning. There is a danger that comes with calling out to the life force. I'm sure, Jack, that you have been told the tale."

"Dragon Tongue had a friend who was able to do amazing things," Jack recalled. "He was so much a part of the life force, he practically created miracles. But when he let it get too much into his head…he lost his mind and ran away to the Valley of Lunatics."

"Losing your identity is all too easy," Taliesin concluded. "Keep that in mind."

Twilight nodded, more than a little nervous at the bard's words.

"Fog is an entirely different thing from fire," Taliesin stated. "You will find it in the air rather than underground. Call to it and it will come. Some of you will find it easier than fire while some of you will find it more difficult."

He looked to Thorgil. She met his gaze for only a moment, then turned back to her brazier in a huff. Her mind was made up.

"Hm…fog…" Rarity sat down on the courtyard stone, closing her eyes and reaching out.

Pinkie Pie grunted in frustration. For reasons she couldn't understand, the fog was being far more elusive to her than the fire had been. She couldn't get a firm grasp on it. It was, she decided, slippery.

Rarity, on the other hand, found it easily. It lay in wait for her, across field and forest. Her horn glowed softly purple as she called it toward her. The fog began to move into the courtyard, slowly pouring in over the sides of the walls. As the fine whiteness in the air arrived on the currents Rarity had called, she instinctively extended a hoof, physically reaching, drawing it in closer to her. The fog followed her hoof, surrounding her, cloaking her.

Twilight happily watched the fog crowd Rarity before turning to her own work. She was trepid, worried that if she didn't handle this with care, she would end up losing her mind to something so simple as fog. Thus it took her a couple attempts to grasp at where the fog hid on the island, but eventually, she mustered up her courage and found it, calling it into the courtyard. It continued to trickle in over the sides, thickening the light blanket Rarity was calling.

"Hey…" Rainbow Dash lifted herself into the air, winging her way toward Taliesin. "This isn't exactly working for me, but I know I can get more fog here. And I PROMISE it doesn't involve me using my own magic. Can I please go get it my way?"

Taliesin nodded.

Rainbow Dash then sped out of the courtyard, the distinct multicolored trail of light left in her wake causing Jack to do an immense double take. She rose high into the air, taking in the sight of the island in full below, the impressive structure of the school growing ever smaller against the emerald green that surrounded it. Rainbow Dash surveyed the island. She could see the currents of fog that Rarity and Twilight were bringing in, and as she observed, she could tell that a third had suddenly added itself to the mix, pulling in ever more fog. Picking out where the streams of fog were heaviest, Rainbow Dash dived down, beginning a tight circular track. A cyclone of rainbow was formed, trapping the fog inside. She then began to loop outward, bringing the cyclone closer and closer to the school. In this way, she guided the rainbow-wrapped fog all the way to the school and over the walls to the courtyard.

Jack had added his own calling to the mix of fog to demonstrate that he already knew that skill. It was onto the combined efforts of him, Twilight, and Rarity that Rainbow Dash unleashed the fog trapped within the cyclone. The entire courtyard became a mass of white fuzzy air then, thick with moisture, and vision of everyone else was brought to silhouette.

"I know that wasn't what you were thinking…" Rainbow Dash began to say to the silhouette of Taliesin.

"It wasn't," Taliesin agreed, "but it was a way to work with the world's forces directly. I think that's admirable."

"I can't see a thing," Thorgil grumbled.

"Well, lucky for you," Taliesin replied, "the next thing I'd like to see is for you to turn it into rain. Jack, are you familiar with this?"

"Well…" Jack dug his toe into the grass and twisted it sheepishly. "I did once. But I overdid it. I couldn't figure out how to make it stop."

"And you flooded our ship until there wasn't a cloud left in the sky," Thorgil supplied. "You'd turned it all into water!"

"In my defense, there was a lot of pressure on me to figure it out," Jack growled, "since you and Olaf were threatening to throw me overboard if I didn't make it stop!"

"Okay, OKAY!" Applejack interrupted. "So this has been a bit of a sore spot in the past. Well, that was back then, and this is now."

"…Sorry," Jack muttered.

Thorgil grumbled something that was probably also "Sorry."

"The point is," Jack concluded, "I know how to make rain…but I don't know how to make it stop."

"Tell me what words you used," Taliesin ordered.

Jack was nervous, afraid that the utterance of the words alone would bring a deluge. "I'd already called a fog," he said, "and I just wanted to get rid of it, so I thought…'Return to me. Break apart sea and sky. Call down your clouds and mists.'"

"A bit too demanding," Taliesin observed. "Of course that would bring all the water in the sky down on you. Maybe if you ask more politely, and with a bit of subtlety, it might work for you."

"Er…" Jack tried to think of how to word it.

"I think I may have it," Rarity realized. "May I?"

"But I'd almost got it," Jack argued.

"Well, then, by all means," Rarity said, "go ahead."

"Is it just me," Applejack whispered to Pinkie Pie, "or is Jack seemin' just as bad as Thorgil in the whole department of doin' these things first and better?"

"Return…to me," Jack began. "Break these mists…gently. Call down…only that which I have summoned here."

A large section of mist surrounding Jack immediately condensed into water droplets and then hit the ground with a SPLASH. Suddenly visible among the clear air, Jack wore a distinct scowl.

"Rarity?" Taliesin asked.

"Um…" Fluttershy broke in. "Jack, is that going to be okay with you?"

"It's fine," Jack grumbled.

"If you're sure…" Fluttershy mumbled.

"Eh-hem." Rarity cleared her throat. "Now, dear mists, if you wouldn't mind terribly, we would just like a light rain." She slipped into singing a little tune: "Drop by drop, with a pitter-patter! Gentle rains, watering the grass here drip by drip! Making sure the fall is strictly straightened, can't have all the fog in too tight a grip! Little narrow drops with even pacing, gradually the mist we are erasing! I'm turning fog to rain!"

As she beckoned, the mist slowly turned into a fine shower that rained on the stone gently, emptying out the fog little by little. The courtyard was by then cleared of half its mist; no longer was anyone a silhouette.

"I think I can actually tighten that up a little," Twilight mused. Concentrating on the rest of the fog, she muttered, "Fog, return slowly. Dissolve into the lightest of rains and erase the mist."

