Part 2: Chapter 16: A Chat With a Ghost

The colt thrashed around in his bed, in obvious pain.

"Having their Parents abandon them should not be punished by death, let alone brutally tortured and killed slowly."

The quote, the sound of his own young high pitched voice, painfully echoed in the blank room that he was confined in.

"No!" He screamed out into the blackness of his mind.

"Are you the one they call 'Alpha'?"
"Y...Yes, that is me. Is...Is there something wrong?"
"Come with us."

"No! No! Stop! Run! Run away! Don't listen to them!" The mutant screamed to his younger self, oblivious that what he was experiencing was a memory flashback. In the real world, his brace was open, and was shredding the bed.

He heard the squeak of the valve opening, the sound of gas rushing out of small nozzle and felt the pain sear through his wing. Screaming violently, Alpha woke up from the hellish nightmare, sweating and breathing heavily. He looked to his right to see Beta, his semi-transparent friend, dead but still very much alive, sitting on the ground, looking at something below him. Alpha followed his gaze and looked below himself to find the mattress ripped up and torn to ribbons of cloth and fabric. He growled as he glanced at his brace; feathers were impaled upon their metallic counterparts.

"Fuck." Alpha muttered, annoyed.

"Bad dream?"

The pegasi huffed in both agreement and disapproval. "The same type of dreams I get every damn time I try to grab some shuteye." He shook his head. "Each one is always about the same damn subject." He pushed himself off his destroyed bed, turned around and imagined it repaired. He felt the feathers being pulled off his wing, he heard the sound of fabric and cloth sown back together as the spell repaired the bed. "Don't you ever sleep?" He asked.

"I'm a ghost, a spirit. Why should I need sleep?"

"Can you sleep?"

"Do you want me to light the torch?"

"Isn't it already lit?"

"No."

Alpha turned his head and looked up at the torch. It wasn't aflame, wasn't lighting up the room. He looked at the door to see it closed.

"Too much, isn't it?"

"I'll get used to it." Alpha replied, in total darkness.

The two sat there, in total darkness, listening. Both could hear the single heart beating, the breath that followed the living, and the occasional sound of a pony swallowing its own spit. Total silence filled the room.

"Beta?"

"Mhm?"

"Who were you and Delta talking about earlier? Who was the mutant that you thought recreated your armor?"

"Her name was Jade."

"But you and Delta said 'he'."

"Delta and I weren't the only ones to call Jade a colt, she acted like a colt. She even fooled me into thinking that she was a colt when I first met her. She was a mutant, like the rest of us, but she had this way with anything metallic."

"How so?"

"She was the first to actually CREATE a welding torch, she learned what gasses give off the highest temperature and how to 'catch' them, per se. In school, she made a flower out of a couple of paperclips and staples. Now I'm not talking of the bullshit roses they teach colts and fillies to draw with their own hooves, I'm talking about a full grown rose, red petals, green stem with thorn and everything. With just a few chrome paperclips and some staples, she created a RED rose with a green stem."

"What happened?"

"Well, after my 'incident', it seems like she joined Delta against Celestia. She salvaged what she could of my armor after I was defeated and destroyed. She then, apparently, created my armor, adding some improvements onto it." Beta explained, staring into the darkness, watching the bright lights and kaleidoscopic movements his eyes created when he stared into nothing but blackness or when he tried to focus if he closed his eyes.

Alpha looked to his left to see the ghost. Hesitantly, he reached out his left hoof and tried to touch Beta, but failed when his hoof passed through him. Not willing to give up so easily, Alpha tried and tried again, each time more focused, more determined to touch his friend, but every time failing and failing and failing. Each time his hoof fazed through the ghost, he felt more and more alone; more isolated; more alienated.

"You know you will not be able to touch me, right?" Beta spoke out without turning his head.

"I must try."

Beta sighed and shook his head in disagreement.

"What's wrong?"

"The feeling you get when you can't touch me; the feeling of absolute isolation; the feeling of hope escaping, I can remember it all too well."

"Then stop staring into the blackness and help me!"

Beta turned to look at Alpha, his eyes slightly glowing. "The only way we can come into contact is if I bond with you." He gave a dissatisfied smirk to his friend. "Go back to sleep. I'll wake you early in the morning to create the plan."

Alpha sighed before standing up and getting into his bed.

"Take off your wing first!"

He heard the wing hit the ground and smiled. "Thank you."

"Night." Alpha said before finally nodding off.

"G'Night."

Although the ghost said goodnight, resting was the last thing on his mind. He just sat there, watching the miniature explosions and fireworks he set off with his magic, smiling when he became amused. He sighed as the emotion left. Wanting to end his boredom, the young ghost got up and left the room, exploring the magnificent mountain's interior.

Beta never needed to actually sleep. Being dead has its ups and downs, and Beta would consider the loss of needing to sleep to be both. As much as he loved staying up at night when everything became quiet, he often found himself bored; very bored. Exploring his own tomb and teleporting himself to other cities just to screw around with the living became his two most favorite past times.

