For His Majesty

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter XI: Movie Night (Part 3)

“Well things have certainly taken a dark turn,” Blueblood commented quietly as the film went onto the next scene. As much as the twenty-six-year-old didn’t want to admit, this silent, black-and-white film was genuinely giving him the creeps. Part of him didn’t want him to stick around as the film reel went on, yet, another part of him was curious enough to know how such a movie was going to end. It was making him rather uneasy, and he immediately wished that he had some kind of comfort food to take the edge off. In the dim light of the theater, he looked down between him and his date and spotted a few candy bars that were sticking out.

Not wanting to get Fancy’s attention, he reached down with his other hoof and plucked one of the wrapped candy bars. However, he didn’t account to the fact that the wrapping paper rustles loud enough for his consort to notice. Glancing over, he could see Fancy’s smirk in the dark. “Not a word to anypony,” the younger unicorn said darkly. The older unicorn, still wearing that prideful grin, only rolled his eyes.

“I knew you would give in eventually,” Fancy said slyly.

“Well it isn’t my fault that I’m suddenly feeling peckish,” Blueblood held his snout high. “Water wasn’t doing it for me. So it isn’t that I have a craving for childish refreshments.”

“Have you eaten a candy bar before?” the blue-maned stallion inquired. His date gave no reply. “How in the name of sanity have you gotten this far in life without having one?”

“I was raised to have refined tastes,” the Prince replied. “I’ll be only eating this just once because at the moment I don’t see anything served on a silver platter.” Using his magic, he tore open one end of the bar and took a bite out of it. In that moment of bliss on his taste buds, his only reaction was to turn to his consort, “Shut up.”

Fancy chuckled, “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking,” he pouted before they returned their attention back to the screen. Apparently, the couple had missed something because, on the screen, it showed both Hidden Trek and Mr. Glass in the Master’s bedroom. It showed them sitting on the edge of the bed when the pale unicorn had just kissed the other’s cheek in which the other stallion immediately backed away, putting a hoof over where he was just been kissed.

The camera gave a close up on Trek who had a flabbergasted expression on his face, yet showed no signs of disgust.

“M-Mr. Glass, what was that for?”

It then cut to the unicorn who in turn looked at him in disbelief, silently asking him what he meant by that. The next title card that was presented forced out several concerning “Uhh…”'s out of the audience.

“What are you talking about? You know this isn’t the first time I’ve kissed you.”

As expected, the Earth Pony on screen leaped off the bed and slowly backed away.

“Um, Mr. Glass… I like you, really, I do… But don’t you think that you’re taking all of this a little too fast?”

The unicorn frowned as he stepped forward to him, lifting a hoof up to him.

“How can you say that? Do you honestly not remember after all this time, because I haven’t? All this time, I honestly thought that I would never see you again. I thought that I was going to be left in this gilded cage alone. But now you come back and you don’t even know me – after all the time we’ve spent together?”

When Hidden Trek reinstated that he still had no idea what he was talking about, the unicorn pulled out from his breast coat pocket an old photograph. Mr. Glass, on the edge of heartbreak, held up the photograph up to the other stallion who looked at it in shock. The Earth Pony shook his head as he backed up until his flank bumped against the wall.

The screen then showed was the unicorn was holding on full display. With the date of “July 17, 874” in a grainy photograph, were two stallions that had a foreleg over each other happily on a couch. But what made it disturbing was that the couple in the photograph looked exactly like Mr. Glass and Hidden Trek in period clothing. The camera zoomed out to the unicorn that pleaded into the camera.

“Please Hard Tack, you can’t have forgotten me. After those sunny months we shared, don’t tell me that you’ve somehow come back only to fail to remember?

“All I wanted was for you to come back to me somehow. And when it looked like I’ve gotten my wish, you still don’t know who I am?"

Clearly creeped out, Trek glanced around for an escape and immediately went to tear open the curtains of a window that let the rays of sunlight come straining in. He tried to open the window, but for Mr. Glass, with panic in his eyes, rushed forward to try to stop him. However, as soon as he stepped right into the light, much to the audience’s amazement from this single shot, the unicorn became transparent as he laid a hoof on the frightened pony. His features were nearly invisible in the light of the day but became solid as he pulled Trek away from the window.

The Earth Pony stallion was horrified.

“Oh Celestia! Y-You’re dead!”

There was a struggle on the screen, with Mr. Glass tried to take a hold on him to make him listen while the other had genuine fear. Trek thrashed and kicked until he fell forward through the unicorn and made a full gallop out the door.

“Get away from me!”

Mr. Glass, with a look of desperation, not only went into a full gallop but flew out after him.

