//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - 8:20 PM // Story: MLP x Ghost Trick: Death Wish // by supercomputer276 //------------------------------// Must have been unconscious for a while… The sensation of swimming through darkness was familiar. I’ve done this before. I checked myself. I remember this shape. I remember who I am. So I don’t have to spend a whole night on that again. But when I came to, I didn’t recognize this place I found myself in. My last memory was curling up in my bed at home. I don’t sleep, not anymore, but I still went through the actions to pass as normal. Sometimes I even got some rest. Somehow, I was moved here, to a completely unfamiliar place, without my knowing it. That’s when I realized I was not in my body. It wasn’t here. Where was it? My name is Sissel. In case you didn’t know, I’m already dead. Snapped to attention, Sissel quickly looked around. He had gotten quite around his hometown in over ten years and knew most of the nice nooks, but none of it looked like this. It was night, a time he was very familiar with, and he was at the foot at what looked like a giant tree. A giant tree that looked like it had windows cut into it, and balconies built into it, almost like a house. He had never seen anything like it, not even right now; a few other houses were visible from his position, but they looked like cottages with thatch roofs. He was reminded of some illustrations in some fairy tale books Detective Jowd had read to his daughter before bed. Parked nearby was what looked like a horse-drawn wagon filled with carpenter supplies and tools. Or rather, pony-drawn wagon, as he could see the wagon was hooked up to two dull brown ponies wearing black hats. I’m also currently a plank of wood. Which is… rather unfortunate. What concerned him the most was that his body was nowhere in sight. Where was it, and for that matter, where was he? Although he wouldn’t claim to be the smartest knife in the drawer (in part because that analogy came out wrong), it didn’t take him long to figure that the plank he was in had fallen from the wagon, probably when it stopped. He could see several just like it stacked up higher than the wagon’s walls. Perhaps his body was wherever the wagon came from. As good a lead as anything. But before he could act on this logic, he was interrupted by a barrage of sounds from what seemed like inside the tree. Which made sense, he supposed, since the tree looked like a house, so it probably acted like one as well. First, there was the sound of something crashing through a window. Next, a young female voice, shouting. “What-?! W-Who are you?!” A male voice answered. “There you are. It’s time we settled this.” “What are you talking about?! I’ve never seen you before!” A thud, as if something dropped. “Glory to the true ruler!” the male shouted. “Ahh!” A scream of fear from a third voice, male but couldn’t have been much older than Kamila. “Spike! Get out of here!” the female yelled. There was what sounded like charging energy followed by an explosion. The windows filled with a green light that lasted for several seconds. “TWILIGHT!” the boy cried out. From the plank, Sissel could see the door leading into the tree; it looked like the door of a stable in that it consisted of two individual doors, top and bottom, and there was a picture of a lit candle on the top one. The next moment, the door burst open, and a dark grey pony ran out. A dark grey pony with green eyes wearing an eyepatch over his right eye and wearing a black vest and a hat that matched the other two. The pony leapt up and into the wagon, onto a part apparently devoid of tools. “It’s done! Let’s move quickly, before anypony shows up!” The two ponies reared up and whinnied before galloping off, taking the wagon and the dark gray newcomer with them. Sissel was too stunned by the rush of events to jump into the wagon wheel before it was hopelessly out of his reach. The three ponies and their cargo sped off into the night, quickly enough to throw another board, which landed leaning up against the tree not far from his board. Something’s going down, I can feel it. And I’m not the kind to leave a lady hanging. I better check out what’s up. Maybe they’ll know where I am. …Why did it just now occur to me that ponies don’t usually wear black hats? Or, for that matter, hats at all? Or vests? Or eyepatches? …Or talk? Like, actual talk talk. This is getting really weird. It had been quite a while since Sissel had had to use his powers the way he did that one night that no longer existed, but thankfully he quickly found he hadn’t gotten rusty. With a thought, his vision was