//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 - 8:29 PM 
// Story: MLP x Ghost Trick: Death Wish 
// by supercomputer276 
//------------------------------//


Spike returned from the upstairs room with a rope and hog-tied the dark grey pony. After that, Twilight sent him to fetch the police; he was worried about leaving her alone after what had just happened, which was perfectly understandable, but she assured him she’d be fine.



Don’t get me wrong, I’d save her if she died again. I just hope she wouldn’t get used to it like Lynne did that night. After all, once I go home, there won’t be any tricked-out ghosts around to rewind her fate again.



While we were waiting for the police, Twilight started putting the books back on the shelf and tidying up. I knew from my time with Detective Jowd that she should’ve just left them there to preserve the crime scene, but they seemed to help her calm down some little nerves she had and I wasn’t going to argue with that.



And it’s not like I needed any clues the mess left behind. After all, I was there.



Eventually Spike returned with some ponies dressed in what looked like police officer uniforms, only of course outfitted for ponies. I’m never going to get used to that. After pointing them to the assassin, who still hadn’t recovered consciousness amazingly enough, Twilight asked Spike to go upstairs and get back into bed; he was up far past his bedtime, apparently. But he refused; he was simply too worried about someone trying to kill Twilight again and he insisted on helping. She told him to heat up some apple cider for her if he was going to insist on staying up late. Funny, I didn’t take her as the type to drink when facing a crisis…


Twilight watched as two police ponies escorted out the still unconscious assassin and threw him into the back of a barred wagon. Sissel got the impression from all the squeeks and creeks that the wagon hadn’t seen use in quite a while. Judging from what Twilight told me, though, murder certainly isn’t the most common thing in Equestria. Which leaves the question of who in this country would want to kill someone… or somepony, in this case.

Then he heard something Twilight said after the police left. She had stepped outside to watch them leave and had happened to look over beside her door.

“…Where’d these planks come from?”

“…Oh, right!” Sissel exclaimed, mentally facepalming – or perhaps facepawing – himself. “With all the commotion, it slipped my mind.”

“What?” Twilight replied. “You know where they came from?”

“I found myself possessing one of them when I recovered consciousness shortly before meeting you. There was another wagon parked in front tonight filled with carpenter’s tools and things, and in your original fate your killer jumped in it and rode away. I suppose now its drivers ran off after hearing all the racket.”

Twilight brought the planks inside with her telekinesis. While she was being so generous as to bring an object along, Sissel took the chance to possess one of them, though he wasn’t sure if it was the one he possessed when he woke up. “So these fell off the wagon of the ponies that wanted me dead.” She was taking them though the kitchen, past Spike, and into the basement. “These could be important clues. If I can find out what sort of wood this is, maybe I can figure out where the wagon was from.”

Although the sight of every new room in this hollowed-out tree astounded Sissel, the basement did so to a higher degree. It was rather different from the main room. While there were a few full shelves across from the bottom of the stairs, most of the rest of the space was taken up with tables bearing laboratory equipment, with machines and little glass containers so different from each other he couldn’t find the words to describe them. He was reminded of the junkyard superintendent’s office back home, though this one didn’t have a recreated “murder machine” in its basement. “I’m… not entirely sure I follow that.”

“Last I checked, Sissel, Equestria didn’t have too many construction companies; each one has a stake of land they cut all their own wood from, from the trees that grow there,” Twilight explained. “If we can find out which of those areas had the trees these planks came from, we’ll know which company cut them… and thus, who owns the wagon you fell off of, so to speak.”

“Well that’s convenient,” he noted. As Twilight set the planks down on a clear area on a table, he hopped over to a nearby beaker. “I don’t feel like it’s our only lead though…”

“It’s not,” she replied as she telekinetically shuffled stuff around. “There’s also those crystal grenades. Those were lethal magical weapons. They’re outright illegal in most parts of Equestria, so where could he possibly get them from, especially so many? Sadly, the police took his vest for evidence when they took him into custody, so what we have left is the plank, so that’s what I’m going to investigate.”

“Don’t mind me then,” he replied. “Your turn to do some tricks of your own.”

He was slightly offput by the sheer enthusiasm of her grin.


I wasn’t sure what exactly she was doing to those planks. The best description I could come up with was “science.” I was slightly more concerned with not being in any of the equipment she was using; objects don’t have nerves that could feel, but if she put acid or something in one, I wasn’t taking any chances.



I thought about what sort of information the wood would lead to. That assassin didn’t get his transportation from nowhere, after all. Perhaps he stole it or he’s connected to the building company somehow.



The assassin… I spent some idle time thinking about that pony.



“Glory to the true ruler!”



From what I knew, the two princesses Celestia and Luna were the rightful rulers of Equestria. Obviously, he disagreed, enough to kill Celestia’s personal student over it (a detail Twilight gave me earlier with great pride and enthusiastic detail).



He might have been a hitman for someone else, like two other dubious individuals I had seen, but he didn’t match their style at all. Those two ponies hitched to his getaway wagon shared headwear, so unless they’re making a fashion statement, they have to be connected.



Maybe he’s their boss, or they’re part of an organized crime ring? Those were just guesses, though. Nothing I could really go by. They were part of the same organization, that was certain, but what type of organization? Did the other two ponies share his anti-princess beliefs? Where did he get all those exploding crystals?



It was in thinking how many different ways that pony was strange that I realized another oddity.


“…You know, I just thought of something.”

“What?” Twilight asked in reply, not looking up from her point of focus. Score one for multitasking.

“We never looked at that assassin’s cutie mark. Come to think of it, I don’t remember even seeing one, even in the places there should’ve been one.”

“That’s right, I don’t remember him having one either. Strange… He looked older than me, and almost all ponies find their cutie marks by my age. A ‘blank flank’ as an adult is a statistical anomaly.”

“Sounds like a clue if I ever heard one.”

Twilight chuckled. “You’re starting to sound like a detective.”

“I’m the pet of one.”

“I see. Must have picked up a lot of things from her.”

“Him, actually.”

“Ah, sorry. Ponies have a very high female-to-male ratio, so we tend to assume someone’s female.”

“Whatever. I picked up a few things, yes. I’m mostly self-taught.”

“A cat teaching itself to be a detective?”

“It was a very strange night.”

“You’ve mentioned this night before. I’m not one to pry, but I am curious. Rough, strange… What was that night all about?”

“It was the night I died.”

Silence reigned for several long moments before Twilight Spoke again. “I… see…”


Well I suppose that used to be true. I did die that night, but when I managed to rewind time back ten years, I ended up dying on that day instead. I wasn’t sure how to explain that, so I decided to leave it out.



Time travel can be very tricky sometimes. It really didn’t make sense. But I’m not one to complain about something that worked anyway.



That wasn’t the last of the small talk. Her testing apparently had a few lulling parts where she didn’t need to pay strict attention for a while.


“So, you never heard of magic before tonight, right?” she asked inquisitively.

“Right.”

“Honestly, I’m more surprised that you don’t know about it, and not just because it’s everywhere in Equestria.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, aren’t your ghost tricks magic?”

…That was a very good question, one Sissel didn’t have an immediate answer to. Though he came up with one quickly. “Well, does your magic come from a meteorite of unknown origin crashing down in your hometown’s park?”

“Well… no, unicorn magic is internal-“

“Then it’s not the same. Even if the tricks are magic as you know it, I don’t really see how that makes any difference in how they work.”

“Sort of like Discord’s magic then…” she thought out loud.

“Discord?” he asked.

“He’s the spirit of chaos and disharmony, but not by your definition of spirit. It’s hard to explain, which is… rather standard with him.”

“Not my definition of ‘spirit’… You mean he’s not a ghost?”

“No, he’s… the best description I can think of is the equuspomorphic personification of chaos. As I said, it’s hard to explain.”

“No kidding. My head hurts.” Granted, that mostly because I don’t think “equisspomorphic” is even a word…

“It makes sense if you know him. Anyways, he has his own unique magic that doesn’t work the same way unicorn magic does. In fact, I don’t think even he knows how his magic works. That’s what I mean when I said your ghost tricks were kind of like it.”

