Luna looked over the five ponies in front of her. Three stood with their eyes forward, although Pinkie Pie was struggling a bit trying to stay still. Rarity had her head to the ground, allowing a few drops of sweat to collect on the tip of her muzzle and drop to the floor. Only Dash remained seated in her wheelchair, covered in less bandages than before but still showing little of her coat.
“Just to be sure,” Luna said as she paced in front of the group. “You are all who you say you are, correct?”
“Yep, yep!” Pinkie chirped. “Ooh, or maybe Traffy switched one of us in secret as a part of some master plan to take down a shadowy organization led by a ravishing yet evil mastermind!”
Applejack glanced over at Rarity. “I knew you shouldn’t have lent her those hoity-toity stories.”
“I…” Rarity paused to catch her breath. “I thought she could use some… culture.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “You feeling okay? You’re sweating worse than a pig.”
“I am not!” Rarity gasped. “I’m feeling just…”
Luna’s shadow fell over her. She looked up and was met with Luna staring straight at her.
“Fine,” Rarity squeaked.
“I can understand if you are nervous.” Luna lit up her horn. “Perhaps I can lessen your burden a little.”
Rarity’s back flashed and saddlebags and a suitcase stuffed to their brims appeared. Rarity’s pupils shrank and she took a step back, sending the suitcase clattering to the ground. The fall was enough to spring it open and send hats, boots, bug spray, and a hair curler flying in all directions. Everypony else in the room eyed Rarity, save for Applejack, who had to struggle with removing a wool sweater from her head.
“I… I just wanted to bring the necessities,” Rarity said while trying to avoid lingering eye contact with anypony.
She bit her lip when nopony said anything. Sweat poured down her face while Luna continued to glare down at her. Rarity shuddered and then threw herself at Luna’s hooves.
“At least let me take the curler!” she sobbed. “My mane is too delicate!”
“Your mane will be the least of your concerns.” Luna levitated Rarity’s belongings over to her side and dispelled them in a burst of light. “So I suggest you steel yourself.”
Rarity felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked up to see Applejack standing beside her. The cowpony reached down and helped her up.
“There’s plenty of natural repellents in the wild,” said Applejack. “I’m sure we can find you some.”
Pinkie bounced over and pulled Applejack and Rarity into a hug. “Ooh and super delicious wild berries too!”
A smirk came to Luna’s face. “You can try. However, I warn you, once you are comfortable with your surroundings, then your real training can begin. Now, let us be off!”
Luna’s horn lit up and the aura around it started spreading outward. The group drew closer to her as the magic veil domed above them and drooped down to the ground. At the same time, the glow right around Luna’s horn grew brighter. Just as the magic touched the floor, its light turned blinding. Everypony’s ears popped before a force like a great wind blew around them and they felt the soft carpet vanish from under their hooves.
~~~
Ace stared up at the green leg that connected back to his red shoulder. He revolved its hoof in a slow circle, watching the foreign limb respond to signals from his brain. A knock at the door broke him away from his gazing. Sitting up, he glared forward, as if to perceive whoever was on the other side of the door.
“Jinbei, I’m not in the mood to talk,” he said. His neck still stung a bit from the chop Jinbei had hit him with yesterday. “I’m going to get out of here anyway, whether you help or not.”
“You’ll have a hard time getting past shield spells though.”
Ace’s eyes narrowed as the door opened and a white stallion limped into the room. Bandages covered him from head to hoof, partially obscuring the blue and magenta shield on his flanks. He managed to make it inside after a few more limps.
“I’ll be in a bit of trouble if my wife or Twily finds out about this, but I thought you and I should talk,” he said.
Ace raised an eyebrow at the stallion. “And why is that?”
“It gets boring just sitting around recovering,” the stallion replied before closing the door. “Beside, we can swap older brother stories. Mind if I have a seat?”
~~~
Rarity landed onto damp dirt with a thump. She shook her head to clear away the spots she was seeing, only to poke herself on some branches. Gaining her bearings, she stood up and saw that she was near some bushes in the middle of a forest. The canopy above her head was so thick that only a few thin beams of light made their way through, throwing the area into a permanent dusk.
