Pestilence grinned as the flower-laden branches started moving through the walls and their pulsating flesh, jerking up and down in sync as they began carving their paths throughout the makeshift arena. One nearly grazed Twilight, who jumped onto the trojan horse to avoid it. Another branch tried aiming for Katie's face, but all she had to do to avoid it was open her torn mouth as wide as it could go and pull back until it was in front of her muzzle.

Pestilence growled at that, and gnashed whatever teeth he had left after she lunged forward and bit down hard on the branch with enough force to break it. Katie jerked her head, severing the branch and letting it fall out of her mouth with ease. The next branch to lash at her, however, managed to cut two of her legs with enough force to part chunks of flesh and chitin from bone. The wounds froze shut before their blood could fall to the floor.

Lance flew to Pestilence, raising the Accelerator to clock him again. Pestilence chuckled at this, and raised his forelegs with their pike-like points aimed right at the weapon. His forelegs morphed and contorted, wood splitting and folding outwards in fragments, almost peeling off his flesh before reattaching at the tips of the pike-like points in an entirely new shape. In seconds, the sharpened points had reconfigured into wicked claws with a final crackle of bark, which he used to clutch the incoming weapon before it could ram into his face.

"H-his legs!" Katie shrieked in alarm, orbs widening. She rushed over as Lance tried to pull his weapon back out of his adversary's clutches, all the while Pestilence rose a hind leg and aimed for his exposed stomach.

Lance, however, reared his hinds in response and kicked first, hooves penetrating through the ivy cage and right into the ribs. Pestilence growled and let go, allowing Lance to launch away and tumble backwards through the air, before then using his still-raised leg to skewer Katie through the barrel of her chest and out her back as she came in to slash at him. He seized her by the neck with his claws, and ivy raced to her legs to keep her still as he looked into her orbs for any sign of weakness. "You dare to stop me with that feeble form of yours?" Pestilence growled, eyes narrowing a smidgen as his grin widened fractionally.

Despite being skewered through, Katie managed to glare at him. Her split grin twitched at its edges. "Not with my form, for I cannot do much as I could were my horn whole," she spat, voice echoing with several notes of ire. She undulated her tongue a little, and it rippled in her throat with enough force that she was sure Pestilence could feel it through his bark. Her broken horn began crackling with unrestrained, unfocused might, and ice began to grow along the both of them as the temperature dropped.

Pestilence sneered. "Then with what?" he asked, simply flexing his vines to shake off the ice that tried to grow on him. Katie wasn't content to answer; rather, she let somepony else do the answering in her stead—and that turned out to be Lance as he flew at Pestilence once more. This time he came in swinging from behind, Accelerator once again raised for another meeting with their adversary's exposed backside.

The swift crunch of wood and bone wasn't enough to make him let go, but it was enough to send him to the floor, distracted as he was. And it was there that he found another surprise waiting for him: Twilight teleporting over to skewer him on her light-blade, aiming for his still-exposed stomach. Pestilence shifted, massive wings propelling him into a spin as he darted to the side, still clutching the seemingly-hapless Katie. Dark energies began swirling along the length of his horn, green-black tendrils writhing and snapping about for a second prior to jumping from branch to branch. The flower-laden limbs of the construct began jittering up and down faster, some homing in on NoLegs and Twilight while others aimed for Lance.

Lance flew out of range, hovering in the middle of the room where none of the tendrils reached for the moment. NoLegs magically lifted his trojan horse to achieve the same; Twilight self-levitated to join them, though that left them exposed—and Katie in Pestilence's grasp. Pestilence grinned wickedly, eying the rest of the meager group with a predatory light in his eyes at this development. His magic, still dancing around his gnarled horn, lanced out to the branches once more. At his unspoken command, and inch by inch they sawed their way to the group, pushing deeper and deeper until he was sure it would at least graze one of them and trap the rest.

However, it was this exact moment that Twilight chose to retaliate. She teleported over to him and slashed at the branches around him, preventing them from slicing into her in a flurry of motion. Then, she pierced his hind leg with her sword, using just enough force to cut through wood and bone indiscriminately. The cut was clean and swift, the ichor of his being spraying upon him and her coat and Katie's face as he found himself one leg short.

