Human.
That was it.
It was like a key in my mind, and it unlocked so much more than I could have imagined.
I was human. My family was human. And presumably, everyone I knew before waking up outside Ponyville was human too. What were their names again? I felt like I had seen them in my dreams. Private Pines? He died a few years ago, during an offensive action. Corporal Hayes? When we went AWOL, she had decided to stay behind. I don't remember why.
But why had we gone AWOL? And who was with us? It was Zimmerman, Knight, Lavalley, Williams, and me. Why was I thinking of Hayes, though? I wasn't sure if it had been part of a dream, or part of a memory.
Details were coming through, but a lot of them were still being clouded. I tried to remember physical details: places, things, sensations and most of all, faces. What were fingers like? What were feet like? What was the face of my mother, of my grandpa, of my grandma?
I couldn't remember, and that hurt me infinitely more than any wound could.
But at least now I understood why nothing felt right about me. This wasn't my own body, not the one I'd been born with. Not the one I'd been living in for 22 years. My skin prickled with memories of limbs that seemingly never existed, but I knew that I'd had them at some point. Where had they gone? How had I become a pony?
There were still hundreds of things I still needed to figure out. How had I gotten to Equestria? What had planted the parasite into my mind? How could I go back? But all of that could be put on the back burner. It could wait until I had the parasite dealt with.
Something about the dream was coming back to me, though. It was intruding in my thoughts like a log in a stream.
Seek out Zecora, the shaman in the Everfree.
"Ink Blot, are you alright?" asked Lyra.
I shook my head. "I need to go home. Now."
They let me go without incident, guiding me back to a discrete underground entrance close to the castle. I got my things back, though I didn't have time to put the claw boots back on. I didn't know what I was going to say, or what I was going to do, but those words were starting to echo in my head.
Zecora, Zecora, Zecora. The shaman in the Everfree.
I checked the door, and found it locked. So I knocked. And knocked. And waited.
After a few minutes, the door opened a crack. through it, i could just barely see the purple eyes of one Starlight Glimmer.
"Ink Blot?" she ventured carefully. I nodded, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia you're here. He's been here all night. He's inconsolable, keeps saying something about how it's "all his fault"."
"Who has?" I asked.
Starlight opened the door and let me inside. I looked at her concernedly as she sighed "This Changeling. He barged into my office at the school, said you were a friend of his. He demanded that I let him into the castle. I did, and he hasn't left."
That had to be Quill. I didn't exactly know any other Changelings. Unless someone was hiding something from me.
"I'll talk to him."
Starlight smiled, but her frustration quickly broke through. She waved for me to follow her, leading me to the library doors. We peeked inside.
It was... quite different in there now. The large windows, despite not having any actual curtains, had been covered with a gooey green substance that blocked most of the midday light While the books I'd left out before had since been returned to the shelves, the tables were nowhere to be seen. Or at least that's what I'd thought, until I saw that they had been used to barricade the balcony doors shut.
In the tables' place, a collection of various furnitures had been piled up in the centre of the library's main floor. I saw a wardrobe, a desk, a bedframe with a mattress, chairs, a filing cabinet, among others. The way they were piled reminded me of that dream, the battle across the sea, when Pines lost his life, when I stepped on that IED. These were the improvised defenses of someone who believed that if they were found, they would be killed without mercy.
A little bit curious, a little bit wary, I stepped inside. Starlight remained at the entryway, watching warily.
From the shadows behind the barricade, a pair of glowing eyes emerged. They opened wide in shock, but soon narrowed into a suspicious glare. I swallowed my instinctual fear a little nervously, but stepped further into the library with growing confidence.
"Stay where you are!" Quill shouted. I complied, steeling myself, neither submissive nor threatening.
Starlight made a move to join me, but I waved her back. "Whatever happens, I can handle it."
"It's not that, it's just-" Starlight protested, but I cut her off.
"I can handle it."
"He hasn't been reformed!" she blurted exasperatedly.
I dismissed her concerns. "Not going to be a problem. But still, if things get to be more than I can handle? Don't hesitate."
