G.N.D: A My Little Dashie Sequel

by Nibrudly

Complications

Oh. Oh! Oh my head! AUGH!

I’ve been having bad headaches for awhile but this; Sweet Celstia, this one takes the cake. All I can do is grab my head and hope for a lull. I need my aspirin; where is it? I slowly manage to bring a foreleg away from my head and I start feeling around my nightstand for the bottle when I remember: I left it on the kitchen counter. That’s just awesome.

I slowly sit up in bed; what would take me seconds now takes me five minutes with all this pain. My eyes are in a tight squint; I don’t know if it actually helps, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to keep them shut as much as possible. However, this is going to make it much more difficult to walk across my room, make it down my stairwell, navigate my kitchen, and then flail my forelegs trying to find the tiny bottle filled with the magic pills. Why me? Out of everypony in Equestria, this just had to happen to me.

Okay, one step at a time; just have to get out of bed. As I slip my hooves over the side (as impossible as it seems) a wave of even greater pain hits me. My head ends up almost between my legs as I double over. It happened so fast and I had so much momentum I actually rolled forward; spilling out onto the floor. I can only writhe back and forth as I continue to cradle my head.

“Stop. Stop! STOP! FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE WHY CAN’T YOU LET UP!?”

I don’t know why and I don’t know how, but as soon as I said it the pain immediately stopped. I don’t mean it gradually receded; it stopped right after the last syllable left my lips. What is going on? I just dreamed, no, remembered, that I’m supposed to be dead. And now my headaches obey me? Something happened to me and I haven’t the faintest idea what. But I know the pony that does.

When the pain left it was replaced with total exhaustion. I just spend five minutes lying on my back trying to pull my forelegs off the floor. During this time I formulate my plan. I’ll turn over and pull myself along the floor; I’ll think about the next step when I reach the stairwell. However, I may be even weaker than I thought. It’s taking forever just to roll onto my side, much less onto my stomach. It takes a good fifteen minutes to finally flop onto my side. Fortunately, my fatigue is fading faster now and it’s getting easier to move. But before I continue my attempt to finish my roll, something under my bed catches my eye.

I have no idea how it got there, but I’m staring at a small cardboard box. Since I’m still very weak, it wouldn’t hurt to blow some recovery time by investigating. It takes me longer than I would like, but I finally manage to shuffle over to the side of my bed and wrap my hooves around the box. At this point, I am now able to turn over onto my stomach. Now I can take a good look inside.

I still have no idea how it got under my bed; I know I definitely didn’t put it there. But as far as I know this box may have something to do with what’s going on. I take off the top and look at the contents; more questions pop up instead of answers. I see a few birthday candle stubs, several drawings that look like they were done by a foal, two tickets to an “Indy 500,” and a small stack of photos, at least a dozen.

The pictures immediately draw my attention for several reasons. I’m not only in most of them, but in more than a third I’m blank-flanked. And then I see him: the stranger from my dreams. I may not remember what my dreams were about these past couple of weeks, but I remember his face. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but all the same he has been in every single dream I’ve had recently. Who the hay is he!? I’ve never seen him before in my life and yet there I am, a blank-flanked foal, cuddling up to him!

This makes no sense; even less than the obedient headaches or the fact I’m still breathing. I’m sure I could find some way to explain that away; stuff like that happens all the time, but this…there’s no way in Equestria you could fake a picture like the ones I see in front of me. Forget the dreams, forget the inexplicable exhaustion, forget the headaches, forget the fact that I should be in the ground right now; that all can come second. Right now the only thing I care about now is finding out where these impossible pictures came from, why I’m with this weird guy I’ve never met who has been haunting my dreams for the past two weeks, and why I have this apparently close relationship with him. I hope it’s going to be a slow day at the library, because Twilight has some explaining to do!

