Within Our Minds

by Winterman


Chapter 2-1 (Rainbow Dash and Twilight): The Past

Dash walked along the town, it was so quite that only her footsteps can be heard. "This place seriously gives me a creeps." Dash said as she heard of strong gust of wind blowing past her.

"What?" Dash looked around, she saw thick black smoke, it started form slowly around her.

"Uh oh, not good." Dash said as she attempted to fly up, but she felt like something was sucking her down to the smoke.

"No. No. NONONONONONONO!" Dash screamed, sucked into the thick black smoke. However, it disappeared and caused her to hit a solid ground instead.

Later, she was be able to barely open her eyes, she felt like her brain was keeping her from waking up. What she saw and feel was that she was on a bed-like machine, in a hospital-like building. She felt like a metallic component covering the upper part of her head, just an inch above her eyes, the stallion figure walked to her, checking the monitor next to her and periodically glanced at her. Her eyes was almost shut, it was impossible to tell what he looked like.

"Subject Number 3. Heart beat rate, normal. Blood pressure, normal." the stallion said, just before he turned his head, looking at her. "Don't fail on us, we're counting on you all, please." Dash felt her eyes were heavy again, her eyes became completely shut.

Don't fail us? Subject Number 3? Am I being experimented on or something? Dash thought to herself. Dash opened her eyes once again, she found herself lying on a cold, shiny floor.

"This is getting weirder and weirder." Dash said as she stood up, her head was slightly heavy.

Dash found herself inside a museum. She recognized this place.

I came here before, on a field trip as a filly. She thought. Well, it's kinda good to bring back memories.

Dash walked around, bringing back her fillyhood memories, caused her to forget about the black smoke that was happening earlier.

Dash saw her favorite paintings, a painting which resembles cloudosseum with three pegasi flies over it, making rainbow trails over the cloudosseum. Only a few ponies know that Dash, secretly, likes art. She hides it from others because she feels like it does not fit her character. Dash wondered around the halls , she felt like she was reliving her foalhood again. Even though the place was eerily quiet.

After a while, Dash came across a sculpture which she felt like she never see it before nor being able to recognized it.

"What the......I never saw this before." Dash raised her eyebrow.

It was a statue that resembled a fully-grown, extremely tall, brown-coated stallion wearing blue gym shorts and white undershirt with number 1 on it, it also have many "#1" badges on its undershirt and also carrying a golden trophy. The sculpture was named "Victor". It had a trophy as its head. Dash could not help laughing.

"Number one, huh? Actually, it's me, not you" Dash mocked the sculpture as she made loser hand gesture. "Alright, time to find a way out."

Dash walked towards the double doors in the distance. At the very moment she touched the knob, she heard heavy footsteps from behind.

"Huh?" Dash looked behind her. The sculpture came to life. It charged toward Dash with a trophy in its hand, ready to swing at her face.

"Ah, shit!" Dash screamed as she busted through the doors and flew across halls after halls.

Victor was too big to fit the doorframe, it smashed its way through. Its footsteps caused the whole gallery to shake. The paintings and sculptures fell onto the floor.

Dash turned around the corner. She did a barrel roll to dodge the pieces of the ceiling that was raining down on her.

Dash looked behind her and saw Victor closing in on her. She increased her flight speed, almost fast enough to make a sonic rainboom.

At that moment, the ceiling started to crack and caused more debris to rain down on her.

".....Woah!" Dash screamed as she barely dodged a bust that the walking sculpture threw at her. Dash heard the sculpture continued to throw bunch of things at her. From paintings to busts, the sculpture threw everything it could find.

Dash dodged everything it threw at her, by performing evasive maneuver. Dash felt like she was a war plane instead of a pegasus.

Dash flew into a maintenance tunnel, hoping to escape it because of smaller space. "I hope it won't bash the entire place down to get me-"

Dash accidentally crashed into the pile of cardboard boxes.

