"You're leaving?" Tree tried to stand still, but the urge to pace kept winning erratically in fits and starts. "How?"
"We told you." Rose watched their fidgeting friend. "Our friend came for us. She's a super wizard."
"Mega wizard," echoed Daisy with a nod. "So she got here and she's ready to get us back to our world."
Tree Whisper forced herself still. "Which is only natural... You must be missed."
Lily let out a 'huh'. "I hadn't really been thinking about it, but you're not wrong. We're part of Ponyville. Poor ponies must be beside themselves. But we wanted to say bye, and thank you. You've been a huge help."
"Massive," agreed Rose. "We couldn't just vanish on you like that. Thank you, Tree Whisper. We hope you go on to become a great druid, as if you weren't one already."
Tree colored faintly. "You're flattering, and for no reason. I'm a druid, but no other title could be fairly ascribed." She waved over the forest they were surrounded by. "A wave druid that hasn't even visited the ocean... Well, since you're headed home, perhaps it is time to fix that. Yeah, nothing holding me here anymore." She stepped away hesitantly. "I've been waiting so long."
Daisy walked up next to Tree. "We'll miss you too."
Tree turned away from Daisy to find Lily smiling at her in the other direction. Tree yelped in surprise, finding herself surrounded by flower mares. "It's not like that!"
Rose raised a hoof just under Tree's quivering jaw. "It's alright for even a wise druid to feel sad sometimes. It doesn't make you less of one, or a worse pony. You took your first step on this path next to us, even if we were rushing... Sorry if that bothered you." Rose reached up to paw at one of her own ears. "We weren't trying, which just made it worse I imagine. You were such a good teacher and a friend."
Lily got a hoof around either of her flower sisters. "We'll miss you so much!"
Daisy inclined her head. "Just checking, but... you know if you asked, you could probably visit Equestria. It's a nice place. We could show you all the best places."
Tree flipped her ears back. "I made promises to the nature of this world. I do not wish to leave it... Even if I am certain you would do your best to be kind hosts." Her ears raised upright. "But that promise goes both ways. You could visit me. I would do the same."
Lily pounced her, beaver coming from the other side to trap the unicorn between them. "Can't promise that. Twilight's the one with that trick. Hey, is that a druid song? Could we learn it?"
Rose clopped her hooves. "Oh yeah! Now I feel dumb. Is it? If it is, we can hop back when we get good enough at it."
Tree let out a strained laugh. "That is a very... significant spell... If you hear its song, then you are arch druids. I can't say you won't... You've shown me wrong several times... Still... If that is something you want to do... Consult your rock friend, and ask for some purified metal, a hoof full of it. You will need to make a tuning fork out of it. It needs to come from here." She tapped at the wood branch they stood on. "Everglow. Equestrian metal will only lead you to Equestria, and you don't need help finding that while you stand on it."
A thought hit her. "Speaking of that, make one for Equestria before you leave it. Getting stuck here again would be... unideal, I imagine."
Daisy snorted, equine nostrils flaring as she recoiled. "Let's avoid that. Not badmouthing the visit, was fun overall. We learned a lot, and didn't get into nearly as many scraps as Twilight did on her visit."
Rose set a hoof on Tree's chest. "Thank you, again... But even if we never meet again, we'll never forget you."
"Never!"
"Not in a thousand bajillion moons." Lily nodded firmly with assurance at that.
Rose turned back towards the branch they had come from. "Twilight's waiting for us. I hear she had to go through an adventure just finding us. Poor thing, magnet for trouble... So... take care, alright?"
Tree shoved at Rose with her magic. "Now you are the one being sentimental. You have said your goodbyes... If it helps, we will both... be sad tonight, but also glad, because we know our friends are in a better place. Now, go. I don't want to cry in front of anyone."
The other mares closed with Rose, half-corralling her away. Daisy turned an ear back, but kept her head forward. "Let her keep her dignity... I'll cry tonight too."
"I already miss her and we didn't leave yet." Lily squeezed her beaver on the other side away from Rose. "She didn't always get us, and we sure didn't always get her, but she kept on trying... A good friend."
Daisy thumped against Rose. "You going to say bye to your rock friends? Maybe get that metal she was talking about? I should stop by the fire druids."
Lily clopped her head softly. "And I should stop by the animal druids, right. Good idea, Daisy. I almost forgot. Come on, Bold!" And they took off at a spirited trot.
"I only really talked with one druid of my circle... but that'll do." Rose took a step away. "Meet you back at the apartment after that?" With a shared nod, the two separated to meet with their druidic orders.
