Tenses Saga: The Beginning of the End [COMPLETE]
Jul 31, 2009 19:42:06 GMT -8
Post by Caelum on Jul 31, 2009 19:42:06 GMT -8
Reposted from the old forum. Most of the author's notes and such are just copied and pasted from there. Enjoy!
The Tenses Saga
Past... Present... Future... Tenses
Part 1: The Beginning of the End (You're reading it!)
Part 2: Adjustments
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, or any of the characters contained therein. The brand belongs to Hasbro. I do claim my OCs as my own, though I'm always willing to share, provided you ask permission, of course.
Part 1: Conspiracies
In which Wondermint is the only one with any sort of inkling as to what's going on...
Crystal Lace wasn’t a very adventurous pony. Long treks through muddy swamps and dark forests didn’t interest her. Valiant quests to the tops of mountains or the bottom of canyons didn’t appeal to her. Dangerous journeys through endless caves or lakes of bubbling lava made her wonder what had gotten into the heads of the ponies who did those things. She liked royal life, dangit! She liked eating the best Ponyville had to offer, she liked attending all the royal balls, she liked the boring court meetings—no, wait, okay, so she actually hated those meetings, hated them with a fiery passion that caused her to make badly-drawn doodles all over her papers while other court members were talking, but that was beside the point. Those dratted court meetings were a thousand times better than dangerous quests, even if Duchess Gem Blossom wouldn’t stop cracking jokes, Princess Pink Sunsparkle wouldn’t stop barging in uninvited, and Thunder Flash wouldn’t stop flirting with pretty mares the entire time. Court meetings, as aggravating as they were, were still a part of…well…home. Not stupid pointless adventures.
“You’re insane, Wondermint,” she stated, watching her friend frantically dash about.
“I’m not,” the white mare snapped, rummaging through a closet.
“You’re overreacting. It’s been a tough time for you, I know…” Crystal Lace began.
“You’ve got no idea,” Wondermint muttered. Crystal Lace grimaced. Yes, Wundy was going through a terrible time at the moment. Her parents had died only a week ago—an unfortunate accident during a woodland walk with three friends. No one had seen the snake until it was too late. It had bitten Countess Pearldrop first, and then Count Agate when he’d tried to step on the reptile. The creature had managed to get away, slithering into the undergrowth as the other three ponies panicked. Neither Wondermint nor Crystal Lace had been there; but Duchess Sunshimmer had assured the newly-orphaned mare that her parents had died as comfortably as possible, surrounded by herself, Lady Savannah Sage, and Duchess Star Dasher.
And now, mere days after her parents’ deaths, Crystal Lace was certain that Wondermint had actually gone over the deep end.
“Listen, Wundy,” she began, “why don’t you just lie down and rest awhile, hmm? I’m sure you’re tired, and…well, maybe you could use a nap,” she finished, shrugging lamely. Wondermint didn’t appear to hear her, as she was still staring into the closet. Then she slapped her forehead with a hoof, muttering.
“Idiot, idiot, I’m not packing dresses! Sweet Rainbow, what’s gotten into me?” She left the closet and started pacing the room. “Don’t need any clothes…grass is plenty filling and nutritious, so food’s out of the question…which only leaves…” She trailed off, frowning thoughtfully.
“Wondermint?” Crys asked worriedly.
“And I can’t take all the records and books with me…”
“Wondermint? What are you talking about?”
The white mare hesitated, her eyes darting about before she moved closer to her friend. “Crys…” she began slowly, “I’m leaving.”
“Well, I figured that out real quick. Why?”
Wundy looked really nervous now. Her eyes flickered back and forth, all over the room. “My parents’ deaths weren’t an accident, Crys,” she whispered. “They were assassinated. Someone planned for them to die, and sent that snake to kill them. And now…now they’ll be after me.”
Crys stared at her friend for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Well Wundy, that’s very interesting. Now, why don’t you just lie down and—”
“Crystal Lace!” Wondermint exclaimed. “I mean it! This isn’t a joke!”
