Anna woke up as the sky lightened outside, blinking drowsily as her mind stalled in kicking itself into gear. With bloodshot eyes, she clambered over Natalie, and landed on the floor with legs wobbly and aching. Trudging to the toiletries' corner, hooves dragging as she went, she let her mind spurn awful images that had transpired the night before. Over and over, they tumbled upon themselves, trying to make something cohesive and understandable that she would not have any chance to misconstrue. As it was, everything, even the images NoLegs telepathically sent to her, made her knees weaken with each step until she outright collapsed in the shower stall.

She didn't turn the water on. Instead, she opted to lay there, on the smooth tile, absently letting her mind replay the images over and over. Some foalish part of her wanted to deny what she had mentally received, what she physically heard, what she very nearly did with the tip of her own horn… but she just couldn't bring herself to do so. Her stomach twisted when she realized that Sarah had, more than likely, not received the news she'd gotten.

And if that was the case… then she'd need to know, somehow. Her stomach outright clenched at the notion. How in hell was she going to explain this to her, especially since she had the audacity to attack her last night? Granted, it was in defense of a helpless troop, and Sarah didn't know it also constituted as foal abuse on top of that, but… she could have handled it differently, she reflected. Lost deep in her musings, she failed to keep track of time, and heeding the sound of hooves scuffling on carpet, then hitting on tile was entirely out of the question for her. It wasn't until a hoof prodded at her withers did she bother to look up, finding Lance looming over her with a frown on his muzzle. "Hey," he muttered.

Anna didn't get up, even as he poked her again. She merely stared at him, nodding absently. "You okay?" Lance asked. She shook her head. "Figured as much," he sighed, and trotted right inside the shower stall, making sure to avoid stepping on her. He sat on his haunches at the far end of the stall, watching her intently, as if expecting her to go timberpony all over again. "Listen… there's something you need to know," he began.

Anna shifted her legs under her body and turned to him with a weary, skeptical brow raised. "What?" she croaked, her voice dry and raspy enough to come out as a whisper.

"Greenwood's… parts of it, anyway, are burnt to a crisp," Lance answered, frowning as Anna's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She opened her mouth, but he lifted a hoof and waved it to cut her off. "That's not the only thing, so hold your horses," he stated. Anna's mouth shut at the command. "None of the cursed trees have moved once since Matt hit them with Ragnarok yesterday. I'm thinking of flying down there myself to see if they're truly dead or not, and some part of me thinks they're still alive."

Anna's glare eased, though she donned a frown of her own. "L… let me come with," she muttered.

Lance closed his eyes and mulled the request over. On one hoof, her curse could express itself again, with or without cursed trees around them. She could, in blind panic and agony, easily turn on him if he didn't bring sufficient backup. On the other hoof… there were confirmed victims of the wildfire, and the least he could do was let her trot with so she could get some measure of closure. There was also the chance that he could scan any cursed trees up close, especially if they were incapacitated by the fire last night, though said fire may have destroyed anything worthwhile in regards to how the ponies became the trees.

"On three conditions," he said softly, opening his eyes as he said that. When her gaze softened some more, he proceeded to rattle off the conditions in a clipped voice, "One, we take Sarah with. Two, you put your belt back on. The less distractions we have down there, the better. Three, do not engage anyone or anything unless necessary."

Anna mulled it over for a few minutes, then shook her head. "I… attacked Sarah last night, and…" she trailed off as Lance stood up, trotted to her, sat down again, and draped her with both wings.

"NoLegs informed me as much before he went to bed after you came in crying last night," Lance muttered, softly. "You may have made some bad blood with her… but compared to what could have come out of it if you didn't restrain yourself, things would have been indefinitely worse."

Anna turned away, sighing tiredly. "There's another reason," she heard him say. Turning back and raising a brow just an inch, she looked at her superior expectantly. "Why does your sister have a horn in the family photo?"

Anna stared at him for a few seconds. "A… horn…" She shifted into a half-slouch, leaning to one side as her rear hooves slid out from under her.

