The invasion has stalled. General Oleander informs me that, while incremental gains have been made, no breakthrough of the Kasan lines has yet emerged. Despite my magical intervention of teleporting forces into advantageous positions in the plentiful mountains of the border, Kasan forces have generally been able to retreat in response, preventing a full rout. She informs me that our best hope lies in the east. If we are able to break through to the Seguran Peninsula, we can cut the army off from most of their supplies from the rest of the country, trapping their forces in the western part of their country. It seems my intervention is once more required, and I have just the spell planned.

I am currently just beyond the Viiradian border south of my tower, just close enough to hear artillery fire in the distance. I have elected to keep my time at the front minimal, as being nigh immortal is a far cry from the real thing. There is a kind of joy I take knowing that half of the explosions I hear are from shells fired in my name. In any case, I thought it prudent to document the effects of my mind control spell as I had before to gauge its effectiveness. I have no doubt it will be effective, but how much so remains an open question.

There is also the matter if the common Kasan soldier knows enough about me to act correctly. Surely, they have been briefed on and know through social osmosis of their enemy and the “dark magic” of Barrad, but knowledge of me specifically could likely only have come from Zessa’s story. It was quite an interesting read, portraying me in an unflattering, downright villainous way, which is unsurprising. “Polite in a condescending manner”, “easily angered by perceived ignorance”, and “no regard for the sanctity of life or liberty” was how he described me. Accurate enough, I suppose. The Watchers tell me the story was quite a hit, but even they cannot tell me about the goings on of the more remote and illiterate Kasans.

Before I begin, I first open scrying windows into various points along the front. Most begin with relatively bad views, but after adjusting them, I can get a decent view of a few trenches close enough to see faces and other identifying characteristics. In one trench, Kasans of all colors and races are running around, perhaps moving to a better position. In another window, I can see the steady rhythm of a Kasan artillery crew firing shot after shot. If I listen closely and calculate the delay due to the speed of sound, I can even hear each shot after it happens from my vantage point.

I cast the point charge variety of the mind control spell. I choose a position further out and slightly higher than when in testing as I am further from the targets. The nature of the horizon works in my favor, as though I cannot see where I wish to affect, the enemy lines are visible from the position of the point charge. A few seconds pass as the spell takes effect.

In my view of a trench, the zebra closest to the window is sitting under a covered part of the trench performing maintenance on a rifle. She appears to feel something, causing her to stand. The once loud battlefield begins to reduce in volume. She sees 2 creatures, an earth pony and zebra stallion looking confused as well, having stopped their activity of moving a crate. The earth pony suddenly looks warily at the other two, causing an inquisitive look to form on his zebra friend. The mare, seeing this, begins to look at the pony in the same way.

Without warning, the earth pony grabs his rifle and points it at the other two, causing them both to back up before he asks them if they felt anything. The two zebras shout that they did, the mare raising her hoof in a non-aggressive, de-escalatory manner. The earth pony calms somewhat but seems unconvinced of the loyalty of his comrades one way or the other. He locks eyes with the mare and asks, slowly, if she feels different now. They seem to trade knowing looks as she pauses before replying hesitantly in the affirmative. Still twitchy, his rifle snaps to the zebra stallion as he asks him the same question. He looks confused, unsure of the right response. Eventually, he stutters out a “No?”, which the pony doesn’t seem to know what to make of. The zebra begins to try and talk the pony down, reminding him of their friendship, which seems to calm him.

A shot rings out and the zebra instantly collapses to a bullet to the side of the head below the helmet. The zebra mare drops her sidearm to the ground, putting her hooves up as the earth pony wheels his rifle around towards her at the sound.

“Hail Viira!” she yells, “He said he didn’t feel different! That means he’s not one of us, right?”

He exhales and puts down his rifle before replying, “I was trying to make sure! What if he was? You might have just killed an ally!”

Before she can answer, they both flinch as the sounds of nearby gunfire resume. They quickly move into the nook where the mare was fixing her rifle. From my scrying, I can see that several similar events occurred throughout the trench, leading to similarly bloody results. I believe the zebra stallion was partially affected by my spell but was ashamed and so wished to hide those feelings. Combined with believing his comrades were unaffected, he answered he didn’t feel affected, and thus outed himself to the mare. There are other possible scenarios, but I calculate this to be the most likely. However, the remaining two will likely have to live in uncertainty.

