//------------------------------// // Once A Dream Did Weave A Shade // Story: Memories Of The Flask // by WindigogoGadget //------------------------------// It wasn't what I was expecting, I will admit that and that alone. Anything else would be lies. There was an attempt on gauging the risk of black magic compared to dark magic, I will be distinguishing the two in the inevitable event that these notes are stolen or otherwise retrieved on a day when I am no longer around to withhold them. The method of gauging this risk was by combining a cousin of the self-destructive antithesis of harmonious magic with a procured sample of myself. The study had briefly halted until the knowledge of a most rare visitor had stumbled upon me, a zebracorn potion-maker returning from Zebrica had crossed my path, specifically an alchemist who had nearly perfected a transmutation of a base lead into noble gold. He had vented his frustrations to me about being unable to cut magic out of the process while we were passing notes. Moving forward, my theory was that the power behind this volatile magic could be safely used if one were to give it a material to sacrifice instead of the user. A specially blended restorative potion was to increase the durability of the material, housed in a glass container lined with protective mages silver, both to keep it from shattering and expelling magic from a focus created by and functioning both with life, mana, and the dark arts. I had started with light work, beginning with telekinesis as a type of calibration. If I felt a strain, then clearly the shadow was not being drawn from the focus. There was a success, no harm had come to me. Shortly after, I casted a teleportation spell on a small object. Attempting to cast a spell consumed the focus entirely, and the simple teleportation spell that was to be cast on a flower blossom was twisted. How this occurred, I am uncertain. Perhaps an arithmetic error or the sample was not in large enough quantity. But one of these errors created life. Not only is that a dreadful existential prospect, but what was supposed to be a flower teleported into a corked round bottom flask resulted in a shadowy gaseous orb contained within it instead, with distance from the glass one to two drams liquid, or about an inch. I had discarded it and left it aside in the sunlight to focus on what had gone wrong, what I had made, and the creation of proper disposal for it and any future magical mishaps. The consequences of such a thing breaching containment could be disastrous. ... I have created something alive, and I am afraid that my previous statement is false. I did not create it, or perhaps I did, but it claims to have been dreaming before it 'woke up in the flask. A being with the personality of a child contained in a flask, or it could be a child. Of what species, I do not know, it is entirely possible that only its consciousness was pulled, and elsewhere across the world or perhaps time, a mother and father are grieving. I cant bear to see it look at me. It's too much. I am afraid of what this entails, and of what this means. As bitter as I can be, I am not so far gone that I can merely displace it to the void it came from when it is in essence, a foal. Nor do I have the power to send it back to where I have displaced it from. I am fortunate, that it does not hunger or thirst for anything more than a meaningful conversation and an occasional change of position around the lab. Initially, this had distressed it, lending more credence to the theory that this being was pulled from elsewhere, but I was able to distract it with various equipment I had laying around. It is childish in personality, but is observant, always watching, and takes a genuine interest in my studies and my work, once even recognizing what I was doing before it asked me to explain. Its proposal of a tiny thing that makes up the world, an atom, and the supposedly many elements that make the world, gives me pause to think about how much this being knows and why it divulges its knowledge. As a result of this, I had temporarily postponed writing these notes in the hopes of more findings to add, but I have nothing new. The only new knowledge is that it either cannot read common Equestrian, or simply does not know the Equestrian alphabet. No matter how studious I can be, I will always be ill-equipped to deal with children, and I doubt that having magically created a child of dubious origin will sit well with Clover or the two alicorns I have been tasked with teaching. At best, It'll make me the object of their ridicule for days. I am returning to these notes after a night of rest, now realizing the rash decisions I've made when I had gone without rest. I should have heeded my apprentice about those potions. I am unsure if it is healthy or not, as it is completely featureless. If I were a better philosopher I would dare to call this living liquid the darkness behind innocence, or perhaps the innocence in the darkness. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, this is proving to be a step in the right direction for my research. When I am better collected, I will transcribe the construction process of the shade focus to these notes. I must find a method to detect its status, whether or not it can feel pain or simply knows what it is, but cannot experience it, or if it can become, or currently is, ill. Caring for magical life truly could never be more complicated than raising a foal. . . . I decide to rescind my previous statement. My current students had arrived whilst I was indisposed in a subsection of the laboratory and had decided to handle the entity. Magical life is not less or equally complicated, it is more complicated with the addition of two mares that seem to forget the basics of lab safety. Luna had taken an interest in it, and took its vessel when the entity was in what could be colloquially called sleep, and then startled it, near resulting in shattering its container when she too was startled by its muffled shouts and proclamations of an intruder. I should have warned it that we had guests over. There is nothing I can do now, despite my experience even I cannot rival the raw strength of an alicorn, let alone dare to play tug of war with a living being in the telekinetic grasp of one. Only through threats of arithmetic labor and the entities cries to be released did I assuage Celestia into returning it to me. The two are curious, they'll be excellent mares in the future, I'm sure of it. Our conversation was not much to ink over, but the flask did take an interest in our talks. It seems it understood numbers and equations but did not understand magic, spell patterns, and Harmony, the simple aspects that made up magic and its very being were completely unknown to it. It was also during this conversation that we did discover it had a name that I've been neglecting to ask or use; Alyosha. My students have given me much to think about, and have given me ideas as to what to do with Alyosha, with its express permission. I will, however, put more time into finding a suitable punishment for Luna's comment about telling me to get a mare. I have placed Alyosha near one of the small distilling projects I