//------------------------------// // Change of Plans // Story: Crazy, Clever and Cunning // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Never in my life have I seen anything so pink, not only that it’s the pinkest pink I’ve ever seen. If I was told I would see this much pink at one time I wouldn’t have believed it, and is where is that cotton candy smell coming from? This is all interrupted as a pair of blue eyes enter my vision and I realize this wall of pink as actually a pony. “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie you must be new in town because I haven’t seen you before because if I had seen you before then I would know you and if I knew you then you wouldn’t be new in town and…” she breaks off into mumbling for a few more minutes as one of my hooves reflexively travels to her mouth. I sit there and wonder at her talking abilities and wonder why my hoof is now in her mouth as I don’t remember putting it there. I swiftly remove it once I realize that she has stopped talking and try to come up with a way to respond. “Um yes, I just moved into town a couple days ago, my name is Flarenza and I am the new owner of the, err, haunted manor outside of town,” I pause near the end as I almost say the one name I heard for the place, realizing I still need to change it. “Ooh the place with the funny ghostie in it? I tried to cheer it up with a party once but it was all screamie and meanie and stuff and threw all my party stuff out,” she pauses a second and lets out a large gasp, “I had a great idea, I need to throw you a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party since you are new here, and since you are new here yo-“ Once again my hoof enters her mouth as I calmly say, “No, no parties please, I have enough of a headache dealing with that ghost without having to worry about something like that.” This was obviously the wrong thing to say as she gets a really sad look on her face and her hair deflates that can’t be a good thing. “No party? But everypony loves my parties, why don’t you want one.” A feeling of dread starts to come over me though I don’t know what is causing it though it seems best to try and pacify her somehow, “Look, it’s not you it’s me. I have issues being the focus of large groups of those I don’t know and I don’t know you well,” she still looks sad yet her eyes do look a bit brighter, “How about this, let’s have a bit of a guessing game. I’ll let you have one guess a week and if you are correct it means we know each other well enough and you can throw the party then,” I hope this is enough as she seems to be thinking about the idea when her hair pops up again. “Ooh that sounds like fun I love guessing games and it’ll give me more time to plan the party so what are we gonna guess on huh huh huh?” She is really starting to creep me out a bit with her hyperness and mood swings, “Well this should be a good one as I have never told anyone, ‘What is my favorite flavor of cake?’” She listens carefully as I explain and then starts bouncing around in place. “Ooh I love cake I work at Sugarcube Corner and make cakes and cupcakes and other fun stuff everyday so I’m an expert at cakes the kind you eat and not my bosses and I know all kinds of cakes…” I just tone her out at this point waiting for her to answer as I’m starting to get more of a headache than normal. Eventually she seems to calm down and enters what I assume is a thinking position. “Hmm, how about, no that isn’t it, maybe, nah that’s mine, oh I know, CHOCOLATE!” A few nearby ponies look at her oddly before shaking their heads seeing who it was. “Unfortunately that’s not it,” she start to deflate again at this so I try to head off her mood, “But at least you can try again next week, and just think, this gives you enough time to plan and make it the best party ever.” I say this in a bit of a panic trying to guess on her views and hope I get it right, which I fortunately seem to be. “You’re right,” she rebounds back to her original attitude, “This is perfect I ran out of balloons at my last part so I wouldn’t have them for this one and I can get my party cannon out of the shop for this and try out all those new things I wanted and…” Once again I am forced to tone her out for the sake of my head at trying to keep up with her. How can anyone talk so much without breathing? Eventually she stops her train of thought that is spewing from her mouth though. “Well it was nice to meet you Flarie but I have plans to get ready for so see you later,” at this she then dives behind a nearby tree… and pops up out of a chimney down the road? “What the?” I boggle at that happening for a second and I thought breaking rules was how MY magic worked, that’s just ridiculous. Also what was it she just called me? I just shake my head at this and decide to find out more about this… later. For now my rumbling stomach points out that food should be the main priority. Dinner is a simple affair with a nice salad and fruit drink on the side. Finishing my meal, I head out towards the library to see if Twilight found anything and to let her know my results. Seeing as it is getting a tad late and the sky is starting to darken a bit I start to wonder if it can wait until tomorrow. As I near the library from the side I notice the door open and a bunch of mares leaving, Twilight among them, all carrying golden tickets. I realize they are all the ones from the forest, though only three of them I haven’t officially met. As I get closer most of them have parted ways and look to be heading back to their homes so I try to get Twilight’s attention. It looks like it takes her a second to realize I am waving to her and then she seems to look apologetic. “I’m so sorry; I haven’t had a chance to look into your problem yet. I had promised to help Applejack on her farm today, and then with the incident with the ticket I haven’t been able to look into it yet,” I get an odd look