Alchemy

Floor two of Momento, the laboratory. One-half of the floor is filled with heavy machinery dedicated to building Nasods, parts, and other necessary replacement parts to keep the Archive running. The other half was devoted to chemistry and potion-making. This half had working stations with chalkboards, a flask, a mini cauldron, a terminal, bottles, and six glass containers. These two sides were separated by a glass wall and metal that held them together.

For some reason, the first half reminded Raven of Wally's Underground laboratory. All the machinery, unfinished Nasods, and the familiar metallic taste in the air. While the other half reminded him of the Academy; Clean, white, and persistent. "I need to bring Maya down here for repairs." While he did get the Nasod moving again, her insides were still a mess and needed to be replaced.

The former Captain notices the twins staring at the machines with a hungry look in their eyes. Raven snapped his fingers and got their attention. "You can go in there another time, under adult supervision." They whined, but he wasn't having any of it. "Follow me." Besides Night and Dew, everypony else followed the Human without a word.

Next to the entrance for the chemistry section was a metal rack with lab coats and protective goggles. Raven did not need the lab coat as his armor was more than enough. As for the ponies, they couldn't wear them; the coats were made for Humans and other similar creatures. "I'll need to have these modified." Raven made a mental note. The goggles, on the other hand, were helpful. After taking off his eyepatch, he placed on the goggles.

Raven passed out the goggles to everypony. Vinyl and Sonata were the only ones who refused. Again, the man wondered why the Siren was here. "Don't touch anything without my say so." With that, they made their way over to the workstation.

After placing down the books, Raven took out the El and focused its energy into the flask. It didn't take long before something took form in the flask. It was a green floating sparkle with three smaller ones floating around it. "Behold, the Mysterious El Flask." He said in a monotone. "While not necessary for Alchemy, it makes the process far easier. Oleander, the bag, please." Without a word, the unicorn pulled out a sack with filled junk from her pocket dimension.

The Human took the sack, pulled out old rusty pieces of metal, and placed them in the flask. As soon as the metal made contact with the light, it was broken down and sent to the container below. Raven kept doing this until he had nothing left. "The Flask will break down almost anything you put into it, except living things." Raven clicked his tongue when he saw the dismantle results.

Dismantle Items Result:

1 Magic Stone

1 Blessed Enhancement Stone

156 Magical Crystals

100 Sturdy Memory Alloy

Raven groaned in frustration; having the Alloy was helpful, but he couldn't use it in alchemy. The Magic Stone and Enhancement Stone were what he needed. Using his new Code, Raven pulled up a holographic screen. He was still getting used to this, but he had a good idea of how it worked. The Cyborg called upon the L scouts to collect the unnecessary metal. The L scouts came within seconds of the order. They took what was needed and placed a new glass container.

"Moving on." Raven placed some of the Magical Crystals into the black cauldron. "Now I need water." Raven typed something into the terminal; a few seconds later, it began to fill with water. The burner underneath came to life and started boiling the water, which caused the crystals to dissolve. Raven uses a stirring rod and creates a lavender liquid that constantly bubbles. "This is Base," He said, pointing at the boiling liquid.

"Why is it called that?" Amber asked with a tilt of her head.

Raven smiled. "It's simple; every alchemist starts here and will come back here. And how do you create the Base?" Raven asked no one particular. "You'll need boiling water and mana."

"It can't be that simple; Zebra potion making is far more complex than boiling some water and crystals, "Oleander said with a frown.

Raven nodded. "It is; you'll need mathematics, precise recipes, creativity, mechanical knowledge, and money. Even then, this profession is hazardous if you don't know what you're doing." Raven took Blessed Enhancement Stone and dropped it into the liquid. Once it dissolved, it turned the liquid green, meaning it was ready. " Vinyl Scratch, your Sunglasses, please."

Vinyl's ears perked up. "Sure, but you don't have to call me by my fool name; you can just call me Vinyl, or my foal name, DJ Pon-3!" The young DJ used her magic to take off her sunglasses and bring them to the Human.

"I'll keep that in mind." Raven took the cracked glasses and dipped them into the green liquid. After a full minute, Raven pulled Vinyl's glasses, which looked brand new! Not a single scratch or crack on it. "Good as new." Vinyl took her glasses back with her magic and was amazed at how new they looked. "Repair adhesive; back in my time, traveling merchants would be big tubs of these and offer to fix adventures' equipment. At an up cost, of course, convenience comes at a price. Still, it can't fix broken weapons or armor. So don't be careless."

Vinyl had a big grin as she put on her new glasses. "Aw yeah! These babies look and feel brand new. Thanks, Reaper!"

