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// 25 - Restricted Area 
// Story: Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers 
// by David Silver 
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"Hello." The flutter before them had a confused look on her face, wings fluttering slowly behind her. She wore a frilly hat with a simple smiling face on it. On her shoulder was a badge of some unknown meaning. "This is a place for young flutters."

Rose nodded quickly. "Which we are not." As if that wasn't obvious. "But we were hoping to visit the little ones and say hello."

The flutter barring the way let out a little hum. "That isn't how that usually works... If you were offering an apprenticeship, that'd make sense. If your child was here and you wanted to see them, I would oblige. I don't think either of those are true."

Lily considered the butterfly guardian. "Ponies can't just visit?"

The butterfly looked aghast at the idea. "We are protecting them, which means, no, random people can't just wander in. Trained staff only beyond this point." She spread her hooves in a defensive stance. "You'd want us to be just as careful if it were your children, wouldn't you? This is our job, and most of us would agree, our calling!"

Daisy stuck out her tongue. "If somepony wanted to visit the school, I bet they could."

Rose turned to her. "Eh... If Miss Cheerilee didn't know them and they were just lurking around, that'd get her nervous."

Lily pointed at herself. "Are we the strangers?!"

The butterfly smiled gently as understanding seemed to be dawning. "I'm afraid you are the strangers. I've heard of you, but little more. Congratulations on becoming druids."

Rose stood all the taller. "Thank you! Are you one too?"

"Me?!" The butterfly pointed at herself with both hooves. "I imagine not. Druids do not usually dedicate themselves to childraising. Thankfully, they are not required. People keep making little people, and we take care of them. If that was out of balance... That would be a problem."

Lily threw a leg over her beaver friend. "A big problem. We'd run out of ponies! Not that I'm helping, personally, still..."

The caretaker's cheeks lit up at the sharing of personal information. "I see..." But her eyes lit up shortly after that. "Oh! You have not seen little flutters before, have you?" All three mares shook their head. "You just want to see what they look like." All three nodded. "That's different, and easily arranged." She pointed up and around the tree. "There's a window up there. There are ladders up to it if you can't fly." None of them had wings, unlike her. "You'll be able to see them playing. I can't let you in, but you can get a peek. We ask that people not stay for longer than a few minutes at most. You don't want to be 'that' person that stares at them."

Daisy giggled as she advanced on the ladder. Climbing a ladder as an Everglow pony was a little trickier, but still doable as she scaled upwards into the sky and flopped out onto the platform. "Now let's see a..." She saw them and fell back with a squeak.

Rose arrived to see Daisy cured up. "The horror," whispered out the prone mare.

"You're being dramatic. They're just foals." Rose went up to see what had scared Daisy so much.

Lily was the slowest to arrive, her beaver on her back. With a final grunt, she threw herself up onto the platform with a tired wheeze. "Are they... What happened?" She sat up, peering at the two other sisters, fallen. "Are they not there?"

"The horror," both echoed in response without moving.

Lily advanced past them. "They can't be... Oh." She didn't fall over though, instead staring curiously. "They're bugs. This is... not that surprising." Her beaver whistled. In agreement? It was hard to tell. "Exactly. Little grubs, learning things! It's kinda cute..."

Rose waved Lily's words away with a frown. "That is not cute! They are... hideous."

"We're all hideous at some point." Lily stuck out her tongue. "But they're still little things trying to grow and learn and aw, that one just learned the block game! Aw...." It was perhaps fitting that the animal druid could see the adorable appeal of the young ones, even if they were so very different. "I want to meet them even more! Oh! Oh oh!" She whirled on her sisters. "We run a business, and we're druids. What if we offer to teach one of them about either? Then we could get a young, but not that young, flutter to come with us."

Rose slowly sat up. "You are crazy." Despite that, she smiled slowly. "But if you're ready to take on that responsibility?"

Daisy scrunched at Lily and her beaver. "Will they look like that?"

"Like what?" Lily waved at the window she wasn't looking through. "If you weren't so busy falling over, you'd see some of them look just like little flutters. Teens and older foals, I bet..." She tapped at her chin. "I bet they'd have a lot of fun learning how to run a shop, or do natural stuff."





As the sisters argued about playing mentor figures, Twilight emerged into light with a relieved smile and a flapping of her wings. "Much better!"

Fast galloped forward and hopped up onto a large rock to look around. "Clear. Alright, so, where were you trying to go? I swear, you spellcasters are as amazing at getting yourself out of trouble as you are getting into it."

Soft hiked a thumb, though she didn't know what direction was right. "Prisma is the name of it. Do you know it?"

"Where the flutters are." Fast nodded quickly. "I've been there. Wet, but colorful, and friendly. They love ponies, which most of us are."

Spike hiked a thumb at himself. "What about dragons?"

"Eh..." Fast shrugged softly. "Sorry, don't think they've chatted with them too much. If you come in peace, they won't give you a bad time about it."

