"Gaia?"
That name whispered out from King Aspen's lips as he stared at the broken heart on top of the pillar of grey flesh, the light emanating from the Heart of the Everfree washing his face with a red glow.
"Get down!" King Aspen heard the Unicorn Prince shout before finding himself tackled to the side, his vision momentarily swimming as he began to roll on the ground, feeling the floor shake beneath him as large vines slammed down where he had stood mere moments prior.
Aspen grunted as he felt his body dragging along the ground, his vision too blurry to see what was going on.
"Snap out of it!" He heard the Unicorn Prince shout once more, "Come on-" Aspen felt his body being lifted onto the Unicorn's back before he was once more moving around, still feeling the ground shaking like a drum set as the large vines slammed down behind him.
"I-" Aspen tried to say, his voice stuck in his throat, "I can't-" He tried to shake the cobwebs from his dusty mind, hoping that a spark of clarity would grace him, let his tired old mind focus on the world around him without losing track and wandering off.
"What in the-" A shout from Blueblood, and a soft red glow in the corner of his eyes was all Aspen got before a cloud of pollen puffed onto his face.
"Thank you, dear forest..." Aspen whispered in his head as his eyes sharpened, focus returning to him, at least for now.
With a glow from the relic on his chest, King Aspen once more ordered the Everfree Forest to do his bidding.
And with the Heart of the Everfree around his neck, the Forest complied.
"There!" Aspen pointed to a spot in the cavern that opened up around the royal trio, "Go there, now!" He told the Unicorn, who, seeing as he had no other plan at the moment, decided to listen.
"Bramble! Get over here, quickly!"
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Prince Blueblood, finding himself without his magic, could do very little but carry the Deer King around as he avoided the wooden monster.
He was lucky that it was much slower than the opponents he had found himself fighting in recent months.
"Plunderseeds really are my biggest weakness..." Blueblood whispered to himself as he dove into the spot Aspen pointed him to, watching a barrier of wooden thorns grow from the floor and encapsulate a sizable portion of the cavern, creating a protective natural half-dome with two exits on either side.
"I think a bigger weakness is your refusal to learn magic that can't be used to hit something in the face." Blueblood clicked his tongue at the red parrot-shaped harpy that only he could see.
"I have that mail spell..." Blueblood grumbled as his back leaned against the stone wall of the cavern, keeping his eyes focused on the entrance he had just come from.
"Bramble!" He heard Aspen shout as the Deer Prince entered the half dome from the other side, a heavy vine slamming behind him just before he dove into the thorny barrier.
"Dad!" Bramble yelled back, picking himself up and quickly moving over to stay near the two adults, "We need to do something!"
"I know, Bramble, I know," Aspen told his son, his breath leaving him as he panted, "But I don't know how..." He bit the inside of his cheek as he felt the ground once more rattle like a drum, the vines outside the thorny dome slamming onto the ground in a blind display of aggression.
"Can you use the heart to build a way out?" Blueblood asked the Deer king, still keeping his back to the Cervine duo as he watched the entrance he and Aspen came in from, "If I can get outside of the Plunderseed vine's range, I'll be able to take care of them like I did in Thicket, from there it'll be easy to take out this thing-"
"No!" Aspen yelled, "You can't kill her!" He shouted at the Unicorn, "There- There must be a way to free her from this. She's in there, I know she is!"
"What?!" Blueblood turned to Aspen with a glare, "That Thing isn't Gaia, Aspen! It's a mindless beast trying to kill us!"
"No! I know there's something-" Aspen tried to formulate a sentence.
"You want to do something nice for her?! Then help me put her out of her misery!" Blueblood's yell was followed by silence, the only sound in the cavern being the heavy breathing coming from the trio and the loud slams of plant matter on solid ground outside the dome.
"I-" Aspen wanted to defend himself, to try and explain why they needed to find another way, one that didn't involve Gaia leaving him again.
"I have a plan!" Before the two adults of the group could restart their shouting match, Bramble sprang up between the two royals, gaining their attention.
"We'll listen," Blueblood told the fawn, "But if it doesn't work, we're going with my plan."
"Fine!" Bramble didn't argue, "Okay- Back in the Manor, when that Pony used his spell on us, it showed me like some sort of vision, or a memory of some kind, seeing as it happened in the past and all that."
