With the Manticore now behind them, the six ponies continued traveling. Most of the group had become a little more relaxed now that they were actually in the forest, feeling more confident that they could handle whatever they came across. None of them were actually aware of the change consciously. They had relaxed and become more comfortable without realizing it.

Shining Armor moved to walk next to Rainbow Dash. He looked up at the pegasus as she flew slightly above him. Clearing his throat slightly, he got her attention.

"So," he said slowly, "you knew that Fluttershy could do that?"

"Course I did," Dash said with a smirk. "Fluttershy may be have a hard time talking to other ponies and is ready to jump at the sound of a twig snapping, but she knows how to handle animals."

"I guess that explains how she's able to get along with you then." Shining gave a smirk of his own as he looked at her.

"Oh, ha ha." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Seriously though. I've seen her calm down bucking bears. Then there's Angel."

"Angel?" Shining asked.

"'Angel Bunny,'" Rainbow Dash moved her hooves to make quotation marks as she spoke. "The pet rabbit Fluttershy takes care of."

"I think I know who you're talking about. When Twilight and I went to her cottage, there was a rabbit that glared at me the whole time."

"That's him. The thing thinks he could take on a platoon of guards on his own or something. Not a fuzzball I'd ever want to cross. But I've seen him actually listen to Fluttershy. I figure, if she can face down bears and take care of that crazy rabbit, then she knows how to deal with animals. And if she believes she can handle a... a..."

"Manticore."

"Right. If she thinks she can handle one of those, who am I to argue?"

Shining Armor gave a nod and let his pace slow down to something more casual. It was kind of a strange thing to see, this shy and skittish mare standing up to a massive creature without flinching in the slightest. He continued to walk, looking around at the others.

"Eww," Rarity groaned. "My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck."

As they six of them continued to walk, the canopy of the forest grew thicker. After another minute, no moon light made it through, leaving the group in absolute darkness.

"I didn't mean that literally," Rarity responded as she and the others were unable to see anything.

"Everypony hold on," Shining Armor said, listening as the others stopped. "Just give me a moment. I think I can give us some light." Closing his eyes, the unicorn stallion began to concentrate. Drawing on his magic, he began to focus it into his horn. Feeling the energy collect, he shifted it to turn into glowing white light.

A scream filled the air. Shining Armor opened his eyes.

And found himself staring at the gaping maw of something with sharp teeth.

Letting out a yelp (although if anyone had noticed it, they would have called it a shriek like a little filly), the stallion took a large leap backwards, landing is such a way as to make sure his flank was protected from attack by the ground. His eyes glanced around, taking in sight of the others and noticing they were surrounded by what looked like trees with teeth. Letting the light fade away, he adjusted his magic to set up a shield bubble around him and the others.

Or so he thought. As he looked around, Shining Armor only counted four others.

"Pinkie Pie?" he called out. "Where's Pinkie Pie?" He and the others started looking around. And that was when they heard...

Laughter?

Following the sound, the rest of the group found the pink pony on the outside of the shield. Not only was she standing right next to one of the strange tree creatures and laughing, but she was actually making faces at it.

"Pinkie!" Shining called out as he dropped the shield, "What are you doing? Get over here."

"Oh, don't be such a silly filly Shiny hiney," Pinkie Pie called back. "Don't you see..."

The sound of a string instrument began to fill the air. It was difficult to say what exactly, but the notes had a high tone and the song had a quick, upbeat tempo. As the others watch, Pinkie Pie began to bounce up and down to the mysterious music.

Then she started to sing.

At first the others all stood there, staring in disbelief and seeming unable to comprehend what was happening right in front of them. Here they were in dark and spooky woods, surrounded by what looked like trees with mad faces and sharp teeth, and here before them was Pinkie Pie just singing and smiling away like nothing was wrong.

What was even stranger: it seemed to be working. Before their very eyes, Pinkie laughed at one of the trees and the face on it just seemed to vanish.

Strangest of all, it turned out it was infectious. At first the other five watched as they listened to Pinkie Pie singing her song. Without realizing it, they each started moving to the rhythm and beat of the music. Next they began to laugh as well. It started small, with giggles and snickers. Quickly it grew into chuckles then into full blow laughter. Soon all six of them were lying on the ground, laughing as hard as they could while all the faces vanished from the trees. They all stayed like that for probably ten minutes before stopping enough to get moving again.