Goldenseed stared up at the most beautiful unicorn she had ever seen. Sure, he had a few scars and his coat was dirty he smelled like he hadn't bathed in a week. But he was life! She whimpered and held out her hooves to him. The stallion took her hoof in his, before recoiling.

“You're colder than ice! How long have yo-- no, questions can wait.” His horn glowed for a moment before fire shot out, enveloping the fire pit. The warmth spread through her numb body and she let out a content sigh. “Grove, I need your healing,” he yelled out. “Packing up can wait!”

A green earth pony mare soon appeared over her, staring down. “Oh dear...” A hoof was pushed to her forehead. “Sleep child. Repose.” Magic seeped into Goldenseed's head and her eyes began to get heavy. She struggled to keep them up but, as tired and hurt as she was, it was a futile attempt. The world darkened around her once again.

She woke up on a hard wood floor. It took her a few moments to realize where she was, at which point she shrieked. Her eyes slowly raised, trailing over the green and red rug, up the long, wood stairs. They finally stopped at the top, where her father sat on his throne. He was fifteen feet tall and holding a scepter the size of a tree.

“Goldenseed, you've brought great dishonor and shame upon our family!”

“Father, I, I was just--”

“You fail your test, abandon your duties and take the form of a maiden? Are you such a coward that you can't even face the meager trials we give you?” The stallion kept growing larger and larger, piercing through the roof as she stared up and shook, terror running through her hooves.

“N-no father. I never meant, I never wanted to... I just... I wanted to fight! I mean, I wanted to go on an adventure. I wanted to--”

“SILENCE!” her father howled before slamming the scepter down. The world fell apart around him, until it was only the two of them standing on two small pieces of wood, surrounded on all sides by darkness. “You are no son of mine. You have betrayed me, you have betrayed your family and, worst of all, you have betrayed your kingdom!” The scepter was raised above Goldenseed's head and then came crashing down. “Begone!”

The world fell out from under her hooves and she fell into the darkness, screaming and flailing as she went.

The darkness disappeared, her eyes opened to the open sky and she tried to sit up, but couldn't. Something heavy had her pinned. She tried fighting it, staring down at the strange thick, furry blob before letting out a scream.

“Easy girl, easy!” a soft voice said and, a moment later, a green mare appeared over her. “Don't move. You were half frost bitten when I found you. You're lucky I was able to keep you from losing anything aside from a few layers of skin.”

She slowly nodded and looked down to her chest. They were blankets. Dozens of them, so heavy and fuzzy she couldn't move. There were even more under her, wrapping her in a coccoon of warmth. They even enveloped most of her face to give her resistance to the wind, though the icy air still burned her eyes, nose and mouth.

“How are you feeling?” the mare asked before gently applying a warm compress to her forehead.

“C-cold...” Goldenseed whispered hoarsely. Even with the blankets covering every inch of her, she felt as if her bones had all been replaced with ice. Her throat burned it was so dry. “T-thirsty... hungry...”

“Hold on, you're still weak...” The mare reached down and put a spoon of snowflakes to her lips. They melted on her tongue and slid down her throat, slowly.

“M-more...” she gasped, trembling with the chill.

“Careful child, too much and you'll choke...” Small spoonful by spoonful the mare fed her the small flakes snow, letting them melt in her mouth before gently sliding down her throat. She longed to take the whole batch and just swallow it whole, but even the little bit she had was hard to swallow.

She coughed after a few minutes and shook her head. “H-hungry...”

“Here,” the mare slowly put something else to her lips. It was cold and gel like, sliding down her throat gently like the snow flakes had once they melted. The mare gave very little, only a tiny spoonful each time. She didn't know how long the mare sat there, feeding tiny spoonful after tiny spoonful, but she eventually saw the mare was shaking.

“Y-you're cold...”

“It's very cold out here, child,” the mare said softly. “I'll be fine. Once our main force returns, we'll all return to the outpost. You'll be able to have a proper meal there.”

There was a chuckle from behind her. “I'd hardly call what they serve us food.”

“Hush,” the mare snapped, before turning down to her. “My name is Grove. What is yours?”

Goldenseed opened her mouth to answer, but froze. If she gave her real name, they'd suspect something. After all, it was an earth pony name. “My name is...” She tried thinking of a nice zebra name. “Esperit.”

