Parker looked around helplessly in the dark.
The illusion that passed for light inside the virtual chamber that he had called 'home' for several months now, was failing. He could still feel the walls, if he bothered to reach out to touch them. That was a small comfort, as it meant he still maintained a sense of having a body separate from the physical one he and Red Wood shared. But he knew now that even that illusion was going to fail, and soon. Then nothing would separate him and Red Wood, and for all practical purposes, both of them would die. Their Id's lost in a storm mixed memories. Something new would probably come out of it, but it wouldn't be either Red Wood or Parker, and Parker doubted it would be sane.
Just because the light had failed, didn't mean he couldn't see. If he was 'close' enough, he could see individual objects, like the display mirror and the log book, but the spaces around them remained pitch black. Worse, the thinning of the walls between Parker and Red Wood was letting Red Wood's nightmares slip in. The nightmares were Red Wood's. Currently Parker's only sense of this vision was through foggy view of a young Red Wood being chased through an endless forest by faceless flying ponies. It was a common theme of many of the nightmares, being chased and unable to escape. Parker who unlike Red Wood had grown up with a childhood full of splash horror movies and thrillers, found it tedious and monotone.
For a while he had managed to separate himself from Red Wood's fear by trying to crack jokes and laugh at the unimaginative cheap horror tricks the Cult's Curse was using to torture Red Wood, but his jokes were only heard by himself, and provided no relief to Red Wood. The barrier between him and Red Wood was still too thick for meaningful communications and less jaded native unicorn had next to no protection from the unending bad horror images, like an unending monster movie matinée.
Elevated adrenaline and hormones were wearing Red Wood down.The consequences were starting to add up. Even so detached Parker could tell that their shared body was sicking. Yet he still had no way to reach either Red Wood or the outside world, and could only watch the shadowy nightmares.
Periodically what passed as Parker's eyes would flick over to the where the 'magic' mirror still stood in the darkness. The dull red of inside of Red Wood's closed eyelids would be all he could see. Sound was also a problem, Whatever way the sound system in his simulated space was tied to Red Wood's audio nerves, it was being affected by the nightmares. Parker was pretty sure there were nurses and doctors trying to talk to Red Wood's body 'out there' somewhere, but when he tried to listen in, their voices would be mixed into the nightmares as roaring thunder or crashing rock slides. Only his limited detachment from the dreams allowed Parker to realized these were the voices of ponies talking, but Red Wood clearly had no clue and it was impossible to glean meaning out of the noise.
Perhaps worse, sometimes he would sense something touching or shaking them as a shadow of feeling. Parker had a pretty good idea that it was probably comforting touches or hugs from Red Wood's family or friends. Though the dim images of Red Wood's dreams, Parker could tell that the curse was twisting these gentle touches to horrific clawing and strangling. One particular hug that Parker was pretty certain was from Banyan, was interpreted by Red Wood's nightmare as a giant horned bear, strangling him in the dark forest. The curse released the dream bears grip only when Red Wood's cries of terror were reaching such an extreme peak, that Parker suspected he was in danger of waking himself up. The Curse must not have wanted to risk that, so it faded away the bear and replaced it with an only slightly less scary fallen tree crushing his body.
"It's been hours at least, if not days. If only Red Wood would fall into a real sleep, then we might be able to switch places. It would let me give him a break for a while." Parker thought to himself as he noticed with mild interest that the chasing Pegasi had been swapped out for timberwolves. "Oh make that badly animated and flaming timberwolves." Parker shook his head sadly, "What next sharks with lasers strapped to their heads?" Unable to tell Red Wood how ridiculous his fears appeared, Parker could only shake his imaginary head.
Closing his eyes to the B rated horror images, Parker sat on the floor and concentrated on the background noises, trying to make sense of rumbling noises. "Sounds like the words are stretched out, like a recording played too slowly." He thought to himself.
