Rainbow Dash shifted slightly as Twilight Sparkle continued to examine her patient. When Fluttershy brought her to the library, Twilight had Dash moved to her bed for a more comfortable rest. Now she was checking her over. The fact that it was very late and she had just eaten, all matters that directed to her becoming exhausted and very sleepy, did not slow her down in her efforts to help a friend. She looked all over Dash, checking every inch of her body for injury or other odd things. Just like Bon-Bon’s condition, Rainbow was fine except for her ill appearance and missing cutie mark.
“And you just found her like this?” asked Twilight, stepping away from the unconscious pegasus.
Fluttershy shook her head. “No, she was talking to me. Then she flew off and began to do tricks.” She turned towards the cyan pony, “Then her wings gave out on her… and she fell.”
Twilight turned in surprise, “She fell?!”
“Yes, but I caught her in time. She was alright.” Fluttershy assured her. “Then I noticed her cutie mark was missing. I took her inside to lie down and rest. She slept for most of the day. When she awoke I gave her some medicine, because I thought it would help.” She solemnly looked at the floor. “She only got worse. Then she began to shake and look terrible”
“And you decided to bring her here of all places?” asked Twilight with a stern voice.
“I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry… I didn’t know what was happening, so I brought her here! I knew cutie marks are magic and you’re the best I know at magic and I just thought you could figure it out… I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy began to tear up.
Twilight changed her tone from one of frustration and tiredness into one of regret and sorrow. She reached over and put her hoof on the scared pink maned pony.
Twilight knew Fluttershy didn’t mean to be an annoyance. She knew she didn’t mean to interrupt her dinner, bring in a heavy burden of caring for another pony and dump the task of uncovering what the problem is on her and make it all better like a frickin’ miracle worker. No, she was just scared and concerned for a lifelong friend, and she cared enough about Dash to bring to Twilight. Not an expert in the field of medical science, but an expert in magic. She trusted Twilight and had faith that she would be well experienced enough and smart enough to help out a friend of both her and Fluttershy. Fluttershy didn’t mean to impede, she just wanted to be a good friend.
Twilight shushed Shy as she rubbed her shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll help out Dash. Don’t worry about it.”
After she was sure Fluttershy wouldn’t cry any more, Twilight let go of her and walked over to Dash again. “Wait…. You gave her medicine?”
Fluttershy nodded quietly, “Yes, and then right after, she got even sicker…”
Twilight pondered this over for a moment. “Medicine made it worse…” She turned to Fluttershy, “What kind of medicine did you give her?”
Fluttershy paused to think for a moment, then recalled, “Oh yes, it was that new drug that came out, ‘Salvation’. I found it helpful with my aches from working, but my animals didn’t like it much…”
“’Salvation?’ Hm. Never heard of it.” Twilight said, putting hoof to her chin.
Fluttershy smiled weakly, “You need to get out more, Twilight.” She stood up and stretched her legs a bit, “A few weeks ago, a new pharmacy opened up and starting selling this new medicine. It’s actually pretty useful.”
“Do you have any?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy shook her head, “I must’ve left it at home in the confusion. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Twilight turned and looked out the window. Pitch black. “Hm. It’s too late to go buy any for analysis…”
"UUUAAAhahhhhh...."
Twilight was interrupted by a strange noise. It started out quietly, slowly building to a load groan. A rather odd and noisy moan It sounded like a… whale? Yeah, a whale. A surprisingly female sounding whale. A female whale that was right behind her...
What the hell?
The curious and somewhat confused purple unicorn turned around to be met with a very large mouth and tongue, reaching right out at her. She stood still, face frozen in shock and disgust. Finally, the mouth dropped and she saw who it was. It was Fluttershy. She finished yawning audibly in Twilight’s face. She quickly realized what she had just done and blushed with a squee.
It was getting late, and they both had been getting very sleepy. Both stood in awkward silence for a few moments.
“Well, um… Yeah… Anyway, I think it’s time for bed…” said Twilight, walking across the room from the bed currently occupied by Rainbow Dash. “I’m not gonna send you out in the cold darkness, you’re welcome to stay the night here. I have can whip up some spare beds for us.”
Twilight’s horn glowed as a large bed popped into existence at the other end of the room. Such ability to create things out of sheer will and magic never seemed to faze the ponies of Equestria. They were never ones to stop and think, ‘Hm. We have the ability to create and destroy matter at will, change things very molecular structure, teleport, shake the very laws of existence, and we choose to make beds’. No, they were more to think, ‘Oh, cool. A place to nap’. “Ponies are such odd creatures.” The Doctor would say.
Fluttershy thought none of this as she hopped into the bed alongside Twilight. They lay in a silence as Twilight blew out the lantern next to her, leaving them in complete darkness.
