Bubbles led the confused Dark along through the hallways as if they were doing a patrol. "I know there's, like, two of you or whateva in there. Can I talk to each of you separate?"

Dark scowled, not with anger, but uncertainty. She hated it. "I'm not sure. Sometimes it feels like there are two of me, other times, like I'm not who I was. Either way is..."

"Wonderful." Dark strode up beside Bubbles. "Did anyone ever mention you were--"

"No!" Dark shouted at herself. "No... disregard that. Just because I have lingering feelings for you..." She trailed off, realizing what she had said. When did she have any feelings for Bubbles besides mild respect as a warrior for a warrior?

Bubbles quirked an ear to the side. Hearing Dark swerve crazily between thought rails was a little unnerving. She barely knew the human involved, but he was involved. The two... She imagined those two bits of clay mashed together. A little mixing, and where did one end and another start? Could they ever be pried apart properly? She imagined not... "Dark, Paul, both of you." She raised a hoof to her chest. "I'm not quittin' on you, alright?"

Dark cringed faintly. She was being pitied by Bubbles. "I... should be able to... master myself."

Bubbles circled to be in front of Dark. "It ain't that simple."

Dark blinked. "Do you know something?" Something clicked. "Who is this 'Paul'?" She was Paul, obviously. What? She had to close her eyes, headache growing fierce a moment with dissonance. "Tell me."

Bubbles reached out and laid a hoof on Dark's shoulder. "You were ripped a new one by those damn letters."

Dark winced. She remembered pain, terrible pain, but she hadn't seen what got her. "I seem whole now?"

"Ya ain't. Damn thing... used the human, Paul, like a kinda... what, glue? He's all up in you. He... kinda is part of you." Bubbles grunted with the effort of explaining what she had seen and didn't fully understand herself. "I don't think it can be fixed."

Dark blinked with wide eyes at Bubbles. "I'm part human? A stallion no less?!" At least she wasn't... physically... Could she be? She kne... no! No no no no!

She focused on her horn and snuffed the building magic in it that another part of her mind was ready to unleash. "No!" she screamed shrilly. "You will not take my marehood away, foul beast."

Bubbles frowned a little. "Not sure what happened there, but you, both of you, need to calm the flip down, alright? You're stuck with one wagon. You either start piloting it nicely, or that wagon's gonna end up in pieces in a ditch, then where will ya be, huh?"

Dark sat up and took a wavering breath. "You're right, of course..." She took another slow breath, trying to calm herself. "Whether desired or not... we are one."

"We are one," Dark repeated in a subtly different voice.

Bubbles wasn't sure if she should be creeped out or happy the two sides were talking. "Great, so, uh, Dark?"

"Yes?"

"Can I talk to Paul? I mean, you seem to have control most of the time. Can you let him come to the front a moment?"

Dark cringed at the idea, but... maybe? "I will try, once. Paul, mind yourself." She released those talons in her mind that kept her in strict control, even as her mental claws quivered with fear. What if Paul didn't let her come back? What if he did something terrible? She tried to let it all go. She slid towards the back of their shared brain. She could see, hear, and feel, but her actions became distant.

The new Dark blinked and looked around curiously before she patted herself down quickly, a little giddy giggle escaping her. "Hey!"

Bubbles blinked. "Paul? You seem a lot more, you know... less nervous as all get out."

Paul, wearing Dark's form, put his/her hooves on Bubble's shoulders. "It's great! I'm not scared anymore, not the old way. I have her confidence, and her magic, and... It's great! I'm not a weak little nobody anymore."

Bubbles quirked a little smile. It was odd imagining that pony from before being in the body of the mare, or the dour Dark being all smiles and glee. Neither fit the other terribly well. "Glad you're enjoying this, at least. But, ya know, yer scarin' the piss right out of Dark. Can't ya be nicer with her?"

Paul looked back at herself and swished her tail left and right animatedly. "She keeps trying to bottle me up. I finally have what I want. I want to explore, run, fly! Can she fly with her magic?"

Her voice slipped into Dark's. "No... we... cannot. That was not a trick I mastered."

Paul was back. "Oh, alright. We can do so much other stuff. Bubbles?"

"Yeah?"

She suddenly went in for a smooch, pressing lips to lips and rubbing equine snouts gently.

Bubbles went rigid a moment. She weren't no fillyfooler! But why did the kiss not seem quite so awful? She gave Dark/Paul a shove. "Hey! Buy a mare a drink first, pfft." She tried to act as if nothing of import had occurred. "See, stuff like that's gonna make Dark not want ta let you out much."

"Precisely so," said Dark in clearly her own voice. "We have an image to uphold, for ourselves, and the Warlocks."

Paul tapped herself on the chin with a hoof. "That doesn't mean you can't ever not be a robocop?"

