Lure of the Flower

by Impossible Numbers

Lily's Mark

Snip!

Daisy bounced off another trunk in her haste to scramble out of range. Her legs sliced through the water. It snipped again, sounding far too close, but she didn’t dare look back.

Snip! Snip! Snip!

A stem groaned, creaked, and then crashed onto the waters behind her. Splashes hit her croup and drenched her tail. Underneath, the wave rolled and pushed against the rear of each leg.

Snip!

In her mad dash to escape, she wondered how fast a shadow could move. It didn’t walk. It didn’t float. It had no pesky legs – already throbbing – to sort out.

She jinked so sharply her tail whipped her back legs. Seconds later, the water hissed under the SNIP!

Bouncing off more trunks, she zigzagged through the stems. Her panting grew harsher on her throat. Sooner or later, she’d run out of breath.

She slid round a sundew, scything through the water, and stopped. No matter what, she had to catch a moment’s rest. Maybe even hide. Running amounted to little more than making herself an obvious target.

Too late, she noted the white froth where she’d skidded. They weren’t fading fast enough.

Somewhere nearby, the low moan rumbled.

No. Hiding amounted to little more than a headstart if it caught her. When it caught her.

Oh, why me?

She turned to flee, and then jerked back.

She looked round, forcing her head against whatever suddenly held it in place.

Uselessly, her legs flailed in midair. Something sucked hard at her back and mane. In fact, the harder she twisted and turned, the more it spread along her side too.

Trapped, by the very sundew she’d hidden behind. Beads of dew the size of her head, all oozing over her. She hadn't even noticed until now.

Silently as she dared, she writhed and flexed and twisted and stiffened. The sundew merely clung on. Then, as the low moan drew closer, the world hurled itself around her and the sundew wrapped around her, and she opened her mouth to yell before more ooze crawled in.

Everything went dark.

Then the sundew stopped curling around her. She felt its weight shifting and then settling.

Panic rushed. Her legs kicked. Nothing could move. The embrace of the whole plant was simply too tight.

And then…

A long, low moan…

…right next to the leaf.

If she turned ever so slightly, eyes wide, she could just make out the translucent green of the leaf, and the shadow beyond it, casting its silhouette against the green. Shears rose like a sniffing snout.

Daisy watched, unable to look away, unable to even try to scream.

Finally, it jerked away. The shadow outside was gone. The low moan faded in the distance.

To her surprise, the leaf unfurled. Drops drew away. Fresh air washed over her before she gently eased her hooves through the surface of cold water. When she checked, the leaf of the sundew retreated and laid its trap again.

To make sure, she patted herself down. Locks, flanks, tail: all there.

“What?” she said.

Around her, the carnivorous plants did nothing. Of course they did. They were plants.

Said one part of her mind. Another part said that this was a dream, after all. Plants didn’t just do planty things when they were dreams.

She looked around. The shadow was gone. Of course, this was her dream, but then what had just happened?

The sundew had let her go… because she’d wanted it? She controlled it? No: otherwise it wouldn’t have snatched her at all. But if so, then, when the shadow came, why would the sundew wait until that moment to move?

Snip.

Ah. So the shadow hadn’t gone far, then. Daisy made to gallop – and put her four hooves down hard, sending a surge of water to rush away.

No, Daisy, she thought. You’re not panicking. Come on. What does this mean? Where are we supposed to go? What’s left to do? Where’s Lily? Lily! She might still be here, trapped, or worse!

Daisy gripped her head. What was she doing? What had she done? If Lily had gotten into trouble, then she, Daisy, had done it to her. Lily wouldn’t even have been here if Daisy had thought properly, instead of sitting on a cosy little island in a swamp in a dream, hiding and pretending to be useful…

The shadow chuckled.

Snip.

Up ahead, she saw the living patch of stars zoom towards her, zipping and curling around stems which tangled amongst themselves, and flowers which rained petals down over the thing.

It occurred to her the thing was having trouble. Without apparently moving, the stems drew tighter. Gaps that had looked size enough for a full pony now only allowed slithers of darkness no bigger than a hoof’s width. Angry screeches broke out. Shears slashed and hacked at the thick vegetation crowding around it.

Crowding around it? Almost like the plants were…

Daisy turned and galloped.

