Prologue: Approaching Anomaly
"I don't understand why the Traveler sent us out this far. There's nothing but void out here," a distinctly male voice spoke in the vastness of deep space, somewhere between Saturn and Neptune in the Sol system.
"I have to agree with him. Humanity never made it all the way out here during the Golden Age," a female voice said. "We're wasting time."
"Can you two shut up? The Traveler knows something we don't. Why else would we be sent out here?" another male voice responded, this time higher pitched than its other male counterpart.
"I'm picking up an anomaly. Local timespace distortion ahead. Looks like a super-compression," a voice that sounded like it belonged to a little old lady said.
"Any idea what it is?" a third male voice asked.
"Nope. But it looks like we're too late to change course. Prepare for whatever may come," the little old lady replied.
"Follow protocol. Stick together," a sixth and final female voice called with an authoritative tone. "Don't show yourselves to anything until you know it's safe."
"Approaching anomaly. Prepare for everything."
------
All was peaceful in Ponyville that night. Crickets were chirping, and a low warm wind blew in from behind a particular pair of ponies. The tall grass rippled like gentle waves on the ocean. The pair of ponies had set down a blanket and were laying on their backs staring up into the starry sky. Luna had painted the sky exceptionally vividly, colorful nebulas and assorted constellations decorating the inky blackness of space.
"I love stargazing…" a soft voice whispered. "Thanks for inviting me, Twilight."
"It wouldn't be the same without you, 'Shy." Twilight smiled and turned to look at the timid pegasus next to her. The two shared a warm nuzzle, and scooted closer to each other.
"Oooo. Shooting stars!" Fluttershy gasped, bringing Twilight's attention to six slow-moving streaks across the sky. Their path seemed to curve, and all six stayed together, making Twilight almost impossibly curious.
"Those aren't acting like normal shooting stars…" she mused to herself, sitting up. The 'shooting stars' seemed to be approaching. "'Shy. I think we should move."
"Wha-"
Fluttershy hadn't time to voice her confusion as she was picked up in Twilight's magic and carried away from their blanket. Within ten seconds, the six interstellar objects shot past the ponies faster than a rainboom into the depths of the Everfree Forest. A loud rumble should surely have followed the extraterrestrial objects' low flight path and landing in the forest. But no such thing occurred. Silence was the only follower of the six strange flying things. There was an odd tranquility permeating the night, one filled with trepidation and curiosity.
Twilight cast an askance glance at her companion, then turned back to see if she could discern where the objects would be if they actually did land in the forsaken forest of the Everfree. "Should we investigate?"
"I-I don't know… Something could be hurt…" Fluttershy replied, having shrunk herself as much as she could, though still leaning forwards a bit as though she were itching to check if anything was hurt.
"Then let's go," Twilight huffed, nudging Fluttershy as she stepped forward. The timid pegasus let out a tiny squeak of intense trepidation, but moved forward with her friend and stargazing companion.
The pair of ponies ambled down the moonlit meadow hill towards the Everfree Forest. Everything was dead silent in the night with the exception of the slow rhythm of their hooves on the soft ground. They made it about three hundred meters, with one hundred left before the tree line, before they started to hear the telltale sound of somepony galloping towards them from the south. And as they paused to look, they heard another set of galloping hooves behind them. The couple stopped and each picked a direction to look. From the south approached a pony with a Stetson, and from behind them; a unicorn. Seeing their friends approaching, Twilight looked up towards the sky, knowing full well that if there were four of them, the other two weren't far away. And as though on cue, Twilight caught the first hint of their party's second pegasus.
"Well I'll be darned, you guys saw it too?" AJ huffed as she skidded to a halt within casual talking distance of Fluttershy.
"Yeah, Twilight and I were stargazing up on the hill, and they just flew right past us," Fluttershy replied.
"Whizzed right past my house," the unstable voice of Rainbow Dash piped in from above. "I was having a really good dream too."