Grove cocked an eye. “Esperit? I've never heard that name before.”

Goldenseed coughed, sending more burning sensations through her throat. “Sorry...” It was a name she'd read in one of her old books, one of the many adventurers.

“There is no need to apologize for your name, child.” The mare continued to feed the gel to her as the pain in her stomach subsided.

Once the stomach pain was gone, to be replaced by other pains, she shook her head. “No more...”

“Very well. Esperit, how did you come to be here? Were you a member of our strike force?”

She shook her head weakly. “N-no. Centaurs, they found me. They...” A shiver went down her spine. “I... was captured. Escaped, there was an attack.” Goldenseed coughed, the words burning in her throat as she got them out, finally closing her eyes.

“Ahhhh. Well, you are quite fortunate. This force is the largest we've sent yet, hopefully we'll finally be able to drive them from their camps and free those they've captured.” A frown covered Grove's face. “You're lucky to escape. They've been capturing and imprisoning every pony they can get their hands on. If they hadn't, our forces could just bring the mountains down on them or have the dragons burn their camps to ash.” The mare glanced down and looked temporarily ashamed. “Ah, my apologies. Here.” Once again she put a spoonful of snow to her lips. “You probably don't want to hear about such things...”

Goldenseed drank the ice slowly, the mare's soothing eyes drawing her back into an exhausted sleep. This time when she slept, there were no dreams and she awoke to the sounds of moans and groans. The sky above had turned black, with millions of twinkling stars shining at her. Torches and floating magic lights swirled around, coming into view as she tried turning her head to see.

Then she identified the smells. She retched, the little gel she had eaten threatening to come up as the smell of blood and waste filled her nostrils. She tried sitting up and, to her surprise, it was simple. She felt considerably warmer, but many of the blankets had been removed. She quickly found the source of the moans and the smells.

She was riding in a wagon, warmed by a few torches and a few unicorns with blazing fiery horns. The wounded were shoved in the cart, so close they were nearly on top of each other. The reason she felt so cramped wasn't because of the blankets any more, but because two unconscious ponies pushing in on her from both sides. One was covered in so many burns it took her a few seconds to realize he wasn't just dark coated, but in fact a bright yellow. The other was missing a leg, the stump tightly bound.

Goldenseed felt her stomach turn, and had she eaten anything truly solid she might have lost it. As it was, she retched a few times into her blankets before trying to push them off. A griffon was suddenly at her side. “Easy child, easy,” the massive creature said, his talons moving to support her weight.

She stared up with wide, amazed eyes. She'd seen one before, but only a few times when Cloudsdale sent envoys. Never quite so close. “I... I...”

“Are you hurt?”

“Yes, I...” she trailed off and looked down. She felt fine. All of her hurts were gone, the soreness was gone, even a quick groping of the back of her head revealed there was no more damage. “I... I think I'm fine. No, I'm fine. How-- eeee!” The griffon stopped supporting her, and quickly went off to the next patient, causing her to fall back and nearly collapse back on the floor of the wagon. She, with a few moments of difficulty, slid out from her cramped position and looked around.

Her wagon was one of many, being pulled through the night by large stallions. From what she could see, there were ponies and... others, moving around them and tending to the wounded. The convoy was surrounded on the left and right by armored ponies, griffons and, to her amazement, a single dragon.

“Hey! If you're okay, get off the cart,” a voice called out, ripping her from her thoughts. She turned to see the griffon glaring at her. “We need this for the wounded.”

“I... sorry. I just...” A chilling breeze reminded her she was still naked. She glanced down at the wounded. “I... I can help.”

“We don't need anypony to hold them down or fetch water. We need doctors,” the griffon snapped.

“I'm not a doctor. But I am a conjurer,” she said proudly. Though she'd never finished her final trial. Or even cured more than a paper cut. However, she held out her hoof towards the nearest wounded pony and reached out into the land. What greeted her was almost as bad as the wounded, moaning ponies that surrounded her.

