Sisters of Heart and Mind
Fuji felt a strange thrill run through his body. It was the thrill of something new and something strange. Which was to be expected, because the place around him was a completely different world.
Monochromatic animals surrounded him. One of those animals just seemed to be a random mishmash of different creatures. It was just strange... In fact, it was too different from what he was used to in reality. He had to wait for his brain to adjust and accept where he really was.
Bronycon, in Japan.
Well, he may as well enjoy himself, after all, that was what he came here for. It certainly wasn't like the other cons he'd been to, but he going to get bothered by going a little bit out of his comfort zone. In fact, since he was one of the attendees now and not the staff, he could just lay back and enjoy the festivities.
He walked through the crowd until he found a row of stands. It was like the usual anime/manga based product stands at the other cons he'd been to, but they were all pony themed. "Let's see," he said.
"Buttons..." He looked at the stand with what had to be hundreds of pictures of a brown colt. "No." The stand owner frowned. He probably worked pretty hard on his pictures.
"Pony Plushies." Fuji stared at the various plushies on the next stand, and though he would never admit it, he felt a warm tingle in his heart when he looked at the Pinkie Pie plushie. "N-- No."
Picking up on his shyness, the stand owner gave him a sultry wink.
More than slightly confused, he moved on to the next stand. "Make your characters come to life." He read. Yeah right, even he couldn't make his own characters come to life. Literally, that was. Figuratively... well, that was his job. But he was feeling a bit competitive.
"Hello there." The old man from the stand waved. He looked like he didn't have a care in the world. He also had some freaky red and yellow eyes.
Fuji wondered what drugs he was on and where he could find them. But before he asked, he would have to humiliate his competition. "Hello," he said, "You can make my characters come to life?"
"But of course." The man looked at Fuji as if he just asked the dumbest question in the world. "Why else would I be here, under a sign that says 'make your--'"
"I get it." Fuji raised his hand. Something about the old man was already getting annoying. "So, how are you gonna do this?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Fuji called forth two of his favorite archetypes. 'Heart' he thought.
'What?' A fit blond girl in black jogging attire appeared next to him in his mind.
'Mind,' He thought.
A beautiful red-head in brown business attire floated down beside him. 'Yes?'
'Apparently you're going to come to life.' Fuji thought, smirking.
Mind stared at the stand owner and sighed. 'is this really necessary.'
'Of course it's necessary,' Fuji thought, 'Everyone needs to know my--'
'You two,' Heart snapped, 'shut up! We're missing what the old guy's saying!'
"--Now that you've got your characters in mind..." The old man snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, an immense pain ran through Fuji's head. He expected heart to ask if he was okay, but he couldn't hear anything in his mind. It was completely barren, lonely even. Seconds passed by without a single thought passing through him.
"Fuji!" a familiar voice called his name.
"What!?" He asked. He didn't really want to be bothered; some old guy just hypno-ravaged his brain.
"No, don't talk out loud, you'll sound crazy!" Heart raised her palms in panic.
"--And what beautiful characters they are!" The old man clapped his hands and laughed in joy.
Fuji, Heart, and Mind just stared at each other, blinking occasionally.
...
So that's why the con looked extra freaky.
...
Mind shrugged and turned to the old man. "So, let me get this straight," she said, "you made me and my sister real, just with a snap of your fingers?"
"Uh-huh." The man nodded with a toothy grin.
"Are you an alien too? Because you have some freaky eyes."
"I am." he answered, as if it were obvious.
Mind put her hands on his stand and hunched over, squinting at him. "Really then... Okay, where do you come from?" She raised her right hand and snapped her finger. A door opened to her right.
"Wait!" The man panicked. "I wouldn't do that if I were--"
Heart and Mind were sucked through the portal like rag-dolls.
"--you." He cringed.
"W-- What just happened?" Fuji started to panic. He tried to bring forth his two favorite archetypes again, but they just weren't there anymore. They were taken from him! They were his family! His family was taken from him!
"Oh." The old man looked at Fuji in pity. "Oh dear."
"What the fuck just happened!?" Fuji grabbed the old man's stand and yelled.
