//------------------------------// // 8 - Community Events // Story: Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers // by David Silver //------------------------------// Teaching Tree was not at all as rapid as the girls would have liked. Even when she got the words down, she had to learn the dance, and her dance was up in her horn. A thing none of them had. Their teachers, being flutters, also lacked them. "This was a thing I was prepared for." Tree looked at each of them firmly. "I will teach myself this part, but it will not be at your outsider's rate." She had already proven that. It had taken weeks. Weeks! for her to get the words just right and the cadence of the song down. Still, she was making progress. "You can't help with this part." This sent the girls out into the city to explore. "But what is there to do around here?" asked Rose as she looked around with firm sweeps of her head and eyes. "Besides shop." "Bitey!" A flutter darted in, looking at Lily. "Are you feeling better?" Lily's eyes widened. "Are you?" The flutter nodded. "Oh... I'm so sorry!" "You already said that." The flutter waved it off. "I hear you were playing with rainbow sap. That's dangerous. You have to use rainbow sap just the right way." They bobbed their head quickly. "Glad you're better now." Daisy beamed at the talkative flutter. "Hey! We're looking for something fun to do. Any ideas?" "Ooo!" The flutter swooped in closer, clapping wildly. "Yeah! What kind of fun are you looking for?" Rose considered the flutter in a new light. "Well, to start, something we can do." She gestured at her sisters and herself. "So no flying." "That rules out some of them." The flutter considered with due gravity. "Do you like art?" Daisy raised a hoof. "I like art!" Rose chuckled. "I like art, but I'm not super good at it." "Even better!" The flutter twirled to point off in the distance. "Go over there, one floor up. Ask for Rainbow Dreams. You'll have a great time. No flying!" Lily nodded firmly. "Thank you, but sorry again. You sure you're alright?" "It stung." The flutter stuck out her tongue. "But I got better. You'll have to bite me harder if you want to take me out, bitey!" They flew off, giggling wildly. Daisy brushed against Lily on the way towards potential fun. "Seems like all's forgiven there." "But not forgotten." Lily moved at Daisy's side. "Ugh, now I'm bitey forever." "Could be worse." Rose nudged Lily from the other side. "They'll remember you, and they didn't look upset to come over and say hi." They had to cross several bridges to reach the tree that was pointed at, then ride an elevator up to the next floor as directed. Asking for Rainbow Dreams got them pointed to a large open area. In it, many flutters were scattered about, and the nature of the area became quite clear. Many of them had easels of colors, but they weren't holding them as a human might. A lack of fingers was the likely reason for that. Instead they sat beside the would-be artists until a hoof or an antennae or other body part dipped into the available paint to them brush against canvas or whatever else the artist felt like dabbing colors onto. It was an art studio! A few of them were working clay, spinning them with pumps of their hind legs even as their forelegs worked to shape them into interesting shapes. Elsewhere, others could be seen painting the finished result of their clay work. All sorts of art seemed to be in progress. "Hello!" A flutter that looked like all the colors of all the paints in the world had exploded violently across them, a butterfly, was approaching on fluttering wings that somehow still worked despite being caked in paint. "I'm Rainbow Mind, and you're new!" She pointed between the each of the flower mares. "But I've heard of you! Outsider mares, very friendly, sometimes bitey." Lily's cheeks darkened. "Welcome!" Rose waved up at the floating Rainbow Mind. "Hello to you too. We heard this was a place to have fun?" "If you like colors, this is the most fun place!" Rainbow threw their hooves wide, all four of them as they performed a slow spin in place. "I give everyone the tools to unleash the colors inside them and share it with the world." She began to point at things, naming them as she went. "We have pottery shaping, glazing, and painting. Speaking of painting, we got all kinds of paints and things to put paint on! Though if you want to be the rainbow--" Her brows waggled. "--first, I feel you. Second, we have people who are eager to get started." She pointed to where it seemed flutters were busy painting each other. "Go wild, want a mark of dest... Oh." She angled her head. "Silly me, you're ponies. You already have marks of destiny. Nice ones too!" Rose glanced back at her own mark. "Thank you. Um, about that." She wobbled a hoof at the flutters painting flutters. "So, Flutters don't get cutie marks, I've picked up?" "Not on their own." Rainbow drifted closer. "But, with the help of a friend, we can get one. And we can change our mind if we want. Let's see you do that." She stuck out her tongue in defiance. "Nope, I'm stuck with what I got." Rose shook her head. "Good thing I'm pretty alright with it." "Ditto!" cried Daisy. "I can't even imagine having something else back there." "That's a terrible thought." Lily shook her head in clear distaste. "Well good." Rainbow bobbed her head. "If we tried to paint over yours, it'd wash off pretty fast. The gods do not like little flutters standing in their way, or stubborn ponies either." She raised a hoof. "I hear if a pony's desperate enough they can scratch