In the Eyes of Death

So, expositional update: I’m no longer in the dungeon as I was moved into a guest suite in some castle a few days ago. Castle plus dungeon equals monarchy. Monarchy means… some… eastern island country… Still can't remember things before… whichever death it was that put me here… Regardless, I’m still confined to quarters until something happens…

I’m finding that my memory is pretty spotty. Every time I apparently die I forget that I’ve died, plus about fifteen minutes or so. Explains why I can’t remember the deaths between the decaps in the dungeon. I still have no idea who I am and Twilight can’t read the chain thing I suspect were some kind of tags with identification on them. For now, they just call me The Human.

I’m missing important basic functions in my mind. I can’t do math anymore. Like, at all. Anything more advanced than five plus five just doesn't work in my head. Don’t know why and Twilight’s at a loss.

Magic. That’s a thing here! That tingling feeling I occasionally get is the physical manifestation of Twilight’s magic on my body. Apparently she feels something in me, but she’s not too sure besides it’s not biological in nature. Can’t possibly imagine what that would be, but I figure after time and mental recovery, we’ll figure it out.

I really cannot be killed. I even actually held both my own hands after they’d been separated from my arms and new hands grew in while the old ones were put in stasis. According to the pony, whatever gets cut off disintegrates and returns to the larger body. Same goes for my head.

They feed me, had to bring in special cooks from out of country to cook me meat since this entire fucking country seems to be ovo-vegetarian in nature, but they feed me.

I have had next to no other interaction with anything else save for Twilight. I still don’t believe that she’s a furry pony that’s small enough to comfortably rest on my chest, even if evidence proves me wrong. She visits me daily, trying to help me restore the fractals of my memory from before death or otherwise just providing social interaction while she tries to learn about me. Neither really works since I have nothing I can adequately tell her.

“So, are you ready to meet the princesses?” Twilight inquired as she helped me into some kind of suit that someone else had made for me. Didn’t even know anyone had been around to take my measurements.

“No, I’m blind and I don’t feel right in this suit. I feel like I’m supposed to be wearing something else… Something more… I don’t know, appropriate to me.” I groaned back but allowed myself to be stuffed into the suit. No idea if it looked good on me or not but according to Twilight, I was absolutely dashing.

“Something different? What else would you wear to meet a princess?” Twilight stepped back from helping me get my coat onto my shoulders without wearing it upside down.

“No idea, never met a princess before.” I remarked with a shoulder shrug.

“Fine, government official?” Twilight scoffed and helped me with my shoes with her magic. Probably. It felt like my shoes were getting tighter and since I hadn’t heard her move, she was probably using her magic.

“Something in me wants to say: Royals...” I replied slowly as the words formed in my mind. “Royal colours?”

“What, like a soldier’s formal uniform?” Twilight stepped back a step, holding me from finishing up my dressing. “Were you a soldier?”

With a groan and accompanied shrug to indicate I had no idea, I held up the tags in my pocket. “Would explain these.”

“So you’d feel better in a military outfit?”

“Probably? I wanna say army, so… I dunno… dark green?” I scrunched up my face in attempts to try and recover the image into my mind. I felt like I loved that suit, why couldn’t I remember it?

“If you’d like, I can do a bit of digging around in your mind to try and find the suit if you’ve ever seen it.” Twilight offered as she lead me to my bedside and sat me down. “It won’t hurt much.”

“Much, thanks for that. Can’t hurt more than every time I die.” I sighed and succumbed, flopping back onto the mattress. “Fine, go dig.”

“It’ll be just a moment.” Twilight replied as she climbed up onto my chest and placed her horn against my forehead. Oh, that’s right. She’s a fucking unicorn.

The unfamiliar presence in my mind told me that whatever she was doing was probably successful. I simply remained where I laid, for lack of options anyways, and let the creature on my chest do her work. I could feel her heartbeat against my own, feel her breath as she concentrated as it blew against my dark eyes.

“Oh, there it is.” Twilight suddenly announced with a slight squeal. “Looks pretty good, if I might say. Very formal.”

“That’s the idea, I think.” I grumbled back under the weight of the pony. Even when she was resting her entire weight on my chest, crushing the breath out of me, I could feel my lungs and ribs threaten to give under her but since it’d just heal in no time neither one of us were too terribly concerned. Except for the pain. That always sucked.