Before she had time to take in more of her surroundings, a bush next to her rustled. She jumped up and braced herself against a nearby tree. However, she relaxed when a stetson hat emerged from behind the bush, followed by Applejack’s head.
“Applejack, you nearly scared me half to death,” Rarity said as she walked over to her.
Applejack shook her head. Up close, Rarity could see there was a green tint to her cheeks. “I don’t think teleportation suits me well.”
Rarity took a step back. “Oh, please don’t get sick.”
“It’ll be fine.” Applejack lifted her head and gazed at the surroundings. “Huh, lots of trees like the ones around Ponyville. Princess? Mind telling us where we are?”
Silence greeted Applejack.
“Princess Luna?” Rarity called out. She waited for a reply as a drop of sweat ran down her face. “Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash?”
“Now, I’m sure they’re around somewhere,” said Applejack.
Rarity turned to her with shrunken pupils. “Or Princess Luna’s spell might’ve misfired. What if they’re all at the right spot while we’re stuck who knows where?”
Sweat was now dripping down Rarity’s face. Her chest quickly rose and fell and her eyes darted all over the forest. Applejack marched over to her and clasped her hard on the shoulder.
“Breath, girl,” she said. “Panicking will just get you hurt out here.”
“I would follow her advice,” Luna’s voice suddenly rang out. It seemed to come from all directions, its volume causing the branches around Rarity and Applejack to quiver. “You will need it in these first few days.”
“But what exactly are we doing?” Rarity asked.
“Surviving,” Luna replied. “Master the basic skills to live here and then we can actually talk about Haki. You’ll have to use your own abilities for now if you wish to avoid become some predator’s meal. The Everfree’s denizens can be quite vicious.”
“T-the Everfree?” Rarity yelped.
“What about everypony else?” Applejack asked.
“They are in another part of the forest, no doubt asking the same questions you are,” said Luna. “I’ll explain things to them as soon as I am done with you. Speaking of which, you can find a cave nearby, but I know not what it contains, save for the sound of flowing water. Other than that, I wish you the best of luck and shall be watching your progress.”
“Wait!” Rarity cried out, but only got the fading echo of her own voice in return. She grimaced and kicked a nearby pile of leaves before letting out a groan that reverberated up into the treetops.
~~~
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said between gasping for breath. She paced back and forth, causing a small cloud of dust to swirl around her. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.”
Pinkie placed a hoof above her brow and swiveled her head around. “Hmm, I don’t see any deer.”
Fluttershy grabbed a hold of Pinkie, her whole body shaking. “P-pinkie! This is serious! W-we’re in the middle of the Everfree w-with all kinds of monsters and other horrible things!”
Pinkie grinned back at Fluttershy. “Don’t worry about a thing, Fluttershy! Princess Luna just wants us to camp out here for a bit. It’ll be super fun! We can even make smores!”
Pinkie somehow produced a bag of marshmallows and then plopped one into her mouth. “Mmm! Want one?”
Fluttershy blinked and took a deep breath. She let go of Pinkie and relaxed her muscles. Sitting on her hind legs, she managed to smile and reached out to take a marshmallow. “I… I guess you’re right. Princess Luna said she’d be watching, so she’ll help out, right?”
“Of course!” Pinkie stuffed another marshmallow into her mouth. “Princess Luna wouldn’t let us get hurt.”
A rustle from a nearby bush drew Pinkie and Fluttershy’s attention. Both of them paled as a manticore stuck its hulking body out of the foliage and closer to them. It snorted in their direction, sending up a small gust of leaves and dirt. Fluttershy remained paralyzed on the ground while Pinkie managed to raise up her bag of marshmallows.
“W-want one?” she asked with a quivering grin.
The manticore responded with a roar that rang throughout the forest.
~~~
Luna stood on the edge of a plateau that looked out into the sea of trees that extended in all directions. Far off to her left, a flock of birds erupted from the forest, circled in the air for a few moments, and then descended back into the shadows.
“Are we just gonna be staring at the forest all day?” came a voice from behind her.
