Lunar Ambrosia

by Waxworks

The Vines

“What did we do?” Thesis wondered aloud.

The island had been destroyed. What was once covered in green trees and lush but poisonous vines was now a scattered wreck. The hills and mountains that covered it were rubble, rocks spilling into the sea around it, and most of the trees had been uprooted and thrown to the ground. The ball of vines, having spent the last of its energy, was collapsing in on itself, limbs spilling into the ocean to shrivel and fade.

Thesis flapped her way back across the bay to where the rest of the group was waiting. Stormy Eye had bandaged up Shilling with a few bits of cloth, but the wounds he had taken were large holes struck right through his body, and without medical attention, he wasn’t going to last long. Desperado and Stormy Eye were holding their hooves against his injuries, but it wasn’t going well, and bloody was still spilling out.

Thesis looked around, and saw there were only six of them there. “Where’s Dust Devil? Where’s Crash Test? Are they okay?”

Banger shook his head. “I-I-I d-don’t know where Dust, uh… Dust Devil is! We didn’t see him! Crash Test went to g-g-g-get help!”

“Help is on the way? Good.” Thesis went to look at Shilling. “How’s he doing?”

Desperado shook his head and frowned.

The pool of blood underneath Shilling was growing by the second. Slowly, but without better assistance than they could provide, he wasn’t going to make it. But he was bandaged with everything they had, and moving him any more was going to hurt him rather than help. She could see the medical pegasi flying in on swift wings, and the howl of a siren wasn’t far behind. There was nothing more she could do here, so she stepped back.

“Banger.”

He jumped at his name being said. “Y-yes?”

“Did you see where Dust Devil was going?”

He shrugged. “I think he was headed for the aca-aca-uh… academy. He had the fruit, and y-you know he was all about getting r…r-recognition.”

“You’re probably right. I’m going to have to head him off and try to recover this whole mess. Get my say in before he turns them against me. And we still don’t know why they wanted us to take that fruit.” Thesis stamped a hoof. “Damn it!”

She turned to Desperado, who was now using his magic to try to keep Shilling from bleeding out, constricting his wings and limbs for the medical pegasi while they waited for the carriage and the unicorns. “Desperado.” He turned to her. “Come to the academy as soon as you know Shilling is taken care of and safe. Banger, thank you. You’re a good pony.”

Banger waved and Desperado nodded. Stormy Eye and Cumulus didn’t turn to look, so Thesis just took off, buzzing off toward the academy.

The academy wasn’t far off, and Thesis made good time. The sirens behind her were comforting, at least letting her know that Shilling was going to get the help he needed. That meant Desperado would be along soon after. She needed a second voice to add credence to her own, or else it would be Dust Devil’s word against hers, and he had the benefit of actually carrying the fruit. Whatever it was. The academy was already struggling with the island and its usefulness to the scientific scene. Now that it was gone, the only thing of note was that fruit, and the pony who had it was likely to be the one that would get all the accolades, funding, and attention. Not to mention, the fruit might still be dangerous.

She landed on one of the upper floors, closest to the dean’s office. There were crowds gathered on the landing, staring out across the bay at the destroyed island and the great ball of dead vines that Thesis and her group had left behind them.

“Professor Thesis!” a voice yelled. “What happened on the island? Is everypony safe?”

“Everypony is fine. There were injuries, and a lot of equipment was lost, but everypony is still alive,” she said as she pushed through the crowd toward the dean’s office.

“The island is entirely destroyed! What happened to it?”

“Not answering that yet. Not until I find the pony responsible for it.”

“Somepony is responsible? Can you elaborate?”

Thesis looked at the pony spouting the questions and recognized her as a member of the academy news. She continued pushing past and ignored any further questions, even as they came a mile a minute. That would be making the headlines, that’s for sure.

She made it to the Dean’s office and didn’t bother to knock, but pushed inside. There were several ponies inside already, all members of the faculty, and all staring at the fruit, sitting on the desk, with Dust Devil smirking nearby.

The dean looked up at her as she entered. “Ah, welcome, Thesis. So good of you to actually come join us. Dust Devil here has been informing us of what happened on the island.”

