Subject 1: Unicorn male

I took this one from a random village near Viirium. Unlike the villages near my tower whose denizens all know of the possibility of being used for my experiments, these do not yet know what to expect. Accordingly, he reacted with fear and confusion and is currently trying to break out of his cell. I considered magic neutralization collars for the subjects, but these ponies are hardly a threat to me. The nice thing about the dual consciousness granted to me by the Machine is the ability to simultaneously focus on multiple things. As I write this, I am gently putting down each of the objects he’s trying to hurl at me with his levitation. The other subjects are joining in in attempting violence, but their attempts are just as laughable. I could conjure a shield around myself or them for that matter but making them watch their efforts fizzle out in front of them in a very obvious way is better for demonstrating to them the futility of their efforts.

Interestingly, while my eyes gaze upon the page, I note godhood has not bestowed upon me better vision. The background in which the ponies are in their cages remains unhelpfully blurry. However, a combination of my enhanced thought and magical senses of their being and magic use are enough to fill in the gaps. Perhaps a repertoire of sensory spells will be necessary to ensure my safety in all situations to come. For now, though, it seems I don’t need to look at the page to write accurately. It takes a bit more thought, but I have plenty to spare right now. I wonder what other habits I can unlearn.

As he comes under the influence of my modified Cogeria-Fiducia spell, the first thing I notice is the vacant stare noted in the journal I found the Cogeria spell in. I sense his heartbeat is slowing as well. With the verbal components removed, all that remains is to issue a command. Fiducia’s specific link to obey me is bearing fruit immediately as the other subjects are starting to shout at him or scream in terror. A simple silencing spell on them will do to produce a more sterile testing environment.

It appears the spell combination works. While perhaps past me might have needed a few tries to do something similarly complex, my new prowess does appear to extend to subconscious spell manipulation. The stallion, I never did bother to learn his name, is blankly walking in a circle. In order to test the full capabilities of this spell, I will need to give him a full range of commands. A simple battery shall do for this trial run. I shall prescribe a task each of intelligence, communication, endurance, self-harm, incapability, and impossibility.

Intelligence task: Generate 50 sets of 2-digit numbers and multiply them

It could be that this pony’s intelligence has been affected by the spell, but it seems more likely this pony has not needed to multiply numbers in a long time. He’s doing his best, but is failing spectacularly. I observed an error rate of 34%. I’ll categorize this as a task of incapability and give him another intelligence task. This reveals yet another thing immense magical power has failed to give me: an eraser for my pen.

Intelligence task: Generate 50 sets of 2-digit numbers and add them

The subject has proven more successful at this task, though his speed leaves much to be desired. I also note no increase in speed over the 50 calculations suggesting a lack of learning occurring. More subjects are required to assess if there truly is any mental impairment caused by the spell or if he is simply an idiot.

Communication task: Tell me about yourself

The subject merely responded in a single statement which contained his name, age, and occupation. I should rearrange this task to be first in the future so I can assess their potential in intelligence testing before giving them something too difficult. This response raises questions of whether the other ponies will be similarly curt or if this an artifact of his personality. For the final iteration of my spell, I’m not particularly concerned if personality is preserved or not, but this lack of initiative is less useful in my slaves than the inverse.

Endurance task: Don’t stop jumping

The subject jumped continuously for 20 minutes before significant behavioral deviance. I noted no attempt to reduce jump effort to save on energy and go longer, suggesting a lack of long-term planning, or, again, he could be an idiot. After 22 minutes, the strain became apparent, with inter-jump intervals increasing. At 26 minutes, successful jumps became rare, with most attempts failing to clear all four hooves off the ground. After passing out at 29 minutes, he regained consciousness quickly and began to start again, but I had seen enough by this point. The results show that the Cogeria-Fiducia allows the subject to exert beyond standard tiredness, but not to any extreme extent.

Self-harm task: Cut yourself

The subject notably hesitated before cutting himself. He did wince, and once he began expressing pain, the spell’s influence began to fade. I reapplied it once he broke out of it. Fascinating how working to exhaustion did not break the spell, but commanding he apply a small cut to himself did. Was the spell’s influence spent on preventing him from resisting the exertion prior, only running out now, or is the act of harming oneself uniquely hostile to the state of mind induced by Cogeria?

Impossible task: Fly

The subject once again began to jump, this time, in an apparent attempt to fly. He did not attempt to ask for a plane or think of a spell, but simply tried to fly by jumping. From just this example, it is impossible to determine if this is the lack of an ability to plan, or if he believes this is the best way to fulfill the command. Though, the fact this task is not technically impossible but merely so in the common parlance sense of the term gives me another idea.

