You know what’s really fun? Sneaking behind bullies and tickling the backs of their necks with your insect like appendages. Especially if you can fly and make no noise while moving. Now that, that’s really fun to do. Well, until they start crying and you get put outside so that they stop feeling like they are being picked on by a floating thing from the other side death’s door. Then, then things are just boring.
Of course, Chance was the only one who know that exact feeling, but I mean, I’m sure similar things happen to everyone at one point or another. And what do we do afterwards? We sulk. So that’s what Chance did. He sulked. He sulked like no one could sulk. If there was a championship in sulking, Chance would probably end up nowhere near the top because there have been many more people who have had better reason to sulk. But hey, as far as ‘normal’ people go, I’d say he’d be near the top. Using the term normal lightly of course. I dunno, he might win, I’d say he’d have an okay chance.
As Chance sulked, something unexpected occurred. The trees, which had been blowing in the wind only moments before, stopped in mid sway. The color drained from the world, dripping like colored water as it melted out of sight beneath the ground. Yet, the incessant sound of the wind remained, the only sound in the perfectly empty world around the Shedinja. Then, from behind him came the sound of footsteps, light and heavy at the same time. Knowing, by this point, who had showed up, Chance turned to face the approaching death god.
“Sorry.” Said the skeleton in a cloak, standing a few footsteps away. “I had meant to meet with you earlier, but then a plane crashed and my workload got steepened by about one hundred souls.” He paused for a moment and Chance would have sworn he saw the skull move to accommodate a grin. “You should have seen it! The plane hit a mountain and everyone died on impact, so hard that their souls went through the entire mountain! Then they tried to run away, like they thought they were still alive. Oh it was hilarious.”
Even the sound of wind stopped. “That.” Said Chance, his words meeting the air through the same mysterious manner as they had before. “Has got to be the most macabre thing I’ve heard in my entire life.”
“Unfortunately not.” Replied Death. “Since you didn’t hear it in your life.” That impossible grin just kept getting wide. Somehow. “Anyway,” And now his face was back to normal, but it hadn’t even changed. Chance gave up on trying to figure out what rules Death’s skull were kept by. “I wanted to swing in and say that those small little pranks you played on those bullies were pretty good, given your limited tools. However, then I remembered that pokemon have moves they can use!” The sound of a snap filled the air, but Death hadn’t moved.
Chance began to glow blue and after a moment it faded away. “What the crap, just like that? You’re just going to randomly give me moves? What the heck moves did you give me?” Chance practiced swinging one of his small claws in front of himself, as if calling on some power within himself that never manifested itself.
“Oh, where’s the fun in just telling you. Anyway, I have to go. I got a hot tip that there would be a cruise ship blowing up today. It’s so funny, the bodies go flying but then get pulled down again, but the souls just keep going up for a long time, then they hit the edge of the earth’s atmosphere and get dropped back down to earth. It’s really fun, just, oh man, good times. You know I met my wife watching bombs exploding during WW2. A night to remember.” And then Death was gone.
And, of course, the only thing that Chance had on his mind was, “You have a wife?!” Which he shouted loudly, only to be answered by an ominous laugh right before the color filled the world again and time reasserted itself. Shivers ran down Chance’s... whatever he had instead of a spine, and he looked up at the sky. Though he couldn’t speak anymore, he thought with all the clarity he could manage in the direction of the heavens.
‘If there are any other gods out there except for him, please protect me from him and his wife and any children they may or may not have.’
He thought he heard tiny high pitched laughs coming from the clouds, but he shook it off and turned his mind back to the matter at hand. So now he had pokemon moves. That was certainly a step that Chance hadn’t been expecting to reach anywhere in the next year or two. Maybe he had hyper beam or something. He had no idea. Then, the bell for the school rang, and children began to file out, their pets following them. He thought he noticed an evil, revengeful glimmer in the eyes of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who smiled widely and darkly at him, but he didn’t pay it any mind. They had nothing on him.
