“I CANT BELIEVE THIS!!!”

Spike groaned as he watched his mother storm around the castle library, the All Seer turned Divine Oracle looking at a book on State Alchemists which she had forced the young man to find after her encounter with Zecora.

“Twilight, you know your not supposed to shout, you still haven't gotten the hang of your divine voice yet.”

Twilight looked like she wanted to shout again, but stopped herself, sighing as she spoke to him. “Sorry Spike, but this book just proved everything Zecora said was true about her authority, and it's just so frustrating.”

Spike waited a moment, then got up and began to re-shelve more books. “I don't get it, your the Princess of Magic and Ruler of Ponyville, cant you make her do what you say.”

“Not when it comes to matters concerning Alchemy,” said Twilight. “It's says right there in the book, when the Zebrican State Alchemists got themselves firmly established as a world power, they formed a treaty with all the nations of the world that they alone hold supreme authority over any alchemic matter that is brought to their attention, and none may challenge it.”

“Hm,” snorted Spike, “sounds like political bull-crap to me.”

“Well it's sadly very sound political bull-crap, for in certain matters Alchemists are the only ones who can deal with a threat like this, and I cant help but recall how none of the girls magic worked on that Homunculus.”

“It still sounds like bull-crap,” said Spike, placing the last book on the shelf before leaping down and heading for the door. “Well I'm off to get ready, me and Ember had a nice dinner planned for tonight and I don't want to miss it.”

“Just make sure you back here tomorrow for work!”

“I know,” said Spike, waving his hand and causing the door to close, causing Twilight to chuckle as she went back to her books.

“Now, lets see if we can find that legend Zecora was talking about.”

*

Deep within the forest, Zecora walked, keeping her pace slow as she moved through the bushes and trees.

“You damn fool,” she said aloud to herself, “you should not have done that, soon the other dogs will come sniffing, and then...”

She stopped, sensing something in the trees to her left, turning to see a blue eye and an eye baring an Ouroboros tattoo upon it staring out of the dark toward her.

When she turned fully toward it, it exited it's hiding spot, revealing itself to be a young boy with dark skin like her own, and long white hair.

“M...mamma?”

*

In the Ponyville train station, a small train pulled in, three dark skinned figures disembarking from it's single passenger car before beginning to make their way to the castle. They were all dressed in military garb, and all of them had gloves which bore transmutation circles, each pair unique to it's wielder.

When they reached the castle, the one at the head of the group gestured to the one on his left, the woman nodding before walking up and knocking on the front door, waiting patiently as she heard footsteps within and not budging when the door opened, revealing a young green haired man dressed in a fine suit and fedora.

“Hello miss,” said Spike, “what can I do for you?”

“We have come to discuss matters with your Princess, please let her know that state alchemists are here to see her.”

Spike looked them up and down, then sighed. “Look, I can see you guys came a long way, but I am afraid the Princess is very busy, you'll just have to come back...”

Spike made to close the door, only for the woman to stop him, energy arching off her glove as she leveled a cold glare at him. “I am afraid we will have to insist whelp, this is State Business.”

Spike smirked at that, his eyes beginning to glow as he spoke, “Careful lady, you have no idea who you are fucking with here.”

“I have killed many of your kind whelp,” said the woman, “perhaps it is you who do not know who you are fucking with.”

Spike made to speak further, only to stop when he heard footsteps behind him, looking to see Twilight descending the stairs as she looked toward him. “Spike, who's at the door?”

Spike stepped aside, allowing the door to fully open and reveal the people waiting beyond. “These State Alchemists want to have a word with you.”

“I see,” said Twilight, “well you better get going Spike, I'll take it from here.”

“Suit yourself,” said Spike, walking past the alchemists before stopping and turning back to the woman who had challenged him, “Oh, and one more thing.”

He then snapped his fingers, causing all their gloves to burn to ash before their eyes, yet leaving their hands intact as he spoke. “Your only alive because I wanted it so, so again, you have no idea who you were fucking with.”

Then he vanished, leaving the woman and the other Alchemists shaking with anger as she turned to Twilight, “You need to discipline that servant of yours, he has no respect for his betters.”

“Respect is earned, and he is not my servant, he is my son, which means his words spoke true, you really didn't know with whom you were fucking with.”