She snatched Katie in her magical grasp as he let go with a yelp, severed leg and all, and teleported back to Lance and NoLegs before prying out the bleeding stump from fraying flesh and chitin. As soon as Pestilence realized what had happened and started reacting to it, Twilight deftly wiped the blood off of her coat with, before then throwing his own severed leg at him—bloodied point first. The sawing branches shredded it to pieces before it could reach him, and as Pestilence turned to the limb's remnants with orbs widening, he only barely registered the group teleporting out of the arena in short order.

Outside, on the lonesome island, the group reappeared and alighted. Katie took a moment to get used to the feeling of having a hole punched through half her entire body, and let her magic form ice to cork it shut. She turned her orbs to the mangled tree-house, grimacing as its own branches tore through its upper floors and tightened upon itself in a way that sprayed its foul ichor everywhere. She winced as an angry roar emanated from deep within that fraying trunk, before a burst of viridian light erupted from above the tree. Everyone turned to find Pestilence well away from his own supposed house, magic crackling wildly along his horn.

"That was a clever trick, for a bunch of mortals accompanied by the Envoy," Pestilence spat, the bark around his left eye twitching and splintering erratically. Twilight noted he was flying a little lopsided now, due to the lack of a hind leg that was still bleeding rather profusely. His magic raced to his own supposed abode and caused it to cease all movement for a few seconds. By then, the house looked less like a tree and more like a coiled lich-wyrm turned inside-out.

Katie beat her wings, hearing a tiny tremor racing through the ground that slightly rattled the ice which had shut her wounds. Lance and Twilight moved to get airborne as well; NoLegs made his trojan horse vanish in a burst of light and shifted to stand on Katie's head as he saw more wood growing out of Pestilence's hind quarters and down the cut limb to replace it. They watched, waited for some sort of attack as they ascended—yet none came. Nothing was launched at them, not even the magma itself. Time seemed to have slowed; Lance and Katie would have dropped by now, had it halted entirely.

Twilight was half-tempted to ask what the deal was when something answered her unspoken question for her.

The tree kept still for perhaps a moment longer, but then heaved in a way that forced its branches outward, rushing up and then holding stiff in a manner that reminded Twilight of the spokes of a wheel. Then its roots shifted, causing the warped and half-destroyed construct to twist even further on itself as the ground cracked and frayed. The tree heaved up and up, further splitting the ground as the sickly magic touched every splinter of its being.

A root pierced through the ground, from beneath the group. Katie zipped back first, just in time to avoid another sharpened point that would have otherwise slammed clean through her head. Lance flew higher, the others following him, and she buzzed after them as the island continued to break apart with the aid of roots long since planted. From miles above, every single combatant could see a pattern slowly form in those fraying cracks, coiling and breaking as the tree's roots filled them with its sickly glowing lifeblood.

Runes emerged in the soil, whole and untouched, almost floating as they broke away to frame themselves around the island. A circle framed the barest edges of a crumbling precipice, strangely neat in structure and circumference. Vines wove in an intricate lace, holding the mishmash together even though these were born of dirt instead of fauna. A strange image formed within that circle, first as mere links of a chain, then as a pair of tightly-clamped shackles framing a rune-scribbled parchment stabbed with vines.

Throughout the formation of this odd phenomenon, the tree continued to writhe and push itself out of the earth, still spilling blood with which to fuel its crumbling bastion. The torches fell away, save one that lit up a final time as it started to absorb the ichor. The flame turned from blue to green, and its previous fuel—skulls and rings—turned to ash as the fires ate them. As that torch bathed in, drank and radiated that odd glow, Lance's eyes widened at the sight and he turned to Twilight.

Only one order left his mouth in that moment. "Teleport! Now! As far away as you can manage!" he barked.

Twilight embraced everyone in her magic again, and did just that as the tree collapsed into itself and on the island, spilling itself and its furnishings everywhere with the impact. They reappeared at the Mighty Oak's shrine, still afloat and flying, and gaped as a pillar of green light exploded from where the island was, encasing miles of Ashwood in a vibrant dome that pulsed with ominous power. Chunks of soil and wood flung themselves at the barrier's interior, only to disintegrate in that light upon contact. Magma sprayed, and so did what scorched bones remained of the lich-wyrm, suffering just the same fate. Yet, there was no sign that Pestilence himself had been afflicted by whatever it was he had wrought.

