//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Under Canterlot // Story: The Alchemist // by Mr_Hippopotomonstroses //------------------------------// Chapter 23: Under Canterlot We made it to the castle. We walked back to the room where we made the deal. We got in the room as the guards stood outside the door. We walked to the table and just sat there. "So the first thing you should know is..." I turned to Ditto. "So what should we tell them?" "Why are you asking me? Your my boss." "Well you know more." "But you are the one who should be deciding." "Ugh...I've got an idea." I looked at the two princesses. "So. You ask us a question and we'll see if we can answer it." "Okay." They talked to each other for a moment then faced us again. "Why are you older than Discord?" "Well that is because I existed before he was created." "...Care to elaborate?" "This world we live in. It used to belong to us humans. Then we discovered alchemy." "More like the four of us discovered it and taught others." "Right. So once we had alchemy, humans tried to create new life. And that new life is every creature living on the planet today i'm guessing?" "Pretty much, yeah." "So you didn't actually lie about your age?" "No. I have been alive for twenty one years, not counting the who knows how many years I spent unconscious until now. I am twenty one years old technically." "Well technically your also five." "Five?" "You were born on a leap year." "So I have three ages?" "Well technically speaking yeah." "Strange." I just thought about it for a moment until Celestia cleared her throat to get our attention. "Oh sorry, I got lost in thought. Another question?" "You both had journals. What is their significance?" We both looked at each other and I shrugged. "Our journals. They hold our knowledge of alchemy." "Sounds about right. Everything we know is right here." He said that taking out his journal. He pointed at it. "The journals have numbers. May we ask how many there are?" "You may. There are four journals in total." "Meaning four of us in total." "There are four of you in total? Four humans?" "Well there was. One of us died." "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." "If it's okay for us to ask about her death? Why and how?" Celestia gave Luna this look like she shouldn't have asked a that type of question. Why does Luna's name sound familiar? "We don't know exactly how or where she died. When one of us dies a mark with the number they had on the journal is burned onto our right arm. Any power she had is divided upon the three of us still alive. Though I saw something in my dream. It looked like it was snowing or something. I think some building, but that's about it." "Any other questions?" "What was the creature that attacked ponyville?" "That was Death. A creature once human but once Discord came into the picture he became that creature you saw." "Four in total. Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War." "Should we tell them about us being their opposites?" "Maybe another day." I gave a side glance at them as I noticed something. Her ear twitched. "Ditto, I just realized something." "What?" "You know how these are ponies right?" "Um, yeah?" "And the princesses are alicorns right?" "Where are you getting at?" "Their species have sensitive ears." "Yeah? So?...oh." "Yep." "You caught on? I'm impressed." "Thanks, I guess." Then something happened. "Por eso es que su nombre suena familiar! Está en español!" They all looked at me. "Qué? ¿Tengo algo en la cara ?" "Is he alright?" "He's okay. It was bound to happen sooner or later." "Qué es !?" "You're speaking Spanish." "Qué? No estoy , yo ni sé Español ." I stopped talking as I noticed what I was saying. I am speaking Spanish! The fuck? But I don't...or didn't even know it. It felt so natural. "The fuck just happened?" "You spoke Spanish." "Oh no shit Sherlock. But why?" "Because you could?" "I am seriously going to fucking slap you." "Fine, fine. You probably thought of something that was in Spanish, and it made you remember the language. Is there anything you thought of?" "Yeah, Luna's name. That's why her name was familiar." "What about our name?" "It's in Spanish. In English your name translates to moon. Your name is literally Moon." "Oh yeah, I see it too." "So how do I know Spanish?" "A gift for being the opposite of Death. You understand every language in existence that is spoken. Written, not so much." "Well that's useful. I guess." "Does my name translate to anything?" "I don't think so. Though it's close to celestial." I saw some type of red bird fly around and land on top of the table. "Whats that?" "That's my pet phoenix Philomena" "Phoenix's exist? Wow." The phoenix just seemed to stare at me for a moment. 'You're the strangest creature I've ever seen.' I rolled my eyes. "Says the bird that dies by setting itself on fire then being reborn from the ashes." I just relaxed for a moment. But slowly my brain started working again. I slowly turned to look at the bird. It seemed equally intrigued. "You talk?" 'You can hear me?' "Are you sure he's alright?" "Yeah." "Why can your pet talk Celestia?" "It doesn't." "Ditto you heard it right?" "No. Only you can hear it." "How can only I hear it?" "You can talk to animals." "How?" "I told you you can understand every language." "Animals don't have a language!" "If it's a method of communicating its a language." I slapped him. "Ow! The hell was that for?" "Tell me type of shit like this about be before it happens." "I thought it was self explanatory." "Well next time just assume it isn't." I could hear Philomena laughing. I just turned to the bird. I turned to look at her. Assuming it's a her. 