Ghost Guardian of Harmony

Ghost Guardian of Harmony

Chapter 8: Defending Canterlot

Danny grit his teeth as he flew through the almost non-existing barrier of Canterlot. Half of him felt bad about going against Clockwork wishes, while the other half was telling him that he can't just stand around doing nothing!

Besides, he did leave behind a duplicate to guard Sam and Tucker if anything goes wrong on their side. So, he did nothing wrong. "Nothing should go wrong." he muttered again and again, convincing himself as his eyes searched the central area for survivors. There are nearly none that he could see, as the area was overwhelmed with the ghosts' presence instead of mortal beings. He hoped that most of them had fled to safety.

He has the power to save them, and Clockwork should know well why he can't stop him from going to help.

Danny shuddered when a chill that came with his ghost sense ran through his body ever since he reached the capital was much stronger than ever now. He spat out the clump cold air that got stuck in his throat in surprise, forgetting to breathe at the sight of the capital. His eyes trailed toward the sparkling trail of blue that his ghost sense made, it contrasted with the red hue that surrounds him and it then hit him why he hadn't been feeling the heat of the fire.

"There's so many of them even my core is going berserk." he muttered, watching how the flame around seemed to part itself for him because of the cold his body exuded. He frowned, in a sense it look kind of amazing and he felt, well, privileged? Despite the situation [of a burning capital and thousands of 'glob' ghosts surrounding him], Danny couldn't help but chuckle.

Part of the cold air that surrounds him broke from its collected form and misted toward a brightly burning bottle? shop.

Danny wasn't sure what kind of bottle shop it is, but judging from smell that assaulted his nose it was probably a perfume shop. As he neared toward the shop he suddenly felt dread. The halfa stumbled a bit, shocked at the malicious aura that suddenly came from a ways behind the burning shop. Curious, he walked forward deep into the back alleyway of the shop, only to take a few panicked steps backward with a horrified face.

He mentally berated Clockwork for not having his full ability to see through time, at least the time ghost can warn him! Because he didn't want to see a pile of bloody intestine that look like noodles in red curry that got knocked over. Cringing when he finally saw the state of the unicorn open stomach when he walked around it, he could only remember the scene where the swarm of hungry meat-eating fishes was attacking the beach party people in the movie 'Piranha'. 'Well, the aftermath of it, not while they were eating their flesh', Danny kept reminding himself.

The insides were almost bare to the bones, as something was clearly going for its heart, throwing aside the other organs.

Danny gulped down the bile that started to run up his throat, and quickly pulled a loose flag nearby off its hinges. Skittering slowly toward the poor pony, Danny pulled its blank eyes down before covering its body with the cloth.

"I'm sorry, hopefully you'll find peace." Danny bowed sadly towards the body.

"…I…"

Danny straightened himself up on full alert after hearing it. Wondering where that voice was coming from.

"…I…" the voice echoes from under the covering. Danny moved away startled but then realized that it sounded so full of regret. "…I am…"

"…Spark Amethyst."

His eyes widened, the voice seemed to come from two sides. While the one in front of him sounded sad and slowly fading away, the other that came further away reminded him of a badly taped recording.

"No you're lying!" a frightened yell of another pony followed, and Danny narrowed his eyes toward its direction. Somepony was in trouble, Danny thought before running towards it.

"I'm wounded. Why don't you believe me?" the ghost, Danny was sure of it now, replied. "I was just but an empty shell but once I killed your friend and took his soul I became a part of him and he became a part of me. We are now one."

Danny eyes widened when he saw the ghost. It has almost the exact same appearance as the dead pony from before. "Doppelsnatchers." he breathed, remembering one of his parent odd classifications of certain body snatchers. It was somewhat similar to body possession, but Doppelsnatchers tend to kill - or drain - their hosts to take over their appearance.

"So that's why you all felt so different." Danny cuts in, startling the duo.

The Doppelsnatcher laughed, "And who is this little thing?"

Little?! Danny's fur bristled. He could almost hear the implied 'newborn' in its speech.

"Shouldn't you be at home, crying under your mother's arms while the others ate your entrails? Run along now, I was talking to my friend here." 'Spark' sneered before turning back toward its victim, as if the colt appearance was just a passing breeze.

Danny huffed, "For your information…" 'How dare you involve my mom, you bastard!' "My mother taught us how to kick butt while we ate through breakfast, lunch and dinner." and also occasionally at supper. As whenever one of his parents cooks, something was bound to come alive. It was a sight to behold according to Sam and Tucker, as it was the only time when they could see the entire Fenton family prepares an arsenal of knives, forks and spatulas instead of plasma guns over an animated hotdog army. "And you should wait an hour after eating before you shape-shift or you will get stomach ache."

