• Published 12th Sep 2014
  • 2,712 Views, 38 Comments

When the Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars - MagnetBolt



The Elements of Harmony failed. Twilight Sparkle was unable to activate their power, and the sixth never even appeared. It is her greatest failure, and the doom of all Equestria. Plunged into an endless night, she must stop Nightmare Moon.

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Chapter 4: Mare Nectaris

“You're both crazy,” Spike said, rolling his eyes at the two mares currently occupying the library.

Though to Twilight and Fluttershy, it would probably be more accurate to say four mares. Eventide and Sky Skimmer hovered near them, Twilight busying herself by noting observations on them.

“Spike, since both Fluttershy and I can see them, it's solid evidence that we're not crazy,” Twilight said, as she shook the device she was holding. She'd bodged it together out of some spare quartz and copper tubing, using arcane ink to draw a diagram and make it a sensitive thaumeter. Or at least it should have been a sensitive thaumeter. “If I just had some rubies left I might be able to make one that actually works. I should have known if these were too impure for Spike to eat that they'd be worthless as a sensor focus.”

“It is good that we're not crazy, though,” Fluttershy said, smiling. “And thank you again for helping me carry the animals out of there. I don't think... I don't think they would have wanted me to do it.” She looked down.

“It's fine. I wasn't really using the basement anyway. I was thinking of turning it into a laboratory, but I haven't had the time.” She shrugged. “Besides, this way I don't need to go all the way out to your cabin to study this!” Twilight smiled back at her.

“I suppose that's true,” Fluttershy nodded. “Do you want more tea?” She stood up and started towards the kitchen.

“You don't have to make it. You're a guest.” Well, she was a research subject. But it was close enough. “Besides, Spike's been doing a good job making tea out of the odds and ends we can't eat otherwise.”

“I get the hint,” Spike sighed, standing and walking towards the kitchen, giving an angry rabbit a wide berth. Angel had come with Fluttershy, and was impossible to keep in a cage for long. They'd had a long talk, though Twilight had only heard half of it (even Nebra's Eavesdropper Enhancement wasn't able to translate from bunny rabbit). She got the impression that Angel hadn't forgiven Fluttershy entirely, but he was willing to give her another chance.

“So anyway,” Twilight said. “From what I can tell, it seems pretty clear what happened. Nightmare Moon used her dark powers to try and eliminate you. It splintered part of your mind off to become that... Nightmare Fluttershy. Because you rejected it, it was able to assume its own identity and try to kill you. I think if I hadn't been there, it would have tried to replace you entirely.”

“R-replace me?!” Fluttershy's eyes went wide.

Twilight nodded. “That's what the Philemon-Rozen Manifold Space is for, I think.”

“The what?”

“The- the ghostspace.” Twilight sighed, feeling a headache starting when Fluttershy nodded as if Dash's nickname for the extra-dimensional space made any sense. “It lets the Dreaming mix into the real world, like...” She tried to find a good example. “Okay, you know how oil and vinegar don't mix? If you leave them together in a bottle, they separate into layers.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Oh yes. I used to use them for salad dressing all the time.”

“Well, if you shake it up with enough power, they'll blur together for a while. But it's not natural, and eventually they separate again. That's basically what Nightmare Moon was doing, using dark magic to shake up the worlds so they blurred into one. And while they were like that, things could pass between them. I think that's how a lot of the monsters in the woods came from. It's also why Dash still has that sword I made, and how you have that necklace.”

Fluttershy poked the golden necklace. “It's really pretty.”

“It's also got a lot of magic in it,” Twilight said. “But I can't figure out what. It's the most complicated spell I've ever seen!” She paused. “And I've seen a lot of spells. I'm not like that useless unicorn down the road that can't even manage a fire spell.”

“Who?” Fluttershy blinked.

“Oh, um... Purity, I think her name was. Something like that. She gave me a lot of wood for helping her out. I told her to come around and get a book on spells so she wouldn't need help again, but I don't think she bothered. It's too bad. She could learn a lot.”

“Rarity?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight considered, then nodded.

“Yeah, that's her name.”

“But... she knows how to cast simple spells like that,” Fluttershy said, quietly. “She's one of my best friends.”

