You Seek Knowledge?

by Astral Star and Company

Chapter 4: Brutality

Using a simple cloaking spell, I have successfully ditched my guide Pinkie Pie on the way to her friend’s cottage. I have also extracted a number of subroutines from her mind, allowing for easier communication with future subjects. My body, ‘Annie’ is hidden safely in a cloaking spell borrowed from a certain sewer rat named Twitch, who involuntarily gave me instructions to his skills. Upon entering the Everfree, I reassumed control of my body, shoving Annie’s half-mind away and dominating it with my own. Walking with the aid of four limbs is an odd sensation to say the least. Control has opened up my senses to a barrage of information. Sight, smell, touch, hearing and even taste, how I loved to be back in a physical body.

Tracking a path well taken by Zecora, I find myself trotting along a rather bleak trail through the twisted trees. Using a skill acquired from a fellow champion named Quinn, I am now fully aware of everything around me. The majority of these skills required a suitable body to perform. Also, with the restriction set in place by the faux-summoners, I was not able to use them on the Fields anyway as I was restricted to four of my own. A rustling in a nearby shrub alerts me. A small, chicken’s head pokes from underneath the leaves, and looks at me quizzically. Having seen the memories of Apple Bloom, I know exactly what it is, so I make preparations.

Using energy procured from my latest meal of apple pastries, I use the remaining energy reserves of my body to kick start an accelerated evolution cycle. I feel enormous amounts of pain as my body changes, so I withdraw my mind and let Annie deal with it. Finally free once more of the confines of flesh, I observe with rapt fascination at the changes at work. Annie has her eyes screwed shut and teeth gritting together as the process goes on. Canine teeth in her mouth lengthened and sharpened. Her mind’s reulsion instinct to meat has been erased, and replaced with a more indifferent opinion. Her digestive tract and related systems adapt and reform to a new source of energy I have in mind.

The cockatrice climbed out of the bush, exposing its drake-like body, hissing a warning at my experiment. Annie stood up shakily, but resolved her posture into one of aggression, and animalistic hunger.

“Attack!” I commanded her

With a savage, predatory look in her slit eye, Annie dove for the Cockatrice, her new fangs bared. The poor creature had less than 0.28 seconds to resist as its throat was pierced by razor sharp teeth. Annie’s hooves held it down as the creature struggled and flailed. I have probably turned a peaceful pony into an efficient killing machine, experiment complete. While I let her drain the cockatrice of its bodily fluids and devour its flesh, I analysed the data collected from her kill.

“Good girl,”

A wave of blue sparks travelled over me as I reformatted the power of petrification to suit me. There goes one creature off the list.

-{>(|)<}-

The Parasprites were an easy affair, as they were small and fit into Annie’s hungry mouth perfectly. The little creatures did little more than eat and multiply, not unlike the othe other brutes of my home. Perhaps a future invasion could benefit from a swarm of such beings? I am now heading for a nearby stream to locate the Aquatic Serpent. A large purple snake with large orange hair sunbathed on the shore. He was far too big to become a meal, almost as large as Baron Nasher, but comparatively weak and scrawny. I reveal myself to the creature, purple lightning swirling around my form as I showed my true colours. My transformation awoke the serpent with a start.

“What have we here?” it asked questioningly, in the posh, noble accent I have always loathed.

Not wasting time, I fire a small magenta laser from the tips of my three tendrils, and all four of my eyes. I converged the lasers into a single point before me, their combined power equated to a beam bigger and more powerful than the sum of its parts. Starting with its head, I methodically disintegrated the snake’s body, travelling along its length and ending at the tip of its tail. It didn’t even scream as it was torn apart mercilessly, yet methodically. In seconds, he was reduced to a large pile of smoking ash. My completed analysis has turned in a pitiful amount of intelligence, but a wealth of aquatic based powers. Should I or any void life end up in a large body of water, this should definitely become useful.

My business here in the forest concludes with the Manticore. Annie trotted back up to me, looking up with her slit eye, a trail of blood leaking down her mouth. While she washed in the river, I scanned the surrounding forest for signs of this apparently elusive creature. Unsurprisingly, none so far. I dove back into Annie’s mind, cringing at the sudden flood sensations. My ears prick up as a high pitch squealing echoes through the air, followed by a bestial roar. Locating the point of origin for these sounds, I break into a gallop, nimbly weaving around the twisted forest and towards the signs of my quarry.

-{>(|)<}-

Upon arrival, I see a trio of infant ponies trapped between a rock wall and a pack of wooden wolves. The pitch of their cry suggests a female gender disposition. The wolves were of equal size as the dogs that inhabited the League’s jungles. Their bodies were completely composed of sticks and pieces of wood. Their eyes glowed a soft, yellow-green, suggesting magical origination. Annie licked her lips hungrily at the sight of the children, unsatisfied by her previous kills. I quelled her hunger quickly, as her intentions to consume would serve no beneficial function at this time. I reveal myself once more, the sound of electricity crackling through the air.