“I see… I don’t really know how my powers of the dead work either, just how to use them. And different ghosts get different powers, but heck if I know how to determine who gets what.”

“I’d love the chance to study them closer myself, but we don’t really have the time tonight.”

“Yeah, being murdered in your own home does tend to suggest rearranging your priorities.”

“Exactly.”


Spike came down a short while later carrying a mug in his claws. Hopefully it wasn’t the one I made him drop earlier when I threw fruit all over the place. I really should apologize to the kid, but two things. One, I can’t communicate with him directly unless he gained a core, which since he hadn’t died and come along on one of my tricks was a definite no. Two, he didn’t seem to feel like admitting the full extent of his injuries (which seemed to be healing up nicely) to anybody, so… what was a cat to do?


“Here you go, Twilight,” Spike said as he placed the mug on the table beside her.

“Ahh, thanks, Spike,” she replied. She took telekinetic grip of the ceramic cup and lifted it to her lips, taking a sip of the sweet liquid it contained. “This should keep me perky enough for at least a few more hours. I won't rest until I find out who’s responsible for trying to kill me.”

“You’re going to stay up all night?” he exclaimed. “And I thought I didn’t like my bedtime.”

“This is a special case, Spike,” she answered. “Whoever sent that assassin after me probably knows they failed by now and they might try again, and I intend to be awake for that.”

“But what about the library?” Spike countered. “If you don’t go to bed, you’re not going to be awake enough to open it tomorrow.”

“Then I won’t open it,” Twilight countered right back. “With the smashed-in window, nopony’s going to be surprised if I don’t open. They’d probably be surprised if I do open with a broken window. Spike, really, I know you care about me, but you’re distracting me right now. I need to figure out where this wood came from.”

“…Alright,” he eventually conceded. “You’re the smartest pony I know. If you think it’ll be OK, it’ll be OK. Right?”

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, sipping from her mug again. “I’ve had late-night study sessions before, and this is no different. Except that I’m going to be finding murderers instead of rereading notes.”

Yep, Sissel snarked to himself. No different.

“OK. I trust you, Twilight,” Spike affirmed. “I’ll be upstairs cleaning up that apple juice spill, so gimme a shout if you need anything.”

“Alright. Thanks for understanding.”

Sissel waited for the baby dragon to be back up and through the basement door before resuming his talk with Twilight. “So… cider, eh?”

“Yeah, it’s from Applejack’s farm. We managed to get a few bottles last season.”

“And the drinking helps you focus?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘focused,’ no more than I usually do, but it is helping me keep awake.”

“…Huh.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked, picking up on the puzzlement in Sissel’s “voice.”

“I’m not claiming to be an authority on the stuff, and gods know how little I’ve seen anyone actually drink, but I’ve never heard or seen anyone managing to keep awake with alcohol.”

“…Alcohol?” Now it was Twilight’s turn to be puzzled. “Why would I be drinking alcohol?”

“Well it’s cider. It’s alcoholic, right?”

“No it’s not. I’ve been keeping it refrigerated since I got it.”

“I’m not sure I’m grasping the situation here.”

“Sweet Apple Acres doesn’t make or sell alcoholic cider. In fact, with how cold I’ve been keeping it, it’s very unlikely it’s going to ferment and turn alcoholic.”

“Sorry sorry, I just assumed it was alcoholic. Cider’s alcoholic by default where I’m from.”

“Like how I assumed your owner was female. It’s alright, just a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah…” OK, that was embarrassing as all hell. If that never comes up again, that would be just great.

Twilight took a step back from the table. “OK, I got all the data I need!” she announced, levitating a book with a large picture of a tree on the cover over to her from one of the shelves. “I should be able to figure out what sort of tree this plank was made from now.”

“Great!” How long have we even been down here…?!

It felt like several long moments before Twilight spoke again. “Here it is! According to my calculations and Know a Tree by More Than Its Fruit: A Complete Guide to Trees and Their Characteristics, these planks were made from the trunk of the margrave oak, known to grow primarily in…” She hesitated for a few moments before finishing, most of her initial enthusiasm gone. “…the Everfree Forest.”

“Everfree Forest, eh?” Sissel obliviously commented. “Sounds like the perfect place for a construction company to get plenty of wood. Who has the logging rights there?”

“Nopony.”

“…Come again?”

“Nopony cuts down trees in the Everfree Forest. Most ponies have the common sense to never go in there, much less try to take anything out. And margrave oaks grow in a ring that surrounds the heart of the forest; my friends and I have gone farther in than almost anypony and I’ve never seen any myself.”

Sissel was starting to piece it together. “In other words, these planks have no business being made of margrave oak wood.”

“Precisely!” She laid her forelegs on the desk in a sort of manner that gave Sissel the impression of folding arms. “What pony would be mad enough to go into the depths of the Everfree for wood? How many of these planks were there in that wagon?”

“Well I wasn’t exactly keeping count, mysteriously waking up in a foreign land and all…”

She was looking in entirely the wrong direction, but the feeling in her mind made Sissel know what the glare was intending to communicate immediately.

“…but I’m pretty sure it was at least half a dozen.”

“That’s more than one tree worth… and that’s just what was in that wagon. What is so important about this wood that ponies risked their lives in the Everfree Forest for it?”

“Sounds like the forest is pretty dangerous.”

“Dangerous? Dangerous doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s downright unnatural. All of Equestria requires pony magic in some form or another, as I told you earlier. The innate magic of Earth ponies allows crops to grow, animals need to be guided and provided food, pegasi have to use tornados to get water to the weather factories to make clouds for the weather, you get the idea. Ponies do everything. But the Everfree Forest is different; it runs on all by itself. Growing, animals, clouds and weather… It does it all without pony direction.”

“I’m still having a hard time believing that ponies have to advance nature by itself. I mean, the pegasi manipulating the clouds to change the weather at least makes some sort of sense, but having to remove snow yourself instead of letting it melt, and the ‘running of the leaves’ thing where you make autumn leaves fall by racing…”

“Everything takes care of itself where you come from too?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can’t be from anywhere in Equestria… I mean, I know we already knew that, but that just proves it even more. Unless you’re from the Everfree…”

“That is just impossible. My hometown has a harbor, while from the best of what I can tell, there isn’t an ocean for miles.”

“Well, one mystery at a time. We’re not going to figure out how you got here just yet. Somehow, my killer had access to wood from the depths of the Everfree Forest, so that’s what I need to investigate.”

“So what’s our first step?”

“We need to talk to Fluttershy,” she answered as she started out of the basement and back up the stairs.

Sissel kept pace along the cores around the room until he found his way up to the mop Spike was using to finish cleaning the kitchen floor. He didn’t stay longer than he had to, making his way to the surrounding cabinets. “The animal lover pegasus?”

“Her cottage is near the edge of the Everfree Forest. She doesn’t like to think about it very much, but if there was suspicious activity in there, there’s a chance she heard about something. That’s the best path I can think of.”

Spike paused his mopping. “Uh, Twilight, who are you talking to?”

She stopped in her tracks as her mind briefly raced. “Oh, uh, nopony, Spike,” she replied nervously. “Just… talking to myself, like I sometimes do!” She chuckled nervously.

You’re not fooling anyone, Twilight Sparkle, Sissel thought. You’re about as transparent as I am.

The baby dragon shrugged. “Whatever. So, you’re going out to see Fluttershy? After an attempt on your life?”

“She might have some clues that could point me to who wanted me dead.”

“Twilight, I don’t want to state the obvious, but could it be that the pony that wanted you dead was the one that broke into the library and tried to kill you?”

“There’s more to it than that, Spike. Something he said, something about a ‘true ruler.’ As a princess of Equestria, I can’t just ignore this.”

“Well if it’s about rulers, why don’t you just ask Princess Celestia?”

“…” Sissel could see the realization dawn in Twilight’s eyes. “…Ask the princess. Spike, thank you so much for reminding me! I got so wrapped up in investigating this, it didn’t even occur to me to tell the princess about it!”