"Yes. Quite clearly poking out of her forehead when it was taken," Lance answered with a curt nod. "I know, this may seem like a dick move coming from me… but I just want to know."

'Why?" Anna queried.

"Call it a matter of curiosity," Lance answered bluntly.

Anna looked away again, sighing once more. "She… never had a horn. Someone must've spliced the picture," she mused.

Lance's frown deepened at that. "I didn't see any evidence upholding such a claim," he muttered. "No obvious splice lines, no jagged edges, no clear indication of vastly differing tints and shades between the horn and the rest of the photograph's contents… the horn didn't even fall off the picture." Leaning toward Anna, pausing when she turned to him again, he added very bluntly, "So, unless the splicer was skilled enough to fool even me, I don't think that's even a little bit coincidental since we've both heard her terrible harp-playing skills. There is no way in hell she should even be able to use its enchantments, if Shining indeed took care of that."

"The enchantments may be activated upon touch, Lance. Your wings were like that," Anna shot back. Now, it was Lance's turn to sigh.

"That may be the case, but it's still fishy to me," he muttered, shifting his front legs to lower himself to Anna's eye level. "Now then… are we going to visit Greenwood when we go down? I know, you and Sarah don't want to go back, but some part of me wants to check and see if the damned villagers survived the blaze or not."

Anna contemplated that for a few seconds, before once more shaking her head. "We're not going into the village proper, but we'll hover above it to see if the assholes inhabiting it burnt or not," she stated. "Sarah can't fly for another week or two, you only got the wind back yourself…"

At that, Lance had to concede that she had a point. He nodded once. "For now, though…" His ears folded back and he blushed as he trailed off. "Let's just take it easy." With that said, he stood up slowly, keeping his wings tucked at his sides. He nudged her with a hoof to get up, and begrudgingly, Anna moved to do just that. As soon as she stood, though, she leaned against the wall for support, her knees wobbling dangerously. Lance spread his left wing and used it to grasp the knob and turned it a few times, before steaming hot water sputtered and rained down on them both.

For several minutes, they were content to stay there, letting the water soak them to their skin. Anna sighed, still idling against the wall while Lance spread his right wing to grasp for something above her. His wing pulled back, now curled around a scrub brush that may well have been a loofa in comparison to the feathers that held it. Then… the brush gently tapped Anna's shoulder before it started scrubbing.

The unexpectedness of being scrubbed made Anna jump with a yelp, and she tumbled forward into Lance's barrel. His eyes widened and he hastily raised his forelegs and grappled her withers to stop her, though this pushed him a little toward the wall. "Whoa! I didn't mean to spook you!" Lance exclaimed, still clutching the brush in his wing.

Anna blushed and pulled away before backing off, flinching a little. "Sorry… just… spacing out," she mumbled weakly.

"I could tell," Lance sighed, and extended his wing to offer the brush to her. She looked at him, crossing her eyes at the brush as though it had been glued to the bridge of her muzzle. "Are you going to take it, or do I need to scrub you myself?" he asked softly.

Anna's legs gave out again, and she slumped to the floor. "Y-y-you're treating me like I'm fourteen again," she grumbled, her blush growing redder by the second.

Lance promptly spread his left wing and slapped his face in lieu of his hoof. "No, I'm not," he muttered, scandalized. "You're acting like a foal," he added when wing parted from face.

Anna's face continued to redden, and her ears fell back against her head as they too started to pick up on the hue. She flinched when Lance took that as 'I do not want to brush myself' and moved to do so for her, once more connecting bristle with withers and gently scrubbing. She made no objection as he scoured out bits of grime in her coat, but her squirming as he trailed the brush down her back all the way to her croup told him that she was not exactly elated with him doing so, either. Fortunately, he went no further than that, and retracted the brush after trailing it back to her shoulder.

Anna stood up when the brush moved away, and on unsteady legs she marched right up and leaned hastily until Lance was nose to nose with her. Her eye twitched, and her tail swished, spraying water outside of the shower stall as it did. "You want me to ram that brush up your ass?" she hissed, her horn starting to sputter.

