“Yeah, yeah. Just finish your story.” Sharp Eye said, waving a hoof dismissively.
“Fine.” All Nighter conceded. He took a small sip first before proceeding. “Her third haunting occurred last night. After what happened last time I thought that she would’ve given up. But no she did not! This mare’s persistent as heck! I gotta give her points for that. I was working had all night because our Saddle Arabia Branch had a hard time receiving their dragon fire letters. And the boss wants me to send them three confirmation letters a day stating that we are underway in fixing the issue. He also wants me to get in touch with the Department of Secure Messaging Transmissions as they’re the ones responsible in for generating the currents that the letters go thro-I can judge from your bored faces that you don’t want to hear this part, so I’m just gonna say that the things I’m working on are really important so there’s no way that I will get myself drunk or let alone be half-asleep.”
“I was on my computer writing the letters when the lights suddenly flickered.”
“Oh boy.”
“That’s gotta be on the top of the list of things you shouldn’t do when writing a horror film. Not a moment after, I heard a series of hooves pitter-patter on the floor, that’s another one on the list.I followed the rapid tapping as it trotted around the room. The sound of tapping hoof steps ceased as they reached the front of my bathroom door, I always closed the windows at night because I can’t stand the chill of the evening breeze. The door in the bathroom was open because I recently went there to wash my face in the sink, rinsing my sleepiness away. Even though there’s no wind pushing it from behind, the bathroom door slammed itself close.”
“Oh my Goddesses.”
“She’s crossing all those things from the list! Certified fresh that mare’s work is. I took a break from my writing and leaned at the back of my chair, enjoying this bizarre spectacle. It was entertaining at first, because it’s like a watching a horror movie in 3-d. But it got old a couple minutes later. I really liked the light bulb part though, where I grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and as I took a bite from it, in turned into a light bulb.”
Puce cringed upon hearing those words, imagining his co-worker’s mouth gushing with blood as he continued to chew on the shattered glass.
“But after that, she’s just hitting me with nothing but duds. She turned back to her rotten corpse form again and stood with her hind legs on the ceiling, and slowly approached me every time I blinked. How she managed to make her dress upright and not look like an umbrella being blown by the wind, I’ll never know.”
“And when I took a sip from my coffee, the contents inside the cup magically turned into cockroaches. The little critters then scurried around my body, tickling me with their tiny hairy legs. And after that she disappeared.”
“Then I felt an itchy sensation on my hoof. I turned it around in front of me to see if a roach from earlier was stuck there, only to see her face. Her eyes were all white and opened wide. She screamed at me soundlessly. Bundles of blood soaked innards crept out of her rotten orifice.”
“The carpet below me took the form of a pair of claws. Their sharp yet furry digits grasped on my hind legs tightly, dragging me downwards to oblivion, I can hear a sharp cackle as the darkness sucked me in.”
“Then I woke up.”
While listening to the story, Sharp unknowingly hugged Puce out of fear, Puce, who was so fixated to All Nighter’s story as well didn’t notice the usually stern stallion cowering beside her. They only realized the situation they were in when All Nighter stopped talking and sipped his coffee while admiring the view in front of him. The two separated in the blink of an eye with Puce rubbing the side of her foreleg awkwardly afterwards while Sharp Eye adjusted his glasses and looked away in an attempt to hide his blush.
“I-I-uh...” Sharp Eye started, stuttering. “I, um, believe. That my actions were justifiable.”
“Yeah.” Puce agreed.
“I know that you’re a horror fan and all, but aren’t you a bit traumatized after what she did to you?”
“How can I be scared when all she did was throw duds at me? Next thing I’ll know is that she’ll come out of a well or rip me to shreds in my dreams.”
“At least she’ll look good in a sweater.” Sharp Eye added.
“Heh.” All Nighter said with a grin. “So anyway, I was back sitting on my chair, slightly dizzy from the horror coaster ride she put me through. I spun my chair to face the clock that was hanging on my wall to see if she had done the thing that I expected she would do. It’s now one o’clock. It was only twelve a couple minutes ago. I was right, it was a time skip. What a waste of a good hour, I thought to myself.”
“I was still staring at the clock when I heard something behind me. They sound like short labored breaths, or just panting for short. I turned around to see who it was. I already had an idea regarding on who this is going to be, and I think you do too.”
“It was the ghost mare of course, and she was back in her true form. She looked spent. It’s like she participated in the Running of the Leaves five times on the same day. A small smile was carved on her face despite panting heavily. Maybe she thought that her latest feat could’ve been the one that broke me.”
“But her smile faded when she saw the look on my face. I was grinning like an idiot at her. I never thought that ghosts would get exhausted too. I mean, her fur looks damp and wet, her mane looked messy and unkempt, and the dress she’s wearing was so wet it started to stick on her body. Since the color of the fabric is white, I don’t have to tell you that the clothing she was wearing became see through as it got wet. Because of that, I could see a pair of folded wings resting on her side. It’s odd because I thought that she was an Earth Pony before.”
“Seeing me unfazed despite everything she’s done was probably the lasr straw for her patience. All those rage and frustration flowing out of her ethereal...bodice made her blurt her first words ever during our encounters.”
“Why are you not scared!? Her frustrated cry can be compared to that of a banshee’s.”
“Now we’re having a conversation! Though I had to cover my ears to prevent my eardrums from popping but still, we’re having a conversation! Can you believe it?”