Twilight shuddered at that power. Even Ragnarok paled in comparison to its brutality and swiftness—even that horrid spell wasn't as destructive as this, let alone as focused. "Wh… what was that…" she muttered through heavy breath.

"A spell… okay, I'm starting to think Matt may have been onto something…" Lance grumbled, shifting the Accelerator so he could hold it with one foreleg and not shoot it in the process. He watched the dome, frowning only when it fell apart and left nothing more than a magma-filled crater in its wake. Nothing, absolutely nothing in that blast's radius had been spared.

"So… you're not going to punish him?" Twilight asked, readying her blade in case Pestilence decided to teleport and try his luck again.

"Not as severely as I normally would," Lance answered with a sigh. He turned to Katie, but was waved off with a clawed horseshoe before he could address her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I owe you an explanation, but can it please wait until we're out of the woods?" Katie hissed in exasperation, scanning Ashwood fitfully as she retracted her hoof.

Lance nodded, and turned to scan the sky carefully. Distantly, he saw a green light still hovering over the destruction, zipping about erratically in a manner that suggested whomever was doing it was searching for something. He turned to NoLegs. "You have my gunblade?" he asked.

NoLegs shook his head.

Lance snorted. "Then please retrieve it, and I'll trade you for this," he said, waving the Accelerator. NoLegs nodded and vanished in a burst of light, and after he left Katie perked her ears to listen for any subtle changes to the Void-blighted air.

She turned immediately to Greenwood, hearing a distant commotion coming from it. Her orbs flickered as she zeroed in on it, tuning out her own wingbeats and Lance's to get a better idea of what was going on.

She didn't like what she heard.

"... the Cleansing Crystal of Condemnation has come…!"

"Wait, wasn't that rainbow-maned…"

"Please, spare me…!"

"You are not welcome here!"

Katie's ears flattened against her head and neck as she turned to the distantly-dancing green dot again, tuning out the faint cacophony. Great, everything was going to hell faster than she thought. Last affirmation she needed on the eve of this eventful week. The dot vanished in a burst, and she readied her claws in case an attack was coming.

It didn't take long for another burst to come from below. The group turned, and found Pestilence standing in the empty shrine with a wide grin that suggested he was proud of himself. "Impressive. Most don't survive the blessings of Mother Nature, much less leave intact," he noted wryly, orbs flickering with interest. His horn crackled again, and his magic lanced out to the surrounding burnt trees and undergrowth that dotted the shrine grounds.

"Blessing? You call a crater a blessing?!" Twilight cried incredulously, waving a hoof and her sword at the crater for emphasis.

"On the grounds that it gives ample opportunity for more life to flourish after the fact," Pestilence retorted, his front claws shifting back into their pike-like points with a heave and a ripple of bark. The undergrowth sprouted new shoots with his magic's passing, rapidly becoming vines that twisted onto themselves and grew sharpened spikes with which to pierce all that came near. The vines coiled onto the fallen trees, feeding on them for sustenance, and crawled out of the ground to him with only ashen piles left behind. Yet, when that same magic touched the vines' remnants that clung to the stone gates, something strange happened that even Pestilence took note of.

The vines revitalized, yes, but did not sprout any thorns or make an effort to leave the burnt rocks to which they clung. Instead they sputtered with renewed vigor, and coiled tighter to keep the gates together. Pestilence growled at the rebellious plants, and wrenched them off with his magic, though when he did they simply rushed towards him and coiled upon his neck as though with a mind all their own. His own vines made short work of the fighting vines, though, and his magic reconstituted them into the thorny growths that came at his beck and call. With a sharp jerk of his horn, the vines on the ground shot up at the trio, some using the hedges as a launching-off platform to do so.

Katie and Lance flew out of the way, and Twilight levitated near the middle of the airspace above the shrine grounds. Yet still the thorny bramble lashed about, trying to coil around legs and wings with a grace that was only granted through very fine-tuned control. One managed to snake around Lance's primaries, but he simply dropped down to slip out of the hold before it had the chance to complete itself. Another aimed for Katie's neck, but she slashed that one into pieces as it made to touch her. A third tried its luck with Twilight, and was immediately skewered on a sword for its trouble.

