Ghosts of the Past

CHAPTER 3 – Your Angel of Death awaits

Date: 20th of February, First Year of the Game. Location: Canterlot.

“One, two, test.”

It didn't surprise me at all, but I immediatly noticed that I once again had the Phantasm’s nightmarish and echoing voice.

“Bah. My actual voice would’ve sounded weird with this costume anyway.”

Thinking of Andrea Beaumont’s smoke manipulation powers, I tried to create a smoke cloud.

“Might as well stick to the character…”

As usual with magic, it requires a bit of concentration, but I had grown used to this kind of efforts during the few months I’ve spent “living” in Ponyville. Summoning a smoke cloud was different than simply going through a wall, but it still was the same basic principle: think hard about it, and it’ll happen somehow.

A few puffs of opaque black smoke came out of the ground in seconds, and expanded into a small tornado whirling all around me. The cloud became bigger as it rose up in the air, until only my head and torso stood out of it.

“Nice. I think I know what I’ll do with this,” I thought with a large grin, hidden behind the large metallic mask now covering my face.

“He’s gonna come back anytime, he’s a nice guy, just a bit lost. Stay calm. Nothing will happen,” Shiny Ring thought to himself, trying to repress his latent paranoia. He was constantly biting his lip, and wondered what this strange being was doing out there. It had been out there for a while.

After some time, several very tiny streams of smoke came out of one of the walls.

“What the hay is this…?” the ghost asked himself, squinting his eyes and stretching his neck forward.

The smoke slowly fell on the ground, accumulating into a dark puddle that quickly grew as more smoke poured through the wall. Once it claimed a corner of the room for itself, the smoke covered the whole wall. Tiny waves of smoke sometimes gave birth to little floating clouds, slowly dissipating as they skimmed across the room.

A few seconds later, a terrifyingly sharp-looking weapon appeared from inside the smoke cloud. The smoke still moved slowly, as an extremely grave voice echoed from within. “Your Angel of Death awaits, Shiny Ring!”

His eyes opened wide, his pupils narrowed, and his mouth opened wide in fear. Shiny Ring was almost literally petrified, even though he actually would have needed a body for that. “Wh-wh-who are you? What do y-you want!” he stuttered.

At that moment, a grisly face emerged from the smoke cloud, and looked at him with an eerily lifeless glare. “I want you, Shiny Ring…”

The ghost looked in the eyes of the grey face, slowly closed his mouth and tightened his lips, before screaming in fear louder than he ever did.

As he was screaming, he suddenly stood up and ran away, bumping into almost all of the house’s furniture.

However, his escape ended quickly, since he actually ran into a bedroom with no way out.

“What to do, what to do! Quick! The bed!” the ghostly pony thought to himself, before trying to sneak under the bed.

Once he was in place, he looked at the door. Some tiny streams of smoke were already making their way towards the door. He put his hooves on his closed eyelids, and waited. The noise of steps could be heard.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The steps were slow. The interval between each of them was several seconds long.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Finally, the room was completely silent.

“Huh? Why’d it stop?”  Shiny Ring wondered. He slowly opened one eye and moved his hoof out of the way.

A few inches away from his face, was a pair of grey boots.

“Please, by Celestia, go away,” he prayed, while repressing the urge to bite his hoof.

“Boo.”

His ear turned by itself. He carefully moved his head to the right, eyes also turned to the right.

As soon as he saw the dreaded face in his peripheral vision, he screamed again, and tried to run away.

Unfortunately for him, he was under a solid object.

BONK!

I let out a hearty laugh after I finished scaring that poor pony to death. It was priceless.

“Hoo yeah. I haven’t scared anyone like this in a long time,” I thought, relinquishing my memories of hundreds of similar pranks, which my little brother put up with during our childhoods.

“Ah, I guess I have to wake him up now. Let’s do this.”

I crouched and put my hand under the bed, grabbed a hoof randomly, and pulled him out of there.

He was still knocked out, so I moved him in a clear area of the room, put him on his flank, sat on his ribs, and slapped him until he woke up.

“Hey, stop doing that!”

He slowly opened his eyes, trying to block my slaps with a hoof, and turned his face up. “What do you want and who – AIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Understanding that he was pinned to the ground; the ghost decided to move frantically, while screaming louder and louder.

I put my hand on his mouth and shut it manually. Although he kept emitting a low sound and looked at me with bulging eyes, it was much easier for me to talk.