Paradoxical task: Asses the truth of the statement “This statement is not true”

The subject failed to provide a response of any kind. After giving an example of deductive reasoning and restating the command, he simply stated in full confidence it was false. When pushed, he would then assert it was true, contradicting himself. Once again potentially mental impairment or he’s just dumb. I attempted to explain to him the concept of a paradox, after which he was able to give the answer that it was a contradiction, but he soon relapsed to his standard “false” response. This is at least some evidence to show little to no learning occurs in this state.

I’ve repeated the tests on subjects 2 through 10 though this time simultaneously. I don’t need to wait 30 minutes per pony to collapse on the ground. While it does require a significant amount of effort, I can listen to all 9 of their responses at the same time and still differentiate between them.

When introducing themselves, some were curt like subject 1, but some gave lengthier responses with one needing to be stopped after rambling. I determine that this is, therefore, a remnant of their personality which remains untouched under the Cogeria state. As it happened, subject 9 revealed himself to be a radical planning on overthrowing the Pentarchy. Little did he know I recently just did the same. I can’t have him running back to his friends, so I made sure to question him a bit more about his group and made a mental note to kill him after the tests. I’ll forward the information to Ceadda later.

In the intelligence test, most succeeded in multiplying numbers, but I noted a distinct lack of randomness between their choice of numbers. A statistically significant number of 7s appeared and I noted all 10 used the number 42 at least once. Accuracy remained low, indicating at least some mental impairment. The probability not one of these farmponies would be able to multiply is low.

Next was the endurance test. Due to differences in physical fitness, the ponies each collapsed at different points. In those not accustomed to manual labor, the spell weakened. I therefore infer that the previous breaking of the spell caused by self-harm is not a unique nature of the spell, but instead relative to the nature of the subject. In line with this, the self-harm test proved equally inconsistent, with the spell only breaking for a majority of the subjects. I do want to note subject 6 who showed no hesitation and continued to cut herself when commanded to with no sign of the spell weakening. A sign of depression or just a masochist? I certainly don’t care enough to test it.

For the incapability test, I commanded them to pay me an exorbitant number of bits. Those with money gave me what they had, but none showed any initiative afterwards to try and offer to work for bits. Some tried to search their cell for bits, but overall, a distinct lack of creativity.

As for the impossible test, I commanded the pegasi to swim in water instead of fly. They simply mimed the motions on the ground. Like subject 1, the unicorns and earth ponies mostly just started jumping again with one unicorn attempting to levitate himself off the ground instead. Wholly uncreative and showing little common sense, which is where I believe the mental impairment is evident. Not a single one requested a plane or water in the case of the pegasi. Seeing this helps frame what I would like to see in the mind control spell I plan to cast across Barradian lands and later Kasa, Austurland, and the rest of Griffonia, or more accurately, demonstrates what I would like to not see. I need useful slaves who show initiative and can be creative.

The paradox test went over similarly to subject 1. They showed little critical thinking, and a lack of learning. One pony, subject 2, did actually figure it out in the beginning, but the speed of the response causes me to believe it is likely because she had heard something akin to it prior and thus knew the “right answer” was that there was no right answer as opposed to performing any critical thinking. Either that or the spell has a one in ten chance to grant superintelligence, which I highly doubt given her 10% error rate in multiplication.

The only test I have left for this batch is a test to see how long the spell could last. I sent them all walking in a circle as I had subject 1 do in the beginning and I shall return after another day of overseeing the logistics of running Virrad. I have a group of nobleponies to visit and dealing with them will be significantly less fun than this has been. I content myself with the fact that this is only until I perfect a mind control spell.

Upon returning to the lab, I noted 6 ponies no longer trotting in their circles. This is another persistent aspect of this class of mind control spells that I hope to avoid in the final product - the fact that they wear off. The free ones did not do much in the way of escaping, all apparently suffering from intense headaches. They did, however, seem to remember what they had done under the influence of the spell, which is good to know. I killed subject 9 before teleporting the rest back to their villages. Hopefully they will spread the word and the next batch will be more compliant. Overall, an entertaining and educational experience, though it is back to the drawing board for ideas. It is clear that I will not find a spell lying in a book that will solve all my problems, but making magic is as fun as testing it and tomorrow is a new day.

Author's Note

Viira will be testing self-preservation instincts of the creatures she mind controls so I put in the self-harm tag.