Author's Note
FINAL WARNING: This fanfic contains major spoilers for the plot of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective! If you don’t want the mysteries of that game spoiled for you, I suggest you leave this page and play the game (you can get it for a good price on the iTunes Store or find a used DS copy) or watch one of the many video walkthroughs on YouTube. Then come back because I want you to actually read this.
Chapter 1 - 8:20 PM
Must have been unconscious for a while…
The sensation of swimming through darkness was familiar. I’ve done this before.
I checked myself. I remember this shape. I remember who I am. So I don’t have to spend a whole night on that again.
But when I came to, I didn’t recognize this place I found myself in. My last memory was curling up in my bed at home. I don’t sleep, not anymore, but I still went through the actions to pass as normal. Sometimes I even got some rest. Somehow, I was moved here, to a completely unfamiliar place, without my knowing it.
That’s when I realized I was not in my body. It wasn’t here. Where was it?
My name is Sissel. In case you didn’t know, I’m already dead.
Snapped to attention, Sissel quickly looked around. He had gotten quite around his hometown in over ten years and knew most of the nice nooks, but none of it looked like this. It was night, a time he was very familiar with, and he was at the foot at what looked like a giant tree. A giant tree that looked like it had windows cut into it, and balconies built into it, almost like a house. He had never seen anything like it, not even right now; a few other houses were visible from his position, but they looked like cottages with thatch roofs. He was reminded of some illustrations in some fairy tale books Detective Jowd had read to his daughter before bed. Parked nearby was what looked like a horse-drawn wagon filled with carpenter supplies and tools. Or rather, pony-drawn wagon, as he could see the wagon was hooked up to two dull brown ponies wearing black hats.
I’m also currently a plank of wood. Which is… rather unfortunate.
What concerned him the most was that his body was nowhere in sight. Where was it, and for that matter, where was he?
Although he wouldn’t claim to be the smartest knife in the drawer (in part because that analogy came out wrong), it didn’t take him long to figure that the plank he was in had fallen from the wagon, probably when it stopped. He could see several just like it stacked up higher than the wagon’s walls. Perhaps his body was wherever the wagon came from. As good a lead as anything.
But before he could act on this logic, he was interrupted by a barrage of sounds from what seemed like inside the tree. Which made sense, he supposed, since the tree looked like a house, so it probably acted like one as well.
First, there was the sound of something crashing through a window.
Next, a young female voice, shouting. “What-?! W-Who are you?!”
A male voice answered. “There you are. It’s time we settled this.”
“What are you talking about?! I’ve never seen you before!”
A thud, as if something dropped.
“Glory to the true ruler!” the male shouted.
“Ahh!” A scream of fear from a third voice, male but couldn’t have been much older than Kamila.
“Spike! Get out of here!” the female yelled.
There was what sounded like charging energy followed by an explosion. The windows filled with a green light that lasted for several seconds.
“TWILIGHT!” the boy cried out.
From the plank, Sissel could see the door leading into the tree; it looked like the door of a stable in that it consisted of two individual doors, top and bottom, and there was a picture of a lit candle on the top one. The next moment, the door burst open, and a dark grey pony ran out. A dark grey pony with green eyes wearing an eyepatch over his right eye and wearing a black vest and a hat that matched the other two.
The pony leapt up and into the wagon, onto a part apparently devoid of tools. “It’s done! Let’s move quickly, before anypony shows up!”
The two ponies reared up and whinnied before galloping off, taking the wagon and the dark gray newcomer with them. Sissel was too stunned by the rush of events to jump into the wagon wheel before it was hopelessly out of his reach. The three ponies and their cargo sped off into the night, quickly enough to throw another board, which landed leaning up against the tree not far from his board.
Something’s going down, I can feel it. And I’m not the kind to leave a lady hanging. I better check out what’s up. Maybe they’ll know where I am.
…Why did it just now occur to me that ponies don’t usually wear black hats? Or, for that matter, hats at all? Or vests? Or eyepatches? …Or talk? Like, actual talk talk.
This is getting really weird.
It had been quite a while since Sissel had had to use his powers the way he did that one night that no longer existed, but thankfully he quickly found he hadn’t gotten rusty. With a thought, his vision was washed in the red of the Ghost World as time stopped around him. He was relieved to find one constant between home and here was a plentiful supply of cores around. The newly dropped plank allowed him an easy step from the first plank to the handle of the lower door. Taking a quick look inside, he found what looked like a hanging light just in reach. He quickly hopped to it. I should be able to see the source of the commotion just fine from here, he thought. With that in mind, he switched back to the world of the living.
The colors returned, allowing him to clearly see the hollow tree’s main room. Large amounts of large nooks were carved into the wooden walls and filled with a large number of books and a few scrolls, suggesting the function of bookshelves, with a plain wooden ladder reaching the highest nooks leaning up against it. Just how many books there were reminded him of something Lynne told him about once called a… “library,” he thought it was? He wasn’t really paying attention at the time, but the word seemed like a good fit. A round table stood in the center of the room, with a bust of a pony head standing tall in the middle, and a few small piles of books sitting on it. A stray breeze from a high broken window (The gray pony probably entered through there.) threw a scroll to the floor.
He was guessing the unicorn with wings lying on the ground, surrounded by a spread of spilled books and with a giant scorch mark on her chest, wasn’t supposed to be there.
…
A unicorn. With wings. A lavender unicorn with a deep purple mane that looked like a human haircut, complete with a highlight stripe. With wings.
I’ve seen some weird things, but a unicorn’s pretty high on the list. I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to be real. I need to remember to ask Detective Jowd about it… when I find him again.
Though the bigger shock was the creature next to the unicorn, who was a giant purple lizard-like… thing with green spines, who was shaking the unicorn.
“Twilight! Twilight, wake up!” the creature was calling. Sissel noticed that the young boy’s voice he heard before was coming from him, and that he could feel the tones of sorrow in it. “Please get up, Twilight. You gotta! You can’t be… can’t be…”
He broke down into tears before he could finish, but Sissel figured he could complete the sentence. A quick look into the ghost world confirmed he was correct.
Dead.
Whatever that creature is, he’s like a child. And if her death’s making him cry, she has to be really important to him. I could probably find out where I am from somebody else, but… a young woman dead in the evening like this… This brings up memories. I haven’t had to use that little trick of mine for who knows how long… but if I’m going to start again, no better place to start than here. Now if I can just get to her corpse…
Switching back to the Ghost World, he was pleased to find that several books on the shelves had cores he could use, as well as a few of the shelves themselves; why they and not others he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t bug himself thinking of such things. Moving along the array, he arrived at the shelf closest to the scroll that had fallen earlier, which was angled so if it unrolled, it would be close to the pony’s body. Just what he needed, but there weren’t enough cores between him and the scroll.
He looked up at the cores on some of the books on the shelf and got an idea. Moving to a book and flipping back to the world of the living, he executed a manipulative ghost trick, causing the book to slide off the shelf and land with a thud on the floor next to the scroll; the purple scaly creature’s sobs were apparently loud enough to keep him from noticing. From the book, he hopped to the scroll and caused it to unfurl.
Little closer, little closer…
The unrolling paper came to a stop a few inches from her head. The lizard-thing was just now noticing as he stopped time and reached out to her.
Upon possessing the pony girl’s corpse, Sissel quickly located her soul, a brightly burning blue flame, much like the many other souls he had seen before, before they remembered who they were. It looked like she wasn’t awake yet; given it had only been a minute or two since she died, this was not surprising.
But how does one address the soul of a pony? A unicorn pony with wings?
Might as well go with the way I know best. “Uh… hello there. You awake?”
“……”
“Yeah, I know, it’s not easy, but we got work to do, so… up and at ‘em.”
For a few moments, he thought she wasn’t going to wake up and he’d settle for just moving on by himself, but this time the soul spoke up. “…Wha…? Where…? W-Who am I…?”
Finally. “I don’t really know myself,” he replied. “I just got here. However, that lizard kid guy was calling you ‘Twilight,’ so I… guess that’s your name? I’d guess that you work here in this library.”
“Twilight… Twilight…” She sounded like she was mulling it over. “…Wait, I… I think it’s coming back to me…!”
There was a flash of light, and the ball of flame was replaced with the shape of the pony whose corpse they were now in.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle! I’m the librarian here and… and…” She calmed down, and looked inquisitively at him. “…and why am I talking to a cat? And… how is the cat talking?”
“And why am I talking to a purple pony? And how is the pony talking?” he snarkily replied. “I mean, I’ve talked to a dog before, the bravest and most loyal dog you’ll ever know, but a pony?”
“Well of course ponies talk! All ponies talk!” she countered. “I’ve never seen a cat talk before, though.”
“Oh boy…” Something tells me I’m more lost than I thought.
Twilight looked around at the Ghost World. “This is strange. If this wasn’t her style at all, I would think Pinkie Pie was playing a prank on me.”
“Right now, we have more important things to worry about than practical jokes.” Like the fact that you’re dead.
“Wait, I’m dead?!”
Sissel visibly recoiled. Right, I keep forgetting, ghosts communicate by thought…!
“B-But how can I be dead?! I… I can’t remember how I…!”
