To Devour a God

by the7Saviors


Chapter XXXII – A Great and Powerful Headache

Just as I'd expected, the next few days were anything but peaceful. Almost two weeks had passed since I was carried out of the training room and worked on by not only Doctor Whooves and his team, but also Nurse Red Heart. She'd only been there to make sure I was okay physically and hadn't been briefed on the details regarding my bias factor or the testing surrounding it.

I made sure to visit the infirmary at Doctor Whooves' recommendation and was given a clean bill of health by Red Heart, much to my relief. Just as ordered, I hadn't told anypony the truth of what happened to me, though it hadn't been easy to keep my bias factor a secret for a number of reasons. The persistence of the curious was one major problem I had to contend with for a bit, but another was my desire to actually tell those I'd come to call friends, or close acquaintances at the very least.

So far, I'd been holding off on using any overt magic in public and telling most ponies who asked that I didn't want to talk about what happened. I tried to make it seem like I was traumatized by the event, and I found that the act actually wasn't too hard to pull off, as it wasn't entirely a lie. Every time I thought back to the pain I endured, my hands shook and I swear I could feel my horn tingle with painful aftershocks.

When I inevitably ran into the rest of my future combat team I told them the same thing. I was worried about what they'd say in response, but I found my worries wasted and unnecessary. They were more than supportive, not asking any more and fussing over my wellbeing like a bunch of helicopter parents. I had yet to see Sunset or the twins since I woke up, but I was sure I'd see them around eventually. While I was curious to see what they had to say about my situation, I didn't mind putting off the meeting.

Avoiding the use of my magic after I'd just gotten back full control over it was frustrating, but the social issues I'd been dreading wound up resolving themselves fairly quickly. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, as much as the ponies of Ponyville loved to gossip, they wouldn't push an issue if they saw that it was truly hurting the victim of the rumors rather than just annoying them. At least, the vast majority of them wouldn't. After a couple of days of avoiding the issue, I was largely left alone by most of my peers.

Most of my peers.

"Oh for the love of Celestia, enough!" I rounded on the azure coated unicorn mare doggedly following after me as I stormed down one of the many uniform halls of the branch. "I've told you over and over again that I have nothing to say about what happened! I don't want to talk about it! I don't want to think about it! I don't have any deep hidden magical secrets to reveal! I just want to forget about it and move on with my life!"

Several ponies passing by stopped to stare at the confrontation, but at this point I just didn't care anymore. I've been told before that I was quick to panic but I considered myself to have quite a bit of patience with other ponies. Usually. The mare who currently stood before me looking shocked and affronted by my complete and utter rejection had finally tested the last of that patience. There hadn't been a single day since I was released by the Doctor that she hadn't hounded me about the details of the training room incident.

No matter what I said, no matter what I did, no matter how I tried to avoid her, she just wouldn't leave me alone. I'd gotten fed up and now I was in a situation I would've much rather avoided altogether. I didn't like it but I had to put my hoof down at some point, and that point had finally been reached. "How is this so hard for you to understand?!" I cried in frustrated astonishment.

"You... You can shout and scream and deny it all you like," the mare replied, trying to collect herself after a moment of stunned silence. She drew herself up and shot me her haughtiest glare, "but I know there's more to this, Sparkle! I know you're hiding something big, and the Great and Powerful Trixie refuses to relent, not until you've laid all your secrets bare!" She punctuated her statement with a ridiculous flourish, cutting her hand to one side like she was laying down some holy law.

I ran both my hands through my mane with an aggravated growl and turned to continue down the corridor, the self-proclaimed Great and Powerful Trixie shadowing my every step. "Seriously," I groaned, suddenly feeling tired, "don't you have anything better to do than follow me around like a lost foal?" I didn't bother looking back at Trixie as I spoke. I could hear the clop of her hooves and the constant flap of the dusky purple mantle she wore over her fully buttoned standard issue Wendigo jacket.

The mantle was strewn with yellow, silver, and pale blue stars of various shapes, making her look like some kind of ponytale depiction of a witch or wizard. Completing the ludicrous ensemble was a large, floppy, wide-brimmed hat with a folded conical crown adorned with those same stars. She wore the getup everywhere she went and without a hint of shame. Oddly enough—and despite her insufferable presence—I kind of respected that.

