Chapter 1
Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the rights to Equestria and all of its inhabitants. Frankincense Sandalwood belongs to me.
CHAPTER 1
The alarm clock rang and Frank groggily turned it off before slowly getting out of bed. Groaning slightly, he remembered that it was payday and that he could have slept in a little longer. With a shrug he got up and made his way to the bathroom to take a shower.
The water cascaded around him and he slowly washed himself. He wanted to take his time and stretch this shower out as long as he could. It would after all be his last one and to hell with the water bill. It wasn't like he was going to be around to pay it anymore.
He stood there under the spray until the water started to cool before turning it off and grabbing a towel to dry himself. A quick comb through his hair and he looked marginally presentable. He could do with a shave, but at this point it wasn't anything more than vanity and what did that ever get him? He looked in the mirror and hated what he saw. Not just the large gut and receding hairline, he just couldn't stand to look at his face anymore. Without thinking he punched the mirror, seeing the glass crack and splinter and distorting his reflection. "Yeah, that works, " he said to himself before washing the blood off his knuckles and applying a bandage to them.
Sorting through his clothes, he put on a rugged pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a long sleeve denim shirt overtop. He glanced around the bedroom for the last time, taking notice of how bare it actually was and whether or not he should pack a small bag for what came next. Shaking his head sadly, he decided that a clean break was what was needed and he left with only what he had on his back.
The last thing he needed to do was to leave a note for whomever would find it. It was possibly the hardest thing he had to do so far. He had never been good with words, writing had always been his worst subject in school which was funny because he had such ideas in his head and just had trouble getting them down on paper. But he needed to do this.
"To Whom It May Concern...
I am just going to cut to the chase. I am leaving this crummy world. I am not saying where I am going because I don't know myself but I'm going there to end my life. Please don't send out a search party or send anybody to come looking for me. Goodbye and I hope you have a better life than I did.
Signed,
Frankincense "Frank" Sandalwood"
Frank left the letter on the coffee table and walked to the front door to grab his keys from the hook there. Quickly realizing how stupid that was he put them back, closed the door behind him and proceeded to walk to his place of employment.
He walked there like nothing was wrong and just came in to receive his paycheck. He made some small talk with the people he met and mentioned to one of the guys that they should get a beer after work someday. He secretly hated beer and didn't really like that guy either but felt it was somehow necessary to say something to him.
Next, he went straight to the credit union where he kept deposits his money. Usually he would just use the ATM but today he needed to do something else. He waited in line for the teller, cashed his check and told the teller he needed to close his account. It took some time as well as a couple questions why he was doing such a thing. It wasn't like the teller actually cared about him, but the credit union liked his money and they never liked to see a customer go.
After speaking to the General Manager and explaining that he was leaving town and needed the money they were able to work things out and Frank walked out with his meager life savings in his pocket. It wasn't much but then he worked a minimum wage job. Hailing a taxi, he told the driver to take him to Georgetown and handed him all the money he had just taken out of the bank. The driver's eyes lit up on seeing the wad of bills and was going to ask where the money came from before Frank spoke up.
"I won't bore you with the details because you don't need to know them. The money is perfectly legal, I earned it working for 8 hours a day at a back breaking job for the past couple years. I need you to take me to Green Valley and forget you ever saw me and you keep the change. I just ask that you make it as quick as possible."
"Yes sir!" the driver said before pulling out into traffic and taking the best fare he had ever gotten in his life. If all he needed to do was not to tell anybody about this trip to keep all this money, he was more than capable of doing so.
The drive to Georgetown took about an hour. It was a quaint little town, one that had fond memories for him as this is where he grew up and this is where he had been truly happy at some point. "Pull over here, " he said to the driver who promptly pulled over and let his passenger out.
"Are you sure you want me to keep this?" the driver asked. Without counting the money he could see that there was at least $3000 and possibly more in that pile and the last thing he wanted to do was to have the passenger claim that he had been robbed.
"No, that's quite alright. I have everything I need with me. Just remember that in case anybody asks, you don't remember me and you never came out this way."
The driver smiled, looked around and with a wink to Frank said, "It's funny. I don't remember coming out here, where, and what am I doing here? Oh well, I guess I should go home and lie down, I must be coming down with something." With those words he pulled away as fast as he could just in case Frank changed his mind.
Frank watched him go and sighed. This was it. He had committed himself to this and there was no going back. Squaring his shoulders he marched towards the woods. On his way there he noticed a swing set at the small park where he used to play and couldn't help feel nostalgic. With a smile he headed over and sat on one of the swings and lazily swung back and forth. He didn't put much effort into it but it was just a way to let his mind wander and think back to the good times he had.