“That sort of thing happens, Twilight Sparkle. All ghosts lose their memories when they die, but they usually come back quickly. Well, except for the last few moments; there’s no telling how long it takes to get those back.”
“How would you know?! Are you dead too?!”
“Yes. My name’s Sissel.”
“Sissel… Never heard that name before…” She released a resigning sigh. “I suppose you’re here to guide me to the afterlife, huh…? Didn’t think I would go this quickly… Wish I could say goodbye to my friends…”
“Now hold on there.”
“Huh?”
“I suppose I could be considered a ‘guide’ of sorts, but I’m not guiding you to the afterlife. Instead, I’m guiding you back in time.”
“OK, sorry, but you’re not making any sense. What do you mean ‘back in time’?”
“Thanks to some misadventures back home, I have what are called ‘powers of the dead.’ I know them mostly as ‘ghost tricks.’ These tricks let me possess and manipulate inanimate objects… and when I possess a corpse that’s been dead for less than a day, I can travel back in time to four minutes before that person’s death.”
“Wait, four minutes before…! Ghosts can time travel?!”
“Some of them. Different ghosts get different powers. And one of mine gives me a chance to change fate and prevent people from dying. And if I don’t succeed? Then I can just try again, as many times as it takes.”
“So, if I’m a ghost now, does that mean…?”
“No, I don’t think you have powers of the dead. They’re caused by radiation from a meteorite that landed in a park in my hometown, and no piece of it is even near here.”
“Oh…” She put a hoof to her forehead, to the side of her horn. “This is all so confusing…”
“I’ve learned it’s something best learned by doing.”
“Wait…”
This unicorn likes waiting a lot, doesn’t she…?
“I heard that, you know,” she lightly scolded.
“!! Dangit, I really need to work on how to keep my thoughts to myself…!”
“Look,” she started to explain. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this. I’m dead, my memories are a bit of a jumble, there is apparently a ghost cat telling me it can time travel even though the best spell I could find for that was one-use-only and only lasted for a few minutes… I keep wishing this is all some bad dream and I’m going to wake up any moment. At least then it’ll make sense. But… I don’t think I can dream of Spike crying like he is now… so this has to be real…”
“Spike?” I’m guessing that’s the name of that lizard-guy…
“Yeah, my assistant. And he’s not a lizard. He’s a dragon.”
“…OK, now I know I’m nowhere near home. The sooner we get you back to life, the better.”
“But wait…”
Are we ever going to get started!?
“Sorry, just… assuming I accept your story, then… why would you try to save me? I know, it sounds like a bit of a dumb question, don’t look a gift pony in the mouth and all that, but… you don’t seem like that type that would just go and rewind time like that for just anypony.”
“…I’m lost, Twilight Sparkle. I am a kitten that’s far, far away from home with no idea how he got where he is now. But despite being lost, I somehow found myself outside your house. I don’t believe in fate – after all, I’ve spent a lot of time changing it – but something led me here, and it’s telling me you’re the… pony, I suppose… that can help me get back to my family. But we’re both going to have a hard time with that if you’re dead. And that’s why I’m going to save you. I don’t use lives for bargaining chips, but those are my reasons.”
“…Just that? Just because I’m useful to you?”
“I know a girl about your age I met after my death. We agreed to use each other to fulfill our own goals, and we ended up as friends by the end.” As best as his cat face could, he gave a small smile. “I see no reason why it can’t work again.”
“Use each other? What could I use you for?”
“You were murdered in your home and place of work tonight. For some reason, someone wanted you dead. Even if you were alive, you’d have a hard time finding out who that someone was on your own. But me? Only people I’ve saved the lives of with my ghost tricks can hear me, much less have a chance of seeing me, but I can see them. It’ll make investigating a lot easier.”
“I see… So, you’ll help me find out who killed me if I help you get back home?”
“Exactly. We’ve spent enough time as it is. We can talk more after you’ve come back to life.”
“This is crazy,” she thought out loud. “None of this makes any sense.”
“We’re talking about the powers of the dead here, Twilight Sparkle,” he replied, bringing up a memory of an old friend as he spoke. “It’s not supposed to make sense.”
After several moments, she let out another sigh. “If I can believe in Pinkie Sense, why not in ‘powers of the dead?’ Let’s do this, Sissel.”
“Let’s start this trick then! Back in time, to four minutes before your murder!”
4 Minutes
8:16 pm - Golden Oaks Library
Before Death
“Whoa…” Twilight expressed in wonder, looking around the library and seeing herself, still alive if frozen in time due to being in the Ghost World. “So this is…?”
“The land of four minutes before your death, yes. It’s not surprising that you managed to tag along, by the way. Happens to pretty much every conscious ghost I do this with.”
“So, we’re going to stop myself from dying, huh?”
“Yep. First we watch it all play out without interfering, and then we use what we see to figure out how we’re going to save you.”
“Have you… had to do this a lot?”
“At least a dozen times. It was a very rough night.”
“For my sake, I’m resisting the urge to ask more questions right now.”
“You’re as smart as you look, I’ll give you that. OK, time’s going to start flowing again. Keep your eyes peeled for any leads.”
“Right.”
The inside of the library was peaceful. Twilight Sparkle was sitting at the central table, reading over a book lying open on it. She was flanked on both sides by large piles of books – a little more than some light reading for one evening, by her standards. Still, there were no further plans for the night and the library was closed for business, so she decided to just enjoy it.
She attempted to shift her position to something a little more comfortable, only to accidentally jar one of the piles with a foreleg, causing the top book to fall down and land on the floor nearby. “Oh…” she sighed before her horn started to glow the fine magenta of her magic. The book, now encased in her telepathic aura, lifted into the air and glided back to its place atop the pile. Satisfied, Twilight dismissed the magic and resumed her reading.
A few moments later, Spike entered from the kitchen. “Still reading?” he sighed.
“I just got this shipment of new books for the library in this afternoon,” she replied, not even looking at him as her telekinetic spell shut the book she was looking at and moved it to the top of the pile on her right while replacing it with the top book of the left pile, the one that had fallen off only a few moments ago. “I have to make sure each one is classified and sorted correctly before I can put them on the shelves.”
“Twilight, those are hand-me-downs from the Royal Canterlot Library. They’re already sorted. I can see the Dew Decimal numbers on them.”
“Well, uh…” Twilight’s mind raced. “I-I’m just… making sure, that’s all!”
Spike wasn’t convinced – he knew her well enough to know that she just wanted an excuse to read – but decided to humor her anyway. “Fine fine, just don’t stay up until the wee hours of the night again.”
“You need to stop worrying about that, Spike,” she replied. “My bedtime has always been on my schedule.”
Spike noticed a mug sitting next to the book piles and picked it up. “Want a refill on your apple juice?”
“That’d be great, thanks!”
“Back in a jiff!” he said as he hurried back into the kitchen closing the door behind him.
Twilight read in peace for several more moments before, suddenly, there was a loud crash. “What-?!” She snapped her head up to see somepony had broken through one of the upper windows, scattering several glass shards to the floor. “W-Who are you?!”
She had never seen the intruder before. He was a dark grey Earth pony wearing a fedora, vest, and eyepatch, all black. His piercing green eyes looked down at her. “There you are,” he said, his voice gruff and vindictive, as he hopped from his position on the windowsill down to the floor with a loud thud. “It’s time we settled this.”
Instinctively, Twilight backed a couple steps away from him. “What are you talking about?! I’ve never seen you before!”
That information quickly became lower priority when the intruder reached into his vest and pulled out, for all appearances, a large crystal that glowed a rather sickly green. He reared up on his back legs as he pulled the crystal back, as if getting ready to throw it.
“Glory to the true ruler!” he shouted.
It only took a moment or two after seeing it for Twilight to recognize it: a magical concussion grenade, of the sort optimized for attacking living creatures while leaving inanimate matter mostly intact. She got in position to defend herself, quickly running over spells she knew in her head to find the best way to counter the attack-
“Ahh!”
The sound threw her off guard. She looked in its direction to see Spike had reentered the room and stood frozen in the doorway, the refilled mug dropped and its content spilled in shock. “Spike!” she called. “Get out of here!”
That moment of distraction was all the assailant needed. He threw the crystal straight at her, and a massive green flash, with a matching gust of wind, filled the room.
When it subsided, the crystal was gone, its structure destroyed after its energy was spent, and Twilight’s body, having been thrown backwards a few feet by the blast, lay sprayed among a mess of books that had been knocked over by the wind, a massive burn centered right over her heart.
“TWILIGHT!” Spike cried out in horror. He ran over to her still form as the assassin ran unopposed for the door.
Sissel froze time again. “And that’s the last four minutes of your life.”
“Blasted in my own library… Well, there’s worse ways to go, I suppose…”
“I’ve only got one question myself. What was that thing with the books? You know, with them floating like that? Pretty sure books don’t float in mid-air.”
“That? That was just my magic.”
“…Magic.”
“Yes. Magic. It’s a well-documented and commonly used form of power. Everypony knows about it. How lost do you have to be to have never heard of magic before?”
