Right Beside You

by Godslittleprincess

Chapter 6: Faith Barely Alive

Dark Reverb let out a war cry as he shot out another blast of fire at Rainbow Dash who was running circles around him and dodging everything that he threw at her. He had tried taking the fight into the skies a few minutes ago but had to return to the ground because he kept getting blindsided by the falcons, hawks, and owls that Fluttershy had summoned. The fight on the ground wasn’t going much better for him since he had to dodge sugar explosions, courtesy of Pinkie Pie, and flying rocks, trees, picnic tables, and park benches, courtesy of Applejack. Meanwhile, Rarity was on defense, using her diamonds to block and smother the flames.

In addition to the raptors that defended the skies, Fluttershy had also summoned a herd of woodland critters to help put out any stray fires that had caught on the grass. Fluttershy and AJ had attempted to put out the fires themselves earlier but discovered that the flames yelled insults and obscenities in Flash’s voice at any human being that got too close. Fluttershy nearly broke down crying when she heard “Flash” call her a useless doormat, and AJ became so enraged at being called a dumb, hayseed [censored] that she charged headfirst at Reverb and would have taken a full blast of black fire to the face if Rarity hadn’t intervened. Thankfully, the animals seemed immune to the fires’ psychological attacks.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash observed, “we’ve got him on the ropes. Now, how are we supposed to hold him down long enough for Sunset to do her thing.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Applejack declared. “Dash, you keep ‘im busy while I tell Fluttershy and Rarity the plan. Pinkie, give Dash some cover.”

“Aye, aye,” Pinkie agreed with a cheerful salute before she sent the biggest cloud of pink sugar that she’s ever made Reverb’s way.

With Reverb’s vision obscured by the pink cloud, Rainbow began to distract him with hit-and-run tactics. Reverb tried to hit her back, but his impaired vision and Rainbow’s incredible speed made her next to impossible to hit even with his ranged attacks.

Reverb growled under his breath, cursing the Rainbooms, cursing the Elements of Harmony, cursing the Pillars of Equestria and Stygian. If those blasted birds weren’t in the way, he could use his wings and just fly out of the cloud obscuring his vision. Wait a minute. Wings!

Reverb smiled wickedly as he flapped his enormous wings creating a breeze that blew away the sugary cloud. When the cloud dissipated, he found himself surrounded with diamonds.

“Now!” Applejack cried, throwing her lasso around Dark Reverb’s wings tying them together.

Rarity grunted as she simultaneously slammed her diamonds against Reverb encasing him in a jeweled cocoon that still left his head and shoulders exposed. No sooner had Rarity finished encasing him when Reverb found himself trapped in the arms of a bear.

“Gotcha!” cheered AJ.

“Great job, Harry!” Fluttershy praised the bear.

As Reverb struggled in the bear’s grip, Sunset and Twilight walked up to him. Twilight had her hand on Sunset’s shoulder while Sunset placed both her hands on Reverb’s shoulders. Sunset’s magic activated, her eyes glowed white, and so did Twilight’s.

---

Sunset and Twilight found themselves in an empty, white void. They looked around for any sign of life, but they seemed to be alone.

“Are we inside Flash’s mind?” Twilight asked.

“I think so,” Sunset answered. “Although, when the girls and I went in your mind at Camp Everfree, it didn’t look anything like this. Then again, the magic seems to be affecting Flash a lot differently than what happened with you and me, so maybe we’re just in a different part of Flash’s mind than wherever your fear of Midnight Sparkle was.”

“Look,” Twilight cried, pointing at something nearby. It was a shiny, glowing orb just floating in the air. Upon closer inspection, the two girls saw what looked like threads coming out of it and connecting it to other floating orbs.

Twilight held the orb into her hands and looked into it. The orb’s surface rippled as a scene began to play on it.

“Okay, Flashy,” Flash’s grandfather Lionheart walked in what appeared to be someone’s living room. It wasn’t the one in Flash’s house; that’s for sure. A five-year-old Flash was sitting on the floor in front of a Christmas tree. “Here’s a special present just for you.”

Lionheart revealed a wrapped package from behind his back and presented it to his oldest grandson. Flash’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets as he accepted the gift and excitedly tore away the wrapping paper.

“Oh my gosh!” Little Flash squealed as he unveiled a kid-sized guitar from under the red and green paper. “My own guitar!” He jumped up and rushed to give his grandfather a hug. “Thank you, Grandpa! I love you so much!”

“Whoa,” Twilight gasped as he released the orb and allowed it to return to its earlier position. “I think that was one of Flash’s memories.

“Then,” Sunset inferred, glancing at the interconnected orbs that now surrounded them, “that means all these are memories too and that they’re all connected to each other in some way.”

“What are those connected to?” Twilight asked, pointing to some black threads. They were coming out of several orbs and going the same direction.

Sunset reached up and touched one. As she did, a vision of the Pony of Shadows passed before her eyes, and she let go of the thread.

“I think those have something to do with the magic that’s corrupting Flash,” Sunset replied. “If we follow those threads, we might find the magic. If we find the magic, then we can find a way to save Flash.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Twilight exclaimed as she followed the thread, running as fast as her legs could take her with Sunset not far behind her.

