Chapters I open my eyes to see a dirt road with train tracks before me. My eyes struggled to stay ajar. I don't have much time! Why am I here? I've gotten so close that...
"Now you won't be able to breathe a word of this to anyone."
I squint my eyes to a pony standing tall before the sun. I could only make out the silhouette.
"Thwarting my plan to open a restaurant chain here will be futile now."
I really don't have time for this.
"I wasn't thwarting anything! I was saving some ponies' lives!" I squeal.
I try to stand, but find that I'm bonded to the train with a rope. My heart sinks as I feel the tracks rumble.
"Please...NO!"
The pony walks away leaving me abandoned on the tracks.
"NO!!!" My voice cracked and tears ran down my cheeks.
"LUNA-
BROOOOOOOOOOMMM
"Rose? Rose?!"
I open my eyes to see nothing. As if I hadn't opened my eyes at all.
"I can't see anything." I blurt out, my own voice being unfamiliar to me.
A small light shines from a point and gets exceedingly brighter until I can see a dirty cyan face stare at mine. It was Colgate, and see lit what seems to be a cave of some sort with her horn. I look around and wonder what we're doing in a cave. I don't particularly care for the dark and I doubt Colgate does either.
"Did you get help?" Colgate asks as if I knew what she were talking about.
I cock my head to the side continue to look around. I feel totally clueless as to what's going on, but I can tell from Colgate's body language that she does have the information.
"Then that poor mare must've died." Colgate says with a sigh, looking down toward the ground in disappointment.
I stared at Colgate as If she were speaking Greek like she used to do just to make me mad. She picked it up while learning magical spells when she lived in Canterlot. Whenever she wanted to say something stupid, she'd say it in Greek and we'd laugh as if she told a joke. I've always tried to emulate this by speaking Latin, but Luna barely teaches it to me anymore, so I can't cause the laughter that Colgate can.
Basically, I didn't know what she was talking about.
"If she died, then you must've forgotten everything. AGAIN." Colgate sounded a bit annoyed now. She let out a huff and put a hoof on my head.
"Look. I've had to do this three times already, but I'll tell you again." I blinked at the strength in her voice. She was obviously upset.
"I don't know how we ended up in this cave, but we did, and we need to get out of here because if we don't, we'll die."
She talked to me like I was a kindergartener. It made me feel as If I'd done something wrong.
"So, I've been using this spell that an old class mate taught me to connect with the outside world to get help. That's where you come in. I'm using the spell to transfer your mind into another pony's body."
My eyebrows raised. Not out of shock, this just sounded pretty cool.
"I'm trying to get you to become another pony so you can help us out of here."
I poked out my lips and nodded. I didn't let her words sink in. I walked over aimlessly till I found a hard, sedimentary wall. Colgate shined her horn on it. Her face showed she was annoyed with her dimmed eyes and pouting lips
"Yup, that's a rock." Colgate said casually and quiet.
I walked over another wall with my heart getting a bit faster as I found another wall.
"That - that's a rock, Rose." Colgate was becoming impatient indicated by her casual stuttering.
Fear crept up my throat as I desperately searched for some opening or some change in the walls of some sort.
"Rock. It's all rock. That's a rock," Colgate pointed aimlessly with her hoof, but her eyes trained on me, "that's a rock, that's a rock, that's a leaf," Colgate smiled as she pointed at the leaf and broke her gaze from mine to look at the little green leaf on the floor, but the she looks back at me and pointed at the ceiling not smiling anymore, "but that's a rock. It's all rock. I rock. What's that? A rock. You know what rocks my socks? Pfft, socks. Not as cool as rock . I named this one Tom."
She's going a bit insane. She's starting to talk like a certain Pink pony who works at sugar cube corner.
"How long were we in here?" I ask, trembling.
"About seven hours. Well, now that your up to speed with everything rocky-"
"How come I can't remember anything?"
Colgate bounces a bit and answers my question. "The last mare you occupied was a vigilante. A certain pony wanted her dead, apparently. Right when you were about to save us, you died, thus erasing your memory. This is a big inconvenience because I can only retain a bit of information as to what you do outside of this cave. The rest would be up to you to remember if only you could have stayed alive. You probably found out where we are. I don't know now."
I clear my throat. "So now what?"
"We try again." She smiles somewhat devilishly.
The light in her horn goes out and I'm startled by the immediate darkness that follows.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Octy, you alright?"