“Far far more lost than I originally thought, apparently. I am going to have a lot of questions when you’re alive again. Anyways, it seems to me the vital point was when that Spike guy came in at the end. I’m sure your… magic would have saved you if you weren’t distracted.”
“Hey, don’t blame Spike for that! He didn’t know that that would distract me!”
“Calm down, I’m not blaming him. I’m just saying, if we can keep him from entering the room, that’ll probably keep you alive. Let’s get back to the beginning of these four minutes and start changing fate.”
[Trick Time!]
As with all his trips to the past, Sissel found himself where he was when he started time jumping, the location of Twilight’s future corpse, watching Twilight now at her reading.
“So, what should I do?” Twilight’s voice asked in his mind.
“I don’t think you can do anything by yourself, since you’re just a normal ghost,” Sissel replied. “So just sit back and follow my lead.”
“OK, you’re the expert here.”
“Alright, if I can find some way to bar or block the door after Spike goes back in, that should change your fate, at least a little. Let’s see what I can do.”
For the moment, though, he was rather isolated; none of the cores that were around were close enough for him to reach. Then Twilight shifted her position and knocked the book down right next to him. Seeing his chance, he moved over to the book as she started to levitate it back up.
As the book was put back on top of the pile, Sissel looked towards the kitchen door just in time enough to see Spike enter. His attention, however, was more focused above it. The stairway that was aside the room lead up to a door on a balcony above the kitchen door, but the balcony was clear.
“…Well, so much for that plan. I can’t see anything here I can block the door with.”
“Well, even if it was blocked,” Twilight’s ghost added, “I probably would’ve been able to clear the obstruction in time. And that door doesn’t lock either.”
“Hmm…” Sissel mused. “To keep a dragon from going through a door… If I can’t stop the door, maybe I can stop the dragon.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Sissel shifted over to Twilight’s juice mug beside the book piles, a simple trip once Twilight pulled the book he was possessing down into range. Waiting out the conversation, he smiled to himself when Spike picked up the mug and took it – and the two ghosts – with him into the kitchen.
“You keep a mug for apple juice?” Sissel asked, curious.
“It was originally for coffee,” Twilight explained, “but then we found out me and coffee weren’t a very good combination.”
“Heh. I think I’d like to hear about that sometime.”
Feeling her embarrassment, Sissel decided to leave it at that and focus on the kitchen; Twilight spent a good amount of time after Spike left reading, but it wouldn’t be long before the assassin entered the scene. Like the previous room, the kitchen was mostly made out of wood, with several holes in the walls filled with glass to serve as windows. Counters lined the edges of the room, with cabinets hanging from the walls above them, looking much like how the phantom expected a kitchen to look, including the requisite ingredients and utensils. Several aforementioned utensils hung from hooks, and the central island, which looked to actually be part of the tree sheered flat, had a bowl containing a large amount of assorted fruit.
Spike moved over to a refrigerator and placed the mug on the counter beside it. As Spike opened the fridge and dug into it, Sissel took notice of a door on the side. “Where does that door go?”
“That one?” Twilight answered. “It leads to the basement.”
“Basement?”
“Yeah, I use it mostly for storage. Library archives, that sort of thing.”
“Hmm… I got an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”
“What? What am I not going to like?”
Deciding to not answer, Sissel moved from the mug across several of the hanging utensils to a large hard-plastic salad serving fork. As Spike was busy pulling out a pitcher of apple juice and refilled the mug, the ghost started swinging the serving fork back and forth until it got enough force to fly off the hook and land on the island with a soft clatter. Spike looked quickly at the sound of the noise, only to find no one there, and so he shrugged and resumed putting the pitcher back in the refrigerator. Since he could move between objects only when in the Ghost World where time was stopped, Sissel reflected that he pretty much waited until Spike was looking the other way before moving to the fruit bowl just for the heck of it.
Spike was turning and heading back towards the main room when from there came a sound of shattering glass. The dragon was immediately on the alert. “Twilight?” he lightly asked towards the door, though not at a volume she would be likely to hear him at.
[Time Till Death: 3]
“Drat, the assassin here’s!” Sissel mentally shouted. “No time to waste!”
“What am I not going to like, Sissel?” Twilight asked forcefully.
His response consisted of the trick he could do with the fruit bowl: rock it. As Spike started stepping briskly back towards the door, various fruits spilled all over the floor. But despite the variety, they all seemed to have a major thing in common.
They were all very round.
“Whoa-whoa-WHOA!” Spike cried as he stepped on an apparently quite hard pear and lost his balance. Attempting to regain it, he then stepped on a peach, then an apple, then a pineapple, then the rest of the cornucopia as he slip-sided away from the main room door towards the door leading to the basement, having dropped the mug, shattering it and spilling its contents, at the beginning of the whole ordeal. Sissel quickly beat him there by moving across the fruit (which, being plucked from their trees and bushes, reclassified them as dead, allowing most of them cores) and opening the door for him. He closed the door again once Spike was through it, the purple dragon tumbling head over heels down the stairs until he reached the bottom, where he lay in a groaning daze.
Twilight’s spirit was agape. “W-What…? What did…?”
“I told you you weren’t going to like it,” Sissel casually replied.
“Why did you have to do that?!” she shouted. “Dragons are sturdier than most creatures, sure, but he’s just a baby, and you tricked him into falling down the stairs?!”
“Look, if he dies, I’ll go back to four minutes before his death, OK?!” he exasperatingly replied. “Right now, we’ve got more important things to worry about! I managed to keep you from getting distracted by him, so you probably don’t die instantly, but the assassin’s still going to be there, so we have to get back there quickly before he kills you anyway!”
“……”
“…When we get back, I’ll apologize, how’s that?”
“…Fine. But you’re paying for his doctor bill.”
…I have no idea how she intends for me to do that…
“I’ll put you to work or something, we’ll discuss it later. As you said, we have more important things to worry about!”
[Fate Changed!]
Thankfully, getting back to the main room wasn’t a big problem. Following the fruit back to the counter, followed by moving across the utensils and drawers (and occasionally having to stop to open a cabinet door to reach far enough) allowed him to reach the door handle again.
“Glory to the true ruler!” the assassin shouted, aiming the explosive death crystal at Twilight and hurling it with all his might.
Twilight’s horn glowed again as she cast her spell, forming a magenta bubble around her. The crystal detonated on contact with it, scattering the pile of books on the table across the floor, but the pony herself was unharmed.
The explosive gone, she dismissed her shield. “That was a grenade! You just tried to kill me! Who are you?!”
She found she couldn’t relax, however, as the assassin, upon seeing his first attempt failed, growled and pulled another crystal out of his vest instead of answering.
“He’s got more of them?!” Twilight’s ghost shouted.
“And he probably has enough that he’d get a kill in before he runs out,” Sissel speculated. He quickly began scanning the room of anything that could be of use. “We need to find some way to stop him…!”
“I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but… maybe you can… throw books from the shelves at him?”
“I’m a ghost, not a poltergeist. They wouldn’t reach far enough.” Think, think, think…!
Finally, he noticed the ladder leaning against one of the shelves near the assailant. That could do it. Unfortunately, at that moment, the grey pony threw the crystal he was holding; Twilight again managed to raise a shield to protect herself, but the large breeze the projectile generated threw several of the books from the shelves, scattering the cores among them too wide for Sissel to reach it. Dang…! Now what...?
Then he noticed that some of the dropped books formed a way across the floor to the central table, which still had some of the books that were at the bottom of the piles and a core in the tip of the horsehead figure’s muzzle. He followed this path and at the end, as the assassin threw his second round and Twilight deflected it to the far wall, did a trick with the horsehead to rotate the whole table around to face the other way.
“OK,” Twilight mused. “I should probably get that fixed.”
Again ignoring her, Sissel instead took delight in that the books on the floor reachable from the new position of the books on the table now lead to the ladder. He wasted no time in zipping across this line of cores, up the shelves, and settled in the ladder as he waited for the right moment.
He didn’t have to wait long as the assailant pulled out and aimed back another crystal grenade. Now!
He tilted the ladder over.
Just as the assassin attempted to throw again, the ladder landed on him, catching his head between the top two rungs. Startled by this sudden contact, he released the grenade too early in the swing, causing it to pop up and land on the ground right in front of him. The force of the explosion blew off the top half of the ladder and bodily launched him backwards hard into the bookshelf behind him, which still had most of its books on it. He hung there for a few seconds like a fly hit by a windshield on a moving car before sliding a little and falling flat on his stomach, head framed by the broken top half of the ladder. He moaned from pain before several books from the shelf fell off and knocked him on the head, causing him to collapse and stop moving.
“I… I think that did it!” Twilight declared. “He seems to be unconscious!”
“Distractions can be such dangerous things, can’t they?” Sissel slyly noted.
Twilight’s magical aura surrounded the assassin’s vest and pulled it off. “I’ll take that,” she said as she floated it over to a corner away from them. She was damaged, likely from being battered by objects that were flying about in the winds, but very much alive.
“And that should be that!” Sissel declared. “With that pony down for the count, the danger is gone and your death has been prevented.”
[Fate Averted!]
As Sissel pulled them back into the Ghost World, Twilight was looking thoughtful. “Um… I’ve got a question.”