Thesis scowled. “Oh, did he? What has he said? Did he tell you he foolishly stole a possibly magical artifact from the natives, angering them and the entire island?”

“He told us about this.” He motioned to the fruit laying on the desk. “And he told us how it’s a non-poisonous version of the beanberry. Why wouldn’t you bring something like this back immediately? This could revolutionize farming!”

Thesis opened her mouth, then noticed a tiny portion of one of the arms of the fruit was missing. She looked at Dust Devil, alarmed. “You bit it?”

Dust Devil shrugged. “I had nothing to lose if it was poisonous. I’m already out of bits and work. Needed somethin’ big, and you were content to just leave it there.”

“I was waiting until I understood it!”

“Not going to understand it by leaving it in the middle of the poisonous woods.”

“He’s right, Thesis. We have the equipment here to properly study this,” somepony said.

“Removing it from the island destroyed the natives, the beanberries, and the island!”

“And that’s a shame, but we knew about the beanberries, and nopony was using the island. According to Dust Devil, the natives turned out to be animate corpses, is that right?” the dean asked.

“I… yes. According to what we all saw, that is correct.”

“Then I would say Dust Devil has managed to contribute a wealth of information in a very short time,” the dean said. “It’s unfortunate, but we now know the natives weren’t actual ponies, we know this fruit was providing some sort of energy to the beanberries, and we also know it isn’t poisonous.” The dean stood up and put a hoof around Dust Devil’s withers. “At great risk to himself, we now know more about the island than we ever have, and we have a great source of possible energy or food. He deserves commendation.”

“For killing an entire race of ponies?”

“They were vines animating corpses. Nothing more.”

“They had a language! They had a leader!”

The dean waved a hoof dismissively. “Yet nopony could communicate with them and they were still animated corpses. I’d say we’re better off without them. I mean, who knows how they made more.”

“Maybe they did that with the fruit. Did you ever think of that?”

Dust Devil’s smug grin fell from his face and his eyes opened wide. He glanced at the fruit in worry, and had to stop a hoof as it rose up to his stomach.

“I mean, how long has it been since you ate some of it? Maybe half an hour, at most? There could be so many more effects that you aren’t aware of!”

“Well, then I guess we’ll see what they are eventually,” Dust Devil said haughtily.

“And what’ll you do if you get vines inside you?”

He didn’t have an answer, but he looked all around the room at anything but Thesis, lips pursed tight.

It was at that point, in the silence, that Dust Devil’s stomach growled. Everypony, following mention of vines in stomachs, backed away from Dust Devil. Even Dean Bombastic, who had been so supportive of Dust Devil’s antics before, pulled away from him.

Dust Devil bent over, hooves clutching his stomach, then he vomited a golden liquid. It was small at first, but the sound in his stomach got worse, and he cried out in pain, and vomited again. This time, blood came with it. Everypony backed away from him, some running for the doors.

Thesis shook her head. “Now all of you know why I sued for peace and further research first! Celestia’s ass, you stupid, stupid stallion!”

Dust Devil retched several times, drooling blood and gold.

“For Celestia’s sake, Thesis, stop gloating and call for the hospital!” Dean Bombastic yelled.

“He’s just puked up a gallon of blood and an unknown substance. What could they even do? There’s no record of such a poison in any database, I guarantee you that!”

Dust Devil retched again, and something bulged in his throat. Thesis backed toward the doors with the others as Dust Devil puked up some gold, glittering and solid, then he fell to the floor. As the bile, blood, and other fluids spread away from it, everypony could see that the golden object was his heart, still thumping, with vines growing from it.

Thesis recognized them at once, to her horror. “Beanberry vines.”

“What? Those poisonous berries from the island?” Dean Bombastic asked in panic.

“Just like you wanted, Dean. Dust Devil has given us more information about the island, its inhabitants, and the beanberries than we’d ever had before,” Thesis said.

The vines spilled out of the heart, feeding on the bile, blood, and golden liquid that Dust Devil had coughed up. The group of ponies at the door tried their best to pile out, but the crowd waiting on the other side started trying to push their way the moment the doors swung open.

