> A Ghost of a Chance.
>  by LucidTech
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        His name was Chance. The dead guy. His name had been Chance. Though, one might suppose that his name was still his name, even while dead and regardless of eternal state. Other's would argue that he was no longer who he had been, some would argue just to argue and a few more would argue that it didn't really matter and quote shakespere. But regardless, he was undeniably dead. His hair was mussed just as it had been when he had passed. Purposeful drug overdose, was the ruling. Oh the look of absolute sadness on his mothers face was something to behold, the ocean would be jealous of how much water she had held behind her eyes all her years, only to let it free at this moment of crushing despair.

        He wasn’t or hadn't, as the case indeed was, been particularly sad, nor had he been happy, obviously. But if there was one thing he certainly had not been, beyond all doubt, That would be content, something was always uncomfortable, but it wasn't truly annoying. Life had been, in one word, boring, for Chance. He was frightened by his own turn of apathy, but had let it go on without obstruction. Then, one day, Chance had gotten an idea. Why not die? Surely that would end his boring day to day activities, one way or the other. 

        So here he was, a corpse of a man. Lying inside a red casket. Eulogies, epitaphs, sadness. The usual day to day experiences of a funeral. 

Well, the main character is dead. That simply won’t do, will it? 

And it’s just as well, because there was another bored being at the funeral. He had been doing the same thing for longer than he could remember, and it was all getting very passe. His black cloak shuffled in the wind and he sighed, heavily. Which was odd, because he didn’t breath in to begin with. The ebony skull looked at the corpse in the casket and waited. Souls would leave when they were ready, until then he had to wait. And wait.

And wait.

Another sigh.

Then, in an epiphany of genius, Death got a wonderful idea. Something to liven things up a bit. A second life for the soul, one he most certainly wouldn’t forget. Excited by the idea, Death started making his plans. After all, one does not go several thousand years without learning that rushing into something is foolish. No, first he had to plan things out, make sure it didn’t get out of hand. Or at least, he would pretend to do that, after all, what was the fun if a few mistakes weren't made? If he did it right, though, he would certainly have several fond memories to look back on in the coming centuries.

First, of course, was where. Certainly not this area of the earth, the amount of confusion and awkward situations would ruin any comedy that might be found, ruining the fun and point of the act for the reaper. Maybe across country? Death tapped his bony finger on the haft of his scythe as he thought, then shook his head. No, that wouldn’t be any good. Then it would just be him living his life, same as usual.

So clearly he had to send him to another world. That would be simple enough. But which one? And would he still be human? That might cause some problems. With a snap of his fingers, or what was left of them on his thin frame, Death moved to the room of the recently deceased. Two very prominent fandoms struck him immediately. Posters and games and art covered all the space. If Death had had a face, a wicked grin would have spread across it. With his mind set, Death set about putting his plan into action. With a small jump into the air, he clicked his heels together and left. Oh this would certainly be fun to watch.





        Chance stirred slowly, groggily raising his head. Or, he tried anyway. When he failed to feel his neck Chance was forced to pause for a moment. A feeling of weightlessness struck him, and he was raised into the air by a mysterious force, but he still couldn’t feel any part of his body. In fact, he couldn’t even see himself. Then he remember he had died, and it all clicked together, he was a spirit, a ghost, oh it was so plainly simple now.

        And the afterlife looked like a paradise. Trees and animals and songs and a giant skeleton looking at him. Exactly what he thought the afterlife would be. Well, obviously there needed to a be a skeleton in black cloak, if there hadn’t been one he would have demanded a refund. Despite the emotionless white that stared back at him Chance couldn’t help but think- no, not think, feel- couldn’t help but feel that Death was smiling at him.

        “Hello Chance.” The lack of ominous echo was disappointing. “Oh sorry, right, forgot.” Death corrected himself, then coughed into his hand, somehow. “Hello Chance.” There, awesome echo, Death was quite the chill guy, being all friendly and nice like that. I mean, what other immortal beings would use an echoy voice for the sole benefit of who they were talking to? Quite a bit, actually, but that's beside the point. Chance tried to respond, but found himself without a mouth, that was weird. “Oh, just thoughts Chance, afterall, I’m not talking aloud either.” Death’s jaw, in fact, hadn’t moved the entire time. Which was pretty neat.

