Zecora, Shining, Spike, and Twilight hastily made their way to the Everfree, hooves moving in frenzied gallops while the drake simply rode on the lavender mare's back. They passed some ponies in the streets as they madly rushed, with some of the passerby asking if things were alright and whatever the reason for the Captain of the royal guard's presence was. Twilight merely threw "It's a long story!" at each and every soul that wanted an answer to one question or the other and continued to run headlong towards the dense woodland.

Once the quartet came upon the path that dissected the forest, the ponies skid to a halt as their legs ached and their chests heaved with breaths that burned in their throats. Spike remained on his mobile perch, taking the time Twilight and the other two spent catching their breaths to look at the sky. Clouds gathered over the forest again, black masses that softly shook with thunder and swirled around above the canopy. He squinted his eyes and spotted yellow dots that, had he not concentrated hard enough, he couldn't see otherwise.

Spike jerked his attention back to Twilight as she started to trot again, although this time at a much more leisurely pace. Zecora filed in behind his makeshift mount, with Shining bringing up the rear as they strode upon the dirt path. "So, what's the plan?" he asked.

"Dealing with Zecora's wraith, or after?" Twilight retorted in a raspy voice, drawing a shuddering breath as a clap reverberated overhead.

"After," Spike replied tersely and nonchalantly, grabbing the unicorn's mane with his claws.

Twilight slowed down some more, to a languid walk that caused Zecora and Shining to do the same. "Uh… good point. I really should've thought of that sooner," she murmured, ears flattening against her head when the drake groaned.

Spike assumed a not-so-impressed slant of the eyelids and a serious frown in his brow, his shoulders sagging and his grip on the purple locks loosening ever so slightly. "When we get back to the library, I'm giving you extra-strong espresso," he sighed begrudgingly.

"Well, our Fantasians seem keen on scouring the libraries," Shining piped up from behind. "Maybe I could take them to the Crystal Empire up north and help them file through the shelves there."

Twilight's ears perked up. She craned her neck and stated over her shoulder, "Oh, of course! That's a very good idea!"

Shining shot Twilight a grin. "Of course, I'll have to ask them about it once we get back," he added. "I'll bet they'll want to see it once I tell them about it!" The four continued on, paying little heed to the expanse of sky above the Everfree when Zecora veered off the path and into the thicket.

"This way, and we have to move with haste. I hope a timberwyrm or a pack of timberwolves didn't grind my wraith into paste," Zecora intoned as she waded through the bushes. Shining and Twilight followed her, trotting side-by-side, keeping their eyes glued to the path ahead and the zebra that trotted in front of them.

"I've been meaning to ask, Shining… why'd you and everypony else drop by so early?" Twilight questioned, shooting the Captain a brief glance.

"Yeah, it's… odd. Not even you would show up right after Celestia raises the sun," Spike stated, giving Shining a vexed look.

"We feared that something far worse would have happened, had our Fantasians stayed in Canterlot a day longer," Shining replied with a heavy sigh. "That, and the general decided to head to the dungeons and fuss at the pony who I believe to have started the riot. We'd have come sooner, if we didn't have to yank him out of the cell halls first," he added, a frown setting into his muzzle.

Twilight blinked and shook her head, her horn starting to glow. She used her magic to push aside a few stray branches before they could swat at her face. "Is that why he wanted a nap so badly?" she inquired, glancing at Shining again.

"Part of it, yes," Shining answered with a nod.

"Wouldn't be surprised if he tried strangling whoever started that mess…" Spike stated off-handedly, quickly finding himself getting a glance from the Captain.

"Trust me, he wanted to wrap his hooves around something last night. It's a good thing he didn't," Shining half-mumbled, garnering a nod from the drake. He looked ahead and stopped immediately, causing Twilight to halt as well. Zecora also paused, lowering her front end and bending her knees as forms darted past her and fled into rapidly-rustling shrubbery that fell silent. "What was that?" he asked in a low whisper.

