Sunnie's Spooktacular Spookoween Story

by SunniesStories

Chapter II: The Firehall

Cinder leaned against the brick wall of the pizzeria, an unlit cigarette dangling between her lips. It had been a few hours since they cleaned out their offices, and the dean had already been repainting their door. She was upset, her cigarette bouncing as she muttered to herself. Sunnie sat on one of the outside stools, just next to her, chomping away at the last few pieces of pizza, generally making a pig of herself. Soulful sat across from her, his single slice left abandoned as he stared down at the table.

“Now what?” Cinder said. Soulful looked up at her and shrugged.

“Well, no other university will take us in. The dean’ll take care of that.” The pegasus sighed. “Guess I could always work for my cousin again. Carpentry. Yuck.”

“I don’t know where else I could go.” Cinder said. “Maybe try and get a high school teaching job.” Sunnie gulped loudly and let out a satisfied belch that made both her companions look at her. She slid Soul's abandoned slice over to herself.

“Wanna know what I think?” She said, lifting her stolen slice inches away from her lips. “Call it… fate. Call it karma, call it luck, good luck. But I think we were destined to get thrown out of that dump. We finally saw a ghost, we finally have evidence they’re real!” She chomped down, a string of cheese dangling down to her chin. “It’s a sign.”

“Sign of what? ‘Hooray, you’re unemployed?’” Cinder scoffed.

“A sign we have to go into business on our own.” Sunnie grinned. Soul couldn’t help but snort.

“As much as I’d like to share your enthusiasm, Sunnie, us being able to even attempt to build a containment chamber would take more money than the university would have granted us in three years, and we’re not even sure it’d work if we did build it!” He sighed. “Our plans are all theoretical, and without our research and data, there’s no point in even trying.” Sunnie’s grin widened. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a thick binder, letting it thud down onto the table. The other two gasped as she pulled out a few cassette tapes and other notebooks.

“How’d you get all this?” Soul flipped through the pages, eyes flashing with excitement.

“Vozzii passed it to me when the dean wasn’t looking. He said he’d try and swipe the rest of our research too.” She leaned back with a satisfied smile. “Plus, money isn’t an issue. Soul, you can get a mortgage on your house. Or two.”

“Two mortgages?” The pegasus spluttered. “In this economy?”

“Relax! Everypony has at least two. Plus, I know exactly where we could set up shop.” Cinderheart leaned forward off the wall.

“Where?” Cinder asked.

“Remember the old firehall, down Fifth? I know the pony selling it. I can get him to give us a real good deal.”

“Didn’t that place burn down?” Cinder sat down at the table, watching Soul flick through the binder.

“Only a little bit! Shouldn’t take too much work to really get it fixed up.” Sunnie stood, her belly a little bloated from all the pizza, and gave both Soul and Cinder a greasy smile. “Think about it! When we get it right, we’ll be the foremost - and only! - experts in paranormal investigations and eliminations! If anyone sees a ghost, who are they going to call?”

“The cops?” Soul said, shrugging. Sunnie rolled her eyes.

“No! Us! And we can charge them however much we want!” Sunnie puffed a strand of her black mane out of her face. “Well? What do you think?”

“Well… it’s not like we have anything better to do.” Cinder said, Soulful nodding in agreement, and Sunnie’s smile brightened.

“Then it’s settled. When we meet here again tomorrow, we’ll be more than just friends, we’ll be business partners!” Sunnie waddled away, her wide flanks wobbling to and fro. Both Soul and Cinder watched her make her way around the corner.

“Wonder where she’s going to sleep tonight.” Cinder mused.

“Probably with one of her coltfriends.” Soul said, already burying his nose in their research. “Or marefriends. She’s not very picky, is she?”

“No.” Cinder stood, her hoof beginning to smolder. She touched it to the tip of the cigarette still dangling from her lips, and inhaled deep. Her golden eyes glittered as she let her breath out slowly, smoke curling out of her nostrils. “No she’s not.”

~~***~~
Cinder couldn’t hide her grimace as she inspected the scorching along the bay wall of the firehall. Her expression was reflected by Soulful, who gave a quick shake of his head when she glanced over at him.

