A Ghost of a Chance

Chapters

1. A Ghost of a Chance
2. Undying Loyalty
3. Cold Turkey
4. Wraith
5. Not Quite Wight
Ponin's Spirit Guide
6. Ghost Runes
7. Phantasmagorical
8. Ghost get
9. Fallout
10. A Long Rest
11. The hope of science
12. On the Road to Old Manehattan
13. Old Manehattan
14. Tourist Traps
15. On the Line
16. Recruitment
17. Possession
18. Sting
19. Non-living.
20. Black Knight
21. Hopeless
22. Singularity
23. Imperator
24. Chariot
26. Vast
27. MSI
28. True North
29. Ostracon
25. Supernova
(Extra) Ponin's Spirit Guide - A Ghost Bestiary

1. A Ghost of a Chance

“Hey, kids,” said Pinkie. “It’s me, your best friend Pinkie Pie with a special message from the psychic’s guild! While it’s true a near-death experience can awaken your psychic powers, it does not guarantee you’ll get superpowers. You’re generally ten times more likely to die than you are to become a psychic in any given situation. And most of the time the psychic abilities you do gain aren’t even that good. You might only get weak ESP. There’s only one Pinkie Pie, you know!

“So take it from the head psychic herself! Hurting yourself in hopes of becoming like me is the dumbest thing you can do on any given day!”

Lemon Zest held her headphones tight against her ears to listen to that PSA one last time. She’d heard similar announcements all through school. She’d read all the statistics. Everypony said this was a stupid idea and they were right.

Yet here she stood in front of the live wire of fate, just outside a small sub station, ready to electrocute herself until her heart stopped.

Yes, she had numbers on ponies who did this exact gambit. Ten in twenty died. Nine in twenty survived but walked away with nothing. One in twenty became psychic. Five percent! She just needed to get that lucky.

Of all the methods she could use, that was the highest chance. Zest just needed to get this one roll of the dice. One critical hit and she could escape this horrible life. She had to be overdue for some good luck.

Zest looked over her shoulder at the hospital right down the street. This was the best she could do.

“Sorry, Pinkie.” Zest took that recording out of her cylinder player. “I know I’m stupid, but some of us are too desperate to be smart. You know?”

Zest popped in her Equestria Girls cylinder and hit play. She bobbed her head to the first few beats. If she was going out, she’d go out listening to this song one last time.

“Equestria Girls, we’re kind of magical. Boots on hooves, bikinis on top!”

The song seemed to play so much slower this time. Zest glanced around nervously to see if anypony guessed what she was about to do. She saw a few ponies, but none of them read her mind.

No use delaying any longer! Zest psyched herself up!

“Fast, fine, fierce we trot till we–”

Zest bit down hard on the wire, tearing through the rubber. She felt the electricity surge through her body and her vision went white.

Her body didn’t thrash around, nor did it get blown back as she’d been expecting. Instead, Zest locked up. She couldn’t move an inch. The wire had some indomitable grip on her.

She’d read accounts of self-electrocution and getting stuck to the wire like this was the deadliest scenario! Her odds of survival just plummeted far below one percent!

Though on the plus side, if she did survive her psychic powers would probably be exceptional. Zest decided to focus on that one upside. Paralyzed, positive thoughts were the best she could manage.

Her body became unbearably hot, but through it all, she was surprised at how little this hurt and how long it took. Shouldn’t she have passed out or died by now?

Finally, something broke. She heard a burst and got sent flying through the air. Everything went numb. She couldn’t tell if she was breathing or if her heart had stopped. She barely even felt it when her body hit the ground a moment later.

Her vision returned from that white void for just a second. With great effort, she turned her eyes to the left. If that black, broken thing she saw was any part of her body… well, maybe it would be better if she died.

That can’t be good, were her final thoughts before that blackness overtook her world entirely.

And the craziest thing? Zest couldn’t even tell if that killed her.

She didn’t feel dead, but then she didn't feel anything. A moment ago, moving her ears felt like lifting a mountain but now she felt weightless like she was floating.

Zest opened her eyes easily enough, but what she saw was so odd that she couldn’t be sure if she’d gone blind.

Zest looked down at herself. She was floating, in some nightmarish white void. She could make out her form well enough. She still had her pink fur; her mane was the same green with yellowish stripes through it. Granted both were ruined beyond belief by the electricity. Her tail looked more suited for a raccoon at the moment. Not a single injury lingered, though

But everything else? It was all devoid of color. There were things in this white void with her, all around her even. They all clung low to the ground, universally the deepest black she’d ever seen. They came in all shapes, but Zest couldn’t make out a real form for either of them.

She looked up at the sky to find a massive ball of black and purple flames hanging in the sky. It gave off no light, but Zest could feel the uncomfortable heat of it. The flames frayed at the edges of everything in this world, including Zest.

“Wuh?” Zest stared up at it with her mouth hanging open.

Was this the afterlife or what? Zest wouldn’t blame any god that wanted to punish her, but this was weird.

A pony’s scream broke the silence of the world. Then came a great commotion and the sound of ponies clambering. Zest recoiled as she saw a number of them, each about the size of a pony, all scurrying about across the ground. They all converged on one shadow in the middle. Yes… that was what they looked like. Shadow creatures crawling across the ground on their bellies.

Every instinct told Zest to run away from them, that she didn’t belong in this place. She wanted to hide but couldn’t tell how to do even that much. Zest tricked kicking about and did spin around in the air. As she hung upside down, she saw some semblance of sanity.

There was a window! A window that led to a reasonably normal-looking room appeared before her. And oh did ‘reasonably normal’ sound like paradise right about now.

Zest did everything she could, flailing herself all around, attempting to get to that window. She did manage to ebb closer and closer to the window as the commotion continued behind her. With great pains, she managed to build up some momentum and soon floated towards it with no further effort.

Yet as she got near, Zest realized her aim was off. She wouldn’t go through the window but collide with a wall of darkness just next to it. She’d built up too much momentum to stop herself! Instinctively, she closed her eyes, but the collision never came.

Even without going through that window, she still ended up in that mysterious room. All in all, it looked like a pretty normal basement. The room was dark, and the colors greyed out, but she could at least tell what she was looking at.

Relief washed over her to be out of whatever that fever dream she just escaped was.

Of course, the terror outside couldn’t be ignored even now. The windows sucked the light and color out of the room. The world frayed apart in little strands as though it were sown together and getting pulled out into that void. Yet no matter how it tugged, the void didn’t spread. The room remained stable.

“What the heck is this?” Zest looked down at her hooves. “A dream?”

She’d never had a dream like this.

She could still hear voices outside. Zest couldn’t look outside this safe room, but she could listen to what those ponies were saying. She moved close to the window and swiveled her ears to listen.

“Does it look like she’s alive?” one pony asked another. “She’s been fried! The hospital can’t fix something like this.”

The voice sounded like it came from one of the skittering shadows. Squinting, she realized those shadows were vaguely pony-shaped.

“Then who do we call?”

“The police, I guess. Ugh! Does anypony have a tarp? We should cover it up until they get here.”

All the moving shadows were gathered around a single, immobile but pony-shaped shadow.

“Wait,” Zest said under her breath.

They were talking about her, weren’t they?

But if her body was still out there, then what was she?

That was when it finally clicked! She’d gone through a wall. She was floating in the air. She’d just died. Outside was a bright sunny day but all she could see were the shadows of ponies.

“Because ghosts only see shadows!” Zest gasped at the realization.

To test her theory, Zest waved her hoof across a tool cabinet. It went straight through! She soon found she couldn’t touch anything.

“I became a ghost?” Zest blinked a few times, unable to process this turn of events. “What the heck were the chances of this happening?”

The answer to that was obvious enough.

“That’s right,” Zest muttered under her breath, caught in her own pun. “A ghost of a chance.”

That’s where the saying came from. ‘A ghost of a chance’ was literally a one in ten thousand shot. You had about a one in ten thousand chance of becoming a ghost when you died.

But since when did Zest have the kind of luck to draw some crazy wildcard like this? This was like rolling two dice and somehow getting a royal flush! Nopony knew how to react to something like that. Was this even good luck or bad luck?

That’d take some thinking.

“I can think of one con.” Zest moved her hoof through a hammer sitting on a table a few times. “I can’t touch anything now.”

How was she supposed to grab anything without touching it? Well, as a unicorn the answer came readily enough.

Instinctively, she tried using her horn. Yet she couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t feel the flow of ambient magic or summon any of her own magical energy.

She reached for her horn – her most precious tool. She could touch it, but it felt lifeless.

Zest glanced back outside. Her horn was over there, potentially exploded, certainly fried, and undoubtedly useless. No bones meant no ability for her to use unicorn magic. Zest’s magic as a pony was gone along with her body.

She clutched her useless phantom horn, wondering if she could even cry. She wanted to shout that her life was over but couldn’t bear the pun! It wasn’t fair.

Zest shook her head.

No.

This was totally fair, wasn’t it? Losing her horn was all too fitting karmic justice. In fact, it was the perfect ironic punishment. She had no right to complain.

But she was certain ghosts could use some sort of telekinesis. She’d always read as much. They certainly had magic of their own to replace their lost pony magic.

Zest turned to the blinds. If closing those made it easier to see, there’d be no doubt left in her mind. Ghost saw easier in the dark, after all.

Zest tried simply focusing on the blinds as hard as she could. They shook slightly!

Okay! So this was more like using her skull and hooves than her horn, she realized, but it wasn’t completely different than the telekinesis she knew. Still, her lack of experience made it so difficult to grip anything. At least, she hoped it was merely inexperience.

Zest raised her hooves, put her focus square on the blinds, then lowered them swiftly. The blinds went down!

She did it! Zest bobbed her head left and right in celebration of the fact she wasn’t severely handicapped now! She could move stuff, and even that felt like a victory right now.

As a bonus, the room darkened considerably. This in turn meant her ability to see increased.

The greyness and haze vanished instantly, and vibrant color surrounded Zest. The room still looked dark, in a sense, but everything glowed with such magnificent color that the place felt bright and cheery.

If anything, her ability to see colors was even greater now, so long as it remained dark. Objects did look slightly different now. She even saw a color on the handle of a hammer that she decided wasn't a color the living could see.

She wasn’t exactly sure if she could call it blue, it’d be like saying purple was a shade of blue, but that was the closest her old mind could have gotten to it. It was such a deep, indescribably shade, like a blue that was even darker than black itself. But then again, every color was indescribable.

Zest looked herself over again. She was still pink-furred and green-maned. Of course, now she wondered if it all standing on end would be permanent. Giving her cause for concern was a small electrical arc that moved across her foreleg just then.

It caused her no pain, but those came at infrequent intervals. Sparks and electrical arcs would just come off of her out of nowhere. Really, she looked like she belonged in a cartoon right now.

Zest tried smoothing her tail out. She could still touch it and feel her own body, it seemed, but straightening it out proved impossible. That’s when she noticed something.

She still had her headphones? She could touch them, so they were ghost headphones, apparently.

Was that even a thing that could happen? She’d seen ghosts wearing clothes in a few movies, so maybe sometimes you got to keep an item or two. But did that mean clothing had a soul?

What were ghosts again? If they were souls dislodged from bodies, there wouldn’t be any dispute about souls existing, right? So they had to be something else only…

Zest really should have paid more attention in school!

She tried pulling the headphones off. It hurt! Taking them off made her feel like she was attempting to rip her ears off. Now she suspected that the electricity grafted them to her skull or something just before she died.

Her jack dangled off to the side, connecting to nothing. Her cylinder player was nowhere in sight. So her accessory was completely useless!

At least they made her look cool. In fact, Zest decided she was glad to be stuck with them. She looked way better with them on.

“Yeah.” Zest nodded to herself. “Just focus on the positives.”

Ghosts didn’t age so that was cool. No spine meant no back pain in her later years.

And what else?

“Wait!”

The best possible upside, at last, came to her. Already she could hardly contain her smile.

Zest moved back to the wall and swiveled her ears to listen. Nopony seemed to notice her becoming a ghost!

Nopony knew she was still alive! Zest had just effectively faked her own death!

“And if I’m dead I don’t owe anypony money.” Zest snicked and giggled, holding in a howl of laughter.

This was good luck! This was great luck! Hell, it was the best day of her life! Zest was finally free!

It wasn’t like the cartel would go on some insane marehunt, scouring the countryside for the literal ghost of a chance that this bizarre scenario happened. Zest didn’t warrant half that effort.

Zest spun around the room banging her head up and down to an invisible song! She had to hold in the urge to belt out the words to Equestria Girls! Oh, how she wanted to spend the rest of the day singing and dancing, but she couldn’t let anypony see her.

All she had to do was sneak out of town when the sun went down!

And then–!

And then what?

What did ghosts do all day again?

Hardly mattered! Zest would find wherever all the other ghosts hung out and copy whatever they were doing.

She just had to wait down here for the sun to go down and escape would be easy.

Waiting got boring fast. Zest amused herself by studying her new ‘body’ a little more.

Breathing caused air to swirl around her chest area, she found, then go out her mouth or nose. Not that she needed to breathe, but she could choose to. Interestingly, doing it like that gave her the ability to exhale non-stop for as long as she wanted.

Zest inhaled through her nose and then she smelled something.

At least, she believed it was a smell. The scent was so unlike anything she’d ever smelled before that she couldn’t even be sure. She could somehow pinpoint the location of whatever she ‘smelled’ now.

At any rate, it smelled delicious, better than anything she could remember. She couldn’t stop herself from sniffing now!

Without thinking, Zest floated back to the wall, to the source of her newfound pleasure. Her mouth watered. Her ears trembled with need. A terrible itch on the back of her head took hold.

Her new senses were all so strange but on some primal level she knew she wanted to devour whatever it was she smelled. Never in her life had she ever wanted to eat more than this. The only problem, this irresistible delight was outside in the sun.

What did ghosts even eat again?

Heat.

One thing Zest knew was that ghosts ate heat. Especially…

Zest shut her drooling mouth and she backed away from the wall.

“Oh wait.” Her eyes widened and her ears stopped twitching. She didn’t dare take another sniff. Already, she knew where the scent came from now.

She’d been smelling ponies. Specifically, she’d been smelling the body heat of the living ponies. She had an irresistible urge to suck their heat out and freeze them solid – potentially to death!

Yes, she remembered the biggest downside of being a ghost now. Ghosts – they often lost control around the living! The temptation to freeze their blood was too much for any normal ghost to handle for long. That was why they lived in such dark and lonely places where they wouldn’t be tempted to harm anypony.

How long could Zest hold out? She honestly wasn’t sure! That itching feeling slowly got worse.

Maybe she shouldn’t wait until sundown!

Zest shook her head. For now, she could keep her urges under control, it seemed. But she did need to leave before something bad happened.

Change of plans! She’d underground and keep floating south, towards the woods, for as long as she could.

Zest nodded to herself and darted beneath the floor. Nearly blind, seeing only the vaguest hints of shadows above, she pushed herself slowly forward, away from the world of the living.

Zest clawed her way through the underground for what felt like a day. In reality, she had little idea how long it took.

A few clues to her present location existed, though she couldn’t hear and could barely see. For one, she could smell the ponies she passed by. Her old sense of smell had been good enough, but this was on a different level. Zest could smell the exact number of ponies up above and tell how many paces away they were. In addition, she could sniff out where the most and least densely populated areas were.

Like this, she was able to tell when she passed a pony up above and could know which direction to go to reach the forest.

Perhaps a few hours into her expedition, Zest realized another helpful sense. It’d taken her a little bit to work out exactly what it was, but she could feel something pressing down on the surface of the earth. From this, she could tell how to stay below ground, but she soon realized she could tell the time with this sense too.

The direction from which the pressure came was slowly changing direction, going towards an angle and becoming ever weaker. With nothing better to do in such a dark and lonely place, Zest spent a long time trying to imagine what could be causing this mysterious force.

Then she thought of it. The sun!

Zest was certain now that she felt the rays of the sun pounding away. To make sure, she predicted that the force would eventually reach a heavily skewed angle then vanish. If that happened, it’d be her signal night had come and it was time to go above ground.

With these two discoveries, life became so much more bearable. Thus too did it grow shorter. The sun passed much more swiftly above after that, it seemed.

Zest soon cleared the town with no ponies above to make her mouth water. The itching feeling in her head stopped.

Some distance later, the sun, at last, began to set.

Zest poked her head up out of the ground and glanced about, finding herself in the forest. The familiar sight of pine trees surrounded her in every direction.

"I did it!" Zest grabbed her headphones and bobbed her head back and forth, humming a little victory tune.

She spent most of her life surrounded by pine trees. The province of Great Pines was named for its endless, sprawling, coniferous forests. By landmass, this was Equestria’s largest province, though the needles on any one of the bigger trees just might outnumber the ponies living here.

Growing up, she’d only ever seen pine trees, save when she’d gone down south to Sugar Loaf. Crystal Vale was the only province further north than Zest’s own. You didn’t get any trees at all up there.

Zest looked up. She’d hoped to confirm it was night, but only managed to muddle the question more.

The sky looked completely different now! Though she was sure it was night, the sky shone blue. Zest saw above her the deepest, richest blue she’d ever imagined. It was as though a massive, dark ocean was suspended above her now.

Tiny specks, glittering but black, filled the ‘waters’ above her. Each one acted as a tiny sinkhole in this metaphorical sea, causing the blue to swirl about them to create beautiful spiral patterns all around.

Were these stars?