washed in the red of the Ghost World as time stopped around him. He was relieved to find one constant between home and here was a plentiful supply of cores around. The newly dropped plank allowed him an easy step from the first plank to the handle of the lower door. Taking a quick look inside, he found what looked like a hanging light just in reach. He quickly hopped to it. I should be able to see the source of the commotion just fine from here, he thought. With that in mind, he switched back to the world of the living. The colors returned, allowing him to clearly see the hollow tree’s main room. Large amounts of large nooks were carved into the wooden walls and filled with a large number of books and a few scrolls, suggesting the function of bookshelves, with a plain wooden ladder reaching the highest nooks leaning up against it. Just how many books there were reminded him of something Lynne told him about once called a… “library,” he thought it was? He wasn’t really paying attention at the time, but the word seemed like a good fit. A round table stood in the center of the room, with a bust of a pony head standing tall in the middle, and a few small piles of books sitting on it. A stray breeze from a high broken window (The gray pony probably entered through there.) threw a scroll to the floor. He was guessing the unicorn with wings lying on the ground, surrounded by a spread of spilled books and with a giant scorch mark on her chest, wasn’t supposed to be there. … A unicorn. With wings. A lavender unicorn with a deep purple mane that looked like a human haircut, complete with a highlight stripe. With wings. I’ve seen some weird things, but a unicorn’s pretty high on the list. I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to be real. I need to remember to ask Detective Jowd about it… when I find him again. Though the bigger shock was the creature next to the unicorn, who was a giant purple lizard-like… thing with green spines, who was shaking the unicorn. “Twilight! Twilight, wake up!” the creature was calling. Sissel noticed that the young boy’s voice he heard before was coming from him, and that he could feel the tones of sorrow in it. “Please get up, Twilight. You gotta! You can’t be… can’t be…” He broke down into tears before he could finish, but Sissel figured he could complete the sentence. A quick look into the ghost world confirmed he was correct. Dead. Whatever that creature is, he’s like a child. And if her death’s making him cry, she has to be really important to him. I could probably find out where I am from somebody else, but… a young woman dead in the evening like this… This brings up memories. I haven’t had to use that little trick of mine for who knows how long… but if I’m going to start again, no better place to start than here. Now if I can just get to her corpse… Switching back to the Ghost World, he was pleased to find that several books on the shelves had cores he could use, as well as a few of the shelves themselves; why they and not others he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t bug himself thinking of such things. Moving along the array, he arrived at the shelf closest to the scroll that had fallen earlier, which was angled so if it unrolled, it would be close to the pony’s body. Just what he needed, but there weren’t enough cores between him and the scroll. He looked up at the cores on some of the books on the shelf and got an idea. Moving to a book and flipping back to the world of the living, he executed a manipulative ghost trick, causing the book to slide off the shelf and land with a thud on the floor next to the scroll; the purple scaly creature’s sobs were apparently loud enough to keep him from noticing. From the book, he hopped to the scroll and caused it to unfurl. Little closer, little closer… The unrolling paper came to a stop a few inches from her head. The lizard-thing was just now noticing as he stopped time and reached out to her. Upon possessing the pony girl’s corpse, Sissel quickly located her soul, a brightly burning blue flame, much like the many other souls he had seen before, before they remembered who they were. It looked like she wasn’t awake yet; given it had only been a minute or two since she died, this was not surprising. But how does one address the soul of a pony? A unicorn pony with wings? Might as well go with the way I know best. “Uh… hello there. You awake?” “……” “Yeah, I know, it’s not easy, but we got work to do, so… up and at ‘em.” For a few moments, he thought she wasn’t going to wake up and he’d settle for just moving on by himself, but this time the soul spoke up. “…Wha…? Where…? W-Who