A small beeping sound awoke Poppy.
BeepBeep BeepBeep.
An alarm. She could feel that something was up. The mare cracked one eye open. She could make out the cold steel gray floor. She could feel the gaps in it. The wet concrete floor of the green house came into focus under the steel grate floor.
BeepBeep BeepBeep
“What that.” She murmured, unable to speak clearly. Poppy made an effort to right herself, but was stopped by a sudden bout of dizziness that sent her back down. Her head throbbed with pain.
Poppy tilled her head so she could use her other eye. She made another try to get up. This time, she was successful. Poppy looked about. The white nylon strings that held that held her Apple plants came into view. The glass panels that made up the walls were fogged up, promoting fluorescent light bulbs to slowly turn on to make up for the lack of sunshine.
BeepBeep BeepBeep BeepBeepBeepBeep
“Stop.” Poppy said with a layer of vocal magic. What ever was beeping stopped, but her headache was still present.
“I need a shower.” Poppy observed. Poppy looked about, trying to find the cause of her abnormal sleeping arraignment. Her night stand was riddled with a knocked over lamp, and countless glass cups that she never got around to washing. The stand itself was made of Balsa wood (Balsa wood was Poppy’s favorite wood) with a small five by nine inch drawer that held nothing. Her bed was messy, and had a large pony-sized plot where the light green sheets were folded on top of each other, reveling a cream bed sheet. She had fallen out of bed.
Settling on this, Poppy set out for a washroom north of her bed.
Poppy steeped into the shower, and turned the valve with her magic. The time started now. The shower was makeshift, a pipe line that siphoned off from the irrigation system. The shower head was from a chemical wash shower that you could find in a science class. She had never intended to live in the green house, but she fell in love with it when it was built. She use to live in a spare room above Mr. and Ms. Cake’s bakery, but moved out soon after the green house was built. It was for that reason that every thing in her house was makeshift. A buttson burner for the kitchen stove. A thesaurus for a cutting board, with a set of hobby knifes to use it on. She could do anything in this green house, even live.
Poppy found the shampoo, and used magic to lather it in to her Asparagus green coat, her cutie mark of a poppy, and into her purple main.The pipe shuttered, and gallons of cold water burst out of the shower head and drenched Poppy. It drained into a hole in the floor, that lead to the water treatment station. It was a crude system, but it was good enough for Poppy.
After Poppy had combed her mane and coat, she set out to find the source or the beeping. She took her time coming out of the bathroom. She had no appointments today with any clients, and no gatherings with her friends. Just her and Botany. Her special talent.
Poppy set out to find the source of the beeping. “Start.” Poppy commanded.
BeepBeep BeepBeep
The sound was coming from her desk. Like most things in her room, it was made of Balsa wood. It was simple in make, just a one inch thick wood platform with drawers on the bottom. It was home to some of Poppy’s finest plants: Orchids from Mexapony, Human’s ear from the jungles of Zebia, and goat chiles from Chilly. But, most of the plates were tossed to the side, making way for a plant in the middle. The plant was just a vine, growing on a thin stick on Balsa wood. It was covered with black leaves, and it had two hoof sized blue apples on it. Poppy’s green lointop was also on the desk, and it was connected to the plant via UPS cord.
The lointop beeped.
Poppy rushed to it, and opened it up. It started to work with a hum, and displayed a graphing program. A line graph, displaying photosynthesis.
Poppy’s heart skipped a beat. Last night, there was a record for photosynthesis. She had succeeded.
She located her lointop bag, and levitated it over to her using magic. She put the burlap sack over her neck, and put her lointop in it as she started to make her way out off the green house. She had to tell S.A about this.
She located her lointop bag, and levitated it over to her using magic. She put the burlap sack over her neck, and put her lointop in it as she started to make her way out off the green house. She had to tell S.A about this.
Poppy took the monorail to Ponnyvill’s methane hopper. The monorail snaked between the tall high rises of Ponyvill. It was not as full, being so early, but there were a few ponies getting to work.
Suddenly, Poppy heard some pony call her name. Poppy turned to see two earth ponies walking towards her.
The first had an all black coat, with a dark blond mane that was in a bun. Her cuite mark was of a thunder cloud. The other one, who had called Poppy’s name, had a blood red coat with a short black mane that was crudely cut. Her cutie mark was of a moth.
“Hey, why are you up so early?” asked Lane, the one with the Thunder cloud cutie mark.
“Yhea, not even the farmers are up yet!” added Clara, the one with the moth cutie mark.
“I need to go to Sour Apple.” Poppy said with pride. “I succeeded in-”
“Her look, our stop!” Clara said, turning Lane’s head to the window.
“What are you talking about? The weather factory is not-”
The monorail came to a stop, and Clara started to ramble about a mold in her shower so Poppy would not hear the station name on the speakers. Clara led Lane out of the monorail. Poppy sighed. Nopony, not even her friends, wanted to listen to her talk about botany.
As Poppy watched Lane scold Clara about her rudeness from the sky, the monorail started to move, and slowly gained speed. In a few minuets, she would be at her destination: Sour Apple Pax’s house, right next to the town’s methane hopper.
The monorail slowed to the stop. Her stop. Poppy was the first one out. The methane hopper was an impressive building. It was more like an old factory, but with more smoke stacks and less windows. There where four buildings, each one about the size of a house, all connected by pipes. On the left side, outside of the chain link fence, a large house stood. The most prodomit feature was the two large windows on ether side, that went all the way up to the top. Poppy ran up some stares, and kicked the door.
After a few minutes, a mare opened up the door. She had a dark brown coat, and her dark red mane and tail were woven into a weave. Her horn was a tad bit larger than a normal unicorn’s, same with her cutie mark (Of three apple cors).
“Hey! S.A!” Poppy said. “I got the plants you need!”
“Oh, good.” S.A said, not taking any intest in her family business. “I can get you a call to Canterlot, it thats what you need.”
“Yes!” Poppy said. “Your dad is expecting me, I’m-”
“Yes, I know. Five weeks over due.” S.A said, leading her inside.