'What? It's funny!' "..." 'Fine, i'll stop.' "Thank you. Now, any more questions?" "None that can't wait." "Good. Now I have a question for you. First one. Why aren't their any Kings or Queens of Equestria?" "We wanted to be closer to our subject." "So we didn't take the position of Queen." "Okay. Second, you two are fairly old right?" "That came out a bit rude but yes." "Sorry. Do you have something I can write on?" Philomena left and brought back a scroll, quill and ink. I wrote my name in Equish. "Can you read that?" "Yes. It's your name." "In Equish. Here's my name written in English." I wrote my name in English and gave it to her. She read it as her eyes slightly widened. She just looked back and forth from Luna to the paper to me. "This is your name? In English?" "Can you read it?" "No. But it looks close to Equish." "Exactly what I thought when I was learning Equish. Hey Ditto?" "Yeah?" "Did the ponies invent Equish or did humans invent it?" "Humans came up with Equish." "Really? Who?" "Mimic did." "He did?" "I did?" "You did. You spent a lot of time helping create the new world." "Wow." "Mimic?" "Yes Celestia?" "So this is your name in your language?" "English, yes. Why?" The looked at each other and nodded. "We have seen your name written in English before." "You have? Where?" "Follow us." They left to go behind their thrones. They moved one of those pointless curtains on the wall to reveal a door. Hidden passage way, nice. They opened the door and lead us down spiraling stairs. We were descending for a good while when we entered a massive space in the ground. "This place is massive!" "Exactly my thought." "We're nearly there." We kept walking through the fucking huge ass cave thing. It had so much random stuff just laying around. We kept walking until we got to a door in the wall. On the top edge of the door it said my name. "Well this is strange." "Do you know what it is?" "How could I?" There was a little rectangular lamp on both sides. Something seemed to click. I reached over the the one on the right and moved it to the side as it revealed a small hole. It had the symbol for fire above the hole. Below it the symbol for air. "Well that's just fucking fantastic." "What?" "I either have to send air or fire into that hole to, what i assume, will open the door." "What will happen if you pick wrong?" "A trap I guess. Ditto do you know about this?" "No." "So majority vote. Who thinks its fire?" They all raised a hand and or hoof. "Fuck it. Stand back guys." I activated fire and blew it into the hole. The edges of the door glowed from the fire. The door slowly opened as we just stared at each other. "Well I guess it was ri-" I heard something shoot from somewhere. I saw an arrow headed right toward Celestia. Right before it hit her I grabbed it in my hand. It was just in front of her face. She just stared for a moment. She finally began to breathe again. "Thank you for saving me yet again Mimic." "No problem. But I guess fire was wrong." "Whats that on the tip?" "Hm?" I looked closer at the tip. It was covered in something. I sniffed it. "Think it's a poison. This thing was meant to kill someone. Even if it just scratched someone." "How can you be so sure?" "Do you want to test it out?" "No, no, no. I'd rather stay alive." "Then don't say shit. Well, lets continue." We walked through a hallway until we reached a room. We found several little trinkets and pictures. For whatever reason half the room was covered with pictures of eyeballs. And I saw one or two real eyeballs floating in a container. "Why are there so many eyeballs?" "The real eyeballs are slightly disturbing." "Agreed." I just walked around the room looking at the other trinkets. Some snowglobes, rubix cubes, a glass sphere. Luna was just on the oposite side of the door when she spoke up. "We feel like these eyes are staring at us." "Huh?" I looked at the eyes as I saw they were all staring at the same location. "They are staring at you! Move over." She moved to the left as I saw the picture of an eye staring straight. Not suspicious looking at all. I removed the picture to find a button. I pressed the button as the entire wall suddenly went up into the ceiling. Dust was flying everywhere blurring my vision. "What did you do?" "Something helpful...or activate another trap. Hopefully the former." Once the dust cleared we saw a massive room. It had a gold color. Not sure if actual gold or paint. We walked around as we saw several storage places in the walls. I opened one and saw several phones. "Hey Ditto look at this." "What is it...wow. Can I have one?" "Knock yourself out, there's probably hundreds here." "Looks more like thousands to me." "Wonder whats in the others." "Lets find out." He opened another as it showed several laptops and what I think are tablets. Celestia and Luna just examined them. "What are these things?" "Oh right, I guess you don't have phones...or laptops...or tablets...or anything like that." "So what are they?" "Best to show you." I got one and turned it on. I waited for it as it turned on. Once on I saw it had hundreds of songs on it. I just played one. It slowly started. NOPE! I quickly threw it against the wall as it broke and fell. Celestia and Luna stared at me while Ditto seemed relieved. "Not the best method to stop a one of his songs." "No, but it was the fastest and we have no shortage of phones." "True." I got another one and turned it on. Then I put a better song. Then again anything is better than that. I put one as they listened. The song slowly played out as they just stared. I don't think they completely loved the song, but they were intrigued. "It