Spilled Ink

by Fiddlove Enfemme

18 - Awoken (Finale)

All around me was darkness.

I'd been here before, hadn't I? Not that long ago at all, in fact.

Yes... something about it was familiar to me. But it was equal parts different.

Or maybe, I was different.

My past was was clear to me now. Start to finish. Not that I didn't have any questions, but that was just because I didn't have all of the answers. Who did, really? For example, what about that ritual? And the cat's eye amulet? When I had a moment, maybe I could look into those.

But I had a name. A real name, not one I'd made up. Corporal Liam Archer, of the Keleseth Guard. Formerly, I should add.

Though, come to think of it, there was something I needed to do.

All I had to do was open my eyes.

So I did. A blinding light greeted me, forcing me to shield my eyes from the glare. I was in a bed somewhere, judging by the feeling of sheets on my skin. The next thing I noticed was the distinct smell of cinnamon. And then, the underlying smell of tangy apples... and sweet peaches.

Was someone cooking?

I blinked and squinted through the harsh light, trying to make sense of where I was. It was a bedroom of some kind.

No, I knew this bedroom. It was the Apple Family guestroom. My first hint was the apple motif on the furniture, and my second was the familiar bookshelf filled with adventure books. Daring Do and the Ruinous Powers, indeed. The third clue, of course, was the glass of apple juice on the bedside table.

"Ink Blot? Are you awake?"

"...Yeah," I croaked, my throat dry. I realised that I was parched.

"Hold on just a minute, let me get the curtains."

From the corner near the window, someone moved. I caught a flash of an insectoid carapace as the curtains were closed slightly, blocking the incoming sunlight enough for me to properly see who was speaking to me. And as I'd already surmised, it was Quill.

"What happened?" I wheezed before coughing weakly.

Quill smiled meekly, but it quickly turned into a wince. "So, uh, long story short? We got rid of the parasite."

"That's a good thing, right?" I asked. I reached for the of apple juice, condensation glistening as it clung to the side of the glass. But I could not reach it. My muscles faltered, and my hoof fell limply to the bed.

Come to think of it, my foreleg looked a lot more... slender than I'd remembered. I frowned and tried to straighten up, maybe tog et out of the bed.

"Easy, easy!" Quill stopped me with a hoof on my chest. "You're not in any state to be getting out and about right now. You need to rest and recover your strength.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

A knock came from the bedroom door. Quill, in an obvious attempt to avoid answering the question, leapt up to answer the door instead. He opened it, and I saw the striped visage of Zecora on the other side.

"I assume that our friend has awakened?" she greeted Quill.

"Yeah, he's still pretty weak though." Quill replied.

"Then let us see if his recovery may yet be hastened." Zecora said sagely. She entered the bedroom, wearing saddlebags that bulged with mystic ingredients. She set it down carefully, withdrawing a mortar and pestle as well as a collection of various things with magical properties. Some were familiar: dried sprigs and leaves, shavings of bark, mushrooms of all shapes and sizes. Others were more fantastical: flowers that glowed blue, pulsating growths, a shard of purple amethyst, as well as some kind of oversized beetle.

"What, no toil and trouble today? Fire burn and cauldron bubble?" I asked jokingly.

"There have been many spells and cures I took the time to learn. Thankfully for you, your current troubles are more earthly concerns." Zecora smiled faintly, like she'd heard that joke once or twice before. I don't know how she could have, considering it originated in my world.

Though I had to wonder, if some aspects of life between my world and this one were similar, maybe they had similar literary references as well? If Charles Monteforte had written the play in my world, who's to say that there hadn't been a similar play written in Equestria?

But that was neither here nor there, and I hadn't exactly studied the subject in post-secondary. Unless I had the full libraries from both worlds available to scour and cross reference, then I wouldn't exactly be able to do more than speculate.

Right on Zecora's heels came another familiar face, though she had brought a friend with her as well. "Hello there," Starlight said when she entered. "I hope you don't mind that I brought someone else along."

"Starlight Glimmer. I can't exactly stop you at this point, can I?" I asked wryly.