“What is it?”
“Do your fate changes usually involve hurting other ponies to save someone?”
“Well, we don’t have ponies quite like you where I’m from, but besides that, no, not usually.”
“Then why did you have to…? That pony who attacked me, I could understand, but…”
“Look, I’m sorry I had to hurt Spike like that. I’m still a little disoriented, so I couldn’t see a better solution in the heat of things.”
“Well I am grateful for you saving my life and everything, so I’ll accept your apology, but I expect you to apologize to Spike too.”
“I can’t make promises, since I can only communicate with people I’ve met after they died, but if I get the chance, I will.”
“Fair enough. So… what’s next?”
“What’s next is we go back to the present. A new present formed from this trick of fate, where you’re alive.”
“Great! But… if I’m alive in this new present, what happens to me?”
“If it’s anything like back home, your still-alive self will retain your memories from your time dead at least.”
“I see…”
“Well, time’s a-wasting, as they say. Back to the present!”
[8:22 PM]
Sissel arrived in the part of the ladder broken around the unconscious assassin’s neck. He looked over to Twilight, who seemed to be lying down to conserve her strength. Having a murderer come after you is a very tiring experience, I would imagine.
“Twilight!” Spike called as he burst through the kitchen door, covered in bruises, and ran to his companion. “Are you alright?! What happened?!”
“It’s… complicated,” Twilight replied. “Never mind that, what happened to you?”
“I, uh, slipped,” he answered, apparently trying to keep most of his pride by withholding some of the details. He looked around the library. The entire thing was a wreck; nothing was in place. Books were scattered across the floor, the shattered glass from the window had gotten everywhere, and even the table was completely turned around. “Gosh,” he thought aloud. “It looks like Rainbow Dash steered a hurricane through here. …Huh? Is that another pony over there?”
“Don’t get too close, Spike. That pony tried to kill me.”
“Tried to kill you?!” he shouted. “Why would anypony try to kill you?!”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “But first things first. I got some spare rope up in my room; I need you to get it and tie that pony up before he wakes up.”
“Are you sure it’s OK to leave you alone like this, Twilight-?”
“Spike!” Her voice communicated just how urgent this task was.
“OK, OK!” he replied. He ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, and hurried through the door.
She heaved a sigh, probably trying to relax and sort her thoughts out. Given she had her memories of an alternate history where she died only a few minutes ago, that wasn’t surprising at all.
Maybe I can help with that. Besides, now that the danger is past, I’ve got a lot of questions.
A moment later, Twilight heard a sound and looked up just in time to see the central table spin back around to its original position. “Ah… There you are, Sissel.”
He reached out to her through the Ghost World. “Glad to see you remember me.”
“As you said, I remember dying. Not the most pleasant thing to have to remember, you can imagine.”
“I remember dying from being hit by a meteorite fragment. Believe me, there are worse ways to go.”
“So… now’s when we start using each other?”
“Just what I was thinking. Let’s start by you answering a simple question: where am I?”
Twilight Sparkle gave me an answer. There was a lot I needed to wrap my head around.
I was in a town called Ponyville, in a land called Equestria. Most of the inhabitants were talking ponies. Equestria was ruled by a pair of princesses that lived in a castle in a city called Canterlot, which wasn’t too far from Ponyville.
There were three kinds of ponies – Earth ponies, pegasus ponies, and unicorns. Earth ponies were physically strong and tough compared to the others, pegasi had wings and could fly, and unicorns had horns and could use magic. There was also the rare fourth pony type, the alicorn – which Twilight Sparkle was one of – that combined the strengths of the other three species.
Twilight Sparkle also told me about her five best friends – Earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie, pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and unicorn Rarity. Though thought was instant in the mental connection we were using, she did her best to keep explanations brief and only gave me enough of an overview about each of them, but still enough for me to work with.
And finally, there was a quick explanation of “cutie marks.” These images that appeared on a pony’s flanks after they found what made them happiest in life. She showed me hers, a six-pointed star, which indicated her passion for magic. I played around with ideas of what cutie marks of the people I knew looked like, though I could only imagine Lynne’s being a falling anvil for whatever reason.
As amazing as it all was, though, I couldn’t help but focus on one major detail:
Nothing was familiar at all.
I was very far from home, far enough it might as well been a world away.
My body was missing.
And I had no idea how I was going to get back.
The dark grey assassin and the light grey bomber… Who were these ponies, and who did they work for?
Motive was an interesting puzzle. Twilight Sparkle had mentioned offhand earlier that she was a princess, presumably like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Given that, it was easy to assume the attack on her was some sort of royal assassination attempt. However, they then tried to kill Fluttershy, who supposedly wasn’t royalty at all. Was it simply friendship that tied this librarian and this caretaker together? Or was there some other factor I wasn’t aware of?
And how did it all connect with where my body was?
Regardless, I knew my next move. I had to share these developments with Twilight Sparkle as soon as possible.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight cried out as she ran in through the open cottage door. “Fluttershy, are you alright?! I saw the smoke and your roof blown up and…” Her speech petering off, she looked around in panic. The main room of the cottage seemed mostly unscathed, aside from a lot of fallen dust covering the floor and the central rug being a little curled up on the side facing the front door. That’s when she picked up movement coming from under the couch across the room. She walked cautiously over to it and peeked underneath. “Fluttershy…?”
Huddled in a ball half-hidden behind her pink mane was the mare in question, shaking harder than her cottage was a minute ago. With her were Angel, a few squirrels, some mice, and two porcupines, all in the process of trying to calm her down.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight declared, relief filling her voice. “Oh, thank Celestia you’re alright!”
“T-Twilight…?” Fluttershy’s voice squeaked. Twilight only heard it through the unnatural quiet that seemed to fill the room with tension. One eye peeked out from behind her bangs. “I… I’m not entirely sure I’m alright…”
“Not entirely… What do you mean?”
Fluttershy said nothing, just bowed her head a little more.
It took several minutes – more than Twilight felt comfortable sparing considering the urgency of her investigation, but ones the pegasus needed more than she did – to get Fluttershy out from under the couch and calmed down enough to the point she could talk. The animals dusted the couch off so they could sit on it together, Twilight’s saddlebags leading against one of the legs.
“Feeling better yet?” Twilight asked.
“A… A little…” Fluttershy replied. “I-I think I’m ready to talk now…”
“OK, but let me know if it starts feeling like too much. What happened?”
“I-I don’t think you’ll believe me…”
“I’ll believe you, Fluttershy. Just, please, answer the question.”
“I… I’m not entirely sure… It’s a little hard to sort out in my memories, but… I think I… may have died…”
“You died?” Twilight’s voice was filled with shock.
“Oh, I knew you wouldn’t believe me-”
“No, it’s not that! You died. OK. What happened after that?”
“A-After that…?”
“Yes, after you died. Try to remember, please.”
“After I died…” Fluttershy muttered as she thought hard. “After I died, I… I heard Angel…” She hugged the rabbit closer to her. “He was dead, too…”
“Angel died too?”
She nodded. The rabbit himself was slightly grumpy at being in something as embarrassing as a hug, satisfied at helping his mistress, and confused about what she was talking about.
“Yes… and then there… there was a cat…”
Something seemed to dawn on Twilight. “A cat?” she pressed.
“Yes, a black cat…”
“With a red kerchief tied around his neck?” She gestured the area around her neck with a hoof.
Fluttershy looked up. “How did-?”
Before she could finish her question or Twilight could answer it, they heard a creaking sound. They looked towards the source to see one of the bird perches on the ceiling, the one closer to the front door, swinging on its hook. After a few swings, it swung off the hook and landed on the carpet.
Twilight stood up and walked over to it. “Sissel?” she asked the perch. “Is that you?”
After returning to the present, Sissel looked below the suitcase and saw, to his delight, the core for one of the bird perch hooks right below him. From there, getting down to the perch itself, and from there down to the cottage floor, was so simple as to require no explanation.
He reached out to Twilight after she finished her approach, starting a connection of communication between them within the timelessness of the Ghost World. Nearby, he could see Fluttershy, now possessing her own lingering core. “Glad to see you didn’t forget me,” he jokingly greeted her.
“I thought you were in my saddlebags,” she replied, confused. “I don’t think they went anywhere near enough to that perch for you to reach it… How’d you get up there?”
“Well I didn’t start up there, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he replied.
He wanted to continue, but Fluttershy spoke up. “Oh, Mr. Cat! I mean, Sissel. Sorry…”
“It’s alright,” he answered.
“I just remembered something,” she continued. “I forgot to thank you for saving Angel’s life.” She smiled warmly, hot enough that Sissel could feel his heart melt. “So, thank you! I’m sure if Angel could talk to you, he’d thank you too.”
“So you did save Angel and Fluttershy’s lives,” Twilight addressed the cat. “What happened?”
Information in the Ghost World moves at the speed of thought. Thanks to that, it was quick and easy for both Fluttershy and myself to tell Twilight about the four minutes of the past we experienced together. It was as simple as sharing our memories of the event.
“Crystal bombs?” Twilight thought out loud (Even though in the Ghost World, all thinking is out loud.). “First crystal grenades, and now crystal bombs…?”
