Zetsubō No Hana Syndrome (Despairing Flower Syndrome)/// MLP Fic

Chapter 1: A Suspicious Lone Flower

As the bushes brushed pasted the happy ponies' legs, Fluttershy skipped through the Everfree Forest, looking for flowers to make something nice for her friends. She had been following a path that seemed old and abandoned because she knew most of the flowers in the forest already.

After a while of walking and following around little noises, She entered a large clearing with flourishing flowers sprouting everywhere. "This is beautiful! They'll love these ones!" She ran over to the middle of the giant circle and looked down, expecting more purple coloured flowers, but seeing a dark red rose emitting a blue, thick fog that surrounded her hooves.

Fluttershy was hesitant to try to take it, mainly as it was covered in thorns. She shook her head, trying to get doubtful thoughts out of her head. "No one will be angry! I'll just ask Pinkie Pie to dethorn it, and then it'll be fine!" She picked it from the ground with her mouth and dropped it into her basket. She smiled to herself, happy that 4 hours didn't go to waste.

She walked back over to the path and trotted back along. Feeling overwhelmingly happy, she didn't think much of why the flower was smoking or why she didn't notice her head starting to feel heavier. As she got out of the path, she saw Applejack. "Hi, Applejack!" The hat-wearing pony's ears peaked up as she saw Fluttershy. "Why are you here? I wasn't gone for long!" As they started to walk to Pinkie's place, Apple sighed heavily.

"Fluttershy-" Applejack jumped away from her as she saw the smoking flower. "O-Oh! You saw the flower! Isn't it beautiful?" Applejack got back onto her hooves and looked nervously back at Fluttershy. "Are you sure that it isn't...toxic?" Fluttershy looked down at the red flower and back at a flower that happened to be sitting near them both. "No? If you're going to bother me, I'll be going." Fluttershy turned away from her and walked away, focusing on getting to Pinkiepie's bakery.

That flower couldn't be bad, right?