So the Cutie Mark Crusaders ventured back to where they had assaulted the ponies thought to be ghosts. On the way to the museum, they had a little conversation.
"How do we know those ponies weren't faking it?" asked Scootaloo.
"That's exactly what I'm thinking!" responded Applebloom.
"I don't know, girls. They seemed pretty angry when we hit them with the vacuum," said Sweetie Belle.
"Of course they were angry; they didn't want us to suck them up!" Said Scootaloo.
"But we tried to suck up the first one, and it didn't work!"
"Maybe these ghosts are immune to vacuums?"
"If that's the reason, how do you expect us to capture them?"
"They're obviously not immune to being hit by vacuums, so we'll just knock them out and drag them to our clubhouse."
"And if they're not ghosts?"
"Uh-"
"We've foalnapped somepony! That's what happens if they're not a ghost!" (Foalnap verb. "To steal, carry off, or abduct by force or fraud, especially for use as a hostage or to extract ransom." Just in case you didn't make the connection when you first read it.)
"Look, girls! It's the Ponyville Hospital! That means we're getting close!" said Applebloom.
The two arguing fillies looked up and saw the hospital. It wouldn't be too long before they got to the museum, where they would either apologize to the ponies or beat them senseless. This was a hard decision. Well, for Sweetie Belle, at least. Applebloom and Scootaloo really wanted to capture ghosts. Sweetie Belle was the one with the vacuum, so she thought that she would be able to prevent brutal beatings by refusing to give the vacuum to her friends.
"Look girls, it's the Ponyville Hospital! That means we're getting- wait a minute..." Applebloom looked back to where they had come from. "Didn't we already pass the hospital?"
"Yeah," said Scootaloo. "But look at this one! It's all black and smokey. I don't think hospitals are allowed to be black and smokey."
"What do you know about hospitals?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"If I know one thing, it's that they're not allowed to be black and smokey."
"Isn't this supposed to be where the museum is?" asked Applebloom.
"Are you two getting a kind of déjà vu feeling?" asked Scootaloo.
"What does déjà vu mean?" asked Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo stared at Sweetie Belle. "....I don't know."
"So," started Applebloom, "a burnt hospital being where a museum which used to be where a burnt hospital used to be, used to be?"
"Uh, what?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I have no idea. But do you know what this means?"
"This isn't a museum anymore?" asked Scootaloo.
"No- well, yes. But it also means that this is the haunted hospital!"
"But it's still light outside," said Scootaloo. "How are we gonna hunt ghosts?"
"Nopony said ghosts don't come out when it's light outside," said Sweetie Belle.
"But the last two hunts we had were at night, so I just assumed that it had to be night."
"We could have easily done the last two during the day," said Applebloom.
"Wouldn't it have been a lot easier and a lot less scary if we did them when it was light out?"
"Well... You have a very good point there. When we're in school tomorrow, you can use my 'amber waves of grain' crayon; you've earned it!"
"Yes!" celebrated Scootaloo. "I love that color!"
"Let's go hunt the ghosts!" The three friends entered the abandoned hospital.
The halls were lit up by natural light, which shone through windows that were in each one of the rooms. More light was coming from the West-side rooms (not a spin-off of West Side Story) since it was in the evening. Everything seemed so peaceful, until Sweetie Belle saw a burnt pony in one of the rooms.
"What the heck was that!?"
"What? What did you see?" asked Applebloom.
"I could have sworn there was a burnt pony right there!" Sweetie Belle pointed inside of a room to her right.
"There's nothing there, Sweetie Belle."
"Was it burnt and crispy?" asked Scotaloo.
"I guess it looked crispy," said Sweetie Belle.
"On a scale from one to crispy-"
"Quit it, Scootaloo! You're just wasting time!" said Applebloom. "We've gotta get to the bottom of this 'burnt crispy' before it gets too dark outside."