The Human huffs at the nickname but nods his head in acknowledgment. "You're welcome, Vinyl." Raven drops the magic stone into the pot and continues to stir. Seeing how it'll take a few minutes before the brew is ready, he decided to kill some time. "As you can see already, Alchemy is versatile, and it even could be applied to almost anything; it all depends on the user."

"What do you mean?" Moondancer asked quizzically.

"Anyone can practice Alchemy, but it takes a great mind to become an Alchemist." Moondancer perked up at that; Raven noticed that. "Maybe her?" Raven thought. "Alchemists have a burning thirst for knowledge and are constantly looking for new information. A powerful and knowledgeable practitioner is valuable to any state and kingdom. A role even more important than a court mage." Raven examined everyone's reaction in the room; most were mildly Interested. All except Moondancer, she had a fire behind her eyes.

"If knowledgeable enough, one can even reach immortality." This got surprised uproars from every pony in the room. Raven smiled at their child-like wonder. But he needed to be careful and curb their hopes. "Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves" He held a hand to calm them down. "To achieve such a thing requires meddling with time and space." Raven frowned and glared at everyone from the corner of his eye. "And I don't need to tell you drawing Henir's ire isn't a good idea." They all nodded.

Raven went back to staring at the liquid. " Master Vapor from the Sander Villiage supposedly achieved immortality, but it came at a price. She wanted to retain her youthful appearance, so her brew turned her back into a child in a twist of fate." The man shrugged while grinning. "It worked."

"Nah, that’s lame!" Night stuck his tongue out after speaking up. "Mhmm, what's the point of going through all that trouble just to become a foal again. Imagine if she was stuck as a teen for all eternity!" Dew was the next speaker, and she was horrified.

"That would be hellish!"

Raven had to agree but quickly pushed that voice back down. Also, he might have to cross Dew and Night off the list of becoming alchemists. "Indeed, and if you fail, there are fates worse than death." Someone he knew came to mind. "Also, let this be a warning to all of you. Grail, a master of biology and herbology, was once considered the great alchemist in Velder. But after an unfortunate experiment, Grail had his body fused with his dog.

Vinyl snickered and shrugged. "Eh, becoming a diamond dog couldn't be that bad, right?" The Dj assumed that the Human became a bipedal dog. That's what most people think, but once they see the real deal, they either laugh or are disappointed.

"He did walk on two legs, but the dog he fused with was a small breed of dog. He refused to talk to anyone without standing on a crate and stool." While humorous, the man always felt terrible for him; he and the rest of the El search party went out of their way to gather materials for him in hopes of returning him to normal. Sadly, none of it worked. To his annoyance, some of the ponies were snickering. Raven was going to change their tunes soon enough. "Pesop, from the Lanox village." Raven learned of this man from the Academy. "A brilliant man with a wife and daughter. One day his wife died due to unmentioned circumstances."

"Consumed by his grief, Pesop researched forbidden alchemy. Once he had everything, he attempted to revive his deceased wife. Something went horribly wrong. " Raven spoke with an edge to his voice. "Not only was he unable to revive his wife, but his face became disfigured, and he lost his daughter in the process. Last I heard, Pesop wore a paper bag on his head." The room fell silent as dread took hold and a feeling of unease washed over them. "While Alchemy might not have limits, there's a line you shouldn't cross. Remember that." Raven stared back at everyone, specifically Moondancer. The mare gulped nervously and nodded.

The liquid in the cauldron finally turned violet, causing the former Mercenary to smile. "The brew is ready." Raven dunked one of the bottles into the liquid and filled the bottle. "Normally, this stuff is used for shattered enchanted weapons or broken wands, but it's been used to repair fractured and broken bones." Raven started shaking the bottle until the liquid inside became thick like gelatin. The Human brought his attention to Moondancer. "Moondancer, can you please come here? It's time to repair your horn."

The mare in question shrank under the Human's gaze "A-ah, I didn't think you would have made it so quickly." Moondancer shuffled around nervously, with her tail swishing side to side. Again, Raven had to admit; that these Ponies could be adorable at times. Moondancer trotted up to the Human and lowered her head slightly. "Please be careful."

"Of course." Raven got on one knee and carefully removed the bandages wrapped around Moondancer's horn. The mare flinched in pain as fresh air got into the crack of her horn. "This might sting, so brace yourself." Raven poured some of the gelatinous brew into the palm of his hand and began rubbing it over the affected area. Moondancer whinnied in pain and tried backing away, but Raven kept her in place with his claw.