“Hey, it’s me. JC. You remember? I, err, have a new job now, and just couldn’t refrain from making a joke with this new ‘uniform’,” I said, pinching the costume with my glove. “You’re alright?”

I slowly released the pressure in my hand as his screaming stopped. He slowly nodded, unsure of what to do, a fire burning in his eyes. I stood up, and helped him to stand up too.

He frowned, outraged. “Why did you do this to me?! I almost had a heart attack, idiot! Buck you! You don’t do that kind of joke to strangers!”

“It was funny. Well, not that much for you apparently; but it was too tempting. And I don’t really think you can have heart attacks anyway.”

I sat on the bed and patted his shoulder to grab his attention.

“Sooo… My new job is, uh… I have to carry lost souls into Tartarus.”

“Huh? You? And why are you telling me this?” he asked, clearly not believing me.

“During my ‘travels’, I met someone very important. That ‘someone’ brought me here, and gave me this job. It’s all I can say… If I tell you, I’ll fall into a coma just like earlier.

“Oh and by the way, this job is the reason I can see the rope floating behind you while you can’t.”

“Say, I wouldn’t happen to be the kind of souls you have to bring there, would I?” he asked with a leery look.

I scratched the back of my head. “Actually, you are. The important person I mentioned even ordered me to bring you to Tartarus.”

“No! I died for a reason, I won't go!” the pony shouted, angrier than I’ve ever imagined he could be.

“Huh. So you knew a few things after all. Tell me about your past, then. You know, my ‘boss’ told me it was okay to help you, as long as you end up where you belong once everything is settled. But if you try to get away, I’ll catch you and carry you to Tartarus myself. So please, let’s do things the easy way. I don't want to hurt you.”

“Let it be this way, then.”

He was still angry. He took a long breath, which is quite surprising for a ghost, and started speaking.

“Before I died, I was a bit famous. Every self-respecting noble in Canterlot simply had to have one of my jewels… I don’t remember how it really started, but the result was that after a few years of being completely unknown, I became quickly famous, although I had a really tiny shop. I made engagement rings for a few nobles, necklaces, and even a few exotic things like glasses or manepins. And then… Something happened, and I appeared around here. I forgot where my shop was, what I was doing, and why I died. After a while, some memories came back, but the majority of them is still out of reach.”

I nodded. “Uh-uh. So, first things first, how do we find where you lived? Since you died at least decades ago, your shop probably has disappeared. Plus, Canterlot is huge, and it’d be really long to find it if it still exists.

“Maybe you remember something about what you did? Like a particular place where you went often?”

He seemed to have a few memories resurfacing, but dismissed them. “Nah… Except from a library and the house where I lived when I was young, I don’t remember much.”

“So much for that idea.”

I paused for a few minutes, before thinking of something else. “Hey. You said you were famous, right?”

Intrigued, Shiny Ring replied: “More or less. Why?”

“If we can track one of your clients, maybe he can tell us where he bought his jewel.”

“It would be a good idea if I actually remembered who my clients were,” he said after shrugging a little.

“I believe I know someone who might have been one of your clients.”

“How do you know that?” Shiny Ring looked at me, incredulous.

“I have my ways. I can't tell you about it.”

“Fancy Pants, here I come.”

We spent the rest of the day wandering through the parts of the city where high-class ponies hung around the most. We looked for popular events susceptible of interesting Fancy Pants, such as galas, art expositions and races.

The day passed, and we didn’t find Fancy Pants; or even his poser friend, Fleur De Lis. Shiny Ring looked more and more worried. Around eight o’clock, he stopped walking and sat on the ground.

“JC… You know… I think I did something terrible when I was still alive. The things I’ve forgotten… They were important, but they made me suffer. I think that… I chose to forget. It was purely intentional. I have the feeling I did something very wrong.”

“We’ll see that later. Don’t worry. Either way, I certainly won’t have to leave you to rot in Tartarus. You’re a nice guy. I think.”

“I hope.”

Date: 21st of February, First Year of the Game. Location: Canterlot.

Once again, we spent the entire day searching for Fancy Pants. No luck, until we heard some ponies discussing about a “fabulous” reception at the castle. Knowing the guy, it was certain he would be there.

We headed to the castle, found the area where the reception was to be held, and waited, in the middle of a bunch of tables, surrounded by food I couldn’t eat. I almost felt hungry.

Around twenty o’clock, the reception started, and Fancy Pants showed up. However, I didn’t want to talk to him in public; and I had no means of interaction anyway.

We followed him through the reception, until everyone left. Then, we followed him through the sleeping capital.

