A Ghost of a Chance

by Epsilon-Delta

17. Possession

Zest decided that, while in the city, she preferred cloudy days to clear ones. Clouds always made it ‘brighter’, as in easy to see at the cost of rich night skies. But in the city, they covered up that bizarre void created by the light pollution.

The strange purple glow of the city clouds absorbing light was odd but preferable.

The Shadowbolts, including their newest recruit, had gathered in one of the less frequented areas of the city. Max Volt had at last been strongarmed into keeping his bet and today came the first day of Zest’s lightning elemental training.

The place they’d stopped in looked like a good scavenging spot. There was an entire appliance store that appeared unlooted even after all this time. Indigo and the others went through this graveyard of spare parts to see if they could find anything useful while Zest did her training.

Zest was briefly surprised at all the appliances left behind. To be fair, they were pretty dated, being from the 80s, but Zest certainly would have taken them back when she was alive.

Though then on second thought, when would a ghost ever need a refrigerator? Or a washing machine for that matter?

Zest looked down the aisles, finding clear gaps. Yeah. They must have taken anything remotely useful already.

Max lifted one of the fridges and set it down in front of Zest. The refrigerator looked like something a grandma would have. Zest would have mistaken it for a wooden cabinet were it not for the metal coil on top.

“I know you’re still pretty new.” Max floated just above the fridge. “How good are you at possession?”

“I can move a doll around,” said Zest. “A little.”

Technically, she could possess any non-living thing she wanted to. Possessing a chair was as easy as flying into it. Of course, doing anything with it was another story.

The target had to be vaguely pony-shaped for you to have a chance of making it come to life. Non-pony dolls (or simply non-unicorn mare dolls for beginners like Zest) took more effort. Even tearing off one leg of a doll made it significantly more difficult to control. Without eyes and ears sewn on, you become completely deaf and blind.

So her attempts at controlling non-dolls were the experience of becoming paralyzed and deprived of all senses. Though she could technically be a useless chair whenever she felt like now.

“Well you’ll need to learn to move electric appliances around before you can appreciate this technique,” said Volt. “That’s the first step.”

“Shouldn’t I learn to shoot lightning bolts first? It sounds more simple” Zest straightened up and held out a forehoof. She managed to shoot some sparks out of it. “I can already kinda create like, this field of static or whatever.”

“That’s a matter of strength, not control. It’s the same motion once you learn to build up more electricity.” Max repeated the same motion as Zest, only he really did shoot out a lightning bolt. It hit one of the washing machines, scorching it and sending it tumbling forward.

He also demonstrated just how valuable this equipment was.

“Possessing this stuff will help you get to that level,” he said. “Start with one of these.”

“Possess the refrigerator.” Zest crouched down in front of it. If it wasn’t vaguely pony-shapes, Zest had no idea where to start. “Won’t I be blind? I know you can only see through a doll if it has fake eyes. Will putting googly eyes work?”

“Technically yes,” he said.

Honestly, Zest would love for an explanation of how that worked. Sadly, Flare was likely a hundred years away from any such thing.

Zest briefly thought about deploying her seemingly useless ability to possess couches to spy on ponies. She thought better of it before voicing the thought out loud. Painting huge eyes on somepony’s furniture had to raise some suspicion.

Now she was imagining a pony coming home to find googly eyes attached to everything they owned.

“So I have to carry around a pack of googly eyes for the rest of my life?” Zest asked.

“No, we have a better option. If it doesn’t have eyes, you make some. Here, I’ll show you.”

Volt entered the fridge. It began to crackle with electricity and jerk about. Soon an aura of crackling static surrounded it.

The plug was the first thing to come to life, beginning to whip around aimlessly. Then the wire found purpose and anchored itself to the ground. By manipulating that, Max was somehow able to make the whole thing turn to face her.

The electricity culminated just above the coils. It formed into balls, then elongated slightly. They reshaped into a two-dimensional depiction of eyes drawn with electricity.

“Is that close enough?” Zest waved a hoof in front of them. “Can you see me?”

The door flew open, then shut hard. Maybe that was as close to talking as a fridge got.

