Brain watched as the sun rose in the eastern sky.  The blue glow from the temple calmed his mind and eased the emptiness in him.  The sound of the waterfall in the distance filled his ears with a comforting sound.  It wasn’t long before he heard rustling coming from the tents behind him.  He greeted his friends with a smile as they climbed from their beds.

Stretching and yawning, the other three stallions returned his smile with hungry grunts.  It seemed that the fatigue from yesterday’s adventure had finally caught up to them while they were sleeping.  Brain felt tired, but the feeling in his gut refused to let him sleep.  He laughed as his stomach growled loudly.

The group began their breakfast immediately, waking up enough to make conversation.  Brain asked, “How long do you figure it’ll take us to get to the temple?”

Chance groaned, “We should be there by nightfall.  Assuming nothing bad happens.”

Doctor lazily chuckled, “You mean like giant spiders and birds eating us?”

Big Mac sighed, “We oughta get ready for our trip.  We gotta get to that forest down there, right?”

Brain and Chance walked over to the edge of the cliff, peering down below them.  They noticed a huge expanse of forest, the center of which was gray and lifeless.  They exchanged confused looks.  They had been so mesmerized by the glow in the distance that they hadn’t once taken notice of the forest below them.

An hour passed as the group woke up and ate their breakfast.  After they finished eating, each one of them was pumped and ready for the trek ahead of them.  Brain took point as they began the trek down the winding path that wound around the cliff they had made a camp on.  It wasn’t long before they noticed something odd about the path.

Even though they had slid a few dozen yards down in the cave they emerged from, they were still high enough to warrant the cliff being called a mountain.  The forest below them was at least five-hundred yards down, even though they had not once climbed up during their journey the previous day.  Could the kingdom that was once Everfree have sunk over the years?  Or was this simply the normal terrain of the kingdom?

Brain pondered this for a little while, before deciding that it didn’t matter.  He pressed ever onward, determined to at least reach the stone tree landmark on the map before nightfall.  Without any sort of problem, and in what seemed like just a few minutes, the stallions found their path flattening out into even ground.  The slope continuously became less steep, and the forest appeared in front of them as they circled around the mountain one last time.

To Brain and Chance, this meant that they would be home sooner than they imagined.  To Doctor and Big Mac, this meant that their journey was slowly winding down.  They almost hoped something interesting would happen.

Brain and Chance picked up their paces, heading carelessly into the forest, dead set on reaching the stone tree soon.  Doctor struggled to keep up pace as he took the map from his pouch and scanned it over.  They were headed in the right direction, straight toward the stone tree.  In fact, as he looked around the area, they were headed for a whole bunch of stone trees.  He watched as the scenery around them slowly changed from the brown and green of beautiful, living trees, into the cold, gray color of the statues that were ever more frequently appearing.

Big Mac followed his friends at a comfortable pace.  So long as he kept them in his sight, everything should be alright.  He noticed Doctor’s pace begin to slow as the stone trees became more common.  Catching up to his friend, Big Mac nudged him on the side so as to tell him to hurry.  Doctor put the map back in his pouch and picked up pace, keeping up with Big Mac and keeping the other two in his sights.

After roaming through the forest for about ten minutes, the two stallions leading the group had to stop and rest.  They had worn themselves out in their dead sprint into the forest.  Big Mac and Doctor showed up a few minutes behind them, nonchalantly sitting beside them.

Chance wheezed, “We should have…taken it…a little slower…”

Brain coughed, “Can’t…catch breath…”

Big Mac laughed, barely winded at all, “Y’all oughta learn to take it in short bursts.  You’ll run down your stamina too fast if ya don’t.”

Doctor walked over to the tree the duo had collapsed against.  “This tree seems different, doesn’t it?  Different from the other ones around it?”  He placed a hoof on the tree, and the group jumped as they heard a creaky moan come from the base of it.

“You who have come to find the temple…You have come far…”  The stone tree seemed to speak to the group.  Doctor’s knees gave out on him, and he collapsed to the ground.

Big Mac leaped from his spot, stamping a hoof into the ground.  He called, “Who are you?  Whatcha tryin’ to pull here?”