I look around somewhat shocked to see a market cart before me. I look around to see that I'm in line for carrots. It was bright and sunny out with a calming cool air. I don't remember feeling any of this warm light a second ago...
"Octavia ."
The name only catches my attention because it's said in my ear as if it were being directed to me. I turn to the source on the sound to see a snow coated unicorn with a wild blue raspberry mane. It was Vinyl Scratch. I had met her pretty recently with the whole Discord ordeal.
"Oh, hey, Scratch." I say, with a voice not my own, then I realized what was going on.
"You okay, Octy?" Vinyl said, lifting up her glasses to closely examine me.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine."
I must be in Octavia's body. I quickly realized that I'm stuck In a cave someplace with Colgate, and I'm running out of time.
"Vinyl! Um...." I search for an excuse to leave. " I need to......I do- I need to use the bathroom, yeah."
"I didn't know you hated shopping that much. We could go home if you'd like."
"It's...quite alright," I stammer as I try to stay in character, "I just feel as if we need to go out and look for missing ponies." I smile awkwardly leading Vinyl to believe I've gone crazy.
"You need to lie down." Vinyl says leading me home.
It took an hour to get back home. The whole way there I became more and more anxious. I wondered what had happened to my own body. Is Colgate still alive? Are we breathing? Each step towards the house felt like a step away from my objective.
"Vinyl," I started, "I-
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"GAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
I ended up back in the pitch black. I heard heavy breathing beside me, but I couldn't see whose it was. I made a safe be It was Colgate.
The breathing slowed down a bit until it was finally inaudible, and a light came shining from in front of me again. Colgate was sweating.
"Are we...saved?" She asked in a way that made me very scared you say,
"Not yet...."
She put the light out on her horn. It was probably to conceal her anger towards me. Or perhaps it was to save her energy. Regardless, the cave is black again and we are silent.
I hear Colgate clear her throat before speaking. "Ready to go?"
I catch butterflies in my stomach. For the past few minutes, I was laying on the cold ground, and when I stood up, I became a bit nervous.
"Yeah."
I closed my eyes and waited to end up someplace elsewhere. Before I did, I felt Colgate's horn touch my forehead. I wondered how she did this kind of a spell. She isn't that powerful a unicorn, but she graduated 5th in her class. I think that's a bit of an accomplishment.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"GO GO GO GO!!!"
I'm in a bar, and the first thing I see in front of me is a bunch of liquor. I already knew who's body I was in. However, there was a super small glass that Berry seemed to have been refusing.
"Come on, Berry!" I hear somepony in the crowd yell to me. "Drink it!"
I'm in a drinking contest, but that's not even the bad part. I look at my table and it's littered with shot glasses and empty bottles of liquor. If I were half the drinker Berry Punch was, I'd be considered a heavy alcoholic. However, I can only knock back a few shots of tequila before I'm on my butt searching for the city of Atlantis in my glass.
I don't really feel drunk, just a bit buzzed. This only proves that Berry Punch's liver is extreme. I let out a hiccup before disappointing the crowd by setting down my glass. Everyone continued to egg me on. The crown began saying "Drink it, Drink It," in unison, and the roar was enough to convince me.
"Alright, Alright," I say in Berry Punch's voice. She has a beautiful voice, especially when she's singing, but she's always drunk or tired so no-one notices.
I stare at the liquid before me. Its in a shot glass that's so small, an ant couldn't drown in it. I wondered why it was so small. Just to give the crowd something to cheer about before I embark on my journey to find myself, I ask for a bigger glass of this stuff. Everypony cheers.
The bartender comes with a larger glass and pours the strange liquid into the cup.
"Don't drink too much of this stuff." The bartender warns carefully. I was having second thoughts now, but the crowd was over powering and I could probably drink seven of these tiny cups with my own body. Even though I don't know what the drink is.
I grab the cup and sniff it before I knock down the whole cup. A strong, slightly bitter taste burns my tongue as it washes down. I can easily detect herbal properties in the drink. I smack my tongue to get a better aftertaste and I get a strong floral hint of more herbs.
I get mixed reactions from the rest of the bar. I heard cheering for sure, but I also heard "yuck!" and "whoa!" but the most shocking was,
"Berry?! Wow, I thought you hated absinthe."
I think I died a bit inside.
Absinthe. I've heard of it before. It's a liquid so powerful, Berry Punch has refused to ever try it again. It's been banned in prestigious cities such as Canterlot by Celestia herself. It's been known to drive ponies insane and cause a strong addiction to the drinker. I think I took about five servings in that one cup.
