12. Gardening Disaster

Part Three: Crystals Grow on Rainbows.

"Applejack, why are we out here anyway? I thought you finished the apple harvest a few weeks ago." Both unicorns had been summoned by her to a more overgrown part of the orchard, without explanation. The only deterrent for Rarity was the abundance of untamed nature, as for Twilight Sparkle, she was missing on some crucial study time for her next upcoming test. For once, she was the more reluctant conscript.

"Well ya see, these vines ain't the normal type. I can't get near 'em without getting a sharp crack to the face." To demonstrate, she pointed her hoof at the nearest tree. A few of the vines reared off the bark towards the approaching ponies, causing all three to take a cautious step back. "No idea where they came from, I tried everything I could think of before asking you two. Looks like magic's the only way to go about uprooting this one."

Twilight took a moment to observe before leaning closer towards the vines as they curled through the air in warning. "Well, I certainly haven't encountered this sort of plant before, though it shouldn't be too difficult to subdue." Building up the magical energy in her horn as a deterrent to the plants seemed to be a good first approach, doing so she slowly advanced forward.

It seemed to be working at first. The tips of the vines backed away in light of the sparkling horn, an encouraging sign for Twilight to continue on. "Any idea where the main plant is? Shouldn't be too difficult to send it back to the Everfree forest once it's uprooted." At that point, the behaviour of the vines changed rather abruptly. Maintaining their distance at first, they curved around to form a loop towards the tree. "Uh, this doesn't look too good." Her observation proved all too true, as they quickly whipped back towards the tree, pulling her with them in a crude net of sorts.

Impact with the tree was strong enough to throw off her magic concentration completely, her horn flickering out as her eyes rolled. Vines continued wrapping around her body to encase her, causing Rarity to faint. Applejack maintained her composure. "Hang on Twilight! I'll have these vines under control lickety split. You'll see!" Charging in seemed to be effective at first, the vines that got too close were quickly knocked away.

"Almost gotcha, get ready to run..." Unfortunately, for both of them, the vines seemed to catch onto her strategy, grabbing her legs successfully. From there, she was hurled up into the branches of the tree, with little regard for how painful it was. "Well gosh darn it... Rarity! Get off your back and do something!" Rarity was still unconscious on her fainting couch. Applejack rolled her eyes in disbelief before struggling to look at Twilight. She was having no luck in freeing herself with magic. Each time her horn began to glow seemed attract the vines, and they would knock her concentration off again.

"Rarity! Oh for hay's sake..." Fighting back wouldn't work, there were too many of them to deal with. A new approach would be necessary. Given the aggressiveness of the vines, she'd only get a single flare out, but surely, that would be enough to get the attention of somepony. "Here goes!" Charging her horn as fast as possible, a bright purple flare fired up into the sky. Immediately following that, the vines tightened their grip around her head and horn in particular. She was now completely helpless.

*

"Ooh! It's so pretty!" Pinkie Pie was staring at the bright light above Sweet Apple Acres in awe when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed down beside her. It wasn't that spectacular, just a slow burning firework that hadn't gone off yet as far as Dash was concerned. But then, what was Applejack doing with fireworks anyway? Surely if there was going to be some sort of fireworks display, she would have told all of them.

"Pinkie Pie, do you know about any party? Because I don't, and a party without Rainbow Dash is just uncool!" Pinkie shook her head wildly before resuming her admiration of the slowly descending point of light. Fluttershy seemed to be transfixed by the display as well, but still receptive to insistent nudging. "Come on Fluttershy, we should check this out. Pinkie can be Pinkie all she likes, doesn't mean we should miss out on a party!"

She took off again in the direction of the light without hesitation. Fluttershy delayed to follow, until Pinkie Pie changed her mind and followed too. What else could she do now that both were going after all? As they approached, the pace quickened in response to cries for help. Applejack and Twilight, maybe something had happened with one of her spells. What if one of them had a bad injury!

"We're coming Applejack! Just hold on!" Both pegasi cleared the fence with speed, while Pinkie just bounced higher than usual to make it over. All three stopped short of the horrific scene before them. Twilight and Applejack were entangled in a mess of vines that were strangling the apple trees. And Rarity was unsurprisingly laid out across her favourite couch. Dash rolled her eyes at the typical behaviour displayed by her date, a great start to impressing her.

