> Ponyfinder: The Lost Flowers
>  by David Silver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 - Plucking Flowers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wind howled around them, making Daisy's ears rustle, the fur wafting as she struggled to get another hoof into place to drag herself along the steep rock surface. "Do we have to... go this far?"

Rose tugged on the rope that held Daisy, helping her ascend a little faster. "These flowers are beyond the pale. I  hear they'll knock the socks off any pony that sees them."

Lily stuck out her tongue at the idea. "I hope not. It's cold, I need my socks."

Daisy scrambled up to the step that Rose had helped her reach. "It's a figure of speech." She focused on Rose. "Right?"

"Yeah." Rose snorted with a smile as she got towards the next narrow trail that allowed them to get higher. "Let's get to a nice solid ledge before it gets too dark."

Shimmying along the sheer surface, the path broadened a few minutes in to something they could consider. Lily nodded at it. "I vote here. It's only getting darker." She waved a hoof up at the dimming sky. Stars were already peeking out behind day sky, warning of impending night.

"But check out the view." Daisy sat, viewing the sunset with its brilliant colors. "It's different, from up here."

"Yeah." Rose crashed next to her. "I was so focused on the flowers, it's easy to miss things like that. Um, but if we don't get our tents up soonish, we just won't have any."

Lily joined the other two, enjoying the sunset. "Is that such a big deal? It's not raining and it isn't that cold, with my socks." She waggled a sock-adorned hoof, shielded from the cold sufficiently in her view. "Let's enjoy the moment."

The girls sat quietly as the sun sank beneath the horizon, the moon raising in its place. Rose was the first to stand. "Well, it was your call, so we're sleeping under the stars tonight." She moved away from the ledge and flopped over. Drawing out her rolled tent, she used it as a pillow instead. "G'night!"

"Nice idea." Daisy copied the notion, soon curled with her tent as more of a body pillow, hugging it for comfort as she dozed off.

Lily giggled at the two as she sank to her belly and just closed her eyes without a pillow to speak of. Her mind was filled with the happy idea that they'd get their flower the next day and head down back to flat lands.

It was quiet and still, until it wasn't. With a great peal of thunder, all three yelped, bolting to their hooves, or trying. The wind picked up to a great roar around them. They weren't laying on the ground, swirling around in some great torrent of air that carried them. It was as if they were in the middle of some kind of tornado. "What's going on?" screamed one of them, not that any of them could be sure which one of them said it, and even the one that said it couldn't hear themselves screaming.

Lightning lanced and jumped around them, some coming within inches of their flailing hooves. The angry storm had them, but they weren't struck at least. Just as suddenly as it came, the wind faded away, leaving them hovering for just a moment. "Oh... No," got out Rose just before gravity remembered to do its job, yanking all three of them down in a rush towards what seemed to be a forest so dense, the Everfree was just a city park in comparison.

It was perhaps without surprise that everything went dark on impact.

Daisy was first to awaken, head spinning. "Oof," she grunted, her hooves kicking weakly at the air. Oh, she was on her back, she realized. "Ow." Her eyes began to focus and she squeaked, realizing something was above her, watching her! A pony, with strangely thin limbs and alien details. It also had two great antennae curled from its head. It had big butterfly wings with a variety of dazzling colors. "What?"

"Hiya," it replied with a musical trill, grinning down at her. "You aren't a pegasus, or a flutter. Why were you flying? Are you a wizard?" It clapped its hooves with building excitement. "I bet you are! I never met a really powerful wizard before. Do you have to be powerful to fly as a wizard? I forget." It tapped its chin thoughtfully.

Daisy was left bewildered. "Um..." That was a lot of questions... "Um... I'm not a wizard. I'm not even a unicorn."

"Daisy?" came a familiar and concerned tone. "You alright?" Looking over Daisy could see Rose with a confused expression. "Just stay still, I'll rescue you."

Daisy looked back up at the strange butterfly-pony that was hovering over her. "I... don't think it's mean."

"I'm not mean," assured the butterfly. "And I'm a he." He leaned in waggling his brows. "But we don't know each other well enough to worry about that. Hiya! I'm Warm Sunset."

"That's a nice name," allowed Daisy, sitting up slowly. "Did you see another earth pony, like me? Pink, also like me, darker though, flowers for a cutie mark, also like me, but different flowers?"

"And a blond mane," added Rose as she closed in. "I'm Rose, by the way."

"Rose!" Warm seemed pleased at the knowledge given. "You look like a rose. Do I look like a warm sunset?" He twisted, showing off his body and wings with a grin.

"Uh huh..." Rose was more paying attention to sweeping the area. They were in some kind of thick forest. A jungle, but not as hot as one might expect a jungle to be. Did jungles come in moderate? Apparently so. "We really have to find our friend. She could be hurt."

"Oh no!" gasped out Warm, hooves to his cheeks. "Guys!" Suddenly there were countless other flutters poking their snouts out of various places. "Missing pony, could be hurt. Earth, pink, blond mane!"

For as silly as he had been, it was suddenly quite serious. The area swarmed with the other flutters, the search fully mobilized without complaint with shrill cries. Some were calling the lost pony, others were calling to each other, noting what they had found or not found. The forest was alive with activity.

Rose watched, mouth agape, at the sudden transformation of things, with all those insect ponies rushing about. "Found her!" came one cry, pushing an earth pony up out of the water with loud splashes.

Lily was awake, angry even. She shook herself vigorously, sending water everywhere as she looked around wildly. "Where am I?!"

"The forest of dreams," came a new voice, a similarly pink flutter standing on a ledge just above Daisy was smiling down at her. "Just outside of Prisma. Welcome!"

"Welcome!" called the crowd at once even as it began to disperse, the emergency handled.

The original flutter hovering over Daisy nodded at her. "Your friend looks alright. Was she flying too? Flying takes practice, take it from me."

Rose waved to Lily across the stream as she was. "We're over here," she shouted at their separated friend. Her eyes went back to Warm. "So... Forest of Dreams, huh?"

Daisy inclined her head. "Does that mean we're sleeping?"

"That would be pretty funny." Warm bobbed his head. "But no. we're all awake." He lifted up only to come down next to Rose. "I answered a lot of your questions but you aren't answering mine much. That isn't fair. C'mon!"

Daisy got up to her hooves, legs shaking a little. "We weren't trying to fly."

"Step away from them," boomed a sudden new voice. A female flutter descended towards them with two other flutters flanking her, one at either side. Her antennae were long and heavy and she wore fine jewelry in the pattern of leaves and branches. "They are aberrations. Nature recoils from their presence."

Warm made himself scarce, flying away on fluttering wings and not looking back.

One of the two flutters accompanying the new present went and grabbed up a squeaking and resisting Lily, bringing her across the river to her friends and dumping her with them.

Rose cleared her throat. "Um, hi? We happen to like nature."

"A lot," agreed Daisy.

"We're florists," finished Lily. "Nature is one of our things. We're also earth ponies, so, you know, living up that stereotype."

The seemingly older but not elder flutter inclined her head faintly. "I am not aware of that stereotype, nor do you appear as an earth-bound typically would. Ponies are welcome here, but I am unconvinced you are one. Four hooves and a brand of destiny does not assure that." She raised one of her own. "I have all five of those, and yet, a pony, not precisely."

Rose gestured at her co-florists. "Well, we are ponies. We always have been. What's a 'brand of destiny' anywho?"

"That." The elder directed a hoof at Rose's rose on her rump. "This." She directed to her own, showing a tall tree festooned with life and small ornate houses in equal abundance, quite complex for a cutiemark. "Though I am old enough to admit mine was added with paint, instead of the touch of gods. I still fancy it."

"Very nice," agreed the flutter on the left.

"Awe-inspiring," chimed the one on the right.

Daisy inclined her entire body for a better view of the art piece. "For a pony, trying to disguise your cutie mark doesn't end well, usually."

That got a smile from the matriarch. "That statement does much to calm me.  A matter of frank truth, but one not known to many who are not a pony themselves. I am mayor of this city." She turned and gestured, directing their eyes at a dazzlingly colorful cities in the branches above them that had just been unnoticed until that point. 

The bee-like flutter on the left stepped forward. "She is also our head druid."

"Wise," echoed the moth on the right. "Only one of few to achieve both at once."

The druid/mayor batted away at the comments, but her smile hinted she was alright with a little ego polishing. "You are not of this world, however. That much is clear. For now, I would ask that you remain in the city while we learn more. Do you have coins?"

Lily dug out a pouch of bits. "We have these. You do take bits, right?"

"Bits?" She lifted from the ground, the mayor hovering closer at an angle to peer into the bag. "How curious. Are they still made of gold?"

"I think so?" Lily got one coin out onto the flat of her hoof, holding it up for inspection. "Always assumed they were."

Rose shrugged softly. "We don't mint them, just use them."

"And earn them," chimed Daisy. "Speaking of that... Our shop needs us, at it. If you could just point us back towards Ponyville?" She turned in place. "Whatever direction that is."

The mayor sighed. "Not a name I know, which does not surprise me." She hovered over each visitor, tapping each on the head. "They are guests. Lost and confused. See they are comfortable, but they are not to leave the city." She landed as her assistants both saluted. "If you wish to practice your profession, we have other lovers of flowers here, a great many. Perhaps lessons can be learned?"

The moth perked, fluffy ears twitching. "I have a friend who has a wonderful garden, more dazzling at once than the city is as a whole, if you can believe it."

The bee rolled their eyes. "You always claim that. It doesn't make it true. It is pretty though."

Rose took a step forward. "Thank you, for your welcome, um... So, bits, not the local currency?" All three of the flutters shook their head. "So how are we gonna get anything done with no money at all?"

"A little gift, for a new friend." The mayor/druid drew out a pouch and from it took a single coin of off-silver, holding it out until Rose snatched it in her teeth. "That is a platinum piece, worth ten gold, which are, in turn, worth ten silver, which are ten copper each. That one coin has quite remarkable value, and should see to the needs of you and your friends for now."
> 2 - One of Us
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can stay here." A new flutter waved their soft-blue forelimb at what was effectively an apartment. A large one, big enough to house all three of them, but one of many others that filled that tree, which was itself just one of so many others. "Oh, your change." He dug out a pouch, coiling on himself to reach his saddlebags and counting them out with lips and tongue. "Here you are."

Daisy accepted the coins, gold, silver and copper instead of the one platinum they had started with. "How long are we good for?"

"I took a week." The flutter landlord bobbed his head. "Any questions?"

Rose looked away from the bathtub. "Yeah. Is it normal for ponies that visit to be jailed?"

The flutter recoiled at that. "W-what? You're not jailed. You can walk out right there." He pointed to the door. "It locks from the inside, so it'll be very hard to lock you in."

Rose shook her head slowly. "Yeah, no... We were told we can't leave the city. Is that normal or not?"

"The word of the mayor is final." He rubbed behind his head. "The word of the high druid is final... The word of both is... double final?"

Lily poked out from behind Rose. "Pretty sure that means 'No, but it isn't changing.'"

The landlord took a step back, wings starting to buzz as he lifted from the ground. "I'm really sorry. I hope you like it here. Prisma's a nice place, really." He glanced behind himself and back. "Actually, we like ponies, a lot, even... strange ponies like you. Expect other people to stop by and make friendly. Word of advice! Set boundaries." He clapped his forehooves together with a smug look. "I'm already good at boundaries., but not everyone else is, so, keep that in mind. Now, being a master of boundaries, gonna leave now so you can settle in."

The flower mares allowed the flutter to make good his escape, door shutting behind him. With a loud click, the lock deployed. As promised, the lock was right there on the inside, waiting to be turned to unlock it.

Rose looked to her fellows. "Alright, let's... keep it cool."

"There is nothing cool about this." Daisy flopped on the ground. "But I'm keeping it together!" Her hooves weakly pressed at the ground but she remained right where she started. "Our shop..."

Lily was sniffing at a dangling flower. "They really do like flowers."

Rose quirked an ear at Lily, moving to join her in viewing the vine of flowers. "Huh... Well, that's a good sign, right? If they like flowers, they'll like us." She turned a hoof on herself. "We practically are flowers."

Lily bobbed her head. "That's what I'm thinking! Let's turn those frowns around, as Pinkie loves to say."

Daisy sat up suddenly. "Oh no... Is this what Pinkie was talking about?" The other two looked at her. "Were you not listening?" It wasn't that unusual for Pinkie to get filtered out at times. "She talked about a 'magical world' she visited, twice! She..." Daisy fidgeted her hooves against one another. "She said it was super dangerous, but fun. But 'fun', for Pinkie..."

Rose's brows fell. "Could mean anything. It's Pinkie. I remember some of that, but this isn't like that. Everycreature we've met so far likes us, minus the whole 'Don't go anywhere' part."





Elsewhere, others were discussing related things. "Mistress." The bee tossed a book with a flick of his head. "I found it."

"Lovely." The druid brushed the book open with a sweep of a hoof and her eyes began to dance left and right. "I knew they looked... familiar... No, no... Here..." She set a hoof on a page. "Many years ago, in the human lands." She pointed eastwards. "A druid of their world visited ours." She was reading as she spoke. "At first in their guise, but when they learned the ways of this land, their body conformed to it, and they stopped sticking out." She tapped repeatedly. "They had a friend, who never changed, but they were not a druid."

The bee giggled with a joy met by his smile. "So we just need to train them to respect the land?"

The head druid raised a brow at him. "The other had respect. They were a farmer, it is written." That she had been a farmer of rocks had not been noted. "Who lived well outside any city. But they did not know the call of nature. No... If we want them to do as the first, they will need to become druids."

The bee-flutter sank to his haunches. "Mistress, not to... contradict, but becoming a druid is not an overnight thing." He waggled a hoof. "Years for most."

"For most," she echoed with a smirk, nosing through the book. "But they are far from the first visitors of that strange plane. Equestria... Visitors from there seem to gravitate towards a profession with an unnatural speed." She set her hoof down on a new passage. "Especially when it matches their brand, and especially again when it matches what they already did. We have three equestrians with flowers for brands, who delight in flowers. I don't think I even need to finish this thought."

The bee flutter's wings began to buzz with a fresh excitement. "It's always nice to have a pony druid. Ooo, we can have secret druid chats."

"No." The statement was flat and final. "They are not to be instructed in druidic. They will leave this plane in time, likely. Why give them such a precious secret to carry away? They don't need that knowledge to learn the rest."

"As you wish it." The bee-flutter lifted into the air with the soft buzz of bee wings despite being far larger than any bee had right to be. "I'll tell them!"

"You could send a lower ranked member for this task." The head druid/mayor shook her head softly. "Are you curious?"

"Yes." There was no shame or deception there. "May I?"

"You may," gently laughed the head druid. "Teach these outsiders of our ways, so they can join us properly."

He squealed like a happy child, darting off with the receding buzz of his wings.

"Back to other things." Running a city and a druid circle brought many things to her hooves in need of her attention. "Enough distraction for one day."





Rose led the other two along the grand branch they were on. "Huh..." The entire city was a network of tree structures, festooned with colors, both natural and seemingly installed for the pleasure of the colors. "There has to be a place to eat somewhere around here."

"Did you say food?" A small butterfly-flutter poked up, hovering there off the platform. "We have that. Lot of that. You want food?"

Daisy examined the new butterfly. Her wings were large and colored in wild stripes coming out of what looked like eyes in the center. "Hello?"

"Hi!" eagerly replied the butterfly, waving at the flower mares. "You said food, right? We have all kinds of food. My favorite... Oh." She inclined her head suddenly. "Have you ever tried pollen?"

All three of the mares inclined their head in a different direction. "Pollen?" asked Lily. "The stuff flowers make, to make more flowers?"

"That's the stuff!" eagerly sang the butterfly. "It has sugar and other good stuff." She did a twirl in the air suddenly. "Everything you need to fly right! And you can make it all kinds of ways. Oh, we have bee hives."

Daisy leaned forward with a suspicious squint. "Aren't some of you bees? Do you have... you-hives?"

This was apparently very funny to the Butterfly, giggling so hard she began to hiccup. "You-hives! That's great. No, silly. Bee bees! Little bees!" She held up her hooves really close together. "Now, uh... Don't tell them..." She fluttered in closer. "Some of the bee-flutters actually like making honey themselves. You can tell though." She bobbed her head. "If the honey's all rainbow, that came from a flutter."

Lily stuck out her tongue a little, looking mildly appalled. "Not sure I want to eat what came out of somecreature."

"Don't be like that." The butterfly was waving away the disgust. "Flutter honey's pretty good if you can get past that part. Anyway! Like I said, easy to spot, so don't, or do." She burst into a new fit of light giggles. "You look funny, by the way."

Rose smirked softly. "So we've been informed. I will note you look pretty strange from where we're standing."

The butterfly-flutter landed lightly next to Rose and began looking around. "Huh, you're right. Things do look different from this angle."

Rose shoved the butterfly, who laughed and fluttered away, not at all upset for the push. "Seriously, you're..." Rose struggled for the word.

"Colorful?" suggested Daisy.

The butterfly beamed grandly. "Thank you. I like your colors too, but you have less of them. They're nice colors though."

"That's a power play," added a new male voice, a dragonfly of a flutter rising into view. "Your brands, matching. You three must be really close."

That got all three mares to color. Lily moved between the new dragonfly flutter and her friends. "It was the other way around, actually."

The dragonfly inclined his head with the sharp precision of an insect. "Do tell."

Rose looked between the dragonfly and the butterfly. "Don't you have things to do?"

The butterfly shook her head. "I was going to show you where to get some food."

"Food? Good idea." The dragonfly nodded in agreement to the idea. "But finish the story please."

Lily pointed at the other two of her compatriots. "When we were fillies, we each found our love for flowers on our own, but then we were three ponies with matching marks and we found each other and it just kinda worked out."

Rose nodded quickly. "And we've been friends since then." She threw an arm over a mare on either side. "And right now, we're all hungry." The other two nodded along with her, united in the desire for something to chew.

The butterfly thrust out a hoof as she swooped in. "Then follow me! We're gonna fill those bellies with tasty treats!"

"Are they vegetarians?" The dragonfly came in close at the butterfly's side. "I hear a lot of ponies are. They are ponies, right?"

"I think so?" The butterfly looked over her shoulder. "Are you vegetarians or not?"

Rose pointed at herself. "Pescatarian, vegeterian, vegan." She directed at Daisy as the vegetarian and Lily as the vegan. "Gonna guess there's no fish around. Fish don't fly."

Lily  burst into giggles. "Flying fish would be so odd. How do you eat them though? They look at you with such cute eyes. I don't want to hurt them."

Rose rolled her eyes at that. "But you'll end a pretty flower without even thinking about it? At least Daisy is honest about her diet."

"Fish gives me gas." Daisy blushed furiously at her admission. "Tasty, but not worth that price."

Rose had an ear on Lily. "Besides, how does 'don't hurt the cute fish' make you not enjoy milk or honey either? We don't even hurt anything getting those!"

Daisy thumped sideways into Lily. "Could do the vegetarian thing. We don't eat fish either, but a nice cake, mmm."

Though the three had almost forgotten the flutters they were following, this did not seem to bother either of them, listening to the conversation going on behind them.

"No! They all... came from inside things..." Lily shuddered with undisguised revulsion. "There is nothing inside me that you should want to eat or drink, and that goes for all the other animals out there, thanks."

Rose's eyes closed halfway in a sultry look. "I don't remember you complaining before."

Lily colored vividly. "Rose!"

Daisy howled with laughter, bringing things to a stop as she flopped over to get it all out.

The butterfly giggled, but it was a brief thing. "Here we are. We have all kinds of food at our markets, and this is one of the larger ones. " She pointed eagerly. "Veggies, honey, and yes, pretty sure you could find some fish."
> 3 - Just a Smackerel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lily turned her eyes away from the goods that involved any part of any animal, living or otherwise. There. She raised her hooves to cradle a jar full of all manner of nuts. "Now this looks delish!" Sure, she couldn't identify half the nuts involved. They were on an alien world, with alien nuts, it seemed. "Wonder what they taste like..."

"Wanna sample?" The smiling butterfly, the most common sort of Flutterpony, was happy to grab a scoop in his mouth and serve up Lily a little to try.

Rose and Daisy were by the honey pots. Some were clay jars, others glass jars. Some were even done up to look like little bee hives. Rose tapped at one of the clear ones. "Flutter honey."

The bee flutter that oversaw that stand leaned forward at her words. "Ah, you're unusually well known for an out of town pony."

Daisy darkened, looking at the bee. "Did... you make this honey?"

The bee shook his head quickly. "Oh no! That would be awkward, for me, for you, for everyone. You shouldn't have to look someone in the eye when you take their honey."

Rose burst into a short laugh. "Wow, I did not see that coming, but yeah, alright." She rubbed at her cheek. "If they were selling pony milk somewhere, I wouldn't want to... buy from the pony making it, or be selling mine."

Daisy rolled her eyes at that. "You're thinking about that right now."

"Am not!" Rose tapped at the rainbow honey. "I'll try this though."

To the confusion of the sales-flutters, the mares casually stuffed things away out of view and out of mind. Equestrian ponies came stocked with internal bags of holding, a thing Everglow creatures did not get to enjoy.

"Can I buy one of those?" A butterfly was hovering just over Rose's head. "Where did you get one?"

"Where did I get what?"

The butterfly lowered and reached her hoof to poke Rose where the last purchase had gone. "The bag of holding. I've never seen a model like that. I never heard of a model like that, but I want it!"

"Me too!" came the call of another flutter, bouncing in the air. It was soon joined by others that gathered around, eager to hear where and how they could get their own body-concealed bags of holding.

Daisy shook her head at the crowd, shying back against Rose. "It's not something we bought. You wouldn't want somecreature to ask where they could buy those antennae, would you?" She pointed at the nearest butterfly's bobbing bit. It glowed faintly as if in response.

The implied threat was enough to send most of the crowd scattering, none of them willing to discuss the economics of selling that body part. One of the few remaining inclined his head. "Oh, that's an alien pony thing? Neat!"

Rose chuckled as she accelerated towards the branch that led to their new home. "Just an alien pony thing, which we are." She frowned at the idea. "Which is not an idea I like."

But they did not make it inside. Seated just in front of the door to their apartment was a bee flutter. The bee was watching them steadily as they approached. "I hope you're enjoying our city." He nodded softly.

Daisy nodded softly. "We had a lovely shopping time."

"Which is a problem." Lily shook her head. "We need to start earning bits."

"Bits are not going to work," reminded the bee. "But I know how you can earn your keep." All three mares were fixed on him, good. "Remember the important one you met, the most important one?"

Rose frowned with thought. "The mayor?"

"That one!" the bee buzzed his wings without moving. "She is not just a mayor, she is a druid." He pointed at himself. "As am I. Do you know what a druid is?"

Daisy wobbled a hoof at the bee. "Found one."

The bee smiled, but did not laugh. "Technically correct, but I am assuming that means 'no'. Druids are, to start, spellcasters."

Rose's eyes went to where a horn should be, but the bee had no horn. "You are not a unicorn."

"No?" The bee lifted into the air to give a most emphatic shrug. "You don't need to be a unicorn to be a druid. Most unicorns aren't even that good at it. They're stuck in the future, or in wild theories. We draw our power from nature itself, and nature has no interest in anything but right now." He flew in closer to the mares. "The rush of a wave. The enchantment of an opening flower." He spread his hooves as he came in right close. "The first dew in the morning and the crash of lightning's fury. Nature is powerful, but it lives in the here and now."

Daisy paled faintly. "She wasn't lying?!"

The bee looked over at the shout. "Who wasn't lying about what?"

Lily slipped in front of Daisy. "She's talking about a friend of ours. She said there was magic an earth pony could use, but, well, she's a special case. She already had a sort of magic."

"Earth ponies can be druids," agreed the bee without hesitation. "They can be very good at it. They have a connection to... the earth." He giggled softly at the tepid humor. "The dirt and rocks, the things that live in it, and the things that live on it." He buzzed in a slow circle around the three. "You're earth-bound, are you not?" He surely could see no wings, horns, or other exotic hints that would reflect a more exotic tribe.

Rose pointed at herself. "Just earth. Earth-bound? Sounds like somepony who's too caught up in not flying to me."

Daisy giggled softly. "I wouldn't want to fly. That always looked really scary to me." She stepped from one hoof to the next. "Right on the ground, where I like being. But an earth pony can use magic?" All three mares leaned in curiously. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"Only if you do it wrong." The bee pointed a hoof at their door. "Let's go inside. I'll be your teacher and we'll see how you adjust."

They came in off the 'street'. Though the bee had so much to talk about, and went right ahead doing so, the mares were busy putting away all the supplies they had purchased. Their pantry was soon stocked with all manner of goodies for later use. The three mares shared a firm nod of approval at their work, even if Lily was squinting at one particular purchase. "You got honey? Flutter honey? Why?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Pretty sure that won't hurt anypony, just maybe gross them out. We get one chance, and I'm not skipping it."

Daisy bobbed her head in solidarity. "I wanna try it at least once."

The bee gave a soft harum. "Ladies?" They looked over. "We were in the middle of a thing?"

Lily kicked close the door to the little food closet they had just filled up. "Sorry about that, please do continue."

"I should introduce myself--"

"--druid," noted Daisy.

"Yes." The bee chuckled softly. "But I do have a name. You are Rose, Daisy, and Lily." He pointed to each mare as he said the name. "I'm Purple Auspex."

Rose considered the bee. He was a bright yellow and deep black shades, but he did have a little bit of purple, streaks that separated the yellow and black. "Nice to meet you." She offered a hoof to Purple.

Purple took the time to touch hoof to hoof with each of his new students. "Now, we're going to jump in the deep end."

Lily's ears pricked up. "That sounds dangerous."

Daisy frowned. "A little. What are we talking?"

Purple shook his entire form. "From what we heard, ponies like you can learn really fast, if you're interested." He glanced at each of their cutie marks in turn. "And we're pretty sure. So I'm saying we just get to the good stuff and I bet you'll dive right into it and make people jealous."

Rose flinched back. "Do we want jealous butterflies?"

"The good kind of jealous!" Purple considered Rose a moment. "We can start with you."

Rose turned her flinch into a step back. "I'm not sure I want to be the test pony on this."

"It'll be harmless." Purple waved lightly as if to banish the thought. "Your friends will be there, and me. We'll be friends soon, right?" He leaned in close, his fuzzy antennae almost brushing Rose. "Have some faith."

Daisy rolled a hoof slowly. "On one hoof, magic." She began cycling the other hoof. "On the other, magic."

Lily nodded sagaciously. "You bring up excellent points."

Rose deflated, though a smile spread. "Thanks, girls. Well, since they're just volunteering me, guess I'm in it. Now, just a warning." She gestured to the others and back at herself. "We are not adventurous. We like things nice and calm and orderly. Our favorite days are the ones were nothing really special happens."

Daisy leaned against Rose. "Which we haven't seen for a little bit."

Lily leaned in from the other way. "All we're saying is try to keep the excitement down to a manageable level if you could."

Purple raised a hoof to his chin. "I can't promise that. If things go well, learning magic is always kind of... really exciting. But it's a good exciting? You like good exciting, right?"

With unsure sounds, the lesson did begin. Purple went right into how to feel the flow of primal energy around them. "Like this." He clapped his hooves, fire exploding into a ball between them as he brought them apart. "This fire is that energy, made by it. It can warm, or burn. Nature is like that." He waggled the ball of flame left and right before the mares. "It's all in how you use it." He sent it flying up, just to catch it with a hind hoof, bouncing it up and down. A floating ball of fire, it did not need fingers to keep aloft, just his will. "It can even be used to distract and delight."

All three mares gave soft applause, clopping the ground in approval at the display. Rose pointed at the bouncing fire, her hoof wobbling to keep the aim. "You said a few funny words, I heard that."

"You were listening!" Purple bounced the ball back to his front hooves and brought them together, snuffing it. "Most spells require sounds. You're telling nature what you want. If you're good at it, it will listen, and oblige." He curled a hoof up to his lips as if he were telling a secret. "This is why you can't whisper that," he said in a loud stage whisper. "Loud and clear. We don't want nature to mishear your intentions when you're playing with fire, do we?"

Daisy shook her head violently. "That sounds like a very bad idea!"

"I knew you'd get the idea, now, I'm going to say the spell nice and slowly, too slowly for nature to care. Primal energy requires a... It's like a song. If you say the words to a song too slowly, it's ruined, right?"

Lily inclined her head. "That makes sense."

"So I'll teach you the words first, then we can work on the tempo."

Like a performance, there were dance steps involved too. Flutters could twitch and move their antennae about, but an earth pony had to move their hooves and dance about to direct the forces they were calling to. The girls got into it, thinking it was more fun and almost silly than anything else. They sang and danced, even if the words were not Ponish at all.

To Purple's amazement, the head druid wasn't off. His students were following along eagerly, consuming the magic words and repeating them as if they were a forgotten nursery rhyme they'd heard as foals, instead of deep secrets of the world. They danced as if they were already initiates of druidic magic, as if they could already feel the flow of power and move in response.

He had marvelous students, and it was, a little, horrifying.
> 4 - Dance With Us
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Each of the flower girls had a ball of flames. Rose held her between her fore hooves, inclining her head left and right as if to view it from every angle. Daisy was tossing it up, giggling with each throw. Lily was watching hers at the end of a hoof, which was itself held away from her as far as her arm allowed. "Purple?"

"Hm?" His attention fixed on Lily. "You've all done a great job." He clapped his hooves together with a bright smile. "A week to learn your first spell? I am certain that is a record. Little druid larvae usually take years to get to that part."

Lily nodded. "Alright, that's nice, really, but... What do I do with this?" She gestured her head in a toss at the flame attached to her. "I don't want to burn down this pleasant little house we have here."

"Ah, yes, right right. It's time to learn how to end a spell, very important!" He performed the song, words and dance to create a ball of flames of his own. "Close your eyes and just feel a moment. Go on." He waited until all three of them had their eyes closed. "Primal energy ties you to that fire. It pulls from you just a little tiny bit. Can you feel it?"

Rose shook her head. Daisy had her tongue out a little. Lily gave a little hum. "I think so?"

