Chapter 41: Out of Options
The wind blew through her mane with every step Twilight took. The drums under her chest were hitting harder as the thought of Jason’s condition came to her mind.
Should she contact the princess and seek her mentorship? Or could she deal with this situation with the help of her friends again? No. They messed up in the beginning, there could be no take backs after all this. Oh Jason… Just why did you ever come here in the first place? She thought.
Then all of a sudden, she felt the world stop spinning. All the colour was just drained, in the blink of an eye. What was going on..?
“Oh such a great show isn’t it princess?” The familiar voice rose. “I mean, I have witnessed numerous bad things happen in Equestria but this!? This carries everything to another level!”
“Discord… You have a hoof on this don’t you?!” Twilight growled with fury.
“Moi!?” Discord jumped astoundedly. With a snap of his fingers a piece of paper appeared in his hand and reading glasses on his nose. “Let's see now…” After mumbling himself for a short while, he passed the paper to Twilight. “As you can see princess, I don’t have xenophobia on my what was done list.”
However Twilight’s scowl wasn’t softened one bit.
“After all, I’m not the one who fired him from my place, nor kicked him out of my property or struck him with lightning for no reason.” Discord grinned as he saw Twilight’s anxiety rising. “Am I?”
Twilight was now looking down with embarrassment. “W—We made some mistakes… But we are going to find a way to fix all of this no matter what.”
“Oh I wouldn’t count on it.” Discord replied as he filed his claw.
“What? What do you mean?” Twilight raised a brow.
He threw a glance at Twilight from the corner of his eye with a grin. “It’s just, he looked so determined last time I saw him.” An image of Jason on the side of the river, into the everfree forest appeared as he snapped his claws.
“D—Determined? W—What do you mean by deter—“ Then the bit finally dropped. “Oh…” Anxiety took over her as silence took over the duo, just to be interrupted by a clock ringing.
Discord took up the ringing pocket watch to silence it. “Oh, it seems like our time is up princess.” He smirked, “Au revoir!”
“No wait!” Before Twilight could reach him, he vanished with a poof as everything turned back to normal… I have to contact Princess Celestia before it’s too late.
Meanwhile Jason was staring at the river, watching the water flowing. It won’t take much long, just a few minutes down there. It’ll all be over then… The voice was right, just a short moment of pain… His lungs will be filled with water, with the lack of oxygen and inner bleeding, it will be over once and for all.
“Here goes nothing.” He put his head under the water, it was normal at the beginning. Just watching the underwater with a cold sensation all over his face. Then came the harder part, he was almost out of oxygen, he could feel the emptiness of his lungs and wanted to take out his head to breathe but held himself. Then the spasms started, his arms and legs were moving by themselves like a fish dying out of the water, ironically. But he wasn’t going to give up like this, to his reflexes, he breathed in the water which burnt him from the inside. If he wasn’t underwater he surely couldn’t hold back his tears and definitely throw up immediately.
Finally the moment arrived, his vision started to black out after it blurred completely. And now he could feel the relaxation that came with the oxygen he took in… What? Did he just die? He felt he was floating in the air. Yes, he managed to die and now his soul was rising above, to meet his loved ones again. He slowly opened his eyes to see the divine beauty and found himself face to face with the purple sea serpent.
“GAH! What the-“
“Seriously? This is the second time I see you almost drowning mister!” Steven Magnet said with a surprised tone.
“Oh you gotta be shitting with me…” Jason facepalmed.
“What are you even doing here this time? Wasn’t your last experience eno—?” Steven’s gaze fell upon his now reddened eyes with a rather confused expression. The penny dropped later on. “Or were you trying to—“
Before he could even finish his question, Jason turned to walk away with hasty steps. “H—Hey! We’re not done here!”
“Oh I am done. I. Am. Done. With this. FUCKING PLACE!” Jason burst out of anger. He then looked at Steven’s face, just to face his pitying stare. Damn, you can’t even die properly. Maybe your whole existence itself was a mistake… His eyes teared up as he covered his face with his hands.
“H-Hey, maybe it’s not the best time for this but… Would you want to talk it out?” Steven slowly approached with a friendly gesture.
