//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A Day at the Quest Hub // by Braininthejar //------------------------------// CHAPTER 2 Ponyville Hospital was built at the outskirts of town, away from all the noisy activity of everyday life. That had been the plan at least. Now that Ponyville had rapidly expanded, the large building was surrounded by small shops and houses, from clothiers and tailoring teachers to a small temple dedicated to teaching young priests. A tall tower with an open top rose from a nearby hill. Carrot Top watched in surprise as a slender flying ship descended from the sky and approached the tower. It was lavender and silver, with the blimp envelope shaped like a giant smiling fish. Carrot Top knew some of the Canterlot nobility owned such yachts – but this one was full of armed Alliance members. “Today’s flight from Canterlot,” spoke a voice behind Carrot Top. She turned around to see an elderly, navy blue unicorn in business attire. “They make a short stop here before flying off north.” Carrot Top looked up with surprise.“You mean they do this regularly?” “Yes. You see, our allies used to have that underground train going between their capitals, but with all the recent earthquakes the whole tunnel got flooded. So Fancypants, nice chap he is, offered them one of his flying yachts to use until all is repaired. And then he thought, why stop there? He bought a couple more ships and made it a business. They go as far as Darnassus now, all free of charge for our heroes. The Alliance headquarters cover all the expenses.” The farmpony squinted as she ran some calculations in her head.“But… how much are they paying him to make this pay off? Those airships must have cost a fortune! “ The unicorn smiled.“Not at all, miss. They are in good condition, but still rather old. In Canterlot, things are only expensive when they are in fashion." Carrot Top nodded her head and left the stranger to whatever business he had in town. She walked to the hospital and entered through the front door. Nurse Redheart was standing behind the reception desk. “Good day, how may I… oh, hello Carrot Top. I haven’t seen you in… what happened to you?” She pointed at the bite-mark on Carrot Top’s coat.“Let me take care of this.” She walked out from behind the desk and stood on her hind legs, waving her front hooves in the air for a moment, before pressing one to the farmpony’s side. There was a brief flash of green light and the coat smoothed, the bruise underneath disappearing. Carrot Top smiled gratefully. “Thank you. So, you’ve became a priest? It must make your work a lot easier.” “Technically a druid,” responded Nurse Redheart. “And no, not really… I mean, yes, it helps a lot with injuries. But we also have a lot more patients now. Ponyville’s population has doubled and our staff hasn’t. Also, not all can be cured with a wave of a hoof.” “Don’t druids have other curative powers?” asked Carrot Top. “They do. But I’m just a beginner. I spend most of my days here and when a day off finally comes, I can only sleep all day. I don’t have the time to go out and level up. Plus, some ailments still require the standard approach. Magic is best for curing things suffered while adventuring. My regular patients still require regular check-ups. The doctors are even busier than I am. For the same reason I can’t hire anyone to take my place while I go adventuring. Healing powers can’t substitute for actual medical knowledge.” Carrot Top listened to the rant, smiling sympathetically.“So, I was told you needed help?” Now it was the nurse’s turn to smile gratefully. “Oh yes, it’s Note… one of my patients. He was out in the forest looking for truffles, when he encountered some kind of a predator. It didn’t catch him but the panicked pig pulled him right through a patch of poison joke. By the time he got home, the pig sprouted wings, bit through the rope and hasn’t been seen since. But him…” Nurse Redheart shuddered.“His face got all rearranged. It doesn’t seem to hurt, but he looks as if drawn by a clumsy pre-school filly. He stays in the ward and doesn’t let anyone see him.” She turned and rummaged through the contents of the desk before producing a short list.“I have a poison joke antidote formula from Zecora. I’ve already managed to get most of the ingredients. But the few missing ones grow in Everfree.” Carrot Top studied the list for a moment. Most of the ingredients were already crossed off and she recognized the names of all that were left. “Soo... you need me to go into the Everfree forest, find the three missing herbs and bring them back to you? No crawling through dungeons or slaying anything?” Nurse Redheart chuckled at the suggestion.“Goodness no. Just bring me the herbs. Most of the forest this side of the river should be relatively safe... well, as safe as it ever gets. You have all the equipment and everything?” She gave Carrot Top a concerned look. The farmpony grinned nervously. “Yes, of course. I have done these things before. There will be no problem.” *** Carrot Top sighed in frustration. She was completely lost. She pulled off the hat of her beekeeper suit, the closest to adventuring gear she could find, and strained her neck to get a better view of her surroundings. Finding all the herbs on her list had been easy. Avoiding local wildlife while paying close attention to the plants at her feet – not so much. Doing both while keeping track of where she was going proved beyond her skill. As she put the hat back on and resumed her walk, Carrot Top once again facehoofed mentally at not getting herself one of those magic stones everypony seemed to use nowadays. If she had, she would already be home. As it was... A thunderous roar shook the forest, causing Carrot Top to squeal and duck. Something was nearby, something huge and angry. She tried to run away from the noise but in her haste she only succeeded in hitting a tree head-first, causing her to waddle around dizzily, losing all sense of direction in the process. No, blind panic wasn’t good. She was no pig. She needed to put herself together. She sat down and covered her head, hiding among the surrounding bushes and waiting for the horrible sound to go away, still as a piece of rock, not daring to even tremble. Whatever it was, it had to be carnivorous. If she was found, she would end the day as a meal, nothing more. Pleasegoawaypleasegoawaypleasegoaway... It was only after the forest grew