"If you can feel it, you can break it. It's yours. You don't have to feed the fire, so don't. A fire without fuel isn't long for the world." He waggled his hoof, the flame falling free and fizzling long before it hit anything. "That is how you can end any spell. At least, any spell you cast. You can't stop me from feeding my fire that way."

Lily was quick to snuff out her flames with a relieved expression as she went back to all fours instead of sitting. "Finally."

Rose seemed to pick it up by what Lily did. "Kapow!" She brought her hooves together and the fire was gone.

"Sis?" Lily reached out and patted down a speck of flame that had begun merrily burning on Rose's fur at the bottom of her leg. "Be careful."

"Eee!" Rose waved her hoof wildly a moment. "Thanks."

Purple was watching Daisy. But she was bouncing the ball back and forth between her fore hooves. "Are you not going to try it?"

"But I like mine. His name is Bright Spark. When he grows up." She lobbed Bright into the air. "He wants to be a star in the sky!"

Bright tapped the ceiling, which was too much contact. The fire exploded in a brief puff of energy, leaving a scorch mark but doing little else. Purple shook his head slowly. "As you just learned, contact with anything means it's time to go for our little friend."

Daisy's eyes were watering as she sniffled. "Bright... Your dreams..." Rose patted her on the back gently to console her grief-stricken friend.

Purple began for the door, wings buzzing. "Now that you've learned your first spell, it's time to go back to some of the less 'fun' parts we skipped over." He led the less enthusiastic mares out into the city. "You'll get to make new friends."

Rose accelerated at that to Purple's side. "New friends?"

"Oh, yes, for sure." He nodded firmly, hovering just a little over the ground as he went. "Other new druids learning their place. You may even be stars of the class. Most of them haven't learned their first spell." He suddenly turned to face the three of them, forward momentum slowing dramatically. "But they know more about how things work. You may be ahead of them in one way, but they're ahead in another. Don't think they're beneath you."

Rose inclined her head faintly. "That wouldn't be very neighborly."

Daisy burst into giggles. "I'll show them Bright Junior."

Lily ran her tongue over her lips. "Bright... Junior? You're going to do that magic again?"

"Of course!" Daisy jumped into the air, hooves wriggling before she came back down. "Bright didn't reach the stars, but Bright Junior still has a chance!"

Rose swatted Daisy's back end. "More walking, less making up narratives for your magic. It sounds like we're back in school, girls."

Lily chuckled softly. "If this is like the first school, you'll be copying my notes."

Rose colored swiftly at that. "I'm no good at dates! Are there going to be dates on these tests?"

"Actually, no." Purple touched the ground and began trotting instead at a light jog. "I told you, nature mostly cares about the here and now, not what happened before or what will happen later. That doesn't mean we don't care about those things, but nature itself? Nah. Just right now."

They were led to a mossy nook in another tree, where many others sat in a circle. Most of them were flutters, but not all of them. Some of them were even ponies, but all eyes turned to the trio following Purple. Purple instead nodded to the teacher in the center of the circle. "They did it."

The teacher's eyes widened as she stood up, her bright butterfly wings fluttering. "How exciting! Class." She gestured in a broad sweep at the three mares coming closer. "These are the three I was talking about. From another plane entirely, their kind learn things differently. Marked by their own keen desires, they chase after their destinies that would rival even the most devout Everglow pony."

The crowd began to applaud with hooves against hooves and against the roof they were atop, muffled faintly by the cushioning moss.

A unicorn mare sat up, horn high, and slightly curved. "What is gained easily can be lost just the same."

That got her shoved by the student next over, another butterfly, male. "You don't sound like any unicorn!"

She frowned at that. "Us unicorns are not all the exact same thing. That's worryingly limited in your thoughts."

"It is," echoed the teacher. "Calm down. It's Tree Wind's thoughtful introspection that brought her to us, is it not? It's not very nice to then pick fun at it." The teacher waved the three new students closer. "Please, take a seat. Now, I'm told you learned your first spell." That got a new round of exclamations from the other students.

Tree Wind glared at the three. "We were informed that we have to understand the workings of nature before we set a hoof in the rivers of its power. This smells of the hubris others throw at my tribe."

Rose sank to her haunches. "Sorry, we're not trying to mess with anycreature, promise. They're the ones deciding what we learn, not us."

"We haven't gotten to pick anything," agreed Lily.

Daisy was bouncing a new ball of fire from hoof to hoof. "I'm not complaining. Say hello to Bright Junior!"

"Put that way this instant," commanded the teacher with no room for argument in her voice. "Purple, I have them now. Thank you."

Purple dipped his head. "Keep us informed." He said something else, but it was a language the mares did not know.

"That's Druidic," came a whisper from Rose's other side. "Most of us are still learning that."

Tree stomped impotently on the moss. "They learned to tap nature's power, and they don't even speak Druidic?!" She marched towards them, not directly, but around the circle. "This is unacceptable. This is disrespectful. Nature may not care much for our small worries, but this? This nature may make an exception for." She put a hoof on her chest. "At the least, I take exception to this."

The other students murmured, some agreeing with the oddness of the situation.

"Students," came the teacher's firm voice. "Thank you." The ball of fire had been snuffed, ending Bright Jr.'s bold attempt at the stars. "When the head druid speaks, we listen. When the tree bends, the grass does not have a say. Now, new students." She turned in place. "I am Dazzlebug." She burst into a little giggle. "And it's nice to meet you all. If you pay attention and learn, I don't care if you did learn magic or not. Nature cares only for results, in the end. The most grand of species that fails to be will not be missed."

Tree sank down, but was then far closer to the three. She kept glancing at them, but no further heated words escaped her, at least for that moment.

Dazzlebug resumed her lesson, teaching about populations. "Now, it's easy to think that so long as there are any two--" She raised two hooves and moved them together with little bobs as if hopping towards one another. "breeding members of a given race, that race still had a chance, but that is not correct. Can anyone tell me why?" She looked around and started at Daisy's raised hoof. "One of our new students. Please, what do you think?"

Daisy lowered her hoof. "Even with plants that isn't always true." She nodded firmly. "Oh, um, that's our specialty, by the way." She waved at her fellow flower mares. "We're florists."

"That's nice to know." Dazzle rolled a hoof. "Please finish your answer."

"Oh! Right. If a family, plant or animal, gets too small, it can get really weak really fast." Daisy mashed her hooves together. "And that's bad. Even if you find the perfect flower, you can't keep a hold too tight, or you'll hurt what you found."

"Excellently said." Dazzle nodded slowly. "Though spoken by someone used to controlling nature, instead of shepherding it." Soft laughter rippled. Taunting? It was hard to tell. "As druids, we want to encourage better traits, but it is up to each species to be the best of what it cares to be. We remove barriers, but we do not decide what is 'perfect'. Nature cares what works, not what is 'perfect', a word nature has no concept of."

Tree raised a hoof. "Teacher, the dangers of inbreeding are present to all species that have a family to consider that with. This is why most immediately find the idea, even instinctually, repugnant. Like throwing oneself into a fire, it's a danger most know without ever being told of it."

Dazzle made a soft noise of agreement. "Exactly. It varies from species to species, but the smaller the population--" She brought her hooves closer together. "The more difficult it can be to rebound. That is why we must move to act. Nature only cares about now, but we are not nature, hm? We are its tenders, and we must watch the patterns. If pressures are crushing towards danger, we must act before they reach that critical point, or our actions may come to nothing."

The teacher walked casually through the circle of students to point down at the temperate rainforest below. "But before we can do that, we need to know what's there. So, for your next assignment, you must look and see." Her smile was bright. "Open your eyes and behold what it is we are devoting ourselves to. Take a pad, if you like, and count as many creatures as you can find. Animal, plant, fungus, or even different mosses. Find them all. The more of them, the better, both in variety and number of each." She curled a hoof under an eye. "And that's the trick. How many 'mosses' are in a clump? How many trees are in a grove? Is that the same rabbit you saw a minute ago? Do your best, and return here tomorrow with your discoveries." She clapped smartly. "You are all dismissed."

"You aren't even allowed down there." Tree was looking at the flower mares as they stood up. "We all heard the head druid's command."

"Good of you to volunteer!" Dazzlebug was approaching at a light trot. "Go with them, make sure they stay safe, and close to the city."
> 5 - Wind Through the Trees
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tree led the way along the branches of the trees that made up Prisma, flutters buzzing quickly past them in all directions. The branches seemed to exist only for visitors, like the flower mares, or the learning unicorn. "We are guests," she reminded, looking over her shoulder. "And you are not even welcome ones."

Rose edged a little away from the source of irritated energy. "You need to relax. We're not setting the place on fire."

"Not for lack of trying." Tree scowled at Daisy, who was bouncing a new ball of flame from the end of her nose. "I see now why they insist we have more learning before we even set a hoof on the path of primal magic."

"What?" Daisy nudged at the ball, but held it there at the end of her nose. "Bright's cousin here, Spark, doesn't care about the stars. He just wants to see this big ole forest!"

Lily tittered softly. "Did you just make that up? Are you going to consider a backstory for every fire you make?"

"If I can help it." Daisy's eyes crossed, focusing on the fire she held. "What's that? Yeah, there really are a lot of butterflies, aren't there? They made a very nice place, I think. Pity we haven't been able to start tending flowers."

Rose sighed at that. "I'll agree with that. Having a flower garden would go a long way. Going home would also be nice! Either of those things." She accelerate to Tree Wind's side. "So, we're going down?"

"Yes." She stepped out onto a platform that swayed a little with her weight. Heavy branches corded together with even thicker bands of vines and ropes. "Get on." She watched them hawkishly, her horn glowing as she wrenched back a lever. With a loud clatter, the entire thing wobbled anew as it lowered slowly towards the ground. "You rode one of these up, didn't you?"

Rose moved for the center of the platform. "Yeah, I remember that... They go through a lot of effort for things they don't need themselves."

Tree smirked at that. "Need, no, but that doesn't mean they don't use it. Given the choice of sloth, some will take it, especially for the trip up." She turned to face the flower mares directly. "Now tell me the truth, outsiders."

Lily inclined her head. "Outsider? That's a bit harsh."

"Hm?" Tree inclined in the other direction. "That's the proper term. You are from another plane, an outsider. Any creature from another plane is that."

Daisy rolled her fire off onto a hoof, which she got right to bouncing from one hoof to the other. "You have enough of those you have a specific name for it? That is somehow worrying."

Rose nodded firmly. "I'll echo that. Our world... usually... Well..." She danced from hoof to hoof. "There was that one time, and it was bad and nopony liked it." The other flower mares nodded in easy agreement. "We're just happy not having 'outsiders'."

"But you are one." Tree waved a hoof at the three. "So what now?"

Lily suddenly laughed. "She has you there."

Tree's ears perked. "Oh, thank you... Most don't accept when I make a valid philosophical point." The floor jolted beneath them, coming to a rest on the forest floor. "Here we are. Now, I need to perform this task on top of keeping track of you all."

Rose drew out a pad from her pocket. "So why don't we work together instead of making it a competition? I didn't hear any rules against it."

Daisy bobbed her head quickly, fire bouncing at the end of her nose. "We'll spot lots more things if we're all looking and put all the notes together." Quickly she also got out a pad and a quill, each stuck to a hoof firmly in a way unnatural to an Everglow pony.

And commented on by one of them, Tree watching it happen, "Another spell you learned? How many do you know?" She stepped down from the platform. "Nevermind, get off. This thing will go back up whether we're ready or not."

With a chorus of yelps, the flower mares rushed off the platform, allowing it to ratchet itself upwards. As it went, flutters descended on it, perching for a ride back up to the tree city above. "Told you," noted Tree with a smile. "It's hard to pass up a free ride, even with working wings."

Lily poked Tree with her own notebook. "We're going to start looking at things. She said any living thing counts, right?"

Rose nodded quickly. "That's what she said. I call dibs on flowers."

Lily pouted at that. "Unfair! Then I'll go for trees and bushes."

Daisy inclined her head, the fire staying at the topmost point of her snout in the process. "Well, fine. I'll go for animals. Fluttershy isn't here to do it, and somepony has to."

The three scattered, but did not separate. Their calls were loud, making it clear where they were as they discovered things.

"This flower!" came Rose's excited cry. "Oh, my, Celestia. It's so colorful!"

Lily poked delicately at a bush. "This one is very spiky, and here's another cousin." She moved to another bush that seemed to  be of the same species, but... "No... The thorns are different." Her trained eyes could spot it. They were different species, even if related. "Huh." Notes were taken.

Tree tried her best to keep all three strange ponies in sight, though that was a challenge to do simultaneously. "Don't try to run away. You'll get me in trouble too! I worked very hard to get into this class."

Daisy held out a hoof towards a creature that was like if a rabbit and a squirrel had discovered love,  but she was still not Fluttershy. The wild animal fled rather than say hello. "Aw." She made a note of the creature anyway. "There are all kinds of interesting things around here."

The creature had returned. "Aw, hello there." And another of its kin, and another... and... oh dear. She was surrounded in a ring of over a dozen of the small creatures. "Um..." Daisy was unsure how to feel at that moment, other than worried. "I come in peace?"

A loud branch snapping startled the creatures and they bolted in every direction away from the scene. Tree stepped out into view. "Tirbounders are mostly harmless, unless they feel threatened and have superior numbers, then they can attack." She approached the still rattled Daisy. "Loud noises scare them off. Next time, shout. Be as loud and big as you can and they'll back away. Otherwise, you may be lunch."

Daisy let out an explosive gust of air. "Thank you!" She grabbed Tree Wind in a full body embrace. "You saved me!"

Tree squawked in dismay, pushing Daisy  back as best she could. "Hey. If I let you get hurt, that'd be on me too. Now where are the others?" She turned away. "Try to avoid being eaten for a second." And off she went in search of her own prey.

Lily was sniffing at the sappy extension coming from a slender tree. "Hm." She flicked her tongue out to sample it, to discover it did not taste like honey at all. While it was sweet, sour notes threatened to overwhelm it. Citrus with a dash of... pepper, or more paprika? Lily struggled to place the flavor she was experiencing. "Hm." She made dutiful notes of her discovery. "Found something way better than flutter honey," she shouted out.

"Tell me you didn't eat that." Tree was hurrying closer, drawn by the call.

Lily turned, only to wobble during the motion. When did Tree gain so many different hues?! When did the rest of the world? Everything seemed to be awash in colors bright and alien. What she couldn't see was that it was her eyes that were swirling with colors, as if she were looking through an especially colorful kaleidoscope. "Look what I found!" However dizzy she was, she looked cheerful about it. "It tastes good."

Tree covered her face with a hoof even as her magic worked to help keep Lily upright. "That is a mildly poisonous, actively psychedelic, plant. The sap can, and has altered your perceptions and thoughts. Used carefully, flutters employ it in some rituals to explore their 'inner colors'. You are not a flutter, nor are you approaching this with any fashion of reverence or care. All you're getting is a cheap, and potentially dangerous, thrill."

Lily sagged against Tree, her eyes wandering, not even in sync with one another in a feat that was clearly a challenge to Muffins a world away. "If you tried some, you'd  be singing a different... melody. Tune! I meant tune!"

"Did I mention it's very strong?" Forest had a brow raised. "If I was just watching you, this would be amusing, perhaps, but the other two could be getting into even more trouble." She coiled, burying her snoot into her saddlebag and drawing out some rope. "So I'm taking you with me."

"Noooo!" Lily swatted and struggled against being lassoed, but her efforts were woefully uncoordinated. Soon, she had a rope around her neck, and Forest smugly held the other end in her magic, with only a few bruises from flung hooves to show the struggle. "Fine," Lily allowed in a petulant whine. "Way to be a buzzkill."

Forest tugged Lily along. "I will gladly kill any buzz of that sort."

"Don't kill buzzes!" A flutter descended upon them. "That's hardly nice. Hey Forest! Are you two playing a game?" A female butterfly, she looked between the two. "Is that the kind of game you should be playing out in the open? How bold! I love it." She clapped her hooves together with a big grin.

Tree rolled her eyes at the misunderstanding. "The newbie stuffed her snout in some Rainbow Mind."

"Oh!" The flutter seemed to grasp what had happened without any further details. "Oh, that explains the eyes." She was looking at Lily's swirling eyes. She flew in close to Lily, touching nose to nose. "You have to be care--Eee!" Lily had bitten her, right on the nose. "Ow!" She retreated, backpedaling in the air, hooves over her injured nose. "That wasn't very nice at all."

Forest glared at her charge. "You apologize. We are guests of the flutterponies. We do not bite them."

"Unless they ask," laughed Lily, wobbling in place. "She looked so bright and tasty, like candy..."

"How would you like it if I bit you?" threatened the butterfly, glaring at the strange alien pony. "Is that how you do things wherever you're from?"

"What? No! Noooo. No biting." She listed to the side. "No biting animals." It was only then it dawned on her. "I bit an animal!" She flopped to her belly, burying her face in her hooves. "I am unclean! I've broken my promises! A monster, that's what I am! A terrible monster!"

The flutterpony blinked softly. "Um..." She looked to Forest. "Tell her I said she's forgiven." And off she flew, leaving the confusing situation behind.

Forest took a slow breath. "Alright, let's be logical. You all like screaming at each other... You are Lily, the other was... Daisy, so... Rose!" Her voice rose into a shout at the name. "Can you hear me?"

"Over here," came the reply shortly. "There are so many flowers. Come look at these."

Tree's progress was, alas, slow. Lily didn't want to stand, sobbing about her mistake. "I can't do that... Can you come here?"

"You can't see the flowers from over there!"

"I can't see you from over there, and that's the problem." Forest stamped the forest floor. "Daisy, come to my voice too, let's all meet up, kindly?"

"Alright," came the reply from two directions. The mares were coming. Tree sank next to Lily. "Your friends will be here soon."

"Yay," Lily smiled, face still a mess of tears. "They're going to make fun of me though." She flopped weekly, still in a world of colors.
> 6 - A Joke in Poor Taste
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose came into view, carefully cradling an uprooted flower in her hooves.

Tree's eyes widened. "That is--"

"Poison Joke," completed Rose.

"Toxic Humor." Tree backed a step, after scrambling up to her hooves. "It is extremely dangerous to be around."

"I know that. But, if you know what it is, it can be harvested, carefully. Besides, one flower, alone, is harmless, after it's been harvested." Rose seemed entirely confident. "Your world is full of new things, but the flowers mostly make sense." She held out the flower. "I found a big patch of this over there. I wanted to show it off. Now why is Lily looking... that?" She waved a hoof but a moment, hurrying it back to supporting her new flower.

Tree took a step forward. "You found a patch of Toxic Humor this close to the city? We must report that, for removal."

"I could help!" Daisy popped free of the bushes, her fire still balanced on her nose. "Also there are basically a ton of different bushes. Some of them have berries I knew." She patted her pocket, though who could tell what was inside it? "Spark could take care of a patch of plants though, if you want, but that's probably a bad idea. This is a big forest. A fire could get out of hoof real fast."

"Thank you for realizing that without me having to say it." Tree let out a slow breath. "Fire is generally not allowed for this kind of work unless the wielder is talented enough to contain the destruction they unleash. None of us qualify." She pointed at the quiet Lily. "Your friend put her tongue where it did not belong and is suffering for it."

Rose and Daisy tilted their heads away from one another in shared confusion.

"I bit an animal!" Lily came alive suddenly. She rushed to her friends, not even quite standing as she hurried, just to flop in a pile in front of them, gravity catching up with her wild moment of furious effort. "My teeth!"

Daisy reached out and began patting Lily gently. "Did anycreature get hurt?" She was looking at Tree for an answer.

Tree smirked faintly. "I am glad to report that the injury dealt was minor, if annoying. The butterfly already forgave Lily after seeing the result of it. Are her eyes still rainbow?"

Rose leaned in for a look. Flecks of colors darted here and there, but they weren't the vast swirls of colors they had been. "A little?"

"Thank Nature." Tree turned back towards the elevator. "Wait." She looked over her shoulder at Daisy. "Weren't you examining animals?"

"I was and I did." Daisy bobbed her head. "But I saw some tasty berries and took a break to count those bushes."

Tree applied a hoof to her face. "You strange ponies are guided by your bellies. It is perhaps a mercy you haven't reached first circle rituals yet."

Daisy turned a hoof to point at her nose-perched flame. "What's this then?"

"That is what they call a 'cantrip'." Tree resumed her walk towards the elevator across the uneven ground of the thick forest. "Simplest of the spells, but also the more reliable. A druid of the highest order can use them, and they will simply be more powerful just for their own will and skill. Other spells are far more regimented, and do not change on their own. It's complicated, and I feel you haven't even begun that training."

"Spark can't trip," huffed out Daisy, following afterwards with her friends at either side. "That's a silly name."

Rose accelerated cautiously, her eye on her singular poison joke blossom. "We were taught one spell very specifically, not how spells work, in general. Though we were also told what made that one work was, at the root, how all spells work."

"Your teacher was not wrong in that." Tree sank to wait a small distance from where the elevator would be, but was not yet. "A lot of magic works, basically, the same. Say the right words, make the right motions, and maybe add a properly sympathetic item at the right time, that's magic. that's all of magic." She turned her head. "Fortunately for me, unicorns can do the movements up here." She pointed a hoof up at her own long horn. "And the rest of us can be still."

Daisy clapped her hooves, not occupied as Rose's were. "So unicorns still have advantages when it comes to magic in this world?"

"Is it different on your plane?" She trained an ear on Daisy. "Tell me of your world."

"Sure." Daisy nodded firmly, the flame dancing with the motion. "There, only the unicorns use magic at all." She swept her hooves sharply left and right across one another. "Which is another reason we're pretty jazzed to learn some now. Earth ponies, with magic? Sign us up!"

Rose cheered in solidarity with that idea.

Lily was still quiet.

"Huh." The elevator arrived, thumping against the ground. Tree stepped onto it, nodding at another pony stepping off of it. "Everyone on. So, you went from not even approaching magic, at all, to knowing your first spell, in... a week? That is not... natural."

Rose and Daisy closed in on Lily from the sides, hefting her up on their shoulders to quickly scurry her onto the platform to resume her rest. Rose nodded once they were all in place. "Well, as you said, we're from a different nature. Maybe it's perfectly natural, for us. We just didn't know how, until we were taught."

"This is one reason among many your sort are called outsiders." Tree looked up as the elevator began to move, carrying them towards the branches. "Those that are too far removed from the local order have a different, worse, name."

"Worse than outsider?" Daisy stuck out her tongue. "That'd take some doing."

"Aberration," hissed Tree.

Daisy flinched back a step, ears folding. "Alright! Alright... that wins..."

Rose stuck out her tongue. "That word tastes nasty. Can words have a taste?"

"Good." Tree started off the platform as it arrived. "Should you ever see an actual one, you will understand that they tend to earn that name. Limbs where none belong, with anatomies entirely alien to rationality... Even their minds are so divorced from our own that to reason with one is often the height of folly."

Daisy hurried to Tree's side. "Aw, c'mon. You're being a downer again. They can't all be bad. We used to be scared of this zebra, but it turned out she was super nice once you got to know her."

Rose nodded along at that, supporting Lily as they moved. "Racism is a dying trend in Equestria. Hay, I know at least one pony that'd even give making friends with a monster a chance."

Daisy burst into laughter. "If the monster was a big flower, we'd all be right there."

Rose rolled her eyes. "And the first to get chomped."

"No regrets." Daisy smiled brightly.

"Nope." Rose laughed lightly, looking over to Lily. "You feeling better?"

"A little." Her voice was small. "I really did bite somecreature... I don't even remember her face. It was all... Colors."

Daisy nudged into Lily. "Coming down can be hard, but we're here. It's alright now. Did you get any notes?"

"A few," allowed Lily miserably. "I barely got started when I knocked myself out. I'm sorry... For everything."

Rose thrust a pad over. "Well, combined with mine."

"And mine!" Daisy quickly got her pad out and slapped it against Rose's. "We got plenty, as a team. That includes you!" She tried to grab Tree, but the unicorn mare dodged the flail easily. "Aw."

"Thank you for being reasonable on that end." Tree looked over the strange ponies. "I did not want a failing grade for that assignment. That doesn't make us friends, however." Her eyes focused on Lily. "You seem to be coherent, good. That means I can yell at you. You call yourself a florist? What manner of florist does that? Forget being a druid. Even your mundane profession should have granted you enough knowledge to be aware that was a terrible idea!" She stomped a hoof, snorting like the angry horse she was, tail lashing with equally irritated energy. "Do you normally apply your tongue to assorted plants on first spotting?"

"I was just--"

"Getting yourself into trouble," cut in Tree, denying Lily the chance to plead her case. "And, in the process, causing trouble for your friends. I thought you three were closely bond, but you didn't care what manner of trouble you were creating for them, did you? You could have, and, I take that back." She shook her head rapidly. "You did cost your friends their trip. We would have been out there for hours longer. All the flowers Rose doesn't get to see. All the animals Daisy doesn't get to see. It's your fault."

Fresh tears stung at Lily's eyes. "I said I'm sorry..."

Rose cut in between Lily and Tree. "Lay off. We can yell at her without your help."

"We are pros," joined Daisy with a big grin. "She did a dumb, but what pony hasn't? Pretty sure they've had a chance to yell my ear off."

Rose set a hoof over her eyes. "And the girls have pulled me out of the fire a few times. That's what being a friend is." She raised a brow at Tree. "If you've ever experienced that?"

Tree took a stiff step backwards. "That..." Her brows fell in an angry unison. "Don't you insult me!"

Rose smirked confidently. "It's not an insult if it's true, and it's not even that if it's a question. Do you have close friends or not?"

Tree stomped from hoof to hoof. "How... How dare you! I..."

"I'm friends with Tree!" "Me too!" "Me me!" Three flutters came in to mash against Tree from different directions in a group hug that hadn't been asked for, but was eagerly accepted, at least by the other flutters.

Tree was struck speechless a moment. Her breath escaped in a near silent sigh. "You know what? You have a point. I am not used to that sort of social contact. I can admit that." The cloud around her awed and hugged her all the tighter even as Tree tried to keep her serious face. "I'm glad you're alright, Lily."

"Thanks... for saving me." Lily wiped her eyes, a little smile daring to show. "You're a good pony. Please don't yell at me."

Tree rolled her eyes. "Next time, nature will do the yelling, and when nature yells, asking it to stop will not work so well." She turned and trotted off, the cloud of flutters still stuck to her.

Lily jumped at being licked. Daisy had flicked her tongue over lily's tears. "Hey-what?"

"Mmm, nope. Not seeing any colors." Daisy stuck out her tongue. "I was hoping you'd pass a little on."

Lily burst into laughter, her sadness ruined for the moment. "That is not how that works, and you know it. That was... something else."

Rose nudged at Lily. "You can remember it? Great, write it down. Bet we'll get credit for it."

"You think?"

Rose nodded confidently. "Yes. Do it."

Lily saluted sharply. "Aye aye! This is why you're the boss."

Rose leaned in towards Lily. "Let's be honest. I'm the boss because neither of you two wanted to be."

"Spark survived!" noted Daisy, clearly on a different topic. "And he got to see the forest. He's so happy! In fact, he says he's done all he wanted, and he's ready to move on. What's that?" She perked an ear at the flame that wasn't saying anything. "He says thank you for helping him see such wonders today, and to tell his family and offspring that he went as he lived."

"Burning?" suggested Rose.

"Brightly?" tried Lily.

"Exploring." Daisy tossed her nose, the flame leaping from it through the air, fading out even as it fell. Spark had led a good life, without regrets.
> 7 - Nature Cares for Results
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dazzlebug nodded at a piece of bark festooned with writing, but also pictures. Each picture had a number beside it. "A simple method, but accurate." She pointed at the tally marks. "It seems you found a great number of living beings, but you erred away from things that would be too numerous to track this way." She passed the bark back to the student that had turned it in. "It is good to understand your own limits, but we must also work to grow past them."

She trotted the short distance to the flower mares and Tree Whisper. "I am given to understand that you four have worked together on this project. I did not specify this was a group project." She turned a hoof to her chin. "But, I also never said it was not. Nature cares for results, in the end. Show me yours."

Tree had been expecting one of them, likely Rose, to step forward, but instead she was prodded with a notebook. She grabbed the book in her magic and spun it around at the teacher. "Here you are, teacher. A count of animals, shrubs, trees, and flowers."

Dazzlebug was flipping from page to page. "Hm... Hm! This is no mere tally..." She turned the notepad held awkardly in her hooves to the rest of the class, revealing a lot of writing that wasn't counting. "It would seem they encountered two dangerous things and took quite a few notes about them." Her eyes resumed reading quickly. "Hm. You harvested some Toxic Humor?" Her eyes went to Rose. "You don't appear to suffer any mark of the experience."

"Done properly, Poison Joke isn't that dangerous."

"But a patch that close to the city is. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. We will be rid of it. You can keep the flower you already claimed, but you must be vigilant. One flower can become many, with Toxic Humor, and then we have a problem." Dazzlebug reached out to thump Rose on the chest. "Where did you learn the technique? Harvesting it is no simple task. Only a trained horticulturist has a chance."

The three flower mares struck a dynamic pose together. "I did say," noted Rose. "We're florists."

Daisy bobbed her head. "Not even the first pesky flower we ever dealt with."

Lily nodded with a sigh. "Wish I coulda seen it."

Dazzlebug gave the notepad back to Tree Whisper. "I didn't see any writing that looked like yours. How did you assist?"

Lily lurched forward. "She saved me!"

"And me!" chimed Daisy. "She was our brave and knowledgeable bodyguard."

Dazzlebug's suspicious look turned to a warm smile. "That is a valuable service. And a good lesson." She waved a hoof at the rest of the class. "A druid that is too focused on study can become victim to the very nature they would wish to learn. While many of us prefer to work in solitude, having someone there to watch your back can make quite the difference. Thank you for showing us how that can be done." And off Dazzlebug went to grade the next effort.

Tree sank to her haunches with a relieved sigh. "That could have gone worse..."

Rose leaned to the side towards Tree. "You really did help us. We weren't just covering your flank."

Tree quirked an ear at Rose. "Why would you think that? I didn't even get close to you until the end."

"You were watching my girls." Rose inclined her ears at the other two who were watching the teacher as she continued grading. "That always counts in my book."

