Chapter 5 -||

Scale was an issue. Being a wolf wasn't helping much, but Adam wasn't sure how large he was compared to his human body.

For example, if his body was human size but horizontal, then these fillies were tiny. Up to his kneecap.

Then again, he ate a tree before compressing down. In a huge forest, with no man made objects or even a trail to use as reference, he could shrink by half or double in size and not know how tall he was.

He was double the height of these walking snacks though, and those timberwolves were roughly adult Pony height in the show, right? Maybe?

And Alicorns were massive, like double or more the size of an adult Pony.

How old were these children? Old enough to talk, get in trouble in the woods. Height wise, no idea.

Long story short, he was considering shrinking further. If for no other reason, than to make these wooden corpses last longer.

Moving another log, he inwardly sighed. Hands. Really needed hands. He continued sorting his rewards, giving the three witnesses to calm down.

An internal glance at Squishy did answer a couple of questions.

Power Charges were gained once per day, total. Not once per day per soul. Furthermore, 'Day' was defined by in internal counter, not the cycle of the sun around whatever rock he stood on. It wasn't obvious before, as Worm was damn close to a normal Earth time wise, but even there it didn't quite line up perfectly.

He had used all previous charges up before traveling here anyway, so no super easy communication for... something like 18 hours, 32 minutes and 12 seconds. So he had spent five or so hours traveling here. Hope that goes down in the future.

Research would allow him to learn to talk eventually, but until then he continued gathering the timberwolf debris and sorting it. Based on flavor, he would probably only keep munching the wooden skulls. Made sense that they would hold more magic, those were the one part of the 'animal' that couldn't be easily replaced.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scootaloo nodded. "I'm going to keep him."

"NO!"

She frowned. "But look, he is totally housebroken now!"

Apple Bloom grunted as she checked her friends bandage. "Just because he piles stuff doesn't mean he won't make a mess. And Granny Smith says 'Don't trust anything that can eat you by accident.'"

Sweetie Belle hummed. "But... he does look nice with the whole 'wild forest' motif going."

Seeing the two others blink at her, she shrugged. "Rarity loves nature themes, it shows up in her fall line a lot."

Scootaloo looked back at the mass of a beast carefully sorting what used to be a crowd of death. "But Burnie seems a lot nicer than that Manticore Fluttershy saved us from. Now that he isn't trying to eat us and stuff."

Apple Bloom grunted. "Stupid 'Wilderness Explorer' cutie mark, I'm glad we didn't get that one. It was almost as dangerous as THIS trip, and we weren't even TRYING for a mark this time!"

Sweetie Belle nodded, checking to make sure the makeshift bandage was tight. The bleeding had not been the biggest issue, it was the pain poor Scootaloo felt when walking that had forced the three to face off the previously vicious beast.

She glanced at the 'monster' now, happily chewing away at what was probably a thigh bone. It was... very dog like now. Which was odd, considering the bright blue fire for eyes and how much more powerful it seemed. Those teeth were massive and hooked.

Nothing that dangerous should look so silly when slobbering over a branch.

Scootaloo gave a nod. "Well, he seems nice enough now, and to be honest if I had to choose between dying here and possibly befriending a fire wolf, I'm going with the huge maybe-pet."

Apple Bloom growled. "Can we not? Just... just let him sit over there for a bit. He seems happy enough."

Scootaloo's look was surprisingly serious. "We can NOT be out here, at night, in the Everfree Woods. Rainbow Dash didn't tell me much about this place, except that the danger goes up by a lot when the sun sets."

Apple Bloom blinked. "What? But Big Mac didn't mention that!"

Sweetie Belle snorted. "He doesn't mention anything much. And you both are Earth Ponies, when you get older nothing in this forest can do too much to you anyway. Pegasis and Unicorns on the other hand, well... even Rarity warned me about staying out here at night."

Scootaloo nodded. "And Twilight had that whole presentation about the dangers and stuff."

The other two blinked at her in confusion. She shrugged. "It was back when we were trying for our 'Librarian Assistants' mark. It seemed something that was needed for adventuring. Like, stuff that would help out Daring Do on her adventures!" She looked thoughtful. "You two were trying to stop the book piles from falling, I think."

The three grimaced. That had been... messy.

Apple Bloom gave a sigh. "So... what are we going to try to do then? What is the plan?"

Scootaloo gave a firm nod. "Going to keep Burnie. Fire wolf is like the best pet ever anyway."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "And how are you going to do that exactly?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The stick bounced of the side of Adam's face.

It didn't even tickle, but seriously? Why!?

A man goes along his day and... oh. Wolf. A wolf goes along his day, and SMACK, branch!

Oh wait, it's tasty.

He glanced to the side from his corpse pile. Food pile. Uh. Strategic food reserves.

He blinked.

Alright, he wasn't the best in the world at Charades, but those three ponies were clearly trying to call him over. The Pegasis, Scootaloo, the most enthusiastic... which was encouraging considering her wound. It was still clearly painful, but also clearly not life threatening.

Well, if they are willing to throw junk at a massive pile of fire, teeth, and wood... Clearly they weren't terrified of the situation anymore.

He rose and stalked over.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scootaloo suddenly felt hesitant.

The wolf got up... and up. He was... much taller than she realized.

And as he got closer, she realized that looking at a wolf from a distance, surrounded by massive trees, does not make perspective determination easy.

Because he seemed to get larger the closer he came.

The enthusiastic encouragement from her got very quiet as she realized that if she had stood up as high as possible, even on her back two hooves... it still wouldn't be enough to match eyes with Burnie.

And he was there... and she realized her friends were similarly frozen. They only remained calm due to how relaxed this creature was, no aggression visible.

But... the three could walk below him without crouching, if they wanted to. Each 'paw' was the size of their whole head, each limb large and wrapped in black vines, the bright green needles less 'fluffy' looking now that it wasn't several feet away.

She gulped. "A... Apple..."

And then it 'booped' her leg.

Just... hit her wound with his nose.

It should have hurt, but she could feel something warm. The strong stinging and ache had vanished.

A careful flex. Huh. It was... it felt fine!

"Scootaloo?"

She glanced at her concerned friends. "It... it doesn't hurt now!"

Sweetie Belle exchanged glances with Apple Bloom. "Are... Are you sure?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah! It feels great!"

Apple Bloom seemed concerned. "When you say it doesn't hurt, like... how much not hurting? On a scale of one to ten."

Scootaloo blinked. "I'm fine. Why?"

Sweetie Belle pointed her hoof. "Your leg is burning."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam watched the small, now healed Pegasis, frantically run around the clearing, rolling and attempting to put out the flames as her two friends chased her, trying to help in some way.

So... 'Recovery' now works by whatever that blue fire was. Selective heat though, the filly seemed fine but she was clearly not expecting to be a campfire.

To be fair, Adam didn't expect this either. It seemed the 'refinement' process he had undergone had mushed all his abilities closer together for protection and stability.

And... this was not normal fire. He could use it like an extension of himself, using his touch based abilities like healing through it.

Probably magic, considering his current form. Not that he could control it or whatever right now.

First charge WAS going to be some sort of decryption ability, so he could learn languages and body micro-expressions and stuff to fit in... but that may work better in a Sherlock Holmes Realm or even back in Worm.

Something magic based would be wiser, so he wouldn't accidentally burn something he actually didn't mean to.

Oh, those girls seemed to be tiring out. The stress of near death, being saved by that near death, then being burned to healthiness had probably taken a toll.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

"What creature burns you better!?" Scootaloo was experiencing some mix of enthusiastic relief that she was feeling better and embarrassment that she had just spent the last few minutes freaking out about what was essentially magic special effects from the healing spell... thing.

All three had spent lots of time around Twilight Sparkle, they should be USED To strange magical effects by now.

Apple Bloom collapsed next to Sweetie Belle. "Ah... I'm just glad you're better, Scoots. And Burnie seems to be nice enough after all... Fluttershy would love him, no doubt."

Sweetie Belle gave a soft sigh, looking at her dirt streaked limbs. "Fluttershy loves anything related to animals. And I... I am done with this. Do either of you know the way out of this forest?"

Scootaloo scoffed. "We wouldn't be lost if any of us had an idea. And that was before we ran into pre-Burnie here, who knows how far he chased us."

They looked at the mound of vegetation, currently laid down nearby and idly munching on one of the few remaining timberwolf heads.

She hummed. "Do... do you think he knows the way?"

The other two shook their heads. "Not likely, he may be nice now but he is still a Timberwolf. Never been out of the forest before, probably."

Apple Bloom looked thoughtful. "You know... It wouldn't matter so much looking for the way out if we had a guardian. I've never heard of nopony like him before, and he could probably protect us while we try and get back home."

Sweetie Belle looked hesitant. "He's nice enough, but... can we convince him to help us? I mean, not eating us is already a great experience in my book."

Apple Bloom gulped, then tried to be as calm as possible. Self-Respect and Endurance may be something the Apple Clan was known for, but sometimes confidence and gumption could also do the trick. "I got an idea."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was just wasting time until he could use a Power Charge when the girls carefully approached him. Continuing to snack and ignore them was enough to let them feel a bit more confidant with the scenario.

And... they tried to talk to him.

Wow, not having the local language was really, really annoying.

Swap to 'Technomancy', assign 'Research' to all new audio files. Back to 'Recovery'.

Neat, his body didn't mutate randomly during the power swaps! Hopefully that would carry over when returning to Worm. Random hair changing was annoying.

