//------------------------------//
// Into The Unknown! The Quest For The Elements Begins! 
// Story: My Little Pony X One Piece: A Reindeer Goes To Equestria! 
// by Tony Tony Chopper 
//------------------------------//

In the protection of the ever increasing darkness, the seemingly defeated hordes of changelings slowly but surely gathered at a small clearing in the woods of Everfree. All of them were confused, not knowing what to do, what next step to follow in this unforseen complication of their leader's plan. 
With a clear, echoing thud that startled the swarm and caused them to raise their heads, their queen herself landed on top of a large rock, enabling her to oversee most of the trees and look back at the once again protected capital of Equestria.



Her eyelids formed slits around her reptilian eyes as her voice gained her subordinates full attention:

"It seems that once again, Celestia is sending out her loyal lackies to do the dirty work for her... 
But it won't matter... they will come back, sooner or later.
And to make sure we'll keep emphasis on 'later'..."

Chrysalis looked up in the peaceful evening skies, where a few pink puffy clouds were innocently floating in silence.

The queen's frown became a grin, her horn lit up and a green beam of magical energy was sent skywards, directly aimed at one of the clouds.

When it was hit, green sparks could be seen rushing through it as it slowly began to spin. Chrysalis watched with a grin as the clouds rotating motion soon picked up speed, changing in size and color to a dark and gloomy purple. 

The changeling underlings watched in terror as the large cloud slowly descended to their queen's level, almost immediately stopping its swirling movement, as a small pair of red lights shined out of it.

Chrysalis then gave order to her 'creation':
"Twilight Sparkle and her pathetic little friends...
find them... and end them."

Without an answer, the purple smoke did as it was told and flew its way into the thicket, beginning to track down the ponies.

"Even if it fails, it should keep them busy long enough. After all, we still have something far more precious than magic, now don't we, my little sweeties?", she calmly spoke as one of her servants carried a certain small blue container towards her.





"W-wait, so you're telling me every single one of those turned into you?", Chopper stuttered.
"Yes, and there were dozens of thousands of them! It was really confusing.", Rarity replied with worry in her voice.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends were wandering through the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, just simply headed in the direction they saw the changelings fly off to. 

As the sun set and the and most of the woodlands' birds fell silent, the ponies became unsure, hoping to find any indication of the Elements Of Harmony, as they knew once Princess Luna would lose her energy from maintaining her protection over Canterlot, it would basically become a wide open weakpoint, just waiting to be attacked again.

Time was of the essence.

"One reason more to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I hate to imagine what they could have done to Canterlot if it hadn't been for Princess Luna. Think about it, they can take the form of everypony. Keep your guard up, girls... and boys...", Twilight warned, leading the way with the light of her magical horn illuminating their path through the thicket.

"Yeah, speaking of forms...", Rainbow Dash began, her flying altitude slowly lowering to Chopper's side who was traveling alongside the ponies in his form as a complete reindeer, carrying Spike on his back.

"How DID you manage to pull off those neat tricks back there?"

"What tricks?", Chopper turned his head to the flying equine.

"Well, you know, that round barrel-thing you turned into...", Rainbow tried continue before she got interrupted.

"Oh, oh! And don't forget that puffball, Dashie! That one was funny!", Pinkie Pie yelled, amused despite this serious current situation they were in.

"Well, you see...", Chopper said as he hesitatedly began to further explain his powers.

"In my years of research I did on my powers, I discovered a way to distort the wavelenghts of my Devil Fruit's transformations to a total of seven forms.", He explained in one quick sentence, not expecting anyone besides him to understand it.

"So, long story short, you did sciency things and now you've got more forms. Pretty cool, but hard to keep track of. I mean, did anypony understand that?", Rainbow Dash couldn't help but cringe at the amount of new questions created in her head, before looking at the others.

Her fellow pony friends either shrugged, shook or scratched their heads, only Twilight nodded smiling, unaware the question was rhetorical.

"Would be useful if we could jus' be 'morphin'' our way out of this forest.", Applejack tried to snap her friends back to the problem at hand. "Ya sure we're on the right way?"

"We are, I can still smell them, although the scent is getting weaker by the minute.", Chopper looked around, his nose twitching to keep track of the fowl, otherworldy smell of changeling.

"Meaning we're running out of time. We'll have to hurry, even though they will probably expect us to come right after them." 
Twilight announced. 

"You mean we're being led into a trap?", Fluttershy spoke up.