“Wait, Hard Tack! Come back! I don’t want to be left alone again!”

Out in the hallway, the audience was transfixed as the poor homeless guy was rushing down, frequently looking over his head over at the ghost that was chasing him. There was a shot of his blurry hooves, then at Trek’s frighten gaze, a few seconds of Mr. Glass calling out for him to stop, then another close up of running hooves. Suddenly, the camera cut to the grand staircase in which the Earth Pony round a corner and was about to run down the stairs when he looked over his shoulder one more time before suddenly he tripped.

The unicorn ghost had a close up in which he was yelling out in horror before it cut back to Hidden Track tumbled down the stairs before he came to a stop, motionless. Flying past the railings to the ground, Mr. Glass checked over to see if the other stallion was alright by feeling for a pulse and sat frozen to see if he was breathing. To his relief, he was. The phantom had a hoof over his heart and shook his head.

“You’re just knocked out. You scared me for a moment there.”

Mr. Glass pushed the limp stallion over onto his back, yet, he held a caressing hoof over his face.

“Why couldn’t you recognize me? Even after all these years being alone, I never once forgotten you. Hard Tack, for a long time I was convinced that I would never see your beautiful face again.”

The unicorn shook his head with tears in his eyes.

“I don’t know how or why. I don’t know if this proves recantation exists or maybe you found a way to remain young. But all I wanted was to have you back so we can be happy again. Only… how are you still alive?”

Getting up, Mr. Glass lit up his horn and with a great struggle, lifted the unconscious pony off from the ground. The screen dissolved back into the master bedroom in which he gently lowered him onto the bed. Once this was done, the unicorn started to pace around the room, explaining through title cards of his diploma. Since this other stallion was still living he could do something that the ghost can’t as he demonstrated by putting his translucent forehoof against the open space of the window. In which it wouldn’t go through as if another pane of glass was keeping him inside, thus showing that the ghost can’t leave the house.

Mr. Glass expressed his fear that when his supposed significant other wakes up, he would flee from the mansion, going to where he can’t follow. For a moment, he was uncertain at what to do until he froze with a realization; he looked on at the out cold Earth Pony before an iris lens closed the scene.

The camera opened up with a close up of Hidden Trek’s face as his nose crinkled and his eyes batted open with the railings of the foyer behind him. Sitting upright, he came to a sudden jolt that not only was his hooves were tied, but there was a noose around his neck. He became petrified when another pair of hooves came walking into the frame. This turned out to be the ghost who was looking down at him with an apologetic look.

“M-Mr. Glass! What’s going on!?”

The phantom knelt down, stroking Mr. Trek’s mane.

“Before anything happens, I want to apologize for what’s about to occur. But it’s the only way.

“Believe me, Hard Tack, I really, really don’t want to do this. But if we’re going to be together, I have to.”

The Earth Pony looked between him and the railing; he showed absolute terror as he tried to undo the bonds of the rope. He was shown to be crying his eyes out as he begged the ghost.

“I’M NOT HARD TACK!! Please don’t do this! I didn’t do anything to you! Let me go and I promise I won’t ever tell anypony!”

Mr. Glass held the other stallion’s face in his hooves.

“But you’re so much like him. You have his face, his dedication to hard work, his sense of humor, his humility – how could I think otherwise? After all these passing moons, I thought I was going to spend the rest of eternity alone without you.

“But now, you’ve come back to me, and once this wicked deed is done, we can start a new chapter together and go on as we have always lived. As we wanted to live. With nopony to say our love is wrong. Without anyone trying to separate us. Without living in fear of others. We can have that now.”

Hidden Trek objected.

“But… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!”

The ghost hugged him as he lifted himself and the frighten stallion up and standing over the railings. He stroked his mane once again as he whispered in his ear.

“You know, on this very spot I died alone. At least with yours, you’ll have me to be with you until you pass. I know this will be painful at first, but I promise you that it will be over before you know it. I won’t ever let go.”

To the horror of the gasping audience in that theater, on the screen, as the music escalated, Mr. Glass and Hidden Trek fell off from the railing and stopped at the noose tightened around the Earth Pony. Trek’s eyes bulged and his hind legs kicked in his restraints. The ghost, on the other hoof, was hugging him tightly as the other struggled to breathe. As the two of them swung around with the string quartet’s music was becoming frantic, Mr. Glass was stroking the other’s mane, whispering comforts in his ear.

“It’s almost over, just a little longer now. I promise Tack, it’s going to be okay. Just let it all go.”

Hidden Trek’s thrashing began to slow down until they became still. The ghost sighed in relief, thankful that it was all over. With a smile, he held the dangling body in his hooves.

