Broken Howls and Tattered Leaves

       Uggh... My head was pounding like a drumset at a heavy metal concert, and the childish giggiling at my current state wasn't helping matters any. Wait... Giggiling? I slowly opened my eyes and was bestowed a vision most peculiar and bizarre. Light green Earth Ponies were floating and flitting between the trees. No wait, I stand corrected, they were floating and flitting INTO the trees. Each of them had a light green coat, almost a dark mint color, with a darker leaf pattern across their bodies. Their manes and tails were much like their leaf patterns in that they were made of leaves and were gently flowing in a non existent breeze.

       "I am glad to see that you have finally awoken Twigleaf. You have been absent from the realm of the concious for the entire night previous. I was beginning to worry for you." Terra's comforting voice emanated from the World Tree. Instead of the massive oak tree I had grown accustomed to, it was now aglow with a strange, etheral light.

       'Terra?' I asked, somewhat shocked at her new glow. 'What happened?'

       "The Seed of Gaia has accepted you as it's Bearer, though I did not intend for you to be exposed to it's power just yet." Terra explained. "You are now 'Gaia's Avatar' and now my power within you, though I had to seal most of it away as the nature of your soul still has yet to grow accustomed to such immense power. I looked down at my chest, a small glow matching that of the World Tree was leaking from between the branches that made up my chest. It dissipated as I became aware of it. It felt warm and comforting, much like I had experienced earlier before I blacked out. It made me feel confident and at peace with the world and my lot in life. I felt like I could take on the world, but not any giant spiders though. I was done with those for the time being. Hopefully forever. I looked up at the playful, green ponies floating through the trees.

       'So, what are those things?' I asked.

       "Those are this world's dryads. They are spirits of the forest and protectors of the trees." As she said this, a dryad with a bright, vibrant rose flew up into my face and stared me down with large golden eyes, much like my own. It smiled and let loose a crystalline sound that was similar to the giggling from earlier. It flew off before I could examine it closer.

       'How come I can see them now and not before?' I asked, watching the dryads start to form a ring around Terra and spin slowly around her large trunk. A strange, sparkling dust was falling from them and looked somewhat reminiscent of a large gathering of fire flies on a warm summer's eve.

       "The Seed amplifies what little druidic power you had and I can only assume that you can now use one of the most basic abilities that all druids share." I frowned at the word 'basic'. Was I really that weak? "It is known amongst your own people as 'Nature's Sight' or 'The Eye of Gaia'."

       Man, I was starting to think I was in some sort of video game or RPG. I mean, 'Nature's Sight' sounded like some sort of passive ability from a MMORPG or something. There were a few moments of awkward silence before I spoke up.

      'So, were you always a tree?' I asked, curious as to her origins. I was actually surprised I didn't ask before. Terra seemed to mull the question over before replying.

       "No. At one time, both Coralis and I both had humanoid forms as that was something of a universal norm. Our mother, the one you know as Gaia, or Mother Nature, created us to keep the new planet of Equis from destroying itself. We took the form of Alicorns as the growing sapient creatures of the planet were the Ponies." She was planting images and events from a time loooong past directly into my head as she spoke. I saw two somewhat familiar forms of young girls looking down at a ball of green and blue. The next image was that of two very familiar Alicorn fillies as they walked amongst the new life that sprung up around them. The final image was that of the elder filly sleeping deep within the planet's core and the younger glowing and becoming a large tree. Not quite the largest around, but still quite massive.

       "After Cora went to the core of the planet to stabalize it's magma flows and set the continental plates in motion, she fell into a deep slumber to regenerate the power she had used. I had decided to use my power to become one with nature itself by turning myself into a Hamadryad." I had no clue as to what a 'hamadryad' was, but Terra seemed to pick up my unspoken confusion and explain. "A Hamadryad is akin to a dryad in the sense that they are spirits of the forest, but they are actually the tree itself. They cannot physically leave the tree, but if they are powerful enough they can create an illusion to project an image into the surrounding world, much like myself." That actually explained why she wasn't projecting herself like usual. With my new 'level up' and 'perk' I probably would have seen right through it and see her true self, which was the World Tree.

