//------------------------------// // 16. Recruitment // Story: A Ghost of a Chance // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Zest knew how one of those ‘the end is neigh’ preachers felt. She had a sign to that effect near the edge of the shopping district. Sugarcoat had another stand on the other end while Indigo put up ads through the city and went actively looking for ghosts. After a few hours and a dozen or so ponies laughing at her, Zest finally found an interested pony in Wallflower Blush. Interestingly, the green-on-green ex-earth pony came from the west, meaning she passed Sugarcoat but decided to talk to Zest instead. Zest got the impression this pony was too nervous to go straight to the specter. Her demeanor could kindly be described as ‘shy’. Not once did her ears get to full mast. They struggled to rise out of contact with her head, even. She had awfully messy hair and kept her eyes perpetually downcast. She had an unfashionable sweater grafted onto her. It looked itchy. Zest felt sorry for her based on that alone. Being stuck forever in an itchy sweater had to be a fate worse than death. Yet, it was like Wallflower Blush was trying to top it, pelting Zest with ever more pathetic beats of her life story. “I think I was killed by like, a potato or something?” Wallflower tapped her hooves together. “Uh.” Zest kept one hoof on her headphones, unsure of how to react to this increasingly sad story. Zest understood more about ghost etiquette now. If the subject of their death wasn’t sensitive to them, they’d tell you shortly after introducing themselves. It wasn’t at all weird to announce it like that. Not telling you left a bit of suspicion in the air. Either way, you did not ask another ghost how they died. Even the ones who were about to just blurt it out would get annoyed. “But I lived out in the woods so nopony even noticed I died for over a year,” Wallflower carried on. “My body was still there when I came back the following winter. I had to bury myself.” Zest could only frown and slowly tilt her head to one side. She’d exhausted her supply of ‘that sounds terrible’s for the day. “Hold on. Somepony killed you with a potato?” Zest zeroed in on the one thing she could. At least, she didn’t think it was a faux pas to ask for clarification. “They must have thrown it pretty hard.” “No.” Wallflower rubbed the back of her head. “It was my fault. I think. Anyway, my life didn’t change very much after I died. I never talked to anypony before so it was like–” “You’re saying you choked on a potato?” Zest couldn’t help but interrupt again. “Those tend to be pretty mushy.” “No. Like potatoes start emitting deadly solanine gas if they’re stored wrong. I just walked into my cellar and dropped dead. I can’t think of anything else it could have been. The potatoes looked like they went bad.” “Ouch.” Zest had no idea potatoes could be so deadly. “I came to the city but somehow I feel even more alone than before,” Wallflower said. “I wish I could go back into the woods and hide but it’s not safe anymore.” “So like.” Zest’s head reached the furthest it could tilt. “Did you want to join the Shadowbolts or what?” For a brief second her ears perked up until they were nearly level, but fell back down again. “Yeah. I guess it’s gotta be better than here. Though I understand if you think I suck too much to join.” “I don’t even know if there is a bar.” Zest considered the question for the first time. Sugarcoat just told her to bring back any ghost that wasn’t a psychopath. “You’re grafted, the rest of us are grafted so maybe that’s enough. What kind of ghost are you anyway?” “I’m a schwarzgeist. We’re the only type of ghost that can possess living ponies. I guess that’s my ‘thing’.” “Oh!” Zest smacked one hoof on top of the other. That was on the short list of ghosts Zest recognized even before dying. “I know that type! You guys show up in movies all the time! Like that one where the schwarzgeist possesses that narcolept and goes on a killing spree. Or in Goregeist where the geist makes sleeping ponies decapitate themselves in a killing spree. Oh! Or the one that’s literally called Killing Spree.” “Yeah.” Wallflower put her forehooves together and inhaled. “Like in those movies.” “You know, you don’t even notice ghosts are always the bad guy in movies until you become one.” Zest laughed, turning up a hoof. “That sounds like an incredibly useful power, though! It’s overpowered enough for you to be the villain of a hundred horror movies!” “If you think about it, it’s not like– I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any practical–” “Oh! Can you do the thing where you make their head spin around?” “Yes? But I can’t even imagine a single situation where I’d ever–” “And you can make them puke?” “Maybe if I stuck something down their throats? I don’t normally need to make predeads vomit, though.” “The possibilities are endless!” “Not- not