Meanwhile, over the brazier, Thorgil strained her energies. She cracked her eyes open. To her delight, a tiny spark of orange had appeared at the brazier's bottom.

At Twilight's call, the remaining mist in the courtyard rose into the air, congealed into clouds, and drizzled all over the yard, dousing the sole spark Thorgil had summoned and soaking the brazier.

In a great clatter, the brazier was once more upended and Thorgil stormed off, seething and muttering many words that the others guessed were less than proper.

"I'm beginning to sense a pattern," Taliesin stated.

"You think we should see if she's okay?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash replied. "Okay if we call the lesson quits for the day?"

Taliesin nodded. "You may go."

"C'mon!" Rainbow Dash galloped back into the school hall, and Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, and Jack followed.

Applejack couldn't help but notice that Jack was scowling, and that his gait was heavy, determined. "You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Jack insisted.

"I think I know what's goin' on," Applejack deduced. "You're mad, same as Thorgil, that you ain't yet got this Bard thing down yet."

"You've only JUST come to this school," Jack groaned. "Taliesin is telling you things for the first time that the Bard drilled into my head for YEARS. But you can already do them better."

"Well…that's a complicated thing," Applejack replied.

By then, they'd caught up to Thorgil, who was pacing angrily around the common room between their sleeping quarters. "Well?" she spat. "Did you come here to mock me? Or did you come here to drop more water on my head?"

"I think we all need to sit down and have a talk about these lessons," Applejack stated, moving to take a seat in one of the comfortable chairs. The other five ponies did so immediately after. Jack and Thorgil took their places last, begrudgingly.

"First off," Applejack said, "I wanna say I'm sorry for makin' you two feel out of your elements. And I think I speak for all of us when I say we're ALL sorry."

"The thing is," Twilight pointed out, "we're not even actually that good at these skills. I've been able to do everything, but I'm a bit of a weird case when it comes to magic. Otherwise, the rest of us have only really been able to do about one skill each."

"I haven't even been able to do anything with the life force yet," Fluttershy added.

Jack nodded, realizing they had a point.

"Jack, you've been real great at everythin' so far," Applejack went on. "So you made the rain a little too heavy. You woulda gotten it eventually. And you got everythin' else perfectly. Heck, you even made fire around the same time Twilight got yelled at for doin' it wrong."

"Though I don't quite understand why you weren't more worried about being caught without your staff, Twilight," Rarity interrupted. "How to put this kindly…you do generally have the worst-case scenario covered."

"From what I've seen," Twilight replied casually, "I don't think there's a way I CAN lose this one. We've seen these weapons break in half and fix themselves later. And I already went through my big breakdown as a witch, so there's no danger of overusing it. For once, I CAN'T think of a worst-case scenario."

"Well, good for you," Thorgil snarled. "And good for Jack for being good at everything. Meanwhile, I was specifically brought to this island because I passed all the tests, and I haven't been able to make one measly fire! Well, I did make ONE spark. WHICH YOU DUMPED WATER ON."

"You HAD the fire?" Twilight and Rarity cried in unison.

"Why, we didn't realize!" Rarity gasped.

"We're sorry," Twilight said earnestly. "If we'd known you had the fire there…"

"That isn't even an excuse, really," Rarity realized. "We should have kept our rain away from where you were working. We're dreadfully sorry, Thorgil."

"…Well." Thorgil wasn't sure at first how to respond.

"And about that fire?" Rainbow Dash picked up. "Listen. I already know you're not gonna give up until you've made bigger and brighter fires than the rest of us!"

"Without burnin' down the school, of course," Applejack broke in.

"Thorgil, you're gonna get ALL this stuff we're learning," Rainbow Dash insisted. "Trust me. I can already see a little of me in you, and that means you're gonna end up coming out on top."

"Well, I am," Thorgil agreed. She then looked to Jack.

"What do you want from me?" Jack snapped.

"Oh, come now," Rarity said, "you two have been through SO much together. Surely you understand that your opinions mean the most to each other."

"I don't care what he thinks!" Thorgil shot back.

"I don't care what SHE thinks!" Jack added.

"Is that TRULY how you feel?" Rarity asked, with an urgency in her voice that made Applejack regard her with suspicion. Applejack was certain there was an ulterior motive to Rarity's nagging, though she couldn't put a hoof on it.

"Thorgil…" Jack sighed, letting his guard down. "I was surprised when the Bard said that you would be coming with me. But at the same time, I was happy. He wouldn't have brought you here without a reason. He wouldn't have brought you here if he didn't think…that you were just as good as me."

"You mean it?" Thorgil's disposition had brightened noticeably.

"I do," Jack admitted.

"Remember what Taliesin said at the beginning," Twilight recalled. "We have to learn to work together. We don't have time to waste on getting jealous. Thorgil, I could even help you out with the fire if you wanted – "

"I don't need HELP with it!" Thorgil insisted sharply.

"Okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie nodded. "But I still wanna work on the fire too, since it's the only thing I'm good at. Would you please work on it with me? Pretty please with a bunch of cherries and sugar dates on top?"

Pinkie Pie then shot Thorgil a look of such shining, pleading eyes that Thorgil couldn't help but smile and say, "All right. You and me, we'll work on it together." She then looked to Jack. "And you."

"What about me?" Jack asked.

"You don't need to get so mad about the rain," she told him. "You're already so amazing at everything else. You'll have that down too in no time."

"Well…thank you," Jack replied, slightly stunned.

"Now if we've had enough of this sentimental stuff," Thorgil said, getting up from the chair, "can we get back to work?"

All agreed that was a good idea.

...

That night, as Applejack and Rarity settled into their cots, the former directed an inquiry toward the latter in just soft enough a voice that only her roommate could hear, a voice that wouldn't travel through walls.

"What's your interest in gettin' Jack and Thorgil to talk to each other about things?"

"Why…" Rarity replied, "isn't it obvious? They're such good friends that I feel it's only right that they consult each other when they need a listening ear."

"You're tryin' to set them up, aren't you?" Applejack realized.

"Well," Rarity replied gruffly, her cover blown, "can you blame me?"

"What makes you think there's anythin' between those two anyway?"

"Trust me, Applejack, I can tell."

"Well…guess I can't stop you," Applejack resigned.

"I won't take it too far," Rarity promised. "I mean, what kind of romance is it if they don't see it for themselves? I'm just…helping them see what's already there."