She nodded, though I think there was some reluctance to listen to my orders. I didn't mind reluctance, as long as she had a good sense of initiative.
Quill, in his natural Changeling form, slowly crept forth from his mighty fortress. His horn glowed threateningly, but he frowned as he got close to me. Wisps of green energy snaked away from his horn, slowly approaching me. I allowed them to come closer and closer, where eventually one of them touched my bare skin. It lingered for a moment before fading from existence along with the rest of the wisps.
"Hey," I ventured.
I barely had a chance to react before Quill tackled me to the ground. I struggled for a moment before I realised that he wasn't attacking me.
He was hugging me.
"It really is you!" he cried as he embraced me. "I was so worried! I should never have gotten you involved!"
I was touched. Really, I was. I didn't really know what to say to him. But... sometimes words weren't enough.
So I hugged him back.
"I couldn't believe that you were willing to protect me from them. No one, and I mean no one, has ever cared for me that much. Not since..." he trailed off, whispering into my ear.
I smiled briefly. "That's what friends are for." I said as I patted him on the back.
"Yeah, friends," Quill said with a smile of his own, finally letting go of me. "Ironic."
"What's ironic?" I asked curiously.
Quill shook his head, but he couldn't stop smiling. "The one thing I didn't want, yet somehow it's the thing I value most. I've never had a friend of any kind since my clutchmates, well... but wait! How did you escape? The snatchers!"
"They were after me because my story didn't make sense, at least by their standards. I can explain it in more detail later. But first, what's with the stuff on the windows? And why did you come here?" I suggested.
"Oh, uh, sorry about that." Quill replied sheepishly. "After they took you the only thing I could think to do was bunker down and prepare for the inevitable. The castle seemed safe, but it wasn't open so I had to go find the Glitterpony. And there's something else troubling me."
"And that is?"
"I'm not hungry. Changelings are always hungry." he said.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked confusedly.
Quill went to shake his head, but he second guessed himself and began to talk. "You don't know what it's like, with a nagging hunger that never goes away no matter how much you eat. I could eat enough to make me sick, and I'd still be hungry. To hunger is to be a Changeling! When it's gone? Well, I'm more than a little concerned for my well-being, here!"
"We can figure it out in due time. But first, we need to tell Starlight what's going on. I've also learned something both of you need to hear about."
Quill, despite his poorly-hidden fear, accepted my terms, and hesitantly apologized to Starlight for the mess. After a few moments, something in her head clicked and she smiled to herself. I offered a very brief explanation for what'd happened last night, and suggested that we move our conversation to the kitchen table.
Once we were seated, I began. "As the two of you know, I arrived here just over a week ago without my memories. I've spent the week since trying to get them back, with marginal success. Starlight, you confirmed the initial assessment, but Quill, you uncovered something unsettling. For Starlight's benefit, I'll have you retell your findings."
"Well, uh, after I hung around Ink Blot for a bit, I decided to try my hoof at solving his memory problem. Changelings have an instinctual knowledge of emotions, though during acclimatisation training we get a more in-depth understanding of how they work. Strong emotions are tied directly to making memories, and when reliving memories, ponies also relive those emotions. When we infiltrate, we can get a quick snack from somepony by selectively encouraging them to relive those memories, and the emotions, which we, well, eat." Quill did his best to explain.
"I determined as much through my own studies." Starlight said, unimpressed.
"Ink Blot said as much, presumably after hearing it from you. That's what piqued my interest. So, I took a look at what Changelings call an "emotional root". Our understanding of it is far from complete, but it's the source of your emotions, which colour your thoughts. Only, it's not quite colour, it's a sort of emotion soup thing. That's what we Changelings eat, different emotions having different nutritional values, power values, with Love being the most prized. But do you know what's up with Ink Blot's emotional root?"
"Is it damaged in some way?" Starlight asked.
I looked at her with concern. "You think I'm damaged, or broken?"
Quill shook his head. "Not damaged. Not broken. It's being eaten by some kind of parasite. I've never seen anything like it, only heard about it as some kind of urban legend or folk tale. I did some research, picked up some information, but nothing could be confirmed until I got a second look at the thing. Even then, whatever I tried was going to be a gamble."