The land cried out in turmoil, the magic the spread through it torn and pillaged, entire areas of it had been drained and filled so quickly and so often that little more than a damaged husk remained. Sections so torn asunder that the mana could no longer fill them, others so jammed up with aether that they were one small push from becoming elementals. The torment in the land made her recoil, light pain shooting through her head and down her spine. She quickly managed to suppress it, but it still shook her to the core. She realized a moment later she was hunched down and panting.

The griffon was standing over her, one talon holding her back. “You okay? You should have asked us before doing that,” he said, before turning back to the patients. “Conjury is a bit... painful around here. The centaurs suck the land dry, tearing it apart in their wake. It can be a bit rough if you aren't expecting it.”

“This... this land needs a conjurer...” she whispered, before shaking her head. “It needs an army of conjurers...”

“Before that, it needs us to get rid of those damned centaurs. I'd give one of my talons to know exactly what it is they do with all that magic.”

Goldenseed nodded slowly before closing her eyes. Slowly, she felt the magic again, gently pulling it to her from the world around her. She disturbed the land as little as she could, drawing only small bits from multiple sources and soothing it as she went. She turned to the nearest wounded and sent the healing magic into the pony. “I... I think I've got it. I can help now...”

The griffon nodded and smiled. “Good. Do what you can. There's always more where they came from.”

She nodded and got to work. To her surprise, it really wasn't any more difficult than healing the papercuts so long ago had been. In fact, in many ways it was easier. All she had to do was draw magic from the land, turn it into the gentle, life giving aether and push it into a pony. The magic did the rest.

Unfortunately, that only worked for the simplest of cases. She could keep a pony going and heal wounds, even stitch some up, but things like missing limbs, severe burns and life threatening poisons she could do nothing about.

When the glowing lights of the outpost came within sight, all Goldenseed could feel any more was shame. She could heal wounds, even some pretty severe wounds. However, many of them she could only heal one or two before she had to take a long break to replenish her energy. While she was helpful, she was nowhere near as helpful as a true, powerful conjurer. Plenty of the ponies had died and, to her horror, their bodies had just been cast aside onto the ground, where they were then piled on top of each other in other wagons.

It still scared her, watching the dead being tossed overboard like bags of trash. The worst part though, was once the initial fear and shock passed. Ponies, and sometimes griffons, changelings and even a smaller dragon, were being tossed from the wagons when they died and no more could be done for them. She was finding that she... didn't care.

She felt bad for them, there was no doubt about that. However, she didn't really feel sad. She didn't know any of them, they were just random bodies that sometimes they could save, sometimes they couldn't. She never got a chance to talk with them, meet with them. She looked over to some of the other healers and saw their own tears. It hammered the guilt even more in her. She felt like a true monster when a coat was finally put over her shoulders to keep her warm and she was thankful whoever had died didn't need it any more. She kept glancing to the other healers, some shedding tears and choking back sobs as they worked. She wondered if any of them ever didn't feel sad for those lost.

Worst of all, she wondered what kind of conjurer it made her if she couldn't care? Her thoughts flashed back to the ponies trapped in the cage in the centaur camp. She'd had a chance to save them, all she'd had to do was fight off one centaur and take the key. Now that she thought about it, she was pretty certain the centaur had been smaller than her. Probably a lot smaller. She had just been too cowardly to risk fighting it and losing.

She shoved those thoughts aside, quickly burying them and focusing on the task at hoof. She had ponies to help. Ponies to heal. She drove as much magic into the wounded as she could, stabilizing and repairing as many wounds as she could until she felt a claw on her back, pulling her away.

“Huh?”

“We're here. Our healers will take over,” the griffon said. “Are you a member of the task force?”

“I... no. I was a prisoner of--”

“Then go there,” the griffon pointed off in the distance, towards a tall stone tower. They were in the center of the outpost now, which was surrounded by thick stone walls and a metal gate. A few towers were built into the wall, like the one she was directed to. In the center of the outpost was a large keep and a few much smaller buildings, she imagined one was a tavern of sorts. Adventurers always went to places with taverns, all the books said so. The wounded were being carried into the keep.

“What's there?”

“Commander Blackeye. He'll know what to do with you.”

“Who's that?” But the griffon didn't respond, instead heading into the keep. She sighed and trotted towards the tower, her hooves sinking into the snow. She shivered and pulled her coat tighter, the harsh winds worse now that she wasn't distracted. At least her bones didn't feel frozen any more. However, her eyes were still dry and she could taste blood when she licked her lips. The mare pushed against the door and, for a few moments she thought it was locked. She face hoofed a moment later when she realized it was a pull door, and pulled it open.

