Ruby started feeling a slight bit queasy at this point. The more that she thought about what could have happened had she not had the desire to move all of a sudden, the more she felt that she would be sick. Stumbling off to the side, by the tree that she had sat under for the past few hours, she began trying to do something else that would hopefully occupy her thoughts: brushing the leaves off of the books that she had left open, and placing them back in the bag that she brought them in. Thankfully the books were not too damaged given the circumstances, and the librarian was not going to pitch a fit this time around. After the last book had been placed in the bag alongside the box that held her tarot cards, she buckled it back up, taking care not to crush her python as she placed it back over her back. She was done with this place, with these ponies, with today altogether for that matter. She was nearly killed, surely that was reason enough to believe that she could call it quits for today.
Just as she was considering where she was going to go next, she was compelled to look back up to the Everfree Forest, perhaps to give it one last regarding glance before returning to downtown Ponyville, and caught sight of a pony walking into the woods. Squinting her eyes, Ruby tried to catch some sort of identifying feature of this pony to see if it looked any bit familiar to her. It looked familiar alright, too familiar. She knew she had seen this pony before, back on the night that she decided to wait for the witching hour, the night that horribly thick fog rolled into the town, the night that she had to stay at Lamplight's inn. It was the strange pony with the same magenta coat and the same deep-red mane as Ruby herself. Realization of this did not come fast enough though, for the stranger turned her head, looking directly at the bewildered mare, and bared the same wicked smile that she had seen before. A new wave of nausea overcame Ruby, and she immediately stumbled up against the tree, leaned over as she coughed at the ground, a few dry heaves emerging from her throat before she spat on the ground.
She was now truly exhausted, as one would feel if they had just finished vomiting. A light breeze picked up from the forest, and risking another glance up, Ruby saw the same pony still standing where it was, staring at Ruby. After a moment of calm, it mouthed something: two simple words that she could not make out, until their meaning was stated plainly as though they had been whispered in her ear. You're welcome. It was not a particularly emotion-filled statement, but more one filled with bitter disdain, as though whatever it had done had inconvenienced it in some inconceivable way. As she watched the doppelganger turn and finally disappear into the forest, Ruby had to ask herself what the pony could have done that elicited such a response? Did it have something to do with the events that just took place. No, surely the fact that the boulder was dropped was purely equine error, but perhaps it was something else...?
Her thoughts drifted off as she looked back to the boulder, and the tree branch that Dais was looking to rescue. It was certainly beyond any sort of repair, surely. It was detached, on the ground, likely to die soon enough. Who really cared about it? Certainly not Ruby, nor did she care for the struggle to save this bit of tree. In fact, she was getting a bit angry now, that such a thing could afford to be such a waste of attention. She walked past the three ponies that had now gathered to deal with issues regarding the boulder, watching them discuss issues as she did so, before sniffling and adjusting the pack on her back. She had nothing else to say, she just wanted to leave and go back home. Leave and not think about what all happened today, not even about the fact that the thing she had come here to research about had just appeared once again. Whatever its intentions were, they couldn't have been malevolent, but that just left more questions. Why was it here, and why was it bothering Ruby? She could ponder and research as much as she wanted, but she had a feeling she already knew what she would have to do in order to get a conclusive answer. She would have to follow it into the forest.