//------------------------------//
// 58 - Sisters, Big and Small// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

With the sound of a snapping branch, Maud pushed her way into the clearing, to stop and stare at Tree Hugger and Paul. If she noticed the animals, she gave no hint of it. "Was he wrong?" She started walking towards them slowly, only to stop as something bit into her scalp. She reached up and brushed off the crown of thorns on her head. The sun crown she thought she had was gone. "I don't understand."

That was when Tree reached her, and smiled gently. "Sister of stone! Radical... I missed you. Are you alright?"

Maud nodded slowly. "I'm..." She was going to say fine, but instead licked over her lips. That would be a lie. She was in no mood to lie, even about stupid things like feelings. "...not fine. I missed you." She glanced away. "Is Paul alright? Why is he lying down?"

The beaver cleared his throat. "That's two. The others should be here soon."

Maud turned to the animals. "I thought only Fluttershy could talk to animals."

The wolf snorted with a little growl. "Maybe they had nothing important to say to you."

"Woah, that makes sense..." Tree nodded as if it were a simple fact. "Oh, meet, um... They didn't say their names, but they're the righteous owners of the forest."

The badger pawed lightly at the ground. "We don't own it. We belong to it, as we do to all nature."

Maud sat, then extended a hoof in a silent offer. Tree spotted it and hesitated a moment before she accepted it.  Maud pulled Tree against herself tightly, trapping her in a powerful embrace. "I missed you."

Tree didn't understand the full meaning of those words, but could feel there was a weight there, and nodded rather than complaining about the rough treatment. "We're together now, sister of stone. Everyone should be fine."

"Everyone?" Maud tilted her head. "I saw Fast get eaten..."

Tree turned to the others with a scowl. "She didn't get eaten, did she? That would be way beyond gnarly."

The bear returned the scowl with practiced ease. "Your friend will be returned to you, then you will leave."

Maud sank to the ground, releasing Tree. "Everyone's alright?"

Tree lowered herself beside Maud. "Everything's alright. I'm sorry, for whatever you went through, sister." She put a hoof over her snout. "I should really stop that. I don't mean to disrespect. You know I think you're amazingly radical, right?"

Maud reached and set a hoof on one of Tree's forelegs. "You can call me that."

Tree smiled. "Do you mean that? Blessings..." She let out a content sigh. "That means so much to me, you have no idea."

Maud shook her head. "A trade."

"Hmm?"

Maud raised her free forehoof. "I can hug you when I want to."

Tree looked uncertain a moment, but slowly nodded. "Sisters shouldn't have to, like, ask to violate your personal space. I accept you, Maud, sister of stone, as my sister."

Maud showed her approval by hugging Tree firmly until joints began to pop. "Did anything bad happen to you?"

Paul rolled up to an upright position, the magic fading from him. He was considerably better for the rest, but the green energy had faded from him. "Do I get any hugs?"

Tree shook herself out from the powerful hug. "I was talking with these animals." She lifted a hoof to where they had been, but they were nowhere to be seen; the space where they had been was empty. "Righteous..."

While Tree went to investigate curiously, Maud approached the mildly sullen Paul and grabbed him in a hug of his own. "I'm glad you're alright. Did you see something terrible too?"

Paul was one of the few of the party that could hope to match Maud's raw strength, and though he was surprised at first, the hug reminded him that he really could use a moment of closeness, and he hugged her back. "It was awful! Flint was there, and that new mistress of his. Everyone wanted to see me die, only after makin' me suffer through it, then there were all kinds a beasts ready to rip me apart."

Tree turned from where she had wandered off. "They said they wanted to totally hurt you, Paul. They said the Moon Princess stopped them."

"Well thank her for that!" Paul burst into a loud, almost hysterical laugh. Their hug came to a stop, with him rising up to his feet and looking around. "Anyone see Fast or our favorite pony princess?"

A small but familiar female voice called from the forest, "Don't say that that way..." Tabitha came closer to the clearing, the sounds of her movement clear, but she didn't come to join them. "Or do you already know? Are you making fun of me?"

Tree tilted her head. "Making fun of you for what, Tabitha? Are you hurt? Let me take care of you." She sat and extended a hoof. "We're a team, remember?"

"Yeah... team..."

Maud frowned into the forest. "Tabitha, come here."

"I don't wanna."

Paul lifted his shoulders. "Whatever happened, scars just make you more an adventurer. Come on out. I promise, I wasn't laughing at you. Are you alright?"