Help couldn't come soon enough for Applejack as she continued to struggle. Better still was the fact that it was one of the more, confident, and strong ponies there to assist. "Rainbow Dash! Stay back, these vines grab at anything they can!" Pinkie Pie either didn't hear the warning in time, or was too fascinated with those very plants to pay attention. Within moments, she was hurled up to hang beside Applejack, proceeding to laugh her head off at how fun it felt to be swung around like that. "Okay, Twilight says there should be a main plant somewhere. If you can find it, and pull it out, that should get all these vines to release us. Okay?"

Fluttershy merely paced around in front of Rarity as the vines warned her off threateningly. At a guess, the plant wasn't out for food, just upset that the ponies had trespassed. But it was the Apple family's orchard; there was no explanation for how it had gotten from the Everfree Forest to there. "I don't think you need to go to extreme measures to get it to go away. Maybe just asking it to leave might work."

Rainbow Dash caught most of the advice as she flew up to begin searching for the core of the plant. The vines couldn't reach up far past the tree line, stopping short of grabbing at her hooves. Hopefully the distraction would take the pressure off Twilight and Applejack. Pinkie Pie was still laughing her head off in the meantime, oblivious to the situation as ever. That didn't matter right now.

Fluttershy floated past at that point, heading to a particular spot above the trees. The way the vines were acting made it impossible to work out where the root was. Fluttershy on the other hand knew plants better; it made sense to follow her advice this time. "Okay, if you just point it out, I'll do the rest. There's plenty of clouds that can do with a little rain-work, maybe a nice shower will get it to leave." She'd have to rush this job, but time wasn't exactly in abundance.

"Oh, okay. It's just over here..." Fluttershy pointed to a clearing in the trees when several long vines launched upward to pull her down. The attack had opened up the view to the plant itself, a horrifying mess of leaves and vines. Rainbow Dash for a moment felt her stomach lurch as a large maw opened up to swallow her friend whole. Gone, just like that, and now her friends were being pulled in towards it too. It was trying to reach her too, straining the vines to the sky. She'd never seen anything like it before, and now it would be the last she saw of her friends. And Rarity...

Rarity, she was well outside of the monster's reach surely. "You'd better be up for a little gardening Rarity." Dash flew back to the couch at great speed on that thought. She was still there, though not for long as Dash grabbed her roughly and struggled to fly back up. The screaming didn't help a whole lot either, carrying another pony was hard enough under the best of circumstances. But Rarity was the closest unicorn to the scene, and Fluttershy couldn't have long inside the thing.

"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing? This is not how I expect to be woken up!" The pegasus continued on anyway until both were positioned roughly above the plant. At that point, Rarity began squirming again out of fear of being dropped. "Rainbow! I do hope you have a good explanation for bringing me up here!" The urge to drop her was getting quite strong, but that would seal Fluttershy's fate.

"Just use your magic! Celestia gave you improvements to your magic, isn't one of them extreme gardening or something?! Fluttershy is trapped in that thing, and you are the only one who can save her!" Rarity faded into silence for a moment, more to think than anything. Now she felt downright silly for being so quick to panic, especially now that Fluttershy was in grave danger.

"Okay, but I don't really know what spell would work. Twilight is the magic expert." An uprooting spell probably wouldn't work, especially if the plant had intelligence. And one of that size would require a huge exertion of magic. Twilight herself came into view, within metres of the plant's mouth. "Twilight! What spell will destroy the plant? I don't think I can manage a second attempt!"

There was too much noise from the thrashing vines to hear her properly. And she was on the verge of being swallowed too. For a moment, Rarity felt deeply that she had just failed her friends. "Behind you!" That was the last Twilight managed to shout before she too vanished into the plant. Rainbow Dash instinctively turned to look behind her in fear that the vines were preparing to ambush.

It caused Rarity a moment of pain as the sunlight hit her face. Was that what she meant by behind them? "Dash! Close your eyes, this is going to be bright!" Urging the pegasus to turn them back around, Rarity pointed her horn directly at the plant once more. Too much sunlight caused most plants to wither. Perhaps it would just be enough to do the same to this plant. "Bring it on, you filthy weed!"