Being of Two Minds

by cosmofur

Too late to Change Minds

Red Wood was screaming his lungs out, and with the exception of Solid Star, every pony present seemed frozen in confusion and surprise. Even Solid Star who had expected some sort of reaction wasn’t prepared for the shear agony on Red Wood’s face.

Doctor Somnolence was the first to recover and started giving orders to the nurses present. “Get him off Gentle Breeze! No keep his head inside of the field! No move her to the side, pull, to the right, yes, higher, again, a bit closer to me.” With the doctor’s instructions, the nurses and guards managed to flip Red Wood off Gentle Breeze’s chest, and found just enough room for him to lay next to his wife on the bed. But Red Wood wasn’t laying quietly, it took all the strength of the nurses and the two guards to keep all four of Red Wood’s legs pressed down, while he thrashed and cried.

Princess Twilight took the longest to react, but by only a few seconds, physically she wasn’t going to try to pony handle a grown stallion and it would be dangerous for her to use magic too near the Polyfield Damping Crystals. Her high level magic could shatter the crystals and she was pretty sure that would be fatal to both Red Wood and Gentle Breeze. Instead she threw open the door, and called out to the hallway. “Orderlies! Bring us a gurney or another bed! Quickly!”

One of the nurses asked out loud, “Why is he reacting to the PDC field?”

Doctor Somnolence grunted a reply, “He must have been touched by the cult’s spell! We’ll figure out the how later, now we have to get him stabilized.”

The doctor’s eyes fell on the nearby potion bottle that they had used on Gentle Breeze a few minutes earlier. The nurse followed the doctors glance and levitated the bottle, she started damping another sponge with the potion.

“Forget that!” Grumbled Doctor Somnolence, he ripped the bottle of potion from the nurses grip and turned it over, onto Red Wood’s face. The unicorn was drenched with the caustic smelling potion. His mouth had been open in a frightful scream and much of the potion flooded in his open jaws. Red Wood sputtered and choked, but the doctor held his muzzle closed and rubbed the ponies throat forcing Red Wood to swallow.

“Easy now, easy.” Somnolence whispered.

At this point, two earth ponies in blue scrubs burst into the room, one pushing a crash cart, the other a wheeled gurney bed. They paused with questioning glances as they tried to access the situation.

Twilight stepped forward and directed them. “We just need the gurney for now, put it next to the other bed. We’re going to try to roll Red Wood onto it so his thrashing can’t hurt Gentle Breeze.”

Doctor Somnolence only afford a small glanced up as he was concentrating on the two patient ponies, said “We have to be careful, neither ponies heads can be allowed to exit the PDC field. Even for a second. They are both at a very delicate part of the procedure, and if they leave the field, there is no maybe about it, they will die.”

Then the doctor turned his attention to the junior alicorn, “Princess Twilight, I will need your help, we have to move two the crystals to the far side of the gurney. But they aren't configured and charged properly to expand the field, they need more power, and its more than I can afford. A PDC field spread over two beds will need more power than any normal unicorn can cast.”

Twilight nodded understanding the doctor’s meaning and pulled over her quill and paper to calculate how much power the crystals will need. She mumbled about inverse square roots and units of pony lengths.

Spring Kicker asked, “Can we get some more crystals and just setup a new field around the other bed?”

One of the nurses answered for the doctor, “No PDC fields are magnetic in nature, two fields near each other will repulse and knock the beds apart, there would have to be big gap, and any gap would kill the patient as we moved them from one field to the other.” Both the doctor and Twilight nodded absentmindedly at the nurses explanation while concentrating on their respective tasks.

Soon Twilight had finished her calculations and the nurses had fixed two IV polls with mounting clips to the far corners of the gurney. Twilight stood on the far side of the gurney and slowly added her magic to the crystals. Barely a trickle at first as the crystals moved further apart she would increase the energy to keep the field steady. One guard and one nurse was assigned to each of the two crystals that had to move. Following Twilight's steady counting they carried the crystals very slowly, allowing her to adjust the power as they moved.

Meanwhile the doctor monitored the two patients, both of which still shook in pain, but no longer thrashing around. Red Wood was cuddled up with Gentle Breeze, holding her, as they hadn't extra straps to tie him down, but they both seemed much calmer now.

Finally the crystals were in the right positions and the field was holding steady. Twilight though had to keep feeding power to them. What ever storage capacity the crystals previously held was now burnt out and they were now acting only as pass through transmitters for her alicorn power. She couldn't afford to move or drop the magic until the doctor said it was safe. Already she was sweating, feeling the slow drain.

“How long do I need to keep this up?” She asked the doctor.

“I’m afraid we've just started, it’s going to be at least three or four hours for this first treatment. In the future we’ll be better prepared, but Mr Red Wood’s case certainly wasn't expected. Will you be alright Princess? We can try to get some more unicorns to augment you but at this power level, unless its another Princess, I doubt an ordinary unicorn could last more than a few seconds.”

Twilight fixed her eyes at a spot on the wall to ease concentration and nodded. “No more than four hours please. I should be OK. Guards, please make sure we’re not disturbed for anything less important than a changeling invasion. “

After a pause Twilight added with a ghost of a smile, “Strike that, if Changelings invade, tell Luna it’s her turn this time.”