“If you say so,” Twilight shrugged. “Because she sure didn't seem to know when she was asking for help. I mean not everypony can be as gifted as me, but there's no reason not to learn some useful basics.”

“I just-” Fluttershy sighed. “Maybe something's wrong. We could go check on her.”

“We don't have time for that, we're trying to save everypony in Equestria!” Twilight snapped. “If she really can cast those spells, then we don't need to worry about her. Besides, she looked fine.” Twilight wasn't actually sure about that last part. She hadn't really looked at the mare. But she certainly hadn't been as bad as Fluttershy.

“If you say so,” Fluttershy said, quietly.

“I do. Now, what we need to do next is study what these constructs can do. I think-” Twilight frowned and hit her improvised thaumeter. “-I think they have traces of other magic. I originally thought mine was just using my own magic, but there's something else there. Yours seems to have some connection to that necklace, and mine... I'm not sure.” She sighed.

“Okay! Tea's up!” Spike proudly left the kitchen, teapot in hand. Talon. Claw. Dragon gripping appendage. “I found some dried orange peel, so this might actually be okay.”

There was frantic knocking at the door. Fluttershy squeaked like a mouse and hid behind a table, Sky Skimmer watching the door closely. Twilight approached the door carefully and opened it.

“Dash?” She asked, opening the door to... nopony.

Twilight looked left and right, seeing nothing in the darkness. She felt paranoia growing. Was it some kind of a trap? Had someone knocked just to get her out in the open? Was it a distraction for a flanking maneuver? She'd read a lot on military tactics when she was a foal, borrowing Shining Armor's books between visits to the library, and flanking maneuvers always spelled disaster and Nightmare Moon was obviously crafty enough to-

"Hey! We're down here!" Or perhaps instead of a deadly flanking maneuver with evil minions, it was two foals. One was orange, with a shock of purple for a mane, the other was yellow with a big pink ribbon.

"...I don't suppose you're here to borrow books?" Twilight asked, confused.

"You gotta come help! My sister is in trouble!" The yellow one said.

"Oh, Apple Bloom, what's wrong?" Fluttershy said, stepping around Twilight to talk to the foals. Twilight was more than happy to let her deal with it. She normally liked teaching foals, but she had better things to do right now.

"Mah sister and Rainbow Dash were talkin', then something happened and the barn went all funny an' Rainbow Dash said I should come get you and then she went in and she ain't come out and I don't wanna lose Applejack! You gotta help!"

"It's okay girls," Fluttershy said, pulling them close. "Just tell us what happened."

***

Applejack walked up to the base of a tree, calculated something in her head, and kicked once, with just enough force to buck a big blue pegasus out of the branches while leaving the apples attached.

"Ow," Dash said, landing on the ground heavily. A moment later, an orange pegasus foal fell from the tree, Scootaloo landing on Dash's chest and driving the breath from the larger pony's lungs.

"Mornin'" Applejack said, her expression unreadable. "Dash, we gotta have us a chat about this. Y'all know we've had words about the two of you stealin' apples before."

"AJ, come on..." Rainbow Dash whined.

"I'm not sore at you, Dash. I just wanna talk, alright?" She sighed. Applejack had heavy bags under her eyes, like she hadn't slept in weeks. Maybe she hadn't.

"Scootaloo, why don't you go inside while Applejack and I talk," Dash said, getting up.

"But you said-" Scootaloo started, before Dash shook her head. Something about the worried expression stopped her, and she went off without another complaint. It was clear this was going to be one of those grown-up talks that she wasn't welcome to listen in on.

...Which meant she was totally going to do it anyway, but she was going to be careful so she didn't get caught. She ran off to find a good hiding spot in the gloom.

"Dash, I told you I don't mind terrible much that you take a few apples. I know you're lookin' after Scootaloo an' that's right good of you, and a foal needs good eating to grow up." Applejack sighed. "But Big Mac and Granny saw you the other day and they're gettin' cross about it. We've got enough food stored up for a long while but they don't see it as right that we're working so hard to keep a few trees going in the dark and you're takin' the fruit without so much as a please or thank you."

"You're right," Dash sighed. "I guess I could apologize to them."

"That'd be good," Applejack said, rubbing her eyes. "Y'all pegasai don't know how hard it is for us right now. It's takin' a lot out of me and Big Mac."

