//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four 
// Story: Alchemist's Law 
// by LucidTech 
//------------------------------//

	(Edited by v-dub)

The next day found the drowsy stallion awakened in the basement where he had fallen asleep after he had gotten carried away with his potion making. With a sigh Monochrome picked himself off the ground as a blanket softly rolled away from him. With a glance at the blanket the stallion stood to his full height and went to pick up his now empty saddlebags. 

Merely two days since the stallion had found himself in this town, he was now involved with all six of the elements and had saved one of their lives, far more involvement than he ever intended to have when he had first arrived. Regardless of that though, Monochrome decided he was going to continue what he had been doing ever since he had been evicted from the public eye. He was going to roll with the punches.

With this in mind, the stallion exited the library with his saddlebags filled with a few potions in case of emergency, one of which glowed curiously. Due to this, the bags were lighter than Monochrome could remember and with Twilight at his side, Monochrome headed towards the small cottage that Fluttershy owned on the edge of the Everfree.

There was a squabble between the two about if Fluttershy could come or not, but it was a fact that the animal enthusiast was knowledgeable of the vast majority of the plants that the forest had to offer. The poisonous effects from the more malignant plants and the curative properties of the few medicinal plants in the forest were well known by the mare since many of her animals had encountered them inside of the forest proper. In addition to this, she also knew the general layout of the forest due to the knowledge that the animals she took care of shared with her, knowledge which would be invaluable should they get lost in the labyrinthine woods.

With this knowledge in mind, the stallion knocked lightly on the door and waited for it to open. He didn’t have to wait long until the door opened to reveal a white rabbit tapping his foot on the ground,  looking at Monochrome with a perturbed expression. When he saw Twilight at the alchemist’s side, the rabbit moved to the side to allow entry into the household. 

As they entered the small, cozy cottage, the yellow pegasus entered into the room as well with her saddlebags resting easily on her back. She smiled shyly at Monochrome before turning her attention to Twilight. They had a discussion about the issue at hand.

“I’m ready to go whenever you two are,” stated Fluttershy.

The duo conferred briefly before informing the shy mare that they were indeed ready to head off. Twilight quickly double checked her saddlebags and the three headed off to the parting wave of the rabbit, who had been at the door earlier, who now had something akin to worry on his white face. 

“So, Monochrome, what plants did you have in mind to pick today?” the lavender mare asked with a glance at the alchemist as they entered the forest. Despite the reasons the librarian had given for coming along in the first place, the pessimistic majority of Monochrome’s mind was screaming that she had come along for the sole purpose of checking whatever plants the pony picked up on this excursion into the forest.

The stallion glanced at Twilight from underneath his top hat and his cold glare sent shivers down her spine. She would never get used to those eyes. “I will be picking any plants I can find that are helpful for my potions. A few of said ingredients will be used in alchemy,  but those I will pass off to your precious tiara wearing princess first, have no fear.” 

The bitter tone the stallion spoke with made the unicorn flinch slightly, but she didn’t say any more words as they began the expedition into the dark forest. It was mostly a small exploration trip and Twilight had decided she couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. She pulled out a small compass, a sheet of paper, and a thick reference guide titled Cartography and You.

The first time that the stallion stopped to pick a plant, Fluttershy looked over his shoulder and took notice of what he was pulling. At the same time, Twilight would flip open her book and began to sketch a remedial map of the area they had traversed so far. As they continued on. the process was the same, repeating until Monochrome eventually began talking to the shy pegasus.

“Do you know what this plant is Fluttershy?” the stallion asked as he indicated a small shrub in front of him. Doing so broke the silence that had accompanied the group so far.

“It looks like thremroot,” the pegasus responded quietly to the stallion’s question.

“Good eye, it is thremroot. In regular chemistry, the roots of this plant can be used to create minor poisons as well as antidotes depending on how long you cook it; the leaves can be used to make balms. In alchemy, the roots can be used to create an instant smog when the liquid is exposed to air and the leaves can be used to make a liquid that shifts a metal to a liquid state for a few moments before hardening again.”

“Um, I don’t mean to disbelieve you, but it seems kind of strange that the same plant can be used for poisons and antidotes,” the yellow pegasus asked as she looked at the stallion from under her pink mane.  

“Indeed it can be. The poisons are created at low temperatures; a lazy chemist may accidentally make lethal poisons simply because they didn’t let it cook long enough at a high enough temperature,” he said as he looked at the yellow pegasus at his side. His eyes began to glaze over and they widened in horror though the uncaring feeling remained.

“Twilight, blue potion in my right saddlebag, could you get it for me?” he asked quickly as he looked down at the ground keeping his gaze locked on the dirt trodden path that had been made from a few ponies who traveled the outskirts of the forest.  Sensing the urgency in his voice, the librarian immediately did as directed to and pulled out the potion and put it in front of the stallion’s gaze.

“There you are. Why did you need it?”

Ignoring the lavender unicorn, the alchemist quickly uncorked the bottle and gulped down the remaining half of the draught. With an exhale, the glaze disappeared from his eyes. After placing the now empty bottle back into his saddlebags, the stallion turned his attention back to the path.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said as the stallion was about to continue walking down the path. “I didn’t mean to do whatever it is that just happened.” The pegasus was once more looking at the ground at her feet.

