The golden glow of the sun was starting to fade as it set behind the trees of the Everfree Forest. Briar smiled at Rose Luck as he departed from Daisy's house. The three of them had enjoyed dinner together, discussing the flower festival, and the nature of various kinds of plants. The knowledge that Briar had begrudgingly acquired dominated the majority of the conversation. Daisy and Rose had only ever had the ability to discuss what they had tried and whether or not it was a success or failure. Briar on the other hand was able to constantly provide suggestions simply based upon what he had learned from gardens directly.
Briar Thorn headed directly to his residence. Twelve blocks and only a few minutes later, he arrived at his hovel. The place was stale. Plant life appeared to avoid the place like the plague. Around the building was a clear line where plants had just stopped growing, daring to progress no further towards the stone construction. Briar smiled at his work, and walked to his dark wooden door, nudging it open. Inside was quiet.
This was the one place he couldn't hear the whispers of plants. Here he couldn't smell the pollen, couldn't hear the wind rush through their petals, couldn't see them swaying in the breeze. Here was silent. The one place he felt normal was in this building. Here he wasn't reminded of his talent, wasn't valued for his gardening advice, and didn't feel like he had to avoid eye contact, lest he need to fulfill some social obligation. For this was home, a place to rest his head in complete comfort.
Briar shut the door and walked to his kitchen. Unlike the outside, everything inside was covered in beautiful woods. Once it was separate from the tree, wood didn't talk, and looked wonderful when woven together properly. Woods actually made the majority of the colors in his home. The natural light of the sun which was still just peaking in from the glass installed in his ceiling illuminated most of the room with a gentle yellow glow. He focused a bit of magic through his horn and opened a small drawr, from it he withdrew a pine-cone.
The pine-cone was rough in his mouth, and ultimately not very good. It was one of the few foods Briar could store without having to try to silence it first. Most of the time he ate out, or did his food shopping a meal at a time. With his evening snack out of the way, he headed for his bed. As he let the bed envelop him in its warm embrace. He sunk into it and nearly instantly drifted off to sleep.
Briar's eyes wrenched themselves open as the inside of his eyelids illuminated to wake him. He reluctantly rolled himself out of his perfect position of comfort in his bed, and out onto the floor. As his hearing came into focus so did the harsh sound of a rapid and panicked knock on his front door. With immediate displeasure at whoever it was, he dragged himself to his front door and opened it.
“Hey Briar.” An almost neon pink pony pushed past him and into his house.
“By all means, don't mind me, its not like this is a private residence or anything, please come in,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Oh sorry about that, I just needed to see you, immediately.” Her voice was more panicked than her knocking. Briar looked her up and down. Daisy had some sort of shawl covering her face, a scarf around her neck, a decorative saddle on her back and even hoof warmers. He raised an eyebrow, suspicious of the outfit.
“You look ridiculous,” he commented in a rather harsh tone. Daisy rolled her eyes and started pulling the garments off one by one. First went the hoof warmers, then the saddle. Briar Thorn stood there impatient. When had opened the door he didn't remember it being particularly cold out, so the outfit made little sense. “You realize I could barely tell who you were when you came in right? Why are you dressed like that anyway?” He gave her an inquisitive look. As a few more garments came off his understanding grew. He winced as he noticed several very large discolored spots on her coat. The spots were darker, and a sickening twist of green woven into her natural color. He moved closer to examine them more thoroughly. The spots weren't just discolored, they were bruised as well. Underneath the shawl and scarf Daisy broke into a coughing fit.
“I think it was the plant from yesterday. Rarity is broken out into these... blotches as well.” She coughed again. Daisy had become extremely weak. Her voice was breaking in the middle of her sentences, and her knees had started shaking the moment she had stopped removing her strange clothes. If the shawl hadn't been blocking the way, Briar knew he would be watching tears run down her cheeks.
“Daisy, I'm not a doctor, and I told you and Rarity that I had never seen the plant before.” He looked at her, hoping to see the understanding that would absolve him of responsibility. Instead he saw the shawl start to dampen on her face. She was crying harder now.
Inside Briar could feel his stomach churn. He had no clue what to do, nor how to comfort Daisy. He moved in close and pressed the side of his head against hers, giving her a hug. He raised a hoof gently to touch her shoulder, wrapping his foreleg around her. “It'll.. It'll be alright.” He hesitated. He had no clue how things would work out, and the idea of lying to a friend created a twisted knot in his throat. “Come on, get dressed and we'll go see Nurse Redheart.” He let go, and motioned to her clothes. He felt uneasy.
Daisy slowly started putting the strange garments back on, when a thought occurred to her. “I, I gave some of the plant to Aloe and Lotus.”
Nurse Redheart, a white mare with a light pink mane and tail, whose occupation was to help sick ponies found herself absolutely overwhelmed. All day, ponies had been coming in with the same mysterious disease. The rest of the hospital staff had been called in to deal with the sudden surge of patients and it still wasn't enough.
She glanced over her latest responsibility's hospital chart. Strange bruises, pelt discoloration, coughing, chipping hooves, and minor muscular dystrophy. This patient was in what appeared to be a slightly later state than all of the others. Redheart ordered the mare to into a bed, and told her that lunch would be served around noon. The nurse pony exited the room and sighed to herself.
“Doctor, do we have anything to help yet?” she asked, approaching a nearby superior. The stallion turned around, looked at her and shook his head silently. “I see.” She walked away dejected. She returned to the lobby, grabbed a clipboard with the next patient's name on it, and read the name aloud. “Heartstrings, Lyra.” A sea-foam green unicorn limped up to the door out of the lobby. As the door shut behind the two Redheart spoke, “What seems to be the problem today?” she asked as the two entered a small room filled with an uncomfortable sitting table covered in paper. Heartstrings jumped up onto the table and took a seat.
“I stepped on my cousin's miniature building blocks, and as you can see, one of the blocks got stuck.” The pony lifted her hoof towards the nurse, showing that one of the colorful filly toys had gotten wedged into her hoof.
“Ouch, that looks like it hurts. That's alright though, its not the worst thing you could have come in with today. We'll have that removed, and get you cleaned up in no time.” Redheart picked up a pair of tweezers with her mouth, and leaned in close. She closed the tool around the colored brick and pulled gingerly. With only minor resistance the block came loose, and a small trickle of blood started to ooze from the hoof. She returned the block and tool to the counter and picked up some gauze, quickly wrapping the wound in a bandage. “There you go. Just stay off it for a day and you'll be right as rain.” Redheart was happy to know that she could do something for at least one of her patients today.
Heartstrings bent her knee a few times, testing how her hoof felt without the interlocking block stuck in it. She smiled now that the pain was nearly gone. She clambered off of the table slowly, happy to have her hooves back on the ground. “Thanks Nurse Redheart.” She smiled. “By the way, what did you mean by 'not the worst thing you could have come in with today?'”
Redheart became visibly uncomfortable. “Nearly everypony here has something I've never seen before. Same symptoms. There's nothing we can do though. It's odd, almost like some sort of pandemic. Just be glad you haven't caught it yet dear. Try to stay away from anypony with strange discolored spots on them alright?” She nudged Lyra out into the lobby. As she looked out ready to call her next patient, she became very worried. The number of people in the waiting room had trippled since she'd taken the unicorn back. She looked back at the list to confirm she had the right name in mind, looked again to the crowd. Her eyes locked onto a purple mare as she called the name: “Twilight Sparkle.”