April Fools 4

While Ghost and the baroness where disappearing in the dark tree top, the others still investigated the strange tree and the stream.
"Faenger!", Virgil suddenly exclaimed. He wasn't too sure how to pronounce his first name, so hopefully he wouldn't mind being called by the surname.
"What is it?", the piper asked and went over to the green skinned man, who was kneeling next to the river and readying his violin.
"Look at that!"
Two sets of notes glistened in the water, flowing past the two musicians. Each set was accompanied by a small icon of an instrument, a flute and a violin. Faenger quickly grabbed his flute and brought it to his lips.
"1... 2... 1,2,3 and...", Virgil counted and both started playing. The song filled the whole cave, even though there was no sound amplification of any sort.

"Why are they playing music now?", Lilin wondered and turned around to have a look at the two men. She sighed when she saw them staring at the water.
"Because nothing could go wrong with that..."
"Well, we are not much smarter", Lady Riddle answered.
"After all, we're trying to make sense out of countless carvings in a strange tree. Who knows what might happen if we touch them in the wrong order?"
"That's not exactly helpful", the devil gave back.
"Don't tell me you're afraid?", the pirate teased. Lilin glared at her.
"I just prefer to get back home without triggering any nasty death-traps", she stated, annoyance in her voice. She never had thought she would miss the vampire. But compared to the annoying smart-mouth of a pirate or that groveller Virgil, the baroness was the more enjoyable company.
Lilin left the tree and lit a cigarette. Unlike most of her fellow students, the people she now was stuck with had directly told her to smoke somewhere else but not near them. She went to the entrance of the chamber when she spotted a movement in the shadows of the hallway behind the opening.
"Who is there?", she asked and a strange figure emerged from the dark. It was not really walking, instead it moved as if it was floating without leaving the ground. The newcomer looked like a female marionette, but instead of a face, there was just a blank mask. The clothing was made of green and black stripes and the way they moved, Lilin suspected the creature had no arms or legs. Four wired connected her to a wooden cross she carried on her back. Some tips of the stripes were covered with dark smudges.
"Looks like you were able to kill that pixie", Lilin said and the silent marionette nodded. She tilted her head and some of the stripes rose into the air, trying to shape a question mark.
"They got me and some others. You can find them at the tree over there", the devil said. After all she had seen here, a living marionette surely wasn't the weirdest thing of tall. When the both reached the hill, Faenger and Virgil just finished the last notes of their song.
"Oh, another new face!", Virgil exclaimed. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Virgil Valerian, virtuous violin player and student of the arcane arts. May I ask for your name?"
The marionette showed no reaction and Faenger burst into laughter.
"She has no mouth, stupid. How should she answer you?"
"You can never be sure unless you tried", Virgil sulked. The marionette carefully patted his shoulder with one of the stripes she used as arms.
Lilin was about to inform Nera and the pirate about the newcomer, when the baroness appeared beside them, causing the young witch to startle.
"Yourr cat has found somezing interresting. I cam back to tell you, while he is explorring ze matterr furrzerr.", the vampire began.
"Apparrently, ourr storries appearr on ze tree limbs and zey all forrm a knot nearr ze tree top. Zerre arre severral brranches grroving out of zis ... fusion. Ve hearrd music and one of ze brranches starrted to bloom. Ve arre not too surre if ve should pluck ze floverr orr if you all have to climb up, yet."
"This tree... it must be connected to all of our homes", Lady Riddle said slowly.
"I have heard of trees able to serve as portals", Nera agreed, but added: "But I admit, druids or dryads know a lot more about this topic than I do."
"We wouldn't be brought here if there was no way we could find a way back", the captain decided.
"Vat do you suggest zen?"
Instead of answering her, Lady Riddle went over to the bearded face in the tree and from the looks of it, she attempted to win a staring contest against it.
After spending a surprisingly long time without blinking, she  turned back to the others.
"Lilin, Nera, how good are you at precise burning?", she asked suddenly.
"That depends on the task, I guess", Lilin answered and Nera replied: "I do well enough for my purposes, but I'm not a skilled whittler."
Curiously, the baroness stepped next to the pirate and looked at the face in the tree.
"See?, There's something strange about the beard", the pirate said. The vampire squinted her eyes, but couldn't see what Lady Riddle was talking about. Silently, the marionette approched them, followed by Faenger and Virgil.
The marionette stepped forwards the group and the blank mask looked at the pirate captain.
"You see what I mean?", she asked. The silent puppet nodded and the stripes rose around her into the air before ramming themselves into the wood. The muted newcomer worked silently and fast, so the only sound was a fast tapping each time the strange cloth cut into the tree.
When she stepped back from the trunk, the beard was gone. Slowly the corners of the mouth turned upward, Above the face a word carved itself in the wood, while a second word appeared below it:

"Seriously?", Faenger asked with disbelief. With a sigh, Lilin threw the stub of her cigarette away and trod out the glow.
"Vat a giant vaste of time", the baroness said, while Nera had confusion written all over her face. The marionette showed no reaction at all. Yet, Lady Riddle and Virgil burst into loud laughter.
"I don't get the joke", Faenger said and looked at the not-laughing members of the group.
"I am not sure that there actually is one", Nera said slowly, when Ghost jumped down from the tree. The cat turned to look at the wooden face and joined in the laughter.
"There is one. It's just not a good one", Lilin stated.
"Orr ve simply lack ze necessarry sense of humorr to understand it", the vampire agreed.
Out of the mouth, seven pixies emerged. They all were male and had dark-blue skin. their hair and beards had different shades of red. One of them was severely injured and it took him some effort to stay afloat.
"Goodbye forever! We surely won't miss you", one of them exclaimed and the ground below every pair of feet was replaced with a blurry tunnel. After the visitors were gone one of the pixies turned towards the others.
"Where did you sent yours?", he asked.
"Home!", the injured one replied emphatically.
"Home", the one who had to deal with Ludovica agreed.
"Home, I wouldn't know where else to sent him", another one answered.
"Home, I think she would find me if I didn't", the one who had visited Lilin stated.
"I didn't really wanted to prank her, she was pretty nice. Too bad I couldn't sent the cat to another place than her."
"Home.  Why are you asking, Fluttershine?"
"Ah, damn! I wanted to prank mine a little more, but forgot to. I had hoped at least one of you did", the first one said but when they all shook their heads, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah well, there is always a next year."
Two of the pixies turned pale.