The language results were... well, quick but not instant, and not all encompassing. He needed far more raw audio data.

It was enough to get a vague idea of what they wanted... so he nodded and turned to the side.

'Recovery' and self modification allowed him to quickly expand his hack, increase the moss covering, and create something like a depression, a bowl for the three to settle in. Well, to settle in after they gained enough courage to actually get aboard.

Once the three were safely secured, Adam carefully stood... and moved to the nearest tree. It would take time for his mental processes to finish translating this world's languages, and he felt a bit concerned about his firepower in this forest.

In a world where massive magical monsters was an actual common thing, having more mass made him feel a bit less endangered.

This one would do. Never had to judge a tree for flavor before. As his massive jaws clamped into the wood, he mentally sighed. Not as tasty as his former wooden comrades, but he managed to consume the best parts of THEM earlier while the ponies ran around.

...Seriously, was this brain thing going to keep him from enjoying meat when he went back? Tree shouldn't taste THIS good. This was just stupid.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo watched wide eyed as the giant 'dog' turned... and seemed to puff up.

His back turned into something like a couch, but more nest-like.

So, clearly he was fine with giving them a ride... somewhere.

A whispered conversation, the fourth so far about how stupid was TOO stupid and how all other options were worse ANYWAY, and the three got on-board.

It was awesome!

Scootaloo whooped! "Best pet ever! And he even smells nice, like a Hearth's Warming tree!"

Apple Jack gently pushed the edges of the 'bowl', which seemed sturdy enough. "He should, half this top stuff is pine needles. Where did he get pine needles anyway? These aren't pine trees."

Scootaloo grinned. "Dunno! Don't care! On-wards trusty steed!"

At which point their gallant galloping mount... proceeded to meander to the side and bite into a massive tree.

It was... not a lot of progress towards home.

But honestly, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom felt the situation was good enough even if Burnie seemed a bit... mentally challenged.

At least now, anything that wanted to hunt three fillies in a forest would have to be stupid enough to mess with Burnie.

Survival rate increase! Things looked FAR less scary when trapped in deadly forest if you were riding a massive death machine.

The three suddenly went dead quiet when the tree Burnie was gnawing started... slurping? Dissolving wasn't quite right, it looked like a balloon that was slowly deflating.

And... their bowl was now less crowded.

The three children looked over the rim of their ride... and the now retreating forest floor.

Scootaloo gulped. "Uh... Burnie is getting big again. Like he did before that fight."

Sweetie Belle seemed mentally checked out. "How... How tall did he get back then?"

Apple Bloom absently responded. "I couldn't see over his claws. He was just a... a wall."

Their new friend took a step forward to a new tree... and apparently a new snack.

A deep thud, muted but bone humming, thrummed with his steps.

Yeah... their survival rate went up.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scootaloo's dog was strange.

After it grew to a certain height, the idea of getting off was... a bit scary. Considering Apple Bloom had gone along with the massive ramp idea and stealing... uh. Borrowing Pinkie Pie's hot air balloon. Yeah.

Anyway, they were no stranger to height or even (thanks to Twilight) walking on clouds.

The point of view from a moving mountain of wood felt more real somehow than floating along, and less in control than climbing some of their... less sound wooden constructions. In retrospect, this was probably the SAFEST they had been in some time that still involved great heights.

Thankfully, after Burnie started to have issues passing between the trees he stopped growing. Sort of.

Now, they had a wide space of moss covered ground that felt sort of grass-like but softer. That... well, not normal, but expected by them as he grew. And each tree consumed made parts of him change. Subtly at first, just different textures and layers of materials showing up.

Then his back gained wooden railings.

And after a while, the various bushes he would randomly consume would regrow as flourishing berry patches up here with them. And three trees grew that had apple-like fruits.

As an Apple Clan filly, she KNEW her apples. And these things were off. Like a drawing a kid would make of an ideal apple or something... no seeds, no bruises, supernaturally juicy.

It was enough to keep the three entertained for almost an hour or two as Burnie was wandering through the woods, randomly eating any tree that was too bothersome to walk around.

Scootaloo frowned. "Look, if you make a club in a tree, it is a tree-house, right?"

Sweetie Belle sighed. "I know, you made this argument like... five times now."

Scoots waved a hoof. "Yeah, but it makes sense! If we build a club on Burnie, it should be a dog-house!"

Apple Bloom groaned. "Alright, we have to stop this, we have argued for like... forever. We can't call it a 'Dog-House', even if it sorta-kinda-makes sense." She ignored Scootaloo's pout. "We CAN'T, or we would spend all day explaining what we meant to everypony that heard us!"

Sweetie Belle chimed in. "And he might not stay this big either. He shrank down before, right? We can't tell people our Dog-House got bored and walked away either. I mean, we COULD but it would be silly."

Scootaloo grumbled. "Well, I mean... he already made us a personal grove, or whatever this is. Why can't he just make the club house for us?"

Apple Bloom glanced at the still expanding garden... thing. Randomly, Burnie would bite the ground and stuff was still showing up. Patches of soil, a few rocks, and of course the expanding number of fruits and things now growing around the edges.

Wait, were those carrots!? When did wild carrots grow in this forest? Wasn't there too much magic or something? Then again, it wasn't like she had asked Applejack about the plant variety inside the magic and monster filled forest.

Probably should have.

And... she had stopped watching Scootaloo. Who was now climbing the stairs up to Burnie's head. Which now had stairs.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had to admit, biting the ground the first time was an accident. The roots of that last tree had a rich wheat-like flavor, and he accidentally scooped up a ton or so of soil. Literally.

It didn't taste amazing, but something in 'Recovery' LOVED it, and transferred it to his back... garden? Back base? Thing. Whatever it was actually boosted his internal soul-recovery rate as well. Turning into some sort of plant ecosystem was helping stabilize something undefined.

Probably some sort of cycle-of-life magic loop thing... or something. Or rocks just taste good and have magic in the magic forest. Whatever.

The added rock however did reinforce his body in multiple places... and he uh. Well, his template was based off the Timberwolf one, but now...

His body, once restricted to a specific size (Too big made walking suck), had gone odd.

Still four legs, but he was now almost turtle shaped, with the bowl on top for the three ponies becoming far more refined and protected against possible damage. A psychological thing maybe?

His neck almost vanished. It had turned into a series of tree trunks and vines, then retracted into his chest till his massive head looked like a mountain-side sculpture.

Huh. Very turtle like, really. His enhanced neck could let his head reach all the way to soil and even up to tree tops by sliding and extending itself. His mouth on the other hand...

Thank goodness the girls couldn't see him easily. He now had a roughly canine face, but inside his mouth, the one with large triangle teeth... was more mouths.

Layers. Each one with finer teeth and sharper fangs.

And most of those wooden fangs were hollow, and managed to inject liquid blue fire and then suck it back like some sort of vampire.

His tongue was just straight up blue flames filled with black vines. Not that the vines were visible due to... well, the fire.

At least he could see it all thanks to the blue fire acting like... a mixture of self and eyes and emotion sensing and all kinds of junk. Ever time he breathed a stream of blue flames he could see in every direction, which made the search to civilization more likely to succeed.

Oh, right. He could breathe fire now. Lung, who's the cool guy now!?

Still, the rate of walking was slow. Not so much that he didn't know which way to go, he could somehow taste the direction with more variety of flavors... no, he needed to give time for all these smaller 'predators' to finish fleeing.

If he walked TOO quickly, this mass exodus would turn into a stampede of normally dangerous creatures. When he blew some flames up into the air, he could 'see' the large circle of creatures carefully fleeing in front to slink by on his sides, cowering behind him and allowing his passage.

This was more fun then expected. More people should allow their automated healing powers to mess with their brains when adapting to new forms, this was emotionally relaxing on a level he hadn't felt in weeks.

Then again, being the 'big dog' had always been appealing to others.

He saw another small hill of stone. Jaws larger than several cars (Probably? His sense of scale was still not accurate) crunched into it with loud snaps and crunches.

Jerky flavored?

Yeah, his brain was being seriously messed with by his power to connect that flavor to this. Still, if he needed to eat stone and stuff to improve his (fairly large) body, why wish for it to taste like soil and rock?

It was an half hour or so later that he felt tiny feet walk up his neck stairs and follow the outer wooden observer platforms to be in front of his right eye.

Ah, the Pegasis Scootaloo. More words translated, but context was missing. And it was strange to have a 'conversation' with something so tiny standing/staring/talking into your eye.

A club house, huh? Well, it would keep them safe if he had to sleep here tonight, as well help them stay warm and dry.

Still a lot of work to build something like that up top where any random flying beast could whack it. Dragons existed in this world, and they didn't normally die from old age... they just got larger.

Some tales said the core of the planet had a dragon or two that just... haven't woken up yet. The fact that the two pony gods didn't care that much about the topic showed the power of the local rulers, but HE didn't want someone scratching his back and accidentally killing off three kids.

This should work as a compromise.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

By the time the two girls caught up to Scootaloo, Apple Bloom knew it was too late.

The first warning sign was how proud Scootaloo looked.

The second, was the massive Timberwolf stopping in his tracks.

Then... the shaking.

The three quickly went back to their 'forest glade' area, but the shaking only increased until a small hut made of stone and reinforced with wooden beams thrust up from what little soil existed up here.