"A what?" Dark asked, but then she knew, it was there. What he knew, she knew, if she looked. "We are not that..."

"Actually, we kind of are." Paul rolled their hoof in the air. "A dead police officer revived with dramatically altered mental makeup, suffering from identity issues and so much more. We're totally Robocop."

Dark blinked mentally. The comparison didn't seem entirely off. Still... "Paul."

"Yeah?"

While the two were talking to... themselves, Bubbles sat on her haunches and watched. The fact that they were talking instead of constantly hoof-wrestling seemed like a step in the right direction. She hoped, and she waited. She didn't see how talking herself would help, yet.

"I hope, in the future, we can discern a way to separate us. Let us assume, for the moment, that will not occur."

"Alright. I'm cool with that if you are."

"Are you really?" Dark raised a brow faintly. "You care so little for your original self?"

"I am my original self, just improved. I don't mind playing mental roomies with you."

"In time, we may not."

"A cure?"

"No." Dark took a slow breath. "Given time, the borders between our selves will erode. You and I will die. A new creature will slowly be born of us that is neither, and yet, both. Do you understand?"

Paul's psyche shuddered. It was seeing death, and yet... "I... still don't regret it."

Dark clopped a hoof down. "Regret it for my sake then! I did not request this! You thrust us down this path. It's all well and good that you are prepared for the consequences. What of me?"

Bubbles held up her hooves. "Hold it there. Now, that ain't entirely fair to Paul."

Dark scowled at Bubbles. "How is that not true?"

"Did you have to come fight your way to us?"

Dark blinked softly. "It was, and is, my duty, as a Warlock."

Bubbles pointed at Dark. "It didn't and doesn't have to be. You could quit any day, right?"

Dark cringed a bit. "I would never!"

"But you could, right?" Bubbles raised a brow. "I mean, yeah, this sucks hard core, but you can't say you had no choice."

Dark deflated a little. There was some truth there. She had chosen to face that horrific being of words. She had fought and fought, even beyond the point when it was obvious she would not prevail. She stepped onto that path. The damnable Text just welcomed her to it and greeted her with terror. "You... I need to think."

Paul was back, with perked ears and a happy smile. "Bubbles?"

"Yeah? Paul, right?"

"No." She shook her head. "Paul is gone. I'm Dark Vision."

Bubbles rolled her eyes. "I'm glad you're getting comfortable, but it'd be nice to know which half of Dark I'm chattin' with."

Paul rose to her hooves and began stretching out, as if every little movement was something to marvel at. "This will sound odd, but you were pretty as a human." Bubbles blinked at him. "But you're even prettier as a pony."

Flushing with embarrassment and some hot anger, Bubbles had to restrain her first urge to shout at the mentally unbalanced pony of two minds. "We ain't exactly on those terms."

"We could be?" Paul stepped closer, leveling those intense eyes on Bubbles. "I'd like to know you better."

Bubbles held up a hoof to keep Paul at a step away. "Maybe ya didn't notice yet or nothing, but you are a mare. Don't go peeking now? But yeah, I'm also a damn mare."

Paul's ears danced. "I could fix that." He hurriedly added. "But I won't unless you say it's alright."

Bubbles blinked. "Are you talking to Dark?"

"I am Dark," reminded Paul, sticking out his tongue in a very un-Dark-like manner. "What's the harm in trying?"

Bubbles shook her head. Was she really being propositioned, like that? "Alright, challenge for you. I'm cuttin' you some slack and assuming you're all jumbled, up here." She tapped her own skull. "Does this really seem like the right time fer that?"

Paul went quiet, tapping a hoof on the ground. It took a bit too long for an answer, but it did come. "I guess not. I'm sorry. I'm just... so excited! You don't know, you were always something cool." He waved a hoof at Bubbles. "Look at you, you're an awesome unicorn. You can do practically whatever you want, if you try hard enough."

Bubbles pointed at Paul/Dark. "You can see what she remembers. Could she do whatever she wanted? Do you think it was ever because she didn't want it hard enough? Seriously. Think about it."

Paul went quiet again, his eyes darting about, even if they were Dark's. "I... guess not."

Bubbles nodded at Paul. "This isn't some foal's book. We don't get what we want just fer wishin' it. Now, Dark's worked pretty flippin' hard to get where she is, and she wants to get back to that work. Are you going to stand in her way?"

"I want to be a part of that." Paul puffed out his chest. "I can be a Warlock."

"Start by learning to take orders." Bubbles clopped against the ground. "Warlocks do that."

Paul's ears sagged before they perked right back up. "I'll take your orders."

Author's Notes:

The Text's promises are always fulfilled, one way or another.

Unless a typo gets in the way. It hates those so much.