“Wondermint,” Crys began, hoping to instill some sanity in her friend, “would you please explain to me just why anyone would want to kill your parents—two of the nicest ponies in the entire court—and would then come after you? Who would want to? Ponyville has no enemy countries—heck, there aren’t any other countries to be enemies with! Politics here are simple and boring—no one really cares, so no one would want to kill your family to gain power or anything. It makes no sense, Wondermint. Now take a nap before you hurt yourself!”
Wundy merely shuffled her feet, staring at the floor. “You don’t understand,” she muttered.
“Don’t understand what?”
“My family…knows things.” She paused. “Knew things. I know things.”
Crystal Lace frowned. “What kind of things?” she asked, hoping that if she humored her friend, Wondermint would finally take her advice and take a nap.
“Things,” the other shrugged. She looked around the room. “I’m gonna miss this place.”
“Wondermint…”
The white mare went back to the closet, rummaged through it for a moment, and came out holding something wooden. She gave it to Crystal Lace.
“Here. I want you to have it.”
Crys stared at it stupidly. “It’s a harp,” she stated.
“Thank you, Lady Obvious.”
“I can’t play a harp.”
Wondermint sighed. “You’ll learn. You’re good at music.”
“It’s an impossible feat, Wundy! I don’t have fingers!” Crys had forgotten about Wondermint’s mental problems as she stared at the beautiful instrument in her hooves. The harp was absolutely gorgeous. The wood was decorated with all sorts of little flowers, carved with intricate detail. The strings were well-kept and taut. Music was Crys’s passion, and she could tell that this harp would make beautiful music in the hands of the right musician. But not hooves. You needed fingers to play a harp.
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” Wondermint smiled. “Please, take it. Oh, and one other thing.”
“Huh?” Crys asked, looking up from the instrument.
“You know the fireplace in the very back of the library?”
“The one with the stone unicorns?”
“Yes. That one. Pull the unicorn’s horn.”
Crys blinked. “Uh…what?”
“Pull the unicorn’s horn,” Wondermint repeated, looking her friend straight in the eye. Crystal Lace stared back at her before nodding slowly.
“Alright.”
Wondermint smiled. “Good!”
They stood in silence for a moment. Then, Crystal Lace cleared her throat.
“Well, I think I’ll…just…be off to dinner.” She paused, looking at Wondermint. “You wanna come?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Crystal Lace nodded, and walked out of the room with the harp. Wondermint smiled at her friend.
“I’ll miss you,” she murmured. She took a moment to look around the room one last time. She’d grown up in these quarters. This was only her bedroom, but there was also a large living room with a door leading to the hallway, and her parents’ old bedroom, which she hadn’t moved into yet. And, at this rate, wouldn’t move into for a very long time.
Wondermint sighed. There was nothing here worth bringing, nothing she needed. Turning, she left her bedroom, walked through the living room, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway. She slowly closed the door behind her, trying to stare into the room beyond it for as long as possible. When it was closed, she took a moment to admire the woodwork one last time before shaking herself out of her reverie and walking down the hall. Yes, she was leaving her home, and everything she’d ever known, but she had to stay focused. Her parents’ assassin—or assassins—knew what they were doing. They’d made Pearldrop and Agate’s deaths look like a simple accident, and she didn’t doubt that they were capable of doing the same to her. A trip down the stairs, a fall over the balcony, drowning while swimming in the moat…
Wondermint shivered. Thinking like this wasn’t helping. She had to stay focused.
She walked on through the maze of purple corridors, looking around herself sadly and wondering if she would ever be back. Everyone was off at dinner, so she didn’t run into any ponies trying to offer their condolences and sympathy after loosing her parents, and for that she was glad.
She stopped when she reached the library. Walking through the forest of bookshelves, she made her way to the very back, and stopped in front of the fireplace.
