Spirit of the Sacred Forest

Chapters

The Beginning
The Birth
Morning
Ponyville
The Princess
Withering
Forest

The Beginning

I suppose if I'm going to start a story, I should start with a little bit about myself and my previous life. I was a major geek. Video games, comics, movies, TV shows, anime\manga, fantasy, sci-fi, you name it. I loved being a geek and being a part of geek culture. I wasn't really the fit in type of person and while that led to being bullied a lot in my childhood, when I grew up it didn't matter. And as you can imagine, I attended a lot of conventions. At first as an attendee, then as a vendor.

See I'd always been pretty small for my age as a result of being born almost a whole month premature (though thankfully, I didn't end up with any sort of health issues). Even though I wasn't much for sports and such, I was still an athletic person and very good with my hands and creating things. When I got older, I started making things to sell online or at a convention. Gradually, some of my friends and family got into it and I made some new friends and before I knew, we were making and selling cool things at conventions or online, creating our own business.

We attended any convention we could either close to home or out of state. It was a pretty cool thing we had going. And that's how my story started. We had a stand at a video game convention so we brought primarily our video game merchandise. The day started out normal, we came, set up our stand and began selling. And like any other Con goer, I came in costume. This time, I came as Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest. See, I'd loved the game and had enjoyed every minute of it. The story, the gameplay, the visuals, everything! And Ori was just my favorite character in the game. He was just so cute and awesome at the same time, like Toothless or Stitch.

Anyways, I had gone all out for my costume, even putting in colored contacts so my eyes would look like Ori's eyes. I wasn't confident that many people would get my costume since I never really hear anybody talking about it, but at this point in my life, it didn't matter if people got it right off the bat. If they did, then kudos to them. If not and they were asking, then I could tell them about one of the most beautiful games ever made. Anyways, at some point when business was slow, I decided I wanted to look around at the other tables and see what they had. So I left the table in the capable hands of my best friend\cousin and went looking around.

As a result of being a vendor for as long as we have, there are a number of vendors that I knew. Now I can't positively say I knew everyone, but there were still some I knew and were friends with. As I was going around saying hi and checking out people's wares, I came across a vendor I didn't immediately recognize. While I tended to avoid horror games, I still knew enough to recognize the Merchant from Resident Evil. Not as immediately as Pyramid Head, but moving on. Anyways, his costume was incredibly well done that I couldn't help but stop and admire the detail.

Shortly afterward, I recognized the guy. I remember seeing him at a couple of cons I'd attended where a few attendees had disappeared. The guy sold costume props that were really well done and I couldn't help but admire how realistic they were. Unfortunately, none of his wares had interested me before plus with how much work and detail had been put into these, they just had to be out of my price range. So I hadn't bought anything from him. Until now.

Sitting right there on his table was this beautiful, white crystal orb that looked like Sein. I just had to have it. So without an ounce of hesitation, I strode right over to his booth. When he saw me moving towards him, he smiled. Or at least I think he smiled, hard to say for sure if he was smiling since his face was covered, but his eyes were definitely smiling.

"Welcome to my table friend." He greeted once I drew near. "Is there anything here that's caught your eye this year?"

In the past, I shook my head at his familiar greeting, but this time I nodded. "How much for this?" I asked as I picked up the Sein orb and noticed with delight that there was a switch to presumably turn it on.

I swear that guy's grin widened tenfold. "Normally, this particular piece would be more expensive, but considering how long you've been eyeing my merchandise, I'm willing to give you a discount."

"Deal." Was my instant reply. I handed over the money and went on my merry way none the wiser. For a while, nothing happened. I showed my Sein light to my cousin and she thought it was awesome, we sat and sold some more of our stuff, the usual. Nothing big. A few hours later in the afternoon, after I'd washed my hands following lunch, I started to feel unsteady and it just got worse as I went to the point where it felt like I was walking on a water bed on a super fast merry go round.

Then the merry go round suddenly vanished and I found myself falling. By this point, everything was a murky blur and when I tried to call out or reach for something, my voice didn't come out right and my hand found nothing. Darkness crowded my vision and before I passed out, I saw a bright light like a lamp or a flashlight.

Then, nothing.

The Birth

Warmth.

The next thing I perceived was a strong gentle warmth that held and surrounded me. It's hard to describe it, but at that time it felt like I was half asleep and half awake. I couldn't see or move or even feel a body to move or see with, but I was content. A little later, I realized that the strong gentle warmth I perceived was, in fact, a presence that was gently wrapping it's 'arms' around me. Time had no meaning to me, so I have no idea how much passed me by.

I recall at some point, this huge powerful being said that soon I would be born and that I would join my siblings. The message wasn't conveyed such much with words as it was feeling, but I understood and I looked forward to that day. Not too long after however, there was a snap. Since I didn't have any ears, I couldn't hear it but I could feel it and from my point of view, it was a snap because in that instance I was cut off from the warm comforting presence I'd been with for so long. My half-conscious mind cried and wailed for my lost connection, but they didn't return.

While I didn't have a body to speak of, I was still able to perceive motion and quickly realized that I was flying, albeit an uncontrolled flight that made me think about a leaf blowing in the wind. I paused as that particular metaphor crossed my mind and briefly wondered why it struck a chord. Ah well, it'll come to me later. I'm not sure how long I flew as I had no way of telling night from day and my perception of time was still off kilter. For all I knew, I could've been flying for days or weeks even months or years.

After who knows how long, I began to descend and soon enough, I touched down on solid ground. Upon touching down, I felt this odd surge of energy and then I grew. My body surged in size and changed. I could feel arms and legs growing, my head and face took form, though it felt different than what I vaguely remember. I felt a tail extend behind me and there were two sets of something on my head. Soon it was over, and I was left bombarded with new sensations.

No longer was I unable to perceive the world, now I could hear, feel and smell. My ears were picking up sounds, but they were somewhat muted. Beneath me, I could feel wet springy grass and raindrops landing on my new body. My nose further confirmed that it was raining as the smell of rain wafted into them, a fresh wet scent I always enjoyed.

I would've examined more of my new environment and myself, but my body was so heavy with exhaustion that I couldn't even open my eyes. Instead, I just lay there letting myself drift into slumber. Before my mind could sink into dreamland, my ears twitched as they registered soft, gentle steps approaching. I was then scooped up by gentle arms and cradled softly. The last thing I heard was a soft voice speaking quietly to me through the words didn't reach me as I had fully sunk into slumber.

✴✴✴✴✴✴

It was a terrible storm the pegasi had whipped up. There hadn't been much rain for a while, so now the weather team of Ponyville whipped up one heck of a downpour to make up for it, complete with thunder and lightning. As a result, much of Ponyville's residents were sequestered inside their homes and Fluttershy was no exception. While the thunder and lightning were scary and loud, the shy pegasus enjoyed this time to some extent. During times like these, her home was warm and cozy and she was surrounded by as many of her animal friends as she could fit in her cottage.

Fluttershy couldn't think of a better way to spend a stormy day than relaxing at home reading a book, knitting, sewing, cooking, singing or even cleaning surrounded by her animal friends. She was reading a book as she leaned up against Mr. Bear's warm belly when something caught her eye. Looking up from the pages of the book, she caught a glimpse of something shiny flying past her window. Curious, she set her book down and went to the window to investigate.

It was a leaf, but there was no doubt in Fluttershy's mind that this was anything but an ordinary leaf. In her experience, leaves weren't a glowing white. Almost hypnotized, Fluttershy watched as the leaf danced upwards before coming to a slow land in her backyard. The second it rested on the ground, the light increased to a bright flash that made Fluttershy shield her eyes. As quickly as it came, the flash faded away and Fluttershy put her hoof down to look out the window again...and her jaw dropped in shock.

Where a glowing leaf had been was now a small creature she'd never seen. It was small and covered in glowing white fur like the leaf. She could see a tail and long ears, but from here, that was all she could decern. One thing was certain, that poor little one would surely catch a cold out in the rain. The downpour had gotten lighter, but it still had no intention of stopping. Without hesitation, Fluttershy opened her back door and went out in the rain. As she approached the strange creature, the features became more distinct.

She could see that while it had tiny hooves on its back legs, the front legs had short fingers suggesting that it walked like a minotaur. Its head was also slightly larger than it's body and when she realized that its proportions were like a small child, she quickened her pace. Fluttershy also saw that the creature had two sets of ears. A small set on top of its head and a larger set located further down. As she approached, one of the larger ears twitched, meaning that it heard her approaching, yet besides the twitch, it didn't make any other move.

'Perhaps it's too tired to move.' Fluttershy guessed. If that were the case, then she'd have to be a little quieter. She stepped a little softer and upon reaching the creature, gently scooped it up. As she scooped it up, however, it let out an odd sounding squeak. It sort of sounded like an echoing cry, but Fluttershy pushed that aside and instantly went into a comforting mode, pulling the creature close to her chest as she spoke in soft tones.

"Shhh, shhh. It's okay. You're alright." She whispered. There was no response, but judging by the small being's breath, it was fast asleep.

✴✴✴✴✴✴

Fluttershy had quickly reentered her house shortly afterward and was now in the process of toweling off. The strange creature she'd brought in was now lying on a towel of its own with all her animals friends surrounding it in curiosity. Pretty soon, however, Fluttershy felt she needed to break it up.

"Alright now everybody, that's enough." She said as she started shooing animals away. "Give him some space."

Reluctantly, her friends turned and left one by one until finally, it was just Fluttershy and Angel bunny around the little one. The pegasus then began drying off the creature by gently rubbing it with the towel it was on. After a couple of minutes of watching her, Angel spoke up.

(How do you know it's even a boy?) He asked, making Fluttershy pause. (Do you even know what it's gender is?)

"That's a very good question Angel, thank you for asking." She said and the bunny grinned proudly. Fluttershy, however, was now conducting an investigation of the area in question. Soon, she was done and reported her findings.

"Female." She announced. As Fluttershy finished drying the now known female, Angel continued to speak.

(So now we know it's a girl, but not what her species is.) Angel observed. (I know I've never seen this particular creature before, and neither have you. It's a completely new species, will we even know how to take care of her properly? Do we even know what she eats?)

"I know all of that Angel, but I still have to try." Fluttershy defended. "I can't just leave her, especially out in this rain."

(Yeah, I know. Still, it's not going to be easy. Plus we don't even know where she came from or even if her parents are looking for her.)

"Well if her parents come looking, well give her to them." As Fluttershy spoke, she'd finished drying the creature and was now wrapping her in a blanket. "Until then, we'll do our best to look after her."

And with that, the conversation was closed. It was getting late, so Fluttershy and her animals started getting ready for bed. Fluttershy had pulled out an extra basket and tucked the baby creature inside then placed the basket in her room. Before tucking into her own bed, Fluttershy gave many of her animal friends a kiss goodnight including her newest little one. When she'd placed a kiss on her forehead, she'd stirred lightly but didn't wake up.

"Sleep tight little one." She whispered before switching off the light and tucking into bed. Tomorrow certainly promised to be interesting.

Author's Note

Ta-da! My first Displaced fic! I hope you enjoyed my first chapters and I'm sorry for not publishing more chapters of my other stories. I'm working on it as well as I can. Hopefully I can publish as soon as possible. Anyways, quick fact, when I first started this I originally intended for Ori to be genderless like in the video game, hence the reason why there is no gender specified in the first chapter.

