Chapter Four
Jack was exhausted.
This surprised Jack given that, as a ghost, he didn’t think he would be capable of something so banal as exhaustion. It didn’t strike him as particularly fair that not only had he lost any chance of seeing Sam again by being pulled into a different world if not alternate universe, but on top of that had also died and now could barely interact with anything at all. Yet still, as if it were the cherry on top the situation, he had to deal with some heightened fatigue that prevented him from even walking a couple blocks without wearing him out.
Jack gazed towards the end of the road that he was walking next to and saw the towering white structure of Carousel Boutique, his weary eyes focusing so intently on it that the rest of his surroundings were hardly acknowledged. There, he decided, he would rest. He did not know if doing so would actually give him his energy back, he wasn’t sure how being a ghost worked in that regard, but he hoped that it would, he didn’t exactly have a lot of alternatives. How could he know what he needed to do to get rid of an affliction if he didn’t know what had brought it on in the first place?
“I’m worried about you, you spent the past couple days running away from the real problems that were bothering you.”
Jack whirled to face the voice that seemed to be responding to his thoughts, overcorrected, under corrected his overcorrection, and ended up falling on the ground where his hand and arm sunk a couple inches into the dirt before Jack pulled himself together and stopped his descent, thinking very strongly about how solid the dirt should be. He wasn’t too keen on finding out what would happen if he ever forgot that.
Breathing deep, if only because he felt it was what he was supposed to do in this situation, Jack pulled his hand out of the earth as he carefully imagined that only that part of his body should be able to move through dirt, while bracing himself to change his line of thinking if the rest of his body began to suddenly plummet. Moving fractions of inches at a time, Jack was eventually successful. Upon freeing his appendage from its earthy prison, he looked to the voice that had caused all the trouble to begin with.
He saw one of the strange ponies, naturally, but whereas most of the others usually sported a couple different colors across their manes and coats, this one seemed to have been dipped in pink paint. In fact, Jack might’ve believed she had been if it weren’t for that fact that it looked like her mane was the antithesis of soaked, frighteningly close to ‘violently dry’. To Jack’s relief as well as disappointment he found he was not the one being addressed. Instead, the strange pony was looking into a nearby tree paying him exactly zero attention, causing Jack to write off the interruption of his thoughts as a fluke. Exhausted as Jack was he neglected to check what she was looking at, opting instead to run through the checklist that Ms. Punch had given him for what Colada looked like.
Namely, of course, because the only color he’d been told as a reference for Colada was different shades of pink, which seemed to match this pony to a tee. The coat was, what had she said? Light pink? This pony had a light pink coat. She didn’t have a two-tone mane, but it was exceptionally mussy and, again, very pink. Could these ponies’ manes change color? Perhaps she’d had it dyed in the period of time since she’d met her older sister? Maybe the lighting was dulling down the difference in color, hiding it from Jack’s tired eyes? He didn’t have an answer to any of these questions that he posed to himself, so he delved into onto the rest of the description he’d been given to try and find an answer.
Of course this pony looked to be perhaps the same age as Ms. Punch, if not a little older judging by a slight difference in height, but Jack didn’t have a lot of experience with judging pony ages. For instance, he didn’t know if Celestia’s height and grandeur had simply come with age or if she were somehow different from the rest on some basic level. Even Twilight Sparkle, who had had both the horn and the wings just like Celestia, was still sized very similar to the rest of the ponies. So was Celestia an outlier then? But if so, then did that mean the oldest ponies all stayed almost the exact same height throughout their entire lives? How on earth was he supposed to tell a pony’s age then? Even if only a year separated them surely Ms. Punch still would’ve called her her younger sister.
Mind whirring in confusion, Jack leapt to cutie marks. Hoping perhaps he would be able to make some sense of something there instead, hoping that maybe he could latch onto some logic somewhere to halt his descent into madness. Cutie marks, Jack had determined, were definitely the strange tattoo-like marking that adorned the hindquarters of all but the youngest of the ponies. Jack was unsure of how these marks were gained, but he had heard of cultures where getting a tattoo was tradition to show reaching adulthood and assumed it was similar case here. Though instead of flowing artistic ink this one particular pony had… three balloons?
So, Ms. Punch’s younger sister wasn’t supposed to have a cutie mark yet, though she hadn’t sounded too sure of that come to think of it. Jack’s mind began to reel as he realized how little information he had actually had. Trying to focus through the weariness that hung to his soul like he’d swam the river styx with bags of sand around his ankles, Jack sat down. What else? She’d said something else. Jack frantically tried to piece it together in his head.
“Take your time.” Said the pony, her voice cheerful as she continued to look into the tree that she stood next to.
Jack blinked and looked to her again, and she continued to pay no mind to him. Taking her advice, even if it hadn’t been given to him specifically, Jack calmed himself. He did the breathing exercises that he’d learned, and though no air was moved due to it, it still calmed him down. After a moment, Jack reapproached the situation. At once, it all snapped into place.
Whether or not Colada had her cutie mark was irrelevant. If she had gained it recently than that meant that she was younger, like those small fillies and colts he’d seen occasionally on his walk who also had been missing their own. This information was further supported because Ms. Punch had said that Colada was being looked after by the town’s school teacher, which meant that this fully grown mare couldn’t be Colada. This fully grown mare was-
“Pinkie Pie?”