"Go on." Blueblood said, Aspen nodding his head to show he was listening.
"It showed me what happened here, when the Pony of Shadows- Anyways! During that vision, He used some sort of spell on the bodies so that these small marbles came out of them, which brought them back to life or something! Like the Pony that attacked us! And now those same marbles are on that monster-" Bramble stared at Blueblood, "He was in those visions, I saw him die, but here he was in the present! Those marbles must be connected somehow!"
"Okay, so Gaia Everfree is a Zombie, that doesn't change what we need to do right now," Blueblood told him, ignoring the stink eye the Deer King gave him from a corner of his vision
"But it does!" Bramble exclaimed, "In the Vision, I saw Gaia, before she- I saw her wrap me, Baby me, in this cocoon of Amber, and when the Pony of Shadows tried to touch it, it created this flash of light, that peeled back the shadows over his leg for a moment, and it sounded like it hurt him."
"I think I'm starting to get where you're going..." Blueblood nodded, an appreciative smile beginning to spread on his face as he looked at the young deer.
"What if we use the Heart of the Everfree that we have to create a flower that could unleash so much light magic that it will burn away whatever corruption the Pony of Shadows did and free everybody here! Both Gaia and the Platinums!" Bramble said with a smile, looking at the two adults for their reactions.
"It could work..." Blueblood said slowly, "And we at least know that Light Magic can overflow the Plunderseed's magic plundering properties, so even if it's not enough to get Gaia, if we can use it to get the Plunderseed's, that'll then allow me to use my magic and get us out of here. We could return reinforcements later! Or we could go with my plan and put her out of her mis-"
"We'll go with Bramble's Idea!" Aspen shouted, "But- there is a problem..." He said sadly, averting his gaze from the two princes, "For the Heart of the Everfree to create a flower with enough Light magic to be able to not just temporarily hurt someone like the Pony of Shadows, but to completely burn his corruption away, it'll require an amount of Harmony Magic that could take at least an hour to generate, something that we won't be able to generate with Gaia's attention on us..."
"It's not attacking us right now, it's blindly hitting the floor outside this dome hoping it would hit something, and it took a bit to react to our presence here before it attacked, and I doubt Gaia is in enough of a coherent mental state to create a flower that allows her to see what that wooden deer sees," Blueblood said, the shaking ground and sound of creaking wood from outside the thorny barrier proving his point, "I think Gaia's blind, or at the very least extremely visually impaired. And since she's using her Heart of the Everfree to control the Wooden Construct, she can only attack what she can sense, and clearly her senses aren't that good."
"...Dad?" Bramble turned to look at his father.
"Yes?" Aspen asked, "Is there more to your plan, or are we going for it now?"
"If... If I can create enough positive emotions, or some sort of Harmony, do you think you can make the flower power up quicker?" He swallowed a lump in his throat as he asked that question.
"Theoretically, yes, but with the Plunderseeds on the ceiling, Blueblood's Magic won't be able to supply us with any harmony-" Aspen answered.
"Don't worry!" Blueblood released a sigh of relief as his antlers began to glow with an earthly brown, "I got our Harmony covered, just get the Light Flower ready!" And before Aspen could respond, Blueblood stood up and stared at the ceiling of the thorn-covered wooden half-dome he sat under.
"Creatures of the Everfree!" Bramble shouted loudly, his voice echoing around the cavern, deer magic coursing through his antlers, "I am Prince Bramble Everfree! Heed my call and come to my aid!"
"Get the flower ready!" Blueblood shouted at Aspen, whose antlers quickly began to glow with a jade green light, the magical Relic on his chest joining his antlers as it shone a deep red as a small flower began to grow out from the ground before him.
Apen's antlers shook as he focused all of his magic on hurrying the delicate process of creating a new species of flora for this specific scenario.
"If you can hear me!" Bramble continued to shout, "Heed my call and listen, Grave danger is upon us, and I require every one of us to work together in Harmony for us to succeed!"
"The Future of the Everfree is on the Line!"
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"About time you discovered your voice, Young Lord..." An Owl told itself as it heard the forest deliver a young deer's voice, watching the other animals of the woods climb down from their trees, crawl out from their burrows, and even join him in flight as they answered the Forest's call.
