//------------------------------//
// 1. Scrooge is a Bad Word! 
// Story: The Cutie Mark Crusaders: Ghost Hunters Christmas Special 
// by JerryTheHouseGhost 
//------------------------------//

	"You're nothin' but a big fat chicken!" Applebloom told Scootaloo.

"No! You shut your mouth!" Scootaloo retaliated.

"I can prove that you're a chicken, too!"

"Oh really? Then prove it!"

"You got feathers!"

"No-" Scootaloo paused for a moment to think. "Well... I guess I do... But that doesn't make me a chicken!"

"Will you two stop arguing!?" Sweetie Belle interjected. "You're both scaredy-cats if neither one of you wants to slide down the hill first!"

The three filly friends were playing outside in the snow when they found a suitable snowy slope, upon which they could easily slide down. Sweetie Belle walked over to the slope.

"I'll slide down it first," said Sweetie Belle. She looked down to the bottom of the hill. "I can't believe you two are scared of this." She backed up a little, then jumped onto the slope. All didn't go as planned, as Sweetie Belle began to gather up snow in front of her, which compacted into a snowball and trapped her in the center. "Aaaahhh! Somepony help me!"

Applebloom and Scootaloo began to run down the hill after Sweetie Belle. They both conveniently slipped and fell down at almost the same exact time, and they too began to become trapped in snowballs. "Well, this isn't the worst thing that could be happening right now," said Scootaloo.

"Oh yeah? Well we're still trapped in snowballs and rollin' down a hill," said Applebloom.

Sweetie Belle's snowball went off of a small, well-placed jump at the bottom of the hill. When she landed, the snowball was very still. Sweetie Belle gave a sigh of relief. All seemed to be okay. Until...

"Incoming!" Scootaloo's snowball came flying out of the air and landed on top of Sweetie Belle's.

"Where's Applebloom?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"I'm already up here," replied Applebloom.

"What!? How did you get up there without us noticing!?"

"I noticed," said Scootaloo.

All three of their snowballs made a perfect snowman. Of course, the don't know what a snowman is. Oh the irony.

"How're we gonna get outta this!?" asked Applebloom.

"I don't know," answered Scootaloo.

"Nopony say anything unless it has to do with us gettin' outta this thing!"

"I'll help you!" yelled a distant voice.

"Who said that!? I can't see behind me!" said Applebloom after failing at turning around. "Can any of you see who said that?"

"I can," answered Sweetie Belle. "It's... Uh... Hank!"

"Hank! Help us!" yelled Scootaloo.

"I'm on mah way! Don't y'all move a muscle!" The three fillies remained silent. "Oh yeah... Oops!" Hank got to the snow formation and began digging the fillies out. "There y'all go. If I wasn't here, you'd have prolly frozen to death!"

"That's a nice thought," said Sweetie Belle sarcastically.

Hank was in his bunny suit, as usual. "Why does the pony who hired you have you wear a bunny suit?" asked Scootaloo.

"I honestly have no idea; all I know is that he pays me for it," answered Hank. "What are you lil'uns doin' out here, anyway?"

"We were just playing in the snow," said Applebloom. She looked around and saw that they were quite far from Ponyville. "I guess we didn't pay attention to where we were goin'."

"Well you better watch out; there are some dangerous things around here this time o' year!" said Hank.

The little ponies looked around and saw nothing. "You mean like, at night?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Any time, little ones. Any time."

"I don't see anything..." said Scootaloo.

"Well of course you don't! They wouldn't just show themselves to you!"

"How dangerous are these 'things?' " asked Applebloom.

"Very dangerous. So dangerous that not even a full-grown pony would be safe." Hank looked back to where he came from. "Well, I better get going. See you three some other time!" He began to trot away.

"When did Hank become such a freak?" asked Scootaloo.

"Maybe when we hit him over the head with the vacuum that one time," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh yeah..."

Out of the corner of her eye, Applebloom thought she saw some kind of dark figure move behind a tree. "Did anypony else just see that?" she asked in a suddenly nervous tone.

"See what?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"I could have sworn I saw somethin' shadowy go behind that tree over there!" Applebloom said as she pointed a hoof towards one of the bigger trees around them.