While they felt relieved, Scootaloo was... disappointed. "What! All that for such a tiny club house!? Burnie nearly made me pass out from all that stuff, and all we got was a shack for a clubhouse!?"

Sweetie Belle gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Well... it is a very nice shack? Solid construction and stuff. Our other club houses were... far more fragile."

Apple Bloom snorted. "Ya mean they collapsed every other day." She walked over to the hut, large enough for the three to enter with no issue but not exactly a mansion. "This door looks very solid. And nightfall will be here soon, so maybe we should check it out?"

Scootaloo was emotionally back in the search for adventure instantly, and pushed open the well polished wooden door. With wooden hinges. It was honestly impressive. "Yeah, well I guess it is better than... than..."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked over her shoulders.

It wasn't a club house, shack, nor a hut.

It was a wide, clean, brightly-lit staircase.

The fire was blue of course, in small indentations on the walls.

The staircase had railings. And... on the walls, wooden carving of forests. And Timberwolves. And the three of them.

So... yeah. That was a thing.

Scootaloo was bouncing with excitement. "So... anyone heard of the 'Explore Living Wood Buildings' cutie marks?"

Apple Bloom sighed and followed the two in. Honestly, privately, she knew that half the cutie marks the three aimed for didn't exist, nor were possible. But the real point of the club was to be with friends and do fun things... and exploring a giant pet palace seemed interesting at the very least.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sometimes Adam had to just stop and ask himself the important questions.

For example: "Am I a house?"

Cause... maybe. Very strong, maybe yes, maybe.

Why didn't he think that through? It felt... odd. Not painful, or anything.

In a way, the natural instinct of Timberwolves to care for the various bugs and termites that could build up inside their wooden parts just... accepted the three ponies. For similar reasons.

To the wooden creatures, bugs were something like immune systems. Consume enough of his magic, and they would prevent 'outsider' bugs from invading or doing too much damage for him to recover from.

And with his new size, his body treated the three passengers the same.

So he had some sort of... Adam wasn't sure. Wolf, House, Parent, Hive instincts? Something.

But just like how the original template would develop chunks of unneeded wood or pulp filled with magic for sustenance to those bugs, his new house-sense had him creating multiple internal rooms inside his protected rib cage, flexible tubes and tunnels reinforced with vines that would allow pony access to his paws for easy exit, to his back for the various fruits and such growing there, to his... skull?

Huh. His skull was a lounge. With giant flaming viewing portals. And a fluffy couch.

He was literally working with magic organs right now. Not even a pretend wood brain or whatever.

Hello existential crisis! We should talk later.

He now contained working bathrooms, which was... well. Better not think of that. At least he ALSO contained a very awesome swimming pool where his stomach should have been. Not even acid either!

Being a house-dog was strange.

And his body was rapidly filling with veins of clear tubes, made from plant fibers and filled with pumping blue liquid fire through his system.

It wasn't blood, and it didn't all connect up or anything. It did provide internal lighting, but if this was a prototype magic system it didn't make any sense to Adam at this point.

He felt the three running about the various internal chambers, and made modifications based on what he could translate from their conversations. An art room rapidly filled up with paper (easy enough, he was mostly tree now), a food prep area, the bedrooms distracted them for several hours as they watched blankets weave themselves out of moss.

It was good they were being so distracted, because he was... very lost. How damn large was this forest in the show!? They always just sang a song or whatever and made it to whatever destination they wanted.

Then again, no cartoon would authorize a four week special of 'Walked another hour!' or 'And then they were lost for another episode.' And several trips involved flight or vehicles, and most importantly the ponies involved had some idea of where to go.

Nightfall came, and... uh. Damn.

The trees ACTUALLY grow faces!? Wasn't that just for a musical number about facing your fears? This forest had real, evil, wood faces showing up on the actual trees at night.

What. The. Hell.

Several tons of rock, wood, and vengeance crumpled a tree as its delicious sustenance was ripped open. Scare me would ya? I'm a mean, mostly-green, tree-eating machine!

Oh, Scootaloo was up and sitting on the couch in his skull. Was... was she too young to watch this stuff?

Maybe this was too violent for a minor.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

"OOH! Bite that one! Left! No, the other left!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Uh... Moving on then.

With the (seriously, what the hell) 'trees' having woken up, the new food supply actually became far more tasty. Probably why the roots thus far were so delicious, all the good magic was stored down there during the day.

So the next few hours were both delicious and... well, a bit monotonous. You consume one living horror tree, you consume thirty and so forth.

A few internal checks had him notice the girls trying to sleep. He dimmed the lights in the bedrooms and controlled the liquid fire rolling under the floors. Warm, lots of clean, flowing air, and comfortable lighting and beds. Should help them get some rest, once they finish arguing about who should go to sleep first.

Something with far too many limbs moved away from his mammoth paw, the rumble covering whatever 'hiss' noise THAT was. That... wasn't canon. Then again, he wouldn't have put that in an Adult Horror Flick, much less a kid show. Serious Eldritch junk there.

Adam internally nodded. Being big was the best choice at this point. This forest went from 'Filled with monsters and creatures that can instant kill you or hunt an army' to 'The Trees want to eat you and Cthulhu's kids are ready to play.'

Another hour or so? Time was very... strange at this size. Maybe because his mind was physically replaced by magic? If nothing interesting happened, he would just keep doing whatever was most interesting for who knew how long.

It wasn't so much that he was losing track of time or having issues focusing, but that small part of the human mind that HAD to do SOMETHING new, that always talked in the background, that wanted one to jitter their leg or twitch their fingers... it wasn't there.

If he wanted to stand still, he could. No pinched nerves, no hunger unless there was no sun exposure, no frittering, just... calm acceptance of everything. Not even the 'zone out' experience of tinkering, where one would fall into a meditative state, this was more... the ability to completely relax and enjoy a process forever, if he wanted.

It was kind of nice.

He spewed another flame of sensation into the air, watching the... things... crawl in the dark. He could make his fire transparent? Flames without creating light, that was odd. Useful though.

Some internal portion of himself, a part not quite power nor body nor mind, gave an urge. A thought. He needed to enhance his form a bit more, soon.

Because the three little ponies were asleep, and a (hopefully) friendly Goddess would soon happen upon their slumber.

If Luna existed here, if she was no longer trapped on the moon... then with her close relationship with Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, she may already be looking for the currently slumbering trio.

He sighed, blue flames rapidly flowing downwards from his fangs to curl along the soil.

The 'My Little Pony' universe had a lot of stuff crammed into such a basic show, one intended to only sell toys. One of the darker, more sad tales was one from the very founding.

Princess Luna, and the fall from grace as she became 'Nightmare Moon.'

Literally one of the two most powerful beings in existence, she and her sister Celestia had fought against one of the creatures Adam most feared in this Realm... Discord.

Adam bit another tree. Theoretically Discord shouldn't be an issue, not now. Depends on the Realm.

The Draconequus Discord was a mishmash of creatures. As a being both of Chaos and able to use raw Chaos as a power himself, he may have even caused his own mutations. At one point, he had the head like a pony, deer antler and goat horns, fangs, snake tongue... all sorts of parts.

But despite his odd form and VERY odd manners, he was... raw power.

After all, it took two Alicorns to take him down. Goddesses of Equestria Luna and Celestia, using five magical artifacts, attacking him with 'surprise'... all those advantages, and all they could do was turn him into stone, a form of stasis.

And honestly, it was quite possible that Discord had ALLOWED this to happen in the first place. Because it would help cause more chaos.

In the end, it was still a good thing to do. Even if Discord eventually reformed in the future, back as king he was a monster with no empathy for his subjects. Jokes like transforming cities into food products, leaving ponies homeless. Modifying species. And worse than all this, the raw uncertainty itself.

Why build anything if your creations are transformed into bunnies? Why improve yourself if a random thought converted everyone into a cabbage? And he didn't really care if those affected were in safe situations or cared for.

Adam paused as something... well, something. Moved along. It wasn't larger than him, but it was better to just pass by. When it paused in passing, a VERY harsh glare made it slither faster away.

Anyway, after the two Alicorns saved the land, they fought actual wars to not only have the three pony races build a singular country, but to push back the carnivore species and the various magical threats that arose for years. By sheer lifespan and competence alone, they were both crowned near-eternal Princesses of the land they saved.

Then... the conflict. His memories were vague on this, but Luna found that although she literally did half the work, politically and diplomatically, she did not receive half the respect and praise deserved.

Back then, electrical power was not available to the average pony. Princess Celestia, controlling the Sun, running the Day Courts... her people came to her for help, praised her guidance, worshiped her literal life giving ability. Like her sister she radiated with power, and her mane flowed with a rainbow of beauty. She was an idol.

But Luna was alone. Her sister, by necessity, slept through the night like she slept through the day. Her courts were only populated by her Night Guards, enhanced magically to handle night combat... but the same spells that allowed her to fight the darkness caused them to look monstrous to fellow ponies. Fangs and bat wings, while allowing her guard to protect the kingdom, did not help others feel comfortable coming to her like they enjoyed visiting her sister.

Years passed, magically working every day to control the stars and moon, appearing in nightmares and dreams to help calm the populous in times of conflict, running empty political courts in silence... feeling more and more distanced from her people who rarely gave praise or even acknowledgement.

And worse, the only other Pony in existence that could live as long as herself... was never available, due to their profession. Dating a mortal, or even befriending one, was just another growing set of heartbreaks as she watched them age away.