This of course led to his recent issues and where his life took a turn for the worse. For years he had lived with his mother and it was often that they fought. He was after all working at a dead end job, not making a lot of money and had no desire to go out an meet people due to how he looked. What woman would want a fat, short, balding individual who worked in a warehouse. She was always nagging at him to get out and meet people and he stubbornly refused. They'd yell and scream at each other and more than once the neighbors would call the police. Then, about 8 months ago he did something that he never thought he would do.
It started like all the other fights, she told him to get up off his ass and find a nice girl, move out and have some kids. He told her to get lost. She started to yell, he started to yell, she called him a lazy good for nothing and suddenly he just snapped. All those years of rage and anger that he had bottled up inside him burst and he lay into his mother like he had never before. His words had hit her with a force that his fists could never have matched. She shrank back in fear while he stalked after her, yelling and screaming and shouting obscenities that he could not believe in hindsight that he had said. Looking down at his hand, he remembered seeing his reflection in the mirror and punching it as well. The pain woke up him and he simply ran from the house as quickly as he could. That was the last time he saw her or his brother. The last thing he wanted to cause them any more pain than he already had.
Frank was sure that they would grieve for a while upon the news of his death. But he hoped that eventually she'd get over it, move on with her life and realize that all this was for the best. Besides, she had three other children to love as well as his seven year old niece to watch grow up. Hopefully they would forget about him. He especially hoped his niece would forget his very existence. And all the people he ever met, hopefully they would forget him as well.
"Life will go on. Tears will subside. And the world would be better off without me, " Frank said getting to his feet and making his way back towards the woods. That was where he was going to die. His plan was to get completely lost then die of dehydration or exposure whichever would kill him first.
Or maybe he'd just find a tall tree and jump off if he got bored of waiting. Maybe get eaten by a bear. Or have some poison mushrooms. There must be hundreds of ways he could die in the woods, too bad that most of them were painful to one degree or another. But that was alright. He deserved a bit of pain for what he had done.
In any case that was his plan, but plans don't always turn out like you had hoped them to. Sometimes the universe has other plans for you. Sometimes it throws things unexpectedly in your lap. And sometimes, if you're lucky, it gives you exactly what you need.
He finally arrived at the edge of the forest, it was about lunch time now and he was already feeling the effects of not having eaten breakfast. His stomach growled strongly and his resolve wavered slightly. But no, he had no money and he had made up his mind to do this, so he walked purposefully into the woods. Very soon, the sounds of the town had disappeared and he was alone with nature.
A twig snapped behind him. Startled he jumped and instinctively ran deeper into the woods. He didn't run very far and got winded really easily but as he stood there gasping for air he thought to himself how silly this was. "Why am I running? I'm here to die aren't I? If something is going to kill me then let it kill me." He waited a moment, heard nothing else and continued on his way.
Then, as if it had just appeared before him, was a small clearing with a strangely well maintained cottage. He was sure that in all his times playing in these woods as a kid that he had never seen such a thing. It reminded him a bit of a fairy tale and had a, Bavarian type Black Woods look about it. The only thing that would make it complete would be if a witch came out and invited him in for lunch. Well, there was no way that was going to happen so he turned around to head in a different direction when he heard a kindly voice calling out to him.
"Hello there! Can I help you?" He jumped and spun around before he saw the person speaking was a small, kindly grandmotherly looking woman. Her silver hair was done up in a bun, she wore glasses tied with a chain around her neck and a pale blue shawl was draped over her shoulders. But what struck him the most was her smile. It had been years since he had seen a smile so kind and so genuine that he momentarily was unable to speak. She asked again, "Can I help you"?
Shaking his head slightly as if to clear the cobwebs, Frank said as calmly as he could, "No thank you. I'm just passing through. I didn't mean to bother you."
"Oh, pish tosh, " she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I don't get many visitors here, all alone as I am. But everybody that comes here does so because they need to. Now, I'll ask you again. Can I help you?"
For some reason Frank found it hard to lie to this woman and struggled to get the words out but his stomach growled again, loudly this time and the kindly old woman laughed. She clasped her hands together and said with a smile, "so that's the reason. I knew you were here for something. Well, come on in. Lunch is just about ready." She turned around and walked back into her cottage.
Without wanting to, Frank felt compelled to enter the cottage even though he was fighting it with all his might but in the end gave in and walked through the door. The best way to describe the cottage was cozy. There were brightly colored curtains, pine boughs hung on the walls and some curious paintings that seemed almost to be alive if you stared at them too long. Also the smells coming from the kitchen made his mouth water. He couldn't identify everything but there was definitely some freshly baked bread and butter somewhere. "There's no reason I can't have a last meal. Even prisoners on death row have one of those, " he thought to himself.