The door opened once more and air began rushing into the mouth of the possessed refrigerator. The wind went straight through Zest and she only noticed how cold the air swirling about inside was becoming when she smelled the nearby area cooling down rapidly. Then at last, frost

The coil on top absorbed the heat and began to glow purple.

“Wow!” Zest marveled for just one second, before realizing she could do better on her own. She formed a blade of ice around her foreleg to demonstrate. “Though I can’t think of when I’d ever need to do that instead of using my ice magic. But I guess it looks kinda cool.”

Then her nose scrunched and her smile faded. The horrible scent of that hot metal finally caught up with her and staggered back holding her muzzle.

“Nevermind! Maybe ‘kinda’ is too strong a word! Why do we want to have this power again?”

Ever merciful, Max came out of the refrigerator, allowing the heat to begin dying down.

“There are more useful things to possess,” Max promised her. “Telephones, radios, sirens, water pumps, projectors. You can even control those old Toxco robots if you find one, or hack into transistor control boards. You can hijack entire buildings if they’re modern enough, you know.”

“Projectors?” Zest’s mind honed in on that one. “Like I can make it show whatever I can imagine?”

“If you’re good at drawing.”

She wasn’t! But she also didn’t say it out loud, merely nodding.

“We’re starting with these because it doesn’t matter how many you break. There are at least two more warehouses of useless junk.” Max flicked his hoof down at the appliance impatiently. “So get on with it. I don’t want to be here all day.”

Zest nodded and tried floating inside. The trick was to try and shape your aura to be like the object you wanted to possess. For something already in the same shape as you, that was a matter of simply wrapping it around yourself tightly. For something so blocky, it could only be done to the vaguest degree.

But she did manage, for what little it was worth. Without googly eyes, she was blind. She couldn’t feel the wires or anything inside.

“I can’t see.” Zest popped out of the fridge.

“You don’t gotta see nothing. Just feel it out. Get all staticy and you’ll feel where the electricity is supposed to go.”

Staticy. Zest could manage that much.

She let out the power cord of her headphones, which she usually kept tied up in her mane. She let the static flow through her body and the wire levitated next to her. She didn’t have fine control over it but could whip it about like with the grace of a tail that’d fallen asleep after sitting on it too long.

“Yeah.” Max pointed to her second tail. “Just like how you’re doing that.”

With confidence, Zest nodded and tried again.

She sent one ripple of electricity across her body, then flew back into the fridge. Repeating the process allowed her to feel something she didn’t notice before. She really could sense the flow of electricity, could feel the parts of the refrigerator coming to life just a little bit.

Zest felt less blind, even if she still couldn’t see anything. She knew exactly where the plug was and thus knew her attempt to flick it about worked.

Already the translation between this and moving through wires became apparent. It felt similar to what she’d experienced before, practically moving through them already. Only her center of gravity didn’t change this time. It was more like she was being stretched out to fit the large frame of the refrigerator.

Slowly, she felt out a long tunnel that went nowhere, and something like a pit that gobbled up the electricity she pumped out. The first had to be the plug. The latter was maybe the coil. Or maybe the cooling element. She vaguely recalled refrigerators used some manner of pressure system for that, though hardly understood how that worked.

Taking control of the wire was a simple enough task. She could feel it snaking around, just like that one attached to her. She tried sending a more significant amount of electricity into the pit-feeling thing, hoping to activate some part of the fridge.

And sure enough, she could kind of smell something heating up!

She was actually doing it!

Zest emerged from her host to see her handy work. The plug, at least, had to have moved. Maybe she even made the coil light up!

Technically both of those things were true and more.

Purple flames now coated the refrigerator as its wooden frame collapsed.

Zest frowned and puffed out one cheek as she watched it burn.

“Was it–?” Zest glanced at him sideways.

“Immediately ignited, yes.” He nodded. “Sparks were shooting out everywhere. But that’s why we start on garbage.”

Well it wasn’t like her first ice blade had been a winner either. Zest rolled a shoulder and looked for another one to… probably light on fire as well.

---

An hour later, Zest had a veritable holocaust of refrigerators underneath her. She must have fried twenty of them– more than the rest of her life combined.