"Not if we have anything to say about it! Bring 'em on, we can take them again!", Rainbow Dash simply refused to be scared.

"Just as well as you did back in Canterlot?", Applejack smirked while raising an eyebrow.

"That... didn't count! That was victory by... catching me off guard, okay?", Rainbow countered quickly with a blush.

Twilight looked back at her friends chattering, half of her mind was still worried about something else. 

Spike could tell.

"What's the matter, Twilight?", Spike's question made the unicorn mare startle a bit before she turned to her assistant.

"It's just...", she began before exhaling deeply. "I just hope everypony is doing fine back at Canterlot."

Spike tried to comfort her: "You're worrying too much. You did all you could back there. Hey, if it weren't for you, we would've never known about Cadence's doppelganger and the real Princess would still be stuck in a dark cave and not with your brother as she is right now."

"Exactly, dear. Don't beat yourself up over it anymore. We are here now, and we will make it right.", Rarity patted Twilight on the back before Spike added:

"Not to mention that Princess Luna had arrived just in time to take care of the city. And what can that bug-lady possibly do against that?"

Twilight thought about these words as, to her horror, an image of the heavily beaten Celestia laying before her flashed through her memories.

'Hopefully nothing more than we know, Spike.', she replied in thought.





"I spy with my eye... something... green!", Luffy began.

"A tree.", Usopp guessed, appearently not for the first time.

"Wow, you're a tough one, aren't ya?", Luffy grinned.

Now it was Usopp's turn: "Okay, I spy with my eye... something else green."

"Another tree?", Luffy took a guess.

"Nope." Usopp replied smiling.

"A bush?"

"No."

"Come now, what is it?", Luffy groaned.

"Sorry, but you gotta guess.", Usopp said with a grin, secretly taking a quick gaze at the sleeping Zoro while holding back a chuckle.

After finally reaching the unknown island, the Strawhat Pirates decided to take the route through a thin river system, which eventually ended them up in the middle of this dark, imposing forest. Both Usopp and Luffy had nothing to do while looking for signs of their missing friend than play a game. They were leaning onto the Sunny's railing, Luffy on the left, Usopp on the right side.

Nami sat at a small table nearby, making quick drawings and notes to keep track of their course to make sure of a way back, should they end up at a dead end.



"It is getting quite dark now, I can't even see my hand anymore. Well, at least not the flesh of it...", Brook chuckled quietly as he too walked up to the railing, eyeing the waters below. Not that he had eyes.


In darkness of the evening, he could have sworn he saw a silhoutte darting by beneath the surface. Without hesitation he leaned closer, trying to make out what would linger-

SPLASH!

Without warning, the figure broke through the surface, startling the musician half to (a second) death.

With a hysterical shriek, Brook quickly fell on his back, as the large creature actually completely leaped out of the water over the ship, revealing itself to the bystanders on board: 
A fish, approximately half the size of the Sunny, with scales glittering in a dark, gloomy purple tone, red glowing eyes, countless rows of small and sharp teeth and a long and pointy spear-like appendage upon it's snout.

As it landed and resubmerged on the other side of the ship, causing the latter to wobble uncontrollably on the surface, the now alarmed crew completely gathered at the reiling on Luffy's side.

"It's Usopp! He became a fish! Sugoi!", Luffy called out impressed.

"Oi, oi, I'm right here.", Usopp murmured next to him, slapping him on the shoulder with the back of his hand.

"Look at the size of that thing! Don't you let it get away!", Sanji shouted, running up to them.

"About time we had some action around here! Brook, you're okay?" Franky asked while inserting his last bottles of cola into his stomach fridge.

"I'm... I am doing just fine, thank you very much, Franky-san...", Brook stuttered, laying on the floor, while shakingly holding a thumb up.

Nami was confused, leaning over the reiling: "What is a fish of that size doing in such a narrow river anyway?"

"Did it get lost here? Or could it sense us?", Robin, who stood next to the navigator, held up her arms in a crossed state, seeing the shadow underneath had turned around to come in for another attack.

"Well, no idea about that, but...", the green haired swordsman who had awoken from the turmoil pushed one of his blades out of its sheath with his thumb, "... I could use some excitement here."

He grinned as he walked up next to Franky, who aimed both arms at the creature in the water, waiting for it to pop out again.

"Franky, you go first.", Zoro said calmly.

"You got it.", the cyborg grinned as his forearms began to inflate:

"COUP DE..."

The large sea-beast ripped through the waves again, this time with its mouth wide open to swallow the crew hole, some of them already panicking.

