Ghosts of the Past

by Sepulcher

Chapter Five

Ghosts of the Past

Chapter Five

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Pain. Indescribable pain. Intolerable pain. Must... remove... helmet... before...

>>Operative has been compromised

>>Terminating psionic tendencies

...

...

No!

The Ghost undid the last seal on his helmet, and flung it away with all his might. The helmet embedded itself into one of the bookshelves, crushing several books in the process. The Ghost was on his knees, his head in his hands. The pain didn't stop. It just kept going. And going. And going.

The Ghost couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take the pain. He wanted it to stop, no matter the cost. He had been forced to endure things that would cause hardened marines to go catatonic with fear, cause the chemically altered reapers to cry in terror. He took all the pain without so much as a wince.

It didn't hold a candle to what he felt now.

After an eternity of endless pain, the Ghost looked up and met the eyes of the creature putting him through the psychic feedback. He struggling said two words to the creature.

"Kill... me..."

After saying the two words, the Ghost put his head back down, and waited for the void to swallow him.

It never did.

To the Ghost, it took forever. He wanted to die, but it didn't let him. Pain held him in its grasp for an eternity, and never let go.

Except... it did.

It's over, thought the Ghost. And I still live.

The Ghost got up off his knees, and managed to stand up. He looked down at the frightened pony in front of him.

"Why didn't you kill me?" he asked.

The white unicorn-pegasus looked at him like he was crazy. "Why would I kill you? I don't wish to harm anypony."

The looked over at the other princess, Luna, then back at the white one. "You must be Celestia. Both of you caused me great amounts of pain, whether you meant to or not. Enough pain that I wanted it to end."

"What did we ever do to harm you?" asked Luna.

"You... you caused me to live in pure, unadulterated pain. Pain everlasting. Enough pain that I wanted you to kill me. But no. You forced me to live through that pain."

"How? How could we have done such a thing?" said Celestia.

The Ghost looked around at the other six ponies in the room. Every single one of them met his glance, then looked away in fear. All except the light red one. She stared back, a smile on her face.

The Ghost inadvertently shivered.

He turned his attention to the whereabouts of his discarded helmet. He saw it stuck in a bookshelf, having destroyed several books in its wake. The Ghost walked over and yanked it out. Tucking it under one arm, he walked back to where the two princesses were.

On his way past the six ponies, he said to Twilight without stopping, "Sorry about the books."

As the Ghost approached Celestia and Luna, the white one cleared her throat and said, "We...are deeply sorry for what we've put you through. If there's any way we can help you, please tell us."

The Ghost laughed a single, sharp laugh. "You can't help me. Nobody can help me."

He heard a cough coming from one of the six ponies behind him. Turning around, he noticed that Twilight had stepped forward. "Forgive me for asking, but how did the princesses cause so much pain? All they ever do is try to bring happiness to everypony."

The Ghost sighed to himself. He sat down on the ground and motioned for all the ponies to come closer. "It's about time I gave you all a story. The story. It contains content that may not be suitable for you, and if anyone wants to back out, do it now."

All the ponies looked at him with curious eyes. Nopony moved.

Alright then.

"We will start with the Xel'Naga. The Xel'Naga were an incredibly long-lived species that didn't reproduce in the normal way. Instead, the required two different species to possess two traits, one each. These two traits were purity of form and purity of essence. You see, the Xel'Naga were the Gods of their time. They could do things we've never even dreamed of. Over time, the two species were supposed to merge as one, creating the next incarnation of the Xel'Naga. The most recent incarnations are the Protoss, gifted with the purity of form, and the Zerg, gifted with the purity of essence.

"The Protoss are bigger, stronger, faster, and tougher versions of us Terrans. They possess advanced technology, mainly powered by psionic powers. They are all linked together by a psychic bond called the 'Khala'. It allows them to communicate far more effectively with each other. Us Terrans have strived to copy the Protoss' technology and Khala for years, but without much success. The Protoss have been around for much longer than us, and we know for a fact that they knew of our existence much before we knew of theirs. They have only attacked Terran's out of self defence, and to cleanse Zerg infestations.