"Ow." Dash muttered as she got up, looked behind her, the sculpture was still chasing her. It was punching and bashing the entire ceiling down to get her. She flew off, she did not care about exhaustion. Dash flew into a staff room, it took her a second to realized it was a dead end.

"Oh, fuck!" Dash looked around. "Come on, there gotta be something!" Dash noticed an air vent, she jumped into it as the sculpture busted into the room. Dash tried to pant very quietly, trying not to give away her location.

Dash dropped down into another maintenance corridor, she looked around, checking that the statue wasn't there. Dash, after made clear that it's safe, walked through the corridor.

"I hope that thing doesn't follow me." Dash entered another room, it was extremely weird due to it looked more like a room in the hospital, rather than the staff room.

The room has a carpet in the middle, bookshelf on the left side, an office desk at the middle, and two office chairs, one of them is bigger, looks more like a boss chair.

"This is totally weird, an office in the maintenance corridor? What the....?" Dash said just before two ghostly figures appeared in front of her, both of them were sitting on the chairs, facing each other. One sitting on office chair, dressed like a doctor. One sitting on the boss chair dressed in two-piece suit.

"So, what do you want to say, Mr.Cross." The boss asked.

"I've been planning on a project called 'STEM'' Dr. Cross said

"Mmm-hmm."

"This project, uh, we'll create a machine, its purpose is connecting ponies' memories together. Sharing their memories. It's like a visual world creator."

"Are you sure that it's safe to use?"

"We're not sure yet, sir. Come with me, sir. I'll show you." The figures stood up and disappeared.

"This is waaaay too confusing." Dash said, she couldn't piece everything together.

First, she was confused already about how she gets here, then the storm of black smoke and some weird hospital, now ghostly figures talking about a project.

Suddenly the light of the room went out, Dash gasped in fear. "Oh, why this?" Dash looked around, she saw a shadowy figure...of a mare in the corner of the room, her face facing the corner. It has a horn, and a pair of wings. Is that Twilight? It was hard to see and this was the first thing to come into Dash's mind.

"Uh.....Twilight?" Dash said as she walked closer to her. "Is that you?" She touched her shoulder. "It's me, Rainbow Dash."

'Twilight' suddenly turned her head and screamed at Dash, her eyes and mouth were hollow, with bright lights coming out of it. Her head was soaked in blood, with more blood coming out above her forehead and eyes

"GAH!" Dash shrieked as she covered her eyes, suddenly around her was white.

Then she looked around, she was in the another room of the gallery. "What the hell was that?" Dash heard a loud noice from behind, the sculpture returned, it jumped down from the balcony above her.

Suddenly, the alarm was activated, all of the exits were blocked by the walls of barbed wire.

"Oh, well. I'm locked in here with it. Great!" The sculpture charged at Dash and swung at her, she rolled to the left to dodge.

Dash ran and take cover behind the sculpture. "Think, Rainbow, think. There's gotta be something." Dash said to herself.

The sculpture swung at another sculpture, breaking it to pieces. Dash flew up, she flew to the balcony where the sculpture jumped down.

She thought she was safe, until the sculpture started throwing paintings at the walkway.

"Come on, give me a break!" Dash said as she quickly looked around the floor below. There must be something she could use, or else she would be stuck in here with the sculpture.

Dash saw a lever at the other side of the room.

"Hm....that might do the trick- WOAH!" Dash barely dodged the painting that the sculpture threw at her.

Dash swooped down. "Hey, loser! Over here!" Dash challenged the sculpture as she tried to get to the lever. Dash saw the sculpture grabbed the paintings from the display. Dash knew what the sculpture was doing, she prepared herself to dodge more paintings.

The first painting was thrown at Dash, she dodged it with ease. "You didn't learn from last time, ain't ya?"

Dash charged to the lever as the sculpture charged at her. However, the pegasus was quicker than the sculpture.

"Let's hope this works!" Dash pulled the lever, causing the large sculpture suspending at the center of the room dropped down at very high speed, crushing the sculpture to pieces. Dash smirked at her enemy's defeat and walked toward it.

