• Published 29th Apr 2012
  • 31,647 Views, 2,028 Comments

A Ghost Story - Elemist



A human's insubstantial adventures in Equestria.

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Chapter 4 - Shocking Revelations

After Lyra and I had made our hasty retreat from the marketplace, she made her way to one of the few eateries in town. Stopping outside of one of the only cafés in Ponyville that served coffee, Lyra dropped her saddlebags onto the ground next to one of the outdoor tables.

After acquiring a cup of the previously mentioned beverage with an exchange of bits and conversation with a light grey earth stallion, Lyra pulled a newspaper from her saddlebags and began to peruse the front page.

Peering over her shoulder I saw a picture of a grinning Rainbow Dash in full flight. I quickly read through the article attached to the picture. Apparently Dashie had performed another Sonic Rainboom recently and she had given an interview to a newsmare from Manehatten about it.

The article cut off at the bottom of the page and I saw that it continued on page 3 and I desperately wanted to read the rest of it. Unfortunately Lyra had put the paper down next to her coffee as she got up and walked into the café itself. I assumed she was going to use the restroom since she left her stuff here. Boy ponies sure were trusting; I never would have left my backpack full of money and apples out in the open like that.

Looking down at the newspaper draped over the tabletop I squinted in determination. Holding up my right hand I concentrated as much energy as I could on my fingertips as I slowly reach for the offending piece of paper. Placing my fingers on either side of the sheet of paper I ever so slowly raise my hand, feeling the now familiar pressure on my fingers as the paper slowly flips to the next page with my goading.

Feeling as if I had just ran a marathon, I grin down at the rest of the article in triumph. I quickly finish the article as Lyra comes back from the inner bowels of the café were she presumably emptied her own bowels.

She folds the paper and places it back into her saddlebags, gulps the rest of her coffee and begins trotting off. I smirk as I think about the end of the article were Dash tried to explain her impromptu Rainboom from almost two months ago and her motivation behind it. Man that sure had been a fun way to end that day.

*^*^*

My melancholy at my horrible revelation made me wish I could still cry. How could life (or death) be this cruel? I’ll never get the chance to taste one of those perfect pieces of confectionary delight that was Pinkie’s baking.

Trying to cheer myself up I decided to follow the two small packages of trouble known as Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell. Hearing them talk about their schemes to acquire their cutie-marks was just what I needed to cheer myself up.

I followed silently behind the two as they made their way to what could only be the Carousal Boutique. I floated through the door just moments before the excited duo made their entrance.

We encounter a frantic looking Rarity as she gallops around the room, “Oh where is it, I could have sworn I left that pattern book somewhere around here?”

She looks up as the two little fillies enter and puts on what looks to be a forced smile, “Oh sweethearts, what can I do for you two this morning?”

“Hay sis, did you forget me and Scoots were coming by today to try and get our sewing cutie-marks?”

I watch as one of Rarity’s eyes gave off an almost imperceptible twitch and I laugh at the flustered fashionista. Scoots and Sweetie Bell look around, “You say something sis?”

“Hmm? Oh no, darling, I was just thinking about how much *shudder* fun we will be having today.” I hold in another bout of laughter as Rarity grinds her teeth through her last statement.

“Let’s get started then, how about you two start off by helping me find my tape measure and my new pattern book I purchased yesterday.”

“Well your tape measure is around your neck sis”

“And is that book sticking out from under that purple cloth the one you’re looking for?”, after that interjection from the little orange and purple filly I can see the steam pouring out of Rarity’s ears.

My laughter fills the room again and Scoots and Sweetie both look at each other again, “Did you hear that Scoots? I could have sworn I heard somepony laughing just now.”

I stifle myself in order to calm Scoots and Sweetie and because I want to see how the rest of this encounter turns out.

After Rarity takes a few moments to compose herself, she directs the two fillies around the workroom with various simple tasks. Sweetie seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself trotting around the room doing the mundane tasks that Rarity has assigned her to keep her from destroying anything.

Fortunately for me and unfortunately for Rarity, the same could not be said about Scoots. I watch in amusement as Scoot spirals quickly into the powder keg that is known as boredom and she begins to try and amuse herself by exploring through the different pieces of cloth that Rarity has piled in a corner.

I watched the impending disaster with glee as I saw the top bolts of cloth begin to wobble.

“TIMBER”, I call as the precarious tower of fabrics tumble to the floor and Rarity lets out a gasp of annoyance as a guilty looking Scootaloo tries to hide in the corner. Sweetie meanwhile has dropped the pair of sewing shears she was carrying in her mouth and looks right in my direction, her eyes wide in confusion.

Rarity’s face is now contorting through a wide repertoire of emotions ranging from outrage to clinical depression and finally deciding to adopt that of sad acceptance. She sighs and lowers her head, pointing her horn towards the pile of once clean fabrics. Her horn lights up with a blue aura and a similar one begins to form around the bolts of cloth strewn across the floor.

Oh boy, magic. I had been waiting to see this in action. Buwah? What’s this?

I watch in confusion as a long thin strand of blue light stretches from Rarity’s horn and connects to the bolts of fabric as the bolts begin to float in the air and rearrange themselves.

Hmm, I wonder what this is. They never showed anything like this in the show, did this always happen whenever a Unicorn used magic?

I float a little closer to investigate and I reach my hand towards the strand of blue light, getting ready to pluck it like it was a guitar string.

As soon as I make contact with the string, I feel like I had just jabbed a fork into the electrical socket. Yes, yes, I know what that feels like. Needless to say I wasn’t allowed in the cutlery drawer when I was younger.

