Nine ponies continued their trek through the forest, the moonlight casting an eerie glow over the damp foliage all around them.
“Ugh… My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck.” Rarity turned up her nose at the distasteful scenery, her eyes shifting from one soggy tree or moss-covered boulder to the next. As if on cue, the canopy overhead closed up, leaving the path ahead in near-complete darkness. “That wasn’t quite what I meant…”
Twilight frowned. “The castle could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn’t even know it.”
Tank quirked an eyebrow. “How is it that, between the nine of us, nobody thought to bring a flashlight into the spooky dark forest?” He took a deep breath and used it to let out a sigh. “Wait, I think I see moonlight up ahead. Is that a clearing?”
The party made their way toward it with more haste than care, but soon found themselves bunched together as Pinkie, the lead pony, had come to a sudden halt. Trembling, she pointed one hoof ahead of her at something standing in the center of the clearing.
“What is THAT?” she screeched.
A dark, imposing figure several meters tall towered over them from the center of the clearing. Backlit by the moon, its features were cast in shadow, save for a pair of ominous glowing eyes peering down at the group. It had numerous long, spindly arms stretching every which way, each ending in several haphazard needle-like claws. Though it stood perfectly still, its howling breath could be heard throughout the clearing.
“W-W-What do we do…?” Twilight shrank back, her entire body visibly trembling in abject terror. “I-I’m s-so scared I c-can’t move…”
“I’m not!” declared the bold voice of Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately, this came with the realization that her forelegs were wrapped firmly around Applejack. The latter, despite also shivering fearfully, gave Rainbow a sideways glance, causing the colorful pegasus to avert her gaze. “O-Okay, m-maybe a little…”
All nine ponies stood paralyzed with fear, clutching one another desperately for comfort or simply staring unblinkingly at the unknown figure watching them intently. For what seemed like an eternity, no one moved.
Then, slowly, one pony gingerly took a step forward.
“Tank…?” Gently cradling a terrified Fluttershy, Scarlet’s voice came in slow, measured breaths. “…what in the void are you doing…?”
Eyes focused solely on the task of maintaining eye contact with the figure, Tank took another shaky step toward it. “I don’t care what this thing is. We didn’t…” His voice caught in his throat for a moment. “We didn’t come all this way to… to give up now.” He glared at the figure indignantly. “I’m… I’m gonna punch it.”
“B-Be careful, Tank Buster!” Twilight bit her lip in apprehension as she watched him march slowly toward the figure, until he finally stood directly in front of it. In spite of the proximity, he still couldn’t tell just what it was he was looking at, but he couldn’t afford to back down now.
“Alright, you. Come and take your medicine.” Winding up one foreleg, Tank struck the figure as hard as he could with his hoof… resulting in a loud ‘clack.’
“…”
After several seconds had passed with no reaction from the figure, Tank let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he’d been holding. Blinking in bewilderment, he poked several more times; this ‘figure’ seemed strangely hard and hollow. A careful step back placed him just beneath one of the lower arms, and with a short hop, he snagged one of the 'claws’ in his teeth and easily snapped it off, holding it in his mouth for a moment before spitting it to the ground. Turning back to the party behind him, his gaze met eight pairs of eyes staring at him intently, waiting with bated breath for his verdict.
Tank sighed. “This is a tree.”
It seemed to take a moment for this information to register, as at first no one spoke. Then, without warning, the clearing filled with the raucous giggling of a particular pink pony. “That’s… the funniest thing… I’ve heard all week!” Pinkie’s words came in between peals of laughter. “I was like, 'Oh my goodness, what is THAT?’ and you’re all like 'You silly, THAT’S A TREE!’” At this she collapsed to the ground in yet another fit of mirthful giggles.
At first the others simply stared at Pinkie, but her laughter quickly proved contagious, soon resulting in the entire pony party filling the clearing with their gleeful giggling.
“Haha… oh my goodness, I haven’t laughed that hard in forever.” Twilight wiped a tear from her eye. “I think we all needed that… Thanks, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie beamed. “Yupyup! Laughing always helps cheer me up when I’m nervous or scared! Or bored. Or confused. Or worried. Or frustrated. Or…” Her voice seemed to trail off as she pondered more examples.
“And you too, Tank Buster.” Twilight turned to Tank. “I don’t know why exactly that tree had us all spooked, but you beat it.”
Tank shrugged, trying his best to suppress a self-satisfied smirk. “I mean, all I did was punch it. That’s kinda my job right there.”
Applejack scratched her head. “What in tarnation was all that about, anyway?”
“Who cares?” Rainbow Dash was still grinning. “We’re not gonna let some dumb old tree stop us now. Let’s go!” With that, she took off for the far side of the clearing.