As the more exposed, easily overlooked Princess, one filled with the darker emotions... she was weakened. Alicorn magic, like most Pony magic, is heavily effected by raw feelings.

It built up to the point where... she just couldn't handle it. She refused to lower the Moon, arguing that the people SHOULD see her work, respect her, to give her what she rightfully deserved! That her years of service and sacrifice was worthy of praise and not... not abandonment.

And honestly, Celestia probably would have been sympathetic to the situation. But powerful emotions and magic, cast into form by one of the two strongest beings in existence... reality bent.

Her magic, and her form itself... both twisted into a dark direction, corrupting her into a dark purple hue and mentally reinforcing itself. She declared herself Nightmare Moon, and that she would TAKE those things denied her!

Adam sighed, blue flames curling from his wooden jaws. Honestly, he sympathized the most with her plight. That much raw power caused effects that were not simply fixable when the only OTHER Goddess was an equal match, not a better. In the end, Celestia banished Luna to the moon, and magically isolated her for a thousand years to both weaken her body and magic.

Basically, isolation, starvation. To consume herself to survive. Forcing her to be weak enough that, hopefully, she could be cleansed and freed from her mental condition once released.

In the show, it was glossed over. Luna escaped as expected, Celestia had trained a young protege and had her gather friends that could use the artifacts, etc. Yes, it worked, but the situation was treated as a 'Blast everything with the five artifacts, it will fix everything!'

Poor Luna had spent the time after that in the background of the show, frantically trying to catch up with a world that had spent centuries without her. Holidays she never heard of, traditions that had not existed back then, and what few people she had known... well, whole family trees had passed away by now.

Theoretically, she should even now be searching the dreams of her people, trying to help them sleep soundly.

And right now, he was hoping that the three ponies slumbering away would act as both a character witness for him, and a signal flare for their situation. Because... well, even this large, against the real powers of this Realm, he was small potatoes.

SOMETHING was crushed under his right paw. It didn't die, but whatever anger it had faded away quickly when it realized an avalanche of lumber had bumped into it.

Adam smirked a little. Alright, large potatoes.

Something about wandering the darkness, a monster waiting for a Princess to save him... or at least give directions... he chuckled, a dark rumbling scaring a few trees.

As he consumed another cliff, he glanced at the sky. Clear from pollution of course, so many points of light. When he reached that level of power, would he also be alone?

Squishy poked him.

His chuckle felt far more lighter, even if it did scare the crap out of the beasts fleeing from him. Yeah, he would be fine.

As he moved further into the dark he considered if causing a massive fire to get attention would count as 'drastic measures' when it came to asking for directions. Could he grow wings? No, without magic flying would be hard.

Biting another hill as he passed, he realized he was creating something of a tunnel by consuming everything in a line. Uh.

This... wouldn't cause him issues, right? It's a magic forest, it should heal or something. Probably.

Would they make him pay for this? COULD he pay for this!? They used bits or something as money, right? Was it actual gold based currency or... uh. If he sold his fruits, if he was even ALLOWED to sell his fruits, would that count as selling his body? Did taxes even exist here? Probably.

He frowned. Was he going to end up a giant-house-wolf-farm-prostitute?

This world caused all kinds of stupid.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Honestly, she felt relieved.

Celestia had a low level connection with all of their daytime subjects, which was enough for her student and friends to know that the three lost girls were alive... if not their current location.

But to get to the point where she was involved basically meant things were bad. Because the best assistance she could offer to the scared group was searching for somepony who was asleep.

And... sleeping was often dangerous if care was not taken. And if the search target WASN'T sleeping for long periods of time... that was also dangerous. And implied bad things.

So finding all three of the fillies asleep in the dreamscape, without even a ounce of fear or night terrors to be seen... it was a weight lifted from her heart.

Pulling the three clouds of dream together, she paused to prepare herself.

"GREETINGS... GREETings... GReetings. There."

Things were easier in the old days. Nopony would get close to them, and battle was loud... so the 'Royal Canterlot Voice' spell that would allow everypony to hear her without screaming or microphones or whatever was a cure all.

And unlike her bratty sister, she didn't have a thousand years of practice to not USE the thing.

Firmly ignoring WHY she hadn't had those years to practice with her sis, she phased into the dream bubble.

And... there they were. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Three ponies who were SO grounded. If it wasn't for their constant adventures, sleepovers, and camp-outs, they would have been noticed and searched for far earlier.

She waited as the dreamscape solidified, as their minds woke to the level that she could get some answers. Her purple body was hard to notice in the night to begin with, ignoring how her mane was basically a cloud of stars and stardust... it was better for the sleepers to notice her first if she didn't want to spook somepony.

Scootaloo seemed the most energetic. "Aww, was it a dream? I want to go back to the tree munching!"

Sweetie Belle still seemed confused. "N... no. Stop encouraging our house to eat trees."

...very confused.

Apple Bloom clearly was catching up on current events. "Ah... I think its normal for him to eat trees? The rocks are a bit much."

...never mind, all three were probably sleep-drunk at the moment. "Good evening, girls."

Sweetie Belle wobbled. "Oh. Hi Luna. Apple Bloom, if he keeps eating the forest he will get fat. Fatter. Rarity won't let me over-feed Opalescence, and she's just a cat. You shouldn't let your house get bad habits."

Scootaloo blinked. "Luna? OH SHOOT. I mean, uh. Hello Princess Luna! Wonderful day... night... uh. Where are we?"

She held back a chuckle, looking down on the smaller three. "YOU..." All four flinched.

Luna inwardly raged. She had done it perfectly the first time! Stupid voice. "You three were sorely missed tonight, and your friends and family asked for my help."

Not using that spell actually forced her to talk slower than normal, it was just so frustrating! Decade long habits were so hard to work on. She talked over their random 'Don't Punish Us' babble-speech. "Now don't worry, right now we just want the three of you safe and back in Ponyville. First though, are you safe where you are right now? Did you find someplace secure to spend the night?"

Hopefully they were just camping with a classmate or something and the four or more children forgot to tell someone. Or maybe they had met a new friend and were staying over... or whatever the younger generation did now. Back then, no one would dare leave the camps without guards or groups just due to the wildlife, much less allow children to... wander around and play.

All three nodded, which honestly was ANOTHER relief.

Scootaloo waved a hoof. "We got a new clubhouse now!"

Luna blinked. Ah, they must have made one farther than Applejack expected and everyone lost track of the three. She had heard of the 'clubhouses' constructed in the past.

'Safe' and 'Secure' may not be nearly so accurate, if they were actually trying to USE one of their constructions as a night stop.

She gave a nod. "And where is your clubhouse? At the very least, Rainbow Dash has been very insistent on finding you three for most of the day, and I am sure she would feel far better if she could stop by and check up on you tomorrow."

No reason to overreact and go herself if the three are just hanging out near the town. And while they would still get some punishment, it seemed to be a more 'growing up children make bad decision' thing than 'we are in danger, save us'.

Apple Bloom blinked. "Not sure. The clubhouse has been roaming around for hours before we even went to bed. I think we are heading north?"

Her eyes widened as the three nodded. Strike that, emergency protocols were VERY pertinent now. "Roaming?" And earlier, their house was eating trees... "Girls, please tell me exactly what you have been up to today."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The emotional shifts in the story were exhausting. "So when you went to visit Zecora, the Zebra who lived INSIDE the dangerous Everfree Forest, you got lost."

The three shuffled before Apple Bloom sheepishly raised a hoof. "We might have gone off the trail a bit? Maybe?"

Oh you three were in SO much trouble. "Right." Serious trouble. "And then you were chased by a 'bazzillion-fabillion timberwolves'."

Sweetie Belle ignored Scootaloo's rapidly nodding head. "It was a lot. But the closest one who was able to keep up us was really big. We could have gotten away if it wasn't so fast."

Deep, calming breaths. How did these girls keep SURVIVING situations like this? "And then?"

Scootaloo seemed too excited to wait. "Then the Timberwolf caught on fire, ate the others, and we all became best friends! And now Burnie's my pet. And clubhouse. And pool."

She waited for the other two to clarify the exaggerations before she noticed... that they were just nodding along. Luna sighed. "And when you say clubhouse?"

Apple Bloom spoke up, thankfully. She seemed the most straight forward so far anyway. "Burnie ate the timberwolves, then grew a nest for us to sit in. Ate a bunch of trees and stuff, and now we are inside his body. He has like... bedrooms and couches and stuff in there."

Her gaze slid to Sweetie Belle... who seemed completely fine with the whole situation. "I wasn't too into the whole 'Wood Forever' theme at first, but it goes well with the blue 'Burn everything better' illumination and the nature motif. And Burnie made my bedroom out of different colored wood when I asked, so I am putting up with the lack of accenting."

Huh. Even with raw magic running her body, she could still get a headache here. "Girls, if I wanted to find you tonight, what should I look for?"

Scootaloo waved her hoof. "Oh, I know! I asked Burnie to breathe fire a lot to be easier to see."

So, look for the forest sections that are burning hardest. Wonderful.

Apple Bloom butt in. "Ya should find the small hill that is eating through the forest. There is like a straight line where Burnie just... 'nommed' everything. Oh, and the other monsters and stuff running away, look for that."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Also, he has emerald pine needles over most of the upper portion, with some Walnut shades that fade down to Light Mahogany near the edges. The moss under-layer tends to range from Charcoal to Iron or Shadow, and we can't see his limbs anymore but there were a combination of Umber and Ash. The fire tends to range from Cornflower Blue to Sky Blue, maybe some Electric Blue highlights." She saw the other two stare at her before shrugging. "Rarity has this thing about colors."

