A Haunted Sleepover

Bartholomew hummed to himself as he tapped his foot against nothing. He was spending the morning trying to lift his mood up after listening to Twilight, and watching the sunrise to do so. Not that it really helped. His essence still was agitated, and he doubted it wasn’t because he was ‘pent up’ or anything.

Then again, it could also be a simpler worry. Today, his home was to be judged. They had forgone the normal wandering and inspection of the building for a more relaxed time in the living room last night, but today they would have more time, and probably end up looking over the place, and there were no guarantees they would like it.

And then there were the hundred and one ways for it to go wrong. A cockroach could wander in, making them think they were infested, the boiler could explode, despite having been replaced within the past year, or…

Bartholomew’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he heard the absolute worst possibility. It wasn’t very loud though, so he might still have time to fix it. Not that it was guaranteed, especially if it was Twilight who had caused it. Besides, how could he fix such a disastrous occurrence?

When he came through the ceiling, his spirit sank. Applejack, still in her white shirt, was looking down at the step she had just walked onto. Not only that, but Sunset was there! She must have been humiliated! The blush on her cheeks only confirmed the prediction, and Bartholomew wouldn’t have minded being taken to the next world right then and there.

Sunset, for her part, shrugged at Applejack. “I consider them a part of the charm to the house. You don’t really need to worry about them breaking though. I’ve thoroughly tested them.” Sunset couldn’t help but grin as she said it, her mind slightly drifting as she considered how much force it could handle.

To say that her and Bart experimented from time to time would be more than just understating what they did. In fact, there were a few places in the house where she’d been pinned against a wall, only for it to fall out from underneath her. Bart wasn’t always the best at remembering to check on her at those times, but she also liked the primal side of him.

Applejack snapped her fingers in front of Sunset, bringing the woman back to reality for a moment. “You okay, sugarcube?”

Sunset’s cheeks lit up bright pink, with her only barely managing to hide the blush with a quick heel turn. She needed to stay focused, especially if her plan for Applejack would work. “I am, just got lost a little bit in my memories. You start growing a connection with a place after so long.”

Applejack let a smile slip over her features as she thought about how much more comfortable she always felt at home then when she did anywhere else. It was even proven this morning because of the crick in her back. Bartholomew would have blamed it on sleeping on a chair. “Yeah, I can definitely relate.”

The two continued down the halls that Bart had so recently rushed through, and the spirit felt his essence ease a bit. While it had been a bit since Sunset had done this, he did know where she was going, and turned one of the door knobs on the way to the bedroom to let her know he was following her.

Sunset smiled wider to herself as she rubbed herself just over where her pajama pants (put on to make sure that the others didn’t know about her staying in her regular clothes last night), her sign to Bart for him to follow her. Admittedly, it felt a little embarrassing now, when it wasn’t to signal him to take her over the stove as she made breakfast, or something like that.

They slipped into one of the many abandoned bedrooms, and Sunset noticed Applejack raise an eyebrow. For a moment, Sunset considered toying with her friendly ghost by acting like she brought the other girl there for a vicious makeout session, before paling, and turning to the single window in the room.

Come on, Sunset, you’re fine with sexual stuff. You’ve been fucked by a spirit for three years, in every sort of situation, in a million and one roles. There shouldn’t be any issue with trying to be fun with your friends by now. She forced herself not to sigh as she opened the window, remembering how much easier it was to plan all of this before they all got here.

Bartholomew understood though, and gently ran a hand through her hair, trying to comfort his firecracker with it. If he did well enough though, she wouldn’t need to worry about coming out to her friends though. No, they’d probably even come out to her, hoping she knew about the ghost that was treating them so right. Or, at least, he hoped.

Applejack and Sunset carefully walked onto the roof. While it was still slanted, it was very slight, and the end of the roof even ended in what was about a four foot long, straight ledge. Bartholomew had first shown Sunset the place before, and she had used it many a time before to watch her namesake as it came and passed

For today though, she couldn’t wait for the end of the day, especially since this might be the only chance she had to talk to Applejack alone. Question was, how was she supposed to start it? She bit into her lip as she looked to the horizon, enjoying the orange glow that came with the early morning hours.

