Grim Host
Clouds rumbled across the sky, leaves swayed in the slight breeze, and glowing eyes ducked back into the shadows. Then Rainbow Dash zoomed ahead and Twilight Sparkle galloped in her wake. Spike clung on tightly to her neck.
“Rainbow!” She stumbled on a protruding root, flashed her horn, and righted herself without stopping once. “Slow down! I can’t move as fast as you!”
“Where are we going!?” Spike winced with each irregular jolt.
“Zecora’s!” came the cry from up ahead. “We’re almost there! Hurry up!”
The last of the undergrowth slapped her face, and then Twilight emerged into the clearing before the hut. Wooden masks passed her by, their posts slightly angled. Two windows stared out from its bulbous base. Rainbow burst through the front door, and its mouth was still widening when she jumped through, skidding to a halt.
A central cauldron bubbled over the bricked-in flames. Rainbow hovered overhead, glowering across the space to a huddle.
“She’s there.” Rainbow nodded her head curtly in their direction.
Spike whimpered and squeezed her neck. Twilight took a breath, stepping forwards. Zecora was standing by the bed, but as soon as she noticed Twilight she stepped aside, revealing…
Fluttershy sat up on the quilt, smiling feebly. “Twilight,” she said, and she sighed in relief.
Spike gasped.
For a moment, Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her eyelids rammed shut and then opened again in a futile attempt to expel any illusions. How could Fluttershy be smiling at all?
Then Fluttershy’s face winced and a spasm sliced through her body. Twilight jumped forwards – and recoiled when Zecora stepped before her.
“Fluttershy!” she cried out.
“Do not approach her bed, my friend,” said Zecora urgently.
“One touch might be enough to send
A curse upon your own back too;
And then whatever would we do?”
Yet even as she gaped at the pegasus on the covers, Twilight felt the stirrings of something calm and interested in the back of her head. Without even thinking, it began to pick apart the details forcing their way into her mind.
Overhead, a wide dish of a flower head swayed at the slightest shake. Petals splayed out from its brown and yellow dots, curving claw-like and shining silver. Black bud leaves bulged behind the flower like tumours, and along its woody stem, thorns peeked out promising ragged torment. Two of these plants waved in a sad mockery of upright wings, branching up from a bulging ball of bleached white. Bits of soil and mud splattered across the yellow fur.
Twilight’s gaze fell to the hairy roots. Some simply wrapped saddle-like around the midriff. The rest, though, plunged right through Fluttershy’s spine as cleanly as lake serpents undulating in still waters.
“It’s…” Fluttershy tried a small smile. “It’s not as painful as it looks.”
“What happened to you!?” cried out Spike, hopping off and running up to the side of the bed, ignoring Zecora’s protests. “Is it stuck there? Forever!?”
Without waiting for an answer, Twilight focused on her unicorn horn. Lights shimmered along its length. An answering aura bloomed around the plant, slipping down its stem to the roots and sliding along the hairs to her insides.
“Don’t worry!” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll have this thing out in a second.”
Yet the instant she thought Tug, she heard Fluttershy yelp and saw her grit her teeth. Spike jumped backwards with a yell. The lights of magic vanished at once.
Panic rose up in her voice. “Fluttershy! I’m sorry!”
“I’m OK,” Fluttershy said weakly, rubbing her back to massage herself. “I think we left it too long, though.”
“I’ll try again.” Twilight lit her horn. “Maybe I just pulled too hard. Brace yourself.”
“I am afraid that she is right,” said Zecora, holding out a hoof before her face.
“You cannot pull with all your might;
The roots have spread too far inside,
And organs might be compromised.”
Behind them, a thump made them look round. Rainbow Dash marched across to them, wings folded tightly on her back. At the expression on her face, Twilight stepped aside hurriedly.
“Gosh darn it!” growled Rainbow Dash. “Now look what you’ve gotten yourself into! I told you, didn’t I?”
“Rainbow, calm down.” Twilight turned back to the bed, where her friend was hanging her head. “It’s OK. I’m here now. I’m going to get it off her.”
“It wouldn’t have been on her in the first place,” continued Rainbow, not looking away from the bed, “if she’d just listened.” She rounded on Twilight the instant they drew level. “Come on, Twilight. You’re the expert. Weird plant thingies growing on ponies’ backs. You gotta know something. You just gotta.”
“I can’t just solve it like that, Rainbow.” Twilight flinched at the look she was getting. Frantically, her mind flitted through the titles and covers she’d picked up over the years, over spellbooks, herbals, botanist catalogues, anything with a vaguely plant-like motif. “It could be anything. If I have a chance to diagnose it… I’d need some time to track down a reference, at least.”
