Home Brewed Healing

by High_Light

The Quickening of Discovery

Wake Vortex sighed as he walked out of Ponyville General Hospital, his lean body and wings covered in bruises and bandages. Wake’s job was fairly simple, flying fast and low over the train tracks leading in and out of town to blow debris off the tracks, but it had dangers. A freak storm blowing in from the Everfree Forest was nothing new but Wake had been caught off guard by just how strong the wind gusts were today and had been sent tumbling across the ground, earning himself a few days on the ground while he healed up. Another sigh left his muzzle as he began the trudging walk home. Thankfully Wake’s home was firmly planted on the ground so he wouldn’t have to ask another Pegasus for a lift up to a cloud house, being grounded meant zero flying. If Dr. Feelgood caught him flying, he would be admitted back to the hospital for “observation” until his recovery was complete.

His thoughts trailing away with visions of being endlessly chained to a hospital bed, Wake barely registered a large green shape standing in front of him before he collided bodily with it and fell to the ground with a squawk.

A low chuckle came from the shape, “Good morning to you as well, my friend. While I was hoping to run into you, I wasn’t meaning literally. I had been calling your name before you ran into me.”

Recognizing the voice, Wake Vortex felt a small trickle of dread creep down his spine as he finally found his bearings and got a good look at who he had smacked into. Standing before him was a green Earth pony of average build with a short brown-red mane and tail. Armed with a wide smile and manic eyes, the look his friend was giving him while offering his hoof was more than a little unnerving.

“Sorry High Light, I somehow didn’t see you there. Jeez bud, you stocky ‘ole Earth ponies are tough. That felt like I hit a brick wall!” Wake joked with High Light, accepting the offered hoof for help up. “You might have to take me back to the hospital!”

As High Light’s grin grew ever more unnerving, Wake knew what kind of day he was in for. High Light ran a little tea shop called The Tea Spot alongside his wife Brighten Early, the Earth/Unicorn duo had taken the town by storm with their herbal blends that cured seemingly every ailment that wasn’t a life threatening injury or illness. The residents of Ponyville had quickly found a new way of life after the couple had moved from Canterlot. Sniffles? Cold? Sore throat? Don’t go to the hospital, go to The Tea Spot. Two cups and some leaves to steep at home before bed and you’d be back on your hooves in the morning. Wake had even seen Zecora, the local Zebra, at The Tea Spot enjoying the restorative effects most of their teas had so he knew there were no hard feelings between the couple and her.

What most ponies didn’t know, High Light and Brighten Early were also former doctors. They had left their different fields shortly after meeting while working at the Canterlot Specialist Hospital. They had never mentioned what their specializations were in but Wake knew the medical, mental and informational sciences were no stranger to either of these ponies. Wake had met the couple shortly after they moved to Ponyville, answering a flier for needing help to test new products. Their almost matching cutie marks spoke of knowledge Wake knew better than to question, but the testing often had...side effects.

“How funny you should say that, my feathered friend! We’re actually working on something quite amazing back at The Spot, it could have you back in the air tomorrow morning if you feel like lending a hoof.” High Light slid alongside Wake Vortex, gently nudging him away from his path home and more towards The Tea Spot at a fork in the road. Letting out an excited whinny, High Light nearly shouted while he urged Wake to go faster. “I can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on!”

---

The tan colored Pegasus covered in bruises eyed the bubbling cauldron before him with no small amount of trepidation, this stuff was giving off some serious funk. “So, let me get this straight” he begins, speaking to the other two ponies in the room “you want me to drink this stuff? High Light…what is this supposed to do?”

The green Earth pony of the group sighed, rolling his eyes. “How many times do I have to explain this, Wake? This is going to get you back in the air much faster than “conventional” healing methods. A traditional healing spell or potion only accelerates the healing process of whoever it’s used on, instead of just healing the damage.” High Light looked to his wife Brighten Early to continue the explanation as he made notes on the consistency and color changes of the boiling fluid.

At this the golden coated Unicorn continued adding ingredients by hoof and stirred the cauldron with a large spoon while speaking “The problem with this, Mr. Vortex, is that while healing very quickly is wonderful it is also very draining on the one being healed. They will require vast amounts of energy, food and rest to complete the healing cycle. Most ponies fall asleep seconds after the healing starts. Not very practical in a dangerous situation, is it?”

“Yeah that doesn’t sound like it would work very well if you needed it while still in danger,” Wake Vortex agreed while nodding. “but that doesn’t explain what you’re doing with this…stuff and why I have to drink it.” Raising a hoof towards the slop bubbling in the cauldron, he quickly pulled it back after seeing the large black bubbles popping and leaving greasy stains on whatever the splatters touched. “I'm only going to be grounded for three days, five tops. I doubt I even need a potion for it.”

