The Mage and the Homunculus
Chapter 1: Something More
The Mage and the Homunculus: Chapter one: Something More
Greed watched in peaceful acceptance as he drifted away. Down below him, Father and the Elric runt were still squared off. Ling and Lan Fan watched as he began to disintegrate.
'I can't believe I let Ling and the little runt talk to me that way. Aw, I've had enough. Yeah. That's all I really need. They gave me everything I could want. Hehehe. Thank you, and goodbye, my friends.'
As these thoughts ran through his mind, the world around him began to darken to nothing. Finally, he had what he wanted but he couldn't stick around to enjoy it. What a drag. And just like that, he laid eyes on Amestris for the last time.
His eyes shot open to be met with an expanse of white. He looked around and down at himself. He was standing in his ultimate shield form. Before him stood a stark white silhouette, distinct from the white behind it only because of a dim black static around it's edge.
“The heck are you supposed to be?” Greed asked, to which he received no answer. looking around once more, he spotted two massive stone gates, one before him, and one behind. “And where the hell am I?”
The white figure smiled and it was obvious. The smile was far too large for the head and almost comical if not for the eerie feeling it inspired. “You've done well Greed.” it said.
“What'cha mean?”
“Just what I said. You've done well. I believe you've earned your rest, but...”
“But?”
“But, there's something else you can do instead of simply moving on...”
Greed waited for a moment, staring at the thing before him. When it seem that it was not going to continue greed prompted. “Well? Out with it! Don't keep me in suspense!”
“I can't give you any details, and I can't promise it will be pleasant but if you want there's something more than just the end.”
“Really now? What's the catch?”
“The Catch? I don't know what the Catch is. I don't even know if there is one. All I know is there's more. What do you say? Yes... or no?”
“'More' eh? Well I can't be anyone but myself, and 'more' means More for me! I'm in. Yes!”
The white being's smile widened and a great echoing groan of stone on stone sounded from behind him. Greed turned and watched as the gate of truth opened for him. The inside was solid black and not at all welcoming but Greed the Avaricious believed his property to be just on the other side, and that was enough. “Thanks, whatever you are,” Greed said over his shoulder as he stepped into the gate which closed behind him.
“Good luck Greed. You're probably gonna need it...”
The Great and Powerful Trixie poured over the tomes she had spread out around her. Each detailing ancient magics long since left to antiquity. Many of which, she admitted, for good reason. One such book showed a peculiar ring with various markings within. The header marked it as a binding ring and went on to describe it's uses and the one known example of it's use against Nightmare Moon by Princess Celestia near a thousand years ago. On the floor of her new mobile stage was drawn an exact replica of that binding ring.
Another book was a compendium of ethereal creatures. Windigos, demons, spirits and shades amongst the many listed. The book was currently opened to the demons and imps section but was partially covered by yet a third and very ancient looking work. It's pages detailed complex and dangerous spells long since abandoned for more stable and intuitive magics. One such spell was a summoning spell made to force ethereal begins into the tangible realm.
It was shaping up to be an interesting night in the outskirts of Trottingham.
Tonight is the night, she thought to herself, a wicked smirk crawling across her muzzle. That contemptible Neigh-sayer and her cronies may have upstaged Trixie before, but with the aid of a spirit, Trixie will have the last laugh...
Turning to face the binding ring, The Great and Powerful Trixie began channeling magic into her horn which glowed with an aura to match her blue coat. The same blue began to seep into the binding ring, lighting the runes inscribed in the floor. With the first step done, Trixie began to read from a book placed before her, reciting the incantation held in it's pages aloud.
In the binding ring, red sparks began to leap across the floor at random, slowly picking up in frequency until it was an uninterrupted flow of energy that arched across the wooden beams and traced the edge of the ring. As Trixie's incantation came to a close, a strange shape emerged from the floor, just barely visible beyond the wild fluctuations of energy. What looked like an eye had opened wide, revealing a gray iris that stared straight upwards, unseeingly.
Trixie's breath halted as the energy began to fade and before long, the eye was all that remained. For a moment, nothing happened but then, just as Trixie was beginning to doubt the spell, strange shadowy tendrils lashed out into the air above the binding ring, and flailed about above the eye. In their flailing, something began to take shape. A mass of red that flickered and flowed ever upward like a great torrent yet remained suspended above the eye.
Trixie's heart beat a staccato in her throat as her head began to swim. Realizing she wasn't breathing, she drew in air in a shocked gasp as the eye slammed shut and the tendrils vanished with no preamble. Floating before her was the red energy that flowed upwards yet remained still. Upon closer inspection, the energy took on a sinister feel when she spotted myriad faces each locked in a silent scream. A primal fear began to grip at her as she stared into the mass but her intentions were clear and she would not fail. Not after she had come so close.
“H-hail! Demon! I, The Great and Powerful Trixie demand you speak with me!” she managed after a pause to gather herself. She waited but nothing seemed to happen.
