Requested by-sunshine185091

"I love space. I really want to see their reactions to outer space"

+*+ ON WITH THE ONE-SHOT +*+

     The library was a peaceful heaven, as it always had been. There was almost no noise to interrupt you from reading and there were books everywhere. The smell of books always made you feel at home. And to some creatures, it was home, to the point that they sleep there and forget about the rest of the world's existence. This specific Changeling was no excuse.

    Ocellus woke up in a cozy sofa, the first rays of the sun's early morning first light shining through the window, illuminating her surroundings in a soft, peaceful glow. The curtains were pulled to the side and fluttered ever so gently once in a while when an occasional breeze hits it. There was not a single peep to be heard. The air was the perfect mix of warm and chilly. And the smell of books all around.

    It immediately hit her. She was in the library. Did she fall asleep here, perhaps? Oh dear. She shouldn't had.

    She looked at the table in front of her. There were opened books scattered all over its lovely wooden surface. Ocellus couldn't help but bite her lip as she immediately closed each books and put them in a pile. She sighed in relief as she realized she took them all from the same section and she just walked right next to the tall bookshelf and began placing the books back inside the gaps in alphabetical order.

    She stepped back to admire her work and breathed in deeply the early morning air. There were great starts for mornings, and waking up in a library sure was one of them.

    She bit her lip again. She had to get back to her friends, though.

    Ocellus inched her way through the library. To anycreature, this place was a maze, but to her? This place was as familiar as the grooves in her wings, maybe even more so.

   She was surprised to see that Starlight wasn't at the librarian's desk, but then again, why should she? Starlight was their headmare after all and liked going to bed at quite a late time. She was still probably asleep.

    Ocellus shrugged. She was fine with the absent of life besides her own in the library. It was what she most loved about it after all. The privacy. Though as she threw open those big wooden double doors coated in purple paint, she saw five different creatures standing in front of her, and one was reaching her claw out as if to open the door. They all stared at Ocellus in surprise before coming to their senses, immediately rushing in to hug their Changeling friend.

    "Where've you been, Ocellus?" Silverstream asked, beaming wide, "We were worried sick"

    "Yona scared Changeling hurt!" Yona said. Her hug was almost preventing the air to enter Ocellus' lungs, but not quite.

    "Did you finish your homework?" asked Sandbar, who always tended to consider what his friends thought and valued a little too much.

    Gallus backed out of the hug quickly, not being a major fan of them. "Come on, guys. This happens at least once a month" Though he had to admit he, too, was relieved to see Ocellus in one piece.

    "Well, at least you're safe and sound in the library," Smolder said, pulling away only seconds after Gallus did so. She raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. "What were you reading in there anyway?"

    Ocellus squinted her eyes from the tightness of the hug and slowly but surely pushed Yona out of the way. Silverstream and Sandbar stepped away to give Ocellus some air right afterwards. Then, after realizing Smolder's question, her eyes lit up like diamonds, eager to tell her friends about something new.

    "I read about space!" Ocellus said, feeling the milky way glisten in her eyes.

    "Uh... Space?," Smolder asked, raising her eyebrows before switching to a monotonous voice, "Seriously?"

   "You mean somewhere were something is not?" Sandbar asked with a smile, hoping things get more poetic.

   Gallus rolled his eyes, although he wouldn't admit it, the way a loving mother would to her children. "Nerds"

   "Isn't space basically this?" Silverstream asked, pointing to the empty space around them.

   "No," Ocellus answered with a laugh, before thinking for a bit, "Well, not that space"

   "Then what kind of space are you talking about?" Sandbar asked, wearing the same look of confusion as the rest of his friends.

    Ocellus then realized it would be hard to explain it to creatures who hadn't encountered the term before, but, nevertheless, she would try, and she would try with a smile. "Space... is a place outside of Equestria"

    Smolder raised her eyebrow while crossing her arms. She exchanged a look with Gallus. "Space? Pretty creative name for the creatures who live there"

    "Well, there's nocreature living there. Not yet at least. And Starswirl actually named it," Ocellus explained, then she realized there was a much easier explanation.