"You've all learned something." The teacher sat in the center of the circle. "Good. Some things can only be experienced, firsthoof. Since it was brought up, let's talk about natural hazards. Sharp eyes won't help you if you don't know what you should be looking for." And so she began to go over various natural pitfalls that could trip up a would-be druid. This included the sap and the poison joke(known locally as toxic humor) that the flower mares had located.





The three sagged onto soft spots around their new home. "We did it," cried Daisy with a grin. "We don't fail at school, take 2."

Lily rolled her eyes at that. "I'm not against learning more about nature, but we're florists, not zoologists. When we get home, what good will knowing a bunch of alien animals be?"

Rose cycled her hooves in the air, sprawled on her back. "We're stuck here for now. We may as well know the lay of the land, which includes the things that live on it."

A sharp knock brought all three sets of ears to the door. "Hello?" The bee that had taught them their first spell. "May I come in?"

Rose quickly rolled upright, sitting up on her haunches. "Sure! Yeah." She watched the door open, but there was more than a bee. Tree Whisper came trailing in after him. "Huh! Um, hi?"

Tree had an awkward smile, forced to be sure. "Hello, thank you for having me..."

The bee stepped to the side. "I want to continue our magic lessons. I hear you're doing very well in your other classes. Good! I asked if that meant you could learn more magic and was told that, yes, you can!"

Daisy pointed at Tree Whisper. "That's exciting, but why is she here? Not that I mind her around, but she doesn't know magic yet, does she?"

"I do not," got out Tree through grit teeth.

"That may change today," half-sang the bee as he skipped from one set of hooves to the other. "The head druid approved you learning a cantrip. I will teach them their second, and you, your first." He looked to the girls. "And I want you to help her. The head druid thinks you may, or may not, be good at that. She'd like to know. She considers Tree Whisper your pupil, for magic. If nothing else, showing can be a great way to remind yourself of the basics. Show her how to speak the words, and move with the flow of nature." He moved for the door.

To Rose's confusion. "I thought you were going to teach us a spell?"

The bee paused, looking over his shoulder. "I could, but why teach something not all of you are ready for? Show her how to understand magic, then we can proceed to the new spell. Consider it motivation!" And he buzzed off, as bees were well equipped to do.

Lily, however, looked quite excited. "I can pay you back for your help."

Daisy bobbed her head. "Alright. I was tired from learning today anyway. Let's do some teaching!"

Rose began to smile, affected by the infectious cheer of her compatriots. "It's settled then. We'll start the same way he did for us, with the song of magic."

"Nature's song," noted Lily. "There are different songs. Songs of gods, songs of the mind, and songs of the arcane." She tapped her hooves with each type of song. "Thankfully, we only need to worry about the natural songs."

Tree's ears twitched softly. "The four traditions, yes. I've heard of those. We are primal users." She flinched. "Um... I intend on being a primal user. I did not expect my first teacher of those arts to be another student."

Rose set a hoof gently on Tree's closer shoulder. "We will take this seriously. You took watching over us seriously, it's the least we can do. Now, can you sing?"

Tree blinked quite slowly at that. "Sing?"

Daisy bobbed her head. "It is the song of nature. Singing helps!"

One advantage Equestrian ponies had, singing came to them as a second nature. "I am no bard." Tree took an unsure step  back. "I haven't... sung before."

Rose shook her head. "Now I know you're lying. Even grumpy gusses sing sometimes. You never wished somepony a happy birthday?"

Tree flipped her ears back. "That is not the same."

Daisy leaned in with a big grin. "Oh, yes it is. Until you can sing nature's song, no magic for you. You said you can do the dance with your horn, lucky, but there's no shortcut for the song."

The three flower mares crowded around Tree, unified in the idea that singing a song had to come first.

"Ugh!" Tree sank to her haunches. "Fine! You are my teachers. I will try to respect your approach. Very well... How do we begin?"

The three backed away. Rose spoke up first, in song. She spoke the very first few syllables of the fiery song they knew, emphasized sing song in it, her form shimmering with power that should not have come from just such few utterances of an unfinished spell.

Daisy took the slack without pause, continuing the spell and starting to glow herself as she musically trilled her piece.

Lily brought it home, finishing the song, the three of them crackling with shared fiery energy. They met, hooves out, touching, and a ball of flame erupted between them. "See?"

Tree's mouth hung open. "That... That! That... is not how magic works."

Rose cocked a brow at Tree. "You don't know any spells, and you're telling us, who just cast it, that's not how it works?"

Tree wobbled a shaking hoof at the fire they created. "I don't know how to cast spells myself, but I know the idea of them. Cantrips are not made to be cast as a group! What you just... Who taught you that?!"

The three shared looks. Daisy shrugged softly. "I just followed the flow."

Daisy bobbed at that. "I heard Rose sing the first part and thought I should just... do it?"

Rose rubbed behind her head with the hoof not busy holding up the fire. "I just wanted to sing with my girls, and we did. It clearly worked." She nodded at the fire, larger than the one created when any of them did it on their own. She smirked suddenly at Daisy. "So, what's their name?"

"Big Jane!" Daisy burst into giggles. "She's large and in charge. You can tell she's all kinds of sassy." The fire just crackled. It was a fire. It had no opinion that anyone but Daisy could see.

Tree began to dance from hoof to hoof, standing properly to do so. "Outsiders! I don't... I can't..."

Rose leaned forward, the light of the fire casting new shadows over her face. "You won't know until you try. Now, to repeat." She began the song, but said it slowly, too slow for any power to rouse.

Daisy picked up at the same point, just as slow, but keeping the song going without any prompting outside the song itself.

Lily finished it, nice and slow. "Those are the words. Get the words down and you're halfway there. Follow the flow with your body." She wriggled a bit in place, keeping her hoof touching the others'. "And you have a spell."

"And... you have a spell, right." Tree did a circle in place, muttering the strange words to herself.

"More of an 'ah' on that second one," advised Rose.

"Yes, right." Tree kept repeating it, trying to get a grasp of the words. They had no meaning, but they meant everything! The words of nature itself, primal magic.

Daisy inclined her head. "You're reciting it like a recipe."

"Instead of singing it," added Lily. "Go on."

"I'm getting the words down," huffed out Tree. "You outsiders grasped this in a week, and I am sure you're very proud, but I'm not that."

Rose patted Tree on the shoulder. "You are an amazing pony. Don't think of us that way. I think you can shine just as bright."

Daisy lifted the hoof with the fire attached, bringing it away from the other two mares. She began to cradle and giggle, clearly enjoying the larger flame they had created.

Lily rolled her eyes at Daisy's joy. "You're doing fine. Get the words down, but then we sing."
> 8 - Community Events
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teaching Tree was not at all as rapid as the girls would have liked. Even when she got the words down, she had to learn the dance, and her dance was up in her horn. A thing none of them had. Their teachers, being flutters, also lacked them. "This was a thing I was prepared for." Tree looked at each of them firmly. "I will teach myself this part, but it will not be at your outsider's rate."

She had already proven that. It had taken weeks. Weeks! for her to get the words just right and the cadence of the song down. Still, she was making progress. "You can't help with this part."

This sent the girls out into the city to explore. "But what is there to do around here?" asked Rose as she looked around with firm sweeps of her head and eyes. "Besides shop."

"Bitey!" A flutter darted in, looking at Lily. "Are you feeling better?"

Lily's eyes widened. "Are you?" The flutter nodded. "Oh... I'm so sorry!"

"You already said that." The flutter waved it off. "I hear you were playing with rainbow sap. That's dangerous. You have to use rainbow sap just the right way." They bobbed their head quickly. "Glad you're better now."

Daisy beamed at the talkative flutter. "Hey! We're looking for something fun to do. Any ideas?"

"Ooo!" The flutter swooped in closer, clapping wildly. "Yeah! What kind of fun are you looking for?"

Rose considered the flutter in a new light. "Well, to start, something we can do." She gestured at her sisters and herself. "So no flying."

"That rules out some of them." The flutter considered with due gravity. "Do you like art?"

Daisy raised a hoof. "I like art!"

Rose chuckled. "I like art, but I'm not super good at it."

"Even better!" The flutter twirled to point off in the distance. "Go over there, one floor up. Ask for Rainbow Dreams. You'll have a great time. No flying!"

Lily nodded firmly. "Thank you, but sorry again. You sure you're alright?"

"It stung." The flutter stuck out her tongue. "But I got better. You'll have to bite me harder if you want to take me out, bitey!" They flew off, giggling wildly.

Daisy brushed against Lily on the way towards potential fun. "Seems like all's forgiven there."

"But not forgotten." Lily moved at Daisy's side. "Ugh, now I'm bitey forever."

"Could be worse." Rose nudged Lily from the other side. "They'll remember you, and they didn't look upset to come over and say hi."

They had to cross several bridges to reach the tree that was pointed at, then ride an elevator up to the next floor as directed. Asking for Rainbow Dreams got them pointed to a large open area. In it, many flutters were scattered about, and the nature of the area became quite clear.

Many of them had easels of colors, but they weren't holding them as a human might. A lack of fingers was the likely reason for that. Instead they sat beside the would-be artists until a hoof or an antennae or other body part dipped into the available paint to them brush against canvas or whatever else the artist felt like dabbing colors onto.

It was an art studio! A few of them were working clay, spinning them with pumps of their hind legs even as their forelegs worked to shape them into interesting shapes. Elsewhere, others could be seen painting the finished result of their clay work. All sorts of art seemed to be in progress.

"Hello!" A flutter that looked like all the colors of all the paints in the world had exploded violently across them, a butterfly, was approaching on fluttering wings that somehow still worked despite being caked in paint. "I'm Rainbow Mind, and you're new!" She pointed between the each of the flower mares. "But I've heard of you! Outsider mares, very friendly, sometimes bitey." Lily's cheeks darkened. "Welcome!"

Rose waved up at the floating Rainbow Mind. "Hello to you too. We heard this was a place to have fun?"

"If you like colors, this is the most fun place!" Rainbow threw their hooves wide, all four of them as they performed a slow spin in place. "I give everyone the tools to unleash the colors inside them and share it with the world." She began to point at things, naming them as she went. "We have pottery shaping, glazing, and painting. Speaking of painting, we got all kinds of paints and things to put paint on! Though if you want to be the rainbow--" Her brows waggled. "--first, I feel you. Second, we have people who are eager to get started." She pointed to where it seemed flutters were busy painting each other. "Go wild, want a mark of dest... Oh." She angled her head. "Silly me, you're ponies. You already have marks of destiny. Nice ones too!"

Rose glanced back at her own mark. "Thank you. Um, about that." She wobbled a hoof at the flutters painting flutters. "So, Flutters don't get cutie marks, I've picked up?"

"Not on their own." Rainbow drifted closer. "But, with the help of a friend, we can get one. And we can change our mind if we want. Let's see you do that." She stuck out her tongue in defiance.

"Nope, I'm stuck with what I got." Rose shook her head. "Good thing I'm pretty alright with it."

"Ditto!" cried Daisy. "I can't even imagine having something else back there."

"That's a terrible thought." Lily shook her head in clear distaste.

"Well good." Rainbow bobbed her head. "If we tried to paint over yours, it'd wash off pretty fast. The gods do not like little flutters standing in their way, or stubborn ponies either." She raised a hoof. "I hear if a pony's desperate enough they can scratch it off. Sounds like you wouldn't do that! Good, I like yours. Now, what are the colors you are waiting to get out?"

Lily cringed at the idea of attack one's own cutie mark. "Um..." She looked left and right over the busy area. "What are they doing?" She pointed to a group of flutters seemingly working together.

"Oh! That one's fun, if you like creating in a team. They're making art, building, coloring, all of it, together. They'll have something they can share."

Lily clapped her hooves. "That sounds delightful." And off she went to join them.

"One down!" Rainbow looked to the other two.

Rose raised a hoof. "Anything involving flowers, by chance?"

"Oooo, mmm..." She wobbled in place with thought. "I have flowers to make colors with. They are so colorful. If you want to make some art with them, grab what you want to make art on and I'll bring over flowers."

"Perfect." Rose grabbed a free easel and was soon ready to begin the art.

Daisy waved a hoof wildly. "I want to play with the clay!"

"So excited, I love it!"

And soon all the flower mares were busy making art, alone or in a group.

Daisy had a cube of clay set and stood on the pedals. "Just... walk?" She began to cycle her hind hooves, getting the pedastal to spin beneath the clay, turning it around. "Ooo!"

"First time?" asked the dragonfly flutter next to her. "It can be tricky at first."

"But it looks fun!"

"Good attitude." He gave a hooves up before returning to their own work, shaping their clay as it turned around and around. "Want to just dive in, or I can give a few tips?"

"Get me started." Daisy tried to raise a hoof, but her hinds on unsteady ground ruined that attempt, forcing her to slap all four hooves down to not fall over. "Oops!"

Elsewhere, Rose was painting with a brush she held in her snout, slowly adorning the canvas before her with a picture that she added flowers to with glue to emphasize the natural scenery she was slowly creating with a happy humming.

"Ooo." A butterfly leaned over, watching Rose's creation. "Is that a place you've seen before?"

"Hm?" Rose dabbed a little blue on a river that was cutting through it. "Actually, yeah... My favorite bridge in Ponyville."

"I can feel the love." The butterfly hugged herself tightly. "Where's Ponyville?"

"That's.... complicated."

Lily was working side by side with the other flutters. She was adding popsicle sticks, glueing each in place carefully before the next as their strange monument grew larger. "This is fun!"

"I love this place." The flutter beside her danced in place even as he nosed at it, brushing the paint on his snout onto it. "To art is to live!"

"Not sure I'd go that far, but a little art can really brighten things up." Lily reached over for the many dabs of art laid out and got some on her hoof to spread on a few of the sticks she had placed down. "Do these get saved?"

"The art?" The flutter inclined his head. "For as long as they last, usually. Rainbow puts them over there." He pointed to a balcony that had other past group arts set out. "You can see them as you fly past. It's so nice!"

Lily laughed nervously at that. "I doubt I'll get to enjoy that specifically, but I can look from the inside."

"Why no--" It was that moment the flutter realized why not. "Oh, sorry! By the way." Lily hmmed? "You're not at all as bitey as rumors suggested."

Lily darkened, not just with embarrassment. "Is everycreature saying that about me?!"

"I meant it as a good thing," assured the flutter. "Hey! Everyone! She's super not bitey, right?"

A chorus of agreement rose. None of them had  been bitten during the group project. The amount of bites was well within acceptable parameters. "See? No bites." He nosed colors in a new place. "You seem pretty nice really."

A wasp of a flutter flashed teeth that were a bit too sharp. "You can bite me, if you want, but I will bite back." The tone he used implied that he was pretty alright with the option being taken up. The eyebrow wiggle didn't help him to seem very innocent.

Daisy's coloring shifted subtly. "Um! Let's focus on our work." She got back to getting her sticks in place, and not considering nipping wasp flutters.

Later, Rainbow drifted over. "Time's up!" The flutters hopped away as if the art had caught fire.

Daisy was the odd one out, confused. "Time's up?"

Rainbow bobbed his head. "If we never ended it, it'd grow, forever!" She threw her hooves wide. "That'd be kinda fun, but also probably dangerous, so... I call when the time's up." Rainbow circled the group art installation. "This is a nice one, and it has a touch of outsider pony on it! That makes it extra special." The crowd of creators cheered in delight. "I'll get it out on the balcony soon. In the meanwhile." She pointed to a free space. "You got an hour."

There was a small stampede as flutters rushed over to start a new project. The first bits put down were so very important, providing the base of the piece to come. Rainbow nodded at Daisy. "Wanna join in? You looked like you were having fun."

"Maybe in a bit." She instead went hunting for the other flower mares.

She found Daisy trying her best to shape her clay. A fine pot it was not, but a servicable clay bowl it was becoming. "Nice."

Daisy giggled. "I got these grooves in it." She began to press a new circular groove into it was it spun beneath her hooves. "This is as fun as I thought it'd be."

Lily nodded. "But it's not done until you cook it."

"Oh right!" She sat back, the spinning slowing with her steps. "I get to use some fire." Her grin was, perhaps, worrying.

Everglow had made a pyromaniac of one of the flower mares.
> 9 - Bright Spark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"They are outsiders. I mean that in the most literal sense possible." Tree clopped a hoof down on the wood beneath her. "They approach magic in a way completely alien to us."

The druid Tree was speaking to nodded faintly. "They learned the art swiftly. How goes your own learning?"

Tree colored at that. "I have it almost down... A little more practice is all I need. This is my first--"

The druid set a hoof on Tree's shoulder. "It's not a race. If you are close, then you  have done well for your first spell. I imagine you will finish it soon. If it helps, the first is always the hardest. The second will come to you far more quickly."

"Thanks." Tree sat on her haunches. "But I'm not joking! They cast a spell together. I wasn't even aware you could do that outside of very specific rituals. They just... did it. They weren't even trying to do it."

That got the butterfly's antennae to bob upwards. "What did they cast together?"

"The same spell I'm learning, produce flames?" She went through the steps, speaking the words of power. A small puff of flames appeared at the tip of her horn, as if her horn were a candle. "Oh! Oh oh oh!"

The druid smiled at the excited new druid. "You did it. You realize, this means you have taken a step into the primal, and it has accepted you. Congratulations, young druid, for that is a title you now have."

Tree fanned herself with her forehooves, hyperventilating just a little. "I did it!" It was then that she realized she was just a little on fire. "Where do I put this safely?"

The druid pointed to an empty pottery nearby. "That is safe. Now, that spell, cast together?"

Tree thrust her horn into the pot, coming back out without any fire. "Phew, alright. Alright! Yes... That spell, together! Is that supposed to work?"

"It is not." A thoughtful hum came. "I will share this news with the head druid and see what she thinks."

"Thank you." Tree turned to head back. "I should tell them I got it working, so we can move on."

"Keep practicing." They lifted on wings. "Once is not mastery." And off they went.

"True..." Tree looked up at her horn. "Be good."





"Congratulations!" Rose was applauding, hooves clapping eagerly. "Look at you go!"

"Gonna name it?" Daisy leaned in with a big smile.

Lily rolled her eyes at that. "Only you do that."

"Only you," agreed Tree, wagging her horn, the fire fading away. "Thank you, for your instruction. Sorry, if...it took longer than you wanted." It had taken Tree almost a month to completely get the spell understood. "But I am officially a druid now. One in training still, but a druid."

All three flower mares inclined their head to the left. Rose waved at herself and the others. "We already know a spell, does that makes us druids too?"

Tree shook her head quickly. "You don't know the language. Besides... it's not up to me. When you become one, you will be told by one of your teachers. That is how one raises through most of the ranks there are." She shrugged softly. "Not that many druids focus very heavily on the ranks involved besides the first few." She pointed at herself. "Student. Being a pupil of a druid has very specific meanings, and I will carry that title until I can show I deserve better, and wield first circle magic competently. After that... It's mostly between a druid and themselves."

Daisy waved wildly. "Unless you're head druid."

"You aren't wrong." Tree inclined her head softly. "That is a rank of significance. But none of us should be too worried about that. We don't even report to her, let alone have dreams of taking that title ourselves. We are so unprepared."

Rose nodded. "Right, right. Besides, we want to go home, not become bosses around here."

Lily leaned against Rose gently. "If one of us did become leader, it'd be you."

Rose groaned at the thought. "Again, only because you two would say no. Anyway! Now that you have the spell working, we could call back that bee teacher, Purple Auspex, and get to our second spell!"

"What kind of spell?" Daisy inclined her head. "Think it'll be another fire one?"

Lily shook her head. "Doubt it. Besides, there are more elements than fire that druids, right?" She was looking to Tree for that answer.

"Correct." Tree nodded firmly. "Fire, Ice, Lightning, Acid... Those are the basics, to say nothing of physically tearing and puncturing and smashing. If you want to be violent, they cannot be ignored. I hope the second spell is none of those things. I would learn a peaceful song next."

Rose clapped her hooves together. "Now you're talking! Yeah, let's learn something nice."

They went as one to the home of their teacher, to find the door was already open. Inside, their teacher was talking with the head druid. They were spotted quickly. The Head druid smiling at them. "Speak of them, and here they are. You are quite the curious students." She approached at a calm walk. "You've shaken up the hive." Perhaps literally, considering the insect-like nature of their hosts. "I would like to see it for myself, if you'd allow me?"

Tree blinked with wide eyes. "M-me?!"

"Congratulations." The druid nodded at Tree. "But I meant their group casting. Can you demonstrate it?"

The flower mares shared a look before Daisy shrugged. "Show 'em, Rose."

"Always me first." Despite her complaint, she began the song, dancing to the beat, only to stop the words so quickly. Her dance continued despite that.

Daisy picked up on the words, joining the motion, the two of them glimmering with the power they were creating. Lily finished it, their hooves meeting with a clop as a bright ball of flame appeared above it.

"Remarkable." The mayor that was also the head druid considered the pooled magic. "And so quickly." No ritual there. It had been cast as quickly as any one pony, just in sync. "And reliably. Have you ever failed in casting this spell?" All three shook their heads. "Hm... Hm. And where you're from, if I have learned correctly, you did not cast magic?"

"But we did sing," noted Daisy.

"Whenever the mood hit." Lily shrugged. "But it could sweep the entire town if it was a good one."

"A musical world..." The head druid sat back with a soft 'huh'. She looked to Purple Auspex. "I would see where this leads. Show them what I feel sure they came to know."

Purple looked to them with a curious and nervous smile. "What did you come to know?"

"Glad you asked." Rose waved at the others, Tree included. "Now that Tree knows her first spell, we're hungry for the second. It should be a nice spell, if it can be?"

"A nice one... Nice... one. Ah! Least wish." He nodded firmly. "A favorite among spellcasters of every tradition, of most ability, from the least to the most grand. There is rarely a time that Least--"

"It's not called that," chastised the head druid, waving a hoof at Purple. "Prestidigitation is its name. 'Least Wish' is, at best, a local joke. Still, a fine spell. Yes, teach them that." Though she didn't say it, it wasn't that hard to imagine she was wondering what the group casting of that would produce. "This will be your first concentration spell. A valuable lesson, yes, a fine second spell. Now, since it is your second spell, you know how most of it works already. You just need to learn new words, and new movements. It would come all the faster." She lifted onto butterfly wings. "I will be off then. Purple, keep me apprised."

"Yes, mistress." He dipped his head until she was gone. "Shall we begin?"

No complaints came from any of the four students. As the head druid has promised, once one knew how to cast a spell, learning a second came so much more easily. It was the same process, with a little variation. The equestrian ponies learned it first, of course, but Tree was well on the way. Daisy squinted at a smudge on the ground.

The smudge was personal. She put it there when she walked in! But as she glared at it balefully, it began to fade with little squeaky sounds, fading from existence as if she had stared at it so hard, it died. "Ah ha!"

"You look chilly." Daisy wheeled around to glare at Lily, squinting at her with purpose.

Lily raised a brow. "That doesn't work on..." she trailed off, realizing she felt warm, but didn't understand... "How?"

Daisy burst into giggles. "I can't warm you up directly,  but I can warm stuff in your pocket."

Lily quickly fished out a rock that was in her pocket, warm in her hooves. "Cheater!"

Rose laughed at their antics. "That rock looks a little plain." She waved a hoof at it as bright pink polka dots appeared across it. "There, that's more of a warm rock."

"No!" Daisy made it red with flame patterns. "Now that is a warm rock."

Lily stuffed her rock away. "Stop playing with my rock. It's mine!"

Tree inclined her head slowly. "Why do you have a rock?"

Lily began to color. "He's my pet."

Rose rolled her eyes at that. "She thinks having a living pet would be a betrayal, so a pet rock is what she has, and it works for her."

Purple rolled hoof over hoof. "Let Tree practice the spell. Are you three ready to try that... together?"

They shared a look. For once, Daisy began the spell, Lily following it up, and Rose bringing it home as they spread their hooves in a wide arc over themselves. A stand appeared, their flower stand, with flowers. The stand and the flower looked thin and glowing, clearly magical in origin.

Rose let out a soft sigh. "Still miss it."

Purple circled around it in a scamper. "That's quite a large object..." Larger than a person could normally make with that spell. "Is it any sturdier?" He reached out and pressed against it. A loud snap heralded the fact that it was not any more durable, collapsing into dust that faded away moments later. "Hm... Still remarkable. I cast Least Wish, but you cast 'Not-Quite-Least Wish." He laughed at his own humor. "I would love to see what else you can do with it."

Tree snorted softly. "Am I the only one bothered by natural magic being used in such an unnatural way? It feels like... just... wrong."

"What is natural for us is clearly not natural for them." Purple nodded at the girls. "But just as primal. Just because we are comfortable in our 'prime' plane doesn't make it the only one. Their magic does not appear to distort local magic or the living creatures here, so no real harm it done, that I can see."

Rose nodded at Purple, but was soon looking back at Tree. "Go on, go over the spell again. I'll throw out some corrections."

It was, in some ways, unnerving that they could hear those mistakes and give such clear advice without hesitation. "Only practiced ears can even tell what spells are being cast, but you not only know that, but can identify the mistakes." Tree threw her hooves wide. "That is amazing, and you don't even notice it."

"Not entirely true," chastised Purple. "Watch." He cast the first spell they learned.

Tree perked her ears. "Oh, that one. I know that one."

"And you have it ready," explained the teacher. "If you have the spell fresh in your mind, you can recognize it easily. That they can spot the mistakes so elegantly is nice, but to recognize it, not so odd. Please, continue practicing."

Tree let out a slow sigh. "Alright, what am I getting off?" She would keep practicing, with strange outsiders and at least one normal druid.
> 10 - To Answer the Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They had been droning, calling, and dancing for what felt like forever. Sure, it was actually one day, but a day-long ritual was no small feat. All five of them looked haggard, four butterflies and a pony, heaving for  breath as they came into the final part, clopping their hooves down in a circle.

What they didn't expect was an equally surprised Lily to appear in the center of the circle. The head caster raised a brow high. "You are that outside pony!"

"Um, yeah?" Lily looked around slowly. "Where are we? This is the ground, right?" She could see a lack of branches. They didn't seem to be in the center of a tree either. "Are we close to Prisma?"

The pony stepped forward. "We were calling a force of nature to assist us."

Another butterfly bobbed his head. "And you appeared instead. Are you even a fae, or an animal?"

The pony waved. "She clearly must be one or the other, or she wouldn't have been called. But why would nature itself choose you of all creatures to answer us!?"

The butterfly in charge frowned. "Perhaps we failed..."

"Or perhaps you succeeded?" offered Lily with an awkward smile. "Tell me what you wanted and we'll know for sure."

The pony shrugged. "No harm in that. The ritual is done, for better or worse. We were hoping to summon a natural being that could help them." He pointed off to a small dam in an equally small river. "The beavers seem depressed, and we have failed to discern why. Their presence is vital to the local plants and animals."

"Aw!" Lily clapped her hooves together, beaming at the cute little fuzzballs that were busy around their dam. "Look at them go. Such busy little things, beavers are." She leaned forward, as if she wanted to take a step. "They say we earth ponies have a link to animals."

The pony raised a brow. "I'm an earth-bound, but I feel more kinship with storms than animals."

"Huh." She shrugged. "Well, I'm an Equestrian earth pony. You're a... whatever this place is--"

"Everglow," provided the stallion.

"Yeah, that. You're that. So it works a little different." Lily shrugged helplessly. "But I will want the girls. We're a team!"

The head butterfly, who was not the leader the druids as a whole, inclined her head. "Girls? Oh! The other outsiders?"

"Yeah." Lily bobbed her head. "Point me back at the--"

The head flutter had her hoof up. "It will be faster for us to fetch them. We'll be back." All four flutters lifted into the air, lifting up into the sky on gentle wings.

The pony watched them a moment. "I get jealous at times, how easily they can move like that."

"I hear ya." Lily nudged her new pony friend. "You're a druid, right?"

"I am." He raised a brow at Lily. "I hear you have mastered a spell."

"Several," proudly claimed Lily, sitting up. "Teacher said I could try a 'first circle' one soon. Said it worked differently a little. I want to see." She fidgeted in place, perhaps imagining what spells were to come. "Is this what Twilight feels like?"

"Twilight? Oh, there they are." Two flutters to each, they were lowering the other flower mares to the ground just in front of Lily. "Now that your friends are here, you can proceed?"

Rose took an unsure step forward. "Yeah... Hey Lily. I was super confused when you just... vanished."

"Poof!" Daisy threw her hooves wide. "Right in the middle of a sentence. You alright?"

Lily met them, a hug given and received at once. "Good to see you all. They were trying to call help for some sad beavers, and they got me."

Daisy inclined her head. "Huh. What do they think you are, Fluttershy?"

"I'm not that good, but with you two here, I think I can try." Lily turned to face the dam. "If you're up for it?"

Rose advanced to Lily's side. "We have your back."

"All the way." Daisy took up the other side. "Besides, they're just beavers."

"Beavers that need a little help." Lily advanced at a slow pace, eyes on the colony of furry critters. They were, in their own way, alien. Just like Everglow ponies, they weren't shaped right compared to Equestrian beavers. Their worlds were not the same world. But they were still animals.

They were hurting. She would do her best. "Hello." She sat down in range of them, but far enough away that she could be avoided easily. "Hello. What's bothering you?" She offered a hoof and waited. And waited.

Rose inclined her head slowly, seated a little back and to the left. The doubt was clear, but she kept her mouth shut.

A beaver advanced, sniffing at Lily curiously. Lily smiled just a little, not showing her teeth. A little twitchy nose touched her hoof and she gently brought it in for a little pet. The beaver dashed away. She didn't move, leaving her arm outstretched.

Her patience was rewarded, the same curious beaver eventually daring to come close again. She managed a little pet without it fleeing. "That's a good boy... Now what's bothering you?"

The beaver dashed away, but Lily was following at a sedate pace. The other girls watched with amazement, but let her go as she wanted. "Is it this way?" The animal had no answer, being an animal, but it kept on going, and it wasn't trying to avoid her specifically. Into the water it slipped with barely a splash.

