Druids and the Wooden Heart

The archdruid left, leaving Darren and Spirit with the princesses alone. Darren turned to the princesses. Spirit also turned around and whispered to Darren. "What now?"

Darren was about to answer but Celestia was faster. "You two will take the place of two of our guards and look out for this pony."

Spirit was surprised but nodded. And just as Celestia mentioned the guards, the door opened and the guards entered the room again and bowed before the princesses. Celestia nodded to them and they all stood up again to take position next to Celestia.

Celestia looked outside the window and turned to look a Luna. "Luna it is time, the day begins soon." Luna nodded and they began to walk to another door which leaded to a balcony the royal sisters walked in the middle The guards followed them but stayed on the inside. The horns from Celestia and Luna began to glow. The moon slowly began to lower while Celestia began to raise the sun.

Darren and Spirit both watched this all in silence and as the princesses were finished turned Celestia around to look at them. "Here I give you that." She showed them two small bands. "Put these on and our guards will know that you are here to help and gives you the permissions of a high guard." She levitated the two bands to them.

Darren did put his around his right claw while Spirit tied it on his left front leg he bowed a bit and smiled. "Thank you highness."

Darren grabbed him at his shoulder and pulled him up again. "We are here as druids not as servants!"

Spirit nodded and they heard the princesses chuckling. Luna turned to her sister and nodded. "I am going to rest now my sister." She began to walk to the exit and Darren and the half of the guards followed her.

Celestia sat down on her throne and Spirit took with the guards position next to her. They were there for few minutes until Spirit broke the silence. "This may sound strange but could I ask if one of the guards could bring me some wood?"

Celestia smiled and nodded to one of the guards who simply saluted before he left.

There while followed Darren princess Luna until they reached her room. Luna entered it and closed the door while the guards and Darren stayed outside. Darren looked at the guards and asked. "Does the room has windows?"

One of the guards nodded. "Yes, two to be exact."

Darren raised an eyebrow. "Are they guarded?"

The guard shook his head. "No, it never seemed necessary. There are no good position to watch it and we don't have enough guards to cover the complete section."

Darren nodded. "I want that six pegasi immediately to come and cover the windows. Always one for each window and if one gets tired he will change with one of the other six. At least ten other guards will march around the castle I want not a single quarter without watch!"

One of the guards stepped forward. "Who do you think you are to command us like that?"

He showed them the band again. "At the moment I am higher ranked than anypony except the princesses. I have the mission to guard the princesses! Two of you will watch the nearby hallways and the rest will go outside and watch everything!"

Darren grabbed the steel rod from his back and stepped right in front of the door. "Now hurry!" The guards nodded and went to their new positions without any protest.

While Spirit and Darren stayed with the princesses was Leaf almost at the station for the train to the crystal empire. As she arrived, she directly walked to one guard who stood there and showed him the symbol she got from Celestia. "Hello I am in the order the princess here and have to get to the crystal empire as fast as possible."

The guard looked shortly at the symbol, nodded and ran away. He shortly returned with two other guards and a carriage. The guards saluted and the first guard explained. "These two will bring in a few hours to the empire!"

Leaf nodded thankfully and stepped on it. The guards immediately began to pull and they flew off with an amazing speed. Leaf looked back and saw who Canterlot began to became smaller and smaller every second.

At the same time was Switch on his way back to Ponyville and after about an hour he reached the town. Just after he left the train he walked straight to Twilight castle and walked inside it. As he was in the middle of the hallway he was stopped by a voice. Switch turned his head to see that it was Bright. "Hey Switch! Twilight said one of you would come and I should send you to the library."

Switch shortly nodded and walked in the direction of the library. As he opened the door Twilight immediately walked to him. "What happened? The princesses send me a letter that a druid would come, why this? She wrote that there is a danger. What is it?"

Switch held one of his hooves up. "One question at a time. First of I want to know if we are the only ponies in this building."

