//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Take A Chance And Roll The Dice 
// Story: Everypony Hail to the Pumpkin King 
// by Harmony Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	After she stormed out of the castle, Pinkie was livid. The late hour ensured that nopony would see her tromping through the streets of Ponyville, but, at that point, she didn't care if anypony did see her. 

What was Twilight's problem? Why did she think it was so ridiculous for Pinkie to have met Jack? For Celestia's sake, one of their best friends had weekly visits with a chaos god who could make cotton candy clouds rain chocolate. Was a talking skeleton really so far fetched? Besides, Jack seemed a lot nicer than Discord, who only seemed to enjoy messing with ponies for his own amusement. Jack was lot kinder with his brand of scaring, meaning it to be fun for everyone, not just him.

It was sad that Twilight didn't believe in Jack. Pinkie figured that he'd get along well with her, and perhaps the rest of her friends. Rarity would probably compliment his attire and demand ask that he allow her to make him a suit or at least pick his brain for inspiration. Rainbow would be pumped to have another friend who enjoys pranking and scaring others during the fall season as much as her. Applejack and Fluttershy... well, she wasn't sure what they might like about him, but she was sure that they'd come around to it.

She stopped suddenly and stomped her front hooves. "Ugh!"

Pinkie inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, taking a moment to diffuse the anger burning in her chest. The heat subsided and she opened her eyes. It took her a moment to realize that the Ponyville path was no longer under her hooves and that she was once again in the threshold of the Everfree. She sighed and looked at the trees peevishly.

'I need to start paying attention more,' she thought, turning away from the forest and making her way back to town. She stopped once again and spared the forest another glance. Not paying attention had been the reason she met Jack in the forest to begin with. In fact, she had gotten a little lost on the way there, just as Jack had. 

Her heart stopped suddenly. Jack had been lost.

"Oh no!" she cried out, grabbing her head in horror.

She had sent Jack wandering into the forest, not even bothering to check if he had gotten to the crypt. While she knew the Everfree well enough to get to the crypt, she might have miscalculated and sent him down the wrong way. What were the odds of him actually getting back to Halloweentown when he had no idea where he was?

Pinkie didn't seem to know when, but she started running. The trees were a blur as she hopped over the trees and roots that laid in her path, nothing in the world mattering except for Jack's safety. As tall and scary as he was, Pinkie knew for a fact that there were some fearsome monsters that roamed the Everfree at all hours. The terrifying part was that Jack didn't know that.

She tripped over a root and went flying across the terrain for a wild moment before hitting the ground. Her face flattened against the ground and she felt her entire body sink. Pinkie lazily lifted her head as her eyes rolled around and failed to gain focus. She gave her head a good shake and the trees ceased to be blurry.

'Am I lost?' she wondered, picking herself up. 

After shaking off the mud and leaves, Pinkie scanned her surroundings. Her eyes zoned in on a shadow of a fence in the moonlight and she grinned.

"The crypt!" 

Pinkie ran towards the direction of the shadow and, soon, the fence came into view. She leaped over the fence with ease and landed neatly on the other side. Her joy was depleted for a moment when she saw the graveyard come into better focus in the darkness. The tombstones were lopsided and weathered down to the point where only a few letters and numbers could be deciphered. No names or birthdays could be read from the memorials; Pinkie knew because she had tried.

She walked through the graveyard carefully, paying mind to the fallen tombstones so that she didn't step on them. It was especially hard to do so in the darkness, but Pinkie kept her eyes peeled to avoid disturbing the site. She also kept a lookout for the fences, considering that a lot of them long since fell down and no longer marked the boundaries of the cemetery.

It wasn't strange of her to spend time in graveyards; it was actually how her family made most of their money in her time at the farm. They cultivated rocks that would be polished into tombstones for the deceased and commemorated their time in Equestria. It was sad, but Pinkie understood how important it was. Without the tombstones, the ponies six feet under would remain faceless, nameless, and unknown to the living. 

Finally, the crypt's outline came into her line of sight. She scurried over, still respecting the ground beneath her, and viewed the crypt carefully. She saw nothing to indicate that Jack had been there, which only fed into her worry. She plopped down on the ground and pursed her lips in a disappointed pout.

"I hope he's OK," she said out loud, her brows furrowing. Pinkie faced the tombstones. "Do you all mind if I stay here for a bit and make sure that Jack got home safe?"

There was no answer, save for the wind whistling past her ears.

"I'll just wait for a couple minutes," she conceded, "I'd call out for him, but I'd probably end up finding something else that wasn't so nice."

Again, the tombstones remained silent.

"Just a couple minutes." Pinkie turned back to the crypt and watched, hoping and wondering.





"Zero, wait up!" Jack exclaimed, leaping over a fence with his cat-like agility. 

The impromptu chase had Jack barreling after Zero, who didn't take heed to any of Jack's commands. Zero hadn't even considered slowing down when Jack threatened an exorcism.

"How about you wait up?" Sally yelled after him, lagging behind him. "You know I can't run very fast!"

Sally herself wasn't in high spirits. Jack was listening to her just as much as Zero was listening to him, and it was frustrating to say the very least. Still, she continued after them, her arm in hand.

"Curse him and his lack of solidness!" Jack hissed angrily, winding through the streets. He held up his hand and made half the size of a megaphone with it. "Not all of us can pass through walls, you know!"

