Ghost Squad

by Sollace


Chapter 3

1:16 AM, Town Hall, Ponyville

Ditzy Doo alighted in the middle of town square and bolted up the front steps of town hall. She pushed down on the door’s handle and moved forward, wholeheartedly expecting it to open for her.

Instead she came to some resistance and face planted into the hard oak wood, “Ow.” She rubbed her sore muzzle and cast an intimidating glare towards the pair of inanimate objects.

She squinted and rubbed her left eye, then tilted her head sideways so they could both focus together and the two doors merged back into a single, much cleared one. I’m sure this was the right door. She looked to both sides to be sure. There weren’t any other doors so it had to be this one.

Ditzy jiggled the handle and pushed again, then took a short flight out into the middle of town square.

“Okay, door,” she seethed between clenched teeth and squinted so her eyes can focus together offending piece of wood. She began in a calm tone, “I know we’ve had our differences, but now’s not the time. I’m going to give you to the count to three to let me in.”

A moment as Ditzy awaited the door’s responce.

“One” She began counting. The door, for the most part, did nothing.

“Two,” Ditzy widened her stance and lowered her head.

“Three.” She concluded her counting with a throaty battle cry, “YAHHH!”, and ran full tilt towards the entrance.

The door swung open and a brown stallion peeked his head through to look around, “Hold on now, I thought I heard somepony at the d—“

It was like being hit by a freight train. One minute Dr Hooves had been standing at the entrance looking out at a largely deserted town square, that he must admit looked rather lovely at this time of night, the next he was being crushed between a pile of grey fur and feathers and presumably whoever had been standing behind him.

“I’m so, so sorry!” Ditzy shook her head and muttered out an apology, then started struggling to extract herself from the pile of tangled limbs.

She pulled the first hoof free and used it to get some leverage to pull herself off the pile. She then helped Dr Hooves up and picked up his scarf off the ground.

“That’s uh, quite all right there, Ditzy,” Dr Hooves was wobbled and leaned against the mare until he could right himself. He held a hoof to his head and waited until his eyes stopped spinning.

Whilst she held the doctor and waited for him to recover, Ditzy took in the surroundings. The tiny building was packed full with ponies, far more than she’d expected. They were all mulling around causing a commotion but left her and the doctor enough room to breathe whilst they recovered from their mishap.

She caught a few snippets of conversations talking about ghosts, and a low chant of ponies calling out for help from Mayor Mare who she presumed must be at the head of this crowd. “Wait; are you all here to see Mayor Mare?” She turned to the doctor.

“Oh yes,” Dr Hooves pushed himself away from Ditzy’s chest, shook off his shock and nodded.

“Oh, my,” was Ditzy’s only response. She turned her back to the doctor and scanned across the crowd.

“It seems we’ve all been hit with some haunting or another.” The doctor continued, not noticing Ditzy’s lack of interest, “Why, it was just an hour ago that my equipment started t—”

“That’s fascinating, Doctor”— Ditzy spotted Mayor Mare standing not far away, behind a podium on top of a stage opposite the room– “But I really can’t stay and chat, I need to speak to Mayor Mare,” She started trotting in that direction and waved goodbye to Dr Hooves, “thanks for letting me in and bye.”

“... oh,” Dr Hooves’ ears sank, “Okay.”

~ ~ ~

Mayor Mare stood at the head of the crowd, leaning against her podium and waving her gavel in the air as she tried to subdue the situation, “Ponies, please!” She shouted over the loud din and hammered her gavel against the podium, “I know you’re all concerned about the situation with these ghosts—”

“But you have to do something, Mayor Mare!” A panicked voice sounded from the back of the room. Roseluck, with the other members of the flower trio, Lily and Daisy, stood out in the crowd. They all had their fair share of scrapes and bruises, and a shower of leaves was thrown into the air as Roseluck shook her mane.

There were several groans in response, and Mayor Mare felt the sudden urge to rub her temples. If there was anypony who could blow something out of proportion, it was these three.

Roseluck held up a bushel of wilting Daisies and pointed with her other hoof, “How are we supposed to sell these!?”

“Yeah!” Lily, no less distraught than Roseluck, shouted whilst she fanned a fainted Daisy, “What kinds of daisies bite ponies!?”

Daisy kicked and pushed Lily out of her way as she exclaimed, “It’s not natural!” then slumped back and returned to being unconscious.

There was a faint grumbling across the room as ponies reluctantly agreed. On the other side of the room, another voice sounded, “And I have to teach school in the morning.”

Attention turned to where Cheerilee sat with her back to the wall and a towel wrapped around her shoulders. She wiped her nose with a tissue and tossed it into the trash as she spoke, “I can’t do that if the school is under— Achoo.” A loud sneeze shook the mare, and several ponies around her took a wide pace backwards. She sniffed, “Underwater.”