Danny wasn't sure about the stomach ache part, but apparently the animated pudding vomited right after it tries to morph its shape into the turkey it ate at one of the Fenton annual Thanksgivings.

"Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?" 'Spark' demanded, looking very much irritated at this argument.

"Who am I?" 'Might as well have fun with this' Danny thought. He took a deep breath and puffed his chest out, making sure he flared his wings as he did so, "I am Danny Phantom. Ghost hunter and protector of Amity. I am the right hand of justice and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to whatever hole you came from, ghost! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me."

He ended the proclamation with a smirk, 'This will be amazing if there was an explosion happening right behind me at this moment.'

(PONYVILLE)

"Seriously Danny, you sure you can't hear your 'other' thoughts?"

"Sam, I can't. I'm an independent clone. I don't know how to transfer my thought to my other self."

"You should totally learn how to dude, or we wouldn't be sitting here clueless about what's going on out there." Tucker nodded towards Danny.

"Well that means I need to learn telepathy! Which is going to be hard! I can't even levitate anything yet, and telekinesis is supposed to be a branch of telepathy. I simply don't know how to, Tuck!" Danny argued back.

Sam sighed, worried about the other Danny who is in Canterlot, most likely fighting the ghosts. She had to wonder how this Danny in front of her manages to resist the urge to fly toward the capital and help, after all Danny did have a huge hero complex. Most likely because of her and Tucker. "So, what do we do now?" she asked instead.

"I guess we wait. Nothing much we can do." Danny stared through the window, like Sam, wondering what his original half was doing.

"Ya serious?" Tucker whined. "As much fun as that sounds I rather do something than sitting around doing noth-…" habit made him try to pull out a PDA, only to pull out nothing from his non-existing pocket. He started crying, "I don't have my babies! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! And I missed three of my feedings!"

"Oh how the world has come to an end!" Sam mock-gasped, a hoof over her forehead as if she was fainting. "Our techno-geek has timed his feeding mentally while forgetting that he never had his tech-girls all this time." Which is an amazing feat, she added mentally, "And the monster had wanted to lay his utensils upon the poor sweet animals for his stomach. Oh, the horror."

Danny wondered how she could act like that while maintaining her monotone voice. Must be a Goth thing, he thought as he saw Sam smirk at Tucker's sure-coming argument about how meat is better than vegans.

"I'll go ask Spike to make us some food." Danny cut in before the verbal fight began. "His fries and daisy sandwich are quite good."

Tucker stomped a hoof down. "No! I want a sandwich with two beef patties, three slices of cheese, a chicken breast, overlaid with three pieces of bacon, mayo, with chilli sauce and no lettuces or onions in it!"

Danny blinked. Spike, who was on his way to throw trash out, felt that it was too quiet all of a sudden and turned around to see the two of the trio staring at the bespectacled pony. Shrugging it off, he continued out the door.

"What? Do I have something one me?" Tucker looked around him, wondering why Danny and Sam were staring at him funny.

"Idiot."

"Ow! Stop kicking me, Sam!"

"Did you not notice what you are right now?" Sam fixed her posture, while thinking how great this is for training her reflexes to kick someone. "You are a pony. A horse. Which is also, an herbivore."

Danny watched worriedly as Tucker started to pale. Sam continued anyways, ignoring the damage she will inflict on the meat-connoisseur mental state, "You know what herbivore means right? They are vegetarians, it means they - now us - and you, can only eat vegetarian menu. You hear me? You are a vegan now, whether you like it or not."

Tucker went still. His jaw hangs open and his fur loses their color.

"Sam? I think you just broke him." Danny poked the frozen pony shoulder to see if the he would fall like a statue if he poked strong enough.

"Nah. He just fainted from shock. He'll recover."

Danny just shook his head, "You're cruel Sam."

Sam blew imaginary dust from her hoof, wiping it onto her shoulder. "I know. I'm awesome that way." she watched her friend amazed expression when he managed to make Tucker tip a little to the side without the latter changing his shocked expression. Before she could comment something about petrification and Medusa a glint caught her eye, making her turn her head to the window.

Her eyes locked themselves with a ghost standing in the middle of the street, a humanoid ghost!