As the others moved on ahead, the three companions hung back for a moment.
“You two did notice that, I assume?” Scarlet glanced between her comrades for a moment. Waterwing met her look with a nod, but Tank merely blinked.
“Notice what? I didn’t… oh, wait.” He looked back over his shoulder at the tree. “Oh, now I see it. Yup, that’s a fear enchantment. Looks like you were right. Let’s go catch up with Twilight so we can warn her about - ”
“No.”
Tank stared at Scarlet for a moment before lifting a hoof to his face in irritation. “Okay, are you still on about this whole 'maintaining cover’ thing? I really don’t like the idea of keeping secrets from our allies just because you don’t want to explain to them why we can sense magic and they can’t.”
Scarlet gave a small sigh. “We cannot risk giving them any reason to doubt our loyalty if we want to see this through. I will not send innocent people off to a fight they cannot win.”
Tank gave a sigh that mimicked Scarlet’s. “Well, if you’re that sure they won’t trust us otherwise…”
Scarlet blinked, suddenly looking around. “Just a moment… where is - ?”
“Hey!” came the distant voice of Rainbow Dash, beside whom floated Waterwing. “What’s the holdup?”
Scarlet and Tank exchanged glances and shrugs before bolting across the clearing to catch up with the others.
“There, that ought to do it.” The glow upon Rarity’s horn subsided.
Scarlet shook her head briefly in an attempt to dislodge her newly-retied ribbon, smiling when it remained solidly secured to her mane. “Much better. Thank you, Rarity.”
Rarity beamed. “Always happy to help with such a bold fashion statement, dear~”
The smiles soon subsided, however, as the party came upon a dangerously roaring river.
Pinkie Pie tilted her head and blinked. “How are we gonna get across this?”
Before anyone could respond, the cry of someone wailing in despair could be heard a ways away, and a quick trot upstream revealed the source to be a serpentine creature at least two stories tall, hands over its face as it made a series of dramatic sobbing sounds. Its violet scales glimmered in the moonlight, and its fiery orange hair was as neatly slicked and well kept as its matching moustache.
Tank gave a nonchalant shrug. "You know what, this may as well exist. It's not even the strangest thing I've seen today."
The rest of the ponies gave one another a variety of confused looks before Twilight took a step forward. "Uh... excuse me, sir? Why are you crying?"
“Oh, I’ve had such a dreadful accident…” The serpent gave a loud sniff as he lowered his hands and turned to face the pony party, revealing that one end of his moustache had been hastily torn off. “I was just having a lovely swim along the river bed when a big jagged rock came tumbling along out of nowhere and sliced off my beautiful moustache! I look simply horrid now…”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh, gimme a break. Are you serious?”
Rarity scoffed. “Why, of course he is!” She trotted up to the serpent and gave him a gentle pat with her hoof. “These beautiful scales, this gorgeous mane! It’s all as good as ruined with that moustache in such a state…” After pacing back and forth for a few seconds, she turned and approached Scarlet. “Sweetheart, would one of those fancy spells of yours be good for a bit of a trim?”
Scarlet blinked. “Er… yes, I have something prepared that should suffice. Why?”
“Fabulous!” Rarity quickly reached backward, wrapping the end of her tail around her hoof and pulling it taut. “Right there then if you would, dear. Just be careful to leave me a few inches.”
Scarlet looked taken aback. “Wait, you… wish for me to sever your tail?”
“Yes! Please, quickly.” Rarity’s eyes betrayed her reluctance as she said this, but she seemed determined.
“Very well.” Scarlet’s horn glowed and a blade of air formed for a fraction of a second, just long enough to slice cleanly through Rarity’s tail, leaving the majority of its length still wrapped around her hoof.
“Marvelous!” Taking hold of it with her own magic, Rarity levitated the severed tail over to the serpent’s face and tied it neatly to the torn end of his moustache.
The serpent blinked, staring at the end of his own snout for a moment as a grin spread across his face. “Oh, my moustache! This is wonderful!”
Scarlet looked a little deflated. “Rarity, are you certain this is what you wanted? You had such a lovely tail…”
“Oh it’s alright, dear. Short tails are in this season!” Rarity looked back at her severed tail, giving it a somewhat melancholy smile. “Besides, it’ll grow back soon enough…”
“Okay, well that’s great and all,” interjected Tank, “but I don’t see how this helps us get six flightless ponies across a river.”
“Ah, but I must disagree!” declared the serpent, who stretched his body to its full length and laid it out from one river bank to the other, forming a scaly bridge across.
“Thank you ever so much, darling~” Rarity beamed once again as the party carefully climbed their way over the serpent to the other side of the river, pausing for a moment to give him a friendly wave farewell before he and the river disappeared from sight behind them.