Jason slowly turned up to meet Steven’s face again. His eyes were bloodshot out of crying, he forced himself to a fake smile. “Oh no Steven… Nothing I’ll do can change the mistake I made now.” He sobbed, “It’s too late for that.” He remembered the corpse he left behind, as his face fell again “Far too late.”
“I think not!” Steven smiled as he took Jason up and carried over the trees. “You can start over again.” He smiled as he pointed at the end of the forest, nearby Fluttershy’s cottage. At night, with the moon shining in the sky, somehow, the scenery looked quite familiar.
“Why?” Applejack’s voice rang in his head.
”None of you gave me a chance. So, I'm going to teach you all a lesson.” He remembered these words from the past. His own words.
Jason just stared at the place for a while, with a smile that formed on his face. “I'm going to teach you all a lesson.”
“Uhm, are you alright?” Steven raised a brow, “You’ve been staring for about two minutes now.”
Jason quickly turned to Steven, “Thank you Steven. You reminded me of my exact goal I determined a long time ago. Thank you.”
“I’m glad I was helpful!” Steven smiled as he took him back down again.
Without hesitation, Jason made his way out of the forest, to the farm. He knew what he needed.
Spike was meanwhile reading the new issue of his favorite comic, Power Ponies. Library’s door slammed open as the lavender unicorn threw herself inside, “Spike! Take a note!”
“Gah!” Spike jumped with the sudden entrance. Regaining his strength quickly, he took the quill and paper and looked at Twilight.
“Dear Princess Celestia, after the latest developments with Jason Wright, as your faithful student, on behalf of my friends, I require your help immediately.”
“Is that it?” Spike looked up as she gave a nod. Spike blew fire to the paper to send it. With a rather curious expression he asked, “So… What’s up with Jason?”
“Not good Spike. He—“ She was interrupted by the door knocking. Could it be the princess? She didn’t think princess would be this quick to come. Spike answered the door. Instead, it was Applejack.
“Hey Twilight, just wanted to check Jason. Ah heard he was with you and got in a fight. Is he alr—” She waved but realized something was off by the face Twilight got. “Uh, Twilight… Where is Jason?”
“I‘m… not sure.” Twilight’s heart sank.
“Wha- What do ya mean, you are not sure? Twilight. What’s that s’possed to mean?” Applejack scowled.
“I DON’T KNOW OKAY!? I LOST HIM THEN DISCORD SHOWED UP AND HE SHOWED ME JASON WASN’T ALRIGHT AND HE LOOKED DET—“
“Twilight!” Applejack covered her muzzle with her hoof to cut off. “Ya calm down now and then, tell me what happened.”
Up in the Canterlot Palace, Solar princess was watching her sister’s moon in admiration. Sure, she was the princess of the daytime but she could enjoy the night too couldn’t she? But even the scenery was beautiful, she still couldn’t bring herself to feel the comfort due to all the things occured with the human.
“What do you think sister?”
Celestia turned to Luna, who came up to her. “Oh, Luna, it's beautiful.” She smiled at the mare of the moon.
“We didn’t mean uncer Moon, the human.” Luna stepped up. “Do thou really think he can be healed, after all he has been through?”
”Any sickness can be cured Luna. Fear, sorrow, rage… Negative emotions like these do corrupt but where negativity is, there is also positivity.” As Celestia spoke, a pile of mist appeared, just to drop a scroll which Celestia levitated before it fell. She opened the scroll and read the letter.
“What is it sister?” Luna drew near slowly.
Celestia sighed and walked to the doors as she dropped the scroll, only to be taken up by Luna. “Luna, I’ll be back soon. Until I’m back, you take care of the palace.” I really should have taken the matter in my hooves earlier.
As Jason made his way to the farm, he slowed down to prevent anyone from hearing him come. From what he could tell by the silence, Apple family was not home. Good, he thought as he got inside the barn.
After a short time of searching, he found what he came for, the rope. The same rope he tried to hang himself first time. It was still tied, which was good. He took it and moved to the exit.
“Are you sure Granny Smith won’t mind using her tools?” A younger voice came from outside.
Oh no.
