Being of Two Minds

by cosmofur

Hide and Seek

Red Wood's body had shaken once. There was no question it was not deliberate or due to possible confusion, they had spelled it out clearly, and he had said 'yes'.

Gentle Breeze was speechless, the question had been asked, and he had asked for death. There was some confusion in her mind of barrier between 'Parker' and 'Red Wood.' But she knew that whatever voice was talking, the spirit was the same. There was no doubt in her mind that Red Wood shared Parker's beliefs, that death was preferable to the alternative letting the Cult win another battle. The knowledge of how the Cults magic worked was just too critical to let slip away.

She slumped to the floor next to the hospital bed and shivered quietly. She also had reason to hate the Cult, but to give up the husband she had just re-discovered? For several heroic seconds she fought her emotions, he was being heroic, she should support him, but it was a hopeless battle. One she quickly lost, Gentle Breeze sobs and cries were soon echoing throughout the room.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, held her own emotions in check somewhat longer. Her analytical mind was thinking over the situation and the numbers were not adding up.

"Parker" She said, "I know you're feeling helpless and trapped in there, but this spell is not going to be some sort of easy escape. There's a reason this spell is called a 'brain block'' it's only used when the most evil criminals are withholding critical information that will cost lives.

"The last time Celestia used it was over three hundred years ago. The Baked Beans Bomber was a mad pony who had already killed several stallions, and had kidnapped the entire student body of a elementary school. He was holding them as hostages in some hidden cave rigged with explosive spell crystals. Even after being captured alive he refused to tell where the cave was and said if Princess Celestia didn't free him and pay the ransom, they would all die. He wasn't kidding and neither was Celestia. She used the spell on him, all his memories and knowledge was drained from his mind and into library crystals. They saved the students, and by chance the mad pony survived the spell. But there wasn't much left of him to really call it survival. His mind was blanked, he lost any sense of self, and had to be taught again like a baby how to walk and talk."

Twilight looked down at a page of notes. "Because we have a record of Baked Beans' mind, it been studied as an example of dangerous insanity by medical ponies ever since. Most ponies who know about the case, even think it as a successful example, the mad pony was raised a second time by skillful caretakers and lived out his life peacefully, even finding work as a shop clerk years later. A fine example of a successful intervention....I wonder if Celestia thinks that as well.." Twilight let her voice trail off quietly in thought for a moment.

Then with more determination, Twilight added, "But NO! Unlike most others I've studied the details of that spell. I wasn't honest with Celestia before when I said I needed to research it. I did so already, back a few years ago when I was considering how to use spells to reform Discard, I read over the Brain Block but rejected it. This spell kills, even if the body survives, the mind dies. What ever personality that eventually takes up residence is not the same pony. Even the cutie marks changes. I will not murder a friend to gain even a major advantage in a war. If Princess Celestia was truly in her right mind, she wouldn't even consider this." Twilight said the last of this with dark determination.

"Why do you think Princess Celestia not in her 'right mind'?" Gentle Breeze asked.

Twilight paused, she HAD said that out loud. She paused in her speech and fell to her rump, stunned by her own revelation. "I never doubted Celestia before. Not even when I knew she was wrong, I always assumed she had a hidden reason and bigger plan. Something changed."

Twilight rose back to her hooves and walked over to the window to look outside asking out loud "She's fought Equestrian's enemies before, but has she ever have to kill any ponies in battle?"

Gentle Breeze shook her head not knowing. "There's all sort of stories of her saving equestria against its enemies. Wars with the Gryphons, Changelings?"

Twilight shook her head, "Not ponies, at least not since King Sombra, who she trapped and did not kill. Maybe a hoof ful of times she's had to judge evil ponies and sentence them to life in prison or even less frequently to the gallows. But even then it was all formal, legal, detached."

Gentle Breeze scratched her head. "From what I've ever heard she was alway so cool headed, kind, and protective. But now she's so afraid of the Cult that she's willing to kill a good pony to gain an advantage over the Cult?"

