It took almost thirty minutes for the proceedings, including the one or two minutes the newly-arrived group spent emptying their stomachs into their buckets, to conclude. After that, everypony in the crowd dispersed, save for the elderly stallion with the vacant gaze. He watched as the bride, who amazingly enough had the strength left to do so, wobbled home with one of the tuxedo-clad stallions. "I understand not everyone is… accustomed to such a sight, and I sincerely wish it could be avoided," he groused in a remorseful voice, turning to his uninvited guests. "But you must understand; we ponies of Greenwood are… cursed."

Blueblood, whose face had turned to a shade of darkened verdant, lurched a bit as more bile tried to force itself out of his throat. He swallowed it with a great deal of willpower, and then turned to glower at the stallion. "Wh… whatever are you blabbering about?" he hissed, his voice pained.

"And… what did you mean by… 'those only born in Greenwood?'" Rhinoc groaned, clutching his aching stomach with a hoof.

The elder sighed, but his face did not shift in any way save for a flaring of nostrils. "Come to my abode. We will discuss it there." He turned and cantered off the podium on wobbly legs, with his gait favoring his left side, enabling his guests to see that he did not possess a cutie mark. Bit by bit he trudged to the main clearing that marked Greenwood, and slowly his guests got up and followed him in silence, though not before Rhinoc made the buckets vanish in light. They noticed that the path between the clearings was relatively short, perhaps twenty yards, and that some houses sported signs that had boards nailed over them.

The few ponies left out and about watched as they trudged to a withered tree whose door was barely holding together, with some sets of eyes flashing red at their passing. These glaring ponies, too, were blank-flanked, and three of them were a band of dark grey unicorn stallions clustered near one house, all with moss green manes streaked with silver stripes.

"Outsiders," one of them muttered.

"It's like that blasted harpy all over again," another hissed.

"What next? Will Akron himself grace us with his presence?" the third groused, audibly facehoofing soon after his utterance.

The elder paid the muttering villagers no heed and lifted a shaking hoof to open the door, ambling inside while being gracious enough to leave it wide open. Rhinoc shivered and stepped in, as did the rest of his entourage. The inside of the house was decorated with more wooden furniture, most of it carved from the rich brown oakwood. There were rocking chairs, small tables and nightstands, and even an ottoman and a fireplace outlined by stone. A door was at the back of the room, currently closed at the moment. The elder sat in one of the rocking chairs and gestured for his visitors to sit, and Flash shut the door before everyone parked in front of him.

"What brings you to our… hamlet?" the elder asked, his face as stoic as ever.

"We… heard moans, and… they were loud enough we could hear it from the Mighty Oak's shrine," Rainbow answered, lifting a hoof to rub at the back of her neck.

The elder raised a brow. "The Mighty Oak, you say? Nopony, outsider and villager alike, has visited him in some five years at the least. Tell me… is his shrine alright?"

Shining nodded. "As alright as it could be." He frowned. "I saw some of the villagers' eyes glowing crimson… and given how you handled the wedding procession, I would like to know what that's all about. Does it have to do with your being 'cursed?'"

The elder nodded and his face, for perhaps the first time since they arrived, donned a thin frown and he let his eyes slant ever so slightly. His voice took on a somber note as he replied, "We do not wish for our curse to spread—a curse that some say Faust herself laid upon our ancestors before she and Godcat were sealed away." His lip quivered, and his ears flattened. "Mares in heat must breed incessantly, lest they never conceive a foal. Stallions here… have to oblige them. Otherwise, we'd not be here."

Shining's eyes grew wide. "You mean… you have to do… all of that just to ensure your survival?" he muttered, his voice tinged with a note of pity.