She descended the stairs then, gesturing for them to follow her as she began walking down a side hallway. “Now, could you tell me what you came to speak to me about, for I am busy doing important research and I would like to get back to it.”

The woman turned to the man who lead them, causing to nod before he spoke. “We come here in regards to the monster attack that happened recently, for we have reason to believe they are the same creatures we have been hunting.”

“You mean the homunculi?” asked Twilight.

“Homunculi!” explained the shorter of the two women in shock, her counterparts showing the same level of shock as she was.

“Yes,” said Twilight as she let them into the throne room, closing the door behind her before walking up and taking her seat in the plush throne before speaking again. “That is what our resident State Alchemist identified them as, and she is currently on the trail of them now, after she through her weight around.”

The leader of the group quirked a quizzical eyebrow at that, “Curious, we had no idea a State Alchemist was living in Ponyville, did you happen to catch this woman's name?”

Twilight nodded, “Her name is Zecora, through she never gave me her State Title.”

At the mention of Zecora's name, the alchemists all gave each other significant looks, before finally the leader of their group spoke up. “I see, we had no idea she was still active, we had assumed that she had gone rouge. We thank you for this information Princess, and if you will excuse us, we have some questions to ask around, good day.”

They were quick to leave, leaving Twilight to lean forward as she clasped her hands together, looking at the place where the alchemists had been with a cold glare as she sighed. “I have a bad feeling about all this.”

*

Zecora followed closely behind the small boy, her hands trembling as they continued through the dark force, and her eyes never leaving the small boy in front of her.

“It's okay mamma, were almost there,” said the boy, looking back to her and smiling as he continued to move, causing Zecora to shake even more but smile, part of her not knowing what else to do.

They eventually reached a cave, Zecora using alchemy to create a ball of light which lit up the cave as they went inside, the boy taking her deep within before stopping as he made a whistling sound.

Slowly, one by one, six more figures appeared from the darkness, three females, and three males. One of them she recognized by face as the one who been with the giant monster in Ponyville, while the rest she recognized because, like the little boy who had called her mamma, they all bore the faces of her children.

“So you were telling the truth Zia, it is her...but are you sure it's not the other.”

As Zia turned to glare at the speaker, Zecora gave the speaker a questioning look. “Other, what other what are you talking about?"

The man who spoke sighed, his golden eyes flashing as he looked to her and spoke. “A week after you left us a to find a way to restore us, woman came, wearing your face and speaking in your voice. She took as to a secluded place, and fed us these red stone, which is why we look like we...were supposed to.”

“That's not all,” said Zia, “she kept calling us these strange names, not....not the names of those who came before us, which is what tipped us off that something was not right, but we decided to play along for a little while.”

Zecora nodded in understanding, her mind racing back across the centuries to the day Jericho fell, for she had a terrible feeling she knew what they were talking about.

However, after searching over the foggy memories, she could find nothing, and so shook her head and sighed. “I am sorry, but I do not know of anything like that. Now, tell me why you are searching for Philosopher Stones here.”

“We....we smelled them,” said one of the other men, this one hugging himself as he rocked back and forth on the ground, his black eyes shaking as he spoke. “We smelled them here, seven of them, we thought if we could find them....we could be human....like you wanted.”

Zecora made to go to the young man, only for the last to stop her, his golden eyes showing concern as he spoke. “Don't go near him mother, he...Marphis is safe around us, but around normal humans he...he gets this insatiable urge to eat them, which we believe was caused by those red stones we consumed.”

“I see, and what about the rest of you.”

“Well you saw what I was,” said the black haired woman, who Zecora knew was named Marcia. “I can can shape change at will, Zia can turn her fingers into claws and can also form this wicked body covering that allows her to move faster. Somboe can form this wicked hard armor which cant be pierced by anything, Little Niceia there can see everything with that eye of his. Sadina can move really fucking fast, like so fast you cant see her, and Zedira can use the shadows as living weapons, kinda scary when he does it.

“I see,” said Zecora, before sitting down and leaning herself against a large rock, smiling as Niceia cuddled up next to her. She placed a hand on his head, running her fingers through his long white hair before speaking to Somboe. “So, how long was it before you left this...others care?”

“When she tried to convince us to help her craft a Philosopher's Stone, that was when we knew for sure that she wasn't you, for you would never ask us help you do that....not when those who we were meant to be died as the cost of your silence.”