If so, Zest quickly found the moon. It was by far the biggest ‘hole’ in the sky and created the dominant spiral pattern above her. But unlike the black stars, Zest could swear a light shone somewhere deep in the hole of the moon. The moon appeared an indescribable purple through that light, far away but intense.

“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered up at her new perception of the night sky.

She supposed, for a second, that she’d never see the stars as she had last night again. But this view was a fair trade.

And the strangest part was that she could swear the blue of the sky was darker than the black of the stars. Zest shook her head, certain that some of the colors she saw now were new.

“Focus!” Zest slammed her hooves down on her headphones. She’d marveled too long. “I got stuff to do! Stuff like – uh!”

Zest looked around at all the pine trees.

“Haunt the woods forever?” She shrugged. “I don’t even know how to properly haunt something!”

Okay!

She came up with a list of two priorities. One, don’t let any living ponies see her. Two, find some other ghosts to hang out with.

Great Pines had wilderness to spare, and ghosts liked lonely woods. As a filly, she’d been warned that wandering off might lead to her getting frozen. So hopefully her parents were right, and it wouldn’t be too hard to find some company.

Thankfully, she did have some familiarity with Great Pines. Navigation was as simple as moving to slightly higher ground. As soon as she spied a lone mountain, she knew which way was south.

Obviously, she didn’t know where any ghosts lived, so picking a general direction was her only option for now.

West made the most sense. The ocean waited to the east and the cartel was much more active in port cities. Plus, the thicker and more wild forests of Great Pines, where rumors and warnings of hauntings were more common, grew further inland. If she was going to find other ghosts, she’d be better off looking there.

And yet…

Zest turned back to the mountain, towards the south. Something in her gut told her to go south – towards more heavily populated areas.

It didn’t make much logical sense to go that way. If anything, going to dense cities meant being more likely to be spotted. It’d be harder to find ghosts that way, too. Yet, as the seconds ticked by, she became increasingly certain she should listen to whatever new instinct was urging her south.

“I guess I’ll go south then?” Zest said aloud. Part of her, oddly, expected an answer to come from the aether.

She set out in that direction. It only seemed like a strange decision a moment longer.

No, now she only thought of how annoyingly slow she moved. A small filly could outrun her!

Zest tried everything she could think of to try and speed up. Kicking her rear legs did nothing. Pretending to swim did nothing. Her inept levitation powers did nothing.

Eventually, she gave up. She turned her back to the ground, crossed her forelegs, and puttered along as she looked up at the sky. Here was her impression of the world’s slowest pegasus. Basic motor skills would seem like such a luxury at this point!

Zest didn’t even dare try to float up and over a tree. Who knew what would happen? Obviously, another ghost would know. She’d find one first.

As she went on, Zest did become increasingly aware of a sort of tug pulling her to the south. She imagined it more and more like a black wind blowing her down there. It didn’t exactly help her move. It felt like a sickly and cold wind. Yet at the same time, moving in any other direction seemed cumbersome enough for her to turn back to the south whenever she did deviate from the course.

Something about it frightened her a little, but that mattered little. Curiosity overcame her fear.

Surely, it’d lead her somewhere and that was better than being nowhere.

The thought got rid of all her doubts. Zest decided it was silly to be afraid when she didn’t even know what the thing was. She smiled. She’d just keep going south and see what happened!

Besides, she had to run into another ghost eventually.

As if to taunt her, a ball of white light phased through a tree overhead just then. She’d technically found another ghost, but not the right sort.

Orbs were a type of ‘lesser ghost’. Unlike high ghosts, such as Zest, these things had no semblance of their original personality. Philosophers held their fruitless debates as to whether high ghosts were truly the same pony as the one who died, or merely a new entity with all the relevant memories.

No such ambiguity existed around lesser ghosts. These were the remains of ponies, not the pony itself by any stretch of the imagination. Orbs were more akin to a lingering hoofprint, a few scattered bones, or an old feather.

Hours passed as that black wind blew her ever to the south.

She made a running count of the orbs she passed after that, getting to twenty once half the night had gone.

There used to be so many of these in the forests of Great Pines, but their numbers dropped so rapidly over the years. As a young foal, there were summer nights when Zest could look out her window to find ten orbs floating around.

So where had they all gone?

The explanation she’d gotten was that decreasing levels of super-radiation since the war meant fewer orbs. She accepted the suggestion without much thought before now.

Suddenly, the issue seemed so much more important. It seemed odd that they’d all vanish so quickly. And maybe she was simply impatient, but she’d yet to see any other high ghosts either.

There existed a chance that it affected other ghosts, like her, in some way. She wondered if something more sinister was gobbling up all the orbs.

Perhaps whatever pulled Zest south pulled all of them as well. Perhaps it already got all the high ghosts too.

For a brief moment, that idea chilled her, and considered perhaps going west until she knew more. Then she shook her head.

No.

That was a silly idea. She had no reason to assume something bad was to the south. Right?

She’d just keep going south and see what happened.

Though she wondered how far south she was being led. To the Everfree forest perhaps?

Ghosts haunted those woods like all get-out. Zest doubted she could go a single day without bumping into another ghost there.

Or perhaps it would lead her even further south to the Festering Scar. Silently, Zest decided to abandon the road if it brought her to the edge of that swamp. Not one thing lived in that place that could be trusted.

Sadly that meant no tropical paradise adventure for Lemon Zest. Or maybe she could go around the swamp. She still had thousands of kilometers to decide.

Zest closed her eyes and winced in pain.

If she even got that far. She felt herself growing weaker as time went on.

In her heart, she could feel a hole slowly growing. The emptiness was of the most literal variety like she was slowly dissolving into this void from the inside out. She felt lighter and thinner but in a bad way. Zest was wasting and fading away!

She could tell that was the ghost version of hunger. Her urge to fill that hole was simply too strong to be anything else.

This had to be hunger, right? Zest hadn’t eaten any heat today and was getting hungry.

Zest sniffed and pinpointed plenty of things to eat. She knew exactly where every animal in a one-kilometer radius slept.

Yes, ghosts froze animals (and sometimes ponies) to death to ‘eat’ them. Her new body (or whatever you called it) wanted her to freeze these animals too. She was famished and surrounded by delicious morsels!

“No way!” Zest grabbed her headphones and shook her head. “I’m an herbivore!”

She could resist the urge for at least another day, surely. It wasn’t like squirrels and moose were the only sources of heat in the universe. No giant moose-ball floated through the sky giving life to the planet!

She looked up at her horn. That’d be her solution to most problems previously. Sadly, that thing wasn’t going to be starting any fires ever again.

Hypothetically, she did have ice magic. Making fire from ice didn’t sound overly plausible, though, so she gave up on that without trying.

Only her ghost version of telekinesis remained. The problem was that she remained clumsy and weak with it.

Zest picked up a dry stick from the ground. She’d made friction fires before, but that involved using her hooves. She held little hope she could spin a stick fast enough in her current state.

Before wasting her time gathering tinder, Zest tested her ability. She put the stick against the ground and tried to rotate it in place as fast as she could. She obtained the speed of ‘no’.

Effectively, she couldn’t make the thing rotate. She put all of her efforts into the task for what felt like a solid half-hour. Eventually, she got to a point where she could spin it by twirling around in the air herself. She never obtained a tenth of the speed she’d need, however.

“If I throw this hard enough, the friction against the air will cause it to ignite!” Zest hurled the stick.

It got about two meters.

“Why am I so weak?!” Zest moaned. “Aren’t high ghosts supposed to be dangerous and powerful and stuff? If we’re so pathetic why is everypony so scared of us?!”

Well, complaining never got her anywhere before.

Her only other option now was to ‘borrow’ somepony else’s fire. It wasn’t stealing to simply put out another pony’s fire, right? She didn’t like the idea of immediately turning to theft just after she escaped from the cartel.

“Well this time it’s temporary,” Zest assured herself. “Just till I can find another ghost! And it’s not as bad as my old job, either.”

She sniffed the air and scanned the horizon.

At least finding towns was easier now. Besides each city being a clawing hole of black, Zest became increasingly convinced she could sniff them out from afar.

The air above a city smelled warmer, no doubt all the heat rising up. Nowhere else did she get this sense, at least not nearby.

She had all sorts of little things she’d never noticed before. Having different senses nearly put one in a new world, she decided. So many things she’d taken for granted were lost. Yet each one got replaced by some invisible truth revealing itself to her.

So she moved that way, hoping it would be safe.

Soon she found a road.

Then, as the town came into sight beyond the furthest layer of trees in her perception, Zest noticed the sign welcoming her. ‘Maple Hill’, it called itself.

“Maple Hill?” Zest looked around. She’d spent her whole life in Great Pines and never once saw a maple tree. Today was no exception. “I could forgive that name if there was even one maple here. Or a hill.”

She inched towards the poorly named city and sniffed once more.

Zest was hungrier now. She didn’t even need to be inside the town for that itching hunger to return worse than ever. If Zest went in there, she just knew she’d give in!

She pulled back. That was no good either. But she had to eat eventually, didn’t she?

Zest turned back towards the forest and frowned. Would she have to freeze some poor animal after all? She resolved to at least hold off until tomorrow. No way she could starve to death in one day.

As she turned around, Zest noticed something on the back of the sign she hadn’t seen the first time. Something was written there, with glowing green ink. Something about it screamed ‘ghost’ to her!

Still, the way that color glowed gave the impression that the light of it was far away, deep inside the tree, coming out cracks carved into it. She briefly believed the letters were carved into the sign but, a close inspection confirmed it was simply a strange paint.

The message contained two parts.

Written on top were strange runes that Zest couldn’t even guess the origins of. She counted three symbols in all. A half-circle to the far left. Three progressively smaller circles each within the last. Then finally two upside-down triangles stacked on top of one another. The second two were smaller and placed one on top of the other to the right.

Zest scratched her head wondering if even a single pony now living could beat any meaning out of that.

Thankfully, somepony wrote a second, more sensible message beneath that. Perhaps it was simply the same thing written twice in different ways.

The ominous message read, ‘Don’t go south. Danger.’

Zest silently glanced off to the south, then back at the sign.

“Oops?” She shrugged. “But then which way should I go, mystery pony?”

She never got an answer. The warning left her with more questions than she’d started with.

How far south could she safely go? They had to be talking about what pulled her in and that seemed a vast distance away. Or was there a second danger lurking around, far closer than she realized?

But at any rate, perhaps she should take a hard right and head west as her logical brain told her to.

They could be lying.

That thought just sort of blew into her head.

“Yeah.” Zest nodded in agreement with that stray thought. “The sign could be a trick. It could be written by somepony who doesn’t want me to get to the safety of whatever’s south of here. It’s not like graffiti is the most reliable source of information, right?”

Zest looked around, but nopony was there, even if it didn’t feel like it.

“Boy am I lonely.” Zest hung her head. “You know what? I’m just gonna keep going south and see what happens! I say that a lot, don’t I?”

Leading to the south, Zest found a third road. This one promised no civilization beyond it. Vines cracked the pavement as grass and weeds slowly reclaimed the land.

So Zest decided to follow that road for a while.

She went deeper into the woods until she could no longer smell the temptation of ponies. Then the black wind stopped.

Zest froze in place herself. So far, nothing had slowed it for even a moment, yet now it ceased completely.

But why? Something about this place?

Curious, she floated back a few feet. Sure enough, she felt the pull to the south once again, just as strongly as ever. Moving forward, it ceased once again.

Zest went back and forth like this a few times to confirm the results. She found the exact line in the ground where the wind ended. She could even stick her head inside and feel the wind only on her hindquarters. Though nothing she saw gave any hint this line was there. She couldn’t find a single landmark of any kind.

She moved left several meters before repeating the experiment. Eventually, she discovered that this line was in fact a wide circle. The center had to be a few kilometers away at the least, but something was clearly there in the center.

Once again, she wondered if whatever she felt was good or bad. She sat at the border for a long time, hooves on her headphones, deciding what to do.

“I might as well go in, right?” she asked herself.

As if in reply to her question, the tug stopped yet again. Yet now she wasn’t on the other side of that line she’d spent almost an hour establishing.

So much for science!

Zest pulled back and felt the wind return, only to be vanquished again a moment later. That’s when she figured out what was happening.

The line was moving! The thing in the center of the circle was coming right for her!

She scrambled to get away as fast as she could. That puttering speed she’d always had wasn’t enough to escape now. No matter how far back she went, the black wind no longer returned. The thing could move faster than her! Zest was trapped now!

“Oh no!” Zest flailed her forelegs trying to move faster, despite knowing full well that’d do nothing. “No! No! I’m leaving! Sorry!”

Her panicking ceased and Zest found herself taking deep breaths. Calmness washed over Zest, soothing her to the point she no longer felt the need to run.

What had she been worried about again?

The thing headed toward her no longer felt even potentially intimidating. She caught herself smiling wide like she’d just seen an old friend after years of separation.

Yeah! The thing in the center was great!

Now Zest wanted to get there as soon as possible, so she began floating towards where she assumed it was. All the while she hummed a happy tune, bopping her head side to side with a big smile. Everything was fine now!

“Let the Rainbow remind you!” Zest sang to herself happily.

In the back of her mind, she thought it strange her mood flipped on a dime like that. Somehow, she just couldn’t find a crap to give about that.

She got to a spot that wasn’t quite a clearing but was less grown than the rest of the forest. It was as though the place had been cleared out only to be retaken by the woods.

Zest noticed a few buildings in the distance, but no light came from the windows, and she couldn’t smell any living ponies down there. Some sort of abandoned building perhaps? But what?

An influx of orbs came towards her like a wave. Zest looked left and right as they passed, then surrounded her.

And then, a single ghost rose from the ground, seven orbs orbiting around her.

It was the ghost of an earth pony, albeit one of unusually slight build that made Zest briefly mistake her for a unicorn. Her fur was grey and her mane white. Both were neatly combed, the latter styled into long twin-tails.

Glasses rested on her muzzle, and she looked down at Zest with a serious, borderline stern expression with those eyes glowing a faint blue.

Zest bobbed up and down, feeling so much affection for this mysterious mare! She wanted to rush over and hug her and–!

And then that affection popped. Whatever she’d been drunk on a moment ago sobered away. Her reason came back and that’s when Zest realized it.

She was looking up at a specter for they alone had eyes like that. Zest had little confidence in her ability to identify ghosts outside the most famous kinds, but she found herself in the presence of the most feared of them all.

Specters were born of massive disasters that killed tens of thousands of ponies at the least. They could create natural disasters themselves, were all but living weapons of mass destruction, among a host of other powers. They were the top of the ghost food chain, often with a small legion of other ghosts at their command.

If this specter was at all territorial, or simply decided she didn't like Zest for whatever reason, then Zest's afterlife would be over before it even began!

“No! No! I’m one of you! I’m one of you!” Zest stuck her foreleg through a tree, waving it around to show how ethereal she was. “Wooo! WoooOOOooo!”

The specter watched her display with no emotion beyond her small frown.

“You realize you’re being incredibly racist right now,” said the specter.

“Uh!” Zest stumbled over her words. “Yeah! But it’s okay for me to do it because I’m a ghost, right? That’s what I was going for! You see?”

Zest laughed. The specter’s expression didn’t soften.

“I’m going to assume you only died a few days ago.”

“Yes.” Zest bowed her head. “Sorry.”

“Come closer and turn around once.” The specter flicked her hoof upwards. “I need to see something.”

Zest had no idea where this was going but decided it best not to challenge her.

“You’re good.” She shook her head. The specter came down to Zest’s level. “My name is Sugarcoat. Who are you?”

“Thanks?” Zest tapped her headphones. “You can call me Lemon Zest. But I’m ‘good’ in terms of what again?”

“I’ll give you some free advice,” she said. “If you ever see a ghost covered in chains, then that pony is your enemy. Don’t trust them, don’t talk to them, don’t get near them or even let them see you if you can.”

“I see.” Zest sighed. That implied Sugarcoat here wasn’t her enemy.

“I noticed you poking your head in and out of my territory,” Sugarcoat said, “and I figured you were either an idiot or a worm friend. Either way, I thought it’d be bad to leave you to your own devices.”

Zest wasn’t about to accept the title of ‘idiot’, so she instead reached for the mystery label.

“You got me. I love worms.”

Sugarcoat cringed slightly at whatever the implications of that were.

“Clearly.”

“But in all seriousness, you’re right. I have no idea what I’m doing and cannot be left to my own devices.” Zest clasped her forehooves together. “Please help?”

Sugarcoat watched her with a hum before nodding.

“Very well. Follow me.”

Six orbs floated up from the ground beneath Sugarcoat, surrounding her. The specter and her orb collection all floated off toward the buildings in the distance. Zest flew after them as fast as she could, which meant slowly.

2. Undying Loyalty

Sugarcoat moved so much faster than Zest, needing to slow down for Zest to catch up. As they crept on over to the buildings in the distance, Zest slowly realized they were approaching an abandoned school. Two dorm buildings and a schoolhouse made up the bulk of the estate. It was the school itself that Sugarcoat led her to.

The building wasn’t falling apart, but it was still far from new. The paint had long since faded, but the siding remained in place. Weeds grew tall all around the building and vines thick enough to climb stretched up to its roof. A statue lay broken and unrecognizable just in front of the entrance.

Just before entering, she learned the name of the school. Written above the entrance were the words: Shadowbolt Academy.

She liked it! A fine name for a ghost’s home.