"I do not know. But we mustn't dally, nor trot so slow," Zecora replied, her voice equally as hushed, still crouching as another blurred form rushed past her and disappeared into the thick green undergrowth. When a third leapt over the crouched zebra a moment later, the four tensed up as a low and deep growl shook the canopy above.

Whether it was a boom of thunder, or something else altogether, they couldn't tell—the ground failed to shake in the slightest and they hadn't seen the source of the noise when they took a look around. This in itself sent a tingling sensation of unease running through four spines in a series of back-and-forth marathons, further intensifying as another low snarl hit their ears and the cover of leafy branches shook again.

They waited until the Everfree fell into silence before making their move, bounding forth in a unified gallop as if they were but one entity. But once they found a clearing a few minutes later, the trio of ponies skid to a halt, with Twilight almost knocking Spike off of her back as she stopped. The drake clung to her mane, his body flush against the lavender mare's back and his eyes darting everywhere as the bushes around the clearing seemingly shook to life all at once.

The trees quivered too, as though somehow greatly agitated or frightened, inexplicably shedding piles after piles of decaying branches in their tremorous bout. They continued to shake, and Twilight caught sparse glimpses of rippling green mana appearing at random intervals. She opened her mouth to speak and ask just what was going on when the forest itself finally answered her question before she could speak it. The branches the trees dropped floated into the air by themselves, swirling like vortexes and breaking apart here and there, aided by the mana.

A series of bestial howls rang out around the four while the levitating bits and pieces of bark came closer together and began forming things. Twilight's eyes narrowed, as did Zecora's, when the branch parts coalesced into sets of four thin but sturdy legs, ending with paws that had darker and sharpened pieces acting like claws. Then, tails formed, mainly of flimsy but flexible branches adorned with many leaves. Torsos, hind quarters, and bulky front quarters came next, connected by thin midsections that gave the appearance of whatever was being formed had starved.

Lastly, heads were created, with ears that jutted upright. Said ears had tufts of pine needles. More 'tufts' of wood formed next to cheeks, and thin canid muzzles lined with miniature stakes for teeth. Leaves formed eyebrows which framed glowing slits of sickly greenish-yellow that narrowed when more growls echoed from the wooden masses.

The wooden things landed smoothly on their paws, staring straight at the ponies and drake that still stood in the clearing. They crouched and crept into the small expanse where trees didn't grow, circling the group and closing in with a slow, cautious gait. Zecora shifted back towards Twilight and Shining, shooting glances at both of them. "It seems the timberwolves have us trapped..." she murmured.

"And they're closing the gap," Twilight finished for Zecora, a smile spreading on her face in spite of the current situation. Her horn started glowing, its aura taking on a white hue, and spinning runes materialized and shimmered above her head. "But not for long," she added as a sword of light jutted out and flew skyward for a bit, before halting as magic grasped it firmly by the hilt. Twilight pulled the blade back down to ground level and boldly stepped forward, waving the blade in a horizontal sweep once and sending the closest timberwolves back a few paces.

The timberwolves growled louder, and a few began barking as Twilight came closer to them and warded them away with the sword. Some of the more foolish wooden beasts dared to lunge at the lavender mare, only to be hacked into tiny pieces by the weapon. Still some more timberwolves thought it to be a good idea to attack Shining and Zecora, but found that a quickly-cast magenta barrier kept them from getting closer to their intended prey.

"Yeah, back off and let us through, you stupid wood planks!" Spike cheered, grinning as the timberwolves snarled in response. They attempted to lunge again, though Twilight's blade made very short work of them—by the time the last wolf attacked and subsequently got smashed to splintery fragments, the rest were nothing more than cut-up mounds of bark and leaves.

Twilight dispelled the blade, turning to Zecora and Shining as the latter allowed the barrier to disintegrate. "You two alright?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? I'm in tip-top shape!" Shining replied, a wide grin on his face.

"Same here, but we really shouldn't dally. We must get to the wraith in my hut before the timberbeasts rally," Zecora added, assuming a serious look on her face.