Questions bombarded Thesis and the other academy officials from all sides, and in the ensuring confusion, the vines finished supping on the wasted flesh they had sprouted from. They began seeking out other sources of sustenance, and lashed out at the warm bodies of the crowd nearby.

Thesis felt something touch her feet, and yelped. She instinctively jumped into the air, and looked down to see a vine creeping under the hooves of the crowd. It twisted around somepony’s hooves and pierced into their skin. There was a yelp of pain, then another cry from elsewhere in the crowd.

There was a flash of light, and one of the ponies who had cried out used their horn to destroy the offending vine, the earth pony who was grabbed near Thesis slumped over, having no such protection. There was a moment where everypony didn’t quite know what was going, but once somepony near the fallen fellow saw what had happened, and everypony started listening to Thesis yell, panic broke out.

“Everypony get out of the room! It’s dangerous to be in here!” Thesis yelled. Ponies finally listened, and the crowd that had pushed so hard to get in, were now pushing equally as hard to get out.

The vines tore into the ponies around the room, grasping, grabbing, clawing and striking. Ponies pushed, screamed, and yelled as they tried to escape the room. The pegasi flew toward the upper section of the door and one of them was knocked to the ground as the stallions hit her out of their way. She fell into the crowd below and was lost in the small sea of bodies.

Thesis looked down at the crowd below her and at the vines coming out of Dust Devil’s heart. The more ponies they managed to grab, the more they began branching out, birthing more vines to reach even further. They began reaching into splits in the wooden walls and flooring, forcing them apart as they dug through the building looking for more lives to feed on.

Thesis followed the other pegasi out of the room, squeezing out of the doorway and out, down the hall and off the balcony she had landed on. She heard a fire alarm go off and thanked her lucky stars that somepony had the presence of mind to panic about the attacking plant and start an alarm.

But getting fireponies or police here wasn’t going to solve the problem if they didn’t know what was going on. They could chop and cut the vines as much as they liked, but if they didn’t clean out the source of it, then it wasn’t going to be solved. She hadn’t had time to research any further than the golden fruit and the poison of the beanberries, but if there was a source, then the roaring from the island was going to be it, and that had likely come from the heart if that was how the beanberry plant propagated. It had grown isolated on that island for too long, and likely had the corpses of explorers as the natives, which is why it never got anywhere else.

Thesis idly wondered how long it had spent trying to create a friendly façade for exploring ponies, but reasoned that it was moot, because those ponies were dead, and so was the original island plant. If the entire thing was one huge organism, then it stood to reason this one was going to grow and continue growing. Whether or not it kept any of the mannerisms, habits, poison, or growth the original one had remained to be seen, but she wasn’t looking forward to letting it get big enough to do that.

Thesis flew down to meet the approaching fire carts, with the crew of ponies clambering on and off them as they prepared for the fire.

“Thank you for coming! We have an emergency!” Thesis said.

“Where’s the fire, ma’am?” A firemare asked.

“There isn’t a fire, it’s something else! A monster!”

“A what?” The firepony immediately relaxed, lowering the end of the hose she was carrying in her magic. “Ma’am, if this is some sort of joke…”

“It’s not a joke! There’s a plant monster in the Dean’s office!” Thesis’ words were punctuated by a window on the upper floors smashing outward, followed by a pegasus and a long, grasping vine. It missed the pony it was reaching for, but began climbing down the outside of the building.

“Sweet Celestia! Axes ready, ponies! Backdraft, go get the police! We might need help on this one!” The firemare shouted, and pulled her axe off her uniform, dropping the hose to the ground.

“Wait, how will you-”

“We can handle this. Dean’s office. Plant monster. Get to safety, ma’am.”

The fireponies were off, heading into the building. Two pegasi flew up to the window they’d seen the vine coming from and began chopping at the vine hanging out of the window. It broke off easily, sap spilling out of the wound to the ground below.

“Dammit! You need to listen to me! Seawater! All we need is seawater!”

