Roseluck has a Very Good Day
"Um, Rainbow?" Twilight said uncomfortably. The purple unicorn chewed her lip nervously, unsure of what she was going to say.
The rainbow maned pony across from her gave a questioning glance. "What?"
"Well, uh," Twilight grinned sheepishly, "Remember when I said there might be some small risks with the spell?"
"Yeah?"
"Well," Twilight extended the word for as long as her lungs would let her. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
"Spit it out, Twi."
"I, uh, lost your wings."
"You lost my wings?"
"Yes."
Rainbow looked at her friend blankly for a moment. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. "That's a good one, Twilight. My wings are right here." She arched her back, flaring her wings. Nothing happened. The cyan mare looked back at her back. Her eyes went wide. "My wings! They're gone."
Twilight nodded.
"Put them back!" Rainbow Dash said frantically, "Make them come back."
"Ah, yeah," Twilight winced, sucking a breath through her teeth. "I can't."
"You can't? Why not?"
"I don't really know what I did wrong in the first place. Until I do, I can't fix your wings."
"But I need my wings. I can't fly without them."
Twilight nodded sympathetically. "I know."
The lavender unicorn reviewed her notes while the pegasus collapsed in despair. As far as she could tell, she'd done everything right. She'd said everything she needed to say - including the nonsense phrases - she'd shaken her right hoof when she had to and wiggled her left hoof on time. She'd even spent three hours preparing the flowers. There was no reason for such a catastrophe. Unless, of course...
"Rainbow?"
The sobbing mare stared up her friend. Her voice trembled when she spoke, like a child learning the truth about the family cat. "Yes?'
"Are you allergic to daisies?"
"N-no. Only lilies. And peanuts."
"Oh."
Twilight sighed, triple checking her notes for the third time. Either she'd find out what she did wrong, or she'd grow the pegasus's wings back.
Hours earlier...
Roseluck sighed, pushing her way into Ponyville's library. The cart full of flowers wouldn't fit through the door, so she left them outside. It was highly unlikely anypony would steal a bunch of flowers. In Ponyville, it was unlikely somepony would steal anything. Except for the occasional pair of slippers.
The library was a disaster. Not a single book was on its shelf. Instead, they were piled up to use as tables. Beakers, scrolls, and various junk lined the shelves and cluttered the book-tables. Rose wound her way to the unicorn, being extra careful not to bump into any of the glass instruments. Celestia knows what was bubbling inside.
"Uh, hello," Rose said quietly, hoping she didn't startle the purple pony.
"Oh. Hi, Rose," Twilight greeted cheerily. She looked up from her notes, which covered the only real table in the library's lobby. "Thank you so much for doing this. I know it's short notice."
"No problem. Glad I could help." Rose paused. "Er, if you don't mind me asking, what are you working on? It's not everyday somepony asks for a hundred daisies."
Rose regretted the question almost as soon as she said the words. She didn't know Twilight very well, but she'd heard a lot about the unicorn. Twilight's eyes glinted. Her smile widened. If Rose hadn't known better, she'd claim the pony literally started to glow. All this could mean only one thing: Science. Twilight was going to lecture.
"Well, for the past couple years, I've been working on experiments with sound. Specifically, I want to see if there's a way to make sound move faster. To be able to force soundwaves to move faster than the known speed of sound. I'll admit, there's not really a practical use. Yet. But if we could sound move faster than itself, there's no telling what else we could do. We could start trying to move physical-"
Rose stopped paying attention. She wanted to escape, but there was no nice way to do it. So she tuned the unicorn out, nodding when it seemed appropriate. All the sciencey mumbo jumbo was above her. What she could understand didn't really help her. Apparently, the daisies and all the lab equipment had little to do with the sound thingy. Twilight was working on a spell that would allow that awful pegasus friend of hers to fly even faster. What's-her-name would be able to break the sound barrier with less effort and, 'hopefully,' less risk. Then Twilight could start testing her sound thingy.
After the second hour, Roseluck finally became too bored to care about appearances. Rude or not, she couldn't listen to the mechanics and dangers of crafting a new spell - with examples in elaborate detail - any longer. She stood, shakily since her hind legs were asleep.
"Well, that's fascinating, Twilight," the tan pony said with as much fake enthusiasm as she could muster. "But I really must get going. I, uh, think I left the tea kettle on."
"Oh, okay. I'll be sure to let you know how the experiment goes."
"Thanks," said Rose flatly. "Your flowers are right outside. Return the cart when you get a chance."
Earlier...
Roseluck never thought of herself as a mare of hate. Usually, she loved life and all its living things. But sometimes, she woke up on the wrong side - the right side - of the bed. Today was one of those days.
All she wanted when she came downstairs was a bagel. Preferably with some cream cheese. Unfortunately, Lily ate the last bagel. Actually, the dark pink pony ate the last three. And she drank all the orange juice. Rose forced herself to eat a couple blueberry pancakes. She hated blueberries.
