Salvation | Rebirth

The rest of the day passed like a blur of nothingness that stretched for too far yet was also gone in a blink. Wild returned to his body, he ate, he went to the self-defense class - where, once again, running away was trained at first, as well as various methods of escape from sudden attacks. Then he had his swords training, which went about as well as it usually did.

During dinner, Artful looked at him worryingly.

“Is everything alright?” he asked.

Wild turned his head and blinked at him. He then returned his eyes to his tray of food, a third of which was now empty yet he couldn’t even remember the taste of anything he ate. Then he looked back at Artful. What could he say? It wasn’t like he could admit that he was from a different world and had just found evidence of his origin world still connected to this world. He couldn’t then continue on and claim that it was dangerous, that this connection had to be severed or else ponies would suffer a terrible fate. He couldn’t disclose his plans to Artful, plans that included searching the Everfree Forest for his place of rebirth so he could see if there was anything going on there, if there was... anyone else.

Wild simply shook his head, then gestured that he was not fine but he would be. Then he lied, claiming there was nothing to worry about, he simply had one of those days. He did not specify what kind of days, but Artful nodded anyway as if he understood.

“Alright,” he said, “But if there’s anything I can help you with, tell me, okay?”

There was nothing Artful had the power to help him with, but Wild nodded. There was no harm in these little lies. He did not plan to ever reveal the reality of this situation to him, after all. Artful did not need to worry himself over Wild or Wild’s concerns. They might be... acquaintances, but they weren’t anywhere close enough to share secrets. Even if Wild already knew one of his - being friends with a changeling. Wild, however, wasn’t obliged to make even, to give away a secret of his own. Not now, possibly not ever. Ponies would never understand him, would never accept him if he revealed the entire truth. It was better to let them believe whatever they wanted, and leave the truth just to himself... and to Princess Luna, although he still didn’t know whether he would ever have chosen to confide in her if not for her discovering who he was by herself first. It was proven that she cared about him, too, and perhaps... perhaps there was no harm in her knowing things about him.

If only he stopped trying to unload his every worry, every deficiency, every fear, every hate and anger on her. Surely she had more things to worry about? Surely his self-loathing and hatred of his own species, justified as he believed it all was, wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of her priorities? She had a country to rule, and he was just one tiny pony who held no power, had no friends, and was essentially just a speck in the sand.

Wild sometimes wished he could go back and make sure that his lies that he wanted to protect him were more solid, that his actions did not reveal his true nature. He wondered what his life would have been like if Luna didn’t make her discovery. Of course, she would not have been close to him in any way then, and their interactions would probably be boiled down to language lessons and little more, although even that could be delegated to someone else. It boggled Wild’s mind that the princesses didn’t get a proper teacher to make him learn the language - did they really have this much free time to dedicate it to someone like him?

After finishing the food he didn’t taste, he carried the tray away to be cleaned, and then went on his own back to the dorm. He had an important goal, and he couldn’t delay working towards it. Not if he wished to find out what was going on before it all turned into a disaster, and he could feel that it would, in time, do just that.

As day turned to evening and evening turned to night, the sun setting as the moon rose to replace it, Wild’s spirit rose from his body, and now he was Zrak. He found he liked this self-picked name, especially since, in English, both his names consisted of the same number of letters and the same number of consonants and vowels. He liked this sort of symmetry.

It would be safe to go to the Everfree Forest as a spirit... or, at the very least, safer. Zrak now knew that nowhere was safe no matter what form he had.

The Everfree was not far from the Royal Orphanage, and it was a stark contrast to everything around it. There were other forests touching it, but they never mingled, never became one, as if someone drew a line between regular forests and the Everfree forest.

Zrak stood there, eyeing it from a distance. He did not like it, and it was uncertain whether he felt it because of himself or because the forest itself exuded an aura of some kind. When... when he was there last, he wasn’t particularly keen on learning more about it and neither did he pay much attention to what was going on. Now, however...

He moved closer to the forest, and then suddenly had a feeling that could only be described as hair rising on his body. However, he had no fur and no hair now - the only explanation was that this was pure feeling, and this feeling was one of fear.