As Fluttershy laid on her back, a concerned sighed escaped her lips. “I sure hope Rainbow will be okay…” she said, looking towards the blackened out ceiling.
Twilight turned to her and reassuringly said, “Don’t worry; I’m sure she’ll be just fine.”
Fluttershy’s small smile blended into the darkness, but was not unfelt by Twilight. She knew Shy was feeling better from her words and believed her. If only Twilight could believe them, too. While it was true that nopony had ever been completely drained of their internal magic before, and nopony knew for sure what would happen, Twilight knew it couldn’t end well. She needed to stop this thing before it got way out of hoof. She needed to help Rainbow. She needed to save Ponyville.
Right now… she needed to sleep on it.
…
It was fortunate that the Doctor’s internal clock was completely different from the normal internal clocks of ponies. This was mainly because he was so used to jumping around from time zone to time zone that not even he was sure what his internal clock was. Put in simple terms, it meant he didn’t need to sleep at normal intervals as the Equestrian ponies. This was very helpful for staying awake to do important things such as breaking into a closed pharmacy at night.
The pharmacy itself was a surprisingly large building, spanning the size of at least one and a half Sugar Cube Corners; the local bakery shop. It was a complete giant square, which was odd, considering the shape of other buildings in Ponyville. It made the building look very much out of place, compared to the one beside it. The Doctor made note of these as he approached the place.
The Doctor checked his surroundings to make sure he wasn’t being followed as he casually walked up to the pharmacy. He peered into the darkened windows. Nobody’s home, perfect for a little… investigation. He checked the door over and found something interesting: an electronic alarm system. He looked left and right to be sure he was alone and whipped out his handy little screwdriver. Sonicing the alarm box, he deactivated it. Putting away the screwdriver, he briskly walked in and closed the door behind him.
The inside of the pharmacy was nothing to spectacular: just a small room with some paintings on either side wall, a plant for decoration, and a counter with a register. Behind the front counter were rows and rows of filed medications, most of them being stock of “Salvation”. The Doctor quickly observed this and began his search. The paintings were normal enough. The stock of a single kind of medicine was different… but understandable given how good it supposedly was. The door behind the counter with a large sign that read “EMPLOYEES ONLY”? Now that seemed very inviting to the Doctor. He hopped over the counter and investigated the doorway. No alarms this time, but the door was doubly locked. They obviously didn’t want anybody in. Too bad.
Quickly sonicing his way in, the Doctor found himself in a strange looking laboratory. Wires and cables hung from the ceiling, going every which way. Tall white machines and monitors lined the walls, causing an eerie mad scientist feel to the room. The room itself was unsurprisingly dark, most of the light coming the machines and monitors that were on standby.
The Doctor took his time walking around the room. The room itself was odd, but it didn’t appear that weird. The Doctor pondered the technology in the room. It was the machines along the walls that were the strange thing; they seemed a little out of place, but not to out of the ordinary. They were vaguely familiar, yet somehow unknown. It was rather advanced tech, but then again, Equestria had pretty odd tech, some old fashioned, some rather advanced. It was always difficult to tell what tech belonged and what didn’t.
He approached one of the monitors. Perhaps he could hack into their computers and dig up something on Salvation.
“Now… what magic things are you putting in this stuff?” The Doctor spoke as he typed away furiously. He hacked away for a few moments before he came across the ingredients list and preparation for the drug. “Acetylsalicylic acid? Hypromellose, triacetin… No!” he said frustratingly, “These are the ingredients for… aspirin?”
The Doctor thought about it for a moment. His hooves clipped and clopped, breaking the silence of the room as he paced. “So, according to this, all that Salvation is, is just aspirin. But...” He knew that it couldn’t simply be aspirin. “It can’t simply be aspirin if it’s the cause of magic drainy-thing. There has to be more.”
The Doctor knew when there were some bad things afoot, and this place certainly gave him the worst feeling of dread and anguish. There was something else in that drug, and he wasn’t going to find it on a false computer database. While computers might have been a simple task to a pony such as the Doctor, he liked to do things old school. Investigation of the room for clues seemed like a good idea.
He began to look around the room a bit more. He observed monitors, machines, shelves… Then he noticed something he hadn’t before: cabinets. He walked over to a cabinet and opened it. Inside he found more ingredients, the same ones that the computer had said.
“Basic ingredients for aspirin.” The Doctor opened one of the bottles and took a whiff of it.
Now, the Doctor was no ordinary pony, that much was obvious. He was a pony of considerable knowledge and experience. His vast years of experience and intellect told him that these bottles did not contain simple ingredients. Fortunately, he did know what they really were. Grinning, he took down some more bottles and smelled them, too.
