Chapter 34: The Second Step Of Flesh-Craft: The First Servant
Today was Thursday; close to the weekend but not quite there yet. Nothing particularly important was scheduled for today, and not many people had come in to the library. The weather was nice and there wasn't much to do besides work. Today was, by all means, supposed to be a normal day.
Twilight wasn't so sure of that though. Why? Well, her boss had called out of work today. In the time she had spent working with Anya, she had learnt that skipping work was something that was close to unthinkable to Anya, but today proved otherwise. She wasn't really worried but rather, she was curious about why she'd stayed at home today.
Why was she curious? Well, for starters, Anya was no longer downcast like she was last week but instead of it just her being naturally positive, it was something that Anya had done that made her happy and she had hinted at it yesterday, making Twilight curious. Then, there were the books she had borrowed from the library on Tuesday and Wednesday. One was on golems and magical constructs, while the others were on dream magic and wand making.
The subjects seemed rather random and unrelated but Twilight had a feeling that Anya had figured something out with all that knowledge on magic and had taken the day off to do something with it all. She'd probably know if Anya came to the library and told her, or if she went over to her house.
Speak of the devil and there she was. The library door opened and in came Anya. Her hair were messy and dishevelled, her glasses were slightly crooked, she was jittery, and had a really happy look on her face, all making her look much like how she was the day Twilight had went over to her place to see how the crucible had turned out, i.e. like a mad scientist.
"Heya Twinkles, sorry about not coming in today," she said cheerfully and before Twilight could say anything, she continued, "Is there any more stuff on dream magic?"
"I don't think so, let me check," Twilight answered as she opened up the database on the computer and scrolled through it. Anya started tapping her hoof on the floor impatiently as Twilight checked, and eventually found nothing. "No, there isn't anything else on dream magic here."
Anya frowned for a bit before returning to her cheerful state. "Okay, no problem!"
Anya walked straight to the magic section and started browsing through the shelves while humming some tune. Twilight left the desk and walked over to her side to take a peek at what books she was looking through, and to ask what she had been doing the entire day.
"Hey, Anya," Twilight said as she came up next to her. Anya just hummed in acknowledgment as she skimmed through a book on computers and stopped on a page every now and then. Twilight, now that she was close, noticed how Anya's eyes were bloodshot and her hooves were shaking a lot as if she hadn't slept for a while and was relying on too much caffeine, something Twilight could relate to. "What were you doing?"
"Biomancy," she answered simply, pulling a second book from the shelf, this one being unrelated to biomancy with it being about magically active gems. She flipped through that as well, stopping on pages about gem carving and magical memories.
"So, what did you do with biomancy?" Twilight asked, wanting an elaboration. If she had to guess, she'd probably guess that Anya has made some sort of breakthrough.
Anya didn't answer though as she was too engrossed in the book to listen to Twilight. Twilight considered repeating herself but decided not to since that would be interrupting Anya, and Twilight knew very well how interruptions felt when you were really focusing on something. Twilight left Anya to her reading and went back to the desk. There, the clock said that it was just another minute till closing time.
There wasn't anyone in the library but her and Anya right now, meaning that she didn't have to tell people to leave. She went over to the front door and flipped the open sign, but as she did, an orange unicorn with red and yellow mane and tail sneaked up on her. As Twilight turned to go back into the library, she had her mouth covered by a hoof and was pulled back into a vice-like grip.
"Any final words, Twilight?" said the orange unicorn who held Twilight. Twilight couldn't say anything as the unicorn then pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
Twilight managed to free herself and turn to her to say, "Not funny, Sunset! You scared me!"
"Not funny?" Sunset said with faked shock. "How could you say that, Twilight?"
Twilight just rolled her eyes before springing forth and hugging the unicorn. "It's been some time since I've seen you."
"Likewise," Sunset replied, hugging Twilight back. They stayed like that for a minute before Sunset pulled back and said, "So, you work- no, LIVE in a library, huh? Must be like paradise for you."
"Not really since I have to watch ponies take books knowing very well that they won't be taking care of them."
"Oh come on, most ponies keep books fine, you're just a very literal bibliophile who doesn't want anypony near her darlings~"
"Hey, that is not true!"