"Wait, you were basically winging it?" I said in alarm.
"Confidence is the core of deception, my friend." Quill replied slyly.
"Interesting... this parasite, what was it like? What was it doing?" Starlight asked, bringing out a notepad to write on.
"Imagine a large, vile, black slug, coiled around a crystalline structure. Except, it's not just coiled around it, it's been boring holes in it, eating away, feeding on the energy. And it spews this dark cloudy substance that blocks memories." I described.
"Yes, considering I was going mostly off of rumours and legends, it's surprising how much of it I figured out and understood. Those strong emotions that Changelings feed off of? They happen to injure the creature. So, it secretes a toxin that impedes or even blocks long-term memory, because even trace memories can induce emotional reactions. Just ask Ink Blot. Your efforts impeded its hold, weakened it somewhat. Which is why I took a giant gamble; I artificially simulated an emotional reaction by zapping the parasite with some of my energy reserves."
Starlight frowned, questioning something about what he'd said, but not voicing it.
I nodded. "When you explained it to me, you said that it would temporarily dislodge the creature, but that when it regained its strength it would attack again. How long do I have?"
Quill grimaced and shrugged. "When I first did it, I couldn't tell for sure, but I thought that it might be as long as a week. I'd need a second look at the creature to be sure."
"If I may," Starlight interjected. "I would appreciate a chance to observe this creature, maybe even study it."
"While the parasite doesn't exist on the physical plane as we understand it, I can show you what we Changelings see. i did it for Ink Blot yesterday, but I won't be able to manage more than one of you at a time."
"Then show her." I said.
He obliged, and just as before, tendrils of green magic energy floated out from his horn after he spent a few moments concentrating. They reached out and touched my forehead as well as Starlight's, before completing the triangle by crossign between myself and Starlight. Both of their eyes clouded into a green hue, though Starlight levitated a pen and paper in the air for her to take notes with. He pen moved faster than I'd seen it before, writing tiny letters with incredible speed. It made me think of some kind of fancy printer.
Nothing was said for some time, the two of them probably communicating through some kind of mental connection. When the tendrils that linked us were severed, Quill looked at me gravely. Starlight looked down for a while, a horrified look on her face as she took in what she had seen. She eventually looked up in my direction, her face a mix of fear and confusion.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked.
"I fucked it up, Ink Blot." Quill said sady.
"I've never seen anything like it," Starlight muttered, not quite listening. "And that's what's causing his memory problems? Fascinating. Yet horrific."
"What happened?" I asked again.
"So you know how I thought you'd have a week to get rid of it? Well, between then and now something else has been meddling with your mind. Somepony else. That thing is starting to wake up. And it'll be awake within the next day or two."
I slowly nodded as understanding dawned on me. And with that understanding, something occurred to me.
"I've been having strange dreams," I began.
"Strange? More strange than a normal dream? Dreams can be pretty strange." Starlight asked.
"Well, what's strange about them is how mundane they were. But while I was knocked out last night, something changed. I wasn't... well, alone. Someone else was there. You may already know who."
"Luna." Starlight whispered. "Princess of the Night."
"She spoke to me. She told me something, to seek a shaman in the Everfree. Apparently this shaman would know how to get rid of it for good."
"There's only one shaman out that way, and from what I hear she doesn't really do house calls." Quill said.
"Applejack knows her pretty well. Maybe she can introduce you?" Starlight replied.
There wasn't any reason to waste our time any further. As Quill had confirmed for me, I was now on the clock.
I had Quill come with me to the farm, as I had been instructed, but I also requested that Starlight come with me as well. For whatever reason, she had actually put in for a day off to do personal stuff, which she now chose to use helping me with my problems. I didn't know her half as well as I'd have liked, but I think I would consider her a friend. Or at least a very kindhearted and respectful individual. That's more than what could be said for the calibre of people back home.
With Applejack, it was a simple matter of asking nicely, and answering her questions honestly. She was a little concerned that Quill was a so-called "unreformed" Changeling, but I didn't really know the difference there, and after some assurance from myself and Starlight, she happily tagged along.
