Author's Note

It's Fireflower again with the fourth installment of my first My Little Pony fanfic going beyond the typical oneshots I had made from before and already using canon characters as human beings instead of their normal forms; however, this is nonetheless a Mature fimfic for this chapter here will deal with certain subject matters considered unsuitable for those under eighteen, easily offended, and/or quickly nauseated.

In addition, I would like to take this time to inform you this chapter is only a nightmare but it can and will bring shock, awe, and outrage out of you in ways too horrible to imagine so it's with a generous heart and mind that yours truly has uploaded another chapter after this as well on the same day no less: for those of you amongst themselves wishing to skip ahead, please do so; I promise, it will help calm your nerves a bit for the most part.

As always, My Little Pony, or rather Friendship Is Magic, including its settings and characters belong to Lauren Faust and Hasbro; however, only this concept of my fanfic still belongs to me so I will say this line one time: please do not steal this story or I will sue.

Lastly, let me also say that I hope you can withstand this chapter now and stay tuned for future chapters later on then again, you've but a few options: stop right there and wait, go back to the beginning, or skip ahead to the next chapter; whatever decision you make, I won't blame you but consider yourselves warned.

Spectral

All throughout the way, there was an abysmal unknown of complete blackness where only such factors of sight, substance, and scent lay buried in those obscurities best referred to as a void. The exceptions that had given clues to the very location’s identity were surface, sensitivity, and sound: such were the gentle breezes being close to comfort anyone that would cross their paths. Most importantly, the current occupancy was above from simple desolate, let alone abandoned; after all, there were a few colors in many caliginous shades and hues giving off their silent cries.

With its own colors already painting the very scenery as if it were being done by a legendary professional draughtsman, the chilling twilight had become rather deeply emphasized at once. The greatly spacious midnight firmament directly above had held up a rather utter lacking of any twinkling light itself whatsoever alongside the birds and bugs which sounded off here and there. Within the dream drop distance of life itself was but a large sea of the brilliant green, each fiber of themselves in various combinations already creating bewildering yet imperfect camouflages. The calm gentle breeze had been traversing all throughout the herbage inside of them as the lush landscape remained loudly and proudly of its structured foundation amongst one another therein. For every piece of vegetation that had dwelt within, they had usually contained one plant capable of providing nourishment or mortality to any kind of lifeform irregardless of the circumstances. Given the immense size of such acreage, it'd have seemed the probability of finding anyone residing in there was rather nonexistent: then again, life itself brewed about without a care.

Of all the fauna that were within the forestry, a lone man was found to be lying against the darkened wood to no end in sight whatsoever to say the very least. He’d possessed skin that was shining about like smoky topaz, riddled with the many wrinkles of time and space making their very way throughout and within itself. The man’s face had borne a few cuts and bruises with darkened bags beneath his eyelids, dry and devoid of any blood leaking out onto his gray beard nonetheless. A monochromatic ensemble consisted of the brilliant green armoring donned over his very body: headgear, plating, gloves, pants, and boots in such various contrasts.

“Hello…?” a small voice finally called out right into the darkness; while it didn’t belong to the man, it was enough to make his ears twitch.

Sure enough, his eyes flew open wide almost instantaneously, bearing a purple haze distortion as his synchronized gasp subsided into a moan, “huh, what the… why am I in the forest of all places; matter of fact, where the fuck are my weapons?! This is not good… not good at all…”

“Hello…?” the faint voice had spoken again, bringing the man out of his daze and confused trance, “hello…?”

“Who was that…?” he spoke back, albeit quietly.

Needless to say, the man arose to the challenge from his current standing; suffice to say, the gathering storm of possibilities was far from benign, the uncertainty brimming about with dangers known and otherwise so to speak of.

The moment he was surveying the dark forest therein, he heard the same voice entering his two ears yet again, this time with more feeling and loudness, “father…!”

“Huh, who said that; where are you…?” the armored man in green replied with a hint of annoyance, looking onward at many directions possible from right where he stood, “show yourself…!”

“Come closer…” the distant voice spoke back in return, unperturbed by the emotion he’d shown recently as faint forms of pink and blue shimmered and shined onward like crazy diamond in the rough sky draft.

This made the man’s widened in shock as he began to take a few tentative steps forward, intrigued by the lights and sounds that prompted him to respond once more, trading away the anger in exchange for worry, “kids…!”

“Where are you… where were you… where the fuck are you going to go now?!” a different yet similar voice was heard, causing him to feel his own blood boil once again, only to be accompanied by a chill within the vertebrae as well, “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, FUCKER?!”