"Burnt crispy?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"It's easier than 'pony that is burned all over its body.' "
"We could just call it 'burnt pony.' "
"Well I've already got 'burnt crispy' stuck in my head!"
The three fillies began their search for "Burnt Crispy," the illusive pony whose body is burnt all over. It wasn't before long until they started "seeing things" out of the corners of their eyes, which is physically impossible since their eyes are literally perfectly round; unless, of course, they slightly lower their eyelids, or do anything with their eyelids for that matter.
"What the hay was that!?"
"What?"
"I saw Burnt Crispy right there!"
"I didn't see anything there."
"Neither did I."
"Well I did! I could have sworn Burnt Crispy was right there, on top of that table! I think he might have been dancing!"
"Who ever said Burnt Crispy was a he?"
"Nopony; I just assumed that only a guy would be stalking us."
"The gender of the pony stalking us doesn't matter when we're dealing with ghosts!"
I decided that it was irrelevant to specify who was speaking just then. If you really need to know who was speaking, you're just gonna have to imagine it yourself. Or you can just refer to this guide if you're lazy: Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle. Happy?
"Sweetie Belle, give me that vacuum!" said Applebloom
"Why?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I see Burnt Crispy right there!" Applebloom pointed down the hall. "You can see his leg right there; he's right around the corner!"
Sweetie Belle gave Applebloom the vacuum. Applebloom had never been so intent on beating a pony with the vacuum as much as she was now. Applebloom began charging forward, screamed something that sounded like gibberish, and rounded the corner to see Burnt Crispy right in front of her.
"Aaaahhhhhh!!!!" screamed Applebloom as she hit Burnt Crispy with the vacuum. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo came around the corner just in time to see Burnt Crispy crumble into a pile of ash.
"Oh no! I killed him!" said Applebloom. "I killed Burnt Crispy!"
"Should we have a moment of silence?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Well, he was already dead," said Scootaloo. "He's already had his moment of silence.
"You kind of have a point there."
"Wait, this isn't a total loss, girls!" said Applebloom. "Watch." Applebloom turned on the vacuum and sucked up Burnt Crispy's ash.
"Applebloom, you are a genius!" said Sweetie Belle. "We've gotta take that back to Ponyville to show everypony!"
"Yeah!" agreed Scootaloo.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders left the hospital after having a moment of silence for Burnt Crispy anyway. Once the trio finally got to Ponyville, they realized that it had gotten pretty late and everypony was inside of their homes.
"Maybe tomorrow." said Applebloom.
"Yeah, and it's Nightmare Night tomorrow!" said Scootaloo. "It would be perfect to reveal Burnt Crispy's ashes then!"
"Well, until then, I think I should keep the vacuum for now." said Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah, here." Applebloom gave the vacuum to Sweetie Belle.
The three friends went their separate ways, back to their respective houses. Sweetie Belle decided that she would show their findings to Rarity. Once she got inside of Carousel Boutique, she was happy to find that Rarity was still awake.
"Hey, Rarity! Come here, I need to show you something awesome!"
"Awesome, you say?" asked Rarity as she walked over to Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah! Check this out, sis!" Sweetie Belle began trying to open up the vacuum. After some pulling and unnecessary force, the vacuum opened up and the ash dumped out all over some of Rarity's finest fabrics.
"Oh, what the- NNNOOOOOOO!!!!"
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Author's Notes
After the longest time, this chapter has finally been finished. I hope you all enjoyed it! If you read the blog entry I posted almost 24 hours ago, you might be expecting the last chapter soon. Well, how about tomorrow night? I think that's close enough. Another big thank you to Cobalt Winter for giving me the idea for this chapter. Another shout-out to my friend that nobody knows. You could know him if he reveals himself in the comments. I guess it isn't that hard to figure out that the last chapter is going to involve Nightmare Night. Don't change the channel, 'cause The Cutie Mark Crusaders: Ghost Hunters will be back after these commercials.
Love, JerryTheHouseGhost