Ghosts 2: Ghosts on a Train
“What we’re doing? We were literally just watching a movie!” Dash shot back.
“Yeah! And it wasn’t even a good one!” Pinkie stepped forward. “You’re clearly hostagizing the wrong ponies.”
“Oh, like any predead is innocent.” Rattler sneered at the idea. “Me and my boys just want to stay down here in the dark, not bothering anybody, but yous always going and finding ways to torment us.”
“Yeah.” The smaller phantom by his side came out from behind his boss. “First it was that spirit board! Your blood-oozing teenagers always coming where they don’t belong and waking us up with that one! Asking me who they’re gonna marry as if I’m supposed to know!”
The other ghosts cheered him.
“Me? I can forgive something like that. But not this blob you’ve gone and sent on us now!” Rattler made a fist with his icy claws and hit the wall of ice behind him, sending worryingly large cracks through it. “This filth you’ve pumped into our home destroyed our lair, forcing us out into the sewers, and killed no less than four of my ghosts by gobbling up what they were possessing. Bobtail. Car Knocker. Ash Cat. Gandy Dance. All of them dead cause you flesh-ridden, snot guzzling, brussels sprouts munching predead rats! Me and Cage here are the only ones left of the original gang!”
“We have no idea what that blob is,” said Dash. “I didn’t even know it existed until just now. What makes you think I’m behind this?”
“You? Specific like?” Rattler pointed a claw at her. “I don’t recall saying nothing like that. I’d have ripped your eyes out in a second if I thought that. But it’s one of yous. One of them predead Curse Tech mobsters.”
“Mobsters?!” Diamond Tiara turned up her nose, offended by the idea.
“Be quiet!” Dash hissed at her. If that kid said something stupid, Dash was going to be so freaking angry. “You’re saying Curse Tech created that blob? How do you know that?”
“That’s where it came from.” Rattler pointed down the train tunnel. “Way other side of this thing is a Curse Tech waste plant. That’s where it came out of. Don’t really matter who went and sent it, though. If you want these kids to live, you’ll be giving in to our demands.”
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists!” Dash splayed her wings.
“Are you sure?” Boss Rattler held up a piece of paper that seemed tiny in his claws. “All I’m asking is for you to give this letter to whoever’s in charge up there.”
“Oh.” Dash put her wings back down. “I guess we could give in to that demand.”
“Yeah, I’d like to write my own letter of complaint.” Pinkie nodded. “This was pretty easy. Okie dokie! Give us the kids and I’ll make sure your letter goes all the way to the top.”
“Ah no! You get one,” said Boss Rattler. “One letter one kiddie. Others are gonna have to wait till this is all rectified and such. But I’ll be kindly like and let you pick which one.”
“Dibs!” Diamond Tiara’s hoof instantly went up.
“We can’t leave the kids down here,” said Pinkie. “They might get hurt.”
“Then hurry up!” Rattler told them.
Twilight had been standing there, eyes closed and deep in through this whole time. She had been unusually quiet since they entered this room. It made Dash wonder if she was up to something.
“Just give us a second!” Dash asked.
“Two minutes,” said Rattler.
The three mares huddled together.
“It’s not safe leaving them down here and we gotta get Fluttershy’s thing too, right?” Dash asked, keeping her voice low. “Don’t you have some overpowered spell that can help us?”
“I already did something. Sort of like one of those trap cards you showed me,” said Twilight. “Those two are safe. But there was another one, right? I don’t know if I can help him without them noticing. Not when he’s in the other room.”
“My psychic perception told me the room Snails is in is where the bear is too,” said Pinkie.
“Let me try talking to them first,” said Twilight.
Twilight broke the huddle and walked over to them.
“Is getting rid of the blob your main goal?” Twilight asked. “The three of us might be able to destroy it, but I need more information about where it came from. You need to destroy the whole thing, or it’ll just become resistant to whatever you throw at it, eventually becoming unstoppable.”
“And how do you know that it becomes resistant to whatever you throw at it?” Rattler lowered his head down in front of Twilight. His head alone dwarfed Twilight. “Are you from Curse Tech?”
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t need to know where it’s coming from, would I?” Twilight asked.
Rattler snorted, accepting that response.
“I mean, that one's a dipper with a big aura.” The lackey pointed over at Pinkie. “Maybe these guys are tough.”
Rattler stood silently considering it.
“I need more information if I’m going to destroy it,” said Twilight. “And I need you to promise to let all three of the kids go.”
“Fine. But only after you do it. It’s a straight line from here to where it came from.” Rattler pointed further down the tunnel. Splits into three dead-ends. Abandoned project and all that. It’s all filled with the stuff now. Maybe twenty miles in all and another unfinished station.”
“I might be able to cast a spell that will destroy all of it at once if that’s the case.” Twilight walked towards the ice wall.
“With what?” Rattler asked. “We already threw everything we could at it. The blob down there’s different like from the one out in the sewer. Nothing hurts it anymore.”
“Well attacking it so much was stupid,” said Twilight.
“Watch it,” Rattler growled.
“Just give me a few minutes to prepare the spell.” Twilight began chanting something under her breath.
“One more thing,” said Dash. “If we’re helping you, you need to let Fluttershy leave.”
“Is she talking about Flutterturd?” Cage turned to Rattler and all the ghosts laughed.
“Come on! If you don’t like her then just let her leave!” Dash demanded.
Rattler calmed the others down.
“How about this? You take care of the problem permanent, huh?” Rattler came closer to Dash. “Then maybe I’ll consider it. But you’d be better asking for a pile of dirt than that loser. Guess I hate her less than Curse Tech, least. If I can only get rid of one, then sure.”
“Because of the blob?” Pinkie asked.
“We always hated Curse Tech. Used to work for those monsters till we died.” Rattler opened his forelegs gesturing to the whole place. “We were the ones building this subway. Told em time and time again they been skimping on the safety down here. Me and Cage here died when a tunnel went and collapsed on us. Rest joined later.”
“Yeah! You think we’re the bad guys?” Cage asked. “It’s like chasing after a wolf while a dragon’s burning down the town. This blob ain’t nearly the worst thing these mega corporations get up to these days. I go spying on them all the times. Phantoms like me are the best spies, see?”
Cage floated over to the gremlins.
“Wanna know where all these gremlins are coming from?” Cage asked. “It's those guys! They’ve been mass cloning them! Freaky mutant ones with weird magic too! I just gots a portal from here to there. So you can thank Curse Tech for flooding your town. Hehehe.”
That explained the source of the gremlins, at least.
“That ain’t even the scariest thing I’ve seen. Not this blob, either.” Cage looked up at the ceiling. “Nah, one of them corporations got this one kid with like—"
“We don’t go given this kind of information for free, Cage,” Rattler warned him. “Suffice to say, they ain’t no good. If you knew anything, you’d be trying to stop them ponies.”
Diamond Tiara had been listening to this indignant the whole time, her cheeks puffed out like holding her breath was the only way to stay silent. But that last comment was too much for her.
“Well, I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.” Diamond Tiara turned her head to one side, awfully defiant given her position.
“Shut up, kid!” Dash yelled at her.
“Giant mega corporations are the good guys,” Diamond Taira stupidly insisted on talking more. “And ghosts are the bad guys. It’s that simple. Mega corporations give us movies, projectors, telephones, and trains and all you give people is frostbite! My father is the president of Curse Tech and he’s a great pony! He gives to charity and—”
“Hold on now.” Rattler crawled over the train car and leaned down towards Diamond Tiara. “What was that last line again?”
“You stupid idiot!” Dash hissed at Diamond Tiara through her teeth.
“Oh!” Diamond Tiara’s eyes wide as she realized her mistake. “I meant to say my dad is the resident of Curse Tech. Because they make him work 120 hours a week with no pay! It’s basically like he lives there, and I never get to see him. I’m totally on your side. Boo corporations!”
“I see.” Rattler grit his fangs together hard enough for the ice to crack. “So your daddy be the reason Ash Cat died?”
“You’ll never prove that in a court of law!” Diamond Tiara tried to back up but a wraith flew down grabbed her with his icy claws.
“If you hurt her—!” Dash threatened but it was already too late.
Rattler pulled back, opened his claws, and swung down at Diamond Tiara. The ghost that had been holding them up darted out of the way. Dash and Pinkie both jumped forward, but neither had enough time to reach him. That blow would have taken off half of Diamond Tiara’s face at the least if it hit.
Thankfully, Twilight’s metaphorical ‘trap card’ activated and a rainbow-colored barrier that had been invisible until now shone over the two fillies. The force from Rattler’s claw was thrown back at him as the barrier shattered. The claws on that hoof broke and his foreleg was thrown back. All the other ghosts in the nearby area were hit by the same invisible force, stunning the lot of them.
“What the—?!” Rattler sneered down at the two fillies in surprise.