am I…?” Finally. “I don’t really know myself,” he replied. “I just got here. However, that lizard kid guy was calling you ‘Twilight,’ so I… guess that’s your name? I’d guess that you work here in this library.” “Twilight… Twilight…” She sounded like she was mulling it over. “…Wait, I… I think it’s coming back to me…!” There was a flash of light, and the ball of flame was replaced with the shape of the pony whose corpse they were now in. “I’m Twilight Sparkle! I’m the librarian here and… and…” She calmed down, and looked inquisitively at him. “…and why am I talking to a cat? And… how is the cat talking?” “And why am I talking to a purple pony? And how is the pony talking?” he snarkily replied. “I mean, I’ve talked to a dog before, the bravest and most loyal dog you’ll ever know, but a pony?” “Well of course ponies talk! All ponies talk!” she countered. “I’ve never seen a cat talk before, though.” “Oh boy…” Something tells me I’m more lost than I thought. Twilight looked around at the Ghost World. “This is strange. If this wasn’t her style at all, I would think Pinkie Pie was playing a prank on me.” “Right now, we have more important things to worry about than practical jokes.” Like the fact that you’re dead. “Wait, I’m dead?!” Sissel visibly recoiled. Right, I keep forgetting, ghosts communicate by thought…! “B-But how can I be dead?! I… I can’t remember how I…!” “That sort of thing happens, Twilight Sparkle. All ghosts lose their memories when they die, but they usually come back quickly. Well, except for the last few moments; there’s no telling how long it takes to get those back.” “How would you know?! Are you dead too?!” “Yes. My name’s Sissel.” “Sissel… Never heard that name before…” She released a resigning sigh. “I suppose you’re here to guide me to the afterlife, huh…? Didn’t think I would go this quickly… Wish I could say goodbye to my friends…” “Now hold on there.” “Huh?” “I suppose I could be considered a ‘guide’ of sorts, but I’m not guiding you to the afterlife. Instead, I’m guiding you back in time.” “OK, sorry, but you’re not making any sense. What do you mean ‘back in time’?” “Thanks to some misadventures back home, I have what are called ‘powers of the dead.’ I know them mostly as ‘ghost tricks.’ These tricks let me possess and manipulate inanimate objects… and when I possess a corpse that’s been dead for less than a day, I can travel back in time to four minutes before that person’s death.” “Wait, four minutes before…! Ghosts can time travel?!” “Some of them. Different ghosts get different powers. And one of mine gives me a chance to change fate and prevent people from dying. And if I don’t succeed? Then I can just try again, as many times as it takes.” “So, if I’m a ghost now, does that mean…?” “No, I don’t think you have powers of the dead. They’re caused by radiation from a meteorite that landed in a park in my hometown, and no piece of it is even near here.” “Oh…” She put a hoof to her forehead, to the side of her horn. “This is all so confusing…” “I’ve learned it’s something best learned by doing.” “Wait…” This unicorn likes waiting a lot, doesn’t she…? “I heard that, you know,” she lightly scolded. “!! Dangit, I really need to work on how to keep my thoughts to myself…!” “Look,” she started to explain. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this. I’m dead, my memories are a bit of a jumble, there is apparently a ghost cat telling me it can time travel even though the best spell I could find for that was one-use-only and only lasted for a few minutes… I keep wishing this is all some bad dream and I’m going to wake up any moment. At least then it’ll make sense. But… I don’t think I can dream of Spike crying like he is now… so this has to be real…” “Spike?” I’m guessing that’s the name of that lizard-guy… “Yeah, my assistant. And he’s not a lizard. He’s a dragon.” “…OK, now I know I’m nowhere near home. The sooner we get you back to life, the better.” “But wait…” Are we ever going to get started!? “Sorry, just… assuming I accept your story, then… why would you try to save me? I know, it sounds like a bit of a dumb question, don’t look a gift pony in the mouth and all that, but… you don’t seem like that type that would just go and rewind time like that for just anypony.” “…I’m lost, Twilight Sparkle. I am a kitten that’s far, far away from home with no idea how he got where he is now. But despite being lost, I somehow found myself outside your house. I don’t believe in fate – after all, I’ve spent a lot of time changing it – but something led me here, and it’s telling me you’re the… pony, I suppose… that can help me get back to my family. But we’re