After all, if the Everfree itself decided that the Young Lord's call was important enough to be heard through every branch and every root, then who were they to reject the forest's call?
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"Blueblood, listen to me..." Aspen struggled to speak as he focused his magic on the Heart of the Everfree, "In a few seconds, two vines will extend from this flower..." His legs shook, sweat stuck to his brow, his beard clung to his face, "I need you to grab one of the vines and pull it, it will extend as much as it needs to do, do not worry about hurting the flower..." Aspen's breath was ragged. "I need you to take that vine and create a perimeter around the cavern before returning here and hooking your vine with the second vine. Once that's done, the Flower's magic will flow through the vine and banish all the Dark magic caught inside the loop it will create."
"Grab the vine, create a perimeter, return here, connect the vines. close the loop. Got it!" Blueblood gave a salute, something the Deer King found uncharacteristically serious from the Unicorn before him. Aspen shook his head, deciding to ignore it for now and focus on the finishing touches of the flower.
"Bramble!" Aspen called to his son, "I need you to stay safe, make sure there's enough Harmony Magic in the flower when Blueblood closes the loop."
The Deer King took a deep breath, "I am pulling down the Dome in five seconds." He told the two princes, "Get ready..."
With a soft golden glow from the small flower, a pair of thin vines emerged from the ground near its stem, one gold and one silver. Blueblood grabbed the gold vine in his mouth, frowning at the lack of telekinesis available to him at this moment, before he turned to the two deer behind him and nodded, lowering into a runner's stance.
"Good luck..." Aspen whispered, and with a flash of red magic from the Heart of the Everfree, the thorned dome retreated into the ground.
And Prince Blueblood began to Sprint.
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Sensing movement in her vicinity, Gaia Everfree let out a gut-wrenching screech as the broken Relic that stuck to her body shone with power, guiding the wooden construct to attack the intruder.
Prince Blueblood ran, keeping the wall of the cavern to his left as he made a dash across the cavern in a clockwise pattern.
"Jump!" He heard Macaw's voice yell behind him the instant he noticed a black vine heading in his direction from the corner of his eye, and with a leap into the air, he jumped over the plant before resuming his dash around the Cavern.
"Stop!" Macaw's warning reached him just in time for Blueblood to grind his run to a halt, stopping his less than a meter in front of another vine, which slammed into the wall in front of him, shaking the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust. "Now keep going!"
And so it continued. Anytime Blueblood was about to get hit, Macaw yelled out a direction moments before a Vine passed him by, each time narrowly avoiding the impact by a thin margin.
As he got closer to the Pillar of dead flesh that made up what Blueblood could only guess was the collective corpses of every being that was in Platinum Manor on that fateful night, he almost got hit.
The nauseating stench caused him to trip and fall on his face, letting go of the vine in the process. In his tangle to catch the golden vine and resume his run, he got hit.
It wasn't a direct hit, luckily, the vine whip merely brushed against his hind left leg. It wasn't enough to take his leg out, but he would need to limp the rest of the way to the finish, making him a much easier target.
Finally grabbing the golden vine once more, Blueblood resumed his sprint, now closer to a hasty shamble, as he began the second half of the perimeter.
"Come on, Blueblood!" He grunted as he watched Bramble cheer him on, the young Deer's eyes moving between him and the hole in the ceiling, as if expecting reinforcements to arrive at any moment.
"Keep moving, Kingfisher! We're halfway there!" He heard Macaw cheer him as well, the ghost of the Harpy no longer in his vision as he focused on the goal, on the small golden flower that glowed on the other side of the Cavern, and on the thin silver vine that extended out from its stem.
"Just a bit more!" Blueblood yelled in his mind, pushing his body to ignore the pain in his leg as he reached the last quarter and-
Ice-blue eyes widened in pain as Blueblood found his body slipping, his injured leg giving out from under him as he fell onto the ground, miraculously avoiding the sweeping vine that would have slammed into his torso had he fallen only a mere second later.
Gritting his teeth, feeling the vine holding firm inside his mouth, Blueblood rolled to his left, feeling his back touch the cold stone walls of the cavern, and giving him a view of the Wooden Deer that stood above him, its legs sinking into the inky black pool of oily secretion as it prepared to whip him once more.
