“Did you hear about Berry Punch?”
Rose’s voice was low as she whispered conspiratorially to her two friends, both of whom leaned in close for the latest tidbit of juicy gossip. The ‘Flower Trio’ as they were known around town, consisting of Rose, Lily, and Daisy, spent the majority of their free time together at Daisy’s house. Most often their activities consisted of chatter about the day to day goings on around Ponvyille, with particular notice paid to any activity or noteworthy events that could be passed around as scandalous here-say.
Rose continued her impartation of secrets, not waiting for a response from the other two ponies.
“I heard that she got so drunk at Pinkie Pie’s last party that she passed out in the middle of the street!”
The two ponies listening eagerly both gave their customary gasps of astonishment. Lily felt compelled to compound on her reaction with an addendum of additional shock.
“Oh my goodness, how awful! Such a display of indecency – I’m horrified at the thought of someone like her raising that poor little filly Ruby!”
Rose and Daisy shared sideways glances as Lily finished her horrified rant, hooves clasped to the sides of her face in exaggerated shock. The two broke eye contact, and Rose continued with her tidbits of community secrets.
“Um, yes… Anyway. I also heard…”
Again, the two other ponies leaned their heads in deeply, the whispering going on despite the fact that nopony would be able to hear the conversation taking place in the security of Daisy’s living room.
“…that Mayor Mare is having an affair with Big Macintosh!”
Despite the dubious nature of the claim, another series of gasps rang out. The group had never been keen on discretion when it came to gossip. And, again, Lilly’s voice rose several octaves as she responded with abject distress at the subject of the knowledge she had just received.
“Oh heavens no! If we can’t rely on our trusted officials, the town will surely fall to shambles! Who will look after the community when the head of our public office is impeached?!”
Again, Rose and Daisy looked at each other past their entirely too distraught friend. They shared a knowing nod before Daisy cleared her throat and spoke up.
“You know Lily… don’t you think you might be overreacting to some of this, just a little bit?”
Lily’s reaction was a combination of her usual shock mixed with frustration at her friend’s audaciousness on questioning her concern.
“Girls, what on earth do you mean? If I don’t worry for the sake of the town, who in Ponyville will?”
A moment of awkward silence passed as Rose and Daisy collected their words. This time it was Rose’s turn to speak, which she did in a volume above her previous hushed whispering.
“It’s not, um, the town in particular we think you’re worrying about too much, Lily… we understand that you’re concerned, but…”
Daisy picked up the sentence that Rose had let trail off into mumbling.
“We just think you worry too much. You know. About EVERYTHING.”
Lily’s face twisted into genuine confusion.
“Girls… I don’t understand.” A silence filled the air again, before quickly being replaced with the sound of distraught sobbing. Lily had burst into tears, burying her head in her hooves. Rose and Lily both opened their mouths in shock.
“Lily, what’s wrong? We’re just saying you could stand to be a little more mellow about things…” Rose patted the crying earth-pony on the back of her head in an attempt to console her.
“But… now I’m worried that you two don’t like me and I’ll have to find new friends, and if I can’t find new friends I’ll have to move into a new town and start my whole life over!”
Amidst the frantic sobbing, Rose and Daisy again shared looks of concern. Apparently things were worse than they thought. It seemed to be for the best that they had this conversation sooner, rather than later.
“Lily, hun… you don’t have to worry about this. Or about anything that much, really…” Daisy added as a muttered aside, before Lilly drew her head up, cheeks stained with tears.
“Huh?” she managed a quiet inquiry, sniffling away the remnants of her crying.
“We’re not going to stop being your friends anytime soon, sweetheart. We just… well, we worry about you. We think you over think things a little too much, and that maybe it would be best if you found a way to be… calmer.”
Lily wiped away a tear that had collected at the corner of her eye, brushing it away with her hoof.
“I don’t understand,” she sniveled, lip still trembling precariously at the edge of another outburst. Rose rubbed her back soothingly as Daisy took over the explanation.
