Chapter Ten
The apple family ghosts made Jack sick.
The little impromptu get-together had started off well enough, splendid even if it came down to it. Pear Butter was as nice a pony as her husband was. They had made small talk to pass the time and the happy, understanding welcome that Jack had received as a stranger in a strange land meant that he would remember the kindness of Bright Mac and Pear Butter for a long time. Unfortunately, over the course of several hours a problem had made itself known: They were deeply in love.
This wasn’t normally a problem for Jack, generally speaking he loved love. He’d wished the world he’d come from had more of it, in fact. He would’ve supported this love with all his heart too if it weren’t for the unfortunate fact that, with every action of affection between the couple, the night was quickly deteriorating for Jack. Each time they so much as brushed hooves together Jack felt the pain of longing in his chest increase. Each time he felt his stomach twist. Each time he seemed further and further away as he was reminded of what he'd lost, what he’d never find again.
His gaze dropped away from his hosts more and more often over the course of the visit. He couldn’t bring himself to witness it anymore and turned his gaze instead to his hands. Watching as his fingers worriedly intertwined themselves, turning in strained combinations with little to no conscious input from Jack himself. A twisting cat’s cradle without the string.
The worst part, he mused, was that he couldn’t even be mad at them about it. How could you be mad at someone just because they’d found a kind of love they could pour their heart into, even if the longing in your own heart made it hurt. Even if it tore your heart out with jealousy every time they leaned into each other, knowing beyond knowing that their partner would lean back and support them.
“Are you alright, dear?” So precarious was Jack’s emotional state that the term of affection at the end of the sentence almost sent Jack over the edge into tears in spite of the fact that it had been tacked on casually and held no emotion of its own. Jack glanced up to see Pear Butter eyeing him with a kind of worry and felt that lingering darkness around his heart retreat back to where he couldn’t hear its echoes anymore.
Jack, who had subconsciously expected to be politely forgotten, took a moment to get his thoughts together as best he could. Not that there was a lot to think about, just the one thing that he thought about almost constantly. “Just… missing someone.” He managed lamely, not having any words that would do any better a job at explaining.
“Oh…” Pear Butter responded, clearly needing no further explanation, though it took Bright Mac a moment to catch up to the implication. They shared a glance.
“Well I’ll uh… I’ll tell you what!” Said Bright Mac enthusiastically. Apparently deciding that, even though he was a pony without any clothes to speak of, he was more than ready to try and fly by the seat of his pants. “Me and Pear know exactly what you’re going through and there ain’t nothin’ to worry about!” He said, self-assured.
Jack scoffed, though it was more like a sarcastic laugh that he didn’t quite have the drive to commit to. He immediately felt bad about his reaction. What had Bright Mac ever done to deserve that? Yet Jack found himself too emotionally worn out to try and apologize.
Pear Butter gave Bright Mac a look. Though anyone familiar with having a spouse would’ve called it The Look. Bright Mac wasn’t a stupid stallion, most of the time anyway, and looked for a more appropriate way to couch his words. “Well alright,” He said, beginning the slow linguistic slide into reverse, Jack was familiar with the maneuver as he’d done a lot of it himself. “We don't know exactly what you’re going through, I ‘spose. But we know the outline of it more or less.”
Pear Butter nodded a nod that said ‘good start’, Bright Mac took heart in that nod even as his wife’s expression made it clear that it was only a start.
Bright Mac would’ve tugged at a collar if he had one. “An’ I ‘spose that there ain’t nothin’ to worry about, there’s probably some stuff you need to keep an eye out for.” This got another more affirmative nod. Bright Mac inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have found some ground to stand on in the conversation. “What I meant was that after Pear passed away I thought my whole world had ended, didn’t see much worth livin' for. Loved the kids of course but they tore my heart out too, reminded me so much of their mom.” He nuzzled into Pear’s neck as he spoke. “Then, when I passed away, she was there, waiting for me.” He smiled and gave his wife a peck on the cheek. “She’d felt the same way as me and waited all that time so we could be together again. An’ now, together, we can watch the kids grow up, just like we always wanted.”
Bright Mac let out a sigh and leaned on his wife. Pear Butter allowed a moment of closeness before she nudged him hard enough in the ribs to remind him that he had been going somewhere with his story. “What I mean to say is, as long as you're still around, and this someone that you're missing is still around, there’s always a chance you might wind up together again. An’ sometimes they’re around even if you don’t think they are. An’ if you and them really put your heart and mind to it, that chance only goes up.”
Jack smiled slightly, untangling his fingers. It was a nice story, though he certainly held a bias for sappy romance. Still…
“I think I should go.” Jack said, standing from his seat. “Thank you both so much for the company and the reassuring words but I think I need to head out before it loops back around to jealousy again.” Jack gave them both a polite nod and a practiced faux smile. As the ponies bid farewells of their own Jack made his way over to the ladder.
He had made it about half-way before he heard the noise of Bright Mac pulling himself to his hooves. “I’ll see you out.” He said, smiling. It wasn’t an offer, it was a statement of fact. Jack made no attempt to disagree with it.
He did voice a complaint when Bright Mac began to follow him down the ladder, however. “You don’t-“
“Yup I do.” Bright Mac cut in immediately, brooking no argument.
Silently, they descended the ladder. Silently, they exited through the barn’s closed door. Silently, they stood outside in the early dawn light with Bright Mac clearly wanting to say something. Until, at last, he managed to get it out.
“Now, look,” Bright Mac started. “I know this might sound a little harsh so I just want to make it clear, all I’m doing here is just giving some friendly advice.”