plays music?" "It's called a phone. Songs can be stored in it. It also can store information, kind of like books. Works as a calculator as well. And many other function that I am to lazy to name." I tossed it at them as Luna grabbed it in her magic. "Keep it. I have plenty more. Now lets see what else there is." We heard a howl. It came from the caves. We turned to see those dark wolves that came with Death before. Ditto quickly pulled out his gun. A wolf came at him and knocked the gun away. "Get my gun!" "Can't you kill it another way?" I made a fire wall push them back but they quickly charged at us again. "In case you haven't noticed, only my gun can kill it. It has an alchemy symbol engraved on each bullet. That way I can kill them in one to two shots." "I got it." I quickly started to shoot all of the dark wolves as they swirled away into oblivion. I kept shooting as I ran out. Celestia and Luna tried to push them back with their magic. "Ditto, i'm out!" "Here, my last one." I quickly reloaded the gun as I finished off the rest of the wolves. How did they get down here? Did they follow us? "What the fuck are they?" "We always called them ghouls." "Ghouls?" "Think of it as the offspring of a zombie and a ghost." "Ghost don't exist...or do they?" "Ghost exist. I have encountered them." "Wow." "Well, I don't have anymore guns. That leaves us defenseless against them until we get our designated weapons." "Designated weapons?" Ditto began to explain as I opened another as I saw was amazing. It was an arsenal of weaponry. I smiled. No shortage here either. "Hey Ditto!" "What? Holy shit! Can I have one?" "Why do you keep asking my permission?" "This is obviously your vault. So out of respect i'm asking." "Take what you can easily carry. We can come back for more another day." I took two pistols and pocketed them. A few others had stuff like food and water. Apparently still good. Somehow. I got to the last one as I saw rolls and rolls of tin foil. "This is by far the most useless thing I have stored for later." "What is?" I turned and saw Celestia and Luna with their jaws dropped. The hell? I waved my hand in front of her. She slowly came back as she got one in her telekinetic grasp. "You have so much..." "Yeah. So?" "This is the rarest material. You could buy all of Canterlot!" "...Tin foil is the rarest? Before it was gold. So...i'm rich?" "Rich wouldn't even begin to describe your wealth." "Hey Mimic. Catch." He tossed me a backpack. It had an alchemy circle on both straps. I opened it as one thing amazed me. I didn't see a bottom. I looked under it and touched the bottom. It was there. Then I put my hand inside. I couldn't reach the bottom. "It's bigger on the inside?" "Yeah. Now you can carry a shit load of things." "It is very useful. But the weight mill still be there, no?" "Try it." I put several rolls of foil and put on the back pack. It felt like air. I was amazed. "Weightless. This is great!" "Can you take it back out?" I reached my hand in and got nothing. I did it again. Once again, nothing. Hmm. I thought of what I wanted to get and grabbed something. I pulled it out and saw a roll of tin foil. "Yep. Now lets put all the foil back." I put all of them back but one. Well, i'm set for life. I put several guns and rounds in my backpack. Then I put some water. And a few phones and laptops. I pocketed a phone. "Well now what?" "How about we buy Canterlot!" I slapped him behind the head. "Ow!" "Think seriously. We need to get our weapons and defeat the four horsemen. What do we do?" "Well, we can look for our weapons first. But that will take months. Especially if they are scattered around the globe. We will need to build something that we can travel on." "Also a method of offense and defense." "Okay so that's a plan for now." "We still need to figure out how to find our weapons." There was a glow from my journal. No fucking way. I opened and turned to the last few pages as I saw four weapons and writing. "Our designated weapons, like the four horsemen, are attached to our being. The wielder has an attachment to it and feels most secure when near. Often the subconscious will sense it, leading the wielder to a place without the wielders full knowledge." "Talk about convenient." I face palmed. I just thought about it when I realized something. "I know where my weapon is." "Really? That's great! Where is it?" "It's in the forest." "Oh. Well then. Do you want to go soon or..?" "No. We know it's general location. It's not like it will go anywhere. I think it would be best to see if we can find out Jinx's location. Or for her to come to us." "Why?" "My vault had a trap. And it just has my things. If my weapon that is very powerful and much more useful than the things in my vault, i'm sure as hell that it will have a handful of deadly traps. We should wait and see if Jinx will pass like you did." "Me coming by was complete coincidence." "And today has just been one coincidence after another. Besides, if we can sense our weapons, we should be able to sense the others presence no?" "Hmm, you have a point there." "So until then want to work on our method of transportation?" "Sure." "Hey Celestia?" "Yes?" "Can I trade some of my foil for bits? I will need to buy a shit load of things for this type of trip." "Of course." And with that we left. I closed the secret wall door and covered the button. Then I closed the locked door. We left on our way to trade our forms of currency. Well. I have stuff to do for possibly a few months. Ditto and I were trying to come up with an idea on what we would use to traveled across the world. This is going to be a long month...or months. I sighed.