The Haunting
Admiral Biscuit
I didn’t want to spook Windflower, so I very slowly lowered my hand until it was resting on top of Milfoil’s back. Just in case it looked like I was attacking her.
Windflower was trembling but she didn’t turn and flee. She kept her eyes and ears locked on the scene in front of her, undoubtedly trying to make sense of it.
I couldn’t think of anything I could do that would be comforting to her, except for nothing. No noises, no movements—if I could force myself to look away, no eye contact. Certainly nothing that could be considered a threat either towards her or Milfoil.
The three of us probably stayed frozen like that for a couple minutes, and then Windflower took a step forward.
It wasn’t a proper step; how could it have been? Nevertheless, she moved one foreleg and then the other and more of her came into the living room, and at long last she took her eyes off me, just for a moment, turning instead to see the row of valerian and yarrow plants lined up by the window. It was the first time she’d come into the living room that I knew of since I’d put them there. Where had the flowers in the garden gone? Did she feel a bit of pride at having solved that particular puzzle?
If the living room arrangement had been a little bit different, I could have gotten up off the couch and retired to the kitchen. She and Milfoil could go over and look at the plants, since they drew her interest. But as it was, I’d have to get up and move a little bit closer to her to get into the kitchen, and I was sure that would be too much movement.
For just an instant, I wondered what she’d do if I went the other way and started grabbing flowers and yanking them out of their pots. Would she try and stop me?
If she didn’t, Milfoil would.
I should have been better prepared. I knew she’d be coming downstairs; she’d done it the past few nights. I could have had something ready for her, something else that would draw her attention, something that might demonstrate that I wasn’t a threat anymore.
Milfoil eased out from under the blanket and when she had all four hooves on the floor, she took a couple of sideways steps along the couch.
Windflower took another hesitant step forward. Now the majority of her body was in the living room, and she had the opportunity to look around more.
The fire also drew her attention, but not for long. She kept looking back at Milfoil and me, maybe making sure that we weren’t trying to sneak up on her.
She finally had had enough of her exploration, and backed into the hallway. Once her head had vanished entirely, she turned—I caught a brief glimpse of her ghostly tail—and then she was gone.
•••••
Milfoil thought she might come back. I was less sure—she’d never come back before, but then she’d never been aware of me and not fled, either. Granted, I had only one example to draw on, and in that case I’d scared her, but still.
There was more wine, and it was cozy on the couch, so there was no reason for us to cut the night short.
•••••
I hadn’t meant to spend the night on the couch with Milfoil. It had just sort of happened. As it got late, it felt like it would be rude to kick her out, and I also thought it would be rude to go up to my bedroom and leave her down in the living room all by herself.
I could have moved to my armchair; that would have been less intimate, but it wasn’t nearly as cozy.
While I was no expert on pony social customs, I thought that there was a good chance we’d moved past what was a normal relationship with a neighbor. Like so many other things, I didn’t really have an expert to ask. Milfoil was the pony I most trusted for advice, and in this case she was unlikely to be a neutral source.
•••••
I usually made a simple breakfast for myself, just eggs and toast, and I had more than enough to share.
•••••
It was snowing when I left work—it wasn’t a market day. The ponies seemed to be trying to keep the clouds over Haywards Heath, although many of them were drifting over the woods. Occasionally, they’d get wrangled and brought back to town, but it looked like if they got far enough away or weren’t producing enough snow, the pegasi just let them drift off.
It always felt colder when the sun wasn’t out, but at least there wasn’t any wind.
Right from the beginning, I should have set up a search grid. I had no idea how I’d found it so easily the first time around. I was more convinced after each day of searching and not finding that some power had led me there.
I hadn’t asked Milfoil if she’d help, but I was sure she would. I thought that she didn’t want to step on my toes.
I should have asked. I shouldn’t have to be doing this all by myself.
There was still no sign of her hollow, and I was sure that I was further to the west than I should have been. It was hard to know for sure; with the snow on the ground and the leaves off the trees, nothing looked the same as it had before.
