Being of Two Minds

by cosmofur

Talking to myself

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash where flying back to Fillydelphia, pulling the small git holding Red Wood and his son. Twilight was fretting about leaving the Stone Heart cultists back in Coltsdale without a real clue about what they were trying to do. She knew Princesses Celestia was worried and that was reason enough to rush off on this rescue mission, but the full story was still a mystery to her. Rainbow Dash was equally concerned and was much more direct in her questions.

“So now that we got them, what the hay, is so special about these two?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

Twilight whispered back, “I don’t really know, I don’t sense anything unusual about either of their magic. Red Wood is supposed to be a craftspony of some skill, his magic strength should be about the same as Rarities, but during that fight, he didn't even try to levitate a pebble or put up even a basic shield.”

Just then she was interrupted by a loud ‘Snnorkkkaaaa’ both winged ponies were jostled by surprise. The whole cart was rattled and jerked about for a moment as they regained their sync.

Turning her neck to look back, Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, “Sorry folk, a little unexpected turbulence! But you gotta expect that when flying the awesome skies with the one and only Rainbow Dash!”

Banyan’s eyes were wide and scared looking, having been jostled out of his funk from the sudden motion. He calmed down a bit, when Rainbow winked at him. Parker on the other hand was fast asleep and responded to Rainbow’s comment with another loud ‘Snnorkkaa’ snore.

“Your pop’s a sound sleeper, kid?” Rainbow asked Banyan.

Banyan shook his head, “No, he always catches me if I get up at night and try to sneak an extra cookie. I.. I'm not sure he’s really alright.”

Twilight joined their conversation, “Must have been some day for you. With all those scary ponies around.”

“No they weren't so scary, at least not as scary as the ghost.” Banyan told them.

“ghost? We didn't see any ghost!” Rainbow replied.

“Rainbow, there’s no such things as ghosts, you know that!” Twilight told her. Then turning back to Banyan, “What did you see?”

Banyan closed his eyes, he wasn't sure he wanted to remember, “Daddy was dead and it healed him.” He answered hoping she’d drop it.

“Dead!” Rainbow looked at Twilight questioningly.

Twilight tried to sound reassuring, “I know the fight was scary, and your father got a number of cuts on his back, but he’s not going to die, the cuts are not that bad.”

Banyan sighed, why didn't she understand? “No that fight was later, he died before when the bad pony stabbed him and ran away. There was a lot of blood and then the ghost told me he was dead but he was going to heal him.”

Twilight shook her head at Rainbow, “Can’t be right, no magic can bring the dead back to life.”

Rainbow asked Banyan, “Come on kid, why would the bad pony run away if he already stabbed your pop?”

Banyan told her, “I was hiding in the bushes, and I heard them talk for a long time about somepony they called the Traveler and the Visitor, the bad pony said something about my daddy having to leave his body so the Visitor can come. Then he stabbed daddy in the chest.”

Twilight started to frown, “Wait “leave his body” you're talking about possession, that’s one of the most controversial schools of magic, even the cultists wouldn't dare? Would they?”

Rainbow eyed the sleeping body or Red Wood, “We better keep an eye on this one Twi.”

Twilight nodded, “Agreed Rainbow Dash, though if he is the victim of possession, he not trying to hide it, he basically volunteered the information when we asked. I definitely want to talk to him more when we land.”

“Do you think my daddy still in there?” Banyan asked, pointing to the sleeping Red Wood. “The ghost said he would try to save my daddy when I asked.”

Twilight told the colt, “Banyan, you’re going to have to tell me everything that happened with that ghost. If its anything like magic possession I've read about, it should be reversible, but we’ll probably need Princess Celestia’s help.”

So Banyan tried to tell Twilight everything he could remember about the ghost encounter. He couldn't remember everything word for word, but he was able to give her a general gist of what was said, and she was especially interesting in how the ‘ghost’ seemed willing to sacrifice itself in an attempt to rescue Banyan’s father.

During this whole conversation Red Wood/Parker slept and as the hours rolled past, Twilight started to wonder why his sleep seemed unnaturally deep. She and Rainbow pulled the cart onto a small cloud and tried to shake Red Wood awake, and even then all he did was snore.

“Some spell keeping him asleep!” She told the others, “We need to get him to the hospital in Fillydelphia right away. Rainbow if you have another Rainboom in you, this might be time to try it out.”

Rainbow frowned at that, “Sorry Twi, I can’t do a Rainboom pulling a cart. Too much drag. But lets take off the extra weight like the cart wheels, I can get us there in two shakes of ponies tail. Just try to keep up, OK?”

“Right Rainbow” Twilight smiled.

Meanwhile deep inside Red Wood/Parker’s head, a different conversation was going on.

Parker had at first fell into a deep dreamless sleep, but after a while the natural patterns of sleep started to move him to a lighter more dream filled state, there he found himself once again in the mysterious white room he had briefly passed through.

This time, he was not as exhausted by events, so his mind was sharper and able to realize that this place was not normal. Everything in the room was white on white, but it had sense of solidness that a normal dream construct would lack. The main feature of the room was the standing mirror he had noticed the first time, but there also was some tables and chairs scattered at the edges of the room. On one of these tables Parker spotted a generic brand-less data pad.

