“Where’s the portal gun?” Jim asked himself, searching among the wreckage of the spa tub.
“Who knows? It’s obviously not here. Why don’t we just - where are you going?” Jack asked confusedly. Jim walked out of the spa and picked a direction at random. He quickly walked through the town, trying to figure out where it was and if anyone had it. “You know who might possibly have it?” Jack asked, causing Jim to groan and utter Twilight’s name under his breath. He didn’t know what Twilight was planning to do with his gun but he needed it if he was going to get anywhere in a hurry.
“Why does it have to be Twilight? Why couldn’t it have been Rainbow, Lyra or heck. Even Fluttershy? Actually … maybe asking Fluttershy for help will be a good thing.” Jim reasoned and ignored Jack for the moment as he about-faced and headed off for the cottage near the Everfree. He made sure to keep to the lengthening shadows and shushed himself when he heard a few ponies walk by the mouth of the alleyways he had hid himself in.
By the time he got to Fluttershy’s cottage, the sun was just beginning to set. He rapped his knuckles a couple of times on the door and waited for someone to open it. “Come on, Jimmy boy. Let’s just kill her off and get it over with already.” Jack urged Jim, causing him to hold his head as Jack’s cackles reverberated in his skull.
“I don’t want to do that, you do. I just want to see if Fluttershy has seen the portal gun and then we’ll be on our way. Why do you even want to do that to her?” Jim said through clenched teeth, not really noticing that the door had opened a crack while he was speaking to himself.
“Hello?” Fluttershy asked quietly, looking up at him as she opened the door up some more. “Joseph? What brings you here?” she asked once she recognised the person in front of her.
“Joseph isn’t home right now, can I take a message?” Jack cackled inside Jim’s head. “And to answer your question, I want to see what the blood of ponies look like.”
“No, you may not and their blood is red!” Jim hissed to himself, shaking his head and returning his attention to Fluttershy. “Sorry, Sheila. I got a splitting headache,” he told her, his eyes flashing green before returning to yellow on the word ‘splitting’ and hoped that the slang was enough to convince her that he was still Joseph. “I just wanted to ask a question of you. Do you know where my portal gun is?”
“I think I saw Twilight with it when she asked me for some water. Do you want some pills for the headache? I think I have some in the kitchen.” Fluttershy answered and stepped to the side, inviting ‘Joseph’ in.
“Thanks, Sheila. I think I need a double dosage.” Jim replied, walking in and sitting on one of the couches in the living room while holding his head as he tried to wrestle control back from Jack. “Jack, what are you doing!? You know we can’t kill Flutters!” Jim harshly whispered to Jack, trying to get him restrained within his mind.
“So what? I just want to see what it feels like to kill a pony. Come on, please?” Jack asked, sounding sickeningly sweet at the last part.
“NO! Why don’t you just curl up and die!” Jim shouted at himself, keeping his eyes closed as he focused on keeping Jack subdued. Unfortunately, Fluttershy chose this moment to walk into the living room. She gave a gasp and nearly dropped the glass of water and pills onto the floor. She managed to catch herself in time but the glass still shook rather badly, making most of the water spill out onto the floor anyway.
“A-Are you o-okay, Joseph?” Fluttershy asked, stuttering and shaking badly from the outburst and choice of words he had used. This got Jim to break out of his mental rant and snap his attention towards her.
“I’m … I need those pills. Hopefully it will quiet down what I have.” Jim said, doing his best to smile brightly as he gently took the pills and half-empty glass of water. He popped the pills and quickly drank, sighing in relief as Jack’s homicidal ramblings quieted down to a dull din. “ Do you know if Twilight told you where she was searching?”
“N-No. She just told me that she needed to find water f-for …” she trailed off and went blank for a second as the dragons in her mind ate up the outburst scene. Shaking her head to clear it, she smiled sheepishly and continued. “Twilight said that she needed to find water for someone named Jim.”
