Twilight woke up feeling well rested. She got out of bed and looked around her room, seeing that Spike was nowhere to be seen meaning that he was already awake. She stretched a bit before leaving her room.
In the living room, there were pillows and folded up blankets neatly stacked on the sofa, meaning that Rarity and Applejack were awake as well. Yesterday had been something. She had had her first slumber party after Rarity and Applejack had been caught out in the storm and had to take refuge in the library.
There were some arguments, a bit of fighting, but it had turned out well in the end and honestly, it was something she needed after... after watching Anya's... procedure. Twilight felt a bit sick as she remembered the sight of the bloody foreleg and the wound and how casually Anya had inflicted it on herself.
She shook her head to clear those thoughts and went about her morning routine, but it wasn't all good as she felt as if she had forgotten something all through it.
Once she was done, she went downstairs and found Spike, Rarity, and Applejack chatting at the central sitting area.
"Morning Twi," Spike said to her as she came down to sit with them.
"Good morning to all of you. What are you guys talking about?"
"Nothin' much, jus' talking 'bout yesterday an' how Spike shoulda been there. Ain't that right, Rarity?"
"Yes, dear. It would have been quite nice if Spike was there."
"Come on guys, you're gonna make me feel bad about sleeping early!"
"Oh Spike, no need to feel bad because after all, you could join us next time."
Spike looked happy at that idea. Then, his expression shifted to a confused one.
"By the way, where are all those papers and quills you asked me to gather yesterday?"
"..."
"Twi?"
"Oh Faust, thanks for reminding me what I was forgetting!" Twilight said, remembering just what she was forgetting, and making Spike look proud despite him not knowing how he helped. She had to go get her stuff back from Anya's house. And the crucible! She had to see that as well.
"What is it you wer' forgettin', Twilight?" Applejack asked as she got up as well.
"Okay, so, you guys know how I was outside during the storm?"
"Yes, dear, but what has that got to do with it?"
"Well, you see, I had gone over to Anya's house that afternoon before the storm and our slumber party," Twilight began explaining, ignoring the frowns at the mention of Anya. "I had went over because she was doing this really interesting magical procedure and I had to leave my notes on that when coming back because of the storm. I'm going back right now to get those and see how the procedure turned out."
"Oh, can I come?" Spike asked, looking interested.
"Sorry, Spike, but I don't think you can," Twilight answered, remembering how fleshy it was before anything even began. Spike had no business to be exposed to that stuff at his age. Spike, not knowing that, looked disappointed, and that made Twilight a bit sad.
"Spike, perhaps you could head over to the Carousel Boutique and see what Sweetie Belle is doing and maybe join her," Rarity suggested to Spike, giving him something to do. Spike got up and left the library.
"This 'magic procedure' thingy sound pretty excitin'. Mind if Ah came along? Just to see?" Applejack said as she got up as well.
"Oh uhm uh," Twilight hesitated. She knew that Applejack was strongly inclined to do moral good from the time they had spent together, and what Anya was doing wasn't exactly morally good. Plus, to someone who might not have as much knowledge on magic, the stuff would look straight up evil. Twilight herself had some doubts despite knowing that whatever Anya was doing was alright.
"I have not much to do today, so, I suppose I might come along as well. It certainly would be interesting, especially if you found it to be so," Rarity added.
"You guys can come along with me but it depends on Anya on whether or not you guys can see the magic. Additionally, I'll warn you now, it did not look pretty yesterday and I doubt it will look any better today," Twilight answered and warned them.
"Alrighty, Twi." "That's fine, dear." Applejack and Rarity said at the same time, not understanding what Twilight was warning them about. They would understand soon though.
"This is... further into the forest than I expected," Rarity said, looking at the vegetation around the path with some fear. In front of her, Applejack huffed in annoyance while Twilight kept leading them to their destination.
"Rarity, Ah know we had a big ole argumen' an' then apologised and promised not to do that ever, but yer complainin' a mite too much. An' besides, this ain't into the dangerous part of the forest, just a lil' dark than Ponyville is all," Applejack scolded Rarity, covering up her own slight fear.