“You, forget to write a letter to the princess? The one that turned the entire town upside down over one doll when you couldn’t think of a letter to write to her?”

“Spike, I learned my lesson from that one,” she pressed. “No need to keep bringing it up.”

“OK, OK,” he replied as he propped the mop up against the side of the island. “Want me to take it?”

“Good idea,” she answered.

As they headed back into the library’s main room, Sissel recalled something.


“I just want to find my own lost memory. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”


…Never again, he asserted to himself, following them. He didn’t remember those specific events, but after he was told about them it left a bad taste in his mouth. However I can, I’ll make sure that mistake doesn’t repeat itself. For either of us.

From one of the books, Sissel observed Spike pick up a blank sheet of parchment and dip a feather pen in an ink pot. “Ready,” he announced to Twilight, readying the pen near the paper.

Twilight gave him a nod before she started dictating. “Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing to inform you of a matter of grave importance. This evening, the library was broken into and the perpetrator attempted to take my life. It is only thanks to the help of a ghost named Sissel that-”

“G-Ghost?!” Spike cried, dropping the items he was carrying. Sissel found it amazing how quickly he started shivering. “Th-There’s a ghost around here?!”

“Spike!” Twilight exasperatingly sighed. “Yes, there’s a ghost. I don’t normally put stock into such things, but when one saves your life, that’s pretty good evidence in favor of them existing.”

“W-We’re not being haunted, right?” he nervously asked. Apparently, he hadn’t paid full attention to what she had just said. “I always knew there was something strange about the library being built into a tree!”

“Calm down, Spike!” she replied, attempting to get him to do just that. “The library isn’t haunted. But there is a ghost here. His name is Sissel, and he saved my life.”

It was a few moments before he responded. “…Really? He saved you?”

“Yes. You probably can’t talk to him because of how ghosts… apparently actually work, but I’m sure he can communicate with you in some other way.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll take that as a cue,” Sissel thought to Twilight as he moved over to the horsehead figure again and gave it a turn.

“Whoa!” Spike jumped. “D-Did you see that, Twilight?! The table, it… it turned! All by itself! And without you using your magic!”

“That wasn’t me, Spike,” Twilight explained. “That was Sissel. He’s able to possess objects and do tricks with them like moving or shaking them.”

“Whoa…” This whoa, Sissel noted, was a little more awestruck than the other whoa. ”That’s pretty neat, actually! Though it’s… kinda weird to suddenly have a ghost around, you know.”

“I know. He’s lost and trying to find his way home, and I agreed to help him in exchange for him helping me.”

“Helping you find out who tried to kill you?”

“Yes. I think how he got here has some connection. He arrived here possessing the wood planks the assassin’s compatriots dropped.”

“Well… where’d he come from?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve been so focused on the investigation that I didn’t really think to ask…”

Before the conversation could continue, they heard the sound of fluttering paper. They looked to see the half-written letter laying on the floor beside the feather pen where Spike had dropped them. The page was flapping one end as if there was a slight breeze under it.

“Oh, the letter, right!” Twilight exclaimed. “How do I keep getting on so many tangents tonight?”

“You’re welcome,” Sissel replied as he moved back along the books on the floor from the scroll to the horsehead.

Spike picked the letter and pen up. “Let’s see… ‘It is only thanks to…’” he prompted.

“Ah, right.” Twilight cleared her throat. “It is only thanks to the help of a ghost named Sissel that I am still alive and for the most part unharmed. With this attack fresh on my mind, I can’t seem to find the nerve to sleep tonight, so I’ve decided to investigate and discover the truth behind the attack. I know it’s unwise and will be very dangerous, but I feel I must seek out the cause myself. I shall be fine, as I am both mentally prepared to defend myself against further attack and have faith that Sissel, whose goals seem to line up with mine, will be with me every step of the way. There’s a lot I’ve learned about him already that I really want to tell you, but now is not the time. Who knows what those ponies are plotting in the dark of the night? I’ll keep you updated as often as I can. Any help you can provide will be very much appreciated. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“A-P-P-R-E-S…” Spike struggled to spell.

“’Appreciated’ is spelled with a C, Spike, not an S.”

“I knew that!” he backpedaled. “Aaaaaaand done!”

Twilight looked the parchment over. “Looks good. Send it immediately.”

“Gotcha,” he responded, rolling up the parchment. He held it out and breathed green flame on it. In a flash, it disappeared.

“Uh… Twilight Sparkle, he just burned your letter,” Sissel pointed out, clearly confused.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know that,” Twilight began to reply.

“I wouldn’t know what?” Spike asked.

“Not you, Spike, Sissel.”

“Talking to a ghost only you can hear,” he commented mostly to himself. “That’s not going to get confusing quickly.”

“I like this guy’s moxie,” Sissel commented, wearing a smirk only he could see.

“Small objects like that letter can be sent directly to Princess Celestia through Spike’s fire breath.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“How does THAT work?”

“I’m not entirely sure, I think the Princess set it up. But whatever works, right?”

He couldn’t help but smirk again. “Right. Now, we’re wasting moonlight. If we’re going to talk to Fluttershy, the sooner the better.”

“Right.”

“I’m never going to get used to this…” Spike muttered.

“OK. Before we head out though, one last thing.”

“What is it, Sissel?”

“Maybe you can call her up, let her know we’re going to be there?”

“…Call her? How?”

“…You mean you… don’t have a telephone?”

“What’s a ‘telephone’?”

“…”

“…”

“…OK. We might have a liiittle problem here.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Back home, telephones were things people used to talk to each other over long distances without having to wait for letters to arrive in the mail. They’re everywhere; pretty much every building has at least one phone.”

“That’s amazing!” she interjected. “There’s some communication spells that work like that, but they’ve never seen widespread use.”

“Main point is, one of my tricks lets me travel long distances across phone lines, using the wires that connect phones together. On that night, it was my main way of getting around from place to place. However, with Equestria having no phones…”

“Then… you don’t have a way to get around.”

“Exactly. Unless we come up with something else, I’m stuck going core to core, everywhere.”


This situation reminded me of my old friend, the one who taught me about my powers of the dead. Not every ghost had the ability to move along phone lines, and he was unlucky in that regard. He was chasing somebody, and it was made much more difficult by his inability to use the phone to travel quickly.



Well, Ray… What must have it been like, being you? Tonight, I would find out myself.


Sissel could practically hear the gears in Twilight’s mind turning. “Hmm… We need to get you a core you can possess then… Can’t you possess me? Would that work?”

“Sorry, no. I can’t possess living creatures.”

“Well there has to be something that… …Aha! I got it!”

Twilight’s horn flared magenta, and from the door up the stairs a pair of bags connected by a large strap floated down. They each seemed to have a buckle on the lid in the shape of a six-pointed star, like the one in the center of her cutie mark. “Sissel, does this have a core?”

He popped into the Ghost World for a brief moment to look. “…Yeah, it does, in one of the buckles. What is it?”

“These are my saddlebags,” she explained as she levitated them onto her back. “Ponies use these to carry things around without having to use magic. You can possess them and I can take you where we have to go, and I won’t get tired from constantly levitating something around all night!”

“Sounds like a plan,” he smiled.

She leaned her left side, with its bag, towards the table. “Hop in!”

The ghost had no problem making that jump from the horsehead to the bags. “All set!”

“Spike,” Twilight called to the dragon as she trotted for the door, “I’m heading to Fluttershy’s now. See if you can clean up a little before you go to bed.”

As he passed through the door, he heard Spike groan.






[8:38 PM]



We passed through a lot of Ponyville on our way to Fluttershy’s. Twilight took the opportunity to show me around a little while we were out.



Sugarcube Corner looked a lot like a giant cake, but Twilight said it was a bakery where her friend Pinkie Pie lived and worked. While it was still open, Twilight apparently had enough energy from her cider left that she didn’t feel the need to stop. That, or she felt we had spent too much idle time at the library.



