"Is she gonna be okay?" Katie asked with utmost sincerity, brow slanted and ears flat against her head as the question left her mouth. Matt mulled the query over for a moment before he slowly nodded.

"She could grow more bark tomorrow… but if she does, we'll just pry it off of her again," Matt stated in a flat voice. "And normally, it only happens once per heat. Even so, we don't take chances with that."

Katie grimaced. "Why'd she sprout wings?" she pressed, genuinely concerned.

Matt's frown deepened. "We have no idea. They always sprout whenever the curse she's under decides to express itself," he muttered grimly, shaking his head. "And this started months ago."

Twilight's brow slanted. "She's hexed?"

Again, Matt nodded. "Has been, ever since she underwent therapy. She's only just started growing bark in the past few months; before that, her eyes would turn red and her mood would swing straight to hell," he stated. "I'd wager she was cursed sometime before we trotted into her." At the questioning brow that Twilight rose, he elaborated, "A year before Lance recruited her, she was banged up enough to undergo physical therapy. All four legs had bad fractures in them… and that's not even getting into her state of mind back then."

"You're saying that she's…" Twilight began, only to stop when Matt nodded for a third time, his frown deepening still.

"She thought we were there to finish her off, when we wanted to do the opposite," Matt said in a tight voice, and he left it at that.

Katie's eyes narrowed at what she'd just heard. "So… what should we do?" she pressed. "Anna's on the fritz, prone to becoming plant fodder… and I can trot and fly again." Her wings buzzed, albeit much slower than they usually would, producing a soft hum that lasted mere seconds.

Matt sighed and shrugged. "You three wait. I'm gonna talk with Lance for a bit…" he said, and with that he opened the door behind him, trotted inside… and didn't bother to even close the door behind him. Twilight poked her head in and found a dripping Lance and Anna on the bed, with Natalie rubbing them both using a blanket held in her magic. Anna was slumped, eyes closed as a soft purring sound left her mouth. Lance kept her cradled under one wing, though he was alert and awake and looking at Twilight. With a nod, he turned to Matt.

"She's content, and asleep," Lance whispered, glancing at Anna for a moment for emphasis. With a hoof, he beckoned Twilight over, and she walked in, keeping her steps silent. "Whatever you want, keep it down. We don't need her freaking out again." Twilight nodded in understanding, and for a moment held quiet to better hear Anna's purr. It was honestly serene as her expression; something, in her case, that was delicate and needed to be approached with care.

"I can fly and trot again," Katie whispered, leaning over a little to stare Lance in the eye.

Lance nodded and donned a small smile. "Good. I need to ask you something," he muttered in reply. When Katie's ears perked up, he took that as his cue to shoot in the dark, "Can you withstand the levels of despair emanating from Greenwood?"

Katie's ears drooped a little, and she slid her tongue out to tap her chin and rub her temples simultaneously in lieu of her hoof as she thought the question over. For a few seconds, her brow furrowed, and then her tongue retracted. "How bad is it?" she pressed.

"Very. Virtually none of the other changelings in this ship can stand it for more than a few hours," Lance clarified, his smile fading. "The reason I ask is because of where we found you specifically. Are you up to it?"

Katie hesitated, getting the feeling Lance was about to drop something gigantic onto her withers regardless of her answer. She eventually settled onto an answer, though not before swishing her tail a little. "It depends on the cause of that despair," she muttered in reply. "If it's temporary, like say a broken leg, then I'll handle that just fine."

"The trees have eyes," Natalie stated, her tone soft yet carrying an unmistakeable weight nonetheless. "They're nothing like wraiths."

Katie's ears sagged down at that. "I can handle despair, but… but only because I usually ignore it," she muttered, her voice weak. "But… sometimes it overwhelms me like it does anyling…"

Lance's frown deepened at that. He turned to Twilight for a moment. "Any luck on that enchanted paper?" he asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No dice so far," she answered.

Lance's ears drooped slightly. "Well then…" He turned back to Katie. "Ugh… it's time to get creative…" He sighed ruefully at that prospect. "Would you be willing to investigate Ashwood a little, with a retinue of my gryphons and NoLegs to accompany you?"

Katie nodded without hesitation. "But, I'll need something more than just my horseshoes to get me by. Say… do you have that spear with the odd slots in its shaft?" she queried.

Lance canted his head a little. "Why?"

