Salvation | Rebirth

For the rest of the day, Wild avoided everyone he knew, which proved to be easy as long as he allowed their thoughts to reach him before they saw him. Artful’s worry and concern warmed him yet also hurt, especially since Wild fully intended to not see him again until the next day at the very least. He didn’t need to be asked any questions, he didn’t want to be pitied, he didn’t need anything at all but to be alone... for a moment. Or a while. Or a long while.

Thankfully, his ability allowed him to get to the cafeteria when no one would notice him, and then he spent the rest of the day walking around aimlessly. His mind was a jumble of thoughts jump-started by the book about sexuality education. It was such a small thing, yet Wild just couldn’t help how it affected him, and he didn’t know why he had to react this way.

Wild was jogging now through the grounds of the Royal Orphanage, feeling each time his hooves hit the ground. He had to control how he moved exactly in order not to stumble on a root or some sneaky dip in the earth, and most of his attention was no longer on what happened. There was just him and the movement, just what he wanted, just what he liked. When he moved like this, he didn’t have to think about himself... much.

Day turned to night, the sun set, and the moon arose in its place. The Royal Orphanage was quiet as the daytime denizens were asleep. Wild, however, was awake - but not in body. His body was resting, devoid of worries or wishes, uncaring of what went on in Wild’s soul as it hovered above, looking down at its physical vessel.

Wild decided to test the limits of his new form - his true form. Not bound by physical rules of either his human or his pony body, it was free in a way he would never be able to properly describe. An idle thought entered his head, and he wondered if his physical human body was still there, rotting away after death. Was it ever found by other humans? Or perhaps it was eaten by wildlife? He knew it didn’t exactly matter anymore yet he simply stopped for a moment to think about it. He didn’t exactly feel anything about his old body other than relief that he didn’t have it anymore. He never particularly liked it, and that was that.

He already knew he could fly straight through physical obstacles, and he wondered whether this applied to the ground too. For this experiment, he went outside, and then flew into the ground. He expected to be able to see nothing at all, considering that there was no light, but no - instead, he saw... he couldn’t even describe what it was properly. He simply knew what was around him, and for now, it was just earth. He went further down and down, at one point even passing some old skeletal remains. Soil gave way to clay, and then clay was replaced by stone.

A tunnel opened before him, clearly not a natural cave. He looked around - the tunnel was long and straight, the ceiling arched yet not much taller than someone like Princess Luna. There were odd crystals scattered here and there, dull and lifeless. Wild decided to travel along the tunnel to see where it led.

One way led to a dead end but not any sort of cave-in but what looked like a stop in the works. Loose rocks were scattered around alongside a couple of old and rusty tools, the end of the tunnel rough and uneven. Wild turned around and went the other way after seeing that there was nothing behind that dead end other than solid stone.

For a while, there was nothing but old dust alongside some newer hoof prints, although they too were covered in dust. Wild didn’t have any true estimate of how long ago someone was there before, but it was likely at least over a year if not more. Along the tunnel, there were various rooms, most of them empty and dusty. However, some of them had some basic furniture: tables, chairs, even a few cots Wild found a few cupboards filled with empty jars that had once contained food but now there was only dirt and dust. The labels were written in a slightly older language than Wild was used to, but they were simple enough that he could understand them. The most useful part of them was, of course, the date - and considering that it was nearly a decade into the future, Wild thought it was likely at least a century into the past when they were made if not two or more.

Wild wondered what he had just discovered - was it some kind of shelter? It looked rather unfinished, but he could imagine a group of at least fifty fitting in without overcrowding. He knew some people built their own shelters for one reason or another, though those were only big enough to fit a family for a maximum of a few days - this shelter looked far more long-term if a room full of empty shelving was considered.

It was then when he heard distant crying. Wild ceased moving, standing absolutely still even though he knew he couldn’t make a sound. It would likely be best for him to leave - if he knew anything about horror stories, it was not good when there was crying in an abandoned place. His heart would be hammering right now if he had his physical body, yet he displayed no fear outwardly even as it gripped him from the inside.

