{"sf1_id":791803,"sf2_id":null,"title":"To Boldly Hoof It Ch 8. Alchemy?","author":"BluebloodFan91","words":4089,"posted_at":"2014-12-04T18:56:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Blueblood","Character Development","Clean","Dream","Equine","Fantasy","Flam","Flim","Friendship is magic","Griffin","Gryphon","Hoops","Horse","Humor","Iron Will","Jet Set","Lightning Dust","MLP","Mare","Minotaur","My Little Pony","Pegasus","Plot Development","Pony","Prince Blueblood","Sci-Fi","Stallion","Story Progression","Story Series","Sunset shimmer","To Boldly Flee","Trixie","Unicorn","Upper Crust","dumbbell","gilda","parody","score","space","surprise"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791803-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-8-alchemy","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/791803","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=791803\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"Ch 8. Alchemy?\n\n\nPrince Blueblood had no clue where he was, or how he\nhad gotten there. Wherever he was, it was very dark and vast and empty,\nexcept for tiny twinkling lights all around him. It looked like he was\nin space, but that was impossible. If he was out in the vacuum of space,\nhe'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?\"\nhe called out. \"Is anypony there?\" It was only after he had said that\nthat he realized just how odd it was that he could hear his voice even\nthough there's supposed to be no sound in space. Not to mention the fact\nthat he didn't have a body, and therefore, no mouth.Just\nthen, Blueblood noticed a bright light out of the corner of his eye. He\nturned to look in the direction it was, and gasped at what he saw. It\nlooked like a giant vortex of some sort, floating not to far away from\nhim in space. Blueblood would have thought his first reaction would be\nfear. He was surprised to find that he oddly did not feel afraid at all.\nThe giant swirling vortex looming so near to him gave him no fear at\nall. For some reason, it just didn't seem threatening to him, and he had\nno idea why.He had the strangest sense that he had seen this thing somewhere before.\"Prince Blueblood!\"Blueblood\nwas startled by a sudden deep and booming voice. He looked around for\nthe source of the voice, but could see nothing but stars and the vortex\naround him.The voice boomed again. \"Prince Blueblood! Come into the plot hole!\"The\nplot hole! That was what the thing in front of him was. He knew he had\nseen it somewhere before. He could also tell now that the unknown voice\nwas 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,\nBlueblood noticed something glimmer inside the plot hole. He peered\ninto the giant vortex as something came into view on the other side. His\neyes, if he had any, became as wide as dinner plates when he could\nfinally make out what it was.It was his\ncutiemark. His compass rose cutiemark was floating on the other side of\nthe plot hole, glowing brightly with what he could only describe as\ndivine light. There was no mistake.Blueblood\nsuddenly felt drawn to the plot hole. He had to get in there! He had to\nknow what his destiny was, and achieve it! He didn't know how, but he\nsomehow willed himself to start moving towards the massive vortex before\nhim.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,\nthe plot hole started moving away from Blueblood, zooming away from him\nthrough space, or perhaps it was he who was suddenly moving away from\nit.\"NO!\" Blueblood cried, reaching a hoof\nout towards the plot hole in desperation as it quickly went out of\nsight. Why was this happening? Why now when he was so close to his\ndestiny?\"Blueblood. Blueblood.\" The voice\nkept calling out his name despite what was happening. In fact, it oddly\nseemed to be getting louder and clearer somehow.Then he suddenly felt jolt, like he was being shaken.....................\"Blueblood!\"Blueblood\nopened his eyes, feeling somepony's hoof on his shoulder, gently\nshaking him and saying his name. He groggily became aware that he was in\nhis bed, in his bedroom. He quickly realized that everything that had\njust happened had only been a dream.He\nturned his head and in the light of the lamp beside the bed saw Trixie\nlying beside him in bed, retracting her hoof from his shoulder now that\nshe 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\nlooked at the windows. Even with the curtains closed, he could see that\nit 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?