The tremors of the ongoing battle did not go unnoticed by Natalie, and it certainly did not fly over the heads of Greenwood's assembled villagers either. The drawn-out pandemonium that also fed back through the radios filled in the silence, itself making all tense by merely existing. Which was bad news for all involved; Natalie and her group stood at the entrance proper, and the villagers stood in a tight-knit herd only a few trots away. This close, she could have strode forward and poked at somepony with her wings, but she did not do so, for that would have made the fireworks explode earlier than she'd have liked.

No matter the direction from which said fireworks exploded, the results would be the same either way: lots of bloodshed, which she'd much rather avoid. And, well, scared foals to contend with on top of that; that… was just another kettle of fish entirely.

Natalie took a moment to admire the formation; foals and pregnant mares laden with saddlebags in the center mass, elders and the trio of leaders at the back to watch for anything that came in from behind, and the able-bodied stallions and small hoofful of decidedly unburdened mares armed with farming tools and chopping axes at the front of the lines. She also noticed that one mare and stallion, still clad in rumpled wedding garments for some reason, carried with them the viridian jewel that had been left out in the open using a small stretcher draped across both their backsides.

Those two were also in the center formation, effectively shielded from all sides.

That, however, mattered little to Natalie, because it seemed confrontation was inevitable regardless of her wishes. She saw more tense legs than she could count, a menagerie of narrowed eyes and ears pressed back against heads, about two dozen horns at minimum aglow, and the very earth itself pulsing with a collective and channelled power. All of the villagers, sans foals, looked about fit to break someone's bones into dust. Distressingly, those glares and horns and weapons were not trained on her or Lazarus or even Rainbow Dash.

No. Oh no no no. They were instead locked onto Sarah, who stood on her hinds to raise her claws. Lazarus summoned her harxe and wordlessly plopped it in her reach, and she snagged it with her tail trembling. Another shudder had her wings snapping out, feathers fraying and faltering just slightly enough the villagers took notice of it.

Sarah tried to keep a neutral face, but sweat beaded along her forehead. From exertion, or the events leading up to this stare-off, Lazarus and Natalie could not tell. With her, it may well have been both. Her eyes were trained on Greenwood's houses instead of the villagers, all of which now sagged and slumped as the now-barren earth around them began to die.

A distant, shrill cry echoed in from the surrounding Void, composed of one but sounding as though thousands shrieked in unified, untold amounts of despair. For a moment, all ears perked up and swiveled to the gate as it, without warning, stopped within mere seconds of arrival.

The sound was enough to make Sarah's hocks shake, and her grip tightened with the noise's passing. She felt hard crystals gently scratching her withers, and she turned to Natalie to find one of her own wings outstretched. The trembling waned, and Natalie turned to make eye contact with a mute nod. One of the leaders in the back scowled, and reared up on his hinds with irises flashing crimson at the display. "Seems the Cleansing Crystal's taken up a side," he hissed, the crook of his neck pulsing erratically for a moment.

One of his fellow leaders stood up on his hinds, practically indistinguishable from the first to have said something about the shifting, stiff wing-crystals. The skin on his head writhed and twisted for two seconds, stretching and threatening to split before tightening and stilling in a heartbeat. He turned to his fellow and glowered, lifting a hoof to point accusingly at Natalie. "And what side do you expect one of the Children of Catastrophe to take, hrm?" he chided.

The third stoop up, chest and shoulders contorting and returning to normal in a brief moment. "And she's got the Demented Diversion with her," he noted, turning to Lazarus as he readied his spear in the event that things turned nasty. "Wouldn't put it past either of them to bring forth the Veil of Shadows hanging over us." Mute nods left the other two leaders, and both turned to Natalie in such fluid unison that it made her take a tiny, but very noticeable, step back.

Rainbow turned to Natalie, face hardening. "Wait, he's saying you're responsible for this darkness?" she asked.