They weren’t useless, Thesis had to admit. The fireponies entered the building and immediately, ponies frantically left the building. Windows shattered all over the place allowing ponies who were trapped to exit. Thesis could see fireponies of all shapes and sizes carrying others out of the building. Some were injured, some looked gaunt, some had vines attached to them that the fireponies had severed and rescued them from. But still, until they got to the heart and stopped this unchecked primal growth, there wasn’t going to be a resolution to this. She needed help.

Thesis looked at the fire cart, with its long hose and pump. If she could get it closer to the coastline, it might just reach. But she wasn’t going to be able to do that alone. She was going to need help.

She left the fireponies to their rescue, hoping they would be able to save lives while she attempted to solve the bigger problem of the living heart. She flew back to the coast where she had left Shilling and the others. The only one left was Banger, who was rummaging through the bags and other supplies, stuffing items into his saddlebags. He jumped when she arrived, eyes flicking back and forth.

“Uh… uh… h-hello miss, professor Th-th-thesis,” he said with an awkward smile.

“Banger, I need your help and everypony else’s. Where’s Desperado and Stormy Eye?”

“They went to the academy, like you asked. Desperado teleported them all inside.”

Thesis stamped a hoof and cursed. Banger jumped at her sudden outburst. “Did he say where he was teleporting them to? The Dean’s office?”

“N-no. Somewhere on the first f-f-f-floor.”

That would put them in the fireponies path. They might still be okay, but she had to hurry. “Banger, come with me, I need your help. Things have gotten bad.”

“W-what? N-n-n-no! I, uh… d-d-d–”

“Shut up and come help! I’m going to need everypony I can get if we’re going to stop this thing! They don’t know what they’re dealing with in there and we’re the best they’ve got!”

Banger shut up and followed, mouth drawn in a tight line as he flew behind her back toward the academy. They could see the vines growing out of the upper floors, crawling down the sides of the building toward the ground and the crowd of ponies that were all circled around the place, waiting for the police and fireponies to deal with whatever was inside.

They appeared to be losing, unfortunately. Thesis could see at least one firepony trapped in the vine’s grip, sucked dry of life. There was a vine stuck inside the pony’s mouth, and the body appeared to be twitching. Given time, Thesis expected to see native-like ponies, complete with claws, spilling out of the building if they didn’t get this under control. She hadn’t seen them fight, but they looked strong, and could probably bring more bodies to the vines to help it grow and convert them into new servants it could use.

“Find Desperado! I need his magic! If you don’t want to get any closer, just find me volunteers! Any kind of volunteer, and tell them to meet me at the fire carts out front of the academy!”

“Uh… uh… okay?”

Banger and Thesis separated, flying through the crowd of hovering pegasi and sparse magical shields ponies had erected just in case. They were still gawking, creating a difficult mess for Thesis to search through for the ponies she needed.

“Desperado! Stormy Eye! Cumulus! Hello?” Thesis yelled as she went. She even stopped to ask a few ponies, but she got no affirmative responses.

Finally, when she was out behind the academy, searching through the crowd near the water, she found Desperado at the water’s edge. He was pulling water out of the bay with his magic and forcing it down a stallion’s throat. She landed next to them and watched, but made her presence known.

The stallion was choking on the water being shoved down his gullet, but there was a bulge in his throat that was working its way up the more water was being forced down. Eventually it reached his mouth, and the stallion vomited, a small ball of wilted vines plopping to the ground underneath him.

Desperado laid the stallion down with as much care as he could manage and double-checked to be sure the stallion was still breathing. He wiped his forehead and finally turned to Thesis, a grim look on his face.

“Where’d it come from?”

“Dust Devil ate some of the fruit.”

Desperado stamped his hooves and turned in a circle, cursing the whole while. Ponies near the two of them pulled away from the cursing, angry-looking stallion. When he was done and looked at her again, she smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way.

“It’s okay. It’s apparently how the plant propagates. It needs something to eat it, and then it uses the heart. But it’s still allergic to seawater, as I see you figured out. We need to get seawater onto the taproot in the Dean’s office. I need your help for that.”