He opened the door of a gigantic manor located in a corner of the city where we were earlier, and went straight for bed.

Inside, there were carpets and other kinds of decorations everywhere. He had an old wooden table in a corner, with ancient and refined chairs around. A golden clock was leaning against a wall near the door. There even were chandeliers in every room… This mansion looked like a hybrid of Versailles and the 10 Downing Street.

And, surprisingly, not a single maid was to be seen. They didn’t live there, or Fancy Pants was really conscientious when cleaning his house.

I looked around for paper, ink, quills, pencils… Whatever that could help me write. There was nothing on the ground floor, so I went upstairs, in Fancy Pants’ room. Shiny Ring stayed with me the whole time, unsettled by my carelessness.

“We shouldn’t do this. It’s illegal!” he constantly repeated.

“You’re dead, idiot. No one will put you in jail.”

“You’re the idiot. Keep on being disrespectful and I’ll just go away. I don’t need you,” he retorted.

“Remember that I have this,” I said, pulling the leash to remind him about it.

He glared at me and didn’t answer.

Inside the room, Fancy Pants was sleeping in his large bed, wearing pajamas and a nightcap. He was classy, even when sleeping.

I didn’t want him to wake up immediately, so I had to be careful when opening the drawers of his desk. Trying telekinesis for the first time, I concentrated on levitating a small paperweight before trying to open the drawer. Slowly, the old wooden paperweight rose in the air silently, and moved where I wanted it to move.

A minute later, I was opening the drawers, not exactly silently; but Fancy Pants still slept through it. Inside of them were paper, quills, and ink.

I wrote a message with the quills. It was surprisingly easy. In fact, all I had to do was to levitate the quill while concentrating on the words I wanted to write. I didn’t even have to look at the quill. That was practical; because it was so dark I didn’t even see how it was written.

When the letter was ready, I made it levitate over the sleeping pony.

Shiny Ring and I both moved on a side of the bed; and I tugged on the blanket with telepathy. Doing two things at the same time was surprisingly hard, and I couldn’t refrain myself from moving the letter in the same direction as the blanket. However, it did have the expected effect, and Fancy Pants woke up.

“Mmgnph. Curse this blanket. It always tries to escape me,” Fancy Pants sighed, as he pulled it back in place.

That’s when I swatted him in the face with my letter.

“Ow! What is this trickery?”

He sat on the side of his bed, took the letter in one hoof and went to his desk. Then, he read the letter aloud.

“Dear Mr. Fancy Pants, I am currently in this room, with you, and with someone else who needs your help. What?”

He turned his head around, looked everywhere, found nothing, and resumed reading. “What kind of childish prank is this…”

“You may call me JC. I bring souls to their rebirth, and I need your help because I cannot move in the physical world myself, or talk to people directly. I have to use indirect means of communication, such as this letter.” He looked around again, not believing what he was reading.

“I have with me the lost soul of a pony whose name was Shiny Ring. He has died long ago, but we need to find out what happened to him, since he does not remember anything. He used to make jewelry, and became famous for that. I know you are one of the most respectable ponies around here – well yes, I am – and thought you might have been one of his clients while he was still alive. If this is the case, please tell us if you know where his store was. It is extremely important.

“Sincerely yours,

“JC.”

“Well, that's one way to make an introduction.” He looked amazed, but clueless. However, a quill levitating on its own in front of his face was enough to make him react, since there was no colored halo around the quill. “Who’s doing this! Who! Is! Doing this!” Fancy Pants yelled, before falling backwards.

I wrote and moved the letter in front of his face.

“It’s JC. I can hear you, and see you. If you know, say it, and lead us there,” he read, still lying on the ground.

“So… I’m speaking to a spirit of some sorts who can’t show himself. It is certainly strange. Could you prove your existence in some way? ”

“I know magic that even Celestia does not master. May I use it on you? I'm sure you'd look smashing with eight legs.”

The unicorn gulped in embarrassment, tugging on his night shirt's collar. “That won't be necessary, dear friend. I am quite inclined to believe you are actually there after all. Ha ha ha...”

Shaking off his fake laughter, he quickly added: “As for your little problem... For your information, I actually do have one of these wonderful jewels. It’s a monocle with embedded gems. I bought it so long ago, though… I heard something happened to the shop owner, but I had no idea it was so important. But why would I help you? I have other things to do, you know. Important things. Ponies belonging to the high society, like myself, have duties far more significant than helping poor souls in need.”

The quill danced on the paper one more time. “If you do it, I promise I won’t take your soul to Tartarus. And I’ll also make it worth your while later.”

