My Little Adventure

Episode Three: Frienship Remedies

Q presses her face against the window as we roll into Manehattan. "Ohhh," she begins. "I just love Manehattan, if there weren't so many busy ponies, I would love to live there."

I tap her out of her daydream, "But Manehattan is a busy pony city, it's worse than Canterlot." I pause looking out at the towering city. "And taller." I add, and Q laughs.

"Canterlot is... Something." She says. I look over at her, "I'm sure Ponyville is so much better." I mock, but she lifts her head up.

"I wouldn't know, I live in Cloudsdale, out where it's nice and quiet." She responds with pride.

I feel the train begin to stop and the whistle blows, letting us know it's time to get off.

Q stands, and puts her saddle bags on under her wings and flies out. I trail behind her with my bags, and take out my herbal remedies book, volume III.

Flipping to the passage I need, I walk onto the platform, not taking my eyes off the book. I feel a pull to the side and look up.

"Come on brainy, others have to get on." Q says, smiling over at me.

I look at the creatures beside me, and apologize for being in the way, and go back to my book.

"So," she says. "What do we need to get?"

Looking through the list of supplies, I spot the few plants I need from Manehattan.

"Well first we need Worm-Weed, and then I need Rainbowbloom Seed..." I pause looking down the list more. "Aaand... Hearth-Wood."

She nods, "So.. Where do we find all of this?"

I lift my head and turn around. "There." I say and point to a grassy plane, opposite from the big city of Manehattan.

"Well," She starts. "What are we waiting for?" She raises a hoof to the sky. "ONWARD TO...Plants!"

I laugh and jump off the train station's platform. We trot into the grass, and Q lets out a sigh. I look at her and she's smiling and stretching out her wings. "The sun feels amazing," she says. I turn back to our path and shake my head, smiling.

"We have to find a lot of these supplies, so get your flank over here!" I laugh.

She runs up and looks over to me.
"How much of this stuff do you need?" She asks, tilting her head slightly.

"Well..." I start and pull out my book again. "I need one full pouch of Rainbowbloom seeds." I pull out the pouch to show her. "A few vials of Worm-Weed, and I would say 10 or more Hearth-Wood stems."

"Uh... What's Hearth-Wood, because it sounds like wood, but wood doesn't have stems... Right?" Q questions, and I smile.

"Hearth-Wood is a flower who's stem has the texture of tree bark. It's mostly used to reduce fevers, but I use it in my common cold brew." Her eyes widen and she nods.

"Okay, cool. Is the flower used for anything?" She asks. My eyes widen, "The flower, if ingested is highly toxic to ponies. Say Princess Twilight; our most powerful alicorn princess, ate one petal. She would be bed ridden for weeks and very, very sick."

She gasps, "Wow, just one petal?" I nod, "Like I said, highly toxic."

"So what do these things look like?" She asks, peaking at my book.

"You shouldn't be able to miss Hearth-Wood, it's a bright yellow, and white speckled flower and-"

"I just... Oops sorry... But I just saw like 12 of those while you were talking." She says, and I smile at her interruption.

"Really? Well, would you mind gathering them for me?" She begins to trot off, and I gasp. "But pick them by the stems!"

She nods at me, and goes to where she spotted the flowers. I look at the book, then look down. "Worm-Weed, Worm-Weed..." I keep scanning the ground, but see none. "Don't tell me this spot is done for the season.." I say to myself, beginning to become disappointed.

I begin digging in the ground for the Rainbowbloom seeds. Coming across a few, I put them in the pouch and dig around for more.

Q flies back over to me, and has the flowers in hoof. "Amazing!" I say and put them into my saddle bag.

She nods and sees me digging around. "What are you looking for?"

"These," I say and show her the pouch half full of brown striped seeds.  "Ah." She says before digging as well.

We both put seeds in the pouch, enough to fill it completely.

"Okay, well. That's it for Manehattan."
I begin walking toward the train station, but Q stops me. "Don't you need another thing from here?"

"Oh, I'm too late this year. I will just have to order some." She trots over and looks to me again.

"Why don't you just order all of your supplies if you can?" She asks, now matching my hoofsteps. I shrug, "I guess I just like gathering them myself, rather than having some other pony do it for me." I pause. "Plus it's less bits to just travel than to have them shipped. Mail-order is expensive these days."

She nods, "Yeah, okay. I see your point."

We get back to the train station, and the moon is going up. "What do you think of the Order of the Sun and Moon?" I look at her, and realize that this is still a touchy subject for some creatures. "If you don't mind sharing, that is-" I say, not trying to be offensive.

She smiles. "It's been a while since I've thought about it, but I guess I'm just happy that Princesses Celestia and Luna are happy. They just look like they are feeling better about their retirement, you know?"

I nod, "Yeah I get it."  The train pulls up, and we board after a few other ponies. Trotting back to cart E, she sits and turns to me. "What do you think of the Order?"

I sit, and set my bags next to me. "I'll admit, in the beginning I was a little worried about the power being given to different ponies. Though after the last year's Celebration of the Two Sisters, a lot of that worry has subsided. I guess I could also see the ease it gave the Princesses."

"Mhm." Q agrees. "I saw that too last year. Even Princess Twilight looked to be having a calmer time than usual."

Q gasps. "Oh! Now, how do you feel about Princess Twilight?"

I smile. "I think what she, and what the Elements are doing for every-creature is actually really great. The notion of friendship should be spread across Equestria and beyond!"

Q's face lights up. "Oh! I just love Princess Twilight! When I was little, I was outside looking at the stars the night she got her wings. All of a sudden, there was this BOOM!" She throws her hoofs out along with the 'boom'. "Giant purple star, looking exactly like her cutie. Of course I, like so many others, watched it descend into Ponyville. Princess Twilight appeared from it, like no magic I had ever seen before, then UGH!" She flops over from her overwhelming excitement. "She had flashed her wings out for all to see that she was an ALICORN!!!"

I smile wide at her story. "That must have been amazing to see. You seem thrilled over it." Q nods, and looks up.

"She was glowing, then Princess Celestia flew down, telling her friends she was a princess!" She expresses her delight with this by dancing in her seat.

"It was amazing!" Q pushes her hooves up to her cheeks and sighs happily.

"It sounds amazing."