//------------------------------// // Hired by a Princess // Story: The Pony Ghostbusters // by Wildcard25 //------------------------------// In New York city outside the Ghostbusters HQ, the Ecto-1 pulled into the firehouse and the guys exited the vehicle, "Ugh, what a night." Winston groaned. "You said it. After all those ghost busts I'm ready to clock out." Ray yawned. "I'll tell you one thing. I'm gonna sleep like a log." Peter noted. "Yeah, a log!" Slimer blubbered. "A good night's sleep is exactly what we all need." Egon suggested. "Tell me about it." Janine agreed. "What've you got to complain about, Janine?" Peter began, "You weren't out there dodging class 5 entities." "You think it's easy managing all your papers?" Janine challenged him. The others looked at Peter, awaiting an answer, only for him to respond defiantly, "I have no comment." Slimer laughed, only for Peter to shoot him a glare. "Come on guys. Let's hit the sack." Winston instructed, as they were ready to head upstairs, and into bed, only for Slimer to freeze in mid air and started trembling babbling. "Slimer, what's wrong?" Ray asked. Slimer started babbling away, only for Egon to shush him, "Calm down. We can't understand a word you're saying." "Since when do we ever understand what the spud's saying?" Peter asked rhetorically. "What is it, Slimer, is something here?" Ray asked, curiously. "Yeah!" Slimer answered. Egon pulled out the PKE meter, and saw it's readings were incredibly high, "Fellas, we got something here. And it's powerful." "How powerful?" Winston asked. "Gozer level, powerful." Egon answered in worry. "Yikes." Peter declared knowing that's not good. Suddenly a bright light started shining in the room, taking them all by surprise, "What's going on?" Winston gasped. Suddenly appearing in the office, was an astral form of Celestia, which took them all by surprise, "Whoa! What is that?" Ray gasped. "A ghost?" Winston suggested. "Not like any I've ever seen." Egon answered. "And we've seen a lot." Peter put in. Celestia looked at them, "Good evening." she greeted them with a smile. "Uh, good evening." Ray said, feeling it was best to go along with it. "Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond Stanz, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore of the Ghostbusters, I presume?" Celestia asked. "You presume correctly." Peter answered. "Very good. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia; ruler of the land of Equestria." "Princess Celestia?" Winston asked, while raising a brow. "Equestria?" Egon asked, curiously. "A princess?!" Ray gasped, before dropping to his knees, "Your majesty!" "Majesty!" Slimer bowed as well. "Ray, get up." Peter ordered, with a roll of his eyes. Ray sheepishly returned to his feet, as Winston spoke, "She looks like something out of mythology." "Based on her structure, she'd be classified as an alicorn." Egon deduced. "Alicorn?" The humans and Slimer asked. "Yes. A race of mythological equine that can both fly and use magic." Egon explained. "Correct, Dr. Spengler," Celestia replied, "I've sent a small portion of my essence here to contact you all." "So why come all this way to meet us?" Peter asked. "Because I want to hire you Ghostbusters for a job." she answered. "You wanna hire us?" Ray gasped. "I do." Celestia nodded. "What's the situation?" Peter asked. "We have ghost troubles in one of our lands kingdoms." she explained. "Ghost trouble?" Egon asked, as his attention was grabbed. "Precisely. The ghost of a very powerful enemy has surfaced and is causing trouble in one of our fair kingdoms," she explained, "I call upon your assistance, because you have the power and skill to deal with such spirits." "Well we do have a certain reputation." Peter boasted. "Hm. What do you think, Egon?" Ray asked the smarter one. "While I believe it's not natural to interfere in the means of other worlds, if she believes we're her world's only hope it would be rude of us to let this go unchecked." Egon explained. "And I'd be more than willing to pay you for your efforts." Celestia added. Peter's head shot up, and he spoke, "I'm sold!" "Yeah, let's help them out." Ray agreed. "Yeah!" Slimer cheered. "I'm game." Winston put in. "Well then we'll need to pack all the necessary tools." Egon instructed, as they grabbed their proton packs, traps, ecto-goggles, and the PKE meter. "So uh, how do we get to this Equestria?" Peter asked the astral princess. "I shall open a gateway for you to pass through. I'll see you all real soon." she answered, as she vanished and suddenly a glowing portal materialized. "Janine, tell