The Night smells of Lavender

by Dark0592

C.3 Cauldrons and Manticores

(A/N just some more relationship building. as of now, June 1st 2012, i have three more days with this laptop. after that updates will become rather sparse. I'll be sure to update a minimum of once a week though AT MINIMUM if possible. the story picks up more next chapter. enjoy some fluff!)

“So...What's going to happen now?” Twilight asked as the four mares sat in the library.

“I don't know about you two, but I am going to enjoy this vacation.” Luna said.

“Well that much is obvious. But how will we do that?” Shadow asked.

“While we're here I'm not your superior, do what you want. I don't have a say in your life outside of your duty.” Luna said.

“u-um...I um...could use some hep with...um...some of the bigger animals...t-there was a sickness that spread so I-i'm kinda swamped.” Fluttershy offered.

“I love animals, are they dangerous?” Shadow replied.

“Um...no...but um...they might be a little mean at first because um...they don't know you.” Fluttershy answered.

“I can handle that.” Shadow said.

“Wonderful!” Luna exclaimed.

“Well there's nothing else left for us here...let's go.” Shadow said. Fluttershy nodded and they left.

“So is there anything I may assist you with?” Luna asked.

“Not that I can think of...the books are re-shelved, reorganized and the library is spotless. Normally on a day like this I'd just sit in the library and read until something comes up.” Twilight answered.

“That actually sounds quite appealing, I haven't had much of a chance to acquaint myself with modern literature.” Luna said with a smile.

“While the library has much modern literature here, I prefer the classics. You might recognize a few of them.” Twilight said. Within minutes the two were reading two separate books. Twilight was reading an old novel while Luna had a realistic fiction about how life was during the dragon-griffon war as a dragon. They were shoulder to shoulder, leaning on each other, as they read. Luna wouldn't have traded this for anything.

Well...almost anything, said a rather daring part of her mind.
---
“Twi! Twi yuh in here?!” Applejack's voice called, banging on the front door. It had been two hours since they had settled down, Twilight opened the door with her magic as the two mares got to their hooves.

“What's wrong AJ?” Twilight asked.

“Applebloom an' the other Crusaders were over at Zecora's to learn about healin' herbs...they suddenly rushed into town screamin' somethin' fierce...when I finally got them to speak right they said somethin's wrong with Zecora...” Applejack explained.

“Do you think it was serious?” Twilight asked, using her magic to pack a few medical books just in case.

“Ah dunno...but they were mighty spooked...” Applejack replied.

“Right...let's go.” Twilight said.
---
“Zecora, are you alright?” Twilight asked, poking her head into the door of the hut- which had been knocked off it's hinges.

“Ah...Pony Friends...I s-suppose you are h-here with a hoof t-to lend?” Zecora's long, pained voice called. They found the source, the big cauldron she used to mix her potions had been blown into many pieces. One of these fairly large pieces was pinning her to the wall.

“What happened?!” Twilight exclaimed as she used her magic to examine the Zebra.

“my brew exploded due to a wrong ingredient, I believe my damage is not permanent?” the Zebra explained and weirdly asked the question.

“I don't think so...but when I take this off it's really going to hurt...are you ready?” Twilight asked. The Zebra nodded and braced herself. Twilight slowly but steadily pulled the large metal chunk off of the zebra. She hissed in pain as the others saw it was stabbing into her underneath, but hopefully it wasn't too serious.

As the piece was removed, Luna quickly stepped up and applied her own magic. It numbed the pain and slowly repaired the damage. They asked what had happened and the Zebra answered. She was mixing a very fragile brew, but it was something she brewed commonly. It was a medical brew that would clean and speed the healing process of cuts and scrapes- which were very common in a place like ponyville. It would also act as a painkiller to the applied area- or an anesthetic if digested. Zecora sent the crusaders out with a very specific map to gather some herbs to keep them out of the way and she accidentally added the wrong thing.

The reaction had been instant. The cauldron exploded and sent the zebra into the wall where a piece of it hit her and the back door fell on her while the front door blew outwards. The Crusaders rushed back and went to ponyville for help.

“Twilight Sparkle, I believe I have made a disturbing find...my left eye...I believe it is blind.” Zecora said after she finished. Twilight looked at it, it had gone milky and dull. Twilight let her magic examine it for a moment, causing the Zebra to blink furiously for a moment.

“The flash must have damaged it...I'm sorry, but I don't trust myself to try and fix it with magic.” Twilight said.

“I may be a great healer, but my sister is better with the finer procedures...I could simply let her know you're coming. She would be glad to help a friend of the elements.” Luna said.

“She must have many duties upon her lap, I can live easily with this handicap.” Zecora said with a weak smile.

“Are you sure? If you ever change your mind she would be happy to help.” Twilight said.

