Budding Relations
Twilight called after Spike a few more times hoping that he would come to his senses and return. Sadly for Twilight, Spike was absolutely sincere in his refusal to continue any further.
"Uh, Twilight?" Garotte asked nervously.
Twilight thought that maybe Spike would return later, after he had collected himself perhaps.
"Twilight?" Starlight also asked in a worried tone.
Twilight knew that it wasn't like Spike to... alright, it was completely like Spike to run at the first sign of danger, but he usually stayed nearby at least. Maybe all of this was just getting to be too much?
"Twily..." Shining warned.
Sparkle felt something warm on the back of her mane and sighed. "Yes?"
"Whatever you do..." Garotte began.
"Don't make any sudden movements..." Starlight continued.
What? thought Twilight.
"-And don't freak out." Shining finished.
"Why would I freak out?" Twilight asked, looking quickly behind herself to find the plant monster directly behind her, breathing heavily. Its mouth was open, yet not only that... the sides of its mouth had opened like a blooming flower. Well, if a flower's petals had razor sharp thorns dotted alongside of it with a throat opening that looked like a meat grinder made from plantmatter.
"Aaaah!" She freaked out, backpedaling away quickly with the monster in dogged pursuit. "Get it away from me!"
"I thought we were making it our pet?" Starlight asked, readying a spell.
"Don't use magic!" Garotte warned a little too late; A stun spell from Starlight was sent hurling into the monster.
The teal colored blob of a spell struck the side of the plant pony, causing it to rock to the side slightly and right itself. A ripple of moving bark and shell coursed over its body like a wave before slightly changing the coloration of its own foliage. The monster's attention was then fixated on Starlight, and it made another slow yet terrifying advance towards her.
"Why is it moving so slow?" Shining wondered aloud, moving between the monster and Starlight protectively.
"Believe it or not, I've seen this kind of thing before! Well, I mean in plants, not in whatever the hay this thing is supposed to be!" Garotte loudly shouted, trying to get the attention of the plant.
"Where would you possibly encounter a plant like that!?" Sparkle shouted while pointing at the plant monster pony thing.
"Zebreca?" Garotte replied unconvincingly with a shrug.
"Everypony, we don't have time for this!" Starlight spoke up worriedly. She and Shining armor were both moving backwards and away from the pony, its mouth wide open and looking very much like it could eat an entire pony's face off in one bite. It was less a standard pony mouth, and more akin to the Upper and Lower jaw a pony would normally have, dislocated, with the cheeks peeled outwards with their own set of thorns. The tongue looked to be whip-like and coiled similar to razorwire, snaking around the outside of its mouth as it hissed.
"I'm starting to think that Spike had the right idea!" Shining yelped, moving himself and Starlight to the side to avoid the slowly approaching terror.
"But... something doesn't seem right!" Twilight insisted. "Wasn't it moving a lot faster when it was attacking us earlier?"
"Twilight, now is not the time to play botanist!" Starlight snapped, weaving underneath a fallen tree log as the creature flew to the top and renewed its advance on her.
"Everypony, I'm going to try something!" Twilight announced, charging a spell.
"What did I JUST say about using spells!?" Garotte yelled in exasperation.
A lavender-purple bolt of magic zapped out like lightning to strike the monster, the force of the blast sending it careening into the clearing beyond Starlight and Shining. A black trail of smoke followed the wake of the creature and allowed the four to regroup.
"Everypony okay?" Shining asked.
"Not for long, if you idiots keep giving that thing more magic!" Garotte harshly replied.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" The creature roared in the distance, the plants nearby flinching away from the sound itself.
"Oh, that can't be good." Twilight worried.
"Of course it's not!" Garotte immediately responded. "You just gave that thing even more magic, right after I told all of you not to!"
"What was I supposed to do, let it eat me!?" Twilight defended.
Garotte thought for a minute, scratching her chin.
"Are you seriously considering that it eating me would've been a better plan!?"
"Kind of, yeah." Garotte replied to Twilight honestly.
"What the hay is that thing?" Starlight asked, scanning for any sign of the monster.
"What happened to being friends with it, again?" Shining asked.
"It was scary, okay!? I panicked!"
"No more freaking out! We gotta stay calm if we're going to survive this." Garotte insisted, pulling all of them into a huddle.
