I sighed, sitting in the infirmary with Doctor Cornflakes, my head held between my hooves. "What... Made her like that?"
"We don't know. We found her like that. She just... Showed up one day, screaming and crying. Every word she muttered was completely incoherent, we had no idea if we would ever make any progress on her." He sighed while tending his eye—thankfully it still worked okay; just hurt. "It's been everypony in the home giving their all to even get her to this point over the last year. Even other children here try to help her sometimes, but..." He gestured to his eye.
"Sometimes something just sets her off?" Poor filly... I really wish I could help.
"Exactly" He sighed, "We'll help her; of that I am sure. But how long will that take? She might not ever have the chance of a even a partially normal life." He sighed. "It's like her mind is shattered."
I creased my brow in thought, an idea coming to mind. "Wait, I think I have an idea."
«♦»
"No!" I flinched as she continued to kick and pull from my magic. "I hate you! Stop it!"
"Please, Lily. Just let me try to help you!" I pleaded. I hadn't expected this must resistance, though given her previous reaction, this wasn't turning out to be my greatest idea. As an after thought: watching the books and knick knacks tumble off the shield around me, however, that was a pretty good idea. I frowned as I pushed the extra strain of a phase shift. Sweat beaded down my head as I focused. I had to keep her molecules in the right location.
"My hoof!" She yelped as her defended forelegs shifted to a sort of gaseous form, flowing around the various railings and defenses she had placed. "What did you do to my hooves?!"
"Gimme a moment!" I pulled her down to me and reassembled her forelegs. I gave them a once over before releasing the spell. "There." I sighed in relief as she continued using them to escape. That meant they worked at least. "Lily, look at me." She just kept clawing at the floor, so I picked her up. "Lily, I'm not trying to hurt you!"
"Lies!" She tried to kick me, but luckily I was just a tad out of her reach. "You'll kill me, I know it! You already tried to!"
"No I didn't, it was a sugar cube!" I shook my head in frustration. "Sugar! I didn't know you hated sugar, I'm sorry!"
She suddenly stilled. "Oh!" What. I blinked repeatedly as I sat her back on the ground. "Sugar! That's what it tasted like." She brought her hoof to her chin. "Sugar. I don't trust sugar though. But you're forgiven!" Her tone turned back to the angry hiss from earlier like the clop of a hoof. "This once." Her emotional flip flopping continued as she almost skipped around the room, collecting miscellaneous objects from the ground.
I cleared my throat, trying to get her attention. "Lily, I'm going to try something." It failed. "Lily?"
"Hmm?" She hummed happily, adjusting her hat and various scarves. Part of me wondered where she got them or what she thought they did. But I chose to ignore that part of me, instead focusing on more important things. Like...
"I want to try something, so we can understand each other better." I explained, stepping towards her.
"What do you mean?" She turned back, the distrust quite obvious on her face.
"Well a lot of the time, I really don't know what you're talking about at all." I said. "I don't know why names need to be kept secret or who is stalking you. But I'd like to understand that." She stared at me, inching back towards her loft ladder. Uh oh. "We're friends, right?" Oh Celestia this feels wrong. "I mean, friends trust friends! You trust me, right?"
She blinked. "Friends..." She echoed slowly. "Trust friends."
I felt awkwardness seeping into my bones as I grinned at her. "Yes. Friends trust friends. And we're friends, so you should trust me. Please?" There's something about what I'm doing that feels completely wrong, I just can't place my hoof on it.
Her brow furrowed, her eyes twitching between my right and left. "What do you want to do exactly?" I think I'm getting through to her a little.
I tipped my head, pointing at my horn. "I want to try just a simple spell. That's all. It would just make it easier for us to get along, you know?" I could practically see the gears whirring in her head; the hamster wheel or whatever. I know what I mean. "Five or ten minutes of your time is all I ask."
She inched toward me, flicking her eyes to every possible escape route. "Friends trust friends." She said again, now in front of me.
I smiled a little. "Thank you, Lily." It still felt wrong manipulating her like this, but it's the only way I can get her to cooperate. "Please just hold still." I said, leaning my head down. I felt her tense as my horn touched her forehead, but she luckily didn't try to strangle me or anything. "Count backwards from five."
"Five." She said, my magic extending. "Four." I assigned my magic the correct properties. "Three." I felt the barriers guarding her mind deteriorate; much faster than I expected. "T-Two..." She was likely feeling extremely lethargic.
One.
My vision snapped, colors flashing in pattern across my gaze. Yellow, blue and white, then pink, black and purple. Before fading to a dull gray.
_"Lily?"_
_..._
I focused a tad harder, trying to strengthen our link. But if I wasn't careful, I might damage the bonds she has to what few ideas of sense she has left, leaving her even worse off.
_"Princess Twilight?"_ The dull gray lightened, revealing a vast network of flashing lines and nodes.
Link established and seemingly stable. Time to begin the experiment.
«♦»
"Peace comes when our hearts are
open like the sky;
vast as the ocean.”
― Jack Kornfield