She was just about to speak again when one of the many many faces broke away and rushed to the forefront, obscuring all the rest. The suddenness of this caused Trixie to yelp involuntarily.
It was clearly a demon. It could be nothing else. It blurred around the edges as if moving a great speed and it's eyes were stark white. Sharp teeth took the place of lips and it had no muzzle to speak of or nose. Jagged red lines crossed it's form and those blank eyes seemed to glare right through Trixie.
Trixie was about to speak yet again, when the demon cut her off.
“Well that was weird,” it said, in a strangely mundane sounding voice that, had Trixie not know, she would have suspected came from any random Colt in the nearby city. “oh... would you look at that!” it said, looking Trixie over. “A little blue chimera. And they dressed it up too.”
“I beg your pardon!” Trixie snapped at the unexpected comment.
“Ah! And it can talk!” said the Demon, sounding impressed. Why it was impressed that she could speak was beyond Trixie. “Where's your master little Chimera?”
“Trixie has no 'Master', Demon!” she spat, her ire rising at this Demon's treatment of her. “And furthermore, Trixie is not a 'Chimera' or whatever. She is a Unicorn and a powerful mage who has summoned you to do her bidding!”
“Unicorn? Mage? Oh come on! What do you take me for? Cut the act. Where's the alchemist who made you?”
“You DARE to insult the Great and Powerful TRIXIE!” she all but shrieked at the Demon that was currently snickering at her. A smirk spread across her face. “Very well. I will simply have to prove that it was indeed, I who summoned you.” With that, her horn began to glow, catching the Demon's interest. But only for a time. The binding ring began to shimmer again and the Demon writhed and howled in agony for a moment, until Trixie cut the flow of magic and the ring went inert once again.
“Ahh! What the hell was that?!” the Demon demanded.
“Oh, nothing. Just the fail safe of my little binding spell. If the occupant of the ring becomes... uncooperative... I need simply pour some power in and,” She gave a pointed clop of her hoof. “Zap. Instant retribution.”
“Okay... you've got my attention, little Chimera.” the Demon said, looking at Trixie with barely contained spite. “I'll play along. What do you want from me?”
Trixie's haughty smile spread across her muzzle in victory, as she began. “Simple. I want your power.”
“My... Power?”
“yes. Your power, Demon. I want it so that I may exact my revenge against Twilight Sparkle and her brain-dead lackeys in Ponyville for the injustice they saw fit to lay on me.”
The Demon paused for a moment, seeming to contemplate the proposal. While it lacked pupils in it's blank white eyes, Trixie had no difficulty telling exactly where it's gaze rested, and just then with a smirk and a narrowed eye, it's gaze rested on the point of her horn. “Alright.” it said, causing Trixie to beam in triumph. “If you can take it, you can have my power.” Her victorious smile faded instantly as it spoke these words.
“What do you mean, 'if I can take it'?” She asked, already afraid that she knew the answer.
“Just what I said.” and with those words, it seemed to collapse in on itself, compressing it's size into that of a small red stone which dropped to the ground with a crystalline chime. It's voice rang out from the room at large, startling Trixie. “Swallow me. See if your avarice can best me and you can take your power and do what you want.”
Slowly, Trixie retreated away from the binding circle, suspecting treachery. She disabled the Binding ring. Nothing happened. She approached the small red stone which seemed to glow of it's own accord and reflected unseen light. Still nothing happened. Quickly as she could, she bent down and snapped the stone up in her mouth and swallowed. It had no taste and she felt like she swallowed air. Still nothing happened.
Trixie began to smile as she reveled in her perceived victory only to have it fall away when a voice rang out in her mind.
“Before we begin... I should tell you a thing or two about myself...” said the voice, obviously the Demon. “They call me Greed, The Avaricious! And I want everything in the world. Money, Fame, Women. But right now, more than anything else, do you know what I want Trixie?”
The Great and Powerful Trixie's blood began to run cold, even as she prepared herself for whatever attack the Demon would throw at her. “I do not care what you want. It does not matter. Trixie will be victorious.”
“Well, I'll tell you anyway... Right now. More than anything else in the world, Trixie... I want a body of my own!”
Trixie barely had time to register what he had said before he began his onslaught. Her body gave spasmodic twitches in protest to the attack, but she fought back against his pushing presence as it battered against her mind. Slowly, she collapsed to her knees, feeling his presence pushing hers aside to claim her body. Despair began to eat at her and regret for her hubris in thinking she could best a Demon.
And just like that, it was over. Greed had won. But Trixie had expected to die in the struggle, instead, she found herself subjugated to some distant corner of her mind. She could still see what the Demon saw but could not will the body to move. Then Greed spoke.
“Damn. You put up a good fight,” he said, and she now knew it was a He. He began rolling Trixie's neck, working out stiffness.
“What are you going to do?” she said, slightly fearful of the Demon's intent.