Applejack shifted a bit on the shingles she laid down on, happy that the gentle sloping allowed a perfect angle for sungazing, but also felt like they tried to stab her in the back in about half a dozen places. “I’ll admit, the view is lovely.”

Sunset turned to her, nodding as she herself shifted a bit. “I’ll admit, I usually come up here with a pillow, or a blanket to help.”

“I can feel why.” Applejack grunted again as she shifted a little higher up, though not letting her feet leave the ledge, where she could have her weight on something. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Sunset let her eyes twitch over to her friend, her breath catching for a moment before she looked back to the beautiful view before them. “What do you mean? I just wanted to share this with you.”

Applejack shook her head, smirking a little bit as she thought she could bet what she might need to talk to her about. “You’ve been tense ever since Pinkie Pie screamed last night, and with how red you were blushing on our way up here, it seemed to have gotten worse.”

Sunset’s eyes flicked down, before she turned to Applejack, turning onto her side, and felt Bartholomew’s hands and on her thighs to make sure she didn’t possibly slide off. “W-well, yeah, I did want to talk to you about something. Or, I guess, someone.”

Alright Rainbow, get ready to pay up. “Oh yeah, and who might that be.”

“Well, he’s a guy named Bartholomew.”

Applejack blinked at the name. It wasn’t familiar to her, but then again, like Rarity and Pinkie Pie, she had been expecting a female’s name to come out. Or, more specifically, one of their friend’s names to come out. And now they would need to let Sunset know so she could get the pot.

Sunset fidgeted at the almost blank expression on Applejack’s face, and cleared her throat to make sure she still had her attention. “You don’t know him, if that’s what you’re wondering. In fact, he’s kind of…” Sunset swallowed hard, trying to make sure the word wouldn’t come out as a squeak. “Dead.”

Applejack blinked again, before trying to clean out one of her ears with a finger, and then cupping it behind the same ear. “Come again?”

Sunset tried to sit up now, waving her hands in front of her. “Look, it’s probably not what you think it is. Bartholomew, first off, is not a corpse, so please don’t think that anything else I say is related to anything like… that. What he is though, is a spirit. The spirit of the house even.”

The farm girl slowly nodded, and, before she called her friend crazy, decided a different approach with it. She knew Sunset, like Twilight, liked proof, so she hoped she had some. “And you didn’t mention this before now because…”

Sunset swallowed hard, thinking that her heart was about to explode from her chest if she spoke again. She did need to, even though she could almost bet Bartholomew was just staring at her. Which, he was, but it was out of the same level of bafflement as Applejack, and it only grew as she spoke.

“Well, you see, he isn’t just the spirit of the house. While yes he keeps it spruced up, controls all of the utilities, and such like that, it’s also possible that he, just maybe, is… the biggest pervert you will ever find.”

The statement was met with… wind. Just a gentle breeze that made its way between the two girls as they stared at each other. In anticipation for what was to happen, Bart put up a couple dozen psychic barriers, just to make sure they didn’t wake the rest of the girls.

“What?”

Sunset winced at how loud she was, and continued to do so as Applejack continued to yell.

“You invited us to your place for a week, with complete knowledge that we would be getting some ghost off? What, is this some sort of sick ritual you do every year so he doesn’t rape you? Sunset, we trusted you!”

Sunset breathed in deep, forcing herself not to end up letting her eyes sting, before a loud smack echoed between the two of them. Before Applejack, whose head had been turned by the force of something hitting her cheek, and now had four scratches on it, could turn her head, the house shook.

Both girls screamed in terror as a few shingles bounced past them, and it was only because he knew that Sunset was being scared that he stopped. He wasn’t done though, and the two girl’s breaths caught together, but for whole different reasons.

Sunset had never actually seen Bartholomew. He was always invisible, never able to take on a real body. As such, he also had no real vocal cords, and had never heard him speak before.

The voice was oddly soft for how harsh the initial reveal was, and Bartholomew took a step back, one of his claws rubbing his other as he frowned. He then looked to Applejack, and, dressed in full butler’s attire, bowed. “I’m sorry. I overreacted to what you had to say about my lady Sunset, and my actions were entirely uncalled for.”

