Angel Grace stirred slightly, and in response, the pod released more spores, keeping her in slumber. Nearby, the other pods were doing the same thing, ensuring their occupants stayed docile during the process. Tendrils from the walls of the pod slowly wrapped around Angel, sinking into both the vines within the pod and Angel herself; meanwhile the vines were fusing into the pod walls. Soon, with the aid of these tendrils, the vines were meshing into her coat as well, linking pony and pod more firmly.

As all of this was occurring, her head was feeling like a patch of fertile soil. Soil in which seeds were being planted, and tended to. New thoughts taking root in her mind, thoughts of becoming one with the forest. Giving herself over the vines and being reborn as something beautiful and natural. Already, she could even sense the forests will, as well as the others linked into it...including some familiar sprouts. A gentle smile graced her unconscious form, and green sprouts popped up here and there on her pale coat.

"Um, Golden?" Spiral remarked, as the two mares kept backing away from the advancing plants and ponies. "I sure hope you have a plan to get us out of here."

They were soon backed up against a tree, and the first plant pony smirked. The vines surged forward, ready to claim their latest captures...directly into a wall of fire; ashes scattered to the forest floor as Golden chuckled. "Who said we're getting out of here? Now, I'm going to need your help for the next part."

"My help?" Spiral asked, glancing at Golden Luck. Not for long, though: she didn't want to take her eyes off the four advancing ponies.

"A simple trance; we just need to make them lose focus for a moment. Can you manage it?" Golden didn't even look up, her gaze intent on the four ponies before them.

Spiral swallowed, nodding once. "I can try." she closed her eyes, focusing on a basic hypnosis spell. It wouldn't be anything fancy, or even with any goal in mind. Just a simple command to slip into a trance. There was no guarantee it would work; after all, even magical hypnosis needed an induction, so it couldn't just stop ponies in their tracks.

Or maybe it could. When she opened her eyes again, the four ponies were standing there, staring off into space. Well, maybe she was better at this than she thought. Funny what a dire situation can do for a mare. "So now what do we-" Before she could finish her sentence, Spiral saw that Golden Luck had gone off again.

The other mare was now in front of one of the pods, her gaze intense as a narrow green beam erupted from her horn, and she started trying to cut open the pod.

The vines around and woven into Cloud Prism began to pulse at an increased rate. The great stalk was in danger; one of the pods was being damaged, and one of his sisters needed help. It wasn't yet time for his awakening, however. There was still much work to be done before he could be reborn. He had to fully accept his new life in order to best serve it...allow the vines to continue spreading over his body...

A low growl erupted from the plant-pony, and she pushed her hooves into the soil again, more vines sprouting out. Half of them shot towards Golden Luck, but she was surrounded by another circle of flame.

The other half headed for Spiral Dream, and she fired off a couple of magical bolts, knocking out a few; unfortunately, she wasn't able to stop them all. Hefted by one leg into the air, she called out "Golden! Help!"

Golden Luck spared her one glance, then went back to her work, a scorched mark becoming clear at the point of her beam. Meanwhile, Spiral was carried over to the plant-pony, kicking all the way.

"You two are causing quite a few problems for me." the pony remarked, as a pair of vines rose up from the ground to get a better grip on Spiral and flip her right side up. "Fortunately, that is easily resolved." She pulled Spiral in closer, and gave her a firm kiss. A warm, firm kiss that lingered...Spiral found her body was relaxing, a strange fuzz filling her mind.

"Now, my dear...save my children."

The voice was so sweet, so easy to listen to, to obey. Spiral wanted to please her so much...as she was lowered to the ground, she turned to the Golden Luck.

"Y-you need to stop..." she said softly, advancing on the pods and their attacker. "You can't harm them."

Golden Luck looked up at her, seeming to be almost annoyed. "Spiral Dream, you are a hypnotist. I had assumed you could protect yourself from such a simple trick."

A trick? That kiss...it had to have had some kind of mind altering substance in it, right? Or maybe it had just been a wonderful, eye-opening kiss...

"Don't listen to her, my sweet." The voice seemed to curl around her. "She's trying to hurt my children...she's a cruel pony."

"A..a cruel pony...?" Spiral whispered, shaking her head a bit, trying to think, to clear the fog from her head. She was attacking those pods...the forest...

The plant-pony came up behind her, nodding. Whispering in her ear. "That's right. She's harming the forest...and you belong to the forest, don't you?" the vines caressed Spiral Dream, who nodded slowly. "Good, good. Give yourself to the forest...serve it with all your heart..."

