THWACK!
At the end of his latest axe-swing, Logan leaned back and shouted through his helmet. "Timberrr!"
"Stand back, everypony!" Flynn exclaimed, situated in the center of the glass plate as he gathered his enchanted materials.
In the meantime, no less than four cleaved stalks fell over—thrashing wildly the entire way. They landed in a wet splash, further staining the glass plane where the Herald were assembled.
"Eughhh—huu—huu—huu!" Rarity shivered all over. The hairs on the back of her ghostly neck raised noticeably as she huddled behind Applejack's figure. "Must this sort of an exercise be so... grotesquely moist?"
"It's the only way they can clear enough room to plant them magic rocks, Rarity," Applejack said. "If you dun like it so much, you can just look away—y'know."
"It's so difficult not to watch." Rarity swallowed her nonexistent lunch down. "It is like a carriage crash in slow motion! With a putrid abundance of tomato sauce!"
"Come to think of it..." Pinkie Pie drooled slightly as she watched the tendrils thrashing about after being lopped clean. "...it is starting to resemble a large glass plate of spaghetti."
"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity rolled her eyes. "Honestly!"
"Would itttttttt..." Pinkie squinted. "...would it count as meat-eating just to have a tiny little bite?"
"Reckon t'ain't our problem to worry about," Applejack said. She fidgeted slightly, then looked over at their anchor. "Well... almost."
"Some plants in Equestria are known to metabolize on living insects," Twilight Sparkle said. "Eating them still wouldn't count as being carniverous... even if they are carnivores."
"You hearing all of this, Dashie?" Pinkie Pie looked over, smiling. "Maybe it's a possible way to put din-din on the table!"
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. "Say..." She spoke without taking her eyes off the stalks wriggling in their own juices. "...Keps."
Kepler was busy fumbling with a satchel of chemical compounds.
Rainbow's eyes darted his way. "Yoohoo. Dark Side to Kepler."
"Hmmmm?" He looked up swiftly—having to straighten his rattled glasses. "Yes, Rrainbow One?"
"These thingies..." Rainbow pointed. "...you suppose they're edible?"
"Y'know, she makes a fine point," Logan said, wiping his axe clean and preparing for the next swing at the waving forest. "Seems like an awful waste, otherwise. Plus—who knows how many more of these damned things we're going to run into."
"Well, I am cerrtainly not against the idea of taking samples!" Kepler said enthusiastically. "Although—until I perrforrm a close examination—the jurry's still out on whetherr orr not we can considerr these things plants orr animals."
"So what?" Flynn shrugged, sorting through his ingredients. "If we can digest them—we can digest them."
"A prractical attitude, no doubt, brrotherr... but it is not you whom I am chiefly concerrned forr."
Rainbow Dash sighed. "I don't want to put us through any more stress as it is..."
"Nonsense!" Kepler smiled through his tusks. "It would be my pleasure to study these crreaturres up close! Cerrtainly—if nothing else—it shall give me something to do durring the long rride in Flynn's Hoverrplank! Ha-hah!"
"That's Hover Plank Five Thousand," Flynn grumbled.
"Whatever, baldy." Logan looked across the glass plane. "How's it lookin', girl?"
Ariel pointed. "The things stopped wriggling!"
"What's the time?"
"I counted two minutes. Round about." Ariel nodded. "Seems to be the average time it takes."
"Good." Logan turned around and approached the line of living stalks with his axe. "Let's settle on 'two minutes' and get a system started. Clear the area!"
At his prompt, Ariel and Wildcard flew over to the dormant, severed vines. They bundled them together, grabbed opposite ends, and flapped their wings harder as they carried the organic detritus towards a slowly growing pile at the base of the mountain overlooking the living forest.
Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. "I should be lending them a hoof..."
"Naaaaaah..." Pinkie Pie waved a hoof. "Take five for once, Dashie!"
"Yes! I agree with Pinkie Pie!" Rarity floated closer. "Besides... you've stained your hoof on your fair share of gruesome things. It's more than fitting that you take a vacation, as t'were."
"I'd rather we just get it all over with," Rainbow said. She glanced at Logan as he readied his axe. "The longer we stay here, the more Fluttershy has to suffer."
"Oh, but I'm not suffering, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said.
Rainbow gave her a double-take.
"You're not?" Twilight Sparkle remarked.
"Mmm-mmm." Fluttershy shook her head. "In fact, I'm more than fine."
"But..." Applejack squinted, pointing at the organic fluids drying along the translucent plane's glossy surface. "...them livin' snake-plant-thingies are bein' executed left and right."
"Don't tell us that's not sending your flutter soul into flutter turmoil!" Pinkie Pie stammered.
"It's not," Fluttershy said. She then gulped. "And... that worries me."
"Why's that?" Rainbow Dash asked, staring directly at her.
"Well..." Fluttershy bit her lip. "Ever since Red Barge, I've been able to sense when animals and ponies and griffons pass away. But here? It's... it's not happening. Not with these..." She gestured at the waving forest wall. "...things."
"Don't you feel bad for them, at least?" Pinkie asked.
"Pinkie, don't push it," Rarity said.
"No, it's okay," Fluttershy said gently. "I... can't explain it. But I feel a numbness about us..."
"A 'numbness?'" Twilight Sparkle repeated.
Fluttershy nodded. "Almost like we're being... suffocated by something. Submerged, even. It's... it's making it next to impossible to sense these creatures... or plants... or whatever they would be classified as."
"Do you still sense the Herald and Seraphimus up on the mountain?" Twilight asked.
"Oh! Definitely!" Fluttershy nodded again. "Clear as day!"
"Just not these weird varmints," Applejack droned.
"I'm afraid not. No."
"Come to think of it..." Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin in thought. "...that red floaty farty light isn't coming out of them."
"Huh?"
"Y'know..." Pinkie Pie blinked widedly at the others. "...the lights we saw coming out of Axan and the changeling down in Darkreach? None of that is being released by the demon death weed here. Soooooooooo... how come?"
Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed upon contemplating that. She took a deep breath. "Fluttershy, do me a favor and... I dunno... meditate on all this. Tell me the first moment you actually sense something."
"Absolutely, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said. "You can count on me."
THWACK!
"Timberrrr!"
"Dammit, Big Show." Flynn looked up with a frown. "Do you have to shout that every time you—?!"
Spluttt! The dead cluster of vines landed very close to the stallion, bathing half his face in red juices. His mechanical lens rotated in and out as he sat wet and deadpan.
"Ahem..." Logan leaned on his axe and waited for the latest batch of vines to stop squirming. He smirked at Flynn. "You were saying...?"