//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: Alchemist's Law // by LucidTech //------------------------------// The following morning found Fluttershy outside of the hollowed out tree that was the Ponyville library. She knocked lightly on the door and after a few moments the wooden entryway was swung open to reveal a disheveled Twilight. Fluttershy looked at her friend blankly for a moment before remembering why she had come in the first place. “Oh, um, Twilight. I was just wondering, could you ask Monochrome to come with me into town today? I figure he could do with a proper tour of the town, um, that is, if he would like to.” The yellow mare said quietly as she spoke to her lavender friend. A look of relief crossed Twilight’s face, “Certainly, I’ll go get him. Just come on in for a moment.” The shy pegasus came into the library and the unicorn closed the door behind, signaling Fluttershy to wait a moment the librarian walked to a nearby door and flung it open. A burst of chemical fumes exited the door into the air and Twilight coughed heavily. “Monochrome, Fluttershy wants to show you around the town. I think you should go and give my tree time to detox so I don’t have to grow a new library.” Twilight shouted down into the room before slamming the door shut. With another series of coughs she pulled a vial of purple liquid from a nearby stand and quaffed it. The effect was immediate as the coughing stopped and Twilight levitated another of the purple potions over to Fluttershy. “Our local maniac chemist cooked these up in the middle of the night and demanded that if we breathe in any of the gas from the basement that we drink it. At first I wasn’t sure why he wanted us to drink them if he doesn’t have any down there himself, but I ran a simple identification spell on one of them and found that it will nullify any poisons that had been inhaled a few minutes prior to drinking it.” Twilight said as Fluttershy hesitantly downed the purple liquid. The concoction was as thick as a milkshake as it ran down the pegasus’ throat, which she slightly expected from her meager experience with potions, what she didn’t expect was for it to taste like someone had taken five fruits and mashed them together. She happily swallowed the exocticly flavored liquid and was about to grab another one when she realized what she was about to drink and stopped herself. Slowly the hissing in the basement died down and after about thirty minutes, during which time Twilight had set about to other parts of the library putting things in order, the door opened to reveal Monochrome with stains of varying colors running down his coat, which is quite a feat to do on black fur, and some scorch marks on his hooves. Fluttershy was about to say something when he smiled at her. “I’ll just go take a shower and then we can get going alright?” She nodded in response and the alchemist rested his saddlebags by the door with a clinking noise before he headed upstairs. Fluttershy waited patiently as she heard the sounds of running water coming from the bathroom up the stairs. Fluttershy was never one for idle waiting however and slowly she approached the still-open door to the basement. With a glance inside she saw that Monochrome had turned off all his alchemy equipment and had left what remained of the ingredients on the table in the middle of the room. Next to the plant parts rested a small, faded notebook. The yellow mare couldn’t control her curiosity as she descended the stairs and looked into the small notebook. The pages were covered in notes, some were in a beautiful cursive while others were done in a blocky print. There was hardly any open room on any of the pages as even the margins were filled with the writing, some notes detailed how to brew potions while others focused on the intricacies of the various plants. A cough from the top of the stairs broke the yellow mare out of her reading session. With a glance up the stairs she saw a freshly cleaned Monochrome looking down to her with his cold eyes. At first Fluttershy thought he was disappointed in her when she remembered that his eyes always looked like that. “I’m sorry Monochrome, I just saw this open notebook and you were busy and...” Her voice fell off as she looked shamefully at the ground. “Nonsense Fluttershy, It’s alright, I never told you not to look in my notebook. Nothing to hide in there anyway. If, however, you see a book with a black cover I would ask that you not open that, as it is my personal diary.” With a nod from the mare the stallion grinned, Fluttershy shivered slightly at the sight. A legitimate grin and uncaring eyes, it seemed to exude feelings of discomfort. After the shivers passed the pegasus made her way back up the stairs, as she did Monochrome left the doorway and when she exited the basement, making sure to close the door behind her, he had his saddlebags over his flank and Cutie Mark once again. With a nod to Fluttershy he opened the door in indication for