Zrak couldn’t say he feared the darkness specifically. However, being outside after dark was... unpleasant. He remembered the times where he had to find some especially dark corner to hopefully safely - or at least more or less safely - sleep in. Darkness was his friend then, but it was also his enemy because he could never know what was coming towards him. Being roused multiple times from sleep had taught him that, no matter the place he picked, someone could always come across it and spot him. Homeless people were, generally speaking, disliked, and he was among their kind then, and so when someone saw him sleeping, they didn’t think of how vulnerable he was, they didn’t think that he had no choice but to be where he was. They only thought of him as a disgusting little pest and so dealt with him in ways not much better than one dealt with unwelcome insects in their house.

Zrak steadied himself, doing breathing exercises even when he had no lungs to physically do it with. However, the remembered motions and the phantom sensations were enough to calm him down, and so he continued on.

The Everfree Forest seemed even darker than it could naturally be. In this darkness, the twisted trees could be seen as anything, and the fact that Zrak felt like he was being watched didn’t help. He did his best to move swiftly and silently - not that his form ever made noise unless he wanted it to. He had to stop and look around fairly often, and he would have shuddered and shivered if he still had a body - the trees, sometimes... they looked like shapes of living beings. A pony or a human, but, on a closer look, revealed themselves to be just a strick. There were no ponies and there were no humans.

The Everfree Forest was quiet. The natural evening and night noises of critters were absent, although sometimes Zrak could perhaps hear some distant rustling. The air stood still as well... perhaps too still.

Zrak jumped back as some sort of a rodent skittered across the ground and climbed up a tree right in front of him. Had he a heart, it would have been racing. He did not like this place. However, he had to find where he was reborn. The fact was, unfortunately, that he didn’t really remember it anymore, certainly not where it could be.

Zrak flew up above the trees and looked around. He had seen the Everfree Forest on a map, yet the map didn’t seem to have accurately shown the scale of it. The forest seemed to stretch on and on in all directions except one he came from, and he wondered whether magic could have something to do with that. Close to the center, the towers of the abandoned Summer Palace stood, unnaturally straight and even for this place. He was not going back there, certainly not this night, and hopefully, simply never.

He had much ground to cover, and it all seemed hopeless. The first thing he looked for from his far above was any sign of flames or any artificial light - there was none. If there were humans here somehow, they did not give themselves away. Or perhaps they weren’t there yet. He had to find his place of rebirth to make sure. If anyone else came through the same way he did... he would know. The difficulty, of course, lay in finding that place.

Zrak needed a plan. He knew - or at least remembered - that it couldn’t have been too far yet it also wasn’t at the edge of the forest. He knew it was also hidden, so spotting it from above would be a futile task. And yet, he had a feeling that he would simply know when it was nearby.

The Everfree Forest was spread out in all directions from the center where the Summer Palace stood more or less evenly, forming a wobbly sort of circle. The best way for Zrak to search it would be to start and the outskirts and go around it in a circle, slowly tightening it as he searched further and further to the center.

He got to work. He moved smoothly and silently, disturbing not a blade of grass as he glided along, making sure to check his direction every so often. It would certainly not be difficult for one to get lost within this forest, and he suspected magic could play a hand in it as well. This forest was most definitely cursed in some way or another, and Zrak did not wish to test it any more than he was already doing.

The surroundings seemed to blur around him more the longer he spent inside the forest. All of it looked the same: the gnarly, crooked trees, the dirt and the short and rigid grass, the various vines hanging from the branches here and there. So far, Zrak hadn’t even seen many animals aside from that one rodent. The timberwolves, wherever they were, seemed to be far enough away that he could neither see them nor hear them.

The first circle was complete in what seemed like forever. There was nothing that indicated any sort of hidden place of rebirth. Without a doubt, Zrak had to go deeper. He did not want to go any deeper, but he had to if he were to keep... to keep himself safe. To keep ponies safe from more people like himself. He knew he wasn’t the worst out there, and if someone cruel enough and smart enough came to this world... they would destroy everything Zrak liked about Equestria. They would destroy everything, kill and rape and pillage and raze it all to the ground.

This world did not deserve to be turned into toxic ashes and clouds of smog. This world did not deserve to become nothing but another wasteland.

Zrak had completed about a third of his second circle when he saw blue glow in the corner of his gaze. Or, at least, his mental gaze - he didn’t think he had a limit on where he could look, but it was easier to process information when he could imagine using physical eyes. He swiftly moved towards it, although he suspected it wasn’t any sort of human activity.