"Of course I do," Trixie scoffed as she hurried to walk alongside me, "The training room finally opened back up so I decided to get a bit of practice in—you know, perfect my already stellar skills." She glanced at me sidelong, an infuriating smirk crossing her face, "I just so happened to overhear the news of a certain unicorn mare also heading off to resume her own training after making a mess of the place."

I snorted and tried to walk a bit faster and, of course, Trixie did the same. "So you decided to tag along and try to squeeze as much information as you could out of me, is that it?" I asked, giving the nosy mare a sardonic smile, "Waiting for me to slip up so you can catch a glimpse of my hidden power during training?"

"Exactly!" she admitted without a shred of doubt or hesitation, "I may not know what went down in that projection room, but if my hunch is right, then you haven't completely recovered from the ordeal. Even if you don't show your true skills, there'll still be somepony there to watch you—to make sure whatever happened doesn't happen again, and that'll just be more proof for the Clever and Observant Trixie to build upon."

She looked rather proud of her own deduction, but all I could do was shake my head. "Trixie... you do realize that there's always somepony watching to make sure something dangerous doesn't happen during training, don't you? An observer will be there whether I'm there or not."

I grimaced internally, knowing Trixie was, in actuality, not too far off the mark with her assessment of the situation. It wasn't like only one Hunter could use the training room at a time. The projection room was more than big enough to train several recruits at once. Generally speaking, most trainees tended to practice in solitude when possible, but pairs and group training were common. After all, the Daeus Hunters worked in teams. Like Trixie said, the training room had finally re-opened after roughly two weeks being shut down. Not everypony enjoyed training, but there were many who were beginning to feel like they were getting rusty. With the re-opening of the training room, the number of training sessions were at an all time high.

I was pretty sure it was one of those 'don't know what you have until it's gone' situations, but that was just my guess. Still, with how she'd been bugging me for the past few days, I was certain Trixie's excuse to follow me into the training room was just that. An excuse, and not a very good one. That aside, it was going to be my first time back in the training room since the incident and Doctor Whooves was supposed to be residing over my personal training to watch for any bias factor related abnormalities. Until we got the okay to reveal my circumstances to the public I wouldn't be using my own magic, but there was another way to practically apply my magic without being discovered.

I still had reservations and a few more questions about my bias factor and I guess the Doctor understood that. He allowed me to take some time to visit friends and clear my head, then called me back to the lab to discuss any additional info he might've missed and how my bias factor actually worked in depth. That was fine with me. As a scientist, I wanted to know everything inside and out, or at least everything that Doctor Whooves could tell me. It turned out that, internally, my mana circulation—which included my wellspring and the mana conduit that was my horn—was the only thing affected by my 'evolved' thaumic energy. The rest of the Hive Cells in my body were still there, but they didn't recognize my thaumic energy as a threat anymore and my thaumic energy in turn didn't attack my own Hive Cells.

In a way, it was kind of like how the immune system doesn't attack the body's cells because of the specific proteins they carry. Once Hive Cells were injected into the body via the armlets, they essentially became part of the Hunter—the Hive Cells infused with our own unique genetic data. The 'evolved' mana, the Hive Cells, they were all part of me and each component recognized that and worked together to attack any external threats—namely, foreign Hive Cells. According to Doctor Whooves and his team's research, my 'evolved' mana, when raw and undirected by my thaumic signature, can—depending on the amount of mana released—either interrupt or outright destroy any Hive Cells other than my own.

Obviously, being surrounded by other Daeus Hunters and Daeus Arms, this would cause major problems. With that being said, ponies don't really generate raw, unfiltered mana under normal circumstances—not unless something's gone terribly, terribly wrong with the circulation of their mana. That kind of disaster is usually a result of a magic surge, but those are rare nowadays. I remember reading about how magic surges were incredibly common and a massive problem during the Age of War, but we've come a long way since then. While the dangerous phenomenon is still a problem, our advances in thaumatology and magitech have made that problem much smaller.

There are five categories that make up the severity of a magic surge with Category 5—or just C5—being the worst. To put how dangerous surges could potentially be into perspective, my little episode back in the training room was officially only classified as a Category 2 magic surge. Thankfully, Daeus Hunters don't really have to worry about this at all given what Hive Cells normally do to internal thaumic energy. What's more, after some testing on mine and the Doctor's part, we found that as long as I use my thaumic signature to 'write' the proper commands when casting spells, my 'evolved' mana acts just like normal mana, albeit a little denser than normal.

