//------------------------------// // 25. Supernova // Story: A Ghost of a Chance // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Over twenty-four hours, Supernova Zap, or Su-Z as she was more typically called, had gone from being chased by a ghost to being chased by something far… far worse. The yellowish pegasus had never been this exhausted in her life. It was like every part of her body had broken down, not even one organ left to burn for fuel. Though her eyes remained wide open, almost bugging out, as she drifted aimlessly forward through the late autumn forest. This was the end, wasn’t it? The end… again. She brushed some of her purple and blue hair out of her eyes as her momentum pushed her on through the dark woods more than anything else. But the pitch-black woods no longer looked dark. Shadows had become light to her. And another, more sinister sense had emerged… the ability to smell heat. She could smell her pursuer getting closer and closer. The one who would kill her for real… her best friend K-lo. “You know I have to do this!” K-lo was already close enough for Su-Z to hear her voice! She was far off… but Su-Z couldn’t outrun her anymore. “I promised I wouldn’t let you become a monster! Stop being a coward and get back here!” Supernova Zap looked down at her trembling hooves. Hooves that were now slightly translucent. She had recently died a horrible death while fighting a fraid of ghosts. A death made all the more horrible in its lack of finality. She’d become the very thing she’d sworn to fight – a ghost! She had an itch in her brain whenever she got too close to something warm-blooded. The first night she thought it was no big deal. It was something she could easily ignore for as long as necessary. What would it be like in a week? In a month? Would it still be getting worse after a year? Part of her thought it would be best to simply let K-Lo fulfill the blood pact the two of them had made when they started working together. She knew it was selfish to allow herself to exist as such a dangerous monster, but she just couldn’t bring herself to die! Even those words encouraging Su-Z to simply turn herself in and let K-Lo do what needed to be done only spurned on a slight push forward again. It wouldn’t be enough! All she could do… her only chance was to hide underground! K-Lo was right behind her now, she could smell it! So Su-Z flung herself just beneath the surface, trying to let a thin layer of dirt act as her last shield against true death. Then a surge of magic. Su-Z’s body was thrown higher into the air until she looked down upon her attacker. Below her stood her ex-best friend. K-Lo, was a blue unicorn with a rather large, blue mane. She was much bulkier than the tiny Su-Z but that never intimidated the latter until now. K-Lo’s ghost-hunting staff, once brimming with light, now appeared submerged in total darkness and drained the color of the nearby trees. Where she’d once been so strong, Su-Z now found herself with the strength of a kitten. Becoming a ghost left you powerless for days, a ‘worm friend’ as the spooks called it. “Stop being a coward!” K-Lo pointed the staff at Su-Z next. “I’m doing this for your own good. Do you really want to be such a horrible monster?” “I’m scared!” Su-Z closed her eyes tight to keep the tears at bay. K-Lo hesitated, her ears falling flat. “I’ll make it quick.” K-Lo lifted the staff once more. Darkness began pooling at its tip. “I’m sorry it had to be this way. Believe me! I wish you had lived but… you’re already dead.” There was nothing Su-Z could do at this point! Even if she wanted to live… A peel of lightning struck the ground just before the beam fired, narrowly missing its chance to obliterate Su-Z. Su-Z gaped at what she thought an impossible stroke of luck, regaining focus when she realized that wasn’t the case. A new pony stood between the two of them, her body brimming with electricity. A second shot! The beam from the staff appeared to tear a hole through reality as it shot forward, leaving behind a stream of white void. Su-Z’s impromptu guardian concentrated the lightning around her, making it collide with the incoming attack. The lightning won out and the void was once again filled with darkness. Su-Z could get a better look at this green-haired, pink unicorn… wearing headphones for some reason. She was floating despite being a unicorn. Then it clicked. This was another ghost. “Hey!” The ghost turned back to her. “Name’s Lemon Zest. I felt your fear so I came to check on you. You’re a worm friend, right?” “I–” Su-Z managed a shudder. “Oh!” Zest shook her head. “A new ghost I mean. Like you just died?” She knew what that was! She wasn’t an amateur! “Get out of my way!” K-Lo summoned a pillar of purple flames beneath Zest this time. Zest literally bolted out of the way, a burst of electricity carrying her off until she collided with a tree, putting a sizable hole in it. “This has nothing to do with you!” K-Lo pointed the staff at her again. “I’m not letting either of you kill a single pony.” “I’m not killing anypony. I’m just trying to help my fellow spooks, here,” Zest promised, keeping her voice slow and calm. “I’ll take this one with me to a faraway place. She won’t hurt anypony if she has a fraid to help her. You’d rather come with me than get busted, yeah?” Zest turned her head back to look at Su-Z. “Uh!” Su-Z stumbled but found herself nodding with little hesitation. