Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers

by David Silver

13 - Missed Connections

Beavers. The dam had a great few of them to select from, all hurrying from place to place, keeping their den strong and ready to keep the water back, or hunting for food , or just otherwise being alive. Those that hunted were going for floating bits of vegetation or tasty looking twigs. Like Lily herself, they had no interest in the flesh of a living creature.

Lily smiled as she watched them. It wasn't that off that she would end up with an animal that was just as vegan as she was. It was comforting, in a way. But which beaver was her beaver? She wasn't familiar enough with them to be able to pick one out of the group. She'd only met that special one once! "Alright..."

The wasp was watching a short distance away. "Here are the beavers," he noted. "Which one?"

"Right." Lily took a deep breath. "Maybe it'll work again." She put out a hoof into the air and held it. "I'm sorry for not noticing you before," she spoke gently, unsure if it'd be heard, but feeling it deserved to be said anyway.

The beavers went about their business, avoiding Lily. A beaver had no business with a pony. On the plus side, they didn't attack her, or flee. They simply avoided her like a rock. They couldn't eat a rock, and she was too large to pick up and add to their dam, so just a rock, worthless and avoided.

The wasp flutter's wings buzzed softly, but he didn't interfere. He did keep her firmly in sight. That had to be good enough for the moment.

Lily's breath caught. One of the beavers had looked at her. She didn't dare move. No, it looked away, trundling towards some far more important beaver affair than a pony-shaped rock.

Her arm was starting to sting from holding it up and out so straight and still, but she wasn't ready to give up.

Two small beavers rolled and tumbled, wrestling with one another in the way that young creatures often did. Lily smiled at the play, but remained still. They weren't her beaver. Hers would come. They had to! Or at least, she hoped that.

A faint splash, a beaver emerging from the waters, dampness running free of their water resistant pelt. They shook suddenly, spraying water about, then looking around slowly. They saw her. They saw her. Their eyes met. They were coming closer. Lily wanted to match that pace, but didn't dare, still holding her sore arm out.

A wet nose touched her hoof. "There you are," she gusted out, letting out the breath she was holding in during that tense moment. "I'm so sorry!"

The beaver knew nothing of her plight, but did nuzzle and nip at her fur, grooming her. Lily went in for a hug and wasn't rebuffed for it. "Found you," she got out in a tired laugh, snuggling the smelly little critter. "Oh, look at you."

The beaver instead began to wrestle back with her, the two tumbling a moment just like two young beavers might. He had great big teeth, as beavers tended to, but he didn't hurt Lily with them, ending with her pinned and he nuzzling at her chin.

"Yeah yeah," she laughed out. "I don't have tons of practice at that." She slid back up to her haunches. "Such a good boy." He was a boy, she felt certain. "Will you come with me? I'll take care of you." She took a step back, and he followed. It was a yes. It wasn't a word, but it couldn't have been clearer to Lily. "Let's go." She started back for the lift with a huge smile, and a considerably sized beaver following after her. Smaller than her, sure, but not by a huge amount.

The wasp flutter was applauding gently, clapping his hooves together. "Did I just watch an animal druid be born? Magical! I never got to see that before. Thank you for the treat. But! We do need to get back inside." He pointed to the lift they had used to get down to the forest floor.

"That is a very large beaver," he noted, appraising the animal as they went. "For a beaver. Most of them are very small."

Lily quirked an ear at that. "Well, I'm not an expert, but do animal druids usually end up with big friends?"

"Hm, yeah, guess they do." The wasp shrugged, accepting that as fact. "Both on?" He made sure both druid and companion were on the lift before it began to move, drawing them into the air. "Not always though. It depends on the animal, I think. I'm not an animal druid. But I know bear druids never get a full grown bear, especially when they're new. Little bear cubs, so cute."

Lily burst into giggles. "Well! I know one druid, um, a world away, who does have an adult bear for a companion." Thoughts went back to Fluttershy and her dear bear friend. "Guess it takes a special druid."

"One of significant power," agreed the wasp." He pointed the way. "Now, please, stay up in the branches."

"I will!" Lily rushed off, eager to show off her friend to the others. "Thank you!"

---

"It is the purpose of our order." A different druid, a female moth with flame like patterns on her wings in brilliant shades. Those who said all moths were dull in shade didn't know moths well. "To tend the flames, to keep them from spreading where they shouldn't, and to allow them where they should. Most important is the wisdom to tell the difference." She raised a hoof to her head, tapping gently. "Do you know the difference between a constructive fire and a destructive one?"

"Well..." Daisy raised Ferdinand, cupped between two hooves. "Ferdinand here isn't hurting anything."

"They are not," agreed the moth with a quirk of a smile. "But they would, if set down in the wrong place. We would be forced to fight Ferdinand, if you were to set him at your hooves."

Daisy squeaked at that mental image, flames spreading from beneath her, hot and burning. "I'm being careful, promise! Besides, if I stop, um, feeding Ferdinand, he goes away."

The moth raised that hoof, flatside up. "Unless Ferdinand has already found new food, then your choice means little to him. That you appreciate fire is... admirable, but you must also fear it. Fire is a force of nature, and woe unto any druid that thinks any force of nature can be entirely tamed."

Daisy sank to her haunches, her hooves coming together, snuffing Ferdinand out with a faint hiss. "What makes a fire good or bad?"