Sugarcoat brought Zest not to the main doors, but off to the wall on one side. Zest opened her mouth, then closed it when Sugarcoat went through the wall without hesitation. She supposed she’d have to get used to that.

Still having the mind of a living pony, Zest needed to stop briefly and brace herself before floating into the wall. The cafeteria waited for her on the other side. A few abandoned chairs and tables lingered here but were all pushed off to the side.

A layer of frost covered the entire room and orbs drifted all around her. Zest had seen a number of them haunting the school grounds as well. She supposed there had to be at least a hundred of them around. The place should have been terribly uncomfortable, but Zest could no longer feel cold. If anything, the place felt cozy.

Along the side were what Zest assumed to be a new addition based on how it clashed with the school’s architecture. Three brick ovens lined the walls, with chimneys leading off somewhere.

Sugarcoat had a fire already burning, to Zest’s relief, in one of them. It was a charcoal fire, glowing dimly. Still, the charcoal was purple and darkened the room with its haze. Zest looked up but saw no smoke. She supposed smoke was invisible to ghosts. Ghosts and the living saw the world differently, after all.

The purple haze made by the light of the fire had an interesting effect. It didn’t reach any place where it cast a shadow, nor did it blur the areas to either side of the oven. Zest bobbed her head back and forth around the edge of the oven, aweing at how the fog came and went.

Sugarcoat gave her a dull, unamused look. Wisdom and experience had killed any wonder such a phenomenon might have. Zest smiled sheepishly.

An earthen pot rested just above the fire. Too unfamiliar with her new eyes, Zest couldn’t possibly tell what it contained. But some sort of thick, goopy liquid filled it and bubbled slowly. She wanted to call it nasty, but it smelled so good!

Sugarcoat had plenty of supplies for fire-building too. She had kindling, firewood, charcoal, and dried herbs all neatly stacked away. A pony who could build a fire held infinite value in Zest’s eyes.

“I can feel your hunger. Have you eaten anything yet?” Sugarcoat threw a few of the dried herbs onto the embers. They lit up soon after touching the charcoal. “You can take heat from the fire but try not to put it out.”

Those herbs bursting into flames made the fire smell so much more delicious! She felt like a barbarian who’d just discovered cooking even existed. In fact, she had no idea you could ‘cook’ like this at all.

Hunger and the irresistible aroma overpowered Zest’s dignity. She crouched down and breathed in, absorbing the heat. It filled up the hole inside her and then some. She more full-bodied, the lightness and thinness retreating.

But that itch in the back of her head remained. The fire blew out, yet she still felt hungry.

She smelled little heat left in the embers, and they no longer sucked the light out of the room. Sugarcoat frowned down at what remained of her fire. She took out a fire poker to turn over the charcoal.

“You took too much.” It didn’t sound like she was scolding Zest, but it was hard to be sure given how monotonous her voice was. “You need to slowly draw heat away from the fire as it burns or you won’t get enough to eat from it.”

Zest watched sideways as one of the orbs grabbed the fire poker and took over Sugarcoat's job of stirring some life back into the fire.

“Sorry. I’m new.”

“It wasn’t my dinner, anyway.” Sugarcoat took the pot off the fire.

Zest sniffed. That goop still had tons of heat in it. It smelled better than the fire had and Zest was still hungry.

Maybe she stared at it a bit too longingly. Sugarcoat watched Zest in the corner of her eye wearily. Then she gave a defeated sigh.

Sugarcoat took out a bowl, filled it with a large portion of her dinner, then passed it to Zest. Zest looked down at the bubbling, tar-like substance and smiled brightly.

“Thank you!” Zest clapped her hooves together. “You’re a nice ghost.”

Both ponies froze their meals. Zest sucked up all the heat in one go again. That had to be one of the most delicious things she’d ever eaten. Zest glowed in satisfaction as her hunger was finally satisfied with a burst of pleasure. Sadly, it only lasted a second.

Sugarcoat, meanwhile, slowly and carefully siphoned her heat away with steady breaths. She gave Zest a look at eating that bowl so quickly.

Zest blushed slightly. She just now realized she must be eating like a barbarian, the equivalent of swallowing without chewing. In retrospect, it would have been nice to savor the flavor more.

“Most things are better being burned slowly to ash.” Sugarcoat took another breath of heat from her meal. “Only a few materials are good to eat by repeatedly heating and cooling. It needs to be something with high specific heat, you see.”

Zest nodded, realizing she really was starting from zero. Zest didn’t even know how to eat.

“It’s best to cook in earthenware or glass pots,” Sugarcoat went on. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed yet, but hot metal tastes disgusting to us. Even something merely cooked in a metal container, or a metal oven, can end up with a sharp, acidic taste it not cooked properly. I can show you how to make clay pots that don’t break when rapidly cooled.”

“Wow! You seem to have it all figured out.” Zest nodded. “You’re like a pro ghost! I don’t even know how to make any kind of pot.”

“Knowing how to eat hardly makes one a professional.” Sugarcoat took another pause to enjoy the last of her dinner. “But there is a great deal of knowledge I could share with you. I would like to know a little about you before we make any sort of deal.”

A deal? Zest didn’t exactly have a lot to negotiate with. Though that did make it sound like a chance existed to be taken under Sugarcoat’s wing.

“What do you want to know?” Zest asked.

“Did you do that thing where you bite down on a wire to get psychic powers?” Sugarcoat asked.

Zest looked down at herself. Small sparks and arcs of electricity still appeared on her every so often.

“What? Nah!” Zest chuckled. “I got struck by lightning! Come on!”

“Don’t they teach you in school not to do that?” Sugarcoat asked. “Your chance of dying is ten times your chance of getting psychic powers.”

“Well look, some of us are desperate, okay?” Zest turned a cheek on her. “To some ponies, a nine in ten chance of dying and a one in ten chance of getting out sounds good.”

“Oh?” Sugarcoat folded her hooves and rested her chin on them. “You don’t seem suicidally depressed to me. You’re chipper, considering your situation.”

“Yeah, well I technically got out.” Zest huffed and looked up at the ceiling. “So what do I have to be sad about?”

“Do you mind me asking what you ‘got out’ of?”

She probably couldn’t hide it forever, not if her goal was for Sugarcoat to take her in, but Zest hesitated.

Maybe it was silly to worry about being judged here. Smuggling contraband was bad, but ghosts were something else.

No other faction liked ghosts. No cult, crime syndicate, government, or any other kind of monster would take in ghosts. Not even the cartel would let ghosts work for them. For all she knew, Sugarcoat would see her old career as respectable in comparison.

“I owed money to the wrong pony,” said Zest. “I got stuck working for a criminal organization. I smuggled some… stuff around. They threatened me with worse if I didn’t. I know enough to take out the guy above me if I snitched but not the big boss, so it wasn’t safe for me to just quit. I figured if I had strong enough ESP I could– well, nopony could sneak up on me and I could leave my life of crime behind.”

She didn’t mention any names or explicitly state what she smuggled.

“But I was only twenty thousand in the hole!” Zest put her hooves up defensively. “That’s not enough to justify running after me over the tiny, miraculous chance that I ended up a ghost. And even if they did fight me, well who’s going to fight a specter knowing they won’t even get the money back!”

“I imagine you’re right,” said Sugarcoat. “Ponies are loathe to go against one of my kind.”

Zest let out a sigh of relief. She expected the revelation she’d been a smuggler to be a bigger bombshell. Maybe ghosts just didn’t give a crap. Or maybe just Sugarcoat didn’t. She seemed almost too chill.

“I’m sure you’re wondering how I get away with living so close to a predead settlement,” said Sugarcoat.

“Um!” Zest hadn’t even thought of that but nodded anyway. “Yeah! How can they not notice a specter living next door?”

“They know I’m here,” said Sugarcoat. “They’re simply too afraid to start a fight with me. You know at least the power I wield that the predeads fear, yes?”

Was Zest being quizzed? She answered quickly, fearing Sugarcoat might kick her out if she came across as too stupid.

“I remember learning in school that a specter is created when tons of ponies die in a single disaster,” she said. “And you have the power to create an echo of that disaster. So you could summon a giant tornado or something.”

“A massive earthquake,” Sugarcoat corrected her, “in my case, that would destroy the entire town and kill hundreds even here. They won’t attack me unless I gave them a profound reason. No. Maple Hill has given me a small offering of incense– an unspoken treaty to ignore me so long as I keep the other ghosts under control.”

Zest smiled wider. That was right! Sugarcoat was like a walking weapon of mass destruction. Nopony would push Zest around if she had a friend like that! She needed to make some kind of deal with this pony.

“I suppose even if it came down to it, I would buy your freedom for twenty thousand bits,” said Sugarcoat. “I do have a small amount of gold hidden away here. It’d be worth the price to have you work for me instead.”

“It would?” Zest pointed to herself, tilting her head in confusion. “I mean. I’d appreciate that and all but we did just establish I’m too dumb to be left on my own. Remember?”

“Do you know what type of ghost you are?” Sugarcoat asked.

A good question!

Zest had given little thought to that until just now. She knew there were plenty of different types of ghosts but the list in her mind was far from complete. She wasn’t a specter, phantom or banshee and had no confidence she could identify any other sort.

“The normal type?” she supposed. “Wait! No! I’m an electric-type ghost!”

“Close,” Sugarcoat granted. “We call you an elemental. When a pony is killed by an element – that is, fire, water, earth, or electricity – they have a chance of becoming an elemental, imbued with the force that took their life.”

“So I have lightning powers? Are you sure?” She looked up at Sugarcoat. “I don’t feel like I have cool electric powers.”

“You simply don’t know how to use them, but they are extremely useful and sought after. Lightning elementals are rare. You’re even considered good luck charms by superstitious ghosts. I can help you learn how to use your elemental abilities. I can show you a lot of things. How to fix your mane, for example.”

“Oh yeah?” Zest looked back at her tail. It’d never been worse. All things considered, Sugarcoat was being really nice considering how pathetic and homely Zest looked. “Well, thanks chief! I know I say this a lot, but I got no idea what I’m doing.”

“Would you like to be somewhere where you can be useful and appreciated?”

“Oh, being somewhere is enough for the moment,” said Zest. “If you can offer me something as fancy as ‘appreciation’, then I’m buying.”

“If that’s the case, then here’s my offer.” Sugarcoat stretched her hoof out in offering. “I’ll take you under my wing and put you under my protection. I’ll teach you everything you need to know. In exchange I want you to swear your loyalty to me and move into Shadowbolt Academy as my servant.”

“Whoa. Servant. Eh.” Zest folded her forelegs. “You had me sold until you used that word. I’m kinda trying to get out of the pathetic, servile gig.”

“Neh.” Sugarcoat sighed in exasperation. “The word ‘servant’ doesn’t have the same demeaning connotation with us as it does among predeads. It’s simply a ghost who lives with a specter.”

“Well, it has the same connotation to me.”

“If you’d prefer we could call you my ‘vassal’ or something more dignified.”

“Vassal, huh?” Zest repeated the word. “I like the sound of that one.”

She didn’t know the exact definition of a vassal, but that sounded way better than her old rank. What even was she?

A grunt? A goon? A mook?

Suddenly, even ‘servant’ sounded like a major promotion.

“If you think it’s odd, you won’t find much difference elsewhere. Ghost societies typically center around a specter such as myself,” Sugarcoat explained. “Our massive auras make us a natural nexus point for other ghosts to cling to. We typically have quite a few ghosts orbiting us. Our presence is the closest thing you can get to civilization now that you’re a ghost.”

Zest looked around, unable to find any other ghosts. That is unless you counted the hundred or so orbs floating about the school.

“You mean these guys?” Zest pointed to one of them.

“I’m just starting out. I don’t have any underlings yet. You could be my first.”

“The ground floor is tempting,” Zest admitted. “But what are my options here? Isn’t there a ghost-to-ghost network where I can meet other specters and decide which one I like best? No offense.”

“Not anymore there isn’t.” Sugarcoat cast her glance downward.

Zest frowned and her ears lowered. This sounded like a more serious topic.

“Then there used to be?” Zest floated over to her side.

“Things have been going downhill for a while,” said Sugarcoat. “Of all the ghostland cities, only Old Manehattan remains. The rest are gone. The spectral federation is destroyed. Our old communication networks are silent. Most ghosts have become quiet and are warry of meeting up.”

“Because of Pinkie Pie and the psychic’s guild?” Zest guessed.

“They aren’t a problem for us. They don’t typically bother ghosts like us who just mind our own business. If anything, they’ve just chased all the troublemakers away from the edges of civilization, making things more peaceful for us.”

Sugarcoat closed her eyes and shook her head, opening them again when her bearings straightened.

“There is one vital reason you shouldn’t leave, at least not for some time.” Sugarcoat looked over at the window, swiveling her ears towards it as if to ensure nopony was listening in. “Our true enemy is to the south.”

The south?

Zest recalled the black wind and the warning she’d read. Suddenly, she felt as though she’d narrowly dodged a train. It seemed so odd, in hindsight, that she’d just completely disregarded that sign.

“Did you feel something beckoning you to the south?” Sugarcoat asked. “Before you found me?”

“Yeah!” Zest nodded. Finally, she’d get an answer to that. “That’s how I noticed you, even. The feeling of being blown down there vanished when I got close to you.”

“Then you’ve seen it yourself.” Sugarcoat held out her hoof in offer once more. “A ghost’s aura is like their emotions bleeding out. Specters have massive auras and, if controlled properly, we can induce thoughts and feelings in weaker ghosts with it. That’s what you felt when I compelled you to come towards me.”

Zest nodded, but she didn’t like it.

“That’s kind of terrifying, but okay. How am I supposed to sleep at night if that’s possible again? You’re saying any other ghost can just fly up to me and emotionally control me?”

“Another reason ghosts choose to live with a specter they trust,” said Sugarcoat. “My aura protects you from other ghosts. They cannot force their will on you so long as you’re with me. At least, not without great difficulty. I can teach you how to protect yourself from auric attacks like that in the future.”

“Then–” Zest put two and two together in her head. “Wait. So that was the aura of another specter? And they were trying to reel me in the same way you did? But then when I entered your aura you blocked it?”

“Yes. Her influence this far north is weak, but then so are you. You’re currently as weak as an infant, with no hope of resisting another ghost. Any high ghost you encounter could make you think or feel just about anything. Had you not met me, you would have kept thinking of some excuse as to why you should go south and never even realize you were being influenced.”

Come to think of it, that had been exactly what happened. At the time, her idea to simply declare that warning to be a lie seemed so natural. Only now, under Sugarcoat’s protection, did she remember things more clearly. The thought had entered her head like a whisper, had snuck in from some foreign place unnoticed.

“Even now, if I convince you of the danger here, you’ll decide I was lying and head south the moment you leave my aura,” Sugarcoat warned. “That’s why I think you should stay here at least a few months until you can resist her.”

“And what would happen if I went all the way down there?” Zest asked.

“What do you think would happen?” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Against a specter like that, your free will would be gone completely. You wouldn’t be a servant but a slave, incapable of thinking anything that goes against the will of our nemesis.”

“There’s seriously something like that out there?”

“It’s worse than you’re imagining, even.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Our enemy is the leader of Crater Cemetery. She’s the one who destroyed the spectral federation and most of the other ghost cities. She’s enslaved tens of thousands of other ghosts with her powerful aura. We find ourselves at a late hour.”

Crater Cemetery? Even Zest heard about that place. It was the biggest ghost hideout in the world. Though she never knew any of this mind-control stuff.

“Wait! But Crater Cemetery’s over two thousand kilometers away,” Zest complained. “I read that’s the toughest specter, but she can get me from this far away?!”

“Then you understand the extent of her power. Ghosts have been fleeing north ever since her intentions to enslave all of us became clear. I suspect we’ll be meeting some refugees who wish to become my servant in exchange for protection in the coming months.” Sugarcoat held her hoof out. “As I said. I can offer you that protection now.”

“I suppose. But how do I know you aren’t using your aura on me right now?” Zest asked. “You could be manipulating me into thinking this is a good idea.”

“I could be and there’s no way for you to possibly know,” Sugarcoat admitted. “I could make you bow down and worship me, and you wouldn’t even think anything of it. You’re weak and completely at my mercy. Even a less powerful specter could kidnap you and force you to do their bidding. You’re more alone than you’ve ever been. Anyone could do anything they want to you and you’d have no recourse.”

“Heh! Wow! Well, thanks for being so honest. But yeesh. You’d think a pony literally name ‘Sugarcoat’ would, you know, sugar coat things sometimes.”

“I admit the reality of things,” said Sugarcoat. “There isn’t much hope for you until you learn to use your aura properly. Once you get to that point, you’ll know if I’m manipulating you.”

Zest looked around the cafeteria. Perhaps it was fitting she was in a school if she’d be learning the ropes here.

Protection and knowledge were at an absolute premium at the moment. The more Zest thought about it, the more she realized she’d didn’t have nearly enough to offer to seriously ask for more than that.

Of course, having just gotten out of one crime syndicate, there was one important question left.

"Like what would I be doing for you, Boss?" Zest asked.

"I want to create a sanctuary for other ghosts here," said Sugarcoat. "I think you could be useful in recruiting other ghosts to Shadowbolt Academy. I suppose you'll have some menial chores besides that."

Zest could live with that!

“Then we got a deal! I swear my undying loyalty to you.” Zest bowed to Sugarcoat but kept her gaze up, smiling, to see the other ghost’s reaction.

Sugarcoat grumbled more than would have been expected.

