My Little Investigations: Marehunter

by Metool Bard

Scientific Magic (T)

Just as Kibitz said, the alchemy laboratory was right where I remembered it to be from my days in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. And boy, was it great seeing it again. Just walking through this room really takes me back. Workbenches holding beakers and test tubes of all shapes and sizes; cabinets chock full of ingredients and recipe books; the cast-iron caldrons set up at the end of each table. Even the very smell of the place was enough to trigger a nostalgia trip.

"Uh, Twi? You okay there?" said Spike, snapping me back to reality.

"Huh what? Oh, sorry," I apologized sheepishly. "I'm just, a bit excited about this part. It's been a long time since I've been down here."

"Yeah, about that," said Shining, furrowing his brow. "You said we were going to use this place to figure out the identity of Mare-Do-Well's impostor, right? How are we going to do that?"

I smiled as I set up a workbench. "It's quite simple, Shining. We're going to conduct a full forensic analysis of the evidence we found in Pine Talon's cell."

"Using alchemy?" said Kibitz, arching an eyebrow.

I gave Kibitz a puzzled look in return. "Why so skeptical? It's perfectly logical to use supernatural tools to uncover supernatural evidence."

"And would you classify a drop of unidentified liquid and a pair of strap-on claws 'supernatural?'" asked Kibitz.

Ah. I see why he's getting confused. I don't blame him; it's an easy mistake to make.

"Well, not per se," I said, carefully placing the first droplet of liquid we found into a vial. "But see, that's the beauty of alchemy. Because of its overly-complex nature, ponies consider it to be both a form of magic and a form of science. And since we are dealing with possible ponunculi, what better way to analyze this evidence than a technique that is essentially the best of both worlds?"

Kibitz blinked. "I, suppose you have a point, Your Highness," he said, clearing his throat. "Still, perhaps somepony else should—"

"Up bup bup! Don't even try," Spike interrupted, wagging an admonishing finger at Kibitz. "Twi conducts experiments like this all the time. She knows what she's doing. Besides, I've lived with her long enough to know that she loves this stuff."

He certainly isn't wrong there. But really, the enjoyment of my work is secondary to our end goal.

"Spike's right, Kibitz. I can handle this," I said, taking one of the recipe books from the shelves. "Now, we're going to need a multi-purpose solvent, a microscope, bunsen burners, and Classification Vapor. Kibitz, check if we have that stuff. If we don't have the solvent or the vapor, we're going to have to create them from scratch. Shining, you'll be helping me with that part."

Shining shrugged. "I honestly don't know nearly as much about this stuff as you do, Twilie. But, I'll do my best."

"What about me, Twi?" asked Spike.

I carefully picked up the strap-on claws with a pair of tongs and gave them to Spike, along with a sponge and a flask. "Your job is to make sure the liquid on the claws goes into this flask without getting contaminated. It might be a bit tricky, but considering how tidy you usually are, I think this is well within your area of expertise."

Spike gave me a wide grin and nodded. "You can count on me, Twi!"

"I know I can," I said, nodding back. "Alright, ponies! Let's get to work!"

I mentioned before that alchemy is a very complicated and difficult form of magic. As such, I normally wouldn't trust anypony (not even my friends) to help me with this unless they really knew what they were doing or wish to pursue it themselves. Starswirl the Bearded said it like this: You never want to go into alchemy blind; otherwise, it'll make you go blind. And this coming from one of the leading pioneers of alchemy back during the Pre-Classical Era! Yes, it really is that complex.

Luckily, that wasn't a factor in this case. We had Classification Vapor in stock, and although we were missing the solvent, it was a rather simple recipe which we had all the ingredients for. I just had to keep reminding Shining to watch the caldron to make sure our concoction wasn't bubbling too much. When that happens, it's usually a sign that the whole thing is going to explode in your face. You'd be surprised how many alchemical recipes come with that warning.