But then I did a little research and I found that the reason why Ori has no gender is so the player can sort of be put in that role and Ori's gender is up to the player. So I thought it was appropriate for Ori to assume the gender of the person dressed as them. So there you have it, my Ori is a girl.

Morning

Author's Note

I know it seems a little soon to post a chapter, but I've sorta been on an inspiration binge and honestly, I didn't think I'd finish a chapter so soon. Hopefully I can keep this up for both this story and my other stories, published and unpublished. I hope you enjoy this.

Morning

The next morning brought with it bright sunshine that made the lingering droplets of water on various trees, plants and spiderwebs sparkle like little diamonds. Fluttershy had already woken up and had begun to feed her animal friends which meant that her room was empty as her newest little guest stirred and awoke from her slumber. Black and white eyes blinked and looked around as her mind tried to put the pieces together.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

When I woke up, everything felt strange and different. The first thing I registered was how soft and warm this bed was. Sometimes I like sleeping in, but as my first coherent memories came back to me, I snapped my eyes open in an instant. The convention. That guy, then fainting. One thing I knew for certain, this was not my room or the hospital. Even more confusing was the angle of which I was seeing it. I knew I was small, but I'm not that small.

Then I noticed the rest. By virtue of the fact that I was now glowing, my attention was drawn down to my body. I didn't even need to think to know what kind of body I was in. White glowing fur, tiny hooves, strange arms, a tail and when I reached up to touch my head, I felt my ears. One pair was lower down on my head while a second smaller pair was on top. I knew exactly who I was but I still felt the need to confirm.

Quickly I jumped out of bed and went hunting for a mirror. It took some time, but eventually, I found a mirror in a bathroom. Getting up to look at it was easy and soon I was looking at Ori in the mirror. It was Ori alright, every single detail right down to the eyes. Only the proportions were off, like if Ori was younger and more childlike. Then my eyes widened as the rest of my more recent memories rushed back to me.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

After feeding the others, Fluttershy decided to check on her mysterious guest before starting on breakfast. As she was walking past the bathroom, however, she heard a clatter and when she looked in to investigate, she saw the little creature in question steadying a mouthwash bottle on the sink. As soon as she walked in, the creature's head shot up and it stared at her, frozen and still holding the bottle. Fluttershy on her part just stared at the creature's strange eyes. White with black sclera. She hadn't seen such eyes before. Clearing her throat, the creature jumped in surprise and fumbled with the mouthwash bottle before putting it back.

"Oh, I'm so sorry little one." Fluttershy apologized. "I'm just surprised, I didn't expect to see you up and about. And I certainly didn't expect to find you in the bathroom. What are you doing here anyway? Did you need to use the restroom?"

The little creature shook her head.

"Oh, well would you like to come get something to eat?" Fluttershy asked as she moved closer to the sink and stuck a wing out with obvious intent.

The creature paused for a moment and then nodded and jumped onto the offered wing. Despite her size, the creature was actually much lighter than Fluttershy expected. The only way she could tell anyone was on her back was because she felt a small amount of pressure on her hands and paws on her back. Even more surprising was what happened as she moved. In the little creature's wake were little 'leaves' of light that trailed behind her and faded away. After a moments pause, Fluttershy shook off her curiosity and began the trot downstairs.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

I was riding Fluttershy's back. I had a number of Brony friends who would be so jealous of me. After I'd accidentally knocked over a bottle on the sink, she walked right in and my brain just froze as I tried to comprehend what was happening. One thing I knew for certain, I wasn't on earth anymore. I was in Equestria. Of course, I knew My Little Pony and while I wasn't as big a fan as some people I would care to name, I was nonetheless a fan.

As Fluttershy and I went downstairs, I started thinking. If my memories were correct, after I fell through whatever I fell through, I ended up growing on the Spirit Tree like Ori did. Then I got ripped off, presumably in a storm like in the game, and now I was in Fluttershy's Cottage here in Equestria. What about Nibel? Did I fly through some sort of portal or do the forests of Nibel exist here in Equestria? There was no indication of such a place existing in the show, but maybe this was some alternate Equestria.

As I was occupied with my thoughts, I didn't notice we were downstairs until Fluttershy set me on the table. From my place on the table, I watched as Fluttershy brought in a few bowls and set them in front of me. I peeked into all the bowls and saw that some had vegetables, fruits, and various plants while others had things like fish, pork, and chicken.

"Since I've never seen a creature like you before, I didn't know what you eat," Fluttershy explained as she settled into a seat. "So I just made a little of everything and hoped you would instinctively know what was good for you and what wasn't."

Smart, though what interested me the most was how Fluttershy apparently knew how to cook meat (every single meat food item wasn't just cooked, it smelled glorious), even though she was an herbivore. For the moment, I would chalk it up to taking care of various animals including carnivores. Setting that aside, I began to wonder what did I eat? Thinking back on the game, you never really see characters eating except in the opening sequence and in that one, you only see these orange fruits and a few purple fruits that could be seen as plums and peaches or apricots.

Heck for all I knew, Guardian Spirits didn't need to eat and the only reason why Ori died of starvation was that the Spirit Tree was dying. This thought made me pause to think about the Spirit Tree and how connected the Guardian Spirits were to it. Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Sein didn't go into detail about it, but he did say as much when they came to Fil's tree.

"Umm, are you okay?" Fluttershy's worried question pulled me from my thoughts. I just smiled and nodded. There was no need to worry Fluttershy and the way I was feeling, there was a chance that the tree was okay. I looked back at the bowls of food and ultimately decided to sample them.

I started with some fruits, vegetables, and grains, skipping over most of the foods like grass, hay and pet food. I did sample a bite of those (new body, new rules may as well see what I can take) and though they tasted alright and went down fine, I wasn't too keen to eat them and I made this clear to Flutters. Next came the meats. And to my pleasant surprise, I found that I can eat and digest meat like I used to. Even better, it tasted just as gloriously as it smelled. Fluttershy could really cook. Soon, I cleaned almost all the bowls of food.

"Wow, I suppose that means you're an omnivore," Fluttershy said as she gathered up the bowls and leftover food.

Not completely accurate, but you know it. I groaned mentally as I lay on my back and gave her a thumbs up. Most likely, she didn't know what it meant but whatever. Even though I wasn't hungry in the first place, I felt stuffed and I applauded Fluttershy's cooking talent. Hands (or hooves) down the best meal I'd ever had. A big round of applause all around. Whoop whoop!

"I'm glad you like it," Fluttershy said with a smile that could melt the hardest of hearts. "If you don't mind me asking, do you have a name?"

I sat up as her question reminded me of my current situation and nodded.

"Oh good, would you tell me what it is?" That question made me pause as I thought about how to answer her. There were two different ways I could answer her. My human name back on earth and the name of the character I currently was. I looked down at myself and thought about what had happened. While I had once been human, I wasn't anymore. I had essentially been reborn as a different being so I didn't seem like my old name fit.

~Call me Ori~ I finally said. Fluttershy, however, cocked her head in confusion.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" She asked in confusion and I looked at her in confusion too.

~What do you mean, I said-~ I stopped once I heard what I was saying. While I was speaking and to me, it sounded like what I was trying to say, the sounds were different. There's no easy way to describe this, but it sounded like coos, chirps, trills, and squeaks with a musical echo.

~Hmmm, that's new. And considering your reaction, I'm going to guess that you can't understand me.~ I said. Fluttershy just stared at me in confusion for a while then shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand anything you're saying." She said.

~Yep, I guessed as much.~ I replied. Flutter's ears dropped and I certainly hoped she didn't think I said something mean.

"I'm sorry, this has never happened before with any other animals I've talked to." She apologized, looking so upset I moved as close as I could and patted her on the hoof.

~Hey, hey it's okay.~ I soothed. ~Its not your fault. It's most likely because I'm not an animal.~

Thankfully before she could get too upset about her inability to understand me, her stomach let out an audible growl that made her blush. After a moment of silence, she spoke.

"I suppose I should get myself some breakfast too." She said. She then stood up and quickly trotted into the kitchen to prepare herself a meal.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

After eating, Fluttershy announced that today she was going to take me to see my friends. I had mixed feelings about her friends. Applejack was a nice sort of pony and so was Rainbow Dash, though sometimes she could be a bit better about somethings. Rarity would probably try to design an outfit for me, but the two I was more concerned about was Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie meant well, but I thought that she could dial things back a notch.

Some might like surprises and her getting in your face, but there were some that didn't and I felt that that was a lesson she needed to learn someday. As for Twilight, it wasn't that I disliked her as a character, as a matter of fact, she's one of my favorites. It was just that in this instance, I wasn't looking forward to meeting her. Think about it, I'm a species that these ponies had never seen before and if there was something Twilight didn't know about, her thirst for knowledge would make her seek out answers. I foresee tests and maybe experiments in my future.

Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate this directly to Fluttershy, but I did make a vow. Under no circumstances would I let myself be alone in the same room with Twilight. I will stay as close to Fluttershy as possible and when she leaves, I leave with her. With this plan in mind, I lept up and with a flip, landed on Fluttershy's back. The gentle pegasus stared at me and then smiled.

"Well, I suppose that means you're ready to go, huh?" She asked. I only nodded. No need to remind her of her inability to understand me when a simple head bob would suffice. And with that, we were out the door.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

Applejack took in a deep breath of fresh air. After a good rainstorm following that dry spell, everything smelled fresh and clean instead of dry and dusty. It was moments like these that made her pause and just take it all in and wish that it would last forever. Unfortunately, there was work to do, so AJ snapped out of her reverie and proceeded to strap herself to the cart. Once she was sure the straps were secure, she pulled out the gate and was on the road to the Ponyville marketplace to sell her family's wares. As she trotted down the now cool and wet road, her ears perked up at the sound of somepony calling her name.

"Applejack!" The farmpony turned in the direction of the soft shout and saw a familiar pink maned pegasus approaching from the air.

"Mornin' Flutters!" She greeted good-naturedly once she came closer.

"Good morning Applejack," Fluttershy replied as she came in for a landing and now that she was closer, she could see there was something bright behind her friend's head.

"Hey Flutters, is everythin' okay?" She asked and her friend gave her a confused look.

"Everything is just fine, why would you think anything wasn't?" The pegasus asked.

"Well, Ah don't know it just seems a little bright out for you to be carrying a lantern," AJ answered. Fluttershy looked a little confused a bit longer before a look of realization dawned on her face.

"Oh, you mean- I'm sorry, but this isn't a lantern. Just my newest friend." As she spoke, Fluttershy reached behind her and pulled out the strangest (and admittedly most adorable) critter she'd ever seen. There was a long pause as the farmpony took in the entire critter, from it's glowing white fur to it's black and white eyes.

"Well I'll be, that's the most interesting critter I've ever seen." She finally said. "Ah've never seen anything like it. So what is it?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy replied. "I've never seen her species before either. Not even in the books I've read."

"So does that mean that this here is some new species?" Applejack asked as Fluttershy placed the critter in question back on her back.

"Or a previously undiscovered species," Fluttershy added. "Remember, there are places that haven't been explored yet, so it stands to reason that there are a number of undiscovered species."

"True. So, how did you find this little critter?" As Applejack asked her question, she had started walking with Fluttershy following.

