//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four 
// Story: The Story of Golden Oaks 
// by Patashnik 
//------------------------------//

Twilight and Spike had less than a second to jump out of the way, the two Zebras charging right through were they once stood.

She charged her horn, and scraped her hoof along the dirt, preparing for a fight. Fine, it's a battle, then!

The younger Zebra turned around and ran towards her, before twisting around again and bucked his back legs. Twilight immediately created a shield of magic, dissipating as it saved her from two powerful back hooves. She returned with an attack of her own, summoning her energy and directing it into an invisible buck to push the Zebra on his back. The energy knocked the wind out of him, and he was thrown backwards and slid a few feet across the ground.

The elder Zebra now slowly stepped towards her, a crude spear between his teeth. Twilight stepped back, and was now standing in the glowing crater. She suddenly felt an incredible surge of energy and her horn crackled, violet sparks jumping across the tip and into the air. She saw Spike to her side, clutching the shining book.
Then a wild idea entered her mind. "Spike, take cover under me!"

Spike ran over and hid under Twilight as she charged almost all of her available energy into one more attack. The Zebra leader started running towards them now, just as Twilight unleashed a blast of magic, pushing a ring of energy outward as hard as she could. Without any obstacles such as a tree on top of the Grid Point to filter the spells, she was directly connected to the Point, and had access to all of its mysterious energy. Anything could happen at this point.

Her spell was significantly magnified, and the first thing she heard was the wind cutting across the Everfree Forest, followed by wood cracking. The first thing she saw was the leaves and vines from every tree in sight blown away, followed by the grass, then the branches from the trees, then the two Zebras were thrown across the ground, and tumbled into the darkness. Spike couldn't hold on any longer to the book, and it was ripped from him, gripping Twilight's foreleg and holding on for dear life.

The one thing she didn't expect to see was some of the smaller trees blowing away, and the larger trees beginning to crack and fall over.

As the wind began to die down, she surveyed the damage around her. ..I just did all of that? She looked up to the sky, and there were scattered clouds around, except for directly above her. An invisible cylinder cut through, revealing the sun to shine on her coat. A creak caught her attention, and a damaged tree slowly leaned towards her, gaining speed. She grabbed Spike and made a leap backward, and they watched the tree pulverize the ground, where the crater was. Another tree fell, and obscured the crater completely, no longer glowing. Twilight took a moment to find her voice.

"Uh... I guess they won't have to worry about protecting the ground anymore.."

Spike was still in awe of what he witnessed, and he remembered that they lost the journal. "That was amazing! But, now we'll never find out what happened to Golden Oaks.."

Twilight thought for a moment, remembering how his research was sent to Canterlot, but decided not to remind him and save it for the future. "Well, the Zebra never said he wasn't alive. Although we don't have much to go on at this point. I think you were right, Spike. Some issues should be left alone," Spike hopped onto Twilight's back. "Maybe someday a new piece of information will show up. But don't you dare tear up my library looking for clues." They shared a laugh, and began to walk home, Twilight for once feeling tired of trying to find more information about the unknown fate of Golden Oaks.

You can't know everything, I suppose... but I won't deny that I'm still curious... Now that we know Grid Points exist, how many more are there, and where could they be?

Many miles away, under a magic-proof display case in Canterlot's Royal Palace, a centuries-old map of Equestria has been open to the public to view, though mostly for schoolfillies and colts on their field trips. A single point in the Everfree Forest section began to flicker like a star..

"Look at that!" One filly pointed out, and soon the other students on their field trip took notice of the anomaly. 

"It's beautiful!" Another student said as she watched in awe.

"Miss Cheerilee, why is there a star in the Everfree Forest?" a colt asked. 

Cheerilee was very surprised, and had no idea what to make of the small pointed star on the untouchable map. Well, it's an educational trip, why make up a story and lie to them? "I don't know what it means, class. It's certainly never happened before.."

To be continued?