PonyNorman

by Flutters Is Shy

2 -Beyond the Veil

The streets of the town are mostly empty, save for a young boy walking alone.

"Good morning!" he calls to a seemingly empty allyway.

"Hey Bruce, any luck with that...yeah? Well thanks, I'll keep that in mind." He says to a barren sidewalk. His sneaker ladden feet carry him yet closer to his destination, his school. And still he stops occassionally to talk to...seemingly no one.

"Did you ever find Beatrice? Well I'm sure she'll turn up, just keep looking, right?" He says to the empty space slightly left of a stopsign.

"Oops, sorry, didnt mean to...actually, I'm a bit late, maybe later?"

His actions garner him stares from those few that were to be had. They couldnt see those that he talked to, but these were no longer stares of fear or confusion. The people that saw him gave him a curt smile, or a knowing nod. Just because they couldnt see them, it didnt change the fact that the souls of the dead roamed the streets, and that Norman was the only one who could see, and speak to them.

"Hey little man, peace, ya hear?" A floating ghost, a hippie with a tie-died shirt whose name he still had been unable to learn (some ghosts were more distant, less connected than others.) said in greetings to Norman.

"Totally." Norman replied with a smile, as was his customary greeting to this particular ghost.

"Ey, Norman! Didjoo see that dame with the fiery hair? I think mah heart started beating again, man." A teen ghost with greasy slicked back hair and a leather jacket proclaimed, floating to a stop beside Norman.

"I...think her hair was actually on fire, but yeah, I saw her."

"Fer real? Man, woulddit be wrong of me to call her smoking hot then?" He said with a laugh.

Norman laughed, and continued on his way, greeting the myraid of colorful individuals as was his morning tradition.

"Hey Norman, didja hear? Clarice moved on!" A ghostly soldier -his chest and jacket torn by bullets holes, and to top it off a shell helmet with a large pronounced hole burst through it- proclaimed, drifting alongside him.

"Really? Thats great!" Norman replied with a wide smile, knowing that this meant the kindly librarian had finally resolved her debts and regrets with the land of the living.

"A good thing Sam saw her go, or else I'da thunk the shadow got her too" He stated, with a slight shiver cascading around his ectoplasm.

"Shadow? Wait, her 'too'? Who else got...wait, how can anything 'get' you, you're ghosts!"

"Didn't cha hear? Beatrice got swallowed by the shadow! Carmine and Fandine aint convinced, they's still looking for her," Norman nodded his head in agreement to Soldiers statement, having talked to both of them earlier. "but I got it on good authority from Gerald, he seened it with his own two eyes!" He enunciated this with with a finger pointed towards his eyes, and continued. "A great big cloud of shadow came outa the ground, and swallowed her up! That aint the only thing, aint you noticed the streets a been...sparser in the last month or so?"

Norman had of course noticed the plethora of ghosts had been thinning since he had lifted the witches curse, but he had assumed that more and more ghosts had passed on. Without the witches curse hanging over the town, less and less of the deceased seemed to have unfinished business.

"Theres something out there man," the soldier proclaimed, dragging his shell helm low on his brow. " And its gettin to be so it aint even safe fer the dead..." With this, he turned and floated away, leaving Norman slightly scared, and deeply confused.

~-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

It had come through the rift with its weakening one month prior. A titanic force had ripped and torn at the fabric of this world. and then with but a whimper was silenced. It had crawled through a crack between this world and the abyss it had called its home for eternity. For that eternity it had existed, starving. This world though, this world was full of food. Most of it was protected, within bodies of flesh. These seemed to be the most abundant, but once the flesh stopped living it released the delicious energy inside. It had started with eating the smallest, slowly gaining strength untill it could safely consume the larger ones it had come to know as "humans". But the true prize was this singular entity within the area, a being with energy ammounting to a hundred of these "humans". The best part was, its energy was open, almost completely unprotected. It had tried to eat it several times now, but to no avail. Now though...It was strong enough. It would consume the entity and hopefully, finally sate its hunger.

It tracked the entity, stalking it through the streets. It concealed its presence, slowly closing the distance. The entity called out in its foreign language, causing It to pause. Regardless of Its efforts to conceal Itself, the entity still managed to sense It. Fine. To hell with stealth. It rushed forward, and attempted to envelope the entity.

PAIN. This new sensation coarsed through it, and the cause was easily enough seen. A ball of light surrounded the entity, and was quickly pulling him through past a tear in the veil. It roared in pain and fury, and redubled Its efforts,to no avail. The entity was gone, the tear closed and imobile to Its prodding. It roared its discontent to the skies above, and settled. Its hunger would be sated. Of this it was certain. It would grow Its strength, and it would follow the entity.

Then it would feast.

~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

Luna and Celestia gazed at the small form curled up on the opulent bed, a sheet pulled over to prevent chills.

"How?" Came the first word in silent minutes, a question from Celestia directed towards her sister Luna.

"I...I know not, sister." Luna uttered, this situation beyond her realm of understanding.

"This...this colt, is it truly the one you saw in your dream?"Celestia asked, her muzzle nuzzling her sister in an attempt to comfort her.

"Yes. This is the colt, the one who interacted with the dead filly...but how can it be, that he is here?" Luna asked of her sister, placing her weight more evenly across her side.

They remained once more in silence, until Celestia broke from her sisters side hours later. "My apologies, dear sister, but...it is time to raise the moon...perhaps, I could do that, and you could remain in case he wakes?" Luna nodded in confirmation, and parted from her sisters side. She sat down next to the bed, and started her vigilant watch of the young one. Celestia smiled sadly as she left through the door, and made her way to a nearby door leading to a parapet. With a flick of her horn, she opened her wings and rose. She dragged the moon high into the sky, letting the sun rest.

Author's Note:

Short chapter. Sorry, but I'm not exactly one to churn out updates, so dont expect this to become a reliable schedule.

Comments

[California10978]

I wonder what the Thing is. Good job

[Flutters Is Shy]

4915288 First comment!!!~
*glomps on and doesnt let go*

[theFlancy Mernin]

I love it so far! A few spelling errors here and there, but that's perfectly fine. I like how you used the ending of the movie to begin your story, but you may want to give credit to the makers of the movie before they find this and start being rude about copyright stuff. All in all, very good work so far! Liked and favorited(favourited? Eh. )!

[Flutters Is Shy]

4919676
*hugs*

[DarkParable]

I really hope to see more of this ere long. I loved Paranorman. Thought it was an awesome movie,and this is promising to be just as good. Excellent work there Flutters.