Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers

by David Silver

15 - Calmly Painting

Rose found herself at the art studio long before Tree returned to them. She saw the rainbow-splattered butterfly and approached them with a hopeful smile. "Hello."

"Hi!" They twirled in the air to face Rose. "You back to create some art? I love your last piece." They pointed to where it hung with other pieces on a wall dedicated for the task. "Really calm, not an energy I get around here a lot." Calm was really not the theme of the place, with so many flutters busily creating as if their lives depended on it.

"You liked it?" Rose smiled at her hanging picture of that river in Ponyville. "Thanks, say, you know much about druids?"

"We all do, a little." They put their hooves close together. "Why? I'm not one myself." They darted in closer. "You know, most of us aren't. More than most places, but still..."

"Sorry." Rose deflated a little. "Not trying to assume, just looking for some help. Is there an order that fits that?" She pointed to her hanging picture.

"Hm. Hm! Hm." The art-master butterfly nodded as they bobbed in place, bits of paint falling from their dazzingly colorful wings. "I think Calm Turn would know!"

"Who's that?" Rose began to smile with refound hope. "Do they come here?"

"All the time! One of your friends was working with him." The art master bobbed his head quickly. "On the clay wheel." They pointed, only to recoil. "Oh, there he is. Calm!" A dragonfly looked up from where he had been working on what looked to be a pot of some kind. "She's looking for you!"

Rose laughed nervously, stepping forward. "I don't mean to interrupt."

Calm let his wheel come to a slow and smooth halt without sending his work flying. "You're the outsider pony, right? One of three?"

"That's me." She came in with a hopeful expression, clip-clopping towards the dragonfly and their art. "I was... just told we are all disqualified from the leaf order."

"Can't argue that." Did everycreature there know that before they did?! "What brings you this way?" He was just as his name implied, calm and collected, unlike many other flutters.

"Well... if I can't do leaf, I was thinking... Oh, did you see my art?" She pointed to the painting, hanging peacefully. "I was wondering if there's an order that'd appreciate that kind of thing."

"Hm." He started to curl a hoof towards his chin but paused, perhaps noticing he was still covered in wet clay. "I am told you are a druid in all but a few steps. You don't know the language of nature, but that can't be helped, and you lack an order, but you have everything else. Is this true?"

"Are you asking if I learned those 'first circle' spells? 'Cause I did!" Rose bounced in place, looking perhaps a bit proud of that fact. "And five cantrips. And I passed the classes. I did all that, but no order."

"No order," Calm repeated gently. "But you enjoy art? Finish this one." He stepped back, nodding at the pot he had abandoned. "Show me how you can work with it, gently. Respect the stone."

Rose approached with a raised brow, circling about until she stood on the pedals. With a slow stepping, she began to turn it. "I haven't worked with clay before, I should warn. I feel bad, messing up your work. It's really nice!"

He set a hoof on her shoulder, splattering her with some wet clay. "Listen for what the stone wishes to be, and help it reach it. Stone has a will, but so little ability to grasp it."

"If you say so..."

"I know so... Feel it in your heart--"

"That's sort of a start," continued Rose as she touched a hoof to the clay.

"The calm urge spreading."

"Not sure where this is heading." Unwittingly, Rose was ensnaring the poor Everglow flutterpony in her song magic. A musical number was inevitable. But an Equestrian song was a deep magic of its own. In its grasp, it was not that strange that Rose began working the clay, exchanging musical words with her teacher.

"Stop stop, gently now," he bade. "Feel the pain, I'll show you how." He directed her away from where the clay, he reported, didn't want to go.

And Rose was keeping up, to her delight. She was fashioning the pot into something wonderful, her hooves under his as they worked together. It was fun, and also messy. But something was coming out of it. Something solid.

The song came to a halt only after the clay had been glazed and set carefully in the oven to cure. "Very good. It's not what I thought it'd be, when I started, but the stone whispered a different shape to you than it did to me. It does that sometimes."

Rose clopped her hooves wetly, clay splattering on each impact. "That was fun, um, but off topic?"

"Was it?" He looked her over casually, still so calm. "The order of stone appreciates a craftspony, so long as they responsibly reach to the earth." He made a scooping gesture as he said it. "And never leave it scarred, or polluted. To guard the earth and its bounties is our mission. Are you willing to stand in defense of the very earth beneath us that gives us life?"

Rose began to waggle her hooves clean of the clay dotting them. "Are you alright with a florist?"

Calm blinked slowly at that question. "Why would that be a concern?" But it clicked. "Ah. We are not the leaf. We guard the earth, not the plants on it. Though you do not seem the kind to despoil them, which is good. No druid of any kind should be doing that. The leaf's strict rules are not ours. We tend the rocks." He turned and pointed at the oven. "Even that. It was only after the stone was in the shape it wanted to be that we placed it there, to give it the strength to be the rock it wants to be, to hold its shape against time, for a while. Is that not rock's true wish?"

"Huh." Rose had not considered the thoughts and desires of... a rock before... "Huh..." She sank to her haunches. "Are you willing to show me?"

Calm smiled at that. "What have we been doing, these hours? You are already my student, if you wish to continue."

Rose began to clap excitedly. "Yes please!" So it was that Rose became a hopeful stone order druid.

---

"She enchanted me." Calm inclined his head at his leader, the head druid that was also mayor. "But I felt no malice in it. I am unsure she was aware she was doing it... I think she enchanted herself. We sang as we worked." A little smile spread on his face. "It was fun, looking back on it, and she did learn. If we could learn that ritual from her, it could have many uses."

The mayor looked to Purple Auspex. "Did they use any of this ritual on you?"