Several fillies cried out in joy, and then immediately again in pain as their cheeks were slapped by their angy mothers. The adults in the room nodded in agreement.

Attention returned to Mayor Mare. “Well, um” the mayor stammer. She glanced around the room at the sea of frowning ponies, “I- I’m sure Princess Twilight is working on a solution as we speak.”

“You already said that!”

“Where is she?”

The ponies continued to look to her with blank stared. Mayor Mare gulped, “Well, we, just have to.” She pulled at her collar, suddenly feeling like it was getting tight, Did it get hot in here or..., “It’s not the end of the world w—”

“It’s the end of the world!” Daisy screamed and was immediately joined by several more as the room exploded into chaos. Ponies started screaming and running round, bumping into each other as they passed.

“Enough!” Mayor Mare shouted, but her voice was hardly heard over the commotion.

The ponies continued running around, but quickly found themselves running out of any place to run to. They started bumping into each other and eventually most of them settled to stand in place, stomping their hooves whilst screaming, whilst others huddled together into ‘panic’ hugs, also screaming.

Mayor Mare began beating her gavel as hard as she could, trying to calm the situation, “Everypony calm down!” Her voice cracked in the middle from the strain and she was just about to go for the third swing when the head flew went flying off the handle. The Mayor’s hoof came down painfully hard against the podium, cracking it, whilst the head of her gavel went flying into the crowd where it bounced off several ponies’ heads before clattering to the floor.

However unconventional, it had worked. The panicking suddenly died down and everypony froze as they were. All eyes and ears turned to the stage.

Mayor Mare huffed and set her, now useless, gavel down and re-buttoned her collar, “It is not the end of the world. We just have t—”

“Mayor Mare!” A bubbly voice sounded in front of the stage cutting her off. Several ponies yelped and jumped aside, and several apologies were heard before a grey Pegasus finally pushed her way to the front.

Ditzy blushed and apologised again, “Sorry,” and weathered several ponies’ gazes as she began to clamber onto the stage.

The mayor watched with a raised eyebrow whilst Ditzy spent close to a full minute scrambled against the wood, holding on with her front legs and waggling her hind in vain to find some traction. She flapped her wings several times until finally, somepony in the crowd took pity and used their magic to give her an extra push. Ditzy bounced up onto the stage and ran straight to Mayor Mare’s side where she grabbed a hoof, dropped to her knees, and began to beg, “Mayor Mare, you’ve got to help me!”

“Ditzy, I’m sorry,” The mayor apologised. She pulled Ditzy back up and and guided the distraught mare to the side, “but you’re going to have to wait your turn.”

“But it’s—” A door slam, a collective gasp from the crowd, and a loud commotion cut the mare off.

Both Mayor Mare and Ditzy turned to watch as the crowd turned around, then parted slowly revealing Princess Twilight Sparkle, with a hoof leaned against the door, wheezing and gasping for breath.

Twilight took a deep breath and stepped into the room proper, using her magic to close the door behind her. She’d flown here as quickly as she could and, judging by the cramps in her wings, she was going to regret that decision the next time she has to get out of bed; whenever that may be.

I really shouldn’t have cancelled those flying lessons with Rainbow Dash. Though, in retrospect, it probably would have been faster if she’d just teleported. Twilight mentally kicked herself and put a smile on for the crowd, and made her way to the front stage.

Mayor Mare rushed to greet the princess, and offered a hoof to help her onto the stage, “Please tell me you have something,” spoke quickly under her breath, “I’m dying out there.”

“Don’t worry, Mayor Mare.” Twilight encouraged. She put a hoof on the Mayor’s shoulder and walked with her back to the podium, “I can take it from her, can you just get me a list of all occurrences ordered by location and cross indexed by severity?”

“Hmm” Mayor Mare bit her lip, “Yeah, um. I think I can do that.”

“Okay, thanks.” She left the Mayor to complete her task, and turned to face the crowd of ponies now staring at her with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything Ditzy Do was all over her.

“Twilight, you have to h—”

Twilight held up a hoof, silencing the mare mid sentence, “Sorry, Derpy. But can this wait?”

Ditzy’s ears drooped. Twilight always called her that, not that it’s particularly offensive. It’s just she wished the princess would at least spare the time to learn her real name. She opted to say nothing, and instead took a step back out of Twilight’s space to watch from the background.

“Ahem,” Twilight cleared her throat and turned back to the ponies, “Thank you all for your patience. I’ve done some research”—Or as much as is possible in the middle of the night with but one cup of coffee and a sugar crazed mare building forts from one’s books, Twilight wanted to say, but she really wanted to keep this short, “I’ve done some research and I believe we have a solution.”