"Last night, during the storm," Fluttershy answered. "I spotted this leaf that was flying around in my backyard."

"A leaf?" AJ asked with a raised brow.

"Mm-hm. A white leaf that glowed just like her." Fluttershy said as she pointed to the creature on her back. Applejack's look of skepticism lifted while the strange creature seemed to be listening attentively as Fluttershy continued her story. "Once it landed on the ground in my backyard, there was this bright flash of white light and when it cleared, there she was."

AJ was quiet as she took in Fluttershy's story. "Hmm, well I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing before." The earthpony said sagely. "But Granny always said that magic works in strange ways, so it doesn't surprise me much. Anyhow, does yer new critter have a name?"

Suddenly, the pegasus wilted a little and Applejack felt like she accidentally hit a nerve. "Oh, well technically she does have a name, I just don't know it."

Once again, the farmer raised a brow this time in curiosity. "What do you mean by that, can't ya just ask her?"

Fluttershy wilted even more and AJ knew she hit a nerve. "Earlier today I did and she did answer, I just didn't understand anything that she said." The caretaker explained.

In response to Flutter's sudden funk, the mystery critter jumped on top of her head and began patting in an attempt to calm her. Applejack also added some comfort of her own in the form of her foreleg slung across her friend's now empty back.

"Hey now, don't y'all worry, it's nothin' to be ashamed of." AJ soothed. "Matter of fact, Ah don't think it's entirely your fault."

"You don't." Flutters sniffed.

"Not one bit." Applejack said firmly. "You said that you were able to communicate with animals, right?" At Fluttershy's nod, the farm mare continued. "What if this here critter, ain't an animal at all?"

Fluttershy gave it some thought. "That might explain why I can't understand her." She said. She then turned to her passenger, who had moved to her back once more when AJ's hoof left it. "Is that true? Are you really not an animal?"

The glowing creature nodded and Fluttershy slumped to the ground. When her flank hit the dirt, the little creature slid off her back and onto the ground with her. For a moment, they sat there in silence until Applejack finally broke the silence.

"Well, I suppose that's one mystery solved." The Apple said heartily. "Now, all we gotta do is figure out what ya are and where you come from."

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

After Fluttershy recovered and got back on her hooves, she offered to let me back up on her back but I declined. I'd had enough riding and I wanted to see what my new body could do. Plus, there's nothing wrong with a little exercise and I had some things to think about myself. Fluttershy's account of how I'd ended up here confirmed what I'd already suspected\known. Until recently, I'd been growing on the Spirit Tree. It was almost exactly like the game. Of course, if that was the case, it was entirely possible I'd have to save the forest.

This thought made me pause my flipping and jumping around. The idea of going through the game in real life sent a number of mixed thoughts and feelings through my brain. On one hand, the idea sounded awesome to the video game geek in me who was currently squealing like a fangirl. But on the other hand, my more sensible half was reminding me that this wasn't a video game, it was real life. Meaning that if I died, then there would be no revival to start over. It would be game over period.

But on one hand, if something did happen, I couldn't just back out. If the Spirit Tree was here in Equestria than it dying would lead to the end of Equestria. Could I really just sit back and let a whole planet die. I glanced back at Fluttershy and Applejack who were walking side by side and chatting with each other. When they'd noticed I had paused to look back at them, Fluttershy waved at me and without thinking, I waved back.

No. Absolutely not. I would not allow it if I had any sort of say. There was nothing I could do now, but if things would play out like in the game, then I wouldn't hesitate to rise to the challenge. For now, all I could do was pray that nothing happened to the Spirit Tree.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

"Energetic little critter, ain't she?" Applejack commented casually as the little creature in question ran up the hill they were going up and disappeared from sight. "Nimble too, did ya see all those jumps and flips it was doing? Ah, ain't ever seen any critters able to do stuff like that."

Fluttershy nodded as the two mares crested the hill. "Earlier this morning, I found her on the sink in my bathroom."

Applejack nodded. "Fer a small critter, she seems capable of getting up ta places out of reach."

Fluttershy frowned and her brow crinkled in worry. "Oh my, I hope she'll be careful."

"Hey, don't worry Flutters." Applejack said. "Ah may not be an expert, but from the looks of things, it seemed like she knew what she was doing. She'll be just fine."

"I hope you're right," Fluttershy answered, still worried though less so than earlier.

When she looked up, she saw that her new friend had once again stopped and was staring at what was over the crest of the hill. Once the two ponies caught up, they could see what she was staring at. From this vantage point, Ponyville was visible in all its glory. Applejack grinned and placed a hoof on her head.

"That there is or hometown li'l critter." She said. "Welcome to Ponyville."

Ponyville

Before we went into town, Fluttershy insisted that I ride on her back so I wouldn't get under hoof and consider my size, I relented. Since Applejack had been coming into town to set up her family stand, we entered the town in the market area. It was still pretty early in the day, so there weren't a lot of ponies out, but there was still a good amount of ponies out and as expected, I drew a lot of attention. At the moment, however, I didn't care. I was on the lookout for a certain pink pony.

"Hi, there!"

There's a saying that goes this way, 'speak of the Devil and he shall come'. It refers to how when someone appears after being mentioned and while I wasn't talking about her, I was certainly thinking about her. Add in a sense that lets her know what's going on in her general area and her ability to interact with the fourth wall like she's the pony Deadpool, and I was pretty much screaming for it. Still, I feel my reaction at the time was justified.

Upon the sudden appearance of two blue orbs on a field of pink chiming out a greeting, I let out a shriek of surprise and backpedaled myself off of Fluttershy's back and landed on the ground on my own back with an 'oof'. Fluttershy in response, shot the offending mare a sharp look.

"Pinkie Pie, what have I told you about startling my animals." She scolded while her friend had the decency to look apologetic. While technically I wasn't an animal, I was too busy picking myself up to correct her. Plus there was that little thing called a language barrier.

"Sorry, Fluttershy." Pinkie apologized as Flutters turned her attention to me to examine for injuries. "See, my Pinkie Sense was telling me there was somebody new in town, so I got all excited about making a new friend. And while I was out here looking for the new friend, I saw you and your new friend and I just had to say hi!"

Fluttershy, having found no injuries, sighed and then turned back to her hyperactive friend. "I know you meant well, but not everybody likes surprise greetings." She said in a quiet but firm voice. "And while technically she isn't an animal, you shouldn't have surprised her like that."

"Okay." Pinkie said then turned to me. "Sorry about that little guy."

~I'm not a guy and apology accepted.~ I said, even though I knew full well neither of them would understand.

"What'd she say?" Pinkie Pie 'stage whispered' to Fluttershy who shook her head.

"I'm afraid I can't understand anything she's saying either." She admitted a little gloomily but not as gloomy as before.

"Really?" Pinkie asked in surprise and received a simple nod. "Wow, I would've thought that since you understand animals, you would know what she was saying."

"Like I said, she isn't an animal, therefore I cannot understand her." Fluttershy reiterated patiently. It didn't take much for Pinkie to figure out that that was still a touchy subject.

"Sorry." She apologized with a sheepish grin.

"It's okay," Fluttershy said. "Nobody is to blame."

"Thanks, Shy. So I suppose that means that you don't know what her name is unless of course, you gave her a name."

"Oh, I couldn't," Fluttershy replied. "Not if she already has a name and would prefer to be called by that name."

"Hmmmmm." Pinkie Pie hummed thoughtfully as she stared at me where I had been sitting on the ground. "Then there's only one thing we can do. We'll have to guess what it is." A grin then spread across her face as she rubbed her hooves together. "Fortunately, I'm a very good guesser. Now then, is it Blacky?"

I shook my head in a definite no and Fluttershy gave her friend a quizzical look.

"Blacky? Why would you say that she isn't black."

"Sure she is, see the black in her eye." Pinkie explained. "I thought it was worth a shot, but since it isn't her name, it must be something else. Don't worry Fluttershy, I'm just getting warmed up."

What followed was a long long LONG list of possible names that weren't even close. At some point, we moved our guessing game to the side of the road so we weren't in anypony's way. After a full ten minutes of guessing, Pinkie finally sat back and stared at me as she rubbed her chin in thought.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, this is much tougher than I thought." She said. "It's going to take all of my guessing ability to figure this out."

"Or maybe we could narrow it down a bit," Fluttershy suggested and I could tell she'd grown as tired of this game as I had. "Like for example, her physical attributes. Maybe they could help us."

Pinkie Pie gasped. "What a great idea Fluttershy!" She exclaimed then leaned in to study me. "Hmm, well you're small and adorable. Your fur is white and it glows like a light."

"Is that your name?" Fluttershy asked then clarified. "Is your name Light?"

Now up until then I'd sort of been running on partial automatic, only paying enough attention to tell when a guess was wrong or not. This time I paused mostly because of how close Fluttershy hit the mark. Fun fact, Ori's name is a Hebrew name that literally means 'light' or 'my 'light'. Basically, she sorta hit the mark almost straight on. Of course, I couldn't tell her this directly, so I had to try and communicate how close she was using hand gestures. She didn't understand what I was 'saying', but thankfully Pinkie Pie was there to translate.

"Oo, oo, she's saying that you're very close." The party pony said excitedly. "Now let's see if we can't guess. Um, Shiny? Bright? White? Phosphorus?"

And once again, I was shaking my head at every suggestion. Thankfully, Fluttershy stepped in before Pinkie Pie could start going through another long itinerary of names.

"What if we just called you Light until we figure out your real name?" She suggested and I nodded almost a little too quickly. It was as close to my name they were probably going to get. At least until we figured out how to communicate.

"Light it is then, and it's been a pleasure meeting you. See you around!" Pinkie Pie declared then began skipping away as she waved.

~Take care you silly filly.~ I said with my own wave, even though I knew she wouldn't understand.

"Thanks! You too!" Pinkie shouted in reply and I pretty much stumbled in shock..........

Wut???

A large number of thought processes in my head instantly suffered a catastrophic failure and all I could do was sit and stare at the pink pony skipping on her merry way humming a tune as I waited for them to reboot. They wouldn't for another five minutes and I don't think they'll ever be the same again.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

Fluttershy patiently waited for Light to recover and once she did, they restarted their journey. Since they were in the market district, the closest of her friends was Rarity, so they started for the boutique. As she trotted down the road leading towards her friends home\business, a sudden shout made her jump.

"Hey, Fluttershy!" Called out a familiar voice which was quickly followed by a fwoosh and a thud as another of her friends made an entrance in front of her.

"Hey Shy, nice to see you this morning." Rainbow Dash greeted casually. "So what brings you to town, out for a grocery run?"

"Well no, but now that I think of it there are a few things I need to grab," Fluttershy answered her old friend. "Actually, I came to town because I wanted to introduce you to my new friend." Fluttershy then reached back and pulled Light off her back to show Dash. The polychromatic pegasus at first just stared at the creature which in turn stared back before waving, the motion snapping Rainbow out of her stupor.

"Shy, that has got to be the most interesting and somewhat cool looking animal I've ever seen." The cyan pegasus said rather bluntly. "So what is it?"

"I have no idea," Fluttershy admitted. "I've never seen anything like her before so I can only assume it's a new or undiscovered species."

Dash blinked. "Seriously, this little guy is a new species?" She asked then grinned. "That is so cool! So does that mean you get to name it's species or do you get an entire species named after you because that would be so awesome!"