"I'll trust ya."

...

One day, Taliesin announced that the group of eight would begin to spend nights in the hazel wood.

"You mean like camping?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Taliesin shook his head. "You will have no food or shelter of your own. Don't worry. No harm will come to you on the Islands of the Blessed, and you will be able to return to the school and its comforts in the morning."

"Why do we have to spend a night sleeping on the dirt?" Rarity asked, aghast. "What could that POSSIBLY have to do with being a bard?"

"The hazel wood is a place where the life force runs deep," Taliesin explained. "You never know what may happen. Stay enough nights there, and you won't believe what you see."

"But…but…but…" Rarity sputtered.

"Trust me," Jack told her. "It's important."

"Ohhhh, fine," Rarity groaned. "I'll sleep in the woods. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be happy about picking leaves and twigs out of my mane in the morning!"

...

Jack, Twilight, Thorgil, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack set out that evening from the towering school toward the hazel wood. Above them, the sky darkened as the sun departed from it. "The most important thing," Jack informed them all, "is to be observant. On my first night, all I saw were the things in the woods. Bugs and plants. It was that way for the Bard, too. I thought there was supposed to be something more to it, but he said the most important thing for any bard is to be observant. Once you start taking notice of everything, opening up your eyes and seeing everything around you, there's no going back."

"That makes sense," Twilight agreed. "Bards are poets and storytellers. How are you going to tell a story if you don't notice all the details that need to be talked about in it?"

"You said the FIRST night was when you just saw the ordinary stuff," Pinkie Pie noticed. "What happened on the OTHER nights?"

"Well, for me, personally, it was a bad run-in with a draugr," Jack explained. "But I'm certain that's not going to happen here. I think…I think the hazel wood is a place for spirits."

They moved past the tree line and into the wood. The canopy of leaves overhead darkened the atmosphere, making it seem as though the sun had already set. "We should split up," Jack suggested.

"And do this all on our own?" Fluttershy's voice trembled.

"We have to," Jack insisted. "We each have to figure out what the hazel wood has for ourselves."

"It'll be fine," Twilight reassured Fluttershy. "These are the Islands of the Blessed! We can't get hurt here."

"I know," Fluttershy replied. "That's part of what's making me so nervous. The fact that these are the Islands of the Blessed, I mean. These woods just feel…big and different."

"And I'm guessin' that's the point," Applejack brought up.

"Well, I'm goin' in," Rainbow Dash stated. "See you in the morning!" She sped off into the forest, weaving about the trees.

"She's got the right idea," Thorgil remarked before she charged off in another direction. The others then split up onto their own paths to find claims to stake for the night.

...

After only a few minutes, Thorgil began to wonder what the point was. She kicked at the twigs and rocks she found along the way. "There isn't even anything out here," she muttered. She cast her gaze around. There was no sign of anything larger than a squirrel having moved through the forest recently. Nothing, in her mind, that was exciting.

She stepped over a fallen tree, then sat on it, glancing around. "What do you expect ME to do in here, anyway?" she grumbled. "It's a place for hunting deer, not lolling around and waiting for nothing to happen!"

But of course, no one answered.

With a sigh, Thorgil decided that she might as well get some sleep. She slid off the fallen tree trunk, lying down on a patch of dirt. It was soft enough. Before closing her eyes, she thought she'd get one last look at the forest.

Looking straight up, Thorgil gasped. She hadn't noticed just how tall the trees were, or how thick their leaves. A squirrel ran across the branch of one and leapt to another, causing a rustling.

"Ahhh," Thorgil sighed. It was a perfect place, she realized, to collect her thoughts. To reflect on how she'd been progressing, how she still was unable to summon fire…and yet that all seemed distant, as though she'd left it back in her room at school. For the moment, she was overtaken with how the darkness and the silence seemed to blanket her.

But it wasn't really silence, either, she discovered. When she turned her focus to it to listen, she found it was punctuated with the small noises of life. An insect buzzed; another small mammal rushed across the ground with tiny feet.

These sounds became her lullaby.

...

Rainbow Dash was also unsure. She trod through the woods carefully, wondering what it was she was supposed to keep an eye out for.

"Maybe the weather patterns?" she said to herself. It was what she had known from birth. And where she had shown the greatest strength – in collecting fog. She looked around, let sensations run over her.

It was a very still night. No storms brewed; no great winds threatened to bluster. There was no snow or rain on the horizon as far as Rainbow Dash could tell. There was a light breeze, however, that wound its way between the tree trunks and branches, tickling Rainbow Dash's feathers.

She found a clearing where she could look up through the hazel branches and see the sky. By then, the sun had set. No clouds blocked the view to the glittering stars overhead. There was only the breeze, now playing with Rainbow Dash's mane.

Rainbow Dash sat down, keeping her eyes to the sky. As she did, she grew ever more tired. Eventually, she lay down to sleep. But before she closed her eyes, she observed the breeze blow a small wisp of mist past.

Funny, she thought. The conditions hadn't seemed right for mist just then.

...

Rarity was having difficulty making her way through the wood. With every step she took, a hoof would land in mud ("Ewwww…") or her mane would catch lightly on a branch.

"Well, I suppose this settles it." She sat down on the grassiest ground she could find in hopes of avoiding any more dirt stains…though it occurred to her then that grass stains were also a possibility. She still decided to remain in place, feeling utterly defeated in her quest to find anywhere or anything clean in the forest. "I'm not going to find ANYTHING here worth noticing. It's all just a bunch of mud and – "

She swiveled her head to take in the woods around her and noticed that she had sat right next to an immense spiderweb. With a piercing shriek, Rarity leapt away from the web, backing away in disgust. "Ew, ew, EWWWWWW!"

The bright yellow spider, an Orb Weaver, startled by the commotion, crawled out to the center of its web. Rarity's leap had caused the web to twitch slightly, leading the spider to believe it had ensnared prey. However, upon finding nothing, the spider decided to sit in the middle of the web and wait.

Rarity was transfixed at first by horror. Then, all of a sudden, something changed in the way she viewed the spider. The web itself was masterfully crafted, a lacelike pattern. How, Rarity wondered, did the Orb Weaver get the threads so almost perfectly even? The Weaver itself appeared almost as a bright yellow topaz adorning the center of the web, the way Rarity might pin a white lace collar with a brooch.

