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// 1 - On the Job// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

Tree Hugger trotted towards a farm house across the desolate-seeming land surrounding it. Others couldn't see it, but she could see the land was loved, and its ponies knew love too. There was a pleasantly mellow vibe around the whole place. 

"Hello."

Tree Hugger turned to see a grey pony standing before her, wearing a frock of similar grey color. 

"Are you the tree pony?"

Tree Hugger smiled brightly. "Like, woah. You're totally monochromatic, but your soul sings in a rainbow of hues, begging to be seen."

Maud blinked softly at the guest. "Are you the tree pony?" She tried again, making sure she wasn't just unheard.

Tree Hugger gestured to her heart. "Like, I'm Tree Hugger. A total pleasure to meet you. I heard there was a tree in distress and I came as quickly as possible."

Maud tilted her head lightly. "That was three weeks ago."

"Oh, I know." Tree Hugger gave a sedate nod. "I put a special rush on it."

The ways of the stranger were lost on Maud, which she expressed with another slow blink. "It's this way." She turned and led the way around the barn to where the large oak stood. "It was there one morning. It's in the way of a mineral vein. Trees don't do that well on the farm."

Tree Hugger slowly scanned across the area with her eyes. "Oh wow, you aren't kidding! The karmic balance is all off for a tree. Poor thing, Tree Hugger is here to help you." She approached the tree and gave it a gentle hug. "Where did you come from?" She pressed her ear to the side of the trunk and listened as if it were talking, one hoof slowly caressing over the bark. "Oh, that's gnarly. Don't worry, I'll help you out."

She began to set out little candles in a seemingly random pattern. Maud followed her, barely an inch away the entire time. "Like, I totally groove you, but you're harshing my vibe right now. I need to be totally in the groove to do this right." She sat down cross-legged and clopped her forehooves together. "Understand?"

Maud shook her head. "No."

Tree Hugger suddenly smiled. "Radical. I totally dig the honesty. Ok, I'm going to commune with the spirit of the tree and then I'll get it out of your yard. If I properly harmonize my chakras with the tree, I'll be able to free it from the grip of the land, and it'll be gone before you know it. Isn't that totally cool?"

Maud nodded gently. "As long as you remove the tree. Dad asked me to make sure you did." She moved away a few feet and laid down on her belly, staring at Tree Hugger intensely with her neutral eyes.

"Hey!" a slender grey mare with a coarse voice shouted from the house. "Make sure she doesn't touch the boulder!"

Tree Hugger frowned a little. "What a harsh vibe. She really needs to harmonize her energies and calm down. Life's too short to spend it wound up." Maud didn't reply. Hugger took a slow breath before letting out her soft neighing noise of tranquility. She willed her own energies to relax and be still, to synchronize with the gentle flow of the tree's power. With every soft whickering neigh of a mantra, she felt herself falling deeper and deeper into the trance of the tree. She could feel its roots, and its branches up above.

She could feel its desperation. It never meant to sprout here. It was a mistake. A mistake she'd rectify. Poor tree...  She gently wove her energy with its energy, no, his energy. It was a male oak, or so it identified, despite the fact that oaks were hermaphrodites. Hugger saw no reason to argue a tree's sexual identity. Let it be a proud, male oak, just not here. Here it would wither and die. She worked her energy deep into its roots and worked them loose of the soil, undoing the bonds that tied it down one by one.

"Is it working?"

Hugger felt her consciousness snap back into her pony body with a start. "What? Oh, yeah... It just takes a while. I need silence to concentrate, alright?" Maud nodded, and she closed her eyes again, slowly sinking back into her trance, feeling the tree as she repeated her mantra over and over to clear her thoughts and make her pathways aligned. She found where she left off, but something was odd. The root had already partially pulled out, and a new energy was pushing in. One she didn't recognize.

She slowly fell forward to all fours and felt with her hooves into the ground, sending her earthpony magic out in waves, like a sort of magical radar. This was very unnatural energy. Would it hurt the tree? She hastened her work with worry, perhaps a bit too quickly, as the tree gave a silent cry of pain as she severed its connections without the care she normally applied. She recoiled in worry and shock, but the tree rose and she smiled. It would be free by nightfall, and she hadn't hurt it too b--

She suddenly snapped awake as Maud pulled her away from her meditative spot by the mane, pulling her by a mouthful of dreadlocks. "What's going on?"

Maud pointed to the tree, where a sparkling black goop rushed up around the roots and began spreading rapidly across the ground like oil set loose. 

