Home Brewed Healing

by High_Light

Earth Pony Sense and Sensibility.

“What do you mean, nopony has ever done this before?” Wake asked, standing before a table with a small bowl of..whatever this stuff was. The “special” ingredient had yet to be added, so it remained the dark swirly starry mess with golden streaks from before. He felt an almost endless supply of dread, he really wasn’t sure if he was ready for this and closed his eyes to gather his courage.

“It’s exactly as I said, I’m rather sure nopony has thought to use these particular components with these particular reagents. Most scientists are too weak stomached to use pony reagents so we’re breaking ground here, I’m sure of it!” High Light explained, setting a jar containing the finely ground hoof chip on the table beside the bowl and looked up at his best friend. “Come on Wake, don’t be afraid. None of this is going to hurt you, I promise. As soon as Brighten gets back with my..ah there she is.” He turned to face his wife as she reentered the room, a steaming mug held in her yellow-gold magic, and held out a hoof. “Thank you darling, just what I needed.”

“Two o’clock is tea time, every day. We all know what happens if you don’t get your tea.” Brighten said as she ignored Wake shivering at the memory and picked up a pencil and notepad with her magic. Taking a moment to be sure everything else was in order, she looked back to her husband. “I am ready for observation when you are, Doctor.” She said with a small grin on her lips. She was excited for this experiment and had let herself slip into their old habit of speaking using titles, though their former “official” titles had to stay unspoken around company.

“Of course, Doctor.” High Light replied with a wide smile before his face lost all emotion and he began speaking in a dull monotone voice. “Base potion has been prepared, please refer to previous notes for ingredients and brewing instructions. Approximately four point two grams of finely ground Earth pony hoof will be added, sample provided by myself.” Slowly picking up the jar and a measuring spoon, he scooped one tea spoon worth of powder out of the jar, “Adding reagent to potion.” and dumped it into the bowl. The effect was immediate and made everypony in the room jump back a bit at the high pitched hissing noise emanating from the bowl as the hoof disintegrated into the potion. Watching as the powdered hoof was swallowed by the potion, High Light continued speaking his observations. “Reagent has been introduced to base potion, uncomfortably high pitched sonic reaction is strong but brief.” He droned on about the apparent viscosity, light color change and other small reactions as the hissing died off before picking up a large metal spoon. “Commencing stirring to ensure equal distribution of reagent throughout potion.” The stirring had another effect on the potion, the strange colors of the potion faded to a plethora of dark greens yet the golden streaks remained. “Earth Pony Potion has been prepared successfully.”, he finished with a nod of his head, shaking his mane a bit.

Upon hearing that the potion was now prepared and ready for consumption, Brighten turned to Wake and began speaking in the same dull monotone High Light used as her magic continued to write on the notepad for her. “Subject used for all potion testing will be one Wake Vortex, male Pegasus resident of Ponyville, Equestria. Please reference subject file for in-depth details regarding subject.”

Wake’s ears perked at this, “Wait, file? You have a file on me?” he asked in almost disbelief. Just how much research were these two doing around town? Was he only picked to be a “best friend” because of some strange variable or quirk? His thoughts turned to the mysterious curl in his feathers, High Light had mentioned wanting to look into them..’No,' he thought ‘they’ve both gone out of their way to help me without asking a thing in return. They’re great friends, just odd’. Snapping back to the present, Wake almost missed Brighten starting to speak.

“Well of course we have a file on you, Mr. Vortex!” came Brighten Early’s cheery response. “We have extensive files on everypony we allow close to us and at least a dozen observations of almost everypony else in town!” Her chest puffed out a bit with pride, making the patch of fluff she had there stick out. “Now, I think we’ve delayed long enough. You wouldn’t want your potion to get cold, would you?” she asked with a quirked eyebrow and small smile. The monotone voice came back as she began taking notes again. “Earth Pony Potion has been prepared by Dr. High Light, subject will now ingest potion. Ready for observation.”

Wake felt the full weight of both gazes burning into him, waiting for him to drink. Staring down at the strange brew before him, he felt is worry lift some. ‘They wouldn’t let me drink something actually dangerous. So…bottoms up!’ was his last thought before quickly picking up the bowl and chugging the liquid within. Instantly, Wake knew he had made a huge mistake. As he had feared, the taste of dirt was front and foremost in the potion but eventually faded to a sweet grass taste that Wake didn’t mind much. The texture left something to be desired, it was almost as if the potion didn’t want to be drank but swallowed whole instead. There was something hidden behind all the different flavors, something he couldn’t quite put his hoof on but could tell was there. Shuddering slightly as he gulped down the last of the potion before setting the bowl back on the table, Wake Vortex looked at his friends, licked his lips, smiled and said “Not bad.”

