Strange Flora

Briar slowly shuffled out of the hospital with Lyra by his side. Lyra seemed to be excited about a trip to the Zebra's house. She was humming to herself. Briar on the other hand continued to stare at his feet like he usually did.

Sweat poured down Briar's face as he thought about actually having to do something. His own thoughts seemed to be blocking out any external sounds. His horn had stopped its usual glowing as well, something that usually took conscious effort to do.

Lyra noticed she was pulling ahead of her new traveling companion and turned around. He was so slow that if things kept going at his pace everypony was likely to be dead upon their return. She walked up to him, staring him straight in the face. He wasn't looking back. His eyes were so well averted to the ground that it was likely he didn't even realize she was with him.

“Um, hello?” No response. He was still just slowly moving forward like the weight of his saddle bags was crushing him. “Hello? Hello!” she started shouting to get his attention. She stopping backwards to accommodate his slow pace. Instead she crossed her horn with his and used them to fling his head to the side violently.

Briar became aware of contact with his horn almost immediately, but it was too late to avoid whatever was coming. His head jerked to the left unexpectedly. He looked up for a change, staring directly into the golden eyes of the minty green unicorn that was with him. He flinched slightly, the proximity to the other unicorn triggering the reaction.

“Look buddy, you need to snap out of it. What ever world of self pity you're living in, in there,” she motioned to his skull, “you need to abandon because the real world is out here. There are ponies dying, and you're all scared because you might have to enter the big bad Everfree Forest. Just come on ok? We have to hurry, Twilight and who knows else could collapse at any moment.” Her words had started rough, but worked their way into a plea for help.

Lyra turned back around and looked towards the edge of town. She hated the idea of venturing into the forest, but she couldn't turn around now even if she wanted to, she had given the speech, locking herself into the decision.

Briar stared at the unicorn. The words flowing from her mouth were supposed to be some sort of pep-talk. He glanced down at his hooves again, then back to the unicorn. She seemed to have turned around and started walking again. He followed a bit faster than before. He kept his eyes mostly forward now, half of the attempt to please her, the other half to keep himself from falling behind.

He tried to rationalize the trip into the forest to himself. He argued that Twilight and the others had been into the forest tons of times, and that even little AppleBloom could make it to Zecora's. As they approached the edge of the forest he stared up at it. Already the whispers of the wild plants were playing at the edge of his hearing. His horn started glowing extremely bright. The faces of the trees before them became awash with pine green lighting.

“What are you doing?” Lyra turned around, the light making her curious.

“I'm not doing anything.” The brown unicorn shook his head like he was trying to fling the light off.

“Don't lie to me, what are you doing?” she asked again, getting a little impatient.

“My horn glows more when plants have more to say. My special talent is listening to plants. I can't really control it most of the time.” He stopped walking forward. He realized he had just been shouting in what would otherwise be a quiet area. The many voices of the plants were so loud in his ears that he was having trouble thinking of anything else.

“You don't have to yell. Here.” She walked up to him, stood on her hind legs, and put her front hooves over his ears.

“I don't think it... works... like... that.” he paused in between each word, getting quieter until his voice was normal. The noise of the plants had subsided considerably, and his horn wasn't glowing nearly so bright.

“Better?” she asked, beaming at him.

“Uh, yeah actually.” he said in disbelief. She removed her hooves from his ears, but the noise didn't return.

“Good, then let's get going.” She turned around and walked past the first few trees in the forest.

If it wasn't for Briar following her so closely, and the light from his horn, they would have been lost already. The arrangement of the trees seemed chaotic and wild. The lack of patterns or discernible land marks made it almost impossible to tell which way they had entered from. What small path there was quickly disappeared under roots and fallen leaves.

“H-how far in do you think it is?” Briar asked in reference to Zecora's hut. She just shrugged in response. There was a long silence as they walked deeper into the forest. The trees were becoming more dense, and the light they had was traveling less distance. It couldn't be too late in the evening, but in the forest it was already pitch black, and the dead of night.