Rainbow threw her wings up in the air. “Useless! So much for the eggheads.”
“Rainbow!” Twilight said, raising her voice. “Don’t be like that! I’m trying to help. It’s just… so sudden, that’s all.”
“OK, OK, I know.” Yet the glower never left her face. “Just do your thing. Don’t mind me. Sorry.”
You don’t look sorry. Still, Twilight took her respite and stepped around the pegasus, who about-turned to keep track of her.
Beside the bed, Spike reached up to prod the plant, but Zecora’s forelimb blocked his way. Twilight did not like the way he fidgeted, ringing his clawed hands together and pacing to and fro. I shouldn’t have let him come, she thought feverishly.
Zecora sighed and peered at the leaves splaying out every yard or so up the stems.
“I wish that I could solve this case;
A herbalist without a base
To work from is a sorry waste.
But I’m afraid I’ve never faced
A weed so clingy, dark, and strange;
I fear this fate cannot be changed.”
When she met Rainbow’s glare, however, she lowered her head and stepped out of range to check on the cauldron. Watching out of the corner of her eye, Twilight screwed up her lips in thought.
Why is Rainbow acting like this? She must know Zecora’s tried her best, but now she seems to snap at everyone. I’m sure I can help, but I just need time. Don’t worry, Rainbow. This’ll all be over soon.
I hope.
“Spike?” she said.
At once, he was by her side, quill and paper poised and ready. “Read your mind, Twilight! I know you’ve got a plan brewing. Just say the word.”
“Well, not a plan per se,” she began, but when his face fell and his arms slumped, she added, “but I have some suspicions. Take a note: wide umbrella-like flower head, dark coloration on capita, petals vaguely metallic. Notable outgrowths behind bud. Leaves appear to be cordate, estimated width across the base is two-fifty to three hundred millimetres, doubly serrate, conspicuous reticulate venation…”
“We’re wasting time,” groaned Rainbow in a strained voice. “We already know what it looks like.”
While she prattled on, slight beads of sweat began to prickle her brow. The small details were necessary, of course they were; when it came to botany and herbal remedies, the tiniest distinguishing trait could mean the difference between a cure for equine flu or six painful days of the trots. Still… perhaps she was being too pedantic…
Her keen eye focused on the swaying of the heads. She was sure something had caught her attention, but it might just have been a motion blur.
The scratching of quill against paper stopped. Spike’s jaw worked feverishly as his snout wrinkled with each gasp. He was straining against an upcoming sneeze.
Zecora and Twilight leaned away just before a jet of green flames spat between them and fizzled out, sparks vanishing inches above the plant’s heads. Fluttershy froze where she sat, suddenly pale.
“Sorry.” Spike rubbed his dribbling snout. “I don’t know what came over me.”
There! Just as she narrowed her eyes, Twilight saw the slight haze of dust each time the head trembled. Ha! The keen eye spots everything!
“It’s the plant.” Twilight’s horn aimed at Fluttershy. “Just hold still. We can’t let its pollen get on anyone. Who knows what might happen?”
The radiant ooze drifted from her horn, wrapping around Fluttershy as smoothly as a sentient blanket, closing up around her head and sliding over the plant. It flexed into a perfect purple outline, and then faded out of sight.
“What did you just do?” said Fluttershy at once. Her voice echoed slightly inside the customized bubble.
“Quarantine forcefield,” she said, aiming her horn at Zecora next. “Until we know more about this plant, we can’t take any chances. Someone else might get infected by those pollen grains. We just don’t know what it could do. In fact, it might be safer for everyone here to have one, just in case.”
“Good thinking,” said Rainbow while she glowed purple. “But… how’s Fluttershy supposed to breathe?”
Twilight opened her mouth for the explanation of how stomata located within the plasma-wall of the ethereal membrane operated similarly to the gatekeeper molecules of an organic cellular membrane, discriminating –
“It’s got little holes in it to let the air through,” said Spike at once. “Nothing else can fit, though.”
Twilight winced. “Not technically correct, Spike…” she began.
“So she’ll be able to breathe, right?” Rainbow sighed with relief. “You know, for a second, I wondered if you’d just jumped in without thinking it through.”
On the bed, Fluttershy slumped over the edge and rested her chin on her cannons. “I’d like to go home, please. My animal friends will be wondering what happened to me.”
“What did happen to you?” said Twilight, nodding towards Spike’s paper and quill to get him ready. “Normally, you don’t bother with the Everfree forest if you can help it.”