Opening his mouth to say more, Wake felt the room suddenly shift. Up became down, left became right and Wake couldn’t stop himself from shivering as the potions effects began. “Shshshiii..” was all that could be said before he felt a sort of haze develop over his mind, slowing the world down to a crawl. He didn’t feel less intelligent, just slower. Like everything he did required a solid thought rather than relying on instinct to guide him. Then, as suddenly as the negative effects had begun, it was over. The world was right again, yet the strange haze remained. Looking around he saw Brighten Early talking excitedly with High Light while both stared at him, Brighten’s magic causing the pencil to smoke across the pad from the speed of her note taking. Wake went to take a step forward and cried out in surprise as his hoof leapt forward to smash the table in front of him to pieces. ‘Oh, I’m strong’ he thought, ‘VERY strong’.

Both High Light and Brighten Early’s eyes went wide when the table hit the wall, thankfully they were out the path of destruction. The couple looked to each other before nodding and beginning different tasks. Brighten went about gathering all the shattered wood from the table and reconstructing it using her magic while High Light went to Wake and threw a foreleg over his withers. “Well Wake, it would appear you have some Earth pony strength going on and some of your bruising has gone down. Best of all, you’re not unconscious! Can you describe anything else you are feeling?”

Looking down at his hooves Wake noticed his fetlocks had grown quite a bit since this morning, he could officially be considered ‘shaggy’. “I’m hairy, strong and slow. My wings feel like they’re not there at all, but it's not causing me to panic like I think I normally would. I feel something else too, somethings off.” he said, looking around. He could feel something inside, something screaming at him to get something done about whatever this problem is. Very carefully and slowly he began to pace around the room, using the feeling like a sonar to hopefully find out what it was. In the back of his mind he noticed the grin on High Light’s face and that the table was already repaired but at the moment he didn’t care. That small feeling of wrong was threatening to blossom into a full blown anxiety attack if Wake didn’t find out what in Equestria was making him feel this way. Nudging a few boxes on a table near a window, he spotted it and the feeling SCREAMED at him to do something. A small planter. A small, wilted, planter built for growing basic herbs, shoved onto the window ledge with boxes placed in front of it. That’s what this was all about, Wake Vortex suddenly had Earth pony abilities with no idea how to control them. Gently picking up the planter and holding it against his barrel, he used his other hoof to gently pull any dead weeds and leaves from the soil before turning to face Brighten and High Light. “I could feel this, it needs water.” Wake said to his two friends, enjoying the shared look of astonishment on their muzzles.

While Wake searched around the room for a faucet, High Light pulled his wife into a close huddle for rapid fire observations. “He’s not unconscious.” “Manticore wing? The extra acidity might have..” “..light healing of bruising, no other healing..” “..was very unexpected, such strength..” “I wonder how long this will last.”. At this last question, both ponies looked up at Wake, sitting comfortably on the floor with the now freshly watered planter between his hooves. High Light noticed the plants were no longer wilted and instead looking healthy and vibrant.

“Mr. Vortex?” Brighten called out hesitantly, “How are you feeling now? Could you describe any additional feelings or urges?”. Glancing between Wake and High Light, she watched the tan Pegasus appear to evaluate his words carefully before speaking.

“I feel fine, still a little sore from the landing this morning. The weird feeling is almost gone, went mostly away as soon as I watered these little guys and focused on taking care of them. Look, I think the water and attention is really them turning around!” Wake replied after taking his moment, lifting the planter to show off his revitalized herbs before narrowing his eyes at High Light. “You should take better care of your plants. Other than that, I think I’m pretty much back to normal.”

High Light ignored the glare and began plonking around the small room. “Fantastic! Let’s prepare the second potion and keep this momentum rolling!” he said with unbridled enthusiasm, grabbing another bowl and the jar with a piece of feather in it and placing them on the recently repaired table. Looking up at the other two ponies in the room, he felt a prickle of irritation upon seeing them both standing where he left them. “Come on ponies, let’s go!” he said with mild irritation.

Brighten looked around the cramped experiment room before putting down her pencil and pad, leveling her gaze at High Light. “In a moment,” she began, “it is time to put the kettle back on. I think we both need a calming blend before we proceed with the experiments. I would include Mr. Vortex in this round of tea but it appears to me he is under the influence of your special tea. We shouldn’t mix much more in his system for at least another hour.”

Knowing he was defeated by his wife’s sound logic, High Light let out a sigh and responded in a low tone “Yes, dear. Extra honey for this cup please.”. Looking around, he spotted Wake still sitting quietly with a dreamy look on his face. “Looks like he hit the euphoria stage, shouldn’t be much longer before he’s completely sober. I’ll stay with him until it’s time for the next experiment.”

“If this is how you feel on your tea all the time, High Light, I’m gonna need some for my house.” Wake Vortex said with a slow giggle before shifting into a laying position on the floor, planter still firmly gripped in his forelegs, and began nodding off. “Nudge me when there’s more potion, I’m just resting my eyes...”

Author's Note:

Alright guys, first potion down! What did you think about it? Remember, I'm working without an editor so feel free to PM me any mistakes you see! Feel free to thumbs up and leave a comment about what you liked!

Comments

[Carnelian-Fox]

Well done! Your style is very engaging and I definitely look forward to seeing more from you!