Saturday was much like friday, with me not having much sleep, or breakfast. If things keep going this way, it will become very likely that when archaeologists find my body in the distant future, they'll think they dug up, not a unicorn pony but rather, a troglodyte. I mean, I already got the intellect and the backbone for being one, and my sleep troubles and inability to get breakfast or lunch will probably get me a lot closer to looking like one. I should go to a doctor maybe, or ask Voth for an eldritch sleep spell, or eldritch caffeine at the very least.
Anyway, that isn't very important. Work had been more lively today since I had quite a lot of kids coming in to do their research projects, so that was cool. There were another thirty minutes till five and I didn't have much to do till then. If Twilight was here, I'd probably make as many terrible jokes as I could, or maybe expose her to brain-rot. I don't think the latter would work much since I didn't have my video playlist and she wouldn't know anything I would be referencing.
Eh, whatever, I was just excited since I'll be starting work on my biomancy experiments today.
To start off said experiments, I needed a tub, which I already had, and a crucible to make flesh grow and do what I wanted it to. The crucible was the other important tool besides the tub of water, and of course, I forgot about it until this morning (yet more proof to my true nature as a troglodyte).
So, the crucible is just this flesh machine thing that is basically a UI (user interface) and the main part for my flesh crafting device (the tub of water) and also the thing that I use to keep my creations alive until I pull them out of the tub. I could buy a crucible BUT as far as I know, there isn't a shop in Ponyville that sells that, and even if there was a shop that sold crucibles for biomancy, they'd probably be factory made trash at best and spyware at worst. I might be wrong in my assumption but I knew very well that I was most likely right from experience (the factories in British Africa made most of the stuff in my old world and most of said stuff sucked, and with how these guys have magic, they'll probably be able to put spyware in stuff easily).
Thankfully, I could make one at home using some basic items, like for example, the six eggs I bought the other day for making a crucible and forgot about after leaving them in my fridge. I remembered that the six eggs I brought would be reduced to one (the last being for the ponunculus*) when I made the crucible but I didn't remember the actual instructions on making the crucible and had to wait till Trixie finished making a copy of the book and brought it back to me... Wasn't there a big-ass printer copy-machine in the basement of the library?
Every second, I get more evidence that I am completely stupid, borderline brain-dead even. I mean, I already know that but it's still surprising how I am above average only in doing stupid things.
To add to that, I heard the rumbling of clouds outside and remembered that some guys called 'Cloudsdale Weather Co.' had put up a notice about there being a storm planned for the afternoon since it was getting too dry or something, and that I had read the notice and accordingly forgotten to get an umbrella with me.
Oh, well, the rain would probably be over in like, an hour or something. Nothing for me to be worried about.
The library door opened and in came Trixie, holding the biomancy book and a notebook in her magic, followed by Twilight. Both of them were chatting, mostly about Trixie's tricks.
"Hey the great and powerful Trixie, hey Twilight," I said, interrupting their chat.
"You do know that you don't need to say my entire stage name like that, I'm just Trixie right now," Trixie said, objecting to my clearly humorous and funny greeting.
"Okay, hi 'just Trixie right now', how are you?" I responded with a grin, getting an eye roll from Trixie and a confused expression from Twilight.
"Oh, I did not know about your career as a stand-up comedian," Trixie said with heavy sarcasm and a grin, almost making me laugh.
"But she's sitting right now," Twilight interrupted in a serious voice that indicated that she was somehow completely clueless about the fact that we were joking, or what stand-up comedians are.
I didn't care about all that though since what she said was genuinely really funny and it made me giggle a bit.
"Why are you laughing?" Twilight asked, not realising just how funny she was. I just kept giggling, while Trixie once again rolled her eyes at our antics.
"Anyway, I've come to give you back the book," Trixie said as she levitated the book onto my desk. "Took quite a while to copy it down."
I stopped giggling and said, "Would right now be a bad time to mention that there's a copy machine in the basement?"
"..." Trixie said, making a face that said 'bruh really?'
