The Rainbow Apothecary

It was quite an average day, not too sunny but not too dull, the sky was a soft azure and gentle clouds flittered around the near empty sky. On this day, Rainbow Dash found herself trotting along an open yet dirty path in the Everfree forest, working under her father as a junior apothecary, there would often be days where the spectrum haired girl would have to go out and get medicinal herbs, she didn't mind though, for she believed she was too plain to be harmed by anybody. She didn't have a voluptious figure, nor did she have the most elegant face, so she fully believed that she was safe from all the creeps of the local district.

As she walked, she scoped out all of the different plants and herbs, usually she'd be excitedly picking them up in haste but she already had multiple stocks of them back at home. So instead, she looked at them with awe, maybe she could test poison anitidotes with them, but then she would have to get a new snake as her grandmother had killed the old venomous one. After some time, she came across a bush that had the exact herbs she was looking for, so she quickly dropped her woven basket on the ground and fell to her knees. With an overly enthusiastic smile, the girl picked them excitedly and placed them in the basket, her father hadn't yet told her what he was making and she was eager to find out.

What Rainbow hadn't noticed (which was unusual, since her senses and reflexes were normally extremely sharp for this specific purpose) was the people whom were hiding in bushes behind her, as she hummed away happily, she didn't seem to hear the tall men approach from behind her, and by the time she did it was too late. One of them quickly wrapped a rope around her neck, which caused her to splutter out, another stuffed a soaked rag into her mouth and smirked "be quite or else my friend's gonna have to tug that rope even harder, you hear?" this made Rainbow glare, she couldn't really respond with a rag in her mouth could she?

Of course, as she had predicted, the wet rag was soaked in some kind of sedative, although she couldn't pin point exactly what kind. So, it wasn't long before she felt her eyelids getting heavy, and soon they closed...

It's been three months since I was kidnapped and sold off, life wasn't all too bad and I had somewhat gotten used to the rancid smell of woman's makeup and sex. It turns out I was sold off to the Royal Canterlot Castle, the men had pretended to be my family and had struck a deal with the buyer that half of my earnings working in the castle would go to them. I could pretend to be infuriated but in reality I'm not, my home isn't too far from the castle and I only have to work for a year or two, that coupled with my lack of beauty makes it so I'm not a part of the actual harem so I don't have to worry about the other women, really all I have to do is clean clothes and eat.

Though, I do hope my father's eating his meals and taking care of himself, he must be worried sick...

I used to work with the prostitutes of my home district, but honestly I can't tell the difference between them and the court consorts, though saying that aloud might get me killed. At least I didn't have to deal with perverted men as male entry into the harem section was strictly forbidden unless you were the emperor or one of those gay monks, or "Eunuchs" as they're called. I'd also be lying if I pretended I wasn't upset about being here though, as although life is sort of luxery, I had worked so hard to live as a doctor. Maybe they had somehow mistaken me to be someone else?

To be honest I don't really care, as long as I don't actually have to join the harem I'm good.

As I walked down the hallway of the lower palace, I heard footsteps approach me "e-excuse me!" I heard a delicate voice say, as I looked back I saw a rather distressed looking servant. She stopped before me, catching her breath before speaking again "hey, this may sound weird but could you tell me what tag this room belongs in?"

"What tag...?" I looked and saw the room number "oh, that's room 9 of Lady Octavia, so just go left and keep going until you see that big lavender door" I shrugged.

"Ah, thank you very much!" She smiled before quickly darting off. I sighed, she was probably one of the servants who couldn't read, although we're taught common and basic manners, literacy is something the higherups could care less about when it came to us lower servant girls. To put it simply, if your goal is to be promoted into a consort, appearance is everything.

Of course, a flat chested, freckles and eyebag having foreigner like me wouldn't stand a chance against the pureblooded girls with elegant features. This would upset me if I actually wanted to be a part of the harem, however that looked like extra work so I would rather not. And the worst part of a promotion would mean my dirty kidnappers would gain a larger sum of money.

Yeah, fuck that noise.

It turns out my prediction of working for a bit and leaving was too idealistic, my father would always comment of my sense of justice and need for answers, if I had known this would affect my simple life in the palace, I would have kept my mouth shut.

"So it's totally a curse, right!?"