“The first thing I’ll teach you is the two-year rule,” said Sugarcoat. “It’s not okay for you to make ghost jokes until you’ve been dead for at least two years.”

“Is that a real thing?” Zest straightened out.

“Do I seem the joking type?”

Zest shook her head.

“Well, I suppose I am responsible for your education now.” Sugarcoat floated over to Zest, up and above her. She pressed the tip of her forehoof against Zest’s forehead, right at the base of her phantom horn. “I accept your vow of loyalty and acknowledge you as my vassal, Lemon Zest.”

Zest smiled brightly. As she stood ready to begin her ghost training, the whole affair began to look less like an inconvenience and more like an adventure.

3. Cold Turkey

With her mane back in reasonable order, Zest brought her latest clump of pine needles back to the school and set them down. She'd been at this for hours and after her long day of work, Zest looked down at her work - a small pile of them not big enough to hide a filly.

Zest's first job could be described as ‘mulch mare’. Sugarcoat sent her out into the surrounding forest to gather pine needles and cones to throw them into a pile. Sometime next year these could hypothetically be used for the garden, though Zest had little hope she'd ever get enough at the rate she was going.

To a pony with all their motor functions, this would be nothing more than menial labor. To Zest, it doubled as mildly intense training meant to develop her ability to move around and carry things. Trivial stuff like that.

Eventually, she would move on to making pots and charcoal and gathering woods. For now, those chores were too much for her to handle.

Maybe being so helpless should have worried her, but Zest only liked this ghost stuff more each day. Under the safety of another pony’s wing, she had the freedom to bumble around as much as she needed to. Now she had the privilege to see all of this as an adventure– an entirely new world to explore.

The job also gave her the chance to get familiar with the school grounds, which she was still exploring after two days.

The school had been abandoned long enough for the woods to overtake most of its grounds. She only knew the place had a sports field because the bleachers were still there. The audience now consisted of some vines, maybe a squirrel on a good day, that watched over an overgrown patch of shrubbery and a few short trees.

The whole of the facilities truly was inside the woods, not merely next to them. Wild trees grew inches away from even the main schoolhouse and weeds piled against every building. The overgrowth even reached inside some.

If you counted the remains of the bleachers, the place had six structures in total. Sugarcoat left most of these fallow to focus on keeping the boy’s dormitory and the main building in reasonable condition.

The boy’s dormitory acted as a storehouse for fuel. Or perhaps she was better off calling it their larder, given her new diet.

Inside, Zest founds stocks of firewood, coal, charcoal, gunpowder, paper, pinecones, sticks, and even some propane tanks. Zest sniffed around and decided that potential heat didn’t smell tasty. It had to be on fire.

‘The good stuff’, kept in the basement, consisted of a cabinet of cooking oils and ancient, gnarly woodchips that Sugarcoat called agarwood.

Apparently, that agarwood stuff was like ghost caviar. You only got it on special occasions. Zest tried to convince Sugarcoat that becoming her first underling was a special occasion only to get shot down. Sugarcoat simply told her that her ‘pallet wasn’t refined enough’ to appreciate something this fancy. She did, however, promise to give Zest one chip for the first anniversary of her death, when she might be able to enjoy it.

That’s what she found on her first day of exploration. Sugarcoat wanted her to do two hours of picking stuff up each night and Zest had passed that mark today. What was more, she had a big pile of stuff for mulch to show for it.

Zest beamed down at her small pile with far more pride than it warranted. She supposed this was the first time she’d ever done honest work. It felt good to do something helpful, rather than work that actively harmed other ponies. At least she didn’t have to go home feeling disgusting and miserable.

Zest looked left and right noticing the orbs converging on her. Somehow she couldn’t help but see these things as cute now. They were like little bunnies to her new ghost brain. Making them even cuter was how they appeared to be attracted to happiness. They swarmed her whenever she got like this.

She decided to lead them on a parade through the schoolhouse itself – where she’d be exploring tonight. Zest started singing a little song, smiling wide at the orbs as they followed her.

“Let the rainbow remind you!” Zest even got them to bob up and down to the beat by doing the same herself in an exaggerated fashion.

The school building was where they’d live and where Sugarcoat kept everything that wasn’t a fire hazard. However, few rooms were even cleared of all the clutter left behind. Sugarcoat told Zest she could turn any of the classrooms into whatever sort of space she wanted, were she so inclined. Maybe the offer would have been tempting if Zest had even a single personal affect to put in any of them.

Zest soon found the library, the most heavily reworked room after the cafeteria. Sugarcoat had, by some means, gotten about two hundred or so books, in addition to large stacks of newspapers and magazines, to fill out the library. Looking at the poor quality of the magazines, Zest decided Sugarcoat collected discarded material rather than stealing all of this.

A cursory glance showed a good quarter of them were romance novels – specifically ones about two colts falling in love. Zest nodded in silent approval of her taste. Another quarter made up every other genre of fiction and the whole of the second half comprised of practical information. They had the complete Encyclopedia Equestria and plenty of atlases to look through.

Zest went through the remaining rooms hoping something cool had been left behind. Nothing remained in the school store. The register was there but contained no money.

She went down to the gym and briefly got her hopes up.

Outside the gym itself, she found a row of glass cabinets filled with trophies. They left all the trophies behind! The Shadowbolts won so many that there was hardly enough space to contain them all. Like weeds, the trophies seemed to strangle one another, desperate for any space.

She wondered why they’d do that briefly before remembering that trophies were useless. It was unlikely they were real gold.

Banners still hung from the high ceilings of the gymnasium itself, declaring all manner of achievements of their team ‘The Shadowbolts’. Zest thought that name was so cool! And from the looks of things, the Shadowbolts killed it!

They got to nationals every year and won almost every time. They had major victories in every sport Zest could think of from bowling to hoof ball. It got to the point of excess. There wasn’t any room for more victory.

Her own high school only had the one trophy, put high on a pedestal, from the one time they’d got to nationals fifteen years ago. Or maybe it was twenty years now.

Looking at the dates on the trophies, she got a sense of the timeline. It’d been open for four years only and shut down twelve years ago. It seemed odd, given how successful their sports team had been, for the school to have had such a short life.

That feeling grew as she visited the rest of the rooms.

Every room she visited suggested that the Shadowbolts dominated in every field. They were number one in music, science, and frankly everything else. Newspaper clippings listing impressive achievements of the students filled every bulletin board she found.

The more she looked, the harder it became to imagine why this place got abandoned. Eventually, the curiosity became too much, and she sought out Sugarcoat for the answer.

Zest found her in the library, reading the encyclopedia of all things. The moment she entered the library, most of her orbs decided they liked Sugarcoat more and floated towards her.

“Do you know why this school got shut down, anyway?” Zest floated through the wall, looking down at Sugarcoat from atop the stairs.

“Hm?” Sugarcoat put down the thick book she’d been reading. “It was a charter school. The EEP didn’t like their methods and shut them down.”

“Really? It sounded like their methods worked great. The Shadowbolts rocked! They won every award ever.”

“Perhaps. But it came at a price. They pushed the students a little too hard. Over the four years the school was open, seven students committed suicide and six more had mental breakdowns. I think a teacher killed themselves too.”

“Yowch!” Zest put her hooves over her headphones and winced. “That got dark fast! And I was having such a good day too.”

She noticed her remaining orbs break rank and drift away just then.

“There’s a reason nopony bought the building afterward,” said Sugarcoat. “Its reputation is too bad for them to turn it into anything else. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of Shadowbolt Academy already. Didn’t you live around here?”

“Huh? Nah, I’m from Cinder Cone County. Nothing ever happens there. Unless you count the vampires.”

“I trust you’ve completed your work for the day?” Sugarcoat lifted the encyclopedia back up.

“Yeah! And as per our deal, you answer my question in exchange for me working for you, yeah?”

“What else did you want to know?”

“Is there something special about me?” Zest flew down the stairs. She tried to rest her hooves on the table Sugarcoat sat at, but her hooves went straight through. Before Sugarcoat could give her a ‘clearly not’, Zest cleared her throat and clarified. “Like, how exactly is it determined if you become a ghost?”

“No one knows.” Sugarcoat kept her muzzle in the book.

Zest blinked. Nopony knew?

“Okay.” Zest flew through the table now, so that her head alone poked up above it. “Well why do I need to eat heat? Where does it go? I mean, I don’t feel warmer after eating. And what’s special about body heat?”

“No one knows.”

“What are we made of?” Zest inched closer. “Is it ectoplasm?”

“No one knows. It isn’t ectoplasm. They call it auric matter but that’s just a meaningless, arbitrary name they came up with to make themselves feel better.”

“And what about these headphones?” Zest flew up above the table and put her hoof on her head. “How can there be ghost headphones? And why can’t I take them off? And if this is possible why aren’t there ghost rocks and ghost trees all over the place? Or ghost toilets or– or ghost dogs for that matter!”

“Nopony knows any of that.”

“Guh!” Zest let the front half of her body dangle down. “Did I really agree to be your servant in exchange for you telling me nopony knows anything?”

Sugarcoat sighed and put her book down.

“We call it grafting.” Sugarcoat tapped her glasses. “If you’re wondering, there’s no way to take it off. It’s essentially part of your body now. Even if you slice it off with an enchanted dagger, it will grow back. Sometimes, something you were wearing upon death gets ‘grafted’ to you like this. Nopony understands how it works better than that. They often say that it needs to be something you have an emotional connection to, but I didn’t particularly care about these glasses. Nopony really understands how any of this works.”

“Nopony understands any this?” Zest held onto her headphones. “After all this time? Really?”

“You’d be surprised at how little scientific inquiry has gone into our kind,” Sugarcoat admitted. “Ghosts don’t have the infrastructure or resources to develop anything without immediate benefit. Predeads find it too dangerous to study us. We really are mysterious.”

“But come on!” Zest floated on her side to look at Sugarcoat sideways. “There’s gotta be at least a couple of scientists who became ghosts. And decided to do a little bit of research?”

“The largest ghost city has about one thousand ponies in it,” said Sugarcoat. “That’s like expecting some small, backwater town to have built its own science facilities. We can’t manufacture advanced instrumentation and equipment. All we have are hypotheses”

“So we just don’t know anything?” Zest spun back upright and dangled her head and legs down in defeat.

“We understand it on one level. It’s just black box to us.” Sugarcoat closed her book. “You can take your unfinished business, for example. I can’t tell you how it's determined– it’s rarely actually the most important thing to a pony. I can’t even tell you how subjective completing the condition on it is. But I can tell you every ghost knows what there is and that you’ll die if you ever complete it.”

“I’ll die?” Zest straightened and grabbed onto her headphone dongle to look down at it.

Oh yeah. Ghosts were supposed to have unfinished business. What was her unfinished business again?

Even though it was something she’d never once thought about up until now… somehow Zest did know the answer. It was as simple as if somepony asked her what her hometown was. She simply knew it.

“Mine was… well there was that now Zounds cylinder coming out in six months. The Cyan Cylinder. I never got a chance to hear it,” Zest explained. “Can I hear a cover of the album? And does that mean I’ll die if I hear a single second of it? Or do I have to hear the whole album? Does it have to be once all the way through or will listening to all the songs one at a time still go through?”

“You got a relatively merciful one,” said Sugarcoat. “I can’t say. Likely the last one. However, you should assume even one second of that album will kill you for now.”

“Ah, great!” Zest winced and clamped down on her headphones. She’d really been looking forward to the Cyan Cylinder too! That’d been on her list as one of the reasons to not go through with the whole electrocution thing. Now she’d never get to hear it. “So anypony with a music cylinder player can kill me instantly! Isn’t this supposed to be like moving on or something?”

Sugarcoat closed her book and shot a sharp frown at Zest, one that made her retreat halfway underground.

“You’ll dissolve. Your form will burn away into nothing. Ghosts scream as it happens, so we assume it’s a painful death.” Sugarcoat’s tone remained clinical even when describing the gruesome destruction of other ghosts. Though Zest did hear a rare tinge of harshness in her. “Anything you’ve heard to the contrary is just propaganda designed to make killing ponies like you and me more palatable and acceptable. It is death and forcing a ghost to complete theirs is murder.”

“But what about the afterlife?”

“This is the afterlife.” Sugarcoat gestured to the dark school.

“Oh.” Zest floated out of the ground. “Well what about the post-afterlife?”

“The post-afterlife?”

“There’s gotta be something after this right?”

“Hardly. You could simply cease to exist.”

Zest looked down at her hoof. She always figured that was the most likely outcome of death. Though to be fair she had gotten this second, unlikely chance after her first demise.

“Are you confident enough that there’s a happy post-afterlife waiting for you that you’re willing to essentially kill yourself?” Sugarcoat asked.

Yeah. Based on how cruel and bizarre the gods were, little hope for a happy afterlife could be had, even if you believed in the concept itself.

“Hm. No.”

“That’s how most ghosts see it,” she said. “We avoid completing our unfinished business like our lives depend on it because that is the case.”

Geeze! The world was a dark and scary place for ghosts! Zest had never been happier to have a friend in this new, lonely world she now found herself in.

“So what’s your unfinished business?” Zest asked.

“It’s better for nopony but myself to know that. You won’t trigger it by accident,” said Sugarcoat.

“How mysterious.” Zest folded her forelegs. “Where did you learn all this stuff anyway? I thought you were just starting out.”

“I lived with another specter for some time before heading out on my own,” said Sugarcoat.

“Oh?” Zest floated up close to Sugarcoat, eager for some gossip. “Who was it? Was it a boy specter? Were you two in love?”

“Unimportant. I think it’s time for you to begin auric training,” Sugarcoat changed the subject. “Two days of rest should be enough.”

Was that a sore topic? What if that other specter was her mentor who got killed? Or what if it really was a boy specter? And they were dating but then he cheated on her?!

That jerk! Zest didn’t even know if he existed and she was already mad at him!

Zest’s mind burned with curiosity and the desire to know! But then again, she didn’t much want to talk about her own backstory. Sugarcoat was missing a few critical details there. Maybe it was best to just leave the past behind for now?

“I’ll begin teaching you how to exercise your aura control.”

Sugarcoat seemed to think that was the most important power to train. To Zest, its usefulness was far more abstract than the other powers she had now. Ice magic, possessing objects, and inserting her energy into things all had more practical applications in her mind. Allegedly, she could shoot lightning one day too.

“What about my lightning bolt attack?” Zest held her foreleg out. A convenient ripple of electricity came to her aid, though she still had no control over it. “You told me being an elemental was my free ticket to appreciation. I want to be appreciated so bad, you have no idea!”

“The most help I can give you there is to tell you to forget about it for the next few months. Preferably a year,” said Sugarcoat.

“A year?!” Zest withdrew her foreleg. “You’re gonna make me wait an entire year to shoot lightning? But why?”

“You don’t want to overexert yourself.”

“Isn’t training just overexerting yourself repeatedly?”

Sugarcoat shook her head.

“You should think of yourself as recovering from a terrible injury. You may think you're fine, but to me, you look like you've just crawled out of a train wreck. You're shambling about with barely enough strength to get around the house."

‘Injury’ would be an understatement in this situation. Still, her analogy did make sense. Zest felt as strong as a kitten since the accident.

“What you need is closer to physical therapy. If you got hit by a train, you’d be learning to walk again. Marathon training during that time would only slow your recovery. It’s unintuitive, but you’ll be able to use your elemental powers faster if you give up on them in the short term.”

“That makes sense to me.” Zest straightened up. “But it’s not really ‘physical’ therapy if I don’t have any physicality, is it?”

“If you must make the distinction, what I’m showing you is ‘aetheric resititution’. We’ve developed these techniques to help new ghosts recover and develop their senses.”

Sometimes Zest felt like she was throwing all her puns into a black hole.

“You understand why the ability to use your aura is important, yes?” Sugarcoat asked. “I’ve explained it already. It’s vital for you to function as a ghost.”

“It’s what I need to safely go outside your aura, right?” Zest recalled. “And to keep other ghosts from forcing their will on me?”

“More than that. You’re essentially missing one of your senses. It allows you to feel psychic and magical energies as well as the presence of other ghosts.”

Zest looked up and tapped her ethereal horn. She used to have something remotely similar before ditching her body. A substitute for her mana-sense would be nice.

“It will also allow you to directly control lesser ghosts.” Sugarcoat held out a hoof and an orb landed gently on it. “Furthermore, it will allow you to communicate with other ghosts properly. You’ll be able to feel our emotions and project your own onto us.”

At that perk, Zest stopped nodding along.

“That one creeps me out a little,” she admitted. “You’re saying you’ll be able to feel all my emotions?”

“I already can.” Sugarcoat sent her orb away with a flick. “I can feel it when you’re hungry, afraid, or happy.”

“What?!” Zest floated back to the stairs of the library, putting a little distance between the two. “Sorry, this is taking on a kinda dystopian vibe to me. I don’t want you feeling my emotions. Can you stop?”

“That’s like asking me not to notice if you’re smiling.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “It’s not something I can turn off. Besides, aura suppression is the only way you could hope to hide your feelings from me.”

That was a good point. But she still didn’t like it.

“This isn’t as dramatic as you fear.” Sugarcoat beckoned for Zest to come back. “Imagine describing talking to a pony who’s never experienced it before. You can implant an image of a tree in another pony’s head against their will simply by making the right noise. Likewise, you can use it to make them angry or happy or transmit your very thoughts to them with the right sounds. It would sound like a horrid power, mind-control even.”

Zest hummed to herself. Thinking of this as an alternate form of communication made it an easier pill to swallow. Zest hated pills all the same.