Twilight nodded and turned around, immediately groaning as the piles of wood got enveloped in green mana again. They swirled about violently, this time all of the fragments condensing into one vortex instead of many individual ones. "What now?" she hissed as a long, large, and slender body formed from the bark and leaves. Within seconds, and in the stead of a timberwolf pack, a timberwyrm roared and caused the forest to ripple with mana as soon as its body was completed.

"Zecora, I think you jinxed us," Spike stated, turning to look rather pointedly at the zebra. The timberwyrm stared at him and his group, a low growl leaving its throat as a long tongue made of leaves licked at its wooden chops.

"I did not mean to do so. I am of the opinion that the Everfree stooped so low," Zecora argued as Shining went ahead and threw up another magenta barrier.

"We can argue about this later. Right now, we have a giant tree-snake to dispatch!" Shining barked, turning to Twilight as she summoned up the light sword again. The timberwyrm eyed the group warily, still licking its lips for a moment before it retracted its tongue. The beast roared and arced over Twilight, its mouth wide open as it rapidly came close to the barrier.

Instantly, its teeth sank in the magenta mass, but did not puncture it. Instead, the half-dome shield flexed like bubble wrap that did not pop, and the wyrm found itself wrestling with a barrier strong enough to hold against its teeth. It pulled and tugged, wiggling and writhing about, trying to bypass the shield to get to the pony and zebra beneath it. Yet no matter how hard it tried, nor how much, the barrier simply refused to yield like a semi-rubbery and stubborn jawbreaker.

Shining smirked tauntingly at the timberwyrm's futile efforts to break the blasted barrier, and the beast retracted with a frustrated roar leaving its mouth in short order. It decided to turn its attention to Twilight and attack her with such speed she could barely react—the unicorn mare whirled around and thrust her blade into the open mouth. She went wide-eyed as the sword managed to plunge deep into the back of the wyrm's throat.

The reaction from the timberwyrm was instantaneous; it pulled back as abruptly as the sword's going into its throat. It coughed and wheezed, as if struggling for breath, thrashing its head about in an attempt to dislodge the weapon. Like with the barrier, it was a useless effort, and in seconds it managed to cough hard enough to start dislodging the material that made its body instead of the sword itself.

After another few coughs, it simply fell apart again, littering the scene with bark and leaves. The blade fell as the beast crumbled, plunging into the ground with the tip of its blade and standing tall and proud amidst the debris. Twilight trotted to the blade and grasped it with her magic, pulling it out of the soil with ease. Instead of dispelling it, she held it to one side, being careful to avoid letting it touch Spike and vice-versa. She nodded to Shining and Zecora, the former dropping the barrier, and once more the trio took off galloping.

As they disappeared into the thicket, though, they did not pay heed to a series of howls ringing out through the forest's canopy—let alone to another swell of green mana that enveloped the clearing they just left.

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

A bubbling, pale green brew boiled in the cauldron of the hut, and Zecora set about adding herbs and other ingredients, gathering more jars and opening them to pour their contents into the mortar and pestle. She ground them into powder and threw the plant bits in, almost seemingly at random. Shining, Gala, Twilight and Spike watched as she added more things to mortar, ground them, and threw them into the concoction. All four were wrinkling their noses as strong and strange aromatic smells wafted through the air.

"That smells weird. What all's in it?" Gala asked, turning to Shining, Spike, and Twilight. They stayed out of Zecora's way as she added more ingredients like no tomorrow. All her question garnered was the shaking of three heads.

Zecora paused after tossing in another ground-up plant that her guests couldn't identify at a first glance, reaching into her saddlebag before mumbling something under her breath. She pulled out the wad of chitil in her hoof, finding that all of the hairs and feathers she had gathered got stuck in the mass of slime.