Luna tried not to wince. Why couldn't things just be blue or green anymore? Thankfully, her sis implied that fashion wasn't her forte either. "Right, I will stop by tonight then."

Now she had to hunt a giant wolf-house in one of the deeper, more unfiltered magical sections of the dark forest.

Her body faded into mist as she began shifting towards Ponyville, hopefully the closest edge of the forest to the girls and probably the best starting point for a hunt.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It had no real intelligence, nor a personality. But if it did, it would have been furious.

Each tooth covered limb twitched as it crawled deeper into the darkness. Not that it knew the history of its own race, but the reason it could have been angry was due to the wasted time it could have been hunting.

After literal centuries of selective breeding, everything here in the regions with raw magic learned or changed to avoid the sunlight after Princess Celestia began 'pruning' some of the dangers away from her kingdom.

It was why the night crawled, because the day was death.

And a mountain had just stepped on it.

Teeth searched the soil for anything too slow to flee. Thankfully the raw bundle of aggression and hunger had no emotions to rail at the injustice involved with being a steeping stone for a roaming hill.

And everything went silent.

The night walked.

A cloud of magic and prestige passed.

All hail the dark.

Without a missed slither, everything was moving again. It continued searching for food, unaware of the movement by the Princess of the night.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Did Adam have an eating disorder?

He had no stomach, so why bother with eating those last few trees?

Well, besides how 'nommy' they were.

And when exactly did his tail exist? Was it always there? Wolves have tails, and the other timberwolves had them, but he felt that it should have been more... noticeable earlier.

He CERTAINLY noticed when his tail grew a mouth and started eating the random debris left behind on his stroll. A new autonomous limb was one thing, a new limb eating delicious things was a whole different monster.

He still only had four walking limbs, but he could feel the option to move up to six with no issue. And maybe a few more heads. Maybe a hundred extra eyes or something.

How much magic had he consumed, anyway? It was clearly messing with him on some level. Still had a few hours before a Power Charge could help him guide the junk.

Being forced to walk and nom slowly to avoid waking the children should have made this whole situation more annoying, but the steady gate really helped set his mind in a soothing groove.

Step, consume. Step, consume. It was zen in a way.

And then the night stilled.

It was like an air conditioning system suddenly stopping. Or the entire crowd suddenly pausing. Hesitance made flesh.

And before him, floating at near eye level, was power. Raw energy, from and for the night, floating.

Princess Luna of Equestria, Ruler of the Moon, Dreams, and Night itself, Owner of those that dwell in the dark. Her skin glowed soft purple while her rich mane shimmered with stars and shadows.

And all that magic felt tasty.

THANKFULLY, he was more than just a random animal. Narwhal would definitely have something to say if he started randomly licking Princesses.

...Honestly, she might jump in. Huh.

"CREATURE. PAUSE THY ACTIONS AND OBEY OUR COMMANDS."

It hit like a storm. Not words, not a mental signal, it was something clearly magical in nature. Telepathy? Maybe, how would he know. But it connected on him, bound to him in a spiritual way.

Not just words, not even control, each sound contained images, memories, thoughts, dreams... a symphony of concepts.

She wasn't actually controlling him... or even trying. She was just instantly explaining who she was, who he was, and why doing what she wanted was a good idea.

Like Superman explaining to a bank robber why using a metal bat as a weapon was less than a wise choice.

He paused slowly, stood tall, and extended his neck enough to nod.

Sure he was king of this forest so far, but this big fish knew exactly how small his pond was.

Wait, strike that. There had to be some way to say that without implying something about his pond size. Maybe a frog in the well metaphor? Right, the whole 'A frog in the well doesn't realize how vast the sky truly is' thing seemed way less questionable than a possible sexual reference.

Oh god, was he compensating? Timberwolves didn't even have sexual organs, was that why he was growing so big? He could make one, sure, but would that mean he was even MORE self-conscious about his issues!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Luna watched with more than a little disbelief as the hill she had been commanding seemed to have fallen into deep introspection. Almost a meditative state.

The monster was larger than most creatures she had seen in recent years, had eyes that flamed with blue fire, a long tongue of death that had only recently scooped up an entire cliff side for consumption, and teeth within teeth within teeth... and when she prepared for conflict, it sort of nodded along and almost went to sleep.

Well... it probably wouldn't be good to fight something with children inside it anyway.

She glanced at the unnaturally flat and smooth tunnel it had carved through the forest so far.

Maybe Celestia could use him for road construction?

Then again, the actual glade of fruit trees, berry bushes, and vegetation on top of the beast would make many farmers blush in shame if compared.

Likely the creature's body had changed since the girls fell asleep.

She watched it with an odd sense of loss as the large being slowly drooled peaceful looking blue fire from its terrifying jaw, flames that twirled and curled around the dry undergrowth without even sparking an issue.

The situation felt less like an heroic rescue and more like picking children up from school.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Not that he had the equipment, but he still was a man, right? Or male. Male-ish. He thought male pronouns, even if he was currently an androgynous-wolf-mountain-house-uh... thing.

Yeah, he needed to channel this magic into SOMETHING because the longer this continued, the less sense his existence was making.

At least he caught the pear trees before they could branch off his back into wings. What kind of wolf needed wings? He was FAR too big to fly. And he still only had one head. Probably. The tail-mouth thing had been a shock.

"CREATURE. EXPLAIN THYSELF."

Not that there was anything wrong with having more than the expected number of body parts. He tried to be open-minded about body issues, especially in the Worm Realm where people could be made out of copper or weather patterns.

Narwhal was still human, but was he? Before leaving, his body was mutating and on fire, or at least randomly morphing every time his powers shifted. She hadn't even blinked.

"CREATURE?"

Honestly, in retrospect, he really respected her for being so open minded. More so when he started wearing bone armor and a suit near 24/7. It gave him a sense of calm, a connection to something more undefined that let him feel safe. But feeling better or know, it took a certain level of affection to overlook a love one who suddenly wore really strange outfits all the time.

It had to be odd when your significant other just started looking like a mobile corpse with a flexible skull, but she had handled that brilliantly. Not even a stutter.

God she was a keeper.

"ARE... ARE YE ALRIGHT?"

So, if he wasn't human (And that seemed likely), then did her plus him equal bestiality? Or some phrase to represent Human with Non-Human? He SHOULD be as open minded as possible, but even then finding the purple skinned creature to be beautiful was odd. And even with no sexual preferences at the moment (Maybe? He still thought his girlfriend was hot), Luna WAS an attractive god-pony-leader of her species. Then again, power was attractive on its own.

Adam paused. Did that make him a Furry? But ponies and horses had hair, horse-hair to be specific. So he would be a Hairy? Somehow he knew Narwhal would be up for either if the other partner was willing, reached maturity, and was intellectually interesting. She had told him in the past what kind of sexuality she was... but at the time, she was doing that thing with her... uh.

Well, she had been distracting.

"WHAT THOUGHTS ARE... WHAT?!"

Oh. Luna could not understand his language, but she DID see that memory. Whoops.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Luna gawked, the mental image of some shaved monkey-unicorn doing something VERY mature to a stripped down monkey skeleton thing flashing through her mind. Perversion! What kind of wolf WAS this!?

And now it looked sheepish. Not literally.

With a firm expression, she tapped a hoof in mid-air. "CREATURE. WHERE ARE OUR CHARGES."

A streak of blue fire suddenly illuminated a small structure on his back, in the midst of flowers and berries.

About to fly over, she paused. Perverted or not, he had been helpful. "THANK YOU."

He nodded, his house size face looking quite peaceful gnawing away on a tree trunk.

She reached the small hut and carefully opened the door.

It was... amazing. Carefully carved surfaces, small blue torches, and a spiraling staircase of rich woodwork leading into an expanding passageway. Like a sea-shell. Each layer of the descent exposed more side paths, hallways. Each had a picture, showing symbols to represent the contents. A farm? Maybe a kitchen. Was that a pool?

Thick and thin pipes of blue fire gently glowed above, and would run into and through the walls and ceiling. The floor was colored, LIVING moss that seemed to flourish in such a rich magical environment.

And the magic here was THICK.

Concentrated, purified, and rich. The forest outside was full of raw and partially manipulated power to begin with, but inside this... 'Burnie'... the power was being attracted to the flames and continuously refined.

It reminded her of the old times, the rich secret places where ponies would hide between migrations. So strong, so rich, so clean and refreshing.

She stopped at the hallway with the images of three little ponies on the side, and eventually found three doors, each with a girl's face on them. Gently opening one door, she watched Apple Bloom snoring in a room that had images of apple trees on the walls, resting in a bed as fine as the ones in the castle.

The sudden movement was soft, like sailing on the sea. Clearly, Burnie was on the move again.

When she went back up there, she should at least point him in the right direction. He wasn't heading AWAY from civilization, just sort of... parallel to it.

But when they headed homewards, he would have to stop making a massive cleared trail leading from the deepest danger zones directly to a town of civilians.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had a princess inside him. It felt... odd. She was power with a capital 'P'. With a capital everything, really. The magic she released just by existing alone was being absorbed and refined continuously, like a meal that never ended.

He ended up moving and eating again just to be distracted. Eating solved all problems.

Was it sexist to not want women inside him? Wait. No, phrasing.

