Everfree

by Verzeih Turncoat

Chapter 5

Evefree had always told her she was to trustworthy, that was why she had not seen the white bird for what it was. The poison jokes effect kicked in and she had her horn back on her forehead. "Take this as a gift for the `negotiation´,Celly." said Evefree finally stepping out of the shadow. Twilight looked at her in utter disbelief. The alicorn in front of her was messy. Nothing regal or important, not even spreading an aura of superiority. Her brown, scrubby mane was larded with leaves. Her all leafgreen body was covered in dust and mud, in a way that you could not recognize what cutiemark she had or if she had on at all. But of all the things to be most uncanny was that she was almost a filly! Maybe half a head smaller than Twilight she had to look down to her to see her in the saphire blue eyes, blue like poison joke, as she trotted over to Princess Celestia. "You look older than last time."

Right off the bat, insults and deceiving, this was the mare Celestia was so fond over, wondered Twilight but even more surprised was she about Celestia´s response: "Thanks, you too."

Evefree gave Celestia a smug grin: "Then you understand that I will not let you steal her away from me."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA IS GOING ON HERE!" Twilight´s outburst followed silence. Celestia stared at a rapidly in shame blushing Twilight. Had she really just said that? In front of Celestia herself? Evefree looked from one to the other and than burst out laughing.

"Haha ha! You did not know, Celly? Haha. Ponies use your name all the time."

"I was aware of it... . I just never heard it myself. It sounds mortifying."

The green alicorn for the first time took really note of Twilight. "Listen unicorn, just don´t let anything break your... You´re the one that brought back the... what did Celestia call them, Elements of Harmony? Thank you, thank you." Twilight felt almost strangled in the tight hug, thanks to Pinkie she was well trained in endure those. The leafs in her mane made it an experience. Some were wet, some sting, some itch and hopefully none of them would be poison joke. Then Twilight could feel warm tears running down her neck. "Thank you." No way Evefree was playing this. Maybe Discords vines had done something horrible to her as the tree was no longer protecting the forest? After all Twilight had almost got eaten by them. What should she say to her? That everything is alright?, no, it was not. She still had kidnapped her friends´ grandmother. She can´t say that everything is fine as long that is looming around.

As Evefree let go of her she found her voice back, so Twilight asked: "Why are you calling me unicorn?"

"Because, for as much as I´m concernd, you are not an alicorn if you heart isn´t broken." Evefree pointed at Twilight. "You´re an unicorn with wings."

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Applejack had seen things she rather had not seen, Granny was in greater danger than expected;

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Applejack had found a landmark, a rock formation she knew, and soon she had found the spot where the black trees were standing. Granny Smith had shown her this place ages ago in case if something happens to the zap apple trees on the farm, not her.
There had been timberwolves around Granny, but she had been able to look into the place. An Alicorn, so that is why Princess Celestia don´t want to help Granny, had Applejack thought at that moment. How was she going to help her now, the stubborn farmpony had wondered.
Granny Smith, had been bound to the biggest zap appletree, had fallen a sleep. Applejack had seen her mouth moving as the short alicorn did something to Granniy´s mane. "Oh she is so cute when she sleeps, maybe just one kiss." The alicorn had lean closely to Granny Smith as one of the timberwolves in the clearing had start growling and barking. "But I don´t want to see her." Applejack had listen and watch the suspicious conversation from her hiding spot. Had that mare just seen her? "I told you to get rid of her. I don´t want that mare in my home." Two of the posion joked wolves had turned towards her hiding spot. Applejack had run away behind her she had heard the angry groan of the mare and the hunting howl of the timberwolves.

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;She has to rescue her quickly. She ran as fast as her tired legs could carry her before she realized that none of the timberwolves were following her. As she slow carefully approached the clearing again, always expecting an ambush. There they were still on the clearing, circling around Granny Smith.
As soon Applejack showed her orange face, some of them abruptly start to chase her away only to fall off after sometime. This outlandish behavior did not fit in what the farmpony knew, or thought she knew, about the timberwolves. Timberwolves hunt animals, kill them, drag them into the Everfree Forest, and buried them to make fertilizer for the trees out of their dead bodies. They were the guardians of the forest. How this alicorn fit into this she has not figured out yet, but it had to have something to do with why they kidnapped Granny. What was their connection anyway?

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Three Alicorns meet in the Everfree Forest... sounds like the beginning of one of the jokes Twilight despised even back when she was, by her own definition, an unicorn. She was an alicorn like... unlike Princess Celestia, who was an saddle arabian hor... unicorn now, she really should stop thinking about this things. The Princess stood tall over the green messy alicorn, but it was as if there sizes were inverted.

"I wish that you let Granny Smith go" Celestia said, but it felt less than an instruction than a plead.

Evefree´s face got stern and the expected answer was spoken: "No."