"Is it, like, Earth Pony magic?" Dash asked.

"Basically such," Applejack nodded. "C'mere. I'll show you." She walked over to one of the hoof-ful of trees still bearing leaves and fruit. "The trees can't grow fruit natural-like because of all the dark. So we have to give them a little help."

"So do you like dance around them or talk to them or-" she stopped as Applejack wrapped her hooves around the tree. "Or you could hug the trees too, I guess."

"Hush, Dash," Applejack said, concentrating. As Dash watched, blooms appeared on the branches, blossoming and then as quickly turning into apples, the fruit swelling until Applejack let go, stumbling back. Dash caught her before she could fall.

"Woah. You okay?" Applejack was having trouble catching her breath, leaning on Dash heavily for support.

"I'm fine," Applejack said, after a moment. "It just takes a lot outta me. But ya see how it works? They're not quite ripe yet. Gonna take a bit more work to do that. If Big Mac was here he'd be able t' finish the job for me."

"And you have to do that for every tree?" Dash asked, frowning.

"Every single one. It's why just these couple here are still goin'." Applejack sighed. "It ain't enough to feed a lot of ponies, and Apple Bloom and Granny can't help much.

"Yeah but... you look like you ran a marathon. How long can you keep doing this?" Dash frowned.

"Long as I have to, sugarcube. I promised I'd take care of the farm." Applejack took off her hat to look at it sadly for a moment before setting it firmly on her head. "Now, how about we go an' talk to Granny Smith? I know it'd make things easier for us if y'all were able to bring a little rain over here."

"I might be able to get something," Dash said, thinking. "There's still some of that storm cloud hanging around, and I might be able to whip something together from the river. I haven't hoofmade clouds since flight school, though."

"As long as you make the effort, that'll be more'n enough to show Granny that you ain't a freeloader. Might even be able to have some real cooking instead of raw apples. I know you can't cook your way out of a paper bag."

"Hey, I'm a great cook!" Dash said, puffing up her chest and spreading her wings.

"Dash, y'all set yer house on fire last time you tried to bake a pie, and yer house is a cloud." Applejack raised an eyebrow, smiling. "I reckon that you and Scootaloo could use a warm meal."

"I guess it would be good for her," Dash admitted, kicking the dirt.

"Good. Glad we had this chat." Applejack sighed. She paused, looking at the trees around them. "You ever wish things could have turned out different?"

"What, like not being in an eternal night while we slowly starve or freeze?" Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah, I mean... never mind," Applejack said, sighing. "It ain't important. I'm gonna go lay down for a minute in the barn. Doin' up that tree tuckered me right out." She turned away from Dash, walking towards the barn, muttering something under her breath that the pegasus couldn't quite catch.

"Guess I'd better face the music," Dash groaned, walking slowly towards the farmhouse and deciding how she was going to deal with it. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Big Mac opened it. He looked at Rainbow sternly, not saying anything.

"Hey," Dash said. "Um. I was talking to AJ. Can I come in for a minute?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac stepped aside, letting her in. "Ain't she with you?"

"She said she just needed a minute to rest," Dash said. "...I didn't know it took so much out of you to make the trees grow."

"Mm," Big Mac said, looking outside for another moment before closing the door to keep the heat in. "Granny Smith is by the fire. You should talk to her."

"Yeah. Good idea," Dash said, wincing. Granny Smith had a famously sharp tongue when dealing with ponies she didn't like, and Dash wasn't sure exactly where she was, but it wasn't in Granny's good graces. She walked into the living room, where Granny was knitting by the fire, Apple Bloom trying to knit something herself but mostly just making a mess.

"Well, if it ain't the fastest apple thief in Ponyville," Granny said, not looking up from what she was doing.

"About that..." Dash took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry, Granny Smith. I know I should have asked."

"Darn tootin' you should have asked!" Granny looked up at Dash, glaring. "Course I might have said no anyways." Her glare softened. "Least I would have if'n you weren't trying to take care of a foal."

Dash looked down at her hooves. "I want to make it up to you."

"Good," Granny said, nodding. "Because it ain't so much about the apples. You're takin' care of a foal, and I know somethin' about how to do that. You need to set a good example for them, and stealing isn't the right way to do it."