“The first floor is where most of the fire ended up, but the upper floors are perfectly preserved.” The salespony said, fiddling with his tie. He’d just come back down the stairs after Sunnie whisked him away, chattering in his ear nonstop, allowing the other two scientists to investigate the downstairs area of the firehall, or what remained of it. The flames had licked the entire right side of the bay, and some of the old open-air offices in the back had been mildly scorched. Cinder’s nose wrinkled as she thought about the mold that had accumulated under the water damaged rug. “There’s a kitchen, bedrooms, and nearly three fully-working toilets! What do you think?”

“I think they should’ve let it burn down.” Cinder muttered ruefully to Soul, walking away from the salespony. “There’s not a single good thing I can say about it. The ceiling has so much smoke damage that I can’t even tell what the original colour is. The heat of the fire may have warped the load bearing steel in the wall, and there’s no real way for us to know unless we knock the walls down, or the whole building falls down on top of us out of the blue.”

“Yeah, it’s a real bargain.” Soulful said. He’d ended up having to take three mortgages, not just two, on his house, and the interest rates alone were going to ensure that the banks would be knocking at his door for the rest of his life. “Speaking of damage, the fire cut off access to the power grid, the wiring is melted to Tartarus and back, and even if it was still in good shape, our theoretical power draw would blow fuses from Fifth down to Twentieth!” He sighed. “Hopefully Sunnie sees it our way.” One of the firepoles rattled, and they looked up to see Sunnie grinning down at them from the hole surrounding the pole.

“Look out below!” The chubby yellow mare called out, before leaping onto the dusty pole and sliding down… a couple of metres before her plump hips stuck fast in the hole. Cinderheart couldn’t help but giggle as Sunnie struggled to get herself free, finally sliding down the pole and landing with a not-so-graceful plop on the floor. “Wow! That was amazing, you two have to try it!” She pulled the pair into a hug. “Didn’t I tell you this place was great? Hey, do you want to sleep here tonight? Try it out? I’ll go get my stuff!” Sunnie hustled her way towards the big bay doors, stopping to give the salespony a smooch on the cheek. He turned bright red, and beamed a smile at the other two. Soul sighed and pressed a hoof against his forehead.

“I guess we’re taking it.” He said, exasperated.

~~***~~
The next few days flew by in a blur. Soulful found himself splitting time between helping Sunnie and his cousin with the renovations and helping Cinderheart start work on the ghost containment devices. The upstairs of the firehall was alive most days with electrical sparks and strange, ominous red beams of light. This particular morning, a week and three days after they were fired from the university, Soulful hovered by the main door of the firehall, trying to get their new sign centered. Sunnie shouted unhelpful instructions from the street level as he struggled to get the last nails put into place.

“The left is sagging a little!” Sunnie called out, popping a piece of candy into her mouth. “No, wait, the right is too high.” Soulful let out an exasperated sigh, and with a final bang, flew back down to check out his work. The sign, white with black letters spelling ‘GhostStuffers’, did look a little crooked, and the pegasus let his breath out with a whuff.

“Good enough.” He said, and took a piece of candy from Sunnie’s bag. They both looked up at the sign.

“You know, I don’t think we made it flashy enough.” Sunnie said, cocking her head. “Ponies are going to drive right on by it without a second thought.”

“We don’t exactly have the budget for neon lights, Sun.” Soul unwrapped his candy and tossed it into his mouth. His expression changed to revulsion. “Ugh, what flavour are these supposed to be?” Sunnie shrugged.

“No clue. I found them in one of the lockers upstairs.” Soulful retched, and spat the candy into a nearby sewer drain. Sunnie laughed, letting the wrapped candy she’d put in her mouth fall to the sidewalk. “Gotcha!” Soul was torn for a moment between getting a drink to rinse his mouth out, or getting something to soak the laughing mare. A loud bang made both their heads snap around to see a large vehicle rumble up the street towards them. Black smoke belched from behind the pockmarked, mismatched body panels, the suspension soft as it seemed to crabwalk towards them. Old-school bubble lights caught the sunlight and flashed red in their eyes. It rattled to a stop in front of them, half turned towards the firehall, flat front tires against the curb. Soul waved a hoof in the air.

