//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: A Ghost of a Chance. 
// by LucidTech 
//------------------------------//

        His name was Chance. The dead guy. His name had been Chance. Though, one might suppose that his name was still his name, even while dead and regardless of eternal state. Other's would argue that he was no longer who he had been, some would argue just to argue and a few more would argue that it didn't really matter and quote shakespere. But regardless, he was undeniably dead. His hair was mussed just as it had been when he had passed. Purposeful drug overdose, was the ruling. Oh the look of absolute sadness on his mothers face was something to behold, the ocean would be jealous of how much water she had held behind her eyes all her years, only to let it free at this moment of crushing despair.

        He wasn’t or hadn't, as the case indeed was, been particularly sad, nor had he been happy, obviously. But if there was one thing he certainly had not been, beyond all doubt, That would be content, something was always uncomfortable, but it wasn't truly annoying. Life had been, in one word, boring, for Chance. He was frightened by his own turn of apathy, but had let it go on without obstruction. Then, one day, Chance had gotten an idea. Why not die? Surely that would end his boring day to day activities, one way or the other. 

        So here he was, a corpse of a man. Lying inside a red casket. Eulogies, epitaphs, sadness. The usual day to day experiences of a funeral. 

Well, the main character is dead. That simply won’t do, will it? 

And it’s just as well, because there was another bored being at the funeral. He had been doing the same thing for longer than he could remember, and it was all getting very passe. His black cloak shuffled in the wind and he sighed, heavily. Which was odd, because he didn’t breath in to begin with. The ebony skull looked at the corpse in the casket and waited. Souls would leave when they were ready, until then he had to wait. And wait.

And wait.

Another sigh.

Then, in an epiphany of genius, Death got a wonderful idea. Something to liven things up a bit. A second life for the soul, one he most certainly wouldn’t forget. Excited by the idea, Death started making his plans. After all, one does not go several thousand years without learning that rushing into something is foolish. No, first he had to plan things out, make sure it didn’t get out of hand. Or at least, he would pretend to do that, after all, what was the fun if a few mistakes weren't made? If he did it right, though, he would certainly have several fond memories to look back on in the coming centuries.

First, of course, was where. Certainly not this area of the earth, the amount of confusion and awkward situations would ruin any comedy that might be found, ruining the fun and point of the act for the reaper. Maybe across country? Death tapped his bony finger on the haft of his scythe as he thought, then shook his head. No, that wouldn’t be any good. Then it would just be him living his life, same as usual.

So clearly he had to send him to another world. That would be simple enough. But which one? And would he still be human? That might cause some problems. With a snap of his fingers, or what was left of them on his thin frame, Death moved to the room of the recently deceased. Two very prominent fandoms struck him immediately. Posters and games and art covered all the space. If Death had had a face, a wicked grin would have spread across it. With his mind set, Death set about putting his plan into action. With a small jump into the air, he clicked his heels together and left. Oh this would certainly be fun to watch.





        Chance stirred slowly, groggily raising his head. Or, he tried anyway. When he failed to feel his neck Chance was forced to pause for a moment. A feeling of weightlessness struck him, and he was raised into the air by a mysterious force, but he still couldn’t feel any part of his body. In fact, he couldn’t even see himself. Then he remember he had died, and it all clicked together, he was a spirit, a ghost, oh it was so plainly simple now.

        And the afterlife looked like a paradise. Trees and animals and songs and a giant skeleton looking at him. Exactly what he thought the afterlife would be. Well, obviously there needed to a be a skeleton in black cloak, if there hadn’t been one he would have demanded a refund. Despite the emotionless white that stared back at him Chance couldn’t help but think- no, not think, feel- couldn’t help but feel that Death was smiling at him.

        “Hello Chance.” The lack of ominous echo was disappointing. “Oh sorry, right, forgot.” Death corrected himself, then coughed into his hand, somehow. “Hello Chance.” There, awesome echo, Death was quite the chill guy, being all friendly and nice like that. I mean, what other immortal beings would use an echoy voice for the sole benefit of who they were talking to? Quite a bit, actually, but that's beside the point. Chance tried to respond, but found himself without a mouth, that was weird. “Oh, just thoughts Chance, afterall, I’m not talking aloud either.” Death’s jaw, in fact, hadn’t moved the entire time. Which was pretty neat.

        “1,2,3 1,2,3. This thing on?” Chance thought to himself, well, that had been his intent anyway. Instead, his familiar voice boomed into the air with the very same echo that had laced Death’s words. “Oh, that’s really cool. I just think what I want to say. Man the afterlife is convenient.”

        “Yes.” Responded Death. “I suppose it is. But we’re not in the afterlife right now.” The shocked expression that Chance tried to display found itself lost. His whole head felt stiff and hard, he only had sight, really. Since some weird force was making him float, probably Death being a buddy, he couldn’t exactly touch anything. The only thing on his head seemed to be his eyes. 

        “Oh, right, I haven’t explained it have I? Very sorry.” Death said, still emanating a very cocky feeling of smiling. Now he was just being a jerk. “Right, right. I know, bad skeleton. Anyway, I was bored the other day, when you died and I had an idea. I knew you wouldn’t mind. You get to live a second time! Isn’t that exciting?”

        If Chance’s face hadn’t been locked in a non-movable state, he would have expressed just how excited he was about living another life. Death caught on and quickly cast these fears away. “Oh no no. You see, this one will be quite a lion’s share more interesting than your last one. I promise on the marrow of my bones.” 