on my face when she mentions a ticket. “A ticket? What kind of ticket can cause an incident that takes up a whole day?” I ask her out of curiosity. “Well I got a pair of tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and everypony wanted the extra one. It was only just now that I could get one for all my friends,” she seems to notice that the look on my face hasn’t changed and looks at me curiously. “Aaand the Grand Galloping Gala would be what, exactly?” At this her look turns to one of shock, “What do you mean what is it? It’s just the most prestigious event that happens every couple years. Tickets for it are very hard to acquire, and just about everypony wants one. How in Equestria have you not heard of it before?” At this I just give her a look and respond, “Well it’s not that hard to have not heard about it when traveling all over the place, many of the locations not being in Equestria.” At this she seems to look a bit sheepish and shuffles her front hoof a bit, “Oh, right…” Taking a bit of pity on her I decide to change the subject, “Well anyways, while you may not have had a chance to turn anything up, I did find some information that is useful as well as a couple spells.” She perks up at this and starts looking a bit excited at the mention of new spells, “Really? You already found something? That’s amazing! I thought it would take weeks if not months to find information on the spells, let alone actual spells themselves. Do you have them with you?” Chuckling at her over eagerness I just pull out my journal as flip to the correct pages and levitate it to where she can see. “Well there were two useful ones that I hope can help solve the problem and a third one to at least locate it. As you can see one of them is a spell that I can use to find where it is hidden, so no more running into it unawares. Next is one to communicate with it, though I think there is more to that spell than just doing that. It’s this third one that is the real issue,” I turn to the page with the banishment spell, including all the notes which she reads. “These spells are amazing, I with how few books I know of on the subject just seeing spells of this type is amazing. I’m not seeing the problem you are talking about with this banishment spell though; everything looks like it should actually do something, most likely what it says it should.” I just sigh and point a hoof at the warning, “It’s this part here that worries me. If it’s a general ghost then it should be fine, but if it’s a bound one then there could be problems. It already seems to be angry, I don’t even want to know what it will be like if it gets even worse.” Having seen the creature once already her eyes narrow to pinpricks at the thought of it getting worse, “Um, yes I guess I can see the problem, he he.” We head inside the library for a bit so she can get her own copies of the spells and notes before I goodbye to her and head home. I think on how to deal with the ghost with these spells as well as the best way to do so. “Definitely waiting until tomorrow to do anything. Maybe I should practice that shield spell before I sleep tonight as a precaution, as well as make sure I fully grasp the others,” I continue this line of thinking as I climb into the room and get everything settled. I spend the next couple hours practicing what I can, eventually getting up a stable shield for minutes at a time, before eventually crawling into bed for the night. <><><><><><><> The next morning starts off much like the last, with a lot of screaming and banging from the ghost. “I really hope I can get rid of that thing today, this is getting ridiculous.” I keep up a list of complaints as I get ready for another trip to town for breakfast, as well as some other necessities. Before heading out though I test out the detection spell again to find the ghost streaking around various rooms of the house, trying to enter into this area. Interestingly enough it doesn’t seem to try from above at all which causes me to stop at the base of the ladder and look at the building. “Isn’t there an attic in this place? It looks like there is enough space for one, so why haven’t I seen a way up there?” Pondering this I make my way into town and to the café I have been using. After a simple meal there I see that the market is starting to fill up again and make my way over to it. Once again I see Applejack there selling apples from her stall so I head over to pick up some more. “Well howdy there,” she greets me as I approach, “Good ta see ya alive and kicking still after being in that place these last few days.” I nod to her pulling out a handful of bits for another six apples, “Yeah, had a small issue when Twilight came over to see it, though she seems to still refuse to use the word ghost for it. I have a couple things to try today to get rid of it though, hopefully they work otherwise I’m afraid that the problem is worse than I thought.” She passes over the apples which I pack away, “That bad, huh? Well try not to take any unnecessary risks out there. That thing has been around a while now and ya wouldn’t be the first one ta try and get rid of it, them other folk didn’t come out too pretty in the end.” I wince at this though I am still confident, “Well I doubt the others were quite as prepared though. I’ve already upset a betting pool that always went through, surviving this thing would fit along the same lines.” Finishing with that topic, I ask her for advice on a few other things I need to pick up and where to get them. With her directions in mind I wave to Applejack as I head off on my rounds of the market. It takes a while to get to the various places, but in the end I come out better supplied than before with a bit more food than last time, as well as some bathroom necessities and some cleaning supplies. While doing all this I catch the occasional flash of pink out of the corner of my eye and suspect Pinkie Pie