Twilight was at the fore of her little group, minus Fast Shadow. "I'm glad you know of it. Can you point us in the right direction?"

Fast looked Twilight up and down. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like a spellcaster of some talent." Twilight nodded. "So you could get there even faster than walking."

Twilight spread her wings. "I can fly, to start. But there are more of us than there are pairs of wings..."

Fast shook her head. "I meant a spell. Make us all fly? Or even teleport to it if you're good enough."

Twilight winced at the idea. "I can't do that. I don't know in what direction I'm going, or have a good enough picture of what I'm aiming for. I wouldn't want to subject any of you to such a haphazard spell. As for flying..." She looked from Fast to the others. "I could give you wings. Would that help?"

Fast backed a step. "Wings?! The last time I saw a flying spell, wings weren't involved... Still, if they work? Prisma is a good distance away, and in a big wet forest. Flying will be a lot faster than hiking."

With a quick spell, spoken in strange words, Twilight wove an Everglow spell that bestowed Fast and Soft a set of butterfly wings. "She said that this spell of mine was similar to hers, and she showed me the Everglow version."

"She?" Fast squinted at Twilight suspiciously. "I'm not a cleric or a wizard myself, but I've seen that spell. Luminace priests are the ones that use it."

"Luminace! Yes, Princess Luminace is her name." Twilight nodded as she lifted into the air on her own wings. "A very friendly pony. Any chance I'll see her while I'm here?"

Soft snorted as she caught up. "I hope not... If the gods visited us all the time, it'd be chaos, even the nice ones like Lumie."

Fast laughed with a bit of distress. "Soft Mane is correct... and it worries me slightly that you've swapped spells with her before... Still, she is one known to do that, trading secrets with smiling observers. You worship her then?" She willed herself into the air and her new wings carried her obediently.

"I think she's a nice pony, but 'worship' would be a strong term to use." Twilight drifted back in the air slowly, allowing the others to catch up. "I get the idea that Equestria does not have the same rules."

"I should imagine not." Fast zipped in closer to Twilight. "Our ponies don't look like you, to start. Follow me." She led the way across the countryside. "Now, before I ran into you, I was adventuring, looking for a forgotten artifact that was rumored to be in that cave, but found you instead. You're about as rare, so I can't call it a total loss."

Spike watched the landscrape scrolling beneath them. "Which way are we headed anyway?" He didn't have a compass to check, other than 'forward'.

"West." Fast pointed ahead. "West and we'll reach the forest of dreams, where Prisma hides. It doesn't do that good of a job of hiding, being a busy city, but it is in a thick forest, which makes up for it a lot."

Soft accelerated to Fast's side. "Say! Are hybrids like me still super rare?"

"In Prisma? Very." She quirked an ear back at Soft. "Humans don't live there much, so not a lot of reason for half-humans of any kind. Ponies are there often enough, but ponies and flutters don't usually make hybrids. They can have families, but the children are one or the other, not both." She waved at Soft with the last word. "Like you. No offense, but you're right in the middle. Can't call you a pony or a human. Something new, you know? Not a bad thing..." She tried to back out of her awkward words. "But new!"

"Thanks for trying." Soft flew at Spike's side. "By the way, I can't see a thing right now. It's all too far away for me, so I'm going to go where you go and nowhere else. Don't let me crash."

"'Course not!" He flew in a little closer to her, grabbing her hand as he went. "I'd be failing at being me if I let you crash into something."

Twilight smirked at that. "Spike, you've crashed before. You haven't even had wings for that long."

"Yeah, sure... me... but this is my girlfriend." He squeezed Soft's hand gently. "And I'm not letting her get hurt!"

"Aw, thanks." She squeezed him back. "I already feel safer, my brave dragon." The two giggled with young lovesmitten joy.

Twilight smiled at the two. "Forgive them, they're still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship. I'm almost jealous at times at how much they love each other."

Soft turned her head to Twilight sharply. "I would be happy to lend a hand in that. I'd be a terrible Lashtada follower if I didn't offer to play matchmaker. Just give permission and I'll find some stallions, or mares if you like that, to fit with you."

"T-thank you, but I will pass for the moment." Twilight coughed into a hoof. "Besides, I'm a princess with a busy schedule. I have a friendship school to run! I would feel bad making anycreature work around that as I hustled around."

"That sounds like an excuse." She was still directing her face Twilight, despite flying in another direction. "A fitting pony would not find that to be disagreeable at all. In fact, the proper creature would be excited to take part, with you. Give them, and me, a chance. You can always say no after I bring them to you to be judged."

Twilight began to go red from her neck up. "Judge them?! I don't... How do you judge a creature like that?! This isn't a test with a right or wrong answer!" Her flying began to wave with her growing uncertainty. "I've never evaluated this before. I'm not qualified!"