I recovered significantly while I made my discovery, I’m actually able to pull myself up and stand. I’m shaky as I grab my saddle bag and stuff the box inside. I’m barely able to make my way downstairs without tripping headfirst, but by the time I reach the bottom I just feel only mostly tired. I grab my aspirin just in case the headaches come back. By the time I reach my front door I’m strong enough to make a rough glide down to the ground. I’m not going to take any chances; for the first time in a long time I’m opting for hoofing it. It might be boring, but I can’t risk falling out of the sky just when I think I’m back on top. I start walking towards Ponyville; numerous questions popping up in my mind as my house starts to shrink into the distance.

As I walk down the path I pass the numerous expressions of shock that are plastered on the faces of the ponies I pass by. I’m as surprised as they are; I still feel like I should risk it and fly. But common sense keeps me tethered and I just keep walking past everypony. As I eventually reach the market place I’m swamped by numerous ponies all wanting to greet me. I gently push them out of my way; not because I want to, but because that’s all I can do without my muscles aching. Unfortunately, the crowd becomes too thick and I’m stuck. As I try to politely ask the masses to part, I hear a familiar voice.

“What in tarnation is all the fuss about!? ‘Scuse me, sir. Beg pardon, ma’am. C’mon now, no need to shove back; we’re all curious.”

After a few minutes, Applejack finally breaks through and finds me standing in the middle of the crowd.

“Hey there, Applejack.”

“Rainbow? Don’t tell me you’re being a glory hound again?”

“I’m not, I was just on my way to visit the library-quit pushing-and wouldn’t you know that everypony just had to say hi and talk with me.”

After more pushing and shoving, Applejack is right next to me.

“Then why don’t ya just fly there and leave the crowd behind?” A few of the more curious ponies in the crowd turn their gaze towards us;.

“Oh Applejack, I couldn’t just ignore my fans!” This sets the crowd back to their chattering; giving me a chance to explain what’s going on.

I pull Applejack closer to me and whisper in her ear. “I can’t Applejack, something’s wrong with me. I don’t know what, but I was on my way to talk to Twilight. I think she knows what’s going on.”

All the color seems to drain from Applejack’s face when I tell her this. After a few minutes just standing there with her eyes darting all over the place, she finally responds.

“Then let’s hightail it to Twilight’s.” Then she rears back onto her hind legs and shouts out, “FREE APPLES! GET YOUR FREE “SWEET APPLE ACRES” APPLES: THE FINEST IN EQUESTRIA!”

This sends the crowd in a wild stampede over to Applejack’s cart. Apples and ponies are sent flying as everypony starts brawling for their apples. I just know that cart isn’t going to be in one piece when Applejack returns. Before I can give anymore thought to it, Applejack escorts me to the Library. As I much as I hoped, it doesn’t surprise me that I’m starting to feel crummy again. As I pop a single aspirin in my mouth (two worked too well), Applejack knocks on the door.

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Over the course of the last two weeks, Twilight Sparkle had managed to read almost every book, tome, encyclopedia, digest, and essay in the library which subjects pertained to magic, memories, the brain and how they all fit together. However, she had also managed to get barely two hours of sleep a night. So after cracking open the latest in a long line of manuscripts, it was not surprising that only ten minutes in she had passed out in utter exhaustion.

For the first time in two weeks, Twilight had managed to get more than eight hours of sleep. She was enjoying a pleasant dream when she heard the knock on the door.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Huh…wha?” She picked her head up, a look of worry spread across her face as she realized there was a sizable puddle sitting in the middle of her book.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Spike, there’s somepony at the door.” She rubbed her eyes, wiped the remnants of drool from her mouth and gave a loud yawn.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Spike! Could you please get the-“ She turned around and saw her faithful assistant taking a nap in his basket.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake! Fine! Don’t get your tail in a twist, I’m coming!”

Twilight was sure she had put up the “Closed” sign a few days ago. Whoever it was obviously couldn’t read.

“And yet they came to the library.”

Twilight gave a small chuckle as she stumbled down her stairs and made her way to the door. As she opened it, an orange hoof nearly collided with her face.

“AUGH!”

“Whoa! Sorry there, Twilight. Wasn’t trying to hit ya, but you were takin’...uh, Twi? You don’t look too good.”