"Oh I doubt I'd be naming this species and naming a species is a bit more than just giving a species a name," Fluttershy said as she replaced Light and began trotting down the road with Dash following. "First, a lot more research has to be conducted and not just on the creature. You've got to make sure it's really a new species and not just an animal that you've never seen before. After all, a creature that ponykind has never seen before could be common amongst say the minotaurs or griffons or ever a different part of Equestria. And even if it's a new species, there has to be a scientific name in the ancient language so it can be universal. Besides, even if I fulfilled all those requirements, sentient species aren't supposed to give species names to other sentient species."

Rainbow blinked for a few seconds answering. "Well, that's a bummer." She sighed. "If I got the chance to name a species, I'd give it an awesome name like...um...Razorwing falcon or something like that."

Fluttershy giggled a bit. "I can imagine." She said.

"Yeah." Rainbow Dash agreed then what she said fully registered and she blinked. "Wait, you said that sentient species can't give other sentient species a species name."

Fluttershy nodded. "I did. That's because Light her is a sentient species, not an animal."

"Really?" Rainbow asked curiously. "Like that can seriously happen, sentient species can discover other sentient species?"

"Of course," Fluttershy said. "There are so many places where we haven't explored yet so it's not too much of a stretch to think that there are unknown animals and sentient species still out there."

"Whoa, and Light is one of these species?" Dash said softly and Fluttershy nodded. "So where'd she come from?"

As the group neared Carousel Boutique, Fluttershy recounted how Light had come to her care.

✴✴✴✴✴✴

My introduction to Rarity went pretty much how I thought it would. The fashionista unicorn had thought that I looked absolutely adorable and had immediately set to work making an ensemble for me. An hour later, Fluttershy and Dash had finished explaining what they knew about me and I was being fitted for a new dress. Thankfully, Rarity had chosen a more simple, more ethereal style of dress that I know liked. It was made of a periwinkle colored fabric with a few cloth flowers sewn in. As she sewed a darker purple flower, she hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, I must say it is an honor to be making an ensemble for a new species." She said as she cut the thread and indicated that she was done. "It will be a challenge, but it is a challenge I shall rise up to meet. Tell me, darling, have you introduced her to Twilight yet?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No, not yet." She answered and Rarity gave her friend a look.

"You do realize that once you introduce her to Light, she going to want to 'research' her." Rarity said with practically audible air quotes around the word research.

Fluttershy nodded again. "I am aware." She said calmly. "And I can assure you that I won't let anything happen to Light on my watch. That's why we're going to Twilight's last."

I breathed a sigh of relief and so did Rarity. "Well, that's good. I'd come along as well, but I just opened the shop and I've got orders to fill." The unicorn said.

"It's okay, I think I can handle myself," Fluttershy said with a wave as I jumped onto her back. "I'm not as scared as I used to be. Besides, Twilight is a friend and I'm very good at putting my hoof down when it comes to small creatures and critters."

"Yeah, and I'm going to be there as a backup just in case Twilight goes crazy." Rainbow Dash added. It felt good knowing that I wouldn't be going into this alone. Rarity smiled.

"Well, that's good to hear." Rarity said kindly. "Well, I'd better get started on all these orders and designs. Oh, and when I'm done with Light's clothes, I'll bring them around to your cottage."

"Okay, but don't make too many of them," Fluttershy said as she and Rainbow moved towards the exit. "Light's just a baby right now so she's going to grow and I'd hate for your beautiful outfits to go to waste."

"Oh don't you worry Fluttershy." Rarity assured her friend. "I can make adjustments when needed until she's too big. And when and if that happens, I'm sure Sweetie wouldn't mind a few new clothes for her dolls or something like that. Point is, don't worry about that dear. You just go see Twilight."

As she spoke, Rarity ushered us out of the boutique and slammed the door. And on that note, when then proceeded to make our way to Twilight's. Her castle was visible for when we were so I at least had a rough idea of what season of the show I was in. Shy and Dash were making small talk with each other, but I wasn't paying attention. I was focused solely on the castle in front of me as it drew closer and closer.

Author's Note

And....there. Sorry for taking so long and delivering a short chapter. I'll try to post more as soon as I can but no promises. I originally intended to write more of this chapter, specifically Twilight's introduction to this creature, but I felt like this was enough for one chapter and I'm kinda not sure what to write for Twilight. Thoughts on how this interaction will go down are welcome.

The Princess

Tap tap tap

The sound of a pony knocking echoed through the castle, prompting Twilight to look up from the book she was reading.

"I've got it!" Starlight called out as she made her way to the door. When she opened the door, she found Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash outside on the porch.

"Oh hey girls, what brings you here?" She asked in the most casual voice she could muster. Even though they had taken her in despite everything she'd done, she still couldn't quite forgive herself and sometimes she wondered if they truly forgave her.

"Oh hey Starlight," Fluttershy replied. "Actually I came here to see Twilight. There's someone I want to introduce her to."

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

An hour and a half later, I was sitting on the table in the map room. Surrounding the large crystal table were Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike and Starlight Glimmer. My dress had been gently removed, neatly folded and set aside so the resident scientists could get a better look at me. Twilight was in the library gathering books while Starlight examined me from every angle. At least I knew I was somewhere in season six or right after the season five finale.

"Fascinating." Starlight finally said. "I can't say I've ever seen anything like it."

"Me neither!" Twilight exclaimed with a grin and a skip in her step as she levitated practically half a library of books behind her. I was suddenly worried about her going psycho and trying to dissect me. I almost reflexively started to make myself look smaller if only to not grab so much attention. I've never really been very receptive to attention. I wasn't a wallflower and to some extent, I did enjoy attention, but this kind of attention sent shivers down my spine.

Fortunately, Fluttershy's presence kept me calm so I didn't really freak out. Still, it was always a good idea to have a backup plan instead of just relying on somepony. Anyways, the alicorn princess strolled in with a smile on her face and a large number of books (to say the least) floating in her magic which she then stacked neatly beside the table. With her books stacked, she turned to me and gave me a far more scrutinizing examination that made me feel a little self-conscious.

"The bioluminescence alone is fascinating." Twilight gushed as she selected a few books from the stack. "You don't usually see bioluminescence like this in mammals. Usually, it's seen in aquatic vertebrates, invertebrates, and some insects."

Starlight's horn lit up and a couple books floated her way. "Maybe she's some sort of amphibious creature?" She suggested and Twilight shook her head.

"There aren't any aquatic traits and to my knowledge, the only aquatic species that possess bioluminescent traits live deep underwater where everything's darker. This little creature looks more like it was built for land rather than the sea, much less deep in the trenches which leaves us with only one possible option. Magic."

The books that the alicorn and unicorn picked up were set aside and new ones were removed from the pile. "Of course, it should've been obvious." Starlight muttered as she looked over her books. "Fluttershy, how exactly did this creature come into your care?"

Fluttershy recounted what had happened the night before as Twilight and Starlight gave her their full attention, practically hanging on her every word. When she finished, books were set aside and replaced by new ones. This pattern went on for a while with the two noting traits and looking through books until the pile ran out. At one point, Rainbow had to leave for her weather duties but Fluttershy stayed.

In the end, the two only confirmed what we already knew. I was a new species they'd never seen before. Though just to be certain, Twilight sent a letter to Celestia asked for her advice on the subject. A couple hours later, Celestia replied confirming that both herself and Luna had never seen or heard of anything like me. After running a few noninvasive tests and taking samples, Twilight sent us home. All in all, it was surprisingly painless and for that I was thankful. By the time we left, it was roughly noon-ish which meant lunchtime. So after picking up a few things, we returned to Fluttershy's cottage for the afternoon meal.

After helping Flutters feed the other animals, we ate our own food. After lunch, Fluttershy sent me off to hang out with the other animals. I spent this time exploring the house and surrounding area so I would know where everything was and such. I also tested the capabilities of my new body and found that I was lighter on my feet or rather hooves than before. I could leap and climb far better than I could before and I thanked years of gymnastics and trapeze training as I twirled and lept. My uncle was a trapeze artist back in the day and every summer, he would teach me and my cousins how to fly across the trapeze apparatus in his yard.

Later in the day, Rarity dropped by to fit me for my new outfits. Afterwards, she joined us for dinner then bid us goodnight and left, taking a few of her outfits that needed to be redone a bit. As it was getting late and I was tired from my long day, we started going to bed. So after Fluttershy tucked me in with a kiss goodnight, I began to drift off to sleep. And as I did, my mind contemplated the events of today and I wondered to myself what I thought of the situation. True things had been changed so abruptly and completely, but it wasn't like I could do much to change it. Besides, as far as situations go, it could be much worse. As my mind wandered to how much worse the situation could be, my consciousness sank into the oblivion of slumber and the world disappeared from my thoughts.

✴✴✴✴✴✴

Time passed as it always does. Days turned into weeks which in turn became months. Specifically, five months had passed since I arrived in Ponyville. Not much to report on those five months except what Twilight and I learned about myself. A most key piece of information was that I was somehow void of magic. Now it wasn't like I didn't have an equivalent to magic (according to Twilight I was actually filled with the stuff) it just wasn't magic and Twilight hadn't figured out what it was yet.

In other news, there were other things I had discovered about myself. Specifically how I grew. After that first day, I hit some sort of growth spurt in the middle of the night. The next morning I woke up to find I had doubled in size which wasn't very significant since I was still quite small, but it was still interesting. Afterwards, I grew at a more normal rate or at least normal for my species I think. It seems as though I age at the same rate as a dog or cat to be more accurate. It made me wonder if my species ages like this or if it's just until I reach maturity.

Another thing that I noticed was that I never really felt hungry but I could still eat like normal, further supporting my theory that I was connected to the Spirit Tree. But anyways, aside from these little tidbits things were going well here in Ponyville. Gradually Summer came to an end giving way to Fall. Watching the Running of the Leaves was fun and soon it was time for the harvest. Lots of ponies from the Apples to the other small farmers were bringing in their crops for Winter and soon Ponyville would be holding their annual Harvest Festival.

The Harvest Festival is this celebration similar to Thanksgiving (at least the first Thanksgiving) that is held in the Fall shortly after the last of the harvest has been brought in. The reason for the festival is to celebrate the good harvest and the celebration itself is pretty simple. Basically, the ponies of Ponyville get together in the town square and enjoy a big meal together. Afterwards, they enjoy games, dancing, songs and so on. Anyways, the farmers were just packing up the last of the harvest and were preparing for the festival when it happened. Fluttershy, myself and the other animals were out in the fields gathering wild berries and flowers in anticipation of the festival and Winter (Flutters was planning on bringing her famous berry flower jam) when the sky was filled with light.

As the sun was setting, a tangible white light crept in amongst the fields and filled the air like a mist. I felt a slight tugging like I was being called and I instantly knew what this was. The Spirit Tree was calling out to me. But before I could do anything, Fluttershy scooped me up and held me tightly as we made a break for her cottage. I struggled in her grasp, trying to squirm out of her hooves, but all that got me was a tightened grip and a scolding.

"Light no!" She chided as we flew back to the cottage. "I know it looks pretty, but for all, we know that light could be dangerous! We should just get back inside."