The way my bias factor worked also seemed to imply that I was now immune to Hive Cell corruption, but Doctor Whooves was quick to rectify that assumption. While I'd gained a far stronger resistance to Hive Cell corruption, I wasn't completely immune to it. With enough concentrated exposure to foreign Hive Cells, my internal thaumic defenses would be overwhelmed and I would inevitably succumb to that grisly fate. If my armlet was damaged too badly, I ran the very high risk of my own Hive Cells rebelling against me and causing Hive Cells corruption. That in and of itself was a danger that every Hunter had to worry about.

In my case, however, my 'evolved' mana would try to attack the Cells out of self-preservation and the ensuing internal battle would destroy my body. At least, that's what the Doctor theorized. That was a test I was all too happy not to be part of. So yes, there were still risks, but we'd done the proper testing to ensure that those risks were low. That said, I still needed to make sure I could use my magic safely in the field, and I couldn't really do that kind of testing in the lab.

This was a large part of why I was on my way to the training room and why Doctor Whooves was personally overseeing my results. After some discussion on the matter, Doctor Whooves eventually decided the safest way to test my magic without revealing it was to, ironically, use the same method I used to awaken my bias factor.

Naturally, I was completely against the idea and may or may not have called the Doctor a mad scientist. Doctor Whooves tried to assure me that he already had everything covered and that recent history wouldn't be repeated. I remained entirely skeptical, but decided to go against my better judgment and trust him as the senior researcher. The many images of all the things that could go wrong swirling in my head did nothing to help my current mood, but Trixie's flustered expression and her stuttering failure of a rebuttal at my words certainly did.

Apparently, she'd forgotten the purpose of the observation deck within the training room. In all seriousness, I had assurances from Doctor Whooves that everything would be fine, but I just couldn't shake my doubts. I wanted to leave Trixie behind, but more than her annoyingly overbearing personality, I just didn't want to accidentally hurt her or worse if things went wrong.

Private training sessions behind locked doors and emergency training room lockdowns weren't unheard of, but in the case of the former, those private sessions were usually reserved for the Captains. I hadn't thought to request a private training session in light of my circumstances and Doctor Whooves hadn't offered. As far as I knew, any Hunter or trainee who wanted to train could just waltz right in, never mind the potential danger I posed if the worst came to pass. It was all enough to make me scream in frustration.

Just... why?! Where are the safety measures? Why didn't the Doctor tell me what he was planning? 'I want it to be a surprise' my flank! This is absurd! And then there's this egotistical loudmouth!

"Just what is your deal, anyway?" I suddenly asked, cutting off the other mare's half-formed response, "Say I do have some amazing secret or ridiculous hidden power. What then?" I stopped just before the stairway leading up to the training room and turned to look Trixie in the eye. "How would that information benefit you? What would you gain? What would you do with that knowledge?" I narrowed my eyes, "Looking for more juicy info to add to the rumor mill? Is that it?"

To my surprise, Trixie stepped back, looking positively offended at my accusation. "Wha—of course not!" she snapped back, her dark violet eyes ablaze with indignation, "Do you think the Great and Honorable Trixie so base as to blab your deepest darkest secrets to the world willy-nilly?"

Now it was my turn to look confused. "Wait, so... you're not trying to spread more rumors then?" I asked, trying to confirm what she was saying. Trixie huffed and blew a large silvery-blue lock of her mane out of her face before giving me another haughty look.

"Please, I'm not some vapid simpleton chasing after useless hearsay just to impress her empty headed friends. Give me a little more credit than that, Sparkle." As she finished, she raised a hand to toss aside the stray lock of mane that found its way back into her vision. I took a mental step back and re-assessed the mare in front of me, watching as she accidentally knocked her floppy hat askew and scrambled to readjust it.

She was perhaps one of the most annoying mares I'd ever met and yet there was a strange earnestness about her—like she was a filly who believed every boastful, arrogant word of what she said. Maybe it was her overblown and downright foalish sense of superiority, but I got the impression that she wasn't lying. She truly wasn't out to spread rumors, but if that was the case...

"Then why are you so fixated on this idea that I have some kind of hidden secret? And even if I did, why would I share it with you? I don't even know you." My last words came out with slightly more bite than I would've liked, but at this point, those words had to be said. I was tired of dealing with Trixie and just wanted to get this test over with.