Lily did not have waterproof fur, or even all that much skill at swimming, so she made much more of a sploosh when she dove in, swimming after the beaver. She fished out a set of goggles and slapped them on as she went, allowing her to see clearly as her furry friend went under the dam and swam up into it.

Rose turned to the druids. "Um... I think she's following it."

Daisy bobbed her head. "Duh. What else would she be doing?"

The head of the others nodded her head. "I hope this works. I was not aware she could cast first circle spells, let alone second!" The flower mares peered at the butterfly with confusion. "Did she not just use speak with animals?" Both shook her head. "Huh... I am humbled. She reached an accord without primal magic."

In the water, Lily came up with a loud gasp as she reached an air pocket inside the dam. She shook her head dry and focused on what was in front of her. It was the beaver, watching her... expectantly. She could see tunnels went past him in various directions, working through the dam. "Alright. So the problem is in here?" She pulled herself up into the cramped space. "I'm on the case."

She set her hooves on her goggles as she wriggles and sang. Light spilled out from them, becoming her torch with no heat or smoke. "That's better. How do you see in here?" The beaver had no answer. It was a beaver. "You wait here." She wriggled past the critter, searching for what was bothering them.

It was a blessing that Equestrian ponies were made of marshmallows. She could squeeze and contort  through the tunnel, slowly inching forward where many Everglow ponies would struggle. A new smell reached her. The scent of sticks and mud and the powerful musk of beavers had always been there, marking it clearly as a home of the beavers.

The new smell did not belong. "Is that?" Surely a new strange scent would be displeasing to the beavers, or so she figured, wriggling her way forward. Her going was slow, so slow, but she was doing it. She could advance, so she did. "What are you?"

She fell down into a lower tunnel with a rough grunt. Nopony said her mission would be easy! She got to pushing ahead, the scent growing stronger bit by bit. C'mere you..."

"Is she alright?" One of the other flutters was peering at where she vanished into the water. "Can you breathe water?"

Both flower mares shook their head quickly. Rose cut the air with a hoof. "Not one of our tricks," assured Daisy. "But she'll be alright. I believe in her!"

"Yeah." Rose nodded firmly. "Besides, I don't see a rush of bubbles." She was watching the calm water. "That happens when you're drowning, pretty sure."

All the druids and would-be druids watched for the sign of fresh bubbles.

What Lily did not expect was to be suddenly bit. An angry snarl came just moments ahead of a sharp pain through her left leg just past her hoof. "Ow!" There was a beaver, not like the one she followed. This beaver's eyes were bulging and spittle dropped from its mouth It was sputtering and hissing, clearly wanting her to leave.

It was not cute. And yet, Lily didn't immediately flee, nor attack, though both were fine options.  "Poor thing." The beaver was trembling and snarling at her. "Your friends are worried about you." Alas, all she knew were cantrips, and none of them seemed immediately useful... except! She spoke the words of magic in a, she hoped, soothing melody, getting a fresh hiss, but not a bite.

Focusing on the beaver, the dirt, spittle, and other signs of its lack of self care began to fade away, bit by it. She was cleaning it without touching it. This confused the little fuzzy thing. It ran its paws over its face and chest, but could find no sign of the filth that had fled it. It sank down, so very confused.

But it wasn't attacking.

Back above, the lead of the druids there shook her head. "We should not have allowed her to throw herself in the river. It will be my fault if she comes to harm. You are our guest. Your safety is our responsibility."

Rose raised a hoof. "Relax. Your fancy ritual called her, so she had to be the right pony for the job, right? Have some faith in her."

The leader squinted at Rose. "I have faith in the grand nature of things, but you are from another thing entirely. How do I have faith in something I barely understand?"

Rose put her hooves on either of the leader's shoulder with a smile. "Same way I'm doing it. She'll come back, promise. And now it's my fault." She curled a hoof on herself. "I take the blame."

The druid laughed at that, a short noise. "I appreciate the attempt, but you are not even yet a druid. This fault is mine. I was the one with that responsibility. Still, thank you. It is in kindness spoken, and I do recognize that." She dipped her head, gently bopping Rose with her antennae. "Nice of you."

A great splash announced Lily's arrival, a sickly beaver in her arms, set out on the shore limply. "He's sick!"

"You're cut!" Daisy hurried up to her friend, eyeing the bite wound on their leg. "Doesn't that hurt?!"

"Yes... a lot, actually." As if reminding her of it was too much, Lily promptly passed out, joining the beaver in the more comfortable world of the unconscious.

The druids were upon them in a hurry, separating the two. Their wounds were tended with warm natural magic and diseases banished from the both of them. With the cleansing, the other beavers began to move with more energy, as if they knew instinctively that their friend had been cured. The dam community was saved.

"Your friend is a hero." The pony among them patted the sleeping Lily. "Clearly drawn to the path of the animal. I will report her deeds, so she is assigned properly."

Daisy flashed a bright smile. "Ha! Take that, Fluttershy! She's going to be so jealous when we get back."

Rose snickered at the imagined idea. "So... animal. What are the other options, just so we have an idea."
> 11 - Order in the Circle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Animal is self explaining." The butterfly gestured at the recovering Lily. "They care for animals, feeling a kinship with them and making the animals' plights akin to their own. Then there is the order of the leaf, for plants. Stone reveres the land itself." She tapped her hooves with each order named as she went through them. "Flame watches for fires, both natural and not, to see they are in the right place. Storm cares for the air. Wave for the water. Then there's Wild, a bit of an outside order, not being charged with protecting anything. None of us are that." The others shook their heads quickly.

"Filled with the power of the wilds, they don't revere animals, they are one, and can slip from one bestial form to another, and often enjoy doing so. To live in this city is, itself, anathema to them, so you will not find many here." The butterfly nodded softly with a soft hum. "And those are the orders we have and know of. There may be others, far removed or rarified beyond my recall, but those are the basics."

With the list complete, her eyes went to Rose pointedly. "Do you feel your heart quicken with any of the ones I've mentioned?"

Rose put a hoof up quickly. "Leaf! I love helping plants. I am a florist after all." She stuck out her tongue in defiance. "Comes naturally."

Daisy put her hooves at her hips. "Unfair. We're all florists, Rose. You can't go calling dibs on the flower order like that."

Rose reached over to boop Daisy on the nose. "Please! You are so obviously Flame. Why are you even pretending that isn't true?"

Daisy wilted as she flopped down to her haunches. "Um... Well, I do like... I guess..."

"Done deal." Rose clapped her hooves together. "Leaf, Fire, and Animal." She angled her head towards Daisy. "Did you know she names every fire she makes?"

The butterfly smiled at that. "Truly? How cute, if I may say."

Daisy squeaked with dismay. "Stop making fun of me... Each fire has a little life. If I don't remember them, who will?"

The butterfly inclined her head. "Spoken as a true flame druid if ever I heard one. Your friend seems to speak the truth. Today is a blessed day. We have solved the problem and found paths two of you may yet walk."

Rose squinted at that. "What? Three, right?" She pointed at each of her sisters and then at herself. "Animal, Fire, Leaf. Three."

"Just because you have declared it doesn't make it true." The butterfly leaned in with that sagacious smile. "You are all three florists. What makes your floristry more impactful than theirs?"

Rose shuffled in place. Her cutie mark was a rose! But then her flower partners also had flowers adorning them. She was a florist, but so were they... "C'mon! At least one of us has to be leaf or there is no justice in this crazy world!" She threw up both hooves to the heavens, which cared not for her plight.

"We should get back to the city." The head of the ritual seemed happy to lead them back towards one of the lifts. "Thank you for helping us. Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah." Lily was walking on her own. "Animal, huh? Well, I was the one that didn't want to hurt them in the first place."

Daisy laughed at that. "By avoiding milk? I don't imagine there's a lot of animals lining up to give thanks for that."

Lily shot Daisy a sour look. "I'm glad the beavers are alright..."

Rose threw a leg over Lily, drawing her closer. "That was very brave. A bit too brave for one of us. You sure you're alright?"

Lily shrank a bit, but was held against Rose. "It was too late to change my mind. There was that beaver, so lost and confused. I had to help. If I didn't, who would?"

Rose thumped against the captive mare. "I was complimenting you. You did good! Did you... Guess you didn't."

"Didn't what?" Lily turned an ear on Rose. "What'd I miss?"

"You were passed out." Rose inclined her head back at where that happened as she stepped up onto the lift with Lily. "They healed your cut, which doesn't sting now, right?"

"Oh right." Apparently a thing she had entirely forgotten about. She lifted her leg into view, confirming that it was whole and without any bites in it. "They can do that?!"

Daisy hopped onto the lift beside Lily, across from Rose. "I saw 'em do it. Wonder if they'll show us how to do that. That'd be nice."

So it was that they returned to their home and to magic lessons. First circle spells were quite a bit different from cantrips. "You see," explained the buzzing bee of a teacher, Purple Auspex. "Now that you have mastered the cantrips, your mind is prepared. Like a tilled field, it is a simple task to sow seeds and allow nature to take care of the rest. Natural magic, primal magic, wants to flow through you. So powerfully, in fact, you must decide which you will allow to even come close to the surface."

He buzzed left and right before all four mares. "Now, you know the basic idea. You've had to prepare your cantrips. You know more cantrips than you can have prepared at once, correct? How many can you prepare?" He looked to Tree Whisper first.

"Three." She held up but one hoof. Alas, ponies didn't have fingers to make such a gesture. "I've tried for four, but it feels... cluttered, up here." Tree tapped at her own head. "It's not comfortable."

"No. Don't force it, but keep trying, every morning as you prepare for the day," counseled Purple. "Five is where you want to be, and where most druids are for sake of cantrips. Locking the energy patterns in your thoughts is no simple thing, so don't feel bad while you practice expanding that." He looked next to Daisy. "Young fire druid, how many different cantrips can you prepare?"

"Four," Daisy declared proudly, standing erect. "I didn't know five was the target. I'll go for five."

Purple chuckled softly. "With the speed of your kind, I see. Unsurprising. I am told that your affinity for fire goes beyond the surface. The head druid is considering your formal induction, but nothing is decided yet." He turned in the air to Lily. "Unlike you. Your performance and the glowing recommendation of the druid that... summoned you, a curious event in itself, was impossible to deny. You are authorized to join the order of the animal, if you wish to. It is your choice if you accept this invitation, but that's another day's topic. How many cantrips can you hold?"

"Five," timidly admitted Lily. "I wanted to have them all ready to go, but five's the most I could manage."

"Oh, that would be lovely, to have all the cantrips at one's hoof." Purple nodded at the idea. "But our reach outmatches our grasp, as is the nature of things. In your world as well as ours, it would seem."

All three flower mares giggled at that. Some things were universal, even in other universes.

"But five, very good." His eyes went on.

"Five," declared Rose. "And ready for more."

All three nodded in agreement with that idea.

Purple looked back to Tree. "This is a lesson you can learn even while you expand on your cantrip preparations. You will have to expand on these as well. This is..." He ran his hooves together. "This is a journey, and one all druids are on, in the end. I may seem like a druid that has already done it all, but even I am reaching to expand that reservoir, to hold more patterns in my mind, waiting to be unleashed." He landed and sat on his haunches. "It's time to learn about magic that you may not use whenever the whim strikes."

Rose inclined her head. "Big fancy rituals?"

"Far more personal." He raised a brow suddenly. "Though, with you three--" He waved a hoof at the three flower mares. "--it may not be as personal as it is for most. Putting that aside, it's time to learn the first harmony of the primal. With this, you will begin to dream of it, and from it, you can draw and hold close the patterns you want to have ready for the coming day. You know how to prepare them, so I don't have to go over that."

It was time to learn first circle magic, and all four of them were eager to do so.





Purple dipped his head. "You've all learned well, but rest. That is also a part of learning." He buzzed out the door, leaving them to privacy.

Rose closed the door, then turned in place rapidly to face Tree. "You!"

"Me?" She curled a hoof at herself. "What about me?"

"What order are you?" Rose leaned forward. "Got a favorite already? I'm aiming for Leaf."

"Animal." Lily waved lightly.

"Flame." Daisy held up a new fire in her cupped hooves. "You saw that coming, didn't you?"

"I did," admitted Tree with a brief little laugh. "Your affinity for fire was not well hidden, if that was your goal."

"You're avoiding the question." Rose prodded at Tree's chest with a smirk. "Which are you going for? Tell us!"

"I do not have to." Tree crossed her arms in quite the pout. "But since you continue to pester, I was... drawn to water. Go ahead, laugh."

But none of the flower mares laughed, instead looking confused. Daisy looked Tree over from the start. "Huh, don't get it. What's so odd about that?"

"Outsiders!" Tree cried out as if that explained everything. "I am a unicorn. A unicorn druid is odd enough. But a Wave Druid? What am I, a sea horse? No. I am a unicorn, but I feel at home considering the flow and ebb of water." She worried her hooves together. "It's not..."

"Natural?" finished Rose, one brow up. "So, neither are we by that gauge." She shrugged in a grand gesture. "Who are we to throw that rock?"

"I'd rather throw fire." Daisy unleashed her ball of flame at Tree, but it fizzled to nothing long before it reached her. "But we're friends. So you're a unicorn that likes water? Unicorns do magic, it's their thing. This is still magic." All three nodded in sync with that. A unicorn that did magic? Super normal. "Going to the beach doesn't make you not a unicorn that likes magic."

Lily poked at Daisy. "Or an earth pony that likes magic, around here." She sank to her haunches. "I can't wait to dream."

"Yeah..." Rose's sight went long, daydreaming of what it could be like. "That's pretty wild, that all your spells are just... there."

"They are not just 'there'." Tree frowned, chastising in tone and stance. "It took great work by druids of the past to unearth these magics and unleash their songs to the world. Thank them for their work." She snorted softly at that. "Perhaps, some day, you will happen upon some new primal step, and it will be up to you how you use it. Do you hold it close, or try to share it with the world? They made their decision, but how will you make yours, if that ever happens?"

Rose rubbed at her cheek with a thoughtful harum. "That's the kind of thing 'adventuring druids' find, right? Count me out. I'm really happy not adventuring." That got a call of agreement from the other two, all three perfectly pleased with not going out into forgotten places in the hope of glory. "What about you?"

"Me?" Tree pointed at herself, an expression of shock on her face. "I will go to the waters and tend them. I will protect them so future generations can enjoy them. Adventuring doesn't do that."
> 12 - Welcome
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lily stood at attention with a nervous little smile. "Everything alright?"

The flutterponies that were assembled before her were whispering back and forth, a lot. They were having quite the chat, glancing at her once in a while.

"I can go if you want?" Lily pointed back out of the tree they were in. "It's no big deal..."

"Not so fast." A male flutter broke from the group. "You are a unique situation, you know that. A druid that has learned first circle spells and proven they belong, yet does not know the language. How do you even..." He frowned, question not finished, so a new one came up instead. "Do you not hear words you can't understand, in your dreams?"

"Oh, right, the secret." She curled her hooves to make two quotes in time with that last word. "If you want to share it, you can. But I'm already learning a lot, and I don't even see the advantage, since everyone here speaks Ponish." She sank to her haunches. "Thank goodness for small favors."

He shook his head. "That language is sacred to our order." He brought up a hoof. "I mean, the larger ones. Druids, as a whole." He threw both hooves wide. "Not this specific one, of animals. When we receive our spells, the song is in that language, so it is confusing to think that you still manage it." The other druids nodded in agreement, little murmurs of confusion coming from them. "But, that is how nature works."

He took a step towards Lily. "When a creature performs the impossible, well... It must not be as impossible as one thought, and nature cares little for your confusion. Why, we are impossible creatures." He lifted off the ground on little flutters of his butterfly wings. "These are not fast enough. They are not large enough. Despite this, my wings give me freedom." He came in closer, hovering in with a smile. "I am talking to myself now, but I feel I have made some sense of this, so do forgive me."

Landing right in front of Lily, he reached out to set a hoof on her chest. "We are wasting time, arguing the facts before us. I can fly, and you hear the call of nature. Neither of these things can be argued."

Lily smiled with dawning hope. "So we're all good then?"

"I think we are." The druid leaned in, tapping the end of his nose to Lily's. "So you wish to help animals?"

Lily shied back, hoof raising to rub the point of unexpected contact. "It felt right, to give a hoof to them. Poor things needed a little help."

"Animals will only rarely thank you." He circled Lily at a sedate pace. "Many will hiss and bark to send you away, even if you have worked very hard to make their lives a little better."

"They're animals." Lily shrugged softly. "They don't know better." She suddenly perked. "Is there a spell to talk to them? Then I could Fluttershy it up."

The man inclined his head. He did not bother asking what a Fluttershy was or how one performed one. "There is, but that is not the point. We do not exist to force our concepts upon the natural world. To speak to them a trick used when needed, but that they do not is the normal." He sat and brought his hooves together. "If you never learned that spell, what would you do?"

"My best?" Lily offered a bit lamely. "What else would I do?"

"A fine answer." He fluttered his wings without taking flight. "But there is a thing all animal order druids have that you do not." He extended a hoof out and waited patiently. A wolf emerged from the back and moved up to the extended hoof to be petted without any words being shared between the two. "But, you are a unique case, as we covered. Perhaps this will not be your way. I'm not sure."

Squinting into the dim lighting of the animal order's den, Lily could see other animals were about, watching the exchange almost as intently as the other animal druids. Were they friends of the other druids? "A... pet?"

The druid frowned at that word. "Only an outsider would call our companions 'pets'." He smiled at Lily just as quickly. "Fortunately for you, that is exactly what you are." As if that fit some joke that amused him. "They are tied to us in a way no family dog ever could be. As we grow more sure and our connection to nature deepens, they can sup gently and grow alongside us. They are part of us, and we, part of them."

Lily worried a hoof against a smooshed cheek. "Huh. So how do I get one, if everycreature in the order gets one?"

He pointed past her. "I have a feeling your bond is already half-formed, but you didn't know to reach for it. Prove my hunch correct, and lay to rest any lingering doubt as to your place in our order. Think to animals you came into contact with recently. One came closer. One listened. Go and find them, and apologize for being so slow to notice."

Lily raised a hoof, ready to turn. "Is that a 'now' thing?"

"There is little more to discuss before it is done." He dipped his head at her. "I wish you luck. When you have them, bring them here and we will celebrate with you."

And so it was that Lily was dismissed. But she hadn't been kicked out of the order, just given homework. She tried to think of animals. "I messed that up." When she could have seen some animals, she had drugged herself loopy. No animals seen that day. She had seen all kinds of colorful birds, basically every day. There were insects about. The big flutterponies lived with small little butterflies. They were all over, but they didn't chat, or listen, so far as she knew.

"The beavers?"

Rose raised a brow at the odd statement. "The beavers?"

Lily had arrived back at their home without really thinking. "Oh, huh. Hey Rose." She accelerated towards her friend, the two sharing a brief hug. "I was told to find an animal that 'had listened' to me."

Rose inclined her head. "Then, yeah, the beavers." She pointed the way, down and to the side. "The first one? You put out your hoof and one came up, remember? I thought you were doing that on purpose! Showing off your Fluttershy moves."

Lily blinked slowly, eyes wide. "Oh! Oh yeah!" She clopped a hoof to her face. "I made a friend and didn't even remember. I was too... bit at the end of that. I fixed his den and trotted right off." She raised a hoof out straight. "I did it just like he did! And the beaver came right up..." Just like the wolf had, and accepted a gentle petting the same way. "I feel so dumb!"

That was when she noticed something missing. "Where's Daisy?"

Rose grinned at that. "When you were off saying hi to your order, she went mad with jealousy."

"What?! She alright?" Lily began looking around, peeking under a chair as if Daisy might be hiding under it. "We have--"

Rose pounced Lily, crashing onto her back. "Calm down." She held her flower sister down, hugging her tight. "I was joking. I meant she went off to the fire order. She worked it up in her head that she could prove her worth if she just went and asked properly." She slipped free of Lily. "Conveniently forgetting she doesn't have permission. You do, she doesn't. Like I said, mad with jealousy."

Lily sat up, recovering from the sudden pounce. "Oh, alright, but... She really is, I mean, she belongs there. I don't know how or why, but she loves fire."

Rose poked Lily right on the snoot. "And since when were you into animals? I don't remember you hanging out much with Fluttershy or Doctor Fauna."

Lily's thoughts went back to the two animal tenders of Ponyville. "I have a lot to talk to them about now." A silly smile spread on her face. "Especially if I get that animal talking spell before we go back." Suddenly she flinched. "Speaking of that! When do we get to go back? Do we get to go back? They came here, and they got back, right? So there has to be a way..." She pawed at the ground, her good mood shattered. "We can't stay here forever."

Rose lifted both hooves and shoulders in a mighty shrug. "What's the alternative plan? The others ran off to adventure I think. So... if you two decided you want to risk that..."

Lily shrank at the idea. "No..."

"I didn't think so." Rose nodded firmly. "So we just do the best we can right here." She waved a hoof in a slow circle. "At least, this place is actually pretty nice. And I feel like I'm getting a hoof on it. Tomorrow, after we're sure Daisy didn't get in trouble, I plan to march over to the head druid, who is also the mayor, and asking for property to start our flower stand up. I mean here." She tapped at the ground. "Flutters like flowers too! Nice colorful ones that smell nice."

Lily smiled nervously. "That would be nice... It's been so long since we've run the stand... Can we do that and be druids at the same time?" She tapped at her own chest. "Will a beaver want to hang out with flowers?"

Rose rolled her eyes at that. "You'll just have to ask them, won't you?"

"Oh yeah!" Lily rushed out of the house without further words. She had a beaver to find! She danced the entire time the lift lowered her down towards the forest floor. "Please be there!" But before she could get much off the lift, several flutters descended on her in a circle. "I'm a little busy."

The dragonfly directly ahead of her shook their head. "No can do." A female. "You aren't allowed outside the city, remember?"

Lily recoiled. She had been told that! But... "I have to go back to where I was summoned." She pointed the way. "And chat with a beaver. I'll come back after that, promise."

In many places, this would have been a mad request. But in a community that had so many druids... "Oh. Well, I'll come with you. She'd get mad if I let you wander off." The dragonfly moved to Lily's side instead of barring the way and walked in time with her. "Why are you hunting a beaver?"

"I'm not hunting them." Lily made a face at the idea. "I would never hurt an animal. I want to apologize and say hello."





Elsewhere, Daisy threw fire from hoof to hoof. "This is Ferdinand, and he says hello. He doesn't have long, but he'd love to show off a bit before then." She threw him up in a lazy arc, just to catch him. "The life of a fire is like that, short, but so bright."

Six druids sat before her, watching her escapades, some with raised brows, others flat of expression. One of them, a pony with dark brown fur, stood up. "Fire is a beast, always hungry, and ready to feast. Its dance brings life, but also death. One in the future, and the other in the present. Do you understand that?"

Daisy shrank back, cradling Ferdinand close as if to protect the flame child she had made from the others. "Not every fire has to eat."

"Every fire has to eat," argued the pony. "A fire that does not eat is no true flame. Even the one in your grasp." He nodded at Ferdinand. "They devour your magic and attention. Without them, it would fade away. If you give it better food, it would spread without you. Fire has no loyalty."

There was more yet to learn of flames.
> 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."
> 14 - Tree's Rose Whispers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I know why." All the mares looked to Tree. She was, perhaps, a little smug. It was nice when she had something over the strange aliens that were too quick to pick things up. They hadn't picked that up. She tilted a pot with her magic as if to peer inside the vase, though she wasn't leaning quite right for a good angle. "Why Rose hasn't been accepted by the order of the Leaf."

Rose perked up, ears twitching as she curled her hooves on herself. "Well, why?! I love plants! All the love I can even think of. They're my life."

Tree's smirk only grew. "Sure, sure... But you don't understand what it is exactly the leaf order refuses to do." She looked to Daisy. "You learned that lesson. I see you not bouncing a new fire every time I walk in."

Daisy colored faintly. "I'm still learning, where fire is needed, and not." She rubbed behind her head softly. "Did you know fires are super useful in some forests, at some times?"

Lily drew her beaver closer. "Really? A fire would wreck all the flowers, for sure. Flowers don't like fire."

"That isn't true either! I mean, sorta yeah, but that's not the whole picture." Daisy was smiling with memory. "Once a fire goes through, new flowers will pop up. They wait for the fire to sprout, so without a fire, they're never born, so those flowers like a fire a lot."

Rose looked away from Daisy, back to tree. "How does this relate to me?"

Tree reached out, setting a hoof on Rose's front. "Each order has a few things they simply must not do. To break those rules is to fall immediately out of harmony with the song of nature, and to have its blessings revoked." She swirled the same hoof suddenly to point at Lily. "Being cruel to animals, or killing them unless absolutely required. Considering your diet, the one of two exceptions normally on the table is removed. Only self defense is a reason you might cause it."

Lily hugged her beaver all the firmer. "I'd never! Who would want to hurt such an adorable muffin?" She nuzzled into his side warmly. He had stopped stinking quite so much of beaver since entering her care. She delighted in caring for him, which included baths and brushing.

Rose advanced a step towards Tree, head low. "Wait, you don't--"

"And you." Tree looked to Daisy. "To know where a fire should be, or shouldn't, and always acting to keep it just so. That is the way of the order of fire, a way you are learning."

"Doing my best." Daisy clopped her hooves together in an almost pleading way. "There are a lot of rules about what makes a fire good or bad. I had no idea!"

Rose bit Tree, with a lash of her head, she managed a square chomp on the unicorn's side. "Stop teasing me!"

"Alright alright." Tree danced away from the agitated alien pony. "You kill plants. It is your profession. The order of the leaf forbids that. Unless required, a plant's life is sacred. Food, certainly, with respect." Tree nodded as she spoke, eyes on Rose directly. "For life-saving medicines, perhaps, but again with proper respect. But to make someone prettier, or to 'liven up' a space by slaying one of them? Never. A florist has no place in the order of the leaf."

Rose crashed to her haunches. "No way..." But her denial did not make it so. "Wait! A rose bush isn't killed when you take a flower." She rose up, front low, back high, pawing at the ground as if ready to attack. "Most flowers don't die when you pick a flower, and I know which is which!"

Tree casually waved at Lily. "Did you already forget what I said her conditions were? It's not very different, animal to leaf, just a matter of what they are protecting. Do you think a rose, or any flower, enjoys having a piece of them ripped free?Even if they can survive it, it is a cruelty." Tree half-turned away. "As I said, a florist has no place in the order of the leaf."

Rose threw up her hooves. "Not fair! Not... even... But there are flowers!" She pointed to the door leading outside. "Tons of them. Ponies sell them all the time." Even if some of the 'ponies' she referred to were really insects shaped like ponies. They'd only be pleased at the mistake. "Why's that allowed if it's such a big deal?"

Tree lifted her shoulders. "A leaf druid is a pinnacle of plant symbiosis and care. They don't expect everyone else to rise to their level, that would be unrealistic. The same goes for animal druids, though they are far faster to act if they see an animal being picked on. A little unfair, if you ask me. The cries of an animal are easier to hear, and harder to ignore, I suppose."

Daisy flashed a great big smile. "So what are the rules of a sea druid? You want to be one of those, right? I bet you know them!"

"I do." Tree looked proud of that knowledge. "And it's a wave druid, not a sea one." She didn't sound angry at the mistake, just correcting it. "We are charged with protecting the sources of water against those that would pollute them. To leave them unpunished is anathema to us, and forsakes nature's song."

Rose and Lily peered at Tree with new doubt. Lily waved. "No fair. Yours is way easier. You don't have to change what you do at all."

Tree raised a brow at Lily. "And you do? I don't think you hurt animals long before you arrived here."

"Well, true... But I meant in general. Not all the animal order are vegans like me. Some of them..." She shuddered in memory. "They eat raw meat just as wildly as their pet carnivores, right alongside them. I think they... enjoy it..."

"They do," agreed Tree without doubt. "But I did not make up these orders, so yelling at me won't change them. They made their pacts with nature itself, many many generations ago, and those oaths remain tight. To join an order is to accept the power, and burden, of that oath on yourself." She looked to Rose pointedly. "Are you willing to never hurt or kill a plant unless required for survival?"

Rose shrank back, the fight leaving her. "N-no... But I love flowers..."

"Not enough to leave them alone," countered Tree. "And that's exactly the problem. It is a thing druids sigh heavily about when they think of 'civilized' people. They love nature... to death." Tree suddenly perked up. "Oh! I forgot to announce that I got my first circle spells under control. I can cast them competently, and passed the test to prove it. This means I am officially a druid. Trained in knowledge, act, and competence, I may now call myself that in full. I owe you my thanks." She dipped her head at the flower mares. "You drew me here with your help."

Daisy clapped quickly, applauding the triumph. "Congratulations! Um, but does that mean you're headed for the beach now?"

"Not right away." Tree waved that off. "I'm not done here. I can guard the local waters, but first... There are a few interesting ponies I'm keeping an eye on."

Rose clopped a hoof down with an angry huff. "So you can tear our dreams apart a little more?"

"You're upset," noted Tree a bit flatly. "I'm sorry, really, I am, but I didn't do this, and I can't change this. I'll go. You need your space." She trotted for the door, passing through it without pause. Her magic took care of opening it and closing it behind herself, allowing her to go at a steady pace.

Daisy looked away from the closed door, back to Rose. "Don't be mad."

"I am mad!" She began to dance from one hoof to the next. "It's not fair! It's not fair at all!" She sank to her belly suddenly, sniffling. "If I'm not that, what am I? What even could I be?"

Lily shrugged softly. "If you had asked before we got here, I sure wouldn't have said animal." She flopped against her beaver, who rolled with the impact, the two playfully wrestling with giggles coming from the pony in what was clearly a good time for them both.

Daisy nodded at Lily. "And I wouldn't have guessed fire of all things. Fires were so scary!" She twitched her ears. "Huh, actually, I guess I had to re learn that, that fires are scary, because they still are." She took a slow step towards Rose. "Maybe the problem is that you were so fixed on leaf that you didn't let any other way get a chance to come inside and say hi! Maybe they'd be really fun."

Rose sat up, looking between Daisy and Lily. "You two do seem like you're having fun."

Lily hugged her large beaver close. "Tons!"

