Half-Moon in Equestria 29

"Anon! Hurry up, Pinkie Pie doesnt like being kept waiting".
Glancing up from your notebook, you see Twilight waving at you to hurry. Giving a sigh, you call back "I still dont see why we are doing this. We already had the party at Canterlot, I don't see why we need a second one here."
Twilight laughs, running ahead further "With Pinkie Pie, you can never have too many parties, and besides, this one is quite different from the last one."
Glaring at her suspiciously, you ask "Different how?". She just shrugs, and you run to catch up. YOu are led out to the field where you have been training Twilight and Trixie, except there is a huge tent over the island. Pinkie is out front, and she waves as you come into view.
She yells out "HEY!!! HURRY UP ANONY, WE CAN'T START THE PARTY WITHOUT YOU!" Twilight teleports ahead, and enters the tent with Pinkie, leaving you outside.
Opening the tent flap, you immediately sense something is wrong. First, there are no partygoers except the mane 6 and Trixie, secondly, the room has an awful lot of cusions stacked in a heap. "Come on man, you gotta try this punch" Rainbow dash call over from a table heaped with food and drinks. Making your way over, she passes you a glass, and you down it, the flavour washing over you, as well as an unusual sensation.
"Hey, whats in this drink?"
Pinkie Pie giggles, and hops over. "Fruit punch and a special herb we got from Zecora. You wouldn't believe how long it took to find an aphrodesiac that works on your kind.". All of the girls are now giving you half lidded looks, and you feel something stirring under your robes.
Your will slowly begins slipping, and you run for the tent flap, but it is blocked by a purple aura. "You are not getting out of this. We all decided this on the way back. We are going to be your personal herd, and this will decide the pecking order, as it were.". The girls keep stepping closer, and you clap your hands, and try to transmute a shield around you, but nothing happens.
"Yer powers aint gonna work none while you still got that there afrodeeseeac runnin through ya. Celestia said it interferes with with the flow of energy and what not."
"I hope you guys realise that just because you made me consume an aphrodesiac does not mean I will have sex with any of you." Sitting down, you glare at them, and they smile.
Twilight steps forward. "I got a spell memorised just for that, too. Ever heard of "Want it Need it"?". The way she is looking at you is giving you a bad feeling, and you slowly edge back. "Normaly, it turns you into a sex crazed fool for a day or so, but since we want your input, We are going to be using a weaker version of it on you."
You raise your hand to make a point, but you realise you have nothing and let your hand drop. "Well, shit...".  Twilight's horn starts glowing, before a red heart flows out of it and right into your manhood. The spell begins clouding your mind, and the girls will perform an about face. You find yourself looking over all their soft firm plots, and moist dripping marehoods.
The pressure in your shorts has built up to an uncomfortable level, and your body automatically removes them. You do everything in your power to resist, but your body takes over you automatically start moving towards the first, Twilight.
This is gonna be a long night.


