Ghost of a Chance

by Boneguard

11-I'm gone...

Frost slammed the door shut after he smashed through it scaring every living thing in the house. Fluttershy rushed as quickly as possible to see what happened.

"Frost! What happened?" she worried.

"Got ambushed while I was repairing my ship. I lost them." Frost replied.

"Oh, goodness! Do they know about me sheltering you?" Fluttershy asked a little panicked.

"No, but my ship is almost completely fixed. Now, all we need is more psionic energy to make a gateway back to my galaxy," he answered.

"Do you know where we can find more of this 'energy'?" she asked.

"I have detected a stronger source in the north, it is a long way though." Frost answered.

"Oh, no." Fluttershy whispered.

"What did you say?" Frost asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just mumbling to myself."

"You know something I don't, tell me!"

"No, please. I swear I don't know anything about a source."

"But you just said that you were mumbling to yourself." Frost outsmarted her and now he loomed over her.

"I-I-I-I..."

"Spit it out!"

"Okay... The source you sensed can by in the Crystal Empire where Princess Cadance and Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, rule."

"And what could be that was picked on my sensors?"

"I think it was the Crystal Heart. A magical gemstone that protects the empire from evil."

"Is that so? Pack your bags, we're going on a field trip."

"But wait, how am I going to go alone in the Crystal Empire? I have never been there alone."

"You will say that you have business there or something else."

"But it will be awkward for an Element of Harmony to go alone without being on a Friendship mission."

"Do not disobey me!"

"... I'll just tell them that a rare species of penguin was discovered near the Crystal Empire and I will go and learn what I can from it."

"Good girl." Frost finished and went to his post to look for anyone that came to close to the cottage.

What have I gotten myself into? Fluttershy thought.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day, Fluttershy was trotting to Twilight's castle where she summoned the elements so she can lie again to her best friends, this thought weight heavily upon her and made her mind a battleground where she fought herself. Should she escape her captor's grasp and return to her old self when she was happy with her friends or should she continue to follow Frost's bidding until he leaves Equestria and her alone? These types of questions plagued her mind. She saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders playing in the sun and felt some joy that they don't seem to be affected by their encounter with Frost.

Fluttershy didn't want to make the three fillies remember Frost so she continued on her way to the castle. There seemed to be fewer guards than last time she was there, she realized they might be out searching for Frost in the forest or were sent to defend the Crystal Empire which would complicate things. Fluttershy entered the castle and in no time she arrived in the Cutie Map room where her friends awaited her.

"Fluttershy, what's so important that it had us summoned here?" Rarity asked.

"Before I answer, I want to ask where is Twilight?" Fluttershy said.

"She is trying to find a key to the mystery that happened with the map." Starlight answered.

"Oh, okay. Listen, I must leave for the Crystal Empire." Fluttershy answered Rarity's question.

"But what are ya doing alone over there?" Applejack wondered.

"Isn't it obvious? It's about some sort of new animal that she wants to befriend." Rainbow Dash said a little bored.

"OOh! When you find the little guy make sure to throw him a welcome party to the world!" shouted Pinkie Pie.

After Pinkie was finished a worried Twilight Sparkle burst inside the room.

"Girls, we must go to the Crystal Empire!" she announced.

"Wha', but why?" Applejack asked.

"I know why our buddy took the piece of the map and that it's not enough for him." Twilight answered.

"But couldn't he just come and take the whole map if he needs more?" it was Rarity's turn to question.

"He needs another source of magic. The only one that I can think of is the Crystal Heart, we must warn Cadance and Shining." Twilight replied.

"Well, isn't this a funny coincidence? Fluttershy said that she wanted to go alone there so she could study something about animals." Pinkie Pie said excitedly.

"Yeah, ha ha. What a surprise.." Fluttershy tried to hide her disappointment.

"Starlight, you are in charge until we come back and could you tell Spike to meet us tomorrow at the station?" Twilight said.

"Of course, I'll just need to find where he hid." Starlight sighed.

"And Fluttershy, you will be able to search for the animal while we are there, but only after we talk Cadance." Twilight commanded.

"Oh, yes. Thank you very much Twilight." Fluttershy replied trying to fake a more cheerful voice and then she staid a little more until the meeting ended and went home to tell the news to Frost.

A few hours later, Fluttershy had informed the Ghost of the change of plans and he seemed quite troubled of this, it would be much harder for him to sneak and find the source of psionic energy with the most powerful force in the country right on his tracks.

"This sure complicates things, but the plan remains the same and you will remain with your friends and find a way to inform me of anything they want to do." Frost ordered.

"Okay, I will do what I can."

"And don't forget that I'll need you at some point to cover my back."

"Understood."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Why do we have to be so early?" Spike yawned.