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be anywhere but here. “Yes!” “There! That’s reasonable, right?” Zest turned back to K-lo with a smile. K-Lo’s gaze didn’t soften. Su-Z slowly drifted behind the senior ghost to shelter herself from it. “No.” K-Lo pointed the staff at her friend, the black hole growing wider. “I promised my friend I wouldn’t let her become a monster. We vowed that if either one of us ever became a ghost or any other creature of darkness, we’d save the other.” Su-Z had made such a pact, it was true. It certainly seemed reasonable and virtuous at the time. It had been so easy to curse the darkness until now that she was forever trapped inside it. Now Supernova found herself torn. She looked towards Zest, towards life, then back to the death K-Lo promised her. The latter was likely the right choice and yet… “I don’t want to kill other ponies!” Supernova called to Zest. “You know, you really won’t have to kill anypony if you come with me. Do you really want to let her kill you even then?” Zest asked. “I don’t!” Su-Z shook her head, her instincts taking over from anything else. “Living like this is wrong!” K-Lo took a step forward, more pleading than aggressive. “You’re a danger to Equestria and innocent ponies everywhere. Are you going to turn your back on everything we fought for that easily?” Su-Z covered her head and sobbed. She didn’t want to do either! “If she wants to live, then I can teach her how to do that without being a threat to anypony.” Zest threw her forelegs out protectively over Su-Z. “It’s not for you to decide what she chooses.” Zest turned back to Su-Z again with a much softer look. “So?” Zest asked. Su-Z nodded. “I want to live!” She exclaimed. Zest gave a single nod and grabbed onto her. K-Lo fired on their position, but Zest pulled them off into the forest. It was a sharp, jerk that sent them off. Su-Z hadn’t even noticed the lightning carrying them off until they’d already landed by a splintering tree. Another flash and they were at an even more distant point. It seemed Zest had to crash into something to stop. Looking back, Su-Z noticed K-Lo refusing to give up the chase. She shouted and teleported after them. How far could they travel like this? Su-Z knew they were headed back to town, which seemed the opposite direction to go. But just as they neared. Su-Z saw where they were headed now. An electric pole? Was the lightning elemental going to do something with it? With another blast, they appeared just inches away from the transformer. K-Lo stood right behind them! The blackness of the staff absorbed all the light around the area, submerging K-Lo in darkness! Or, maybe that meant it was shining with light! Su-Z was about to alert Zest to the incoming attack, but K-Lo’s resolve faltered at the last moment. Su-Z saw tears in her eyes. The staff shook and the swirling darkness at its tip dimmed. Trembling, she lowered it a few degrees. The last thing Su-Z saw was K-Lo falling to her haunches and dropping the staff entirely. Then a flash of light sent them far, far away. With a flash, they appeared somewhere far away. Su-Z found herself surrounded by pine trees stretching far off in every direction. But she saw no power lines, just one of those electrical boxes. Had Zest taken her to the middle of nowhere? And how? Through… the wires? Could they really do that?! Su-Z could feel something other than that black wind blowing toward the south now. Almost like something sheltering her from it. Looking in that direction… A building! A few of them even. There were only three or four but this much civilization was more than Su-Z ever expected to see again. No lights were on despite being the dead of night and she saw enough orbs floating about to know right away this place was haunted. “We buried a wire going way, way out there.” Zest pointed into the dark woods and traced a line up to the transformer box they’d materialized next to. “I can zip all over Equestria like that! I keep checking around for lost ghosts and stuff. You’re the fourth I managed to pick up like this.” “Where are we?” She asked. “I can’t tell you exactly where we are without the boss’s approval. But I’ll tell you this much!” Zest zipped out ahead far faster than Su-z could hope to move. “Welcome to