The Call Of The Forest

by The Sleepless Beholder

The Heart Of The Forest

“We’re close,” Wallflower said as she and Sunset reached a particularly dense part of the forest which obstructed their vision of what was ahead.

“Ready to face whatever called you here?” Sunset asked half-jokingly.

“A bit nervous to be honest,” Wallflower admitted. “But we’ve come this far.”

Sunset nodded. “No turning back.”

When they finally moved past the dense tree line, they found something that took them by surprise.
The ground was covered in thick roots coming from a huge crooked old tree with no leaves left, covered in moss and vines, probably as tall as Twilight’s castle.

“This must be the first tree of the Everfree. It’s probably millennia’s old!” Sunset exclaimed, excited at the discovery of such an ancient landmark. Twilight would probably have a freak out at the discovery.

Wallflower however, looked at the tree with sad eyes.
If the trees she had seen before where sick, this was patient zero. She could feel that it was withing an inch of its life, suffering in silence with no one to care for it.
“Is this why you called me? You wanted someone to help you?” Wallflower thought, walking up to it so she could try and maybe talk with it. Understand whatever language she heard coming from it.

Suddenly, she stopped, looking at the lowest branch in the tree, one that was bent until it pointed at the ground. “Can you lift me up to that branch?”

Sunset snapped out of her excitement, noticing her friend’s distress, and nodded before levitating her up to the tree.

Wallflower looked at the moss and vine covered branch, and started to peel it away with her hooves, which proved to be very difficult without fingers. “Fuck it,” she mumbled before using her teeth, being careful to not let anything touch her tongue.

“If you wanted to clean it, I could’ve used my magic!” Sunset shouted, earning a groan from her friend, but Wallflower continued until she finally could see the naked branch.
Sunset noticed that her friend had stopped moving, staring at something, so she moved her a bit to get a look, and her eyes widened. “Is that…?”

Seemingly fused to the wood of the branch was the face of a mare. Its eyes were closed in a pained rigor mortis, and besides some patches of green mane, she had very familiar freckles.

“My Equestrian counterpart,” Wallflower answered as her mind started putting the pieces together.
What called to her wasn’t some plant language, it wasn’t even words, they were feelings.
Loneliness, humiliation, anger, regret, desperation, hopelessness, anguish, sadness. It was all coming from her.

“How did she get here? Why is she here? What happened?” Sunset asked dumbfounded as she lowered her friend back to the ground.

“She lost,” Wallflower answered, looking at her counterpart with a pained heart.

“What do you mean she lost?” Sunset asked.

Wallflower slowly turned around to see her. “Sunset, have you ever wondered… what would’ve happened if I didn’t hate you before?”

Sunset looked at her in the eyes, trying to find words to say, but couldn’t come up with an answer.

Wallflower answered for her. “I didn’t start using the Memory Stone because of you. I was using it long before I went overboard to get back at you. It’s a thing I will always regret, but... If I hadn’t done it. If I hadn’t called your attention in the worst possible way. I would’ve kept using it, not on others, but myself, without anyone realizing. I would’ve forgotten more and more about me, erasing everything until…” She looked at her counterpart in the tree. Forgotten and alone. “This… If you never turned into a demon, or told me such horrible things as a bully… I would’ve disappeared without anyone to remember me by.”

“Wally,” Sunset said as she got closer to her, her heart pained. “It didn’t need to happen like that. I shouldn’t have–”

Wallflower turned to look at her in the eyes. “I know. There’re probably hundreds of ways things could’ve played out, but this is the one way we got, and even if it made us do horrible things to each other, at the end it allowed us to be here together.” She wanted to grab Sunset’s hands, but they didn’t have that option, so she pressed her forehead against Sunset’s. “After everything we went through today, I think I can start looking forward without being haunted by the past. Without feeling angry, alone, or ashamed. With you at my side.” She looked at Sunset, at her trembling smile and cheeks wet with tears. “Sunset… I… I lo–” Wallflower yelped as she was forcefully lifted in the air by a group of branches coming from the tree, pulling her towards her trapped counterpart.

Sunset charged her horn menacingly. “Let her go!” she threatened, but her shaking legs betrayed her intentions. “Please.”

Wallflower stayed perfectly still, looking at the closed eyes of her counterpart as it got right in front of her face. She then noticed something; A golden sap-like substance coming from the wooden eyes like if it was a tear.
Said tear traveled down the snout of her counterpart, until it finally fell, landing on her forehead. Wallflower felt the liquid seep into her skin, and a feeling of warmness expanded from it all along her body.

The branches lowered her back to the ground as they withered and died, and as soon as she got her hooves against the earth and roots, she felt a rush of magic reinvigorate her body.
She could now sense the entire Everfree Forest. She could feel every sick tree and plant, every need and ailment they suffered, and her mind already had a list of how to treat each of them so they could bloom healthy.

“Cutie Mark!” Sunset shouted.

Wallflower turned around to see her flank, and saw a potted flower bent down and losing petals. “A Forget-me-not.”

“A dying Forget-me-not,” Sunset whispered with disappointment.

“But not dead,” Wallflower corrected. “It only needs caring. A few drops of water, a change of dirt…” She looked at Sunset with a smile. “And maybe a shining Sunset.”

Sunset smiled warmly before chuckling. “That was so sappy.”

“Isn’t sappy also a plant pun?” Wallflower asked before sticking out her tongue.

They both laughed for a while, and then Sunset looked up at the tree. “Is it too late for her?”

Wallflower looked at her trapped counterpart. She couldn’t hear anything anymore, but the tree still had some life left in it. “I don’t know. But at least someone will remember her now.”

“Let’s go tell Twilight, I’m sure she and the other princesses can find a way to help her,” Sunset offered, reigniting that sense of adventure and wonder that started their travel.

Wallflower smiled, happy to have her at her side. “Yeah, let’s go.” She took one more look at the tree, and made a promise. “You won’t be forgotten!”