Jack blinked again and looked around, that voice hadn’t belonged to the pink pony, who he now assumed was named Pinkie Pie, but from some other source. After a full turn to try and spot the source of the voice, Jack saw that Pinkie Pie had her gaze still turned the top of a nearby tree and turned his gaze to the same. In the upper boughs, hidden almost completely by the lower branches, Jack spotted a rainbow. Confused, Jack leaned to look around the tree to get a view of the sky behind it and found no such rainbow in existence before leaning back to get another look. Then he focused on it. Eventually he realized that that rainbow tapered and ended at a light azure form which Jack had misinterpreted as the sky. For the second time, everything clicked together. He knew this pony.
“Hey Rainbow Dash! Twilight asked me to check up on you because she was worried. She wants to help you but she’s not that great with ponies so I’m supposed to keep you company until she can read all seven issues of her encyclopedia on mental unwellness, she said she’ll be done in an hour.”
Jack felt uncomfortable now. Eavesdropping on someone was bad enough for his social insecurity, eavesdropping on someone being talked to about their mental health topped out on his list of things he never wanted to be involved in. There was a moment of silence from both parties that Jack used as an opportunity to pry himself from the ground, his phantom body begging for rest. But before Jack could get any further on his plan to get out of earshot he heard the conversation turn, unexpectedly, to him.
“I just wish I’d been fast enough to save him, that’s all.” Rainbow said at last. She said it with all the words that meant it was a passing thought but with all the inflection that this was a genuine and deep regret. Said it like she were offering up a piece of her soul for inspection.
Jack stood in silent humble shock for a moment. Then, anger welled up inside him. He had every right to be angry at her for failing to save him, it roared. He had every reason to blame her for not being able to save him. Clenching his fists, Jack tamped down the anger that surged from the same instinctual part of himself that had told him to stay at the hospital. It screamed against his willpower, fighting to break free, but Jack refused to let it.
Instead, he found an outlet. He heard Pinkie Pie offering kind words but was unable to make them out as his own thoughts swirled in his head. Step after step he continued down the road, exhaustion burnt away by the fire of the strange anger. He was going to find Colada and then he was going to get back to Ms. Punch, who would hopefully be released from the hospital soon, and then he was going to call in a favor from her. Because he’d torn himself apart for far cheaper things than failing to save someone’s life and like hell he was going to let someone else tear themselves up over him. He would let her know that he forgave her for it even if he had to get someone else to actually tell her that.
Meanwhile, in another world, a doorbell rang.
“Oh hey Larry, what are you doing here so late?”
“Hey Sam. Uhm… Have you heard anything from Jack yet?”
“No. No not yet. I’ve been trying to get a hold of him but he isn’t answering his phone. Why do you ask?”
“Well uhm… It’s just that his disappearance… it matches up with… well you know how I’ve got that new job with the start-up?”
“Larry, what are you getting at?”
“You can’t tell anyone about this Sam, I signed an NDA but I think you derserve to know. I- uhm- I think the company I’m working for might have sent Jack to another world.”
“What.”
“Well he went missing around the time we ran a testrun and I went back to look at the coordinates and I think at the time of the test they may have uhm… coincided with your guys’s couch.”
“... How sure are you of this.”
“You know how bad I am at saying I’m 100% sure of anything?”
“Yea?”
“I’m like 99.99% sure that we sent him to another world. The teleporter says a complex living organism was definitely transported so unless you had someone else visiting who’s also gone missing it’s…. a certainty.”
“...”
“Sam wait! What are you doing!?”
“I’m getting a travelpack together and then you’re going to teleport me to this other world Larry, that’s what we’re doing.”
“Sam! You know Jack wouldn’t want you to do this! This is super risky! You could die!”
“Of course Jack wouldn’t want me to do this! He doesn’t want anybody to ever do anything remotely dangerous!”
“Then why?”
“Because you can’t tell me that if our spots were reversed he wouldn’t do everything in his power to get to me.”
“... alright Sam. I’ll sign you up as a volunteer for the project. Just… just don’t die alright?”
“I’ll do my best to avoid it Larry. And… thanks.”
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All I hope is that update comes faster aaaaa
Remember when loading your kit for this expedition to make sure you bring a parachute.
Yeah, if you’re being teleported to Equestria and you end up in the air? Bring a parachute anyway.
8851298
Two more and they'll eventually have to install a catching net over that spot.
Yay! Updates!
8851731
I didn't see anything to indicate she disposed of anything in the earlier chapters, and in the next Twilight shows Rainbow Dash something she pulled out of his wallet.
Probably a bit late but, there's a technique to make apple cider referred to as 'jacking', so jacked apple cider was a thing. Which is where the term 'applejack' comes from. It's an alcoholic drink though. Also jack can refer to male donkeys, jenny for female.
Anyways, happy to see an update.
8853238
That is actually super cool information. I always thought that 'applejack' originated as a catchy term by a cereal company.
Jack is also an archaic term for a man, sort of like "guy", which is also now a name. Also, a male ferret.
8854903
Also, word "Jack" by itself means "strong, tough".
So Applejack is Strong Apple. Or Apple Brendy.
That girlis actually super sweet. I kinda hope she goes through and dies so that she and jack can be together forever.
9135135
Awe me too! your comment was so swe- oh.. nevermind...
Hey How second ghost!
8851415
And a towel. Always know where your towel is.
9135135
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Interesting how Sam might come into play. Most HiEs only have 1 human displaced, this will be interesting.
If they teleport Sam in the same place, and Rainbow does not save her either, this is going to get ugly.
Two ways this is gonna play out:
- Sam's gonna eat shit and fucken d i e
- Sam doesn't die but it's a close call