The two mares traveled up the old road that led to the Castle of the Two Sisters, enjoying a, for now at least, peaceful walk.
“So, what do you hear exactly? Is it a voice? The call of an animal?” Sunset asked curious.
“I’m not sure,” Wallflower responded looking down in thought. “Have you ever felt a ringing in your ear?”
“You mean Tinnitus?”
“I guess, but instead of ringing, I hear like a sort of…” Wallflower seemed to struggle to find the right words. “Language?” she answered slowly and unsure. “I suppose it’s whatever language plants talk?”
“Well, I never heard about talking plants, but if there’s one, it would be in the Everfree,” Sunset said before noticing that her friend was starting to walk off the road. “Hey, we should keep to the path!”
“The sound comes from this direction,” Wallflower said, walking between the trees without much care.
“Why isn’t she afraid?” Sunset wondered as she followed her.
Wallflower looked at the forest around them with curiosity and a bit of wonder. She had never been in a magical forest before, and while it was sort of gloomy and scary looking, she didn’t feel like it was different from the forests in her world. She always felt comfortable when she was surrounded by nature. “What makes this place so dangerous?”
“Manticores, Timberwolves, Swamp Fever,” Sunset listed. “Carnivorous plants, electric bees, Cockatrice!”
“What’s that?” Wallflower asked right before her friend covered her eyes with her hoof.
“Don’t look directly at it,” Sunset warned, but Wallflower took a small peek out of curiosity.
There was a large rock a few meters in front of them in a tiny clearing of the forest, and on top of said rock was a creature that looked like the fusion between a chicken and some sort of dragon lizard, which was currently coiled in itself with its eyes closed.
“Is it dangerous?” Wallflower asked, using her long mane to obstruct her vision.
“If it looks at you in the eyes it will turn you to stone. We got lucky it’s sleeping on that rock.” Sunset tapped her friend until she found her shoulder and gave her a small nudge towards the left. “Let’s go around it.”
Wallflower nodded and they both started to walk blindly around the rock, taking small glances to the ground so they didn’t bump into anything. Sadly, their caution was wasted when an old bramble got caught on Sunset’s leg, snapping when it was pulled by the limb.
Sensing danger, the Cockatrice quickly stood up from its slumber and set its eyes on the two mares, letting out a screech that made them jump in place.
Wallflower turned her head towards the creature out of instinct, and accidentally made eye-contact with it.
Noticing this, Sunset didn’t waste even a fraction of a second and charged her horn, firing five beams of magic towards the Cockatrice like a shotgun blast. One of the magical missiles missed, another hit the creature in the chest, and the other three practically pulverized the rock it was standing on.
The Cockatrice, wounded and now knowing it had challenged a much stronger foe, fled towards the nearby the trees, quickly being lost in the forest.
Sunset looked at Wallflower and let out a sigh of relief at the sight of her friend not being made of stone. “I got really scared there,” she said before hugging her. “Please be more careful.”
Wallflower, who was still a bit shocked by the event, felt Sunset’s warm body around her, giving her comfort, and smiled before leaning into the hug. “I will. Sorry for scaring you.”
“It’s okay,” Sunset said before letting go with a small sigh. “But now you can see why the forest is dangerous.”
“Luckily I’ve a pretty guardian protecting me,” Wallflower said with a smile.
Sunset blushed and looked away. “A pretty guardian?”
Wallflower’s own face turned red. “Y-yeah, a pretty good guardian.” She looked away, trying to find a way to deviate the conversation when she noticed something. “Was that there before?”
Sunset looked to where Wallflower was pointing at and saw a large hole right below where the rock she destroyed once stood. “Looks like an entrance to some cavern.”
Curious, Wallflower walked up to it and looked down. “There’s a small path here.”
“Wanna go investigate?” Sunset offered. “Since it was sealed, I doubt there’s any dangerous animals down there.”
Wallflower thought about it for a moment, and her curiosity ended up winning. After all, she wouldn’t get many opportunities to explore a magical land. “Okay, just a quick look.”
With that, both mares descended into the cavern, looking around for anything worthy of attention until they arrived at a large chamber. The place was illuminated by a teal natural light coming from a large pool of pristine water that rested in the middle of the chamber.
“Wait, I know where we are!” Sunset exclaimed as they walked closer to the pond. “This must be the Mirror Pool.”