"It's not like that..."

Maud stepped into the path even as Tabitha backed away. "No, wait right there!" Maud didn't listen to her pleas and came into view of her, looking over Tabitha quietly.

Tabitha shrank under the studying gaze. "It's... hideous isn't it?"

Maud tilted her head. "You should come out. Does it hurt?"

Tabitha shook her head quickly. "It feels weird walking on hooves like this, and my heel feels the strangest." She reached down to rub the sore spot on her lower leg. "I don't think a leg's supposed to be shaped like this. It's not human or pony."

Maud moved up quietly and circled around Tabitha before moving up behind her and walking through her altered legs, letting the changed girl fall on her back and be carried out into the clearing into the view of the others.

Paul coughed at the sight of her. "Gods above! I swear, I was not makin' fun of ya, Tabby. I didn't know you went and got turned into a real pony princess."

Tree approached at a light trot. "Does anything hurt?"

"Just my pride..." Tabitha climbed off of Maud awkwardly and stood there. "There, see me in all my freakish glory." She did a slow turn for them. "Get it all out now." Her light blue ears were down and pinned back and her blond tail hung limply behind her.

Tree gave a little smile. "You're still you, Tabitha, and you are perfect at being you." She tilted her head a little. "You are closer to what you wanted to be, right?"

Tabitha fidgeted. "I figured... I didn't really figure anything. I was just daydreaming, not really thinking about what it'd really mean until it came down on my head like this."

Maud poked Tabitha from behind. "Use your magic and fix your dress."

"Oh, good idea." Tabitha settled to the ground and began to pet and preen over her dress, which slowly began to sew itself back together, reforming bit by bit the more she fiddled with it. "I guess it's true... I am a pony princess." She smiled a little. "Am I a pretty one?"

Paul clapped her on the shoulder. "Sure you are. Anyone tells you otherwise, I'll sock them in the nose for you."

She burst into a light bit of laughter. "Don't do that! But... thanks... Hey, where's Fast?"

Tree shook her head. "She's the last one, but she should be alright, or so we've been told. Once she gets here, we can head on towards the pony lands."

Tabitha gasped with delight. "We're really there?"

Paul shrugged. "Closer than we were this morning, but I don't know if we're quite there yet."

Tabitha, looking better, did another spin, her clothing no longer tattered. "Tell me honestly, how do I look? Am I ridiculous?"

Paul colored lightly. "What? No... you're still a pretty woman."

"And the ears?" She leaned towards him, her blue ears perked at him.

"They're fine."

"Are they really?" She scootched closer to him. "They don't scare you?"

"What?! Of course not." He crossed his arms defiantly. "Or your tail, before you ask."

"Touch them." She lowered an ear toward him, though the rebellious new appendage flipped back up on its own. "Go on. I dare you."

"I shouldn't! We barely know each other." Paul colored deeply and looked away. "I don't go up to women and just touch their ears."

As they argued, Tree's attention slid off to the forest. She heard something coming towards them and brightened. "Fast? Is that you?"

"I'm not sure." Fast emerged with the soft rattling of her armor. "Maybe I always have been, or never. I'm really not sure." She looked over each person in turn, pausing at Tabitha. "Girl, what? Why?"

Tabitha threw up her hands. "I didn't ask for it! It just happened!"

Tree raised a hoof. "Don't be angry at her. Her pony blood made them spare her, so we should be thankful for it. It was a blessing, not a curse."

Fast nodded. "I see... Did you see a deer come through here?"

Tree shook her head. "All the animals left a while ago. They said we can go through. We all passed their tests, or at least we're all here, so they won't try to stop us." She tapped her chin. "Ponies shouldn't try going the other way through this forest. They may be way nastier if we try."

Fast let out a slow breath and popped up the visor of her helmet. "Alright, let's get out of this forest while we're allowed to. We can set up a camp outside... Where are the horses?"

Everyone looked around, but no equines save those part of the party were present. Fast grumbled softly. "We don't have much fortune with horses, it seems. Nothing for it but to press on. I'll see this mission completed."

Backpacks were shouldered and saddlebags checked. There was nothing missing, save for the parts they left behind in that forest, and the new parts they gained for the journey.

By the time it became too dark to travel easily, they had reached the edge of the forest. There, they set up camp, and Tree warded it from outside eyes. They rested, together. If nothing else, the shared trials made being together easier, and none slept apart from the others.