//------------------------------//
// 28- Helfen 
// Story: The Chalk Prince and the Clover 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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Despite the amount of time that he had in order to see the sights all around Canterlot, Albedo knew that the time he had in Equestria’s capital city was rather limited. So, for the time that the alchemist was here, he let Twilight decide what they should do with the remaining hours they had while they waited for Cast Iron to finish with his work. Yet, to the alicorn, this wasn’t exactly a simple task by any means. After all, there was so much to do and so much to see throughout the city that it made narrowing it down to something specific rather difficult to accomplish.

Eventually, she was able to narrow down their little sightseeing venture to a few specific locations that came to her mind. The main stop on their makeshift tour throughout the city though was the Library of Magic. What was known throughout the city as one of the oldest and most renowned buildings in Canterlot that was much bigger compared to the school of friendship’s library. It was also home to some of the most important historical documents of ponykind’s history. Needless to say, it was rather significant.

Outside of the library though, the other places that the two of them went to weren’t as ‘groundbreaking’ by comparison. Such places included going through the commerce district to windowshop at some of the various stores as well as Restaurant Row. Some of the places they visited included the Canterlot branch of Rarity’s Boutique, Curio’s of Curiosity and one of Spike’s favorite places to visit; the House of Enchanted Comics. They even went past a toy store and stopped inside to see if there was anything that he could get Klee, yet some of their selection was unfortunately out of stock.

Eventually, the two of them found their way back around towards Cast Iron’s forge. At first, Albedo was worried that they had arrived a bit too early and that the earth pony had not finished his work just yet. Though, the alchemist was proven wrong when they entered the shop and found that everything had been finished and prepared for him. Cast even went as far as to use the enchanted drawstring pouch that Albedo gave him to store the finished product so that transporting it back to Ponyville wouldn’t be too difficult for them to handle

Though, it was as the alicorn and the princess were walking back towards the station that they happened to run into somepony who was quite surprised to see them. “Twilight?”

At the sound of her name, the alicorn turned back around towards the direction she heard it from. Though, when she saw who was trying to speak to her, Twilight was rather surprised. “Oh, hello Moondancer!”

This, in turn, surprised Albedo. Mainly because unlike some of the other ponies in Canterlot, something gave him the impression that Twilight knew this unicorn a little more closely than that of some of the other ponies that usually passed by. “Is that a friend of yours?”

Twilight nodded her head in response to his question. Though, Moondancer had a few questions of her own. Especially since this was the first time that she actually met the Alchemist or seen any creature like him before. “Um… I don’t mean to sound rude, but who-?”

“Oh, right,” the alicorn replied, a bit embarrassed that she forgot about introductions, “Moondancer, this is Albedo. He’s an alchemist that arrived in Equestria with his sister under…  unusual circumstances.” While it didn’t provide much in terms of details, it generally summarized Albedo and Klee’s current predicament in a way that didn’t make things sound overly complex. “Albedo, this is my friend Moondancer. We were classmates together at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns for a time before I first moved to Ponyville.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Albedo politely greeted the unicorn.

“S-same,” the unicorn spoke, a bit nervous and caught off guard by the alchemist’s politeness as she looked at Twilight, “So, what brings you to Canterlot? I thought that with everything going on at your school that y-you would be busy.”

At that, Albedo looked towards Twilight and decided to make a suggestion, “Perhaps we should take a moment to tell her? We aren’t really in a hurry or anything.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be ideal to be talking about this out here,” Twilight said, before an idea surfaced in her mind, “Oh, I know! There’s a donut shop in Restaurant Row that my friends and I always like to go to.”

“You mean Donut Joe’s?” Moondancer asked, before shrugging her shoulders at the sight of Twilight nodding her head, “Sure, I guess. I don’t really have a lot going on today, so I guess I can spare some time.”

Shortly after the unicorn agreed to her friend’s proposal, Twilight led both Albedo and Moondancer back over to Restaurant Row. Donut Joe’s, a pastry shop run by a stallion of the same name, wasn’t exactly a big restaurant by appearance. Though, it had quite a reputation when it came to drawing in a surprising number of well known creatures as frequent customers. Such customers included The Elements of Harmony and even Princess Celestia on occasion, something that the owner himself did not expect.

When they arrived, Albedo and Moondancer sat down at a table outside the shop while Twilight ordered some tea and biscuits. Once the alicorn had returned, she and Albedo started to answer any of the questions that the unicorn might’ve had for them. Some of the topics of their discussion included how exactly Albedo and his sister arrived in Equestria as well as their current attempts to try and find a way back home. The latter of which coincided with their trip to Canterlot.

“W-wow. That’s… a lot to take in,” Moondancer admitted, adjusting her glasses with a hoof before she looked at Twilight. The fact that Albedo was someone that came from another world was one thing. Yet, she was surprised that the alchemist had already started working on something to try and find his way back home. “May I ask something though?”

“Sure. What’s on your mind?” the alchemist now asked, a little surprised by the question at first.

“Everything you mentioned so far is just in the hypothetical stage, right?” she replied, “You haven’t had the chance to run any actual tests?”

“That’s right,” Albedo nodded, “Why do you ask?”

At first, Moondancer looked towards Twilight for a brief moment, before looking back to the alchemist, “Well, with the school’s summer break coming up, our professor is encouraging us in order to take up a field of study that we haven’t done before and try to learn more about it. With everything that you just said and how it definitely does not sound like any of the material that I study on a daily basis, I was wondering if you would need any extra hooves to help you.”

That surprised Twilight to the point that she was unaware that the tea and biscuits she ordered had been brought to their table, who only realized it after she felt the warm teapot against her left hoof. “Moondancer, are you… asking if Albedo needs an assistant?”