Simultaneously, through the window viewing the artillery gun, I can see the spell taking effect as the unicorn levitating a shell into the howitzer stops loading and looks around. There is silence and the exchanging of looks, before their commanding officer suddenly begins to shout once more. He announces a new target, and another zebra begins to shout new directions for moving the gun. Two zebras immediately begin rotating the gun almost 90 degrees, bumping an unsuspecting third zebra out of the way. He is confused, but hobbles back to his position. Looking at where the gun is pointed, he questions the others, asking why they are deviating from their previous fire mission.

The unicorn loader and one of the zebras operating the traverse mechanism exchange nervous looks. The artillery commander also appears uncertain for a second before quickly regaining his composure.

He takes a look over at his fellow creatures before yelling, “Hail Viira!”

“Hail Viira!” comes the response. Some raise their hooves to indicate their loyalty, not wanting to be branded heretics for an insufficiently enthusiastic response. One response is hesitant, but that is forgotten at the absent response of the first zebra. He looks incredulously around him at his comrades-in-arms, as one raises a rifle to him. The word “traitor” is thrown around by the stallion but also by his former compatriots at him before he is summarily shot.

Slowly, they resume aiming the gun. I notice the one who previously responded with hesitance; perhaps she is a partially affected pony. She seems to be horrified but continues her duties. Suddenly, my vision is obscured entirely by light as an explosion tears through the entire crew. When the dust settles, just two zebras show immediate signs of life. It appears another artillery crew had the same idea they did. Interesting that the first thought they had was to fire on their fellow troops. They have no knowledge of the spell I used, but they did know that they as a group were affected. Maybe the fact that there was still at least one unaffected among them was what made this commander confident enough to believe they were the only ones affected, but I believe the real answer is that he was simply overzealous and did not think it through.

A messy response. The mind controlled do not know if they are alone in their experience and cannot identify one another. The lack of knowledge as to the greater spell also leads to friendly fire as has been demonstrated. My attention is drawn to a scrying window where a band of Kasan soldiers is trotting decisively through a trench. They meet a lone unicorn soldier, and the zebra at the front of the band yells out to him.

“Who is our goddess?” she asks him while aiming between his eyes.

“Viira! Viira!” comes the response. He is quick and carries naught but a slight tremor in his voice.

Satisfied, the zebra lowers her gun and bids he travel with them as they seek to make contact with my forces. He joins the band, and they move further along the trench. I realize that I have not told my soldiers this was a possibility. They will likely not be expecting a message and will view these new converts with much suspicion. I shall send a runner later with the information, but I fear in the future, should my communications be intercepted, that warning in advance would cause my enemies to seek shelter before the spell. Only instructing my forces afterwards seems to be the solution.

The group continues along the trench before encountering a small group of zebra soldiers. Another standoff occurs as the uniformed Kasans point their rifles at each other distrustingly. This time, the new group is first to speak.

“Are you more of the crazy ones?” they ask. After a second of deliberation, the group loyal to me opens fire, killing their former compatriots before they have a chance to fire back. The interaction brings a smile to my face. Those not under my control have no idea what is happening and will hesitate before killing their friends and allies. Those under my control have some idea of what is happening and know to shoot first. This group also knew that they would be considered “crazy” by the unaffected Kasans, but stuck to their newfound loyalty to me rather than take that as a reason to doubt.

I do wonder, however, how they were so quick to shoot. I didn’t change any of their moral compasses, so surely killing their comrades would be much more difficult than this would make it seem. Perhaps it is simply selection bias. The ones who are loyal to me but were slow to react during these encounters have a higher chance of being killed, making it more likely any interaction I would see would involve the more trigger-happy soldiers, as they live to see more encounters. Maybe the reduction in their positive semantic identifications towards Kasa eased their consciences.

Fascinating results. The spell has had all the effects I wanted. It disorganized their troops while forming groups loyal to me. The friendly fire is regrettable, but acceptable. It could be an avenue of improvement for later, but incorporating a mechanism for the mind controlled to identify each other seems like a system that can be exploited. These messy confrontations should be less vulnerable to exploitation, as there is no known procedure to develop a countermeasure for. If the Kasans, or anyone else for that matter, try to develop a procedure to identify the loyal in this situation, the problem for them will be that those who are mind controlled will also know of the procedure and imitate it.

Repetition of the spell across the eastern half of the line seems to be the obvious next course of action. Upon informing my own troops of the situation, an advance should be significantly easier with the front collapsing to infighting. As for those turned to my side, using them immediately to fight their brethren doesn’t seem like a good idea as their organizational units have all been broken. I could, however, use them as an auxiliary force or disperse them amongst my soldiers to replace the fallen. Let the march to Seguro begin.

Author's Note

For those that don't know, Oleander from Them's Fightin' Herds is in EaW in Barrad as a general. Velvet, Shanty, Pom, and I think Paprika are also around in various places.