"Was it a shadow?" asked Scootaloo.

"Just because something is shadowy doesn't mean it's a shadow," said Sweetie Belle.

"That's why I asked!"

"I have no idea what it was. Let's go check it out girls!" said Applebloom.

"Remember the last time you told us to go check it out?" asked Scootaloo.

"No."

"Well neither do I! But nothing good ever comes out of it whenever you say it!"

"Oh, come on! What could lookin' behind a tree possibly cause?"

"Us to find a mysterious box that says 'don't open' in sharpie?" answered Sweetie Belle.

"Well, that's oddly specific," said Applebloom with a perplexed look on her face.

"Well that's what's behind the tree."

"What?" Applebloom looked back at the tree to see Sweetie Belle carrying a box (that resembled a shoe box) out from behind it.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," said Scootaloo. "We still have a chance of getting out of it, though; just don't say that we should-"

"We should open it and see what's inside!" Applebloom cut Scootaloo off.

"-open it..."

Applebloom, and a reluctant Scootaloo, trotted over to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle placed the box in the middle of the triangle formed by the three of them.

"Which one of us should open it?" asked Applebloom.

"Well, since you two were so inept at deciding which one of you would slide down the hill, I think I should be the one to open it," said Sweetie Belle.

"In-what?" asked Applebloom. "Get your crazy words outta here! I'll open it!" Applebloom began to reach in, but paused when her hoof was halfway to the box. She gave Scootaloo an uneasy look.

"Oh, come on!" yelled Sweetie Belle. She punched the box with her hoof, and the lid flew off.

"See; nothin' happened! You're just a big chicken, Scootaloo!" teased Applebloom.

"I'll destroy you!" yelled Scootaloo. Just as she was about to destroy Applebloom, snow started flying out of the box and into the air.

"What the heck is this box's purpose!? Just to blow snow all over the place!?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Scrooooooge!" yelled a loud, eerie voice from behind Applebloom. She turned around slowly and saw a large, transparent being with a green glow floating a couple feet off the ground. This thing appeared to have chains all over its body.

"Who are you!? What are you!?" asked Applebloom, trying not to run away in fear.

"The name's Jacob Marley, an' I'm a ghost!" said Jacob as he tossed some chains in front of him, emphasizing the 'I'm a ghost' part.

"A ghost!?" applebloom looked at Sweetie Belle. "Vacuum, ASAP!"

"I'm on it!" Sweetie Belle began to gallop towards Ponyville.

"Do you things know where Scrooge is?" asked Jacob.

"Isn't Scrooge a bad word or something?" asked Scootaloo.

"No- well... I guess it could be, if used in the right way."

"Scootaloo! You just said 'Scrooge!' I'm gonna tell on you!" said Applebloom.

"No! You just said it; I'll tell on you first!" Scootaloo retaliated.

"I'm gonna go now..." said Jacob.

"No!" yelled Applebloom. "You've gotta stay!"

"Why? You don't know where Scrooge is."

"Uh... Yeah we do!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!" said Scootaloo. "She's-"

"Scrooge is a he."

"-He's back in our town."

"Yeah," said Applebloom. "He's back in our clubhouse."

"Are you sure? You didn't seem to know who he was just a second ago..." said Jacob.

"Yeah, uh, at first we thought you were sayin'... Screwge..."

"That's exactly what I was saying."

"No.. It's uh, spelled differently..."

"Huh... Okay... Where is this so-called 'clubhouse' of yours?"

"Right this way," said Scootaloo. She began to trot in the direction of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse.

Applebloom attempted to make small talk on the way there. "So... Why do you want to see Scrooge?"

"Oh, I just have to tell him about these three other ghosts that are going to visit him," answered Jacob.

"Hold on; you say there's gonna be three more ghosts!?"

"Yep."

Applebloom looked at Scootaloo. "Do you think there's enough room in the vacuum for FOUR ghosts!?"

"I don't know!" answered Scootaloo, almost in a panic.

"A vacuum? What's that? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing," said Jacob, as he jiggled his chains.

"Oh, a vacuum is used to clean floors in a building," answered Applebloom.

"Why would you need something like that for ghosts?"

"We, uh... We clean ghosts..."


To Be Continued