Screwed Minds

The view was... unexpected, to say the least. I knew Recto was having a pleasing dream when I entered it, and nothing about this place felt like anypony could be happy here. In fact, it didn't look or felt like the usual dreams of my little ponies, as I was forced to appear physically in this place. I arrived in a grey plain, with a dark thunderstorm brewing above my head, lightnings crackling in the black clouds with a displeasing roaring thunder. In front of me stood a wooden cabin that the first gut of wind would probably scramble. Its door had seen better days an so did the broken windows next to it.

I approached the construction and glanced through its window, only to see utter darkness dwelling inside. That didn't surprise or worried me the least, as so many details in dreams are just figuration of some object without any practical use. That meant that I would probably have to go through the door if I wanted to find him. I seized the handle with my magic and opened it.

The instant the door was opened, I was transported into a dark room made out of this new concrete material our subjects used to build, but, like the wooden hut from before, it was heavily damaged. A single sizzling 'lightbulb', as sister says they are named, was hanging from the out-of-sight ceiling, shining above a bed that belonged in an hospital. On the other side of the room, I could barely see something metallic reflecting some of the lightbulb's light, but wasn't able to distinguish what it was. Glancing behind me, I noticed the door was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by a concrete wall.

But, most importantly, I could see Recto's form sitting in a corner close to me, holding his legs with his arms and burying his face into his knees as he was apparently weeping silently. His clothes were thorn apart, his skin was bruised and a lot paler than his real body. But what shocked me the most were the chains hanging from the cuffs he was wearing on his ankles, disappearing further into the darkness of the room. In fact, there seemed to be even more of these chains wrapped around his torso, their trails also disappearing into the shadows.

I don't know what happened, but he is clearly having a nightmare now, I thought. I should try to calm him before acting more.

I called forth my magic with every intention to change the scenery into something more of a peaceful and enjoyable tone, but, to my surprise, and even more, to my worry, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the thunder roared again, making the entire room shake with its power. A flash of lightning lit the room for an instant, making the poor Recto quiver in fear and revealing the true state of the walls: they hadn't been destroyed by time nor by the course of the elements, but instead by someone that had carved words in the concrete. I couldn't read the language they were written in, but I still understood their meaning : monster, devil, murderer and then some.

Some of these carvings looked really old whereas others seemed to be rather recent. In fact, one of them in particular caught my eyes, as it even looked like it was bleeding, and it stood just above Recto: Parasite.

Recto was now crying a bit louder, as he was visibly terrified by the strange roar of the thunder. I decided to walk to him to cheer him up, but the very instant by hoof clicked on the floor, his head shot up, tears clearly rolling down his face, the shadow preventing me to clearly see if his face bore the same marks the rest of his body did.

"What..." he began before he saw me.

When he realized I was here, he jumped up and tried to step away, only to be blocked by the wall behind him. I gave him a reassuring smile and didn't move any closer.

"Don't worry," I told him calmly, "there's nothing to be afraid of."
"You... You, how..?" he said, clearly panicking. He glanced in the direction of the bed and the metallic reflection.
"You're in a dream," I said. "There is no..."
"You can't be here!" he screamed. "Get out!"
"Recto, calm down," I said. "Everything is fine."
"GET OUT!" he shouted.

His hands lit in a sick yellow light and two beams shot at me, hitting me dead in the chest and throwing me against the opposite wall, in an entire new world of pain. By the time that I got up again, he had ran next to bed, positioned to protect it. The lightbulb helped me realize that I was mistaken, as I could now clearly see his yellow eyes filled with panic and fear. Wait, yellow?

"How... Verso?"
"Get out of here!" he screamed in response, shooting another beam of magic that I narrowly dodged. "You can't be here!"
Of course he is here! I growled internally. He is leeching from Recto mind, so he must parasite his dreams too! But, where is Recto then?

Another roar of thunder that made Verso flinch provided me with some much needed light, allowing me to see what the metallic reflect really were : chains covering a strange-looking door. The chains looked similar to those that Verso was carrying, and it even looked like they were in fact the same.

He must be locking away the poor Recto behind that door! I deduced.

I tried to jump at the door, but Verso shot another beam of light that stopped me. He was clearly decided not to let me go anywhere. Well, that could be easily dealt with at least. I shot a beam of mine to force the damn leech to move aside and ran for it. Unexpectedly, he glanced behind him and didn't dodge my attack, taking it head on instead. The spell hit him with enough force to let me hear a sickening crunch and he screamed in pain, but he didn't move one inch.

