A wake of vines lay sprawling as the sapling was nowhere to be seen. Amid the vines, however, stood a lone figure clad in a carapace of wood. It was equine in stature, mane running along to the ground. Its mane, however, was of black vines, and were as if living as they whipped slowly back and forth, much like snakes. The exposed portion of her coat not layered with blackened wood were of a dull, blackish green.

However… this elemental of nature was… somewhat small, being only up to the length of the Main Character’s knee.

“Finally…” the figure muttered, her voice being feminine, harsh and crisp. “Finally… I’m awake from that damned sleep…”

“Oh, it’s a spriggan…” The Fat Friar noted, drawing everyone’s attention.

“A what?” Ricky asked, followed by Audrey and Vaas.

“A Spriggan, you dunces. You know, like a Dryad, but meaner… and shorter.” Malideus marked.

“I am a Dryad, damn you.” The Dryad hissed a bit, her snake-like mane hissing as well, spewing out a bit of venomous sap from their fangs. “And I am not short!”

“Aww, looks like the babby is getting salty.” Vaati snarked, only to be casually waves off by a dismissing scoff.

“It was only funny once, babby. Now go back to the Woolie Hole where you belong.” Malideus corrected, causing the elf’s face to redden again.

“Very well,” the Dryad stepped a bit forward, bowing courtly as a gesture to the Party. Leveling herself straight once more, the Dryad glanced at the Party once more, “you’ve awakened me from that awful sleep. I might as well ask what you want of me.”

“Show us yer bewbs!” Malideus spouted before anyone else, before laughing hysterically, unable to take the situation seriously.

“I- uh. What?” The Dryad stammered out, cocking her head to the right in confusion.

“Disregard that request,” the Summoner said in a sigh. “Please, could you just remove these vines plaguing this place?” The Summoner once more pointed at the streets coiled by myriad vines.

“These vines…” the Dryad muttered audibly. “They have the signature of the tree that kept me imprisoned.”

“So that tree monster we just killed is actually still alive…” Ral frowned a bit, feeling somewhat pressured as his chest constricted, obviously upset.

“That same tree should be dead, indeed.” The Dryad nodded. “However, very faint, I can still feel its presence.”

“So it lives… Damn, and here I was hoping never to see that shit ever again.” Ricky sighed, crossing his arms.

“So… can you recede these vines?” the Summoner questioned, a bit tense as he raised his shoulders subtly.

“Of course I can.” The Dryad stanced herself as she turned towards the vines, facing the uncountable clusters of them.

Springing forth her own magic, sigils and runic imprints suddenly engraving themselves upon her own skin, magic began to ripple from her presence, distorting the ambience.

Magic brimmed at the maximum from her body, the glowing glyphs attached to her own body intensifying, she winced as she focused, feeling somewhat of a dulling pain drilling itself into her head.

Suddenly, the vines began to wither--rapidly, as they shriveled twofold their size, becoming no more than threads of decrepit, withered fibers.

Shrilling up further, the vines, brittle and snapping, turned no more than ashen, powdery specks of dust. The unmerciful gusts of winter carrying them off, they evanesced into nothingness, the town once more relatively spotless.

“Good work.” The Summoner clapped both his hands in cheer, his mouth etched to a smile as he did.

“Oh, save me the flattery,” the Dryad responded in an endearing slyness as the runes among her coat began to recede, dimming themselves out of sight, the magic emanating from her once more becoming dormant.

“Twas nothing more than mere exercise…” She yawned slightly as she extended her limbs, stretching.

“Right, right. Whatever you say your majesty,” the Summoner drawled his last words with sarcasm on that sentence, sneering lightly as he glanced over the now-unburdened town of decrepit-looking houses. “Oh. Look; seems as if the locals are coming out to greet us…”

The Main Character fidgeted in both anticipation and uncertainty as the houses, distraught with shattered glasses and breached walls courtesy of the vines, but were still nonetheless unrazed, their doors swinging outwards, revealing the abyss-like, unlit interiors they bore.

Figures crept out of the myriad, brittle manors, their postures of equine physique and swathed with ragged cloaks.

One by one, the once-solitary streets were occupied to the fullest extent, crowds among crowds of ponies in cloaks began to glance around, their heads swivelling left to right, their body language absentmindedly conveying both curiosity and relief.

Finally, they took notice of the Main Character as they began to stare at him.

‘Looks like we’ve been noticed, peers.’ The Summoner’s instinct tethered him. The Summoner readjusted the posture of the Main Character, appearing more brazened and upright than before as he dusted off the powdery snow off the MC’s shoulders. ‘I do hope they’re friendly.’

Vaati arched an eyebrow at the incoming horde of cloaked ponies, a tinge of worry blotting his chest slightly. ‘This,’ he gestured at the horde, ‘looks like a scene from a Resident Evil game.’

‘A true enough analogy,’ the Summoner nodded, his face as well contorting to an unsure, sheepish smile.

Finally, the mass of ponies confronted the Main Character, being mere feet away, their faces seemingly obscured whole by a wispy black casted by their cowls.

Malideus, deviously smirking, stepped forward, raising the Staff of Vodahmin high. The mechanisms of the Staff churning at his wheel, it shifted to Dark element, spewing off a nightmarish mist, hazing the Main Character’s figure in an imposing, blotting aura of darkness.

“Bow before us, filthy casuals!” Malideus resonated his voice with magic, making himself intimidating as he bellowed out his words, the resulting magic emanating from the Staff causing the Main Character’s eyes to go aflame with darkness.

Sweeping the rather somber, listless complexion of the atmosphere away by the raw intimidation that was exuding from both figure and vocals, the crowd of ponies staggered back a bit, visually trembling in place as they stilled themselves.

