“Do you want to come and hang with me?” the little creme colt said to the purple-grey filly.
Dinky looked up from the book she was reading in the park. Twilight and Trixie, but mostly Twilight, had been giving her additional topics in magic to study beyond her normal magic lessons. It was daunting work overall, and she kind of did need a break.
But this was a colt she didn’t know.
“Hello,” she started somewhat hesitantly, “Are you knew in town?”
He smiled shyly at her. “Not really, no. I lived in Ponyville my whole life. I went to the same school you go to. You and your friends pass me by every single day.”
“We do?” asked Dinky.
“Yeah, I like to hang by that old sycamore tree over there.” The colt gestured to a rather old and creaky looking tree by the edge of the park. “Did you really never notice me? I know I tend to fade into the background, but I’d figure you’d at least have seen me. I’ve always wanted to play with you and your friends, but I just could never work up the courage to ask.”
To say that Dinky felt bad would be an understatement. She had been ignoring an entirely new potential friend for who knows how long.
More importantly she’d been ignoring a potential friend who looked shy and lonely and like he really needed a friend.
Dinky smiled. “Sure. I’d love to hang with you. Let me go see if some of the others are available and we can go play something. What’s your name anyways?”
The colt’s smile grew. “I’d love that Dinky, and my name is Loose. Loose Knot.”
…..
Dinky gathered all her friends and they played deep into the afternoon, homework forgotten. One by one, the others left for home as day started turning to night, yet Dinky stayed, enjoying the feeling of newfound friendship. Finally, however, it was time for even her to go.
“Dinky! There you are!” Trixie called to the filly as she entered the park. “Your mom got worried when you didn’t head home for dinner. It’s almost time for bed! What have you been up to?”
“Hey, Trixie!” Dinky ran up to her mentor. “Sorry about that I guess I completely lost track of time playing with my new friend.”
“New friend?” Trixie arched an eyebrow. “And who would that be?”
“That would be me, ma’am.” Loose Knot said, slowly walking into view. “She told me she would hang with me.”
“Well that’s nice and all, but now it’s time for her to head home and get ready for school tomorrow. I need to get her home ASAP or I’ll end up dealing with an angry Ditzy Doo, and let me tell you there is nothing worse than that.” Trixie started ushering Dinky towards her house.
“Bye, Loose!” Dinky waved farewell as she was lead away. “See you tomorrow! We can hang out more then if you want!”
Loose just stood in the park for awhile, a small frown on his face. “But you said you would hang with me…” he muttered before turning and heading to the sycamore tree.
…..
“Do you want to come and hang with me?”
There it was again. Everyday for the past month, like clockwork, Loose had been waiting outside the school’s gate to ask her to play with him, and everyday, like clockwork, she smiled and said yes.
They would play late into the evening in the park, until homework or magic lessons or even simply bedtime required her to leave, and every day she would find it harder and harder to leave when she needed to. It simply seemed like he really needed her. He only really laughed or smiled when they hung out, and who was she to deny him that happiness?
“Hey, Loose!” Dinky skipped out of the gate. “Sure! What did you want to play today?”
“Today?” Loose cocked his head slightly. “Oh, you know me. I’m fine with anything, but I wasn’t asking if you wanted to hang with me today. I was asking if you wanted to hang with me a week from now. It’ll be my birthday in a week, and it’d mean a lot to me if you’d hang with me that night.”
“Night? As in you want to have a slumber party?”
“Kind of,” Loose said scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “It’s a bit more than that though.”
“How so?” Dinky asked, her curiosity peaked.
“It’s a surprise for you,” was all he said.
“I guess so then?” Dinky said, “as long as it’s all right with my mom.”
“Excellent.” Loose nodded. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to hear that.”
…..
A week passed, and with permission from her mother, Dinky met up with Loose after school for the sleep over. She’d packed before school, filling her saddle bags with the basic necessities of sleeping bags, a toothbrush, and a mane brush. Nothing too much. If she needed something more she could always pick it up before they went to Loose’s place.
“Alright! Where are we going?” chimed the filly. “I’ve been dying to see where you live.”
“Don’t worry.” Loose smiled. “All in due time, Dinky. First, I was hoping we could head to the park like usual.”
Dinky nodded in the affirmative, and so they went. It was a beautiful autumn day with just a hint of chill to the air. They played tag, and hide and go seek, and king of the hill. All the games little fillies and colts should play they played deep into the evening like they always did. Eventually the sun had set, and the slight chill had begun to deepen. Dinky lay panting in the grass beside Loose, a long and twisting game of tag having just ended with dinky launching herself off the see-saw like a catapult in order to tag her quarry.
“Alright, Loose,” The unicorn managed between gasps. “I think it’s time to head to your place.”
“One more game,” Loose shook his head, “and then we’ll hang at my place.”
“Alright,” relented Dinky. “What do you want to play?”
Loose smiled gratefully. “Hide and seek. You’re it. Count to ten. Come and find me.”
“Count to ten?” the filly asked. “That’s not a lot of time for you to hide. Are you sure you don’t want more?”
The smile turned into a smirk. “I’ve really been holding back when we’ve been playing hide and seek. Trust me when I say ten is enough.”
“Alright then…” Turning around Dinky began her count. At the count of ten she swirled back around and was greeted with what appeared to be an empty park. “Okay, Loose! I’m coming for you!” she shouted out as she started to move about.
