In mere moments the mare was gone from sight, utterly encased in the unyielding prison of wood and bark as the magic worked further upon her. She felt her bones stiffen and creak from within, her limbs and spine turning to the dense, heartwood of a tree as her flesh followed suit, blood being converted to sticky sap and sapwood. Her mind swam, overwhelmed by the intensity of the sensations that pervaded her remaining senses as her form grew taller and wider, leaves turning to a full, dangling and flowered canopy that swayed slightly in the wind that blew down the path.
 
Mercury couldn’t move even the barest fraction of an inch now as the magic began to fade, her full form changed unrecognizably into that of a mere tree. Her sense of touch was dimmed, the feeling of flowing air on her bark a bare tingle, and the bizarre feeling of her roots stretching deep into the soil below her soaking in the moisture she now needed to survive. Her hearing remained somehow, but muffled, as though she were listening through a thick wooden door, and no amount of sight remained for the poor mare. And yet… she had a vague sense of the shapes and position of what was around her, the path, the grass below, and a few feet in either direction, some aspect of the magic? She couldn’t tell for sure.
 
No trace remained except for the slight resemblance in the color of her bark and leaves to those of her mane and coat, but nopony would ever make such a jump and conclusion… she was trapped here, for as long as she could imagine, for who would ever suspect the willowy tree along the path to Everfree was ever more than it appeared?