"Wha…?" she was baffled, there wasn't supposed to be human ghosts here right? That's why they are all ponies! He - now she realized - was wearing a dark blue cloak, covered with stars. His hood covered his features, but Sam could feel his eyes boring into hers. She wondered if she was hallucinating, but even Danny didn't seem to notice and the ponies outside just ran through him. The ghost subtle glance towards the bypasses that ran through him tells her that the ghost is indeed there and she is the only one that could see him.

Is it truly a ghost? She turned toward Danny again, frowning when not even his ghost sense was present.

"Are you real?" Sam felt sweat rolling down her brow. The ghost nodded as if answering her, creeping the Goth out before he lifted his arm, pointing and looking towards the direction by his side. She found herself fascinated by the bracelet that was on the ghost arm, but before she could inspect it the ghost faded away.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Sam found herself running toward the door, only to trip before she could even reach it.

"Sam!" Danny called out, accidentally pushing Tucker a bit too hard and made him fall flat on his side. Danny ran towards Sam and he pulled his friend back to her feet. "Sam you could barely walk, what made you think you can run that soon?" He asked worriedly.

"Wha! Who? Why am I on the floor? Please tell me that a hot girl just kissed me awake?" Tucker got knocked out of his trance at his fall. He frowned at first, but quickly shrunk at his friends accusing glares. "Wait a minute. You can already run? That's not fair!" He dragged himself toward his two friends.

"No Techno-geek, I saw a ghost standing there." at that Danny glared toward the direction she pointed, and Sam had to pull his head towards her again, "No Danny! It was a different ghost. Trust me, I know. This one is from the Ghost Zone. He had a humanoid."

Danny stepped outside, looking around. Nothing set off his ghost sense, so whatever it is, he can't detect it. "You sure, Sam? What did he look like?"

"Pretty sure. I couldn't see his face, he was covered in a dark blue cloak." she pointed towards the direction the ghost is pointing, "And he was pointing that way."

. . .

"We should check it out." Both Danny and Sam chorused, just in time for Tucker to exclaim.

"But what if it's a trap?!"

Danny blew his hair out of his eyes and rolled them. "Duh, it's always a trap." Sam chorused with him again.

"How about you two lovebirds go. I'm staying right-"

"Where are you guys going?"

"EEEK!" Tucker made a very unmanly squeal and latched onto Sam's neck when Spike suddenly appeared by their legs. Sam almost fell over but she managed to keep herself standing still, while muttering curses toward Tucker for hugging a goth like herself.

Tucker held his grip on the Goth, "Nowher-UUuUumph!"

"Ah, we were planning to take a walk around town, you know, to explore?" Danny hastily explained, plugging up Tucker's mouth with his hoof

As she watched Danny brace himself against the feeling of the inside of his friend mouth, steeling himself even when the geek started to lick his hoof with his tongue. Sam gagged, disgusted at the scene happening a few centimeters from her own face. She had enough and threw Tucker to the ground.

"All by yourselves? That doesn't seem like a good idea. Everyone is still panicking over the fire in Canterlot. You might get trampled in a stampede or something." The purple dragon paused, as if he was thinking about something before his face lit up with an idea.

"I'm coming with you." Spike announced, closing the door behind him, and stood beside the trio, eager to show the sight around town. "Allow me to show you Ponyville, and we can get lunch at the same time."

Danny gave his friends a glance, "But we won't be going that far. Like you said, it's chaos out here right?"

"It's okay. If you were to get separated in the future you might get yourself lost. So, because I know all about Ponyville - and it's surrounding areas – I'll give you a tour. And I'll feel guilty if I let you wander off by yourself. You guys need supervision!"

'From a baby dragon?' the three looked at each other, wondering how a baby dragon was going to supervise three teen ponies. How old Spike was again?

(CANTERLOT - CENTRAL)

*KA-BOOM*

On cue, a late explosion went off from the shop behind him, making 'Danny Phantom' jump almost 10 feet into the air with a startled yelp. He didn't literally mean an explosion should just go off behind him like that!

'Spark 'gave an unamused expression toward the young alicorn. "Eh, I've seen better. That was downright garbage.

"Hey! It was a good line!"

"The key word is 'was' a good line, which century had you taken it from, foal?" 'Spark' huffed, "Not to mention that girlish squeal at the end, was that supposed part of the speech too?" He added, much to the halfa embarrassment.

"I like it." Starlight smiled behind 'Spark', flinching when the ghost glared back toward him.