The sacrifice was worth it, though. Those appliances died so that Zest could learn to more properly feel out the wires. She could more or less control the appliances by now, though there was still a major fire risk involved.

Her real problem was just that it drained her metaphorical battery too much. Zest couldn’t so much as get a small ripple of lightning to pass through her. Even her hair, always so eager to shoot up straight, refused to rise.

“This is really exhausting,” Zest whined. “I don’t know if I can do anymore.”

“That’s kind of the point!” Max folded his forelegs and nodded to himself. “Though you did make a lot of progress today. I suppose such is to be expected from a flush.”

Zest didn’t know what Indigo was talking about. It was totally easy to trick somepony into thinking you were a flush, from the sound of things.

“Hey.” Max sucked up some air, before continuing. Though he couldn’t look Zest in the eyes. “I admit I’m not actually a flush. That’s why I lost that card game. I don’t have the same luck score as you.”

Zest blinked a few times, then straightened up.

“Wuh?”

“You don’t understand the stigma the rest of us have!” Max closed his eyes tight. “Talking about our brains being fried by the electricity. Everypony thinks you’re stupid if you didn’t die from getting struck by lightning.”

Zest could relate actually. Though she’d also openly admit to rarely being the smartest pony in the room.

“In reality, I electrocuted myself trying to get a piece of toast out of the toaster. But before you say anything, this was before Manehattan had any kind of safety regulations. Toxco basically murdered me with their terrible appliances.”

Max turned at what remained of the appliances.

“See all this stuff?” He swept a hoof across them all. “Deathtraps! Every last one! You know, Toxco may have killed more ponies with their unsafe merchandise in the long run than with the war! Probably not, but maybe.”

Zest only just now noticed the ‘MEC’ logo on the fridge, marking it as Toxco-made.

“Did you at least get the toast out?” Zest asked.

Max Volt ceased his dramatic gesturing to turn back to Zest.

“Heh!” He cracked a smile. “You know what? Maybe you’re not so bad after all.”

“Hehe! Thanks!” Zest rubbed the back of her head and stuck out her tongue. Then she remembered something Sugarcoat said about being more mature. She kind of wanted to keep pretending to be a flush, but at the same time… “But, yeah. I can understand. See… I’m not actually a flush either.”

“The toasters got you too?” Max clicked his tongue and shook his head sadly. “Somepony really needs to put a warning label on those!”

“No, no.” Zest made an X with her hooves. “I was, uh. Well I bit on the wire.”

His expression became non-plussed rather quickly.

“It’s better than losing a fight with a toaster!” She shot back and Max let it slide this time. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. And in retrospect, it was a good idea! My life’s way better now that it’s over.”

“Maybe you’re right.” He relented. “At least you died on purpose. I think we’ve gone as far as we can for today, though.”

“Yeah. I should probably get back to my fraid now.” Zest looked over her shoulder. Sugarcoat hadn’t given her a time frame, but it felt like she’d been gone for too long. “Thanks.”

She found the others on the third floor of the appliance store, or whatever it was. Somepony had clearly torn through this area previously, as nothing was still recognizable in this section of the store. It was merely parts and scrap carelessly thrown about.

Wallflower floated over to Indigo with something like a sparkplug in tow. It took her a couple of minutes to get the other ghost’s attention, but when she did she held up the little gizmo.

“Is this one of those things you were looking for.” Wallflower showed her the sparkplug (or whatever).

“Oh hey, they did have one!” Indigo grabbed Wallflower and pulled her close. “Nice job. You know, what? You’re better than nothing after all.”

“Really? That’s the nicest thing anypony has ever said to me!” Her eyes sparkled. “I’ve never actually gone places with a, um, like a ‘crew’ before. It’s kinda nice.”

“Yeah! Being in a gang is great, huh?” Indigo gave her a toothy grin. “Now that you’re a Shadowbolt, anypony who messes with you messes with me!"

“Am I really a Shadowbolt now?” Sugarcoat looked up at her like a room full of Hearth’s warming presents.

“No,” Sugarcoat said flatly.

And just like that, Hearth’s warming was canceled. Wallflower dropped back to her usual state. Before Zest could defend her, Indigo got to the punch first.