"I do understand your grievances but you have to understand that I have never gone this close to the forest, bar when Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna came back, and you know of all the stories about the forest," Rarity replied, jumping a bit as a bush rustled in the wind.
"Ah s'pose yer right."
"Come on girls, it isn't that scary, there's plenty of sunlight right now," Twilight interrupted, hoping to stop an argument that she didn't know would not have happened anyway. She was, like them, a bit scared, but the wooded path looked like a walk in the park compared to what it was like yesterday during the storm.
Then, all of a sudden, from behind them came the sound of something hitting the dirt and a "Hey guys, what are you doing?"
The noise startled the three ponies to varying degrees, with Applejack the least affected, and Rarity hiding behin Applejack before she realised that it was just their friend, Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow! Don't do that again, you startled us," said Rarity with a huff.
"K, alright, got that. So, what are you guys doing out here?"
"Nothing much, dear. We were just tagging along with Twilight."
"So, where you guys tagging along to?"
"To Anya's home, Rainbow. Twi left some o' her stuff there and there's somethin' real interesting there as well."
"That loser's place? Why'd you even go there in the first place, Twi?"
"Well, first of all, that's a rude thing to say-"
"She called you a dumb bitch!"
"And we're over that now, Rainbow. You can't just stay angry over something that small for so long; it isn't good for you."
Rainbow harrumphed, unwilling to accept that she may have been too much of a hothead and unjustifiably angry but in her mind, she was right and that mattered quite a lot. Not as much as Twilight telling her to stop, though. Rainbow took a deep breath before replying, "Well, I guess maybe you're right."
"Okay, good. Now, let's keep going; it's not very far."
"So, can I come with you guys? There isn't much to do today."
"Rainbow, look, whether or not you get to see the thing depends on whether or not Anya lets you in. And if she does lets you in, you have to keep in mind that she is doing nothing wrong at all. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, Twi, Understood."
Rainbow then whispered to Applejack, "What's she talking about?"
"Some magic thing that don't look pretty."
The three four ponies moved along the path silently until they came across Anya's house. Despite it being morning and there being plenty of sunlight, the house still looked off-putting, and ugly as well in Rarity's opinion.
"Here we are," Twilight announced as she walked up to the door and knocked.
"At the haunted house of the Everfree," Rainbow added, giving additional context to Rarity and Applejack. Neither of them believed in what Rainbow said because, after all, ghosts were not real except in fiction.
"I wonder if the ghost that haunts this place looks as ugly as the house does," Rarity joked to herself, trying not to look at the brown walls and the darker brown roof. Whoever had the place painted clearly had no eye for detail, or maybe no eye at all.
A strong wind blew when Rarity finished saying that, making the windows of the house rattle which spooked the ponies a bit.
"Looks like your on the bad side of the ghost already," Rainbow said jokingly.
The door opened and standing on the other side was Anya. Her hair was unbraided and unbrushed, she had a look in her eyes that could be described as crazed, and her smile made it seem like she really was. Her leg still had the bandages from the wound she had inflicted on herself yesterday. All that made her look like she were a witch, or a mad scientist, living in the forest and not a normal pony.
"Hey Twinkle Sprinkle, are you here for your stuff, because I forgor about it lol," she said immediately, giggling afterward at some joke that only she understood. Twilight was unhappy that she was referred to by her nickname in front of so many ponies.
"Heh, she called her Twinkle Sprinkle," she heard Rainbow whisper to herself and she knew then that it was over and she would probably never live that down.
"You can come in, hehehe, and take your stuff," she said, again giggling at a joke only she got or even knew was there. She moved aside to let Twilight in.
"Uh thanks Anya but besides getting my stuff, I came here to see how the crucible turned out," Twilight said, making Anya somehow smile more and become visibly excited, things that she never seen Anya do.
"Ooh, you'll love it, come on in!"
"And uh my friends wanted to see it as well, if that's alright with you."