really? I mean. I can also possess animals but that’s also a little–” “Okay! That settles it!” Zest grabbed the sleeve of her sweater. “You’re in! If Sugarcoat says so, I mean.” Zest began shoving her in the right direction. Wallflower pulled her aura in close. She didn’t budge an inch as Zest pushed her down a block to where Sugarcoat waited. Wallflower somehow found it in herself to shrink away even more the moment Sugarcoat began to size her up. “Sugarcoat look! I got one!” Zest held Wallflower up for Sugarcoat to see. Ghosts were nearly weightless to fellow ghosts, so she was able to give her a little shake even. “Go on, tell her you want to be a Shadowbolt.” “Uh!” Wallflower looked at Sugarcoat. Her mouth was open but nothing was coming out. Sugarcoat looked at her, blinked, then flicked her eyes to Zest. “She was working just a minute ago!” Zest waved her hooves. She flew out in front of Wallflower, desperate to turn her back on and save herself some embarrassment. “Are you scared of big ghosts like specters?” “I just normally need time to prepare before talking to a new pony,” Wallflower said through her teeth. “Especially if it’s a specter.” Wallflower winced and inhaled slowly. “Okay!” Wallflower exhaled and straightened up. “I’m–” “Hold everything!” Indigo appeared out of nowhere. She was a phantom so that happened sometimes. The only question was how long Indigo had been nearby. “Check out who I found!” Indigo pointed to the side with both hooves. A black blur fell to the exact spot and from it rose an unfamiliar ghost. What struck Zest first was that this ghost had a comically strong shadow that kept its shape on the floor. Ghosts didn’t normally have shadows, let alone at night. Yet below this ghost was the exact outline of a pony on the ground without any light source to create or distort its shape. This was the most heavily grafted ghost Zest had ever seen. Not only did she have glasses and tiny skull charms keeping her pigtails in place, but she had an entire black cloak and a set of boots on! Zest herself could feel it when somepony touched her headphones, so maybe she could still feel things through the boots? Beneath the costume was another green pony, though her fur was much more yellow and her hair a shade bluer than Wallflower’s had been. She quickly spread one wing, revealing herself to be a pegasus, and commanding the shadows pooled around her to rise. They rose up in streams, spiraling around her in a display reminiscent of a water fountain. The blackness pooled overhead, then fell to the ground in a spray of droplets. The mist landed just before zest, forming a black pool. Then it began to rise again, taking on a much more solid shape this time. Zest quickly realized, thanks to the headphones, that it had become a silhouette of herself. It didn’t stop there either. The shape sharpened, then took on color so that Zest looked upon an copy of herself just a meter away. Zest blinked and pulled her head back. Her doppelganger did the same in imitation. Zest moved closer, now seeing it more like a reflection that continued to copy her every move. She moved to touch hooves with it to discover this thing didn’t work exactly like a mirror. The shadow image reached out its right hoof rather than the hoof on Zest’s right so that they wouldn’t meet. Just as she noticed this detail, the reflection broke the act entirely. It stuck its tongue out at Zest and melted back into shadows that pooled underneath the cloaked ghost once more. “Oh, wow!” Zest’s eyes glittered at the newcomer. “That was really cool! Who is she?” “It’s Juniper Montage!” Indigo announced. Juniper took a small bow. Meanwhile, Wallflower began to shrink into the background. “Wait who?” Zest asked. “Juniper Montage?” “Er.” Zest tapped her headphones a few times. “Who?” “Argh!” Juniper put a hoof on her forehead and tilted her head back far enough for her hood to fall off. “I’m not even ghost famous anymore?!” “She’s one of the few ghosts who makes movies,” said Sugarcoat. “I was a much bigger actor before I got shoved into the tiniest niche market on the planet!” Juniper flared her wings out, sending the cloak billowing behind her as she struck a pose. “I played Daring Do in the original Daring Do movie? Neither of you heard of that?” “I never cared much for moving pictures,” said Sugarcoat. “They distract the younger generation away from reading.” Juniper puffed her cheek out and looked at Zest, whose headphones dated her as recently deceased. “Wasn’t that a silent film?” Zest could barely picture a scene or two from that in her mind. Wallflower slowly raised a hoof but not nearly fast enough. “Great! Too old and too young.” Juniper put her hood back on. “I’ll have you know that was the highest grossing silent film of all time. And I was going to be in the first full-length talkie, you know. Then that stupid, stupid bozo mixed up the real gun and the prop gun, and