She grinned, though, upon spotting brilliant crimson strands just barely in the goo, jutting out like sore hooves. The zebra plucked the strands with practiced ease and took a moment to wipe them clean of any chitil they might have accrued before gently lowering them to the bubbling liquid. Zecora dropped the hairs and tottered away from the cauldron on three legs, striding over to a shelf with an empty glass jar that had a cork sitting next to it. She crammed the chitil and hairs and feathers inside, picking up the cork and sealing the canister before going back to the brew.

The liquid bubbled violently, as though about to boil over, turning from a pale green to a bright red—as vermilion as the strands of mane that had been added to the mixture. She grinned as the contents of the cauldron shrank and shrank, congealing with each passing second until it turned into a slimy mass that faintly rippled with blue mana. She beckoned Twilight over with a hoof, and the unicorn levitated herself over the cauldron as Zecora pointed to the bottom of the large black pot. "Erm, what's that?" Twilight asked, lifting up the wad of solidified gunk in her magic.

"That, my dear, is something that wraiths chew. Though, I do not understand why it became red, nor the reason it glows blue," Zecora replied, taking the wad out of the air with the same hoof she gestured with and cantering over to Gala on three legs. She hoofed it to the legless wraith, who looked at it curiously for a moment before opening her mouth and taking a small bite out of the stuff. As she chewed the goo, she found herself slowly growing more exhausted.

It took a few moments for her to swallow before she took another bite, and she took a moment to savor the taste. Herbs graced her mouth, and there were a lot of them. The gelatinous texture did not appeal to her, at first. Though as she swallowed the second helping, she found herself liking the rather odd meal. On the third bite, however, exhaustion piled up fast the more she chewed—in fact, Gala could barely swallow the mixture before yawning.

"That tasted funny and felt weird, but in a good sort of way," she murmured, green orbs rapidly dimming. Zecora lightly waved the remaining mass of wad at her, and Gala eyed it and noticed it was rather small. So she took the rest in her mouth. She chewed again and, in one minute or two her orbs ceased glowing altogether. She fell still with a soft snore before she could swallow the rest of it. Shining grabbed the wraith's head in his magic and slowly tilted it up a bit, using a hoof to gently rub at her neck before stopping as she ingested it.

"So, is that what it does? Knock her out?" Twilight asked, lowering herself to the floor and letting her magic dissipate from her form, before trotting to the now-sleeping Gala.

"In essence, yes. A peaceful death for this old foal would be best," Zecora replied with a nod. She noticed the sunset swallowtail as it flittered over to the wraith and crawled to her mouth, and the zebra raised both hooves the pry the maw apart. The butterfly crawled inside, going down Gala's throat and glowing with a faint red mana as it went down the esophagus.

"Why'd the butterfly crawl down there?" Spike asked, using a claw to gesture to Gala's mouth.

"You'll see in a moment, little Spike. Let me say you and the sunset swallowtail share something very much alike," Zecora responded cryptically, nodding to Shining and retracting her hooves. Shining quirked a brow and kept his leg near Gala, lowering her head and tenderly stroking her mane as if it were a cat.

Twilight sighed and summoned up the light blade again. "So, decapitation, right?" she asked in an uneasy tone. Zecora merely nodded again, and the lavender mare turned to Spike. "Um, close your eyes." The drake obeyed, using his claws to shield his eyes, and only then did Twilight back turn to Gala. She hesitantly brought the blade to her prone neck, pausing as Gala smiled in her sleep. Twilight shut her eyes tight and lifted the blade up, opening them just once to make sure she'd hit her mark. She choked briefly upon seeing that content smile on the wraith's face, but gathered herself and closed her eyes again.

Shining did not retract his hoof, continuing to pet Gala's mane. "Do it, Twily," he said in a quiet tone. The blade shook in the magical grasp, but steadied shortly after. A moment later, a sickening slice filled the air after some more hesitation from the lavender unicorn, and Gala's head and body became two separate entities. The blade was dispelled, but not before the halves erupted in a violent swell of crimson mana and fire that did not scorch the floor.

