Ghosts of the Past

by Sepulcher

Chapter Three

Ghosts of the Past

Chapter Three

---

The Ghost felt his control slipping away. The years of use, subterfuge, and pain that he had been through was attempting to bust its way through his formidable psionic mind in the form of pure rage. The small part of him that wasn't fighting for control noticed the text that was scrolling down his visor.

>>Aggression inhibitors overloading

>>Applying neural relaxant

...

...

>>Neural relaxant applied

>>Aggression successfully inhibited

The feeling of rage subsided and was replaced with a calculating calmness. The Ghost understood what was happening. He was under attack from the psionic unicorn. It was attempting to break his mind and make him submit, just like the academy. He would deal with the problem.

Reaching out with his mind, he met the unicorn in a battle of wills. He could tell that she was untrained in psychic warfare, as she had no mental barricades whatsoever, and he steamrolled through her paltry attempts at fighting back.

The Ghost had complete control over this 'Twilight Sparkle'. He had her in his iron grasp, and he wouldn't let go until she told him everything she knew.

At least, that's what the Ghost planned to do. Just as he was about to delve into the creature's memories to see what it was made of, he froze.

What am I doing? he asked himself, devoid of any emotion.

The Ghost realized that he was acting out of instinct. The creature hadn't harmed him. It had tricked him, yes, but no harm had been inflicted upon him. He withdrew from the unicorn's mind, suddenly exhausted. He was exhausted enough that he didn't feel the unicorn gather up her remaining strength in an attempt at retaliation. The attack took him by complete surprise, and both he and the unicorn were forced to watch the first memory that was called up.

\\\\\

The Ghost silently patrolled through the dull grey corridors of the academy. He didn't like the place. It reminded him too much of the horrors he was put through as a Confederate Ghost. He walked past a door labelled 'Memory Wiping' and shivered. The one thing that still haunts me.

The Ghost quickly walked past the room. Once he passed the room, he heard a quiet sobbing coming from an alcove hidden in shadow. He paused, and decided to investigate.

As he approached the sound, he felt a twinge in his temples. A strong one. The crier must be a high level Psion, thought the Ghost.

There was a female ghost trainee sitting in the alcove, hugging her knees to her chest. The Ghost had no idea how to comfort someone. Hell, he didn't know if he was even capable of comfort.

The Ghost was curious. He had never spoken to one of the trainees, and he wondered if they were being put through training similar to what he received.

Mengsk told me to observe, and I have observed, but you can only gather so much information by watching, thought the Ghost before he uncloaked and revealed his presence.

The female stopped crying and was instantly alert as soon as he decloaked. She asked in a trembling voice, "Who are you?"

Exhaling, the Ghost replied, "Nobody."

Her eyes were wide with fear and... interest?

After watching him for several seconds, the trainee said quietly, "It's you. I knew you were real. I knew it."

Knew I was real? What is she talking about?

"What do you mean?" asked the Ghost.

"There's a story passed down from the older students to the new ones. The story goes that the greatest Ghost who ever lived was watching us, testing us, without any of us knowing. They said they he was silent in all of his movements, could stay cloaked indefinitely, and only spoke to trainees who would become excellent Ghost operatives. And you're him, aren't you?"

The Ghost was stunned with the story. Greatest Ghost who ever lived? Ha. Nothing we do is great. Nothing we do is noble.

"While it's true that I watch, I haven't spoken to anybody in a very long time, besides Mengsk... and now you."

The Ghost heard the trainee mumble something about 'lying bastards'.

"Why me?" she asked.

"You were crying. I was curious. You are no longer crying, therefore you are comforted. My curiosity is sated," said the Ghost as he activated his cloaking and started to walk away.

"Wait! I want to know more about you!"

"What is your agent number, trainee?"

"X41822N," she replied automatically.

The Ghost brought up her file on his visor. November Annabelle "Nova" Terra. Class 10 Psion. Joined the Ghost program 2501. Family deceased, no known relatives.

Interesting, thought the Ghost.

Stopping and decloaking, he asked, "Why? What could I possibly say that would interest you?"

"For starters, what's your name? Your real name."

"I have no name," the Ghost stated simply.

"Really? I thought all trainees received the standard alpha-numeric code when they join, then a call sign when they graduate. Your telling me that you have neither?"

"I wasn't lying when I said I was nobody. I am nobody. I'm a textbook definition of the word 'Ghost'."

