//------------------------------//
// The Oracle dances. 
// Story: Being of Two Minds 
// by cosmofur 
//------------------------------//

Red Wood charged, his body was his only weapon, and he could move it like a rag doll or a club, tossing it at the monster he faced. He seemed to have caught the Inkanyamba by surprise. The bloody lizard horse expected its prey to flee, not fight. For a few dumbfounded seconds it stood there, trying to look menacing, howling and hissing. 

If Red Wood had really been in his body properly and not just floating above it, there was no way he could have kept up his courage. The Inkanyamba was the combination of every instinct that should have made a pony flee in terror, snakes, blood, wolf and predator. But with Red Wood senses dulled, his mind disoriented, and no sense of smell, the terror magic of the Inkanyamba had no power over him. 

As he sped towards the monster Red Wood spun on his front hooves and kicked with his rear. A nearly perfect buck, expect his missed. The Inkanyamba ducked on the first kick and Red Wood’s legs came down ineffectively on the back of the creatures neck. With a flick of the thing’s long snake like neck, the unicorn was flung into the air, flipping and rolling. 

By all normal measurement of time Red Wood was knocked back twenty paces in two seconds, except things were not normal, Red Wood wasn't really in his own body and everything became peculiar when his body was flung through a particular spot in space about ten feet off the ground. A spot that no normal pony senses would have noticed. There was a strange feeling of disorientation and that invisible point over his shoulder from which he had been observing the fight, suddenly seemed to get caught on something. He watched in confusion as his body was flung away, while his point of view got stuck in place. 

Looking closer trying to see what was holding him back, Red Wood noticed a distortion on the air. It reminded him of the effect heat waves had on a sunny day. Except it was dark and the distortion seemed to be spinning, like water swirling down a drain. A hole in the air, crying out in fright but making no noise, Red Wood felt himself pulled down into the hole

The world seem to stretch and fall away,  for a long moment his vision was completely dark, but most strangely he heard new voices, ones that he had never heard before.

“Mission director here, all departments, go, no go.” spoke the first of these voices, it sounded male and full of pops and static like from a badly copied phonograph. 

There was a flood of responding voices, some male some female, all staticy and distorted. 
“ETA here, go.”
“Com Link here, nominal go.”
“Thermo here, go”
“MSM here, shields nominal, go.”
“RSR here, hold, repeat hold.” when a female voice said this, the rest suddenly went quiet.
The first voice returned and asked. 
“Director here, RSR what’s the issue.”

The female voice replied. “I’m getting back pressure readings from the portal. Numbers are inline with a solid object overlapping it.”

A number of the voices seemed to reply at once then.”

“A bird?”
“Scan said we’re ten feet off the ground.”
“Can we get a video?”
“No! At current download rates, it take 20 minutes to get even a thumbnail.”
“The upload rate is at full thousand TB sec, we can reprogram some of nano’s to look around and give us a judgement call.”
“Hold one, density is changing I think it’s moving away, download bandwidth is so slow, it was probably nothing, or an animal that moved away already.”

The original voice returned, “Portal Control here. We’re going to give it one minute, if it stays clear we’ll pick up the countdown from the hold, otherwise we’ll reset until we have more data.”

That was the last voice that Red Wood could make out, before his vision suddenly returned and he was bouncing on the ground. 

He shook his head, realizing that whatever had just happened, it had woken him from his dreamstate. His vision was no longer from over his shoulder but definitely and painfully coming from his real eyes. He had no time to even think about the confusing voices, the Inkanyamba was just a few body lengths away and moving.

Red Wood tried to stand, it was as if knives had been driven into his spine. Inch by inch he got to his hoofs and turned to look. The Inkanyamba was still on the other side of the clearing, pacing back and forth, growling challenges. It was then, for the first time, the smell hit Red Wood, it was the rusty iron smell of pooled blood. The fear washed over Red Wood like a wave on the sand, it seemed impossible that he would have the strength to withstand it. The Inkanyamba teeth reflected the moonlight. Red Wood start to turn, to run, to be herded.

And as he turned from the monster, Red Wood saw another set of eyes. Eyes watching him in the bushes. Watching him, not the monster, familiar purple blue eyes that he had seen both in his dreams and his waking world for ten years. The eyes of his son, they eyes of his wife.  Bayan was still hiding in those bushes and if Red Wood had ran this direction, he would have led the monster straight towards his son! 