any customers here that we're on an impromptu vacation. Can ya do that?" Peter asked. "Of course, Dr. Venkman." she answered. "Well guys this is it." Ray said to his friends. "So who's going first?" Winston asked, as they eyed the portal, wondering if it was really safe to pass through. "I'll give it a shot." Ray said, as he jumped in. "Looks safe, so let's go!" Peter called, as the three jumped in after him. "Wait for me!" Slimer called, as he flew into the portal before it closed. The four ghostbusters and ghost were flying through a swirling vortex of bright colors while screaming, before reaching the light. The four groaned, as they slowly opened their eyelids, "Oh man, talk about a wild ride." Peter groaned. "I think we can all agree to never want to do that again." Egon put in, until they looked over seeing Slimer staring at them with wide eyes. "Slimer, what's up?" Ray asked. "What're you staring at?" Peter inquired. "You." Slimer answered, as he made weird gestures. "Hey are you saying we look ugly? Because if that's true, you obviously haven't seen yourself lately." Peter began, until he and his pals turned and suddenly saw their reflections in a huge mirror. The four ghostbusters had been transformed into ponies. Egon and Ray became unicorns, Peter was a pegasus, and Winston was an earth pony. Though they now had pony bodies, they had similar heights like they were when they were humans, only smaller, while Egon was still the tallest of the four. They also retained their eye colors and hair styles, with matching tails. Their coats however, were differently colored though. Peter's was green, Egon's was teal, Ray's was a light shade of blue, and Winston's was light brown. "Please tell me this is all a bad dream," Peter said in shock. Ray whacked him on the back of the head, "Ow! What was that for?" "You felt that, Peter. So this isn't a dream." Ray stated. Peter gasped, "Oh no, you're right! We're horses!" Egon spoke up, "Technically Peter, we appear to be ponies." "Ponies?" Peter asked, before going sarcastic, "And that's better how?" "It isn't I just wanted to point out your mistake." Egon asnwered. "Terrific." Peter rolled his eyes. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think this would happen." Celestia spoke up, as they turned and saw the Princess who was now taller than all four of them in their new pony bodies. The Princess seeing Slimer circle her, smiled as she reached up and rubbed his little head, despite being slimy. "Princess Celestia." Ray gasped. "Excuse me, you didn't think this would happen to us?" Peter asked in outrage. "No. This didn't happen to the first human brought here some time ago." Celestia explained. "And who was that?" Winston asked. "Perhaps another time, but for now I suggest you all take a moment and get yourselves together." Celestia instructed. "Right," Egon nodded, "Based off our appearances and my knowledge of mythology, Ray and I appear to be unicorns, while you Peter are a pegasus, and Winston is a regular pony." "What? You guys got the good stuff." Winston sighed. "Wait a minute. Egon, did you say I was a pegasus?" Peter asked. "That I did." Egon confirmed. "This is great!" Peter exclaimed, "A pegasus has wings!" he spread his wings out, "And wings mean one thing. I can fly!" he took a leap into the air, and flapped his wings. He was in the air for a brief moment before crashing down onto the floor, flat on his face. Slimer and Ray laughed at Peter's pitiful attempt to fly, as Celestia helped him up, "Are you ok, Dr. Venkman?" "I'm ok. The floor broke my fall." he answered, to preserve his dignity. "I think you should refrain from trying to do that again." Egon suggested. "Oh wow. I feel like I'm in one of my old favorite cartoons!" Ray cheered, "I mean look at me. I'm a pony. This means I can whinny," he let out a whinny, "And look at this. I'm trotting!" he trotted around Celestia's chamber. "Winston, go and collect Ray for us." Peter ordered, as Winston calmed Ray down. "Princess, if I may ask," Egon began, "Are all the inhabitants of this land talking equines?" "A majority yes, but there are other species as well." Celestia answered. "Such as?" Peter asked. "There are dragons, griffons, changelings, manticore's, chimera's, and many other different creatures." the Princess of the sun explained. "Interesting." Peter admitted. "Guys I don't know if you realized it, but our uniforms are gone." Ray spoke up. "Huh?" they realized they weren't wearing their uniforms. "Oh man, I'm naked!" Peter groaned. "Pete, ponies are always naked." Winston reminded him. "Where are our proton