“We talked to someone-“
“-who knows about this kind of stuff.” Rose couldn’t help but finish her friend’s sentence, a practice that was common among the three regardless of subject matter, almost as if they shared the same brain at times.
“And she said that she had something that might help you… mellow out a little bit.”
Still whimpering softly, Lily blinked away the last teardrops to clear her eyes as she stared at the object Daisy had procured. A small bottle, that rattled as it was raised. She couldn’t make out the tiny writing on the side of the label, but she saw a collection of pills behind the orange plastic.
Her expression turned quizzical as she waited for a further explanation.
“These are something that will help you calm down when you’re upset, or nervous.” Daisy offered the bottle forward, and Lily cautiously grasped it between her two front hooves, taking time to study the label.
“Extra… strength… anti-anxiety… medication…” she read, taking her time with each word to ensure the accuracy of her dictation. Lily wasn’t slow… not unduly so, but she did tend to err on the careful side, whether in reading or other activities.
“Just take one or two when you feel yourself getting upset, and they should make you feel much better.” Rose said, and smiled cheerfully.
Lilly gulped anxiously, turning the tiny bottle over in her hooves as she examined its contents.
“I dunno girls… do you really think I worry that much?”
Rose and Daisy turned to each other, and shared another nod.
“YES.”
And so Lily found herself sitting on her bed, bottle of pills in hoof. She turned the plastic capsule around, making a slight shaking noise as the contents rattled about.
I didn’t think anypony thought I was that much of a worrywart…
Though she knew she was often the first to react most strongly to a situation, Lily simply felt it was a display of concern, rather than undue distress on her part. She had meant what had been said earlier – if she wasn’t the one to fret over the various goings on for the sake of others, then who would?
Though it stemmed from genuine concern, her train of thought had already jumped the rails and spiraled into a tunnel of dangerous over-contemplation. Even though they had assured her otherwise… what if her friends really were tired of her obsessive over-thinking of everything? What if they had only consoled her until she left so they could cut off all contact and never speak to her again? What if everypony in town secretly loathed her for the same reasons, and were only putting up a front so that she remained unaware, but secretly jeering at her and plotting ways to make her life miserable as a result of their hatred, that would explain all the random misfortunes that went on in her life like the other day when she had put down her coffee spoon for a moment and it had disappeared, but she knew she put it there, and she had searched for fifteen minutes and almost been late for work, which would have surely gotten her fired, and then she’d have to-
Lily could feel a bout of hyperventilation coming on. She gasped for air as her heart beat rapidly in her chest, and she clutched at it with a hoof as she attempted to calm herself. Panting, she looked down at the bottle of pills she still held in her other hoof.
Well, surely being a little calmer couldn’t hurt…
After taking a moment to collect her breath and regain control of her thoughts, Lily raised the bottle to her mouth and twisted the cap off with a quick turn. She peered inside at the strange collection of tiny multi-coloured plastic capsules, wondering how it was that such a tiny bit of medicine could so radically change the way her thoughts flowed.
A shake of the bottle tumbled two of the pill onto her bedside table next to the glass of water she had prepared for their ingestion. How many had the directions said to take again? Though the label was only a turn away, Lily supposed that if she was indeed as nervous as her friends had pointed out, a little extra medication couldn’t hurt. At the very worst, she’d just end up extra calm, and what was the harm in that?
With a lick of her tongue, the two pills were lifted from the table into her mouth. They tasted like… nothing. Simply the subtle flavor of plastic on her tastebuds, which was hardly unpleasant. So, that was one worry out of the way. Lily grasped the glass of water between her hooves and lifted it to her mouth, downing the medication with a rush of the cool refreshing drink.
That wasn’t so hard.
She waited for a moment at the side of her bed, for something to change.
Hm.