"Pinkie, please stop yelling, also what the hell are you on about?"

I sat in my seat, yawning as I ate a spoonful of rice. I was sitting with Pinkamena Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie if you're not a snobby shithead. Pinkie was a harem servant just as I was, she was known for how bubbly and talkative she could be, and although she came from a poor family, she would go about her daily chores as if she had no care or problems in the world. Pinkie did have one major flaw though.

She was very superstitious.

She believed any rumor she was told and was always one to believe in the supernatural "you don't know Dashie!?" She shrieked, reaching over the grab my clothes and essantially smushing her face on mine. Apparently my deadpan glare didn't get through to her that I wasn't amused, because she then brought her lips to my ear and whispered "don't you know? All the emperor's babies have been dying"

My eyes widenned a tad bit as she sat back and continued talking "I mean, already three have died, you can't tell me that isn't some witch lady bozo! I mean, his first son died just before he was crowned, the another princess died, and then after he was crowned his second heir died too! It's totally witch lady bozo!"

"Are there any living kids?" I asked Pinkie, continuing my food.

The pink haired girl nodded "oh, yes! There's the three month old heir and the six month old princess!" I had noticed Pinkie had a scrunched up face, I sighed, this usually meant she was going to go on a tangent, but in a situation like this she might have something useful to say "you know what I find totally suspicious? The emperor favors Lady Celestia more, but Lady Luna has the higher rank! Does that make any sense?"

I stared up at her "well, duh? Of course it does? Look" I sat up straight with a stretch before looking towards Pinkie "yeah the emperor favors Celestia more, but Celestia gave birth to a baby girl, the princess, Luna gave birth to a baby boy though, the heir to the thrown" I then took another bite of my food, covering my mouth as I ate "so, that makes Luna on top technically, even though the Emperor likes Celestia more"

Pinkie rested her head on her hand "so Luna's on top just because she gave birth to a boy? Sounds like bozo..."

"It really is..." I finished my rice and brushed my plate to the side "I saw the doctor going towards Lady Luna's room earlier-" before I could even finish, Pinkie cut me off with a shriek.

"OH NO! LADY LUNA'S BABY'S GONNA DIE! THE CURSE GOT TO HER!" she cried out, shivering in her seat.

"Stop yelling, also I totally doubt it's a legit curse, most likely it's... an illness" I began thinking, as boring as I found traditional eduction, my father had magically gotten me interested in medicine and the human body. Granny considered it a miracle that someone like me would enjoy that but I digress, I decided to put all of my knowledge to use and try to think of a more realistic answer to the sudden deaths. It could be an illness as I said, and going by the fact that it seemed to affect only the emperor's babies, it could be some kind of hereditary disease "a form of cancer maybe..." I muttered.

"Cancer?" Pinkie suddenly yelled "really? I've never seen a cancer person before so maybe Lady Luna's condition fits it?" I looked up at Pinkie with a quirked brow, listening as she continued "apparently all the babies got super sick and weak before they died, even Lady Luna's ill! According to the gossiping attendants, she's been having stomach aches, nausea, and her magic seems to always flake out when she's trying to use it, which ends in painful headaches!"

"Headaches, Nausea and stomach aches huh..."

I refused to believe in such a stupid rumor, casting curses on people was outlawed years ago, not only that but it was quite easy to trace magic back to its user, if someone was truly dumb enough to curse the emperor's children, they would have been caught by now and publicly executed. But, I decided to go and check out the scene anway, it was stupid of me to assume it would go smoothly though.

There's no way consorts of such high caliber as Lady Luna and Lady Celestia would be down at the lower level palace, so it was a long walk but I had to make my way all the way to the upper palace. On my way to the medical room, I was stopped by gasping and shouting "huh...?" I muttered, slowly making my way to the loud crowd that had gathered.

"You witch! You did it, didn't you!?"

I saw a pale skinned woman with dark blue hair tied with black crystals and golden hair pins, she wore a simple yet elegant blue gown with black rims and violet sheers. This woman proceeded to slap the lady infront of her, whom landed on the ground with a grunt. This other woman was also pale, signifying that she too was a pureblood. She also had long hair which was a mixture of pinks, greens and sky blues, however hers was in a simple tied ponytail that was imbedded with sun shaped emblems and golden trinkets. Her gown was flowing and white, she wore a golden corset with black and silver sewing, her dress had large free sleeves and a cleavage exposing slit in the middle. It then clocked to me who the women were.