"And it was bright enough to get through my blackout curtains and my sleeping mask," Rarity added as she too joined the group.
"Only one of us missing is Pinkie," Twilight mused. "I guess we should summon her. Whose turn is it?"
"Pretty sure it's mine and Dash's," AJ replied. "Promise me you won't touch my hat, Rainbow."
"I Pinkie Promise I won't touch your hat," the pegasus in question smirked. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
Immediately after the ritual was recited, Rainbow approached AJ's prized Stetson and reached for it.
"Don't do it," Pinkie hissed, popping up from under AJ's hat. Upon seeing Pinkie, Twilight grasped the physics-defying bouncy earth pony in her magic, and pulled her out of the hat like a rabbit. "Weeee!"
"Alright, we're all here now. Let's go," Twilight said, stepping forward to lead the group into the forest.
All was eerily silent in those wicked woods, and not even a timberwolf dared show its wooden hide. There was a dense fog that clung to the ground, oozing across it like basaltic lava, obscuring the ground from view. As the group moved, they stumbled upon roots and rocks and tangles of low brush, as the fog concealed everything below the bellies of the ponies wading through it. Where normally the creepy crawlies would slither and slink up the trees and vines, none did now, for even they were aghast from the interstellar objects' flight into the forest. Flowers that only bloom at night stayed tightly budded closed from the bright light given off by the objects' passing.
"I dunno which is worse, walkin' through this place with the creepy crawlies, or walkin' through it without 'em," AJ murmured, her eyes shifting constantly as though if she saw even one centipede, the forest would become familiar again, and the tension would dissipate.
"It might just be me, but I prefer neither," Rarity replied with a shaky voice.
"I think I see something up ahead," Twilight whispered loudly.
A bright light was starting to filter through the dense foliage, small beams of it half-tangible in the dark of the forest. As the group pushed through the last few bushes to get to the clearing where the light seemed to be coming from, they noticed where they were for the first time. Rainbow half-groaned, "Of course it's coming from the castle. It's always the castle. Why would the weird things go anywhere but the weird castle?"
"Plot device," Pinkie answered simply.
"Um. What?" Rainbow asked, not quite understanding the answer she got.
"Well, what if we're all just characters that someone somewhere is writing about, and we and the weird things in the castle are just following what they're writing? And those moments when you forget what you're about to say, that's when they erase a line they originally wrote but didn't like," Pinkie explained.
Twilight piped in, "So kind of like a god or goddess figure? An interesting philosophy…"
"Doesn't matter right now, look at the towers," AJ quipped, bringing the others back to reality. She pointed up to a point on the tallest tower where the roof had fallen away, leaving the tower flat-topped and open to the air. The bright light had dimmed some, but there were six bright specks floating like fireflies on top of the tower. "I'm not sure what I'm feeling, but those lights are calling me. I don't think they'll end up being dangerous."
"Glad to know I'm not the only one feeling that way," Twilight murmured as she started walking up the steps to the front doors of the castle, which hung wide open as always. The ponies quickly navigated the halls, seeing as they'd been there so many times over the past year or three of their adventures. It took them only a few minutes and an accidentally triggered trap or two, and the group had made it to the base of the tower where the lights were.
"Whatever happens, we stick together. There hasn't been one villain that we couldn't stop together," Twilight said as she pulled the door open to reveal the spiral staircase. "Let's hope Applejack's gut is right."
Once the six neared the top of the tower, they began to hear voices. There were a mix of male and female voices from what they could discern. As they listened, they determined there were three male and three female voices. A male voice said, "Everyone hush. Something approaches…"
"I sense them too. Six," added a deeper-toned male voice.
"Such powerful Light…" whispered a female voice.
"Don't fear us, creatures of Light. We can do you no harm," stated an authoritative female voice. "You may come out."