"I still don't like you all that much," Rarity told the Weaver, "but you are QUITE the designer. I will give you that much."

Leaving the web behind, she moved deeper into the forest. Looking up into the trees, she saw the nests of birds, reminding her of how she'd crafted them so carefully for Winter Wrap-Up back home on Equestria. The birds, she realized, were also excellent designers and weavers.

She took notice then of the flowers she passed. They weren't abundant, but every so often, she'd see a wildflower springing up from the ground, blue or red or a cluster of yellow, and none of them ever seemed to clash with each other. "One would almost think," she remarked, "that they were color coordinated!"

She settled at last on another patch of grass, thinking about the threads of the spiderweb, the twigs bent into bird nests, the palette of the flowers. And when she closed her eyes, she felt something else. It was quite nearby; her natural ability to sense it was tingling. Out of curiosity, she reopened her eyes, getting up and trotting over to where she could sense it.

There was a great mud puddle. Rarity was at first loath to touch it, but she wanted to see what she'd sensed, so she braced herself and put in a hoof, brushing the mud aside. Underneath it was what had triggered her gemstone detection ability: a large quartz that gave off a light glitter in the moonlight filtering through the trees.

"So there was something good underneath all that mud," she said sleepily.

Then it was back to the grass to lie down, briefly feeling the presence of the other tiny semi-precious stones that were hidden among the rocks.

...

Pinkie Pie couldn't stay still. She simply couldn't. She bounded through the forest as it deepened into shadow.

Once the sun was out of the picture, the entire forest seemed to grow into a behemoth of darkness. Crooked trees' limbs reached out as though they were bony fingers grasping. The shadows they cast were long, and Pinkie Pie's pace slowed as she became more nervous. Suddenly, in the dark of the night, everything was that much more frightening. The hoot of an owl startled her. The sound of a squirrel made her shake. She stepped on a twig, snapping it loudly, and that sent her hiding behind a thick tree trunk with a shriek.

Breathing raggedly, Pinkie Pie then had a realization: "Wait a minute. Why am I scared? This is just like the Everfree Forest back home! And I know what to do there! I just have to…" She took in a deep breath.

And when she leapt back out from behind the tree, continuing to hop down her path, she belted out, "GIGGLE AT THE GHOSTLY! GUFFAW AT THE GROSSLY! CRACK UP AT THE CREEPY! WHOOP IT UP WITH THE WEEPY!"

And as she sang, the forest became less frightening and more familiar. "It's only trees!" she realized. "Really, really tall trees! And they're filled with owls and squirrels and all sorts of animals! And there are rocks all over the place just like back home on the rock farm!"

That gave her pause. She stopped hopping so she could look at the rocks on the ground. "I wish my sister Maud was here," she said casually. "She would LOVE to look at all these rocks. And she'd know what they all were, too! All I know is that that one's gray, and that one's also gray, and that one's darker gray, and I think that one's a little bit pink. Hey, maybe there are MORE interesting rocks over there!"

She continued to bounce through the hazel forest.

...

Applejack took the greatest notice of the trees. No, they were not the apple-bearing plants she was most familiar with, but she was still able to observe the patterns in the bark, the thickness of the branches, the round leaves.

A single hazelnut dropped down on her head. She looked up to see that the particular tree she was under was heavy with them. If she bucked the tree's trunk, she knew, they would come raining down. Instinct tempted her to try just that. She had to remind herself that she was not tasked with gathering the products of the tree; she was supposed to be observing. Something told her that taking all the hazelnuts of the Islands was a very bad idea indeed.

The nut that had fallen, though, was fair game. Applejack rolled it over to a rock, crunched the shell against it with her hoof, ate the nut out of it. She savored what little flavor it had. She thought over how she could add hazelnuts to the dishes she made while on the Starlight.

Laying down to sleep, Applejack could almost pretend that the tree trunks were in fact those of the orchard back in Ponyville, and that her family was nearby, settling down in the farmhouse. She tried to do this for a moment, overcome with homesickness. But her last thought, before she went to sleep, was that this was nothing like that place; trying to pretend the two were similar was a folly. After all, she was supposed to be seeing things for what they were, not what she wanted them to be.

...

It had taken Fluttershy a while to get moving. She, much like Pinkie Pie, was frightened, intimidated by the forest. The same thought that had eventually occurred to Pinkie, however, occurred to her: it was a very similar place to the Everfree Forest, where she had entered many times and encountered all manner of oddities.

She moved toward the forest's heart, wondering if it contained any manticores or cockatrices. Then she wondered about rabbits like her beloved Angel. What seemed to be most prevalent, however, were insects and birds.

A nightingale trilled. Fluttershy looked up, locating the branch where the bird perched. The nightingale sang again, a rapid fire of chirps, and Fluttershy sat down, letting the bird perform its concert for her.

After what seemed like very pleasant hours, though it was more likely just a few minutes, the nightingale gave up its song and flew away to another branch. Fluttershy felt momentarily disappointed at the absence of its call from the noises of the night. She didn't get up right away, opting to slowly look around.

A curious brown rabbit was stationed several feet away from her. Fluttershy nearly gasped, but kept herself quiet. After all, wild rabbits tended to disappear only shortly after being noticed or reacted to. The rabbit regarded her tensely, wondering if the yellow pegasus was friend or foe. Then, sensing in her what most other animals did, the rabbit approached.

"Hello," Fluttershy said softly.

The rabbit flinched but didn't change course.

"It's beautiful out here," Fluttershy told the rabbit. "You're very lucky to live here. I'm sure you know it's a special place."

The rabbit stopped about a foot and a half before Fluttershy; its nose twitched agreeably.

"It was a little scary at first," Fluttershy told it. "But now I'm seeing that it's…well, it's your home. The nightingales' songs are beautiful. Did you like it as much as I did?"

The rabbit couldn't respond, but Fluttershy got the sense it did in fact enjoy the song of the nightingale.

Fluttershy then gasped; a small light had zipped past her peripheral vision, and her head whipped around to look at it. The rabbit looked as well. The light was gone, but Fluttershy, knowing what had caused it, was certain there would soon be another. And another did come, briefly winking in and out of focus.

"Fireflies!" Fluttershy gasped in awe. She and the rabbit watched for fireflies, entranced by the enigmatic lights that would be gone as quickly as they were there. Perhaps twenty more blinked in and out of view before they disappeared.