On one hand, I saw where she was coming from, I know humans would likely panic if something like this happened. But on the other hand, I knew that this light wasn't dangerous and it meant that I had somewhere I needed to be. Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate this to Fluttershy and the pegasus didn't put me down until we were safely inside her cottage with the door shut. After she caught her breath, she turned to us.

"Alright everyone, you all stay here while I go into town to figure out what's going on." She announced then pointed to a certain white rabbit. "Angel, you're in charge until I get back and make sure nobody leaves."

Angel saluted and Flutters nodded before leaving in a way that gave me no way to sneak past her (darn it). Once she was gone, Angel shot me this look and I knew I wasn't getting out on his watch. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

✴✴✴✴✴✴

I was right. That darned rabbit was admittedly good. No matter what I tried, he had every exit covered. Even the chimney. However, I was equally determined to get out of here and get back to the tree. If things were happening like in the game than I had to try and stop things from spiraling out of control if it was in my power. As I was trying to jimmy the attic window open, however, the lights suddenly ceased as though shut off by a switch. Dread and emptiness sank into my stomach.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

The Elements sat in silence for a few minutes after the lights suddenly ceased, confusion and expectation etched on their faces. When nothing happened, however, Rarity broke the heavy silence that had descended upon them.

"Is that it?" The fashionista asked. "All that and that's it? Just a light show?"

"I thought it was an awesome light show!" Pinkie chirped with a smile. Twilight frowned.

"I highly doubt that was all 'just a light show'." The alicorn said. "It wasn't magic but I felt massive amounts of power flowing through the air."

"So what do we do?" Fluttershy asked worriedly. Twilight looked thoughtful.

"At the moment, there's nothing we can do." She answered. "I can scan Ponyville for anything off, but otherwise there's nothing can but act like nothing's wrong."

"That's all?" Applejack asked skeptically.

"Yes. If there's nothing wrong, then there's no point in acting like something is and further panicking the others." Twilight explained.

"Fair point." Rarity remarked. "Let's not forget that we're the heroes of Equestria. If we start acting like something is wrong then the others will pick up on it. Best case scenario, everypony will act more paranoid. Worst case scenario, things could devolve into a riot."

Applejack grimaced. "I see yer point."

"Me too!" Pinkie said then added in a more serious tone (well serious for Pinkie Pie), "and don't you worry Twi Twi, you can count on old Pinkie Pie to keep everypony calm and their spirits lifted."

Twilight smiled. "Of course Pinkie." And with that, the meeting concluded.

Author's Note

Well, ta-da. I'm sorry it's not all that impressive and it's a little short. I just wanted to get this out so I can move on to the best part. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope to post a new one soon.

Withering

After that little event, the ponies of Ponyville were slightly on edge but things quickly returned to relative normality (aside from Twilight scanning every inch of Ponyville of course). The Harvest Festival went off without a hitch, followed by winter. There was a little drama with Rainbow and Tank as the pegasus still wasn't used to the idea of Tank hibernating, but otherwise, nothing had changed for Ponyville. From my point of view, however, everything had changed. The Spirit Tree was in trouble, that much I knew. Question was, exactly how bad could things get?

In the game, when the Spirit Tree was dying the entire forest began to perish. While that was most definitely bad, I began to wonder if such a thing could spread to the rest of the world. In addition, I didn't know where the tree was in the first place. The fact that the ponies didn't know what was going on with those lights was a pretty big indication that they'd never even heard of the Spirit Tree. Of course, the fact that they didn't know what I was is also a big indicator but point was, I needed to get my hands on a map to try and figure out where I was going.

It wasn't until we were visiting Twilight that I got a hold of a map and that's when I learned two things. First, Equus is woefully under explored. Seriously, the pony's map of the known world consists of just Equestria and the edges of the outlying countries. Clearly, ponies don't venture very far from Equestria. And secondly, my best bet for finding the Spirit Tree lay in this area marked, Mysterious South with the Undiscovered West a close second. Not only were they unexplored areas, but they were also close enough to Ponyville that a strong, continuous breeze could blow something like, say a 'leaf' from point A to point B.

Anyways, now that I had a general idea of where to go, now came the next step. Training. In between when the lights shut off and Fluttershy returning, I reached the conclusion that even if I left now there wasn't much I could do as I was. Not only did I not know where I was going and would find myself lost, I was also underprepared. This was still a relatively new-ish body and my knowledge of the game would only take me so far. I resolved to get myself into fighting shape while also giving me a chance to grow up physically. Thankfully I seemed to be aging in animal years and by Hearthswarming I was fully grown. Still small, but I felt relatively confident that I was ready to return to the forest. All I had to do was wait until winter ended. I was certainly in no condition to be traveling in the dead of winter.

You see ever since the lights in the sky incident, I had been feeling this hollow emptiness in the pit of my stomach that just grew worse and worse every day. It sapped my strength and gradually I became more lethargic and unsteady. It was easy to hide at first, but gradually it got harder and harder and pretty soon Fluttershy noticed something was wrong. Of course, since she recognized the symptoms of malnutrition, her solution was extra portions of food which did help lessen the hunger I felt. But I knew it was just a stopgap measure and shortly afterward, I would be feeling the dizziness and fatigue again.

Then spring came, bringing with it the answer to my question. A few days after Winter Wrap Up, Applejack noticed that her trees weren't budding. The Apples tried every trick in the book to get them to bud, but nothing worked and ultimately she ended up going to Twilight for assistance. The alicorn then cast a spell to coax the trees into budding and it worked...For about a day. By the next day, the buds were withered and dead.

By this point, it became clear that there was cause for concern as the problem wasn't isolated to the apple trees. The seeds that had been planted earlier weren't growing and plants were dying no matter what anypony did. Even the grass was dying. Of course when Twilight couldn't think of anything so she sent a letter to Celestia asking for advice. Unfortunately, the Solar alicorn had none to give, only more bad news. As it turns out, Ponyville wasn't the only town affected.

The princesses had been getting reports from all towns all over about the same problem. Towns like Baltimare, Manehatten, Van Hoover, Fillydelphia, Appaloosa, even the Crystal Empire and Griffinstone were losing their crops in the same manner. If things continued as they were, Equus would face a famine of unprecedented proportions. And where was I in this situation? Curled up in my bed feeling too weak to get up much less travel. By now the emptiness was painful to the point where I felt like it was ripping at me with huge serrated claws. It was obvious I wasn't getting anywhere in my own power so the best I could do was wait and hope that I could somehow point the Mane Six in the direction I needed to go.

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

Fluttershy galloped through the Everfree, a mare on a mission. Even here, life was dying she noted as dead leaves fluttered down to the ground like snow but she shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind. She had more important things to worry about at this moment. She had been noticing that Light wasn't her usual energetic self for a while now and had been doing everything within her power to help, yet nothing she did helped. Instead, she was getting worse and worse.

Then this morning when she didn't come down for breakfast, the pegasus decided that enough was enough so she packed Light into a basket that she used to transport animals and dashed into the Everfree. There was only one pony she could think of that could help a creature that she was unfamiliar with. Fluttershy hopped over a fallen log and breathed a sigh of relief when Zecora's hut came into view. She then ran up and 'banged' on the door frantically. When she stopped knocking, the door swung open and she came face to face with the zebra she was looking for.

"Fluttershy, this is quite a surprise. What brings you to my humble abode?" Zecora asked.

"I need your help!" Fluttershy blurted out. "One of my little friends is dying and I can't stop it!"

Zecora nodded and invited her in and then shut the door. "Tell me, my friend, what kind of symptoms is your little creature exhibiting?"

"Mostly weakness and fatigue with some dizziness and weight loss," Fluttershy answered. "All signs of malnutrition but that's what I don't understand. She's been eating right, I've even seen her eat and she seems to be okay for a short time, but she's still getting worse. I've tried giving her extra portions and even extra feeding times, but she's not improving at all and I don't know what to do since this is a new creature I've never seen before. For all, I know this could be normal, but I doubt it."

Zecora listened calmly and once Fluttershy was done with her rant, spoke. "May I see the patient so that I can conduct an examination?" She asked.

Fluttershy nodded and unstrapped her basket then set it down as Zecora cleared a place on the table. The pegasus then reached into her basket and pulled her little friend out and placed her on the designated area of the table. The moment Zecora laid eyes on her, however, she gasped.

"A Lightkin." She breathed. Suddenly the symptoms made sense to her and she began rummaging around her shelves searching for something while Fluttershy stood there in shock and confusion.

"A what?" She asked.

"A Lightkin." Zecora clarified as she pushed bottles and jars around. "It is what my people call this little one's species. Where is it, I know I saw it somewhere around here." The last part she mumbled to herself but Fluttershy was too excited to notice.

"So you know all about Light's species?" She asked.

"I would not say I know everything about them, but I do know enough to know what is wrong with her. Aha! Found it!" Fluttershy jumped at the sudden exclamation as Zecora held up a small bottle with glowing white liquid victoriously.

"What's that?" Fluttershy asked.

"Light water. From the Spirit Tree itself." Fluttershy looked at her in confusion while Light stirred weakly.

"What's the Spirit Tree?" The pegasus asked.

"All in good time my friend. For now, help me get the little one to drink this." Zecora said gently as she pulled the stopper off the bottle. Fluttershy nodded and helped prop Light up as Zecora held the bottle up to help her drink. When the liquid was all gone, Light sat up on her own and Fluttershy sighed in relief.

"Thank you Zecora." She thanked the zebra as she hugged her. "Thank you so much for curing Light."

Zecora, however, shook her head and shrugged the pegasus off of her. "Regretfully I have not saved her. Merely prolonged the inevitable."

Fluttershy wilted then perked up again slightly. "Well, what about that water? Can't you just give her more?"

Zecora shook her head. "Light Water is very rare, especially in recent times, and that was my only bottle. And even if I had much more of it, it would not cure what ails this little one."

Fluttershy looked down at the ground forlornly until she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder and looked up into the gentle black and white eyes of Light. She gave the little Lightkin a small smile then turned to Zecora.

"Is there a cure?" She asked and to her delight, Zecora nodded.

"There is, but before I tell you I believe this is something that Princess Twilight and the others need to hear as well." She said. "Gather your friends and I shall meet you at the castle. And bring the little one with you."

✴✴✴✴✴✴✴

"And she didn't tell you why?" Twilight asked her friend and Fluttershy shook her head as she sat on her throne stroking Light. The small creature let out purrs and trills of delight as the gentle hoof ran over her back.

"No, she just said that she'd meet us here and explain." The quiet pegasus said softly.

"Hmm, but it's still really interesting how she knew what Light was." Starlight said thoughtfully. "She called her a Lightkin, right?"

"Well as far as a species name goes, it's certainly original." Rarity threw in her two bits.

"And it sounds mystical. Wooooooooo." Pinkie said in a slightly spooky voice as she waved her hooves. Since Fluttershy had come to Twilight, the group was almost entirely gathered. All they were waiting for was Rainbow, Applejack, and Zecora herself. At that moment, the doors were thrown open and Dash flew in with AJ on her hooves.

"I got AJ, now somepony please tell me what's going on?" Rainbow demanded as she settled into her throne.

"Ah have to agree with Dash here." Applejack said with a nod. "Y'all know my family is having a hard enough time as it is without you dragging me away."

"I assure you both, you will get your answers as soon as Zecora gets here," Twilight assured the newcomers. At that moment, as if on cue, there was a knock at the door. A hush of anticipation fell over the room.

