The Ghost of Chicken Scootaloo

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 2: Meet the Weather Sisters!

Sunny and Izzy stood in the morning fog near the West exit to Maretime Bay in the early morning light from behind the two ponies as the unicorn looked at the clear pegasus in the chicken outfit on her left and asked, “So in your time, these zebras lived far to the west of Equestria, and they knew about ghosts and necromancy and stuff?”

Scootaloo smiles while turning her head to the blue pony, “Right!”

Sunny stares left past the unicorn and said, “But we don’t know if they’re still there, do we?”

Izzy looks over at Sunny, “Well, not since unicorns became isolationists about five hundred years ago, no?” she raises her ears and widens her red eyes, “I mean, we’re still pretty sure they’re out there! Where else would they go?”

Sunny widens her eyes and narrows her mouth, “I don’t know?”

Izzy smiles, nods, and says, “Right! So, unless a giant meteor came down and blew them all up or something like that…”

Sunny raises her left eyebrow, “That’s not very likely…”

Izzy jitters to cause her mane to vibrate as she exclaims at a louder volume, “But it’s still possible!”

Sunny tries her best to suppress a smirk before looking beyond Izzy to the pegasus again, “So uh, exactly how far are we going here?”

Scootaloo stares at Sunny past the unicorn, “I’m actually not sure? You see, I’ve never been there!”

Sunny looks back at Izzy, “So, we’re going to look for zebras, who may or may not be there, and blindly hoping that they know more about the spirit world than we do and hoping that they somehow know how to get poor Scootaloo here back to heaven!” she widens her eyes, “Does that sound like an accurate description of this mission?”

Izzy turns her head back right to stare at the alicorn, “Well, unless you got a better idea! I mean, it’s been two thousand years! I wanna help out poor Scootaloo here!”

Sunny stares at the unicorn blankly, “Well, I do too! But I’m still not sure this is the best way to go about it? I mean, shouldn’t we have a clear, concise plan or?”

Scootaloo stares over and says gruffly from the left of both ponies, “I’m RIGHT HERE, you know!”

Izzy turns left to face Scootaloo, nods, and calmly says, “Yes indeed, Scootaloo Chan! You are right there!” before turning her head back right to Sunny, “Anyway, do YOU have a clear concise plan by any chance, Sunny?”

Sunny smiles and giggles slightly, “Well uh, no? Not really?” she normalizes her mouth and widens her eyes, “So, I guess we’re looking for zebra ghosts then?”

<*****>

Izzy starts humming to herself as she trots to the left of Sunny down the road.

Sunny turns her head left to the unicorn and says, “What song is that, anyway?”

Izzy widens her eyes to the alicorn, “Song?”

Sunny nods as both ponies keep trotting, “Yeah! I mean, weren’t you just humming a tune?”

Izzy frowns, “I don’t know? Probably?”

Scootaloo smiles at the unicorn on her right, “You remind me of Pinkie Pie!”

Izzy turns her head left, “Who?”

Sunny smiles at the unicorn, “Pinkie Pie! In ancient Equestria, she was the Element of Laughter!”

Scootaloo looks back at the alicorn, “Yeah, but you’re definitely not like any alicorn I’ve ever known!”

Sunny widens her eyes while staring at the pegasus in the chicken costume beyond the unicorn, “Oh? Uh, how many alicorns have you known, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo’s smirks, “Well uh, technically, just one! Twilight Sparkle!”

Sunny grows noticeably more excited as she jitters and perks her ears up while the three ponies continue trotting down the road, leading across grassy plains and rolling landscapes, and asks, “You knew Twilight Sparkle? Oh my gosh! What was she like?”

Scootaloo eyes the alicorn, “Well, she was nothing like you! I mean, she was a book nerd who mostly kept to herself… Well, before she became an alicorn princess!”

Sunny frowns and leans towards the pegasus, “You said ALL alicorns in your time were princesses?”

Scootaloo nods as the rubber chicken comb on her head goes up and down, “That’s right! But you say you’re not a princess?”

Sunny continues, “Correct!” she frowns, “Well, not to my knowledge? Then again, I could be meant to be a princess and just don’t know it yet?”

Scootaloo widens her eyes and scrunches her mouth, “I don’t know? Maybe?”

Sunny looks back to the road before the three ponies, “Huh?”

<*****>

As the ponies are trotting down the road westward, in a big open field with many hills over a rolling landscape, with flowers, daisies, pansies, and tulips, they suddenly hear a female voice scream. They all stop trotting abruptly…

Sunny looks over at the other two ponies, “Did you girls hear that?”

Izzy looks at Sunny on the right, “No!” her eyes widened, “Well, unless you meant the big bloodcurdling scream!” she nods her head, “Now THAT, I definitely heard!”

Scootaloo looks right at Izzy and says, “It sounded like it came from the other side of the hill on our left?”

Sunny smiles at Scootaloo, “Well, go check it out!”

Sunny widens her violet eyes to the alicorn, “Huh? Why me?”

Sunny nods, “Well, think about it! I mean, me and Izzy here are alive, so we can get hurt!” she raises her gaze, “But not you! You’re already dead!”

Scootaloo stares blankly at the orange pony, “Okay uh, you’re technically right there, Sunny!”

Sunny smiles wider and swishes her tail, “No! ACTUALLY right!” as her body bobs, up and down.

