//------------------------------// // Darkness // Story: Lure of the Flower // by Impossible Numbers //------------------------------// Daisy whimpered and clung to her friend more tightly. Any second now. Any second. A low wailing moan rent the air. It shook the leaves, hummed down the trumpet trunks, danced over the waters and up the two ponies’ legs. As though blown over, their ears fell back. Their eyes widened against the gusts of alarm. “D-D-D-D-D-Daisy?” stammered Lily. “Y-Yeah?” Daisy stammered back. “Wh-What was th-th-that n-n-n-noise just now?” The vibrations died away. The rustling leaves stopped. In the silence, nothing moved. “If I s-said ‘I don’t kn-kn-know’,” whispered Daisy, “how reass-s-s-sured would you be?” Lily whimpered. “N-N-Not very.” “Then I won’t s-say it.” “Very… th-th-thoughtful of you, old f-f-fr-friend.” Overhead, the trumpet pitcher plants were no longer alone. Like some focusing trick where blurred pictures suddenly resolved into clear images, what Daisy had taken for yet more trumpets turned into sundews, and cobra lilies, and greasy leaves, and yellow reedy flowers, and all manner of Equestrian pitcher plants. They were still utterly closed in. Not so much as a gap remained. However, her instincts were fighting this observation and trying to make her legs gallop. Daisy clutched Lily tighter… and then slackened her grip. “Hold on,” she said. “I’m holding on as tightly as I can!” “No, I mean…” She sniffed. Strong honey smell. Actually quite nice, under the circumstances. And the air was cool and refreshing, just like it had been on that island. “Daisy, I don’t wanna die in a dream! This is your dream! Make it stop!” “They’re not doing anything.” Lily stopped trembling. “Huh?” Getting self-conscious, Daisy broke away from her. Now she could better take in the crowd of plants. “We’re assuming the worst again,” said Daisy, privately cursing herself. “Maybe… Maybe we should think less like flower ponies and more like other ponies.” “I’ve had enough! I want to go home!” “No, look.” Daisy reached over and poked one of the trumpets. It dented slightly under her touch, and she could feel the elastic tension before she took her hoof away. “They’re just big plants. We know how to deal with plants. Maybe they’re trying to tell us something?” Sloshing as Lily joined her side to peer closer. “Like what?” “Um… I dunno.” “Oh, really reassuring, that!” “Quiet. Don’t get hysterical. Let’s just think for a minute. What else do we know about carnivorous plants?” Is it just me, or are all those plants looking down at us? No, don’t be daft, Daisy. Plants don’t even have eyes. What you should be thinking is: Are they all leaning down towards us? Yes. Yes, they are. “They only grow where it’s hard to get all the nutrition from the soil,” she murmured under her breath. “Like, like bogs. And peat. And swamps.” “So what?” Lily tugged at Daisy’s shoulders to come away. “Don’t get too close! I don’t wanna give them ideas!” “What? But they’re plants, Lily.” “Dream plants! Those things can kill!” Daisy brushed her hooves off. “Are you trying to tell me you meet killer plants in your dreams?” “No!” Lily grimaced. “Well, yes. Somewhere between the killer bees and the killer ants and the killer rocks and the killer lawnmower –” “Seriously?” Daisy’s voice rose. “Even when you’re dreaming, you’re obsessed with –” “Yes! And I’d very much like to think I’m getting out of this dream alive, thank you!” Lily returned to tugging at her leg. “I mean, I suppose it makes a kind of sense, but I didn’t know you –” “Yes! I’m paranoid! Terrified! Going mad! Totally mad! Why do you think I don’t tell anyone!? You think I don’t know what they’d say!? On top of everything else they do say!?” Daisy gaped at her. The low, wailing moan stampeded through the air, full of vigour. Droplets danced on the waters around them. Both ponies huddled extremely close together; Daisy felt the tremble through her flank and shoulders. Lily’s own head pressed against her thick curls. “Getmeouttahere, Daisy!” hissed Lily. “Idunnohow!” Daisy hissed back. Those sundews and cobra lilies seemed much closer now; a wall of green encircled them tight enough to make them grip each other harder. “Thisisbadthisisbadthisissoveryverybad!” “It’s awful.” Daisy felt the words flee her mouth of their own accord. Come on, Daisy. Get a control over it. You can’t panic too, or we’re both lost. “It’s horrible…” “Shh! I hear something!” They clammed up. After a while, Daisy cocked an ear. Nothing. She opened her mouth to ask – And then sensed it. For a moment, the air rushed behind the mass of green. A predatory rumble reached through her ears and down into her spine and raked her with fingers like icicles. Frozen with terror, she clenched her teeth until they almost cracked and stiffened, until her skin seemed to melt under the pressure. Disturbingly, she heard little droplets pitter-patter where Lily was shaking too hard in the water. If they panicked now, if they bolted and screamed… It was right behind the stems. Creeping like a shadow… She kept her gaze on it. Or at least on where the predatory rumbling seemed to come from. So close were the stems that not even slits showed the world beyond. There was a definite movement of the rumble though, moving level with her eyes… It passed by. It began fading away. And then it was gone. Neither of them relaxed, though the air was still. “Now should