I don’t feel any different… she thought, scanning around her bedroom idly, half expecting something to change. Mentally, she went through a list of simple thoughts and their related musings to see if her brain had changed its approach to assessing the world. Everything seemed to be normal…
Maybe they didn’t work. What if my brain is already too screwed up to be fixed? What if I’m a lost cause, and I’ll just spend the rest of my life worrying and being scared and miserable and…
Lily caught herself mid-panic, grasping at her bed-covers in anxiety with one of her hooves. I’d better take a couple more just to be on the safe side…
Another three pills found their way from the bottle to her bedside table, and a second draught of water washed them down to join the previous two. Feeling better already, Lily waited calmly for another minute before checking herself for differences. Upsettingly, everything still seemed to be the same.
I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong… Lily could feel the smallest of tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. She wanted so badly to do what her friends had asked of her, to change from the constant over-thinker they saw her as to a more mellow and affable pony. She couldn’t let them down…
And so, five more pills from bottle to table to mouth were swallowed. Lily waited longer this time, counting the seconds along with her clock as she tallied a full three minutes of patient sitting. Still, she felt nothing different. The bottle was a third empty now.
Several pauses adding up to half an hour of accumulated waiting later, and the entire bottle lay empty, tossed onto the carpeted floor in discontent. Lilly was crying into her pillow, pounding the mattress with her hoof in frustration. It wasn’t fair – all she had wanted to do was to make her friends happy. And, she had to admit, feeling less worried all the time would have been nice as well. If only the stupid pills-
Abruptly, Lily’s distress was washed over by a wave of drowsiness. The sudden burst of lethargy came out of nowhere, and her eyelids immediately fell closed. The pillow she had been venting her frustration to moments ago became suddenly a welcoming softness, beckoning her to sleep, and she sighed softly as the waiting folds of her bed sheets greeted her into slumber.
When she awoke some time later, Lily’s eyes were blurred with sleep. She struggled to make out of the position of the hands on her clock as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. The tiny moving arms of the time-piece seemed to dance at the very edge of her vision as she fought to bring them into focus.
Half past noon. She had overslept, now being late for work by several hours.
Oddly, the thought didn’t trouble her.
Where normally even a minutes tardiness would have thrown her into a fit of panic and distress, now the notion merely ambled through the corridors of her mind, filing itself neatly into a well structured list of concerns to be addressed when the time was appropriate.
Hm. Guess I’m late.
Drawing herself up from bed where she had fallen overtop her blanket, Lily groggily looked towards her bedroom window. The rays of the afternoon sun glowed peacefully through the cream coloured curtains, illuminating tiny specks of dust in the air and creating a warm bright patch on the carpet. Lily smiled distractedly at the scene. Bright sun. Happy summer days. For some reason everything seemed to warrant a cheerful reaction today.
Bracing herself against the headboard for support as she sat up, Lily noticed a curious sensation emanating from the carved wood. Bringing her eyes to the point where her hoof met the headboard, she noticed something unusual – instead of the ornately constructed bed-frame that she was used to, the wooden board looked somewhat peculiar this afternoon. At the point of contact between herself and the wood, Lily felt something strange – like a warm, fuzzy tickle that danced at the sole of her hoof. She looked closer, leaning forward to examine the wood more intimately.
Underneath her hoof, hundreds of tiny tendrils danced, blossoming outward from the brown wood of the headboard and tickling her foot. The sight was strange, but, somehow, not alarming. Instead, it only elicited a small giggle as the tingling sensation spread up her foreleg.
Laughing quietly to herself, Lily withdrew her hoof, placing it on the softness of the blanket underneath her. Soft. So soft. Softer than usual. Lazily, Lily turned her head, casting her gaze downward.
The quilting was writhing underneath her body, like a sea of tiny moving bodies or particles turning and moving in unison, squirming in all directions. The repeated trace of the miniscule objects or creatures that composed the blanket was soothing against her fur, and soon Lily felt entirely relaxed, falling backwards into the mass of tumbling entities, letting the blanket envelope her completely with its softness.
This wasn’t anything to worry about, not at all. Everything felt so calm, so good… what was the point in being upset?
