The Flower of the Forest CH6

>You wake up the next morning to Spike poking you.

>”I feel like I’m gonna be doing this a lot,” he mutters. “Anyway, Rarity's here to see you."

>You try to say something, but all that comes out is a muffled grunt.

>"C'mon, get up," he says, pulling the blankets off of you.

>You try to shield yourself from the light by rolling over, but you go a little too far and hit the ground with a thump.

"Ow..."

>Well, if that didn't wake you up, Spike's laughter does.

>Instead of trying to get up, you just lie there.

>"Don't fall asleep on the floor," he says between laughs.

>It takes you a few minutes, but you eventually gather enough strength to stand up.

"Rarity...? The one that fixed my clothes?" you ask as you stretch your arms, trying to shake off the stiffness from being turned to stone.

>You didn't even think that was possible.

>This place is weird.

>"Yep. She's with Twilight in the other room," he confirms. "Oh yeah, and Twilight said to tell you that she made tea."

"Ooh."

>You follow him into the other room and sure enough, a new, unfamiliar unicorn is sitting with Twilight.

>The new pony stares at you with wonder, but doesn't say anything.

>"Good morning, Anonymous," Twilight says with a smile as she floats a cup of tea your way.

>You happily grab it and take a sip of it. It tastes different from before, but it's still really, really good.

>On the table by Twilight is the flower from earlier.

>"This is Rarity," Twilight gestures to the unicorn beside her.

>"Greetings. Twilight told me about you," Rarity smiles.

"H-hello. Uh, thank you for fixing my clothes."

>"Oh, don't mention it."

>You're not really sure what to say, so you stay quiet and drink your tea instead.

>"So," Twilight begins, "what was that noise earlier?"

>Your face gets hot.

"Um... It was noth—"

>"She fell out of bed," Spike interrupts.

>You glare at him, but he just smiles.

>"Are you okay?" Twilight asks.

>You quickly nod and go back to drinking your tea.

>”So how are you liking Ponyville so far?” Rarity asks. “Is it anything like where you were before?”

“Well… there are a lot more peopl—uh, ponies. I don’t remember ever being around this many at all."

>”What do you mean? Weren’t there others like you there?”

“My dad, yeah."

>”That’s all?"

>”Well, there were a few people that visited sometimes, but they never stayed for very long…”

>She gives you a sad smile for some reason.

>"Nopony but your father around, hm? I can’t imagine growing up without both my parents and the community around me! How ever did you manage, dear?”

"My dad’s really nice. He gave me everything I needed. He read me books, gave me those… tube thingies, and played games with me. I wish he'd hurry up and come back already..." you say, reaching up and gripping the necklace your dad put on you before you got here.

>Rarity’s quiet for a moment. “What about where you lived?” she asks. “What was it like?”

“I… honestly don’t know a lot. Dad always said I had to stay inside,” you say, thinking back. “He said it was dangerous, but he always kept me company, so I was almost never lonely.”

>Both Rarity and Twilight look at you weirdly.

“What?”

>"So... Twilight found you in the forest?" Rarity asks, changing the subject.

>You nod.

>"What about your clothes?"

"Huh?"

>"Are the ones you're wearing all you have?"

"Um, yes."

>"Only one set of clothes? That simply won't do, for a lady!” she exclaims, sounding a lot happier. “Why, one time in Canterlot, I went through three outfits in one day!"

“Three outfits...?” you say in disbelief.  

>Yeah, you like wearing clothes and all, but isn’t that a little… much?

>Where do you even get that much clothing, anyway?

>Before she can say anything, Spike comes in from one of the other rooms. You didn't even notice he left. "You hungry, Anon?"

--

>What did Anonymous mean by dangerous…?

>And does that mean that she’s been inside her whole life?

>Spike walks back to the kitchen with Anonymous in tow.

>You look back to the flower.

>The tinge of blue from the previous conversation is gone, and the flower's back to the normal white.

>"I almost didn't believe you," Rarity starts, almost in a whisper,  "but when I asked about her home, the flower changed colors! That means she's sad?"

>At your nod, she frowns.

>"Poor filly..."

>The conversation dies out after that, and the only sound you can hear as the two of you stare at the flower is the clatter of dishes in the kitchen.

>"Ah, Twilight, dear?” Rarity eventually speaks up. “Maybe you should think about taking Anonymous to the dentist? And... maybe the doctor? I'm no expert, but I have a feeling nopony should be that skinny... Or have that breath that bad. Or maybe /black/ teeth."

>Now that you think about it, Anonymous is pretty skinny. Shockingly so, even.

>You didn't really notice the teeth, but you could definitely smell her breath.

>Rarity's right.

"I'll take her today."

>”Alright. Well I have to get back to the boutique. I’m going to go say goodbye to Anonymous and Spike. It was a pleasure, dear,” Rarity says.