Parker was becoming aware that he was in some sort of sleep state, a very realistic lucid dream, so he wondered if the data pad was usable or just a prop for the dream.

He was about reach for it, when from the corner of his eye he spotted movement in the mirror. Remembering the strange behavior of his reflection before, Parker turned to the mirror and looked at the strange pony in it.

“Your back!” the reflection exclaimed.

“What’s going on here?” Parker asked, none of this was in the plan.

“I don’t know” the reflection replied, “where are we?”

“I’m dreaming. You have to be part of my dream, but this is strange.” Parker told the reflection.

“Your dream? I’m not a dream I’m real! What happened to those cultists? Where’s Banyan?” The reflection asked urgently.

“Who are you?” Parker asked, already suspecting the answer, but not quite ready to accept it.

“Me? I’m Red Wood, I own a shop in Coltsdale.” Red Wood answered, but then turned his head to the side as if trying to get a better look at Parker. “You look a lot like me. Are you one of the guards Princess Luna was sending?”

“Princess Luna? Guard? No, no this is not right! You're not supposed to be here! The Doctor really messed up.” Parker sat on his haunches and stared at his mirror opposite.

“Come on! Please you have to tell me, where is my son! How come I’m trapped in here?” Red Wood pleaded.

Parker sighed, “Red Wood, what’s the last thing you remember?”

Red Wood thought for a moment, then he remembered the cult leader and his knife. “I think I was stabbed by one of those cultists that Luna warned me about. I must have passed out. How did you find me?”

“Luna warned you? Princess Luna? How?” Parker shook his head, “OK, think, we need to start at the beginning.”

“Princess Luna came to me in a dream and warned me that the Stone Heart cult was going after me. Something about them killing my wife ten years ago, except they didn't kill her.”

Parker saw Red Woods face fall into an expression of such pain that he reach out to the other pony, but the glass in the mirror was solid and he could only watch as Red Wood started to silently cry. “The cult did something to her, they cut off her horn! I didn't know! I didn't know! And now they got Banyan and I’m hurt and stuck inside this place. I can’t help him either can I?”

Parker felt helpless in the face of Red Woods grief. “I’m sorry, I don’t know much about what’s going on yet, but I can tell you that Banyan’s safe, he’s with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, there taking us to fillydelphia.”

Red Woods looked up with hope, “Who? Twilight Sparkle? Isn't that the new Princess? A princesses came to help us?”

Parker thought out loud, “You said Princess Luna somehow knew about the cult? She must have been the one to send Twilight.”

“What about you, who are you and why do you look like me?”

“That’s a long story, just say that due to a mix-up, you and I are right now sort of glued together. My name is Stewart Parker, and it appears I’m occupying your body.”

Red Wood was flabbergasted, “My body! What? How can you be in my body! I'ts mine! And what kind of name is ‘Stewart Parker’ that doesn't sound equine!”

“For now we seem to be stuck together, and I don’t yet understand why, the Doctor who healed your, now our, body was supposed to stick around and tell me what’s going on, but it disappeared. Leaving us both in the dark.” Parker really didn't want to go into more detail with Red Wood, what was he going to say? Red Wood should have been erased completely, not hanging around in Parker’s dreams.

“What now then? How come were stuck in this room? Where is here?” Red Wood asked.

Parker thought about that for a moment, “I think this room is a mental construct probably left here by the Medic, it’s too stable and solid to be part of a dream, but I got here by falling asleep. So here is at least partly a dream space. As for my name, it a normal one from where I come from, I’m from outside equestria.” Parker decided on not telling Red Wood the full story of him being a different species, “How long have you been in here?”

Red Wood paced around on his side of the mirror, “Its been hours, but I don’t know how long. If this is a dream, its more like a nightmare. I wish I could leave, but there's no doors or windows. You said twilight Sparkle was there, helping Banyan, do you think you can talk to her? Perhaps she can split us up?“

Parker shook his head, “I don’t know, unless she has a way to magic up a new body, and right now we have two minds and one body. She’ll be grilling me with questions when I wake up. Not sure how many I’ll be able to answer. Things are really messed up now.”

Suddenly there was a shaking and both ponies fell to their respective floors.

Parker said “I think the real world starting to break though, I’ll probably wake up soon.”

Even as he said this the whiteness of the room grew brighter and brighter, soon it was glaring bright and the room was washed out. “Here I go!” Parker thought to himself.

Outside in the ‘real’ world, a nurse was just tucking Parker/Red Wood into a clinic bed. The doctor on duty had inspected the unicorn’s back and after complimenting Twilight Sparkle with her first aid work, finished repairing the remaining injuries. He also told the two element of harmony that unusually deep sleep was probably due to blood loss and nothing to worry about, yet. So Twilight and Rainbow had taken Banyan to a waiting room while the nurses finished up with Parker/Red Wood. They were putting him to bed to sleep off the remaining effects of the fight.

Just as his head hit the pillow though, his eyes opened and he startled awake.

“Where am I!” Red Wood saw the nurse, “Please nurse! Where is my son?”

Deep inside the Unicorn’s mind, Parker looked around and found himself still inside the white room. Now the sole occupant.

“Uh Oh, not good.”