    Ocellus began walking into the library again and she sent her friends a hoof signal to follow her. She was tempted to just use a book to explain it but she knew her friends didn't learn that way, instead steering them towards the window.

   "Do you see the sky?" Ocellus asked, motioning to the great above, then she looked at her friends' faces. They all seemed captivated, and she could see in their eyes their thirst to learn more.

   "Well," Ocellus continued, "Space is beyond that"

   Countless gasps of awe escaped from her friends.

    "Waitwaitwait," Gallus said, shaking his head and turned ot look at Ocellus, "Are you telling me there's something past the sky?"

    Ocellus nodded with a smile, now knowing that she had now won her friends over.

    "What I'd give to go there," Smolder said, still transfixed by the possibility of space. She was always seeking adventure, and she knew somewhere in her heart that space could offer her just that.

    "I actually just got an idea," Ocellus said, snapping her head to look at the endless shelves of books again. She recalled reading about a potion that made oxygen in the current drinker's lungs multiply, thus allowing the drinker to breathe in places without breathable oxygen, like water.

    Ocellus began walking through the library again, leaving her friends staring at the window for a few seconds before realizing their Changeling friend had gone. Ocellus stopped before a shelf and plucked out a rather thick leather-bound volume with the title Moste Pontente Potions written in bold golden letters on the cover, with an image of a vial filled with a bubbling concoction underneath. She flicked to page three hundred and ninety-four, and on top of the page was written Polyjuice Potion. Ocellus had questioned the reason for its name before, and Starswirl kindly told her during what Gallus called a 'nerd convention' Starswirl told her that his main reason for naming it the Polyjuice Potion was due to the 'poly.' He thought it seemed fitting since the potion was made to make the oxygen multiply.

    "What's that?" asked Silverstream who was looking at the book from over Ocellus' shoulder.

   "It's something that could help us get to space, but I've never seen such a complicated potion. Not to mention we'd be breaking at least fifty school rules," Ocellus said, looking at the page with great concern.

   "How long will it take to make it?" Gallus asked, feathers itching to get into space.

   Ocellus looked at her friends' expectant faces with a look of defeat. She then inhaled and steeled herself to say it. "A month"

    "What are we waiting for?" Smolder asked with a determined grin, but Yona somehow missed it.

    "Yak think friends waiting for ingredients," Yona said, matter-of-factly.

    Smolder shook her head lovingly. "Then let's go get the ingredients!"

   "We have to get leaves from a Laceleaf Tree and stew it for twenty-one days," Ocellus said, the concern not yet leaving her face.

    "We should split up and get the ingredients," Sandbar suggested, and so they were at it.

+*+

    The maintenance closet in Sycamore Bird General Store was cramped. Cramped, but empty. A healthy dose of sunlight entered through the high windows. There were just two major drawbacks. The summer heat was stiffling and there was so much dust everywhere, but they could deal with that. At least there was nearly nopony who entered the rather isolated store, which was good in so many ways. There would be nopony to see them, and the potion brewed best in silent places.

    Ocellusand Smolder sat in front of a cluster of materials, from a cauldron to firewood to a jar with two blades of grass knotted together inside it. They had been waiting patiently for two hours. Guilt started to creep inside Ocellus as she realized she had sent her friends just to retrieve some ingredients for a potion. Some would even take a full day's trip, and even longer to find what they were looking for. They had to skip some days of class, but hopefully their amazing Friendship Studies experience so far would suffice.