“I…” Fluttershy shifted her gaze downwards to her hooves. “Don’t want to talk about it.”
Her flickering glance was enough. Twilight followed it to Rainbow Dash, who was back to hovering overhead.
Rainbow shrugged, forelimbs folded and glare aimed at the wall. “Don’t look at me. She was like this when I got there.” Her glare refocused. “Ask her.”
And now Twilight turned her gaze to Zecora. The zebra steeled herself, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as though to rid her mind of unwanted thoughts.
“Dear Fluttershy was helping me,” she said,
“To search a part of Everfree
I normally would not frequent
But something there had wafted scent.
I can’t control all monsters met
While she can tame both beast and pet.
I thought she might negotiate
With any brute that lurked in wait.
I am afraid she helped me out
Too well, hence Rainbow’s angry pout.”
Still in midair, Rainbow rounded on her, limbs braced to pounce. “Well, why did you have to go out there in the first place? Now Fluttershy’s got some weed growing on her back, and for what?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight said sternly. She’s right, yelled a part of her mind still seeing the monstrosity blooming from her friend’s back, but she shushed it at once. “Don’t talk like that to Zecora! I’m sure she didn’t want this to happen, and Fluttershy agreed to do it. Um…” Fluttershy looked up at her. “You did agree, right?”
A small nod met her question.
She felt a tugging at her elbow, and looked down to Spike’s wide eyes. “Twilight, let’s get her home. We could figure out more stuff, you know, outside the Everfree.”
He’s shaking, she thought. He’s a dragon, but still just a baby dragon. There are things in the forest that don’t care about scaly hides or fiery breath. Maybe it would be best to get out of here. Oh, but I don’t want to be rude to Zecora.
“Twilight,” said Zecora at once, meeting her rising gaze as blankly as possible. “I think it would be best
To go to Ponyville and rest
Somewhere more welcoming than here.
Besides, your friends may feel your fear
And come support you. Leave me be.
I’ll try and seek a remedy.
And… I agree with Rainbow’s brief;
I am the cause of all this grief.”
“It sounds like an accident…” Twilight began, but Zecora narrowed her eyes so keenly that she added, “All right, all right. If you think it’s best. Come on, Fluttershy. Let’s get you home. The others will need to hear about this too. Hopefully, seven heads will be better than one.”
Yet Rainbow Dash burst out the door and vanished before Twilight and Spike could catch up with her. After Fluttershy slunk out the hut, Zecora slammed it after them.
From her back, Spike prodded her in the withers. “Do you get the sense that something else is going on here?”
“Let’s leave it for now, Spike,” she whispered. Behind them, Fluttershy trundled along the path and didn’t look up. Flower heads jangled with each step. Metal petals raked at the air almost hungrily.
Twilight’s face hardened. “First things first.”
Over by the dangling birdhouses, Fluttershy flipped the fronts open and applied her dusting cloth in and around the nests. Twilight flared her horn, and the shield thickened. The cloth flopped to the floorboards below.
“Oh,” said Fluttershy sadly, looking from her purple-tinged hoof to the cloth.
“Sorry, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, reinforcing the quarantine forcefield over herself. “I know it’s clumsy, but it’s the safest thing to do.”
One by one, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie seated themselves on the sofa and tried to ignore the rabbits, birds, and mice scurrying or flying about the den. Twilight glanced up: Rainbow Dash hovered over the table, forelimbs folded as though refusing to touch a thing. Another flare of Twilight’s horn, and the purple passed over the pegasus, who pretended not to notice.
Twilight glanced down: Spike held quill and paper at the ready, occasionally putting one down to sip at his glass of orange juice. He gave her the thumbs-up.
“Dear,” cooed Rarity, peering up at Fluttershy’s second attempted spring cleaning. “Won’t you come down and join us? You look ever so uncomfortable with that… thing on your back.”
Shudders went through Rarity and Applejack as the dark flowers bobbed slightly behind Fluttershy’s beating wings. Twilight suppressed the urge herself, but there was definitely a lot less cake being eaten as a result of the obvious bulge on her friend’s back.
Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m sure we’ll think of a way to get rid of this plant. In the meantime, I can’t let my little friends go without, just because of an accident.”
A disbelieving snort: Rainbow ignored the resulting stares until they gave up on her.
On the other hand, Pinkie was taking the opportunity to pile more cookies onto her plate. As her current pile was already spilling over the margins, this meant a little tidying up with her snatching jaws.
“Hey!” said Spike. “Leave some for me.”