Shadowbolt Academy. Home of the Shadowbolts!” Academy? Hobbling just a bit further ahead, Su-Z recognized it as a school. “That’s us!” Zest jabbed a hoof at herself. “The Shadowbolts. Uh.” Zest realized that she was in a group of one and turned back to the school. A sudden burst of that invisible ‘wind’ came from the senior ghost. Seconds later, a pool of darkness opened on the ground, and from it emerged a pegasus ghost – a phantom if Su-Z identified her has. She had a pair of flight goggles on her forehead. “Whoa! You actually found one?” Goggles asked. “This is Indigo Zap.” Zest gestured to her new friend. “You might want to punch her so–” “Don’t!” Indigo grabbed Zest from behind, covering her mouth. “Listen to her.” “How many of you are there?” Su-Z asked. Zest squirmed out of Indigo’s grip. Indigo gave up and instead decided to start floating around Su-Z, scrutinizing everything about her. “With you, we’re up to fifteen!” Zest declared. “Sixteen if you count our liaison. We’ve got a pretty good operation going on over here these days! And uh. Oh, wait! I never even asked your name.” “Huh?” Su-Z tried to ignore the phantom. “It’s Supernova… Zap.” Supernova Zap and Indigo Zap locked eyes for a moment. Probably no relation. “Or Su-Z,” she continued. She looked at the main building, more and more sure that was the source of this feeling. Given what she knew about ghosts, that meant only one thing. “There’s… a specter here?” “Uh, huh! You’ll need her approval to stay but Sugarcoat is a lot nicer than she seems at first so no worries,” said Zest. “Wanna look around first?” Su-Z kept her eyes locked on the school, shuddering at the thought. She’d stood before four specters. Those were the worst ghosts of all… her mortal enemies. With her mortality a bit further away, she was thinking a bit more clearly now. She didn’t want to die. But was she really going to end up swearing her loyalty to such a despicable creature as that? Su-Z supposed she was a wretched monster not much better now… “I’m not sure about this.” Su-Z shook her head. “I… I don’t want to kill anypony.” Zest blinked at her. Su-Z… she was pretty sure she could feel the concern. Indigo looked a little peeved at the suggestion, though. “I’ve never killed anypony,” said Zest. “We mostly just kill turkeys. We set up an entire turkey farm over this way. Can you smell it? Follow us!” Zest beckoned and floated backward off away from the building, along with her fellow ghosts. As creepy as the school was, the thick pine forest surrounding it looked infinitely more dangerous! So Su-Z let out a sigh of relief when they reached the farm without leaving eyeshot of the buildings. She supposed she had little to fear from ghosts now… she was one. She could tell what they led her to used to be a sports field of some kind from the rusted bleachers overlooking it. The field had been fenced in with some shoddy wooden poles that wouldn’t hold anything determined to escape. Su-Z counted a great number of turkeys along with a small garden for them to feed off of. Her brain was split about which side of the farm was food. She knew, sadly, it wasn’t the plants any longer. Just the scent of those warm turkeys made her mouth water. She swallowed… something… and fought back the urge to rush in and freeze one of them. That horrible itch tormented her as her new instincts tried to get her to give in. Zest, presumably having surrendered to her new, twisted form long ago, tilted her head with innocent confusion. “Do you want one?” Zest asked. “I can feel how hungry you are.” “Civilized people don’t eat animals!” Su-Z whipped her lips dry. “You were worried about us killing people though,” said Zest. “I felt the same way you do, but this is the only way to keep yourself from hurting a pony. You get used to it way faster than you’d expect.” “She’s right,” Indigo agreed. “If you resist for too long, you’re going to go insane. That’s usually how ghosts end up killing predeads. You don’t have to do it right now, but if you’re trying to go vegan, we’re kicking you out.” Su-Z turned back to the turkeys. Zest was certainly correct that feeding off them would be more ethical than devouring actual ponies. Yet knowing it was the lesser of two evils was no balm to her heart. Committing this one act even once would be giving in to the darkness and cold, accepting her fate to become one of the vilest types of monsters. Was she willing to cross that line? Her ‘body’ certainly wanted her to. At least she’d be killing a turkey. Turkeys, while afraid of adults, did attack foals whenever the opening presented itself. They were the least honorable of all birds. “I’m not…” Su-Z kept her head down and shuddered. “I’m not ready… You said I could wait.” Zest turned to Indigo, who turned her hooves up. “I say we give her two days,” said Indigo. Two days to make up her