"Excuess the question, why not?" asked Celestia. Twilight could not belief it, Celestia on the receiving end usually everypony listens to her every word. It was just like the conversation they had when her filly-self wanted to enter the Starswirl the Bearded wing, just that Celestia was now her.

"You really don´t need to know this at the moment." The resemblance was so uncanny that Twilight wondered how much Princess Celestia had assimilated from Evefree´s methods, after all from Celestia´s viewpoint she was younger. One thing was missing the gesture of good will. But as she thought that, Evefree groaned: "If I lift the barrier? Will you leave?"

"For now?"

"Fine," The green alicorn groaned again. Not to happy with this arrangement. "It will be over soon, just wait."

The white tall unicorn turned around as trees reverted their boughs with dull creaking to their original position. A shower of saphire blue blossoms fell like snow as the vines retracted. There were three panicking ponies in the forest right now trying to accomplish the impossible task, to evade all the poison joke, that had made the fake sky along with a few yellow flowers. Applejack grabbed a vine an used it as rope to lash at the snow fall of doom. Twilight used her shield spell, the pink dome got quickly covered by the blue plant. Made it seem purple from the other side. Zecora remembered that she had the remedy bottled up at home and stopped trying. Only Princess Celestia kept calm, more than calm actually she really enjoyed to walk in the green grass of the blue autumn. The big petals felt like leaves on her back and wings.
She had her wings back. She gave the flowers a slight breeze and watched how they changed direction. Then she took off in a spiral motion only a few inches above the ground creating a slight whirlwind. It sure felt great to have your wings back. Twilight watched the ballet of feathers and blossoms. First hesitant she finally set a hoof on one of the blossoms then she came crawling out under her magic shield.

"How did you know she wouldn´t turn you into... I don´t know a slug", asked Twilight.

"I simply believed in the magic of friendship."

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Pinkie Pie had prepared a picnic and was able to ease everypony on the outside the forest with sugary goodness as the walls came down.
"What, already? Feels a bit rushed. Oh well," she said an start to hum a silly song. In a bright flash Twilight appeared in front of the ponies.

After checked that her teleportation had her brought her exactlly where she wanted to be she said: "I didn´t find Granny, but Princess Celestia has negotiated with the kidnapper."

"Negotiated, with timberwolves?" asked Rainbow Dash warily.

"No, not with timberwolves. With Evefree, an other alicorn", corrected Twilight her pegasus friend.

"Seriously? Say how many previous proteges did the Princess had before you?", ask Rainbow.

Twilight didn´t knew the answer to that, but what thought was: "From how they interacted with each other I think she might have been Celestia´s mentor prior to Starswirl. Not her student." Twilight looked at many faces of disbelieve ranging from `For real´ to an almost panicking `That can´t be true´. The end of the spectrum representative carried from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. She did not knew how she felt about it herself.
"We have to find Applejack before she risks our progress. Rainbow can you help me search..." Suddenly a beam of green magic shot shoot towards the sky. "Girls, quick I need your help. Spike can you take care here?"

"Don´t worry me and Big Mac can handle things here."

In another spark of magic Twilight teleported all her friends and herself back inside the forest to the location of the beam.

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Applejack stood face to face with Evefree. "This was a warning shot", proclaimed the green alicorn. "Stay away from my apple theif you ungrateful little granddaughter."

"Her name is Granny Smith, ya creep!" She didn´t even knew her name, thought Applejack unsure how to feel about that. Should she be relieved or even more angry than she already was?

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Applejack had waited in the bushes close enough to see the clearing and her grandmother, but far away enough that the timberwolves did not mind her. It had taken many attempts to find this spot, but it would be worth it if she can confront the kidnapping alicorn. As the blossom rain had come down, she had already a good idea about the distance she had to keep at that point. All she had needed was an good viewpoint for a surprise attack. As the green alicorn had stepped into the clearing and had send the timberwolves their ways, -"Your services are no longer needed."- was Applejack´s time come. She had slammed her body into the left wing of the alicorn pushing her away from Granny Smith.

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"Then I will call her Anny once she is awake." joked Evefree, but at this moment two separate glisteningly magic fields appeared behind Applejack and over the treetops. The one to the left was slightly pink and out of it dropped five ponies. Two of them hold up by a magical aura. The other was blindingly bright and Evefree knew all to well who was coming out off that one, the Princess of Equestria.
"Celly, You betrayed me."

"No, I thought... What is going on here? Twilight?", asked Princess Celestia, she had expected to find Evefree here, willing to talk about this whole ordeal with her in peace. Not Twilight and here friends turning into their Rainbow Power forms. Their manes and tail added new colors, except Rainbow Dash´s who already had a mane of way to many colors, and grow twice their normal length. The wings of Twilight and her pegasi friends also added colors. While unusual that never had bothered Princess Celestia. That their cutiemark changed and spread over their body on the other hand she worried her. A cutiemark is a representation of your very self. What does it say if the cutiemark just changed in a blink!? This was the power that defeated Tirek. "Twilight...!" But she was already in one of her self absorbed friendship speeches.