Thanks to a number of random occasions, Beta had repaired his relationship with the infamous Vinyl Scratch. She sees him as the friendly ghost she heard about in stories, and laughs when he scares others. Octavia does NOT like Beta, but she doesn't mind him either. If he isn't bothering her, she doesn't really care and ignores him.

In the rare times when Alpha sleeps in, Beta would usually teleport to the schools, specifically the high school he went to, just to check up on it. If he sees bullying, he usually slowly appears and disappears behind the bullied, scaring off the bullies. When that doesn't work, he will begin to defend the bullied, colt or mare, until the bully runs off. He caught himself recently watching over Scootaloo, who has somehow not gained her cutie mark. Scoot and her two friends know this and her confidence has risen dramatically since she found out that Beta watches over her.

But something has been…gnawing at him, and it's starting to get on his nerves.

Once he made sure that he was alone in his tomb, he went over to one of the stands that contained his armor and examined it.

"Still my version…" He muttered to himself.

"What are you doing up this late?"

Beta turned around to see Charlie awake, his eyes brown. "Is Delta not awake?"

"He is, but doesn't want to talk right now. What are you doing?"

"Examining my armor."

"What happened?"

"Meaning?"

"Yesterday, Delta knocked me out and he won't tell me what I missed."

Beta smiled. "Long story short, Twilight Sparkle turned out to be Zeta and Gamma. They tried to Assassinate Alpha. As he was down, I turned into my usual self and tried to protect him from anypony; Zeta and you."

Charlie's eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Apparently my tomb opened and a suit had sprung out when it sensed that I was in danger. Instead, it protected and shielded Alpha, somehow knowing that I didn't need help."

"How did that happen?"

"I do not know. That's why I am here to find out." Beta slowly disappeared.

"Beta?"

"One Moment."

The suit Charlie stood in front of came to life, glowing red as Beta took control of it. "Did not realize I could control it.."

"What do you mean?"

"I created the suit to protect me when I was still alive, when I have a body. Right now, I am a spirit, a ghost, and yet…"

"You can still take control of the suit." Charlie interrupted, completing Beta's thought.

"Exactly." Beta replied, expanding and contracting the knife-like wings.

Charlie looked over the metal. "What is it made of?"

"Dark metal combined with steel."

"Can you create other types of metal?"

"Currently, because magic is, in its basic form, electricity, Steel conducts electricity the most of any other metal."

Charlie nodded as he tried to understand what Beta just said.

"You have no idea what I just told you, do you?" The metallic helmet looked down at Charlie.

"Not really."

"Steel is stronger."

"Ok. What's it like to be dead?"

"Truth be told, it's boring as hell."

The metallic suit walked with absolute silence and grace. The wings were opening and closing, the flaps were moving, everything was in motion as Beta did a complete checkup on everything. Halfway through, he heard a sigh and looked behind him. Charlie had his head lowered with his eyes closed.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…"

Charlie looked up to see that suit looking back at him, his head tilted to the side. "What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Worried."

"About?"

Charlie's cheeks reddened. "Alpha."

Beta was not surprised by this answer. He knew Alpha and Charlie were dating. "Why?"

"Don't know. Do you think he will win?"

"Win? Win what?"

"The battle."

"What battle?"

"Seriously?" Charlie asked in disbelief. "What Battle?"

"Yeah," Beta replied calmly. "What battle?"

"The battle he will have against Celestia."

"If he dies, he'll turn into a ghost like me. Same thing will happen to you and all other mutants that die. We all become ghosts."

"Why?"

Beta sighed. "Technically, we aren't naturally right. All laws of nature that we are aware of don't work with us. For example, I'm an earth pony but I could use magic. Alpha's a Pegasus but can currently also use magic. The laws of nature don't apply to us; therefore we don't go by the rules essentially."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that the laws that every living organism goes by now do not apply to us Mutants. We are different in every way."

"I don't want to be different."

"Why not?"

"No offense, but if I could change, I would change into a normal earth pony."

Inside the helmet, Beta smiled.

"Why?"

"Too much drama in being a mutant. Everypony doesn't trust you and doesn't like you, they have no idea what you can do, but how should that mean we know what we can and cannot do?" He sighed and sat down. "You see it as a gift, I see it as a punishment."

Beta walked back to the armor stand and placed the suit on it before appearing in front of Charlie. "I saw it as a punishment like you before."

"How so?"

"The basic, basic reason why everypony knows who I am is because I was bullied for being different. And I saw it as a punishment. I didn't understand why I was being hated, but in the end, I grew liking it, because it was the only thing that made me feel special, it gave me a reason to believe why I was being hated so much. I used to think I was-"

"I know, I know." Charlie interrupted, annoyed. "Delta already gave me this speech before."

"So, changing subject, what's your ability?"

"Huh?"

"What can you do?"