“Sowwee,” said Pinkie around the obstruction. After gulping the cheekfuls down, she added, “I wouldn’t be eating them if everyone else had just taken them. Who wants to let good baking go to waste?”
“So,” said Applejack, swiftly taking the reins and the mug of cider, “what can we do? Ah mean, Ah’ll gladly help anyway Ah can, but Ah’m not sure how.”
Once Spike had scribbled down what he’d taken as the opening minutes, Twilight placed a hoof on the pile of books beside her. Beyond that, three smaller piles – one of which only contained a single volume – stood looking pathetic by comparison. Of course, she’d asked them to bring as many books on plants as possible, but somehow she’d been expecting this. Only Applejack’s meagre offerings had caught her by surprise; she’d assumed farmers were fascinated by herbs and exotic plants, but most of Applejack’s knowledge was, it turned out, up in her head.
“First of all,” said Twilight, “we need to identify the species if we can. The better we can pin it down, the better our chances of finding a cure. You know all about strange plants from your time on the farm, don’t you?”
Applejack quaffed her cider, scattering mice on the headrest when the gobs of green juice went for them. “Sorry. Ah can’t help much. Ah only know the stuff when it comes to crops an’ weeds. Granny Smith might know it, but somehow Ah doubt it.”
“Allow me, Twilight.” Rarity slipped daintily off her seat and whistled to Fluttershy, who spun round from her latest attempt at picking up the cloth. “Fluttershy, dear. Would you let me have a look at that… thing?”
“Great idea, Rarity,” said Spike, lowering his paper. “If anyone’s got an eye for the small stuff, it’s definitely you.”
Really, Spike? Now? Twilight rolled her eyes. She’d never say a word against him if she could help it, but there was a definite sense of preening and muscle-flexing whenever he was in the same room as Rarity.
Still, it is a good idea after all. “Anything?” she said when Fluttershy landed beside the table.
Nothing was said for a while. Rarity’s horn shimmered. She flexed the stem hither and thither, narrowing her eyes at every wrinkle, every vein of the leaves, and finally every glint of the curved petals.
“Interesting,” she murmured. “Twilight, look at this one.”
Twilight peered closely at the head flexed her way. There didn’t seem to be anything at first, so she looked up with eyebrow raised.
“Right in the middle.” Rarity prodded the spot with a stretched leg. “Small red triangle with a hole in it. You see it?”
“Careful,” said Applejack quickly. “You don’t wanna prod the shield thingy.”
“The shield’s fine,” said Twilight with a dismissive wave.
Now that she knew what she was looking for, Twilight could definitely see a red speck in the centre of each petal. A pop in the air beside her, and the summoned magnifying glass leaned in. Under its swollen sheen, the scarlet “A” was clearly visible.
“Excellent,” she said, curling the lot down to Spike’s level. “This could be an important clue.”
Rarity nodded graciously and sat back down, levitating her steaming hot cocoa for a genteel sip.
When Twilight glanced up, Rainbow was looking away again, still cross-limbed, still sullenly glaring. You can’t still be mad at Zecora, can you? Even here?
“Is that part of the soil?” said Pinkie suddenly. She hopped forwards, peering closely at the splatter on Fluttershy’s back. “It’s all white and flaky.”
“Looks like chalk.” Applejack nodded. “Could be another clue, but Ah don’t deal with chalk all that often. Soil usually takes care of itself around Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Allow me,” said Pinkie, and she stretched forwards and licked a few flecks off Fluttershy’s side.
As one, Twilight, Spike, and Rarity winced. Even Applejack widened her eyes. Unheeding, Pinkie smacked her lips and hummed and tried to peer at her own fringe.
Thankfully, she stuck out her tongue and smacked the offending white off with both hooves. “Blech! Blarrgh! Ptooe! That is not chalk. I don’t even want to know what that is.”
“You ate it,” said Rarity accusingly.
“Well yeah. I used to eat rocks all the time back home. It made it easier if you couldn’t tell what you’d just dug up. I mean, can you imagine all the arguing and fighting there’d be if we couldn’t taste what rock it was? Talk about riot!”
Rarity’s face was slightly greener than usual. “I’ll… take your word for it.”
Twilight decided not to ask how Pinkie’s tongue had somehow phased through the forcefield. She’d long ago granted the mare a quota for explanation-free behaviours, and this was barely a drop in the bucket compared with previous payments.
However, the mare was not content to stop at one. Pinkie peered up at the still-silent Rainbow Dash, cocking her head idly.
“And what’s eatin’ you, Rainbow Dash?” she said. It wasn’t a mean question; she just had a way of asking that suggested she’d be quite happy to keep asking over and over until the script moved to the next line.
