Neither Of Them Mind

Twinlinked woke up in the white hospital bed. His heart was pumping faster than he thought possible, so he gave himself time to relax. Strangely enough, there was nopony there. That suited Twinlinked just fine. When he had rested for a bit, he pulled out the IV needle from his leg and stood up. It was so nice to be back in reality again. But there was still the problem of Twilight. She was somewhere in the hospital, with Sight controlling her. He walked down the lone, well lit corridor towards the centre of the hospital. He heard a loud crash to his left, and went towards it.

Pushing through spring-hinged double doors, he found himself in a small kitchen. Along the wall closest to him were Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Spike. Celestia and Luna were closer to the other side of the room. Twilight was nowhere to be found. Twinlinked ignored the looks of distrust from Twilight’s friends and approached Celestia. He whispered to her privately.

“Could you take me to the library?”

Two minutes later, he was ready.

“Ooh, I wouldn’t normally go anywhere near these Roaches, but for Twilight,” groaned Rarity as she slipped on her Element.

“Are you sure we can trust him, Celestia,” said Rainbow as she put hers on mid-air.

“I’m sure, Rainbow Dash,” answered Celestia.

“These cockroaches are quite friendly,” commented Fluttershy, who was cuddling three of them. She eventually let them go and gave one to each pony.

Twinlinked hoped this plan would work. They would each take over one of the roaches, then use the Elements of Harmony to remember Twilight before Sight. Hopefully his would work. The trouble was it needed Twilight to be wearing her element.

Probably a combination of the friend’s mistrust of him, and his own willingness, Twinlinked was in charge of that aspect. Finding Twilight wasn’t hard, Celestia had found her in the crater of the Golden Oak Library. Catching her was the tricky bit.

As soon as he caught sight of her in the wreckage, Twinlinked ran. He felt that a battlecry was nesseccary at this point, so he yelled, “Erma coming through!”

Behind him Pinkie-bug giggled.

Twilight saw and heard him from a long way off, but took some time to react. Then, she ran.

Twinlinked had hoped she wouldn’t run too fast, banking that Sight wouldn’t be used to a real body. Clearly he was wrong.

He tried to remember what Celestia had said.

“Imagine the location, then imagine being there. Let magic do the rest.”

He did imagine the location, Sugarcube Corner, right in front of TwiSight. He saw himself standing there, and felt the magic flow through the spirals of his horn. It grew and built, then it released.

He was standing near Sugarcube Corner, right in front of Sight. Before it could react, he jumped over Twilight, and shoved the final Element on her head. Then he sent a beam of blue magic into the sky, the agreed signal. He slid to a stop and waited. Nothing seemed to happen for a very long time. And then…

That’s the signal girls! called Apple-bug.

Let’s save our friend, replied Rainbow-bug loyally.

Twinlinked didn’t hear that, and didn’t see the friends activate their Elements of Harmony. All he saw was one colour erupt from each pony. Rainbow Dash was red, Applejack had an orange stream and Pinkie’s magic caused a blue beam. They were joined by Fluttershy’s pink and Rarity’s purple. The colours joined in the air, and made a rainbow. Of course, Twinlinked had seen the magic rainbow of death from the many events in Ponyville, but this one was different. The rainbow was slightly transparent, lacking depth. It twisted and turned in the air, then it straightened. The rainbow turned once more, slowly and fell. Crashing into Twilight, it formed a white orb around her. Remembering what happened in the library, he shielded his eyes just in time. He saw Twilight’s eyes flash with Alicorn light, in the white, true memories rocketed through her vision. Then, Twilight’s eyes returned to normal, not fire-filled. Behind him, Twinlinked could very faintly hear the sounds of the Mane Six returning to their bodies, and saw the Hive Cockroaches scuttling off to find shelter in the Everfree forest. He looked back, and saw Twilight, dreary eyed and slack-jawed. She stumbled, off-balance, so he put out a hoof to lean against. Twilight took it.

A few days later, in the palace at Canterlot, Celestia sat on her throne in front of Twinlinked at Twilight. A large crowd was separated by a thick purple and blue carpet that ran right up to the throne. Twinlinked was honoured to be here. This official ceremony was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There was going to be a large party later, rumour had it Pinkie had organised the whole thing.

Celestia stood up regally and hushed the crowd. Then she looked down at the two ponies, who bowed in respect at the ruler of Equestria. Following ceremony, Celestia took Twilight’s hoof first, as befitted the Princess of Friendship. She pulled Twilight to her feet, then did the same for Twinlinked.

“This day,” she began, “we celebrate the actions of two ponies, who not only solved another of Starswirl the Bearded’s final spells, but also averted catastrophe and saved Equestria from a terrible fate.”

A loud cheer erupted from the crowd. Twinlinked didn’t feel as if he deserved that, because he and Twilight did cause the near-catastrophe in the first place.

Celestia continued in royal Canterlock, “They also learned a valuable lesson in Friendship.  Together they have shown that you should never doubt with a trusted friend by your side.”

After the ceremony, when Twinlinked and Twilight were enjoying a long deserved, dreamless (thanks to Luna), sleep, Celestia paced. Her gold-clad hoofs made no sound; she used her magic to mask the noise so that it wouldn’t rouse the sleeping ponies. The high marble walls rose above her head, holding fabulous stained glass windows. In each frame was a depiction of one of the influential events that built Equestria. As she walked, Celestia looked at each one in turn. The first, three ponies, a unicorn, a pegasi and an earth pony all stood together. The next one forwarded in time, to the coronation of the Sky Sisters. Then followed a period of around a thousand years, filled with turning points for the empire. The most recent depiction was of Tirek being defeated by Twilight and her friends.

T he celestial pony smiled. Her prodigy, already much further advanced in magic than Celestia. The Princess of the Sun could only go so far in the magic of friendship, as she had few. Luna, Cadence and Twilight were the only ones truly close to her. There were many other empty windows, filled with white glass. Celestia had never told Twilight that the glass windows were magical. They reflected the emotions and histories of the ponies of Equestria, so no glass makers ever had to get their hands dirty, except for repairs. The pane Celestia was looking at was just a blank slate. Empty, but as Celestia moved closer, she found a small impurity in the glass. She tried rubbing it with a hoof, but it stayed. The Sky Sister leant in closer. The smudge was no bigger than one of her teeth, but if you looked at it for long enough, it could almost look like a tan-coloured pony standing next to a purple one. Celestia smiled.