        “Alright,” Chance thought aloud. Willing to give Death the benefit of the doubt. “So why is this one going to be better?”

        “Well,” Death tapped his scythe against the ground. The metal bounced up off of the dirt, Death went to do it again, but this time the blade slipped seamlessly into the ground. Grabbing the shaft with both arms, Death pulled back, like a fisherman reeling in a fish. The blade came back out, but was followed by a large ornate object. A moment of thought made Chance realize it was a mirror, though it was facing away, leaving him to stare at the ebony backing. 

        “First off, You are not on earth any longer. Welcome to Equestria!” Confetti rained down from above, from an unknown source, and Chance resisted the thought of moaning. Now Death was just showing off. Still, Equestria did sound like a nice change of pace. However, the ‘first off’ part of the pharse put Chance on edge.

        “What’s the catch?” 

        “Well, I couldn’t bring you here as human. That would cause too much of a stir. And the last thing I want is for you to be all bogged down by that craziness. Where’s the fun in that? So instead, I chose the next best thing! You are now your favorite pokemon!” Here, Death spun the mirror ‘round, so that Chance could see his reflection. He recognized himself instantly, which made it all the worse to find out that Death had been right. 

        On his back he seemed to have wings, but they weren’t. They were actually just the remains of the exoskeleton that now housed his soul. “I’m a shedinja...” Chance said, plainly. “You turned me into a shedinja? Why not a charizard or something cool?”

        “Well it’s your favorite pokemon, not mine. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have a stellar time!” Death radiated his usual happiness, but it was now laced with worry. “Just avoid, oh what was it now? Oh yes, Flying, Ghost, Rock, Fire and Dark and you’ll be fine. I mean, two of those are nigh impossible to come by here anyway, since physical things can’t really be dark here, so bites and such won’t hurt you.” 

Chance didn’t say anything, he was too dumbstruck by the fact that this had all JUST HAPPENED. Death tapped the mirror and it descended back into the ground. “Anyways, I’ll be checking in to visit every now and then, tell me some good stories please, reaping souls can get so BORING sometimes.” And then Death disappeared too, and Chance was alone.

He didn’t know what to do or say, things were incredibly crazy. He was now a shedinja in Equestria.  How was he going to do this? Did he need to eat? How would he eat? Did he have to make sure that no one looked at his back? Maybe that was how he fed, on souls? He hoped not, that was the last thing he needed to explain to the ponies. Not that he could explain at all. Even now his thoughts had returned to their normal volume, which probably meant he couldn’t communicate mentally anymore.

And then there was the whole matter of which rules of pokemon applied. Did he have moves? Would he level up? Questions and questions whirled through Chance’s mind, but he didn’t have answers to any of them. Because of this, his anxiety steadily rose, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it by looking at him.

Subconsciously, Chance floated. He didn’t bob up and down like some pokemon did when they levitated, Shedinja were known for how little they moved. It only bugged Chase more that he remembered all this. Ghosts had always been Chance’s favorite type, they seemed unique compared to the others, and among them Shedinja was the oddest of the bunch. Immunity to anything that wasn’t super effective, and only one HP. Quite the case. 

Had this not been what Chance had wanted, all that time ago? A unique thing to experience and steal him away from his boredom? Well this was about as unique as it got. A dead floating shell of a bug from another world though? Really Death? How bored must the reaper have been to pull something like this to entertain himself. Very. Chance decided immediately, not missing a beat in his thought process. Very bored.

A roar broke him from his thoughts. Off in the distance he spotted an approaching group. One large creature was chasing three smaller ones. Fear gripped him, and he dropped to the ground, playing dead. The only visual difference being, of course, the he was no longer in the air. Chance’s mind grew tense as the crashing came closer, but he forced himself to hold still.. 

The three ponies, who Chance now clearly saw were none other than the Sisters Doo and their mom, ran past. Why Derpy wasn’t flying, Chance had no idea, probably wanted to stay with her daughters. Then the monster approached. Even at this distance, and being a motionless husk, Chance could tell it was a hydra. But, where as the ponies had ran around Chance, the Hydra made to step on him. Before he could act, the clawed foot descended down and pressed against the pokemon. Chance began to cry inwardly, nothing showing on his hard outer body. This was it, only one morning in Equestria and he was already dead.

A white gleam stopped the blow early though, and forced the foot of the monster to the side. Taken by surprise by the sudden shift in weight, the hydra tumbled and rolled back into the Everfree forest not a few feet away. The Do’s stopped in shock to look towards their dropped foe. Chance, at the same time, shot into the air. If he had had a mouth the sound of his gasp would have woken a sleeping ursa major. Derpy flared her wings protectively and stepped back from the odd creature that had just appeared from the ground. The entire time, she kept herself between it and her daughters.

Then, it darted towards them. She reared up and went to kick the small creature in the face. The same white gleam deflected the blow, and Derpy stumbled just as the hydra had. When she recovered, she whirled to face her attacker. Only to find it wrapped tightly inside of Sparkler’s mane, shivering horribly. Clearly having been scared by the hydra. Chance, meanwhile, was to frightened to do anything but cower in the comfortable hairs  of the pony.

“Aww mom.” Sparkler and Dinky said at the same time. Sparkler’s voice held respect as she spoke, but Dinky’s was straight pleading. “Can we keep it?”