The vines were a persistent crop, however, and shot out further and further, edging the stragglers towards Twilight. Pestilence watched, head tilted, as Lance zipped up and down with an erratic gait that kept his wings out of harm's way. Odd, he made no effort to bat aside the plants with his Accelerator. Vines surged with his magical manipulation, aiming at the prone pegasus, but a well-timed beating of the wings sent them back with only a small gust of wind.

Twilight turned to Pestilence as she spun her sword to slash at more vines that came too close for comfort, and grasped him in her magic, noting he made no move to retreat or defend himself. Her eyes narrowed as Pestilence turned to her, opening his mouth to speak when white fire erupted from all around him. His mouth shut as the fires danced for a moment, going around him in an orbit, until they lashed out and licked at the vines he had conjured—as well as him. Pestilence, strangely, was content to stand idle as his crop withered, died, and turned to ash from the onslaught.

His wings spread wide and proud, even as their leafy feathers began to blacken around their edges. His horn rose to join them, singing just the same as it hummed with more foul magic. His mouth opened once more, and an archaic language slipped from his tongue even as the fires began burning bits of his legs and face away. "Krælstal moirhen thlakulz…" he started, his magic touching the stone hedges and making them glow with his power. Runes emerged, circling him along with the fire, swirling in a slow dance that gained momentum.

"What is he doing… this time?" Twilight grumbled, watching intently as she pointed the tip of her blade at Pestilence.

Pestilence, still burning with much of his body blackening, reared onto his hinds and folded his front legs to his bleeding, vine-riddled barrel. Wings and horn going higher up as a result of this, he continued to chant, "Mæratrun erisch gronzhelæ…" His magic was once more snaking its way past the hedges and gates, touching all of the burnt, ashen wood with its passing. A viridian blanket seeped through the area, bathing that part of Ashwood in its light.

Dirt heaved up around the shrine grounds, dragging with it roots and wood and flaking ash as it moved in massive chunks. Whatever wood remained flew to the chunks of soil, which started to orbit the henges. Still channeling whatever fell power he beckoned forth, Pestilence continued to chant amidst the white flames that struggled to consume him. Some dirt flung itself at him, dousing out Twilight's spell-wrought flames with but a few clumps as large as he was. The rest compacted onto themselves and absorbed the blanket of magic in its totality, then merged onto each other to form a boulder of soil thrice as tall as the Mighty Oak. All the while, it was sprouting new shoots and saplings whose growth was nothing short of accelerated by magic that willed them into being.

Katie rubbed at her eyes as the dirt and vegetation molded itself slowly, first sprouting twisted trees whose branches ended in the claw-like folds of their cursed brethren instead of leaves and flowers. Totaling four in number, the trees landed with a thud that shook Ashwood, holding up the ball of soil as it started to gain a more definitive shape thanks to its crops and their rather deft sculpting. A long, segmented neck emerged from the front as the body became slimmer, ending in a rounded and serpentine head that grew wooden scales in a matter of seconds. A tail jutted from behind, lashing with vines and bark and contempt as glowing orbs framed the new face of this beast. Spines all but completed it, running from head to tail in sharply curved points formed of more vines holding bark together.

Pestilence completed his spell, making the runes vanish with a flap of his wings and a flourish of his horn. He stomped on the shrine grounds using his front legs, sending a ripple through the earth that ran up the legs of his own monstrosity. He teleported onto the head of the beast once the shaking subsided, and smirked at a gawking, wide-eyed Twilight whose forelegs had gone completely slack at the sight. "A… timberdrake…" she muttered in dismay, the sword shaking in her magical grip as the dirt moved outside the construct to form a crusty, dampened shell that still let the spines and vines poke through. "He made a…"

Katie's jaw had dropped, swinging for a moment before she reigned it back in with a shudder. "Okay, gotta admit, that's actually impressive," she noted sourly, with a faint hint of awe somewhere amidst a bit of jealousy. "But just as bad for us either way."

