From The Prettiest Flower

Chapter 3: Discoveries Fortunate and Unfortunate

Dot woke up the next morning, feeling slightly better after her talk with Yakko. Sliding off her bed, she tripped over something.
"That's funny", she thought.
"I didn't leave anything on the floor"
Picking herself up, she noticed...she hadn't left anything on the floor. There were vines, spreading all over the floor, up the walls, everywhere. They were a dark green, and had somehow grown up through the stone foundations of the castle. Not even bothering to change clothes, Dot ran out of her room, discovering more vines all through the halls, some sprouting colorful little flowers.  All around, the castle's workers ran around, confused at the newly sprouted foliage. Curiously, Dot ran her fingers over the vines on the wall. She picked a small, but vibrant pink flower, and held it close.

"DOT!" Yakko ran up to her, with Wakko close behind.
"Can you believe it, only a few weeks on the throne and we already have a catastrophe!" Wakko laughed, plucking leaves off the vines.
"That's gotta be some sort of record!"
"It is impressive, but ya know...IT'S STILL A CATASTROPHE! I've talked to 18 different botanists over the past hour, and NOBODY can tell me where these things came from, or what they are!"
Yakko snatched a handful of leaves away from Wakko before he could put them in his mouth, and tossed them aside. It was then that Yakko noticed what Dot was wearing.
"You're still in your nightgown?"
"Everyone's too panicked to care what I'm wearing, Yakko!"
"Fair enough."

They ventured further down the hall, the vines and flowers becoming thicker and in higher numbers as they went.
"Have you talked to the Prime Minister? He seems like a smart guy...mouse." Dot suggested, still twirling the flower between her fingers.
"No, In fact I haven't seen him or his little friend all day. You'd think they were nocturnal or something." Yakko snarked.
"Ya know, I did notice some stuff missing from the fridge late last night." Claimed Wakko.
"What were you doing in the fridge last night?" Asked Dot.
"I get munchies." Wakko said, sliding closer to her to avoid a frantic scullery maid.
They kept walking, talking, trying to decipher what was going on, searching for the Prime Minister, or anyone that could help. As they were walking, Dot started to notice a pattern. If she had the castle layout memorized like she thinks she did (which was still very iffy), the closer they got to the library, the thicker the vines became, and the further away they were, the thinner the vines.
"Hold on...I think I found out something..."
Dot grabbed her brother's by the wrists, and quickly ran to the library. Sure enough, the vines grew in high numbers there. It didn't look like the library was the main hub of the vines, but it was close.
"See, the vines are thicker here. It's like a puzzle ball, everything lines up to a certain point!"

"Yeah, but why here?" Wakko wandered around the nearly empty library.
According to the longtime workers of the castle, Salazar sold most of the books to try and replenish his abysmal money situation in the early years of his rule.
"There's gotta be something! Some sort of...magic thing, or plant thing, causing this!" Dot ran around, peeking behind leaves, standing on empty shelves, looking for some sort of secret passage, or handle, or anything! Her brothers soon joined in on the search, pulling away decades old wallpaper, peeking in corners, throwing aside tables (which Wakko did mostly for fun), and tipping over shelves (which Yakko did to blow off steam, the botanists wouldn't leave him alone.) This continued for some time, causing minor damage and staving off disgruntled workers.
"Face it Dot, there's nothing here." Yakko sighed, sitting on an overturned shelf.

"I can't believe it, we searched so hard!"
Defeated, Wakko slammed his head against one of the few shelves they hadn't turned over. They heard a small clicking sound, and the shelf moved. Wakko stumbled back, with Dot quickly catching him. The space that the shelf revealed was small, and extremely dusty. There was a small marble stand in the center of the space, with a fairly worn leather journal sitting atop it. Dot let go of Wakko and walked to the book, picking it up. The cover was smooth, intricately decorated with yellow and pink thread, stitched into the picture of a beautiful flower.
'A flower that pretty could only exist in art.' She thought to herself.
She went to open it, when someone ran into the library. The siblings quickly arranged themselves, covering the small space they had discovered.