"That must be her," Fluttershy whispered. Her friends didn't respond aside from the small nod. A few minutes later, Spike and Zecora entered the room with Spike taking a moment to shut the door behind them before joining the others on his own throne. It didn't even take ten seconds for Rainbow to start demanding answers

"Alright Z, what's this about." The prismatic pegasus started. "There's an important meeting at Town Hall and I'm missing it."

"What kind of meeting?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"If I knew that then I wouldn't be so anxious to get there," Dash said grumpily. "All I know is that the Mayor had some important matter to discuss with the weather team but since I couldn't make it I had to send Thunderlane and Bloosomforth in my stead."

"She probably wants to talk to you about your water." Twilight suggested and the other ponies gave their friend their full attention as she began to explain. "Earlier this week, Lyra came to me about a stream leading into Ponyville that had taken on an odd purple hue. I investigated the stream in question and discovered that the water undrinkable and possibly even poisonous in high enough quantities. Even worse, as I was investigating I found that it was spreading to other streams and even a well."

The other ponies and dragon looked disturbed at this development and Rainbow frowned and cursed as she slumped in her seat. "Darnit, as if we didn't already have enough issues, now our water is undrinkable! We're going to have to ration our water until we somehow find a solution or at least figure out what's going on."

"And it is exactly that solution that I wish to discuss. it is the reason why I requested this gathering." Zecora inserted, bringing everyone's attention to her so fast a couple almost got whiplash. Once the sentence settled, however, Fluttershy frowned in confusion.

"Wait, I thought you were going to tell me how I can cure Light." She in bewilderment and the zebra nodded.

"Indeed I did. That is because the cure for your little friend and the solution to our current problem are one and the same." Zecora answered the pegasus. "But first there are a few things I need to explain in order for you to understand. To understand the answer, you must first understand the question."

And with that, Zecora pulled out a hoofull of green powder and blew it, filling the air with a green mist. "The first thing you must understand is the spirits." She said as forms took shape. "Spirits are beings that exist anywhere and everywhere. They are varied and come in many forms. Some have bodies and forms, other areas incorporeal as the wind or a dream. Some can be benevolent and others are malevolent. Windigoes, for example, is just one type of spirit." The ponies ducked as the forms of windigoes and other frightening forms swooped over them.

"And among these various spirits are two types we call light and dark spirits." As she said this, the mist abruptly changed colors. On one side it was white while the other side was black. "Light spirits, or Lightkin as my people know they are spirits of light." In the white mist, very familiar forms emerged and began frolicking in the air. "And on the other side of the spectrum, the are Shadow Owls, powerful creatures of darkness."

From within the black mists, dark-colored owls with orange eyes formed and took flight. As the gathered ponies watched, the owls flew over the Lightkin. But instead of attacking the smaller, brighter creatures, the larger creatures ignored the Lightkin. As the two groups intermingled, the mist began to mesh together, remaining separate but still tangled and mixed together.

"Not much is known about these two parties even by my own people, but what we do know for sure is that the Lightkin draw strength and life from the Spirit Tree, a powerful force of Light which maintained the balance of Light and Dark." As the zebra spoke, a tree emerged from the white mist standing tall and beautiful.

"Okay, and how exactly is this connected to our problem?" Rainbow asked impatiently as she fidgeted in her seat.

"It is very much connected to this crisis because the Spirit Tree has vanished," Zecora said and the mist tree vanished. "The forces of Light and Dark are held in a very delicate balance and when that balance has been severely disrupted, the consequences are dire. Without the Spirit Tree, the Light isn't as strong as it should be and life begins to die."

As she spoke, the darkness swelled and began to consume the light. Tiny Lightkin tried to flee the encroaching dark, only to be swallowed by the shadows. Fluttershy winced and trembled as each Lightkin was snatched up and Light sent Zecora a look that clearly said 'over dramatic much'? Zecora either didn't notice or didn't care because she continued.

"Initially I wasn't sure what had happened or was happening to the tree as it had simply vanished suddenly, but when Fluttershy brought this little one to me, the condition of the tree became clear to me." She said as she stroked Light's head gently. "As I said before, Lightkin draw strength and nourishment from the tree. If this little one is dying, then the tree is also dying. I wouldn't be surprised if she is the last of her kind."

Fluttershy gave a cry as she pulled Light from her place on the table and cradled her in her hooves. As the others sat there processing this new information, Twilight had as usual been taking notes on what was a fascinating subject.

"Now let me see if I've got this right. This Spirit Tree is a very important part of keeping the balance and because it's dying, everything else is dying as well?" The purple alicorn recapped and Zecora nodded.

"Indeed and unless the tree is saved, I doubt our troubles will end." She said grimly.

"Well then what are we waitin' fer, let's go save a tree! Again." Applejack declared as she stood up from her.

"Yay, I get to throw another tree saving party!" Pinkie cheered as she also leaped from her seat.

"Now hold on a moment," Rarity called before the two earthponies could go galloping out of the castle. "Do you even know where you're going? Admittedly we didn't know exactly where the Tree of Harmony was when we set out to look for it, but we at least knew where to look. Do we even have any idea where to look for the Spirit Tree?" The unicorn then cast a glance towards Zecora and to her dismay, the zebra shook her head.

"Unfortunately my people do not know the location of the Spirit Forest." The zebra said. "And I haven't been able to contact the spirits since the Tree went dark."

"Contact the spirits?" Twilight questioned with a look of curiosity.

"Indeed. Among my people, there are individuals who are capable of speaking with the spirits and even tapping into the power of the spirit realm. We know them as shamans and shamanesses." Zecora paused for a beat before finishing. "I am a shamaness."

"Ooohhh, cool!" Pinkie cooed as she bounced over to the zebra. "So does that mean that you can do cool stuff like talking to the dead?"

"Sometimes if someone wished to contact a loved one I can reach out to their spirit," Zecora explained. "And if they wish to, I can draw them to the earthly plain for a short time, just long enough for both to gain some measure of closure."

"Interesting, so is it some sort of spell or ritual? And do you use any sorts of items or-"

"Priorities Twi!" Rainbow Dash interrupted the alicorn's questions with a small snort. "I think the slow death of the world is a little higher on the to-do list."

Twilight gave out a huff but she still nodded. "You're right, this can wait. But I'd still like to know more about your people's magic when I'm able to."

"And I have no problems with sharing." Zecora agreed. "But that still leaves the issue of knowing where to go to find the tree."

"True. And if your people haven't found it, I don't we'll be able to find it that easily." Twilight mused then with a blaze of her horn, she activated the table's map and began scanning it as though looking for someplace where a spirit tree could be.

"I'll bet Light could point us in the right direction." Pinkie suggested. "I mean she came from the Spirit Forest right, so she might know the way home."

"Pinkie, Light wasn't born in this forest, she was 'born' in Fluttershy's backyard remember?" Twilight said, her gaze not leaving the table. "How could she be able to lead us to somewhere she's never been?"

"It sounds plausible to me." Fluttershy finally spoke up, the Lightkin in question still cradled in her arms. "There are a number animals with homing instincts that are able to find their way back to areas they haven't been to in years. Mostly breeding grounds to mate and, in the cases of most fish, lay their eggs. Admittedly Light isn't an animal and she wasn't born in the Spirit Forest, but she might have a slight inkling of where to go. Maybe even some sort of spirit homing instinct. But either way, I think its worth a shot, don't you think?"

Twilight paused her examination of the map to turn to her friend and the Lightkin in her lap with a thoughtful look. "Hmm. Oh, why not." The alicorn conceded. "At the very least she might have some theories that could help narrow down our search."

Fluttershy nodded and placed Light on the table. Light glanced around the table as though to gain her bearings before indicating two possible areas where the Tree could be.

What a stroke of luck, almost bordering on Deus Ex Machina. When Fluttershy took me to Zecora's, I didn't expect the zebra to know about my kind or the Spirit Tree. The background she gave on the Spirit Tree and its role in this Equestria was also very helpful and that Light Water of her's did wonders. I've felt much better than I have in ages. After that, all I had to do was point out where I thought the forest might be. In the end, it was decided that we would start with the Mysterious South as the Undiscovered west was least partly mapped and there was a train line that extended that far so at least looking in that area would be fairly quick.

As I questioned the wisdom in having a train line extend to an area that ponies didn't know about, the Mane Six were deciding who was going. Obviously Twilight and her friends were coming with the addition of Zecora for her expertise. Spike and Starlight were left in charge of the castle while we were gone and Fluttershy managed to convince Cheerilee to look after her animals while she was gone. With all that squared away and their bags packed (Twilight made sure that Rarity only brought a backpack with necessities much to the unicorn's chagrin), the group met up at the train station and boarded a train to the Mysterious South.

As we followed the train to the end of the line, Twilight unsurprisingly started asking Zecora questions about spirits and her magic. I, however, was more focused on the passing scenery and as we went over the Macintosh Hills, I began to get a strange feeling. Sort of like a small tugging sensation that just got stronger as we went. When we went past the Badlands, I realized what I was feeling was an indication that we were getting closer and once we got off the train I took off with Fluttershy and the others at my heels.

Following the tugging sensation in my chest, I navigated through the small forest I'd run into until I came to a tall thick wall of branches and brambles with a door just small enough for a Lightkin fixed into it. As I stared up at the almost impassible wall, the rest of group caught up with me and paused as well. As Fluttershy scooped me up into her arms, Twilight examined the door.

"Hmm. I could be wrong, but I think this is the place. Nice work Light." The alicorn praised then turned back to the door. Her horn glowed raspberry as she began working the knob on the door until finally, the door was open. Smiling proudly, she turned to the others as gestured to the opening.

"And there we go." She said with a smile. "Now let's get going girls!"

Everypony gave her a skeptical look, silently asking if she was serious. Even Zecora was looking at her funny. Finally, Rarity piped up to point out the flaw in her 'plan'.

"Um, Twilight. Not to sound rude or anything, but-" The unicorn started only to be interrupted by Applejack's blunt words.

"But that doorway ain't big enough for me to even put my head in." The farmpony said with a flat look and Twilight realized her mistake.

Rainbow approached the doorway and stuck a leg in but nothing else could get through. "Yep, we're not getting through." The pegasus concluded and turned to Twilight. "Think you can teleport us in?"

Twilight facehoofed. "Of course, how stupid of me. Everyone one step closer, I'm going to try." Everyone did as they were told and once Twilight was satisfied they were close enough, she activated her horn...only for it to sputter out. She looked up at her horn in confusion and tried again, only to get the same result. She tried several more time, but with every failure, it became increasingly obvious that they weren't going anywhere by magic.

"Uh Twi, what's wrong?" Applejack asked after the fifteenth failure.

"I'm not sure, there's some sort of interference that's negating my teleport." Twilight huffed then turned to Rainbow Dash. "Do you think you could fly us over?"

The pegasus looked up and after some time, she frowned and shook her head. "Not a chance. Canopy's too thick to make it through safely without passengers and that thorn barrier looks pretty high. I'm not sure I could make it over on my own, much less carrying somepony."

"Looks like the only one who can make it in is Light." Pinkie pointed out and the pegasus frowned.

"No way no how. I'm not letting Light go in there on her own!" She declared then turned to Twilight. "Twilight, please tell me you have some sort of spell that can get us in. Like a shrinking spell or something like that. I don't want to let the little guy wander into there without some sort of help."