"Shouldn't we be watching out for the-" Shining asked, before Garotte's hoof on his lips interrupted him.
"Shush," Garotte said to Shining. "Alright, here's the plan." She looked over her shoulder quickly to check for the creature. "Okay, this thing is behaving a LOT like a Mana Ward. It's a special kind of flower that grows in the Saddle Arabian desert, used mainly for storing healing spells from unicorns to use in hospitals or on traveling caravans when there isn't enough unicorns to go around. DO NOT, I say again, DO NOT EVER, use any kind of spell on that thing or it will become Immune to it. Mana Wards are normally harmless, but just looking at that thing, and the fact that even my 'special magic' only annoyed it at best, we're dealing with something entirely different."
"How do you know so much about foliage?" Twilight asked, interested.
"I had an interesting fillyhood." was Garotte's vague answer.
"So, if we can't use magic, what do we do?" Starlight asked. The idea of not being able to use her library of spells for every occasion left her far and away from her comfort zone, as she usually had a spell for everything.
"We can do a few things. Option A, Run. Option B, Outmaneuver the insanely fast and flying monster to get to Pyrelight. Option C, uh... both?"
"That's not very convincing." Shining deadpanned.
"Heesssss...." A before unseen fifth member of the huddle agreed. Everypony looked to each other with wide eyes before slowly looking downwards to find the monster 'smiling' at them while laying upside down on the floor.
Everypony then gulped in unison.
"Twilight." Shining rasped.
"Yes Shining?" She whispered.
"Is that the monster?"
"It seems like it."
...
"Run?"
"Most definetly."
The four of them then took in a deep breath and shouted, "Aaaaahhh!!" At the top of their lungs, fleeing in every direction.
The monster, still laying on the ground, rolled over and stood upright.
"Raaahhhh..." It sighed with sadness, its foliage drooping as it followed after the closest pony with some resignation.
*****
Meanwhile in Ponyville, things were going about as well as Monotone could have expected. She now had a new suit that was hoof tailored by Rarity. A deep green jacket, silver name-tag and tie followed by a sky blue dress shirt. Rarity mentioned how she normally didn't like the color green, but that was specifically for certain shades of the hue that didn't work well with some pony's coats. Monotone had tried to discuss the subject, but her voice caught in her throat every time she tried to speak to Rarity. Thankfully, the fashionista simply assumed that Monotone wasn't a pony of many words, and the two were able to get along.
The clones of Garotte Wire were all inside of the Crystal Treehouse/Castle owned by Twilight, sharing a morning breakfast of pancakes, and strawberries straight out of their container. Monotone was in her now usual spot on top of the fridge as she genuinely did prefer heights. Pink was sitting at the table properly, like a normal pony for once. The Trio were attempting to outfit each other with sterotypical farming outfits complete with straw hats and some kind of wheat for them to hold in their mouths. White had actually eaten the plant several times without realizing, and it was agreed that she was not allowed to have any more decorative wheat.
"Why are you three wearing farming outfits?" Monotone asked, levitating a strawberry with her magic curiously while keeping half of her attention on the them.
"Spending the day with Applejack again!" Blue replied.
"A lot of farm work to be done." White added.
"We figured it would be fun to dress up, too." Red admitted, receiving looks from the other two that promised reprisal. Red shrugged in reply.
"What will you be doing, Pink?" Monotone asked, nibbling the strawberry before discovering it was better than any food she had tried before. She was soon eating the berries by the double, savoring it however long she could, blank expression still upon her face and revealing nothing about the newly found comfort food she had just discovered.
"Well..." Pink replied hesitantly, turning around in her chair to face Monotone. "I have to... visit the Pink One today..."
Everypony stopped what they were doing to freeze, and stare at Pink.
"You're serious?" Blue asked, starting the chain.
"Are you worried?"
"What if the Pink One punishes you for... you know?"
Monotone simply ate another strawberry for her part.
"I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out if I'll be banished to another dimension where everything isn't as fantastic as it is here!" She cheerfully replied, offsetting the mood in the room that had quickly become grave to one more optimistic and up-beat. Her expression soon deflated afterwards however.
Monotone chose this moment to float a strawberry over to Pink, and nudged her lips with one. "Strawberry?" She offered.
