Chapter III

Three Keys Down

I woke up very slowly, barely remembering my surroundings. There were trees above me that were sporting emerald green leaves and the sun was shining in the bright blue sky. That’s when I remembered… Neverfree. I looked down to see Trixie curled up next to me, still hugging me as if I were her own stuffed animal. I gave an undetectably small laugh as I slowly slipped out of her hooves to get up and go through my typical morning routine… sure it would need some adjustments now, but that didn’t matter TOO much, did it?

My morning routine is mundane, so I’m not gonna bother explaining that in detail. I had just finished and I had decided to just sit back down next to the sleeping Trixie. I began to let my mind wander… sure enough it wandered to the darker subjects on my mind like, what would become of my human friends? What are they doing now? What became of my physical being in the human world? I wanted answers but I knew that I wouldn’t get them. Another question popped into my mind, this time a lot less depressing. What if I were to meet my OC Reaper here?

My mind wandered on the possibilities of that until I felt two hooves wrap around me from behind. “Morning Trixie,” I smiled as she squeezed me gently.

“Morning,” she uttered softly. It was unlike her to talk so… lightly. Was she… nah! That’s something that would happen in a bad fanfiction! Taking my mind off of everything else was the new question “what has Soundspeed been up to?”

A little while later, me and Trixie were once again walking side by side, but it wasn’t nearly as silent as it usually was. She was very curious about me now. I swear my jaw started to hurt after a while because she was asking about everything involving my life. I told her everything, obviously. It’s not like I literally told her EVERYTHING including the stupid bullshit she didn’t care about, but I answered every question honestly.

It was pretty much the same distance between each trial, but the next one shook up both of us. We walked into another clearing to see a small wooden podium in the center. On it was a piece of paper that had a strange green glow to it and a quill dipped into a bottle midnight black ink. Trixie was looking around confusedly when she said “I never made this.”

“Then who did?” I asked her

“I don’t know!” Trixie shuddered.

I walked up to the podium. Hanging on the front was a sign that read “Write on this enchanted paper: a poem that was not written in Equestria.” I blinked awkwardly… LIGHTBULB!

My fingers plucked the quill from the bottle of ink and I began to write as fast as I could.

Warm yourself by the fire son

And the morning will come soon

I’ll tell you stories of a better time

In a place that we once knew

Before we packed our bags

And left all this behind us in the dust

We had a place that we could call home

And a life no one could touch.

We are the angry and the desperate

The hungry and the cold

We are the ones who kept quiet

And always did what we were told

But we’ve been sweating while you slept so calm

In the safety of your home

We’ve been pulling out that nails that hold up

Everything you’ve known

So open your eyes, child

Let’s be on our way

Broken windows and ashes

Are guiding the way

Keep quiet no longer

We’ll sing through the day

Of the lives which we’ve lost

And the lives we’ve reclaimed

Don’t hold me up now

I can stand my own ground

I don’t need your help now

You would let me down

Down

Down

Down

Down

I put the quill back into the ink as my hand began to throb quickly. I wasn’t good at writing without hurting my hand after the first hundred words or so. Trixie stared in disbelief at the page as a small thump sound came from behind the podium. It was the key of the unknown. I put it into my pocket along with the other two keys. The blue magician mare was still wide-eyed staring at the “poem” I had written down. Small tears began to form in the corners of her eyes as she continued to read it.

“Where did you learn this poem?” she sniffed, starting to cry from reading it.

“It’s some of a song where I come from,” I told her. “The Prayer Of The Refugee.”

“It’s amazing... but… really depressing.”

“It really is,” I agreed. We turned and walked the opposite way, heading back onto the regular path once again. Trixie seemed a little bit… uneasy after all of that, but I figured she’d get over it. As we continued along the pathway, more questions bombarded my conscious mind. There were so many, I started to get overwhelmed. A familiar feeling came over me as I felt my heart beating through my chest and my breathing become unstable. The ground started to shake under me… or was it that I started to shake while standing upon the ground.

Everything felt like it was being destroyed around me but yet, nothing was changing. It felt like Armageddon was happening around me and it was all my fault. I sat down on the side of the pathway as I continued to feel it all end around me. Trixie came to an abrupt halt as soon as she noticed that I had stopped and sat down. She darted back to me and asked me what was wrong frantically.

“I’m… I’m…” I couldn’t talk to well. My whole self was shaking violently. “Panic… attack… please just wait with me here, Trixie… I won’t be able… to go anywhere while I’m freaking out like this.”

“How do you stop it?” she asked, hoping to help.

