Flowers, Hooves, and Magic

by shuzumi

Chapter 1

A/N: I have found two editors so thank you both and now a slightly edited version

Brynn considered for a moment that wandering into the Dragonbrand alone might have been a bad decision as a crystalline ogre swung its massive crystal club at her. Brynn gripped her staff and froze the ground under the ogre. As the ogre picked up its club for another swing, Brynn created a bubble around herself out of pure arcane energy. The bubble had stopped the club, but doing so a lot out of Brynn. The ogre punched the shield, shattering it and sending Brynn flying. By the time she finally stopped, the crystal beast was already closing the distance quickly, ready to make the killing blow. Brynn gathered most of her remaining strength to manage one last spell. As the crystal club came crashing down to the ground, mist swirled where the Sylvari once laid. The mist floated behind a large crystal a few feet away before reforming into Brynn.

Brynn let out a few raspy breaths; she hated that spell. It had saved her foliage more than once but the transformation always disoriented her. She heard the heavy footsteps Indicating the ogre walked away. The noon sun was baking down on the scarred land, the land that just happened to be under an Elder Dragon as it flew. The unfortunate creatures that were under the dragon were twisted into crystal abominations. Brynn looked up at the sun and envied her more stationary cousins that could gather most of what they needed from the sun. After a quick rummage in her bag she found a slice of bread and some dried rabbit.

This time Brynn was much more careful about the crystalline inhabitants, staying out of sight. She ducked into a cave, hoping to escape the sun for a bit; with the crystals everywhere reflecting the light there was absolutely no shade, except this cave. She had heard from Caith that the Crystal desert was dry but Brynn had no idea. With the crystals everywhere Brynn rounded a corner and then suddenly tripped over an Asuran. The rabbit eared guard yelped as it got caught up in the Sylvari’s legs.

“INTRUDER!”

“Oh crap”

The Asura jumped back drawing a pistol. Brynn rolled away as the diminutive guard fired. Brynn forced her magic onto a nearby rock, flinging it at the guard. The rock smashed into the guard and both were thrown into the wall.

“What the hell is going on out here? Prin! I thought I told you I needed silence if I was going to get this gate to The Grove working!”

Another Asura walked around the corner, complaining before spotting Prin’s corpse pinned to the wall. Brynn recognised the robes on the second Asuran as those of the Inquisition, a less than ethical krewe known for experimenting on the living.

“You people are late; I thought you said you were going to bring some kind of seed to plant at the base of the Pale Tree!”

Brynn’s eyes widened as the Asuran’s narrowed, “Wait…you aren’t of the Nightmare Court.”

“No, I will never be of the Nightmare. Now what is going on here?” Brynn pointed the end of her staff down at the gray inventor.

“Alright, alright; those petalheads didn’t pay me enough to die for them. I was contracted to make a gate that bypassed the network and went directly to the Grove. Then the Nightmare Court was going to plant some kind of corruption seed in The Pale Tree. The crystals here in the Dragon Brand are the best power sources I’ve found so I was going to use the extra power to jump the network, but it’s so much power that it’s a bit unstable.”

“By the Tree, will it still get me to the Grove?”

“Oh sure, but you might come flying out of the portal at excess speed and splatter against the first branch you hit. Or you’ll be perfectly fine, hard telling.”

“You are going to leave because your lab and this gate are about to be destroyed.”

“What do I tell my clients then!?”

“Cave in.” Brynn smirked as she walked into the center of the lab. Brynn cast three spells in quick succession. The first was something like a battery, it was a long term enchantment that took a little energy from every spell she cast and stored it for later. She funnelled the energy into an earthquake spell to collapse the caves. She had just enough energy to turn herself into a mist once more and float through the gate.

Three heart beats later Brynn emerged. But she wasn’t in The Grove, but rather an unfamiliar forest. The spell wore off and Brynn condensed into a solid form again.