She also showed me Carousel Boutique, a large round building that was apparently a clothing store owned and run by her friend Rarity. I asked what the point was since ponies didn’t seem to wear clothes, and she said they dressed up for special occasions like dances and weddings, along with those that wore clothes because it was their choice. I suppose that made sense to me. I mean, I’ve seen Detective Jowd and the rest of the family dress up in strange clothing one night a year when the weather started getting cold. “Halloween,” I think it was called. People would wear anything. Me, I was content with just my kerchief collar, though I had gotten used to that red suit during the time I thought I was human. I think red suits me.



After that, we went through the main plaza, past the large and round Town Hall, over a bridge, and down a dirt path through the outskirts of town. It didn’t look at all like I knew my own town’s outskirts; it was too… green and nature-y. It looked more like Temsik Park than it did any outskirt. I wondered for a bit if we were even going the right way, but I must’ve been thinking out loud again because Twilight assured me that she knew where she was going. Her horn was glowing faintly, giving her light to see by; it reminded of some candles Jowd had used one time during a blackout.



As we got closer, we started to realize something was terribly wrong.


“Huh…”

As they had been mostly quiet since leaving Ponyville proper, Sissel was jolted from his reverie by the sound of Twilight’s voice. “Something up?”

“It’s a little hard to see in the dark, but… I think I see smoke over the treeline.”

“Smoke? Is that out of place?”

“Yeah. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire after all, that’s just cause and effect, but I don’t know why Fluttershy would start a fire making… that much… smoke…”

“…Something’s up. I don’t even have my body, and yet I can feel my fur standing on end.”

Twilight nodded before picking up the pace to a brisk trot, but it soon became a gallop as she started getting more and more worried.

When she turned the corner, she froze in shock and fear. Her jaw dropped and her eyes seemed to turn into pinpricks.

“No…” Her voice was barely a whisper. Then she said it again, louder. “No…!” The next on was on the verge of a shout. “No!”

The remains of Fluttershy’s cottage were heavily ablaze. The entire top of the building seemed to have exploded, and rubble was scattered everywhere. Everything on or around the house that could be on fire was on fire; the furniture inside, the plants draped around the walls, the wooden front door, even the bridge across the brook in front and some of the surrounding grass. Although as a ghost he didn’t see as living people did, even Sissel was temporarily stunned by the sheer amount of light there was compared to the surrounding night.

“Fluttershy!!” Twilight screamed as she ran towards the burning ruin. “FLUTTERSHY!!”

“Twilight, be careful!” Sissel telepathically shouted. “Don’t get yourself killed again!”

She had to stop at the bridge when it suddenly collapsed from structural damage right in front of her. “Fluttershy!! Where are you?!”

Sissel’s mind was racing. The last time he saw damage on this scale, Yomiel almost killed the junkyard superintendent on that one night by detonating dynamite. Not everything was on fire that time, so somehow he felt this wasn’t dynamite’s doing, though it might have been something similar. He watched as Twilight tried to grab water from the brook with her magic, probably to try and extinguish the fire with it, but the amount of danger and panic she was feeling was causing her to lose focus, resulting in the water only making it a few feet before falling and splattering on the ground, unable to reach its target. All the while the panicked unicorn was crying out for her friend, shouting herself hoarse.

That was not intentional.

He switched over to the Ghost World and inspected the scene as far as he could. The front door had half burned away, but its core was still there in the doorknob, and he could tell that there were still some cores inside. “Twilight Sparkle!” he called after he returned to the living world. “Throw me at the door!”

“What?!” she shouted back.

“Throw the saddlebags at the door! I think I can get inside!”

“But how will you put out the fire?! There’s nothing in Fluttershy’s that would stop this inferno!”

“The one way I can: by stopping it from starting in the first place!”

“But that’d only work if she’s already…! Already…!”

“I know, but we don’t have many other options! I promise, one way or another, I will save her! Now throw the bags!”

Twilight was silent for a while before grabbing the saddlebags in her telekinesis and flinging them as far as she could towards the front door. They stopped a couple feet short of hitting it, but it was close enough for him to reach out and possess the doorknob.

The inside of the cottage wasn’t much better than outside. Debris was scattered everywhere, twisted remains of burned cages and burning throw pillows, small lengths of wood and what looked like grass green roof shingles, and what seemed to be the remains of tiny wooded walkways and staircases. The walls were heavily burned, but seemed to have originally been brown, with a green wooden floor. A staircase leading up stood in the far left corner, with the remains of a green couch and a broken floor lamp next to it and its body having bookshelves built into it. There were two other passageways, neither having doors, one in the middle of the left wall and the other in the far right corner. The most prominent feature was a stone fireplace and chimney on the near right; although its adornments were trashed like the rest of the decorations in the room, it mostly seemed to have gotten through whatever happened unscathed.
He could see two corpses lying near the middle of the room. Both had their coats burnt off and a few chunks of their limbs were just plain gone. One was much smaller than the other and just barely managed to resemble a rabbit, while the other larger one was definitely that of a pony.


That has to be her. Fluttershy. I wonder who the rabbit is, though… Could talk to him myself, and I could probably possess either corpse to go to the same time period, but she’s the one I really have to speak to.


The Ghost World, showed that thankfully, despite all the damage, there were still cores around. The closest was in a hook holding a hanging bird perch to a piece of timber that had fallen and was leaning against the wall; that allowed him to move down to the perch itself. He rocked it and, like with the salad spoon earlier, threw it further into the room. From there, he hopped over to an overturned half-burnt paper box that was surrounded by spilled acorns, from which he was just barely able to reach the pony’s dead body.





It must have been some time since she had died, Sissel figured, as the soul was awake when he arrived, though it was still in the shape of a blue flame. “Oh! Um…” she said (Or perhaps thought is the better term.) in a gentle voice that seemed to radiate kindness. “Excuse me, Mr. Cat. If it’s not too much of a bother, would you happen to know who I am?”

“Well, I’ll take my best guess,” Sissel replied. “I’d say you’re Fluttershy, and you’re the animal caretaker that lives in this house. That ring any bells?”

“Fluttershy…? Oh… Oh no…”

In his expert non-human fashion opinion, Sissel thought she looked much better with her hair. Her coat was a sunny yellow. Her mane and tail were colored a gentle pink and were much longer than Twilight’s, with a large bang that easily covered a whole side of her face. She had wings like Twilight did, though they were a little smaller, and she lacked a horn, fitting the description of a pegasus. Her cutie mark was of three pink butterflies happily flitting about.
Her turquoise eyes, however, didn’t look happy at all.

“Angel!” she whispered with great duress; were it not for the fact ghost communicated by thought, Sissel thought he otherwise wouldn’t have heard her at all. “He’s… He’s dead…! H-He was trying to save me and…! And he’s…!” She looked to be on the verge of tears.

“W-Whoa, hang on there, calm down,” Sissel said, attempting to reassure her. As part of this effort, he moved up and tried rubbing up against her leg. He did that to try and mark things as his, and it always seemed to make the people he did it to happy.

“Oh, Mr. Cat…” she said quietly, looking down at him, and giving him a gentle hug; more for her benefit than his. “I keep hearing him… His voice right next to me… Sad and confused… But no matter how hard I try, I can’t reach him…”

Twilight said that Fluttershy could communicate very well with animals, he thought. I suppose that’s true even when she’s dead. Is “Angel” the name of that dead rabbit…?

“Y-Yes…” she replied. “That’s him… He tried to help me get away… I-I think… It’s all so hard to remember…”

Sissel could see tears pooling in her eyes and running down her face. “Your heart’s really been breaking for him, eh?”

She looked up and gave a little nod.

Concerned more for her friend than herself… I know a certain friend of mind she’d get along great with. “Well… what if I told you I could fix all this?”

She stopped sniffling. “You… You can fix this, Mr. Cat…? But… But how…?”

“Don’t you worry,” he replied, smiling cockily. “This cat’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. Ghost tricks, that is. Watch this.”






4 Minutes


8:32 pm – Fluttershy’s Cottage


Before Death


Fluttershy gasped in amazement. “My house…! It’s… It’s fixed! And everypony’s alive again! Oh thank you, Mr. Cat! Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Sissel replied, slightly taken aback by how Fluttershy interpreted seeing her cottage intact again. “I didn’t fix your house. I took us back in time to four minutes before you died.”

