Strange Alchemy

Kelley felt his hooves fall back to solid ground. He was momentarily disoriented by the powerful spell, but as he looked around, the world began to steady. As his vision cleared and the nausea passed, he realized that he had been moved back to his ancestral home.

From his side, he was almost knocked over as he was embraced by Fyr’mond. She buried her narrow head into his vest, soaking it with silent tears.

“There there,” said Kelly. “There is no need to cry.”

“But his face,” said Fyr’mond. “By the gods, I shall never forget that, as long as I live!”

“He was already dying,” said Kelley. “Yes. I will not lie. He may have suffered, but he is surely dead now. His pain is ended. And we are free.” He took Fyr’mond’s hoof in his own, and wiped away her tears with the other. They looked into each other’s eyes. “Now the path is finally clear. I know that this was hard for you, my beloved princess…but now I truly am Magus. None can defy me. And none can stop me as I make our dream come true.”

He wrapped her in a hug, and she returned it.

“Not even yet twenty, and I am a widow,” said Fyr’mond in a wavering voice.

“But you are free. And now we can be together at last.”

“You- -you would have me?” said Fyr’mond, her eyes widening as though it were a surprise to her.

Kelley bowed before her. “If you agree, of course. Together, we shall bring Equestria into a new age. The two of us, standing at each other’s side.”

“Three,” said Fyr’mond, softly.

“Three?” said Kelley, confused.

Fyr’mond put her hoof to her belly, compressing her dress enough to reveal the growing bulge. Kelley gasped. “You’re…you’re pregnant.”

Fyr’mond nodded. “With my magic, I can see him. Feel his magic growing inside me.”

“Him?” said Kelley. “He…he’s mine?”

Fyr’mond smiled so very softly. “You are the only one I have ever given myself to. This is our foal. A male heir to take the throne. Equestria will call him Forth Horn, but I have already chosen a different name.”

“A name?”

“Avalon. If you approve, that is.”

“Of course I do,” said Kelley, embracing her. He smiled, and laughed. “I’m…I’m going to be a father. I’m going to have a son.”

“We are,” said Fyr’mond, taking Kelley’s hoof and leaning back. Even after everything that she had seen, and everything that had happened, she still had found some good in the world, some hope.

Then her expression changed slightly. She frowned, as if something were not quite right.

“My princess,” said Kelly, still smiling but mildly concerned. “Is something wrong?”

Fyr’mond opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. Instead, in a burst of violent force, her body was torn apart. Her skin was flayed from her form, and her muscles ripped at every tendon and ligament. Each and every one of her bones was shattered, and her entrails poured onto the floor as she burst open into a mist of blood and shredded tissue.

Kelley gaped wide-eyed as what had once been a beautiful pony now collapsed to the floor as nothing more than broken bones and raw meat. He himself was covered in her blood, and he could smell it. It smelled like metal, and like her- -and like carnations.

From the shadow at the edge of the room, Nyar appeared. Kelley looked up at her, and felt the world seem to shift around her, as if the shadow that she stepped from was something far more than simple darkness. Kelley also saw that her eyes were exposed. He had always known what they were, what she was- -but now the look in that eyes made him unsure.

Smiling, the nun approached the remnants of Fyr’mond. As casually as flipping over a stone, she turned over the ribcage and rummaged through still twitching muscles and intestines. After a moment, her hoof suddenly stopped, and she smiled far more widely than any pony should have been able to, revealing far too many teeth.

Then she lifted her hoof from the steaming waste. Though the blood could not adhere to her golden coat, something else did. Kelley stared dumbfounded as she held out what she had withdrawn. There so many emotions that he could not understand them, that they all crossed and left him feeling nothing but disbelief, as though none of this were happening, as though it was all a dream.

The object on Nyar’s hoof, though, was indeed real. Ward Kelley found himself looking at his son, a tiny and mostly hairless fetus barely big enough to span Nyar’s hoof.

The foal twisted in response to being born far too soon, waving its tiny hoof in the air. It suddenly released a peeping sound, like that of a baby chick, and Kelley saw the nub of its underdeveloped horn glow with a crisp blue sparkle.

“What…what have you done?” he whispered to the demon that stood before him.

“Oh, come now, Ward Kelley,” said Nyar, almost laughing. “Surely you do not expect me to believe that you truly loved her. All your honeyed words, all those false promises you made to her, those lies about a ‘better Equestria’. You were just using her to get into the royal court. You only took her into your bed because you could, to claim her as a trophy.” The amber nun sighed, and looked down at the mess on the floor beneath her hooves. “Except perhaps her brother. Or sister, as the case may be. Her father traded her in exchange for the hope of an heir; Dee married her for little more than to secure funding, and you used her to undercut Dee…Even I’ve used her, too.”

Nyar looked down at the tiny, peeping fetus on her hoof.

“Please,” said Kelley. “That…that’s my son…”

“Not anymore,” said Nyar. She stretched her rear legs behind her, and her dress tore as a gaping, tooth-lined maw sprung forth from her belly. Gently, she placed the fetus into the center of that mouth, and her rotten, mutated flesh sprung up around it. Kelley reached out in vain as it chirped and peeped loudly in protest of the new womb that was growing around its body.

