//------------------------------//
// The weeping of the trees 
// Story: Barnacle's Adventure: Pony Pirates on the High Seas 
// by Paradise Oasis 
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The ponies made their way through the deep undergrowth of the island, Barnacle and Salty hacking away at the undergrowth with their  sharpened cutlasses. The crew's pair of Pegasus all flew above the treeline, scouting ahead as the earth ponies and unicorn followed along on the ground. The tropical heat and humidity bore down on the pirates, who ignored their discomfort, as they trotted along towards the towering spire in the middle of the island. 

"Blimey, everyone! Don't let all this dreary trudging through the swamp lands get you down!" North Star encouraged the others, flying down through the foliage, and pointing ahead with her hoof. "It's not very far to the spire, and Wave Runner and I can fly all of you to the top!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, lassie! Me hooves are a killin' me!" Salty grumbled. "But isn't anybody worried that  all of those griffins will attack us down here?" 

"From what I can see up above, it seems the griffins are avoiding these low swampy areas like the plague." Wave Runner called down, flapping above them, and gazing up at the spire. "It's almost like... they seem to be afraid of this place." 

"Gee, I really don't see why they find this swamp so scary." Fizzy giggled, leaping from branch to branch through the strange flowering trees. "There's nothing down here but these green trees with the pretty, polka dotted flowers, all over the island!" 

"Yeah, I know, but... I swear I've seen these kind of trees before, somewhere else in the world." Barnacle muttered, studying the strange spotted leaves carefully. "There is something that is really, really... eerie about them." 

"Arrr, I'm more worried about what those griffins did with the island's hippogriffs." Wave Runner added, flapping aorund over their heads. "Do the rest of you think they have them on the island somewhere? Or do oyu believe the griffins wiped them out" 

"Awww the griffins are mean, but they aren't that cruel." Fizzy pointed out, her crystal eyes glittering in the soft light. "They might have chased the hippogriffs off or locked them up or something. But, I really actually don't think they wouldn't really hurt the hippos... I mean, would they?" 

"I say, it's not like the Griffins to kill or enslave other races to take over their territory, at all." North Star added, flapping around overhead. "It's more like them to move in, and take over an area that had already been abandoned. You know kind of like squatters."

"Then... if the griffins didn't destroy the hippogriffs, and just moved in an' took over their abandoned home," Salty asked, looking up at the spire. "then, what in the name of the briny blue happened to the original inhabitants?"

None of the others had an answer to this question, as they continued along through the swampy jungle that surrounded the spire. But as they trotted along, North Star gazed down at the flowered trees that were below her. And as she stared at the spotted flowers on the trees,  the pink Pegasus remembered what these plants the other ponies were brushing up against actually were.

"Hey everybody, hurry! You've got to get away from those trees!" The Pegasus cried out from above, flapping around in a crazed frenzy. "Those blossoms are cursed swamp flowers! They'll give you swamp fever!"

The ponies looked around themselves in total horror, before rushing out into the clearing. The twinkle-eyed Fizzy whimpered in fear, as she used her magic to draw water from a nearby spring, and try and clean everyone off in a hurry. 

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" The panicking unicorn cried, as she tried to clean Salty's coat of all the cursed flower's pollen. "That's the disease that turns ponies into trees! I don't wanna end up as a flowering bush!" 

""Arrrr, we were walking right through those trees, and got the pollen all over our coats and manes." Salty replied, looking over his coat, and expecting the worst. "It won't be long, before we break out into spots. And then, leaves will start to sprout from our bodies."

"Our coats will become as hard as bark, and our hooves to take root." Fizzy starts to sob. "We've been exposed to the pollen, and now we'll become trees, too."

"Arrrr, now calm yerself down, lad. Since ya all didn't know it, we Ponyland ponies are immune to swamp fever." Barnacle reassured him. "Just like humans, elves, gnomes, and other races, these flowers can't turn us into trees."

"He's right, the worst swamp fever ever gave us Ponylanders was a bad rash, spots, and an itchy coat." Wave Runner agreed, flapping around overhead. "Let's just hurry up, and get up on top of the spire."

But as the ponies trotted their way up the pathway on the side of the spire, Salty looked back down at the trees. As an earth pony, he was in tune with the plants of the island. The sailor pony could almost feel a... sadness coming from the trees, as if they were crying, mourning for something they had once had, but now lost. And as he looked over the endless sea of flowering trees, the stallion could almost swear he saw a vision of all the hippogriffs who had inhabited this island, all staring at him sadly. The hippogriffs were trying to tell him something important, Salty felt, trying to send him a message without words. But the stallion couldn't understand what they were trying to say. The eerie vision only for a moment longer, before the hippogriffs all faded away, and Salty was left staring at the endless sea of flowing trees.

"Arrrr, that certainly was a creepy moment." The sailor muttered under his breath, before turning to follow his friends up the path that led top the top of the spire. "I really need ta stop listening ta strange plants, it's really messing with me head."

But as the earth pony trotted after the other pirates, he could almost swear he could hear the weeping of the trees behind him....