Instantly the warm air shot out and enveloped her, allowing her a sigh of contentment. Even if she had grown used to the icy weather and her bones were no longer frozen, the stark increase in temperature felt amazing.

“Get in or stay out, either way close the door!” an angry voice snapped.

Goldenseed stepped into the room and shut the door behind her quickly, hanging her head meekly. The first floor of the tower had a long, spiraling staircase that went around the edge of the tower and up towards the roof. A single unicorn stallion was sitting behind a large, wooden desk and glaring at her. His coat was white with a red mane. The desk was cluttered with quills, papers and vials of ink, though he held many of the papers in his magic now. A thick carpet was on the ground and a few burning candles lit the room, though a few had been snuffed out from the windy open door.

“C-commander Blackeye? I'm Esperit. I--”

“I'm not Commander Blackeye,” the stallion said with annoyance. “If you wish to see him, his office is on the top of the tower.”

“I... oh. Okay, I ummm... thanks,” Goldenseed squeaked and lightly shuffled her hooves. “Is... is it okay if I go and--”

“I just directed you to him, didn't I?” the pony snapped, before going back to his paperwork.

Goldenseed gave him a glare once he wasn't looking, before heading up the stairs. The bricks were jammed into the wood and then fastened together with the one below them, with very little support. There were no safety rails and each step made them wiggle, just a tiny smidge. By the time she made it to the second floor she couldn't look away from the steps, searching for any imperfection or weakness in the stones as she went. By the third and fourth floor the color had drained from her face and she couldn't stop imagining how easy it might be for the entire thing to collapse and bury her in the thick, long bricks.

To her relief, when she made it to the fifth floor there were no more stairs leading up. She stopped for a moment and let out a sigh of relief.

“Can I help you?” a gruff voice asked. She took a deep breath and looked up. The mare took a double take and her mouth fell open as she stared.

The commander stood with his back to a wall in the windowless top section of the tower. He had his own desk, nearly as cluttered as the one on the bottom of the tower. A large battle axe made of black steel, at least she assumed that's what the metal was, leaned against the desk, its sharp edges having dug a small groove into the stone floor. There were a few candle stands and chairs stationed around the room, as well as chairs. However, the only light was the stand by the commander.

It illuminated the armor clad changeling, the pieces of its body not covered in thick, blackened steel showed a gleaming chitin layer. He had a small curved horn on his head and his hooves, which were resting on the table, were covered in holes that punctured all the way through. His eyes were completely black, even darker than his hide.

“Is something wrong? Never seen a changeling before?”

“I ummm... no actually,” she whispered as she slowly walked towards him. “I mean, I have. But not up close. I ummm... My name is Esperit. A griffon, mister...” The mare rubbed her chin. “I never actually got his name, told me to come to you. I'm a conjurer and--”

“Let me guess, looking for work? Listen, I get it, the land around here is damaged. There's nothing we can do about it until we drive those centaurs off and deal with all the other threats around here. We have enough trouble with the crystal pony tribes on top of it. I'd love to be able to bring the lot of you out here and put you to work, but we just can't yet.”

“I... I wasn't going to offer that. Well, I was but... I want to offer my help. I'm a... a adventurer. I came to--”

The changeling groaned and face hoofed. “You another one of those? Listen, kid. Go to Crystalopolis. We don't have the money or the resources to take care of your kind.”

“I... I'm sorry...” Goldenseed mumbled softly and lowered her head. “Your group kind of saved me from the centaurs. I wanted to repay you.”

Blackeye leaned back and rubbed his chin, looking her up and down. “Well... I won't argue with free help. Conjurer, right? I'm sure they can put you to use. You met any of the other healers we got around here?”

“I met a miss Grove?”

“We've got three Groves here, that's just in our healers.” He shook his head. “Just go find miss Grove and help as much as you can for as long as you're willing.” He looked her up and down again. “I can't offer you much though. At least, not much more than meals and shelter.”

