Chapter 26: Birds
Thursdays were always so... ehh.
Not much happened meaning you were bored most of the day, and since it was close to Friday but not exactly it meaning you were just spending the day waiting for Friday. I didn't have such a privilege since I worked six days a week and due to how boring Thursday was, I figured that I'd do something.
I had bought six chicken eggs yesterday but not for consumption. Instead, they were for biomancy. Today, I had bought the other thing I needed: a plastic tub. It wasn't very big but if I tried, I could probably fit myself in it, but that's beside the point.
I had etched a energy collection and distribution rune onto the bottom of the tub so that when it was filled with water, it would automatically increase the amount of magic in the water. I did this since the book on biomancy told me to and that I'd use this setup for making fleshy stuff and said fleshy stuff needed a lot of magic.
The tub was currently in the corner of the basement, waiting to be filled, but I'll do that when I have to. Right now, I had to master some basic biomancy. I sat at the basement table and looked at the thing I'd be using to practice basic biomancy: a random plant I uprooted from my backyard and put into a pot.
What was my goal? No idea, the book just told me to feel my way through and make the plant do stuff so that I get a feel for bending living matter to my will. What stuff do I make the plant do? Don't know but I guessed that making it grow was one thing. I had gone a bit overboard though.
The plant was thoroughly abused by my magic as I had spent the last hour, I think it had been that much time, just randomly messing with the small magic pools it had. There were flowers blooming on one side while the other was dead branches that had grown to be in the shape of a cube. I did make it grow, that's for sure, but I had to pour a lot of my magic into the plant to do it since the plant didn't use its own magic like the lazy sun-bathing never-moving scum it was. That magic was 'locked away' behind the barrier of 'not worth the effort to get out' and a small part of it was bound to the plant's cells as well.
While this seemed bad at first glance, it was actually a good thing that it was locked up in the cells. The magic acted like little guiding stones that I could use to tell me where stuff is and what it is useful for, like for example, some of the magic pointed at the small, almost invisible, but important pool of magic that was in its roots. That pool of magic could be used to make the plant do basically everything it was capable of but its best use was to make the plant grow in size. Other magic pools were there as well in its branches, flowers, and leaves, and they were more specialised than the magic pool in the roots and had a narrow range of functions to match.
I finished off my experimentation on the plant by making it grow a bunch of branches that were shaped like a dozen little birds. Once the branches were grown, I gave the plant the order to kill those branches and it did exactly that, letting me break the small wooden birds off. They were fragile but looked cool as hell to make up for that.
I closed the book on biomancy and left it on the table while picking up the potted plant and the wooden birds and taking them upstairs. Once upstairs, I put the plant outside, noting that my experiments had taken up more time than I expected with the sun having went down the horizon by now.
I didn't really know what I could do with the birds but they'd definitely be something cool to gift, or sell, to someone. Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone in Ponyville sells these kinds of woodcrafts, but then, I think I was the only one in Ponyville who knew biomancy. Or shadowmancy. Or how to make a coilgun. Or a lot of other things that I probably shouldn't know.
'Hmm, do I look too much like an enjoyer of the dark arts?' I asked myself since these combination of skills looked pretty suspicious. But then, it was perfectly legal to know all those things until a certain level, after which I 'd need a license for it to be perfectly legal.
I think I'm worrying too much about this stuff. If I don't do anything morally wrong with my magic, in public at least, I'll be alright.
Now, back to the wooden birds. I put them on the living room table standing up straight, and thought about what I'd do with them since I didn't really need decor for my house, and even if I did use them, I'd use at most six, leaving me with another six. I didn't want to leave them in some box or throw them away either. I think I could give them to someone.
Yeah, I'll give them to someone, probably Brush, and when I have go to the hospital tomorrow to meet the filly, Nemo, I could give one to her.
I couldn't get much sleep on Thursday night, just like the last two days. I think I had only slept like, five hours in the last three days, and that reflected on my mood at work.
"Hey, Anya," Twilight said as I looked at the clock which showed the time to be 3:51 in the afternoon. I'd have to leave at four today since they wanted me at the hospital. I didn't say anything to Twilight and she took it as a cue to continue.
"Are you alright?" she asked, prompting me to look at her. She seemed worried for some reason. "You haven't spoken to anyone in the last two hours."