That attack bought just enough time for Pinkie to psychically grab and pull the fillies safely behind her. Now only Snails and Fluttershy's bear remained in danger.
Boss Rattler went straight for Pinkie after seeing her display and no doubt feeling she was psychic. Various other ghosts were swarming in from all sides, but with the main one distracted Dash felt like she could do this.
She cast the murder spell and flew towards the bathroom from twenty different angles. The ghosts tried getting at all of her crows, but there were too many and a couple got to the entrance of the bathroom.
Just like she remembered, there was a single poltergeist holding Snails at knifepoint. Dash kept advancing. The ghost didn’t get the memo that one of them could turn into birds, and thus, regarded the incoming crow only with confusion.
Dash turned back into a pony just before hitting Snails. She tackled Snails and the two phased straight through the ghost, rolling out of danger.
That just left the bear. Pinkie said it was somewhere in the bathroom, but Dash couldn’t see it anywhere! It was too dangerous to stay by herself this long.
For now, she grabbed Snails and flew him out of there. She threw him to Pinkie, who left him with the other teenagers.
“Go all out!” Rattler called to his gang. “I want them all dead! That pink one’s their lynchpin. Take her out first.”
“I’ve been waiting a long time to do this one!” Cage flew up near the back of the room.
He opened a wide portal behind him. There was a brief pause, then an entire train car came barreling out of it at full speed going straight for Pinkie.
Pinkie closed her eyes and focused on the incoming train. It looked like the car crashed into a solid wall in the air. All the windows shattered, the car crumpled, and it fell to the ground.
“Let’s see how many times you can do that!” Two more portals opened behind Cage. “I’ve been saving up old, beaten-up trains for years for an occasion like this!”
This time, three train cars from three different angles flew at Pinkie.
Pinkie deftly shattered the trains, then threw the gremlins back. She pulled back her hoof, trying to form a spirit bomb, but then Rattler swung his claws, launching those huge icicles at her. By the time she dealt with that, another train car was flying at her.
How many train cars did that guy have?
“I’m no sure I can keep this up much longer!” Pinkie called out.
“Yeah. Me, um, me neither.” Twilight wasn’t even remotely tired as she dealt with swarms of gremlins and wraiths.
Poltergeists were throwing bricks at her, but every one of them turned into a butterfly just before making contact. A group of the enraged gremlins all piled on top of her, Twilight doing nothing to stop them. Then five wraiths pulled out their ice claws and rushed in to slash at her from all sides.
“Um. Oh no.” Twilight failed miserably at feigning worry. Just before the wraiths came within slashing distance, she cloaked herself in flames that burned away all the gremlins within ten feet and blew all the wraiths back. “Boy, that was close.”
“Twilight! Maybe do a little more?!” Dash suggested. “Get them off Pinkie!”
“But I’m not that strong, remember?” Twilight glanced sideways at a ghost.
“You’re pretty strong, just not that strong!” Dash called out to her.
“Like on a scale from one to ten, how strong am I?”
“I don’t know!” Dash ducked under another wraith. “Maybe a six?”
“Alright.” Twilight cast a spell and held up her hoof.
A small, black orb reminiscent of a bowling ball appeared in her hoof. Twilight threw it at one of the incoming train cars, smashing it flat as a pancake. The ball hovered just in front of the portals after that. The moment any more came out of Cage’s portals they too became flattened, effectively neutralizing his main attack.
Another spell made brownish-orange chains fly out from Twilight’s withers. They flowed behind her, looking momentarily like enormous wings made of chains before Twilight swung them. The chains tore through the room, rapidly whipping at all the ghosts. All the ones who got hit were thrown back hard, usually straight through the walls.
One of the chains came right for Dash, giving her a brief scare before they went straight through her. It looked like they could only hurt the ghosts. Any physical object was unaffected.
Out of all the ghosts, only the two main ones were able to stand up to the onslaught. Cage was able to nimbly dodge them and fly back into a wall. Meanwhile, Rattler just closed his eyes and took the brunt of the chains. All of his icicles broke by the time Twilight was done, but Rattler didn’t look injured at all.
Rattler roared loud enough to shake the room. A force of blue energy flowed through him, pushing Dash backward and throwing the chains around the room until they snapped. He managed to shatter Twilight’s chains.
His claws and fangs reformed, then shattered a moment later as Pinkie jumped out from behind Twilight, hooves blazing with a blue light.
“Spirit bomb!” Pinkie shouted.
The room was flooded with a blue light.
When it receded, Rattler alone was standing there, his image blurred and flickering, on the verge of true death. Revenants were tough ghosts. Dash doubted any of the others could have survived even the splash damage from that.
The rest of the gang never came back. Other than Rattler and Cage, the others all fled, unable to deal with Pinkie and Twilight. The gremlins were reduced to a pile of mush that filled the gap for the train and all of Cage’s portals collapsed under the force of Pinkie’s spirit bomb.
“Whoa!” Cage came out of his wall and looked over all the crushed train cars. “We’re dealing with a hotbox here, boss.”
“That was a six out of ten?” Dash whispered to Twilight.
“I assumed six out of ten meant above average,” said Twilight. “Was that not above average?”
“I guess technically it was.”
“You’re clearly outmatched,” Twilight called out to Rattler. “Just give up now.”
“Yeah! If you give us that bear, we’ll let you walk away from this,” said Dash.
Rattler growled and his icy claws and fangs reappeared.
“I’m hardly out of options yet.” Boss Rattler slammed his claws into the wall of ice that was keeping the blob at bay. “You forget! The blob can eat you, but we can just float on through it.”
The ice shattered and the blob charged out of its prison.
Pinkie reacted first, putting all her focus on holding it back.
“No no no!” Pinkie bit her tongue trying to keep it all back. “This is way more than before!”
Pinkie held out for a second at best before collapsing. The blob moved forward, but only an inch before Twilight stepped in. Twilight tried her trick from earlier, pulling up a wall of stone from the ground.
As soon as it got up, the wall cracked. Then the stone wall shattered, taking out parts of the tunnel along with it. A large amount of the blob blasted through and flooded into the main room.
“What?!” Twilight was genuinely surprised, enough so to quit her doomed acting career. “How big is that thing?”
“That’s right! It goes on for miles and miles!” Rattler laughed. “Why it’s gotta weigh more than that whole town up above!”
Twilight jumped up over the blob. She cast a spell, sending lightning bolts raining down on it. Visible electricity surged through the blob deep into the tunnel, lighting up the room, but the blob was impervious.
A second spell sent an enormous fireball at the source of the leak. The resulting explosion knocked all the ponies and ghosts in the room back, making Dash worry about the room collapsing. The room was unharmed, and the blob was merely scattered a bit. It continued to pour through even faster.
Twilight enveloped herself in black flames. The black fire melted into a thick shadow that spread out all over the room. The blob turned pitch black briefly but kept pouring out.
“What have you been throwing at it?” Twilight asked.
“Everything we could think of.” The phantom shrugged.
“And you didn’t stop to think maybe making it immune to everything was a bad idea at any point?!” Twilight shot back at him.
“Hey, I did what I could!”
“There’s still radiation, but—” Twilight muttered to herself in thought.
Twilight gritted her teeth and created a forcefield this time. The magic barrier shone with a bright white light that managed to keep the enormity of the blob in check. Right after that spell, Twilight muttered to herself and created a tiny black hole, not unlike the one in her bathroom, on the other side of the barrier.
Now the blob was the one being consumed, pouring into the hole like a drain faster and faster. But still there seemed to be no end to it.
“Whoa!” Cage’s eyes widened at the sight of Twilight’s barrier. “Hey, boss! I’m starting to think maybe these guys are stronger than they look. I can’t beat a pony who can cast magic like that.”
“We don’t gots to!” Rattler growled at him. “Ain’t much that can stop this blob now.”
He might have been right too. Twilight was concentrating on keeping the massive blob in check, but that was enough to take up most of her concentration.
“That should hold it off for a few minutes,” said Twilight. “But it’s going to collapse if it gets too big.”
“It can’t evolve to be immune to gravity, right?” Dash called out. “Just keep doing that on loop!”
“No, it could absolutely evolve to destabilize this type of black hole, especially if there’s this much of it,” said Twilight. “You see, normal black holes are incredibly dense matter, mostly consisting of—”
“Yeah, I don’t need the scientific explanation right now,” said Dash. “Is there anything that can stop it?!”
“There are lots of things left to try, but I’ll likely have to resort to a plasma stream to destroy all of it. Everypony needs to get out of this room first!” Twilight called out to her.
“Right!”
Dash looked around. They still needed to get that teddy bear before they could resort to something that extreme, though. Already the room was starting to fill up with blob as it devoured the endless supply of gremlins. Cage had created a new portal, summoning even more gremlins to feed it.