For once, Rainbow granted them an unabashed glower, which melted even as they watched. Twilight noticed the way she glanced from face to face.
“I’m… just… thinking,” she lied, in that special “trying to be subtle” voice that deceived nobody. “About the Wonderbolts events coming up. I mean, what am I supposed to do here?”
Applejack shrugged and quaffed, driving away the mice that had ventured forth again. “You were actually there, Rainbow. You tell us.”
“I told you. When I got there, the thing was already on her back.” Rainbow shrugged, still with forelimbs folded.
“But there must have been something!” Twilight snapped. “Maybe the type of deciduous tree species was noticeably oak-like, or the ground was marshy and wet. We need clues, Rainbow!”
“I said,” growled Rainbow Dash, “when I got there, it was on her back.”
“Rainbow! You’ve been in a mood ever since you came and fetched me!”
Rainbow drew her limbs back as though for a pounce. “What are you having a go at me for? I got her out of there as fast as I could. It’s just Everfree forest all over. Excuse me if I didn’t stop in the middle of a crisis to check what colour the grass was!”
Before Twilight could begin her retort, she got a tap on the shoulder. Fluttershy was standing behind her, nodding towards the Dutch door at the front of her cottage.
“Fluttershy?”
“Can I have a word, please?” she said. The words were tight and yet gentle, like an arm around the nape: potentially jovial, but still in a good position to squeeze.
She bowed to the others, muttering her “excuse me’s”, and pushed the bottom door aside. Wordlessly, Twilight followed her out, past the welcome mat and a little way around the burrows and overgrown shrubbery. Once shielded from the rest of the cottage, Fluttershy swung round – making the two flowers tremble like crazy – and sighed.
“What’s going on between you two?” said Twilight at once, but the unmoving expression told her this wasn’t the right opener. “Look, I don’t want to upset Rainbow, but –”
“I understand,” said Fluttershy, nodding. “You’re only trying to help, and I’m grateful. Really, I am.”
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Twilight glanced up at the petals, wincing with each sway of the thorny stems.
“Not as much now as it did. I think it’s settling down.” Fluttershy ignored the blue jay that perched on her mane, which glowed purple where it touched. “Rainbow Dash is just frustrated, and as much as she refuses to admit it, she’s a little frightened too. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it sooner or later, but I think you should wait until she feels ready to tell you.”
“Can you tell me what happened, then?” Twilight pleaded. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what the problem is in the first place.”
For the first time that day, Fluttershy blushed and pawed at the ground. Twilight felt half of her mind relaxing. This was more like the pegasus caretaker she knew of old.
“It’s my fault,” she murmured to the shrubbery. “I… Oh, Rainbow Dash is right. I should have listened to her when she told me what to do, but all I could think about was how far from my animals I was, and then we went into a clearing I’d never seen before… and then…” She groaned and, if anything, blushed hard enough to glow. “I messed it all up.”
“Oh, Fluttershy…” Twilight’s eyebrows creased with concern. To her distaste, a needling part of her lit up and muttered, Then why does Rainbow Dash blame Zecora?
“You won’t pester Rainbow Dash about it, will you?” said Fluttershy, and the needling part added, Look, she’s changing the subject!
Shut up! Maybe Fluttershy’s right. She’s known Rainbow Dash longer than any of us. If Rainbow does open up, we can get this solved peacefully.
Twilight sliced her horn down with the sternness of her nod. “Oh, all right. I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.”
This seemed to satisfy Fluttershy, who beamed and nodded. Ignoring the blue jay taking off from her head, she peered round, and Twilight noticed, as she followed her friend’s gaze, a lush flowerbed just a few feet away.
It brought a burning blush to her face, but Twilight had never been particularly good at flowers. She knew just enough to tell the most common species apart, like daisies and dandelions, but anything beyond that was a random nothing to her. Which made her blush all the hotter, because she’d memorized over a thousand species names, habits, biogeographical distributions, and life cycle classifications. Somehow, the neat and tidy ordering in the books failed to match up with the chaotic meadows and random specimens of real life.
Hanging over the rainbow explosion of the flowerbed were a row of sunflowers, one of the few she could match up perfectly. And, well, they were sunflowers…
“I’ve been thinking,” said Fluttershy suddenly.
Twilight fell from her burning thoughts and cooled, as though all concentration and emotion had just had the plug pulled on them. “I’m sorry?”
“Well, look at where the sun is,” said Fluttershy, pointing her wing roughly westwards with a creak of the plant’s roots. “The sunflowers always greet it in the morning, and that got me thinking. Now watch the plant on my back. I noticed this when I went to check on the bunnies just now.”