But before it could do so, Franky aimed his metallic arms upwards to release his destructive air cannon:

"...VENT!"

The incredible output of air-pressure actually lifted the attacking behemoth several meters higher above the ship, giving Roronoa an easy target:

"SANTORYUU: TATSU MAKI!", Zoro called out with his three blades as he performad a quick spin too fast for the eye, sending a tornado of airwaves, thin and strong enough to cut steel, upwards.

The creature was hit in mid air, groaning in pain before falling back into the water.

Silence was all that followed.

"It worked! Way to go, you two! Couldn't have done it better, really!", Usopp announced, his legs still shaking.

"Even if it looked like it... it wasn't all that effective.", Zoro calmly explained, putting his swords back to rest in their sheaths.

"Huh? What do you mean?", Nami raised an eyebrow at his statement.

"Yeah, I saw it too.", Sanji agreed. "When that marimo sliced it up, there was no clear wound in those cuts, but smoke.
Sorry, Luffy, but I'm starting to doubt that's an edible one."

Luffy only exhaled in dissappointment, before the ship began rocking once more.

"Something's happening below!", Robin, alarmed her crewmates, addressing the dark shadow underwater that started to grow.

The rather thin hydrodynamic body of the predator began to change into an even bigger balloon-like body shape, several long appendages sprouting from its bottom side.

Said appendages began folding themselves around the lower side of the Thousand Sunny, slowly crawling their way up to tighten the creatures grip.

When they reached the reiling, the crew began to realise what this next problem to deal with was.

"Tentacles! It's a giant squid!", Usopp called out before pinning one of them onto the ground with his large slingshot before it could grab him.
"Really? Then where'd that funny fish go?", Luffy wondered while using his stretchy limbs to protect the ship.

"That WAS the fish from before! No wonder it seemed odd! That thing changed its form!", Sanji yelled as he began to spin rapidly.

"So, it's not edible either?", Luffy's eyes widened, only now putting two and two together.



When he came to a sudden halt, both of his legs seemed to have caught fire:

"Edible or not, that thing's in our way wasting our time. If we wanna find Chopper as soon as possible, we gotta stop getting distracted! DIABLE JAMBE!", Sanji said with tension in his voice, before running to the edge and leaping off the ship straight into the river.

"Sanji-san, wait!", Brook called after him, ready to jump off also, only to be cut off by Zoro.

"Don't worry. The cook's got it under control already.", He said with his armes crossed, ignoring the tentacles closing in around them.

Beneath the surface, Sanji swam straight down to find the source of the trouble:

A large and bulky squid was clinging upside down to the bottom of the ship, most of its tentacles giving his crew members up there a hard time.

The sea creature's glowing red eyes took notice of Sanji approaching and launched a pair of tentacles at him.

The young man however easily managed to avoid it's attack.

'BLUE WALK!', he spoke in his mind, his quick movements bringing him close to the creatures head.

'Alright, you oversized takoyaki.' , Sanji eyed it angrily, the cephalopod gazed right back at him.

'Let's dance!'

Sanji began repeatedly kicking with his ignited limbs, greatly picking up speed, as each kick left a great burn mark on the octopus' fleshy head, despite it being undewater.

"POELE FRIRE SPECTRE!"

Sanji's doings were immediatley noticed on board as the attacking squid's limbs all began twitching in twisting in pain, finally letting go of the Sunny.

Just as the ship had calmed upon the surface, the next thing the remaining crew saw was the squid being violently catapulted out of the water, most of it's head smoking with foot imprints of the Strawhats' cook.

"Oi, if you're not even edible, then get the hell outta here!", Luffy yelled up to the kraken in the air, which now had cast a large shadow over the ship.

"GOMU GOMU NO...", The captain started his attack by punching the air again and again with both his fists. As he did, he quickly picked up speed and momentum, turning his two limbs into a blurry of fists.

He finally stretched his charged limbs far behind him, before letting them snap back skyward with one more hit for the airborne squid: 

"...CANNON!"

This one final blow ultimately transported the enemy FAR into the clouds, a small twinkle in the sky indicating that it would indeed be no more business for the pirates.

"And that's what you get when you mess with us!", Luffy grinned as his limbs snapped back to their regular lenght.

"Wow, just wow, what is this place anyway?", Usopp sat down while breathing heavily.

"I was so scared, I was afraid my heart couldn't take the pressure. Not that I still have a heart, of course!", Brook quickly recovered from his shock earlier and returned to his casual, joking nature.

