My Life on a Cassette Tape

I walked down the stairs, preparing myself for Twilight's tirade. I knew at this point I thoroughly deserved it. I wasn't exactly repentant towards my treatment of Gunther, not by a long shot, but I felt it more than reasonable to tone down what I had been doing. Gunther was... well, for a lack of a better term, a barometer of sorts - a constant measure on how far I might have slipped from where I had started. Hitting the last few stairs, I looked about, noticing a wet spot on the floor, likely all the sweat from a Gunther who couldn't cum from railing himself against a wall all night. Not my proudest boner.

In one of the room's corners I saw Twilight looking at a shimmering, large, purple bubble rather pensively. I decided it was smarter to not spook her, and so knocked on the wooden post by the side of the door.

"The third step down creaks something awful." Twilight said over her shoulder. "Though it's nice to know you aren't trying to sneak up on me and jam a dildo up my butt." That... sounded far more enticing than she probably wanted it to; I mean, she did have a nice tush.

"I've had a bit of awakening recently in regards to my behavior." I said as I walked up beside her. "I'm not stopping Gunther's punishment, but I will be toning it down."

"I suppose it's a start." Twilight muttered, casting a side long glance at me. "Raven got to you then?" I chuckled as I nodded in affirmation.

"She... opened my eyes. This whole situation has... chipped away at who I am. I don't like it. I'll try to guard myself against the times." I said solemnly.

"Good to hear. The short time I did know who you were before this mess, which come to think about it, was just the party really, I didn't know you as the type of pony who would do to Gunther what I found. He was collapsed on the floor, gurgling around a gag... a penis shaped gag."

"Where is he by the way?" I hadn't seen the griffon about the basement, I wasn't sure how to feel on that one.

"Upstairs, we put him in one of the guest bedrooms with the doppelgangers. I assume they'll get on famously." She said, turning her attention back to the purple dome. I would've agreed, but she was unwittingly playing into Gunther's punishment. I could imagine Puppershy bouncing on his dick that would never cum unless one of those ponies ordered it, and seeing as most of them would likely be happy just to fuck themselves silly, I couldn't imagine they'd notice if Gunther didn't cum. Immense amount of stamina is a thing.

Looking to the dome I peered through the purple to see what I had been expecting. There in the center of the dome was the Doctor, sitting cross-legged with his head bowed.

"Meditating?" I asked Twilight, looking over his naked form for any signs of damage, only to find none. Odd, since we had knocked him unconscious.

"More like focusing his powers towards healing himself while trying, and failing, to escape." She turned to me. "Do you know what he is by any chance?" I shook my head.

"No, as far as I know, he's just a pony with some weird powers. I know it isn't tied to an artifact, unless they implanted it beneath his skin," That brought a few uncomfortable thoughts to my mind that I quickly shooed away, "and I know his ties to the Empire aren't the same as the others. You said both Gunther and Brass had themselves a talisman like the one I described Silver having. The Doctor here had no such talisman when we managed to get him undressed."

"Knowing what I do know, that much makes sense. The talisman wouldn't have worked on him." She moved over to a small card table and held up one of the talismans. Looking at the table, I noticed a few other objects, most of them science-y in nature, and so, thoroughly out of my depth. "These talismans," Twilight continued, "have a spell cast on them. I spent most of yesterday evening and this morning trying to figure out the spell. I found out that it is a rather old spell, ancient in fact, and, like many of this particular kind, thoroughly illegal to cast."

"Another triumph of the Equestrian legal system." I muttered, getting a sharp glare from the purple princess. I quickly understood that it was not the time to make jeering remarks about the legal system she had a particular personal involvement in... or at least I supposed she did as a princess, I really didn't know.

"The spell," Twilight said pointedly, returning to the subject, "is a rather complex disintegration spell. Not only that, but the talisman has an enchantment that once the spell fires, the victim cannot remove it. You could technically stop it with a powerful enough counter spell or by placing a sufficiently large piece of Dark Stone near it, but beyond that, the spell will carry out its purpose without fail, leaving you with only ashes."

"What's the trigger? Is it remote activated or are there specific instances in which it will fire." I asked, my thoughts drifting back to Silver as he burned away before me.

"I couldn't quite tease that out. This piece is an artifact to itself, not so much like the ones you, Button, Silver, Gunther, and Brass had, but more so in the sense of them being really old pieces of arcane history. A museum might enjoy having this, but would likely only display replicas to ensure public safety. Few museums have bombs that are fully ready to fire on display, and breaking this piece's enchantment would likely send it, and any who were unfortunate to be touching it at the time, up in arcane flames." Twilight said, setting it back down.

"Alright, so that's the talisman explained, but please tell me how that applies to the Doctor here and how he is supposedly indestructible as far as this talisman goes. Is he made of Dark Stone or something?" I asked, looking him over with new suspicion.

