The timberdrake let off a growl, the ivy on its hulking frame shifting and writhing as though a mass of insects that shared a singular mind. Twilight glared at the beast, steeling her nerves and bringing her blade closer to herself, in case it attacked. Shining cast another shield over himself and Zecora, remaining steadfast and collected, eyes narrowing at the wooden monstrosity before him. "Be careful, Twilight!" Shining called, smiling as the unicorn mare glanced over her shoulder and nodded to him.

Twilight turned to Spike and addressed him immediately, "Get under the barrier."

"But Twilight, what about you?" Spike asked, eyes widening like someone punched him hard enough in the nose to make it hurt. "You could get smushed!"

Twilight sent the small drake a confident smirk. "Spike, I've dealt with worse. I'll be fine," she retorted, leaning over to nuzzle him for a moment. Spike returned the gesture and, deciding that being potentially smushed under the timberdrake's heel with Twilight didn't sound like a terrifically good idea, obeyed her command. He released her foreleg and ran over to the barrier, running through a hole that Shining made so he could find himself under a roof of safety.

He whirled around, catching just a glimpse of the hole he rushed through closing, before Twilight galloped into action. The unicorn with the blade surged forward, plunging her weapon into the top of the foot of the timberdrake. She immediately gaped when the poison ivy reacted, shooting up and entangling the light sword, rapidly encasing it in a green criss-cross pattern—before simultaneously constricting and bending the sword in all sorts of unnatural angles.

In less than one minute, the ivy broke the sword by constricting it hard enough that the mana which had formed it went haywire and shattered into glass-like fragments that faded into nothingness. Twilight stood stone still, trying to process what had just happened, barely noticing that the ivy returned to rest on the behemoth's foot.

The timberdrake let off a series of growls that came in rapid, short bursts from its throat—as Twilight listened for a moment, she quickly realized it almost sounded as if it were laughing at her. The beast did not move in any other manner, however—she confirmed this by looking up and down its body as best she could from her current position. The unicorn took a few paces back, eyes warily gazing at the vines of ivy as they continued to writhe, yet otherwise remained stationary on the wood.

"Urg, last thing I needed was a bunch of stupid vines breaking my Faust-damned sword! How in Celestia's name do I—" Her thought processes halted as the rain slowed to a light drizzle. Something clicked in Twilight's head in that moment as, for a brief instant, five burning armored wraith stallions came to the forefront of her mind. Then, pure white clouded her thoughts, and she felt a sweltering, nigh-blistering heat building up from and around her horn. She briefly surmised that, if not for the mud and water she was already caked in, she'd have had a hornache just from this sensation alone.

Twilight continued to stare at the beast as it did another attempt to make chortling growls, noticing green mana pulsating between the vines and the bits of wood she could see through them. The heat rose as she envisioned those spots erupting in purest white, scorching at least a hefty bit of the drake's form.

In a split-second after she painted that mental picture in her mind, the timberdrake's foot found itself being torn apart at the seams as white flames built up from within, pushing and seemingly pouring out of whatever tiny crevasses they could. They erupted and roiled, causing the beast to screech in pain, and it stomped its now-aflame foot a few times in an effort to stop the agony. Twilight held firm, using some magic to keep herself steady as brief tremors rocked the ground beneath her.

The lavender unicorn opened her mouth wide, a giddy grin on her face, and she made to cheer when the heat from her horn fizzled out of existence as the rain picked up in intensity so fast she didn't see it coming. Naturally, this also meant that the flames building up in the monster's foot extinguished as well, because the water drenched and filled the same nooks and crannies from which the inferno was creeping out of. The creature ceased stomping and roaring, going as still as a statue once more.

Immediately thereafter, she noticed the heavier downpour—both her grin and mood fell with the flames that had gone out, and she groaned in frustration. "Of course it has to rain harder now. I am starting to think the Everfree doesn't like me," she mumbled, eyes narrowing in nothing short of irritation. The mare glanced up to meet the creature's gaze head-on, and it looked back at her with that same mocking, dagger-filled grin it wore after it was formed.

Twilight attempted to conjure white flames again, but as soon as heat built around her horn, it simply dissipated as fast as it had come. She stomped a hoof and snarled angrily, already having come to the point of gritting her teeth and feeling blood rush through her limbs. Another attempt after that gave her nothing except a dull throb of pain just under her horn, and she winced and breathed through clenched teeth to keep herself as calm as she could.