“Mirror Pool? Is it magical?” Wallflower asked a she looked at her reflection in the water.
“Yes. It’s like a sort of cloning machine. Pinkie found it following an old nursery rhyme.” Sunset scratched her chin trying to remember the words. “Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find, A pond beyond the most twisted of vines.” She racked her brain trying to remember the rest, but only managed to recall the last of the rhyme. “And into her own reflection she stared, Yearning for one whose reflection she shared,”
Suddenly, Wallflower felt her own set of memories rush into her mind. “So even alone, when no one cared, She could have a hug, and not be scared.”
Sunset looked at her friend with confusion. “That’s… not how it goes… maybe you heard the human version of the story?”
“I wrote that rhyme,” Wallflower turned to look at her friend. “For a school assignment.”
“Oh…” Sunset realized something about the rhyme that saddened her heart. “Did you really feel like that? Like there was no one who could give you love?”
“Y-yeah…” Wallflower answered, looking at her reflection once more. “I didn’t even have the garden back then. There was no safe place for me.” Her reflection looked like it was crying.
Sunset’s ears lowered, and she tried to find the words that could comfort her friend, but instead, she got another memory. “Your song… it was the same feeling.” She silently cursed herself. “I shouldn’t have interrupted it. I could’ve understood you better.”
Wallflower turned to look at Sunset and noticed the regret in her eyes. She quickly walked up to her, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m no longer alone. Thanks to you.” She said with a warm smile.
Sunset looked at her friend, feeling a small flutter in her heart. She admired how Wallflower had been able to keep herself afloat despite having so many depressing feelings. And she did it alone for so long.
Sunset knew from her time between the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands that it was a heavy weight to carry, and that she had only managed to pull through because of her friends. “I’m happy that you managed to recover from that.”
Wallflower chuckled a little. “Me too.” She took one last look at the pond, seeing the reflection of herself and Sunset together. No longer alone. “I don’t want another me anymore.”
Sunset smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.” Then let out a small chuckle. “I don’t think I can handle double the cuteness.” After saying that, she noticed her friend looking at her with surprise and a blush in her cheeks, and realized what she just admitted. “Anyways!” she said a little too loud. “We better go back to that weird thing you’re hearing.”
“Y-yeah,” Wallflower responded, smiling as she followed her friend’s quick pace out of the cave.
When the awkwardness finally filtered out of Sunset, the amber mare found herself thinking back to Wallflower’s song, trying to remember all of it. It was always weird to think about remembering when she was around Wallflower, even if it wasn’t the first time she reminisced about the past or wished to forget something.
Also, Wallflower had enough experience to read her mind when she was like this.
“Are you still thinking about the song?” the green mare asked.
Sunset sighed. “Yeah, and the rhyme.” She looked at her in the eyes. “Did you ever tried to reach out to someone?”
Wallflower’s gaze fell to the floor. “I did it once with my family. It didn’t help. Actually, it made it worse, and I didn’t have any friends I could trust. Everyone ignored me or forgot about me anyways, even before the stone. And the only one that barely remembered me…” Wallflower suddenly stopped, as if the memory was painful.
“Who was it?” Sunset asked, but her friend didn’t respond. Then the realization hit her. “Me… before the Fall Formal.”
Wallflower slowly, almost hesitantly, nodded. “Ninth grade English. Since you didn’t know how to write, I did your homework. At least until you learned. Then you just forgot about me like everyone else.”
Sunset noticed how uncomfortable Wallflower was acting as she told the story. “Did I hurt you?”
The seconds it took for Wallflower to finally respond were agonizing for Sunset. “Not physically.”
“I’m so sorry.” Sunset wanted to take Wallflower’s hands, but neither of them had those, so she settled for getting closer to her friend. “I–”
“No,” Wallflower cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say. I know how sorry you are about what you did before the Fall Formal. You don’t need to apologize. I did worse things to you just because I couldn’t see it before.”
Sunset could see anger behind Wallflower’s eyes. An anger she only saw when they had their final confrontation before the stone was destroyed. But this time, that anger seemed to be directed at herself. “Wally, what’s making you angry?”
Hearing her words, Wallflower froze, looked away, and finally, retreated. “Let’s keep going.”