"Shut up, Light." ''Spark' sighed. "And I just lost my appetite. You, alicorn foal!" he pointed toward the hovering alicorn, "You will pay for interrupting the lovely chat I was having with my friend Starlight here."

Starlight took a few steps aside, trying to gain space between 'Spark' and himself and shook his head. "Uh, we weren't having a lovely conversa-"

"Starlight?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up!"

Taking a battle stance, Danny planted himself on the ground. "Well your chat will have to wait another day, though it would be best if you never will."

"Are you assuming that 'YOU' could defeat 'ME'?" at that, 'Spark' laughed."Ha! hahahaha! Dear me Starlight, it seems that we do have to reschedule." he turned toward Danny, "You know, I would love to play torture the alicorn foal for the kick of it but right now I have other work to do. So another time, foal." He waved his hoof as he turned intangible and went through the floor.

"Oh no you don't!" Danny shouted after the smirking pony, going intangible and diving into the ground himself to chase after the ghost.

Starlight was left alone in the alleyway, confused with the whole thing. He walked toward the site of the body of his dead friend, surprised to see a flag cloth covering the body. "Huh? Must have been him." he muttered.

He shook his head of his thoughts, there will be time to mourn over his friend death later. Right now other ponies need him and these ghosts need to be stopped from killing anypony else! With new determination Starlight galloped away, giving one last glance toward his now deceased friend.

(CANTERLOT - WESTSKY)

Clockwork watched the smoke swirl around him. A few hundred feet in the air, his eyes scanned the city, searching for Daniel. With all due respect, he didn't mind the boy running off doing what he thinks is right. But without the ability to see the time-line around him, he was starting to lose his composure.

Daniel especially, was the source of all his worry. He felt like he shouldn't let the young half-ghost go all by himself unprotected, away from his watch. Someone, somepony, or something might take advantage of him and use the young boy to get to his guardian, and the master of Time will have no choice but to obey.

After all, who wouldn't want the power to see, know, and manipulate time itself?

"Sir Clockwork!" Princess Luna call made him turn. The mare seemed relieved to see him, and she had brought a massive storm along with her. He raised a brow at the sight, and realised that there were hundreds, if not thousands of Pegasus flying around the cloud like a swarm of birds molding a fluffy, floating, soft putty. They were controlling it with such ease Clockwork couldn't help but feel impressed that mortals such as themselves can control and manipulate weather.

"Princess Luna, you caught up quickly." Clockwork greeted the Moon Princess.

The princess paused as she took a deep breath. "We came to help as soon as we could. Where is Sir Phantom?" she started scanning the surrounding, wondering if the alicorn colt was just hiding from sight.

"Hunting." Clockwork answered, and with the boy luck, he would've found the ringleader by now. "But I can't seem to find him."

"Hunting?" she sound puzzled. "But Canterlot has been taken over by these creatures! How can he possibly be hunting when there are thousands of them running around causing chaos?"

Clockwork gave her a look. "They are called ghosts, and I assure you Princess, young Phantom has been hunting these creatures ever since he was born. Although, these aren't any ghost that I'm familiar with." he glared at the sight, something familiar pricked him in the back of his mind, and he does not like it.

"So these are the ghosts that my sister was talking about?" Luna was startled at the 'ghosts' appearance. Being the Princess of the night she was well versed with many of the myths and legends that transpired through it but as Clockwork said, these ghosts are odd. For one, they are green, and they look like a mix of sticky melted goop with no specific internal structure. Their limbs seem to slide even when they're standing still. And their mouth seems to be drooling some kind of green substance.

"Princess Luna!" she turned towards the voice. "The cloud storm is in position." Rainbow Dash saluted towards her, followed by the clouds squad leaders, ready for further instruction.

"Good. Start raining over the fire and strike any hostile that you can see."

"Consider it done Princess Luna! Come on guys! And make sure your squad stay alert at anything that might jump after you." the others gave their confirmation and flew toward their section, disappearing into the now violent looking storm clouds.

Clockwork almost whistled in awe, watching the swarms of Pegasus work. It reminded him of the Locusts swarm incidents that sometime happens on Earth, only with clouds in place of the locusts and the ponies are the controller. Beautiful, but deadly at the same time.

"And where is your sister?" he asked the princess, finding it odd that they aren't together.

"She will be here soon. Along with ground support." Luna answered. She narrowed her eyes at a growing figure flying up to them. "Halt! State your intention or you will be brought down!"

