FLUTTERSHY
"Do I really have to do this?" I asked. I wasn't sure about being a ghost of Christmas past. And, according to Sunset, I had a lot to do. But, she also said that other people would be doing a lot of the work, so I guess I could do it.
"Come on Fluttershy, your the perfect choice." Pinkie Pie reassured.
"Actually, you're the only choice." Sunset said, who was no longer wearing the icepack. "Rainbow Dash was the only one who could be Marley, and you're the only other one who will be able to fly."
"I'm still not sure about doing this." I said.
"Fluttershy we need you. Applejack needs you." Sunset said.
"I...I guess I can do it." I said.
"Great." Sunset said. "It's nearly one. Fly into Scrooge's window and wait for the clock to strike."
"Okay." I said. It's a good thing that Sunset was able to figure out how to channel the magic of friendship. It allows us to have wings and tails when we want. I waited near Scrooge's window for the stoke of one.
When the clock did strike one, I enter Scrooge's room. He peeked out of his bed curtains, saw me, and asked, "Are you the Spirit, ma'am, whose coming was foretold to me?"
"I am." I replied.
"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge.
"No, your past."
I walked to the window and opened it. Scrooge looked at me, then at the window. "I am mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."
"A touch of my hand, and you shall fly." I said. I held out my hand, and Scrooge took it. We flew out the window, and I carried him. There was a light on the horizon.
"Spirit," Scrooge asked. "What is that light? It cannot be dawn."
"It is the Past." I replied. I covered Scrooge's eyes to make sure that he thought we were going into the past. I landed in the courtyard of the school that we had made to look like Scrooge's. Students were running around, playing tag and having snowball fights.
Scrooge looked around. "Good heavens." He said. "This is my old school, I was a boy here. Hello boys. Hello."
"Were are but ghosts to them. They can neither see nor hear us. Let us go inside. "I said. We entered the school. I have to give it to Sunset, she did an awfully good job building this school in such a short time. It looked just like the real thing.
We entered a classroom, and saw a boy sitting there. Two other boys entered the classroom. "Come on Ebenezer!" The first boy shouted. "Come out and have a Christmas snowball fight with us!"
"Oh, you know he doesn't care about it." The other boy said, and they left the classroom.
While they were leaving, Ebenezer shouted, "Who cares about stupid, old, Christmas!"
"I was often alone." The older Scrooge said. "I didn't have many friends, nor did I want to. I didn't even want to get to know anyone for many years."
"Speaking of that." I covered Scrooge's eyes again, and I headed for the next building Sunset made.
Upon arrival, I removed my hand from Scrooge's eyes, and he then said with glee, "It's Fezziwig's Rubber Chicken Factory! I was an apprentice here!"
We entered the building and saw that there was a party going on. Fezziwig was dancing with his wife to the party music. When it ended, a young man approached Fezziwig. "That's me!" Scrooge said, happily.
The young Ebenezer said to Fezziwig, "Sir, do you realize how much money is being spent on this party?"
Fezziwig rolled his eyes. "Oh, come Ebenezer, it's Christmas!" Fezziwig said. "Who cares about how much money we spend?"
His eyes wondered a bit, and then widened and shouted. "Ah, Belle! Come here!" A girl walked over, with light brown braided hair. "Belle, I'd like to introduce you to Ebenezer Scrooge, my apprentice, and Ebenezer, this is Belle, a friend of the Fezziwig family."
Ebenezer kissed her hand and said, "It's great to meet you, ma'am."
I looked at the older Scrooge. "This is when you wanted to get to know someone, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes." Scrooge said. "It's a shame."
"Come, let us see the final Christmas you must see." I said. "It's the Christmas of your parting."
"Oh, please do not show me that Christmas." Scrooge pleaded.
Never the less, I guided Scrooge to a park, where we saw the younger Ebenezer sitting on a bench with Belle.
"It matters little," she said, softly. "To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve."
"What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined.
"A golden one."
"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said. "There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!"
"You fear the world too much," she answered, gently. "All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?"
"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you."
She shook her head.
"Am I?"
"Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it was made, you were another man."
"I was a boy," he said impatiently.
"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she returned. "I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it, and can release you."
"Have I ever sought release?"
"In words? No. Never."
"In what, then?"
"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us," said Belle, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!"
Ebenezer seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in spite of himself. But he said with a struggle," You think not?"
"I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered, "Heaven knows. When I have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl -- you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once were."
He was about to speak; but with her head turned from him, she resumed.
"You may -- the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will -- have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you have chosen."
She left him, and they parted.
I flew Scrooge back to his home, entered through the window, and set him down. "Spirit," He said, "Leave me, I will not forget what you have taught me, just let me be."
I then left Scrooge and landed in the alley. "Did it go well?" Sunset asked.
"I think so, but I'm not entirely sure." I said.
"Well no matter what happened, let's hope that it worked." Sunset said. She turned to Pinkie, who was wearing an emerald dress "It looks like it's time for the ghost of Christmas Present."
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Pinkie shouted jumping up and down.