--

>Rarity comes into the room as you eat the delicious waffles Spike made you.

>"Anonymous, I must be on my way. It was nice meeting you," she says with a smile. "Oh, and whenever you can, come down to the boutique and I'll take your measurements so I can get started on some new clothes for you."

"Okay," you say with a nod.

>"See ya, Rarity!" Spike happily says.

>"Goodbye, Spike," she says with a smile.

>She starts to walk off, but stops.

>”Oh, Anonymous?” she asks, honestly sounding a little sad.

“What’s wrong?”

>”If you ever need to... talk about something, get it off your chest, so to speak, I'm here for you. And you never need to feel unsafe around anypony here, I promise. You're safe now.”

>These ponies just keep getting nicer and nicer...

“Uh, th-thank you,” you say as she leaves.

>Like yesterday, you're unable to finish the food Spike gave you. There's so much of it, but you're already full...

“Thanks,” you say, handing him your plate.

>"You need to eat more..." he mutters.

>Twilight comes in a little later. “Anonymous, open your mouth.”

“Um… Why?”

>”So I can see your teeth.”

“Alright…” you say, though you’re not really sure why she’d want to see them.

>Either way, you open your mouth and she looks into it.

>The look she gets on her face kind of worries you.

“What’s wrong?”

>”They’re… almost entirely black,” she comments, weirded out.

 >Spike comes in to get a look of his own. ”You’re right! That can’t be healthy…”

>”No,” Twilight answers, “it’s not. Anonymous, we’re going to have to take you to the dentist.”

“Okay… but what’s a dentist?”

>She looks at you in disbelief. “They’re somepony who specializes in fixing teeth, but from the looks of it… I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised you don’t know what one is.”

“Um, alright…”

>”Spike, watch over the library while we’re gone,” Twilight says as she leaves the room. “We’ll probably be there for a while. Anonymous, come on.”  

>You follow her through the library and to the door.

>As soon as she opens it, you flinch back at the bright colors of the town.

>Man, you don’t think you’ll ever get used to this place…

>”Anonymous? You okay?”

>You nod as you raise your arm up to block out the light.

“Yeah, this place is just… bright.”

>She smiles and heads out the door, and as she passes you notice she still has the flower with her.

>You wonder why for a little, but you drop the subject.

>”So,” she starts as the two of you make your way through town, “you said your dad read you books?”

“Mhm.”

>”Any examples?”

“Hm,” you hum, thinking back. “One of my favorites was Where the Red Fern Grows, but it was really sad.”

>”What’s it about?”

>You think back some more, trying to remember it clearly.

"A boy named Billy worked hard for two years and saved up enough money to buy two hunting dogs. He named them Old Dan and Little Ann. The two dogs were a great team—Little Ann was very smart, while Old Dan was very strong. He trained them and they quickly became some of the best hunting dogs around, and together they made Billy's family a lot of money."

>"Hunting dog? As in hunting animals?"

"Yeah."

>She gives you a weird look, but you continue.

"One day they went hunting again and Billy was attacked by a lion. His two dogs jumped in to save him and the three of them managed to kill the lion, but Old Dan was hurt really badly in the fight."

>"What happened to him?"

"He died."

>She frowns and you're pretty sure you hear her sniffle a few times, but you continue.

"Little Ann became really sad without Old Dan, to the point where she stopped eating completely."

>"Oh no..."

"A few days later, Little Ann died right by Old Dan's grave."

>You swear you see tears in her eyes.

"Over their short lives, the two dogs made Billy's family enough money to move to town and get him and his sisters a good education, but Billy was absolutely crushed by the dogs' deaths, and he didn't care—he just wanted his dogs back. He couldn't move on until the day before his family moved. That day, he decided to pay one last visit to his dogs' graves and noticed that a red fern grew in between them. At first he wanted to just get rid of it, but he remembered an old legend that said red ferns meant the ground was special and only angels could plant them. After that, he finally moved on."

>”Y-your dad let you read something that sad…?”

“More than once. It’s a really good book.”

>Twilight doesn’t say anything until you get to the “dentist’s.”

>"We're here."

>She takes you into the building and you’re instantly greeted by another unicorn.

>She has a really wide smile on her face.

>“Hello! How may I help y— oh my!” she exclaims after noticing you. “What do we have here?”

>”This is Anonymous,” Twilight answers, still sounding a little sad. “We’ve come because… Well, Anonymous, open your mouth, please.”

>You do so and the pony instantly moves in to get a closer look.

>Whatever she sees makes her jaw drop.

>”I’ve… never seen anything like this in all my time as a dentist…” she mutters. “Looks like I’ve got some work to do!” she suddenly exclaims, sounding /way/ too happy.

>”Follow me!” she says as she goes through a hallway toward another door.

