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// It's All in the Diaphram 
// Story: Home Brewed Healing 
// by High_Light 
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Wake awoke to a slight nudging against his barrel and soft voices calling out. Slowly opening his eyes, his ears swiveled around for the source of the voices. He remembered something about this morning but not much. An accident? Memories flashed through Wake Vortex’s mind as he suddenly remembered everything. The crash, the hospital, High Light, the potion, the planter. It all came back to him as a blur to be sorted out later, right now he had a potion to test. Blinking rapidly to clear his head, Wake finally locked eyes with the scientist couple and smiled. “How long was I out?”

High Light opened his mouth to respond but was beaten to the punch. “One point five hours.” Brighten Early responded briskly. “We wanted to let you rest but not enough to activate any remaining regenerative properties of the potions. If you sleep too much, you’ll heal naturally.” She explained in her normal neutral tone.

“Yea buddy, we’re gonna have to get going again soon or we’ll be here all night.” Said High Light, pointing a hoof towards a small window showing the afternoon sun crawling slowly towards the horizon. “It’s about three hours until dinner, we’ll knock this potion out and see how it goes before we plan a break. You’re of course invited to stay, sound good?”  

Standing from his resting position with a smile, Wake approached the simmering cauldron and began looking around for the next potion. “Sounds great, I love your cooking!” he said, “I’m ready. Let’s chug this thing and see what happens.”





Once again the bowls and jars had been set up on the small table, this time with a jar of tan powder instead of the darker color of High Light’s hoof. 

High Light once again began speaking in his dull note taking tone. “Again, base potion has been prepared. Exactly 4.2 grams of powered Pegasus primary feather will be added, sample provided by experiment subject Wake Vortex.” Preparing the measuring spoon again, he continued to speak “Adding reagent to potion, bracing for reaction.” and dumped it in. The effect was profoundly different from the previous potion, instead of hearing the expected high pitch sound there was a sudden lack of sound. Ears suddenly clogged , everypony in the room noticeably yawned or flexed their jaws to alleviate the feeling caused by such a sharp decrease in air pressure. “Reagent has been introduced to base potion,” High Light repeated from the last test, still fighting back yawns to combat the pressure. ”Uncomfortable high pitched noise noticeably absent, drastic change in room air pressure is noted, will ask subject for approximation” he finished, looking up to Wake Vortex when a questioning expression.

“It feels..” Wake began, “almost as if I’m at 10,000ft. The air is thinner, easier to move around but it’s missing oxygen too.” Nostrils flaring and barrel extending while he paused to take deep breaths, he continued “We should be safe to keep going, just be on the lookout for feeling light headed or having a sudden sense of euphoria.”

Nodding, High Light began to speak again about the various changes brought about after adding the reagent while holding the cleaned metal spoon from earlier in his hoof. “Ensuring equal distribution of reagent throughout potion.” The stirring once again changed the color of the potion; the golden streaks lost their vibrancy and became more of a copper color with the base color turning a strange icy blue with tan curly wisps of smoke rising from it. High Light looked around the room before glancing back to the newly finished potion, shrugged and said “Pegasus Potion has been prepared successfully.”, before stepping away from the table and motioning towards Wake.

As before, Wake approached the table with slight trepidation. The effects so far hadn’t been too bad, really. At least with the magic “reagent” being his own there was less chance of him not being able to handle the result. With enthusiasm that he did not quite feel he exclaimed a quick, “Salute!” and proceeded to skul the phial. Expecting the potion to fight being drank was his first mistake as the damn thing rocketed down his throat, burning like the worst Appleloosan whiskey. Coughing and gagging at the same time, Wake struggled for breath as his eyes burned and watered. His second mistake was to attempt a burp, hoping to settle the vile liquid. Three gagging attempts were made before he felt a large POP in his barrel and suddenly felt better, like he could breathe more than ever before. Still lightly coughing and patting his barrel with a hoof, Wake started making hoof motions towards High Light without speaking. As if reading his mind, High Light moved with surprising agility and speed to provide his friend with a much needed sip of water.

“Here you are, friend. How are you feeling? I’m not noticing much of a physical change in terms of healing, your coat and mane seem much shinier and healthier though.” High Light asked, hoofing over a mug while looking over his winged friend. “It seemed to not go down as well as the last one, are you feeling anything like before?”

Lightly shaking his head, Wake continued to gently sip the provided water and physically assess what could have changed. Fluttering his wings caused Wake to notice that the strange curl to the tips of his wings went further down his wings and had changed the tips to a light blue from his normal tan coloration. Opening his muzzle to announce this discovery was the third mistake he made with this potion. As the first syllable was formed by his lips, Wake felt a great and powerful force build in his barrel before erupting out of his lips. ”MY WING CURLS!” was all that escaped before he clamped his muzzle shut but the damage was done. The sheer gale force of his statement had blown High Light and Brighten Early’s hair straight back and knocked almost every item lining the walls and tabletops to the floor while somehow forming a thin layer of frost over the entire room, dropping the temperature several degrees in the process. Looking around in wide eyed panic, Wake let out a tiny whinny that made the room feel even colder before slamming his eyes closed and slumping to the floor.

Wake could hear the scientist couple discussing this new potions side effects but smartly kept his muzzle clamped shut. As the fear and panic subsided Wake noticed the cold he was emitting seemed to be linked to his emotions. ‘Get it together, you’re going to be fine once the potion wears off.’ he thought, trying to focus his mind and calm himself. While taking deep breaths and trying to center himself, Wake couldn’t help but overhear the mutterings of the other two ponies in the room as they brushed off the frost. 

“Certainly a reaction to the Windigo teeth, I warned you..” “Yes yes but we needed the ice essence..” “..Royal Canterlot Voice has Pegasus origins? Might have to ask..” “..perhaps Windigo magic could..” “Think the wing coloration change is permanent?” The couple’s muttering was barely audible over the fierce scratching of pencils over note pads. At this point, Brighten had abandoned trying to fit all of High Light’s observations onto a single note pad and was using her impressive magic fields to record both pony’s audible notes. Wake sat back, cautiously awaiting the end of this potions side effects while making observations of his own. The frost coating everything in the room was slowly melting, leaving behind a wet mess on all the various items blown around the room from his…outburst. Bowing his head in shame, Wake vowed to himself that once he could speak again he would apologize and help clean up. A sudden lack of sound caused Wake to look up, noticing that the couple had finished taking notes and had moved on to the questioning phase of the test with both ponies standing over him with inquisitive looks.

“So,” began High Light “it would seem that while you haven’t healed any of your previous injuries but have gained a few interesting abilities. Just for clarity, I’ll list them off as we’ve recorded them; healthier coat and mane, the curls on your wings has decreased in angle while changing colors to an ice blue and you’ve gained what could only be described as The Royal Canterlot Voice.” Looking around the room as he finished the list with a smile on his face, he asked “Remember when Princess Luna visited a few years ago for Nightmare Night?” The collective shudders around the room answered his question for him. “Yes, well. All that shouting about town was her Royal Canterlot Voice. Let’s give it a bit to wear off before you try to talk again. That sound okay to you, Wake?”

Nodding, Wake returned his head to the floor and closed his eyes. It wasn’t long before a familiar groggy feeling overtook him, and while the room quietly reassembled itself in a golden glow, Wake Vortex slipped off to sleep again.