both going to have a hard time with that if you’re dead. And that’s why I’m going to save you. I don’t use lives for bargaining chips, but those are my reasons.” “…Just that? Just because I’m useful to you?” “I know a girl about your age I met after my death. We agreed to use each other to fulfill our own goals, and we ended up as friends by the end.” As best as his cat face could, he gave a small smile. “I see no reason why it can’t work again.” “Use each other? What could I use you for?” “You were murdered in your home and place of work tonight. For some reason, someone wanted you dead. Even if you were alive, you’d have a hard time finding out who that someone was on your own. But me? Only people I’ve saved the lives of with my ghost tricks can hear me, much less have a chance of seeing me, but I can see them. It’ll make investigating a lot easier.” “I see… So, you’ll help me find out who killed me if I help you get back home?” “Exactly. We’ve spent enough time as it is. We can talk more after you’ve come back to life.” “This is crazy,” she thought out loud. “None of this makes any sense.” “We’re talking about the powers of the dead here, Twilight Sparkle,” he replied, bringing up a memory of an old friend as he spoke. “It’s not supposed to make sense.” After several moments, she let out another sigh. “If I can believe in Pinkie Sense, why not in ‘powers of the dead?’ Let’s do this, Sissel.” “Let’s start this trick then! Back in time, to four minutes before your murder!” 4 Minutes 8:16 pm - Golden Oaks Library Before Death “Whoa…” Twilight expressed in wonder, looking around the library and seeing herself, still alive if frozen in time due to being in the Ghost World. “So this is…?” “The land of four minutes before your death, yes. It’s not surprising that you managed to tag along, by the way. Happens to pretty much every conscious ghost I do this with.” “So, we’re going to stop myself from dying, huh?” “Yep. First we watch it all play out without interfering, and then we use what we see to figure out how we’re going to save you.” “Have you… had to do this a lot?” “At least a dozen times. It was a very rough night.” “For my sake, I’m resisting the urge to ask more questions right now.” “You’re as smart as you look, I’ll give you that. OK, time’s going to start flowing again. Keep your eyes peeled for any leads.” “Right.” The inside of the library was peaceful. Twilight Sparkle was sitting at the central table, reading over a book lying open on it. She was flanked on both sides by large piles of books – a little more than some light reading for one evening, by her standards. Still, there were no further plans for the night and the library was closed for business, so she decided to just enjoy it. She attempted to shift her position to something a little more comfortable, only to accidentally jar one of the piles with a foreleg, causing the top book to fall down and land on the floor nearby. “Oh…” she sighed before her horn started to glow the fine magenta of her magic. The book, now encased in her telepathic aura, lifted into the air and glided back to its place atop the pile. Satisfied, Twilight dismissed the magic and resumed her reading. A few moments later, Spike entered from the kitchen. “Still reading?” he sighed. “I just got this shipment of new books for the library in this afternoon,” she replied, not even looking at him as her telekinetic spell shut the book she was looking at and moved it to the top of the pile on her right while replacing it with the top book of the left pile, the one that had fallen off only a few moments ago. “I have to make sure each one is classified and sorted correctly before I can put them on the shelves.” “Twilight, those are hand-me-downs from the Royal Canterlot Library. They’re already sorted. I can see the Dew Decimal numbers on them.” “Well, uh…” Twilight’s mind raced. “I-I’m just… making sure, that’s all!” Spike wasn’t convinced – he knew her well enough to know that she just wanted an excuse to read – but decided to humor her anyway. “Fine fine, just don’t stay up until the wee hours of the night again.” “You need to stop worrying about that, Spike,” she replied. “My bedtime has always been on my schedule.” Spike noticed a mug sitting next to the book piles and picked it up. “Want a refill on your apple juice?” “That’d be great, thanks!” “Back in a jiff!” he said as he hurried back into the kitchen closing the door behind him. Twilight read in peace for several more moments before, suddenly, there was a loud crash. “What-?!” She snapped her head up to see somepony had broken through one of the upper windows, scattering several glass