"I could use my tongue to hold it, since with my shoes on it'll be clumsy otherwise," Katie elaborated. That caused Matt and Natalie to share a glance, both mulling that over for a second or two which gave her the impression that they were mentally picturing the art of spearmanship via tongue somehow going awry.

Lance shook his head at that. "It could work, yes… but you haven't the experience necessary to properly use one. That much became clear to me when you first held it," he muttered.

Katie sighed, but nodded as she had no hope of contesting with him there. "Which is where your gryphons come in," she muttered.

Lance nodded, and smiled again. "Yes. But we're also going to need a way to get you lot by without the ectoplasms noticing…"

"Illusions?" Matt suggested. Slowly, he turned to Twilight. "Are you able to cast them?"

Twilight pursed her lips, before nodding eagerly. "I was able to replicate a flame spell, a healing spell, and your light-sword spell more directly… I've seen my fair share of illusions. Sounds like something that should be easy enough," she answered. "All we need now are your gryphons…"

Lance's smile widened, and he nodded. Turning to Natalie, he gave a curt order, "Conjure a radio and ask for Jeremy, Nathan, and Quicksilver to meet up on the deck of this vessel. If they ask, tell them they're getting an assignment. If they ask for me specifically, tell them I'm unavailable at the moment."

"Hold up," Katie interjected, raising her hoof. When Lance turned to her, she asked, "What are we supposed to do in Ashwood once we get down?"

"Simple," Lance began, his eyes gleaming and his ears lifting up to full alertness, "Check out the vicinity around Greenwood, starting from the Mighty Oak's shrine outward. And if you can, make friends with the Mighty Oak. He will help you tremendously. I want things pertaining to why ponies become trees, first and foremost. The source, any bodies that haven't turned if you can procure them, and anything that may have been hidden by an illusion."

"That last one's gonna be hard to find…" Katie muttered, her hoof lowering.

Lance nodded in agreement. "Which is where NoLegs comes in," he stated tersely, garnering Natalie and Matt's attention with that utterance. He rubbed Anna's back with his wing when she shifted to rub her head against his shoulder, mumbling about salmon in her sleep. "He knows to watch for such spells."

Matt's eyes widened as Lance said that. "Of course…" he muttered, seeing Twilight's brow quirk out of the corner of his eye. He turned to her and elaborated, "He was the one who taught me how to use illusions effectively."

Twilight frowned. "I see," she muttered tersely as Natalie lit up her horn and conjured a radio in a small flash of light that she made sure was behind Anna so as to not rouse her.

"And while you're at it… could you summon Sarah and Lazarus?" Lance asked. "I need to inform one of them about the emergency, and the other… I'm going to need to query a bit and prepare future arrangements for…"

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

An hour passed before Nathan, Jeremy, and Quicksilver found themselves on the deck of the largest vessel, all coats slightly singed to the wingtips and smoking in places. Twilight was there as well, fussing over them with Katie on her back to make sure they'd be alright, though it was honestly harder for her to tell in what spots Jeremy had been singed. As a result, she'd been forced to rely on the smoke emanating from whatever trouble spots that he had.

NoLegs was present too, the oversized spear with the two slots held aloft in his magic until it would be needed. With the three gryphons having been briefed during the check-up that they'd be put to work, they couldn't help but wonder the moment that Twilight healed them with a flick of her horn and gave them the all-clear. At this point, Katie had been given her shoes again, and it did not take long for the gryphons to voice their concerns.

"So… what's the assignment?" Jeremy queried, his brow quirked.

"Beyond the whole 'find suspect activity and dead bodies,' I got nothing," Katie answered in earnest, shrugging her shoulders. "He may as well have asked me to summon Godcat." She paused, eying the gryphons critically. "I'm amazed you three dodged lightning bolts with nothing more than some burn marks to show for it."

"I'm amazed you can still speak," Quicksilver quipped back.

"Shut your piehole, you lead-chewing blowhard," Katie snarked, eyes narrowing a little as she said that. "I'll bet you bathe in the stuff."

"Oh, you can go eat an entire bag of the fattest dicks Fantasia has to offer," Nathan hissed, narrowing his eyes at Katie. The display did not make her flinch in the slightest.

"Is that a challenge?" Katie hissed, opening her mouth extra-wide so he could see all of her new sharp and pointy teeth.

