//------------------------------//
// Sicknesses, Swamps and Monsters oh my! 
// Story: Trixie Meets a Great and Powerful Human 
// by 00Colt 
//------------------------------//

	
[POV: Trixie]


"I told you not to go near the pony that was hacking and coughing." Joe said. Trixie grumbled as he took the thermometer from her mouth. "One hundred and three, that's not good." It's been over a week since Trixie's bold move for Joe, and by unspoken agreement, they didn't speak of it, though Trixie still thought of it. 
I know I was a little sudden, but I just had to comfort him...He seemed so sad...I couldn't just let him be so sad. she thought, letting out a cough. "I wasn't the one who went to him, he went to me. It wasn't Trixie's fault that he thrust himself upon Trixie while he was sick."
"Regardless, you are very ill. I will have to go into town to see if there are any medicinal drugs that can aid in curing you."
"How will you do that?" she asked, "You've said yourself that you're not inconspicuous."
Joe walked over to the door and simply stated "I have a plan for that." and walked out. 
Trixie sighed and looked at her blue and darker blue spotted fur. She's been sick with a serious case of pony pox for over a day and Joe has been trying his hardest to cure her, but has made no progress even with what he's done. He's so kind to help me, but he must hate me. Celestia, I hate me right now. He isn't even a pony! Why did I do that? she berated herself. This has been going through her mind from the moment that she kissed him.  
What was it about Joe that made him so attractive was the question that Trixie continued to ask above all others. Was it his personality? His features? How he saved her? Even with her infatuation for Joe she did have a feeling...a feeling of something dark and heartless about Joe. Sighing she dismissed the idea, Joe was not evil in any way, he couldn't be. So Trixie sat waiting for Joe to return, couching and sneezing every now again.





"I am back Trixie," Joe said entering Trixie cart.	
"Did you get any medicine?"
"Unfortunately no. I did happen upon a way to find the cure instead. From what that doctor said, we can find a special flower called the Franva flower in a bog named Froggy Bottom Bog. If we can acquire one of these Franva flowers and take its petals we can create an elixir that can cure you." He stated.
"Froggy Bottom Bog? That place is disgusting!" Trixie said with disgust. Froggy Bottom Bog was, as said in the name, a bog that frogs tended to gather in. But there have been rumors about that specific bog for a few months about something more than frogs and toads living there, but nopony has proven the rumors true or false.
"Would you rather deal with a debilitating illness for who knows how long, or a few hours at most of trudging through a swamp?"
"When you say it like that..."
Turning around an opening the door Joe looked over his shoulder and stated, "I've got the directions on how to get there, we should arrive in roughly three hours. Sit back and relax." before exiting.





"Trixie, I believe you were correct about this place being disgusting if just a glance from this far says anything." Joe stated, stopping to look at the dismal landscape from afar, "But in order to get that flower, we need to enter the swamp itself.''
"But what about me?" Trixie coughed, looking out the slot in the front of her cart, "I'm not able to do much more than walk outside my cart. How can I travel through a place like that?"
Joe was silent, apparently mulling over the situation. "I can just the bring the cart with me, the depth of the water does not seem to be all that high."
"Why not just leave me here?"
"Because four eyes are better than two, not to mention I don't wish to leave you alone while you are so sick" Joe said, continuing forward, "If you see a flower with a blue stem and pink petals be sure to let me know."






[POV: Joe]