“You can’t,” I blurted quickly. “We can only wait until it… stops.” I proceeded to curl into a fetal position and rock back and forth while singing Make It Stop (September’s Children) in an attempt to calm myself. It died down after I had sung the song around half a dozen times or so. My breathing pattern reverted back to even and my heartbeat receded back into my chest where it belonged. I got up, feeling much more stable. “I hate panic attacks,” I sighed.

“What caused it?” Trixie asked.

“I just have… so many questions,” I told her. “The only reason I have them is because I was put under a lot of mental distress all at once a few months ago… I had a HUGE panic attack. I’ve started having smaller ones regularly whenever I get worried about something. They’re normally pretty small, but that one was big.”

“I’m sure you’ll find answers to your questions soon,” Trixie assured me.

“Thank you,” I smiled warmly. She nodded and smiled back. We continued walking just as we were before. It was quiet once again as I thought of something to say. “Goddamn my introversion,” I muttered, keeping my pace with the blue unicorn.

“What?”

“Sorry, it’s just that I rely on others to start conversations,” I explained nervously.

“I understand,” she said. I was about to say something else in a poor attempt to start a conversation between us when we came upon yet another fork in the road. We didn’t even need to communicate about this one. We just intentionally deviated from the road and walked down the path until we reached another large stone wall. “Not another one of these!” Trixie huffed.

I noted the sign on the wall and I decided to walk up and read it before I complained too.

Feeling the mighty force that controls you

Strange arrangements disturb the body

Melt away while remaining solid

Die right then while living on

Feeling the awful pain

Of the worst eternity

But just be patient

It will cease

Eventually

What am I?

I stared at the triangular formation of the words… “What the fuck is this supposed to be?” Trixie blurted, interrupting my thoughts and scaring me half to death.

“This is a riddle,” I clarified.

“No duh,” she retorted sarcastically. “I mean what does it MEAN?”

“Well… it only resembles one thing I know, but that’s only if I’ve decoded the metaphors right,” I pondered. “I need to discover what the WRITER was thinking…” I shrugged and gave the answer I thought would work. I DID have experience with what he was describing after all. “PANIC ATTACKS!” I yelled at the wall, hoping for it to be the right answer.

Ding! A key hit me on the head. I didn’t question where it came from, instead I just picked it up and looked at it… The Key of the Mentally Ill… HEY! I ignored the insult and shoved the key into my pocket with the other three. It wasn’t getting TOO dark yet, so I pitched the idea of getting another one before setting up camp again. Trixie agreed as she usually did. I would once again describe the walk it took to get to the next trial, but I'm pretty sure nobody really cares for hearing the exact same thing again.

This time, there was a set of four cards laid out on a stone table in front of us. It took me half a second to recognize the layout as a game of Blackjack (or 21 as it's also known). I sighed, giving off a little laugh at the same time. "This is gonna be too damn easy" I chuckled. Sitting down, I began to look at the cards. The dealer's hand had a six of spades face up and one card face down, the last part being typical for the game. The player's hand consisted of two eights, one of hearts and one of clubs. I tried to recall my Blackjack training given to me by my uncle who was a frequent Blackjack player at any and all casinos anywhere even relatively close to his house.

Well, six is a break card for the dealer, normally meaning the player should stand because getting another card would break the dealer and give the player an instant win. But, then there's the old rule "always split aces and eights." That was used with eights because it gave you sixteen, though. Sixteen was your mortal enemy in the game of Blackjack, but you wouldn't hit it here... then it hit me.

You can't break with just an eight, along with any other combination of only two cards. Splitting it would double your bet and since the dealer has a break card, you'd win twice as much... if you didn't understand half of that, that's okay. If you did, then you know the basics of the game. I made the split sign with my fingers in a peace sign, pointing at the cards, or rather, to the left and right of the cards.

TINK!

A sharp pain hit me in the head. A metal key with a club on it. On the side of the key was the word "LUCKY."

"The key of the lucky," Trixie smiled. "We've got five of the keys."

We settled down for the night at the same stone table, a small fire was lit right next to it.

"There's one thing I've been meaning to ask you, William," Trixie sighed. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know," I told her. "I was celebrating my birthday with my friends and then I had what felt like the biggest panic attack of my life... I blacked out and, well, here I am!"

"Well, that's odd." Trixie itched the back of her head with a hoof. She then got up and walked around to my side of the table, sitting down and proceeding to rest her head on my lap. I stroked her silky silver mane again as I hummed an old song my mother loved. I eventually dozed off, hitting the dirt beneath me without even taking notice. Trixie didn't notice either... she was already asleep, her head still resting on me.

Chapter named after the band "Three Doors Down." It's not a song, but whatever. I couldn't think of anything else!

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