[SB] Conniving Cultists [Chapter 8]

Chapter 8: Mental Exercise
>Calmly you awake with a pleasant feeling floating through every part of your body.
>Your mind is clear, but this soon changes as fragments of the past day float in and out and remind you of your task.
>Sitting up, you nudge Myst and stir her from her sleep.
“Come on sleepyhead, we’ve got a world to save and a hivemind to take care of.”
>She bolts upright in panic.
>”We fell asleep! The hivemind has probably mobilized by now!”
“Relax, we stabilized the Tree of Harmony; the hivemind is being suppressed, we just need to deal the final blow.”
>She blinks, calming down as realization sets in.
>She sighs, ”I guess you’re right, but we still need to finish it off before it can get any sort of foothold again.”
“Right. Now, where exactly are we and how can we get back to the host?”
>The ground rumbles and crystal roots burst upward, coiling and weaving into an impermeable dome around you.
>There’s a tensing in your gut and your head begins to swim as it feels like you just moved a million miles an hour.
>The nausea passes and the roots unravel and retreat back into the ground, which instead of being cave, is now carpeted stone.
>Still laying down, you blink as your mind tries confusedly to piece together the pieces.
>You’re back in the throne room in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
>Quickly your mind gets traction again as you realise you’ve just teleported.
>”That answers that I guess.”
>She begins on her way toward the door to the hivemind as you get up and follow.
“Wait a minute, what’s the plan?”
>”We’ve got to make one up on the fly. The hivemind should be weak enough to dispel from the host’s mind, so we’ve got to move quick and perform some purification rites.”
>Not completely confident in the plan, but without anything better, you follow Myst down the stairs.
>Once again you’re in the room of polished black stone, almost everything is the way it was when you last saw it, save for a few lamps that had burnt out after presumably running out of fuel.
>The purple pony from earlier is where it last was, though its magic circle is heavily damaged and the unicorns are nowhere to be seen.
>The host is laying flat on the ground, looking heavily fatigued and breathing heavily.
>”You’re… back.” the host labors out.
>”Come to… finish me off, have you?”
>”Tell me… what have I done so wrong?”
>”What have you done wrong?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WRONG?!” Myst bursts out.
>”I’ve done as you ponies would have done… in my situation.”
>”Taking over the minds of everyone is not what anypony would have done in your situation!”
>”I did what I had to do to survive! When I started out,” it pauses to wheeze, then lowers its voice, “When I started out, I had no other thought than possession and survival. I was thrust into this world and given all this knowledge to work with and nothing to gui-”
>”ENOUGH! The way you try to justify your actions sickens me. You’re a blight on this world and that’s all you ever will be.”
>Myst quickly reaches into her saddlebag and whips a vial at the host, which shatters on impact and causes the pony to writhe.
>The writhing soon slows and it rolls onto its back, the only movement now coming from it is labored breathing.
>Myst trots to the nearby tables and begins skimming papers and books for something.
>Papers rustle in the background as you slowly approach the hivemind.
>”I hit it with a paralysing agent to keep it still for now. It’ll last long enough for us to get rid of it.”
>You sit next to its head and brush the mane out of its eyes.
>Its eyes follow you, and there’s a deep expression of fear in them.
>You just can’t figure out if it’s from the host or the hivemind.
>”Here it is!” Myst calls as she holds up a scroll, “This scroll details a magic circle to temporarily merge minds.”
>She grabs several pieces of chalk from a nearby table and gets to work first erasing the existing magic circle, then creating a new one offcentered from the hivemind.
>After a fair amount of mumbling, mistakes, and non-magical curses, Myst has a completed circle.
>From where you sit it most certainly looks like a complex ritual magic circle.
“So what does it do, and how does it work?”
>”The circle will temporarily merge the minds of whoever’s in it when it activates. I’m going to send you into the host’s mind to separate them from the parasite, causing the circle to destabilize and wake the two of you up. Sounds simple enough, right?”
“And how exactly will I separate the two of them?”
>”Well, the mind you’re about to enter will be heavily damaged in some way or another, and you need to fix it. It should all become apparent to you when you go in.”
>Lowering yourself to the floor you curl your legs inwards and lay, somewhat reminiscent of a cat.
“And what if this doesn’t work?”
>She pauses, “Just don’t think like that and it’ll work.”
>With that she brings her hoof down on the circle and smashes a gem.
>Your vision waves as you lower your head to the floor and a lightweight feeling overcomes you.
>Instantaneously you’re falling into a murky void.
>Reflex takes over by spreading your wings and you’re soon gliding.
>The bottom of the void turns into what appears to be branches and leaves, and as you glide closer they appear to be wilted.
>A branch reaches up and snags a front hoof, causing you to nosedive directly into the mass.
>You’re jostled around before being spit out of the underside onto your hooves and onto a wooden floor.
>Looking around, you appear to be inside of a massive hollowed out tree.
>Damaged books litter the rounded chamber, and empty shelves are carved into the walls.
>There’s only one way to go from here, and that’s through a long corridor.
>Taking it, you travel onwards until you pause when the ground beneath you suddenly feels soft and sags.
>Rotten wood is what you see before it gives way and you’re sent plummeting through branches, more decayed floors and pelted by flying books.
