"Welp, this is terrible." Nova repeats for the eighth time in five minutes, Trixie resists the urge to beat her head against the carriage, if only barely.

Two hours ago

"Wow, this is impressive." Nova says, looking up inside the massive, hollow tree.
From what he could see, the bulk of the city was contained within two main trees, these things were HUGE, easily holding a town the size of Canterlot inside each one.
The inside was seemingly carved out in a spiral pattern, going up and up all the way into the branches, though apparently the lower parts of the tree were unused due to the general difficulty of ascending via pulling a cart all the way to the town proper.

"While this is cool, couldn't we have used the elevator platform thing to take us too the top?" He asked, turning to his companion.

She snorted at the suggestion.
"Trixie refuses to pay that much to simply access the town, when on the other hoof, Trixie could use her all powerful magic to climb up no problem."

He wanted to argue, but since she was the one with the money, he couldn't argue with her decisions on what to do with it.
Not only that, but using his own powers to simply, pick up the thing and fly up, or even teleport were out of the question, keeping a low profile and blending in was already going to difficult enough, considering he was completely alien to everything here.

"Don't worry, it shouldn't take to long for us to reach the main area anyway."

One Hour ago

"The hell is this...?" Nova question, Staring at the completely blocked off spiral road, griffins, ponies and even some minotaurs, all with carts and whatnot, completely filled the rest of the road, looking up, he noticed what appeared to be two griffins wearing Armour blocking, what he assumed to be, the entrance to the town, the noise was deafening, everyone shouting in frustration or confusion, some in panic?

Current time

"Welp, this is terrible." Nova repeats for the ninth time in six minutes, Trixie finally snapped.

"OH MY CELESTIA, I-" She stopped, forgetting to speak in third person in her rage.
Taking a deep breathe, she tried to calm herself, not to much effect, but more to stop herself from screaming anymore.

"Nova, would you be a dear and go find out what the delay is?" She suggested, her eye slightly twitching.

He opened his mouth, then decided against a witty remark.

"Hmm, okay, beats sitting here pissing you off." He said, giving her his best wily grin before hopping off the carriage.

Pushing is way through the crowded road earned him quite a few stares from his fellow trapped travelers, though if they were ones of annoyance or confusion to what exactly WAS pushing them, he couldn't tell.
The Guards were already starring at him by the time he got up close enough to talk.

"Yo, quick question, what the hell is the hold up for?" He tried asking.

The griffins leaned in closer to one another, whispering.

"What do you think that is, a hairless, mutated minotaur?"

The two snickered at their shit talk, Nova just smiled.

"Says the disturbed love child of a lion desperate enough to fuck a bird."

One guard broke down into full blown laughter, the other, not so much.

"You talk like that again and I'll...." He suddenly lost his confidence when Nova shifted his shoulders, showing off the giant blade attached to his back.

Trying, and barely, to compose themselves, one answered.

"T-towns off limits until the infestation is cleared." He stuttered out, looking over their bodies behind them.

"Infestation, what are you..." Nova began to question, only to hear something drop onto the path behind the guards.

Despite their attitudes, the guards instantly flipped around, spears drawn and ready to fight whatever caused the noise, Nova took a moment to focus his eye sight.

Only to be met with his worst fear, a giant spider.

"Crap, I thought the patrols cleared out this section!" One of the guards said, while the other threw his spear to pierce the arachnid, only for it to skitter out of the way.

"Why did you throw your bleeding spear?!" "I was panicking okay!?" "Well how are we going to-" The guards rambled on and on as the spider suddenly sat up and spat what is to be assumed poison right at them.

Only for it to harmlessly bounce off a floating golden shield, the pair turned to face what protected them, and promptly shit themselves.

Nova stood there, blade in hand, slightly floating off the ground, his face contorted in what seemed to be equal parts anger and horror.
His eyes were pinpricks, waves of pressure shot out, pushing the pair back towards the giant arachnid.

The spider, sensing its moment to strike, scurried forward and reared its head to sink its fangs into the distracted guards, its poison already leaking off its sword like fangs, its eyes focused in on the prey in front of it.

And then a lot of things were on fire.

Author's Note

Bit shorter than I would have liked, but its more of a set up chapter.