Scootaloo turns her body to the left to see a hill there, roughly 30 feet from her and rising about 15 feet from the ground, with many pink and red flowers on the grassy mound. She gulps and says, “Alright uh, I’ll be back girls! Don’t go anywhere!”

Scootaloo slowly trots toward the hill while Sunny trots forward from the right, and turns right to stare onward as Izzy adjusts her body to match and they both watch the brave pegasus ghost in her chicken outfit, as she slowly trots up the hill…

Izzy turns her head to Sunny on the right, “What do you think that scream was?”

The orange pony turns her neck left to stare at the blue pony, “I don’t know? Any idea what’s out here?”

Izzy frowns, “I don’t know? I mean, I usually reach Maretime Bay with the north road! This one is further south!”

The pegasus reaches the top of the hill as she tentatively paces that way, mentally telling herself to remain calm as she recites, left hoof, right hoof, left hoof, right…

She reaches the top of the hill and stares downward to see a serpentine creature there, obviously made of greenish-blue cloth, with patterns sewn into it to resemble scales that says, “ROARS! I’m going to eat you unless you give me all your money!” This creature has a long neck, on top of a poorly configured body underneath, with cardboard fins near where it’s ears should be, clearly painted the same bluish-green color. Scootaloo frowns as she also notices that the head and neck are a slightly lighter color than the body…

She also sees a blue earth mare there on the right, with a white mane done up into a single ponytail behind her head, holding her right forehoof in front of her face as she screams robotically, “NO! Please don’t eat me, Mister Dragon!”

Scootaloo frowns and says, “That’s obviously a dragon costume ma’am! You have nothing to worry about…”

Her shoulders visibly relax as she lowers her hoof, shakes her head, and looks at the costume, “I told you this was a dumb idea!”

Scootaloo looks at the dragon further left.

She hears the same feminine voice underneath growl, “Well, unless you have a better idea?”

Scootaloo raises her left eyebrow, “You really shouldn’t pretend to be something that you’re not…”

Suddenly the neck of the dragon pops off and falls to the ground before the costume, and down into a straight line as Scootaloo now sees the head of a pink earth mare, with a wisteria purple mane, done into a similar ponytail style as the other mare, who looks over at her and says, “Well, you figured out our ruse!” she sighs, “I guess that means you’re free to go now?” she starts and eyes the pegasus carefully, “Hey, why can I see right through you? And why are you wearing a chicken outfit?”

Scootaloo smiles at the new mare, “I’m a ghost!”

The blue mare frowns at Scootaloo as she looks over and her face grows visibly whiter, “G-ghost?”

Scootaloo looks at the right nods at the mare, “Yup!” she widens her eyes and leans forward slightly as she says louder, “Oh, don’t worry! I’m not gonna hurt you! I’m a friendly ghost!” she smiles, “Scootaloo, the friendly ghost! Yup, that’s me!” she turns her head back left to the pink mare, “You really shouldn’t pretend to be something that you’re not!”

The mare frowns at her, “Oh yeah? Well, why are you wearing a chicken costume?”

Scootaloo starts as her mouth shrinks, “We’re not talking about that! Why are you trying to make me think you’re a dragon?”

The mare sighs as she says lower, “Well, we thought it would be the only way to get ponies to help us… If they thought Cloudy here was being attacked by a dragon…”

Cloudy looks at the other mare, “And I keep telling you that friendship is back! We can call on other ponies to help us, and they will now!”

Scootaloo widens her eyes while giving an exasperated sigh, “Um, okay wait!” she turns her head back to the dragon, “You two, come out of the costume, and just tell me what you need!”

The ghost in the chicken outfit trots down from the flowery hill slowly and the alicorn and unicorn witness that she’s being followed by three earth mares… The one on the left is blue with a white mane and tail and lavender eyes, the one in the center is pink with a purple mane and tail and distinctly green eyes, and the one on the right is green with an orange mane and tail and purple eyes. They also both notice that they all have the same high manecut with ponytails in the back and matching tails behind their flanks.

Scootaloo stops trotting about ten feet from the two other ponies while the three mares stop trotting behind her. She smiles and says, “Okay, over here on your left is Cloudy, on your right Snow, and in the middle is Stormy! Uh, I just met them!”

Stormy looks at Scootaloo wide-eyed as Sunny smiles and says, “Oh, hi girls!”

Izzy excitedly bobs up and down wide-eyed as she shouts with a happy smile on her face, “Hi new friends!”

Cloudy turns her head left at Stormy, “See? They seem pretty friendly and will probably help us!”

Scootaloo starts and widens her eyes, “Uh, they have something they want to ask you!”

Cloudy narrows her eyes to Stormy and lowly says, “Hang on! I’ll go see what’s up!” before turning her head and trotting forward to the right side of the ghost. She stares at the alicorn and unicorn and says at a much louder volume, “Uh, yeah! You see, we’re triplets and we farm yams! Anyway, we need a new barn, but we don’t really have ponypower to do it!”

Sunny perks up with her ears directed towards the other ponies, “Do you want us to help you?”

Cloudy starts as she shakes her head slightly and lowers her ears, “Um, if you don’t mind? Er, if it’s not too much trouble, that is?”

Sunny turns her head left to the unicorn, “What do you think, Izzy?”

Izzy turns her head to face Sunny, “I think we need a new barn-raising song!”

(To be continued…)