Twilight sighed as they continued to argue over whether or not this 'bag of the fattest dicks' was actually a challenge of some sort or an insult. It lasted for a good hour and a half, only halting when the hatch flung itself open and both participants of the conversation turned to it as Natalie emerged.

Now, though, she had donned a dress that seemed black at first glance, but was really a deep navy with a violet trim that was so faded it almost seemed like a shade of grey. The dress had the backside cut out to expose her midsection a little, as well as her withers and croup. Belts framed her hind quarters.

So too did a sash whose tails ended in white, bleached skulls shaped like the heads of ponies with the sash in question tied through the sockets of each. A pair of dark purple baubles were there to hold up her mane in a singular ponytail, one on her scalp and one near the end of her mane. She sported a necklace holding up a five-pointed gold star and an eight-pointed silver star that bashed each other and jingled as she trotted over. Both charms were accompanied by another gold necklace in the shape of a pentagram, circle and all.

Her hooves were clad with tight-knit boots that ended in dark metal horseshoes that clanked in her wake, and sleeves of deep navy ending in frills shrouded her forelegs up to the shoes themselves like a robe. On the barrel of the outfit rested a hoofful of small medals, all neatly stowed to the left in three rows. Twilight noticed that one of those medals was a dove white as snow, and the one next to it was a lavender heart. Her crystal sheen had come full force, even encompassing the outfit itself to make it seem like patches of it were darker than black. Wrapped around her neck was a scarf with its ends tucked in, forming a bulky mass accentuated by a small, silver cross at the front.

All turned to Natalie's face, which bore a neutral expression so flat it seemed to scream 'officialese' with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The gryphons promptly saluted her with their wings and talons. Katie herself jumped off Twilight's back, got her ass in line, and did the same with a hoof and wings buzzing just to maintain her balance. Only then did Natalie speak, her voice as flat as her expression and with an air of professionalism about it, "At ease. I believe you have been briefed on the situation?"

Twilight stared at Natalie in what could only be described as a state of wide-eyed awe as the assembled soldiers dropped claw, hoof and wing at her command. Sweet merciful Godcat, she had to admit that Natalie was one-hundred and ten percent the part of a lieutenant-general right now, and every bit as serious as they came.

"Barely briefed, actually. Permission to speak?" Nathan piped up. Natalie turned to him quick as a whip, eyes narrowing slightly before she gave a nod. "The newest recruit did not elaborate much, if anything at all." Natalie's gaze flicked to Katie right then, and she gave a shaky nod of confirmation. She turned back to Nathan, silently asking him something with her gaze alone. He was happy to elaborate, "I quote, 'suspect activity and dead bodies.'"

Natalie donned a very small, very tight frown. "Anything regarding the events of last night?" she asked, her voice slightly clipped. At this, Nathan nodded.

"Ragnarok, a foal with a baby, an old geezer… and the trees down below engaging in violence," Nathan answered. Natalie nodded back and her frown faded, evidently satisfied with what he relayed. "All things considered, we have been informed of a few… other tidbits."

"Understood." Natalie saw Twilight's questioning glint in her eyes and turned to address her and her alone, "The giant swords and portal is what we call Ragnarok, by the way." She turned back to her troops and gave them the briefing that Lance had hoofed Katie in a clipped, professional tone, "What we're looking for is unusual activity, and evidence pointing either toward or against any wrongdoing Greenwood's villagers may have partaken in as of late. Investigate the cursed trees if you have to—how they form, how fast, what time of day and why. The only shred pointing to is the small pegasus colt now aboard this vessel."

Quicksilver's eyes widened. "Pegasus colt?" he repeated.

Natalie nodded. "Alexander's confirmed his little wings work and everything," she stated. "I personally checked on him before trotting up here. He's bona fide."

Quicksilver nodded and let his eyes narrow into a neutral gaze. He nodded for her to continue. "As it stands, Ashwood Forest is more of a wreck than the last time we had to go through it, partly because of Ragnarok and partly because Greenwood's ponies simply stopped giving two shits about it. If you find any unnatural upwellings of magma, you know why. Just fly over them, but do not go too high." She lifted a hoof and gestured to the clouds overhead. "The sky's currently filled to the brim, and volatile right now. Report when you find sufficient evidence, however you deem it. If need be, have NoLegs convert it to thaumic energy for easier transport. Oh, and if you find a winged elder with bound wings, bring her up too—a little birdie told me she'd died a week prior to our arrival, but honestly I wouldn't believe a word of it if Lance hadn't had his wings tied."