“Grenades…?” Fluttershy inquired. “Twilight, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you talking about?”
Another quick explanation, as Twilight and I caught Fluttershy up on the events of the night and how we had come to meet.
“Y-You died too?!” Fluttershy uttered in shock. Despite the attention of a shout, it somehow came out quieter than her normal speaking voice, not that they missed any of it thanks to the nature of the Ghost World.
“Yes,” Twilight answered. “Just like you, I was killed in my own home by an assassin with a crystal weapon, and Sissel rewound time and averted my fate.”
“Oh dear…”
“Well,” Sissel announced. “Now that we’re all caught up and together, I’ve got some questions that need answers.”
“That’s right, we came down here to ask about the Everfree Forest,” Twilight remembered.
“T-The Everfree Forest…?” Fluttershy stuttered, the fear in her voice transparent.
“Not just that,” the cat added. “There’s a few questions that I think Twilight Sparkle may also be able to help with.”
“Me?” Twilight replied. “Well, a good librarian does know how to answer questions.”
Sissel decided to start with an icebreaker of a topic. “First of all, this room is missing something.”
“It is…?” Fluttershy asked.
“When we left the past,” he clarified, “there was a bear in here.”
“A bear?” Twilight wondered in reaction.
“That’s right…” Fluttershy replied. “Harry isn’t here… I’m afraid I don’t know what happened to him, sorry…”
“I think I have an idea,” Twilight chimed in. “He was sleeping on the rug during Fluttershy’s last four minutes, right? Well, look at the carpet now. It’s shifted position and scrunched up a little, like something moved across it quickly. Also, when I got here, the door was wide open and looked a little bent out. I think he got frightened from the explosion like Fluttershy did, and responded by fleeing out the front door.”
“Oh dear, that explosion from above and the dust falling must’ve reminded him of his cave…!” Fluttershy spoke. “The poor thing, he must be so scared…! I have to go find him as soon as I can!”
In the world of the living, Fluttershy got off the couch and started trotting for the door when Twilight stuck an arm in front of her.
“Wait, Fluttershy,” she explained. “You can’t just go out wandering into the night like that, not with your life at risk. If you die again, we won’t know where to find you.”
“But Twilight, it’s cold, and dark, and he doesn’t have a home right now…!” Fluttershy pleaded.
“Harry’s a big bear,” Twilight replied. “He can take care of himself for one night.”
“That’s something you don’t hear every day,” Sissel commented to himself.
“He knows to avoid the Everfree, so he won’t get in trouble. Right now, we need you here, to help us figure out what’s going on.”
Fluttershy was silent for a few moments, thinking it over, before giving Twilight a small nod and stepping back a few paces.
Sissel re-established their connection with the Ghost World. “Next question. Twilight Sparkle, on our way out of the library, I think I heard you mention to Spike that you were a princess, right?”
“You didn’t tell Mr. Sissel you were a princess…?” Fluttershy exclaimed.
“Well I didn’t feel like I had time to tell him everything about us after he saved me,” Twilight explained. “I being a princess was one of the things that got left out.”
How the idea you’re royalty gets “left out” is beyond me… Sissel mused.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle was coronated as the Princess of Friendship last month,” Fluttershy proudly informed Sissel.
“Fluttershy, please,” Twilight interjected. “I’ve told you and the others multiple times, I don’t want my friends using my title. I’m still the same pony as I was before I got these wings.”
“We’re getting off topic here,” Sissel rerailed. “As I was saying, since Twilight Sparkle is a princess, I had guessed that was the reason an assassin was sent after her. However, now we know for sure… Fluttershy, you’re not a princess too, right?”
“Oh no, I could never do that,” she replied timidly. “I don’t even know how Twilight does it.”
“And yet you were targeted anyway. We know, or can at least easily infer, from the similar M.O.s that the same organization sent both killers. So there must be some connection between you two that’s important enough to them to off you both. You’re good friends, but there’s something more to it, isn’t there?”
The two ponies shared sideways glances with each other.
“You don’t think…?” Fluttershy asked.
“I think so…” Twilight replied.
So there is something…! Sissel thought.
“Yes,” Twilight answered. “Fluttershy and I are two of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony. It’s the only other thing major enough that we both have in common.”
“Elements of Harmony?” Sissel asked. “That wasn’t something I was introduced to during my orientation, Twilight Sparkle.”
“And it’s something I probably should’ve talked about, given how important they are,” she replied. “The Elements of Harmony are six very powerful magical gems, each the embodiment of one of ponykind’s virtues of Harmony and Order. Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, and Magic. In the hooves of their rightful bearers, they are capable of power that can free Equestria from almost any threat it faces; in our darkest hour, it is the light that brings hope and strength to all ponies.”
A ray of light in the darkness… It’s funny how many memories of that night are being brought up by this new adventure. “And you two are some of these ‘bearers’?”
“Yes. I bear the Element of Magic, while Fluttershy bears the Element of Kindness.”
I can believe that. “So it’s one element to a pony, it seems. And I think I can guess the other four…”
Twilight nodded. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity bear Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, and Generosity respectively. The story of how we all became friends and bearers is very long, and while the night is young, I’d rather not waste any more time than I could.”
“Twilight…” Fear was starting to creep back into Fluttershy’s voice. “If we were attacked because we bear the Elements, then that would mean our friends are in danger too…!”
“My theory exactly,” Sissel replied. “And since you two were attacked tonight, it’s not too much of a stretch to think they’ll attack them tonight as well.”
“Oh no…” Twilight muttered, holding a hoof to her face as if nursing a migraine. “This is bad… We can’t go looking for the margrave oaks now…”
Fluttershy’s fear was tempered off by confusion. “Margrave oaks…? Why would you want to find those?”
“This leads into my last question, actually,” Sissel answered. “Remember that carpentry cart we saw while we were in the past? The one outside your cottage the bomber ran for after we foiled her plan? That cart, or one just like it, is the one I woke up on, if you remember. It had planks made of margrave oak wood on it. We came out here to ask you if you’ve seen any suspicious activity in the Everfree Forest tonight.”
“Sorry, no…” Fluttershy apologized. “I was too busy with the animals all day to pay attention to the forest, and I usually try to ignore it as much as I can…”
“That’s right, the cart was parked outside, wasn’t it…?” Twilight thought out loud.
Time resumed, and Twilight levitated her saddlebags over and put them back into place. Not understanding what she was up to, Sissel quickly possessed them once they were close enough. “Fluttershy, could you come with me? With the whole situation, I think I’d feel more comfortable if I knew you were close.”
“Oh, OK…” she quietly replied as she followed the alicorn out the front door.
From the bags, Sissel watched as Twilight’s horn started glowing with light again and she trotted over the bridge to the dirt road beyond it. On her left, it went the way she came to get here towards Ponyville. On her right, not more than twenty meters away, stood the boundary of the Everfree Forest. Sissel felt a chill as he looked at the trees and the darkness they contained. Even though the pony’s manually-operated way of life was unnatural to him, the Everfree felt even more unnerving, probably about as much as it was to the ponies the first time they encountered it.
Could my body really be somewhere in there…?
Twilight lowered her head to the ground, inspecting it closely.
“Um, Twilight…” Fluttershy started to ask. “What are you doing…?”
Twilight raised her head again. “As I thought. I’m no expert, but there are quite clearly tracks for a common wagon and two ponies side by side, most likely drawing it.”
“Tracks in the dirt,” Sissel thought with a small amount of glee. “Now you’re talking my language. But I didn’t see any tracks outside the library…”
“Any exposed ground in Ponyville is packed tight by all the ponies that walk over it every day. It’s too tightly packed to leave much of a trail. Out here, however, that’s not the case.”
“But where does it lead…?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight looked over the markings on the ground again. “This is where the wagon you two saw was for sure, comparing against your memories of it. The tops of the hooves of the ponies are pointing this way…” She looked along the direction the tracks were going in and looked up… only to be greeted by the entrance to the Everfree Forest.
“As we thought!” Sissel declared happily. “They did go into the forest! Let’s go after them!”
“Not yet,” Twilight replied.
Sissel’s good mood was quickly deflated. “Why not?! Something about the forest has a clue to where my body is!”
“Well, for one, there’s no guarantee the ground in the Everfree will be soft enough to hold tracks, and even if there was, I can’t read tracks that well. Two…”
She stopped talking, but Sissel could fill in the blank.
Two: her friends are very likely in mortal danger.
And until she’s sure they’re all safe, she’s not going somewhere no pony likes going. I doubt I’ll be able to change her mind on that.
Sorry, body, you’ll have to wait a little while longer…
Fluttershy walked up to Twilight’s side. “So, uh… what do we do now…?”
“We need to get back to Ponyville and make sure the others are alright,” the other answered. “Once we’re altogether, then we might consider braving the Everfree.”
“Got it,” Sissel responded, though he other thoughts on the matter. So this is what it’s going to take to find my body, eh? Make sure Twilight Sparkle and her friends all survive this night? I can do that. I may be a black cat, but I’m pretty sure I’m good luck. Not that I don’t see why I’m not good luck… A trip back to Ponyville might be nice anyway, allow me to look into a certain assassin-shaped lead… Though…
He found himself saying, or perhaps thinking, the next part out loud.