“Don’t let them get away!” Rattler called out to Cage.
Cage flew down into the ground as Pinkie ran into the tunnel they’d just came from with the three teens in tow. As soon as she got in, all four of them skidded to a stop.
The smaller blob from before was coming down that tunnel now. They were surrounded now.
Pinkie charged into the tunnel before it could fill up entirely. This one being much smaller, Pinkie was able to slowly push it back with her psychokinesis. There wasn’t a lot of time left.
Dash broke into crows and split up to try and find the teddy bear. Flying off in every direction, it wasn’t long before one instance of her found the bear.
Boss Rattler was holding it in his huge claws, keeping it just above the blob.
“You’re looking for this, ain’t you?” Rattler held it up.
Three of Dash’s crows flew straight at it, but she wasn’t fast enough.
Boss Rattler threw the teddy bear into one of the train cars and Dash dove in after it. She turned back and grabbed onto it, only for the blob to swell up and come crashing down at the train car a moment later.
Dash didn’t have enough time to escape, but she did have just enough to slam the door shut. The blob hit the train car hard, sending it spinning. Dash tumbled as it fell. With no ground left to slam into, the car hit more of the blob.
By the time she regained her orientation, Dash was stuck inside the train car, now completely submerged in red slime.
The blob pulsed and one of the windows cracked just a little. Dash looked to the door to see a small amount of it coming through the bottom.
Why didn’t they make trains airtight?! It was seeping in through the door but only a tiny bit for now.
Would Twilight or Pinkie be able to get in here in time? Did Dash have any options?!
She looked around. This was the only situation where turning into twenty crows wasn’t way more overpowered than it sounded. That was the only real power Dash had too!
There had to be some way to stall at least.
Dash jumped from the hall to a chair as a ghost came up from the floor. Then she let out a sigh of relief, seeing it was Fluttershy.
“I felt a huge spirit attack.” Fluttershy trembled, looking around nervously. “But I can still feel some of them around here. Are— are they running away?”
“Fluttershy!” Dash ran over to her, holding up the bear. “I got your bear, but you gotta help me out! Freeze the walls around the train to buy me some time.”
“If it’s just the blob monster left, maybe.” Fluttershy came up a little bit more, her ears still pinned down hard. “Well, I can pull you through walls. Just—”
Fluttershy froze in place, petrified of something behind Rainbow Dash.
Dash turned her head to see both Rattler and Cage now inside the train. Rattler was so enormous his head alone filled most of the hall. He wouldn’t even be able to fit inside were he corporal.
“Looks like we got the weakest link cornered,” said Rattler.
“I dunno, Boss!” Cage nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “I think these ponies might be messing with us. We gotta get out of here while we can still get, I think.”
“We ain’t leaving without helping at least one of these predeads ‘move on’ and all that!” Rattler snarled at Dash.
Rattler opened his mouth wide enough to cover nearly the entire train car. Now the inside of his mouth looked like a more extreme version of a shark’s. Rows of sharp, icy fangs went deep into his mouth. The ghost moved forward, threatening to bite down on Dash.
Dash went straight to her only real power, broke into twenty crows, and flew forward as fast as she could.
As Rattler chomped down, the train seats and most of the crows got torn to bits, the icicles shattering hard against them. But he wasn’t quite big enough to take out the entire hall and some of Dash’s crows got through to the other side.
Dash landed on the other side. One crow got out of that unscathed and changed back into a pony without a scratch on her. Based on her memories, most of them got out of that unhurt too!
She knew the rules. Dash would retain the injuries from whichever crow turned back into her, the rest could die and it didn’t matter. She just had to keep one unharmed and she could keep this up all day.
But then she felt something hot on her side. She’d been so worried about the ghost that she forgot about the blob! Now a small glob of it was burning away at her side, growing bigger as it ate her fur, then started on her skin.
Dash swung hard and managed to throw it off, but a painful burn was left behind.
Rattler held out his hoof and shot a volley of sharp icicles at Dash. Dash broke up into crows to try and dodge it, but the pain kept coming even after turning into a crow.
Dang it! When she got injured, she turned into injured crows. Getting hurt as a pony was a much bigger deal than getting hurt as a crow. With her agility reduced, very few of her crows made it, but she managed to turn back without too many remaining injuries.
“What are you doing, Cage?!” Rattler snarled at his lackey, who Dash just now remembered was right next to her.
Cage looked nervously at Dash, then at Rattler.
“Killing all them crows is real bad luck.” Cage backed up and shook his head. “I already got a bad feeling about all this. Something real bad’s gonna happen if we keep this up.”
“She ain’t a real crow. Sure it’ll be fine,” said Rattler.
At least it looked like one of them wasn’t going to attack. Dash hadn’t considered it until just now, but she did have a cloak of superstition protecting her now. But clearly, that only counted for so much.
Rattler charged forward again, chomping down at Dash, who tried to slide past him as crows yet again. Still injured, not one of Dash’s crows was able to avoid him entirely this time.
This time, when Dash turned back, she tumbled to the ground. She was covered in cuts now, the newest one was bleeding badly. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer.
On the other side of the train, Rattler stabbed one of the windows with an icy claw. Now the blob was pouring in much faster.
Dash looked around desperately but only found Fluttershy cowering in the corner.
“Come on! Driving them away should be easy for you!” Dash called out to her.
Fluttershy covered her head and winced like she was in pain.
“If you don’t get me out of here, we both might die!” Dash reminded her. “Just pull me through the wall like you said! Please!”
Fluttershy remained unresponsive.
“She seriously thinks Fluttershy is going to help!” Cage and Rattler both laughed at the idea. “As if that chicken’s ever going to do anything!”
“That little twerp right there’s the biggest loser in the sewers and that’s saying something!” Rattler pointed his icy claw at her and laughed. “I’m including everything that gets flushed down here too if you know what I mean! Crying’s about the best she can do.”
“If you hate Fluttershy so much then why not just let her leave?” Dash asked.
“Don’t want to risk some other specter rolling in here and taking over,” said Rattler. “Keeping that little twerp nice and on her leash ain’t so hard.”
“Other ghosts can’t fight against you if you don’t let them!” Dash called out to Fluttershy. “You just have to be brave for one second and it can all be over! Please!”
But Fluttershy kept wincing and trembling, unresponsive.
“See that? Nopony ain’t coming to help you!” Rattler sneered down at Fluttershy one more time. “Now get out of here!”
Fluttershy fled deep underground as the other two ghosts laughed.
Dash couldn’t just let them get away with that! She stood back up only to have a large icicle smack her right in the eye. It was too swollen to open back up now.
There had to be something Dash could do!
But Dash didn’t have any way to even hurt a ghost right now. There was no way to fight back.
The two ghosts were distracted, laughing hysterically at their inside jokes at the moment.
“Maybe when this is over, we should go make some more ‘soup’ for that loser.” Cage suggested.
Rattler was nearly shaking the train with his laughter as he slapped his chest at Cage’s barrage of jokes. Dash growled. She wanted to do something about whatever horrible cruelty they were doing, but she was too weak!
“Ah! Look at how mad the little girly’s getting.” Rattler pointed down at her. “You don’t like me bullying her? Nah! All chicks are the same. You think this makes me a real stallion, don’t you?”
“Yeah! I bet deep down she wants to be your first kiss or something, eh?” Cage jostled his boss a little. “But some little runt like that ain’t even good enough for that!”
A distant hope shot new life into Dash.
Dash remembered that other incel ghost she briefly bumped into. That was right! Not getting laid was one of the most common ‘unfinished businesses there were’.
“Hold on.” Dash stood up, her strength suddenly returning. “Let me guess. Your unfinished business that you’re a kissless virgin?”
Both Rattler and Cage stopped laughing and got an ‘oh crap’ look on their faces.
“What?! No!” Rattler backed up, shaking his head. “Nobody said any such thing! It’s that— well, it's none of your business!”
“Yeah! I was just kidding. The boss has made out with so many chicks!” Cage nodded a bit too eagerly.
“I could get a girl any time I want! I just choose to focus on my career as a ghost gang leader!”
“Heh!” Dash wiped a bit of blood off her cheek and struck a pose. “Give up now, or I’ll kiss you right in your face! Don’t make me make out with you!”
“There’s no way you could get to me!” Rattler shouted down at her.
Dash kissed her hoof and pointed it at Rattler, ready to blow it at him.
“You think you can get away in time?” Dash asked.
Rattler’s huge size was a mark against him. If Dash blew the kiss, there was no way he could get away in time.
“That won’t—” Rattler tried to pull back but stopped in place when Dash inhaled. “That won’t necessarily work! No one ever really knows the rules with these things!”
“Well you can find out or you can let me out of here!” Dash kissed her hoof once more to reapply it. “Four, three, two—”
“Alright! Fine!” Rattler dug his icy claws into the side of the train, then ripped it open.