Purple shook his head quickly, his wings buzzing. "No, ma'am! We don't have any records of that." The one time an Equestrian had used song magic in Everglow, it had been in a deep dungeon, with only a golem to witness it. It had gone unrecorded. "Should I ask about it?"

"Hm." She paced back and forth in front of the window of her office. "I want to know more... but... Did she seem truly unaware of her actions?" She was looking at Calm Stop pointedly. "And you were a participant?"

"I was." Calm nodded gently. "It felt like I could resist it. I almost did, but it was gentle, and I saw no harm. Once I began, it felt like... It was curing clay, becoming harder and harder around me." He buzzed his dragonfly wings much as Purple had his bee ones. "A strange magic. She wishes to learn of the order of stone, and I would teach her. I trust there is no objection?"

"None." She nodded in easy assent to that answer. "A good order, stable by definition. Hm, that makes sense." She rose a hoof, only for it to fall again. "She is the pillar of her group. Yes, stone fits perfectly. This means all three of them have found an order that agrees with them." She clapped her hooves together. "I knew it. They will all be true druids soon."

Purple rocked left and right. "One thing. One thing... They still don't know druidic. Are we keeping that a secret?"

She frowned, reminded of that little snag. "Perhaps, when they have won their way into their orders, we can reconsider. With the bindings of the orders, we can trust them with this secret. If they break it, they risk all they have gained, and they seem to not want that."

She turned towards the others in a sharp pivot. "Speaking of that, has Lily been fully inducted?"

"She is entirely a member." Purple dipped his head. "And getting along, both with them and her new friend. It remains confusing, to them." He clicked his tongue against his teeth. "A beaver is a new one."

---

Lily hugged her pet about the neck. "Are you hungry?" A whistling chitter was the reply. "That sounds like a yes!" Lily released him and got to trotting to the pantry. "And I got a special treat for a good boy!" She buried her head in the closet and came out with a big bundle of bark in her mouth.

The beaver was upon her, almost kissing her, but mostly just getting his teeth on the bark and yanking it away from her. "Hey!" She pouted, watching her pet munch happily at it. "At least let me put it down first." Still, he was eating so happily, it was hard to be entirely upset at him. "You still need a name... Well, you don't need a name, but I want to give you one. And you like gifts from me!" She tapped her hooves together. "Mmm."

"How about." Daisy was there, grinning at the two of them. "Mister Paddletail!"

"Ugh, pass." Lily waved that idea way. "You were so brave, and you wanted to help your friend... Bold Support!" The beaver looked up at her. "Ya like that? Bold Support. That's you." She leaned in and got a beaver nose in reply, mashing against one another with shared noises of delight before he went right back to his barky snack.

"Bold, huh... Sure, that works." Daisy shrugged softly, a little giggle escaping her. "Nah, it's pretty good! I should know, I named a lot of things."

"You haven't in a while." Lily closed the door to the pantry gently. "No more fire names?"

"No more fire names." Daisy was grinning though. "Unless it's a fire that's supposed to be there. I can name those, and I will. You can't stop me." Her brave statement was ended awkwardly. Bold crashed into her, knocking her over and promptly sitting on her, broad tail slapping the ground behind him.

"Don't bully her." Lily was quick to trot over to her eager defender. "She can name her fires if she wants to."

"Yeah!" Daisy picked herself up as Bold stepped off of her. "Naughty beaver." She shook a hoof at Bold, who didn't seem all that upset at the chastising coming from her.

It didn't help that Lily was hugging her beloved companion. "Knocking ponies over without permission will make them grumpy," she advised. "Give them a warning first."

Bold churred at her, going tense.

"That's a warning." Which was all Lily got out before she was tackled to the ground, laughing wildly as the two began to wrestle.

Daisy watched the two tumble and roll. "Hope Rose's doing alright." She looked to the door leading outside. "It's been, what, hours?"

"Probably means she's doing great!" Lily got out hurriedly in the midst of the wrestling match.

Author's Note:

Rose always was the solid foundation of the trio. It comes together.

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Comments

[badninja]

I wonder how they will react to how “heart song” is done in Equestria? That is something that they all can do very well.

[redmar]

The order of the Stone would probably be most intrigued by Maud Pie but probably unable to read her expressions.

[Booster Spice]

Druids would be extra reactive to Heart Songs because of Natures use of patterns and blending?

[Venerable Ro]

And Rose found herself a spot! Very nice.

Does the Order of Stone appreciate or dislike dwarves I wonder? Depends on the dwarves I suppose.

[David Silver]

11148224
A dwarf can find a home there, but they'll have to stop drilling holes willy nilly and go where they're wanted.

[RadicalDishonesty]

Too bad the girls didn't pop out in a more metropolitan area, Rose might be gunning for the artclass (Bard) instead.

But the inborn song powers are just useful like bardery and not actually barding.

[Chrome Masquerade]

Calm blinked slowly at that question. "Why would that be a concern?" But it clicked. "Ah. We are not the leaf. We guard the earth, not the plants on it. Though you do not seem the kind to despoil them, which is good. No druid of any kind should be doing that. The leaf's strict rules are not ours. We tend the rocks." He turned and pointed at the oven. "Even that. It was only after the stone was in the shape it wanted to be that we placed it there, to give it the strength to be the rock it wants to be, to hold its shape against time, for a while. Is that not rock's true wish?"

I believe it was Michaelangelo who said

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

[Chrome Masquerade]

Lily hugged her pet about the neck. "Are you hungry?" A whistling chitter was the reply. "That sounds like a yes!" Lily released him and got to trotting to the pantry. "And I got a special treat for a good boy!" She buried her head in the closet and came out with a big bundle of bark in her mouth.

The beaver was upon her, almost kissing her, but mostly just getting his teeth on the bark and yanking it away from her.

I made your favorite: stakes!