//------------------------------// // Mind-F--- (91) // Story: Griffin the Griffin // by BlackWing //------------------------------// Mind Buck?, Cluck?, Duck?, what's the word? =Trixie= Preparation for using the mind control spell was..... odd, in more ways than one. He had a barrel with some fish in it brought in, then made a joke about 'shooting fish in a barrel', then shouted 'BARRELS' angrily. In my opinion? Being stuck inside is making him even crazier than before. Still, he's a genius, and this spell is nothing short. The words 'Ego Dominus' basically meaning 'I dominate' or, in simpler terms, 'me=lord'. Now, it's not as simple as casting it. When you use it, both you and the target are pulled into a kind of.... mind-scape as he called it, something he equated to 'the fucking matrix' in that physical form had no meaning at all, and your abilities are only as limited as your understanding of them, and so long as you kept the will to fight, you couldn't lose. Basically, within that world, you pretty much entered a contest to see how much pain and fear you could cause your opponent to the point that it just gave up. The other thing being, if you could suspend your disbelief, forget the way the world should work, you could change it however you wished, so long as you could convince yourself that it was possible. He changed back into a griffin at this point, and laid on his back to avoid putting pressure on his ribs. "In coming to this world, and seeing the things I've seen, the fact is, at this point, I believe ANYTHING is possible, you just need to find a way to do it. I've dealt with more weird shit in the... what.... 14 months I've been here? Than most people go through their entire lives. What you're going to do it cast the spell on this fish, then dominate it's mind. It's not sentient, so all it's capable of is instinct. Eat, breed, breathe, fear, pain. It won't have much determination, so all you gotta do is take it out of the water and you'll win. Or, you could show it a predator and give it no way to escape. Either way. So, begin." I looked at one of the fish, just swimming around the barrel a bit with the five others, pooled some magic in my horn, and spoke the words. 'Ego Dominus.' Suddenly, the world shifted. I was in a forest, barely illuminated by the pale moon light, grand willows draping their branches over a perfectly clear pond, and in that pond were a number of fish. I could tell at a glance which one was mine, despite there not being any discernible difference between them. I could just tell which one was mine. Hard to describe really. So, I used my magic and lifted it out of the pond and held it in the air. Pretty soon it stopped breathing, and the scene melted away to show the training room. The only thing that had changed was now I could feel a presence in the back of my mind that wasn't there before, and a ghost of a sensation which, when I tried to move it, like moving one of my own hooves, the fish did as I wanted, like I was using the fish's mind to know how to move it's body, like it was an extension of my own. "Whoa. How long was I...." "One and a half seconds. I know, it feels like longer." "This is....... freaky. I know exactly what it's like to be a fish. I'm here..... but at the same time.... I'm there, in that barrel. I can feel everything." "Good... now try and shut the feeling off. I know you can't really turn it off, but you can ignore what the body is telling you." "What? Why?" He slowly rolled over and got to his feet before carefully walking over to the barrel and looking into it. I could see him through the fish's eyes, and the fish in the back of my mind was screaming at me to swim away. I did my best to ignore it, demanding that the body stay in position. It obeyed, right up till the point that Grif wrenched it from the water with his claws. At that point, my fish body immediately began squirming about, desperate to get back in the water. He held the fish up so he could look at both it and my face, and all four of my eyes could look into his. In his right eye, I could see my fish face, and in his left, my pony face, brows furrowed and looking anxious beyond all else. That was when he put the fish in his beak, ever so slowly. I could feel as he licked my scales, which sent a shudder down my spine and cringed before he bit down, cutting my other half's life short. I nearly screamed, nearly. I was able to hold myself together, but I was certainly breathing heavily after the ordeal was over. What's more, even though it had only existed for five minutes, there was now a space in my mind that had once held the fish, and I found myself longing for it, even as he ate it raw, stripping the meat from the bones and spitting the skeleton back into the barrel. "Oh Celestia.... that was horrible. It's.... it's like a piece of ME died..... I... I could feel you eating me before I.... it.... died." "Which is why you need to learn to ignore the sensation. Remember, whoever you mind control we will eventually be killing. In the most painless and merciful way as possible, but, death is death. Again." We spent the next couple hours going over the nuances of the spell, and at one point he had me controlling three fish at once before he killed them all at once in very horrible ways that made me feel sick, during which I was able to stop them from squirming at all, gaining control over the instincts that were present. I know its important that I don't let this get to me, and thus why he's doing this, but still. UUUUghghghh. "And now I get why you were so hesitant to let this out of the bag." "Not only does it take away someone's freedom, but it's seriously disturbing to the caster. Anyone with low mental fortitude would find themselves either as a mind slave, or go completely bonkers." "If that's what happens with a FISH, after using this on a diamond dog, I have a feeling that I'll never WANT to use this spell again." "I think that would be for the best. As for what else.... you