Daisy bobbed her head quickly. "It's work, but I'm enjoying it. The only better way woulda been if we all got the same one." She shrugged softly. "But we're not the same pony. We had different habits before. How's this different?"

Lily waved a hoof at Rose. "Yeah, branch out a little, pun intended." She giggled at her own joke. "This whole city, strange as it is, is full of things. Take your eyes off of this for a little while."

Rose put a hoof to her chin. "You know, you made me think of something. You are this group's heart." She pointed at Lily. "Your group makes perfect sense for you." She clopped her hooves, looking increasingly confident. "And our Daisy, always was a firecracker. Scared as the rest of us, sure, but when you weren't scared, you were right out in the thick of it with a big smile." She ran her hooves back from the edges of her own lips. "It fits you. I was staring so hard in the wrong direction!"

Daisy nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's what we're saying. Don't be sad 'cause you were told you were doing that."

"Right, yes, right..." She tapped at the floor. "We've all come into situations that made this clear, like this... Like this world  is trying to get us our Everglow cutie marks. You found yours." She waved wildly between her two friends. "But I wasn't paying attention. When was I happy..." She pressed both hooves to her head, one to either side, rubbing at her temples. "When was I content...?"

"You had fun in the market," proposed Lily, her beaver giving out a cry as if in agreement. Beavers, it turned out, could make very ponish noises when they wanted. "Yeah!" Lily had an arm around him, accepting his support.

"The market was kinda fun." Rose nodded, thinking back on that memory. "And the art studio. That was... I had a good time, just... Quiet... I was the only one calm there. Is... there an order for that?" She raised a brow. "The rest of you were manic. Looked like fun too, don't get me wrong, but..."

Daisy shrugged. "We could ask Tree next time she swings by. I bet she'd know. She loves knowing stuff. Only thing she loves more is sharing stuff she learned." She burst into giggles. "Oh wow, that's super unicorn-y. She'd get along with Twilight, no problem!"

Lily giggled at that idea. "I bet the two would get all snuggly with a good nature book and the day would just pass them right by without a complaint."

All three laughed at the shared mental image of Twilight and Tree getting along famously under a comfy blanket, their eyes locked on some book that had both of their interests captured.

Rose waved it away. "Alright, yes. She'd be the best one to ask. Remind me if I forget. Painting order? I don't remember hearing about a painting order..."
> 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.
> 16 - All I Have Taught You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You three are just unbelievable." Tree prowled towards their window. "You've learned everything there is for an initiate to learn. That isn't to say everything, as if any being can claim that. Even the gods have gaps in their knowledge, and you're not that." She paused, almost tripping over a beaver that decided to cross her path. "Excuse me."

Daisy waved a hoof excitedly. "The way our first teacher, and our orders talk, there's loads of things we don't know."

Rose nodded with a little humming. "But we know more than we did before."

"You know a lot more than you did before." Tree Whisper's tail lashed as she considered the trio on her meandering path through their room. "Not masters, no, but not initiates either. There really is just one last thing to learn, but I have a theory... Unicorns often do, so forgive that." She turned towards them properly. "Have you all been accepted?"

Daisy waved a hoof. "Almost. They're really happy with me. I've learned where to put a fire, and where to keep a fire away. How to use fire without making a fire that shouldn't be there too, and how to fix mistakes, since those can happen." She blushed as she went over that, as if she may or may not have already made such a mistake. "Good thing nature magic covers that."

Rose pointed to her new collection of art. Unlike her mentor, she favored more than clay pots, though there was a few of those. "I have learned to listen to what the planet beneath us wants." She flicked an ear back. "I feel like an old school earth pony, listening to rocks. Maybe I could hear Maud's emotions now..." She looked quite musing a moment. "Sorry, got off track, friend of ours from back home."

Lily leaned to the side, and soon had Bold Support there to lean against without any spoken commands, the two clearly on the same page. "Speaking of old friends, I feel ready to out-Fluttershy Fluttershy. I can't talk to animals on a whim like she can, admittedly, but I have spells." She grinned, crooking a hoof as if she were mid-casting. "So I can do things she can't. Seems a fair trade."

"About spells." Tree spread her hooves just as wide as need be to encompass the angle of the flower mares. "I meant to ask, have you tried casting something bigger than a cantrip together? Do you all have to prepare the same spell? Is it even possible?"

Rose hiked a brow. "You were acting like you had a theory. Was that it?"

Lily shrugged, snuggling her beaver. "Didn't sound like one."

"Sorry, just a passing thought." Tree stepped from one hoof to the next with a calming breath. "Alright, the theory. I think you three already know druidic."

Daisy shrugged at the idea. "I'd think we'd know if we learned a new language." The other two nodded at that. One did not, usually, surprise-learn an entire language.

"Not if you didn't know it was a language." Tree leaned towards them with a smug smile. "Say if you thought you were learning a song or two?"

The three shared a look, dubious noises shared. Rose was the first to step away from the others. "The only songs we learned were the spells, and the spells are 'primal magic', right? Do only druids use that?"

"Nope." And yet Tree did not look like she was proven wrong just yet. "But you were taught the druidic way. There's a difference. You don't just cast things the primal way, you cast them the druidic way, which includes hearing our songs." She tapped at her own head. "In your sleep, and you can understand those just fine, and you've learned our ways, so..."

Daisy was giddily vibrating, the giggle only barely audible. "Alright, so how do we... do that? The songs I hear are the spells, not words to ask for another serving."

"Framing." The room grew quiet at Tree's lone word. "It's how you look at it, I mean. Alright... Try this for example." And she sang a song. A song of spring and summer, of coming heat and blossoming life. She sang of song of cycles, even if she was focusing one one part of the cycle. "What language was that in?" she asked just out of nowhere, right in the middle of the song.

Rose blinked rapidly. "Po...nish?"

"Druidic." Oh, how satisfied Tree looked in that instant. "Every word, and you understood it. I could see you were following along. I bet you could sing it too. Songs come naturally for you three."

Lily waved that away. "Get out!"

"Try it first." Daisy was still excitedly, dancing from hoof to hood. "Here goes!" And she sang a song of a cleansing fire, clearing away underbrush from a forest. Some would not make it, but the forest would become stronger as a result. Life would rush to fill the space made. It was a needed fire, a good fire.

Tree clopped her hooves together. "Perfect! I knew it. You three knew druidic already. Couldn't say for how long, but long enough. Now, slower." She turned to Lily, who hadn't spoken any yet. ~Greetings.~

Lily's ears danced. "Was that druidic?" Tree nodded without a word. "Oh, um... ~Hiya~ she didn't say, more of a singing. ~I'm doing it!~ she kept right on singing, her ears darkening at the tips. "That is too strange."

Tree nodded slowly. "Good good. Now that you know it, never pass that on." She waved a hoof. "Teach that language to a non-druid and you will be stripped of your power and stop being a druid."

Rose heard the one part that really mattered. "We're druids now?"

Tree dipped her head. "You have nothing else in your way, other than being welcomed to your order, which it sounds like two of you have done."

The three met, hooves in the air, crashing against one another in a great clop of mutual pride. They did it! Lily dipped back half a step. "Wait... If we're druids... Girls..." The other two looked at her. "This means... We can't just get scared anymore."

Rose hiked a brow at Lily. "Why not? I'm not feeling suddenly braver."

Lily pointed at Daisy. "If a big fire was making a mess, you would..."

"Try to put it out." She rubbed at an ear. "Wouldn't you? Fire isn't your specialty, but you wouldn't just... Oh. Oh..." Realization set in for the second of  the flower mares.

Rose threw her hooves wide. "I don't get it. I'm still me. I'm still Rose. I will get scared of things. It's kind of... our thing."

Lily leaned towards Rose, the pillar of their group. "You were always the bravest anyway." This was not a high bar to get over. "But if someone... say Flim and Flam, were busy making a big mess that tore up the ground to dig up gems they decided they wanted, you would...?"

Rose grunted at that mental image. "I'd thump them on the head! Sounds like a great use of that shillelagh spell. One bop for each of them!"

"That isn't the Rose of yesterday's reaction," noted Lily with a little smile. "And that's... That's alright..."

Daisy set a hoof on Rose's side. "We changed."

"Change is scary." Rose sank to the ground. Despite her words, she wasn't trying to argue that it hadn't happened. "Can I be scared of that?"

"Only if I get to join you." Daisy flopped down next to Rose.

"Let me in on that." Lily came in on the other side, Bold Support curling with her. The three flopped over together, sharing in their moment of abject terror. "The horror."

"The horror," agreed Rose.

"The horror," echoed Daisy, the three dying, or at least passing out for the time being.

Tree was left with three defeated flower mares and their beaver, all flopped over and killed. "Is... this a bad time? Do you need any help?"

Lily peeked open an eye. "It's a coping thing."

"It doesn't feel the same." Rose pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Still helps though." Noises of agreement came from the other two. "So... druids! We're those? What does that mean exactly?"

Tree blinked softly. "You went through the learning and trials and are still unclear on that? I can't... Outsiders." But there was a little smile on her face, more amused by the alien nature of the others at that point. "You have promised to watch and care for the primal orders of the world." She slowly swirled one hoof over her head, to repeat down low. "The animals." She nodded at Lily. "The earth." She nodded to Rose. "And the fire." A nod given to Daisy, "And how they come together and make a wonderful whole. We are its watchers. Its power is ours, but so is the responsibility of its health."

Daisy nodded at that quickly. "I got that part, but then? What do we do... day to day? We were florists." She waved at the other two flower mares. "That meant get up early in the morning, care for the flowers, snip some, make pretty arrangements and sell them to ponies that want them."

"What is the day to day for a druid?" Lily threw a leg over Bold Support. "I have to take care of him and I don't mind that part, but that isn't the whole thing, right?"

"That's a big question." Tree resumed her meandering, a habit she had when thinking big thoughts. "A druid, at face, doesn't have a strict schedule, other than making sure they take part in the dream songs and prepare themselves for the day. After that... It's up to them." She turned towards the florists. "Some go on grand adventures." They winced as once. "Okay, maybe not that... Some teach other druids, like our teachers did for us. Caring for the next generation is very important."

Daisy waved excitedly. "Do some fires go looking for places in need of a good burning?"

"Yes." Tree nodded. "I could go to the beachside and make a living for myself as I kept an eye on the waters and what happened in it. I could do that in  sea town, city, or just a lonely hut. Up to me which feels right, and which I can pull off." She wrinkled her nose faintly. "Right now, I'm still keeping an eye on some strange ponies that I've decided aren't all bad."

Lily came in with Bold, trapping Tree in a hug from left and right, "Aw, you're not all bad either."

Rose rolled her eyes with a snort. "Glad we rate at least as 'not all bad'. Fine, so... We became druids and... up to us what we do with it. No guide, no orders, just, go on, live your thing and keep an eye on nature, focusing on your order?"

"Yep." Tree burst into a brief bit of giggle. "Sorry if you were hoping for more than that, but druids are very individual, so if we tried to be more strict than that, we'd scare half our fine candidates away for no good reason. Mind, some circles are like that." She pointed out to the colorful city of Prisma just outside the window. "But not here. The flutters adore self expression, and how they druid doesn't really deviate from that. Show your colors, that's a favorite saying of theirs."

"About the flutters." Daisy rocked in place with an unsure smile. "They aren't ponies, but they seem to like them, a lot."

"A lot," agreed Tree. "Is that bad? A friend is a friend, no matter the race they happen to be. The flutters are ready to welcome you as one of their own, or just be a pony, they like that too."

Rose's brows came down and together. "About that... Are we allowed to leave now, if we want to?"
> 17 - Seatbelt Sign
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can ask," is all Tree would offer. "It is up to her. Like you, I am barely a single hoof past initiation and have no right to argue with her."

Rose shook her head. "If we're all at the same point, then why should you ask?"

Daisy's head was busy bobbing. "We should all go."

"Together." Lily nudged against Bold warmly and began for the door. "Let's go talk."

The four of them headed out onto the branches, though most of them slowed. Tree advanced to the fore. "You have no idea where she is." Well, she was there, so she led the way towards their ultimate boss. "She may not even want to talk to us, we didn't set an appointment, and while important, to you, doesn't reflect an emergency for anyone else involved."

"Hi!" A butterfly flutter had seen them on the move and was waving excitedly at them. "I really like the way you look."

Rose blinked softly. "Am I being propositioned?"

Tree turned an ear back towards Rose. "Fairly sure they mean your outsider appearance."

"Yes," agreed the flutter with a quick bob of his head. "You are all so charming! Except you." He was looking at the not-Equestrian Tree. "You are pretty the normal way. So round and simple, like a little child. I want to squeeze those cheeks." He drifted in closer as if ready to do just that.

Bold growled softly at the incoming Flutter. Lily inclined her head at the beaver. "That was a warning. We're druids now, show some respect."

"You are?!" He recoiled with wide eyes. "Amazing! I have to tell... everyone!" And off he flew in a streak. The news of their accomplishment would not stay hidden for long.

"Hope that wasn't a secret." Tree was winding down some stairs along a tree's trunk. "Because it isn't now."

Rose shrugged softly. "Should it have been? We're not embarrassed about it."

Daisy giggled softly. "Maybe it means we'll meet more creatures."

"Is that a good thing?" Lily edged closer to Bold Support as they marched. "They may not appreciate us, if we went and rushed through everything."

They went right back up another winding path, taking them higher than they started. "There aren't elevators between all the floors." Tree looked back at those behind her. "If you had wings, not really a big deal. The rest of us get to enjoy our walks. The flutters are kind folk, overall. If you look like you're having a hard time, they will at least lend a moment to help."

Daisy nodded quickly. "They seem nice, even if they called Lily a biter."

Lily began to blush. "I was just channeling my future!" She threw a leg over Bold, drawing him closer. "He can handle all the biting from now on. I'm out of that game." He bore his great incisors as if in threat. "Like that!" Lily was not intimidated, hugging her dear beaver friend all the firmer.

Tree chuckled softly as she pulled herself up off  the stairs. "Just that way." She headed across a moderate branch. "She is often busy, so I have to inform her that I want to talk to her, often through another. They tell me when to come. That we are already here breaks with that tradition, but you are an unusual case." For the outsiders, perhaps time would be found. Tree wasn't certain. "Don't feel bad if you are sent away."

Rose accelerated to Tree's side. "At least we know the way now, appreciate that. Is that the place?" She saw a few flutters and two ponies chatting before an opening into the tree. "Looks fancy enough." Large windows were visible, clear and clean. The ones talking blocked much of the ground view from that angle.

"I'm not even sure I know what I want the answer to be." Daisy quirked a lopsided smile. "Like a fire, I guess, I just want to know if I can get out."

Tree nodded softly at that. "Your words carry wisdom. Like a fire, you may be contained to prevent harm where you are not needed. But also like a fire, you are welcomed where you are, kept safe and cozy in the right place." She turned to the flower mares. "I can't say what she will say, but--"

Lily waved it off, marching forward with Calm. "We are ready either way. We just want to know where we stand."

"Good, great, wait here." Tree kept in front of Lily, preventing her forward momentum. "Let me ask at least."

Rose hiked a brow at that. "You're not expected anymore than we are. You became a druid about the same time as us. Not seeing how you going first helps." She casually went around Tree, outmatching her with multiple flower mares coming from different angles. "I say we all go."

Tree was run over, if gently, by the three. Lily was giggling with joy. "That was daring of us."

"Madness," agreed Daisy, though she was smiling all the same. "This world has changed us."

Rose shuddered at the idea. "For the better, I hope..." With a tail flick, she nosed open the door leading inside. "Hello?"

"Hello." The head druid was right there, watching them come in. "You are giving poor Tree Whisper an attack."

Tree went still, just behind the flower mares. "I tried to get them to slow down!"

"I know you did, relax." She pointed to the side. "Now, what brings you all here?"

Rose perked up. "I thought you might be busy?"

"I often can be." The butterfly approached on sedate steps. ~I am told you know the way?~

Daisy inclined her head. ~We can sing, yes,~ she sang out, as if the language could only be sung, even if the head druid had just spoke it evenly.

Lily threw one arm around Daisy and the other about calm. ~Everyone here but him. He doesn't speak.~

"And you were not instructed?" She was watching them evenly, face stoic. "Not even one word?"

Rose skewed an ear to the side. "We didn't even know we knew it. It was just part of the song, nature's song." She struck a dynamic pose. "Good for spells but not much else, but I was informed otherwise." ~Who could know?~

"An invasive species." Though she was smiling as she said it. "Whatever barriers are erected are not enough. What would you do then, adventure? I am told that is a common pursuit among your kind."

All three paled as one. Daisy began to wave wildly. "No! No no no! We're fine not doing that!"

Lily bobbed her head. "We don't mind helping out, and getting word of how to go home, but adventuring..."

"--Not for us," completed Rose, shaking her head quickly. "We've heard how the others did..."

Daisy stuck out her tongue. "Not rushing to do  battle with suits of armor."

Lily blanched. "Or angry dragons."

Rose rolled a hoof. "Or the angry minions of opposed gods. Keep  us up to date on ways to get home, but we can skip on all of the rest." All three nodded in solidarity with the idea. Better the safety one knew than the risks of the unknown. "One thing!"

"Hm?"

"As a mayor." Rose leaned forward with a big grin. "We want to start a flower stand."

Daisy began to clap excitedly. "We'll make such pretty arrangements for creatures to enjoy. Please let us!"

Lily nodded softly. "There are plenty of flowers down there, Rose confirmed that. If we have permission..."

The head druid raised a brow. "You win your freedom just to turn it aside and ask to start a business instead?" All three of them nodded in unison. "Not sure I've seen a fire behave that way..." She fetched a bit of paper and got to writing with a quill in her mouth. "This will permit you the space in the marketplace." She slid the paper over. "But the rest is up to you."

They had no bits, but their sparkly eyes revealed they weren't very discouraged by that. "One thing!" Lily waved a hoof at the elder. "We are allowed out now, right? Gotta fetch things for the stand."

Tree inclined her head softly. "Are they?" That it seemed to them to be as much a surprise to her.

"They are." She turned to Tree. "Keep them safe, since you are friends. I do not think they will wander far of their own will." All three were shaking their heads quickly. "So be a good friend and prevent them from being blown in the wind."

A secret code? Tree seemed to grasp it, calming quickly. "As you request. Sorry for  interrupting you." she dipped her head low at the highest ranking member of their community. "We will stop bothering you then."

The flower mares joined in the bowing. "Thanks," chimed Daisy, turning for the exit with the others. "She seems really nice." Tree led them out as quickly as possible before they could say more to endanger things. The elder was watching it all with an amused expression, not too put out by their behavior.

Tree let out a rough breath outside. "There, you're allowed out... Are you pleased?"

Rose inclined her head. "Why wouldn't we be? Now we can get started." She held up the paper permission. "We can build a stand."

"We can stock it," continued Daisy.

"We can sell from it," sighed out Lily, all three of them melting with satisfaction. "It's thanks to you too."

"Yeah, thanks." Rose nudged against Tree. "I know we didn't... quite work out at first, but you didn't give up, and we all got a friend for it."

Tree waved off the compliments. "As if you did not assist me, you strange ponies." She inclined her head left and right. "You remain... strange. I mean that in the kindest way, but it remains true." She raised a hoof to her cheek. "You are as if a child described a pony with the loosest terms"

Daisy smirked at Tree confidently. "And you look like a pony if somepony just couldn't shut up and kept spewing out extra details because we just have to know every little detail, even the parts I didn't even know existed."

Rose peered at Tree with fresh eyes. "Wow, that is... kind of what this is like. I didn't think of it that way. How do you even function with so many extra... details?"

"How do you work with so few?" countered Tree Whisper, clopping the ground. "But we are... We are getting off topic. I am told ponies from your plane have gained our details before and didn't go mad, nor die, from the experience. I can only... assume it isn't as awful as either of us is imagining it."

Lily hugged sideways to her beaver. "You first. Let's see you looking proper. You pull that off , then I guess we can try it the other way."

Tree took a fearful step back. "I would rather not! Now... You wish to make a flower stand?" All three mares approached with hope in their eyes. "Let me see the slip." They quickly surrendered the paper to her arcane grip. "Hm." Her eyes wandered, quickly reading. "It is not a large space you have been given, but a space. Let's go take a look at it." She began leading the way to the same marketplace they had gone food shopping at. "The mayor is clever,  but I think she thought the flowers were for snacking."

Rose laughed at the  very idea. "You could, I suppose. Flowers can be delicious, but enjoying their look and smell is our usual focus."

Lily raised a hoof as she walked. "If it smells good, it probably tastes at least alright."

Daisy snorted at that. "There are nice smells that don't taste good, Lily, and a lot of flowers fit into that." They began, all of them, debating the tastiness of various flowers.
> 18 - All You Need
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was so much to do, but it had an obvious start! Rose led the way along the branches. "We can't even start without a look." The other two nodded along with her idea.

As if detecting their energy, a crowd gathered of about half a dozen flutters to watch them as they marched. The bravest flutter drifted closer from the side. "Where are you going? You look excited! We rarely see you all, together, looking so excited!"

Daisy waved at the collected crowd as she walked with determination. "The mayor gave us some space to build, and we're going to check it out!"

A collective marveling spread among them. The original butterfly withdrew just for another to come into his place. The brightly smiling female clapped her forehooves. "How exciting! What will you build?"

Lily inclined her head towards the market they were slowly approaching. "With luck, a gorgeous flower stall for you all to enjoy. But first!"

" — First, we build." Rose nodded as she climbed the last stairs to be even with the market. "Fortunately, it's not too far from the house in the morning. That would be a tremendous pain if we had to do a marathon to get to work." The others grumbled in agreement with that.

Rose sped up suddenly. "But let's get a look!" She drew out the slip and looked at it. "This doesn't... specify where."

"That's because it's up to me." There sat a moth flutter with crossed arms. They were a muted set of colors compared to most flutters. Male. "You have the look of someone who wants to ply their wares here." He smirked as he leaned in, eyeing Rose. "Is that from the mayor?"

Rose presented the slip held at the end of her sticky hoof. "Sure is!"

He took the slip from her in his mouth to slap it down for a better look. "Hm. Hm. Mayor says to fit you wherever I have room."

Daisy stepped forward on light hooves. "Is that what 'where you can feel the breeze' meant?"

"Precisely." He turned away to examine the market and its many stalls. "We are a very busy place. You were here once before, so you should know that." His wings buzzed silently, spreading a powder over the area unlike most flutters. "Most of the space is spoken for."

Lily threw a leg over her beaver. "There must be some room. We'll prove ourselves." All three mares gave a unified look of batting lashes, hoping it'd be enough.

"Don't even try it." The market owner waved away their attempts to sway him. "There is a stall that hasn't had its owner to operate in several weeks." He lifted on large wings and drifted through the stalls. The owners of them bowed and nodded towards the market keeper, knowing he controlled whether he allowed them to be there. "This one."

Rose and the others were following behind their slowly flying guide. She raised a brow at the stand. "Wow, they must have left this alone for a while."

Daisy shrugged. "Not that it matters." She hurried up and casually kicked the side of the stall. With a loud snap, it fell over in clear admission of defeat at her violence. "This is a hazard at this point."

"Exactly why I am giving this space to you." The male market keeper landed in front of the messy stand. "Remove the debris and replace it with something more elegant." He pointed to the ground. "You have from here to here."

Rose blinked. "You pointed past the stand."

"I did." His wings sent dust flying anew. "What is it you will sell? We need to add it to the directory for others to find."

Lily watched Daisy casually dismantle the stand one splintered bit of wood at a time. "You know..." She pointed forward, unleashing Bold upon the problem. Bold began attacking the wood, tearing it apart with gusto, fitting his species. "We'll have this clear soon." She was dancing in place. "This is going to be great! Our stand'll look great."

Rose inclined her head at the market keep. "Not to question good luck, but why was this abandoned? By the way, flowers. The Flower Mares will offer up flowers for the delight of future customers."

"Flower Mares? Yes, a fine name." He nodded as if to himself. "As for the last occupant, she sold little trinkets, and has not been here for weeks, as I mentioned. A marketplace cannot succeed with empty stalls, so focus on making your stall the best it can be." He clapped his hooves together. "I forgot! 5% of what you sell goes to me, which helps keep the marketplace around you looking nice and ready. It also accounts for the taxes, so you don't have to worry about that. Just pay me."

Daisy clapped at the announcement. "5% flat rate? That's easy to figure out. We'll make sure you get your share then and that'll handle that."

Rose nodded along. "Right. Back where we came from, we had to pay a few ponies to have what we had, so that's nice. Step 1, complete! Step 2, in progress." She watched Bold demolish the helpless stand for a moment. "But that leaves step 3. Get the supplies to make our stand. Now that we know how much space we have, we have to fill it with a stand worth stopping at."

The mares met with a loud clop of hooves together. Lily drew Bold back. "Alright, that's pretty clear. We can finish when we get back with the stuff to start on a new stand."

All three were ready to go, but a hoof was in their way. "I'm Bright Eyes." The market keep dipped his head. "I imagine we will do a lot of business. Good business? I hope, but only time will make that clear. Flowers, I like those. Make them pretty and put them in the hooves of the ones that want them." He fired quite the dramatic wink. "So long as they're ready to pay."

Daisy snapped a sharp salute. "Yes, sir! But first we have to make our stand."

Lily waved at the remnants left behind by Bold's actions. "Not like we're going to use that. Wouldn't want to anyway, really."

"Nice to meet you, Bright eyes." Rose nodded to their new commercial landlord. "We'll do our part to make both of us some bits -- "

"You keep using that term and I love it." He drew a few golden coins from his pocket, some copper mixed in along with silver shiny bits. "Bits, ha, love it."

Rose inclined her head at the coins. "Is there a better name for them?"

"Nah." He waved the idea off. "Just as good as any other, but most just call them 'coins' and leave it at that."

With that settled, the three mares and their beaver friend charged for the closest elevator. They were not alone, much of the same crowd still following them. The lady flutter waved excitedly. "Are you going downstairs?"

"Are you leaving?" asked another excitedly. "Don't go!"

Daisy stuck out her tongue at the worried flutters. "We're just getting flowers. We'll be right back with. Oh, er."

Lily bonked Daisy on the head. "Yeah, just remembered? First, we get supplies. We build a nice stand and only after that do we get to sell up some pretty flowers."

The crowd clapped as they went, easily managing that with their softly flapping wings. When the mares reached the elevator, flutters came in to land all around them.

Rose squinted at the gathering lot of them. "You know... we're not offering discounts for coming with us. You don't have to follow us every step of the way."

Another flutter giggled, which prompted all the others to join in the joke.

Rose peered at the laughing mass of butterfly and other insectoid ponies. "Why is that funny?"

One of them waggled their antennae at Rose. "Because we're here to watch you."

"We can get flowers later."

"After the shop opens." They were all nodding in agreement with the idea and talking among themselves.

One of the larger dragonflies raised a hoof. "Will you have Screaming Jalias?"

Rose frowned softly. "I am not familiar with that one, so... maybe. Can you describe it?"

They had thrown the floodgates open. The flower mares had flutters approaching from all sides, ready to explain what their favorite flower looked like in exacting details, except the ones described with just a color.

They found the only relief when the elevator touched the ground. This was a signal for most of them to take flight away. The flower mares quickly lost sight of them as the crowd fluttered back up in the direction they had come from.

Daisy waved in the direction they were fleeing upwards in. "That was nice. We have plenty of ideas of what they want."

Lily snorted softly as she stepped off the elevator. "That's nice, but we're not here for that. Bold?" The beaver looked towards her expectantly. "Find us some good solid wood. We have a damn of our own to build. Only wood." Bold chittered and whistled, which was the best answer one could hope for. He trundled off into the thick underbrush without further delay.

Rose sat up. "Well, good for him, but we aren't going to just sit here and wait for him to get it all, now are we?!" A communal cry rose, including two flutters that were still there. Rose blinked at them softly. "You're still here? You... want to help?" Both nodded swiftly at her. "Well, if you want to volunteer, we'll take it." She offered a hoof.

Daisy and Lily thrust their hooves on, joined shortly by the two flutters. With one more cry, they broke up to begin the foraging.

They formed a pile of almost debris. Most of it was logs and things like logs set in a great uneven pile. The elevator kept working quietly as they labored, bringing reinforcements. Whether they had asked for it. Drawn by the industrious work, other flutters lent a helping hoof to speed up the process along.

Rose patted the magnificent pile. "This should be enough to put together a stand."

"But do you have tools?" One of the many flutters that had joined their expedition was looking quite doubtful. "You won't make much just stacking them."

Rose shook her head. "Stacking them nicely was actually — "

"No." The same Flutter worked under a log, an act copied by many other flutters. "Let's get it where it needs to be, and I will let you borrow one of my tools."

A cry rose among the volunteers as they made their way onto the elevator with their cargo.

Daisy raised a brow as she grabbed some heavy sticks of her own. "Seems they have outvoted us."

"On our own project." Rose gathered supplies quickly before joining the others for the ride up. "But he's not wrong. I don't have supplies, and we haven't learned a natural song to do this for us."

"You're a druid?" The flutter that owned tools was addressing them. "I thought I heard something about that. Congratulations. It would be an honor to lend a few tools to a new druid." Words rose among the grown crowd. Helping a druid was certainly a sign of the importance in the work they had already done.

Not that the flutters seemed at all greater or lesser inspired to lend the hoof they had already promised by being there. When the elevator arrived at the branches, it was a great migration of humming flutters on the way to the market just behind Rose to lead the way. 

Daisy burst into laughter as they went. "I didn't expect so many hooves with us."

They would build their stand, or at least supply it with all the parts, if they had any say in the matter.
> 19 - Standing Tall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With tools in hoof, the flower mares got to building. Much of their crowd faded away. Many of them insisted that they just didn't know how to do such things. Besides, a helping hoof wouldn't be all that helpful with a hundred eager butterflies crowding around a stall when only a few that knew what they were doing were called for.

This left the flower mares, and that male flutter that had offered the tools. He was busily sawing the wood into proper shapes. Seeing him work was enough to get the other mares to grab a saw each and join him. Each worked a log each to make planks out of them in a slow but steady process. Rose looked up from her slow work. "They don't have a sawmill around here?"

