Something Stands
"It's up there, Twi," Applejack said, nodding at one of the hills on the outskirts of her property. "Last I saw it was just standin' there, looking out at the horizon."
Twilight nodded as they continued walking between the trees, enjoying the cool morning air. "And what did you say it was?"
"Well that's the thing Twi," AJ said with a frown. "Ah can't rightly tell. It's dressed like one of the ponies from 'round Appleloosa, the way it's all geared up, but the thing's a full couple of hooves taller than Princess Celestia! It's taller than Iron Will, an' it stands jus' like him too."
"Wait, it's taller than Celestia!?" Twilight asked, stopping in her tracks. "Should we get the rest of the girls?"
AJ stopped a couple of hooves away and glanced back, shaking her head.
"I dunno," she said, unsure of herself. "All I've seen it doin' was jus' standin' on that there cliff, staring at the sunset. I checked again today, an' it was doin' the same thing like it didn' move all night."
Her eyes narrowed a little, her eyebrows dipping down. "A creature that don' sleep jus' don' exist, does it?"
"Well," Twilight started slowly, walking again towards the hill, "Princess Celestia doesn't have to sleep more than once a week, and Luna's the same way, but I don't know anycreature else like that. Maybe it slept while you were away, and it just happened to pick the same spot?"
"Ah dunno, Twi," AJ said with a small shake of her head. "I didn't get close enough to see any place that looked like it had been slept on."
Twilight sighed heavily, shaking her mane and letting the tension fall from her shoulders.
"Well, hopefully it can understand us, and we can ask it," she said with a sharp nod to herself, sealing that particular wish with punctuation as she ignored the unsure look AJ gave her.
They reached the base of the hill, and AJ gestured with her head for Twilight to follow her in an arc around the trees there. AJ froze and her hair stood on end before she glanced at Twilight and jerked her head towards the single tree atop the hill.
Twilight slowly walked up beside her and looked up the hill just as the sun rose over the horizon, and gazed up at the creature standing on the edge of the broken hill.
It had a hat that instantly reminded her of AJ's, right beside her, though the crown was flat while the brim was less oval and didn't have the flip up. It seemed to have its two upper limbs crossed before it, and was indeed built much like Iron Will. Most of its body was covered over by a brown coat that draped over its broad shoulders and hung to just above its brown, heeled boots.
In addition to its clothes and hat, it had a large pair of saddlebags over one of its shoulders, and a large roll of tan canvas over its other. Glancing over its back, Twilight didn't see any other sort of pack and wondered idly if it lived out of only that set of saddlebags.
AJ cleared her throat quietly and nudged Twilight with a hoof.
As lost in thought as she was, Twilight let out a squeak and jumped, realizing that her own fur was just as on-end as Applejack's.
"Shh!" AJ whispered before they glanced up the hill.
Both gulped when they saw the figure, now half-turned their way and looking directly down at them. His eyes buried themselves into Twilight's, and she stood frozen until the wrinkles around the dark brown eyes relaxed and its left arm slowly pulled out of its coat and away from a belt that was quickly covered again.
It gazed down the hill, maybe thirty yards away, for ten seconds before it slowly set its packs down on the ground. Reaching up with both of its arms, Twilight watched as its digits wrapped around a pair of apples and plucked them from the branches, before it knelt and held both of the fruits out and made a clicking noise with its mouth, hidden behind a thin raspberry-colored cloth.
Twilight glanced at AJ before she slowly started to walk up the hill. Hoofsteps just behind and beside her let her know that the rancher was following along.
As they neared the creature Twilight's ears flicked back as its smell reached the two of them, heavy with sweat and uncleaned body odor. It stayed completely still though, so they continued to cover the distance until they were within reach of the apples.
As they paused, a quiet, husky voice whispered, "A Gods-damned unicorn, right in front of me. I's alright, girl, i's alright. I ain't gonna hurt'cha, so you can take i'."
Twilight swallowed, before reaching out with her right hoof and taking the apple from it. "Uh, thank you," she said before slowly sitting.
She flinched as the other apple thudded onto the ground between the creature and AJ, its digits suddenly limp, its arms only held up by its knees. AJ slowly sat beside her, reaching out and gently picking up the dropped apple.
"Jesus Christ," the creature muttered, reaching up to cover its face with its hat as it scratched its scalp with the other hand. Replacing it carefully, it pulled down the cloth in front of its mouth, displaying a pair of thin, pale lips surrounded by scruffy, almost mangy hair. "So, you can talk, then."