The elder glumly nodded. "One stupid fool… brought home an outsider, about nineteen years ago. He very likely spread the curse. We're not even sure if his foals suffer from it…" he muttered. "When one of them was informed of it at the tender age of eleven, she fled… the other requested time alone in Ashwood two years after that. Neither was heard from since. We had to..." The elder looked away, clenched his eyes shut, and actually shed a tear. His voice cracked; he sounded ashamed as he uttered in a voice barely above a choked whisper, "If they're still alive, I cannot imagine what Hell those young ones must be going through right now…"

Shining frowned. "What… happens if a mare isn't indulged, or a stallion isn't obliged in…" He didn't get the chance to finish as the elder turned to him and snapped open his eyes, which then started to glow a bright ruby red. His horn flashed the same color, and at once his guests flinched back. The elder abruptly stood up and let his eyes narrow to thin slits.

His voice started to echo as he spoke in a tone that shook the house to its roots, "The curse expresses itself! Corrupts our magic! Twists our minds and bends our souls to its whim! It causes the very blood in our veins to boil when it is ignored! None can hope to tame it, to break free of its horrendous manacles!" He stopped when he saw the worried looks that formed on the faces of his guests, and he closed his eyes and let his magic dim. "I-I'm sorry… I should have…"

He shuddered and grit his teeth, fighting back tears as he slowly sat back down. "But I am an old soul. I can no longer sate the hex… e-even now, it's… it's starting to get to me. The symptoms of this horrid enchantment have been worsening for us all these past twenty years; it used to be a mare only needed to be mounted by two or three stallions, and now practically the whole village is in on it. I fear… I fear it may have grown stronger..."

"What was that… we heard the bride utter something about being a blank flank," Rainbow interjected, garnering a tired sigh from the elder.

"Should we obtain our marks, the curse will inevitably twist them too. Some villagers choose not to get them, for fear that whatever potential talents they gain would then… be used for malcontent purposes," the elder replied, his voice still solemn. "Should the curse twist the mark such that it bonds to an item, it must be used… otherwise… terrible things may transpire." His eyes slowly opened, glistening with forming tears and regret. "I learned this… long ago, when I was still a youthful colt…"

"What's with the shield outside?" Applejack asked, lifting a hoof to remove her hat and hold it to her barrel.

The elder lowered his head and shook it pityingly. "It goes up every evening, always before sunset; keeping the villagers in and the outsiders away. It is… our prison, but it also keeps the curse from transitioning any further under its dome. The foolish stallion who wed an outsider… the shield was his very last spell." He looked at Applejack, and another tear streaked his cheek. "What have our ancestors done wrong? Why must we suffer for whatever sins Faust or whomever saw fit to curse them for their follies?"

For a while, the guests were stone silent. "What does the curse do to you, if… if you let it be for too long?" Flash piped up.

He found himself wishing he hadn't asked, for when the elder answered his pupils shrank. "They become one of the cursed trees, doomed to forever live… in another tailor-made prison, if one were to trot outside of the shield." The elder lowered his head again. "I may croak soon… but even if I were chopped into pieces, I'd still be transmogrified anyway. There's no escaping the curse… countless others have tried. Countless others have inevitably failed—even those who gained cutie marks." He lifted his head again. "That fool's children may have already transformed, and are pleading for death as we speak."

Rhinoc shuddered, his body aching with all of the horrendous negative emotion pouring from the elder. But, if what he said was true, then it may well have been tragically understandable for him to be feeling that way. "A-are cursed trees… also wraiths?" Blueblood asked, paling considerably.

The elder shook his head. "No, for they never truly die to begin with. Death itself cannot touch them. As far as I am concerned, my brethren trotted to Hell… fully alive and conscious," he stated somberly. "It is a most terrifying fate that I would not wish on anypony." His head dropped again. "I'm not sure which evil is worse: the current stagnation of Greenwood, or what happens to us just before we can die…"

"Is there anything you know about the ponies who tried breaking the curse?" Flash asked, his wings ruffling a bit. "Or at least, their methods?"