"Light from the fireflies, a song from the nightingale…" Fluttershy recounted. "It's almost been too good to be real."

At last, she decided to lay down to sleep, just where she was. The rabbit stayed near until she lost consciousness, then bounded away to its own business.

...

Twilight was busy taking notice of everything systematically, trying desperately to commit the entire forest to memory. This tree had moss growing on it. That one had a rather large knothole. There was a beehive over there. There was a red wildflower here. A clump of rocks lay next to a root that stuck out of the protective cover of the ground.

"How am I supposed to notice EVERYTHING?" Twilight said to herself, beginning to panic. "I should have asked if I could write things down! Okay, there's a mud patch to the left, and to the right is a tree with bare branches." She set to move forward, then halted. "GAH! I almost forgot to look UP!" She jerked her head to point her vision upward, observing the branches and what sky could be seen between them.

She continued several feet through the forest in this fashion before falling down into a lying position on the ground. "There's just too MUCH!" she cried. "How do Jack and Taliesin see it all?"

She closed her eyes in frustration, trying to remember everything she'd seen. But she had forgotten a lot of details already. After so much fruitless attempts at memory, she decided, just for one moment, to give up trying to recall the minutiae.

And in that one moment, everything suddenly changed.

When Twilight stopped trying to actively observe, in the one moment when her mind was clear, the sounds of the forest hit her ears like the opening chord of a symphony. The buzzing of the insects, the songs of the birds, the rustling of the leaves. Piercing through all of them was a light trilling noise, one that sounded almost paranormal in the dark of the night. Twilight was so enchanted by the sound that she didn't realize, at first, that she knew exactly what it was. She finally put a name to it: the call of the screech owl.

Twilight opened her eyes, and the sights flooded into her vision. The outlines of every tree against the deep darkness of the night. The rounded leaves of the hazels. The motions of the animals that passed by every now and again.

And she could feel it all, too: the stillness of the night, the light chill of the breeze. All that existed in the forest seemed to be pressing at her senses at once; it was almost too much, but so exhilarating, Twilight didn't know whether to try and make it stop or keep on going.

Taliesin's warning resurfaced: the danger of losing her mind. She kept herself reined in. She merely observed; she didn't allow herself to become too entranced with what she saw, heard, felt.

"How can it possibly get more magical than this?" she breathed.

...

Every sensation, while relevant, was familiar to Jack. This hazel wood wasn't that different, he thought, from the one back home near his village. Even in a plane that was only somewhat mortal, some things remained the same.

He sat very still on the forest floor, observing all he could. After only a few minutes, he found the difference.

A light mist was creeping into the forest. And it wasn't an ordinary mist like what he and the others had been practicing summoning. This mist carried with it the distinct sense of Life, stronger than usual. Jack couldn't sum up in words, in his mind, how else it was different. But he was almost certain that that mist wouldn't normally be in the hazel wood on the Islands of the Blessed.

As soon as it had come, it had gone. Fickle as a firefly.

...

When the dawn broke, Thorgil, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Jack met up at the tree line and moved back to the school together. They immediately broke into gushing over what they'd seen and experienced the night before.

"And when you look up, you see EVERYTHING…"

"…with no clouds in the way…"

"…of the quartz, which I especially didn't expect…"

"…to be so comfortable! In fact, the rocks reminded me of…"

"…home, even though it's not even close…"

"…to me the whole night, and he wasn't even afraid of…"

"…the owl!"

Jack was the only one silent. "Uh, Jack?" Applejack asked. "You've been awful quiet."

"I've spent more nights in the wood than you," he replied casually.

"Well, didja see anythin' special this time around?" Applejack asked.

"Only one thing." Jack frowned in concern. "There was a strange mist. It didn't feel…like it was part of this world, but it didn't feel like it was with the forces of Unlife, either. But before I could figure out anything else, it was gone."

"Weird…" Rainbow Dash chimed in. "I saw a bit of mist too. But it was NOT the right weather for it. There shouldn't have been any!"

"What do you think it means?" Twilight asked.

"I don't think I could know unless I saw it again," Jack admitted.

"We're probably gonna see it again," Pinkie Pie pointed out. "When has something mysterious ever NOT turned out to be relevant?"

"I guess there's nothing we can do about it now," Twilight resolved.

"I vote we change into some fresher robes, then head on down to the courtyard," Applejack decided, and the others agreed this was a good idea.

...

Pinkie Pie and Thorgil were situated at the far end of the courtyard, braziers at the ready. Thorgil concentrated intensely on hers while Pinkie was able to summon fire almost immediately. Before long, she had a plump marshmallow stuck on a stick and was roasting it over the fire she'd called.

"What is that?" Jack asked.

"It's a marshmallow," Applejack responded. "It's a kinda candy."

"But where did she GET it?" Jack was dumbfounded.

Applejack sighed. "There are just some things ya don't ask about Pinkie Pie."

"Silly me!" Pinkie cried. "I should have gotten enough for everypony! Hang on just a second!"

Then the stick was crammed end to end with marshmallows; Pinkie rotated it over the fire like a spit.

"BUT WHERE WAS SHE KEEPING ALL THOSE?" Jack yelled.

Taliesin laughed. "It seems she knows some arts even beyond my understanding. Though we should focus on the lesson at hand."

"Right," Jack said, forcing himself to turn away from the sight of Pinkie Pie's marshmallow roast.

"Today," Taliesin announced, "I want to see if you can move the earth."

Jack immediately cringed.

"A sore subject?" Taliesin asked.

"I only ever caused one earthquake," Jack admitted. "At St. Filian's well…I split the ground in half under the monastery, and I let all the water in Bebba's Town flow down it for the elves to take hostage."

"I've heard about that," Taliesin replied, "and while you did make that earthquake much too strong, I believe Nimüe had more to do with the water. What words did you use to cause it?"

"I…" Jack strained to think. "It was the heat of the moment…I can't remember…"

"I'm guessing the words were too strong," Taliesin theorized. "The same problem you had with the rain. You keep commanding the forces of nature to do things without thinking about what will happen if they do something all at once."

"What was I supposed to do?" Jack snapped. "They were going to hurt Lucy!"