need to at least see the target to use it..... and that's about it I guess. Get a good night's rest." "Gods know I'll need it." =Gilda= "Rise and shine folks. While Grif was off training Trixie, here's what I got set as a plan. From the ship, we attack the artillery pieces and destroy them with the big gun. Once they're all taken care of, we'll come down in force and try to break in, but, I'm already fairly sure that will fail, which is why Trixie will be using a secret weapon to get the door open, after which we'll bust in, let their dragon go, and the rest will be 'have at them lads'. Understood?" "Aye." "Grif, any words of inspiration.... or mockery, that you think I should use? Something fitting for the occasion?" "You're the captain, you think of something." We slowly descended to below the cloud layer, turning all our guns on the hill that sat beneath us, off the starboard. So far, all was calm and quiet. They hadn't seen us yes. "Ready......" Tiras nodded. "Aim." He looked down the sight and picked his target. His limber form oozing confidence. He knew he would hit. "FIRE!" The opening salvo was a shot from the main gun which set the strong, but quite flammable timbers of the the nearest giant crossbow into an inferno. The rest of them slowly turned to face us, causing them to lose another two before their first shots came towards us. They hadn't known we were here due to our excellent skill of concealing ourselves, so they weren't exactly expecting an attack from above. Their harpoon launchers, which were made for this kind of attack, fired first, one of the spikes sailing over the ship, a couple bouncing harmlessly off the balloon, a few under it, and one between the balloon and the body, nearly taking Nadene's head off. It seemed to have just nicked her ear, but other than that, she was fine. Quickly cutting the ropes before the dogs manning the guns could pull us down, a volley of the shot bundles came, but were thankfully blocked by a shield set up by the unicorns inside the ship. The big shots went right through, but the smaller arrows bounced off harmlessly. 'Good thing Grif got unicorns.... our armor can block whatever hits it, but with that many shots, I'm certain some would hit the spaces between.' "FIRE AT WILL!" Now the cats and griffins all took up their laser rifles and started picking off the dogs below, while another six of the artillery pieces were burnt to cinders. It took us about ten minutes, as some of the pieces were on the far side of the hill and we had to circle around to get them, but finally, all the standard defenses were destroyed. The dogs on the guns had begun fleeing inside, so now was the time to strike. "Trixie! With me!" I had my own riding harness fitted with my armor, so she quickly jumped on my back, strapped herself in, threw a couple shields on us and set a look of determination on her face. "Let's do this already." =Trixie= As we reached the entrance, we could see the great big door had just finished being closed, and the dogs on the outside were pounding on it, begging to be let in. Of course, they wouldn't be. There were several of them just sitting there, resigned to their fates. They knew they had their backs to the wall, and they didn't have a chance of beating us with our numbers, gear, and training. I looked around and found one in particular who seemed particularly down. Matted fur, all mangy, dirty, looking tired as hell. Perfect. "Is... over." "You. Get over here. I got something to say to you." He simply got up and walked over. "We die now?" "Well.... you want to open the door for us? Pretty please?" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. He simply laughed in our faces. "Door.... opens..... inside.... only. We, Alpha, worthless, thinks. Leave to die." "Well, if you can't open the door, and there's no way they'll let us in, I guess we'll just have to come back later when you're caught off guard. I just have one thing left to say to you." I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Ego Dominus." The world shifted, and I found myself looking at the dog, both of us in a dank cave. I immediately shifted the scene to Cloudsdale. While I know I can't NORMALLY walk on clouds, I know a spell exists that makes it possible, so I simply assumed I had it cast on me. Lo and behold, I stood on the cloud. The dog fell through. I smiled and laughed as he fell, then, splat. The world shifted back, and I could now feel his body as an extension of my own, and a voice in my head asking 'What?' 'Ah ah ah, don't worry too much about it. You said you couldn't open the door on your own, so, I'm going to help you do it.' 'My.... body! I can't...." 'That's right... I'm in control now. You're going to do exactly what I want, because you don't have a choice anymore.' I gave Gilda a tap on the back, and with it, she ordered our forces to pull out. Now it's show time. "I want you to tell that to your alpha." I said to the one I had just mind controlled, which felt weird since I could see myself saying it, and from what I unintentionally learned from this dog as I began going through his memories for anything useful I could find, he likes being dominated, and I was looking at myself VERY affectionately from my dog point of view. I found myself idly wondering what it would be like to fuck myself, before I abandoned that train of thought by shaking my pony head. I turned to the remainder and smirked. "As for the rest of you..... YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELT OF ELDERBERRIES!" Leaving that insult ringing in their ears, we flew back to the ship while I waited outside for us to leave. We sailed off into the distance, making sure they saw us on the horizon before the door opened and I walked inside, getting elbowed by the dog next to me. "You lucky. Hope come back. Catch pony. Hit that?" I gave a gruff, growl of a laugh before heading in to have dinner..... what I was NOT expecting was for dinner to be.... *gulp* pony.