“Look. Core, it’s your dead grandpa!”

“Tommy, I can’t see shit.”

Gonna add the dialogue to this later, but I’ve had the idea of this in my head for a while and fancied putting the picture up now.

Catch you later 

It’s later!!

“C’mon, Core!” Phantomwise bounded across the Apple Family property to the huge barn that dominated most of the homestead area. Behind her, Apple Core was moving towards their destination at a much more sedate pace.

“Phantom, what’s so exciting about the barn? It’s just full of hay an’ tools.”

Pouting at her friend’s lack of enthusiasm, the alicorn stopped by the barn door and waited for Core to catch up. 

“You’ll have to wait and see,” she said haughtily. “It wouldn’t be a surprise otherwise.”

“I guess,” Core admitted. “But you know I don’t like surprises very much.”

Tommy rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I know, ‘too many heart attacks from Auntie Pinkie’, but I promise you’ll like this one!”

“If you say so.” Core came to a stop next to her friend, who was bouncing excitedly on the spot. “Let’s get this over with, then.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun.” But Phantomwise lead the way into the barn anyway. “Why can’t you show some enthusiasm for once?”

“Because every time you say you have something cool to show me one of us ends up injured.”

“Not every time,” Tommy protested.

“No, you’re right; sometimes we both get injured.”

“You make it sound so- ah ha! There you are!”

Core looked around the corner of the barn she’d been lead to, trying to spot what it was Tommy wanted her to see, but all she could find was hay and old tools, as she’d predicted. 

Turning back to her friend, Core found the alicorn beaming excitedly at her, eyes flicking back to the empty air to the left every now and again.

“What?” Core asked.

“Look!” Tommy gestured. “It’s your grandfather!”

Core squinted at the air, then narrowed her eyes further at Phantomwise.

“Grandpa Rock is back on the farm. What are you on about?”

Tommy rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Not Mr. Igneous,” she said, as if it was obvious. “Britemac! Y’know, Big Mac’s dad!”

Core furrowed her eyebrows even further.

“He’s dead, Tommy.”

“I know! But he’s here! Can’t you see him?”

“Do you think I’d be saying these things if I could see him?” the earth pony asked, but Phantomwise didn’t seem to be listening to her. Instead, the alicorn seemed to be listening to ‘Britemac’.

“Oh,” Tommy said softly. “He says only I can see and hear him. You don’t have the sight.”

“Phantomwise, this isn’t funny,” Core deadpanned. “I know I didn’t know him, but it’s still insensitive to pretend you can see ghosts or something using someone’s family.”

Tommy’s eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open.

“I’m not!” she protested. “I’m not pretending. I really can see him!”

“Well then prove it!”

“How can I prove it if you can’t see -?” she cut herself off. “Britemac says your first proper word was banana and that Auntie AJ sulked for days after. And he says Uncle Big Mac sometimes takes you to sit by his and Buttercup’s grave and tells you about them because he wants you to know all your grandparents, even if they’re not all around anymore. The last story he told you was last week, and it was about how Britemac thought he lost his banjo one day, but that Big Mac had taken it to try to teach himself how to play to surprise his Ma.”

The more Phantomwise spoke, the more relaxed Core became, and the more she began to believe her friend. Really, she should never have doubted her in the first place; Tommy didn’t lie very often, especially not about things like this. Having the Princess of Friendship for a mother tended to give one a brilliant sense of how to behave and how not to behave with one’s friends.

Slowly, Core came to sit next to Tommy, and looked up at the empty air, trying to picture the stallion she’d only ever seen in pictures smiling down at her.

“Can you tell me more about him?” she asked, not taking her eyes away from the space.

Tommy nodded.

“And can you tell him I love him, even though I’ve never met him.”

“… He says he loves you, too.”