Lance actually sent Anna a rather coy grin. "If you do, you're buying another," he replied coolly.

Anna promptly summoned a crystal arrow in a flash of light, and maneuvered it until it hovered behind Lance's tail. She cocked her head, eyes narrowed dangerously low. "Want me to geld you?" she growled.

Lance's smirk widened in spite of the threat. "You wouldn't, despite the fact that you're pissed off enough to even insinuate the thought," he snarked. His ear twitched when he heard the sound of hooves scraping against the carpet and then on tile, but paid it no heed since he was well aware of the sharp instrument of torture poised at his haunches. He leaned a little closer to Anna, until their snouts touched, and his grin went Cheshire in that moment. "Go ahead. Try to geld me," he challenged smugly.

Anna's magical grip wavered for a moment, before the arrow pulled back and surged forward—only to be stopped just a mere inch from its ill-gotten prize when his tail flicked and wrapped around it tightly in a blur of motion. "You do realize you're being insubordinate right now?" Lance mused, flinging the arrow away in a manner that left nary a scratch on his hide. The arrow sailed through the air and clattered harmlessly in the sink.

Anna balked and leaned away. Lance pressed to keep their snouts touching, matching her retreat for every bit she gained in distance. "And besides, that was just one arrow, of one of your deadliest sorts too. If you'd actually wanted, you could have flayed my entire hide clean off, balls intact and everything," Lance sneered. Neither noticed that a shadow was now looming over them, nor that said shadow's owner was looking at them with utter bemusement.

"You are, like, the biggest cockhole I've ever met!" Anna declared, her chest puffing out. Her magic grasped Lance by the shoulders and shoved him back, and her cheeks started to puff as well.

Lance's grin twitched knowingly. "Oh? Since when did you become a peeping hen?" he chirped.

Anna marched over and got into his face again, making sure to keep him far away enough with her magic so their snouts wouldn't touch. Her face heated until it was the color of his mane, reminding Lance of a hissing teakettle about to launch its lid straight into the air. Neither noticed that a second shadow joined the first, heralded by hooves on the carpet and then tile, for they were too engrossed in their fight at this point. "Y-you make it sound like I actually look whenever you have to take a leak, you pervert!" she screeched.

"You let me trot into the shower a few days ago without your belt," Lance countered quickly. "Aren't you the pervert here?" Anna gabbled and sputtered, but could not make any counter to Lance's argument. "And furthermore, you let me scrub you. Is there something you'd like to keep hidden from me?" he added.

"N-no!" Anna cried, leaning back again. Before Lance could start to match her retreat once more, somepony else at that moment—one of those who owned the shadows—cleared their throat and made both arguers stiffen at the sound.

"Did I trot in at the wrong time?" a feminine and very bemused voice asked. Both Lance and Anna paled, and slowly turned to the speaker with eyes fast widening to find that Natalie was standing at the entrance to the stall that they'd neglected to close. Behind her, Matt stood idling, a grin on his face and his cheeks puffing as he struggled to keep himself from laughing without lifting his hooves to contain it.

Anna and Lance fumed and turned to each other, glaring again. "We'll settle this later," they hissed in tandem.

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Sarah found herself being dragged down to the now-scorched Ashwood, magically at that, by Anna. Lance flew at their side, with NoLegs perched on his hat and a saddlebag with a gunblade loaded onto his back. For some reason that Sarah did not wish to grasp, her sister had gone out in the dress Rarity had made for her, drill-bow and all. Hell, she took it one step further by using the gaudy golden ribbon on her back to have the Accelerator affixed to her back in one firm, pretty knot. Twilight had also accompanied them, casting an illusory spell so the ectoplasms wouldn't detect them on their way down.

Katie came with too, settled on Twilight's back, though she kept silent during the descent. Lance was clumsy in his flight, often miscalculating his velocity or how hot the air was, and dangerously dipped more than once and much faster than he kept anticipating. Though, his sheer wingsize made up for his shortcomings, keeping him from colliding with his companions with powerful beats. They descended in a slow corkscrew, to maximize both distance and the time needed for Lance to gather his bearings and get a better hang on flying altogether after so long without. As a result, it took the group an entire two hours to actually reach the treeline.