If there had been a higher power guiding me, the problem might be that I wasn't listening like I ought to have been. The last time, I’d been distracted, unfocused, but perhaps more open to spiritual guidance. Or maybe it was because I didn’t have one of her toys.
What if her resting place was hidden from me since I didn’t have a token of hers? On Earth, that would have been a crazy thing to think, but here in Equestria is was just possible.
I hadn’t climbed a tree in years, but since there was one with inviting branches that I could get up easily enough, I thought that the additional distance it would allow me to see would be worth it. Maybe I’d find something that triggered my memory.
Sometimes the best way to find something is to not look for it. So instead of focusing on something specific, I tried to get a sense of the forest in general, a feel for the overall shape of things.
That might have worked in a story, but it didn’t work for me. There was nothing that I could see that looked anything like the little hollow where she lived.
I didn’t climb down from the tree right away. Windflower would have known I was out there, since she’d surely found the duck. Would she have made an attempt to hide her resting spot? Did she not want it to be discovered?
Maybe the thing to do would be to leave it alone until springtime, or until she led me back to it herself.
Or maybe I was just rationalizing my failure, and the right thing to do was look until I found it, even if it took me the entire winter.
The woods are a big place, and they look different in the snow, I told myself as I slogged back to my house. If nothing else, when we’ve got more trust between us, she’ll lead me back. If that’s what she wants.
What did the world look like to her now? Heck, what did the world normally look like to ponies? Real equines were colorblind. Ponies probably weren’t, since they came in so many different colors, but maybe they were and didn’t know that they were so many different colors. Or maybe they had better vision than I did, and saw things that I could not.
That had been on my mind when I’d first seen Windflower, and I’d dropped it from consideration after Milfoil had also seen her, but did she see things that I didn’t? Was I being dumb again, and if I invited Milfoil to go with me, she’d be able to track Windflower?
It wouldn’t hurt to ask. At the very worst, there would be two of us bumbling through the woods instead of just me.
•••••
Milfoil didn’t hesitate at all when I asked, and once I got home from work, the two of us set out into the woods. It was snowing again, and she wore a hat and scarf and a set of snow boots. That seemed like overkill; surely her shoes would be plenty. If she wore them, that is. I realized that I didn’t know for sure; since the old stallion wore shoes, I’d made the assumption that all ponies did, but I hadn’t really looked that closely at her hooves, or else I had seen and I just hadn’t really noticed. And now that I was wondering about it, it was going to bug me until I did get a look.
The new snow covered the tracks I’d made before, and I regretted not using the ribbon to mark where Windflower wasn’t.
We probably spent more time talking than looking, and concluded that it was impossible to know for sure if our vision was equivalent or different by just discussing it. I thought about trying to make some color blindness tests, but I didn’t know the science behind it well enough to prove anything. Still, if they had them for ponies, I could see if I could pass it, and that might tell me something.
Milfoil wasn’t sure if they existed—she’d never taken one—but told me that there was an eye doctor who came around every month or so and that I could ask him.
She did have a better sense of smell and better hearing than I did, which I thought was unfair.
We stayed out later than I would have by myself, and didn’t get back to town until after dark. The clouds had cleared and the moon was out, so we weren’t stumbling through the woods.
Ironically, it was Windflower who guided us home. I spotted her as we came across a ridge, and the two of us both watched for a moment as she glided across the snow, her front legs moving across a ground she no longer touched.
When she was almost out of view, I tied two ribbons to a tree, and then the two of us jogged along behind her.
“Do you think she’ll be mad that there isn’t a fire?”
“I don’t know.” Milfoil was in better shape than I was, or quadrupeds were natural sprinters. “I don’t think so. She might wonder why not, though. We’ll want to be cautious when we go in the house.”
“Just opening the door shouldn’t scare her. She knows you live there.”
“I’m not sure if she does.” I ducked under a branch. “She should.”
“I’ll go in first, and get a fire going, if she hasn’t come downstairs yet. If she has, we’ll play it by ear.”