“I guess I’ll go find her then, Sheila. Thanks for the pills, they really helped.” Jim smiled at her and thought about the few seconds that she went blank. He walked out of Fluttershy’s cottage after giving her a wave with a thoughtful look on his face. He knew that it was most likely Draigo’s dragons eating a memory of hers but to actually see it kind of scared him, as well as Jack. “Now where could Twilight be?” he asked himself and put on the top half of his jumpsuit and zipped it up.
“Twilight, I found the perfect lake for making up the Poison Joke cure! Come on!” Pinkie said ecstatically and ran off without even giving her nerdy friend a chance to respond. Twilight shook her head and quickly ran to Pinkie, thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. She rubbed her eyes to get a few tears out of them and caught up with her at the entrance to the Everfree.
“The lake is in there?” Twilight asked, pointing a hoof at the foreboding entrance. With sunset coming along, it made the shadows on the path look more threatening than usual.
“Yup, yup, yup!” Pinkie replied, nodding her head quickly as she spoke. She then grabbed Twilight’s hoof and lead her into the forest, remembering where it was by memory alone.
“How deep is it? Is it big enough to dunk Jim into it?” Twilight asked and let herself get dragged, knowing that it would take an age to find the entrance at night.
“From the looks of it, it was!” Pinkie answered, stopping suddenly as she looked around to gather their bearings. “It’s right … here!” Pinkie declared, karate chopping away some foliage on her left to reveal a smallish lake that looked deep enough to drop the human into. There was just enough light to see by but it was fading fast as the thick canopy of leaves blocked out most of the light.
“We need to hurry. Pinkie, can you get Jim to come here? We need Joseph back. I don’t think he can handle a third cure after this one.” Twilight said as she put down the portal gun she’s been towing around for most of the afternoon. She saw Pinkie give a salute and ran so fast she practically disappeared. Twilight then magicked the various ingredients and prayed to Celestia that she knew what she was doing with this. Soon as the ingredients were in the water, she levitated a big stick and began to stir the pond in a rapid motion.
Pinkie shot towards Ponyville, a pink blur as she rapidly searched the town for Jim. Finally finding him sitting near Fluttershy’s cottage, she stopped her rushing around and came to a stop, rapidly swaying from side to side with the sound of a diving board.
“Pinkie!?” Jim asked, scooting backwards in alarm at the sudden appearance of her. “What are you doing here?”
“To take you to Twilight, silly!” Pinkie answered with a big grin that Jim didn’t like one bit.
“It just so happens that I was looking for her. Did you happen to see her with my portal gun?” Jim asked, standing and brushing the seat of his jumpsuit as he followed Pinkie.
“Yup. Didn’t tell me why she had it though.” Pinkie replied.
“Did you ask?” Jim asked, placing his hands in his pockets.
“Nope!” Pinkie explained, giggled and bounced, leading Jim to where she left Twilight. By the time they got through the Everfree and over to the deep pond, the sun hung low and cast deep shadows along the ground, making the interior of the forest pitch black.
“It’s a wonder how you managed to navigate me at all.” Jim muttered, watching the purple glow get closer and closer. When the duo rounded a tree trunk and brushed aside some foliage, a bright purple glow lit up the enclosed area, the source of it coming from Twilight’s horn as she stirred the pond with a giant stick. “Twilight? What are you doing?”
“Oh, Jim. Hi. I was just stirring up the pond for another cure since you accidentally destroyed the tub back at the spa.” Twilight said casually. She looked at Jim expectantly, trying to see if he would go in willingly.
“You want me, to hop in there, and hope that Joseph comes back?” Jim asked, pointing to the lake, then to her expectant look. He saw her nod and he sighed, knowing that he wasn’t going to get out of this one. “Before I do though, can you tell me where my portal gun is?”
“It’s here.” Twilight sighed, levitating the gun from within a nearby frond.