A soft sigh escaped Spiral Dream as she felt the plants around her, the fuzz growing thicker in her head. She could feel the forest taking over, vines curling around her body as she surrendered to it.

"That's right, let my seeds take root and grow...tend to my children...serve me."

The words were like sunlight on a flower; Spiral soaked them up, her mind succumbing to the roots that had wormed their way in. She would serve the...vines? In a forest? A parasite. Not natural. Don't let it win. Protect the forest from it. Get rid of it.

Spiral Dream blinked, shaking her head; she could see Golden Luck looking at her intently, obviously worried. With a cast of her magic, she sent a energy surge through her body; already she could feel the spores sloughing off.

"What are you?" she asked, stepping away from the strange pony, who scowled.

"I could ask the same of the two of you; you've proven immune to my spores...you intend to force me to reveal my true nature? So be it." the pony arced back, surrounded by more of the vines that folded into it's mass. Gone was the gentle, leafed pony, replaced by writing vines and a pair of glowing red eyes.

"I am older than the forest, stronger than the plain. I once fed on mere shoots and sprouts, but now ponykind will serve me and my life will spread over the land."

"I don't think so." Rising up from the pod Golden Luck had broken was a green earth pony with a tree on her flank. "You have deceived and suppressed the forest...but you played your hand too soon." she charged the mass before her, tackling it to the ground.

"Fool! Even if you were broken free, the others will soon be reborn as my kind! You have escaped too late!"

The earth pony looked back, her eyes wide with fear. "It's true. It's spores will have seeped into the...others...look!"

With a great cracking sound, brown roots were pressing up against the pods, the trees swaying. The green pods shuddered at first, and began to crack under the pressure, each one soon spilling it's occupant. A couple of them seemed a little green, but released from the pods, the vines were already receding from their bodies.

"The forest is rejecting the infection." Golden Luck said, in wonder. "Look..." she motioned at green motes settling on the gathered ponies, which seemed to speed their healing. Spiral Dream could even feel some brushing against her, clearing her head.

A scream caught everyone's attention, however, and the alert ponies looked at the monster before them. It was writhing in pain, the vines rotting before their eyes where the motes touched them. It shrank back, headed into the shadows away from the forest center.

"This isn't the end...where there are dark and damp places, I live...my spores touch every part of this land, and you...will..." before it could finish, it was speared by a root, pressed into the ground.

The earth pony approached the still twitching vines. "You will feed what you sought to steal. You should know the nature of the circle of life..." with a wry smile, she looked up. "Thank goodness you two came along. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out."

It turned out that the Earth Pony was Redwood Skies, an arborist who had been on the train with them to study the forest. With her help, Spiral Dream and Golden Luck brought the others back to the train to recover. Once the vines were gone, the other ponies woke up fairly quickly, if still a little lightheaded for the experience.

"So Redwood is going to stay in the forest?" Angel asked, brushing at her foreleg again. She still couldn't get the feeling of those vines out of her body.

"Yep." Spiral said, nodding with a smile. "Just to make sure that there are no lingering effects." The train tracks had already been cleared, and the train was underway.

"I'm going to make a record of this to give to Princess Twilight once we arrive." Angel decided. "It technically falls under our purview? Though mind controlling plants is a new one to me."

"It's a new one to all of us." Spiral Dream remarked with a little laugh. Angel gave a polite chuckle, and headed back to the car with the others. Golden Luck made to join her, but Spiral stopped her.

"You could have cut those vines with a single spell. I've seen the way you use fire. What happened?"

Golden gave her a look, a frown on her face. "If I had stopped cutting the pod, it would probably have healed. I trusted you could resist the parasite long enough for me to finish. I was right, more so then I expected. You threw it off completely."

"And if I hadn't?" Spiral pressed, her voice lowering. "I came very close to being transformed." she nodded behind Spiral, where the four ponies that had been completely transformed were being treated: no one was sure if they'd ever completely recover.

"Well, that didn't happen, so no use worrying about it, right?" Golden remarked, tapping her on the side before walking off. "We should probably focus on what's up ahead: if there's an emergency in Ponyville, it's probably quite dire."

Spiral watched her go, her brow furrowed with concern. "Yeah, I guess so..."

Author's Note

If I had to do this over again, I'd probably adjust what went into each chapter; the defeat should have been it's own, but by the point I didn't think I could make a goodsized chapter out of it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the filler.