“I don’t want to scare her. Can you give me some kind of a sign when you want me to come in the living room? Wag your tail or something?”
“I’m not a dog.”
“I’m not implying . . . I haven’t got a tail, I don’t know what you call all your tail movements, okay? Something like a dog wagging its tail; that’s something I can understand. Like a happy wag, not an angry sort of thing.” Did dogs have an angry tail-wag? They probably did.
Milfoil sighed. “I’ll . . . I guess I can wag my tail. If I have to.”
"But she is not my marefriend. I swear!"
*Snort*
You should ask that old stallion, if you told him you've been doing good to his granddaugther he might agree to pass down some of his old stallion's wisedom to you.
The Narrator:
The Reader:
steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/706276952995965291/D699EB5077919754AC72507948E7E1E03D3498E5/
9382220
I think people could benefit from easier to open wine bottles in the end Learn a thing or two from small horses.
9382204
Haven't heard of weird double space issues for mobile phones.. I blame lack of nsbsp and html (since there is no preprocessing from what I can tell even though it would be easy for fimfiction since they already remove whitespaces before paragraphs. Knighty was unhappy that jquery was too heavy and caused slower page loads for nbsp, but   is actually a html special character that could be physically stuck in there. But because of the way they wrap epub's, they can't do that since odds are it would just dump garbage into the universal file where they keep the uploaded text) .
I don't mind the tabs usually, but when fimfiction started to auto remove all white spaces before paragraphs, I kinda stopped using tabs. It's sort of weird because some author's works seemed to work better with tabs than others, so having universal formatting was a bit off putting, but I got used to the lack of tabs even though I could have enabled them. They were useful for epubs, which I use in an archaic program I like due to sheer graphical ergonomics for reading, but it's a shame since the formatting is nonexistant in there as well since white spaces are removed on upload.
9382246
*Smashes bottle against the bow and sprays it everywhere* WHoooooo!
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/459/759/f0d.gif
I usually made a simple breakfast for myself, just eggs and toast
Well, he now knows the answer to the age-old question, "How do you like your eggs in the morning?"
(The default answer is "Unfertilized")
Milfoil sighed. “I’ll . . . I guess I can wag my tail. If I have to.”
Yeah, but if you complain that her nose is cold, she's strong enough to toss you out into one of those snowdrifts.
I... err... uhh... Did... Did you seriously just ask her to lift her tail for you?!
9382301 Thought you might enjoy this, if you haven't already seen it!
>Wag her tail...
WAG HER TAIL.
LEEEEEEEEEEEEWD.
9382233
Yeah, I know that. Generally I try to avoid it, though, because it looks and sounds weird.
9382272
I think I know who you mean.
Did ... Did he just ask what I think he did?
9382261
Animals don't understand that we humans can actually have this problem where we have too MUCH energy stored, to the point where it becomes poisonous.
9382222
He might also threaten you with a shovel...
Another example of that weird word repetition. I'd have written "She finally had enough" or "When she'd finally had enough."
9382523
I'm not sure if it applies, but I do remember something about those weird repetitions being correct, this link might have the answer :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher
A tail wag? Unf. Why not a soft double-knock on the floor?
Still, they're on to something with reverse predictive retracing. Should have done that from the start, if they could keep reasonably hidden...
Keep going! ;)
9382569
Correct, but not encountered, in the same way you can make a proper sentence with nothing but the word "buffalo," but no one's about to.
That's right, you wag your tail you dirty, dirty mare you.
Clueless humans...ah well, if you're going to be doing interspecies dating it's a question of WHEN you put your foot in your mouth, not if.
Not that they're dating of course. They're just atypically close neighbors. Yeah. Sure.
Roaming through the snowy woods and returning home to a warm fire, and cocoa, hoping to get his marshmallows as well?
9382143
It was constructive not needless. You got to relax buddy. I can almost feel the wrrreeeeeeeee. Bad for blood pressure to have your panties in a bunch. Which is why you go commando!
I have no interest in writing so will pass on your invite.
