I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just made a terrible mistake.

Around me, my friends were celebrating in muted excitement. Nova used her metal wing to cut Ace loose, and the outlaw now tackled the arduous task of preening all the sap and gunk out of her feathers. Gauge talked to Teka and Iklimna, with Sandy to translate and smooth things over in conversation. But me? I could only stare in the direction Lento had gone, wondering just how true his parting threat could be:

I will make sure it kills you.

Should I have been worried by that? Should I really have been putting so much worry into it? Of course the fucker didn’t like me. I’d probably say something like that too to somepony who turned my family against me to get what they wanted. But was it an empty threat or a loaded gun? Lentowenye was the absolute chief of the Feati. He could do almost whatever he wanted. And since I still had no idea what was expected of me in this trial, no idea what I would have to face or have to do, I worried about whether he could actually get me killed and if there was anything I could do to stop him.

It was Surge, of course, who interrupted my thoughts and helped snap me out of my worrying. Are you really going to waste time fretting over this?

I looked back at my friends for a moment to see if they were still engrossed in their own conversations, then stood up and briskly trotted out the door to some privacy. “What, you think I shouldn’t?” I asked her aloud. “You think I shouldn’t take the threats of the tribe chieftain seriously? That just sounds like a good way to get killed.”

It wasn’t too hard to imagine the ghostly blue mare scoffing inside my skull. He’s a savage who hates having his authority questioned. You’re a mare born from the Synarchy, raised in Synarchy property and using Synarchy weapons. You’re better than him.

“I am not a part of the Synarchy,” I growled at her. “I am not one of the ponies that thought waging war on the world was a good idea.”

Whatever you think you are, you came from us, Surge stated, and I hated the fact that she was right. But even barring that, you are capable and strong. There is nothing this savage can throw at you that you can’t overcome.

“Well… thanks for the vote of confidence.” I shrugged and sat down on a tree stump outside of the longhouse put there for exactly that purpose. “I get the feeling that whatever I’m going to have to do is not going to be easy, though.”

You just now figure that out? Despite the sarcastic slap in the face, Surge sighed and mentally assumed the same slouched posture I had. Well, if all goes well, I guess I’ll finally get to know what Dr. Hozho was involved with.

I blinked. “Wait, what? I thought you knew what she was doing. That stuff with language and the like.”

Do you really think the Synarchy would send an eccentric linguist to Auris just to play goddess with a batch of war criminals and undesirables? Surge shook my head. She was involved in Protocol Dusk just like I was. Only, she was older and more senior, so she had more clearance than me. She might have actually known what the Synarchy was trying to accomplish out here, because I can tell you for certain that neither my project nor hers would win the war.

At first, I thought she had to be crazy… but the more I looked at it, the more I realized she had to be onto something. I knew the Synarchy liked to do weird things and mess with all sorts of secret projects. Protocol Dusk was a name I was just beginning to put significance to, but it had been attached to all the pieces of the code we’d recovered so far. And Surge was right; a generator that could pull mana from the environment would be incredibly useful as a form of easily generating power, but I didn’t think that would help them win the war. What they needed was more troops and more weapons. Bulky power generators and a camp devoted to watching a society build a language from the ground up did not seem like the kind of wonder weapon the Synarchy desperately sought for to stave off the Coalition.

“Okay… you might be right,” I admitted. “All I know about the code right now is what Yeoman said about the Azimuth. You… you think there might be more to this?”

Like I told you before, Protocol Dusk was supposed to be a worst-case contingency for the Synarchy. I don’t know what it means or what it does, only that I helped it in some way with my work here on Auris. After a second’s hesitation, she more firmly added, In fact, I’m pretty sure that everything that happened here on Auris… everything you’ve seen in your travels…is related to the Dusk Protocol in some way. Sure, Auris was the Synarchy’s first colony among the stars, but it had to be something more than that. They—we—were always thinking ahead to some greater scheme, some plan years down the line. We wouldn’t just make a colony world and not have a plan for it. Not when we were fighting for our life back home.

“Great, another mystery,” I grumbled.

That mystery could have huge repercussions for the future of this planet, Surge cautioned me. It’s important that we figure out what it is.