It took some time for Lily to draw herself away from the soothing caress of the wriggling blanket-thing that had wrapped itself around her body, but eventually she supposed she must get up and face the rest of the day. Maybe find her way to work eventually? There was no hurry, really, no need to rush. Everything would be dealt with in due time, worrying would only make things more complicated…
As she dragged herself out of bed, landing with her hooves on the floor, the carpet danced and tickled her as the headboard had done previously, the tiny fibres of the brow fabric waving at her enticingly from below. It prompted another giggle, and she stood for a moment enjoying the feeling before walking sluggishly to her bedside table. Some of that water must still be there…
The transparent liquid filled half the cup still, and Lily peered into the glass at it curiously. Examination seemed to be a theme for the day, so taking the time to notice any peculiarities before consuming the water might be a good idea.
A pair of eyes stare back at her from inside the glass.
Normally a face inside her water might have prompted a scream or hyperventilation, but instead Lily only chuckled distractedly as she grabbed the glass between her hooves, shaking it back and forth as the now gelatinous entity inside wobbled about, continuing to stare at her from its place of confinement.
“Helloooooo, little water face,” she said with her voice several pitches above normal, drawing out parts of her speech for no reason in particular. The vibrations of her voice only seemed to prompt further jiggling from the water-face, and she found herself laughing again, before tilting her head back and downing the eye-bearing liquid without a second thought.
What a fun day… she thought idly, swaying slightly as she made her way to the bedroom door, resting her hoof on it for further support. For some reason it was harder to stay upright than normal today…
The door-frame bubbled at her touch, burbling like a pot of soup on a hot stove, melting underneath her hoof and dripping downward into a pool on the carpet.
Hm. Maybe I should go talk to Daisy and Rose about this…The thought was far from urgent, but it did occur to her that the pieces of her bedroom didn’t normally melt and wriggle in such a fashion. Nothing to be concerned about, probably. Just something odd that had decided to happen. She couldn’t bring herself to be worried about it, honestly; everything just felt so good: even the suspicious collection of door-frame goo that had begun to accrue at her feet.
Still giggling to herself, Lily exited her bedroom and prepared herself for the walk across town to see her friends.
I wonder what the rest of Ponyville will be like today…
The town greeted her arrival with open arms. Where normally the streets would have seemed filled with hostile intentions and leering passerby at every corner, today the sunshine illuminated the twinkle in every pony’s eye to a bright, shining sparkle that made her feel calmer by the minute. Open store doorways laughed along with her as she stumbled through the streets, and the grass and dirt underfoot sang in harmony with her giggles, each green blade humming softly as the wind passed by. Errant pebbles on the dirt bounced like hopping insects, and Lily found herself stopping to admire one amidst a crowd of ponies. She hadn’t intended to draw attention, but this particular rock was just far too fascinating to pass up.
“Ooooh…” she cooed as she leaned in close to the piece of granite, taking in the beauty of its circular nature. Almost a perfect sphere… so pretty.
“Hello little rock. How are you today?” Lily was oblivious to the concerned stares of the ponies around her as she began her conversation with the fascinating rock. She waited patiently for its reply, rocking side to side on her hooves for a minute before she deduced that this particular pebble was the quiet type. No worries. She had greeted him, and that was all the mattered.
“Bye bye now…” she mumbled softly, giggling again before walking – no, hopping now – off in the direction of Rose’s house. She couldn’t wait to see her friends… they would be so happy to see her, and learn that the medication had worked! Now she didn’t have a care in the world, just the way they had wanted…
Normally the whispers of on-lookers in her presence would have proven quite alarming, but today their voices merely joined the chorus of harmony that followed Lily’s every movement. Was this what life was like free of obsessive worry? She would have to thank Rose and Daisy extra hard for their help; she couldn’t remember a time she felt better.
As she bounced her way in the direction of the trio’s usual meeting place, her erratic movement path found her staring face to face with a confused looking stallion, who paused just before colliding with the exuberant singing filly in front of him.
