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

        He was being hugged. It hadn’t even been a full week yet, and he was being hugged. He had been regarded curiously by both sisters and their mother, but over time they had grown accustomed to him, especially the youngest. And now, Dinky had pulled him into her hooves and pressed him tight against her cheek, the warm tickle of her fur piercing his unstoppable defense and bringing a joy to his heart that hadn’t ever been there before. She smiled and nuzzled him with her muzzle, pressing it against his carapace with great care. He felt incredibly loved.

        Given his current state Chance wasn’t sure if it was a pokemon thing, or if it was some deep driving force that had always been inside him. But this felt wonderful. He was ecstatic. If only he could express it. The grip around him tightened and he thought he felt something crack. Immediately the filly’s arms were spread wide and sent onto her back by a burst of white light. Afterwards a white sheen lined the air about him for a moment before it faded away. 

        Dinky hit her head against the floor and began to cry from the blow. Not knowing what else to do, Chance began to panic. His actions were sluggish, however, and entirely ill fitting to the situation that was currently going on. He floated, silently, around in circles while Dinky continued to cry. Stopping for a moment to think, he suddenly realized the answer was simple. He dropped down next to Dinky’s head and nuzzled her as best as a floating, dead, husk of an insect could. 

        And he failed miserably. Within moments, Derpy entered on the scene. Chance bolted away from Dinky as the worried pegasus mother arrived. “What’s the matter, muffin?” Derpy said as she nuzzled her daughter in much the same way that Chance had tried to, her comfort was infinitely times more prevalent to her daughter though. Dinky’s tears began to lessen and her bawling was replaced by sniffles.

        After a brief moment the sniffles themselves stopped and Dinky embraced her mother. “Mister hurt me.” She said, her tone still retaining an injured tone. Venomous eyes moved to the floating being that her daughters had named Mister, whose face displayed the same emotionless expression as it always did. Crossed eyes regarded him coldly and he couldn’t help but back away in response. Derpy, however, didn’t do anything further. No words exited her muzzle as she faced the accused. Then, her eyes changed back to caring as she looked at her daughter.

“It’s okay, Muffin. We’ll get you all patched up okay?” Derpy kissed her daughter on the cheek and smiled. Dinky nodded slowly and the duo left. Leaving Chance completely and totally alone. He floated in the air, a deep sadness filling him up. He couldn’t express it of course, but he hurt. He hadn’t meant to use his wonder guard, it seemed to be an unconscious act, like blinking. The familiar white glow covered his body, and he would have frowned if possible. He could force it’s activation, but he couldn’t stop it from triggering.

Sparkler’s hoovesteps announced her arrival, and Chance looked towards her. “What happened Mister? Why was Dinky crying?” Her voice was full of curiousity, and she looked to her floating friend for an answer. As she asked this a familiar shot of pain went through him and Chance wished he could simply not care about his emotions, like he had before his death. Now though, they were too powerful to be ignored completely. With a heavy metaphorical heart, Chance floated out of a nearby window and left the house behind. Sparkler moved to the window after he left, but lacking any skill in magic or wings of her own, she was unable to follow him.





        As Mister faded from view, Sparkler decided to get the answers from her sister and mom. They could undoubtedly shine some light on the situation. She found them in the bathroom, where Derpy was placing a bandage against the back of Dinky’s head, careful not to catch any hair in the sticky-ness of it. “Hey mom,” Sparkler greeted. “What happened?”

        “Mister hurt Dinky.” Derpy said with an airy tone of accusation. 

        “Why would he do that?” Sparkler continued, worried about what else he might have done. 

        “I was just hugging him, and then he glowed white and knocked my head against the ground.” Dinky explained, her voice sobbing even though her eyes weren’t. 

        “Oh, but, he can’t stop that.” Sparkler quickly said. The duo looked to Sparkler in surprise, and she explained. “It seems to be some kind of self-defense mechanism. I was studying up on animals, at the library, to see if I could find anything out about what he is. I didn’t find anything that looked like him, but Twilight helped me research things about animals so that I could figure how he acted, like self-defense, camouflage. You know, things that some animals share.” And this, was why Sparkler had skipped a year of school. 

        It wasn’t so much a passion for learning, but a passion for reading. Though the subject matter could be boring at times, she really loved words and hoped to grow up to be a famous author. So she put up with the books and the math assignments, and if there was something she really wanted to read, nothing could stop her. But some days, if she was in a bad mood, she wouldn’t do anything besides meander through fiction stories.

        Derpy smiled at her daughter, then it changed to a frown. “I don’t know if I want Mister around, if he can hurt you though.” She said quite plainly. 

        “But if he can’t help it, then we’ll just be extra careful. Right Sparkler?” Dinky said, before turning to look at her sister, who nodded. 

        Derpy smiled at the childish idea, but had to agree that it would work. And she trusted her daughters would keep their word. “Well then, we’ll go looking for him today, after you two get home from school.”

        “But... I was gonna bring him to pet day today.” Dinky said with a sad expression. 

        “I’m sorry, but you have school in only a few seconds, and I have to go to my job. You’ll have to bring him to next pet day.” Derpy said with a frown.

        “Alright.” Dinky was saddened by this truth, but the promise of being able to bring him to next pet day roused her spirits. 