“Guys, it’s… me…?” the man said as he found some sights making him stop stone cold dead in his tracks; as if whatever dialogue exported to him wasn’t enough, there were too many words for such description nevertheless.

Standing in place right within his direct line of eyesight was a pair of individuals whom were perhaps alike in fair dignity at first glance so to speak of. Both of them already had possessed certain commonalities that the man was quick to recognize at once: bright hair, cold eyes, youth, height, and injuries. Of course, even they alone possessed their collective differences he'd been willing to take note of, something that made him far too reluctant to speak about.

Either way, the twosome in question had a subdued fashion that was stained with scarlet accents all throughout the body in this passing time. For starters, one was a bright skinned girl with long golden hair tickled pink while the other was a darkly shaded boy with short silver tresses. Secondment, she was wearing a tattered white dress with chocolate disco accessories while he’d worn a jet black coat that was soaked deeply. Third of all, the hemming of the girl’s clothing was tainted with red despite the modesty while the boy was bleeding out right on the collar. Her eyes of true blue were dull and listless, reserved for fear and sorrow whereas his eyes of purple rain were clinging onto fury and pain.

The elder man gave into his impulse to run at them but as time passed, he was quick to realize that rather than getting closer to them, the momentum was in the opposite direction and the dead air around him became colder by the second.

It was at long last the girl turned away, crying softly, “I wish that mom and uncle were here again; even he knows what to do…”

“I know, sis; compared to him, Uncle Zealous took better care of us and we didn’t even have to know who our dad was, especially now that we know better…” her brother replied, guiding her away at once before the observer’s eyes, “besides, I should’ve been a better person and she’s dead because of me; I wasted too much time blowing things off for meaningless crap…”

“Wait, don’t go; it’s me, your father…!” the elder exclaimed, stopping the two in place much to his relief; of course, it had turned to shock as the younger male faced the former with a caustic grimace written in with disgust.

Despite the empty look in the boy’s toxic eyes, he’d maintained eye contact to breath ice in the man’s direction, “the fuck do you want, Greystoke?!”

“Please… Alsike, Robin… don’t go; I’m sorry about what happened to you both and mother: I shouldn’t have left you three alone…” the aforementioned elder pleaded loudly to them at once, “you’re my kids and I love you…!”

“You honestly think a simple apology will fix everything: you think that a mere sorry will make things right with the world; how about you call us Bell and Pomegranate instead…?” the girl snorted back in return incredulously, sharing the same tone as the boy despite not directly showing it.

The two turned back to their chosen destination and slowly started to walk away, compelling the man to run after them instantaneously; still, he was stuck in place despite the motions going through while they perambulated further out of sight and mind. At long last did Greystoke’s legs buckled beneath, sending its owner down onto the ground with little warning as the reflexes within his hands kicked in and protected his face from the sudden gravitational pull alongside the sudden stop at the end of it all. Under no small amount of time whatsoever, the man’s resolve was the next to go as his vision became more watery than the optic nerves overall, its liquids finally touching the ground with its lustrous sheen before being overtaken by the very opaqueness.

Despite attempts to regain his composure, he’d whimpered about, “Alsike, Robin… what have I done…?”

“Humph, sounds like something I ought to be asking you: can’t even resist doing dirt to your own wife and kids…!” another female’s voice snarled into Greystoke’s ears, lacking the youth the boy and his sister had possessed, “I just have to know though: why now of all times; aren’t you sure you would rather be with these side bitches in your class like Twilight and what not?! I’m pretty sure that you would’ve had so much in common, especially in the eye candy department…!”

“That’s not true… I loved you…” the elder had wept, struggling to look up and find the source of the new individual.

A lone woman stood up in front the man: like the youth from before, she was dirty showing signs of injuries from head to toe; of course, her appearance had seen better, if not, great days. For starters, her hair was elongated, much like the girl, but it was already showing many signs of wear and tear over the blue tresses, sometimes to the point of asymmetry so to speak of. The woman’s complexion was light in the brighter shades of peachy bleachy yellow yet the beauty within was torn asunder by bestial scars in various shapes and sizes imaginable. Her eyes were blue as well, yet there were icy and dicey, showing no signs of relief to be given to the likes of him in the very least, offset by the discolored bruising and bagging alike. The woman’s attire was so worse for wear, being in the state of dishabille and thinness: a snow white blouse shredded open at the midsection and jet black pants torn over tender loins.

She shook her head and sighed with no love lost or found whatsoever, “imagine that you would leave me to die at the so–called mercy of our horrid guests and that my daughter ended up being turned into a plaything while her brother laid there and took in the sight of us getting abused to no end in sight…!”

