NaNoWriMo2015 Oneshot Colletction

I approached the Alchemy Wing of Canterlot University with hesitant steps.  I’d recently graduated from Manehattan Technical Institute with a degree in Alchemy, majoring in Medical Alchemy, minoring in the Dark Arts. Most ponies called me crazy for pursuing it. My parents had as well, though they supported me every step of the way. Dad had even taken a transfer from Cloudsdale to Manehattan with the National Police Guard so we could remain close.

I stepped through the doors to the wing, and began looking at the room numbers. The Professor that had hired me was supposed to be in room 374-B. Sighed as I caught sight of the numbers on the closest door, one hundred two. I was on the wrong floor. Instantly, I began to search for a set of stairs, wondering if I should have just checked for an entrance on the roof first. It would have been so much easier just to fly than try to navigate the rat maze that was the majority of the University.

Finding my staircase, I ascended and three four flights of stairs later, I was at my destination. The third floor was no different from the rest of the university so far. The hallways were all painted a beige colour, and the doors were all purple. Though, as I began to head down the hallway in search of the exact room I needed, I couldn’t help but note that several of the doors had dents and dings in them. Some of them were even notably warped, and one was an alarmingly bright pink. I firmly pushed out of my mind the curiosity of how the colour pink could be alarming. Not worth it.

Not too far down the hallway, I found the room I was looking for. Three-seventy-four. The door had a note taped beside it that drew my attention in a manner I’d come to understand to be related to various attention grabber spells. I looked over at it and raised an eyebrow. The only thing on it was the words ‘tap here’ inside a round, red circle. I frowned as something struck me as odd about it. Looking a little closer, I laughed as I saw tiny, yellow lines connecting to each other and the outer circle within. The paper taper had made themselves a doorbell.

As I reached for the doorbell, I paused, noticing something written beneath the doorbell button. It was in small print, and somewhat differently coloured than I was used to seeing. It took a moment to click, before I blinked. Pegasus vision tends to extend slightly into the infrared and ultraviolet ends of the spectrum naturally, giving us a larger range of vision than earthers and unicorns. What I was seeing was something written in ultraviolet ink. A colour that was far removed from what I’d been seeing in Manehattan for the last four and a half years.

Looking closely at the small print, I read:

Sky Runner, give the circle a quick jolt of weather magic. It should unlock my door. Be careful on entry, as I’m running a rather volatile experiment involving a decent amount of poison joak. So long as you don’t get hit by any of it, you should be fine. There’s a glass shield as you enter that should help. It’ll be nice to meet you! Sincerely, Mystic Sapphire.

The letter worried me more than a little about the type of pony I might be working for. While I loved alchemy, I didn’t know if it would be enough if I disliked my boss. While she seemed nice enough in her letters, this one was making me wonder. I stepped back and lifted a wing to, touching the tip of my outer primary to the button as I ran a small amount of magic through it. Just enough to be able to stir up a small breeze if I used it to move the air.

There was a sharp click a moment later and I pushed the door open, and proceeded to nearly walk face first into the glass shield Mystic had just warned me about. Don’t get me wrong, I was ready for the shield, I just wasn’t ready for it to be sitting only a couple of centimetres beyond the furthest point the door swung forward.

Beyond the shield was one of the more unique ponies I’d ever seen, and coming from Manehattan, that really says something. She was a big mare. She wasn’t fat. In fact, she was actually extremely slim. Rather, she stood about a half of a head taller than the average stallion, and sported statuesque lines that many a professional model would kill for. Her coat colour was, sapphire blue, and was striped with oceanic green. I couldn’t tell if the stripes were real or dyed in, bet they matched her mane perfectly. The mane was pulled back and out of the way in a tight braid that was then doubled up and around into a bun at the back of her head. The bun was thick enough that it made me wonder just how long her mane was out of the up do.

She stood stirring some sort of a potion in a cauldron. Not in small amounts in a beaker or even a large amount in a containment device, but an honest to Celestia cauldron over a Bunsen burner. I blinked a couple of times, unsure of how to react, before her eyes suddenly widened, and I reacted to what I knew to be coming. I hit the deck as the cauldron more or less exploded. The lights were pretty, but that really didn’t make up for the fact that the noise might as well have blown out my eardrums. That probably would have been less painful.

Slowly, I raised my head out of its hoof and wing protection, looking at what had happened. Sadly, my ability to observe was rather limited. Anything the potion might have done was obscured by one of its effects. The glass wall was now bright, neon orange. The lack of any screaming, or even sound, from the other side was not very reassuring to me, but I took a breath, not even thinking about panicking. Panicking in an alchemy lab could get ponies killed. My professors that some nice horror stories to drive that little point home.

I began to search around the glass for some kind of door or hatch to use to get out of it and check on Sapphire. It took a couple of minutes, by I eventually found it. Without the orange paint… dye…whatever it was, I never would have even hoped to find it, so flush was the glass door to the wall. Such minimal refraction at the seam made me curious, but I had more important things to worry about right now. Namely, if my boss just get herself killed by a potion right in front of me.

I opened the door slowly and cautiously, only to find Sapphire right there, about to open the door, looking a little disgruntled. I didn’t blame her. Getting a lab absolutely soaked in any substance was a pain in the flank. The cleanup took forever and you still ended up finding the stuff around for weeks more. “Doctor Mystic Sapphire?” I asked. “I’m Sky Runner.” I gave her what I hoped was a friendly smile as I worked to hide my trepidation.

“Hello, Sky.” Sapphire greeted professionally, despite the painfully orange lab behind her. “Found my lab alright?” I nodded to her. Truthfully, it was the wing of the school that had been hard to find, not the lab once I made it that far. “I’d make an offer for you to come in, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a good idea right now.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what were you trying to do?” I asked curiously, wondering what she could have been trying to do to end up with such spectacular results. Then again, anything involving poison joak tended to have spectacular results if it was so much as looked at funny.

“Honestly? I was trying to replicate my mother’s tie-dye serum. It has some really amazing results if you make it right. And yes, before you ask, these stripes are authentic,” she finished in a tone that bespoke of having to answer that question many, many times before, before adding, “You want to go grab a coffee and we can get properly acquainted before I have to clean up this mess?”

I nodded. “Sure thing. Maybe I can get to know what I’ll be doing now that I work for you,” I said with a smile.

Sapphire nodded. “I can answer any questions, and I’ll have a few for you. Just one thing before we go, though.” I backed up to let her step into the little bubble shield beyond the external door, and she closed the door to the bubble and led the way outside the lab. Once there, she quickly banished the doorbell parchment and summoned a new one, writing on it, “Out for a coffee. Entering the lab is an extremely bad idea right now, even if you’re authorized. Will be back in a bit. Doctor Sapphire.”

With that, she turned back to me. “Alright, let’s go. There’s a Moose Hortons nearby,” she informed me with a smile, before leading the way. I followed behind, already thinking that this would most definitely be a very eventful job…