"Please have a seat, I'll be with you in a moment, " she said as she busied herself in the kitchen. Frank sat at the wooden table and eagerly waited for his meal. When she brought it over he was surprised that it was simply a vegetable stew with thick slices of freshly baked bread and a pot of what looked like freshly churned butter as well.
In any case, the stew was delicious. He was surprised that such a thing, containing only vegetables could taste so good. Obviously she gathered them from the forest and used whatever wild herbs she could find. And the bread had to be the best he had ever had. It didn't take long before he had cleaned his bowl and had mopped up the last of his stew with a last crust of bread. He sighed happily and wanted to thank her for her hospitality but found it hard to speak. In fact, his limbs felt a little heavy and he was having trouble focusing on anything.
"You're no doubt feeling the effects of the stew right now, " the woman said, all traces of the kind grandmother gone from her bearing and replaced with something businesslike. "Don't worry, it won't hurt you and in about 15 minutes you'll be back to normal. I just need to ask you some questions since you obviously don't want to tell me. When I said that people only come here when they need to I meant it. If you weren't in need, you would not have come here and it's my job to help you."
She sat down in front of Frank and looking him directly in the eyes asked, "Why...are... you... here?"
Without wanting to, Frank told her his tale of woe and pain. She listened, nodding from time to time and shook her head sadly when he mentioned the moment that he left his home, never to go back. Finally he explained his desire to kill himself and that's why he came to these woods.
She sat back in her chair, apparently pondering all that he had said. "While I disagree with your reasoning, and I'm sure your mother would be happy to see you once again, you made it clear that you want to leave this world, is that correct?"
Frank nodded his head.
"Is there nothing I can do to change your mind? If you want, I can show you the hole that you left in your mother's life when you left, and how your death will affect her?"
Frank shook his head, he couldn't face his mother again after what he did. He had no other choice. It wasn't as if he could simply leave and start a new life in another city or country. That took time, money and skills and while he had the first he didn't have the other two.
"Very well, but I need to make you more presentable first. I'll be right back." She walked into the back room and Frank could hear her rummaging around trying to find something. She came back in, and placed a small bottle in front of him. "Drink that. You'll feel a little different and a lot more relaxed once you get where you're going."
Frank picked it up and drank the concoction without a second thought. It tasted sweet, with a slight underlying bitterness and had an aftertaste strangely like cinnamon. The world seemed to blur around him and for a moment he felt like he was hearing with four ears and two sets of eyes. From faraway he heard the woman command him to step forward. With great effort Frank got to his feet but felt like something was holding him back. He pulled and strained and with a ripping sensation stumbled to his feet and fought to catch his breath. Or at least this is how he thought he should feel. He felt strangely light, almost as if he had lost weight.
He turned around to look behind him and jumped back in fright as he saw what could only be described as... a Frank suit lay crumpled on the ground behind him. He looked at himself and found he was thin or at least thinner than he was. His arms were lean and he had rippling biceps and muscles where he never had any before. His stomach was flat and although he couldn't see them he knew he had a six pack there. He also noticed that he was completely naked, his clothes ripped to shreds when he broke out of... himself.
"Here, put these on, " the old woman said as she threw a set of clothes at him that looked remarkably like his old set. He blushed slightly at being naked in front of her but she seemed not to notice or not to care. Frank wasn't sure if he should feel offended by that but put on the clothes which fit him perfectly.
"That body of yours is only on loan. It's not yours to keep. You need to maintain it. You need to eat properly, and you need to exercise. If you don't, you'll go back to looking like that, " she said to his former husk that was slowly dissolving in a rather gruesome way. "Now, onto the next step. Come here." She walked up to a large mirror that was currently covered with a sheet. Removing it, the mirror wasn't reflective but instead seemed to almost suck light into itself.
"Look into the mirror and picture in your mind the type of world you wish to go to. Make sure it's the one you want because this is a one way trip."
Frank looked in the mirror and thought for a moment about what he wanted out of life. He wanted people to care about and people that cared about him. He wanted to live a simpler life without this technology that kept people apart. He wanted to be able to run in the fields, swim in the water, spend time watching the stars, and to most of all be a somebody what could make a difference in the lives of others.
As he thought, the mirror started getting lighter and occasionally there would be an image of a place, but places that never existed on Earth. They flickered across the mirror's surface like the pages of a book being rapidly flipped before they slowed down and finally stopped on an idyllic setting. It was a meadow, with a clear blue sky, fluffy white clouds and a small village in the distance. He could see the buildings and the people moving about but he couldn't see any great detail.