After running for a while, Twilight slowed to a walk giving Sunset time to catch up with her as the two of them continued to follow the black threads.

“Hey, Sunset,” Twilight noted, “I just realized something. When you and the girls went in my mind at Camp Everfree, I was in it, correct?”

“Yes, yes you were,” Sunset replied.

“We’re inside Flash’s mind, so logically speaking, he should be in it, right?”

“Also correct.”

“So, if we’re inside Flash’s mind, then where is he, and why haven’t we run into him yet?”

Sunset looked up to answer but stopped when she saw what was directly in front of her and Twilight. They had stopped in front of an opaque dome of dark energy which the black threads went through.

“I think this might answer your question,” Sunset replied. She put her hand on the dome, and the energy rippled in response to her touch. However, when she tried to push herself through, the energy pushed back with equal force keeping her out. She pushed a few more times, harder and harder each time, but the dome still didn’t budge an inch.

“Flash!” Twilight tried to call through it. “Are you in there?”

A childlike scream answered her.

“Who are you? What do you want?” The voice from the dome sounded like that of a young boy who was at least five years old but no older than six.

Twilight blinked twice before calling again, “Um, are you Flash Sentry?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Twilight and Sunset turned to each other, complete, utter shock all over their faces, or whatever the mental equivalent of their faces would be.

“Who are you?” the little boy who was apparently Flash called out.

“You-you don’t know who I am?” Twilight asked.

“Nuh-uh,” replied Flash. “Wait. Your voice. I think I do know you.”

Twilight was about to sigh in relief when the rest of Flash’s answer stabbed her right in the heart.

“You’re that girl I like who likes someone else,” Flash finished.

“What?!” Twilight screamed, her eyes bulging out of their sockets. “Flash, I’m your fiancée. You proposed to me at Stardust Point last year. We’re getting married in a week! I mean, I might have been with someone else before, but, but I’m yours now, or, or at least I will be in a week.” Twilight’s voice broke while she was saying the second half of that last sentence trying not to cry.

“I don’t remember proposing to anyone,” Flash retorted, “especially not at Stardust Point. I don’t remember even doing anything at Stardust Point, except for that time I tried to call my dad when my mom was dying of cancer and he just hung up on me.”

“Wait. You remember that, but you really don’t remember anything else?”

“I remember a lot of things,” Flash refuted. “I remember always getting into fights when I was ten. I don’t remember why though. Maybe I was just a bad kid. I also remember missing all my brother’s games because of that horrible girl I dated that everyone told me not to, and my brother hating me because of it. I also remember yelling at that princess from another dimension and making her cry.”

As Sunset listened to Flash list off what he remembered, she studied the threads entering the dome. She remembered the threads from the memory orbs she and Twilight had seen earlier. They connected Flash’s memories to each other which means that the ones entering the dome must also be connected to other memories. What if the magic was messing with how Flash’s memories were connected?

“Flash,” Sunset said through the dome, “do you know who I am?”

Sunset was answered with a scream and an angry yell of “Go away!”

“Stay away from me!” Flash continued. “Haven’t you ruined my life enough?! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve already done a pretty good job of ruining it myself! I don’t need you to make it worse!”

“What is going on?!” Twilight cried looking at Sunset, confusion and desperation written in her eyes.

“I think the magic is keeping Flash trapped in his bad memories, and it’s affecting how he sees himself and us,” Sunset explained.

“So, how do we get him out of here?”

Sunset sighed as she looked up and stared at the black threads intently. “If we had a way to fix the connection between his good memories and bad ones, we might be able to help him remember who he is and who we are.”

Twilight, still reeling from the fact that Flash couldn’t remember who she really was, began to sing a song to try to comfort herself.

“You know I want you,” she sang softly, “It's not a secret I try to hide/I know you want me/So don't keep saying our hands are tied/You claim it's not in the cards/And fate is pulling you miles away/And out of reach from me/But you're here in my heart/So who can stop me if I decide/That you're my destiny?”

As Twilight sang, a faint glow began to emanate from some of the strings. With each line, the glow grew brighter and brighter.

“What if we rewrite the stars?” Twilight’s voice began to break as she began the chorus. “Say you were made to be mine?/Nothing can keep us apart/Cause you are the one I was meant to find”

She had to stop just to keep herself from breaking down crying. Thankfully, before she could further dwell on the bleakness of her beloved’s current situation, she heard his voice answering her from the other side of the dome.

“You think it's easy,” Flash sang from the other side. “You think I don't want to run to you/But there are mountains/And there are doors that we can't walk through”

As Flash continued to sing, Twilight could hear his voice aging bit by bit. Furthermore, part of the dome began to ripple as it became more and more transparent until it was clear enough for Twilight to look through. She looked and saw Flash. His back was turned to her, but she knew it was him. He had somehow been transformed into a child, but she could see him aging along with his voice as he sang.

“It's not up to you, it's not up to me/When everyone tells us what we can be,” Flash stopped aging as he finished off the chorus. He appeared to be about ten years old now. He turned around and saw Twilight smiling at him through the transparent part of the dome.