"Yosh, we best keep moving and stick together. No telling what's behind the next corner.", Sanji added while climbing back on board soaked.

"If we already keep getting into trouble like this, imagine what it must be like for our ship doctor.", Robin, explained quietly.

"Dammit, she's right! He's all by himself right now!", Franky yelled. "And leaving our friend out in the open like that is SUPER-NOT-COOL! OW!"

"That's it!", Luffy called out, getting his crews attention. He was fed up from the lack of progression in their search. And the lack of nutrients in his system.

"I'm going ahead! I want food and I want my Nakama and I want both right now!", he yelled as he ran to the edge of the Sunny, jumped off and stretched his arm far out into the forest before grabbing a tree and shooting right into the thicket out of his crew's sight. This all happened within two seconds, leaving his crew speechless in an awkward period of silence.

Until Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji and Franky yelled after him in chorus:

"BAKA! WE GOTTA STICK TOGETHER!"





Silence and - at least partly - peace had returned to the city of Canterlot. The royal guards were ordered to check on the citicens and patrol the outer ranks, in the case of a second assault.

Princess Cadence and Shining Armor were giving orders to the guards, exchanging information in hopes to find out about the whereabouts of the elements. And although weakened from her imprisonment underground, she refused to leave the stallion's side.

Princess Luna carefully guided her injured sister to her bedchambers, trying to calm her about her actions towards her student.

"She was right, Luna. Had I recognised the danger earlier, I would not have to ask this of Twilight and her friends.", Celestia muttered, Luna however shook her head.

"Blame yourself no more, sister.  The changeling queen is a powerful manipulator. I could have done no better than you did."

"Luna, your words are kind... but false.", Celestia remainend  persistent.

"Shining Armor is currently thinking much like you. Blaming himself for not taking action when in truth, only one fiend is at fault.", Luna reassured her.

"All you need to do now is save your energy. We must trust in Twilight Sparkle and her companions."

Celestia was touched by her little sister's care. She gave in and did what she was told by her when entering her chambers, laying down onto her bed, careful not to futher injure her wounded wing and leg.

A she exited the chambers and closed the door behind her, Luna went on her way to check on the damage done to the outer ranks of the city. Commanding Celestia's guards along with her own ones, she managed rather well to secure the scared and confused citizens. Until further informations regarding the situation were at hand, Canterlot would stay under Luna's protection, unaware that plans to infiltrate the city were already in motion.





"Chopper!", Luffy called out again and again, utilizing his stretchable limbs to swing from tree to tree.
However, the only thing that occasionly answered was his own stomach, desperately begging his owner for food.
Luffy lost focus on his search and held his belly with one hand before landing back on his feet.

"Urgh, I'm not feeling too good. Gotta find something to eat first.", he decided and began carfully scanning his surroundings for anything edible, leaving no stone unturned and no bush unflattened. After several attempts of trying to catch small woodland creatures or trying to chug down rocks, he finally found a small silhouette, little thick brown body, large round blue top, Luffy's eyes and grin widened as he began to ran:
"Chopper! I knew I'd find you sooner or later! What, were you hiding here the whole time, trying to be funny?", he joked while landing in front of the small figure.

A mushroom.

"Hey, you're not Chopper...", with his smile gone, the young man walked up to the fungus, grabbed it by it's stem, ripped it out of its hidden spot and casually took a bite from its bulbous blue top. Overwhelmed by the bitter taste, Luffy's rubber face distorted in a clearly unsatisfied way before he coughed and spat out the chewed pieces violently.
"Yuk! And you don't taste good, either! Get that crap outta here!", he called as the mushroom was being thrown into the nearest bush.

As Luffy continued to walk, he noticed his vision starting to blur, a possible side effect from the mushroom.

The now dizzy Strawhat Pirate thought to himself: 'Maybe I SHOULD go back. Doesn't look like a place anybody would wanna hang out at. The food is terrible!'

Without friend nor food, Luffy made turn and began heading back for the ship. With his armes crossed, eyes closed, and head resting on one shoulder he mumbled to himself.
"What to do... where to look..."





After finally losing the trail of the thieves, Twilight suggested to her friends to split up and search the area individually.

Trying to be reliable, Chopper focused on picking up the strange scent of Changeling throughout the forest, sadly without results.
Suddenly, his ears twitched as they picked up a familiar sound.

"Oi!", a voice called out, quickly gaining the reindeers attention.

"Now way, is it possible?", Chopper got excited as he began running to where he thought to have heard his captain's call.