silent again that she tried to get up and check her surroundings once more. Her forehead still throbbed, a wide-brimmed hat having done little to soften the blow. She needed to find a way out fast, before... was it light in the distance? Carrot Top walked cautiously towards it. Soon she could peer from between the trees. There, in a clearing, by the entrance of a huge cave, stood a large obelisk, a sigil on its face glowing with warm, honey-coloured light. This certainly wasn’t what she was looking for. Worse still, hadn’t the roar come from that cave? She wanted to get away but somehow managed to walk right towards it. Perhaps she had hit her head harder than she thought... Suddenly, she spotted some movement inside the cave. Instinctively she stepped back and hid, before realising that whatever it was, it was way too small to be a monster she had imagined. She saw several hunched shapes and a glint of metal. Then the creatures came into full view and Carrot Top nearly panicked again. The Horde! Here? The group was wearing mismatched colours, clearly an adventuring band rather than a military unit. There were almost a dozen of them, fair-skinned elves, a pair of disgusting, obviously undead humans, a tauren with a broken horn and a shattered shield... suddenly Carrot Top realised almost everyone in the group was visibly injured in some way. Some of them were wearing bandages, some limped, their armours were dusty and dented, as if they had been trampled into the ground by a stampede. The tauren, visibly a leader of some sort, growled at the others angrily in a language the pony didn’t understand. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a stone with a green glowing rune. Most of the group did the same. Others took out whistles and blew, causing a trio of slender, foreign-looking manticores to swoop in from the sky, saddles strapped onto their backs. One hunched humanoid with absurdly large tusks went into the nearby bushes and returned astride a strange vehicle with a roaring engine and a spinning propeller on top. Carrot Top crawled backwards, trying to move fast while not making much noise, her instincts screaming that she is failing at both. Luckily, no pursuit seemed to come her way. Once out of sight, Carrot top turned and started walking away at a brisk pace, putting all her strength of will to not run blindly again. This wasn’t good at all. Whatever she had stumbled upon must have been way beyond her level... What is it with this day? It started so well. There was supposed to be no fighting. And now... if they find me, I’m dead. There is no way I can fight any of them. Her thoughts travelled back in time, to the first real fight of her life. It was during a vacation trip to Appleloosa that had gone horribly wrong when a tribe of buffalos took offence at the apple trees being planted on their ancestral ground. Carrot Top still remembered herself among the chaos, jumping out of the window to land on the back of a charging buffalo. It was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. But that fight was different. Despite all the collateral damage, nopony died. They used pies as ammo. The worst that happened was a mild concussion one buffalo got from running into an anvil. And then there was a peace treaty and everything. But this war? It was completely different, grim and brutal, a threat to... Carrot Top froze. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t hear or see anything, but some primal instincts of a plant eater made her shudder involuntarily. A predator was there and she was the prey. She sniffed at the air. It wasn’t strong, just a whiff, sweet in a disgusting way that felt so wrong, her stomach twisted in protest. It reminded her of one time she left a bag of potatoes in the corner of the barn, forgetting about it for weeks. It was summer and when Carrot Top finally stumbled across the bag by accident, the contents were already semi-liquid... This smell didn’t belong in the forest. If there was anything edible here, something would eat it. There was no time for anything to rot... A sound joined the smell, a silent snicker that grew into a mocking cackle. It was obviously female, but it too felt wrong, raspy as if coming from someone awfully ill. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, circling Carrot Top as she turned, her eyes darting left and right in search of the unseen enemy. It spoke in the same mocking tone, but the language didn’t resemble anything the farmpony had heard. Frightened out of her wits, but still determined to defend herself, she reached into her bag and pulled out her parasprite swatter, swinging it frantically with her mouth. The reek of decay became overpowering and a second later, Carrot Top saw the face of the enemy mere feet from hers, two pinpricks of yellow light staring at her from a mass of rotten meat and bone. Time seemed to freeze as Carrot Top stared back at the undead. It was one of the two she had seen at the cave, an unnaturally thin, hunched body clad in a ragged and spiky leather armour, bare bones visible from underneath, two long, jagged knives in her hands. She was squatting in front of the farmpony, eyes level with hers, the concealing shadows fading from her to give her victim a clear view of the leering face, framed by sticky strands of seaweed-green hair. The eyes lit up until they were burning like a pair of yellow will’o wisps in the empty sockets. The nose and lips had long before peeled off, exposing the glistening bone and teeth underneath. A small white maggot wriggled in the exposed nostril. The decayed face was not able to form any different expression but somehow Carrot Top could tell that the monster really was leering at her. Then she heard her speak again and this time the single word was all too obvious despite the language barrier. “Boo!” In a blink of an eye, the undead pounced forward, swinging her knife horizontally at eye level. Carrot Top’s world became a mix of red and pain. Crying out in shock she reared up onto hind legs, dropping her swatter. Then something zipped past her and her scream stopped, turned into a painful gasp as the second knife was buried in her back, a blow powerful enough to punch right through the ribs. She swayed, no longer able to do anything, her body reduced to following the inertia of the repeated stabs. She was already dead, just needing the time to fall down, but the blows kept coming.