Dash recoiled as if struck. "I-I didn't even think-"

"Now, now. I know you didn't think. Ponies are all different. Y'all pegasai think fast and make quick decisions, but you don't think deep like. Earth ponies are slower, because wisdom don't come fast. Both kinds of thinking have their use, but when you're trying to raise a foal right, you need to think hard about what you're teachin' them by example."

"You're right," Dash said, quietly. "Um, Applejack said that you could use some rain for those trees. I might be able to put some rainclouds together, but it'll take a while since I'll have to make them by hoof."

"Sounds like hard work," Granny nodded, with approval. "You should take the little one with you, and teach her how to do it. You can teach her that hard work has its own reward at the same time."

Dash smiled at that. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"And when yer done, you two can come in and have a meal with us. Maybe you'll learn a bit about bein' a family. Besides, Apple Bloom could use someone her age to play with."

"Granny!" Apple Bloom said, blushing with embarrassment.

"Thanks, Granny Smith," Dash said, quietly. "I didn't know it would be this hard to take care of Scoots."

"Of course you didn't!" Granny Smith snorted. "But yer tryin', and that matters a lot. If you were just takin' the apples to feed your own fool belly I'd have Big Mac buck you all the way back to Cloudsdale!"

"I get the message," Dash said, smiling. "Where'd he go, anyway? He did a lot of the work to make those apples grow, so I should apologize to him, too."

"That'd be a good thing t' do," Granny agreed.

"Dash, Dash!" Scootaloo yelled, running into the farmhouse. "You gotta come quick! Something happened!" She was as pale as a sheet.

"What happened, Scoots?" Dash said, feeling her coat start to stand on end.

"You wouldn't believe me unless you saw it for yourself," she said, her eyes wide.

***

"It's bigger on the inside," Big Mac said, looking into the barn. All of the windows and doors were pitch black save for one. And inside that one, they could dimly see the barn, only it stretched out into the dark, just going on and on and on.

"And Applejack's still in there!" Scootaloo said, hopping up and down in panic.

"We gotta save her!" Apple Bloom said, running for the door. Big Mac grabbed her before she could go in.

"Hold on there. It ain't safe." Big Mac picked her up. "I ain't never seen anything like this before."

"I have," Dash said. "The same thing happened with Fluttershy. It's some kinda magic thing. Twilight could explain it, but I don't know all the big words she does. It's called a ghostspace, and it's like a mix of a nightmare and the real world."

"What do we do?" Big Mac asked, not questioning the explanation. He'd already given up hope for a simple reason for why the inside of the barn went on for what looked like miles.

"I'm gonna go in and try to save her. I've done this before, so I totally know what I'm doing." Dash smiled. "Somepony go and get Twilight, though. She's really good with stuff like this so she can save my tail if I get in over my head."

"Who's Twilight?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Twilight Sparkle. She's staying in the library. I... guess you never met her. Flutters is staying with her now, too."

"Apple Bloom, you go and get her," Big Mac said. "Ah'm goin with her." He nodded at Rainbow Dash.

"Woah, woah. This is gonna be dangerous," Dash said.

"An' it's my sister in the danger," Big Mac said, firmly. "So I'm goin' and that's final."

"Alright, big guy," Dash sighed. "Scoots, go with Apple Bloom. You know the way to the library, right?" Both fillies nodded. "Great. Tell her to get over here as fast as she can."

***

"And that's when we ran over!" Apple Bloom said, almost running in place she was fidgeting so much.

"Okay, girls. You go inside." Fluttershy said, letting them in. "Um, Twilight, can Spike take care of them while we're gone?"

"Huh?" Twilight looked back. "Oh, sure. I guess." She grabbed the sword she'd made in Fluttershy's dream with her magic. "Spike! Foalsit them for a bit! Don't let them mess up my research!"

"Yeah, yeah," Spike sighed.

"Woah, what is he?!" Scootaloo asked, eyes wide.

"He's a dragon. A baby dragon," Fluttershy said, smiling. "He'll take good care of you while we rescue Applejack."

"And Rainbow Dash. And Big Mac," Twilight sighed. "Idiots. They should have waited for me."

"I think she's brave for trying to save her friend," Fluttershy said, frowning. "Like she wanted to save me."

