Prompt: Difficult Greenery

Morning would have greeted Wallflower Blush, if not for the snaky green tendrils blocking out the windows.

Instead, it was only the blaring of the alarm clock that roused her from another fitful slumber. She reluctantly sat up, swinging her legs over the side and stepping onto the thick, pulsating roots that covered every centimeter of flooring. Careful to keep her balance on the uneven surface, Wallflower reached the dresser and switched off the noise.

Around her, the House rumbled. It didn’t care much for the screeching sound.

Fumbling, Wallflower found the dresser lamp and turned it on. Having to move around that far on the very trippable surface of vegetation before being able to switch on the light was in no way ideal, but it was what she had been reduced to. The vines had grown around her nightstand and shattered it to pieces long ago, and the dresser blocked one of the few accessible outlets left.

Above her, the great maw leered down, green saliva dripping down onto her as she dug for clothes. She felt the slap of it on her shoulder, and smelled the sickening sweetness of it. A signal.

One she’d been ignoring for the last week.

Clambering, necessarily clumsily, across the awkward surface-of-sorts into her bathroom, Wallflower carefully peeled the vines that had grown overnight across the cupboards back, which the House generously allowed. She found her toothbrush, toothpaste, and medicine. It was about all she could use here; the mirror had been broken to pieces long ago and the House refused to give up the shower, using it for its own sustenance. She’d been sneaking into Canterlot High’s athletic lockers for months, using the Stone to blank the memories of anyone who caught her there.

The stairs that led down to the kitchen couldn’t realistically be called stairs any more; they were more of a solid, angular mass of pure green that formed a rough 45-degree angle. Wallflower generally used it as a slide. The closest thing to fun the House had given her.

Amid the sweltering heat the House had created for itself in the kitchen, Wallflower wolfed down a bowl of cereal atop the green blob that had encased the dining table. Very ready to head off to school, she trod her way across the gnarled mass of plant life until she reached the front door.

The House, however, had something to say to her.

As she reached for the handle, she found herself being grasped by a tendril, squeezing her at the waist and lifting her into the air. In spite of the familiarity of the scenario, she couldn’t help but squirm in fear as the huge, grinning flytrap maw manifested above her, opening itself wide. It then sprayed more of the grotesque drool onto her, slopping all over her face. The sugary smell was nauseating, both for its volume and what it meant.

Then it dropped her, and she landed butt-first onto a painful root that was jutting upward. She cursed.

Smarting, Wallflower wiped the slime off of her, got to her feet, and ran out the door.

---------

Every time PhysEd class went onto the track, Wallflower couldn’t help but recall how the whole thing had gotten started.

The Friendship Games. Motocross. Equestrian magic.

Portals to another world.

Wallflower hadn’t been able to help herself, then. The giant green plants that had emerged, snapping at the racers. Dangerous, certainly. But unknown. Strange and alluring. Perhaps even weaponizable, in the hands of a skilled gardener.

In the chaos that followed, as Sunset Shimmer and her friends just tried to keep up their race with their rivals from the snooty school, Wallflower had sneaked down to a stray portal, further away from the track, and nipped it. Then ran home to pot it as quickly as she could.

She shuddered at the memory of her foolishness. She’d just had to take it there, hadn’t she?

Things had seemed normal enough, given the circumstances. The plant was still bitey, snapping at her in seeming sentience (but not sapience), but manageable. It would take time to understand.

And then it had nipped her finger…

“Blush!”

She snapped back to the present. Coach Iron Will was glaring at her. A weird sensation; even from him, Wallflower wasn’t used to being noticed, especially with a namedrop.

“S-sorry, I was–”

“Don’t be sorry, get going!” He motioned to where the rest of the students had already begun their laps. She yelped, then ran after them.

4 laps later, Wallflower was exhausted. She flopped down onto the bleachers and panted. Right next to a similarly exhausted fellow.

“Y-you tired too?” the fellow student asked.

“What does it look like?” Wallflower replied, without looking over.

Her classmate laughed. “Don’t I know you?”

Wallflower twitched, trying to remember what specific memory fragment this girl could have of her. Lots of people were aware of Wallflower Blush, but few had many specific impressions of her, thanks to Wallflower’s expert Stone-assisted memory curation.

“What’s your name?”

“Wallflower. Wallflower Blush. You might have heard Coach shout it just now.”

“Ha. I’m Watermelody.”

Sitting up a bit, Wallflower looked over at the other girl. Neon green hair, a peach complexion, wearing a red beret and a dress emblazoned with a musical note. Wallflower did know her, vaguely, but only from seeing her in this class and one other. She’d maybe caught a few glimpses of her at the lunch table…

…sitting alone.

