The Haunting
Admiral Biscuit
After checking to make sure Milfoil was still breathing, I picked her up and carried her to the couch. I was going to take her all the way upstairs, but she was heavier than I thought, and she wouldn’t appreciate if I dropped her on the way to my bedroom.
Once I had her settled I went upstairs to the bathroom. She had a selection of brushes and combs that she left at my house, and I had a decent idea what they were all for, so I set them down on the end table and built up the fire in the fireplace.
I was a bit leery of brushing her mane. I didn’t want to get the brush caught on any tangles and hurt her pulling them out. Her coat was short enough that that wouldn’t be an issue, so that was where I chose to start.
Milfoil had rolled on her side—I wouldn't be able to completely groom her unless I rolled her over. That was a problem for later.
I started on her back, brushing along the grain of her coat.
She had little bits of gravel and mud in the fur on her belly and legs, and I puzzled over where that could have come from. I didn’t think she could have picked it up between her house and mine, and she hadn’t gotten that involved with Windflower’s plant.
Milfoil liked to brush herself a little bit before bed and again in the morning to get her coat in order, but she might have forgotten. She might have been in a rush to heal the plant.
Once I’d finished her coat—as much of it as I could—I moved on to her mane. I took my time, and if I caught a tangle, I worked it slowly and carefully with the brush, doing my best to not tug at her hair.
I was no stylist, but I thought it looked presentable when I was done.
Her tail was reasonably easy—I should have started with that. I could just sit on the couch with her tail on my lap and brush it that way.
On the down side, it was more tangled than her mane. But unlike her mane, I could just wrap my hand around her dock and keep from pulling hair out that way.
•••••
Windflower came in while I was still brushing Milfoil’s tail. I waited until her curiosity drew her over to the couch before putting the brush down.
Since I was already the bad cop, I didn’t think it would hurt our relationship too much to use that to my advantage.
“Did you know that Milfoil spent all day trying to save that flower that you pulled out of the ground? It exhausted her completely—she fell asleep as soon as she was done.”
Windflower’s ears dropped and she shook her head and then turned to look at the mantle. When she didn’t find it there, she looked back to me, and I pointed to the pot that was its new home.
She took a couple of ghost-steps towards the plant, then turned back to me. “It’s okay, you can go look at it. She healed it for you, after all. She won’t mind.”
I could have gone back to brushing Milfoil’s tail, but I watched Windflower instead. She was eager to see the plant, and she put her nose right down against it, just like Milfoil had. She touched it with her hooves and it moved and surely it was just my imagination that it stood a bit straighter and she faded ever so slightly.
At least it hadn’t died when she’d touched it. I wonder what she would have done if that had happened? I wonder what Milfoil would have done?
•••••
After her initial examination, Windflower was content to just sit and watch the plant. It didn’t do anything, of course. It was only a plant, and there wasn’t much it could do.
Still, it had her attention, and despite yesterday’s fiasco, things were smoothed over, at least for the moment.
Milfoil was still sound asleep. I wasn’t sure how that would work out—did Windflower trust me enough to stay when Milfoil wasn’t supervising me, wasn’t preventing me from doing something dumb? Or would she shy away if I tried to move her—if I tried to move us a bit out of our comfort zone?
The only way to know was to try. While I hadn’t been intending things to work out this way in the beginning, I could use Milfoil’s sacrifice to our advantage. Maybe.
“You know,” I said softly, “I think Milfoil would really like it if she woke up and the living room was all decorated for Hearth’s Warming.”
Windflower’s ears dropped again, and she looked around the room uncertainty, then moved to where she could see the kitchen. All the decorations were still where we’d left them.
She pointed at the plant and then went over to look at Milfoil, and then she nodded and floated into the kitchen.
•••••
Both Windflower and I were frustrated by our communication difficulties, but we got it figured out. She’d point to what she wanted me to hang and where to put it, and I’d hold it about where I thought it should go, and then look for a nod of approval or a headshake.
I kept waiting for her to get upset and act out again, but she didn’t. I think she felt bad about what had happened yesterday.
Milfoil woke up as we were finishing the decorations. She yawned and that got Windflower’s and my attention. I couldn’t really do anything, since I was standing on a kitchen chair holding one end of garland and a hammer and nails.
Windflower ghost-trotted over to the couch and nuzzled Milfoil, then she pointed over at the plant. Just to make sure that her message was getting through, she zoomed across the room and pushed it gently with her hoof, rocking it slightly, before going back to Milfoil.
•••••
After we finished getting the living room decorated, I read Windflower half of a chapter of Stranger on the Train—she lost interest and instead wanted to play with the plant some more. I didn’t exactly understand the appeal, but I wasn't going to object. It completely justified Milfoil’s efforts.
