I stood on the edge of a small pit Celestia pacing like wild around me. "Able, I really don't know if this is going to work."

I scratched my head. "Not Able, also you really don't know what's going to happen?!" I shouted, pacing around the entrance of the pit. I took a deep breath, facing Celestia with a mix of fear and rage burning in my gut. "Seriously...you were supposed to help me.

Please...Sam, you have to do this. You have to try, for me man, you have to try! Able shouted in my head.

"Stop! Stop, fucking stop!" I screamed, grabbing my head. "One chance! One, fucking chance!" I spun around to Celestia "I'll try this, once, one, fucking, time! Okay!? But if it doesn't work you have to end this!"

Celestia looked unnerved. "...Sam--"

"No, one chance! If it doesn't work I want my life back! I need my life back!" I screamed, grabbing her chest piece, "Please, I just want to go home, I want to live my normal life, I want to think without some snarky fuck commenting on my every act and thought! Please!"

I felt something hijack my voice, "Do it." I mumbled, my voice low and gravely.

Celestia stared at me, "...I- fine...fine...Fine!" She shouted, stomping the ground and opening up the pit ever so slightly. "Look into the pool and say, And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one who's reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared."

I stared at Celestia, my gaze unending aggravated. "...Just like that...with the she and everything?"

Okay, yeah...that's dumb shit. Able murmured, breaking my concentration.

Celestia scrunched up her muzzle. "The first pony to use the mirror pool was a mare...there's not much I can do about that."

I glared at her. "...God I hate you, I hate all these horses, I hate your dumb horse teeth, I hate your dumb horse names, I hate your dumb horse magic, and I just want to go home. All this shit, everything that happened, to Able, to me, to you, it's all because of dumb ass magic." I shook my head and walked towards the pit. "I just wanted to let you know this is all your fault in case I die."

Bitch...the fuck did you say to her? If this works I'm gonna kick you in the balls.

"Fucker if this works I'm going to strangle you!" I growled, slipping into the crack in the earth and sliding down through a small flume. "Jesus, fuck!" I bumbled down the cave, rolling to a stop in a huge vaulted dome. "Alright, I'm fucking done!" I hopped upright, hurrying towards a small lake in the middle of the cave. "God I hope you die!"

Look, just get this over with and maybe you can! Or...I'll die, or maybe you'll die! But by the end of today someone is going to be dead or kicked in the balls!

"...Finally agree on one thing." I mumbled, walking over towards the mirrored water. I stared into it, my face tired, my dusty brown hair now shaggy and greasy. I looked like hell. "...Stupid fucking rhyme--"

I was thrown from the usual pitch black room. I had no idea where I was going, all I knew was things were growing damper and damper, water slowly filling up my endless black void. "Shit, shit, shit!" I hissed, looking for some sort of escape, "No, come on, I'm not ready to let all this end yet!"

I tried to run, my legs quickly submerging and turning my sprint into a sloppy wade. "No no no, fuck!" I shouted, stumbling and dipping myself into the water. It was icy, bitter.

I could tell what was going to happen. I was going to drown, I was going to fall asleep, join the black and end. All of my life going to shit mere weeks after a third attempt at rebuilding. I'd been dropped into this world by happenstance, pranced about in front of nobles and stuck up ponies, I connected with a mare who knew what war was, what taking a life meant. I'd contracted pony cholera, pissed off Celestia's student and her friends all except the one mare who bothered to be mean back, I'd gave a pointless speech about violence and tried to go home.

I landed in some foreign version of Earth in the middle of a home invasion, tore the magical binding between my body and soul a new asshole, crawled back and forced myself from the one person I could relate to so I wouldn't hurt her.

Water continued to bubble up, swallowing up my chest and leaving me to slog through until my head would be overtaken and I'd hold my breath as long as I could.

I'd made a friend, raised a filly, tempered myself around the people I care about. I died, leaving a new life for a filly, and dying a hero's death that I never wanted. I took it in grace, but when given the chance I tried to come back. I had to come back, I wanted to come back. Time away was time to think, to figure out what I wanted, to realize what I needed.

The water continued to rise, leaving me flailing, trying to get my feet to touch the ground. "Come on!" I screamed, trying to keep my head above water.

I needed stability, I wanted stability. I wanted the mare who knew war, I wanted the mare who learned to get past it, I wanted help to move past what I did, I wanted someone to share with, I wanted a life outside the violence. If Celestia could get past it, I could, if I could get past it I could have a life. I could relate to people, I could learn, I could do anything.