Suddenly more enthusiastic and displaying an embarrassed smile, he exclaimed: “Haha, well then! I will guide you there, for the fashion and all things holy! I only have to reschedule my agenda, my lord.”

The fashion lord immediately stood up, brushed his pajamas with a hoof, and asked me if he could sleep.

“You can resume sleeping, but we have to be at the store tomorrow morning.”

He agreed, and went back to bed. “I know this is for a good cause, but if you can, please, wait for me in the living room.”

He looked unsettled by the idea of sleeping with ghosts.

I wrote on the letter, showed him, and we exited the room.

“Hey… JC… You were great at convincing him, but... What happens if there’s no store anymore?” Shiny Ring asked, hesitant.

“I don’t know. You said you didn’t really want to know what you did, earlier. Are you still thinking about that? I can also bring you straight to the Fount and forget about this, you know.”

He remained silent and waited for the sunrise.

Date: 22nd of February, First Year of the Game.

Before going, I told Fancy Pants to take a saddlebag. Inside, we put paper, a quill and ink, as well as the old monocle he bought at Shiny Ring’s shop so long ago.

Fancy Pants led us through the urban maze without ever getting lost. It was quite surprising, because I could swear we’ve been through the same street several times, and this happened more than a few times. About an hour after leaving his house, we reached a remote alley, dirty and narrow. At the end of it was an old building with a showcase on the ground floor, so dirty it was almost opaque.

Above the showcase was an old sign, worn out by time and a lack of maintenance.

Faint letters still were readable: “The Blue Ring”.

Shiny Ring looked at the sign, and his eyes widened. “This is it. This is what we were looking for.”

I levitated a paper sheet that was resting in Fancy Pants’ saddlebag, and wrote: “This is the right place. Do you want to come inside? It would be easier for us.”

“I will accompany you gladly! It is my duty to help noble souls such as the fine artist your friend is.”

The ghost almost looked like he was embarrassed by the compliment. It was hard to tell, but I could swear there was a faint pink halo around his colorless cheeks.

Fancy Pants walked towards the door and knocked a few times. A minute later, an elderly mare opened the door. She was bluer than blue, and her skin featured more wrinkles than that of Granny Smith. On her flank, a teardrop-shaped sapphire was displayed.

“Of course, a gemstone…”

“Greetings. What can I do for you?” she asked Fancy Pants.

I looked at Shiny Ring. He seemed to be experiencing a real nightmare: eyes wide open, mouth clenched, teeth showing, and occasional muscle jerks over all his body, as much as one could call it a body.

“Good morning, milady. May I enter?” Fancy Pants asked, bowing in front of the shop owner.

“Sure. Come in, make yourself at home,” the smiling old mare said.

Fancy Pants went inside, but Shiny Ring didn’t move an inch. I had to haul him around with my only non-lethal hand to get inside. He truly was in a trance.

The gentlepony took the monocle out of his saddlebag, and put it on the counter.

“This, dear madam, is a monocle that I bought here, no less than thirty years ago. Yesterday, someone… Unexpected, to say the least, talked to me, hoping that I could help him to discover something.”

She looked at the monocle, turned it around, took a magnifying glass, and looked at one of the rims.

“Indeed, this monocle has been made here. What do you want me to do with it?”

Fancy Pants cleared his throat before answering. “Well, you see; the persons I have discussed with seem to be dead. Please keep in mind that I know it is quite far-fetched, and that I honestly don't really believe it myself. I say; it might even be a prank. However, there is still a chance that this is real, so I will explain what happened. During the night, while I was sleeping, someone wrote letters inside my bedroom and woke me up. The letters explained that in my bedroom, two people were with me: a dead person who needs my help, and some sort of outlandish entity I do not fully understand. The latter calls himself JC, and the former apparently is named Shiny Ring.”

The mare looked at him with a pained expression. “If this is a joke, well done, you have ruined my mood.”

She immediately grabbed a flask from under the counter, and emptied it in a few seconds.

“Now go away before I call the guards,” she said while wiping her mouth with a hoof and pointing Fancy Pants with the other, that was still holding the flask.

The costumed pony did not understand. “No, wait, for Celestia's sake! I can assure you I-“

“GO AWAY!” she shouted, tears appearing in her eyes, and tried to push Fancy Pants outside of the shop.

Shiny Ring was still petrified. I decided to act quickly, took a sheet of paper and a quill with a few droplets of ink, and I started to write, in the middle of the shop.