Before they landed in the Mighty Oak's torched shrine relatively close to it, the group circled a few times above the now worse-for-wear Greenwood. Some of the houses had burnt branches, and one unlucky abode was burnt to a crisp and collapsed on itself. And yet, all the villagers therein with the exception of the pregnant mares and foals were trotting about, pulling wagons of fresh logs and pieces of that abode in addition to lugging various tools around. There were hammers and two-handled saws, a few nails and auburs that would need to be either hoof or magically operated for use, and some axes and shovels and picks to dislodge and cut up any fragment stuck in the ground.

The elderly ponies and the triad of leaders took less time actually helping cart around the luggage and more time directing the younger villagers toward key points in the village, where damaged houses needed immediate repairs lest they end up like the one which had collapsed. Some elders helped where the youngsters could not easily bear loads on their own, rushing over and magically lifting heavy planks of scorched or fresh wood, or with entire piles of fresh logs when needed. In spite of last night's inferno, Greenwood seemed to be embracing synergy to almost harmonic levels. And sure, there were still no pegasi to be seen within the village proper, yet the unicorns and earth ponies therein looked to be doing just fine without them.

All in all, the village had gotten out of the blaze mostly intact and with enough unharmed and able-bodied villagers chipping in with effort and necessary tools, which meant that things were more or less alright… for the time being. Twilight hovered above them for a moment longer, marvelling at the sight. A twang of longing struck a chord throughout her nerves, and for a brief second she thought of Ponyville, idly wondering how Ivory Scroll was handling the town with her and her friends absent. She could only hope things were going swimmingly back in Mythos.

The moment they touched down, and a second after when Twilight caught up with them, the illusion wore off of the whole group. Twilight turned to Lance and smiled as he proudly flared his wings and flapped a few times with a happy whinny leaving his mouth before he folded them and looked at her with a grin. "I feel like I am already getting the hang of flying again," he chirped. He bowed his head—bowed!—and fanned his wings low with the motion, his primaries touching the ground. "Thank you, sincerely."

Twilight's grin widened. "Don't mention it," she chirped back. Her smile dropped. "What's the plan?"

Lance straightened his posture and folded his wings shut. He looked to Anna and Sarah before nodding once. "You two… first off, my blaster, if you please," he stated. Anna nodded and lit up her horn, carefully unravelling the ribbon on her back to make sure she did not accidentally pull the trigger. When that was done, she magically hoofed the Accelerator over, letting it come to a gentle rest between his wings.

"Aren't you going to…" Twilight started, but trailed off when Lance moved to stand upright, arching his forehooves over his head to grapple the blaster and hold it in front of his chest. "... oh," she weakly finished as he hefted it over his withers. "Say… are you biologically built differently? The only pony I could see pulling your stunt would be Pinkie Pie," she queried.

Lance nodded in earnest. "We Fantasians have a more… upright-leaning skeletal structure, with broader shoulders and hips to enable that sort of thing. All fours is still more preferable in the long run, but I do this just to carry the damn cannon for the short-term," he replied. "Of course, the skeletal structure doesn't make things much easier, just more bearable."

Twilight quirked a brow. "A different skeletal structure?" she pressed. "Could you… provide x-rays for me? Because that sounds dubious," she muttered.

Lance's grin widened. "Gladly, but we'll have to clean up here before then," he answered. "The plan is, we search for any more cursed trees that escaped the blaze intact, or… are torn open enough that we could easily see what makes them… well, cursed trees."

"What about Greenwood?" Katie piped up.

"Eh, let them be for now. They're just rebuilding; besides, we'd be dicks for crashing that party," Lance stated.

"Isn't the father of that filly's foal in there somewhere?" Twilight pressed. Lance shook his head and his smile dropped.