“Note to self: next time, put a delay on the earthquake, then run through the gate.”

Brynn’s head was pounding, but when she lifted her arms to rub the sides of her head she fell forward into the mud. Stupid gravity. As she pushed herself up she gasped and fell into the muck again. Brynn lifted one of the offending appendages to study it-no doubt about it, her hands had transformed into hooves, and she had sprouted short hair like leaves. Brynn tried sitting but fell over, after some adjustment she properly took inventory of her new situation. Four legs instead of her usual two and not a finger to be found.

“Mother, how am I supposed to hold my staff now?”

Brynn’s stomach growled reminding her of the large amount of magic she just expended. Brynn reached a hoof back to try and grab the pack but reached the limit of the limb’s mobility.

“Ok, ow, new legs don’t bend that way.”

She wiggled the pack off her back before nudging the flap open with her nose.

“What do I have left: one small piece of salted pork, some more dried rabbit, and two slices of bread that look older than I am. Well, if I can find some fresh water it’ll be stew tonight.”

Fortunately, she wasn’t far from a stream, though after dropping the pot twice with her hooves she decided that carrying it with her mouth was easiest. With the water taken care of she gathered enough sticks and fallen branches for a decent sized fire. She always found it odd how many humans were nervous around elementalists, claiming they were all pyromaniacs. She didn’t know much pyromancy, just enough to start a campfire, light a few candles, or turn a small patch of ground into magma. Brynn bit down on her staff pointing it at the bundle of sticks and let a small fireball go. The fireball was bigger than she wanted and the blast blew some of the sticks out of the pile.

After some quick stomping she managed to put out all the extra fires started by the explosion. And with only minor sloshing, she got the pot on the fire to start heating up, which left Brynn plenty of time to contemplate her next problem, eating. She couldn’t very well stick her nose in the stew without burning it off and she couldn’t use a spoon with hooves. She looked from her spoon to her hooves and back again.

“Ah’m tellin’ you Ah heard an explosion from over this way”

“Well I didn’t hear anything, Apple Bloom! I think you just made it up because you were losing.”

Three brightly colored miniature horses walked into the light of Brynn’s campfire.

“Oh, um. Hi?” the white one with the horn said.

“Oh, you are so cute!” Brynn ran at the three but tripped over her own legs landing face first in the mud, again.

“Miss, are ya hurt!?”

“I’m still getting used to the four legs…but I’ve never met talking horses before! I mean I’ve met lots of centaurs and they could talk, but they were trying to kill me, even though Ventari was a centaur. And you are just so adorable I just want to hug you and take you home! Oh! Where am I? Because this isn’t any of the forests I’ve been to before.”

“How can you be still getting used to four legs? You’re older than we are.”

“Oh, I doubt that very much, I only emerged from my pod three weeks ago. And until two hours ago I only had two legs.”

“But that’s impossible!”

“Colts! That’s what you are: colts! Right?”

The three looked at each other before the yellow one spoke, “Ma’am, we’re fillies”

“Yeah, colts are boys” the orange filly chimed in

“Oh, my! I am so sorry; I never get sex right on the first try, except with Norn because then the women’s boobs are right there in your face. I did enjoy my trip to Holbrek... OH! I’m sorry, I’m being a terrible host. Come, sit, the stew should be ready by now. It’s just a bit of dried rabbit but stew is about what you have on hand right?”

The orange filly suddenly passed out and the other two had tears in their eyes. The white one stomped up to Brynn, “Why would you kill an innocent bunny!?”

Brynn backed up until the white filly had her pinned against a stump, “Um, well, I didn’t kill this rabbit, I bought these bits of dried rabbit in Ebon Hawk.” The white filly continued to stare at her. “I like rabbit! Rabbits are cute and fuzzy and they taste so good! But nobody eats horses!”