After several minutes, however, he noticed a surprising lack of Dinky and the CMC. The feeling that hit him in the gut right then was something that Death couldn’t manage with any degree of his god-like magic. After flying around the building and finding an open window, Chance made his way inside. It took him but a moment to find Dinky, and when he did he felt something inside him die. Some degree of the childish revenge he had used against the bullies had just been felled, and he regretted ever doing anything to them at all.
Dinky held a bag of frozen peas to her right eye, which blocked Chance from her view. “Tell me, again,” Stated a nearby Cheerilee, who was looking over the girl with a worried expression. “What happened.”
“I tripped and fell, and my eye hit on of the play blocks.” The CMC stood nearby, Scootaloo fluttering her wings angrily with a look on her face like she desperately wanted to go out and find two rich pompous fillies and give them what for. The fact that Scootaloo was managing to repress it made Chance stop dead.
“Girls?” Cheerilee said, turning to face the CMC trio. “You said you saw this happen?”
“Yes,” responded Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo merely nodded. Sweetie Belle looked close to tears and Apple Bloom was clearly perturbed by the situation, Scootaloo looked ready to explode, she shook violently and turned her eyes away from the teacher.
Cheerilee nodded, then walked away. “I don’t know how you managed to get a horseshoe shaped blow on your eyelid from a play block, but if you don’t have anything to add to your story, then I suppose I just have to let you go.” Here she paused and looked back at the girls. “But please, if you change your mind about your story. Come to me. Please.”
“Thank you.” Dinky said, then proceeded to walk away. Though her voice sounded strong two rivulets of salty water betrayed her as the marked a slow progression down her now wounded face. Deep within the floating husk of a insect, Chance felt something stir, and at that particular moment, all he really wanted to do was hyper beam some snotty rich kids. But first things first, how the crap did Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get so smart in the ways of revenge.
Something was wrong in Ponyville, and he couldn’t help but feel that Death had decided to do more than just add a floating ghost pokemon with a human soul. He quickly followed after Dinky, the CMC silently letting him approach her. She didn’t notice him until they had left the building, the sunlight seeming brighter than it had when Chance had entered the schoolhouse only a few moments ago.
She opened her mouth to talk to him, but suddenly stopped. Then everything exploded. White collapsed over his eyes and Chance thought for sure that he had been permanently blinded by something, but then it faded. A laughing sound was filling the air, and there was no sight of any of the ponies at all. Slowly, he turned. Just to see Death applauding.
“Oh, you should have seen the look on your face, that was hilarious. Okay, now I’m gonna go, for real. No more hallucinations, dead man’s honor.” And then Death dissapeared again and Chance found himself directly back in the position he had been in after Death had ‘left’ not even a few minutes before.
Resigned to the idea that Death could screw with him and he could do nothing in return, Chance turned his gaze skyward and sighed. ‘That’ll be a no then, I suppose?’ The non existent ring that echoed from the clouds held a non existent apology.
At that point the bell rang loudly, signalling for various colts and fillies that their time for torment was over, until the following day, where they would wish that they had done their homework, but none of them had. Chance turned to watch as the CMC bursted out of the door in a flurry of papers and sugary excitement the likes of which no adult on any planet could ever match. Dinky, not quite at that level, dashed out shortly behind, chasing their coats and tails as they blurred from speed that would put Rainbow Dash to shame. Chance hesitated to follow, but paused to look back towards the door, where two small rich fillies looked back at him with gazes full of loathing. Then, with a song in his heart that everything was back to normal, Chance darted after the fillies.
After not very much time, Dinky paused and turned back, realizing who she had left behind. She ran back to him and smiled widely. “Can you hold on to me? So that I don’t have to walk with you?” She asked excitedly, her mind not really running over everything before she said it. “It’s just, I don’t want to lose track of the CMC,” she responded as she realized how rude she had sounded. “I mean, they’re the ones who know their way through the Everfree and all.”
‘Oh joy.’ Thought Chance. ‘Today just keeps getting better and better.’