Prince Sugar Hoof of Equestria

The next morning, I hopped off of my bed and made my way to the underground caverns. I did not notice the changes to my body and the treants chose not to inform me. Instead, I went out to the prisons deep below the surface and overlooked the bandits.

They were brutalized to say the least, slaughtered like cattle. Despite this, I did not feel guilty, they were bandits, and they suffered greatly for it. There are some in life who deserve to live, like those ponies in Appleloosa who were tragically killed through my negligence, and there are those who simply don't deserve to live, like these bandits here. I promised Gilded though, I would let them live.

My heart and horn glowed a shining green as tendrils shot into the bodies of the dead bandits, and in a bright orb of life magic and harmony, they rose again. Though I did not heal them of their wounds, I only made them non-fatal. Their bones remained broken, their throats remained cut, their blood remained dry, they were alive and would not be killed, but only barely.

Through whimpers and shuddering gasps, the dead eyes of the griffons looked at me from their chains and grew frightful. I did not care, they would remain here until it was time to ship them to... wherever Celestia wants them. Maybe she'll be fine keeping them here, Greg would enjoy having his friends back.

Speaking of Greg, it was about time I resurrected him.

I went to leave, but was stopped by a treant, "Master, the team you sent to the Everfree has returned." Greg would have to wait.

I was led to a room where a team of treants awaited, and they did not come alone. The room was filled with things taken from the once cursed forest.

I saw a large round orb first, it sparkled like a summer's evening and smelled of daisies. The treants had recently repaired it, if the patch of extra glass was anything to go by.

"The heart of the Everfree?" I asked, the treant nodded. I suspect the owner of this orb once used it as a focusing stone, and through either misuse, or too much use, it became unstable and cracked. Which led to the Everfree overflowing with life magic.

There was a number of other strange things in the room. A large source of silver green water, a book that radiated shadow magic, horrible vines of unknown origin, and even a treant in dog form.

The treant dog looked like it had been abused, it was comprised of multiple different types of wood, of varying different qualities. Some of the wood was good, some of it was dead, whoever conjured him clearly had either no idea what they were doing, or did not care in the least for it's efficiency.

"He would not come willingly, we had to pacify him for transport, master." The treant who led the expedition explained.

"Any idea who conjured him?" I asked, never taking my eyes off the treant dog.

"There's no telling, master, from what evidence we could find, these 'timberwolves' as Equestria calls them have patrolled that forest for centuries."

"Whoever summoned him likely wouldn't mind if I kept him." I said as I lit my horn up.

It was a normal, quiet day in Griffonstone, the birds were the citizens, and the flowers were dead. Very few griffons worked and none did so with much enthusiasm. As such, everyone was surprised when one griffon began tending to the plants around the city.

His name was George, he was a highwaygriff, a bandit. When he left Griffonstone to join a bandit clan, everyone thought he would either return empty-handed, or never return at all, but they didn't expect him to return as he did.

Barely anyone tried to talk to him, which George quite liked, he devoted most of his day to tending to the trees, he would spend all day with the trees. He'd water the trees, read to the trees, kept the trees warm at night, he ran himself ragged for the trees to everyone's confusion and concern. When a griffon finally asked him why he was doing so much for the trees, he'd tell a story of how trees rose from the ground and slaughtered his entire group.

Everyone thought he was insane, and when he explained that a foul and sadistic foal was the leader of the trees, no griffon could keep from laughing at George. George didn't mind though, he knows what he saw, one day the trees would come to reclaim Griffonstone and the world.

"When the trees come, and they see how I'm taking care of their friends, I'll be spared." George would say, warning his fellow griffons, who only laughed at him more.

It was fine that they laughed. George just remembered the night the trees attacked and repeated to himself, "It won't be me. It won't be me. It won't be me."

I entered the throne room while riding on the treant dog. His once ragged and broken frame was replaced by beautiful carved wood, the fractured parts of his body was now one whole, leading to him looking akin to an actual dog that just happened to made of wood. His timber body twisted and morphed as flesh did, but maintained his large canine shape. Around his neck, there was a green spiked collar with a name tag that read, 'Spot'.

Gilded was speechless, and who could blame him, Spot had undergone quite the transformation.

"Suga— I mean, my prince, are you okay?" Gilded asked me.

"I have a bunch of new magical objects to research and experiment with, the bandits have been defeated, the storm king isn't attacking, and I have a new pet, why wouldn't I be okay?"

"You're... a lot bigger now..." He said, looking over my frame.

"Hmm? I hadn't noticed." I said, jumping off of Spot's back.

Now that It was on my mind, I was a bit taller now. "Huh... new-born no more, I guess." I said, looking back at Gilded.

"You've skipped a few years." Gilded blanched at me.

I lit my horn again and began scanning my body for magical anomalies, I found the usual though, life magic, fire magic, death magic, storm magic, shadow magic, harmony magic, and that potion I made yesterday morning.

That potion... hmm... "Yes, I did drink a potion I conjured, I've been trying to create a... special elixir for a few decades now." An immortality potion, not the little half measures or temporary boosts to one's life span like I've been studying over the years, but a true, one and done, live forever potion. I'm a master of life magic, so I didn't think it'd be too hard, but I was wrong.

The only magic effect on me beyond my own magic was the potion, and I was attempting to make an immortality potion that would last forever, and now I've jumped in age. Huh... that's not good.