Hay Fever

Withania woke up in her bed, the late morning sun peeking between the curtains in a line that had slowly traveled over the pillow until it cast over the sleeping pony’s eye. She raised one foreleg and looked at the pale green petals on her fur. Hadn’t she brushed them out yet?

Of course, I got eaten… and then somehow regrew again… How did I get home? I found Flitter and Cloud Chase- OH NO…

She whipped back the covers and saw her normal stocky chest and barrel in front of her.

“No no no!” she muttered, clattering down the stairs, “I can’t have digested two ponies and dropped the weight overnight! Maybe it hasn’t been a full day, if I take the potion now they might be okay!”

Mane a mess and leaving a trail of petals in her wake, she cantered through the kitchen, out the door, swept the sliding door of the bigger greenhouse open - and then stopped dead in her tracks.

Sitting at her writing desk was Princess Twilight Sparkle.

The local heroine and Princess of Friendship had Withania’s various note books arranged in front of her, as well as her battered microscope. She also seemed to be taking notes on the chemistry set that Withania was using to distil her reformation potion.

“P-p-Princess!” stuttered the earth pony, dropping to one knee.

“Hello Withania. I suppose you’re looking for this?” replied the alicorn, holding up a vial of deep purple potion in her levitation magic. “Don’t worry, you don’t need it. Flitter and Cloud Chaser are fine, but we’ll get to that. First thing’s first, can you control yourself right now?”

Withania stared at her slack jawed while she processed this information. The two pegasi she’d eaten were apparently safe, so that was that panic over. Now she was just in more trouble than she’d ever imagined possible.

“Yes,” she said, understanding what Twilight was implying, “Yesterday morning was just… things were out of hand… I- Oh no not again!” Withania shut her mouth and covered her nose with one hoof self-consciously.

“Oh don’t worry about that either, I’m an alicorn. We’re incredibly resistant to mind-affecting spells or effects,” said Twilight, waving her concern aside. Immediately after saying this she breathed in and then had to shake her head, as if dislodging something. “Wow, although I have to admit I can see why you had ponies literally begging for you to eat them. Your pollen has quite a kick…”

Withania crouched down on the cool flagstones with her forelegs over her face and groaned. “Princess I’m so sorry- I didn’t mean for any of this, it all got out of control so fast and I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t even know what I am anymore…”

“Please, call me Twilight - and trust me, I know how it feels to be responsible for a situation getting out of hand, that’s why I’ve come here to help you.”

“I don’t think you’ve managed to mutate into a pony-eating plant-hybrid before,” mumbled Withania.

“Maybe not, but I was the one who brainwashed all of ponyville into irrational lust for a childhood toy. Boy, was Princess Celestia mad with me when she found out what happened!”

“That was you?” asked the earth pony, uncovering her eyes to look up at the infallible alicorn. “I remember that happening - just not… what exactly happened.”

“Yes, that was me who did that,” chuckled Twilight. “The important thing is getting help when you need it. Now, I hope you don’t mind but I made up some of your tea, since I didn’t know how long you’d be asleep for. Would you like some?”

Withania nodded and upended a wooden crate in the corner to use as a second stool, while Twilight poured them both tea from her chipped teapot. She hadn’t used that tea pot in years, but the idea of sharing it with a new friend in her green house was suddenly the most comforting thing she’d felt all week.

Figures that the Princess of Friendship would know what to do… she thought gratefully.

“So…” began Twilight, adjusting the position of the notes and journals on Withania’s scuffed workbench. She sat as if at her own writing desk, but Withania didn’t mind. She actually felt flattered to see her battered equipment and notes being used in such an ‘official’ manner.

“I’ve read your reports about the Magnus Tegmen - which by the way is quite amazing, between that and this whole garden I would love to sit down and pick your brain about horticulture - and so I understand why you have the petals and vines. But when I magically removed Flitter and Cloud Chaser from you, they were in some kind of stasis matching your description of the Magnus Tegmen - and you didn’t mention any of that in your journal. Since there’s no way you could’ve gone all these months without knowing you’d been changed by the flower, I’m assuming that something happened to you recently - specifically a couple of days ago?”