"It's not brave when you're just putting yourself in danger for no reason," Twilight countered. "Friendship is nice and all, but it's not as important as logic and common sense. Now I have three ponies to rescue instead of one."

"We," Fluttershy said, quietly. "I'm going with you."

"Oh, right. We." Twilight said. She wasn't sure how much help Fluttershy would be.

"You can't do everything yourself," Fluttershy said, quietly. "I tried and I... I didn't do so well."

"This is different," Twilight muttered, without much conviction. It had been too close when she'd fought the Nightmare version of Fluttershy. One wrong move and she would have been killed. Fluttershy did have Sky Skimmer, so she had to at least have some kind of potential.

She just hoped it would be enough. Twilight had a feeling that this wasn't going to be as easy as last time.

Twilight stepped through the doorway, letting that odd sense of resistance flow around her. Immediately, she turned around, to look back the way she came.

"Mm. As I suspected..." There was no door there, just a flat black panel like a wall of velvet. She moved to touch it, but as her hoof neared it, Fluttershy appeared there, stepping out of it as if it were a mere shadow, and Twilight ended up booping her nose instead.

"W-what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked, confused.

"I was- it- nothing." Twilight blushed, stepping back. "I was going to see if I could get back through the interface, but you showed up. Didn't you see me there? You almost walked into me."

"When you walked inside, you faded away!" Fluttershy said, shivering. "I almost ran away, but I couldn't just let you go on alone. I have a lot to make up for." She looked down.

"Hm. Maybe the view through the doorway isn't a real view," Twilight said, ignoring Fluttershy's distress. "It's possible instead of looking into the real place, we're looking into an impression of the place, like a description of the dream instead of the dream itself."

"What was it like in my dream?" Fluttershy asked. "What was my, um, ghostspace like?"

"I can't believe Dash started calling it that," Twilight groaned. "Now you're saying it and it's going to catch on. They're not even ghosts! It's... never mind." She sighed. "Anyway, you probably don't want to know. It was pretty bad. You were using nightmare imagery from the things you were afraid to tell us about. So there were empty cages, and sharp shovels, and a giant grave..."

"Y-you're right. I don't want to know," Fluttershy said, shivering. "You can stop."

"Don't worry. When I write all of this up for my official science journal later, I won't use your real names," Twilight said, smiling.

"That's good, I suppose. Even if I accepted that part of myself, I still wouldn't want anyone to know about it." She paused. "Do you think that it's the same way with Applejack? That she's afraid of ponies finding out something about her?"

"It's possible," Twilight agreed. "But I'm not sure why she'd be afraid of a barn." As she said that, she really looked at it. The barn was on entirely the wrong scale. the roof was so high up that it was more like a cathedral. The walls were covered in the accumulated junk of a hundred years of never throwing anything away. Broken tools, bits of rope, occasional newer bits of metal and bundles of boards.

Most strikingly, though, while the barn was a hundred paces high, and a hundred paces wide, it seemed to go on forever in length, stretching out like a snake into darkness. Just looking at it gave the dreamlike sense of infinity.

"Then again," Twilight muttered. "Maybe there could be something scary about a barn."

"Did you hear something?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, I heard myself thinking that we're going to have to do a lot of walking."

"No I mean- never mind." Fluttershy looked down.

"Great." Twilight started towards the other end of the barn. Not that they could see it. Not that it necessarily had an actual end in that direction.

As they walked, a carpet of dust formed around their hooves, and the tools hung on the wall got older and in worse disrepair, like they were walking back in time as they trotted into the darkness, the gloom making it hard to see.

"This reminds me of the old part of the Canterlot Archives," Twilight said, quietly. It was dark enough here that she had to use a light spell so they could see where they were going. "There's a basement level under the main library. Almost nopony goes down there anymore, but I had permission from Celestia, and I thought I might be able to find something useful.

"You go down these stairs, and it's all just storage down there, tunnels lined with bookcases and boxes. Even preservation magic can't keep the dust out. Books got moved from the library to the archive to the basement, newer books crowding out the old ones. But a librarian can't just throw books out, it's practically a crime! So they just get shuffled a little deeper to make room. I never found the end of it. It's all completely disorganized, which is another reason nopony goes down there. Just endless books sitting in the dark, where they'll probably never be read again..."

