Tale of the Everfree Curse

Desert Rose pushed open the door and slowly walked into Rarity’s room. Rainbow Dash was practically falling out of a chair that was sitting next to the bed, while Twilight was in the corner staring out the window. Neither of them looked up as Desert Rose walked into the room. The only pony who seemed to noticed the door had even moved was Rarity herself. The jagged scar that ran from above her left brow, over her face, past her chin to the right and down her neck did not seem to be healing well. Desert Rose felt bad, as much as she hated to admit. Rarity was a pretty mare. She may have been a idiot while down in the tunnels, but nopony deserves to have their face mangled.

Desert Rose was all too familiar with scars. There was a reason she kept her coat shaggy, it hid a lot of things. Bad judgement calls, pure stupidity, and immature recklessness. Over time she had came to figure out how to grow it out to cover the more nasty ones, but sometimes they still showed through. If a pony would ever see her with short fur her body would be littered with scabrous lines. She had lived a rough life that she wanted to keep sheltered from others. Another wall to keep her sheltered from curious eyes she didn’t want prodding.

“Is there something I can help you with dear?” Rarity’s voice was the same as it ever was, smooth, elegant and in a slightly irritating pitch. Rainbow Dash finally looked over to see who had walked in.

“What are you doing here!” Rainbow did not hide the anger nor venom in her voice. She started to get up, but was stopped by Rarity.

“Dashy, please sit down. I don’t think She came to cause trouble. She would of done so by now.” She turned her head and glared down Desert Rose as to confirm her
Comment.

Desert Rose shuffled in place, trying to shake off the heavy air that was filling the room. She looked over to Twilight who was still looking out the window, and as far she could tell. Didn’t care about what was going on in the room at that moment. “Well, no. I’m not here for trouble. I actually came to see how you are doing. I may not like you, but that doesn't mean I wanted to see you get mauled like this.” She paused for a moment before speaking again. “So what did happen to you?”

“Well from what Rainbow Dash can tell me, a chunk of a wall or roof fell on me, snapping my back. But not severing my, my, my.” Rarity paused for a moment before turning to her friend. “Oh, Dash help me out what was it called?”

Twilight finally spoke up from the corner, but she still kept looking out the window. “It’s called a spinal cord.” Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity seemed surprised she had actually spoke.

“Yes, that. Miraculously it was only pinched, and you dropping me didn’t sever it. When I was finally brought here, they had to reset my back. I’m told that although my spinal thingy wasn’t severed it was damaged by the initial pinch. So while in time I’ll be able to walk again, I will have issues the rest of my life. Not to mention this horrid scar on my face.” Rarity looked over at Twilight with unease as she finished talking.

Desert Rose picked up on Rarity's uneasiness and decided to open her mouth. “So when did Twilight show up, and why is she sulking in the corner?” Desert Rose turned to Rarity who had opened her mouth to say something but again was cut off by the unicorn sitting in the corner.

“I’ve only been here for a few days. My own investigation is picking up on some rather interesting leads. And I only recently heard about what happened to you guys. Besides, Pinkie Pie has been here, and she’s been acting...weird.” Twilight’s gaze was still held at the window, and it was starting to become obvious that her thoughts were still somewhere else entirely.

“That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie darling. You can never make any sense to what that mare is up too. It’s just who she is.” Rarity seemed annoyed at having to remind Twilight of something that seemed they have been discussing a lot recently.

“OK. She’s been acting more unusual than what is normal for Pinkie Pie. She’s being more cryptic than usual and it’s driving me mad. She seems to be toying with me whenever I ask her questions. She just dances around the question. No.” Twilight paused for a brief moment and pulled he gaze down, only to return it to the window.

“This I’m sure of. She is answering me. Just speaking in tongues and riddles that I have no context to.” Twilight finally pulled her gaze from the outside and began pacing back and forth while talking. “She knows something, and she’s not giving in very easily. The only other time she acted like this was when those blasted parasprites showed up. But this is also different.”

Desert Rose finally interjected to break up Twilight's monolog with herself. “So, just what have you found out?”

Twilight seemed to be pulled back from something and finally snapped out of her trance. “Well I decided to start in the Everfree Forest, trying to retrace the steps of Golden Harvest. She had been deep within the forest when the monster had started to chase her. I still haven’t been able to find any tracks of it entering or leaving the forest. They always just stop, or start out of nowhere.” The purple mare paused for a moment, thinking about how to say what was on her mind first.

“I was able to find where she was finally overrun by our mystery beast. I found a glowing sap like substance, that I sense have found out holds an acidic property, but obviously our mare showed no signs of burn marks on her coat, or if she had, was destroyed when her ribcage exploded. She had managed to wander into town the next day. But we already knew this. I had decided to keep following her hoofsteps through town, trying to question the ponies near by if they had noticed anything. Only one of them was willing to talk to me. The rest panicked and shut me out whenever I bought her up.