“Yeah, good luck to us with that.”

“Good luck to us with what?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Nova emerging from the longhouse. The oiled metal feathers of her wing silently hissed as she tucked it back against her side, and soon she was standing at my shoulder. “Are you and Surge discussing something?”

“A thing or two,” I said, sliding over a bit so she could sit down next to me. When she did, I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Nov, when we were back in Blackwash, did you ever hear of anything called Protocol Dusk?”

Nova pursed her lips in thought. “That name that keeps popping up on the code fragments?” When I nodded, she rubbed her chin with a wingtip. “I… don’t think so… why?”

“Dr. Hozho was involved in it, too,” Surge said. “Whatever it was that we worked on, it was something big. And there is going to be more information on it available in her notes. I just know it.”

I nodded. “But there wasn’t anything in Blackwash about it?” I asked her. “If our home was the main hub for talking with Equus…”

But Nova only shook her head. “There were very few logs that actually survived from then, Ember,” she said. “The ponies a hundred winters ago let the listening outpost fall into terrible disrepair. Our parents were the ones who started repairing it, and we were the ones who finished it. Maybe if we had more time…”

Her words trailed away, and I didn’t blame her. The night the Crimson attacked us was the worst night any of us had ever seen by far, but losing all that information just a day after we got the outpost working again was just another kick in the cunt. Who knows what we could have discovered if we’d only had a chance to study the databanks there?

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about that now,” I said. “Like Surge said, I bet we’ll find more stuff inside this fucking tree. All that stands between us and it is an angry tribal chief and a trial that he said was going to kill me.”

“We’ll be fine,” Nova assured me. “There’s nothing that we can’t do if we work together!”

The silly naivety of that statement left me chuckling. “You sound like your mom.”

Nova fluffed her wing and pouted a bit. “I’m just trying to remain optimistic…”

“Optimism is all we’ve got,” Surge said. “Unfortunately, if the Synarchy taught me anything, it’s that it won’t get you very far.”

“It’s better than nothing,” I grumbled. Fixing my attention back on Nova, I cocked an ear. “So, even though it’s a moot point and all, you guys have any luck finding help or just… well, learning cool shit about this place?”

Nova shook her head. “I think word had already started going around that Chief Lentowenye didn’t like us,” she said. “Nopony was willing to stick their neck out for us if it would pit them against their chieftain.”

“We did get to see the Walsalhn from afar,” Gauge said, emerging from the longhouse to join us, Ace right behind him. “It’s on the other end of the settlement from here, maybe a couple miles away. It’s the only colossal tree in the Spines that still has leaves on it.”

I craned my neck back as if I could hope to see it through the canopy of the smaller trees rooted around the petrified giants. As you might expect, I saw nothing. “Maybe I’ll get to see it sometime,” I said, my eyes wandering to Ace. I lightly smirked at her as I added, “Everypony else has got to see it except me and Surge.”

Ace grimaced and spat a sticky blob of saliva into the dirt. “Weren’t worth it none if you ask me,” she grumbled. “Them Feati pegasi can be sneaky when they wanna be.”

“I can imagine,” I said. “This is their home, and we’re trespassing in it.”

“Still,” Surge continued for me. “Did you see anything interesting?”

The outlaw shrugged. “There’s a hollow at the roots of the tree,” she said. “Can’t say none about how deep it goes. Lots of torches and shit like that round it, though. Lots of ponies with funny hats kneeling around it. Probably priests of sorts.” She turned her eyes to Gauge and finished with a toss of her mane. “But yeah, Gauge is right about one thing. Sure ain’t no other trees as tall as it with their leaves. Flew all the way up to the top of one and there were nothing red like it for as far as the eye could see.”

“Easy to see why it became their sacred tree,” Nova said. “I wonder if the facility underneath it had anything to do with it?”

“Fuck if I know,” I said. “This shit is too complicated for me.” I blinked and looked around. “Where’s Sandy?”

“Inside with Iklimna and Teka,” Gauge said. “They’re starting to get things together for us so we can do this trial.”

“Really? Do we need to do anything?”