Taking this opportunity and brought the unicorn into an embrace. "It's almost over, just a few more seconds," Raven whispered while rubbing her back. After a bit, Moondancer stopped struggling and hugged the Human back. They held each for a full two minutes before Raven pulled away, much to the mare's disappointment. "How does your horn feel?" The man said as he lifted her glasses and wiped away the tears from the unicorn's cheek. He never liked seeing a woman cry.

Moondancer sniffled and brought her right roof to her horn and touched it. She smiled as a familiar pink aura surrounded her horn. "I-I can use my magic again. Thank you!" She hugged the Human again, which he returned. Moondancer's horn had a violet streak where the crack used to be.

Oleander cleared her throat. "While this is sweet and all, I'm more interested in learning about what you just used." The others agreed, and some were looking away out of courtesy or embarrassment. Except for Vinyl, she gave them a nod of approval and a cheeky grin.

Moondancer pulled away with reddened cheeks while Raven got up. He had nothing to feel ashamed about; he offered her emotional comfort. "Philosopher's Gel is a substance that repairs and fixes nearly anything." Raven held up the bottle containing the substance. " And it's the first step of obtaining the Philosopher's Stone." Nopony knew what that was, and in Raven's mind, the stone itself was nothing but a myth. "In reality, it can only repair items and objects that are already magical. Once the gel is applied, it'll spread out, fill any gaps, and reinforce the structure. It doesn't work well on flesh, but it works fine on bones and horns."

"Amazing! Think of the applications this could be used for and how many Ponies we could help." Moondancer stopped her outburst and thought about it. "How rare are these materials?"

Raven didn't say anything. Instead, he started looking through the sack that Oleander gave him. The man pulled out a broken white baton and dropped it into the flask. The dismantling result was mediocre, like the last.

Dismantle Items Result:

3 Magic Stone

2 Blessed Enhancement Stone

10 Magical Crystals

1 Advanced Magic Stone

5 Magical Crystals

1 Sturdy Aluminium Alloy

7 Sturdy Memory Alloy

Raven snorted in annoyance. "More junk." He called upon the L scouts to retrieve the metal, leaving the valuable items. The man held up the Magic stones, Advanced Magic stone, and Blessed the Enhancement stone. The first two were diamond-shaped; they had a gem-like appearance. The Enhancement stone looked unrefined, jagged, and translucent. " They're fairly common; Magic stones are used for weapon augmentation. They usually go for Twenty ED." Raven paused and corrected himself. "Or Twenty bits, but I'm not sure. Enhancement stones are for equipment enhancements, and they're one ED each."

Sonata objected to this! How could such a fantastic thing cost only one apple? There must be a reason why. "No way! I may not be the sharpest crayon in the sea, but there must be more to this."

"That's right, Sonata, there is more to this," Raven said with a false smile and visible angry veins on his face. "They're cheap because getting your equipment enchanted is a money pit. Enchanting your gear also comes with some risk, like the enchantment not working at all or just outright breaking!" The false enthusiasm was evident to everypony. "So you'll need Blessed Fluorite Ores, El Hammers, and Blessed Restoration Scrolls. Which could go up to an upwards of thirty thousand ED."

"Fucking Parasites" Raven agreed with the small voice in the back of his mind. He was certain those blacksmiths were scamming him and all of Elrios. The man nearly strangled Lento back in Fetia when he broke his brand new equipment! "Ten thousand ED, all gone after one hammer swing." Lento was a capable knight but a terrible Blacksmith.

Oleander saw an opportunity to push her new father's buttons. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience? Not to worry, well all make mistakes." She said with a raised brow and grin.

Raven narrowed his eyes while keeping up the false smile. "You could say that. Moving on." Raven went back to the workstation after placing the magic stones down. The man filled the bottles with Philosopher's Gel until the brew finished. This left him with ten bottles in total. "I assume that Equis doesn't have any of these then?" Moondancer trotted to the workstation and used a spell to examine the magic stones.

Moondancer shook her head after the results came back negative. "The gems themselves aren't anything special, but it's filled to the brim with mana. They're on the same level as a fire ruby! These shouldn't be possible." The scholar then looked at the El. "Not possible without the El. Mr.Maxwell, is there any other type of Magic stone? Because these are worth at least a thousand bits each."

"We could crash the gem market by flooding it with magic stones!"

The idea was tempting, but he shot down the idea for now. " Yes, there's Refined Magic Stones, Sage's Magic Stones. Then we have Special Magic Stones, which can only be obtained through Ice Burners." Raven was sure they had one lying around here somewhere. "Those are worth something and can be created through Alchemy. "

Vinyl whistled in awe. "So what you're saying is that you got a gold mine in the form of a flask? Also, any chance you can lend me one? I want to see what it can do for my Bass Cannon!" The thought of her weapon being even louder made her drool. Raven crossed his arms and refused that last request; he didn't need Vinyl blowing herself up because she wanted a louder toy. The vampony's ears lowered in disappointment.