When all was said and done, we had everything we needed. A microscope with slides, the Classification Vapor complete with a flowchart, the liquid samples (one from the ground; the other from the claws), bunsen burners, and the solvent. Now, here's where the real fun starts. Well, for me, anyway.

I set up a sequence of tubes and faucets, with each faucet leading to a vial containing a trace amount of Classification Vapor. I then took the flask Spike prepared, added the solvent, and heated it up. The liquid shot up through the tubes and spiraled every which way, all over the lab. If the solvent did its job, then the liquid would separate into its components and filter into each vial to await identification (hence the Classification Vapor; a common tool amongst teachers to instruct students on ingredients).

Sure enough, liquids of all different colors and consistencies arrived at each faucet. Carefully, Spike, Kibitz, Shining, and I systematically went to each one and poured the liquids into the vials. In hindsight, I probably set up more vials than we needed, but I always think it's better to be over prepared than under prepared.

"Alright, this is good," I said, levitating the flowchart up to my face. "Now, let's see what we've got here. Spike, I need you to make a note of every component we find here."

"Sure thing, Twi," said Spike, opening a new page in his notepad.

I moved to the first vial and turned the bunsen burner on. The contents of the vial quickly changed from translucent to a sickly yellow.

"This one is sulfur," I stated, looking at the flowchart.

"Sulfur," Spike repeated, jotting it down.

I did the same with each vial that contained a component. Purple, magnesium. Amber, oxygen. Green, carbon. Umber, potassium. Red, mercury. In some spots, multiple elements were detected (light greenish-blue, salt), indicating that the solvent wasn't all that potent. But in this case, it didn't need to be. With every component I was able to identify, my hypothesis was holding more and more water.

"That's all of them," I said. "Spike, repeat the list for me."

Spike read down the list. "Uh, let's see. Sulfur, magnesium, oxygen, carbon, potassium, mercury, salt, clay loam, unicorn magic, and down feathers."

Hmm. That sounds about right. Just to double-check, I cracked open a recipe book and looked up the recipe for a ponunculus. Indeed, the ingredients listed either were, or at least contained, every item Spike mentioned.

"I thought so," I said triumphantly.

"You found something, Twilie?" asked Shining Armor.

"Yep," I said. "I can now say without any shred of doubt that the liquid we found in Pine Talon's cell is none other than ponunculus blood."

Shining nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that was gonna be my guess, too. Pine Talon did say he managed to draw blood from his enemy when he was attacked."

"But it doesn't explain these weird things," said Spike, holding up the strap-on claws.

"That's why we're moving into Phase Two of our analysis," I said. "Kibitz, the microscope, please."

Kibitz brought the microscope over as I prepared a slide with the drop of blood that wasn't from the claws. Ever so carefully, I placed it underneath the lens and adjusted the focus so I could see the specimen properly.

"Good," I said. "Spike, the solvent. Just an eyedropper's worth, though."

Spike complied. Daintily, I placed a drop of it onto the slide and watched it work. Sure enough, the specimen divided itself into its base components. But when it finished dividing, something was wrong. There were two more items in there than the ponunculus recipe called for. One was a compound I couldn't identify off the top of my head, but the other I recognized right away.

"Orichalcum?" I gasped. "B-but that can't be right. It's impossible."

"Uh, ori-what-now?" asked Spike.

Okay, to be fair, I didn't expect him to know that one. I give Spike a lot of books to read (which he never does, but I digress), but alchemical spell books are not on that list for obvious reasons.

"Orichalcum. It's a mystical metal from the far east," I explained. "It's often used as a substitute for mythril."

Spike shrugged. "Okay, so?"

I opened up the recipe book back to the ponunculus recipe. "Look here. The recipe calls for one of three ingredients depending on what kind of ponunculus you're creating. Iron for an Earth Pony, feathers for a pegasus, and mythril for a unicorn."

"Yeah, still not following you here, Twi," said Spike, scratching his head.