"K, just behave or you'll be put into the meat gwinder," Anya responded, giggling and seeming more like a mad scientist than before. If it weren't for the fact that they worked together, Twilight probably would have been scared, or weirded out. Her friends were understandably not thrilled to hear the threat but didn't say anything since Twilight didn't either.
Except Rainbow.
"Hah, as if you'd do that, or even can do that! I'd like to see you even try to touch me," she said in response to the threat that was really a bad joke, but instead of making Anya mad or anything, like Rainbow hoped, she just made her giggle.
"Hehehe I'll touch you alright," Anya said before she suddenly moved forward to Rainbow, catching her off guard, and pressed her hoof against her nose, making Rainbow's face scrunch up very funnily. "Boop."
"What?" Rainbow said, discombobulated by the sudden boop.
"Boop, boop, boop," Anya declared as she repeatedly booped Rainbow.
"Hey! Stop that!" Rainbow batted away Anya's hoof.
"K, anyway, it's in the basement guys. Just follow me," Anya said to them, walking past the confused ponies with a pep in her step like a really excited filly. The ponies followed her into the house, not noticing the door shut by itself behind them.
"Is she like that all the time?" Rarity asked Twilight.
"No," Twilight answered, still confused about how her normally cheerless boss was so excited.
"Is she on something?"
"Rainbow!"
"What? I'm just asking."
"K, it's down here."
Anya lead them to the basement stairs and went down. The ponies followed. What they saw downstairs looked straight out of a horror film's set, for the ponies at least.
The crucible, which had only been halfway up to its tub's top yesterday was now reaching just a bit over the top, while the water in the tub had seemingly transformed into a weird pink jelly-like fluid. That was secondary, however, to the fact that there was a huge mouth shaped hole on the crucible with half a beak, along with several eyes all around its donut shaped body.
Additionally, there was a big meat worm thing lying on the table, pulsating every now and then, and next to it was a big bowl filled with water and three red blobs. There were some red stains on the floor, primarily around the table and the flesh crafter.
It did not look good at all and in fact, it looked horrible. So horrible that Rarity left instantly. She went back up and ran so that she could get as far as she could from all the disgusting, slimy, fleshy things in the basement. She was too busy trying not to throw up to open the front door but thankfully, it opened to let her out and then closed, all by itself. She didn't care though since she had to get back to her home and do her best to forget what she saw.
Downstairs, the other ponies stared in shock. Twilight was the first to recover and she had a lot of questions.
"What is all this?" she asked, not able to convey her confusion to Anya who was completely unbothered by anything around her. Anya didn't answer immediately and went over to the table and picked up the bowl and brought it back to the three, who had taken up positions around the stairs subconsciously.
"Look at these," Anya said smiling as she brought the bowl close to Twilight, letting her see the red blobs in it. The blobs floated around in the water, not doing much besides wiggling around a bit. "Cute, aren't they?"
"Uh yeah," Twilight answered as she raised a hoof and poked one of the blobs with it. THe blob didn't react and continued its wiggling, which felt funny on Twilight's hoof. Another thing that felt funny was how slimy the water was. "What are they? And what is the fluid?"
"So, these cute fellas are uhh something cool that should uh should uhh, actually, it's better if you watch this!"
She ripped off the bandages on her left foreleg, revealing the wound and making it bleed a little. Twilight, who had been mostly undisturbed so far, was now disturbed. Anya didn't care and brought a knife from the table using her magic. She then levitated one of the blobs and held it close to the wound. Then, she cut off a piece of the blob with the knife and put the blob back in the bowl. The piece fell onto her wound and stuck to it.
"Ow ow ow ow it burns," Anya said as the piece of the blob on her wound started changing shape, and then seemingly fused with Anya, covering the wound. Then the repaired skin grew some white fur on it and it was as if Anya had never even hurt herself.
"Ta daa, organic bandage thingy that insta-heals small wounds! Cool, right?"
Twilight just looked on with wide eyes. Then, Applejack recovered from her shock.
"What da hay?" she asked. "Is this all dark magic?"
"No, it's biomancy magic!"
"Twilight, could you come with me? I have to talk to you," Rainbow said, her shock slowly becoming distress.