Then with a sudden insight, "too slowly? Or perhaps I'm listening too fast? Right! Red Wood is stuck in 'dream time' and that subjectively faster than real time. No wonder I can't make out what anyone is saying." Parker stood up and felt around in the dark for the 'log book' the Doctor had left him. He had managed to figure out the books simple word processor's macro language, along with the raw technical documents the Doctor had left, had given him some limited control of the simulated environment. Up to now, he had mostly used it to add furniture and simple amusements like a deck of cards to the simulation. But there were other more complex things that should be possible. "There's a sound recorder macro. If I can find the playback api and speed it up...maybe I can use it to understand what the doctors are trying to tell us."
It took Parker just a few minutes to slap together a simple program. Open a sound recorder, send the output to a FIFO file pipe and then when the buffer was full, use the memo playback app with the speed set to four X.
The sound was a crackly mess of noise, and he had to tweak the playback speed a bit to make out the words, but after a few tries, he heard a pony's voice for the first time in what felt like a week.
A crackly and too deep voice said, "Daddy Please wake up!"
Parker would have smiled at the success of his sound experiment, but the pure sadness in Banyan's voice told him how desperate the young colt was.
The quiet pleas from Banyan continued for a long while, Parker felt his heart breaking for the little lost colt, but what could he do? He wasn't the one in control. Parker leaned against the mirror trying to make out shadows though Red Wood's closed eyelids. Leaning over in annoyance, he banged his head against the display's hard surface.
"Ow!" oh that hurt! He had hit the display harder than he had expected in the dark.
When Parker did that, a female voice sounded out. It was no pony he could put a name to. The sort of background pony voice that he had heard a thousand times before with no association with a particular pony or place. "Banyan, that's enough for now, he seems to be in pain, perhaps we should let him rest."
Banyan's voice seemed to come from a greater distance now, and Parker could hear him say, "Sorry Lyra, I'm just trying to wake him up."
Suddenly there was the sounds of gentile music, some sort of soft harp music was playing. The female voice replied, "Waking him up is a good idea, but gently, gently. We don't want to cause your daddy pain like that."
"Lyra? A harp? Harpstrings? That's a major background pony! " Parker thought to himself. "I never met her and she didn't have many speaking parts in the show but that must be her. I wonder if she's anything like the fandom stories? Not that it would mean much, there were so many different stories. Wonder what she would say if I told her I was human?" Parker's avatar rolled its eyes. "Not that I can say anything. At least until Red Wood falls asleep, if he ever does again."
Parker sat next to the mirror listening to the gentle music for a while when suddenly something odd struck him. "Lyra had suddenly stopped Banyan saying Red Wood was in pain. Why? She had let the boy cry for a long while before that, what changed?"
Parker took a second to realized, "I banged my head! Is Red Wood's body is reacting to my virtual pain? Can I use that?"
Gritting his teeth, Parker purposely banged his head again, and listened for a reaction.
A shadow passed over the closed eyelids and Parker could tell there was movement nearby. A back and forth movement, some pony was stroking Red Wood's head. Then a new voice hushed "Please darling it will be alright."
Parker knew this voice, though he had only heard it for the first time a few days ago. He wasn't sure what he himself thought of this voice, but a calming feeling flooded over Red Wood's body in reaction to it. It was Gentle Breeze and even in madness, some parts of Red Wood were able to react to her presence.
Parker banged his head again. This time he even felt a little of the feedback as Red Wood's body jerked.
Lyra spoke in reaction first. "He's having convulsions! I'll get a nurse!"
There was several minutes of hushed whispers around him, but Parker wasn't sure what to do now. All his efforts weren't helping much, all he seemed to be able to do was scare them.
He heard a nurse come in and talk, followed soon after by a doctor and a few confusing words from what sounded like Twilight.
Parker thought to himself, "Twilight! She's here. But how can I communicate with her? They just think Red Wood is having a fit."