"And that proved exactly what?" Lance shouted, glaring at Pestilence even as the timberdrake stomped its way over to loom over him and his group.

Pestilence still wore his insufferable smile, his ashen bark falling away to be replaced with a fresher, still-growing series of plates. "That I can crush you, here and now!" he screeched as the timberdrake raised one mighty claw to swat at his airborne opponents. Twilight teleported herself and the others out of immediate range, but the wind from the strike knocked them further back as soon as they reappeared a mile away. Katie and Lance were thrown off-balance, spinning in the air before reorienting themselves and regrouping with Twilight as the timberdrake started to move closer.

"Okay, Nightmare Moon wasn't this bad…" Twilight grumbled in exasperation. "How much mana does he have to sustain that thing?"

At that point, Lance's portable radio buzzed. "What the fuck is going on over there?" Matt asked from his end. "NoLegs came up telling me about this tree-alicorn—" Lance ignored the rest, instead flying around the timberdrake with Katie and Twilight following him, just in time to avoid a massive backhand that came from below. In unison they raced along the side of the monstrosity, and Twilight took the lead to slash any vines that made an effort to reach them. Halfway between shoulder and hip, the tail came in towards them, and the group ducked under it as it swung before changing course and getting further away from the timberdrake.

"Lance, what's going on?!" Natalie cried from another communications link. "I hear the ground shaking over here, and—"

Lance cut both off with a sigh. "Can't really talk right now; we have a timberdrake on the loose!" he hissed as said beast craned its neck and looked towards him. Its front quarters turned next, and then the hinds followed to let it lumber and lurch to the trio.

"Ah, fuck me," Matt grumbled in exasperation. The timberdrake opened its mouth wide, showing off a myriad of thorns and sharpened logs long enough to be considered stakes dotting the roof and floor of its mouth, though all were covered with layers and layers of dirt. A deep green energy stirred in its throat, bubbling in consistency as it formed a viscous, liquid substance. The timberdrake pulled back sightly, barrel and neck puffing up with air even through the strange liquid.

Lance looked at the angle of his vantage point, and where the drake seemed to be aiming. After a second, he ducked towards its legs, folding his forelegs tightly around the Accelerator as he flew down. "Where are you going?! It'll kill you!" Katie exclaimed, racing after him with claws outstretched. Twilight went with her, silently wondering the same thing when she saw Lance change his angle and propel himself between the massive front legs of the beast with a few wingbeats and his body corkscrewing in a frenzied barrel roll to evade the vines. At the same time, the drake unleashed a spray of liquid that hissed through the air, missing them entirely but painting a three-mile-long swath of land in popping, bioluminescent green that dissolved all except the dirt.

Katie fell back a little to hover at Twilight's side, tucking her front legs in. "Never thought I'd take on something like this," she grumbled, eyes narrowing at this prospect.

Twilight stifled a groan and shifted her sword so it hovered above her back as they danced around the vines and rushed between the front legs to catch up to a still-corkscrewing Lance, who had tightened his maneuvering to avoid the few vines that reached out further than the rest. "Never thought I'd run into a pony who could summon the awful things," she hissed in displeasure.

"True enough," Katie agreed with a sharp nod. She heard the creature shifting, heard the bark fraying, and saw the hinds moving as Lance veered to the side and darted out between a front and back leg. She turned to follow, and her self-levitating companion wordlessly did likewise. Lance stopped for a moment, backed up, and descended a few feet before pressing on, wings spread to catch any wind that dared blow in the battlegrounds. The two behind him saw why; a wall of vines had sprung up—down, rather, in this case—and tried to block him to no avail. They simply descended lower than the tendrils could reach, and passed under it without incident.

Then Lance turned around and aimed the Accelerator at the drake, sliding primaries between gears and charging another blast—and went into freefall at the same time. The wind beating against him caused the clock's hands to spin faster and faster than if he simply stood still, and it accumulated its charge as he started to descend at a hastening rate. Lance aimed it for the drake's head where Pestilence still stood, his own head darting about in an effort to locate his foes.