Even here, in the dream, it sounded too crazy to be true. As she galloped, however, she sensed the route was growing wider and wider, as though plants up ahead had taken care to grow out of her way. Their mere existence… living traps… non-animals that ate animals… was it a warning? It’d probably make sense to a child, to someone who didn’t worry about normal adult things like job security or keeping the house from getting repossessed, but ancient things. Things that lurked in darkness, and crept up inside the heart.

And, well, plants were her specialty. Should anything want to take form, it’d take one she understood. Or should have understood, if she hadn’t been fretting over the big adult things.

Snip. Snip! SNIP!

Triumph roared behind her.

Daisy clenched her teeth so tightly the tears burned in her eyes. Just before she died, before it caught up with her at last, why hadn’t she been more careful? Why was she so useless, so inadequate? She hadn’t asked to be this way.

Fatally, she looked back to see shears like twin swords opening wide and reaching close enough to drool on her flanks like fangs –

A splash. A flurry of pink and blond.

Lily leaped out from the side and rammed the shadow hard with her shoulder.

They tumbled away from each other. Shrieks of rage faded under the frantic snips and the crash of stems and leaves. Opposite, Lily simply slapped onto the waters and slumped.

No! Daisy’s retreat jerked into a gallop towards the pink heap, almost knotting her legs with the sheer effort. “Lily!”

When she reached down to pick her up, she saw a new mark on Lily's body.

A circle of black blurred into the pink coat on her shoulder. Even as Daisy watched, the circular mark spread a little wider as though aiming to swallow the upper limb. Stars twinkled inside it.

“Lily! What happened? Are you all right? Lily, your shoulder!”

“Yes…” Lily winced and stumbled away – Daisy seized her, taking care to avoid the mark. “I think… I think I’ve done my brave deed for the day…”

“Lily, please.”

“Where are we?” Lily squinted about. “Oh. Still stuck here.”

A threatening rumble loomed up behind. Daisy didn’t need Lily’s widening eyes.

“That’s…” she mumbled.

“Um,” said Lily.

“I’m at the fleeing stage, if it helps,” said Daisy, pushing her up onto her feet. “You’re welcome to join me.”

“Gladly! Whatever! Just run!”

Both of them splashed their way into a gallop as the ominous snipping noises slashed at the air. They could even hear the whoosh of the blades.

Despite her own struggling legs, Daisy forced herself to keep going. Soon, she noticed Lily was leading by several hooves. Cobra lily petals brushed their heads. Vast flowers trembled under the turbulence. After several seconds, Daisy risked a look back, and saw pitcher plants that certainly hadn’t been there before, blocking the shadow and waiting for its angry rush to land smack into their gaping mouths.

One large one caught it. The leaf snapped down like a lid.

Instantly, ripping sounds came from within. A tip of a starry blade punctured the pitcher’s side.

This was as much as Daisy dared to watch before she prodded Lily’s rump to keep her going. Both of them left the struggles far away, and Daisy imagined the ever-present mist shielding them from view.

“Lily!” she called. “Stop!”

“Not a chance!”

“We can’t… keep running… forever! We have… to find a way… out!”

Lily’s howl cut through her ears. Through her own blurred gaze, Daisy saw her close her eyes.

No. No more running. And after all, it had worked once already…

“Then let’s go this way!” Daisy lunged and grabbed Lily’s saddle. “Hide! Where it can’t find us!”

She steered her friend into the mass of stems on one side and they both smacked into a cobra lily. Scrambling, Daisy pushed Lily – still trying to gallop even up a slope – past the red tongue petals and into the brown gaping mouth, beyond prison bar hairs. Lily was clearly too panicky to stop and ask questions. Instead, Lily’s rear disappeared inside before Lily’s head poked out and her hooves pulled Daisy up.

“Keep quiet and don’t move!” Daisy hissed.

Not easy, she reflected. The space was a brown shell fit for a couple of fillies. Two full-grown mares were torso-to-torso. Daisy felt her legs being forced around what she hoped was Lily’s midriff.

“I can’t breathe…” Lily whimpered. Every pant pushed and drew back from Daisy’s knee.

“Just stop moving!” she hissed. When she noticed her own panting, she tried to will it down to a tiny breath.

They fell silent, trying not to think too hard about how they were positioned.