In a small glade, unobstructed by the canopy, grew a batch of beautiful blue flowers, and they were in bloom under the moonlight. The petals were smooth, somewhat velvety in appearance, and Zrak saw some insects flying along the flowers, their somewhat furry bodies covered in specks of blue. Were they moths? Zrak didn’t know much about insects, unfortunately, so he couldn’t identify them. However, he could admit that this scene he came across was... beautiful.

Zrak, he could feel, was stressed, even if there was no tightness or tension anywhere that could be felt physically. He sat there at the edge of the glade and observed the insects pollinating these odd night flowers. Slowly, he felt himself relax, and it was as if all his stress was taken away bit by bit. Perhaps one day he would come there in body, but he would have to make do with how he was now.

A hum sounded from afar, making Zrak tense again. There was a hollow in a tree at the edge of the glade - he flew to it and hid inside. Thankfully, the hollow was unoccupied.

The humming was definitely coming from a sapient being of some kind, and so Zrak froze in place, waiting anxiously for whoever they were to come forward so that he could see them. Could they be a human surviving in this forest, believing that it was everything that there was to this world? Or... perhaps someone else lived in this forest?

He saw a shadowed figure moving through the forest across the glade, and he immediately guesses that they were quadrupedal. So, not a human... or, at least, not a human in flesh and blood. They seemed to be moving perfectly well too, although Zrak couldn’t see much because they wore a brown cloak. From what he could glimpse, this being had a muzzle and two hoofed front legs. As they came closer, Zrak could see that they were... pony-like, perhaps. A... zebra? He hadn’t seen such stripes before. Unless they were tattoos or other sort of self-made markings, this being was a zebra. Zrak mentally kicked himself for not knowing if zebras existed.

Their humming continued as they emerged from the trees and into the glade. Zrak noted they carried a small wicker basket on one of their sides. They continued to hum as they opened the lid on the basket and then used their maw to remove the flowers here and there, putting them inside the basket, making it glow blue.

Zrak continued observing for some time, and he figured out there was some kind of a pattern to this flower gathering. However, what this pattern was and why it had to be this way, he didn’t know. When the being seemed satisfied with it, they departed the glade. Zrak moved to follow, doing his best to remain unnoticed. The silence with which he moved, the silence that would never be there if he was in his body, helped him a great deal. The being remained completely unaware as he shadowed them.

When he looked closer, he realized there was a path they were following. The ground poked through here and there, and the grass was even shorter than usual, clearly trampled over fairly often. Now that he knew what to look for, he knew exactly where this zebra was going.

Were they human or were they not? He... didn’t think they were. They moved with a grace and purpose that only a born non-human could have... unless this zebra had been here for many years, perhaps. And if they were, and nothing bad had happened yet... perhaps Zrak would leave them alone. Perhaps they, like him, needed peace and quiet, and... Zrak could understand that.

After a while, the zebra led him to a house in the tree. Various colorful liquids were in glass containers that hanged from the strings attached to the living tree’s thick branches, each of the containers emitting a glow, and combined they made it look far more welcoming than this forest had been so far. Zrak looked up and realized that it wasn’t just a particularly wide tree - it was a stump of a once giant tree that was now growing again. He wondered where the rest of it was now.

Above a simple wooden door that was made to fit the hole in the tree - perhaps it had once been a hollow - hang a wooden painted mask that was the shape of an equine head. Zrak suspected it was magical in some way, and from the mouth of the mask came two thin stalks to which narrow and long leave of bluish-green grew. Next to one of the thick roots, a bigger wooden equine face stood, although it looked more like a shield than a mask. Whoever this zebra was, it didn’t seem like they were ever a human. Zrak stood back as they opened the door, revealing a relatively spacious room inside, in the center of which stood a cast iron cauldron. Zrak didn’t have a chance to find more as the door closed behind the zebra, although he could still hear them hum.

This discovery would need investigation, but perhaps it would be for the best for Zrak to return to his body now. Next night, he would return to the glade he found and work his way from there. Or, perhaps, he would see what this zebra was up to. For now, it seemed that they were content to finish whatever it was that they were doing in their odd living tree house and then go to sleep.

Zrak had concluded that there was much more to this forest than he expected. Without a single doubt, it was yet another thing he lacked knowledge in, and this needed to be remedied if he hoped to find what he was looking for without aimless wandering.

He retreated from the hut, flying up and then away, back to the Royal Orphanage. Unbeknownst to him, as he left, the zebra was looking out of the window, their eyes narrowed in suspicion.