"The Zerg, on the other hand, have only one purpose: to consume everything in the Universe. The Xel'Naga uplifted the Zerg a bit too much, and were in turn consumed by the Zerg Swarm. The Zerg then went after the Protoss, seeking to fulfil their prophecy. We were caught in the middle of the war. The Zerg tried to consume us, to make themselves powerful enough to combat the Protoss. Thankfully, the Protoss revealed themselves, cleansing the Zerg infestation on world after world.

"Most Terrans didn't see it as a gift. They believed that two hostile aliens were trying to destroy humanity. We did the only thing that we could do. We survived. We adapted. We grew into a power great enough to rival the mighty Protoss, a power large enough to halt the Zerg Swarm. We destroyed the Zerg Overmind, essentially the 'brain' of the Zerg, but it didn't help.

"The Swarm went rampant for a while, destroying everything in its path. It was calmed by its new leader: Kerrigan, Queen of Blades."

All of the ponies were entranced with the Ghost's story.

"Kerrigan was once a Ghost, like me. She was such a powerful Psion that they had to modify the psi-index to include Psions of her calibre. She was taken by the Zerg and infested by the Overmind, for reasons I don't know. When she came out of her chrysalis, every Psion felt it. She is so powerful, that she now controls the entire Zerg Swarm. She defeated the Protoss, she defeated Mengsk, she defeated the UED. Then she and the Zerg disappeared. For four years, everything was relatively quiet.

"Then the Zerg came back. They invaded hundreds of worlds, killing billions of people. I was on one of the planets when they arrived."

"The Ghost looked at the eager faces of the ponies, who expected more of the story. "Any questions?"

All of their hooves shot up immediately.

Sigh.

The Ghost had no idea who to pick first. He randomly picked Twilight.

Twilight procured a pair of glasses from somewhere and put them on. She then picked up a couple of pieces of paper, shuffled them, then cleared her throat and asked, "You avoided my earlier question, so let's start with that; how did the princesses cause you to be in so much pain?"

"To answer that, I have to explain what a Psion is. A Psion is someone who has the ability to change or influence the world around them using only their thoughts."

To demonstrate, the Ghost tossed his helmet in the air and suspended it with telekinesis. "Other psionic abilities include mind reading, telepathic communication, and psychic healing, to name a few."

The Ghost stopped levitating the helmet, and he caught it without looking. He proceeded to continue his explanation.

"Terran Psions are rated on the Psi-Index, on a scale of one to ten. Ones and twos don't have any psychic abilities. People with a rating of three to five are generally employed by the Ghost Program as wranglers. Wranglers can normally sense other Psions of higher levels. Sixes and sevens are telepaths, meaning they can communicate with their minds. Most Ghosts are around this level. Eight to Ten Terrans are capable of telekinesis, moving objects with your thoughts."

The Ghost let out a sigh. "Very few high level Ghosts have the abilities of the wranglers. Most Ghosts can sense each other's minds as a direct result of telepathy, but next to none sense them like the wranglers."

The Ghost's mind flashed through all of his mental twinges. "I'm one of these rare Ghosts. I can sense Psions, by way of a twinge in my temple. The bigger the twinge, the more powerful the Psion."

He looked up at the two princesses. "When Luna first arrived here, I thought that Kerrigan had come for me. She was the most psionically capable Terran, even before her assimilation. Now with Zerg genes running through her veins, she is a match for even the most accomplished Protoss warrior. I figured I would go catatonic if I was in her presence."

The Ghost looked back down at the floor. "I felt a great deal of pain from your arrival, Luna. I never figured I would feel more than what I felt then and there. I was wrong."

"When you two arrived here simultaneously, it caused me enough pain that my suit was going to destroy my psionic receptors in my brain to spare me. I managed to get it off before that happened. Lucky me. Instead of going through life without psionic abilities, I had to go through the most intense pain imaginable."

The Ghost looked back up at Twilight, who was shaking slightly. "That's how Luna and Celestia caused me so much pain. It's not their fault that they are incredibly powerful Psions.

