The Rise of the Windigo King

Ragnarok bats an eyelash at the seapony's antics in-between jumps before answering at the next jump. "We are looking for an old shipwreck"

"Oh there's ... a lot of those ... around here! ... They're fun! ... well ... the ones that ... hold on." The sea pony stops jumping out of the water after that and is gone for a few moments. Just when you're wondering if its coming back it leaps out of the water again, much higher this time and surrounded by water. It drops onto the deck, surrounded in a giant bubble of water, and proceeds to bounce around like an over-sized beach ball. "WHEEEE~! boingy~ boingy~ boingy~ anyway! The ones that aren't fulla monsters are fun!"

Up to this point, Death Ray had been trying hard to determine if, after his laser-light display, Torch had simply galloped down below deck - oooooooooooooor used his magic to turn himself into a sea pony. Death Ray had finally settled on the latter, and being too preoccupied ordering GREGG to run multiple scans of Torch's new "form," the Doctor really hadn't been paying the other sea ponies much mind.

As Aoi had hurled the sea pony over the side of the ship, Death Ray had panicked.

*Buck that foal of a princess! -Don't let him get away GREGG!*

*Yes sir, Dr. Death Ray sir!*

-And while the sea pony watched Aoi's failed attempt at intimidation, GREGG zipped out over the side of the Blasting Zone and began a tight orbit around the sea pony's head, his robotic eye flashing red as he thought back to the Doctor, *I've successfully maintained visual sir!*

Death Ray took a deep breath and sighed, *Hooh. That was a close one.*

*What should we do now sir?*

Death Ray paused for a moment, considering their options, *Well, it's... um... it's entirely possible that something went wrong with Torch's spell... Whatever it was... Maybe Torch doesn't even realize what's happened to him yet... He might even think that he really is a sea pony...* Rubbing his chin with one hoof, the Doctor looked over the side of the ship at the sea pony down below, "GREGG? Initiate a cerebral scan of the subject!"

"Yes sir, Dr. Death Ray sir!"

GREGG's robotic eye flashed blue as he projected a scanning beam over the sea pony's head.

Spoiler:

brain scan:

The sea pony "ooo~s" in fascination as GREGG proceeds scan it and be generally shiny. Predictably for those in the know about sea ponies, it grabs him out of the air in its fins and proceeds to lick him like a shiny metallic scoop of ice cream.  After a few licks it grimaces in apparent distaste and starts buffing GREGG with its fin and cleaning him with saltwater.

Ragnarok taps on the water bubble to get the seapony's attention. "I take it that you know your way around the maw then?" The hippogriff then stops and stares at GREGG as he scans the other seapony "What exactly is GREGG doing?"

Death Ray glanced back at Raggie, "Hm...? -Oh. I'm just... uh... getting GREGG to scan Torch's brain activity."

As he mentioned 'Torch,' the Doctor's eyes went wide. "No way." Looking back incredulously towards the seapony playing with his robotic assistant, Death Ray scratched his head.

"Raggie? Did you... did you know he has the mind of a... a genius?" The Doctor shook his head slowly, "No. Not a genius... A super-genius..."

Turning back to Raggie, Death Ray shrugged, "True enough. He's not really... well... using his mind right now... But FYI, it is the mind of a super-genius... Huh... I would've never guessed..." Scratching his head, Death Ray added - more to himself than anypony else, "Shame to let such a brilliant mind go to waste... Maybe... maybe I should... I don't know..." Death Ray shrugged again, "Put it in a jar or something? No!" Death Ray's eyes lit up, "The Dark Horse!

...

I wonder if Torch would mind?"

At this, Clan finally decided to turn towards Death Ray. "Right, excluding everything wrong with what you just said, how are you even sure that is Torch in the first place?" She questioned, obviously doubting his thought process.

"I would suggest it is Death Ray here who is not fully utilizing his mind. That is a sea pony. It is behaving like a sea pony and not like Doctor Torch. Furthermore I do not believe turning into a sea pony is a reasonable or believable emotional response for the doctor at present. Whatever that flash of light was, I believe it simply attracted the sea pony like.... well like a sea pony to a shiny object. As for what happened to the doctor.... I don't believe I know anything about the types of magic he knows, aside from that they do not make him a particularly skilled combatant." Aoi said, trying very hard not to roll her eyes.