Desperado nodded. “How?”

“The fire ponies are inside fighting a losing battle against constantly-growing vines. We need to take their cart and drop the hose into the bay. That’ll let us get more water flowing into the academy to kill it,” Thesis explained.

Desperado nodded. He checked the stallion gasping on the ground one more time to be sure he was alright, then galloped after Thesis as she led him back to the carts at the front of the academy.

They arrived at the carts to find Banger with Cumulus. There were no fireponies around, and few police. Most appeared to have gone inside to try to deal with the plants. It was going to be difficult, and if they got caught they would have to explain themselves along with possibly getting arrested. But in the interests of getting rid of the beanberry plant before it grew too large to stop, Thesis was willing to take that risk.

She outlined the plan as quickly as she could to those present. Banger looked scared, as usual, but everypony else was more than willing to help. Together, they hitched up Desperado and Cumulus to the cart. A couple of police officers staggered out of the building, sticky with sap. They saw the cart racing away and chased after them.

“Stop, in the name of the law!”

“I’m sorry! We need seawater to stop the plants!” Thesis yelled at them as they raced off. The police ponies had to stop and go back to help other ponies coming out of the hall, injured and looking gaunt like the pony Desperado had helped.

That reminded Thesis they would have to hunt through the populace for anypony affected by the plant. The natives had fallen apart, but they had been long dead. These ponies were still alive. There was so much she didn’t know about the beanberry plant, and there was no time to learn. All they could do was try to kill it, and make sure it was gone forever.

“Bring it around back! Near the landing pad by the Dean’s office! That’ll be the easiest access to it if we can bring the hose up through one of those windows!” Thesis shouted.

Desperado nodded. Thesis motioned to Banger and the two of them flew ahead, picking out a spot to park the cart, shooing ponies away from the area.

Once they had an area cleared, they tried their best to fix the distance so they could reach the sea and still get the hose up three stories to the Dean’s office. They also discovered that the internal tank on the cart was already filled with normal water.

“Does anypony know how this works? We need to empty it and get it pumping seawater!” Thesis shouted.

“I can do it. I volunteered for a short while,” Cumulus said, and began working with the devices on the cart. Shortly thereafter water began draining out of it in a deluge, spilling out onto the street.

“Desperado! Get the hose in the bay! Banger, I need you to help me carry it up to the third floor! We have to get it inside the Dean’s office somehow!”

“Uh…up th-there? That’s s-s-s-s-suicide!”

“We’re not going to fight the vines, but we need to see if it will reach! You won’t have to go in there. Just help me!”

Reluctantly, Banger picked up a portion of the wound-up hose while Thesis grabbed the end. He unspooled it as they lifted off and flew up toward the windows. When they approached, a couple of the vines lashed out at them, whipping at the air as they tried to nab the two ponies. Banger shrank back, tugging on the hose, and Thesis had to pull him closer. They couldn’t reach, yet. But if they got the hose working, those wouldn’t be a problem. They would wither away under the saltwater assault as surely as the heart, and it looked like they had enough hose from there to reach inside the window.

Thesis led the way back down to the ground, leaving the hose uncoiled and prepared to lift again. Desperado had dragged it over to the bay and had one end of the intake dunked into the way, and Cumulus was closing the tank back up.

Thesis trotted over to Cumulus, urgency in her voice as she spoke. “How do we make the pump work? I’ve seen them in action, but never tried to make one work.”

Cumulus pointed to a mechanism on the cart. It had a glowing node shaped like a unicorn horn, and nearby a bicycle set-up. “We can either get a unicorn to start it running with magic, or we can get a pony to run it by bicycle. It’s harder to start up in both cases, but once it’s going it’s easy. It will take one pony concentrating on it to make it continue, though.”

“Got it.” Without another word, Desperado’s magic gripped the false horn attached to the fire cart and it whirred to life. The machine buzzed, whistled, and gasped out air, then the telltale sound of water filling the tank could be heard. The hose connected to the bay straightened and filled out, and Thesis dove for the far end before the water began making its way through there.

“Banger, Cumulus! Help me!” Thesis yelled.