“I get your point.” Zest sighed and floated back to her boss. “But how would you describe something to a pony who doesn’t know what talking is?”

“It’s an analogy.”

“Right. Right. So then how do I start?”

Sugarcoat beckoned to them and a dozen orbs came from the walls to circle her.

“Mentally, orbs are like rocks that move,” said Sugarcoat. “They’ll show zero resistance against your will. It should come naturally if you try projecting your aura. Try pushing this one out of the room. Just focus on it and you’ll feel its presence.”

Zest frowned over at the nearest orb. Interestingly, that made it float away however slightly. Maybe this really was easy.

She focused on it, and sure enough, she could feel what Sugarcoat meant. Putting her focus on that orb made her feel a slight connection towards it.

Please leave? Zest thought.

“There’s no point in asking a rock a question, is there?” Sugarcoat tsked her. “You just make it do what you want. It’s an object, not a pony. You don’t need to feel bad.”

Zest shuddered. It almost felt like Sugarcoat read her mind just then. But she nodded and moved on.

She puffed her cheeks out and glared hard at her target orb. She tried pushing as much anger towards it as she could muster. She thought all kinds of bad things about orbs, told herself it was just a stupid rock.

That orb booked it, flying right out of the building.

“Hey! It actually worked!” Zest put a hoof on her headphones and bobbed her head back and forth in a happy little dance. Things were going great! “That was easy!”

All the orbs started floating towards her.

“Eh?” Her dance stopped. “You sure these things have no intelligence? I notice they follow me around when I’m happy. They kinda get spooked when I’m mad too.”

“You’ve been using your aura to push them around subconsciously,” said Sugarcoat. “Don’t equinize them too much.”

“I dunno. They seem kinda cute to me.” Zest focused on one and tried to draw it in. It didn’t land smoothly on her hoof, but she did get it there.

“You’d feel the same way about a balloon with googly eyes on it.”

“Guess you’re right.” Zest switched her focus to another orb and got that same feeling of connection. It took her some time to work out what it felt like, but decided the orb was like an extension. It felt like a fifth hoof, albeit a numb one. “I think I feel what you’re wanting me to feel. Heh! I'm a natural at this, aren't I?”

"Hardly."

"Well, okay! But for my first attempt-"

"No."

"Gah!"

“You'll have to put in some work before you can approach competency. Here's your first goal.” Sugarcoat arranged three orbs in a straight line in front of her. “Keep three orbs in this formation. Move them from the front lobby to the roof through the access door. If you can do that without any of them going through a wall or breaking formation, you’ll be ready for the next step.”

Zest shifted her focus from orb to orb. She could move them to the spot she wanted, but they’d wander off as soon as she switched focus.

“How do you make it look so easy?”

“I suppose I should explain more,” said Sugarcoat. “You’ve noticed that the orbs do my bidding? We call it ‘programming’. Essentially, you can assign a very specific and narrow task to an orb by imparting your own will into it.”

Sugarcoat closed her eyes and ten of the orbs sprang into action. Each one floated to a different section of the bookshelves. They returned, one by one, to Sugarcoat and stacked the books she wanted in front of her.

Zest marveled at this ability. You could be so lazy if you mastered this art. She decided maybe auric control was something to be jealous of after all.

“Once programmed, you need only nudge the orb to perform the right task, so long as you’re inside the same aura as them. Another advantage of living with a specter is that you can use my aura to reach them within three kilometers. On your own, your reach would be measured in a few meters instead.”

Sugarcoat showed the one task they could be ‘programmed’ to do was reversible. She had the orbs return their books to the shelf in the exact right spot.

“As I’ve said, they have no intelligence of their own and will perform the exact routine mindlessly. They’re like automata, not robots. Expect them to occasionally fail.”

As an example, Sugarcoat had an orb pick up a book. Perhaps her instruction was to ‘go to the roof’, because the orb tried flying through the ceiling with the book in tow. The book fell to the ground and the orb went clear to the roof.

“If you want it to bring an object somewhere, you need to show it the exact route. You can have the orb bring something to ‘you’ but it will try to go through walls if you don’t program a route for it to take. Also, if you want it to bring you something you want, that needs to be in the exact right spot because they can see about as well as any other rock. Visualize the path from the lobby to the roof strongly enough, and you’ll be able to get it to travel there on its own.”

“Right.” Zest crouched near one of the orbs. She supposed you’d need to put all the books back in the right spot for the book-fetching trick to work. That explained why Sugarcoat was such a stickler for everything going back to the exact right place.

Maybe her first task should be memorizing the route she’d take herself? The layout of the school remained fuzzy in Zest’s mind.

“If it's too hard for you, simply try to get one to stay still.”

“Right!” Zest floated up. “I’m going to go back and forth between the two places to memorize it first!”

Zest didn’t get close to achieving her goal, but she did get slightly better. She’d progressed from getting the dang thing to stand still, to pushing it awkwardly in the right direction. Well, the correct general direction, that is.

Sadly, she couldn’t get it all the way to the roof without hitting a wall. Even with great patients, it wasn’t enough. She could swear those things could get mad at you! Once Zest forced one in the correct direction, it started avoiding her. It’d float away as she got close.

Happy thoughts would bring them back easily enough. She just needed to start singing a happy song and they’d all cluster around her for another attempt.

Sugarcoat told her that leading them in another parade wouldn’t count because she needed to consciously use her aura to develop it.

There had to be a better way!

“You’ve done enough today.”

“Gah!” Zest jumped as Sugarcoat came up behind her. All the orbs booked it.

“Your progress is hardly exceptional, but you don’t want to overexert yourself in your condition,” said Sugarcoat. “You’ll find it easier tomorrow after you’ve rested. Besides, I can feel how hungry you are.”

Yeah! Zest felt that void growing faster than ever before. She could smell the fire Sugarcoat made for dinner, too. It smelled so good!

Her hunger felt a little different this time, though. As she followed Sugarcoat to the cafeteria and smelled dinner more clearly, that itching sensation returned worse than ever. Zest hoped she’d finished with having ‘talks’ about her body by age 14. Sadly, that didn’t seem to be the case.

She hoped so badly it had nothing to do with ghost sex.

“Hey.” Zest floated out in front of Sugarcoat. “I have one more question. I feel… itchy?”

She pointed to her head, and Sugarcoat nodded in recognition immediately.

“Those are called blood cravings,” she said.

“That sounds bad.”

“It is. It’s the reason we can never live among the predeads. You want to freeze the blood of the living. You have an addiction and only body heat can keep your cravings down.”

This was it! The final boss of being a ghost. Her desire to freeze living creatures, specifically ponies, to death.

Zest gulped (though what she couldn’t say) and asked the most dreaded question she could think of.

“I– I don’t have to kill ponies, do I?” Zest kept one eye closed as she waited for the response.

“No. You can survive off forest animals indefinitely,” Sugarcoat said to Zest’s infinite relief. “Of course, they never go away. We can’t be around predeads because there’s always a chance we’ll slip.”

“Oh, you just made my day.” Zest’s body relaxed. She closed her eyes and let all that worry finally drift away. She could accept the second half of that. “Thank you.”

“Yes. I already caught a rabbit for you.”

“Huh?!” Zest’s eyes flicked back open wide.

With a small flick of her hoof, Sugarcoat summoned one of her orbs. It flew into the room, struggling to carry a small cage. Zest watched with ears flat as she realized it contained a live rabbit. Her ears and the corners of her mouth turned down even more.

Sugarcoat set the rabbit in front of her.

It looked so cute, but it smelled so tasty. Zest never felt so conflicted before in her life.

“And before you ask,” she added, “it won’t be enough to satisfy you unless you freeze its blood and kill it.”

The rabbit sat, oblivious to all danger, simply milling about the cage as it twitched its nose. Zest had no idea if rabbits even could see ghosts.

“You freeze it, throw it on the fire, then eat it a second time as it burns to ash,” said Sugarcoat. “That way nothing goes to waste.”

Instinct slowly opened Zest’s mouth and she had to will it closed again.

This close to a warm, living creature, her hunger and cravings were far worse. Her body shivered. The itch became little needles poking along her back, urging her forward. All her instincts wanted Zest to freeze this thing solid and it took effort to deny them.

Sugarcoat looked up from the rabbit, watching Zest’s hesitation with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re being foolish. Lots of species, intelligent or otherwise, eat meat,” said Sugarcoat. “This is no different than that.”

“I guess.” Zest bit her lip, looking down at the rabbit. Thinking of it as ‘eating’ helped ever so slightly. “My heart’s telling me to eat this little guy, but my head tells me I’m still an herbivore.”

“Well you’re not. You eat animals now. You need to accept that.”

“But I don’t want to eat animals,” Zest whined.

“You’re drooling. Clearly, you do.”

“Maybe.” Zest wiped her lip to confirm the truth. She could drool? What was that, even? Ectoplasm? “But I don’t want to want to eat animals.”

“You know what will happen if you don’t take body heat from animals, don’t you? If you can’t quiet your craving for warm blood?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“If you think it’s bad after three days, can you imagine what it will be like in thirty? Or three hundred? The addiction will claw at you until you lose control.”

“I get it.”

“You’ll go insane eventually and won’t be able to stop yourself anymore. Ponies will always be what you desire most deep down. You’ll hunt down a pony and kill her when you finally break. Is that what you want?”

“No.”

But she didn’t want to hurt the bunny either.

“There has to be some other way!” She looked up from the rabbit. “Can’t I just eat lots and lots of fire? And become some sort of vegan ghost? If I hold out long enough, I gotta get over the addiction eventually. You called it an addiction yourself!”

“An insignificant number overcome our addiction to body heat, I suppose,” she said. “The only known method is to quit cold turkey. It takes years, is dangerous, painful, and all but sure to be a failed attempt.”

“I feel I should at least try, then.” Zest firmed up, resolute. She knew she could resist this urge. It’d be the right thing to do!

“Irresponsible.” She shook her head.

“Huh?” Zest blinked. “How is that irresponsible? Isn’t putting myself through horrible pain for the sake of the bunnies noble?”

“Hardly. Whose life are you risking by pursuing that path?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Well.” Zest looked at her hooves. It wouldn’t be her own this time.

“If you try to get over your addiction, you will all but certainly lose control over the years it would take. Starving and crazed, you’d go out looking for ponies. You’d only regain control after you’ve killed one. That’s far more likely to happen than you ‘getting over’ yourself.”

Risking her own life didn’t seem like such a big deal, even looking back at how it turned out. Risking another pony’s life somehow felt so much worse.

“If you want to attempt,” said Sugarcoat, “then I’ll have to ask you to leave. I won’t be held responsible for something so foolish.”

Sugarcoat was tapping her hoof impatiently now. It must have been so easy for her to judge Zest. She’d been eating forest animals for years now. To her, it was no different than hay.

If one of those species that naturally ate meat were here, they’d think Zest was being a huge dork. Somewhere in the future, an older Zest might be looking back and cringing at her right now.

“Can’t I at least eat something less cute?” Zest asked.

“Like what?”

“A lizard, maybe?”

“Reptiles won’t work,” said Sugarcoat. “They’re cold-blooded. It’s the same with fish.”

What was the grossest warm-blooded animal, then? ‘Politicians’ came to mind, and she nodded silently at her private joke. No way you could get one way out here, though.

Why did mammals have to be the cutest ones? Just because Zest was a mammal herself, wasn’t it?

“You can freeze a beehive, if you want to start with that,” Sugarcoat offered.

There couldn’t possibly be enough bees for that to last long. She’d need something more sustainable. And bees were important. Rabbits just messed everything up. They really shouldn’t be cute, if you thought about it.

“Maybe a boar?” Zest decided that was the most acceptable animal to kill around here. It felt more honorable than a rabbit. “Oh! No! Turkeys!”

“Turkey?”

“They’re warm-blooded, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay! I can kill a turkey if I have to!” Zest held her hooves up against her chest and nodded. “Turkeys are horrible monsters! They’d chase me around all over the place when I was a filly.”

“Very well.”

“Yeah!” Zest flew up, triumphant!

She just saved that rabbit’s life.

“Then I’ll eat this one myself.” Sugarcoat pulled the rabbit closer.

“What?!” Zest dove down and grabbed the other side of the cage. “But you can’t after that! Please just let this one go?”

“If you promise to kill a turkey tonight,” she offered. “Stalling will only make this worse.”

“Alright.” Zest clicked her tongue.

Sugarcoat opened the cage. That’s how Zest knew she was better than her old boss.

That stupid rabbit didn’t even think to run until Zest gave the cage a rattle, but it did escape into the night.

They went out into the woods shortly after that. Zest sniffed the air as they traveled. She could smell lots of warm blood in any direction but would have been lost guessing which one was a turkey.

Sugarcoat claimed she could tell animals apart by smell and led the way.

The memory of drooling raised several questions Zest had yet to consider until now.

For the first time since dying, Zest tried to spit. Nothing came at first. She frowned and tried spitting hard, from deep in her throat this time.

Something actually came out. A wad of glowing, green goo fell into the grass.

It had to be ectoplasm.

This was amazing! A new power!

Zest smiled as wide as she could.

“Oh, hey!” Zest flew in front of Sugarcoat and pointed to the green glob of spit. “I can spit ectoplasm!”

“Yeah.”

Sugarcoat just floated on by without stopping for one second. Zest watched her motionless before darting after her mentor.

What Zest wouldn’t do for some more positive reinforcement!

They crept slowly closer to a group of animals, which Zest became increasingly certain were the turkeys. As they drew near, Zest realized that her target waited above her. They finally stopped at the base of a tall pine tree.

“There.” Sugarcoat pointed up the tree.

“Turkeys sleep in trees?” Zest sniffed and got her answer. Something delicious slept up there. How did she live in Great Pines for so long and never notice that, though? Being a ghost revealed so many secrets to her.

“They are birds.” Sugarcoat nodded. “Can you smell their hearts beating?”

“Are you trying to make this harder?”

“I’m trying to help you develop your senses,” said Sugarcoat. “Look for the pulsation of their scent.”

A pulsing scent? Zest could scarcely imagine what that would be.

Zest didn’t want to, but she sniffed around anyway. Her new nose had an incredible precision to it, allowing her to sniff out the exact location of things far better than should be possible. Animals always seemed to vibrate a little when she tried to locate them via smell.

Only now did she realize that must have been the blood flowing through them. It all made sense. Yes, she could see what Sugarcoat meant by ‘pulsating’ now. She could make out each beat of the turkeys’ hearts.

The rhythm came slow and calm, letting Zest know they were asleep.

“Hey! I can do that!” Zest’s mood brightened at her new ability.

Sugarcoat nodded and flew up the tree, Zest following close behind. She still had trouble getting up high. If nothing was beneath her, she’d need to push with increasing effort to go higher. Thankfully, she was able to use the branches to climb up, in a fashion.

Near the top, she found the prize. In all, Zest counted nine sleeping turkeys, resting all along the branches.

Sugarcoat took one glance at Zest. Then, to show her this was no big deal, she froze a turkey solid, killing it instantly, without hesitation. Zest let out an eep as the bird fell to the ground and Sugarcoat let out a satisfied sigh.

“You see?” Sugarcoat asked. “If you do it fast, it won’t feel anything.”

Zest psyched herself up. She remembered all those turkeys who wronged her in the past.

Turkeys were dishonorable. They never attacked adult ponies, but something about foals just made them angry. If a filly or colt got anywhere near one, they’d start to gobble up a storm and charge right at you, pecking wildly.

Once, a turkey had chased Zest for what felt like half a kilometer. It ended with Zest tripping and getting pecked until bruises covered her body.

She glared at her target, deciding to go for one of the smaller, sickly ones like nature would have wanted. If only it were attacking her now. Killing it in its sleep still felt dishonorable.

Yeah! She just needed it to attack her and this would be easy.

“Come on!” Zest challenged the turkey. “Fight me so I won’t feel bad about this!”

Eventually, the turkey woke up. Zest waved her hoof in front of its face, getting no response.

So it seemed turkeys couldn’t see ghosts. It could hear her, but not see her.

“Only creatures with magical or psychic abilities can see us,” Sugarcoat explained.

That meant every intelligent species but not all animals.

Zest picked up a stick and waved it around in front of her prey. It could see that. After two pokes, it gobbled and pecked at her stick.

“Oh, no! He’s coming right for me!”

Zest took the plunge! She inhaled its heat as hard and fast as she could. She doubted she’d ever gotten anything this cold this fast before. The turkey froze in a split second, leaving behind frost on the branches.

As its body heat entered her, Zest fell back. She let out a near-moan of ecstasy.

Talk about scratching an itch! Imagine if scratching felt a hundred times better and actually made it go away. It went beyond flavor but filled her entire body with a satisfying warmth that made her shudder. Only one sensation felt better and more satisfying than this and Zest didn’t want to bring that up.

More importantly, for the first time, that itch vanished entirely. Zest was free of that annoyance, that growing, dreadful feeling. Her ticking time bomb reset itself.

But for how long?

“Uh. How often do I gotta do this, though?” Zest asked.

“If you only go after turkeys?” Sugarcoat looked down at their fallen prey. “Perhaps every one to two weeks. A larger animal will last longer. Before you ask, it still isn’t entirely safe for you to go among the predeads. You should only go to town right after eating and your visits should still be as short as possible.”

Zest nodded. Maybe she could live with this. The first kill had to be the hardest.

“We’ll burn the bodies once they thaw.” Sugarcoat went down to retrieve them. “It would be uncouth to waste them.”