“Serene, I’m sorry…” he’d struggled to speak up to the eponymous woman, “I never wanted this to happen either way, not to them, not to you…”

“Yeah, I know you didn’t really want this to happen yet it did and now I’m dead; just tell me this though: what gave you the idea that staying by that bitch’s side until her execution or pardon was the right thing to do all of the sudden…?” she spat out in annoyance at Greystoke’s feeble reply alongside some blood.

It didn’t take long for the man to choke out hesitantly, “I just wanted to do what a good friend had wanted me to: I wanted to save her friend’s life; isn’t that what I had been teaching them…?”

“SAVE A LIFE?!” Serene roared, rushing in to kick him in the teeth; as a result, he was sent flying back in a tiny arc, “you convinced yourself that but it was really you that wanted to save yourself the trouble of raising two bundles of joy you had left me with! You had no problem with the violent approach that your fuck buddy colleague had taken on that day but when it came to people howling for Fluttershy’s blood, you went as far as to abandon the three of us for someone’s friend you knew jack diddly squat besides being another classmate experiment! I would have been fine with you cheating on me or breaking up with me so you could sleep with some hot young thing like I was yesterday’s garbage but the least you could have done was take fucking care of our own two kids nonetheless!”

“It’s nothing like that at all: I really do want to connect with them, nothing more; Lighthouse, Twilight, and Fluttershy aren’t even worth the time or effort to replace you…” Greystoke groaned.

The woman stared ruefully at her won husband with utter disappointment upon the visage, turning away with a hiss, “I wish I could believe you but I can’t; I’m leaving you and I just can’t take the heartbreak ever again, especially not from you…”

“SERENE, WAIT…!” he’d cried out, springing back into action only to find her disappearing into nothingness; this made him wept even harder at the sight, “please come back…”

“She’s not coming back from the looks of it…” another male’s voice invaded Greystoke's ears, acting as the middleman between the listener and the boy from before.

Now another individual made eye contact with the elder: it was the speaker whom was male like the latter but was just as thin as Serene nevertheless. In addition, the middle–aged man had on a full head of hair like the woman from earlier but it was shorter and it was red with amethyst highlights. Like Serene, the redhead was of a lighter complexion, bearing the tones and texture of a light and creamy lemon chiffon cake with no hair on his face. The younger man’s eyes were orange but they were devoid of the fruity tang or the smooth rich taste found in them, thanks to his disdainful scorn. The redhead’s attire was simplistic as well but much more cleanly than the woman so to speak: a white shirt had already accompanied his blue shorts.

Greystoke barely had any time whatsoever to speak anyway, mustering up a simple singular, “Zealous…?”

“I said she’s not coming back and the reason is you…” the titular traveler elaborated at once to the elder, “you hurt my sister with your deeds and attitude but I guess the root of the problem started a long time ago; can you recall that day when that twat of a colleague thwacked a teenager in the face over a fucking painting…? News flash, Mister Lazy Bones: it wasn’t just my niece and nephew’s birthday, it was your kids’ birthday as well; not only that, it was the one year they were both closer together to their childhoods’ end, something that already came sooner than the shit that they pulled when you dropped out the face of the Earth on the day of their actual birth no less…! Even when you came back over a decade later, apologizing to your wife and kids like the far eastern dandy you were, it’d seemed that protecting them slipped your mind in favor of that miserable introvert for reasons I can’t understand; aren’t they supposed to be enough for you to come back to them now?! Your family wasn’t the only one you neglected during whole nine yard stretch you put them through: one of your charges at juvie came across an extremist plot masterminded by one of the generals and sent out a letter but you were so tired and angry about your colleague getting away with murder there wasn’t any time to spend on thinking about it in the very least! Why can’t you protect your own family; why didn’t you restrain your friends from doing so much whack shit like getting into fights and stuff?! That’s because you, Greystoke, don’t give a fuck about anyone or anything, not even yourself: someone like you can’t reach to an understanding; I let you get away with taking these classes with six other people because the princess wanted to give people a chance to redeem themselves so they won’t make the same or worser mistakes like Persimmon Tart and Messenger Bag did. As far as I see it now, you’re no better than that cunting brute or that smart–alecky son–of–a–bitch stewpot; you may have lived at least a tenth of the royal diarchy’s lifespan worth of experiences but you’d still squandered them so easily it’s no wonder why you’d ended up serving that incompetent excuse of a judge instead becoming one: you fucking suck so much cock! You call yourself a family guy yet you were absent from almost their entire lives for a decade; you got a job as a bailiff and reservist but couldn’t protect either kith or kin from blackguards; you were so used to neighbors dying left and right in the so–called patriot games you thought by being big and bad, every git from the homeland to the grave learn not to fuck with you at all!”