Luna turned around to see Rainbow Dash looking at her with hooves crossed across her chest.
“Everypony else is out there, right?” she asked. “I should be helping them. I’m used to roughing it in the woods.”
“Reopening your wounds would be disadvantageous to your training,” Luna said.
Dash blew up a tuft of her mane that had fallen in front of her face. “So I’m just going to be sitting here? Why’d you bring me along then?”
“Because you’ll be watching everypony else just as I am,” Luna said.
Dash raised an eyebrow. “You mean use some sort of tracking spell? Sorry, Princess, but I don’t exactly have a horn.”
Luna chuckled. “You misunderstand. I’m using neither magic nor my eyes to keep watch on everypony.”
Dash narrowed her eyes. “Uh, what?”
“Even in this vast forest, I can feel where all your friends are.” Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Rarity and Applejack are making their way to a small hill five miles from here, probably on Applejack’s suggestion. Fluttershy and Pinkamena are running for their lives from a mantico—”
Dash jumped out of her wheelchair and grabbed onto Luna. “Well don’t just stand here! We’ve gotta help them!”
“No.” Luna pushed Dash off of her and onto the ground. Dash let out a small yelp, but Luna just marched over to her and bent her head down to Dash’s face. “Pinkamena already possesses enough Observation Haki to discover a safe path and Fluttershy could easily incapacitate most of this forest’s threats in an instant.”
“But…”
“My stance is firm.” Luna lit up her horn and surrounded Dash in her aura. Dash floated into her chair where Luna kept her spell active, anchoring Dash to it. “As for you, you’ll be learning to concentrate and feel the energy around you. In return, I will insure that your recovery is hastened.”
Dash opened her mouth to say something, but slunk back into her chair after a moment. She glared down at the ground and furrowed her brow. “You’d better promise nopony gets hurt.”
“I am confident in your friends’ abilities.” Luna took a seat beside Dash. “Now, let us begin with some basic breathing techniques.”
~~~
Shining Armor let out a small chuckle. “So, right in the face?”
“Yeah,” Ace said, trying to contain his own laughter. “Thought he’d be showing off some ‘super awesome amazing new’ technique, but his fist just bounced off the ground and into himself.”
“Trust me I’ve been there,” said Shining. “Every time Twily came home from the Academy, she’d show off her new spells, managed to light both of our manes on fire a few times.”
“At least Luffy never managed to turn Dadan into a plant.”
Both Shining and Ace let out a round of laughter at that. A few seconds later, their injuries acted up, forcing them to stop. They eventually regained their breath and grinned at each other.
“Siblings…” Shining lightly shook his head. “They do some silly things.”
Ace’s smile dimmed a little. “It’s a good thing they’ve got others to watch out for them.”
“I know.” The smile vanished from Shining’s face. “The worst times for Twily were when she was alone.”
“At least she didn’t stumble into a war.”
“She could’ve stopped one though if I’d just listened to her.” Shining took a deep breath. “But we were able to move past it. I’m sure your brother will too.”
“He will. Once he wakes up, I’m sure he’ll act like nothing happened and help me bust out of here.” Ace smiled and flexed his right foreleg. “I’m gonna smack him for being stupid first though.”
Shining furrowed his brow. “You know Celestia is adamant about what she said, and I’m inclined to side with her.”
“Well, I only took orders from Pops.” Ace crossed his right hoof over his chest. “I’m getting back to the sea and my crew, one way or another.”
“Okay, okay. I can see this is going nowhere.”
Hefting his shoulders, Shining got up from his seat and limped over to the door. He pulled it open, but didn’t leave. Instead, he turned his head back to Ace.
“Just something to think about though,” he said. “What will you do if your brother asks you to stay?”
Ace’s pupils shrunk. His face grew red and pulled back into a scowl. “Luffy would never want me held prisoner somewhere! Look at what he did just to set me free! Would your sister wish that on you?”
“I can’t say,” Shining replied. “She’d do everything in her power to protect me though and I’d do the same.”
With that Shining closed the door, leaving Ace alone. In the silence, Ace remained taught. It was only after some time that he allowed his muscles to relax and he fell back on his bed.