    Then Yona entered along with Silverstream, both looking tired and sweating. Yona's fur was all over the place. Silverstream's mane, though, was not as full of volume as before, but strands clung to each other, and some to her forehead, and she smelled like fart, or to be more formal, gas emitted from the behind. Ocellus immediately stood up and took the jar and jug they were carrying and sat down behind the cauldron again. Yona was glad to see that Ocellus had a couple of apples waiting for them and immediately went nibbling them down. Silverstream, meanwhile, was tempted to inhale the food as well, but was too tired to even move.

    "How are you two?" Ocellus asked as she inspected the jar Yona gave to her. It contained a leaf that was naturally slit in half, and those halves were laced together. Four of those leaves. Ocellus smiled. Perfect. Then frowned as she realized she needed to stew them for twenty-one days. She was glad she bought ten litres of water from the general store they were in. She placed a litre of that water into the cauldron and gave the rest to Yona and Silverstream for them to drink. Then she placed the cauldron on top of the firewood. At first she was worried everything would burn, but she was reassured that none of the equipment are flammable. She placed the Laceleaf Tree leaves into the water.

    When Yona finished eating and drinking was the time she answered. "Yona tired, but okay"

  "Not me. Froggy Bottom Bogsmells terrible," Silverstream shuddered as Ocellus inspects the three liters of bog water her Hippogriff friend got her.

   "We'll get a quick trip to Ponyville Day Spa, if you want. It's Sunday and they have the best offers there," Ocellus said with a kind smile before turning towards Smolder, who was leaning against the wall, occasionally blowing sparks of fire. "Could you please light up the firewood?"

    "Sure," Smolder said with a nod and a smile, looking at her Changeling friend, quite relieved she now had something to do. She blow a fiery breath and the firewood caught the flame.

   "Now what?" Yona asked, fully satisfied and restored to her normal self.

   "Now we wait for Sandbar and Gallus. Sandbar should come on Tuesday"

+*+

Tuesday was one of Ocellus' favorite day, putting Silverstream aside. It opened with a healthy dose of Kindness Class, and loads and loads of laughter followed later on. Then her personal favorite class, Magic Class. Then Honesty Class followed by lunch, which is a great combination since Applejack gives free apple treats. Then there's Generosity Class, a relatively calm counterpart to Loyalty. Sure, she didn't really like Loyalty but at least there was plenty of of time to cool off during Recess and Guidance Period.

    Though she didn't quite reach Generosity Class yet and was enjoying a hearty lunch with her friends. They noticed there weren't as many snarky comments thrown back and forth between them and there wasn't anypony who cared a lot about what everycreature else cared about, which made them really miss Gallus and Sandbar. The first day without them was new, but the second was weird. At least they'd have lots of fun on many girls' nights! Or so they thought.

    Sandbar came stumbling to their picnic table in the wide cheery garden looking all dandy and... normal. Which lead his friends to have confused faces with their jaws on the floor.

   "Why?" Sandbar asked, laughing as he took his seat on the picnic table.

   "It's just that... you've cleaned yourself nicely," Silverstream said, who was the most confused. She had been sweaty, stunk and her mane had seen better days when she came back to Ponyville.

   "Awww... Is that a compliment?" Sandbar asked with a teasing smile, though deep inside, he had no idea what he was doing. He usually wasn't one to tease his friends, and he knew that Silverstream loved to compliment creatures. She even complimented Geo once. To his surprise, Silverstream started to blush.

"Is there gonna be a harem here?" Smolder asked, resting her head on her claw and watched the drama unfold. She smirked. "Oh wait, there isn't. Sandbar already chose"

"W-What?" Sandbar asked, his eyes growing wide as he looked at Smolder.

Ocellus giggled, but was eager to get on with it. "Well, do you have the Fillypine Forest Coin?"

"Yeah," Sandbar replied, getting the coin from his saddlebag and tossed it to Ocellus. "I also picked a few flowers. They're pretty great!"

"Ooh! For who?" Smolder asked, still not wiping her smug grin off her face.

"S-S-Stop it!" Silverstream said loudly, and they all turned to look at her. Her blush reddened quite a lot.