"I don't blame you," Taliesin said. "When I was your age, I would have done the same thing. But that's what you're here to learn: how to keep the forces you call under control, even when you have to think on your feet. Now, do you feel like attempting a slightly smaller earthquake?"

"I don't know if I even could," Jack admitted. "Let one of the others try. I don't want to end up putting the entire School of Bards underground."

"In that case…" Taliesin looked to the ponies. "Which of you wants to try?"

"I do," Twilight said immediately.

Shortly after, it was Applejack who spoke next: "Y'know what? Strangely enough, I feel like I can do this one."

"Why don't you go first?" Twilight suggested.

"Well…all right." Applejack trotted out to the center of the courtyard. Her wand materialized; she gripped it in her teeth, reaching out to the life force below.

You don't have to shake, she thought. You don't have to break. And you don't have to bring anything down. But what you do have to do is move. I think the word is "tremble."

And lightly, the ground shook; several of the stones in the courtyard displaced themselves. Applejack dismissed the wand. "I think it's all 'bout findin' the right words," she observed. "Soon as I thought of 'tremble,' it worked."

Twilight then followed up, repeating what Applejack had done. Finally, Jack, muttering "tremble" under his breath, was able to repeat it. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, however, found themselves unable to do a thing with the ground below.

There was suddenly a flash of light and a scream. All eyes turned toward Thorgil; at first, they were afraid she'd burned herself somehow. The brazier she'd been concentrating over for so many days was suddenly alight with fire, and Thorgil was whooping for joy. "I TOLD YOU I COULD DO IT!" she cried.

"I KNEW YOU COULD!" Rainbow Dash cheered.

"WOOHOOOOO!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down.

"Congratulations," Taliesin said with a nod.

Jack rushed forth, grabbing Thorgil by the sides of her upper arms and pulling her into a hug. "Thorgil, you've done it!" he cried happily. "You've reached the life force!"

Then he realized what he was doing. He let go immediately, backing off, fully expecting Thorgil to snarl at him for touching her, let alone embracing her. Instead, she seemed first surprised, then quite satisfied. "Soon I'll be making these quicker than you," she bragged, smiling almost giddily.

"We'll see," Jack replied teasingly.

Rarity gave Applejack a wink. Applejack gave a knowing nod.

"MARSHMALLOWS FOR EVERYPONY!" Pinkie Pie declared, doling out the marshmallows she'd roasted. Jack and Thorgil were amazed at the taste, and Thorgil cried, "I've never eaten anything so SWEET!"

"Hmm," Taliesin remarked with a smile, tasting the marshmallow he'd been given. "Althaea officinalis? I wouldn't have thought to use it this way."

Lessons wrapped up for the day, and the students prepared to leave the courtyard to move back to book studies inside the building. Before they could, however, Taliesin called out, "One more thing!"

The group halted. Twilight and Jack turned back to look at the headmaster bard.

"If you are called," Taliesin said insistently, "answer."

"What does THAT mean?" Twilight asked.

"You will know," Taliesin replied.

...

Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Jack, and Thorgil sat in the circle of chairs between their sleeping quarters, looking over some of the books on the shelves and sharing their findings with each other. The ponies were stricken with slight nostalgia for the study group in the Hogwarts library, but all agreed they'd rather be there at the School of Bards with Jack and Thorgil than anywhere else.

"Have you got any more of those marsh candies?" Thorgil asked Pinkie Pie.

"Here you go!" Pinkie Pie handed her another marshmallow, this one cold.

"This looks interesting," Twilight said, turning a page of a book she levitated via magic. "The 'lorica.' It's a protection spell. It looks like it can be used for a lot of general situations. Preventing wounds, surviving storms…" She turned the page again. "But there isn't anything printed about how to cast it."

"There won't be," Jack told her. "A lorica only comes to a bard when they need it most. You can't memorize the words. You forget them as soon as you hear or say them."

"I always used to think I knew almost everything there was to know about magic," Twilight admitted. "Back at home on Equestria, I mean. And now, everywhere I go, I'm learning there's so much more to it than I could ever have imagined. It makes me wonder what else there is to learn here at the School of Bards that I didn't know was even possible."

"Well, there is the final examination," Jack brought up.

"What do you do for that?" Twilight asked.

"It's something only the most powerful bards can do," Jack explained, "and it's…dangerous. You swap your mind out with an animal – er, an animal that doesn't talk. I don't think they'd let you just get away with saying you're ponies and that counts…and I don't like the idea of you swapping out with a human."

"We know all about how some animals talk and some don't," Fluttershy explained.

"Well," Jack went on, "the animal – say it's a crow – goes in your body, and you go into its. You can see everything from the crow's eyes and go anywhere. You can fly with its wings. Meanwhile, the crow uses your body to try and collect shiny things and peck at food. But it's the easiest place to lose your mind. The Bard back home was able to do this a lot. He used the body of a fish to follow the hero Beowulf and watch what he did in order to make poetry about him, and he used the body of a crow to follow Thorgil and me on our first adventure. But each time, there were times he almost forgot he was human. He got the instincts to migrate with the other crows and never come back. I think…you might forget you were ponies. If one of you became a crow, there's a danger you'll think you'd always been a crow and had nothing more to worry about than building a nest."

"Leaving a crow to carry one of our Elements," Twilight concluded. "If it even COULD without our mind in the right body to power it."

"But what about our gems?" Rarity asked. "Four of us still have our souls in there. Could we even BEGIN to swap out our minds into other bodies that way?"

"That sounds WAY too dangerous to even think about," Twilight commented.

"Oh…" Fluttershy sounded disappointed.

"You wanted to try it?" Jack asked.

"Well…I just have always wondered what it looks like from their point of view," Fluttershy admitted. "I would love to be one of them, even just for a moment. I wonder how they'd react to being me."

"Which ones are 'them'?" Jack pressed.

"Oh, all the animals," Fluttershy replied happily. "Birds, mice, bunnies, butterflies…anything."

"Dragons?" Thorgil asked cheekily.

"If the dragon doesn't mind," Fluttershy said with a nod.

"Well, that's a long way off," Twilight pointed out. "I think, anyway. I'm not sure how long we're supposed to be training here."

"Trust me," Jack reassured her. "Life will tell you how long. The paths that Thorgil and I took were all laid out by destiny. Whenever one looked blocked, we would be shown the right way. I think that's how it is with all bards."