The elder sighed. "I do not, sadly. The ancestors deemed their efforts and musings null and void; I suspect they didn't keep records. And why would they—when you are granted hellish immortality anyway?" he rebuked. "I doubt you could extract anything from them in their current state; their minds have very likely broken down by this point. I honestly have yet to find a tree who could even manage a coherent utterance as of late..."

"Actually, we passed one who told us to stay away," Blueblood interjected, having the decency to look away and frown in shame. But he saw the elder wave a hoof out of the corner of his eye.

"Eh, as long as you lot don't conceive foals with the villagers, the curse won't spread anymore, so I suppose you can spend the night. And… I saw your buckets, by the way. I about had that same reaction when I acted as priest for my first wedding," the elder stated, with a hint of empathy buried somewhere deep in his sorrowful tone. "Let me tell you, those days were awful."

Shining lifted a hoof and tapped his chin with it. "Say, do you know anything about the ancient alicorns, who vanished when Faust and Godcat were sealed?" he asked.

The elder shook his head. "Not one lick of information there. Sorry," he replied.

Blueblood nodded and stood up. "I think that settles it for tonight; the only issue now is finding out where we can sleep, now that we're trapped here," he muttered, garnering no less than five nods of agreement.

The elder sighed and rose from his rocking chair, craning his neck towards the door in the back of the room. "I have a guest room upstairs. It's not much, but I hope it helps you alleviate… your discomfort at seeing that grotesque display," he muttered. "And those ceremonies only last for a day. I'm grateful they only happen once yearly."

The visitors stood up, and nodded to the elder. They started trotting to the closed door in the back, but a raised hoof stopped them. "I just noticed one of you… is very…" The elder clicked his tongue, searching for the right word as he pointedly stared at Rainbow. "Prismatic? Yes, that's the word. Tell me… why is that so?"

Rainbow turned to the elder and frowned a bit, seeing a spark of curiosity alight in his dull eyes. "Well, I was born like this… my dad had the rainbow mane too," she replied. "Oh, by the way… did you see the barrier between Fantasia and Mythos break?"

The elder's eyes widened. "Y-yes, I have…" he answered.

"Well, that's a long story I think we should save for tomorrow. I ain't got the stomach to sit for some more hours and rattle my tongue faster than a lightning bolt," Applejack groaned, putting her hat back on her head.

The elder nodded in understanding. "I see. Just be sure to let me know the full details, whenever you're ready…" he said. The group nodded and headed for the door, opening it and trotting up a flight of stairs that lay beyond. As they vanished from sight, the elder's face twisted in sorrow again, but now there was a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Maybe… the barrier breaking… is that a sign?"

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

The guest room in the elder's abode was pitifully small; only one bed, window and nightstand to its name, and bereft of anything else except four measly meters in both length and width. Shining and his group were forced to sit in the floor, sighing as the silver light of the moon started poking through the window. The light was tinted a slight shade of green thanks to the barrier over Greenwood. "That bit about ponies becoming trees seems dubious…" he muttered, brow furrowing as he mentally tried to work out the logistics of how ponies turned into trees.

"Something just plain don't add up," Applejack agreed with a nod. "But that poor stallion needs help, that much I know." Five heads bobbed in unison. "He seemed very sincere with what he was rantin' and ravin' about. If I had to go through all that, then I'd be pretty miffed m'self."

"But if what he said is true, then how can we help?" Blueblood questioned, scowling. "He said so himself; the curse cannot be broken. If, indeed, he and his folk are well and truly cursed."

"Hrm…" Rainbow put a hoof to her chin and tapped at it idly. "I guess we could try asking the cursed trees tomorrow… only problem is finding the ones that can still talk."

"I think the one who told us to stay away would be a start; that's the closest one on the route we took to get here," Flash added.