With some effort, he parted the blob, creating a path of ice leading to the surface. Glaring at one another, Dash moved slowly to the new path and Rattler moved out of her way. Once Dash was close, both of them ran for it.
Dash flew through the new exit as fast as she could.
The room was mostly filled now! She could see that Twilight hadn’t been completely idle, at least. She formed a tunnel made of force fields leading from both her and Dash’s car to where Pinkie and the others were.
“You got out sooner than I expected,” Twilight called up to her. “There’s still a path out!”
“I got the bear!” Dash held it up as she dove past Twilight. “Go ahead!”
Dash ignored the pain and flew down towards Pinkie Pie and the teens. Pinkie brought up a psychic barrier as Twilight backed up, stopping just in front of them. Her body began to glow with magic.
“Everyone get down!” Rattler called out to whoever was close enough to listen. “I don’t know what’s about to happen!”
The ghosts flew deep underground.
Twilight cast her spell, unleashing a stream of white-hot plasma into the adjacent room then flooding into the tunnels. After the first two seconds, Dash couldn’t see anything but blinding light, enough to make her need to cover her eyes. She could feel herself starting to heat up even behind Pinkie’s shield.
When it died down, large parts of the room and following hallway were glowing red. The trains and rails, where they weren’t melted, were all twisted and deformed from the heat. There was still a glowing white light coming down the tunnel as the plasma continued to barrel forward.
“That should take care of the worst part of it.” Twilight brushed herself off and stepped forward.
That wasn’t even a big deal to her. “Though cleaning this whole place up will take a lot more effort. We should still go down there to make sure.”
The three teenagers stood in stunned silence, looking over Twilight’s display. That might have been a bit much, but there'd really been no other way.
Rattler and cage came out of the ground, the only ghosts brave enough to even check.
“Holy hell!” Rattler looked over the room, eyes wide, then at Twilight. “That was a six out of ten to you people?! Who the hell are you?!”
“I told you they were holding back!” said Cage. “I bet they’re all that strong, the purple one is just the worst actor!”
“I don’t want to see any of you again.” Twilight walked forward, all the ghosts backing away from her as she did. “Don’t do anything like this again, okay?”
“Yeah! Sure!” Cage nodded. “I think we gotta find a new hideout, boss.”
Rattler’s disapproving grumbling was like a low roar, but eventually, it turned into a sigh.
“Fine. We never wanted to bother with any predeads anyway.” Rattler flew off into the underground, his gang quickly following.
Once they’d gone, everypony let out a sigh of relief and sat down. Dash just now started to feel the pain from her wounds, starting to dread having to walk all the way back to Twilight’s house.
Pinkie turned back to the smaller blob. She got a bottle out of her chaos bag and levitated some of it in. Twilight came down next. She tried electricity, which didn’t work, then that shadow power which caused this one to simply burn away into nothing. That got a curious ‘hm’ from the witch.
“Jeepers dude.” Snails sat down. “Two crazy, crunchy sewer battles in one week? Do you think I’m like the chosen one or something? Destined to rule the sewers?”
“The chosen one of the sewers?” Diamond Tiara asked. “You can keep that one, sure.”
“Rainbow Dash! You got hurt!” Twilight ran over to Dash to look her over. “I should have taken care of them sooner.
Twilight sat down next to Dash and started healing her wounds.
“Not too much,” Dash whispered to her. “I think those teenagers are already suspicious enough.”
“Oh, right!” Twilight stopped and wiped her forehead like she was sweating. “Wow! That spell sure took up all of my energy. I just don’t have anything left to heal you with.”
“Yeah, who are you again?” Diamond Tiara came up to Twilight, eyeing her with suspicion. “
“We had this conversation like four times, dude. But it finally sank in.” Snails rubbed his almost non-existent beard. “Pinkie’s like, the reincarnation of an S class hero or something. It all checks.”
Diamond Tiara looked over at Silver Spoon.
“I guess S class ponies are supposed to be that strong.” Silver Spoon shrugged.
“Oh, yeah! They’re all like that.” Pinkie put a foreleg over Diamond Tiara’s shoulder. “If I wasn’t so pubescent at the moment, I could totally do the same.”
“Whatever.” Diamond Taira dropped it. “Thanks for saving my life. I guess.”
That’s gratitude for you.
“You can come back out, Fluttershy!” Dash held up the bear and called out to her. “Fluttershy?”
There was a delay, but Fluttershy came back, coming up only enough for her eye to be visible.
“Are they really gone?” Fluttershy asked. She slowly poked her head out to look around. “Like— like for real this time?”
“Ack! It’s another ghost!” Diamond Tiara threw her tiara at it. “Pinkie! Get it with your psychic powers!”
Fluttershy retreated underground much faster than she came up.
“It’s okay,” said Pinkie. “Fluttershy’s a nice ghost. We were helping her get her thing back.”
“All ghosts are bad,” said Diamond Tiara. “Didn’t you see what just happened? That’s why ghosts aren’t allowed in Equestria! Helping her is probably illegal or something!”
“Yeah? And so is nearly destroying the world with a blob monster,” Dash shot back. “The only way we might stay quiet about that is if you stay quiet about Fluttershy.”
“We don’t know if that’s even the case yet!” Diamond Tiara turned her nose up and away. “But fine.”
Dash sighed and held the bear out to where Fluttershy had hidden.
“You really got my bear?” Fluttershy floated up all the way to look over it.
Fluttershy got misty-eyed looking at the toy.
“Is it really over?” Fluttershy held her bear close. “Oh, thank you so much! I can’t believe you got rid of all of them and the blob too. I thought I’d never leave this horrible place.”
“We’ll take you somewhere less crowded,” Dash promised. “Though maybe you should possess that thing until we get you out of town.”
Fluttershy gave Dash, still missing patches of fur, a remorseful look, then flew into her teddy bear. The toy came to life when she possessed it and crawled up onto Dash’s back.
“Well, that takes care of that,” said Dash.
“Not yet!” Pinkie jumped in front of her and pointed down the hall. “We gotta go talk to Filthy Rich right now! If he is making more of this stuff, then we gotta get him to stop right away! I think I can get him to listen to me.”
“Why would he listen to you?” Dash asked. “Cause you’re a famous psychic?”
“No. I’m kind of a major shareholder in Curse Tech?” Pinkie nervously tapped her hooves together. “I own five percent of it.”
“What?!” Dash stepped back. “Then what do you know?”
“I don’t know anything,” Pinkie assured her. “I never go over there. I have no idea what they get up to.”
“You own five percent of a multi-billion-bit corporation and you never go their investor meetings?” Dash asked.
“I tried one time, but it was just so boring!” Pinkie lay down on her back like she was bored now. “I always figured those guys know more about business than me so what’s the worst that can happen?”
“This?!” Dash held up the bottle containing the blob.
“I never even meant to be a corporate overlord! Filthy Rich was eight and he said he’d give me five percent of his lemonade stand for a hundred-bit investment. I thought I was just being nice, but he took that lemonade stand more seriously than any kid ever took one before, and somehow it turned into the biggest corporation in the world.”
“Well, it’s an easy enough problem to solve now that we know who’s making it,” said Twilight. “We just go over there and blow up the entire building or whatever with a giant fireball and the problem is solved.”
“Maybe we can try talking to him before resorting to ecoterrorism?” Dash suggested.
Twilight blushed a little at her own brashness.
“Right!” Pinkie nodded. “We go find Rarity, get that robot, put together a slide-show illustrating the problem, and then give Filthy Rich a presentation explaining the situation!”
“I don’t think we have time for that,” said Dash. “We can just go over there and give him the letter of complaint now.”
“But then how are we going to present our slide show?” Pinkie asked.
“What is it with you and slide-shows?” Dash asked. “That’s like your solution to everything.”
“Well, it’s either that or eco-terrorism,” said Pinkie. “I guess we can put it to a vote.”
“Is ecoterrorism that place on the edge of town that sells wraps?” Snails lifted his hoof to ask the question.
“What?!” Diamond Taira turned her nose up in disgust at the question. “No!”
“Okay. Cause I don’t like that place so I’m up for some eco-terrorism.” Snails shrugged.
“We don’t even know if my dad is remotely responsible for this.” Diamond Tiara stepped towards the tunnel. “I’m sure he’s not! This is just some misunderstanding.”
“Guess we’ll find out in a little bit,” said Dash. “This tunnel will take us to his headquarters, right?”
“It’s not that far from here,” said Diamond Tiara. “Probably.”
The group started down the tunnel. It’d be a good while until they got there, especially with Twilight and Pinkie occasionally stopping to make sure there wasn’t any blob material left in any of the tunnels.
The only real source of light was Twilight’s magic and the occasional glowing embers.
