First Encounter
Little filly, why do you cry
On a night as nice as this.
Little filly, why do you weep
When others are filled with bliss.
I can see the ghosts of ponies who have not yet finished their time on this world. As a Princess of Equestria, I take it upon myself to help these lost souls to find their peace and move on. I can see young ones with much left to live for, and I can see old ones who have just a little more they want to say. I do as much as I can when I am not tending to my Princess duties.
It all started the day after Twilight Sparkle and her friends rescued me from the darkness within myself. I was walking down the streets of Canterlot, marveling at how much everything has changed. The sky was dark, and few clouds were in the sky. There were very few ponies outside that night, but the few that were would either cower in fear or run away when they saw me. It was then when I saw one old stallion who was standing on the corner of the road, staring at a house on the other side of the street.
When I walked closer to him, he didn't run away or cower, he just kept staring at the house. I asked him why he didn't run away from me. He turned to me with a look of confusion, so I asked again. "Why aren't you cowering in fear of me like the others do?" He turned his head to look behind himself, as if checking to see if anypony was there, but there was nothing but moonlit street.
"Are…are you talking to me?" He quivered.
"Of course I am," I said to him. "Who else would I be speaking to?" He stared at me with a shocked expression plastered on his face.
"You can see me?" He said, slowly making his way towards me. He looked like he could barely support himself with those old legs of his.
"Of course I can, what a silly question to ask." The old stallion stopped a few inches away from me and looked straight into my eyes.
"No one's been able see me since my accident."
I started to get confused myself at this point. Accident? Was this old pony senile? "What do you mean, accident?" His stare never once moved away from my eyes.
"I tripped when walking down the stairs a few months back," he said to me. "Hit my head on the bottom step, I did." My first real encounter with a pony who wasn't scared of me and he was just crazy.
"What does that have to do with me seeing you?" He stepped backwards and turned around, heading towards a nearby bench. He gestured for me to follow him, so I did. When we both sat down, I questioned him again. "What does you falling down the stairs have to do with me seeing you?" What he said then would change my life.
"When I fell down the stairs, I died," he said quietly looking towards the sky.
"You, what?" I blurted out, standing up.
"I died. When I woke up after falling down the stairs, I was outside of my body. It was scary at first, I'll admit that. I saw my body get rolled away on an ambulance." I was shocked at what he was saying. This stallion has to be crazy, because if he wasn't, I was. "I'm not sure I believe what you're saying right now." The old stallion looked away from the sky and back towards me.
"I'm not surprised. If somepony told me that they were dead, I wouldn't believe them either."
I started to back away from him. "No, please don't go!" He cried out to me. "You're the only pony who has been able to see me!" I just stared at him. "I can get you help if you want. I can check you into a hospital." He walked towards me.
"No, I don't need help like that. If you won't believe me then at least let me try and prove it to you." I decided to just agree with what this old pony was saying. Go along with it, make him happy for a few minutes, and I'm glad I did. "Okay, what do you need."
He turned a bit and looked over at the house he was staring at before. "That house over there," he said while gesturing across the street. "That's where my granddaughter lives. Well, we lived there together." The old pony started to get teary eyed. "Her parent's aren't with us anymore, so we're the only two in the house." More tears started to drop from his eyes. "The night of the accident, we had a huge fight. I said some things that I truly regret. I was on my way down to apologize when I tripped." The old stallion didn't need to say anymore for me to understand what he wanted me to do.
"What do you want me to tell her?" I asked him.
"Just tell her that I'm sorry. Tell her that I didn't mean anything I said." I nodded and started to walk across the street. "Oh, one more thing," he called out to me. "Tell her I love her." I walked up to the ivory colored door and knocked on its exterior. A petite white mare opened the door, but upon seeing me immediately slammed it again.
"Please go away! I don't want any trouble," she yelled at me through the door. She started to panic. I leaned my head in closer to the door.
"I don't want any trouble either, I'm here about your grandfather."
The other side of the door fell silent and opened a bit. The young mare looked through the crack. "What about my grandfather?" She questioned me.
"He told me to tell you something," I told her, hoping she would open the door a bit more.
"But my grandpa is..." I started talking before she could finish.
"I know, he's passed on. He wanted me to tell you something." The door opened a bit more, but it wasn't fully opened yet.
"What did he want to tell me?"
I looked behind me and saw the old stallion looking at me. I turned back towards the white mare. "He wanted me to tell you that he's sorry for the fight you guys had." The door fell open a bit more and I could see that she, as well as her grandfather, started to get teary eyed. "He wanted me to tell you that he didn't mean a single thing he said, and that he truly regrets everything he said." At this point the mare was fully crying, tears rolling down her cheeks and onto the floor. "He also wanted to say that he loves you very much." The white mare looked at me, eyes full of tears. She jumped over towards me and embraced me.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much."
I stayed silent, and not knowing what to say, just mirrored her embrace. We sat there for a good while, just hugging. I was letting her get all of her tears out. After a few more minutes of crying and hugging, she let go and stepped back a bit. I stood up and stayed by the door.
"Thank you so much, Princess," she said to me, starting to bow. I smiled and gave a little bow myself. She waved goodbye and closed the door. I walked back across the street to the old stallion, who was waiting on the street corner. His body started to glow.
"What's going on?" I asked him as he started to float in the air. "I guess I'm moving on now," he said, floating even higher. "There's nothing left I need done in this world. That was my one regret. Thank you Princess, for everything." I watched as the old stallion began to get even brighter. His body began disappearing into little puffs of light until he was all gone.
I had several questions after this night. How many more ponies were like this? How many are stuck in this world? Why am I the only one that can see them? After this night, however, I found out what I must do. I figured out how I can redeem myself for my past sins. I need to help these lost ponies move on.