Roseluck sat in her walled garden, tending to her rose bushes with a lifeless expression. After she made her rounds, watering both the roses that clung to her ominously tall cast-iron fences and the shorter bushes of pansies and other assorted flowers that sat in dignified rows in her lawn, she retired to her cobblestone cabin for the day, relaxing on her chesterfield.
“Hey!”
The voice startled her, yet she recognized it. A powder blue pegasus with a sleek blonde mane and tail looked around the garden, but her attention focused on the tall rose bushes. Something was… off about them, yet she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. Shaking her head, she bounced into the cabin with a bright smile. “How are ya, Lucky?”
“Sorry, Helia. Can’t talk.” Roseluck remained emotionless, only flinching slightly at the nickname Helia used for her. She walked to her bedroom, locking the door behind her. Helia flew up to the door but was too late.
“C’mon! Roseluck, let me in!” Her hooves clopped against the maple door, but Roseluck remained plopped on her bed, the only movement being the slow sighing of her breast.
~~~
Roseluck trotted happily into Ponyville, her eyes bright and her tail bushy. She joyfully greeted all the ponies that passed until she came across a brightly painted storefront, decorated with wreaths of an assortment of flowers. “This must be the place in the newspaper ad!” She thought to herself, walking inside.
The interior was almost as beautiful as the exterior, though in a more rustic way, with bare wooden walls adorned with the odd bouquet of flowers here and there. Two earth mares poked their heads above the store’s countertop.
“Welcome to the Fun N’ Flora Flower Shop!” The first one chirped. Her strawberry blonde mane was swept gracefully to one side, with a white Lily placed behind a warm-toned pink ear. “I’m Lily Valley, and this is Flower Wishes!”
The other pony bowed. Her body was a neon pink and her hair neon green as if she had been coloured by a preschooler who only had access to highlighters. She shook Roseluck’s hoof cheerfully. “Yes, welcome! I take it you’re here for the open position?”
“Yes, actually! How… how did you know?” Roseluck tilted her head to the side, musing her.
“Your cutie mark was the first clue.” Flower winked. “A pony with talent in the growth of flowers doesn’t come to our shop to buy flowers that are already grown! They’d do that themselves!”
“Heh, was I that obvious?” Roseluck covered her flank sheepishly, chuckling to herself.
“Come on, no filly-daddling! There’s something we need to show you.” Lily trotted behind the counter and out the back door of the building, and the other mares followed suit. Their backyard held many beautiful flowers of all shapes and sizes, but in the middle sat an unnaturally tall rose bush, littered with wilting flowers and yellowed leaves. To Roseluck’s surprise, the remaining flowers were a beautiful bright blue.
“This… can’t be possible!” She exclaimed. Holding one of the wilted flowers daintily in her hoof. “How did you manage to cultivate such bright blue roses?!”
“Well, thanks to the help of Sunshine Petal, she used her magic to create a rose seed with the added gene of a blue hue! She’s since left the project, but we can’t get the darn thing to stay alive!” Flower kicked the ground, but Roseluck noticed how mucky it was. Shoving her own hoof in the dirt, she confirmed that it was far too wet, as her hoof sunk right in.
“How often are you watering this bush?” Roseluck turned to the other ponies.
“About once a day… why?” Lily asked shyly. “We’ve never grown roses before…”
“Ah, that explains it,” Roseluck observed. “Roses only need to be watered once a week, given Ponyville’s climate. Since today is Monday, don’t water it again until next Monday. Let’s see if that improves things.”
“Wow! See? I told you she was the right pony for the job!” Flower exclaimed, but Roseluck looked confused.
“Hmm? You never said that,” Roseluck said.
“Oh! Silly me.” Flower laughed. “I saw you in the paper a few weeks back! You were given an award for your help with the Canterlot wedding and Twilight’s coronation! That’s very impressive.”
“Gosh, it’s… it’s nothing…” Roseluck blushed, kicking a hoof in embarrassment.
“Nonsense! But feel free to take today off. Get acquainted with future customers, perhaps. Oh! But take this first.” Flower handed her a hoof full of seeds. “We collected them from some of the rose hips when it was still thriving. Surely you have a garden at home, yes? Because these would make a lovely fence accent!”
“Oh, I do. There’s a little stone house just inside Everfree Forest I live in. Everypony else is too afraid to live in it, so I basically got it for free! It’s a lovely little home,” Roseluck explained. When the others had nothing else to say, she trotted home happily.
~~~
When Roseluck woke up the next morning, Helia had left her post outside her door. Cautiously, she opened it and looked around the inside of her home, not seeing anyone. That was when she heard the rain pattering on her cobblestone walls.
Roseluck trotted outside, and to her annoyance, it was in fact raining. The rain itself didn’t bother her -- she found it calming, in fact -- but rather, because she watered the roses yesterday, it meant they would be flooded. She sighed, tipping her head up and letting the rain trickle onto her face and down her chin. Considering how nice the temperature was that day, Roseluck figured she should eat her breakfast outside, under the protection of her umbrella hanging above her picnic chair.
So she prepared herself a bowl of oat-based cereal, garnished with small bits of strawberry and blueberry. After dousing it in milk, she took the bowl and headed to the picnic table, taking slow, calculated bites. She thought eating outside more often would brighten her mood. It did not.
“Lucky.”
That voice. It cut through Roseluck’s ribcage like a knife, and she looked in her peripheral vision to see Flower Wishes limping towards the gate of her house, her front left hoof wrapped in a cast. Tears pricked the edges of Roseluck’s eyes as she tried to look as though she hadn’t heard the voice, but the heaving of her sides was a dead giveaway.
“I know you heard me, Lucky. Let me in.”
Roseluck walked over slowly, trying to keep her face blank so that Flower couldn’t sense her thoughts. “I have no obligation to speak with you. Leave.”
“Well, now Roseluck, I don’t think that’s any way to talk to an old marefriend of yours.”
