Sap
By Flarp the Dunsparce
It was the dead of night. Cracks and snaps filled the empty air of Everfree as Fluttershy escorted her friends down the rugged path that she had made. They asked not a question toward the yellow mare, but knew naught of what the occasion was. The Everfree Forest was feared and viscious, yet it made not a sound for the night visitors walking in naked defense among its flora. In fact, the forest was calmly welcoming them.
Earlier that night, at roughly 11:00 PM, Fluttershy gathered the whole group up and gave them a talk, and not just any talk, either. It ended up being more of a warning in the end, actually. She made a face and gave a tone so serious that it scared some of her friends. She claimed it would be a one night event, and if any disrespect was given, she would never speak to any of them again.
Fluttershy held a candle in her mouth as they walked on, illuminating the thick void of darkness around them. She walked firmly and strongly, or at least compared to the rest. Not even Rainbow Dash dared to move her mouth.
Suddenly, the path began to light up more. Candles were placed on the sides of the path, and as they all looked forward, they could see a calm area of pure, blissful, friendly light welcoming them with warmth. The group of ponies suddenly felt more at ease. Fluttershy then stopped, and as she did, the rest of the gang came to a grinding halt as well. She turned around and set the candle upon the ground. She looked into all of their eyes with with a face unseen on the body of Fluttershy: a face of pure confidence.
"Okay. Now listen," Fluttershy began with a pounding voice, "He's waiting for you. You will not, and I repeat, will NOT disrespect him in ANY way. Do you all understand?"
A series of agreeing sounds and actions came from the crowd. Unnervingly, Twilight began to ask a question.
"Uhm... If I may ask, who is 'he'?" She asked Fluttershy.
"He will introduce himself. Now..." Fluttershy moved to the side. "Go on. He waits. I have something to do."
The ponies walked past Fluttershy nervously and toward the small grotto that was lit up in front of them. Once Fluttershy has taken up her candle and left, Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash with a skeptical face. She quietly whispered to her;
"What's all this about?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I... dunno." She whispered back.
They entered the grotto and looked around. Candles created a circle around a gigantic tree in the middle, and there were cushions laid out on the other side of the tree. As the ponies made their way around the tree and near the cushions, they looked around, but saw nopony to greet them. There was just the tree and them.
"Umm... where is this stallion we're supposed to be seing?" Rarity asked. Just then, creaks were heard coming from the tree behind them. As the turned around, they all backed up in fear to see that the tree was not only moving, but had an eye and mouth.
"So... y'all are the ones Flutters wanted me to talk to, huuuuuuh?" The tree said. Not one of them screamed, for they all thought back to Fluttershy's talk. Not even Rarity peeped.
"U-ummm.... y-y-yes, we are!" Twilight said, clearing her throat.
"Awww, now y'all don't need to be scared, Bob and I wont hurt 'cha a bit. Weeeell, rather, we can't... we're glued to the ground. Heh heh heah heack! Hrmm."
Pinkie Pie was simply fascinated. "Woooooah, you're like a... tree guy! That's so COOL!"
"If you say so, missy. Other ponies think that I'm just a fffffffreak!" the tree coughed. "Oh yeah, the name's Harold, or at least the pony left in me. The tree is named 'Bob', but I like to call him Herbert because I think it's FUNNY. Ain't that right... Herbert? Heheh ha ha hack hafgh hork!"
"So... you two are merged? How in blazes did that happen?" Applejack asked, tilting her head.
"Ah, yes, I was hopin' that question would rise so I wouldn't hafta transition into it. See them cushions on the ground? Plop them tuckuses on the ground, and Bob 'n I are gonna tell you a little story. And listen well, too, because I ain't gonna be able to tell it again. Don't be afraid to interrupt and ask a question if yer confused, either."
The ponies all found a cushion near them and sat down, all of their heads staring up at old Harold like he was a preschool teacher.
"Now, it all started back looooooong ago, centuries long ago in fact...."
It all started back when I was thirty in 2105 or some'in like that. That was about twenty some'in years after the nuclear war an' all that jazz, so I was roaming the wasteland, searching fer some stuff to do... and watching out for those damn radscorpions. Hate them sons of guns. Anyways, me n' my lil' gang of friends thought it'd be a fun idea to explore a military base near Mariposa. It wasn't really that fun.
