Wounds and Weapons

by Zytharros

Interlude: Human and Pony I

Human and Pony

Interlude 1

“Uhn… my head… What happened? It felt like I was run over by a bus…”

I groaned and opened my eyes to a black, stormy sky with lines of purple clouds roaming about. There was nothing else in the vicinity except the plane of light which I rested on. It was neither cold, nor warm, neither light, nor dark, neither happy nor sad. It was just… existence. The sum total of my surroundings left me wondering where I was.

One would think I would be surprised at my new surroundings, but in truth I wasn’t in the least. I had a sneaking suspicion that the minds of Shadows would be of a similar nature. I had only ever seen inside the minds of Derpy and Rainbow Dash after we had cleared the darkness from Dash’s mind, but I had a vivid imagination, and this was roughly what I had expected.

I tried to stand up as a pony would, but felt incredibly awkward as I did so. I sat back down and looked over my body. I had ten fingers, ten toes, legs, arms… I was human in spirit form, a gold-coloured silhouette of a naked man, minus any genitalia.

I stood as a human. My six-foot frame stretched, tall and strong, into the sky. There was no need to breathe here, but as I stretched I breathed deeply anyway, recalling what had happened to me. I didn’t even really remember seeing anyone, just falling asleep and becoming consumed by five spirits of darkness. The last action I remember taking before slumber was explaining my beliefs to Derpy, and I knew she wouldn’t do something like this to back-stab me. Finishing my stretch, I ran my fingers through my hair as I began wandering around my new abode, readjusting to being a sentient, disembodied spirit, except this time molded to that of my original form.

As I wandered, I realized there was quite literally nothing in this place. I sighed and began humming to myself. It wasn’t a specific melody, just a random jumble of notes. I wandered for a good ten minutes, simply walking, trying to figure out where I was.

It was then I heard a faint voice, calling in the blackness.

“Who are you?” it asked.

I paused and turned my head. I could barely make it out, but I saw a grape coloured flicker in amongst the night sky. Part of it was flecked with pink, and that pink line was what allowed me to trace out a pony’s silhouette in the darkness. My mind soon clued into what it was.

“Twilight Sparkle?!” I asked.

“Zytharros!?” the weak, reticent voice exclaimed as best it could. “You’re… but, you’re not…”

I shushed the pony-shaped silhouette and wrapped her in my arms. “It’s okay… I’m here…”

“I’m so happy,” Twilight said. “Finally – someone to talk to…”

Some warmth came from her and entered into my body. Her spirit pulsed for a bit, but soon dimmed down further and the warmth died.

“Shh…” I said, shushing her again. “You’re very weak.”

I imagined a yellow force field around us. To my surprise, it came to be.

“So I still have some control over my imaginary illusion pony power…” I realized as I held the little pony tightly, feeding her all the love I could give to regenerate her strength.

Now that I had a little bit of time to observe her versus me, I was shocked at the small stature of her pony form compared to my human form. If I had to guess, I would’ve said I was a little taller than Princess Celestia, while Twilight’s head reached the middle of my gut. She couldn’t have been bigger than a fully-grown German shepherd. I had expected Twilight to be my height, and Celestia to dwarf me.

Then again, I do sometimes assume some things I shouldn’t.

I imagined a more solid structure, enlarging the dome and creating a roughshod synthetic duplication of the innards of her tree house. Helping her into bed, I imagined a blanket, which I wrapped around her. I tried imagining some nourishment or something, but what I conjured up was only the image of solid food – a small plateful of sliced mangoes and a small bowl of miscellaneous grains. None of the flavour or nutrition necessary would be present. She would have to feed off me until she got healthy. Regardless, she still ate what I was able to create with my mind. It seemed to restore her strength a little. I wondered what could’ve done so… maybe it was the love in my heart.

“Thank you, Zytharros,” she said weakly, though stronger than before. She placed a light kiss on my cheek.

I smiled kindly. I watched her fall asleep, her rhythmic pulsing slowly restoring her energy form to its’ full shape. After making sure she was okay, I began refining the house. I wanted her to have a place where she could feel comfortable when she woke up in this place of dreary darkness, a fortress against the black hole that was our temporary home.

It was then I noticed the streams of gold.

Nothing but thin, filigree fingers, they reached out and enveloped Twilight, restoring her form faster than the food or the sleep. They were quietly emanating from me in the hundreds as I worked to restore some semblance of reality to her world. It was the love in my heart that was feeding her, manifesting itself in physical form.

I stopped working for a second and watched the strands of my life force… my love… work their magic. I allowed myself to become amazed in the patterns and light shows my soul created, trying to carry and support Twilight in her time of need.

Slowly I noticed dark purple fingers reach out to me, restoring some of my lost energy as well. Since she was asleep, I gathered she would not be doing this willingly, unless she was dreaming of me. It was a bond I would never forget – a bond deep enough it would lock our hearts together in a pact of sibling-hood forever. Neither of us had experienced anything like this with anyone else, nor would we ever again.

If I had tear ducts, I would’ve cried happily at the gorgeous patterns created as the two souls playfully danced their dance of life, appearing as a sea of dreams and memories when the filigrees danced together in just the right way.

I tore myself away from the scene that played out before me and began to work on the house again. I passed by a window. A single tuft of grass surrounding a beautiful red rose had blossomed outside, in the middle of the blackness, and the purple clouds were lifting.

I smiled.

This was so… awesome!!!