"Nothing, I have no mutant ability."

"The reason ghosts can only bond with ponies is if they are mutants, otherwise they cannot bond to them. If D bond with you, it's because you are a mutant."

"I'm changing subject because im not liking this one."

"Then I'm keeping it on this one."

"Why?"

"Whether you like it or not, you, Charlie, are a mutant. You cannot, as much as you wish, change this."

"I bet I can change."

"I'm nine fucking hundred years old. I've been trying for nine hundred years. If there was a way, I would have found it."

"You hate me, don't you?"

That caught Beta off guard.

"What?"

"You hate me now."

"Why would I hate you?"

"Because you are angry at me."

"If I hated you, you would not be alive."

"What about Alpha?"

"What about him?"

"Would it hurt him?"

"Obviously, the colt cares for you like no other pony I have ever seen."

"So why doesn't he spend time with me?"

Beta chuckled. "Because currently, we are trying to defeat the Princess of Equestria. Just because he doesn't spend time with you doesn't mean he doesn't lov-" Beta stopped mid-sentence as he caught himself.

Charlie had heard and his wings instantly opened. "He doesn't what?"

Beta shook his head, his eyes wide as he realized what he just had let out. "Shitshitshitshitshitshit."

"What? He loves me?"

Beta knew he had lost and gave up. He let out a sigh and nodded.

"He does?!" Charlie excitedly asked.

Beta slightly looked up, his eyes glowing. "Currently, that's what I think he does."

"Think?"

He nodded. "Unlike you or I, Alpha has never actually been in love. He doesn't know the feeling of love or what it is. He feels attached to you, but to my knowledge, yes, he is in love. Remember that I don't search his mind when he is either sleeping or awake so your guess is as good as mine."

Charlie's heart was racing as he processed the information he had just been given.

"For fuck's sake, you guys are loud." Luna's voice pierced the silence as she entered the tomb. She took one glance at Charlie before staring at Beta. "What did you tell him?"

Beta smiled. "Nothing."

"I think you suck more at lying than my sister."

"He knows."

"About what?"

"He likes me…" Charlie's whisper answered Luna.

All emotion but utter disbelief drained from her face. "Seriously? Of all things you could have said, you let that out?! He's gonna be embarrassed like never before in his life!"

"He already knew that Charlie knew about it!"

"Since when?!"

"THEY ARE DATING!"

"Yeah, but now he actually knows."

Charlie's wings were now pulsating.

"Charlie, chill out."

"But why!?"

"Because you will detonate your heart at the speed it's at."

"Ponies hearts cant detonate."

"Yes they can."

"Prove it."

Beta stared at Charlie.

"Riight. Forgot 'bout that. What did it look like?"

"The pony screamed then his chest literally exploded. It was quite entertaining really."

"That never happened." Luna objected.

"I have the memory here if you want to see it."

"Show me."

Beta sighed as he disappeared, bonding briefly with luna.

Charlie watched as Luna closed her eyes and her expression change as she witnessed the pony's chest explode in a shower of blood, ribs, guts, and bones.

"HOLY SHIT." She cried out, shutting her eyes closed and forcing Beta out.

"When I talk about death, I don't joke around. I pretty much have explored every way to die."

"What's the worst?" Charlie asked.

"hmm…"

As beta thought, Luna decided it was time for the two to go to bed.

"But I wanna know which one was the worst."

"Either Death by one's own Horn Impalement or liquefaction."

"You can liquefy ponies?"

"I can do a lot of things when I'm bat-shit angry."

"OK, enough." Luna exclaimed. "BED. BOTH OF YOU."

"Aww…"Charlie said as he slowly made his way to his room.

"You too Beta."

"I don't sleep."

"I don't care, go to your room."

Beta was about to obey her but thought it would be more interesting to deny her. "What if I say no?"

"I will DRAG you to your room."

"I'm a ghost, you can't grab me."

Luna took a deep breath, extended her hoof and grabbed Beta, actually taking hold of him.

"How the fuck are you doing this?!" Beta exclaimed as he resisted Luna.

"I'm a fucking Alicorn and an element of planetary beings. I have exceptions too, you know. C'mon." She said as she began to drag Beta to his room.

"Fine, fine, I'll go."

"As a 900 year old ghost, you sure act as if you were 12, even if you died at 18."

"How do you know that?"

Luna turned her head and for a brief second, turned into her darker self. "I was with you at the castle, don't you remember."

"I remember that, I just thought that that was your dark magic, not actually you."

"It was. When I returned, I connected with the magic and saw what you did. Anyway," She changed the subject as she threw Beta through the wall into his room. "STAY THERE."

Beta turned and saw Alpha sleeping. He thought about listening to Luna but pushed the idea out of her head and teleported himself to his high school. He was gonna screw around with the teachers arriving at the school. Something he always loved doing.

HAHA! Finally got past my Writer's Block. Damn thing was pissing me off. Anyway, Happy Holidays!