Applejack lifted a hand, rubbing it against the four scratches on her cheek. They stung, as the cuts hadn’t been deep, but otherwise, she was fine. And now, with the morning sun shining [i[through him, she looked at the black spirit. Well, black in skin. Everything else… well, it was still off putting. “What are you?”

The spirit clicked his heels together, or, at least, as best as he could, before saluting the farm girl. “My name is Bartholomew. My last name is lost to the annals of time, along with any sort of origin I may have. So, for clarification as to what I am… My best guess is that of a perverted being who died, and now tries to be a friend to Sunset, while still seeking those desires.”

He didn’t stop there though, as next he knelt before her, and pretended to take off a hat he did not own. “I promise to you, Applejack, that I do not intend to rape any of you. I do not plan to force sheets around Rarity, halting her speech so I may accost her unintended, or drag another into the backyard where none shall hear their cries for help. To deny that those thoughts have passed my mind would be a lie, but I care too deeply about my lady Sunset as to do such horrible things to all of you.”

He stood up, his hand over his heart. “I swear. If you say no, I will stop whatever I am doing, and leave you be. That goes to all of you.”

Applejack and Sunset were silent for a moment as the spirit’s form began to shimmer, and eb. Sunset, while disappointed, was not all that surprised to see him going so quickly. If this were an ability of his, he would have shown her before now.

Applejack, for her part, didn’t want to just mistrust the spirit. If he told the truth, she didn’t have to hate Sunset. In fact, with how Sunset looked, facing the shingles, she didn’t know she could blame her even. How do you tell your friends that you routinely fuck a ghost, and you want them to meet him.

She still needed her own proof of his intentions. That he would not just vanish to smack her ass again, but did something. “Alright, Bartholomew, I’m willing to believe you, but you’ve got to do something for me.”

Bartholomew looked back to her, smiling, before gesturing for her to go on, as his voice was already gone. Something he… didn’t notice.

“What I want you to do is to round up all the clothes in the house, and get them sorted to be cleaned. Not only that, but I want pancakes to be readied, and a bath drawn for as many of us that this house will hold. Do you understa-”

She didn’t even finish her sentence before he shot into the house, the whole structure shaking again, though not quite with the same ferocity that it did before. Somewhere below the two, they could hear a bath begin to run.

Sunset tucked her legs beneath her as she shook. “I-I’m s-so-”

Applejack put a hand onto her friend’s shoulder, stopping Sunset’s tears as she smiled. The girl didn’t deserve to keep worrying, not if Bart did all that he was asked for. “Look, sugarcube, I don’t know how you met him, or how you came to trust him, but I can see why. That doesn’t mean I won’t have my guard up, but I do understand. And…” Applejack bit her lip as she glanced away.

Sunset looked at Applejack, a smile slipping onto her face as she elbowed the farm girl in the ribs, ready to relax already “Ah, come on AJ, what is it?

Applejack tapped her fingers on the shingles before letting a sigh out. “I was hoping that one of these nights, you could invite him into a shower or something, and guide me through how exactly screwing a ghost… goes.”

And any possibility of Sunset relaxing evaporated as she thought of not only being naked in front of a friend, but… but also fucking them. She couldn’t just say no to Applejack though… right? She swallowed hard, forced herself to be steady, and extended a hand to her friend. “Yeah, I can do that, if it helps you trust Bartholomew.”

Applejack chuckled as she shook Sunset’s hand. “Ah, I think I trust him already, to be honest. He seems like a bit of a sweetheart anyways.”

======+++++======

Applejack regretted placing her trust in the spirit when they got down to where the rest of the girls were, and they were all freaking out about where their clothes were. Or, at least, Rarity was. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen, Twilight was hiding underneath her blanket, Sunset had collapsed when she walked in to see Rarity and Pinkie, only one of which actually cared about this, while the other played with her boobs, and Fluttershy…

Well, at least she found the bath Bartholomew had drawn up in her mad panic.

Applejack rubbed her temples as the smell of pancakes drifted into the room. This is going to be a long week.