Pink lazily opened her mouth, for Monotone to place the strawberry inside with her magic. Chewing, Pink's eyes soon widened.
"Holy Hay, this is really good! What is this?" She asked delightedly.
"I just told you; strawberry." Monotone replied with her (of course) monotone voice.
"I need to get me some more of these..." Pink mused, before turning around to drop her hoof on the side of the plate, sending the pancakes flipping into the air directly above her. Pink then leaned forward and... did not eat the pancakes. She allowed them all to impale themselves on her horn, and pushed herself away from the table. Syrup was dripping onto the crystal floor.
"Did you mean to do that?" Monotone asked.
"Yeppers! Now I can snack on the go!" Pink explained. She then gasped, and pointed at a nearby window. "Look! What is that!?"
Everypony looked to the window with alarm, yet saw nothing. Then they looked back to find Pink was gone, including the syrup she had dripped.
"She really should just use the door." Blue commented.
"Using the powers of the Pink One is just going to make her more upset."
"Who knows, maybe it's really fun?"
Everypony then looked to Red.
"Probably." Monotone admitted, eating another glob of strawberries.
****
Meanwhile yet again, on the outskirts of Pyrelight ran Twilight Sparkle through the underbrush. Hopping over logs and ducking under branches, forgoing the use of her wings in case it would alert the monster to her location. She didn't know where the others had gone, or how they were doing, but she also didn't hear anypony or anything following her. She figured that was a good sign.
Well, up until that 'good sign' turned out to be the only sign that something wasn't right. Were she able to be present, Garotte would have pointed out that dead silence in a forest usually means that all the common animals have had the collective sense to avoid where ever you were currently standing as if it was a death sentence. Twilight was oblivious to this however, and chose a small covered log to take a breather.
She scanned around the nearby treeline, her head darting in every direction and flinching at the slightest movement or scratch. She was certain that she had lost the monster, but it had snuck up on their entire group before without making a sound. Twilight knew she had to remain vigilant or--
Or something might just wrap around her hind hooves and drag her out from her hiding place.
"Aaaah!" Twilight screamed, desperately trying to dig her forehooves into the ground as vines constricted her hindlegs. "Let me go!" She pleaded.
It was no use, as she was soon pulled from her hiding spot and held upside down in the air, a few hooves off of the ground and staring at the monster from her awkward angle. Its mouth was closed, at least. Twilight tried to flap her wings, but that only earned her a slap in the face from the monster's vine/snake-like mane/tentacles. Twilight could swear she heard somepony snickering at her expense somewhere, but she was more concerned with what the monster was going to do.
They both stood or hung there for a moment, looking at each other. Twilight observed with concern and worry, as she now knew that her magic would only make matters worse. She was also not the most physically capable unicorn, and didn't want to aggravate a monster that was capable of moving faster than her vision could even register.
The monster, however, simply looked at Twilight with confusion and curiosity. None of this could be accurately portrayed by the monster's face, so it appeared blank. Then, to Twilight's surprise, it attempted to speak.
"Haaa...oh." It awkwardly sounded, moving its head and neck around to attempt the correct noises.
"Um... Hello?" Twilight replied uncertainly.
The monster's face opened its horrific four part mouth while nodding, making some strange hacking noise. Twilight cringed in fear, but after a moment she realized the monster hadn't made a move to attack her.
"Hello?" she attempted again, still holding her hooves close to protect her face and horn.
"Haa-oh!" The monster replied excitedly. Its voice was very airy and raspy, as if it didn't have the correct organs to even speak in the first place.
Twilight gave a small smile, and instantly regretted it. The monster attempted to smile in return, but it only revealed the rows of thorns that replaced any teeth or seeming spare space inside of its mouth. After Twilight steeled herself, she peeked from her hooves to find the monster was still waiting patiently.
"So..." Twilight started awkwardly, "Could you... let me down?"
The monster stared unblinkingly at Twilight for a moment, before placing a hoof on what passed for its chin. It was about to speak, then canceled that thought. It then attempted to speak again.
"Uaau..." it tried, before hissing and stomping a hoof in annoyance. It looked back up to Twilight, and she almost felt sorry for it.
"You?" Twilight tried.