The white horse turned and walked back to the other two. As soon as Brynn wasn’t pinned against the stump she let her curiosity get the better of her, “Don’t you eat any meat? The centaurs eat meat, or at least I think they do anyway…I’ve never actually sat down to a meal with one. Usually they just curse and shoot arrows at me.”

“Uh, miss, we’re ponies. We don’t eat any meat”

“Oh! I didn’t know that, I’ve never been around ponies before. Why does one of you have a horn and one of you have wings? What are your names?”

“Uh, well, ah’m Apple Bloom. The one with the wings is Scootaloo, she’s a pegasus. And Sweetie Belle is a unicorn, like you.”

“Oh, I’ve only ever read stories about pegasus and unicorns! Wait, I have a horn?” Brynn pawed around her face until she found the horn and ran a hoof up it, “Oh, that is lovely.”

“Uh, miss, the Everfree forest ain’t safe at night, we should head back.”

“Strange forest, can’t hold my staff, magic on the fritz…eh, I’ve camped in worse but no need to take stupid chances”

“And leave your stupid ‘meal’ here,” Sweetie Belle growled at her.

“Sure, just let me figure out how to put out the fire.”

Brynn once again used her mouth to point her staff at the fire and clouds formed over it. The mass of clouds expanded growing larger until the entire clearing was cut off from the sky. The two fillies that were still awake and Brynn just watched the clouds before a cold rain poured down.

Scootaloo gasped awake and the three fillies took off in the direction they came from.

“Oops.” Brynn ran after the three.

The four didn’t stop until they were at a tree house.

“I’m really sorry, girls, we got off to a bad start so, um, my name is Brynn, and I’m very happy I met you.”

“You sure are a strang pony Miss Brynn” Apple Bloom commented

“That’s because I am not a pony at all, I am a Sylvari”

“What’s a Sylvari?” the orange filly asked.

“How about we go in and get dry and I can tell you about the story of the Pale Tree! Oh, I do love talking about Mother”

After some towel tossing, the four managed to get dried off. Brynn was on one side of the clubhouse while the three foals were on the other; Sweetie Belle was still glaring at Brynn slightly.

“A long time ago, there was a human-”

“Humans are just myths!” Scootaloo accosted

“Not where I come from, I’ve met several-even been to a few human cities. Now this human, Ronan, was out patrolling to keep his village safe when he came across a large seed. He took the seed back to his village, but when he got back the village was burnt to the ground, including Ronan’s wife and children. In his grief he vowed never to fight again and planted the seed on the graves of his family.”

“That’s so sad; ah couldn’t live without mah family”

“The story isn’t done there. Along came a centaur named Ventari. Ventari had also become a pacifist and joined Ronan under the small tree. After Ronan died of age Ventari wrote his philosophy on a stone tablet and placed it at the base of the tree. For two hundred years the tree dreamed.”

“Trees can’t dream!” Scootaloo protested.

“Maybe not normal trees, but this tree was very special. Twenty five years ago, the first sylvari were born off of that tree in great pods.”

“You’re a plant?” Sweetie Belle’s curiosity got the better of her

“Yep! You didn’t think I had my... mane? Styled to look like leaves did you?”

“Some weird ponies have walked into your sister’s shop, Sweetie Belle” the orange pegasus remarked

“You take that back! Rarity’s shop has only the best clients!”

“Yeah, because Photo Finish was so normal”

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof at the orange filly but Brynn hopped up and held the strike back.

“I don’t think that is the proper way to treat a friend.”

“Get your hooves off of me”

Brynn let go of the white unicorn and backed into a corner. Sweetie Belle sat back down and looked anywhere but at Scootaloo or Brynn. Nobody spoke until Apple Bloom clapped her hooves together.

“Alright, we all ain’t thinking right so let’s get some sleep an we’ll take Miss Brynn to Twilight’s in the morning.”

Brynn and Sweetie Bell were about as far apart as they could be within the confines of the clubhouse. Scootaloo lay close to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom bedded down close to the middle.