“Thank you, that’s all I wanted to know.” Jim said with a smile before jumping into the pond, feeling himself weighed down by his clothes as the cure affected him. He writhed about in the water for a few moments before kicking off the bottom of the pond where he had come to rest. Swimming up rapidly, he burst out from the depths and gasped for breath.
Twilight shined her horn closer to him while Pinkie helped him out of the pond. Coughing and spluttering, he laid down on the ground while Twilight quickly inspected his hair and eyes as they seemed to have the most obvious changes. She saw his hair was a mixture of brown, green and gray and his eyes were green and yellow. Green for left, yellow for right.
“Yoohoo! Joseph, you in there!?” Pinkie asked, waving a hoof in front of his face before yelling into his ear to see if that got any reaction. He shot up and wiggled a finger in his ear as he tried to get rid of the ringing.
“Ah, Jesus, Sheila! Cut down on the volume would ya!?” Joseph shouted, his voice a louder tone than normal.
“Sorry! Had to check you were actually here!” Pinkie yelled slowly in case he couldn’t understand her. Joseph waved her off and got up, rubbing a hand over his ear as he retrieved the portal gun from Twilight’s hiding place.
“Joseph? Good. I need to ask you a few questions about Spike.” Twilight said once she recognised his speech pattern and softly glared at him in case he couldn’t remember what Jack did.
“Sure. Fire away, Sheila.” Joseph said, thinking the ringing was gone when he cringed at Twilight’s look and sat down to rest his legs.
“How much do you remember after waking up?” she asked and scrutinised his face by leaning in close, resting her hooves on his chest as she forced him back onto the ground, searching for any signs of lying.
“E-Everything?” he asked softly, knowing that Twilight was close enough to hear him. He watched Twilight’s eyes go from a soft glare to a hard look that had tears brimming in her eyes.
“Then why did you kill Spike?” Twilight asked in a scarily cold voice that appeared to be devoid of emotion but Joseph didn’t need to hear emotion as he could see it clearly in her eyes. Anger, confusion and sadness.
“Because I needed a test subject.” Jack spoke out loud when Joseph’s eyes flashed green, causing Twilight to close her eyes and back off of him before wrapping his throat up in magic and pinning him against a thick tree trunk.
Joseph tried to grasp at the magic but his hands went through the field. “Twilight … you’re …” he said weakly, feeling her magical grip try to squeeze the life out of him. He tried to get some breath in him but his face soon turned blue.
“Twilight, you’re choking him!” Pinkie yelled at Twilight, looking at Joseph worriedly.
“That’s the point.” Twilight replied emotionlessly, increasing the power in her horn to choke him faster. Pinkie watched in nervousness as she saw Joseph slowly lose consciousness. When he finally did, she crashed into Twilight, breaking her concentration and letting Joseph fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. “What was that for!?” Twilight asked furiously.
“Can’t you see he’s unconscious?” Pinkie hissed at her and gently tried to pull Twilight away from him.
“He is? I’ll have to try harder then,” Twilight replied with a blank stare.
“You’ll kill him. Leave him here. Come back with me and try to think about what Spike would do. Can you do that?” Pinkie asked her, worry and a tiny bit of anger flecked her voice.
Twilight glowered and looked like she going to choke Pinkie as well before letting out a breath and stalked past her friend, heading out of the Everfree and back to her home. Pinkie looked back at Joseph for a second before following Twilight.
When Joseph woke up, he gasped for breath and found relief as sweet air went into his lungs. He coughed and wheezed as oxygen returned to his brain. He got himself into a sitting position and brought to his mouth in an effort to stifle the coughing. “Twilight … I’m sorry …” he wheezed to himself and due to the lack of light, knew that Twilight was no longer there. He carefully got up and snatched his gun up from the ground.
“We should see Fluttershy. She’ll help us get back on our feet.” Jim told him. Joseph looked up and around, trying to see where the voice came from.