"It is!"
"Is not!"
"It is!"
"Is not!"
"Is not!"
"It is- wait," Twilight said, realising her error but it was already too late. Sunset was giggling at her, making Twilight pout very cutely. After Sunset managed to control herself, Twilight asked, "So, why are you here?"
"You sent me a letter telling me that there's a biomancer making interesting stuff and that I should check it out. You remember that, right?" Sunset said, pulling out a folded up paper from her saddlebags. "Well, I'm here now, so, why don't you take me to them?"
Twilight remembered the letter she had sent Sunset, and said, "Oh! She's right inside, come with me."
Twilight opened the door, letting them both in. The first thing Sunset said when she saw Anya hunched over a book with another book in her magic right next to her was, "Woah, you cloned yourself, Twi?"
Twilight, who suddenly realised how she must've looked like Anya during her studies under the princess, replied, "No, that's Anya."
Anya didn't notice either of the two unicorns entering, but upon hearing her name, she said, "Sorry Twiggles, I can't help you right now."
Twilight was dismayed upon hearing Anya say that, not because she needed Anya for anything, but because she had just given Sunset a nickname for Twilight. She glanced at Sunset and to her horror, Sunset held a grin like a cheshire cat. "Hehe, Twiggles."
It was over for her, she knew that much.
Anya suddenly closed the two books she was had and carried both of them in her magic. She looked up and noticed the two unicorns. "Uh what?"
"Okay, Anya, this is Sunset, and Sunset, this is Anya," Twilight said, introducing them to each other. "Anya, Sunset's here because she's interested in your organic bandages and wants to talk about them."
Anya looked confused for a moment before saying, "Okie, let me just get these checked out."
As Anya went over to the computer to check the books out, giddy with excitement, Sunset asked Twilight, "Does she work here with you?"
"Mhm, she's my boss."
"She looks more like a mad scientist."
Twilight would have said something to object, but Sunset was somewhat right; Anya did look more like a mad scientist right now.
Anya meanwhile, finished checking out the books and was about to walk out when she stopped and turned to the two unicorns and said, "Oh, right, the OBs. So, uh, Sunset, you'll have to come with me to check those out since they're at my home right now. So, just follow me, okay? Okay."
Sunset glanced at Twilight, a bit uncertain about Anya. Twilight just said, "Admittedly, she is a bit strange. I'll come with you guys."
I could barely contain my excitement as I lead the two unicorns back to my home. What was I so excited about? You'll see in just a minut- oh, wait, we're already here. I walked up to my door, and it opened all by itself. The two noticed that, I think, but whatever, I just had to show them the OBs so that I could get on with my work.
Speaking of my work, it was right there on the other side of the door, on the ceiling in front of it. A large sixteen legged spider hung on the ceiling there, holding the door open with two of his legs while he used the rest to hold onto the ceiling. Did I mention that he had sixteen legs? Well, that might make him seem creepy or scary, but he wasn't since he was also covered in fluffy brown fur and was very huggable and friendly to people.
Speaking of people, Twilight and Sunset walked into my home, the latter looking around a bit nervously. I guess she hasn't been close to the forest yet. The former, on the other hand, followed my gaze up to the ceiling above them and gasped.
"He looks cool, right?" I asked Twilight as she continued staring at the spider. Sunset followed Twilight's gaze and saw the large brown spider as well.
"That's biomancy for sure," she whispered to herself. After a couple seconds, I coughed a bit to get their attention.
"You can see it up close if you come in," I said to them, making them move away from the door. The spider closed the door after they got out of the way and then he dropped down from the ceiling, expertly landing on the floor. He skittered around the two ponies, both of whom gave him quite a lot of space, and came up to me. Once he reached my legs, he started tapping at my hooves with his little legs and making little sqeaky sounds, clearly demanding something.
I petted him, making him quiet down as he got what he wanted for a job well done. After being pet, he just hung around me, letting me introduce him to the two unicorns, "This is... Spider, the friendly spider servant!"
Yeah, I know, very imaginative name, but it's better than just some number, or a ligma joke.