“They’ll come get us when they’re ready,” Gauge said. “Sandy said that Lentowenye has to talk to the tribe’s shaman first. He’s the one who oversees the trial.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that while you guys were wandering around the settlement, Surge and I happened to find the shaman. I think he likes me, so that’s a good start.”

Ace smirked and slapped my shoulder. “Leave it to Em to bumble her way into some sorta success.”

“Even an idiot can be useful with a little luck on her side,” I said. “He was a pretty neat stallion, though. A little weird, but we seemed to get along just fine. If he’s overseeing the trial, then we’ll be in great shape.”

“I certainly hope so,” Nova said. “Maybe it won’t be too difficult. But if we have to fight one of those invisible cave monsters again…”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said, though to be honest, I didn’t think any alternative would be better. After all, this was Auris we were talking about. Everything on the planet wanted to kill us in some way.

“So,” Gauge began, looking out at us with a slight smirk, “while we’re waiting… who wants to get food?”

“Count me in,” Ace said, already trotting down the path away from the longhouse. “Anything to get that sap taste out of my trap…”

As we continued to live off of the rest of the Feati tribe’s hospitality, the forces that be continued to plan our Grass Trial—and, as I was all but certain, our demise. The fact that we didn’t know what we had gone through all this effort for only made it worse. We were all feeling pretty uneasy, and the lack of conversation at the table certainly showed it. So to be honest, I don’t know if it was with relief or dread that I looked up from the table at the sound of approaching hoofsteps and saw Sandy trotting towards us.

“So?” I asked, pushing aside an empty bowl. “How did it go? We good to rumble?”

“Lentowenye and the shaman have worked out what they will ask of you in the Grass Trial,” he said. “As far as that is concerned, everything is good.”

“Well, that’s fucking great, right?” I asked him. The look on his face, however, told me there was something else up. “Right?”

“Lentowenye has made it clear that he will only allow one outsider to participate in the Trial,” he said. Then, looking me in the eye, he gave me a nod. “Since Tekawenye used your name specifically when she gave you her support, Ember, it has to be you.”

I blinked. “Wait… me? Just me?” I looked at my friends, then back at Sandy. “I can’t at least take like… I don’t know, Ace along with me?”

“They will only consider it valid if you perform the task, and you do it on your own. To that end…” He sighed and gave my friends an apologetic look. “I have been asked to make sure the rest of you stay in the royal longhouse with all your gear. Interfering with the trial is strictly forbidden, and if you were to help, Lentowenye would declare it forfeit on the spot. You cannot help Ember in this. She has to do it alone, and they want to make sure of that.”

“We can’t even watch her do what she has to do?” Nova asked. “Cheer her on? Give her support?”

“None of that. I will explain the details later, once the trial is underway. But you will not see her again until she completes the trial.” Hesitantly, he swallowed hard and looked the other way. “… If she completes the trial.”

Way to slap a mood right down to zero in a hurry. We all sort of sat there in shock at what we were hearing. Finally, it was Ace who spoke up. “Is she going to be in danger?” she asked, and I thought I could hear a little waver in her words.

“The Grass Trial is a shortened version of the coming of age ritual for Feati children,” Sandy said. “To be considered an adult, they have to go into the wilderness and complete some task given to them by the chieftain. These tasks are usually difficult, but not impossible. Even still… foals die out there,” he finally concluded. “The Spines are not a friendly place. I’ve been here for years, and I can’t remember a single one without at least one pony dying or disappearing.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Nostrils flaring, I stood up anyway. “But fuck it. We didn’t go through all this trouble just to bitch out. I’ll do it, and Lento can suck my dick when I do. He’s not gonna scare me, and I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me dead.”

“Then it’s settled, then.” Stepping closer to me, Sandy put his hoof on my shoulder. “Best of luck to you, Ember. Make sure you have whatever you think you’ll need, and then go to the shaman’s hut when you’re ready. I heard that you supposedly already know where it is.”

I nodded and put my hoof over top of Sandy’s. “Yeah, I’ve been there. And Sandy… thanks for all this shit,” I said, managing a smile. “I don’t know where we would be without you.”

The corners of his lips twitched and he bowed his head. “I’ll be waiting for your return at the longhouse with your friends. I’ll make sure they’re taken care of.”