        “1,2,3 1,2,3. This thing on?” Chance thought to himself, well, that had been his intent anyway. Instead, his familiar voice boomed into the air with the very same echo that had laced Death’s words. “Oh, that’s really cool. I just think what I want to say. Man the afterlife is convenient.”

        “Yes.” Responded Death. “I suppose it is. But we’re not in the afterlife right now.” The shocked expression that Chance tried to display found itself lost. His whole head felt stiff and hard, he only had sight, really. Since some weird force was making him float, probably Death being a buddy, he couldn’t exactly touch anything. The only thing on his head seemed to be his eyes. 

        “Oh, right, I haven’t explained it have I? Very sorry.” Death said, still emanating a very cocky feeling of smiling. Now he was just being a jerk. “Right, right. I know, bad skeleton. Anyway, I was bored the other day, when you died and I had an idea. I knew you wouldn’t mind. You get to live a second time! Isn’t that exciting?”

        If Chance’s face hadn’t been locked in a non-movable state, he would have expressed just how excited he was about living another life. Death caught on and quickly cast these fears away. “Oh no no. You see, this one will be quite a lion’s share more interesting than your last one. I promise on the marrow of my bones.” 

        “Alright,” Chance thought aloud. Willing to give Death the benefit of the doubt. “So why is this one going to be better?”

        “Well,” Death tapped his scythe against the ground. The metal bounced up off of the dirt, Death went to do it again, but this time the blade slipped seamlessly into the ground. Grabbing the shaft with both arms, Death pulled back, like a fisherman reeling in a fish. The blade came back out, but was followed by a large ornate object. A moment of thought made Chance realize it was a mirror, though it was facing away, leaving him to stare at the ebony backing. 

        “First off, You are not on earth any longer. Welcome to Equestria!” Confetti rained down from above, from an unknown source, and Chance resisted the thought of moaning. Now Death was just showing off. Still, Equestria did sound like a nice change of pace. However, the ‘first off’ part of the pharse put Chance on edge.

        “What’s the catch?” 

        “Well, I couldn’t bring you here as human. That would cause too much of a stir. And the last thing I want is for you to be all bogged down by that craziness. Where’s the fun in that? So instead, I chose the next best thing! You are now your favorite pokemon!” Here, Death spun the mirror ‘round, so that Chance could see his reflection. He recognized himself instantly, which made it all the worse to find out that Death had been right. 

        On his back he seemed to have wings, but they weren’t. They were actually just the remains of the exoskeleton that now housed his soul. “I’m a shedinja...” Chance said, plainly. “You turned me into a shedinja? Why not a charizard or something cool?”

        “Well it’s your favorite pokemon, not mine. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have a stellar time!” Death radiated his usual happiness, but it was now laced with worry. “Just avoid, oh what was it now? Oh yes, Flying, Ghost, Rock, Fire and Dark and you’ll be fine. I mean, two of those are nigh impossible to come by here anyway, since physical things can’t really be dark here, so bites and such won’t hurt you.” 

Chance didn’t say anything, he was too dumbstruck by the fact that this had all JUST HAPPENED. Death tapped the mirror and it descended back into the ground. “Anyways, I’ll be checking in to visit every now and then, tell me some good stories please, reaping souls can get so BORING sometimes.” And then Death disappeared too, and Chance was alone.

He didn’t know what to do or say, things were incredibly crazy. He was now a shedinja in Equestria.  How was he going to do this? Did he need to eat? How would he eat? Did he have to make sure that no one looked at his back? Maybe that was how he fed, on souls? He hoped not, that was the last thing he needed to explain to the ponies. Not that he could explain at all. Even now his thoughts had returned to their normal volume, which probably meant he couldn’t communicate mentally anymore.

And then there was the whole matter of which rules of pokemon applied. Did he have moves? Would he level up? Questions and questions whirled through Chance’s mind, but he didn’t have answers to any of them. Because of this, his anxiety steadily rose, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it by looking at him.

