Sinister Lenses

by Osper

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The ride was long and lonely as they rolled through the green and unpopulated countryside. Conversation had died out quickly as the two found less and less to talk about and the carriage pulling ponies weren't exactly loquacious themselves during any part of the day long trip. The only time they offered any conversation was as Sleipnir's Rest came into sight.

“Almost there ladies.”

Eager for a change of scenery, Finish and Scratch leaned out of the windows and took in the new sight.

The red dusk sun lit up the small village, casting shadows off the ten small homes that housed, seemingly, the entire population. Fields of grain took up most of the horizon, indicating the towns main source of income.

Photo grabbed her camera off the seat, looping the strap carefully over her neck so as not to drop it out the window and took a quick picture.

The carriage stopped in front of a building slightly larger than the others with a simple sign out front reading “Bar”.

“Last stop. Everypony off.”

The stiff girls stepped out of the carriage and stretched cramped limbs as the puller ponies placed the passenger's bags in the dirt at their hooves. Scratch stopped them as they began turning the carriage around and tossed them the fare for another ride.

“You boys already leaving?”

They shared a look and even as one of them responded, they were already walking away.

“Lady, you couldn't pay us to stay here, especially after dark. You paying us to come pick you up? We normally only stop by once a week.”

She yelled after them before they were too far gone.

“Tomorrow?”

They stopped just a moment, the quiet one looking around nervously as his boss considered.

“Sure, but it'll be late, same time as now. Be ready to leave.”

Scratch sighed wondering where Photo had wandered off to and why she wasn't doing this.

“Yeah, that's fine.”

The boss nodded, at least from that distance Scratch thought he did, and they hurried down the road. She should've asked what they meant by that “not if you paid us" crack but she'd been too concerned with getting home at that moment.

Looking around, it seemed like any other town. Any small town anyway, but now that the sun had dropped from the horizon and all the buildings were blanketed in night, she could see why no one would want to stay. Not a single noise could be heard. Neither animals or wind made any sound in the distance and for someone who'd lived in the city their whole life, it was very disconcerting to hear so much silence at once.

A dim flash of light startled her out of her thoughts, making her jump back. Photo stood there, camera at the ready and a diffuser fitted over the flash bulb that had just gone off.

“Geez, don't do that! I told you before, ninja photos of me are a no-no.”

“Sorry, I got caught up. Dis town is so...neat looking.”

There was the Finish Scratch rarely got to see. The serious minded photographer who trespassed and lost herself in her work. The one who made 'De magicks'.

Scratch levitated both of their bags for them as they entered the building marked Bar. As good a place as any to start looking for information.

The inside of the bar was dead. Only two stallions were inside and one of them was the bartender, nodding at them as the girls stopped at the counter.

“Pardon me, but perhaps you can geeve us directions to de funeral home? Und maybe tell us vhere ve can get a room for de night?”

Still wiping a glass that wasn't getting any cleaner thanks to the dirty rag he used, the bartender smiled.

“Afraid there aren't any inns in this town. Too small for travelers to do anything but pass through. As for the other thing, you probably mean that creepy mare in the old part of town. She's about a mile up the road. Wouldn't recommend seeing her myself.”

“Vhy's zat?”

Scratch stuck her tongue out disgustedly as he spit on the rag and kept polishing the cup.

“Couple of girls like you oughtn't be traipsing around at night like that. She's only open after dark.”

While Scratch groaned at the idea of having to walk up the road in the dark, the mere idea drained all the color from Finish' face. Dark on an airship was fine. There were other ponies around. Night time in Canterlot was still pretty bright and, once again, another pony was always a stones throw away. But this was two miles of deep darkness practically alone with nothing but the stars and moon to light the way.

“Well, at least it'll let us stretch our legs. C'mon Finish.”

A rather rough grab stopped Scratch.

“Maybe...maybe ve try in de morning anyvay? I mean, she'll open de door if ve pound hard enuff, ya?”

The bartender butted in again.

“Won't do any good. Ponies have tried it before. I guess she's”

and he turned to his buddy at the bar and let out a few barking laughs.

“dead to the world!”

The formerly quiet pony at the bar threw back his head and belly laughed, banging on the wooden counter so hard it shook. The laughs gave way to a coughing fit and the bartender reached around to slap him on the back which did little to no good. His friend stopped coughing after a moment and the bartender sighed, still chuckling.

“Whew, that was a good one.”

Scratch rolled her eyes at the lame joke and gently peeled her friends hoof off her arm.

“Don't worry Finish. It's just a little jog down the road and it's a full moon. There's nothing to worry about. The sooner we say goodbye to your dad, the sooner we're back to make sure your mom is okay. And do you really wanna stay here with Heckle and Jekyll all night?”

Finish shook her head.

They were almost done and she could go home soon, to both her mother and Canterlot and never have to think about, talk about or have anything to do with her father ever again. She just had to do this, fear of the dark be damned.