It was a very old, very dusty fireplace. No one had used it for a very long time. Few ponies ever actually came to the library at all, in fact. And, while it made Wondermint sad that her fellow ponies cared so little about reading, it was a fact she was willing to use to her advantage. She walked up to one of the carved stone unicorns on either side of the fireplace, and pulled its horn downward.
The fireplace moved—not very far, only a few feet—but enough to reveal the hidden passageway behind it. Wondermint squeezed through the small doorway. The passageway was much roomier. She found the lever that would close the fireplace door, and pulled it. The fireplace shifted back to its original position, and the unicorn’s horn clicked back into place. Wondermint turned and began walking.
It was dark in here, but she knew the way well, and there weren’t any other corridors one could get lost in. It was only this one passageway, and, at the end of it, a door. Wondermint opened it and went inside.
This room was well lit, thanks to the glowing lamp that hung from the ceiling. Wondermint stopped in the room’s center and stared up at it. It was a very old lamp, she knew, made who-knew-how-long-ago by Elves from some distant land. It would never go out, because the light was from a magical glowing stone inside the lamp, not fire.
Wondermint looked around the room, gazing at the many shelves. There were all sorts of old documents stored here—books, letters, diaries, paintings…
She trusted Crystal Lace. She trusted her friend to take care of all this.
There was another door, on the opposite side of the room. Wondermint walked to it and went through, taking one last look at the secret room. Then she closed the door. This passageway was dark as well, but she remembered her way around. There should be a long piece of wood around here somewhere…
There it was. Her tail was brushing against it. Wondermint turned and picked it up, and slid it into place through the holders on the door, locking it. Yes, she trusted Crys with the secret room, but there were some things she knew her friend shouldn’t know of. Yet.
She went down the passageway a few feet, and soon found the stairs. It was a spiral staircase, going down and down and down and down, past the lowest levels of the castle. It led to a cave system under the castle, which was more difficult to navigate, what with all the twists and turns and many tunnels.
When she reached the caves, it took her a minute to remember which way to go. She was reminded by the snoring coming out of one of the tunnels. And the smell. She went down the tunnel, treading carefully on the uneven terrain. In the distance, a faint pink glow grew brighter as she approached it, and she soon found herself before a mound of dirt, which supported a beautiful pink flower from which the glow came. From under the dirt grew long green vines, the main portion of the plant the flower grew from. The vines twisted their way through other tunnels, finding their way up to the surface of the earth. Part of the reason they grew that way was to gather nutrients for the flower—there was, after all, no sunlight down here. But they were also there to act as guides for that special pony, the one who would come and take the flower and break the spell…
Wondermint walked around the mound, checking the flower from all sides. It was perfectly fine, of course, but she wanted to be sure before she left. Then she laid her head on the pile of dirt, listening to the snoring within.
“Snnnnnrrrrockk, z-z-z-z-z. Snnnnnrrrrockk, z-z-z-z-z.”
Wondermint smiled. “Sweet dreams,” she murmured. Taking one last look at the flower (it struck her just how many last looks she’d taken in the last fifteen minutes), she went down the next tunnel, following one of the vines. She wondered when the next Princess would be discovered. She wondered if she would even be alive to see it.
She wasn’t sure how long she walked through the tunnel. It felt like days, but surely it couldn’t be that long. She didn’t know where the tunnel led to, either. She’d never been down it. But the vine had to go up to the surface at some point…there. There was light coming down from the ceiling, straight ahead. Wondermint hurried towards it.
Yes, here it was. The place where the vine crawled upward, pushing through the dirt to get to the surface. Wondermint stood on her hind legs, and used her forefeet to make the hole the vine went through big enough for her to squeeze through. It took some effort, and the ceiling was very low so she bumped her head several times, but it was all worth it when she managed to shimmy up the hole and get back into the fresh air. She took a moment to savor the light breeze flowing through her hair before looking around.
It was sunset, she noticed first, looking towards the west. Then she looked east. There was a forest about twenty feet away—good, she could travel under cover—and beyond that, off in the distance, were the Lavender Mountains. Her destination.