“Specimen 2A, Alrida C4, Nocturne Salv…” He grinned, “You sure can’t find these ingredients on earth.”
Before he could make any more discoveries, he was interrupted by noises coming from another room. He looked up to see another door. A door that he apparently had failed to see before in the darkness. He could make out voices coming from beyond the doorway. He was not alone. The metal hinges creaked as a fire red pony with a white lab coat stepped out and into the room. He held a torch in his mouth. Shining it around the room, he found nopony. The place was empty.
…
Twilight briskly trotted up the road leading to the pharmacy. She smiled slightly as she kept a steady pace, arriving to her destination quickly, but still being able to take in the beauty of the morning. As urgent her mission was, she couldn’t help but appreciate the new day.
Earlier that morning, Fluttershy had left to go home and care for her animals, leaving Rainbow Dash in Twilight’s care. She had made sure Spike awake before heading off to the drug store. Hopefully, they would be open this early.
As she trotted town the street, her mind wandered back to the previous day. The parasprite, the Doctor, Lyra and Bon-Bon, Fluttershy and Rainbow, the missing cutie marks… She reflected on how odd things had been, but stranger things had happened when Discord was free and mucking about, so she didn’t worry about it too much.
“I wonder whatever happened to the Doctor, though...” She thought, turning the corner and reaching the pharmacy.
While it may be rather really in the morning, Twilight was surprised to see so many ponies inside the store already. At least five other ponies mingled in amongst the shop, all waiting in line to buy some of the famous ‘miracle drug’. Obeying the unwritten rules of lines, Twilight walked over and got in line. As she waited, her mind began to drift off again.
“I wonder how Bon-Bon’s doing… I hate having to leave them like that, but what could I do?” she looked around the place, “Well, I’m here, helping Rainbow… maybe Bon-Bon took the same medication?”
The line shifted forward a few feet. “Hmm…” Twilight thought as she looked the small room. It was a little claustrophobic, being only for buying the one medication. There weren’t any shelves for other products. No medical supplies, no blood pressure machine, not even any cosmetic products! Rarity would hate this place. The majority of the room was empty. The plant in the corner offered very little atmosphere to the room. It looked fake.
"Not much of a 'pharmacy'." Twilight flatly said.
The ponies in the line shuffled up a few feet as the next pony got his share of the miracle drug and walked out. Twilight took no notice and continued to be wrapped up in her thoughts.
Twilight thought for a moment, and realized something: Why would a place that sells only one excellent product need such a large building? Why not just cart or something? For that matter, why such a large building, in the room is so small? What’s the rest used for? Production of the drug, perhaps? Do they make it here?
Twilight’s thoughts were cut off by a distant voice that slowly began to get louder. “Next!”
What?
“NEXT!”
“Huh?” she said as she snapped back into reality. She looked around to see that nopony else was in the room; only the cashier.
“Next!”
“Oh… right.” Twilight blushed.
…
Outside of the store, Twilight looked at her purchase. It wasn’t very expensive, surprisingly. Good medicine, good prices; no wonder it had become so popular. The drug itself didn’t look like a super-duper Celestia-given miracle drug that most ponies’ expectations had set. Just an ordinary pill bottle. Inside, ordinary pills. She looked it over more.
Twilight hummed and hawed. “Looks normal enough…” she analyzed the drug.
“A little too normal.”
“Huh?” Twilight quickly turned around to see who had spoken. She came face to face with a certain pink party pony. The mare known as Pinkie Pie smile greatly, inches away from Twilight’s face.
“Hi Twilight!”
“GAH!” Twilight stumbled backwards in surprise and fell onto the ground. As the purple unicorn fell down her grasp on the pill bottle loosened, allowing the drugs to go flying in a completely different direction. The bottle landed on the ground with a ‘clack’ and began to roll away.
“Oh no!” Twilight cried out as the bottle rolled out into the street.
She watched in horror as it continued to roll into the road running perpendicular to the. The bottle rolled right into the path of an oncoming cart, being pulled by a large red stallion with an orange mane. The stallion didn’t notice the medicine on the ground. It slowed to a stop in front of his massive hoof and was subsequently smashed to pieces when he brought it down. His cart followed close behind him and mushed the cracked container and pills into dust. The dust was then ground up into the mud. The large stallion, also known as ‘Big Mac’, then proceeded to continue merrily on his way, glancing over at the two mares.
“Mornin’ Miss Pie, Miss Sparkle.” He greeted the two and walked on.
Twilight said nothing. Her jaw moved up and down, but only silence came out.
“Morning Big Mac!” Pinkie cheerily greeted as Twilight facehoofed into the dirt. After red workhorse had left, she turned to look at Twilight.
