Truly Evil?

Diamond shifted back to the physical plane, and realized that blood was slowly trickling from one of his ears. Thankfully his visit was brief, but nothing much was revealed. Although June had traces of green around her...

"Why did you panic? I was looking at the tube, not you." Not that I couldn't resist a peek he thought to himself. "It has full planar sheilding, which means I couldn't straight up teleport it to the void and crack it open" Which I can't do without seriously hurting myself anyhow

"If we want it open, then we pry it upwards, but seeing how much that weighs and the probability of something like myself being in there, I'd say we leave it be..." Diamond turned as he finished his sentence to watch the door close.

"Hey, is the door closing by itself bad?"

Dusk then looked at the now shut door. Though concerning, he wasn't that concerned. "The door closing just means we'll end up in a random room somewhere. Now, I would like to get that tube open, despite what may be inside. We definitely can lift it if we work together. One of us could even stand aside with weapons ready in case whatever's inside is hostile."

Diamond shrugged. "Fine, it couldn't hurt"

He reached out to grip the container with telekinesis and move it upward. "If anypony has a better plan, speak up. If not, help lift" He poured massive amounts of magical energy into lifting the container.

"I'm being serious. Whoever has the best telekinesis spell should help me lift this. Anypony not lifting be preparing some offensive tool."

Dusk simply walked up to the case and began lifting with his hooves, since his physical strength was stronger than his telekinetic strength. Diamond's assistance made it much easier to lift, though it was still very heavy. He figured he and Diamond would be enough to lift it.

Ician rolled his eyes. Of course they'd run out of options. he wasn't expecting anything less, but it was still pretty disappointing. He let his sphere of weapons fall gently to the floor and extended his magic grip to the container, straining to lift it with about three-quarters of his full strength. Straight up power wouldn't help so much as sustaining a lower amount of it, and either way he wanted to be ready for potential danger.

June hesitated, wondering if she could contribute. But she lacked both telekinesis and any real strength, so she sighed and went over to the broken vial. She started sniffing around, figuratively and literally, looking for a way to track whatever might have gotten out. Or, in fact, anything had gotten out. Perhaps it had been broken in from the outside? She looked for any hints of what, where, or when.

She'd also need a long talk with Diamond. A real mystery, that one. Also maybe apologize for shouting. Yeah.

Even with the effort of all three, the case was still slow to move, and the magic would have a hard time actually holding it. Gradually though, the metal casing did creep up slowly. Then the bottom of the tube would become visible, and Dusk would find an alien and malformed head staring back at him. The face was broad and long, but nearly skeletal. It's teeth were pointed and gleamed dully in the half open mouth, and it's eyes were curiously the full blue of a changelings, yet they had a definite yellow colored pupil that was coldly and unblinkingly staring right at Dusk.

The figure wasn't moving however and with the cover lifted above the bottom of the tube, the green liquid that the creature was suspended in once more began to leak out of the spiderwebs of cracks that coated the glass tube.

Ician frowned as the case moved up sufficiently to reveal the creature behind it. He didn't cease his telekinetic efforts, but he did bring his sword a little closer to him. The creature didn't seem to be hostile yet, but knowing his luck it would cease to be harmless at the worst possible moment. He took several steps back, not wanting to be in its immediate range - or at least what he thought was its immediate range - should it leap out through the glass and attack them.

Dusk was very much creeped out by what was in the tube, especially since it seemed to have its eye directly on him. It didn't help that he was getting liquid on him from being so close to the case.

"Can anyone check if that thing is alive?" he asked.

Diamond was about to create crystal pillars to hold the case up, when he saw something. A nightmare. Something from his memory. It was Ruby Mind, or it looked like her. Halflings ALWAYS came in twins, and ALWAYS had a mental link. Diamond's twin, Ruby, was stillborn. He fell into a lying position, and his form became hazy, almost like something was going to happen. He went into some sort of trance. His eyes changed to their true form, Blue with a yellow center, and his tiny fangs began to elongate. "R-ruby...."

June diverted her attention from the broken tube, watching the interaction between Diamond the apparent "Ruby". She stayed ready to jump in if anything bad happened. The eyes changing was... interesting, and the fangs were worrying. She quietly pulled a small can of sleeping gas from her backpack. Half-empty, but she wouldn't need much more than that. Probably.

The figure in the tube didn't respond, shift, or move, as it coldly stared at the beings outside it's container. Even the horror shown expression of desperation failed to shift in the slightest as the liquid eventually reached the tips of it's pitted and scattered holed hooves that were above it's head. The pitted limb however did something strange as it touched the open air. It seemed to almost dissolve upwards, the dust like particles becoming rapidly smaller until disappearing completely. This continued to spread downwards as more of the thing's flesh was exposed to the air inside the tube.

Ician took a surprised step back. This wasn't something he'd thought even remotely likely. But then again, perhaps it was some sort of advanced illusion... but when taking the surroundings into account it seemed more likely to be a scientific thing. Not that it really mattered to him; either way it didn't help him. He drew his sword up properly and prepared for an ambush.