Jeremy spoke up, flinching when Natalie turned to him in the process, "Will that be all, ma'am?"

Natalie donned a small, dry smirk and she shook her head. "No, that's not all," she stated tersely. That caused chills to run down the spines of everyone else, save NoLegs as he turned to grin at them rather smugly. "You see…" She took a few steps closer and leaned towards the assembled troops, eyes narrowing dangerously low. Twilight shivered when, briefly, they flickered red. "Figuring out how the trees grow from ponies is going to take a little priority."

The gryphons broke out in a cold sweat when 'priority' left Natalie's mouth. "Wh-why?" they asked in unison.

"Because this is the third time a certain somepony sprouted leafy wings. If she panics a fourth time…" Natalie trailed off, letting her unspoken meaning hang in the air. "And Lance declared enough was enough. Once you find out how the trees… infect ponies, shall we say, one of our own is going under the knife to remove it, should it be a physical entity. If it's not a physical entity…"

The gryphons gulped in unison. "Is-is that all?" Quicksilver stammered, his feathers slowly puffing out as the implications sank in.

Natalie, yet again, shook her head, and rather grimly at that. "There is one last thing you guys need to take notice of." She lifted a hoof to gesture at Katie. "I'm sure you three have noticed by now, the wraith with us…" Again, she trailed off, letting the trio avert their gaze to Katie for a few seconds before turning their attention, once more, on their second-in-command. "She's going to be accompanying you. One of two new recruits, in fact. I've heard her ears are unnaturally sharp, so it is vital you keep her from getting concussed."

Twilight looked down at Natalie's shadow when she felt something soft and rounded brush up against the tip of her snout, accompanied by the unmistakeable sound of bone popping. Part of her blamed the wind, yet it still did not blow, so that left… Twilight's eyes widened as she saw that Natalie's shadow had gained what looked like a bit of rotundness so profound it seemed like she'd ingested a foal-sized swimming pool somehow and her stomach stretched to accommodate its shape. One blink was all it took for the shadow to revert to normal as Twilight tried to do a double-take.

She looked back at Natalie, and aside from her new getup, was the same as she was. Twilight could not simply dismiss the change as the dress itself, as it clung tightly to her body, for the most part. Perhaps the gryphons popped a joint, and perhaps Katie exercised a bit of her magic to produce the feeling of something just barely touching her in the process.

Perhaps being the key word. Twilight looked back at the soldiers. Unless they asked a question, none of them dared to move or channel mana as Natalie spoke to them, rattling off a list of assignments and things to do and to report back when all was said and done with a 'please and thank you' tone. For a second, just a second Natalie's coat turned stark white, the skulls adorning her sash oozed neon-red liquid from their orifices, and her mane whipped about as if in a living wind. Another blink, the skulls ceased to ooze liquid and she was once again cream-colored and her mane was still.

Twilight shivered, and lifted a hoof to rub one eye. Finally, a soldier took notice, and turned to her., but whoever it was had been something Twilight didn't notice as her other hoof rose to join the first. She fell to her haunches, fervently rubbing, hoping to both Faust and Godcat that she was just hallucinating like crazy right now.

She heard somepony trot to her, and felt a metal-clad hoof come to rest on her withers. She ceased rubbing to find Natalie staring at her, concern glimmering in her eyes. For just a moment, the hard and collected look melted. "You okay?" Natalie asked, her tone soft.

Twilight nodded uneasily. "Just… seeing things is all," she muttered.

"Did you sleep much last night?" Natalie pressed.

Twilight shook her head. "No, I've stayed up all night studying the books I brought over, and was woken up on short notice to use poison joke…" she answered.

Natalie nodded. "After this, I'll let you sleep in," she chirped, then dropped her hoof and whirled around to the troops before they could even think to ask what was going on. Once more, she marched to them in lockstep, eyes narrowing slightly in a withering glare. "Line up, single file, legs straight and wings fanned," she stated in a calm tone with a distinct authoritative note to it. At once, the gryphons and Katie shifted into single file and then went rigid, wings fanning out in seconds. Nathan, Jeremy, and Quicksilver spread theirs at the same time, though Katie was a millisecond late. Legs straightened until they were stiff as planks of wood. Natalie turned to Katie, who tried her best to keep her orbs locked dead forward.