Eventually, Fluttershy came out of her bear and looked over Rainbow Dash’s remaining wounds. Twilight had healed her enough that walking wasn’t painful, but there were still a few visible burn marks.
“Um. Rainbow Dash? I wanted to say I’m sorry.” Fluttershy bowed her head. “I know I should have helped you. It’s just when ghosts show up, I get so scared and—”
Fluttershy winced again, just like she had back then.
“Don’t worry about it.” Dash kept hobbling along. “It’s fine.”
“No! You could have died back there because I was too scared,” said Fluttershy.
Truth be told, maybe Dash was a little peeved about what happened back there. Still, she knew she couldn’t be that mad at Fluttershy. That pony had some kind of phobia.
What was something cool she could say? Dash remembered something from a cartoon.
“If you are sorry, then next time you’ll do things differently,” said Dash. “Next time somepony needs your help, stand up for them.”
“I want to,” said Fluttershy. “But I’m not brave like you. I get scared so easily.”
“Then try to get braver. Do something scary each day,” said Dash. “You know, when I was a kid I was like, the weakest pegasus in school. I got tired of being pushed around all the time so I started training as hard as I could.”
Dash looked up ahead at Pinkie and Twilight. It sure felt like all that hard work amounted to nothing in the scheme of things.
“I guess I’m still weak, relatively speaking, but I’m less pathetic than I used to be,” said Dash. “At least I can do something now. I got further than anypony in town would have expected me to. So, you can apologize by promising to do the same.”
“I promise!” Fluttershy nodded with confidence. “Next time I’ll be brave.”
They continued down the tunnel.
It took almost an hour, but they eventually got to the only other train station this track appeared to lead to. Between the blob and Twilight’s spell, everything down here was destroyed. At the moment it was more of a cavern.
There was a loud banging coming from one side of the wall, but other than that, Dash was about to write this off as a dead end.
Pinkie noticed the one hole in the wall right away, one about as big as a head. It looked like maybe it formed from an earthquake, being more of a crack surrounded by several smaller cracks.
“That’s where it was coming from.” Pinkie stuck her head up it. “Looks like it stopped for now. But that goes way up.”
“I don’t think we can fit in that thing.” Dash walked over to the hole. “Is there any way in?”
Dash was considering using the murder spell to try and fly up there, but just then a new hole in the wall, from the source of the banging noise, broke through. A stallion wearing a gas mask stepped through.
“You see?” the stallion aske somepony behind him. “There’s a whole abandoned subway down here. The explosion must have been caused by something underground. Wait a second.”
“A bunch of teenagers?” Another pony in another gas mask looked at the gang of ponies in surprise. “Are you kids playing some kind of prank? And set off a few sticks of dynamite?”
“Who are you people?” The first pony lifted his gas mask. “Did you just crawl out of the sewers? Look, this is private property.”
“I own five percent of this company, so I can go to any five percent of it I want.” Pinkie walked up to him.
“I don’t know if that’s how that works,” said the gas mask guy. “Also, I have no idea who any of you people are.”
“My dad is the president of this company! If you don’t take me to my dad right now, I’ll make sure you get in tons of trouble.” Diamond Tiara glared at his nametag. “Fiddlesticks!”
Fiddlesticks looked over Diamond Tiara.
“Oh, wait! You are the boss’s kid!” Fiddlesticks’ face flashed in realization “But what are you doing down here? The containment area isn’t safe, and we just heard some kind of explosion. How did you even get down here? We needed to drill through the floor.”
“Hey, does my dad pay you to ask stupid, annoying questions?” Diamond Tiara glared at him.
“Um. Yes actually.”
“Well stop it! I demand you take me to my father immediately. That’s your job now!” Diamond Tiara lifted her head and walked past him without even waiting for a response.
The security team, or whatever they were, didn’t put up much resistance after that. The group was led to an elevator, which Dash had to explain was not a box that warped space and time, then to the top of the building.
Filthy Rich had an enormous office with three glass walls overlooking the city outside. The floor was a perfectly flat marble plane with the Curse Tech logo painted onto the floor. This one room alone was bigger than any home Dash ever lived in unless you counted Twilight’s.
Rich himself was behind his desk, leaning back in his office chair, yelling at somepony over the phone.
“Next time it won’t just be jelly beans!” he shouted before slamming the phone down, shaking his head, and turning around to see a small company standing in front of him.
Fiddlesticks didn’t get a chance to introduce anypony.
“Diamond?” Filthy Rich looked up at her. “What are you and your friends doing here?”
“Daddy!” Diamond Tiara ran over to him and grabbed him in a hug, forcing his office chair to lean back as far as it could. She began crying all of a sudden. It was almost certainly fake tears, but she was great at pretending to cry. “There was a ghost and a train and everypony was saying mean things about you and I almost got frostbit and there’s gunk all over my hair!”
Diamond Tiara began wailing.
“Aw, DT!” Rich’s expression softened. He gave his daughter a reassuring pat on the back. “I can’t bear to see you crying. Just calm down a bit and tell me what the problem is.”
“I’ll tell you what the problem is.” Pinkie stepped forward. “You got your horrible blob monster all over the sewers!”
“Oh! You saw a blob monster, did you? Ah, fiddlestick!” Rich leaned over and pressed an intercom button on his desk. “Fiddlesticks? Did you hear me? I think I’ve found the problem. There’s seems to be another code seven. I need you to send a team into Ponyville’s sewers before any bad publicity crops up.”
“I’ll get on it.” Fiddlesticks left the room.
“Hold on, hold on. What?” Dash asked. “How often does this happen?”
“Oh, every now and then. It’s hardly a big deal. Nothing for you crazy kids to worry about.” Filthy Rich waved them away. “Hey, how would you all like some free t-shirts! I just need you to sign a thing acknowledging you’ve been compensated and—”
“Not a big deal?” Twilight walked over in a huff. “Do you not know what you created? The self-replicating molecule evolved resistance to nearly everything. If I hadn’t shown up, it would have been a disaster.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie went halfway up onto Rich’s desk. “You’ve left me no choice but to give you a serious talking to!”
“Who even are any of you? You’re too old to still be in high school.” Filthy Rich looked them over, stopping at Pinkie Pie in particular. “You look kind of familiar.”
“It’s me, Pinkie Pie!”
“You’re Pinkie’s kid? I didn’t even know she had kids, let alone that they went to school with my daughter. Pinkie lives miles away from here.”
“No, I’m not Pinkie’s daughter I’m Pinkie’s—” Pinkie struggled to end that sentence. “I’m just Pinkie! I got transformed into a teenager.”
“How do I know it’s really you?” Rich asked.
“For your tenth birthday I got you the corporate headquarters playset with real corporate bailout action,” said Pinkie. “I remember every birthday present I ever got anyone.”
“Huh! It is you…” Rich rubbed his chin as he looked Pinkie over once more. “Though I distinctly remember the young Pinkie Pie being an unusually large and muscular mare.”
“Oh, I just haven’t hit my growth spurt yet.” Pinkie held a hoof up over her head. “I was super short until then.”
“I am surprised to see you here at all.” Rich scratched his head. “You’ve consistently told me that all this business stuff is too boring for you for the past forty years.”
“That’s because you didn’t tell me that you created a horrible all-consuming blob monster and unleashed it on the underground!” Pinkie put her hoof down. “If I’d known you were gonna do that I’d have spent that hundred bits on a ridiculously expensive lollipop instead! And it probably wouldn’t have even tasted that good.”
“What are you talking about?” Rich reached under his desk and pulled out a pamphlet. “I sent you a pamphlet detailing our morally dubious decision to create and then unleash blob monsters. I even made a special reduced-boredom edition just for you and held on to one in case you ever showed up.”
“Um!” Pinkie glanced nervously at the others, then back at Rich with conviction once more. “I mean! You could have made it a little less boring still!”
“Daddy! You didn’t really create that blob monster, did you? We’re supposed to be the good guys, right?”
“It was for the greater good,” said Filthy Rich. “Also for the money. Mostly the money. But also the greater good.”
“There? You see?” Diamond Tiara nodded, self-assured. “The greater good! So it’s all okay.”
“What greater good?!” Dash asked. “And how the heck do you make money off a blob that devours all life?”
“Yeah! We’re supposed to care about the environment now!” Pinkie stepped forward. “Don’t you remember how polluted everything was before we regulated everything?”
“Well for your information, environmental regulations were exactly why we developed the blob,” said Rich. “Disposing of super radioactive wastes properly was just too darn expensive so me and the free market got together to create a better way. The blob is completely immune to super radiation and can neutralize any type of waste. Why, it’s the cheapest darn way of going about it. Here, I have a classified slide show explaining the whole thing.”
Rich walked over to a locked cabinet and took a projector out of it. He put it on his desk and brought up a slide with a graph showing that blob monsters and pollution were inversely related.