Her attitude declined from there. Originally, she planned to eat her bagel and be on her way. After work, she could curl up with a sleazy romance novel. Instead, she just became bitter. She was consumed in hatred. She hated blueberries. She hated rabbits. She hated snakes too. Come to think of it, she hated a lot of things. Chairs, coffee, alarm clocks, ponies who wore socks and sandals, opera, pears, and, above all else, flowers.
Rose had never known anything but the life of a florist. She had grown up in Canterlot, under the guardianship of the Royal Flower Arranger. Roseluck had never known her parents. They were delicately murdered in an alley behind an opera house on her first birthday. So delicately, it took three hours of poking them with sticks to determine whether or not they were sleeping.
The Royal Flower Arranger was a nice pony, but he was only concerned with flowers. He managed, somehow, to change every conversation to something about plants. Rose was much less concerned. He tried to teach her about gardening and floral arranging, but Rose couldn't retain the information. Not that she even tained it in the first place.
When she moved to Ponyville, Roseluck was trying to escape. The Royal Flower Arranger was nearing retirement. As his assistant and adopted daughter, the tan pony was expected to take over his role. Rose fled to Ponyville, looking for adventure. Or, at the very least, a quiet place to hide away. The townsfolk convinced her to do the latter. They convinced her that she should live a nice, peaceful life. They even found her a job. Daisy and Lily took her in as an assistant florist. Roseluck hated irony.
Her time under Flowers Dude hadn't been a complete waste. The unicorn had taught her one important thing. Pegasi were the worst ponies.
Dude explained that Equestria was originally intended to be a union between earth ponies and unicorns. However, pegasi came down from the north. They destroyed crops by flooding or freezing them. They used their weather controlling powers to bully others into submission. Whenever the two upstanding races tried to fight back, they just retreated into their clouds. After a while, Celestia intervened. She'd been cursed with wings, but many still respected her. She convinced the three races to live in some semblance of harmony.
After years under Dude, Roseluck learned that pegasi were spiteful creatures. Every time something unfortunate happened, a pegasus was probably at fault. Roseluck hated pegasuses.
The earth pony was getting ready to start the day's work, but the bagel stealing Lily stopped her.
"Oh, Rose, could you take a delivery for me? I have to go do anything else."
Rose nodded. "No problem."
"Excellent. Twilight Sparkle wants a hundred daisies delivered to the library. Before Rose could reply, Lily shoved her plate into the sink and dashed off. "You're the best. Bye."
Rose sighed. She hated that she agreed to things before she knew what she was agreeing to.
The red and pink maned pony made her way to the actual shop part of their home business. It was still slightly too early for the shop to open. With any luck, she could get the hundred daisies and be gone before eight. Rose hated opening. It was a huge hassle.
Fortunately for Rose, the flowers were labeled. Even after a lifetime of working with flowers, she couldn't tell a difference between a daisy or a lily. Her roommates' cutiemarks didn't help either.
Their stock was in a sad state. The weather team - led by that annoying, rainbow maned pony - 'accidentally' created a weeklong drought. For the most part, the damage wasn't too bad. But then the weather team attempted to make up for the dryness by forcing a week of rains. The flowerbeds, and half of Ponyville, flooded. Their gardens were destroyed.
Rose carefully counted out the daisies, placing them on the cart in bunches of ten. Unfortunately, she was one short. Rose stood for a moment, debating. She could tell Twilight. But that sounded like a hassle. Rose hated hassles.
The florist stuck a lily in the vase. The two flowers were close enough. As long as Twilight didn't look too carefully, or as long as she knew even less than Rose, the unicorn wouldn't be able to tell a difference.
Rose sighed, pulling the cart behind her. She could tell it was going to be a long day.
Rose hated long days.
Much later...
Rose trudged to the door, head hung low. She was completely worn out. After listening to Twilight lecture, she had thirty other deliveries to make. To make things worse, she didn't even have her cart to help her pull.
After making her deliveries, Rose had to meet with the mayor. Daisy was on vacation, and Lily was a lazy slob. Ponyville's parks were starting to look - gasp - unmanicured. The mayor wanted everything trimmed, preened, and beautified. Roseluck was tempted to refuse at first, but the mayor was very convincing.
Fortunately, the day had come to an end. Now, Rose only had to force herself through dinner and then it was Lovely Lust's Ludicrous Lament until she fell asleep. As she pushed open the door, Rose heard somepony shout.
"Rainbow! Wait," Twilight yelled. "I can fix them."
Rose turned to see Ponyville's most famous rainbow pegasus dash past. At first glances, she looked completely normal. But then Rose noticed that she was missing her wings. The pegasus jumped, attempting to take flight. But she couldn't. Instead, she was tumbled, crashing into a pile of dirt.
Rose chuckled to herself. After years of torment, a pegasus finally learned what it was like to be earth-bound. With luck, she'd learn what it was like to be a proper, civilized pony.
Roseluck had a very good day.