Despite her ghastly appearance: deep bags under her eyes, red veins shooting out like spider webs from her irises, and her mane in total disarray, Twilight felt far better than she had in the past two weeks. “What do you want, AJ?”

“Well it’s not actually what I want, but what RD here wants.” At the sight of the Pegasus, a shot of adrenaline coursed through the tired Unicorn’s system.

“Ya see, she told me she’s been feelin’ out of sorts and she decided to come see you about it. Then I decided it wouldn’t hurt to follow her here; ya know, in case she passes out or somethin’ like that. Ya never know.”

And just like that, Twilight lost whatever energy she had. All the adrenaline could do was keep her from passing out from this new development. She had pictured this moment many times, gone through countless simulations of how it could play out. However, most of them didn’t turn out the way she wanted them to, and those that did she knew were only the result of wishful thinking. She had hoped that she would have found a way to fix the problem before Rainbow came to her door. However, despite what could happen if she was told, Rainbow deserved to know what was going on.

“I…I see. How about you two make yourselves comfortable while I go freshen up?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash came in and grabbed some chairs while Twilight went up to her room to try and remedy her exhausted appearance.

--------------------------------

It was a good ten minutes before Twilight came back down. She looked better; at least, her mane was brushed. Her face had a smile plastered across it, but I could tell it was fake; even if she hadn’t looked completely exhausted.

“So, what can I do for you, Rainbow?”

“I’m here for answers Twilight. I remember what happened and I want to know what’s wrong with me.

“How much do you remember?”

“Well I remember getting the life shocked out of me before your magic hit the cloud bank. And since I’m still alive and kicking I wanted to know why I’m still here and not in the ground right now.”

A confused expression spread across her face. “I’m sorry…what?”

“C’mon Twilight, don’t mess with me. I woke up before five this morning and spent half an hour just staring at the ceiling after remembering the experiment. It’s bad enough that you didn’t tell me about this sooner; don’t try to dodge it now. I just want to know how you brought me back and if there were any…side-effects.”

“Rainbow, that’s not what I was talking about. I didn’t even realize you were hit by lightning; the clouds were too thick to see. When my spell cleared the cloudbank, you were gone.”

“Gone?” now it was my turn to be confused, “Gone where?”

“It’s…difficult to explain.”

“Is it harder to explain than these?” I reached into my saddle bag and pulled out the box. I gave Twilight the stack of photos with me and the guy.

“Actually, these make it easier.”

I sat down on one of the chairs and got comfortable. “Well I’m all ears, Twilight. Tell me.” Applejack took the chair next to me as Twilight proceeded to spill the beans.

“Well, I’m still not sure how it happened, but apparently the mix of the magic-infused cloud bank along with my second spell sent you to another world; a place we now know as ‘Earth.’ It took me a week to figure out what had happened, and then another to research a way to safely recreate the spell. All in all, it took us fifteen days to finally get you.”

“But then why am I a blank-flanked filly in some of these pictures? And who’s this weird guy?”

“Because Rainbow, this was a freak accident. It was something that nopony has witnessed for hundreds of years. The last time something like this happened was before our great-grandparents were born. I don’t know how or why it happened, but not only were you sent to Earth, the spell changed you. It rewound your clock, so to speak. When you arrived there you were a blank-flanked filly.”

“But then if it only took you fifteen days, why am I all grown-up again?”

“Apparently time doesn’t flow the same everywhere. While it took us fifteen days to find you and bring you back, you were on Earth for fifteen years.”

“Fifteen years?! Wha-but, that’s…How is that even possible?” Now Twilight looked even more confused than when she had started to talk.

“I have no idea Rainbow. All I know is you were very lucky, because this man” she held up a photo of me hugging the guy “raised you and sheltered you for those fifteen years. Dash, this man raised you as his daughter, loving you and protecting you until we could come to take you back home. If it wasn’t for him, Celestia thinks you would have been in far worse condition. It’s because of your dad that we were able to bring you back in one piece.”