have ongoing. Another well-rested day has thrown quite a few ideas in flame. Alyosha will die instantaneously upon leaving the flask. The reasoning for this is that it is a being of disharmony that teeters between being able to exist in our harmonious mana field and being assimilated and annihilated by it. The only barrier between its cessation of existence is the magical vacuum inside its flask. I should find a way to make its container stronger without magic, and if I cannot make its container stronger, then I need to find a way to swap the containers. If it acts like a liquid then all I need is to create a vacuum of magic and a method of unsealing the flask, which could be done in all manner of ways. This is a pressing task, and I have added a cushion to Alyosha, in the hopes to prevent a fatality whenever it is unattended. I have yet to inform them of what I am doing, It would be unhealthy for them to be made aware of just how fragile they are. Today they asked if they could be released from the container, and I had to come up with a clever half-truth. Typically Clover would be doing this sort of thing. I told them I was trying to make them a body, I did not tell them that a single exposure to the air beyond the flask would erase them from existence. They have begun to take an interest in my work again. It seems they are curious as to how I can make them a vessel, I am too. Artificial life is not something the average equine has an interest in. I have noticed that these notes are lacking in anything about research, so I will elaborate more on what I have learned. The being I pulled into reality is Alyosha and appears to present itself as a young colt if the voice is of any indication. It does not hunger or thirst and is a black mass without any sort of identifying features except for a single yellow glowing eye with slotted pupils. I believe that the flower was consumed in an infinite feedback loop as a result of the lack of negative emotions to draw from. Because of this the ambient magic as well as my own was used. The teleport likely broke this loop and turned the flower and mana in its teleport destination into a vacuum, which allowed for pure darkness to appear in its stead. I still don't understand how it became conscious. In other news, Luna will be visiting again tomorrow with her theory on Alyosha. Hopefully with fewer comments about a marefriend. We're finally getting somewhere. Since a flower was used as the catalyst for bringing them, we should use plant material for creating a new vessel for them. We aren't entirely sure on the specifics yet, but we may be able to simplify from constructing a hard vessel to making a self-repairing body similar to a ponies. Like a bag that mended itself before its contents spilled. I've chosen various species, orchids, poison jokes, and roses, and Luna seems to have found a simple moon blossom and a buttercup on Celestia's behalf. Celestia was unable to come today, and I doubt the little mana-born would appreciate her. It confided in me a feeling of burning near them, perhaps the wards on the vessel are fading slowly over time, letting the ambient magical field bleed back in. It was that or maybe Celestia and Luna bled ambient that the shade would be sensitive to, with Luna's magic likely being non-damaging to Alyosha. Speaking of magical fields, the consequences of dropping Alyosha seems to be that outside of being erased from existence, there could be a minor chance that he would have the strength to overcome the ambient magical field that surrounds us and absorb it, becoming stronger. This could potentially lead to a world shrouded in darkness. Let's just keep them in a vessel. Any type, just no direct contact with the world. There have been rumors of a full moon increasing the volatility of a spell cast through dark means, I'm not one for rumors, let alone researching one, but this does fall under the research I was working on before. There will be one tonight, and I will see what this does to our guest. He seems to be entering a bout of depression, and I am doing my best to finish the basics of the vessel. The princesses arrived today, and it seems that him being able to talk to someone new has helped, but Alyosha still seems distant. ... I finished it. My two students helped, and worked on their respective plants. We'll just see which one works later today. ... I was unable to make the change in vessels in the day and was going to do so before sunrise before I heard scratching. Coming from his flask. I had moved to investigate but was caught off guard by the tortured wailing that was coming muffled through the glass, those cries were louder than anything I've heard, and they were muffled by thin glass, as if Alyosha was doing his best to not show their pain. He was boiling under the increased presence of harmonious energy with the influence of the moon. Simply put, thaumic pressure was crushing the weak spell matrix that made up his physical form. There's no activity from him at all, he just stopped entirely with the sunrise. I will move them to a new container at once. It's a gamble, but I hope for the best. It is a new sunrise, there has been no new activity from the flower. Examining the flask Alyosha was contained in has yielded some information, mainly the intense magical trace left behind on the glass. Typically there would be signs of a faded or damaged spell-matrix, but it's as if it's been baked into the glass, much like a ceramist fires a glaze in a kiln. Trying to unwind a small amount of it has proven either impossible or difficult, as it seems to tighten its matrix in response to an outside force. It's somehow stable, yet completely volatile at the same time, shifting in intensity in response to any sort of magical influence. I'm not sure what the possible applications of this could be, possibly this could be used to create a much more sensitive thaumic detector. Small victories. I will check on them again later tonight, and once more at sunrise. The flower's gone. ... It's still gone. It hasn't turned up yet. What do I tell the others? .. Calm down Starswirl, take a step back. This is not a time to panic. I felt my horn hum with a spell. The last time I came up with anything in the moment it resulted in Alyosha. Here's hoping it brings them back. I know that gem-seekers have a spell to aid their duties, with some modification to what is a valid target and the traces in the flask, I can find them. This is not yet hopeless. Casting the spell in various places around the tower I felt my magic drain, hastily made spells always did this. I took a sip of water as I waited for the bounce back of another trace. The flask bounced back, but so did something else, another presence somewhere in the lower levels of the tower. Or possibly all around. Spell needs more tuning, how can it possibly be... Everywhere? ... The flower is gone, Alyosha is not. A mass of flowers revealed itself to be creeping up on every wall and object in the laboratory beneath me, and his favorite window. I am not counting this a success yet, but I feel slight comfort in knowing that the first scenario did not come true. I am deeply disturbed if the second one is fated to be the outcome.