"Yes sir," Twilight said, nodding.
The creature's nodded before it sat fully on the ground and looked between the two. "Jesus Christ," it said again.
"Is that a curse?" AJ asked, frowning slightly.
The creature jumped a bit when she spoke, and gave a weak laugh. "Ah, of course, the horses woul' be heathens," he said, shaking his head. "Jesus Christ is the name of God's Son, the savior of all mankind."
Twilight's ears twitched, and she shuffled a little closer.
"What's mankind?" she asked, her horn lighting up as she started casting a spell.
The creature flinched and reached down to its belt again before it caught itself and pulled its arms back. It watched with wide eyes as a scroll appeared, alongside a quill and inkwell.
"God blast me, you're a witch," he muttered, watching her carefully dip the quill into the well.
"I'm well above a witch, thank you," Twilight sniffed before she began writing on the scroll. "I'm closer in level to a solar or another such scholar."
It didn't seem to know what that meant, so it slowly nodded and said, "Yes ma'am."
Twilight smiled at it, before asking, "Uhm, if you don't mind answering my questions, will you please tell me what mankind is?"
It seemed even more lost by that question. "Uh, well, it's all the people in the world, I guess?" It glanced at the two of them. "Uh, all the humans."
"So you're a hyuman?" Twilight said, scribbling freely on the scroll floating beside her. "Are there any more of you?"
"Well, there was a few of us, back when I was alive," it said with a shrug. "Don' know how many are here though. Might just be me, since I died alone."
"Died?" Twilight asked, the scratching of the quill pausing as she looked him over. "You don't look dead to me?"
It snorted and raised a hand to the brim of its hat before pulling it away.
It had shoulder-length hair covering the top of its head, thicker than the hair on its cheeks but similarly colored. The long greasy locks had been tied back by something Twilight couldn't see, but the hair wasn't the only thing she could now see.
"Wow," she said, leaning forward to look at the dark spot on its forehead, about the size of a bit. "Is that a... bruise..." she started to ask, before paling and gagging.
As it tilted its head down, she saw a streak of blood drip from the hole, and she saw a bright blue flash of the sky on the other side of what looked to be a tunnel through its head. She barely comprehended the jagged chunks of bone on the other side of the hole before she turned and threw up the cereal she'd had for breakfast.
"Sorry," it said, quickly replacing the hat. "I don't know what it looks like, I jus' remember what caused it. Can feel it a bit, but like a limb that's been tied off," he said, glancing at the pale Applejack.
"How the buck are you talkin'?" she asked faintly. "Are you a buckin' zombie?"
"Sorry ma'am, I don't know what that is," it said with a shrug. "I don't know how I'm movin' 'round either. Should be rottin' in the dirt, but here I am I suppose."
Twilight spit a couple of times, shaking her head to get the grisly image out of her mind. "Well, that's something," she said faintly, gagging once more before pressing her hoof to her mouth. "He's—" She glanced at the creature, who nodded, "He's not a zombie AJ, he's still, uh, cognizant. He's closer to one of Rockhoof's draugr, a revenant of some kind."
"I don't know what that means," said both AJ and the creature at the same time, looking at each-other warily afterward.
"Well, a revenant is a loan-word from the Prench revenant, which means 'returning'. It's literally a corpse that has 'returned' from whatever the other side is," she said, looking at both of them.
"But why?" he asked. "I know I don't deserve no Heaven, but this don't seem like Hell either."
"That's the question," Twilight nodded, summoning another piece of parchment and laying it on the ground. "It could be a question of metaphysics, where your mind just wasn't ready to move on and so you wound up here. Or it could be something astrophysical, where your death just happened to trigger some unknown law of mechanics that dropped you on a world across the universe, alive. Or it could even be something to do with temporal physics, and your death caused your consciousness to be catapulted into either the future or the past!"
Twilight panted a little while the other two looked at each other.
"That's a lot of very smart-sounding words," he said slowly, motioning to his head, "an' I've only got half a brain right now. You think you could send me back with your, uh, solar witchery?"
Twilight licked her lips, narrowing her eyes.
"Uhm, if I studied you for long enough, it is possible that I could reverse-engineer whatever happened to you," she said slowly. "But it would likely take more power than I have, and even if I did, I don't know if you'd still be alive when you got there," she said, gesturing at his forehead.