"Next question."

Several of the ponies had put their hands down. Evidently he had answered several questions with his explanation. The Ghost picked the white unicorn, who he didn't know the name of yet. "You. Name and question."

"My name is Rarity, and I just have to ask: what are you wearing?"

The Ghost looked down at his suit. It had nicks and dents, scratches and claw marks everywhere. "A Hostile Environment Suit. Standard issue, for the most part." The Ghost chose Celestia next.

"Celestia."

"These... Zerg and... Protoss. They were both created by another species called the Xel'Naga?"

"Not quite. The Xel'Naga never created another species, they just found two that had the traits that they needed. The Protoss had the purity of form. The Xel'Naga visited them when they were a young species and were interested in their mental connections.

"The Xel'Naga pushed the Protoss evolution enough that they considered them ready for the Xel'Naga to descend to Aiur, the Protoss homeworld. The Protoss treated the Xel'Naga as gods and learned much from them, but what they learned divided the Protoss, causing their mental connections to disappear and wars to break out. Having thought their experiment a failure, the Xel'Naga left the planet to search for a species with the purity of essence."

"They found the Zerg, and attempting to not make the same mistake that they did with the Protoss, the Xel'Naga subordinated all the Zerg under a single entity: the Overmind. The Xel'Naga attempted to keep their presence a secret from the Zerg, but the Overmind found them, and ordered the Zerg to attack. The Xel'Naga were driven away, and in the process, the Overmind learned of the Protoss, the species gifted with the purity of form. Apparently, the Overmind wanted to assimilate the Protoss into the Zerg, finishing the cycle of the Xel'Naga."

Twilight put up her hand again and asked, "What does 'assimilating' mean?"

The Ghost thought how he could best explain it. "You have viruses here, yes?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded.

"The Zerg are like a virus, except on a much larger scale. When they assimilate something, it means that they take only the characteristics that they want, and leave behind ones that they don't want. For example, the Zerg have assimilated many creatures on dozens of worlds in their conquest. They've taken peaceful herbivores and transformed them into spined abominations, taken already deadly flying creatures and made them even more so."

Exhaling, the Ghost chose the yellow pegasus to go next. Hiding behind the rest of her friends, she asked meekly, "M-my name is Fluttershy, and umm, if you don't mind me asking, um, why are you fighting the other aliens?"

Looking at the timid pony, the Ghost felt something. What is this? thought the Ghost. This feeling in my chest...

Shaking off the strange feeling, he said, "The Terrans are fighting the Zerg because they wish to consume us, and the Protoss because Terrans are xenophobic assholes. We should be fighting with the Protoss against the Zerg, but no. They've protected us from things we never knew existed, they watched us from afar, never interfering with our species like the Xel'Naga did to them, and how do we repay them? We kill them. We steal their technology, and we kill them."

The Ghost realized how angry he had become. He was telekinetically lifting several objects around the room without him noticing. He carefully placed the objects back down, but this did not go unnoticed.

Applejack was the first to speak. "Ah take it you don't exactly approve of how other Terrans have acted."

The Ghost snorted. "You can say that again."

Suddenly, the light red pony yelled, "That again!"

All the ponies in the room stared at the light red one. Good, at least I'm not the only one who notices something wrong.

Fluttershy broke the silence by saying, "Umm, well, that's not exactly, um, what I meant. I mean; why are you fighting?"

The Ghost opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again. Why am I fighting?

The Ghost gave the only answer he could. "I fight because I don't know any other way."

"How can you not know any other way?"

The Ghost smiled without emotion. "I guess it's time for a Ghost story."

"To become a Ghost, you needed three things. A high psi-index rating, a strong will, and a mind wipe. Mind wipes were mandatory after Sarah Kerrigan defected to the Sons of Korhal, which were a rebel terrorist group. They destroyed your memories of your life, keeping only the ones you made at the Academy."

The ponies were looking at him with a mix of fear and pity. The Ghost continued, unabated. "I don't remember my name. I don't remember my family. I only remember my training. My training, and the knowledge I've gained after the wipe."