“Who said that?” he asked, slouching and hugging himself awkwardly as he tried to keep himself from passing out again.
“I did. You should’ve known that when we popped up in your head. It’s a side effect of the Poison Joke.” Jim explained. Joseph thought he felt Jim cross his arms and tap his foot impatiently.
“Of course it would be a side effect. Humans have never encountered something like that plant before.” Joseph muttered, holding his head as he tried to work through the throbbing pain. “I hope I know where Fluttershy’s cottage is from here,” he told himself as he walked out of the pond area and towards the entrance, hoping he didn’t get lost along the way.
When he finally made it outside the Everfree, he rubbed his throat as he tried to get his voice back to normal. “I don’t *cough* wait… yeah, that definitely sounds like my voice again.” Joseph told himself, coughing as he tried to get some feeling back.
“Twilight did a number on ya. You know what we should do?” Jack asked gleefully and Joseph swore he felt him rub his hands together.
“NO! We are NOT going to kill her! As much as we all feel like it, we are not going to! She and her friends don’t deserve that.” Jim argued with Jack. “I don’t care what you say about Spike, Jack. You killed him and both Twilight and Ember are affected by it. She’s grieving so she has every right to hurt us, especially you, Jack!”
“Wait. Ember? Oh man. That sheila’s gonna eviscerate me if she even so much as glances my way.” Joseph was going to tell him to shut up so he could think for a bit but what he said about Ember scared him greatly.
“Oh.” Was all Jack had to say. Joseph felt him retreat a bit and rubbed his head, thankful that, for now at least, there was only a voice he had to listen to.
“Point still stands. We need to get Fluttershy’s. After what Jack did in the town, the entire village will be after us.” Jim said quietly. Joseph shook his head and held it in both hands as he spied Fluttershy’s cottage in the distance. It looked like the lights were on so there was a chance that she could still be up.
“It’s still night time. At least we have the cover of darkness in case a pony spots us.” Joseph reasoned, looking both ways before making his way to the cottage. “I’m not sure what Jack’s intention was but at this point, I don’t care. I just want one normal day in Ponyville. Which would probably be a monster attack of some sort.”
“I think Jack has retreated for now. He’s probably thinking about what he’s done.” Jim reported in a business-like tone.
“Good. I can only handle one voice at the moment. Besides, he should think about what he’s done. If it weren’t for Fluttershy, and possibly Pinkie, I would have been exiled from Ponyville, maybe even Canterlot because I’m sure Twilight’s going to write to the Princesses about this if she hasn’t already.” Joseph whispered and unzipped his jumpsuit, tying the sleeves from the top half around his waist.
“Whatever the case may be, we still need to figure out what to do in case Twilight rallies the town against us, which won’t be that difficult.” Jim sighed. “We’re here. Look-! That looked like it hurt.” Jim snickered.
Joseph cried out when he hit Fluttershy’s front door and held his head to stop the throbbing. The door rattled before opening a bit and a butter-coloured mare with a pink mane poked her head out with the light backlighting her. He looked down with a pained expression before crouching so he was eye-level with her.
“Hey, Fluttershy. Can you let me in, please, Sheila?” Joseph asked quietly. He saw her pink mane bob up and down before she opened the door wide and stood to the side. He blinked at the sudden brightness, sighed and walked in after observing her standing by the door silently. He scratched the back of his head as he stood in the living room awkwardly.
“What are you doing here this late?” Fluttershy asked him once she had closed and locked the door.
“I woke up in the forest and I didn’t know where else to go.” Joseph said tiredly, trying to stifle a yawn afterwards.
“Why were you in the forest? You do know not to go out there at night, don’t you?” Fluttershy asked as she closed the door and walked over to the couch. She hopped up on it and laid down and then looked at him while he sat on the floor cross-legged.