"The sooner we get to the Crystal Empire the better we'll be." explained Twilight.

"All of us have to go to deliver some message?" asked Rainbow Dash annoyed.

"Tha' Crystal Empire is already weak with almost no guards. Wha' if we bump into that guy?" Applejack said.

"For me it doesn't matter what we do, I just want to see if the Crystal ponies have some new designs." said Rarity excitedly.

Frost followed Fluttershy using his Cloak and hid somewhere where he could uncloak. He observed the ponies that were going to give him a hell of a time after he reaches his destination. Fluttershy seemed uneasy, but she quickly fixed her posture so she wouldn't draw much attention as always. Finally, the train arrived. The ponies and Spike entered the car while Frost went invisible again and jumped in the farthest car from the engine. It was as he expected, empty with only hay on the ground, he sat near the edge so he could see Ponyville get smaller and smaller as the engines roared. Frost once again clutched tightly the dog tags he collected from his fallen comrades for the whole duration of the ride.

The train stopped at the station and everypony exited it and made their way into the depths of the city. Frost waited until the coast was clear to emerge from the car and went to find Fluttershy who was with her friends that were welcomed by Shining Armor.

"Twily, we're so glad you could visit, but why did you come during this time?" Shining asked.

"We have to tell you something. Go tell Cadance to wait for us in the throne room, we'll come immediately." Twilight answered.

Frost managed to pluck Fluttershy from the group as it was paying attention to the two ponies and whispered into her ear.

"Stick with your friends for now, I'll scout the castle." he said with a full map from his sensors displayed on the visor.

Fluttershy shook her head before he let her go rejoin her friends and Frost activated his cloak and made his way to the castle. The security was weaker than the one in Ponyville, they thought that he wouldn't be able to move around country quick enough, but after they realize their search in the Everfree would prove almost fruitless they would smarten up.

Frost made it right beneath the building which seemed to remain intact due to four pillars and saw the thing he came for, the Crystal Heart. As he came closer his sensors seemed to not recognize the source of the psionic energy he felt back in Ponyville even if the Heart held incredible power. There was something inside the castle itself that had even more psionic energy and Frost decided to first search for it before making his move.

After his search around the castle he came across two new sources of psionic energy that could aid him, one was a gateway and the other was a little filly which his sensors calculated she held the most power in the area. With his energy almost depleted, Frost set out to find Fluttershy and put his plan in motion.

Fluttershy left her bags and accompanied her friends to the castle, she saw that the Crystal Heart was still intact and she felt relieved, but she wondered where Frost could be, normally he would come out of nowhere and... Suddenly, Fluttershy was again held back by her captor and hid her with him somewhere nopony could see.

"It's time, excuse yourself from the group and meet me at the Crystal Heart." he whispered before pushing her out of hiding.

"Umm, girls. I heard that the cute little penguins are nearby so I will have to go, but I promise I'll be back" she lied.

"Alright Fluttershy, don't stay too long now." replied Applejack.

Fluttershy broke herself from the group and met up with Frost which waited for her in some darkened corner.

"Even if here are fewer guards than back at Ponyville, we must not take any chances and get caught. I want you to distract the guard while I work on the Heart." he ordered.

"Okay, I will do my best." she complied.

Fluttershy went to the sole guard that was standing right next to the Crystal Heart, she was a little confident that it was only one member of the Crystal Guard in sight and she wouldn't have to do many things to get his attention while Frost was doing his work on the Heart. She approached the guard with a little smile.

"Um, hello." she started, but with no result. The pony acted as if she didn't even exist.

"...I was wondering how you could keep this whole area in check all on your own, it means that you must be very special if you are to hold the defense of the castle all by yourself while the rest of the Crystal Guard are away in the Everfree Forest." she continued seeing that he started to look smug.

"I believe that you deserve much better than this, I believe that you could even be the Captain of the guard." she finished when she saw Frost working on the Crystal all this time.

The guard seemed to go into his dreams of grandeur so Fluttershy left him to them when Frost finished his job and met up near the entrance.

"Great, now I have to return to my friends. I promised to not stay long." she excused herself.

"The job isn't over yet, we still have two more sources to collect. The Heart was only the beginning." Frost stopped her while examining the piece that he got from the Crystal Heart.

"What are those other sources?" Fluttershy asked with a grim expression on her face.

"First is a type of gateway and the second is a little baby."

"What? You're talking about Flurry Heart, but she's just a filly. You can't do anything to her!"

"Relax, I won't hurt her."

"Promise?"

"I swear."

Author's Note:

Chapter 11 is done I hope you enjoy it.

Some of you might have even figured out where this is heading, but I won't spoil it for the rest.

Thanks for >1000 views and positive feedback and keeping the bar green. It means that I am doing a good job at writing for you guys, hope you stick till the end.