"Ghosts. We few, we heartless few. I don't really even consider myself a Terran anymore. I'm just a Ghost."

He turned to Fluttershy and addressed her directly. "I don't fight for others. I don't fight for myself. I fight because I must."

Surprising everyone in the room, including herself, Fluttershy rushed forward and put her arms around the Ghost. "You poor, poor Ghost. I can't believe anypony could do something like that."

...

...

This is awkward, thought the Ghost.

Disentangling himself from the sympathetic pegasus, the Ghost cleared his throat. "Where was I? Oh yes. Next question."

Applejack raised her hoof. The Ghost nodded. Having been acknowledged that it was her turn to speak, Applejack said, "This Kerrigan person doesn't sound all that scary. How'd she get control of the Zerg?"

The Ghost nodded. "Excellent question, but I'm afraid I don't know. She was infested by the Zerg in some sort of chrysalis, but how she controls the Zerg is beyond me. If I had to guess, some sort of psionic connection."

"What do you mean by 'infested'?" asked Twilight.

"Remember my definition of assimilated?"

She nodded quickly.

"Infested is where they take you, body and mind, and make you part of the Zerg Swarm. You can still think, but your body is not yours anymore. It's theirs."

All of the ponies shivered.

"I've seen infested Terrans. They begged me to kill them. I did. Next question."

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Can all Terrans do the same things you do? Like jump really high and turn invisible and stuff? 'Cause if they can, you guys should be able to beat them easily!"

"No. Ghosts only. A regular Terran is no match for a Protoss warrior, or anything above a zergling. If all Terrans were Psions, this war would be much easier to win. Last I checked, there's only a couple hundred Ghosts in existence."

After the Ghost finished, the light red pony started bouncing up and down while saying, "Me! Pick me! Me!"

"Fine. You. Ask," replied the Ghost.

The pony took a deep breath and asked, "What kind of food do you eat?"

The Ghost looked at the pony for a few seconds. He realized something.

She's not joking.

"I... don't know. I've lived on supplements for as long as I can remember."

The Ghost shook his head slightly, trying to clear it. He called upon Luna next.

"How does your kind and the others travel across the stars?" she asked quietly.

"Spaceships, which are flying contraptions made of metal. Some are designed for a single pilot, while others are massive, carrying thousands of people. The Protoss travel in much the same way, except their technology is far superior to ours. The Zerg, on the other hand, go into some sort of stasis when they travel through the vacuum of space."

The Ghost drummed his fingers on his leg. "Next question."

Twilight raised her hoof and the Ghost motioned for her to speak.

"How did you get here? In Equestria?" she asked curiously.

The Ghost remembered the vortex. He sighed. "My most recent commander, Jim Raynor, sent me to deal with a group of Tal'Darim, a fanatical Protoss group. While other Protoss are busy fighting the Zerg, these bastards sit back and stockpile Xel'Naga artefacts. I was supposed to destroy their pylon network, crippling them, but before I could, the army that was sent as a distraction was ambushed. Luckily, I was able to drive them back. The army rallied forward a bit too far however, and we walked right into a trap.

"The Tal'Darim had either built or stolen a new, massive ship. I was able to destroy it, but it managed to create some sort of miniature black hole, or vortex. I, along with the entirety of the army, was sucked in, our bodies being disintegrated, piece by piece. I woke up here," said the Ghost.

Rainbow Dash spoke up next. "Why is your voice all scratchy? And why are your eyes so weird?"

The Ghost took a moment to think about what she meant. "Technically, these aren't my eyes. These," he motioned to his eyes, "are ocular implants. They are cybernetically attached to my brain, and are controlled with my thoughts, same as a regular pair of eyes. These implants allow me to see much clearer, even in pitch black."

The Ghost had to cough several times before he answered the other question. "As for my voice, they tend to go scratchy when you don't use them very often. I haven't spoken this much in years."

Twilight put her hoof up again. Bloody hell, thought the Ghost. Will these questions ever stop?

"Out with it."

"How do you speak our language? Were you and other Terrans studying us?"