Twilight frowned. "Even if I were able to, shrinking spells are the most complicated and dangerous spells in Equestria. There are lots of horror stories about improperly executed shrinking spells and since I haven't finished studying it, I'm not comfortable trying it."

"Besides, even if she knew how ta shrink us Ah wouldn't advise it." Applejack added, "Take it from somepony who's been shrunk before, there ain't much you can do where yer the size of a breezie."

Fluttershy perked up at that and I could hear her mutter 'breezie' under her breath. When I looked up at her from my place in the crook of her arm, I could practically see the gears turning in her head.

"There has to be something we can do." Rainbow continued then turned to Zecora. "What about you? Surely you've something that can help."

"Unfortunately no. None of the potions I carry can be of any use and my spirit magic will not be able to penetrate this barrier." The zebra answered. "The basic principle of spirit magic isn't that you are forcing the spirits, rather you are asking permission and based on what I can feel from this barrier, it will not let us in. I've already tried."

"Hmm, that may be why I can't teleport in." Twilight mused. "Every time my magic reached out to the other side, my magic was cut off and the spell was disrupted."

Rainbow Dash looked she was going to ask Pinkie Pie next (probably to see if her reality warping powers would be of any help) when Fluttershy suddenly piped up.

"What if we used that spell we used when the breezies were here?" She suggested and everyone looked at her. For a moment she looked like she was going to fold in on herself at the sudden attention, but she steeled herself and explained.

"Twilight, do you remember that spell you used to turn us into breezies to help Sea Breeze and the others get home?" Fluttershy asked and the unicorn nodded. "Well, what if we used that spell here?"

"And turn ourselves into breezies?" Rainbow asked and Fluttershy shook her head.

"No. We'd turn ourselves into Lightkin." She answered and everyone paused to take that in. Honestly, I thought it was a brilliant idea. If a Lightkin was the only creature that could get in, then why not. Apparently Twilight also thought it was a brilliant idea because after she thought it over, her eyes lit up.

"That's actually brilliant Fluttershy." She said and the pegasus blushed at her praise. "The transmogrification spell is not as complicated as the shrinking spell and all that's needed is a specimen for it to scan." She then pointed to me. "And we have one right here."

Everypony else smiled and nodded at each other. "Why Fluttershy, what a brilliant idea." Rarity cooed.

"Yeah, thanks for coming up with it. I was this close to asking Pinkie Pie for a way in. Pinkie. Pie!" Rainbow exclaimed as she placed her hooves on her fellow pegasi's shoulders and shook her a little bit. There were more words of praise that made Fluttershy blush until Twilight clapped her hooves to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everypony, gather together. Fluttershy set Light down there." Twilight instructed. Everyone immediately jumped into action, clumping together in preparation for the spell and after setting me down on a root, Fluttershy went to join them. With a blaze of her horn, Twilight activated the spell and before I knew it, I was surrounded by two rings of glyphs. It felt a little strange but not at all uncomfortable. More ticklish than uncomfortable.

I watched as the group shrank down to my size as their fur became snow white and luminescent. Interestingly, they didn't transform into exact copies of me, rather each had certain traits that set them apart from each other. Rarity looked more like a cat with her long silky fur and fluffy tail. Pinkie's fur was as curly and as her mane and tail usually were and her tail was a largish cottony ball like a rabbit while Dash's fur was jagged like lightning bolts with two long tufts that resembled wings and it looked like she had a notch in her ear.

Fluttershy also had longer fur, but hers made her look more demure than elegant like Rarity and her ' second ears' were longer and more antenna like with feathery tufts where her wings had been. Twilight's fur looked a little closer to my own style with some longer feathery tufts where her wings were. Applejack had something similar except she just kept her signature ponytail and Zecora had very pale almost invisible grey highlights in her fur.

Another difference I noticed when the transformation was complete was that while they were glowing, they weren't glowing white like me. Twilight had a magenta glow identical to her Element of Harmony while the others had a similar sort of glow. Fluttershy was pink, Rainbow Dash red, Applejack orange, Rarity purple and Pinkie Pie was blue. Zecora's glow was spring green instead of white as well. For a time, I sat and watched as the group acquainted themselves with their new bodies.

"My horn!" Was Twilight's first reaction when she took complete stock of herself. "My horn is gone! How am I supposed to reverse the spell without it!?"

Almost everyone froze at that and Rarity paused and closed her eyes as if to focus. A moment later she opened them, seemingly satisfied. She turned to Twilight and set her new hand on her friend's shoulder to calm her.

"Don't worry. I'm sure it isn't gone, completely. I can still feel mine so I'm sure it's the same for you." Rarity soothed and Twilight took a calming breath before trying to focus as well.

"You're right, it's still there." She finally sighed in relief, a sentiment that was reflected by the others in the group and they went back to their examinations.

"Wow, this is so cool!" Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced around, leaving small blue leaves of light like I do. "I feel so much lighter and bouncier than before! Wheeee!"

She then began cartwheeling around as Rainbow examined her 'wings' with disappointment. "Ah rats, my wings!" She said then sighed. "Looks like I'm grounded."

"It's not that bad." I finally piped up, drawing everyone's attention to me. "Lightkin have other ways of getting airborne."

Everyone stared at me until finally Fluttershy broke the silence. "You're talking...and we can understand you." She whispered. I grinned kindly at her.

"So you are," I said then turned to everyone and waved a hand. "Hello everypony and zebra, I'm Ori and it's nice to meet you all officially."

"Hell-" Fluttershy started only to be cut off by Pinkie Pie.

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" She shouted and suddenly she was on my face. "Ori doesn't sound like Light so why did you say I was close when I was guessing?"

"Fun fact, Ori is a name that means 'light' or 'my light'," I said in response and Pinkie Pie looked thoughtful.

"Oohhhhh, I see." She said understandingly. "So technically we were calling you by your name this whole time."

"If you want to see it that way, yeah," I said with a nod and Pinkie finally backed away from my personal space.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Ori." She said with a smile then paused before continuing. "Neat name. Short, but it has a nice ring to it. Ori. Ori. Oooooooooori!" Pinkie Pie then skipped away, playing little word games with my name.

"So Li- I mean Ori, what did you mean when you said 'Lightkin have a way of getting airborne'?" Rainbow Dash asked. "How would you know that?"

"That my friend is a long story that I'll tell you later. But for now-" At this point, I stopped talking and turned to climb up the side of the tree I was on and backflipping over a few heads. "-being ground-bound isn't all bad." I finished with a small self-satisfied smirk at Rainbow's gawking face.

"That was so awesome!" She squeed once she stopped trying to catch flies with her mouth. "How'd you do that?"

"Lot's of practice and training since I was little. But enough about me, don't we have a job to do?" I asked.

"You're right." Twilight agreed and turned to the till then forgotten door. "We should get going if we want to save the tree. After you?" She offered politely and I accepted.

"Thank you very much, Twilight," I said before leading the way in with the seven new Lightkins following behind.

Forest

Ori POV

"So let me see if I've got this straight, all of this is based on a game?" Applejack asked me and I shrugged.

"More or less," I admitted. After some internal debate, I had decided to admit the truth to them. I saw little point in trying to hide it, so why not just disclose the truth. Of course, I didn't tell them the whole truth. I just told them what I used to be, how I got here and about how this was based off a game. I opted against telling them that their adventures were all a cartoon show back on earth.

"So that means you must know how this will play out," Twilight said.

"Not exactly," I said as I hopped on stones to cross a stream. "While it seems as though the story has hit all the usual beats, it's hard to say what exactly is in store for us."

"But I thought you said this was all based on a game you are familiar with." Rarity spoke up as they followed behind me, also hopping on the stones.

"Exactly, I said based on not exactly." I pointed out. "There are several factors that may likely alter events. First off, in the game, there's only one Lightkin. Not eight. And to my knowledge, there isn't a multiplayer option so things might play out differently than in the game. And secondly, this is real life, not a game. In a game, you can end up dying and coming back to fix what mistake you made. In real life, you only get one life so we're going to need to be-"

"Ow!" A sudden cry from Pinkie interrupted me and I glanced at her as she held her hooves and fell back on the ground on the opposite shore.

"Careful." I finished before joining the others at Pinkie's side. Fluttershy reached Pinkie first and gently removed the hands that were tightly grasping her hooves to reveal the burn marks on them. They were small and had the appearance of chemical burns rather than fire burns.

"Pinkie Pie, what happened?" Fluttershy asked as she examined the burns. "How did you get these burns?"

"I don't know." Pinkie pouted then wailed toward the end. "One minute I'm jumping into the stream and the next thing I know, my hoovsies are burning!"

"You might want to refrain from touching the water for now," I said as I pulled a large leaf from a bush. The others turned to me and once I knew I had their unmitigated attention, I dipped half the leaf into the stream. There was a small hiss and when I removed the leaf, half of it was gone. My fellow Lightkin's eyes widened.

"Until we fix things, the water is going to burn if you touch it," I explained as I waved the half dissolved leaf. The former ponies (and zebra) shivered and Pinkie looked particularly shaken. Twilight looked closely at the glowing purple water and suddenly her eyes widened.

"Is this going to happen to Equestria's water too?" She asked in a quiet voice and I shrugged.

"I can't say for sure, but it is highly likely." I offered and Twilight looked disturbed. It was at that moment that Fluttershy called out to us.

"Um girls, you need to see this." She said and we all crowded around Pinkie as her burns healed before our very eyes until it looked as if nothing had happened. We were all stunned into silence and the only one who could do anything at that moment was Pinkie. The Lightkin at first tentatively touched her hooves before attempting to stand. She stumbled a moment until she regained her balance and was now frolicking like usual but noticeably far from the water.

By this point, the rest of us had snapped out of out initial stupor and were watching her frolic. "How?" Twilight asked. "How in the name of Faust did that happen?"

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "I don't know a lot about how this works and I don't exactly recall insta healing from the game. Remember games are much different than real life so it works differently. Anyways, we should get going."

"You don't want to know more about this?" Twilight asked with no small amount of distress and I could easily imagine her scholar mode going ballistic.

"Not really. I have this policy to not look a gift horse in the mouth." I said and the others gave me curious expressions so I explained. "It's an expression where I come from that refers to finding fault with something that has been given as a gift or favor. In this case, it would be the fact that Pinkie is now mobile. Given what we have to face, we'll all need to be as mobile as possible. Plus this isn't really the place to conduct experiments and I doubt Pinkie will let you dip her hooves into the acid water again."

"Darn right I won't!" Pinkie snorted as she directed a fierce glare in Twilight's direction. "I like my hoovsies where they are thank you very much!"

Twilight bit her lip and I could tell that she was debating what to do. Eventually, she conceded defeat. "You're right. This is neither the time nor the place. So what do we do now?"

"Well, first we have to find either the tree or Sein," I said before turning to look at the absolutely massive forest. "A task that's far easier said than done."

Third Person POV

Ori wasn't kidding when she said that was easier said than done. This forest was huge! And just to make things worse, nopony knew their way around this forest. Ori may have come from here and even had some knowledge of what would happen, but even she didn't know where to go. While she didn't share a lot about the game, she did tell them that this was the point of the game where the prologue was so she had no idea where or how game Ori reached the tree.