"That thing? I tried using it to make a copy of a book but it straight up just said no to that," Twilight added.
"The heck you mean it didn't work?" I asked, a lot more interested in what Twilight revealed. Was this world not safe from the clutches of corporate anti-piracy measures? Man, I hope not because if it is like that then I'll probably make some changes to the printer that would definitely void the warranty.
"The screen on it said 'copying this document is not allowed'. I think it's something to protect the books."
"Oh, okay," I replied to her before turning back to Trixie and saying," So, Trixie, we have a copy machine but it doesn't actually copy books so you didn't miss out on anything."
"I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing."
"Bad thing, probably, but just imagine it's a good thing.
So, what are you guys doing?"
"We bumped into each other while I was coming to drop this book off," Trixie answered as she sat down on the ground. "After that, we just talked about spells and illusion magic."
"Illusion magic?"
Trixie looked at me like I had a giant hole in my head instead of a brain when I asked that clearly stupid question.
"Ignore that, Trixie, she's just weird," Twilight said to her, explaining away my weirdness, before realising what she had said was probably offensive.
"No need to apologise, I am completely aware of my wierd-osity," I said, not taking offense at Twilight's blunt way of answering.
"Okay, thanks Anya, but that isn't the right word."
"Cool, don't care."
Twilight looked annoyed at my dismissal of her pointing out my use of made up words. Trixie then spoke up.
"I did some practise with biomancy."
"What'd you make?"
"Not much, just a few sticks that vaguely look like wands. I could probably sell those as merchandise once I make them look better," she answered with a hoof to her chin, clearly thinking about potential economic uses of her new magic skill. "But besides that, I couldn't make a plant do anything similar to what you did yesterday, and that's about all that the book has on biomancy on plants. It's all flesh after that. If I may ask, have you acquired a crucible yet?"
"I'm gonna make one today."
"You're going to make one? Can I come and see?" Twilight asked, looking eager at a chance to see magic she couldn't do.
"Okay, but you'll have to wait till five for that."
"That's just a few minutes! I'll go get my stuff ready!"
With that, Twilight went upstairs, looking excited like a kid who's going to get candy in some time. This left me and Trixie alone for a little bit. It was a only little bit though.
"Say, could you help me with biomancy?" Trixie asked me.
"Yeah," I replied, making her smile. I then added as a joke, "That'll be one trillion bits per second by the way."
Trixie paused for a second, looking genuinely concerned, until she realised how absurd the rate was. "Heh, very funny but le me tell you this, the Great and Powerful Trixie does not appreciate these jokes!" she said, jokingly of course. "And you shall pay for it!"
"Sure, any price is fine so long as it's zero or less."
Trixie giggled at that and that was nice to see.
Twilight came down soon enough with her saddlebags on her. Outside, the sky was getting darker as storm clouds started gathering on top of Ponyville.
"Mind if I come along with you two?" Trixie asked.
"You can come, I'll need a blood sacrifice or two," I joked, getting a chuckle out of her.
It had started drizzling a bit when we were halfway to my house, and we had upped our pace. When were three-fourths of the way there, the rain had come down hard. Twilight had carried an umbrella but unfortunately, only two ponies could (barely) fit under it, and since I carried nothing in my bag except my inhaler, keys, and bits, all of which wouldn't be damaged by water, I was the one stuck in the rain. I should learn some sort of shield spell (or buy an umbrella but that wasn't very cool) to prevent this from happening again.
I would have run ahead of the two to get to my house quick but I was already wet as a drowned rat, and running wouldn't do me any good.
"Anya, are you sure you're fine?" Twilight asked, glancing at me as I continued walking in the rain besides her and Trixie.
"Mhm, feels pretty nice here once you get over the cold," I replied as I pushed some of my wet mane away from my face.
"Your home is rather... close to the forest," Trixie said as she looked at the dark surroundings as if something was going to jump out from behind a tree or bush.
We walked quietly until we came to my home. With how dark it was, and how how the windows looked like a void against the dark walls, it looked very ominous and kinda like a really big creature. Both Trixie and Twilight looked at the house with slight fear, probably questioning if I lived there.