"Just three steps closer..." Blueblood noted in his mind as he calculated how close he needed the Construct to be before he could kick it.
As he prepared his leg for the wooden monster, he also prepared whatever curses he would give Aspen for getting him into this mess in case he wouldn't survive the next few minutes.
Only to widen his eyes as a green vine snaked from behind the wooden construct and whipped its back.
"Why don't you take an opponent in your own weight class!" King Aspen shouted from the other side of the cavern, his legs visibly shaking, his fur matted and sticking to his body like an uncomfortable weight.
And as if sensing the Deer as the bigger threat, Blueblood watched the Wooden Construct halt its slow approach towards him as it turned to face King Aspen.
"Now! Kingfisher!" Macaw didn't even have to yell before Blueblood pushed himself back onto his hooves and ran.
"Here!" He watched Bramble pick up the Silver vine and begin to run towards him.
And with Gaia Everfree's focus elsewhere, Blueblood connected the gold and silver vines, his eyes widening as the amber colored flower the vines connected to began to glow with golden light, a feeling of relief washing over him as he felt his injured leg heal over as the light raced down the vine he stretched around the cavern, creating a beautiful circle of light as it trapped Gaia Everfree inside.
A Pained scream escaped the pillar of flesh as the wooden construct collapsed into the black oil at its hooves, a rumbling sound echoing as the inky black liquid bubbled and hissed before evaporating into steam, flowing out of the hole in the ceiling, leaving behind a broken pile of wood and discarded leaves.
And the small victory was replaced with dread as the pillar of flesh roared, the broken heart shining with red magic as more and more inky black vines grew out from its grotesque body.
"Oh fuck..." Blueblood whispered, his eyes moving to look above the pillar of flesh, noticing the Plunderseeds unharmed.
"No, Look!" Bramble grabbed Blueblood's attention as he pointed to the hole in the ceiling, "We're saved!"
"Bramble, I don't wish to burst your bubble, but there's not much a single fox can do to save us..." Blueblood said as he looked at the animal that sat on the edge of the sinkhole leading into the newly opened cavern, only to watch as more and more animals joined it in standing on the rim of the sinkhole.
Blueblood felt his jaw begin to drop as Red Maned Manticores and Grey Feathered Owlbears began to join the critters, Badgers and Mongoose stood beside snakes and Bird, Chipmunks and Squirrels hung on to the large antlers of wild Moose, Bats and Crows stood next to Wildcats and Bears.
He even managed to spot the heads of a Hydra stretching over the menagerie of forest animals.
"What in the..."
"This is how we'll get the Harmony for the flower!" Bramble told Blueblood, his eyes shining with joy as his horn began to glow with the earthly brown tone of his magic.
"Five, Four-" Bramble began to yell, "Five, Four, Three, Two-"
"Creatures of the woods unite! Strength in numbers, we can get it right! One time!" He shouted before stomping his hooves twice on the ground.
Bramble breathed heavily as he looked up at the creatures above, waiting for them to join him, his smile wide on his face.
"Come on... This has to work..." Bramble whispered to himself, barely moving his smile, hoping the creatures would listen to him and understand what he was trying to do.
"Bramble!" On the other side of the Cavern, Aspen was busy running for his life, small barriers of vines and wood growing from the ground in front of him to block the black whips that Gaia threw in his direction, putting all of her focus on the Deer King.
"That Harmony must be here soon, I do not believe I can keep up for much- Woah!" Aspen called out before throwing himself onto the floor as the wooden wall between him and Gaia shattered under the strength of a black vine the width of his torso.
"Bramble, we should prepare to just escape-" Blueblood tried to tell the Fawn, only for the Deer to shush him.
"Listen! I think it's working..." Bramble told Blueblood, placing a hoof next to his ear.
"...Kid, I can only hear Gaia throwing a tantrum and- Wait a moment..." Blueblood paused as he heard a bird whistle.
And that whistling bird was soon joined by another bird, and another bird, and a squirrel began to squeak, and a fox began yelping, and more creatures joined the cacophony of noise, their voices merging as they began to find their rhythm.
"Here it is!" Bramble yelled happily as the creatures began to sing in rhythm, a noise that tickled the back of Blueblood's mind, before one of the moose began to stomp its hooves into the ground, and Blueblood's eyes widened in recognition.