Fluttershy nudged her way past the others, and poked her head out from the stairwell, looking upon the specks of light for the first time. They were oddly shaped, almost like a cube, but not quite. If stamped in the dirt, each side would make a plus sign on the ground, with a small piece in the center missing, as there was a tiny sphere in the center of the things. The main body portions were white, and seemed to be able to move freely to express emotions almost like a face, while the center sphere was a dark gray, and had a tiny 'eye' of sorts of blue light. The pegasus' eyes widened in wonder at the object floating in front of her. "What are you?"
The one in front of her chuckled a deep and hearty male chuckle, "I should be asking you the same question."
Twilight dared join Fluttershy, standing close to her, staring at the floating things before her. "You never answered her question."
"I am a Ghost," replied the baritone male voice, "I don't have a name, per se, but people and fellow Ghosts refer to me as G-Evs. Might I ask what you are?"
"W-we're ponies. Specifically, um, I'm a pegasus, and she's a unicorn," Fluttershy answered in her usual gentle voice. "My name's Fluttershy."
"And mine is Twilight Sparkle," the unicorn added. "I think it's okay, girls. You've gotta see these things."
With Twilight's reassurance, the other four joined her up on top of the tower. There were now six ponies and six Ghosts, each lined up side by side, facing off with each other. Twilight stood in the middle towards the right, with Fluttershy to her immediate left, followed by Rarity and Applejack, while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash stood to her right. Not one of the ponies weren't wide-eyed with overwhelming curiosity.
"I'm dying of curiosity, are you creatures of magic?" Twilight asked.
"I figure you will also want to know what to call us. I am called J-Ami. And to answer your question, we are partially of magic, but we are not creatures in the strictest sense. We are machines; small, but powerful machines, forged in the last waking moments of the Traveler's Light," the authoritative female voice stated.
"Traveler?" AJ wondered aloud.
"Aye. I am called Z-Lda," said a second female voice, who spoke in what AJ perceived as an old mare's voice. The thing turned and looked up at the moon. "Think of your moon. Pale, spherical, and quite large. The Traveler is like the moon in those respects. But at the same time, it is not. Even we Ghosts don't know much about the Traveler. All we know is that it is a powerful force of Light that visited Mars and Venus and Mercury, and all three were made inhabitable. Rain fell on Mars and the core of iron and nickel melted, beginning a process of rebirth for Mars. Venus' acidic and high-pressure atmosphere was neutralized. Where once humanity was only barely able to take a few pictures of the surface from an unmanned probe, now they could walk its surface and breathe its air. Mercury, once scorched by Sol's harsh heat and light, became a garden world."
"Incredible! How did it do that?" Twilight practically bounced like Pinkie. Her curiosity was most definitely piqued.
"We don't know," Z-Lda sighed.
"There are few that can speak to the Traveler, even fewer now that it is dormant," J-Ami added. "We cannot speak to the Traveler, but sometimes… sometimes we can feel its will, and we follow it."
"And is that what brought you here?" Twilight inquired softly.
"Yes," replied the deeper male voice that had yet to identify itself. "I am called O-Ron, and I was the one who felt the Traveler's call. I'm friends with J-Ami, and told her first, and we then assembled a team. She is more of a leader than myself, so I asked her to lead the expedition towards Neptune. We were not expecting a wormhole to open up between Neptune and Saturn."
"So now that we know how you got here, can you tell us why you're here?" Rainbow Dash asked, her own curiosity clearly visible from her posture.
"I am K-Rah," the third female-voiced Ghost replied. "We Ghosts were made by the Traveler to choose those capable of wielding the Traveler's Light as a weapon against the encroaching Darkness from among the dead. We reforge them in the Traveler's Light, and we help them fight against the Darkness."
Twilight stammered out, "Why fr- wait, no. First, how do you choose from the dead? Necromancy is impossible! Anyone who's tried ended up dead themselves! And even if it were possible, there would be huge physical, social, and psychological repercussions to consider!"