"Any luck Joe?" Trixie called out, still looking for any sign of the colorful plant through her cart's door.
"None, I was told this certain flower can be rather hard to find, but this is ridiculous. We have been searching for two hours now, and yet we can't find even one." he said, dragging the cart behind him, the struggle of keeping it from getting stuck for an extended period of time beginning to show in his tone.
"Maybe we should take a break?" Trixie suggested, before going off in a coughing fit.
"No, your illness is getting worse as time passes, if we find it soon, we can get out of this dismal place. Honestly, how can a place with so little pollution have an area with so much smog?" Joe responded, letting out a small cough himself.
"I don't know Joe. Froggy Bottom Bog is the same as it's always been I think."
Joe just sighed and continued looking for the elusive plant. He's never had much of a problem finding anything before,but this plant was determined to stay out of sight. Joe coughed, it seemed like the the air was changing, as if he was getting closer to an immense factory giving off a lot of pollution. Trixie started to cough more too, but Joe was unsure if it was the air, or the illness she called the 'pony pox' getting even worse.
"Trixie? You alright in there?" Joe asked, struggling a little bit more with keeping the cart from toppling or getting stuck in the increasingly deepening water.
"Yes, but does it smell different to you too?"
"Yes, are you sure no one lives here? Or if there is some industrial complex around?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Than what could possibly be giving off this smell?" he sighed. Looking even harder, hoping to find the shy plant and get away from the nose destroying stench that the bog itself seemed to be giving off.
"Joe! Turn around, I think I saw it!" Trixie exclaimed, a sneeze punctuating her sentence.
With great effort Joe turn the cart around and saw it, the elegant blue-stemmed pink-petaled Franva flower sitting on one of the few small patches of dry land "Great job Trixie!" he exclaimed, glad that their search was over. "Now stay right here, I can just collect the petals now and we can leave this wretched place." he said letting go of the cart to slosh over to the aggravatingly hard to find plant. 
The closer he got to the Franva flower, the worse the smell seemed to get. Which was odd considering what the pony had told him about the Franva flower having a distinct smell to it, like a warm summer day after the rain. It didn't add up, making Joe resent the bog even more.
Soon Joe was only a few feet from the Franva flower when he heard more water moving. He stopped moving, yet the sound of water moving continued. Trixie screamed behind Joe and he turned around to see a giant head rising from the water, and another...and another. Long scaly necks, at least twenty feet long each, followed the heads and before long a ginormous, armless body, twice the size of the necks and half as wide. Joe froze as the gigantic thing looked directly at him. The world stopped.
Raaaaawr!
"Damn..." was all he could say before jumping out of the way of one the creatures heads rocketing towards him, smashing into the ground. Firing off a few magic bolts Joe retreated further away from Trixie's cart and the Franva flower, the three headed monster following suit, knocking over every one of the few trees that stood in its way. 
The monster, or hydra as Joe named it due to it having more than one head and no arms, resembling the Greek hydras of myth and legend, was large, heavy and slow. That gave Joe the advantage, being smaller and more nimble. Retreating further he contemplated what his first attack will be.
Blind it, then hit it in the back of the knee, it doesn't have arms to pick itself up with. It will be helpless. Blake whispered, urging Joseph to attack.
Yes, than Trixie and I can get the hell out of here. Joe stated, he didn't want to have an extended battle with the hydra.
Letting out a war cry Joe charged, reaching into his mental pocket of power, directing that power to his palms. Jumping high he only reached mid-chest of the gargantuan hydra, but all six of its eyes were focused on him. Thrusting both of his palms forward he created a blinding beam of light directed at the hydras heads. 
The hydra roared from the pain of its retinas being burned, Joe made haste in dashing behind it, looking for the crook of the knee. There! He leaped at the back of its leg, aiming a kick. But he missed, the hydra recovered and moved faster than Joe anticipated it could. After landing on his feet in the murky water once again Joe turned around to see one of the hydras heads speeding towards him, fast as a bullet. Jumping to his left Joe attempted to dodge the fast moving, fanged skull but was too slow. Before colliding with the ground once again one of the foot and a half long teeth from the hydras head clipped Joe's right shoulder, causing him to scream in pain, leaving a long and deep gash and knocking Joe off course, sending him straight into one of the few trees. 
Joe wheezed, trying to catch his breath and get up. Getting up he glanced at his bleeding shoulder, it felt like it was on fire. Returning his gaze to the hydra he saw one if its gigantic feet heading straight down at an extremely fast rate. Unfortunately, Joseph was directly under it and the foot itself was as wide as the rest of the hydras leg, about ten feet at least, and Joe knew he couldn't dodge the huge appendage. So he made a quick second decision; throwing his arms up to brace the impact and using his power to slow the foot down before it came down on him.
The impact was devastating, nearly crushing Joseph then and there, but instead, brought him to his knees and pushed him down in the soft ground. The water rising up to his mid-chest Joe struggled to move the heavy hydra off from him using every ounce of strength he had, a snarl on his face. To his dismay it only slowed the hydra, but the hydra was still pushing and the water slowly rising to his armpits.
If this thing doesn't stop now I'm going to drown! Joe screamed mentally.
A blast was heard, the hydra roared, and stopped pushing down on Joe. Looking over he saw Trixie firing bolt after bolt of magic at the hydra. The hydra roared one again and Trixie dove backwards, barely avoiding one of the heads launching at her. 
At the sight Joe felt rage, similar to how he felt when that stallion had hit Trixie, only stronger and more potent. His vision darkened, he no longer struggled with the hydras foot, looking up he saw a black aura surrounding the appendage. But he didn't care, all he cared about was killing this thing.
Pushing upwards he threw the hydras foot in the air and kept it in place with magic. Using his magic he threw himself up to its mid-chest and landed a demolishing punch, causing it to slowly fall backwards. As the beast and Joe were falling to the ground, Joe summoned a black orb of pure magic, its power radiating. The ground shook when the beast fell, and Joe fell to the ground with it, but jumped into the air once again, higher than before. Directing the orb in front of him as he fell once more he let loose one word; "Die!" before crashing down on the beasts broad chest.
Time seemed to slow to a near standstill as Joe watched the black orb crack between his palm and the hydras scales. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Trixie with a terrified look on her face. Looking back at the orb that was about to burst from the pressure of Joe's impact he threw one arm behind him and used his power to create a dome of magic around her.
The explosion was deafening, the burning sensation, unbearable. The blast sending Joe far into the sky. All he could see was blue sky and fluffy clouds before falling back to Earth, and being swallowed up by the dust cloud the explosion had left. Joe landed shoulder first on hard, dry ground. He hissed in pain as his vision came back fully, and his strength drained, the injuries from his battle taking their toll.
"Joe!" he heard, "Joe?! Where are you?! Say something!" he turned his head to see Trixie making her way to him as fast as she could. "Joe, are you alright?!" she sobbed as she sat down by his side, tears running down her face
Coughing he said "I've...been better...are you alright?" she nodded, "Good...Do you know where the Franva flower is?" Trixie looked up and pointed over Joe with a hoof. Turning his head he saw the pink-petaled flower through the dust. Joe let out a hollow laugh, "To think...All this...For a stupid flower..."
"Joe. We need to get you to a hospital." she sniffed.
"No...need...Here's the information on how to make the elixir..." he said copying the recipe from his memory and transferring it to Trixie's, "Now lets get out of here..." he said before teleporting the two of them, the cart and the Franva flower outside of Froggy Bottom Bog.
"Trixie." he said once the teleportation was complete. "I can't stay conscious much longer...You know how to make the Franva elixir, and you know how to stitch up a wound...I...trust you..." he mumbled before he was engulfed in blackness.