Apotheca Heart

By knight

• February 1, 2014




Age: 21

Gender: Female

Species: Non-Pony

Appearance: Dark blue-grey coat.<br />Red eyes.<br />Mane and tail and wings consist of tightly-webbed spines. Her tail and mane can lay flat into a solid spine that lays against her neck and makes her look almost bald, and makes her tail look almost normal, if not rather thin. Typically her tail is like this when she walks around town.

Cutie Mark: A small skull in a heart, with a banner behind it.

Personality: : A bit vain, though not overly self-centered. She enjoys concocting new mixes and can often be found experimenting into the wee hours of the morning. Despite this, she is very good with her mixes and has a great love for children, especially. She will do anything in her power when it comes to young fillies and colts, and despite being a bit feared due to her species, she is well known in the Canterlot community for her brews, and gets a decent stream of customers coming forth for her various concoctions to heal their ailments. She also sells to several hospitals and clinics around the countryside, and makes the occasional visit to them.

Backstory: Apothica knows nothing of her real parents, other than that it was assumed they were batponies. She was abandoned as a foal and left in front of a baker's door. The baker, however, was not home when she was deserted. She was left there, wrapped in a blanket, through a long, chilly night, crying softly.<br /> <br />It was not until morning came--nearly blinding her young eyes, that someone came home. It was the baker, and walking with him was a young zebra couple who ran an apothecary. He had been struggling with a terrible cough and they had kept him at their place through the night until the fever broke, and were just walking him home. <br /><br />The couple had been barren for many years and the moment they set eyes on the squealing infant on the confused and astounded baker's porch, they were in love. For they knew what it was to be cast out from pony society, what it was to get the strange looks, the wary glances, and they knew this was their daughter.<br /> <br />She was named 'Apotheca' after her parents' shared career, a name they had long fawned over for if they had ever had a foal together, and she was given the second name 'heart' for the incredible love they felt for her at first site. <br /> <br />Apotheca was odd, to say the least, and it took them quite some time to get used to her. She was not able to attend normal school, as not only were her eyes sensitive to the light, to the point where she could not hardly see, but she could not hardly stay awake. She tried her hardest, of course, but it was to no avail. They had to homeschool her in the hours after the shop closed, as the sun dwindled. She learned all the general taught things from pony school, but mostly she learned from watching her parents in the apothecary. She loved all of it. From toxic poisons extracted from snakes to delicate perfumes that enchanted the wearer's true love, she loved it all. <br /> <br />It was on a night when she was up late, as she often was, since she slept during daylight hours, and her parents slumbered, that she earned her cutie mark. Her parents had captured a fearful speckled rattlesnake and had it in a cage. It was most vicious, so they had not been able to extract it's venom yet, for fear of getting bitten.<br /> <br />Somehow, Apotheca had it in her head that she should be the one to do this. There had been a pony that had died from getting bitten by this snake, how long would it be until it would happen again? She had to help them! Or, so her tiny foal mind was thinking. <br /> <br />She readied everything, the cup for extracting, gloves, goggles, the works, and then reached in and grabbed the sleeping snake, taking it by complete surprise and swiftly jamming it onto the cup. She had never felt so proud as she watched it writhe as venom dripped from its fangs. It was then that her cutie mark, unbeknownst to her, shimmered to life upon her flank, showing her love for the deadly art of curing the masses with a small tiny snake skull in the center of a large heart, a banner of medical text shimmering behind the heart.<br /> <br />Before she could think what to do further, the snake flipped and jettisoned from her hooves, coiling on the ground and baring its fangs at her, its tail rattling in fury. She had felt so proud, and how suddenly that pride flipped to fear. She let out an ear-shattering scream, using the echolocation she didn't even know she had, stunning the snake and waking her parents, who came running into the room to find a dizzy-looking serpent and their goggle-sporting, gloved daughter. They quickly flipped the snake up into its tank and ran to check on her, finding her blinking in confusion at their questions and their studying of her body, looking for a bite wound.<br /> <br />She was completely surprised. She had the ability to stun snakes! She gasped and told her parents everything. While they were, of course, proud of both her cutie mark and her newfound ability, they were extremely angry with her for being so reckless, and grounded her for a month, prohibiting her from assisting in any apothecary work.<br /> <br />Despite this starting hiccup, she grew up in the apothecary with her parents loving their work and assisting with creating both antivenom and other various cures and potions, learning much from their shaman ancestry. <br />Her father passed away peacefully one summer day in his sleep, but he was quite a bit older than her mother, and it had simply been age that had taken him. Her mother was devastated. She could not come to terms with his death on her own, and after having him cremated, had made the decision to return to their home country to spread his ashes and see their old family. <br /> <br />Of course, she wanted Apotheca to come with, but Apotheca insisted on staying behind and continuing her father's work, certain her mother would return. <br /><br />Her mom was gone for just over two months when word came of her death as well. Doctors said it was from a broken heart. Apotheca had to close the shop down, and grieved for almost a month and a half when an unexpected visitor arrived.<br /> <br />It was the baker, a man she had met here and there, but never really spoke with. He came in, and told her of her origins, and of the great deed her parents had done taking her in, and just how much they loved her, and how proud they would be of her if they were there today. His words encouraged her to reopen the shop and reassume her parents' occupations. <br /><br />The shops hours changed a little to accommodate her odd sleeping habits, but customers that were loyal remained loyal, and business is continuing to thrive to this day.<br />