"Just like our ship," Twilight thought out loud. "I wonder if there's a connection."

...

The time came to spend another night in the hazel wood. The group dispersed as they had the first time.

Rainbow Dash wondered if she'd discover anything new that night. The weather didn't seem as calm as before; the winds were agitated, and a few clouds blocked the view of the sky. It still wasn't nearly the right condition for mist, however.

And yet wisps of mist were gathering again.

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash looked around herself in disbelief. A definite haze was setting in over the forest. "Okay, that CAN'T be right."

A strong wind picked up. The mist was swept up on it, moving ghostlike through the forest, the trees passing right through it.

"Something's weird here," Rainbow Dash muttered before taking off at a gallop after the mist on the wind. She wove a path around the tree trunks, taking great care not to collide with any of them, though she wasn't as much paying attention to anything else.

SMACK!

Rainbow Dash was knocked to the ground. With a groan, she got up to see what she'd run into. "…Pinkie Pie?"

"Hi, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie said cheerily, also getting up from where she'd fallen. "You know, you've really got to start watching where you're running on this island!"

"I'm kinda getting that point," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "Hey…did you see that weird mist?"

"I saw a mist!" Pinkie Pie answered. "I spied it with my little eye! It felt really weird, like there would be something fun if I followed it! And I was right, because it led me right here to you!"

"It went THIS way?" Rainbow Dash was confused. "No, I was tracking it THAT way. Toward you."

"Maybe there were two mists," Pinkie Pie wondered out loud, "and they each led us different ways until we met in the middle!"

"There shouldn't be any at all," Rainbow Dash insisted. "But I guess that makes as much sense as anything else."

"Hey! Rainbow Dash!"

"What?"

"I spy with my little eye…"

"Pinkie, this isn't the time for games."

"…something white and translucent!" her gaze was fixed over Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

Rainbow Dash turned, and there it was again, that hovering ghost of moist air. "It's the mist!"

"You win!" Pinkie Pie cried, offering her hoof to Rainbow Dash with a particular candy set upon it. "Have a marshmallow!"

"No time!" Rainbow Dash called, turning to gallop at the mist again. Pinkie Pie followed at a swift bounce.

Another wind picked up the mist, carrying it just out of reach of the two ponies. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie kept up the trail until they burst into a clearing, where another figure lay on the ground, staring upward.

"HI, THORGIL!" Pinkie Pie squealed.

Thorgil sat up, looking around at the mist that surrounded her. "What in the Nine Realms…"

"We have no idea!" Pinkie Pie announced.

"At least we caught up with it – " Rainbow Dash began, but just as she did, the wind blew fiercely, taking the mist further away, deeper into the wood.

Pinkie Pie clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Rainbow Dash…I thought you'd learned your lesson about inviting in irony!"

"Well?" Thorgil stood fully. "Let's go after it!"

She broke into a sprint, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie not far behind.

...

Fluttershy trekked slowly through the forest, documenting every animal she saw, wondering what it was like to be each of them. First, she'd seen a cicada on a tree, making its loud trill, and she envisioned herself that tiny, clinging to the bark on a tree. Then she'd come across a badger, and thought about burrowing. A squirrel had made her contemplate leaping from branch to branch, flying without the benefit of wings, and then, to her amazement, Fluttershy had come across a falcon's nest, and she pondered the heights to which falcons flew. The daydream ended abruptly when she realized she would have to descend upon poor mice, and she replaced it with one of being a mouse, stealing through the undergrowth.

The mist surrounded her suddenly, startling her; in the span of a moment, her vision of the entire forest became blurred in white. Tentatively, Fluttershy pressed forward, hoping to find her way out of it. A wind blew at her back, and without thinking, she turned to move with it, almost letting it push her along.

It wasn't long before she heard a voice calling through the pearly whiteness: "Hello? Is anypony there?"

"Rarity!" Fluttershy moved faster then, with more confidence. Rarity, white clothed in white on white and adorned with the shocking plum color of her mane, slowly became visible.

"Oh, Fluttershy!" Rarity sighed with relief. "There IS somepony here! I was beginning to get worried."

"About what?" Fluttershy asked.

"Why, that we would…that we…hm." Rarity stopped midsentence. "You know, I'm not really sure. I just knew as soon as we were wrapped up in this mist that I had to look for you and the others and see if you were all right."

The mist dissipated almost immediately.

"This truly is odd," Rarity remarked, wrinkling her nose.

"Maybe the island is trying to tell us something," Fluttershy suggested.

"Perhaps," Rarity agreed, "but what?"

"You just said you felt like it was important that we find each other," Fluttershy stated. "Maybe that's what we should keep doing."

"All right, then. Let's go."

Rarity and Fluttershy found themselves on a path that led them further into the woods, away from the School of Bards. As they walked, Rarity asked, "So, Fluttershy…when you said you wanted to see through the eyes of ALL the animals…"

"Yes?"

"Did you even mean the spiders?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to have to wrap up any flies for…well, you know…but I would like to know what it's like to spin a web."

...

"Okay," Applejack said to herself as she moved through the trees. "This ain't the apple orchard. It just ain't home. I gotta get used to that."

She wandered into a grove of trees where the mist hung thick. She didn't think anything of it. She couldn't have known that the conditions were wrong, or that it was anything more than just another natural phenomenon found in the forest.

Jack entered the grove from the opposite direction. "Applejack," he said. "It's back. It's THIS."

"This is that mist that got everypony all confused?" Applejack looked around. "Huh. Didn't even notice. But now that ya mention it…"

"It feels odd," Jack supplied.

"It feels…FAMILIAR," Applejack corrected. "I feel like I should know what's goin' on here, but I just can't put a hoof on it! What about you? Got any vibes from the life force?"

Jack shook his head. "I know it shouldn't be here, and I know it's not trying to harm anyone. That's all I've been able to figure out. Then again, I only had a few seconds with it before it got carried off on the wind and I followed it here."

"Well, maybe now you can get a better – "

The wind whistled; the mist rolled back and away.

Applejack looked up to Jack with determination. "Follow it?"

Jack nodded.

The pair walked briskly to follow the mist through the forest. After some time, it disappeared entirely, but Jack and Applejack were unwilling to give up the chase, so they pressed onward.