Fancy Pants, panicking, noticed the paper floating in the air. “Look! He is here! Writing a letter! Look, I say! Ouch!”

When the old mare saw the floating quill writing on the sheet without any colored aura surrounding it, she suddenly stopped fighting Fancy Pants; who simply could not lift a hoof against a lady, and stood there, immobile.

“What… the… hay… is… this?”

The venerable mare slowly walked towards the paper, suspicious, and read it aloud.

“What this pony said is true. I have Shiny Ring with me, and am ready to guide him where his soul belongs. I am the one who asked the pony you were beating up to intervene, because I am not able to talk, only to use magic acting on the physical world; and I thought it would be easier if he helped us. Now, if you would tell us what happened, I would be grateful. Shiny Ring is amnesic, and we need to know why his soul is still there after all this time.”

Her head slowly tilted sideways as her eyes widened. “Horseapples.”

The old mare collapsed.

I wrote a message to Fancy Pants, telling him to bring her to her bed. He lifted her and tried to find a bedroom while I took care of Shiny Ring, still paralyzed. I had to wait a few minutes, before he snapped out of his trance by himself and began crying.

“I remember it all… I remember, and it was horrible.”

I was there, supposed to be a powerful guardian, and a crying pony was all it took to destabilize me. Asking him to tell me everything would probably make him angry, just standing there wasn’t going to help me…

So I sat down, patted his head and back like I used to do with my dogs, and waited for him to calm down. I probably looked ridiculous, but I didn’t know what else to do. It didn't seem to bother him anyway, he was too busy thinking about what happened.

In the afternoon, while the blue mare was still sleeping, Shiny Ring decided to talk.

“It’s… It’s my fault if she’s like… this. I remember now. Before I died, we had… problems. We had been living together for a few years, and we worked together too.”

He looked at me, and added with a sad smile: “Shiny Ring and Sky Blue associates… Those were the good times. But a few years after it all started, since we both were single, we started dating. It went well for a while, but at some point, she told me she was pregnant. I was really happy, you know. I was about to marry her. And then… I don’t know why, if it was her hormones or something, but she became really exigent.”

He sighed, and resumed his monologue: “I still remember our last conversation perfectly: ‘Hi honey, what’s that?’; ‘Oh, it’s just one of my last orders, for the princesses. They don’t want anything too fancy, so I don’t need any precious stones.’; ‘Nice. Will you be doing something special for the baby and me, then?’”

“And then, I answered the stupidest thing I could answer: ‘Maybe, maybe not.’

“I was so busy that I actually didn’t really listen to her question. And the answer angered her so much that she slapped me, yelled at me ‘I never want to see you again, idiot’ and left.”

Although no one could see them, my eyes widened. “Whoa, wait, she left for THIS?”

“I thought it was just a mood swing or something. And actually, I had something for her. I made an engagement earring before starting to work on the royal order… So I waited. Three days later, she still wasn’t there. A week later, she still wasn’t there. I asked everyone around here, and absolutely no one knew where she was. I asked her family, and they didn’t know where she was.”

“After that week ended, one night, I was so miserable that all I could think about was to get myself drunk. Then, I decided life wasn’t worth it without the mare I loved, and I did... I wrote a letter, put the ring with it, grabbed a few bottles of alcohol that I drank too, and… I… I… I did what ponies do when they have a stool, rope, and no more will to live.”

“But that didn’t end here, because I, or well, my soul was still there. Two weeks later, she came back home, opened the door, and saw the letter. I was there; dead, but there, and I saw everything. By the end of the letter, she was crying. And when she saw my body, rotting away in the storage room, she fainted.”

“A few days later, all her family was there, my body was buried, and I wanted to go burn in Tartarus.”

“After that, she became completely alcoholic. That killed the baby, and she fell into a severe depression. And… It was all my fault. I was condemned to watch her destroy herself, because I did something stupid.”

I let him with his memories for a few minutes before asking: “So… Why did she go away for so long?”

He looked at me, wailing, and told me that he didn’t know.

“It’s okay… We’ll find it out soon enough.”

Soon, the night fell. Sky Blue woke up, and Fancy Pants brought her back to the shop, where we were waiting. She looked at peace with herself, definitely serene.

Her eyes closed, she sat on the ground and said: “Shiny Ring, dear… If you can hear me… I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have gone away.”

Upon hearing that, he started crying again. He even tried to hug her, but that only reminded him that he was dead, and he cried even more after that.

“Sigh… I guess I’ll have to speak for him. Again.”