He looked at me again, fear and panic no longer in his eyes, replaced by the intense rage that inhabited them during our battle earlier.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU WITCH!!" he shouted as the light in his hands intensified.

He pointed a hand in my direction and I was surrounded by his telekinesis. He threw me back against the wall and I clearly felt one of my wings breaking. I cried in pain, confused. That wasn't supposed to be possible! I shouldn't be able to feel any pain at all in a dream! Why was happening? I didn't have more time to think about it as he shot another beam in my direction that I had to dodge by rolling on the floor.

That's enough, I have to get out!

I closed my eyes to concentrate on my escape spell and casted it.

As soon as that blue bitch disappeared from there, I woke our body up and took the commands, careful not to wake Recto up in the process. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the falling blanket, ant immediately established my sense-field around me. Here she was, just a meter away from me, looking at me like she would have looked at the Devil. With pure reflex, I caught the chair we had been sleeping and hurled it at her with all the strength I could muster. Damn, that bitch sure hurt me there, and I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to keep our body awake by myself for long.

Sadly, that freaking winged horse could create a shield to protect herself before I could enjoy the music of her bones breaking. That didn't stop me, though, and I just levitated the nearest table and threw it against her shield as hard as I could, forcing her to step away. Damn, if my exhaustion was anything to go by, we mustn't have slept for that long yet. Did she come just after we fell asleep or what?

Thanks to my field, I felt her creating a mass of energy just behind her shield soon enough for me to side-step and not get hit by a giant freaking laser that just blasted the wall away. That's the moment the guard supposed to prevent unwanted visitors to get inside chose to peek inside.

"Princess Luna? What's..."

I slammed a closet against this annoying shield of hers and ran for it, knocking the guard out with a thought and ripping the door off its hinges to take it with me. I had an idea to at least knock her out long enough for me to... well, I didn't really know what I would do after that, but first steps first.

As soon as I had reached the hall and escaped her field of vision, I jumped on the door and elevated it above the exit, with me barely standing on it. In all honesty, I probably looked stupid as hell, but I didn't give a shit. Blue Bitch stormed out of the room under me, looking which way I went. I sent the door on its course and fell toward her.

"Hey, blue horse!"

She looked above her at my already lit hands quickly falling in her direction and casted her shield immediately, against which I promptly splatted like an idiot. Good. I knew I had about a second or two to do my trick: just like I did earlier this afternoon, I extended my aura against her protection and made it vibrate. It didn't take a second for me to break her shield and to see the surprise in her eyes, and my door was just a few milliseconds away from bashing extra-hard against her skull.

If it hadn't turned into tomatoes, it would probably have been much more effective and caused her a serious commotion like I like them. Instead, it ruined her mane. Bah, she's female, so that's probably worse for her. But that meant that a certain draconequus had became involved. I felt a beam of energy entering my field and I created a instant-lasting shield that prevented me from getting broken bones, but the shot still threw me out of the way.

"Kids, try to be nice to each other," Discord's amused voice rang in the hall.
"What's the meaning of this!" Celestia shouted from the other side of the hall.

I've gotta admit, I was a bit funny to see her wearing her crown and jewelry regally while still having bed hair. But, except for that, she looked furious. I pointed at Luna.

"She started it!" I blurted, and the blue horse jerked her head in my direction.
"Liar! You attacked first!"
"No, I..."
"Silence! Both of you!" Celestia shouted again, just as a golden aura appeared on both our mouths, creating a zipper that closed itself.
Wha... How does that even...
"It's the second time we had to separate the both of you today!" Celestia ranted on as she approached. "Sister, you told me you apologized to each other!"

Luna looked away and moved her jaw as though she was trying to talk, but failed thanks to the magical zipper. So ultimately, she just looked away.

"And Verso, the I find you assaulting royalty again! I thought I had been clear earlier!"

Now, that was unfair. I was fighting against royalty, yes, but she's the one that assaulted me. It was just self-defense! Celestia sighed deeply. She glared at Luna and unzipped her mouth.

