Sometime between twenty-four and forty-eight hours after sending your application back to I.S.B.E, you are approached by a female earth pony foal. She appears to be just past the age when she would get her Cutie Mark, which you notice is a pair of crossed hemostatic clamps. The foal has a light green coat, brown eyes, and a light blue mane and tail. On her sides are a pair of bright white saddlebags, adorned with I.S.B.E.'s logo, a bright red heart with the letters "ISBE" stenciled onto it. She withdraws a small piece of paper from her saddlebag, glances over it for a second, then lets it fall to the ground. She sighs as she says, "You must be Heartburn. It's a pleasure, really." She lets out a longer sigh, then states, "I'm Hemostat, your personalized I.S.B.E., Inc. Personal Temporary Assistant. I'm sorry if I'm not what you expected; I get that a lot." "You can just send me back, if you want...just like everypony else does...," she adds sullenly as she casts her gaze downward and turns her hoof in the ground.
Heartburn hummed to herself as she packed away the last of her things into a starch-white bag with little yellow butterflies on it. A small voice pipped behind her, and she swung around, searching for the owner. The room was empty. In her confusion, she looked to the ceiling, then the floor. Standing before her was a green filly, who spoke up again to introduce herself. Heartburn's eye twitched. They sent me a child? she thought with annoyance. If I wanted a kid, I'd have one myself. I can't send her back, I leave tomorrow! She gave her sweetest smile to the little filly. "Of course I won't send you away," she said. "In fact, you're beyond perfect to help me!" She turned back to her baggage and closed it. "Don't get too used to Fairflanks, now. We leave on the morrow. How does the Old Kingdom sound?"
Hemostat almost seemed as if she would smile, but she didn't. Instead, she glanced upward at her new employer and let out a sigh. "Anywhere is fine, as long as I can be of use." After a moment, she remarked, "I've never been to the Old Kingdom before. It'll be the furtherest from home I've ever gone." If she was excited about this turn of events, she did a remarkable job of not letting on as much, her tone remained a dull monotone.
"I haven't either! I'm so excited for it!" Heartburn lost herself in her own fantasy of trudging across the snow-coated landscape with their exploration party. They had no medical experts, so she had been called upon as the next best thing! Heartburn would have gone anyways if they weren't paying her. Heartburn's eyes snapped back to the patient filly in front of her. "I have free tickets for myself and three friends. You'll use one of them. We aren't leaving soon, so you will stay here for the night. You can get comfortable... err..." She took a clean sweep around the tiny room with her eyes. It was simply a desk, bookshelf, and unmade bed all stuffed into an area the size of a broom closet. She sighed and gestured at her bed. "You can... use my bed tonight. I have a sleeping bag." Opening her bags once again, she pulled out a large green blanket made of pure fuzziness. It was large enough to be the room's carpet. The red label near an end read: POOTIS Portable Oxysipho Organizing Table and Insulating Sleepwear Oxysipho Inc. is not responsible for any loss of hair, skin, or other dermal reactions caused by use of this product. Heartburn threw the bag over the floor and gave the filly another flashy smile. "I'm retiring for the night. Work begins tomorrow!"
The foal took a disinterested glance at the sleeping bag that Heartburn had produced. She stared at it, though, her pupils visibly dilating, then returning to normal size. After a few moments, she asked, "Are you sure that's safe? If you want, I can use the...'POOTIS'...and you can resume using your bed. I don't mind." After a short pause, she added, "I can't mind. I'm not allowed." Then, she sighed. "But...if it's your wish, I'll just sleep in your bed."
Heartburn's eyes lifted back onto the filly. Not allowed to? Is this child some sort of slave? She slid herself into the bag and laid her hooves behind her head. I knew something was fishy about all this... She raised a hoof and waved it with little effort. "Please darling, this blanket is perfectly safe. I would know, I approved it myself. Now get some sleep, would you kindly."
The filly sighed. "Fine..." She walked over to "her" bed, but instead of lying in it, she stood nearby, closed her eyes, and went straight to sleep, sofly humming as she did so. The hum, you notice, is a soft, droning hum, like if a beehive were enveloped in cotton.
Heartburn closed her eyes, but never heard the filly get in bed. Peeking her right eye open, she saw her standing next to the bed instead, unmoving. Maybe it's some kind of meditation the assistants do before bed. She thought, shrugging it off. Despite not actually being very tired, Heartburn's blanket was so soft that she couldn't help instantly nodding off... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heartburn woke slowly, per status quo. She was not a morning pony. She drowsily turned on her right side and nearly fell asleep again, but then she saw her little clock. 7:09. The train left in 21 minutes. Heartburn sprang up instantaneously. She quickly rolled up her sleeping blanket and walked over to the filly to wake her up, but hesitated. She was still standing in the same position, emitting a faint droning hum. "He- Hemostat?" She lightly placed a hoof on the child's back. "Hemostat? Are you awake? "
As soon as Heartburn placed her hoof on Hemostat's back, she noticed something somewhat odd: Unlike most ponies that she has examined over the years, Hemostat's back had no give to it, it seemed almost hard as a rock. "Hemostat? Are you awake? " In response, the foal's eyes snapped open. Her pupils once again dialated, then returned to normal, then she glanced up at her mentor. In the same monotone voice as yesterday, she replied, "Yeah, I'm awake. Are we leaving soon?"