>A branch breaks your fall by catching your underbelly, flipping you, and dropping you on your back onto a cold marble floor.
>As you get up you’re interrupted by being slammed back onto the floor and restrained by a purple glow.
>”Parasite!” an unknown voice calls out, seething with acid.
>A furious purple pony approaches, horn glowing violently as you’re pressed against the floor even tighter.
>She stops before raising an eyebrow as her face softens.
>Before you know it you’re twirled upright and set down.
>”It’s you again! But, wait, how?” she asks, cocking her head.
>Her eyes drift over your body and flare in alarm
>”Y-you’re a demon! What’s going on here?”
“Long or short version?”
>”Short.”
”I was given a contract to get rid of the hive mind, and, in turn, that means saving you. We’ve managed to stabilize the Tree of Harmony, and now I’ve been sent into your mind to separate the two of you.”
>”We?” she asks, looking around.
“It’s just me right now, my partner Myst stayed behind to send me in. I’m Anon, by the way. Despite being in your head I never got your name.”
>“Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and former protege of Princess Celestia.”
>Something flickers in the corner of your eye and you look around.
“So this is your mind, huh?”
>The two of you are in the center of a circular marble room lined with bookcases, tables, and hallways that leading to different wings.
>”It used to be bigger and more organized before the parasite. Although I’m able to access the rest of my mind, I’ve managed to keep all the knowledge in this area restricted from the parasite.”
“That’s… Pretty impressive. Have the other ponies under its control been able to do something similar?”
>”Maybe in a much, much smaller form, the extent of my mind mapping is-” she stops and leans to look past you in alarm.
>Looking with her, you just catch a glimpse of something… ghostly disappearing at the end of a hall.
>”NO! IT GOT IN!” Twilight screams as she runs off in its direction, horn charging.
>Following, you stop when something whispers in your ear from behind you.
>”I never got to finish earlier.”
>Whipping around reveals nothing as your eyes scramble to find what spoke to you.
“Finish what?”
>”My explanation.”
>The voice is most certainly coming from somewhere in the room, but you can’t be sure of where.
“Go ahead and finish it, then.”
>Fog rises from a spot in the floor and condenses into a grey pony apparition.
>Two yellow rings appear at eye level for it, and chest level for you.
>”I was thrown into this world, Anonymous, similar to you. However, instead of having previous knowledge like when you were summoned, I had nothing. I was pure instinct.”
“And what did this instinct tell you to do?”
>”Survive. I found a host and began my sapient life. I haAAAH-”
>A beam of violet light streams into its body, causing its form to suddenly dissipate in all directions.
>Hoofsteps come from behind and Twilight stands next to you.
>”That’s it. It’s gone,” she lets a small sigh, “I can feel the pressure on my mind decreasing.”
>Standing there, you’re dumbfounded by the anticlimaticness of it all.
>Twilight didn’t even need your help, and you’re amazed she hadn’t defeated the hivemind earlier.
“So… that’s that then, huh?”
>”I can… I can feel my mind restructuring itself. It’s going to take a lot of effort on my part, but I’ll be able to piece this place back together.”
>There’s a strange tingle, and books on the shelves begin to slowly dissapear.
>”Your magic circle is destabilizing, we’ll soon be back in the world of the liVinG.”
>Twilight begins to fade, and all of the books are gone by now.
>Walls start disappearing when you blink, and soon you’re alone in a black void.
>”A-anon,” voices whisper hastily, “I don’t have long. I did what I had to in order to survive. Feelings, emotions, they weren’t a natural part of me.”
“Weren’t?”
>”As I gained ponies, my knowledge of emotions grew. I didn’t think much of them until you showed up. As you weakened me, I was trying everything to get ahead of you again.”
“And so you began to feel.”
>The fog pony from before materialises before you, although it’s taken on the form of a filly and transparent enough that you can just barely make it out.
>”Yes, and with it came morality. I… I don’t know what’s happening, Anon. I want to live, and at the same time I know it’s not right to live like this,” the voice becomes uneasy, “My emotions are crashing against eachother, telling me to survive, telling me to stop, telling me to grow, telling me it’s wrong.”
>”I have no host, Anon. I’m using the last of my energy to tell you this, and when I run out…”
>”I-I don’t want to die, Anon.”
“I… I don’t know what you want me to do.”
>”I don’t either, these feelings are scrambling my mind, I just can’t handle them, Anon. I want it to stop, but the only way for that is for me to die.”
>The Hivemind isn’t the only one conflicted, your heart stirs and your mind is looping the situation, looking for a solution.
>Tingling in your body becomes more intense and you can feel the world around you growing colder.
>Looking to your heart, it believes every word the Hivemind says.
>With your brain trusting your heart, you do something out of genuine trust.
>You reach your hoof out to it, and it looks at it, before looking at you, then back at it.
“You don’t have to die... share my mind and we can experience this world together.”
>Hesitantly it reaches out and holds it, and your mind opens.
>There’s a slight pressure in your mind as the fog travels up your arm and into your head.
>The feeling is strange, but in no way unpleasant.
>A gentle voice joins your own in the back of your head.
[Thank you.]