“It isn’t your fault Fluttershy. I have some nightmares that occasionally try to surface during the day from time to time. The potion I just quaffed is named ‘piercing darkness’ in the old tongue. It helps to even out the balance,” the stallion said before he could stop himself. he paused now in mid-trot as thoughts ran through his head. He hadn’t told anyone about that since it had started happening and he had just told this mare he hadn’t known for even three days. 

As the thoughts continued to race through his mind, he was well aware of the curious glare that Twilight was giving him. With that as encouragement to keep moving, the stallion continued on his way along the path. Twilight continued to keep her stare on him, as the thoughts of what he just said ran through her mind. Eventually she spoke up.

“So, if you have nightmares during the day, what do you have at night?”

“Pretty dreams about bunnies,” came the sardonic reply from the ex-unicorn as he continued trotting on. 

The remainder of the trip in the forest went by without words as the alchemist continued his collecting of ingredients and Twilight fleshed out the basic map of the area she had been creating. It was mostly without detail, but a few pointed landmarks were laid onto the sheet of paper, with the castle of the royal pony sisters as well as Zecora’s house among them.

When the bags of the alchemist were loaded to near bursting with several different plants, the stallion stole a glance to Fluttershy to inform her that he was finished. The group began to exit the forest as the sun began to set behind the horizon. After they left, the group began to walk in the direction of Fluttershy’s house near the edge of the forest to drop her off before the two unicorns went back to the library for the night.

The trip was interrupted when a high pitched scream pierced the night. The stallion immediately ran in the direction of the noise, while the mares paused briefly before following. When the alchemist arrived at the location, he found a timber wolf attacking a small pink unicorn filly. Once again, without pause, the stallion barreled into the side of the wolf and sent it flying off of the helpless foal.

It landed on its feet and turned to face the new attacker. Just as it was about to charge, a bottle hit it squarely in forehead, shattering a sending shards of broken glass into the carapace of the monster. In addition to this, a silvery mist covered its snout, blocking not only its vision but also its sense of smell, effectively blinded the beast. This caused it to fearfully ran back into the forest. With the timber wolf gone, the alchemist turned his attention to the small filly, who lay on her side as blood poured out of several small wounds across her body. 

The stallion pulled out a clear bottle that had a shimmering liquid inside as Twilight and Fluttershy arrived on the scene. He glanced at the purple mare before he spoke as he held a piece of cloth the the end of the now uncorked bottle.

“This is an alchemical brew that will prevent the filly from bleeding out. Make sure to inform the princess that I’m not going to heed her requirements if a life is on the line.” 

Without waiting for a response from Twilight he took the damp rag and rubbed the filly’s wounds. The blood seemed to stop flowing from the wounds and the lavender mare noticed that the blood was thickening immediately at the edge of the wound. The skin slowly began to close around the wound and the stallion replaced the bottle back into his saddlebags.

As he did so, he noticed a grey pegasus half-running, half-flying her way to their location. The stallion backed away from the foal and set off in direction of the library leaving the lavender unicorn and the yellow pegasus to deal with the situation. 

“Oh, my little muffin are you alright?” Ditzy asked as she stepped over to her daughter, who was just beginning to come back to consciousness.   

“She’ll be fine, Miss Doo. Her wounds are all healed up,” came the soft reply from the yellow pegasus. Twilight looked at Fluttershy with a look of disbelief on her face but the grey mare turned to her with a look of appreciation on her face.

“Thank you for helping my daughter, Fluttershy. I don’t know what I would do if I were to lose her.”

“Oh it wasn’t me, it was a stallion friend of mine. Sadly, he had to go take care of some other business and he couldn’t stick around.”

“A stallion friend huh?” Ditzy said with a gleam in her eye. “Well make sure to send him by to my house some time so I can reward him with a few homemade muffins.”

“Will do Ditzy. If I can get him to come outside for something I’ll make sure we swing by your house for some of your delicious muffins.”

With a few parting words the groups disbanded and went their separate ways. Fluttershy was heading back to her cottage, Twilight to her library and Ditzy and Dinky to their house. 

When Twilight arrived, she immediately went to the door to the basement. When she opened it, a flood of horribly scented smoke burst forth from the room and hit her in the face. Ignoring the less than pleasant scent the lavender mare made it down to the floor of the room where the scent was much more bearable. There she found the alchemist working over his equipment as several odd liquids bubbled in their vials.

“Why did you walk away like that? She just wanted to thank you,” the librarian said as she found her voice amidst the smoke of the brewing potions.

“Because the last time I saved a filly with an alchemical potion, I was banished from the town and my horn got gouged out of my head,” came the deadpan reply from the alchemist. This was enough to end the conversation before it started and, after a few moments, sent Twilight back up into the library proper.

“Not to mention, of course, that the colt I saved was being chased by law hounds who were tearing through his skin merely because he had stolen a piece of bread,” the stallion replied under his breath to nopony in particular. “And that’s why I have always hated small towns.”

(If some of you are wondering why the chapters are coming at odd intervals it is because this is an intermediate project I work on while my mind ticks away the chapters of my other story. Thanks for your patience. -N64Fan)