Neither Of Them Mind

• what to do!” said Mentally Sound to the other ponies, and of course, Spike the dragon. The two ponies had been moved into intensive care. The machines were giving out rapid bleeps, which did nothing to calm down anyone.

Mentally Sound tried calming himself down and explaining again.

“Their heart rates are up, and their brains are giving responses similar to a nightmare,” he said, to soothe himself as well as everypony else. The remaining part of the Mane Six huddled together, with Lyra having gone home.

Applejack was the first to speak, “I just don’t understand how they got this way.”

“Maybe Twilight was in a magic duel with this Twinlinked guy,” said Rainbow Dash hotly, “but he wasn’t good enough to pull off the spell.”

“Maybe some ghastly villain came and has captured them in a nightmare,” suggested Rarity. Fluttershy shivered and put her hooves over her eyes.

“A monster! Ooh!” she murmured through chattering teeth.

“Or maybe three thousand tiny letters escaped from the books and flew around and around and around until they both fell asleep dizzy!” suggested Pinkie, who turned around several times before falling on the sanitized marble floor.

Spike seemed to be the only one taking it coolly. He waved a hand dismissively, then, with his other hand behind his back, he paced while talking, saying, “I’m sure Twilight knows what she’s doing. We never had to worry before.”

But then he added, in a lower tone, “She’s never been trapped in a nightmare before.”

Spike took his hand out from behind his back and started chewing it.

“What if we never see her again!”

“Nonsense!” shouted Mentally Sound over the top of them, “Our tests show that your friend-”

“That’s Princess of Friendship to you, stringbean!” said Applejack.

Mentally Sound sighed.

“Our tests show that the Princess of Friendship should recover.”

The five ponies spoke as one.

“Should!? Should –

• we go closer?” asked Twinlinked. He looked apprehensively at the pony, bordered by a ring of thick fire.

“The fire shouldn’t burn us if we don’t believe in it,” answered Twilight, who Twinlinked thought it was fair to call a friend now. She cautiously put a hoof onto the coals, then removed it quickly, wincing.

“I was wrong!”

As it happened, they didn’t need to go closer. The pony stepped forward towards them, revealing herself to be Princess Celestia.

Well, if Celestia had flames for a mane and tail, glowing eyes, and a cutie mark resembling a large aqua eye, which blinked once as the Celestia-pony approached. Flames curled around its hoofs, and wound in thin strands up its legs

“Who are you?” they both called simultaneously at the creature.

I AM THE BEAST OF YOUR MIND. I WAS EACH AND EVERY FEAR AND BAD THOUGHT YOU EVER HAD, BUT NOW I AM FORMED. I CAN SEE YOU.

Twinlinked thought the same thing as Twilight:

What is your name?

I CAN SEE YOU.

Do you have a name?

I CAN SEE YOU.

There was a painfully long pause.

SIGHT.

Sight is your name?

I CAN SEE YOU.

Twinlinked/Twilight thought that was fair enough. Twilight tried to believe she was wearing impenetrable armour, and brandishing a sword.

Twinlinked yelled through the mind connection.

NO! Don’t believe it, know it!

There came a reply.

I have to believe in something!

Believe in yourself, for Celestia’s sake! I could believe I was in the ocean, but that wouldn’t make it true!

I NEED MEMORIES.

Twinlinked/Twilight thought as one again.

What do you mean?

I NEED MEMORIES. I WILL CORRUPT THEM, AND MAKE THEM FEAR AND HATRED. I HATE YOU.

Twilight realised something, and immediately spoke to Twinlinked.

It’s a child, she mind-spoke, a spiteful child. It has no experience, it needs to… mature.

`The revelation somehow shifted the current predicament out of proportion. In the same way you think differently about a cheese sandwich when someone tells you the cheese is mostly fat, the fact that Sight had a child’s mind threw everything into a new perspective.

I AM NOT A CHILD. I HATE YOU.

Sight swirled with black motes of magic before appearing two paces closer, in full black armour that was somehow transparent, but seemed powerful. Its horn gleamed with a corrupt light. It charged them with unearthly speed.

Will some armour! shouted Twinlinked, just as he did so. They both shone white radiance that seems to glow from inside, and found themselves wearing battle armour fit for the Sky Sisters, Celestia and Luna. Reaching down into the depths of his moral fibre, Twinlinked stood his ground as the beast approached them. He felt Twilight do the same, and felt comforted by the fact that she had done this many times before. She had defeated four villains, and reformed two. He knew they would defeat the galloping Sight. He grinned devilishly, the sort of daredevil grin given by the first pony to skydive. But before Sight reached them, it threw itself into a magical aura and teleported behind them. It twisted around, scuffing layers of dust and mud of the surface of the Dustbowl, before sliding to a stop. Before they turned to face it, it had already reached them.

Twilight threw herself into Twinlinked, and they both flew to the side, Twilight used her alicorn wings to propel them some distance before dropping Twinlinked to the ground. Sight snarled, eyes glowing with rage and the purest, most concentrated form of hatred. Instead of charging them again, it simply teleported closer in a dark flash, pulling a dagger streaked with red from its sheath. Twilight was clearly exhausted, so Twinlinked pulled his own sword, which was long and sharp. He swung with both hands, aiming for a gap in Sight’s armour. He hit his mark, and felt the blade slide through skin. But if he was expecting a gasp of pain, he was sorely disappointed as embers, not blood, flowed from the wound, which healed as if it had never been there.