He backed away and off to the side, giving me some space to embrace my friends. Nova was the first to her hooves and she practically launched herself at me, enveloping me in a full-bodied hug. “Be safe, Em!” she squeaked into my shoulder, and her wings tightened around my body as she gave me a squeeze. I tried not to wince too hard at the sharp metal of her prosthetic slicing into my back. I didn’t dare breathe lest I impale myself on it until she loosened her embrace and leaned back to look me in the face. “You can do anything Lentowenye puts up against you, I know it. Just come back in one piece, okay? The last time we got separated you came back with a zombie fungus growing in your brain.”

“I’ve got a new parasite in there that should help keep it clean,” I said, and Surge sent me an image of her crossing her forelegs in response. Still, I squeezed her once and then let my hooves fall away. “I’ll be fine, Nov. Don’t worry about me.”

Nova shook her head. “I don’t worry about you, Ember. I worry for you, since you’re too busy to do it yourself.” Her lips twitched through a few different emotions as she tried to figure out what to say next, but she ultimately just dipped her head and backed away. “I’ll be rooting for you, Em, one hundred percent!”

Of that, I had no doubt. If nothing else, I knew I could always count on Nova for support. She was my first friend, my closest friend, and she’d be at my side until the day I died.

I just hoped that day wouldn’t be today or tomorrow.

Gauge was next. I turned to him, and he looked me up and down… and then he started chuckling. When I raised my eyebrow, he shook his head. “I’m laughing at Lentowenye,” he clarified. “He doesn’t know what you’ve been through. He thinks you’re just another outsider. But the truth is, you’ve done things he couldn’t possibly imagine. Whatever his little mind can think of is nothing compared to what you’ve already accomplished.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I bet you’ll come back in record time.”

I reached forward and drew him into a hug, and even though he stiffened at the contact—Gauge wasn’t all that fond of physical contact from ponies other than Nova—he at least returned the embrace. “I’ll do so well that the Feati decide to make me their chieftain,” I said with a confident smirk on my face. “Once we get these ponies some guns, Yeoman won’t stand a chance.”

Gauge nodded, then lowered his voice and put his muzzle next to my ear. “If you want, I can see if I can get SCaR—?”

I cut him off with a gentle push. “I don’t want SCaR’s help,” I told him. “You heard Sandy, either we do this fairly, or not at all. And if Lentowenye even suspects foul play…”

He sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Still, SCaR or not, you’ll be fine. Of that, I’m more than certain.”

We exchanged one last look, and then he stepped to the side to support Nova, who was beginning to let her anxiety show through her trembling wings. I smiled to the both of them, trying my best not to let my own worry get the better of me. I was their friend and their leader. They looked to me for support and strength. And I was not about to fail them today.

Lastly, I turned to Ace, who had lingered aside from the rest of us. When she didn’t come forward on her own, I went to her and planted my forehooves right in front of hers. That little motion was enough to draw her head up, and I met it with a goofy little smile on my muzzle. “You’re just upset it wasn’t you, right?”

She chuckled and fluffed her wings. “Well, if I wanted it done right…”

“I promise I won’t disappoint you.”

“Heh.” She looked away, and her smile faded bit by bit. “These ponies are crafty, Ember,” she finally said. “I didn’t hear them sneak up on me, and I been out in these wilds longer than you. I know when somepony’s trying to get the drop on me.” Her eyes met mine—or at least, her one eye that wasn’t always shrouded by that jet black curtain of hair she kept over the right side of her face. “You watch out for everything, now. Don’t let anything slip your eye.” She leaned in and added, quiet enough for Gauge and Nova to not hear her, “It’d be awful easy for Lentowenye to make a pony he didn’t like none disappear out there… you understand?”

“Yeah… yeah, I get it.” I nodded once just as an additional assurance, and when she still looked uneasy, I pulled away that curtain covering her face with my magic. That got her attention, and then we kind of just stared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, swallowing a growing lump in my throat, I smiled at her. “I’ll be back soon enough. You might have experience on me, but I’m nothing if not a fast learner.”

I let go of her mane and she moved to brush it back into place with a hoof… only she didn’t. She let it hang to the side of her cheek, exposing her whole face to the light, to my eyes. Finally, she breathily chuckled and shook her head. “Right. Maybe I should stake a wager on you. I could stand to make a lotta Cs if I did.”