Subconsciously, Chance floated. He didn’t bob up and down like some pokemon did when they levitated, Shedinja were known for how little they moved. It only bugged Chase more that he remembered all this. Ghosts had always been Chance’s favorite type, they seemed unique compared to the others, and among them Shedinja was the oddest of the bunch. Immunity to anything that wasn’t super effective, and only one HP. Quite the case. 

Had this not been what Chance had wanted, all that time ago? A unique thing to experience and steal him away from his boredom? Well this was about as unique as it got. A dead floating shell of a bug from another world though? Really Death? How bored must the reaper have been to pull something like this to entertain himself. Very. Chance decided immediately, not missing a beat in his thought process. Very bored.

A roar broke him from his thoughts. Off in the distance he spotted an approaching group. One large creature was chasing three smaller ones. Fear gripped him, and he dropped to the ground, playing dead. The only visual difference being, of course, the he was no longer in the air. Chance’s mind grew tense as the crashing came closer, but he forced himself to hold still.. 

The three ponies, who Chance now clearly saw were none other than the Sisters Doo and their mom, ran past. Why Derpy wasn’t flying, Chance had no idea, probably wanted to stay with her daughters. Then the monster approached. Even at this distance, and being a motionless husk, Chance could tell it was a hydra. But, where as the ponies had ran around Chance, the Hydra made to step on him. Before he could act, the clawed foot descended down and pressed against the pokemon. Chance began to cry inwardly, nothing showing on his hard outer body. This was it, only one morning in Equestria and he was already dead.

A white gleam stopped the blow early though, and forced the foot of the monster to the side. Taken by surprise by the sudden shift in weight, the hydra tumbled and rolled back into the Everfree forest not a few feet away. The Do’s stopped in shock to look towards their dropped foe. Chance, at the same time, shot into the air. If he had had a mouth the sound of his gasp would have woken a sleeping ursa major. Derpy flared her wings protectively and stepped back from the odd creature that had just appeared from the ground. The entire time, she kept herself between it and her daughters.

Then, it darted towards them. She reared up and went to kick the small creature in the face. The same white gleam deflected the blow, and Derpy stumbled just as the hydra had. When she recovered, she whirled to face her attacker. Only to find it wrapped tightly inside of Sparkler’s mane, shivering horribly. Clearly having been scared by the hydra. Chance, meanwhile, was to frightened to do anything but cower in the comfortable hairs  of the pony.

“Aww mom.” Sparkler and Dinky said at the same time. Sparkler’s voice held respect as she spoke, but Dinky’s was straight pleading. “Can we keep it?”

> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        He was being hugged. It hadn’t even been a full week yet, and he was being hugged. He had been regarded curiously by both sisters and their mother, but over time they had grown accustomed to him, especially the youngest. And now, Dinky had pulled him into her hooves and pressed him tight against her cheek, the warm tickle of her fur piercing his unstoppable defense and bringing a joy to his heart that hadn’t ever been there before. She smiled and nuzzled him with her muzzle, pressing it against his carapace with great care. He felt incredibly loved.

        Given his current state Chance wasn’t sure if it was a pokemon thing, or if it was some deep driving force that had always been inside him. But this felt wonderful. He was ecstatic. If only he could express it. The grip around him tightened and he thought he felt something crack. Immediately the filly’s arms were spread wide and sent onto her back by a burst of white light. Afterwards a white sheen lined the air about him for a moment before it faded away. 

        Dinky hit her head against the floor and began to cry from the blow. Not knowing what else to do, Chance began to panic. His actions were sluggish, however, and entirely ill fitting to the situation that was currently going on. He floated, silently, around in circles while Dinky continued to cry. Stopping for a moment to think, he suddenly realized the answer was simple. He dropped down next to Dinky’s head and nuzzled her as best as a floating, dead, husk of an insect could. 

        And he failed miserably. Within moments, Derpy entered on the scene. Chance bolted away from Dinky as the worried pegasus mother arrived. “What’s the matter, muffin?” Derpy said as she nuzzled her daughter in much the same way that Chance had tried to, her comfort was infinitely times more prevalent to her daughter though. Dinky’s tears began to lessen and her bawling was replaced by sniffles.