“Oh, come on! She’s completely harmless!” Indigo held her up with both hooves. “Look at her. She won’t cause any trouble.”

Wallflower nodded along. Sugarcoat kept her eyes trained on the recruit.

“I noticed you left the room at midday,” said Sugarcoat, “even though I specifically told you not to.”

“I had to use the bathroom.” Wallflower tapped her hooves together and averted her gaze.

“Wait.” Zest floated up next to Sugarcoat. “Was I supposed to be using the bathroom this whole time? Because–”

“No.” Sugarcoat narrowed her eyes.

“I have a condition!” Wallflower clutched her hooves to her chest. “Too much ectoplasm builds up and I have to – to kinda barf it out.”

“You should have told me that.”

“Sorry! It’s.” Wallflower blushed and rubbed the back of her mane. “Embarrassing.”

“I’m trying to see if you can be relied on to follow orders.” Sugarcoat shook her head.

“Sorry.”

Sugarcoat left with no further acknowledgment, leaving Wallflower alone and miserable.

“Ah, don’t worry about her.” Zest put a hoof on Wallflower’s wither. “She was like that with me at first, too. Sugarcoat is like a polar bear! She looks really cold, but actually, she’s all warm and fluffy.”

“I’m pretty sure polar bears are– like they’ll attack you.”

“Not if you’re a polar bear too, eh?” Zest tapped her right headphone.

Wallflower raised an eyebrow, uncertain of the metaphor.

A clattering of junk made Zest let go and get on edge. She was too tired to deal with much herself right now!

Indigo moved forward in her stead but soon relaxed as the metal took on the form of some broken armor.

It was that guy again! The bouncer ghost! Gate or something like that?

Zest looked all around. Was there armor here the whole time?

“You have a phone call,” he said to Zest.

Zest blinked a few times, never having expected to hear those words again. She hadn’t had a phone call in over a year.

“What?”

“There’s only one place that can call us,” said Gate. “And no, you aren’t in trouble. The lieutenant wished to talk to you about some information you requested?”

“Hey! That predead came through for us! Good old, uh.” Zest blinked, unable to remember her name. “What’s her face!”

“Or she’s telling us she couldn’t do it,” Indigo suggested.

“Either way, I want to talk to her myself,” said Sugarcoat. She gave a stern look to Wallflower. “You come too.”

Wallflower quickly nodded and followed, not wanting to disobey again.

---

The little phone shed felt much more cramped this time, with four ghosts inside. This one was even smaller than the first as Sour Sweet insisted they go to the one most out of the way.

That request gave hope that Sour Sweet might actually just fork over the information when nopony was looking. It wasn’t like the government would have any way of knowing, right?

Sugarcoat picked up the phone and Sour Sweet answered within seconds.

“My name is Sugarcoat. Lemon Zest is my underling,” she said.

“Yeah! I’m right here!” Lemon Zest pushed her head against Sugarcoat’s briefly. “She’s telling the truth.”

“She’d just report whatever you say to me anyway,” Sugarcoat continued. “I’d rather talk to you myself.”

“That’s fine,” said Sour Sweet. “Did she tell you about her request?”

“Yes.”

“One other thing. Your entire group is made up of ponies who weren’t in the city before a few days ago?” Sour Sweet asked. “Nopony else is present?”

Sugarcoat blinked a few times, pondering the implications of the question. She gave Indigo a look, prompting the phantom to pulse her aura. Feeling no presence, Indigo shook her head.

“The three of us arrived here eight days ago,” said Sugarcoat. “There’s only one other ghost with us – one who was already in the city. She’s agreed to become my subordinate.”

Now it was Sour Sweet’s turn to pause.

In the interim, Wallflower shifted her eyes and backed up. A stern look from Sugarcoat made her freeze in place.

“That’s acceptable,” said Sour Sweet. “Well they don’t want to give me the file, and I couldn’t simply turn it over to you even if they did. But I think there might be a way to get the folder to you regardless. I would need your help.”

“I’m assuming whatever you want is illegal?” Sugarcoat asked. “I’m not sure why else we’d be having this conversation.”

