Petals in the Wind

Under normal circumstances, Roseluck never would have dared to even come close to the Everfree Forest, it was full of monsters and strange plants, nothing that any normal pony like her would want to be around at any time. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were considered national heroes, and not even they could just walk in and out of the forest like it was no problem at all, and she could not see just how Zecora managed to live in there all the time.

Today however, was not a normal day. It had been a quiet day, and since Daisy and Lily had went to the Manehatten Gardening Fair for the week, Rose was all on her own. They had asked her to come along of course, but Roseluck never liked big, most likely crowded events, so she stayed behind in Ponyville. Nothing special had happened in the two days since they left, but one certain customer destroyed the blissful normality. A noble pony, who had apparently somehow heard of the little flower shop that they ran, and had come down all the from Canterlot to request a certain type of fertilizer that required sap which could only be found deep in the Everfree. Roseluck knew the material, very rare, but the effect it had on a plant was extreme. It could make a tree grow to its full height in a few months, and any flower that it was used on would have the most radiant colors. She had been very reluctant about the offer at first, but when the noble offered her several thousand bits depending on just how much she she could bring him and was ready to pay two thousand up front, Roseluck was easily swayed to accept his offer.

So, she set out for the Everfree that same afternoon, with two buckets and a knife to open the trees. After a good two hours of walking she finally found the first tree containing the precious liquid, and after making out a good spot carved a hole for the sap to flow. This one tree did not hold much, but she wouldn’t be deterred. The deeper she got into the Everfree the more sap was contained in the trees, and  another hour later both of her buckets were full. By this time it was slowly getting dark, and Roseluck realized she needed to hurry if she wanted to get out of the Everfree, since not only did the more vicious of it’s creatures come out mostly at night, but her plan to get out relied on her ability to tell which trees she had drained , and from the first one out she had remembered several good orientation points. She fell into a fast trot, the undergrowth of the Everfree didn’t allow her a gallop without running a high risk of tripping, and if she did, the whole trip would have been for nothing.

Half an hour later she reached the first tree again, and from there onwards made her way past a patch of Poison Joke, over the hill from which one could see the old castle of the two sisters and from there on it was a straight line to Ponyville. This wasn’t the fastest route that one could possibly take, but it was generally known to be one of the safer paths that one could take if they found themselves off off the actual path leading past Zecora’s house into the Whitetail Woods. Roseluck had been on her way for almost two hours when the sun completely set, and she had to slow down again, since the lack of vision made the way even more treacherous. Even with the very quick rise of the moon, it’s light wasn’t strong enough to really illuminate the ground below the thick cover of the trees, and only when she reached a clearing could Roseluck really see what was in front of her. In the middle of the clearing sat a Mahr, a vicious being of the night. They were rarely seen, and if they ever left the confines of the Everfree they could simply be driven back with light, but as Roseluck had no lamp or anything of the likes on her, she froze in place and simply stared at it. It looked like a small monkey with great claws, and was shrouded in a dark mist of black magic. If the legend was to be believed they are beings created by the evil King Sombra, in an attempt to usurp Equestria. They weren’t dangerous in the same way that a manticore or a pack of Timberwolves were, but were more similar to changelings in nature. If they caught a pony they would latch onto it and drain them of their will to do anything. It was curable, but if one pony was caught out alone in the Everfree they wouldn’t be able to leave, since they’d lose interest in walkling, and had to be carried everywhere.

Roseluck contemplated on what she should do. It obviously hadn’t seen her yet, otherwise it would already be attacking her. She needed to go through this clearing if she wanted to get back to Ponyville, and simply going around was a problem since she would easily lose her way in the dark thicket of the forest. She also couldn’t just wait for it to leave, whatever it was that was keeping its interest fixed could disappear any moment. She decided to try and sneak past it until she could re-enter the forest and continue walking in a straight line, it was dangerous, but she feared the possibility of getting lost more. It worked out smoothly until the halfway point of her path was reached, the beast appeared to be staring intensely at the moon, until Roseluck stepped on a small branch that she hadn’t seen. The crack immediately caused the beast to turn its head and stare straight at Roseluck, and for a moment everything was silent. Then it let out a high-pitched scream, what caused Roseluck to scream herself, and lunged at her.

Roseluck turned on her heel and started galloping away as fast as she could. She stopped caring about the sap that she was carrying, her life was more important to her than the bits she was getting for this. She mentally cursed herself for even agreeing to this, she should have known that something just had to go wrong. She ran and ran, and constantly there was the sound of the Mahr’s claws scraping it the trees as it was swinging behind her. It continuously gained on her, but it couldn’t seem to find a good point to actually attack her and it still had to react to Roselucks movements and turns, so they were locked in this chase for quite a while, until Roselucks hoof got stuck in an outstanding root, she stumbled and slowed down, and the Mahr took the opportunity to jump on her back. It dug its claws into her backside and she screamed again, this time out of pain. Before the Mahr could start draining her though, she shook vigorously and managed to get one of the buckets that were hanging by her side to jump up and tip over the beast, dousing it in sap and getting it’s head stuck in the bucket. It let go of her back and tried to pull the bucket of of it’s head, and since it had no grip anymore it slipped off of Roselucks back and fell onto the ground, still fighting with the bucket.

She continued to run for a while longer, and, when she finally stopped and gathered her breath realised that she was completely lost. It was deep into the night by now, and only the occasional hole in the ceiling of leaves let a bit of moonlight pass through. At this very moment all that Roseluck wanted to do was lie down and cry. Everything had gone wrong. She was lost, hurt and cold, she had lost half of her produce and there could be even more dangers lurking in the night, just waiting for her to come by. She wanted to go home, to snuggle into her bed and sleep, dream a nice dream, wake up again and just continue on in her cycle of normality. ‘No. I can’t allow myself to freeze up with fear now. I’ve managed to escaped one terror, I can get through this night just as well. Come on Roseluck, remember what you learned in the Fillyscouts. First I need to find some shelter. Then I can worry about everything else.’, she thought and continued walking. The wound in her back hurt with every step, but she pressed on through the night. Finally, after another half an hour of walking she found a small cave. She ignored any thoughts that there could be even more danger in there, and walked in.

It wasn’t a big cave, but it was empty and provided her with a concrete ceiling, a dry floor to sleep on and a few stalagmites to provide some cover of sight. The run from the Mahr and walking the whole day had tired her out extremely, to the point where she ignored the pain in her backside and simply laid down to sleep. ‘Tomorrow.’, she thought to herself. ‘Tomorrow I will take care of everything.’