Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers

by David Silver

22 - Offering a Smile

"We've learned." Lily lifted a flower pot into view as Daisy explained the benefits. "This particular flower." She waved over the 'floating' flower, even if Lily was busy holding it up. "Is especially delicious and high in pollen density. Just one of these lovely stems and petals will fill you up for a day." She nudged the flower gently, causing a faint dusting at the air. "As you can see, this is already heavy with pollen."

The bee flutter rubbed their hooves together with a big smile. "That looks wonderful. But if it's so good, why sell the entire flower?" His eyes went up and down from the flower to its stem and the ground it was on. "Isn't that... kinda selling yourself out of the business? I mean yay!"

"Yay," echoed Rose with a smile. "The flower will only last a week in captivity, even if you care for it really well, which we hope you will. It only thrives in the wild, where we lend a hoof, but mostly leave it alone, minus the small percentage we harvest for you to enjoy."

"Oh." The bee leaned in to sniff at the pollen-thick flower. "That's a very druid answer! Why don't the other druids do it like that?" He plucked up the jar, scooping it against himself and hugging the pot in his arms. "I'll take this! Charge me tomorrow!" And off he buzzed. That happened sometimes.

Daisy giggled with a clap of joy. "That's one happy customer, even if we have to wait to tomorrow to get paid."

Lily shrugged, her hooves no longer filled with a plant. "It's not that big a deal. The flutters are usually good for it. The ones that aren't get ratted on by their friends, and they don't want that."

Rose stuck out her tongue. "I wouldn't want that either! A pony with a reputation for that wouldn't get very far." All three shook their head at the idea. They were honest ponies! "Now, that flutter stallion looks like he needs our help." They grinned, perhaps a little predatorially, at their next victim.

He would not escape them without a bushel of flowers for his special someflutter. At least some domestic disputes would be settled in the process.

---

"We are ready!" Daisy danced in place as she gestured at her friends. "This'll snap back later, so it shouldn't... be too bad."

Lily leaned against her beaver. "So far, doing things the Everglow way hasn't been so bad."

"So!" Rose raised a hoof into the sky. "We are prepared to try a spell." All three nodded in unison. "We'll try to become little birds and back. Will we become Everglow birds?"

"Probably." Daisy clapped her hoofs. "But maybe Equestrian ones!"

Lily rolled her eyes slowly. "But you just want to know what we come back to."

Tree nodded a bit stiffly. "This is true. I didn't think this is what you called me for. Are you alright?"

Rose waved it away. "If we weren't alright, I wouldn't suggest an experiment. Now, we do want you here. If anything goes funny, a friend being around is a big plus."

"A huge plus." Lily hugged closer to her companion. "Love him, but he won't be of much use in this." Bold Support gave a little beaverish noise of agreement. There was only so much a beaver could do, friendly or not. "So are you ready to lend a hoof?"

Daisy let out a breathless laugh. "If things go wrong, we're probably passing out, just to warn you."

Rose put a hoof to her face. "More likely than not. Ready?"

The three met with a clop of extended hooves, but their eyes were on Tree. Tree sank to her haunches. "I will do my best to be of help. With how well you've done so far, I doubt I will be of much use but to cheer you on, and I will do that." She brought her hooves together at her chest. "So, please, proceed. You will be casting Pest Form, then?"

Daisy extended her tongue. "That name! But yes."

"Yep." Lily bobbed her head. "We'll turn into little somethings. The plan is birds, but that may not work."

"Who knows." Rose shrugged with the mystery of it. "Keep an eye on us."

They sang and they danced, conjuring the primal power to swirl around them. The spell was not designed to be an acapella. It was not designed to work with multiple casters at all. This didn't stop them from doing it anyway. "We become something small, but still big in our heart," they sang out, the spell taking longer than a single druid weaving their art, but not as long as most proper rituals one would think of.

Smoke billowed out in all directions, clouding vision. Tree didn't feel the urge to smoke, waving it away instead. There were no ponies remaining. "Um... Please make a noise..."

"Right here." They had become rats, not birds. Possibly worse, they had become very cartoonish rats. The rodent Rose was waving at Tree with a newly formed hand. "We're alright!"

"You can talk." Tree leaned in, peering at the curious animals. They were... round? They had a lot of the rounded edges of an Equestrian pony. "You are an Equestrian rat." Her eyes darted to the others. "All of you. Is that Bold Support?" There was one Equestrian rat on all fours next to the others that had stood up. Four rats in total. "Oh dear..."

Bold chittered in a beaverish way, but remained an animal. They did not stand up, that was not their normal way. They did not speak, they didn't know how.

"You're safe at least." Tree settled down within easy range of the rodents. "Why can you talk? That spell, normally, removes that ability. Rats do not speak! You are a rat, who should not be talking. And yet, here you are, talking to me. Equestrians!"

"That's us." Rose giggled at the impossibility she and the others were. "So, now... how do we go back to being ponies?" She was examining her new fingers, turning her hands in and out in slow turns. "Wow that's so wierd."

Daisy rest a hand on her head. "Really! This is confusing, so how do we stop it?"