"Not in this town." The flutter shrugged his shoulders. "In others I have heard. In this town, if you want something cut, you do it yourself."

"Ah... Ponyville's like that, but we can place an order from the next big town over and get the planks sent." She sawed away, knowing there was no next big town to—

"You could do that." The male shrugged. "But then you have to pay for it."

Daisy giggled as she drove her saw down into its next sweep. "Bits, enemy of a good time. Let's finish this up so we can earn some of those. Maybe next time we can order things instead of making it all ourselves."

It took longer than they had hoped for, but they soon had rough planks and, with a little help, got it hammered up into the rough shape of a stand. "Now we make it prettier." He put the saws away and drew out a collection of files. "We wear away all the rough parts of the sanding to start."

The mares grabbed a unique file each and got right to work. They knew how a wood file worked, so instructions on its use weren't required. They were polishing away the rough edges where the wood showed the most obvious signs of the sawing they had just received. The stand was slowly becoming smoother as they worked at it.

Rose let out a labored breath. "Wow, this is hard. We're making progress, no doubt, but it isn't easy. Do you have any sandpaper?"

"Sandpaper? Oh! Yes, I heard of that." The flutter bobbed his head but didn't stop his work to polish the wood. "They make it most often near the sea, where the shells are. You buy those too. I don't have extra, so the files will have to work."

Partially defeated, they did not let that stop them. They eventually worked the stand to where they could run their hooves over the wood without risking splinters. "Ta Da!" Rose stepped back. "But something is missing."

Lily leaned over and whispered something to Bold. He stepped up and chomped into the wood casually. Rather than destroy it, he left a winding mark behind. Lily gestured to it dramatically with a big grin on her face.

Daisy put down the file she had in favor of a small one better for such work. "Genius! We have to do personal touches. I say we put flowers all over it."

"I love it." Rose swapped in the same way and all the mares attacked the stand. Lily used Even the mark Bold had left, turned into the thick stem of a flower that Lily expanded with petals as if they entirely intended it to be a pretty thing that joined all the other flowers that the others stenciled and chipped into place.

The flutter clapped with obvious appreciation. "You have done well. Get your flowers, so I can stop by tomorrow." He gathered up all the dropped tools, including the ones that were still held on hooves. Once his work bag was full of jingling metal, he lifted it with straps in his mouth. "Good luck!"

Lily considered their new stand. "I love it."

Daisy nodded in agreement. "It's great! But it has nothing in it."

Rose pointed down to the temperate rainforest floor far beneath them. "So we get to gathering? I was paying attention when the crowd was going nuts and I remember seeing some of those flowers when she sent us to see what was living around here."

With a communal cry, they rushed to the nearest elevator. There weren't any flutters joining them that time. Lily inclined her head at the missing crowd. "Is it dinnertime?"

Daisy shrugged. "Well, it is about that time, so I couldn't blame them if they went to get something tasty in them."

"Not even mad at them." Rose stepped off the platform as it reached the bottom and began a spirited trot towards something. "It's time to gather some flowers for tomorrow. I refuse to go two days with nothing to offer now that we have permission."

Lily sped up to remain a short distance behind Rose. "Now, I see lots of pretty flowers." Her eyes wandered over the colored spectacle that was the forest they lived in, or jungle to be more accurate. "What kind of flower are you taking us to?"

"Flowers, several kinds of them if I remember right." Rose sniffed at the air and turned to the left. "And they aren't nearly as remote as the one we chased one time."

"I swear." Daisy stomped as she followed along. "If you get us kicked to another world in search of perfect flowers, I am going to get so mad I don't even have words for it!"

"That shouldn't happen... I think, probably, or at least, the odds are really teeny tiny." She reared up to bring her forehooves close to one another, as if wrestling some unseen object as small as possible against her resisting hooves. 

Lily snorted, an expression copied perhaps alarmingly well by Bold. "Rose is leading us straight. Just because one time it leads to a whole new world of excitement and adventure that we didn't ask for doesn't mean that everytime is going to lead to a whimsical land of excitement and adventure. We should be so lucky!"

Rose laughed nervously. "I can give at least a eighty-five percent chance we are not headed directly for a dimensional, oh here we are!" She pointed to a patch of dense flowers. "Like I promised."

Lily trotted forward with a twitching nose. "There are a lot of fresh flowers, oh hey!" She grabbed a few stems free from a neat pile. "This is one of the ones they were asking for! They'll be super mega happy to see them."

With no rift between worlds making itself clear, the flower mares got to work gathering up all the pretty flowers they could. They never took all of a flower, instead gathering a few of each with little whistles and giggling cheers. The flowers that remained were gently watered and loved so that the next harvest could be just as wonderful. Daisy grinned as she gently patted the ground. "Lovely plants will keep us supplied."

Lily inclined her head. "Unless the demand is larger than we expect."

Rose swept a hoof widely. "Then we go wandering further if we have to, but this is enough for now." She snatched up the basket that belonged to her. "So let's get these back and have the stand all ready for tomorrow."

With an excited cry, they rushed back to the elevator and, with nervously pacing hooves, got a ride back up to the branches. They rushed as one to the stand and began putting up flowers and plants quickly in an ornate spread of botanical wonder.

Daisy clapped with joy. "That's looking fantastic!"

"It is." Daisy looked over to see a new female flutter had joined them silently. "Are you selling the flowers, or something else and using the plants as decoration?"

Rose leaned forward against a propped hoof. "Now there's an idea, but the flowers are what we plan on offering as soon as we open." She gestured from one bundle of petals to the next. "As you can see, we have some things that don't qualify as flowers, but are just as lovely and waiting for a wonderful home."

The flutter clapped with a little giggle. "How exciting! I thought this market specialized in things you eat." She eyed some flowers with growing suspicion. "Though some of those look delicious... Will you get angry?"

Daisy fell with a sweep at the collection. "If you want a snack, we have all diets covered. Still, why eat them when you can take them home and enjoy them for a while?"

Rose folded her arms with a smug look. "But we are in the middle of closing, so..."

She got the hint without further prompting. "So I'd better shop quickly." She began pointing her hoof as she lifted into the air. "I'll take that and two of those and... How much is that one?" She darted in at the third one she had picked, sniffing it. "Smells great to have around and more... Lovely..."

Lily cantered in place. "I picked that one, and you'll love it." She cradled the plant carefully. "Not technically a flower, but it'll fill in all the spots! It was growing in a damp and dim place, so keep it away from the window and water it well and it'll last you for a while." The flower mares were all nodding in agreement with the suggestion.

"I want it!" But her hoof did not come closer to it. "You didn't say how much it is, though."

Rose nudged the multi-colored plant closer in its little pot. They had set no prices in the small time they had. They weren't even supposed to be open yet, but Rose had seen the prices of other things. "This rare plant is going for a gold coin, and that includes all the roots. You're buying a living plant, not a stem waiting to die."

The flutter's eyes widened at the idea. "A gold is expensive, but..." She circled left and right in the air with uncertainty clearly building with every move. "It is nice. Where did you find it?"

Daisy stuck out her tongue "We're not gonna tell!" No reason to give away their Rose-flavored flower sniffer. "But we won't tell anypony where you got it either."

"A secret..." The female reached for the plant, brushing its petals with a reaching hoof. "So nice... You won't tell anyone?"

Rose nodded firmly. "Not a soul. It's up to you what you want to tell ponies about it." She nudged the plant anew. "Now, we do need to shut down. So, are you taking this with you?"

The pressure was too much! "Alright! Okay! I'll take it." She gathered up the pot with a happy giggle and a twirl in the air that only a butterfly pony could manage easily. "It's so nice! The others are a copper each?"

That hadn't been the plan... Lily gathered them up anyway, bundling them together with a bit of rope to tie them tight. "It wasn't, but you've been such a good customer. How can we say no?!"

They exchanged coins, and the female flutter darted off with her bounty of a plant and several flowers. The grin on her face implied she was quite happy with her purchase. Daisy broke into laughter. "Rose! You put the pressure on that poor mare."

"Very good."Bright Eyes landed with a soft puff of dust. "You are leaving, yes?"

Daisy dipped her head at their landlord. "For today. But we had a good day even for being open so little."

"I saw! Do you need change?" He drew out a heavy pouch of coins. "I can take my share along the way. The rest is yours to enjoy." Without missing a beat, Bright Eyes casually swapped out the gold for some silver and copper. "Already you are doing so well for yourselves. I am glad the mayor had such good eyes."
> 20 - More of That
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tree Wind reared up, her hooves coming down on the counter of the stand. "You do nothing slowly. Is that the calling card of all your kind?"

Rose poked lightly at their druidic visitor's leg. "Once we decide we're going to do something, why wait?"

Daisy bobbed her head. "Besides, you can't blame this all on us." She waved over the entire stand. "Felt like half the town rushed out to help us."

Lily shrugged to show her part. "Are we really that interesting?"

"Yes." Tree stepped back off the stand. "You are. You are a trio of strange ponies that joined the druids too quickly. That opened a shop too quickly as well. Then, not satisfied, you already have your eyes set on the next goal, I bet."

Rose inclined her head with a narrowing of her eyes. "Actually..."

"We're pretty happy." Daisy waved over her stand with a slow wash of her foreleg. "We got all we want. I suppose we could get better at nature magic."

Lily threw a leg over her beaver friend. "Which we will, but no specific hurry on that? We have what we want, so why would we be in a hurry? Now, you're here, so you want to get some flowers?"

Tree snorted softly at that. "I am a druid too." She turned a hoof on herself. "I could find all the flowers I want easily enough."

Rose waggled her brows with a sultry smile. "You could do that, but we did it for you. This." She brought in both hooves on a bright blue flower. "I think this is practically screaming your name."

Daisy cupped her snout for a proper, spooky whisper. "Tree whisper! Pick me! I'll look great in your mane!"

Tree burst into giggles at the attempt to spook her into a purchase. "Perhaps you would, but who would I be looking good for?" She batted the petals away without harming them. "Are you really just... satisfied? You are ponies from another world entirely, and you are happy?"

Lily reared up and threw her hooves wide. Without being told, Bold struck up a dynamic pose with her. "I'm an animal master!"

Daisy clasped her hooves, bits of flame smoldering between them. "Master of flames!"

Rose remained where she was, watching Tree placidly. "Kind carer of the quiet stone. We're all happy with what we have."

Tree fell to her haunches as she peered at the flower mares as if they were the strange ones. "On... one hoof, good! Good... I am glad you're not getting into trouble." She set down a copper and took one flower without speaking of the transaction. "How did you price these, by the way?"

Rose inclined her head. "A little guesswork and a lot of watching how the flutters react. We've had to raise and lower a few prices on the fly." She slid the low value coin closer. "Speaking of which, thank you."

Daisy half-pounced Tree in a hurry to get the blue flower in the right place in their friend's mane. "There you are, much better!"

Tree reached up to feel the flower in her hair as she made an unsure noise. "That doesn't answer who this is for."

Daisy clasped her hooves under her chin. "What if it's just for you?"

Lily nodded as she fell back to all fours. "Nothing wrong with a mare just wanting to look nice for themselves. It suits you."

Tree pulled out a mirror with her dimly glowing horn and looked herself over with critical eyes. "No wonder you are doing well... Now, I would be remiss to not mention, but you are acting members of your orders. They could call on your abilities. While it's nice to be... satisfied, they could." She looked up at Daisy. "Master of fire, what if they need another set of hooves to control a blaze?"

Daisy turned on Lily instead. "What would they even call you for, a litter of kittens needing adopting?"

Lily smirked, even with a frown at that. "Kittens needing adopting is about on the level of a random pony starting a fire in their oven. They'd probably poke me if the beavers had a fresh problem, since I get along with them."

Rose lifted her shoulders softly. "If somecreature were to set up a strip mining operation nearby, well, that would annoy me pretty fast!"

Daisy waved excitedly. "I'd help!"

"I would also help." Lily nodded firmly. "We all would help each other, if it's something we can help with."

Tree put a hoof under her chin with a thoughtful hum. "So you would act if you saw the need. Until then, flowers."

"Flowers," they all echoed with satisfied faces. Unlike all the other travelers to Everglow, the situation completely satisfied the flower mares with their lot in life.

A bee landed in front of the stand and started collecting flowers, seemingly at random. One of those, three of that flower, two of those and so on, without rhyme or reason.

Rose watched the selection going on with some confusion. "Glad to help you, ma'am, but are you looking for anything specific?"

"These." She lifted the collection she had. "They have the pollen that I want. Here you go." She set down a few silver with tosses of her head. "Thank you!"

"Wait." Rose set a hoof on one of the bee's arms. "Show us how to tell the difference."

The bee flutter was happy to show how one could tell if a flower was ready to be harvested for pollen. "It will make hay fever worse, but for bee flutters, it is exactly what we like." She hugged her collection of petals close. "If you get more pollen-heavy flowers, I can send more flutters your way."

Tree wrinkled a nose. "One flutter's trash..."

"Is our treasure." Daisy took hold of the sheet that held the prices and scribbled a new price point for pollen heavy flowers. "Now we know to look out for those, and that they can be more valuable, or less, depending on who's asking."

Lily sniffed at Tree, peering at her blue flower on the way. "Yours is clear. Good. Do you have hay fever?"

"Thankfully not." Tree raised a brow at the mares. "I would feel bad for any druid that had that. Not impossible, but it would be harder. Maybe a stone?" She lifted her shoulders. "Or waves. Something away from a lot of flowering things." She wiped her long nose, perhaps in sympathy for the imagined stuffiness of hay fever anywhere in that city of dense foliage. "I am here to help. Sorry if I asked uncomfortable questions, but they seem like good questions!"

"I get it." Rose leaned forward over her counter. "We want to go back. We do! But how? Without suddenly knowing how, why shouldn't we be happy with what we have?"

Daisy bobbed her head quickly. "That would be the best, but being nature wizards in this town isn't all bad." All three nodded in agreement. "By the way, we're staying open for quite a few hours. Are you hanging around?"

Lily flashed a bright smile. "We'd be happy to have you around, but you look ready to go."

"Because I am." Tree took a step back, turning as she did it. "I may return, but I will come back, eventually." All three mares waved as she set off along the branch towards other places. She descended to a familiar place and trotted up to the front of the line. She had permission to do that. "Mayor." She dipped her head at the head druid that was also that. "I just visited the Equestrians."

"Lovely." The mayor clapped her hooves as she walked closer to meet Tree. "How are they adjusting?"

"Well, too well." Tree raised a brow. "They are happy to sell flowers to flutters and aren't even thinking of looking for a way home. They have shown no signs of adjusting to things physically, but they also haven't shape-shifted at all. I could try to encourage that?"

The head druid frowned softly. "You could, but I see no reason." She wagged a hoof at Tree. "They are happy. To encourage them probably needs trouble. I don't want to make them upset for no reason."

"With your permission." Tree approached with the new blue flower bobbing in her mane. "I think I can encourage it in them with no emergency or crisis. They like exploring their magic, and they work together so well." Her expression became a brilliant smile. "Then, at least, they would be Everglow ponies, physically."

"Physically," echoed the flutter with a frown. "If it would not bother them even a little. They are on our side completely." She nudged an art piece that clattered and fell into a new position. "That is all it takes, a little nudge. We could lose them, and why? They are strange, yes, but they have not harmed the surrounding nature."

She sank to her haunches. "Actually... It is already late for when we just were just honest. Tell them exactly what you hope will happen. They can then decide if they want to do that or not. They are welcome in our city as Equestrian or Everglow ponies. Perhaps I am used to it, but I like them either way." She clasps her hooves together. "I was wrong to think so harshly about them. Equestrians have always come with warm smiles before, but this is my city. I am in charge of it. I had to see for myself what they were going to do."

Tree turned to go, just to pause. "Pardon this question, ma'am." She had an ear turned back to her mayor. "Do you... find yourself wishing you ruled entirely over other flutters?" Her ears sank a few inches each. "Apologies, ma'am. I know I'm not one of them."

"You aren't." But the mayor was looking at Tree with a smile. "You're something else. Something amazing." She lifted on heavy wings to twirl in place. "They put together ponies so fascinatingly." She pointed towards Tree's back. "The gods themselves gave you a mark! It is your purpose and destiny, but it is up to you to decide what it means." She giggled in the middle of a sigh. "Could not the gods speak more plainly? Maybe it's meant to change."

She leaned towards Tree. "Maybe what a sword means changes for a pony as they grow older and wiser. Or at least older... Is that the point? I wonder... If the gods wanted an unthinking tool, they did a poor job. They gave you the right to say no. They allowed that thought into your head." She tapped her own skull lightly. "Whatever god made me didn't slip a collar on my neck. I only have a brand because I think they look so great." She partially turned to display her painted on brand. "Lovely, isn't it?"

"Very nice." Tree did not stare at her superior's rump, invited or not. The mark was far fancier than most ponies could have hoped for, which was hint enough that a skilled crafter rather than the faster and uncalled act of the brand of destiny painted it. Tree's was a simple image, as most ponies had. "And you think mine is better? It isn't as ornate as yours." That seemed a safe assumption to make.

"A god did not make mine." The mayor danced closer, wings slowly fluttering. "That makes it special. Most flutters wish they could be so marked. There are times even I wished the gods would give a hint, even a vague one. Instead, they watch me do my best. I can only hope I amuse them." She reached up her hooves to cup Tree's round cheeks. "You are more confident."

Tree smiled nervously as she backed out of the grip of the two hooves. "I do my best. You say it's a hint, but it's a whispered one. We are still alone with our decisions." Tree bowed to the head druid. "I will ask them."
> 21 - You Have Mail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Everglow ponies, it would have reached only one of them, and for a brief message at best. They were Equestrian ponies, and magic worked differently from and to them as a result.

Rose was walking along through the flowers with her sisters from other mothers at her side. They were all laughing and talking about nothing important. It had no words, because dreams were like that sometimes. It was only important that they were talking and happy.

"Hello!" And there was Twilight, appearing above them in the sky in a spectral form. "There you are! It was surprisingly difficult to get a lock on you, but here you are." She leaned in with a raised brow. "I am not Luna, who insisted you were fine."

Daisy blinked softly at the towering alicorn. "Um... hi?"

Twilight bobbed her head. "Hello. Are you alright? You've been in Everglow for months! I was... afraid I wouldn't find you..."

Lily waved gently, Bold appearing next to her as she became more sharply conscious. The beaver looked confused, being in Lily's dream like that, but was fast enough to stand at her side in readiness. "Why were you complaining about it? We're doing alright so far. Oh! Do you know how to get home?"

"About that." Twilight sat up. "Now that I'm sure you're all here and in good shape, I can get to work on that. I could teleport there? I do have plane shifting spells and if you're in a safe place, it shouldn't be hard. Where are you?"

Daisy waved excitedly. "This place is called Prisma. It's full of friendly butterflies."

"And bees." Lily sank back to her haunches.

"And dragonflies and all kinds of winged insects that seem to want to give us a hug more than chase us away from their hive." Rose smiled in a quirk at the large princess before them. "They let us set up a shop and everything." All three mares nodded at that. "We're back to selling flowers, finally."

Twilight clapped her hooves. "About that, your stall is looking very sad with a 'be back soon' sign that I had Spike put up on it."

Daisy wilted at that. "Aw... We were the only flower sellers in Ponyville. How are ponies doing without us?"

"Terrible." Twilight put a hoof over her face, speaking into it. "I don't mean to put pressure on any of you. If you're happy where you are, great! I'll stop looking if you're safe and secure?"

Rose saluted at the towering princess. "Wait." Her stance faltered. "Are you offering a chance to go home?"

"While I am glad to hear you've found a new niche, yes, that is exactly what I am offering." Twilight clapped with a smile. "I can be there shortly. The more you tell me about this 'Prisma', the better so I can find it."

Spike leaned in, appearing in the sky. "Did they get into any crazy adventures?"

Twilight shoved him gently out of view. "They're doing just fine and, apparently, avoided that. Good on them! That's one less thing for me to worry about."

Lily threw a leg over her beaver. "One thing. We all know magic. Is Equestria alright with that?"

Twilight inclined her head. "Well, you wouldn't be the first pony to come back with greater magical knowledge than they started with." She turned a hoof on herself. "Including me! Um, congratulations are in order, so good job. Did you learn it in order to survive?" Her eyes wandered, but the trio of mares in a forest of their dreams offered no hints.

Daisy was bouncing in place. "Prisma is a big jungle place! Lots of trees full of bug ponies."

"Very colorful." Rose lifted some of her flowers she hadn't been holding before. "By the way, how are you talking to us? Not complaining, mind. Nice to know you didn't forget us along the way."

"Speaking of that." Twilight sighed in a slow gust of air. "It took a while to be sure you really weren't coming back, and it wasn't part of your journey. You made a big deal about finding an unknown flower, and that sounded like a quest that could have ended in all sorts of shenanigans... So we waited... But you weren't coming."

Spike peeked back into view. "They went looking where you headed, but couldn—"

Twilight shoved him back out of view. "We didn't find you, as he said, so I had to start looking father afield... You gave us very few hints as to where to look."

Lily extended her tongue at the towering image. "So you started looking all over the place. Lucky you ever saw us."

"Not that we are complaining!" Rose flashed her charmingest smile, she hoped. "Seriously... If you can come by, do that. We'd love to see a familiar face."

"Fantastic!" Twilight clapped eagerly. "I'm going to hop over there. I can't really trust anypony else since I'm the only one walking around with the key to going either way that I'm aware of." She rubbed at her cheek softly. "I could take Spike with me."

"Please?" He was not in view, but his voice was hard to miss. "You know you want a fierce dragon!"

Daisy hiked a brow. "Are we talking about the same Spike?"

Twilight laughed nervously. "You all look normal here, but this is a dream realm." She raised a brow high. "Did any of you start to look like Everglow ponies? They look quite different." All three mares shook their head in unity. "Ah, good. That does eventually wear off! But it can also be traumatic, being forced to change like that." 

Twilight put a hoof on her chest. "In Spike's case, he became a young local dragon, which... was powerful and could fly quickly, even without wings."

"Which is gonna happen again!" One could not see it, but easily imagine Spike pumping a fist. "Gonna be awesome!"

"Who are you talking to?" A female voice, and it was coming closer. "Spike?"

"We're going back to Everglow!" A pause. "Oh, you wanna come?! You know Everglow really well."

Daisy giggled at the floating voices. "Is that Soft Mane? I forgot she's from here. Ask her if she knows about Prisma!" She was clapping with building joy. "Bring her! This is a really delightful city, and I bet she'd fit in."

Soft Mane popped into view, nudging Twilight aside as she waved her human hands. "Hi! Prisma? Never heard of it, but I haven't been there in a little bit. Can I?" She was looking at Twilight with a big smile and a hopeful expression. "I'll help as best I can. I'm the best healer you have outside of Sweetie Belle, and you're not bringing her."

Twilight soured at the idea. "I should hope not! But..." Her eyes dropped from Soft's face to her midsection and back up to her face. "Are you sure you want to adventure right now?"

Spike pulled her back, which required a little cooperation on Soft's part. "I'll protect her. I'll be all scary and fly real fast." He wriggled his claws at Twilight. "Besides, we're just picking up the flower mares and coming straight back, so what's the harm?"

"If you're sure." Twilight squinted a moment before returning her attention to the mares. "We'll be there as soon as we can." She promptly vanished, and the dream ended with it. All three of the flower mares wandered back to their own dreams, one of them taking a beaver along with her.





"You did dream that, right?" Rose sat before her breakfast bowl, but lightly stirred it instead of eating from it. "Right?"

Daisy was chomping her food, which did not stop her from speaking. "We have a guest coming! This will be so exciting. It's been so long since we saw another Equestrian pony."

Lily poked her slovenly friend. "And she's bringing Spike and Soft with her. I knew Twilight was a wizard, but she can go between worlds? That's pretty magic."

Rose rolled her eyes at that. "This is Twilight. Magic is her thing, aside from friendship, and friendship is magic last I heard." She smirked softly at the idea. "So, of course, she knows how to do things like that. We should tell the mayor."

"Tell her what?" Tree had arrived, closing the door gently behind herself. "I have things to tell you, if this isn't a bad time."

Daisy waved at her as she swallowed the last of her food with a great gulp. "Hey! We have one and a half ponies, half a human, and a 100% dragon coming to visit us."

Lily placed a hoof on her face. "That was the least helpful way you could have put that."

Rose dared to tip her bowl and have a first sip of breakfast. "Some friends of ours from Equestria are coming to make sure we're alright and offer a way back. All three of them are well behaved, promise."

"Oh..." Tree shook her head slowly. "Your explanation is much easier to understand than Daisy's. If they come in peace, good, but they remain Equestrian. The head druid will want to meet them first. You've met her several times. You have no objection to this, I hope?"

Daisy brought her empty hooves together in a loud clap. "They will be delighted, I bet. Twilight loves meeting creatures with magic, and a head druid qualifies as that for sure! Does she have any of her magic written down?"

Tree hiked a brow. "You have heard the songs as clearly as I have. There is no writing of our magic. So long as we walk the primal paths, the songs come to us. Unless she walks the same paths, she will not hear them, I am afraid." She was turning, but paused. "Of course, if she is like you, maybe she is a druid waiting to happen." Tree sighed gently. "You put my efforts to shame. It took me years years to reach the point where you now stand beside me."

Rose had the sense and humility to blush at Tree's words. "We weren't..." Saying she wasn't trying to show up Tree, Rose felt bad. "Tree, you've done amazingly! The other druids see it, and they welcomed you in with open hooves." Unsaid, the other flower mares went to hug Tree from left and right. "And you helped us. We are so happy to have you around."

Tree smiled awkwardly from the middle of her flower sandwich. "It's good to hear that, at least. Oh! I did mention I have things to tell you." She waved a hoof at all three of them quickly. "If you practice shape-shifting, which as a primal user is a possibility, you may become an Everglow pony. We are prepared to welcome you, looking as you are now or an Everglow pony, but I thought you should know that. All the druids are very curious to see it, the change, ourself. We can't be sure it'll work, but we're pretty sure. It is entirely up to you if you want to try it."

Lily stuck out her tongue. "That's a hard sell! I like how I look." She twisted left and right as she looked herself over. "How about you two?"

Daisy shrugged and looked towards Rose. "What does stone think?"

Rose leaned forward on her hooves. "Twilight said we go back to normal when we're home. I am a stone out of place... So I'm not against the idea of matching the locals a little better." She waggled her brows at Tree. "We'll be closer."

Tree smiled as she approached. "How wonderful! I wonder what you'll look like, as an Everglow pony. That you're willing to try it is encouraging. I'll inform the mayor of all of that, and we'll be ready for when you are. Then we can try! Hopefully, it will all go well and we'll see something new, but still a part of nature, just one we know little about."
> 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.
> 23 - Like Us
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A butterfly flutter landed in front of their stall. "Where are the cute rounded ponies?" She looked left and right, but there were no Equestrians in sight at all! "Are you watching it for them?"

Rose stuck out her tongue. "It's me, Rose." She leaned forward. "Really look that different in Everglow lines? Come on." She turned to present her rose of a mark. "See, same mark!"

"Mostly." The rose was more of an actual rose. Simpler than if someone had painted it on meticulously, but more than one expected from an Equestrian pony. "I'm glad you're all here then." She clapped with building joy. "I would like to get some flowers, please."

"With pleasure!" all three of them promised.





Purple Auspex inclined his head at Tree. "So they've come over?"

"Yes." Tree nodded vigorously. "I was going to... Is she busy?"

"She often is." Purple set a hoof on his own chest, bee wings buzzing. "But she trusts me, and I will tell her. Did this upset them? Are they healthy?"

"No and yes. They're happy as can be." Tree rubbed at her cheek softly. "For as worried as they were before, they just decided it was alright and, pop, Everglow ponies."

"Hm." Purple considered quietly a moment. "Can they still cast spells in concert?"

"I... don't know." Tree took a step back. "I didn't even think to ask about that. Should I?!"

"If you can, subtly." Purple worked his hooves together. "It is not of the utmost importance, but I know she would wonder, and I do too. Do they still have their abilities, robbed of their extraplanar bodies? They are druids still, I imagine?"

"Yep! They hear the songs and speak to nature." Tree raised a hoof as if blocking her voice. A singing aid? "Completely druids, and now Everglow druids."

Purple tapped at his head. "Whatever their bodies may be, they are still Equestrians, with Equestrian thoughts. That is why I am curious to know what talents came with them or not."

"Right..." Tree began turning away. "I'll ask, next time I see them. They don't seem all that changed, outside of how they look. Is that all we want?"

"It's all we can ask for." He lifted into the air on his buzzing wings. "To demand much more would be rude. They aren't harming anything, so there is little reason to fret from this point. The natural order of things has accepted them. At this point, it is up to us to catch up with nature."

"As it tends to be." Tree began for the door. "I'll come back when I find out more." She departed the mayor's office with a smile. She had done her job. Speaking of jobs... She considered with a growing frown. "As a waves druid, I am not spending much time by the water..." She had said she would watch the local streams.

And she had! But there were already wave druids watching over them. They had tolerated her coming by and looking things over, but they did not need her, or even want her, really. Druids were like animals, in a way. They needed their space. She was not part of that ecosystem...

"Hmm..."

"You look busy." A butterfly of a flutter rose up on the side of the branch Tree was walking along. "Is it a good busy?"

Tree shook her head. "Thank you for asking, but I do not think it is a good busy."

"The worst." But rather than flee, she remained at Tree's side. "Want to talk about it?"

The first instinct was to shoo the kind but nosy flutter away, but she managed to resist that urge. "Perhaps an outside set of eyes is just what I need. If you have time, I will share."

"I had other things in mind." But she was still there, following Tree as she went. "But I can wait, and so can they."

"That's very nice of you." Tree considered with eyes turned skywards a moment, even if the canopy blocked the view of it. "It started with the Equestrians..."

She told her story to the friendly stranger. 





"Do you want a larger space?" The large moth pointed to another stand. "They are behind on their payments and considering leaving, anyway.  It's more central, and larger on top of that."

Daisy considered their landlord. "Are we doing that much better than they are?"

Lily shook her head. "We're doing just fine where we are. We couldn't expand much further without more help."