-----------------
Outside of Red Wood's head and in the hospital room, Twilight had joined them a few minutes after Gentle Breeze and was shocked to see Red Wood shaking in his bed.
"What's happening, she asked the floor doctor."
He replied, "I'm not sure, I didn't think he was so far gone to start having convulsions yet."
Gentle Breeze gasped as the word 'yet' and several ponies eyes turned to look at Banyan who stood to the side, his eyes open and shaking in fear.
Twilight reacted first, "Lyra! Please take Banyan to the waiting room. Reassure him we'll do everything we can for his father! But this is no place now for a young colt!"
Nodding Lyra led a speechless Banyan away, he followed without protest until he got to the door frame, there he clung to the door for a full minute until Lyra could coax him away and down the hall.
The doctor and nurses continued to take vitals but didn't seem certain what to do. "I don't see any cause for these shakes and I don't want to give him a muscle relaxant in his state." the doctor mumbled.
Twilight didn't approach the bed, but stood a short distance away, looking worried but also doing something a bit odd. She was counting. Every time Red Wood's body would spasm she would start over, as if counting the seconds between attacks.
One of the nurses noticed this and shook her head. "He's not pregnant! You don't have to count contractions!"
Twilight shook her head, "No! that's not what...."
Before Twilight could explain herself further, all eyes in the room where drawn to a new face that entered through the door.
"Princess Celestia!" all the ponies gasped in surprise. The doctor adding, "Your not supposed to be out of bed yet!"
The Princess looked very glum but with a shake of her mane, she looked sadly at the frail pony in the hospital bed. She didn't look long, just enough to see one of the spasms wrack his body.
"Princess Twilight!" Celesta intoned with a commanding voice. "I fear we are nearly out of time. As skilful as these doctors and nurses are, I judge that Red Wood has passed the point of possible recovery."
"No! Princess Celestia!" Twilight started to object, while Gentle Breeze stood stricken silent.
"I have more experience with this than anypony else." Celestia talked over Twilights cry. "My judgement in this is not up to debate. The Alien Parker has too much valuable knowledge that is directly related to the current crisis. We need that knowledge before their shared body expires.The Brain Block spell must be performed before Red Wood dies."
Gentle Breeze who up to now was just listening in shock, completely collapsed to the floor in grief . "I thought I had more time" she mumbled as one of the remaining nurses kneeled down to comfort her.
While Twilight was silent in the face of Celestia's certainly, one of the doctors replied with a shaking voice. "A Brain Block spell? that's a compulsive truth spell! That only used on criminals! And only if there lives at stake! In his state, there no way he could survive that! Please Princess he's not yet so far gone! We still might be able to save him!"
Hearing the doctor confirming her own thoughts, Twilight tried again to protest. "Princess Celestia! Please remember, even when he was only partly free of the Cults spell, he managed to rally and save lives! All those students in your school! They would have died if he hadn't gone to help them, moments after his first treatment! We have to give him a chance!"
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, "Twilight I know you considered him a friend, I too spent many hours talking with both of them. But Equestria in danger, this has to be done."
Before Twilight could object again, Celesta put up her hoof. "I will not ask you to perform this spell, that would be cruel and my own strength has not recovered sufficiently to risk casting it myself."
Twilight sighed in relief, "Then no one can cast it, it's takes Alicorn level magic to cast it."
"You are forgetting my sister, Princess Luna is also here in Ponyville." Celestia replied.
Twilight looked around, expecting Luna to show up at the mention of her name. Celesta followed her gaze and replied to the unasked question, "No she is not here right now. Daytime is not her best hours, and she was already exhausted from the events in Canterlot. I sent her to bed just a few minutes ago."
Celestia turned her gaze from Twilight to Gentle Breeze, "Dear Gentle Breeze, my heart goes out to you, this is a terrible situation for all. I wished to leave you with hope, and now I have been forced to smash it. I apologize, yet you still have some hours now until Luna awakens. Please stay here and comfort Red Wood as best you may."