"Given that the baby's a pegasus, the father would have very likely came from outside Greenwood to knock her up. Either that, or somepony slipped through the cracks long ago and genetics decided to toss in a pair of wings for once," Lance stated firmly. He flared his own wings for emphasis. "Greenwood's strictly earth and unicorn-based, to the point of booting dissidents and outsiders altogether. Shining saw that first-hoof," he added, flapping once. "They'd probably throw logs at us anyway just because three of us have wings."

Twilight mulled it over and sighed. "And going there now would be counterproductive… for everyone," she finished for him.

"Exactly," Lance agreed with a nod. He turned to Anna and Sarah. "And two of us still want to avoid that town altogether." He glanced up as a hum filled the air to find an airship as it came down to land at their clearing, hearing something angrily stomping around within it with enough force to actually shake it. He promptly walked up to the nearest stone henge. Twilight and the others followed him, simply to let the shuddering airship land. The moment it hit solid, scorched soil, the gangplank fell open, and out of the vessel stomped the Mighty Oak, looking a little singed in places himself but otherwise alright.

A few changeling soldiers flanked the Mighty Oak, wings beating to keep them aloft. One actually had the audacity to alight on his head, though the sentient construct really didn't seem to mind all that much. He did not even lift his spear-arm or knuckles to bat the changeling away. "Our friend here did not like being kept indoors overnight," the changeling on the Mighty Oak's head reported.

Lance nodded and lifted a hoof from the Accelerator to motion the changelings back. "Alright. Take the ship up before the villagers take notice," he ordered. The changelings nodded back and flew back into the vessel, only for a few to poke their heads out to make sure the gangplank wouldn't scrape their friend on its way up prior to going back inside and closing it shut. The airship beat its wings, and in seconds it ascended to the air to rejoin the others.

Once that was done, the Mighty Oak promptly turned to the group and marched up to them. He stared intently at the lot for a moment, before lifting his knuckles and hovering them just inches from Anna. She lifted a hoof and tapped at the knuckles once, before they shifted to Sarah. She lifted a claw and banged on the steel for a bit, and the Mighty Oak retracted with another nod. He lifted his knuckles again and held them before Lance, who lifted a hoof and tapped at the steel as Anna had done. He backed off and nodded again.

"Um… it's a golem, right?" Twilight asked uneasily.

Lance nodded. He turned to Anna expectantly. She noticed and turned to Twilight before elaborating, "He, actually, but yes you'd be right. I was told he was crafted by one of Fantasia's alicorns and given life long before Faust and Godcat were sealed." She smiled. "Dad let us play with him when we were little."

Twilight nodded, and turned to the Mighty Oak. He looked at her intently, in turn. Eventually, he nodded again, and lifted his spear-arm to gesture to an eastmost henge. Runes lit up, and Anna turned to it with a frown. Twilight conjured the rune-translating book and flitted through it, gradually piecing together what the henge was trying to convey to her. "'I see you have made some new friends,'" she translated.

The Mighty Oak nodded fervently at that. Twilight closed the book and made it vanish. "Shall we get going, then?" she asked, to much nodding from the group. She looked around, and spotted the gate before long. A metal-clad hoof coming to rest on her withers stopped her just as she raised a hoof, and she turned to Anna to find that she had extended that metal-clad hoof, in addition to a shaking of the head.

"That way… goes to Greenwood," Anna muttered dismally. "We'll have to go due east to avoid it."

Twilight nodded and turned to the henge whose runes lit up. "That way, then?" she guessed. Anna nodded and promptly trotted to it, lifting a hoof to touch it with a sigh that Twilight could've sworn was almost nostalgic. Lance walked up to her and draped a wing over her withers, and she offered him a small, tired smile in return.

"Dude, have you fucking married my sister?" Sarah asked, causing the two to jump and stumble for a moment.

"No, I haven't," Lance answered, turning to Sarah with both brows raised high. "Why do you ask?"

Sarah snorted, nostrils flaring as air left them. "Seriously? You keep… wrapping your wings around her, for Godcat's sake. And some days she likes you and some days, so I hear, she'll want to wedge arrows up your ass. That's something only somepony's wife would do," she stated, as though it were fact. At that, Lance again shook his head.