I levitated everything out of Fancy Pants’ saddlebags, and wrote a letter that I showed to Sky Blue. “Shiny Ring hears you, indeed, and this affirmation caused him to cry again. Please, stop doing this. I can’t even communicate properly with him now.”

“Tell me… What does he look like? I want to be sure it’s him… This reaction sounds typical of him, but it’s been so long…”

“He’s a unicorn with a rather scruffy yet elegant mane, and a gold ring mark on his flank. I don’t see anything else, he’s mostly see-through.”

“All right… That’ll do, it’s him, there’s no doubt about it.” Sky Blue wiped a tear from her eyes and asked me what I wanted from her.

“I need you to tell me some things regarding his death. He told me that he did not know why you were gone. What happened?”

She closed her eyes again.  “I was tired of all the work we had, and wanted a vacation. He did not listen to me when I told him about that… He was always neck-deep in his work. The last weeks of his life made me crazy, and, one day, I decided that I needed these holidays. So I wrote a message that I left on our bed, since he wouldn’t ever listen to me; I took a train to Manehattan, and I visited an old friend that he did not know very well. When I came back two weeks later, he was dead.”

By the end of her story, Shiny Ring had stopped crying. “I-I. But! I didn’t find any letter!”

I wrote that on another piece of paper and levitated it to Sky Blue.

“I found it about a month after I found you. It was under the wardrobe, near the bed,” she answered, her eyes fixated on her forehooves. “In fact, I left the window open when I exited the house, and the wind pushed the paper I guess…” the mare said, gloom oozing from her tone.

They both remained silent for a few minutes, remembering past times.

Sky Blue stood up after a while, and waved her hoof around. “You see all this? I am tired of it. I am tired of living alone in a place that was made for two people. I never ceased to love you, Shiny Ring, and never wanted anyone else but you. It may sound crazy, but I want to join you. Go away with you. Nothing holds me here…”

Her husband was not happy. “I don’t want her to do this… Please, do something.”

Sky Blue winced, before adding: “Our son died because of my foolishness, my family almost never speaks to me nowadays, and I cut off ties with all my old friends, slowly decaying through the years because of this,” she said, before punching her flask.

Fancy Pants, who witnessed the whole scene, looked baffled. “I say, why would anyone commit such a gruesome act on their own person for the sake of someone else who already has passed away?” he asked, not quite understanding the situation.

The blue mare faced him and shouted: “You don’t know what I’ve been through! I killed my son with alcohol, dammit! I killed my family because I was careless and selfish! Is that not enough?” she said, her hooves on her chest.

She then proceeded to run off to her room, weeping.

I took a paper from the saddlebags. “Smooth move, gentlecolt.”

Fancy Pants lowered his ears and looked at the ground, as if he had just been scolded by his furious mother. “Sorry.”

I wrote another paper for him, and showed him. “Thanks for all your help so far, Sir Fancy. You were a good guide, most of the time. Someday, I will find a way to reward you. Right now, I can’t. I won’t forget what you did for me and I really appreciated your company; but I think it is now time to go back to your own life. I can handle the rest myself, and I am sure you have important things to do.”

He read, concerned, and finally said: “This is a good bye, then?”

I wrote again. “Yes, it is. No more, no less. Oh, and, keep this paper here if you want, as a reminder or a proof that I exist, but please leave the blank ones. I need them.”

He nodded solemnly. “Good bye.”

Sir Fancy Pants emptied his saddlebags on a nearby table, took my letters and exited the house, guilt underlying his neutral expression.

Before she did anything stupid, I headed to Sky Blue’s room while levitating everything I needed to write.

“Shiny Ring does not want you to commit suicide like he did. He values you too much for that. However, I do not think he is right, in the sense that you have the right to dispose of your own life. I know that life can be more painful than death sometimes... I've had a moment like that in my life, although it was not nearly as important as what happened to you. I was naught but an overreacting child, but I now know how you feel when you want to die. And no one has the right to deny you the death you want, if you have a real reason to wish for it. If you want him to understand, you have to show him why you want to stop living.

“And, you know, I think I can help you to die painlessly… But before doing anything, I will also require you to say goodbye to everyone you know; to let them know why you chose to leave this life. I do not want your family to suffer and mourn your loss. I want them to know that it will make you happier, if it really is the case.”

After reading the letter, the old mare, a few droplets of salty water trickling down on her cheeks, simply said: “Thank you. It will be done.”

She still did not believe this was real, but she was ready to do anything to see her husband again.