The sun burns your eyes, and you roll over, falling off the beach recliner, and into a puddle of your not sure you want to know. Standing up, you stomp into the room, ignoring the half asleep stares of Twilight and Trixie, and step into the bathroom.
You strip down, throw your clothes in the bottom of the shower, turn it on full blast, and step in. As soon as the cold water hits you, all tiredness leaves her body and you feel awake and ready. It takes another 10 minutes to get the feeling of filth off you.
Stepping out, you grab a towel, wrap it around your waist and look down at your soaking clothes. Digging into the pockets, you pull out your pistol and remaining clip, your alchemist watch and your now ruined to notebook. Your chalk has melted to the point of uselessness, but your sparker rings should be fine after a good cleaning.
Throwing your clothes in the shower, you soak them and scrub them before hanging them up to dry. Walking back for the room, still ignoring the girls stares, you transmute the chair back into the surrounding stone.
Back inside, you grab a sheet from the bed and transmuted into a pair of shorts, a pair boxers and a tee shirt. Slipping them on, you drop your towel. You glare angrily at the girls "Don't even consider asking". Taking a moment to grab your things, you storm out of the room and down to the main hall.
Everypony you pass start shaking or runs off in fear in your enraged presence. You are able to avoid sending the recently repaired doors flying inward as you enter. Taking a seat causes all nearby ponys to scurry to further seats. A server nervously approaches, asking "Could I... Ummm... Take your order?"
"Back bacon, crispy, two pancakes with butter and syrup. Please". The last bit is almost an afterthought though, your manners still showing through your rage. They nod, and rushed off to wherever in time for you to see Celestia arrive.  You glare at her with a white hot intensity of 1000 suns, which in retrospect was a rather ironic comparison.
As she takes her seat, she notices you, your death stare, and the wide berth the ponys are giving you. She gives a worried look, before turning to the pony who is looking to take her order. Your meal arrives, drawing you way from your evil stare.
Skewering the first slice of bacon, you rip a large chunk out of it much to it that disgust of a number of ponys.  Digging into your pancakes, you hear Twilight and Trixie take seats near you, one on each side, a few spots down.
After finishing breakfast in silence, you step outside into one of the gardens, take a deep breath, and yell out "FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!".  It echoes for a moment, and you slump down onto a stone bench staring up at the early morning sky.
"Um... is there something the matter Anonymous?" You turn and glared at Celestia as she walks over, before reaching to your pocket and throwing your journal at her hooves.
"Three years of notes and work, gone, ruined. All thanks to that little "joke" of yours." She levitates it up, using magic to pry the pages apart.  The sticky fluid clings to the pages, strands of it dripping out, blue and black with ink. She flips through a few pages, before setting it down.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know anything like this would happen. It's not much consolation, but I had this cleaned when it was recovered yesterday." Out of her mane, she levitates your blood pen and you take it, turning it over in your hands.
Sliding into a pocket, the let out a sigh. "I apologize as well. I guess everything built up, and this was enough to push it all out." Getting to your feet, you release some of the tension in your shoulders with a few of soft pops. "If you'll excuse me, I have to meet Shining Armor about a few things."
"Would you mind if I came with you? I'm curious as to how you'll determine those with the best aptitude for it."
You turn to face are. "Let me guess, Shining told you after that whole fiasco at the party, right."
"Yes the topic a came up while we were discussing those two's appearance. Why? Did you not want me to know?"
Shrugging, you begin making your way to Shining's office. "Honestly I don't care if you know, just like I don't care if you come or not." As you walk through the halls, she follows you silently. The guards at his door salute, before opening it for you and Celestia.
Shining immediately rises and bows when he sees you and Celestia enter. "I was unaware you'll be joining us princess, but it is a welcome surprise."
Celestia motions for him to rise. "I felt it prudent to see the process necessary for learning alchemy, especially since my student is learning it, and soon a number of my guards will be as well."
He nods, standing "If you would follow me, the applicants are waiting in the west courtyard." Exiting the room, he leads you down hallways till you come out into a courtyard. You immediately notice a problem.
There are nearly 100 applicants.
Groaning, you step forward and transmute a platform of the ground. Standing on it, you clear your throat and the guards all form up and stand at attention. Even Shining Armor is in their ranks. "Attention all applicants" you call out, Your voice easily carrying into the silent area. "You are all here because you wish to learn the art of alchemy.  Before we begin, there are several things I must say. First, this will not be easy, you'll end of battered, bloodied and burnt at the end of most days.  If you are foolish, or careless, you stand to lose your life. Alchemy is not an artist to be taken lightly. The alchemy will be learning is pure combat style alchemy.  None of the flashy stuff you may have seen or heard me using.  If you wish to leave now, you will not be looked down on.  Few people try to learn alchemy in my country, and even fewer succeed in becoming true alchemists."
Over the next 5 minutes, about half the potential students leave for one reason or another. When it looks like no more will leave, you speak again. "If you would please sort yourselves based on race, we can move to the first stage. Do not worry, this will not affect anything, it will merely to help speed up the situation."
Very quickly, you have three groups. Approximately 10 or so earth ponies, a dozen or so Pegasii, and almost 25 unicorns. Speaking up again, you address the unicorns. "To make sure you are actually perform alchemy, all unicorns of the required to wear a magic detection ring on their horn." A couple snickers come from the other groups, but the unicorns seem unperturbed.
Stepping down, you transmute the platform into a pile of rings. Grabbing a handful, you begin placing them on the unicorns horns.  After a few trips to the pile, you have all horns ringed. Picking up a ring, you step over Celestia. "As a demonstration, Celestia if you could channel a spell please" Her horn starts glowing, and a rock slowly floats up. Holding the ring in your hand, you say "Watch".  Slowly moving the ring closer, it breaks when it is about 2 inches away.
"This system is to help prevent cheating. Each unicorn will have a chance to try again as the ring breaks from accidental magic use, but the results for that try will be ignored. Now if you could all form it into a neat line while I prepare the test, we can get started as soon as possible." The ponys start forming into a neat line, and you raise a room of walls from the ground. Transmuting some chalk, you mark out a circle in the middle and step out.
A neat single file line runs back, Shining Armor at the head.  You motion him in, and begin explaining the rules. "Your task is to activate the circle within 3 minutes of me finishing instructions.  Place both your forehooves on the edge, and you can begin." Observing your watch, it takes two minutes and fourty two seconds but Shining gets the desired glow."You pass." Writing down his time, name and race in a notebook you motion him out and call in the next.

Out of the 47 ponies, only 22 make it past the first stage. The group now consists of nine earth ponys, seven Pegasii, and six unicorns. Many of the ponies, including Celestia are surprised by this, but you understand the truth. Alchemy follows the laws of nature and earth, and those were closer to it have an easier time with it.
Creating a second list, consisting of the times sort it from a list of highest along with the respective names, you posted up for them to see.  Some groans, a couple snickers and some bragging can be heard, and you see a couple of giving Shining a playful shove or two.  He did get the worst time after all, but not by much.  Most fell between the 1:30 and the 2:30 mark.  As a general rule, earth ponys rated best, Pegasii second and unicorns third.
Whats surprise to you was the one with the fastest time. A Pegasus by the name of Silverwind.  She scored a time of 27 seconds, a full 21 head of the next best.  It's not like anypony would know, because you made applicants stay for the full 3 minutes to avoid giving anything away.
After giving them a few minutes to compare times, you clear throats, drawing their attention. "Well done, all of you. But this is just the first of two parts. The next part will decide which of you will get the chance to learn. The next part I will explain to all of you at the same time." Holding a piece of paper, you show them a circle drawn on it. Unlike the first time, we'll have to copy the circle down, and use it to transform the paper. You'll have three tries, and the eight with the fastest times will come and learn true alchemy."
One of the unicorns raises a hoof. "Will we be able to use our magic to copy the circle?"
"To be realistic, yes" A number of the unicorns breathe a sigh of relief "but as soon as it is copied I will place the ring back and you'll continue from there." None of the other ponies seem put off by this, or at least none of them raise any concerns, so you continue. "This test is going to be done in view of all the others.  The ones with the best times will go first, moving down the list.  Times will still be kept a secret but you will be able to make guesses. I wish you all the best of luck." Clapping your hands, you begin turning the walls of the testing room into parchment in writing tools.
"First up, Silverwind."