“There we go. Hard Tack, you can come out of there now. There’s no need of you staying in that meat suit anymore.”

However, nothing happened. The unicorn’s expression fell as he had a look of concern. He tried shaking as if to wake him up. But with every passing moment, the ghost became more frantic, if not desperate.

“No… No please don’t do this to me! I know you’re in there! Come on Hard Tack, this isn’t funny!”

But no matter what he did, the stallion remained lifeless. The ghost shook his head, spectral tears forming in his eyes as he repeatedly cried out the word “no” over and over as he hugged him tightly. Even when the sun came up, the phantom still sobbed as rays of the sun made him translucent until he disappeared. Leaving the hung corpse all by itself before the camera cut to a shot of the newly restored manor as iron gates closed by itself.

When the final title card read the words, “The End,” nopony in the audience made a sound for a moment before, one by one, they gave applause. Upon the box seats, Blueblood was clinging onto his date in a near death grip. He didn’t move until Fancy had to say something, “I do believe that you can let go of me now.”

“Oh! Sorry,” the younger unicorn let go. The lights in the theater came on and the quartet on stage bowed before they made their exit. The Prince looked down to see that he had completely eaten the candy bar during the screening. “You know Fancy,” he began. “I had seen a fair share of horror movies in the past. Yet, while I’ve noticed that this… film didn’t have any jump scares, or gore or even any grotesque monsters – that ending was the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I didn’t know which was creepier,” the older unicorn replied. “The fact the ghost had murdered somepony that was similar to his coltfriend, or the fact he did it out of love.”

“Well I now that I’m going to have nightmares for a couple of weeks,” Blueblood shivered. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Right behind you,” Fancy said without a skip of a beat.

As the two stallions start to make their way out of the theater, in the shady box seat across from them, Princess Cadance was smirking at her deep blue aunt. “One movie later and they still haven’t kissed – looks like there’s still a chance for me then.”

“Now wait a minute,” Luna objected. “Since the night is still not over, I think I may have to fall back on plan B.”

This got her older sister’s attention, “What ‘plan B?’”

_*_

“Are you always this shaken up after a scary movie?” Fancy asked his date. At this point, they were in the palanquin, on their way to drop the affluent pony back to his home. Blueblood on the other hoof had been taking several nervous glances out the window and brushing locks of his mane aside.

“Huh?” he snapped his attention to his consort. “Oh uh… Not always, this is rather odd since I have seen plenty of movies that have been considered scary before. I’ve tended to keep my cool from start to finish, even at the goriest of scenes. Yet… I don’t know, that movie didn’t have any of that, and suddenly I’m feeling like a little colt that’s afraid of the boogiemare.”

“Perhaps, given the time period that was made, they had to rely heavily on atmosphere and character since this was before the talkies came along. Though I must say, especially for the special effects they had with the ghost, it did make rather convincing didn’t it. It was almost as if you were actually seeing a real one.”

Blueblood raised an eyebrow, “Why? Do you believe in ghosts?”

His consort chuckled, “Of course not. They’re no such thing as spirits that come back from the grave to haunt us…” Fancy trailed off as he too looked out the window with a much more somber look, “Except for the ones we make for ourselves.”

“Pardon?”

Fancy snapped his attention, his ears folding back against his head. “I didn’t say anything.”

The Prince folded his forelegs, with his back against the corner of his seat, he asked, “Mr. Pants, what’s going on?” He asked what he meant, “In all my years as chief ambassador on behalf of Equestria, I’m trained to read another pony to the point where I can tell if they’re withholding something. You, sir, are doing it right now. I believe there’s something about yourself that you haven’t yet told me.” There was a tense moment of silence. Fancy rubbed his hooves together while he adjusted his monocle. When he refused to speak, the Prince then prodded him with a question based off of what he observed in the theater. “Did anypony ever hit you?”

This defiantly got a reaction out of the older unicorn. “What? No! Of course not, nopony has ever punched me before. Celestia no! What made you ask that?” he said in a joking way, yet the Prince could see that there was sweat running down the side of his head.

“I never said if you got punched,” Blueblood corrected him.

Again, Fancy was silent as if he just got caught. But before the blond unicorn could question him further, their ride had stopped before the blue brick home. “Oh what do you know!” his consort said quickly, “I really need to head off to bed. A big day tomorrow you know, I had fun we should do this again some other time good night!” With that, the older unicorn had practically leaped out of the palanquin.

Blueblood was stunned. At first in the theater, he wasn’t sure, but now he was absolutely certain: Fancy Pants was lying to him. There was no doubt in his mind about it. However, this did bring up a rather concerning question: Why would Fancy Pants need to lie to him?