We all could tell that there was something she wasn’t telling us about the game and it wasn’t just what she wasn’t sharing. Matter of fact, Ori was quite tight-lipped on the subject no matter how much Twilight reasoned. Part of her reasoning was that she didn’t know how closely events followed the game and partially because she had a policy against spoiling a great story. Pinkie Pie, of course, agreed with that logic and the matter was closed.

However, this was different than that. It felt like Ori knew what her final fate would be and none of us liked that. But as we traveled, Ori was getting weaker and weaker going from leading the group to lagging behind. Fluttershy also lagged behind to help when it got hard for her to walk. When we would break for camp, some of us would go looking for food for Ori, but the food was almost nonexistent and any food we did find wouldn’t keep her going for very long.

Fortunately, none of us needed food. Ever since we’d transformed, none of us felt hunger pangs so any food we found went to Ori who needed it the most. Twilight was curious as to why we weren’t feeling hunger, but this was neither the time nor the place so she agreed it was best to just keep moving. Then the inevitable happened. It had been a week and a half since we’d entered the forest and as we were walking across a log, Ori suddenly collapsed to the ground and didn’t get up.

Fluttershy immediately crouched down to try and wake her with no success. “Girls!” She cried, drawing everyone else’s attention. “Ori’s not moving.”

Those three words filled us all with dread and everyone instantly converged on the unconscious Lightkin. Ori was still breathing, but her breaths were getting further and further apart and her light was starting to flicker badly.

“Ori. Ori stay with us! Please.” Fluttershy pleaded, almost breaking down. Ignoring her pleas, Ori’s light continued to flicker and fade in and out.

“I, um, stay here I’ll go find something!” Rainbow stuttered in a panic and as she started to bound off, Zecora stopped her.

“While I do not wish to disparage your efforts, they shall be useless at this point.” She said grimly and Dash shook her head in denial.

“No, if I can just find something, anything, maybe I can...I can...” Dash began to falter as she spoke, distress shining in her eyes. In response to this, Zecora pulled her into a hug.

“Do not worry. I do not believe that you have failed.” She said soothingly. “You have done your very best and that is all that we can ask of you.”

Rainbow buried her face in Zecora’s fur and tried to tell herself that the stinging was from dust getting in her eyes and not tears as she hugged Zecora back.

“But it wasn’t good enough.” She whispered hoarsely, unable to stand the thought of failing a friend.

At this point Fluttershy and the others were growing desperate, all of them practically screaming and crying for Ori not to leave them and terrified of what would happen if she did. Setting aside the fact that they didn’t want to lose a dear friend, none of them knew anything about the game all this was based on like Ori did. She was also their guide and without her, they didn’t know what to do.

But that fact didn’t really register in their minds as they were more focused on the fact that they were losing a dear friend and there was nothing they could do about it. Being the calmer of the party, Zecora gently guided Rainbow back to the group and after entrusting her to Applejack approached Fluttershy.

“My friend.” She said gently as she grasped her hand, drawing Fluttershy’s attention to her. “Among my people, we believe that even when our friends and family are gone, they remain with us in our hearts. We will have to continue our quest for our home and Ori.”

Fluttershy sniffed and looked down at Ori. “She’s not dead yet, so can we just stay with her until...”

“I would never even dream of leaving her while she is still with the living,” Zecora said and the others began to gather together. “We shall remain here until her light fades.”

The other six Lightkin then formed a tight circle around Ori and Fluttershy to comfort each other as their friend’s light grew dimmer and dimmer as it constantly flickered like a candle in a strong breeze and her arm dropped to brush the ground. Fluttershy could only cry as her friends gathered together and Zecora murmured something under her breath in her native language the sounded like a chant or prayer.

Twilight chose to save her questions on that later as she brushed a hand over Ori's face. The form beneath her hand was getting colder and soon the light guttered out completely. Fluttershy burst into wails as she buried her face into Ori's still chest and the group spent a moment in solemn silence.

Then there was a tiny glow that caught Twilight's attention and when she looked down, she saw a small glowing flower that sprouted at the point of contact where Ori's fingers brushed the ground. Then another burst from the ground followed by another then another and another until there were dozens of flowers sprouting up.

By this point, everyone but Fluttershy saw the flowers and watched as they formed a pathway that pushed away from the ever constant mist and led up to a massive form that was revealed to be a tree. It was huge, the biggest tree any of them had ever seen even if they were in their original form. The branches were gnarled and drooping and once the glowing flowers reached the foot of the tree, it sparked to life lighting up blue like something had been ignited inside.

As they stood there gaping at the massive tree, a yelp from Fluttershy drew them back to the present. A beam of light had erupted around Ori and lifted her out of their friend's hands. The body gave a jerk as if electrocuted and eyes flew open. As she was lowered back to the ground gently, Ori gasped then coughed harshly for half a minute before she began breathing normally again.

Ori POV

"Remind me to never do that again," I grunted as I took deep breaths. "Near-death experiences and actually dying aren't fun."

"ORI!" Everyone cried, almost deafening me, as they jumped at me. I let out a startled yelp as I was pulled into a group hug then felt some wetness on my chest. Looking down, I saw Fluttershy bawling her eyes out into my chest. Slowly I pat her head in an effort to comfort her.

"Um, hey guys," I said as casually as I could to try and ease the gloomy atmosphere. "So, did you miss me?" I received a punch on my arm courtesy of Rainbow Dash in response.

"Of course we missed you ya, dummy! You died!!" She shouted and though she frowned, I could see the moisture gathering in her eyes. I decided not to point it out.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," I said apologetically. "Didn't mean to. Forgive me?"

Rainbow sniffed then joined the hug. "Yeah, just don't do that again." She grumbled and I chuckled.

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises," I said. "This is going to be a dangerous mission you know."

"Well, then I guess I'm going to have to try harder to make sure you don't leave us like that," Dash said stubbornly as she clung to my arm. I just smiled in response and started to pull myself free from the group hug.

"Alright, that's enough hugging," I announced, snapping the others back to the present. "Remember we have a mission to complete you know. We've found the tree, now we just need to find Sein."

"And who exactly is Sein?" Twilight asked.

"Sein is the little guide that helps us in our quest," I said as I started walking once again. Now that I knew where we were, I could get my bearings better. "Plus he's a vital part of the Spirit Tree and it's sort of our goal to restore him to his place."

"Okay then, let's get looking." Applejack said heartily as she and the other came up to follow me. "So where should we start?"

"Well, the good news is that now that we've found the tree, I have a rough idea of where we need to go," I said then pointed forward and declared in a very cheesy voice. "Onward, friends!"

I then led the way, jumping over a tree and making our way down into the Sunken Glade. Unfortunately, I misjudged the drop and ended up hitting the patch of spiked purple pustules on the bottom. I didn't bleed, never have, but there were definitely marks that were painful. After we crossed the pool in two leaps, we came across the green bud which opened at my touch to reveal a green ball of energy that sparkled like a star.

"What is that?" Applejack asked.

"A Life Shard," I whispered. "In the game, these are basically HP which can restore your health."

"Then you should take it," Rainbow said. "I know still feel great and besides, you're the one who hit those, whatever those things are."

I smiled privately because, despite her usual tone, I could still hear a note of concern. So I reached out to the Life Shard and watch it absorb into my body, filling me with vitality and closing the puncture wounds on my side and back. The entire experience was like a jolt of energy not unlike caffeine but better.

"Oh wow, that was cool." Pinkie said as she looked me over. "You feeling any better?"

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "But that's probably only because I wasn't hurt too badly. Life Shards can only restore you're HP so far and when you lose more health it can't restore it all, just a portion of it. The only things that can give you a full recovery are Spirit Wells."

"Are there any around here?" Twilight asked as she looked around.

"Yeah, but it's not accessible yet," Ori said. "Neat thing about Spirit Wells is they can be used to travel quickly between different wells like a teleport but until we find a few more wells, we're hoofing it."

"Darn it!" Pinkie said and I laughed a little.

"It's for the best Pinks, if we just teleport around, we'll miss all the important things," I said as we started walking again, quickly encountering our first energy cell. "Well, that's interesting. Looks like we are incorporating some gameplay."

"What's that?" Pinkie asked, poking it. Oddly enough her touch didn't absorb the cell but rather made it bob slightly in the air.

"An Energy Cell," I answered. "It makes me able to retain more energy which is used for things like certain attacks, unlocking special doors and most importantly creating Soul Links. If there's energy and Energy Cells here, does that mean I can create a Soul Link?"

"Maybe. What does a soul link do anyway?" Twilight asked.

"Soul Links are basically savepoints in games that the player can create," I explained. "You can access the Ability Tree and If you die, you just respawn where you created a Soul Link or used a Spirit Well."

"It is likely," Zecora stepped in. "While my people don't know much about Lightkin, One thing we do know is that Lightkin does not have physical forms like ponies. Even we do not have physical forms, they were likely stored away elsewhere when we transformed."

"So that's why I could still feel my horn." Twilight hummed in wonder. Pinkie herself was also looking thoughtful.

"I wonder if we can do that too." She said before closing her eyes in a look of concentration. Within a few moments, sky blue flame-like light burst from her and when she stepped aside, it remained where she'd been standing.

"Cool." She said as she waved her hand through the flaming light. As the others tried it, I reached towards the Energy Cell and absorbed it. Soon there were eight lights of varying colors filling the area.

"It's almost like using magic," Twilight said as she stepped out of her magenta flames. "And there's this sensation that there are many things I can do."

"That would likely be the Ability Tree," I said as I moved away from my own white light. "And if all this is here that means that we're about to learn how you get ability points."

"What do you-" Rainbow paused her question as Ori jumped down from their perch and rush to one end of the grotto. It was then that they took note of the unstable wall of stone blocking them from going any further. I felt the rumble before the armored creature burst from his hiding place with a roar and charged me. Just like in the game, I ignored the shouts for me to move away and waited for the creature to get close enough before leaping over him.

And just like in the game, the creature hit the wall and was crushed into black smoke that dissipated and golden balls of light that scattered on the ground. I then waved the others over and they quickly joined me. Rainbow was the first to arrive and her first reaction was to smack me on the head.

"What did I say about not doing that again!?" She exclaimed with a scowl.

"I knew what I was doing," I said I my defense as the others caught up. Now that we were gathered, I indicated the Spirit Lights I had won. "Anyways, I got us some Spirit Lights, They'll help us level up."

A few looked around at the battleground in discomfort. "Um dear, didn't you just take the life of another living being just to get those?" Rarity asked. Before I could reply, Zecora came to my rescue.

"Worry not friends, for I didn't feel any loss of life," The shamaness said as she examined the ground where that creature had been. "That creature was merely a construct of darkness and hate likely a result of the excess dark spirit magic. Its heart was filled with nothing but a hate for the light and it and others like it would attack us once we reach their sights."

"And what about the Spirit Lights?" Twilight asked as she scooped one up. "They had to come from somewhere."

Zecora shrugged. "Either they were what gave the creature the power it had to move...or they are the remains of previous meals."

Author's Note

Hallelujah, I'm back! :pinkiehappy: I know you've all been asking me when the next chapter is and hopefully this means I'm back on the horse and will be publishing more chapters. :rainbowdetermined2: I will do my best to make that a reality. Pinki Promise. Next chapter, we'll be meeting Sein.