AutumnWritefag - [Nameless] [Untagged]

>The library was unusually chatty today. Autumn sat alone reading her book. Tuning in across the room she overheard a nearby conversation.

>"The grove of white roses is hidden somewhere deep within the nearby woods."
>"Can't you get white roses from any old florist?"
>The lilac moth pony mare gazes seductively into the eyes of her pale green acquaintance.
>"We've discussed this, my dear. These are very special white roses. They're said to secrete a unique sap that can reverse aging."
>The pale green mare blushes heavily.
>"Uh... well... I mean... you're already super pretty, Lucid."
>The mare named Lucid turns to the green mare, glaring daggers at her.
>"Reverie, that isn't good enough."
>The mare named Reverie sheepishly backs away.
>"R-right.... I think maybe we could stand to look around a bit more, or-"
>"Reverie, I can count on you to help me find this grove, right?"
>"O-of course! I volunteered to help you, and I intend to do just that!"
>Lucid lets out a quiet laugh.
>"Good. Let's take this book and set out on the westward path to the woods."
>As they headed out they looked back realizing they weren't alone.
>Lucid and Reverie stopped, glancing over at the the quiet moth-mare reading in the corner.
>Autumn looked up realizing she was being stared at.
>"Lucid, do you think she heard us?"
>"Maybe, but she seems like the quiet, reserved type to me. I doubt she'll cause trouble."
>"Y-yeah, lets just go."

>Lucid and Reverie entered the woods. They set off down a twisting and curved path through the trees.
>"It's a nice night for a stroll isn't it Lucid?" Reverie asked.
>"It certainly is. I can hardly wait. Those hussies back home are going to age into old dusty crones. I'll still be beautiful and young looking. They'll ask me, 'oh Lucid, how do you still look so young and beautiful?' But I'll never tell, isn't revenge sweet?"
>"Heheh, you'll show them.. I still can't believe they made fun of you at that party the other day."
>"They lack sophistication or civility. Rich, pretty, spoiled.. Still, even their wealth can't buy eternal beauty."
>"You'll let me have some too right?" Lucid looked at her, she seemed puzzled.
>"Of course, you are my friend after all. Besides I want you to look good too next to me." She'd said with the first hint of warmth Reverie had heard in a long time.

>They continued their walk through the woods. It was completely dark, and the air chill. The breeze shaking the trees about.
>Up ahead a dim, pink light through some brush. A glowing pink leaf flew past them.
>"Is it this way? It's not on the path.. Although I doubt something so rare would be. Come on Reverie." She said. She slid down off the hill off the path on toward the growing pink light, Reverie following nervously behind.
>They pushed through the shrubbery passing through. They came upon strange trees with glowing pink leaves like the one that flew by earlier. They had a dull eerie glow about them.
>"It's beautiful." Said Reverie
>"According to this book, they only grow in damp environments on decomposing plants and leaf litter, we must be getting close."
>They continued to walk along the damp unmarked forest path. The new trail was muddy, densely covered in leaves, twigs and sticks. There were many fallen logs to the sides of them.. Pretty bio-luminescent mushrooms grew on them.
>A cold feeling enveloped them as they walked this path.

>"Its, a little chilly here, isn't it?" Asked Reverie.
>"We'll just have to deal with it. We're getting close, I'm sure of it."

>They continued walking, no wind, no sounds, none but the crunching of leaves beneath their hooves.

>Nervously they both ventured on, sometimes glancing at each other. Trying to hide their fear, the sense of ominous foreboding the place gave. A dead silence that lets the imagination run wild.
>Many hours passed. The night seeming to grow colder, the woods more dense with fallen trees, leaves and twigs more numerously covering the ground.
"Lucid, I.. I know what you'll probably say.. But.. I'm getting a really bad feeling about this-"
"I know.. I am too. But we've already come so far. We can't give up now."

>They continued, the path more difficult to traverse than before, Lucid and Reverie having to fly and climb over fallen logs obstructing the path.
>The two of them kept going. All of a sudden, they heard a sharp snapping of wood. The two of them startled, glancing around, eyes in a panic. The shuffling of leaves and snapping of wood in the far distance.

>"Did you hear that?" Asked Reverie. Lucid didn't respond, a look of fear in her eyes. She was too terrified to speak. They hesitantly walked forward. The distant shuffling continuing as they walked.