        After a brief moment the sniffles themselves stopped and Dinky embraced her mother. “Mister hurt me.” She said, her tone still retaining an injured tone. Venomous eyes moved to the floating being that her daughters had named Mister, whose face displayed the same emotionless expression as it always did. Crossed eyes regarded him coldly and he couldn’t help but back away in response. Derpy, however, didn’t do anything further. No words exited her muzzle as she faced the accused. Then, her eyes changed back to caring as she looked at her daughter.

“It’s okay, Muffin. We’ll get you all patched up okay?” Derpy kissed her daughter on the cheek and smiled. Dinky nodded slowly and the duo left. Leaving Chance completely and totally alone. He floated in the air, a deep sadness filling him up. He couldn’t express it of course, but he hurt. He hadn’t meant to use his wonder guard, it seemed to be an unconscious act, like blinking. The familiar white glow covered his body, and he would have frowned if possible. He could force it’s activation, but he couldn’t stop it from triggering.

Sparkler’s hoovesteps announced her arrival, and Chance looked towards her. “What happened Mister? Why was Dinky crying?” Her voice was full of curiousity, and she looked to her floating friend for an answer. As she asked this a familiar shot of pain went through him and Chance wished he could simply not care about his emotions, like he had before his death. Now though, they were too powerful to be ignored completely. With a heavy metaphorical heart, Chance floated out of a nearby window and left the house behind. Sparkler moved to the window after he left, but lacking any skill in magic or wings of her own, she was unable to follow him.





        As Mister faded from view, Sparkler decided to get the answers from her sister and mom. They could undoubtedly shine some light on the situation. She found them in the bathroom, where Derpy was placing a bandage against the back of Dinky’s head, careful not to catch any hair in the sticky-ness of it. “Hey mom,” Sparkler greeted. “What happened?”

        “Mister hurt Dinky.” Derpy said with an airy tone of accusation. 

        “Why would he do that?” Sparkler continued, worried about what else he might have done. 

        “I was just hugging him, and then he glowed white and knocked my head against the ground.” Dinky explained, her voice sobbing even though her eyes weren’t. 

        “Oh, but, he can’t stop that.” Sparkler quickly said. The duo looked to Sparkler in surprise, and she explained. “It seems to be some kind of self-defense mechanism. I was studying up on animals, at the library, to see if I could find anything out about what he is. I didn’t find anything that looked like him, but Twilight helped me research things about animals so that I could figure how he acted, like self-defense, camouflage. You know, things that some animals share.” And this, was why Sparkler had skipped a year of school. 

        It wasn’t so much a passion for learning, but a passion for reading. Though the subject matter could be boring at times, she really loved words and hoped to grow up to be a famous author. So she put up with the books and the math assignments, and if there was something she really wanted to read, nothing could stop her. But some days, if she was in a bad mood, she wouldn’t do anything besides meander through fiction stories.

        Derpy smiled at her daughter, then it changed to a frown. “I don’t know if I want Mister around, if he can hurt you though.” She said quite plainly. 

        “But if he can’t help it, then we’ll just be extra careful. Right Sparkler?” Dinky said, before turning to look at her sister, who nodded. 

        Derpy smiled at the childish idea, but had to agree that it would work. And she trusted her daughters would keep their word. “Well then, we’ll go looking for him today, after you two get home from school.”

        “But... I was gonna bring him to pet day today.” Dinky said with a sad expression. 

        “I’m sorry, but you have school in only a few seconds, and I have to go to my job. You’ll have to bring him to next pet day.” Derpy said with a frown.

        “Alright.” Dinky was saddened by this truth, but the promise of being able to bring him to next pet day roused her spirits. 

        “Now come along Dinky. We don’t want you to be late, you’re going into your new class today. 

        “I know Sparkler.” Dinky responded. “I just said it was pet day. Sheesh.” Despite the words, her tone was humorous. 

        “Alright, oh wise one. Let’s get going then.”

        “Don’t forget your lunches on the counter! I’ll see you when we get home, then we can go looking for Mister.”

        The sisters bid farewell to their mother and set out to learn.





        Chance had come to a hovering rest on the roof of the school, but he didn’t know that. His mind was too busy being mad at itself. ‘Why did I run away!’ He shouted inside his own head. ‘I just freaked out, and I left! Man, they probably won’t even want me back now. Ugh.’ Turning his gaze skyward, he changed the target of his anger. ‘Death! Why did you do this? This isn’t fun!’ The wind whistled slightly, but nothing further happened.