"Here we are," I said as I pulled a key out of my bag and put it into the front door's lock.
"Looks... homey," Twilight said.
"Nah, looks haunted to me, probably is," I replied as I unlocked the door and opened it, letting us in. I quickly turned on the hallway and living room lights as they got in. The wind shut the door behind them, startling them a bit.
"K, you guys can wait in the living room, or head on to the basement right away while I go and dry myself," I tld them as I headed upstairs to go get a towel and dry myself. "Might take a while."
Twilight and Trixie watched as Anya disappeared up the stairs. It was quiet for a few moments with only the sound of rain against the house accompanying them.
"So, should we go down?" Trixie asked Twilight as she looked around at the rather featureless home. The hallway they were in had nothing for decorations and the living room and kitchen adjacent to it were only slightly less sparse.
"I think so," Twilight said as she looked at all the closed doors in the hall. She stepped towards one but each step seemed to make the wooden floor creak louder than before, as if it were some sort of warning. She reached the door and opened it to find that it was a laundry room and not the entrance to the basement.
Trixie followed Twilight's example and headed for the door on the side of the stairs, making significantly less noise as she moved.
'Weird how the floor wasn't making any noise when Anya walked on it,' Twilight thought to herself.
Trixie opened the door, and found stairs going downstairs. Trixie flipped a light switch next to the door and the basement was lit up, letting them both go downstairs.
The basement was much like the ground floor, in that it wasn't really decorated much, but it had a lot more interesting stuff to look at. There was a tub full of water close to the corner far from the stairs. A table was pushed up against the wall opposite to the one the stairs were against and it had some boxes and books and other items on it and next to it.
Unbeknownst to either of them, there were several eyes looking at them from the few shadows in the room. Voth wouldn't want them to do something to his employee's house.
"Hmm, this place is..." Twilight began, not really liking the silence.
"Less than what you expected?" Trixie finished as she walked over to the table.
"Yes, I suppose. I'd thought that Anya would have more magic related items here."
"These things look nice," Trixie said as she held up a little wooden bird in her magic.
"Hey! We shouldn't touch these thing without her permission!"
"I'm just looking." Trixie put down the bird next to the other five and flipped over a paper and saw at first that it was covered in scribbles. She then noticed that there was an image in those scribbles. A bunch of sharks? And something else alongside them? Whatever it was, it certainly looked interesting.
She put the paper down and looked at the books on the table.
"Guide to Shadowmancy? Block magic?" Twilight said as she looked over Trixie's shoulder. "I think I've seen those books before. Could you pass me the shadowmancy book?"
Trixie picked up the book in her magic but just before she began passing it to Twilight, the ground shook a bit and the lights flickered for just a moment. Seconds later, the sound of a lightning strike rang through the basement. It was loud and it scared Trixie into dropping the book back onto the table.
"T- that must have been very close," Twilight said as she looked at the sole light of the basement. "The storm's a lot more powerful than I thought."
"Hey hey girlies, good to see you guys are already here."
"Hey hey girlies, good to see you guys are already here," I said to the two mares in the basement as I came down there with a carton of eggs in my magic. They were startled a bit but I continued, "K, so gather around the flesh crafter to witness me do my magics most foul."
I was still wet since I was too excited about making the crucible and I could dry myself later.
The two ponies looked at me with some confusion, making me clarify, "The tub of water, that's the flesh crafter."
They did as I told them to, and soon, all three of us were standing in a circle around the blue tub. Twilight removed the biomancy book from her saddlebags (she had been kind enough to carry that for me) and some papers and a quill as well.
"Alrighty, you guys ready?" I said to them as I levitated five eggs out of the carton and got ready to do what I had to. The other two nodded, and I opened the book and flipped over to the page where all the fleshy stuff began. So, to start making the crucible, I had to place the eggs in five corners of the tub in a manner such that if you drew a line from each egg, it would make a five pointed star. That combined with the tub's circular shape made it seem like a pentagram.