"The Everfree Forest. I never built up the courage for me to go into it before." Quill commented as we neared its outskirts.
"What's so special about it?" I asked.
"'S only th' one place in all Equestria that ponies like us don't have a say over." Applejack explained with a chipper twang.
Quill looked like he was ready to cower, his hears folded back like a dog. "During my training, they drilled it into us that we should avoid it at all costs, except to evade pursuit. It's a hostile environment, full of strange magics and creatures that defy the natural order."
"Would that be the natural order of the world, or the allegedly natural order imposed by ponies?" I ask pointedly.
Everyone was silent. "What makes you say "alleged"?" Starlight asked right back.
I shrugged. "Think about it. Every aspect of life here is controlled in some way. The weather? Pegasi can manipulate it as they please. Rain, shine, thunder, twisters, other ecologically devastating weather conditions. The growth of plant life? Influenced and accelerated by Earth Ponies. And let's not talk about what Unicorns can do, with their magic and such."
"Ink Blot, all of those require conscious group effort to achieve. No one pony alone could change the weather on any significant scale." Starlight pointed out.
"But how many would they need to cause an alleged "natural disaster"? Even accidentally? And then of course, there is the matter of the Winter Wrap-Up. Prepared and designated dens, a tight schedule where the animals are awoken, relying on ponies to provide adequate food and foraging. Ask yourself this, do the animals gain any particular benefit to this, or is it just another way to exert control?" I asked further. "And what about the sun and the moon? The rulers of Equestria can move them around at a whim. Think about that, two heavenly bodies that the entire world relies on for growing food, navigation, do I need to list any more details or are you understanding what I'm trying to say?"
"Ink Blot, what in tarnation have you been readin'?" Applejack questioned.
"History. Apparently, there are a lot of things that you ponies have been taking for granted, and a lot of questions you haven't been asked before."
"I think he has a point. Why do you ponies control so much? All we get is some measly transformation magic and emotional manipulation." Quill said.
Neither Applejack nor Starlight seemed to have a good answer to that.
The forest, at first a relative mix of deciduous and coniferous trees like the others in the region, soon gave way to more wiry and devilish trees that I did not recognise. Despite it being the height of summer, many of them had recently lost their leaves. Or maybe they'd died. We passed by a clearing filled with bright blue bulbs, which had a strange allure to them. Applejack carefully picked a path that led us around them.
It was dark, unnaturally dark for this time of day. Above us, a canopy of leaves filtered out a lot of the light, and what little that came through had lost much of its colour and warmth. I regretted not bringing something to help keep myself warm. Nevermind, I had. I reached into my bags and removed a thin woolen blanket, draping it over myself like a cloak, securing it with a large safety pin.
"You've been carrying that the whole time? Isn't it heavy?" Starlight asked.
"I've carried heavier." I replied.
"Did you bring two?" asked Quill, doing his best to look cold.
I shook my head, but took the blanket off and gave it to him. He protested for a moment, but I playfully scolded him. As I was putting the blanket on him, I noticed something a little odd.
"Were your wings always that glittery?" I asked curiously.
"Uhh, maybe?" he said, dodging the question.
Starlight smiled like she knew something we didn't, but said nothing.
"And what was all that green stuff in the library? Did that come outta you?" I asked further.
"Uhh, sorta?" he dodged again.
The questions seemed to be make him uncomfortable, so I was content to leave it there, but Starlight nodded in agreement. "Cocooning behaviour. Occurs in Changelings after accumulating an abundance of emotional energy. From what I've been told, the instinct in unreformed Changelings is to prepare an Outhive where they'll imprison their victims."
"I would never do such a thing!" Quill burst suddenly.
"Don't worry, I got it from a trustworthy source. Thorax told me about it himself, while we were going to the Hive." Starlight tried to reassure him.
"WHAT?!?" Quill shouted in surprise, spooking what I assumed was a bird. "You're the pony who overthrew Chrysalis?"