And, standing right in front of the first trees of the forest, was another pony. Wondermint stared in shock, taking in the other’s looks. White body, light pink hair, a spattering of sparkles across her face…
She frowned. What was a sparkle pony doing so far away from Celebration Castle?
“Countess Wondermint,” the other greeted her. She shifted her position slightly, and Wondermint saw the marking on her hip.
“Lady Desert Rose,” she nodded politely. Now that she knew who it was, she knew why Desert Rose was out here. She’d always been a strange pony; an object of royal gossip since before her birth. No one knew who her father was, and her mother had taken the secret to the grave mere hours after giving birth to her filly.
“Funny you’re so far from the castle,” Desert Rose said lazily. Her eyes were emotionally blank, as always. She gave the impression that she was a bored spectator of the world—she never attended parties or balls, never came to court meetings, hardly ever spoke with anyone… And she certainly never started a conversation.
“I—uh…” Wondermint trailed off, at a loss for words. Desert Rose watched her expressionlessly. “I…” Wundy sighed. “Listen…I’d really appreciate if you didn’t mention this to anyone. I just—I have to go, it’s a long story, my parents…”
To Wondermint’s surprise, Desert Rose slowly walked forward, until her nose was mere millimeters away from her own. For a long time green eyes stared into purple, and then Desert Rose backed away.
“Don’t tell anyone what?” she asked blankly. Wondermint sighed in relief.
“Thank you,” she said, stepping forward to walk past the other. As she passed, Desert Rose, without turning around, said, ever so softly, “Good luck, Countess.” Wondermint glanced back at her, but she’d already started walking away, not looking back. Wondermint sighed and shook her head. Such a strange pony.
She turned back towards the forest and headed towards it at a brisk pace.
*cough* Um...wow, it's been a while since I reread this. Um. I swear all that stuff with the flower and the tunnels and Desert Rose will become important. Desert Rose shows up again in Part 3. The other stuff...Part 4 or 5. Hee. I believe this is a prime example of a Chekhov's Gun...
The Tenses Saga
Past... Present... Future... Tenses
Part 1: The Beginning of the End (You're reading it!)
Part 2: Adjustments
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, or any of the characters contained therein. The brand belongs to Hasbro. I do claim my OCs as my own, though I'm always willing to share, provided you ask permission, of course.
Part 1: Conspiracies
In which Wondermint is the only one with any sort of inkling as to what's going on...
Crystal Lace wasn’t a very adventurous pony. Long treks through muddy swamps and dark forests didn’t interest her. Valiant quests to the tops of mountains or the bottom of canyons didn’t appeal to her. Dangerous journeys through endless caves or lakes of bubbling lava made her wonder what had gotten into the heads of the ponies who did those things. She liked royal life, dangit! She liked eating the best Ponyville had to offer, she liked attending all the royal balls, she liked the boring court meetings—no, wait, okay, so she actually hated those meetings, hated them with a fiery passion that caused her to make badly-drawn doodles all over her papers while other court members were talking, but that was beside the point. Those dratted court meetings were a thousand times better than dangerous quests, even if Duchess Gem Blossom wouldn’t stop cracking jokes, Princess Pink Sunsparkle wouldn’t stop barging in uninvited, and Thunder Flash wouldn’t stop flirting with pretty mares the entire time. Court meetings, as aggravating as they were, were still a part of…well…home. Not stupid pointless adventures.
“You’re insane, Wondermint,” she stated, watching her friend frantically dash about.
“I’m not,” the white mare snapped, rummaging through a closet.
“You’re overreacting. It’s been a tough time for you, I know…” Crystal Lace began.
“You’ve got no idea,” Wondermint muttered. Crystal Lace grimaced. Yes, Wundy was going through a terrible time at the moment. Her parents had died only a week ago—an unfortunate accident during a woodland walk with three friends. No one had seen the snake until it was too late. It had bitten Countess Pearldrop first, and then Count Agate when he’d tried to step on the reptile. The creature had managed to get away, slithering into the undergrowth as the other three ponies panicked. Neither Wondermint nor Crystal Lace had been there; but Duchess Sunshimmer had assured the newly-orphaned mare that her parents had died as comfortably as possible, surrounded by herself, Lady Savannah Sage, and Duchess Star Dasher.
