High in the night sky, after one millennium, a group of ten stars aligned.
That was what a cloaked stallion awaited. Seeing the stars, he chuckled.
“Finally.” He turned around to look at more cloaked ponies behind him. “After all this time, we can finally make them pay. Let’s bring Him to our world.”
All the ponies nodded, smirking.
Around them, the wind howled, announcing the arrival of a terrible event.
A yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and tail and a pink bow on her hair was rummaging through a garbage can, searching for precious food and… Jackpot!
“Hey! Pizza! Nice!”
She took the pizza slice and added it on a garbage can lid that she used as a tray to transport what she found. So far, she had good luck. She got a half eaten apple, a full daisy sandwich, and now, a pizza slice. She didn’t even have to go look at the garbage of a restaurant which was risky. The chefs never liked seeing her taking their food for free, even if that food was wasted in the garbage. In Manehattan, it was the law of the jungle.
Once she was done, she went deeper into the alley to eat in peace, far from the judging stares of the many pedestrians in the street.
It was hard to live in the streets, but hey, Good Will had to do with what she had. It was better than the orphanage she escaped from.
She quickly ate what she gathered. Taking her time was a bad idea. Another street pony could come and take her food.
Just as she finished eating, she suddenly heard screams coming from the street. Curious, she left the lid behind and moved to the entrance of the alley to see what was going on, remaining careful.
Here, she saw ponies running away from blue ghosts attacking them! There were easily two dozen of them in total!
She quickly hid behind one of the garbage cans she rummaged earlier. The alley she was in was a dead end, the only way to leave was by the entrance, where she was, so she would expose herself to the ghosts. She had no choice but to remain hidden.
“What is going on? Where do they come from?” she wondered as she watched the ghosts.
As the minutes passed and the ghosts spread all over the street to cause chaos even when nopony was left, Good Will remained stuck behind the garbage can. She was absolutely terrified. She knew it was only a matter of time before at least one of the ghosts came to the alley.
What she feared happened. One of the ghosts threw the garbage can behind which she hid. She was found.
Upon seeing her, the ghost grinned and raised a hoof, ready to punch her.
But suddenly, a siren approached rapidly, gaining the ghost’s attention, and also the attention of all the other ghosts. Then, a weird vehicle that seemed to be some kind of carriage not pulled by ponies entered the street and screeched into a halt in the middle of it, among the ghosts, the wheels leaving black traces behind them. Painted on the side of the vehicle was a white ghost surrounded by a red circle with a red bar crossing it.
The two front doors then opened, and out of the vehicles came two stallions. A green earth pony with a blue mane and tail, and an orange pegasus with a red mane and tail, each wearing some gray uniform with the same symbol as on the vehicle.
At the back of the vehicle, which was bigger than the front, two more doors opened, revealing two more stallions. A gray unicorn with a darker gray mane and tail and glasses, and a brown earth pony with a black mane and tail, the two also wearing the uniform.
The two took two red machines with a pipe and passed them to the other two who quickly joined them, then took two more machines. The four stallions then put them on their back before they grabbed the pipes, holes pointed toward the ghosts.
“When was the last time we saw so many ghosts?” the green stallion asked.
“Never,” the unicorn answered. “This is the biggest paranormal activity registered in Equestria since forever.”
“And I thought that haunted mansion had a lot of ghosts…” the brown stallion said.
“And again, in that mansion, the ghosts came two at a time at most. Here, this is six versus one. I don’t like our odds,” the pegasus said.
“Oh don’t worry, Dark Vision. With these babies on our back, we should be good despite that. Just avoid being surrounded,” the green one replied.
“Guys, there is a civilian on the site,” the brown one said upon spotting Good Will.
The green one groaned. “Fighting while protecting a civilian will suck.”
The ghost about to attack Good Will lost interest in the stallions and prepared to attack the filly again. She screamed.
The pegasus, Dark Vision, immediately flew toward her and pointed the hole of his machine’s pipe toward the ghost before he pressed a button. The next instant, a vortex came out of the pipe and began to suck up the ghost.
Meanwhile, the three others began to do the same with the approaching ghosts.
After a few seconds of struggling, the ghost that had been about to attack Good Will disappeared inside the pipe.
“Ah! I guess I’m a hero!” Dark Vision said.
“Watch out behind you, mister!” Good Will yelled.