>A light up ahead, there was moonlight breaking through a parting in the trees. It shone like a beacon.
>Lucid and Reverie walked briskly toward it.. They parted bushes blocking their path.
>They entered a large clearing.
>They gasped in awe, a large circular patch of white roses was before them.
>Lucid bent down to further examine them.
>They glowed with a with ethereal light, between the rose petals was a pale green ooze like sap.
>It had a strongly-attractive rose scent.

"This is it! I knew we'd find them!" Shouted Lucid practically giddy. She grabbed a bottle with a cork on it from her saddlebag. Uncorking it, She gently squeezed the rose from the bottom of the petals to the top. Like an utter she squeezed the ooze into the bottle. The scent and stickiness of it covering her hooves.

>A rustling of the bushes behind them. A bespectacled moth-mare clad in plaid and carrying a saddlebag emerged from the shrubbery.
>She had Auburn hair and pale orange skin. Her wings were like the Fall seasons.
"H-hey, aren't you that pony we noticed at the library?" Reverie inquired.
"I am."
"Why did you follow us? Are you after the cream too?"
"I didn't come for the cream in the woods. You're standing in Dead Garden Grove. For reasons unknown, the trees around this area fell and died. This forest has few clearings where you can look up and see the skies."
"I don't need a history lesson thank you." she stated rather defensively still gathering the cream.
"This part of the woods here is dangerous. You shouldn't have come. I followed you out here, hoping at some point you would have the sense to turn back."
"I-i haven't seen anything dangerous yet.." Reverie nervously replied.
"Normally, the plants and animals in these woods need darkness. Because of the light shining through the only things that can thrive here are those that feed upon the fallen.. The animals here are not friendly, we should go."

"I'm not afraid, and I'm not leaving till every bottle in my bag is filled to the brim with this stuff!" Lucid said firmly.
"Please, it's very dangerous, we should leave soon." Said Autumn trying to remain calm.
"If you want to leave go ahead. I didn't ask you to come along."
"L-lucid maybe we should-"
"I get it ok!?"
"Lucid, I think I hear something." Said Reverie.
"Shes right, we need to leave, there's something large making noises in the distance, can't you hear it?" Lucid sniffed the ooze on her hooves.
"It really is a one of a kind scent. Its hard.. To resist the urge to keep on smelling it.. It's.. Intoxicating." She said.
"Please come with me, we need to leave."
"Lucid look out!--"
>CRACK! Something huge ripped its way out of the nearby brush, cracking and tossing branches aside striking Lucid. She had only barely jumped to the side still taking a huge brunt of force getting slammed into a nearby tree.

>A monstrous Centipede stood before them. Its size was was about as wide as a pony was muzzle to tail, and its length was nearly half the length of one of the great trees forming the dark canopy of the forest.

>It flicked its antennae, moving its head about.
>Lucid stood barely conscious against the tree, a large gash on her foreleg. Reverie ran toward her.
"Come on! Lets get out of here!" She said flapping her wing trying to pull her up." It was no use, she couldn't lift Lucid off the ground. Her body too far too frail and weak to lift her.
"HELP, I CAN'T MOVE HER! HELP ME!"
"We won't be able to fly her out of here fast enough!"
"T-then what--!"
"Leave it to me!" Said Autumn grabbing a rock and flying in front of the Centipede.
"But you'll--!"
"JUST GO! I know what I'm doing!" She shouted.
"Thank you!" Reverie said grabbing Lucid slinging her over her shoulder, hobbling away.
>The centipede flicked it's head turning toward them for a moment. Autumn threw the rock at it. The centipede focused on Autumn now lunging itself at her. Autumn narrowly dodged it flying her way upwards, leading the centipede in the other direction.

>The centipede pursued her doggedly. It lunged at her repeatedly, nearly every-time mere inches from snatching her out of the sky. Its many quick legs able to turn on a dime, this made it difficult to outmaneuver.
>She tried to land to rest her tired wings hiding in the tall treetops, but the centipede crawled its way up with the greatest of ease.
>Slinking its way through the close trees it had successfully breached the height gap. Autumn flew as fast as she could, the centipede close behind slithering its way along the top branches of the trees like a snake.
>There was no where for her to go, as there was nothing above the tree canopy for her to land on. And she couldn't keep flying forever, she was by no means an athletic pony, much less an athletic flyer.
>No where to hide on the ground either. She had remembered the ultra sensitive antennae they had, able to detect the even tiniest of movements. She'd be found and ambushed like Lucid was before she had a chance to react.