"A logical start, yes, but I don't know if the tree in question would want to converse," Rhinoc interjected, closing his eyes and lifting a hoof to rub his temples. "We trotted right past him… her… it, when it warned us. But now we know what the fuss is about, at least." He turned away and muttered under his breath, "It may tell us to fuck off for all I know."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed a bit, and her face hardened. "Now that I think about it… I saw Anna's eyes glow red," she muttered. She turned to Shining and asked, "Do you think she's got the same curse the elder stallion does?"

Shining mulled it over, tilting his head as gears started to grind in his mind. "It's very possible, and she did tell me she was cursed. And if that's the case… then why is she in Lance's army force," he queried, though his tone was low enough it sounded more like a statement. "And if she does… with what the elder said about the hex, that may mean she's unstable… not to mention her high risk of kicking the bucket, given her line of work."

"But there's the possibility she could be cursed with something completely different. I mean, her sister had that wicked-loud harp that could destroy eardrums," Rainbow pointed out. She, Applejack, and Shining all cringed at the mention of the harp. "And I am no egghead, but maybe there are many curses that make the eyes go red and drives ponies nuts."

"Yes, but it could still affect her negatively regardless of what type of curse it is," Shining retorted, frowning. "You have a point, Rainbow; Anna's curse may not correlate to whatever has befallen Greenwood, though I am beginning to suspect the two are linked somehow. Either way… if it has the same mental effects on her, she could become unstable, assuming she isn't already."

"Definitely unstable," Rhinoc answered, frowning when Shining turned to him with a raised brow. "Magically speaking, that is. She usually lets it all out at once, peters herself out, and ends up grouchy at the end of the day. Hell, that accident that got her the cutie mark she now has wasn't the last time I've seen her metaphorically blow up."

"Letting it all out? Wouldn't that strain her magical capabilities?" Blueblood asked. "Or at least turning her horn red-hot and increase the risk of horn-related trauma?"

Rhinoc nodded. "Try telling her that after she torches somebody with a hail of arrows," he stated, his tone callous. "I've seen her do it before, and I heard she went and did it in Whitefall this past couple of days. And she's not usually magically strained after the effort."

"Yeah, I saw the aftermath of that. Some stallion became literal trotting crystal," Rainbow groaned, spreading her wings and smacking her own face with them. "I mean, jeez, isn't that overkill?"

"Not when the uncouth pony in question was already a wraith to begin with," Blueblood snorted, shaking his head. "I am amazed he trotted out of that whole affair with his legs still intact."

"Even better." Rhinoc threw his forehooves into the air and groaned in exasperation. "She accelerated a wraith's defensive… formation… thing…" His head dropped as words failed him.

"Are you sayin'... that wraiths mutate?" Applejack asked, raising an incredulous brow at the notion. That got Rhinoc to lower his hooves and raise his head to nod in her direction.

"Yeah; their magic goes all over the damn place if something catastrophic happens to their bodies, unless they were decapitated. It's like cutting the head off the snake, but you don't know which of those snakes could be hydras, if you get the drift," Rhinoc answered, his face hardening. "If there's one thing about wraiths that I respect but still don't fully understand, it's that they can adapt."

"Everything settled for tonight, then?" Shining asked, garnering five nods. With that, he curled his legs under himself and lowered his body to rest on the floor. He closed his eyes… only to jolt back up when Rhinoc's horn flashed and several sleeping bags, a few blocks of leather-wrapped foam that could only feasibly be called mattresses, and a few pillows came forth from several blinking lights.

"Good thing I brought these with me," Rhinoc chirped, opening one sleeping bag after positioning it on leather-wrapped foam. He made to climb into it, but halted when Applejack coughed.

"Do you an' yourn always come this prepared?" Applejack asked, rather incredulously at that.

Rhinoc nodded, donning a small smile. "Let's just say somepony would tear into me if I didn't, and not somepony currently with us at this time," he answered. With that, he crawled into his sleeping bag and zipped it shut around himself in his magic, finishing up the whole affair by resting a pillow beneath his head. "And yes, they're clean."