Shining jumped back with a yelp that caused Spike to uncover his eyes, wincing as his foreleg got singed a bit, and the ponies, drake and zebra watched as the fires ate away at the corpse without burning anything else. Seconds ticked by before turning into minutes, during which time the fires died off and all that remained was a pile of ash that Zecora hastily swept up and stored in another empty jar.

"What… happened?" Shining ventured, rubbing the singe mark on his foreleg and looking at Zecora with a frown.

"The swallowtail engulfed itself and Gala's remains in flame. The mana within the insect only activated when the wraith's death came," Zecora replied, gently setting the jar of ashes onto a shelf.

"I saw the fire! But… why'd the…" Shining paused, and something clicked in his head. He got up and winced as he set his singed leg down, so he lifted it up and marched to Zecora on three legs. "Would you be willing to… uh…" he trailed off again, sitting on his haunches and lifting his wounded foreleg to rub his temples furiously.

"Zecora, Celestia sent me a letter, and she told me wraiths started cropping up all over Equestria. That, and our Fantasian guests seem interested in libraries. Would you be willing to accompany us… and them?" Twilight asked, giving the zebra a straight face, her eyes glinting with a bit of hope.

"Since the dark task has been completed, I don't see why not. May I bury Gala's remains first, while it is still in my mind as a little thought?" Zecora inquired, giving Twilight a small frown.

Twilight saw a small flicker of some kind of emotion in Zecora's eyes and slowly nodded. "If you want, I'll make a tombstone for her out of stone and wood," she sighed. She let her horn glow, and used her magic to tenderly lift up the jar of ashes. Zecora nodded back, and she rushed around the hut, scooping up ingredients in containers she hadn't used in the brew, as well as mortar and pestle and the jar of chitil and hairs and feathers. Twilight waited until the zebra was prepared, and they trotted out of the hut, followed shortly by Shining and Spike.

Immediately after setting hoof out of the hut, Twilight and Shining set to work, gathering fallen branches and stones with their magic. Spike, in the meantime, gave Zecora a look. "Where do you want her buried?" he asked.

Zecora pointed a hoof at a spot near the hut, smiling softly. "There, where wild beasts will not disturb the grave. I'm glad we sent her to the afterlife; a soul's been saved. But we need make haste and not stall; the dirt will serve the ash jar as a fine mask. Spike, your claws are best suited for the task," she replied.

"So, you want me to dig a grave?" Spike asked. When Zecora nodded, he donned a firm face and rushed to the spot, bending over and digging with his front claws, shoveling dirt aside with the pace of a running rabbit. It took a bit, but he formed a small hole that was as deep as he was tall. The hole was one in which a creature of his size could comfortably sleep in, and clambered out as Shining and Twilight trotted to him and stood at its edge.

The zebra moved to the hole and inspected it, as well as the accumulation of wood and stones Shining and Twilight presented to her. She nodded once, watching as Twilight slowly lowered the ash jar into the hole and set it down to the floor, closing it off with dirt before putting the stones on top of that once the grave had been filled.

Leftover stones were placed around the end of a sturdy piece of wood, on which a cross had been formed and held on the spot by magic. Spike ran off to a nearby bush and dug around for another moment, prior to finding loose vines growing along the ground. He snatched them up, broke them free of their soily confines, and ran back to tie the cross with the makeshift rope.

Then, silence filled the forest as soon as Spike finished tying up the cross. The group stood, looking at the grave, each individual having various emotions flickering across their faces. Shining had a sad frown on his visage, though in his eyes there had been some small spark of happiness and relief. Twilight looked at the ground on the edge of the new resting place, her visage shadowed over by her bangs, eyes closed as she also donned a frown. Spike had a vexed look at first, before it melted into a small smile with slanted eyelids.

Zecora kept a straight face, but she broke the expression by closing her eyes and letting a small smile of her own cross her muzzle. "Perhaps death could give her more comfort, now that she has passed. I hope she has found an afterlife that boasts plenty of evergreen grass," she murmured under her breath.

Twilight lifted her head and turned to Zecora. "No use mulling over her suffering, now that it's come to an end. At least..." she paused, turning back to Gala's grave, "she got a peaceful death, it was painless like she wanted, and… she companionship in her last moments."