is spying on me trying to figure out what to guess next. I chuckle a bit at some of the things she pops out of and wonder once again how she does that. Shaking my head at that I head on back towards my home, distracted only a moment as a grey pegasus in a blue uniform drifts on by before crashing into a wagon of carrots causing me to wince. Eventually the pink pony seems to have given up and make my way back into my bedroom. Taking a moment to put my purchases away I prepare for the coming struggle. Preparing myself I go over the spells in my journal, including the shield spell before closing it and cast the detection spell, finding it in the bedroom I first found it in. Having noted that there seems to have been no specifics on the communication spell, I make myself comfortable on my bed before I start to cast it. As I feel the spell begin linking to the ghost I can tell that it is working. Unfortunately the ghost also feels it and I am given a headache beyond headaches as the feeling of it screaming through the connection causes me to hastily cut contact with it. “Great, I don’t think there is any intelligence left in it. That’ll make it harder as it seems to just be reacting at random with no plan.” I rest my head down as I nurse the headache down while contemplating my next course of action. “The banishment spell is going to be a bit harder, but still doable with my current levels. I just hope that it isn’t a bound spirit otherwise I’ll probably have to get rid of it if I ever want to sleep again. I better make sure I take precautions just in case though,” at this I bring out the pouch of special stones and search until I find the one I’m looking for. On seeing the flash of green I rewrap it and set it on the small table by the bed. Checking one more time that the ghost is still where I found it, I make my way into the hall while starting to charge the spell. I quietly make my way down to the end of the hallway and stand by the door while I finish getting a full charge, “I sure hope this works, the alternative would not be pretty.” Taking a deep breath I yank open the door and focus on the ghost. As it starts to turn towards me I let loose with the charged spell and strike it directly on its side, knocking it back across the room. I continue to channel more power into the spell as I keep it pinned to the wall, it struggling the entire time. After a short time though I start to begin sweating, not from the pressure of the spell, but from the fact that it doesn’t seem to be doing anything, “Frig, I think it is a bound spirit.” I start to panic and begin to back away through the door while keeping the spell up. Once I am out I take another breath and simultaneously cancel the spell and slam the door shut before making a break for my safe haven. Not even a second later I hear the ghost scream at a volume many times louder than normal. I react to this by attempting to throw up a shield around me, even with my low amount of practice. Luckily it works though as the door behind me is ripped off its hinges and flung down the hall at me. The shield shatters at the impact, but is enough to deflect the door away from me. This also buys me enough time to dive into the bedroom and slam the door closed again. I can tell the ghost is enraged now as it seems to be causing much more damage than normal in an effort to get to me. I sit in the room shaking in terror for over an hour before it seems to give up for now, though the damage has been done. With my legs shaking, I get back onto my hooves and move to the center of the room and look up at the moonstone. While it is still glowing, I can see that it isn’t as strong as it was, and using my magic I can tell that assault nearly drained it completely. “If that thing tried a bit harder or for longer I think it may have actually shattered it,” I stammer out in fear, not having seen a single being take so much out of the enchantment. Taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I focus the remains of my magic into the moonstone, bolstering its energy by a small amount, but still enough to hold off at least one more assault. “I’ll only have one more chance at removing that thing, and as I have the last hint at what it is I’ll need a good plan ready… and possibly some help as well,” I pause considering all this. “There’s really only one pony I know to ask for help from, hope she has an idea of how to deal with this.” At that I sigh and climb outside yet again, after grabbing my packs, and head to town. After a brief stop at the café for lunch I head in the direction of the library. Along the way I spot Applejack again who makes some gestures towards me to which I respond with a headshake causing her to frown. Soon I reach the library and head on in to a scene of controlled chaos. Books are flying all over the place as they are pulled out from their shelves to fly over towards Twilight before being sent elsewhere in the library. As each one comes by she writes down something on the parchment in front of her. At the same Spike is reshelving stacks of books on the now empty side of the library after looking at each title. “Spike, have you found anything over there yet?” comes from Twilight whose eyes don’t leave the books passing by her. “Not yet,” come from Spike, “Almost thought I had something with a book called Supernaturals, but that wasn’t about ghosts at all.” I take all this in before making my way over towards an open cushion that is out of the way and flop down onto it, drawing some attention from half the duo. “Oh hey Flarenza,” comes from Spike, “Didn’t see you come in here, how’d your ghost-busting attempts go?” At his question Twilight notices that I had entered and pauses in her work to take note of my answer. “Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is I now know what type of being it is and the spells also work as described.” Twilight seems to brighten up at this