After Twilight focused on the plant, Fluttershy turned on the spot, now facing away from her and slightly towards the cottage. One moment, the two flowers bobbed and shivered as though on wobbly springs. Then, while she watched, the flower heads swivelled. Brilliant light caught on their petals, making her blink, but once she’d rubbed the afterglow out of her eyes, the petals were now facing the sun. There was a slight heat haze above each one.
Twilight sighed with relief, even ignoring the silent tut of her own mind as she did so. That was a lot more promising. Pages of writing flicked through her mind at the word that had just dropped in unannounced: Heliotropism!
“You see?” said Fluttershy, turning back. “They must be trying to get as much sunlight as they can. Maybe that’s another clue?”
Slight woody groans met their ears; the two flower heads swivelled back, trying to outstare the sun.
“And they look a bit like sunflowers,” continued Fluttershy eagerly. “So maybe that means they’re a kind of sunflower.”
“Let’s not get carried away,” said Twilight, who couldn’t stop smiling. “Homology isn’t as straightforward as all that. For all we know, it could be a case of convergent” – she stopped at Fluttershy’s glazed-over stare – “I mean, it might not be related, it just might look similar because they’re trying to do similar things.”
“Oh, I see,” said Fluttershy. “You mean because they both follow the sunlight.”
I really must write a book correcting all these misconceptions, Twilight thought with a sigh, though her inner scholar looked up gleefully and clapped her hooves together at the prospect. Fully grown sunflowers DON’T follow the sun every day. Only the growing ones do that, as was clearly discovered and described by Solar Flora two hundred years ago! Yeesh!
“Besides,” she said, guiltily pretending not to have thought all that, “I’ve never heard of a parasitic sunflower before. Oh, who am I kidding?”
Twilight scraped her hoof across her forehead. It was like running through a maze in her brain, except too many passages were blocked off by ignorance and dead-end enquiries, and others kept looping back to the start.
“I’ve never even heard of a zoocentrically parasitic plant before. All the books say that all the parasitic plants parasitize other plants, or fungi at best! No animal’s ever been infected by one, certainly not a pony. And even if there had been one, we’ve got too many other factors to consider. I don’t know if it’s an obligate or a facultative parasite, whether you’re simply its intermediate host or its final one, how complex its life cycle is – I don’t even know what group it belongs to other than Angiospermae, and even that’s just a superficial guess – and it doesn’t fit either ectoparasite or endoparasite classifications because it’s on your skin and under your skin at the same time, and the worst part is it could easily be a parasitoid –”
“Twilight!”
Twilight blinked and ran down until she could feel a gentle hoof on her shoulder. Myriad pages and speeches faded away. Around her, the calm birdsong returned.
“Sorry, sorry!” she said, shaking her mane thoroughly. “It’s just… I don’t know where I should start.”
“How do you usually start, then?” Fluttershy looked down at the beady eyes and shiny noses peeking out of burrows.
By knowing exactly what I need to know. “Well, I try to get as much data as possible. Bring to bear as many facts as I can remember.”
“Then you can just do that, can’t you?”
Oh, Fluttershy. You think it’s so simple, don’t you? But it’s not. All the books are field guides and nature studies and scientific catalogues. They only have raw information, and what we’re looking for could be anywhere. It’s not like asking Rarity for a vague kind of dress and getting, “Oh, you mean a silver-laced ballroom gown with puffed sleeves and some mirror velvet accents for the hemline?” I’m going to need luck as much as a good eye for skimming pages.
Twilight glanced up at the shimmering flowers and the dead tatters of the stems. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Fluttershy clicked her tongue, and the peeking faces disappeared down their burrows. “That’s OK. No one can ask any more than that from you. Wanna go back inside? I can get some tea and cakes for you while you work.”
When they got back inside, Rainbow and Applejack were trying to talk over each other, which was made all the harder by the birds and mice chirping and squeaking in alarm. Between them, Pinkie’s cheeks bulged while her gaze bounced back and forth like a tennis ball. Rarity sipped her drink and pretended not to notice her ears curling under the decibels.
“Ah’m jus’ sayin’ Ah don’t think it’s that simple,” said Applejack stoutly. “This ain’t no ordinary plant!”
“How can you say that when no one’s tried it yet!?” Rainbow thumped a hoof onto the ergot of her other forelimb like a fist on a palm. “If we keep throwing ideas away before we’ve tried them, we’ll end up missing something!”
“What’s going on?” said Fluttershy over the noise.
Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash fell silent as she approached. Pinkie swallowed her mouthful.
“Oh,” said Rarity coolly. “We were just discussing the pros and cons of traditional strategies against” – she winced and looked away from the plant – “troublesome weeds.”
“Why not try weedkiller?” said Rainbow Dash. “We can’t pull it out, but we can make sure it’s not going to take over.”
“Take it from a farmer,” Applejack said, stiffening up again. “You can’t just spray willy-nilly an’ expect it to do what you want it to do. You gotta think firs’. What about Fluttershy, for a start? She might get poisoned.”
“She’s got a plant on her back! It’s gotta be worth a try!”
“Maybe,” Pinkie piped up suddenly, “it’s a magical plant, and you have to do something crazy so that it lets go. I could try singing to it, or maybe you have to wear polka dot pyjamas before you pull it out. Ooh, ooh! Maybe if we ask it nicely, it’ll pop right out!”
That silenced both of them at once. The lot of them were half-chewing over her words and half-astonished at themselves for even taking it seriously enough to do so. Pinkie took advantage of the thoughtful silence to ram another plateful of muffins into her mouth.
Twilight felt the sweat dribble down her temples. A normal plant’s going to be hard enough, but a magical one too? Suddenly, the pile of books looked like junk sale rejects compared with the library now demanding to be read. I’d have to go to the Canterlot Archives just to get a hope of finding the right one…
“No need to worry!” said Spike quickly; around him, the mares jolted out of their encroaching nightmares. “I could bring over the lab kit and we could set up right here after we’ve cleaned up. I don’t think there’s a point to looking at all those books until we’ve looked at the plant properly. That should narrow it down, right Twilight?”
He sure does know me, she thought while she grinned at him. “Excellent thinking, Spike. We’ve got a good start, but if there’s one thing we need, it’s the right tools and as many measurements as we can get. If it is a magical plant, then I should be able to determine its Clover-Meadowflower Index with a bit of thaumospectroscopic analysis.”
“RRRRight,” said Spike, not quite convincingly. “And we can find out what it’s doing. Maybe, when we know what it wants, we could, I dunno, bribe it off of Fluttershy or something.”
“It’s an idea,” was all Twilight could concede. “Er… if you don’t mind, of course, Fluttershy?”
“Not at all, if you think it’ll help.”
Above the table and their heads, the birds zipped to and fro; a few stopped to hover and tweet at the top of their little lungs. Rather discreetly, Rarity covered her mug with a hoof.
“Ah’ll ask Granny Smith an’ see what she knows,” said Applejack. “You never know.”
Pinkie yanked Rarity closer, making her squeal as the hot cocoa slopped onto the carpet. “And we can ask around Ponyville, you know, and see what they know. You never know what other ponies know, you know what I’m sayin’, non?”
“Pinkie!” gasped the unicorn. “You’re choking me!”
“Good thinking.” Twilight said. “And how about –?”
She turned to Rainbow Dash, or rather to where Rainbow Dash had been. Empty air was all that was left.
All of them glanced around, except for Rarity, who finally tugged herself out of the unintentional headlock.
“Where’d she go?” said Applejack.
“Knowing Rainbow Dash,” said Rarity, irritably stroking the renegade strands of her mane back into shape, “she’s most likely had a bright idea and declined to stay and explain it. Oh, I wish you’d be careful, Pinkie!”
Spike cried out, jaw stretching, nostrils splaying, and snout crumpling. At once, every pony ducked down before the jet of green ripped through the air over their heads and vanished. Birds shot back into their dangling houses, which rocked slightly against the slight convection.
Twilight’s heart peeked out of her gape, and then crept back down her throat. Green dribbled down Spike’s face, but he wiped it on the back of his clawed hand.
“I’m OK,” he said. “I guess that pollen must’ve done a number on my nose.” He noticed the slight black chrysanthemum high on the wall. “Sorry, Fluttershy. I’ll clean it up, I swear.”
A collective sigh of relief signalled the return of eating and drinking, though a few gazes drifted towards the dragon. Twilight could almost hear their minds squeaking under the effort of worry.
Maybe it would be worth checking on Rainbow Dash, she thought. I know what Fluttershy said, but I don’t have to ask right away. If she knows anything, I can’t let her hide it from us. Not that she’s hiding anything about the plant. She’d never do that to Fluttershy. I’m… sure of it.
However, she found herself watching Spike, who’d stuffed a muffin into his mouth with much humming and tummy-rubbing. Cold drops trickled down her back as she saw him there, oozing green mucus and smoking slightly from one nostril, all those years ago.
