Reagent Reaper Really Resents Wrecked Relics
"Just a few more hours and they'll be ready," muttered Reagent Reaper as she finished watering a small patch of very pale yellow flowers for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Closing her eyes and concentrating as she laid a hoof at the base of the flowers, Reagent connected with the flowers through the earth as she channeled a small amount of Earth Pony magic, inherited through her bloodline from a time of peace before Sombra ruled the Crystal Empire. Few of the Reaper family inherited this gift, and it wasn't nearly as strong as a true Earth Pony's magic, but she was blessed with the fortune to be one of the few.
Sensing that the flowers still looked strong and healthy, Reagent breathed a sigh of relief and wiped her brow, the expenditure of magic taking it out of her a bit. "Caring for you picky little plants is probably going to make me miss the royal Crystalling later today. But," she added with a concerned glance towards her nearby house, "I know it's going to be well worth it." After checking the flowers over one more time to ensure all was well, Reagent returned to her house.
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"Ivory? How are you feeling?" Reagent asked as she poked her head into her bedroom. A low, pained groan was the only response from the occupant of the room, resting miserably in the bed. His ivory coat was matted and his mane, normally brilliant cerulean, was dulled with lack of proper care. His fuchsia eyes indicated the pain he was in, glossed over with a lack of focus. All in all he almost looked worse than he had under Sombra's iron grip of fear.
"Blast, the sickness is progressing even faster than I feared. Hold tight, Ivory." Reagent stroked Ivory's mane gently before rushing to the medicine cabinet in her bathroom and pulling out a varied selection of herbs. Working quickly at a small workstation set up in her room, Reagent ground and mixed the herbs before dumping them into a small glass of water and stirring them around.
Quickly, before the herbs had time to settle to the bottom, she rushed over to her bedside and sat Ivory up slightly. "Here, drink this as quickly as you can. It will slow the fever for a bit. I just need you to hang on a little longer, the Ice Irises will be fully ready within a couple hours. Then we can get you cured and back on your feet in no time."
After making sure Ivory drank the herbal compound she made, Reagent made sure he was as comfortable as she could make him, then got up to leave and keep an eye on the irises. However, before she could do so she was stopped by a quiet voice from the bed.
"What was that, Ivory?" Reagent asked anxiously, leaning closer to Ivory.
"Thank... you..." came the pained, almost inaudible reply.
"You're welcome, Ivory," Reagant replied warmly, then kissed him gently on the forehead as his eyes slid closed. "Rest now, my love," she whispered into his ear, then got up and left the room.
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As Reagent tended to the flowers one last time, her thoughts turned briefly to the rare specimen she was cultivating. The Ice Iris, the only cure for Pegasitis and an extremely powerful healing plant besides. It was extremely difficult to cultivate outside of its natural mountain habitat, and only lasted for a couple hours once picked. Not for the first time, Reagent was truly thankful for her special talent of cultivating herbs and plants.
Between her errant thoughts and her focus on the task at hand, Reagent hardly took notice of the raging blizzard around her. And what cold she did notice, she didn't care about one bit. Ivory's cure was within sight, and nothing was going to stop her. All she had to do now was water them one more time and channel a little more Earth Pony magic to fully mature them, activating the healing properties of the plant.
A couple minutes later Reagent was almost done watering the Irises, though it was proving difficult due to her teeth chattering from the rapidly-dropping temperature and the sudden increase in the ferocity of the blizzard. At least it's feeling closer to the Irises' natural habitat, Reagent thought to herself.
Suddenly a sound to her right caught her attention. Glancing to the right, Reagent caught a glimpse of Spike the Brave and Glorious running past alongside a pale purple Unicorn. Turning her gaze back, Reagent let out a gasp of shock as she found the water she had been pouring out had frozen solid, encasing the Ice Irises. Even her watering can remained suspended, attached to the Irises' frozen prison.