“You're right. Okay.”

At request, the bartender loaned the girls a lantern and they stepped outside, facing the road through the wheat field. There was nothing to show that the sun had been up only recently as the warmth of the day drifted up into the atmosphere. A mostly full moon shone down at them, a few clouds covering it's face. It reminded Scratch of the photo now hanging in the royal palace.

She took a quick photo of it, knowing it could only turn out blurry.

“What was that back there? You're not afraid of the dark.”

“I am vhen it's dis deep. Und ve're alone.”

Scratch smiled mischievously, remembering what Faux had said upon seeing the two of them together.

“Don't worry, you're not really my type.”

The tension drifted away as Finish laughed at her friend's joke, feeling more at ease as they walked down the dirt road.

A few sparse trees began to appear in the wheat fields as they walked, until they were entirely surrounded by trees. The bright green leaves rustled slightly on the branches that now blocked out the moon.

“Hey, is that her house over there?”

Finish saw nothing as she scanned the treeline.

“Vhere?”

“There, isn't that her house with the lantern?”

A chill wind crawled through the forest as she looked harder, Scratch trying to point the light out.

“Dere's nossing dere Scratch.”

“It's right-”

Scratch stopped mid-sentence as the sound rolled out of the deep forest. The catching, labored breathing was faint but noticeable and the hair on the back of Finish neck stood on end.

“No...”

She flipped her glasses up and looked again, a ball of swirling, bobbing fire right where Scratch had pointed. More appeared out of thin air and Scratch whirled on her heels to see the same pendulous fireballs on the other side of the forest, some drifting closer as they swung.

“<Oh Celestia! Run Scratch! Run!>”

She grabbed the DJ's arm roughly, almost pulling it from it's socket as they fled down the trail. The sudden jerk broke Scratch's concentration on the lantern and it tumbled to the ground behind them.

“The light-”

“Shut up! Just run!”

The sobs were now getting closer, hounding their steps as Finish tried to push her legs to go faster. Despite herself, she had to look back, to confirm the nightmarish truth.

Looking over her shoulder was one of the worst things she'd done in her life.

It was there, exactly as Finish thought it would be. The hazy blue form pounding it's hooves noiselessly on the dirt path, it's fading mane pushed back as it chased. The worst were it's legs. As if someone had taken a dull axe and hacked at them until they were splinters and shards of ethereal bone.

Finish never saw the root in the path that sent her sprawling, falling chin first in the earth and rattling her brain in her head. Her camera shattered as her full weight fell on it, smashing it into her throat.

“Finish!”

Scratch stopped and rounded to help her up, catching her first glimpse of the thing and screaming so loud it reverberated through the forest. Her hoof grabbed Finish, trying to haul her up but the crash had knocked both the sense out of her head and the wind from her lungs. Her pleas for divine intervention went unheeded.

“Oh Celestia, Celestia save us...”

Finish knew there was just the one thing that could save them now. She whispered into her friend's ear, her throat too sore to talk above a whisper. What Scratch heard sounded insane, as though the blow her friend had taken had been to much for her mind. Even as the thing approached, only twenty feet away, Finish whispered words in her native tongue that Scratch hadn't learned yet. It was what the photographer rasped last that made her do it.

“Trust me.”

So Scratch sang.

The words came out shaky, filled with fear of dying and only the barest of confidence that Finish hadn't lost her mind, but she sang.

“Schlaf, Kindlein schlaf.

Der Vater hüt' die Schaf,

Die Mutter schüttelt's Bäumelein,

Da fällt herab ein Träumelein.

Schlaf, Kindlein schlaf.”

The thing stopped just short as her voice filled the path, trotting to a stop mere feet away. It tilted it's head, looking at the two frightened ponies, the blue orbs that represented eyes staring hard at them.

“More feeling Scratch. Put your heart into it.”

She kept singing the same lines as Finish got to her hooves. Her mind was clearing but her throat was going to have a magnificent bruise in the morning. Looking into the trees, she could see the lights, the Will 'o Wisps, disappearing like stars winking out.

The ghostly pony listened intently, its' head nodding a bit with every other word. After three verses it turned its' back on them, trotting back into the woods and disappearing.

Finish slowly pushed Scratch into a walk but she didn't stop singing for fear of whatever 'that' was would come back. She only looked at her friend in sideways glances that accompanied unasked questions. Finish' glasses were back over her eyes and staring straight ahead as though nothing had happened.

If she could have seen more clearly in the dark, she would have seen her friend trembling.

The funeral home was soon in sight, it's bright orange lanterns in no way similar to the Will 'o Wisps. Entering the pools of light gave Scratch the confidence to let the song trail off though she kept looking over her shoulder at the forest. They stood there without saying a word, either trying to forget what had just happened or trying to make sense of it.

Scratch tried to look through those thick glasses Finish wore but saw nothing in the low light. They both knew what was coming.