“That, I’m sure.” I wanted to say something more, and I got the feeling she did as well, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. It felt like if I did, it wouldn’t be right, and not only that, I’d be betraying somepony else. So I didn’t, and what could have been a good chance to say something, to finally air something out… it was gone. Gone and faded, just like the awkward cough Ace made as she stepped away.

And then it was just me and Surge, stuck inside my own skull as Sandy led my waving friends away. Soon, they were fading colors on the climb back up to the royal longhouse, and I was all alone.

So alone… save for the voice in my head.

“I guess it’s a good thing I have you with me, at least,” I said aloud.

I’ll do my best to keep us alive, Surge said. As much as Lentowenye wanted to make you suffer this alone, he failed before he even tried.

“Yeah. Joke’s on him, the shrike fucker.” Sighing, I grabbed my rifle and started back towards the communal longhouse. “Well, we better get armed up and shit before we have to do whatever it is Lento wants us to do. It’s not going to be easy.”

Whatever gave you that idea? Was it Sandy’s vague concern, or Lento’s explicit threats?

“You can shut up now,” I growled at her as I walked away from the fire. “One way or another, we’re punching through this trial and shooting Lento’s balls off.”

Literally or figuratively?

“Whatever works best.” I let a smirk onto my face as I added, “Though personally, I’d prefer the first one.”

I was happy to see that SCaR had kept our stuff safe when I returned to the communal house to grab some extra supplies. The kids must have gotten bored of him at some point, though it looked like they’d thrown a few rocks in his direction to try and get a response. Still, I was glad to know that our little sentry was doing his job and nopony had tried to make off with all our gear.

I didn’t take much with me when I went to the shaman’s hut. I had my rifle, five spare magazines for it, and four extra grenades for the launcher under the barrel. I kept all of that in the smallest and lightest saddlebag I had, along with some food and water, just in case this trial would involve a wilderness excursion. Apart from a few other basics like bandages, I didn’t take much else. After all, it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of space for shit, and I didn’t want to load myself down with all my gear. Chances were I was going to have to run for my life at some point, and that would be a lot easier to do if I wasn’t carrying a hundred pounds of shit with me.

When I made it to the top of the hill where the shaman’s hut and the royal longhouse proudly stood, I lingered in the open between the two. Somewhere inside that massive structure of felled trees and carved wood, my friends waited for me to return from a trial which we had no idea what it would entail. I wanted to go in there and see them one more time, but there was already a crowd beginning to form on the hill. Apparently, word had gotten out that the outsiders were up to something interesting, and now all the ponies of the Feati wanted to see what it was.

They at least parted easily enough as I made my way to the shaman’s hut. They all watched me with curious eyes, curious eyes and bated breath. I was about to do something they hadn’t seen in a long time. I honestly don’t think they knew what I was getting into any more than I did myself. Hopefully I could give them something to talk about… and come back in one piece to hear it, too.

I saw Lentowenye standing in front of the shaman’s hut, along with Teka and Iklimna. Though the two mares seemed pleased to see me here, Lento was obviously anything but. His eyes narrowed when he saw me, and he took a few steps forward to head me off before I got to the hut. “I was beginning to hope you wouldn’t come,” he said.

“Why? For my sake? Or yours?” I tried to keep my scowling and frowning to a minimum. We were, after all, in full view of his people, and a fight between the two of us right before this trial would probably not be in my best interests.

Lento’s nostrils flared but he said nothing in response. Instead, he only turned to the side and pulled back the ferns covering the door. “Inside. Then we can finally get this over with.”

I nodded and set my hooves in a line, walking right past him into the hut. Once again, I found my eyes straining to adjust to the harsh light inside. The shaman had set up another fire, but this one wasn’t violent and feral like the dragonfire he had tamed earlier. Instead, it seemed muted and sluggish, if you could even describe a fire like that. I’d spent a lot of my life around fire in a forge, but I’d never seen it behave so oddly as it did in the shaman’s hut. It almost looked like it moved in slow motion, with tongues of flame gently rolling and lapping at the air above it.