Windflower eventually left, and Milfoil and I went up to my bedroom. I was completely exhausted, and so was she, even though she’d napped half the evening. And we were both hungry—she hadn’t eaten all day, and I’d missed lunch and dinner. Neither of us had wanted to put forth the effort to make a meal, so we’d snacked on bread and cheese and a bowl of timothy grass for her.
“How come my coat’s all matted up on one side?”
“I—” Shouldn’t I have brushed her? “Your coat was all matted and dirty and I thought you’d—”
She nuzzled my cheek. “I know. I saw all my brushes on the table. Thank you. That was really sweet of you to think of that.” She sighed. “I really should go downstairs and get my brush and finish my coat. It’s going to bother me if I don’t.”
“I’ll do it,” I offered. “I owe that to you.”
“No, it’s fine. It feels a little bit weird, but not that weird. I can deal with it.”
“You scared me,” I said. “You shouldn't have worked so hard to save that flower. Or at least told me what was going to happen!” There had been a moment, right after she fell asleep on the floor, that I thought she might have passed out and I had no idea what to do about that.
“It took more work to save it than I thought it would,” she admitted. “Plus, I was tired already. I was up all night. I—maybe I shouldn’t have, but last night after Windflower left, I was worried about her. So I followed her into the woods.”
Which explained how her coat had gotten so dirty.
“I don’t know if she knew I was following or not. She might have known. I tried to be quiet, and I didn’t ever see her looking back.
“I could tell that she was . . . oh, I don’t know quite what the right word would be. Not exactly annoyed, and not exactly frustrated; she wasn’t fleeing. . . .”
“She was just done with it?” I suggested.
“Maybe. Maybe that was it, maybe she was frustrated enough that she just didn’t care. I don’t know.”
“When I watched her, when she went into the woods, Windflower was kind of, kind of purposeful. She knew where she was going, and she wasn’t hurrying along, but she also wasn’t trying to shake a tail.”
“Shake a tail?”
“That’s a human expression. It means trying to lose someone who’s following you.”
“She wasn’t doing that,” Milfoil said. She put her head on my chest, and I wrapped my arm around her back.
“I watched as she went under the log, and then I stayed a little while longer just in case she came back out, but she didn’t. I walked around the perimeter, wondering if I might get a glimpse of her, but I didn’t. I could feel that she was still there, though. She’s . . . she’s unique. The forest—”
“’The forest’ what?”
Milfoil was silent for a long time. Long enough that I thought she might have fallen asleep again, until she finally sighed. “It’s not something that you would understand. And I can’t explain it in a way that would make sense to you, but once I felt it I knew it for what it was.”
“When I was half a furlong away, I started marking trees so we can find it again.”
“How? Do you carry around spray paint? A hatchet?”
She bopped me lightly with a hoof. “Us earth ponies have our ways.”
“I should have thought of something when I went out. Been resourceful. But I wasn’t exactly thinking of that at the time.”
“Well, we can find it again now.”
Kinky, right on the bap! I like the way you think!
“When I was half a furlong away, I started marking trees so we can find it again.”
Ok, here's another tree with yellow snow around it. We must be getting close.
(What? You were all thinking that too.)
Yay, another chapter!
Well yeah, she is a bit young to wag her tail at stallions!
9433456
Isn't her back half missing? If so, does she even have a tail?
9433458
She has been described with a ghostly tail thing.
Territorial marking I see.
Lap
I think we are getting close to the end of the story. I hope they will find this poor filly’s remains. She needs to rest In peace.
9433449
They're gonna piss (haha, I kill me) off a Timberwolf and die, and then live on with Windflower in the afterlife.
Yay!
tail on my bap - tail on my lap
I think she felt back - I think she felt bad
I'm relieved Milfoil is ok. It speaks well for your characters that I can get so invested.
did you not give the human a name ore i just forgot it ?
well windflower is finally getting comfortable around him, i also had the idea that the flower would die again when she would touch it.
its a rumor/Theorie that ghost's can drain energy, so why not the other way around too ^^
im always thinking about how windflower die'd and if she remembers, wonder if they going to talk to her about it.
...
She peed on it, didn't she?
End of chapter reaction.
Me: Earth pony magic or something.
Almost eveyone else: She peed on trees.
9433556
like a dog
Poor sad ghost was sad. But now she's better! Except, now with less life.
So has the ground there been hallowed or what?
Keep going! ;)
9433513
Anon intentionally has no name. It's not important in the context of the story. Much like we don't know how employment either.
Isn't it weird how many commentors are apparently into watersports?
Windflower faded a bit on touiching the living plant she had interactions with while alive herself?