"Oh, bummer." Tree Hugger had no idea what it was, except that it was related to the energy she felt. "I don't think we want to  be near that. Totally not cool."

The goop rushed towards them as if it heard her. Maud withdrew rapidly, her powerful legs propelling her far faster than she had at any other time. Her slow mosey turned into a full gallop when she was inspired.

Tree Hugger had no such luck. She took life slow, and as the slime rushed for her, she held out a hoof. "Like, stop. There's no reason to--" The goop ran over her, engulfing her, and she was gone.

Maud came to a sliding stop and glanced around before she began approaching the slime with her placid expression. "Give her back." The slime refused silently. Maud struck the ground powerfully, splitting the earth in a line towards it, but the slime rapidly flowed before the crack could reach it, then it was on her. It began to engulf her hooves, then crawl up her legs. "Help." She said as she struggled. "Help." Nopony heard her quiet cries, and she too was engulfed.

They were both gone from Equestria, but not gone entirely.

Tree Hugger opened her eyes to find herself somewhere dark and dank. It was made of stone. They were underground and she could barely see at all. Maud was laying just a few feet from her. "Are you alright? I'm totally sorry about that. Way to harsh a day. That never happened before."

Maud stirred awake and slowly looked around. "It's dark." She tapped at the walls softly. "This stone isn't of local manufacture. Where are we?" She rose up to her hooves and felt along the stone, using it as a path.

Hugger moved to follow Maud. "Like, that's a totally awesome idea! I don't know where we are, but I am thankful to mother nature that we are well and whole. That could have been way worse."

Maud gave a little nod as she tapped along the wall, pausing when her hoof struck wood.

Hugger perked her ears, hearing the wood. "Let me see that." She slipped ahead of Maud and felt along it. It was a door, but she was more interested in the wood itself. She tried to feel its energy, but it was dead wood. It had long ago stopped being a lovely tree. Whoever made the door didn't even try to keep it alive. She made a sad little face. "Poor friend I never knew. I will sing a song for you."

Maud tilted her head. "Did you figure out anything?"

Hugger blinked, abandoning the song she was just coming up with. "Oh. It's a door."

Maud reached for the knob and pushed the door open just in time for a rusted blade to come lunging out at her. She grabbed it in her teeth and twisted it violently, shattering the rusted metal before she spat out the bits in her mouth.

There were several skeletal figures, horses dead long ago. The next one had a longsword in its clenched jaw and shoved past the first in an attempt to carve Maud in half, only to get a hoof to the center of its ribs. It flew across the room in many pieces, shattered on impact.

Hugger backed away, and couldn't see much of what was going on, but she could hear her new friend was defeating the monsters, whatever they were. "Like, my thoughts are with you."

The last skeleton had a flail and began to spin it dangerously as it lunged at Maud, forcing her back until she almost tripped over Tree Hugger. She tried to crush the skeleton but struck nothing but dark air in the blinding blackness. The skeleton brought the flail suddenly from left to right, thudding against her shoulder with the spiked ball and leaving a painful bruise that would have shattered bones on lesser ponies. "Ow."

She grabbed the flail where it touched her and pulled it forward, bringing the skeleton in close enough for her to crush to dust on the ground

The final skeleton advanced with open jaws and managed to get ahold of her frock, tearing it. She shook her head. "I sewed this myself." She brought her hoof upside its skeletal muzzle, knocking its head off cleanly. "That was rude."

Tree Hugger felt the negative vibes fade and pushed carefully around Maud, squinting in the dark. "Are you alright? That was totally radical of you. I didn't know you could fight like that."

"They attacked me," stated Maud plainly. "I fought back."

Hugger nodded as she turned back to Maud. "You're way awesome at it too. Are you alright?"

Maud looked herself over in the dark, but could barely see anything. "They tore my frock. I'm fine."

Hugger kicked something loose on the floor and leaned down to feel around for it. There it was! She pulled it up and Maud leaned in.
"It's a lantern." She had more experience with lanterns than her tree-loving ally, so she took the lantern when offered and soon had it lit.
Suddenly they could see they stood in what appeared to be a throne room. Besides the skeletons that had attacked them, a larger corpse of a pony was slung over the throne. When the light touched it, it stirred slowly and locked its gaze on the two silently.

"Like, do you need to be cleansed?"

Her offer did not sit well with the skeletal figure and it rose to its hooves and suddenly lit on fire, burning fiercely and banishing the dark around it. "Um, no pressure, dude." Tree Hugger backed away as he drew a scimitar of fire and descended the stairs to meet them.