out went my brains! Death ruined my life.” “And her unfinished business was that movie never being completed,” Indigo explained. “So the two of us snuck into that film vault and burned all the negatives of the footage. Now nopony can ever finish it! It was awesome.” Juniper gave a curt nod. “Me, her, and Ziggy must have done eight or nine stealth missions together.” Indigo nudged her with an elbow. “Cause we were all types of shadows.” “Well, they would be stealth missions for the first few minutes.” Juniper rolled her eyes. “We saved that rabbit without getting spotted!” “A bit melodramatic to call that one a mission.” Zest turned from Indigo to Juniper as they spoke in turn, her curiosity growing steadily. “So wait.” Zest crisscrossed her hooves pointing to both of them at once. “You two know each other?” “Yeah, sure!” Indigo put a foreleg over Juniper’s withers. “I’ve been all over the place. Thought they already got all of my old friends but I guess Juniper got here in time. And now we got a fourth member of the Shadowbolts!” “Whoa.” Juniper pushed Indigo away. “I wanted to see your fraid. I never said I’d join.” “Oh, come on. You’re seriously gonna stand in the middle of the bullseye?” “I went from millions of ponies to watching my movies to thousands and now I’m lucky if I break a hundred after that little war.” Juniper huffed. “I’m not looking forward to downgrading to an audience of what? Three?” “Four,” Wallflower squeaked. “No matter where you live you ain’t gonna be a star again until all this business is settled,” Indigo argued. “But if you come with me, we can have some cool adventures again.” “You may get more appreciation coming with us,” said Sugarcoat. “If that’s what you’re after, your abilities could be useful to us.” This argument carried more weight than getting out of the line of fire did. Juniper took a moment to consider it. “I’ll think about it.” Juniper looked off to one side. Zest had a good idea where she was looking. When a ghost from Crater Cemetery was anywhere near Zest, she could tell what direction they were in. Juniper was looking towards them, not too far off. “Look, I gotta go for now. We’ll meet up later.” Juniper sank back into the ground. Zest had trouble telling which way she went. “I’ll convince her to come with us.” Indigo crossed her forelegs. “Just give me a couple of weeks. Still counts as the first to find a new pony.” “Not quite!” Zest found Wallflower, who’d backed away several meters, and pulled her over to Indigo. “Look what I got!” Wallflower tensed up again as Indigo moved forward to inspect her. She poked an unflinching Wallflower a few times before turning to Sugarcoat. “Are we letting her in?” Indigo asked Sugarcoat. “Do we have any kinda standard for newcomers?” “Do you have anypony in the city who will vouch for your character, Wallflower?” Sugarcoat asked. “I.” Wallflower slowly lowered her hoof. “I don’t have a lot of friends.” “Very well. Move into the hotel room across from ours and put yourself under my command for the rest of the month,” said Sugarcoat. “If you can conduct yourself with any decency for that period, then it will be enough for me.” “I can probably do that.” Wallflower nodded. “You know, this is going pretty well.” Zest nodded. “I kinda assumed we wouldn’t get any new members without going through some dangerous adventure. But I guess I was wrong.” As the sun banished another night of wasted opportunity, Sour Sweet returned to her apartment to rest. It’d been four days since she requested Nailbat’s assistance. From what she heard, he was difficult to get a hold of. She really shouldn’t be this impatient, but it felt like her opportunity was slipping away with each passing day she couldn’t provide the information requested of her. This should have been so easy and yet… Maybe she’d write a few more letters just in case. As Sour Sweet reached up to unlock her door, she paused at an unsettling realization. The door was unlocked! Sour Sweet never left the door unlocked. Something was wrong here. Keeping her breath shallow, Sour Sweet placed her hoof on the nob and turned slowly, certain to make as little noise as possible. With her horn ready, she peeked inside. Nothing in the first room. Sour Sweet crept further inside. Her apartment was always dark. Needing to sleep in the day made blackout curtains a good investment. Thick curtains all around meant nopony could see inside, either. Sour Sweet carefully swept the room with her eyes and ears both as she moved in deeper. She opened the door to her study and jumped back. Somepony was in there! Holding her breath and keeping her head lowered she again peeked into the room. The intruder wasn’t moving. Instead, he was sitting in her office chair. Sleeping rather, with his chin on her writing desk. He was much younger than Sour had expected. Some colt had snuck into her house? He couldn’t have been much more than a teenager. Sour