“Er… excuse me, miss.”
His voice found its way to Lily’s ears through a haze of intertwining melodies and distractions, and she blinked rapidly as she attempted to piece the words together. Instead of replying, she stared forward in fascination, drinking in the sight of the pony in front of her. He looked… different.
Lily blinked again. A set of sixteen multi-faceted eyes blinked back at her.
“Hee hee…”
Lily could see herself mirrored in each of the reflective orbs staring at her – Her bright pink coat shimmered in the makeshift mirrors, and she noticed her soft yellow hair was unusually frazzled: she must have forgotten to give it a brushing before she left the house. Normally a cause for concern… but not today!
“Uh… miss?”
There was that voice again. It seemed further away now, as if crawling through a tunnel to reach her. Lily looked downwards slightly, wondering if the owner of the eyes in front of her was the one speaking – she saw his mouth move in slow motion, groggily articulating the sounds that formed his inquiry. Half way through the sentence she was only just seeing come into being, she noticed something in particular – his tongue was so long. It seemed to stretch further with each articulation… at first just lolling out of his mouth slightly… but then it was stretching, elongating, sprawling down over his chin and all the way down to the ground… and moving! Like some sort of snake, or strange reptile…
She could only watch in fascination as the curious animated appendage snaked towards her, wriggling in the dirt as it approached her hooves. As it reached her leg, the giant tongue gave her a precursory lick, leaving tiny beads of saliva on her now dampened soft pink fur. She giggled at the sensation – the feeling tickled as much as anything else had that day, and she raised her foreleg in reflex at the prodding. The tongue-serpent withdrew for a moment, before continuing its crawl towards her, wrapping itself around her other foot. The constricting sensation, instead of feeling alarming, was pleasant – the pink flesh encircling her was warm, and comforting, and the pressure on her leg as it squeezed softly was delightful.
Lily let herself be overcome by the feeling for a moment as the tongue snaked itself around her forelegs, pulsing and slithering over her body and sending tingles up and down her spine. Everything that day had felt so good, but this… this was a new level of pleasant. Lily felt herself letting out soft cooing noises as her fur was coated with moisture, her body warming under the caress of the peculiar entity.
Eventually she felt the feeling subside as the tongue withdrew, lurching backwards over the ground and into the waiting mouth of the many-eyed pony that had been its source. His mouth continued to hang open upon the tongue’s re-entry, gaping at her along with his eyes, which stared at her, unblinking. Lily absentmindedly raised a hoof to her face, and rubbed the slimy limb along the side of her face – the warm spittle felt wonderful against her cheek, and she hummed in contentment, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them slowly.
Paying no attention to the wide-eyed pony in front of her, she resumed her trek towards the Flower Trio meeting spot.
“Ooooh, I can’t wait to see Daisy and Rose… this is going to be so much fun!”
As she walked on, Lily left a crowd of astonished onlookers in her wake, including the entirely baffled gentlepony who had confronted her initially, and was now left wondering if the image of the distracted pink pony cooing and moaning in front of him would ever leave his mind.
“Has she been like this the whole time?”
“Uh-huh.” Rose nodded grimly at her friends question, the two of them gesturing to the subject of their discussion – Lily was standing in the center of the living room, staring bemusedly at the wall and giggling to herself distractedly.
“Hee… hahaha…”
The two unofficial sisters shared a look of concern.
“Have you tried talking to her at all?”
Rose nodded again. “Yes, of course. All I could get out of her was that she had taken some of her medication, and that she was feeling better… or so she says.”
Daisy walked closer to Lily as she spoke.
“She seems really… out of it.”
“I know. What should we do?”
Lily continued her languid gazing off into the distance as her friend approached, seemingly oblivious for the moment to the world around her.
“Lily… hun, are you okay?”
Through the hum in her ears, Lily heard a singular sound creeping through the barrier of soothing static that currently occupied all of her senses. A voice, one that was very familiar… Lazily, she turned her body, shakily raising each hoof after another in the most awkward turn she had performed since she was a newborn foal learning to walk for the first time. A familiar face danced in front of her, blurry and difficult to make out, but still there.