Natalie nodded, eyes deepening to a dark shade of maroon. Her crystals pulsed with red power, and the one jutting before her horn flickered erratically. The wise guy who'd made the accusation snorted, chest contorting once again before stopping and snarling. "Yeah, she and her fellow Children of Catastrophe keep muckin' up other villages' livelihoods and bringing the damned Veil with them! I'll bet she's responsible for that meteor that hit Ashwood years ago!" he barked.

At that one, Natalie could only shake her head and facehoof. "Another reason I don't like to show off," she grumbled as hoof slid down the bridge of her snout. She readied her scythe, gripping it with both pasterns and swinging it in front of her in a wide arc that forced the crowd to back off. Fortunately, none of the villagers or their weapons had been caught by the improvised weapon.

Natalie nodded in silent approval. Good. This herd knew not to approach. She turned to Rainbow Dash, whose mouth was already open, and said, "Warning strike." She turned back to the throng as the three leaders pushed through the crowd on just their hind hooves, all glaring daggers at her as their flesh pulsed unnaturally. "What do you three chucklefucks want?"

The trio in question snorted, horns alighting. "We want you to get the fuck out," the first hissed, eyes slowly gravitating to Sarah. "Except her. That bitch stays."

Sarah shook her head and spread her wings. "Nope, I'm getting out of here just like everypony else," she stated. She took a step back when the leaders smirked at her.

"Not with those runes, you aren't," the second leader scoffed, wood sprouting around his hooves to form wicked claws as he too turned to Sarah.

Sarah's ears twitched. She blanched. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled. The third leader, vines tearing through his back to flail wildly behind him, magically seized the lyre and parted it from the halberd, letting the cloth used to tie it dangle loosely upon the weapon's shaft. Once that was done, he plucked three strings, the notes once again distorting into a sharp keen that made her stagger back. The instrument started to glow, its twisted runes pulsing as power seeped into them.

"Runes…?" Natalie muttered, glancing back and forth between Sarah and the trio at this sudden altercation. Chills raced up her spine, shaking her crystals, and latent power pulsed with urgency.

The trio stopped to examine the stolen object, all forming matching grins on their muzzles as their bodies slowly continued to twist into less equine forms. "Somepony tried overwriting the spell on this… fucked up the ordering of the leylines…" one muttered.

The one sprouting vines from his withers nodded. "But whoever did it couldn't get rid of the leylines." He turned to the other villagers and frowned. "Everypony, leave. Greenwood's finished. We'll take care of this," he said firmly.

Natalie lifted a hoof to her portable radio. She wasn't going to take chances. "Delta Unit, do you copy?" she asked.

"Copy. What's wrong?" Major Rhinoc answered from his end.

The villagers, sharing uneasy glances amongst themselves, turned tail and started to gallop off towards the southern end of the dying village. In record time, even their burdened, pregnant mares and elderly made it out of the group's immediate sight. "The villagers are taking the jewel with them, and hauling ass. Intercept, ASAP," she ordered.

"... they dragged everypony else into it, didn't they?" Rhinoc hissed, a buzz filling in the silence.

"Affirmative," Natalie responded.

"Very well. I'll send the gryphons and changelings," Rhinoc replied with a sigh.

The leaders turned to Natalie, still smirking terribly. "You won't get the jewel," the clawed one spat, magic aura and eyes turning red as the whites of his eyes turned black as pitch.

The one with vines overtaking his backside chuckled darkly. Already, wood was emerging from his barrel, parting his flesh with force to reveal his ribs and organs writhing with more plant matter within their confines. Intestines slipped out, but he barely noticed, less so when kudzu sprung forth to take root upon them. Rarity cringed at his nonchalant reaction to what should have been crippling pain, but then steeled her nerves as Lazarus nodded to her with a sidelong glance.