The figure, whom Luna recognized was one of the ghosts, was flying towards them with no intention of stopping, growling incomprehensible threats toward them. It baffled her that they don't need wings to fly, but she figured that was one of a ghost's ability, to defy gravity.

The princess horn started glowing to shoot down the hostile ghost but before she could gather enough energy something - or somepony - had kicked the growling ghost away from its path toward her with such intensity it looked like a lightning strike. For a moment she thought one of her storm strikers behind her had struck down the ghost, but she saw her Squad Captain blasting the ghost back to the ground with his Storm gloves.

"Arkive!" she called toward the Pegasus, glad to see him.

"Princess Luna!" The Squad captain turned to her, happy to see that his princess is back.

"Are you all right?" flying up to her Captain-slash-personal bodyguard, Princess Luna almost hugged the Pegasus before she stopped herself at the sight of green slime covering his armor. "What are you covered in?" she cringed, half fascinated but mostly disgusted by the smell of it.

"I'm fine Princess. And these are what the ghosts are made of." Arkive explained. The Princess blinked in surprise at the knowledge that these ghosts truly have no internal structure. "I'm glad you made it back. We're in dire trouble, your highness. Most of our attacks are useless against these enemies." he gestured toward the city, most of the attacks were led by magic users while the others frantically guided the survivors away from the battlefield.

"Understood. Princess Celestia will be here soon with the bearers of Harmony and with their help we will have the advantages to defeat these foes."

Clockwork snapped toward her, startling the princess, "You brought the elements with you?!"

"Halt! What do you think you're doing to the princess?!" Arkive flew between the two alicorns, pointing his Storm Cloud hoof gloves toward Clockwork in a threatening manner.

"No wait! Its okay, Arkive. He's with us." Luna pushed his hoofs down, telling him silently that the other alicorn mean no harm. "This is Clockwork. And he can help us."

"My Apologies, Princess. Sir Clockwork." Arkive bowed to both alicorn apologetically. "I didn't realize that…"

"It's all right." The princess then turned toward Clockwork. "Yes we did bring the Element of Harmony with us. Why… do you look so worried?"

The elder of the two sighed, watching the battle ongoing below them. "I fear the worse princess. This is only the calm before the storm." Luna and Arkive turned towards each other in confusion.

(CANTERLOT - SOUTH)

"Oooh boy, now that is a lot of ghosts. And I thought one was bad enough!" Applejack exclaimed when she and the others arrived at the south gate of the capital. They watched in horror at the destruction. The rain helps control the fire and the occasional lightning strike only caught a few of the many ghosts.

"How are we supposed to win? There are so many of them!" Rarity exclaimed as she looked around her. She ignored Pinkie Pie beside her who was theorizing about how are there so many ghosts around but then stared worriedly at the hyperactive pony when she suddenly started a story about an exploding fluffy pony who exploded into a hundreds of mini fluffy ponies when giving birth.

Twilight stepped beside her, "The element of Harmony will be able to help us with that." She turned toward Princess Celestia who was leading them in front.

"Indeed they will. If you concentrate on the element they will help you fight against these creatures." The Princess answered, as she kept walking through the gate.

Pinkie Pie jumped beside the Princess, hopping as she asked the Princess excitedly, "...and can they like shoot beams at them and like POW POW! And the ghostie will be like, Oh NO! And POOF! Pop up like a balloon?"

Chuckling, Princess Celestia only nodded towards the optimistic Pinkie Pie, "Indeed they will, if you concentrate on your element hard enough."

"Alright, what do you want us to do Princess?" Twilight asked, as they are in the south courtyard high garden, overlooking the city.

"Twilight and Applejack. Find the guards and help them fend off the enemy. Take half of the others to assist you." the two nodded, before calling up for volunteers among the ponies. Celestia turned toward Pinkie Pie and Rarity, "Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Along with the rest of the ponies, I will need you to assist me to escort the survivor out of the city."

"Princess Celestia!" a yell made her turn back before she was able to follow the group. She saw Starlight running up toward her frantically before tripping on a rock and fell face first onto the ground.

"Starlight! Are you all right?" the Princess ran up toward the fallen pony to help him up.

"I'm ok!" he cried and stood up before the princess could reach him. He quickly ran up and hugged the startled Sun Princess. "I'm so glad you heard my message! I was worried that you were not going to make it!"

"There, there. I'm here now." Celestia patted the crying Starlight, trying to calm the frantic pony. "What happened?" she asked, pulling the pony so she can look at him in the eye.

"They just came out of nowhere without any warning. Nobody thought much about it and went on with the usual defend procedure but then almost none of our attacks are affecting them!"