The shaman himself sat behind the fire, somehow dislocating his fucking hips or something to sit with his hind legs crossed. He held his forehooves together in front of his face, and his eyes opened when he heard me enter. “Ah, you,” he said, a grin breaking out on his face. “Should have known you would be back. And adventurous, too! Ha! Find yourself in the trial so soon, yes?”

“I, uh… I guess.” I fidgeted at the edge of the fire, scooting over a bit when Lentowenye entered the room after me, leaving Teka and Iklimna outside. “I still have no idea what I’m supposed to do, but I’ll do it if it gets me into your Walsalhn.”

“The Shaman and I have discussed your trial,” Lento said, circling around the fire to stand by the shaman’s side. He fixed me with his eyes as he continued, almost rooting me in place. “I do not like you, Ember, and I do not want you here. But the Grass Trial is sacred. I cannot interfere in your participation, but I can ensure it is difficult. So, before we continue… Will you revoke your claim to participate in it?”

“Will you let me go inside the tree otherwise?” I asked him in return.

He shook his head. “I absolutely will not allow it.”

“Then I absolutely will not take anything I’ve said back.” I took a deep breath and squared up my shoulders. “I will participate in this trial, and I will win. Then you’ll have to let me into the tree, and I can be out of your mane for good.”

Obviously, my insistence was not what he wanted to hear, but he kept his fury in check. Instead, he turned to the shaman and waved a hoof. “Begin the ritual,” he said, moving to my side. “I will translate for her.”

The shaman nodded and, standing up as if the odd positioning of his legs didn’t bother him at all, reached for a bowl of silvery pigments near the fire. Lifting it in his hoof instead of his magic—I was all but certain at this point that his split horn didn’t actually work—he slowly began to pace around the fire. “‘At the birth of the world, there was nothing but rock and stone,’” he said, which I understood through Lentowenye’s quick translation. “‘Dirt Mother was bare. Nothing moved upon her rocks. She was barren, her womb hardened and desolate. She was imperfect.

“‘But then the foals of the stars came to her,’” he continued, and he streaked some kind of powder into the fire which made it sparkle and flicker like the stars above on a clear night’s sky. “‘They set hoof upon her barren womb, and with them, came a gift. That gift was the gift of life. The gift of grass.’”

I raised my eyebrow at the tale but didn’t say anything—now wasn’t the time to really go and interrupt with a history lesson about how Auris was colonized by the Synarchy long ago. “‘Grass is the simplest of life,’” the shaman continued. “‘Without grass, there is no life. From grass, life springs in abundance. The mighty canopy of our forest protects us, and its roots are hidden beneath the grass. Even the towering world-trees are rooted in the grass of the earth. Without the grass, there is no life, and without the grass, there are no Feati.

“‘For we were born from the grass like the trees around us.’” At that, he threw more powder into the fire, and it began to crackle orange and maroon like the grass that called Auris home. “‘Like it, we grew and thrived. Like it, we brought life to Dirt Mother’s desolate womb. But though we trample grass underhoof, we must remember that it is to the grass which we owe everything.’”

He approached me and placed the bowl at my hooves. Then, dipping the tip of his into the silvery paint, he brushed my mane out of my face and began to draw lines and patterns on it with the paint. “‘Today, an outsider has ventured to the sacred lands to commune with her roots. In doing so, she seeks to understand her origins, to understand the beginnings of life. While not a member of the sacred peoples, I ask that she receive the strength she needs to survive the ordeals placed ahead of her.’”

My face felt a little sticky and matted once the shaman had finished applying the paint. I didn’t know what the designs looked like, but unlike the rest of the Feati, he’d kept it all to my face and not to any other part of my body. For all I knew, he could have painted a big dick on my face and I wouldn’t know any better. But, pushing the bowl away, the shaman helped me stand. “It time to present yourself to the crowd,” he said, letting the grandiose tone of his voice fade away for normal conversation. “Your support must be observed by ponies of Feati.”

I nodded and turned around, stepping past both him and Lento and making for the door. Stepping into the light, I momentarily winced as my eyes adjusted, then recoiled at the sight before me. It looked like almost the entire village had silently materialized in a few minutes. I stared at hundreds of faces seated on the dirt, and they all watched me intently.

