Crossing Anthology Two

It was two months since Jonah tried to use the age spell, the year 2014 began. Halie at this point was no longer suffering from the agonizing sickness of the mornings, and her stomach began expand from her developing child. Cole and Jonah would practice their new found magic abilities during the day, and mutually agree to retire for the night. Mina was still no place to be found, Jonah and Cole would often leave town separately to search for her. Jonah venture the Ever Free Forest, Cole would plunder Manehatten; one would scavenge Fillydelphia, while the other would creep through Hollow Shades. Not a single solitary word was spoken about the still concealed serial killer, the General’s conversations grew from the crude and carefree rants to cold and single word rants. Jonah, Cole and Halie no longer saw any purpose to look for the killer; they decided that after they find Mina, then they would leave Equestria.

One night, after Jonah and Cole returned to Applejack’s barn after a long day of patrolling the land, Jonah realized he had left the tie of his ponytail at Twilight’s library. Cole and Halie greeted each other after hours of not seeing one another and hugged each other, Jonah interrupted their embrace;

“Hey, I left something at Twilight’s this morning. I’ll be back in a few.”

Halie said to Jonah;

“Alright, hurry back. Applejack wants to play cards with us; Fluttershy is visiting to join in!”

Jonah was out the door, running from the barn into town and then finally to the library. Jonah knocked on the door of the tree house, and from the other side of the wooden passage stood Spike. Jonah asked Spike;

“Hey, is Twilight home?”

Spike nodded his head horizontally, signaling that Twilight was not home. Jonah continued;

“Oh okay, could I come in anyway? I left something here this morning before Cole and I went searching.”

Spike opened the door wider, allowing Jonah to enter. Jonah looked around the library, frisking the shelves for his hair tie. Jonah found it, and made a positive humming noise. Jonah tied the cloth around the back of his mullet to restore his ponytail. Then suddenly Jonah could not help but feel a slithering presence behind him, he turned around hastily to see Spike looking innocent. Spike had both hands behind his back trying to hide something, Jonah could see through Spike’s miniscule and cute stature. Jonah used his telekinesis to levitate what it was Spike was hiding, Spike fought Jonah’s supernatural but failed within seconds. Jonah raised his palm up, and saw a large kitchen knife float in front of him. Jonah felt like he should have expected this much from such a quiet and antagonizing little dragon. Spike looked to Jonah, nervous of how he would react to this discovery. Jonah floated the knife down to the ground and left it; he kneeled to Spike and asked sternly;

“You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on now?”

Spike was frightened out of his mind; finally Spike gained the strength and said to Jonah;

“You… you really think I would forget you, your face, your hair, your eyes and height.”

Jonah had no clue what Spike was talking about;

“What?”

Spike replied immediately, filled with hatred;

“Don’t try to hide it! It’s over! I know who you are! You’re the unicorn serial killer!”

Jonah’s eyes shot at Spike’s words. Jonah sat on the ground, Spike stood and they were both at each other’s eye level. Jonah asked;

“What are you talking about? I never killed anyone!”

“You killed my brother! Your first hit was MY BROTHER, LEMMOUR! And now, I’m gonna protect Twilight. I see what’s been going on; you’ve been secretly pumping Twilight for more magic to use on all the unicorns.”

“Spike, I would never hurt or take advantage of Twilight, I know how close you are to her. And I wasn’t on this planet when that happened! I had just got done traveling from planet Mobius to planet Earth! I wasn’t here!”

“Yes you were! You’re the spitting image of what I remember.”

Spike stomped his foot on the library floor, Jonah was only confused; he reasoned with Spike;

“Spike, when I saw this killer, he was a unicorn. He had hooves! He wore a mask! I don’t understand how you could have mistaken him for a human.”

“But he was… He had that boom stick or whatever, and he shot Lemmour… You look just like him…”

Jonah thought more, another layer of anonymity was peeled back, revealing that the serial killer was once and probably born a human. Jonah feared it could be someone he once knew. During his three year adventure; there were only a couple voyages through space. Jonah always thought that his team went places that no one else ever reached, this led him to suspect that in the end, he would have to fend off a familiar foe. He tried to come up with an explanation;

“Ain’t there any sorta ways that ponies here can change race?”