Something flickered in Trixie's eyes at my words, some indefinable emotion I couldn't place. Her whole face twitched but I couldn't tell what kind of expression she was trying to make. It only took half a second for her features to settle once again into indignation. Before she could get another word out, however, another voice spoke out from behind the azure mare.

"Well, if it isn't the wannabe archmage and the actual archmage together in one place."

Both Trixie and I nearly jumped at the unexpected sound and as Trixie whipped around to face the voice I looked over her shoulder to see— "Sunset?"

Sure enough, the fiery maned researcher was leaned against the wall opposite the stairway, her arms crossed and her expression one of mild amusement as she watched the two of us. I'd been so caught up in dealing with Trixie that I hadn't even noticed her arrival.

"What are you doing here? How long have been here?" I asked, then frowned, "And archmage? What are you talking about?" It only took me a second to realize what she was talking about, but I chose play dumb. I didn't want Trixie getting even more riled up than she already was, but unfortunately, Sunset Shimmer had other plans.

"Oh, I've been here long enough to get the gist of the situation." She replied flippantly. A grin that I very much didn't like crossed her face as she moved away from the wall and toward where Trixie and I stood. Her words were aimed at me, but her bright cyan eyes fell on Trixie as she spoke, "And if you wanna know why the Reckless and Unreliable Trixie is following you around like a puppy begging for scraps, it's because that's exactly what she's doing." Sunset's eyes bore into Trixie and her smile widened ever so slightly.

Trixie flinched, any response she was about to make dying in her throat. Her expression grew complicated, but before I could ask what Sunset meant, the mantle wearing Hunter rounded on my and jabbed a finger in my face. "Very well, have it your way, Sparkle," she suddenly snapped, "I'll take my leave for now, but this isn't over. I will unravel the truth of what happened in that training room!"

With that declaration she turned about with a grandiose flap of her mantle, gave Sunset one last glance, and marched off away from the stairway and down the hall with hurried steps. A strange knot formed in my gut as I watched her go. I suddenly felt like I'd been missing some important context this whole time. "Was that really necessary?" I asked, turning back to Sunset with a frown.

"Hey, it got her out of your mane, didn't it?" She replied with an unapologetic shrug. She moved past me and started making her way past the stairs and down the corridor in the opposite direction of where Trixie went, "Now come on, Time Turner's waiting for us in Derpy's workshop."

"Wait, the workshop?" I asked, bewildered as I tried to keep up with her brisk steps, "I thought he was supposed to meet me in the training room?"

Sunset shrugged without turning around, "Don't ask me, I was just told to come pick you up. The Doc did say something about not wanting to spoil the surprise. If you do ask me though, I'd say he and Derpy were cooking something up just for you." She glanced back at me from over her shoulder, her eyes lidded and a knowing smirk crossing her face, "Now aren't you just a special snowflake?"

I frowned, remembering the Doctor's claim about having a solution already lined up. If Derpy was involved and we were going to her workshop, that could only mean... "A Daeus Arm? Is that what they're working on?" I was mostly pondering aloud to myself, but Sunset answered anyway.

"Most likely. Given who we're talking about and where we're going, I can't really see it being about anything else." She tilted her head as though in thought, "Then again, I suppose it could be something to do with your armlet? You're generally not supposed to mess with those once they've been attached, but in your case..."

Sunset paused a moment, then shrugged. "I dunno, maybe Derps found a way to upgrade or alter it somehow to suit your... delicate situation?" she turned and gave me an unpleasant grin, "Who knows? Maybe they'll make you go through another Daeification."

I shuddered and glowered back at the other mare. "Don't even joke about that! Do you have any idea how awful that process is?" A thought hit me and I glanced down at Sunset's wrists, neither of which had the bulky armlet of a Daeus Hunter, "Ah, no I... guess you wouldn't."

Sunset mirrored my action and cast her eyes toward my own armlet, though her expression bore a bit more disgust, or maybe disdain. "No, I know exactly how awful that process is," she replied. "Why do you think I'm not wearing one of those monstrosities?"

It took me a second to realize what she meant, but I understood soon enough. She was a Hive Cell researcher the same as me—specifically, she was an expert on how Hive Cells affected the equine body. She might not have experienced Daeification for herself, but she would have known the details. She would've understood the risks involved. Thinking about it further, that was probably also the reason she was participating in whatever Doctor Whooves and Derpy had planned for me.