“…Oh.”

“Yeah, and you and Angel both are going to die again in four minutes if we don’t do something. First we’re going to see how it played out before, and then we use what we see to try and change that fate.”

“Have… you had to do this before, Mr. Cat?”

“Yeah. Twilight Sparkle will be able to explain everything. That is, once you’re alive again.”

“Oh, you know Twilight? That’s good.”

“OK, time to set the clock in motion,” he announced. Judging from the damage from before, though, this is not going to be pretty.

“I’m not sure I can watch myself die like this…” Fluttershy winced.

“Feel free to cover your eyes or something if you want,” Sissel replied. “I’ll watch.”

Fluttershy swung open the cottage door. “OK everypony,” she said to the animals gathered behind her. “Whoever wants to come inside, come inside.”

Almost immediately, a pair of mice rolling a large cheese wheel between them passed her in the house, running across the room and stopping near the couch at the far end, where they leaned their cheese wheel against one of the legs. They each took a little bit out and started nibbling away.

The pegasus quickly stepped aside to make space in the doorway for the other animals coming in. The quickest in were several small birds, who flew up to the half-caged perches that hung from the ceiling. The next was a white rabbit, followed by a pair of porcupines, three squirrels, and a bear. The rabbit, Angel, went through the open side door into the kitchen. The squirrels scampered up a little stairway near the door which lead to a hole high in the same wall as the kitchen door. The porcupines milled over to a corner near the other door, while the bear curled up and settled down in the middle of the room.

Seeing that no one else was coming in, Fluttershy closed the door. The weather pony report on the town bulletin board said tonight’s nightly breezes would be a bit on the chilly side, a consequence of leaf drying for the approaching autumn. Angel always stayed inside the cottage with her, but she supposed that was the reason Mr. and Ms. Porcupine and the squirrel family were staying with her tonight.

She walked over to the bear and petted his head gently. “Don’t worry, Harry,” she told him. “I spoke with Bench Press this afternoon, and your cave will be cleared out by tomorrow.”

The bear dozily smiled at that.

Angel ran back in, carrying a sheet of paper in his teeth, which he showed to Fluttershy.

“What is it, Angel…? A salad…? Oh right, you haven’t eaten yet, have you? I’ll go and get that ready.” She took the page from the rabbit and headed through the kitchen door.

On a small catwalk above, sized similarly to the stairs and weaving around the bird cages, two of the three squirrels emerged from an even higher hole in the wall than the one they first vanished into and ran along its length. Between them carrying what looked to be a small folded open-top paper box loaded with acorns. The third one came chasing after them, chattering angrily. The two of the box were forced to slow down on one of the last curves, allowing their pursuer to catch up and stop them when they were over the couch. The third squirrel apparently gave them a good chattering-to, as he lead the two guilty squirrels slowly back the way they came.

Meanwhile, the porcupines had wandered near the mice and their cheese wheel, looking hungry. The mice were apparently feeling too greedy to share, and so quickly started to roll the cheese wheel away. They were concerned enough with not sharing their cheese, in fact, they didn’t notice the bear in the way, bumping roughly into him. This woke the large creature up enough to give them an annoyed growl. The bear raised a paw and swatted it at them, only to hit the porcupine that was following the mice. Roaring loudly with pain, the bear jumped back, causing the cottage to shake slightly.

Fluttershy rushed back into the room. “Harry! What happened?” She gave a quick examination and saw that a few porcupine quills were stuck in his front paw. “Quills…? Did you get too close to Mr. Porcupine without asking him again?” she asked tenderly as she removed the quills with her teeth and petting him with a free hoof. “Don’t worry, Harry, this will stop hurting in a bit.”

It was just as she was finishing when there was a sudden clatter from the fireplace, causing the pegasus mare to jump a little in alarm. She looked towards the source to find… something bouncing out and landing a few feet away from its point of entry. It looked like a rounded crystal, with a deep purple glow and a surface that seemed not unlike a disco ball with the center of each mirror sticking out a little in the middle like a stud.

And a burning fuse sticking out of it.

And two more of its identical friends following it from down the fireplace chute. They even had fuses of similar length… that were similarly getting shorter every second.

“Oh dear…!” Fluttershy said, slowly backing away from them. She didn’t know what they were, but they weren’t giving her any good feelings, and judging from the reactions of the animals nearby, they weren’t getting any either. She wasn’t much of a shouter, but her voice did get louder for once. “Everypony, get out, quickly!”

That was all the prompting they needed before running for the door, any open windows, any way out of the house. Harry was the first to the front door, only to get himself stuck, blocking the doorway. The birds flew for the windows. The squirrels and the mice took the paths on the walls out, so preoccupied they even left their food behind, the box of acorns falling and spilling on the floor. The porcupines had fled into the door they were near earlier, only to hurry back several seconds later, having found the bathroom to be a dead end, and exit through the kitchen door.

Fluttershy, however, did not leave, given that there was a bear stuck in the door. She could’ve run for the kitchen door out, but she didn’t want to risk her friend with whatever those crystals were doing. She pushed as hard as she could against his rump, the back of her mind wondering why he was getting stuck now when he got in just fine. “Suck it in, Harry!” she shouted. “C’mon, you can do it!”

It was then that a question hit her: where was Angel?

Then she saw him. He was by the door to the kitchen and was gesturing frantically for her to come with him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flames on the fuses begin to disappear into the crystals. “Angel!” she cried, starting to run towards him-

BOOOOOM! There was a brilliant flash of light and a massive roar. Her body, suddenly aflame, was thrown against the bear’s rear, where it bounced off and landed in the center of the room, dislodging the large ursine from the doorway in the process. She faintly heard a soft pat as the corpse of a rabbit landed next to her. She could feel her coat burn right off her skin before all feeling disappeared completely.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, in her last barely aware moments, the ceiling caved in.

“Th-Those were bombs…!” Sissel could barely get the words out. “This… This is just cruel!”

“Oh no…” Fluttershy cried. “He’s dead again…!”

“C-Calm down!” Sissel attempted to assure her; he just met her, and she was already tugging at his heartstrings. “We can still fix this. Remember, I can still rewind time back to the beginning of these four minutes as often as I need to.”

“We have to save him, Mr. Cat!” she pleaded. “There has to be something we can do! There just has to!”

“I know there is, Fluttershy,” he answered. “We’ll save him and you both.” There’s no doubt that these two killings are attempts by the same organization. The weapons are both magical exploding crystals, illegal in most of Equestria, and on the same night… It can’t be a coincidence. Though I’ll have time to connect those dots with Twilight Sparkle later. Right now, I got a young lady and her pet to save.






[Trick Time!]


The first step was natural; as the cheese wheel rolled by the mice passed by the point where Fluttershy’s corpse was in the future, Sissel moved over to it, and then to one of the throw pillows on the couch once the wheel reached its destination.

“OK… So you die when the bombs blew up the house right there in the open,” he went over with Fluttershy’s ghost. “When I first came here, I saw the chimney and fireplace weren’t damaged at all. If we keep the bombs from leaving the chimney, it should be able to cushion the blow enough that no one gets hurt.”

“OK, if you think that’s the best option…” she replied.

How to get to the fireplace, though? he wondered. This may be a “throw pillow,” but I can’t do any tricks with it, much less throw it.

The next object to catch his attention was the lamp, so he hopped into it. Aside from the fireplace, it was the only source of light in the room; he toyed with the idea of turning it off until he figured it wouldn’t help. Looks like the best place I can get to the upper areas from, though.

An idea was forming, but he’d have to wait a bit. He watched as the bear laid down and Fluttershy moved to pet him.

“…OK, I’m honestly curious,” he inquired. “You have a bear. In your house.”

“His name is Harry,” Fluttershy replied. “The entrance to his cave fell in a few days ago, so he’s been sleeping over.”

“I’m a city cat,” he responded. “If it weren’t for Kamila telling me about her time at the zoo, I wouldn’t know what a bear is, but I’m pretty sure they live out in the wild…?”