She nodded a bit confused. "We are the only one, except Spike and Bright of course."

Switch immediately turned back to his changeling form. "Good I hate being stuck in this pony form. Wanna play a card game?" While he said that he levitated a deck of cards out of his bag.

Back at the Canterlot palace a guard had brought a bunch of wood. Spirit shortly at the pile of wood and shortly closed his reached to Bite with his mind. "This isn't enough, isn't it?" He opened his eyes again and let Bite look through his eyes. "No it isn't and tell them to bring more unshaped wood I can't build my legs with theses blocks ."

Spirit closed his eyes once and opened them again. "I am sorry but I need more and it would be helpful if you could also bring a few more branches and twigs."

Spirit heard the guard groaning but still doing what he said. And as the guard was gone looked Spirit at the others guards who looked at Spirit like they saw a ghost. Spirit turned confused at the princess. "I am sorry but did I missed something?"

Celestia gave him a friendly smile. "I guess the guards were just surprised that your eyes glowed green as you friends mind looked through your eyes."As the guards heard the thing about a mind of another pony the seemed even more unsettled.

Spirit eyes widen by a sudden realization. "Wait he looked through my eyes? We never did this till now. Strange that we never thought of this till now." The last things he more said to himself then to the other ponies in the room.

Leafs carriage there while reached the empires castle after another few hours. As they landed the guards sat exhausted down and tried to catch their breath.

Leaf instantly stepped down and began to walk towards the castle but not without saying quickly. "Thanks."

As she reached the door the guards crossed their spears and stopped her but she just showed them her symbol from Celestia and they let her through. As she was on the half of the way was she stopped by Shining Armor. "So you are the druid?"

Leaf nodded and showed him the symbol Celestia gave her. "I have to go to the princess immediately, the unicorn could strike at anytime!"

Shining nodded and they both quickly walked down the hall. While walking began Shining to ask a few questions. "What is this pony after? What does he wants from Cadence and who even is he?"

"He is a former teacher that is all I can say for now I don't know if I am allowed to tell you more, you have to ask Celestia for more information. I am sorry. And for what he wants, he wants nothing more than a feather from an alicorn."

Shining nodded and they reached the throne room were Cadence was sitting surrounded by a dozen of guards. Shining immediately walked next to her and whispered to her. She then nodded and looked at Leaf. "It is nice to meet you. May I ask what you name is?"

"Its Leaf."

Cadence smiled at her. "Ok, Leaf. Seems like you will be here for the next time why don't you tell me something about you. I would like to know, what brings a zebra to Equestria?"

Back in Ponyville Switch had explained Twilight that he is a druid and that Test Bolt wants a feather from her or the other princesses. Now he was playing cards with himself while Twilight was reading a book.

Suddenly stopped Twilight and turned to Switch. "One thing is there that I still don't understand. Why didn't you told us earlier about the druids?"

Switch interrupted his card game and looked serious at Twilight. "We druids always worked undercover. It was the best way till now. It would make things just complicated if we would make the existence of the druids public."

Twilight though about it for a few seconds then nodded. "You could be right."

Meanwhile in Canterlot one guard had dropped a bag of wood in front of Spirit. Spirit looked at it for a second then nodded. "I think this is enough thank you."

The guard first sighed in relive then mumbled something while he turned around and began to walk away. Spirit walked to the pieces of wood and reached in his bag. "here Bite that should be enough wood. He laid Bites core in the middle of the wood while the rest of the guards looked curios what he was doing.

Spirit stepped back again and after a few seconds Bites core began to glow, together with the wood, in a dark green color. The guards instantly took action. Two of them jumped on Spirit and held him down while the rest pointed their spears at the green glowing wood.

Spirit tried to explain the situation. "Calm down that is just Bite! He is friendly!" But the guards didn't listened. Bite began to slowly build himself. As the guards saw how the wood began to from a body they stepped a bit back.