"Oh no, no no no! This can't be!" Reagent shouted, breathing more quickly with each passing second. "They were just... I was almost... They..." Feeling herself near a panic attack, Reagent tipped herself face-first into the snow to shock herself out of it. "Ah! Cold! So cold!" Shaking her head vigorously, Reagent forced herself to focus and even out her breathing. "Okay, I can do this. There's still a little time. These flowers thrive in the freaking Crystal Mountains, there's no way a little ice will kill them right away."
Turning her back to the block of ice and raising her back right hoof, Reagent took a couple deep breaths to steady herself, forcing herself to ignore the piercing cold the blizzard air carried down her throat. "Okay, you got this. Just focus the magic like Grandpa taught you, and whatever you do don't damage the flowers." After one more steadying breath, Reagent focused her Earth Pony magic into her hoof and struck the ice with a very firm but carefully-placed blow. Immediately the block of ice spiderwebbed with a network of cracks before falling to pieces with a beautiful tinkling sound, the tiny shards being carried away by the raging wind. Left behind was the patch of Ice Irises, quailing before the raging wind as a few ice crystals still clung to the petals.
"Yes, they're still okay!" Reagent cried out in joy as she moved to shield the flowers from the wind with her body. "Now for the final step." Reagent placed her front hooves at the base of the flower stems and closed her eyes as she allowed her magic to flow into the earth around the Ice Irises.
Almost immediately she recoiled with a yelp as a deep, chilling sensation struck out at her. "Ah! What the hay?!" Reagent exclaimed as she reached out and felt the flower with her hoof. "Cold to the touch! And even colder deeper within. It looks like the ice did some damage after all. It's going to be a lot harder to activate the flowers' magic now."
Taking a deep breath, Reagent set her face in determination. "I don't care how freaking cold it is, nothing is going to to stop me from saving Ivory!" Taking a deep breath, Reagent dug her hooves into the snow at the base of the flowers, down into the ground. Almost immediately she felt the piercing cold again, but she grit her teeth, slammed her eyes shut, and pushed her magic into the flowers with all her might. Slowly she could feel the Ice Irises warm as they finally began to open up to her magic, while she began to shiver uncontrollably in the raging blizzard. She began to feel light-headed from the over-expenditure of magic, but still she pushed.
Finally Reagent felt that her magic was now flowing through every part of the irises, a jolt of warmth feeding back into her and dispelling her shivers. Opening her eyes she saw the pale yellow petals turn to a pure white, while the darker yellow center of the flowers shifted to a bright blue. "YES!" Reagent shouted as she jumped for joy, only to collapse into the snow upon landing. "Ah! Still cold!" she yelped as she shakily stood to her hooves. She had never expended so much Earth Pony magic before, and the exertion had left her very unsteady on her hooves. "Now, I need to get you inside quickly. I don't know how much longer Ivory has." Reaching out with a shaky hoof, Reagent plucked the batch of flowers and quickly staggered back into her house, where it was nice and warm.
"I have to get the potion mixed up for Ivory before it's too late," Reagent muttered to herself as she made her way to her workbench and set the flowers on the hard surface, slowly regaining her steadiness. The other ingredients she needed were already there, as she had set them out before going to finish tending to the irises.
Suddenly she plopped down on her haunches. "First I need to take a quick rest," she muttered to herself. "Time may be of the essence, but there's no way I can do this with my hooves shaking like this," she decided as she slid down to lie on her stomach.
Ten minutes and one checkup on Ivory later, she was ready to begin her craft. “No pressure, Reagent. This is what you were born to do, and Ivory needs you now more than ever.” Her goal firmly in mind, Reagent set to work.
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Half an hour of intense medicinal work later, Reagent had completed the cure, but with a heavy heart. While she was working, her twin sister Jewel Joy had stopped by and delivered a shattering piece of news. The Crystal Heart had been shattered, exposing the Crystal Empire to the frozen north. The entire empire was being evacuated, but Reagent wasn’t going with them. Ivory was in no condition to be moved, but there was no way she was just leaving him here. Jewel had wanted to stay and help, but Reagent convinced her to leave. She had a child and husband who needed her much more than Reagent did. Besides, there wasn’t anything Jewel could do. Either a miracle would happen, or Reagent and Ivory would both be buried here in the frozen north. And in the off chance that a miracle did occur and they weren’t buried in the frozen north, Reagent was sure as heck going to make sure that the Crystal Bane didn’t take him instead.