Also, never let Narwhal hear that question, she would have ALL sorts of ideas. Possibly fun ones, but nothing he wanted to volunteer for.

Repress everything. Different thoughts.

Alright, what was the best idea for what to do next. Squishy, feel free to jump in.

First priority was a bit obvious, he needed a power to handle this magic saturating his body.

What kind of power should he aim for? Was he allowed to just say something like 'Mana' or 'Magic' and be done with it?

Squishy gave a poke.

Ah, thought not. Each Realm had its own power source, and conflicts in naming aside the method of controlling magic HERE would be different than in a world like Care Bears or Dungeons and Dragons. Making a power to only control one type of energy would not only have limited usability, but would eventually be absorbed into the other abilities made here in Equestria.

The best idea was to pick a useful ability that worked best when USING magic. Shape shift? His current body wasn't using science or biology to work, after all. Just... turn into a dragon or something whenever he wanted.

Squishy poked again.

Right, there was an insectoid species called 'Changelings' here that could duplicate any other creature body roughly the same size... and consumed emotion based magic to survive. Just... any air magic, really, as long as it was emotionally charged. Better to wait and scan a few of those first to reduce cost and increase versatility when getting the power.

He glanced down inside himself mentally. Princess Luna was distracted when he designed a room to appear that had a very 'Lady of the Night' theme to it for her to relax in. Not a prostitute theme, more a 'vampire lady' vibe... but no tight leather or whips. She was still poking around, but didn't seem in a hurry to get anywhere.

Idly he wondered what he would do if she requested something like a whip or whatever. And then Narwhal. Mmm.

Wait. Was his magic overcompensating his sexuality due to how concerned he was earlier about not having male equipment? He stored almost everything in his soul anyway, and most souls don't have a penis, so why was it so hard to stay logical and calm when transformed into a giant wolf-tree? And he had already experienced several emotional problems already, far more than ever before. Maybe the magic was enhancing the volatility of his emotions directly, an inverse effect considering that normally emotions would drive the power.

Therapist. He would need several, probably.

In fact, forget getting the magic shape shifting ability for now.

He needed a power that was not only useful, but one that would encourage him to accept himself FIRST rather than constantly changing into someone or something else during a panic attack.

And since Luna had been busy long enough, he finally had a Power Charge available for use.

He watched with fascination as Squishy wiggled the charge free from the Worm Fishbowl sand, moving to the cloud of possibilities in the Equestrian Soul.

Hopefully this would calm stuff down a few notches.

"Growth."

The essence of nature and fire, something allowing his current two natures to bind and enhance another without burning or smothering. That it worked well with 'Recovery' and conceptually well with 'Research' and 'Technomancy' was just a nice side effect. It would hopefully stabilize this ball of soul power and potential.

Rapidly, the new soul exploded in blue roots and branches and brown fire chasing green flames.

And silently, simultaneously... flames spread across the entire mountain of Adam.

He no longer needed a wolf template. This monstrosity wasn't much of a wolf anyway now.

And if he no longer could fit into that old, tired schematic?

It would grow as well.

Roots. Thick, with layers of vines carefully folded into the surface that could quickly deploy to absorb soil or water. Still black as pitch, his new roots could absorb any and all light, converting it into chemical energy for his new form. His paws became the base of massive trees, twisted together in a black mass of raw weight.

The six limbs supported his chest, which expanded and hollowed into something similar to a massive bowl. The garden at top curled in, the trees becoming a protective cover while allowing the moonlight to shine inside the dome of material, his garden protected from wind and rain. His underside wove thick black lumber into an impenetrable surface.

And from the center of his being, a massive trunk grew straight up through the canopy... and without a single branch, extended far above into the air before suddenly expanding into an umbrella of pine needles.

Between every set of his limbs, like a form from the darkness, a massive face of compressed wood emerged.

Each face was only similar to a standard wolf, and had gained some form of ability inspired by one of his powers... mostly due to Squishy having too much fun.

One was mild, with red wood forming crosses in the eyes.

One was dripping blue flames with burning eyes.

One seemed overly intelligent. Glasses? Silver rims, but no glass.

One had thin veins of blue fire making curious circuitry, and seemed to breath tiny blue sparks instead of fire.

The most disturbing one had empty eyes, and seemed to absorb life and reality itself when it opened it's jaws.

And his new face, the face of Nature, was covered in smaller trees, vines, bushes, and life itself. Each breath released small birds that would vanish as they flew away, crawling creatures that hid from the light, and the smell of the deep forest.

With twelve blinks, Adam looked up. The seventh power, 'Conversion', which Squishy used to hold that wand... it was the umbrella. And it was converting nearly all power that struck it into useful energy.

Uh.

What exactly WAS he now?

Did he have a front? He was basically symmetrical! Even with 'Recovery' forcing his brain to understand how to move with six limbs, it STILL took several minutes to go in a single direction.

And he lost his tail again! He only got used to that annoyance a few hours ago!

...No, this wasn't something he wanted to get used to.

This was more house than creature now, even WITH the extra heads.

Normal timberwolves were floating bits of wood held together with magic. No nails or glue, just power. And thanks to his current deity-house-guest, he had extra power to spare.

It took almost nothing to focus on his inner garden, pick a strong tree, duplicate it, and force the revised, refined 'Timberwolf Pattern:Adam' onto the lumber.

And then... he felt the newest and strongest headache he could ever remember.

Whining, he covered his head in his paws even as his body continue to slowly escape from the wooden pile. Why!? Having twelve eyes and stuff had been fine, why was having a separate body this painful!?

"Uh... It's alight Burnie... Junior?"

He opened his pained eyes. Oh.

Well, blowing up into a fireball and rebuilding himself WOULD probably wake the kids up.

Them being covered in non-burning flames likely didn't help their nap either.

Scootaloo looked for help. "If my dog gives birth to himself, is he his own mother or father!?"

Somehow, the fact that Luna looked like she was sharing his headache made everything a bit better.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scootaloo backed off slightly.

Whatever Burnie Jr. was going through looked... very painful.

Like most times, she was the only one of the three fillies willing to step up when things went odd. Some would say this was recklessness, and they weren't wrong, but Rainbow Dash said it was her awesomeness being too cool for amazingville. Or something.

Point was, it was her pet, and she had responsibilities.

"It's alright boy, just... calm down. Princess Luna, can't we do something? He looks really hurt."

Luna looked at the writhing pile of lumber, dragging itself out from the remains of a tree. She took a slow, deep breath. Calm. "Girls, please step back and cover your ears. I shall be using the 'Royal Canterlot Voice' again, it will be loud."

The two girls dragged Scootaloo back as she took a deep breath.

"CREATURE."

The skull of the wolf twisted toward her, jaws opening. "WAaRgh mianaatue."

She blinked.

Before she could do anything, the wolf's spine snapped, everything straightening out and twisting. "Wahn minuute. Spaken be hard."

Scootaloo squealed! "He can do tricks!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Something inside Adam snapped into place, 'Recovery' suddenly operating on TWO creatures, one still growing (and eating), his current smaller form rapidly reconstituting into a more standard timberwolf form.

'Burnie the Traveling Club House' was now running on a combination of AI and raw magic, like an advanced version of Kaa or his other constructs. Controllable by Adam like any other creation, but also with its own mind and ideas... on a very very low level.

Slightly lower than a normal dog, now. But rapidly improving.

And his mind... was free!

Layers of magic had been stripped from his soul, using Burnie as a power sink to free him from the burden.

It was like layers of ash and smog was swept away from his vision.

Even better, the raw power that Burnie was still gathering was going through purification processes via the soil, roots, and other materials that composed its massive bulk.

He glanced down. Exposed to so much uncontrolled, tainted magic, his form had mutated badly. A few thoughts to 'Recovery' fused his many limbs down to four (And a tail!), the multiple skulls stopped forming, and his body began expelling the random twinges of creature magic that floated in the air.

Now he was... well, he was big, but only on the size of Luna. Not building large. Some of his internal wooden parts had crystallized, and his eyes were blue gems of raw magic, but he wasn't dripping power or feeling uncontrollable urges to eat everything.

It was a new sort of balance really.

Looking back at the still stunned fillies and wary Alicorn, he gave what was a (hopefully) innocent expression and 'Please don't blast me' smile and sat on his haunches. "Gooad Evaning!" He frowned. "Eave ning."

Grumble. "Taulking wid a snout is hrarder than I taught."

Somehow it was expected Scootaloo would recover first. "You're doing great, Burnie Jr! None of the other pets I know can even shake hands! I think."

He chuckled. "Thaank Ewe, Skoot. I get better." He turned toward the hesitant Princess. "Can yoo talk mind?"

Seeing her nod, he tried to focus. "Testing. Testing. Can you hear me?"

"INDEED."

He winced, hard. "Lawd. That was... be qie ter?"

"...Better?"

He nodded. "Thank you. I gather from the others that you are here to help the girls out. I've been walking about pretty arbitrarily, can I get better directions? This much raw magic has been messing with my mind and body."

She blinked.

"AGREED."

Dang it! That really rattled the timbers.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the three girls adapted to a talking pet pretty quickly. Introductions went around, and they took the whole 'The big guy was Burnie, call me Adam' thing well enough.

Having Princess Luna formally introduced also prevented that awkward 'I can't admit I know you' mess, and it allowed him to finally ask some questions.