Then, without warning, their red-turning magic seeped into the harp's runes, making it take on the same angry hue. Sarah was quick to backpedal, but she did not move fast enough; the twisted magic made distorting notes come from its plucking strings, and tendrils of sheet-like power wrapped her in its contorted form. She struggled as it lifted her into the air, squawking as the fetid spell sank into her flesh and carved burning runes that shimmered through fur and feathers alike. In places, along her back and withers and haunches, flesh split and spilt blood upon the decaying soil.

Rarity gasped, her levitating daggers almost clattering to the ground as her magic gave out. Sarah kept fighting, but the magic held onto her tightly. The harp of her mark reappeared, but the wind twisted into sickly vines that pulsed outward to ensnare the rest. Some sort of sigil had been scrawled upon her chest by the power, and vines erupted from her tarsi with a force that turned on itself to keep her immobile. Claws were restrained against hips, hooves against each other, wings tightened as more vines emerged from beneath bleeding flesh as yet more runes were etched onto skin.

Sarah screamed, eyes clenched and head shaking as the flesh upon her forehead pulsed and stretched, before splitting open down the center as wood erupted to form the crudest mockery of a unicorn's horn possible, itself glowing with a fell power that made her blood glisten. Natalie grimaced, ears turning back as she turned to the harp while its horrible cacophony of music started growing louder and louder.

She was not having another induced migraine. Her scythe glinted, and she twisted it expertly before swinging it up and outwards, arcing it over her own head from the dirt—knocking the harp clean out of the leaders' magic and sky high. The leaders gawped, staring at where it had been when Natalie redirected her scythe and swung horizontally at their heads. They ducked in time to keep their heads on their withers, but not fast enough to avoid having their horns and parts of their ears sliced right off.

The magical connection severed, Sarah could only drop with a mewl. She would have hit the ground, had Rainbow not flown up to catch her in time. Rainbow studied the new wounds, the runes carved into her flesh, the still-writhing tendrils that kept her bound, before then turning to the trio who backed off a couple of paces as wood started to encircle their skulls.

It took her seconds to piece together the dots. Everything that Rhinoc had said about Anna was starting to make some semblance of sense. These new vines, and the faux horn on Sarah's body, merely confirmed it. She turned to Zecora and muttered, "They bucked Anna up, too?"

Zecora nodded gravely, dagger in tail. Her dextrous limb poised itself to arc over her back, ready to strike as she bent her front knees, mentally fortifying for combat as the trio's forming masks grew new horns where their old ones used to be. "Though her condition is far worse, more horrid than any I've seen," she replied bluntly, eyes narrowing to slits as she sized the opposition up.

Rarity shook her head and readied her daggers, lifting them to hover at the sides of her head. "How much worse are we talking?" she asked.

Zecora used her dagger to gesture to the clawed leader as his backside began to contort. "She grows mockeries of wings not yet preened," she answered.

Rainbow nodded, glowering as she saw Lazarus make the halberd vanish. Not a second later, the now-bent harp clattered upon the ground, three strings having been sliced by the strike that sent it flying and five more breaking upon impact with the soil. It didn't have the chance to linger there on the dirt; it too vanished in red-blue light.

Natalie readied the scythe once more, turning to Lazarus. "Looks like one of us is on foalsitting duty. You want to watch, or fight?" she asked.

Lazarus angled his spear forward. "Three guesses," he hissed, a firm frown carving its place upon his muzzle. Natalie nodded, stepping forward with stunted wings fluttering and tied skulls rising up to be level with her head. Zecora trotted forward, but was stopped when one of Rarity's hooves shot in front of her chest.

Rarity turned to her and shook her head. "Tend to Sarah. Whatever your brews do, let's both hope they help her with… whatever was done to her," she muttered, turning ahead before striding on to join the mêlée à trois. Zecora backed off and, after sharing a glance with Rainbow, flipped open one of her saddlebags as the leaders approached with fresh barky masks already splitting at the seams.

The leader whose guts were presently spilling out of his body sneered as he sized the puny daggers, and their current wielder. "You'd dare… to come at us with shiny sticks?" he scoffed, eyes aglow with a hellish light that shined even through his mask.