        Letting his levitation fail, Chance dropped to the shingles. Not for the first time, he cursed his inability to vocalize his feelings. At least the majority of other pokemon could vocalize, he had nothing. Sure, Shedinja had a ‘cry’ in the pokedex, but it was beyond him how it made any noise at all let alone that pained squeak. So he just sat, depressed and silent.

        The approaching sound of children’s voices reached whatever he had that picked up noise. He wasn’t sure how he heard something, since he didn’t have ears, but he was happy anyway. Levitating slightly, Chance peaked over the edge of the roof. A small stream of ponies was approaching the building, all them carrying some form of school bags. Realizing what building he was currently on, Chance took a moment to think of what to do. Then, he realized he didn’t care.

        So he dropped back on the roof and tried to ignore the sound that drifted up through the shingles beneath him. He watched the sun drift lazily across the sky, and let his mind grow tired. He imagined that if Death was watching him, he would be severly dissapointed. But still, Chance didn’t care. In all truth, he doubted he had ever cared about anything since he came to this world. It was all just new, that’s it.

        But then his mind moved back to how he had felt when Dinky had hugged him. He had felt... good. Better than he ever had before. Before he could think about that too long though, a ringing noise shocked him out of his thoughts, and he heard several hooves begin to make an exodus towards the back of the building. ‘Recess, then.’ He thought, and let his mind relax.

That was until the sound of teasing reached him.

“...Like, a blank flank like those other losers.” Came a snotty voice.

“Yea, a blank flank loser.” Oh, right, the debauchery duo of  Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. How could he forget? Curious as to who they could be teasing, Chance moved to the edge of the roof and looked down at the young ponies. Something froze the non-existent blood of Chance as soon as his question had been answered.  Dinky was the target. The other two pompous fillies each had a well groomed dog that stood next to them. As did pretty much every other child in the class, except for Dinky.

“Yea, but at least those losers don’t have a poor mom. I mean, my dad can buy me anything I want. Like, totally.” Diamond Tiara continued.

‘Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet.’ Chance begged Dinky silently. 

“My mom is better than yours!” The hurt unicorn filly exclaimed. And Chance cursed to himself.

“Nu-uh. My mom can at least see straight.” Diamond Tiara said indignantly.

A hurt expression came over Dinky’s face, and she began to back away as tears gathered in her eyes. From above, Chance desperately pleaded for someone to intervene. Cutie Mark Crusaders, Cheerilee. Someone. But no one came.

“Yea, and my mom is still married.” Silver Spoon added.

And now Dinky was crying. Tired of waiting for someone else, Chance swooped down from above.

Very, very slowly.

Eventually the movement caught the bullies attention, and Silver Spoon couldn’t help but exclaim. “What’s that? It’s so ugly.” The exclamation caught the attention of the nearby children, including Dinky. Her gaze moved up, and, spotting Chance, she couldn’t help but let out a squee. 

“Mister!” She said happily. She ran forward to hug him again, but stopped herself. A somewhat sad expression crossed her face as she realized she couldn’t hug him. Realizing her troubles, Chance rubbed up against her, causing a smile to cross her face. 

“Ewww. Is that your pet?” Silver Spoon said. 

“It’s like, totally gross.” Diamond Tiara added.

But neither of the duo cared. Then the door to the school opened up and out came the CMC. “Scoots, I told you not to try and fly around the class. Now we’ve missed at least ten minutes of fun.” Sweetie Belle said, a white cat clinging/lounging on her back. Then they spotted the bullies and the filly who they had been victimizing.

“Dinky? Did these bullies pick on you?” Apple bloom said with a gruff tone, Winona stood beside her, starting to growl. Then, all at once, the trio noticed the odd creature who was currently floating around Dinky’s face. “What’s that?” She asked, confused. 

“Oh! This is Mister!” Dinky exclaimed excitedly. Chance stopped his ‘hurried’ movements and turned to face the three famous blank flanks. 

Scootaloo was the first to speak up. “Uh... what is he?”

