allcomplete | friendship is magic part 2

The forest is dark (Clarity and Guiding Star light their horns to see by, but it's almost worse than nothing, making the distant shadowed spaces darker by comparison; they soon give up). The plants that make it up are closely spaced, not all of them have friendly textures, and it is full of scary noises, only some of them the harmless snapped twigs and disturbed leaves of their own passage.

Before they've fully adjusted to the darkness, and are aware via anything but the feel of earth under their hooves that the path has sloped downward a little, it has given way under them, some of the flora and some distressingly large rocks along with it. Clarity can't even teleport. It's too dark to see where she might be going.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

on_what_wings

"Don't say cute," beseeches Blaze.

Behind her, a chorus of ominous creakings heralds three more trees transforming into fanged monsters. She looks, eeps, and huddles closer to Streak.

From:

follow_polaris

"Know any snazzy tree-swatting magic, Clarity?" asks Guiding, shivering.

From:

allcomplete

"If it were daylight I could teleport us someplace I could see but I can't see anyplace well enough."

From:

joyfulnoise

"No but they are cute, though," says Joy, reaching toward the tree whose fangs have been mostly demolished by Cordy's hooves. Its remaining teeth snap shut on the tip of his claw. He giggles.

And the tree's fangy maw and clawlike branches and knotty eyes untwist and smooth out into a perfectly ordinary tree.

From:

on_what_wings

"What just ha—eep!" says Blaze, hopping into the air to escape a tree-claw swiping from behind her.

From:

allcomplete

"How did you do that?" asks Clarity, thwipping her tail out of the way of another bitey tree.

From:

joyfulnoise

"Dunno!" says Joy. He advances on the one currently menacing Clarity. "Aww, who's the cutest terrifying tree monster," he says in a syrupy voice. "Is it you? I think it's you!"

The tree attempts to poke his eyes out. He cracks up as he ducks under the swing. The tree unscarifies on the spot.

From:

clearthestorm

"It's the laughter," says Streak -

From:

ipso_amore

- in chorus with Cordy.

From:

allcomplete

"How fortunate that the fact that it's laughter is -" She trips trying to escape an encroaching treemonster. "Ridiculous." And then she snorts with small but unmistakeable laughter.

From:

follow_polaris

Guiding cackles, deliberately but not ungenuinely.

From:

joyfulnoise

Their laughter untwists the two closest trees. Joy pounces on another one and gives it a hug, giggling helplessly. Its curse is lifted.

From:

clearthestorm

"I'll leave this to those more qualified," says Streak.

From:

on_what_wings

Which sends her sister into uproarious wheezing giggles. Another two trees restored.

From:

allcomplete

Hee hee hee!

From:

follow_polaris

Guiding decides to take a chance on fwipping a tree in the "nose" with her tail, chuckling when it "sneezes". It reverts.

From:

joyfulnoise

And Joy runs up to the remaining demon tree and tickles it, cackling when it flails its branches.

"Awwww, all gone," he gasps between giggles.

From:

ipso_amore

"Who knew Joy's weird sense of humour could be so useful?" remarks Cordy. She's smiling, but has not actually managed any tree-dispelling laughter. "Everybody okay? Are we ready to keep going?"

Edited Date: 2014-05-26 02:45 am (UTC)

From:

allcomplete

"I think I'm fine," says Clarity, shaking some dirt off her hoof from when she fell. "What an odd sort of tree monster."

From:

follow_polaris

"Thank you, Joy," trills Guiding.

From:

joyfulnoise

"You're welcome," says Joy, (what else) cheerfully. "Let's go!" He sets out along the decent-approximation-of-a-path.

From:

clearthestorm

The pegasus sisters follow.

From:

allcomplete

So do the unicorns.

From:

clearthestorm

The path widens as they go, but the trees close in, denser and lower; short of Joy climbing one, the fliers will have a hard time getting off the ground if they try.

After a while, Streak announces, "Agitated water ahead. A waterfall or a very unruly river." If the others listen closely, they might be able to hear the faint sounds that led her to this conclusion.