Neither Of Them Mind

Where am I? queried an inquisitive voice. There was still only white, but the voice found it could speak.

A communication point in both our minds. The voice was very surprised to hear another through deaf ears. Was another Voice talking? Then the other voice spoke again.

Which one of us am I? The first voice felt confused, and the second did too.

I am... Twinlinked, the voice decided finally. Now there was division.

Twilight Sparkle, came the other voice, which gained inflection and distinctive tone as it spoke.

Good. So we can only talk?

I- I don’t know. I need to take some measurements, but with what?

The second voice, Twilight, finished and suddenly, with a large explosion of light that opened Twinlinked’s blind eyes. He was in the old Library. Everything was identical to the departed building. All the books were on the shelves, and if he looked up, he could see the telescope he once used still leaning against the wall where he left it. He looked around some more, and jumped when he saw Twilight right next to him, similarly wide-eyed.

“Wow,” she said, “This is my library. How can we be seeing this?”

Twinlinked didn’t know, but he hazarded a guess to answer the question.

“Maybe we are seeing it the way we remember it. We’re giving shape to our combined thoughts.

Twilight nodded.

“That seems right,” she agreed. She continued looking, and Twinlinked could tell, somehow, how sad she was.

“There was a bee hive,” she said finally. Twinlinked felt sorry for her. His house had escaped the destruction caused by Tirek.

“Don’t feel sorry for me. Things need a changeup every now and then,” said Twilight, and Twinlinked realised their minds were experiencing the same emotions, regardless of the thinker.

He suddenly got the strong sense that something was wrong. He looked around and saw Twilight moving a quill across her desk. When she was finished, he had a great sense of relief.

Twilight started writing notes on parchment. Without looking, Twinlinked could tell they were her observations of the dreamworld.

“So what will we call it?” he asked.

“Call the mindscape?” Twilight answered with a question, still writing, “Well, it’s a sort of mindscape or dreamworld that we can see, but to others it appears that we are in a –

• magic induced coma,” said Mentally Sound, a doctor at the Ponyville Public Hospital.

“PPH!” Rarity spat out her drink.

Applejack walked over to Twilight’s bed, and looked down at her friend through the drip tubes that went under the covers.

“Will she be alright?” Applejack asked.

Mentally Sound scratched his head, with a hoof that also held a clipboard.

“My expertise is in pony psychology, so all I can tell you is that her brain at least, might recover. But that is only judging by our current observations. Her condition may change at any time,” answered the doctor, out of his depth.

“If that stallion had anything to do with this…” threatened Rainbow loyally. The other ponies moved up to the bedside. Pinkie Pie bounced around the bed, until Mentally Sound gave her a stern glare. She quieted down for her sleeping friend.

Lyra spoke from behind them, quietly, and with deep regret.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give Twilight a hand – I mean hoof,” she began, stammering, “By the time I got there, they were like this.”

Mentally Sound beckoned a nurse to look after them, saying, “I have another patient to see. If anything changes, ring the buzzer next to the bed.”

He bent down to the shorter nurse and said quietly, “And you can do the same for –

• Twinlinked?” called Twilight. He shook his mane and looked up.

“Sorry!” he yelled back, then in a lower voice said, “I zoned out.”

She walked up next to him in the mindscape.

“I said, I am going to start trying to get into your mind now.”

“Like you already haven’t,” he replied, and he knew the joke would be understood. Twilight started concentrating, pushing her hoofs away from her body as she tensed up. She pointed her horn and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she gave up, dream-panting.

“What were you trying to do?” he asked politely.

“I was trying to believe I could take over your mind. If I believe it, it will happen.”

“No, that’s not right. That would never work. Don’t believe it, but will it. There’s no room for half measures or maybes.”

It mildly amused him that he was giving the most powerful pony in Ponyville advice on her own spell, but he stopped dream-chortling when he felt Twilight giving him a dream-glare into his mind.

“Fine,” Twilight said, “I will take over your mind.”

“No you won’t.”

As soon as those small words slipped out of Twinlinked’s small mouth, meant to be his defence against her mind-attack, the landscape changed. This time there was no bright flash of darkness, or a visible flick of change. One moment, they were in the library, the next, they were both standing on a dusty landscape. The dirt under their hoofs kicked up into dust devils in the distance, which spun over small hills and around the small, prickly bushes, which seemed to bear small, dry berries. The air seemed moist, and small thunderclouds stood still in the sky above their heads. But there were no pegasi to move them, so they were fixed in place. Also in the sky were no insects, but birds with curved beaks and small, black eyes. They were around the same size as Owlowiscious, but were much meaner looking.

“This looks like the Dustbowl Badlands,” commented Twilight. Twinlinked agreed, he had seen photos of the deserted, but not desert place in some books. He was an avid reader, and had formed a vivid picture of the place with Twilight, who had probably been here before.

“This is a good enough place for a battle,” they both said, “Let’s –

• begin,” confirmed Rainbow Dash.

“Are you sure about this, Rarity?” asked Fluttershy politely, “I mean, it is pretty dangerous.”

Rarity didn’t answer, she was too focussed on her magic. So far they had tried alarm clocks, smelling salts and Pinkie’s confetti cannon, but the paper-covered Twilight still hadn’t woken up. Now Rarity was trying to wake her up using magic.

The nurse had called over Mentally Sound again, who was standing at a safe distance. He clearly wasn’t happy with the whole situation, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop them. In any case, it would give Twilight’s friends something to do.

Rarity’s horn glowed, but the magic discharge did nothing but turn the bedside light off.

“Could I ask that you do nothing more to try and wake up your friend? She will wake up in due –