“Okay, got it.” Twilight rolled off my chest and hit the bed to help me back up again and stood me entirely. “Just wait here while I go get a friend of mine. She’ll be able to help make the changes.” and then a pop of air told me she was gone again.

A minute of standing still, completely bored and unsure of what to do with myself, a second and third pop alerted me to a new presence in the room.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” a female, proper voice whispered in inquiry.

“He’s totally safe. Mostly.” Twilight replied before adding the second part on as a second thought. “Don’t worry, I can stop him if he gets too rowdy.”

“Who’s there?” I asked, facing the general direction of the newcomer and since I couldn’t hear movement, I figured she was either light on her feet or just hadn’t moved.

“Oh, and he’s blind.” Twilight added as her voice moved towards me. “Can you do it?”

“It shouldn't be too difficult but I don’t think it’ll be very comfortable…” The other female replied, sounding concerned. “But, I think I can replicate the image.”

“What’s she doing? Who is she?” I wondered, taking a step back from the new one.

“This is Rarity, she built your current suit for you and she’s going to change it into your preferred attire.” Twilight explained at my right while a set of hoofsteps told me that Rarity was coming closer.

“Now, just hold still, Darling.” Rarity requested as she hopped herself up to place both hooves against the front of my thighs. “This may pinch some.”

A rippling tingle cascaded from my head and down to my feet, covering my body entirely till I found my heels being lifted for the shoe soles.

“There, not quite my best work given the circumstances but it shall have to do till I can bring the suit in for tailoring.” Rarity announced, hopping down to circle around me. “So, what do you think?”

“It’s clothes.” I replied simply as the sound of walking stopped in front of me. “I’m blind, I don’t know what it looks like.”

“Oh, right. My apologizes for the involuntary insensitivity.” Rarity gasped at the realization of her mistake and stepped back a few steps from me. “Well, if that’s all, I would like to be returned to the others.”

“Of course. We’ll see you all shortly.” Twilight replied and with a pop, Rarity’s presence was gone.

“Really? Blind jokes?” I raised an eyebrow at the small pony next to me but placed my hand on her head to let her lead me from the room and into that I figured was a hallway.

“You know that wasn’t what I meant. Come on, the Princesses are waiting.” Twilight groaned and lead me on. The number of footsteps around me told me we were probably being escorted by the guard but neither of us said anything the entire walk.

Eventually I was lead to stop before running into something and was turned to my right by Twilight. “Okay,” Twilight’s breathing was growing short and laboured. “All we gotta do is walk in there, meet the Princesses and not get you killed.”

“Would be great, yeah. Thanks.” I mumbled back as the volume of the doors swinging open assaulted me, making me grit my teeth at the hinges that needed oiling.

“Here we go!” Twilight nervously chuckled and lead me into the room sans guard judging by the number of footsteps. Everything was dark, so all I could tell was that the new room smelled like fresh air and flowers. Granted, I couldn’t tell what flowers they were but they were sweet. A gentle, cooling breeze wafted in around me, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck while I did my best to place foot in front of foot while my body defaulted to a sturdy march into the room. Twilight had to speed herself up a bit to match my pace but soon enough a small yank on my hand told me to stop.

“So, this is him?” A motherly voice questioned from above and before me. Not high up enough to warrant raising my head any further but high enough to suggest she was atop some kind of riser. “What is he?”

“He calls himself a human being.” Twilight reported while I stood at attention. I could only feel the gazes resting on me, all figuring they were safe to stare since I couldn’t see them doing so, but I felt it. “He seems to have been a soldier of some kind where he came from. A soldier at war, by the way.”

“Seems problematic.” Another voice, younger than the mother one but originating from the same direction replied in a low voice. “Is he hostile?”

“I’m standing here peacefully, aren’t I?” I replied calmly and without moving.

“Be that as it may, we can’t have a potentially violent threat running free our country.” the first one before me explained sternly. I could feel the glare she was giving me. “Are you going to be a problem, let’s put it that way.”

“I’m blind. I can’t fight very well if I'm blind.” I replied, removing my cap to show my white eyes. “Not yet anyways.”