“NO!” Red Wood called,a sudden coldness filled Red Woods heart, he would not endanger his son! With absolute cold control, Red Wood slowly turned away and stared straight into the Inkayamba’s eyes. 

The Inkanyamba growled at the pony, and Red Wood whinnied back. Not a sound of fear, a battle cry. Magic was forgotten, only anger and the will to protect his own, filled Red Wood’s heart. He stamped his hoofs and then took off at a full gallop, any pain from his back injuries , forgotten.

Red Wood continued his charge, his horn leading, no magic just a deadly sharp spike, he smashed head first into the side of the monster. He felt his horn break the skin of the abomination and some part of him relished in the gush of black red blood that splashed over his neck and shoulders. The Inkanyamba screamed in pain and anger. Ponies didn’t fight! Ponies always ran! The monster didn't know what hit him.

It was hurt, but not down. The long snake like neck swung like a club and knocked the unicorn away, perhaps not wisely as Red Wood’s horn did even more damage as it was forcefully withdrawn. Bloody sweat had always dripped from the Inkanyamba’s scales as part of its fear magic, but now its real life black brown blood was pouring out in a gush.

Red Wood was knocked across the clearing, his body rolled smashed against thorny bushes and his skin torn against sharp sticks. He was jerked and pulled around, disoriented and motion sick. There was a snap and one of his legs bent the wrong way. His leg was on fire! He couldn't move and the Inkanyamba turned to look at him, anger in the deadly creatures eyes. 

Red Wood lifted his head and stared into his enemies eyes.  The Inkanyamba stared back, it took a step towards the pony, hate and pain in its glaze. The thing slipped on blood and stumbled as it tried to move towards Red Wood. One step, two, it whined, it slipped again, then as the thing came nose to nose to Red Wood, it let out one last whine and with violent shudder, the monster fell. It’s eyes rolling up into its head.

With one last whimper, the monster fell still, bleeding out on Red Wood’s hoofs.

Even as Red Wood lay, not ready yet to try to stand, breathing heavily and watching his enemy for any signs of life. He heard some movement across the clearing behind him. Painfully he shuffling to kneel on three legs, he kept his body between whoever was behind him and his son, then Red Wood motioned with one hoof to Banyan to stay hidden. The familiar eyes, wide and scared looking, withdrew back into the bushes.                                                                                                              

For several long moments Red Wood stood there, making sure Banyan was well hidden, then he turned around and was surprised by two sights. He mostly expected, at this point, the troop of strange ponies that were stepping into the clearing. The Cultists had found him, they must have been drawn here by the noise of their fight. What Red Wood didn’t expect was the light show that was going on in the middle of the clearing.

Coming from an invisible point, about ten feet off the ground, a shower of white sparks was falling into the middle of the field. It was dense and bright, throwing sparks like an arch welder, but there was no smoke and all the sparks fell coldly to the ground, forming a growing pool of light. 

The cultists, nearly twenty ponies strong now, seemed more interested in the light show, than in Red Wood. He thought he might take a chance to escape in the distraction, he turned and tried to slip away into the shadows. 

If he had all four of his legs, he might have made it, but stumbling on three, made it slow going, too slow. The first cultist, one who stood ahead of the the others and wore the brightest colored robe, noticed Red Wood and called loudly. “Behold, the traveler has brought himself to the appointed place! Just as the prophecy said he would. Look! He has proved his worth by conquering the beast! Brothers! Prepare him for the foretold arrival!”

Red Wood heard the words of the Cultist and tried to hurry his pace, but had gone hardly two more paces before three burly earth pony cultists, slammed into him and pinned him to the ground. 

“Let me go!” Red Wood screamed, trying to buck and kick but with his injuries and weakened state, he had no chance to shift even one of the three earth ponies, not to mention escaping from all three. Belatedly he tried to ignite his magic and feel for any rocks or sticks he could levitate as clubs, but as soon as his horn started to glow, one of the burly ponies just banged his horn with his hoof. The sharp pain broke Red Wood’s concentration, perhaps professional guard unicorns could cast when pinned but Red Wood never had that sort of training. They dragged him to the center of the clearing, just next to the pool of light.

As ropes were tied around his legs the leader of the Cultists stepped closer. “Ahh, the master craftpony. Yes we were expecting you. All this has been foretold and you have come at the perfect time to face your destiny.”

