The air was thin and the sun was setting as a pair of ponies trekked their way up the mountain behind the town. One thing that most ponies visiting the out-of-the-way hamlet will tell you about how beautiful the rainbow waterfalls look at night, the soft multicolored glow cascading down from the clouds and cliffs above bathing the town in a magical, soothing light that somehow failed to cause any problems sleeping. But something only a small portion of those ponies know is how absolutely breathtaking the town looks from above, seeing all the buildings silhouetted among the wondrous colors. For the most part, it was due to the altitudes required to get above most of the clouds that dropped the rainbow liquid the town was known for. And Mage Meadowbrook had just become one of those ponies.
“Incredible,” she breathed, gazing at one of the best views in Equestria and beyond. “I don't think I've seen anything like this.”
“Yeah, I knew this bard once some 300 years ago who legitimately cried because he didn't have the words to do this view justice. Poor guy, all he had to do was say it's a nice view.”
“You always were one for the more direct approach, Arca. So how much further until we get to where we are going?”
Arca paused and held his ground as a gust of wind whipped his lab coat around his sides. “Not that much further now. It should only be past this little cave, Boss. Do you want to rest for a moment?”
Finally clearing the incline on the forgotten trail they were climbing, Meadow gasped in shock. They had reached a small little alcove of fertile ground cutting into the mountain, about the size of the map room in Twilight’s castle of friendship. And covering every available inch of the ground were mysterious white flowers, seeming to glow in the soft light of the moon. The natural beauty of the secret garden this high up the mountain where nothing else grew, coupled with the pristine night sky and the aforementioned view of the town below, was enough to bring Meadowbrook to her knees in awe of the sheer beauty of this hidden wonder.
Arca, on the other hoof, tripped, face planted into the ground, and proceeded to eat the mystery flower right in front of his muzzle.
“Arca, what… what is this place?”
Getting back to his hooves, the unicorn smiled and gestured to the flowers. He began to explain, with more clarity than he was known for, actually seeming to be as wise as he was old for once. “This, right here, is one of the secret gems of Equestria. Celestia and I, and now you, are the only ponies in existence who know about it. I come up here some nights to relax, get away from it all when I feel the sting of the years catching up to me, when I lose an apprentice or somepony important. Welcome, Boss, to the garden of the Miracle Flowers. Just a bit further up the mountain is our destination, but I think we've earned a rest. Come, rest here for a minute.” Arca carefully shuffled over to a area overlooking the cliffs, and laid down to rest his legs. Meadow followed suit, making sure not to damage any of the strange and beautiful blossoms she walked through.
“These flowers are beautiful, Arca. What exactly are they?”
Arca gingerly plucked one of the flowers with his magic and placed it in his mentor's mane, just above her ear. “These are Miracle Flowers, the most sought after alchemical ingredient in the world. Legend has it they can make any potion far, far more effective than it would normally. I've seen a petal of one go for a thousand bits they are so rare. This little place is the only location on the planet that they grow in, and thanks to some wards to keep this place hidden, only Celestia and I can gather them.”
“If that's the case, Arcane, I'm disappointed in you.”
The stallion whipped his head away from the view to look his boss in the eyes. “Why?”
“You're keeping these all to yourself. If they are as expensive as you claim, you should have been trying to find a way to grow them in other places!”
Arcane closed his eyes and chuckled. He tried to hold it in, but he couldn't help but laugh hysterically at his mentor. It took a good minute for him to calm down. “He he… you are just like everypony else who hears about these things. Yeah, they have an alchemical effect that no other ingredient in history has. But, you wanna know a secret?”
“I'm listening.”
“That one-of-a-kind effect…”
“What do they do, Arca?” Meadowbrook’s eyes widened as a great mystery of her craft that she didn't even know of was about to be revealed in front of her.
“They don't do anything.”
“...come again?”
Arca uprooted a few in his hoof, and tossed them in the air like confetti. “They do nothing! They're USELESS! Even adding water to a potion has the effect of diluting it, but no matter what recipes I've tried, no matter what tests the best and brightest have run in secret over the past 400 years, they do bupkiss! Zilch! Nil! Nothing! They are the only thing in the whole world that is 100% magically inactive.”
Meadow recoiled in shock. “So it's a lie?”
“Not exactly. In truth, they are one of the best ingredients ever discovered. I only ever bring down ten from this place every year. The first one I keep for myself, the second goes to my apprentice, and the third goes to somepony I care about. In this case, you.”
“Aw, that's sweet, Arca.”
“The fourth goes to the top alchemist of my guild, the fifth to the best student there, and the sixth gets raffled off within the guild. The seventh, eighth, and ninth, are the same, but at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. And the tenth I use as a bargaining chip at the annual trade exchange.”
Meadowbrook tilted her head to the side. “I still don't see what makes them special if they don't do anything.”