He nodded. "Alright," he said, still nodding. "Uh. Hmm. Well, you think you could just go ahead and finish it then?" he asked lightly.
"Finish what?" Twilight asked, flinching when he pointed at his head. "No!" Twilight yelped, her eyelids shooting to their fullest width. "Why would I k-k-kill you!?"
The creature, the man, shrugged. "Well, far as I can figure I'm already dead," he said, lifting a hand and raising a digit. Lifting another, he said, "An' leavin' me alive is probably some sort of affront to God, and I don't wanna be makin' Him any madder than I already have." He paused, before shrugging and dropping his arm. "There's probably other good reasons, but I can't think of them right now," he said, before chuckling. "Can't think of them, hehe."
Twilight and AJ shared a look before Twi shook her head. "There's no reason good enough to kill another liv—" Twilight started, before catching herself. "Another, uh, thinking creature."
He sighed, nodding. "I figure ya would say as much." Standing up, he stretched his arms above his head and sighed as a couple of loud cracks rung through the air. He looked over his shoulder, at the edge of the cliff, before shaking his head and looking at Twilight.
"I don't suppose you know a place where I could get some clean water then? It's been long enough since my last bath, and I need a shave," he said, raising a hand and scratching at the coarse hair on his chin.
"Well, if you promise to not hurt anycreature, then I have a couple of spare rooms," Twilight said with a slow smile.
He nodded slowly. "I won't shoot down nothing that ain't comin' at me," he promised. "There more of you purple unicorns and orange horses around?"
"Yup!" Twilight chirped with a smile. "But we call ourselves 'Ponies'. All of the taller horses are over in Saddle Arabia. And we come in all colors, and some of us even have wings!" Twilight said as she stretched her own out.
The human chuckled. "Ponies, then. And flying ones, at that." Sighing, he leaned over and lifted his bags back onto his shoulders. "As long as you don't have demons running around."
"No, they're all in Tartarus," Twilight said as she stood. "My assistant's a dragon though, so be ready for that."
"Really now? A sea dragon?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
"No, your regular fire-breathing kind," she said with a smile up at him. "His name's Spike. Oh, and I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this here is Applejack," she said, nodding at the mare who'd doffed her hat in reply.
"Well hello, Twilight and Applejack," he said, nudging the tip of his hat but leaving it on. "Name's Jake. Nice to meetcha."
I kind of wanted to keep going on this 
C'est la vie, I s'pose. Let me know how you felt about the short 
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
710 users online
814,549 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This must be a first. An actual, halfway good, HIE story. Though I swear this is a crossover with something. His accent more than anything else. Could be wrong of course.
Not sure why Twilight needed to be a unicorn here. But I blame whoever paid you more than anyone.
10725420
Ah, sorry, but she's alicorn
Jake just didn't see her wings. No crossover either, I just live in Texas and
havehad some cowboy friends.10725426
Then there's a serious plot hole here. Unless this is explicitly ignoring Equestria Girls, Twilight should know what Jake is. He's not fully like her Canterlot High friends. But he is still human.
And I just missed that part, with Twilight showing her wings 😵😵😵.
10725433
Suppose I'll tack on the AU tag so that's less strange
The commissioner just asked that Twilight not know what humans were, so I ignored EQG, yeah
Well that's a heck of a thing. Very well written.
This is so well written! And I know that this is a short story but if the plot bunny ever hits you again I would love to see more! I adore this character and the idea of a human with a gun that's actually skilled with it in Equestria sounds amazing!
Loved it! Hoping that it continues! If not, still a good read!
I wouldn’t be apposed to more, but it’s also pretty good as is.
so is Jake an outlaw or bounty hunter from the 1800s?
Jake reminds me of Morgan, from RDR2. This has serious promise if you ever want to continue, but with him being dead, I'm not sure where you would go with it beyond a redemption story. Being dead makes that even harder I would think. The possible foreshadowing of him wanting death, and seeking to end it on the cliff by Twilight or jumping is interesting. The symbolism of him standing at the edge of said cliff, on the precipice of death, is interesting too. Staring at the distant sunset is also a good touch.
"Jake, no! If you destroy the McGuffin, it will kill you!"
"Don't fret none, Ma'm. I'm already dead. I'll just finally get the rest of the world to admit it."
He's still speaking and thinking with a huge hole in his head... and most of the brain therein expunged.