"You do not." Tree angled an ear at them. "The spell normally remains for less than half an hour, then fades on its own. Unless we get a talented spellcaster to try and dispel it, we wait. And forcing you back could change what happens. We don't know yet what you're supposed to turn back... into? I am surprised! Here you are, turning from one Equestrian thing to another. I didn't know that was an option."

Rose shook her head. "That makes two. Alright, wait... We can do waiting, right girls?" The others cried in unison, paw meeting paw. Even Calm joined in as if to not be let out of the paw meeting. Rose laughed gently. "You too, Calm. We have to get you back to normal. I don't think Lily would forgive me if her companion was a rat forever."

Daisy shuddered with a step. "Ew, rat... Why'd we have to become rats? Rats are so... icky."

Rose shrugged softly. "I don't feel icky." She began rubbing over her face and neck as if grooming. "I feel clean and hey, hands." She extended those hands out to examine them anew. "That's new! I bet I could grab things." And so she grabbed Daisy by the tail.

"Eee!" Daisy scurried away from the grab, easily escaping Rose's grip. "Don't do that!"

Lily smirked softly as she leaned against the larger rat that was her companion. "Don't be a foal. We've had tails before."

"Not these kinds of tails!" Daisy wagged her new tail with a scowl at the other two. "It feels different when someone grabs it, trust me."

Tree's horn glowed softly. "If someone else wants to experience that, I can give a gentle pull if you want?"

Rose inclined her head slowly as if considering the offer. "Uh... You... wouldn't hurt me, right? I'm trusting you!"

"Of course not." Tree set a hoof over her heart. "On my honor, I will be very careful to keep you safe."

"Well, good enough for me." Rose turned to offer her profile. "Show me what has Daisy so upset."

Tree reached with her magic, giving Rose a gentle pat along her back to start. "That's the same." Rose rubbed her new hands together. "And the tail?"

"Working on it." She moved her magic back and gave Rose a little pull at the base of her tail and a slow petting along the altered limb. "How's that?"

"I do not like being yanked... I didn't like that much as a pony either, so that's not a change." She snorted in a way rodents didn't normally do often. "That is different though... Not sure I like it." She put a hand under her pointed snout. "Think I'm ready to be a pony now."

"Ditto." Daisy flopped to her side. "Wake me up when we're back to normal."

"I'll watch over you." Tree had promised, and proved she was good to her word as she sat in patient watch over the three and their pet. As promised, the spell came to its end. Support was the first, a beaver looming over his master with a questioning squeak. Tree pulled him away, lest any harm happen. "They should join us in a moment."

The other three weren't long behind, popping into equine forms, though not the Equestrian ones they had started with. Rose pawed at her round cheeks. "Oh wow..."

"Wow," echoed Lily, gazing in a mirror at the horse that looked back at her. She wasn't an Equestrian pony at all.

Daisy waved the two off. "Don't be such foals about it! We knew this was probably gonna happen." She grinned at Tree. "Now tell me if I'm a sexy pony or not."

Tree blinked rapidly. "I am the worst pony to ask for that. I am straight, but not actively seeking such an attachment, and I have none of those feelings for you, Daisy. Even if I like you well enough as a friend. I am in no position to rate your comeliness." She inclined her head. "If it helps, I don't see a single obvious mistake. You are an Everglow pony. All of you. Earth-bound tribe, clearly."

Rose sat up. "Clearly." There was little arguing that she was still an earth horse, even if not the one she started as. "Well... We'll go back to normal when we get back to Equestria. And that spell works when we all cast it."

"That part was pretty fun." Lily turned towards Rose, her beaver at her side. "We were so cute! I bet Fluttershy would have just fell over and died."

Daisy snickered at the mental image. "I thought that was our job!"

Rose waved Daisy's thoughts away. "It depends on the situation. Fluttershy is pretty good at passing out when the situation demands it. If she was into flowers, she could have been our forth, but no, animals, her thing." Rose fixed Lily with a new look. "Wait a moment..."

"Just remembered, huh?" Lily pet her companion with her altered hoof. "I still like plants, like, a lot. We just fell into different buckets because none of us see a thing wrong plucking a pretty flower when you have to."

Daisy was grinning more than she had to. "She'd be a fine flower mare, but that's not really her thing. We'll have to settle with her being a friend." She looked to Tree. "Like you, come to think."

Tree colored all the more brightly. "Wait! Do you... all three of you?" They were looking at her passively. "You're all..." She rose to her hooves and started for the door. "I should have seen this coming. This is all my own fault! I just wasn't thinking."

She left to do just that and consider the situation.

Author's Note:

We now have three Everglow flower mares. They didn't change in behavior at all.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

That couldve gone a lot worse?

They couldve turned into Pi Rats?

[David Silver]

11204175
The horror...

[Chrome Masquerade]

Daisy shuddered with a step. "Ew, rat... Why'd we have to become rats? Rats are so... icky."

Fun fact: Rats, given the chance, are actually very clean animals; quite oftem they'll wash themselves upwards of seven times a day!