"There's nothing else we could have done, Twily—she was too far gone," Shining said in a firm, though gentle and low voice. He placed a hoof on Twilight's withers and added, "You're right, though. In fact… Zecora might help us see to it that less wraiths who end up in her position…" he trailed off, using his other hoof to gesture to the grave. "… suffer like she did," he finished.

"But not all wraiths suffer, Shiny. You've spent a few weeks with the pale changeling, and I've seen hostile ones in Fantasia," Twilight retorted, glancing at the Captain.

Shining contemplated this for a moment and nodded in understanding. "True that not all of them suffer, but you've met hostile ones? That's worrying," he murmured. The forest fell into a sort of tranquility again, one barely broken by distant claps that rang overhead and faded. Zecora took the time to head back into her hut, saddlebag shifting wildly as she went, and a half-hour passed before she returned. As she rejoined the others, they shot glances at her when the sounds of wood hitting wood hit their ears.

"I made the potion for the featherless foal. We need to hasten her down's growth, lest the damage of being plucked takes its toll," Zecora sighed, and the ponies and drake nodded. Again, silence took hold and lingered.

Spike groaned as minutes of quiet passed. After a good ten minutes went by, he piped up after a loud clap echoed overhead, "Shouldn't we head back to the library? It sounds like it's about to storm pretty bad."

"That would be wise. We need to make haste, before the forest cries," Zecora added with a nod. She flinched as a loud clap shook the canopy again, and this time the ground with it.

The other three nodded and they started to walk away from the grave. Twilight paused to let Spike climb on her back before starting to trot. She burst into a gallop, with Shining and Zecora following suit. Another clap shook the forest, followed by a downpour of rain that soaked the trees and battered the quartet without any semblance of mercy. The three tripped over errant branches and slid a bit in forming mud after a few good minutes spent running, with Spike flying off of Twilight's back and landing in a particularly watery patch of mud.

They got back up and gathered themselves, looking around to find that they were in a wide patch of forest that inexplicably lacked trees and shrubbery. The place looked as if a great angry creature uprooted everything and shook off the dirt, which the water pelted over and over to form a semicircle of slippery brown land. Turning their attention to the cloudy sky above after hearing a low hum, Twilight, Shining, Zecora, and Spike could very easily see why.

Trees and shrubs and broken branches and leaves swirled in an angry swell of green mana about above them, multiplying rapidly in number, coalescing into something that they couldn't identify at first. Four bulky objects formed with one set of two forming on ground level and the other forming well above the forest.

The objects had appeared to be a mish-mash at first, but as they formed, the wood and leaves created wickedly engrossed, enlarged claws with four digits that fitted on the ends of the limbs. A torso came next, followed by broad shoulders and hips, and then an elongated neck lined with spines.

At this point, the construct stood upright and towered over the forest. At last, a lizard-like head, adorned with erratically-bending horns, finished off the construct. Ivy vines sprung up all around its frame, forming tight weaves around its less sturdy points to reinforce them, tightening around its host and creating an extra layer of protection for the bits of wood.

This new creature thrashed its head with a fierce roar that pierced the air, looking down at the small group with eyes that gleamed blood red instead of greenish-yellow. Puffs of green-tinted air left its nostrils and mouth, and it still growled menacingly at the lot.

"Um, I think we enraged the Everfree…" Twilight murmured, watching the creature and barely registering Spike as he rushed to her and held one of her forelegs with his claws.

"First timberwolves, then a timberwyrm, and now a timberdrake? I feel our lives are at stake," Zecora whimpered, going wide-eyed as the beast donned a toothy grin. The timberdrake let off another roar, this one louder than the last, as Twilight mustered up the willpower to summon another blade of light.

"When will you quit already? Just leave us alone! Don't make me hurt you!" Twilight shrieked as the monster's cry died down. It looked at her, narrowing its eyes, its toothy grin only widening as she waved her sword for emphasis.