her to go first. As the yellow mare crossed the threshold Monochrome called out to Twilight to inform her that he was leaving with Fluttershy, he received a muffled reply in return and he set to leave. As he did so he grabbed a few of the purple liquid vials and slid them into his saddlebags along with the rest of the potions he had brought. It didn’t take much convincing to get Fluttershy to swallow another of the purple potions to ensure that any poisons that may have made way into her lungs while she was in the basement were gone. Not only did she enjoy the flavor but she also really didn’t feel like being victim to a chemical sickness. The yellow mare led the way around the town and showed off several of the landmarks that were used for the everyday commute through the small town, such as the statue of princess Celestia and various other small points of recognition. As they finished their quick trip of the town they arrived at a small house near the edge of Ponyville. Monochrome glanced at her with a raised eyebrow as she knocked on the door. When it opened Monochrome was greeted with a hug from the owner of the household, as she pulled out of the lightning quick hug he noticed that something looked familiar about her, he just couldn’t place what. After a few seconds he had no trouble guessing as a small filly he had seen twice now came out and looked at him wide-eyed. “Hey it’s the nice stallion who bought me some apples, thanks for that mister.” She said as she looked up at the black stallion. “I never did get to thank you before for that. With you getting away like that so fast.” “Yeah, well, I’m very busy most of the time, you know, stuff to do.” He replied as he looked between mother and daughter. “Speaking of which..” Monochrome said as he began to back away, the gray pegasus floated behind him and began to push him slowly towards the door. “We can’t let you just run off without giving you the muffins that me and Dinky made for you.” Derpy said as she strained to move the ex-unicorn towards the door. His hooves were losing purchase on the loose dirt of the roads that were at the outskirts and he began to slide toward the door. “No thank you, you see I really do need to be going. Give them to Fluttershy or something I really need to be off.” He said as he looked at his surroundings, he noticed the filly once more and he smiled. “Would you like to see a cool trick Dinky?” Monochrome said, “I just have to do it outside, it really is a neat thing.” Dinky began to jump up and down excitedly and Fluttershy also looked like she was also excited at seeing another of Monochrome’s potions. “If you would be so kind as to stop pushing me miss pegasus, I would like to be stationary when I show this trick.” The pegasus nodded and stopped pushing him, she instead circled around to her filly and sat down to watch what the alchemist was going to do. He reached into one of his saddlebags and pulled out a silvery potion that he held in front of himself for a moment before tossing it into the air. When the bottle fell to the ground mere seconds later a burst of flashing powder filled the air and made the two mares look on in awe while the filly just looked at the now settling powder with a dropped jaw. The three regained their composure and Ditzy was the first to manage a few words. “Well, that really was some-” She stopped as she looked around and realized that the black stallion was gone. Fluttershy quickly covered for the vanishing chemist and told the two that he had a busy day today and that he needed to be other places, with a nod from the filly and the mare Fluttershy managed to convince them that he really was quite a busy pony. Before she could leave to track Monochrome down once more she was stopped by Ditzy, the grey mare gave her a package of homemade muffins and then sent her on her way. Fluttershy managed to find Monochrome at a nearby restaurant, a table for two. A cup of warm tea sat on both sides of the table and he waved the yellow pegasus over. She approached a thanked the stallion for the drink as she settled into the seat at the opposite the table from the chemist. Silence hung in the air for a few moments as both of the ponies quietly sipped their tea but Fluttershy eventually found enough courage to speak. “Why did you run away like that? They just wanted to thank you for what you’d done.” “Because running is what I do best, I run and I run because if I so much as think of the past I need to guzzle a potion to keep my mind straight.” He said to her as he looked at her face. “Besides, they probably just felt obligated to do that, I don’t think they felt that they should do it as a thank you gift. It was probably just a social thing where if they didn’t offer me a gift they would be looked down on by their neighbors.” The stallion said as he took another sip of his tea. “They aren’t like that.” “What?” “They aren’t like that.” Fluttershy repeated, “They are caring and kind-hearted and they just wanted to