Outside, the snipping rushed by and then vanished.

Neither of them moved until a solid minute had passed. Numbness crept up Daisy’s rear; she’d caught her leg at a bent angle. They were both still panting.

Eventually, Lily wriggled her way out. Daisy slipped after her and landed with a splash beside her.

“Were we just –!?” Lily began before Daisy covered her mouth with a hoof.

“Don’t think about that.” Daisy glanced about. “On the other side of those stems. We need to think this one through.” She removed her hoof.

“Yes, but –”

“It’s OK. The plants aren’t dangerous. Just… Just trust me on this one, please? It’s a little hard to explain. I’m still trying to figure stuff out myself.”

Further into the undergrowth, they slunk away. From a distance, the shadow’s frustrated wail roared through the blackness.

---

Hunkered down behind the stems, they could still hear the shadow’s shrieks in the distance.

“It’s getting impatient,” said Lily.

Daisy frowned, mouth half-open. Normally, Lily was no more intellectual than the flowers she tended, but away from the immediate panic, she was actually risking a smile. Like she knew things.

“Lily, what –?”

“Rose explained it to me while I was out. That thing is after you. It’s the Tantabus.”

If anything, Daisy’s frown tightened.

“No… the Tantabus is gone,” she said. “We all saw it go. Didn’t Princess Luna absorb it?” Truth be told, the details were a little hazy. During the incident, everyone had seen the living shadow shrink and vanish into Luna’s chest, as easily as a water droplet meeting a larger pond.

“Sorry, I got it wrong. It’s like the Tantabus, but smaller and less powerful. They’re both created in pony minds, and then they feed off the guilt of the host until they’re strong enough to beat them.”

“What!?”

“Rose called it…” Lily screwed up her face for a moment, ear cocked. “A Tantaballus? A little Tantabus.”

“You mean that thing… I created that?”

“Uh huh. It’s not the only one. Mister Greenhooves got infected by his own version. Daisy.” Both of Lily’s eyes shimmered. “It’s horrible! That thing will smell out your guilt and feed off it, and then when it thinks it’s got you, like Mister Greenhooves… you'll… you'll…”

Horror held Daisy’s stare. “They don’t?”

“They do!”

“But that can't be right. Luna's didn't do that. It just tried to escape.”

“Maybe it's different if you're not a princess? Don't ask me! These are the facts! I didn't stop to cross-reference everything Rose told me! You were in a bad way! Which is why we’ve got to get out of here now!”

Another loud screech slashed at the silence. Both of them twitched and ducked down briefly.

“I created that!?” said Daisy.

Yet a treacherous thought surfaced. All over Equestria, plenty of monsters were drawn to pony thoughts and feelings: hungry, strange monsters that treated innermost secrets like midnight snacks. Stories about them spread far and wide. And a good amount of Luna's job had to involve finding the monsters in the head, right? Those monsters could come from anywhere. They didn't have to obey commonsense rules. In short, it wasn’t an idea to cast aside lightly. However much she wanted to hurl it with great force.

Now Lily’s in here too. She shouldn’t be. If what she says is true, this has to be between me and that… that thing.

“Oh,” she groaned. “This just goes from bad to worse.”

“None of that!” snapped Lily. “Come on, Daisy! There’s gotta be a way to get you out of here! The guilt! What’s the guilt!?”

“It’s too late. So long as I don’t know how I’m supposed to – I’m sorry, what?”

Lily seized her by the shoulders. “Daisy, think! We’re not giving up when there’s a good chance we’ll get eaten! We’ll panic and run and maybe struggle a bit, but we’re not making it easy, got it? That’s exactly what it wants!”

“But if anything happens to you –”

“I chose to come back! Granted, this wasn’t much of a choice, but I made it.”

“Only because I was too dumb to –”

“No! Stop! Stop right there. Listen to me. Every time you get sad or start beating yourself up, you make it easy for that Tanta-whatever-it-is to come find you. Yeah, I don’t know how we’re gonna get out either, and it’ll probably catch us sooner or later, but I’m still gonna try!”

She took a deep breath. Daisy had never seen her face harden with defiance as sharp as this. Any moment, she childishly expected fangs to grow out of Lily’s mouth.

“You’re not a hero, Daisy,” said Lily. “Neither am I.”

