FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ch 8. Alchemy?

Prince Blueblood had no clue where he was, or how he had gotten there. Wherever he was, it was very dark and vast and empty, except for tiny twinkling lights all around him. It looked like he was in space, but that was impossible. If he was out in the vacuum of space, he'd be dead.He tried to look down at himself, but he couldn't see his body. In fact, he just realized with a start that he couldn't feel his own body."Hello?" he called out. "Is anypony there?" It was only after he had said that that he realized just how odd it was that he could hear his voice even though there's supposed to be no sound in space. Not to mention the fact that he didn't have a body, and therefore, no mouth.Just then, Blueblood noticed a bright light out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look in the direction it was, and gasped at what he saw. It looked like a giant vortex of some sort, floating not to far away from him in space. Blueblood would have thought his first reaction would be fear. He was surprised to find that he oddly did not feel afraid at all. The giant swirling vortex looming so near to him gave him no fear at all. For some reason, it just didn't seem threatening to him, and he had no idea why.He had the strangest sense that he had seen this thing somewhere before."Prince Blueblood!"Blueblood was startled by a sudden deep and booming voice. He looked around for the source of the voice, but could see nothing but stars and the vortex around him.The voice boomed again. "Prince Blueblood! Come into the plot hole!"The plot hole! That was what the thing in front of him was. He knew he had seen it somewhere before. He could also tell now that the unknown voice was coming from the plot hole itself.Wait! Come into it? He thought to himself.The voice spoke again from the plot hole. "Come into the plot hole, Prince Blueblood, and discover your destiny!""My destiny?" asked Blueblood, both in curiosity, as well as fear.Suddenly, Blueblood noticed something glimmer inside the plot hole. He peered into the giant vortex as something came into view on the other side. His eyes, if he had any, became as wide as dinner plates when he could finally make out what it was.It was his cutiemark. His compass rose cutiemark was floating on the other side of the plot hole, glowing brightly with what he could only describe as divine light. There was no mistake.Blueblood suddenly felt drawn to the plot hole. He had to get in there! He had to know what his destiny was, and achieve it! He didn't know how, but he somehow willed himself to start moving towards the massive vortex before him.The voice continued to talk to him as he glided towards the opening. "Blueblood. Blueblood. Blueblood."Closer and closer he got to the plot hole. Closer and closer he got towards his destiny."Blueblood. Blueblood. Blueblood."Suddenly, the plot hole started moving away from Blueblood, zooming away from him through space, or perhaps it was he who was suddenly moving away from it."NO!" Blueblood cried, reaching a hoof out towards the plot hole in desperation as it quickly went out of sight. Why was this happening? Why now when he was so close to his destiny?"Blueblood. Blueblood." The voice kept calling out his name despite what was happening. In fact, it oddly seemed to be getting louder and clearer somehow.Then he suddenly felt jolt, like he was being shaken....................."Blueblood!"Blueblood opened his eyes, feeling somepony's hoof on his shoulder, gently shaking him and saying his name. He groggily became aware that he was in his bed, in his bedroom. He quickly realized that everything that had just happened had only been a dream.He turned his head and in the light of the lamp beside the bed saw Trixie lying beside him in bed, retracting her hoof from his shoulder now that she could see he was awake. She had an annoyed look on her face."Finally, you're awake," she said. "Trixie has been trying to wake you for at least a whole minute! It's time to get up!"Blueblood looked at the windows. Even with the curtains closed, he could see that it was still dark out. He looked back at Trixie in annoyance."Time to get up?" he complained. "Its still dark out!"Trixie rolled her eyes. "Of course its dark out! We're in space, remember?""Huh?" Then their current situation all came back to him. In his groggy state, he had forgotten they were in outer space for a moment. He looked over at the clock, and was surprised to see that it was going on ten AM. It really WAS time to get up. "Oh, right.""Come now! Lets go see if there's anything left to eat for breakfast, or if everypony else already ate it all."Blueblood sighed. "Yes, dear," he said. It was true that in preparing the ship to leave Earth, not one of them had considered making sure they had enough food to take with them. Now they were stuck with only what was in the kitchen and pantry, and they weren't sure that would be enough if their time in space ended up taking longer than a few days. And since the improbability drive had sent them light years away from home, and since the hyperdrive they had stolen from Twilight Sparkle was only powerful enough to travel about one light year a day, they weren't looking so good food wise. They gave each other a morning kiss, and then got out of bed and walked over to the bedroom door, yawning and stretching as they did so.As they opened the bedroom door and walked out into the hallway, Blueblood thought how weird it was that, for the first time in a long time, he had had a different dream. And this dream had felt different than any other dream he had ever had. It had been so clear, and had felt so real."Trixie, I had a