The small group of ponies and single human had made their way into the old abandoned house. The boards of the floor creaked eerily under the weight of the group as they searched through the small house to try and locate the foals that may have sought refuge in their from their predator. After a few short minutes the house had been turned upside down with nothing left to search, except for the basement.

"Everyone got a torch?" Charles asked as he pulled a small flint from his pocket, striking it with a small stone onto the torch end and lighting it up.

Each pony within the party came forward, holding a torch within their maw as Charles pressed it to the tips of each one, lighting them up with the glowing fire that danced from its end. Once all of the torches were lit, several pegasi, along with Charles, lead the decent into the basement. The stairs were eerily dark as they made their way as quickly as they could down them. After a short time Charles came to a stop giving a sigh, halting the others.

"This is going to take forever, and this path is too narrow to fly down. Do you think the kids would have even gone down this wa..." He stopped quickly as a loud scream echoed toward them from the bottom of the stairs. Charles cursing himself s he turned back to the path and began to bolt down the stairs, lunging hard and clearing almost fifteen stairs at a time as he ran. The guard and Celestia in hot pursuit.

"Hang on kids, I'm almost there." He shouted down his path as he continued his sprint.

The three foals all quickly hid as the sound of the door unlocking sounded off. Heading back to their previous spots, they held their breath as the door burst open revealing a very angry looking stallion unicorn. He took a single step through the door, only to halt as a soft squish was heard as his hoof met the unfortunate spot the vomit had been spilled.

"Ugh.... Alright, now I know somepony is here... and possibly sick..." He groaned out as his horn lit up, pulling a rag from nearby and placing it over his muzzle. His horn sending out a beam of magic and disintegrating the vomit on the floor. "Alright, whoever is here, come out and face me. I don't like playing games of hide and seek. Mainly because I end up killing the ones I seek." He growled.

As the elder unicorn looked around the dark room, he gave a sigh before trotting over to the stairs and looking up the path. After his horn briefly lit up, he turned back into the room and trotted back over to the door to the room he had just came from.

"Very well then, If you won't show yourselves, then I have no choice but to consider you as somepony that would want to harm me or attempt to steal from me." He snorted again as his horn lit up.

After a few seconds of sending magic through his horn, it was dispersed into the floor of the room, hitting the dirt and vanishing for just a moment as it spread out to all corners of the room. Another few seconds passed before some eery looking vines began to break up from the floor and slowly begin to form the shape of a pony. Smiling to the plant pony, the elder stallion sent out a bolt of magic, hitting the pony squarely in the chest and causing it to envelope the creature. Slowly, it opened its eyes revealing a dim glow of yellow magic, the centers of its eyes seemed to look as if it were made of a rock that floated within the dim field, looking left and right before resting its eyes on the elder stallion.

"Locate the intruder and capture them." The stallion stated, causing the plant pony to nod as it turned around. Its hooves lifting and plucking the vines from the ground before forcefully re-entering the dirt floor of the room as it was set back down.

The elder stallion watched as little tendrils of vines popped up along the floor of the room, giving a little wiggle and staying in their spots as more followed suit along the rest of the room as it slowly enveloped the entire rooms floor. After a minute there was a sharp gasp from one of the hiding spots of the young ponies. This causing the vine pony to jerk its head to the position as it felt the pony move from atop some of the tendrils.

Before Applebloom could react in time, the tendrils shot straight up from the floor, latching onto all four of her hooves and causing her to shriek out in surprise and horror. The tendrils lifted her from the ground, quickly enveloping her legs and surrounding her midsection as she was forced forward and toward the plant pony.

"AH! What is that thing?! Let me go, ya hear?" She yelled as she bucked all four legs in every direction, attempting to dislodge the creeping vines that were still slowly encasing her.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Starlight shouted out as he bolted from his hiding spot, quickly gliding over the tendrils that lined the floor and using his wing to slice through the vines holding his aunt aloft, then causing her to fall to the floor and quickly begin to brush off the plants from her body.

"Well now, this is a surprise. Two intruders? And one is an Alicorn as well." The elder stallion laughed just before the vine pony shot out several vines that quickly enveloped the two ponies before him.

"Let us go!" Star shouted as he bit down onto the vines that were wrapping around him, pulling hard at them and snapping a few before quickly being replaced once again.

"Oh, but what would be the fun in that? It has been a while since I've had any fresh meat, much less a mare to play with." He laughed evilly as he stalked toward Applebloom.