“Twilight!” he cheered, running up to her and putting his hands on the dome. If the dome hadn’t been between them, their hands would have been touching.

“You remember me!” Twilight cheered back, ready to cry happy tears.

“Of course, I do,” Flash replied. “You reached out to me and decided to be my friend when my mom was sick, you helped me and my brother feel better about losing her after she died, and you stayed with me when I was too sad to go to the dance because I missed her so much. You also said yes when I asked you to marry me last year.”

Unfortunately, that happy moment was cut short when a dark energy pulsed through the dome, not only re-darkening the section that had turned transparent but also pushing Twilight and Flash back and away from each other.

“Twilight!” Flash cried as he lost sight of her.

Twilight sat up just in time to see dome once again become completely dark and opaque.

“No!” she cried as she got to her feet. She gasped as a shadowy blob oozed from the dome and took shape of a familiar dark alicorn.

“Fools!” the Pony of Shadows bellowed. “Like I said before, I am not giving up this host that easily.” The shadow alicorn reshaped itself into Dark Reverb and continued, “And I will not be stopped!”

“Uh, Flash!” Sunset called, trying and failing to control the desperation in her voice. “We’re going to try and beat this thing, but I don’t think we can unless you remember who you are.”

Flash groaned as he searched for other pleasant memories to draw from, “Ugh! I’m trying, but I can’t remember anything good that isn’t Twilight-related.”

Sunset’s face scrunched in confusion as she replied, “Wait. If the only good memories you have access to are Twilight-related, then how come you’re not yelling at me to leave you alone?”

“Because I remember you saving her during the Friendship Games and the two of you becoming best friends afterwards. Also, I remember deciding to bury the hatchet with you when Twilight and I started dating.”

Sunset shrugged, “Okay, I can accept that. Whoa!”

Sunset yelped as she dodged multiple black fireballs, eventually landing next to Twilight.

“We got to help Flash remember his other memories,” Sunset said to her best friend. “How did you get him to remember you?”

“I don’t know. I just starting singing, and he started singing back, and maybe the music jogged his memory or something,” Twilight replied.

Sunset nodded, “I did see some of the threads changing while you were singing.”

The two of them had to pause their conversation to dodge a few more fireballs.

“So, we just need to find another song that will help jog his memory some more,” Sunset continued, “but which song should we try?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, the two of them still trying to evade Reverb’s fire. “I have a few ideas, but we’re not going to be able to get close enough to help Flash and keep Dark Reverb or Shadow Pony or whatever it’s calling itself from blasting us.”

“So, what you’re saying is that we need to bring someone from out there in here to help us?”

Twilight opened her mouth to object, but then, her eyes widened in realization. Slowly, a smile grew on her face to match her eyes.

“That wasn’t what I was saying at all, but that’s a great idea,” Twilight replied, “and I think I know just who to bring. Think you can keep the parasite busy until I get back?”

“Will I have a choice?” Sunset retorted.

Twilight decided to take that as a yes and turned towards the dome Flash was still trapped in.

“I’ll be back, Flash. I promise,” she reassured him before quickly vanishing.

“Back from where?” Flash called from the dome. “Uh, Twilight?”

No answer.

“Did she just leave?!”

“Don’t worry. She’ll be back,” Sunset replied.

“Why would she?” Reverb interrupted tauntingly. “It’s not like either of you are worth coming back for.”

---

Meanwhile, outside of Flash’s mind, Twilight had just let go of Sunset’s shoulder, and her eyes returned to normal.

“Twilight, what happened?” Applejack asked when she saw that Twilight’s consciousness had returned to her own body.

“Good news, we found the evil, magic parasite. Bad news, it won’t let go of Flash, and we need help,” Twilight replied.

“You need us to go in there with you and beat it out of him?” Dash asked expectantly.

“No, but I do have something for you to do.”

Rainbow Dash’s face fell upon being denied the opportunity to help beat the living snot out of an ancient, otherworldly evil, but she quickly shook off her disappointment and focused on what Twilight truly needed from her.

“What d’ya need?” she asked.

“I need you to run back to Pizza Louis’s and get Micro Chips and First Base here as fast as you can,” Twilight replied urgently. “Hurry.”

Author's Note:

I would like to apologize for how lackluster the action scenes are compared to everything else. I've noticed that I tend to favor dialogue and introspection when it comes to writing stories.

So, looks like we've got a mind battle shaping up. I sort of borrowed the idea from Sketcha-Holic's story. I liked the idea of exploring how memory and perception are linked and thought I'd attempt my own take on it.

Comments

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Seeing Flash being hurt by all his bad memories hurts. It is okay if you don’t think your action scene is as good as the rest of the chapter. It wasn’t the highlight anyway and I thought it was still good, especially with Harry.

[Ro994]

Awwww, the song! :')
Don't worry about the action, this internal mind battle is doing great! Having Flash aged down to make him more vulnerable and emotional was a nice touch. Also, I forgot to mention it in the last chapter, but I like how well you captured the girls' dynamic and teamwork!