“Daisy! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!”
Lily immediately closed the distance between herself and the concerned looking earth-pony in front of her, leaning in close as their proximity grew. As soon as she felt the warmth of Daisy’s body against hers, she let out a soft sigh, and nuzzled closer to the welcoming fur. So soft, just like the blanket she had left waiting for her at home…
“Lily?”
The voice that slowly crawled into her ears sounded distant, and distorted… like it was underwater, or being forced through a thick layer of sheet-metal. Lily withdrew her face from the soft coat of light pink fur that she had buried her snout in, and turned her attention to the source of the sound that had called out to her.
Remnants of pink followed her movement.
“What…” Lily let out a small expression of confusion as she reached up and felt the softness that lingered on her face. Instead of searching for the countenance of the speaker she had just heard, her attention was drawn back to the side she had nuzzled moments ago. Where her face had been, there was now an imprint of her features left behind.
Daisy’s fur seemed to be… melting. It was dripping off her body like wax from a candle, globbing in clumps before oozing slowly down towards the floor. Yet, instead of detaching, the clusters of goo remained attached to the pink pony’s body. It was as though her whole body was slowly gelatinizing, turning from a solid half-way to a liquid…
Lily raised her hoof and gave an experimental prod to the quickly accruing mass of goo that was her friend’s side – the soft squishy material yielded under her touch, and she found herself fascinated by its properties: malleable, but firm, like a more accommodating gelatin.
“Woah…”
This was the only reaction Lily could muster. She pressed harder on the still vaguely pony-shaped blob in front of her, and her hoof sank into the squishy mass with a soft slurping noise as she leaned her weight forward. The texture of the goo was peculiar, but not uninviting – just like all the strange sensations she had felt earlier, the feeling was unorthodox, but soothing. In fact, the lingering tickle that the ooze left along her skin was almost electric – it sent tingles running down her body, making her quiver slightly as the sensation spread.
She could feel her body urging her to give in to the feeling – her legs were leaning forward, pressing her face and chest into the now alien form of her friend. Lily caught a glimpse of Daisy’s face before she buried herself in the gelatinous goo-pile – she saw only a welcoming smile, her final signal to proceed without hesitation.
A moan escaped Lily’s lips as the folds of slime welcomed her. Daisy’s hooves had already melted completely, and her height was reduced significantly as a result – Lily found herself falling forward into the blob on the floor, sighing contentedly as the electric tingles coursed through her skin, warmth spreading through her body as the layers of goo enveloped her. So peaceful, and so invigorating at the same time – Lily nuzzled her face into a protruding bubble nearby, humming loudly with contentment as pink blocked out the remains of her vision.
Every one of her senses was overwhelmed – her body felt on fire from the inside, charged with a tension she had never before experienced. A pleasant aroma wafted from every inch of air, like a bouquet of fresh picked flowers mingling with the subtle plastic fragrance of sun-tan lotion, or hair-gel. Experimentally, Lily lapped at a section of her semi-animate blanket with her tongue, and a delicious flavor greeted her, pink bubblegum washing over her taste buds in waves.
So good. Lily couldn’t believe the strength of the sensations overwhelming her body. So warm, so welcoming, so charged and full of titillating electricity – all she wanted to do for the rest of time was to remain here, rubbing herself amidst the gooey pile that had moments ago been a wholly composed pony named Daisy.
Rose. Rose had to join them, it would be so perfect… Lily called out the name of the third member of their trio, begging her to come forward and take part in the amazing sensation.
“Rose… Rose…” Lily’s voice sounded strange in her own ears. The way her mouth was forming the words… it was peculiar, like the syllables were slipping away. Curious, she raised a hoof to her face with the intent of examining her features. She couldn’t tell what was a lingering twinge from the contact with the goo, and what was the innate energy she had felt since awaking that afternoon.