        “Now come along Dinky. We don’t want you to be late, you’re going into your new class today. 

        “I know Sparkler.” Dinky responded. “I just said it was pet day. Sheesh.” Despite the words, her tone was humorous. 

        “Alright, oh wise one. Let’s get going then.”

        “Don’t forget your lunches on the counter! I’ll see you when we get home, then we can go looking for Mister.”

        The sisters bid farewell to their mother and set out to learn.





        Chance had come to a hovering rest on the roof of the school, but he didn’t know that. His mind was too busy being mad at itself. ‘Why did I run away!’ He shouted inside his own head. ‘I just freaked out, and I left! Man, they probably won’t even want me back now. Ugh.’ Turning his gaze skyward, he changed the target of his anger. ‘Death! Why did you do this? This isn’t fun!’ The wind whistled slightly, but nothing further happened.

        Letting his levitation fail, Chance dropped to the shingles. Not for the first time, he cursed his inability to vocalize his feelings. At least the majority of other pokemon could vocalize, he had nothing. Sure, Shedinja had a ‘cry’ in the pokedex, but it was beyond him how it made any noise at all let alone that pained squeak. So he just sat, depressed and silent.

        The approaching sound of children’s voices reached whatever he had that picked up noise. He wasn’t sure how he heard something, since he didn’t have ears, but he was happy anyway. Levitating slightly, Chance peaked over the edge of the roof. A small stream of ponies was approaching the building, all them carrying some form of school bags. Realizing what building he was currently on, Chance took a moment to think of what to do. Then, he realized he didn’t care.

        So he dropped back on the roof and tried to ignore the sound that drifted up through the shingles beneath him. He watched the sun drift lazily across the sky, and let his mind grow tired. He imagined that if Death was watching him, he would be severly dissapointed. But still, Chance didn’t care. In all truth, he doubted he had ever cared about anything since he came to this world. It was all just new, that’s it.

        But then his mind moved back to how he had felt when Dinky had hugged him. He had felt... good. Better than he ever had before. Before he could think about that too long though, a ringing noise shocked him out of his thoughts, and he heard several hooves begin to make an exodus towards the back of the building. ‘Recess, then.’ He thought, and let his mind relax.

That was until the sound of teasing reached him.

“...Like, a blank flank like those other losers.” Came a snotty voice.

“Yea, a blank flank loser.” Oh, right, the debauchery duo of  Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. How could he forget? Curious as to who they could be teasing, Chance moved to the edge of the roof and looked down at the young ponies. Something froze the non-existent blood of Chance as soon as his question had been answered.  Dinky was the target. The other two pompous fillies each had a well groomed dog that stood next to them. As did pretty much every other child in the class, except for Dinky.

“Yea, but at least those losers don’t have a poor mom. I mean, my dad can buy me anything I want. Like, totally.” Diamond Tiara continued.

‘Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet.’ Chance begged Dinky silently. 

“My mom is better than yours!” The hurt unicorn filly exclaimed. And Chance cursed to himself.

“Nu-uh. My mom can at least see straight.” Diamond Tiara said indignantly.

A hurt expression came over Dinky’s face, and she began to back away as tears gathered in her eyes. From above, Chance desperately pleaded for someone to intervene. Cutie Mark Crusaders, Cheerilee. Someone. But no one came.

“Yea, and my mom is still married.” Silver Spoon added.

And now Dinky was crying. Tired of waiting for someone else, Chance swooped down from above.

Very, very slowly.

Eventually the movement caught the bullies attention, and Silver Spoon couldn’t help but exclaim. “What’s that? It’s so ugly.” The exclamation caught the attention of the nearby children, including Dinky. Her gaze moved up, and, spotting Chance, she couldn’t help but let out a squee. 

“Mister!” She said happily. She ran forward to hug him again, but stopped herself. A somewhat sad expression crossed her face as she realized she couldn’t hug him. Realizing her troubles, Chance rubbed up against her, causing a smile to cross her face. 

“Ewww. Is that your pet?” Silver Spoon said. 

“It’s like, totally gross.” Diamond Tiara added.

But neither of the duo cared. Then the door to the school opened up and out came the CMC. “Scoots, I told you not to try and fly around the class. Now we’ve missed at least ten minutes of fun.” Sweetie Belle said, a white cat clinging/lounging on her back. Then they spotted the bullies and the filly who they had been victimizing.

“Dinky? Did these bullies pick on you?” Apple bloom said with a gruff tone, Winona stood beside her, starting to growl. Then, all at once, the trio noticed the odd creature who was currently floating around Dinky’s face. “What’s that?” She asked, confused. 

“Oh! This is Mister!” Dinky exclaimed excitedly. Chance stopped his ‘hurried’ movements and turned to face the three famous blank flanks. 

Scootaloo was the first to speak up. “Uh... what is he?”

“I dunno.” Dinky said happily. “Sparkler said she couldn’t find anything like him in Twilight’s books.”

“It’s probably a ghost or something.” Said Diamond Tiara. “Come on Silver Spoon, let’s get out of here before it curses us.” And the bullies left.

If he had a mouth, Chance would have been smiling. ‘Today’ Chance decided. ‘is going to be a good day’.