mind… “Can I meet the specter in charge before deciding all of that?” Su-Z asked. “Of course! In fact, you have no choice!” Zest started floating backward towards the school itself. “But I got a lot to show you on the way. Outside of Old Manehattan, this is the biggest nexus of ghost culture and technology on the planet, you know!” “Technology?” Su-Z asked. “No offense but ghosts don’t have technology. You don’t have enough ponies for that. No ghost has ever invented something useful. Ghosts just can't innovate.” “Oh, we have advanced technology beyond what even most Equestrians got!” Zest flew backward, gesturing for Supernova to follow. Curious, Su-Z followed all the way up to the schoolhouse. Zest went straight into the building, not even bothering to go near a door. Su-Z still wasn’t used to going through solid objects. That Indigo pony smirked at her hesitation to just throw herself into a wall. Grumbling, she managed to get over the psychological barrier and float through. She was in… maybe some kind of music hall with steeped, stair-like platforms. And it really did look high-tech! Way more than anything she’d seen from a ghost compound before. A tangle of wires sprawled across the floor, connecting an assortment of devices. There seemed to be one large, central device acting as the nexus which everything else was plugged into. But that thing just looked like a huge black monolith with a row of blinking, green lights on one side. Maybe it was some kind of battery or power source? Su-Z could recognize some of the other things, though. They had four pinball machines and not the old-fashioned kind, either. These were the ones that took electricity, had buzzers and flashing lights, and an electronic score on the top. They looked so new, too! Normally ghosts only had stuff they salvaged from a dump. Normally, they lived in garbage! And that wasn’t it, either. They had a brand-new music cylinder player with big speakers not far away, complete with a whole stack of cylinders. And then… Su-Z didn’t recognize the rest too well. Were they really things she wouldn’t know about? But the one Zest drew her attention to was a little box with an opening door and a tray inside. Su-Z wasn’t sure what to make of it when Zest threw an old piece of bread inside and turned it on. The thing started up noisily. “Check this out, it’s called a microwave oven!” Zest stuck her hoof right through the little door. “It gets this old bread real hot real fast! But it tastes worse each time you heat it back up. Should be a bit of kick left in this one.” Su-Z sniffed. It was getting hot in there fast! With a ding the door opened and Zest held out a loaf of exceptionally warm bread. Though the scent of it was odd. Slightly… acidic? Su-Z couldn’t think of a better word to describe it. With a nod of encouragement, Su-Z sucked the heat out of it. She was so hungry that… it tasted great to her! Unfamiliar technology… electricity? She still couldn’t believe it. “Wait, wait. You have pinball machines, cylinder players, and electricity?” Su-Z looked up at the lights, remembering that ghosts would never use them even if they got them working. Ghosts usually did not have anything like that. She’d broken up plenty of their bases before. “I am electricity.” Zest spread her forelegs wide and let lightning ripple through her. Su-Z knew enough about ghosts to identify her as a lightning elemental. Those were rare. Rare enough that Su-Z had never seen one in person before. Seeing one gave you cred among ghosts busters. “But how, though?” Su-Z asked. “I’ve never seen ghosts with electricity before. Not outside one of those cities.” “Well my body can convert charcoal into electricity and then I can charge the battery.” Zest pointed to the monolith, confirming Su-Z’s suspicion. “But we also have a crank you can turn, though that takes forever. And Sunny Flare has this thing on the roof that turns sunlight into electricity… but that also takes forever to charge the battery. So it’s mostly me.” “Who’s Sunny Flare?” “She’s our mad scientist friend.” Zest stuck her head out the door. Without opening it that was. “Hey, Sunny! Get over here! You gotta meet the new ghost!” “Wait! A mad scientist?!” Su-Z flew back. She’d never heard of a mad scientist ghost before! There were so few of them to start with. And with a 1 in 10,000 chance of becoming a ghost when you died, it must have happened incredibly infrequently. “Ah, don’t worry. The Mad Science Institute isn’t as evil as all the rumors suggest,” said Zest. “At least, Sunny isn’t. Oh! And we have a robot, too!” “You what?!” What was this nexus of horrors?! “Robots are insanely dangerous! They feel nothing but hatred and–” “It’s a dead robot! Here!” Zest threw the door open, then zipped down the hall in a flash. Heavy footsteps came chugging down the hall shortly afterward. A pony-like