"I suppose you can't, can you?" Starlight asked back.

The friend she'd brought with her looked... familiar in some way. And by familiar, I mean that she was insectoid like Quill was. She was a Changeling. But not entirely like Quill either. Her carapace was not black, but a light aqua tone. And she didn't look tattered or scarred in the way that Quill did.

"Hi," the new Changeling said nervously.

"Quill, I asked you to swing by the school a hundred times, and you didn't." Starlight admonished him.

Quill shrugged. "I was busy."

"Busy with what?"

Quill ignored her. "You must be Ocellus, then. You're with Thorax?" he greeted the newcomer.

"Yep. You're one of Chrysalis's infiltrators?" Ocellus asked.

"Not anymore."

"Excuse me, I still haven't gotten a straight answer. What happened to me? Why am I so weak?" I interjected with annoyance.

Starlight winced and looked at Ocellus sheepishly. "Maybe you should wait downstairs for a bit? I think we'll be a minute or two."

Ocellus nodded and slinked away, happy to be away from the group of strangers.

"Well, like I said, we got rid of the parasite--" Quill began.

"You've been unconscious for two weeks." Starlight interrupted him before he could say any more.

"What?" I asked.

"You've been unconscious for two weeks." Starlight said again.

I shook my head. "No, I understood that just fine, but how did it happen?"

"So, um, to actually get to the parasite, Starlight and I had to link our magic. Emotions and memories, sort of woven together like a blanket." Quill explained. "Or a hat."

Zecora nodded with mystical wisdom as she carefully ground her chosen ingredients into a fine paste.

"You fell to the ground and passed out after touching that necklace, which is how it was supposed to happen. Moments after you passed out there was a massive surge of emotions and memories, like a broken dam. That thing got washed away like a leaf in a river. We couldn't find any trace of it after. Though, you weren't supposed to stay asleep for this long. You were supposed to wake up after a few minutes, then everything would be alright." Starlight said.

"Your situation was not entirely unseen. But I... misjudged what the outcome should have been." Zecora shook her head in disappointment as she added the paste into a larger bowl, where she mixed it thoroughly with water. The end product was unappealing and reminded me of white school glue.

"I don't have to drink that, do I?" I asked.

"Fear not, this potion will help you restore your strength."

"What's in it?"

Zecora frowned. "The full list? I would need to explain at length. All that matters is that you drink, no matter what it is you think."

"Are you saying that as my licensed physician?" I said with a smile, quickly breaking into a laugh.

"Just drink the potion!" Zecora snapped, but she started to laugh as well.

I waggled my hoof disapprovingly. "You can't forget to do your rhyming!"

"Perish the notion!"

I don't know why it was funny, but it was. The levity was a welcome distraction from the doubts and fears that had begun to plague my mind.

---

There wasn't really a good way to explain it. I felt like I didn't belong in Equestria. Not because of any tangible factors, but because of some of the things I'd seen. Equestria did not know war, it did not know the level of death and destruction that I knew. Everything was so, well, perfect here. At least from what I'd seen so far. It didn't seem real anymore, like it was some kind of dream that I might suddenly wake up from.

Maybe this was just a dying delusion, and I still lay in the smouldering ruins of that damned church.

Though from what Starlight and Zecora soon explained to me, I'd somehow crossed from my time stream into theirs. When Starlight tried to erase Princess Twilight's friendships, almost every one of their actions resulted in some kind of alternate future where Equestria fell to ruin. Those were time streams that Twilight had borne witness to, apparently including one where the Changeling Queen reigned victorious over Equestria and Zecora led a small tribe of ponies who resisted the occupation. That alternate Zecora correctly identified that the time stream had been tampered with, and urged Twilight to correct it.

This Zecora had a similar knowledge base, it seemed. After the two of them had conferred with Doc Whooves, and pooling together what they knew, all the signs indicated that I did indeed originate outside of this time stream. Which was something that had already been suspected. The only question that remained was "how?".

But that was a question for another day.