"I am called K-Ayd," the last Ghost said in its tenor male voice. "I do not have an answer for how we do it, but I think I can tell you why. Corruption can only set in when one is alive. We don't choose from among the living because there is a spark of Darkness in everyone, as well as Light. It is easiest for us to see how much Light and how much Dark is within someone after they have lived out their life, when there is no future to consider."
"Although I've heard that it is possible to reforge a living being as a Guardian," Z-Lda chimed.
K-Ayd huffed almost sarcastically, "Oh? And where did you hear that?"
"Do you remember the Shattered One?" the elder-sounding Ghost said. "I don't think you were around when he was. But I've spoken to him. He had a theory that there are ways for us Ghosts to choose a Guardian from among the living."
K-Ayd dismissed the point, "You do understand he was a rambling madman, correct?"
"You do understand he was correct about Crota's return, yes?" she countered.
"Can you two stop? I think these beings are capable of being Guardians," J-Ami interrupted, silencing the two arguing Ghosts.
"Wait, us?" Rarity gasped in disbelief.
"Yes. The six of you seem to bear a powerful Light already," J-Ami seemed to nod. "And if what Z-Lda says of Toland is true, then you are more than likely to be the best candidates we will find here."
"I think we should have them speak to the princesses," Twilight said to her friends. "They should know about these Ghosts."
"Why not the king or queen?" O-Ron asked quickly.
"We don't have one," Rarity answered. "All we have are the princesses."
"And for lack of Spike, we can't just send a letter right now, and bringing the Ghosts with us would freak out everypony, so I think it'd be best for you Ghosts to stay here, and we'll bring them to you," Twilight planned out.
"We can come with you. We are capable of hiding ourselves within a sentient being," J-Ami said, disappearing for a moment next to Twilight. Twilight shivered a little, an odd tingling feeling running up her spine and through every bone in her body on the way. A sensation not unlike being both warm and cold spread in waves from her core. "And now only you can hear me. Ask the others if they can hear my voice."
"U-um. Okay? Can you girls hear J-Ami?" Twilight looked around for her friends' responses. To her surprise, all of them shook their heads. Upon receiving the response, the Ghost rematerialized where she once was.
"Normally we can only do that with our chosen Guardians, but your Light is already strong enough to do that with, even though we are still free Ghosts," J-Ami said.
"Well, since they can do that, I guess we should get to Canterlot as soon as possible. Girls, it's going to feel a little weird, but let the Ghosts do whatever it is they do," Twilight planned. Situations like this brought out a different side to the socially awkward unicorn. She became something of a leader when big events like this happened. It happened when Nightmare Moon returned, when Discord was unsealed, when the Changelings invaded, and when Sombra attacked the Crystal Empire. Each time, she was able to take charge and ensure victory by her leadership. It was indeed a side of her few ponies truly knew the depth of, but her friends did. So when she gave the order to let the Ghosts in, they trusted her, and allowed it. "Let's go."
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
996 users online
169,002 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Genius.
This is good
I love destiny and this was not an enbarisment to it like other destiny crossovers are good job
The pinkie pie summon trick just earned you an up vote
If I were a ghost I would probably be one with a huge since of humor and always add a little sarcasm to everything I said
If I were a ghost, despite my profile picture, I would be a dark grey ghost with the four little lights on the side. I would most likely be tenor tone-of-voiced, and I'd be the one to scan all the archives. I wonder what roles the ghosts will take.
I wonder what weapons and sub-classes each one of them will have.
I think the ponies are a little too quick to accept the Ghosts, considering all they said. Maybe add more to their conversations. The pacing in general is too fast. Add more detail and draw things out more.
And more proof is shown that Pinkie is a benevolent Eldritch abomination in disguise.
8566961
It's also the easiest way to beat Pinkie in hide and seek.
8253162
Idk, the lack of pacing and explanation pretty accurately mimics the actual game, the rest of the fic must be hidden in grimoire cards and triumph descriptions