weird dream last night," he said as they walked down the hallway, heading to get breakfast and to use the bathroom. "And this one was different from the ones I've been having.""Really?" said Trixie. "Trixie had a weird dream to.""Well, in mine I was in front of the plot hole, and there was this voice telling me to go inside it, that my destiny was in there. And then I saw my cutiemark inside the plot hole."Trixie raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you think it means?"Blueblood shrugged. "I don't know. Probably nothing. It was probably just the stress of everything that's going on getting to me." However, truthfully, Blueblood wasn't so sure. The dream had felt so real, and so powerful. It left him feeling rattled by it. What if it was some sort of sign?Trixie woke him out of his thoughts by speaking. "Well, Trixie's dream was definitely odd. All it was was an image! It looked like a circle, like a magic circle used for certain spells, and beside it were a bunch of words, but the words didn't say anything! It was all just gibberish! But it was all so clear! I can remember every detail of it! Every word! I can still see it clearly in her mind when I close my eyes. It's strange.""Hmm," Blueblood responded.While they were walking through the hall, they heard the flush of a toilet from inside the bathroom, and then saw Upper Crust come out. She was holding her stomach and had a sickened look on her face."Did you get sick again?" Trixie asked her.Upper Crust nodded. "I don't think I'm made for outer space." She groaned as walked past them.Blueblood walked into the bathroom while Trixie decided to continue down to the kitchen to get herself some breakfast first. She saw others already up and walking around as she made her way into the kitchen. Looking through the fridge and the cabinets, she found some oatmeal mix."Who would have thought a guy like Prince Blueblood would have oatmeal in his house?" Trixie said to herself with a shrug.She prepared herself a bowl of oatmeal, and then levitated it beside her as she walked into the dining room too eat. She found Jet Set and Upper Crust in there sitting at the long dining room table eating their own breakfast, which was also oatmeal. She sat down as well and began to eat.Just then, she heard an extremely rude noise come from the kitchen. "DARN IT! THERE IS NOTHING GOOD TO EAT AROUND THIS PLACE!"  It was Gilda's voice. No surprise there.As she ate her oatmeal, the dream she had had once again bubbled up into her mind. This annoyed her. It was so weird, she could see the image so clearly in her mind, down to the very last detail, but it was utter nonsense.As the day went on, the dream still wouldn't leave her mind. She tried to forget about it, tell herself that it was only a dream and didn't mean anything, but it kept bugging her, and she didn't know why. And there wasn't much she could do on the ship to distract herself from thinking about the dream. All they were doing was waiting for the ship to arrive at the plot hole, and that was going to take a couple days.Trixie eventually felt that she had to get her dream down on paper. That perhaps that would help get it off her mind, or perhaps help her understand it better. Besides, it wasn't like she currently had anything better to do.She walked back into the dining room, which she was happy to see was empty now, so she would have a good amount of quiet to work in. She sat down in a seat and lit up her horn with her magic. She cast a conjuring spell and a piece of paper and pencil magically appeared in the air in front of her. She set them down on the table and began to draw her dream. She made sure to include every detail of the dream in her drawing.Sunset Shimmer came walking into the room. She noticed Trixie drawing something and stopped while walking past her and peered over her shoulder at what she was drawing."What are you doing?" she asked, curious."None of your business!" said Trixie, not wanting to be bothered while she was working.Sunset apparently took offense to her response. "What's your problem?" she said, miffed. "I was just curious." She turned and started walking away out of the dining room.Trixie couldn't help but feel a little bad for snapping at Sunset like that. Apparently a year after learning a lesson or two in friendship had changed her a bit. She had just been reluctant to tell somepony she was drawing her dreams like a little filly.She sighed and turned to Sunset, who was almost out of the room. "I'm sorry," she forced herself to say. When she saw Sunset pause and look back at her, she continued. "Trixie just had this... really weird dream, and it was really bugging her, and she just felt like she had to get it down on paper. That's what Trixie is doing, okay?"Sunset raised her eyes in surprise. "You did!?" she said, not in a mocking tone, to Trixie's relief, but actually in an interested one. Sunset walked back over to Trixie's side. "What was it like? The dream, I mean."Trixie snorted. "Well, if you must know, it was some sort of circle, and a-""And a bunch of words with it?" Sunset asked.Now it was Trixie's turn to look at Sunset in surprise. How had she known? "...Yes," she answered."I think I had the exact same dream," Sunset said. She pulled out a piece of paper from behind her and placed it on the table next to Trixie's paper. "I drew this when I woke up this morning."Trixie looked at Sunset's paper, and her jaw dropped at what she saw. It was just like her own drawing. However, looking at it closer, she could see that it wasn't exactly the same as her drawing. There were a few differences. The circle looked a bit different in detail, and the words beside it were different from her own, but still