The old man looked offended, but calmed himself for some reason. "Nobody should have to go through that," he grumbled. "Here." He stood, walked out from behind the stand, and held out his hand. "Come with me."
As Fuji grabbed the hand, a white light appeared, and he was no longer himself.
"Oh dear dear dear..." a mishmash of parts cried above him. "I am so sorry. Some ponies may think I may enjoy this sort of thing, but there are certain lines you don't cross, and I would never--"
"DISCORD!" A voice bellowed.
Discord froze. "Uh," he said, "Luna's calling me. Probably for round two. Gotta go." He snapped his claws and disappeared.
...
Fuji looked around at the stones and grass surrounding him. Nothing seemed familiar. He looked at himself.
"Who am I?" he asked.
Mind held Heart's broken arm in her hand, holding her other hand above the arm. She concentrated on moving it back into pla--
"AAAAAAHHH!" Heart screamed.
"Hold still!" Mind said.
"It hurts!" Heart yelled.
Mind blinked. She didn't remember pain, which was strange. Now that she thought about it though, she remembered something about how to deal with pain.
"Bite down on this." Mind snapped her fingers.
"Wha--?" Heart was cut off by a small wooden log getting shoved in her mouth.
"Three," Mind said.
Heart readied her body.
"Two--" Suddenly, Mind moved the arm back into position and forced the bone back in place.
"GGGGAAAH!" Heart nearly broke the wood in half.
Mind moved her arm back and forth over Heart's arm, mending broken bone, over-stretched muscle, and anything else that was damaged. When all was done, she patted Heart on the head. "There we go." She gave a fake smile. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Why don't you try it?" Heart glared sullenly.
Mind hid her arms behind her back.
Heart frowned. She sighed and embraced her sister in a hug. Mind probably didn't need it, but she did.
Mind hugged her sister back. She didn't know what she was feeling, but she knew Heart valued her strength. "It's over," she said. "It's like it never happened. There isn't even a single scar; you'll be able to use that arm just like you used to." She fake-smiled again.
Heart smiled back. "Thanks." She frowned. "But make sure to be more careful next time. That stupid door-frame could have hit my head. Or your head."
Mind frowned. She was surprised she hadn't considered that. As powerful as she was, a blow to the head would hurt her as much as anyone else. "Yeah... I'll try."
She sat for a while, staring the beauty of the edge of the forest in front of her. She appeared to be on the edge.
"Well." Heart stood up. "Normally I'd go jogging in a scene like this, but after that, I'm down for as much pampering as you'd like."
"Sure!" Mind's smiled for real this time. "But where--"
Heart pointed at the nearby village and started walking.
Mind frowned at the thatched roof cottages.
Near the edge of the village, Mind could see hundreds of ponies going about their daily lives, as if they were humans. It was just like in My Little Pony, probably. Maybe she would know a bit more about what was going on if she had payed more attention to the show, but she couldn't do anything about that now.
Heart announced herself, "Hey!" She waved to the nearest pony.
Mind frowned. Everything she knew about strategy told her that they shouldn't be announcing themselves like that. The best course of action would be to corner one pony and show it that they didn't mean any harm by not killing it. With Heart announcing herself, she was making the both of them vulnerable. Then again, Heart understood matters she sometimes didn't, and even if it was the wrong method, it was best not to cry over spilled milk.
The pony turned and stared. He looked at her as if she were an incomprehensible monster. He looked like he was struggling to say something, fighting his body for control. It frustrated Mind to see something act so broken.
"Dragons!" The pony yelled.
Mind smiled, he finally did it. Wait, no, dragons? Mind checked her body. Yup, still human. It appeared the pony was still broken.
"Why does he think we're dragons?" Heart asked.
"I dunno." Mind shrugged
"Is it--" Heart smirked "--Is it because I'm such a beast?" She adjusted herself into a running stance and took on a predatory grin. While she wasn't overly muscular, she could still lift as much as men three or four times her size, and she was somewhat well defined because of it.
None of this worked well to assuage the ponies' fears.
Mind smiled and shook her head. Only a very unique girl would refer to herself as a beast. "That actually could be it. Though, it could also be your shiny jogging clothes," she thought out loud.