Then, Natalie's gaze flicked to assess the rest of the troops. NoLegs went to clamber on Nathan's back, making his spear vanish in a flare of light. "Do I make myself clear?" she pressed.

The troops, that time with NoLegs included, gave a salute. "Yes, ma'am," they said in unison, in tandem with a meow.

Natalie gave a wan smile at that. "Excellent," she replied tersely, then turned to face the sky. Her horn glowed, her aura lancing out to an expanse above the airship. Meager ribbons at first, her magic formed a perimeter and trailed down to encompass the vessel, and drifted rather lazily compared to Matt's magic when he cast Ragnarok the night before. In fact, this magic didn't seem bothered at all, as though its owner did not sense a need of urgency. It wasn't until an elaborate web, criss-crossing over itself had been formed that crystal shards, tinted red, started growing like weeds.

Slowly, gradually, a shield formed over the airship. Meticulously, delicately, it formed between the filaments almost like a well-cared for plant would for its tender. "Twilight," Natalie said tersely as the barrier took on a dome-like shape made seemingly of crystalline honeycombs.

"Yeah?" Twilight asked. Already, she could hear the boom of thunder, strong enough to very briefly rattle the ship.

"You may want to set up that illusion now…" Natalie trailed off once the shield completed itself. The ectoplasms started throwing their bolts at the shield, but it held stubbornly, and more effectively at that; the honeycomb formation caused the bolts to dance entirely around the airship when they struck. Twilight was not sure if it was the angle at which the bolts struck, or if perhaps it was effectively too large to be hit in any other manner.

"How is the lightning doing that?" Twilight asked as she started letting her horn glow, focusing on the troops that were assembled.

"Oh, Lance gave me that weather control book he borrowed, and I did a bit of scrounging for similar books at the Crystal Empire… I found that if I amplify my shield with negatively-charged particles, the lightning will do this," Natalie answered with a shrug of indifference. "Of course, it doesn't keep the lightning from striking it at all, and there's plenty of positively-charged particles to go around…" She smirked at Twilight. "You guys have your weather down to a science."

"That's what you guys get for relying more on magic-fueled machines…" Twilight muttered as her aura lanced out to embrace the soldiers, first coating them in lavender before it faded and, with it, they seemingly melted away to leave transparant pools of liquid in the shape of their silhouettes.

"The proper term is magitek, for your information," Natalie snorted, keeping her gaze focused on her shield even as she rolled her eyes. "Flaming hypocrite," she muttered under her breath in so low a whisper Twilight didn't hear it.

The soldiers took off, jumping over the railing of the deck, though not before Twilight trotted to said railing to watch them on their way down. She tagged all five with a bit of lavender on the ends of their tails, so small she doubted the ectoplasms could see it. All except Katie descended with the grace of expert fliers; predators well within their element, whose wings, magic and tail moved and flicked with precision timing. Katie's wings buzzed, though more as a form of cruise control than anything else. She kept all four legs tucked in close to her body, further wrapping them with her insanely long tongue and freezing herself partially to keep the horseshoes from slipping away. The ice she made pulsed with a blue glow for a second, before Twilight's spell spread to it and rendered it invisible as well.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Twilight asked, frowning as she spotted a few cursed trees moving about here and there, congregating around the upwellings of magma.

"I'm positive," Natalie answered, frowning when Twilight turned to her with a skeptical brow raised. "They can take care of themselves, and all of them can fly. If things get really bad, NoLegs can teleport them out of immediate danger. It's not like Matt's gonna cast Ragnarok again; that spell usually drains him so badly the most he can manage is telepathy for two whole days after."

"Whatever you say." Twilight heaved a sigh as her eyes trailed to Natalie's shadow again, and nothing seemed different about it. Idly, she entertained the notion that, if something was truly off about her, than Natalie may have caught on and started putting on a facade of normalcy to deflect suspicion.

Yet that was presently doing her no favors whatsoever. Twilight had already seen Lance's wings before she undid their bindings, Matt's true self, and Anna very nearly becoming one with nature in the most literal sense possible. Given these skeletons, she wagered that whatever Natalie was hiding, if she was indeed hiding something, would be no less surprising than those secrets of her compatriots. Which begged the question: why did her eyes briefly flicker red?