The water overtook me, sending me into the breathless deep. Pitch black surrounded me, disoriented me, left me spinning and flailing in the water. I held my breath, spinning unseen and unheard in the water. I kicked and screamed, spewing bubbles from my mouth as I tried to right myself. Panic set in, washing over me in a flash and sending me into the same frenzy as when I entered Equestria the first time.

I found something in my adrenalin fueled haze. Blue light, a bright blue light hovered above a far off break in the water. I beat my legs as hard as I could, kicking like an animal and trying to free myself of the icy cold water. My body burned, my entire being aching. I wanted to breath again, I needed to.

I threw myself up towards the light. My fingertips reaching past the surface and into cold air. Something grabbed my wrist, something peachy with a white stalk. And in seconds I was yanked up, my head finally breaking the water and giving me the breath I needed. It was a single sweet gasp of air, followed by a swift fist to the jaw.

"Son of a bitch!" Sam screamed, his body completely dry as he pulled me from the pond. "Two weeks!" He shouted, "Two weeks I didn't have my own fucking life!"

I was flung free of the pond, my nude body completely dry as it left the water. "What- fuck- what!?" I yelped, still unsure of my temporal, physical and metaphysical status. I looked down at my chest, my once strong body now doughy and fat. I crawled to my hands and knees, taking a few deep breaths and trying to steady myself. I was alive, and by the punch I received so was Sam. "Aha...haha-ahaha!" I started cackling, lifting my upper body up and sitting on my shins. "I'm alive! I'm actually alive!"

"Bitch!" Sam yelled, bolting towards me and slapping my hard across the cheek. "Almost fucking died, almost lost everything, just because your selfish ass--"

I grabbed him, wrapping my arms around him. "...Give me...my fucking-" I lunged forward, tackling him, "-jacket!"

I slammed him into the ground a few times, taking a few gut punches before pushing away and sitting on the ground. Me and Sam sat across from each other, glaring, hate radiating from him. "You know what...take the fucking thing!" He whipped my white coat off and chucked it at me. "I don't need to see your naked ass anyways!"

I let the thing lay across me, "Dumb--ass--it's your--body." I looked down to my significantly weaker limbs, my chest no longer flat and strong, my legs thin and arms rather weedy. "God damn you're fat...."

Sam let out a tired groan and laid down. "You fucker...I fucking hate you...I hate you all so much...."

I started laughing like an idiot. "You know what...I don't even care...I'm alive...you're alive...mostly...hopefully." I sat upright, pulling the white jacket over my body. "Thank you...thank you so much."

Sam slowly hopped up to his feet. "I fucking hate you...you are by far, the absolute worst murdering psycho I know! You got away with kidnapping me, you've killed so many people, your mare friend is a millennia old genocider, and I am never fucking coming back to this place for the rest of my fucking life!"

As Sam finished up his rant Celestia started skidding down a small cave, sliding on her rump and trying to dig her forelegs into he dirt. "Whoa- no no no!" She cooed, shaking like a doe before grinding to a stop. "Dear Gods...I'm too old for this spelunking."

Sam hurried over to her, "Fuck you, fuck your gods, fuck this place, fuck your hooves, fuck you again, I hope you all- I-- get me the fuck home!" He screamed, rage finally boiling over. I couldn't say I blamed him, but seeing him get in Celestia's face made me mad.

I hopped upright, half drunk from my ordeal. "Hey!" I pulled him around by the shoulder and slammed my forearm into the side of Sam's head. He dropped like a tonne of bricks, falling onto his back and laying flat.

Celestia stared at me, then to Sam. "Able?"

I took a deep breath and rubbed my arm. "Yeah...and I didn't--"

Celestia's horn lit up, her magic grabbing my leg and pulling it out from under me. "Able...that wasn't okay."

I laid on my back, slowly pulling my arm back like a chicken wing. "Ow...Ow...Celestia...I landed on a rock." I groaned slowly rolling onto my front. "Why!?"

Celestia stood up, shaking her flank. "Oh dear...well did it work?"

I rubbed my back, feeling an annoying amount of pudge. "Yes! Maybe! I really don't...know...." I laid my face in the dirt, "Celestia...can I see Silver Spoon now? Can we go home? Please?"

Celestia took a quick look around. "...You know, I had to leave Luna in charge while we did this...now not only is one of you half dead, but both of you are useless." She let out a tired huff and put a hoof on my back. "Just let me take care of this.... Like a foal."

I wanted to be mad at her for being so dismissive, but I was just happy to have something real touching me, to have someone trying to ease the tension. And having her around meant I could do the one thing I wanted to do since I died. I could sleep without ending up back in the pitch black room. Next Chapter: Silver Estimated time remaining: 44 Minutes