Piece after piece Bite rebuild himself and as he was finished he opened his eyes only to see that he was surrounded by guards. He looked around and as he saw Spirit held down to the ground. After seeing that Bite began to growl.

As the guard began to walk closer to Bite until they were stopped by Celestia. "Enough. Guards you can let go of Spirit and lower your spears."

The guards bowed and did what she told them. They walked back to their position but still kept their eyes on Bite. Bite walked to Spirit and helped him standing up. "Thanks Bite."

"I would recommend you to inform the people around you about Bite before he begins to build himself. Many ponies have never seen a timberwolf and those how did have most certainly met not a friendly one."

Both Spirit and Bite nodded simultaneously. "I guess you right. I will try to remember that." He turned to Bite who smiled at him.

In the Crystal empire was Leaf meanwhile sitting together with Shining armor and Cadence at the lunch table. They all were silent until a crystal guard entered the room, he walked to Shining Armor and said something but he was too quiet for Leaf to hear what the guard said.

Shining Armor nodded and the guard left again. A few seconds later stood Shining up. "I have to apologies but there is a problem and I need to talk to the guards, we can't allow any holes in the security." After he left Leaf and Cadence ate their meal in silence.

As they had finished their meal stood Cadence up and walked on the next balcony and looked around. Leaf followed her and also began to look around. She grasped quietly as she saw the empire shining in the sun. "This is one of the most beautifully things I have ever seen!"

Cadence nodded understanding . "I know it is so beautiful."

"HELP! SOMEPONY HELP!"

The both turned their head in the direction of the screams. Leaf looked worried at Cadence. "What was that?"

She shook her head in response. "I don't know but I know that we have to help!"

Leaf held her at the shoulder. "No the guards can do that it is too dangerous if you left alone."

"HELP! PLEASE HELP!"

Cadence opened her wings. "No the guards could be too late." With that she flew off in the directions of the screams.

Leaf silently cursed in her head and ran down the stairs out of the palace.

Cadence now had reached the place where the screams had come from. She saw a grey unicorn hanging out of the window only held by his black cloak. The pony tired his best not to be strangled by his cloak while he hung there.

Cadence flew over to him and tried to help. "Calm down I will help!"

The pony looked at her and gave a smile. "Oh thank you your highness."

Cadence flew closer and turned around. "Try to get on my back!" The pony did as she said and sat on her back. After that Cadence flew a bit higher and undid the cloak from the window . As she finished that she slowly began to fly down.

Suddenly as they almost reached the ground the unicorn on Cadence struggled for a second and Cadence almost lost the balance. The pony on her back quickly apologizes. "I am sorry your highness I am not used to such heights."

Do to the stumbling her wings hurt a little but she just nodded. "No problem." As they finally reached the ground the pony jumped off from her back.

The pony bowed deeply. "I need to thank you your highness you were very helpful but I have to excuse myself. I don't have much time. Goodbye your highness." The pony turned around and began to walk away quickly.

At the same time was Leaf still on her way to the princess. As she saw how the pony with the black cloak walked away, she took all her strengths together and ran as fast as she could.

While walking she shot a bolt at him but missed the pony. The unicorn now noticed Leaf and turned around with a smile. He levitated a pink feather in front of his face then his horn brighten up for one second and green magic covered him and a second later he was gone.

Leaf stopped and looked at the small mark the teleportation had left on the ground. Cadence now came o her still not knowing what happened. "What is it? Did you know this pony?"

Leaf nodded and looked at Cadence directly. "Yes. That was Test Bolt. The pony who wanted an alicorn feather and now he has one. I need to go back to Canterlot as fast as possible."

Cadence nodded. "Of course." They walked back to the castle and Cadence ordered two pegasi guards with a carriage. As the guards waited turned Leaf one last time to Cadence. "Write a letter to the other princesses that Bolt has the feather."

Cadence nodded Leaf didn't wasted another second, she immediately stepped on the carriage and left.