Twilight and Katie both watched him take the seemingly-suicidal plunge. "What the fuck in Faust's name is he doing?!" Twilight cried, teleporting to Lance only to miss him by a few feet as he continued freefalling. Katie flew down to the former treeline, then raced to him in an effort intercept his landing—or cushion it, if she got there fast enough. Twilight flew down after him herself, careful to keep out of his firing range as the light the weapon gathered was rapidly approaching destructive capacity.

Lance smirked, contemplating what he was doing. Coming from any other pony who was dead or alive—or any sentient for that matter—such an action would be in the upper echelons of truly, impossibly impractical and nucking futs. But the situation, having already spiraled well out of hoof, had escalated to the point where he had to stop caring about how crazy it was becoming. The wind shrieked in his ears, almost took his hat off before he reached with one hoof to grab it and cram its rim into his mouth. His feathers ruffled and pulsed with his channeled power, and he fought with the wind to get his hoof back on the Accelerator before he could fire.

He saw Twilight and Katie both struggling to catch up to him, seemingly forgetting about the massive timberdrake that would probably rampage throughout Fantasia if left unchecked for too long. "I have to get that giant tree's attention somehow," was the first thought that crossed his mind as he continued to plummet. "But, I also have to withstand the impact…" Ideas turned in his mind, and there was dwindling time to contemplate them.

Having such few options and precious seconds to act on them was not very favorable, even for him or somepony in his shoes. But any option certainly beat becoming a mess of gore on the ashen ground, or crippled all over again for that matter.

One such option struck him as Twilight missed catching him by a good foot of distance, and he remembered that he could fly if he pried out his feathers fast enough. "This is gonna require a bit of timing on my part…" he mused, biting down on his hat to calm himself even as he drew closer to what many would call certain death. He glanced at the approaching ground, then to the distant puddle the timberdrake had belched out as it ate half of whatever was left, then back to the patch that came closer as if eager to meet him.

All he could do was wait. There was only one window of opportunity to see, and it wasn't yet open for him. Pity that neither of his companions could see it.

He figured they would though, soon enough.

But neither teleporter nor wraith could get to him in time at the rate he descended, that much he could glean right away—they were simply not fast enough. Though, of the two, Twilight had without a doubt gotten at least close enough to see the tell-tale glimmer in his eyes.

Lance plummeted a few dozen feet in a matter of seconds as Twilight tried and failed to catch him again. He had time enough to nod to her once, smirking broadly through his hat. He knew, full well, what he was doing—and the impracticality of it all.

Immediately afterwards, he fell further until he found himself above where the treeline used to be, and that was when he let loose another torrent that grazed the beast's neck thanks to the shift in altitude he'd subjected himself to. At the same time he fired, he slid his wings out and spread them wide, turning on an axis as the volley dissipated, flapping a few times to at least soften his landing. As he span to reorient himself, using the Accelerator to help shift his weight, he caught sight of the grazed drake as its vines compacted onto its body.

"Damnit, I didn't even damage the drake… looks like I'll have to have a change in plans," he thought, frowning as his hind hooves met with the ground first and tried to fly out from under him that same moment. He stiffened his legs and forced them to comply, and sent himself into a skid that created new furrows thanks to speed, gravity, and weight, but even through that he remained upright with wings still flapping to slow himself down. His foes, who had already taken notice of the blast and from where it had come, both turned in that direction to find one pony on ground and his companions coming to his aid.

The drake started to storm over, fueled by braying laughter that could have only come from its twisted master. "You fool! I rule the ground here! You will never take to the skies again, wretched pegasus!" Pestilence barked, his voice resonating throughout the Void with a warbling glee. The drake roared in agreement, stomping along the ground with enough force to leave footprints in its wake.

Twilight seized Lance in her magic, then Katie as she came closer. Lance curled a wing to grasp and put his hat back onto his head with his primaries, wincing as his back legs ached in protest from the landing. "Just question it later; otherwise we'll be flattened bickering about it!" he hissed as Twilight opened her mouth to start questioning the validity of the stunt he pulled. Twilight closed her mouth, facehoofed, and nodded before vanishing with them in another teleport. The timberdrake was only fast enough to reach where they stood, and crushed the area under a claw with a might that sent ashes spiraling around it in a burst of wind.