"Victor....my flank." Dash said to the pile of small stones.

Suddenly, the floor .....liquefied, creating a giant black hole on the floor. Dash yelped as she tried to fly away as it sucked her in.

"Oh no, not again!" Dash said as she tried to fly faster, but to no avail. Dash screamed at the top of her voice as the hole dragged her in.


Twilight was flying in the dark sky. Her hope had yet to evaporate, she was determined even though she saw nothing but trees and trees, over and over again.

"It's too much tree." Twilight talked to herself, suddenly she felt like her back was heavy. "What?" The lavender mare screamed as she fell. Fortunately, she did not get herself injured.

Twilight groaned and stood up but her back was heavy. As if there was something so heavy holding her wings down. She turned around to see it. "WHAT? Wha- how?" Twilight couldn't believe at what she saw, her wings were locked tight via a handcuff-like device. "Alright, now I am convinced I am not in Equestria." Twilight searched for the map she had bought with her.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Twilight realized that she let the map got out of her grip when she was falling. "All up to luck, I guess." She sighed.

Twilight stood up, despite some weight of the wingcuff. Twilight shone her flashlight, she looked around. Twilight found a dirt road, not much far away from her. "Well, that's convenient."

"Alright, left or right? Faust, I hate these kind of choice." Twilight looked left and right. "Um....." Twilight concentrated her thoughts. "When I looked at the map, I was making my way south. And I think now I'm facing the west of the forest." She headed to the left. "It must be this way."

After walking for a while, she saw a bright purple light emitted from the distance.

"Wha-?" Twilight gasped and scratched her eyes. "Um.. hello?" Twilight felt the danger, but she refused to not greet the "pony" in front of her.

The pony was wearing an indigo mozzetta, a purple robe, and a pair of black boots.

"Um....Mister? Mistress? I need your help-" The figure turned around. It appeared that the figure was an unicorn skeleton wearing a robe with purple flames emitting from its skull. Twilight gasped as she backed away from the skeleton.

The mage formed purple orb on its left hand, ready to throw. Twilight started running as the mage threw the magic orb at her. It missed and hit the tree instead and the tree was reduced to ashes.

"That was a big mistake!" Twilight kept dodging the orbs by running among the trees. Twilight suddenly heard a sound behind her like a tree being uprooted, she looked behind her. The mage was uprooting some trees and prepared to throw them at Twilight like a large spear.

"Oh, no." The first two trees was launched at Twilight, she increased her speed and started to run faster, despite the weight of the wingcuffs. Trees were getting thrown violently at her.

Twilight looked behind her again, the mage mysteriously disappeared. "Where did it go?" Twilight looked around, her mind said to her that it will show up again. She panted, catching her breath.

Twilight saw something in the distance, it was a large picnic and camping area. Twilight slowly walked towards it.

"Hope it's not a trap this time." Twilight saw about five camper vans, two of them have trailers, a picnic table and three campfires.

"Wait, this place looks very familiar." Twilight noticed something on the the picnic table, it has a logo imprinted on it. The logo was a green unicorn head in a yellow circle.

She recognized it. "Licorne National Park. Silly me, why I couldn't recall it in the first place." Memories flooded through her mind, her first camping trip, first picnic, first birdwatching.

Her nostalgia was cut short when she heard a giggle behind her, she turned around.

"Huh?" Twilight could not believe it when she saw what was in front of her. It was Twilight's filly-self.

"Hi!" Filly Twilight greeted. Adult Twilight responded by smiling nervously and waved her hand. "Um. Hi." This is the weirdest thing since I've met my future self wearing an eyepatch and black rubber suit. Twilight thought to herself.

"Who are you? I mean, you're me, but I'm me too. How can there be two me's? It's not scientifically possible. You are not scientifically possible!" filly Twilight raised her eyebrow.