“Shut up!” Red Wood spat at the leader. “I know you’re the ones that killed my wife! Whatever your sick plan is, the Princesses already know about it and a squad of Pegasus are on there way here now!”

“We know about the Princess and the Pegasus!” The leader sneered as he said ‘Princess’, “The feather heads will not be here for hours yet. As for your former wife? You should be proud of her, she had proved useful, nearly as useful,” The leader paused dramatically, “ As you will be.” 

The leader turned to talk to the other cultists, calling two unicorns closer to himself for a whispered conversation.

Pinned to the ground by the three ponies, Red Wood could just lay there, his eyes taking in the cultists appearances and garb for the first time. There seemed to be about twenty of them, a little more than half were earth ponies and the rest, including the leader were unicorns. Red Wood figured the leaders reference to ‘feather heads’ made it unlikely that Pegasuses were welcome. They all wore a strange ritualistic looking outfit,Toga wrap of light cloth that covered their flanks and cutie marks and was tied with a midriff belt and around just their left front leg. A second wrap of cloth over their heads, covering their mane and hid their eyes. The cloth must have been thin enough to see though but it effectively hide their identities. Even the horns of the unicorns were wrapped in white cloth. 

The leaders, and there seemed to be several of various ranks, stood out by wearing colored neck wrappings, the more gold thread elaborate stitching, the higher the rank. The one with the most gold and seemed to be the one who spoke the most. Red Wood couldn't tell much about him, other that it was a stallion unicorn with a mostly yellow coat and blue tail.  He did notice one oddity that made him also stand out, his horn was sharper than average with the tip having worn its way through its wrap. 

The leader Having finished giving instructions to the two other unicorns, the leader spoke again, directing most of his attention to his followers, but also gesturing and motioning to Red Wood as if trying to engage him. 

“Many years ago, we received a message from the future, one that spoke of who would come to this land. This visitor would bring gifts of knowledge and power. We the faithful was informed by the Stone Heart, we knew that we had to be the ones to lead the visitor, to guide him and direct him. We had to make sure his gifts would only go to the deserving.”

“Let me guess!” Red Wood yelled out, “and you get to decide who the deserving is going to be?” Red Wood had called this out, not because he cared anything about whatever the mad cultist was blabbering about, but he wanted to show that he wasn't completely licked, some sort of defiance. 

The cult leader didn't so much as pause, he just gave Red Wood a nasty glance, and continued. “Ahh! but the Traveler doesn't yet understand the role he must play. He must be shown the prophecy so he can start to understand the depth of the honor that is granted to him.”

The leader gestured to the two unicorns he had talked to before, “Come brother, sister, you witnessed the latest prophecy of the oracle, let the traveler see and hear the truth from the oracle’s mouth.”

At a gesture from the leader, the two unicorns came out of the crowd. They tapped their horns together and stepping apart a magical image started to form between them. A glowing square of light not unlike a movie screen. One of the earth ponies holding Red Wood down, forced his head to turn towards the screen,making him watch.

In the image a moving picture formed and sound echoed in the clearing. While the image was clear, wherever they had recorded this, it was dark. There was just a handful of tiny candles and a medium sized fire pit to provide light. It was in some sort of cave with an earthen floor and white crystals like quartz embedded in the walls.   Around the fire was a troop of ponies, Red Wood recognized the cult leader nearest the fire, but most were unidentifiable. 

Two dancing mares came into the view.  The lighting was so bad that at first Red Wood could only see them as shadows, but as they drew closer to the firelight he could start to make out their form and color. Both were earth ponies mares, with white coats and nearly identical pink manes. They kept dancing around each other, gesturing, almost touching then backing away. At first Red Wood didn't see anything strange about how they were dressed, which was just the typical nothing at all, then he started to notice the bells and jewelry on them. It would have been less revealing had they remained nude, glued on gems and pierced jewelry, were layered and encircled their flanks and nether. While a thin chain of gold anchored around their hips pulled high their tails.  The effect was to draw prurient attention and turning common casual nakedness into dangerous nudity. Red Wood could sense, that this was no Sunday picnic of a religious group, there was something unseemly, dirty, sexual going on here. Uncomfortable Red Wood tried to squirm, but the three guards on top of him, wouldn't let Red Wood look away.