Lastly as Celestia turned to leave she told the Doctors, "I will return to my room. Please do what you can for Red Wood, I fear it is too late. It will take a miracle to save him, but miracles sometimes do occur. Keep me informed of any change in Red Wood's health."
"But...!" Twilight mumbled in whisper as Celestia left the room. Then dejected she lowered her head to the floor and quietly sobbed, echoing Gentle Breeze. "She didn't even let me ...."
For a while they sat next to each other quietly. The doctors and nurses, not finding anything they could do, left the room quietly.
Twilight let her mind drift as she watched Red Wood's body continue to shudder, it felt wrong in ways she was having trouble articulating, even to herself. She continued to count the seconds between shudders, saying the counts quietly as if they meant something.
After a while of this Gentle Breeze noticed Twilights counting and asked with only mild interest, "Why do you keep counting like that?"
Twilight replied, "I think, there's a pattern. Several short pauses then several long ones. All to the same count. It is like he's doing it purposely. I don't think what we're seeing are pain spasms at all. I was trying to tell Princess Celestia but she wouldn't listen."
Gentle Breeze cried "What!" Then ran to Red Wood's side. "Red Wood! Red Wood! Are you doing this? Can you hear me?!"
Twilight followed Gentle Breeze to Red Wood's bedside. "Wait Gentle Breeze, we have to handle this logically. I need a quill and paper! Spike! oh! Wait, he's in the castle."
Confused but understanding the call for paper, Gentle Breeze opened the side table next to the bed and found some old medical logs. The pages were blank on the back, and there was a stubby pencil as well. "Here Princess!" She said, handing them over.
Brightening up with the paper in her magic, Twilight smiled and announced, "Check List! "
She speaking as she wrote, she outlined her plan.
[ ] Establish that Red Wood is not in real pain, but is trying to communicate with us.
[ ] Find out if he can understand us and establish two way communications.
[ ] Get Red Wood to wake up.
[ ] Prove he's not dieing, so Princess Celestia won't kill him for Parker's knowledge!
[ ] Stop the Cult from ever doing this to any pony again.
Gentle Breeze asked "How can we do any of that!"
With a smile Twilight turned to Red Wood and asked, "Red Wood, or Parker, which ever pony can hear me. Shudder once for yes, and twice for no. Are you in pain?"
Red Wood's body shuddered twice, then stopped moving.
Twilight giggled in excitement! "Great! I can check off two items on our list at once!"
While Twilight happily fiddled with her checklist, Gentle Breeze rushed forward again and cried "Darling! You can hear me?"
One Shudder.
"You need to wake up!" Gentle Breeze cried, "If you don't wake up soon...." she let her voice trail off, then turned to Twilight, "Please Princess Twilight, tell Princess Celestia he's awake! Tell her to no let Luna cast that other spell!"
In agreement Red Wood gave off another single shudder.
Twilight nodded "Of course I will." But then she looked worriedly towards the door. "I'm not sure that will be enough. Princess Celestia seemed awfully determined. She's still fighting off some of the curse effects. I'm not sure she's going to listen to me."
Twilight then turned one of the blank pieces of paper over and started to write block letters and numbers on the edge of a large circle while saying, "We'll talk to Luna when she wake up, right now we need to establish better communication than just yes and now questions."
Once she had the diagram finished Twilight held it up in the air in front of Red Wood and asked, "Can you see this?"
Two Shudders.
"No? Why? Oh! Your eyes are closed. Can you open them?"
Two Shudders.
Twilight looked disappointed, "Well let me try this." With a gentle glow of her magic, she lifted one eyelid? "Does this hurt?"
Two Shudders.
"Can you see me now?"
One Shudder.
Twilight then 'blinked' the eye by opening and closing the eyelid rapidly. "Have to remember to do that every few seconds of your eyes will dry up. Give me three quick shudders if your eyes start to feel dry."
One Shudder.
