It was, perhaps, a reflection on her growth that Roses In Bloom’s nightmarescape had so drastically changed. Where once it may have been Root, Root, nothing but Walking Root, now it was truly a hellish realm.
Heart racing and chest heaving, Rose sprinted through the swamp, desperate to find a haven from whatever had overtaken her home. The smell of rot was choking, grabbing at her throat and threatening to drown her in its musk. She remembered the Obelisk, looming and vengeful in the distance, vengeful against her for daring to touch it. And that was what had started it all.
She did not know how, but she knew the rotted mass of bone and flesh that attempted to pull itself to its hooves was Walking Root. The chunks flaked off of her body, no life left to hold her together, and Rose felt bile rising in her throat. She did not want anything more to do with Root, now that she had found her hooves… but she truly did not desire to see her former love in such a state.
So she ran.
Everywhere she turned, the faces grew worse. Kin she had met in passing, kin she had spent nights talking with till the sun rose… all of them were susceptible to the rot which fell across the land. She saw her children, saw her Dawn… how she kept running, not stopping to mourn as horrible jaws lunged for her flesh, she could not fathom.
Over the ridge ahead, the moon rose high in the sky, staring unwaveringly at her with its six eyes. The sight froze Roses in Bloom in her tracks, the arachnoid eyes blasting into her very soul. It knew her, knew her fears, knew her shame and her weakness. But then, Last Night had seemed to understand that from the very moment they had met.
As she opened her mouth to call out to her friend the moon, a set of mangled fangs buried itself into her neck. She screamed, torn down to the swamp and into its murky depths by a familiar green shape. Here was Half Truth, ripping the blood and meat from her body as she writhed in the swampy waters. Not to kill, but to hurt. To watch. Everything was dark, everything was miserable, as the pain overwhelmed Rose’s in Bloom’s senses.
Water burnt at the tears in her body, and she absentmindedly was aware of the feeling of hooves crushing against her lungs. Her children’s hooves, burying her and breaking her as they moved onto their own lives. All of the laughter above her sounded like a horrific song, singing the doe off to her death. Her lungs burned, and everything stung, and she sobbed- miserable and broken, she was sorry, so very sorry, she shouldn’t have gone to the great stone. High above, those six watchful eyes turned away, not watching as a hoof struck down to crush her throat and end Roses in Bloom’s misery.
She jolted awake with a start, chest heaving. Rose had not thought so, but the journey to the obelisk had not treated her mind well. Perhaps she had learned, perhaps she had grown… but she longed for nothing more than the welcome embrace of her family. Another conversation with Half Truth, to more understand her feelings.
But never, never again would she does this. Never again would she let the monstrous monolith into her soul.