The two dancing mares worked themselves into a sweaty frenzy, the surrounding thong, both inside the magic recorded image and in the real clearing, hooted and cried out with louder and louder animistic calls. Their motions became intense, orgasmic. Droplets of their sweats flung like rain, flickering in the firelight. More than just sweat, they drooling from their mouths, and dripping from, elsewhere.

Suddenly the Leader in the image, singled the dance was over. The two mares ran off to the side of the image, Red Wood figured they were done, but a few seconds later they dragged a third mare back with them. 

Dragged was the right description, the third mare seemed to be fighting them. Red Wood couldn't see the new mare clearly, not ever her color, as they didn’t bring her very close to the fire. Forced to stand in front of the flames, he could only see her silhouette, and it was disturbing. The mare was bald, all her mane had been cut off, and she only had a stub of a tail. Red Wood couldn’t tell if her coat had been shaved, but he wouldn't have been surprised. The two formally dancing mares, held the new one tightly, touching and fondling her, but she seemed intent on ignoring them. 

The cult leader and one of his robed followers stepped up and carried with them a bowl and a large cauldron like bucket. The leader pushed the bowl into the mares face, telling her to drink from it. The mare didn't answer with words, but spat at the leader, who ignored the assault. With the aid of the two dancers, the leader forced the mare to drink, much of the liquid spilled but apparently the Leader was satisfied that she drank enough. The three dropped the mare, who fell to the ground choking and gasping. 

They waited, while the two original dancing mares returned to their gyrations, but now in tight circles around the choking mare, making sure she couldn't leave or escape. After a few minutes the mare slowly rose to her hoofs and started to sway with the other dancers. Not joining them, but no longer fighting them. Red Wood could tell she had been drugged. 

The leader now took up the larger bucket and after making many mystic passed with his hoofs over the cauldron, dumped it on top of the drugged mare. Red Wood couldn't make out much from the liquid that was dumped, at least at first, it was thick jelly like, running in globs down the mares body, the bit of color he could see was green, but mostly it was transparent and full of bubbles. 

The liquid slowly molded itself to the mares body, not a drop dripped to the ground, magically it seemed to flow up as well and down and around. The mare continued to dance seemingly unconcerned about the ooze, at least at first. 

After a few moments, Red Wood could tell the liquid was pooling around specific parts of the mare’s body, namely the orifices, all of them. She started choking, her air cut off as some of  the slime squirmed it way down her throat, others seem to be finding entry elsewhere. Leaving the mare squirming wildly flinging her body around.

The cultists were again shouting, urging the goop onward, the ooze seemed to draw strength from them. It movements over her form became throbs. Pulse or waves running visibly though the liquid. Red Wood could tell that the mare was trying to fight off the effect, her hooves were trying to pull the stuff away from her, but it clung and pulled back. Each thrum of the gunk made the mare scream in disgust and protest. 

The ooze was winning the fight, mare was slowing her protests and was starting to buck her body in tune. The hoofs that before were pulling the foul stuff away, now seemed to be intent on rubbing herself. Red Wood shuddered in disgust as his own body reacted involuntarily to the sight of the mare’s first clear orgasm. 

He wanted to turn away, this was beyond disgusting, beyond torture. He tried to turn his head, but the three earth ponies that pinned him down wouldn't let him, he did get a glance at them and saw that they were not trying to hide their own excitement from the obscene scene. They were not alone, looking at the crowd around, about half the cultists were openly enjoying themselves adding their own foul smells to match the obscene images on the screen.

Unable to turn away, not even allowed to keep his eyes closed, Red Wood looked back at the screen and saw the mare writhing around. Her body betrayed her as she gave into the assault. More and more of the green liquid disappeared into the mare, leaving her only coated in a thin shiny film of the stuff. With a scream of either pain or ecstasy, she shuddered and fell still.

In the image, the cult leader again moved forward and putting a hoof in the air over her head, she floated up, like a puppet on a string. 

“Tell us the future!” the leader demanded of the mare.

With no sign of spirit in her body or eyes, just her mouth moving on it own, a voice came from the mare. It was un pony like, dead sounding, punctuated with animal grunts and growls.

The Visitor will arrive in a shower of light.
The Traveler will be a maker of sound.
Who plays nothing but starts the fight.
Death will start the Traveler’s journey profound.

As the mare growled her rhyming phrases, images seem to float smoke around her. Not many of the image made sense, but a few were clear.