Sweet would certainly struggle to call him a stallion. He was very green at any rate. Green fur, a mane of green with a third shade of green forming two stripes down the front. What’s more, he looked like he’d come off the streets. He wore a ragged green hoodie, bundled tight. Heavy chains snaked around his right foreleg and dripped down into a pile on the floor. Anypony with a nose or eyes could tell he hadn’t bathed in a while Sour Sweet briefly considered taking pity on what might have been some pauper looking for a place off the streets to sleep. Yet that much seemed unlikely. Manehattan had very little poverty so it struck her as odd to see even that much. It wasn’t even winter. Before Sour Sweet could get too close, he opened his eyes and lazily drifted them in her direction. The way he looked at her, so casually and without any concern at all. Either he was completely insane or had been through far more tense situations than anypony his age should. “I’m going to give you a chance to explain why you’re here,” said Sour Sweet. “Make any sudden movements and I’ll attack.” “Didn’t you ask for my help?” He rubbed his eyes. “And no offense, but I don’t think you can take me.” As he straightened up, Sour Sweet noticed a detail she’d missed at first. He had an SA pin attached to his hoodie. A red phoenix in a gold circle with an S on top of it. Wearing that without being rank S was illegal, not that it would stop a pony willing to break into her house. There was one thing he couldn’t fake, though. Nailbat possessed a trademark weapon, his own namesake, a baseball bat cursed by The Darklord himself. Sour Sweet followed the chain down to the ground and across the floor. There, at the end of it, she found the legendary weapon, a bat now covered in nails. From what she understood, it could be easily swung at near the speed of light. Attempting to do so would tear the head or leg off any pony who tried to use it, the resulting shockwave and fireball killing them soon after. Nailbat alone had found means of wielding it with relative safety. She doubted some foal had the resources to get a solid gold badge and a replica of the weapon that so perfectly matched the real one. “Wait! You’re Nailbat?” Sour Sweet looked him over from hoof to mane once more, still struggling to believe it. “I heard you were young, but–” How old was he again? 19? He looked young for even that age. And yet he outranked the fifty-year-old colonel! Being rank S gave him arguably more power than even a top general. That’s what you got in a system that propelled the strongest to the top with little regard for anything else. Nopony could deny that Nailbat was strong. He had been the one to stop the tarrasque when the behemoth came to Canterlot, blowing it clean off the mountain with that very bat. He must have been only sixteen back then. “Does this help?” He pulled the hood over his head. A glamor spell made most of his face disappear, all of it but his eyes which turned red and began to glow dimly. Now he looked as he did in all the photographs Sour Sweet had seen of him. Sour Sweet nodded, no longer doubting his identity. “This was faster than I was expecting,” Sour Sweet admitted. “I wasn’t expecting you to illegally break into my house, either.” “I just happened to be in the area,” he said. “And no one else was expecting me to break into your house by the looks of things.” Sour Sweet’s ears swiveled about the room on the implications of that. “Would they?” She asked. “I mean, the only one breaking the law here is you.” “I left the door unlocked. I thought that would be enough for you to figure it out. If you still haven’t pieced it together there’s a bit of a situation. I might be able to help you out with your thing, but I need to decide if you’re at all useful first.” Nailbat motioned for her to take a seat. In her own house. Sour Sweet stood in place with her jaw shut tight. She turned her eyes to the couch, then sternly back to Nailbat. Technically, Nailbat wasn’t in the military and Sour Sweet wasn’t on duty. Unlike with the colonel, she could be as frank as she wanted. But to have somepony so important this close… she held her tongue for now. “What do you mean a situation?” Sour Sweet asked. “Are you going to give me the information I requested or not?” “The question is more so how am I going to give it to you.” Nailbat leaned against the arm of the office chair. He began tapping the desk with one hoof. “For that, I need to understand your situation better. Please tell me everything that happened in as much detail as possible.” Sour Sweet paused for a moment. She’d heard Nailbat was a schemer. She’d also heard he was some prodigious genius. Maybe the former wasn’t so bad so long as he was on the same side as you. She went into her explanation. Nailbat began clicking a pen as he listened. He constantly interrupted her story, asking her for all sorts of seemingly useless