shards to the floor. “W-Who are you?!” She had never seen the intruder before. He was a dark grey Earth pony wearing a fedora, vest, and eyepatch, all black. His piercing green eyes looked down at her. “There you are,” he said, his voice gruff and vindictive, as he hopped from his position on the windowsill down to the floor with a loud thud. “It’s time we settled this.” Instinctively, Twilight backed a couple steps away from him. “What are you talking about?! I’ve never seen you before!” That information quickly became lower priority when the intruder reached into his vest and pulled out, for all appearances, a large crystal that glowed a rather sickly green. He reared up on his back legs as he pulled the crystal back, as if getting ready to throw it. “Glory to the true ruler!” he shouted. It only took a moment or two after seeing it for Twilight to recognize it: a magical concussion grenade, of the sort optimized for attacking living creatures while leaving inanimate matter mostly intact. She got in position to defend herself, quickly running over spells she knew in her head to find the best way to counter the attack- “Ahh!” The sound threw her off guard. She looked in its direction to see Spike had reentered the room and stood frozen in the doorway, the refilled mug dropped and its content spilled in shock. “Spike!” she called. “Get out of here!” That moment of distraction was all the assailant needed. He threw the crystal straight at her, and a massive green flash, with a matching gust of wind, filled the room. When it subsided, the crystal was gone, its structure destroyed after its energy was spent, and Twilight’s body, having been thrown backwards a few feet by the blast, lay sprayed among a mess of books that had been knocked over by the wind, a massive burn centered right over her heart. “TWILIGHT!” Spike cried out in horror. He ran over to her still form as the assassin ran unopposed for the door. Sissel froze time again. “And that’s the last four minutes of your life.” “Blasted in my own library… Well, there’s worse ways to go, I suppose…” “I’ve only got one question myself. What was that thing with the books? You know, with them floating like that? Pretty sure books don’t float in mid-air.” “That? That was just my magic.” “…Magic.” “Yes. Magic. It’s a well-documented and commonly used form of power. Everypony knows about it. How lost do you have to be to have never heard of magic before?” “Far far more lost than I originally thought, apparently. I am going to have a lot of questions when you’re alive again. Anyways, it seems to me the vital point was when that Spike guy came in at the end. I’m sure your… magic would have saved you if you weren’t distracted.” “Hey, don’t blame Spike for that! He didn’t know that that would distract me!” “Calm down, I’m not blaming him. I’m just saying, if we can keep him from entering the room, that’ll probably keep you alive. Let’s get back to the beginning of these four minutes and start changing fate.” [Trick Time!] As with all his trips to the past, Sissel found himself where he was when he started time jumping, the location of Twilight’s future corpse, watching Twilight now at her reading. “So, what should I do?” Twilight’s voice asked in his mind. “I don’t think you can do anything by yourself, since you’re just a normal ghost,” Sissel replied. “So just sit back and follow my lead.” “OK, you’re the expert here.” “Alright, if I can find some way to bar or block the door after Spike goes back in, that should change your fate, at least a little. Let’s see what I can do.” For the moment, though, he was rather isolated; none of the cores that were around were close enough for him to reach. Then Twilight shifted her position and knocked the book down right next to him. Seeing his chance, he moved over to the book as she started to levitate it back up. As the book was put back on top of the pile, Sissel looked towards the kitchen door just in time enough to see Spike enter. His attention, however, was more focused above it. The stairway that was aside the room lead up to a door on a balcony above the kitchen door, but the balcony was clear. “…Well, so much for that plan. I can’t see anything here I can block the door with.” “Well, even if it was blocked,” Twilight’s ghost added, “I probably would’ve been able to clear the obstruction in time. And that door doesn’t lock either.” “Hmm…” Sissel mused. “To keep a dragon from going through a door… If I can’t stop the door, maybe I can stop the dragon.” “What do you have in mind?” Sissel shifted over to Twilight’s juice mug beside the book piles, a simple trip once Twilight pulled the book