A Tale of Two Minds

by AcesCalifornia

Chapter 8 - Second Opinions

Chapter 8

Second Opinions

If Doc Rapid was given a bit for every emergency visit to the Willow Springs estate, she'd have two bits, which isn't a lot but it was weird that it happened twice.

In such a short period of time at least. Usually, if an ailing pony had required medical intervention, a family member would take them themselves to a centralized hospital. Rapid Aid's service of flying out to meet those ailing ponies was unique to her due to her flying speeds.

However, the speed of her response also heavily depended on if she had been out seeing a previous patient before being called again, and that was what caused her delay in responding to the patriarch of the local Apple family this evening. After the usual visit to the post-office to inform the staff there of her return, she had arrived back to her clinic to find standing at the door Champlain Apple who practically jumped at her when she came into view. Rapidly explaining the entire situation that the family had now found themselves thrust back into.

So now she found herself flying at quick pace back towards the orchards of Willow Springs, Champlain in tow from the ground. While in the air, she couldn't help but be struck with the strong fascination in this family's sudden ailments, at least if she could call it that? Turnover appeared to not be injured in any way after what happened to him, maybe Lobo got off from whatever this was much the same? This didn't seem to fit anything in her medical knowledge, nor did the meteorological knowledge of her cousin have any bearing to this matter. And quoting from a short she once saw at a bit-odeon, the same strange anomalous thing happening twice definitely felt more pattern than coincidence.

What also ate her up inside as she continued on-route to Willow Springs was the fact that because of the delay to first meeting Champlain, Lobo had been under effect of whatever this affliction was for 40 minutes up to this point, and every minute more until she arrived to the farm-stead was a minute longer than a time that would sit well with her.

Meanwhile, at the farm-stead, Turnover and Melissa kept their promised guard of Lobo until the arrival of Doc Rapid. Picking up the same comforting position they had with Lobo earlier in the day at the cave, sat beside their sister, a hoof softly stroking Lobo's back between her withers. They could at least begin to see Lobo returning to her senses gradually, as the strokes being administered loosened the tension the pony held in her back.

At this point, the medical pegasus crested the top of the forest beyond the farm, approaching in a straight line towards where she would land on the front lawn. The first that Turnover and Melissa were aware of Rapid Aid's imminent arrival was actually the frantic sounds of galloping from Champlain as he rounded the corner from the path leading into the farmhouse, Rapid Aid landing with a speed enough that she had to quickly transition from flight to a canter slowing until it turned into a steady trot forward, while Champlain chose to roughly stop with a skid on his front hooves.

“Hello there Mister Turnover!” the pressing nature of the situation clearly not breaking the cheery tone of the doctor's introduction as she trotted closer towards the kennel's fence, continuing “We have to stop meeting like this!”

But from there, the doctor transitioned into a more serious, professional tone as she turned her head and attention towards the second pony within the kennels. “And hello to you too Miss Apple, I trust your brother is keeping you company well?” to which Lobo responded with a slow, unsure nod.

“Now, your father's told me a lot himself, but you know how I work, I like to hear from the source themselves. So do you think you can tell me about what happened?” Doc Rapid asked, angled at Lobo presenting as neutral and friendly as possible with an invitingly warm smile.

“W... Well... Ah can try doc'.” Lobo responded, with a sniffle stating the end of that confirmation. She took a moment to recollect herself, rejecting Turnover's hoof from her back with a quick flick to the side, and sitting herself up. “Ah was 'ere with all the pups, it's... been a rough day ya' see... When all of a sudden, this mighty-as-all-tartarus flash happen'... then... Ah honestly cannot tell ya.”

Lobo seemed to take another moment to think to herself, tilting her head down diagonally to stare absent of focus on the ground as she assembled her thoughts. “Ah reckon... Ah weren't myself for a moment there then...”

She darted her head back up however after finishing that statement, with a weak but sincere smile on her muzzle as she capped off her statement. “'Least, Ah don't feel hurt... So, Ah think ah'm gone be okay doc.” That statement more than any dripping with the most confidence she had up until this point.

Rapid Aid reacted with a huff of dissatisfaction at the answer provided by Lobo. She had held a kernel of hope deep down that the two incidents she had now attended were not connected, but so far the report from Lobo had corroborated with her brother's experience. Rapid ended up pinching at the bridge of her muzzle alongside that huff, before she continued with the rest of her examination. “Still, I need to check that you haven't picked up any injuries and have just been so out of it you haven't the time to register them yet.” Rapid explained approaching the gate of the kennels all the while maintaining eye-contact between herself and Lobo.