"This has got to be a cosmic fucking joke..." He whispered to himself, so quietly only he could hear it. His left eye twitched as he watched a translucent Parrot Harpy smirk smugly at him from the corner of his vision.
"Come on, Kingfisher!" Macaw said with a smile on his beak, "You know the lyrics! You recognize the tune! Just sing it!"
"No!" Blueblood yelled at the bird only he could see.
"Come on! You need to harmonize with them to win!"
"Nuh uh! I'm not doing this!" Blueblood shouted, ignoring the look Bramble was giving him for seemingly yelling at nothing.
"Come on- Think of the kid! Do this for him~" Macaw smugly smirked as he floated over Bramble, pointing at the deer prince with his feathered hands.
"...Shit." Blueblood clicked his tongue, "So... Singing is going to power the flower?"
"That's the plan!" Bramble said with a smile.
"...Don't mention what's going to happen next to anyone," Blueblood told the Fawn as he averted his gaze, "That is an order."
"Okay..." Bramble raised an eyebrow at the Unicorn.
Blueblood took a deep breath, focused on the rhythmic cries and stomps of the animals outside, and then opened his mouth-
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"Pressure!" Blueblood swallowed the embarrassment in his throat as he joined the animals above in stomping his legs on the ground, "Pushing down on me, Pressing down on you-"
"No tree asked for!" Bramble joined, stomping his hooves along with the other animals, "Under Pressure! That tears a forest down, Splits a family in two!"
"Puts people on streets!" Blueblood sang, ignoring the hollering from Macaw as he sang along with him, his face flushing an embarrassed red.
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Aspen's eyes widened as he watched the light shining from the golden vine circling the cavern begin to grow in intensity, visibly weakening the oily black vines that battered the walls he had erected.
Gaia Everfree screeched in pain as more of the black liquid that secreted from the dead flesh that made up her body began to evaporate, a few marbles beginning to loosen from their spots in her towering body.
"It's the terror of knowing what this world is about!" Aspen sang, joining the animals above in stomping his legs to the beat of the song, "Watching some old friends scream-"
"LET ME OUT!!!" A cacophony of voices laid over each other cried out as several marbles burst out of the fleshy pillar, rolling along the ground before stopping as they reached the golden vine.
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Bramble widened his eyes as he sang, watching the Marbles that popped out of the pillar of flesh begin to let out a string of smoke, each marble in a different color, as a translucent Unicorns appeared from the smoke, their bodies wavering as they held on to the golden vine, their horns glowing with different colors of light as the Amber Flower beside him began to shine brighter and brighter.
"Pray tomorrow, Take me higher!" Bramble turned to see Blueblood's reaction, only to notice the Unicorn Prince had his eyes closed, his face flushed a bright red, "Pray tomorrow! Take me higher~" Blueblood stomped his legs five times, before the singing from the Animals above quieted, the only sound being the echoes of their rhythmic stomps.
Bramble watched the Unicorn that emerged from the marbles lower their heads to the golden vine, giving it their magic, unaffected by the Plunderseeds above.
"Why~ Oh oh why! Tell me why!" Blueblood sang, Bramble widening his eyes at how the Unicorn still hasn't seen what was happening.
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"Tell me why~ Tell me why~ Tell me Why! Tell me Why!!!" King Aspen sang loud, his eyes combing over the smoky and transparent Unicorns, who he could vaguely recognize from the dark recesses of his mind.
He watched more and more marbles roll out of the pillar of flesh, the black vines now simply flopping weakly in his direction before evaporating under the Amber Flower's light.
"Can we give ourselves one more chance?!" Aspen sang loudly, slowly walking towards the pillar of flesh as it began to slump forward weakly, the Heart of the Everfree that sat near the top now almost kissing the floor as more and more marbles rolled out of its grasp, releasing the Unicorns trapped within.
"Why can't we give ourselves one more chance?!" Aspen felt tears pooling in his eyes as he watched a small marble roll out from the crack in the broken heart, the smoke that emerged shaping into the form of a Doe, one that was stuck on his mind for over one thousand years.
"Why can't we give love- give love- give love- give love?!" He extended his hoof towards the smoky apparition, feeling a cold yet also paradoxically warm sensation wash over his body as he stared into the apparition's eyes.