“I dunno.” Dinky said happily. “Sparkler said she couldn’t find anything like him in Twilight’s books.”

“It’s probably a ghost or something.” Said Diamond Tiara. “Come on Silver Spoon, let’s get out of here before it curses us.” And the bullies left.

If he had a mouth, Chance would have been smiling. ‘Today’ Chance decided. ‘is going to be a good day’.

> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        You know what’s really fun? Sneaking behind bullies and tickling the backs of their necks with your insect like appendages. Especially if you can fly and make no noise while moving. Now that, that’s really fun to do. Well, until they start crying and you get put outside so that they stop feeling like they are being picked on by a floating thing from the other side death’s door. Then, then things are just boring.

        Of course, Chance was the only one who know that exact feeling, but I mean, I’m sure similar things happen to everyone at one point or another. And what do we do afterwards? We sulk. So that’s what Chance did. He sulked. He sulked like no one could sulk. If there was a championship in sulking, Chance would probably end up nowhere near the top because there have been many more people who have had better reason to sulk. But hey, as far as ‘normal’ people go, I’d say he’d be near the top. Using the term normal lightly of course. I dunno, he might win, I’d say he’d have an okay chance. 
        
        As Chance sulked, something unexpected occurred. The trees, which had been blowing in the wind only moments before, stopped in mid sway. The color drained from the world, dripping like colored water as it melted out of sight beneath the ground. Yet, the incessant sound of the wind remained, the only sound in the perfectly empty world around the Shedinja. Then, from behind him came the sound of footsteps, light and heavy at the same time. Knowing, by this point, who had showed up, Chance turned to face the approaching death god.

        “Sorry.” Said the skeleton in a cloak, standing a few footsteps away. “I had meant to meet with you earlier, but then a plane crashed and my workload got steepened by about one hundred souls.” He paused for a moment and Chance would have sworn he saw the skull move to accommodate a grin. “You should have seen it! The plane hit a mountain and everyone died on impact, so hard that their souls went through the entire mountain! Then they tried to run away, like they thought they were still alive. Oh it was hilarious.”

        Even the sound of wind stopped. “That.” Said Chance, his words meeting the air through the same mysterious manner as they had before. “Has got to be the most macabre thing I’ve heard in my entire life.”

        “Unfortunately not.” Replied Death. “Since you didn’t hear it in your life.” That impossible grin just kept getting wide. Somehow. “Anyway,” And now his face was back to normal, but it hadn’t even changed. Chance gave up on trying to figure out what rules Death’s skull were kept by. “I wanted to swing in and say that those small little pranks you played on those bullies were pretty good, given your limited tools. However, then I remembered that pokemon have moves they can use!” The sound of a snap filled the air, but Death hadn’t moved.

        Chance began to glow blue and after a moment it faded away. “What the crap, just like that? You’re just going to randomly give me moves? What the heck moves did you give me?” Chance practiced swinging one of his small claws in front of himself, as if calling on some power within himself that never manifested itself.

        “Oh, where’s the fun in just telling you. Anyway, I have to go. I got a hot tip that there would be a cruise ship blowing up today. It’s so funny, the bodies go flying but then get pulled down again, but the souls just keep going up for a long time, then they hit the edge of the earth’s atmosphere and get dropped back down to earth. It’s really fun, just, oh man, good times. You know I met my wife watching bombs exploding during WW2. A night to remember.” And then Death was gone.

        And, of course, the only thing that Chance had on his mind was, “You have a wife?!” Which he shouted loudly, only to be answered by an ominous laugh right before the color filled the world again and time reasserted itself. Shivers ran down Chance’s... whatever he had instead of a spine, and he looked up at the sky. Though he couldn’t speak anymore, he thought with all the clarity he could manage in the direction of the heavens.

        ‘If there are any other gods out there except for him, please protect me from him and his wife and any children they may or may not have.’ 

        He thought he heard tiny high pitched laughs coming from the clouds, but he shook it off and turned his mind back to the matter at hand. So now he had pokemon moves. That was certainly a step that Chance hadn’t been expecting to reach anywhere in the next year or two. Maybe he had hyper beam or something. He had no idea. Then, the bell for the school rang, and children began to file out, their pets following them. He thought he noticed an evil, revengeful glimmer in the eyes of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who smiled widely and darkly at him, but he didn’t pay it any mind. They had nothing on him.