My heart drops, and for a moment, I believe it's the onset of a seizure of something.
"Call a doctor.." I barely manage to let the words escape my mouth. I find myself trembling uncontrollably and my mind goes elsewhere. The last time this has ever happened to me was when I was messing around in the Everfree forest with Daisy. We found a strange plant that smelled sweet, so we ate it with similar side effects to the ones I'm currently suffering from.
I let out a bellowing hiccup before I fall unconscious.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
My eyes open wide, expecting to be in a sort of a drug trip after my indulgence, however I'm greeted with the face Colgate, with an urgent look on her face. She raised her eyebrows and leaned in, as if to ask: 'Did you get help?' I shamefully reply by turning my gaze to the ground, where the light from her horn couldn't touch.
For the first time in a long time, I hear crying. Colgate trots slowly up to the wall and plants her face into her hooves on the wall. She makes an attempt to make her sobs silent, but it's impossible due to the fact it's the only thing we can hear.
I can't help but to let a tear run down my own cheek.
Colgate finished venting her emotions onto the rock wall and prepared to send my mind elsewhere so that I can get help. She's doing her best, but am I? I'm really the only other thing that can get us outta here. I put my game face on as the light in the cave, once again, vanishes.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hey, Bonbon, you straight?"
Me eyes began to adjust to the new scenery; the small cafe near the square. It's lunch time, so many ponies were seated in the local restaurant. I was seated outdoors under a parasol with Lyra. I could make a good guess as to who's body I was in now.
"You've been acting a bit strange lately, Bonbon." Lyra says, cocking her head to the side.
I look at the neck of the parasol on the table. It's shadow turned on the table about a degree, almost like a clock hand. It reminded me that my time was limited.
Without thinking, I leapt up from my seat, knocking over the lunch table and calling attention to myself. I turned toward the most reasonable place for Colgate and I to be trapped. The mountains. The rock we're trapped in looks like it came from there. I gallop at top speed towards the dirt trail outside of town that leads to a hiking route into the mountains, and possible to save Colgate and myself.
"BONBON! WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?!"
No time to turn back. I had to keep going. I can hear galloping behind me, however. I'm gonna guess it's Lyra.
"BONBON!"
"I can't talk," I exclaim, "I have something very important to do!"
I've been galloping for what seems like forever. I've actually watched the sun slowly begin to set upon my run. Lyra is a few paces behind me, and I can't help but feel glad she came. I could use some unicorn assistance outside of the cave as well as with my physical body.
I had just made it to the hiking route. I search around for the most suitable place for a large rock to confine two ponies.
I turn my head to see-
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
-the cave....
"I-I-I almost found us!" I pant. We're running low on air.
I could tell Colgate is in worse condition. She's coughing and has resorted to breathing heavily from her mouth. She's probably tired, aerobically speaking, from using her magic on me. She's concentrating hard on breathing, and it looks like each breath is a miracle for her.
"Colgate! I need to go back! I can save us! I know where to find us!"
"Okay, Rose, bud - GAHHHHHH- you do that - GAHHHHHH- Make it quick."
"I will."
Colgate sluggishly approaches me and coughs like somepony who hangs out with a fire breathing dragon would. If I didn't already know this was my last chance, I definitely would now.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Pinkie, It's your turn."
I'm inside the Carousel Boutique. Before me are some war beverages that smell of honey and chamomile. I'm playing crazy eights. With Miss Rarity, the owner of the boutique, and Twilight, the librarian. I only know these two because: A I shopped here once and B:Pinkie can't shut up about them....
Pinkie!
I'M Pinkie. I can feel her abstract powers coursing through her veins. I look at my hand before me and see a 7,two 9s , a 6, a 2, a 5, and two 3s. This is the ugliest hand I've seen in a while.
I fold down four cards, and they appear as 8s.
"Crazy eights!" I exclaim.
The two mare stair at me. It didn't really matter. I need to think fast....And I did. I'm so fortunate to be in Pinkie's body.
I know Pinkie can warn people about odd things like, opening doors or falling objects from spasms her body has, so I decide to fake a wild seizure to get these two to help me help myself and Colgate.
I start to gyrate and bob my head uncontrollably. I probably looked like an epilepsy patient.
"Pinkie! What does this combo mean?!" Twilight asked immediately. I'd feel bad for Pinkie if she had an actual seizure. Nopony's getting medical help, they're asking me what it means.
"I think two ponies are trapped in a rock!" I say blatantly.