The pegasus immediately turned around only to be punched in the face by another ghost, almost causing him to crash on Good Will.
Dark Vision groaned, his eyes spinning. “So much for a hero…”
Good Will looked at the recovering pegasus, then at the approaching ghost who readied another punch. Acting quickly, she grabbed the machine’s pipe, pointed the hole toward the ghost, and pressed the same button that Dark Vision pressed earlier, sucking up the ghost.
The ghost was struggling and was actually beginning to start dragging Dark Vision and Good Will behind him, but the filly didn’t stop and kept her hold on the pipe. Dark Vision then fully recovered, saw what was going on, and took hold of the pipe too just before the ghost finally disappeared inside it.
“Hey. Not bad, little one. I guess you are my hero.”
Good Will grinned at him. “Thanks!”
Dark Vision then saw another ghost approaching and quickly got up. “Remain close to me!”
“Ah’ll watch yer back!”
One by one, the ghosts were captured, and before long, the street was entirely cleaned of paranormal activity. The green stallion was the one who captured the last ghost.
“So, who won?” he asked.
“What?” the unicorn asked.
“Who is the one who captured the most ghost? I counted seven.”
“I don’t know, I haven’t counted,” the unicorn replied.
“Me too,” the brown earth pony said.
The green one shrugged. “Then, I guess I win by default.”
“Hey guys! Come here! I think you will want to see that!” Dark Vision called them, Good Will at his side, the two looking down on the ground.
The three stallions approached and quickly saw why Dark Visions called them.
On the street was a glowing symbol, the skull of a ram.
“What is it?” the brown stallion asked.
The unicorn carefully touched the symbol, then studied it with his horn. “Mmh… It’s magic. Right in the ground. It’s not painted. It’s as if the symbol just magically appeared here.”
“What do you think it means?” Dark Vision asked.
“That’s a very good question, and I don’t think that this symbol appearing in this street which was just targeted by a large number of ghosts is just a coincidence,” the unicorn said.
The stallions thought in silence. Then, Dark Vision looked at Good Will.
“Oh, right, we should probably search your parents, little one.”
“Uh…” Good Will moved away from the stallions. “Ah’m an orphan.”
“Oh…”
“And no, Ah don’t want ta go ta the orphanage, so… Ah guess Ah’ll go. Thanks fer saving me.”
“What? Are you saying that you live in the streets? Wait!” Dark Vision shouted as the filly began to run away. Thinking quickly, he yelled, “Then come with us!”
That stopped Good Will right away.
“What?!” the three other stallions shouted.
“We can’t let her in the streets,” Dark Vision said.
The green stallion sighed. “You and your big heart, Darky. We aren’t a charity house.”
“Let’s just send her to an orphanage,” the unicorn said, making Good Will step back.
“Look guys. Going to an orphanage terrifies her. Something must have happened in her previous one. How about… we take her as our new recruit? She helped me capture a ghost, you know? That’s a sign.”
“How did you end up having a filly helping you capture a ghost?” the brown stallion asked.
Dark Vision blushed. “One took me by surprise from behind.”
“So that’s why you have one heck of a shiner,” the green stallion said. “Darky, I expected better from you. I guess you still need training,” he joked.
“None of us trained,” Dark Vision deadpanned.
The unicorn sighed in exasperation and shook his head before he looked at Good Will, smiling gently at her. “What is your name?”
“Ah’m Good Will.”
“Well, Good Will, what do you think of joining us?”
Good Will thought a bit, then shrugged. “Ah guess that fighting ghosts would beat remaining in the streets. Not that it was that bad.”
The unicorn chuckled. “Then I’m Gray Matter.” He pointed at the green earth pony. “This is Soul Speaker.” He pointed at the brown one. “Summer Road. And finally, you already know Dark Vision. And we are-”
“The Parahunters!” Soul Speaker shouted while taking a pose. Gray rolled his eyes at being interrupted like that.
Good Will giggled. “Nice ta meet ya.”
A large shutter door opened, allowing the vehicle, the Spectromobile, to enter what had once been a fire station. Once it stopped, the Parahunters, including their new recruit, got out and unloaded their ghost-trapping machines, the Spectrovacuums.
“So, will the ghosts remain trapped in these… uh… vacuums?” Good Will asked.
“No, we have a vault for them,” Gray Matter answered. “In the basement. Since you will be working with us, we will show you.”