Lady Celestia and Lady Luna, the sister consorts.

I watched in shock as Lady Luna glared down at Lady Celestia, who was sitting on the floor with a distraught expression on her face "because your own bastard child is a female and could never take the thrown, you decided to curse my baby to death! You witch, you foul witch!"

Lady Celestia looked up with tears in her eyes "sister, you know I would never harm you or your baby! What would come out of the death of my own nephew!?"

"Shut up you witch! Never come near me or my baby again, or lord so help me I will rain hell upon you and your bastard child!" She shrieked before turning around and stomping off.

I sighed, now this had become a scandal, which would make it even more difficult for me to get the truth to them. I kept watching as the doctor helped Lady Celestia to her feet and frantically explained all of his bogus theories to her as to what may be happening, I grimaced, refusing to believe that such an incompetent fool was the doctor of the palace. How could he not figure it out? It was dead easy, I mean, the sudden nausea, the infant deaths, the stomach and head aches, the lack of proper magic use, and more importantly Lady Luna has lost a lot of weight....

Just as I thought, this isn't a dumb curse.

I needed to find a way to tell them, but who would listen to a low level servant? Plus Lady Luna looks way too angry to care what I have to say...

This was so lame.

Not even a month after the confrontation, Lady Luna's baby, the heir, had died. I had written a note to the two ladies as a warning, but it was anonymous and probably seemed suspicous as hell, no wonder they didn't believe me. Though, it's still sad to see all my efforts were for naught....

After the death of the prince, Lady Luna seemed to fall into a pit of illness and insanity, no longer "the lady of the moon" as everyone had called her. She slowly went from a proud and elegant woman to a sickly and exhausted skeleton who wasn't far from death. I sighed, it wasn't long till the same thing happened to Lady Celestia...

"So right after the confrontation, someone placed this on your window?"

"Yes, that is indeed what happened"

In a room far into the upper palace sat Lady Celestia and a blue haired male, this man was rather attractive, his obvious dark skin signified he was a foreigner, however his gorgeous face managed to somehow make up for it. This man wore a long white simple robe with gold and blue trimming and sheers, he looked over the note with his emerald green eyes and looked back up at the lady "so, this is how Lady Luna's baby died?"

Celestia nodded with a solemn look "yes, according to the note that is, I'm unsure if sister also recieved the letter, if she did..."

"Then she willingly ignored it..." the man finished.

Celestia gave a hollow chuckle "I doubt sister would want the death of her own baby, if I had any idea how harmful that stuff was I would have ordered the whipping of the merchants... and to think this whole time we believed it was a curse"

The man nodded "we're lucky you didn't use any of that stuff my Lady, but I also feel the need to take the blame, that substance should have been properly checked before imported"

Celestia shook her head "Soarin, you did absolutely nothing wrong..." the woman took a breath "I wonder who wrote the note? For them to be so knowledgable on something like this..."

Soarin smirked "say Lady, what if I were to find who wrote this for you?"

"Huh, I've been summoned? For what?"

The Eunuch looked at me plainly "yeah, got to the chief Eunuch's office"

"There's a chief gay monk? What does he want?"

"..."

The Eunuch simply blinked at me and walked away, I shrugged, judging by how he was calling all lower servants, it was probably a mass search for something. The Eunuch led as all to a room in the middle palace, we all walked in, the other girls whispering about someone named 'Soarin', gushin everytime his name was mentioned. Soon came in someone with dark blue hair and dark brown skin, they wore a white cloak, similar to the other Eunuchs but more intricately made. "Wait, that's a dude?" I mumbled as he walked closer "I'm assuming that's Soarin... so I'm guessing he's a bisexual monk" I chuckled. He sure was a pretty boy, I could see why the others were gushing and blushing.

Soarin sat in a chair, another Eunuch standing beside him. This Eunuch was a female, which was odd, I thought only dudes could be Eunuchs? This woman was also clearly a foreigner, as I and Soarin were. She had bright orange hair that stuck up and lighter brown skin, her eyes were a firey orange and her expression was serious.

Soarin soon held up a note, it wasn't long before all the girly giggling turned into suprised whispering:

May the rainbow haired female please stay behind?

