Home

I sat in the dungeon once again, door locked, guard sitting before me. Staring at my feet, book in my lap, waiting. The screams of madmen, ponies and other creatures so disconnected from reality it blocked out my thoughts. But unlike the rest, I had made a choice, and given the painful sickness that lingered since I'd been to my false home I decided better to keep myself away.

In a week of recovery and seclusion, trying to come to terms with my reality, I realized much from the thin book placed on my lap. The book was a heart breaking revelation, a horrid realization. Discord had lead me in the correct place, the correct world, but something was wrong. The usual date was nearly seventy years off, sitting with a thirteen at the end where an eighty should sit.

But something more horrid than the date, something more horrid than the lack of war, the quiet, the calm, I'd been told a name I thought long dead. A man I'd fought with half a year ago, a name I'd seen written on a coffin, a man I'd seen killed before my eyes was coming to meet me.

"This- this the way?" The familiar human voice cut the screaming of the mad. "...I don't think--"

"He mentioned you by name." A blustery voice shot back.

The voices grew louder and louder. "That's- you know talking horses is disconcerting enough, now you start telling me one of you knows me by name!?"

I stood up, walking to the bars and undoing the lock. "I'm not like them." I muttered, throwing the door open and sitting back down. Eventually the man I'd requested stepped down and peered into my cell. "Captain Lewis, good to see you with your brains still in your head."

The man, the familiar human face grew a bit angry as he stepped inside. "...Is that a threat?"

I shook my head gently. "Hardly. It was lucky enough that you came through, one in a million, and now I've got a few questions. Take a seat." I pointed to the bench across from my own.

The captain slowly walked inside, sitting down and looking around. "...Alright, so do--"

"Captain, what year is it?" I asked, flipping through the book I'd been given.

The man shifted around. "How do you know my--"

"Lewis Ardgus, age thirty five, born two-thousand two. Date of death, twenty-one eighty-eight." I closed the book with a snap. "That's when you died to me. On the beach of Newfoundland."

Lewis shifted around. "Who the hell--"

"What is the date, Mr. Ardgus?"

He stared at me, frightful rage in his eyes. "Newyears...two-thousand-thirteen."

I started laughing laughing through my nose. "Of course, of course it is." I reached down into my backpack, nestled between my legs, "Let me show you something," I pulled something from my pack, a silver chain with some tags on the end. "Here, go ahead and read these."

Lewis slowly took the tags, looking them over. "...Samuel, Able, Brennan.... D.O.B. sixty-three."

I smiled, nodding. "And?"

Lewis' face went dull. "Sixty-three.... You're fifty?"

I shook my head softly, "...Twenty-sixty-three." I started chuckling as yet another familiar face poked its head in. "Celestia...can you believe it? That idiot got everything right but the time, the people, he was so close!" I shouted, grabbing the bench I was sitting on. "He sent me to the wrong world, the fucking idiot, he- he was so close!" I shouted slamming my seat and causing Lewis to jump. "But it's not right! It's not what it was meant to be!" I shouted, looking at Lewis, "This pudgy shit...the lights, the date. He sent me to the wrong version...the wrong home, the wrong fucking world."

Celestia looked around, "Able...I don't under--"

"This is Earth, this is all right, the place, the people, everything's right except the circumstance! Things...things must have been different here, maybe there was no war, maybe the famine never came, maybe I actually died!"

I stood up, looking out of the cell at Celestia. "It's perfect, it's the world I wanted it to be. But it's not my own. I don't exist in that world! Or maybe I do...maybe there's more than one of me. But- that- if there's another me, one who never had to fight, one that was sane, one that lived free--" I turned to Lewis, "It's like a mirror...like a mirror leading to a different world."

I stood up, turning to the exit. "I have to go...I need to leave, I need to find a place to live in peace, alone, somewhere I'll never have to- to face any of this!" I screamed. "I- my life is gone, but these people, these humans, these versions of my friends, they're free. They've never- I've never--" I started snickering, "Celestia...these people never had to live the horror, these are the humans you want, these are the people that I was talking about! The good humans, the people we sacrificed for, the ones we tried to become!"

I took a deep breath. "Celestia...I need to go, I need to be alone for the rest of my life. I can't be here anymore. There's nothing left for me anymore!" I shouted, wrapping my arms around her. "Please...if I exist in that other world, if my family exists on that other Earth...I don't want them to see me like this, they don't deserve to see me like this--"

Celestia pulled me against her with her foreleg. "Ponyville.... I'll find a place for you there." She nuzzled my head, "But we'll find you a way ho--"

"No!" I screamed, "No. This...this place is better than my home, this is what I was fighting to create, please...I'll sacrifice it all just to keep this...what this world is supposed to be, safe. If Lewis is alive...than I'm alive, if I'm alive...my family is alive...and better than that...they're safe. And that's...that's all I've ever wanted."

Celestia looked at me, scanning me up and down. "Able...you're sick, I don't know if you can tell but ever since you've gotten back you're--"

"Celestia...let me die." I pleaded, "Just find me a quiet, safe place to die. That's all I want."

Celestia's frown hardened. "And what about me? Luna told me what you thought, that I was using you, that I didn't care about you. You don't think I enjoy your company, you don't think I want you to stay!?"

"Then find me again. Find me in that whole new world that just opened up. I'm sure that version will be polite, kind, everything you want in a person, everything that I'm not, but please, let me go."

Celestia lowered her head. "Able...I don't want to. Everything just started, everything could have started here, we could try and--"

"Let me go."

"...Ponyville...I'll- I'll find you a place to stay, alone. But I expect letters!" She stomped, her hoof cracking the thick stone floor. "We could have tried...we can still try--"

"Celestia," I put my hand on her chest, "You need to let me go. I let go the moment I saw what I did, what Discord did for me, what I brought about...I can't do anything more, and if I die knowing that this life made all that possible...I think I'm fine with that."

Celestia closed the gap between us, resting her chin on my head. "Ponyville is quiet most of the time...you'll be safe there. And- I'll make sure no one knows, that they leave you alone."

I hung my arm around her head, "Thank you...my love, but I think it's time I go."