“But…if I spent fifteen years there, why can’t I remember?”

“That was me. I had to separate that set of memories. The reason why I had to…um, that is to say…ugh.”

Twilight spent a few minutes trying to make the words come out, but nothing came. She started to rub her head and squint her eyes, probably thinking that would provide her with the words.

“Because,” Applejack turned towards me and took over the conversation while Twilight collected her thoughts, “somethin’ weird was happenin’ in your upstairs and it was doing something to you. One second you was walkin’ along complainin’ about headaches and the next you was passed out on the ground. You actually stopped breathing for awhile. But then Twi did somethin’ with all those memories in your head and it looked like you got better. She was hopin’ she’d have more time to find a way to put ‘em together before you started going downhill again.”

“So that’s where the exhaustion and the headaches are coming from?”

They both gave a nod.

“And all those dreams I’ve had; they were actually memories from when I was gone?”

“Twi thought it would take longer for them to start coming back. When you told me you dreamt about being with your dad, I knew something was off.”

“You see Rainbow,” Twilight now seemed to be more collected, “Your case is a special one. You have two different sets of memories currently residing inside your mind. Now, I thought I could combine them so you could have both sets, but something went wrong. I still can’t figure out what, but something happened and your two halves didn’t want to be a whole. I’ve been spending the last two weeks trying to figure out what’s going on and how I could fix the problem; but I still can’t find anything!”

“So wait, all this has been happening because there’s another me in my head? That’s what’s causing all the problems?”

“As far as I can tell.” Came her reply.

Don’t ask me why, but I burst out laughing; laughing much harder than I have in a while. As I was clutching my sides I could see concerned expressions on the faces of my two friends. Maybe they thought I had lost it.

“That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard!”

“Really? You seem…happier than I thought you would be. This is serious, you know.”

“I get that, Twi.” I finally calmed down and wiped a tear from my eye, a final chuckle popping out as I regained my composure. “It’s just, now I know what’s been making me all weird this whole time. And I know how to fix it.”

Twilight and Applejack shared an excited glance before simultaneously replying “Really?”

“Yeah. You just have to get rid of the other me.”

I thought their jaws actually would hit the floor from their reaction. Twilight was the first to snap out of it.

“What?! Are you serious?! You want me to take away the other you?!”

“Well, yeah. If that’s what’s causing all these problems, I don’t need it taking up space in my brain.”

“But…but what about all those wonderful years with your dad?! What about all that love and all those priceless moments? Don’t you want that?”

“Not really.” her jaw dropped again, Applejack’s seemed permanently stuck. “If it’s giving me this much trouble, I don’t need the extra baggage. Nope, just take out the trash, Twilight and I’ll be-” The pain hit me so quick I didn’t even have time to yell, all I could do was grab my head and fall onto the floor.

Twilight and Applejack quickly gathered around me.

“Rainbow! Rainbow, what’s going on?!” Panic was in Twilight’s eyes.

“Head…ache…” was all I was able to groan out.

“I know! She has some aspirin! Here, let me get it!” before Applejack could even leave my side to get the bottle, a final wave of pain crashed against my skull and I was out.

-----------

It did not take long for Twilight and Applejack to start freaking out.

“What happened Twilight?! Is it happening again?!”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!” before she could slip any further, Twilight took a deep breath, restoring her composure. All panic and fear left and determination took their place. “Okay! Let’s calm down. We got this! I’ve read plenty of emergency preparedness books. AJ, is she still breathing?”

“Yes, but she doesn’t look too good.”

“Okay, help me get her on your back.”

They struggled for a few minutes picking up the unconscious body of Rainbow Dash from the floor. However, they soon had her laid across Applejack’s back and they made their way out the door. While Applejack shifted her body to make sure Rainbow was secure, Twilight flagged down a cab. Soon they were loading Rainbow Dash into the cab with Applejack sitting in shotgun.

“I’ll make sure she reaches the hospital in one piece.”