At first I sighed, watching as everyone walked away, I wondered why he didn't just say so, but when I saw that smirk on his face I realized.

He was testing me, so he checked by...

This was some sick prank, a joke...

Of course I would stay behind....

I WAS THE ONLY SERVANT THAT COULD READ!

Soarin stood up and approached me, holding onto my shoulder "follow me" he simply said. This was completely and utterly jarring, I didn't want anyone to know I wrote the notes! I mean sure, it would be totally awesome to get a raise, but most of my money is going to those dirty kidnappers! That coupled with the ruckus the illiterates would make wasn't worth it in my eyes.

Who knew my own awesomeness would be my demise?

As we walked, I assume Soarin got bored of the silence and began speaking to me "weird, I never thought a foreigner would be able to read"

I assumed he was trying to compliment me in a weird insulting way and chose not to throw a hissy fit "yeah, I'm pretty low born, but aren't you a foreigner too? Yet you can clearly read and write..."

"Inquisitive I see" Soarin chuckled "while I am born to two foreign parents, I was born in and raised in Canterlot, tell me, where are you from?"

"Cloudsdale" I quipped.

Soarin chuckled "a true outsider!"

"Whatever" I plainly responded, trying to end this conversation. Instead I went to thinking of how I could have been caught, I'm a pretty fast runner and can scope my surroundings rather well, but I guess someone saw me. And finding a girl with rainbow hair wouldn't be too difficult, but he still went through the trouble of comparing all of the servants? Either this guys is super dilligent or he has way too much free time.

We soon made it to to the upper palace and Soarin stopped in front of a door that had an image of the sun imprinted on it, he knocked, and soon a feminine voice could be heard "come in!" she yelled.

Soarin opened the door and ushered me in with a smile "I brough the note writer my Lady!"

In the middle of the room stood Lady Celestia, she was holding the princess in her hands, giggling as the baby occasionally gripped her finger. She smiled upon seeing me and walked towards me "you must be the mysterious letter writer? Thank you so much for what you have done!" She said with a... bow!?

The second she bowed I almost fell over "w-wait! I can't recieve such treatment from someone who outranks me!" I quickly stuttered, caught off guard.

Lady Celestia shook her head "my gratitude goes beyond my status, if it wasn't for you I would have lost my precious Twilight... I owe you everything"

I watched as she stroked the baby's violet hair, smiling a little bit before shaking my head. Again, I didn't want to be in a situation where my kidnappers gained more money "as much as I appreciate it your grace, I think you've got the wrong person"

"Don't try that miss spectrum hair" Soarin snorted before bringing out the note "I have here the note written by the mysterious note writer, notice how it's written on an odd piece of clothing fabric? Well, it turns out this is a piece of cloth is from clothing belonging to a lower servant, which is funny because" he then pointed at my uniform "your skirt looks like it's been ripped"

I really didn't like this guy.

I sighed "fine, you got me, it was me that wrote the note" I then bowed "you see your grace, once I had figured out the truth, I decided to let you and Lady Luna know by writing those notes, it was an easy solution to an easy problem, the face powder contained poison, once you stopped using it it should no longer harm you"

Lady Celestia blinked "but how did you know?"

I shrugged "before my foster father took me in and got me into medicine, I used to work as a runner in a prostitution district back in Cloudsdale. My job was simple, smuggle drugs. I also had another job, the prostitutes would place bets on me and some other kids, we would have to race to win the money, and I always won" I then brushed it off "anyway, I saw some of the prostitutes I used to work with use that power in order to give them paler skin, because a dark skinned foreigner, especially a Cloudsdale native, was seen as in no way attractive and would affect their number of clients. While the powder did indeed give them paler skin and made them more desirable, the poison laced in the powder began negitively affecting them and soon they lost both their beauty and their lives... I realized the powders had poison once I had began work as an apothecary under my father..."

Lady Celestia and Soarin looked at each other and nodded in content, probably happy that I confessed "may I ask your name?" she gently spoke.

"R-Rainbow Dash your grace" I responded.

"Well, in that case" she stood up straight and managed to look professional and graceful, even with her baby in hand "I hereby commend you, Rainbow Dash, as my personal attendant!"

So...

In the end I ended up getting that damn promotion.

Shoot.