it off. Sounds like you wouldn't do that! Good, I like yours. Now, what are the colors you are waiting to get out?" Lily cringed at the idea of attack one's own cutie mark. "Um..." She looked left and right over the busy area. "What are they doing?" She pointed to a group of flutters seemingly working together. "Oh! That one's fun, if you like creating in a team. They're making art, building, coloring, all of it, together. They'll have something they can share." Lily clapped her hooves. "That sounds delightful." And off she went to join them. "One down!" Rainbow looked to the other two. Rose raised a hoof. "Anything involving flowers, by chance?" "Oooo, mmm..." She wobbled in place with thought. "I have flowers to make colors with. They are so colorful. If you want to make some art with them, grab what you want to make art on and I'll bring over flowers." "Perfect." Rose grabbed a free easel and was soon ready to begin the art. Daisy waved a hoof wildly. "I want to play with the clay!" "So excited, I love it!" And soon all the flower mares were busy making art, alone or in a group. Daisy had a cube of clay set and stood on the pedals. "Just... walk?" She began to cycle her hind hooves, getting the pedastal to spin beneath the clay, turning it around. "Ooo!" "First time?" asked the dragonfly flutter next to her. "It can be tricky at first." "But it looks fun!" "Good attitude." He gave a hooves up before returning to their own work, shaping their clay as it turned around and around. "Want to just dive in, or I can give a few tips?" "Get me started." Daisy tried to raise a hoof, but her hinds on unsteady ground ruined that attempt, forcing her to slap all four hooves down to not fall over. "Oops!" Elsewhere, Rose was painting with a brush she held in her snout, slowly adorning the canvas before her with a picture that she added flowers to with glue to emphasize the natural scenery she was slowly creating with a happy humming. "Ooo." A butterfly leaned over, watching Rose's creation. "Is that a place you've seen before?" "Hm?" Rose dabbed a little blue on a river that was cutting through it. "Actually, yeah... My favorite bridge in Ponyville." "I can feel the love." The butterfly hugged herself tightly. "Where's Ponyville?" "That's.... complicated." Lily was working side by side with the other flutters. She was adding popsicle sticks, glueing each in place carefully before the next as their strange monument grew larger. "This is fun!" "I love this place." The flutter beside her danced in place even as he nosed at it, brushing the paint on his snout onto it. "To art is to live!" "Not sure I'd go that far, but a little art can really brighten things up." Lily reached over for the many dabs of art laid out and got some on her hoof to spread on a few of the sticks she had placed down. "Do these get saved?" "The art?" The flutter inclined his head. "For as long as they last, usually. Rainbow puts them over there." He pointed to a balcony that had other past group arts set out. "You can see them as you fly past. It's so nice!" Lily laughed nervously at that. "I doubt I'll get to enjoy that specifically, but I can look from the inside." "Why no--" It was that moment the flutter realized why not. "Oh, sorry! By the way." Lily hmmed? "You're not at all as bitey as rumors suggested." Lily darkened, not just with embarrassment. "Is everycreature saying that about me?!" "I meant it as a good thing," assured the flutter. "Hey! Everyone! She's super not bitey, right?" A chorus of agreement rose. None of them had been bitten during the group project. The amount of bites was well within acceptable parameters. "See? No bites." He nosed colors in a new place. "You seem pretty nice really." A wasp of a flutter flashed teeth that were a bit too sharp. "You can bite me, if you want, but I will bite back." The tone he used implied that he was pretty alright with the option being taken up. The eyebrow wiggle didn't help him to seem very innocent. Daisy's coloring shifted subtly. "Um! Let's focus on our work." She got back to getting her sticks in place, and not considering nipping wasp flutters. Later, Rainbow drifted over. "Time's up!" The flutters hopped away as if the art had caught fire. Daisy was the odd one out, confused. "Time's up?" Rainbow bobbed his head. "If we never ended it, it'd grow, forever!" She threw her hooves wide. "That'd be kinda fun, but also probably dangerous, so... I call when the time's up." Rainbow circled the group art installation. "This is a nice one, and it has a touch of outsider pony on it! That makes it extra special." The crowd of creators cheered in delight. "I'll get it out on the balcony soon. In the meanwhile." She pointed to a free space. "You got an hour." There was a small stampede as flutters rushed over to start a new project. The first bits put down were so very important, providing the base of the piece to come. Rainbow nodded at Daisy. "Wanna join in? You looked like you were having fun." "Maybe in a bit." She instead went hunting for the other flower mares. She found Daisy trying her best to shape her clay. A fine pot it was not, but a servicable clay bowl it was becoming. "Nice." Daisy giggled. "I got these grooves in it." She began to press a new circular groove into it was it spun beneath her hooves. "This is as fun as I thought it'd be." Lily nodded. "But it's not done until you cook it." "Oh right!" She sat back, the spinning slowing with her steps. "I get to use some fire." Her grin was, perhaps, worrying. Everglow had made a pyromaniac of one of the flower mares.