She saw the ivy begin to writhe again, at first languidly shifting up and down the beast's frame like ants scurrying to and fro. Then, they expanded and contracted, similarly to how her blade was crushed, except nowhere near tight enough to do the same to the timberdrake. Mana started pulsating around the beast, wildly and seemingly random at first. Twilight's eyes darted to every spot the mana erupted at, trying to catch it but always finding herself seconds too late when they ceased before she could properly observe the phenomenon.

The mare stopped for a minute when she saw more ivy constricting around the trunks of the trees that marked the makedshift arena. It was a thick layer of green that all but drowned out the natural brown and formed a sturdy wall between the trunks, effectively cutting off many means of escape then and there. As she was distracted, she saw a flash of mana, a brief bout of gold adorned with magenta six-pointed stars. "What in Faust's hooves is going on here?" she thought, blinking before turning her attention back to the ripples of mana that emanated from the behemoth of wood.

Only when she moved fast enough to see the start of a mana ripple did the timberdrake finally strike, lifting a foot and kicking Twilight like she was a mere stone—it kicked her hard enough to send her headlong into Shining's barrier and break it. "Twilight!" Spike exclaimed, pupils shrinking to slits at the sight.

Shining gaped and ran over to the mare as she landed on the ground, her legs twitching as a grunt of pain left her mouth and the shards of his spell faded into glimmering dust. "I'll live," she groaned as the Captain made to stand in front of her prone form.

"Stay put Twily," Shining warned tersely before turning his attention to the timberdrake. His horn started glowing, but he blinked when his distinct magenta-hued magic fizzed out in the span of two seconds. "What the…?" he murmured, trying to cast another spell, only to achieve another fizzle of magic in addition to some heat building in his horn. His eyes widened when the ivy flew off of the beast and rushed to him, and they averted when something hacked and slashed its way through the tendril wall in a white blur. This blur made short work of the plants, creating a hole large enough for a battalion to squeeze through with no problem whatsoever.

His pupils shrank as this was immediately followed by a tan-and-green form darting through the opening before the vines could close, skidding to a halt right in front of him before they took the brunt of the attack. A shrill cry of pain, between a pained whine and a startled bird-like squawk, hit his ears as the tendrils wrapped around every inch of the new intruder.

Zecora gaped when another blade of light rushed in and slashed at the ivy, not tearing it to ribbons, though it did force them to let go of whatever it was that decided to defend Shining so brazenly. Spike's jaw dropped when two more forms—one black and white and the other cream and red—burst into the clearing, a staff and sword hovering next to them. Shining looked in front of him as the ivy pulled back, finding that the one who took the attack in his stead was Anna, who already had more welts cropping up in places as a result of being snagged by venomous vines.

"What are you guys doing here?" Spike called out, garnering a look from Matt.

"Spotted that thing and decided it needed to go!" Matt replied, a frown set into his face as Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash came into the clearing and flanked him. "Hard to miss this sonuvabitch when he stands over an entire freaking forest!"

The timberdrake turned its gaze onto the half-Clydesdale, who looked back and waved his hoof threateningly. "Yeah, I called you a sonuvabitch! You got a problem with that, Woody McTendril?" he called in a snide voice, garnering an enraged-sounding roar from the behemoth. While it did this, Anna summoned her flute and lifted it to her mouth, playing a tune that warbled through the air and carried on to the thunderclouds above. Spike glanced up, seeing the pale yellow blobs amidst the darkened gray, faintly hearing them screech before rushing away.

Their fleeing the scene causing the downpour to halt in its tracks, but not before it turned into a brief drizzle, like a waterhose being turned off. Another tune came from the flute, and gusts of wind came to brush up against everyone. The small dragon caught glimpses of water droplets flying out of the monster's cracks and between the ivy as the gale came and went. He turned to the beast as it lifted its foot again, and made to shout as it started to kick when flashes of magic erupted around the foot and sent things thunking into the limb. The drake stilled at the anomaly, and the timberbeast likewise ceased all motion for a moment.

The ivy-laden monster grunted and looked down at its limb, finding a few crystal arrows inexplicably lodged between its toes. It raised a leafy brow at the anomaly before roaring in surprise as red gems erupted from the impromptu splinters and encased the foot in a matter of seconds. Heat built up in the forming rubies, pulsating at first before erupting in a swell of vermillion flames that seemingly caused the crystals themselves to vanish with them.

This ended up setting the entire leg aflame as the fires spread, and it screamed and tried to put the flames out with its front limbs, inadvertently causing them to catch fire as well. Natalie threw in her volley, setting the other leg on fire with a simple blast of white magic, and she grinned as the wood and ivy crackled and popped in response.