“Good, now go! I don’t know how much time we have!” With a tip of her hat, Applejack sped away. Twilight ran back into the library and up to her bedroom; she started levitating the more informative transcripts into her saddlebags. As the books floated through the air, she noticed Spike was still asleep in his basket.

“Spike! Spike, wake up!”

With a snort and several groggy replies of “I’m up! I’m up!” Spike was more or less awake.

“Spike, I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia. Tell her that the Rainbow situation has escalated and she needs to send that team of experts to the Ponyville Hospital as soon as she can.”

With quill and parchment in hand, he quickly wrote out the message. “Got it! But what’s going on Twilight?”

After cramming the last possible book into her already crowded saddle bags, Twilght answered.
“Something horrible Spike, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

With that, she flew down the stairs and rushed out the door towards the direction of the hospital.

Meanwhile, Applejack was keeping a vigilant eye on the road, making sure the drive ponies stayed away from every bump and pothole that came across their path. They arrived at the hospital in record time; the drive ponies helped lay Rainbow across Applejack’s back. She trotted over to the door and slammed it open.

“ALRIGHT ALL YOU DOCTORS! I GOT A PASSED OUT PONY WHO NEEDS HELP! CAN SOMEPONY LEND ME A HOOF?!”

Almost immediately, a small team of doctors and nurses arrived with a gurney. No more than a few seconds after they had her off Applejack’s back and secured on the gurney, Rainbow started having a seizure. Applejack kept up with the hurried pace of the response team as they wheeled Rainbow down the long hospital hallways. Applejack was stopped by a security guard just outside the operating room.

“I’m sorry miss, but only patients and medical staff beyond this point. But the observation room is just through that door.”

With a quick nod, Applejack ran into the observation room. Through the large window she could see the doctors working to stabilize Rainbow Dash. They quickly started giving her all sorts of shots and hooking up all kinds of tubes, the little line on the heart-rate monitor sporadically peaking and rising all the while. As she stood there, watching her friend suffer, all Applejack could do was take a seat and start hoping for the best.

“C’mon now, Rainbow! I know you’re gonna pull through this! C’mon now!”

It was eight hours later when they had finally stabilized Rainbow. Thankfully, she now only had an IV in her foreleg and an oxygen tube running into her left nostril; an improvement from all the wires and tubes she had when she first came in. A small group of five ponies were huddled around the bed; all were watching the chest of the patient go up and down in tandem with the heart monitor.

“I can’t believe it! She stopped by the boutique only yesterday and she seemed perfectly fine!”

“Yeah, and just last weekend she spent all Saturday pranking with me. I had no idea she was feeling crummy.”

“When did this happen, Twilight? If you don’t mind telling us…that is.”

Twilight gave a heavy sigh as she made her way to one of the chairs against the wall; the other four ponies gathered around. “It happened this morning when she came to talk to me about what happened while she was on Earth.”

“But didn’t she remember?” Rarity pried, “I was sure you had said you were going to make it so, darling.”

“I know Rarity, but something went wrong and it didn’t work. What happened today in the library is what happened two weeks ago when we brought her back. Last time, I made it work by rearranging the memories inside her head.”

“Ooh! Ooh! Then why don’t you do it again!? That will make her better, right?!” Despite the gravity of the situation, Pinkie Pie was still bouncing up and down with unbridled enthusiasm.

“The thing is I did it before just to buy myself more time to figure out where I went wrong and how to fix it. I can’t go messing around in her head now; she’s already bad enough as it is. She doesn’t need me to go “fixing” things again.”

“Then what should we do, Twilight?” There was no fear in Fluttershy’s eyes as one might expect; but there was plenty of concern.

“All we can do is wait until the research team from Canterlot gets here. I got a response back from the Princess that they would be here as soon as they could.”

“But that was eight hours ago, Twilight!” Applejack stamped her hoof impatiently. “Them eggheads should have been here by now.”

“They are.”

The small group of ponies turned their heads towards the new voice. They all gave a bow as Princess Celestia walked into the room.

“It is good to see you my faithful student. I only wish it were under better circumstances.”

