“Mmm…” Lily’s nose scrunched at the overpowering aroma of Prench vanilla permeating the room as she stirred in her bed, slowly waking from disturbed sleep.

The now-uncorrupted mare was hot, sticky, and her mane was uncharacteristically unkempt. She rolled over again and reached for her pillow, an unusually furry pillow but its warmth felt inviting. Burying her face deep in its gently rising and falling surface, she cooed again. “What a wonderful dream!” Lily murmured into her oddly lumpy breathing mass. Groping blindly, one of her forehooves brushed up against a definitely equine form, confirmed to be a mare when she found one of Roseluck’s perky teats. No… This isn’t happening! I’m going to open my eyes and that thing will NOT be a pony!

Despite her wishes, Lily opened her eyes and beheld her uncorrupted love’s equally tangled and shabby pink and red mane and cream coat, a smile on her beautiful face. She was still sleeping soundly, and thus Lily did the first thing that came naturally to her.

She panicked, screaming until her vocal-cords nearly ripped and rolled off her bed with a loud thud with a grunt before continuing to scream.

“What? Lily?” Roseluck woke up with a start, quickly took inventory of the situation and found, much to her dismay, that two and two still equaled four. “No! Nononono NO! Lily what in Tartarus did you do to me!?” she staggered back against the far wall a horrified pose of her own.

Snapping out of her panic at the sound of Roseluck’s voice, Lily checked to see if she was still a stallion, and found her marehood had been restored. “Rose, I d-didn’t mean to do anything we just…” Lily withdrew a convenient paper bag from a drawer on her nightstand and breathed deeply, wishing she had a bigger one to hide her head in.

Roseluck’s mind stuck in overdrive, she forced herself back through the events of her ‘dream’ and remembered, “Discord!”

Lily’s panicked eyes looked up into Roseluck’s equally terrified face. “D-Discord? You mean th-that statue in the Canterlot Gardens I saw as a foal? He’s escaped!?”

“Never mind that, we’ve got to find Daisy! I’ve got to get out of this room! Daisyyy!”

Their compromising position momentarily forgotten, the two mares quickly split up and searched the house, when Roseluck remembered the greenhouse, “Lily, she’s got to be outside!” she called out.

“O-okay!” The pink mare called back, following her friend out the door.

Roseluck saw the greenhouse from a distance and immediately noticed missing panes of greenhouse glass, and unmistakable signs of destruction inside. “No! Daisy!” Celestia, please let her be alive… she ran for the ruined structure as fast as she could, Lily at her side.

“Lily! Rose! Be careful; there’s broken glass everywhere!” Daisy’s voice called back from behind the door which was impossibly still standing amidst the desolate ruin.

Greatly relieved to hear her friend’s voice, Roseluck opened the barely-intact door to find Daisy huddled around a half dozen pots filled with dirt she’d managed to find among the wreckage. “Daisy, you’re okay!” she proclaimed with an equally relieved smile as Lily nearly fainted again.

“Oh, I’m more than okay!” Daisy gestured toward the filled pots, her cheery face aglow. “My babies are going to be alright! I’ve cleansed them, Rose!” Daisy jumped up and down on all four hooves in a shocking display of irrational exuberance usually reserved for Ponyville’s resident party planner.

“Your… your babies? What in the name of Starswirl's left marble happened to your plant!?” Roseluck said incredulously, staring with jaw-dropped at brown and lifeless remains of the tentaculous as she carefully stepped around the ruins of the greenhouse to get a better look at Daisy's ‘babies’. And why does she smell like she got tucked in by a dozen stallions at a Neighican restaurant?

Daisy stopped pronking and gestured toward the plant, her face apologetic. “I don’t mean to appear callous, Rose, but like I said, outside of the forest, my little guy wasn’t going to last long. Once he was purified fully... it was all over for him.” Daisy gave the lifeless plant a sad look, bowing her head and ears in its direction. When she looked back at Roseluck, she’d looked hopeful once more. “But the nightmare is over for its children — our children,” she added quickly, smiling at and kissing a dark green primary tendril poking out of the dirt on all but one of them. “I think Winston here is going to be a late bloomer!”

Roseluck just stood there and gawked at the mother mare. Celestia, help me. Only the dead can know peace from this horror!

Lily Valley arrived, out of breath and equally traumatized at the sight of the chaos and destruction. “D-Daisy, the greenhouse!”

Daisy gave a nervous laugh. “It doesn’t look good, does it? Can you gals help me salvage what we can?

The two of them nodded, devoutly thankful to have something to occupy themselves with other than think about the two horrendously traumatizing events that had just happened.

*****

As the three mares toiled away at moving everything of value out of the greenhouse, a lavender unicorn wearing a saddlebag with her starburst cutie mark monogrammed into the side approached the flower shop at a run.

“Oh my goodness! Is everypony alright?”

The three instantly recognized her as the town librarian and occasional savior, Twilight Sparkle. “It was Discord!” Roseluck said angrily, “He made me get tucked in by a mare — he made all of this happen!” The yellow-coated rose aficionado corrected herself too late, whispering “Darn it!” under her breath as she hid her burning face from the others.

“Our plants, our home, it’s a disaster!” Lily Valley wailed, rearing up on her hind hooves and striking her horrified pose again.