Then, in an instant, Nyar’s body snapped shut, and her clothing vanished as smoke. Now a tall yellow pony stood before Kelley, smiling as her red eyes stared into his.

“I promise you, Kelley. This foal will indeed be born, and he shall never know death. His soul shall be pure, and innocent- -and I shall force him to burn in agony for all eternity. And then, when his mind is broken and his white soul completely corrupt, he will impregnate me. His seed shall grow inside the immoral womb that gave him birth, and from our union a new life will form: a Beast of unparalleled cruelty, of sadism and hatred that dwarf even my own. And that child shall reign for all eternity over this land of ponies!”

“No,” whispered Kelley. Without thinking, he raised his marked arm and pointed it at Nyar. The marks glowed red. “You will not! Bring her back! Return my son!”

Her eyes narrowed, and she raised a hoof. Kelley was suddenly thrown backward, slamming into stone wall behind him and held there by his marked foreleg.

“This- -this isn’t possible!” he cried, struggling unsuccessfully to free himself. “I summoned you! I command you! It is my magic that makes you possible!”

Nyar stepped forward over the corpse of Fyr’mond and chuckled. The chuckle grew into full-blown laughter. It was not the sort that was meant to punctuate a point; instead, it was the truest form of all, as though she had been suppressing it for so long in the face of something overwhelmingly amusing.

“You called my name in the dark! I simply chose to appear, to produce this pony avatar for you! You have no power, Kelley. You never did!” She leaned close to him and licked his nose with her forked tongue. “Or did you not know that you speak with demons you cannot command?”

“Fyr’mond,” whispered Kelley. “You- -you killed her…”

“And I pulled her soul into myself. I have it even now in my grasp. I can hear her screaming at this very moment.”

“But she…she wasn’t evil! She wasn’t corrupt! She was kind and gentle, generous and loving! Yes, I used her! Yes, I pleasured myself on her body when I didn’t truly love her, but she does not deserve this!”

Nyar glared into his eyes. “Do you think that this is the face of justice?” she asked. “Do you think I am an agent of cosmic morality? That I torture only ‘evil’ souls? Can you really be that foolish?”

“But- -”

“All souls fall to me. The innocent, the pure, the righteous- -I rend and tear them, and devour them into myself for all eternity. There is no good or evil left in this universe, and every god you had is dead.”

Kelley felt himself breathing harder, and his rage finally boiled over. He drove his free hoof into Nyar’s face- -but it never touched her. Kelley screamed as his hoof and foreleg were vaporized, the skin muscle and bone reduced to nothing more than thin wisps of smoke.

“My leg!” he cried, holding the stump to his bloody chest. Fyr’mond’s blood, he remembered.

Nyar raised her hoof to Kelley’s marked one, and forced the runes implanted there to glow. Kelley cried out as the stump at his chest seemed to boil, and then he watched as new bone sprouted forth, surrounding itself with new muscle and flesh. In seconds, his limb had returned.

“Why would you strike me?” asked Nyar, feigning innocence. “I only gave you everything you ever wanted. You asked for power, and I gave it to you. You asked for a mare, for a position in the royal court- -and I gave it to you.”

“You killed her,” said Kelley, struggling against his binding. Quickly, he was finally realizing the truth: that he had been given everything he had ever wanted, and that it was all lies. “And you…I never had any power. Not of my own.”

“No.”

“Then I refuse!”

Nyar paused, taken aback. Then she smiled, amused. “Refuse what?”

“This lie! This power you gave me! I refuse it!”

“Oh really?” Nyar leaned closer, and Kelley choked on her scent. “Well, then. Let’s make this interesting!”

She jumped back and danced in the blood and organs that covered the floor. “A choice, Ward Kelley! I give you two options.” She stopped, and then leaned forward, rubbing her chest against his. “The first is to follow the path you are on.” She pointed at his foreleg. “That mark is mine. I created it, and bound it to you. But it is more powerful than you know. If you keep it, you shall never die. You shall exist on this world forever. My power shall be yours. You will be a king…a god. You will rule this land. And every second, you shall serve me absolutely.”

Her head descended his chest, and Kelley winced as she violated him with her forked tongue.

“I own you,” she said from his crotch. “I possess your body, your mind, your soul. You will serve me- -” Kelley felt a sensation of sharp teeth biting down, not enough to penetrate his skin but enough to make him cry out in fright. “And you will spread violence and perversion throughout this land for all eternity.”

“And the second choice?”

Nyar appeared across the room from him. “The second choice you already know. It is the one you offered to take. You no longer serve a purpose to me. The second option is that you die. Here and now.”

“I summoned you to serve me, demon. I…I will never serve you!”

Nyar smiled, and Kelley was released. “Then the choice is made.”

As Kelley watched, the final layer of Nyar’s appearance vanished before him. The veil that surrounded her was stripped away, and he was allowed to see what lay beyond. In that instant, he witnessed her true form, the two glowing spheres whose light Dee had only glimpsed through reflection and shadow.

Kelley now saw the true form of Satin Veil, and his immortal soul itself shattered at the sight. For a moment, his mind persisted in the husk that remained of him. It lasted just long enough to fully understand the nature of existence without a soul, and to realize that he had made the wrong choice.

Then it snapped. The dry, empty husk of an old stallion fell lifeless to the floor.