//------------------------------//
// Quiet Dash, killer tree alert 
// Story: Intangible 
// by DtdFIMBrony 
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	Dash was wandering around the old castle ruins for what seemed like ages, it being dark and dusty, the floor tiles cracking under every step, and the walls moaning as they set in after every slight movement of the planet beneath them, all kinda made Dash want to curl up into a little ball and hide from all of the darkness. She, however, did not feel an actual urgency to hide, it was almost like she wanted to stay afraid, like a subconscious comfort was in being afraid. The only thing that consciously made Dash not want to fear, was the fact that she knew it would be a fatal mistake to allow it, but the more she resisted, the more she felt afraid. 

Finding the library, Dash realized that she was close to the center of the ruins, in which, she realized, used to be a royal garden, long since overtaken by the Everfree Forest, it was no longer as beautiful as it once would have been, but she couldn't help but marvel at what remained. There, where the garden grounds sat, nearly unscathed by any castle debris, was a magnificent, but also eerily large, tree, with luminescent bark of a yellowish shade, and leaves nearly as large as one of Dash's wings, that had some variance in color, some the same yellow, and a few a dark, flowing shade of blue, almost like they were dripping shadows right off of them. At the base of the tree lay a broken pedestal, on its base, in which was oddly untouched by the vines that seemed to infest the whole garden, except for this tree, was an etched picture of many Alicorn-like beings all of which had ancient lettering underneath them, of which only a couple were recognizable by Dash due to Twilight's teaching her about them.

The one on the front said 'Faith' underneath it, then there was one almost faded at the very back that said 'Integrity', and on the far left side, it said, "Ambition', however, Dash could not understand what the other five said, and each one had a different stance. The one on the front was standing facing the viewer, with a portrayed glow of the horn symbolizing magic usage, its front left hoof -right to the one looking on- raised and its wings spread. The second one had what appeared to be a type of shield or bubble of magic flowing around it, and now the cutie mark was visible, though hard to make out without looking closely, It was a crescent moon with a finished sun on it, it also had seven stars surrounding it, five of which were on the blazes of the sun and the remaining two were positioned at the top and bottom of the crescent. Dash wondered what this meant, but continued to study the images. She noticed that the third image showed the wings disappearing, the symbol underneath it and the next one were identical, so she wrote it down in her notebook that she always kept with her in case she needed to take notes on her flight. The third image was in the same position as the second one, in which was an angled view of the first as far as Dash could tell, as were all the remaining images, but they all portrayed different events. the third one still had the magic bubble around its entire body, but the area around the wings was glowing. 

In the fourth image, the bubble was smaller, burly covering half of the front of the body, but the wings were in tact, not glowing or anything, but this time, the horn was surrounded by the same further glow, in which was portrayed as brighter than her horns magical glow, and the horn appeared to be vanishing. This Dash found to be odd, because it looked as though all these images were stallions, not mares. Greatly confused by that she briefly glanced at the others and came to a pause on the last one. It had nothing, no wings, no horn, just a plain earth pony, but, around its neck was a chain. The chain links continued up the side of the pedestal until it stopped at the edge of the missing top half, though, inscribed along the chain in a more modern language read, 'beware, the tree, for none can flee', and on the opposite side it also read, 'Once the tree becomes aware, you cannot flee, its hateful glare.'

Dash looked up at the tree, noticing that the leaves that glowed yellow were slowly turning into the darker shade, and in the middle of the leaves, sat the top half of the pedestal. Dash could see the details clearly, the chain lead up to a crystalline ball, glowing a silver-gold color, flowing endlessly with a magic of its own, and Dash knew this was the heart of the castle. Dash was about to simply try to take the ball, when she heard a whisper, but not of the terrors that have been haunting her, it was literally through the wind in which the whispers came. "Do not wake the tree" she heard one say, "Its slumber cannot be interrupted" another one said, and Dash knew it was no lie, that the tree was dangerous, she could feel its energy radiating with doubt and anger, like it was feeding it to all who surrounded it. Having an idea, Dash started to flap her wings, creating a draft upward, bringing another whisper, "If you want the heart, you must be gentle." this made her realize that she was flapping a little too hard, but not quite hard enough to be seen as unnatural. She then decided to flap more gently but pinpoint the wind flow to the orb, this caused the orb to slightly rotate, recognizing it as a force of a living being, the orb allowed itself to be moved. 

The heart rolled right off the edge of the pedestal and Dash quickly moved to catch it. "Run" Dash heard from a whisper, and, though not completely understanding why, she turned and ran, getting as much space between her and the tree as she could. Getting to an opening, she took off, getting high into the sky before looking back, she could see the ground starting to shake around the castle, and then it suddenly collapsed, the tree still standing, the whispers still whispering around, but she knew the tree was still asleep, it simply stirred a bit to adjust its position, though why trees would need to do that, Dash had no clue, but apparently this one did. Disregarding the tree for now, Dash decided to get out of the area, just in case the tree decided to wake up completely, so she started to fly as fast as she could to get out of the forest, but what she saw ahead of her caused her to stop, Ponyville was in flames.