Zecora teared up at that, her arm tightening a bit around Niceia as she tried to control her sobs, but once she was under control she asked another question. “Then why are you looking for them, if you were unwilling to help her create one, why look for it?”

“Well we figured some one had to have been stupid enough to make one,” said Somboe, “So we figured if we could find one, we could figure out a way to turn human. As for why we were searching here, Marphis's nose started going crazy as we were making our way through this forest, started making him go crazy to, took a large chunk out of my arm before Zia managed to calm him down.”

Zecora rose an eyebrow at that, “Your arm looks undamaged.”

Somboe smiled at that, then in the blink of an eye ripped off his own arm, Zecora looking at it in horror before gasping in shock as a new arm grew in its place. “None of us know how, but we can all recover from any wound, regrow any lost limb, hell Niceia there had his hole head blown off and it grew back, which did nothing but piss him off.”

“Hm,” murmured Zecora, leaning her head back as she let her mind wander over everything she had just been told. She now knew, thanks to what she had just been told, that these homunculi were probably very very hard to kill, if not outright impossible to kill. Whats more, Marphis had gone crazy when he had thought he had smelled seven Philosopher Stones in Ponyville, which was the reason why Marcia and Zia had attacked.

“Seven Philosopher Stones....no, it couldn't be that simple.”

“What is it mother?” asked Zia.

Zecora turned to Marphis, “Marphis, how do you know it was Philosopher Stones you smelled, have you smelled them before?”

Marphis gave a shaky nod, “Ye...yes, the other, she had one, and I was able to learn it's smell. So powerful, so...tantalizing, it's why I lost it when I smelled the seven in that little town.”

“I see...well the only artifacts of any power in that town are The Elements of Harmony, so I think, though this is just a guess, that you mistook their smell for the smell of Philosopher Stones.”

She then patted Narcia on the head, waiting till the boy got up before standing herself and speaking. “I have to get back, I shall tell them a story, tell them you've headed deep into the forest before I lost your trail entirely. As for you, there is a cottage located deep within the northern edge of the forest near the trail, I want you to go to it and wait for me there, I will come back for you soon.”

“Ok mother, just please come back....we missed you.”

Zecora smiled at that, “I missed you to my little rebenok, and I will be back...I'm not losing you again...any of you.”

*

Hours later, Zecora found herself making her way toward Ponyville's new library, for she had some research to do, and she knew from a few of her visits their that there was an entire section dedicated to the alchemic arts.

“Ashen Alchemist Zecora!”

Zecora froze at the call of her title, seeing three alchemists she recognized from long ago, alchemists she had trained as her personal apprentices, the first ones she had taken after Celestia.

“Lighting Alchemist Yorm, Flame Alchemist Ia, Light Alchemist Shadam, it has been a while my students, what brings you here.”

“We have come to arrest you and bring you in for questioning, both in regards to your disappearance from the nation of Zebrica as well as to the nature of the creatures which attacked Ponyville earlier today.”

Zecora smiled at that, “I see, well you know I wont come quietly.”

She went to clap her hands together, but the moment she began to move the three alchemists snapped their fingers, fire, electricity, and a ray of light flying toward her as she looked on in horror, “They've gotten better.”

However, the moment the the three attacks got close, a large muscled man leaped out of nowhere to land in front of her, slamming a gauntleted fist into the ground and causing a wall of pure iron to rise up and block the attacks.

After a moment, the wall fell apart, the man standing up and dusting off his hands as he looked to the shocked faces of the three alchemists, flashing a toothy grin as he stroked his blue beard. “You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's military folk attacking a pretty lady.”

He then turned back to Zecora, flashing her a smile as his yellow eyes gleamed in the sunlight. “Nice to see you again babe, it's been a while.”

“......Iron Will, you old codger you.”

Author's Note

Yay, I finally get to do some stuff with Iron Will, though you guys should be able to guess who he is drawing insperation from. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed, and catch you all next chapter.

Term Explanations:
Divine Oracle: The alicorns of this universe, bearing an All Seeing Eye, Angel Wings, and Gian Bracelets.

Rebenok: Russian word for child, will be explained more in future chapters, mostly when we get into Zecora's origins.