The two stallions grabbed portions of the hose, holding it as steady as they could as the water traveled through it. It jerked, twitched, and struggled to get out of their hooves, but only Banger lost his grip. Cumulus held it still as water began to trickle from the end, and Thesis carried the dribbling nozzle higher toward the third floor.

When she reached the third floor, the water was coming out at a steady pace. She took a look back below to see ponies gathered around the fire cart, curious as to what they were doing with it. Desperado, for his part, didn’t even glance at them, nor did he look at what was going on above, but he waited, patiently, keeping his focus on the magic to make sure the cart worked.

Finally, the water reached torrential levels, and Thesis struggled with it as she made to aim it higher. Her wings strained as she kept herself steady in the air, flapping as hard as she could to keep it level, and the water gushed out splashing against the bricks of the academy.

Any vines splashes by the water immediately shriveled. Any nearby that felt the death of their close friends twisted and writhed, pulling away from where their comrades perished, seeking shelter back inside from the salty water that sapped the life from them. Thesis laughed a giddy laugh as her plan worked, and chased after them, inch by inch as they gave way.

They eventually uncovered the window to the Dean’s office she had been looking form. The holes the vines had burst out of looked to be clogged with dead vines, so she aimed the water directly at the glass. It rattled, but didn’t give way. She thought maybe it would break if she were closer, so the advanced, wings moving her closer toward the offending barrier.

“Look out!”

Thesis saw a brick fall past the window and had time to flinch as a green blur came at her from above, and she was knocked spinning. The hose dropped from her grip and went spiraling down toward the ground, shooting water everywhere.

“What…?” Thesis looked above and saw Cumulus struggling with a vine. The brick had been blocking a small hole which the new vine must have been hiding behind, waiting for her to drop her guard.

“Get the hose, professor!” Banger yelled, and threw himself headlong at the vine.

Thesis spared only a moment, flabbergasted at the clear voice ordering her around before she dove after the falling spout. She wanted to look back, or try to help, but with all three of them fighting vines, nopony would be ready to poison them permanently.

Thesis struggled to grab the flailing hose as it spun about on the ground. When she finally had it, she zipped back up toward Cumulus and Banger. They appeared to be doing alright, but more vines were pushing their way out of the bricks, and it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. Cumulus was looking a little ragged, and Thesis had to assume the vine had bitten him. She needed to be quick.

“Incoming!” she yelled as she pointed the deluge of water at the two of them.

No sooner did the water hit them than the other vines nearby pulled back. They held the bricks in their sinuous grip and retreated behind the masonry, hiding from the salty spray.

The vines clutching Cumulus and Banger were dead, and Thesis could see them, soaked and dripping, spiraling slowly down to the ground. Banger held Cumulus tight, helping the weakened stallion flutter safely to the ground.

Thesis’ distraction almost let another one of the vines grab her, but she slipped out of the way and swung the hose to bear on it. She kept the spray going, making sure to watch around the window as well as at it, killing any vine that exposed itself and keeping the others tightly locked down.

She pushed forward again until she was close to the window and focused the hose on the glass. It rattled again, but didn’t break. She had to keep pointing it away from her target every so often to kill any wayward vines, until she heard a voice behind her.

“Incoming!”

There was a crack, then something flew by her head. It flew a rather lazy arc, but it hit the glass, cracked it, then fell lamely down to the ground.

“Oh… I t-t-t-t-tried.”

The glass creaked, buckled, and under the constant pressure, finally gave way. The cracked pane broke, letting the water in, and the other small panes in the divided glass slowly cracked and burst inward under the pressure.

“Yes! You got it, Banger! Good job!” Thesis yelled as she slowly fluttered forward.

“O-oh. Well th-then.”

The vines inside the building were flailing wildly. If Thesis were to put a name to the way they were acting, it would be frightened. At least, she hoped that’s what they were doing. The living vines had gathered up a bundle of the dead ones and were shielding the rest of them with the tied-up corpses of their dead!

“They’re getting smarter!” Thesis didn’t know if they were already this smart or if they were learning, but no matter which result it was, this plant was far too smart for its own good. It needed to be stopped.