“As you can see, pollution has greatly decreased in the past decade,” said Rich. “Since you’re insiders I can tell you that’s not entirely due to Curse Tech blob monsters, but I try to imply to investors that it is.”
“He’s out-sliding us!” Pinkie whispered harshly to Dash. “I told you we should have gotten our own.”
Filthy Rich brought up a slide with a picture of a serene forest just outside of Vanhoover to the left, clear blue skies ahead. On the right side was how it was a few decades ago, covered with toxic waste barrels and devoid of plant life.
“Why look at how not-polluted Equestria is now, thanks largely to the innovations of my corporation! Do you think things like blue skies, butterflies, and trees just happen on their own?” Rich asked. “Hardly! You need corporations to invent cleaner energy sources. You need a ‘the blob’ to reduce all the waste. The only other options are unthinkable because they both involve me losing money.”
“I’m pretty sure things were getting less polluted since before you were born,” said Pinkie.
“I don’t know anything about pollution,” said Twilight, “but I do know about self-replicating molecules.”
“You do?” Filthy Rich glanced left and right. “Somebody’s in violation of an NDA, then.”
“However you’re containing this isn’t working anymore,” said Twilight. “We saw a massive amount of it down there causing all kinds of problems. Multiple ghosts died.”
“Yes. There was that earthquake recently. But as you can see from this slide.” Rich brought up a chart showing “All damage from the blob is localized underground and we typically resolve the issue before any public backlash crops up. Nearly all of the casualties have been ghosts and, well, they’re technically already dead.”
“Do you not know how dangerous this could get?” Twilight asked. “Self-replicating molecules evolve rapidly. If it becomes immune to ultraviolet radiation, and it will, I don’t know if even I could stop it!”
“We don’t give it enough time to become immune to UV.” Rich brought up another slide detailing the ‘life cycle of the blob’. “You see? The blob devours the waste, then we destroy the blob using good old electricity. The inert slime can then be used as a filler in all kinds of food products.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Twilight. “There’s always a non-zero chance of it evolving resistance to electricity before it dies. That’s why the one down there was immune to that, wasn’t it? No matter what disposal method you use, some of it will always escape and it will always become immune to your method. When those two line up—”
“You brought a molecular engineer with you?” Filthy gave Twilight an annoyed look. He changed the slide to show the escape rate of the blob. “Well, yes. According to this slide, the blob does occasionally evolve resistance to our incineration attempts. That’s likely where this sewer blob came from. Statistically speaking a major disaster will only happen once every few decades.”
“A major disaster almost happened just now!” Dash shot at him. “Does the government know you’re using this stuff?”
“They know certain details of it!” Rich shrugged. “Maybe not every single detail about how it could potentially destroy all life.”
“And you’re not worried any of this might go horribly wrong?” Dash asked.
“Look,” Rich held up a ring he was wearing as a pendant on his necklace, “this ring binds any one demon to my will and the one I bound was Nitpickulon the eternal annoyance. That guy goes over all of my contracts and legal affairs with a level of precision no mere mortal can comprehend. I have so much plausible deniability I could build a yacht with it. There’s no way we’ll ever be held legally accountable for this.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” said Dash.
“I’m reassured by it.”
“That’s not what I meant! The part about everypony dying? What’s your contingency for that?”
“Come on! Statistically speaking, that won’t be for like another forty or fifty years. Until then it’s just printing money.”
“Well, yeah! But then in forty years all of us are going to die!” Dash slammed her hooves on the table.
“Look, I eat five grilled cheese sandwiches a day,” said Filthy Rich. “I’m not living another forty years either way, okay?”
“And what are the rest of us supposed to do?” Dash asked.
“If it becomes a problem in the future, I’m sure somepony will solve it.” Rich shrugged. “If there’s one thing I learned in my life, it’s that money can solve any problem! The moment the corporations have a reason to stop the blob they’ll stop the blob. Probably.”
“Well, I can’t hold shares in a company that’s doing this!” Pinkie stepped forward with her threat. “If you don’t shut this down, I’ll sell all of my Curse Tech stocks in a single day! It’ll crash the entire stock market!”
“What?” Rich’s ears fell flat. “No! Not the stock market!”
“Yeah, and what about your daughter?” Dash lifted Diamond Tiara. “Don’t you care about her?”
“Yeah! What about me, Dad?” Diamond Tiara asked. “That stuff almost ate me!”
“It did?” Rich did look concerned for once. “I need to get you better security is what that means!”
“But Dad! I’ll still be alive in forty years!” Diamond Tiara complained. “What am I gonna do then?”
“Aw, pumpkin.” Rich’s expression softened as he put a hoof on Diamond Tiara’s head. “You know, you’re literally the only person on the entire planet I’d put before profit. And yes, that includes your mother.”
“Daw! That’s so sweet.” Pinkie cooed.
“Is it?” Dash cringed a little.
“Alright, if it’s the only way to keep my daughter from dying a horrible death, I’ll go back to safer waste disposal practices.” Rich shut down his slide and sat down at his desk. “But it’s going to mean no yacht for your birthday this year.”
“What?!” Diamond Tiara gasped.
“Hey, you owe us,” Dash reminded her.
“Fine.” Diamond Tiara groaned.
“Alright, then! You people win.” Rich sat back down and waved them away. “I’ll shut down the blob project immediately. I suppose I can somehow swing this to make it look like I care about the environment or whatever.”
“How do we know he’s actually going to do it?” Dash asked the obvious question.
“I think we convinced him,” said Pinkie. “But I’ll check back in a little bit."
“Only thing left to discuss is how much hush money I have to give you to hush,” said Rich. “And before you get any cute ideas, destroying me is nearly impossible with my legal team.”
“I still don’t see much value in this money stuff,” said Twilight. “And I certainly don’t want any from someone like you.”
“What?! No. No!” Dash ran over and put her hoof in front of Twilight’s mouth. “We’ll take the hush money.”
They didn’t risk going back through the sewers again for obvious reasons. Instead, they took the normal train back to Ponyville. Fluttershy stayed in her teddy bear, asleep, the whole way.
It was nice and dark by the time the four of them got back to Twilight’s forest. It was an exceptionally dark night at that. Even if the moon had been out tonight, there were thick clouds in the sky and a light rain falling. Pinkie was carrying a lantern, but its pathetic attempt to light up the forest was all Dash got.
Ghosts supposedly liked this type of weather, so maybe Fluttershy would be happy at least.
“You know, I learned something today,” said Dash. “Keeping your mouth shut pays way better than an actual job.”
“I sure hope Curse Tech isn’t doing anything else sketchy,” said Pinkie. “Maybe I should find out before it’s too late? Hm.”
“I still can’t believe how callous that guy was,” said Twilight. “How can he do something so dangerous and just not care about the consequences?”
“Oh?” Pinkie pressed up against Twilight’s side. “Are you learning a lesson about how you have to be responsible with the things you create?”
“What?! No!” Twilight jumped away from her. “That’s completely different! I destroyed the blob monster I created.”
“It’s a little similar,” Dash said.
“No, it’s not!” Twilight put her hoof down hard. “This would be like if Fluttershy stole the blob from him and then started complaining when it caused problems for her.”
“Oh yeah.” Dash held the bear up. “I think it’s safe to come out now, Fluttershy.”
“Are you sure?” Fluttershy came out of the bear and sniffed the air to make sure there were no other warm-blooded ponies around.
Deciding it was safe, she floated around the area, marveling at what she saw.
“Oh, wow!” Fluttershy looked up at the trees, zipped down over to some bushes, then to what may have the nest of a hibernating squirrel. Her smile got wider and wider with each thing she saw. “I forgot how beautiful forests were! It’s just so—”
Overcome with the beauty of the snowy forest, Fluttershy sobbed.
“I can never thank you enough for this.” Fluttershy floated back to the others. “Even just getting to see the forest again is more than I ever hoped for.”
“Aw! I just wanna hug you!” Pinkie held out her forelegs. “But you're ethereal.”
“Oh, I can still do that.” Fluttershy flew back into her teddy bear and hopped off Dash’s back to run over to Pinkie.
Pinkie hugged the teddy bear, Fluttershy animating the teddy bear to hug her back.
“This is the first good thing that happened to me since I died,” said Fluttershy. “I can never thank you enough for this.”
“How did you die, anyway?” Dash asked. “If you’re a specter, it must have been pretty intense.”
“Oh. A witch killed my entire village,” said Fluttershy.
The mood changed, only Fluttershy was oblivious. Dash and Pinkie both looked at Twilight, who was frozen on the spot.
“Gleaming Depth, that was her name,” said Fluttershy. “She came into town one day and nopony could stand up to her. She was just too strong. We sent for help all over the place, but nopony ever came. They were all too scared of fighting a witch.