"Well, I'll go if you want," Smolder said, picking up her knapsack, "Oh, and Ocellus, you better help me with Kindness. Yona could use your help, too, right, Yona?"

Yona nodded, quite oblivious to whatever was happening. There was a child-like filter in her mind most of the time.

And together, the three of them left.

+*+

Thursday came and Sandbar had just realized he may have taken a liking for Silverstream that very morning when he asked Ocellus help with this new foreign emotion. He knew what it was like to have a crush before. He had one on a pretty mare who sells ice cream and then on another quite nerdy colt who really got his heartstrings a-playin'. Though having one on his best friend was an entirely different thing. It felt really different. But Ocellus being a Changeling, she quickly detected it was a crush and Sandbar left happily. What he didn't know was that Ocellus told Smolder and Yona.

During Lunch on that very same day, Silverstream, being extremely paranoid, asked Ocellus, Smolder and Yona if Sandbar liked her or not. Yona managed to stop Smolder from spilling it and asked instead, "Does Hippogriff like Pony?"

Silverstream didn't really know so Yona asked another question, "Does seeing Pony with other creatures make Hippogriff jealous?"

With a big blush on her cheek she said, "Maaaybe?"

This Thursday was going great for the friends. Well, maybe not Sandbar and Silverstream, but at least even they had a little help. And Thursday luckily had the same amazing schedule as Tuesday.

The garden was very crowded on the afternoon recess, especially Thursdays, but the Young 6 always managed to get a great spot. And Smolder, the captain of the ship, strategically placed Silverstream and Sandbar close together in the circle, leaving a wide gap between them and the others, and nopony would sit close to them. Or so they thought.

A blur of blue and yellow obstructed the Young 6's view and before they even blinked, Gallus was sitting in the gap left by Smolder.

"Hello, guys," Gallus said casually, leaning back.

"Gallus!" Ocellus said, her eyes lighting up considerably. "Did you get the oranges from Aunt Orange"

"Yeah," Gallus said, leaning forward to give the oranges from his knapsack, then spoke with a little bit of spite in his voice as he furrowed his eyebrows as his mind was filled with past irritation, "She had to travel to Apploosa, though" He really didn't like travelling all the way there.

"So all that's left is the Poison Joke Tree Roots?" Smolder asked, who would be picking it up in fifteen days, when it would be the full moon.

"All that's left is the Poison Joke Tree Roots"

+*+

It was Friday on the day it would be a full moon, and Friday was quite a pleasant day. It meant that it was officially the weekend after some classes, and lucky for all of them, Friday's schedule was quite enjoyable. Then they'd usually hang out at Sugarcube Corner on Friday night, but not tonight.

The moon gently shone through the maintenance room of Sycamore Bird's General Store. Its silver rays of moonlight hit the floor, one of the only sources of light that night. It was eerily quiet, the only sounds were the occasional night owls. It was quite chilly for a summer night, but the coolness somewhat refreshed the Young 6 in a way. Though just standing in a deserted maintenance room in the middle of the night was a bit creepy for some creatures, like Yona who was looking around as if something might pounce on her any moment. Some were enthusiastic about the situation as always, with Silverstream asking Ocellus a million questions, and Sandbar just sitting by to hear the answers. Then some could be quite indifferent, like Gallus who was leaning against the wall and waiting for something to happen.

Then Smolder came it looking quite more put together than the rest of them when they had returned, and she was carrying a jar the size of a buckball, and inside contained roots from the abominable Poison Joke Tree.

"We have all the ingredients now, right?" Gallus asked, who stopped leaning against the wall and walked nearer towards the cauldron.

"Right," Ocellus replied, smiling happily as she arranged all the ingredients before her.

"Then what do we do now?" Sandbar asked, looking eagerly at the ingredients even though he didn't exactly know how the entire potion would come together.

"We have to wait for the Laceleaf Tree leaves to be ready," Ocellus said, looking in her cauldron where four of those leaves were still stewing.