“Twilight, what’s going on?” One mare in the back asked.

Twilight pointed, “Yes, I’m glad you asked that question,” then shook her head, “I’m still working on that part, but we do have a way to get rid of these ‘ghost’.”

A moment, whilst Twilight waited for any follow up questions. When none came, she continued. “I’ve put together a team and—”

“A ghost squad?”

“Well, actually,” Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof as she thought to herself, “I was going to go for ‘Twilight Sparkle’s Task Team for the Investigation and Dispersal of Ghosts and Other Such Paranormal Anomalies Around Ponyville’, but I suppose ‘Ghost Squad’ works too.”

“We’ve already had a relative success in Berry Punch’s house. I’m now focused on expanding our efforts across the rest of Ponyville.” A soft wave of cheers washed over the room, Twilight continued, “But I guarantee you all. ‘Ghost Squad’ is on the case.”

She left the pedestal and stepped down from the stage, where she was promptly met by Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, “Are we really going to go though the whole town?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s the plan,” Twilight nodded as she accepted a large scroll handed her way by Mayor Mare, “Thanks. Now let’s see what we ha—” Twilight levitated the scroll up in front of her and let it unravel in her grasp.

The bottom roller dropped to the floor and continued rolling for several feet. Twilight’s eye went wide as she gazed over the long list of names, “Wow, that’s more than I expected. Okay new plan.” She gathered up the scroll and ripped it into three smaller lists and levitated the first two over to Rainbow and Pinkie, “We’re going to split up. You two take the east and north side, whilst I take the south and west.”

“Okay! Let’s go!” Pinkie snatched her piece out of the air and grabbed Rainbow’s hoof to drag her along out to the wait.

“Wait hold on, Pinkie.” Rainbow resisted and stood firm. She turned to Twilight to ask, “What do you mean split up? We could barely beat the first one with all three of us!”

“Believe me,” Twilight said in a flat tone and reach out to grab something from Rainbow’s mane.

She pulled off a string of green slime and flicked it to the ground, “One pack is plenty, but if you do need more, you can find the flow regulator on the left. It can be used to increase the output but it also increases the recharge time so you only want to use it when you absolutely have to, understand?”

“Okay,” Rainbow checked her pack. Indeed there was a small knob on the side. It was currently set to a moderate one, but the markings indicated it could go all the way up to eleven.

“Right then, let’s go.”

Twilight was about to follow her friend out when she was stopped by a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around to find a distraught, and every so slightly peeved, Ditzy Doo.

“Okay, what is it?”

“Dinky’s in trouble!” Ditzy shouted.

“Mother of Faust, Derpy!” Twilight shouted, grabbing the mare by the sides and shaking her, “Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“I tried b—”

“No time!” She practically dragged Ditzy after her as she headed for the door, “Come one, Derpy, lead the way.”

~ ~ ~

1:30 AM, Ditzy’s House, Ponyville

The house was relatively easy to find, all they had to do was follow the massive column of green smoke pouring from its chimney and blanketing the sky, as well as the bright glow filling the night as the entire building seemed to pulsate.

Twilight and Ditzy hovered above the building considering their options, “Okay, so where do you think Dinky will be?”

“Well...” Ditzy trailed off. One of her eyes drifted away to look at a flower stand in the distance. Twilight tried to ignore it as she waited for Ditzy.

The eye suddenly snapped back to Twilight and the other bobbed down to look her hooves, “Last time I saw her she was in her bedroom, I don’t think she would have left it.”

“Okay” Twilight nodded and looked over the building. Most of her view was dominated by a large red slanted roof facing the road, with an extra outcropping forming a ‘T’ shape with the rest. She hovered slightly lower and tried to focus on the window in front, likely a window onto an attic—this building didn’t seem large enough to have an entire second floor.

However, no matter how hard Twilight looked, she couldn’t make out anything inside. The light spilling through the windows was just too bright. “Is her bedroom on the ground floor?” She finally asked.

“Yup! It’s next to mine in the back.”

“Great, then this should be easy. We can get in through the back yard.”

Twilight tilted her wings and directed her descent. She came down in an open section of grass behind the house and ran up to take cover under one of the window sills. She reached behind her and flipped a few switches on her pack resuming its silent thrumming, and then leaned out to look through the window.

Okay, perfect, Twilight though to herself as she observed the inside. It was the kitchen. There was nopony—or better yet no ghosts—to be seen, only a green hue that pervaded the entire scene. She lit her horn and was about to teleport inside when a sudden crash broke Twilight’s concentration.

She turned around to find Ditzy Doo slumped over one of the bird baths, “Ditzy!” Twilight snapped, “What are you doing?”