No idea if this was a canon universe or not, but at the very least the general idea of the world was pretty spot on. Obviously she was a bit hesitant after spotting some of his more special memories, some which slipped through during mental conversation (He was a telepath with very little mental training, spurting random inappropriate images was expected), but since the girls were safe she seemed to relax after a while. Kept her eye on him though.

Squishy had taken over the Golden Garden in his soul and set 'Research' and 'Technomancy' to go nuts over everything recorded during his 'split' earlier. The new magical artificial intelligence, or Mai, was an amazing mass of data for review. The ability to create minions that could not only handle simple tasks but grow if desired into full beings was a very welcome ability, even if he didn't dare risk trying again for some time.

After all, Mai had not stopped absorbing wild magic after she had gained control of 'Burnie'. Who was a girl now. Because Mai was a girl. Because of course she is.

He blamed Squishy. Mai was perfectly fine being a gender-less Artificial Intelligence for all of twenty minutes before the two started 'talking', and now ALL future AI's (or Mai's) would be female.

Didn't he get a vote? Then again, did he want to be surrounded by men in his mind/powers for all eternity either? Would he be sexist if he did? If he didn't?

He ended up putting the whole mess out of his mind for now, and let Mai do what she liked with the clubhouse as it moved toward Ponyville. It was more than a few miles away, and without Luna's guidance he would have gone in the wrong direction a dozen times by now, no doubt.

Eventually, even the excitement of having royal visitors and a new dog friend/pet wasn't enough to keep the three girls up. It had been a fairly long day, and the three ended up sleeping again in their rooms while Luna firmly led him to another area.

After a bit of talking, which greatly helped his coherency and elocution, she moved onto more serious issues.

Her gaze was firm. "Tell me, Adam. Tell me your origin, your needs, your goals." She tilted her head, her horn glowing faintly. "And I warn you, should you have ill intent, especially toward the younglings, I shall not be pleased."

That... was far more intimidating than he expected. He gave a weak 'smile', as far as a wolfs face could. "Of course. Are you aware of dimensions? Specifically, alternative ones?"

She blinked, but nodded. "We have found artifacts through time that can either observe or travel to such. A pond that copies a viewer from other lands, mirror that allows travel to a world where ponies did not become the dominant species, and so forth."

He paused. Huh. That pond episode implied that Pinkie was copying herself, not creating clones from other existences. They all ended up dying too, he thought. Dark.

Adam nodded. "I come from a place full of danger, where those I care for are at grave risk. I did not seek to travel here, but to travel to a place that would allow me to grow and return home to face my foes."

He held up a claw, blue flames softly crackling. "On arrival, I was but a flame of my former self. I landed on 'Burnie' and, during my mindless attempts to heal, consumed him. However, that was my first experience with magic... and it all went very odd from there."

She glanced at the flames, before lightly chuckling. "You were acting very drunk, to be honest. Even your thoughts, perverted though they were, felt confused and unguided."

His wooden face seemed to blush blue flames. "Oh. In my defense, men being perverted is, to a certain extent, expected in my world."

Luna seemed to be strangely relaxed at the moment. "Some sort of monkey race? Or ape? With horns. And ye were a set of monkey bones in a suit."

He waved a paw. "That was just my girlfriend. Beings in my world have both powers and possibly mutations or deformities. Her abilities were used to create that horn, which is not only used as a uniform symbol but can be an emergency weapon if needed." Seeing her expression he shrugged. "And like her uniform, the skeleton thing was my costume."

She gave him a dry look. "We've seen uniforms before. Ponies may not wear much clothing, but that does not seem to be the norm in your society."

Adam sighed. "Fine, we're both perverts. Don't tell me ponies are all pure of thought and such on that subject?"

Luna chuckled. "In open forums, we are of course innocent and naive of all things. But in private... well, we've never had population issues."

'We' as in ponies in general, or 'We' as in royal we?

And there were the strange thoughts. "Moving on." Very strange thoughts. And from Luna's smirk, she caught a few.

Great. "Anyway, my initial journey was difficult and damaging. Finding those three fillies in danger gave me something to do while my body was recovering. And I think I was adopted as a pet."

He sighed. "It was very odd. All of it."

She glanced over at the 'window'. The two were resting on the couches in one of the six skulls, the 'Growth' one fittingly enough, and idly watching the two nearest heads carve a tunnel in the undergrowth on the way towards civilization. "And this creature you formed?"

He felt something crunch beneath Mai's back left root-claws. "It was a mutated body at first, too full of power and myself far too damaged to handle it. Now she is a creature of her own." He winced. "Remind me to tell Scootaloo she is now called 'Mai.'"

Seeing her confusion he sighed. "Not my choice. Anyway, Mai is happy enough to be the girl's pet, but the help of a Princess or two to smooth things over would be very appreciated."

She gave him a dry look. "You wish to give control of a city sized mountain of wood, stone, and death to a little girl with almost zero self control or maturity."

He blinked. "Huh. Maybe the magical overload is still affecting me. But yeah, I still do sort-of." He waved a claw. "The girls probably could use a bit of muscle backup anyway. No idea how they survived long enough for me to save them."

Luna watched a head the size of a barn grind its teeth into a cliff, rubble crumbling to the ground. "Right." She looked back at Adam. "And the rest of it?"

He shrugged. "I need information about magic, how to prevent something like THIS..." He waved at the glowing skull the two were resting in. "...From happening again. I also need information on time and time travel magic, the goal being to be able to return home at or near my departure time."

She frowned. "That information... it is not necessarily restricted to outsiders, but ye need certain competency examinations first. It could take time."

Adam hummed, which transformed into something between a purr and a deep, slow growl. "I may be able to offer trade. I have skills, some less useful in a world this saturated with magic, but others... healing, or cosmetic work. Advanced tool creation, or the ability to rapidly improve existing technology."

While really power drunk, he had tried to convert material into Flame Metal and Null Metal, but neither came out right. Something about the raw potential here messed the ratios up... or he was too damaged... or something. Squishy assured him it would work fine in Worm and other, less magical realms. Getting it to work here would take more power charges.

She hummed. "It isn't so much a price issue, as a safety one. The time manipulation spells we have in the archives were designed from the ground up to prevent paradoxes or cascade failures and such. This makes them safer, but far more likely to wipe out the caster than actually transmit ye to the past."

Seeing him slouch, she patted his back with her wing. "We did not say no, but ye should talk to our sister first. She has spent many hours exploring magic."

He gave her a weak grin. "Well, problems will come and I shall solve them eventually." He leaned back into the couch. "I plan to quietly and safely study the local creatures, read many books, and use my own talents to grow for a time before moving on to another place outside everything. I will try not to be a bother."

They sat in silence for a while, watching creatures flee in terror as death mouths continued to consume a path.

She pointed to the left. "That is a spawn from Cthaeghya. Not the worse in the area, but if you could just..."

A massive claw smashed the entire area.

Luna nodded. "Thank you, we can never seem to get them all. Very quick."

Eww, it was gooey. He watched Mia wiped her heavy claw-roots before moving along. Not having to touch THAT was worth the hour or so of raw torture as his soul tried to duplicate itself. Or copy itself. Honestly, that time period was as confusing as most of the magic-drunk time.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Twilight Sparkle sighed, closing her book. "Come on, Rainbow Dash." She glanced at her assistant, the small purple dragon Spike. "We had Spike send Princess Celestia a request for help, Princess Luna found them, and they will be brought back today. Probably before lunch."

The floating Pegasus was darting in a large circle. Far too close to her books. "But Twilight, what if they're hurt, or if monsters got them, or... or... who knows what!"

Applejack jerked at the noise, nearly falling off the couch. Searching for the three fillies had kept her up all night, having unfortunately missed the messages Twilight had sent out after Luna found the trio. She was fighting the urge to sleep for hours now.

She yawned. "Rainbow, they have Princess Luna with them. They are safer there with her than nearly anywhere." She fought back the slow weight that seemed to pull her deeper into the soft cushions. "Ah mean, gonna still ground her forever. But they'll be fine."

Pinkie Pie bounced in from... somewhere. Twilight had tried to comprehend exactly what spells the bouncy filly used to move places, produce items, and more... and it hadn't gone well.

Her bright pink mane fluffed as she... looked concerned? That... was bad.

Twilight closed her book. While possibly helpful (Covering ethically efficient child enforcement choices), Pinkie usually had good reason whenever she was acting serious.

Her eyes scanned the hollow library tree Twilight lived in, before staring in... confusion? "Oh my gosh! Twilight, my knee is all kinds of pinchy! And... I don't even know what! Doozy Paloozas!"

All the other ponies blinked, before turning to Twilight. Her sigh was a bit deeper. It was too early for this. Pulling out a small, pink notebook, she began checking. "Aching shoulder, flopping ears, wiggling nose... ah. Pinchy knee means... something scary is going to happen?"

She paused, before checking the rest of the notes. It had taken far too much pain and embarrassment to translate even THIS much of 'Pinkie Sense', and silly name aside... it was disturbing. "I don't see the rest. But just in case, everyone have their 'Elements of Harmony?'"

It had only taken a couple of security failures and near disasters before Twilight had forced ALL her friends to learn the basic pocket dimension spells. It was FAR too dangerous to allow these artifacts to be stolen or lost. Again.

She watched with a smug feeling inside as the others equipped the magic enhancers. 'This spell is too hard', 'I don't get it', 'Why make us do this'... who was the smart one now! Twilight glanced in the corners of the room for the two more quiet members.