“Yeah, but that sort of thing is illegal and very hard to find.”

“Well, the serial killer ain’t gonna give a shit about legalities, he’s pretty much written the final word about that. So it’s likely he morphed himself into a unicorn after he shot Lemmour.”

Spike sat down, shivering and scared. Jonah looked at Spike;

“I had a hunch that you were keepin’ somethin’ from us. Listen, I won’t tell Twilight about what happened here, but I want you to tell me anythin’ else you saw, anythin’ at all.”

Spike wiped his face a little; he plundered his memories deeper;

“… He had a burn scar on his left cheek, and he wore a dark cloak. But I definitely saw his face and hair; he looked just like you…”

Jonah sighed heavily, he turned to Spike;

“Listen, the General that Cole and I work for hasn’t gotten any reports in months, but if he does I’ll let you come with me and Cole on a mission. Then you can see that I’m not the one, okay?”

Spike nodded in agreement and the two shook hands. Jonah and Spike stood up from their conversation. Jonah patted his mullet, trying to retain the specific shape he desired. An idea sparked into Jonah’s mind;

“Hey Spike, wanna come back with me? We’re playin’ cards with Applejack and Fluttershy.”

“Um, sure. Sounds like fun.”

Spike gave another stare at Jonah, this time he was smiling. Jonah laughed a little;

“Spike, I think YOU might be the serial killer with that psychotic stare of yours, haha.”

Spike realized that he was being rude to his new friend; he dragged his head away, and then laughed with Jonah. The two new friends left the library, in route to a competitive night of card playing with their other friends.

Later:

After a couple of rounds playing gin rummy, Spike went back to his library home. Jonah, Cole, Halie, Applejack and Fluttershy stood around in the kitchen, talking and having desert. Jonah told Cole about the new found information regarding the serial killer, the two of them pondered for a moment. They knew that if this killer was born a human, then there would be an extremely high chance of them knowing the criminal from their past adventures. The two boys decided to report this information to General Canis first thing the next morning. Cole eventually went to sleep, and Jonah stood up longer, thinking hard about the killer, he also thought about Mina. There would be times when Jonah would fall into a state of depression, worrying so much about his lost friend, his first girlfriend, wondering how she was for the last six months. Fluttershy was just getting ready to leave Applejack’s barn, on her way out, she looked into the living room to see Jonah sitting quietly by himself, and she walked in to give him brief company. Fluttershy sat down beside the chair Jonah was planted on, she asked him;

“Is something the matter?”

Jonah rested head in his hands, he said to Fluttershy;

“Ah, it’s nothin’ for you to worry about. Thanks though.”

Fluttershy was persistent to help the sad boy, and told him with a soft voice;

“You can tell me; maybe I can help with whatever is wrong.”

Jonah took a quick second to respond;

“It’s Mina. She’s been gone for six months now, I just want to find her and tell her I’m sorry for not supporting her that night. I’m worried she could be lost, or hurt, or even worse… I’m just so worried right now.”

There was a moment of silence, Fluttershy asked;

“Why did she leave in the first place?”

“She felt underappreciated, worthless, and inconvenient to us. But she wasn’t, she was only trying to help, and I never stood up for her when she was desperate for it. She didn’t see any purpose to hang around us anymore, and she left.”

Fluttershy was in deep thought; she stood up and left without any other words. Jonah turned;

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy shut the door, and vacated the barn limits. Jonah sat there for a while, worried that he had phrased something wrong and offended the yellow Pegasus somehow. Eventually, he let his weight of his head dominate him, and he slept in the chair.

The antagonizing atmosphere between Jonah and Spike was resolved, and more clues regarding the vicious slayer have been discovered. The General has remained quiet for so long, his sentences containing short words, his bitterness devouring him. The next day would be different; for the next day, a new mission would be given to Jonah and Cole. Finally, after six mundane months, an objective will finally be assigned to the boys. Why then? Why on such a convenient day? Why on the same day that the young men would report their new findings on the murderer?