“I really wish there were telephones.”
“Telephones…?” Fluttershy asked.
“Something he told me about earlier,” Twilight replied. “There’re some sort of device that ponies use to talk to each other over long distances without letters or possibly even magic. He’s able to move between them.”
“You could talk to anypony without having to leave your own home? That’s amazing.”
“Well not ‘anypony,’” Sissel clarified. “You have to have their telephone number.”
“Telephone number?” Twilight asked.
“I assume it’s how they tell each other apart,” he answered. “You dial the number into the telephone, and it connects with another phone depending on the number. And I can move across that connection.”
“I see,” Twilight mused. “A unique identification number for each device.”
“Well, more like each place has one.”
“That could probably be even more efficient. I should be writing this all down! The Department of Communications up in Canterlot would love to hear about this!”
“Uh, Twilight…” Fluttershy squeeked.
Sissel could barely hear her, but he understood her loud and clear: Twilight was getting off-topic again. “Well until then, they’re not here,” he pointed out. “And without them, I’m more or less stuck in Twilight Sparkle’s saddlebags here when it comes from getting from place to place.”
“That is rather inconvenient…” Twilight’s mind refocused. “If we could move independently, we’d be able to multitask on this case, which with time being of essence would be invaluable.”
“Hey, uh…” Fluttershy mumbled.
“Did you say something, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.
“I think I… have an idea…”
“An idea? For what?” Sissel wondered.
“For moving around…”
“You mean instead of a telephone?” Twilight’s head tilted slightly.
The pegasus nodded. “Wait here, I’ll be right back…”
She trotted back across the bridge to her house and entered. A minute later, she emerged carrying something clenched in her teeth, something Sissel vaguely recognized the shape of.
“Is that a plush toy?” Twilight asked.
When she arrived next to the unicorn, Fluttershy placed down the plush pony, now revealed to be of a unicorn stallion made of orange knitted yarn for the main body with a somewhat pointy blonde mane and sunglasses, so it was lying on its stomach. “It’s an old toy of mine I kept in the chest at the foot of my bed. Mr. Sissel possessed it while he was saving me.”
“I don’t see how a plushie can-” Twilight started, but then it dawned on her. “Wait… Are you saying that… you want Sissel to try manipulating the plush into walking…?”
“He’s looking for his body, right…? This was the first thing I could think of… I mean, I know it’s not the same, but… Ohh, maybe this was a bad idea…”
“Wait,” Twilight instructed her before looking to her saddlebags. “Sissel, do you think you can make this toy move?”
Could I? Could I really use a pony plush as a substitute for my own body, at least until I found it? Were my powers of the dead strong enough for that?
I thought back to Yomiel. He had had his ghost tricks for ten years when I first remember meeting him after my death. His entire ability set was based around possession and manipulation, including the ability to do so to living creatures, but could it also had been age? His powers changed and grew stronger over time, allowing him to possess bigger objects and eventually people. He even made connecting jumps between cores I couldn’t even dream of making back then, and that entire substitute body made out of separate scrap parts was incredible.
I had taken the Temsik fragment for Yomiel. I had been a ghost longer than he had ever been; ten years and counting. And lately I’ve found I’d been able to reach my paw out further than I was able to on that night.
Had I gotten stronger too?
“…One way to find out,” Sissel answered.
The plush did have a core, and he did indeed recognize it as the one he possessed in the past. A quick trip back and forth from the Ghost World was all that was needed to cling to the toy.
“All right, Sissel. Focus. It’s not your body, but it’s got four legs. You’re good with four legs. You’ve been on four legs for your entire life. And death. Except the time I thought I was human. You just have to move them the same way. One with the plush… One with the plush… Ye gods, I hope this works…”
It would be half a minute before the pony’s right forehoof twitched. Slowly, the legs moved, getting themselves into position before pushing the body back up. Slowly the head raised itself and looked up though the miniature sunglasses it was wearing.
“I… I can’t believe it…!” Twilight sputtered. “It worked!”
To begin with, I was in a town of talking pastel-colored ponies where a library was based in a tree and all the wild animals were treated like pets, and the ponies are all trying to kill each other with exploding crystals.
And now I’d taken on a substitute body in the form of an orange pony plush toy with an appearance that seems almost a little too familiar to be coincidence.
I swear, even if I continue on for a thousand years, this will be the weirdest night I will ever know.
Sissel spent several moments examining and testing out his new plush body. Standing up was one of the hardest parts, since he had to provide the plush’s structure himself; he found it easiest to sort of spread himself among all the fluff and cotton that acted as stuffing. This wasn’t completely new to him, as this was the method by which he manipulated his body when he had it; It seems my powers have indeed changed. Next was walking; he knew how to do that, but starting out he had to go slowly as he got a feel for balance and the weight of each limb. He tripped a few times, but Fluttershy was quick to help him back up.
“I have an idea,” Twilight suggested. “You can practice walking on the way back to Ponyville.”
“Smart,” Sissel replied. “Let’s get going. The night is still young.”
With that, the three of them set off back for town. It wasn’t too far along that Sissel got the hang of his new temporary body and was soon keeping a good walking pace with the others. He wasn’t as fast as he was as a cat, but he could keep up with their usual walking speed.
“So, where to next?” he asked.
“Carousel Boutique’s closest to here, so we’ll check in on Rarity first,” Twilight answered.
“What do we do when we get there…?” Fluttershy added.
“…Well, warn her at the very least,” Twilight replied after thinking it over a moment. “Maybe see if we can get her to help round up the others. We’re all in danger tonight, so we have to cover each other.”
“She told me that she got a large order for somepony important when we were at the spa yesterday,” Fluttershy commented. “I think she’s still working on it, and… well, I don’t mean to gossip, but you know how set on a job Rarity can be…”
“We’ll just have to see what happens when we get there,” Twilight responded.
“And hope for once the first time I see a pony in this place,” Sissel added, “she isn’t dead.”
[9:07 PM]
The walk back to Ponyville was uneventful. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle continued their small talk, but my thoughts were occupied with other questions. Like, how long would it take to check on all four of the remaining ponies?
Hopefully not too long. I didn’t have to worry about my body rotting at least, thanks to the Temsik fragment, but if I didn’t find it… I don’t know what I’d do. I know Kamila will be wondering why their kitten hasn’t come home. I haven’t seen her cry – at least not in this life – and I wasn’t about to start now.
This is going to gnaw at me all night…
Before long, we were back in Ponyville. Carousel Boutique was only a few steps away.
The building was just as round as the last time Sissel saw it, with walls the blue of a noon sky and giant windows even larger than the purple front door, which had a “Closed” sign hanging from it. It was also quite tall, reaching up into a large spire, with a second floor with a pair of pony-shaped iron statues decorating it. Kamila had once taken him to a park with a carousel, and indeed the design of the building seemed very much inspired by the ride.
“The first floor lights are on,” Twilight noted. “Rarity must be working on that big order.”
Sissel trotted up to beside the door and laid his plush form down. Like with the other two’s homes, this one also had a core in the doorknob. “Hope you don’t mind if I check this place out on my own while you’re talking,” he told Twilight. “I’ll just leave the plush here for now.”
“OK,” Twilight replied, levitating her saddlebags to lay beside the plush. “And hopefully this’ll deter any late-night miscreants.”
“I’m sure nopony in Ponyville is mean enough to steal from a princess,” Fluttershy commented.
“I know that,” the other pony answered. “I just hope empty saddlebags and a plush toy aren’t worth stealing to the ponies trying to kill us.”
As Twilight knocked her hoof on the door, Sissel clung to the doorknob and examined the inside of the boutique. His first impression was pink. A lot of pink. Well, maybe a little too purple for straight pink, but pink was pink as far as he was concerned. The main room was rather oval in general shape, though the exact shape was different thanks to a wall on the left that seemed to curve inwards. This back wall was divided into two sections by sets of purple curtains, one containing a rack of elaborate pony-fitted dresses, the other a sequence of stations with a mirror and tub each. Past that was a stairway leading upwards, a brown “Employees Only” door, a pink Western-like pair of double doors leading into an enclosure of purple curtains (Probably some sort of changing room.), and a stage-like area surrounded by three mirrors hung from a chandelier-like device hanging from the ceiling. Or maybe carousel-like, he reflected. One of the chandelier bars had a small length of black fabric of some sort hanging from it. A large shelf filled with books and what looked like craft supplies stood in the back, tucked into the corner where customers weren’t likely to see it.
His second impression came from the pony mannequins standing in the room. There were four of them, all of which were adorned in black robes. Most of them had gold trimming and strange runes embroidered into them, while one other had only the trimming. They surrounded a worktable in the center of the room, covered with papers and craft supplies, mainly balls of thread and copious amounts of black fabric. Near the door was a medium-sized basket filled with a large amount of even more fabric, sitting on a low-lying gurney.
In the middle of the room, next to the half-finished mannequin with just trimming on its robe, stood a very beautiful white unicorn with a lightly curled royal purple mane and bright blue eyes; balanced on her snout were a pair of large red glasses. She carried an air of gracefulness about her, like she made an effort to not look anything less than her best at any time on the offchance someone was watching.