"Every day, every night, every hour?!" He cried as he sang, pulling the Doe into a spin as he began to dance in the center of the golden circle he created, the Pillar of Flesh now weakly quivering in the corner as the light from the Amber Flower burned at the dark magic that kept it alive.
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Blueblood opened his eyes in shock as he felt something cold touch his right shoulder, quickly turning to see a tall and muscular Unicorn with a grey coat and a snow-white mane that connected to a beard, looking at him with a pair of eerily familiar-looking eyes.
From behind the White-maned Unicorn, he saw a younger Stallion, with a wavy white mane and a coat of golden fur, another pair of familiar Ice-Blue eyes staring back at him with a much warmer look than the older Unicorn.
"'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word~" Blueblood's mouth was open in stunned silence as he looked at the scene in front of him, of dozens of Unicorns singing to the same song as the animals above stomped their legs and let out their cries.
"And love dares you~ to care for~ the people on the edge~ of the night!" Blueblood felt something inside him as he watched all the Unicorns singing, watching Aspen in the center dancing with what could have been nobody else but Gaia, watching the animals that would usually hunt and eat each other standing side by side as they worked together, using the Everfree Forest's Magical connection with the Heart of the Everfree, to create...
Harmony.
And whatever emotion it was that he was currently feeling, it only seemed to grow as he looked to his right, once again watching the two Unicorns that stood closest to him.
"And love dares you~" Blueblood watched the Older Unicorn nod his head at him, and for some unknown reason, he felt something click inside of him, something he couldn't put to words, "To change our way of~"
Blueblood widened his eyes as he watched the Golden-coated Unicorn step forward and grab his leg, pulling him into a spin, too stunned to respond as he watched the white-maned Unicorn smile widely, tears welling in his eyes as he sang, "To change our ways!"
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"Of caring about ourselves!" Aspen sang, tears in his eyes as he spun around the circle, dancing joyfully with his beloved in his reach, "This is our last dance!"
"This is our last dance~" He pulled Gaia closer to him, pushing his lips against hers.
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"This is ourselves!" Blueblood felt his body spin away as the gold-coated Unicorn let him go, his uncontrollable spin causing him to crash into the older Unicorn.
"Creatures of the woods unite! Strength in numbers, we can get it right! One time!" He heard Bramble sing, one final stomp on the floor bringing an end to the song.
Blueblood, still stunned, stared at the older Unicorn, a pang of... something, eating away at him as he looked at the Stallion.
He watched as the Stallion picked up his marble from the floor and passed it to him, His magic quickly activating to catch it before it fell back to the stone surface below, noting for him that the Plunderseeds were dealt with.
"Keep it, it's yours now." The Unicorn said in a gruff voice, two pairs of ice-blue eyes staring into each other.
"You-" Blueblood slowly turned to look at the gold-coated Unicorn that previously spun him around slowly making his way towards him, his own marble levitating next to him, "You've grown up so much..." The Unicorn whispered as he gently passed the marble, "My Blueblood Cocytus Platinum..." He said with a whisper before his body faded away into a cloud of smoke, merging together with the large cloud of colorful smoke that formed in the center of the cavern as the other Unicorns also faded away, leaving the marbles that connected to them behind.
Soon, the only Unicorn that remained was the old one that stood next to him, its form flickering and struggling to keep itself together.
"Throw a coin into the well, and you will get your answers..." The Unicorn told him, his body beginning to fade, "Blueblood Cocytus Platinum, Pride of our House..." The Unicorn spoke before fading away to join the cloud.
Blueblood looked on in silent astonishment as he watched the cloud of colorful smoke begin to shine with white light before it started to fade away into motes of light. A minute later, everything was gone.
It was as if they were never even there.
Looking down at the two marbles held in his magic and at the many more littering the floor, Blueblood didn't know what to think.
He looked up at the hole in the ceiling, seeing that the animals that stood there now returned to whence they came, leaving the opening clear enough for him to see the sky starting to turn orange as the sun began to rise.
Taking a deep breath to organize his thoughts, Blueblood tried to formulate words to describe the emotions he was feeling.
Yet, finding no words that could aptly describe his current state, he simply uttered a single word, the image of the gold-coated Unicorn stuck in his mind.
"Dad?"