The noise of strange and untamed animals permeated the forest around them, causing them to drift together for safety. Pairs of eyes occasionally stared at them from nearby pushes, locking gazes with the two ponies as they passed. A howl in the distance served to remind them of the many dangers in the forest, such as timber wolves, the cockatrice, ursa, manticore, and even dragons.

“Briar, we've never really talked before, yet you only live a few houses away from mine. Why is that?” Lyra asked, trying to take their mind off of the unpleasant scenery in the forest.

“I tend to keep to myself I guess. I'm not the most socially adept Pony. It's hard for me to meet ponies unless somepony else introduces me to them. Plus, because of my special talent I tend to be a lot different than other ponies. Makes me uncomfortable with most daily activities.” He looked around the forest as he spoke, trying to spot some clue as to where they were.

“Ah,” Lyra replied. The conversation died for a few minutes as Lyra's face took on a pensive look. She broke the silence again. “So it's not me? You don't dislike me?”

“Er, no. Not really. It's sorta you, but it's mostly me. There's nothing you can do about it though, you know?” He stopped. Lyra turned around looking at him curiously.

“No, I have no idea,” she said flatly.

“Well, you're pretty, and I have even bigger problems talking to attractive ponies. It's not my fault you're attractive, so it must be yours. However it is my fault that I'm intimidated by attractive ponies, and you cant change that you're attractive, or that I'm intimidated by attractiveness so there's nothing you can do about it.” His words made Lyra blush, though the color change in her cheeks was nearly undetectable due to the green lighting, and general darkness. “Can we uh, talk about this another time though. Everfree is a terrible location for this, and I feel like him hitting on you, which in and of itself is uncomfortable.”

Lyra nodded and turned back around, a giant grin spread across her face. A few more moments of silence and Lyra turned around again. Shock spread across her face as she quickly came to the realization that Briar was gone.

Briar shook his head a bit and stared at the complete darkness around him. The side of his face hurt, and so did his legs. He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not. He coughed at the solid ground beneath him. The soreness in his throat and pain in his hooves let him know that he was alive. He ran his mind's eye over his body, feeling out to his muscles in his body, trying determine if everything was in tact.

As he ran himself up to his horn, it started to glow and illuminated his environment. He appeared to be in some form of cave. The rock walls around him ran slimy with liquid. The plants in the area seemed silent. The cave floor he was splayed out on was solid rock, covered a thin layer of dust. He looked to the ceiling trying to see how he'd gotten here. Sure enough, what looked to be two hundred feet above him was the tiniest hole in the ceiling, offering a speck of light barely brighter than a star in the night sky.

A warm fluid ran under his belly and briar looked down. The reflection off of the green light, and the pool of liquid let him know that it was blood. His blood. It ran from his front right hoof, which was horribly torn and cut. He winced in pain. He looked at the reflection of his face in the pool, realizing that his forehead around his horn was torn open badly. He blinked, surprised that the blood wasn't flowing into his eyes.

He paused to consider the miracle of his survival from such a fall. He glanced around the room hoping to see Lyra's familiar face. He wasn't sure if it was good or bad that he didn't. It was now that he was glad to have the saddle bag.

He pried it open with telekinesis and rummaged through it hastily. A few sandwiches, some rope, and luckily enough: bandages. Relief washed over him as he began unrolling the gauze. He took several minutes to bandage up his hoof, and stop the bleeding. He had significantly more trouble with his face, and barely manged to secure the bandage around his horn. The unfortunate side effect was that the light of his horn wasn't half as bright as it had been before, but at least he wouldn't bleed to death now.

He looked back up to the almost invisible speck of light again. He raised his head, and shouted upwards. “Help! Lyra!” He tried again. “Lyra! I'm down here! Help!” No response. He sighed, tears starting to run down his face, sliding into the bandages, and leaking the salt into his wound.

He lay his head on his good hoof, not wanting to stand yet. He coughed again, causing his sides to ache more. His eyes slowly closed.