“I never said I was!”

“But that's what you want to be. Deep down. I know you, Daisy. Well, it's nonsense. You're holding yourself up to a nonsense standard. Stop beating yourself up over it, or it'll kill you.”

Somewhere much too close by, the shadow cried out, and now it sounded much less angry and much more jubilant.

“OK, OK,” said Lily, softening to the point her eyes shimmered again. “We are going mad! But here’s the important thing; we’re going mad together! Together! Roseluck and everyone else are gonna do what they can, but it starts with you. What are you so guilty about?”

Urgently, Daisy shushed her. Both of them heard the creature hacking at stems, sending plants crashing into the waters. She hoped that was buying them more time, however they planned to spend what little they had left.

“Lily, please,” she said weakly. “Just get out of here.”

“No.”

“Don’t be a martyr. Not for my sake. You’re better off without me. No, listen,” she spoke faster, hearing Lily gasp for her reply, “you just said that thing’s my problem. I brought it here. It’s my fault. Whatever happens, I’m not letting you go down with me.”

“You can’t say that!” Lily’s lip trembled.

“Can’t I? In a few seconds, that thing’s going to be here, and then I’m as good as gone. What else am I going to do? You don’t even know how to get me out of here. What choice do I have?”

Hastily, she pushed off Lily’s forelimbs and waved her away. Lily responded by splashing her face.

Cold spluttered out of her mouth. She had to wipe her face down, and coughed drops up.

“I’ve had it up to here,” Lily said, and when she spoke her voice shook, “with you acting like you know better than us, or are smarter than us, or are leading us all the time like we’re foals. Would it kill you to admit you’re just as scared as us? And I know what you’re gonna say: we can’t keep panicking, we have to be braver than this, or at least you do. Well, guess what? We don’t! You don’t! We’re all scared, OK? We’re in this together, whether you like it or not! Now help me, please! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and DO something! This isn't a dream! This is real! Do something real!”

The last crash burst on the other side of the stems. They even felt the surge of the waves.

As one, they ducked down.

Something sniffed nearby. Faces an inch apart, Lily and Daisy held their breaths.

Not daring to even breathe the words, Daisy mouthed, How?

“'Now' what?” Lily whispered while the thing came gliding through the air beyond their shelter.

Daisy tapped her teeth together through sheer nerves. “I don't know what to do,” she whispered back.

“We’ll think of something. Just start by looking around.”

Chewing her lip, Daisy did so. Plants. Waters. Blackness.

At that point, the idea didn’t exactly hit her. Not exactly. Instead, she sensed, as though the air were disturbed, the weight of the idea coming towards her, perhaps in slow motion.

Another snip. Another creak and a crash. Another surge of water pushed past them.

“That’s it…” she murmured.

Lily cocked both ears. “What?”

“Shh. I think I’ve got the right idea. Only…” She took a deep breath. “Do you trust me?”

Wide-eyed but tight-lipped, Lily nodded.

“Do you trust these plants?”

A flicker of a frown that time. “Huh?”

“And do you know what we have to do yet? What’s the one carnivorous plant everyone knows?”

“I don’t underst–”

But Daisy was already straightening up, grinning. The idea was almost upon her. She knew as soon as it hit, her entire body would shake under the impact and she'd buckle, probably at the knees. However, until then she had full control. She could work around it, free as a dandelion seed on an updraft. For the moment.

“Daisy!” hissed Lily. “Get down!”

“Not just yet.” Daisy sucked a lungful of air; her heart was on the verge of shrieking and somersaulting around her chest. “Get ready.”

“What? What for?”

“To gallop.”

“Oh, no worries there.”

Yet she was a flower pony to the last; Daisy swallowed and quelled the urge to turn and run off screaming. So long as she didn’t think about it…

Her gaze met Lily's shoulder. The shoulder.

Painfully, Daisy made sure not to stare at it. Lily would only ask. Merely thinking that much terrified her down to her brittle bones. She was itching to faint, but told herself over and over that, if she fainted now, she would never get up again.

“Just don’t ask,” she managed to say. “Please? I’m not entirely sure this isn’t mad, but it’s all I’ve got.”

And at least if this goes pear-shaped, we won’t be around to cry about it. Not for long.

---