"Not now, Rainbow," Twilight said as she watched Anya put the bowl and the knife back onto the table. "Anya, did you... make this stuff by following the book's examples?"
"No, I made only two things by following the book: the crucible and the nutrient paste maker."
"The what?"
"The nutrient paste maker!" Anya repeated, pointing to the big flesh worm on the table. Twilight walked to the table, leaving the safety of her friends. When she got closer, she realised that the thing had a mouth on one end and it was closed at the moment. Anya took the moment to continue explaining with excitement, "It's super important because the crucible can't actually ingest normal food to get itself organic matter. So, I have to make this thing which converts whatever I feed it to the nutrient paste that the crucible can use. That was what you dipped your hoof into earlier when you poked the organic bandage."
"Why are you making these disgusting things?!" Rainbow asked, interrupting Twilight and Anya's conversation.
"Well, I want to. Plus, they're very nice."
"How many of these have you made?!" Rainbow asked, her distress growing.
"There's the crucible, the paste maker, and the three organic bandages. So, that five for now," Anya answered, ignoring Rainbow's distress.
"This- I can't handle this. You're a freak, Anya."
Rainbow left as well, not out of disgust at the sight of the fleshy things but rather, disgust at the kind of things Anya was doing, and fear of what she could do. Rainbow had heard far too many tales of good ponies who had done dark magic and subsequently, turned to evil and as far as she cared, Anya would be one of them. She had to do something.
Down in the basement, Anya had lost a lot of her excitement and giddiness and looked quite tired and a bit sad now that two ponies had run away at the sight of her 'fun little' experiment. Applejack noticed the change in mood, and was going to say something to make her feel, only for Anya to shake her head a bit and whisper to herself, "Oh well, she's a hater 'cuz I'm winning."
Anya wasn't convinced of her own words.
"Anya, I apologise for Rainbow's behaviour. I knew that I shouldn't have let her come with me," Twilight said to Anya, trying to make her feel better.
"It's alright, this stuff looks bad and disgusting," Anya replied, clearly sad. "Sorry, I got really excited over this stupid thing."
"Look, sugarcube, Ah might think that this stuff is... weird but it definitely don't look stupid to me. Rainbow... she's just real hotheaded and thinks in black-n-white a lot," Applejack said, but Anya didn't look any bit better.
"She's right. None of this stuff is stupid. In fact, I think that those organic bandages you made are pretty interesting. Could you tell me more about them?"
"Okay," Anya answered, looking slightly better now.
When Twilight returned to the library, she did with all her notes she had taken yesterday, and more that she had taken today. The crucible and the paste maker were fascinating, but not as much as the organic bandages that Anya had explained her all about.
It was pretty interesting and she was thinking of writing to one of her friends in Canterlot about it. That'd have to wait though, since Rainbow was there, waiting for her.
"Oh, hey Rainbow."
"Okay, Twi. I'll get straight to the point. You gotta warn the princesses or something."
"Warn them about what? Is this about Anya's biomancy?"
"Yeah! You saw those things just like I did and you have to admit that those things are dark magic!"
"Rainbow, those things AREN'T dark magic!"
"Well, how do you know that?!"
Twilight stared at Rainbow, completely bewildered. Rainbow stared back until she realised just who she was talking to.
"Well, uh, you still gotta warn her or something! Like, what if Anya just decides to make something to make it go on a rampage across town?"
"Rainbow, listen to yourself! You're saying that someone who literally works at a library is going to... Rainbow, is something wrong?"
Rainbow looked away, avoiding eye contact, and avoiding talking about what was wrong. But that wouldn't be right, leaving a friend in the dark.
"Look, I just had some bad experiences with the whole dark magic, that's all. I don't want anyone else to go through trouble if I have something to do about it."
Rainbow tried hard to not remember her encounter with a student of the dark arts, and how close she was to getting hurt, and how close others were to not getting hurt.
Twilight came up behind Rainbow and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"...I understand, I guess, but I can assure you that Anya won't be doing anything bad with her magic."
Rainbow wasn't fully convinced. She could hope that Twilight was right.