"Okay, and?" I asked, a bit irritated since I had done my work perfectly fine and therefore, me not speaking was a non-issue.
"I don't really think it's my place to say this, but I know that something is bothering you," she said, stating the obvious without knowing what it was. I was being bothered, that's right, but by what? By Twilight.
"No shit, Twilight, I am being bothered right now," I said, making sure that the sarcasm in my voice was clearer than day. Twilight understood that I was saying that she was bothering me but instead of just leaving me alone like a normal person would have, she continued talking.
"And something else is making you irritated as well," she pointed out. Then, she sat down and said in friendly manner, "And I'd like to help you with it, like a friend."
"Okay, Twinkle Sprinkle, there's some things you need to know. Number one, I don't want to be friends with you," I started with a raised hoof, making her deflate instantly at those last words. I would have felt bad normally, but Twilight was just the right kind of annoying that made me not care.
"Number two, I'll tell you what's bothering me, besides you, since you'll just bother me even more otherwise," I continued, making Twilight look up. "I'll have to go at four since the guys at the hospital called me becuase Nemo-"
"The filly that you saved on Sunday? Didn't princess Luna try talking to her?" Twilight interrupted me, and then realising that she interrupted me, she said with a sheepish smile, "You can continue."
"As I was saying, they called me because Nemo wants to meet with me, and that's what's bothering me."
"You're nervous about talking to that filly?" Twilight asked, her eyes widening a little as she probably thought that she found the problem.
"No, Twilight! I'm thinking about what I'd say to her," I replied, leaving out the part where I knew that Nemo was from another world. I'd have to talk to her without making her explicitly say that she's from another world since I didn't know whether or not the princesses knew that as well, and considering that all agents are killed, I doubt that the princesses know, and I'd like to keep it that way for Nemo's sake.
"Oh... I don't think I can help you with that," Twilight said, deflating once more with sadness. We sat in akward silence until she spoke up, "Also..."
"Also what?"
"I was looking for a book that was checked out a few days ago," she said nervously as she started moving her hooves around nervously.
"What book?" I asked.
"A book on... biomancy, Biomancy Basics was its name," she answered as though she admitted to commiting a crime. "Do you know when it will be returned? I'm asking since I'm... interested in learning about that subject."
"Why're you talking about it like its illegal?" I asked, ignoring her question.
"It's dark magic," she answered in a whisper as she looked around to see if someone heard us. That was really annoying for some reason.
"OoOoOo, The dark arts, so scary, I'm literally shitting and pissing myself out of fear right now," I replied with mock fear, making it abundantly clear that I didn't think about 'dark' magic the same way as her. I then said with real seriousness, "Look, Twiggles, 'dark' magic isn't anything like you think, and even if it was, it's perfectly legal to do."
Twilight who had been shocked silent by me mocking her finally got her words and said with, "B- but it can be used for evil things!"
"And so can 'light' magic," I countered with a raised hoof. "Like, I can just launch a fireball at you right now and cook your meat to perfection while killing you, and then eat your cooked corpse. And that's all light magic, y'know."
My example was terrible, as I could tell from how Twilight looked at me with some fear, but it got the point across, somewhat.
"Anyway, you gotta wait another few days till that book comes back since I'm using it right now," I said, answering her earlier question.
"You're learning biomancy?!" she asked, as if it were a big shock. I was just annoyed.
"Yeah, you'll be doing it as well," I answered.
"I wanted to just like, read it over, not actually do it! I don't even think I can do it!"
"The hell does that mean?"
Twilight probably would have looked less shocked if she had stuck a fork in an outlet. "Don't you know about magical affinity?"
At my confused silence, she shifted into 'uhm actually' nerd mode and continued, "It determines a unicorn's magical abilities, specifically the kind of magic they can do. For example, I can only do magic that has the attributes of light magic."
"Okay, cool, thanks for the infodump but I don't care," I said, thoroughly annoyed by her behaviour. "If you want the biomancy book, you'll have to wait. I'm not doing anything illegal if that's what you're trying to imply."
"I wasn't implying that!" she protested. "I just- I was just surprised that you did that kind of magic."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said, ignoring her protests. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was 3:56. Time for me to go. "Anyway, I gotta go."
I picked up my saddlebags and put them on quickly. I think I might have dropped something as I did but whatever, I had places to be and not much time, especially for Twilight's annoying questions.