A passing ghost's head snapped in their direction. "Hey!"

"Jack, hush, you'll upset the ghouls!" Sally called out, following right after him. She slid to a stop as Jack came to a halt, nearly bumping into him. She looked around, then stopped to see Zero floating just a couple feet in front of them. "Oh!"

Zero turned around and yipped at Jack, who approached the transparent pooch. 

"What is it, boy?" Jacked questioned.

Zero whined and looked ahead of them, where the barren woods laid before them. 

"Is there something in there?" Sally asked, stepping up beside Jack.

"Hold on a moment..." Jack tapped his bony finger to his chin. He snapped his fingers. "I was in there last night!"

Sally looked at him. "I know that, Jack."

"No, I know that, too," he replied, shaking his head, "I just mean that's where I was when I ended up in that strange new world!"

Sally's eyes widened. "Did you find another doorway?"

"Not that I can remember. All I know is that I was in there and then I woke up that world."

Zero let out a yap and hovered over to the edge of the woods. He waited expectantly for Sally and Jack, his red nose blinking excitedly.

"Should we go in?" Sally questioned, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder.

He turned to her. "You don't have to come in, if you don't want to. Besides, you still need to sew your arm back on."

Sally looked to the hand that was one Jack's shoulder, suddenly realizing that it was actually her detached arm. She sighed. "No. No, I'm going with you."

"Are you sure?"

Sally nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. I don't want you to get hurt."

Jack smiled at her. "I'll try not to get us killed... Anymore than we already were."

Sally giggled a bit, and began to walk with him into the woods. "So, Jack... Is there anything else about this new world that you want to tell me about?"

Jack seemed excited at the thought. "Oh, yes! See, I had only just awakened there, and when I did, I heard someone singing this old witch's chant."

"There's another world that has witches?" Sally asked suddenly, her curiosity piqued. 

"I'm not sure, I'd have to ask." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, as I was wondering, trying to find out where I was, I heard that chant and waited to see who it was."

"Was it that pink pony you talked about earlier?"

"Yes, it was! And let me tell you, Sally, she's a total scream!"

Sally found herself smiling as Jack described the world that differed so much from their own. He was always so ecstatic and full of energy, it was almost odd to see someone so peppy within a place that could be so gloomy. But, despite his oddities, Jack was loved by all, and he knew it, too.

"...And it turns out that their holiday is actually supposed celebrate the banishment of a princess who was corrupted by the darkness," Jack continued on. "I asked her what they did to celebrate it, and there were so many things that crossed over with ours! It's incredible how these worlds work!"

"What exactly crosses over?" Sally found herself asking.

Jack grinned. "Jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treating, scaring your friends for a good fright and a good laugh!" He laughed a bit. "Those ponies sure know a good time, if Pinkie was any correlation!"

Sally tilted her head a bit. "What is she like? This Pinkie?"

Jack smiled even more. "The mare was rather... peculiar, I'll say that." He frowned a bit. "Nothing seemed to scare her, however."

Sally blinked. "Nothing? Did you try that thing you do where you stretch out your face and scream like a banshee?"

"Yes."

"Well, what about hissing? That usually scares the pants off of everyone!"

"She just hissed back!" Jack said with a laugh. "She even had a cat tail to boot!"

"She did not!" Sally protested in disbelief, trying to cover her laughter.

Jack nodded. "She did, I swear it!"

Sally couldn't help but break into laughter at that. "Oh, Jack, that's hysterical!"

He laughed with her, but his laughter was cut short. Sally turned to see what caused him to stop so suddenly and saw Zero had also coem to a stop. Zero growled at a tree that was couple feet from them, and even as Jack and Sally took residence by his side, his growls did not cease. The tree he was leering at was colored, unlike the gray, dead trees that surrounded them. There were even a couple leaves on the branches near the ground, green and full of life.

Jack and Sally didn't like it one bit.

"What is this tree doing here?" Jack questioned, touching a leaf. He pulled away almost instantly, a look of disgust on his face. "It's so... bright."

Sally frowned a bit. Jack had a bit of a thing when it came to live things and bright colors ever since the incident with Christmas all those years ago, and she hated to see him still be so bothered by it.

"Jack, perhaps we should leave..." she suggested.

Zero ceased his growling for the moment, then floated over to the tree. He circled the tree curiously and barked loudly to gain their attention. Jack walked over cautiously, with Sally close in tow, and he stopped at where Zero was. 

"Well, this is strange..." Jack murmured, arching a hairless brow.

In the tree was a large, gaping hole that seemed to go on endlessly. No creatures thrived within it, from what they could see, but they could hear the light whispers of something dwelling inside. 

"Jack, do you think this is..." Sally trailed off suddenly when she saw the troubled look on his face. 

Zero leaned his head into the hole notably, a small whine escaping him. Suddenly, Zero was sucked down, his glowing form gone from sight.

"Zero!" Jack exclaimed, shoving his head in to see where he went. 

"Jack, no!" Sally cried out, reaching for him. 

Then, just as Jack was getting ready to climb out, he was jerked back inside. He let out a screech and tried to push himself out, but to no avail. Sally saw this and grabbed a hold of his legs, but her one arm was no help to either of them. Then, almost inevitably, they both came tumbling into the hole and out of their world.