“The feeling is mutual your highness. I’m glad you’re here. Where’s the research team?”

“They are outfitting one of the examination rooms with all their equipment. That’s why it took us so long; you can only load so much on a royal carriage. The majority of the team members are enroute with their equipment on the train. I had to attend to a few other matters before I made my way here. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“So long as you are here, everything will be okay.” Twilight let out a sigh. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to some experts. Who came, by the way?”

“Headmaster Magus and Dr. Ink Blot; they are heads of their respective teams. They’re the best I could give you.”

“Thank you, Princess.” She turned towards her four friends “Keep watching her and let me know if there is any change.” And with that, Twilight made her way to the impromptu lab.

As she arrived, she could hear two loud voices from the other side of the door.

“Perhaps the spell was just improperly casted.”

“Magus, we’ve been over this already. You yourself stated it should have worked.”

“That doesn’t mean it still couldn’t be a possibility. At least it’s more plausible than your theory, Dr. Blot.”

“Now separate personas are just as plausible as a miscasted spell, Magus.”

They continued their quarrel, totally unaware of Twilight’s entrance. While the back and forth between two brilliant minds was usually a good source of entertainment, Twilight had work to do. She surveyed the two intellectual figures in front of her.

Headmaster Magus looked the same as when she had been under his tutelage: his coat a resplendent shade of royal blue, his mane a calming violet and, as he was want to do when he wasn’t in the classroom; he wore a simple professor’s frock. As for the good Doctor, his mane was the color of fresh hay, and his coat had the consistency of muddy brown. The other notable features regarding his appearance were the small tuft of hair he regarded as a beard, the pen tucked behind his ear and a pad hanging from his neck, various notes covering the topmost page. The two experts continued their banter, completely unaware of the new pony in the room.

“Come now, Blot. That’s expecting a tad too much from the scattered mind of one pony.”

“And what would you know about the limits of the pony psyche? I’ve seen ponies do things you would think unimaginable due to their disorders, while you just sit in that school all day doing parlor tricks!”

“Excuse me, sirs?” Now the two hot-tempered, yet age old friends finally took notice of the new arrival.

“Ah! Twilight Sparkle! It’s been years since I’ve seen you!”

“I know Headmaster, I’m glad you’re here helping me with this problem. And it’s nice to finally meet you, Dr. Blot. Your dissertations on the mind of a pony provided me with plenty of fresh insight.”

“I’m glad I could be of some service to your preliminary work. See Magus? I know what I’m doing.”

“Hardly, my friend.” Before they could erupt into another argument, Twilight took control.

“Now then gentlecolts, where are we?”

Magus and White both cast a concerned glance at each other before Magus answered.

“I’m afraid all we’ve been able to do is come up with conjecture. Without access to examine Miss Dash, we haven’t been able to test any of our theories this last couple of weeks.”

“However,” Blot cut in, “Now that that’s been rectified, I think we can finally knock off some of the theories on our list.”

“Indeed.” Magus concurred.

“That’s good to hear. I have some ideas of my own. Shall we get started?” With a nod, the three geniuses set to solving the peculiar conundrum that confronted them. After many long hours and even more cups of coffee, they were finally narrowing down the list.

“Alright then, what are we down to?” Twilight took another swig of coffee, her fifth cup that evening.

“Well, since Magus has thoroughly tested your magical prowess and every simulation has been positive, I think it’s safe to say we’ve ruled out magical error. So now all that’s left is a psychological explanation.

“And what’s your main theory, Doctor?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

“Well, Miss Sparkle, I believe it has to do with her two personas. You see-“

“Oh come now, Blot. That’s a shot in the dark, at best!”

“When you have convinced a rather arrogant stallion that he is not one or two, but three separate nobles from Canterlot without causing him to break out into a rather violent tantrum, then I’ll listen to you.”

He broke contact with his doubtful colleague and turned towards Twilight.

“Don’t ask, Miss Sparkle, that’s a case I’d rather not revisit-and just so you know, spoons are more dangerous than you’d think. The point is, when you’ve been in the field of psychology for as long as I have, you expect for there to be some faith in your abilities.”