This place, even before hearing the cry, was giving him the creeps, and he realized why - there was no sunlight to be seen, and there was likely just one entrance and exit. He did not like basements, and this place was one big and very deep basement where things - or people - could be hidden. At least he had yet to spot any sort of cell or even proper locks on the doors, so that was a small relief.

He could float away from this cry right now, return to the surface, forget about this place. However, he realized that he couldn’t leave, not without seeing what it was about first. The crying, the sobbing, it tore at his heart - oh how he hated to see and hear people cry. Unless he caused it, there was always a desire to help, to soothe the pain.

His body was safe back in the Royal Orphanage, so nothing physical could hurt him. However, he didn’t believe he would even have to worry about anything physical happening in the first place.

Slowly, he glided along the floor, leaving no mark and making no sound. He was back in the tunnel, and the crying was certainly coming from the unexplored length of the tunnel. If he had his physical body, he would be straining his eyes to look further into the darkness, but everything remained as it was - equally lit in his vision, though he knew it was not any sort of real light that illuminated the surroundings. The tunnel made a bend, around which the crying originated. Wild could spot a couple of loose rocks and quite a lot of dust and dirt, growing in size and amount the further he went.

Rounding the bend, Wild stopped at the sight in front of him. He could see a couple of stair steps leading upwards, yet a cave-in blocked the way. A rusty bent shovel was lying on the ground along a pickaxe, all covered in dust and debris. In front of the cave-in lay a single body and, next to it, a ghost was tugging at a rock. Wild didn’t have to guess to know that the two were one and the same.

“Come on, come on, come on,” the ghost desperately muttered, “Just a little bit, come on...”

The body was mummified, remarkably intact for what it was, still boasting fur, mane, tail, and wings. The same colors, although much paler, belonged to the ghost - a pegasus.

Wild stood there, frozen, unable to avert his eyes. The ghost paused in their work - a memory stretched far past their death - and panted from remembered exhaustion. Incomprehensible quiet whispers and whines echoed from him before he resumed, trying to find some sort of weak spot in the cave-in that there never was and never would be.

There was a stutter in their movement, one of their ears twitched, and they stopped. Then, slowly, the pegasus turned around and faced Wild, eyes blinking in confusion and surprise, then fear slowly crept in. Wild was still rooted to the spot, the sight of the long-dead body and the ghost left behind forever etched into his memory. He regretted experimenting with what he could do, wishing he could turn back time and simply sleep in his body like he was supposed to do, but what was done could not be undone.

For a moment, Wild feared that the ghost would turn into something... other. Something malicious, something that would see him as a target of desperation turned into rage. However, it did not happen - instead, the ghost looked afraid, paling even beyond their already pale translucent looks.

“H-hello?” the ghost said, their voice a whisper yet loud and clear, full of wariness, “Who are you?”

Wild didn’t know if signing was useful, so he decided to go a different route.

“Hello,” he thought out loud, and by the shudder that went through the ghost he knew the message was received, “My name is Wild.”

“...are you a ghost too?” the pegasus asked cautiously, “You are not going to... hurt me?”

Wild should have expected this question - it wasn’t like he looked very inviting in this form.

“I do not know who I am,” he replied, honesty striking out to his own surprise. “I am like a ghost but not. Who are you?”

“My name is Cave Explorer, a he,” he gave a watery laugh, “Didn’t go so well for me, huh? But if I could just...” he trailed off, a part of him wanting to go back to the futility of his postmortem action.

“You couldn’t get out,” Wild pointed out the obvious, “Are you stuck?”

“I... I guess?” he said, “I... I just want to get out, you know? To see the sun again. And... and for someone to, to do the... the rites for my body,” a few ghostly tears escaped his eyes as he sniffed, “I was so stupid to come here alone. But nooo, I just had to explore this thing. By myself. It was fine before, but I knew, I knew people died sometimes in caves, but... but I thought it would never be me.”

“I am sorry,” Wild said, doing his best to sound genuine despite not making a sound, then made an uncertain offer, “I can maybe help you?”

“How? Can you leave? Can you take me with you?” Cave Explorer looked at him with the eyes so full of hope Wild would cry if he could.

“I do not know,” Wild replied, hating this uncertainty, “But I can... dig out from the other side. Bring someone who can do it. Get you out, get your body out.”