Rose nodded towards Lily. "And, as nice as they are, we're not hiring. Besides, we're not permanent. A friend of ours is coming for us."

Later, back at home, Daisy clopped a hoof against the side of her head. "I forgot! Where is Twilight? Shouldn't she already be here?"

Lily sat back. "Wow, completely skipped my mind. I was more upset that my hooves don't work so well."

"Yours too?" Rose placed her hoof on a jug and nudged it around in little pushes. "I can't pick things up!"

Daisy waved that way. "Think the Everglow way. They don't pick it up like that." She marched up and snatched the jar away from Rose in her teeth and poured out a serving of water for Rose before setting it back down. "Ta dah!"

Rose applauded in appreciation. "Thanks! I was going crazy." She inclined her head slowly. "You get used to doing it a certain way... Now, what were you saying?"

"Twilight?" Daisy pointed to the window. "Does it take that long to get here?"

"Maybe?" Rose shrugged softly. "I really don't know. Somewhere between a second and a few years, from the info we have."

Lily smirked smugly, her arms crossed. "Which is a codeword for 'she does not know'." She reached for the fresh glass of water, but her hoof was no better at grabbing it. "Dang it."

Rose nudged Lily's hoof away. "That's mine, thanks!" She went in and plunked her snout into the water, sipping it directly. "Mmm..."

Daisy casually poured herself a glass. "That isn't how you drink it." She showed how she tilted the glass towards herself with a task that required both hooves and snout working in harmony to bring the lip of the glass closer. She was able to far more easily chug down the water in three big gulps of the stuff. "Ah, that feels good. Seriously though, Twilight? And Spike, and his girl. They're all supposed to be coming, right?"

Lily went for the jug of water, chomping at the handle. "I think so," she got out muffedly as she started the less skilled effort of pouring herself a glass. "Everglow ponies make this look so easy!"

"Practice." Daisy let her glass fall back to its neutral position. "I've been practicing since before we went native." She shook her new tail behind her. "So I was prepared. I thought you two would be ready too, but that's what I get for assuming." She stuck out her tongue even as the other two glared at her.

Rose coughed into a hoof. "Putting that aside... We really don't have any idea when Twilight will get here. Soon? I hope whatever she's doing it isn't really dangerous or anything."

Lily set the jug down, heaving for breath. "That is harder than it looks!" Still, her glass had some water. So did the surrounding table. "This is Twilight we're talking about. So of course she's doing something dangerous and they're having a big ole adventure about it. Would it be Twilight otherwise?"

A knock at the door caught their attention. It opened a moment later to reveal Tree, smiling as she kicked it behind herself. "There you are. Looking sharp... literally, come to think. You really should wear clothes more often."

It was only at that moment that Rose had a reason to really pay attention to that. Tree was dressed in simple off-green clothes, like a leather tunic that covered most of her. She had no hat. Her shoes were concealed by sneakers of a sort, also made of leather, though a much tougher sort at a glance. It was simple, but worked. "Huh..." She didn't have much reason to pay attention to Everglow fashion before then. "Wait, we're under-dressed?"

Daisy applied a hoof to her face. "I thought it was optional!"

Lily perked an ear at Daisy's outburst. "So you noticed that too, then?"

"Yes." Daisy sank miserably. "But I thought it was just a fashion thing. If I had any idea, I was looking like a jerk..."

Tree sat at the table where all the action was at. "Most understand you're from a very different world, but now that you look the part, what you don't get right is more... obvious. If you'd like, I can show you where they sell some basic clothing."

Rose reached for one of Tree's hooves, rubbing hoof to hoof without getting a good grip on it. Curse the lack of Everglow sticky hooves. "You are a treat, but we don't want to fill up your day."

Lily nodded quickly. "Just point us in the right direction."

Tree wagged a hoof at the three. "What if I want to show you? What then?" The three glanced at each other with obvious uncertainty. "You're going to have to let me do it. Now, if you're not busy, let's get you dressed. You'll do better at your stand when you're looking presentable." She stood up and turned away. "I'll be honest, just glad you at least understand the situation. I was ready for you to stare at me blankly when I brought it up."

Rose stuck out her tongue. "We're not that clueless!" Sure, she hadn't noticed how much clothing was going on, but she knew what they were! "I want something rocky, advertise my rock circle."

Lily raised a hoof. "I want... wait... I don't want something that looks like you took it off an animal, that'd be horrible! Fashion is tricky..." That she didn't partake of it often was clear.

Daisy ran a hoof over her form. "Bright reds and oranges. Fire is a nice color and I'm ready for it! Let's get fashionable and trendy, or at least fashionable." One of two was good enough? "Lead the way, wise unicorn."

Tree smiled awkwardly. "I've never been called that before." She rose and started for the door on easy hooves. "This way. You've been running a business, so I trust you have money and know how to use it?"

"That we got under control." Rose chugged the last of her water and spilled about half of it in the hurry. She got up to her hooves, water dripping from her. "Lead the way!"

"Yeah... You're going to have to not do that when you're wearing clothes, just a warning." Tree willed the door open and stepped through, waiting just outside. "Clothes rarely like getting wet."

Daisy dashed out next. "No water, check. Except washing. Gotta wash clothes, duh."

Tree nodded at that. "I can't argue that. But, you know a spell to clean them without water. I know it too."

All three frowned in thought, but it came to Lily first. "Least Wish! It can clean things."

"Precisely." Tree let the other two and the beaver escape before she closed the door behind them. "That'll take care of your laundering needs and it's nice and gentle on clothes, so it works out pretty well."

Rose trotted along behind Tree. "Clothes need a lot of attention, don't they? I thought the point was for them to attract attention."

"Sure." Tree started up some stairs. "Starts with getting yours, to buy it, then to take care of it. After that, it grabs everyone else's attention. Attention magnets, that's what they do and keep doing so long as you keep them." She tossed her head up ahead. "The clothing shop is a few trees away, about fifteen minutes hike. Let's get you all looking nice."

With a communal cheer of action, the flower mares went to get dressed.
> 24 - Looking Good
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



The three mares looked at each other with a blend of emotions. "I am feeling it." Rose reared onto her hind legs briefly, coming down with a clop. "Look at me, all stoney." She nosed against Daisy, then Lily. "So great! We're still, you know, us, but more than that."

Daisy bobbed her head. "I like it."

"With you." Lily turned to Tree. "What do you think? Like?" She twirled in place to show it all off.

Tree clapped softly, seated on her haunches. "Very good. Now we all are presentable. I told you it wasn't so bad. How does it feel?" Each mare gave a soft nod. "Good. I admit, I was a little worried you'd be used to not having clothes."

Rose stuck out her tongue at that. "I've worn clothes before! Still, thanks, for caring and all." She trotted up to the counter and dug out a bag of coins in her teeth to set down. "Here you are."

Tree hurried up and floated out the proper coins for the confused shopkeep. "They're new."

"I've heard of them." The male shopkeep tucked the coins away. "But it's nice to meet them. Enjoy the clothes!"

Tree went for the door, flower mares trailing behind her. "I admit, it is less awkward now."

"Less awkward?" Rose slipped past Tree to the outside world. "Were we upsetting you?"

"Yes." Tree stepped to the side, her magic holding the door long enough to let the others escape the store. "Being naked is a sign of depravity, or crudeness. I know you're from another world." She threw a hoof wide. "Which is why I didn't bring it up, or harp on it. But this is so much better. There are things that don't need to be shown off."

Daisy squinted at Tree, standing on the branch outside. "What are you talking about?"

Tree applied a hoof to her face. "Of course..." Equestrians had little to show off. "I do not understand the nature of your world, so let me wail at unknown if I must. But, as Everglow ponies, dress the Everglow way." She reached out to brush at Lily's dress gently. "Besides, it looks good on you."

Lily grinned as wide as she could. "Doesn't it?! I really like it." she danced in place with a clop-clop. "Now that we look the part, what can we do?"

"What you did before, mostly." Tree inclined her head slowly. "They weren't keeping you out. You're cute. You're still cute. They didn't want you to be sad, so they were quiet about it. Now you can be cute and not raise awkward questions. That's a step forward, don't you think?"

Rose skipped along the thick branch. "Well, now it's time to test. Let's see if fashion translates into better sales from the average flutter." The others cheered as they marched back to work.





"Why can't you send a message again?" Spike was rolling a hand as he floated along on his small wings. His Everglow form hadn't returned to him, as nice as that would have been. "It'd be a lot faster, right?"

"Yes..." Twilight took a long step over some rubble in the gloomy lighting. "But the spell was made specifically for cross-world communication.

Soft Mane laughed as she followed Twilight. "And you're in the same world, that's a kick." Though it was gloomy, she seemed to be able to find her way forward without a delay in her steps, making her seem far sharper of eyesight than Twilight despite her dulled eyes. "Still... Everglow. It's been a while... I wonder if they're less prickly about satyrs these days."

"Lovely." Twilight scrambled up onto a pile of stones. "If we had appeared in a more hospitable place... Can you tell where we are?"

"Underground." Soft shrugged expansively. "Beyond that..." She did a slow circle in place with a clopping each time a hoof came down. "The... architecture doesn't look pony'sh, so not that?"

Spike flew to her side. "Great. So it could be about anything. You feel alright?"

"Thanks for caring." Soft ruffled the top of Spike's head. "I'm fine. Pretty sure I'll keep being fine, minus some fierce beast." The area shook as a great roar shook the air and the ground. "Speaking of which..."

Twilight channeled her magic quickly into an Everglow spell, forming a bubble around herself and the others with a pop. "Stay together!" Not that they had a lot of choice in that. "Hopefully it will just go--"

The creature smashed into the side of the bubble, clawing it with its great paw-like hands, teeth snapping at the force field it couldn't get through, though the cracks and wobbles forming in it implied that wouldn't stay true for long.

Spike yelped in fear, ducking back. "By Celestia! What is that thing?!"

Twilight worked her hooves in a pattern as her horn glowed in subtly different colors. "Trouble. Spike, time to work."

A cacophony of hooves came closer just before a wet slick as something crashed into the creature, driving it sideways away from the bubble as a familiar pony came into view, shaking her lance free of the ichor on it. "Is that you? By the sun, why are you in here?!" Fast Shadow had arrived, the athletic earth mare that sparred with the roaring beast with hoof strikes and lance jabs, ignoring any mortal peril in favor of the battle. "Give me some, ooo, backup! A wizard is just the thing behind a fighter."

Twilight banished the bubble with a new pop, the magic falling away and leaving her exposed, but it meant the creature was just as open to being struck by her own magic. "Soft, get to safety."

"Not happening." She brought her hands together, weaving with new magic. "Let's take care of this."





"They're probably enjoying the sights." Rose was looking out over the city from the stand. "Seeing all sorts of exotic things and having a great time!"

Lily shrugged softly. "Well, we have a nice city and having a good time. So it's a tie?"

"A tie," agreed Daisy with a firm nod. "At best. And we have a new stand. Let's see Twilight manage that." All three laughed at the idea of a business saavy Twilight.

Rose waved it off. "Let's not get mean about it. Twilight's very good at a lot of things... just not this." She ran a hoof along the delicate frond of a flower. "We all have our specialties. If we needed help, you know she'd be there, probably with a book... or three."

Lily left the other two gabbing about Twilight to smile at a potential customer. "Welcome to the flower stand! How can we make your day a little more colorful."

The butterfly spread his wings. "That's exactly what I want! My mother is visiting. She doesn't that often... Um... You're new to Flutters, right? This is... actually the first time I met her."

Lily blinked with confusion. First time?! "How is this the first time?"

He blushed softly. "It's normal for us. I know it isn't for ponies. They don't even tell us who our parents are usually... But I was really curious, and she allowed it, and I want this meeting to go perfectly! I bet she's a great person." He began to clap excitedly, and nervously. "What is the best flower?"

Lily glanced back at her flowers. "I want to help you, and I will, promise, but I need to know more, and want to know even more! Let's start with your mom. Do you know what she likes, or looks like? We can work with either."

"That's the problem." He sagged in place. "First time meeting her, remember? All I know is she's a butterfly, like me." He spread his brilliant wings for inspection. "Maybe she looks like me? I can't promise that... I don't know what she likes, except she had a least one child." He pointed at himself emphatically if it wasn't obvious he was that child.

"I get that..." Lily kept her eyes on her would-be customer. "Now... I'm behind the times on this. All flutters do this?"

"Huh? Oh, yes." He bobbed his head. "If we have a child, we give them to the creche." He pointed off into the city. "They know how to raise children right, and that's their job. They raise them with love and care. Some parents stop by more often than others... mine, um... Maybe she did? She didn't have to tell me... This will be the first time I know she sees me." He bounced in place on nervous legs. "I have to get it right!"

"Of course." Lily snapped a stem and brought the flower attached over. "This one matches your colors, and if your mom looks like you... Even if the color isn't perfect, the style is on point, and she probably matches at least one or the other."

The flutter clasped the flower between his hooves. "It's lovely... I'd like three sets, each in a vase. Can you do that?"

"What's this?" Rose popped in from behind Lily. "Three. Did you want bunches or bouquets?"

"There is a difference," added Daisy, having joined the conversation.

"This is for his mother." Lily waved at the nervous flutter. "Definitely bouquets, in the nicest vases we have." The other two saluted and dashed off to make that happen. "So... how does that work? You just... give up your child and walk away?"

"We give them the best chance. Flutters are neat, don't get me wrong, but we get distracted pretty easily..." He worried his hooves together. "So having people who are good at foalraising do the, uh, foal raising just makes sense. Our taxes help keep them stocked with supplies and well trained caretakers, so our kids are happy." He thumped himself on the chest. "I was happy! But I'll be happier meeting my mother. I hope we get along..." He wrapped his arms around the vases as the flower mares hurried to bring out the collection. "Take the coins."

Lily went in for his pouch and nuzzled into it, soon drawing out the coins in her teeth that she dropped into her waiting hooves, even if she had to cradle it carefully on her non-sticky hooves. "There we go. Sorry for the questions. I'm not trying to judge, it's just weird, from our... That still sounds bad."

Rose nudged Lily to the side. "I hope your meeting with your mom goes well. Bring her by if she feels like it and we'll greet her too."

"That sounds lovely." He lifted into the air and drifted off slowly with his prize. "Thank you all!"

Daisy shook her head. "I know you're curious, but you were just making him more nervous. "

Rose chuckled as she sat nearby. "He wasn't hurt and he left happy. Don't hassle Lily about it."

"But she's not wrong." Lily rubbed at her cheek awkwardly. "I was a rude tourist... Hey, wanna learn more about that?" She angled her head. "Explains why I haven't seen a lot of little flutters around. They must be hiding in that big daycare they have." The rubbing turned to pressing her cheek from both sides. "Oh wow, imagine how cute they are!"

Daisy burst into giggles. "They may kill us on sight if they manage to be even cuter than flutters already are."

The three joined as one with giggling thoughts of little flutterponies looking at them with big innocent eyes. "Done." Rose turned to the stand. "We're going. We're going to see the flutter foals, and may Celestia have mercy on us."

Lily raised a hoof. "Tomorrow though. It's already late in the day."

"Yes, yes, tomorrow." Rose waved it off with a soft snort as she began closing up the stall. "Tonight we rest, for tomorrow, we may die."

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Probably not. We may pass out though." That was a thing the flower mares were known to do when surprised too badly.
> 25 - Restricted Area
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello." The flutter before them had a confused look on her face, wings fluttering slowly behind her. She wore a frilly hat with a simple smiling face on it. On her shoulder was a badge of some unknown meaning. "This is a place for young flutters."

Rose nodded quickly. "Which we are not." As if that wasn't obvious. "But we were hoping to visit the little ones and say hello."

The flutter barring the way let out a little hum. "That isn't how that usually works... If you were offering an apprenticeship, that'd make sense. If your child was here and you wanted to see them, I would oblige. I don't think either of those are true."

Lily considered the butterfly guardian. "Ponies can't just visit?"

The butterfly looked aghast at the idea. "We are protecting them, which means, no, random people can't just wander in. Trained staff only beyond this point." She spread her hooves in a defensive stance. "You'd want us to be just as careful if it were your children, wouldn't you? This is our job, and most of us would agree, our calling!"

Daisy stuck out her tongue. "If somepony wanted to visit the school, I bet they could."

Rose turned to her. "Eh... If Miss Cheerilee didn't know them and they were just lurking around, that'd get her nervous."

Lily pointed at herself. "Are we the strangers?!"

The butterfly smiled gently as understanding seemed to be dawning. "I'm afraid you are the strangers. I've heard of you, but little more. Congratulations on becoming druids."

Rose stood all the taller. "Thank you! Are you one too?"

"Me?!" The butterfly pointed at herself with both hooves. "I imagine not. Druids do not usually dedicate themselves to childraising. Thankfully, they are not required. People keep making little people, and we take care of them. If that was out of balance... That would be a problem."

Lily threw a leg over her beaver friend. "A big problem. We'd run out of ponies! Not that I'm helping, personally, still..."

The caretaker's cheeks lit up at the sharing of personal information. "I see..." But her eyes lit up shortly after that. "Oh! You have not seen little flutters before, have you?" All three mares shook their head. "You just want to see what they look like." All three nodded. "That's different, and easily arranged." She pointed up and around the tree. "There's a window up there. There are ladders up to it if you can't fly." None of them had wings, unlike her. "You'll be able to see them playing. I can't let you in, but you can get a peek. We ask that people not stay for longer than a few minutes at most. You don't want to be 'that' person that stares at them."

Daisy giggled as she advanced on the ladder. Climbing a ladder as an Everglow pony was a little trickier, but still doable as she scaled upwards into the sky and flopped out onto the platform. "Now let's see a..." She saw them and fell back with a squeak.

Rose arrived to see Daisy cured up. "The horror," whispered out the prone mare.

"You're being dramatic. They're just foals." Rose went up to see what had scared Daisy so much.

Lily was the slowest to arrive, her beaver on her back. With a final grunt, she threw herself up onto the platform with a tired wheeze. "Are they... What happened?" She sat up, peering at the two other sisters, fallen. "Are they not there?"

"The horror," both echoed in response without moving.

Lily advanced past them. "They can't be... Oh." She didn't fall over though, instead staring curiously. "They're bugs. This is... not that surprising." Her beaver whistled. In agreement? It was hard to tell. "Exactly. Little grubs, learning things! It's kinda cute..."

Rose waved Lily's words away with a frown. "That is not cute! They are... hideous."

"We're all hideous at some point." Lily stuck out her tongue. "But they're still little things trying to grow and learn and aw, that one just learned the block game! Aw...." It was perhaps fitting that the animal druid could see the adorable appeal of the young ones, even if they were so very different. "I want to meet them even more! Oh! Oh oh!" She whirled on her sisters. "We run a business, and we're druids. What if we offer to teach one of them about either? Then we could get a young, but not that young, flutter to come with us."

Rose slowly sat up. "You are crazy." Despite that, she smiled slowly. "But if you're ready to take on that responsibility?"

Daisy scrunched at Lily and her beaver. "Will they look like that?"

"Like what?" Lily waved at the window she wasn't looking through. "If you weren't so busy falling over, you'd see some of them look just like little flutters. Teens and older foals, I bet..." She tapped at her chin. "I bet they'd have a lot of fun learning how to run a shop, or do natural stuff."





As the sisters argued about playing mentor figures, Twilight emerged into light with a relieved smile and a flapping of her wings. "Much better!"

Fast galloped forward and hopped up onto a large rock to look around. "Clear. Alright, so, where were you trying to go? I swear, you spellcasters are as amazing at getting yourself out of trouble as you are getting into it."

Soft hiked a thumb, though she didn't know what direction was right. "Prisma is the name of it. Do you know it?"

"Where the flutters are." Fast nodded quickly. "I've been there. Wet, but colorful, and friendly. They love ponies, which most of us are."

Spike hiked a thumb at himself. "What about dragons?"

"Eh..." Fast shrugged softly. "Sorry, don't think they've chatted with them too much. If you come in peace, they won't give you a bad time about it."

Twilight was at the fore of her little group, minus Fast Shadow. "I'm glad you know of it. Can you point us in the right direction?"

Fast looked Twilight up and down. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like a spellcaster of some talent." Twilight nodded. "So you could get there even faster than walking."

Twilight spread her wings. "I can fly, to start. But there are more of us than there are pairs of wings..."

Fast shook her head. "I meant a spell. Make us all fly? Or even teleport to it if you're good enough."

Twilight winced at the idea. "I can't do that. I don't know in what direction I'm going, or have a good enough picture of what I'm aiming for. I wouldn't want to subject any of you to such a haphazard spell. As for flying..." She looked from Fast to the others. "I could give you wings. Would that help?"

Fast backed a step. "Wings?! The last time I saw a flying spell, wings weren't involved... Still, if they work? Prisma is a good distance away, and in a big wet forest. Flying will be a lot faster than hiking."

With a quick spell, spoken in strange words, Twilight wove an Everglow spell that bestowed Fast and Soft a set of butterfly wings. "She said that this spell of mine was similar to hers, and she showed me the Everglow version."

"She?" Fast squinted at Twilight suspiciously. "I'm not a cleric or a wizard myself, but I've seen that spell. Luminace priests are the ones that use it."

"Luminace! Yes, Princess Luminace is her name." Twilight nodded as she lifted into the air on her own wings. "A very friendly pony. Any chance I'll see her while I'm here?"

Soft snorted as she caught up. "I hope not... If the gods visited us all the time, it'd be chaos, even the nice ones like Lumie."

Fast laughed with a bit of distress. "Soft Mane is correct... and it worries me slightly that you've swapped spells with her before... Still, she is one known to do that, trading secrets with smiling observers. You worship her then?" She willed herself into the air and her new wings carried her obediently.

"I think she's a nice pony, but 'worship' would be a strong term to use." Twilight drifted back in the air slowly, allowing the others to catch up. "I get the idea that Equestria does not have the same rules."

"I should imagine not." Fast zipped in closer to Twilight. "Our ponies don't look like you, to start. Follow me." She led the way across the countryside. "Now, before I ran into you, I was adventuring, looking for a forgotten artifact that was rumored to be in that cave, but found you instead. You're about as rare, so I can't call it a total loss."

Spike watched the landscrape scrolling beneath them. "Which way are we headed anyway?" He didn't have a compass to check, other than 'forward'.

"West." Fast pointed ahead. "West and we'll reach the forest of dreams, where Prisma hides. It doesn't do that good of a job of hiding, being a busy city, but it is in a thick forest, which makes up for it a lot."

Soft accelerated to Fast's side. "Say! Are hybrids like me still super rare?"

"In Prisma? Very." She quirked an ear back at Soft. "Humans don't live there much, so not a lot of reason for half-humans of any kind. Ponies are there often enough, but ponies and flutters don't usually make hybrids. They can have families, but the children are one or the other, not both." She waved at Soft with the last word. "Like you. No offense, but you're right in the middle. Can't call you a pony or a human. Something new, you know? Not a bad thing..." She tried to back out of her awkward words. "But new!"

"Thanks for trying." Soft flew at Spike's side. "By the way, I can't see a thing right now. It's all too far away for me, so I'm going to go where you go and nowhere else. Don't let me crash."

"'Course not!" He flew in a little closer to her, grabbing her hand as he went. "I'd be failing at being me if I let you crash into something."

Twilight smirked at that. "Spike, you've crashed before. You haven't even had wings for that long."

"Yeah, sure... me... but this is my girlfriend." He squeezed Soft's hand gently. "And I'm not letting her get hurt!"

"Aw, thanks." She squeezed him back. "I already feel safer, my brave dragon." The two giggled with young lovesmitten joy.

Twilight smiled at the two. "Forgive them, they're still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship. I'm almost jealous at times at how much they love each other."

Soft turned her head to Twilight sharply. "I would be happy to lend a hand in that. I'd be a terrible Lashtada follower if I didn't offer to play matchmaker. Just give permission and I'll find some stallions, or mares if you like that, to fit with you."

"T-thank you, but I will pass for the moment." Twilight coughed into a hoof. "Besides, I'm a princess with a busy schedule. I have a friendship school to run! I would feel bad making anycreature work around that as I hustled around."

"That sounds like an excuse." She was still directing her face Twilight, despite flying in another direction. "A fitting pony would not find that to be disagreeable at all. In fact, the proper creature would be excited to take part, with you. Give them, and me, a chance. You can always say no after I bring them to you to be judged."

Twilight began to go red from her neck up. "Judge them?! I don't... How do you judge a creature like that?! This isn't a test with a right or wrong answer!" Her flying began to wave with her growing uncertainty. "I've never evaluated this before. I'm not qualified!"
> 26 - You Have Mail.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose stirred from sleep with a tapping at the door. It didn't sound like Tree, she had a different sort of knock. Who was it? "Coming." She half fell from bed as she staggered to the front door and grabbed the handle. She was sleepy enough that she forgot her hooves didn't work that way. "Right..." She grabbed the knob in her mouth and twisted it open. "Who--Oh!" Sleep fled her instantly.

"Who's at the door?" came the sleepy call of Daisy. "Tell them to come back later."

"Your highness." Rose dipped low. "It's good to see you."

"Twilight will do." She stepped inside with a bright smile, followed by the rest of her crew, another pony, Spike, and his girlfriend, Soft Mane. "When did you get so formal?"

Lily sat up so quickly, her beaver hissed and looked for the source of danger. "Is that Twilight?!" She focused on the named pony and hurried over to her in a tackling hug. "It's so good to see you!"

Twilight returned the hug with a soft smile, much more accustomed to that sort of greeting. "Nice to see you too. You've acclimated to the local plane, I see."

Daisy flopped free of bed. "We did the what?"

Twilight booped Lily's nose, close as it was. "You have the bodies of Everglow ponies. Don't panic, this will--"

"--wear off, we know." Rose waved that objection away. "When we get back to Equestria. Are you here to do that?"

Spike blinked softly. "That was the idea, but you're a lot less panicked than I thought you'd be."

Soft rolled a hand slowly. "Not going to lie, I was also expecting you to be in a less... collected state. I'm glad to be wrong on that."

Daisy scrambled to her hooves. "Are we in a hurry? I'd want to say bye before we vanished... We made some friends."

Lily bobbed her head. "If we go without saying bye to Tree, I'll just die."

Rose hiked a brow at Lily. "I thought you'd be more worried about your beaver." She pointed at the beaver. "Twilight, everycreature, that is Bold Support, and he's basically Lily's pet, even if she hates it when I call him that."

Lily and Bold scowled in unison. "He's way more than a pet. He's my other half; my partner!" She hugged close to Bold. "He can come with us, can't he? Equestria can deal with one extra beaver."

Soft crouched down on the level with the beaver. "Hello there... You've found a partner to dance with, even if you two have no intention of those particular steps. How lovely. All Lines Made One, in their different ways."

Spike got a hand on her shoulder. "Uh, what? Are beavers, like, part of the religion?"

"No!" Soft poked him in his belly. "That'd be silly. She's a community god, and a god of species coming together. They are both of those, union across species lines, and it's blessed in her eyes. That they can forge a community despite it is a wonderful thing."

"Not to question what seems like a good mood." Spike rubbed behind his head as he leaned back against a wall. "But when did you learn so much about Lashtada? Not like anycreature slipped you a book on it."

"We lost that." She scowled at that distant memory. "But I am still a vessel for her power, and I have been slowly gaining bits and pieces, putting it together. I'll write my own book, with her help. We could make it faster, rescue her children and ask them directly?"

Twilight threw a hoof in front of Soft Mane. "Woah there. We're already on an assignment. Let's not get distracted." That was a whole other tale of another purpose. "Now, none of us appear to be in any immediate danger, so I have no specific issue waiting a day while you say your goodbyes. I'm not a mon--" She was hugged by three Everglow ponies that had once been Equestrian. "You're welcome?"

Rose unleashed a thunderous yawn. "Now... You arrived in the middle of the night, so I'm going back to bed. Tomorrow is goodbye time, not this second."

The other flower mares took her cue and soon all three of them were snuggled warmly under their blankets and their soft snores filled their room as if someone hadn't come a dimension away to rescue them.

"Hm." Fast looked from the occupied beds to the rescuers left standing. "We'll... want to get temporary lodging, I imagine?"

Twilight brushed past Fast to the outside world and its many colorful inhabitants. "That would be a good idea, but I have a spell for that, I think." She willed a book to float free and began flipping through the large tome. "When in Everglow..." The book was full of Everglow arcane spells. "Now I heard... I thought..." But she hadn't actually learned that spell. "Darn... Do they have spells around here?"

Fast stepped side for Spike and Soft. "They have a library/temple. I would imagine they'd have a few spells, or Princess Luminace would weep."

Twilight smiled softly. "I imagine she would. She does like a spell, now... where?" She turned around in place, but there were countless branches leading in equally myriad directions that she didn't know.

Spike chuckled softly as he lifted on his wings. "Twilight, have you thought of just asking them? I bet they know." He zipped in front of a flutter that didn't seem to be in a hurry. "Hey!"

"Hello!" The male flutter looked Spike over curiously. "Oh, a luminous dragon! I never saw one in person before. That's exciting!" They clapped their hooves with joy. "How can I help?"

"Uh..." That was a new term for him, and yet, a friendly meeting. "Hey. We're looking for the library, actually."

"Of course! What else would a luminous dragon be looking for." He pointed off in the distance. "Go straight there. It has a big book picture over the door, nice and easy to spot."

Spike pointed down at his friends. "They don't fly as good."

"Oh!" He colored with a nervous giggle. "Silly me." He came down and landed among the group. "I'll show you." He trotted off at a brisk jog as their personal tour guide.

Spike landed with them and started the hike towards the library. "At least they're friendly."

Twilight nodded firmly. "Very. This is much nicer than some of the other Everglow places I've visited."

Fast snorted softly. "That is a guarded compliment. Most of Everglow is a friendly place within its cities. If you weren't already planning on leaving, I'd show you a few delightful places. Have you been to Viljatown?"

"Yes," echoed Spike and Twilight at once.

Twilight coughed into a hoof. "A fine place, but visited during unideal times... every time... They have a bit of a... fighting problem?"

"Fighting problem?" Fast frowned with thought as she walked along the branch after their guide. "Oh, did you visit the fighting rings? A bit violent, but harmless generally."