Whatever water that remained covering the beast inside and out could not hope to stop the encroaching flames, and so it evaporated under the intense heat. As the wood began crumbling and the beast let out another piercing cry to the heavens, Matt plunged the bare tip of Heaven's Gate down into the soil and channeled mana to his blade.

The sword itself responded, the metal taking on a red-hot hue and glowing with heat and power. Shining spotted a faint trail of crimson seep from the weapon, erratically weaving around to the wooden construct as its legs crumbled into ash and caused it to land in the muddy soil with a loud thud.

As soon as the small, crimson thread of magic connected with the timberdrake's pelvis, the ground beneath it opened up and fire shot out of a small hole that had formed partially the beast, encasing much of the monster and causing what hadn't caught fire yet to start being scorched. Matt slumped over with his horn turning a brilliant scarlet, his magic fizzing out in a minute, with the fires from the hole he made stopping as said hole closed up.

He almost dropped dangerously close to his sword, and he'd have at least slit his own throat had Natalie not grabbed him with her magic and pulled his form sharply back. Shining turned to Anna, finding her in a similar state on the ground, horn bright red and flute clutched between her teeth.

Rainbow let off a low whistle as the timberdrake let off one final cry and slouched, rapidly turning to ash and embers and falling apart into small fragments. She rushed over to Twilight, who started standing up on shaky legs. "Okay, what happened?" the pegasus asked, eyes wide with a mixture of worry and awe.

"The Everfree decided to tell me to screw off," Twilight replied with a huff. She lurched a bit, but Rainbow caught her with a hoof. "So, how'd you guys find us, aside from the hulking monstrosity?"

"Poison ivy sprung up around the trees like an infestation, and we just followed that and found you," Anna answered in a pained voice. "And when I saw the ivy rushing towards you, I did the only thing I could to stop it. That, and we caught Shining's magic signature."

"You learned my brother's magic signature?" Twilight asked, turning to the fallen archer.

"Spending a few weeks with him enabled me and the others to do that," Anna replied, and made to speak further when the Captain spoke up.

"That was incredibly reckless—the ivy could've crushed you to a pulp!" Shining chastised, only to be met with a green-eyed glare.

"Says the pony who would've otherwise been plant food in the same exact scenario he just presented," Anna grumbled back. Shining winced as if stung, and he opened his mouth to retort, but closed it when he realized the archer had a solid point. "And besides, I realized you were only doing your job, and me accusing you of a mess when it wasn't even your fault… I just wanted to make it up to you."

The Captain blinked and turned to the other Fantasians, quickly garnering a nod from Matt and a mouthed "Sorry" from Natalie. He nodded to them with a smile and a mouthed "It's alright," causing the duo to grin as well. His expression fell when another pony piped up.

"Let's get you guys back to the library. You look beat up, and I'm not sure if Twilight's ready to stand yet," Applejack interjected, garnering nods from everyone else with her suggestion.

"My horn's hurting," Matt complained. "Can someone pick up my sword for me, please?" Shining chuckled and turned to Rainbow, who picked up Twilight with her front hooves. The pegasus wasted no time in putting her on his back before steadying her and letting the armored stallion walk around Anna and to the sword still stuck in the dirt. He studied the sword before Natalie pried it out with magic, briefly marveling as its shape and adornments before she moved it it to hover at her side, being mindful of Matt as he faltered for a moment.

He garnered a smile from the Fantasian stallion, who made to stand with one hoof reaching up to his still-heated horn, which retracted upon touching it and flailed for a bit before returning to the watery dirt. Natalie eyed the burning, scattered husk of the timberdrake, eyes widening when she noticed the individual pieces had started shaking and rippling with green mana.

Zecora saw this too, and helped Anna climb onto her back. "We should leave the Everfree soon, before it makes a bigger wooden goon," she intoned.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A good hour passed, and Sarah spent that time by furiously preening her good wing, holding it still with her talons while making sure to not accidentally stab herself in the process. She watched as the other Fantasians dozed, pausing to smile at Maria's slumbering form as the filly shifted under Alexander's wing. The gryphon mumbled to himself about squids and kebabs, and just the mention of squid caused the wounded mare's mouth to slightly water.

She took a moment to wipe a bead of saliva that had crept out of the corner of her mouth with the back of her claw and continued cleaning her feathers. Her eyes shifted between her wing and the others who slumbered soundly, to the room in which they stayed. Books lined more nooks and crannies, but there were other objects scattered about, like crystal balls and scrolls and odd machinery that had lightbulbs and buttons arranged in keyboard configurations.