I think she's not really afraid of the Cult, she's afraid of herself. Celestia never fights unless it's a last resort. She has others do the fighting. I've had to fight and even kill enemies of ponykind more frequently in the last few years, than Celestia faced in a thousand." Twilight said this as if it was a revelation to herself. "Those castle guards, some of which she considered friends, they were the first time in centuries, perhaps ever, that Celestia had to take lives in fear and anger."

Gentle Breeze looked over at Red Wood's body, wrapped in blankets and perforated with wires and tubes, the full revelation coming to her now. "She hates the Cult so much now, because they made her kill in self defense. She hates them enough to risk Red Wood's life."

Twilight nodded, her conflicting emotions morphing over her face in waves.

Gentle Breeze looked up at Twilight, "Then what can we do, Princess Celestia said Princess Luna will cast the spell when she awakens tonight."

"Then Red Wood and Parker can't be here when Luna wakes."

"How, we can't carry him with all this medical equipment." Gentle Breeze pointed to the hoses and tubes that were keeping Red Wood's body alive in it's catatonic state.

Twilight shook her head with a half smile, "No the problem is not the How, it's Where. I can easily teleport him out, but if I bring him to my Castle, Celestia or Luna will find us before we could possible make additional plans."

"How far can we take him?" Asked Gentle Breeze.

"Not too far, I can't bring him all the way to Canterlot." Twilight suddenly got a spark in her eye as she realized "I have an idea, but first we must draw up a plan."

"A plan?" Gentle Breeze looked confused.

"Yes! I need a pen and paper because I'm going to make A CHECKLIST!" Twilight announced brightly.

Gentle Breeze felt the need suddenly to back away nervously.

"This is what I need you to do first...."

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About four hours later, Princess Celestia was talking to a sleepy eyed Princess Luna as they slowly strolled from her private room towards Red Wood's. "..I understand your reluctance but you have to agree Luna, that without a complete understanding of this alien magic, we are severely handicapped again the Cult."

Luna nodded sleepily, "I understand in principle the issue my sister, but I dread the idea of doing harm to an innocent, particularly one who has already suffered at the hooves of the Cult."

"I will do everything in my power to make sure he survives the spell, there is more advanced medicine available than the last time it had to be cast. And afterwards, we'll do everything to make his rehabilitation as successful as possible."

Luna shuddered, "Even at best, the Parker and Red Wood we knew would be gone. Perhaps we would honor their memory better by granting them the calm of death. This is an evil spell my Sister and I am loath to cast it."

Celestia looked forward with a steely determination. "Harden your heart my sister. This is for the good of all of equestria. We can not allow the Cult to gain control of one of us....again."

At this point the two sisters had left the hallway and found themselves at the doorway to Red Wood's private room. The guards that Celestia had asked to be assigned, were not in sight. She asked herself out loud, "Where's Twilight? Where's Gentle Breeze?"

Stepping into the room and seeing an empty bed, "Where Red Wood!" Celestia called.

Luna acted first, turning back to the hallway, "Guard! Guards! Report to us at once!"

The two royal guards that had been down the hallways came running. "Your Majesties!"

Celestia gave the two guards a firm eye "Tell me my ponies! Where is Princess Twilight and the patient that was in this room?"

"The Princess? She was here just a short while ago." One of the guards stuttered, "but the patient was taken by some nurses to be x-rayed."

Celestia speculated, "X-rayed? But his condition was purely mental and magical, there was nothing wrong with him that would show up on an X-Ray." Celestia was a master of the controlled expression, and rarely let emotions mar her face, but with just a twitch of her eyebrow the guards felt as if she was dressing them down like a veteran drill sergeant. "Describe the nurses that took Red Wood." she asked.

Stuttering the guard said, "There were two of them an earth pony and a unicorn, the unicorn was mint green with a cyan main, the other had a beige coat and a blue and rose mane. I didn't see their cutie marks they were wearing nurses uniforms. Oh, there was one odd thing, the gurney wasn't one of hospital's normal ones. I think it was one of the carts the candy stripe ponies use to bring treats to the patients, just with a folding trundle bed laid on it. With so many new ponies in town for treatment, I figured they had just had to improvise."