“We shall see, Twilight Sparkle. But for now your help was most remarkable.” Zecora said, shakily getting to her hooves.
---
“I am sorry for your friend, it was nice of you to restore her home as well.” Luna said when they returned to the Library.

“Of course, if I had more medical magic knowledge and more real medical knowledge I would have fixed her eye...but if she's alright with it then I am...I'm kind of hungry and Spike is nowhere to be seen...lunch?” Twilight asked.

“Definitely.” Luna replied.

The two arrived at Twilight's favorite diner for their lunch. After ten minutes of trying to convince the management they just wanted lunch as regular customers they were sitting and waiting for their food when Fluttershy and Shadow arrived.

“How did your day go?” Fluttershy asked almost instantly.

“Well Zecora had an accident...” Twilight started and told the tale.

“Oh I'm so sorry to hear that...I wish I knew magic so I could help her...” Fluttershy said sadly.

“Our day wasn't nearly as...grim...but it was eventful.” Shadow said.
---
“So by bigger animals what do you mean?” Shadow asked as they walked closer to the everfree forest,

“Well there's a Den of bears...a Manticore...a pack of wolves and some deer.” Fluttershy asnwered.

“Bears, Wolves and a...Manticore?” Shadow asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Bears and wolves alone are dangerous...but...Manticores are extremely dangerous...” Shadow warned.

“Oh I know...but the bears are so friendly and the wolves only growl at you to try and scare you until you pet them...then they turn into big babies. The Manticore is harmless, I actually met him when when we were facing Nightmare Moon...she hurt him and made him mad but I calmed him down and he let us pass...he's a really nice creature.” Fluttershy explained.

“...I'll take your word for it...” Shadow said.

The wolves were, in fact, big babies. They rolled around and played with Shadow as Fluttershy gave them checkups. When they reached the bears they looked from Fluttershy to Shadow.

“It's ok, she's nice. She's going to help me.” Fluttershy explained. They grunted and made some odd noises and Fluttershy nodded.

“She's a Night Guard so you know she won't harm you or your cubs.” Fluttershy said. After that the bears kept an eye on her, but after Fluttershy taught her how to properly massage the beasts they loved her.

As they walked deeper into the everfree they heard a low growling.

“That's Monty, his name.” Fluttershy said with a smile. The Manticore dropped down ten feet in front of them, seemingly from the trees. It looked evilly at the two Mares. Shadow found herself hiding behind Fluttershy, who was standing tall and unafraid, as it prowled closer. It was literally less than an inch from Fluttershy's face by the time it stopped. It towered over her, it's growl growling as it barred it's teeth. Fluttershy kissed it on the forehead and it rolled over on it's back with a happy purr.

“Hello Monty, I see your fever is gone!” Fluttershy said happily. It grumbled in response. “Oh this is Shadow. You weren't the only sick friend so I needed some help” she explained. It rolled to it's feet, looked at Shadow and licked her face. It then crouched to the ground, it's rear slightly upward as it's tail flailed lazily. Shadow recognized this as either a battle stance or a playful stance. She was surprised when Fluttershy took a similar stance. The shy mare laughed as she played with the beast of a Manticore like little foals. Soon Shadow even joined in.

suddenly there was a crack and the Manticore snapped to it's feet and growled low.

“Oh no...” Fluttershy squeaked.

“What was that?” Shadow asked.

“It's an EverBeast...they're like a Manticore and a Timberwolf put together...they're scary...” Fluttershy whispered as what looked like a Manticore carved out of a tree entered the clearing. Monty growled and roared at it, but it just ignored him. It instead looked at the two ponies. It grumbled as it barred sharp teeth and drooled as it prowled to them. When it got too close Monty batted its head away with a paw. The beast now looked at Monty and attempted to lash at it with it's tail. Monty knew how to fight though. He grabbed it's tail with it's jaws and broke half of it off. The beast roared in silent pain as Monty tackled it. It kicked Monty off and ran away with it's tail in it's mouth.

“Whoa!” Shadow exclaimed.

“Thank you so much Monty...Who's a brave Monty...you are!” Fluttershy said, scratching under his chin.

“Will that thing be ok?” Shadow asked.

“Oh yes, the tail will grow back. Monty is good at fighting them, they come here all the time...he tell me he and the other manticores keep them in the forest.” Fluttershy explained.

“Wow...that's...really cool.” Shadow said.
---
“An EverBeast? I thought those were myths.” Twilight said.

“Oh they're real. Like Timber Wolves, they're native to the everfree forest.” Fluttershy explained.

“I'll have to do some research on them.” Twilight concluded.

“Well this has been fun, but we finished our food an hour ago.” Luna commented.

“Oh...right...” Fluttershy said. They said their goobyes, paid the bill and split up.

“Fluttershy seemed a lot more confident.” Twilight said as they walked.