Twilight was silent for a moment.

"It's kind of sad, really. There are probably all sorts of really great books there that nopony will ever read again, but you'd need a library the size of a castle to even begin to catalog them, and Harmony knows you'd never find enough decent librarians to keep things in order. It would take lifetimes."

"It was something you thought about doing, wasn't it?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight turned to look at her with a smile. "Well... yeah. I mean, a chance to spend my whole life learning things things that have been lost for centuries? Making a lasting mark on the world by creating the greatest library that ever existed? It would have been nice. But instead it was like a curse. I pulled one box of books out of there, and you know what was in there? A book about Nightmare Moon, and how she was going to be released. I sent a warning to Celestia and she decided to ignore it and order me to come here and plan the Summer Sun Celebration."

"...Maybe she knew about it already," Fluttershy said, quietly. "If there was anypony who would keep track of such a thing, it would be her, right?"

"That's what I thought. But she clearly didn't have a plan on actually beating Nightmare Moon, or we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Maybe she knew that she couldn't win," Fluttershy whispered. "And she sent you away to keep you safe."

Twilight stopped at that, looking down. "She was like a second mother to me. If she'd just said something to me, or let me know she trusted me with more than... stupid party planning, maybe I could have helped. At least she could have trusted me to make my own decision."

"When we see her again, we'll ask," Fluttershy said, smiling. Twilight couldn't help but return it. Something about that smile made her feel a little bit better. Their expressions shifted to confusion as there was a sudden sound. The tapping of a hammer against wood.

"What's that sound?" Twilight asked, walking towards it slowly. She shone her light towards it, and saw a figure hunched over, pressing a board up against the wall and nailing it in place, apparently patching over where the barn wall was cracked.

"Excuse me?" Fluttershy asked. "A-Applejack? Is that you?"

The figure turned, and Fluttershy squeaked in alarm at its face, just a stuffed sack with hay poking from the seams, clothing bulging at the joints like a rag doll.

"It's a scarecrow," Twilight said, tilting her head. The scarecrow moved with sudden jerks towards them, a hammer bound with twine to its sleeve.

"It's a moving, living scarecrow!" Fluttershy corrected. It let out a rattling wail and ran towards them with the unnatural motions of a marionette. Twilight and Fluttershy screamed.

"A moving, living scarecrow that's coming to kill us!" Twilight finished, Eventide appearing to intercept it. A beam of force knocked the scarecrow to the side bonelessly, smashing into a support beam with force that would have shattered a living pony.

The scarecrow got right back up, charging at Eventide. Its hammer fell on a quick shield, Twilight trying to figure out what to do next.

"Sky Skimmer," Fluttershy whispered, the slim shape of her own dream construct appearing next to her. The edges of its mechanical wings started to glow blue and pink, and the air around the scarecrow plunged in temperature, freezing it in place with a thick sheet of frost.

"Woah. That was pegasus weather magic, wasn't it?" Twilight asked. "I didn't know it could be focused into a combat application like that. I was told even weather-magic generated lightning was almost impossible to control!"

"It is," Fluttershy agreed. "I, um. I don't know how Sky Skimmer did that. I only ever took the basics of weather control in Flight School before I dropped out."

"You dropped out?" Twilight asked, frowning. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was someone who quit school.

"Literally," Fluttershy mumbled. "I'll explain some other time. I don't... I don't like to think about that day."

"Still, at least it was useful..." Twilight examined the frozen scarecrow. "It certainly stopped this thing." Her eye caught something, the frost making a detail easier to see. Wires stretched from the scarecrow, attacked across its body, reaching up into the darkness above.

"Something was controlling it?" Twilight asked, thinking. She focused her light spell into a cone and pointed it upwards, looking towards the roof. The wires led to... a tree branch, growing through a breach in the barn. She could see red fruit hanging from it as it shifted with the motion of an unseen wind from outside, the wires straining.

"How could a tree control a puppet?" Fluttershy asked, confused.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out how a lot of trees do it," Twilight said, moving the light. There were more branches. A lot more branches. And as she lowered the beam to the floor, she saw scarecrows turning to look.

Author's Note:

It's a metaphor!