Twilight Sparkle nodded sadly, “I’ve been all over Ponyville and seen the destruction. If it makes things any better, Discord has been banished to his stone prison once more and he won’t be able to cause us any more trouble.” Twilight placed a forehoof on Daisy’s shoulder. “You should also know that your friends and neighbors will help you however we can!”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Daisy replied with a wan smile. “Actually, could you send the fine ponies of the The Royal Society of Canterlot Botanists a message letting them know that I’ve successfully cleansed the Everfree Tentaculus? I need to get the offspring to them so they can continue their research into cleansing the Everfree.”

Twilight Sparkle broke out into a huge grin. “You did!? Through all of the chaos of Discord’s emergence, you managed to achieve a major scientific breakthrough? That’s wonderful!” she clopped her forehooves together happily. “And how did you do it?”

“Well… you’ll get my report later,” was all Daisy would say, looking strangely evasive. As she spoke, Roseluck’s face turned white beneath her fur as she brought a hoof to her mouth, having strong suspicions about Daisy’s ‘scientific breakthrough’. “I think I’m gonna… excuse me…” she ran off behind the house and out of sight to go empty her stomach, from what Daisy had done as much as from the renewed realization of what she’d done with Lily.

Lily’s stomach likewise churned, thinking of all the ‘vanilla’ she’d consumed that day and what she’d done to her roommate in the process. “Ditto!” She rushed off to the wooded lot separating the backyard from the main road.

Daisy watched them leave with some confusion while Twilight bowed her ears, frowning. “Poor, Rose, and Lily. They must really be traumatized by what’s happened.” Twilight withdrew a scroll from her saddlebag with her magic and began making notes on what she saw. “I’ll send that message to Canterlot for you, and I’ll keep your tentaculae specimens safe back at Golden Oaks under an Incubation Field Spell. I’ve also put your name on the list of damaged homes to be repaired.”

“Thank you, Twilight. Just please be careful with my babies, will you?” Daisy’s eyes welled up with tears.

“Uhh, right!” Twilight grinned awkwardly at Daisy's uncharacteristically upbeat attitude in the face of Ponyville's devastation to say nothing of the odd smells the botanist was giving off. She smelled very much like she'd had an orgy with the contents of a taco wagon.

Twilight couldn't help but marvel at the destruction of the greenhouse but was too scared to ask exactly what had happened, being spooked enough by what she'd already encountered in the aftermath of Discord. In Roseluck's testimony of being tucked by a mare was any indication, she was better off not asking. “They’ll be in good hooves! I also think you can expect to have your name placed in the scientific literature and receive substantial compensation for your research notes!”

Daisy gave the lavender unicorn a nervous smile as she considered her next words with the utmost care. Oh hay! They’ll obviously be wanting to know how I did it on top of everything. I wonder if I should trust them to keep quiet or lie through my teeth? I shouldn't have to give the researchers a practical demonstration since they have a cleansed set to breed from, at least for now. Hopefully... Ugh! Giving an airy laugh she finally replied. “Oh, I’m not much for notes but I’ll be able to explain the gist of it to them later. Earth pony magic isn’t exactly the easiest thing to measure or explain, is it?”

“That’s true enough, I suppose...” Twilight stowed her scroll away neatly in her saddlebag, raising a skeptical eyeridge, but decided against raising her concerns over sloppy field research given the circumstances. Having shelved her concerns, she gave Daisy a warm smile. "You've certainly demonstrated a practical solution even if a total understanding of your methods will require additional research to comprehend. What's really important is if you or your friends need anything in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to ask me or one of my friends.”

Daisy silently gave thanks to the goddesses above for their timely intervention. “Thank you so much Twilight!”

Having secured Daisy’s tentaculae carefully in her magical grasp, she waved goodbye to Daisy, teleporting back to the Golden Oaks Library.

Such a nice mare! Daisy’s gut panged at the thought of her tentaculae children being out of her hooves but being a rationalist knew that the researchers needed as many live samples as possible to ensure their ultimate survival. She also knew there was no way her roommates would live or work within one-square-mile of a tentaculous.

Daisy approached the front door to the house, thinking the first thing she was going to do was get something to drink. I wonder what’s up with those two mares anyway? Finding the door unlocked, she walked inside...

“EEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

~ The End... or is it? ~

Author's Note

By mutual agreement, the three of them agreed never to speak about it to anypony.

Thanks for putting the idea in my head and editing my story, Firesight!

Edit 11/18/2016 and 11/26/2016 Bringing the story up to my current writing standards.

Edit 5/27/2017 Fertile Ground: The Director's Cut edit complete!

Edit 11/17/2017 I'm still editing this thing! Yes, really. Fertile Ground is the only story of mine I actually read and I'm proud of it. If you're a second-time FG reader I hope the changes made the experience more enjoyable for you. Thanks for your view!

Edit 5/22/2018 Grammarly edit complete.

12/1/2018: This chapter has been extensively modified yet again, particularly in the first Lily/Rose sex scene which was heavily changed. It hasn't been a busy year for me writing but I'll never stop updating Fertile Ground to showcase what I've learned. It's my baby.

1/5/2020: New edits applied to bring Fertile Ground up to my new standard of quality. Happy New Year's everyone!

10/7-8/2020 Substantial edits applied. My, I used to create such large paragraphs. Going to split this story into proper chapters. It's grown quite a lot since 2015.