Carrying the bright blue vial of medicine, Reagent made her way to the bedside, muttering along the way. “Stupid Crystal Heart had to pick today of all days to shatter… a day or two ago we could’ve taken Ivory with, tomorrow he would’ve been completely cured! Why did it have to be today of all days?!” Every step felt like a hammerblow on the wooden floor as she approached the bedside.. She adjusted Ivory's position, feeling that his skin had grown dangerously hot, and carefully poured the medicine down his throat.
Several tense moments of waiting passed, and Reagent began to worry that she had made some kind of mistake. Did I miss an ingredient? Were some some of the portions off? Did I beat it too long? Did-
Reagent's panicked thoughts were cut off by a sharp intake of breath from Ivory as his eyes shot open, some of his faded color spontaneously returning. "What happened? Where am I?!" he exclaimed in a voice hoarse from lack of use. "Why do I-"
"IVORY! You're awake!" Reagent's overjoyed cry cut off Ivory's questions as she hugged him tightly around his waist, causing him to hiss in pain.
"Yes, I'm... awake... but I may not be... if I don't get... air... Reagent..."
"Oops! Sorry!" Reagent exclaimed as she let go of Ivory, blushing in embarrassment. "I was just so worried about you, you've spent most of the past day and a half unconscious."
“That’s right, I… I contracted Crystal Bane, didn’t I?” Ivory mused. “Did you find an Ice Iris somehow, Reagent?”
“Actually, I cultivated a batch. The weather in the mountains is too harsh this time of year to find them in their natural habitat,” Reagent explained. “But listen, there's something you need to know,” she continued in a grave tone.
“Alright, what is it?” Ivory asked, concern crossing his features.
“The… The Crystal Heart has been shattered, and the empire is exposed to the frozen north. Everyone has evacuate the empire.”
“The Crystal Heart has WHAT?!” Ivory exclaimed, eyes wide with shock.
“I know, I couldn’t believe it either. But it’s gone, and now the weather has gotten so bad as to be almost impassable! I… I don’t think we’ll be able to make it to the train station anymore once you’ve recovered to the point where you’d be able to make the trip. I don’t know if we could make it even if we left now,” Reagent explained in a resigned tone. “Pretty much our only chance now is a miracle.”
“So, even knowing you’d be stuck here… you stayed to take care of me?” Ivory asked in a quavering voice.
“Of course I did, Ivory. I love you,” Reagent said warmly, taking Ivory’s hoof in her own. “I couldn’t have lived myself if I left you here. And what if I left but then the Princesses found a way to fix the Heart and then you ended up dying of the Bane because I didn’t stay? I’d-“
Reagent was cut off as Ivory gently placed his hoof over her mouth. “Reagent, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, but I’ve been putting it off. But, I need to say this now. Reagent,” Ivory said as he slid out of the bed and onto one knee, “if we somehow make it out of this, will you marry me?”
Reagent’s eyes widened with shock and joy. “YES!” she shouted as she leapt forward and embraced her fiancée. The two simply sat there holding each other, each enjoying the other’s company as they awaited the end. There was nothing else they could do, and they felt as though everything would be alright as long as they stayed together.
Minutes pass and the two stayed locked in their embrace, until suddenly a wave of intensely powerful magic washed over them both, flooding their hearts with warmth and morphing their bodies into brilliant crystal.
“The Heart! It’s alright!” Ivory and Reagent shouted in unison, their eyes wide with shock. “We’re going to be alright!” In their joy, the two lovers shared a passionate kiss, then turned and ran out the door to greet the bright new day.
The Crystal Heart fiasco may have put them in grave danger, but in the end they made it through thanks to each other, and now they were even stronger for it as they took the first step towards their new life together.
THE END