She shook the image out of her head and swallowed. That was different. This time, we’re working together. I’ve got my friends. And I’m not the clueless filly I used to be. We’ll figure this out. We have to.
Still, she ducked the same as everyone when he stiffened to sneeze. This time, it didn’t come. Even when he relaxed again, no one stopped glancing in his direction until Fluttershy waved them off cheerfully and closed the Dutch door after them.
“You know what I think?” whispered Spike while the others were thus occupied. “I think we might have a friendship problem on our hands.”
“I agree,” she whispered back, “but let’s just keep that between ourselves for now. It won’t help anyone if we make it worse by prying.”
“Of course. My lips are sealed.” He mimicked zipping his mouth and winked up at her, pausing only to wipe more mucus off his face. “Still, could be worth looking into, don’t you think?”
She tried not to wince. “Later, Spike.”
And I’ll go with him to get the equipment, Twilight thought, rubbing her forehead and sighing. Just in case.
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The cover art is a screenshot from Hurricane Fluttershy, right?
I( can tell this'll be an interesting story. I'm looking forward to the next chapter already.
Not had a chance to read yet, but the premise is more than enough to land this on my read later, and I will follow you for more interesting things.
This looks to be fascinating. You've got multiple conflicts going on on top of the main one, and so far everyone seems to be in character.
Now, as for that parasitic plant, there's several things they can try to do.
Plants often have day and night cycles. One thing they could suggest to slow it's activity is to keep Fluttershy out of direct sunlight. Perhaps not total darkness, but just don't have her go out, put blinds on the windows, and such. That might suppress some of its growth if it does in fact need sunlight.
Secondly, if it is parasitically merged just cutting it off might not work, or it might, depending on scale. What I mean is if it's somehow fused her nervous system into it (despite plans not having nervous systems), then she might feel the flower parasite. In which case, I would say this is certainly a magical plant, if it is even one, because no real world plants have nervous systems which could even theoretically be fused with a host organism.
So, cutting off bits of it might not work very well. However, if there is a large central stock or severe smaller ones, a rapid, split second cut to detach the flower might be enough to kill the plant entirely. However, what its tendrils might do in such a situation is entirely unknown. They might just go dormant without the rest of the plant to give it orders, alternatively they might kill Fluttershy- although I doubt this. Why? Any parasite that kills its host immediately probably would not naturally develop.
Poison is a difficult subject as while it is almost certainly vulnerable to poison, so is Fluttershy. Twilight would have to find a poison that would only affect the plant, but is harmless to Fluttershy.
One big problem Twilight addresses is how many unknowns are here. What is the parasites end goal? Does it want a mobile reproductive host? If that's the case-that is, it merely wants to be able to spread its seeds far and wide-then the strain on Fluttershy might be bearable, at least int he short term. However, if it wants a host specifically for the nutrients and energy it can acquire, then Fluttershy might be on borrowed time.
Regardless, you have caught my attention.
No, Twilight, what you need is to wring Fluttershy's and Rainbow's necks until they tell you what happened.
Also, you might consider consulting with the several-thousand-year-old entities you happen to be friends with.
7917948 My initial thoughts are 1) find a cockatrice and aim it at Fluttershy, then remove the plant; 2) teleport Fluttershy but not the plant; 3) transmute Fluttershy (or the plant) into something else; 4) Rainbow Power; 5) Discord*.
* Discord, of course, would ruin way too many stories, so really we can exclude that option.
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It's from "Magic Duel", specifically the part where Twilight figures out how to beat Trixie. I liked the simple homey look of the scene, the way Twilight's making notes while Zecora and Fluttershy are looking on. Admittedly, there isn't actually a scene in this fic that'll look exactly like that, but it borrows elements here and there, and it was close enough.
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Always good to hear. Might take a while, mind, but it'll get there preferably before St. Valentine's Day. I've got a bit of work to do first.
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Now hoping like heck I don't mess this up somehow.
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And ah yes, reformed Discord, the fanfiction writer's constant game-breaker. To be fair, the show's just as happy to put him on a bus when it suits the plot, so eh. (All the same, this would have made a lot more sense pre-Season Three.)
Thank you all for the enthusiastic comments! Always a pleasure to see others enjoying the results of my efforts.
7918846 Okay. Please enjoy your work that you need to do first.
7918846 I forgot to mention, 1) it suspiciously reminds me of a Slaver Sunflower; 2) it might be a Supox, try talking to it; and 3) has anypony tried smoking it?
Interesting beginning. Wonder what happened between Dash and Fluttershy? I hope this plant doesn't harm Fluttershy further.