Zest picked up her own cold turkey. She decided she’d been as honorable as she could given the situation. Part of her still felt dissatisfied all the same.

Then she felt Sugarcoat’s hoof on her shoulder.

“Good job,” Sugarcoat said with no real enthusiasm.

Still, such praise was rare enough from her that this alone gave Zest a second thrill of excitement all in itself.

4. Wraith

After twelve days at Shadowbolt Academy, Zest finally began to feel like she had the basics down.

She technically knew the art of pottery, even how to make bricks! Her first pot wasn’t exactly ‘good’ but it could hold water.

Of course, she still moved about as fast as she could have dragged herself across the ground before.

Zest still couldn’t make a fire without matches or a lighter, but she was getting better all the same. She knew the differences between every different type of fire now. Sugarcoat taught her how to make and then light charcoal. That was the preferred type of fire for ghosts to eat.

No longer able to rely on fast food and frozen meals, Zest was finally learning to ‘cook’ for the first time on top of that. The flavor of the heat changed depending on what you burned. Even different types of wood had a different taste to them.

After years of obliviously walking past all these trees, Zest finally learned the names of each different type of pine in the area. She knew which ones were hardwood and which were softwood. She knew which ones could be made into charcoal and which were better for pine tar.

Zest could even identify a few herbs and knew how to dry them out.

As for her progress in aura control?

At the moment, Sugarcoat was out. The boss had gone to Maple Hill to pick some new magazines and newspapers out of the recycling bins, leaving Zest on the edge of her aura. This made the first major change readily apparent. Zest could sense how far away Sugarcoat was now, could tell Sugarcoat was on the way back home.

She could also feel the location of every orb on the school grounds, though if a bunch were together she still couldn’t make individuals out. Zest had yet to complete the test Sugarcoat laid out for her, but she was already getting close.

Deciding to make one more attempt before Sugarcoat returned, Zest brought a few orbs to her. She stopped one right in front of her face and ‘told’ it to sit still. That was simple, but the more complex the task the harder it was to make them do it right.

Next, she grabbed two orbs at once and put them on either side of the first one. ‘Follow the center orb’ was an easy enough command. Then Zest only had to control the first orb directly.

She guided them up to the roof easily enough, though her form wasn’t exactly good. She understood now why ‘a straight line’ was part of it, as the side orbs wobbled about as they went. Because they were ‘following’, the orbs tended to stay in a V-formation as well.

She finally got them all the way up, until the roof access door came into sight. She’d never gotten this close without messing up before!

“Yes! Yes!” Zest’s face lit up. “I’m actually doing it!”

But then she got too happy. The orbs broke rank to orbit around her just as the roof access door came into sight.

“What?! No!” Zest stomped her hoof in the air at the orbs. “You guys really are dumb as rocks! We were right there!”

Then they all flew off.

At least she had some sense of what was going on now. As Sugarcoat promised, they didn’t simply ‘like’ happy ponies. Instead, Zest now saw them more like fishing lures bobbing up and down with waves in the aura. When Zest got angry, the waves moved away from her. When she was happy, they moved towards her. And they brought the orbs with them.

That really was all the once-mysterious phenomenon had to it.

So to do this, Zest either needed to feel nothing the whole way through or keep her emotions from causing ripples. That latter one was what Sugarcoat wanted her to learn. That, as it turned out, was the ‘hard’ part of this task.

Sugarcoat found her soon after that, carrying an extra-thick newspaper with her up to the roof. Zest zipped after it as fast as she could. She’d been waiting for this!

“Sunday paper!” Zest held up the thick paper. “My obituary wasn’t in the last one, so it’s gotta be here!”

She flipped through it until she found the obituaries and pulled that section out. Then she hovered her hoof along the page until she got to her own

“There it is!” She smiled wide.

Lemon Zest. Age 19. U. F. Pink. January 12th, 1319 – April 4th, 1338.

“Welp!” Zest threw the section behind her without another glance. “At least they got my birthday right.”

Zest fell onto her back, floating in the air, looking up at the sky.

Everypony else had a short bio written about them by somepony. Apparently, Zest didn’t have a single pony that cared enough to write the stupid paragraph for her. Not like she accomplished anything in life. They might as well have swapped the U and F.

Then she felt something and rolled over onto her side. She remembered a more conflicting power she’d awakened now. Using her aura so much made her less oblivious to the sense and now she could almost feel Sugarcoat’s emotions.

Though the specter more typically felt little, Zest could feel a certain concern directed at her now. A sort of protective instinct, the kind you might have towards a foal, was the most typical emotion Sugarcoat had towards Zest. That or annoyance (again, the type usually reserved for foals). It did feel nice to be wrapped in such a secure feeling all the time but…

That was right! Sugarcoat would feel her getting upset even from the other room! It was so embarrassing! And now Sugarcoat cold be feeling her embarrassment too!

Sugarcoat lifted the obituaries and read through them herself.

“I thought you said you had no family,” said Sugarcoat. “You can’t be too surprised.”

“I know. I still don’t like seeing my life summed up as ‘U. F.’ And I did have a one or two… maybe not friends, but advanced acquaintances.”

Sugarcoat frowned and dropped the paper, giving up her search to Zest’s relief.

“Hm.” Sugarcoat watched her silently with that cold, analytical look. “Well, I’m you’re advanced acquaintance. I would have written something in your obituary if I knew no one else would.”

“Really?” Zest rushed towards her, nearly pressing their muzzles together. “What would you have written?”

“Neh.” Sugarcoat frowned on one side, turned her head a folded her forelegs. A twinge of annoyance came from her. She thought to herself, tapping her shoulder. “I suppose that you’re energetic. And overly optimistic. And you like to sing.”

“Wow!” Zest rushed over to hug her. “You really do know me! After just a week, you know me better than anyone else! Thanks!”

Zest buried her face in Sugarcoat’s chest and sobbed. Sugarcoat didn’t quite smile, but she did stop frowning and patted Zest on the back.

The best part of this was that Zest could actually feel the affection beaming off of Sugarcoat towards her. Maybe ‘beaming’ was a bit of an overstatement, but she could feel a little affection! From Sugarcoat that was a lot.

Sugarcoat had to be feeling a flood from Zest in return.

“I’m curious what you’d write about me.” Sugarcoat glanced down.

“That you’re really smart!” Zest looked up at her. “And serious I guess.”

“I see.” Sugarcoat rubbed her nose, then finally pushed Zest away. “Thank you. Hm.”

Sugarcoat drifted to the ledge of the roof and look out towards the forest. Wanting to stay close to her friend, Zest followed her along, pressed hard against Sugarcoat’s side.

“I’m curious.” Sugarcoat pointed to the rough road that led to Maple Hill. “Do you feel that? Something’s coming towards us.”

Zest squinted and immediately realized she was using the wrong sense.

Something approached them from the direction of Maple Hill.

Zest couldn’t possibly ignore it, but with her new senses, it took a moment to work out what it was. The purple anti-glow of fire created a hazy bubble through which only shadows could be seen.

A long shadow cast itself off from the center of the light.

But the largest signal was the scent of it. She could hardly smell such a tiny amount of fire from this far away, but the irresistible scent of body heat filled the air. She didn’t smell a squirrel this time, either. She smelled a pony.

Somepony carrying a lantern, she decided. The longest shadow had to be the pony in question.

“It seems we have a visitor.” Sugarcoat leaned over the top of the roof. “But do you feel his aura?”

“His aura?” Zest shook her head. “I thought only ghosts had auras.”

“Ghosts and dippers.”

“Sorry. You lost me. I have no idea what a ‘dipper’ is.”

“A psychic, I mean. We call them dippers because they only dip their hooves into death instead of going all the way as we did.” Sugarcoat dipped her hooves down into the roof. “Psychic powers and ghost magic are strongly related, potentially even the same thing.”

Zest wondered why anypony would be coming here alone. They’d already passed the warning sign. If they knew there was a specter here and came alone, they had to be dangerous! If he had psychic powers, he might even be here to kill them or chase them out of their home!

“Well?” Zest jabbed an elbow at Sugarcoat. “You promised you’d protect me if I became your servant. So go protect!”

“From a foal?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Huh?”

Zest squinted, but that shadow looked massive. Zest sniffed again. It smelled like a pony, but that was it.

“You can tell that?” Zest asked.

“You’ll learn the difference in time.”

“Why is a little colt out here alone?”

“We get this sometimes. Kids come to the haunted house to prove how brave they are.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something that would happen.” Zest sighed miserably. At least it wasn’t some slayer come to chase them out of their home. “So we can just go to sleep until they go away, right?”

“It’ll be better to give the colt a good scare,” Sugarcoat suggested. “I’ll suck out some of his body heat.”

“Huh?” Zest floated away from Sugarcoat. “Come on! A little kid? I get we’re horrible monsters, but can’t we have a little dignity?”

“It’s for his own good.” Sugarcoat flicked her hoof down towards the intruder. “A traumatic incident when you’re young knocks the stupid out of you. That kid will keep doing dangerous things until something happens to him. I’m sure you’d still be alive if you’d ever stuck a coin in a power outlet as a foal.”

“Gee. Thanks.”

It kinda made sense. But was it just an excuse?

Living ponies smelled beyond delicious. Zest knew sucking out their body heat would be the greatest pleasure imaginable. Her new body screamed at her to just accept the excuse and be thankful for the meal.

“Besides,” Sugarcoat added, “if we don’t touch any of them, kids will come here too often. I can control myself in my current state but what if we’re seriously hungry when one shows up? This will reduce the chance one of them gets seriously hurt in the long run.”

Two excuses, huh?

Zest couldn’t hold out against her new instincts and two excuses. Really, she just wished it could be her doing the eating. The pony part of her mind saw it as a win if one of her buddies got the treat, at least.

“Oh, alright.” Zest gave in.

The two of them moved down and waited on the second floor for the colt to enter. Zest kept her head poking down from the ceiling as she watched him push the door open.

In the fog of the lantern, Zest could tell he was a colt and a pegasus. She could even make out his pink mane and grey fur. His mane was unusually long for a colt, and he styled it so that it hung down and over his left eye at all times.

The colt put down the lantern and stepped forward, trying to make himself look as big as possible.

“My name is Rind Heart!” He stood firm, but his voice and body shook. “I know there’s a specter here! I-I can feel your presence! So come out. I’m not afraid!”

Zest didn’t need any aura sensing to tell that was a lie.

The two ghosts nodded at each other and sprang into action.

Sugarcoat came at him from the front and sucked out a tiny amount of his heat, yet still enough to leave him shivering. Zest swooped in from the side and blew out his lantern.

“Rawr!” Zest got up close and roared at him.

With the light gone, Zest could see the kid perfectly now. What she saw made her falter. As he stumbled back, his mane fell out of place and she could see his left eye was missing, a scare covering most of that half of his face.

Even worse, his left wing was gone too! Whatever took them left his muzzle crooked as well as scars along the left side of his body.

Then Zest remembered that he was psychic and there was only one way to get such powers. Maybe she shouldn’t feel too bad for him after all. He got the luck Zest had been after.

In total darkness and with icicles forming against his muzzle, the colt backed up until he stood right next to the open exit. They just had to chase him away and everything would be fine!

“Oh no! The door is wide open!” Zest pointed to it. “Quick! Or he’ll get away!”

The colt turned his eye to the door, then gulped and looked back at Zest.

“If he escapes, we won’t be able to do all kinds of horrible things to him!” Zest moved her hoof over to Rind. “You know? The really, really bad stuff we planned to do to the next colt we found? But oh no, he’s getting away!”

He wasn’t remotely getting away. He stood there, teeth chattering and tears streaming down his cheeks.

At last, he summoned all his courage. He closed his eye and shook away his tears.

“N-no! I won’t run!” Even trembling from cold and fear, with his tears forming icicles, Rind Heart stepped forward to face the specter. “Y-you gotta stop sending your ghost to terrorize us!”

He kept his stern eye on Sugarcoat a moment longer, but half-faltered in the end.

“Um. Please?” Rind bowed his head to Sugarcoat. “Thank you.”

Zest and Sugarcoat shared a look.

“Well he did ask nicely,” said Zest. “But what’s this about you sending your ghosts after him? I thought I was your only ghost. Have you been cheating on me?”

Sugarcoat sighed away the joke.

“Alright, I guess I have to talk to you.” Sugarcoat moved forward. “But I won’t commend you for your bravery. It isn’t good to have such courage at your age. If things had been just slightly different, you'd be dead right now. Do you understand?”

“The adults are too scared of you to come here and say anything!” Rind Heart stood firm. “S-so if no one else will then I’ll do it myself!”

“I see.” Sugarcoat looked down at him, a little less judgmental now. “And what is this about ghosts terrorizing you? My only servant is Zest here and she only terrorizes me with puns.”

“Vassal,” Zest hissed through her teeth.

“My vassal Zest.”

“No. You have a, um. What was it called?” Rind took a moment to remember the name of the thing. “A wraith! It’s been causing all kinds of problems and all the other kids are scared to go out at night! Well, I guess we’re not, but the grown-ups won’t let us. Everypony hates being stuck on curfew like this, and all the adults are worried. So, um, please stop?”

“A wraith?” Sugarcoat rubbed her chin.

Wraiths were common enough that even Zest knew about them. Those were a type of lesser ghost. Unlike orbs, a wraith could harm somepony.

They appeared vaguely like ponies, but their forms twisted and elongated to make them look closer to dogs. To add to the effect, they possessed icicle-like claws and fangs. They couldn’t talk and were incredibly aggressive.

Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to chase one off if you had access to any magic at all. In terms of danger, they were maybe one step up from a bear. Zest found it odd a town would be fearful of one like this. You could just call pest control on something like that.

She glanced at Sugarcoat. Unless, of course, the wraith was the pet of an incredibly dangerous specter. That must have been the explanation.

“I don’t own any wraiths,” said Sugarcoat.

“I know you control the undead.” Rind opened his wing. “So you have to be the one who sent it!”

“I don’t control every wraith in the entire world,” Sugarcoat pointed out. “Let alone all of the undead.”

“Uh.” Rind’s wing dropped back down as if he’d just realized that himself.

“Still.” Sugarcoat put her hoof on the bridge of her glasses and shook her head. “I suppose this is my problem. Ponies will unfairly assume I’m sending it to harass them, even if that’s not the case. It is a tacit implication that I’ll keep other ghosts out of this territory besides.”

Rind’s ears perked back up and he dared to take a step forward.

“You’ll get rid of it?” Rind smiled. “Oh! That was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. I guess maybe you aren’t that evil, then.”

“Yes. I’ll get rid of it. This will be good practice for you, besides.” Sugarcoat turned to Zest. “A wraith is the next step up from an orb. You should be able to force your will on it.”

“What?! I gotta do it?!” Zest flew at Sugarcoat, clutching her chest. “We had a deal! You’re supposed to take care of the dangerous stuff!”

“Wraiths are no longer dangerous to you.” Sugarcoat gave her pigtails a flick and turned north. “But I will come along, nonetheless. If you do manage to get in trouble, I’ll come rescue you.”

“Well thanks.” Zest sighed. She’d hoped to do more hiding behind her leader. “So what? I go up there and tell it to get lost?”

“You tell it to come back home with us. We keep wraiths as pets. They’re our version of dogs. It’ll be useful to have one around. Once inside my aura, it won’t bother the ponies of Maple Hill any longer.”

“Pets? Didn’t they used to be ponies?”

“’Used to’ is the right phrase. They aren’t the pony they were in life. They can’t even be considered ponies. They have more in common with a reanimated skeleton,” said Sugarcoat. “Having a pet wraith will be useful. We should aim to collect a few eventually.”

“I suppose.” Zest shrugged. It still felt weird.

Rind listened to this conversation with his nose scrunched, bordering on a cringe. He must have agreed with Zest.

“You seriously keep something like that as a pet?” He asked Sugarcoat.

“You don’t understand because you’re not a ghost,” said Sugarcoat.

“I guess this is close enough to vanquishing you all,” Rind muttered.

“You really shouldn’t even be going after a wraith at age even, kiddo.” Zest tried to smile as brightly at him. “Let alone a specter, okay?”

“I’m way stronger than I look,” Rind warned Zest. “If it was me against every other kid in school, I’d win!”

“Heh! I’m sure.”

He just puffed his cheeks out. He didn’t want to be condescended too, but he only managed to look adorable.

It still wasn’t enough to get rid of the urge to freeze his blood.

“Well, I want to go with you.” Rind turned to Sugarcoat. “I need to make sure you actually do it.”

“No,” Sugarcoat shot down the idea right away. “You need to stay away from us as much as possible. If you really want, you can wait for me at the entrance of town, and I’ll show you the captured wraith on the way back.”

Rind thought for a moment, then nodded.

All together, they went down the road leading to Maple Hill. Parts of it were mostly intact, but others had been so eaten away by weeds you could lose sight of the whole thing for a few meters. Along the way, they passed signs warning ponies that danger waited for them down this road.

Approaching the town did fill Zest with a certain dread. For one, she’d gotten so used to her cozy darkness. She already missed all the orbs and frost and approaching the light made her feel as though she was entering inhospitable terrain.

Then there was that itching feeling. It got worse the closer to the town she came. Now that she ate animals, that craving was more manageable, but it never truly went away.

Rind kept his eye on Zest the whole way.

“Did you die from getting struck by lightning?” Rind asked her.

Was it that obvious?

“Yeah!” Zest smiled down at him. “I used to be a lightning rod repair pony. I was working on the biggest lightning rod in Manehattan and got struck twelve times in a row.”

