Lotus Eater was in her family’s back yard, relaxing peacefully in the shade of a tree. Her eyes were closed and the whole world was shut out, with only a light breeze and delightful chirping of birds providing a soothing background noise. That was until her peaceful zen-like state of being had been rudely interrupted by a wailing sound. When she opened her eyes, she saw the pink mane head of a pegasus bobbing along the fence of her yard. The pegasus was moving slowly, groaning with each step.

Slowly, Lotus rose and inched her way over to peer at the pegasus. “Excuse me, but may I ask if you are ok?”

The pegasus was Sprinkles, a small and chubby mare with a love of sugary sweets. Sprinkles, normally upbeat and cheerful, tried to smile and pass off her pain as nothing. “I’m fine. Just a bit of belly ache is all. I was in a candy eating contest and I guess I got a bit carried way.”

“A candy eating contest?” Lotus was a surprised to hear that existed, but not surprised at the results it seemed to have. “That’s a lot of sugar to consume. No wonder you have a stomach ache.”

“Oh, really, it’s nothing at all. I’m sure all I need is some RR and R, Rocky Road ice cream and root beer.” The pegasus exclaimed. “I heard that works great and it’s delicious.”

Every word out of the pegasus’ mouth just made Lotus shake her head. “If anything, that’ll make it worse. What you need is a good herbal remedy, tea, and a hot water bottle! ,” Lotus stated it as a simple matter of fact. “ The heat will relax your muscles and the tea will sooth your digestive system.”

“A tea? I don’t think I’ve ever had tea before until it was ice tea lemonade. I don’t think I’d know what to get, I should stick with my ice cream maybe.” Sprinkles looked unsure, but as she spoke her face twisted up as her stomach pains felt worse even mentioning the ice cream.

Lotus watched the poor pegasus and wondered if perhaps there was something she could do to help. “Wait right here. Don’t go anywhere.”

The yellow filly zipped around her parents’ yard. They both plant lovers, and a similar loved passed on to young Lotus Eater. She dug out some ginger root and marshmallow root and disappeared into her house. In the kitchen she grated the ginger and marshmallow into fine shreds and dropped it into a bowl. Next took a piece of rock sugar and added that to the bowl. Lastly, she found a jar of her aunt, Jasmine Tea’s loose leaf tea and picked a black tea. Dropping some of that into the bowl as well, Lotus mixed it together before scooping it to a bag.

With the bag dangling from her mouth, she returned to the pegasus at the fence. Lotus dropped the bag to her hooves and passed it over the fence. “Try this. It’s a black tea, with a big of rock sugar to help sweeten it for you. I’ve added some marshmallow root and ginger as well, both are good for your digestion. Please try that instead of processed sugar candy to fix your stomach ache. You just need to boil some water and steep the tea for a little while for drinking it, ok?”

Sprinkles wasn’t the kind to say no, and took the tea from the young girl. She hailed a taxi to avoid the pains of dragging herself home with an upset stomach.

The next day, Lotus Eater was pleased to find a letter in her mail box from Sprinkles. In the letter, Sprinkles noted that she followed the directions as best as she could. While it wasn’t instantaneous and the concoction wasn’t exactly as delicious as soda, the pegasus was surprised to find that in a few hours the stomach ache had subsided.

The letter brought a smile to Lotus Eater's face as she realized how nice it felt to help someone. Maybe she could help others as well, with her knowledge of plant properities she could perhaps remedy what ails other phonies, and help them take care of themselves.