The cause of her slurred speech became apparent as the texture of her hoof and chin collided, each piece melding into the other in a mass of slime. She could feel her foreleg melting, slowly dripping down into the rest of her body, forming a companion to the already complete goo pile she had submerged herself in. This felt even better than being solid… Now she could feel the caress of Daisy’s touch in every pore, feel the slithering of the pink earth-pony’s caress sprawling languidly across every inch of her quickly decomposing body.
Her smile was the last thing to melt into the gelatinous embrace as she spied a glimpse of white and red out of the corner of her eye. Rose had heard her, and was on her way to join already, a shambling mass of ooze sluggishly making its way closer to the two intertwining goo-ponies locked in their slippery affections.
As the structure of her bones fell apart, Daisy became vaguely aware that she still possessed some semblance of control over her movements. Instead of firm limbs and extremities, her movement was more fluid – the structure of her body still remained, but simply collapsed onto itself endlessly. She could move, but performing any task with rigidity would have been a struggle.
No matter. She could make due with what she had for the moment.
Lily felt what had previously been her mouth sinking into a mass of smooshy flesh in front of her - whether it was Daisy or Rose she couldn’t be sure. She only knew that the feeling which met her advances was heavenly, and that she must continue.
“Mmmnnhgh…” the sounds she made were incomprehensible now, only a purest expression of pleasure. Waves of goo interwove with her own, each slippery caress sending jolts of excitement jiggling through her. She felt another mouth on hers for a moment, meeting the slippery tongue that wove its way inside with gentle licks. If she had been solid she would have been grinding herself against whatever lay next to her, but now instead simply pressed the remaining semblance of her body into the other two malleable creatures she had become mixed together with.
“Gooood…” she had to form the word, to tell them how amazing it felt, how happy she was that they were together. Rose and Daisy, her sisters in everything but the most literal sense, were becoming a part of her – she felt every inch of their slick fur and skin melting into her, the hotness of their breath permeating the essence of her soul. So hot, so stimulating – her mind was on fire with the sensations overwhelming her, sending her mouth into a torrent of gibberish, struggling to let out the feeling welling up inside her.
Now she could feel her face reaching the final steps of liquefaction; her lips were oozing inside her mouth, and her head was dissolving into the pool that made up the rest of her body. She could feel the last remnants of her structure subsuming into the waiting blobs of the other two ponies, all three of them merging together, collecting every inch of skin and fur and features into a singular pool. Lily’s thoughts were blurring, she could only see multicoloured swirls with what remained of her eyes, until her vision left completely, and every sense was overwhelmed with a sticky softness, the only thing left as she melted finally and completely into one, singular whole.
And it felt so good.
Rose’s face was contorted with worry as she paced by the side of the hospital bed. Every few seconds she would cast a glance sideways at the form of her friend underneath the clinical white blankets, worrying herself even further every time she noticed Lily’s anxious thrashing or noises of discomfort.
She let go a sigh of relief as she saw a familiar face return from around the corner of the crowded hospital tent, and Daisy smiled meekly back at her as she approached, the on-duty nurse pony in tow behind her.
“Is she going to be okay?” Rose voiced her most pressing concern immediately – everything else could wait until she was sure Lily would be alright.
Daisy nodded wearily, but left the explanation up to Nurse Redheart, who put the minds of the two girls at ease in as soothing a tone as she could muster.
“She’s going to be perfectly fine. It seems the medication she was prescribed had something of an adverse effect on her brain chemistry. That, coupled with the overwhelming overdose… well, it’s a miracle the side effects weren’t worse!”
Rose and Daisy clung together, wrapping their hooves around each other as they stared on in shock. Nurse Redheart sighed before continuing.
“That said… your friend is going to be fine. She just needs a bit of rest. After some time for the pills to work their way out of her system she’ll be back to normal.”
The two ponies breathed out loudly, relaxing their tense grips on each other and returning to all four feet. Daisy made her way to Lily’s bedside, and placed a hoof on the distressed pony’s forehead, meeting beads of sweat as she did so and wiping them away gently. Rose, however, stayed close to the nurse, feeling it necessary to make sure there was nothing else the two could do to help.