Sharp Eye was quick to reply. “No.”
“It’s a rhetorical question, Sharp. Just a part of my narration.”
“But it’s true, I still don’t beli-”
“Just let me finish my story. As we talked, I can’t help but admire her voice. It sounds so meek and cute, just like her. Even though she’s lashing out at me with everything she’s got, I still can’t get mad at her. She even looked cute when angry. And now I have a cute, angry ghost in my apartment. The downside to her adorable lashing out is that while she’s spitting hot stuff at me, she’s also flailing my belongings around the room. I had to call her out when she’s about to hurl my favourite mug at the wall.”
“I tried to calm her down in order to minimize the amount of damage my apartment has already obtained. So I explained to her that I’m really busy at the moment to humor her. But I did gave her some kind proposition that if she helps me with my work, she can scare me to her heart’s content later. It was quite a hard bargain. It took a lot a convincing on my part but she agreed eventually, although somewhat reluctantly. I even had to throw in a couple of tips in doing a proper jump scare just to spice up the deal. After that she became my assistant, temporarily of course.”
“So you hired a ghost, to become your assistant.” Sharp Eyes stated, narrowing his eyes.
“Uhuh.” All Nighter clarified then took a sip from his cup.
“Let me rephrase my sentence if it didn’t sound ridiculous the first time.” Sharp Eye retorted.
“So you hired a ghost, to become your assistant.”
“Dang it Sharp, stop interrupting and let him finish!” Puce scolded Sharp Eye. “My coffee’s getting cold.”
“Fine! Be that way.” Sharp Eye snorted.
All Nighter gave a little cough to clear his throat before continuing his story.
“I then asked for her name. It was Midnight Memory. And as for her motives on scaring me, she doesn’t have one. Or rather, she doesn’t remember what it is. I decided upon myself to help her figure out the reason in my spare time.”
“And as my assistant for the night, she’s not exactly half bad. In fact, she was perfect for the job. I had her tidy up my workplace, sort out all my records, and I also let her brew me a cup of coffee. Oh Goddesses, you should taste her coffee. It’s a perfect blend of cream and sugar. I don’t know how she did it, but it tastes perfect! Am I saying ‘perfect’ a lot? Anyway, I let her use the computer too. And let me tell ya, she’s quite good at it! I love it when she suddenly turns invisible but the keyboard still kept on typing itself. Totally awesome. It was almost seven in the morning when we were done. Heck, it could’ve gotten longer if I hadn’t asked her for help.”
“So did you manage to hold your end of the bargain? Puce asked.”
“I wish, I just fell asleep afterwards. And when my alarm rang a few minutes later, I hastily prepared myself for the day and hurried straight to work. I had completely forgotten about the promise, until now. Also, I’m having a strange feeling that she might pop out anytime soon.”
“Nighter!”
All three ponies stood in attention upon hearing that voice. It was their boss’s, the pudgy stallion trotted angrily towards them.
“Hey boss.” He greeted, trying to hide the fear in his voice. He doesn’t know why he always got scared when he’s in the presence of his boss. Even when he did nothing wrong, the fear is always there.
“Just what in Celestia are you lot doing?” He asked, looking annoyed.
“Telling ghost stories.” Sharp Eye replied.
“You did what now?”
“Don’t mind him boss.” All Nighter said. “We’re just having a ten minute coffee break.”
“Well, break’s over.” Their boss ordered. “Nighter, did you print out those correspondences you sent to the S.A Branch? If so, bring it to me.”
“Yes boss!” All Nighter snappily complied. He laid down his mug on the table before running towards his cubicle. He searched for the file on the stacks of folders he properly arranged at the corner of his cubicle. But it wasn’t there. He was about open the folders one by one just to make sure when he realized something. He left it at home! He was in a hurry earlier that he forgot to bring the file when he went to work!
He trotted back towards the coffee machine, hoping that the boss would forgive him for his incompetence. As he got closer to the table, he could hear Puce and Sharp Eye arguing about the validity of his story.
“Ghosts in Equestria? Sure we have living goddesses, a literal demon, and the manifestation of chaos itself, but ghosts? I don’t think so.” Sharp Eye argued.
All Nighter was about to call his boss when out of nowhere a familiar display of magic emerged in front of him. Then came a popping sound that echoed around the entire workplace.
A small mare in a white dress, holding a red folder can be seen floating in the air amidst the burst of magic.
Silence filled the room, and Midnight sensed that everyone’s attention was focused on her, including All Nighter’s.
“Umm...” Midnight began, slightly embarrassed.
Before Midnight could finish what she was saying, everypony panicked and stampeded out of the room, using all means of exit such as the stairs, elevators, and fire exits. Some pegasi dove right out the window to avoid struggling with the rest of the panicking crowd.
While the horde of panicking ponies were busy running for their lives, Puce just stood there and smiled widely, knowing that she won an argument against Sharp Eye. She would have just stood there a little longer if it wasn’t for Sharp Eye dragging her hoof as they flew through the window.
It didn’t take long for the ponies to empty the workplace. The only ones that remained were All Nighter and Midnight.
“You forgot to bring this folder when you left the apartment earlier.” Midnight said while giving the red folder to All Nighter.
“Uh, thanks.” He replied. You know, you really scared me just now.
“Really?”
“No.”
“Oh come on!”
e rea̘ �_a