Rarity Gasps in what I can only guess is pain and the aura blinks out, causing the bolts of cloth to tumble to the ground for the second time today.

“What the hay was that? Did you see that Sweetie Bell?” Scoots says excitedly from the corner.

“Y-yeah. But what was it?”

“I don’t know. It looked like something appeared in between Rarity and that fabric for a second. Whatever it was, it was big.”

While this little conversation is going on the tingling sensation has spread up my arm and to the rest of my body and Rarity is gently rubbing her forehead.

“Well, that was certainly new. I wonder what could have gone wrong.” Rarity says as she gets to her feet, wobbling slightly. “Come along Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell. I must see Twilight at once to make sure there is nothing wrong with my horn. Heavens forbid, but better safe than sorry.” She trots towards the door, swinging it open with a hoof and quickly exits.

Scoots and Sweetie glance at each other before following behind the purple maned fashion pony. I float behind them; deciding now was a good a time as any to visit Twilight.

I will myself towards the now closed door, still sporting the tingling sensation from whatever magical buck-up I had caused.

*Smack* Ouch, what the hell? Why didn’t I phase through the door?

I reach towards the closed door and slowly press my hand against it, and surprisingly enough it doesn’t float through.

Yay, I can touch stuff. Opps, spoke too soon.

I suddenly go careening forward as the tingling in my arm subsides and I pass phase through the door. I grunt in frustration as I look around the street outside the boutique and I catch a glimpse of a rapidly retreating Scoots and Sweetie Bell.

Willing myself forward I follow behind them trying to catch up to the diminutive pair.

I catch up with them as they enter the tree home of Twilight Sparkle. I look up at the library in awe for a few seconds, wondering just how much magic had to have been used in order to make it grow like that. Hmm, I wonder if it took a really long time to grow it like that or if it was grown instantly in that shape?

As I float through the front door I hear Rarity’s refined voice talking to Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie who are sitting around a small table covered in books.

“…I felt this piercing pain through my horn and I suddenly lost control of my magic. It was positively dreadful.”

“Then there was suddenly something in the air right in front of Rarity for a second. It was glowing all blue and distorted like. I don’t know what it was but it was big, it went all the way to the ceiling.” Scootaloo voice was getting really high pitched as she jumped around the room, explaining the strange phenomenon.

“That is highly unusual. I’ve don’t recall reading about anything like this happening before. Can any of you describe what it was that you saw?” Twilight Sparkle asked with an inquisitive gleam in her eye that would make a curious cat jealous.

“Well, I didn’t get a very good look. It seemed like it was just an outline of something really. “ Sweetie Bell put a hoof to her chin as she spoke, “It was about six feet tall and kinda had that same shape of a Diamond Dog or a Minotaur but was less burly I guess.”

“Interesting, Rainbow didn’t you describe something similar had appeared in the side of bedroom wall this morning?” Twilight said, turning towards Rainbow. Rainbow seemed uncharacteristically silent and only gives a small nod while suppressing a shudder.

I float a little closer into the room, staring at the countless shelves of books. As I sweep towards one of the shelves I hear a double clomp of hooves behind me.

“Twitchy twitch, Ear flop, leg kick. *GASP*, it’s the same one as this morning! You remember Twilight, I was telling you how this morning I was mixing up this really yummy batch of cupcakes when I got this brand new Pinkie sense and I dropped all of the batter on the floor and I was like ‘awww’ cause I really wanted to taste my new recipes for vanilla swirl cupcakes.” *Sharp intake of breath* “But then I was all excited because I just had a new Pinkie Sense which I think means that somepony new is in town and I got all excited because I wanted to throw them a party, but I didn’t know where to look to go find them, so I started looking all over town for them without any luck. So, I then came here to tell you all about it and see if you could help me find the new pony but Dashie was already here talking to you about how somepony pulled a really funny prank on her and how she originally thought it was me.”

Pinkie’s little tirade is halted by a cyan colored hoof stuffed unceremoniously into her mouth. “It wasn’t funny Pinkie. Some Pegasus had to have come into my house and messed with the clouds in my roof. I’m sorry for thinking it was you though, I should have realized that you couldn’t have done it because you couldn’t have messed with the clouds in my house.”

By this point I’ve begun circling around the room, reading the different titles of the books stuffed into the shelves. I stopped at one of the biggest shelves in the room and gazed in interest at the covers of the different books. From the titles I could tell they were books on magic ranging from “A Foals First Spell” to “Magical Might; A Compendium”.

“This is fascinating, this definitely deserves some research. I think I might have a book that might be able to help.” I hear Twilight say from behind me, too engrossed with the books in front of me to turn around.

I notice that one of the books at my chest height had begun to take on a slight purple tint and I whirl around quickly, only to see Twilight’s horn had taken on the same purple glow. Before I could move a purple string of light zips from her horn and strikes me directly in chest.

I admit I must have looked quite the sight. Arms raised in agony as I felt as if I had just been hit by a bolt of lightning. I’m pretty sure at least Scoots and Sweetie heard my howl of pain but I’m still not sure to this day if anypony else heard it.

All in all, a tall glowing outline of a human writhing in agony must be pretty terrifying to rainbow maned ponies because before I knew it the front door was hanging from its hinges with a trail of rainbow colored lights streaming through it. A few seconds later a loud BOOM could be heard as a few windows in the library cracked.

I must have made quite an impression on Dashie, I didn’t even know it was possible to go from zero to Rainboom in less than ten seconds flat.