He paused though as he noticed a little flicker of white magic from the corner of his eye. Quickly turning and ducking out of the way as a beam flew over his head. He growled out in annoyance as his vision and the vine ponys turned to the source, seeing Sweetiebelle heading toward the stairs and bolting up them.

"GET HER!" The old stallion shouted to the vine pony, which then sent out a wave of vines from the floor at the base of the stairs, flying up them and toward its target. After only a couple of seconds, and ear splitting scream echoed through the stair well as the helpless unicorn was unceremoniously dragged down the stairs.

"Oh my, now I have two little mares to play with. This day has turned out very well indeed." The elder unicorn laughed loudly, only to pause as he heard the sound of hard hitting steps echoing through the stair well. As he made his way over to the base of the stairs, he pressed a hoof to a small indention within the wall, making the glowing steps light up once again. Once they illuminated, he gasped, bolting to the side just as a figure barreled through the spot he was in and crashing into the floor, skidding several feet right on its face before coming to a stop next to the three ponies currently being held within the air against their will.

"There is the end of the stairs! Guard, prepare yourselves!" Bellowed Celestia as she stepped to the side to allow them go ahead of her. They all quickly rushed into the room with Celestia right behind them. It didn't take long before they noticed Charles, face first, into the floor of the room, and the vine pony currently holding the three ponies within its grasp.

"Release them foul creature!" The sun Goddess yelled as she pointed a hoof toward the creature. The guard quickly bolting toward it with lances and torches held out.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" The elder stallion shouted out as he finally got to his hooves and brushed himself off. "You dare enter my home, and then demand I release these tresspassers?! Do you take me for a foal?!" He growled out.

"How dare you speak to the queen that way!" One of the guards shouted as he turned, pointing the lance at the elder unicorn.

"And now you threaten me with weapons in my own home. This is outrageous! I will not stand for this! And I most certainly will protect myself!" He shouted as his horn lit up brightly, causing many more tendrils to shoot up from the floor and capture the guard without flaw. Their weapons being stripped from them and they being held above the floor so that they could not escape.

"Ow...." Came the voice of the human as he pushed himself up from the floor and rubbed the dirt from his face. "That really hurt." He groaned as he fell back onto his butt, sitting there for a moment until he noticed that every guard was currently being held captive, along with two of the crusaders, and.... his son.

"Oh no you didn't." He growled out, quickly reaching for the lance and bolting upright. His eyes taking on a green glow as a purple mist slowly began to float up and away from them.

"Haste..." Was the only word spoken as he vanished from sight. The vine pony let out a soft shriek of pain before falling to the ground in two pieces. Each of the vines holding onto the ponies quickly being severed as well, allowing the captives to be dropped to the floor in a heap.

The elder stallion sent out a beam of magic directly toward the sun Goddess, but it stopped half way to her, hitting the lance that Charles held out to block it. He dropped the weapon though as it began to glow, then vanish in a puff of smoke.

"What in the?" Charles stated in slight shock before glaring at the unicorn before him, his horn lighting up once again.

"DIE INTRUDERS!" The pony shouted as he was about to let loose more of his magic, only to stop as his head flung backwards, his oxygen suddenly being cut off, and having a severe pressure wrapped around his horn.

The human had cloths lined the pony, wrapping his arm around his neck and using his momentum to fling himself and the unicorn backwards onto the floor. Charles taking the burnt of the fall as the stallion lay on the human belly up. The human quickly wrapping his hand around the unicorns horn and squeezing hard to cause him to lose focus on his magic. He thrashed about for a few seconds before his movements began to get sluggish and then going completely limp.

Tossing the unconscious pony to the side, the human quickly got to his feet. "GUARD! Get these ponies, and Star out of here NOW!" He bellowed causing them to quickly gather them up and head up the stairs.

"Charles." Celestia began as she was now looking at an ancient looking book on one of the tables within the room. "We need to leave, now." She stated with a very worried tone as she quickly trotted to his side and forced the human onto her back before bolting up the stairs.

"Tia? What's wrong, you've never been this spooked about anything?" He spoke into her ear as he held onto her as she galloped full stride up the stairs.

"I will explain everything at the castle. Right now, we need to gain as much ground from this place as possible, as I fear we may have awoken a beast that may soon turn on us." She spoke out in a shuddering tone as she continued her stride up the stairs.