The walk to the hospital wasn't really eventful, though I did meet Pinkie on the way. Well, I 'met' her if you consider her running up to me and giving me a wrapped cupcake and then running off as a meeting. I wasn't in the mood for eating and put the cupcake in my bag and continued till the hospital.
At the hospital, the receptionist called over a nurse, Nurse Sweetheart, to take me to Nemo.
"Hello, miss Anya," the nurse greeted me with a friendly smile. "Ano- Nemo is waiting for you."
"Kay, let's go then," I replied.
The nurse led me to a room on the ground floor. She didn't let me in immediately though.
"Before I let you in, I'll have to ask you to tell me anything important she tells you, like where she lived, who her parents are, anything of that sort," she said to me in a serious tone. "Even if it sounds like she is lying, that information is important, for her sake."
"Okay," I responded simply, not really understanding why she wanted that stuff at first. Then, I realised that someone, probably the princesses, suspected that Nemo was an agent and just wanted evidence for some reason. I'd have to consult with Voth to be sure though.
The nuse opened the door, letting me in. The room looked rather cozy for a hospital room with there being a round blue carpet on the floor and some random toys and plushies in the corner in a box. That was juxtaposed by the many spells and runes and whatnot on the window and the door behind me and how I could feel their power. All this made it more clear that they didn't want Nemo to go anywhere.
Speaking of Nemo, she was lying on her bed and looking at the door from under the blanket. The nurse closed the door behind me and the next second, Nemo jumped out of bed and rushed to me looking overjoyed to see me. She hugged me immediately, not knowing that she was poking me with her horn that had a magic suppression ring on it.
"Hi Nemo," I said to her as I returned the hug. Nemo nuzzled me in return instead of saying anything but that was alright. I continued, "I've got something you might like."
Nemo backed up and looked at me inquisitively at that. I opened my saddlebags with my magic but Nemo didn't seem to like that for some reason. I stopped using my magic and instead fished out the things I got with my hooves. In no time, there were four little wooden birds in my hooves.
"You like them?" I asked Nemo. Nemo stared at the birds before looking at me.
"A- are they for... me?" she asked me as she absent-mindedly reached out for them.
"Yep, you can take one, or all of them. Just be careful with holding them since they're fragile," I answered, letting Nemo take the ones she wanted. She took two of them and held one in each of her front hooves as if they were the most treasured things ever, and she placed them on table next to her bed. She then turned to walk over to the carpet and sit in front of a paper that had something drawn on it. She looked at me expectantly and pawed at the ground next to her. It took me a moment to realise tht she wanted me there sitting next to her.
I walked over and sat next to her. She leaned onto me and picked up the paper and pointed to the drawing on it. It was a picture of a... I don't know what it was. It was a big ugly blob of red, brown, black, and green with a lot of pointy blue legs coming out of it on all side, like it was some really messed up starfish.
"I saw him yesterday night in my dream," Nemo said sadly as she droped the picture and leaned more into me.
"Who is he?" I asked as I put an arm around her. It was clear that she didn't like whatever she had drawn, and I guessed that it was something similar to Voth.
"M- m-" she tried answering but she was too scared to do so.
"He controlled you, didn't he?" I asked as I pulled her into a hug. Nemo nodded in response, letting me continue, "Well, he can't hurt you now."
"H- he wanted me t- to ki-" she tried saying but I stopped her.
"He wanted that, but you didn't," I said to her before she could say out loud something that would send her to tears. Thankfully, she didn't cry and just remained quiet.
"How was it where you lived earlier?" I asked, changing the topic of the conversation to something that I hoped would be better. Unfortunately, it wasn't better as I could tell by how my chest had become wet with her tears.
"M- mother and f- fa- father were me- mean to me," she said as she tried controlling her crying. "They- they always said th- that I was a- a mista-"
"Now, now, you don't have to talk about bad stuff if it hurts you," I said, interrupting her from her description of her parents. In my mind, I wished that I could just find them and strangle them. "I was talking about the uh good parts, were there good parts?"