thank you, and you ran away from them without even stopping to apologize.” Her voice was soft but Monochrome could hear the truth in the words and he took another sip of his tea to avoid having to answer. “Why do you do it if you don’t want thanks? Why do you do so much and then expect so little for your troubles?” “Because that’s what the good guys do isn’t it?” Monochrome asked as he kept the tea cup in front of his mouth, “I want to be good, I want so much to be worthy of being my parent’s child, and if that means I have to be as cliche as a superhero in latex then that is what I will do, because honestly I don’t think that if I were to be myself I would be anywhere near heroic.” Fluttershy leaned forward and nuzzled Monochrome’s neck for a second before he jerked away from her. Silence fell once again and Monochrome looked upwards at the sun that hung suspended at about midday. “I’m going to head back to the library, I still have a few potions that I need to brew.” He stood from the seat at the table and set back off towards the library, making sure to leave a few bits on the table to pay for the drinks so that Fluttershy could enjoy the rest of the day. As he entered the library he immediately noticed something was off, and to be fair it would be hard not to notice it, a large white alicorn stood in the middle of the library. Monochrome glanced to Celestia and she glanced back, he set off to head for the basement when the stallion was stopped by a call from the princess. He turned his head around and looked at her, she looked back and with a sigh Monochrome approached the princess until they were close enough to chat in normal tones. “Hello Princess, I see that you are doing well.” The alchemist said in a lame attempt to keep her off whatever subject had brought her to the library. It didn’t work. “Hello, Monochrome. Twilight informed me that you used an alchemical potion last night without me or my sister’s say in the matter.” Monochrome nodded in response to confirm the words and the princess continued. “However we also understand that you used this potion to save the life of a foal so we are willing to ignore -” “No.” Monochrome said levelly to the princess. The alicorn raised an eyebrow at the outburst and spoke “Is there any particular reason that you declined that offer?” “You have to punish me, I can’t be above the law, that’s what caused the issues with the alchemists in the first place, I have to answer for breaking laws Celestia, regardless of why I did it.” He said to the alicorn. “Very well, the punishment is a pain spell, the spell will affect your nervous system and you will feel as though you are being physically wounded. The spell was used wildly at the end of the first and last gryphon war three hundred years ago, after the war it was forbidden as being cruel and unusual torture to retrieve information. "From then on it swiftly fell out of use. The spell itself will only last for a few minutes but if you’re sure that you still want to go through with it.” Celestia said, her eyes pleading for the stallion to take the offer to get off the hook. Monochrome saw the look in her eyes but his course of action remained rock hard. “Alright, it was your choice.” The yellow aura of the princess’ magic enveloped Monochrome for a minute before it disappeared, Monochrome retained a steady look at the princess as the spell took effect. She had expected at least some indication of pain but she found none in Monochrome, he merely gazed at her with his cold unfeeling eyes as the magic coursed through his body. It was almost worse than the screams that she could still remember from the last pony she had cast that spell on. Those cold eyes remained locked on the princess until another flash of yellow surrounded Monochrome to indicate that the spell was gone. He turned on a dime and went back to the door of the basement but made sure to call out to the white alicorn that was still standing in the middle of the library. “Thank you princess Celestia, that is probably the best thing you have ever done for me. Oh, and don't worry, that spell probably hurt you a lot more then it hurt me.” With those words the chemist disappeared once more into the basement of the hollow tree. The princess returned to the castle to finish her duties for the day but despite how much she tried to get her mind off of it the words of thanks still rang cryptically in the ears of the princess. What did he mean ‘the best thing I’ve ever done for him’, that doesn’t make any sense. How did me causing him pain help the situation at all? She thought to herself, then a realization hit the alicorn, He's been doing alchemical projects for the past ten years, but he didn't have very many potions on himself when he came to town, so that means... Celestia stopped for a moment in shock, she hid it behind her normal mask of composure but the thought actually shocked her. Oh, Monochrome, what have you done to yourself from testing volatile potions on yourself.