“But I was only trying to–––” Greystoke muttered lugubriously, struggling to mount a response only to fail so quickly.

The middle–aged man mustered onward without a care, “how ashamed my niece and nephew must be right now to see their worthless father for what he is: a failure, a flop, a faker of the highest order!”

“Alsike, Robin… I shouldn’t have let you down like this; I’m so fucking sorry…!” the armored elder grieved, now feeling naked and afraid underneath it all, “I would do anything to start over again to make this right…”

“Sorry is right: you’ve wasted my time, your time, and you really wasted their time as well so as a result, they’re doomed to spent the rest of their lives with the pain until they die, just like us; but the real question is are you truly sorry for what had happened because of you?!” Zealous coldly sneered grimly.

To say that Greystoke was shocked was an understatement for what it was worth: he winced in the shame and the guilt with an audible gasp, his jaw dropped yet was prevented from falling after the teardrops, and even the beard on his face started to deflate; despite the pain and panic, he’d answered instantaneously, “of course I am: I’ve seen how selfish and stupid I had been…!”

“Yet you dare to insult me, my sister, my niece and nephew, and yourself by showing guilt and contrition now after what happened to the lot of us?!” the middle–aged man snarled, slapping the elder counterpart with the back of the right hand without warning, “in my book, that’s cowardice, hypocrisy, and treachery in one greasy sleazy package…!”

“I never imagined how being left out of their lives would cause so much trouble, let alone create it…” Greystoke sobbed profusely.

Zealous walked away from the elder with a glum retort, “yeah, I know: besides, the second I saw you walk out that door, I swore to myself that I would raise them as if they were one of my own kids; if anything, it was enough to break my sister’s heart but not enough to kill her anyway so as long as you were far, far away, I could never forgive someone like yourself for doing that!”

“I see then…” Greystoke sniffled about, sucking the phlegm right back into his nostrils loudly, “I guess this is what I deserve: being alone and whatnot; some people are meant to be alone and I’m one of them, I think I’m finally ready to accept that. I’m the one who was supposed to take care of everything, make everything okay for everybody; but, it just didn’t work out like that and I left: I left them all behind and for what? They never did anything wrong; I used to try to forget about them, pretend that they didn’t exist but I can’t: they’re my family, the perfect family and I’m alone and I deserve to be that way. I just don’t want them to hate me for this…”

“It’s far too late now, we’re too far gone; you’ve lost too many chances and now we feel ourselves changing…!” a similar male voice was heard yet it didn’t belong to either of the men in question so to speak.

The elder was greeted by the sights of two people again, sharing similarities with the girl and boy from earlier before; as a matter of fact, they were even having some commonalities of their own. Nevertheless, their differences were still made known besides the height, weight, and age alone: the man was full of muscles yet riddled with scars; the woman bore a pair of very dense bosoms. The clothes they'd even bothered to wear on their back this time were much different enough: a white loincloth was worn on the youth’s waist; she’d donned a tunic that was open yet modest.

Uncanniness notwithstanding, the wounds on the two’s bodies were enough to make Greystoke double over and retch, “kids…!”

“You shouldn’t have come back, Greystoke…” the young woman had coldly hissed, stamping her dainty foot onto the bloodied soil beneath themselves, “we don’t want you here again actually…”

“What are you saying…?” the aforementioned elder groaned.

It was now the youngest man’s turn to snap into action, scorn now biting into his own words, “you got some fucking nerve to pretend you don’t know jack shit about what you did; I can’t believe that our own father had to be a twat like you…!”

“I agree!” yet another male voice, gruff and scratchy but out of their sight, quickly interjected, belonging to no one, not even the likes of her, “I mean, putting strangers in a class before your own family; that’s so lame at least my father kept in touch with my family despite waiting in prison for trial to come up yet what the fuck was your excuse besides being fat, dark, and old?!”

“What happened?!” Greystoke asked hesitantly.

Another female’s voice had joined in, albeit more homely and chilling chiming a scanner darkly, “you happened: you left her to die, that’s what; how could you fucking do such a terrible thing?! Not even my own father did that to me and I left my own family to marry into another; they were your only family, your own family stupid cunt!”