"Yep. Me and Trixie. Oh, and Discord was there, but conveniently he didn't contribute much except instantly teleporting us to somewhere that was pretty close to the main hive." Starlight admitted.
"I'd always imagined you two to be seven feet tall alicorns." Quill replied.
"Aye, and if they'd been there they'd consume the Changelings with fireballs from their eyes, and blots of lightning from their arses." I smiled.
Quill looked at me blankly. "What?"
"What?" I asked.
"We're here, y'all!" Applejack hollered.
Shaking his head, Quill looked to where Applejack had called from. I did the same.
Well... it wasn't quite a house in the traditional sense. It was an old stout tree that had been hollowed out -- probably one that had been struck by lightning at some point, based on the way the upper branches splayed outward. Or perhaps it had been the stump of a much larger tree, cut down early, and those were new sprouts growing out of the old stump. Either way, various decoctions, infusions, and tinctures hung in bottles from the wide branches. I had no idea what they were for, but usually eccentricities had some purpose. All around were mossy stones, purple leafed-ferns, and odd glowy blue mushrooms. While we were taking it all in, Applejack strode up confidently to the door, and knocked.
She'd barely touched it when it swung open. Before us in the doorway now stood who I might've thought was a pony, if not for her white and grey stripes. She wore golden hoops through her ears, around her neck, and on her left foreleg. A Zebra.
Without warning, Quill backed away and hissed. He reared back fearfully and bared his teeth like a cornered cat. Or maybe a cornered rat. The zebra frowned at him, but turned her attention to Applejack. "Good evening, humble apple farmer. Your visit is not entirely social, I garner?"
"Howdy, Zecora, hope we're not intrudin'." Applejack greeted her politely.
"If I'd known you were taking me to a Zebra, I wouldn't have agreed to help." Quill growled.
The zebra huffed and hung her head. "It is unfortunate to agree with what he spoke, those of Changeling kind rarely get along with Zebra folk."
"Understandable, but I'll be needing both of you. Something about the two of you together can fix my memory once and for all." I apologized.
"Now what is this? A new pony, come to do business?" the zebra asked, stepping out and taking a good look at me. Her mane stood straight up, like a bristly brush.
"Memory troubles, but a little more complex than Starlight or Quill could tackle alone. Applejack's here because she could guide us to you. As well as offer moral support." I tried to explain quickly.
She nodded, and gestured for us to enter the hut. "I'm sure we can unlock the secrets that your memories hide, so come along and step inside."
"What, you think I'm going to trust a Zebra?" Quill balked.
"Yes! What is your problem?" I sighed exasperatedly.
"Zebras and Changelings are ancestral enemies! They have ways to pick out Changelings while we're disguised, and work in otherworldly magic." he hissed, standing his ground as Starlight and Applejack waited awkwardly by the door.
"If she means you harm, she'll need to deal with me. And besides, Luna explicitly told me that you needed to be here." I said.
"Can we really trust her?" he tried to question, but I didn't let him voice any more of them.
I looked him in the eyes and told it to him straight. "You're not trusting her, you're trusting me. Applejack trusts her, Starlight trusts her, and I trust their judgement. If she gives us trouble then it's on me for misplacing my trust. And even discounting that, I'm under the impression that you don't want me to die because you made a bad move and acted before you were truly ready."
The inside of the hut was much like the outside. Strange potions and ingredients were stored everywhere they would fit, though in the dead centre of the room was a bubbling cauldron. We sat down around it, and I did my best to relate my predicament to Zecora, with input from Quill and Starlight on their involvement. When I mentioned how Luna had appeared to me in a dream, her ears perked up, but she still said nothing more until we had related everything relevant.
When we finished, she turned to an open tome of knowledge for a moment, before turning her attention back to me. "So it seems that you are right. I may have a way to defeat this parasite. However, three ingredients you will require, if the beast's destruction is what you desire."
Everyone looked to me for some reason. I looked between them and asked Zecora "What do we need?"
It was deceptively simple. Three things, though not ingredients in the strictest sense, three people, and a location.