“He’s not actually supposed to be blind. For some reason his eyes aren’t regenerating properly and I can’t figure out why.” Twilight announced, giving me news.

“I have eyes then? I thought you said they were still growing back.” I turned my head towards the pony next to me with a little more than anger in my voice.

“That was a couple days ago. You’re eyes have grown in, but they remain blind.” Twilight replied, aiming the comment my direction. Then, turning her voice towards the officials before us, “He’s also suffering from severe mental fragmentation. He’s lost most of his memory from before he ended up here and first died as well as, strangely enough, key parts of his memory for basic functions, like how to perform mathematics.”

“I wasn’t aware that could happen.” The younger sounding princess remarked curiously. As I stood where I was, I was beginning to smell the faint aromas of blueberries and strawberries in the room. I couldn't tell if they were nearby or if they were wafting in with the fragrances coming in from whatever open window was nearby. Since the room was still fairly warm, I could at least deduce that whatever country I was in was in the middle of it’s summer months as compared to the prolonged rain that my country seemed fond of.

“I wasn’t either, actually. Something like Mathematics would have been hardwired into his brain at a young age if his education system worked the same as ours. And yet, he seems to default to certain practices like whatever military training he has as evidence by his walk or stature now.” Twilight replied, her voice suggesting she was looking up at me.

Something about the area around me bothered me. I could feel something, someone familiar nearby. As though there was someone I had known for a couple years standing silently to my… left… While the princesses and Twilight conversed about my mental health, I turned towards the familiar presence and from the darkness, a pinprick of bright blue light appeared.

Turning my body entirely, I took off at a slow walk towards the light and noticed that it remained low to the supposed ground as I grew closer; approximately as tall as Twilight was if I had to guess. The room went entirely silent as they watched me kneel down at the light and reached out to touch it.

“What’s going on?” A voice before me asked, sounding slightly terrified as I placed a hand against a neck. Placing the other hand gently on the fur, I lifted my hands upwards towards that I figured was a pony head and ended up with both hands on the sides of her head and cheeks. “What’s he doing?”

“I have no idea, never seen him do this before.” Twilight replied from behind me. I could feel the presence of other bodies around the one before me but I paid them no mind as I sat back on my ass entirely and pulled the pony with me. “Are you okay?”

“Little freaked out, but yeah.” The pony replied, her voice tom-boyish in nature but with a distinctly hidden feminine tone behind it. At this point I had her before me enough that I could suddenly wrap my arms around it and pull it into a hug, feeling the familiarity of warmth, of family and friends. I felt like this pony had been with me for years through hell and high water.

“Rainbow… Dash?” I whispered to myself as I felt a fluid gradually run from my eyes. The body froze up in my embrace at the name but couldn’t quite escape from me.

“How do you know my name?” The pony demanded from my shoulder as she tried to push away from me with her hooves. “Let me go!”

“Uhm, I don’t know about ya’ll, but I think he knows her somehow…” a western country woman remarked from next to Dash, sounding concerned.

“He did arrive with a little figurine of Dash in his pocket…” Twilight put in from behind me as I worked at collecting myself from flashes of faces I didn’t remember. “Don’t know how he got it or where the figurine came from, but it seems he’s a fan of her.”

“I didn’t even say anything, how’d he know I was here?” Dash replied, looking over my shoulder as I just held onto her as gently and as tightly as I could. She had all the familiarity in the world contained within that little pinprick of light and I would be damned to let it go.

“I don’t know, maybe he somehow senses our presences since he’s blind?” Twilight suggested as her voice drew nearer to me. “Come on, let her go. You’re making her uncomfortable.” she requested, pulling at the shoulder of my jacket with her magic.

Reluctantly, I let her go and she quickly jumped out of my reach, landing near to where I could feel other bodies.

“Sorry… You just… have such a pretty light…” I mumbled back and composed myself by wiping my face off with the heel of my hand.

“A light? Can you see?” Twilight sounded eager again, her voice appearing before me. Save for the light of Dash, everything was dark. I shook my head in reply. “Then what can you see?”

“Nothing. Just a single mote of light where Dash is.” I replied and returned to my stance at attention. “Take me back to where we were please.”