High Light's eyes got misty as his bottom lip quivered, earning a grimace from Wake. “Please, Wake? You're not only my best friend in the whole town but the only injured pony I know, let alone like.” As Wake Vortex stared at his sniffling friend, he knew how to deal with this. Wake began slowly and silently counting down from five. At two, High Light suddenly stopped sniffling and started chuckling. Snapping back to his previous demeanor when the quiet count reached one, he continued speaking.

“Well Brighten has been studying the spell matrix of a healing spell while I’ve been taking apart the ingredients for a healing potion to determine exactly what we could fix. This,” High Light explained to his winged friend, pointing a hoof at the cauldron. ”is our first attempt at a healing potion that will no longer incapacitate the imbiber.” Seeing the look of hesitation still on his friend’s muzzle, he pushed one last time. “Look, we really need you. We can’t test the potion on ourselves because we have to record the various effects or lack thereof within the scope of our perspective talents. We’ve combined all of our knowledge for this potion, reaching further than ever before and you are quite literally our only hope of revolutionizing healing as Equestria knows it!”

The enthusiasm of the green Earth pony was evident from how high pitched and loud he became during the explanation and Wave Vortex was sure that he had seen the strange black lines and dots that make up High Light’s cutie mark glowing a bit, but after shaking his head and blinking several times no glow was present. ’Must have been something in my eyes, and it is kinda dark in here’, he thought to himself before turning his attention back to the cauldron.

Several more ingredients had been added during High Light’s impromptu speech, the liquid in the cauldron was now a strange blue and purple-ish color with swirls of gold laced through it. It was almost like watching the sunset before a perfectly clear night of star gazing. Lost in the glittering effect of the potion, Wake Vortex half heard High Light speak and a light touch on his left wing before a sharp pain snapped him back to attention.

“Sweet Celestia’s burning flanks, not a primary!” Wake shouted, flailing his wings about to slap away his attackers before a golden glow surrounded his entire body and held him still. Once he settled down a bit he felt the magic release him, causing him to drop a few inches to the ground. Hooves down, thankfully.

“Yes, yes Mr. Vortex.” began Brighten Early, rolling her eyes “I understand these feathers are incredibly important for flight and therefore very sensitive. I do apologize, but we’ve all made our contributions to this experiment. Also, should-”

“When!” High Light indignantly corrected.

“When our efforts are successful the primary flight feather will be regrown as if nothing had happened.” Brighten Early stated flatly.

High Light snipped the feather into two equal pieces before speaking, “You know, Wake. Once this experiment is over I would love to do some research into the curl in your feathers, I’m not sure I’ve observed a Pegasus with so much before.” He stopped to tap his chin for a moment before continuing. “What could be the reason for this mutation?” he mused placing the pieces into separate jars.

One thing had caught Wake’s attention, causing his ears to swivel towards Brighten. He was almost afraid to ask, but the Pegasus’ curiosity was an insatiable thing. “Contributions? What contributions have you made?” It was then that Wake Vortex noticed to slight limp to High Light’s gait and just how pale Brighten Early seemed.

High Light looked over his withers back to his friend before lifting his back left hoof to show off a large chunk missing. “I had too much of my special tea and fell down some stairs, chipping my back hoof. I’ve ground it up finely while Brighten was kind enough to donate some blood. She wanted to use her horn velvet but I believe it too risky.” He answered and set his hoof down, ignoring the heated glare from his wife. Science is one thing, safety is another.

“Regardless of what we’ve donated to the project, each is vitally important. Notice I’m not touching any of your reagents with my magic? I don’t want to cause an adverse effect from the addition of my magic to your reagents. The blood is infused with my magical essence so we’re safe there, little chance of over-charging without willing it so. Now Mr. Vortex, if there are no other questions..” Brighten trailed off after noticing Wake staring intently at the bubbling pot.

“Yeah I’ve got one, should we really be using pony parts for this? I’m not sure I want to be drinking something that is made of your blood and hooves.” Wake stated, grimacing at the thought of choking down a mud and blood flavored concoction while High Light and Brighten Early cackled like mad scientist ponies in the background. Blinking his eyes and shaking his head several times to clear the vile image, Wake looked through his brown mane at his two friends who showed signs of confusion.

“Wake,” High Light began, glancing over to Brighten before continuing “the pony parts are critical to seeing what type of magic will cause what sort of reaction. We’ll try one small vial’s worth of potion for each tribe before trying all three at once. Based off the other ingredients, these should have some rather interesting and profound results.”

Wake Vortex was about to raise his hoof with more questions, name exactly what the other ingredients were, before Brighten cleared her throat and threw a glare around the room before speaking. “AHEM. If you two are quite done, the science calls for discovery!”

Author's Note:

Alright guys, here it is! First chapter of Home Brewed Healing. Hopefully you all enjoy the ride so far! Stick around for the next chapter, we've got some potions with unknown effects to chug!