For once, Rarity was actually very subdued and Fluttershy, of all ponies, was quietly giving her words of support. Rarity was 300% confidence and 200% self-assurance, so seeing her so worried was a little heartbreaking.

She had her magic give a small spark to gather their attention. "Alright girls, Luna's last message to Spike said she would be reaching the west gate side of the town. I'm sure the girls were out adventuring along the road and walked too far or something, but just in case this is related to Pinkie's premonitions... well, why not wait over there a bit?"

And Rainbow Dash was gone, a rainbow blur heading off... well, in the wrong direction for a few seconds. Why the shock and rush? Didn't she pay attention when Twilight mentioned all of this hours ago, when the letter arrived? Probably too worried to pay attention. She gave up on stopping the flyer and instead tried to follow close enough to Rarity to give emotional support without being too obvious.

When the girls went missing, Rarity and Rainbow Dash took it hardest. Everyone only discovered the issue because Scootaloo apparently had not shown up at Rainbow's place, some sort of sleepover or something, and when tracking the clues down they had discovered that Rarity had been a bit snappy when the three girls had begged her to take them somewhere.

A large clothing order had come in this week, and Rarity had sent them away to play, not knowing the three would vanish in the process. Not really her fault, Twilight knew, the trio got lost constantly and had numerous antics... but Rarity was feeling deep guilt for not asking for more details, or paying enough attention to recall where they said they were going.

Twilight's nerves on the other hoof were far more settled. Mostly due to how reliably her teacher in Magic, Princess Celestia, had once again handled the situation. Or to be more accurate, her reliable delegation. Thanks to alerting Princess Luna, everything was handled due to her being willing and able to find the three lost children. Even walk them home, of all things.

After arriving at the western gate however, none of them were too surprised when Rainbow Dash began making rapid trips in various directions to find the girls a little bit sooner.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scootaloo whispered. "I heard it before, and I am SURE this is a date!"

Apple Bloom groaned. "They are just sitting on a couch. Not even that close to each other! And Princess Luna is not going to date your pet's... child. Thing."

Sweetie Belle was actively ignoring the two at this point.

Scootaloo frowned. "This morning, Burnie 2.0 told me that the BIG one is now called 'Mai', while his name was 'Adam'." She shook her head. "Alright, they weren't touching or nothing, but Rainbow Dash said a quiet night in a dim room with flowers and snacks and stuff totally counts as a date!"

Apple Bloom glanced at the flowers that grew everywhere and felt there was a flaw in the argument SOMEWHERE, but couldn't find it. "But Princess Luna never seemed that interested in dating before."

Scootaloo gave a wise nod. "Exactly! She's like really old." She winced and checked... good, coast was clear. "I mean, matured. Or whatever. I bet she is super tired of normal old ponies and griffons and stuff."

Sweetie Belle seemed to be ignoring everything REALLY REALLY hard.

Apple Bloom frowned. "Ah think that there was a Buffalo-Pony couple a year or two back, but ah never heard of someone dating a bush. Or tree. And a timberwolf is like... half tree-bush. Easily."

Scootaloo was leading the trio away from the two possible lovebirds. "Rainbow Dash read me a story once about how strong emotion allows you to do anything... or something. Might have been strong motions? Or lotion?" Her sentence drifted away before she gave up. "We got distracted in the middle of the story telling somewhere. Point is, you can date a tree if you believe hard enough."

Apple Bloom shrugged. "But isn't that the point? Why would you try so hard? Ah've seen nothing but apple tree's mah whole life basically, and I never said: 'Those are some mighty handsome apples you got there Mr. Tree!'"

Scootaloo paused and frowned. "You know, I never thanked those trees either. And the trees here had faces and yell when eaten." Seeing the shock of her friends, she waved a hoof. "Burnie was eating a lot of face trees late last night."

Focusing on the important part, she continued. "I never once thanked a tree. Maybe it is easier to date a tree if you like... get to know them better? Like... I don't know, ask what kind of weather they like best or something?"

Apple Bloom seemed lost in an earlier conversation. "And ah tree can't move much, so you would have to have all your dates in one place. And Granny Smith says variety is the spice of life... or something. Then again, it would explain Applejack getting up so early to buck all those apple trees."

Her eyes got wider. "Is bucking apples off a tree a date!? Am ah being taught to date trees!?"

Sweetie Belle whimpered. Ignore. Everything.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Luna was refreshing to spend time with. The ongoing telepathy was also lovely, and 'Research' was going nuts over all the recorded mental imagery.

Before she realized he could examine the magical thoughts, his speaking ability had already skyrocketed. Once she realized WHY he could now speak so well, she began sharing all kinds of stuff. Old languages, written and otherwise, traditions of the past, people she knew back... back then.

The quiet atmosphere became quite pleasant as the two silently sent mental messages through the night, random targets of squashitunity being designated by Luna as they night passed.

The atmosphere then got very odd after the trio of fillies finally woke each other up and began 'secretly' 'spying' on the two.

Loudly.

About, of all things, romance. Lovely.

Adam cleared his throat. "Just as an unrelated, random note: While I would be very lucky to date such a pony, a princess at that, I did mention earlier that I am romantically involved with another."

A mental query had him passing a memory of Narwhal introducing herself.

And bending over.

And wearing that shirt.

And NOT wearing... NO, mind stop. Stop.

Something else.

Cats. Cats are nice.

Princess Luna started chuckling. "Indeed. Everyone loves cats."

Her sudden mental query hit his head, and he reflexively responded with... uh. A very detailed memory. Or two.

From her stunned and embarrassed expression, Adam knew her psychic exchange had been intended to be the equivalent of a gentle shoulder tap to make someone look the wrong way.

Just... his reaction was to do the mental equivalent of 'You tapped my shoulder? Hold my underwear, I got this.'

So... he was not exactly an expert at mind communication. Clearly.

He coughed. Which sounded like a sneeze... wolves were weird. "Ah... how much did I just send you?"

Luna still seemed stunned. "How can one even BEND that way!?"

Dang it.

She paused. "What is a Swinger Couple?"

Triple Dang it. "Nothing. Ignore both of those. Those memories never happened."

Luna gave him a dry look. "If you only noticed two of the memories you sent me, then you are VERY bad at telepathy."

Dangity dang dang it.

He glanced at the sunrise. "How far till town?"

Her expression showed exactly how convincing his topic shift had been. "Several hours at least. Probably by noon we shall be out of the forest entirely." She seemed to pause, tasting the raw energy in the air.

The shadows twitched.

Princess Luna nodded. "By noon, surely. Although I feel one of the Elements of Harmony moving fairly quickly." She glanced at the large wolf. "Probably the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash. She's the only one fast enough to give these magical echos."

Adam nodded. "My memories are modified and damaged, but the thing that accidentally gave me my abilities implanted memories of certain realities into my brain. I have knowledge of at least one possible universe similar to this one, although it doesn't include me nor my actions."

Seeing her expression, he shrugged. "The information is not guaranteed, in fact I found flaws in it in the past. What I know that applies here most reliably relates to world construction and fate pivoting events or watersheds."

She hummed. "So something similar to those prediction cutie marks then. Some level of future sight exists in the entire Unicorn population anyway, but the range and accuracy vary heavily between ponies." Her sudden frown was saddening. "At least, they did in the past. We have prophecies and such for example, but I am not sure... It has..."

She sighed. "I have not kept up with society in the last few... decades. It was true... at one time. With a lack of conflict and war, I suppose the ability to detect incoming attacks would not be nearly as useful or practiced anymore."

The conversation got far more interesting after that. He didn't expose details, like the whole 'You were created to sell toys that come from a show about toys that were made for little children' thing. But mentally, he found that the two shared a love for the more interesting side of magic. And to be more exact, the intricacies of how to develop magic in general.

After all, Celestia may have a wider range of magical spells, practiced over literal centuries... but Luna had designed far more new ones herself. Creation over study, something possible to explore and develop alone. And when she was banished to the lonely moon, time was the one resource she had been blessed with.

And when the cold bit harder and her hunger grew stronger, she was forced to learn ever more efficient methods and habits. Survival first, after all.

Time slipped by while the two discussed events, brought up magical theory, and basically enjoyed having someone equally strange to talk with.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Twilight Sparkle was as surprised as the rest when Rainbow Dash smashed into a landing from a heavy height, just outside town. "Twilight, what do we do when the forest begins walking away!?"

She blinked. Pinkie Pie jumped up. "I know, I know! We ask it not to leaf!"

Her ears twitched. "Thank you Pinkie Pie. That was... lovely." Ignore it. "Now, calm a little and tell me exactly what you saw."

The flying rainbow pony was jerking back and forth ignoring everyone. "And it had a face and it was moving and I think it winked at me!? I won't take that, what kind of rock has the stones to wink at me! In fact, I'll go back and wink THREE TIMES as hard!"

"RAINBOW DASH!"

She jerked back, nearly hitting the ground. "Wha?" Looking at the others, she paused seeing their expressions.

Deep breath. Out. "I saw a mountain with six legs and at least three faces coming towards town."

Seeing the expressions she seemed to wilt. "But... I did!"

Pinkie Pie patted her shoulder. "I know, I know. They called me crazy once too. But then I built a cannon that shoots a party straight into your face! Who's crazy now!"

Somehow... yeah, compared to past, bizarre events... Twilight sighed. "How far away is it? And can you give me a drawing of it?"

Better to prepare for nothing then be surprised by something.