For some reason the word that best described this place was "home". He felt drawn to it as if everything he wanted could be found there in that village. He needed to go there and before he could think about it reached forth to touch it and stumbled when he found himself in the meadow he had seen. Looking behind him, he saw the mirror wasn't there and only saw a deep and kinda scary forest not too far away.
"Well, looks like this is it." He made his way towards the village hoping that it was everything he had dreamed about in his life. It's too bad that things don't always come easily and like just everything else need to be worked on.
As he made his way to the village, Frank also noticed that everything seemed brighter, and more vivid here... wherever here was. The air smelled fresher, and cleaner here. In fact, he had never smelt air like this ever in his life. He took a deep breath and exhaled happily. Breaking into a run, he made his way to the village, eager to see what awaited him there.
Frank reached the village sooner than he had expected. This new body of his worked incredibly well and he was surprised how easily he could move when he wasn't carrying that extra weight around. The buildings had a rustic but quaint charm about them. They were obviously handmade but made in a style that defied description. There were no straight lines to be found anywhere. The roofs seemed to be made of thatch, and there was what looked like a Tudor influence with what looked like post and beam construction but it went beyond that. He was so engrossed in the architecture that he almost failed to see the inhabitants until he practically tripped over one.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, " he said to the person he had tripped over and got the shock of his life or would have had he not felt strangely disassociated with everything.
The person he had tripped over was not a person at all. It was what could only be described as a small pastel colored pony. Seriously. This was a small, purple pony with a gray mane and the image of a daisy on its butt.
"Well there's not something you see every day, " Frank remarked feeling calm about this. He thought it must have something to do with the potion that witch made him drink. But even his most relaxed attitude could not help what happened next.
The purple pony stood up and spoke in a feminine voice, "Oh, that's okay, I wasn't paying... attention... either..., " she trailed off as she noticed Frank for the first time. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally screamed and ran away as fast as she could all the while shouting "help! Monster!"
The rest of the population finally took notice of the stranger in their midst and in a flash they all ran away leaving Frank standing alone. He wandered through the streets, shutters were closed tight and more than once he heard crying coming from behind closed doors. Despondent, he walked to the center of town and sat down on a bench.
"Great. I get sent to Pony Land with no way of getting back, and everybody here is afraid of me. Why the hell did I touch that mirror in the first place? I'm just a screw-up and I don't deserve to live, " Frank said sliding down into depression again. Looking around he wanted to see if there was anything he could use to end his life but seeing nothing he just slumped on the bench and started to cry.
He didn't want to cry, after all, he was a man, and men don't cry, but there are times that even the manliest of men need to shed a few tears when the pain gets to be too much.
It was during all this that a group of ponies were gathered in the town bakery and were witnessing this first hand.
"Oh, it looks sad, " Pinkie Pie said. "Maybe we should throw it a party to cheer it up!"
"Pinkie Pie, that's your answer to everything! Can't you see it's doing this to lure one of us in so it can grab us and maybe eat us?" Rainbow Dash said.
"Yeah! Ah'm tellin' y'all that that there... whatever it is, is trouble. We need ta' run it outta town."
"Now Applejack, maybe there's a reason it's feeling sad. We should at least try to find out what's bothering it, " Twilight said. But she didn't want to go out there all by herself. The other ponies all looked away when she suggested this, and their attitude was clear. If Twilight wanted to find out what was wrong, she'd have to do it herself. She started to walk with purpose towards the door but Applejack stopped her before she got there.
"Hold on there Twilight. Fer all you know, it might be dangerous. What if it attacks you"?
"Don't worry Applejack. I can take care of myself, " she said and a purple glow appeared around her horn. Applejack nodded knowing that Twilight was one of the strongest unicorns around when it came to magic.
"Well, alright. But if you git in trouble, ah'll kick it's flank into next week, " Applejack responded but made no effort to move from where she was standing. Twilight just sighed, gently moved her friend out of the way and slowly made her way towards the crying creature.
When Twilight was halfway there, Applejack cried out "Ah horse apples!" and ran out after her friend. This caused a cascade effect where the rest of the ponies and Spike barreled after them, but stayed a respectful distance away.
Twilight walked up to Frank and taking a deep breath said, "Hello, My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can I ask your name?"
Frank just stared at her. The idea of a talking pony should be freaking him out but that potion must still be doing its thing because the only thing he could manage was a minor apprehension. "My name is Frank Sandalwood. Pleased to meet you Twilight."
"Pleased to meet you too Frank. Can I ask where you're from and what you're doing in Ponyville?"
Frank gave a half smile and sighed before saying, "that's a long story."