Neither Of Them Mind

• time to battle!” yelled Twinlinked to the troops he had willed into battle. He had four main groups of hoof soldiers, each with a commander. He also had two small squads of snipers and various other squadrons that would take too much time to name. He held high his sword so that it caught the sun and charged headlong. Tucking it back in its sheath by his side, he crested the hill that separated his forces and Twilight’s. He was going to give her a fight she wouldn’t quickly forget. He knew she would be ill-prepared, so first sent a hail of arrows down on her main force. Some of her ponies scattered, but the ones who were hit by arrows disintegrated into what Twinlinked and Twilight referred to as dream-cloud.

The dream cloud floated up into the sky, and made a number which stayed there. 26. That meant Twinlinked forces had destroyed 26 mind-soldiers. He sent down his main battleforce, but by this time Twilight was ready. A further three squads, each with thirty fully armed soldiers appeared and charged.

The rest of the battle passed, with Twinlinked making heavy gains, but Twilight, who had less experience, still held back his troops from capturing the base. They had agreed before that whoever captured the other’s base won. The main part of the fighting was in the valley that bordered Twilight’s base, a gain of only ten or twenty paces was all Twinlinked needed to win. But Twilight was putting up a fierce battle. He could feel her mind strategizing and planning, and knew that he was up against a very tough opponent. Nothing he had ever done in his war gaming store back in Ponyville could ever match up to this. The sheer skill needed, not to mention the mental exhaustion was phenomenal. This was, after all, a battle to control his mind.

All of his efforts were focussed on either flanking Twilight’s soldiers, which looked suspiciously like her friends from Ponyville, or on pushing through them like a wedge. He really wished that he could have read that tactical book from the library before this, but he had little time to think about such things as his sword flew like a phoenix through the hordes.

That was the plan Twilight was leaning on. Bombarding him with hordes of enemies, but he was sure she had elite forces trying to slip past his own squad of seasoned soldiers. Of course, they weren’t seasoned in the sense that real soldiers were, but he gave them enough free will and intelligence to act out of their own judgement.

The score was 239-56 in Twinlinked’s favour when he noticed something worrying. He sent a message to Twilight via their mind-connection.

Where did all these roots come from?

He was talking about the green vines that had been growing over the Dustbowl Badlands during the battle. There were bright lime ones on his side, but a darker shade on Twilight’s side. He had ignored them, assuming they were a side effect of the mental connection. In the real world, ponies would be far more worried about giant vines growing from nowhere, but this wasn’t the real world, so Twinlinked hadn’t been so concerned. But now they were growing thicker, and the different shades were twinging themselves around each other. It was beginning to worry him.

I think they represent our minds.

Should we be worried that they are tangling around each other?

More worry added to his own. However, at this time, his forces were poised to take the base. He concentrated on that for a moment, before one of his commanders came up to him. The commander distracted Twinlinked for a moment, because something about him was wrong. Twinlinked couldn’t place it until he realised the commander had a cutie mark. That shouldn’t be right, these were mind-soldiers, not ponies. Had something happened, so they sent a pony in to get them out? He took a closer look at the cutie mark. It was a large aqua eye. Twinlinked hadn’t seen any cutie mark like it before.

“Hello?” he hazarded talking to this mysterious commander.

“Sir, we have experienced more casualties on the left flank,” said the commander, in the voice Twinlinked had given them. The comment was odd though, the left flank was a strange place to launch an assault. To get from there to the main force would be very hard. That flank was closer to the vines than Twilight’s base. Was it possible that the vines were responsible for the casualties?

Twinlinked!

Twilight’s voice broke him from his concentration.

What is it Twilight?

Look at the tally!

He did. Up in the sky, surrounded by the medium-sized birds of prey, was the cloud tally. As Twinlinked watched the floating numbers, more and more of his troops drifted up. Soon he was only a few in front of Twilight. Then, they were the same.

328-328

Now there was noise. The sounds of battle were replaced by clanking of armour, and Twinlinked tore his vision down to the armies. They were freezing in position. The fighting had ceased. He abandoned the commander and galloped towards the base. Around him, soldiers burst into flame, searing his flesh as he ran past them. They crumbled into smouldering piles of flaming dust onto the brown dirt of the mindscape. Across the plain, Twilight’s troops were doing the same. Soon there was nothing left but smoke and ashes. Twinlinked met Twilight in the middle.

“What in Equestria is going on?” Twilight asked seriously.

“I don’t know.”

The sun was to his back, so the shadow caught his eye. He turned, squinted, and saw the cutie-marked commander standing on top of the hill. Twilight saw him too, and asked who it was. So Twinlinked told her.

“Could it be another pony? Fascinating!”

The commander moved closer at impossible speed. Soon, they were face to face with this pony. Uneasy but still optimistic, Twinlinked extended a hoof. But instead of taking it, the commander disintegrated into dust without bursting into flames like the others. A disquieting feeling fell over both ponies, as the dust rose into the air again. It swirled around briefly, mimicking the dust devils in the distance. Then it grew into a tornado in a matter of seconds. The brunt of the winds blew Twinlinked and Twilight down and away. Dust blew in their eyes, so they kept them clenched closed.

Did we create this, or is this another pony?

I wish I had my notebook right now! This is amazing!

They stood up in the mindscape, and looked in amazement as the tornado changed from the brown dust to purple-and-blue streaked, then to flames, that danced in a fiery whirl. The solid fire twisted towards them, tearing up the ground and throwing embers like snowflakes.

They ran.

It followed.

Outrunning the wind is something that is impossible, but never doubt the power of a desperate mind. And that is what the ponies were, both feeling each other’s fear mixing with their own, like blind rats scampering away from the big street cat. If fear was a smell, it is very similar to the smell of burnt grass. Fiery, stiff, and dead.

They managed to run almost to Twinlinked’s base, where he had set up red and white tents and pavilions. But the rush of wind and burning heat behind them grew less, until they felt it safe to look behind. The cyclone had indeed stopped, and went upwards into the dream-sky like a demonic pillar. From the embers came the voice.

YOU CREATED ME.

YOU FORMED ME.

YOU WILL FALL BEFORE ME.

The flaming totem suddenly collapsed into itself, falling to the ground, then erupting outwards like a shockwave. In the centre stood a pony, but the features were unseeable because of the bright light.

“What do we do?” yelled Twinlinked over the crackle of the flames.

“I don’t know –