The expressions around the room lightened. The pony from before nodded. "That you don't know is plain, but you asked, so we may move forward."

Daisy would not be permitted into the order of fire that day, but, perhaps, in the future.

---

"This is the worst!" Perhaps making it even more awful, was that Rose had no one to tell that to, all alone in the house. "Why aren't I order approved? I like plants!" She threw her hooves up and wide. "Isn't that good enough?!" She briefly considered doing as Daisy had done, seeking out the order herself, without permission. "No, that's not me..." She was told to chill, she'd... chill. She just wasn't feeling very chill!

A knocking came from the door a moment before it swung open. There was Tree Whisper, slipping inside, the door closing behind her with her fancy horn magic. "Good after... Where are the others?" She looked about from where she was, but could only see one of the flower mares.

Rose flashed a big smile. Company! She hurried over to Tree. "Hey! So, Lily's off accepting the animal order offer. Daisy decided, hay with it, and went to the fire order to plead her case."

Tree shrank back, one ear folding. "She is not ready, eager as she is."

"But away she went." Rose made a swoosh noise as she ran a hoof through the air like a vehicle. "So it's just me. How are you doing with your lessons? Want any help?" Rose pressed her hooves together, looking eager for something to do.

Tree smiled at the expression. "I was actually coming to practice more. Your uncanny ability to hear precisely where I err is invaluable, if you wish to lend it to me?"

"Do it." Rose leaned forward, tail lashing behind her. "I'm listening." A new thought came to her. "Oh! How are you doing with the cantrips? Got more up there?" She pointed at her own head. "No rush, just checking in."

"Five," declared Tree proudly. "Thank you for asking. I am well on the way to becoming a proper druid, and I have you and your friends in part to thank for that. I... apologize for how I have treated you. You are still very strange! But strange doesn't have to be a bad thing."

Rose waved it away. "I'm ready to forget if you are." She leaned in further, nose almost touching Tree's cheek. "Let's be real, we're aliens. Being 'weird' is pretty tepid, all things considered. But we come in peace."

That was a lot of references that zipped right over Tree's head. "Friendly outsiders, not the first, but better than the alternative by far, now, let us begin." She began to sing the words of the first spell she was having troubles with, only for Rose's hoof to clonk against her horn.

She squeaked with dismay, backing away from Rose in a scramble. "What was that for?!"

"Sorry, but I felt something was off, up there." Rose pointed to that horn. "I can't say exactly how, just that it was wrong. Like the glow was off? I'm not a unicorn." She shrugged softly. "But it was like seeing someone take a bad step in a dance."

Tree blinked silently. "What?" She was the aggressor, coming in on Rose. "You can feel my magic? Can you feel this?" She was casually lifting a cup off a table a short distance away, but behind Rose.

Rose inclined her head. "Feel what?" She shrugged softly. "No? I guess. What are you so excited about?"

"Huh." Tree set the cup back down. "But you could feel it when I was practicing the spell?"

"You were performing." Rose clapped her hooves with a smile. "It's a song, a song with a step, even if you do the steps up there." She pointed at Tree's horn all the more vigorously. "I know how songs work, and dancing to them. Equestrian trick!"

"Huh... Well... You have at least given me a hint. Let's start from the top." And she went over the spell again, and again, and again. Each time she got a part wrong, in word or in horn, there was Rose to gently admonish her. It was maddening, but also kind of helpful, so Tree accepted it. She would become a full druid!

---

"She says it's a trick all ponies of her world." Tree was busy explaining this to the head druid. "She can't feel or see my magic, the innate magic, but when I cast a spell, she knows if it's wrong." Tree threw a hoof wide. "It's madness, though useful."

"Hm." The mayor turned to a heavy book. "This wasn't written about. She may think it is an Equestrian talent, but... So far, I would think it is a talent shared by those three." she flipped forward in the heavy pages. "We have so few of them, what marks the individual and which, the whole? It's hard to say." She turned back to Tree Whisper. "Thank you for sharing this with me."

"Of course." Tree dipped her head low. "If I may?" No opposition came. "However odd they are, they do seem to want to fit in and to be helpful. I hear Lily even has an animal companion now."

"The order of the animal was quite eager to get that news to me," assured the head druid. "A large, for a beaver, sample of their kind. A beaver is an unusual animal for a druid to attract, but these are unusual druids. Keep an eye on them, but also, learn from them. You are growing nicely."

Author's Note:

Only one of three of the mares busts into the order club. Lily is so proud, and she has a pe--companion! Phew, almost typoed there.

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Comments

[redmar]

It's good that Lily has found her animal companion. The statements about fire remind me of Paathurnax's description of fire as change given form and power at its most primal.

[Venerable Ro]

Beavers are industrious critters, patient and verra determined. Lily will do well with a steadying influence, no?

[badninja]

I would have thought Angel Bunny would be Fluttershy’s familiar. Then again who is to say she can’t have more?

[David Silver]

11133311
Too small and combat ineffectively. Flutter clearly has a familiar and an animal companion.

[Booster Spice]

Lilly managed to pick up a Cappybeaver?

[RadicalDishonesty]

Makes sense to me that daisy treats fire kind of like a pet? But that's not really what fire is.

And Rose, the one who forms the head, still doesn't know her specialty, and really has no inkling...