So I was just wanderin' around, when one of them damn ghoul packs jumped the gang, and I fell into this mushy, sloppy green stuff. It hurt a lot. I was knocked unconscious and awoke somewhere outside Mariposa Military Base and I took notice that I had a tree growin' out of the top of my head! I was real scared...
But then I began to... get used to it and named the tree 'Bob'. That green stuff expanded my life by a couple thousand years, damn stuff musta been radiated bad, and it gave me the privilege of being the only tree in the Capital Wasteland. I didn't know whether I was blessed or cursed, and I still don't, to be honest.
Then came around that one dreaded time... 2200 or something like that. I lost count. I was explorin' up at the northern part in the Capital Wasteland, and I just couldn't walk anymore. I was stapled to the ground. Roots began to grow out of my feet, and I was immobilized. I cried and cried and cried, didn't do anything, but I cried and cried and cried. I cried because of so many things, the most important one being that I couldn't live my life anymore. It was over.
Years passed, and with every day, I wanted to die. I didn't care how, but I wanted to die. Bob's cells began to perform photosynthesis to keep me alive, which was the worst thing I could have imagined happen, because that got rid of my only way out of the mess: starvation. I still kept my stomach, though, so I was not only starving for food, but getting the nutrition I needed to keep alive. I hated it!
After about 10 years, another tree began to sprout. I named him Jeremy, but then another sprouted, and another, and I just couldn't keep track of all the names. Soon, I turned the area around me into an oasis with perty bloomin' flowers and nice sounds from the wind on the treetops.
Then, as if my body becoming a tree wasn't painful enough, these nutjob ponies found me and began to worship me like I'm some kinda God. They dressed like deer are didn't listen to a word I said. I wanted to die so bad, and when they came along, I thought I had my chance. I was wrong. They thought I was joking. I had never been more angry and depressed in my life.
Then, another chance rose; a lone wanderer of the wasteland. I told those wacko tree worshipers to bring her in, and she seemed like a stand up gal. I asked her to kill my heart, which was now buried in my roots in the caves below, but... she didn't. She did the exact opposite. She sped up my heart's rate with a powder.
"Woah, what!? That's a jerk move! What'd she do that for!?" Rainbow blurted in anger as she pounced up.
"Weeeeeeell, my heart was connected with Herbert and it was making the trees grow or some'in. I guess one of the damn tree worshipers told her to do it to spread the growing faster. I didn't really know how much they needed me. I guess I was selfish."
"You weren't selfish! THEY were! All you wanted was some peace!"
Harold sighed. "Maybe so, but I can't do nuttin' bout it right now, can I? Anyways... where was I? Oh yeah..."
My body began to hurt a whoooole lot more after that powder was sprayed. Those tree huggers were actually keepin' me good company as of late... and then those Godamn Deathclaws came. Huge things with razor sharp claws and huge muscles that look like they came straight from Tartarus. They came over from Ol' Olney ransacked the place and killed all them little followers of mine. Just as I was gettin' to like them, too.
I got sad. Real sad. Half of 'em were killed right in front of me, so I couldn't clean up the mess. I had to stare at the bodies every day for years, watching them decompose into the ground, remembering the event that took place that day. I cried a lot more. I didn't think my life could get worse, but it did.
Nothin' happened for the next thousand years. Absolutely nothin'. I just sat there as this forest grew around me. It was horrible. Every day, I hoped that somepony would come along and help me, but the ones that happen to walk by just ran away and never came back. I was very lonely; lonelier than I was ever before.
Then, it happened. There was a certain pony about four years ago that stumbled by, looking for an exotic plant or some'in. I spoke up to her, expecting her to run away... but she didn't. She just... sat there, astounded by me.
"Aren't y'all gonna run away like the others?" I asked the mare with a low voice. And she says back to me;
"...W-- Why would I do that? You're only a tree, just a little different."
That feeling those words gave me was not explainable. Not even the happiest of words could tell how I felt. I sobbed all over myself with tears of joy, which was the first time I cried tears of joy in 1,500 years. It felt amazing to know that somepony didn't think I was a monster.
I couldn't tell the little one that I wanted to die; she was so fragile. So, what I did was evolve a friendship with her. I told her the story up until that moment and she began to see me every few days. It was the best thing I could have asked for: a friendship. I hadn't had one of those in a long time, and by that time, I forgot how nice it felt to have one.