\"\nThen their current situation all came back to him. In his groggy state,\nhe had forgotten they were in outer space for a moment. He looked over\nat the clock, and was surprised to see that it was going on ten AM. It\nreally 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\nsighed. \"Yes, dear,\" he said. It was true that in preparing the ship to\nleave Earth, not one of them had considered making sure they had enough\nfood to take with them. Now they were stuck with only what was in the\nkitchen and pantry, and they weren't sure that would be enough if their\ntime in space ended up taking longer than a few days. And since the\nimprobability drive had sent them light years away from home, and since\nthe hyperdrive they had stolen from Twilight Sparkle was only powerful\nenough to travel about one light year a day, they weren't looking so\ngood food wise. They gave each other a\nmorning kiss, and then got out of bed and walked over to the bedroom\ndoor, yawning and stretching as they did so.As\nthey opened the bedroom door and walked out into the hallway, Blueblood\nthought how weird it was that, for the first time in a long time, he\nhad had a different dream. And this dream had felt different than any\nother dream he had ever had. It had been so clear, and had felt so real.\"Trixie,\nI had a weird dream last night,\" he said as they walked down the\nhallway, heading to get breakfast and to use the bathroom. \"And this one\nwas different from the ones I've been having.\"\"Really?\" said Trixie. \"Trixie had a weird dream to.\"\"Well,\nin mine I was in front of the plot hole, and there was this voice\ntelling me to go inside it, that my destiny was in there. And then I saw\nmy cutiemark inside the plot hole.\"Trixie raised an eyebrow at him. \"What do you think it means?\"Blueblood\nshrugged. \"I don't know. Probably nothing. It was probably just the\nstress of everything that's going on getting to me.\" However,\ntruthfully, Blueblood wasn't so sure. The dream had felt so real, and so\npowerful. It left him feeling rattled by it. What if it was some sort\nof sign?Trixie woke him out of his thoughts by speaking. \"Well, Trixie's\ndream was definitely odd. All it was was an image! It looked like a\ncircle, like a magic circle used for certain spells, and beside it were a\nbunch of words, but the words didn't say anything! It was all just\ngibberish! But it was all so clear! I can remember every detail of it!\nEvery word! I can still see it clearly in her mind when I close my eyes.\nIt's strange.\"\"Hmm,\" Blueblood responded.While\nthey were walking through the hall, they heard the flush of a toilet\nfrom inside the bathroom, and then saw Upper Crust come out. She was\nholding 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\nwalked into the bathroom while Trixie decided to continue down to the\nkitchen to get herself some breakfast first. She saw others already up\nand walking around as she made her way into the kitchen. Looking through\nthe 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\nprepared herself a bowl of oatmeal, and then levitated it beside her as\nshe walked into the dining room too eat. She found Jet Set and Upper\nCrust in there sitting at the long dining room table eating their own\nbreakfast, which was also oatmeal. She sat down as well and began to\neat.Just then, she heard an extremely\nrude noise come from the kitchen. \"DARN IT! THERE IS NOTHING GOOD TO EAT\nAROUND THIS PLACE!\"  It was Gilda's voice. No surprise there.As\nshe ate her oatmeal, the dream she had had once again bubbled up into\nher mind. This annoyed her. It was so weird, she could see the image so\nclearly in her mind, down to the very last detail, but it was utter\nnonsense.As the day went on, the dream\nstill wouldn't leave her mind. She tried to forget about it, tell\nherself that it was only a dream and didn't mean anything, but it kept\nbugging her, and she didn't know why. And there wasn't much she could do\non the ship to distract herself from thinking about the dream. All they\nwere doing was waiting for the ship to arrive at the plot hole, and\nthat was going to take a couple days.Trixie\neventually felt that she had to get her dream down on paper. That\nperhaps that would help get it off her mind, or perhaps help her\nunderstand it better. Besides, it wasn't like she currently had anything\nbetter to do.She walked back into the\ndining room, which she was happy to see was empty now, so she would have\na good amount of quiet to work in. She sat down in a seat and lit up\nher horn with her magic. She cast a conjuring spell and a piece of paper\nand pencil magically appeared in the air in front of her. She set them\ndown on the table and began to draw her dream. She made sure to include\nevery detail of the dream in her drawing.Sunset\nShimmer came walking into the room. She noticed Trixie drawing\nsomething and stopped while walking past her and peered over her\nshoulder 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\napparently took offense to her response. \"What's your problem?\" she\nsaid, miffed. \"I was just curious.