Celestia nodded. "Well, we're here now with the Element of Harmony." She paused when she saw the pained sad look in the other eye, "What's wrong?"

He sniffed a little but stood up tall and put up a hoof to his forehead with a salute, "Junior Rank Spark Amethyst has deceased, Your Highness."

The Princess eyes widened. "Oh no. I'm so sorry Starlight. I know he was a dear friend of yours." she pulled the smaller pony into a hug to comfort him. "By the sun, they already started killing." She whispered angrily toward the sky.

(CANTERLOT - CENTRAL)

"Didn't I say I have something else to do you impatient foal?" 'Spark' huffed toward his pursuer, impressed that the alicorn was able to follow him, he dodged every ecto-rays Danny threw toward him. "And you bore me, is that the best you can do?"

Danny grit his teeth at the insult. "You've seen nothing yet!" he shouted back. This ghost is a lot trickier than the first, and a lot more fluid with its body movement. Its comment about merging with the original Spark Amethyst may be true, as it was using the collective memory of the pony and the ghost to evade his attacks.

'Then I'll use another way to get him.' Danny thought before disappearing from sight. Earning a frown from 'Spark'.

"Ho, using classic ways of the ghost to throw me off? Silly foal, don't you see how I'm floating without wings? I'm part ghost too." with that, he went invisible.

The fires roared silently, for a moment nothing happened.

"Gah!" A crack rang though the air and 'Spark' appeared suddenly in the visible spectrum, rubbing his wounded jaw. "How dare you!"

"Not as good as you say you are?" The half-ghost's voice echoed, and 'Spark' growled into the air. "You know how a ghost work and how a pony work." The disembodied voice continues, making 'Spark' turn around trying to search for the colt. "But do you know how half-ghosts work?"

'Spark' started when the alicorn face suddenly appeared in front of him. He barely registered that the colt's horn was glowing bright green before he got blasted in the face. Stumbling, he straightened himself and almost got himself impaled by a sharp looking metal pole if he hadn't gone intangible and fell through the rubble.

Danny barely able to turn himself intangible when the angered pony burst out from the rubble, tackling him right onto the building wall behind them.

"Oh I may not know how a half-ghost works yet. But I know quite well how a ghost work, foal." He locked his hoof onto the other, gripping him tight, "We can't exactly cancel our invisibility and intangibility off. And I will teach you that kicking your elder is not a very good thing to do."

With a yell 'Spark' drove Danny through the building, making it crumble. Danny shut his eyes as he formed a shield to lessen the damage done onto his body. He tried to become intangible to escape the other but he held tight and followed along as the intangibility washed through the both of them.

They rolled through the wall, limbs still locked on each other, flickering between intangibility and invisibility. Danny was reminded of how Vlad always able to hold him even when he turned intangible, the only trick is to use the same ability at the same time as the other. And since intangibility and invisibility are passive ghost powers, neither could gain the upper hand, and it all depends in an all-out physical brawl.

They stumbled onto the ground, kicking and head-butting each other in the fight of endurance. 'Spark' depended on physical attacks, stomping and slamming his bulk against the smaller one whenever he got the chance. Danny kept blasting ecto-energy, but with how close they are 'Spark' was able to nullify the energy before Danny could use them by slamming a hoof onto the halfa, stunning him enough for the doppersnatcher to give damage.

Finding himself at a stalemate Danny couldn't stand it and the temperature around them suddenly dropped to below freezing. Ice crystals started to form and they rapidly froze part of 'Spark' body in Danny's desperate attempt to get free, kicking the doppelsnatcher away from him.

The ghost inspected its frozen limbs for a moment before slamming them onto the ground, smashing the thin crystals away. "An ice element huh." He mused, and smirked at the alicorn who was panting a few ways ahead. It seemed that all that excitement had taken its toll, "You seem tired, what's wrong, foal? You really should run back to your mommy and daddy and let them fight instead. You are much too 'young' to be involved in a war."

"I can fight fine on my own!" Danny shouted back, refusing to admit that today's events was taking its toll on his body. Not only he was working at half power due to his duplicate at Ponyville, but all the cumulative fights against the ghost in the morning and chasing after this body-snatcher was tiring him.

Tucking his wings in Danny used the wall beside him to give an extra boost in tackling 'Spark' down but the other managed to sidestep before elbowing the back of the alicorn neck. Danny gasped as he stumbled in the air, blinking up stars as he tried to settle down his breath. His eyes widened when 'Spark' suddenly spun it's body around to kick the alicorn right on his side, and Danny was reminded of the moment where he was thrown back by the dragon in his normal pony form when he arrived in this world with Clockwork.

