Give Up Your Ghost

The fog clears, and the winds settle. Twilight opens her eyes to find herself in a completely different part of the woods, and Eerie is nowhere to be found. "Hey! Hello?" Twilight shouts. "Where am I?"

"Where in the hay is all the good firewood?" Applejack asks as she approaches Twilight.

"Applejack! Thank goodness I found you! You need to listen to me, there's--!" Before Twilight can finish her thought, Applejack continues straight ahead, phasing through Twilight as if she were nothing more than thin air. Twilight jitters and trembles from the strange sensation that ran up her spine as Applejack proceeds as though nothing had happened. "W-What the . . ? A-Applejack, wait!"

"If I were you I wouldn't waste my time," says Eerie who is leisurely leaning against a tree. "They can't hear you, see you, or feel you."

"This can't be. . . Well, if that's all true, then how am I supposed to scare her?"

"Gee, for a know-it-all, you've really got a lot to learn."

"I never said I was a know-it-all! I base all my assumptions on factual evidence!"

"Alright, alright, don't get your tail in a twist. Sure, you can't interact with her 'yet', but you can still play around with what's around you. Watch." Eerie points his hoof to a small stone resting on the ground, and levitates it up into the air without even touching it. With one quick flick of his hoof, the rock flies off into a nearby bush as the rustling sound catches Applejack's attention.

"Hello? W-Who's there?" Applejack asks nervously. "Huh, darn forest critters."

"See? Now, if you want my advice, ease them in to the scare. Start off small, then build it up to the grand finale! The more fearful they get, the more real you get, if you catch my drift. Once you manage that, just give her one big scare, and you win."

"Alright, let's just get this over with."

"Ooh, you sound pretty confident! I can't wait to see this play out."

Shaking off the noise as it's most likely just woodland creatures scampering about, Applejack continues her search for firewood, keeping her eyes out for any stray, dry branches that could feed the fire. She scours the forest floor, hunching over to get a closer look as to not pass by an opportunity. Finally, she spots a perfect branch to begin her bundle. "Ah-ha! This one looks mighty right," Applejack proclaims. She reaches out for the branch, but it rolls, seemingly on its own, away from her. It stops a short distance away, as wind starts to pick up from behind Applejack. She steps forward and reaches out for it once more, and it rolls through the grass again, this time at an abnormally high speed as the winds grow stronger. "Huh. . ? Get back here you!" Applejack chases after the branch through the woods, determined to capture this pesky stick. She dives for it, but lands with a thud as the branch lifts off the ground and jumps into a thicket of trees. Applejack holds onto her hat as the wind threatens to blow it right off the top of her head, then hears the beginnings of strange creaking sounds. All around her, the trees lean and bend, closing in as the branches reach out to her resembling thin, boney claws. "What is goin' on?!" Applejack swats at the branches, breaking some of them into pieces. With her view unobstructed, she can see a vague silhouette from between the trees moving about, followed by a haunting howl from the wind. "What's that?! Who's there?!"

"Come on, just a bit more," Twilight mutters to herself from behind the thicket of trees.

"Wait a minute. . ." Applejack takes a moment to think to herself. "Oh, what am I thinkin'? Like Twilight said, with all this wind goin' on, I bet that's all this is."

"Wait what?!"

"Oh well, I better just turn around and look for some firewood elsewhere."

Applejack, shrugging off everything that's transpired, leaves the thicket of trees to continue her search. Twilight, with her jaw hanging and the branch in her hoof, looks on in disbelief of what just happened. The wind settles down as Eerie walks up to Twilight with a puzzled look on his face. He waves his hoof near Twilight's face to evoke a reaction, but her wide eyes refuse to even blink.

"Yeah, not a good start, but I'll give you an 'A' for effort!" Eerie congratulates.

"I-I don't understand!" says Twilight. "She blamed all that on the wind?!"

"Sure sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. I guess scaring your friends ain't gonna be as much of a 'breeze' as you thought!" Eerie bursts into laughter, delighted by his own pun as Twilight turns to him with a blank, unamused expression. ". . . Yikes, tough crowd."