\" She turned and started walking away\nout of the dining room.Trixie couldn't\nhelp but feel a little bad for snapping at Sunset like that. Apparently a\nyear after learning a lesson or two in friendship had changed her a\nbit. She had just been reluctant to tell somepony she was drawing her\ndreams like a little filly.She sighed and\nturned to Sunset, who was almost out of the room. \"I'm sorry,\" she\nforced herself to say. When she saw Sunset pause and look back at her,\nshe continued. \"Trixie just had this... really weird dream, and it was\nreally bugging her, and she just felt like she had to get it down on\npaper. That's what Trixie is doing, okay?\"Sunset\nraised her eyes in surprise. \"You did!?\" she said, not in a mocking\ntone, to Trixie's relief, but actually in an interested one. Sunset\nwalked back over to Trixie's side. \"What was it like? The dream, I\nmean.\"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\nthink I had the exact same dream,\" Sunset said. She pulled out a piece\nof paper from behind her and placed it on the table next to Trixie's\npaper. \"I drew this when I woke up this morning.\"Trixie\nlooked at Sunset's paper, and her jaw dropped at what she saw. It was\njust like her own drawing. However, looking at it closer, she could see\nthat it wasn't exactly the same as her drawing. There were a few\ndifferences. The circle looked a bit different in detail, and the words\nbeside it were different from her own, but still gibberish none the\nless. But still, the resemblance of the two drawings was far too similar\nto 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\ndon't... wait!\" suddenly Trixie got an idea. She put the two pieces of\npaper on top of each other and then held them up to the light coming\nfrom the chandelier in the room with her magic. The light shown through\nthe two papers, and the two unicorns could see the two drawings\noverlapping each other. Their jaws dropped when they saw the two sets of\nwords overlapping actually formed a readable paragraph, and the two\ncircles 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\nboth skimmed over what the words on the papers said. It didn't take\nthem 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!\"\nTrixie held a hoof up in front of Sunset. \"We shouldn't try to cast a\nspell if we don't know what it will do! I mean, only a complete idiot\nwould do that!\"\"I wasn't going to!\" Sunset huffed. \"I meant we should study this and see if we can figure out...\"The\nend of Sunset's sentence was droned out by a sudden ear piercing\nzapping noise, and the flash of a bright light in the room. Trixie and\nSunset turned their heads to see another one of those anomaly cracks\nsuddenly appear in the dining room, right across the table from them.The\ntwo mares each let out a scream of panic as they quickly ducked down to\nthe floor behind the table. The sudden appearance of another one of\nthose things had taken Trixie by surprise. She hadn't been expecting to\nrun into more of those up in space.A few\nseconds later, there was another bright flash of light, and the anomaly\ndisappeared from the room, just like all the others had.Trixie\ncaught her breath, breathing with relief now that it was gone. She then\ndid a quick glance around the room to see what effects, if any, the\nanomaly had had. She didn't have to look long. Beside her, Sunset\nShimmer now had a light blond mane and tail, as well as a red bandana on\nher head. She must have still been in shock from the anomaly because\nshe had a look of confused shock on her face.\"Sunset,\nthat anomaly turned your mane blond and gave you a bandana!\" Trixie\nsaid, partially in amusement, and also in relief that it seemed the only\nthing that had been changed was Sunset's mane color and attire. \"But I\nwonder 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\nthat moment, Blueblood, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Jet Set, Upper Crust,\nDumbbell, Hoops, and Score came hurrying into the dining room, followed\nsoon after by Flim, Flam, and Surprise. They all had concerned looks on\ntheir faces, except for Surprise, who instead seemed to look annoyed for\nsome 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,\nwhat's that?\" Sunset said, suddenly sounding more chipper. She was\nlooking at the two papers still lying on the dining room table. \"Is that\nsome sort of transmutation circle?\" She looked up at Trixie. \"Blimy,\nare you a state alchemist?\"\"A what?\" Trixie asked.\"Ooo,\nwhat's that out there?!\" Sunset said, ignoring Trixie's question. She\nwas looking out into the hallway that the others had just came in\nthrough. Before any of them could say any thing, she suddenly galloped\nout of the room and down the hall. They all let her go, all of them more\ninterested in talking about this latest event.\"Those anomalies can effect us out here in space?\" said Jet Set.\"It\nmakes sense,\" said Flim, scratching his chin with his hoof. \"If the\nplot hole is going to destroy the universe, I guess it can make changes\nanywhere, 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\nman,\" Dumbbell moaned. \"So anything could happen to us at any time that\nmight ruin everything for us, and there's nothing we can do about it?