"If I'd have married Anna, strictly in the hypothetical sense, I'd have put a golden ring on her horn by now, and another on my left wingjoint," Lance countered firmly, frowning as he said that. "As things are, even if I'd like to, I cannot do so."

Now, it was Sarah's turn to raise her brow. "And why not?" she challenged.

Lance proceeded to curl one set of primaries over themselves, only to extend them one at a time as he rattled off, "One, pulling rank. Two, she's still a little too young for me, and three, she's prone to sprouting bark and ivy leaves. Four, we're still trying to figure out what broke the damned barrier, and at this rate—"

Katie decided to interject, "Um, not to speak out of turn, but… one of the trees told me a single word yesterday. Before the wildfire."

Lance turned to Katie almost immediately. "'splain," he ordered.

"The tree… said 'pestilence.' I don't know what context in which it could mean, but…" Lance raised a hoof and waved it, and Katie promptly shut her mouth before she could finish. He turned to Anna, only to find her tensing on the spot.

"... pestilence, you said?" Anna asked, ears folding back as a scowl wormed its way onto her face. At Katie's nod, she shuddered and stomped the ground. "Please… don't utter that word again."

Katie's ears jutted upright. "Is it bad, in the sense that Maria would define it?" she pressed.

Anna haltingly nodded. "Exceedingly," she muttered. "Just… don't…"

Katie hesitantly nodded back. "A-alright…" she muttered. "I wonder if it's because of her parents," she thought idly, looking at the Mighty Oak as it raced through her head. "Does he like wraiths?" she queried, lifting a hoof to point at the Oak for emphasis.

The Mighty Oak shook in response. But he did not approach her, nor Twilight, who trotted up to Lance. Sarah groaned, rolled her eyes, and followed them reluctantly. Behind them, the Mighty Oak walked, and as one the group passed the henges into the scorched Ashwood.

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It took them a little under thirty minutes to reach a small clearing created by the wildfire last night, scorched pitch-black all around and with trees having collapsed under their own weight as a result of the inferno. This was thanks to the group's skills in flight and self-levitation, in addition to the sheer size and speed of the Mighty Oak. A mile away, they could barely see the patch of obsidian, standing proud and tall despite what had happened. None of the trees, as a result of collapsing, reached any barrels; the tallest one only towered an inch past Katie's height were she to stand on the ground with ears and wings upright.

Twilight was magically sifting through the torched wood, with Anna and NoLegs chipping in. Not one cursed tree had ever been in the clearing; there was not even the slightest hint of bone in the resultant charcoal to indicate as much. Sarah took to manually overturning crumbling logs, and Lance used his wings to dust off parts of those logs as best as he could. The Mighty Oak watched them intently, wondering what it was they were digging for.

Katie herself didn't chip in to help. Her body ached as she looked at the burnt bark and other bits of scorched fauna that was once alive. She'd already done enough damage, and honest to Godcat she was wondering why Lance decided to drag her back here anyway. Of course, she didn't vocalize that part of her concerns, as the nymph within her told her 'Shut your mouth and be good,' and for once in her life she was compelled to obey that inner nymph.

Ten minutes into the overturning of blackened rubble, the group reached the pile taller than Katie herself, who noted that a lot more burnt wood had caved in there than the surroundings. In fact, that was dubiously so, to the point the pile almost looked like a closed flower, waiting to bloom with the sun's morning rays. She turned away as Twilight lifted a few of the hunks of burnt bark, only to shriek and backpedal with her magic flickering weakly as doing that uncovered a pair of soot-covered skeletons.

Anna and Sarah both cried out as well upon seeing the skeletons. One sported a broken horn, and tattered remnants of a beard, while the other had a beak and a talon that lay outstretched. There was a second talon clutching a mound of dirt with a skeletal hoof wrapped around it as well, rather protectively at that, coming from the skeleton with the beak. Hoof and claw met at the mound and held each other in a cold, tight grip, and tarsus and pastern sported one golden ring each. Had Katie looked at that moment, she would've sworn the rings weren't there before.