I ask what that was?” whispered Lily, having passed through the raging rapids of stuttering and drifted into the silent expanses of shock on the other side. “I don’t know,” moaned Daisy. “What do you mean you don’t know!? This is your dream!” “I just don’t know.” “Oh no. This isn’t a normal dream, is it?” Daisy almost laughed. Not even close. Everything felt too real. Only a small voice in her head insisted it must be a dream, because oversized trumpet pitchers and creeping shadows didn’t feature in her day-to-day life. That voice was getting smaller by the minute. “What happens,” said Lily with the air of one probing a missing limb they’ll never grow back, “if, in this dream that doesn’t feel like a dream… we die?” The next sound had an edge; another low wailing moan ripped the air out of sheer frustration. Daisy turned to face Lily head-on. Forcing herself to make eye contact, she said gently, “I’m sorry I got you into this mess.” “You’re sorry!?” Then Lily slumped, held by the gaze. “Well, I suppose I got myself into this mess, really. But still. I mean. Um.” “Only it was so peaceful before. I just wanted to be left alone. But I shouldn’t have pushed you girls away. You and Rose, who’ve always been there, whatever happened and whatever we’ve faced or run away from. Always together.” “Is this really the time?” Lily glanced about, ears cocked. “Ha. You think we’re going to get more?” Once more, Lily met her gaze and sagged, curling into a ball. “I don’t know what to think anymore! We’re just kidding ourselves. Sooner or later, we run out of time anyway. What’s the point, really?” They both cocked their ears. Overhead, the crowding and leaning stems were back to normal, or at least as normal as oversized carnivorous plants could be. This was weird, because – now Daisy thought about it – she hadn’t seen them move at all. “Daisy?” said Lily quietly. “Yeah?” “You’re really sure there isn’t a way out of here?” Daisy shrugged. “I’m sorry. Before, I just woke up. I had no control over it.” “Not even the teeniest little hint comes to you? Anything at all?” Daisy patted her own head hard. Nothing came to mind, but perhaps there had been some tiny, seemingly unimportant little clue, something she could use if only she thought some more. “I guess it is kind of nice here, once you get used to it,” Lily went on. “Lily, I’m trying to think.” “Those cobra lilies were a nice touch. One of my favourites, as far as carnivorous plants go. Amazing what plants can do, isn’t it?” Daisy resisted the urge to shush her. There was something going on deep within Lily’s mind; the gabbling was just a way of coping. Or so she suspected. She stopped and listened. “Kind of… tranquil. Carefree. No worries or pressures. Just you, comfortable… like, like being in bed after a really long day. And maybe, maybe if I hadn’t been here, you’d have figured something out.” Daisy kept her doubts to herself. To say anything would be like kicking a friend’s carefully sculpted sandcastle down. “And… I guess there are more important things than having everyone not think you’re mad.” “Such as what?” said Daisy, hoping this was the equivalent of patting a sand tower into shape. But Lily was done talking. She swelled with the incoming breath. She turned around. She pawed at the bottom of the swamp, kicking up a brown cloud that spread around her. She cocked her jaw. “Lily?” said Daisy. “No. This time, it’s going to be different. You hear me? I’m not going to act like a snivelling coward anymore. I'm going to stay here, Daisy. Friend with friend. I've had enough of being the one who goes to pieces and shouts, 'The horror, the horror!' like some second-rate drama queen! No, you hear me!? You HEAR me!? Because this time, this time, I'm not leaving one of my best –” Unexpectedly, alarm hit Lily’s face. When she reached up to her head and yelped – She vanished. Several blinks passed before Daisy’s brain caught up with her eyes. “Lily?” she said. Her eyes strained. Inside her mouth, spit rushed over her tongue. Every breath stung her nostrils, and she winced at each beat inside her chest. Skin trembled under the tension. Hairs tingled. Fear surged into the gap. “Lily!” she whispered. Spinning around, all she met were more stems and more blackness. The plants had backed off at some point; now the slits between them had become wide enough for a pony to run through. Yet she heard neither sloshing nor galloping. Electric shocks jolted her back and forth, searching for any hint of pink or blond… “Lily!?” she called. Her head darted about, desperate for clues. “Lily!?” she hissed. Black and green streaked around her. “LILY!” she shrieked. Nonono, don’t panic. Don’t panic! Don’t… panic. A smug, rumbling growl. Right behind her. She spun round. Shadow. Even as she watched, she shrank under the glare of a face with no eyes. An undulating patch of stars flexed and loomed over her. The smug, rumbling growl rolled on and on, towards what her instincts knew, just knew, were going to be excited roars and a flurry of movement. But not yet. Not yet. Under the growl, it was shifting shape. Blades slid out. Formed from its own amorphous mass, the shears glittered with stars. The blades were long enough to reach beyond a pony’s neck, and then… They snipped twice. Daisy screamed as the Tantabus broke out into roars and the shadow shears lunged at her. She threw herself away before the third, sudden snip!