Applejack sighed and made to claim a sleeping bag, a pillow, and foam mattress. Given that she couldn't do much now that the course of action come morning was decided, she inhaled deeply. Setting up the crude bed, she saw Rainbow doing likewise, using her wings to juggle the pillow as she fumbled with the bag. "Applejack?" Rainbow asked, apprehensively turning her head to her friend.

"Yeah?" Applejack replied with a tired sigh.

"I hope we don't have to use the Elements of Harmony on this whole town… like, I really, really hope that we don't," Rainbow groused, her mouth forming a thin line. "I'm not sure how the villagers would take it."

Applejack nodded, her mind painting a picture of panicking ponies as the Elements were activated. Hopefully, it wouldn't be dire enough to come to that. "I get ya," she muttered. "I think we should have one o' them…" she paused, turning to eye the door warily, as if expecting eavesdroppers. "One o' them outside the field get Twi tomorrow, if we have to," she finished after a few seconds, turning back to making her makeshift bed.

Rainbow put her pillow down on her foam mattress. Wordlessly, she crawled into her sleeping bag without zipping it shut and closed her eyes, sighing deeply before falling fast asleep. It did not take her long to dream; mere minutes after drifting off, she found herself in a glittering starscape.

A glittering starscape filled with the echo of someone's very pained voice. "Help… meeeeeeee," the voice uttered, distant and yet… sounding as though the source was so close by.

Rainbow glanced around, spinning about, craning her neck this way and that, even taking to the air to get a better vantage point to see where the source was. "Wh-who's there?" she asked.

"Help… meeeeee," the voice repeated, now more faint. Rainbow strained her ears, hoping to find the source, but alas not one peep flitted through the starscape to let her know where it was coming from. The world, save for her beating wings, had fallen as still and silent as a grave. She glanced around again, and noticed that several stars seemed to dull considerably, with some turning an ugly shade of rusted mahogany.

Spinning around mid-air as though on a diagonal and slanted axis, while a relatively easy feat, did nothing to earn Rainbow so much as a fleeting glimpse of the pleading speaker. All she saw was stars as far as the eye could possibly see. "Hello?" she tried again, still clinging to the hope that whoever was pleading would show themselves—making the assumption that, of course, they were able to.

Silence fell upon the glimmering starscape again, and slowly Rainbow descended down to… she looked down and realized she did not know where the floor even was in this place, and frowned at that. Stopping her descent, she heard the sorrowful "Help… meeeeee…" permeate the area once again, and this time whirled around.

The source still eluded her, though. Who the hay would be calling for help, yet refuse to be seen, and why? Some part of Rainbow was calling shenanigans. Still, she decided that she needed to fly through the starscape, and hovering in one spot wasn't going to cut it. So she flew, albeit slowly, hoping to ascertain where in the hell the source of the pleas was.

Hours passed, and on she flew, but still Rainbow found nothing to indicate where the owner was. The starscape did not even change in the slightest, for it seemed endless. She stopped to hover again and snorted, brow furrowing as her blood began to boil. "Okay, really… how am I supposed to help you if I don't know where…" She stopped rambling, but only as a bright light began to shine brilliantly above Rainbow. She glanced up to find that a full moon had mysteriously cropped up, from which emerged a blue alicorn whose appearance made her break out into a brilliant smile and relax her brow. "Hey Princess!" she greeted.

Luna descended to Rainbow and nodded in response. "Sorry I had not arrived sooner. Discord has enlightened me to a lot of… Fantasia's ongoing anomalies," she sighed. "But I am afraid me, Celestia, and Cadence cannot interfere in their affairs." She donned a forlorn frown.

Rainbow's smile fell. "Whaddya mean?" she asked.

Luna's lips formed a thin line. She sighed deeply before answering, "There is simply too much going on; Day and Night Courts are in a fuss, with the nobles growing more paranoid by the day. The delegates from the other nations are refusing to come over and chip in, and the Fantasians whom you're now accompanying are still blocking me from their dreams, no matter what I do. Only one has yet to do so, but Discord frightened him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he followed suit."