Rarity nodded, expression firm. "Whilst I have no idea what you've just attempted, I cannot stand idly by and let you make another attempt," she stated. An eye was already twitching as a small part of her madly screamed that ponies transforming into trees would not be stab-able under present circumstances, but she hushed up that tiny voice to focus on the current task at hoof.

Natalie snorted, crystal erupting from her front hooves to form wicked claws of her own, which then curled tightly around her weapon's shaft with an almost organic, fluid motion. For a moment, her mane flickered and dimmed before brightening once more with its glow. "And?" she challenged, watching the trio with no small amount of concern.

One of the leaders whickered, vines and wood growing over where his cutie mark should have been. His tail lashed, an angry web of kudzu ripping the hairs out to then take its place. His body twitched one moment, then he twisted aside and around the small herd, running upright towards Sarah with glee managing to crack the wooden mask he now wore. He reached out with his hooves, ready to forcibly part Sarah from Rainbow's grasp, but she backed off a few feet with only one flap of her wings.

Before he could move again, a small burst of green light flashed overhead, immediately followed by something from above that impacted on the back of his neck with a hard, fleshy thunk. He paused, went back a few steps, glanced around at the now-forsaken village, then to Natalie and Lazarus. They shrugged at him, and Rarity waved her daggers, still clutched in her magical grip. Befuddled, he turned to his compatriots, both of whom shook their heads and vines.

The leader who'd been struck reached around with a hoof to feel for, then pull out the offending object that inexplicably struck him. He winced when he felt half of it break off and stay within his flesh with a distinct crumble, but the part that went loose came around easily enough for him to bring it to his eyes. His eyes, and the eyes of Rainbow and Zecora, widened in tandem when he beheld a broken shaft of rock with crystal fletching. On its end was tied a piece of paper, with thread anchoring it to the projectile.

Curious, he looked at the scrap of paper that had angry, scratched runes scribbled onto its surface. He read it aloud, raising his voice so his companions could hear him, "Fuck you, asswipe. You and your brothers aren't pulling that shit ever again." Before he could brood on what that had meant, he felt something hard and jagged erupting from his neck, and dropped the broken arrow as hot, sizzling pain registered where it was coming from. His hooves raced up, scrabbling to lodge whatever had rooted itself out, but it merely anchored them upon contact to itself.

Rainbow gaped as red, angry crystals surged forth, enveloping the leader's head with a vibrant, pulsing glow. The smaller ones dissipated in waves of fire, charring the stallion as the larger crystals left him stumbling for balance. All he could do was scream skyward as, slowly, his flesh twisted to accommodate his new growths that started to burn him inside out. She glanced up, finding a distant, viridian glow hovering so far overhead that it seemed dim compared to her current surroundings.

Natalie seized her chance, and jumped towards the other two leaders, still stunned by the sudden immolation of their compatriot. "It seems the winds do not billow in your favor!" she howled, scythe swinging even as the leaders scrambled to dodge the incoming blow. A slight smirk crossed her muzzle as they snapped to their senses and lit up their horns, vines writhing with the urge to strike.

The leaders whickered, bodies continuing to twist and bend as their flesh and fur struggled to keep their curses in check. Blood dribbled from beneath their masks, and at once they launched twin bolts of magic at Natalie. She responded by forming a barrier to absorb the impact, levitating herself to sit midair with hinds crossed. She glanced at the still-burning sap, who by now was rolling on the ground in an attempt to put the flames out, before returning her attention to the task at hoof—right as one of the others made to punch through the barrier.

She let him break it into a thousand pieces, though, before sending him flying backwards with an upswing of the scythe's spikes. "Just stop this farce now. You're challenging an alicorn here," she muttered, no trace of amusement within her voice. The other ignored her and his flying companion, instead opting to strike at Lazarus before he found himself impaled on the spear and hoisted into the air.