he was possessing down into range. Waiting out the conversation, he smiled to himself when Spike picked up the mug and took it – and the two ghosts – with him into the kitchen. “You keep a mug for apple juice?” Sissel asked, curious. “It was originally for coffee,” Twilight explained, “but then we found out me and coffee weren’t a very good combination.” “Heh. I think I’d like to hear about that sometime.” Feeling her embarrassment, Sissel decided to leave it at that and focus on the kitchen; Twilight spent a good amount of time after Spike left reading, but it wouldn’t be long before the assassin entered the scene. Like the previous room, the kitchen was mostly made out of wood, with several holes in the walls filled with glass to serve as windows. Counters lined the edges of the room, with cabinets hanging from the walls above them, looking much like how the phantom expected a kitchen to look, including the requisite ingredients and utensils. Several aforementioned utensils hung from hooks, and the central island, which looked to actually be part of the tree sheered flat, had a bowl containing a large amount of assorted fruit. Spike moved over to a refrigerator and placed the mug on the counter beside it. As Spike opened the fridge and dug into it, Sissel took notice of a door on the side. “Where does that door go?” “That one?” Twilight answered. “It leads to the basement.” “Basement?” “Yeah, I use it mostly for storage. Library archives, that sort of thing.” “Hmm… I got an idea, but you’re not going to like it.” “What? What am I not going to like?” Deciding to not answer, Sissel moved from the mug across several of the hanging utensils to a large hard-plastic salad serving fork. As Spike was busy pulling out a pitcher of apple juice and refilled the mug, the ghost started swinging the serving fork back and forth until it got enough force to fly off the hook and land on the island with a soft clatter. Spike looked quickly at the sound of the noise, only to find no one there, and so he shrugged and resumed putting the pitcher back in the refrigerator. Since he could move between objects only when in the Ghost World where time was stopped, Sissel reflected that he pretty much waited until Spike was looking the other way before moving to the fruit bowl just for the heck of it. Spike was turning and heading back towards the main room when from there came a sound of shattering glass. The dragon was immediately on the alert. “Twilight?” he lightly asked towards the door, though not at a volume she would be likely to hear him at. [Time Till Death: 3] “Drat, the assassin here’s!” Sissel mentally shouted. “No time to waste!” “What am I not going to like, Sissel?” Twilight asked forcefully. His response consisted of the trick he could do with the fruit bowl: rock it. As Spike started stepping briskly back towards the door, various fruits spilled all over the floor. But despite the variety, they all seemed to have a major thing in common. They were all very round. “Whoa-whoa-WHOA!” Spike cried as he stepped on an apparently quite hard pear and lost his balance. Attempting to regain it, he then stepped on a peach, then an apple, then a pineapple, then the rest of the cornucopia as he slip-sided away from the main room door towards the door leading to the basement, having dropped the mug, shattering it and spilling its contents, at the beginning of the whole ordeal. Sissel quickly beat him there by moving across the fruit (which, being plucked from their trees and bushes, reclassified them as dead, allowing most of them cores) and opening the door for him. He closed the door again once Spike was through it, the purple dragon tumbling head over heels down the stairs until he reached the bottom, where he lay in a groaning daze. Twilight’s spirit was agape. “W-What…? What did…?” “I told you you weren’t going to like it,” Sissel casually replied. “Why did you have to do that?!” she shouted. “Dragons are sturdier than most creatures, sure, but he’s just a baby, and you tricked him into falling down the stairs?!” “Look, if he dies, I’ll go back to four minutes before his death, OK?!” he exasperatingly replied. “Right now, we’ve got more important things to worry about! I managed to keep you from getting distracted by him, so you probably don’t die instantly, but the assassin’s still going to be there, so we have to get back there quickly before he kills you anyway!” “……” “…When we get back, I’ll apologize, how’s that?” “…Fine. But you’re paying for his doctor bill.” …I have no idea how she intends for me to do that… “I’ll put you to work or something, we’ll discuss it later. As you said, we