Their route brought them directly to where Twilight sat beneath one of the larger trees of the forest. The unicorn, at first glance, appeared to be staring into space, but Jack realized she was doing the exact opposite. She was looking at everything there was to be seen right in front of her, letting the sensations come to her.

"Twilight!" Applejack barked, and Twilight snapped out of what seemed to be her trance.

"Oh…hi!" she greeted. "What are you two doing here?"

"Following the mist," Jack answered. "I still can't figure out anything about it!"

"You saw it again?" Twilight asked.

"Didn't you?" Applejack replied. "It blew right by here."

Twilight shook her head. "I didn't see any mist. And trust me: I didn't miss ANYTHING that came by me."

"Except you almost missed us," Applejack pointed out.

"Was I that wrapped up in it?" Twilight wondered out loud. "I better be more careful. I don't wanna lose my mind – "

Jack almost laughed. "I don't think you'll just lose your mind observing. All the bards I heard about who went mad…it happened when they were contacting the life force the way we do for fire, and they asked for a lot more than fire. Or they lost themselves in the body of an animal."

"Well," Twilight said, standing, "if something weird is going on, we should find out what it is. Which way did it go?"

"That way." Applejack extended a hoof, pointing further into the forest. "I think."

"Hmm." Twilight regarded the direction with suspicion. "Whatever it is…it's trying to pull us away from the school. Are you sure it's safe?"

"I am," Jack insisted. "Don't ask me how I know. I just…know."

"Then let's go."

Twilight, Applejack, and Jack picked up the trail. They walked for what seemed a long time, surrounded by the darkness, the bustle of the animals. Then they entered a clearing.

At the same time, Fluttershy and Rarity found themselves in the same place. "Twilight!" Fluttershy greeted, sounding amost relieved. "Jack! Applejack!"

"THERE you are!" Rarity added. "Now all we have to find is – "

Thorgil, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie barreled into the clearing, skidding to a halt when they saw everyone else around them.

"And there they are!" Rarity cried.

"Where did it GO?" Thorgil snapped, looking around for the mist.

"Did we lose it?" Rainbow Dash asked disappointedly.

"Yup we did!" Pinkie confirmed. "But we found everypony else!"

"That…'it,'" Applejack asked. "Were y'all chasin' a mist?"

"YES!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Hmm," Rarity added. "Now, Fluttershy and I weren't CHASING the mist, per sé, but it did lead us to each other, and it gave us the strongest sense that we should look for you."

"Whatever this mist is," Twilight theorized, "it wanted us all together, and all the way out here. We have to be a couple miles away from the school if not more."

"I don't even know which way is BACK to the school," Fluttershy realized, beginning to tremble.

"Don't worry, dear," Rarity reassured her. "If we are lost, then at least we're all lost together."

The mist chose then to reappear, slowly building in the clearing between the eight. When Twilight encountered it for the first time, she gasped, and the others all knew she'd figured out its mystery. "Those are the Mists of Avalon!" she cried.

"All the way out here?" Rarity asked.

"This CERTAINLY isn't Avalon," Thorgil added.

"But it is an island with a lot of magic in it," Twilight pointed out. "This isn't any ordinary world. I bet the Mists can travel here because of that."

The mist began to thicken on one side of the clearing, pouring out of the other side and leaving the air clear. The eight gathered on that side, watching as the mists grew so thick that they literally obscured the forest beyond out of view, putting up a great white wall. Nobody dared comment, all knowing that something mystical and strange was occurring. Then the mist cleared. Before them was a path, neatly carved through the trees, that hadn't been there before.

Thorgil, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie each took a step toward the new path, but Jack cautioned, "Wait. Look at the trees."

"The leaves," Applejack realized. "Those ain't hazel."

"That isn't the same forest," Twilight said, almost a whisper of awe. "I think…I think the mists just opened a path to an entirely different world for us!"

"Is that even possible?" Rarity asked.

"In a hazel wood on the Islands of the Blessed," Jack pointed out, "I wouldn't think much was impossible."

"So do we go or not?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently.

"It went through a lot of trouble getting us here to see that," Thorgil added.

"What's the plan, team strategist?" Pinkie asked, looking to Twilight.

Twilight and Jack turned to look at each other. They remembered Taliesin's words at the same time, and spoke them in unison: "If you are called, answer."

"So we go," Thorgil clarified.

Twilight nodded. "We go. We're supposed to."

"After all," Applejack pointed out, "y'all said fate would let us know."

"All RIGHT!" Rainbow Dash cried. "Now we're gettin' to the good part!"

Thorgil, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Jack, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy moved onto the new path between the trees that were not hazel. Behind them, the mists thickened again, and had anyone else come to that clearing, they would have seen the white wall recreate itself. At last, when the mists dissipated, the hazel wood was back in place as it had been, and there was no sign of the place where the eight had crossed.

...

Chapter 85:

· Fire, mist, rain, and earthquakes are all phenomena Jack has canonically performed in the Trolls Trilogy. Thorgil never cast any of them on her own.

· Taliesin's backstory regarding Annwn is taken primarily from events laid out in "Darkhenge," though it alludes to some other works of fiction if you know how to look at it.

· The dangers of losing one's mind to the life force (or animal possession) are also spelled out in the Trolls Trilogy.

· The incantation Jack says he used to make rain is taken word-for-word from "The Sea of Trolls."

· Rarity's rain song is to the tune of her song "Art of the Dress."

· I picked species of animal because of the qualities I wanted them to have; Orb Weavers are big and colorful spiders, and the trill of the Eastern Screech Owl has the call that sounds to me the most mystical. I didn't check if any of the animals I brought up were native to northern Europe. The Islands, to me, belong to more than just Northern Europeans, so I figured there can be an amalgamation of wildlife from different regions there.

· There is evidence the mallow plant was used to eat in that time period, but I'm sure it wasn't the marshmallow we're familiar with in 2014.

· The earthquake incident refers to "Land of the Silver Apples."

· I also discovered the lorica through "Islands of the Blessed."

· I don't know what would happen if you tried to switch brains with an animal while you were keeping your soul in a phylactery, and I'm not sure even I want to try and touch that complication.

· I stress that the Islands are special because I'm not going to have the Mists turn up to just sweep them from one world to the other on any old world. The idea happened naturally here, but I don't want to use it to godmod inter-world travel for the larger part of the story.