As they advanced, they passed beside a desk with a yellow unicorn mare with red glasses and a red mane and tail. Good Will saw that she had a desk Cutie Mark.
“So, how did it go?” she asked.
“Ah, my dear Sunny Feather. It went very well! Except Dark Vision who got a shiner,” Soul Speaker said.
“You won’t let it go, uh?” Dark Vision stated.
Soul Speaker grinned at him. “Never.”
“Give him a break, Soul. He was by himself protecting somepony. It wasn’t easy,” Summer Road said. “Speaking of, we have a new recruit.”
“Really?” Sunny Feather said before she finally spotted Good Will. “Ooh! What a cutie! Hello, I’m Sunny Feather! The Parahunters’ secretary! Welcome!
“Nice ta meet ya, miss. Ah’m Good Will.”
Sunny Feather looked back at the Parahunters. “Isn’t she a bit young to hunt ghosts?”
“She helped capture a ghost. She doesn’t have her Cutie Mark yet, but it may be her future talent,” Summer Road said.
“And her parents have agreed?”
“Uh…”
“Ah don’t have parents. Ah’m an orphan,” Good Will said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear.”
“It turns out that she is a street rat, so she doesn’t have any guardian to ask permission from. So will give her a job, and a home. That’s our good action of the day,” Soul Speaker said.
“In addition to capturing ghosts and protecting innocents from them,” Gray Matter said.
“Yeah, in addition to that.”
The mare smiled at the filly. “Then I’m sure you will love it here. And Misty will be happy to have a playmate.”
“Misty?” Good Will asked.
Suddenly, a yellow blur arrived and rapidly flew around Good Will with gurgling sounds. The blur eventually stopped before Good Will, revealing itself to be the ghost of a newborn unicorn filly with yellow fur and a blown mane.
“That’s Misty,” Summer Road said fondly.
The ghost rubbed her cheek against Good Will’s, making her giggle. “Hello you.”
Misty gurgled back a baby talk, as if to say “Hello” too.
“As you can see, Misty is the ghost of a stillborn filly,” Gray Matter said. “We found her spreading havoc in a hospital. We couldn’t bring ourselves to trap her, she was just playing, she didn’t know better, so we took her in and we try to teach her how to be a better ghost.”
“It’s not easy…” Summer Road said.
“She is pretty much our mascot,” Soul Speaker said. “Our diabete-inducing mascot.”
“And it looks like she already loves you,” Dark Vision said.
“Luv ya,” Misty repeated.
“Aww, Ah love ya too,” Good Will said, trying to pat Misty only for her hoof to pass through.
“Ok, can we move on before I start to need insulin?” Soul Speaker said.
Gray Matter cleared his throat. “Yes. We still have to put the ghosts we captured in the vault.”
The Parahunters moved to the basement, into what seemed to be a workshop full of inventions. Among them, against the wall, was a large red metallic box with a small socle in a cavity.
“This is the vault in which we keep all the ghosts we capture,” Gray Matter presented. He then went on to give a scientific explanation of how it worked, which Good Will didn’t understand, until he was stopped by Soul Speaker clearing his throat.
“Yes, thank you Gray Matter, but I fear that Good Will is too young to understand you, despite all her… good will.”
Everypony groaned, especially Good Will.
“Come on, it was a good one.”
Dark Vision hit him on the back of the head. “No. You should be ashamed.”
“Anyway. Let’s put the ghosts in the vault,” Gray Matter said before he took out a blue crystal from his Spectrovacuum and put it on the socle. He then pressed a button, and a door closed over the cavity before the vault began to emit a purring sound. Because of it, Good Will couldn’t see what was going on with the crystal, but after a few seconds, the purring sound stopped, the door opened, and Gray Matter took the crystal.
One by one, the other Parahunters did the same thing.
“Here we go,” Summer Road said once he recovered his crystal. “So, I guess that it’s time to give Good Will a tour of the place.”
“Since Dark Vision is the one who invited her, he should be the one giving her the tour,” Soul Speaker said.
Dark Vision shrugged. “Fine. I agree.”
And so, Dark Vision led Good Will around in the ancient fire station, presenting the day room, the fitness room, the dorm, and so on. Good Will even got to test sliding down the pole to go from the second floor to the first floor.
“So, what do you think?” Dark Vision asked.
“Ah think that it’ll be nice here.”
Dark Vision grinned and ruffled her mane. After that, the filly was left to do what she wanted.
