"Behind Him" is cancelled -- Have a summary instead!

Rather than prolong the wait on a story I've come to slowly lose interest in, I've decided to go ahead and cancel it and write up a summary for what the story was going to be. I simply don't have the motivation to write a big, long story anymore and this story was truthfully a coping story to me that I thankfully no longer need to rely on. For those of you wondering how the story ends, the summary is down below. I marked it with spoilers due to the sensitive content it includes such as self-harm and struggles with mental illness. Read at your own risk.

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Granite Rose was a colt born to Fuchsia Highlights (his mother) and Ice Breaker (his father). He was a loving little foal full of energy and imagination. His favorite activity was drawing and he would often be in his room creating all sorts of colorful pictures. One day, as he was drawing, he noticed a strange pony out of the corner of his eye. This pony had glowing eyes and black tears streaming down his face and a deep, menacing voice. He introduced himself as Thorns, and suggested to Granite that something in his blood was bad, and needed to be released. Without hesitation, Granite carried out the task and sliced open one of his arms. He was incredibly lucky his father had been trotting by, otherwise he may not have survived that day.

Granite was taken to the ER and treated for what was thought to be a careless accident. Upon further evaluation, however, Granite’s parents decided it would be appropriate to transfer him to a psychiatric ward since he kept going on about a strange ghost pony that convinced him to harm himself. It was at that ward that Granite was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was taught that Thorns wasn’t real and shouldn’t be listened to.

Fast forward to his adulthood, Granite managed his schizophrenia symptoms the best he could, made some friends, got a job, and eventually got the confidence to move out on his own. His parents were understandably worried, but allowed him to have space to himself so he could adjust to being alone for the first time. Adjusting was a lot harder than Granite ever imagined, since alone, he was even more susceptible to Thorns. It was hard not to listen to the voice he was told to ignore when it was constantly shouting at him any chance it got. It was at this period in time that Granite wanted that voice to go away, no matter what he had to do.

Medication wasn’t quite cutting it, and it wasn’t cheap, either. Besides, even if he did keep up with it or got a stronger dose, Thorns would never truly disappear. Granite reasoned it was better to appease Thorns than to push him away, so that is exactly what he did. He harmed himself as much as Thorns needed him to, no matter how difficult and painful it was. Each time he did it, Thorns continued to open up to him about what he truly wanted out of Granite. Granite hated the process, but kept convincing himself that it would be over soon.

It wasn’t over soon. Thorns kept demanding more and more and it was taking quite a heavy toll on Granite. He struggled to keep up with work, he avoided social interactions as much as possible, and he often forgot to maintain his personal hygiene. He was falling apart, and his best friend Pencil Pouch certainly noticed. She tried to help him the best she could, but Granite’s paranoia made him too afraid to accept any of it. Pencil felt as if she was failing her friend, and that she wasn’t trying hard enough to support him. She spoke with other friends of hers about this and while they didn’t know Granite as well as she did, they sympathized with her and offered her advice.

One day, Granite had snapped and was tired of tearing himself apart, just to never receive anything other than hints. He took the knife often aimed at himself and swung it at Thorns. He wanted to kill Thorns and finally be rid of him! This backfired horribly on him, however, since Thorns immediately knocked the knife out of Granite’s grasp. He then clamped down on Granite’s back and bit him as hard as he could! This was the point of no return. Granite could feel Thorns’ teeth on his back and he could feel the sharp pain of the bite, fully convincing him that Thorns was indeed real and not some “hallucination” that so many other ponies claimed him to be. What he really was is some sort of demon pony that decided to haunt him, and he had to be released! He could only be released through Granite’s blood, surely that was why Thorns always wanted him to bleed!

Granite stopped acting like himself. He completely neglected his shop and never left his house. He also stopped writing to his parents. Everypony who knew him was aware that something was amiss, they just didn’t know exactly what it was. That’s why Pencil stepped up and went to investigate for herself. One day, Pencil went over to Granite’s house and brought her friend Turtle Dove along in case there was a job only a big and strong pony like him could do. He helped her get inside Granite’s house but didn’t interfere much other than that, since Pencil requested she see Granite alone so as not to intimidate him.

She heard some strange muttering and mumbling and came to find that Granite was lying on his bathroom floor, covered in various self-inflicted wounds. Through heavy emotions and tears, Pencil did her best to clean her friend up and bandage all his wounds. He was barely conscious, so aside from a few angry grunts, he didn’t put up much resistance. When Pencil was done treating all the wounds, she held Granite and told him how sorry she was that she wasn’t there sooner. She also came to the realization that she had gone against Granite’s wishes to intervene and see him like this. She would only continue to go against his wishes since he would need to go to the hospital and likely, the psych ward. It was for the best, though, since it was too dangerous for his health to be alone.

Granite would go to the psych ward for about a month to get treatments and therapy and when he was released, he was instructed to live with his parents for a while so he could have somepony to monitor him. Through these treatments and the help and support of ponies who love and care about Granite, he was reminded that Thorns is not in control of him, and that ultimately Granite is in charge of how he reacts to the things Thorns says and does. With that in mind, Granite works to cope with Thorns and to get his life back on track.