Lentowenye and the shaman both moved past me and stood just to my front on either side. “Feati,” Lentowenye began, “Immapohnaa’ae’un A U’a mofmi’sat Alaenin Kallengen pabtow’set. S’a wippa’set Feati hupf takka’set imma Walsalhn, anta noal etib salhn.” He looked back at me and his lips momentarily twisted into a sneer. “S’a beleten’sat wiwiw wola Mum’a unta’sat awwe, ia S’a Mum’a tuat lenwen’set. Oe T’a’hn S’a bunto’sot, T’a’hn S’a A U’a wetwa’sot. Oe T’a’hn S’a bunto’sot’un, S’a tol’sot noal.”

I learned later that he was basically telling them that I wanted to do this Grass Trial thing and get inside their tree, and whether I lived or died was based on the favor of their ancestors. At the time, however, I could only stare stupidly ahead as he spoke in a language I didn’t understand.

“S’a hilf’set, S’a bwonm swos sonal.” Lento turned toward Teka and Iklimna, and both moved forward to stand at his side. “Swos Feati pohnaa’ae’hn bunto’sat S’a e Alaenin Kallengen hilf’set. To hilf’set, A takka ete’sot T’a’hn takka’set.”

Both Teka and Iklimna raised their heads high. “A hilf’set Embaw,” they said in unison, and I recognized the horrible butchering of my name again. Seriously, was it really so hard for these ponies to say the letter ‘R’?

Lento watched them in silence for a moment, and he and his sister made eye contact. Instead of backing down, however, Teka merely kept her eyes locked on his, weathering his glare of disappointment and controlled anger until he looked away to continue his speech. “Wiwiw sonal’an hilf , immapohnaa’e’hn kallengen pabtow’sot. S’a bwonm imma saksi ho’hn sahln’an e leol S’a waksoa’sot. Oe S’a hommo wetwa’set, thenne S’a wiwiw bele Walsalhn imma’sot. Oe la, wiwiw S’a kolwil hatot’sot imma alaenin saksi ho’hn sahln’an.”

He turned to the shaman and nodded, and the shaman stepped back into his hut. He returned a moment later with a bowl of something, which he immediately passed to my hooves. It had a foul smell to it, but when I looked back at the shaman, he made a show of lifting his hooves to his face and smiling. The message was clear, and fuck did that make my stomach churn.

But Lentowenye had stopped his speech and was instead watching me closely, waiting for my next move. Swallowing hard and bracing myself for what was probably going to be a horrendous assault on my tongue, I lifted the bowl to my lips and tried not to think about whatever it was that I was drinking. Surge fled for the distant corner of my brain away from my sense of taste as soon as it hit my tongue, and it took all my effort not to spit up the awful soup, if you could even call it that. It tasted like somepony had left rancid meat sitting in a pot for days under the sun and then pissed in it for good measure. But Lento began speaking again as I drank the awful shit, so that must have meant I was doing what I was supposed to.

I tried to focus on what he was saying… but I simply couldn’t. I almost dropped the empty bowl as I tried to put it back down on the ground. The world sounded like it was underwater, and my hooves began to shake and tremble. I wondered if I’d been poisoned, but the thought didn’t come with any alarm or fear like I would have expected, only a dazed observation. I smashed my teeth together as a frigid icicle suddenly formed in my body from the base of my throat all the way into my gut, and the world began to spin. Up was down and left was right, and as I tried to blink my way back into figuring out what was going on, every tree in the Spines suddenly fell on their sides, their pink and red leaves pointing in front of me, toward the clouds and sky beyond just in front of my muzzle.

My body fought and struggled against the brew, twitching and heaving, and I was pretty sure I was frothing at the mouth. Surge cried something inside my head, and I think she might have been trying to fix whatever the fuck was happening to me, but I only became more dizzy and disoriented. Fire replaced the ice inside me, and I might have screamed had I been able to. Instead, I was reduced to a twitching and convulsing mess on the ground, unable to do anything except stare up at the sky.

And then a crack of thunder split the sky, fire rained from the stars, and the dead titans of the Spines began to bend over me, one by one by one.