Next to a crystal ball, Armin had formed a strange bed that looked to be more like a green, translucent, gelatinous-looking cocoon with the top cut out and the sides raised just enough to keep him within it. His back was turned to her, with a thin line of more green running across the back of his head and under the ears.

To one side, a sink, cabinet, fridge, and dish cabinet stood. There were microscopes on the cabinet's top, and leather bags with gemstones poking out of their mouths. A door stood open next to the fridge, leading to a small hall that ended with a staircase winding up. In one of the bookshelves, Katie laid sleeping with a book on her face and her front hooves under her chin, a small pile of books lying just under the shelf in question. Sarah giggled softly at the odd sight of the wraith snoozing in the bookshelf, but stopped and resumed preening.

She paused again when a snort hit her ears, and she looked around to find Fenrir sleeping with his teeth bared and his lips curled back, a low growl escaping his maw. "Get… away from the foal," he mumbled, still snarling in his sleep. Sarah blew out a huff of air and closed her wing, silently creeping over before poking him in the shoulder with a talon. The diamond dog jolted with a sharp gasp, sitting up and glancing around for a moment. His eyes fell on the hippogryph when she cleared her throat.

"You were dreaming?" Sarah asked, a frown set into her muzzle.

Fenrir nodded and rose a paw to cover his mouth as he let off a yawn. "Have the three unicorns returned yet?" he murmured.

"No. I just woke you up so you wouldn't wake anybody else up," Sarah answered swiftly. Fenrir nodded to himself and made to lay back down, turning to rest on his back with his forepaws under his head. He closed his eyes and soon dozed off again, his ear twitching as the hippogryph yawned and lowered her body, shifting herself closer to him in a slow gait so as to not alarm him. Her eyes fluttered shut, and silent minutes ticked by as she got herself comfortable.

In fact, she'd just been about to drift off when the sound of hooves hitting wood reached her ears. Letting off a confused hum, she rose her head up and cracked one eye open to see Shining cantering into the room with Twilight on his back. They were followed by Zecora and Anna, and Spike and Natalie and Matt. Soon after that, Rarity, Rainbow, and Pinkie came in with plastic and brown paper bags in hooves in magic, and some of the bags looked heavier than the others. "Where's… the orange pony?" Sarah asked, noticing a distinct lack of Applejack's presence.

Spike put his claws behind his head and stretched his arms in doing so. "Oh, she went to her place. Y'know, chores and stuff," he answered.

"What kind of chores?" Sarah asked, a brow quirked.

"She runs a farm with sheep, hens, pigs… gotta have them fed and their pens clean to keep them happy," Spike replied hastily. "Think of it like her tending to a gazillion copies of NoLegs, in a few groups with different needs and such." The hippogryph nodded and turned her gaze onto Rarity.

"What's in the bags?" she asked, using a claw to gesture to a plastic one.

Rarity smiled. "Oh, food for everypony—mostly baked goods. We went to Fluttershy's cottage to get some fish she'd normally reserve for her animal friends," she replied, using her magic to procure a very large trout and a small cupcake from two separate bags from her bunch in question.

Rainbow cantered close to Sarah, keeping her bags carefully off of the ground, and leaned to the Fantasian as much as she was able. "I told them about… Lance's allergy to greens," she whispered.

Sarah donned a grin. "Oh, good. I was thinking about having seafood myself, anyway," she murmured, and rose up in a sitting position. She reached out to Fenrir with a claw again and lightly shook him awake. "They're here this time," she stated before the diamond dog could even grumble in protest.

"Do what now?" Katie asked, taking a moment to fling the book off of her head before crawling out of the shelf she'd slept in. She immediately fell into the small pile of books on the floor and grumbled indignantly, with the thud that came from her fall causing Alexander to stir awake.

"What is babbling about who this day of time?" Alexander inquired, rubbing his eyes with a claw. He rose up, closing his wings and shifting to sit on his haunches.

"I cannot possibly hope to articulate a comment regarding whatever it was you've just uttered," Fenrir snorted, looking at the gryphon with his eyes only partially open. Alexander just shrugged in his direction before noticing the wraith extracting herself from the leatherbound-paper pile and stumbling over towards Lance. But the general already shifted and opened his eyes before a pale hoof could even touch him, and he rose one of his own to bat it away when it came too close to his face for comfort.

Pinkie looked at Armin and watched as he sat up, turning to the others to reveal a sleeping mask of green material similar to his half-cocoon covering his eyes. He lifted a hoof up to remove the contraption, barely registering hooves coming his way, only to find himself face to face with the pink earth pony in seconds. "What?" he asked.