It looked to Twilight and shook its head in the negative. Then, some of its mane vines whipped around its head for a moment, circling around the nearby ground as if looking for something. Twilight waited patiently, and they eventually found some twigs and brought them to the small clearing they were standing in. To Twilight's surprise, it started scratching out symbols in Equiss.
"Y - O - U N - O R - U - N." It sketched out in very sharp chicken scratch on the ground. It looked up at Twilight, apparently concerned. Again, the monster's face made it difficult to tell.
Twilight thought about agreeing and then immediately flying away or running, but that left her in an even worse position than she was in now. She had been caught fairly easily after her first attempt at fleeing, and this creature was showing no intention to harm... at least right now. She looked to the monster, debating if she could call for help or any other option. None came to her.
"Okay." Twilight agreed. "No running."
The monster made another kind of hissing noise, higher pitched and less menacing if at all possible for it. Twilight was startled when she was slowly lowered to the ground. She stuck her forehooves out to brace the rest of herself for a landing, and was gently set down on the grass. The Princess and the Monster then stood there, silently regarding the other and watching for whom would make the first move.
*****
Monotone adjusted her tie while standing outside of Carousel Boutique. She had been meaning to speak with Rarity again, but she kept coming up with excuses or reasons to avoid doing so. First it was the timing of it, then it was nerves, then it was strawberries. Now, however, Monotone had no excuses left. She would have to speak with Rarity about... alright, maybe not about her feelings, so much as if she would like to... get a drink perhaps? That dramatic explosion of conflict miraculously avoided by yet another artful dodge of logic, Monotone took a deep breath and prepared to knock on the door.
She then promptly turned around, and decided that today was not the day to confront or even see Rarity. Her face remained as passive as ever, but her nervous breathing and shifting eyes betrayed the anxiety that bubbled beneath the surface of her calm mask. Monotone was thankful that Rarity was typically consumed in her work and hadn't noticed her hesitation to knock on the door.
She then turned back to look at said door, afraid her thoughts had just tempted fate. Pausing for a moment and taking in the scenery that was filled with the typical sounds of a yawning village, she sighed in relief.
"Monotone?" Rarity asked, causing Monotone to whip her head forward and spot the fashionista returning home from the merchant quarter. "Was there something wrong with your outfit, darling?"
Monotone gulped, and replied in her typical method of speech. "N-no." She stammered in monotone (of course).
Rarity was floating several bags. Some contained fabrics, some food and others held what Monotone assumed were some kind of gemstone. She also wore a very wide brimmed white hat with a purple feather sticking out of it. Monotone thought it looked nice, which impaired her ability to speak coherently even further.
"Is something the matter then?" Rarity asked with concern.
"Nuh..." Monotone managed.
"Darling, you're shaking!" Rarity moved her items to her left side, taking up Monotone on the right with a free hoof wrapped around her shoulder. "Come with me," She offered, "I simply can't turn a blind eye to whatever is bothering you!"
Monotone had very mixed feelings about this situation, but physical contact with Rarity had already sealed her fate. "N-um... buh... I'm..."
"Oooh," Rarity cooed, "You're a nervous wreck, darling. Even if your voice never actually expresses anything, I can tell!" She leaned in conspiratorially, whispering into Monotone's ear with a cupped hoof (somehow). "Rarity knows these things."
Monotone did her best to control the involuntary responses of her body, but alas, she could not control if she blushed or not. Now she glowed like the strawberries she had for breakfast.
"Darling, it must be serious if you're changing color! Come, come!" She started off towards the Boutique, "I'll not have a friend catching a cold or fighting off... whatever this is all alone."
"It's... I'm-f... fine." Monotone stammered, shakily walking after Rarity with wobbling hooves and a flurry of emotion inside of her. Her throat had suddenly become very dry again, and she gulped in an attempt to relieve the irritation. It only got worse as she drew nearer to the Boutique.
"Nonsense darling, you're shaking in your steps!"
Monotone felt a rush of blood to her head all at once, and swayed on her hooves.
"Are you alright?" Rarity asked, the voice sounding like it was underwater to her. "Monotone?" She asked again with concern.
Monotone's vision then decided to go skyward as she fell on her flank and toppled backwards into blissful unconsciousness. That would be the first time she had ever fainted.
