The Cutie Alchemist

by Visharo

Tirek

Tirek: The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary.

ERROR

REROUTING

Tirek:

Origin: the noble family of Hungary.

Meaning: Shield

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The six of them wandered through dense undergrowth, Muffins still in the lead. Autumn Blaze said it was made that way, before Starswirl could ask her what that meant, Stygian was already halfway through a conversation with her. It was almost impressive how fast he reacted to new knowledge. He wished he could be that excited. Nowadays, he felt...lost. Tragedy after tragedy, it was weighing him down more than he realized. Then he blinked.

"Celestia?"

"Yeah?" The mare looked up from her conversation with Sunset.

"Do you feel that?" Starswirl rolled his shoulders one at a time. "It feels like something is pressing down on my shoulders. Something...malevolent."

"Err...no." She and Sunset shared a glance. "I don't feel anything. You?"

"I don't feel anything either." Sunset answered.

"Me neither." Shining Armor said, suddenly beside him. "Is it stress? Or..."

He did not need to finish that sentence. If he felt something evil, it usually meant something evil was nearby. Perks of being the Guardian of Harmony, he surmised. He paused in his inner monologue. Perks. What a curious word.

"We're almost there!" Autumn giggled, before bursting into a run. Stygian stared after her receding figure, nonplussed.

"That was rude."

"Come on, we probably should follow her." Shining started sprinting too.

Starswirl heaved himself into a steady gait. It felt steady and felt sustainable, but he couldn't help but notice that he was gradually slowing down. He harrumphed, annoyed, and pushed more. Celestia and Sunset seemed to notice his distress and matched their speed with his. The scenery seemed to blur around them, the colors blending into each other until it was nonsensical. Starswirl felt to feel nausea, this was wrong, it was very wrong. He stopped running and promptly fell over.

"Swirly!" Celestia also stopped and helped him to his hooves. "Don't do that!"

"Cel...Celes...Tia, this forest. It is wrong." He felt himself tipping again so he carefully eased himself to a comfortable sitting position. "It is all wrong!" Then the world went black.

***

"Swirly?"

"Luna?"

***

"Swirler of Stars." A soft voice penetrated the fog of pain. Starswirl the Bearded allowed himself to wearily open his eyes, then immediately shut them. It was too painful. The weight was too painful. "Swirler of Stars, awake."

"Ra..." He smacked his lips. They were very dry. "Rain Shine."

"Ah, you've returned to the land of the real." A shadow fell over his eyelids, making him wince involuntarily. Then he felt something cool touch his lips. He drank eagerly. "Your companions tell of your sufferings of late. They are mere phantoms. This land is safe, I assure you."

"Rain Shine." He repeated, still keeping his eyes closed. "You called me the Guardian of Harmony. You spoke of evil in your note. Storms darken our horizons of unnatural origin. There is something terrible happening to Equus."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it? However, I did not call you here." There was a pause.

"You did not call me here."

"No."

"Pray tell then, what is this?" Starswirl reached out with his magic, still keeping his eyes closed, and tugged free the note that Ditzy had given him.

"Mmm, most curious. This here, is indeed, my handwriting. However, I have no recollection of ever writing this note. Who gave you this?"

"Ditzy Doo, or Muffins, or Derpy. I still have yet to learn her name." He chuckled. "The gray pegasus that was with us."

"..." This pause felt longer than the first one. "Starswirl, are you feeling well? Well, in a more intimate, mental kind of well."

"I feel terrible, Rain Shine. My daughter is most assuredly dead, Ponies keep appearing, ponies keep disappearing. Storms plague the skies. Fires wreak havoc. The temperatures are erratic. I have dreams, Rain Shine, dreams of utmost hilarity and terror." Starswirl shook his head. "I am not well."

"I see." Another pause. "I only ask because there wasn't a gray pegasus in your party. Merely your two daughters, that studious colt, and that handsome stallion."

"Careful, he is already spoken for."

"My apologies."

"No Derpy?"

"No."

"Perhaps I am less well than I thought."

"Perhaps."

"Go to sleep, Starswirl. You need your rest."

"Yes." Starswirl fell asleep.

***

"Pain."

"Hang on, Swirly!"

***

BOOM!

Starswirl bolted upright, terror filled him. Smoke filled the area he was in, making it very hard to see. Still, he got up and pushed out of whatever he was in. His family needed him and he was not about to stay around and let anything happen. Before he registered it, he had his staff out and waving spells around to dispel the smoke as well as locate anything, friend or foe.

His spell proved to be useful as within countings, Starswirl found his daughter and Shining hiding in a ditch, another unknown creature in the distance, and then, this behemoth that was directly in front of him. Awe and terror reigned for control as he felt his gaze slowly look upwards. A terrifying visage looked back down, a cruel red face awash with complex disharmonic spellwork, two beastly horns compelling said spellwork. Pale yellow eyes seemed to bore into his very soul, almost as if coercing it into giving up. A great white beard spilled from his face, giving him an almost timeless quality. This was a fearsome foe.

BOOM!

The next thing he knew, Starswirl found himself in the air and on fire. Being the trained magician he is, he put up a shield right before the blast hit him, but the force was enough to propel him through the sky.

"Starswirl the Bearded. I have heard many things about you, I wonder if any of it is true." A loud booming voice shook the earth. Starswirl slowed himself to a stop and let himself float in the air. He rotated and faced the demon that dared to hurt his family.