"Luffy, it's me! I'm right here!", he shrieked, almost tearing up, "I'm so happy I've found-" 

"Oi", called the little black bird that had peacefully sat upon a low branch next to Chopper.

"Oh, you're not the one I thought you were.", Chopper mumbled in dissappointment, shrinking back into Brain Point.

"Oi!", was all the bird responded before cleaning its feathers with its beak, ignoring the creature near it.

'Do I miss my nakama that much?', Chopper thought before getting back on track to locate any Changelings. Unfortunately, ever since the incident, he started seeing or hearing his crew members everwhere.
When he thought to have seen Brook, it turned out to be a large, skinny tree with a round top of leafes.
When he thought to have found Usopp, it was nothing but a smaller tree with a conviniently placed branch.

With every failed attempt to reunite with his friends, he felt worse and worse for not staying strong and finding a solution on his own. Finally giving it up, he tried keep his thoughts from them and just rejoining Twilight and the others.

With his thoughts clouded and his eyes on his path, a looming shadow appeared in front of his feet.
Chopper stopped dead in his tracks and quickly snapped out his thoughts before carefully lifting his head to see:

Luffy.

Luffy himself stared right back at the little creature, both bearing a blank expression on their faces.

This awkwrd moment of silence continued for about five seconds before both spoke up.

"Oh, I get it, I miss my friends so much I'm starting to see things...", Chopper said.
"Oh, I get it, I'm so hungry I'm starting to see things...", Luffy said.

"Hello, hallucination of Luffy..."
"Hi, hallucination of Chopper..."

With both of their heads hanging down, they sarcastically greeted one another before walking past each other, trying to get back to their individual groups.





As a series of calls led the group of ponies, including their non-pony sidekicks, to reunite around an ominous purple tree, they soon noticed the rainbow-maned pegasus mare up in it, wriggling back and forth through the leaves.

"What's the matter, Rainbow? Did you find something?", Twilight asked, lighting her horn up to illuminate Rainbow Dash's situation.

"I swear on my wings I saw something move up here!", she explained to her friends before focusing her energy her search, "Come on out here! We know you're hiding somewhere around here!", Rainbow called out, wildly digging through the tree's twigs looking for Changeling spies.

"I don't think you should be doing that, Rainbow.", Fluttershy suggested, not liking the idea of disturbing any wildlife.

"Come on, if I've really disturbed anyone here, I'm sure they would've let me know.", Rainbow Dash quickly shrugged Fluttershy's argument off, before, as if to answer the pegasus' cockiness, a vine quickly lashed out on her, coiling itself around her waist and lifting her out of the thicket.



"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!", Rainbow called out, completely caught off guard and struggling to get free.

Three holes began to crack open in the wooden stem, two of which started to glow in a menacing red and eyed the pegasus, the third opening wide with teeth-like splinters formed around it.

As the group on the ground got startled as well, Pinkie Pie called out for her friend: 
"DASHIE!", while Applejack took immediate action and began to charge.

"Hold on, sugarcube, imma get you outta there!", the cowmare yelled running towards the stem in order to climb upwards and reach Rainbow.

Strangely, the tree itself seemed to take notice of her doings and began sending its large branches at her, knocking the earth pony back into her group of friends that followed shortly, like a bowling ball into pins. 

While quickly getting back up, Twilight tried to use her magic to pull Rainbow out of the plant's grip, but the flexible appendages simply refused to let go of their victim.

In his full human shape, Chopper came charging up next, winding up his arm for a devastating punch.

"HEAVY GONG!", he swung his fist into the stem, sending a vibrating motion throughout the tree, causing several leaves and twigs to fall out freely, but unfortunately no Rainbow Dash.

The tree soon responded as its thick roots began ripping through the earth, uppercutting the transformed reindeer and effortlessly knocking him onto his back.

"Spike!", Applejack called for the baby dragon before raising her hind legs, her back facing the tree.

Spike understood and leaped on top of Applejacks legs, which in turn bucked and launched him up into the tree top with Rainbow Dash. His small size allowing him to slip through the branches unnoticed and reach the distracted vine holding the blue pegasus, the young reptile took a deep breath before unleashing a small green flame onto it.

In pain, the tendril at last let go of Rainbow, who then landed back on her hooves before the tree, before it took a hold on Spike now, gripping him tightly to prevent more fire from being spit.

Pinkie Pie was hopping circles around the tree trunk, distracting several vines and branches from her friends. A high attack and she dodged, a low one and she jumped, her inner alert system again came in handy.