details. Part of Sour Sweet wondered if he was just asking them to stroke his own ego. The questioning went on until the sun had risen into proper daylight. What should have taken five minutes lasted over an hour. “If you were Crater Cemetery, how would you destroy Old Manehattan?” Nailbat seemed more preoccupied with the pen than with anything relevant. “They can’t attack the city directly and don’t want Equestria to declare war on them. So…” The question came out of nowhere. He’d been asking her plenty about small details but this was in a completely different vein. Sour Sweet couldn’t shake the feeling that this was some manner of test. He waited for a long time, clicking the pen, not elaborating but giving Sour Sweet plenty of time to consider it. She supposed the alliance with Equestria was the main barrier here, as other ghosts wouldn’t need to fear the pollution. Though ‘alliance’ seemed an exaggeration on most days. It was far too fragile to be troubling in Sour Sweet’s opinion. And that was it, wasn’t it? The main security vulnerability. “They could try to weaken our alliance?” Sour Sweet guessed. “Ah, good enough.” Nailbat put the pen down at last. “Yes. Consider this. What if Crater Cemetery had Equestria destroy Old Manehattan for them? Things are already somewhat tense here. They have plenty of ghosts at their disposal.” Again his attention wandered without further elaboration. Thankfully, Sour Sweet was just quick enough to see where this might be going. “Hold on!” Sour Sweet shook her head. “Are you insinuating that they plan on having one of their ghosts… kill somepony or something? And blame in on Old Manehattan?” “Aria Blaze…” Nailbat closed his eyes deeply, as though trying to get back to sleep. “Is a banshee sent by Crater Cemetery. She’s in the city right now. She was nearly forced, by mind control, to freeze some filly to death yesterday. I forced her to turn around but she’s still in the city.” “If you witnessed an attempted murder–” “She’ll be dealt with. Carefully.” He stressed the last word. “I’d rather not kill somepony who’s a victim herself. It wouldn’t solve the real threat besides. They can just keep sending more assassins.” “Look, we’re not completely stupid! I’m confident we can at least tell the difference between two different cities. Especially if you know, specifically, who committed the murder.” “Unless,” Nailbat leaned forward, “there were traitors about.” Sour Sweet felt that same chill she had upon realizing her door was unlocked. “Who are you talking about? If what you’re saying is true then we need to arrest them immediately. Don’t you have the authority to detain them?” “Well I’m quite certain I already know one of them.” Nailbat jumped off the chair and walked over to the windows. He lifted one of the curtains just enough to peek outside. “But I don’t know all of them yet. I have reason to believe there are saboteurs on both sides of the wall. And merely arresting them won’t solve our real problem, will it? This festering distrust would remain. It would only be a matter of time until somepony else found use for it.” He didn’t need to make any attempt to convince Sour Sweet. Normally she was the one making those talking points. “I think, if we’re going to have any chance of stopping this enemy from advancing any closer, we’ll need to dial down the animosity between the two sides of the wall.” Nailbat pointed his chained hoof at her. “You can help with that.” Sour Sweet opened her mouth to jump at the opportunity. Finally, somepony in power wanted to help her with what she’d been trying to accomplish all along. She had no hesitation. Yet Nailbat stopped her from responding so quickly. “I’m only going to give you one warning here. This is a major chance for you to make a change in the world. However, if you help me you’ll be making an incredibly dangerous enemy. You might not die today, but your life will be in danger so long as Crater Cemetery stands. Your chance of living until the end is maybe less than fifty percent. I can’t protect you the whole time.” If Nailbat expected that to deter her in the slightest he was far off the mark. Sour Sweet understood how dangerous this ghost was. In her opinion, it threatened everypony regardless of whether they picked a fight or tried to hide. “I was to do my part to fight against Crater Cemetery because they’re dangerous.” Sour Sweet stood resolute. He made the tiniest little sound of acknowledgment. “I suppose the first order of business is the information you requested,” said Nailbat. “Obviously, I can’t openly share those with your ghost friends. I’d rather hand over the information in a way that postures you as an ally and discredits those working against our aim... the would-be saboteurs specifically. You explained that someone else was given the job of ‘looking into’ this. Maybe it would be convenient for us if they just happened to misplace the files?”