The both of them were real bores. They simply stood there and waited for me to come to them, but I would not make it so easy.

"Body, I think it would be best if you cleared this up for him," the large being said without looking up at me. What a lame attempt at distracting me. "We cannot remain in this condition for very long." The other being nodded and disappeared all of a sudden.

"Hey! That’s not fair. Invisibility is cowardice." Something tapped against my back.

"I am not invisible." I screeched and dove for cover, even though there was none to be had.

"Damn it. Fine, I’ll give you to the count of ten—" He held one of his legs in front of mouth to stop me from speaking further.

"I do this only reluctantly, but it must be done." His hand touched me and things came back all of a sudden. Recollections. A name, pictures, emotions, and with that, rage and sorrow. It was as though I had awoken from a dream, and with a blink, I looked into that which I called reality.

"I see we are a little more together than before." I had to throw a look again at the person before me. It was my old body, but not completely. He did not look like how I had been, but rather how I imagined myself to be. "As I already said, I am Soul."

"What is this place?" That was the first question that I uttered. The ground was tiled like a chessboard in white and blue. This seemed to go infinitely in every direction, while above us was a blue, cloudless sky. The only thing that seemed out of place was the appearance of Soul and the dark hole that came out of the ground.

“I know just as much as you do, seeing as we are one and the same. On the basis of our assumptions, I would postulate the theory that all this here are ourselves, or rather what we imagine what we are." He pointed at all directions with both hands.

"I thought always it would be here a bit more chaotic. Regardless where here may be…" I looked up into his face. "Dirk is really...?" He scratched his three-day beard and considered shortly.

"Not necessarily. Nightmare has done the same to him like she did to us." I went through the last seconds that I had experienced in reality. Nightmare had rammed itself into my head and had wanted to destroy my soul.

"I see you came to the same conclusion. We should be dead, but we are not for some reason. Otherwise, we would not be in this void again." I nodded at him.

"Body, spirit, and soul—they belong together. That was what Albia said to me. The draft of the life, with which one cannot exist in nature without. Because I was just confused… I’m guessing Nightmare attacked my soul.” I pointed at the hole with my hoof. "And this is what is left of it." Soul nodded and continued.

“However, we know that Nightmare has not consumed our soul, and also not Dirk’s. He likely suffers from the same condition as us. In any case, we know a few things now. Firstly, we know why Luna always speaks in a plurality. She was exposed to an attack of this nature a thousand years ago and also has this condition. After so long, speaking like that would have no doubt become a habit.” The fact that the attack would reveal so much information was something I never would had thought as possible. Then again, here I was talking with myself.

"The other thing is: why did it only place Dirk in this condition. Why not consume his soul and be done with it. To put it simply, it cannot. After all what we know about Nightmare, it’s the only logical option. Their kind consumes souls since they don't have any, and so wish to quench their hunger for them. Now, however, Nightmare has a soul, and therefore the hunger is satisfied. It also cannot eat them anymore. It can only kill and take over the soul. It must leave the body to kill, and these seconds are its weakness." Soul went on his knees to look at me directly in my eyes.

"You have beautiful eyes." He batted his own eyelashes to underpin the joke.

"Oh shut up. We need to wake up from here… and pull ourselves together.” I pushed him back, causing him to land on his backside. "Should we do this now?"

“Not at all.” My short-lived amusement came to a screeching halt.

"What? Why… I don’t understand. You are my soul, right?" He patted me on the head and grinned.

"Do I look as though I would be your soul?" He looked like I saw myself as a person, but I was as a pony here.

"No, not really. But you’re still part of me." His grin became even wider.

"There you have it. We are too different and so cannot become one." The logic was not so far at all. The fact that I had my body modelled after an alicorn was the basis for my relation to Celestia.

"Then we have to change that! I must help here and Dirk, because I don’t think he’ll come to the same conclusion as me. Besides, we don’t know how long it will take for us to die in this condition.” If body, spirit, and soul could not come together, the division would certainly lead to death. "What must we do?"

"We? I am what you see in you. Say to me why I am like I am." Oh, please no. I simply did not have the temperament for these kinds of puzzles.

"You look like this because I was once a human and do what you have to do." He only stuck out his tongue and grinned. “Urgh…” I was one moment away from hitting myself. “I don’t have time for this.” This time, there was no reaction from him.

Trixie sat for an hour in the sick room between both ponies she could call family. In the bed to her left lay Blue Light with his raspy breathing which sounded as though it could stop at any moment, like he was recuperating from a marathon. In the other bed was Dirk, his breath almost non-existent. Cadance monitoring magic confirmed that his pulse was weaker with every second that passed, his brain activity deteriorating with it. Why the older brother had not passed on was a puzzle, even to Princess Luna.

"How can both display so different reactions?" Twilight Sparkle was also present and had tried one spell after the other on both of them. However, Luna was the only one up to now who had gotten something to happen.

"He’s not breathing anymore!" Twilight called suddenly, and now Luna was immediately on her legs again. She had tried to rest a little near Dirk’s bed. The constant resuscitation magic itself was too much for the Princess of the Night. Now she went directly to his bed and quickly began to form several circles above the dying stallion.

