//------------------------------// // Meddling with Medulla // Story: "Lots Of Things..." // by WezzaHD //------------------------------// The next morning, Twilight woke up surprisingly quick, she didn’t even need coffee to fully wake up. She cantered right up to the table where I was studying a book. Before she could say anything, I cut her off, ”I could have erased your memory you know. Would you like to guess why I didn’t?” She was obviously caught off guard, but thought about the question none the less. “Because such drastic alteration would be obvious to the princesses and they would punish you for it.” ”Wrong but understandable. I didn’t do it because I morally hate doing such things to truly sapient beings. Every mind is unique, I think of them as songs, but every time I alter a mind by taking control, erasing or changing memories, or altering perceptions the mind becomes less itself and more like mine. Subconscious nudges don’t make other minds like mine, but they can change it drastically over time, but it remains itself.” I said, then looking her in the eye, ”I’m not worried about the knowledge but how you’ll react. I wont tell you about what your future might hold, but just trust your friends and it should turn out alright no matter how bleak things might seem at times.” “I’ve known that for a long time now.” she said giggling. She then looked at the book on the table, “What is that? I don’t recognise that book or the symbol.” Pointing to the eye on the center of the cover. ”I think it’s a token, haven’t touched it to find out. It was just sitting on the table when I came upstairs. I feel some type of psychic resonance I’ve been trying to understand… Screw it!” I said as I grabbed book. An instant later I heard, “To those who seek knowledge and maybe a bit of chaos on the side, call Bill Cipher.” I’ll keep this on hand. I thought. I then told, ”Yep it’s a summoning token.” Just then I felt the presence of Celestia approaching the town with intent to hire. ”See you later, make sure to tell Rainbow training will be delayed. And Tia the answer is still no.” With that I teleported to a small lake across from Canterlot. They still don’t get it. Then I guess once all the ‘Teach Rainbow to be less self obsessed’ crap is over I better explain it to all of them. As I sat there thinking, I felt an unfamiliar mind. It was fractured, dissonant, and pained. Only seconds later I was hit square in the back by radiant darkness. I went flying off the mountain towards Canterlot. I landed in the wall near the city gate. after my vision cleared I was what had attacked me screaming through the air headed directly for me, Cresselia. I rushed forward stopping her Giga Impact with Protect. Her face mere inches from mine. ”What the hell is Arceus thinking, sending a healer to kill?” ”Father did not send us, we came on our own!” she exclaimed before blasting me in the face with a pink ball of energy I think may have been Moonblast. As I fell back to Canterlot a took out Bill’s notebook focused on it and just before I hit the ground I called out to him, ”Hey Bill, I'm Medulla and I might need some help with a fight and possibly restoration of sanity” and ”Ow” as I crashed. [3rd Person POV] Bill slouched in his chair. He was done fitting gadgets into his new body, and was designing bodies for the others at the moment. Not only that, but he also had to help build up the kingdom. He had more of his notes there were still a fair amount of bunkers left to clear out. He was currently residing in his mechanical body, which he was just about to leave. ”Hey Bill, I’m Medulla and I might need some help with a fight and possibly restoration of sanity.” As he heard the voice he felt a light envelop him, as well as an ”Ow.” “Awesome, I’m getting summoned. This should be fun.” He cheered, and decided to take his body with him; it’d make for a nice test drive. Once the light died down, Bill found himself standing next to a Mewtwo, with what appeared to be a Cresselia up in the blue sky staring down at both of them with pure rage but also slightly confused about his presence. “Okay.” Bill yelled out, so Cresselia could hear him. “Which one of you two is Medulla? I’m getting the feeling that it’s you.” He pointed to the feline Pokemon in the small crater. ”That would be correct...” Medulla said telepathically before tackling Bill out of the path of a Shadow Ball. ”And it would be a good idea to stay very alert here.” “Sure.” Bill replied before looking back at Cresselia. “So you’re a Mewtwo displaced? Why are we being attacked by Cresselia? Isn’t she supposed to be nice?” ”No idea, haven’t had the chance to ask yet.” He replied firing back with his own Shadow Balls. “Alright; shoot first and ask questions later.” He turned to face Cresselia. “Let’s see how well this body works.” He flew up to the opposing Pokemon, barely avoiding an Ice Beam and grabbed onto her by her neck. She instantly tried to shake him off and didn't notice the electricity dancing on his forehooves. The power increased and he gave her a huge electric shock. Through all the painful electricity, her eyes lit up and Bill suddenly found himself being lifted off of her and caught by Medulla. “Psychic. Figures.” He grumbled. ”Time to try a new combo move...” The Mewtwo said crushing a Shadow Ball in his hand, and appearing behind Cresselia shouting, ”Shadow Break!” and slamming his fist into her back. She crashed into a market street that had been abandoned early during the fight. ”I just want her unconscious so we fix her mind without any distractions. And please let’s try to keep collateral to a minimum I have a new nice guy reputation to keep.” He said floating down to where Cresselia was. “That’s fine. I fight better when someone’s unconscious