“That'll be good enough,” Goldenseed mumbled, before bowing her head and traveling back down the stairs. Her mind drifted back to home before she stopped and felt for the pouch. Unsurprisingly, it was still gone and she was doubtful it would magically reappear at her side. She was on her own now and if she ever wanted to return home, she'd have to find her own way there. The mare started trotting again as she considered her options.

She had food and shelter now, she'd just work here until she could get hired on to travel with a caravan heading to one of the three main cities. From there, getting back home would be simple. She could gather a few bits before taking one of the air ships home. A few nights at an inn until the potion wore off, and she'd be back to her old self. It was all so easy, almost too easy. She thought back to how worried and panicked she'd been, scoffing at how childish her fears were.

The secretary directed her to the keep and she quickly trotted through the snow, shivering as the icy wind dug at her mane. The courtyard was now nearly empty, with all the wagons gone and the riders and wounded as well. Only a few sentries, bundled up in thick clothing, remained. She could hardly blame them, as cold as it was. She pushed the main door open and quickly stepped inside, slamming it closed behind her with a shiver, before turning back around.

The room was a lot smaller than she expected, the stone roof low enough the griffons likely couldn't even rear, though it was wide enough a few dozen ponies could easily stand inside. A few candles in glass holders were the only thing in the room, and a few of them had even gone out. It was near freezing as well, though nowhere near as cold as outside. Two ponies were sitting by the door opposite the one she'd entered, and they gave her a cursory glance before returning to their conversation in hushed tones.

She trotted through the next door and they didn't move to stop her. The next room was far larger, though the roof was just as low. Tables were lined up in almost every square inch available and a large fireplace stood opposite the hall, blazing heavily. Two large red glowing orbs hovered in the air as well, radiating their heat and filling the rather large, but oddly stuffy room with heat.

Food was spread out across the table, though it was quite meager by her standards. Unripened fruit and limp vegetables. Still, the few occupied tables had ponies and other creatures plowing through them as if they were a king's meal served from golden dishes. Her own stomach rumbled suddenly, reminding her of how hungry she had been and how long ago her true last meal was.

She glanced at the food longingly, even the limp, slightly off tinted carrot was looking delicious right now. Her stomach had her so distracted, she didn't notice the mare until a hoof tapped her flank. “A-ahhh! Sorry!” she yelped before moving away. She turned to see the pony and gasped, a grin forming on her lips. “Grove!”

“Yes,” the elder mare said with a smile. “I'm happy to see you seem to be doing better.” The earth pony put a hoof to her forehead. “Your fever has gone down as well.”

“Ahhh, ummm, y-yes,” Goldenseed said with a nervous smile. “I feel a lot better than I had. It was... it was horrible out there. I really thought I was going to die. I... wanted to repay you. So Blackeye said I could work with you on healing the wounded, at least until I could get a way back to the city. Would that be okay?”

The mare chuckled. “I suppose, we can always use more hooves. Are you any good at cleaning linens?”

“What? I, well yes. But I meant as a healer. I'm a conjurer.” She thrust her chest out proudly. “I can heal any wounds needed.”

Grove frowned then, before shaking her head. “Do you really mean that? Do you really know healing magics?” She stared intently at the girl. Suddenly nervous, Goldenseed nodded. “Very well then, I'll take you up on your word. You'll likely soon regret it, however.” She pointed towards the tables. “Eat fast, then meet me in the kitchen.”

“What? I... I don't need to eat. I can come help righ--” Her stomach rumbled in objection, making her blush. “O-okay. Where's the kitchen?”

“That door, down the hall on the right.” She gestured towards the door on the far left side of the room. “I hope you got plenty of rest, as you won't be getting much tonight.”

She nodded slowly and watched the mare walk off. She then moved to the table and took one of the plates, quickly scooping vegetables onto it. The carrots were soft and squishy, the apples were soft and had too many bad points and even the broccoli had a strange after taste she didn't want to identify. Even still, she ate it down and filled her stomach, though it rumbled oddly in protest. She then got to her hooves and quickly trotted towards the kitchen.

Grove was already there, tossing food into saddlebags. Goldenseed stood and watched until the mare was done, before softly calling out. “Okay, I'm ready now. What do I do?”