Thesis avoided the shield of dead plants and aimed at the ceiling. The splashing water covered the roof, blew down the light fixture, and sprayed all over the bookshelves. It bounced off the ceiling, spread out, and covered the room in salty brine. There was a low rumbling and almost squawking noise coming from behind the shield as the vines holding it began dying from the salt.

The lumped vines began lifting into the air. Slimmer vines shot up to shield a thick knot that bunched up and ran along the floor. They started to shiver and Thesis could see a glint of gold through cracks in the shielding plants.

“Oh no you don’t!” Thesis yelled. “You can’t escape me, you beastly little thing!”

Thesis pulled the hose along the walls, throwing old bones and irreplaceable books around from the force of the deluge. She headed off the disgusting golden heart, wilting the vines waiting for it in the doorway, then slowly dragging the hose along the tunnel that had been created for its escape. The vines shuddered, that low thrumming sound beginning again as the golden heart was trapped in a pocket of green between two mounds of dead vines.

It was with great satisfaction Thesis turned the hose on the pocket of green. There was intense shivering, and the low thrumming began to hurt her ears. Her head felt like it was vibrating from the inside out as the vines covering it died. The hose finally hit the heart dead-on, unhampered by shields or other vines. It lashed out, vines spreading about the room, tearing holes in the walls, roof, and floor. Then just as suddenly as it began, it died.

The heart wilted. It lost its sheen, the gold giving way to flesh and blood. The vines coming out of the holes in it went limp, and congealed blood began to leak out around them. The vines leading out of the room that she hadn’t sprayed slowly went brown. She slowly pulled back out of the room, pointing the hose down toward the ground, and surveyed the scene.

The ponies around the area seemed to be calmer. The vines spilling out of the school were no longer moving, though they weren’t going brown as quickly as she had hoped. She flew to the landing where she had landed before and sprayed those down, giving the hallway inside a once-over before she turned away and floated down to Desperado.

He nodded as she approached and his horn turned off. “Y’got it?”

“I certainly hope so.”

“Let’s help clean up, then.”

---

Banger stayed with Cumulus while Desperado and Thesis entered the building on the ground floor to help the fire ponies and police ponies clean up. There were a lot of casualties, and many more injured. Fire ponies and police ponies alike didn’t know what they were dealing with, but they were good with their axes if nothing else.

Some of the ponies who had plants inside them could be saved without seawater, but there was little they could do for the animated ponies that just fell over when the signal from the heart was lost.

Thesis felt badly about that. It was such an amazing plant, and they had to kill it, all because somepony wanted money and fame. She couldn’t blame him. She’d asked to come to the island for just that same thing, but she had patience. He didn’t, and he had paid the price.

To be fair, she hadn’t expected this. Maybe a little poison, and he’d need a stomach pump or an antidote, but nothing like this. The plant was dangerous, and it was probably for the best it had been killed. As the vines grew more brown as time passed and they pulled more bodies from the mess of vines, Thesis was saddened by its loss, but glad it had been the last of its kind.

---

Far below the academy, behind an old boiler, a small glow would have been seen had anypony been down there to look. The vine it was connected to was purple, and it was holding the glowing thing off the ground. It was surrounded by cobwebs and dust, and although the vine that had brought it down here had shriveled up and fallen off, the golden glow was undiminished.

A rat passed by and touched the small, purple tower. A thin green vine lashed out and pierced its skull. The golden glow improved the slightest bit, and after a moment, the rat meandered off, returning some time later with a mouse in its jaws. The golden glow grew, bit by bit. It was small, but it was growing.

The End.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why isn't there a tragedy tag? Admittedly I haven't actually read the story yet, but the synopsis and chapter titles makes it sound like it needs one.

[Waxworks]

8672041
I don't think it's much of a tragedy. Not in the Shakespearean sense at least.

[SQA]

Nice nice! A real critic I am not, but I can safely say this was a riveting tale.

[SeanTheCreature]

Underrated.

[StubobNumbers]

"The Ruins" by Scott Smith.