I spent another week in the Apple family household recuperating. Not that it was something to complain about, because their home cooking was both nourishing and delicious. Quill came and visited every day, talking about the things he was learning. It seemed that Starlight had managed to convince him to enroll at the school, and partnered him with Ocellus temporarily to bring him up to speed on everything he'd missed so far. Everypony else who considered me a friend, like Ray, Rags, Penny, Ginger, Gyro, even Pinkie, they had questions upon questions, which I did my best to answer.

But... there were some things I didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Wouldn't answer. Mostly because I didn't want to curse them with knowledge from another world that wouldn't help them here. War was a mistake, one that should never be repeated in Equestria.

It was two days before I had the strength to walk, three more before I could walk without assistance. I don't know what exactly made it so difficult to relearn, but every so often I caught myself trying to walk with just my hind legs. Ponies weren't built that way, so it never ended well.

Zecora, in her enigmatic way, implied that it wasn't just change and healing for my body, but across the entire self. Soul, mind, and body. Starlight was more skeptical, but Quill agreed with the zebra.

Eventually, they thought that I was strong enough to leave the farmstead.

We were sitting around the dining table in the morning, with Applejack and Quill, making small talk when Starlight finally asked "Ready to go?"

I nodded, and took up the saddlebags that held my meagre possessions. I was wearing Gyro's claw boots and I was ready to... well, I was ready for something.

"I'm ready." I said.

Starlight was about to get up, but then she remembered something. "Here, I think this is yours," she said as she took out that small, bottle cap sized disc. It was still on its chain. "That's your name on it, right? Your real one."

I stayed silent, but accepted the disc. It was... comforting in a way. One last link to him.

C-43714192
I. A. KNIGHT
HMR A/RH/POS
UFS ARMY

"There's something I'd like to do." I said finally.

---

One last time, we went back to the place where I'd woken up in Equestria. Some of the leaves were just beginning to turn, and soon they'd be awash in the colours of autumn.

As soon as I saw the glade, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I took two fallen tree branches, one long and one short, tying them securely together with twine to form a cross. I drove the cross into the ground until it wouldn't budge, and began to painstakingly pile stones around it.

When the memorial was done, I carefully took the disc and hung it from the cross. A soldier's grave. I sat in front of it and bowed my head.

I'd never been religious. A lot of soldiers followed the ways of Helmar, at least nominally, but I never cared for it very much. There were all sorts of rites and rituals they could provide for the fallen, to give the survivors a sense of finality, a sense of security. But right now, all I could think of was how much he'd lost, how he'd sacrificed himself to give me a chance at life.

"What's this for, Ink Blot?" Starlight asked.

"It's for someone who was very dear to me," I said sadly. "Isaiah Alexander Knight. He selflessly gave everything he had in the defense of others. My best friend. He was like a brother to me, always there to offer help and support when I needed it. He paid the ultimate price, not in service of a higher cause, but in service of those around him. He will be remembered."

All was quiet as I gave my friend his final eulogy. For the first time in a while, I let down my guard, and let myself cry.

When I came to terms with myself, I finally stood up, turned around, and left the peaceful glade. I didn't know what was next for me, but I had made a resolution.

I was going to live on. In memory of his sacrifice.

Author's Note:

Fin.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Is Ink Blot related at all to Disney's the Phantom Blot? Because that'd be really cool.

[Matthais Unidostres]

Thats the end? It seems rather abrupt. I can understand leaving some mysteries and unanswered questions around. But it didn't feel like a resolution. Ink might have gotten his answers, but the other characters, especially Quill, got tossed aside. Also, while the cult can be left to mystery, I think the origins of the parasite needs to be addressed. Are you setting up a sequel? This story had a lot of cool plot points thag are begging to be expanded, please. And Quill and Ink are great characters that I want to see more of.

[Fireeaters]

RIP story. It died with many answers left.

[Fiddlove Enfemme]

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10614525
The ending feels rushed because it is.

I think I might rewrite this in the future, but for now I want to continue the story. There's a whole bunch of other stuff that just wouldn't work within the current format that I really want to do. IE other perspectives, because doing this in first person was probably a bad move on the creativity side.