Heartburn recoiled at her response. "Have you been standing there the entire time... sorry, don't mind my prying. We leave in..." She looked at her clock again. "Ten minutes, we have to get going." She picked up her backs and stuffed the blanket in before throwing them over her back. She smiled again at Hemostat. "Better get going! You do not realize how exciting this is going to be!"
Hemostat cast Heartburn a confused glance. "No, I haven't moved since falling asleep last night." Remarkably, the foal was able to keep pace with the energetic Heartburn, probably because she had never unpacked her saddlebags from the night before. Perhaps the rushing around was helping some blood pump to her brain, because her tone of voice seemed to have picked up. "I'm actually pretty excited. We'll be going to an area that we've never seen before. I.S.B.E. will probably want a repor-" In the middle fo speaking, she suddenly made an odd clicking sound. "Never mind."
Heartburn didn't notice Hemostat's speech, as she was too excited herself for the Old Kingdom. She was practically hopping on the way to the station, which ended up being about seven minutes away. Heartburn and Hemostat got onto the train and had their tickets punched with one minute to spare. Heartburn moved along the last car available to travelers and plopped her bag onto a seat. Nopony else seemed to have felt like walking to the back, so they had the car alone. She sighed and stretched out along her seat, getting into a more comfortable position. "This train actually heads through the badlands and into Galloping Gorge, not directly to the Old Kingdom, so we'll have some walking to do when we get there. Take your rest now while you still can."
Hemostat simply followed Heartburn as she found her seat in the back of the railcar. The foal stared out the window as the older pony explained how they were going to get to the Old Kingdom and how they should rest beforehand. This didn't seem to faze Hemostat in the slightest. She simply replied, "It's no big deal. I can walk for as long as I have to in any kind of terrain." She paused for a moment, before adding, "Except in rain. I'm not fond of rain. Or snow." Then, she said something that might actually be surprising, that is to say, she seemed to express curiosity in somepony else's life: "Why are you going so far to heal others when there are ponies to heal near your hometown?"
Heartburn took a deep breath, letting her chest expand a bit. "Fairflanks isn't like that to me. I was born there, so what? It's not like they have anything for me." She rolled over on her side to face the filly. "I did heal ponies in that town once upon a time. Most of them didn't take kindly to me and claimed my methods... unorthodox." She mock threw her depressing story out the window and smiled. "Besides! Mercenary work pays much better! Just look at all this neat stuff I have now!" She gestured to her broken bone saw and frayed leather bag that sat next to her. Something shaded a nasty looking purple was leaking out the side of one of the patches. "Oh, and... you'll have to get a coat or something if you don't like snow. The Old Kingdom is still frozen over from the Windigo rampage way back in the history books, last I heard."
Hemostat's eyes followed Heartburn's hoof as she "threw" her story out the window, almost as if expecting something to come from it. She rubbed her chin with her hoof. "Mercenary work, hm? That's...that's kind of what I.S.B.E. does..." She froze in place for a second or two, then returned to normal. When Heartburn gestured to the instruments of her trade, the foal seemed to examine them intently, her pupils dialating as she did so. When she was informed that she'd have to get a coat, her countenance fell. "I...I didn't bring a coat..." She muttered, [size=-2]"We're never prepared properly..."[/size]
"Well then, we'll just have to buy one, won't we?" She replied sweetly. "Coats in your size can't cost too much. I was paid partly in advance, so I'm sure I can spare some for you. Once we reach town, we can find a tailor to fit you perfectly! How would you like that? Do you have a favorite color?" Heartburn didn't wait for Hemostat's reply. She leaned back in her chair and sighed, daydreaming about buying new coats and maybe some fuzzy socks. Fuzzy sweater? One thing was clear to her: the moment they arrived, she was going shopping.
Hemostat blinked several times at teh question regarding her favorite color. "I...I don't know... I...I..." She almost began shaking, as if afraid of something, her eyes darting around the train car. Suddenly, she stopped and looked right at Heartburn. "I like blue."
Heartburn was facing the window again. She simply couldn't find the perfect position on this little chair. If only she had enough money to afford one of the bed cars. She threw a lazy hoof in the air. "Blue it is then, my dear. I'm going back to sleep, I still feel a bit drowsy from this morning. G'day."