but frowns a second later, “What would the bad news be then if the spells worked?” I turn to look her in the eye before stating, “The bad news is also because I found out what kind of ghost it is. It’s a bound spirit and the spell only enraged it so much it almost shattered the spell around my room.” The news causes Twilight’s eyes to widen at this and she promptly sends all the books back to their shelves, “That’s bad, really bad. Examining the gem you gave me I could tell how well the spell was set and it would last for years given the energy. You said the other one was of a much higher caliber, but for it to almost shatter? That is definitely bad news.” I sigh at this, a bit surprised at the praise though knowing the latter part to be true, “I’ve almost run out of options, and seeing as it is a bound spirit then that means the object it is attached to must be destroyed before it can be banished. Unfortunately I don’t know where or what the object is, though I may have an idea of where.” Twilight brightens up at that, “Where do you think it is? When we last went over the house before there was no sign of an object that could have been used as a binding point.” “Well I was able to explore the entire place when I first arrived. Most of the house looked ordinary, and the basement was empty. The only place I haven’t found yet is the attic, and I suspect it’s somewhere around the room I first found the ghost as it keeps lingering there,” I explain, causing Twilight to look thoughtful. “There should be blueprints of the manor somewhere, most likely here or at the Town Hall. If you check there I can look around here,” she reasons out. I brighten at this as it is a good idea, but grimace as I remember the mare running the desk there, “Sounds like a plan, it shouldn’t take too long to find it I hope. I’ll be back here again if I find it or even if I don’t.” I nod to Twilight as I head out again and trot off towards the Town Hall. It doesn’t take long to get there, and although Dusky Script still seems to my running the desk, she just simply points the way towards the records area as she decides it’s the fastest way to get rid of me. Once there, with the help of a clerk, I am able to find a copy of the blueprints for the manor and, after thanking him for the help, head back to the library. I notice that a couple hours have passed since I went into the Town Hall and decide to stop by the café. Deciding to be quick about it, I ask for a few salads to go as well as drinks. Carrying them all in my levitation I make my way back to the library. Once inside I notice that the two are surrounded by various scrolls and blueprints, as well as boxes of many more. “Well I guess you two haven’t found anything in the library. Luckily there was a copy at the Town Hall; also I brought dinner since I didn’t know if you ate yet.” Twilight sighs and starts packing everything away again, “Thanks, while there is a lot of interesting diagrams in here, the blueprint wasn’t one of them.” Once the table is cleared I pass out the food, setting the blueprints to the side, we all dig in, though Spike with a bit more relish than necessary. Once finished, with Spike chewing on a gem he pulled from somewhere, I pull out the house plans and unroll them on the table. “As I thought, the attic entrance is located at that end of the hallway,” I say pointing a hoof at the entrance. “Unfortunately it looks like to open it you have to go into the room you said the creature frequents,” the purple unicorn responds with. I sigh as I contemplate my options, “That is the difficult part. Strangely enough I don’t think that thing can go up there either. That or it doesn’t know about it for some reason. While I was tracking it around last night I noticed it roaming around all sides of the master bedroom except for two areas, the outside and the attic. If I can get up there I think it won’t be able to follow. I’d rather not assume this though since I don’t know and who knows what is even up there.” I turn to Twilight before settling on something, “I really hate to ask this, but I don’t think I can get rid of this thing alone, do you think you can lend me a hoof with this problem?” Twilight seems a bit surprised at this and considers, “I’d be glad to help, I’m curious as to what may be up there now as well. But do you think just the two enough will be enough? I might be able to get my friends to help as well.” I ponder this offer but shake my head, “If they are the ones I saw last night I’m not sure if most of them would be able to help. With what we will have to face in there, physical abilities won’t help at all. Though granted one of your friends was a unicorn, and the pink one seems to do the impossible, there isn’t much room to move around so the fewer the better.” Twilight considers this a bit, but nods while looking unsure. Thinking on it a bit more, “To be on the safe side though you probably should at least let them know about what is going on so that if it takes too long they know what is happening.” This causes her to brighten up a bit and start to head outside before noticing how dark it has gotten, “We should wait until tomorrow before going through with this, it’s late and stumbling through the place at night wouldn’t be wise.” I nod at this before realizing another problem. “I don’t think it would be safe for me to stay the night there again, especially since it almost broke in. I hate to impose but would you mind if I borrow your couch for tonight?” I ask this a bit fearfully as I truly don’t want to be there again without being sure of being safe. Twilight seems to sense this and agrees to this. We decide to wrap things up here for now and get things ready for when we head out tomorrow. Having done that, I say goodnight to her and Spike as they head upstairs, and flop down on the couch while trying to brush off my misgivings for tomorrow before I finally fall asleep.