“She was so mean, forced us to work all for months mining arcanium ore. I even did everything she told me to, but she still killed all of us afterward anyway. Volume five of The Book of Shadows. The tsunami spell. I remember that. She just cast one spell and—” Fluttershy sobbed. “And everything was gone. I don’t think anypony else in my family got to become a ghost. I’ve been totally alone since then.”
Fluttershy sobbed silently, a small amount of tears coming from her teddy bear (something Dash just now learned was possible).
“Oh, you poor thing!” Pinkie held Fluttershy close and cried along with her. “Don’t worry! Your Auntie Pinkie Pie will make everything better!”
“I’m probably older than you, but thanks,” said Fluttershy.
Dash watched Twilight closely. The witch didn’t like that story, had been perfectly still save for some trembling through the whole thing. Finally, Twilight shook her head and stepped forward, suddenly angry.
“A witch wouldn’t do that!” Twilight insisted. “They’re not supposed to run around forcing their will on the weak like that. It goes against the way to do something like that. Witches keep to themselves.”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy looked up, wiping away a tear from her teddy bear eyes. “Witches do all sorts of horrible things. They don’t have a code saying anything like that.”
“But they’re supposed to.” Twilight turned her back on Fluttershy.
“You’re not defending them, are you?” Fluttershy floated after Twilight, trying to get a look at her face. The ghost seemed more curious than upset. “You shouldn’t defend witches. They’ve hurt too many people.”
“Hey!” Dash ran up in between the two, trying hard to change the subject. “So where are you off to after this? I could take you to the edge of Crater Cemetery if you want. I know lots of ghosts live over there.”
“No! That’s the worst place I could ever go!” Fluttershy put her hooves over her head and ducked down, suddenly forgetting about Twilight’s mysterious comment. “That’s where the absolute scariest ghost lives! Not to mention a million more besides that. I can’t possibly go there in my condition.”
“But if you don’t want to live with ghosts where can you go?” Dash asked.
“I guess that’s my problem.” Fluttershy cast her eyes down. “There’s nowhere I can go. I can’t live with other ghosts and almost no predeads will take me in. I guess I just need to find another cavern and stay there.”
“We can’t just let you live in a cave after we went through all that trouble to rescue you,” said Dash. “There’s gotta be somewhere you can go.”
“Oh! I saw this one ghost who turned her dead body into a doll.” Pinkie raised her hoof. “Maybe you could do that? It seemed like she was living with normal people like that.”
“I think my body is a bit too grody for that at this point,” Fluttershy said. “It’s been a while.”
“Then maybe we can force her to live in Rarity’s castle?” Pinkie looked at the others.
“We might need to get Rarity’s permission for that,” said Dash. “But maybe we could ask. Let me ask you this, Fluttershy. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?”
“I don’t mind being a bit lonely,” said Fluttershy. “I guess my dream is to haunt a forest like this and watch over all the animals. But the predeads are all so mean and won’t let me. All the good, lonely forests are already haunted.”
The four of them took a few steps forward, thinking hard about a potential solution. Where was there a forest nopony was using?
“Well,” Twilight spoke up in a nervous voice, suddenly stopping. “I have a forest around my house. I’m already keeping everypony out of it. You could stay there. For a while.”
“Really?” Fluttershy came all the way out from her bear, her ears perking up.
“Isn’t your whole thing that you don’t want anypony bothering you?” Dash asked.
“Yes, but Fluttershy seems like she’d be quieter than you,” said Twilight. “Whom I already put up with.”
“Oh, yes! It’s true. I’d be the quietest ghost ever.” Fluttershy put her hooves together and nodded eagerly.
“And maybe I do feel a little responsible.” Twilight looked down at the ground.
“Wait.” Fluttershy floated up in front of Twilight. “Responsible about what?”
“That you and your family were killed by a witch.” Twilight closed her eyes. “By my spellbook.”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy’s smiled turned to a look of concern. “Wait. Who are you three, exactly?”
Dash desperately thought of a way to deflect the truth, but Twilight spoke up before she could.
“I’m a witch,” said Twilight.
“What?!” Fluttershy flew back and halfway underground.
Dash’s heart skipped a beat. After she tried to cover for Twilight too!
“My real name is Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight put a hoof on her chest.
No way to salvage it now!
“Like—! Like that one?!” Fluttershy flew underground completely.
Twilight watched the spot for a moment before giving up. She frowned, sighed miserably, and started to trudge forward with her head down.
“Hey!” Dash ran over to the spot Fluttershy vanished into and knocked on the ground. “You were just complaining about how people are mean to you for being a specter, right? How is this any different? Twilight’s been nothing but nice to you.”
Fluttershy cautiously poked her head out of the ground. She looked over at Twilight and her fearful expression softened when she saw how down the witch was.
“No, I suppose you’re right.” Fluttershy came back up and looked at Twilight. “You’ve been very kind to me. I’m sorry. It’s just that other witch was so mean.”
“I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me.” Twilight turned away and started walking.
Fluttershy frowned, looking distraught as Twilight passed her.
“Wait!” Fluttershy floated past Twilight. “I don’t think you’re responsible. You just shouldn’t feel like you have to let me live in your forest. It was that other witch who killed me, not you. Rainbow Dash was right. I know some specters are just as bad as witches.”
“It’s up to you whether you want to stay there or not,” said Twilight. “I can keep everyone from bothering you.”
“I really would love to have an actual neighbor and live above the ground with animals. That’d be a dream come true.” Fluttershy put her hooves together and smiled up at the moon but turned back to Twilight with just a little bit of fear. “But there aren’t going to be any other witches or ghosts there?”
“I haven’t seen either of those in a very long time,” said Twilight. “I can protect you from anything that shows up.”
“Then yes. Thank you so much!” Fluttershy tried to hug Twilight but remembered that wouldn’t work. Fluttershy went into her teddy bear and jumped onto Twilight’s back to hug her. “I never thought I’d have a real home again.”
Twilight did smile just a little as Fluttershy rode on her back, where Dash kind of saw as her spot after a few months of owl hood.
Dash was quickly surrounding herself with outlaws. She was in way over her head. This story was going to be hard to explain to the authorities if it ever came down to that.
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That's a Chekov's Gun if I've ever seen one. Who wants to bet it's Scootaloo? She's the only Crusader we haven't seen yet. Psychic powers, maybe? Scooteleven?
10721324
I do need to show literally every single horror movie monster in this before the end (except mummies). Kid with way too much power for their own good has all gotta be on that list somewhere.
All things considered, Dash is probably one of the most powerful people in the world at this point. Considering she has at least three (four if counting Rarity) friends of ridiculous power who care for her dearly and would fight dearly for her. She'll realize that eventually and her reaction will be gold.
I really do appreciate how you're bringing the Main 6 together despite the wildly different circumstances. I always get a little disappointed whenever AU's don't do that, some friendships were just meant to be. Now all we need is Applejack and her definitely-not-cultist family.
10721333
Yep, it's either Scootaloo or CozyGlow.
Love this fic, always happy when I see it's been updated.
10721481
Thanks. The next few chapters should come out much faster than the last two since they're mostly finished already.
Absolutely wild.
It's only illegal if you get caught
This story be like cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/311677293212860416/820502666458693652/unknown.png
10721485
Yay
Loving this story. Can't wait for more!
One of the most fun reads that I've in awhile!
Yeah... about that Dash, cops tend to judge people around outlaws as guilty by association. And cops tend to have higher standards for bringing in people alive then monster hunters do.
Anyway! Great chapter! Nicely wraps up their "little" excursion.
Now all we got to do is find out what the heck was going on with and happened to Applejack, I'm guessing she's a werewolf for now but also feel like that's too obvious. Then we'll have the whole gang together and use the elements of harmony to- wait... ummm.
What a sweet ending.
10721324
That'd be interesting.
That's impressive
Kinda
And Filthy Rich is supposed to not create all consuming blob monster but he still did
Truly the corporate model at work: Sure it might kill everyone in 40-50 years, but until then it's just printing money!
10721556
It's one of the big ones remaining, but there's still a whole lot of stuff left. Aliens, werewolves, vampires, flesh golems, several types of cultists, demons, necromancers, skeleton army, corporate experiments, government experiments, big foot, giant insects, reptilians, not-area 52, liches, a dullahan that appears just long enough for me to put the story in this group, like that kid from that episode of the Twilight zone, a 'the thing' expy, mutants, a kaiju (I think that counts), a lich, the outer gods, dinosaur, killer Jack-o'-lantern, fishman... probably some other stuff. I'd say 90-120% of that's gonna show up.
Oh, there's no shortage of things to blast with that.
10721506
Your words say 'yay' but your face says 'nay'.
Poor Flutters. I feel like it's a cliche at this point to have her die tragically.
10721669
At least she's not dead-dead. Just dead on a technicality.