Twilight and Sunset stared at Spider, leaving us in awkward silence for a minute, until Sunset stepped forth and reached out to spider with a hoof. Spider reached back with his two front legs and touched Sunset's hoof, making her say, "Aww, he's cute. Right, Twiggles?"
"Uhhh yeah, cute..." Twilight said, not really convinced about Spider's cuteness factor.
"Okay, so, come with me, I'll show you the organic bandages," I said, interrupting Spider and Sunset's interaction. Sunset nodded, and I lead her to the basement, which had changed quite a bit since last week.
There was now a second table, one that I had grown using biomancy on some random sapling next to my fence. On top of that table was a lot of computer hardware and one second-hand computer that I bought yesterday. The hardware didn't look like anything from the human world since these computers didn't actually use silicon chips and semi-conductors to compute. Instead, they worked on magic. Not like horn magic but rather runes. Instead of there being motherboards and memory sticks and that stuff, they used glass balls filled with magic, and wire between those balls, and carved magical gemstones and the like.
That table and the stuff on it wasn't the star of the show, however. That title went to the crucible and the new and improved nutrient paste maker that I had attached to its mouth for easier feeding.
"What's that on the crucible?" Twilight asked me, pointing to the new paste maker. Sunset, meanwhile, just walked over to and inspected it closely.
"The new paste maker; I replaced the old one since it was not efficient enough for me."
"What did you do with it?"
"Cannibalised for spare matter," I answered, ignoring Twilight's semi-horrified expression at that information and quickly walking over to the original table which held all the books on magic I had at the moment. I added the book on computers and the one on magical gems to the stack before picking up the bowl with the organic bandages, almost knocking over four empty cans of energy drink, and bringing it over to the two. I also gave the order, "Spider, go get a piece of bread and give it to the crucible."
Spider, who had followed me downstairs, chirped and went back up to the kitchen to go get a slice of bread.
"This crucible doesn't look professional. Did you make it by yourself?" Sunset asked as she stopped inspecting the crucible.
"Mhm, made it myself. Anyway, here's the little guys."
I picked up one of the OB's in my magic and levitated it over for their viewing, putting the bowl with the rest back onto the table. Twilight didn't look particularly interested in it, while Sunset seemed rather fascinated by it.
"So, this thing can heal wounds, just like that?" she asked, poking the little wiggling red blob with a hoof.
"Yup, they do it very fast."
"So, can I see a demonstration... no, wait," Sunset said, only to cut herself off upon realising what exactly she was asking, but I had already begun. The knife that I had used to cut myself earlier when I made the crucible was still on the table, and now, it was in my magic.
"What the-" Twilight managed to say as she saw the knife in my magic get near me.
Without much thought, I cut a gash onto my left foreleg, my eagerness to demonstrate my creation overpowering the primal desire to not be hurt. That changed though once the cut was made, and I regretted my dumb decision. It bled pretty bad and was a lot larger than I had hoped. There was already a bunch of blood pooling on the floor. Oh, well, I could deal with it; it was just a flesh wound after all, and I was a flesh crafter.
I brought over the OB I was holding in my magic and cut off a significant chunk of it with the knife, letting it fall onto the cut and as soon as it touched it, the healing process began. It was not a fun experience. The familiar burning came back to me as the OB dissolved itself onto the wound to provide material for the magically accelerated healing process. Thankfully, it lasted for only about ten seconds and my cut was fully healed after that. Another successful operation!
I looked at the unicorns with a smile, hoping they'd be impressed, but they looked nothing like that. In fact, they were distressed, but why- oh, wait, yeah, I had just casually cut myself for a demonstration. Pretty sure no one does that.
"By Faust..." Sunset whispered to herself. She walked up to me and inspected my foreleg where I had cut it and healed it. "It's completely healed. How... how does it work?"
"It basically dissolves itself on the wound while forcing the cells in your body to start repairing stuff fast using the dissolved material. Downside is that it generates heat as it does all that," I explained quickly. Sunset no longer looked completely distressed and instead, she looked fascinated.
Spider came back down with a single piece of bread, which he put into the mouth of the paste maker. He then scurried over to me to be pet, which I did.