Daisy sat before the high druids of flame and fire. "Thank you." She dipped her head towards them. "You taught me a lot. I learned more about fire than I even thought to ask... I'm going away now... far away... Really far away... But I carry that flame in here." She set a hoof on her own chest. "And will tend it carefully. The ponies of Equestria can stand to learn more about treating fire correctly, for the good and the bad."
The elder on the left nodded. "It warms our hearts to hear you speak this way. Go and hold close the heat within you. No other fire can match it, and no other flame is as vital. So long as you do so, you will live yet to fight the fires that need fighting, and to tend the fires that need tending. We will not be able to watch personally, but know--"
"--you walk with us, regardless." The one on the right nodded slowly. "As nature wills it, through us all. Some say your nature is not our nature, but that is narrow thinking. All nature is nature, even if we struggle to understand it... Go, tend to your portion."
The one in the center chuckled darkly. "As if fires do not need controlling. Tell us, are your fires tamed? Do they only come when asked, and leave when done with? Is that the way of your nature?"
Daisy's ears danced. "Oh no! Definitely not... We do have weather pegasi though. They'd help put out a bad fire, but there are bad fires. They don't know so much about good fires, and they need to learn. We need to know the difference." She clopped her hooves together ahead of herself. "And I will teach them."
All three dipped their heads, united in agreement with the idea. Their young disciple would carry the word of fire with her.
"Hey!" Lily trotted hastily into the room, causing various animals there to perk up at her. "I have news."
One of the elders there, one hoof around her massive bear of a companion, nodded gently at Lily. "It is time for you to continue your travels. An animal can resist its migration so long, or something has failed, within, or without."
Lily came to an uncertain stop. "Well... yeah. Sheesh, take the thunder right out of me... I'm taking him with me." She hugged her dear companion close. "I did ask him, as best as I could... I know he doesn't entirely 'get' what I'm saying... But he never fit in back home... I hope he will find his real place with me. Maybe Equestrian beavers are more his speed."
The bear druid inclined her head. "Perhaps, I could not say it is impossible... Still, he is yours, as you are his. I would not try to separate you against your wills. Unless you had forsaken our order, at least." The bear growled warningly. "Yes, then we would, by force if required. I would hope you would surrender to us before it came to that... I would not wish to fight you." She raised her head. "But I would, if it came to that. A penitent whelp in need of discipline, or a rogue wolf in need of battle, you would decide that.... But I am getting distracted. You are neither. You are a grown animal, telling your parents that you must go."
"And as your parents," spoke a wolf druid. "As your parents, we mourn, but they are happy tears. Go forth, and stretch your legs. We would be very poor parents if we insisted you remain in our sights longer than you already have. We will hope to hear word of your triumphs, but we know this may never be. Go, and be well."
Lily dipped her head at the elders. "I will watch the animals back home." She snorted into a laugh. "I have friends that will help me with that. Fluttershy and Doctor Fauna will both be so excited when they learn I joined their club... Um, Fluttershy is basically a druid, almost, and Doctor Fauna is a veterinarian."
The third laughed, their wings fluttering with a new joy. "Perhaps you can bring the song of nature to them, if they are ready to listen for it. Almost a druid? You could guide them that last step, hmm? That would be a thing to be proud of, the source of our traditions for an entire new plane? Do tell us, if you can." All nodded at that idea. "We'd love to know."
"Hi..." Rose sat in front of the clay table, spinning with the steady pumps of her teacher's hooves. "Just started?"
"Restarted." He worked with slow patience. "The last did not end well. I have more to learn. You did not come for this."
"I did not..." Rose adjusted the collar she wasn't wearing. "I have to go soon... back to the rocks that made me."
"I will miss your stability." The work did not pause. "I am very proud to have you as a student. Stand firmly, wherever you end up."
"And I'm just as happy to have you as a teacher." Rose rocked left and right slowly. "I did want to ask for something. I was told we need some Everglow metal, pure, to make a tuning fork out of."
He slowed to a stop. "You would return then?"
"When I learn how? When I hear that song." She put a hoof to her ear as if listening. "I'll keep practicing... I won't stop being a druid... It's hard to just forget all this... Or you... I'll keep at it... Um, but if I do... I need that tuning fork."
"You do." He stepped free of the clay table. "Thank you for asking me. Most would say to just dig until you find it, casually tearing apart the ground beneath us..."
Rose shook her head quickly. "I would never! That's not how we do things."
"It is not." He smiled gently. "Wait here." On buzzing wings, he lifted and took off, splattering of clay left behind on the line he cut.
Rose approached the half-formed clay that looked like it would eventually become an urn of some sort. "Hm..." She had not been asked, nor had she asked... Still, she pressed a hoof firmly against the side. The urn would become something to remember her by.