Memories Of The Flask

by WindigogoGadget

All Heart Broke I heard Her Say.

...Today was the first day I was left alone at the lab. Starswirl had left to go with someone else today. As a result, the sisters weren't showing up today.

I was not under an express order to never leave the tower, it was just very much implied that it was a bad idea. I never disobeyed orders at home, But this wasn't home.

Besides, It'll be a nice experience. Normal kids typically have a rebellious phase right? Then again, I haven't got a clue. Not like I had watched films about school at home, those were boring things.

Well, on the off chance I get caught. I've come up with a technicality, I technically never left the tower.
It's a concept I stole from my favorite film, I even had a toy of one of the animals there that lit up. It had the head of a hammerhead shark, a colorful fan that was concealed on its head, and the body of an elephant. It was so weird and I loved it. I think it even played some type of roar whenever you pressed a button on the toy.

Sidetracked. I can't get the images out of my head right now but the basics are I'm going to try to make a new body, tether myself to it, and pilot it. Like a doll. Not like the doll body that's being made for me by Celestia, more like just a clone.

No, clones are not the right word. An avatar?

I'm too magically inept for anything precise, but I do read in my spare time. All I need is practical experience which I hope goes a bit like this. I estimate a four-part plan.

Step one split yourself in two. A tricky thing to do but it's what it boils down to.

Step two, keep a vine tethered to your long-distance self. So try not to fully break yourself, stretch really hard.

Step three. Chuck yourself out the window, keeping the tether ethereal so it doesn't get snapped, which leads to step four, maps for exploring.

If I were any smarter I'd just call it partial mitosis and worry about what happens when the tether is severed, but lately ive just been impatient, so let's just hop to it!

---

An hour. This whole situation had taken Alyosha an hour. At first, he tried willing himself into two pieces, which was far more difficult to do so while still instead of in motion. It turned from a comical sight to a desperate one as he almost dared to cleave himself into two with a sharp thorn, and if that didn't work, saw himself in half. Cooler heads prevailed and he took a razor to the problem, not himself.

He noticed that if he could continue to extend himself if he remained in motion and if that was the only way to do so, he would do so. A node, as he would call them, was set inside his flask. This was to be his anchor, he hoped that if for whatever reason something went wrong, he could reel himself back in through his lifeline. Ignoring the fact that if it was severed he had no idea what would happen. He hoped that magic jumbles would just result in him being pulled to the anchor, or he'd find out he was invincible. Highly unlikely. This entire procedure was way, way more ramshackle and rudimentary than the simple "project consciousness outward" idea that he had.

But that was beyond him, he was happier that he'd finally figured out a way similar to what he'd dreamt up in less than a day. This would be treading into some odd science fiction territory if it weren't for that this was all magic. A quote came to mind, but he couldn't remember anything about it. He was just so excited to be able to leave this place and see the world.

Not that his old world was bad or anything, but everything had been mapped out. It was so big, full of things, ancient temples, and strange animals, but there was nothing to explore. There was nothing left in that big world, it had turned small. Nothing except the darkest pits of the ocean. Untouched trenches full of weird and terrifying life.

He wondered if such things existed here too.

He spent time moving around in circles in the room, it felt odd feeling the connection shift when he couldn't see it. Like a more literal version of phantom limb syndrome. Alyosha couldn't find anything wrong with his method, just that it was the best that could be done. Despite his time reading, he could not actually put any of it to use, he lacked a way to focus himself, leaving him like a lump of clay. He could be molded, shifted, stabbed and cut, and twisted, but none of it would be permanent without a kiln to harden those changes.

Minor setbacks of course, but no scientist worth their knowledge could just give up.

Just a few minor setbacks.

---

Alyosha spasmed, his body a mess as he tried to reel it in. What had happened? One moment he was just talking and the second it was just pain, so much pain. It was never been this painful before.

Impalement. Traumatic injury. Flash. Bright light. He could not see. Flashbang. His mind raced and came empty, just remembering irrelevant things as he felt his form scatter into a brilliant light show of petals and vines.

Why? Why had he been assaulted so? He wailed in pain as he reached for eyes that didn't exist with limbs that had been discarded long ago. He reeled himself back into control just in time to hear another spear hit the earth near him. The black shaft was visible in the flowery mass and the silver spearhead was jagged at the end of the blade. Pulling it out wouldn't do. He could hear shouting of commands as colorful splashes pummeled him.

His form dissolved into the aether, letting the spells fly past him and the spear fall through him. In that brief moment of control, he was immune to receiving even more pain.

He spotted three unicorns, armored in red-trimmed steel and with differing looks of panic and confusion just on the hill. Loathsome beings, filthy things. Shadows bled from him in thick clouds of abyssal blood despite his intangibility. Was he dying? Was he going to die? Die to some cheap shot? Without making a mark in the world?

What a shameful way to die, in his thirteen incomplete years. His vision wavered, the detailed trees turning to colorful blobs until his form came back, now oozing an abyssal liquid. Damnation ran through his mind. Damn them. He'd kill them, those damned loathsome ponies. Those disgusting fleshlings. He heard a shout as his flowers dragged him along the ground, the tethering vine tightening and slacking as it absorbed magic to construct itself. Something about it being back, he couldn't care anymore.