"Um....okay- Do you know where we can find them, Darling?" Rarity asked with a concerned look on her face.
I take a huge gulp of my tea and toss the cup aside.
"The mountains!" I say, running out the shop, the two mares close behind.
Since the boutique is a bit closer to the trail, It didn't take long to get the the mountains, however, it's almost sunset and I need to 'act swiftly' as Luna says. Speaking of Luna, I think Pinkie is pretty close with Luna too. I could ask for her help if needed, but I think I've got this one.
"Search the rocks!" I command my minions as they frantically flip over pebbles and stones.
"BIGGER ROCKS!" I yell.
Rarity began began to move boulders and Twilight shifted large pieces of mountain.
Then the mares had enough.
"Alright, Pinkie, this has gone TOO-FAR." Rarity yells,"I'm not going to spend my day prancing around with you pushing overgrown pebbles because you suspect somepony is trapped in them."
I realized that these two are unicorns, and would probably believe me if I told them I wasn't Pinkie, but Rose in her body. Colgate says this spell is well known to intermediately powerful unicorns. I'm not sure where Rarity falls on that scale, but Twilight has to be one of the most powerful unicorns if Celestia is fond of her. Even Luna speaks highly of her abilities.
"I have to confess something Twi-"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"- I'm not really Pin...NO!"
The light on Colgate's horn was getting dimmer and dimmer. I began to panic, which made me lose my breath. I pace around yelling for Luna's help, but she can't hear me. I look to my hooves in defeat when I see a sign of salvation.
Supkaphroe flowers and Primroses poked out from the lower end of the cave. I instantly recognize both of these plants. Primroses tend to grow in the Everfree forest, but require an abundant light source. Supkaphroe flowers are flowers that can only grow in the Everfree and have magical healing properties. To be specific, these primroses were sibthorpii, and it's elegant purple can be detected in the low, wavering light. Supkaphroe resemble these roses, only they glow slightly when light is shined directly on them, similar to a mirror.
I decide that we're either at the entrance or exit of the Everfree forest. The joy of knowing where I was, was motivational.
"Colgate! I know where we are!"
"....hhhmmm...where?"
I notice that Colgate is definitely not holding up. I've decided to to pick the Supkaphroe flowers and coax Colgate to chew on them. The flower should help her along for another hour or so.
It took her 30 seconds to realize the flower was to be eaten. She chewed on it slowly, staring at the wall behind me. About a minute later, Colgate stumbled to her hooves.
"Alright, alright, smarty saddle,*huff* where the hay are we?" Colgate groaned as she stretched her legs.
"We're at one of the entrances in the Everfree. I've identified the plants in here to be...*cough* from around there."
"Fantastic, hurry the heck up. We don't have much..*cough* You get it, right?"
Colgate wasted no time in putting that horn of hers upon my forehead for, hopefully, the last time.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
I looked up at the sky and closed my eyes. Whatever the mare who's body I'm now in was doing, couldn't be as important as this. I attempted to sniff out Everfree mint leaves, which could be smelled from very far away.
"Daisy!" I hear a voice call to my direction. The sound of that name stops me in my tracks. I got that pit in my stomach that I get when I'm near creepy magic or when the firework shop by my house glows unusually bright. I turn around slowly, each sight my eyes pass by only adding to my distress, until I finally meet the gaze of the Mare who's been calling me, tears in my eyes.
"Daisy, whats wrong?" It was my friend, Lily. "Don't you like Canterlot?
Oh, Lily, you naïve little filly, you have no idea.
I stumbled back in my dismay. Canterlot was the last place I expected (and hoped) to be in. I'd never make it to the Everfree forest from here. Heck, I'd barley make it if I had wings.
"Hey, Daisy? You don't look too good."
I didn't feel too good either. I wish I could go back to my own body and inform Colgate of my dilemma. That wasn't possible, and neither was getting to the Everfree forest. Just when I was about to tell Lily the bad news, my eye caught sight of a stand selling paragliders.
A gift from Luna... I thought.
The sun lowered and gleamed on a shiny railing ahead of me, causing me to squint my eyes, allowing me to see trees from the Everfree forest, so far below Canterlot and even farther away.
A gift from Celestia I thought.
What I did after that was pretty obvious. Ignoring Lily, who was asking me questions on why I was buying a hang glider despite the fact that Daisy isn't much of a thrill seeker if the thrill is geared toward heights and such, I purchased a red-yellow-blue umbrella patterned paraglider. Without having time to hesitate due to the transaction taking longer than I'd anticipated, I galloped at full speed towards a cliff that pointed towards my destination.