I took a deep breath. "Spike, this ponunculus blood sample contains traces of two of those ingredients, possibly all three, and it really shouldn't."

"Wait, possibly all three?" asked Shining. "You mean you don't know?"

"Not yet," I said, shaking my head. "Hold on, I'll double-check."

I quickly turned back to the microscope and focused on the unidentifiable compound. Slowly, I increased the magnification is steady increments, partially to make sure it was in focus and partially to stall. If this turned out to be the third ingredient (which I still don't know how that's possible), then—

With one last click, the compound was recognizable. Right then and there, I felt every muscle in my body tighten as I recoiled in disbelief.

"No. Th-this isn't right," I muttered. "I-it can't be right."

"What's not right, Twilie?" asked Shining, his voice reflecting concern.

I took a moment to use Cadence's breathing technique before responding. "There's one more component in that sample. I-it's Iron Diamond."

Spike furrowed his brow. "Iron Diamond, huh? Can't say I've had those before. Although if they're anything like regular diamonds, I might want to check in with my dentist before trying one."

"Spike, this is serious," I said, trying my hardest to regulate my voice level as I gripped Spike's shoulders. "This ingredient was obviously used to replace the iron necessary to make an Earth Pony ponunculus. Do you know what that means?!"

"Th-that all three ingredients are in the sample?" said Spike.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "But that's physically impossible! There's no way a ponunculus blood sample could contain traits of all three pony tribes!"

"Yet this one does," Kibitz mused. "Your Highness, out of curiosity, what would happen if somepony were to try something like this?"

I shuddered. "I mentioned before that a ponunculus's core cannot contain that much power," I said darkly. "Hypothetically speaking, if one were to try and create a ponunculus that had traits of two or all three races, the core would have to work that much harder to keep its body alive. This in turn would cause a chain reaction that eventually shatters the core, releasing all the magic it had built up in an explosion powerful enough to decimate an entire city."

Kibitz's spectacles fell to the floor as he recoiled. "Y-your Highness! A-are you sure about this?!"

"It's only a theory," I said. "Nopony has ever been crazy enough to try it, thank Celestia. But we can't take that risk."

"Indeed, we cannot."

A soft voice came from the front door. Immediately, I looked up to see who it was. To my surprise, there was no one there. Just a note lying in the middle of the floor.

"Who do you think that was?" asked Shining.

"Beast me," Spike said with a shrug.

I trotted over to the note and picked it up. After a quick scan, my eyes went wide.

"You okay, Twi?" Spike inquired.

With a sigh, I showed everypony the note. Their reactions were more or less the same as mine.

"Mare-Do-Well and her impostor are in Canterlot," I said. "I'm guessing she wants us to find her."

"Your Highness, I highly advise against this," said Kibitz, wiping sweat from his brow. "Wh-what if it's a trap?"

That's actually a very good question, but I already had an answer.

"The real Mare-Do-Well wouldn't lure me into a trap," I said. "And if it's the impostor, well, I'll be ready for her; even if her existence is highly questionable and unstable. Either way, I have to go after them."

I quickly scooped up Spike and placed him on my back. "Spike, you're with me on this one. Shining, Kibitz. I'm counting on you two to inform Celestia and Luna so that they can prepare for the trial."

"You got it, Twilie," said Shining with a salute.

Kibitz sulked. "I still object to this," he muttered.

"I'm well aware, Kibitz," I said solemnly. "But Mare-Do-Well is my friend, ergo helping her falls under my duties as the Princess of Friendship. This is something I have to do."

Kibitz paused for a moment, and then nodded. "Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I have no reason to object. Celestia-speed, Princess Twilight."

Wow. I really should've thought of that earlier. Ah well, you know what they say. Hindsight is twenty/twenty and all that. With a quick exchange of farewells, I prepared my teleportation spell. Just before the spell was cast, I had one thought on my mind:

Hang on, Mare-Do-Well. We're on our way.