have more important things to worry about!” [Fate Changed!] Thankfully, getting back to the main room wasn’t a big problem. Following the fruit back to the counter, followed by moving across the utensils and drawers (and occasionally having to stop to open a cabinet door to reach far enough) allowed him to reach the door handle again. “Glory to the true ruler!” the assassin shouted, aiming the explosive death crystal at Twilight and hurling it with all his might. Twilight’s horn glowed again as she cast her spell, forming a magenta bubble around her. The crystal detonated on contact with it, scattering the pile of books on the table across the floor, but the pony herself was unharmed. The explosive gone, she dismissed her shield. “That was a grenade! You just tried to kill me! Who are you?!” She found she couldn’t relax, however, as the assassin, upon seeing his first attempt failed, growled and pulled another crystal out of his vest instead of answering. “He’s got more of them?!” Twilight’s ghost shouted. “And he probably has enough that he’d get a kill in before he runs out,” Sissel speculated. He quickly began scanning the room of anything that could be of use. “We need to find some way to stop him…!” “I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but… maybe you can… throw books from the shelves at him?” “I’m a ghost, not a poltergeist. They wouldn’t reach far enough.” Think, think, think…! Finally, he noticed the ladder leaning against one of the shelves near the assailant. That could do it. Unfortunately, at that moment, the grey pony threw the crystal he was holding; Twilight again managed to raise a shield to protect herself, but the large breeze the projectile generated threw several of the books from the shelves, scattering the cores among them too wide for Sissel to reach it. Dang…! Now what...? Then he noticed that some of the dropped books formed a way across the floor to the central table, which still had some of the books that were at the bottom of the piles and a core in the tip of the horsehead figure’s muzzle. He followed this path and at the end, as the assassin threw his second round and Twilight deflected it to the far wall, did a trick with the horsehead to rotate the whole table around to face the other way. “OK,” Twilight mused. “I should probably get that fixed.” Again ignoring her, Sissel instead took delight in that the books on the floor reachable from the new position of the books on the table now lead to the ladder. He wasted no time in zipping across this line of cores, up the shelves, and settled in the ladder as he waited for the right moment. He didn’t have to wait long as the assailant pulled out and aimed back another crystal grenade. Now! He tilted the ladder over. Just as the assassin attempted to throw again, the ladder landed on him, catching his head between the top two rungs. Startled by this sudden contact, he released the grenade too early in the swing, causing it to pop up and land on the ground right in front of him. The force of the explosion blew off the top half of the ladder and bodily launched him backwards hard into the bookshelf behind him, which still had most of its books on it. He hung there for a few seconds like a fly hit by a windshield on a moving car before sliding a little and falling flat on his stomach, head framed by the broken top half of the ladder. He moaned from pain before several books from the shelf fell off and knocked him on the head, causing him to collapse and stop moving. “I… I think that did it!” Twilight declared. “He seems to be unconscious!” “Distractions can be such dangerous things, can’t they?” Sissel slyly noted. Twilight’s magical aura surrounded the assassin’s vest and pulled it off. “I’ll take that,” she said as she floated it over to a corner away from them. She was damaged, likely from being battered by objects that were flying about in the winds, but very much alive. “And that should be that!” Sissel declared. “With that pony down for the count, the danger is gone and your death has been prevented.” [Fate Averted!] As Sissel pulled them back into the Ghost World, Twilight was looking thoughtful. “Um… I’ve got a question.” “What is it?” “Do your fate changes usually involve hurting other ponies to save someone?” “Well, we don’t have ponies quite like you where I’m from, but besides that, no, not usually.” “Then why did you have to…? That pony who attacked me, I could understand, but…” “Look, I’m sorry I had to hurt Spike like that. I’m still a little disoriented, so I couldn’t see a better solution in the heat of things.” “Well I am grateful for you saving my life and everything, so