"Your highness-ess, you are desperately needed! Where have you been?!" The Page asked, their words directly mainly at Yakko. Dot wasn't sure if she should be upset, or glad that her oldest brother had to deal with most of the important responsibilities. He was older and (slightly) more responsible, but they were the co-rulers of Warnerstock, shouldn't all three of them equally deal with the important work? She quickly pushed away the thoughts, focusing on the journal behind her back and the Page in front of her.
"Personal stuff." Yakko said quickly.
"If it's those plant boys again I'm gonna-"
"It's not the scientists, your majesty. It's the citizens!"
"Do we have a revolt already?" Wakko gasped.
"N-no, we just need you to hear some of these complaints!" The Page pleaded, going to pull Yakko away, but quickly changed their mind.
Yakko looked at his sibs, then back at the vines surrounding all of them.
"Oh...fine." Yakko groaned, walking away with the Page, with Dot and Wakko of course following.
"Sorry, we just wanted your brother."
Dot and Wakko were instantly triggered.
"I'm sorry, but you want Yakko, you get Wakko and I too!"
"Yeah, we're a package deal!"
The Page, somewhat scared of what would happen if they said no, sighed and walked forward, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot behind them.
Emerging from the library, a mob of disgruntled citizens swarmed the young royals. Each one ranting about something of theirs destroyed, ripped apart, wrapped in vines, demanding that the royals do something about it. Pushing to the front of the crowd were two squirrels.
"Listen...your magestys. We need some explanations on these plant doo-hickeys and we need them NOW."
The older squirrel demanded.

Dot almost instantly recognized her as Slappy Squirrel, from Acme Falls. Behind her was her nephew, Skippy.
"I'm very, very sorry, but we're just as confused as all of you are!" Yakko reasoned.
"That's very reassuring." Slappy snarked.
"Hey, like I said, I'm very sorry for any inconveniences, but we can't do anything until we know what these things really are. So can you all just go back home, and we'll call you back once everything is sorted out!"
Dot could easily tell Yakko was struggling to keep calm in front of the yelling and complaining citizens. She wanted to give him a hug, but felt it was very inappropriate at this current point in time.
"B-but we can't go home..." Skippy said, big tears in his eyes.
"Our t-tree was destroyed b-by those th-things..." He clung to his aunt, who put a hand on his shoulder.
Dot felt her heart sink.
"So don't come at us again with the 'we're in the same boat as you', story. 'Cause you kids have a place to sleep tonight." Slappy turned to go.
"Wait!" Dot stopped them, grabbing onto Slappy's purse.
"We have guest rooms...somewhere. You could stay here until we figure this out!"
She and her brothers knew first hand how terrible it is to go for years without a real home, bouncing from place to place. And she'd be darned if she let someone go through the same situation, and she did nothing. The squirrels looked at Yakko, who glanced at Dot, then nodded.
"Yes, please let us make it up to you, and your nephew."
Slappy cracked what Dot thought could be considered a smile, she wasn't sure, and shook Yakko's hand.
"As long as you've got enough Buttermilk!"

After getting the squirrels settled in, Dot gathered her brothers in an old War Room, to finally read through the journal they found. The leather-bound book sat forebodingly on the, the siblings almost too scared to open it.
"Oh, enough of this. Let's just do it!" Dot said, picking up the journal and opening it up to the first page.
She gasped, dropping the book on the table. Yakko and Wakko ran to her side.
"What happened, what was it!?" Yakko said frantically.
"Was there a spooky spell, a curse?!" Asked Wakko.
Dot took a moment to compose herself, taking a deep breath, and picking the book up again.
"Look at what's written..."
She showed the decade old writing to her brothers, with an an eerily familiar name as the author: Queen Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fana Bo Besca the Second.