anyway.” Bill shrugged before launching a freeze ray out of his mouth based off of his cryogenic chambers. Cresselia responded with a Moonblast. The two collided, causing smoke to form in the markets. Bill took it as an opportunity to attack head- on with his electric hooves again, finding Cresselia and slugging her in the face after seeing a pair of blue eyes. She crashed into a wall while the demon in the robot’s body advanced, but found his body being heavily damaged by a barrage of Psychic energy. After recovering from the Future Sight attack, he followed Cresselia up into the sky, wobbling slightly at the damage and lack of flying practice in a long time. “So what’re you doing here space duck? I’m pretty sure Darkrai was the evil one last time I checked.” ”We came here to destroy that which has caused our father pain.” She retorted firing another Moonblast. “You mean Arceus? I don’t really know anything about this Equestria, so elaborate on that. What did this world do to hurt him enough and want to destroy it?” He evaded the Moonblast before firing his own electric attack. She paused, a very confused look on her face before she simply roaring and charging Bill with a Giga Impact. “Crap.” He thought before trying to fly upwards to get away. “Gonna need some help here Medulla! I doubt this body will last against that attack!” He yelled while she gained on him. Medulla moved between the two of them and fired a Psystike at Cresselia knocking her out of the sky again. ”I think she means me, but I know she isn't thinking clearly. I've already fought off Giratina and Palkia, but I have no idea what Arceus wants here.” “All the more reason to go into her mind.” He said. “You have any sleeping moves at all?” ”Nope, but I could paralyse her.” “That could work.” He looked and saw the Lunar Pokemon incoming. They moved out of the way and he shot another unsuccessful freezing blast. ”Here goes nothing.” The mutant said, snapping his fingers as a wave of electricity raced towards Cresselia. She tried to move away but it was too late. The paralysis already had her. She started to fall to the ground but was caught at the last second by Medulla. ”I’ll set up a barrier. I don’t trust the guards to get to close while we’re in her head.” Cresselia glared at both of them. “Okay, time to invade her mind.” He stretched out as his mechanical body shot out small sparks from the damage it had received. Soon his body went limp and fell down. Without missing a beat, Medulla took a meditative posture as they both entered the Lunar Pokemon’s mind. Inside they saw Crescent Isle, but it looked as if it had been ravaged by years of war. The vegetation was charred, and craters marked the landscape. “Wow, what happened here?” Bill wondered aloud in his true triangle form. “It looks… lifeless.” He stared at the surface of the island. “Any ideas why she’d be thinking this?” “If I had to guess, she’s conflicted. When I first sensed her she was… broken… like looking through a kaleidoscope but sad and horrifying.” Medulla now in the form of Gold from the second generation. “We should probably go deeper.” Bill said, eyeing the only place to go through the only trees left. “Unless you think taking the boat back to the city will help.” He floated in front of the entrance. “Through the trees, that’s where you would encounter her in the games.” He replied walking confidently forward. They went through the trees and everything went pitch black for a single second, before they could see again and saw Spear Pillar but looking like it had been built the day before. They could hear the wind blowing through the freshly made pillars. “Spear Pillar? Why would she be thinking of this place?” Bill cautiously looked around and formed blue fire in his hands in case something was to attack them. “We need to find her memories. They’ll most likely have the answer to all of this.” As they walked a door appeared between the pillars. The door was made of marble, it opened as they approached and a blinding light washed over them. The light cleared and they found themselves in some sort of ethereal plane. Everything around them had an indigo colour, with bright stars shining above and below them with the crescent moon as the crown jewel of it all. Around them were plenty of doors leading to different memories. However, there were dark cracks everywhere, plastered on everything from the doors to even the crescent moon. Every crack seemed to emanate from a single door. It was metal but appeared to have been broken open from the inside. It read “Father’s Pain”. “... I guess I know where we have to go.” Bill stared at the door, preparing himself. “Trauma like this might not be remembered fully or correctly, but I don’t see any other options.” Medulla stated as he grabbed the handle. He took a breath and pulled the door open and stepped through. Inside the door, there were no cracks as everything was the exact same shade as those cracks. There was a small number of doors, but each was larger than both of them and some had been infected with that same darkness. “These are not her memories… They’re Arceus’s, which makes sense. She is a self sacrificing healer, to help Arceus she took these away from him and onto herself. But she couldn’t handle them and they broke her.” Medulla said suddenly looking very distraught. “...Which should we open?” Bill asked reluctantly. “I can look at them later, the best thing to do would be to remove these. She should recover once these are gone, it’s like excising a tumor.” “Step out for a second.” Bill said firmly. Medulla nodded and exited the room. Bill looked at all of the doors, debating whether or not to open one. He decided to leave it be in the end and went back to the main door. He floated to the top, grabbed it and