They had begun in a relatively sparse area, and ten seconds was nowhere near enough to properly hide, but no matter where she looked all the good hiding spots were empty. She moved on from the area she started in, thinking that Loose had simply sprinted extra fast into one of the more denser areas of the park, yet those were bare too. She spent a good hour looking for him, and was beginning to despair on ever finding him when she noticed the sycamore tree Loose was always going on about. He loved that tree, and they’d spent many an evening running about it. She knew it now like the back of her hoof, and, although it was on the edge of her vision in the darkness, she noted that there was something off about it.
‘Maybe he’s hiding there?’ she thought as she headed towards it. The tree was old and bare like normal though when she finally made her way to it. She was just about to give up and head home when she heard Loose’s voice.
“Took you forever to find me. I thought for sure this spot was obvious.”
His voice came from right behind her, but when she turned around no pony was there.
“No. No. You had it right before. Like I said though, I’m excellent at fading into the background.”
The voice was behind her again, and Dinky scrambled to turn around. When she saw the tree, she let out a voiceless scream. Falling on her hindquarters, she shuttered backwards. There, in the tree where there had been nothing before, hung the skeleton of a little colt. The noose was made of old rotting rope. The trunk was cracked as if the body had struggled fruitlessly in it’s final moments. And the skeleton itself had been picked clean by carrion, little nicks and cracks from careless bird beaks maring the musty yellow skeleton.
The little unicorn shuffled backwards blindly in fear until she rapped her head on a tree. Shaking the stars from her head she looked up to see Loose frowning. She almost sighed in relief until he spoke.
“I always wanted somepony to hang with me.” He gestured over his shoulders, and roots sprung from the ground to wrap around the tree. An improvised second noose now hung next to the skeleton.
Dinky screamed in terror and tried to bolt out of the park. She didn’t make it three steps before she was stopped by his hoof on her tail. She tried to fight back. She pulled with all her strength, but he was easily as strong as three grown stallions.
“Loose!” She yelled, hoping this was all some kind of sick joke. “This isn’t funny! Let me go!”
Loose shook his head. “There isn’t anything funny about death, Dinky. Believe me I know.” He sighed. “Still, it’ll be over quickly, and you promised you would hang with me. Don’t make this harder than this has to be.”
Dinky turned and tried to buck him off her, but as her legs hit his skull it was like bucking a tree.
“Really, Dinky? You thought violence would get me to let you go? What ever happened to making your friends happy?”
“Friends don’t try to kill their other friends!” Dinky screamed, hoping somepony, anypony would hear, but they were in the most isolated section of the park.
“Oh come now. It’s not like I want this either,” The colt shook his head dejectedly, “but it’s the only option. See me up there, just hanging? I’ve been up there for fifty years. Hung myself when I was a little colt after being picked on day in and day out by almost everypony in school. Fifty years I’ve been stuck in limbo alone, forced to watch everypony pass by, too afraid to let everypony know I was still around as a spirit, fifty years all alone and afraid. Then I saw you and your friends, and for once I found a reason to be happy.
As he was talking more roots burst forth from the ground, muffling the fillies cries for help, binding her together for the insane little colt to drag towards the tree. Loose continued on, ignoring Dinky’s frantic struggles.
“Some of you were being bullied just like me, and what did you do? You made everypony friends with each other! I just needed to meet you. I needed to play with you. I needed to see if you would be my friend forever and ever.”
The colt reached the tree. Turning around, he bucked it and the tree reshaped itself, creating little stairs and a platform for him to ascend.
“You were everything I ever dreamed of, both when I was alive and when I was dead. A friend who loved me for being me, and who was always willing to be there for me. But you couldn’t always be there for me, not really.”
The stairs had been mounted, and he slipped the noose around her neck. Dinky looked at him with one last pleading look. He couldn’t do this to her. She was his friend and he was hers.
“You would grow old and wither and die, moving on to whatever comes after death for those who die peacefully.” Loose’s frown deepened. “And I’d be alone again with no one to understand me... I couldn’t let that happen.”
Dinky was slumped in defeat. It was obvious why he was doing this now. That he wasn’t going to stop. She could see why now, and so she simply waited for him to say it.
Loose shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dinky. I’m so sorry, but I can’t stand the idea of being alone again. I need you by my side… forever… And the only way to do that is to kill you.”
Dinky dropped.
There was a sickening crack.
And all was black.
…..
Dinky woke up screaming.
It was a dream. It was all just a dream, a terrifying, chilling dream.
She rolled over and realized she was lying on grass.
She looked up and saw the sycamore tree, Loose sitting dejectedly in front of it as his body swung in the slightest of breezes.
“Y-y-y-you-” the filly started trying to scramble backwards and failing.
“I, what?” the colt mumbled. “I couldn’t do it? That’s what happened you know. I just couldn’t do it!” By the end he was shouting. “Go on run! Leave the ghost to suffer in peace! I can’t end my suffering without making you suffer even more so go! Just go…” He finished sighing.
Dinky bolted.
Loose didn’t chase. A tear rolled down his cheek into the dirt as night started to make way for dawn.
“I guess this is what I get for messing with the world of the living, eh?”
The rest of the town would be coming soon, but he wouldn’t be staying around to find out what they had to say. The funny thing about dawn is that it’s a cleansing force for the world. It’s a time when the old makes way for the new. When a spirit experiences that magical change from the old night to the new day, they simply vanish. They lose connection with the world and move on to whatever comes next. He’d stayed hidden from the dawn for so long, seeking somepony, anypony, as a friend. He’d found one now. He could move on.
When the town arrived there was nothing but a wilted tree and a message carved in the trunk.
It simply said, ‘I’m sorry.’