"But—"

She stopped when the Ghost raised his hand. "No more questions," he said.

"But I want to be just like you. A true Ghost."

This coming from a young women shocked the Ghost. "No you don't. True Ghosts are just dead men walking. I wouldn't give my experiences to anyone, no matter if they were willing or not."

"But your experiences made you into the Ghost you are today," she said.

"Yes. Into the cold, heartless Ghost that I am today, and will continue to be, until I expire."

"But they kept you alive, strengthened you, uplifted you into being a part of something greater..."

The Ghost was slightly annoyed at her insolence. "Greater how? They enhanced my speed, agility, muscle mass, bone density, and for what? So I could kill. They took my remorse. They took my regret. They took my memories, my name, my identity. They repressed my anger. I am now a machine... bred for combat, built for war. Purified in the blood of others..."

"But you are a Ghost. You knew the consequences when you signed up. You were willing to make the sacrifice for us. For humanity. You were willing to forget your past life."

The Ghost was surprised at the venom in her words. She obviously longed to forget a troubled past. "No. I had no past life. I had nothing to regret. Have nothing to regret. I never chose this path."

He walked closer to 'Nova'. "It chose me..." He felt a strange feeling, like he knew a prediction was coming true, even though he didn't know what it was.

Precognition. It has to be, thought the Ghost.

"...And it chose you too," he said, then cloaked and walked away.

\\\\\

Twilight and the Ghost had been forced to relive that particular memory, and by the end of it, the Ghost had won back control of his mind.

Unknown to the Ghost, the suit computer had analyzed the foreign psionic presence and posted the results on the visor for him to see.

>>Foreign presence detected. Class 8 Psion. Proceed with caution.

Class eight? thought the Ghost. Almost as high as me.

The Ghost walked over to the pony trembling on the ground. "Next time, knock first. You never know which memory might come up."

The pony had its front hooves trying to cover its eyes. Her eyes, he reminded himself. Her presence was definitely female. After waiting several seconds for an answer, he finally received one. "How could you have done that? How could you have let that filly throw her life away?"

Filly? "Nova? It wasn't my decision. It was hers."

"But she looked up to you! She wanted to be just like you, even though you're... you're..."

"Emotionally dead?" supplied the Ghost.

The purple unicorn managed to nod.

The Ghost laughed his dead laugh. "Nova... she would've become the murderer she is no matter what I said."

The pony looked up at him in confusion. "Murderer? But... but she seemed so innocent!"

"That was years ago. She is now Emperor Mengsk's personal assassin. She actually enjoys killing people. I don't." The Ghost paused for a second to let that fact sink in. "Also, when I said knock first, I mean it. I will eviscerate your brain if you do that again."

The purple unicorn nodded and stood back up, shaking slightly. "How did you end up here?"

"I looked for the highest altitude in this area. It happened to be on your observation deck. I fell asleep after no Terrans arrived. You woke me up. Here I am," listed the Ghost.

Shaking her head, she said, "Not here. Here. In Equestria."

"Protoss wormhole. Hurt like hell."

"Protoss? Wormhole?...Protoss wormhole? What are those?" asked Twilight.

"I'd rather not explain this again if I don't have to. Do you have a leader I can speak with?"

The unicorn looked over at the still-unconscious baby dragon. "Yes. Her name is Princess Celestia, but I can't contact her without Spike."

"Spike is the name of the sleeping creature, I take it?"

"Yes."

The Ghost walked closer to the creature. What he intended to do didn't require physical contact, but it made it a lot easier, especially since the Ghost was a bit exhausted from the battle with Twilight. He crouched down and reached over to touch the creature's shoulder. Concentrating on the point of contact, the Ghost's mind reached towards the creature's slumbering mind. He found it, and did the mental equivalent of pouring a bucket of ice water onto someone who's sleeping.

The creature awoke instantly, although he was still unaware of his surroundings. His first sight was of the Ghost looking down at him.

"AHHH! Monster!" he screamed, as he tried to crawl away. Unfortunately for Spike, he crawled backwards into the side of a bookshelf. As books rained down upon him, he looked up to see the Ghost standing above him, menacingly.

"Next time, if something is sitting down in your house and making no aggressive actions, it generally means its friendly."

The small dragon's jaw dropped.

"Also, if you try to harm me again, I suggest picking a better weapon than a frying pan."