“Yes, please! I want to see the sun!” he begged, “I w-want to, to tell my family that, that I love them. To tell them that I’m sorry I wasn’t careful, and that... that I love them, you know? They’re family. They cared. Cared more about me than I did, you know? And I must let them know that.”

“I know,” Wild nodded, wishing he could shed his own tears in sympathy, “I will get you out. I promise. But I have to leave you alone for that. Are... are you alright with that?”

“I’ve been waiting a long time. What’s some more time by this point? I am not going anywhere, after all,” he gave a humorless chuckle, “But... promise me you’ll come back?”

“I will, I swear,” Wild assured the ghost, “You will not be alone for much longer. You... you will see the sun. You will see your family. I swear you will.”

“T-thank you,” Cave Explorer sniffed, “I... come back soon.”

Wild nodded, then went through the cave-in until he emerged on the other side. He ceiling was cracked in places, and he knew it wouldn’t take much for it to collapse further. Fortunately, his own presence didn’t disturb anything.

He went up the stairs, around a turn, around another turn, and finally stepped out into a natural cave. The entrance was certainly cleverly hidden, nested between two rocks in a way that hid it from sight. Wild needed to mark it somehow, so he reached out, trying to feel the physical world, and then scratched at the stone. It gave in, and he had a nice and large X marked on one of the rocks, unmistakable and unmissable. He continued his way upwards as he snaked his way through the cave until he could see a sliver of moonlight. Soon enough, he came to the cave entrance - it was overgrown and thus hidden from sight, situated somewhere outside the orphanage. Wild did his best to clear it up, to make it more visible, and then he flew up to see just how far he was from the Royal Orphanage under which the old shelter lay. As it turned out, he wasn’t particularly far. Once he memorized the direction, he slowly made his way through the forest the cave entrance was in, marking the trees as he passed by them.

It took him some time, but he finally came back to the Royal Orphanage. He looked back at the forest, noting the trees that he marked - and those marks would not be lost if he came back. He nodded to himself in satisfaction, keeping in mind his goal.

His body still needed rest, but Wild knew what he would need to do once he was awake again. He was not going to leave Cave Explorer trapped, he would get him out. He was glad for this random discovery, and he had a chance to do good, and he would take it.

Wild told himself, as he often had to, that he was not evil. Luna told him sadists can have great empathy, and he would prove her right, and prove to himself that he wasn’t good just for causing pain. He would do a good thing, and that would, perhaps, soothe his own hurt.

However, how would he help him? It would be best if he did it as quickly as possible - he didn’t want to wait, and he didn’t believe he’d able to sleep until he knew that Cave Explorer was no longer trapped. And... as a ghost, he’d be able to see his family if Wild helped him, to say a goodbye that Wild wished he could have done to his own.

Wild knew he could trust only one person with exactly how he found out about Cave Explorer, and that was Princess Luna. However, he couldn’t simply wait for her to return to the Royal Orphanage - he had no idea how long it would take. He could send a letter, but that would be too slow as well. He wished ponies had internet for instant messaging or, at least... whatever the thing that sent morse code was. A telegraph? He didn’t remember. Either way, he needed to deliver the message quickly, and it appeared there was only one way to do it.

Canterlot, it was said, could be seen from any point in Equestria. The planet Equestria was on had relatively weak curvature, from what Wild had learned, which meant that one could easily see tens of kilometers away even from something as tall as a four-floor house, and that was in pony height, not human height, which made it all the more impressive.

Unfortunately, it meant that Canterlot was further than it appeared. However, Wild didn’t need a train or a plane or any other sort of method of transportation. Free of his body, certain constraints of movement no longer applied to him. He soared into the sky and zoomed straight to the distant lights of Canterlot, going way faster than he naturally could and yet not even feeling it. He remembered how he rode a bicycle as a child - wind had howled in his ears then, and he could feel it ruffle his hair more the faster he went. Now, however, there was no sense of movement, only the results of his imagination.

He wondered if he could teleport as he was now but didn’t know where to even begin. He remembered the physical sensation of his uncontrolled teleportation, but he no longer had a body for it. Would he teleport to some kind of wrong place if he didn’t do it exactly right?

