A Ghost of a Chance.

by LucidTech

Chapter Four

Thing about the Everfree is that it’s dangerous. Now, that was common sense to Chance. It wasn’t that difficult to figure out, just from looking at it. But kids are ignorant of their own mortality and will often do stupid things because they don’t realize how bad it can actually get. Well, The CMC and Dinky had come to the realization a few minutes ago now. And they’d been running from the manticore for an amount of time equal to that.

Chance, meanwhile, was attempting not to lag too far behind. Which involved a lot of effort and willpower, both of which were running terrifyingly low as the manticore slowly closed the distance. He could see the end of the forest it was so close, the fillies had already cleared it. They were still running, he just needed to make it a little farther. It was difficult, he could see it there, but he could feel the breath of the monster on his back. Maybe it had to focus on his back to lose it’s soul? Maybe his back didn’t steal souls? The latter made more sense, shedinja always had their backs to their trainers after all.

He pushed himself even more but just as he was almost past the trees he felt the teeth clench around his midsection. The unfortunate thing about bite, of course, is that it’s a dark type move. He felt the sharp teeth dig into his exoskeleton and he felt the world go black, he cursed as he faded. He’d really wanted to do better this time.

In the blackness of his mind he was abandoned until, at last, death claimed him.

“Wait a minute.”

No sorry what was that? That wasn’t in the story.

“You can’t just end it like that.”

Hold up let me… The scene was clear and pristine.

“And there was a pink earth pony there.”

Gosh dangit Pinkie, what are you doing?

“You can’t just kill a good guy like Chance and not expect me to complain!”

I need to end the story, I don’t have any ideas and I had to start off in the Everfree because of how I ended the last chapter. Simple flow of logic from there.

“That’s not a good reason to kill someone.”

I didn’t even kill him! He’s not even real! You’re not even real!

“That’s rude, I’m as real as you are.”

Only as a voice in my head, on this page. You don’t physically exist.

“You don’t either technically. You’re just a personality in a brain, you don’t really exist either.”

Don’t get philosophical on me, this story is over.

“BUT WHY?!”

Excuse me?

“Why did you have to kill him? He may just be words on a page to you but he’s so much more to some people.”

Don’t lie to me Pinkie. No one cares, we’ll all just move on. I’ll get two comments about how it’s sad and then we’ll move on.

“You care!”

How do you know?

“Because you’re… like… I’m sorta you. You know? You’re writing me out, I’m kinda you. The fact that you wrote me in at all says you care about Chance and you want him to have a happy ending.”

….

“Are you okay?”

If I don’t talk about the tears they don’t exist.

“,,,”

Alright fine, We’ll go on. We’ll play by pokemon rules. He fainted but didn’t die. Nurse Redheart found him, bandaged him up and the Doo family took him home. If a plot point for WHY he only fainted requires explaining then we’ll deal with Death not letting him leave yet.

“Glad to see you had a change of heart.”

Yea whatever.

“See ya later Lucid.”

See ya Pinkie… and thanks for the talk.

---

Silence. Everything was completely quiet. It was far too early in the morning for anyone to be awake, and Chance had just barely come to in the Doo family household. He vaguely remembered what had brought him here, but he was too happy to be home to care about the specifices. With a little effort he left behind the folded blanket he had been on and took to hovering, perfectly still, in the corner of the kitchen with his back to the wall. And took in the contrast that matched his outside appearance and actions so easily, but didn’t match his soul in the least.

He hadn’t come to complete conclusion on if his back could steal souls, and he couldn’t think of anything he could try it on that wouldn’t give him heaps of guilt, so he had developed the habit of keeping his opening out of view. If there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it was steal someone’s soul on accident. Who knew if he had a way of reversing it.

He heard the stairs squeak and his attention snapped in that direction. Over the past week he had grown used to the common sounds of the wood while it rested, this squeak was not familiar. Slowly, Derpy descended the stairs. She was glancing behind herself, towards her daughters rooms, and when she was certain of whatever she had been checking she turned to face the kitchen, where a shocked look came over her face when she spotted Chance.

“Mister!” She said in a yelling whisper, a talent exclusive to parents. “You scared me.” Lacking anyway to apologize, he just didn’t move. “What are you doing up anyway? Don’t you want to rest and recover?” Chance moved his body horizontally, back and forth, in the best attempt of shaking his head as he could. Derpy seemed surprised by this and he realized he had never ‘talked’ with her before. In fact, Dinky was the only one who had spent a long enough time with him to figure out that he understood every word they said.