She carefully approached the earth-pony mare, though the previous skittish behaviour that Lobo had been demonstrating in front of Turnover had by this point completely disappeared with the comforting offered by her little brother.

As performed on Turnover, Rapid Aid went through the process of inspecting for everything she could have imagined to have happened to Lobo that originate from the explosion of light, poking and prodding at different places on her body and interpreting the reactions, to inspecting the fur and the skin underneath for marks. But as with her younger brother, the mare did not seem to hold any physical injuries.

Concluding the examination, Rapid Aid wheeled herself back slowly, her face remaining neutral and professional. “Well Miss Apple, Mister Turnover, you'll be happy to know that Miss Apple, you have a full bill of health! Only prescription I feel right to give ...” Rapid's attention swung over from Lobo towards Turnover, continuing without pausing “... is that you need to keep looking after your big sister, Mister Turnover.” Concluding that statement with a light giggle.

“Oh! but I'll say the same as I said to your father yesterday ...” continuing to direct her findings to Turnover. “... If anything changes with Lobo at any point, you, or your parents, come visit me in town and let me know, okay?” Doc Rapid finally concluded.

Shortly after that, Doc Rapid turned tail in preparation to next inform the duo's parents of her findings, but halted with a second of hesitation before swinging her head back in the direction of the siblings, the mask of neutrality she had bared the entire visit so far cracking slightly as a hint of confusion leaked across. “There's nothing else either of you could remember... anything you can tell me, about what did happen to you both? Rapid pressed.

'We're not gonna tell her anything yet... at least not right now... right Turnover?' Melissa checked of her mind-space companion. They already began forming a plan to tell somebody else about the situation with the explosions, but would still end up facing the frustrating barrier of explaining the existence of Melissa within Turnover's body. However, it was becoming clear to both Melissa and Turnover that Doc Rapid was growing as equally frustrated in trying to understand what happened as they were. And Rapid was starting off with less information than they had.

“Ah reckon... we gonna need ta make a decision on what we do now, right fast. Ah don' think we should tell the doc' anything yet... maybe once we got a plan ourselves, we can get Doc Rapid in too.” Turnover responded.

Melissa ended up giving Turnover's head a solid shake towards Doc Rapid's probing. Responding to that, Rapid Aid let off another hefty sigh of resignation into her confusion and shot a shallow smile at each of the siblings before she did away with exiting through the gate like she had entered, and instead gave a couple flaps of her wings to jump the kennel's fence and propelled herself towards the farmhouse with a few more lazy flaps.

---

It wasn't five minutes later that the pair within the kennels spotted Doc Rapid trot out of the farmhouse, presumably after telling Champlain and Carnation about Lobo's state, and had launched herself into the dark skies to return to her base of operations. It was after this that Lobo had gained her little brother's attention with a tap from one fore-hoof to another. “Thanks mightily for being here lil' bro... for everythin' today. Ah think... Ah'll be all fine heading back to mah room.” From there, she picked herself up and began making her way back to the house, followed in-tail by Turnover.

They had finally split at the upstairs landing to head to their respective bedrooms. Melissa realized that the only rooms she was sure of the position of on the upper floor was Turnover's room itself, and the bathroom, so had observed Lobo disappearing into her room from the threshold of their own.

Melissa clambered onto the bed, placing Turnover's body in a loafed state. From there, the night progressed slower than Melissa and Turnover would have liked. With all of the emotional upheaval of the day which concluded with fresh new worries about Lobo and whatever may come from her experiences tonight, any sleep they did get for the few hours they tried was patchy at best.

“Hey Melissa...” the silence of frustrated attempts at sleeping was finally broken by Turnover, who proceeded to state the obvious “Ah can tell you ain't sleepin' tonight either, yeah? It's all been... a lot to think about.”

There was one primary difference between Melissa and Turnover when it came to this situation. Turnover, being a farmworker at heart, was use to the long hours awake, and infrequent long nights. Melissa however, was not. So when Melissa responded with a sigh, frustratedly muttering out loud “Yeah... you could say that”, Melissa was barely paying attention to Turnover's follow-up. Just praying for the final relief of sleep to hit.

“We need ta go take action now... Now that whatever's happenin' is now happenin' to mah big sis'.” Turnover paused for a moment, letting the anger that was slipping into his words peter out before continuing. “Ah'm just might-worried for her, Melissa. Whatever's in her now... it don't feel like it's like you.”

Melissa once again mumbled out in the voice of Turnover, coming out curt and groggy in her sleep-addled state. “Yeah... we need to do something... Turnover, can we discuss this tomorrow? I know we can't sleep, but I want to at least... try? You know?”