robot made of the deepest black metal bounded down the hallway, its gnarled mouth bellowing green flames. “See?!” the robot… maybe Zest was possessing it? Its voice was incredibly deep! “Are you impressed?!” “Uh…” Su-Z had no idea what to make of it… ghosts shouldn’t have this kind of stuff… what was going on? More hoofsteps drew her curiosity. Another smaller robot? Su-Z turned to the door to find not a robot… but a normal unicorn walking inside. “You found another one so soon?” What may have been Sunny Flare asked. “What?! A real pony is living here too?!” Su-Z looked her over. But her nose was what noticed the oddest thing of all. “Wait! You’re freezing cold! Don’t tell me these spooks are – are farming you?! Bringing you to the brink of death over and over again to harvest your warmth?! Oh, what did I sign up for!” “Watch it!” Indigo suddenly snapped at her. Suddenly everypony was looking at her with dangerous look. Even the real pony looked just as offended as them. “Uh.” Su-Z tried backing up. “Psst!” Zest whispered in her ear. “Just so you know, we really don’t like it if you say ‘spook’ before you’ve been dead for a year or two. Also, try not to do any ghost puns. I made that mistake.” Great! The spooks were sensitive little snowflakes. “O-okay.” Su-Z’s eye twitched. She used the word ‘spook’ so often there was no way it wouldn’t accidentally come out. “But… I mean I am a ghost so–” “You don’t understand how offensive that word is to them,” it was the living pony out of all of them that spoke up. “What matters isn’t if you’re alive. It’s that you said it with derision.” “Heh!” Indigo folded her forelegs and floated to the real pony’s side, beaming with pride. “See? The predead knows what’s up!” “And another thing, you called me a ‘real pony’, implying that my friends aren’t.” Sunny shook her head. “I hope you don’t have a problem with ghosts. They aren’t monsters like the SA wants you to think. That’s just a convenient narrative for them.” Indigo nodded proudly as Sunny lectured her. “Hey. Were you with the SA?” Indigo raised an eyebrow. “We’re gonna figure it out…” “I, uh.” The jig was up! They would totally find out. Maybe it was best to get it over with before running into the specter. Specters were tough as ice and could force you to talk anyway. “Okay.” Su-Z whimpered and lowered her head. Might as well get it over with. “I um… yeah, I was a slayer. Specifically, I was a um… a ghost buster.” All of them, even the pred- normal, actual pony- recoiled at that. Even Zest, who seemed so friendly up until now backed away. “Don’t look at me like that! Ghosts are dangerous and you know it!” Su-Z decided she might as well stand her ground. “Ghosts kill ponies all the time! Hell, a ghost is what killed me in the first place!” “Did they attack you for no reason?” Indigo asked. “Ghosts who hunt down predeads are pretty rare. Especially these days. Most can’t deal with the consequences even if they want to.” “Well. Okay, me and my partner were trying to evict them.” Su-Z crossed her forelegs and huffed. "But the law was on our side!" “Were they doing anything bad?” Indigo asked. “They were too close to town!” Su-Z pointed deeper into the forest. “Ghosts aren’t allowed into townships and they can’t live within seven miles of one! I told them, with the legal authority of Equestria, the nation we’re in, that they had to leave those caves.” “It kinda sounds like you started the fight.” Indigo said. “Who attacked first?” It was Su-Z. Or her partner rather. “Well!” Su-Z held her breath, not wanting to admit as much. “They started it by breaking the law. I was just doing my job, okasy? I don’t see what the big deal is. One smelly cave is the same as another. They can just move. You all live in piles of filth no matter where you go so who the hell cares? Ghosts are just unreasonable and overreact to everything!” Indigo bristled, Su-Z ready to call her out if she started yelling. But it was Sunny who stepped in to save Indigo from proving Su-Z right. “It’s not that simple,” Sunny explained. “You don’t understand the situation. Right now, it’s nearly impossible for ghosts to uproot from the place they’re living and go searching for a new home.” “Why not?!” “Because Crater Cemetery is hunting the ghosts down,” said Sunny. “That cave was likely a great hiding spot for them and you flushed them out, forcing them into the open where they could easily be enslaved and put under mind control. Looking for another home would take months of being exposed and be an enormous risk.” “But... they were living too close to town! They can’t be within seven miles or–” “It’s actually three that’s the safe distance,” said Sunny, getting showed with ever more approving nods from that phantom. “It used to be that, but Equestrian politicians kept expanding the distance just to make it look like they were ‘tough’ on ghosts.” They were maybe four miles out, meaning… “Well.” Su-Z held her breath, trying to think of another defense. “Look, I don’t make the law! I just enforce it! If you don’t like it then blame the ponies who make the laws, not me!” Su-Z turned her head quickly, blushing with humiliating defeat. Indigo laughed and laughed. “Holy fuck! There’s just something so satisfying about a predead who gets it.” Indigo flew in front of Sunny, thrusting her hoof upwards. “You know, Sunny Flare. I gotta admit I didn’t like you at first but…” Indigo froze. Zest was back out of the robot, giving her the smuggest grin. Indigo shrank and floated down through the floor. “Okay, but how are you doing that?” Su-Z asked Sunny, desperate to get off the subject. “The whole not freezing to death thing. Your body must be forty degrees.” She could tell these ponies were North Equestrians from the slight disconnect of that statement. Though it didn’t narrow down much where Su-Z was. “The Mad Science Institute modified my body to withstand extreme cold,” said Sunny Flare. So she really was with MSI! This place just got eviler and eviler… “Well I’ll admit this is more impressive than most ghost dwellings I’ve seen,” said Su-Z. “At least you spooks aren’t living in some cave.” Zest rapped her on the nose. “No! No saying ‘spook’ until you get it.” Zest puffed her cheeks out, offended. “Okay… you s-words.” Su-Z grumbled and rubbed her muzzle. “Good!” Zest bounced back to her cheery self. “And you still don’t know how not a smelly cave this is yet. Because we’re also a center for art and culture, you see!” “Oh, wow. Ghost Culture.” Su-Z couldn’t feign enthusiasm for that if her life depended on it. Ghosts had no culture. Just a twisted mockery of whatever they carried on from life. “Hey, hey! Don’t be like that! We have our own film industry and everything! I’m sure that art can enrich your heart and change your mind. Wanna see the movie studio?” “What?” Su-Z straightened up at the mention. She’d heard of ghost films. Held on, even. But somehow that ghosts would need a movie studio to make that happen never crossed her mind. It wasn’t easy to imagine such monsters creating art. “Yeah! Come on! I’ll show you!” Zest rushed deeper into the school But she did and found herself in a gymnasium. They had some surprisingly impressive film equipment! Like, actual movie cameras and rolls of film. The props weren’t ‘good’ as they mostly only had discarded cardboard boxes to make the backgrounds out of. But they were technically in a high school and it matched that aesthetic. There was a badly grafted ghost in the corner developing some film. Su-Z wanted to wonder why she wasn’t doing that in a darkroom before remembering that every room was a dark room for them. She looked a little annoyed when Zest beckoned over to her. “Who’s this worm?” The green pony eyed Su-Z skeptically. “New Recruit,” said Indigo. “Supernova. She was a buster.” And just like that this new pony was lost to her! “Are you impressed the Shadowbolts have their own film industry?” Zest flew behind Juniper and put her hooves on her withers. “Juniper here is–” “Wait.” Su-Z floated forward, eyes widening at that name. “Juniper? Are you that Juniper Montage? The one who makes all those ghost movies? Like The Skull in the Woods?” Juniper blinked and all her apprehension faded into surprise, forgiving all possible transgressions. “You actually heard of me? You saw my films?” She floated forward, pointing to herself. “Yeah! Well no, not myself. But I’ve held them.” Su-Z gestured to the film reel still in her camera. “You’re a fan of the film reels themselves?” “No, no! Sometimes the ghosts we evict would have one of your movies on them see. And we’d–” “Beat them up and loot all their things?” Indigo asked. “Yeah, it’s gonna sound bad when you put it that way! But it was legal, you know? And the important part was that there’s a couple of ponies in Canterlot who collect them and they pay big time for ones they don’t have a copy of. One of them I found sold at auction for four hundred thousand bits.” “What?” Juniper could only watch her wide-eyed and expressionless. “Of course that got split five ways and after all the fees and stuff.” Su-Z shrugged. “And where could we find these collectors?” Zest floated slowly to Juniper’s side. “Better not.” Indigo shoved her aside. “If you don’t mind me asking,” said Su-Z. “Why are you even making films if you didn’t know pred- normal ponies would ever see? It’s not like there’s anypony to watch them.” “Basically, we’re all going to die. I still got this list of twenty movies I want to make before then, though. So I’m just going to try and get as far as possible by then,” said Juniper. “You want to be in one of them?” “Be in your movie?” Su-Z asked. “So what? You already forgave me for being your mortal enemy my entire