“You know Twilight, you’re gonna get real dirty doing that.” Pinkie looked at Twilight with a look of curiosity and humour. “I mean, I like to play in the dirt sometimes, too, but then I always have to take a bath afterwards because Mrs. Cake doesn’t like it when I make food with dirt in my mane. Why, one time, I made a batch of brownies and I forgot to wash my mane after I rolled in the dirt so when I...”
As Pinkie babbled on, Twilight picked herself off of the floor. She shook her head and dusted herself off. Paying no attention to the drabble that spewed from the other’s mouth, and instead focused on the destroyed remains of her purchase.
Together, (together meaning Twilight walked and Pinkie mindlessly followed), they walked towards the pile of mush that had been formally known as ‘Salvation’. Twilight stared into the mud with a mix of defeat and sadness.
“-and all of them looked just like me!” Pinkie finished her epic tale of dirt, brownies and adventure.
Twilight looked up to the happy pink pony. “Do you realize what you did?!” she began to get angry.
Pinkie Pie looked at her with a thoughtful expression. “Um, destroy any possibility of Humma Kavula ever running for president again?” she grinned weakly.
Now it was Twilight’s turn to be confused. “What? No! You made me drop these pills and they got smashed!” said the increasingly infuriated Twilight, pointing to the pieces of plastic in the mud. She had no idea what Pinkie was going on about, and right now, she didn’t care.
Pinkie looked at the mush, “Gee, I’m sorry, Twilight.” she said, honestly sympathetic, “But you can always buy some more, right?”
“No, I can’t. I just used the last of my spending bits on these ones!” Twilight said slightly less angrily.
“Oh... Waitaminute! I thought you had connections with the Princess... Doesn’t she give you a lot of money?”
“Not really… I have to pay for a lot of things from my own pouch…” Twilight said rather calmly. She began walking back to the pharmacy. Pinkie followed in bound.
“Huh. Well, everypony around here thought you were loaded with royal grants or something…” The pink maned pony said, bouncing along the way.
Twilight shook her head sadly. “No. And now I have no way to buy more medicine…” She looked back up to Pinkie. “Unless you have any bits I can borrow?” said Twilight, her spirits rising with hope that she might still be able to buy the drug, analyse its contents, concoct a solution and save the day.
Pinkie shook her head sorrowfully. “Sorry, no can do, Twi! I just spent my last of my bits on 50 tons of confetti and custard.”
Twilight’s hope deflated. “Oh. I see.”
Pinkie smiled. “Why do you need pills, anyway? Can’t you use your magic to fix everything?” she said as they continued walking down the street, passing the pharmacy.
Twilight sighed. “No, Pinkie. See, I don’t need the pills to fix something… Well, I guess I do… But they aren’t for me… Except they were… For me to fix the problem… But they’re the cause of the problem…” Twilight shook her head once more, “Ugh. It’s complicated.” She walked on.
Twilight half expected Pinkie Pie to just shove off at the mention of complicated explanations. Hopefully she would become bored and want to go prank somebody. Complicated explanations weren’t Pinkie’s strong suit. As random and strange as she was, her explanations were often very short and left more questions than answers. To Twilight’s surprise, Pinkie just smiled.
“That’s okay. I’ve got the whole day off. Nothing is really happening today, and we really haven’t hung out in a while so…” Pinkie gave her a half-hearted smile.
Twilight contemplated telling Pinkie Pie about the missing cutie marks and the possibility of everypony being drained of magic. On the one hoof, Pinkie was known to overreact to things very easily and panic loudly. Everypony knowing that they might become sick and die would not bode over well. Then again, on the other hoof, if she made Pinkie swear not to panic loudly, she defiantly wouldn’t tell a soul. Pinkie Promises were handy that way. In fact, Pinkie might even be able to help her. In some way…
Twilight looked back at Pinkie Pie. “Okay,” she whispered, drawing her in close, “But you must Pinkie Pie Promise not to tell anypony else.”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie waved her hoof around in the familiar motion that Spike had shown before.
“Well, alright, then." Twilight smiled back, "I’ll start with yesterday afternoon…” The two began walking off down the street.
If either mare was to turn their heads to their left at that moment, look down the alleyway they were currently passing and take a moment to look, they might have seen a tall blue box, hiding in the alley. The box was a tall rectangle with windows on either side and a light bulb on the top. Subsequently, if either one were to pause for a moment, they might have heard a click and slam in the alleyway. These sounds were a door on the blue box opening and closing respectively. Shortly after the click and slam, they would have heard a most wondrous noise, indescribable by words. Those who have heard it have called it ‘the most beautiful sound in the world’. The sound grew louder as the light on the top of the box flashed in sync with the sound. The sound soon faded away, as did the box itself, fading from existence and disappearing into thin air.