The tree groaned again, its lowermost branch moving slightly.  “I am the guardian of this forest.  You have come for the temple, have you not?”

Brain stood up and turned to face the tree.  “My friend and I are humans.  We’re going to the temple so that we can go home.”  Brain waved his hand from Chance to himself.

The tree groaned, “Humans?  It has been so long since I last spoke to humans.  The last batch disappeared after the golden tree came to life in Equestria.”

Chance spoke up, still sitting by the tree.  “A human hasn’t visited the temple since the Ever-Pony battle?”

The tree moved its branch again, “Correct.  Nor do I believe another human has entered this world since that day.  Your presence here raises questions.”

Doctor looked at the tree in confusion, “Who was the last person to visit you here?”

The tree groaned louder, “She was a pony, similar to you.  She was on her way to the temple.  She was a treasure hunter.  Her name started with a ‘D’…”

Big Mac took a wild guess, “Daring Do, right?”

The tree’s voice became lighter, “Correct!  Daring Do was her name.  She left for the temple, but she never returned.  I simply assumed she passed through.”

“But I have a book about her adventure to the temple right here!”  Brain pulled the book from his pouch.

Chance knew where Brain was going.  “We can’t have a book about an adventure if she never returned to hand in her notes.”

The tree groaned happily, “I remember watching a giant bird carry a small package over the forest.  Perhaps that package contained what notes she may have taken.”

Brain exclaimed, “So Daring Do was a real adventurer!  Which means the story about the humans is true!  So…all this time people thought they were legends, but now we know they’re real!”

The tree sighed, “The portal has weakened over the years.  I fear that it may not have the power to send either of you home, let alone both.”

Chance’s eyes jolted open.  His heart started racing as fear filled his thoughts.  “Th-there has to be enough for us to get home!  We can’t stay here forever!  We have to try, anyway!”

The tree moved its branch once more.  “If you must try, I shall not stop you.  From this point onwards, the forest has been petrified.  It is a straight shot to the plains that house the temple.  The aura awaits you at the top of the massive stone structure.”  The trees directly to the north of the tree submerged into the ground, revealing a wide pathway.

Brain nodded his head.  “Thank you.  Assuming the portal doesn’t work, we’ll be seeing you again.”  He didn’t waste any time as he darted past the tree, heading into the expansive pathway that led to the plains.  The other stallions followed close behind.

The tree sighed as the stallions ran away.  “Be careful, human.  More may be waiting for you at the temple.”

The group of stallions raced ever forward past the petrified trees and animals.  With each step, impatience filled Brain’s mind.  He wanted nothing more than to finally be finished with this misadventure.  The other stallions were beginning to feel the same as they continued running on and on.  After about fifteen minutes of running and jogging, they finally emerged into the wide open plains they had seen from the mountainside.

Brain stopped suddenly as he saw with full force the beauty of the blue aura.  Chance was caught off guard by it as well, stopping beside his friend.  The other two stallions trotted up behind them, searching around the plains for anything suspicious.  They sighed with relief upon seeing that no horrible monsters were headed their way…

Suddenly, and very painfully, Brain let out a loud sneeze that almost literally sent him flying into Doctor.  He tried to stand back up, but another sneeze knocked him back down.  He looked up at the trio standing around him, frightened expressions on their faces.  He blushed as he laughed, “I guess someone’s talking about me…”

Big Mac and Doctor shared confused looks, whereas a smile graced Chance’s lips.

“Get up, you idiot.  We’re finally almost there.”  He extended a hoof to help Brain up.  Just as Chance started to pull Brain to his feet, he sneezed again, sending them both flying backwards into Big Mac.

The trio of stallions collapsed on the ground, Doctor laughed, “I guess you have an allergy to home, eh?”

Brain’s head started to throb, and for the first time since reaching the forest, his heart began to ache.  The emptiness was back, this time more obvious.  He racked his mind to try and find where the emptiness came from, but it was to no avail.  He sighed once, held his breath, and stood up.  The throbbing stopped and the empty feeling died down a little.  He stared up at the blue glow ahead of them.

“Let’s get this over with fellas.  My head hurts…”