"Um....I'm you, basically. I-I-I uh... your future self." Twilight tried to keep her words together.

"In the future, I'll be an alicorn? Oh my Faust!" Filly Twilight cheered in excitement. "Hey, It seems that.......are you wings cuffed?"
Filly Twilight noticed the wingcuff on Twilight's back.

"Oh, yeah. It's kinda....heavy." Twilight said.

"Hey! I think I got something to help you.....adult me! Follow me!" Filly Twilight ran into one of the camper vans. Twilight hesitantly followed.

It appeared that the van was the one that belongs to her parents.

"Memories...." Twilight muttered. She looked around to find her filly self, but she seemed to disappeared. "Um.....Twilight? My filly-self?" Twilight walked around to find her filly-self. She was nowhere to be found. Did she vanished? Twilight thought and looked around. She noticed something that caught her eyes, a notebook on the drawer with her cutie mark on the front cover. "My diary?" Twilight picked it up. "How did it get here?"

Twilight's Journal

I'm so happy today! Tomorrow, dad and mom will take me to Licorne National Park. We do this annually, but this time we're going for camping too! I can't wait for that!

Twilight was flipping through the pages, until she heard a metallic clang. It sounded like somepony entered the van. Twilight slowly turned her head to look behind her. Nopony was there, but she knew there was something inside the van with her. Her heart was beating so fast, she slowly walked forward, step by step. She looked around, not seeing anything inside made her heart pounded faster and faster.

Suddenly, something was touching her shoulder.

Twilight shrieked and shoved the thing away from her. "Hey, stop it!" She was about to run away, but that voice.....it sounded familiar. "It's me! Rainbow Dash!"

She turned around, it was relieving for her to see one of her friends again. "Dash? Oh thank Faust, you're alright!" Twilight ran up to Dash and hugged her. Yes, she was literally hugging the mare.

"Um....Twilight, this isn't a time for...this." Dash said as Twilight let her go.

"Oh, sorry. I was overreacting." Twilight blushed. "Where were you?"

"Hey, um.....let me tell ya, I woke up in a town, and then, I went to an art gallery. And there was a giant statue trying to kill me, but I happened to killed it. Then, I popped up in this...woods. I saw you running from something purple, it was attacking you. Am I right?" Twilight nodded.

"And, I followed you to here. Oh, I forgot. When I woke up in this woods, this was lying right next to me." Dash explained and showed Twilight a golden key.

"The label says: "You friend needs help." Dash said.

"Um.....I think you mean here." Twilight turned her back at Dash, showing the wingcuffs.

"Well, that explains everything." Dash unlocked the cuffs for Twilight. "Alright, now...how are we gonna get outta here."

"I found a map and lost it. I'm sorry, it flew away from my hands. Just before that wingcuffs appeared out of nowhere." Twilight said. "I was flying towards the exit, then I fell down and continued to walk towards it."

"Alright, alright, calm down. I guess we should check this camper van." Dash told Twilight and started searching the van.

"Hey, but..this belongs to my parents." Twilight said, causing Dash to froze for a second.

"Wait.....your parents? How can it be here in this world then?" Dash asked, but received no answer. "Twilight?"

"This place is Licorne National Park, I used to go here when I was a filly. Does the same applies to the gallery you were in?" Dash paused and then nod back while searching for something useful. "Is this world......our memories or something?"

"Well, what about those weirdos? The statue and the purple thing that was chasing you and me." Dash kept on searching while listening to Twilight's word.

"I really don't know- Oh hey, Dash. We found our way out." Twilight grabbed something on the floor and showed it to Dash. "Didn't know that it landed here."

"What is it, egghead?" Dash asked.

"It's the map! I think that's what my filly-self was talking about." Twilight grabbed it. "Now we can go back to flying."

"Your filly-self?" Dash lost it when she heard that. "You're......you're filly-self? You were talking to yourself!" Dash tried to speak while laughing. "Oh, I-I-I-I can't..."