"Marvelous," Sunset finally said. "But do they work on other ponies? Like, it's partly made out of yo-"
"I took that into account while making these and did my best to remove parts of me from it so that it doesn't have a negative reaction with anyone, and besides, they should work on other people anyway since the healing process is done by their bodies and the OB only makes their cells go into healing overdrive and provides material," I said, thinking I silenced her doubts.
"Did you test them?" she asked. It was an important question since the OB theoretically could work on other people, but practically, I have no idea if it actually does.
"..." I was thinking about how I'd answer that question.
"I hope not since you need a proper lab environmen-"
"Twilight! Would you like to volunteer for a test?" I asked suddenly, cutting off Sunset from whatever lab safety stuff she was talking about.
"What? No! I don't want to be stabbed!" she answered as she backed up from me, realising what I was proposing to do to her.
"Please?" was my response.
"No!"
"Pretty please? I have a first-aid kit if you're worried."
"Anya, I do NOT want to be stabbed for a test, at least not until I'm in a lab," Twilight said, finally making me stop trying to get her approval.
"Awww," I whined, unhappy that Twilight wouldn't help me out.
"Anya," Sunset said, getting my attention. "I- Can I take one of these? I'm a researcher at CMU and I could have these tested there."
"Oh, okay," I said, accepting the idea. "I'll give you a copy of notes as well just in case."
Cool, the whole 'showing Twilight's friend the OB' is over. I can finally get back to what I was doi-
"Also, could you tell me how you made Spider?" Sunset asked. Spider chirped at the mention of his name.
"Okay, long story short, I've been making him since like, Monday, and have had three failed tries so far. Spider is the fourth try from yesterday and he works."
"How did you train him? I don't think creatures made from biomancy come out completely trained."
"Well, at first I tried to see if I could make him into a golem but that works only on dead stuff and not animals. Then I figured that I'll have to train him like a dog and that's what I did."
"And he was trained in just one day?"
"Mhm."
"How?"
"I used dream magic to put him to sleep and then have a lot of dreams that basically trained him on how to act and behave," I explained the process. Spider, when he just came out of the crucible, was a wet and dumb bug that had to be trained, and I had tried doing it conventionally for like ten minute before I got an idea: dreams can affect how you are in the real world and you can remember most of them, so, can I use it to train a creature by making a 'simulation'? The answer was yes, yes I can.
It was relatively quick but it was also tedious since I had to be there and put Spider into situations for like, ten hours or something, and that's why I was trying to automate it. Hence, all the books on computers, wand-making, golems, and gems. I just needed the two unicorns to be gone so that I could start seeing what goes where... or maybe go to sleep. When did I last sleep? I don't know, maybe monday night.
"Dream magic isn't supposed to be used like that," Twilight said, not happy with my usage of dream magic as a training tool. "I mean, what you did is interesting but it's supposed to be used to help people, not train spider things."
"Consideration: I don't care," I said to her, utterly and completely destroying her argument. "If it isn't against the law then it's alright."
"I mean, yeah, thinking outside the box is great but there's a better way to say that y'know," Sunset said in response to my brushing off of Twilight's argument.
"Fair enough. Anyway, you wanted one of the OBs right? Do you have anything to carry it and the paste water?"
"No, I don't."
"Alright. Spider, go get that empty bottle from the kitchen."
Spider did as he was told and came back quickly with an empty plastic water bottle. I took it from him and walked over to the crucible. I pulled off the paste maker from its mouth and held it in my magic. The new paste maker was cylinder-shaped, with its mouth at the top and the bottom with a long straw-tube thing through which the nutrient paste flowed. Instead of the nutrient paste coming out the mouth like vomit, it was now coming out the back end like liquid shit. Fortunately, the paste itself was a weird grey-white nutritious liquid and not just poop because if it was, then it'd be a bit too disgusting to work with.
I pulled the straw and forced it into the bottle, letting it be filled up one-fourths with the paste. Once it was done, I put the paste-maker back onto the crucible's mouth and I took one of the OBs that hadn't been cut yet and pushed it into the bottle, which was easy since they didn't have any bones or anything like that.
"K, come on up, I'll just finish this off and give it to you. Twilight has a copy of the notes and there's a copy machine in the library so you can get a copy as well," I said to them as I walked past them and up the stairs, Spider following close behind.