The two guards saluted and took up posts by the door.

Meanwhile Doctor Somnolence, having satisfied the two patients were as comfortable as possible, moved back to the tray and picked up the folder holding the pictures of the Coltsdale Massacre. He took one picture out and held it up.

At first neither Red Wood or Gentle Breeze would open their eyes to look, and the doctor stood there patiently waiting. Gentle Breeze was the first to open her eyes just a crack. Seeing the picture she gasped, “Green Vines! No!” Then her eyes opened wider, “Uncle Running Lines!” She started naming the bodies in the picture,

Her gasp made Red Wood startle and he looked as well, “The mayor, I saw his body before, in the mirror, I .. Parker tripped over it… but where are the pegasi? I swear I saw a flight of pegasus?”

The doctor shook his head sadly, “You have to learn the difference between your real inner voice and the spells lies. Over the next couple of hours, we’re going to go over evidence of the Cults crimes, each time you’ll hear the Cults spell telling lies about the crime, but because you're in the EPC filed, you should now have no trouble telling the difference between your own thoughts and the spells. As you learn the difference, you’ll find the spell will fade. It’s going to take a long time, weeks, for the spells voices to fade completely, but even after this one treatment, you should be able to detect the difference.”

Gentle Breeze tried to look away, “No! It’s not fair! The Stone Heart was family. Why did they lie?” But some deep need for truth made her open her eyes again. The internal battle inside her mind played on her face in tears and jeers.

Red Wood didn't know what think, this is what Parker had been telling him, but he was so certain Parker was wrong, but now, it was as if there was stranger whispering in his head, telling him things that no longer seemed to make sense. Before the voice was so much like his own, that he had mistaken the voice for his own thoughts. Now he could tell the difference the voice still whispered to him, telling him about the attacking pegasus and the wonderful rescue by the Stone Heart, but it was faint, alien and lifeless. How could he have ever believed it. In numb minding shock he was dizzy about just how little control he had been over his own thoughts.

Twilight meanwhile watched the events unfold in front of her, the changes in the emotional state of the two ponies was shocking. She saw nurses had stepped back to take notes and were following each gesture and motion made by the doctor carefully. It took a few seconds but Twilight realized that the nurses were not just helping Doctor Somnolence, but were being trained in the techniques he was using. “Of course, if it takes so many hours for each patient, then Somnolence, can’t personally treat all the cultists. The nurses will take over for the others, we were just lucky he started with Gentle Breeze and Red Wood was….Oh no!” Twilight realized that she hadn't fully grasped the consequences of Red Wood’s condition until now. And now she was trapped, unable to leave this room for hours.

“Maybe I can call on of the guards back in and have him take a message to Celestia.” She thought to herself.

“Princess Twilight!” The doctor’s voice spoke up urgently. “Please concentrate the field is showing some serious fluctuations!”

Twilight looked at the wildly flashing colors coming off the crystals. “No!” With an effort she stabilized the field again and the crystals flashing slowed. “Can’t worry about it now she thought, can’t let myself be distracted!” So Twilight continued to concentrate on the stability of the EPC field and refused to let her mind voice the questions she had bubbling under the surface.

Outside in the hallway the two royal guards, stood vigil, but curiosity made Spring Kicker ask. “Solid, how did you realize something was up with Red Wood, I thought Princess Celestia herself cleared him?”

“I wasn't certain, until I saw the fear of that EPC field in his eyes. But last night when you were asleep, I overheard Red Wood talking to that other pony in his head. I couldn't hear everything they said, and I could only hear Red Wood’s side of the conversation, but what I did hear, didn't sound right. Plus how he described being tied up, didn't match how we found them. It was too pat. Their cuts and wounds were too surgical, made to look bad but nothing like the wounds we saw on the pegasus bodies we found. He just felt all wrong.”

“Strange though that he was able to fool the Princess so long.” Spring Kicker said.

“So long? What do you mean?” Solid Star asked.

“Well Princess Twilight said that it takes weeks for the Cult to brainwash any pony. They only had him for a few hours, so they must have gotten to him earlier. Probably a plant from when he first came to Canterlot? Right?”

Solid Star wondered out loud, “I really hadn't thought about that, but no, I've met him a number of times, escorting him or his other self, Parker, to the Princess. He never felt so ‘wrong’ until we got back from Sea Del Mare. If the Princess hadn't said it was impossible I’d say they got him just yesterday.”

Spring Kicker looked worried at Solid Star, “She did say it was impossible, but Red Wood wasn't the only pony they captured…”

“The guards! Crimson Paytral? You said she was acting strangely.” Solid Star spoke softly but his voice was tense.

Both guard ponies looked over their shoulders at the door to the patients room. “We can’t interrupt Princess Twilight. You heard the doctor before, she drops that magic field, the two ponies will die.” Spring Kicker said.

“Then we must go to the palace! We have to leave our posts, Princess Celestia has to be told. The guards may be corrupted!”

The two guards took off and ran down the hospital hallway towards the nearest stairwell.

But as they passed a large open window, looking down over the bustling streets of Canterlot, the first bombs set by Red Wood the previous night started to go off, the guards paused to look. Smoke floated over the nearby business district, even as the rolling echos of the explosion faded, the screams of injured ponies could be heard.

Their message to the Princess would not come soon enough.