Jack nodded an affirmative and found himself staring out into the nearby forest as he did so. Something in the tree line was catching his eye’s attention but he couldn’t quite see what it was.
Bright Mac, apparently not noticing Jack’s distracted demeanor, continued. “Pear Butter doesn’t much like telling folks how to live their lives but you look like you could use some help. So keep this in mind, alright?” Bright Mac waited for a sign he was being listened to before he continued. “Long as you don’t know what’s keeping you a ghost, you might be a ghost for a very long time. Now, if you don’t want to spend that time in the worst misery of your life, which I imagine you probably don't, then you should probably see about making some friends.”
Jack managed to tear his gaze away from the forest, though he found the tree line trying to draw it back. “Sorry if I was-“
“You were fine Jack,” Bright Mac cut in, unwilling to lose control on the conversation. “Pear likes you, I like you. You’re a nice alien creature thing and we’re happy to have you over whenever you want to come by.” Bright Mac gave a reassuring nod and as the tension released Jack found his gaze once more on the forest.
The stallion spared a curious look to the forest himself before turning his attention back to Jack. “But we aren’t friends, Jack. You didn’t talk about yourself, where you came from, anything about your life. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but it means we’re stuck at neighbors. You need to find someone to confide in, talk with. Someone to, not to put too fine a point on it, befriend.” Bright Mac’s words registered in Jack’s ears but got filed away for later revision. He had finally spotted the thing in the forest and it immediately took up all his mental processes.
It was no wonder it had been so hard to see, it wasn’t moving. Wasn’t even blinking. If it weren’t for the accentuating light of the dawn sun it would’ve been almost completely invisible. It was a tall creature, like Celestia and Twilight had been. Alicorns? Is that what he’d heard them called? Yet it didn’t look quite right, something was off. Its coat was darkest black, inky and deep, and a mane filled with the suggestion of stars swirled out from underneath a light blue helmet. It reminded him, vaguely, of something in his recent nightmares that he’d half forgotten.
It stood perfectly still, staring directly at Jack, he could feel it. As he locked eyes with it he felt waves of emotion radiating from the strange creature. Rage, jealousy, hatred, loneliness, betrayal. They hit him like a blast of arctic air, cutting a cold wound clean to bone he no longer had. Jack had barely recovered from the feelings that buffeted against him when the eyes of the creature turned to vertical slits. Immediately, Jack was stunned still as he felt that same deep unending maw inside him open up again. He couldn’t breathe. He didn’t need to breathe, some suffocating part of him knew, but right now it felt like he needed a sudden influx of air more than he ever had in his life. He wanted to look away, more than anything, yet some apparently suicidal part inside him forced him to match the glare that had been leveled his way. Drawing him in like a moth to a flame. Pulling him along an exotic gravity he could only begin to guess at.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?”
Again the rubberband, snapping Jack back out of whatever freezing hell he’d fallen into. He glanced instinctively to Bright Mac, who was looking at him with a worried expression. Jack’s thoughts rolled around and folded into themselves in the confusion. “You didn’t… see?”
Bright Mac looked to the forest with a kind of practiced movement that implied he’d done it several times over the past couple seconds, then turned his attention back to Jack. A frown. A shake of the head.
Jack took a deep breath, not sure why he did so, and summoned enough courage to look back into the forest. Those terrifying eyes were gone now, though where they had been he did see a retreating cloud of black smoke that moved its way deeper into the tree line until it had disappeared from view.
Some part of Jack knew he would follow it. Not now, he could resist for now, but the draw on his mind only increased in the absence of the thing.
“I…” Jack managed, eventually, still gazing into a now empty tree line. “I need to go talk to Berry.”
“Alright Sam, let’s go over your equipment one more time before the big day.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Okay here we go. Let’s see… parachute?”
“Check.”
“Rations?”
“You can call it jerky, Larry.”
“Fine, jerky?”
“Check.”
“Water canteen?”
“Check.”
“Wh- I don’t suppose I can convince you against any of the items you chose to bring can I?”
“Nope.”
“Okay… whiskey canteen?”
“Check.”
“Wooden baseball bat?”
“Check”
“Butterfly knife?”
“Check.”
“...Second butterfly knife?”
“In case the first one breaks.”
“A… box of nails?”
“In case the baseball bat needs an upgrade.”
“Land sakes Sam.”
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Not only is this back, I somehow missed that it returned last month. Nevertheless, I'm happy to see this update again!
I think Sam And I would be such friends. They? Seem like the have a good head on their shoulders.
Sam seems a bit... Serious.
Serious Sam
Just finished reading all the chapters and I love the story! Can’t wait for the next chapter!
So my theory is that his death and having no magic made equestria try an fill his empty vessel with magic at the moment of his death causing him to get more magic then your average ghost. I'm guessing the scientist dude made a deal to send her to the same place so she doesnt sue him. But unless something happens that means humans can now send people to equestria whenever they want. So maybe the machine blows up after transfering her along with the coordinates?
11600266
I see what you did there...
And I like it. Carry on.
The Nightmare:
Looking forward to the next chapter!
“And this was my prayer,
Save me from this terrible nightmare!”
Nightmare moon? Oh boy. The plot thickens!
Sam seems well prepared. I am eager to see what the next chapter brings.
Its lovely to see this story back in it's feet! Look forward to reading more.
Is it back?
I shall wait, and see.
Sam should be wearing the specialized gear that would be used if there were to be a zombie apocalypse!