The dead will awaken, new of mind.
The wealth of worlds spread before.
The flying ones will be caught blind.
The faithful will profit from the war

Above the mare were Images of war and ponies fighting, with a river of bits flowing into reaching hooves.

The visitor will bring knowledge untold.
Towers of steel, and birds of metal. 
of lightning caught on strings of gold.
And magic to make the masses controlled.

Now the images seemed to be of city scapes, large flying craft in the sky above. 

The faithful will trade in life and death.
The faithful will harvest from the visitors grief.
The faithful will control who is blessed.
The faithful will seize what the princesses posses

A blood red sky floated above the mare, with shadows of falling winged ponies.

The visitor will fight the faithful.
The visitor will serve the faithful.
The visitor will aid the rule of the faithful.
The visitor will give the crown to the faithful.

In the image now appeared rows and rows of the cultists, far more than where here. Standing in a pyramid formation, the leader in front holding a sharp pointed crown. At their feet were innumerable piles of pony bodies, either dead or bowing down to the cultists.

The faithful will guide.
The faithful will hide.
The visitor will find the pariah.
The visitor will free leadership.

The close up image now was of the cultist laying in piles of gold, with chained servants, dressed like the first set of dancers but more numerous, fanning the cultists, feeding them fruit,  and serving their bodies in all possible ways.

To summon the visitor follow these rules.
The Traveler’s body must be made empty.
Faithful depart beyond one hundred chains.
No soul may see, the visitor is wary.

This last image was of star charts, clocks and an arrangement of geometric lines that might have represented maps.

With this last word, the mare seemed to fall from the leaders magic grasp and collapsed on the ground. Gasping and heaving she vomited out the vial fluid, gallons of the stuff, no pony went to help her and she lay in her own filth, too exhausted to move. While the others, not just the other mares, but the whole troop of cultists danced around her. Slowly she crawled closer to the fire pit reaching for some some comfort from the warmth. 

It was only then that light reflected clearly on her head. There was a shiny spot there, a flat hard spot. The mare was a unicorn, not an earthy pony, and her horn had been cut off.

Red Wood screamed, shouted and yelled, but no one cared. The whole group of cultists where dancing along with the ones in the image. Their victory declared by their oracle. 

Red Wood looked at the image again, of the mare collapsed again at the edge of the fire pit. Looking for any proof of what he feared wasn't true, but seeing nothing that helped him know for sure, until tears blurred his vision to uselessness. 

The cult leader call out to his follower to calm down. 

“Soon my friends, soon all this will come to pass, but we have duties yet to perform.” 

The leader walked over to Red Wood and with a gesture from one hoof told his guards to roll Red Wood onto his back. All four of his legs where stretched out, he was completely helpless and exposed. 

The leader ran a hoof along Red Wood’s belly finding a splotch of wetness there he wispered, “Ahh, the Traveler approves of the oracle’s performance? “ 

Red Wood tried to flinch away, disgusted. 

“Not surprising, she is pretty but she’s not for you.” The Leader continued, “The oracle may only consort with the appointed leader of Stone Heart, perhaps when  the Visitor is here, I’ll let him taste the oracle’s sweet honey as a reward for aiding us. But you’re not the Visitor, you’re the Traveler.”

The cult leader stood up and from some hiding place in his robes he gripped with his magic something thin and shiny.  Brandishing it he called out loudly, “The oracle message was clear! We must depart this clearing, no soul may stand within two hundred chains when the Visitor arrives. That just under a half mile, we will re-group at our meeting point, then return here when the deed is done to welcome our guest.”

The cult ponies started to file away, back in the woods and out of sight. Only the leader and the three guards remained, holding Red Wood down so he couldn't move. One had a hoof over his muzzle so he couldn't even cry out.

The leader looked up at the waterfall of light that was still pouring out of an invisible hole. It seemed to be slowing down now. Taking that as a single, he tuned to Red Wood. “Dear Traveler you are greatly honored, but like the oracle said, NO soul may remain, and that I’m afraid includes yours.”

With a flash of magic, the shiny thing the leader had been brandishing, resolved itself into a large knife. Red Wood only got to see it for a moment, before it plunged deep into his chest. Even the hoof on his muzzle couldn't silence Red Wood gurgling scream, the pain was intense, he couldn't breathe, couldn't move, but after a prolonged dozen seconds or so of agony, it went away. Along with everything else. 

Red Wood was dead.