If the price of happiness was pain then he'd be sure to pay enough of it that he'd be owed happiness in scores.

A flurry of thorned vines swept forward like snakes, scraping fur and cutting armor as one guard was flung aside, and another staggered. A face that he had not known existed twitched indecisively between a grin and a snarl, black tears oozing from freshly made eyes as a large flower had established itself as the head. Instincts and mind synchronized in this new form, and he attacked.

Determination and hatred burned in him, his mind a whirlwind of insults. How could they ever dare to hurt him? How would it even be possible for something as short-lived as a horse could do this?

"The stem! Aim for the main stem!" A voice called. The unicorn's horn glowed in yellow magic, charging something. What could one little thing do to hurt him now that he had instinctual control of this form? His face tilted and the thin razor of energy bounced off his many petals.

Then he went slack for a moment, a spear cut his anchor. Then two more pinned him to the ground. He howled and screamed in agony. His eye was destroyed, and parts of him were burning from what could best be described as magical plasma wounds. His body was losing control as he tried to move. The severed stem flailed, searching for something.

"We have it now. Fleet Hoof, get the mages here. Now!"

Unfocused eyes tried to see the faces of the three unicorn mages, but all he could see were patches of red, yellow, and blue on the blurry backdrop of the town in the distance. He couldn't die. Not like this. This was not the end. He had to kill them. He had to live. Weakly he raised an arm-like vine. Through sobs and labored breathing, his voice whimpered.

_{"I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll-}

He locked eyes with the unicorn, it noticed him falter and aim far too low and far too much to the right. Wide eyes not understanding what they'd done.

"No, Fleet Hoof! STOP!"

His tears were silenced by blue bolts punching through him. Leaving his crumpled and punctured form there as the last thing he heard was shouting.

---

...

The tower was deathly still.

She dared to call out, let her voice bounce across the stone walls.

But nobody came.

She may have engineered a few circumstances that would leave the tower empty, but not absolutely. Not to this level. It was all the little steps to a greater plan. She had been planning to visit again a long ago since their first conversation had dried up, but a few things had to take priority.

Checking up on the flower brother was not a priority. Neither was it a prime directive. It was not like that thing held anything valuable or important, it just was.

It wasn't like the situation felt terribly wrong, after all.

Her buzzing wings stopped moving as she slowly took the time to inspect the floor she was on. Things had been moved of course, but nothing of value had been put out. Of course, the False Father would have hidden his research. And the flower brother was simply too innocent to go search for it.

Or maybe they just knew better?

Swiftly the insectoid mare turned her head to the stairs, her hair whipping around. She had heard something faint, straining to hear it even though her body held the sharpest hearing. Tentative steps carried her upwards as she heard the sound of something faint dragging itself along, as if it were rope or fabric pulling itself along the floor. It was an odd shuffling noise that had no right being in this dead place, and so she thought about the noise as she investigated.
It had taken her to a floor she had never seen, or more accurately never bothered to remember or check thoroughly in any meaningful capacity. She could not see anything, so that certainly didn't help her recognize anything either. Unnatural darkness flooded the room, shielding anything in its abyssal void from view. Her horn lit up with green magic as a spell charged before everything had gone blue.

The primordial changeling found herself constricted in a mass of flowers that flowed over her form reaching out to the sparking light she conjured in her horn. The vines, while not in high number, were tougher than iron. Dim blue flora hugged tightly around the changeling's barrel and upper neck, she had to force her right eye to close lest a tiny thorn make itself known in a most unfortunate manner.

She'd have blasted the mass that was likely Alyosha if it weren't for the fact that the emotions it was giving off had knocked her off her hooves. Not because she cared or because her magic was essentially being drained by the second by the flowers growing on her horn. The intense waves of fear and despair were the strongest among a sea of disjointed emotions, with the feelings of safety and comfort being second. It was so strong that it was impossible to ignore as it permeated her body, slowly replacing the lost magic. As she lost magic, she gained some, an infinite loop.

The dim blue flowers slowly became a vibrant cerulean, basking the floor in the only light capable of cutting through the darkness that permeated the tower. She felt like her mind would've been overwhelmed without something to try to distract herself from the parasitic sensory overload that had attached itself to her horn. "It's... It is.. All right.. Child... I am... I am here.." She choked out.

Really, what more could she do? Struggle? She was already trying to, and it wasn't getting her anywhere. She thought she felt the surge of emotion get stronger as she spoke to it in that sappy pony tongue. "Thou... Art... Safe... Young one. GHK-!" She choked on her own spit for a moment before the tendrils loosened around her throat, and she felt magic filling her at a faster rate than it was being drained.

"I... Am... Here. I am here, for thee." She wrapped a hoof around the mass in a weak attempt at a hug.

"I am... Here for you... Alyosha." She hugged the seizing mass of flowers before charging her horn with an acid green spell, hopefully something that could knock him out of his stupor. As much as her charismatic voice was working, it was not working nearly fast enough. "You art always safe with me."

Her spell flashed brilliantly, and safety was all Alyosha knew.