Years passed, and I began to see the little one grow. She told me about her life every time she arrived, and I remember when she told me she moved out of her parents' home and started a animal shelter and pet shop in a cozy little cottage. I wish I could have followed her so bad, and my heart felt empty every time she left.
Then, the time came. I couldn't hold it in any longer from her. I told her what I wanted, death, and she sure as hell flipped a loop I'll tell you what! She didn't believe me at first, but I went on for a half an hour about my pains of being merged with this tree and all. At that point, I asked her "the big question".
"Will you kill me?" I asked her. I felt terrible asking her, because it brought tears to her eyes. She began crying and started to hug me. I wish I could back to her. I'd never felt so immobilized in my whole life as a tree. I couldn't believe I asked her such a thing, but I couldn't stand it.
"Is this really what you want?" She asked. I could barely understand the mare because she was crying so hard. She shook her head, burying it into my bark.
I told her it was. The only person I ever really talked to before her was Herbert, but he never really said anything back, so I got lonely. I told her my pain was so unbearable that I cried every night wishing I was dead. At that point, she agreed to do it. She would take a knife and kill my heart down in the caves below where the roots took it.
"B-but..." Rarity but in, wiping tears from her eyes, "If she agreed to do it, why are you still here?"
Harold smiled. "Ah. You see, she agreed on one condition..." he looked up to the sky with his eye as he took a pause. "...that condition was that I tell the story one last time to all her buddies."
Applejack looked down. "So... the mare was..."
"Fluttershy. Yer correct." Harold answered. "She's down there right now, makin' her way toward the center of my roots."
The yellow mare cut through thick vegetation with a rather large knife and holding a lantern in her mouth. The ground of the dark, dank cavern was wet and jagged with sharp pebbles and sticks. Fluttershy stopped for a quick break and to think.
She thought more and more about it, and the more she thought about it, the more she weeped almost silently. She was going to kill one of the best friends she ever had, and it would be a moment she would always remember. She looked at the knife she held and sighed quietly as the reoccurring thought of her stabbing his heart popped into her mind again. She took her free hoof and slammed it on the ground. She quickly pulled up after she felt sharp pain and, when she looked at it, a drip of blood from a newborn cut raced down her leg. A jagged rock had cut her, but she cared not.
Regathering herself, Fluttershy slowly stood up, not caring about the cut that bled all over her leg. She flew over the plants not needed to be cut and found herself in a room of which the vegetation was so thick she could hardly see three feet into it. She felt it, though, the fast paced heartbeat of Harold, and when she recognized it, she began to slice the vines down with incredible force. Fluttershy eventually found a hole with a small opening in it and jumped into it. It was there of which she lost herself.
Harold's heart sat perched in a rather large collection of roots, beating like he had just exercised. It was not red, nor was it green, but an ugly shade of brown. The heart was struggling to keep Harold alive, and overworking itself. She knew now just how much pain her friend was in. She looked at her knife, and to his heart. She dropped all and broke out sobbing on the ground, harder than she ever had. But just then, Harold's words rang in her head.
Please, you have to do this. There ain't anyone else. Fluttershy, shaking like it was winter, got up and picked up her knife. She walked over passed all the roots to the heart, which was now nearly 1 foot away from her. She held up the knife, and as she did, she remembered all the good memories of talking to Harold. She remembered all the nice things he said to her and felt something come up. She couldn't take it. She dropped the knife to the side and threw up on the side The miserable mare fought to get herself up, but she did, and she grabbed the knife once more.
Crying her eyes out, she thought of Harold's plea to kill him again.
"It's what he wants," Fluttershy told herself, "Just do it."
She held the knife above the brown heart, and she kept telling herself: just do it, just do it, just do it!
"JUST DO IT!" She shouted. She closed her eyes and thrusted her hooves downward, hearing a slicing sound along the way. She then let go, falling upon the ground, sobbing and roaring in emotional torture. She had just killed one of her best friends and the most unique pony in Equestria.
She then began to stop as she thought about her action. She was the best friend that Harold ever had, and she freed him from the intense pain he was in. She had documented his stories and had pictures of him, so he would never be forgotten. He was free now, able to move, and not in pain. Harold was finally happy, and it was his best friend, Fluttershy, that made him happy.
Fluttershy smiled. She wiped her tears off her face and began to head out of the cave, leaving the knife behind.