gibberish none the less. But still, the resemblance of the two drawings was far too similar to be a coincidence.Trixie looked at Sunset. "You dreamed this?"She nodded.Trixie continued to stare at Sunset in amazement. "How is that possible?""I don't know, but what do you think this means?""I don't... wait!" suddenly Trixie got an idea. She put the two pieces of paper on top of each other and then held them up to the light coming from the chandelier in the room with her magic. The light shown through the two papers, and the two unicorns could see the two drawings overlapping each other. Their jaws dropped when they saw the two sets of words overlapping actually formed a readable paragraph, and the two circles over each other now made perfect sense. It was a magic circle!"Trixie and Sunset looked at each other and said what they were both thinking at the same time. "That's impossible.""How could we both have dreams... that are... when you put them together, they actually make something!" said Trixie."Don't ask me," said Sunset, just as confused as Trixie was.They both skimmed over what the words on the papers said. It didn't take them long to realize it was instructions for a spell of some kind."It's a spell?" said Trixie. "You think it's a real spell?""I don't know, but there's only one way to find out.""Wait!" Trixie held a hoof up in front of Sunset. "We shouldn't try to cast a spell if we don't know what it will do! I mean, only a complete idiot would do that!""I wasn't going to!" Sunset huffed. "I meant we should study this and see if we can figure out..."The end of Sunset's sentence was droned out by a sudden ear piercing zapping noise, and the flash of a bright light in the room. Trixie and Sunset turned their heads to see another one of those anomaly cracks suddenly appear in the dining room, right across the table from them.The two mares each let out a scream of panic as they quickly ducked down to the floor behind the table. The sudden appearance of another one of those things had taken Trixie by surprise. She hadn't been expecting to run into more of those up in space.A few seconds later, there was another bright flash of light, and the anomaly disappeared from the room, just like all the others had.Trixie caught her breath, breathing with relief now that it was gone. She then did a quick glance around the room to see what effects, if any, the anomaly had had. She didn't have to look long. Beside her, Sunset Shimmer now had a light blond mane and tail, as well as a red bandana on her head. She must have still been in shock from the anomaly because she had a look of confused shock on her face."Sunset, that anomaly turned your mane blond and gave you a bandana!" Trixie said, partially in amusement, and also in relief that it seemed the only thing that had been changed was Sunset's mane color and attire. "But I wonder if anything else has been changed."Sunset looked back at her, still with a confused look on her face. "Who's Sunset?"Trixie's eyes widened in shock as she suddenly felt a sinking feeling growing in her gut. Oh no, she thought. "Um... you are."Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't know what the bloody 'ell you're talken' about. My name is Winry! Winry Rockbell!""Winry?" Trixie also noticed that Sunset was also now talking with a foreign accent.Sunset started frantically glancing around the room. "Where am I?"At that moment, Blueblood, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score came hurrying into the dining room, followed soon after by Flim, Flam, and Surprise. They all had concerned looks on their faces, except for Surprise, who instead seemed to look annoyed for some reason."We heard screaming!" said Blueblood as he looked at the two mares. "What happened?"Trixie pointed at Sunset. "There was another anomaly here!"The others all looked just as shocked as Trixie had been."ON THE SHIP!?" asked Upper Crust.Trixie nodded. "Yes! And it... did THAT to her!" she continued to point at Sunset, who was staring at the group like she had never met any of them before."It turned her blond?" asked Hoops."Yes. And she's calling herself Winry now. I think she thinks she's somepony else!""It's just like those two doctors who weren't really doctors!" said Lightning Dust."Ooo, what's that?" Sunset said, suddenly sounding more chipper. She was looking at the two papers still lying on the dining room table. "Is that some sort of transmutation circle?" She looked up at Trixie. "Blimy, are you a state alchemist?""A what?" Trixie asked."Ooo, what's that out there?!" Sunset said, ignoring Trixie's question. She was looking out into the hallway that the others had just came in through. Before any of them could say any thing, she suddenly galloped out of the room and down the hall. They all let her go, all of them more interested in talking about this latest event."Those anomalies can effect us out here in space?" said Jet Set."It makes sense," said Flim, scratching his chin with his hoof. "If the plot hole is going to destroy the universe, I guess it can make changes anywhere, not just on Earth.""In fact, what if the closer we get to the plot hole, the worse the anomalies will get?" Flam added.Upper Crust looked like she could faint at any moment."Oh man," Dumbbell moaned. "So anything could happen to us at any time that might ruin everything for us, and there's nothing we can do about it?""Well, I guess this means we just have to try to stop this plot hole as fast as we can," said Lightning Dust, flying up into the air and pounding her two front hooves together."If we can stop it at all," said Jet Set.Trixie looked at Flim and Flam. "Can't this ship go any faster?""No!" Flim and Flam both answered, shaking their