Grove looked up and smiled. “We're bringing these to everypony. Come on, grab the other one and follow me.” The earth pony slid one of the saddlebags on and trotted out. Goldenseed quickly put hers on and followed.

They trotted through the keep, though she kept looking around as she went. They place seemed huge, but the roof seemed almost crushingly low. Nothing like the wide archways she had at home, where a pegasus could easily fly up and perform a few tricks without ever coming close to touching the ceiling. Here she was certain she could touch them if she just got a decent amount of momentum from jumping off a table.

However, they were warm. Tapestries and carpets covered almost every inch of the floors and walls, so thick her hooves would sink in if she stopped for a few seconds. Magical heat orbs hovered in the larger rooms as well, keeping them nice and toasty. The two walked into one of the many rooms in the keep, a large open one filled with hanging sheets separating beds. Many of the sheets were pushed aside, giving Goldenseed a good view of the wounded. There were at least twenty beds in the room, filled with wounded of different species, some sleeping and some moaning.

“How strong a conjurer are you?” Grove asked softly.

“I'm... good. I think. I haven't passed all my trials, but--”

“Can you use the repose spell?”

“No,” she whispered as she moved forward. Many of the wounded were bandaged and being fed medicines, causing her eyes to widen slightly. “How many conjurers do you have?”

“Not many,” the mare mumbled before walking to one of the wounded and casting her spell, the griffon in the bed drifting off. “We have a hoofful of conjurers and a few more arcanists, but our numbers in both fields are low. What I wouldn't give to trade a few of our thaumaturges away. Or even get them to learn a few healing spells. Go, put your load down and help who you can. Ask the doctors what they need healed.”

Goldenseed nodded and got to work. It wasn't long before doubt and worry began to spill into her mind, watching Grove work. The mare was able to work three to four times as long as her, only taking the occasional break. While she was able to heal the more minor wounds and keep the more severe ones stable for a limited time, her magic was too weak to do anything for the more severe wounds aside from quickening their recovery. She thought about home, where they had so many conjurers that aside from dismemberment, most could return to work in a matter of hours or days. Some of these ponies would likely be in here for weeks.

She nearly collapsed when her magic reserves were depleted for the third time. Sweat coated her body and she barely had the energy to drop down on one of the many stools. Grove moved over and smiled. “Child, are you well?”

“Fine. Just need to... d-draw more magic from the land,” Goldenseed said softly as she panted. “I'll be good soon. Is... is this normally how many g-get hurt around here?”

Grove shook her head. “No. You had the misfortune of arriving during one of our assaults. Blackeye was hoping we'd be able to drive the centaurs out after their recent attack, but they're far too entrenched.” Sadness filled the mare's eyes. “If we could just free their captives, we could get rid of them once and for all. Collapse the entire passage so they had no way to go but back where they came from.”

“Why are they capturing ponies?” Goldenseed asked softly. Her mind went back to what happened, causing a shiver to go down her spine. “They... found me out there, in the ice and snow. They tended me. It's the only reason I managed to escape, because they tried to heal me rather than imprison me immediately.”

Grove reached out and patted her head. “We know. They've been capturing any living member of the alliances they could and dragging them into their cages. You were fortunate to escape, we haven't had many who could.”

Goldenseed nodded. “I was doubly lucky. If your attack hadn't happened now, I would have been dropped in a cage. Those creatures are... incredibly strong. Why do they want us?”

“We have no idea. Whatever it is, it can't be good. For now they are using them as hostages, preventing us from launching a full assault on their camp and driving them out. If they didn't, we could convince a few dragons to fly out and have the entire camp razed to the ground and they'd have no choice but to flee, or we could collapse the cliffs surrounding the passage.”

Goldenseed shivered as she remembered the cliff she'd fallen down. Would they collapse that as well? Bring the entire camp crashing down? She tried not to imagine all those helpless frightened ponies falling to their crushing deaths. “How often do these assaults happen?”

“Whenever Blackeye decides.” Grove got to her hooves. “Tonight is the most important, Esperit. It will decide how many of these wounded live. I'd get back to work as soon as you can.”

The zebra slowly nodded and closed her eyes, reaching out with her powers to grip the energy in the land. It was slow and tiring drawing the magic evenly from the world and she longed to just tear it out and fill herself in a second. It would be far easier in the end, as well as faster.