And now, mere days after her parents’ deaths, Crystal Lace was certain that Wondermint had actually gone over the deep end.
“Listen, Wundy,” she began, “why don’t you just lie down and rest awhile, hmm? I’m sure you’re tired, and…well, maybe you could use a nap,” she finished, shrugging lamely. Wondermint didn’t appear to hear her, as she was still staring into the closet. Then she slapped her forehead with a hoof, muttering.
“Idiot, idiot, I’m not packing dresses! Sweet Rainbow, what’s gotten into me?” She left the closet and started pacing the room. “Don’t need any clothes…grass is plenty filling and nutritious, so food’s out of the question…which only leaves…” She trailed off, frowning thoughtfully.
“Wondermint?” Crys asked worriedly.
“And I can’t take all the records and books with me…”
“Wondermint? What are you talking about?”
The white mare hesitated, her eyes darting about before she moved closer to her friend. “Crys…” she began slowly, “I’m leaving.”
“Well, I figured that out real quick. Why?”
Wundy looked really nervous now. Her eyes flickered back and forth, all over the room. “My parents’ deaths weren’t an accident, Crys,” she whispered. “They were assassinated. Someone planned for them to die, and sent that snake to kill them. And now…now they’ll be after me.”
Crys stared at her friend for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Well Wundy, that’s very interesting. Now, why don’t you just lie down and—”
“Crystal Lace!” Wondermint exclaimed. “I mean it! This isn’t a joke!”
“Wondermint,” Crys began, hoping to instill some sanity in her friend, “would you please explain to me just why anyone would want to kill your parents—two of the nicest ponies in the entire court—and would then come after you? Who would want to? Ponyville has no enemy countries—heck, there aren’t any other countries to be enemies with! Politics here are simple and boring—no one really cares, so no one would want to kill your family to gain power or anything. It makes no sense, Wondermint. Now take a nap before you hurt yourself!”
Wundy merely shuffled her feet, staring at the floor. “You don’t understand,” she muttered.
“Don’t understand what?”
“My family…knows things.” She paused. “Knew things. I know things.”
Crystal Lace frowned. “What kind of things?” she asked, hoping that if she humored her friend, Wondermint would finally take her advice and take a nap.
“Things,” the other shrugged. She looked around the room. “I’m gonna miss this place.”
“Wondermint…”
The white mare went back to the closet, rummaged through it for a moment, and came out holding something wooden. She gave it to Crystal Lace.
“Here. I want you to have it.”
Crys stared at it stupidly. “It’s a harp,” she stated.
“Thank you, Lady Obvious.”
“I can’t play a harp.”
Wondermint sighed. “You’ll learn. You’re good at music.”
“It’s an impossible feat, Wundy! I don’t have fingers!” Crys had forgotten about Wondermint’s mental problems as she stared at the beautiful instrument in her hooves. The harp was absolutely gorgeous. The wood was decorated with all sorts of little flowers, carved with intricate detail. The strings were well-kept and taut. Music was Crys’s passion, and she could tell that this harp would make beautiful music in the hands of the right musician. But not hooves. You needed fingers to play a harp.
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” Wondermint smiled. “Please, take it. Oh, and one other thing.”
“Huh?” Crys asked, looking up from the instrument.
“You know the fireplace in the very back of the library?”
“The one with the stone unicorns?”
“Yes. That one. Pull the unicorn’s horn.”
Crys blinked. “Uh…what?”
“Pull the unicorn’s horn,” Wondermint repeated, looking her friend straight in the eye. Crystal Lace stared back at her before nodding slowly.
“Alright.”
Wondermint smiled. “Good!”
They stood in silence for a moment. Then, Crystal Lace cleared her throat.