Twilight fluffed up. "My friend was in one of those fights, and lost a wing! Those ponies are mad for wanting such a... sport."

"Ah... Well, some like that sort of thing, and it's there for them... Ripped limbs is not the typical ending..." Fast hurried forward, giving up on that argument for the time.

Spike came in close to Twilight's side. "Don't yell at her for it. Not like it's her fault or anything."

"I know that." Twilight sighed softly. "Just a sore subject. Good thing we were able to fix that. This world... It has countless ways to be injured, and just as many ways to undo that. A contradiction, perhaps, or a requirement, so there are still any creatures left on it!"

Soft patted Twilight's free side. "Relax. Equestria has its own issues, and doesn't even have the healing magic to go with it. I'm still a bit baffled how you deal with it. Neither world is 'peaceful' in the end, but it has its great spots. This place seems nice."

"Thanks!" The male looked over his shoulder. "We're almost there. Do you have a library card?" All the creatures following him looked about equally as clueless. "Oh... I thought, being a luminous dragon, you'd have one... No problem! You just have to ask nicely when we get there and I bet they'll fix that. You need a library card to check out any books."

The building, or more of a tree with cavities like most of them, came closer with the big book right over its entry arch. "Here we are." The flutter accelerated into almost a gallop. "This is where everyone comes to get a book. They take real good care of them for us, and we get to read them, and even borrow them if we ask nicely and take care of them." He leaned to the left even as his wings leaned to the right. "So go in and say hello! Good luck!" Without further preamble, he took flight back to whatever he had been in the middle of.

Twilight advanced with a soft sniffing. "Ah, the scent of books. Impossible to miss in any world..." She went into the library as if she were returning home.

Soft Mane hiked a thumb at the departing alicorn. "And there she goes. If they let her, she won't need a room because she'll be up all night reading up on things."

Spike chuckled at that. "That sounds like her..." He turned to Fast Shadow. "But you deserve better than that. Thanks for showing us this far. You don't even owe us anything. You... look a lot like another pony with your name, by the way. It's uncanny."

Fast inclined an ear at the small dragon. "That's why my parents named me that. It's a tradition, if you get a pony that looks like a champion, you name them after them and hope it comes true. Which it didn't. I'm just an adventurer, not any world saving... thing." She shrugged gently. "But if I take after her, she was a good pony, so I could be doing a lot worse by the way I see it."

Soft smirked at that. "Ponies have some odd customs." As if she wasn't a part of that culture. "What happens if you have a child that looks like Fast Shadow?"

"Then I get to have an awkward relationship with another pony with my name." She shook her mane gently. "And my mane, which I take pride in. I'd show her how to handle it. It took years to get it right, least I could do as a parent. Now... Twilight hasn't emerged. She's a wizard, and like most wizards, she probably saw books and fell right in. Shall we rescue her?"

"Let's" With a thumbs up, Spike led the way into the library that smelled of sandalwood incense burning somewhere out of sight. The lighting was a bit dim, but candles offered brighter light around them at tables. "Huh..." It was clean and seemed well arranged. "Not bad..."

"Hello." A butterfly landed in front of Spike. "So many new readers today. How can I help you?"

Spike looked around, but didn't see Twilight. "We're actually looking for another new reader." He raised a hand high. "About this tall, wings, horn? She's probably reading a storm already."

"Oh, her." He nodded, easily recognizing the unified pony. "She's actually at a service."

Spike blinked softly at the butterfly. "Service?"

"Like a religious one?" Soft had arrived just behind Spike, and Fast with her. "I didn't see that coming."

"She said she looked forward to seeing a service to Princess Luminace. We weren't going to deny her that pleasure." The butterfly danced on his hooves. "Eager learners are very welcome here, friendly ones even more, and she feels like she is both of those things. Luminace be praised."

Spike pointed past the butterfly. "Can we see it too?"
> 27 - Luminace be Praised
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"--meaning." They came in as an older flutter female was talking to a room that was watching her intently. "The subcontext is easy to miss." She raised her hooves to her eyes. "You have to read between the lines, for what's right there, but hidden. Some say the meaning of the author is immaterial, but they are fools! Consider the author in this case surely, as it forms the backbone of the book."

Twilight was among the crowd, watching with rapt attention. A book hovered nearby, but she had little chance to read it, watching the speaker as she was. She only shifted focus when something settled next to her. "Oh!" She saw it was Spike, Soft, and Fast taking spots around her. "Welcome aboard." She whispered to not distract from the crowd. "Their service is a reading club! This is so amazing!"

Spike peered at the floating book. "Is that what they're talking about?"

The speaker drifted backwards on slower, older, wings. "But that's enough from me. Let's hear from a younger mind, who may have a different opinion."

A spritely small flutter wasp hopped to her hooves. "Yes! Me please! Ahem, I read the book. It was good!"

The matron smiled patiently. "That's a start. What made it good, in your opinion?"

"I really liked when he stood up to that bully." She stomped the ground. "That mean crook, Mister Redswell!" The room nodded softly, all recognizing the name. "He was brave... Could have been squashed, but he didn't back up. He had to protect his friends, and he did! I hope I can be that brave."

The matron nodded to the eager little flutter. "That was very brave, but let us..." She trailed off. "You are very polite, but you and your friends haven't read the book, have you?"

Twilight shook her head quickly, pointing at herself. "Me? Um, no... It sounds fascinating!"

"That's what we like to hear." The matron took one book from a pile. "Then take a copy. You're a little late for this meeting, but a good book is never late. Savor it."

Twilight accepted the book with due reverence. "Is it alright that I plan to leave the city?"

"We have more copies of that one, but that you checked is a good mark." She casually applied a bright yellow-golden sticker to Twilight's chest.

Twilight frowned. "Wait..." That had been a very Equestrian move, pressing with a hoof like that. "How did you?"

"Sticky hoof spell, my dear." The matron was returning to her place. "Luminace watch over you, but you have no reason to stay here and listen to us talk about a book you haven't read. I do appreciate the thought." Murmurs rose in agreement with smiling faces. "Next week, we plan to discuss The Return of Big Wing. If you plan to be here, do read that, and join us. We may all learn something."

Twilight giddily hopped to the door, her companions behind her. "I may just do that, but I don't want to imply I'll be here. Things call!" She waves amiably, and left them to continue discussing the book. "This place is great!" She wheeled on her friends with a big smile. "They study a different book each week and discuss their findings, together."

Spike raised a brow. "That's called a 'book club'. They exist in Equestria. Wanna join one?"

Soft covered her mouth. "You are so cute sometimes, Twilight. Still, I imagine a luminace book club dives a bit further than the average one with random ponies in it, no offense."

Fast snorted softly. "Depends on the pony... Still, if they were the right kind, they'd join Princess Luminace, likely. Friendship and knowledge, her things, and a book club is just what she'd want.

"Makes me think of starting my own..." But her lofty thoughts came down. "I have plenty of other things to do in the meantime... Maybe joining one being run by somepony else would be wise... Ahem! Now... spells!" She marched off towards that first flutter. "Do you have a spell section?"

"Yes we do." The flutter considered Twilight. "I don't mean to be rude to any seeking knowledge, but the library is not generally public material. What business do you have with it?"

Fast gestured with her head at Twilight. "She wants a spell to make a place to sleep. Adventures, right?"

"Right." The librarian chuckled softly. "We have a few that could match that, if you can comprehend them. They are not simple spells, most of them. You could just stay in town?" He pointed past them all the outside world. "If you come in peace, they shouldn't trouble you."

"But I want to learn." Twilight was far too close to a new spell to give up so easily. "Is there a fee?"

"For visitors, there is." He trotted away, returning with a book in his mouth that he set on a small table in front of Twilight. "This has what you seek. You can copy it, I assume?"

"Gladly!" Her magic glowed around it, but couldn't move it. The librarian's hoof was on top of it, pinning it. "Excuse me?"

Fast moved between them, cutting off Twilight's vision of the book. "You're making it awkward. Pay the librarian. He doesn't want to have to ask."

"Oh! Well, of course... And the fee would be?" Twilight tried to lean past Fast to get a peek with limited success.

The librarian tapped the book. "For a spell of this magnitude, 150 gold pieces. Can you discern seventh circle spells?"

"Seventh circle!" Twilight ran through her mental list of spells. "First, second, third... fourth..." She was running out of spells. "If I can't figure it out, do I get a refund?" She tried her best smile.

The librarian didn't look as amused. "Access to the book is what you are paying for, not success, or not, of what you plan to do. I can put it back if you'd rather."

Twilight heaved a sigh as a new book appeared beside her. "At the very least, I'll copy it for that price if I can't cast it today." A bag of jingling coins floated out with her magical aura. "Here you are. Thank you for hosting such a lovely library."

"A pleasure." He took the bag in his mouth, hefting it to his satisfaction before coiling to tuck it away. "The book is yours for half a day. Please do return it before then. May Luminace smile on your quest for knowledge."

"Questions be answered," replied Twilight, to the librarian's clear pleasure. Nothing stood on her way. She hurried up for the book and noses it open, her magic turning the pages to the one she wanted. "Oooo, dense." The fact that it was dense was a positive, not a cause for concern. She was in her element, and eagerly began to devour the arcane spell.

Spike shook his head as he turned away from the lost wizard. "She's gonna be busy until she's done, and I'm not getting in the way of that. I suggest we get a place, leave a note so she knows where that is, she can join us after she finishes reading forever."

Fast nodded once and firmly. "Right, that sounds good, this way." She led the way from the library, down one alicorn. "I've been here before, once. Just..." She found the living complex, the tall tree filled with nooks. "The same place your friends are. We aren't nearly rich enough to consider other accomodations, but nothing wrong with it. Wait a moment." She walked off around the bend of the tree.

Soft rocked in place. "Back in Everglow... It's been a while..."

"How're you holding up?" Spike got hold of one of her hands, trapping it between his hands.

"This doesn't... feel right." She squeezed his supporting hand. "Like I left for so long... Fast. I know Fast. You know Fast!" She waved with her free hand. "But that's not our Fast. This city... it wasn't here... The world just... kinda moved on without me."

"Hm..." Spike struggled to think of more supporting words. "It'll... do that... but it's still Everglow. Still full of monsters. Still full of people worth knowing. Ponies, lots of those, even if some of them are also butterflies and things."

Soft let out a single strained laugh. "What is going on with that? They're... cute I guess." She watched a butterfly and a dragonfly flutter zip past. "Colorful things... They seem friendly, don't get me wrong! I'm sure I look just as weird from their view."

"Way weird." With a soft clip-clop, a butterfly landed behind them. "But not bad. Hello!"

Soft squeaked, but quickly recovered into a smile. "Hello to you too. Sorry, just a little lost."

"That happens!" He bounced forward, looking at Spike, then Soft and back again. "Are you two together? Romantic! Oh Oh Oh! There's this great flower stand. Mmmm, but probably closed at this hour. It's really late..."

Spike chuckled as he raised his free hand. "Is it run by three earth ponies?"

"You know it?! Great! I was going to show you the way, but you already know it, which is even better." The flutter turned to the many dwellings. "Staying here?"

Spike hiked his free thumb at where Fast had vanished. "I think our friend is arranging a room for us, here, I think? We're new here."

"Well hello!" The flutter turned back to them with a smile of welcome. "If you need any help, glad to offer a hoof." They lifted on their big butterfly wings. "But I should go. Just ask any of us if something comes up!" And he was gone before any objections had a chance to reach him.

"Energetic..." Soft leaned a little against Spike. "Resting for the night is sounding more and more tempting... We had to go a long way to reach this place, nice as it is."

"No arguments there." He leaned back against her, supporting her weak stance. "Um... how's adventuring treating you?"

"Pfft." She squeezed his hand. "Better than the last time, all considered. This is mostly sight seeing, minus the lost part, and we're past that."

"Got a place." Fast came into view with a key held in her mouth. "First floor, nice and convenient for us not-fliers, hm?" She didn't have to go far to reach the door the key fit into snugly. "The flutters actually prefer the ones high up, so these are just waiting for us ground-dwellers to enjoy."

Spike peeked back at his wings that flapped in sympathy. "It'll do. Thanks, Fast! Did you have to pay?"

"For a basic room, no." She nosed open the door into darkness, but soon had a lit lantern or two to banish that. "Come on inside and let's rest. I'll go leave a note for Twilight." She left just as she came, walking down the tree branch back towards the library.

Soft pulled Spike towards the available room. There were beds, which she claimed one of very quickly. "Oh finally." She sank into its softness with a happy sigh. "An actual bed! I... almost forgot how nice those are." With a thump, she realized Spike had joined her. She rolled against him, getting on top. "A soft bed with warm company, perfect."

Spike gently set his hands on her hips, drawing her down. "You look tired."

"Really tired." She touched her front to his, gazing in his eyes.

"Super tired." He hugged her, holding her with little rocks until she was fully asleep. Neither had a complaint for the brief bit of romance they could find in the moment.
> 28 - Goodbye
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're leaving?" Tree tried to stand still, but the urge to pace kept winning erratically in fits and starts. "How?"

"We told you." Rose watched their fidgeting friend. "Our friend came for us. She's a super wizard."

"Mega wizard," echoed Daisy with a nod. "So she got here and she's ready to get us back to our world."

Tree Whisper forced herself still. "Which is only natural... You must be missed."

Lily let out a 'huh'. "I hadn't really been thinking about it, but you're not wrong. We're part of Ponyville. Poor ponies must be beside themselves. But we wanted to say bye, and thank you. You've been a huge help."

"Massive," agreed Rose. "We couldn't just vanish on you like that. Thank you, Tree Whisper. We hope you go on to become a great druid, as if you weren't one already."

Tree colored faintly. "You're flattering, and for no reason. I'm a druid, but no other title could be fairly ascribed." She waved over the forest they were surrounded by. "A wave druid that hasn't even visited the ocean... Well, since you're headed home, perhaps it is time to fix that. Yeah, nothing holding me here anymore." She stepped away hesitantly. "I've been waiting so long."

Daisy walked up next to Tree. "We'll miss you too."

Tree turned away from Daisy to find Lily smiling at her in the other direction. Tree yelped in surprise, finding herself surrounded by flower mares. "It's not like that!"

Rose raised a hoof just under Tree's quivering jaw. "It's alright for even a wise druid to feel sad sometimes. It doesn't make you less of one, or a worse pony. You took your first step on this path next to us, even if we were rushing... Sorry if that bothered you." Rose reached up to paw at one of her own ears. "We weren't trying, which just made it worse I imagine. You were such a good teacher and a friend."

Lily got a hoof around either of her flower sisters. "We'll miss you so much!"

Daisy inclined her head. "Just checking, but... you know if you asked, you could probably visit Equestria. It's a nice place. We could show you all the best places."

Tree flipped her ears back. "I made promises to the nature of this world. I do not wish to leave it... Even if I am certain you would do your best to be kind hosts." Her ears raised upright. "But that promise goes both ways. You could visit me. I would do the same."

Lily pounced her, beaver coming from the other side to trap the unicorn between them. "Can't promise that. Twilight's the one with that trick. Hey, is that a druid song? Could we learn it?"

Rose clopped her hooves. "Oh yeah! Now I feel dumb. Is it? If it is, we can hop back when we get good enough at it."

Tree let out a strained laugh. "That is a very... significant spell... If you hear its song, then you are arch druids. I can't say you won't... You've shown me wrong several times... Still... If that is something you want to do... Consult your rock friend, and ask for some purified metal, a hoof full of it. You will need to make a tuning fork out of it. It needs to come from here." She tapped at the wood branch they stood on. "Everglow. Equestrian metal will only lead you to Equestria, and you don't need help finding that while you stand on it."

A thought hit her. "Speaking of that, make one for Equestria before you leave it. Getting stuck here again would be... unideal, I imagine."

Daisy snorted, equine nostrils flaring as she recoiled. "Let's avoid that. Not badmouthing the visit, was fun overall. We learned a lot, and didn't get into nearly as many scraps as Twilight did on her visit."

Rose set a hoof on Tree's chest. "Thank you, again... But even if we never meet again, we'll never forget you."

"Never!"

"Not in a thousand bajillion moons." Lily nodded firmly with assurance at that.

Rose turned back towards the branch they had come from. "Twilight's waiting for us. I hear she had to go through an adventure just finding us. Poor thing, magnet for trouble... So... take care, alright?"

Tree shoved at Rose with her magic. "Now you are the one being sentimental. You have said your goodbyes... If it helps, we will both... be sad tonight, but also glad, because we know our friends are in a better place. Now, go. I don't want to cry in front of anyone."

The other mares closed with Rose, half-corralling her away. Daisy turned an ear back, but kept her head forward. "Let her keep her dignity... I'll cry tonight too."

"I already miss her and we didn't leave yet." Lily squeezed her beaver on the other side away from Rose. "She didn't always get us, and we sure didn't always get her, but she kept on trying... A good friend."

Daisy thumped against Rose. "You going to say bye to your rock friends? Maybe get that metal she was talking about? I should stop by the fire druids."

Lily clopped her head softly. "And I should stop by the animal druids, right. Good idea, Daisy. I almost forgot. Come on, Bold!" And they took off at a spirited trot.

"I only really talked with one druid of my circle... but that'll do." Rose took a step away. "Meet you back at the apartment after that?" With a shared nod, the two separated to meet with their druidic orders.





Daisy sat before the high druids of flame and fire. "Thank you." She dipped her head towards them. "You taught me a lot. I learned more about fire than I even thought to ask... I'm going away now... far away... Really far away... But I carry that flame in here." She set a hoof on her own chest. "And  will tend it carefully. The ponies of Equestria can stand to learn more about treating fire correctly, for the good and the bad."

The elder on the left nodded. "It warms our hearts to hear you speak this way. Go and hold close the heat within you. No other fire can match it, and no other flame is as vital. So long as you do so, you will live yet to fight the fires that need fighting, and to tend the fires that need tending. We will not be able to watch personally, but know--"

"--you walk with us, regardless." The one on the right nodded slowly. "As nature wills it, through us all.  Some say your nature is not our nature, but that is narrow thinking. All nature is nature, even if we struggle to understand it... Go, tend to your portion."

The one in the center chuckled darkly. "As if fires do not need controlling. Tell us, are your fires tamed? Do they only come when asked, and leave when done with? Is that the way of your nature?"

Daisy's ears danced. "Oh no! Definitely not... We do have weather pegasi though. They'd help put out a bad fire, but there are bad fires. They don't know so much about good fires, and they need to learn. We need to know the difference." She clopped her hooves together ahead of herself. "And I will teach them."

All three dipped their heads, united in agreement with the idea. Their young disciple would carry the word of fire with her.





"Hey!" Lily trotted hastily into the room, causing various animals there to perk up at her. "I have news."

One of the elders there, one hoof around her massive bear of a companion, nodded gently at Lily. "It is time for you to continue your travels. An animal can resist its migration so long, or something has failed, within, or without."

Lily came to an uncertain stop. "Well... yeah. Sheesh, take the thunder right out of me... I'm taking him with me." She hugged her dear companion close. "I did ask him, as best as I could... I know he doesn't entirely 'get' what I'm saying... But he never fit in back home... I hope he will find his real place with me. Maybe Equestrian beavers are more his speed."

The bear druid inclined her head. "Perhaps, I could not say it is impossible... Still, he is yours, as you are his. I would not try to separate you against your wills. Unless you had forsaken our order, at least." The bear growled warningly. "Yes, then we would, by force if required. I would hope you would surrender to us before it came to that... I would not wish to fight you." She raised her head. "But I would, if it came to that. A penitent whelp in need of discipline, or a rogue wolf in need of battle, you would decide that.... But I am getting distracted. You are neither. You are a grown animal, telling your parents that you must go."

"And as your parents," spoke a wolf druid. "As your parents, we mourn, but they are happy tears. Go forth, and stretch your legs. We would be very poor parents if we insisted you remain in our sights longer than you already have. We will hope to hear word of your triumphs, but we know this may never be. Go, and be well."

Lily dipped her head at the elders. "I will watch the animals back home." She snorted into a laugh. "I have friends that will help me with that. Fluttershy and Doctor Fauna will both be so excited when they learn I joined their club... Um, Fluttershy is basically a druid, almost, and Doctor Fauna is a veterinarian."

The third laughed, their wings fluttering with a new joy. "Perhaps you can bring the song of nature to them, if they are ready to listen for it. Almost a druid? You could guide them that last step, hmm? That would be a thing to be proud of, the source of our traditions for an entire new plane? Do tell us, if you can." All nodded at that idea. "We'd love to know."





"Hi..." Rose sat in front of the clay table, spinning with the steady pumps of her teacher's hooves. "Just started?"

"Restarted." He worked with slow patience. "The last did not end well. I have more to learn. You did not come for this."

"I did not..." Rose adjusted the collar she wasn't wearing. "I have to go soon... back to the rocks that made me."

"I will miss your stability." The work did not pause. "I am very proud to have you as a student. Stand firmly, wherever you end up."

"And I'm just as happy to have you as a teacher." Rose rocked left and right slowly. "I did want to ask for something. I was told we need some Everglow metal, pure, to make a tuning fork out of."

He slowed to a stop. "You would return then?"

"When I learn how? When I hear that song." She put a hoof to her ear as if listening. "I'll keep practicing... I won't stop being a druid... It's hard to just forget all this... Or you... I'll keep at it... Um, but if I do... I need that tuning fork."

"You do." He stepped free of the clay table. "Thank you for asking me. Most would say to just dig until you find it, casually tearing apart the ground beneath us..."

Rose shook her head quickly. "I would never! That's not how we do things."

"It is not." He smiled gently. "Wait here." On buzzing wings, he lifted and took off, splattering of clay left behind on the line he cut.

Rose approached the half-formed clay that looked like it would eventually become an urn of some sort. "Hm..." She had not been asked, nor had she asked... Still, she pressed a hoof firmly against the side. The urn would become something to remember her by.
> 29 - Homeward Bound
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight tapped at her chin. "My spell will work on eight creatures." She casually counted with a bob of her hoof on each. Soft, Spike, Rose, Daisy, Lily, herself of course. "Six, no problem there." She smiled at Fast Shadow. "Unless you want to come?"

Lily threw a leg over her companion. "You forgot to count him. He's coming! So seven."

Fast shook her head. "My job ends when you're on your way. I'm just here to watch and see. Seems rude to trot off before that happens."

Daisy burst into a sudden fit of giggles. "That's so nice! We barely met, but it was nice doing so."

Spike fired a thumbs up, to be joined by Soft's hand bumping into his with the same digit extended. "Thanks. It would have been a lot harder without you coming to the rescue like that.

Fast nodded at the cross-racial couple, one of which was cross-racial herself. "A pleasure to assist." She crooned with a growing smile. "It does my namesake proud. A champion of Everglow should try to be present and helpful where their talents are needed. First time I got a chance to do that." At least in that lifetime. "So thank you in kind."

Rose held her clump of metal closer. "I'm sorry, Daisy. It's not fair you're the only one not going with a souvenir of some kind when the rest of us have something."

Lily squinted at the idea. "He is not a keepsake."

Daisy reached over to pat the beaver gently. "A proud and mighty keepsake, hm? I'm fine. I can start fires wherever it's needed. Be like the flame, worry not for what you leave behind. That's just ash behind you."

Spike rubbed at his chin. "Huh... Deep, and a little disturbing."

Twilight reached out her wings wide. "We need to form a circle. Grab the creature next to you and I'll send us on our way." Spike grabbed her left wing with his right arm, his left hand already gently enmeshed with Soft's hand. She in turn put her hand on Rose's back. Rose casually chomped Daisy's tail, getting a squeak from her. Daisy considered Lily, but Lily flipped her tail across Daisy's snout in invitation, and a new chomp occurred. Lily was already holding Bold, and Twilight's other wing settled on him, closing the circle.

With a sparkle of magic and a sphere that expanded over them, Twilight turned the metaphysical knob, and they faded from being with a glittering of Equestria magic left behind.

"Are..." Calm Stop came to a slow stop in what had been a gallop. "They are gone."

Fast turned to the panting druid. "Just left, sorry... Did you want to talk to them?"

Calm snorted, his wings buzzing behind him. "I wanted... to curse her..."

"That's hardly a way to say goodbye." Fast considered the druid. He didn't look nearly as angry as his words implied. "She do something?"

"She ruined a work of mine... I will treasure it." He sank to his haunches with a soft chuckle. "My favorite attack."

"Want to get something to drink?" Fast inclined her head towards the rest of the city. "I could use someone to talk to, and it sounds like you could too."

He was quiet a moment, still before he began to move past her. "You speak wisdom. Come, we will feel the strength of each other's stance, and be stronger for it." He turned an ear. "I don't drink fermented spirits. I prefer my mind clear."

"Suit yourself. Doesn't mean we can't chat."

The two walked off to share stories of the Equestrians that had blown through their lives and left their marks, like a hoofprint on a vase.





With a crackling pop, they appeared in a grassy field. "Unfortunately..." Twilight drew her wings back tight. "That spell isn't entirely accurate. It tried to take you back where you started... plus or minus a minor distance, at least when considering the universes we just travelled. All considered, still very accurate."

"There." Spike pointed to Twilight's castle in the distance. It was quite a ways off, but its tall structure put it in sight despite that. "Welcome back to Equestria!"

Rose clopped her Everglow hooves. "Woo, welcome back! Now, uh, how long until we look normal again?"

Lily was speaking gently to Bold, "This is our new home, almost. We have to walk a bit. But this isn't a bad place, I promise." She gently nuzzled, and got it returned eagerly. Despite their different worlds, both knew the language of the fond rubbing of snouts together to show their warm bond. "Let's get back to the town, which is... that way apprently."

Twilight considered the altered flower mares. "Spike turned back in a few months, but his was a very dramatic shift. Less dramatic ones, like yours, should only take a matter of weeks, possibly less." She clopped her hooves in one smart clap. "Actually, you are spellcasters, are you not?"

All three raised a hoof, though Daisy was the one to speak, "Yep! We're druids, natural spellcasters." She curled her hoof on herself, then each of her sisters as she explained. "I am a fire druid. I create needed fires and put out damaging fires. Rose is a stone druid, protecting the ground beneath us. Lily is an animal druid, see her animal, but she cares about all animals. Think Fluttershy, with magic to back up her words."

Twilight perked an ear. "Can you talk to animals?"

Lily shook her head quickly. "Me and Bold--" She squeezed her friend close. "We understand each other, um, basically... But no words... Maybe when we get better though? Practice practice practice!"

Twilight started the journey to Ponyville with the others trailing behind her. "About that. I have no resources on 'druid magic', so I can't help you study. How do you plan to 'practice' on your own?"

Rose hissed with an inhale. "Well! First... We have to sleep. I know that sounds silly! But if we dream of the natural song, we're fine. We will dream the songs, hopefully, and practice the spells, and as we get better, new songs will come to us in the dreams. No books required."

Daisy wrinkled her snout. "Now if we don't hear the song... Then we're out of luck, and it's back to normal earth ponies for us."

Lily nudged against Bold, getting thumped right back with a laugh. "Speak for yourselves. Even if I never cast another spell, me and Bold are sticking together."

Soft reached out to pet Bold, but got a stern look. Not everyone was allowed to pet him spontaneously. "That counts, for sure... If it helps, I reach my oracular spells similarly, so... hopefully... your druid ones will work just fine."

Spike shoved his hands against his hips. "Why am I one of the only ones that didn't get super cool magic from Everglow?"

Twilight put a leg around him, drawing him close. "Because you're already an amazing dragon. Don't make us too jealous."

Spike giggled at that. "Well, I'll try... Still! I wouldn't say no to a little magic."

Rose set her hoof on his head as she walked. "A lot of the Everglow visitors didn't get magic. Like Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Um, Pinkie didn't get any more magic than she already had."

Spike brushed her hoof away. "Hard to use Pinkie as a base for anything, but yeah... that's true. Didn't Maud visit? Pretty sure Pinkie brought that up."

"She did, and didn't get any magic for it." Twilight nodded with rememerence. "But her friend, Tree Hugger. Oh! I can answer your question." Everycreature looked at her. "About the druid magic? Tree Hugger still has her spells, so there's no reason you won't too."

The mares cheered with confirmation that they'd keep their magic. Lily was the first to continue, "So what order is she?"

"Order?" Twilight flipped an ear back. "Ah, like the fire, stone, etc?"

"I am not an et cetera!" Lily pouted at being reduced to that.

"No offense, but that? I only just learned that was a thing... so I don't know. You'd have to ask her yourself. She likes animals, like Fluttershy, but is also called Tree Hugger, so... maybe that? I don't know. Maybe she isn't any of them and is just as clueless as I am. Meeting her might make her day."

She veered closer to the others on their stroll. "Speaking of that... I would love to learn more about druidic magic." She waggled her brows. "An entirely new branch of magic is worth documenting! May I count on your assistance?"

"Pass." Rose waved a hoof left and right.

"Nah." Lily hugged Bold as if that emphasized it.

Daisy wasn't as quick to deny. "Hm. A fire that is needed."

"Hm?" Twilight perked an ear. "Like an oven?"

"Yes, like an oven." Daisy flicked her tail in amusement. "To bring word of druidic magic is a fire that could use setting, but it needs to come with the wisdom behind it, or it's just a fire, spreading and dangerous."

Rose blinked, struck dumb a moment. "Good call."

Lily scowled at Twilight. "As much as I like our resident magic princess, would she pass on the boring parts along with the magic parts?"

Twilight set a hoof over her heart. "Of course! The boring parts are often the best parts." She cantered in a fit of giddiness. "It will be a complete delight to record it all. If it's that dangerous, I'll recommend it for the forbidden wing of the Canterlot Library, but it deserves to be recorded, just in case."

Spike pulled out a scroll. "Who knows, maybe in a thousand years, the world will be saved because some clever pegasus or whatever happens on it. That'd be pretty cool."

Soft squeezed his captured hand. "Tha would be nice, a mark we left to help the future. There's not a lot I can 'write' about being an oracle though... You can't try to become one. You just are one. In my case, because a god said so."

"A good reason." Spike fired a finger gun with his free hand. "It's so good to be back in Equestria." All of them, save Bold, sighed with agreement with that.

There was no home like the one you started in.