“Well, his cave is a while away by hoof,” she explained. “Every day, I bring him berries to eat.”

Almost like a pet bear… he thought. Are all animals in Equestria treated like this…?

He didn’t have to wait much longer as the squirrels brought along their box of acorns. A look in the Ghost World confirmed his hopes; the box had a core just like it did before (For certain definitions of “before.”).

“Oh, naughty them!” Fluttershy commented.

“Huh?” Sissel asked, wondering what she meant.

“That box is used to help the squirrels move the acorns up into their homes in the trees. Looks like they cut all the strings it’s supposed to have.”

“The squirrels need ponies with boxes to help move acorns up trees?”

“Well, pegasi like me can fly them up. The boxes are for ponies who can’t fly.”

The more I hear about how animals live here in Equestria, the more weirded out I get...

“Why, what’s so weird about it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Um…” Sissel thought quickly, put on the spot like this. “I’ll explain later.”

He refocused himself as the squirrels and their box moved over the couch. From the lamp, he found that, yes, he could reach the box from here, and from there stretched out to try and grab onto the nearest of the hanging bird perches. To his pleasant surprise, it was just within his reach. Remember this trick from his way in, he started swinging the perch back and forth. The birds scattered and flitted about as their roost was disturbed, eventually finding other places to stand around the room. Sissel resisted the urge to try and pounce them as he eventually swung the perch off the hook, where it landed with a soft thud onto the back of the sleeping bear below.

“Um, it’s very nice of you to give Harry something, Mr. Cat,” Fluttershy commented, “but I think the birds were, uh, still using it, and I think he may prefer a pillow, if you don’t mind me saying.”

“Not a problem,” he replied. “If I’m right, we’ll be the ones getting the most use out of it. Just watch.”

The cheese wheel bumped into Harry at that point. The big bear growled softly before raising his paw attempting to swat at the mice, only to hit the porcupine. He roared as he reared up… and flung the perch across the room and onto the fireplace mantle.

“Bullseye!” Sissel declared, seeing the core for the fireplace’s grill right next to him.

A simple trick pushed the grate in, closing up the fireplace above the main hearth. A couple seconds later, there was a soft clatter as the three crystal bombs landed on it, bouncing lightly; despite their potency, it was clear they weren’t very dense.

“Perfect!” Sissel declared. “That should do it!”

“Um… Mr. Cat?” Fluttershy spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“I, uh… I know you probably know what you’re doing, but… if the bombs are stuck in the chimney, then I don’t see them immediately and… there’s maybe slightly less warning than there was before…?”

“…”

“…”

Sissel’s eyes widened. “…Uh oh.”


[Time Till Death: 3]


“I’m sorry,” she started immediately apologizing. “I’m probably just overthinking it-”

“No, you’re absolutely right!” he shouted back in reply. “The bombs didn’t make enough noise for you to notice them when they hit the grill! You don’t know they’re there!”

“But then how are we going to get everypony out?”

Sissel quickly scanned the room again, trying to find something they could set off that would give Fluttershy and the animal’s another reason to leave the house, but couldn’t find anything. “…Blast, I have no idea! This room doesn’t even have a fire alarm! Even if there was, there’s no cores anywhere near here except the perch’s!”

“Uh…” Fluttershy’s voice had risen an octave or two. “Speaking of blasts…” The fuses on the bombs were quickly getting shorter.


[Time Till Death: 2]


Meanwhile, the four-minutes-before Fluttershy turned her head, looking around. “Where’s that hissing noise coming from…? I thought Mr. and Mrs. Snake wanted to stay at their den tonight…”

One of the mice on the floor squeaked as it heard Fluttershy’s wonderings. Following its higher sense of hearing, it trailed the sound of hissing to the fireplace… and upon seeing what was there, promptly turned tail and ran, squeaking loudly.

“What was there?” Fluttershy replied as she hurried over to check herself. She looked up at the closed opening of the fireplace and her eyes immediately went wide. “Oh dear…! Everypony, get out, quickly!”


[Time Till Death: 1]


The evacuation went along much as it did the first time. Harry got stuck in the door, the squirrels and mice dropped their food and escaped, and the porcupines took their wrong turn and double-backed. Fluttershy struggled to help the bear through the door. Even though the bombs weren’t out in the open, Sissel dimly reflected that keeping the bombs in the chimney didn’t seem to change Fluttershy’s fate at all. There was still a chance that the explosion would be adequately contained by the stone chimney, but he was feeling like he’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.


[Time Till Death: 0]


As the fuses started to vanish into the crystals, he decided he didn’t want his soul in anything that was going to be immediately destroyed and hopped back to the perch.

Fluttershy looked around and spotted Angel in the doorway, gesturing for her to come with him. “Angel!” she shouted as she ran for him-

BOOOOOM! A massive burst of flame emerged from the fireplace as the three bombs detonated… and slammed Fluttershy into the opposite wall.

Angel panicked and scattered, and Sissel swore the portions he heard of Fluttershy’s dying scream would be burned into his mind for eternity.


[Time’s Up]


He stopped time on instinct. The world turned grey as it froze instead of the Ghost World’s usual red. He was familiar with this sort of scene, and he didn’t like it one bit, since it was very clear what it meant.

Fluttershy was breathing so rapidly from shock she’d probably die from hyperventilation if she wasn’t already dead. The hairs of her coat were on end in a way that reminded Sissel very much of himself. Her eyes were so bugged out he almost thought they’d fall out, and were emitting a veritable river of tears. The squeals of pain and sorrow she was emitting were ripping his heart apart.

The only thing the cat could bring himself to say was, “…That wasn’t it.”

He spent what felt like hours (it was hard to tell exactly how long, since time had stopped flowing) comforting and reassuring her that he could rewind back to the beginning and things could still be fixed, and calming her down before getting to the topic of their next attempt.

“Stopping the bombs in the chimney doesn’t work then…” he thought out loud. “So the only way to save you would be to keep the bombs from being dropped down the chimney in the first place.”

“So we’d have to get on the roof,” Fluttershy replied. “But… that would mean having to get up through the second floor.”

“A second floor? This cottage has a second floor?”

“It’s not very big, Mr. Cat; it just has my bedroom. …I think. That came back to me, but not much else, sorry…”

Sissel recalled the stairs in the room he had spent the last four minutes moving around in. “So if the bedroom’s on the second floor, what’s on the first floor?”

“Um…” She seemed confused. “The… living room…? Where we are now…?”

“…Ah, I see,” he replied. First non-alcoholic cider, then first floors being second floors… I’m sensing a pattern here. Probably be for the best if I just rolled with it. “We could stop the bombs on that floor… No, you wouldn’t be able to hear them hit the grill or their fuses, and they’d probably take the ceiling of the ground floor off in the process, which would likely kill you when the entire floor above came down. So we still need to stop the bombs from going down the chimney; even if they get lit, if they’re on the roof, only the fir- second floor should be destroyed and everyone should live.”

“You really think it’d be OK for them to go off there? Those bombs destroyed most of the cottage, so why wouldn’t…?”

“The debris scattered around when you first died included what looked like roof tiles and pieces of decoration I didn’t see in the main room, which shows the ceiling and some of the second floor weren’t burned away or blown up; they collapsed down when the bombs detonated on the ground floor and weakened the walls. It’s probably a bit of a long shot, but at the roof or higher, there’s a better chance of everyone surviving than right now. It’s our best lead.”

Fluttershy nodded, though it wasn’t long before she voiced another concern. “Not that I want to doubt, but… are you sure we still have a chance, Mr. Cat?”

“There’s still a chance as long as I don’t give up,” he answered, steeling a look in his eyes. “And I am a very stubborn cat.”






 [Trick Time!]


After rewinding to the beginning of the four minutes and moving from the cheese wheel to the throw pillow, Sissel took a moment to take another look around, this time stretching his perception as a ghost outside the boundaries of the room. It took longer than he wanted, but eventually he managed to see outside the cottage to the grounds around it… and a particular something parked just across the little bridge.

“That cart…!”