She’s also not dead. I’d call that a plus.
At the sound of Twilight’s knock, her attention was turned from the mannequin she was tending to the door. “Sorry, we’re closed for the day,” she called, her voice’s beauty easily being a perfect match for her appearance. “Come back tomorrow.”
Twilight let loose a breath she had been holding at the sound of the unicorn before replying. “Rarity, it’s me, Twilight. I’ve got Fluttershy with me too. Can you please let us in? It’s really important.”
“Twilight? Fluttershy?” Rarity reacted with surprise. “Well this is certainly an odd hour for you to be calling.” Her horn lit up, this one a bright blue, and the latch on the door slid open and the doorknob turned. The door then swung open to admit passage to the two ponies; Sissel took this chance to hop over to the nearby fabric basket. “I hope you forgive me for not giving the proper formalities, Princess,” she continued. “I’m afraid I’m quite busy.”
“Rarity, it’s OK,” Twilight replied as she entered, making sure the door was firmly shut behind them once everyone was inside. “Like I told you and the others a thousand times, I don’t want my friends treating me any different just because I’m a princess now.”
“Umm… aren’t you normally open until 10…?” Fluttershy asked, then quickly added, “That is, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Not at all, dear,” the unicorn replied. As she spoke, her attention seemed mostly focused on “Normally I do stay open until 10 p.m., but this is a special case.”
“Special case?” Twilight inquired. “You mean your big order? Fluttershy mentioned it to me earlier.”
“Precisely,” Rarity replied. “And tonight is that holiest of all nights – my deadline. I have to make sure every single one of these outfits are perfect by midnight tonight.”
“By midnight?” Twilight asked. “Why specifically midnight?”
“The client was very clear on the matter,” Rarity replied. “Their agent said he was going to be here by midnight tonight, and I was to have everything ready by then. So I closed early to give myself enough time.”
“Don’t you usually do your work upstairs?” Twilight questioned, looking over the strange garment on the closest mannequin.
“Normally, yes,” Rarity replied as she telekinetically pulled the gurney bearing the basket Sissel was occupying near the door right next to her. “However, I had so many robes made upstairs it was getting too crowded, so I had to move operations down here.” Then she said, “Oh dear, this one’s getting too full.”
And to Sissel’s surprise, she levitated the basket off the gurney and across the room, where she grabbed a second emptier basket off a shelf and pulled it over, placing the first one, with the ghost in it, where the second originally stood. Afterwards, the new basket was place where the old one once stood.
Uh oh… I don’t see a path back to the front door from here.
“Sissel,” Fluttershy thought at him. “Do you need my help?”
“No, I’ll be fine,” he replied. “I’ll find my own way back. Don’t worry.”
He took a moment to look over the shelf’s contents in better detail. From the perspective of someone looking at it, the basket was in the top right. The books and fabrics here couldn’t do anything for him, leaving the only core on the left side one shelf down, in what looked like some sort of large ink bottle. Out of further ideas, he moved into it and waited for the situation to change.
“Rarity, I’ve seen your bedroom before,” Twilight inquired. “It’s not that big, but big enough that that many robes… I’m surprised you even have enough mannequins for them all. Why does your customer need so many of them?”
“I’m a professional, darling,” Rarity replied. “I don’t ask those sort of questions. That’s what the customer wants, that’s what the customer gets. And the customer was quite detailed about what they want. Very much so. Honestly, the inner stitching is the only creative space they’re giving me here, and it’s driving me absolutely bonkers. I mean, look at this!” She telekinetically pulled the mannequin with the finished robe over. “Black with gold trim is fine and dandy when it’s only one outfit, but two dozen?! It doesn’t stand out at all! They blend in too well with any environment darker than dim light! And you know what I have to trace the runes out in before I embroider it?! Ink! I’m working with INK! Ink on fabric, have they gone mad?! It’s scandalous, is what it is! Whoever came up with this design had no fashion sense at all! If they hadn’t made an offer I couldn’t refuse, I wouldn’t touch this thing with a ten-foot roll!”
“So, um,” Twilight said, trying to overcome the absolute barrage of Rarity’s rant, “their… agent told you how to make each one?”
“Actually, he gave me a diagram,” the seamstress replied. “It’s upstairs right now and rather blocked off by all the robes, but by now it’s been burned into my mind. I could probably make these in my sleep now.” She magically grabbed a small paint brush from the table and dipped it in a small vial, but nothing was on it when she pulled it out. “Oh drats, it’s empty again.” She gripped the larger bottle that Sissel was possessing and pulled it across the room, tilting to pour its contents into the vial.
Now’s my chance, Sissel thought; vial, twine ball on the table, scrap basket then gurney. But something held him back. He was getting curious about upstairs and how many more of these unsettling robes there were. I’m sure I’ve never seen them before, but they seem… strangely familiar. While I have the chance to get back to the front door now, I’ll be losing a chance to investigate more of the boutique.
Only a single drop came out of the bottle and splashed inside the vial. “Oh double drats. Would you girls please excuse me? I have to get another ink bottle.”
“It’s fine…” Fluttershy whispered.
“We’ll wait here,” Twilight added.
“Thanks!” Rarity replied as she walked away towards the staircase leading up. Sissel, still within the ink bottle, had no choice but to follow her up.
There was a small hallway at the top of the staircase. It contained two doors, one at the end and one on the left, while the right wall had a small window looking out (framed in curtains of that same pink-purple). Rarity opened the right door and entered the room beyond, using her magic to flick on the lights. This room was circular and smaller than the room below, and was clearly her bedroom. The far end of the room had a canopy bed, with the canopy in question being pink-purple (She just loves that color, doesn’t she?) and red covers enveloping the mattress. Next to it was a fancy nightstand with a lamp on it and a large dresser. Nearer the door was a large curtained window, currently closed, and a workbench with an array of fabric rolls and a space where a sewing machine would be. The workbench was occupied with several bottles, spools of thread, a spare pincushion with needles, and a few pieces of parchment, some of which had writing.
So many mannequins…! Sissel thought. More than he could count, for sure; one consequence of being a cat is that he didn’t know a lot of numbers. All of them were wearing identical black and gold robes with embroidered runes that itched the back of his head thinking about them.
Rarity placed the ink bottle next to one of the largest ones, that seemed to be filled with a larger amount of ink; likely one of those industrial-sized bottles. Removing the stoppers, he telekinetically lifted the larger bottle and began refilling the smaller one.
“Keep it together, Rarity…” she said to herself as she poured. “This will all be over soon enough...”
Well, if she’s referring to the robes, they are due at midnight, Sissel figured. I need to ride this bottle back down, but before that…
He took another look around as red filled his vision and Rarity’s pouring halted in mid-air. There were only a few cores among the workbench items; along with the bottles the unicorn was interacting with, there was two of the parchments lying on top of the others and a spool of thread lying on its side. He moved over to it and looked it over; if he set it rolling into motion, it would go off the table and carry him across the room, at least until he hit the base of the mannequin stands. I wouldn’t be able to get back up here, though, so no thanks. If I ever find myself needing to get across this room, this would probably work.
Next he checked one of the parchments. This one had a drawing of a pony on it dressed in one of the robes in the middle, surrounding by little notes and lines. This must be the diagram Rarity’s client gave her so she could make the robes. Didn’t she say it was blocked off a minute ago? Maybe she’s forgetting a few details she doesn’t think is important. Like when Detective Jowd occasionally forgets he eats Alma’s last cupcake. And he’s usually much better about remembering stuff…
Last, the other parchment. Unfortunately, it was entirely writing. Even a couple years of being with Kamina while Jowd was reading her bedtime stories couldn’t teach a cat to read. He could feel it had a little importance, but until he could somehow to get a pony up here to read it out loud, best not to dwell on it.
While his view within the Ghost World was limited to his immediate surroundings for the most part, he was still capable of looking at things he couldn’t reach, such as the mannequins that were closest to the workbench.
…That’s strange. That mannequin with the incomplete robe downstairs had a core on it, so it stands to reason these mannequins should have cores too. But while I can see their outlines in the Ghost World, I can’t see any cores that I can connect to.
Could it be that… the robes are blocking the cores out…?
He focused a little closer and felt something he didn’t expect; an invisible force pushing him back. He reached out a paw only for the force to push against it, keeping him away from the robe. The force was also sending a sensation through him that he wasn’t very familiar with, but one that stirred unpleasant memories.
His last second alive.
Pain.
Why is Rarity making clothing that can cause me pain…? No wait, I know the answer to that. Her client hired her to make these robes. So the question is, why would this “client” need her to make these? Do they work against all powers of the dead, or are they somehow restricted to just me…?
There’s many mysteries surrounding Carousel Boutique tonight… Right now, though, I have to focus on getting back to the front door.
Repossessing the ink bottle, Sissel resumed time. Rarity finished her pouring, restoppered the bottles, and started back downstairs. Nothing much had happened in the brief time Rarity was away, though Twilight and Fluttershy were whispering to each other. He tried to listen in, but they stopped as soon as they noticed their friend return.