I’ll accept your apology, but I expect you to apologize to Spike too.” “I can’t make promises, since I can only communicate with people I’ve met after they died, but if I get the chance, I will.” “Fair enough. So… what’s next?” “What’s next is we go back to the present. A new present formed from this trick of fate, where you’re alive.” “Great! But… if I’m alive in this new present, what happens to me?” “If it’s anything like back home, your still-alive self will retain your memories from your time dead at least.” “I see…” “Well, time’s a-wasting, as they say. Back to the present!” [8:22 PM] Sissel arrived in the part of the ladder broken around the unconscious assassin’s neck. He looked over to Twilight, who seemed to be lying down to conserve her strength. Having a murderer come after you is a very tiring experience, I would imagine. “Twilight!” Spike called as he burst through the kitchen door, covered in bruises, and ran to his companion. “Are you alright?! What happened?!” “It’s… complicated,” Twilight replied. “Never mind that, what happened to you?” “I, uh, slipped,” he answered, apparently trying to keep most of his pride by withholding some of the details. He looked around the library. The entire thing was a wreck; nothing was in place. Books were scattered across the floor, the shattered glass from the window had gotten everywhere, and even the table was completely turned around. “Gosh,” he thought aloud. “It looks like Rainbow Dash steered a hurricane through here. …Huh? Is that another pony over there?” “Don’t get too close, Spike. That pony tried to kill me.” “Tried to kill you?!” he shouted. “Why would anypony try to kill you?!” “I don’t know,” she replied. “But first things first. I got some spare rope up in my room; I need you to get it and tie that pony up before he wakes up.” “Are you sure it’s OK to leave you alone like this, Twilight-?” “Spike!” Her voice communicated just how urgent this task was. “OK, OK!” he replied. He ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, and hurried through the door. She heaved a sigh, probably trying to relax and sort her thoughts out. Given she had her memories of an alternate history where she died only a few minutes ago, that wasn’t surprising at all. Maybe I can help with that. Besides, now that the danger is past, I’ve got a lot of questions. A moment later, Twilight heard a sound and looked up just in time to see the central table spin back around to its original position. “Ah… There you are, Sissel.” He reached out to her through the Ghost World. “Glad to see you remember me.” “As you said, I remember dying. Not the most pleasant thing to have to remember, you can imagine.” “I remember dying from being hit by a meteorite fragment. Believe me, there are worse ways to go.” “So… now’s when we start using each other?” “Just what I was thinking. Let’s start by you answering a simple question: where am I?” Twilight Sparkle gave me an answer. There was a lot I needed to wrap my head around. I was in a town called Ponyville, in a land called Equestria. Most of the inhabitants were talking ponies. Equestria was ruled by a pair of princesses that lived in a castle in a city called Canterlot, which wasn’t too far from Ponyville. There were three kinds of ponies – Earth ponies, pegasus ponies, and unicorns. Earth ponies were physically strong and tough compared to the others, pegasi had wings and could fly, and unicorns had horns and could use magic. There was also the rare fourth pony type, the alicorn – which Twilight Sparkle was one of – that combined the strengths of the other three species. Twilight Sparkle also told me about her five best friends – Earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie, pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and unicorn Rarity. Though thought was instant in the mental connection we were using, she did her best to keep explanations brief and only gave me enough of an overview about each of them, but still enough for me to work with. And finally, there was a quick explanation of “cutie marks.” These images that appeared on a pony’s flanks after they found what made them happiest in life. She showed me hers, a six-pointed star, which indicated her passion for magic. I played around with ideas of what cutie marks of the people I knew looked like, though I could only imagine Lynne’s being a falling anvil for whatever reason. As amazing as it all was, though, I couldn’t help but focus on one major detail: Nothing was familiar at all. I was very far from home, far enough it might as well been a world away. My body was missing. And I had no idea how I was going to get back.