“Well, I think I’ll…just…be off to dinner.” She paused, looking at Wondermint. “You wanna come?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Crystal Lace nodded, and walked out of the room with the harp. Wondermint smiled at her friend.
“I’ll miss you,” she murmured. She took a moment to look around the room one last time. She’d grown up in these quarters. This was only her bedroom, but there was also a large living room with a door leading to the hallway, and her parents’ old bedroom, which she hadn’t moved into yet. And, at this rate, wouldn’t move into for a very long time.
Wondermint sighed. There was nothing here worth bringing, nothing she needed. Turning, she left her bedroom, walked through the living room, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway. She slowly closed the door behind her, trying to stare into the room beyond it for as long as possible. When it was closed, she took a moment to admire the woodwork one last time before shaking herself out of her reverie and walking down the hall. Yes, she was leaving her home, and everything she’d ever known, but she had to stay focused. Her parents’ assassin—or assassins—knew what they were doing. They’d made Pearldrop and Agate’s deaths look like a simple accident, and she didn’t doubt that they were capable of doing the same to her. A trip down the stairs, a fall over the balcony, drowning while swimming in the moat…
Wondermint shivered. Thinking like this wasn’t helping. She had to stay focused.
She walked on through the maze of purple corridors, looking around herself sadly and wondering if she would ever be back. Everyone was off at dinner, so she didn’t run into any ponies trying to offer their condolences and sympathy after loosing her parents, and for that she was glad.
She stopped when she reached the library. Walking through the forest of bookshelves, she made her way to the very back, and stopped in front of the fireplace.
It was a very old, very dusty fireplace. No one had used it for a very long time. Few ponies ever actually came to the library at all, in fact. And, while it made Wondermint sad that her fellow ponies cared so little about reading, it was a fact she was willing to use to her advantage. She walked up to one of the carved stone unicorns on either side of the fireplace, and pulled its horn downward.
The fireplace moved—not very far, only a few feet—but enough to reveal the hidden passageway behind it. Wondermint squeezed through the small doorway. The passageway was much roomier. She found the lever that would close the fireplace door, and pulled it. The fireplace shifted back to its original position, and the unicorn’s horn clicked back into place. Wondermint turned and began walking.
It was dark in here, but she knew the way well, and there weren’t any other corridors one could get lost in. It was only this one passageway, and, at the end of it, a door. Wondermint opened it and went inside.
This room was well lit, thanks to the glowing lamp that hung from the ceiling. Wondermint stopped in the room’s center and stared up at it. It was a very old lamp, she knew, made who-knew-how-long-ago by Elves from some distant land. It would never go out, because the light was from a magical glowing stone inside the lamp, not fire.
Wondermint looked around the room, gazing at the many shelves. There were all sorts of old documents stored here—books, letters, diaries, paintings…
She trusted Crystal Lace. She trusted her friend to take care of all this.
There was another door, on the opposite side of the room. Wondermint walked to it and went through, taking one last look at the secret room. Then she closed the door. This passageway was dark as well, but she remembered her way around. There should be a long piece of wood around here somewhere…
There it was. Her tail was brushing against it. Wondermint turned and picked it up, and slid it into place through the holders on the door, locking it. Yes, she trusted Crys with the secret room, but there were some things she knew her friend shouldn’t know of. Yet.
She went down the passageway a few feet, and soon found the stairs. It was a spiral staircase, going down and down and down and down, past the lowest levels of the castle. It led to a cave system under the castle, which was more difficult to navigate, what with all the twists and turns and many tunnels.
When she reached the caves, it took her a minute to remember which way to go. She was reminded by the snoring coming out of one of the tunnels. And the smell. She went down the tunnel, treading carefully on the uneven terrain. In the distance, a faint pink glow grew brighter as she approached it, and she soon found herself before a mound of dirt, which supported a beautiful pink flower from which the glow came. From under the dirt grew long green vines, the main portion of the plant the flower grew from. The vines twisted their way through other tunnels, finding their way up to the surface of the earth. Part of the reason they grew that way was to gather nutrients for the flower—there was, after all, no sunlight down here. But they were also there to act as guides for that special pony, the one who would come and take the flower and break the spell…
Wondermint walked around the mound, checking the flower from all sides. It was perfectly fine, of course, but she wanted to be sure before she left. Then she laid her head on the pile of dirt, listening to the snoring within.