The Ghost turned and walked away, hiding the smirk beneath his helmet.

As soon as the Ghost walked away, Twilight rushed over to see if Spike was okay.

"Spike! Are you hurt?!" she cried when she saw him slumped up against the bookshelf.

"Nah, I'm fine Twilight. Who's your new friend?" asked the baby dragon, his voice loaded with sarcasm.

"I'll tell you as soon as you send this message to the Princess."

Grabbing the scroll, Spike breathed his magical fire on it, engulfing it in the green flames. After fifteen seconds had passed, Spike burped up the return letter. Twilight grabbed it and read it aloud.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, My Most Faithful Student. I am currently engaged in a meeting with my top advisers, and I will not be able to assist in communicating with the creature until the meeting is over, which won't be for several more hours. I hope the creature has not proved itself to be antagonistic, and I wish you the best luck in communicating with it. Princess Celestia."

"Sounds like she doesn't have time for her 'most faithful student'," said the Ghost in a flat tone.

"She has a perfectly valid reason for not being able to be here. She's in an important meeting. You can't run a kingdom without listening to your advisers," stated Twilight.

"Fair enough. You would think, however, that an alien visitor from another planet would be more important," said the Ghost dryly as he engaged his cloaking.

"Whoa!" cried Spike, who hadn't seen the Ghost do that before. "How'd you do that?"

The Ghost grinned his evil grin. "Magic."

Twilight Sparkle didn't know what the Ghost was up to. "Ghost, where are you going?"

"Outside. Need to kill some time," came the response from somewhere near the door.

Twilight grabbed the door with telekinesis, holding it in place just as the handle started to twist.

"Are you insane? You can't go out there!"

The Ghost sighed. "You know you can't keep me in here, right?"

Twilight had her game face on. "I can try," she said confidently.

These creatures have no idea what I'm capable of, thought the Ghost. Let's give them a small sample.

The Ghost grabbed a blast charge from one of his many pockets. He placed it on the door and stood back. "You may want to hide behind something," the Ghost said calmly.

"Why's that?" asked Twilight, suspicious of a trick.

"Too late."

A second after the Ghost said 'late', the blast charge went to work, blowing a circular hole twelve feet in diameter right where the door used to be. Luckily for Spike and Twilight, neither were harmed by the charge, but both were thoroughly shaken by it. Still cloaked, the Ghost calmly walked through the still smouldering wreckage and into the outside world.

The Ghost's first impressions of the town went something like this.

Is that house made of... candy?

The Ghost walked towards the 'candy house'. There were no ponies in his immediate vicinity, but there were some further down the road, obviously heading towards the source of the explosion. His curiosity got the better of him, and he ended up ignoring all pretences of caution to get a better look at the strange building. The walls were fairly standard, at least standard for Ponyville. What really caught the Ghost's attention was the roof. It was made of overlapping brown circular...

What are those? he asked himself. He took a few seconds to recall the word. Gingerbread. It's a gingerbread roof.

As the Ghost was trying to make sense of the very strange building, he felt a tingle down his spine. He was being watched. Turning on his thermal imaging, the Ghost scanned the area he was in, turning slowly. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, which made the Ghost feel uneasy.

Somebody IS watching me. I can feel it.

He didn't find the perpetrator, which bothered the Ghost immensely. Remembering that he didn't spot the small reptile either, he decided to use his psi-vision (psi-vision is when a Ghost focuses most of his psionic power into his sensory organs, mainly eyes, that allows the Ghost to "see" life, rather than heat. Can see through walls).

The Ghost closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he saw the world around him in shades of black and white. All the life was white, whilst all the inanimate objects were black. He scanned the area again, but still didn't find the presence watching him. Annoyed that his feeling was wrong, the Ghost closed his psi-vision and continued to stare at the candy building, marvelling in its strangeness.

"I've got you now!" cried something behind him. Before the Ghost could react, he felt a powerful blow to his back. The blow was powerful enough to knock the Ghost off balance, which gave the creature attacking him the chance it needed. It hit him again, on the leg this time, which caused the Ghost to fall to one knee. He caught a glimpse of a feathered blue wing before the creature took flight.

The Ghost attempted to stand but fell back down to his knee. His leg had been fractured. This creature can hit hard, thought the Ghost. As he tried to remedy his leg problem, he saw the blue creature attempting to come at him again, this time from a different angle. The Ghost waited until the last second to make his move.