The drake lifted its claw up once the ash settled, and lowered its head to check the newest imprint upon Ashwood. Pestilence jumped down from its head and personally trotted over, legs cricking and cracking as he forced himself into a calm, collected stride. He examined the footprint, but found only a few shed feathers of burnt orange and little else clinging to the underside of the massive tree-claw. Pestilence stomped a pike-leg, sending a magical pulse throughout the imprint that caused more vines to sprout up in its shape. "Where did they get to…?" he grumbled, looking about with his warped ears turning.

A few miles behind him and his new pet, Twilight, Lance, and Katie reappeared in a burst of light that went undetected by their adversaries. "Okay, so he's able to make giant golems… if we kill that thing, he's probably going to summon something bigger," Twilight grumbled, eyes narrowing at the unpleasant thought.

Katie went over what had happened earlier today, the day before, and considered the information she heard over that course of time. She crossed her forelegs sourly, slicing into her legs with a wince. "You think that bastard might have made the Mighty Oak? I mean, he used the shrine's giant stone things," she muttered.

Lance shook his head, flapping his wings and sending a few loose feathers everywhere. "No; he knows how to use runes, yes, and how to make golems… but the Mighty Oak has metal parts. Unless you know where to look, that specific ore or alloy's hard to come by," he pointed out. "I don't even know what metal was used in his construction."

"Still, the Mighty Oak is old, and that fucker over there said he was old too!" Katie retorted, undulating her tongue to point at Pestilence in lieu of a hoof. "Plenty of time to have gathered the materials!"

"I still vouch 'no' on the grounds that the Mighty Oak got out of whatever spawned the curse that made the cursed trees," Lance snapped back, frown deepening. He turned to Twilight. "So, I say we ignore the drake and go for Pestilence himself. If he keels, so will the drake."

"We'd have to pound him past Fantasia's crust for that to happen, since he can just regrow legs on a whim," Twilight snorted, nose wrinkling. She returned the look, an eye twitching sourly. "Can you send the Mighty Oak back down? We could use his help."

Lance nodded and held a hoof to the radio. "Send the Mighty Oak down to Ashwood. He's not gonna like what he'll see," he said.

A soldier barked out from the other end of the communications link, "Sir, is that wise? With the fucking Void present?!"

"Well, considering we have a several-meter-tall timberdrake stomping about, we don't have much of a choice," Lance retorted. "Send the Oak down."

"Alright alright," the soldier groaned, a buzz of distress following the utterance. "Calm your feathers."

"... I'm coming down too. Sounds like shit hit the fan all over again," Matt grumbled from his end. "And I'm bringing the hairball." That was followed by a low meow. "Oh, good, he has the gunblade."

Lance nodded and returned the hoof to the Accelerator, still looking at Twilight as the drake and its master both turned in their direction. "It's gonna take a few minutes for all three to dock and all that. We're gonna distract those assholes in the meantime," he said.

Twilight nodded. "What's your plan?"

Lance smirked. "You teleport and disorient the drake, chip at its armor if you can; Katie will slash at the vines to cover you, and I'll go over the top in trying to clock Pestilence. Think you can manage another fire spell?"

Twilight sighed and began to self-levitate again. "That's better than what I initially had in mind, in the short-term anyway," she muttered. "Though, if I chip the dirt armor and make a large enough hole, I'm burning that thing inside-out."

Katie began to buzz again, retracting her tongue. "That being?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Gathering my friends here and blasting Pestilence with the Elements of Harmony," she answered as the timberdrake roared and started charging once again with its master flying close at its neck, "but they take a few minutes to charge, would need to be gathered into one place to start charging, and honestly I don't know if they'll have any effect here whatsoever—and with that timberdrake lumbering about, we can't afford to take such a risk."

Lance began flapping once more, and as soon as he did the three became airborne. They charged forward to start dealing with the gargantuan nuisance as it started charging another burning, bubbling retort in the back of its throat. "And the Elements are… on one of the airships, right?" Katie guessed as she kept close to Twilight while Lance raced ahead.

Twilight nodded, smiling softly. "I made sure to leave them with Shining Armor when we touched down in Whitefall," she replied, readying her blade for another confrontation with the newest bout of madness to walk the surface of Fantasia. "Just in case."