pulled. The door creaked and whined as the cracks around the entire room disappeared and reappeared, as if someone was flickering a light switch. As he pulled, the door got heavier as he tried to take it out, almost like the door itself was deliberately trying to stay in place. Bill’s body became inverted as he tried even harder to remove the infectious memories. He kept on trying, but the door kept on going back. Seeing Bill struggle, Medulla floated up next to him the door began to rise even more, and with one final pull, they removed the series of memories. Bill panted momentarily before shrinking the door and making it small enough to carry. Bill stared at them. “You might wanna be careful with them, they are the memories of a God after all. The remaining cracks should clear up shortly.” Medulla took the tiny door, and in a flash it were gone, “I’ve seen into the depths of the mind of a void dweller. My mind has already been shattered before, I just built myself a new personality. But I’ll put some extra security on these.” “Sure.” Bill shrugged. “Just be careful. I imagine it’d be a pain to keep rebuilding.” “It sure was, but let’s get out of here. The Canterlot royal guards are probably freaking out over this.” Medulla said before disappearing, with Bill following suit. Medulla awoke and Bill stood up in his body again, with the royal guards still pointing their swords and spears at all three of them. ”Back off, they’re with me. Shining, there won't be any more destruction today.” “Yeah, all of you looked really friendly up there a few minutes ago.” A red unicorn stallion commented. “Yeah and you seem terrific too, Streak.” Bill said, reading the stallion’s mind. Meanwhile, Cresselia was opening her eyes slowly. “Now if ya don’t mind, we have to get to the nearest hospital; it’s really noisy here.” They all looked confused as the majority hadn’t said much. ”I’ll explain this later.” Medulla said to Shining Armor before teleporting all three to Canterlot Hospital. ”Thanks for the help. Is there anything I could give you? I could teach you Psyshock, it might allow you to effect the physical plane even without that body.” “Sounds interesting, but I doubt I could learn from a TM. Right now I’m just focused on finding my Alicorn Amulet.” ”Depending on when you are, you might have to wait until Magic Duel. I would suggest searching for some kind of signature it leaves, I could give you Miracle Eye to help with that. I don’t have TM’s, but I just implant the knowledge in your mind.” Medulla passed around a few potions while they waited. “Well if you can do that, then sure. I’d have to say no to Miracle Eye, though. I’ve seen futures before and I repressed it for a reason.” “That’s using Future Sight, Miracle Eye can be used to see things that are normally invisible.” “Meh, then it couldn’t hurt.” Bill shrugged. With that, Medulla connected to Bill’s mind and gave him the knowledge for both Psyshock and Miracle Eye. “Well there we go.” Bill said. “What do you do here, anyway, out of curiosity?” ”Mostly I’ve been training some of the Elements, and just hanging out. Not that much outside of the plot has happened other than incursions from Legendaries. Though back about a thousand years ago I did accidentally cause a lot of Lulu and Tia’s problems. ” “That sounds funny. You should show me your memories of that sometime.” Bill commented. “Me, I’ve been working with the changelings and continuing to do what I do best; make things. There’s a lot to do with all this knowledge, it really overwhelms you a lot, though I guess you know what I mean. What’s going to happen to her by the way?” He pointed at Cresselia in the bed next to them. ”I don’t know, but I think she’s been through enough for now. I’ll make sure that nopony tries to harm her. She has a good heart, and any idiot could see that… at least when she’s thinking straight.” “Yeah. I hope she recovers okay.” Bill stared at her before looking back to Medulla. “You have a lot to ‘look forward’ to in those memories.” “Something you’ve got to understand, even with the extra thousand years, I’m still infantile to these guys. They’re ancient beyond measure, anything that could break her… let’s just say I’m lucky that I had that thousand years to master my psychic powers.” “I guess you’re right. I just can’t resist knowing something anymore. If it’s anything I can’t handle, I’ll just repress it. But still… take care of her.” He looked down at the ground then back to the Lunar Pokemon. ”I’ll do my best, it was great meeting you. Stay safe and our contract is complete.“ With that, Bill vanished. [Medulla’s POV] It’s wasn’t long after Bill left that I felt the presence of not only the princesses, but a large portion of the royal guard. Of course only Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, and a few of the guards were even allowed in. ”Before you say anything, that is Cresselia. She’s not a threat she’s a healer.” I said taking a defensive posture. The same red unicorn from before came scoffed, “That sure was an incredible amount of healing she did to your face.” Surprisingly, Cresselia looked him straight in the eye and responded, ”I’m sorry for any pain I may have caused. I was unable to think clearly and do not remember what you are talking about.” ”Celestia, Luna, I would like to speak with you privately. Cresselia, this concerns you so you should stay, too.” Bill ended up back home, with his ‘children’ waiting for him. “Hooray, Bill is back!” Giffany hugged him in the mindscape. “Not to rush, but being physical would be a wonderful change of pace. When would the bodies be ready?” Hide inquired, leaning down. “Don’t be so impatient, I’ll get to it.” Bill shrugged them off. His contract with Medulla had inspired yet another project.