The family needs to have a wake to show the way?
Brushie brushie~
9433601
I'm with you. I hadn't even considered that she peed on the trees until I read the comments.
9433735
I'm not into watersports, it's just a joke that happens to be a legitimate trick and if ponies are highly reliant on scent (which Biscuit has done before) then it becomes a little grosser but still practical.
9433492
Milfoil's marked his house as her territory with brushes, Windflower's marked his house as her territory with a flower, and he's marked Milfoil herself by grooming. They're a family now! Yay!
9433735
Nah. It's just the funnier way she could have done things.
very nice
9433733
hm i never got the feeling its supposed to be anon, but jeah lets go with that until biscuit say's otherwise ^^
Grabbed her by the dock hm? You two became so close, it's lovely.
9434645
Well not the Anon, per se. Just an anonymous guy.
If Windflower was a scary ghost... she'd have a TERRORtory.
9433448
(Correction made; thank you!)
9433449
Y’know, I pour my heart and soul into another great chapter of The Haunting, and all y’all are commenting on whether or not Milfoil peed on the trees.
9433453
9433456
She is. It’s funny how many human expressions would confuse ponies. Of course, they probably have similar expressions that don’t make sense to humans.
9433461 9433458
Yes, her back half is missing (just like the cover image). So she doesn’t have a proper tail, although presumably she could shake what she’s got if she wanted to.
9433492
At least she doesn’t pee on the floor in the bathroom to mark it.
Correction made; thank you!
9433494
We are.
They’ve already found them--now twice. The question still remains what they need to do with them in order to give her whatever peace she desires.
9433509
That would be an interesting ending to the story. If that happens, you can dance up and down and say “told you so!” in the comments.
(To quote Oprah: “You get eaten by a timberwolf, and you get eaten by a timberwolf . . . everybody gets eaten by a timberwolf!”)
9433510
Corrections made; thank you!
I try to make characters that readers care about, since I think that that’s what drives a story forward more than anything else.
9433513
His name has never been mentioned in the story, but he does have one.
And now we know that at least some Earth Pony magic persists after death.
In a lot of role playing games, they can, and I’m pretty sure that’s generally part of the mythology, too. But sure, it could be reversible. If you’ve got a ghost cheering you on, maybe it can give you some ghost-energy.
They’re going to have to bring the subject up sooner or later. And we don’t know yet if she even really knows she’s dead. She might not--that’s very much a possibility.
9433556
So says the comments.
9433601
Pretty much. Earth pony magic or something isn’t necessarily peeing on the trees. I mean, she could mark them in some other way, maybe put a hoof on them and put some of her magic into them, or even something as mundane as bite off a few branches--something any other earth pony would recognize had been done. Chip off a bit of bark with a horseshoe. Put rocks on a branch on a tree. Scrape an X in the moss . . . lots of things she could have done besides peeing on the trees.
9433604
Ponies don’t pee like dogs, silly. They pee like ponies.
9433732
Slightly better.
Not in the strictest sense of the word, no. [the actual definition is “made holy; concentrated/greatly revered or honored”] I wouldn’t say that there’s anything particularly special about the bit of ground where she died, other than the character’s interest in it . . . it’s not the kind of place that will be talked about in the future or anything like that.
But, it’s a bit different in the forest than other places, kind of in an intangible way that Milfoil can’t really describe (and I can’t, either). Almost a scene of the crime/scene of the accident way, I guess.
I shall!
I dunno if it’s into, or just more of a joke at that being the secret earth pony way to mark things so that they could be found later.
9433746
If the protagonist observed correctly, yes, she did. And the plant healed even more--once again, if the protagonist observed correctly. Thus suggesting that Windflower put a bit more of herself into that plant.
That might work, or it might confuse her even more.
9433848
Unquestionably the number one way to bond with a pony.
9433849
It seems a lot of people have that turn of mind. And I’ll admit, it will be funny if it turns out that’s what she did.
9433862
It’s not a stretch for them to be so, and you’re right, I’ve done that kind of thing before. I think that IRL equines tend to mark with poop and with peeing on poop more often, for what that’s worth. And piles of poop might last longer/be more obvious than peeing.
That wasn’t what I was thinking, but I’ll admit after all the comments I’m kind of tempted to change things around so that is what she did.
9434424
This is how you become a family in Equestria.
Or maybe she does keep a can of spray paint in the usual place.
9434645
Thank you!
9434701
Yeah, as 9434645 says, it’s not Anon, its just some guy who does have a name, but the readers don’t know it because it’s never come up in the story. Likewise, the old stallion--Windflower’s Great Uncle--has not had his name mentioned.
9434653
Gently held
9434788
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