“Hey, buddy! You can’t park that there!” The door opened with a squeal, and a familiar form leaned over it, a wide grin on his face, eyes hidden behind a pair of big, black sunglasses.

“Vozzii!” Sunnie cried, tossing the rancid candies aside and bumping Soul out of the way with her wide hips as she rushed to give the donkey a hug. Vozzii have her a tight squeeze in return, before slamming the car door, and holding it closed so it didn’t bounce back at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Told you I’d bring as much of your stuff as I could.” He replied, looking at her sternly. “You also got me fired, don’t forget.” Sunnie blinked and looked away. The donkey’s face split into an easy grin and ruffled her mane. “Don’t sweat it, Sun. You just owe me a job. then we’re square.”

“We are looking for a fourth member… want to stuff some ghosts into traps?” She asked. Vozzii shrugged.

“As long as there’s a steady paycheck involved.” Soulful was inspecting his car, and his head popped up over the roof, eyes sparkling with questions.

“This is the old ambulance that the university had buried in the storage lot, how’d you get your hooves on it? And how did you get it running?”

“Well, the dean didn’t take my badge right away so I took it for ‘security reasons’. Then I bet the shop class they couldn’t get it running. I lost.” Vozzii shrugged again. “Cost me two hundred and fifty dollars.” Soul’s face dropped. He had enough cash to buy food for the week, and Vozzii’s bet would eat a majority of it.

“Call it two Bits and it’s ours?” Sunnie asked. The donkey nodded, and Sunnie produced the two gold coins from her shoulderbag. Vozzii jokingly took a bite of each to make sure they were real before slipping them into his frizzy mane.

“They may have got it running, but she sounds like a wreck.” Soulful fiddled with the hood latch, and peered inside. “Did they say how much work still needs to be done?”

“New shocks, new rear suspension, new radiator, rewiring, the battery drains too fast for there not to be a problem somewhere, and the fuel pump is on its last legs.” Soul nodded slowly. A tinkerer by habit and trade, he was already formulating a plan on how he’d start fixing her up.

“I know a pony who runs a junkyard, I’ll give him a call, see how many parts I can get for her.” Soul was already poking around in the bay, grease smudging his cheeks. Sunnie left the pair to get the new GhostStuffers car into the firehall, and wandered back inside, still a little amazed at how fast the firehall had gotten repaired. It still looked like a dump, but now it looked like a functional dump. The offices had been repaired, the fresh glass put in, and the rotten rugs torched by Cinder out back and replaced. Four brand-new oak lockers stood by one of the firepoles, three of which were filled with Sunnie, Cinder, and Soul’s uniforms, a beige-gray overall with black rubber booties to go over their hooves. Name tags were stitched into the breast of each, as well as the GhostStuffers logo, a white ghost mare taking a bite out of a red ‘no’ symbol. Cinderheart had painted the logo with some suggestions from Sunnie and Soul, and was looking to get a proper light-up sign made. The fourth was empty, save for a blank uniform that Sunnie wasn’t quite sure was going to fit around Vozzii’s chubby frame, seeing as her own was rather snug. Sunnie reached into her locker for some actually good candy, intending on snacking before having a nap. Calling out orders was hard work, after all. But when she turned to go to her office, she spotted Cinder working on what looked to be a massive fish tank, twice as tall as Sunnie, and about twice as wide, too, right in front of the stairs. Sunnie meandered up to the unicorn and offered her a piece of butterscotch.

“Whatcha doin’, doc?” She asked. Cinder pushed her goggles up off her eyes and tossed the butterscotch into her mouth with a nod of thanks.

“Our containment system still needs a couple parts, so I’m making a backup system, in case we get a call before it’s ready.” She patted the fish tank’s glass.

“So we can just shove them into a fish tank?” Sunnie asked, crunching away while inspecting the yellow and black caution stripes that were painted on each corner of the tank. Cinder rolled her eyes.

“It’s not just a fish tank anymore, it’s a reinforced containment cell. A strong ionic current is constantly flowing through the glass, preventing any ghost from being able to exit through it.” Cinder pointed to a slot near the bottom of the tank. “Trap goes in there, releases the ghost. Then, when we’re ready, we just trigger the trap. The ghost has nowhere to go, and it’s an easy recapture.” A cheeky smile crept across Sunnie’s face.