He threw a hairy eyeball in Magus’ direction, “Especially when the other party knows nothing outside of levitating rocks and hurling balls of fire.”

“Fine, fine, just get on with it, Blot.” Magus took another swig from his mug before he began to pace the room, reviving his tired limbs.

“Now, the interesting thing is, I don’t think this is your garden variety split-personality disorder. Nor do I believe this is merely a case of errant memories. If it were one of the two, she would either be conscious and in some control of her mental faculties, or she would be slipping in and out of an amnesiac state. No, I don’t think this has anything to do with her singular psyche but those of her two personas. Unlike most cases where the dual existence is the result of a psychological defense mechanism, I believe the Miss Dashes don’t want to, or perhaps can’t, combine into one entity.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Dr. Blot.”

“I apologize, I’m not used to translating things at this hour of night. You see, it’s not that they are splits of one personality sharing a body, but they are two utterly separate ponies, each with their own lives and emotions. She literally has two ponies in her head. Now do you get it?”

She nodded for a moment, before realizing he still wasn’t making any sense. “Sorry, Doctor.”

With this, Blot rapped his head trying to find a better explanation. Upon finding one, his face lit up with inspiration.

“Let’s try this. Now at first you would think it’s a matter of two halves becoming a whole. But I think that they aren’t halves, but both are already their own whole. In other words, you’re trying to shove two pies into one pan, see?”

And now it made sense. “Fortunately, I do. Please continue, Doctor.”

“Now while that’s confusing enough for the body, just imagine what happens when those two ponies won’t share the one brain. Now, I’m sure that if they would cooperate, we wouldn’t have to worry about her having another episode. So, with that being said, all we can do is sit back and hope that this will right itself.”

With this, Twilight disappointedly put her head in her hooves. This was not what she was hoping for.

“However,” her head sprang back up as Blot continued, “We have to consider if both personas are actually ready to become a whole. You can give a pony some water, but that doesn’t mean they’ll drink it. If either Rainbow is not entirely ready to merge, it would be impossible; no matter how cooperative one of them might be.”

“Then what can we do, Doctor?” He put a hoof on her shoulder and tried to give an earnest smile.

“I’m afraid, Miss Sparkle, that we can’t do anything until Miss Dash wakes up. All I can make are educated guesses at this point. If she comes out ‘complete’ then we need only to monitor her to make sure her psyche is stable. But, if she comes out as one or the other, we need to figure out how to get them to allow the merge.”

“And how can we do that?”

“Well, if it’s the Rainbow from here, we would just try to convince her it would be a good thing for her. But, if it’s the other Rainbow…” his smile faded, replaced with a look of concern “I have no idea. Either she wasn’t ready or she didn’t want to. I believe that whichever persona comes out will be the one who still isn’t ready. And, if the other Rainbow isn’t ready…” his smile returned, bigger and more authentic than before “then I’ll do my best to change that!”

Despite the heavy atmosphere, a yawn was shared by all three ponies. While they didn’t have a clear solution, at least now they had a plan to follow.

“As I tell my patients, ‘The best thing for a mind is sleep.’”

“I believe my former student and I can agree to that, old friend.”

“Indeed. Good night sirs, we’ll talk more about this tomorrow morning.”

The three scholars left the room and made their way to their respective temporary furnishings. As Twilight made her way to her room, she passed several open doorways where she spied her friends all sleeping quietly in their beds. Twilight had been assigned the room across from Rainbow; just to make sure somepony was able to respond in a timely manner. As she passed by the doorway, Twilight poked her head in to check up on her comatose friend. Noticing Rainbow’s head was crooked, Twilight walked into the room and rectified the problem; Rainbow now in a much more comfortable position. As she stood there, watching her friend sleeping peacefully, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if she could hear her. With nopony around, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but I just wanted to let you know we’re doing all we can Rainbow. We’re going to help you out; both of you. I can only imagine what’s going on inside your mind right now…”