The wolves rounded on me in surprise, shooting me guttural snarls and warning expressions. I shot forth a bolt of pure energy at the front-most wolf, splitting and burning it on impact. The bolt split into two more, travelling perpendicular to the original, further destroying two more wolves. The remaining three pounced as one, aiming for an arm each. I banished them with a wave of magic, knocking them to the ground. I hurled a mass of unstable molecules at their paws, and watched them fly backward from the shockwave. One clattered apart as it hit the rock face behind it, while the other two got up on shaky legs.

The pair snarled a final warning, and sprinted into the brush. Odd, they left the children behind. The only scenario that suits their reaction is one I was not going to like, but I looked forward to it nonetheless. The manticore, a lion with the wings of a dragon and the tail of a scorpion roared a challenge from behind me. I withdrew to the rock face, Annie following obediently with me.

“There you are,” I said casually

The monster snarled and, charged me with savage ferocity. I loosed my Life Form Disintegration Ray as soon as it advanced. The violent stream of unstable particles deconstructed my foe rapidly at a sub-atomic level. By the time it was close enough to attack, it was little more than a cloud of soot. Annie tended to the younglings while I analysed my latest find.

“Are you alright?” she asked the frightened foals

“We’re okay,” the small red-maned farm pony replied “Thanks for saving us,”

“It isn’t me you should thank. You should save your gratitude for my friend here,”

I looked to them in surprise. What a strange response for being credited for a kill. The fool summoners often bicker over the issue of ‘kill-stealing’.

“Thanks Mister,” a small white unicorn said warmly

“Yeah! Those moves of yours were sweet!” added an orange Pegasus “What are you anyway?”

I laughed heartily at their childhood innocence.

“A figment of your imagination,” I whispered, bathing the three in a soft light

As they gazed into my eye, they fell asleep as subconscious hints flooded their mind with thoughts of slumber.

-{>(|)<}-

The sun was setting as Annie and I made our way back to Ponyville. She carried a foal across her back, and another resting on the back of her neck. I carried the remaining child on my head. All three snored quietly on the uneventful return trip. We deposited the unconscious foals near a cottage pockmarked in creature hideaways and birds, and went on our way. I reassumed my invisible guise and led Annie to our next destination. Her connection to four out of six of my objectives has allowed a sufficient psychic pathway to the remaining two. This allowed me to infiltrate and harvest their minds remotely, as well as the whole population of this rural town.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the two remaining of the six bore little of the knowledge I required. The former lacked any form of proper intelligence, while the latter was so full of emotion it sickened me. Notable subjects were few and far between in this little town, perhaps it was time I moved on.

In the privacy of Zecora’s former home, I made repairs for Annie’s body. Her condition has degraded rapidly since her exposure to alcohol, so immediate mental reconstruction was required. Additionally, her brain capacity has been maximised to the highest value a pony could achieve naturally, and her processing speed has been increased to that of a small super-computer. She dozed peacefully on the wooden floor below while I made my modifications, my arms probing her exterior with beams and sweeps of magenta light.

I do not require sleep , so I spent the rest of the night processing data. Despite the moon’s obvious path across the sky, I could not detect any sign of solar orbit. Centrifugal force due to the planet’s roatation around the sun was non-existent. A peculiar problem, but one I will address in the future. The next richest source of information lies in the minds of certain ponies residing inside Equestria’s capital, Canterlot. Also residing there, is the greatest collection of knowledge I know this world contains, the Canterlot Archive. There, I will harvest this knowledge, and hopefully conclude my mission on this land.

Comments

[Chaotic Note]

Are Annie and Vel one and the same, or two different entities at this point?

[Jason Brony]

Good chapter, brah.

[ShadowFall]

-{>(|)<}-

Oh! I get it! It's Vel's eye!

[ShadowFall]

I looked to them in surprise. What a strange response for being credited for a kill. The fool summoners often bicker over the issue of ‘kill-stealing’.

That was great.

gifsforum.com/images/gif/clap%20clap%20clap/grand/00982873_clap_gif.gif

[Mosqueefo]

4237979 Annie is a "summoned one" if you like, she is bound to vel, but vel can take control his/her body at any time

[Chaotic Note]

4240894
ok

[Astral Star and Company]

For future clarification:

'Annie' as she is referred, is essentially my flesh and blood, but with a mind of her own. She is her own pony as much as she is a part of me. Two beings in one entity, yet remaining apart. Annie however, is the puppet and I, her master. I am my mind, she is my body. She owes her whole existence to me.

-{>(|)<}-

[mune72]

4242049 I want more please of this story