“Wow! Really?” Rind swallowed the story without hesitation.

As the first building came into sight, Sugarcoat floated high above the other two.

“I can feel the wraith now,” said Sugarcoat. “It’s to the northeast. A bit further away than I expected. Try to sense it as we get closer.”

Zest nodded and focused on trying to feel changes in Sugarcoat’s territory. She’d gotten good enough to tell where all the orbs within a few hundred meters were. The wraith had to be further away, but then it was bigger.

She doubted she would have noticed without Sugarcoat telling her where to look, but she could sense a disturbance to the northeast. She wouldn’t have even guessed it was a ghost, but she knew something was causing slight waves to form in the aura.

Rind, too, stepped forward and squinted towards the northeast.

“You wait there.” Sugarcoat pointed to the town.

Rind made a frustrated grunt, but nodded and sat down next to the warning sign. He watched them with a curious look as they veered off to the right but didn’t follow.

Instead of going through town, they skirted around the edges. Zest smelt all sorts of tasty things inside Maple Hill, besides the ponies that was, but sadly couldn’t go inside to get at any of them.

They took only a brief detour for Sugarcoat to show the location of the paper recycling receptacle she got all of those journals and newspapers from. Zest also learned of the location of a small book lending box and a few places to scrounge around for scrap metals and parts.

She supposed technically none of this was stealing. Though digging through all this stuff still felt undignified.

As they rounded the corner to the northeastern edge of Maple Hill, Zest finally felt the presence with enough certainty to know it was a ghost. She even would have guessed this thing to be a wraith.

It felt angry!

Zest didn’t even know what anger felt like until then, not really. Sugarcoat, she decided, never rose above annoyed. But now she felt rumbling waves on the aether. They came towards her. They found her. Then that anger and hatred focused itself squarely on Zest.

She knew the wraith was coming before she saw it and braced herself. Then, from the woods, came the ghost, howling as it rushed towards her.

The wraith did look far more like a dog than a pony, to the point Zest would have believed it had come from a dog. Its body was far too lean to be a pony, its muzzle too long, its eyes too narrow, and its legs too slender. At the end of each of its legs were claws made of ice and fang-like icicles filled its mouth.

The whole thing appeared in the same soft, translucent, blue color that the orbs had. Indeed, that book claimed every lesser ghost had the same coloration – the other colors reserved for high ghosts.

It growled when it saw Sugarcoat and dug its claws into the ground. It kept its eyes on Sugarcoat, some survival instinct barely repressing its urge to lunge.

Zest shuddered as she looked at the thing. All it felt was hatred towards everything. She felt its well pushing hate right at her, but it wasn’t personal, it hated everything. Wraiths, she realized just then, weren’t even animals, but miserable, broken things.

“Good,” said Sugarcoat. “Your empathy will be enough to overwhelm it.”

“Should we really keep it as a pet?” Zest asked. “I feel bad for it! Do they really feel nothing but anger? Then we should maybe put it down?”

“You’re equinizing it.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Foolish. The emotions it has are the semblance of anger a dog might have. You merely interpret it as pony-like anger.”

“But even still–”

“It can feel other things besides anger, but only through a high ghost like you,” said Sugarcoat. “If you want to help it, you need to force your will on it.”

This was it! The real-world test of her aura control. She tried to focus on it, connect with it. That only made it charge.

Zest could move a bit faster now, but not as fast as this thing!

The wraith lunged at her and swiped its claws as Zest fell backward. Though the wraith’s pounce didn’t reach her, the icicles that formed its claws ejected themselves and tore through her foreleg.

“Ouch!” Zest looked down at her foreleg.

It’d actually ripped! The wound didn’t bleed, but the slash did leave deep empty gashes. Already, Zest could tell the wound would heal, though. Small strands of ethereal string danced around the edges of the scar. It began to slowly fill itself back in, as though her body was sowing itself back together.

“I didn’t think physical objects could hit me!” Zest complained.

The wraith answered her by pouncing again. Its claws hard already reformed but now it went to bite down at her neck!

Sugarcoat made a slapping motion at the air. A psychokinetic force shattered all the ice surrounding the wraith and sent it reeling.

She did it with such boredom too. Her new boss really was on a level far above either of them!

“The ice formed from ghosts is enchanted,” she explained. “Weapons with strong enough enchantments, made of ice or otherwise, can hit you. Remember that when encountering ghosts in the future.”

Zest rubbed her wound, doubtful it accomplished anything. At least she knew Sugarcoat would keep her from getting hit anymore. She could focus on attack now.

Zest narrowed her eyes and pressed her aura against the wraith, the same way she’d push an orb away. Unlike an orb, the wraith actually pushed back. Zest felt a sudden tinge of frustration as the lesser ghost snarled at her. She pushed harder and more aggressively, but soon found the two of them had approximately equal strength.

The line where their two auras met budge by mere centimeters in any direction.

“Wrong,” Sugarcoat chastised her. “At best, you can only get it to retreat with aggression. Try showing it your empathy again.”

“Be empathetic to this stupid thing?!” Zest growled through her teeth. She hated that wraith so much! If it wouldn’t submit to her, she’d kill it! But how?!

“How disgraceful.” Sugarcoat sighed. “Don’t you see you’re letting it influence your aura? It should be the other way around. Stop being pathetic.”

Pathetic?! Zest clenched her teeth and trembled with rage.

“No!” Zest winced and put her hooves over her headphones. “Dang it! You’re right! I gotta–!”

Sugarcoat showed her how to protect herself from other auras too. She drew her aura in close around herself and took deep breaths.

The rate at which she calmed herself was… surprising. She felt none of the anger that overwhelmed her a moment ago.

The wraith had yet to calm down and lunged at her. This time, Zest tried the opposite approach as Sugarcoat suggested and opened her forelegs wide.

The lesser ghost bit down on her shoulder and Zest winced with pain. It hurt, but she still wrapped her legs around her attacker in a hug. She could empathize with it now. She felt its anger just a moment ago. She could hardly imagine how terrible being cloaked in loathing at all times must be.

And she could offer it something better.

She felt the wraith tremble and its aura falter. Only then did she try pushing her own aura back on it once more. This time there was no resistance. It allowed her empathy to flow into it and all that malice drifted away.

She put her hoof on the back of the wraith’s head and stroked it. It looked back up at her with its animalistic eyes. That anger was gone now, replaced by the affection Zest had for what she saw increasingly as a dog.

That sense of affection mirrored one another until Zest smiled and hugged the little guy! It flicked its muzzle up at her and Zest realized it was trying to nuzzle her now. She laughed and nuzzled it back.

Heck, she even decided it was cute!

“Acceptable,” Sugarcoat said, though she hardly sounded ecstatic.

“Aw! Look, he likes me!” Zest had to pull her head back to get away from his nuzzling.

“Him? Wraiths don’t have genders,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“Yeah, but come on!” Zest had to pull her head back as the wraith continued to nuzzle her. “I get to name him, right? Oh! How about Sparky? Cause like I’m–”

“I get the joke. You can name it whatever. Let’s go.” Then Sugarcoat floated off without hesitation.

Zest didn’t need to tell Sparky to come with her, he seemed desperate to be by her side. She supposed she’d cling to the first thing to ever give her happiness too. Already, she decided Sparky having some tiny spark of intelligence would make him even easier to control than an orb. Any small suggestion was obeyed without her needing to guide him.

On her first try, Zest got Sparky to circle around her once.

“Will Sparky go back to being angry if I stop using my aura on him?” Zest asked

“A lesser ghost will slowly begin to resonate with your aura and emotions,” said Sugarcoat. “It will begin to emulate you and your will in time. That is to say, it will have your dopey, upbeat attitude eventually.”

“Uh. Thanks?”

Sugarcoat continued onward.

“You know, that was a lot easier than I expected it to be!” Zest beamed and her wraith came close. Like orbs, it was attracted to happiness. She wondered if getting upset would cause it to go hide somewhere.

“I told you, wraiths aren’t particularly dangerous,” said Sugarcoat. “Honestly, I’m surprised the town was so afraid of the thing. I suppose they were all too intimidated about going up against me.”

“It’s kinda weird that they would even assume that much, huh?” Zest suggested. “Cause like, if you wanted to terrorize the town, why would you send a single wraith to do it?”

“It’s either that or you,” said Sugarcoat. “Frankly, you’d be terrible at terrorization.”

“Guh! You got me!”

Zest shook her head and followed Sugarcoat back towards the road. Something about all this still didn’t sit right with her, but the mission was over so it hardly mattered now.

They soon left Maple Hill behind them and the road to Shadowbolt Academy appeared. However, when they got near the sign, they found a familiar face waiting for them.

Rind sat in the middle of the road, looking none too pleased. When he saw the two ghosts he stood up, unfurled his wing, and met them with a glare.

Zest stopped on the spot, unsure of what he had to be upset about.

“We got rid of the wraith,” said Sugarcoat. “You have no reason to be here any longer. Go home.”

“No, you didn’t!” Rind pointed up towards the one hill near Maple Hill. “I can sense danger. A-and the wraith is still over there!”

“The wraith is right here.” Zest pointed to her new pet. “We’re taking it back home where it won’t bother you again.

“I don’t feel the presence of any other ghosts nearby,” said Sugarcoat.

Rind’s accusing hoof faltered and lowered.

“Huh? But that’s not the wraith.” His ears began to droop.

Before anypony could ask what he meant by that, exactly, the danger made itself known. A patch of brush on top of the hill wilted and died and from it came crawling a figure about the size of a pony.

In fact, it was a pony– one covered in a full set of mail. A blue cape covered its back. Small pieces of silver and gold jewelry adorned its attire. On its head, it wore a full helm with a twisted face carved into the front. Where the eyes should have been were two enormous holes through which nothing but black could be seen.

Though it may have looked almost regal, besides the eyes, the creature all but slithered about. It crouched so low to the ground that it dragged its belly against the earth as it moved. For now, it crept forward slowly, raising its forelegs much too high as it dragged itself towards them, head twitching about.

The unnatural movement of something so close to a pony made Zest shudder and move back. Anypony would instinctually know not to get near this thing. Knowing what it was would only redouble that resolve.

Though on one level, Zest understood Rind’s mistake now.

“Kid.” Sugarcoat moved forward, putting herself between the wight and the other two. “Did you mean to say there was a wight terrorizing your town?”

Rind silently mouthed that word before clearing his throat.

“Oh! Are wraiths and wights two different things?” Rind kept his head down.

“Yes!”

“Oops.”

5. Not Quite Wight

The wight didn’t appear to notice anypony just yet. It kept its muzzled pinned to the ground as though sniffing around for something. Zest was fairly sure she didn’t have any scent to her anymore, though then again all she could smell now was hot and cold.

“I, know what you. did,” the wight’s voice blew towards them as a whisper carried on the wins. It spoke with unnatural, stuttering stops and inflections. “I saw what. Was inside that, briefcase.”

The… briefcase?

Zest paled and moved back, suddenly unable to blink or take her eyes off it. It had to be talking to her, right? It had to be reading her mind somehow.

“You’re, not innocent,” the wight continued. “You, took. the money. You, can’t run from what you, did. I, saw it all. And I, will. tell everypony…”

Zest shook her head! Sugarcoat knew she’d been a smuggler, but–

“Sh-shut up!” Rind surprised Zest by stepping forward to yell at it. “You don’t know anything! That’s not true!”

Did he also have a horrible briefcase-related secret? That couldn’t be right. Maybe they all heard something different?

“Don’t bother talking to it,” Sugarcoat warned them all. “Don’t even listen to it if you can manage. The thing doesn’t understand what it’s saying. It just knows what sounds will make you the most upset.”

But her frown was deeper.

“Maybe the rest of us should get out of here?” Zest held Sparky close. If she was intimidated by the wight then so was he. “You got this one, right boss?”

“Yes.” Sugarcoat nodded. “But it's already too late for you to escape. We’re surrounded.”

“Is there more than one?!” Zest turned around. “I never heard of a pack of wights before! Is a group of wights called a wong?”

There were no wights behind her, but Zest knew what Sugarcoat meant now. Fore-boots in every direction floated towards them or else crept along the ground as though attached to an invisible pony.

She’d heard wights came at you with a bunch of boots, but never expected it to have a whole army in tow. Fore-boots came clopping and snaking along from every direction.

“I’ll have to fight it and protect the lot of you.” Sugarcoat made wide circles with her shoulders. “Try not to let those boots touch you. Those are its crystallized terror. Touching one will induce a phobic response.”

“Oh right.” Zest moved to be next to Sugarcoat. “Wights can bring out your deepest fears, right?”

“What?” Sugarcoat raised her brow. “Where did you go to school? That’s not how it works.”

“Huh?!”

“You’re already afraid of the things you’re afraid of so that wouldn’t do anything.” Sugarcoat pointed to one of the fore-boots. “They capture the fears of other ponies and induce them on you. Wights go around collecting them. And they’re enchanted so they can touch you.”

Zest didn’t need to be told how bad that could get. With so many hooves about, the wight could easily reduce her to a catatonic wreck too afraid to move!

All the unattached hooves flew at them at once. Zest could hardly flail her forelegs about as they closed in on her. She was far too weak to fight something like a wight!

But before they could get near her, Sugarcoat’s eyes glowed. A half-dome of ice appeared around Zest and Rind. The boots slammed into the wall but couldn’t break through the ice. Not only did they fail to penetrate the wall, but Sugarcoat’s ice continued to spread over the ones that collided. Soon, many of them were encased in ice.

Sugarcoat swept her hoof in front of her and all the fore-boots that came at her froze solid in midair. She then touched her hoof to the ground. A spike made of ice shot up from the ground, impaling the wight straight through the belly and lifting it into the air.

“Yeah!” Zest cheered her boss on. “You’re doing it! That wight picked the wrong pony to mess with!”

“It’s not over yet.” Sugarcoat warned. “Physical damage can’t kill it.”

The wight showed no signs of injury. It inhaled with great difficulty, sounding as though a gallon of tar filled its lungs, then breathed out. The thick smoke came pouring out both its mouth and eyes and melted the ice as it drifted down.

Any plant life that came near the smoke crumbled to dust in an instant. Zest didn’t want to find out if that stuff could affect ghosts.

Sugarcoat punched at the air and the psychokinetic force dispersed the smoke, but several of the fore-boots were already freed and floated back towards their master. With eight additional hooves following, it skittered about the ground much faster than before.

Sugarcoat attempted three times to freeze it solid, but the wight’s movements were too fast and unpredictable. When she’d move to strike it, the wight would throw itself to one side like a rag doll and she’d create an ice block where it’d been a moment ago.

It snaked its way halfway up a tree with terrifying speed. Zest could hardly keep her eyes on the thing! It squirmed as it produced a blade from behind its cloak. One of the floating hooves latched onto the blade.

From the pale, green light that surrounded it, Zest could tell the blade had some enchantment around it. That meant it was magic and could harm even a ghost.

In response, Sugarcoat made her own blade of ice, one that covered her left foreleg. Both swung at the air and a clash resounded through the air though neither touched physically.

A tear in the ground above which Sugarcoat floated appeared, as did a notch in her ice blade. So that sword could cut things without even touching them!

Sugarcoat created another blade of ice and hurled it forward. It hit with enough force to slice through the tree in one blow! As the tree fell, the wight convulsed about to dodge being frozen once more. Just before hitting the ground, it swung again. This time, the blow tore open a gash in the dome of ice protecting Zest.

Zest turned around to find that, while none of the fore-boots had been freed, cracks were forming in the ice. The whole thing would break before long!

It made a gasp for air, then pulled its hoof back. In front of each of the three ponies, heralded by a purple flame, appeared a new boot suspended in the air.

The ones before Rind and Zest crossed one another, grabbing the opposite pony’s shoulder in turn. No matter how she struggled, Zest couldn’t get the dang thing off!

That meant Zest was afraid of… whatever Rind Heart was afraid of? But what was Zest afraid of now?! She patted herself over but nothing.

The wight then charged right at them, pulling its sword back! Sugarcoat managed to come in from behind and freeze the floating hoof that held it, as well as all the others that floated around it. With the largest ice blade yet, she slammed the wight hard in the side, sending it flying.

“Are the two of you okay?” Sugarcoat floated high above them.

Zest looked up at her. Sugarcoat looked so cool just then that Zest couldn’t help but blush. With the night sky behind her, Sugarcoat shone with absolute beauty! Zest’s mouth hung open in awe at how perfect Sugarcoat’s body was.

“I! I – uh.” Zest’s blush got worse! She couldn’t even look Sugarcoat in the eyes! Sugarcoat was way too cool for her! “I mean– I– duh.”

Zest didn’t even want to open her mouth again. If she said the wrong thing, Sugarcoat would think she was an idiot and never talk to her again!

What the heck was happening?! She’d never been attracted to another mare like this before! And even if she had, she shouldn’t be this stupid and awkward. Where the hell had this come from? She was like…

That’s when it hit her! Like a twelve-year-old colt!

She glanced over at Rind and realized she’d inherited his fear of talking to girls! Or something along those lines!

Did Rind have her fears then?

“No!” Rind clutched her hooves over his ears. “Everypony’s going to find out about this! This is all my fault, isn’t it?!”

Yeah! That sounded like Zest.

“No amount of physical trauma will kill that thing.” Sugarcoat turned back to the wight as it got back up. “I can kill it if I immobilize it, but it’s moving too fast. I need you to send the wraith at it. It’s under your control”

“Uh, huh.” Zest could only stare deeply into Sugarcoat's eyes.