“Course Ah am! We will jes’ borrow it and return it as it is. No one will know.” Another youngling spoke with accent.
“You know, that sounded more like stealing at some point.” Another one spoke.
I just gotta— But Jason wasn’t fast enough. As the doors opened, he and three fillies shared an awkward moment of silence as they all stared at each other with terror. Jason with all the scars, reddened eyes, the bags under his eyes and with the rope in his hand, terrified the younglings.
“APPLEJACK!” Applebloom was to break the silence first, “Applejack! It’s Jason!” she shouted as the trio ran inside the house.
With that, Jason ran out of the Barn, back to the Everfree forest. Shit just got real.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders on the other hand, couldn’t find any family members inside. As they watched Jason run away, the three shared looks with each other.
“We have to tell Applejack!” Yelled Applebloom.“
But Scootaloo jumped with a higher tone, “We have to tell everyone!”
“And ya let him go jes’ like that?” Applejack hit her hoof on the floor.
“I—“ Twilight wanted to reply but cut off by the mad southern pony.
“Ya know what? Nevermind.” Applejack turned to door as she threw a glance at the lavender unicorn, “We must find Jason before he does somethin crazy. Ah’ll only ask once, will you help me or not?”
Twilight forced herself to calm down, she never found herself in such situation before. Didn’t take long for her to realize her friendship with Applejack was depending on this issue. She couldn’t disappoint her friends, teacher and she couldn’t give up on everything she believed in. Friendship…
Finally she took a hold of herself again and got up, “I will.”
As the two opened the door to find everypony panicked, along with the three fillies shouting and screaming. Jason they both thought.
“A-Applebloom?” Applejack surprised to see her little sister. “Applebloom!”
Hearing her big sister calling, Applebloom turned to see Applejack looking at him. She felt more comfortable after seeing her.
“What’s going here?”
“Applejack! We saw him! We saw Jason!” She exclaimed. “He returned to the farm and then—“
Applejack raised her voice, “Where is he now!?”
Scootaloo joined shortly, “We saw him going back to everfree forest! He also took your rope!”
“Ma rope?!” Applejack was taken aback. “Oh no no no… Don’t you dare Jason!” She shouted.
“Twilight! Twilight!” A soft voice was heard. It was Sweetie Belle, running to them. “They found him! They found him!” She stopped next to them to catch her breath but Applejack jumped in front of her.
“Where is he Sweetie, where!?” Country pony yelled.
“They said nearby Fluttershy’s cottage!”
“We must get there immediately!” Twilight stepped up.
“Ya three stay here!” Applejack commanded as she gave a nod to Twilight.
Jason was tying the rope to the branch, a group of ponies was gathering meanwhile. From the corner if his eye, he scanned the crowd; Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Cheerlie, Derpy Whooves, Doctor Whooves, Granny Smith, Big Mac and heck, even Cranky Doodle! Hah!
He then turned to the crowd and opened his arms to sides, “Watch all you want! You won’t see more of me later anyway.”
It was really happening, his end was finally coming. He thought of the good times he had, not in here of course; as if he had any. His childhood, how he had loving parents; his best friends, his first love, the time had in college.
And how he just ruined it with this childish fantasy… How he was tortured, how these demons made him suffer time and time again… And how he finally became like them in the very end.
This was the beginning and ending, the liberation and punishment of him. Tears formed on his eyes but he was smiling at the same time. No one was there to stop him too. Perfection…
He climbed on the branch and with a sigh, he closed his eyes and brought the knot around his neck and tightened it. Several gasps were heard from the crowd but he gave no clue. Just when he’s about to jump he heard her.
“Jason! Stop!”
He knew this voice, he slowly opened his eyes to see the country pony in the crowd, slowly trotting over to him along with Twilight and Spike.
“Please… Not like this Jason. I— We can still solve this.” She pleaded with her hat off. “Give us another chance.”
Tears rolled down to his cheeks, “I won’t Applejack… I can’t even if I’d want to.” He sobbed, it is not just about you anymore.” Now he was certainly crying.
Seeing him like that made Applejack cry as well. She shaked her head to sides.
“It’s all about me now…” And with that, he let go of himself…
“JASON!”