“What cart?” Fluttershy asked. “That carpentry cart? If, y’know, you don’t mind me asking…”

“The same ponies are responsible!” Sissel declared.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Cat, I don’t quite follow…”

“I’ll explain later. Right now, let’s get up to the roof. We have to get up there before the bombs go down the chimney, so we have even less time than before.”

Sissel figured out how to do that easily enough. When the squirrels came to above the couch, he hopped right for the box and the hanging perch. From there, he moved up to the hook it was hanging from and looked up just above him.

A core on the floor above. Perfect. He possessed it, moving up into Fluttershy’s bedroom.

He found himself possessing some form of pony-shaped plush toy inside a wooden chest that stood at the foot of a small bed, which was covered with a checkered-butterfly patterned quilt and white sheets. Instead of straight-out brown, the walls were a homely tan, though the floor remained as green as the ground level. On either side of the head of the bed stood a small bookcase with books and various other knick-knacks and a side table with a pitcher standing on it. Hanging from the wall above the bed were two hanging scrolls, one of a grassy meadow with a rainbow and the other of the sun on a purple sky. In the expected place from the ground floor stood a fireplace, currently empty of even firewood. In the rafters above, several birds nests had been built, some small vines hung, and a few birdhouses were strung up. In the corner, the staircase from the floor below emerged.

After gaining his bearings, Sissel decided to check on the top of the chimney and focused his perspective upwards, past the roof. It’s time we got a good look at our killer.

The roof itself was a large moss-covered dome that gave the whole cottage the impression of being carved out of a hill. The most noticeable feature was the tall chimney, which extended high enough above the roof proper that two more birdhouses could fit onto the sides. Well, by “most noticeable,” I’m pretty sure I mean “the only things up there.” Not a lot to work with.

Though the thing that drew the most attention was the mare with light grey fur that was just now finishing her climb onto the roof. She wore a very familiar black hat and vest and had sharp violet eyes. Her darker grey mane was styled into curls, and like the assassin before here, she had no cutie mark. In her teeth, she was carrying a black suitcase that was too large to be practical for these sorts of stunts.

Gaining her footing, she laid the suitcase down beside her. “Whew, finally!” she exclaimed in a hushed voice as she wiped her brow; while it was softer than the other assassin’s voice, it still held an obvious bitter edge to it. “Took forever to find someplace around back to climb up- whoa no you don’t!”

The case had started to slide off the edge of the roof. Quick as a wink, she grabbed onto the handle with her teeth again and pushed it towards the center of the roof, where it balanced on the tip of the dome.

“You’re not running off on me, little guys,” she said to the suitcase. “When you go down, it’ll be down the chimney, just as His Majesty ordered! Got it!”

“Looks like we found our crystal bomber,” Sissel commented.

“She’s the one trying to kill me…?” Fluttershy wondered. “But why…? I’m just an animal caretaker… And who’s ‘His Majesty?’ Equestria is ruled by princesses…”

“First things first, we have to stop her from getting those bombs down the chimney.” Re-entering the Ghost World, Sissel noticed something strange. “…Huh,” he commented. “The grills for this first floor fireplace don’t seem to be here.”

“That’s odd…” Fluttershy wondered. “I wonder where they went…”

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t think it’s so much ‘I don’t know’ as much as it’s ‘I don’t remember’… I want to say they’re getting repaired, but I’m not sure…”

Also means even if we wanted to stop the bombs on this floor, we couldn’t, he thought. Probably why they got down there the first time.

Feeling the time crunch, Sissel didn’t waste a second. From the toy, he went to the chest then to the bedsheets, which he then pulled up to the pillow. Then to the larger hanging scroll, which he then rolled up. It quickly fell back down again, so he tried again and hopped to the nearest birdhouse when he was at the highest point. He set it swinging and got to another birdhouse, the one that hung closest to the ceiling. From there, he managed to reach out through the roof itself and cling to the bomber’s suitcase.

The bomber undid the clasps on the case and opened it up. Nestled in foam padding were the three spherical purple crystals. “I don’t know why His Majesty picked me for this job instead of a pegasus,” she thought out loud. “But oh, I should count my blessings. He’s bound to notice me after I do this job so cleanly~ And then he’ll say, ‘Your bombs set not only the target aflame, but also my heart~ Come, my dear, let us dine together on the blood of the unworthy~’ Oh, my sweet dark grey Grenadier, he’d scoop me up in his arms and-~” Her romantic musings were halted as she found herself starting to lose balance from her gestures. It only took a moment to regain them. “Silly Bossa Boom, getting yourself carried away again. I’ll have plenty of time to think about him after she’s dead~”

“Quirky hitmen,” Sissel mused. “Finally, something this world and mine have in common.”

“It’s very nice that she has a very special somepony,” Fluttershy commented, “but, um, I’d rather her idea of romance not involve killing me.”

The bomber, apparently named Bossa Boom, scooped up the three bombs from the case and nested them in her left arm before looking up at the top of Fluttershy’s chimney. “Hmm, don’t think I can reach that high…” She looked at the case and got an idea, flipping it closed and giving it a light push. It slid easily across the mossy roof; on instinct, Sissel influenced it into turning around so the joint on the bottom was facing away from the chimney when it came to rest against it.

“So, uh, if you don’t mind me saying,” Fluttershy propositioned, “this is where we move to the birdhouses, right…?”

The ghost cat gave the situation a quick review. “…Actually, I think I’ve got a better idea.”

Giving her hooves one last rub-together, Bossa Boom three-legged walked across the roof and got on top of the suitcase, which due to its initial contents had an understandably solid hide. The plan was to use the suitcase and birdhouses as stepping stones to reach the top of the chimney, where she would then light the bombs and drop them.

Or at least it was, until the suitcase flung itself open while she was standing on it.

“Ahh!” she shouted in alarm as she was thrown onto her back, tossing her cargo in the air. She regained her bearings almost ridiculously quick as she noticed the crystals were peaking their arc and starting to fall over the site of the cottage. “No!” she cried, quickly getting on her hooves and making a mad dive for them. She went over the edge of the roof as she leapt for them, and just barely managed to hold on to the edge while clinging to the bombs with her other hoof. After several moments to make sure she wouldn’t fall back to the ground, she heaved a sigh of relief.

Sissel needed a moment to tear his sight away from that feat of dexterity before focusing down on the ground floor. He couldn’t hear down that far, but he did see Fluttershy finish tending to Harry and return back through the door, Angel following her this time. “Looks like we managed to change your fate and give you some more time.”

“Yay!” Fluttershy cheered much quieter than he expected. “That means Angel and I are saved, right? I mean, if it’s OK for me to ask…”

“Not yet. The bomber’s still here, those bombs are still ready to blow once they’re lit, and I doubt she’s going to fall for that trick again. We need to think of something else, and quick.”


[Fate Changed!]


Since she only had one hoof available to her, Bossa Boom faced a difficult challenge in getting back on the roof, but not one that Sissel would think she’d fail to overcome for too long. Closing the suitcase, he quickly checked out the cores of the two birdhouses on the chimney. Like with the ones on the floor below, he found he could rock these, but they were fairly well-secured to the stone and only jittered back and forth for a bit. Would probably make her lose her balance if she was stepping on it, but given what she just did, she’d regain it quickly.

Two birdhouses to rock and a suitcase to open and close. I don’t know if I’m just losing my memory again, but I don’t remember a time I had so little to work with.

“Don’t give up, Mr. Cat…!” Fluttershy silently cheered. “You can do it…! As long as you don’t give up, there’s still a chance…! That’s what you said…!”

…That I did. I’ve got a promise to keep. There’s a solution here, I just have to think of it.

Groaning loudly from strain, Bossa Boom pulled herself back up onto the roof. “No one told me that suitcase was spring-loaded…” she angrily thought aloud. “My sweetheart better treat me to candlelight dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Equestria for all I’m going through…!”

Sissel, meanwhile, was still thinking hard. Shaking the birdhouses will only cause her to stumble a bit if I rock it while she’s standing on it… If all I can do is stumble her up… then I have to do that stumbling at the worst possible moment for her.