****
Back near Pyrelight, things were becoming complicated fast. The monster and Twilight had been awkwardly staring at each other for some time now. Long enough, in fact, that Starlight and Shining Armor had both re-located Twilight and approached the standoff cautiously.
"Twilight... what's going on?" Starlight asked nervously, her horn charged with a spell reflexively and subconsciously.
"I... don't really know." Twilight admitted. "I know it can talk, or that it at least understands what we're saying, but its own speech is really limited."
"You've been playing scientist with this thing?" Starlight scowled, still terrified of the creature and very much on edge with the whole situation.
"Well, not exactly..." Twilight sheepishly grinned. "I was hiding in the tree log over there," She pointed to it with a wing, "and... it found me. Dragged me out of the log with its vine-tentacle things, and talked with me. Well, tried to. It eventually just wrote on the ground with sticks."
"It can write?" Shining asked, somewhat relaxing. "Okay, we know it can talk, and it can understand us. What now?"
"Try to make friends with it again?" Twilight offered uncertainly.
"Because that worked out so well last time." Starlight snarked.
"I messed up, alright? I'm just glad nothing bad happened to anypony." Twilight countered.
"Hey, speaking of anypony, have any of you seen Garotte?" Shining asked the group.
"I've been busy with the... pony, here." Twilight salvaged nearly saying 'monster' again, finding it rude all of a sudden.
"I was too busy running- I mean, trying to find Twilight." Starlight replied, fizzling out her spell.
"I was looking for the both of you..." Shining ended.
The 'monster' then waved a few vine-tentacles in the air at everypony.
"Um... yes?" Twilight asked.
All the vines pointed in one direction, towards the orange magical flames of Pyrelight. The creature nodded vigorously, its mouth uttering some kind of scratchy cackling that set everypony else on edge again.
"That's where Garotte is?" Twilight asked again, creeped out by the noises the creature was making.
The monster growled, dropping to its forehooves like an excited puppy while its vines swished around hazardously, some of them exposing their projectile thorns underneath.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Starlight sighed.
"So... lead the way!" Twilight decided, putting more pep and excitement in her voice than she really felt.
The creature then lept into the air, zipping off through the treeline and making some horrific screeching noise the entire way as its voice Doppler-ed out of sight.
"We're really following it into a blazing inferno?" Starlight asked skeptically.
"Yep." Twilight replied simply.
"Why?"
"What other choice do we have? It seems to want to help us, and it had plenty of opportunity to hurt us." Twilight pointed out.
"Well, what if its just trying to turn us into more of... whatever 'it' is?"
"I... hadn't thought of that..." Twilight admitted. "Still, It's my duty to make new friends, even if they're as terrifying as Planty."
"We're not calling it 'Planty', Twilight." Shining mandated.
"Well we have to call it something other than monster." she grumbled back.
"How about 'Leaf' ?" Starlight suggested.
"Hmm..."
"That works for me." Shining agreed.
"Alright." Twilight agreed as well, thrusting a declarative hoof in the air. "We dub thee, Leafy!"
"I said 'Leaf'."
"Leafy!"
"Whatever, Sparkle." Starlight grumbled.
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I kind of like Leafy. I look forward to seeing what you do with him.
Ah, the total competence factor between the four is probably somewhere around measurement error.
Leafy! I like him.
Monotone is doing quite well, I see.
... Why do I imagine Chryssie and Celestia drawing on Aze with a sharpie by now? Or at least Chryssie.
I see nothing that could possibly go wrong with the clones helping around.
"bfftgh"omg poor monotone..."snickers behind hoof" i hope we see some raritone action going further... also 'leafy' shrugs welp i cant come up with better but it feels like a cop out
Is Leafy A he or she? (I'd say she)
Good chapter.
Monotone is not so monotone now.
Or did her entire body blush all at once to insure monotony?
7514304 says "Yes" in A monotone
Honestly, I think Planty's the funnier name.
Leafy works..... Still this seems like Aze some how. Not understanding facial expressions and what not.
I will die if I don't get moar soon.
Random thing of the comment: Siberians isthmus sniffer wifi Yahoo ISBN Iceni identify
7537417
Well darn, I guess I'd better get right on writing,
All joking aside, your comment actually gave me some motivation to write, So thank you!
7537516
Just leaf the plant monster alone and run!
I liked it!