       'So, what now?' I asked, for some reason or another, I felt an itch to leave the forest and travel. Which is odd, because I never had much wanderlust before.

       "Now that you posses the Seed, I was hoping you could help me set nature back into balance. Ever since Discord was released, my control over the forests of Equis has been waning, and chaos has become their ruler. I hesitate to ask this of you after your previous 'ordeal', but this must be done and no other I can send will be able to commune with the Guardian Saplings that reside in each forest." Let's see...

       Travel?

       Check!

       Possibly meet some ponies?

       Double check!

       Save the world from a slow and terrible demise?

       Might as well check that one off as well.

       'Sure, it isn't like I have anything better to do right now.' I replied. 'I'm sure Keet would be estatic to get out of here.' Terra glowed happily.

       "Thank you Chil- No. You are no longer a child in the eyes of the forest. You deserve to be addressed as such. From now on, you shall be known as Twigleaf, Avatar of Gaia. You may leave whenever you wish, though I think Strong Oak would like to bid you farewell. I believe he is in the clearing where you first met him." I smiled and bid Terra a fond farewell. It wasn't like I was never going to return, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was not going to be back any time soon.

       It wasn't long before I found Strong Oak sitting in the middle of the tiny clearing where I first arrived and subsequently freaked out. He was silent as I approached and continued to look up into the blue sky the showed through the canopy.

      'Is it already that time?' He asked. A tone of remorse could be heard plain as day in his voice. 'I had hoped that this day would not come for some time yet. I sat next to him an joined him in his cloud gazing.

       'Yeah, I wouldn't mind staying for a bit longer, but the world isn't going to save itself ya know!' We both shared a chuckle.

       'To think that when you first arrived, you couldn't tell left from right, let alone how to properly thought speak.' He paused. 'You truly have grown in the month you have spent amongst us... I am proud to call you 'Packmate'.' We both sat in silence for awhile, just content to watch the clouds blow by. I got up and said.

       'Well, I guess this is goodbye. At least, for a little while.' He removed his gaze from the sky and looked me in the eyes.

       'Remember that you are always welcome here in Gaia's Navel young Avatar.' I smiled at him and left. A part of me just wanted to run up to him and hug him, but we were guys. Guys don't have mushy feelings or do hugs. There wasn't anything else to say anyways.

       I actually felt Keet's presence before I saw him glide down out of a nearby tree and alight onto my head.

       "So, ya say yer farewells to the old wolf and the tree hag?" He asked. I just ignored his shoddy insults. It really wasn't his strong suit.

       'Yeah. We might as well get started now Keet. We have a long road ahead of us. A long road indeed.' Keet just laughed.

       "You keep talking like that Woody, and you may just wither up and die from old age!"

       'Oh ha ha. Very funny. You do realize that I can hurt you right?' I said jokingly.

       "And what are ya going to do? Sprout a tree in my stomach? You don't have it in ya!" He retorted.

       'Oh yeah? Watch m-' I was rudely cut off my a shrill, feminine scream.

       "I think we should check that out Woody." Keet said, even though I was already runing towards the source of the disturbance.

       'Way ahead of you!'

       I burst through the underbrush and spotted a familiar Manticore growling and approaching an even more familiar Earth Pony. The pony had a light, cream colored coat with a rose and pink mane; her cutie mark was that of a single, blooming rose.

       'Bad George!' I scolded the manticore. George backed down and folded his ears back. 'What have I said about eating ponies?' George whimpered and backed further away from the Pony. I turned to the Pony and apologized for George. 'I'm sory bout that. He gets kinda antsy around new faces. He really is a nice kitten when you get to know him.' The Pony look at me confused and horrified. I knew from my experience that no one could really hear my thought speech, but her look made me think that she could.

       She blubbered some nonsense and promptly went out like a light from the shock of hearing me speak, let alone at my size compared to hers.