Carrying the bombs with her, the bomber practically stomped up to the suitcase, almost slipping once on the moss, and turned it around so the clasps were facing outward. “There. That should teach you, you naughty thing.” She got on top of it and continued with her initial plan, climbing up the side of the chimney by using the birdhouses as footholds.

“I’m surprised these flimsy things aren’t giving under her weight,” Sissel noted as he sat waiting in the topmost birdhouse.

“Y-You think they’re flimsy…?” Fluttershy squeaked. “But I used the strongest wood I could find making them…”

“I-I’m sure they’re perfectly strong…” Sissel backpedaled. She made these herself? Not surprising, except… how could she use tools like that without hands?

Fluttershy apparently didn’t have an answer to that, as he got no response. He waited to pounce as Bossa Boom completed her ascension and stood, her rear hooves on either side of the birdhouse he was occupying, where she could easily look down the chimney.

“Now where did…?” she asked herself as she dug her snout into the inside of her vest. A moment later, she pulled it out to reveal a match she was holding in her teeth. She struck it against the top of the chimney, setting it alight, and ran it across the tips of each crystal bomb’s fuse before spitting it down the flue. “Here’s to king, country, and love, sister,” she said to apparently her target as she held the bombs above the chimney. “Shame you can’t be part of any of it~”

“Now!” Sissel shouted as he shook the birdhouse as hard as he could.

“Whoa-oa!” the bomber shouted as her foothold rapidly shifted. She tilted sharply backwards for a moment; she managed to catch herself in time to keep from falling, but in the process accidently tossed all three bombs backwards. They bounced gently on the roof and rolled to a stop against the side of the suitcase opposite the chimney, the little trip doing nothing to smother their fuses.

Sweating a little, Bossa Boom quickly made her way back down and scooped up the bombs again. “What happened there…?” The constant shortening of the fuses refocused her attention very quickly. “I’ll think about it when I’m making my report,” she affirmed before starting her trek up again, and once again, stood on the top birdhouse, this time checking and double-checking her position to make sure she had the right balance.

“Oh no you don’t, you naughty thing,” Sissel teased as he rocked the birdhouse again.

“Whoa whoa…!” Bossa Boom emitted as she struggled for her balance. She didn’t fall backwards or drop the bombs, but she did drop one hoof down to the birdhouse below. “I-I can still make the drop from here!” she reassured herself, nervously glancing at the metaphorically-ticking bombs.

Then the suitcase flew open again and struck her in the back of that lower leg.

“GAH!” she yelped, flinging the bombs back again in reflex to hold her wound. Like before, the bombs hit the roof and rolled to rest against the suitcase.

After giving her leg a quick rub, Bossa Boom looked again at the bombs… and their stubby fuses. “U-Uh… close enough!” she declared, jumping down to the roof’s surface. She probably intended to run to the edge, but the slope and slippery moss made her trip and fall off instead, landing in some thick and rough-looking shrubbery. It would be several moments before she could untangle herself and run for the carpentry cart.

Meanwhile, on the roof, Sissel closed the suitcase’s lid again, which put the carrier’s core right next to the violent violet crystals. Fluttershy’s nervousness was palpable.

“M-Mr. Cat, we’re… we’re right next to…!”

“I know,” he replied. I don’t like it much either, but those nice birdhouses are going to be shredded wood once those bombs blow. This looks tough enough to take the blow, though I’m just clinging to hope here…

Down on the ground floor, Fluttershy had reentered the main room carrying a salad on a plate in her teeth and set it down in the middle of the clear patch near the door. Angel hopped up to it and gave it a quick examination before taking a lettuce leaf and chewing on it. The pegasus then heard a sound of something large falling into the bushes outside. “Wh-What was that?” she asked, almost immediately on edge. The animals except Harry all looked up, but made no further action.

Sissel watched as the fuses disappeared into the crystals for the third time tonight. “Brace yourself!” he shouted to Fluttershy.

BOOOOOM! With a bright flash and the sound of rushing fire, the crystals exploded. The roof and most of the upper half of the second floor were blown to smithereens immediately, and several objects caught on fire or were otherwise blown apart. The suitcase itself suffered massive damage, destroying most of its casing, but the metal frame remained intact. The force of the explosion pushed the suitcase against the chimney, which suffered heavy cracks but otherwise remained standing, and then once that force ran out, it slid down the near-sheer sloped and bounced off the fireplace mantle, landing with a clatter amidst the rubble that accumulated on the floor.

The explosion had also caused the whole cottage to violently shake. Fluttershy freaked at the combined quaking and loud noise, and immediately dived for cover under the couch faster than anyone would’ve imagined possible. All of the other small animals ran for other cover. The birds fled out the windows; the squirrels ran back into the hole in the wall from whence they came, dropping their box of acorns in their wake; and Angel and the porcupines joined Fluttershy under the sofa. Harry was woken up by the sound and, grumpy at being awakened from his sleep, roared loudly at the ceiling.

Sissel released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He was still alive.

…OK, he was dead, but he still existed. That was the idea. He would live to- no, wait… Ah, forget it.

“Oh thank the gods…” he said, relief filling his voice. “We survived that….”

“T-Th-That was way too close…” Fluttershy stuttered, her nerves all on end.

“But we made it, let’s be glad for that… And better than that, the bombs went off, the bomber fled, and everyone’s still alive.”

“D-Does that mean…?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Your and Angel’s deaths have been erased, for good this time.”


[Fate Averted!]


As he stopped time to prepare for the trip to the new “present,” Sissel noticed Fluttershy was, like her four-minutes-before self, cowering with her head covered up. “Something wrong?” he asked.

She peeked out from beneath her hooves. “I-I’m alright…” she whispered. “It was just really scary back there…”

“Can’t blame you for that. Believe me, I wouldn’t want to be caught next to a bomb going off either.”

“…” Slowly but steadily, helped by Sissel rubbing up against her again, Fluttershy got back to her feet. “…Mr. Cat, before we go back to the present, can… can I ask you something? I mean, if that’s OK…”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Right before we went back in time… which is very nice, by the way… you said something about ‘ghost tricks’…?”

“Yes, my powers of the dead. They allow me to possess and manipulate objects, and go back in time by possessing someone’s corpse.”

“Powers of the dead…? So that means… you’re a ghost too…?”

“Well, you’re not a ghost anymore, or at least you won’t be when we head back, but yes, I’m a ghost.”

“But then… how did you die…?”

“…” Many silent moments passed. Sissel couldn’t help but avert his glance.

“I-It’s OK if you don’t want to answer, sorry I offended you-” Fluttershy hastily apologized.

“No, it’s not that. I’m not offended. Just… it’s a really long story, and I’ve got other things on my mind.”

“OK… If it makes you feel better, you can tell me another time, alright…?”

“Sure, thanks. By the way, my name’s not Mr. Cat. It’s Sissel.”

“Sissel…? That’s a nice name. Seems more suited for a girl cat, though… I mean, not that it’s not alright for you!” she backpedaled.

Sissel gave her another rub and purr to let her know she was forgiven. “It’s fine. Now, let’s get you back to your alive-again rabbit friend, shall we?”

She nodded.






As we traveled back to the new “present” that awaited us, thoughts about what I had learned during the last four minutes filled my mind.



It wasn’t a lone assassin that tried to kill Twilight Sparkle. He was a member of a group of assassins. What was a group of assassins called anyway? A murder, maybe? Just for the joke? Back on topic, they were led by someone they treated as royalty, someone male. He had given the two of them their assignments of killing Twilight and Fluttershy.



Fluttershy…



“She’s the one trying to kill me…? But why…? I’m just an animal caretaker…”



That was a good question, actually. Why target Fluttershy? Because she was a friend of Twilight Sparkle? If that was the case, that would mean her other four friends would be in their sights tonight.



And could this all be connected to the margrave oaks and where my body is…?



If I knew assassination groups, they wouldn’t make a move like this if they didn’t want it finished quickly. By dawn, I felt that if I did nothing, they would accomplish what they set out to do and erase any evidence they could get their hands… paws… hooves on. Except for the line of dead bodies in their wake.



It would seem then I would have another story that lasted one night only…