"Your side of the story first, sister," she said with a tone so cold the both of us shivered. "What happened?"
"I... I came to talk with Recto but I found him asleep, so I decided to enter his dreams to talk, but I arrived in a dreadful place that didn't obey normal dream rules where I only found Verso. He panicked when he realized that I was there with him and I retreated when I found out we could hurt each other. When we woke up, he attacked me."
"Verso?" Celestia asked and her glare was enough to make me shiver again. Wow, she really doesn't like being woken in the dead of the night.
"There's a guard unconscious inside my bedroom," I declared as soon as the zipper disappeared.

The bigger princess's eyes widened and she trotted to the entrance of the room, gawking at the destruction. She levitated the guard back with her.

"Did you really destroy all that?" she asked, infuriated.
"Oh, heavens no! I much too weak right now to do anything more than levitation. No, I only destroyed some pieces of furniture and knocked your guard out. Your sister blasted the wall off."
"Luna?" she asked, looking like she was about to explode.
"I... May have riposted against his attacks."
"Riposted? I was aiming to knock you out, you would have reduced me to ashes with that beam!"

Luna was about to reply when Celestia struck her hoof down on the floor, fissuring the stone with the shock.

"SILENCE!"

I gulped. I was completely burnt out, feeling rather sick and exhausted, and currently in trial for assaulting royalty, knocking out a royal guard, destroying a room and probably worst of all, forcing the sun princess to get up in the middle of the night. It was bad.

"Why did you attack Luna?" Celestia asked me, her burning gaze boring a hole into my skull.
"Your sister invaded my mind!" I replied, a bit of my own anger allowing me not to have a heart attack. "Of course I would chase her away! And she was just next to me when I woke up, so maybe I panicked a little, but I feel justified in my attempts at forcing her out of the room with non-lethal force!"
"Luna can't enter minds, just dreams."
"Maybe she can't with ponies, but believe me, I know our mind well enough to know where she was! She hurt me and could have killed Recto if I hadn't taken her beam instead!" I said, my own rage growing again, even when this terrifying princess was still here.
"Liar!" Luna shouted. "You were alone in that room! Recto was..."
"In the bed I was protecting, you dumb bitch!"

That shut her up for good, even leaving her jaw hanging freely as her brain was trying to process the information. Meanwhile, I felt something falling on my head, and discovered that Discord was floating above us nibbling a bag of what I recognized as pop-corn. And letting a good share of it fall on me.

"You two are just so entertaining!" he simply stated.
"He... I... I'm sorry!" Blue Witch finally cried out. "I didn't know he..."
"Just be thankful I was too weakened to blast you away," I replied between my teeth.
"Verso," Celestia said in a much calmer tone, "I think Luna really didn't intend to harm you or Recto. Maybe you could..."
"No, I'm not letting it go, Celestia!" I roared. "Calling me a... 'parasite' was already enough to end on my bad side, but she could have... she could have..."

And there I was, my traitorous throat choking up with sobs as I slowly realized how close I had been to lose him. As my eyes started to fill with tears, I stood up and walked toward my room. I gathered up all of my strength to squeal a vague 'Goodnight' and to move a cupboard to block the door. I walked through the damages of the room, lucky enough not to get hurt on the way to the bed that was unrealistically unfazed by our fight.

***
***

I woke up to a happy chirping sound and something bright shining directly in our face. Since when did the Institute change its clock tune? That's strange...

Oh, wait...

I sat up on the bed, discovering the strange, half-destroyed room we were in. Then, it all came back to me, everything that happened since mister Santa in disguise entered in our old room. I looked in awe outside, the hole in the wall letting me see a lot more than the old window did.

"Hey, Verso! Hey Verso wake up! Verso, you silly sleepy-head, wake up!"
For everything that is holy for you, please give me five more minutes!
"But, Verso, today is the day we go ti the other town with Twilight and the others!" I said, excited. "We're travelling, Verso!"
How can you even be so energetic when you wake up? He groaned. At least, you're cheerful...
"Of course I am!" I said as I got up.

The sound of something cracking under my feet and a slight pain in our heel informed me that I had stepped on something. Which wasn't all that surprising when you realize that half the furniture were destroyed at thrown all over the place and that half a wall was missing.

"Uh... You know what happened here?"
Huh... Yeah, that's me.
"What?"
I... I had a bad dream and woke us up. I've already talked to Celestia, it should be okay.
"Really? Are you alright?"
Yeah, it was just... a nightmare.