\"\"Well,\nI guess this means we just have to try to stop this plot hole as fast\nas we can,\" said Lightning Dust, flying up into the air and pounding her\ntwo 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!\"\nFlim and Flam both answered, shaking their heads. \"It's going as fast\nas it can. If we tried going any faster, it would damage the\nhyperdrive.\"\"So we really have to wait a whole n'other day\nto get to the stupid plot hole,\" Gilda growled, taking a swipe at the\nnearest wall to her with her claws, and leaving four scratch marks. \"I'm\ngonna go crazy!\" She stormed off out of the room.\"Wait up!\" Lightning Dust shouted, flying after her best friend.After\na brief awkward silence, Blueblood spoke. \"Well, I doubt the plot hole\nis gonna destroy the entire universe in just one more day. Its taken...\nwhat... 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\nheard the others also shouting in surprise just outside the room, so\nshe got up and ran out into the hallway, finding them all getting up off\nthe 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\nall took off and hurried down the hall to the open basement doorway and\nhurried down the steps. Too their utter horror, they found Sunset\nShimmer(still dressed as Winry) standing next to the large cylinder\nshaped machine that was the hyperdrive. A panel on the hyperdrive was\nopened up, and several mechanical parts were lying on the floor at\nSunset's hooves.She turned her head to\nlook back at them when she heard them come down the stares. She gave\nthem 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\nsorry. I couldn't resist!\" she said, still smiling innocently. She\nturned her head back to the hyperdrive and levitated a wrench up beside\nher and started messing around inside it again. \"I just love machines! I\njust needed to find out what was inside it, and how it all worked!\nDon't worry, I'll put it all back the way I found it.\"It\nwas now obvious to all of them what had happened. That lurch they had\nfelt 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\nnot her fault,\" said Trixie glumly, using her magic to hold Gilda back\nwhere she was, even though she personally also felt like tearing Sunset a\nnew one at the moment. \"She was altered by an anomaly. She's not\nherself.\"After several seconds, Gilda let\nout an angry snort and gave up. They looked back at Sunset, who hadn't\nseemed to notice what had just happened and was still messing around\nwith 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,\nthis is just fan tucking fastic!\" growled Dumbbell, stomping a hoof\nagainst the floor angrily. \"Now, not only are we light years from home,\nbut 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\nthen, they all heard a loud mechanical hum, and then they felt the ship\nsuddenly lurch again, causing them all to lose their balance again and\nfall onto the floor.\"What the heck happened now?\" growled Gilda.They\nall looked over at Sunset, who was attaching a metal panel back onto\nthe hyperdrive where she had taken it off. She turned her head to look\nback at them and gave them a proud smirk. \"I told you I could fix it!\"\nshe said.It was then as they were all\ngetting up that they noticed that all the hyperdrive pieces that had\nbeen 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\nleaped over to one of the computer screens in the room and began\nlooking over it. \"We're back in hyperspace!\" he said with amazement\nafter 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\nright!\" exclaimed Flim in surprise as he kept looking at the computer\nscreen. \"Were now moving over twice as fast as we were before! At this\nrate 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\ngave him an irritated look. \"Why do you keep calling me Sunset? I told\nyou all, my name is Winry!\" Then her expression changed like she had\njust remembered something. \"Oh, by the way, I couldn't figure out where\nthis piece went.\" Sunset levitated a small piece of machinery in the air\nin front of her for them to see. \"But oh well. I suppose there always\nis at least one piece left over, isn't there? Now to go take something\nelse apart!\" She let out an excited giggle as she hurried over to\nanother part of the room.Everyone turned to look at Blueblood.\"What should we do with her?\" asked Lightning Dust.Blueblood\nshrugged. \"If she's making our ship better, I say we just let her,\" he\nsaid. Then he added, \"...Keep an eye on her though.\"They\ncould hear Sunset muttering to herself across the room. \"Oh, look at\nthis place! All these gadgets and gizmos! Oh, this is just divine! I\njust have to have a look at it all. Can I please take it all apart and\nput it back together again? Please?\" ","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791802-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-7-space.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791805-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-9-capture.json"}