"I was wondering if changelings eat food like ponies and gryphons do. After all, what good are fangs if they're not used?" Pinkie replied in a chipper voice, a smile framing her face. The smile broadened when Armin lazily nodded and mumbled something about jelly. He grinned when Pinkie cantered away before stretching his limbs and crawling out of the half-cocoon, turning to Lance as he too made to stand.

Maria was the last to wake up, and she jolted upright immediately upon seeing Zecora. "Where's the thing that you said makes my feathers grow back?" she asked excitedly, shaking in place. Her eyes widened when Zecora chuckled and reached a hoof into her saddlebag, wings spreading when the zebra procured a corked-shut wooden flask that had something noisily sloshing about as she pried it out.

"I see you're rippling with glee. Did you drink anything recently, like water or tea?" Zecora replied, frowning when the foal shook her head. "You need to have something to drink, little one. Otherwise, you could have stomach problems, and those who are fond of such things would be none."

"Is the potion semi-solid or something?" Lance asked, trotting up to Zecora with a brow raised.

"No, but there are herbs and spices in the brew. She might have a specific allergy—I am only taking precautions if this is true," came the answer. The general thought this over for a moment and nodded before trotting towards the sink, only to pause upon finding Spike rushing over while holding a cup and effectively beating him to it. The drake climbed on the counter with the glass in hand, turning on the faucet and letting some water come out of the spigot for a bit prior to filling the glass.

He turned off the contraption before jumping back down when he was satisfied with how much water he acquired, spilling a little of it in the process, leaving only small droplets in his wake. He waltzed over to Maria and watched as Zecora gripped the cork in her teeth and tugged it out, releasing a faint smell of plants and spice. "Drink it all, or the potion won't take effect. The results would otherwise be less than perfect," she warned, giving the foal the container.

Maria took the flask in her claws and obliged, taking one sip of the brew and quickly making a scrunchy face. She struggled to keep the bit of brew in her mouth from leaving it with a series of muffled retching sounds coming from her closed jaws, and a claw from Spike coming up on her muzzle left her with no choice but to swallow the mixture. Zecora blinked, and Rainbow piped up, "Yeah, she's a meat-eater, too. I gotta say, she has it worse than Lance does."

"Good thing you called for a drink," Rarity murmured as Spike relinquished his grip on Maria's muzzle, watching and shuddering as the foal brought the flask to her mouth again. She stiffened as the filly chugged down the rest of the mixture, tilting her head back and quickly going green in the face as she emptied the container. She put it down once the last drop went down her throat, and snatched the glass of water from the drake's hands before guzzling that as well in quick succession.

"That tasted bad," Maria grumbled, ears flattened against her skull. A few seconds after she said that, she thrust her claws up to her chest, dropping the glass in the process as her entire body began quivering like she had been strapped to a jackhammer. The other Fantasians watched as, with a swell of mana rippling all over the foal's body, feathers of dusty brown started to rapidly crop up on her bald spots. Then she fluffed out, feathers lengthening and growing at an alarmingly fast rate that left all present in the room utterly speechless.

After a few minutes, the ripple of mana faded from her form and the feathers stopped growing, coating her in a messy down that looked more like a hairball that sprouted from her chest and wings than anything else. A brief silence settled in, one in which Katie broke. "By Godcat's fluffy fur, that's… just… wow," she said.

Lance let off a low whistle at the anomaly and his eyes went wide. "Hot damn," he murmured, quickly trotting over to Maria and raising a hoof to rub her between the wings. "How do you feel?"

"Belly… hurts…" Maria whimpered, wings folding against her sides as her claws moved to rest on her stomach, a great cramping pain rising in her gut that made it feel as if a full-grown stallion kicked her. She leaned into the hoof that rubbed her, and the agony in her digestive system subsided a bit.

"So, what'd you make that bed out of?" Pinkie asked Armin, using a bag-laden hoof to gesture to the half-cocoon when he raised a brow.

The changeling turned to said half-cocoon and sighed. "Oh, that. A substance called chitil. Nothing special, really, especially when I can do this," he answered, his horn starting to glow. His magic embraced the bed and the discarded sleeping mask before lifting them up and compacting the two entities. His magic continued working, turning them into separate wads of goo that he meshed together and molded into a new shape—namely, that of a small chest.

"Ooooh," Pinkie cooed, eyes glimmering with awe. "So, it's like clay?"

"Sort of, except also like jelly," Armin answered with a nod as he made the chitil vanish in a flash of magic. "Never leave home without it."

"So, who wants food?" Matt interjected at last, garnering the attention of everyone else. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving right now."