After several minutes, however, he noticed a surprising lack of Dinky and the CMC. The feeling that hit him in the gut right then was something that Death couldn’t manage with any degree of his god-like magic. After flying around the building and finding an open window, Chance made his way inside. It took him but a moment to find Dinky, and when he did he felt something inside him die. Some degree of the childish revenge he had used against the bullies had just been felled, and he regretted ever doing anything to them at all.

Dinky held a bag of frozen peas to her right eye, which blocked Chance from her view. “Tell me, again,” Stated a nearby Cheerilee, who was looking over the girl with a worried expression. “What happened.” 

“I tripped and fell, and my eye hit on of the play blocks.” The CMC stood nearby, Scootaloo fluttering her wings angrily with a look on her face like she desperately wanted to go out and find two rich pompous fillies and give them what for. The fact that Scootaloo was managing to repress it made Chance stop dead. 

“Girls?” Cheerilee said, turning to face the CMC trio. “You said you saw this happen?” 

“Yes,” responded Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo merely nodded. Sweetie Belle looked close to tears and Apple Bloom was clearly perturbed by the situation, Scootaloo looked ready to explode, she shook violently and turned her eyes away from the teacher. 

Cheerilee nodded, then walked away. “I don’t know how you managed to get a horseshoe shaped blow on your eyelid from a play block, but if you don’t have anything to add to your story, then I suppose I just have to let you go.” Here she paused and looked back at the girls. “But please, if you change your mind about your story. Come to me. Please.”

“Thank you.” Dinky said, then proceeded to walk away. Though her voice sounded strong two rivulets of salty water betrayed her as the marked a slow progression down her now wounded face. Deep within the floating husk of a insect, Chance felt something stir, and at that particular moment, all he really wanted to do was hyper beam some snotty rich kids. But first things first, how the crap did Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get so smart in the ways of revenge. 

Something was wrong in Ponyville, and he couldn’t help but feel that Death had decided to do more than just add a floating ghost pokemon with a human soul. He quickly followed after Dinky, the CMC silently letting him approach her. She didn’t notice him until they had left the building, the sunlight seeming brighter than it had when Chance had entered the schoolhouse only a few moments ago.

She opened her mouth to talk to him, but suddenly stopped. Then everything exploded. White collapsed over his eyes and Chance thought for sure that he had been permanently blinded by something, but then it faded. A laughing sound was filling the air, and there was no sight of any of the ponies at all. Slowly, he turned. Just to see Death applauding. 

“Oh, you should have seen the look on your face, that was hilarious. Okay, now I’m gonna go, for real. No more hallucinations, dead man’s honor.” And then Death dissapeared again and Chance found himself directly back in the position he had been in after Death had ‘left’ not even a few minutes before.

Resigned to the idea that Death could screw with him and he could do nothing in return, Chance turned his gaze skyward and sighed. ‘That’ll be a no then, I suppose?’ The non existent ring that echoed from the clouds held a non existent apology. 

        At that point the bell rang loudly, signalling for various colts and fillies that their time for torment was over, until the following day, where they would wish that they had done their homework, but none of them had.  Chance turned to watch as the CMC bursted out of the door in a flurry of papers and sugary excitement the likes of which no adult on any planet could ever match. Dinky, not quite at that level, dashed out shortly behind, chasing their coats and tails as they blurred from speed that would put Rainbow Dash to shame. Chance hesitated to follow, but paused to look back towards the door, where two small rich fillies looked back at him with gazes full of loathing. Then, with a song in his heart that everything was back to normal, Chance darted after the fillies. 

        After not very much time, Dinky paused and turned back, realizing who she had left behind. She ran back to him and smiled widely. “Can you hold on to me? So that I don’t have to walk with you?” She asked excitedly, her mind not really running over everything before she said it. “It’s just, I don’t want to lose track of the CMC,” she responded as she realized how rude she had sounded. “I mean, they’re the ones who know their way through the Everfree and all.”

        ‘Oh joy.’ Thought Chance. ‘Today just keeps getting better and better.’

        

> 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.