Ragnarok's eye twitches at Doctor Death Rays suggestion. " There is the possibility of Torch being a genius level intellect which in turn would help with explaining his emotional stunting. However I must agree with the doubting of full body transformation being within his level of ability. It is likely that he just ran beneath deck to hide and consider what we all have said." As an afterthought she adds "Also Doctor Ray you already created an artificial intelligence that at times appears to exceed your own surely you can do it again."

At Aoi's snipe about 'Death Ray not using his mind,' the Doctor rolled his eyes; then in response to all the neighsayers to the seapony-body-transformation theory, he shrugged, "I had... um... considered that he might have... trotted off below deck... but, uh... do you... do you know that he isn't Torch...?"

*Sir?*

*Not now GREGG.*

*Um... Sir?*

Death Ray sighed, turning back to his robotic companion, *What is it?*

*Can... Can you get him to stop cleaning me sir? My circuitry's getting salty...*

Spinning back around to the others, Death Ray added, "Our racist doctor friend might have lost his memory... or something... That sort of thing... does happen... sometimes..."

Death Ray paused.

"And it's not so much that I can't make another artificial intelligence... Because I can... It's just that... um... Putting a brain in a jar is... well..." The Doctor lowered his gaze, grinning sheepishly as he lowered his voice, embarrassed, "It's just something... well... something super villains do... you know...?" and he added sulkily, "And I kind of thought it would be cool..."

*Sir?*

*What's that GREGG?*

*Permission to abort sir...*

Aoi gives DR a stern look (for a kid) and states firmly, "You are not cutting out that sea pony's brain. They have helped us and asked for nothing in return."

the firstmate finally manages to get his laughing fit under control as it causes him to start coughing.

"If'n ya'll are talking about that green scrawny lookin' fellar that came wih ya'll, he skedaddled down below decks as if his tail were on fire."

The ball of water feels and sounds much like rubber as you tap on it. The sea pony spins around to face Ragnarok and begins to roll n place as it considers the question.

"A little... SOS teams go in there a lot... but we stay to small underwater paths that the monstes inside can't easily go into."

it says as it finally stops its idle rolling, now upside down.

Ramsus wrote:Aoi gives DR a stern look (for a kid) and states firmly, "You are not cutting out that sea pony's brain. They have helped us and asked for nothing in return."

Death Ray had sighed when Aoi gave him the guilt trip, "Aw, come on..." He threw up his hooves in exasperation, "I mean, it's... It's not like I was going to kill the guy or something... I was just..." Death Ray paused, "just... gonna. give. him. an... upgrade?"

Then the first mate spoke up and the Doctor turned to him, "Oh... Well, I... I guess that sea pony isn't Torch after all... Who'd of known?"

Turning back to sea pony Torch and his robotic companion, Death Ray shrugged, "GREGG, you can abort the mission now..."

"Thank you Dr. Death Ray sir."

With that, GREGG zipped up out of the sea pony's reach and flew back to the Doctor's side. Letting out a noise that sounded strangely like a robotic sigh of relief, the little golden orb bobbed in the air, "Please do not make me do that again sir..."

"That will be helpful thank you."

The Sea pony nods happily. "Sure! How can I help?"

Ragnarok stares at the Seapony for a long moment " You already have..."

The sea pony blinks. "Is this one of those... thinky mind things? Like 'There is no spoon' or 'we'll be with you in spirit'?"

Saying goodbye to the seaponies, who part reminding you to signal SOS if you're ever in distress as they do little flips in the water, you proceed down the narrow right path. The rocks on both sides seem as if they're a mere few inches from raking across the boats in places, causing the passage to be slow.

The pervasive fog becomes colder, settling in and shifting like a wall of snakes before you. A dull pressure begins to build at the back of your mind and you feel as if you're being watched.

Suddenly, a large dark shape comes into view ahead , looming in the fog. As you draw slowly closer to it, it resolves into the shape of a wrecked fishing boat smashed against the rocks. Mold and water stains cover the shattered yellowing hull. You see a shadowed figure figure in the wheel house leaning against the window in tattered rags that may once have been a uniform. Even with the distance and fog you can tell it to be a griffon skeleton, picked clean years ago but still looking fresh, denied the bleaching of the sun.

Aoi asks the sailors how they're supposed to signal the sea ponies.

---

Aoi asks the others, "Shall we take a closer look?"

Ragnarok examines the ship for a moment before answering already slightly shaking her head. "It is far too recent to be what we are looking for. However if you feel as if there might be something of note aboard I will not stop you. Also does anyone else feel as if we are being watched?. "