“I know but I had to look for my portal gun. I eventually found it with Twilight like you said it was. Turns out she and Pinkie had found that body of water they were looking for. It was for a cure for Poison Joke and before you ask, I’m the one that got the affliction.” Joseph explained, pointing to his hair and eyes. “Why are you up this late, sheila? I thought you would have been in bed.”
“Because someone banged into my door and I was about to go to bed myself.” Fluttershy replied with a gentle yawn.
“Oh, sorry. I'll just see myself out then.” Joseph said, clearly embarrassed for having done so. He turned to the door with a tinge of red on his cheeks only to be stopped by a comforting hoof on his arm. “What?”
“It’s late. I don’t want a friend going out there alone, especially when it’s this dark. You’re going to stay here tonight and I’m not taking no for an answer.” Fluttershy said quietly but somehow, Joseph knew that she was firm with her words. With a thankful smile, Joseph sighed and sat down on the floor. He heard her walk over to her stairs and slowly climb up them. “In the morning, you can go back to Twilight’s if you want to,” she added, feeling satisfied with herself.
“She doesn’t know about Spike and what Jack did to the rest of the town.” Jim told Joseph when he stiffened slightly at her last sentence.
“I’d be surprised if she did, mate.” Joseph whispered, making sure Fluttershy didn’t overhear. He gave her a wave when she put off the light and turned in, leaving him to lie down on the floor.
“Joseph?” Pinkie called out as Twilight, Ember and herself made their way to the Cure Pond. The Everfree seemed a lot more bright than the night before, which most likely meant it was halfway through the day. Pinkie couldn’t hear any movement, nor any groans and feared the worst when she pushed aside some fronds that covered the entrance to the little pond. She gasped and gave a tiny relieved sigh when she didn’t see him anywhere.
“Where is he?” Ember asked, letting out a tiny puff of smoke in frustration.
“I don’t know but we need to find him.” Twilight said through gritted teeth. She thought he would have perished during the night but that didn’t seem to be the case. Rounding on Pinkie’s worried look and Ember’s determined stare, Twilight ordered both of them to go into town to try and find the missing human, as well as to get help from some of the townsponies. Both nodded and ran back to the town, leaving Twilight to try and find clues on where he could have potentially gone. “Now let’s see just where you could go, Joseph,” Twilight told herself softly, as she looked around for clues.
Pinkie followed Ember up until the edges of Ponyville. Once there, she let the pink dragoness continue on while she went in a different direction. After a series of body twitches and spasms, her Pinkie Sense told her that Joseph would be in Fluttershy’s house. She hoped that Ember, Twilight and their rounded up gang didn’t catch on to the fact that the kindest mare in Ponyville was unknowingly harboring an apparent murderer.
Just before she could reach the cottage, Pinkie saw Twilight knock on the door. “Oh no. No no no.” Pinkie muttered, ears flat against her head as she tried to calmly walk up to the door. “Hey, Twily! Have you found, Joseph yet?” Pinkie asked, plastering a smile on her face.
“No, but I’m seeing if he’s with Fluttershy. You know her, she would take in anything and anyone, no matter what they’ve done.” Twilight said, knocking again when there wasn’t an answer.
“Maybe she’s out? Joseph’s our friend though! You know he wouldn’t do something like this! Before we were caught, what did he do, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, trying to get her to see that Joseph wasn’t as bad as his alternate made him out to be.
“He did everything he could to try and get us and the town back. That still doesn’t change the fact that he killed Spike!” Twilight said, starting off somber before devolving into unrefined anguish. Both Pinkie and Twilight stopped arguing though when a loud gasp rang out from behind the door. After some hurried and muffled conversation was heard through the door, some glass was heard being broken and then muffled footsteps heading in the direction of the forest.
Twilight glared at Pinkie and chased after him. She heard Ember’s clawsteps thudding on the ground behind her along with a multitude of hooves. She saw an orange blur disappear into the Everfree and sped up, rushing into the forest only to find him glancing back with an unhealthy amount of fear on his face before disappearing into a black filled portal rimmed with white.