The Ghost shook his head. "I have no idea as to why we share the same language. The chances are astronomically low. Someone... or something has to have a hand in this. There's no other explanation."

The Ghost rubbed his sore throat. "One more question. Then it's my turn."

Twilight raised her hoof again. Sighing, the Ghost motioned for her to proceed. Twilight shuffled her stack of papers. The Ghost caught some glimpses of his speech written down.

She's taking notes?

"What was your part in the war?" she asked.

The Ghost answered simply.

"I survived."

The Ghost was deciding what question he should ask first when he was interrupted by Twilight.

"Why don't you want to give me a straight answer?"

The Ghost looked at Twilight with his cold, green eyes. "Do you really want the answer?"

She nodded, along with all the other ponies.

"Fine. I killed. I killed Protoss. I killed Zerg. I killed Terrans. Hundreds of them, thousands even. If you count all the nuclear missiles... I've killed millions."

If the Ghost had been looking up, he would've seen the horrified looks on their faces. Some ponies even took an unintentional step back.

"How... how could you have done that?" one of them asked.

The frightened looks on the innocent ponies were a nice push over the edge. The Ghost felt for his sidearm.

"I'm already dead. I'm just waiting for the end. I hoped it would come naturally. I did everything in my power to speed it along, short of killing myself, but it never came. I thought I would finally have peace when I was sucked into that vortex."

The Ghost looked up into the eyes of Princess Celestia.

"Now I'm stuck here. A tool with no purpose. A gun without bullets. Unnecessary. Unneeded. Useless."

During this speech, the Ghost had pulled out his sidearm. It was similar to a revolver in design, but packed a much bigger punch. He held it in his blood stained hand, and was staring at it.

"Unlike me, this one isn't empty."

He placed the barrel under his chin. He closed his eyes.

"Goodbye," he said, and pulled the trigger.

*BOOM*

...

...

Why am I still alive?

The Ghost opened his eyes. The gun was no longer in his hand. Instead, it was being telekinetically lifted in the air in front of him. There was a large hole in the ceiling. Evidently, one of the unicorns had yanked the gun away before he could end it.

"What? Don't want a mess to clean up? Fine. I'll do it outside," said the Ghost angrily.

He reached for the gun floating in front of him, but it was jerked back by an unseen force. Celestia spoke up and announced, "We cannot, in good conscience, allow you to kill yourself, Ghost."

Something snapped inside the Ghost's brain. He stood up.

"No," he said quietly. "Only I can choose that. Give me back my gun."

"I can't do that, Ghost," said Twilight Sparkle, who must have been the one who was holding the gun.

"You leave me no choice," he said as he unholstered his canister rifle.

The two princesses were talking with each other. After they seemed to agree with each other, Celestia stepped forward. "No, Ghost. You leave us with no choice."

After saying that, the two princesses disappeared in a flash, then reappeared an instant after.

Pain exploded in the Ghost's head once again, causing him to drop his gun and collapse to his knees.

NOT AGAIN! he screamed inwardly.

There was only so much pain the human mind could handle, and the Ghost fell unconscious, unable to deal with the pain.

All of the ponies were looking at the passed out Ghost. Celestia stepped forward and said, "Come, my little ponies. If we are to save this creature from himself, we must begin immediately."

Author's Note:

Dat exposition.

Comments

[random reader]

Hey, I was wondering where this story went, thanks for bringing it back.

[hs0003]

....Wow even after he explained how much pain they caused him when they did that, they just repeated it on purpose this time and forced him to experience it again.

[Sadeipaw]

Just so... epic.

[Shirohige]

3057270

To stop him from going an hero, I'd do it too.

[Omega Infinita]

I cant do that, Ghost.

[killaaxeman]

this is why I hate celestia she cant even let the man have peace

[TheArchive]

I love how people are leaving comments about how much they dislike Celestia for preventing him from killing himself. Yes, because obviously she wants everyone there to witness something so traumatic that it will leave them mentally scarred for life.

[The Crimson Reaper]

3057896 "you either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain..."

[Slient Melody]

5250476 Harvey dent/two face