Soon enough, they adhered to Malideus’ command; kneeling by one frontleg, they bowed down--still quite shaken up as they were still quaking in their footings.

“Was that really necessary?” The Dryad sighed as she looked back at Malideus, who was trying to stifle a bout of laughter--as made apparent by him biting down his lip while sporting a widened grin.

Malideus shrugged. “You kidding? Of course it was!” He smirked once more, appreciating the flock of ponies bowing down to him. “That was hilarious.” He swept a figurative tear from his eye with a sarcastic brush from his finger.

“You could’ve aggro’d them!” The Summoner rose both his hands in the air, cancelling the magic that Malideus has projected, reverting much of the atmosphere back from an ominous black to a much more depressing, drear. “Then how could we complete the potential quests they could’ve given to us!”

“Hey, they didn’t aggro, did they? Besides, I’ve gone too damn long without terrifying any villagers. I needed this.” Malideus responded, raising the MC’s head in a gesture of haughtiness.

“Alright. Enough idling, we’ve not much time before we get sick from this harsh cold.” Ral rolled his eyes as he stepped forward, somewhat shivering.

“Raise yourselves, ponies!” Ral ordered sternly, his footing steeled. “We’re not here to herald any trouble… We simply want transport to Canterlot.”

The dense crowds of ponies shifted, fumbling themselves in discomfort as they settled their heads straight. A wince of slight pain came from the crowd as they shifted even more.

Soon enough, a lone pony, still quite indiscernible as this lone one was cladded in the same cloak as the rest of them as well. Almost as if coerced, a pony was shoved into the front--mere steps away from the Party.

The Main Character arched an eyebrow as the multitude of souls stitched within him collectively examined this pony.

‘A long, velvety mane of green.’ The Summoner hummed to himself in intrigue as he inspected the still distraught mare before him. ‘A mare--if it wasn’t obvious enough.’

‘She stands out from the rest of generically colored equines,’ Ral noted. ‘Perhaps she’s going to be a major character as well?’

“P- please,” she stammered out as she approached the Party. “F- follow me. I am- am the innkeeper of this distraught town.”

“Thank god.” Vaati sighed in relief as he drooped down. “We’ve been walking for days, for crying out loud!”

"Please pardon any impudence we might be imposing on your ilk, fair one." The Dryad sighed in agitation as she brought one of her serpentine strand from her mane to her face. Planting her face into it, she conveyed what seemed to be a facepalm.

“T- then. Please.” She arched down her neck, bowing in respect--or fear, most presumably out of fear. “Follow me.” She nodded as she turned away from the Party, making her way towards the mass of ponies once more.

Tailing behind her closely, the Party stepped towards the crowd of ponies before them.

Parting like waves, the mass segregated into two divisions, making a clear, widened path for the Party; brazened, but stoic like objects, the ponies were as if statues, paralyzed by fear, no doubt.

Vaas chuckled at this a bit. “Wonder if I could get my clusterfuck of idiots back in my island to do this.”

“Hell yeah.” Malideus pumped his fist a bit as he walked further into the interior of this town. “I could get used to this.”

“Meh.” Audrey let out a yawn of boredom as the Party continued walking. “Nothing interesting here. Question is: do they have chocolate?”

“As flummoxing as it is, this place seems…” The Summoner glanced around a bit, head turning left to right, spotting the eerie, shadow-clad buildings burdened with crevices and sleet, “...off. It’s not just the atmosphere casted by the snow. It’s something else, but I just can’t seem to pinpoint what it exactly is.”

“Yes; yes. I agree.” Ral nodded inconspicuously as he examined his rather languid surroundings of coarse, withering buildings. “I feel something amiss here, definitely. But I can’t tell what’s wrong with this place, either.”

“Perhaps it’s just phantasms of our questionable sanity trying to con us, huh?” The Summoner shrugged off the off-putting ambience in the air--looking forward, taking notice of the equally lethargic nature of the buildings circumjacent to them.

“How tragic.” The Summoner grimaced at the poor conditions of the houses around them. “Roofs either partially cracked or completely breached… Walls crippled and threatening to fall… Gah. It’s depressing just being here, even.”

“Right.” Malideus interjected, “Let’s get out of here as soon as possible to avoid getting more sad.”

“Dunno about that-” Ral looked to the side as he spoke. Soon enough, he readjusted his head forwards once more, spotting the rather large manor of the inn. “Oh look, we’re here.”

Its foundation stood emblazoned upon the snow-coated pavement below, standing high, towering over the other structures of this place threefold. Its concrete, rigid and stable, were still paved with a thick layer of translucent ice--making the structure itself appearing somewhat crystalline.

Its canopy, crafted and seemingly weaves out of some sort of metal, was burdened with a mound of snow; a mound of snow that seemed to be thicker than the length of a human.

“Sweet.” Vaas lit up a bit. “Something that isn’t so putrid in this town and we get to stay in it.”

“P- please.” The mare went up to the doorway. The mechanisms of the doorknob clicking into place as she turned it, the door opened, revealing the rather large, but ghastly feeling emanating from the inn’s interior. “This way.”

Through the darkness, one could see the counter--empty and unmanned, a few miscellaneous items placed upon it such as a cash-register, a desk behind it, and a flower pot harboring a withered plant. And the lighting, which was next to null, provided an even more sinister aura from it as well.

Foreboding at best, really.

“Finally…” The Summoner sighed once more in relief. “A place to rest in. Felt like it’s been a full day since we had any rest.”

“We actually did go a full day without sleeping,” Ral pointed out.

“Then… please, do come in.” The mysterious pony vanished into the inn as she entered through the wide-open door.