Twilight happily clopped her hooves together. "OK now when I have this paper held up like this, you're going to use your shudders to help me spell out words." She demonstrated by moving the pencil around the drawn circle. Shudder once I'm near the letter you want next, then shudder again when I'm pointing at the exact letter to confirm!"
Twilight then sat next to the bed and started asking questions. "FIrst question, are you Red Wood or Parker?"
P - A - R
Gentle Breeze interrupted, "Parker!? No! Where's my Red Wood!"
Twilight tried to calm her down. "We'll get to the bottom of this! Don't worry!"
A - S - L - P
"Aslp?" Twilight frowned at the misspelled word, "Oh Asleep! Wait, if Red Wood's asleep, then you should be able to take control right? Why can't you open your eyes?"
N - G -T - M - A - R - - - N - T - - - T - R - U - - - S - L - E - E
"Some sort of nightmare? Not True Sleep?"
One Shudder.
Gentle Breeze asked, "I've heard stories of Princess Luna helping foals with nightmares. Maybe she can help?"
Twilight looked thoughtful but Parker made Red Wood's body spasm several times in disagreement. She held the paper up again to let him explain.
T - O - - - D - A - N - G - R - S - - - T - R - A - P - - - L - K - - - B - E - 4
Twilight nodded, "Too dangerous, right Princess Luna once got into their head with a dream walk spell, and ended up getting trapped for a day in their body. It was a bit funny, but this is not the time to risk Luna trapped in a stallion's body. Celestia still can't take over the moon again like last time."
Gentle Breeze blinked at Twilight in confusion, "Not only is my husband's body hosting an alien, Princess Luna has been trapped in there as well!" She looked down at Red Wood, "This can't be real!"
"We got her out the following day." Twilight explained.
Twilight returned to asking Parker more questions and slowly, tediously they managed to get a picture of what was going on in Red Wood's head. It took over two hours just to have a 'short' conversation.
One Shake.
"You, Parker, are in the magic waiting room able to see and hear everything going on but have very little control of his body. Red Wood is stuck in a waking nightmare and is being kept from hearing or seeing the outside world by the curse incorporating any thing he hears or feels into the illusion as noise or something scary. Waking him up will require getting past that part of the Curses defences, somehow."
Gentle Breeze interrupted, "Do you think the crystal treatment might help? We can't let my Red Wood keep suffering!"
Twilight shook her head, "No they already tried that, the curse it not trying to reach out for more power now, it working internally. Much harder to starve it out. Somehow we have to overwhelm it or out think it."
Twilight then turned back to her list and read, "Continuing Parker, the main reason Princess Celestia feels she needs to use the memory spell is because you have knowledge about the curse that may be useful." She paused to look at Red Wood's body to see if he shuddered in disagreement, "And you agree with her?"
One Shudder.
Twilight sighed this would have been easier if she been able to show Celestia that Parker didn't know anything and wasn't worth the risk. "OK you say you know something about how the curse is deployed and you think you have some ideas on how to fight it?"
One Shudder.
"Perhaps you can explain it to me with this alphabet chart?"
Two Shudders.
"No? You need to explain why not?" Twilight held up the paper again.
N - E - D - - - D - R - A - W - - - C - H - R - T - S - - - 2 - - - C - O - M - P - L - C - A - T -D - - - U - - - N - E - E - D - - - 2 - - - S - T - O - P - - - C - U - L - T - - - F - A - S - T - R - - - T - H - A - N - - - C - A -N - - - E - X - P - L - A -N - - - T - H - S - - - W - A - Y
Twilight looked down at her papers and sighed, "You know answering like that is basically volunteering to have Princess Luna do the Brain Block Spell on you."
One Shudder.
Gentle Breeze stepped closer and put her head on Red Wood's chest. "Parker Please! That spell is terrible, only the maddest criminals are subject to it. It might, no not might, probably will kill both you and my husband!"
One Shudder.