“Is there anything else we can do? I just feel so awful for suggesting the medication to her in the first place…”
“Oh, don’t fret, dear. There’s no way you could have known what the effects would be, especially in that large a dose. Side-effects of this magnitude are almost unprecedented… don’t beat yourself up over it. Right now, all she needs is rest… and, when she wakes up, to know that you two are there for her.”
Rose still looked worried, but she bobbed her head up and down in acknowledgement before letting Nurse Redheart return to her work elsewhere in the hospital. The red haired, white coated pony took her place beside Daisy, the two of them waiting anxiously for their friend to awake.
After several hours, Lily’s fevered tossing and turning had subdued, and the two ponies by her bedside practically jumped with joy as she cracked one eye open. Her voice was hoarse as she tried to speak.
“What… where am I…”
“Oh, Lily, don’t talk sweetheart, you don’t want to strain yourself.” Daisy immediately busied herself straightening Lily’s pillow underneath her head, running a hoof through the bed-ridden pony’s yellow hair as she did so.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Lily ignored Daisy’s pampering as she raised herself upwards, sitting awkwardly with her weight rested on her forelegs behind her back.
“We were just worried about you, hun. You gave us quite a scare.” Rose explained as she grabbed a glass of water nearby, and offered it forward. “Would you like some water, dear?”
“Yes, please, thanks…” Lily noticed her throat was unusually dry. She grabbed the glass between her hooves and swallowed the cold liquid eagerly, letting out a gasp of satisfaction after downing the contents.
“Would somepony please tell me what happened?” she asked after finishing the water and passing it back to Rose’s waiting hooves.
Daisy was practically in tears as she answered. “Oh, Lily, it’s all our fault! Those pills we gave you… the doctors said they must have mixed up with something in your brain the wrong way, and made you go all crazy! You were acting so strange, and then you wouldn’t stop laughing, and you passed out, so we took you here, to the hospital…”
“The pills didn’t work?” Lily felt so confused. All the events after she had taken the medication and fallen asleep… everything was such a blur.
“Oh hun, you should have seen yourself. You were staring into space and giggling at everything… you had both of us so worried.” Rose patted Lily gently on the back, rubbing her hoof up and down soothingly.
“But I remember… I remember waking up the next day, and I felt… good. I wasn’t worried about anything. Everything felt… great.”
“They say you might have been hallucinating, a bit. We’re sorry, hun. We were just worried about you. We never meant for any of this to happen. Can you forgive us?”
Daisy and Rose looked pleadingly at their friend, both of their eyes brimming with tears of guilt at the mess their over-eagerness to ‘fix’ Lily’s nervousness had caused.
Lily blinked her eyes blearily, but didn’t need much time to think on her answer.
“Of course I forgive you guys. You’re my best friends… I know you didn’t mean for anything bad to happen.”
“Oh, Lily!” Daisy had broken down into full-blown crying, and she wrapped her legs around a slightly startled Lily in an embrace of forgiveness. Rose simply sniffed quietly, but she joined the group hug, the three ponies basking the warmth of the embrace for a moment before separating.
Lily sighed as the hug ended, and raised a hoof to her face, rubbing the sleep out of one of her eyes.
“Ugh… I feel like I haven’t eaten anything in days. Is there any chance there’s some food at this hospital?”
Rose nodded and smiled cheerfully. “Of course, hun! I thought you might be hungry, so I got something from the cafeteria just in case.”
Lily blinked as Rose held the small plate forward. Next to a collection of carrots and other assorted greens was a small desert portion – a bowl of pink jello, jiggling rapidly as Lily stared at it: a blob of gelatinous ooze, peering back at her over the rim of its serving container.
Her lips let out a sigh as Lily fell backwards into her pillow, eyes falling shut as she fainted, the pink goo wobbling at her as she collapsed.