"Something much worse, I fear." Twilight muttered as she turned to look at the thing in the bubble. "I've spent a long time examining him and observing him, and I've come to a singular conclusion based on how he behaves and how his magic manifests." The Doctor looked up, his eyes wide and flaming as he rushed forward, planting his hands against the shield, causing it to sizzle. I backed off, but Twilight stood there with full confidence in her shield.

"I've come to the conclusion that you might have deciphered in part." Twilight continued, squatting down in front of the beast. "This isn't a pony." She said matter-of-factly. I had actually come to that rough conclusion, but it still didn't help it to sound sensible.

"So... not a pony, what is he? He looks like a pony, can occasionally act like one, but in the end apparently isn't one. What is he?" I stepped back towards the dome, looking at him as he pressed himself to the shield, as if he'd squeeze through a hole in the nonexistent bars of his cage.

"He shouldn't exist, for one. You see... well, the theoretical existence of things like him have rattled around the minds of the world's greatest geniuses for centuries, maybe millennia. Starting back when magic wasn't exactly understood too incredibly well and was less a science and more a mystic art, ponies were still trying to figure things out as far as the boundaries for their potential. Magic had so many abilities, and when combined with potion making, it seemed to be an avenue towards life eternal and infinite power. Some ponies made a mixture of magic and potion making and called it alchemy. The name was later reused for other fields, passing from science to science and superstition to superstition, but originally it was the art of combining the unknowns of magic and potion brewing.

"It was postulated by these early alchemists that if one could figure out the components of a body, that magic could provide a soul. With this they created the first golems, but they were rudimentary and lacked all but the ability to understand and execute orders. Beyond that, they were fairly useless. The alchemists wanted something greater, more powerful, more real. They were after the ability to create a pony, no ifs, ands, or buts.

"Even though they realized there were limitations, they felt that if they just understood a few more things, pressed the borders of known things just a bit more, they'd have the ability to create life, or in some cases, recreate life. The main hurdle is the soul. It is of near, if not entirely, infinite value. Understanding this, but not accepting it as a barrier, they postulated an item they called a philosopher's stone. An item of infinite value that would allow them to do as they pleased. With the goal to make a philosopher's stone set, they focused all efforts on either creating one themselves through alchemy or simply finding one in nature.

"In the end, a few alchemists discovered exactly how to create their philosopher's stone, but refused to share the knowledge. A few of them did, however, leave clues. In the end, the number of philosopher's stones that have ever existed throughout history is... well, unknown, but likely only barely into double digits. A few of those stones were used in the way they had been intended - to create life. Despite the infinite value of these philosopher's stones, for some reason, when they were used to create the soul of a pony, it always created something of a monster - a Child of the Philosophers, a homunculus."

"So... is that what he is? A Homunculus?" I looked at him, a renewed sense of curiosity at the unknown elements of this... homunculus.

"Yes... but that's a broad-strokes analysis of what I can see. He may very well be something else. His powers, for one, are fairly hard to pin down in both their complete extent and in their font. He is a bundle of unknowns that unfortunately are hard to examine due to his nature." Twilight finished. "Fortunately, with yesterday's and today's study, I have come to some good results. You may have not seen her today, but I was able to get him to return Berry's arm."

"That's a relief." I sighed. I was glad for Berry, and that set a thought in my mind. Maybe now was as good a time as any to give her something as a gift of sorts. I looked to Twilight, nodding for her to follow me away from the Doctor. "Twilight," I began hesitantly, unsure of how to express the thought I had, "what do you think the likelihood is that I could bring back Berry's daughter? I have this artifact, perhaps it could bring back what she's lost." She looked at me dead in the eye and sighed, looking at the ground.

"You have a good heart, Cress, maybe not all of the time," she cast a glance at the wet spot in the floor, "but you have your moments." Looking back to me she gave a sad smile. "I think that if the artifact couldn't keep you an alicorn, it might not be able to bring back the dead, but that's my two bits. The whole creating fourteen new ponies, or at best deriving them from their hosts, certainly puts a question mark on the whole limitations of its power. You can try... but if you want to do something for Berry, I suggest looking towards her other relatives." I blinked, looking down at my pocket, my finger feeling the indentation of the record button.

"Thanks, Twilight." I said slowly. "I'll... put some thought into it." Twilight nodded in response.

"See you up stairs?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second." I muttered, turning away from her. Twilight sighed, and moved up the stairs. The third step from the top really did creak something awful.

Pulling the recorder out of my pocket, I sat down on the floor, looking at it as I contemplated what I should do - what I could do. There was a filly I could wake up, and Berry wouldn't even know it was me... that felt right. I took a deep breath in and pressed the record button.