Each of the items needed were ones that had been tied to memories in some way through the senses. The first was smell. Applejack volunteered to get fresh baked apple cobbler, as Sugar Belle was going to be making some today. The smell of the cobbler would probably work. The second needed to be sound based. Quill cleverly transformed into the spitting image of Ginger Hearts, complete with singing voice.
The last one was difficult, though. It had to be sight based. It had to be an actual, physical item that sparked a memory. Except... there wasn't anything that would suffice. At least not that I knew of. Zecora did not seem concerned, only said some nonsense about "All you must do is return to where you began. Once there, everything will proceed according to plan."
Well, at least that part of it was obvious.
Applejack escorted us out of the Everfree, and I retraced my steps from the Apple family farm to the clearing where I'd woken up. It hadn't really changed in the last week, not that it really would have. Once we arrived, Zecora paced around, drawing lines and circles in the dirt. She spread some coloured stones around, then indicated where everyone would stand.
"It was no coincidence you awoke here," Zecora said as she prepared her ritual. "I sensed the thinning as I drew near."
"Thinning?" I asked.
"Our is but one of many, like blankets layered. On a blanket above, a tragedy transpired." she explained mystically.
Starlight nodded in understanding. "I think I know what she means. I, well, I think I told you about how I went back in time? Basically, every change I made there made a branching path parallel to our own, following different chains of events and how they'd transpire. If I'm understanding it right, you came from a branch like that."
"A consequence of your doing, is not he. Far greater forces, working they must be. Remind us, Ink Blot, of the most important part of yourself that you have forgot."
I sighed. "It couldn't exactly be easy, could it? I need more information before I can say for certain."
"What I ask you to relate, is from where upon you originate." she elaborated.
"Not Equestria, that's for sure. Maybe not anywhere in this reality at all. I suppose you're trying to get me to remember a name? The name of a place?"
She nodded, but stopped herself as she considered. "Perhaps you should describe how it appeared to your eyes?"
I half-smiled, but slowly started to ramble. "Of course. Names are fuzzy for me right now, especially placenames. I can remember the names of some people. Squadmates, comrades in arms. There's a few who stand out, probably because they were the ones closest to me before I came here."
"What about your family? You can remember a bit about your family, can't you?" Starlight prompted. Mentally, I noted that Quill, Starlight, and Zecora had taken their places.
"Yes. My dad worked IT for some big company, but lost his job when his illness got worse. It was some kind of cancer, like he'd fought with since he was a kid. His name was Aidan-Brian, because his parents couldn't agree on what to name him, so they named him both. His friends called him A.B., like the blood type. The cancer killed him when I was only 15." I barely managed to spit out the last part as my voice started to crack. A throbbing pain that came from inside my chest started to build up, the all too familiar sting of loss.
Fighting off tears, I breathed deeply. In for four counts, then out for four counts. Then again, and again, until I had calmed enough to continue.
"I can still remember the last thing he told me. He told me "Kid, don't ever go down without a fight. I've been fighting this shit my entire life, and if I hadn't been fighting as hard as I did, I never woulda made it half as far as I have. Make me proud, son.". After that, my mom wasn't able to keep us afloat and asked her parents to take us in. My dad's parents were long gone, but even when they were alive they'd been distant to us. Maybe I'd get a card with a little cash on my birthday, on a good year."
"So you lived in the city?" Starlight asked.
The cynical part of me noted that she was putting on that sort of counselor face and attitude. She was asking questions to clarify and coax out new answers, but not to pry rudely. Zecora motioned for the three of them to sit down as I heard Applejack returning. She said nothing, bringing a take-away container with her. Inside was a slice of Sugar Belle's apple cobbler.
I breathed deeply once more, taking in the scent of spiced apples. Thinking was a lot easier. Everything was starting to get clearer, too. It may have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that there was something radiating from the circles and lines that Zecora had drawn.
"We lived in the suburbs. After dad was gone, mom couldn't keep up the mortgage on the house, so the bank foreclosed on it. Grandma and grandpa lived outside the city limits, far enough out that they had a big property but close enough that they weren't a long drive from the essentials. I liked it out there, all the trees and greenery made me feel happy; The area around Ponyville reminds me of their area, come to think of it." I smiled, almost able to see the poplars and the evergreens waving in the summer breeze around their house.