Celestia nodded, "Bon Bon? hmmm perhaps I should say Agent Drops, and her marefriend Lyra!"

Celestia paused for only a few moments, then she narrowed her eyes into her angry face. One that had sent more than a few worldly and experienced diplomats racing for the nearest bathroom to keep from embarrassing themselves. "I should have kept a closer eye on Twilight!" she fretted. Then to the guards and her sister. "We have to find Red Wood! In some misguided foolishness, Twilight must have ordered the two fake nurses to hide him away."

A few questions to the hall nurses, the royal group soon realized they had just missed the escaping gurney and it was just left this hall via the central elevator. So they were going to have to search nearly every floor. Luna flew out the nearest window and went to guard the main entrances, while Celestia and her guards rode the elevator, looking for signs of the escaping unicorn or Twilight.

Celestia started from the highest floor and made the elevator operator stop at each going down. She and her guards would gallop out and many ponies looked out of their hospital rooms in shock seeing the Princess racing up and down the corridors.

On the third floor she spotted an odd looking pony, dressed in a costume that was half candy stripper and half nurse. She was just turning down a side hallway and seemed to be pushing something before being lost behind the corner. Celestia cantered to the side hallway but it was an empty dead end, Then Celestia heard the sound of some party horns being blown behind one of the nearby doors, she quickly moved to open it, and got a facefull of confetti. Wiping the streamers off her face and out of her eyes, Celestia looked around and found the hall empty again except for a suspicious bouquet of 'get well soon' balloons.

On the next floor, Celestia spotted a oddly boxy gurney, covered by a blanket in one of the side passage. There was no sign of Lyra or Bon Bon, but they were not far from a service stairway. Could the two mare friends try to carry the heavy unicorn stallion down those stairs by themselves? Celestia was dubious, even if Twilight had established some sort of communication with Parker, he wasn't able to walk and carrying him down the narrow stairs would have been noisy and difficult.

Turning her attention from the stairs, Celestia looked back at the gurney. Like the guard had said, it appeared to be a candy cart converted into a temporary gurney, it probably originally belonged to Bon Bon. Then to Celestia's surprise, she realized that the heavy blanket on the cart was far too lumpy. Had they abandoned Red Wood? Perhaps once they realized how hard it would be to escape?

Celestia moved closer to the gurney, while her guards stood on either side and pulled back the loose blanket.

Laying under the cloth was a gray coated wall eyed pegasus with a wild blond mane.

With a guilty smile, the pegasus handed Celestia a pastry and asked, "Muffin?"

Celestia cry of "TWILIGHT!" was heard as far away as the town's central fountain.

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

More than an hour earlier, Twilight had already teleported Red Wood's body out of the hospital and briefed Lyra on the need to lead Princess Celestia on a false train. Lyra had agreed and said she would recruit others to help.

Once Lyra mentioned that she would get advice from Pinkie Pie, Twilight had not doubt that Princess Celestia would be led on a merry chase far from where she was taking Red Wood. She hadn't taken Red Wood to her castle, or the homes of any of her five closest friends. Even the large open spaces of Sweet Apple Farms would not have been remote enough to hide for long. So she had chosen the home of another friend, one she was close too but who had much fewer interactions with Princess Celestia.

Thinking about this, Twilight took another sip of tea, her eyes glancing across the hut at the prone form of Red Wood's body in a rustic bed where Gentle Breeze was fussing over him and making sure he was comfortable. Sitting at the small table with her was Zecora, the local zebra shaman who over the years had been nearly as much a mentor to her as Celestia, but as far as Twilight could recall, the two had barely ever met, even though the zebra had earned frequent mention in many of Twilight's old 'Friendship Reports.'

Zecora said "Your story fills me with woe for the folk of ponyville.
I tried to investigate but guards rejected me with zeel.