“Yes, I was uh… using the Tegmen on Sunday,” explained Withania, picking her words carefully, “And it was a bit more aggressive than usual - but then I was kind of coaxing it on. Princess, now that you’re an alicorn do you feel earth pony magic in you as well?”

“Please Withania, ‘Twilight’ is fine!” she replied, touching Withania’s hoof with her own. “I have to admit I haven’t explored it much since Unicorn magic is much more… direct, but yes I do feel a sort of… empathy with nature that wasn’t there before.”

“Well, you see I don’t think the Tegmen did this naturally, I think it was me creating a bond with it that caused this to happen - it would explain why it didn’t happen the first time either. This was the third time, and the next morning I woke up to find that I’d been physically changed by the plant. My stomach seems to be a nectar reservoir, the nectar seems to be in my mouth, throat, and uh… everywhere else… I’m also fairly sure that I’m photosynthesising, the sun just, makes me feel more awake; I can just keep going while the sun is out.”

“Fascinating…” remarked Twilight, rapidly scrawling notes on her own roll of paper, while looking at the diagrams Withania had drawn in her journals. “And the pollen breath? I can see from here that you’re not breathing at all. How does that work?”

“I’m not sure… That bit is kind of the downside right now, the other changes haven’t really been a problem - I can still eat normal food and everything. But I need to breath out to speak still, and when I do - well, I think you know that bit.”

“Mhmm. While I was looking for you I spoke to Zecora and she said that a face mask had protected her, but based on theories your nectar is all part of the same effect, so wearing a mask yourself won’t stop it. We’ll come back to that problem… What happened after you saw Zecora? You seemed to disappear for half a day before I found you with Flitter and Cloud Chaser.”

“Well… I got attacked my timberwolves. And eaten. And then the wolf that ate me uh… passed a seed that I think is somewhere inside me. And it grew into a smaller Tegmen flower that reformed me.”

“You regrew?” clarified Twilight, her eyebrows raising incredulously, “Oh we have got to get you to my lab so I can study you properly… I’ve never seen anything like this- Poison Joke can do amazing things, but its effect is magical by nature; your transformation seems to be biological which is simply astonishing!”

Withania’s ears drooped as she heard this - Twilight was going to take her away. I suppose it’s for the best… I’ve proven that I’m dangerous right now. Hopefully I’ll get put somewhere with a window at least.

“Alright,” she said tonelessly, “Can I arrange to have someone finish off my orders for this week, and make sure the garden gets watered?”

“This week?” Twilight said, looking confused, “Oh we’ll only be a couple of hours- I expect you have a lot to do after being out all of yesterday too…”

“But… aren’t you arresting me or something?”

“Oh Withania! No! You’re fine- no one got hurt. We all look out for each other to stop bad things happening. I think I have a lot to fill you in on… but let’s do that while I give you a check up. What chores do you need done this afternoon? I’ll get Spike to do them for you.”

“Uhh… well the garden needs watering, and that box there needs to be delivered to the Spa, and then I need to do a stock-take of the herb garden in the other greenhouse...” she listed, watching Twilight added things items to her notes.

“No problem. Alright let’s go!” announced Twilight. Then with no warning whatsoever Withania felt an immense magical aura around her, a split second later the entire world turned inside out and she was in a completely different room.

Twilight was wearing a lab coat. The earth pony was still sitting on the crate and holding half a cup of tea. Withania dared not move, looking around the room without moving her head, as if she expected to get blinked out of existence any moment.

The room was roughly rounded, but with irregular walls, as if they were inside a huge tree trunk bigger than Withania’s house. The walls were crystalline, with dozens of twinkling lights hanging from the ceiling that combined into a bright, flat light across the whole room. A spiral staircase on the far side revealed that they were most likely underground - probably in the basement of Twilight’s crystal-tree-castle thing, Withania figured.