"--You're NOT WELCOME HERE!" A random pony shouted. Suddenly, Mind watched as a beam of energy flew past her and hit Heart in her arm, breaking it again.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Heart grabbed her arm and fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
Mind turned to the pony and stared at it blankly. She noticed it was a unicorn.
The unicorn took a step back, then steeled itself, and readied its horn for another blast.
Mind held out her arm.
The unicorn exploded.
------------------------------------------------
Mind blinked, waking herself from a strange daze. "What just happened?" she asked.
There was no answer.
There were no ponies in the field in front of her, just a large red splatter. Her eyes widened slightly.
"What...?" She tilted her head. "What did I...?" She looked at her hands. After a moment of staring, she smiled. She had power.
She looked back up at the blood all over the field. That wouldn't do. If they were to attempt peace with the ponies, it would be foolish to show off their kills.
"What did you do?" Mind heard a voice to her left. She looked down at her sister.
Heart stared up at Mind in terror. It looked like she was fighting the urge to run like the ponies did. Her arm was still broken, but it looked like she didn't even notice now.
That wasn't good at all. If she couldn't even keep her sister as an ally, how could she calm the ponies? First, she would have to do something about that terrified look on Heart's face, then she could clean up the blood behind her.
Mind sat down near her sister. "Let me get tha--"
Heart stumbled backwards and almost knocked herself out on a rock behind her. Thankfully, a pillow magically appeared on top of it.
Mind sat down and held Heart's arm in her hand once more. If she remembered correctly, Heart shouldn't feel as much pain when in stress, and tending to her would assure her that she meant no harm.
"Huh?" Heart looked down and noticed her arm was back to normal. "Oh... thanks."
Mind frowned. Something sounded off bout Heart's voice just then. "What is it?"
"You have to ask?" Heart frowned.
Mind tilted her head.
"You just killed a living, talking... thing!" Heart glared. "Just like that! Boom! Dead." Now that her arm was healed, she scooted back. "Could you-- could you do that to me?"
"Probably." Mind answered.
If anything, Heart looked like she felt even worse now.
Mind couldn't think of anything else to say that could make her sister trust her, so she hugged her and pet her head. Sometimes touch could calm others when words couldn't for some reason. Perhaps it was a similar demonstration to cornering them and killing them, but instead helping them with something.
"Thanks." Heart sighed.
"No problem." Mind released her sister. She turned around, gathered up all the gore into a ball and moved it near her. She lit a fire beneath it.
"W-- What are you doing?" Heart panicked. What was wrong now?
Mind turned to her sister and looked at her funny. "It would be wasteful to--"
"W-- Wasteful?" Heart held her palms out. "That's a living, fucking being! You don't eat it, you bury it and give it a grave or something!"
Mind thought about it. What would she do if Heart had--
Immediately, she reformed the ball into a pony shaped mass. She grabbed every shattered piece and pulled it into place, building something similar to the unicorn she remembered, then mended everything into place. She floated the pony back to where she killed it. It looked like it could get up and walk around any time.
Unfortunately, it couldn't. The brain was the only organ Mind couldn't heal. Yes, she could re-connect all the veins and arteries, but not the neurons. If she tried to heal the pony, it would at best lose all memory of who it once was and adopt a completely new personality.
She grimaced and shook her head. Thinking about Heart like that gave her a headache.
Mind sighed and picked Heart off the ground. "First..." She thought... She couldn't remove memories for the same reason she couldn't truly heal the pony in front of her. And she couldn't just kill off the whole village, or others would find her, and after she killed everyone, she would have no one to feed her or trade ideas with except Heart, and that was sub-optimal... Perhaps the solution wasn't in the ponies then.
She snapped her fingers, changing her hair from dark red to light red and smoothing out the curls. Her body shrunk in width and height, and her suit changed from brown to tan. She grinned. That formed felt much more alive. Perhaps more energy was going to her brain instead of her large stature. "First," she repeated, still grinning, "I can't use that body anymore."
"Second..." She almost snapped her fingers again to create a home, but it would be far too obvious if her home was right at the kill-sight. But despite her smaller stature, she still didn't feel like walking anymore after that trek from the forest. "Could you carry me?" She smiled sheepishly.