I wish you had come to me with your strange notions.
though I do not know this magic specifics
My Zebra folk have much experience with potions.
Working together we may come up with a cure terrific."

Twilight nodded and pointed to the paper with the alphabet on it. "It took some time, but Parker told me that he thinks the Cult is misusing a medical technology of his world to re-create the effect of the original Cult spell."

She continued, "It seems his race can create very tiny machines that fix their brains by going inside there heads and manipulating things directly." Twilight laughed in amusement with the idea, "of course magic doesn't work like that, but it's amazing that this alien technology can duplicate the effects so closely."

Zecora looked serious for a long moment then walked over to her small bookshelf. Twilight watched as Zecora seemed to be searching for something, her hoof pausing on the cover of 'Supernaturals, natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply super' then reaching behind pulling out a very different looking book instead.

The book Zecora brings over to Twilight is clearly not of pony origin, but written in layers of bleached banana leaves and bound with wooden hoops, though it heavy wood bark cover. As the zebra brought it closer Twilight tried to read it, but saw it was written in a zebra dialect, one she not familiar enough to read on her own. "What's this Zecora."

The zebra answered,
"As we of the zebra clans lack horns to cast
we have seeked other ways for magic's grasp.
Some very wise elders more knowing than I
learned secrets never shared with pony eyes."

She opened the book to a page where there was strange picture. It was a strangely gray mottled picture, as it made from some sort of photographic camera, rather than hoof drawn, but the subject of the picture was a boxy object with dangling legs. It looked artificial and seemed be very complex.

Twilight was confused, she noticed that Parker, though Red Wood was blinking his eyes and shuddering, Twilight held the book up so he could get a clearer view of the confusing image, and Parker started to shake even more. Clearly he recognized the image, but it didn't mean anything to Twilight, she turned to Zecora, "What is this in the picture?"

Zecora looked at the picture and explained,
"This strange picture, is a long held secret mystery.
Made by the mixing of magic both zebras and pony.
It is very very tiny and they fill both the air and water.
Also many are in every living thing both child and sires."

Twilight asked, "Very tiny? Like a virus or a disease?"

The zebra shook her mane no,
"Far from a disease, these are not random or manic,
they carry the power and force we call magic."

Twilight nearly fell off her chair, "These things are the carries of magic!?"

Zecora nodded. "Even wisests don't know how they work, so I can't gloat.
but they are what holds up your books when you make them float.
They can change the color and what you see when you glance.
They even bend space and move you from place to place."

Twilight protested, "That can't be true! Things that small can't have the energy! Magic isn't little machines floating in the air! I can't believe it."

There was sudden grunts and shaking from the bed.

Gentle Breeze called over, "Princess Twilight! Something wrong!"

Twilight dropped her tea cup and shot over towards the bed, while Zecora followed at a more sedate pace.

Seeing the wild look in Red Wood's eyes, Twilight levitated the alphabet paper up and let him spell out his thoughts.

I - T - - - T - R - U - E - - - D - D - N - T - - - K - N - W - - - D - D - N - T - - - L - O - O - K - - - 4
N - A - T - V - - - N - A - N - O - - -
I - M - P - O - R - T - N - T - - - A - S - K - - - I - S - - - T - E - R - E - - - A - - - R - E - S - E - T - - - C - O - M - A - N - D - - - O - R - - - R - E - S - T - R - T

Twilight looked over at Zecora who shrugged her shoulders not knowing the answer.

Twilight asked "Reset command? Restart? I don't know of anything like that. It would be nice if there was an all purpose stop command for spells, but as far as I know there no way to make a spell just go back to it original state."

Gentle Breeze looked up, "Wait, original state? Is that what he needs?"

Twilight nodded, "I guess, even something 'Smart Cookies Reverse Magic spell' doesn't work on self sustaining spells like the Cults Curse.

Gentle Breeze looked thoughtful, "Well that's one way I can think of, but I don't know if we can do it."

"What's that?" Twilight asked.

Gentle Breeze looked down at the body of her husband and said, "We re-cast the curse."