I placed the eggs like I had to and watched them all sink to the bottom. Twilight wrote some stuff down on a paper.
"Step one done," I announced as I got ready to move onto the next step and built up magic in my horn.
"Don't you think this is a little... unethical?" Twilight asked, interrupting me.
"What part of this is unethical?"
"How you'll be bringing things into this world just for experiments."
"Twilight, if you make me consider the morality of my fun little science experiments WHILE I'm doing them, I will take a bite out of you."
"What the?" Trixie said, alarmed at my threat of cannibalism.
"Don't worry, it's only like, the third time I told Twilight I'll do something along the lines of eating her. Anyway, as I was saying, starting step two."
Ignoring Trixie's weirded out expression, I continued with step two, which involved me reaching into the magic pools of the unfertilized chicken eggs and then using it to make the stuff inside grow like I had made the plants grow. It would be a bit difficult since I had to make all of them grow at the same time and besides that, I had to make the stuff that comes out attach so that all five eggs became one organism: the crucible.
I focused my eyes on the tub and started doing the magic. For a minute, it looked like nothing happened and the two other mares watched me just stand there, glaring at the tub with my horn glowing and a book floating next to me. Then, the eggs started breaking.
All the eggs broke simultaneously and out of them emerged a weird pink mass. As the pink masses grew to reach other, forming a donut against the tub's walls, the water level started going down. The things were using the magically charged water to grow and I feared that it might not have been enough. Fortunately, it was enough.
Once all the five flesh masses were in contact with each other, I stopped making them grow and started making them dissolve their skin at the places they had met one another. The water in the tub started becoming a bit red as the masses bled at the areas they had met one another. Once their wounds were sufficiently large, I made them stop hurting each other and starting healing.
As they healed, I had to make sure that they connected to one another, kinda like grafting two plants together, only that it was more complex with all the blood vessels and nerves and whatnot. I probably messed up here and there but all the errors were within an acceptable range for me; the range being that the thing didn't explode or try eating me.
In the end, I had a half filled tub of reddish water which housed a meat donut in it.
"It looks... great," Trixie said as she looked at the flesh donut pulsate periodically as its heart beat.
"Thanks. Anyway, moving onto last step," I announced as I turned the page in the book. I read the procedure for the last step and frowned. "Hmm, that's unexpected."
"Is anything wrong?" Twilight asked me as she tried looking at what I was reading.
"Nah, just wait here, I'll be back," I said, leaving the book on the floor next to the tub. I went upstairs to the kitchen and returned quickly with a knife and my first-aid kit. Downstairs, Twilight had opened the book to the page with step three and was reading it with wide eyes.
"Y- you have to cut yourself and put the blood in that?" she said, looking up at me come over to the tub with the knife and first-aid kit in my magic.
"Yeah."
"Don't you think this is going a bit far?"
"Nah, sacrifice has to be made in the name of fun little experiments, now move Twilight."
Twilight moved, letting me get close to the tub and hold out my left foreleg over it. I hesitated a bit as I made the knife in my magic touch my skin. I glanced at the first-aid kit which I had put next to the tub. I'd have to cut myself and let the blood go into the tub, and then cast a spell so that the crucible, which was currently just a chicken abomination, actually becomes the flesh factory I wanted it to be.
"Why do you have to give it blood?" Trixie asked as she watched me hesitate with the knife.
"The thing in the tub is just a chicken abomination right now, and the thing about chicken abominations is that they don't do any flesh growing or preserving like a crucible would. To fix that, I'll have to put some blood here, and then cast a spell so that the chicken and the blood fuse and start mutating till it becomes a crucible. Got that?"
"I- I think so."
"Okay, here we go."
I made a small cut on my foreleg, a bit above the wrist. It was painful but I expected it. Blood started dripping from the wound, staining my foreleg's white fur and soon, the first drop fell into the tub. Nothing happened in the tub.
Some more drops fell into the tub but besides makeing the water a bit more red, they did nothing.
"Is it working?" Twilight asked, a bit shaky at the sight of blood. She was writing down stuff though.