Via magic telekinesis, Rarity carefully tied several vines into a masterful bowtie-esque knot, further decreasing the trees attack output.

Seeing this, Applejack quickly got an idea as she waited for the next of the trees vines to go after her. When it finally did, she immediately jumped on top of it, pinning the flexible limb to the ground, before tying it up as an instant-lasso.

When the new lasso was thrown at one of the larger branches that tried to swing at the others, it got caught in it and slowly but surely got pulled down to ground level by the strong earth pony mare.

Occasionly, Fluttershy dared peeking from behind her hooves covering her eyes, keeping a low profile and shaking rapidly during the fight. 

After struggling for a while, Spike managed to take a bite into the vines, causing them to give in and release him as well.
Out of the tree he fell before safely landing on Twilight's back.

After recovering from the trees strong grip, Rainbow Dash began soaring as she prepared her counter attack.

As he got back up from the hard blow he received, Chopper turned to see the chaos around the tree.
"Yosh, I have to take this thing down quickly!", he said before reaching back for his backpack and pulling out what seemed like a small yellow jawbreaker.

"RUMBLE-", before he could bring the pill-like object to his mouth, he was interrupted by a rainbow blur blazing by, the following winds almost knocking him over again.

"Out of my way!", Rainbow Dash yelled brashly, going straight for the tree on her own, "Alright, watch me turn that thing into a year's supply of TOOTHPICKS!"

A quick flying kick into the tree's trunk got the plant-monster's full attention directed at her, which she easily used to her advantage.

"You wanted to catch me, huh? Then try to keep up with this!", Rainbow taunted as she flew circles around the large opponent.
Accepting the challenge, the tree sent its tendrils after the pegasus, precisely following her movement patterns.

In zig-zags and spirals she flew through the branches, as did the vines after her, the tree not noticing that it was slowly but surely immobilizing itself.

Twilight caught on and began to help Rainbow out by using her magic to grap and tie dozens of other vines to one another, disabling the tree's movements further and further. Combined with Applejack's lassoing, Rarity's skillful tying and Pinkie Pie using her Pinkie Sense to avoid the tree's powerful roots, eventually causing them to tie themselves up,
the fight seemed to finally tip into the ponies' favor.

After struggling to catch a single pony, the strange plant creature had ended up completely tangled in itself, as the team of ponies, dragon and reindeer finally regrouped in front of it, all of them breathing heavily.

Chopper still stared in awe.

Incredible. His new friends just defeated a giant tree monster with nothing but sheer teamwork, where he would have already wasted his strongest technique on! On one hand, he was amazed at how smoothly the ponies ended up taking it down, they must've been through more in the past than he would've expected. On the other hand however, he was ashamed of himself for not keeping a cool head and right away resorting to his last ace, knowing that even if he would have beating the tree creature in it's strongest state, he only would've eventually ended up paralyzed and thus rather become a burden than a support.

"Now that that's... out of the way...", Applejack tried to regain her breath, "... what the hay is that thing?!"

Fluttershy added: "And why did it attack us?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't seem natural. In all of the bestiaries I've read, I've never found anything like it!", Twilight was puzzled as well.

In a final desperate attempt, the tree creature began to bend backwards, reaching out like a giant club, as the friends all snapped back to reality, all of them leaping out of the way of this fatal final blow while screaming.

The top of the tied up creature slammed onto the ground with great force, creating a small quake, before it snapped back upright.

When the friends managed recompose themselves from the fight, they all noticed that the tree began to change.

Out of its bark, something that appeared like purple smoke began eradiating into the sky forming into a thick cloud, the red eyes that seemed to belong to the tree now eyeing the ponies through the cloud one last time before it finally retreated, the tree it possessed returning into its natural color.

"Now what in Equestria was that all about?", Rainbow Dash asked while watching the purple figure float into the distance.

"I have no idea", Twilight sighed, "and I'm just too exhausted too think right now..."

"Perhaps it would be best if just take a short break before we go on. Just a small one...", Rarity sat down.

"Agreed.", everyone answered.

"We'll best just stick together from here, just in case...", Twilight huffed, thinking how much more trouble would lie ahead as her friends nodded in agreement.

Chopper returned to his Brain Point and laid on his back, thinking about how to plan his next moves wisely. He only had three Rumble Balls left, using them right away would surely be no good way to go from here and he had to stay cautious with the little he had. 

'After all, this forest is crazy...'



TO BE CONTINUED