"Applejack's strong, I guess I should've guessed she isn't as easy to scare as I thought."

"Well, if I were you, I'd go for a different approach on the next one. Speaking of which. . ." Over their heads, Rainbow Dash zooms across the sky.

"But how am I supposed to follow her?"

"How am I supposed to--You're a ghost! All ghosts can fly." Eerie demonstrates by effortlessly lifting up off the ground, and hovering in mid-air. "See? Nothing to it. This is a dream, right? In a dream, you can do whatever you want. All ya gotta do is think hard enough about it." Twilight sighs, setting aside all logic, and plants her hooves on the ground. She takes a deep breath, and focuses. She imagines herself as weightless as the air she breathes, repeating a sequence of words.

"Light as a feather. I . . . am light as a feather," she mutters.

To her disbelief, she watches as her hooves lift up off the ground. Distraught and in a panic, she yelps while frantically flaring and kicking her legs as she continues to float higher. Amidst all her attempts to somehow gain control of the situation, her body flips and twirls in every which direction. She can feel herself getting dizzy as, from her perspective, the world won't stop spinning. After managing to stabilize herself, struggling to keep her balance like a young foal just learning to walk, she smiles and nervously laughs as she then swoops through the forest. She flies between the trees, cheering with joy as she soars up into the sky. Eerie looks on from below, wiping tears from his eyes. "Ah, there she goes. My little angel's finally got her wings." A long, crooked tree branch lowers to him with a white hanky on its end. "Oh, thanks, pal!"

Twilight slows to a stop high in the sky, calming down from all her fun until she spots Rainbow Dash. "Ugh, how is finding firewood this hard?" Rainbow Dash complains. "All I need are some sticks lying on the ground. I thought looking from up here would make this easier, but it's not." Noticing her opportunity, Twilight quickly conjures up a plan.

Rainbow Dash stops to flutter above a promising clearing down below. "Hmm, maybe there's--" a noise from behind catches her attention, and she turns to see that one of the little clouds appears to be slightly disturbed. She shrugs off the noise and looks back down to the clearing. ". . . Some firewood down--" again her train of thought is cut-off by the same sound, and she notices that a cloud much closer looks as though something has disturbed it. "M-Maybe there'll be something else up ahead." She nervously chuckles as she disregards both the noise and the possibility of firewood below, continuing her search. However, the sounds continue, and every time she looks back she is unable to see what's misshaping the clouds. She picks up the pace, flapping her wings faster with every passing second, but the dreaded feeling that she is being followed constantly looms over her. Making quick glances back, she catches glimpses of some sort of dark figure stalking her before ducking back into the clouds. Her anxiety builds to a boil, until she comes to a complete halt, fuming with anger. "That's it! Who's there?!" The figure hides behind a lonely cloud, and in a determined rage, Rainbow Dash approaches it, angry, but wary. "I said . . . who's there?!" She splits the cloud apart with her hooves, and is stunned to see something resting on the small tuft of cloud remaining. An adult goose raises its head, and honks once its eyes meet Rainbow's. She smiles, and laughs at the revelation. "Ha! Just a goose! I guess Twilight was right all along!" She laughs her fear away, and leaves the cloud to continue her search for that firewood.

"What?! A goose?!" Twilight shouts with displeasure. She looks down at herself, and finds that she has indeed taken the form of a goose. She presses her wing against her forehead, baffled by her transformation. "This isn't what I was hoping for at all!" She then helplessly sighs. "What am I doing wrong?"

Back on the ground, Eerie topples over in joyous laughter. "Ha-Ha! Oh, this is just too good! If this keeps up, she won't have a chance at all!" As he revels in the progress of his dubious plan, his body is suddenly shrouded by a thick cloud of fog. "Uh-oh, this is bad." The cloud swirls around him, and teleports him to a large room, illuminated by the moonlight shining through a glass pane in the ceiling. He finds himself standing on a dark blue rug that extends across the room and to a throne atop a short stairway. The princess sitting in said throne looks to him in anger, as he looks to her with a foolish grin.

"Eerie D'Leery," she addresses sternly. "What mischief are you causing this time?"