“Sorry, Twilight,” Ditzy apologised and rolled over the side of the bird bath. She pounced back up to her hooves and flicked the water off her wings, then trotted up to join Twilight at the window, “I guess it was a little closer than I thought.”

“No, not that. I need you to stay back at a safe distance.”

“What?” Ditzy raised an eyebrow and looked at Twilight with a confused expression, “Why?”

“ I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Now hold on Twilight,” Ditzy put her muzzle up into the Princess’ face as she spoke, “I’m not going to stand idly by whilst my daughter needs me.”

The princess was taken aback. She tried to take a step back, but found herself stuck between Ditzy and the wall. She frowned, “Derpy, I know you’re concerned but you have to trust me when I say it’s too dangerous.”

“No.” Ditzy was adamant, “I’m going with, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Twilight groaned, “Derpy, I can’t—”

“Yes you can, I’ll be fine.”

“... fine” Twilight relented with a sign, much to Ditzy’s satisfaction, and shoved her out of her face, “Just do what I say and keep quiet.”

Ditzy nodded, “Okay” and put on a serious face, “You won’t regret this, Twilight.”

“I certainly hope not.”

~ ~ ~

Ditzy Doo was the first to squeeze through the open window. She pulled her torso through, knocking several post and pans off the counter and splashing across the sink as she wriggled to get her wings free. Finally hooked her forelegs over the edge of the counter and gave one last pull.

She came free with a loud pop and somersaulted forward onto the tiled floor, crashing down on top of the pans and sending them clattering across the ground, then bounced back up to her hooves and looked around, “It’s all clear!” She cupped a hoof over her muzzle and shouted out the window.

A flash of magic, Twilight teleported in next to her, “Seriously, you couldn’t have waited another second?” Ditzy opened her mouth to respond but was halted by a hoof to her mouth, “That was a rhetorical question.” Twilight motioned a hoof after her, “Come on.”

They both hurried out of the kitchen into the corridor, checking both ways, and then proceeding towards the bedroom. Ditzy lead the way and stopped at a pink door on the left with a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign plastered across the top, “Here it is.”

Twilight nodded and tried the handle. It was locked, “Okay, stand back.” She flipped a switch on her Harmony Pack, and gave it a moment to warm up, then pushed Ditzy behind her and kicked the door in.

There was a loud crack as the hinges came loose and, taking a large chunk of the wall with it, the door cave inwards. Twilight jumped into the room and bounded across the door lying in the way, and pointing the nozzle forwards as she checked out the inside of the room.

A bookshelf filled with textbooks, children’s stories, and a pile of expired library books stood against the wall to the left. To the right was a double bed with Coloratura themed covering, neatly made and a dresser also neatly packed.

There was only one thing that Twilight noticed to be out of place, “Where is she?”

“I could have sworn she was in here,” Ditzy commented from her position in the entrance and cast a walled eye glance across the room, “I even locked the door to make sure she couldn’t escape.”

“You locked the door?”

“Yeah”

“Ditzy, what exactly did you say was wrong with Dinky?”

“She’s—”

WWRAAAAARRAAA!!

Both mares jumped as a high-pitched squealing filled the room and something came down on Twilight from the ceiling, “Ah!” She screamed and clutched at her face, “Get her off!”

“Hold on, Twilight!” Ditzy rushed to her rescue and grabbed at Dinky to begin pulling her off, “Dinky, no, bad.” She scolded the filly as she peeled her off of Twilight.

Dinky hissed and sunk her hooves into Twilight’s mane, “Ah! Ow, ow, that hurts!”

“Hold on, Twilight,” Ditzy gave one last pull and the filly came flying off. She did a backflip over Ditzy’s head and landed on all fours behind them, then gave one last hiss before scurrying out through the open doorway.

“Oh my Celestia, Twilight, I’m so sorry.” Ditzy pulled Twilight into a hug to try and comfort her.

“Uh, I wonder if Rainbow Dash and Pinkie are having this much trouble...”

~ ~ ~

About the same time, Somewhere Else in Ponyville

GRAAAAGH

The ferocious growls and chirps of many vampire fruit bats filled the night. One such creature, floated across the moon revealing its translucent form, baring its fangs and its claws, when suddenly a bolt of energy arced across its side blowing it to smithereens.

“Nice shot!” Pinkie shouted over the noise and high hoofed Rainbow Dash.

“Thanks!” They both stood back-to-back, firing off beams of energy at the swarms of ghosts swirling around them, “This is a total breeze.”

They both ducked as one flew low over head. Pinkie aimed her nozzle and blew it out of the sky and the smouldering remains hurtled head long into a flock of the beasts knocking them out of the sky, “Strike!” She pumped her hoof and turned to respond Rainbow Dash, “Tell me about it!”