life up to this point?” Were ghosts really that forgiving? “I like the way you look,” said Juniper. “Besides, I give you two days.” “Two days until what?!” Su-Z was getting tired of this teasing. Su-Z felt a stir in the aura! The orbs that floated about them all blew off course as though a wind had blasted through the room! Su-Z ducked halfway underground, but none of the other ghosts seemed to care. That could only mean one thing. The specter was on the move! She was getting closer! “I think Sugarcoat noticed us,” said Zest. “Oh! The boss is named Sugarcoat! Don’t be scared of her, okay? She’s actually a big softy.” As if Su-Z could just not be scared! The last time Su-Z bumped into a specter, it was a massacre! Three ponies on her team got frozen to death. K-Lo was in the hospital for a week and Su-Z just barely escaped death! But like it or not, Su-Z was playing for the other team now… “You ponies are taking awfully long,” said the specter. “You’re supposed to bring new ghosts straight to me.” “Sorry,” said Zest. “You.” The Sugarcoat’s uncaring eyes fell upon Su-Z. “Above ground.” Su-Z didn’t have much choice. She reluctantly rose for the specter to critically examine. Her life was this pony’s to throw away. “Name. And how did you die?” Sugarcoat asked. “I um…” “Supernova,” Indigo answered for her. “She was trying to ‘evict’ some ghosts and they killed her trying to defend their home from her.” “Hey, should I try to find these evicted ghosts?” Zest suggested. Su-Z panicked at the idea! No way she could live with the ponies she’d just fought to the death. “Later… as for you, Supernova. You’re far from the first of your kind I’ve encountered,” said Sugarcoat. “I am?” “About that, boss?” Zest rested her chin on the specter’s withers. “What is the standard operating procedure for ghosts who hate ghosts? This seems like it could be a problem.” “Nah, the rubber band effect will hit in a few days,” said Indigo. “Then she’ll be on our side.” “The what?” Zest asked. “You think this is the first pony who hated ghosts and then became one?” Indigo asked. “Nah! And they all cope with becoming the very thing they hate in the exact same way. They flip from being racist against ghosts to being racist against predeads.” “And like a rubber band,” said Sugarcoat, “the more they hated ghosts beforehand, the more they hate predeads afterward. The most extreme anti-life ghosts all used to hate ghosts before turning. She’ll actually become over-zealous in her loyalty to me in… perhaps two days.” “Oh, so it’s like shooting a rubber band!” Zest nodded. “I get it.” “I’m not going to just start hating the living out of nowhere!” Su-Z declared. “Not in two freaking days!” “I’m pretty sure you are,” said Indigo. “I’ve seen this a hundred times,” said Sugarcoat. “Nopony has ever escaped the rubber band effect. Just accept that you hate predeads now so I can start convincing you to let it go.” “Yeah, you better not be mean to Sunny Flare once you become racist against her!” Indigo flicked Su-Z’s ear. “You ain’t on my friend list yet, and I don’t put up with anypony messing with my friends.” “Why would I be mean to the only pony here who isn’t a monster?!” Su-Z looked at each of the ghosts in horror. “Cause of the rubber band effect, worm.” Indigo jabbed her hoof on Su-Z’s chest. “Pay attention.” Su-Z puffed her cheeks out. “Will you swear your loyalty to me now?” Sugarcoat asked. “Or do I have to wait two days?” “It will not take me two days to change my mind on this! And I’m not bowing down to a specter! Not ever!” “I’ll ask you to stay here for a few days until you change your mind.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “In fact, you’re not allowed to leave until then. If it doesn’t happen, you’re free to go. But I don’t want you doing anything stupid during your… transition.” “You people are acting like I’m a robot! Geez! I guess I have no choice but to stay here for the next few days. Just don’t expect me to start simping for you out of nowhere!” Two days later. Supernova was simping hard for Sugarcoat. She’d sworn her loyalty to the specter early that day and was now following her around, enthusiastically tripping over herself to follow Sugarcoat’s commands. “Yes, ma’am!” Su-Z enthusiastically saluted her new boss. “Is there anything else you need, ma’am?” “Zest is going to be meeting up with Sour Sweet today. So I’ll–” “Guh! Why do we talk to so many filthy predeads?!” Supernova growled. “They’re all a bunch of violent maniacs who just want excuses to kill ghosts! They can’t understand that not everyone who isn’t exactly like them is evil! I don’t care if Sour Sweet says she’s a ghost advocate! The injustice of their–” Sugarcoat patted her on the head and floated off, silencing Supernova just like that. Zest blinked a few times, staring off into the distance. “Huh. Rubber band effect.”