He must be a DEMON-POSSESSED CORPSE!! AHHHHHHH!!!! *Alondro runs around in a circle screaming, because what else is one supposed to do?!*
10726352
Hmm... if we extend the metaphor... then perhaps as he "steps away from the precipice" both physically and morally, and perhaps emotionally, the hole will begin to close up, and his brain will begin to return, until he is finally normally and mortally alive?
10725426
Differentiating between winged and non-winged unicorns is a kinda modern thing. Even back in the 1980's a unicorn with wings was just "a winged unicorn", and "Alicorn" was the term for a unicorn's horn.
I like it, if you decide to continue it I will continue reading it
Goddamn this was great
I dont suppose a continuation of some sort is possible?
10726501
Like with Dumbledore at the train station, you can go forward or you can go back.
Judging from his more religious statements, I think either way could work for granting him life.
Backwards and he atones, healing himself and recovering his life. This is him returning to the mortal coil, where actions will effect the state of his immortal soul.
Whether he remains there or moves on (to the Next Great Adventure, or Life Eternal, or whatever) is another decision point.
Right now he is standing still, between now and then, life and death, and as long as he is that walking corpse, he is still standing on that cliff edge, no matter where he actually goes.
You can also look at it as a refusal to lift the veil of Mara, and have an insistence on remaining within the illusion of the world. There is no life, or death. There just is, and what you see is illusion.
Yes, absolutely, please, more of this, myes.
I've always wanted more fics involving Applejack and Cowboys.
Ah, just remember. Once you're Harrowed, you always gotta watch out for hungry Manitous. Least you're immune to Texas Tummy Twisters.
Damn if I want a second part for this, it has a lot of potential, so yeah, I say you go ahead and continue with it.
Do yourself a favor and consider a sequel.
This is refreshing take on the HiE trope! The religious implications are also super interesting and would love to see how Jake copes with all this.
Sign me up for future chapters. I want to see where this goes. Its a fairly short prologue, but already the dialogue and narration has me feeling sympathy for Jake's situation.
This was a very good one-shot. I wouldn't mind reading more .
I like it, I would love to read more!
Would love to read more, actually! Also I was very surprised that the character wasn't Arthur Morgan from RDR2. Even so, I'm already very interested in what Jake's story might possibly be. Well done!
Good Story!
Well now. This'd make a right ol' tale ta tell.
(Huh, this is a very interesting premise... don't think I've seen anyone do 'undead cowboy in Equestria' before... I would be quite interested in this if it continued.)
So the human is Jake Adler, then? Interesting idea, if that's the case.
Huh. I kinda expected him to attempt to kill himself (either saying such outright, or just wandering away into the woods, leaving his gear and two confused ponies behind) but it was still an interesting read.
10727713
10727669
Sorry guys, I haven't played A Red Dead game
I'm just a guy living in Texas writing a cowboy
10726375
Been a while since I've seen you comment on a story. Probably just luck of the draw, more than anything, but it hasn't been the same without you, buddy.
As for the story, well, I feel that we need a musical accompanyment. Signor Morricone, se lo facesse?
10727960 I have been... busy... with... things.
This is interesting.
I certainly wouldn't mind more of this.
You have me intrigued.
Hollywood
10727914
Though, if you're interested, I would definitely recommend the Red Dead games. They are both quite good.
Ah, I gotcha. No problem~
10727914 *Boop*
10728753
I've been getting more interested over the last couple of days XD I think there's a developer sale on steam, I'll have to check it out
10726501 Huh, that reminds me of one WoW/MLP crossover. Twilight goes to Azeroth, shenanigans, and comes back with a Forsaken. The sequel has the Forsaken slowly return to life.
Yo this was amazing to read, I'd love a continuation!
i need context for the cowboy~!
Excellent fic. Very much enjoyed the weird west feel that came through in this piece, especially with the man's nonchalant acceptance of things like magic or talking horses.
10729487
Yeah, I know. A guy would have to have a hole in his head to believe in that stuff. Oh, wait....
This is a really good short story. In my mind, it would be a shame to add more to it, just leave it to the imagination.
Great job man, great job.
I very rarely comment on stories, but this seems like a worthy cause please continue this if you don't mind.
Well I'm intrigued definently liked and followed this is a great start to a story. I'm looking forward to more
I'm getting Ghost Rider vibes from this (the song, not the marvel character).
Take it from me, this story has great potential. (Sounds rather similar to my first work which I posted recently)
The guy feels like William from Westworld.