"We lived there for two years... until mom got hit by a car. The parameds said that she died almost instantly, but we didn't have much of a court case and the bastard who'd hit her got off with a light fine. I was 18 then, old enough to enlist."
"You joined the Guard?" Starlight asked.
"In a way. The local Army unit was called the Keleseth Guard, after the old name for the region. They were being deployed overseas, to fight in some stupid war we never had any part in. Do you know why I decided to sign up? On their wall they had an old grey photograph of my great-great uncle in uniform. In the frame beside him they kept a medal he'd earned in the war. The big one, from before grandpa was born. It was a World War. Apparently he'd been a hero, gave his life to save his buddies. In my mind I was going to go away and do the same thing, now that my parents were gone. I wish I hadn't. A lot of things happened over there that I'm not proud to have been tangled up in."
Starlight frowned as she thought. "I don't recall there being anywhere called Keleseth, or any World Wars. Or any kind of war, for that matter."
"What about the Changeling war?" Quill asked pointedly.
"It wasn't really a war. Everything went on like normal fer us, mostly. There was only really th' Wedding and th' time you helped Thorax out." Applejack interjected, "An' it's a good thing you did, considerin' th' rest of us got captured. No offense, Quill."
"None taken, for now." Quill muttered.
"I already know all of that, because as Starlight knows, I did a bit of research. Where I came from, even though it's similar to Equestria superficially, is very different. Especially after..." I trailed off as the memory of what had happened began to return. It was not a good memory. It spoke of tragedy, though somehow it yet remained hidden from me.
Zecora pointed to Quill, who took the form of Ginger Hearts, and began to softly sing Ae Fond Kiss. He wasn't entirely sure of how it went, but it pulled at my heartstrings all the same. In my head I followed along, adding in the little variations that my grandpa had liked to add. I looked around, and the haze that rose up from the drawn lines seemed to solidify. Quill and Starlight began to glow with their respective magic colours, like they were trying to cast something, but nothing happened to Zecora.
Zecora began to chant in some unknown language, spinning a mystical thread from their magical glow in the air above her. It took on the form of a blanket, which descended on me, wrapping itself around me like I was snuggled up by the fireplace of my grandpa's cottage, waiting for dinner to be served on a cold winter night. If I closed my eyes I was right back there again. The stone mantelpiece, an ancient sword hanging on the wall above it. My great-great uncle's photo and medal. The coffee table with a little bowl of strawberry sweets. A bookshelf full of adventures waiting to happen. It was home. And I was happy to be back there.
"With the aid of the two who bring his mind to good health, the third and final key shall now reveal itself!" Zecora said, her eyes now glowing white.
From the dirt just outside of our circle, something else started glowing. It was a single beam of light shining upward, just barely to the top of the canopy. As I watched, a small disc rose from the floor of the clearing, shaking off bits of dust and soil that had settled overtop of it. The disc a hole punched in it, close to the rim, with a little chain threaded through it. A perforated line crossed the middle of the disc, dividing it into It was... some kind of necklace?
No, not a necklace. That disc was a form of identity supplement. They called it an "ID Disc", because that's what they were. The same dry, clinical language with which the military named everything. I held out my hoof, and the discs landed on it, with the engraved lettering clearly visible on both sides of the perforation. When a soldier was killed, the disc would get snapped in two. The top half of the disc would stay with the soldier, while the bottom would go with their paperwork. It read:
C-43714192
I. A. KNIGHT
HMR A/RH/POS
UFS ARMY
My heart caught in my throat as I recognised the name on the tag: Isaiah Alexander Knight. This tag belonged to my best friend.
And he was dead.
I shuddered as the magics around me lifted me from the ground, my consciousness slowly fading away. I felt nothing when my body crumpled to the ground, slowly closing my eyes as the field of magic suddenly collapsed, and somepony rushed to my side.
The last thing I saw was Quill leaning over me with a panicked look in his eyes. He said something, but I was already too far in to hear him.