9382464 I know, right? If I don't let loose a good ol ka-me-ha-me-ha every now and then, I get close to exploding and taking out the whole planet!
9382222 "So you say you've met my granddaughter's ghost?"
"Yes! I'm currently trying to find her bones, and I'm luring her into my house with flowers!"
...
Old stallion bucks the manure out of him.
Not in front of the filly, Protagonist.
Tail wagging.
9382743
Remember though, the old stallion is the one who suggested the flowers.
9382983 He's old. He won't remember.
9382913
I'm mean, theoretically Milfoil will be facing toward the filly, so all the wagging with be hidden from innocent eyes.
Why didn't she suggest a timely flick if she doesn't want to wag? Anything will work as long as he knows what to look for.
Wait...
Does she secretly want to wag for him?! Oh, Milfoil... you sly filly, you.
9382301
That is true, they are marginally larger there...I can’t believe I forgot about that
Meanwhile in a mirrored alternate version of this world.
Edit: Yes, I ship them with FedEx.
9384054
Didnt she go upsairs wearing a dress then walk down without one? haha
9382222
Denial is powerful stuff.
He doesn’t know pony customs, but he’s not wrong that they’ve moved past typical neighbor relationships.
He actually might. And coming to him with dating questions would certainly throw him for a loop.
9382248
9382294
One thing that would be the case is that ponyland probably is more geared towards people with hand problems than much of Earth, simply because they’ve had to design stuff to work differently.
It’ll start a line with a blank space sometimes. (Google Chrome on Android) Doesn’t make it unreadable, but when I started noticing it, I started dropping double spaces after periods.
That’s also a problem with three- and four-dot ellipses the way I write them, but I’m not changing those.
Also, I’m way too much of a luddite to know what nsbsp is. The only programming language I know vaguely is Basic.
I was the same way with tabs; I used them because I’d always used them, but when I got used to them not being there, it looked weird when I did it, so I just stopped. And back in Ye Olden Times on Fimfic there were problems with tabs, too; they weren’t always consistent in length, and then the left margin looked all raggedy. . . plus on mobile, tabs often look really dumb.
9382316
9382322
Of course you do. And with good reason.
Ok Milfoil and the protagonist's adopted ghost pone are quickly cementing themselves in my top 10 list of cutest pones ever they will all make for a cute, if odd, family
9382339
Would that be the default answer for a pony, though?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/9/29/990555__safe_artist-colon-sarxis_apple+leaves_earth+pony_female_mare_pony_simple+background_smiling_solo_transparent+background_vector.png
She’s got eight foals. . .
Easily. Don’t mess with Earth ponies.
Also, even if I'd loose I'd still challenge an earth pone to a drinking contest or game just cuz
9382356
Technically, not in so many words; just wagging wouldn’t expose overly much unless she was being really enthusiastic about it. Although there are almost certainly implications with particular tail-movements in ponies.
9382375
I haven’t--I’ll give it a watch!
9382376
At least he said ‘wag’ instead of ‘lift.’
9382381
That’s always a challenge when writing vernacular . . . a lot of things do look weird when written, and yet that’s the way people often talk in real life.
The good news is that a lot of them wear bright red hats so they’re easy to identify.
9382394
Not intentionally, although there might be some implications he never though of. If he’d asked her to lift her tail, that would have been a whole ‘nother matter.
9382464
That can possibly happen to animals, too (not sure, but it seems possible). I do know that IRL equines are often more comfortable when they can move their hooves, especially in uncomfortable situations.
9382484
Well, yes, that’s very much a risk.
9382523
I could have written “she’d finally had enough,” but depending on the style of narration, I sometimes like to omit as many contractions as possible. English is just weird; there are lots of edge cases and odd constructions which are correct but don’t look right, along with many that seem like they ought to be right but aren’t. And honestly, once we get into prose all bets are off.
9382577
That could potentially scare Windflower, whereas she might not think much about a tail movement. At least, that’s what the protagonist would think.
There are multiple ways to do search grids and path marking, and our protagonist is not managing to do any of them.