In one swift movement, he jumped up into the air with his good leg, clenched his fist, and hit the creature in the chest as hard as he could. The creature flew a good forty feet before landing hard. The Ghost landed easily, and performed psychic healing on himself, psionically repairing his broken bones. The process only took a minute, but in that time a crowd of ponies had already formed around the blue creature's fallen form.

Still cloaked, the Ghost slowly made his way around the crowd to observe the fallen creature for himself.

This is not the situation I was hoping for, thought the Ghost.

The creature that had attacked him was a 'pegasus' variety of pony. It had a grievous wound where the Ghost had punched it. The pegasus' chest had been partially caved in, destroying ribs, the lungs, and possibly other internal organs.

Great. Just what I needed. Another mess to clean up.

Making a rushed decision, the Ghost walked directly next to the pony. Luckily, it was still breathing, but it was laboured. The Ghost decloaked to the collective surprise of everypony there. The Ghost picked up the broken pegasus and placed a cloaking device on her. It wouldn't last long, but it would last long enough. The Ghost engaged cloaking of his own. He said one word to the assembled ponies, psionically amplifying his voice to make the effect greater.

"LEAVE."

Whether it was his voice, his size, or his burden, the good folks of Ponyville all had the same reaction to what had happened. They ran.

Finding himself in an area suddenly devoid of ponies, the Ghost sighed and went to the one place where might have a sliver of privacy. Twilight's tree house.

He jogged over to the tree. He would have ran, but that would not have been pleasant for his passenger. When he arrived at the perfectly fixed wall, he was surprised. How could the wall have been fixed that quickly? I've been gone for less than five minutes.

Unsure of how to go about getting back inside, the Ghost did the only thing that he could think of.

He knocked politely.

Twilight opened the door, looking awfully tired. Without waiting for a response, the Ghost slipped inside, still under the effects of the cloak. He strode purposefully to a large rug on the floor and carefully laid the creature down onto it. Seconds later, the temporary cloaking field that was placed upon the pegasus fizzled and shut down, eliciting a sudden gasp from Twilight.

The Ghost uncloaked himself, and bent down to start the psychic healing. Before he could start, his concentration was interrupted by Twilight.

"What the hay happened here! You blow a hole in my wall and leave for FIVE minutes and this happens? What are you—"

"Quiet," said the Ghost sharply. "If you want this creature to live, you will leave me alone."

Cowed, Twilight retreated up the stairs, but stopped when she reached the top. She'd be darned if she was not going to watch how the Ghost healed her friend.

The Ghost gently placed his hand over the now-bloody wound that he had created. He could feel the irregular heartbeat in the creature's chest. He had minutes before it died. Reaching into his mind for the power he required, the Ghost began the process of re-knitting broken blood vessels, repairing damaged organs, and building new bones, muscle, and skin. To the Ghost, the process took hours upon hours of intensive care, but in reality, it only took the most of three minutes.

Finally done healing, the Ghost sat down beside the newly-repaired creature, exhausted from the task.

Why did I do this? the Ghost asked himself. Why did I save this creatures life? I could have easily claimed that I acted in self-defence.

The Ghost looked down at his hand. It was still drenched in the creature's blood.

No matter what I do, I have the blood of others on my hands.

Before the Ghost could think any more on the unpleasant topic, the pegasus that had attacked him started to wake up. Great.

The Ghost decided to look as menacing as he possibly could. He stood up and half activated his cloaking field, giving him a ghostly, ethereal appearance.

The pegasus woke up fully, rubbing its eyes with its hooves. It took a few seconds for the creature to grasp what had happened, and where it was. Confused as it was, it didn't notice the ghostly Ghost standing behind itself.

The creature attempted to stand up, but failed miserably. It ended up dragging itself in a slow circle in an attempt to look around. The creature stopped dead when it noticed the Ghost ominously standing stalk still.

"Oh, buck me," she said.

Comments

[Wolfinsheepsclothing]

nice chapter

[tomzon]

NYIHIHIHI
DIS GUT

[Sorrowfulwinds]

it didn't notice the ghostly Ghost standing behind itself.

Ghostly Ghost?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLOlOOIOoLOOOLOLOLO
ERROR:LOL.LOL

[The Crimson Reaper]

3057424 ERROR OF HUMOR DETECTED! PURGING CORRUPTED DATA!

....

DATA PURGED! REBOOTING SYSTEMS!