Except it would deal more damage to the land and who knew how it might react. Tearing the magic out also went against every instinct she had as a conjurer, and she knew how dangerous it would be in the end. It could even anger the land and make it cut her off from its giving nature.

When she finally had her magic restored, she grudgingly got to her hooves and stumbled to the next patient. Then the next. And the next. And the next. From patient to patient she went, sealing up wounds and increasing the speed at which they recovered. Poisons and infections she was unable to do anything about and was forced to watch as the few more experienced conjurers performed spells to remove it, or the doctors tried identifying the poison to use an anti-venom.

Before long all the wounds started to blend together and she struggled to keep her eyes open, yawns bursting from her mouth as her eyes felt heavy as lead. It was all she could do to avoid dropping on top of one of the wounded. She didn't even remember finally being led away from them and dropped onto a nearby cot, or how long it took her to wake up.

She just woke the next morning, wrapped up tightly in a little blanket. She sat up with a groan, looking around the room, which was filled with beds. There were other ponies as well, sleeping. Four beds down from her she caught sight of Grove, snoring in her own bed.

Goldenseed watched the mare for a few moments, before trotting towards the only door in the room. She shoved it open and stepped out into the hall, closing it as quietly as she could behind herself. “Hello?” she called out, but received no response. Since the room was at the end of the hall, she turned away from the end and started walking.

It turned at the end and a long line of stairs formed, which she trotted down. She'd yet to pass anypony, though she could hear others talking in the rooms. At the bottom of the stairs she walked through the next hallway, trying to get her bearings. She wondered how she'd even gotten up stairs, had somepony carried her?

After a few rooms she stepped out of the hallway and into the large hall, filled with ponies, a few griffons and even a zebra sitting at the tables and eating. She nervously stepped forward. “Hello?” she called out, barely above a squeak. None of them even looked at her. She shook her head and started walking again, moving back towards the kitchen, getting served a plate and sat at the table near the end. She watched everypony chatting away and, if she was correct, a few of them were ponies she'd healed the night before. She wondered for a moment if calling the griffons and zebras ponies was insulting.

She watched them chatting and tried to work up the courage to speak to them, but instead she just ate her food in silence. They all seemed busy and had friends with them, she didn't want to be rude and a bother. Her meal was meager, a small vegetable stew. It was filling though. It was quite a bit warmer in here than she thought it would be, though she imagined the lack of windows helped keep it that way. And the buffer rooms to keep the worst of the icy weather out.

After her meal she trotted to the medical ward, to her delight only having to backtrack to the main hall once when she got lost. To her surprise, there were only a few ponies there. “Where is everypony? What about all the wounded?”

“Hmmm?” A stallion said as he glanced up from one of the patients. “Are you my relief? Aren't you a little early?”

“I-I don't think so. I passed out last night and... where is everypony? It was so wild last night and... How long was I asleep for?”

“That was only last night,” the stallion mumbled before looking down at the wounded. “Everything minor enough to be healed quickly is done with, and those we can stabilize are already tended to.” The stallion shook his head. “You're going to find most nights aren't like that one. We have a saying around here. Seven days of boredom, followed by one day of blind panic.”

Goldenseed trotted around the beds and looked over the wounded, slowly nodding. Most the wounds were serious and likely painful, but they were also unconscious and would survive. It was true they could heal the wounds over night, at least a powerful enough conjurer could, but it would require tearing plenty of magic from the land to do it. Personally, she was afraid to reach out and touch the magic in the land, considering how much they'd had to drain the previous night to deal with the wounded. Even her gentle, delicate absorption of the land's power had likely left plenty of areas where the magic needed time to recover.

“What can I do then?”

The stallion gave her a smile. “Well, you can keep me company. We probably won't get more than a few hurt during the day, so we probably won't be that busy.”

She slowly nodded and glanced down at the wounded again. She supposed it was for the best. The last few days, or was it only one day, had been filled with so much excitement she felt as if she could sleep a week. This would give her plenty of time to recover before she set out again, towards home.

She slowly drove the terror, pain and exhaustion from her mind as she thought about what would come now. Her adventures. True adventures, the kind her books always talked of. She could barely wait. She just hoped she'd be able to stand for most of them.