Jackpot was sleeping quietly in his bed. The bed was so comfortable, it felt amazing. Too bad Lauren decided to wake him up. With a flash of her magic, confetti, horns, and cheers went off. The sleeping pony shot up in alarm, and fell out of the bed. He groaned in pain after landing flat on his face. “I’m starting to regret this decision.” He thought.

“Good morning Jackpot Star, I have two things to tell you.” Lauren said, not even hiding her amusement and excitement. Jackpot sat up, and glared at the goddess. She either ignored the look, or somehow didn’t notice as she continued. “First thing, your probation is up.” “Oh thank Lauren.” He thought. “You’re welcome.” She added. Jackpot decided not to question it, and motioned for her to continue. “The other thing, is that I found a new recruit, a mare from Manehatten.” The stallion raised an eyebrow in interest. “Her death is four days from now, the train in this time period takes at least half a day to get there, so you will leave the day before. I suggest you get ready. Here’s her profile.” All of a sudden, Lauren was wearing a business suit with sunglasses, and pulled a file with several pictures and reports of the pony in question. “Good luck Mr. Star.” She said before disappearing with a flash, blinding Jackpot.

It took him two minutes to get his full vision back. Once he did, he grabbed the file, and took a look.

“Damn.” Never saw that coming. Considering her life as a filly, how the hell did this happen? He looked through the rest of her history, and found nothing that showed signs of change, it looked almost instantaneous. Jackpot just couldn’t wrap his head around it. He’ll have to look into it later. Right now, he was hungry and wanted breakfast.

He got up and went to the kitchen. He still had some apples from yesterday, so he had that, along with some coffee. “Thank Lauren that they have coffee in this time period.” He looked at the time, and saw that it was 10 o’clock. “Wow, I slept late.” He finished his breakfast, and got ready. The house had great plumbing, so he was able to take a shower. It was 11 o’clock by the time he got out the door, and into town to get some things for the new arrival.

Once again, the town was busy. Ponies continued to go about their day buying and selling goods. Jackpot looked at everything she liked to eat, carrot dogs, hay burgers and hay fries, some good old fashion pizza, carrot pannini, and of course, apple pie. ‘Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like apple pie.’ He was interrupted by a scroll smacking him in the face. ‘Why do things always hit my face, my beautiful face.’ He grabbed it off the ground, and read it.

Come to SugarCube Corner at 4:00 this afternoon.

Signed,

Double P

“Okay?” Jackpot questioned the paper, then remembered Pinkie Pie yesterday. “Oh wait, party, right.” He groaned, he was never one for parties, especially after that one time when a rival gang trashed one at his old gang’s headquarters. “I never did like those Saints.” He thought about it for a few moments. “Eh, might as well go.” He looked at the time to see he had an hour, so he decided to start looking. He went down two blocks, and found it. ‘The kids at the orphanage would eat that alive if they saw it, then Hopeful would scold them, then I would… come in… and… make ‘em smile.’ His smile quickly turned into a frown as he thought about Hopeful and the foals. ‘Damn, they must have heard I died by now, how could I have been so stupid!’ He slammed his hoof into the ground. ‘I was a damn moron, how could I have gotten caught so easily?’ He was broken from his thoughts by somepony poking him, he turned to see Twilight looking at him.

“Jackpot, are you okay?” Jackpot took a deep breath, then said he was fine, Twilight tried to push it, but Jackpot just waved her off.

“Wait, Twilight, why are you here?”

“I was given an invitation to a party at 4:00, so, here I am.”

“Oh, okay, well, ladies first.” Jackpot made a gesture with his hoof towards the door, which the purple unicorn happily accepted. Three seconds later, Jackpot walked in, and his vision was filled with an explosion, and a loud bang.

Jackpot couldn’t breathe, he looked around the room expecting police, but instead, ponies looking at him with curiosity. Pinkie Pie looked at him. “Hey, we really surprised him didn’t we?”

Jackpot got his breathing under control. “Ye-yeah, ya did, thanks for that.” he said. He managed to calm down very quickly. “So… Let’s Party!” He said through a strained smile. The first thing he did was grab a piece of cake that Pinkie Pie handed him. He took a bite, and it was the most delicious cake he ever had. “Wow Pinkie, I love this, how did you know chocolate was my favorite?”

“I read your profile.” Pinkie said simply. Jackpot almost spat out the cake.

“Wait, how did you get my profile?” Pinkie simply winked, and bounced off. “I need to ask Lauren about her.” He went back to eating the cake.

He had to admit, the party was awesome. The ponies were fun to hang out with, but he still questioned Pinkie Pie. He shrugged. ‘I’m dead, why am I questioning anything?’ He then noticed something. “It’s night?! I need to get to bed.” He ran home, with a box of leftover cake. “I better catch the train, that way, I get time to find her.” The rest of his walk home was silent.

It was a few minutes before he made it home, putting the cake in the fridge, and marching up to bed. ‘Time for another restless night.’ With that in mind, he went to sleep.

“Hello, my son.” Jackpot opened his eyes as he heard a familiar voice. In front of him was an old stallion wearing a simple black shirt.

“Father Hope?” He asked, hopefully. The old pony nodded with a smile. Jackpot felt tears in his eyes.

“Father, forgive me for my sins.” He said, bowing his head. He felt a hoof on his chin.

“All is forgiven.” Hope said. There was a loud bang, and a gasp. Jackpot was frozen in shock as Father Solar fell into a pool of his own blood. Jackpot got up but stopped as he saw a young stallion looking over the body and crying.

“Father.” He cried over and over again, Jackpot knew exactly who that was.

“All is forgiven…”

“All will never be forgiven.” A venomous female voice growled.

Jackpot woke up screaming. He was sweating bullets. His breathing was heavy. He felt sick, he ran to the bathroom, and vomited into the toilet. After a few upchucks, and some gagging. He was breathing again, his hooves were shaking, his fur was soaked with sweat. He flushed the toilet, and went back to his bed, and he did something he hasn’t done in many years. He got down on his knees, and prayed.

“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…”

Author's Note

I'm so so so so so so so sorry for not updating, writer's block, work, and now school kept me a bit busy, I finally managed to get this up. Try to guess who the new character is, here's a hint. It's not an OC, and she was introduced in season 5.