Sarah gabbled, her brain scrambling as she tried to process what lay before her. Katie winced, her ache growing stronger as she heard the immediate confusion fast giving way. She tried, desperately, to ignore it, but her body was not keen on obeying this day. Pain shot through her veins as the Mighty Oak himself walked over to inspect the ghastly scene. Lance stepped back, scrutinizing the skeletons for a moment, his wings drooping slightly as Sarah turned to Anna.

"Wh… who are they?" Sarah asked, slowly, her voice cracking and still fraught with confusion.

Anna looked away from her sister, and to the skeletons. Even deprived of most of their flesh, and with so much still buried under the rubble, she seemed to note several once-familiar features. Hesitantly, she lifted more bits of bark aside with her magic, revealing more bones belonging to the deceased. She pushed these aside, and more bark after that, until at last complete skeletal structures were exposed.

Twilight, feeling bile rising in her throat as she watched, noted that the unicorn's skeleton had broader shoulders and hips, spaced further apart for reasons she could not place. Perhaps the owner had been crushed in the rubble, which seemed a possibility given that the bones were just excavated. The other skeleton had back hooves, and wing-bones flared wide and broken, with one draped over the unicorn that lay with it.

Sarah's heart stopped for one beat when the full tableau was exposed before her. "Wh-who…" she managed in a croak.

Anna turned to Twilight, who saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Slowly, she raised a shoe-clad hoof and gestured to the skeletons. "Twilight…" she said in a low, bitter tone, "take a few steps closer. I'm sure…" The raised hoof shook, and Anna struggled to keep it still as a fresh tear trailed down her cheek. "I'm sure… they'd like to meet you."

It took mere seconds, and a few glances between the skeletons and the twins, before Anna's unspoken meaning registered to Twilight. Her stomach clenched, and her heart drummed harder. In an effort to see something else—anything else at this rate—her eyes gravitated to the lone mound that was the only thing between the cadavers. Even then, she saw the hoof and claw continuing to clutch it well beyond the mortal coil.

Slowly, she took a few steps forward, before Katie let loose her tongue and grappled her neck with it. She felt Katie shaking her head when the tongue formed one loose coil. Another unspoken meaning registered: "Don't." Before Twilight could contemplate why Katie would perform such an action, Sarah strode to the mound of dirt and thrust her own talons into it. In seconds, she was digging, pulling aside whole chunks of earth as thick as her fist to uncover something trapped beneath the collection of soil. She paused, eyes alighting with recognition as she stared at the object before proceeding to pry apart more chunks of soil to uncover more of its form.

"... Mr. Muffin? Wh-who left you here?" Sarah queried as she uncovered a small, stuffed and dirtied teddy bear in the broken mound of dirt. Through the grime, she could still see patches of white, accentuated by an equally-dirtied golden ribbon. She reached in and pulled the small plush out, and noted that despite the dirt and some small scratch-marks in his fur that made a bit of cotton and a few flecks of blackened crystals spill out, he seemed more or less alright. Her pupils shrank, and she brought the plush close to her chest as her eyes settled on the skeletons once again.

In seconds, everything dawned on her, just as it had Twilight. Sarah backpedaled on her hooves, wings flaring and pupils shrinking in alarm. Lance turned to her, noticing the toy, though he elected not to say anything. NoLegs did not utter anything telepathically either. Both could see the wide-eyed horror on her face, knowing full well the reason behind it, and it made their stomachs turn. Anna magically pulled something else out of the loose mound of soil, and held the object a distance away from the skeletons before shaking it off. She promptly brought it back to herself and unraveled it, revealing it to be a parchment of paper. Then, she beckoned Lance and NoLegs over with a hoof.

Lance trotted over and leaned to the parchment, finding more archaic scrawlings that could only barely pass off as runic writing. Ink splotches and scuff marks born of dirt ran rampant on the frame, and with soot thrown in for good measure, not only made the parchment appear older than it was but obscured much of its writing. He and NoLegs had to squint their eyes just to make out the outlines of the various letters splashed haphazardly upon its surface.

