//------------------------------//
// The Black Rose 
// Story: From The Vault 
// by Mischievous Blue 
//------------------------------//


The Black Rose


The door to the shop slowly opened and the figure moved in. A hood and cloak concealed all its features, except for the piercing blue eyes. A pony with a key lime mane came out from the back room and, noticing the potential customer, ran to the counter with a wide grin.
"Welcome to Daisy's flower shop," Daisy said happily. "We supply flowers from all over Equestria and beyond, and sometimes design and make our own. Anything I can help you find?"
The cloaked figure walked over to the counter, and produced a small picture from inside the cloak and pushed it over to Daisy. She took it and looked at it closely. Her pink coat turned a shade lighter as some of the blood drained from her face. She looked at the stranger, the picture, the stranger, and then the picture again.
"O-one moment. I-I'll see what I g-got," Daisy said shakily as she disappeared into the back room. The figure waited patiently until Daisy returned.
"A-alright. I found what you wanted, but it's the last one. I can't believe I still had it. I thought I had destroyed them all when Celestia banned them. I guess I overlooked it." She laughed nervously, and put a tiny woven bag on the counter. The other pony just stared, not moving.
Daisy shuffled a hoof against the ground. "You do realize this isn't a cheap item, right? It is illegal, punishable by death, after all."
The mysterious pony grabbed something from the floor and slammed it onto the counter top. It was a massive chest. The pony hit the locks and the top sprang open, revealing several thousand bits. Daisy's jaw hit the counter in shock. She had never seen so many bits in her life, much less in her shop.
"I...guess the transaction is acceptable. Do you need a bag for it?" Daisy asked.
The hooded figure shook its head back and forth. Daisy pushed the tiny bag over to the stranger. The pony grabbed the bag and walked out.
Daisy stumbled against the wall in horror. She had just sold a highly illegal item to a complete stranger for what must have been at least 10,000 bits. She knew the effects of what that particular item did, and the results were why Celestia banned it in the first place. If it got into the wrong hooves...
She shook her head and tried to think through the mess of thoughts piled up in her brain. I'll talk to Rose about it tomorrow. Maybe she'll have an idea of what to do. And with that thought, Daisy flipped her store's sign to CLOSED, exited the shop, locked the door, and headed home.

===

“As a friend of mine once said: ‘Evil only appears to happen to the good, because the ones who fell to evil became evil themselves. Those who didn’t fall to evil were strong enough to erase the darkness from their hearts and let their light shine through.’ Needless to say, it helps me get along a little better in this world. And I think with a little love, you could become the good and let your golden light push those bullies back.”
Ticket nodded, sniffling. She liked that quote, even though she had never heard it before. She played it over and over in her head, and each time seemed to give her more strength. She stood up and hopped down from the chair.
“I think I now have what I need to go back to school with my head held high. But before I do that, I have one last thing to do,” and she rushed over to Rose and gave her a big hug. She then let go and raced out the door.
Rose watched her run down the street and gently closed the door. She sighed in exhaustion and walked over to her sofa and plopped herself longways across it. At that moment, the doorbell rang. Rose groaned with annoyance, but decided she wasn't going to get up just to answer the door. "Who's there?" she yelled.
"Roseluck? Can I come in?"
Rose's head lifted. It sounded like Daisy, but why did she sound so anxious? She yelled back that the door was unlocked and the door opened. Daisy appeared more disheveled than usual, mane sticking up in weird places. Rose cocked an eyebrow, prompting an explanation to this intrusion of her nap and the new look. Her pink coated friend quickly went over the transaction she had made the previous night.
"So, let me get this straight: you had an illegal item in your store backroom, sold it to a somepony you didn't know, and thought I would know what to do. Does that sound accurate?" Rose recited.
Daisy nodded. "Just about."
The tan mare let her head hit the couch pillow again. "Why don't you just tell Celestia? From what you told me, you overlooked it by accident after dutifully destroying the ones you found. I'm sure she'll understand."
"Are you insane?!" Daisy yelled in Rose's face. "Do you know what she'll do to me when she finds out I knowingly sold a known banned item to an absolute stranger? She'd have me hanged, or worse!"
"Well," Rose said, wiping some of Daisy's spit off her face, "My other suggestion is not say anything and hope nothing too terrible happens. By the way, what's this item do that's so awful?"
Daisy picked up the cup of coffee that Rose had made while her friend was telling the story of the previous night. The cup clattered loudly in the saucer. "Well, for one, it changes the attitude of the pony. It also changes some of the physical features as well, like a different eye color, different mane color, stuff like that. The cutie mark also changes. It will change color, and will slowly fade. When it disappears completely, the pony dies."
"How do you know all this?"
"One of my friends got one as a gift before it was banned."
Rose thought for a second. "Does this item have a name?"
Daisy nodded. "Yes. It's called..." She paused for a second before continuing. "It's called The Black Rose."

===

After another half hour of questioning from Rose and begging from Daisy not to tell the Princesses, Rose finally understood everything about this mysterious flower and its dangerous side effects.
Growing on the far side of the Badlands, it shed one seed every year, which was often collected by tourists and adventurers because of its bizarre coloration. The seed had a translucent black shell with a red strip around its width. Inside was a pulsing yellow light, which was usually what caught ponies attention. The seed gained popularity for its light and unique design and was soon sought all over Equestria. It was impossible to go to an outdoor market and not find somepony selling the seeds. One thing that was puzzling was that they didn't bloom. Ponies tried water, fertilizer, plant food, everything to try to make it grow. Ponies thought it didn't do anything until one pony accidentally cut themselves of the edge of the seed and a drop of blood landed on it. The red strip had disappeared and the seed had morphed into a long, beautiful, and fully bloomed rose. The only difference was that it wasn't red, yellow, orange, or any other color that anypony had seen. It was pure black, and the stem and leaves were brown.
After that, news got around of how to make it bloom and the flower could be found in almost every household. Plant shops like Daisy's ran out of the seed daily and was impossible to keep up with the orders. The future of the rose looked promising until several ponies in the town started to act strange. They would stumble around, call other ponies nasty names, and just act rude in general. Within a few weeks, the matter got worse as infected ponies started looting stores and homes. After the Princesses received several letters complaining about the state of things, they descended to Ponyville to figure out the problem. After using various spells on different citizens of the town, they noticed that the nastier ones were infected with a dark spell. Doing a quick search of the houses revealed that the magic had come from a single black rose, found in almost every household. Celestia had immediately declared that the rose was now banned, and set off with Luna to destroy all the ones in Equestria.
Rose rubbed her chin with a hoof. "So, what do you plan on doing? If this plant blooms and makes contact with a pony, they'll act weird and eventually die. This can't just be ignored. The Princesses need to know."
Daisy just quivered next to her. "I can't. The Princesses will ki-"
"The Princesses," Rose interrupted, "will understand. You did what you knew was best when the ban was put in place. If anything, that will negate the punishment, if there is any at all."
"Perhaps." Daisy noticed Rose leaning in closer.
"If you don't tell the Princesses," the tan mare said in a whisper, "I'll tell them you sold it on purpose for a little extra cash, knowing full well that it was illegal and not caring."
Daisy's face contorted into a mask of total and utter fear.