“I’m working with somepony who’s giving me the authority to do this sting operation. I can’t go to the police with this because… I learned recently that we have a traitor on our side of the wall. Somepony over here is working with Crater Cemetery to try and make trouble, potentially start a fight. It’s somepony high up and I don’t want to alert them that I’m on to them.”

Zest and Indigo shared a look. Why would any predeads want to work with Crater Cemetery? Zest assumed they wanted to kill all of them or something.

“What specifically are you asking?” Sugarcoat cut to the chase.

“Here’s the situation,” Sour Sweet continued. “The pony who was given the folder is one of the saboteurs, but probably not the one calling the shots. They’re careful about communicating with one another, but we managed to make him think those two banshees from Crater Cemetery want him to bring the papers to them. Tomorrow night, where the wall meets the ocean. If you’re willing, I want you to mug him and steal the folder.”

Any mention of doing a crime set Zest’s nerves off these days. She scrunched her muzzle and flew backward. The emotional flare of her aura got her a look from the other three Shadowbolts.

“Why don’t you mug him yourself?” Zest asked. “In fact, why this whole plan to begin with?! You could just go to his house!”

“He’s not the one we’re after,” said Sour Sweet. “He couldn’t possibly tell the colonel that he brought highly classified documents to the wall, having no business being there, and got mugged by a ghost. No, he’d have to go to whoever he’s working for, he’d want to report somepony on your side is on to them as soon as possible. I have a pony who’ll be able to follow him and arrest them both when that happens.”

Sugarcoat listened to all of this with her eyes closed, tapping her glasses as she considered it all.

“That could potentially work,” said Sugarcoat. “Though attacking anypony on your side of the wall would risk ratcheting up tensions.”

“You’re already at risk,” said Sour Sweet. “Listen, I think there’s a saboteur on your side of the wall too. But if we do this right, we can lure them out as well.”

Comments

[Fermats Last Pony]

Another good chapter. Zest is progressing and not just with her ghost powers. I want to see more of Wallflower too.

It looks like something got a little chopped up here though:

“Yeah! Being in a gang is great, huh?” Indigo gave her a toothy grin. “Now that you’re a Shadowbolt, anypony

“Am I really a Shadowbolt now?” Sugarcoat looked up at her like a room full of Hearth’s warming presents.

“No,” Sugarcoat said flatly.

[CharonX]

Neat! Excellent chapter!

Hmmm.... For some reason I can't help feeling a bit suspicious of Wallflower right now. Leaving the room because she "Gotta barf ectoplasm", I dunno, something feels a bit off.

[Yulicoat_Loom]

I like the way the author juggles genres for this story - started with a simple one, but now what, a spy drama? Action?...
Love it, looking forward to the continuation) Proud to have been reading this wonderful story since the first chapter came out.

[Yulicoat_Loom]

11318013
I think the same. We seem to be deliberately given hints about her.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Will putting googly eyes work?

I look forward to the Everything Everywhere All at Once crossover.

Yeah, sending random jolts through the circuitry isn't good for an appliance. Especially one made with zero safety requirements.

“Nice job. You know, what? You’re better than nothing after all.”
“Really? That’s the nicest thing anypony has ever said to me!”

Poor Wallflower. Especially with her excessive ectoplasm production... assuming that that's actually true. The problem with someone so starved for attention is that they'll work for anyone who gives them a kind word.

And Lemon is understandably wary of anything resembling criminal acts given that she literally killed herself to get away from the mob. Let's just hope this goes better than she fears.

[The Spy of the Tiger]

“Possess the refrigerator.” Zest crouched down in front of it. If it wasn’t vaguely pony-shapes, Zest had no idea where to start. “Won’t I be blind? I know you can only see through a doll if it has fake eyes. Will putting googly eyes work?”

This reminds me of the power hammer in Alec Steele's Montana shop. He painted it with a mouth like you'd see on a WWII fighter and put massive googly eyes on it.
pbs.twimg.com/media/D-gTj43W4AI--aF?format=jpg&name=small

[Bookwurm666]

“It’s better than losing a fight with a toaster!” She shot back and Max let it slide this time. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. And in retrospect, it was a good idea! My life’s way better now that it’s over.”

Luck is a fickle thing.