>Autumn tried her best to think of a way to get away. She couldn't fight it head on. Its exoskeleton at this size would be way too thick for anything she could throw at it to injure it.
>Nor could she run forever, and she couldn't hide. Autumn began to give up hope as her multi-legged pursuer began to get closer and closer.
>In the distance hope came in the form of shiny white ropes. Autumn flew toward it, the centipede closing the gap at a rapid pace.
>She flew as fast as she could around to the other side of it. The Centipede stopped, clicking its antennae around. It hadn't done what she wanted it to do.
>Autumn began stomping around yelling as loud as she could to attract its attention. The centipede lunged at her, but the centipede became caught in the string.
Its fangs mere inches from her face it writhed around snapping its massive fangs and forelegs at her.
>From the top of the tree a large Spider with Wings like a bat swooped down and landed on the centipedes back.
>The centipede squirmed and writhed back and forth, but it was no good, the web was as strong and durable as a steel cable.

>The spider bit into it, piercing the hard carapace of the centipede, it convulsed wildly, flailing about, but within seconds it was over. The venom already paralyzed it, dissolving its insides. Autumn watched as the light left its eyes and the spider began to wrap up the centipede to be dined on at a later time.

>Autumn tiredly flew her way back to the rose grove and past there back toward the village path..
Several hours later Autumn found Reverie and Lucid slowly walking along the trail.

"I'm glad the two of you are ok." She said.
"The two of US are ok!? What about you? Wheres the big centipede at?"
"Don't worry about it, that's not important." Autumn stated. Lucid was sharply wheezing, her skin was pale.
"Is she ok?" Autumn asked.
"I.. I dunno. When we first left, she seemed fine, a little banged up, but not too bad. She kept telling me how she felt so cold, and that her skin itched."
"Put her on the ground." Autumn said.
"What?"
"We need to figure out what's wrong, she could be in serious danger."
"A-alright." she said, lowering her to the forest floor. Placing her gently on her back, she wheezed slightly as they did. Autumn pressed her hoof on Lucids for a moment.
"Her pulse is way above normal.This gash on her stomach.. Did it bite her?"
"She says it just scraped her."
"It doesn't matter, it looks like its pierced the skin." She started to wheeze more, her body beginning to shake, she convulsed.
Reverie stared at her in horror as she flopped about on the ground.
"W-whats wrong with her?"
"The venom has sent her into shock! Quickly In my saddlebag theres medicinal powder and a bamboo pen I use for taking notes, hand them it to me!"

>Reverie nervously handed her the pen and powder. Autumn removed the ink from the pen leaving a hollow tube putting it aside. Next she dumped the dry powder into her mouth swishing it around until wet. Autumn lifted her skirt exposing her upper thigh, then she took the hollow pen jabbing it hard into her leg till it pierced the skin. She then spit the powder down the tube blowing until all of the liquid went inside her.
>Lucids eyes went wide for a moment, her breathing quick, sharp gasps. Her breathing became slower, and slower. Lucid closed her eyes.
"LUCID!" Reverie screamed with tears in her eyes.
"Its ok, shes merely sleeping. She'll be fine for now I think, but we need to get her to the hospital just to be sure."
>Autumn disinfected the wound on her side and bandaged her up. Putting away the first aid kit Autumn helped reverie carry Lucid out of the woods.
>They didn't talk much, Autumn silently helping to carry Lucid, Reverie quietly whimpering as they went.

>They took Lucid to the nearby clinic. The doctors fixed her up. Autumn and Reverie stayed by her side till she was mostly better.

"Autumn, is your name right? The.. The doctors, told me it was you who saved my life that night in the woods."
"It was nothing, next time be-"
"IT WAS NOT!" Lucid coughed and wheezed loudly. "I, mean. It wasn't nothing. You saved me. I owe you my life.. I know.. I was stubborn. When you told me the woods were dangerous. I should have listened. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry to me. Be sorry to yourself, and to Reverie here."
"Reverie.." she said warmly looking up at her lifting her hoof to her face. Reverie tearing up looking into her eyes.
"Its ok.. Please, I forgive you.. I was so afraid, I was going to lose you! Please don't ever do something so dangerous again!" Reverie said hugging her tightly sobbing into her. Lucid hugged her back gently stroking her mane smiling.
"Alright.. Shhh, I'm fine.. I won't be so reckless next time ok?"
"I'll be going now."
>Autumn said turning to leave. Autumn waved goodbye. Reverie ran out of the room chasing after her giving her a hug thanking her for saving Lucids life. Autumn gave a quick return hug before heading out back to her house.

The end