Lazarus sighed and teleported onto one of the houses' branches, watching as the leader who went flying crashed into another one a few trots away. The door fell inwards, followed by the rest of the frame as the house shook. He whistled sharply. "Damn, didn't know you could do that," he said, turning to Natalie and angling his opponent-on-a-stick towards the house in question. "Have you been lifting weights in your spare time?"

Natalie rolled her eyes, and shook her head. "Sometimes my alicorn strength just kicks in of its own accord," she answered. Lazarus nodded and turned to his impaled adversary, who suddenly jerked his head up to glare back with a bleeding sneer on his mask.

Lazarus drew the spear's shaft back, if only to look into the eye-holes of the mask that now regarded him. "I've had bar fights more dignified than you," he spat simply, before turning around, raising his hind hooves, and bucking the tree-stallion right in the face for all it was worth.

A sickening crunch met his hooves, and flesh and bark squelched briefly before the opponent had found himself going flying and getting evicted off the spear simultaneously. Into the house with the broken door frame he landed, and twin grunts of pain left after whatever unceremonious impact had settled with a clatter and several crashes. Lazarus turned back around, just in time to see a wall of said house starting to cave inwards.

Rarity turned to Natalie, eyeballing the crash site warily. "Are things normally this violent here?" she asked.

An exasperated nod was, unfortunately, all the answer she needed. Natalie's mane whipped about with the motion, more a flagrant display of a violent stormswept power than anything dignified. She groaned, and the floating skulls rattled as the house began glowing with a green light. "Seems they're getting ready to draw their big guns now," she hissed, leaning against her scythe as she waited for round two to start. Tendrils of power spread from the ground, glowing brilliantly as they carved furrows through the soil. She gently nudged Rarity with a wing. "Get up to higher ground."

Rarity glanced around, before spotting a low-hanging branch on the house adjacent to the one Lazarus made his perch upon. She galloped there and jumped, putting as much strength into her leap as she could. She managed a solid landing, but had to take a moment to steady herself when the branch warbled under her weight, and jumped to another branch a little ways higher that didn't warble when she clambered onto it. Natalie nodded to her again, and carved into the soil a thick line with her scythe a little more than an inch behind her. That done, she heeded her own advice and levitated higher, and a foot or so back from the carved line.

Some of the tendrils went around the carved line, or ignored it altogether to spread where the other houses were at. Upon contact, thorned vines shot up and encircled themselves upon wood, clutching it tightly and climbing with erratic, jerky motions that seemed more mechanical than organic. The tendrils that hit the line formed and rose up in a thick wall that itself was sliced in two by a scythe not a moment later.

The vines who managed a foothold started tightening and tightening upon the bark, growing more and more in number until the houses trembled. Lazarus jumped down, tip-toeing around the tendrils of power as delicately and swiftly as he could. A few vines sprung and tried to ensnare him, but he had already moved out of range by the time his hooves left their patch of soil behind. Rarity followed his lead, jumping down and galloping after him, paying mind to where the leylines of power formed and intersected to avoid the tendril trap. The trees they left behind started to crunch under the pressure, though their hollowed trunks held strong even as they began to cave.

The pair rejoined with Natalie as she had turned to the leader who tried his chances with Rainbow Dash and Zecora, only to find him extinguished, laying on the ground charred. He was devoid of crystals, still and seemingly lifeless. She floated over to him and angled her weapon's shaft to prod him on the shoulder with it. As soon as she saw the faintest twitch of muscle, she levitated him into the air before whirling around and tossing him into the trap. Vines sprung up on him, tightening and coiling around him, with more piling onto his body and each other.

Within seconds, he was obscured from sight by needling viridian, and the resultant ball tightened upon itself. A muffled scream of abject agony came from within the mass, and blood started to seep through any cracks it could find. Rarity winced at the brutality of the spell, turning once again to Natalie. "Is there any way we can save him?" she asked.