"As for now, no. I want to keep these a secret. We can start trading Philosopher's Gel for Capital." After all, a country needs a functioning economy. And the best part, Raven had a complete monopoly on the gel and magic stones. What could the other nations do about it, force him to give up the El? Currently, he and maybe Maya could make use of its power. For anyone else, it'll become a shiny paperweight or just outright kill someone if they try to use it. It was selfish, but New Elria needed the wealth, and Raven would be damned if they relied on other countries! New Elria needed to stand on its own!

"Health, Education, Stability, Agriculture, Military, and Basic resource."While some of these could be covered by the ponies and changelings already with him, there were still major gaps. Raven looked to the side and remembered he could make more Nasods by recycling Adam's giant body."But I can't do it alone; it's time to test them."

Without a word, Raven wheeled over the chalkboard. "I didn't bring you all down here just to showcase Alchemy; I wanted to test you all as well." Using the chalk the man found, he began writing on the board. "No matter what you do or where you go, mathematics is required!" Raven wrote down three numbers wanted, and he wanted them to be converted to scientific notation. "Moondancer, you're first. Please convert them to decimals."

Moondancer made an audible 'gulping' sound; she took the chalk with her magic and wrote down the answers.

-53,000 = -5.3 x 104

2 = 2 x 100

0.000 000 007 51 = 7.51 x 10-9

Moondancer passed the test with ease. Raven gave her an approving nod, causing her to smile. The man erased what was on the board and moved on to the next question. It was a trig function question. It was one of the more straightforward questions in Calculus. "Oleander, you're next." He wanted to stress test the mare and see where she was education-wise.

Oleander took the chalk in her magic and grinned. "You could have picked something harder."

cos (5π6) = − √ 3 2

It was correct, and she even showed her answers. Raven took the chalk back while Oleander huffed, "Try harder next time, father."

He ignored that and continued. This time it would be physics, more specifically: measuring sound waves. It was apparent who this was for. "Vinyl, you're next."

The vampony took the chalk with her magic. "Easy peasy, watch this."It took Vinyl a little longer to answer the question, but she was correct. Her work was sloppy but correct. Raven nodded in approval, causing her to tap on her head. "I ain't just a pretty face." She pulled up her glasses and gave the Human a wink.

The twins were next, and he was going to test the two on geometry and trigonometry. He wrote down the question along with the formulas they needed. "Dew, Night, you're up." Raven broke the chalk in half and gave it to them. To his surprise, they held the chalk up with the thumb of their wings.

"We got this!" Dew assured the Human with a toothy smile. "The Flim Flam brothers taught us everything they knew." Night said with a nod of his head. With that, the two albinos started answering the question. It took them under five minutes to finish as they checked others' work. Like Vinyl, their work was sloppy but correct. Raven nodded in approval and gave them head pats. "EEE, YEAH, WE DID IT!" "WE'RE THE BEST!"

If Raven ever meets the Flim Flam brothers, he wouldn't give them a beat down; just a swift kick to the crotch, and he could call it even. Raven took the chalks back and started on the following question. It was a multiplication question; it was going to the group's youngest member. "Amber, you're next."

Amber nodded eagerly; she was sure this was a test to see if she could become a mage. "I won't fail you!" Raven gave her the chalk and picked up the foal so she could reach the board. The great test that would determine her future and possibly the world!

2 x 2 = 4

Raven smiled and hugged Amber. "We got ourselves a little star; it's correct!" Amber turned around and hugged back, cheering into the man's chest. Oleander mumbled something under her breath while rolling her eyes.

After placing the happy foal on the ground, Raven started the next and final question. He was going to test Sonata and see where she was education-wise. "You're next, Sonata."

The Siren in question adjusted her glasses with a knowing grin. "I'll make my sisters proud." She took the chalk with her hoof. It only took Sonata two seconds to write down her answer. Raven face palmed while everypony else in the room faced hoofed. Sonata's head and ears lowered in shame.

"It's wrong, Sonata," Raven said, sounding disappointed.

2 + 2 = 5

"Please don't tell my sisters." She whimpered

[Raven and Ambrosia]

[Art By Siansaar]

Author's Note

100K, BABY! AW YEAH! Can you believe it?! I have never written so much in my life. I would like to thank all of you for reading and enjoying the story!

Also amazing artwork by Siansaar!
https://www.deviantart.com/watch/siansaar/deviations