It was not Celestia who interupted Twilight it was Applejack: "Give me back Granny and we let ya go!"

"Anny has already sacraficed her whole life to her family! Let me have the few hours she got left!" shouted Evefree up to the six ponies floating in their multicolored sphere.

"Maybe we should listen to what she has to say", suggested Fluttershy to the left of Twilight.

Applejack on the right protested against this idea: "Are ya´ll out of ya mind. We have to get Granny back to the barn for treatments!"

"But..."

"Fire!" shouted Applejack backed up by Rainbow Dash.

The multicolored beams formed a colorful rainbow of friendship, that was fired on Evefree. "I knew it! Your farm is more impotant to you than Anny."

Showered in the multicolored light Evefree bowed down, not in defeat, but to kiss the earth. Her horn lit up green, briefly just for a few seconds. Sprouts sprung out of the ground. Rapidly growing, aging, going through the seasons. Forming leaves, loosing leaves over and over again. The sprouts grow into saplings. Their fall leaves covered the ground around the green Alicorn in all possible colors.
Evefree stared at Princess Celestia for the whole time. Twilight and her friends on the other hand were staring at the tree-lined avenue filled with fall leaves growing to their targets sides in utter disbelief. This was the magic of the Tree of Harmony, Tirek had been stripped of his stolen magic in the same time as it had taken this alicorn to grow eight young trees.

"That´s all you got? Typical unicorn only able to do the flashiest forms of magic." insulted Evefree Twilight. Or was it her? Even at this moment she kept staring at Celestia. As the trees grew in her line of sight she moved so she could see the princess again. The rainbow beam followed her on the hoof and new trees were born alongside her. Celestia knew this spell it had cemented autumn to her favourite time of the year. "A school for gifted unicorns and all your prized student can do is to point and shoot? I knew you have a soft spot for the weakest magic users in ponykind. Tutorship by Starswirl, falling in love with one in another dimension and then that that unicorn with wings."- Rainbow Dash could not hold it any longer, they were getting a beating but she sure loved the look on Twilight´s face as she was called weakest magic user, so she laughed out loud -"What I didn´t knew is that you only teach them unicorn magic. What a waste of time! Listen up unicorn..." Rarity looked over to Twilight asking if she meant her, but Twilight explained that Evefree was most certainly referring to her.
A green beam hit Applejack out of the sudden, throwing her out off the multicolored bubble surrounding them. Causing the magical aura to fade away. "Oh me oh my what seems to be the trouble - oh my oh me I don´t want to burst your bubble... actually I do." - Evefree catched Pinkie Pie with her magic and placed her gently in the closest treetop. Rarity on the other hand just slamed into the twigs and branches.

"This was unicorn magic flashy and open manipulation of magic streams. Like throwing stones into the river. Splashing the water. Pegasi Magic on the other side is almost subtle it is the stone in the river, permanently changing its stream. A cloud on the right time can prevent a drought." Evefree freed from the multicolored beam since Applejack was nolonger within range she walked up to the new trees. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gave eachother an unknowing shrug. It was natural for a pegasi to bust or walk on clouds sure it took some skill to create clouds, but magic? Magic was the flashy unnatural stuff... "Supportive Magic to fulfill their users needs." ... wait how were the none cloudmade objects holding on clouds? They never even thought about that.

"Do me! Do me!" yelled Pinkie Pie, begging for Evefree to explain Earthpony Magic.

Evefree got dreamy eyes as she, sheepishly stepping from one hoof to another, answered: "Earthponies are the most magical of all..." Now it was Twilight´s turn to laugh, receiving an angry stare from Evefree. "Their magic IS the river. Everytime they work they leave a little of their magic WITHIN their work. Animals eat their crops and become magical, stones cutted become eatable. THEY create the magical fields unicorns use for their weak tricks!"

"Oh please stop this farce"-, said Rarity, who had somehow managed to find a graceful way to be stucked in a tree, -"if what you said would be true that would mean..."

"That you unicorns are just parasites of magic!" explained Evefree, resiving a bitter glare of the white unicorn. Who felt deeply insulted by this parable. Twilight just shaked her head, she was certain this mare just wanted them to believe her lies. "What´s the matter unicorn... with wings" Evefree said adding the last part as Rarity took breath to answer. This was not a lesson for her she already worked her magic into her passion without knowing about it. Unlike the self proclaimed Element of Magic and student of Celestia.

"There is no prove for what you are saying!"

"Since when is there prove in anything you said! You just sound smart." The green alicorn kicked the tree, with loud cracking and creaking, bending and breaking all the trees formed by the rainbow power bend to Evefrees will. Applejacks eyes got widder as everypony else as she saw that. A pack of timberwolves was formed by a single buck to the trunk. "My magic is in the Tree of Harmony."