Derpy was about to question his ability to understand, but decided against it. After all, that wasn’t all that uncommon. “Then what are you doing?” Chance just stared at her, his unmoving eyes asking if she really expected him to answer that. “Oh, you can’t talk can you?” Chance ‘shook’ his ‘head’.

Derpy had been spending a lot of her time at her place of employment, and she seemed to be running overtime more and more often. The fact that she hadn’t had enough time to focus on him had hardly bothered Chance, given the circumstances. She sighed and walked up to a small drawer. Pulling it out revealed the collection of utensils that the ponies used for their meals. She paused and glanced at the hovering pet. “Can I trust you to keep a secret?” She asked.

Intrigued, Chance nodded. It wasn’t like he was going to be telling anyone anyway. She smiled with a face full of caring and trust and then lifted the wood bottom of the drawer and retrieved a collection of rough envelopes from beneath it. ‘A false bottom?’ Chance thought to himself, surprised. Derpy didn’t look like the type to keep anything under wraps that deeply. Slowly, she headed back to the table and dropped the papers on it’s smooth surface. Declining a seat for now she moved away and returned a moment later with a small collection of receipts.

Sighing deeply, Derpy opened the envelopes with practiced ease. Several were stamped in red, warning about payments, others had yellow and a few were marked with cursive, indigo, hoof writing. All of them stated quite obviously one thing though, they were all bills. Resting her head on her hoof Derpy began writing on a nearby blank sheet. Chance kept his distance, but remained looking over her shoulder.

Money was tight, he had figured that out in the first few days of being here, but he had no idea it was THIS tight. The pegasus would often throw a scrapped paper over her shoulder and start working on how to balance the money again. A worry grew in the pit of Chance’s stomach, and silently, he slipped outside to leave the pegasus to her work.

Clearly he needed to get a job. Wait... what? Chance caught himself. Why did he need a job? He had never tried for a job before, now, suddenly, he wanted to get a job? Did these ponies really mean that much to him? Glancing inside and seeing the overworked mother scribbling feverishly in an effort to balance the bills, the answer came quickly to his mind. Yes, yes they did.

Comments

[Cades]

Does this mean this is back?

[Pupsrus13]

IT'S ALIVE.... In a sense.

[Zephyrion]

Oh, glorius day it lives!

[Fanskapet]

holy shit upadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate though i am abit lost since i have read the other chapters in a long time guess i have to reread them

[Mr 0]

Didn't you say back in chapter 1 that bites would not be considered dark type moves?

[LucidTech]

5065060 I believe that I said something akin to attacks requiring a dark motivator in addition to being dark type for it to count. So for example if Dinky playfully nibbled on him he wouldn't die, but a Manticore seeking to end his life would do serious damage. If that's not what I said then that's what I meant.

Retcon!

[ParadigmShift]

..Can i just say that the start was a real throw-off..?

..Bleh, the rest of it was good though. Pointless 4th-wall breakage just doesn't go down well with me.

[Runa]

Umm, ok?

[Llch]

5065060
Yup he did, he just forgot about it. You know first chapter was years ago...

[OnlineImhotep]

Well. That's an unfavorite from me.

[LucidTech]

5065361

Adios! Don't forget to dislike!

[the other sans]

“What a minute.”

1. Wait.

[Frozen Shepard]

One thing, you identify Derpy as a he a couple of times. You should probably fix that.

[blank check]

Please forget about this story again.

[Tome Turner]

Eh... Hopefully this will pick back up.
Also

“,,,”

Comma comma comma chameleon!

[Zennistrad]

HOLY SHIT IT'S ALIVE.

[Blazing Shadow]

5065798 "what a minute" means to question something for a short span of time

[OnlineImhotep]

5065483 Oh, well thank you for reminding me. Can't believe I forgot that on the way out! It's almost like I didn't want to be an asshole and just wanted this to stop appearing in my updated favorites bin.

[Tensemasterhalo]

Hm, interesting direction to take this. I like it.

[LucidTech]

5068138

It's almost like you didn't need to make a comment telling me you were unfavoriting it, thus making it seem like you were insulting me..

[OnlineImhotep]

5069606 I just felt as though you should know that the chapter put me off enough for me to unfavorite it.

[TheOverPoweredOne]

YOU"RE BACK YAY!

[111segasonic]

Is this ever going to continue?

[Cantwriteforshit]

If you're waiting for this to be updated you haven't got a Ghost of a chance!
Eh!
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/ygotas/images/7/7c/YGOTAS007.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131103005016

[111segasonic]

Is this story kill?