"ANNOUNCE YOURSELF!"

"I am Lord Tirek, Eater of Souls, Drinker of Mana, Render of Spirit. Who are you, Starswirl the Bearded?"

"I am Starswirl the Bearded." He looked down and saw his daughters being ushered away by Shining. "I am a guardian, a builder, an adventurer, a scholar, but most importantly, I am a father." With that last line, he whirled his staff around and around, generating friction. Before the demon could register anything, that friction turned into a beam of compressed magic. Instead of a loud boom, like Starswirl was expecting, the magic dissipated into nothing.

"So, you're a fool." Lord Tirek took a step forwards, crushing trees and pulverizing rock. He locked eyes with Starswirl and inhaled deeply.

Agony.

That's what it felt like. Pure agony.

Starswirl screamed and howled, begged and cried. He was no longer being supported by his own power, he was held aloft by the demon's power alone. Instead, his power was being drained out of him. He watched through tears as a shimmering ball of light pooled out of him and then slowly moved towards Lord Tirek's awaiting maw. And Starswirl was powerless to stop it.

But, at least his daughters were safe. If only he could hang on just a bit longer, then they could escape. Get away from all of this. Granny Smith would know what to do, he had faith in that old hag. He chuckled, despite himself. Here he was, getting his soul drained, and he was chuckling because of a cranky mare. That chuckle turned into a laugh, and before he knew it, he was in hysterics.

"It appears you have lost yourself." Tirek said, grinning gleefully. Watching the glimmering ball make its way down his throat. Then without a second left to spare, he swallowed it. Starswirl's soul, gone, just like that.

He fell. This was it, he was certain of it. He already felt himself going gray and dead inside. Nothing else to live for. Then out of the corner of his eye, right before he hit the ground, a dark miasma appeared over the horizon. It reached out and caught Starswirl as if he were a mere leaf.

"Tante?" It looked like it, but bigger. After saving him, it rose up to its full height and seemed to take in Tirek. The two eyed themselves wearily, Tirek more cockily than the entity.

"And who may you be?" The demon asked, almost jovially.

"My name is Luna of Stars, daughter of Starswirl the Bearded, Dreamwalker, Starchaser, Sister of the Moon. I will be your doom." And with that statement, the two giants clashed, sending waves of power in every direction, kicking up snow, dead leaves, and even trees.

It was in that moment, in that broken brain of Starswirl's, did he realize what had just occurred. Luna was here. Luna was here and she was not supposed to! She's just a filly! Starswirl's filly! With strength he knew he shouldn't have been able to muster, he ran.

He ran as fast as he could, his breaths coming in shallow gasps, his cold gray chest, aching with a lost something, his fur singed, and his eyes stinging. Starswirl could not, would not, let his daughter go into battle against that demon!

Then, just like before, Tirek inhaled.

"NO!"

Starswirl sped up, determined to catch up, to do anything, something! Branches whipped his legs and stomach. Sharp stones dug into his hooves. Leaves kept on flying into his eyes. He ignored it all. None of it mattered. Luna mattered.

He didn't notice it. How could he? He was focused on the sky. An unseen rock, almost as large as a small tree stump, crossed his path. Starswirl took a tumble. His unfounded energy disappeared within a flash. He was back to being a useless sack. He struggled and screamed. He couldn't let it end there!

But, nothing changed.

The sky darkened as Tante grew smaller and smaller. A silhouette was now visible within the miasma. A small mare. An alicorn mare. But he knew who that was.

"LUNAAAAA!"

The sky cracked. Light from the heavens blinded him, making his eyes water and his heart shatter into even more pieces. There was a heavy thud that was audible even over the thunder. In his heart of hearts, he knew, but he still dragged himself over to check. To witness the terribleness of everything. With each passing counting, he felt his heart cracking. He could barely see through his tears at this point, but he still kept at it.

It was when his head bumped into something soft and wet, did he look up. What he saw nearly broke him. Luna's beautiful body, lithe and lustrous, horn and newly acquired wings. All of it, broken and beaten. She was breathing, but it was raspy and ragged. Starswirl choked back a sob.

"Sw...Swi..."

"Shhhh." Starswirl touched a finger to her lips. "Don't speak, save your energy. You did amazing." He had no idea how he was keeping it together. By all rights and purposes, he should be at death's door. At his words, Luna seemed to smile and lean back. Then a shadow loomed over them.

"Isn't that precious?" The demon threw back his head and guffawed. The clouds rumbled as if trying to compete with him. They were losing. "Like father, like daughter!" He rose a hoof into the air, no doubt determined to squish them, but something had snapped inside of Starswirl.

He saw it once before, moons ago. He let Harmony fizzle away. His broken heart mended in his chest then turned pitch black. His tear-stained eyes turned a putrid green and his grimace turned into a feral grin. Horrid magicks flowed around him and he felt good.

"What's this? The little stallion wants a rematch?" Before the demon could laugh again, a hole suddenly appeared in his chest. Tirek stumbled in shock. Starswirl...no, Starfall drifted through the air to the giant who used to terrify him. The demon was no more, now, it was Starfall who was the demon. His mouth opened, unnaturally wide, and roared out in victory. He let his newfound power ooze out of him in waves of pure darkness, tainting the land, making it his own.

This was his land, his world, his domain. And here, here he was King.