Natalie shook her head. "If we try, we'll get shredded too. Besides, he's part plant anyway… the transformation should be completed…" Bark sprung forth from the vine-trap, pushing outward and dribbling blood as it formed a massive, branchy claw ending in sharpened points. It was twice the size of a pony's foreleg, moving fluidly enough to grasp the vines with a talon-like grasp. It pulled and pulled, breaking apart the cage tendril by tendril with an unholy force that sent blood splattering everywhere upon the ground. More thorny tentacles grew and rushed in to contain the tree-pony, only to be torn from the ground as another twisted, branchy claw shot out to wrangle them into submission.

Then, the ball expanded, struggling to accommodate the pony it had snagged as it burned from within with a fierce, crimson light. Natalie watched carefully, waiting for when trouble would start anew. Static was coming from the radios, broken up only by whatever madness Lance and Matt got themselves into.

She didn't have to wait long before the ball of vines was shredded by the wooden claws, and a massive tree landed upon their remains before it took root where that ball had formed. It bent and rose to tower over the three, flesh trying to overtake the bark only to be subsumed as it stood to a full height rivaling the Mighty Oak, the ground pulsing and further breaking as its tendrils went to work. Settled between the branchy claws was a twisted, horned face now scowling at them, blood dribbling from its mouth like spittle.

"You've merely brought forth your own doom, corrupted alicorn…" the now-treefied leader spoke, voice echoing through his bark as his claws rose. Natalie rose a brow and tipped her chin at him, looking him dead in the eye as he brought his claws down with lightning quickness. Another barrier formed and stopped them short of her head, as white fire started to swirl around her horn and burn in the skulls adorning her dress.

"Heard that from Akron before he got his ass kicked," Natalie scoffed, tone as flat as could be. Her face hardened slightly, though her eyes held in them a twinkle of boredom. "Seen worse attempts at an attack as basic as that." She would have fired her spell, but paused as twin daggers shot forth and stabbed the tree in its eye sockets with a force that left them buried deep in the bark. The tree recoiled, screamed, backed off and tore the earth into fragments as it scuttled a foot back with roots following in its wake.

Natalie turned to Rarity once again. "I see you're learning," she stated, a faint smile on her face.

Rarity nodded, and spotted the crash site being torn a new hole as two more branches tore their way out of the house. That side of the house fell inward upon itself, the rubble then pushed aside as two more trees emerged from it. Their roots were already tearing at the earth as they joined their fellow, who was now pawing at its own face and trying in vain to remove the daggers. "Just how tough are these things, exactly?" she muttered.

Lazarus sighed. "Some part of me doesn't want to know that answer," he muttered, readying his spear once again for combat.

They turned to their adversaries as one of the others magically removed the daggers out of the face of their first transformed compatriot, who then threw them at the barrier. The blades bounced off and spun in the air for a moment before stabbing themselves into the ground, whereupon Rarity reclaimed them as the trio's faces oozed darkening blood.

Natalie turned to Rainbow Dash and Zecora, still tending to Sarah by the entrance. Sarah was stirring with a tiny grumble, and Zecora was busy sorting out her potions. "You guys might wanna fall back! It's about to get hectic!" she warned. The pair nodded, picked up their medicine and charge, and darted out of the entrance to go a little ways behind it.

Not a second after, she turned around to find three more crystal arrows, one stabbed through a flute, appearing in mid-air from flashes of light and impacting themselves on the damaged trees. Crystals sprouted, erupted, and those houses soon found themselves ablaze with bright golden flames. The fire leapt from branch to branch, and within moments all of Greenwood was alight and pouring out smoke.

Natalie, Lazarus, and Rarity inched a little closer together, watching as the houses began to smoulder. The cursed trees, too, glanced around with masks cracking around their eye-holes, wondering what the hell just happened. Natalie grumbled into the radio, "Lance, I've got several problems now… and we're gonna have to have a chat with Anna once I've resolved them."

Lance grumbled from his end of the communications link, "What happened now?"

"More cursed trees, and… another fire," Natalie replied, shaking her head as the cursed trees broke from their stupor once more to advance upon her and her fellow combatants.