>Twilight follows too, but the dentist asks her to stay. "This will take a while."

>You honestly want Twilight to be with you, because this pony makes you a little uncomfortable.

>You think she notices, because she gives you an apologetic smile. "You'll be fine, Anonymous."

>With a sigh, you continue following.

>The room the dentist leads you to has a large chair in the middle and a table, and on it are a bunch of shiny things that you don't recognize.

>"Sit, sit!" she says cheerfully. "By the way, my name's Colgate."

>As soon as you get settled, she grabs some of the things from the table and walks up next to you.

>"Now, open wide. I need to get a good look at those chompers," she says.

>Your mouth opens and she sticks something in it.

>It feels really weird.

>After a bit of poking around, she speaks up. "Do your teeth... hurt at all?" she asks, sounding weirded out again.

>You try to say, "Not any more than normal," but it's kind of hard to talk with something in your mouth.

>She seems to understand either way. "If they hurt at all, that's hardly normal!"

>So your teeth aren't supposed to hurt?

>What else are you going to learn today?

>"Alright, well let's get started. Here," she says, handing you a weird see-through thing attached to a tube, "put this over your face."

"Um... like this?" you ask, putting it where you think it should go.

>"Good. Now, breathe deeply and count down from ten in your head."

>A faint hissing sound comes from the other end of the tube.

>You start counting, but before you even make it to five, you start to feel really, really drowsy.

>You don't remember ever making it to one.

--

>You slowly come to, sitting in a chair in a weird room.

>Where are you? You don't remember going to sleep...

>The weird feeling in your mouth reminds you.

>Oh yeah, dentist.

>Your mouth feels... different, but good at the same time.

>Moving your tongue around, you notice that your teeth are a lot smoother than you remember. There's also a faint taste of mint.  

>"I see you're finally awake," Colgate says as she comes in.

>You look over and see that Twilight's there too.

>"That gas hit you a lot harder than I thought it would," Colgate comments, "so you've been out for a few hours. How do your teeth feel? Any pain?"

"No... none at all. They feel great!"

>"Good! I'm going to give Twilight here a few things and then you should be good to go," she says as she heads for the door.

>With that, you stand up. It's a little hard to stay balanced, but you don't fall.

>When you're good enough to walk, you follow her into the main room.

>She pulls out a bag from somewhere and gives it to Twilight.

>"I have to admit, that was the most work on anypony's teeth I've had to do in years..." she comments, wiping her forehead with a hoof. "Anyway, this has some toothpaste, a brush, and a few other things. From the looks of it, you'll probably have to go over brushing with her. The brush itself is a little different from what we ponies use, but it works the same."

>She suddenly turns to you with an intense glare that scares you. "Make sure you brush every day!"

"O-okay..."

>"Oh!" Colgate exclaims as you're about to leave. "I almost forgot!"

>You're about to ask what, but she gives you some weird stick with a ball on it.

"Here's your lollipop," she says. "Have a good day!"

"Lollipop...?" you ask as you leave the building with Twilight.

>"Yeah, it's candy. Just unwrap it and stick it in your mouth," Twilight answers with a smile.

>It takes you a while to get the wrapper off, but once you finally do, you cautiously stick it in your mouth...

>...and it tastes great.

"Wow..." is all you can say as you wrap your tongue around it, savoring the taste as much as you can.

>She chuckles.

>Instead of going back to the library, Twilight just keeps walking.

“Um… where are we going now?"

>”To the doctor.”

>Before you could ask what that is, she answers for you. “Just somepony who checks on your body to see if you’re healthy.”

“Okay. Do I have to go to sleep again?”

>”Probably not.”

>Probably?

>Looking around, you realize you're in an area with a lot of ponies and most of them are staring at you.

>You try to focus on the lollipop in your mouth as much as possible as you walk through the crowd.

>It’s slightly uncomfortable.

>Their eyes follow your every step.

>"What is that...?" you hear someone say.

>Okay, now it’s really uncomfortable.

 "Um, T-Twilight..."

>You look over to see her staring at the flower that's now a dark shade of gray.

>"We're almost there, don't worry," Twilight reassures you.

>Sure enough, within a few minutes you arrive at a big building.

>The door opens and you walk in with Twilight.

>...Only to walk right back out a few minutes later.

>The doctor said he didn’t know anything about you and to take you to the “vet,” whatever that is.

>Twilight seems a little upset, but she takes you there anyway.

>This time, you arrive at a smaller building that looks a little less plain than the last two you were in.

>A bell rings as Twilight opens the door and you’re greeted by a pony with a mane similar to Colgate’s and a different colored body.

>”Hello! I’m Dr. Gooda—” she stops as soon as she sees you, just like the dentist and pretty much everyone else you've met so far.

>“What in the world are you…?” she asks in awe.