“Oh, sure.” Twilight lead me by the hand to where we were, probably and turned me back to what I assumed was the front.

“So, what are your intentions for being here? How did you arrive here?” The motherly voice inquired, sounding soft to the ears as opposed to stern and fierce.

“No intentions. I shouldn't even be here. As for how I got here, I think I just dropped in.” I replied with a large breath to finally correct my behaviour.

“Explains the crater we found most of his body in.” An upbeat, higher pitched voice replied, the same one who’d been with Twilight who found me.

“Pinkie, I do sincerely hope you don’t actually mean you found him in many pieces… He wouldn’t be alive if he was.” Rarity remarked, sounding sickened from the thought.

“It’s true! We found his limbs a couple hundred feet away from his body! He even had a spike sticking up through his face! It was really gory...” Pinkie’s voice replied, sounding just as sickened.

“He’s capable of regenerating his entire body, we just don’t know to what extent yet…” Twilight explained with what sounded like a grimacing shake of ill memories. “It would seem that he’s actually eternal…”

“As opposed to immortal like Celestia and I?” the younger one replied curiously and I could feel a powerful gaze on me once more. “How thoroughly have you tested this?”

“We’ve killed him four times since he’s arrived. Twice by decapitation, dismemberment, threw him into a wall…” Twilight sighed back while the presences nearby all wretched to themselves. “He just keeps coming back.”

“Well, it seems we can’t necessarily permanently imprison him for all eternity. He’d go mad and likely break out and seek revenge…” the one called Celestia announced, sounding perplexed of what to do. “Luna, have you any suggestions?”

“Integration?” The younger one I figured was Luna suggested. I liked this idea, if at least until I could get back to my world. “I do have a slight concern, however.”

“What about?” Twilight asked as I simply sat down on the ground where I stood. Carpet? Probably a rug of some kind. Fairly soft to the touch but rough enough that it didn’t feel like it’d trap dirt. Coarse, but not unpleasant.

“His uniform reminds me of something from an old museum we had a thousand years ago… You say that his outfit was pulled from his memories, something he wore before he came here?” Luna inquired, making me wonder where they were going with this. A lack of verbal reply suggested that Twilight nodded back. “I wonder… It’s probably nothing. Please, disregard what I have said.”

“Any other ideas other than eternal life imprisonment or integration?” Celestia’s voice took to the area around us, addressing everyone present. “And you, human, do you have any preferences on what happens to you?”

“I‘d prefer to go home, all due respects.” I mumbled back unintentionally a bit more hostile than I’d intended and from the sounds the princesses were making, they heard it too.

“Well, until we can figure out how to get you home, you’ll have to stay here with us. Which brings us back to the original question: how would you prefer to be handled?” Celestia reiterated with a bit of scorn in her voice.

“Visitation?” I suggested back without a care in the world. “I don’t really feel like being entirely integrated into your country so why not just leave me as a visitor? A blind… visitor… I may need someone to help me get around...”

“Is there anyone you’d prefer to stay with?” Luna’s invisible gaze crowded me, filling me with a sense of danger.

“Don’t really care who I stay with, but I think a slower environment would work best. Big cities will probably prove too over-stimulating to me while I adjust to my heightened senses.” I sighed with my answer, feeling fairly tired despite the relative easy-going nature of the day.

“You seem to have some kind of familiarity with Rainbow Dash,” Celestia began, however the named female interrupted.

“I am not letting him stay with me! He creeps me out and I wouldn’t even know what to start with! No offence, Princess Celestia, but it’s not happening!” Dash finished defiantly and with a small hmph that others could have missed.

“Then why doesn’t he stay with me for a while? At least until he can get his bearings and survive on his own?” Twilight offered helpfully and stood within reach of my right side to place her head under my arm to get me to stand.

“Works for me.” I stand with a bit of assistance from Twilight and move into attention for final words.

“There we have it. The human will return to Ponyville with Twilight and live with her until such time that he deems he is fit to survive on his own.” Celestia announced, sounding glad to be over with this affair. “If there is nothing left, you two have some moving to do.”

With a salute, I turned completely around with surprisingly unsurprising practice and took off at a marching pace before Twilight sighed and caught up to redirect me away from not the doors.