The thought Wallflower didn’t want to have popped in. The smell of sugar penetrated her mind with it.

“You must not have many friends if you’re talking to me,” Wallflower said, then put her hand over her mouth, pretending as though she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

Watermelody giggled. “Eh. A few. I used to have more but they graduated last year.”

Might be hard to find them, if you need to. Will they remember her enough to miss her?

The thought made Wallflower clutch her fists, her nails pressing hard enough against her skin to cause pain.

“You’re in algebra 2 with me, right?” Wallflower asked.

“Homeroom?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Wallflower nodded. “This might be short notice but could you help me with the homework we got today? I feel like I’m a bit lost on this.”

She was taking a bit of a gamble that Watermelody was good enough at math to be willing to volunteer to help her, but it seemed to pay off. “I think so. Do you want to meet somewhere-”

“My home!” Wallflower blurted. Her cheeks flushed as she tried to bring herself down to a natural volume. “M-my house. I’ll give you the address. It’s not far from school, you can walk there and I’ll meet you.”

Watermelody nodded, seemingly not noticing anything odd. “Sure thing.”

Wallflower

“Blush! Melody! Get over here!”

Eyes widening, Wallflower and Watermelody both jumped up and bolted over, Wallflower already knowing she would have to ambush him with the Memory Stone in a few minutes to clear her growing negative reputation in the Coach’s mind.

A shame she couldn’t get him to stop over without suspicion.

---------

Wallflower was taking deep breaths. Increasingly deep breaths.

The House was already annoyed that she’d come home alone. It was making its displeasure known with even higher temperatures, sharper seats, and smoothing out the grooves that allowed her to climb what used to be the stairs.

She’d have been checking the windows to see if Watermelody was coming down the street or not, if there had been any way to see through them at all.

“I swear,” she said aloud, “I know she’ll be here-”

A mini-maw popped out of the wall and chomped her, ripping fabric and drawing blood.

“I SWEAR!”

And then there was a ding-dong.

Relief and sickening horror hit Wallflower all at once. Around her, the greenery suddenly withdrew into the walls, causing them to bulge unsettlingly in a facade of normalcy.

The closest she would ever get to the House looking like her home. It was a novel experience every time.

Wallflower stepped over the smooth wooden flooring to the door, opening it inward to find Watermelody there, waving. “Hey! Sorry, I was looking over the homework first so I wouldn’t be confused when I’m trying to help you with it. Is that okay?”


It took Wallflower a moment to even remember what she was talking about. “O-oh, yeah, no, that’s fine, come in!” Wallflower stepped out of the House onto the path to usher her in.

Watermelody didn’t seem to think twice about it, and walked inside. “Oh. Huh. It smells really weird in here-”

Wallflower grabbed the door handle and slammed it shut behind Watermelody. She felt the House creak all at once, and she shoved her fingers as deep into her ears as she could, to blot out what came next.

It wouldn’t be loud enough for the neighbors to hear, but…

She waited, and waited, for a very long minute to pass.

Finally, she moved her fingers away, and there was nothing but the eerie silence. She reached for the door and gently pushed it open.

The inside was back to its thick, green, overgrown self. But it was subtly different. A little brighter, glossier, vibrant. Less hostile. Rejuvenated.

Watermelody was nowhere to be seen. But the great maw was there, smiling its toothy smile down on her.

Wallflower felt the bile rise, the nauseating, despairing feeling that she knew permeated her very soul every time, ever since that first time she found that her home had become the House, that her parents had vanished into the ether, that her impulsive desire had cost her everything and sentenced her to this life of misery…

She shut the door and fell to her knees onto the firm roots, her hands digging into her pockets as she buckled over, eventually finding the thing she needed.

The only thing that was preserving Wallflower as she knew herself, and holding back the monster eating her soul.

She extended one arm, pointed the Memory Stone at herself, and wished. Not for everything to go… but just for enough.

And in a flash of light and a few strips of remembrance, her wish was granted.

---------

Morning greeted Wallflower Blush, just slightly. A crack through the snaky green tendrils that blocked out the rest of the window.

It was still the blaring of the alarm clock that ultimately roused her from another fitful slumber. She reluctantly sat up, swinging her legs over the side and stepping onto the thick, pulsating roots that covered every centimeter of flooring. Having an easier time than usual keeping her balance on the uneven surface, Wallflower reached the dresser and switched off the noise.

Around her, the House rumbled, softly. It didn’t care much for the screeching sound.

But it tolerated it. As it always did.

Because Wallflower had accomplished what she’d set out to do, that fateful day. She’d done her duty as a gardener and successfully integrated a strange plant into her world.

And this particular day, the House made Wallflower’s life a little easier.

Wallflower appreciated it.