"Princess Luna! Boss, hey it's good to see ya."

"Do not play games with me, Eerie. I've sensed an increase in activity in the Everfree Forest, paranormal activity to be precise."

"I mean . . . are ya sure it's me? I think it's a little unfair that I'm accused right off the bat."

"You must take me for a fool. I'll have you know now, you are sadly mistaken. I watch over Equestria through the night, and I am aware that Twilight Sparkle and her friends are spending it camping in the very woods that I sensed this disturbance."

"Alright, so what if it's me? I'm just having a little fun. That's all!"

"What you call fun could be dangerous to somepony else! I hope you haven't violated our contract, because if I find that you have, you know the consequences that will befall you."

"I-I swear I haven't gone back on anything! Scout's honor!"

"I should hope so." Princess Luna uses her magic to grab hold of Eerie's tie, and drags him closer so that she can glare directly into his eyes. "For your sake."

The fog once again shrouds Eerie, sending him out from Luna's throne room and back into the forest. He falls to the ground, then quickly stands and dusts himself off. With a face so smug, he finds humor in Princess Luna's attempts to frighten him. "Pfft, even if she did find out, she wouldn't be able to do anything to me. I'm in the clear." With her head hanging low, Twilight, still in the form of a goose, flutters down back to the ground to meet Eerie. "Ah, if it ain't my fine, feathered friend! How'd it go up there?"

"I just don't understand. This isn't even close to what I had in mind!" Twilight explains. "There has to be something I'm missing."

"Well, if I were you, I'd figure it out quick. Remember, you've only got three chances left."

Twilight looks down at her avian body, and sighs in defeat, "If I'm going to win, I can't keep going in blind."

"Hm? And what do you mean by that?"

"You're a professional, right?"

"A professional? That's what the card says, but honey, I'm the best in the business."

"Then--and I hate to ask--could you maybe . . . teach me a thing or two about this whole 'ghost' thing?"

"Oh, Twilight, I thought you'd never ask!" With a wave of his hoof, Eerie turns Twilight back to her original self in a puff of smoke. "And all this time I thought you were going to let your stubbornness get the best of you! Yet here you are, crawling to me for guidance."

"What? I'm not--"

Eerie hooks Twilight by the neck with his foreleg, bringing her in all giddy with excitement, "Never fear, my little protégé! I'd be delighted to share with you some tricks of the trade. I hope you're ready to take some notes, because class is about to start! You know what, I've got the perfect book that'll break this down easy for ya."

"There's a book for this?"

"Uh, duh." Eerie stomps one hoof on the ground, opening up a fiery pit. Flames pour from it as what sounds like a demonic choir hums a haunting melody. Twilight jumps back, keeping a safe distance from the flaming fissure.

"W-What happened? What's that?"

"It's my private study! Sure the neighbors are a bit noisy, and my heating bill is through the roof, but it's just so homey! Anyway, I'll be back in a jiff. Don't you go running off now!"

Eerie jumps into the pit, and the ground instantly reforms. Twilight approaches the spot, cautiously poking at the grass where the pit formed. "This dream just get's weirder and weirder." She then finds a light fog whisking around her hooves, and within moments, she is slowly engulfed in it. "W-What's happening?!" She panics, but is unable to escape the fog's clutches. Shutting her eyes, she waits for it all to end. As quickly as the fog encompassed her, the fog dissipates, and the air settles.

"Twilight!" Princess Luna calls from atop her throne.

"P-Princess Luna?" Twilight asks, carefully opening her eyes. "Princess Luna! Oh, thank goodness! Then this means I really am dreaming! Phew, I was actually starting to believe all this was real."

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but this is no dream."

"Say what?"

"Listen to me when I say that what you're experiencing is real, and it appears I am far too late," she says with a somber look.

Twilight's eyes widen with shock, as her 'dream' theory comes crumbling down along with every ounce of confidence she once had. By the look on Princess Luna's face, she can feel the seriousness of her situation escalating. Suddenly, the stakes become clearer, and what she had treated as a nonsense dream, has quickly become a horrible reality.