He decided to shut that thought down - he had done enough exploration for a long time. What he was doing now was already pushing the limits he worried he should not have crossed. What he was... it was unnatural enough already, and he feared there would be something waiting for him, something that took offense to his his ability, perhaps even to his... existence.

Treetops passed below him at a terrifying speed, yet Canterlot was not drawing close particularly quickly. In the distance, on a railroad going from Canterlot to elsewhere, he could see a steam train as it chugged along, and Wild was reasonably certain he was faster. It would be exhilarating, but only if he could feel it at all.

Being without a physical body, he begun to realize, was... incomplete, in a way. Or was it perhaps his memory insisting that there should be something even if there was no real, true reason for it? After all, his body was just a vessel, and everything that was truly him was all within his soul. His memories, his personality, it was all there, and his body was empty and devoid of anything that could be called a person when he wasn’t there.

Wild wondered if ghosts could do what he did. However, from what he saw in Cave Explorer, ghosts were stuck. Wild was not stuck, not forced to repeat the same actions again and again and again in perpetuity and eternal futility. No matter where his body was, he could leave it. No matter what physical obstacle was before him, he could go right through it. He was not tethered, there was no anchor holding him down, and it was proven true again and again as he departed his body time after time, all of his own free will, able to return to it at any time. And now, further away from his body than he had ever been before, it was even more apparent that he was free.

The mountains in the distance, the sky above, the ground beneath, none was a constraint, nothing was a limit - the only true limit was himself.

Canterlot was finally in front of him, close enough that he could see a couple of ponies out on the lamp-lit streets. Whatever allowed Canterlot to stand on the side of the mountain for many centuries was an impressive feet of engineering Wild was curious about, and the dense buildings looked cozy like cities in Europe he had seen photographs of but never had been to in person. However, he didn’t have time to take in his surroundings for long, in need of finding Princess Luna as he was. Fortunately, he didn’t have to look for the answer to that for long - the Canterlot Castle was not difficult to find, and it was an obvious place for royalty to live in.

Sticking to the darkness of the shadows, Wild glided closer and closer. Inattentive guards patrolled the streets of Canterlot, easily avoidable even as their density grew nearer the castle. Were Wild a younger and more mischievous person, he would consider giving a scare or two, to keep the guards on their toes, but he had no time or desire for this.

The castle itself had many guards posted around various doorways, but they were easy to pass by. Now Wild just needed to find Princess Luna, and he focused on figuring out the flow of thoughts of ponies around the castle. There was some staff doing cleaning, worrying about their things as well as thinking about things unrelated to either princess. After hanging around the staff for longer, however, Wild got the direction of Lunar Wing - the wing of the castle where Princess Luna resided. Wild hoped she wasn’t asleep, but if she was, he would just leave a letter. He doubted she would be particularly happy with him if he woke her up - he knew very well what it was like to enjoy sleep, and, considering how busy the princesses had to be, sleep was something they not only enjoyed but needed.

The castle - or, more accurately, the palace - was a massive, sprawling complex, so it wouldn’t be surprising for people to get lost in it, and Wild had to double back a number of times as he didn’t know what kinds of mental maps the staff had of the palace to navigate it. He had stumbled on a few offices, a ball room, some kind of small dining room, and a bunch of bathrooms. The next hallway was a gallery with what were undoubtedly very expensive paintings, all of them of various places in Equestria as far as Wild was able to guess, as well as a few stands with expensive artifacts of unknown purposes. The lighting was dim, provided by a few lit candles. There was no one in this gallery, which wasn’t exactly surprising, but Wild had a feeling...

A quiet whoosh of air made him turn around. The doors he had passed through effortlessly were now open, and they shut with a click. In front of them, stood Princess Celestia, and the expression on her face froze Wild in his place. It was not fury, no, but there was something dangerous within her eyes, something that could not be denied nor evaded.

“I wonder,” she spoke, her voice soft yet carrying weight. Wild was, for the first time since he had seen her, struck by how imposing she was - or could be, “What is a wayward spirit doing in the Royal Canterlot Castle?”