“I noticed...perhaps Shadow is keeping her in a good mood?” Luna suggested.

“I can imagine so. You sure are keeping me in a good mood.” Twilight said, nuzzling the Princess.

“That would be an understatement.” Luna said, nuzzling back

Comments

[Speven Dillberg]

I can tell that you're eager to tell the story, and for most part, it's fine.
There are more than a few capitalization issues, though. Take half an hour to look through thoroughly to find them. Also, for sentences like the very last one, instead of a period, use a comma.
“That would be an understatement,” Luna said, nuzzling back
Instead of
“That would be an understatement.” Luna said, nuzzling back
Then again, I might just be nitpicking.

[Teufelhund]

You just made me break my record for active stories I'm following that are made by a single person. Good job.

[Dark0592]

679453 oh damn that made my day, how many are you following? and my only not active ones are fimsil, unexpected friends and celestial connections really so that's about 9 total stories active for me right now

[Teufelhund]

679457 I was under the impression Crimson Night wasn't considered "active". Anyways. 4, if you count that one. About to be 5.
1.The Night smells of Lavender
2.Crimson Dawn
3.Crimson Night
4.Celestia's Love Game
5.Equestria University

[Dark0592]

679478 well by active i think of stories that I still work on. Night is a weird case because it's completed, but I still get comments and faves on it so I consider it still active. I'm going to try and switch to hearts and nightmares once this story is done so you might want to consider looking into that one soon

[Xuncu]

Hum, felt a little disjointed and mispaced: one paragraph, Zecora's blind in one eye and turning down a favor; a few later, they seem to have forgotten it because there's a new magical beast?

[Dark0592]

679498 sorry, the chapter was already like dead in my mind so the last paragraph or two was kinda dry...it was longer than i normally write but I wanted to get the ShadowShy in there

[Graxic]

679498
These events are happening simultaneously. While Twilight is looking for Zecora, Fluttershy and Shadow are checking on the creatures.

[Arbiter Balemead]

you have fullfilled me
my favorite ponies are Fluttershy and Luna but i love the TwiLuna combo a LOT
but in any case i've enjoyed it thus far and i really don't care about the stupid grammar things people keep complaining about
sooo...
GREAT JOB

[Cawfee]

I really like anything to do with Luna and especially if it's TwiLuna, so carry on with this for I can barely hold my excitement in xD

[MetaLucario]

such beautiful relationships

[Dark0592]

680363 go read some of my other fics if you want clop

[Spamotron]

I'm not sure I like Zecora being blinded in one eye. Its the kind of thing that could be the main plot to its own fic. But here it feels thrown in just because. Also Twilight not knowing anything about healing magic strikes me as contrived. This is the Unicorn who successfully cast a Time Travel spell after only reading it once on a weeks worth of sleep deprivation. She reverse engineered teleportation after watching Nightmare Moon do it once. I say it would take two weeks tops for Twilight to learn what she needs to know to fix Zecora's eye.

[Dark0592]

680949 she does know healing magic, but fixing an eye isn't exactly easy. she could damage it, the other eye, other important facial organs and even the brain. niether she nor Luna was confident enough in their abilities to risk it, but this will be resolved. not so much a main plot but a little side-story so it's all not the same

[Equestrialize]

TwiLuna may be my favorite paring but this story is really growing on me, as said by someone else already, you seem a little rushed :)

But that's fine, it's still a great read, and i think im one of the few people who LOVE "Fluff" chapters like this, they are so Slice of life-ish and cute.
Though!
Im not so sure where you'll be going with this story, as in conflicts and other events, and that's a good thing (maybe)
So yeah..
slightly rushed chapter but all in all, a good chapter.
Keep it up! :D
<3

[SergeantShenanigans]

I liked this chapter, just like the rest.

I'm not much of an analyzer so you're pretty much just stuck with the compliment!

[Dark0592]

684531 editors and prereaders never work for me due to my erradic schedule. sometimes i get five chapters out a day. other times it's one every five days. they can't keep up with me. as for the 1 a day, it's kind of a random OCD thing that randomly says "YOU'RE GOING TO GET A CHAPTER OUT AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE IT!!!!!!!" and the 1000+ years old thing will come into play in the next chapter, I intentionally made that a bit vague

[Dark0592]

684583 well saying 'they said/ they replied' gets repetitive

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

680959 Will the resolution involve an enchanted gemstone replacement?

[Firedon]

I like this story so far, though it feels really rushed somehow..(for example the relationship building)

[digiz]

Nice story, but zacura and her eye part was strange. She was damaged, noone at the spot knew any healing magic so they left to get lunch end of story.

[Rosebud_teh_Pegasus]

Poor Zecora!

[TheGayLiLChangling]

Now THIS is my kind of Twiluna story, not to kuch of romance OR random events. Love it 👌🏽