“What the hell was that Finish!?”

“I can't-”

“You don't! You mean you don't want to tell me! I'm your closest friend Finish. Trust me a little!”

“No-I-You vouldn't understand!”

Scratch stamped her hoof, anger and hurt bubbling up in her.

“You won't let me try! What is so bad that you've been hiding this whole time, that you think is going to make me turn around right now and leave you here? Do you really think so little of me?!”

“OKAY!”

Finish screamed at the top of her lungs, her throat hurting where she'd been hit. Scratch flinched at her friend raising her voice to her and felt her heart skip a beat.

“Okay.”

Finish reached up, a shaky hoof trying to grab hold of her glasses. Unicorn magic pushed them up a little, enough to sit in her hair.

“Sanks.”

She took a breath. Just spilling everything...this was going to be new for her.

“Vell, zat vas a ghost.”

“Derp, no duh.”

Her hoof flew to her mouth when she said it, realizing she was being snippy.

“Sorry.”

Finish shrugged her shoulders a bit and continued.

“More specifically, it's a Shredded type. The spirit is so vorn out dat it turns to an evil being dat attacks de living. It's probably vhy my papa vas here in dis town. To kill it.”

“Your..um...your mom told me. About his being a paranormal researcher.”

Finish shook her head, a sad smile on her face.

“Mama must really like you if she told you. She stopped talking about him vhen ve left. Did she mention dat Unicorns don't like other ponies messing vith dere magic stuff? Don't you care?”

“I don't care.”

That short sentence stopped Finish cold. Her father had told her all the time about how rotten Unicorns were. Selfishly guarding their arcane secrets and leaving the other races in the dark when a magical catastrophe was almost upon them. Scratch had dismissed everything her father had told her in three words.

“Den you're better dan most. Did mama tell you about the first nine years uf my life? Vhy ve vere alvays moving from town to town?”

“Your dad's job?”

Finish shook her head.

“Zat vas only de part. Ponies can't see ghosts or spirits under normal circumstances. It's easier at night or vhen you're alone. Easiest vhen you do both. Vhat do you sink happened to de little filly who could see dead ponies all de time? In class? Around town? In restaurants and stores? Vhat do you sink oders said to her vhen she told dem dat dere vere ponies dere vhen dere veren't? Vhen I gave dem messages from dead relatives?”

Scratch had nothing to say. Words were starting to come faster to Finish, her history spilling out. Now that she was talking it was getting hard to stop and she was breaking. Everything she'd held in over the years was coming to the surface, spilling out in a torrent of tears.

“Dey'd say, 'dere's de veird filly. De vun who sees dead ponies everyvhere!' None uf de oder parents vould let me play vith dere children because I vas veird! Den ve'd move and it vould start all over again. I vas alvays 'de veird filly', Scratch! I don't vant to be de veird filly! I just vant to be normal! I just...vant...to be like everyvun else...”

She fell against her friend, sobbing her eyes out. Big tears soaked Scratch's chest but she didn't care. She held her friend close, patting her head and doing her best to comfort her through what she'd forced her friend to tell her. Even as she cried, Finish couldn't stop talking.

“But...my fader...he made me use it. Mama wanted to help me, to find a stable place to live so I stayed vith papa...but he didn't have dis curse. I vas his dowsing rod, his little tool in pig tails! He never loved me, he just loved vhat I could do...dat bastud...dat...bastud...I had to look at dose sings and more like dem...every damn day...”

She finally reached the point where she couldn't talk through the tears. Her head hurt, her chest hurt and to her she had just scared away her best friend. That's how it had happened every other time. She told someone and they never spoke to her again.

But Scratch held her friends head, calming her and stroking her hair, whispering to her.

“Shh, it's okay, it's okay. I'm sorry. You've been holding that in for so long. I'm sorry for dragging it out. I don't hate you. You're still my best friend Finish.”

This only made Finish cry harder. No one had ever been able to just ignore her curse like that, to embrace her like this and make her feel so safe. Scratch wasn't sure how long they stood there, her hooves cradling the distraught mess her friend had become, but it didn't matter. Eventually sobs became hiccups and those became sniffles... and then silence. There would be no questions tonight even though this new world had opened up in front of Scratch.

Despite resting all day they were both exhausted, mentally and physically. They leaned on one another as they made their way to the door of the grave-keeper’s house and knocked.

And waited.

Comments

[Cap'n BluLead]

OOOOOOH! That's REALLY a head turner!

I'm loving this story even more now!

[Osper]

270506
It just took me a while to get there. Should be a little more exciting now.

[Storm Clouds]

Whoa, scaaaary ghost... I would have been screwed, I can't sing at all lol
Glad to finally know what happened to Finish. As she said: what a bastard her father was.
The ending was sad But I'm so glad Scratch helped her and didn't leave. Would have been horrible :(

Very cool chapter !