“She is dead ‘cause you couldn’t help to choose ‘tween saving a classmate and protecting your wife and kids…” even an additional feminine husk of a tone followed after as well, such bittersweet sorrow overtaking dry fury, “you insensible worm, you say you love zem when you can’t even live up to your promise; to zink zat Robin was suffering in silence ‘cause of you!”

“Cunting douche…!” yet another male clucked.

A matronly voice similar to the penultimate female scoffed with disdain, “I’m so glad my father is nothing like you; we may not be flesh and blood, but at least we trust each other not to abandon one another…”

“But…” the corporeal elder struggled to reply, “Cresset…”

“You’re so mean, you convinced yourself it was okay not to stay for that woman all because you couldn’t stand to see another die; it’s so ironic I’ve forgotten to laugh or cry since your kids pushed me around at every opportunity, even on my own birthday no less; thanks to you, she’s no longer with them…!” an emaciated growl reproached Greystoke.

It was at long last yet another woman took on a more material mold as Serene and her brother had done, appearing right before the elder and the two that stood up in front of the latter at once. The recent visitor’s skin was bright as the sun yet was similar to the girl and her mother anyway; of course, the former was free of such irregularities that were plaguing themselves and the boy. Glimmering about in the cold distance were but a pair of heliotropes glowing about alongside with the rest of its owner’s eyes, capturing Greystoke to remain firm at attention with her gaze. The floating female’s elongated hair was flowing to and fro, sparkling about as each and every one of its very tresses were neatly divided into equal sections of purple, pink, aqua, and green. Aside from the golden tiara matching her amethyst encrusted necklace and crystalline slippers, she was cloaked in white much like the youngest of females yet was appearing the most modest.

The eldest male was dumbstruck with awe and apprehension at the woman’s sudden arrival, looking up to find a snowstorm within her look as she’d begun to speak in a more regal voice, “I’m very disappointed in you, Greystoke. I’d trusted you to learn from the mistakes of others and look what had happened: not only you’ve failed in your responsibilities as a bailiff, you’d betrayed and forgone your own wife and kids; to think I’d placed you underneath Miss Alder’s supervision simply because I felt you would have conducted yourself differently than Persimmon Tart had when he’d slew his own beloved wife.”

“But I did conducted myself better: I didn’t even get angry with Serene in the very least; it’s just that–––” the eponymous elder enunciated, only stopping when he felt some snowflakes starting to descend at once, “what’s going on…?”

“Perhaps it’s time you caught up already; after all, you’re responsible for your own actions, murderer!” Cresset’s voice snarled as a bolt of lightning flashed the message brighter and clearer than her attempt to the armored observer.

Greystoke found himself freed from the green inferno only to end up in an openly dry field of monochromatic monoliths carved into various shapes, each bearing a name and lines of text underneath with many colorful nosegays resting nearby them; out of the many, she stood aside from one and spoke again, “look, look at the pain of what you’ve caused them.”

“Here lies Serene Accord…” the eldest man read aloud as soon as thunder and lightning danced together above him, illuminating the whole icy area and the words carved into the marble stone, “wife, mother, sister – gone but not forgotten.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!” Greystoke cried loudly, his resolve shattering completely into countless microscopic shards as the snow blew into his face.

As if that weren’t even enough, a flock of birds, black and blue appeared with little warning, circling around the elder with caws and warbles. Like a swarm of drones, they had zeroed in on Greystoke upon making visual contact, sinking their claws into his armor and flesh too. Beaks drilled into their collective target with the utmost hunger and determination, cutting them open and apart within a bloody stream of frenzy. Under no circumstances whatsoever did the eldest man had even fought the birds off as they pecked his legs, eyes, and ears amongst others. Many seconds had passed until Greystoke was no more, stripped clean and left behind without a trace of his presence, even his blood turned white.

Afterwards, the people and the monoliths along with the plants had faded away as well as the entire flock, save for one straggler: a lowly blue jay at the elder man’s height who bore witness to a single dirty raccoon at half that already scurrying to its location without a care in the whole world, both dressed in top hats and gold jewelry; soon, they had both hissed together loudly:

Rest in piss, Master Gravestone;
Living long and fast just to lose it all…!
Die with the most toys,
After wifey passes – what a way to fall.

Left behind two kids yet again?!
Damn, he never even make calls!
At least you’d made it past one hundred
‘cause, man, your tale was too damn tall…!

You can suck it down, old crotchety bitch,
‘cause you ain’t a stonewall.
In it for life, now ya dead; word up
To the families, ‘cause we say ‘peace out, y’all!’

Finally, the two traveled out into parts unknown, going on their separate ways with whereabouts of their destinations known only to themselves alone.