//------------------------------// // Chapter 26 - Germination // Story: Equestrian Celestial Forge // by TheDriderPony //------------------------------// There was little that Fluttershy cherished more in life than those rare moments when she was able to help usher new life into the world. There was something so pure and magical about those fleeting moments as a baby animal took its first breath and blinked its eyes for the first time. Something sacred. She considered it a privilege to help when and where she could, even if she was only a small part of the event. No matter whether it was helping a bear through a difficult birth or simply watching over a clutch of eggs as they hatched into little ducklings. She even had an official midwifing certificate, just in case. Though the opportunity to help with an actual foal had yet to come up. While there was a simple joy and satisfaction in helping animals with their daily lives—feeding them, tending their wounds, settling disputes—nothing could beat those breathtaking moments of witnessing nature in its purest form. And while fate had offered her chances to meet and nurture a wide variety of creatures, she never once dreamed she'd be tasked with shepherding something new into the world. Thus, Fluttershy was understandably stressed. She paced in nervous circles around her back patio, circling the table at its center. More accurately, she was pacing around the plant pot at its center. Every so often she stepped nearer to check that the soil wasn't too damp or that no clouds had drifted in from the Everfree to block the sun. Her animal friends had picked up on her odd behavior and gathered around to watch. Most of them had little to no idea what was going on, but even the ones that had merely followed the crowd had a general understanding that a visit to the cottage usually ended in free food, one way or another. This time was no exception. “Popcorn! Get your popcorn here! Peanuts! Soft pretzels! Shaven and bearded ice!” Discord was also present. Which was… new. And a little bit scary. As much as she considered the draconequus a friend (though it was still hard to tell just how much he understood or reciprocated the sentiment) she was truthfully still a little bit intimidated by him. It was hard not to be considering he had more magic than Princess Celestia with Rainbow Dash's level of self control. But it would be rude to ask him to leave. With everything he’d contributed, he had just as much right to be present as she did. Possibly more. She hadn’t thought much of it when she’d made her request to Discord for a magically modified plundervine seed. It was just a passing thought. An odd feeling of familiarity that she’d acted on in the heat of the moment. It'd been as much of a surprise how easily he'd agreed (and without even asking for some kind of ominously vague favor in return). He gifted her the seed with no instructions, so she treated it like any other, guided by an instinctual knowledge that she didn’t quite understand but trusted nonetheless. Loose semi-sandy soil. Slightly acidic water. A cloche made from an old glass pastry dish to keep it hot and humid. Plenty of sun and plenty of fertilizer (the same high-magical mix she'd used for her mushrooms at first, but once those started to bloom she switched to infusioning the soil with a baster of liquidized mushroom). There were no sprouts, no leaves, but even as the pot appeared dead to the world she could tell something was happening magically. Pegasi senses weren't the best at picking up non-weather magic, but there was something distinctly different in the air just around the pot. So she watered and waited and kept herself busy focusing on other things, like her many animal-related chores and helping Twilight study her magical badges and healing cooking. Until this morning, when she awoke to a feeling that it was time. Time for what she wasn’t quite sure, exactly. She knew as well as anyone that plants would grow slowly and steadily. There was nothing particularly special about the day they poked their first shoot through the soil. But magical plants rarely played by the rules and this one was stranger than most after her and Discord's meddling. Speaking of whom, the draconequus had abandoned his snack hawker get-up and shifted to hovering over the table like an impatient cloud (one which cast no shadow, she noticed). "Well? Is it time yet? How much longer do I have to wait?" "Not much longer now, I think," Fluttershy replied for what was probably the fifth or sixth time. “Ugh. I hate waiting. Why can’t it just grow already like a good little weed?” He spilled from the sky and collapsed into a fainting couch that looked suspiciously like Rarity's. “My kingdom for some bonemeal.” “Is it really that bad?” she asked. “I mean, don't you already know what will happen? You created the seed and you’ve grown these before.” “Yes and no. I do know exactly what would happen if I'd planted it.” A kernel of popcorn stuck in his teeth warped into a plunderseed before rapidly sprouting into a familiar blackish-green vine that wrapped around his neck and shoulders. He slurped it up like a string of pasta. “They’re drawn to magic, feed off it, and in turn it shapes their growth. If I’d planted that seed and let it feed off wild Everfree magic, even with the changes I made it’d turn out just like the original crop but with a fancy paint job. I could plant it anywhere in Equestria and tell you exactly how it’d grow.” The couch fainted, though Discord remained hovering in the air. He bent over backwards until his upside-down gaze met hers. In the short time Fluttershy had known him, she’d never seen him look so focused. “But you’ve added something new to the mix. Something even I can’t predict. Your seed has been germinating and marinating in that strange flavor of mushroom magic you've got and I honestly have no idea what'll happen.” He giggled without a hint of malicious intent. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I saw something really new?” He blinked and peered closer, leaning in until she could feel his wispy goatee tickle her nose. “Speaking of new, what have we here? There’s something different about you today, isn't there?" Fluttershy flinched, nearly revealing her terrible secret as she did so. He knew. Of course he knew. He probably had a dozen extra senses she couldn't even imagine. Why had she even thought she'd be able to keep it a secret? It was a wonder her friends hadn't noticed already. "There was a bit of an accident yesterday," she started. It was so much of an understatement that her composure nearly broke. But she just didn’t have the words to say it. How was she possibly supposed to sum up the immensity of "Twilight used a spell to try and reform the bats stealing Applejack's apples but it backfired and turned me into a monster vampony who hissed and snarled and attacked my friends and even though Twilight reversed the spell I still don't feel quite normal" in a way that would make sense? "I wouldn't say that. It makes perfect sense to me." It took a moment for her to connect what he said to what she hadn’t. "Did you just read my mind?" "Maybe. Or maybe you just have a very expressive face." Discord swished a cape into existence and draped it over one arm like some noble or count. "Though I regret to inform you that what's happened isn't nearly as interesting as you becoming the progenitor of a new race of equine vampires. All Twilight's spell did was supercharge some bat pony genes that were lying dormant." Fluttershy blinked in surprise. "I'm half bat pony?" That was… something. She knew that there were more pony tribes beyond the three most populous ones, though she didn't know any members personally. There was Princess Luna's Night Guard, of course (though until she came back they'd been little more than myth and rumors themselves for anypony who didn't live near one of their hidden villages), and practically every long-standing family in Ponyville claimed to have at least one ancestor who was some unnamed chero-kirin princess. She was aware of them; they just weren’t something that’d impacted her life directly. Until now. Though it begged the question; which side of her family had it come from? Her mom? Her dad? She tried to imagine either of them looking like she had after transforming, with leathery featherless wings and slitted eyes. It just didn't work. Even in her imagination they looked like poorly cast actors in costumes. Discord's scoff pulled her from her musings. "Half? Hardly. By my measure you're a sixteenth at best. Probably one of your great-grandparents had exotic tastes." "Ah." What exactly was she supposed to say to that? Thank you? She hadn't even known her great-grandparents. Still, if he was telling the truth... "So you're saying I'm not going to go feral again and rampage through Ponyville, draining apples dry and attacking my friends?" "Never say never, dearie." He chuckled and tapped a claw on the tip of her nose. "You could do that any given day; anypony could. You just all keep making the boring decision not to." She sighed in relief as even as she laughed at his probably-a-joke. It was hard to tell sometimes when he was serious. Still, it felt like a great weight had been lifted from her chest. She wasn't secretly still a monster who might turn on her friends at any moment, she just had an unusual bloodline that the spell had brought to light. She could learn to live with that. The cravings weren't that bad anymore and Applejack already gave her the 'friends & family' discount on apples. Suddenly Discord pressed himself up against her body, the side of his face squishing into hers. "Smile for the camera!" Surprise made her comply out of reflex, before a sudden eye-searing flash of light blinded her. She gave an involuntary hiss of displeasure. "Look at that!" He waved a photograph in her face as the spots slowly cleared from her vision. The full 8x10 glossy photo perfectly captured the scene. Their faces smushed together like marshmallows with Discord's exaggerated smirk reaching a little too far around his face. But it was her own startled smile that grabbed her attention. Namely, a single top incisor, sharper and longer than the rest, poking out over her lip. Not nearly as noticeable as Discord's protruding fang, but still a visual reminder of her change. "We're snaggletooth buddies! Oh that's going in the album for sure!" Fluttershy was in the process of mentally drafting a strongly worded chastisement—one focusing on the importance of personal space, asking permission, and not probably mind-reading your friends—when something in the background of the photo stole the entirety of her attention. A tiny green shoot pushing its way out of the soil. "It's happening! We're missing it!" Discord was at the table in an instant. Literally. Even before Fluttershy finished whipping her head around he was already hovering over it like a mother hen without even his usual snap-and-flash teleport. Fluttershy was there a breath later.  Her little seedling grew in the way only a magical plant could: fast enough that she could watch it happen. It took all of a minute for a sturdy green stalk to wind and twist its way a foot into the air. Broad spike-tipped leaves unraveled from the sides in mirrored pairs. The very tip plumped and swelled like a bead of water on the end of a string, forming a bulb the size of an apple. Fluttershy’s wings twitched as the magic around her patio began to twist and shift, the swiftly growing plant drawing it in like water down a storm drain. She watched with bated breath as the bulb split—  The flower was like none she’d seen before. It barely even resembled the plundervine it descended from. Countless petals were layered so thickly they looked like a solid mass. All their edges lined up so perfectly that the white tips met in a line down the middle. As she watched, they began to unfurl only to twitch and instead split down the middle.  The flower had a mouth.  That actually wasn’t the surprising part. She’d expected the mouth. And the teeth. Fangs, really. All of them. That all felt right and good with the part of her mind that told her how to grow mushrooms and fashion magic accessories. It was the color that threw both her and her power for a loop. It was pink. A vibrant pink just a few shades darker than her own mane. It was the smallest detail and yet that was what threw her the most. “Well that’s not what I expected at all,” she heard Discord mutter. “How marvelous.” The flower twitched, turned to her, and flexed its petals into what no one could deny was a smile. “...Priscilla.” “Pardon?” Discord asked. “Her name.” Fluttershy nodded as the the rightness of the name seemed to settle into place. “Priscilla Piranha.”