“If you're afraid I'm gonna kill you or something, you can just forget about all that. You belong to me now. And I take good care of my possessions. Besides. I'm gonna need someone to show me the ropes around here if I'm gonna rule the world!”
“R-rule the world? What do you mean?”
“What did you think I meant when I said I wanted everything? This world's gonna be mine, and you're gonna help me!”
Trixie went silent. Her shock preventing any words from leaving her. What had she done? What was she going to do? She just wanted to show up Twilight Sparkle, not bring about the rule of a mad Demon.
Greed just chuckled to himself and began to look around his new home.
'well, this is interesting... not sure if I'm too keen on being a chick, but what can a guy do?' Greed pondered, as he inspected his new body. Looking over himself he spotted the orroborus tattoo, but it was not on the back of his hoof... it was on his flank, where there was once a star and moon symbol. “huh... weird...” he said aloud.
He attempted to walk over to a mirror on a wall nearby but stumbled over his hooves. Looking down and the peculiar limbs, he began testing how each one moved, and slowly, one hoof at a time, approached the mirror. “Damn it Trixie, how do you walk with these crazy legs?”
Trixie, who had until now, retreated into herself startled back into focus. “What do you mean?” she demanded, finding herself insulted at his remark. “My legs are perfectly normal! Anypony at all will tell you the same.”
“If you say so. I'm just not used to having so many, but I guess I'll learn to live with it... at least until I can find a human host... or maybe an Alchemist to build me a nice strong body.”
Finally, Greed reached the mirror and took a good look at his new form. He shifted his head side to side, looking from every angle with a critical eye. “Well, it could be worse I guess...” he said as he turned to look at his new body again.
“You should count yourself lucky demon! Trixie is the epitome of pony kind!”
“I take that back... It would have to be pretty bad to be worse than having you in my head.” Greed smirked as he sensed the indignation pouring from Trixie's consciousness. “hmm... I wonder,” he mused as he glanced up at his new horn reflected in the mirror. “So, care to explain how this horn works?” he asked out loud. To his surprise, it was not a voice in his head that responded, but Trixie's reflection in the mirror.
“oh! Something the Demon doesn't know. How sad,” Trixie said, glaring at greed from the mirror.
“What the hell!” Greed shouted, jittering back from the mirror quickly. “How in the hell are you doing that?!”
“Doing what?” Trixie asked, honestly confused at this new turn of events.
“Don't play dumb with me, little Chimera. How are you doing that with the mirror?”
“Trixie has no idea what you are talking about, and she is a Unicorn, not a Chimera as she said before.”
Greed glared at the haughty Unicorn in the mirror and snorted. “What ever. If you're so 'Great and Powerful', I had figured you'd be able to explain this but I guess you're just full of hot air.”
“Well I never! Trixie will prove herself to you, Demon. Explain what you are seeing and She will tell you, in no uncertain terms what is happening.”
“I'm looking in the mirror, I assume you can see it too right?”
“Yes, but all Trixie sees is you speaking to her.”
“Well I'm seeing you, speaking to me...”
There was a pause before Trixie gave a light chuckle. “The books Trixie read said this may happen in the case of a possession. If the host consciousness, yours truly, remains intact, then their mind may manifest in the way of reflections and in rare cases, non-tactile hallucinations for the occupying entity.”
“So, what you're saying is you're my reflection now?”
“That is the gist of it, yes.”
Greed gave a huff of frustration. The thing by the gates of truth was right. This wasn't turning out fun at all. “Great... can't even check myself out in the mirror,” he said, lightening the mood a bit for himself before he focused on the reflection again. “Well, I got a new body... let's see if I still have my ultimate shield.”
Trixie was about to ask what he meant when she spotted the horn in the reflection beginning to spark and turn gray. The gray color spread quickly over the rest of her body, and markings very similar to what his first form had appeared over her face. Her eyes were harsh and dark with glowing red pupils and her muzzle was covered with vicious fangs, again mirroring Greed's first form.
Greed gave a triumphant bark of laughter as he inspected the changes in the mirror. Trixie however, was unamused.
“What have you done to Trixie's beautiful coat Demon!?” she demanded shrilly in his mind, causing him to wince
“Damn... for a disjointed spirit, you got a set of pipes on you Trix,” Greed grumbled, rubbing his head lightly. “Relax. It's not permanent and I'm not exactly a fan of it either, but it comes in handy. What you're looking at right here is my Ultimate shield. I've rearranged the carbon in this body to form and flexible but insanely strong defensive layer. I've never seen it broken by conventional methods. That Elric kid was a quick thinker. Using alchemy to weaken my shield like that.”
“What? Who are you talking about? Elric? What kind of a name is that. And furthermore, what is this 'Alchemy' you keep speaking of?”
“Never mind all of that. A world that doesn't know about alchemy. and if this blowhard is to be believed, I'm a powerful mage now.” A grin spread across his face as he dropped the ultimate shield to reveal Trixie's form underneath. “So little chimera... who's in charge around here?”