Rainbow's brow furrowed a little. "And what about the rest of Fantasia?" she pressed.

Luna shook her head. "Some may see it as an invasion if my sister and I intervened, and I highly doubt any of the Fantasians, save Lance and his group, would listen to even a smidgen of our reasoning. There's not much we can do; whatever Fantasia's problems may be, they are ones the Fantasians will have to fix." Her ears fell flat against her head, and her brow slanted. Even her mane and tail drooped a smidgen as she stated in a solemn tone, "Mostly… on their own."

She lifted a hoof and gently pressed Rainbow's barrel with it. "But Lance and his crew are not alone; they have you, your friends, and Blueblood to help them set things right. I have confidence you will aid them, somehow or another." Luna's eyes twinkled a little, and her frown deepened still. "I just wish… I could tell them that."

Rainbow nodded, an inkling of what Luna was suggesting starting to dawn on her. "So… I help them fix whatever's going on, maybe use the Elements if things are that bad, but only Lance's army is getting that help. This what I am hearing?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, but… anything outside of the army would be best left alone," she stated. "Unless the army is getting involved with it, whatever it may be."

Rainbow managed a small smile at that. "Well… Lance got the wind back under his wings, but it's gonna be a bit before he can get good at flying," she chirped. Spreading out her forehooves, she made a vague indication of their length as best as she was able. "They rival your wings; that's how big they are. I reckon that, if he were any taller, he'd probably compete with Celestia. But to him, that just means he's more awkward a flier."

Luna's frown faded, and her ears perked upright in the blink of an eye. "Really?" she queried.

Rainbow nodded affirmatively. "Yep. And the mood of his troops got a little better when they heard the news. Heck, his right hoof ponies saw it for themselves," she chirped, dropping her forehooves. "I heard something about a certain somepony preening him sideways the night before that, but that was when I just hit the bed, so I dunno how true that is."

Luna chuckled at that. "Ah, yes, yon feather fondling. I believe I have an idea as to who the somepony in question was," she said, her cheeks puffing a little as she started trying her best to keep from breaking out laughing. When Rainbow's brows went up, Luna extrapolated with amusement in her tone, "This somepony trotted up to me and asked if she could feel my wings, and her eyes were wide as mine hooves. She looked as though she thought that I couldn't have possibly been an alicorn, but my presence and the feeling of my feathers dispelled that notion."

Rainbow started cracking up as she imagined that particular fiasco. Luna waved a hoof dismissively and added, "In front of all of the gathered nobles of Canterlot, no less. I had to shoo her away, lest she accidentally prod at mine joints."

Rainbow started guffawing, shifting her hooves to clutch her stomach as she envisioned snobby nobles gawking at Luna's wings being fondled by a complete, very forward stranger. "D-did you get… t-the looks on their f-faces?!" she howled before falling flat on her back, still flapping her wings madly, trying and failing to rein herself under control now that that mental image affixed itself to her mind.

Luna smiled at that. "Oh yes, they raised quite a fuss about that after the Fantasians departed on their airship. They called the fondler in question a, and I quote, 'stuck-up lower class hooligan with no respect for decency or proper decorum,'" she answered. "Of course, we have nary an idea of what the Fantasians consider decency and decorum, so…"

Rainbow shot up, stopped laughing, and looked at Luna with very wide eyes. "Wait. You're saying a Fantasian fondled your wing?" she asked.

Luna nodded again, still smiling. "Green mane, brownish coat, a bit too young to be in the military," she answered.

Rainbow's eyes widened further than Luna thought possible, before she fell back and started laughing all over again. "Th-that's even worse!" she exclaimed between giggle-snorts, her wings flapping even harder than before.