“I told you ponies don't go into the forest alone,” a snide voice in the corner of the room snickered.

“I guess you're right. Though it looks like they got separated. Too bad too. Looks like this one plans to die in here,” Another similar voice to the first.

Briar's head perked up to alertness. He peered around the cave again. His horn's light being muted by the bandage didn't help. He couldn't see anypony.

“Shh, he's doing something,” the first voice again.

Briar worked through his headache to realize it was the few plants in the small cave. He rolled his eyes and rested his head on his hoof again. “Useless plants,” he thought to himself.

“Aw too bad. If he could walk he might have been able to survive. Looks like that fall was rather nasty though.”

“Silly quadruped. Too bad he cant pull nutrients from the ground. Otherwise he could root right where he lays and do something useful.” The plants continued to heckle him, unaware that he was listening.

“I spit at you quadruped. Your kind disgusts me. You pick off our leaves for fun, and eat us in your sandwiches. And If I could speak to you, I still wouldn't tell you the way out of this cave! In fact, I hope that the great snake comes hunting today and eats you, and turns your pathetic corpse into a pile of dung so that my children may grow in it, and feed off of you instead!” The plant was getting angry and shouting now.

“Don't you think that was a bit far?” The second plant seemed concerned.

“Nah, not like it can hear me anyway.”

Briar started panicking at the idea of being eaten by a giant snake, enough so that he tried to stand. His hoof shot a spike of pain up his leg, numbing his brain for a moment, and robbing it of all other feelings. He stopped for a moment, dizzy, and tried to gain his balance. With the small light of his horn, he made a hurried limp towards the only ground exit from the room he could see.

Lyra jumped around in panic, looking in each direction for her missing companion. Briar didn't seem the type to run off in the forest and abandon her, which either meant that he got lost while looking at his hooves again, or that something horrible had happened to him.

She swallowed hard, trying to peer back the way she came. “Oh darn it. He couldn't be that far. I had his light just a minute ago.” She checked behind a couple of trees. “Briar, if this is some kind of joke it isn't funny. You can come out from behind the trees any time.” Panic was quickly gaining control over her legs. More eyes peered out at her from a bush. She hesitantly stepped towards them. “Briar, is that you?” She reached her magic to the ground, fumbling around until it grasped a stick.

She slowly pushed the stick into the bush, towards the eyes. A regrettable mistake as a huge snake snapped the stick in half in its massive jaws. The snake must have been thirty feet long, and huge around its center. It slithered past Lyra peacefully, and midway as it passed Lyra realized why. A huge bulge in the snake's mid-section made it clear it had already eaten today, and wasn't looking for another meal. The bulge looked smaller than Briar though, so a moments relief washed over her.

“Oh gosh. I hope there aren't any more around.” She swallowed hard again.

Lyra jerked around as a twig snapped behind her. A mysterious glow from behind a nearby tree once again allowed her a moment of respite. “Oh Briar, thank goodness. You had me worried sick. My stomach was in knots and everything.” A brown stallion with freshly combed forest green hair, and a lustrous brown coat stepped from behind the tree. He smiled at her and then winked.

“You jerk! You had me worried. Now come on. This is no time to be grooming yourself. Besides, where did you even get a brush?” She bumped him with the side of her body, giving him a friendly shove.
“Err, It was in the pack!” the brown stallion said.

“Must have been Rarity's idea. Come on, Zecora's can't be too far.”

“While I was brushing I think I spotted someone over there,” he jerked his head in the direction of the tree he had been hiding behind. “It was probably her. I can't imagine it being anyone else.”

“Erm, alright.” Lyra eyed him for a moment, looking him over again. Deciding nothing was wrong she started heading in the direction he had motioned.

“Oh, I'll lead Lyra. Wouldn't want you to lose me again.” He stepped in front of her and brought up the glow of his horn to brighten the path.

“How very much like a gentlecolt of you Briar. Did Rarity stuff a book about manners in there too?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that.” He brushed it off casually, and a grin crept across his face.