Honestly, it wasn't like I didn't sympathize with her feelings on the Daeification procedure. After all, I felt the very same way she did before I became a Daeus Hunter. I still feel that way to an extent, but in getting the armlet and meeting my fellow Hunters, I've since gained an appreciation for what most Hunters have to go through to be what they are. There was one thing I didn't understand though, something that bugged me the more I thought about Sunset's reaction. She seemed to have this intense aversion to injecting the body with Hive Cells and yet she'd attempted to do essentially the same thing to an unborn foal.

Does she hate the idea in spite of her past deeds, or because of them?

I couldn't fault the mare either way. I'd almost gotten used to the idea before my potentially deadly blunder in the training room, but I still wouldn't wish the Daeification process upon anypony. The topic, though meant as a joke at my expense, wound up leaving an uncomfortable silence in its wake as we walked. It wasn't until we were nearing the door to the Daeus Arms workshop that another thought crossed my mind.

I glanced around the corridor. It was both empty and quiet, but I wasn't sure how long it had been that way. A worry started to gnaw at my mind as I realized Sunset and I had been talking about things we probably should have kept to ourselves. I ran back through the conversation in my head and found that, while much of what we talked about might sound suspicious, none of it was exactly incriminating. Still, I couldn't help but give the hallway a wary once-over.

The sound of my name being called brought my attention back to Sunset, who was watching me with mild impatience. We'd finally reached the door while I was preoccupied and now the other researcher was waiting for me to open the door. "Oh, right, the number," I muttered somewhat distractedly, "hang on a second." I stepped up to the keypad next to the door and punched in my personal Daeus Hunter ID number.

All new recruits were sent their DHID in an email about a week ago, but I'd only gotten a chance to check my emails recently. It was a good thing I did too, because I'd be in an awkward spot right now if I hadn't. Once I entered my ID, a small panel opened just below the keypad and I inserted my armlet into a large slot.

There was a loud beep and the door to the workshop slid open without issue. Sunset was the first to enter, but I hung back for a moment, a small but insistent tingle at the back of my neck making me pause. Suddenly feeling as though I was being watched, I took one last look around the corridor and froze. At one end of the hallway, just as I turned to look, I caught a glimpse of something disappearing around a distant corner. It might've been my imagination, but I couldn't shake my sudden doubts.

I had a very difficult time trying to convince myself that the flap of that familiar star-strewn purple mantle as it vanished from view wasn't a trick of the light. I felt my heart leap into my throat as I internalized the implications of what I'd just seen. If it were any other pony then I probably could have written the situation off somehow—maybe make some kind excuse or let other ponies chalk it up to silly rumors or something. But no, if I truly wasn't seeing things—if that mare overheard anything Sunset and I had been discussing—then my life was about to get very... frustrating.

"Hey, you coming or what?"

I whipped around to see Sunset already making her way into the depths of the workshop where Doctor Whooves and Derpy were no doubt waiting for us. She'd stopped and turned to find me just standing there in the open doorway, probably looking like I'd seen a ghost. She watched me with that same impatience, though it was colored with a bit of wary concern this time around.

"Whoa, you, uh... you okay over there?" she asked carefully, "You look like you just bit into Castor's baked toffee." The comment momentarily threw me for a loop. I hadn't know Castor had an interest in baking, nor would I have ever guessed it in a million years looking at the mare and her sister.

"Uh, n-no, I'm fine," I replied, trying to collect myself, "just... thought I saw something down the hall. The corridors are kind of creepy when there's nopony around, so I was bit jumpy I guess." I gave the other mare a hopefully reassuring smile.

Sunset just gave a non-committal hum in response before continued on into the workshop. "I get where you're coming from, but you get used to it pretty quick," she replied absently, "now come on, I want to get this over with. Got better things to do and better places to be."

I watched her go for a second before glancing back to where I saw our mantle-wearing stalker. There was nothing and nopony there anymore, not that the fact did anything to ease my worries. In the end, I just gave a resigned sigh and stepped into the workshop. I could've told Sunset about what I saw, but what would that change really? Sure, somepony in the know could chase the mare down and tell her not to spill the beans, but that would just raise even more suspicion and make things even worse for me.

Trixie didn't strike me as the kind of mare to give up in the face of higher authority—at least, not when said authority wasn't around to keep her in check.

No sense in making a big stink about it now. I'll just... cross that bridge when I come to it.