She decided to return to the basement, to the workshop. She was curious about all these inventions there.
Nopony was in the workshop when she arrived. The Parahunters were resting a bit after their mission. So the filly was left to do what she wanted. Misty, however, followed her in.
“Curious too?”
Misty began to look around. After looking at her a bit, Good Will began to follow her example.
“What do ya think all these inventions are?”
Of course, the foal couldn’t answer, but Good Will still liked to talk to her to fill the silence.
Good Will saw what looked like a horseshoe to entirely cover the hoof and even part of the leg. It was too big for her.
“What is it?”
She had to jump on the table to reach it, careful to not walk on a small cardboard box and various other objects present, including a nail beside an empty bottle. She then took it and studied it, pressing a button on the side. Suddenly, the bottom of the shoe began to glow. She pressed the button again, and it stopped glowing. She placed the shoe back at its place, wondering what it was for.
She heard Misty gurgling and looked back, seeing the foal press some buttons on what looked like a cannon.
“Uuh… Ah don’t think ya should touch it, Misty.”
Misty looked at her, but then resumed pressing buttons, giggling. Suddenly, the cannon began to move by itself, pointing toward Good Will. Just as she started to panic, the cannon fired some kind of purple beam, and the next instant, Good Will was gone.
Misty looked at where Good Will had been and approached curiously, looking around to see where her new friend went. She then saw something on the table and looked closer, finally finding Good Will who was now the size of a bug.
Good Will looked around, not knowing what happened. For a moment, she thought that she had been teleported to another place, but then, she saw a familiar cardboard box, now much bigger than her. Looking more, she recognized the horseshoe further away, now huge.
“It shrunk me?!”
She then saw Misty’s face looking closely at her. The foal was now a giant compared to her.
Misty cooed, and Good Will had to cover her ears, the sound amplified to her.
“Misty!” Good Will yelled. “Turn me back to normal! Go press the buttons on that cannon again! Or bring somepony to do it!”
Misty cooed again, then giggled, not flying away.
Good Will groaned. “Ah guess Ah’ll just wait.”
Having nothing better to do, she began to explore the table. She looked at the bits around, passed beside the empty bottle with the nail, then approached the cardboard box.
Suddenly, as she passed before the box, a spider jumped out of it, trying to bite her. Used to danger appearing without warning, the filly reacted immediately and rolled away, avoiding the bite, before she bucked the head of the spider, making it screech in pain. The spider then tried to impale her with its legs, but Good Will ran under it, then away from it toward the nail beside the bottle. The spider followed her to attack her again with its legs, but the filly grabbed the nail and used it to deflect the legs like a sword. When she got an opening, she approached the head and impaled it with the nail. With a loud screech, the spider fell, squirmed for a few seconds, and stopped moving, dead.
Good Will stepped back, breathing out, before she sat down. Misty, not far, giggled again and applauded.
“Yeah, it must have been a good show fer ya, uh?”
At this moment, Gray Matter, now without his uniform, entered the room, hearing Misty giggle.
“Misty, I told you to not enter my workshop.”
Misty turned toward him and gurgled something.
“What are you doing there anyway? Be careful with the horseshoe. It can shock you.”
Gray Matter approached, then finally spotted Good Will behind her on the table. The filly was jumping and waving to gain his attention.
“What?! Good Will? What-?” He looked between her and the cannon. “Did you use the shrinking cannon on yourself?”
Good Will said something in return, but Gray Matter couldn’t hear her. He sighed and began to press some buttons on the cannons.
“Let me just reverse it. Misty, out of the way.”
Even if she didn’t understand him, Misty moved out of the way anyway, approaching him to look at him as he pressed the buttons.
Eventually, the cannon fired a beam right at Good Will, making her grow to her normal size. She sighed in relief.
“Oh, thank Celestia.”
“You should be careful. You could have been stuck in that size if I hadn’t found you.”
“It’s not mah fault! Ah was just looking at the horseshoe when Misty turned the cannon on and shrunk me!”
Gray Matter glared at Misty who giggled. He then sighed. “Misty…”
Good Will jumped down. Finally, she got a good look at Gray Matter’s flank, seeing that his Cutie Mark was a group of three neurons.
“Life isn’t boring with her around, uh?”
“You have no idea. Anyway, it’s good that I found you. I wanted to talk to you about your schooling.”
Good Will groaned.