Winona looks pitiful as she lays on the dirty ground, whining sadly as she's tied to the post.
Winona does not yet notice the group.
"Hmm, what's with the holes?" Verdant asked as she tried to make sense of them.
Verdant has no idea what the holes are for. Maybe someone just really likes to dig?
Cylver approaches Winona. "Shh. It's gonna be alright."
Winona looks up at Cylver and whines while slowly swishing her tail back and forth in the dirt, but she doesn't bark.
Lilac doesn't feel right letting Cylver go by herself, but, if the unicorn was keeping Winona quiet, then she'd wait for her friend.
Cylver attempts to untie the scared creature with a bit of magic.
The knot comes untied easily and Winona stands up and rubs against Cylver.
Lilac unconsciously holds her breath.
LQ waits with baited breath to see if they were gonna make it back over to them without alerting anything.
Cylver scoops up Winona and marches back to the others swiftly.
LQ nods, "Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."
LQ turns about and heads back out of the forest towards the cottage with the others.
"I agree, that place did not look nice."
Lilac follows behind the others. "Three down, three to go..."
She nods, "Let's get Winona back, get her fed and waterd and settled in and then we'll go after one of the others. I would like to save that naughty bunny for last, if the rest of you are okay with that?" She says, slightly annoyed that all of this happened because of one little bitty bunny acting naughty.
"I am...I guess," Lilac says.
"Somehow, I think he can take care of himself."
"So we've got Gummy and Owlolololo...Twilight's owl left," Lilac says.
She thinks for a moment, "Maybe the owl?"
"Owls are smart...how bad could it be?" Lilac asks as they get Winona settled and fed.
"The world may never know." Cylver answers aloud.
Verdant looked at Cylver with a curious expression, "What does that mean?"
After making sure that all the pets are taken care of and still doing alright, you all head back out to look for Twilight's Owl. You find a trail of soot that leads back into the forest just like all the other ones. This time the trail leads you east into the forest. Every now and then you come across a soot covered feather on the trail. The trail is sometimes very hard to follow and after about an hour it becomes difficult to see the footprints of the owl.
Verdant was getting hungry, and after a little bit a tracking, pulled out one of her sandwiches. "Would anyone like one? I've got more."
After passing out a sandwich to anyone who wanted one, she paid close attention to the flight pattern the owl might have taken.
"Ooh. Yes please." Cylver answers.
"I'll take one too," Lilac says. "It's been an 'adventurous' day."
LQ nods as she accepts the sandwich, "Oh but my yes, thanks so much Verdant. These are really yummy, and searching for these pets sure has worked up my appetite."
Between LQ and Cylver, they are able to follow the sooty trail. It ends at a thick gloomy glade with trees all around it. A frantic hooting emerges from the glade as you enter it.
Parting the low branches framing the entrance to the glade, you see that the ground is covered with a mass of beautiful blue plants with blue petals, blue leaves, and blue stalks streaked with dark blue veins. There's a tall oak tree in the middle of the glade, and flying repeatedly into the trunk of this tree, hooting crazily, is Owlowiscious, cross-eyed and dopey-looking.
The blue plants are called 'poison joke.' Anything that breathes in the microscopic spores of this flower will be cursed, the plant plays a practical joke on it's victims.
"Well, that isn't good. I don't think it'll do us any good to fly over there. Our wings could kick up some of that goofy dust. Do you think if we hold our breath long enough to get the owl?"
She shakes her head, "I don't think so Verdant. I think we're all going to have to work together on this one to get him out of there somehow. The question is, how do we do it without touching those plants?"
Verdant thinks for a minute, "Do any of you have rope?"
She looks around, "Well, I have some rope. What are you thinking?" She asks while taking out the rope and handing it to Verdant.
"Well, between Lilac and myself, we might be able to fly either you or Cylver over the flowers to get him. With the rope, it should allow us to fly high enough to not kick up any flower stuff with our wings, yet hold either of you up to not touch. Does that make sense?"
She thinks for a moment, "Well, that sounds pretty good so far. Maybe if Cylver can use her magic to get him to stop ramming himself into the tree for a couple of minutes, it would make it easier to grab him?" She suggests as well.
"Either that or, if somepony is skillful enough with a rope, we could lasso him," Lilac suggests.
Verdant looked at the owl, then back at the group, "Is there enough rope? Because that seems a little less of a complicated plan. Which is a good thing."
She looks kind of doubtful, "I don't know if trying to get a rope around him while he's flying all crazy is a good idea. What if we hurt him?"
"Slamming into that tree can't be doing him any favors, either," Lilac points out.
LQ looks at Cylver, "What do you think?"
Cylver shrugs. "I can try but I have to be pretty close to use it you know."
She shakes her head, "Yeah...but then if you touch those plants something bad will happen to you too. I don't know how to cure that poison....there just has to be a better way. Well....if we tied one rope around you, and Lilac and Verdant lifted you to get you closer to that Owl...maybe that could work? Then you wouldn't have to worry about touching those plants..." She says, while trying to work through the problems of how not to touch the plants out loud.
"I think Verdant and I can manage Cylver and she can use her magic to get the rope around the owl," Lilac says. "If you want to hold the other end of the rope, LQ, that'd help. Then we'd have to find someone who knows about these plants."
She nods, "Okay, that sounds like a good idea to me."