“So… it’s a really fancy fish tank?” Cinder sighed, sparks flying from her nostrils. “Relax, it’s pretty cool. We should charge ponies to view the ghosts.”

“We should catch one first, make sure it works properly.” Cinder was about to say something else when the firehall’s door opened with a creak, and the new GhostStuffer’s ambulance rattled and rolled its way inside. “What in Equestria is that?”

“Our new ride.” Sunnie popped more candy into her mouth, and hustled over to her office, her hips brushing the empty door frame before she plopped down in her chair, letting out a sigh as she wiggled her butt to get comfortable, leaning back far enough to cause her chair to creak. Her eyelids drooped, and within a few minutes she was snoring gently, dead to the world.

~~***~~
Sunnie was sitting on a throne, wide and comfy, very appropriate for the plump Milkshake Queen. An endless procession of handsome, ghostly stallions brought her cakes, and shakes, and other goodies, and she wolfed them down without hesitation. She began to grow, her belly ballooning out in front of her, her ass filling the entire throne, yet still more food came, and yet still she ate, and ate, until the throne began to crumble beneath her…

CRRACK!

“Yaah!” Sunnie toppled to the ground as her chair, bent nearly in half, broke. She landed with a thud, the sharp pain of her nose hitting the floor chasing away her dream, leaving only a dull ache of hunger growling away in the pit of her stomach. She looked up to see an unfamiliar face looking worriedly down at her through a pair of red horn-rimmed glasses.

“Are you alright, Dr. Bun?” The stranger’s voice was thick with a Manehatten accent. Sunnie let the cobwebs clear for a moment before answering.

“I think so.” She blinked, getting up slowly. “You’re our receptionist, aren’t you?” The mare opposite nodded, and held out a polished hoof.

“Velvet Melody, at your service.” Sunnie shook the proffered hoof, getting a good look at her. Velvet looked back, a clear look of interest in her face. Her grey and pink mane was brushed and blow dried, styled nicely in the front, and pulled into a severe bun in the back. She wore a blue and red striped sweater, and blue skirt that plumed around her tail. From the way the fabric clung to her, there was quite a bit of mare underneath. Sunnie snapped her eyes back up to Velvet’s, and coughed.

“Where is everypony?” She asked. Velvet shrugged with one shoulder, and sat back down at her desk, which contained nothing but a computer and a phone. Her horn glowed, and she pulled a novel out of her bag.

“They went out to get food, asked not to disturb you.” Sunnie rubbed her tender snout, and walked around the desk to sit in one of the waiting chairs. There was an awkward silence for a moment, until Sunnie coughed again.

“So… any calls?” Velvet shook her head gently.

“No.”

“Any… messages?” Velvet turned the page in her book and shook her head again. “Any customers?”

“No, Dr. Bun.” Velvet looked up from her book, and Sunnie noticed that it was a trashy romance novel, the very same one she’d just finished reading the night before. Velvet had good taste.

“Easy job, isn’t it?” Velvet’s face lifted into a smile.

“I suppose I should type something every now and again. You are paying for all this stuff.” Sunnie’s smile hurt her nose. Her stomach let out a grumble.

“Pizza?” Velvet’s smile beamed, and she pointed at the phone.

“Two large supremes from Sal’s, should be here any minute. Cinder said to tell Sal to put it on your tab.” Sunnie grimaced a little. Her tab at Sal’s was already astronomical.

“Thanks.” Velvet tucked her book back away in her purse, and leaned forwards onto her desk, one hoof waving away Sunnie’s gratitude.

“I couldn’t let a pony like you just starve!” She giggled. “Smart and pretty is a hard combo to come across, these days.” Sunnie flushed red, but before she could reply, there was a booming knock at the door. “Pizza time!” Velvet shot to her hooves, giving Sunnie a flirty flick of her tail as she walked to the front door, her horn glowing as she undid her bun, letting her mane topple onto her shoulders. Sunnie smiled wide.

She was going to enjoy this job more than she thought.

~~***~~

Comments

[TheMajorTechie]

12021088
can you draw spoons, 'artist' person that's spamming this comment across a crapton of fics 👁👁