       "Well, dungfeathers... I guess she couldn't stand your breath." I gave him an unamused glare and looked back at the pony. Her saddle bags were on the ground and open. Looking inside one, I saw that she had been collecting flowers and small bags of seeds.

        'I guess she is expanding her shop selection. I wonder why she didn't hire anyone else to do it for her?'

       "Maybe because she is an idiot? I am still wondering how she got down into the Navel! It is like a hundred hoof drop straight down!" Keet exclaimed. The po- Okay, by now you should have figured it out that she is Roseluck. So I am going to say such.- Roseluck let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes. Which quickly took on their previous look of fear as she noticed me sitting there watching her.

        'You alright there miss?' I asked, even though I knew the answer already.

       "Y-you c-can talk?!" She exclaimed.

       "DING DING DING! Lets give Captain Obvious here a prize!" Keet said sarcastically. Rose glared at him, then returned her gaze back to me.

        "B-but how? I thought all Timberwolves were savage beasts!"

       'Funny story that. Turns out that all Timberwolves are capable of speech through telepathy, but no one outside of the forests realy take the time to listen. As for why the Timberwolves are savage. Well, let us just say that I am here to change that.' I explained to her in a slow, yet comforting tone. 'You really shouldn't be so afraid of me. I am not going to eat you, I don't think I can anyways, being a plant and all that.'

       She seemed to calm down a bit. "I-I see..." She paused as if thinking of something she had forgotten. "Umm... You wouldn't know where I can find a 'Blood Rose' by any chance, would you?" She asked. Strange question, but I went with it.

       'Sure, just a second.' I ushered up some of my newfound power and asked the soil to produce whatever a 'Blood Rose' was. The soil complied and a small sprout grew and bloomed into a small bush with a single, deep red rose that bloomed. It looked like the closer the red got to the center of the rose, the darker it got.

       'Well, here you go. One Blood Rose. Anything else I can help you out with?' I said jokingly. Roseluck looked on in awe as the bush bloomed right in front of her eyes.

       "How did you do that?!" She exclaimed, looking the rose bush up and down. She was starting to get giddy.

       'I asked it to grow and it did. That is all there is to it. At least for me anyways.' She looked from me to the bush and back to me with a tear in her eye.

       "You have no idea how much this means to me..." She paused.

       'Twigleaf. Just call me Twig. This is Keet.' I pointed to the snickering fowl.

       "My name is Roseluck. I want to thank you for saving me earlier, but do you think you could help me out of the forest? It is far more dangerous than I realized..." She shuffled a forehoof and looked at the ground.

       'Sure. I was just headed out of the forest myself, but I have no idea which direction Equestria is.' She beamed and said.

       "OH! Thank you Twig! I can show you to Ponyville if you want. It is a nice little town on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Although the forest is really scary..."

       'I don't think the Everfree will be any trouble. And I would be glad to escort you back to Ponyville.' Roseluck smiled and hugged me tightly.

       "Thank you again Twig. I have to make a stop in Stalliongrad to the north first to sell some of these seeds and get more supplies for the trip home." Hmm... Stalliongrad huh? Sounded interesting enough.

       'Sure. Lets get going!' I said. Roseluck cut the Blood Rose and placed in in her saddle bags.

       "I do hope nothing happens on the way there..."

***AN: Well, here we are folks! The first chapter in the newest arc 'The Journey to Canterlot'. I do hope you enjoy. If you haven't already, check out my Tumblr at Ask Twigleaf. Twiggy loves getting questions and you can now ask Roseluck some as well! At least until they get to Ponyville and she leaves the merry band. Any errors in this chapter can be attributed to the fact I typed this up on my new Wii. It gets laggy the more I type so most of the errors will be just not having doubled letters. My update schedule shall now be for sure on Saturday nights and maybe wednesday evenings now. Hopefully I can hold up to the schedule. Well, Enjoy! I shall try and edit any errors when I use my computer next. If you spot any errors just tell me in the comments below.

Let me give a shout out to DataPacRat and the fic Myov'e Got To Be Kidding Me. Awesome stuff.

       ~Chewed Pencil***