heads. "It's going as fast as it can. If we tried going any faster, it would damage the hyperdrive.""So we really have to wait a whole n'other day to get to the stupid plot hole," Gilda growled, taking a swipe at the nearest wall to her with her claws, and leaving four scratch marks. "I'm gonna go crazy!" She stormed off out of the room."Wait up!" Lightning Dust shouted, flying after her best friend.After a brief awkward silence, Blueblood spoke. "Well, I doubt the plot hole is gonna destroy the entire universe in just one more day. Its taken... what... about two years to grow this big? I'm sure we have plenty of time." He hoped he sounded more sure about that then he actually felt.They started walking out of the room, except for Trixie, who walked back over to the papers on the table.Suddenly she felt the ship give a sharp lurch. She lost her balance and fell onto the floor."What the heck!?"Trixie heard the others also shouting in surprise just outside the room, so she got up and ran out into the hallway, finding them all getting up off the floor as well."What just happened?" Trixie demanded."I don't know!" said Flim. "But we better get down to engineering and find out!"They all took off and hurried down the hall to the open basement doorway and hurried down the steps. Too their utter horror, they found Sunset Shimmer(still dressed as Winry) standing next to the large cylinder shaped machine that was the hyperdrive. A panel on the hyperdrive was opened up, and several mechanical parts were lying on the floor at Sunset's hooves.She turned her head to look back at them when she heard them come down the stares. She gave them an innocent smile. "Oh, hi guys," she said."WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!" Flam shouted at her. "WHY DID YOU TAKE THAT APPART? WE NEED THAT!""I'm sorry. I couldn't resist!" she said, still smiling innocently. She turned her head back to the hyperdrive and levitated a wrench up beside her and started messing around inside it again. "I just love machines! I just needed to find out what was inside it, and how it all worked! Don't worry, I'll put it all back the way I found it."It was now obvious to all of them what had happened. That lurch they had felt upstairs had been the ship dropping out of hyperspace.An angry Gilda took a step towards the unsuspecting mare beside the hyperdrive. "Out'a my way! I'm gonna murder this bitch!"The rest of them all had to hold the enraged griffon back."Its not her fault," said Trixie glumly, using her magic to hold Gilda back where she was, even though she personally also felt like tearing Sunset a new one at the moment. "She was altered by an anomaly. She's not herself."After several seconds, Gilda let out an angry snort and gave up. They looked back at Sunset, who hadn't seemed to notice what had just happened and was still messing around with the hyperdrive."Now what do we do?" groaned Blueblood.Flim shrugged. "I don't know! We don't know how to put it back together!" he gestured to his brother and himself with a hoof. "It's not our machine. It's Twilight Sparkle's, remember?""Well, this is just fan tucking fastic!" growled Dumbbell, stomping a hoof against the floor angrily. "Now, not only are we light years from home, but we're also stuck out here!""Oh gosh, I'm going to die in outer space!" Upper Crust wined. She looked like she was on the verge of crying.Trixie felt her heart sink. They really were bucked now.Just then, they all heard a loud mechanical hum, and then they felt the ship suddenly lurch again, causing them all to lose their balance again and fall onto the floor."What the heck happened now?" growled Gilda.They all looked over at Sunset, who was attaching a metal panel back onto the hyperdrive where she had taken it off. She turned her head to look back at them and gave them a proud smirk. "I told you I could fix it!" she said.It was then as they were all getting up that they noticed that all the hyperdrive pieces that had been lying on the floor only moments ago were now gone.They all stared at Sunset Shimmer in disbelief. Had she really just put it all back together that quickly?Flim leaped over to one of the computer screens in the room and began looking over it. "We're back in hyperspace!" he said with amazement after a few seconds."Not only that, but I've also improved it," said a still smirking Sunset. "I've more than doubled its top speed!""She's right!" exclaimed Flim in surprise as he kept looking at the computer screen. "Were now moving over twice as fast as we were before! At this rate we should reach Titan... within several hours!"They all looked at each other happily. They could all feel their spirits lifting."Sunset, you're incredible!" said Blueblood.Sunset gave him an irritated look. "Why do you keep calling me Sunset? I told you all, my name is Winry!" Then her expression changed like she had just remembered something. "Oh, by the way, I couldn't figure out where this piece went." Sunset levitated a small piece of machinery in the air in front of her for them to see. "But oh well. I suppose there always is at least one piece left over, isn't there? Now to go take something else apart!" She let out an excited giggle as she hurried over to another part of the room.Everyone turned to look at Blueblood."What should we do with her?" asked Lightning Dust.Blueblood shrugged. "If she's making our ship better, I say we just let her," he said. Then he added, "...Keep an eye on her though."They could hear Sunset muttering to herself across the room. "Oh, look at this place! All these gadgets and gizmos! Oh, this is just divine! I just have to have a look at it all. Can I please take it all apart and put it back together again? Please?"