The alicorn crashed towards the ground right on his back, and he could only blink in confusion as he gasped for air. Was it a dragon, or was it a pony that had knocked the wind out of him? His mind made a somersault as blurry images overlapped his vision. He barely realize that a shadow came over him.

"I told you I was not in the mood to play with you but you keep insisting and you leave me no choice." 'Spark' pushed the small alicorn neck around, grinning as he opened his mouth filled with razor sharp teeth to bite down onto the colt's veins.

Luckily before the teeth made contact a ghost slammed onto the ground beside them. 'Spark', realizing who it was, angrily shouted toward it. "You! Can't you see that I'm busy?" He snapped at the weaker ghost. It flinched as it made a few gurgling sound.

'Spark's eyes widened as he listened to the ghost explanation, "They're here already?" He looked toward the recovering alicorn under him. "… Fine. Get the others ready. It's time to put the plan onto the next phase." With that, he flew into the air with the other ghost.

"N..no! Agh. Get… back… here!" Danny gasped, trying to get back up but fell back down again. 'Damn it. No! You need to get back up Fenton! You need to get this guy. He's obviously the leader! You can't let him escape!'

"You're lucky, foal. We'll play again next time."'Spark' grinned as his horn glowed with unicorn magic to put the colt to sleep. With a moan the alicorn slumped, trying his best not to fall asleep. But it was a futile attempt, "Be good now, foal. I'll see you later. If you survive." Leaving the colt prone to the fire and destruction around him as the two ghost flew away.

Danny blinked as he tried his best to keep himself awake. He watches as the two ghost figures slowly grew smaller and smaller.

"No wait… Sto..p." Unable to keep back the drowsiness he fell into the sleep spell.

(CANTERLOT - WESTSKY)

"Rainbow Dash." Called out a voice behind her. Rainbow turned from her squad with the other Pegasus to see one of Princess Luna Squad Captains fly up to her.

"Yes?"

"Princess Luna asked me to assist the Element of Loyalty and Kindness. Captain Arkive at your command." He bowed after his introduction.

"Awesome! But we got it covered." Rainbow grinned, humbled at having the Squad Captain of the Storm squad wanting to assist her.

"Aaaaaaaaah! Rainbow Dash they are coming this way!" Fluttershy cried out in fear as she hid underneath their storm cloud. Rainbow dash turned toward her friend source of distress, and saw a group of them flying up toward them. They realized that the storm clouds are an army themselves and are now trying to take the sky force down.

"Keep it up and make those water drop fall heavier! Slow them down!" Rainbow Dash shouted toward the Pegasus controlling the cloud. Turning toward the few individual Pegasus who was controlling the lightning strikes, she barked her next order, "Strikers! Show no mercy!"

The wind picked up and the trees started to uproot themselves at the intensity of the storm the Pegasus commanded. The sky grew dark as the rain picked up its intensity, accompanied with the occasional flash of lightning that branches off and struck down a number of their enemies.

"It seems that you may need my help after all. Let me help you, I'm immune to the lightning strike and I can struck down any of the enemies that got too close to the weather team."

Rainbow Dash watches to see how many that came up after them and turned back toward Arkive. "Well okay then! It would be a pleasure to fight with someone who owns the Storm Cloud regalia."

"It will be my pleasure working with one that was able to make the Sonic Rainboom." The captain replied.

Rainbow Dash held up her hoof, "You with me?" She asked.

Arkive grinned and high-hoofed her. "I shall fight with you."

"Awesome! Now let kick some ghost butt!"

With an excited yell the two of them flew down toward the oncoming ghost. Kicking and punching the stunned ones back onto the ground.

"Ha! Is that the best you got?" Rainbow asked, this is too easy, she thought, "I can kick you all up in ten seconds flat!"

"Try avoiding this in one!" A voice shouted and she turned just in time to see razor sharp teeth bite down on her shoulder.

She spent a second stunned before finally registering the pain, "AAAAAAH!" She yelled, spamming as she tries to escape. The bite hurt much more than it should have, like venom was running through her veins burning her inside out.

"Rainbow Dash!" Arkive yelled as he heard her cry of pain and quickly kicked the assailant away only to realize that it was Spark Amethyst!