Arca smiled warmly. “The beauty of it lies in the legend surrounding them. Such a rare and expensive ingredient… every single time, without fail, whoever tries making a potion with this flower uses only the best of the best ingredients and the utmost care. The Miracle Flower is the ultimate placebo: I have more often than not seen my students and fellow alchemists create potions the world could only dream of having, thinking it was the flower that did it. And when I tell them the truth, and swear them to secrecy, they go off into the world knowing that they had that genius, that ability to make masterpieces of alchemy, all on their own. THAT is the truth of the Miracle Flower.”
“You know what, Arca?” Meadow asked as she leaned against her adoptive son. “I take back what I said. I am proud of you, and this really is the best ingredient I've seen.”
“Thanks, Boss. And who knows? Maybe it does do something and I just haven't found it yet. I look forward to seeing what you make with it, Boss. Although if you're stuck for ideas, they make a decent tea, if nothing else.”
“I wouldn't call myself an alchemist if I didn't give it my all. Now, about this duck…”
“I don’t wanna think about it now. Let me lay here a few more minutes.”
And so, Equestria's strangest family snuggled up together, in a secret place lost to time, for just a little longer before moving on to the summit of the mountain.
That was beautiful. And, I think, really did a great job of showing his age and experience.
.
.
.
Even if you did totally get it from Kung Fu Panda...
Alternatively, declare the royal alchemist guild to be a collective member of the Mage Meadowbrook fanclub, because Arca says so.
I love this story
Board?
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I did not. Haven't watched that in ages though...
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Bard. Fixed!
The four dislikes on this story aren’t really dislikes, people just liked it so much they had a spazz and accidentally clicked dislike.
"Because you said so?"
"Yeah, because I said so!"
"..."
"..."
"When were you going to tell me you created the alchemist guild, Arca?"
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"When you weren't paying attention. Clearly I have failed in that regard."
We don't talk about the Duck...
Not anymore...
*War flashbacks*
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No, one of them is clearly Emerald Essence.
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I just wish people didn't down vote without saying why they did so.
What would be cool is if when ya down or up vote, ya have to comment.
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Clearly it's because they can see that I'm actually a bad writer
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NO! *smacks you with rolled up news paper* Bad author! No self deprecating thoughts allowed!
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Aye, that we do.
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The seconds probaly "looks around shiftily gestures you to come closer and whispers in your ear" the duck
Quack!
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I HEARD A MALLARD!
I know they generally take a while to set up and get going, but whatever happened with that lawsuit from... uh... Green Rockcandy, or whatever her name was?
aw that was sweet... a hint bitter but sweet nevertheless!
its odd his age is brought up so often but i still forget he isn't young and has seen and lived more than his fair share of life, this chapter showed that time still took it's toll on him even though he hides it.
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Arca knows he's old. In fact, he's more mature than pretty much anypony except Pikie Pie. After all, the ultimate sign of maturity is accepting that others might find what you like to do strange... but you do it anyway.
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But there are dislikes! See? It's not perfect!
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He can self-depreciate if he wants, I personally think it’s one of the funniest forms of comedy. This is why I attempt to do it myself.
If I am understanding things correctly this flower has no effect whatsoever on any potion that it is added to, and is the only plant in the world to do such. Is the opposite also true, do potions have no effect on the flower? If so would you be able to cultivate a flower that is imbued with any given potion, since death or retardation of growth would constitute as an effect, And with that add it to another potion to give it a second ability without interfering with the first due to the flower not having an effect on it?
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No, potions can affect the flower. They are very fragile, in fact. If magic had no effect on it, Arca couldn't have levitated them in his magic.
These flowers... CAME FROM OUR WORLD!!
They're living proof that all the legends of mythical creatures on our world came from contact with Equestria!
Now to shove a Darth Vader mask on my head, angst about pointless shit no one in his right mind would give a crap about... and I'll surely be sent there with limitless power by some douchy god child who hates ponies because he's a dick!
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As near as I can understand, the flowers are not NULL, that is to say that they CANCEL magic around them. Merely that they are Magically Inert. They have 0% innate magic in themselves as far as we know. It is as magical as a rock is alive.
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Depends on the rock, and your definition of alive. Even the expanding and contracting from changes in temperature could be seen as breathing, and the lack of evidence is not proof of there being none. Additionally, a scientist, Cairns-Smith, theorized that life came from rock or crystals. Something about lighting or something interacting with thsm and altering the atomic make up or something like that. Been a good decade since I heard of it.
Well I would like to see a crossover between this and airship mauled considering that Jade can do magical alchemy maybe the miracle flower will have an effect for that magical alchemy you destroy an item to cast magic with it or you can sustain an item to use a continuous effect read the story (airship mauled) to get a clearer understanding of it cause I sure can't explain it
So... wait...
What would happen to a potion that used crushed up miracle flowers instead of water?
Would you just get a dud potion?
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Water is a base ingredient in all potions, but yeah, water plu miracle flowers and nothing else equals a decent tea.
Founder's Privileges
It's like the Dragon Scroll in Kung Fu Panda
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I still think Arcane should invent water-less, vegetable oil based alchemy, just to push the envelop.
Naturally the number of explosions (with flaming oil) along the way should be very large, but at least the implication should be that he will eventually succeed, even if it does not happen within the timeframe of the story.