"IT'S TRUE!" Twilight shouted. "I didn't lose my mind!"

"Eh, heh, OK." Dash stopped laughing. "I guess we better get going now." However, both of their hearts skipped a beat when they heard raspy breathing outside. Twilight looked out the window and saw the Mage wandering around the campsite.

"Shhhhhhhh.....Heads down." Twilight and Dash kept their heads low from the camper van windows. Dash raised her head up a bit to see it. It entered the van opposite of the one Twilight and Dash was in.

Dash lowered her head. "Hope it goes away-" Dash's pupil shrunk when she heard giant footsteps. "Wait, what? .....It's not him again, right?"

"What's him, Dash-" Victor smashed the camper van's roof opened, barely missed Twilight and Dash. "Well, look who's back!" Dash rolled to dodge Victor's furious smashes.

Twilight heard a quick raspy gasp, realized that the mage had noticed them. She backed away until she hit one of the corners of the van. Twilight suddenly felt her mind was empty, as if she was being mind controlled. Her pupils changed to bright magenta and she stood up, mindlessly walked out of the van.

Dash noticed her. "Twilight, what are you doing!" Dash immediately got up as Twilight got immediately strangled by the mage right after she got out.

Victor grabbed the camper van and lifted it up. Dash flew out of it before he slammed the van into the ground.

Dash flew up into the air and swooped down at the Mage. She knocked it away from Twilight,

Twilight, now freed from the mage's control, started gasping for air.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Dash tackled the mage and punched it repeatedly. But the mage gained an upper hand, punching Dash in the face and clawing her left cheek, leaving it scarred. The mage's hand right hand glowed purple and once its hand touched Dash, she was thrown across the campsite, hitting the tree.

Twilight was catching her breath, but she was cut short by the footsteps behind her. Victor swung his trophy at Twilight, but Twilight barely dodged it. While running away, Twilight then came up with an idea. She attempted to lure Victor into the mage.

"That.....really......hurts." Dash tried to get up, but the mage grabbed Dash and lifted her up by her collar. Dash closed her eyes, when the mage attempted to kill her by forming a purple orb in its hand.

"HEY!" Twilight's shout cause Mage to turn around, at first it smirked but it froze in shock as it saw Twilight charging at it with Victor behind her.

"See ya later, wizard! Catch me if you can!" Dash took this opportunity to run away from the mage and escaped its grip. The mage growls in anger and launched some magic orbs at Dash, all of them missed her.

Twilight tackled the mage just before Victor swung his trophy. It was a perfect hit, but Twilight managed to fly away before the impact, so the trophy hit the mage instead. Its upper body was shattered to pieces, the mage was presumed dead.

"Haha, stupid! Nice work, Twi! You still got the map?" Dash laughed at the mage's defeat.

"Yes, in my grip the whole time." Twilight said, she noticed Victor charging at them.

"Oh, what are you gonna do, huh? Come and get us! Yeah, go ahead!" Dash and Twilight flew up high into the air as Victor swung at them and missed, it stomped the ground in frustration.

"Nice try, loser!" Dash taunted.

Twilight couldn't help, she was laughing along with Dash. "Alright, there's the exit." Twilight said. "These invisible ceiling......I hope we can fly a bit higher."

"Yeah, that sucks...a lot." Dash commented.

"Wait, wait a minute....." Both of them reached the exit, but, however, Twilight seems to be surprised rather than relief.

"Oh, hey! Look! Ponyville! Wow, I didn't know that this place- Twilight? C'mon, why are you....Twilight?"

"What in Equestria? Licorne is actually a mile away from Canterlot!" Twilight explained. "It's nowhere near Ponyville!"

"Hey, maybe it's because this world is created from our memories. I don't know but you egghead should've come up with a speculation by now." Dash said sarcastically and jokingly. "Well, if you want to some time think, you got it! I'm gonna go and find my way out of this world. See ya!" Dash flew towards Ponyville.

"Wait for me!" Twilight quickly followed Dash.