“Hi, I'm Anonymous,” you calmly say, starting to get a little used to the ponies’ reactions to you.

>At least there's not a crowd here. In fact, the place is empty aside from the three of you.

>She just stares for a few seconds. “Uh huh… Well, what can I help you with today?”

>”Just a basic checkup for Anonymous,” Twilight comes in.

>”Well, okay. Let’s get started, then.”

>This goes much like the dentist’s, except instead of sitting in a chair this time, you’re asked to sit on a table of some sort.

>It’s a little uncomfortable.

>It turns out that you don’t have to go to sleep for this one, which is good, because you still feel out of it from before.

>The vet goes over your body with both her eyes and her hooves.

>She stops once she reaches your hands, and she lifts them up with a hoof.

>"They're like really long claws..." you hear her mutter.

>She continues for several uncomfortable minutes before finally stopping and resuming her inspection.

>”Hm... Can you take your bandage off for me?” she asks.

>She gets the same look everyone always does when she sees your face, but she doesn’t comment on it.

>”Follow my hoof with your eyes,” she says, holding one of her hooves up much like Twilight did back when she found you.

>After you follow it for a few seconds, she nods.

>“That checks out..." she mutters. "Okay, you can put it back on."

>She does a few other things, like touching your body with something really cold and asking you to breathe deeply.

>”That’s that,” she says as she walks back over to Twilight and you hop off the table.

>”How is she?” Twilight asks.

>The vet brings a hoof to her chin for a moment. “Well, she’s extremely malnourished. While I’ve never seen anything like her, there’s no way that can be healthy.”

>Is it really that bad?

>”Yes, I’ve figured that one out myself. Anything else aside from that?”

>”From what I can tell, no. Get some meat on her bones and she’ll be just fine.”

>The vet mutters something like, "I think."

>After a few minutes of talking with Twilight, the vet hands her some sort of paper and with that, you both leave.

>”Well that was quick,” Twilight comments.

“Yeah, and I didn’t have to go to sleep,” you say with a yawn.

>You see some movement up in the sky.

>Looking up, you see a bunch of ponies with wings flying around and moving the clouds, partially blocking out the sun.

"What's going on...?"

>"The pegasi must be setting up for a storm," Twilight answers. "In that case, we should probably hurry back."

"Why would they have to set up for a storm? I thought they just... well, happened."

>"What do you mean? The weather's controlled by the pegasi."

"I don't know... Never mind, I guess."

>Could there have been pegasi controlling the storms back home?

>Dad never said anything about them.

>Those storms got pretty bad sometimes, too.

>You remember one that made the whole library shake.

>That thought makes you want to get back as soon as possible.

>Your legs are getting tired at this point. You don't remember ever walking this much in a single day.

>It looks like the incoming storm got most of the townsponies inside, so you don’t have to worry about a crowd again.

>”Welcome back,” Spike greets as you finally make it back to the library. “How’d it go?”

>”Why don’t you show him, Anonymous?” Twilight asks.

>You open your mouth for him to see.

>”Ooh, shiny…” he mutters as looks in.

>You’re still not used to how they feel in your mouth.

>The lack of pain is nice, though.

>”Anything interesting happen while we were away?”

>”Applejack came by."

>"Oh?"

>"Yeah. She left some apples and other things for Anon."

>"That was nice of her. Where are they?"

>"I left 'em in the kitchen. Just a warning, there are a lot of them."

>Sure enough, inside of the kitchen are, well... a lot of apples.

>There's also a note.

"What's it say?" you ask, passing it to Twilight.

>"When Ah saw how skinny Anonymous was, Ah just couldn't help myself!" she reads aloud.

>"Did she really write in an accent?" Spike asks.

>"...Yes, she did," Twilight confirms.

>"Huh. Anyway, what are we gonna do with all these apples?"

>Your thoughts exactly. If you couldn't eat the waffles, there's no way you can eat all of these.

>"I suppose we could start eating them."

>"That works."

>And so the three of you begin eating as many apples as you can.

>Which, for you, is only one and part of another.

>Twilight has four and Spike has at least seven.

>How can he eat that much...?

>Spike burps as the three of you stand staring at the massive pile of apples still left over.

>You can hear the rain starting to fall against one of the windows.

>"What now?" Spike asks.

>"We'll just save them. Anonymous needs to eat more anyway," Twilight answers.

>Great. If you eat any more, you'll probably explode.

>With that thought, there’s a knock on the door.

>”Spike?” Twilight asks.

>”I got it,” he says as he leaves the room.

>You hear rain outside as he opens the door.

>A few seconds later, you’re greeted by a familiar face.

“Ms. Celestia…?"

>You flinch back as you see a flash quickly followed by a loud clap of thunder that resonates in your chest.

>”Hello, Anonymous. We need to talk.”