packs, and the rest of our equipment?" Egon asked in a panic. "Calm down, boys," Celestia calmed them, "Your equipment is all right over here." she stepped aside revealing all their ghost gear. "Oh thank goodness," Ray sighed in relief, until he looked at his flank, "Guys, we have tattoos on our flanks!' "Tattoos?" Egon asked, as the four looked and saw little images on both sides of their flanks. "How'd we get these?" Winston asked. "More like, why do we have these?" Peter corrected him. "You are refering to your cutie marks." Celestia giggled. "Wait, did you just say our cutie marks?" Peter asked as he did a double take. "I did." she nodded. "And what're those?" Ray asked. "Cutie marks are a special marking a pony receieves when they find out their special talent in life." Celestia explained, "As you can see mine is of the sun. It represents my ability to raise and lower the sun." "What? You raise and lower the sun?" Egon gasped in shock, as Celestia nodded. "We're definitely not in Kansas anymore." Peter joked. "So what do ours represent?" Ray asked, as they looked at theirs. Egon saw his cutie mark was the PKE meter, "I have the PKE meter on mine. It must have to do with my expertise on ghosts." Ray looked at his seeing it was a wrench and screwdriver crossing each other like an X, "These tools must represent my knack for fixing and building stuff." he explained. "I got a steering wheel on mine," Winston looked at his, "Must be because I drive the Ecto-1 a lot." he deduced. Peter looked at his seeing it was a fedora hat, "A fedora? Why that? I don't even wear a fedora." "Maybe not, but that is commonly worn by con artists or those with a talent for negotiating." Egon explained. "Yeah, that's just like you, Peter," Ray noted, only for the pegasus to scowl at him. Realizing what he said, he corrected himself, "Well except for the con artist part." Peter only rolled his eyes knowing how this had to come from his father. Brushing it off he turned to the princess, and spoke. "So Princess, what kind of spook is giving you trouble?" Peter inquired. "I would be happy to answer all of your questions, boys," she began, "But it can wait until tomorrow. You all look tired after such a long day." she noted. "Yeah. We did get through a lot of jobs today." Ray admitted, remembering how tired he was. "Come with me, and I'll show you all to where you will stay." Celestia began, as she used her magic to levitate the ghost equipment as she led the four, and Slimer out of her chamber. Soon they entered a large guest room with four beds prepared for them, "Wow it's like a five star suite at the Sedgewick Hotel." Peter gasped. "We can really stay here?" Ray asked the princess. "As guests in Equestria, it's only right as your host to accommodate you all." Celestia answered. "And we really appreciate it." Peter nodded, as he picked her hoof up and kissed it. "I suggest you all get some sleep. Tomorrow I will discuss the importance of your job in the morning." Celestia explained. "We will, Princess." Egon nodded, as the princess left them, and closed the door behind her. "I still can't believe what we've become." Ray said, still in awe. "This is definitely gonna take some getting used to." Winston admitted. "Agreed," Egon put in, "Without our hands or the ability to stand on two legs it'll be challenging while trying to use our proton packs." "So we'll worry about that in the morning, Egon," Peter spoke up and yawned, "Right now let's get some shut eye." "Yeah," Slimer nodded, before spotting a little basket on the floor, complete with a pillow and a blanket, "Oh boy!' he babbled as he flew onto the bed and snuggled under the blanket, while sucking his thumb. So they all climbed into their beds and got under the covers. At first they were sleeping comfortably, until they heard Peter groaning, "Are you ok, Peter?" Ray asked as he rolled over and saw Peter struggling with trying to tuck his wings back in. "Just trying to get comfortable!" he groaned, as he was finally able to tuck his wings underneath the blankets. He smiled as he got comfortable, only for his wings to pop out again, sending his blanket up above him. He let out an exasperated groan as the blanket landed on him ,covering his whole body. Back in the princess' chamber, Celestia began writing a letter to her fellow princess Twilight explaining about what happened in the Crystal Empire, and how she brought four out of their world figures who would be able to help them. After sending it, she drifted off to sleep, knowing tomorrow was going to be a long day for both the Ghostbusters, and herself.