“You said you had a lot to fill me in on - what did you mean by that? Is this why you don’t seem that worried that I ate two other ponies?”

“Correct,” replied Twilight, walking around the room and arranging laboratory equipment for use, “Predation isn’t exactly illegal, it’s just handled on a need-to-know basis. The Equestrian Royalty has practised it for years, which has rubbed off onto other private social circles - some of which you’ve already encountered.”

“But why?” Withania asked, “I thought it was just a weird kink that myself and a few others had…”

“Think about it Withania,” the princess explained, “Once upon a time we ran out of necessity to escape from danger - now we run for recreation. Once upon a time we mated purely for procreation and survive the genepool - now we do it for love. Once upon a time we preyed on others to survive… Is it at all surprising that we now find ourselves doing it for pleasure?”

“Why is it a secret then?”

“Need-to-know basis,” corrected Twilight, “When we hear of a new predator, we advise them about a civil code of conduct. We can’t have ponies dying of course, so we make sure that predators know how to cast the BACKUP spell, or some other protection for their prey. If everypony and their husband were preying on each other it would be incredibly difficult to maintain order. By regulating the practise, ponies in the know can enjoy themselves in private.”

“Backup?”

“Yes… Balducci Almond's Conjured Kinetic Undigesting Prestidigitation. In laypony’s terms - the reformation spell. You must know it already because it’s the spell you managed to infuse into a potion - which might I add is quite impressive, you clearly have more talents than just gardening - I believe you got it from Mulberry Tart? And yes, we know about Mulberry. She’s one of the more… adventurous predators. But we turn a blind eye because she’s quite apt at covering her tracks.”

Withania sipped from the tea cup still in her hoof, her mind reeling at this information. Suddenly she felt that she’d been opened up to a much larger conspiracy that was far beyond what she thought she knew about predation.

“Okay Withania, please stand in front of this screen for me and try to hold still!” said the princess, arranging a large white sheet of paper resembling a low-mounted projector screen.

Withania put down her tea and walked over and stood as directed, so that the screen was on her left. Twilight sat down facing the screen and took a deep breath. There was a loud hum of her magical aura - but looking out of the corner of her eye Withania didn’t see anything glowing, not even the alicorn’s horn.

“Thank you, you can move now,” Twilight said. Then she pushed over a large flood lamp on a wheeled stand and pointed it at the screen. Withania squinted as the lamp turned on, and then murmured a surprised ‘Wow!’ as an image formed - a perfect silhouette of how she’d been standing, but all of her internal organs were visible as grey shapes of varying shadow.

Twilight sat just a few inches away from the canvas with her brow furrowed as she studied the cross-section. “H’mm…” she said, “The proportions of your body have changed. Your lungs should be this big, but they’ve shrunk considerably. You would be struggling for air if you still needed to breathe. In exchange for that, your esophagus and stomach is noticeably larger - making it much easier for your to swallow things whole. You can see the reservoir of nectar taking up all this space in your stomach as well - doesn’t that make you feel bloated?”

“Not really,” replied Withania, self-consciously rubbing her middle with one hoof, “I feel a little heavier, but it… it sort of feels good if I’m honest…”

“It’s like the nectar saliva then, you’ve acclimatised to the sensations. Look at that, your heart is completely encased in something- that must be the seed you regrow from - amazing! Your lower gut is enlarged as well… intestines seem much shorter, but wider, able to handle bigger things. The Tegmen Flower doesn’t digest its prey- but your body seems to be fully equipped for that still.”

“What… what condition were Flitter and Cloud Chaser in?”

“Soft, but quite intact. This is probably to do with the Tegmen’s multiple stages. Maybe you can chose - subconsciously or willingly - if your prey is suspended or digested. It’s difficult to know what’s going on without seeing a demonstration though. I think I’d better go in and take a look from the inside.”

Withania blinked, lowering her hoof again to stare at Twilight. “Come again?”

“I’ll see from the inside,” repeated Twilight, “You eat me and then I can watch the entire process first and, and we’ll find out what’s really happening in there.”