“But even the single pony I got to say something to me still didn’t tell me much. Just repeated a old foals tale about a mother tree in Everfree. And warned me about sticking my snout in places it doesn’t belong.” Twilight paused before muttering to herself quitely, “I’ll stick my snout up her ass if she keeps it up.”

Desert Rose stood there for a moment. “Well, has anypony thought to ask Fluttershy?” She was met with dumbfounded looks. “Has anypony even talked to Fluttershy in the past few days?” Twilight opened her mouth, then immediately closed it.

“Wow. We aren’t very smart are we?” Desert Rose chuckled. Rainbow Dash smacked her hoof in her face as if to punish herself for her stupidity. Deep down inside, everypony else felt like doing the same.

“I’ve been stuck in a hospital bed for the last week, and she hasn’t been to visit. So no, I haven’t talked to her. Twilight? Have you tried talking to Fluttershy yet? She knows just about every creature in Equestria after all.” Rarity looked over to the unicorn now sitting again in the corner, head leaned back and let out a loud sigh.

“UGH! I can’t believe I forgot about Fluttershy!” Twilight groaned and screamed in frustration.

“You don’t have to throw a fit. Save that for after I tell AppleJack about how you wasted your time...Wait, where is she anyways?” Rainbow Dash pointed out the missing elephant in the room.

Desert Rose rolled her eyes in amusement. She let out a soft chuckle and a slight shake of her head. “I swear, ya’ll are a very forgetful bunch. Anything else you guys might have forgotten? Rainbow, how about your brain? Did you leave that somewhere?” Desert Rose ignored the evil glare she was getting. “Ok, Ya’ll sit tight. I’m going to hunt down this very cute nurse and see if she can’t get ahold of Derpy for us.”

“Derpy? Why Derpy? She's a klutz and you know it.” Rainbow Dash wasn’t fond of the idea of having the least reliable delivery pegasus help.

“This may be true, but that mare has a very keen set of eyes. She might not be able to fly well, but damn” Desert Rose let out a whistle. “That mare can scout the land like no other. And she can also stop by Fluttershy’s cottage.”

“Let me do it, I’m faster.” Rainbow Dash was eager to spread her wings again.

“And much less thorough. You leave out small details and can’t focus on a task for very long.” Desert Rose cocked a smile. “Besides, I have something else for you in mind.”

“Wait, why do you need Derpy to scout the land out?” Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side lost in thought.

“Because Applejack is still missing is she not? I can have her keep an eye out for that mare as she does her routes. You know,” Desert Rose pulled Rainbow Dash in close and swept her left front hoof through the air while she finished her sentence. “the ones that take her all over Ponyville.” Desert Rose rolled her eyes. “Pony’s seem to just cast her aside, but that mare picks up on some small details. You just need to know how to speak to her to get it out of her.”

Desert Rose let go of the angry rainbow pegasus who fluffed her feathers in disapproval. “Besides, I need you to deliver a note for me to an old acquaintance of mine. I have questions that need answers. And the faster the better. Come by my room later and I’ll have directions and the letter ready for you. And Rainbow Dash. Please, for once in your life do as you’re told in said instructions. Or you’re likely to be shot by a high condensed stream of magic, that will kill you. She’s a pretentious old mare.”

With that Desert Rose turned for the door. Before she could get very far Rarity called out and stopped her in her tracks.

“Um Desert Rose. Do you, um, mind waiting for a bit. I want to talk with you.” Rarity paused while she looked over to Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Seeing how not a pony budged, she cleared her throat and said it again. “I wish to talk to Desert Rose.” Again not even a muscle flinched. “Alone!”

Rainbow Dash looked at Rarity with grumpy eyes, slowly and reluctantly got out of her slumber chair to go wait outside. Twilight on the other hand either chose to ignore the alabaster unicorn, or didn’t hear her. Desert Rose and Rarity stared at each other for a moment before Rarity spoke up again.

The mare cleared her throat quite loudly before speaking. “Twilight, be a dear and give us two mares some alone time please.” Still nothing. She didn’t budge nor acknowledge that she had been spoken too. Desert Rose walked up to the purple unicorn and tapped her on the shoulder. With a sudden jump and a startled look upon her face she seemed to be back in reality.

“Twilight would you please leave us alone for a moment.” It took a few seconds before the purple unicorn did anything. “Um, yes. Yes not a problem Rarity. Sorry.” With that Twilight left the room.

Desert Rose turned and looked at Rarity and waited for the audible click from the latch before she spoke. “Now why did you want to be alone with me?”

Rarity cut straight to the point, “You’ve dealt with this...thing before haven’t you?”