"He is very weak. We cannot keep this up much longer, and he cannot go on like this in any case," she muttered to herself as the blanket around him almost unnoticeably began to lift. “His body is basically only running on magic.”

Trixie saw from the corner of her eyes as Light’s own eyes shot open, and white light poured from them. The attention quickly changed to him, but as quickly as it had happened, it had disappeared.

"Was that a magical discharge?" Trixie asked and looked over to Twilight, who quickly began to run some magical tests.

"That was no magical discharge. It must have been something else." She looked down to her friend, who somehow seemed to be more at ease. "However, his respiration has become more stable. I hope this is a good sign." She pulled his blanket again so that both he and AJ were covered. She had refused to give way from his side and lay near him in the bed. Now she had a smile on her face as the warmth of the blanket returned.

I hit myself on the head with a hoof and regretted it immediately. I had forgotten how hard it could actually be. "You almost had me worrying, even though the answer is so simple!" The smile of my counterpart had not shrunk and nothing had changed so far. "You even told me. I am the one who is projecting you. I decide who I am. That was the reason why I experienced everything here as the Mind. I was the consciousness; body and soul reported to me, not I to them." He began to clap sarcastically before he heaved himself to his feet.

“Then I would say we should take a look at ourselves.” He begun to shine, and before me was my earth pony form. It was like when Body had placed himself against my horn. This time there was no direct change, but it was there nonetheless. I knew that.

“For what is a good soul, actually?" I ask nobody, now that I was alone here. I waited for a few seconds and expected to wake up, but nothing happened. “I also need to check for an exit.” I sighed and looked around again. Behind me was the hole and the endless chessboard. I stepped a bit nearer to the border and looked downwards. It was the only blemish upon this place. It looked as though the light from around the hole was sucked down into the darkness.

"Hello?" I called downwards, but there was no echo. I felt with a hoof carefully the hole and was greeted by a surprise. It was as if a glass plate was placed above the hole. I carefully set one hoof, and then another, until I finally stood in the middle of the hole.

"Beam me up, Scotty!" As expected, nothing happened. “I need to be quick about this…" I turned around and saw that where I had stepped now looked like the rest of the ground. "Not even the Lufia puzzles let me be in peace…" I ran over every centimetre, and after a few moments, there was no indication of where the hole had been. Content, I looked down and noticed something. My eyes widened as the ground began to drop. I tried to think of where to run but came up empty. So I simply allowed myself to drop, white light surrounding me until it took over everything in this void.

I shot upwards, threw the blanket over me from the bed, and stared at the medicine cupboard that was directly in front of me.

"Light?" I turned around to the voice and saw Twilight as well as Trixie to my right side. They sat before the other bed and looked as though they had had a few hard hours behind them.

"No time, Twilight. How is Dirk?" I tried to climb from the bed, but AJ hindered me from her position next to me. Quickly, I took the other side and jumped to the ground. My legs were shaky and I felt rather dizzy, as if my blood pressure was too low.

"Careful! We do not know what Nightmare did to you." Trixie hurried to help support me.

"I already know, and I know how to help Dirk. How is he?" Slowly leaning on Trixie, I walked over to the other bed, and I saw that some runes were written in his fur.

"Princess Luna had to resuscitate him several times. The runes helped keep him alive. However…" Twilight’s look wandered to the ground and I saw Luna sleeping on a blanket and pillow. Sweat dripped down her forehead and it seemed that her sleep was not at all restful. "She broke down after the last resuscitation."

"Nightmare did not try to eat our souls. Instead, it tore apart body, spirit, and soul," I explained quickly and considered what I could do to help my brother.

"It makes sense as to why he survived the attack. Death is usually the outcome, at least according to one of my books. If the body dies, it separates the spirit and soul. If Nightmare forces this separation, this could also lead to death." Twilight took my theory and turned it into fact. “Can we join them together again?”

"We can’t. He has to do it, and only he knows how to do it. I had to do it myself, and I was lucky that my mind was the one that absorbed most of the attack. If it had gotten my body or soul, it would have been a different kettle of fish." Trixie tapped me on the shoulder.

"What you’re saying is that you were split in three natures?" I nodded and got an idea.

"Trixie! You studied Luna’s magic, right?" She nodded weakly, surprised by my outburst. "Are you familiar with dream magic?" I had also read about that in my book about conversion magic. If one could change dreams, there was the possibility to plant suggestions.

"He’s not breathing anymore! His heart's stopped,” shouted Twilight and began a heart massage. "We must do it! Quickly!"

"Trixie?!" I screamed at her, although she was directly next to me.

“Yes, uh… sure. What should I do?" My panic was reflecting on her now.

"If he’s having a dream or something like that, his three parts must unite." She said nothing and walked with me. Her horn lit up and a small silver thread formed in the air and penetrated into my brother’s head. Twilight had levitated a breathing mask over to me in the meantime, which I now strapped onto him.

"What now?" Trixie asked as we tried to go about our efforts of keeping him alive. I had not many memories left of first aid courses I had to take for my driver license, not to mention that I had little knowledge of a pony’s anatomy.

“Hope,” was all I could say.

Author's Notes:

I just wanted to point out that I knew how Lunas dream magic would look back in 2012/13. Now you may hit the hipster. Good day.

Translated and edited by JBL