"DAISY! WAIT!" I can heard Lily's frightened screams behind me. My little run left confused ponies in it's wake, but I tried not to notice them. I kept running towards the cliff's edge until there was no foothold left and I took a flying leap into the air, letting the glider catch the wind.
Surprisingly, as my hind legs kicked back, Lily had grabbed a hold of one, clutching it for dear life. She grit her teeth when she looked down so she fixated her gaze on me.
I squinted my eyes and tried to keep the glider steady, even though Lily's weight made us shift to the side a bit. I grinned wildly when the Everfree forest came in sight. For a second, I thought I heard Lily's voice, but the wind in my ears made it impossible to detect any other sound.
Finally, I could see the forest entrance after a 20 minute flight. The landing was pretty rough. I didn't know how fast I was descending until I had the ground as a reliable, yet painful point of reference. My face skid across the ground and Lily tumbled violently into a cart which exploded into thousands of Apples and splinters upon impact. Celestia knows where the glider had gone to, but I heard a branch snap, so I guess it's up in a tree.
I had no time to recover, then again, I realized how selfish that was considering I'm in Daisy's body. I staggered into the forest, looking for anything large and unusual that could be housing two ponies.
"Daisy..." I hear Lily moan as I venture deeper into the forest. I searched about everywhere. near the entrance, and released I must be near the exit. The forest was way too dark to go into, but I didn't have much of a choice. I dug my hooves into the ground and took off as fast as I can to avoid any of the mysterious creatures that lie ahead.
"Daisy...not again!!" I hear Lily whine in that cute voice of hers. I'd like to be able to hear it again, only with my own ears. If I don't make it in time, I'll die, and so will Minuette. I couldn't let that happen.
I ducked and weaved through the slew of bats and branches until I saw light peak through the canopy of the forest. Butterflies fluttered by as I watched the dim, yet warm light blanket a large sedimentary rock covered in vines. I heard heavy breathing inside.
"Daisy......."
"Lily! You have to help me open this rock!"
".....Are you okay? You've been-"
"No time! I...er Rose could die!"
"What?"
"Just help me!"
Lily hesitated a bit, but the, she picked up a large rock and heaved it at the one I instructed her to open with me. It cracked pretty good. A well placed kick and it my open.
"Hang on, Colgate..." I whisper to myself as I give the strongest kick I could muster, breaking the whole thing open.
I did It... I though. A tear rolled down my cheeks when the sound of laughter seemed to kill the moment.
Colgate was chuckling.
She giggled beside what seemed to be my unconscious body, my tongue lazily hanging out, writing the word 'gullible' on my head with a magic marker.
I woke up to see Colgate coughing up a storm.
"You failed, Rose....*cough* now we're dead."
I crossed my eyes, trying to see my forehead. Realizing the attempt was futile, I rubbed my hoof on it, seeing a black smudge come up on my hoof.
"What's going on, Colgate?" I asked, irritated.
"What do you me-"
"I though I just saved us!"
Colgate chuckled.
"Then that means, it's over."
This next part isn't funny at all. Colgate levitated the ceiling, which turned out to be a carpet, off the walls and climbed up, offering her hoof to me.
The sunlight hurt my eyes a great deal, but I kept staring up at Colgate.
"What is this?" I ask in a monotonous voice.
"Oh! I got you back for replacing my shampoo from mane dye."
I continued staring.
"You see, I found this hole by the Everfree forest and thought it was a cool hole. You were sleeping like a filly, so I grabbed you and put you in here. Then I realized, why stop there? I grabbed this bumpy rock-like rug and placed it over this hole. While you were asleep, I used a dream spell on you. Then you woke up, so I played along."
"....So....."
"Yeah, you weren't in another mare's body, that's too powerful a spell to be done more than once. I just put a knock-out spell on you and made you dream that you were, in fact, in another pony's body. "
"....and..."
"We were never in any danger."
Colgate offered her ugly hoof to me again. I took it and yanked as hard as I could, punching her as she came down. She lay unconscious on the floor. I climbed out of the trench and threw some paraísthisiflos into the hole. Paraísthisiflos...What beautiful flowers. The name comes from Greek-paraísthisi meaning hallucination and Latin- flos meaning flower. The scent of this flower gives wild hallucinations.
Colgate is gonna have a hard time trying to figure out what's going on. I'm going to the flower shop to tell Daisy and Lily of Colgate's foolish mistake.