“Snnnnnrrrrockk, z-z-z-z-z. Snnnnnrrrrockk, z-z-z-z-z.”
Wondermint smiled. “Sweet dreams,” she murmured. Taking one last look at the flower (it struck her just how many last looks she’d taken in the last fifteen minutes), she went down the next tunnel, following one of the vines. She wondered when the next Princess would be discovered. She wondered if she would even be alive to see it.
She wasn’t sure how long she walked through the tunnel. It felt like days, but surely it couldn’t be that long. She didn’t know where the tunnel led to, either. She’d never been down it. But the vine had to go up to the surface at some point…there. There was light coming down from the ceiling, straight ahead. Wondermint hurried towards it.
Yes, here it was. The place where the vine crawled upward, pushing through the dirt to get to the surface. Wondermint stood on her hind legs, and used her forefeet to make the hole the vine went through big enough for her to squeeze through. It took some effort, and the ceiling was very low so she bumped her head several times, but it was all worth it when she managed to shimmy up the hole and get back into the fresh air. She took a moment to savor the light breeze flowing through her hair before looking around.
It was sunset, she noticed first, looking towards the west. Then she looked east. There was a forest about twenty feet away—good, she could travel under cover—and beyond that, off in the distance, were the Lavender Mountains. Her destination.
And, standing right in front of the first trees of the forest, was another pony. Wondermint stared in shock, taking in the other’s looks. White body, light pink hair, a spattering of sparkles across her face…
She frowned. What was a sparkle pony doing so far away from Celebration Castle?
“Countess Wondermint,” the other greeted her. She shifted her position slightly, and Wondermint saw the marking on her hip.
“Lady Desert Rose,” she nodded politely. Now that she knew who it was, she knew why Desert Rose was out here. She’d always been a strange pony; an object of royal gossip since before her birth. No one knew who her father was, and her mother had taken the secret to the grave mere hours after giving birth to her filly.
“Funny you’re so far from the castle,” Desert Rose said lazily. Her eyes were emotionally blank, as always. She gave the impression that she was a bored spectator of the world—she never attended parties or balls, never came to court meetings, hardly ever spoke with anyone… And she certainly never started a conversation.
“I—uh…” Wondermint trailed off, at a loss for words. Desert Rose watched her expressionlessly. “I…” Wundy sighed. “Listen…I’d really appreciate if you didn’t mention this to anyone. I just—I have to go, it’s a long story, my parents…”
To Wondermint’s surprise, Desert Rose slowly walked forward, until her nose was mere millimeters away from her own. For a long time green eyes stared into purple, and then Desert Rose backed away.
“Don’t tell anyone what?” she asked blankly. Wondermint sighed in relief.
“Thank you,” she said, stepping forward to walk past the other. As she passed, Desert Rose, without turning around, said, ever so softly, “Good luck, Countess.” Wondermint glanced back at her, but she’d already started walking away, not looking back. Wondermint sighed and shook her head. Such a strange pony.
She turned back towards the forest and headed towards it at a brisk pace.
*cough* Um...wow, it's been a while since I reread this. Um. I swear all that stuff with the flower and the tunnels and Desert Rose will become important. Desert Rose shows up again in Part 3. The other stuff...Part 4 or 5. Hee. I believe this is a prime example of a Chekhov's Gun...
I am lovin' this so far! 
My brain is far too melt-y to provide any concrit (even though, I really think you've done a marvelous job) right now, but... 
I can relate to her, being the friend left behind. Poor baby!!! D: I also love how she LIKES the finer things in life. XD She's a material girl and she's not afraid to admit it! XD You gotta love characters like that, simply because they're adorable. XD