Letting out a lengthy sigh himself, Turnover conceded that Melissa was just too far out of it to hold any sort of discussion. 'City-slickers' he said to himself with a little amusement. But if Melissa did manage to get the sleep she needed tonight, they could at least plan out their next moves first thing in the morning. It shouldn't be too hard, since all the building blocks were already there, after all it was the culmination of the discussions they had prior. “Well... g'night Melissa. Hope you find ya' sleep.” Turnover finally telegraphed before trying himself to get some sleep.

---

'So you want to send a letter off today, to Applejack, calling on her and the Council of Friendship to help us?' Melissa summarized back to Turnover after being looped into his plan. It was the direction they had discussed prior, so it came as no surprise that this was what the plan eventually came out to. It had seemed their best option in those talks after all.

It was hours after the previous attempt by Turnover at holding this discussion. The sun had still yet to break over the horizon, yet both of the presences within Turnover were still awake. Within the hours since then, Melissa had managed to sleep enough to rejuvenate her. However the same could not be said for Turnover, who retained the worries and emotions he held all night, yet seemed no more tired from it.

“That's the plan, eyuup... eh... You feelin' awake enough to get to writing friend? The quicker we get this done, the better.” The reasoning was fair. They had also decided that they'd send the letter off as soon as they could this morning.

'I'd like to bring Doc Rapid into this as well, Turnover. Not only does she know that both us and Lobo have been affected, but... it feels like she knows as well as we do that something isn't right here.' Melissa requested, without dismissal from Turnover.

“Ah agree on that. Last night, she seemed to be wanting to know more of... this whole thing. And, it couldn't hurt to have our local doc' in the know. She deserves to know what we're doin' so if... and Celestia bless this don't happen again... but if it does, then Doc knows something is being done on it. But, ah... we agree we don't tell her 'bout you Melissa?”

'Agreed, to all of that.' Melissa then found herself pondering one more complication she had overlooked. 'Ah... Turnover? How do I write with hooves? Wuh... Would I even know how to write?'

Turnover let out a chuckle and Melissa could feel the warmth of a joyous smile from Turnover's presence as that chuckle transformed into a full on laugh. “Ya' forget! you know Ponish now, thanks to me! You gone need to teach me some dragon-talk at some point... as a payment for using all mah knowledge.” Another chuckle as Turnover finished playfully prodding at Melissa, before he slipped back the best he could into 'educating mode'. “Writing Ponish... well it should come natural to ya', Ah reckon! As for how you write, same as picking anything else up. Just pick up the quill and get to it!” And as a final piece of repudiation of Melissa's questioning, Turnover ended by joking “An' if ya need any more than that... well Ah'm. Not. Goin'. Anywhere!” punctuating each word at the end for emphasis of his cheekiness.

'Ah! Well thank ya' kindly good sir!' Melissa decided to prod back, putting on her best impression of Turnover. A smile grew across Turnover's muzzle as Melissa slide the pony's body off the bed and trotted towards what Melissa presumed was Turnover's desk inside the bedroom, adjacent to the bookshelf that Melissa had read from on the first night here.

Melissa sat herself down at the desk on her haunches, managed to pick up the quill from the ink pot it rested in, and took a deep breath, thinking to herself 'okay, here we go.'

Author's Note:

This chapter here, while I like slower-pace stories that take their time to go major event to major event, sprinkling in slice-of-life scenarios in between, I'm not content with how this chapter specifically feels, maybe because I feel it rehashes Rapid Aid's visit to inspect Turnover in Chapter 3 too closely? But then it also begins deepening Rapid Aid's involvement, she's certainly growing more invested in what's happening.

Plus if I were to choose to combine this Chapter and the next; it'd come out to the highest word-count of a chapter so far, and in my mind I'm trying to hit below 5k words a Chapter.

Either way, I'm content in the following chapters and how they eventually link back to this chapter, so... no harm no foul? What do y'all think?

Also, kudos to those who spotted the obvious, gratuitous reference I rammed in there.

And to AvoidingFever17, thank you for replying in the last couple of chapters. Admittedly, they've not been comments I could really add anything onto, but as a whole, thank you for showing your interest by commenting!

Comments

[AvoidingFever17]

And to AvoidingFever17, thank you for replying in the last couple of chapters. Admittedly, they've not been comments I could really add anything onto, but as a whole, thank you for showing your interest by commenting!

SQUEE!!!!!
THANKS! never been PERSONALLY SHOUTED OUT BEFORE BUT THANKS!

[AcesCalifornia]

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Oh it's no problem! I should be thanking you for showing your interest as you do! :)