“Sorry for that,” the seamstress said, uncorking the bottle and refilling the vial. While she did so, Sissel followed his earlier travel plan to move to the gurney closer to the door, but held there. He was so used to keeping his ghostly true nature a secret from everyone – except Missile and Detective Jowd, of course – that he didn’t want to draw Rarity’s undue attention. “With how busy I’ve been, I’ve admittedly gotten a little disorganized.”
“It’s alright, Rarity,” Twilight replied. “Even for someone as skilled as you, it’s still a lot of dresses, er, robes.”
“Welcome back, Sissel!” Fluttershy thought at the ghost.
“Thanks,” he replied, their conversation moving at the speed of thought like most of his conversations did. “If you don’t mind me asking, what were you and Twilight Sparkle whispering about just now?”
“I don’t mind. We were figuring out how to break the news.”
“About you two dying and stuff?”
“Y-yes. See… w-well, I don’t want to gossip…”
“I won’t tell anyone, promise.” Not like I could anyway…
It was clear Fluttershy was struggling to communicate with the ghost cat without making an especially large amount of movement. “See, Rarity can get a little… dramatic.”
“Dramatic, eh?”
“She’s a romantic at heart, and that includes those bit-shelf romance novels I’ve seen at the library. She’s prone to, well… overreacting.”
“I see,” Sissel summarized. “Can’t say I’m unfamiliar with that sort of behavior.” He chuckled as he recalled a particular lady in purple. “With the hunters in the night, anything that can draw too much attention is dangerous.”
“Also,” Fluttershy continued, “Twilight suggested we not tell her about you, and I agreed.”
“Why?”
“She said she wanted to do it all at once if she could, once we’ve gotten everyone together. We don’t have time to explain you and your powers to every single pony one by one.”
“Heh. She’s certainly a smart pony.”
“One of the smartest of our times, the newspapers said,” she smiled.
“OK, just pretend I’m not here for now,” Sissel instructed. “I’m going to observe for a while, and return to that plush after we’re done here.”
“O-Oh. OK.”
His conversation with Fluttershy finished, Sissel turned his attention to the talk between Twilight and Rarity.
“Yes, well, I’ve dealt with large orders before,” Rarity replied as she got back to work, levitating fabric tools around in a way Sissel couldn’t quite understand. “Not of this grand scale, mind you, but nothing I can’t handle. There’s only three more after this; I might actually have enough time for a short break once this one’s finished. Anyways, enough of my babbling,” she concluded. “If I recall, you came over here because of something important?”
“W-Well, I’m… not sure how to say it…” Fluttershy muttered quietly.
“Rarity, somepony’s trying to kill us,” Twilight blurted out.
“What?!” Rarity exclaimed. In her shock, all the items she was levitating dropped to the floor with a clatter.
Well, that’s one way of telling someone something, Sissel snarked to himself.
“Sorry, too forward,” Twilight apologized. “To sum up, some group of assassins tried to kill me and Fluttershy tonight. We think they’re targeting all six bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”
Rarity hadn’t moved. Her eyes were wide and her jaw had dropped.
“…Um, Rarity?” Fluttershy poked.
“Good news, just looked,” Sissel announced, “she’s still alive. Do ponies usually lock up like that when they get bad news?”
Before either of them could answer, Rarity burst into motion, embracing Fluttershy in a giant hug. “Oh thank Celestia you’re both alright!” she cried. “I can’t even imagine how much you’ve both gone through! Never in my wildest dreams…! Or darkest nightmares, for that matter! How did you both escape?!”
Sissel could tell Fluttershy was clearly uncomfortable with how long Rarity was holding on, but she was putting on a brave face for her friend’s sake.
“We don’t have the time to talk about that,” Twilight replied. “We have to get everyone else together so we can figure out what to do about it before one of them actually…” She choked on the word, but Sissel could hear her think, succeed. “Anyways, Rarity, we need to get going.”
Silence fell over the shop. Slowly, Rarity let go of Fluttershy and backed away from both of her friends a few steps before turning away.
“Rarity, didn’t you hear me?” Twilight pressed. “I said-“
“I heard what you said, Twilight.” Her voice had switched tones so fast, Sissel couldn’t tell when it happened. Where before it was panic followed by relief, now it was cold and somewhat distant. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go.”
“What?” Twilight replied in shock.
Rarity’s telekinesis picked the tools and materials off the floor. “This order has to be finished by midnight tonight.”
“Wha…?” The princess stuttered in utter disbelief. “Rarity, our friends could be getting killed right now! There’s no way a dress order is more important than that!”
“…The client made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. That’s all I can say.”
“Rarity-”
“Now,” the unicorn interrupted, “if that’s everything, I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. I have to concentrate.”
Twilight opened her mouth to say something, then just shook her head. “Fine,” she spat. “We have to get going. You know, friends to save. Come on, Fluttershy.”
As Twilight started back towards the front door, Fluttershy stepped a little closer. “Um, Rarity…?”
“Yes, Fluttershy?” Her voice wasn’t as bitter as before, but still had a hint of impatience which was only made more prominent by how she refused to look away from her workbench.
“S-Sorry to interrupt you…” she apologized. “Please promise me you’ll be careful tonight…”
“The boutique is just as locked up for closing as it is any other night. I’ll be fine.”
“T-Thank you…” Head hung a little, the pegasus followed Twilight out.
I’m not sure what just happened. The tension in the air is thick. But it seems this friend won’t be of much help. At least, not until after midnight. Not that I was looking forward to waiting that long.
She’s certainly… emotional, but I can’t believe a good friend of Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy would just turn them down so harshly with something so important. I wonder what sort of offer her client gave her that she would place more value over than this…?
We’ll just have to come back for her later. Let’s just hope she doesn’t die in the meanwhile.
With Rarity so focused on her work, she didn’t even notice the gurney wheeling its way to beside the front door.
[9:32 PM]
The boutique door locked soundly behind the two ponies. Twilight shook her hanging-low head. “I just don’t get it…” she thought out loud. “I know that she has to think about her business, but to neglect something like your friends being killed…!”
“I don’t understand either…” Fluttershy replied sadly. “B-But she’s made it quite clear what she intends to do…”
“Hate to talk about something I know nothing about,” Sissel added, “but I don’t think we’re going to get her help before midnight. Whatever her reasons, we’ll just have to come back for her later. Right now, we need to focus on saving the remaining three bearers.”
Twilight sighed. “You’re right… This isn’t like Rarity, but we’re not going to get the reason for her abnormal behavior now and we can’t waste any more time. Now I’m just worried of what she’ll do if the assassins come after her…”
“She’ll be safe here…” the pegasus tried to console her. “She told me she upgraded all her security after the Diamond Dogs broke in last year… Shatter-proof glass windows, reinforced doors…”
“Right, I remember Pinkie telling me about that,” Twilight recalled. “Those crystal grenades didn’t do a lot of damage to the library, and I don’t think they can use so big explosives like they tried with Fluttershy in Ponyville proper, so they’ll at least have a tough time getting in.”
“OK, safety of white unicorn seamstress established,” Sissel replied impatiently, wanting to keep the investigation going. “What’s next?”
“Well…” Twilight stated. “I was really hoping to have Rarity on this, but the best course of action might be to… split up.”
“S-Split up…?!” Fluttershy stuttered. “W-With everything that’s happened…?!”
“I don’t like it either, but if we’re going to get everyone else together the fastest, that’s the best way.”
“O-OK, if you say so…”
“Fluttershy, we’re not too far from the part of the outskirts Rainbow Dash’s house floats over. Knowing her, she’s probably out cold in bed at this hour. I need you to go there and give her the news. Sissel and I will get Pinkie Pie and Applejack. We’ll rendezvous back at the library once we have everyone, then we can discuss what to do next.”
Sissel poked at Twilight’s arm with a plush hoof. “Question: why am I coming with you? You’re basically leaving Fluttershy alone.”
“Most of the stuff in Rainbow’s home are Cloudsdale items made out of clouds,” she replied, levitating both of their saddle bags back on. “I have no idea if any of them are going to have cores. You’ll be able to do more down here.”
“Whatever, just so long as we keep moving.”
“Get Rainbow Dash, meet at the library…” Fluttershy repeated. “Got it.”
“Good luck, Fluttershy. We’re counting on you.”
Fluttershy nodded, and then started back out of town.
“Sissel, we’re going to have to get around quickly, so I hope you don’t mind if I do this,” said Twilight.
“Do wh-AAAAH!” he screeched as he found himself flying through the air into her saddle bags. “…Well, I suppose I can live with this.”
Just then, the sound of a loud scream came from deeper into Ponyville.
“What was that?” Sissel asked.
Twilight’s heart raced. “I hope I’m wrong, but… that sounded like Pinkie Pie!”
“Oh no, not again…!”
It took only a moment for Twilight to break into a full gallop, rounding the boutique and darting into the town’s inner streets.
Already we’re on our way to the next scene. And I’m pretty sure, unlike the one we just left, there’s going to be another death at the end of it.
I have more questions than ever before. Where is my body? Why are these assassins doing this? Why are they hiding in the forest?
And what power could possibly be strong enough to force a pony to turn her back on her best friends…?