10721671
I suppose. She didn't buy the farm, she's just renting.
10721694
She's die-curious.
10721663
YAY!
Their needs ti be more emotes.
You said liches and Lich ...... I'm I the only one who's worried about that?
10721717
Yes. It wasn't intentional, but I did notice the setup has a few things in common with TEL.
10721663
Was more wondering if the Elements of Harmony even exist here.
Also curious if Celestia and Luna are around anywhere now I think about it... would be amusing if the whole reason the world is the way it is, is because they said screw it to trying to rule the country and "retired" a couple of thousand years early. Now they're having afternoon tea with Cathulu every Sunday, spend Mondays on Discord's reappropriated four dimensional golf course and pretending to be normal ponies to ride in Curse Tech's rolercoaster theme park.
10722118
Luna and I have decided to retire. We're leaving you in charge of Equestria. I can think of nopony more qualified to rule than you.
Wait. Who are you? What's retirement? What do you mean 'I'm in charge of Equestria'?
Don't worry, I have every confidence in you. If you need help come visit me in the old folks home. *leaves*
That was weird.
600 years ago...
And so Celestia left somepony with no political experience or desire to rule in charge of Equestria. It went as well as could be expected.
Hmm, if Fluttershy wasn't already the resident ghost I'd be expecting Alma from the F.E.A.R. series. A poor mistreated psychic child, murdered for acting out, her corpse dumped and the children they made from her forced to serve military purposes. Can't imagine much scarrier to a ghost like Cage who's clearly unsettled by other powerful ghosts than a ghost who was a Pinkie level psychic BEFORE going full on ghost, whose specialty is mind-control.
10722966
Well specters like Fluttershy do have a sort of mind control ability they can use on other ghosts, Fluttershy is just too scared to use it (for now). Though there is another specter out there's who's been mentioned like ten times already.
The cutest moment in the land of the Dead.
Curse
having
you’re
“That ain’t even the scariest thing I’ve seen. Not this blob, either.” Cage looked up at the ceiling. “Nah, one of them corporations got this one kid with like-“
Well now we know who that is.
“Oh!” Diamond Tiara’s eyes wide as she realized her mistake. “I meant to say my dad is the resident of Curse Tech. because they make him work 120 hours a week with no pay!
Missing capitalization.
That blow would have taken off half Diamond Tiara’s face at the least if it hit.
Should be “half of”.
The claws on the one hoof broke and his foreleg was thrown back. All the other ghosts in the nearby area were hit by the same invisible force, stunning the lot of them.
Unless Rattler only has the one hoof, you should remove that instance of the word “the”. Personally, I think “lot of ‘em” works better.
That was just enough time for Pinkie to grab them with her psychic powers and pull them back. They were safely behind Pinkie now. They had to go get Snails and Fluttershy’s bear right now!
These sentences could be better, such as: “That (momentary distraction(or whatever the actual term for what happened that had given Pinkie enough time to grab the foals), I guess) gave Pinkie enough time to (psychically, telekinetically, etc.) grab and pull the two foals back to safety. That just left Snails and Fluttershy’s bear.”
She cast the murders spell and flew towards the bathroom from twenty different routes. The ghosts tried getting at all of her crows, but there were too many and a couple got to the entrance of the bathroom.
Should be “murder”; “angles” works better than “routes”; “The ghosts tried to every single crow, but failed” works better.
Dash kept moving straight at it. The ghost didn’t get the memo that one of them could turn into birds and regarded the incoming crow only with confusion.
Should be “Dash didn’t stop her advance. The lone ghost hadn’t gotten the memo that one of the ponies outside could turn into birds, and thus, regarded the incoming crow with nothing but confusion.”
Dash turned back into a pony in flight just before hitting Snails. She kept the same speed, but her momentum picked up with her increased size. She tackled Snails straight through the ghost, rolling to the ground with him. The ghost tried throwing the knife at Dash, but she managed to roll out of the way.
Should be “mid-flight”, or better yet, just remove it entirely. Also, more momentum means more speed, so that entire sentence needs to be fixed. The next sentence should be “After tackling Snails, the two phased through the ghost, tumbling onto the ground.” or something similar. Instead of “tried throwing the knife”, maybe use “threw (his/her/its/whatever the gender of this ghost is) knife”.
It was too dangerous to stay away from the other two for too long.
You used the word “too” twice in the same sentence, so how about “from the others for this long.”
She threw him as hard as she could, passing him to Pinkie who grabbed hold with her psychic powers and threw him behind the other two.
How about “She threw him to Pinkie, who left him with the other teenage foals.”
“Go all out on them!” Rattler called to his gang.
Honestly, “Go all out!” is perfect. The “on them” is unneeded since I don’t think he has a reason to “go all out” on those three specifically. It’s not like he has a reason to keep the foals alive.
He opened a wide portal behind him. There was a brief pause, then an entire train car came barreling out of it at full speed going straight for Pinkie.
This moment will never not be cool.
“Let’s see how many times in a row you can do that!” Two more portals opened behind Cage. “I’ve been saving up old, beaten-up trains for years for this!”
Should be “how long you can keep that up!” and “for years just for this!” Maybe something can be added to the end of that last sentence, but it’s good enough.
Pinkie deftly shattered the trains, then threw the gremlins back.
Maybe I’m just blind, but I don’t think you mentioned that gremlins were trying to fight her.
How many train cars did that guy have stored in his pocket dimensions?
Remove the words after “have” and I don’t think this sentence could be more perfect.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure how long I can keep this up!” Pinkie called out.
Either remove “how long” or change it to “I don’t know how much longer I can last.”
“Yeah. Me, um, me neither.” Twilight wasn’t remotely tired as she dealt with swarms of gremlins and wraiths.
Adding the word “even” between the words “wasn’t” and “remotely” helps to show how obvious her lie was.
Poltergeists were throwing bricks after her, but every one of them turned into a butterfly just before making contact.
Should be “at her”, since it’s obvious she isn’t even trying to dodge.
Then five wraiths pulled out their ice claws and rushed in to slash at her from all sides.
The “at” would make more sense if they were trying to scare her, not kill her, since it implies that they aren’t actually planning on slashing her.
Just before the wraiths came in
How about “the wraiths came within slashing distance,”?
His claws and fangs reformed, then shattered a moment later as Pinkie jumped out behind Twilight, hooves blazing with a blue light.
Should be “jumped out from behind Twilight”.
The resulting explosion knocked all the ponies and ghosts in the room back and made Dash worried the room might collapse.
How about “knocked back all the ponies and ghosts in the room, causing Dash to worry about the room’s structural integrity (this term sounds too smart for Dash, but maybe she’s not that dumb).”
But he wasn’t quite bit enough to take out the entire hall and some of Dash’s crows got through to the other side.
Should be “big enough”.
“See that? Nopony ain’t coming to help you!”
Isn’t this a double negative?
“Right!” Pinkie nodded. “We go find Rarity, get that robot, put together a slide-show illustrating the problem, and then give Filthy Rich a presentation explaining the situation!”
I think these two paragraphs should be together, since they’re likely spoken by the same person.
“Yes, There was that earthquake recently.
“There” shouldn’t be capitalized.
“What, you brought molecular engineer with you?” Filthy gave Twilight an annoyed look.
What is this sentence?
“Well, I can’t be hold shares in a company that’s doing this!” Pinkie stepped forward with her threat. “If you don’t shut this down, I’ll sell all of my Curse Tech stocks in a single day! It’ll crash the entire stock market!”
Probably should be “be a shareholder”. Also, these two paragraphs should be the same paragraph.
Honestly, besides the grammatical errors, a lot of this is based on what I think would work/sound/fit better, but in the end, it’s your story, not mine. If my ideas sound better to you, then you should probably put ‘em in, but if they don’t, then you probably shouldn’t put them in, after all, it’s not like I can force you to use my ideas.
Ah, but that problem can be solved the same way most other ones can be: using a little bit of the ol' ultra-violence.
Is this a reference to (one of) Einstein's thought-experiment(s)?
I'm not native English speaker, so that may make some sense, but maybe last word here supposed to be "lair"?
BTW, do ghosts even have working parts to finish that business?
11269076
Ghosts can touch (and kiss) eachother. So they can fool around with other ghosts, but not so much the living.
11269129 So in other words Rattler being such a grade A jerk is why he's never been laid.
.
I keep remembering this! Pinkie really attacks fluttershy in Canon all the time, and I never found out why.
Do hoofblown kisses travel at the speed of light or the speed of sound?
Awww fluttershy best pony ever
Well, if a chance of becoming ghost is around 10-4, I'm scared to imagine the body count of that collapse.
Awwww
11600394
Yeah, I gotta change that too. Probably like... only Rattler and Cage died in that instance and the rest came down here to hide from Crater Cemetery.
great chapter!!
<3 </3 <3!