"What is the meaning of this, Jr Rank Spark Amethyst?!" He barked, failing to realize that the pony looked a little bit different, and was flying without the assist of wings. He held Rainbow Dash against him as she tries her best to not pass out from the pain.

'Spark' laughed. "Oh I'm not Jr Rank anymore, Captain." his work was done here, no need to face the Captain's wrath just yet.

"Traitor! You will pay for this!"

Rainbow pushed herself away from the captain grip, "I'm okay. You can let go now. It's just a small wound." She dropped an inch in the air before recovering. The burning pain was fading away for now and she shook her head toward the Captain worried expression.

(CANTERLOT - SOUTH)

"Well it's nice to finally kick them." Applejack said as she landed a hit on one of the ghosts. With the help of the Element, she has no problems landing a hit to any of them now, intangible or not.

"I just hope Princess Celestia is okay. I didn't see her with Pinkie and Rarity group." Twilight frowned, the Princess was with them at the gate, but then after her last order everyone went to carry out their mission and they realized that the Princess wasn't with them. "Did she go somewhere?"

Applejack kicked an unsuspecting ghost away from Twilight as the latter was too preoccupied in her thoughts. "I'm sure she's fine Twi, she's probably fighting her own fight. Maybe she's with Princess Luna." she dodged a nasty uppercut with her hoof, kicking the ghost as it fell.

"I guess." Twilight replied, casually using unicorn magic to force a group of them off a cliff, clearing up the garden. "She is the Princess, she can take care of her own, right?" she looked at her friend, asking for confirmation.

"Of course Twilight! And she's your teacher, if you can just push them away without so much as blinking then she will have no problem fighting these guys."

"Yeah." Twilight smiled, "Yeah! Of course, she's the best magic user aroun-AAAAAH!" not paying attention to her surrounding she failed to see one of the ghosts that she pushed off the cliff flew back and tackled her. Thrown against the wall, Twilight made a hasty shield as more pounced on her.

"Twilight!" Applejack shouted but was stuck on the other side with another group of ghosts blocking her way to Twilight. She could only watch helplessly as Twilight start to panic from the collective howls and strikes the ghosts are doing onto her shield, unable to push them back no matter how much magic she used.

*ZZZZZZZZRSH* A bright beam of light suddenly engulfed the ghosts, burning them away, turning to the source they saw the Sun Princess standing tall as her horn misted with smoke of her recent magic.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight bounded towards the princess, happy to see her safe. The princess smiled as she hugged her faithful student.

"I apologize for taking my time getting here. I was preoccupied with one of the guards." the Princess spoke, turning toward Starlight behind her. Catching on the message, Starlight nodded before galloping off to help the others in need.

"It's all right Princess. But we may have a problem. There seems to be no end to them. If this keeps up we are going to exhaust ourselves before we could make a dent in their number." Twilight frowned, remembering how the ghost was able to get back up even when she threw them off the cliff.

The Sun Princess had a thoughtful expression on her face, "Then perhaps the combined power of the Element of Harmony will rid the city of this infestation."

"But Princess, the Mane Six is at different parts of the city, how are we going to get words to them all in time?" Applejack asked, walking up to them.

"There's always a way. We just don't know it just yet." with that, the Sun Princess sighed.

"Sister!" Luna's voice called out to her. She landed beside her sister, followed by Clockwork.

"Luna! What's wrong?" Celestia asked, realizing the two alicorns worried faces.

"We can't find Sir Phantom anywhere. Sir Clockwork fears that something bad may have happened to him."

"Phantom is missing?" Celestia pressed with concern.

"Indeed. He is the only one with the means to capture the ghosts." 'Even if he only has one thermos.' he added mentally. After failing to locate the boy visually, he had tried to locate him mentally. But something was in the air, interrupting his power to connect with his charge. Try as he might, but the cloud of miasma was too thick for him to find the young half-ghost.

"Then our priority is to find Phantom and get the Elements of Harmony back together." Celestia decided, determined to put this invasion to its end.

A few feet away as everyone was talking, Starlight was helping other ponies to safety when he noticed the arrival of Princess Luna and another strange alicorn. Starlight was excited to see Luna safe and sound, he just wanted to run up there to give her a hug. But he stopped his movements when he saw the other alicorn. His legs just refused to move and it felt like something was griping at his heart as he stared at the sky blue alicorn. This throat felt tight as he found it hard to talk. Then something hit him, his eyes widen as he gazed upon the alicorn with the chest clock and the black scar under his red eye.

Eyes widening as a twinkle lit it up. "...Clockwork."