"I- I liked it when it rained sometimes," she said as she wiped her tears from her face. "I- it rained very little where I lived and I wanted to play in the rain but they never- never let me outside because it was dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
"M- my uncle said that- that godless monsters had dropped bombs and- and they made the rain bad and black, and tha- that we should be grateful for living in mountains b- because no one came there. I- I saw one of the bombs go off once," she answered as she looked down at the floor. She probably didn't know much about those bombs but I knew that it was nukes. You learnt that shit in history class when they went over the second and third world wars, and with all the global tension in my previous world, it wasn't hard to get people telling you what nukes would do to you if you aren't in proper shelter. Fortunately, I never had to live through nuclear war or fallout, but I couldn't say the same for Nemo who was there for it in person.
"Will I g- go to hell?" she asked sadly and all of a sudden, bringing me out of my thoughts so fast that it would have given me whiplash.
"What? No, you won't! Why'd you ask that?" I said, really confused to say the least.
"T- the priest said t-that girls like me should- that we should do everything our parents sa- said and stay at ho- home because god sa- said so," she said before she started crying again. I tried stopping her but she continued louder than earlier, "I ran away! I- I didn't lsiten and ran!"
Ripped away from her world that probably had a large-scale nuclear war, mind controlled to try and kill someone, and abused by what I assumed was a cult; Nemo just had it terrible all the time and I felt bad for her. She didn't continue talking any more and just cried for sometime. Eventually, she stopped but she was clearly tired from all the emotion.
"Hey, Nemo," I said, getting her attention. She looked up at me, her face stained with tears. I reached into my bag and pulled out the cupcake that Pinkie had given me. It was chocolate covered in white frosting and some sprinkles and had a little 'for Anya' note on it that I hadn't seen earlier. I pulled off the note an stuffed it back into the bag. "You want a cupcake?"
Nemo looked confused but happy to see the cupcake and when I asked her if she wanted it, she looked happier. She nodded and took the cupcake. For a moment, she just stared at it to appreciate its beauty. The next moment, she took a bite out of it and the next, she had all of it in her mouth and was chewing away happily, her earlier sadness forgotten.
It was nice seeing her happy again but it wasn't for long unfortunately. The door opened and nurse Sweetheart was there.
"It's Nemo's lunchtime now, you'll have to come with me," she said to me. Nemo wasn't happy to hear that at all but she didn't try stopping me from going. I gave her a smile as I left. Once outside, the nurse closed the door and led me down the hall back to the reception area.
"So, did she tell you anything?" she asked.
"She doesn't know where she came from. Her parents didn't like her and she ran away from home, and I think she might have been in a cult of some sorts," I answered with a frown. The nurse didn't seem too surprised at any of that information.
"Well, thank you for that information," she said with a sad expression on her face. "We'll call you back if Nemo asks us to."
With that, I was back on my way home. The day had been decent for a thursday for sure but it definitely wasn't great. Maybe I could make some cool little wooden things for Nemo.
Yeah, I think I'll do that. She'll be happy to have those.
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What if they use biomancy to make their wooden creations come to some life more like a VI and not fully alive. I can see it now: someone walks into their house, and wooden birds are flying around. A little timberwolf pup lying down on the floor resting peacefully and, of course, the off-limit basement where all of the dark arts are practiced.
11889121
Cool idea
What's a VI?
11889165
Virtual intelligence, in short, it's an AI that is smarter than what we have now but also dumb enough not to evolve and change without input. So think of it as puppets that can act on their own but they don't have a soul and need commands to start to work.
11889213
so, a golem? yeah, that'd be cool and in fact, its an idea that might go in here
11889165
I think by VI they mean virtual intelligence. From my understanding it's pretty much a step below full blown AI but still able to logic and and react to different situations.
11889221
thankies for explanation. i interpret the V.I. as a golem
NEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDD. Twilight dorkle talks too much,too smart.
I'm guessing Anya can use whatever magic she wants cause .... she just can. I'd geek if she broke twi mind by doing mutiple magic types in a row to brag to two she too much of a book work.
11889237
How Anya breaks Twilight:
Anya either does something like blood magic or she just uses a very shitty analogy right after doing blood magic or something
Finding Nemo
11889353
that's how voth was going so you nailed it first try
11889363
Voth didnt see it go down since they were gone somewhere else
but the live Voth reaction is still funny
11889376
nuh uh
11889243
Gotta have a big ol whoosh moment with twi where she just doesn't get it,and then she asks celestia what it means and she goes "lmao twiggles, touch some grass nerd"
11890774
the machine spirit, what else?
...
Oh poor sweet child
hugs as someone who is of that faith?
You aren't going there because of one thing you did
11890846
Ok?