The Alchemist

by Hummingbirds

Of her Majesty's Creation

A blazing star sat in the distance, slowly diminishing as it fell. Afar, another formation rose, revealing a rusted moon. The time was right. Our little pony had a small enchanted set of vials orbiting her, their third scrutiny of the past hour, before they fell behind and simply followed, the mare walking out the wooden door. There was plenty of light to see for her, having near perfect vision in the dark ever so recently. Of course, a little galaxies worth of light was available to her. Going along, she passed a few straggling shop owners, carrying out tasks left undone for too long, before she turned to the dirt path of the Everfree. Now, as she recalled, Valerians hut lay in a patch of trees along here, looking just like any boulder with vines, but with a crescent moon etched into it. To others, it was a mere piece of spirited graffiti, but it was code to her- haven. Used in the times of old, where occasional, paranormal creatures wandered, these symbols represented places magically enchanted to ward off the cockatrice or worse, representing the cover of shadows in the lee of moonlight. But then again, nopony knew that anymore. Walking to its other side, she knocked three times, as a rumble echoed around.

Dust fell, and the rock revealed a small cloth door, where a path led downwards into his abode.

"Ah, I see you've made it! Now I'll be honest, I haven't had a guest in what..ten? no..thirteen years.. so the place may be a bit of a mess, you see..."

"Its fine."

"Alright then, well, i see you have plenty of the ingredients," He continued, noticing the large vials dancing around behind her. "Well, Ill show you the stillery setup, then show you the little garden i have for the last ingredient. Anyways, just.. order those things to stay there. Its a bit distracting to have glass flying around."

A simple command later, she and her new friend were walking through cloth curtains to new rooms, some filled with furniture and decor, others equipment and storage. Soon, she was standing in front of a little array of glass tubing and flasks. She also noted some lenses focusing a shimmering light, flowing like a weightless liquid, down into one of the glass containers.

"You see, this is nothing more than sand, and, ironically, alcohol. Just a few spells to turn the sand to glass and shape it into the array you see here on this paper," He went on, floating a scroll over to her, " And alcohol of 90 percent, no less, is the fuel. Also, for these lenses, you need to have no less than an inch in diameter of collection lenses to gather the moonlight. I know its not much, but I use about two feet, perched atop the rock and hidden with an enchantment. Anyways, you must filter that light to here, the final chamber where the distilled liquid goes."

Resisting the urge to take ludicrous amounts of notes and simply directing his words to memory, she nodded.

"Well then, thats about it for now! Lets go to the garden now, shall we?" He stated in a mock British accent, ever so exited to finally pass the recipe on.

Following along, Twilight exited the cave to follow a small path, to find a small patch of trees, which she noticed were Elderberry trees. However, the fruits upon the branches were glowing, a soft blue haze around them.

Noticing her interest in the oddity, he explained. "These trees were grown from the seeds of the Elderberry tree in Lunas private garden, you see. Celestia blessed the tree, granting it the power to absorb the sunlight in a more magically oriented way than photosynthesis. At day, they simply absorb light, using only a fraction for itself, and at night, the berries are so potent that they glow with life."

Picking off a cluster, roughly one or two pounds, they went back to the hut, bringing all of the ingredients to the disstillery. He showed her the portions, and showed her the way they were mixed in a wooden bowl, before pouring the juice into the main flask.

"Would you do the honor?" He asked.

Nodding excitedly, Twilight lit her horn, tossing a few sparks onto the wick below the boiler, setting a blue flame, and stepping back to the nearby couch to wait for the process to begin. Joining her, Valerian and Twilight discussed different topics, occasionally bordering on scientific gossip, on how diamagnetism was such a simple thing that somehow eluded the more religious folks, and, among other things, Twilights little situation. They were both interrupted by a soft rumble from the distillery.

Walking over, the purple mare watched in awe, Valerian wearing an amused face, as the liquid in the flask boiled for no less than ten seconds, before vaporizing completely, and flowing through the tubing into a smaller flask at the end, where the moonlight was shining. As the wisps poured into the light, they glowed a brilliant blue, before condensing and settling at the bottom as a shimmering, almost metallic liquid. That took about a minute.

Ignoring the lack of physical logic behind the speed of the process, she simply assumed magic was at work again and aided him in pouring some of the luminescent liquid into two gourds, before corking one off, and handing the other to Valerian.

"Now, would you like a taste? Valerian stated, pouring the liquid into two sake glasses, oddly fitting to the liquor.

Nodding happily, she transferred one of the cups to her magic, and levitated it over to her a foot, before they clinked the glasses together and both took a sip.

It tasted like... a cool liquid silver with mint and of course, the slight burn of alcohol. However, its effects were instant. Eyelids dropping slightly, she stumbled a bit, before suddenly coming to consciousness yet again, yet with a stark self awareness, and the noting that everything was just a tad slower.

"Interesting, no? Valerian chuckled, explaining how Luna's moonshine actually had effects similar to clover, in terms of mental, and the typical freedom of mind that any alcohol brought. Going on, he also explained that the liquor would boost the confidence of anypony for about a week, removing some reservations and having the mental effects of moonlight. So, essentially, she would feel the cool night breeze, and its unique mindset, for a week.

"So, i don't have to worry about being drunk?" She asked, rather naive to alcohol anyways. Valerian chuckled yet again. "Not unless you drink too much. Then, you might just go a little crazy and..well.. lets just say that you wont have any reservations whatsoever. Not a good thing for someone of your status."

Oh.

And so they finished off their glasses, and gladly shared another hour of night, before twilight said her thanks and goodbyes, and was given a satchet full of seeds. She decided to teleport home, now knowing the homes exact locations, and disappeared after a final goodbye, landing in her own home, and staring at the shelves for a moment, admiring the colors for no reason. Snapping out, she walked to her bed, and tried to sleep. She couldn't.

She reached under her bed, and pulled out a little novel, a single pink heart on the cover. If she couldn't sleep, she could read to exhaust her mind..

.. among other things.

Comments

[Hummingbirds]

So, on a brief spurt of inspiration from god knows where, i added yet another chapter. God i hope its better than the last, cause i think it is.

ANYWAYS, next chapter, we get to play witness to more general oddities. Including pranks. Yes. Pranks.

God i'm terrible

[fferror]

and, among other things, Twilights little situation.

"Twilight's", possessive.

Oh.

That should be a quote, assuming Twilight is saying it.