Sunset saw her walk away with worried eyes. If there was someone or somepony that Wallflower could trust nowadays, it was Sunset. So, the fact that she was trying to avoid the subject when they were alone only made it seem more dire.
Sunset started to walk over to her, trying to decide if she should press the matter or not, when something moved right below her hooves.
In an instant, a large carnivorous plant hidden under the ground chomped on her, engulfing her in a cocoon of thick green vegetable material.
“Oh god, are you okay?!” Wallflower shouted, running up to the plant and pushing her hooves against its surface.
“Yeah, just a bit of a shock!” Sunset responded before charging up her horn. “Step back, I’m gonna start blasting!”
“No!” Wallflower screamed out of instinct.
There was a small pause before Sunset responded. “I know you love plants, but I won’t let this thing finish eating me!”
“Just…” Wallflower looked at the base of the plant like one would look at a ticking bomb. “Just give me a minute, I will get you out!”
“I know I said Earth Ponies can control the flora of Equestria, but the Everfree doesn’t like to play by the rules!”
“Just trust me, okay? I can do this!” Wallflower shouted, but in reality, she wasn’t sure what she could do exactly. She wasn’t even sure of why she was stopping Sunset from blowing up the plant in the first place. It was trying to eat her friend, although only just so it could feed itself, not because of malice.
“Okay but hurry up please! It stinks in here!” Sunset looked around her small prison, luckily not so small she had to be pressed against the walls. The mentioned smell was the biggest annoyance. It was pungent like concentrated honey, and she could taste it in her mouth every time she breathed.
Meanwhile, Wallflower was walking around the plant, looking at its roots for something she wasn’t really sure existed. She was being driven by this weird new magic she never had before, which told her there was a way to do it, but not exactly how.
Sunset wiped some sweat from her brow, the walls of the plant were causing a buildup of heat that felt like it was trying to cook her alive. “I hope Wally doesn’t take too long.” She suddenly felt a burning sensation on her hooves, and when she looked down, she noticed that a greenish yellow liquid was starting to pool at the base of the chamber.
Sunset tried to use her magic to lift herself above the acid, but the spell fizzled out as soon as she casted it.
“What?” she looked at her horn as she tried to teleport out of the plant, but her magic failed again. “The Everfree doesn’t like to play by the rules!” she remembered, her pupils shrinking in horror. “Oh no.”
“Are you okay?” Wallflower asked, and Sunset did her best to remain calm.
“Yeah, just really uncomfortable, so please hurry up a bit!” She didn’t want to put too much pressure on her, but she was really hoping whatever plan she had would work.
Wallflower was finishing her twentieth round and had a basic map of the plant’s anatomy in her head thanks to whatever magic Equestria had decided to gift her.
Sunset was trotting in place to keep her legs out of the acid as much as possible, but it was already close to reaching her knees, and she was getting desperate. This desperation pushed her into trying to bust her way out, so she placed her forehooves firmly on the bottom of the chamber and gave a strong buck against the walls.
Opposite to what she was hoping for, the plant closed itself even more, crushing her while making the acid rise, now almost reaching her cutie marks.
“What happened?!” Wallflower shouted in panic.
“Please hurry!” Sunset answered with whatever air was left in her lungs.
Wallflower looked at the base of the plant one more time, eyes determined, and finally found what she was looking for. She dug her hoof under the dirt and pressed firmly against a particularly thin and soft root, forming a blockage.
Sunset felt the acid stop rising, and the walls started to shake until they pressed against her with more strength. But instead of crushing her like a bug, they sent her upwards as the plant spitted her out.
She screeamed as she cartwheeled through the air with zero grace before landing on her back.
“At least I landed on something soft.” She thought sitting up, rubbing her head before hearing a low groan below her. “Oh, shit sorry!” she exclaimed before rolling away from Wallflower.
The green mare stood up slowly, feeling a crack coming from her back. “It’s okay, I caught you.” she looked at Sunset with a smile. “I guess we’re even now.”
“We definitely are,” Sunset said as she looked at the plant going back into ‘stealth mode’. “I’m pretty sure Wally walked over it too. Why didn’t it trigger?”
“We should be more careful of where we walk. Hopefully we will find whatever is making that noise soon,” Wallflower said as she helped Sunset stand up.
“Yeah… lead the way,” she said, still wondering about what had happened.