I went to the kitchen and filled up the rest of the bottle with water, and shook it so that the paste and water would be mixed evenly. The OB inside the bottle didn't mind that at all. I then cleaned off the dried blood on my left foreleg. I remembered the blood in the basement, and said to Spider, "Take a tissue and go clean the blood on the floor downstairs."
Spider chirped and climbed up the kitchen counter, taking two tissues from the tissue roll on the counter, and then scurrying off downstairs.
Twilight and Sunset came upstairs shortly, and I handed the bottle to Sunset.
"By the way, I noticed that something's growing in the crucible. What is it?" she said after putting the bottle in her saddlebags.
"Spider number two. Anyway, time for you guys to go now," I answered quickly as I didn't want to spend more time talking when I could have been figuring out the automation stuff downstairs.
"Yeah, we should go. Thanks for the thing you gave us," Twilight said, looking at me weird before she lead her friend out of my home.
Now that they were gone, I could get ony with my work. But, first, I needed something. I went over to the fridge and got another can of energy drink from it. I opened it and sipped on it, starting my third, or fifth maybe, can of today.
Sunset watched as the organic bandage wiggled in its bottle. She said to Twilight, who was walking behind her, "Your boss is pretty weird."
"I know," Twilight replied. "But she was more weird today, especially with how she wanted us to go away quickly. I bet it had something to do with all those books on magic."
"Reminds me of someone."
"Hey, I'm not like th- Okay, MAYBE, I am a LITTLE bit like that, but not to that extent!"
Sunset just chuckled, putting away the bottle back into her bag. She dug around a bit in her bag and pulled out a chunk of meat, surprising Twilight.
"What's that?" Twilight asked.
"A piece of Anya's crucible. I'll probably need it when I'm doing tests with the OB."
"She didn't allow you to take it, or did she?"
"Twiggles, you're sounding too much like a nerd."
"You're a researcher at CMU."
"Well, I'm the cool kind of nerd who does cool research, while you're the one whose always reading books and saying 'uhm actually' before correcting someone."
"Actually, I don't say that all the time."
Sunset snickered, making Twilight realise her mistake. Sunset stopped snickering and said, "Well, at least you're not the kind of nerd who'll want to STAB someone for a test. Like, what was Anya thinking when she stabbed herself just for a demonstration, or when she asked to stab you?"
"Honestly, I don't think she was thinking at that time."
"Twiggles, mark my words, you're surrounding yourself with the wrong crowd. If you keep at it then eventually, you're gonna be a mad scientist cackling in a basement with an operating table as Frankenstein gets up from it," Sunset joked.
Twilight didn't find it very funny but didn't say anything since it was just friendly banter.
Twilight then switched the topic of the conversation. "Whatever. Anyway, how's everypony in Canterlot?"
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Ohh intriguing that Sunset is around and not in human world. Though I guess if that is the world that was destroyed it makes sense she couldn’t go there.
11909753
well, that world that was destroyed is not the one sunset went to, and the fact that the multiverse is real means that this could be an equestria where there exists no mirror portal
Here is an idea: if Biomance is about manipulating biological matter, would it be possible to make a plant version? I ask this because of the spider servants and all of the games I have been playing recently my brain is thinking about automation. What if they make a plant crucible and make timber wolves from it? One, as a pet and proof of concept, the reset can be set for defense. Maybe have Voth set up a network hivemind thing to make controlling them easier.
That would be fun and look SIGNIFICANTLY less evil. All the plant one needs to survive is sunlight and water. Then, just add some plant matter, and you can start to create!
11909828
crazy
daveAnya for when zombies become real (plants vs zombies reference 😱),also, plants are already controlled by biomancy, just that anya isnt focusing on that rn
11909830
Alright can't wait to see timber pups running around the home! Also, depending on how Discord is feeling, you never know.
congrats on 100k words
Thanks for the chapter.
11909991
thakns!
Yay best pony!
SUNSET!
Uhhhh what ????? Did I miss a part or something or is sunset in the story way earlier ? Au perhaps ?
I'd much prefer sugma, mabye even imagine but to each their own.
But twiggles , your in a lab