That was something that Albedo honestly didn’t expect, but should’ve taken into consideration. Given Twilight’s responsibilities as the headmare of the school of friendship and her role as the princess of friendship, there would be times where her duties would have her occupied and unable to help Albedo. So, having another creature that was rather familiar with what they were trying to do would be rather useful. 

Though, the thing is, what they were doing was not something that would be ideal for the hooves of a mere novice. If he was to remotely consider bringing Moondancer on to help, then the unicorn would need to demonstrate to him that she was capable of taking on the tasks ahead. For even the slightest of setbacks could mean huge consequences if they weren’t careful. “What areas of study do you specialize in?”

At first, Moondancer was surprised by the question. Yet, after a moment, she soon had a response for the alchemist, “Well, my main field of study involves magic, mana and advanced spellcraft. Though, I’ve also been spending time researching other fields of interest such as alchemical synthesis as well as construction of magical contraptions. However, I haven’t actually tried to make anything because the faculty at the school get a bit… stingy when it comes to ponies trying to build such inventions. Mainly because for every time something works, there are even more times where it doesn’t and ponies get hurt because of it.”

“Wow… sounds like a lot of things have happened since the last time I came to visit,” Twilight commented.

“You would be surprised,” the unicorn told her. “My whole class almost got detention once because somepony accidentally misfired a transformation spell that they were practicing and turned that Chancellor Neighsay guy into a chicken.” At that point though, that was when Moondancer turned her head to face Albedo. “Though, if I may ask, what exactly prompted your question?”

That had Albedo let out a small breath, before he looked back to the unicorn to answer her question. “Well, if I were to take on someone that can help, I wanted to make sure that they had a clear understanding of what it is that we’re trying to do,” he said, just as an idea came to him. Shortly afterwards, he brought out the blueprint for the crucible that he kept on hand, before placing it on the table, “Now, in your words, what do you make of this?”

For a moment, Moondancer didn’t say anything and her gaze was focused on the blueprint. Albedo and Twilight watched as her eyes moved around, going between all the different sections of the blueprint and taking a look at each image. Some might’ve assumed that she was trying to commit this to memory. Though, to the unicorn, she was using a different method to reach her conclusion.

“Well, outside of the fact that I can’t make out any of the words on here,” the unicorn replied, “Based on this, it looks to be some kind of magical converter. Something that, if placed in a location where the magical residue in the environment is rather dense, can take it and have it changed into something else. Not only that, but it appears that there are two of them so that the amount of mana that it takes on can be split between them so that it won’t overwhelm it.”

A part of Albedo expected for her to have some difficulty trying to make sense of the blueprint. Since the words were written in the same script that he was accustomed to in Teyvat, it would be obvious for there to be some difficulty in trying to have an equestrian understand it. Yet, this did not stop Moondancer. If anything, she made her answer based on the different sketches on the page and tried to piece together every picture as if it were part of a puzzle. Pieces of something that was far greater when all the parts were combined together.

“That’s a rather impressive answer,” Albedo complimented her, before taking a biscuit and setting it on a saucer next to him, “You did not have a lot of information to go off of, but your response was rather close to what it is that I’m working on.”

“R-really?” Moondancer squeaked, a bit surprised by the alchemist’s answer, “I-it was just a guess.”

“A well educated one,” the alchemist insisted, “You remind me a lot of my own assistant back where I’m from.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to speak. For the simple response from Albedo almost had her spill the tea that she was trying to drink. “Y-you have an assistant, Albedo?”

The alchemist nodded, taking a moment to eat the biscuit that he had before answering Twilight’s question. “That’s right, her name is Sucrose. She’s rather smart and eager to learn when it comes to alchemy, but is… well, very shy and nervous around people she’s unfamiliar with. Just the thought of talking to someone that isn’t me or Timaeus makes her shudder. Almost like your friend, Fluttershy.”

Though, that was also when he asked a particular question to the unicorn as he folded up the blueprint and put it away, “Though, with regards to you offering your assistance, may I take some time to think on it first? I wish to sort out everything from today’s trip first before making any decisions as to how to proceed forward.”

“S-sure, I’m not really in a hurry or anything,” Moondancer admitted, “Though, what would be the best way to try and contact you? Just in case something were to come up?”

“It would be ideal to send it to Twilight. Mainly since my sister makes a habit of using any loose parchment to draw and color,” Albedo replied, remembering one time where Klee accidentally used a letter that came from Jean to draw some of her favorite things on it.

“I think I can do that,” Moondancer replied, before asking one final question, “Is there anything else I should know? Like before-hoof?”

Albedo only had one answer to that kind of question. “Keep an open mind and be ready to expect the unexpected.”



The trip back to the Castle of Friendship was rather short and didn’t take up as much time as the way over. Though, as they left the train station in Ponyville and began making their way back, Twilight and Albedo got the impression that not much had happened since they had left. The whole town was quiet and everypony appeared as if they were going about their normal everyday business. There wasn’t a lot that stood out or made it seem like something else was going on that was out of the ordinary.

At least, that was until they came back to the castle.

Upon stepping through the doors, they found that the entire main hall was covered in what looked to be pieces of cake. Red frosting covered the walls and the chandelier that hung over the table as the two of them could see Klee sitting on the Cutie Map with the remains of a cake that looked like a Jumpy Dumpty. Pinkie Pie and Spike looked like they were talking among themselves, as if they were trying to come up with some kind of plan. Yet, anything they tried to discuss came to a grinding halt when Twilight saw the mess that was around her.

“W-what the hay happened here!?!”

At that, Pinkie and Spike nervously turned back towards them. “U-uh… We can explain.”