I levitated the book over to me and read the instructions for step three and all other warning and stuff. "The book says that I'll have to let blood drip in until the chicken donut starts making weird movements. Then I cast a spell so that it starts fusing and mutating."
Just as I finished saying that, the chicken donut in the tub started making weird movements, making the blood water slosh around a bit. I said the incantation(bleh) for the spell in my head and cast it onto the tub. The chicken donut in the water stopped moving around and started shaking, making me a bit worried that some water would spill but fortunately, it didnt.
I opened the first-aid kit and pulled out a bandage and some cotton and covered up the wound I made on myself.
"Is it supposed to be doing that?" Twilight asked as she watched the tub shake.
"Yeah, it's gonna do that for like, around eight to twelve hours until it's done mutating. Once that's over, I have a crucible."
Then, it stopped shaking.
"That doesn't look good," Twilight stated the obvious.
"Hmm, let me see why it's doing that." I re-read the step three page in the book and found a bunch of text that was there towards the end. I read it aloud, "Okay so, failures and how to deal with them.
So, first failure, if the flesh stops moving completely then it has died, probably due to errors made during the joining of the five masses, and you have to start over. Second failure, if the flesh is not accepting blood then that means there were too many errors made during the joining and you have to start over. Thrid failure, if the flesh accepts the blood but stops shaking after the spell is cast then that is because there were some non-fatal errors during the joining and the flesh needs additional blood and magic to fix those errors. If that doesn't work, give it a piece of your flesh.
So, that's what I gotta do."
Wordlessly, I removed the bandage, letting more blood fall into the tub. When that did nothing, I started pouring my magic into the rune in the tub, so that the water becomes more magically charged, but that didn't work either. I turned my eyes to the knife I held in my magic.
"You're... you're gonna cut a piece of you," Trixie said as she watched me I brought the knife closer to my wound. "I don't think I want to do these parts of biomancy."
I didn't really care about what she had to say since I was busy with another conversation.
'Voth! I need your help,' I said in my mind, summoning Voth.
"WHAT IS IT?"
'Okay, so, I'm making the crucible for biomancy but I messed up a bit and now I need to cut off a piece of myself. Can you tell me which piece so that I don't accidentally hurt myself too much?'
"YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL," Voth scolded me. "I WILL TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BODY AND MAKE THE CUT AND THEN LEAVE."
My body started moving on its own, or rather, under Voth's commands after he finished saying that. I watched as the knife came close and cut off a small piece of skin (and maybe some of the muscle under it) from my wound. The piece fell into the tub, disappearing into the blood water.
I regained control of my body and immediately became aware of the pain on my wound. However, the flesh in the tub started shaking again, meaning that it was fixed.
I turned to the first-aid kit and found that Trixie was already holding some bandages and cotton and antiseptic liquid.
"I'll help you with that," she said.
"Thanks," I thanked her before turning to Twilight, who looked sick, probably at the sight of my wound. "Just watch the thing, call me if it does something weird."
I held my left foreleg up, so that it was above the heart and wouldn't bleed as much. I walked up the stairs, Trixie following me, and made my ay to the kitchen, where I washed the wound in the sink. All the blood on my foreleg was gone, letting it be white again. Trixie then used some antiseptic and cotton to clean it a bit more before finally wrapping it in bandages.
"That's all good now," Trixie said after finishing wrapping the bandages.
"Thanks for that."
"You should probably go properly dry yourself as well."
"Yeah yeah, I'll do that."
I heard the creaking of stairs and saw that Twilight had come up from the basement and to the kitchen looking rather sick. "I don't think I want to see that ever again."
"You probably won't," I said to her as I opened a cupboard and pulled out a glass. I filled it up with water and offered it to Twilight, who took it and drank from it quickly.
"It's getting late, I'll have to go now, Spike must be waiting for me," she said, looking much better now that she had some water.
"K, Twilight."