NoLegs magically took the parchment and looked over it thrice. He glanced at Anna, who nodded back to him. "I can't read much of it. What little I can doesn't… make sense," she answered. NoLegs nodded back and looked over the paper one more time before magically embracing everyone, even the Mighty Oak, and filling their thoughts with his voice as he read the note to them.

"'To the Envoy of Cocytus, I never thought that you would visit me and my beloved after we became wraiths. Much less had we expected you to deliver such news that our daughters were in Frostbite when you last, supposedly, saw them. But I shouldn't have been surprised when you did. Not the least bit.'"

"Envoy of Cocytus? Who's that?" Twilight interjected. NoLegs looked at her and shrugged in earnest.

He continued to read, "'However, when I saw you with that cat and those gryphons, something struck me as very odd. I could tell, almost immediately, that you all were hiding something. The way you fidgeted… the way you sidestepped when asked… that's something someone who'd tell the truth would avoid doing.'" NoLegs paused to give Katie a look, and she merely glanced away.

He shrugged it off and continued, "'Thus, regardless of whether you told a lie or a truth, I have decided to end it here. My beloved Veronica made no motion to object. For us, there is no going back; nothing more to atone for than our past failures. Should you find this note, stay as far away from Greenwood as you can. I know not the full extent of what goes on behind its closed doors, as I have deliberately distanced myself and my family to keep them safe, but I can assure you it is most unpleasant.'"

Lance's brow furrowed at that. He turned to Anna and Sarah, both of whom nodded weakly in confirmation to that last statement. "I haven't seen much myself…" Sarah muttered, turning to the bear in her claws. "Mr. Muffin helped me leave when things got really bad." To much of Twilight's immediate confusion, he decided to not query about the very absurd and borderline bizarre flight of fancy that was a stuffed bear supposedly helping Sarah get out of Ashwood. Before Twilight could speak about it, much less glean when this event supposedly happened, somepony else decided to interject and cut off that train of thought right in its bud.

"You… wouldn't believe me if I told you," Anna muttered, just as grimly.

Katie jerked to Anna, orbs widening as she retracted her tongue. "You know what goes on there, don't you?!" she hissed. At Anna's nod, she flared her wings and buzzed. "Well, what is it?!"

Anna lifted a hoof and removed the shoe with her magic. Once she did, the skin on that hoof writhed and twisted with an angry red pulse of mana, causing its fur to ripple unnaturally. She put the shoe back on, whereupon the pulse of mana ceased, and her skin fell still. "Anna.. is there something horrific going on?" Twilight pressed. All she got was another glum nod.

NoLegs sighed and continued to read, seeing that Anna had gone tight-lipped all of a sudden, "'It is as I lay here, in the burning remnants of my own house, that I realized I will go to Hell for my inaction. I could not save my foals. The only comfort I have is that Veronica is coming with me, and when we cross the gates… Greenwood will fall. Anna Aria Windwood, and Sarah Rhapsody Lyregale… if you are, by some twisted miracle of fate, reading this, I love you. I can only hope you forgive me… but turn back once you conclude reading this. Take Mr. Muffin with you, if you can. I will watch you, even though I will surely have been cast into Hell's fiery pits… and I will, likewise, witness the calamity that will befall Greenwood…'"

NoLegs frowned as he made the note vanish in a flash of light. "'That was… deeply disturbing," he telepathically groaned.

"'The calamity that will befall Greenwood…'" Lance mused, frowning at that. "What the utter fuck was he babbling on about?"

"Greenwood seemed fine…" Twilight added, putting a hoof to her chin and tapping idly. Turning to Anna again, she pressed forward, "Are you gonna elaborate for us, or is this something we'll have to see ourselves?"

"The latter," Anna muttered, shaking her head. "Honestly… I'm not sure what he meant by 'calamity,' but… but if he told me and Sarah to stay out of it…"

Katie's stomach twisted as she finished that statement for Anna, her own voice grim and dour, "... then it can't bode particularly well."