He also didn't miss Diamond's reaction to the creature in the tank. It was incredibly suspicious, and also it looked like he was sort of unstable. Ician wanted to make sure that he wouldn't suddenly jump them or anything.

Diamond watched the figure disappear, and he felt something break. It had been an illusion, or just imperfect. It wasn't Ruby, it never would be. He would never have his better half. Upon realization, he started to revert back. The fangs disappeared, his eyes returned to normal, and the haze withdrew. As he turned away, a massive diamond sword formed itself, and aimed at the container. He began to mutter something. "Stupid instincts. He tried to clone me... bloody hell, I'll make him suffer, I'll skin that bastard alive, I'll kill him by slowly crystallizing the carbon in his skin." And the sword flew at the container at the speed of sound.

"Sorry about that... If you have questions, ask them. If not, let's go, I have places to be." Diamond said, there seemed to be a seething hatred in his voice.

Seeing the figure in the tube start to disappear startled Dusk, but he kept his vigil in keeping the case up. When he heard Diamond start to mutter, and saw the sword being aimed at the tube, he quickly leapt away so he wouldn't be hit with shattered glass.

When he said he would answer questions. Dusk, still ducked low to avoid flying glass, asked, "A better idea of just what you are would be nice, as well as an explanation as to why you can make swords at will," he said to Diamond.

Diamond sighed. The crystal weapon question was always the hardest to explain next to what he was. But he promised to answer the question. "I utilize a special 'device' called the blue sanction. I don't remember who created it, but it helps the weapon creation that you see here. If I switch it to an off status, I can essentially create a demiplane where there is a nearly unlimited number of those blades. The blades themselves are created by extracting carbon from carbon dioxide and hyper-compressing it and mixing it with my own magic. Otherwise, I just create a copy from my magic, though it's brittle."

And now came the hard answer. "I'm a Halfling. Half pony, Half changeling. Halflings are always born in sets of fraternal twins, and they have a mental connection. Sadly my better half, Ruby Mind, was stillborn. So I had a piece of myself torn away at birth. A halfling with no mental connection subconsciously seeks out other halflings to form a mental connections. Think of it as a sort of hive mind, but toned down, and all the participants are willing. It's strange to ponies really. What you saw a moment ago is what halflings call a 'true form'. Unlike changelings, halflings only get one full form they can transform into, created by a residual mental image of what they should look like based on genetics." Diamond took a breath. "Any other questions?"

As the sword flew at the container, it managed to shatter the already compromised glass, and pierced into the the part of the creature in the tube that hadn't yet been exposed to the air. Before anything else however could be observed, the heavy metal casing came crashing down since it was no longer being held up, easily breaking the sword and once more shrouding the contents. The puddle of green liquid that had leaked out before the casing slammed shut continued to spread out, pooling slightly on the floor before stopping as it's source was cut off.

Ician listened silently to Diamond's explanation to Dusk's questions, himself remaining silent and disinclined to make any of his own inquiries. He also remained silent through the shattering of the glass and the crashing down of the heavy metal casing, though he did flinch and visibly refrain from comment. It would have been better if they'd been able to study that a little longer, but Diamond had let his anger get the better of him. That was disappointing.

I seem to remember someone else who let his anger get the better of him.

'Almost' is the key word. Now shut up. Ician continued observing the developments in silence.

June had been taking notes, and noticed something. She spoke up. "You said you were going to kill the one who did this. Who?"

"Who do you think? How about the pony that put me in the tube and decided it was a good time to clone me? To make me think that I had found the other part of me? How about it?" Diamond remembered the green in June's mental aura, and his tone changed to dead serious. "June, you and I need to talk in private."

June hesitated, then gave a nod. "Alright." She went over and opened the door, hoping for a hallway or somewhere similar they could talk.

The door opened to reveal a small circular room with a dome shaped ceiling. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all painted in a dark black that just barely allowed one to see the seams of the room. A single light source illuminated the space, but it's source was a mystery.

Diamond's face lit up in wonder at the different room that suddenly appeared behind the door. He assumed it was highly advanced enchanting and inquired no further on the magic behind it. He created a set of crystal pillars to hold the door in place, cast an illumination spell through the door and walked through. "This place should do for now."

Dusk stayed in the room with the tubes, since he wanted to respect Diamond and June's privacy. Besides, his questions had been sufficiently answered, even though the explanation about the swords was a bit beyond him as to how exactly it worked. He decided to take the time to relax, lying down, but keeping his head up to ensure he didn't accidentally fall asleep.

June blinked a couple times, getting used to the lighting. She moved to the center of the room, and turned to face Diamond. "So, this is about as private as we're going to get. Now, I have a few questions." She switched languages abruptly, hissing in what sounded like crude and heavily accented Vespid. "Where learn speaking this?"