+*+

It was Sunday again. If the Sycamore Bird's General Store maintenance room was a bad place to be during Friday, it was even worse during Sunday. After all, who would like to spend this sunny day inside a maintenance room of a nearly deserted general store brewing a potion in broad daylighgt? At least the Young 6 was determined to. The Laceleaf Tree leaves were already ready and the potion was one step closer to coming into fruition.

"Sooo... What do we do now?" Silverstream asked, her voice as bright and bubbly as always as she peered over the empty cauldron. Ocellus had just removed its contents a few seconds ago.

"We add the bog water to the cauldron," Ocellus said as Silverstream eagerly did so, gagging ever so slightly as the smell of the gross bog came back to her.

"We have to crush 2 of the Laceleaf Tree leaves," Ocellus said, and all eyes immediately turned to Yona, who was wearing a confused face with her eyebrows raised and mouth shaped into a perfect o, before she realised what she had to do. With a big smile on her face, she began stomping on the leaves until they were smashed to a fine powder and helped add into into the cauldron.

"Heat it for 30 seconds at low heat" Then all heads snapped towards Smolder and she quickly lit it up as if it were no big deal, and it really wasn't for a Dragon like her. The firewood lit up to a small fire that cackled softly until it disappeared altogether after 30 seconds flat. The Young 6 turned to look at Smolder in bewilderment, with their eyes wide and their mouths open.

    "What? We Dragons learn that at the age of four," Smolder said, shrugging.

    "Now we add the Poison Joke Tree roots," Ocellus said, and Smolder happily placed the roots into the bubbling concoction. It smelled like hot chocolate and looked like tea.

    "Yona," Ocellus said, sliding the Fillypine Forest Coin towards her Yak friend, whose eyes lit up, realising once again what she had to do. She began stomping on the coin. It took a rather long while as it was metal but it finally became fine powder. Sandbar scooped the powder off the floor and placed it inside the cauldron where it started to bubble once again and turn into a creamy colour and smelled like vanilla.

    "Heat it for 20 seconds in high heat," Ocellus said, turning to Smolder who breathed a roaring fire on the wood once again. Then the fire disappeared and the potion turned into a light blue color and smelled like strawberries.

   "What are we making? Ice cream?" Gallus asked teasingly.

   "Well, what do we do now?" Silverstream asked, her face being particularly close to the cauldron. It looked beautiful and smelled beautiful, too.

    "We let it brew for a day"

+*+

     Monday was the worst day of the week, nearly everycreature could've agreed with that, even the nerdiest of the nerds. Though there was one thing to look forward to on that specific day. The potion was almost to fruition. The bell barely rang after the end of their Guidance Period to mark the end of the school day, yet the Young 6 immediately packed their things and rushed out of the school towards the Sycamore Bird's General Store in two shakes of a Pony's tail.

    "Whatnowwhatnowwhatnow?!" Silverstream said in her hyper voice.

    "Add the remaining Laceleaf Tree leaves and orange skin," Ocellus said, taking control of everything and dropped in the leaves and quickly skinned the oranges, adding them to the potion. She gave the delicious part of the oranges to her friends.

   "Stir three times counter-clockwise" Ocellus grabbed a wooden spoon and swirled through the potion three times in the given direction. Then she stopped and stepped back to examine her work.

   "It's ready?" Gallus asked, peering down on the golden concoction that smelled of cherries.

    Ocellus smiled wide. "It's ready"

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Hello. Yes. I'm back. And I am well aware I didn't dedicate the last one-shot to anyone. I apologise for that. I published that chapter in a hurry. I'll dedicate next time.
Speaking of dedications, I won't be dedicating this to anyone as it was a request.
sunshine185091 I hope you don't mind that there are two parts to this story and slipped a few Harry Potter references in there. I'm already working on the next part. Don't worry.

Remember to spread the Magic of Friendship!