She left the kitchen afer saying that. I heard an umbrella being opened and the front door open, followed by the noise of a really bad storm filling the house, followed by the door closing and the noise going away. Twilight came back to the kitchen after that, her mane pretty wet.
"I'm leaving my bags here, by the way. Could you bring them back to me tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Twilight put down her bags next to the kitchen table and left, for real this time. I hoped that she didn't get strck by lightning or something.
"You're going as well?" I asked Trixie.
"I think I might have to stay until the storm has passed," she said, before quickyly adding, "If that's alright with you."
"Sure, you can stay. I'll be right back."
I left the kitchen and made my way downstairs to get the book that had been left behind, limping a little bit on my hurt leg. The flesh in the tub was still shaking, which was great to see. I heard the creaking of the floor above me, probably Trixie going to the living room.
I went back upstairs with the book in my magic and found that Trixie had taken a seat on one of the couches in the living room. I took a seat on the other couch and opened the book to the pages after the crucible instructions.
"Yo, you wanna see the cool stuff I can make after the crucible?" I asked Trixie.
"Sure, I didn't really read those pages when I was copying down the book."
It'd be a great way to spend time as the storm raged on outside.
"Wait up, I'll go get something to drink."
I headed to the kitchen, and put some water to boil, to make fresh chai which would be great in this weather (it was great in all weather). I added all the other ingredients and waited for the water to boil so that I could add the milk.
I was interrupted though when I heard Trixie gasp real loud. "What is that?" I heard her say. I came back to the living room and saw that she had pulled aside the curtains for the back door, and that she was looking at something that was on the other side of the glass. It was big, wet, and furry, like a hairball and it looked pretty weird.
I then spotted wings on it.
"Yo, Trixie, out of the way," I said as I walked over to the backdoor and unlocked it. Trixie saw what I was doing and quickly moved out of the way. I moved the sliding door just enough for me to poke my head out, letting in a lot of rain and wind. I poked my head out and pulled the wet furry thing towards the opening with my magic and once it was inside, I closed the door quickly.
I was soaking wet again and there was a soaking wet Everfree moth on the floor squeaking very loudly.
"Why'd you bring it in?" Trixie asked me, covering her ears as the moth continued squeaking loudly in distress from being caught in the storm. I didn't answer and picked up the moth and took it upstairs to my room.
Once there, I picked up one of the towels I had left on my bed and threw it around the moth, making it finally stop squeaking.
"Heh, you must hate rain," I said to it as I picked up the second towel and started drying myself with it. I couldn't dry myself fully since I needed two towels to do that with my long hair, and the second towel was with the moth.
I picked up the moth in the towel and took it downstairs to the living room, where Trixie was waiting for me.
"Hey Trixie, meet this moth," I said to her as I put the moth on the couch I had been sitting on. "It doesn't have a name and it's greatest achievement was probably scaring Twilight."
I heard the chai water boiling and continued, "I'll be back, just hang out here."
I went back to the kitchen and poured the milk into the boiling water. A few more minutes and it'd be boiling again, meaning it was done. I just had to wait.
I went back to the living room and saw that Trixie and the moth, that probably needed a name, were staring at each other, I think. You couldn't really tell where bugs are looking.
"Does it do something?" Trixie asked me.
"He squeaks, climbs, and flies into your face, that's about it," I answered. "Chai will be ready in a minute."
I went back to the kitchen, and watched as the chai boiled. I turned off the gas once it started rising to the top of the kettle and took out two cups and poured the chai out in them. I put the cups on a tray and took them back to the living room.
The moth had escaped the clutches of the towel and was crawling over to Trixie, who watched it with both interest and alarm. I placed the tray on the table and took a seat next to Trixie, getting in between her and the moth. The moth stopped when it bumped into me.
"Thanks," Trixie said as she picked up one of the cups in her magic. "For the tea and for stopping it. I don't want a wet bug crawling on me."
"No problem," I said. I picked up my own cup and then the book and brought it over to us.
"So, to start, experiment one: making a little meat man."
"That's not what it says."
"K, miss fun police. So, as I was saying, experiment one: making a little meat man."