Luna patiently waited until Rainbow's fit of gut-busting chortles ran out of steam before magically, and tenderly, helping her back on her hooves. Rainbow lifted a wing and used one of her primaries to brush off a tear that had formed in her eye. "Th-thanks Luna. I-I needed that after what I-I saw today," Rainbow chirped, though her voice cracked nonetheless. She took some needed deep breaths, noticing Luna's brow quirking up quizzically.

Rainbow then extrapolated what had happened earlier that day, from the trees all the way to the elder's outburst. Luna's eyes slowly widened as she heard every little word that spilled off Rainbow's tongue, and her ears fell flat against her head again the more she absorbed it. "They have to do what just to conceive a foal?!" she cried, loud enough to knock Rainbow clean off her hooves and send her quite a few feet away.

Rainbow landed unsteadily, but flared her wings and flew back to Luna before telling her again, this time slowly, "Every stallion in Greenwood who can has to mount a mare in heat. Every. One. I heard it used to be just two or three, but…"

Luna's legs trembled, threatening to buckle. "That's… that's absurd!" she cried, her voice laced with a disbelief so thick one could slice it with a knife. "That's a curse that ceased to exist in Equestria when the tribes unified… h-how is this still prevalent in Fantasia?!"

Rainbow shrugged in earnest. "I have no idea, but I'll find out what's going on one way or another." Her face set in a firm, grim look with a furrowed brow and eyes narrowed to slits. "I may need to ask the villagers, but not until after I ask the cursed trees just what the hay is wrong with the place." A thought hit her, and she assumed a deep frown the moment it did. "I think I'll ask Anna about it too; Shining told me she was cursed."

"With what?" Luna pressed, eyes narrowing,

"Dunno, but I do know she doesn't want to go to Greenwood. Maybe the two are tied…" Another thought hit her, and her glare eased. "You said when the tribes unified, a curse was broken… what was it?"

Luna sighed. "Ponies had to breed indiscriminately like rabbits just to bear a foal, before the Windigoes arrived and brought the threat of endless winter on their ethereal tails," she replied. "There was a stallion named Bruce, who grew infamous for having many illegitimate foals, though I know not much else about him; only one record survived, and even then in the confines of the lone record of the years before Pre-Unification. From then on, the curse was known henceforth as 'Bruce's Jinx.'"

Rainbow crossed her forelegs over her barrel. "Bruce's Jinx… hrm… sounds fishy," she muttered.

"Very dubious, indeed," Luna agreed with a nod. "And not only that, but it was only limited to breeding; none of this nonsense where ponies' eyes turn red, they go berserk, or they become still-living trees when they should die instead. Yet you say, from the lips of somepony else, that Faust herself cast this blight upon Greenwood?"

Rainbow nodded. "Which just makes it even more fishy," she stated, tilting her head to the side. "What would it take for the spell to be broken, if an alicorn who helped shape Mythos and Fantasia cast it?"

Luna shook her head. "Another alicorn would have to do so, and maybe they'd have to be at least as strong as one fourth of Faust's power, but how… I do not know in the slightest," she answered grimly. "And there are no alicorns in Fantasia, as far as I know… Discord looked high and low, and all he could get was an old Fantasian mare's tale, passed by word of mouth. He magically checked a lot of the populace too; no alicorns to be seen or heard."

Rainbow proceeded to separate her forelegs and facehoof. "Jeez…" she groused. "Well, this just got a lot worse than I thought…" She felt a hoof on her shoulder and lowered her forelegs to find Luna looking at her solemnly.

"Mayhaps… but you still need to help those poor ponies of Greenwood. Drag Lance into it, physically if you must, but…" Luna was silenced when Rainbow nodded.

"I'll do what I can," Rainbow said, her tone one of finality. At that, Luna smiled a little and nodded back, her horn flaring to life in a brilliant, moon-white light.

"Then I wish you the safest of travels, Rainbow Dash," Luna said in a soothing, motherly tone just seconds before the light enveloped Rainbow, whereupon she woke up.