“Did you hear me?” Sugarcoat frowned.

“Uh!” Zest started to panic! She barely got any of that! There was no way she could even talk to Sugarcoat like this! She was just too nervous!

Was being a boy really this horrible?! It had to be some kind of exaggeration!

“Pathetic.” Sugarcoat held out her hoof. “Here. I’ll fix you with my aura.”

Zest felt Sugarcoat’s aura! Such an attachment to her sexy boss felt like the best possible thing in the world! Zest could die happy now!

She could feel Sugarcoat’s emotions now, too. Sugarcoat was… perplexed about what emotions to counter this with. A sort of numbness began to creep along Zest until she became completely emotionless and able to think clearly again.

Logically, Zest regained the ability to realize that now wasn’t the best time to drool over another pony. She got the idea, perhaps a suggestion from Sugarcoat, that she could take the boot off now.

Zest reached to it only for her protective aura of stoicism to fade.

Then Sugarcoat got thrown to the side!

She must have been too distracted. The wight finally hit her with that sword. It hit her hard, too, throwing her far and leaving a huge gash in her form!

It swung again, two more times slashing her again and again. Then, five of the fore-boots around it flew forward and grabbed onto Sugarcoat while she was down.

The wight suddenly flung itself towards Zest and landed in front of the two of them. It raised its blade and slashed at Rind this time. A hit from that would cleave him in half. Zest dove in to try and do anything she could, going as far as trying to jump in the way, but she was simply too slow and too far away.

The slash tore the ground, but no blood was spilled. Two images of Rind flew out from where he stood, wave dashing across the ground. They reformed into one behind the wight and Rind held out his hoof to blast it with psychic energy.

The trees shook as the wight was thrown forward several meters by the force.

“Whoa!” Zest reared back as she watched the wight fly over her head. “We have seriously underestimated this kid!”

The wight landed and came skittering back at Rind.

Zest soon found Rind had enormous strength but had little idea how to use it. He threw his entire weight behind every blow, apparently knowing no better form or strategy than that. He sent huge, psychokinetic waves through the woods that splintered trees and sent fore-boots flying. However, he telegraphed each attack and staggered afterward.

It didn’t take long for the wight to counter. As he launched his next attack, the wight flung itself to one side in a jerking motion, as though it were a rag doll thrown hard to the side. The blow missed and the wight landed smoothly on the ground.

Then the wall of ice finally broke, releasing all the hooves trapped within. Dozens of them came clambering out. Rind sent one final psychokinetic blast to throw a few of them back, then the avalanche of hooves came down on them.

Twelve boots hit Zest all at once. Absolute terror consumed her. Everything frightened her now. The woods, the dark, the sharpness of that blade, the thought of talking to any other pony, indeed, every thought that came into her head was worse and more horrific than the last.

Zest never wanted to move again, just hide, hide away from everything and everyone. Even that idea showed no comfort to her. The thought of being alone terrified her just as much as the thought of talking to another pony. There was no hiding, only terror clamping on her from every direction, making her still.

She saw Rind, also covered in boots. She saw Sparky, cowering in the corner as well. She saw Sugarcoat getting back up as well. Yet all of them were terrifying monstrosities in her eyes now. She couldn’t bear to look at any of them.

Seven fore-boots now clung to Rind Heart’s neck from every direction. They lifted them into the air as the wight stood more upright than it had yet to manage. Still, it leaned to one side as it took out its sword again.

The thought of the colt being killed filled her with dread, but she was afraid of doing anything to help as well. The wight had completely and utterly dominated her.

A blade of ice smashed the wight away a moment later, sparing Rind Heart from death. Sugarcoat came to look Zest over. None of it mattered. Zest wanted Sugarcoat to go away just as badly as the wight.

“No,” said Sugarcoat. “You’re one of mine.”

Sugarcoat’s aura flooded Zest. At first, Zest was terrified of that feeling as well but then Sugarcoat’s emotions overpowered her own. She felt Sugarcoat’s desire wrap around her, fill her with comfort, and keep the fear out.

The sort of love you had for a small foal or kitten filled her. The desire to gently keep safe something small and weak grew stronger and stronger until it overpowered the horror.

Two of the boots fell off Zest. The fear of other ponies vanished! Now Zest feared solitude alone. She remained in a pit of the deepest loneliness she’d ever felt, but she at least had a desire to climb out.

Zest reached back out to Sugarcoat and the feeling became stronger. Her fears remained, but she felt protected now.

The wight slashed at Sugarcoat, cutting into her back. Sugarcoat remained firm and pushed her aura into Zest even harder.

Zest knew for certain that she had nothing to fear. The terror vanished like a shadow in the light. All the boots fell helplessly to the ground. The wight lurched back into the darkness, humiliated.

Zest teared up as she looked at Sugarcoat. It didn’t come from that exaggerated super-crush she’d had induced on her before. Sugarcoat really did care about her. She saw Zest as weak and pathetic, but she did care!

“The wraith!” Sugarcoat reminded her.

“Huh?” Zest blinked. “Oh, right!”

Zest just had to impart her will onto it! She needed to help Sugarcoat and that snot-nosed colt! With such genuine feelings, reaching out to the wraith was effortless. Just like an orb, the lesser ghost became an extension of herself. Sparky stopped cowering off in the corner and charged in.

It very nearly felt as though she was the one charging at the wight and slashing it with Sparky’s icicle claws. The wight threw itself back in its unnatural manner, but Sparky and Zest slashed again, this time trying to freeze it as well.

The wight flung itself out of the way of this attack as well, but at last, Sugarcoat go her opening. Her ice clamped down on it, freezing its lower legs. It knew the danger being immobilized presented and thrashed about, attempting to get its sword back.

At the same time, Sugarcoat lifted all of the fore-boots that were still frozen at once. She shattered the ice around them and flung them all at the wight. They collided and clamped down on the wight.

The boots on Rind all fell to the ground as the wight shrieked and flailed about more violently than ever. Rind collapsed, panting and eyes wide. Sugarcoat grabbed these fallen fore-boots as well and slammed them into the wight.

Now completely covered, the wight made an in-equine screeching noise. It shook so violently that it broke free from the ice. Sugarcoat showed no mercy, keeping her eyes locked on it. Zest could feel the waves of aura flowing from her into the wight, amplifying the fear it consumed itself with.

Purple sludge began leaking out of those massive, empty eye holes. Then it came pouring out of every joint in its armor as well. With one final spasm, the wight through itself hard against a tree, splintering it.

Then finally, it fell silent. The mail collapsed in a heap as though nopony had ever been wearing it. The fore-boots all clattered to the ground. Then nearly everything burned away into dust, drifting off into the air.

But a few, small pieces of the wight lingered. Its cape and mangled helmet lay on the ground and the sword harmlessly dug into the earth. So too did a single piece of jewelry – a gold band with an orange gemstone encrusted on it.

“Hey! We did it!” Zest pulled Sparky back close and turned to her mentor with a wide smile.

“For now.” Sugarcoat nodded.

She looked over to Rind, hoping maybe he’d have a more enthusiastic response. Yet she found the poor kid breathing heavily as he stared at the spot where the wight collapsed.

“Ah, crow! I think we may have accidentally left him traumatized,” Zest whispered to Sugarcoat.

“He should be fine.” Sugarcoat didn’t spare him much concern. “Do you feel traumatized? The effects of induced fear don’t linger for long.”

She wasn’t wrong. Even still, Zest moved to his side. She didn’t get too close, fearing her desire to eat him might overpower her.

“Are you okay?” Zest asked from a good three meters away.

“I guess.” Rind kept his eyes on the ground. He looked crestfallen if anything. “I could beat anypony in town so easily, but that thing was really scary.”

“Aw. Don’t feel bad. The world’s a scary place,” said Zest. “Nopony will blame you for not beating something that tough.”

Rind shook his head.

“No! I – I just need to learn how to use my powers better,” he said. “Next time a wight shows up, I’ll get it by myself!”

“I– I guess you did help us. So thanks.”

“Right. But remember, even nice ghosts like us are dangerous,” Zest reminded him. “So don’t come to talk to us again unless it’s a life-or-death emergency, okay?”

Rind Heart nodded.

“We still have one small problem,” said Sugarcoat.

The other two turned to her, too weary to deal with anything else tonight.

“You can’t truly kill a wight, but it can’t reform if you split its possession apart.” Sugarcoat held up the blue cape. “We’ll take this one. And I’ll throw the bracelet into a lake somewhere.”

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. Zest heard stories of how the pieces of a wight had a way of finding themselves again. It was all but inevitable some poor pony, a long time from now, would find the last piece of its jewelry and feel as though they just had to have it.

Sugarcoat levitated the helmet and sword over to Rind Heart.

“You take these and tell the adults in your village to send them far away.”

“H-huh?!” Rind stepped back from them. “But what am I supposed to tell them? Like– like how I got all this stuff? I’m not even supposed to be awake after nine!”

“That’s not my problem,” said Sugarcoat. “Tell them whatever you want. Goodnight.”

Sugarcoat left Rind Heart clutching the small pile of treasure and floated back towards home. Zest clasped her forehooves together, thanking him one last time, before following.

When she got the chance, Zest snuck a glance at Sugarcoat’s flanks and felt none of the attraction from before. That convinced her she’d become straight again. Being gay for five minutes had been an interesting experience, though. It filled her with all sorts of questions that would never be answered.

Even still, Zest glowed with a less homoerotic affection for Sugarcoat. Perhaps that could be said more literally now. Sugarcoat all but saw her appreciation and glanced in her direction. Even without auras, she’d likely see the big smile on her face.

Zest moved closer until they were pressed together side by side.

“So!” Zest smiled wide and pressed her cheek against Sugarcoat’s.

“So what?”

“You really do care about me, boss!” Zest grabbed her in a hug and nuzzled Sugarcoat’s neck repeatedly. “I love you, too! You’re the best friend I ever had!”

Sugarcoat remained still as the affection showered her like rain on an umbrella. Sparky swiftly moved into nuzzling Sugarcoat, imitating Zest’s love.

“See? And Sparky loves you too!”

“Wonderful.”

Sugarcoat didn’t smile, but Zest had just enough aura awareness to feel her happiness anyway.

“Oh! And you still haven’t answered my question.”

“What question?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Do two wights make a wong?” Zest snickered, trying to hold in her laugh.

“No.”

Ponin's Spirit Guide

There wasn’t exactly a lot to do around here. She could play with the dog, do her chores, and train, but that was it!

There was nowhere to go and nopony to talk to save Sugarcoat who liked to keep conversations short. Zest certainly wasn’t going to leave the safety of Sugarcoat’s territory knowing what horrors awaited her out there. Not until Sugarcoat said she was strong enough to leave the nest, that was. That meant she had only a small tract of forest to explore.

They didn’t have a movie projector and Zest honestly wasn’t sure if she’d see the picture with her new eyes if they did.

“What I wouldn’t do for some kind of music player.”

The library remained her only option for entertainment. Incidentally, that was always where she found Sugarcoat during her free time. Zest wondered how long before Sugarcoat finished all these books.

Zest spent most of her time down there too, as she had a strong preference to have another pony in the room even if they weren’t talking. What she wouldn’t give to have some more ponies living here, too.

Shadowbolt Academy remained unbearably lonely. Sugarcoat wasn’t kidding when she said Zest was more alone than ever. She felt stranded on an island most days.

She’d read just yesterday how ponies theorized their early pegasus ancestors likely lived in herds of about two hundred ponies. Therefore, some guy reasoned, that was the most natural and healthy way to live. She also learned that ‘herd’ only referred to a mixture of ponies. If it was just pegasi, the group was called a ‘constellation’.

Yep! All sorts of useless trivia to be found here.

So just 198 more ponies to go to get her ideal family unit. To that end, Zest moved over to the newspapers and found the latest obituaries. A plan began forming in her mind that was just crazy enough to work.

Zest dug into the newspapers, taking out the latest obituary as well as those from the past ten months. Sparky, ever by her side, leaned over her shoulder as if he could read it too. He really was like a dog.

Before long, Sugarcoat glanced over to her. Reading, Zest found, was the one surefire way to get her attention.

“You’re still looking through obituaries?” Sugarcoat asked. “Are you hoping you’ll get a second?”

“No! I’m looking for ponies who died in a fire.” Zest lowered her paper. “Think about it! How cool would it be if we gathered an elemental strike force! One of each type of elemental! We could be like fire, earth, lightning, wind–”

“There aren’t any wind elementals.”

“Huh?! But ponies get killed by tornadoes and stuff, don’t they?”

“If you think about it, it’s the debris from tornadoes or else the flooding from a storm that kills ponies, not the wind itself,” said Sugarcoat. “It might be possible, but a wind elemental would be an astonishingly rare event. Even your goal to find a fire elemental like this is in vain. The chances of becoming one after being burned to death is closer to one in twenty thousand.”

So it’d take decades of haunting burning buildings to find one, most likely.

Sugarcoat had one of her orbs float off to the bookshelf where all the encyclopedias and textbooks were kept.

“Here.” Sugarcoat flicked a hoof in her direction without looking up. “You should start reading this. We’ll likely start meeting other high ghosts soon and it’ll be nice if you aren’t completely ignorant for that day.”

Zest grabbed the textbook and looked down.

She recognized it immediately, being a textbook she’d once had a copy of. Ponin’s Spirit Guide was a thick book considered to be the most comprehensive guide to ghosts even nearly a hundred years since its publication.

Ponin, as the story went, spent fifty years compiling the entire net-sum of information on ghosts into a single volume. Every school pony was forced to buy and read a copy and as such Zest resisted learning anything from it to the maximum degree. Once she’d regurgitated the information back on the test it was out of her system. Her retention of its contents was maybe one percent at best.

Though now that she wasn’t in school and didn’t have any tests the idea of learning seemed almost appealing. Zest really should read through this whole thing. Admittedly, it would have been better had she paid more attention in slayer class the first time around.

Curiously, the volume was thicker than Zest remembered it.

The first few pages were a table of contents. Every type of ghost was organized neatly in a taxidermical model that went plane – kind – type. The ‘planes’ were lesser and high ghosts. Lesser ghosts were divided into four ‘kinds’ – orbs, apparitions, sprites, and amorphous. Then you had each type of ghost listed under which kind of ghost it was.

Wraiths, for example, were sprites along with bogeys and kodama. Zest was surprised to see how many types of orbs there were. She knew about wisps and o’-wills but didn’t expect there to be nine of them. All of her little buddies, she learned, were merely ‘common orbs’.

Her hopes of getting a collection of all nine to come live in Sugarcoat’s aura were immediately squashed. The accursed orb was, allegedly, extinct.

She soon found this copy heavily annotated. Sugarcoat had taken it upon herself to make corrections to the inaccurate information it contained. This included crossing out entire sections that made false statements, though thinly enough to still be read if you wanted. She’d even gone as far as to rebind the book with her own additional pages, immediately recognizable as the added paper was just a little whiter.

The section on ball-lightning, a legendarily rare subtype of orbs whose existence was supported by only a single documented sighting, was heavily edited.

Sugarcoat had crossed nearly all of this out and wrote in her own corrections. As it turned out, ball-lightning was a well-known hoax among ghosts. She traced its origins to 1145 and noted one could be reasonably certain these were not a real type of orb.

Zest supposed that a predead would get things wrong, even after fifty years of compilation. She wondered how valuable a corrected version of the text must be.

She decided to read the section about herself first. The order went high ghosts – elementals – lightning elementals. The sections added by Sugarcoat drew most of her curiosity.

Ponin’s calculations of the odds of how many exist are a far underestimation, due to this being written before much electrical infrastructure was built. This was also before ponies decided that electrocuting themselves was the best way to get psychic powers. A better estimate at the time of this writing is one every two years or so.

To the living, they may be a borderline mythical finding but ghosts attract one another rather than repel. Among our own kind, they are a merely uncommon sight.

Lightning elementals are generally seen as good luck charms among ghosts. This stems from much older times when electricity was rare. Historically, this was the more common reason to recruit lightning elementals– as a living good luck charm. They’re still valued in modern times due to their ability to power electrical devices in remote locations.

Their hair can be easily made to stand up. Specifically, rubbing their heads until this happens is considered to give one good luck.

Zest liked that stereotype! She wanted other ponies to rub her hair for good luck. That sounded like fun.

It Seemed Sugarcoat made mostly cultural notes, which made sense. That was the sort of thing Ponin would miss.

Ghosts who died from being struck by lightning are given the nickname of ‘royal flush’ or ‘flushes’ in general. They are considered to be a herald of astounding fortune.

Zest wondered how hard it would be to convince other ghosts she was a flush!

’The problem, of course, is that every lightning elemental claims they died from being struck by lightning whereas most of them these days ‘bit the wire’. The nickname for this more common category is ‘dumb luck’. Lightning elementals are stereotyped increasingly as being somewhat dim.

“Gah!” Zest pulled the book away from her and pouted at the revelation of her kind’s reputation. “Yeah! Dumb luck. That sums me up pretty good!”

Zest sighed miserably. Still, she vowed to read more of this later.

6. Ghost Runes

Zest closed her eyes and brought ten orbs to her side. She gave each one of them a simple command. Go forward and come back, scraping along the ground. This was about the most complex task an orb could handle but that still gave them a surprising amount of utility.

Today, they’d effectively automated one of Zest’s chores. As they returned, they gathered up a ball of pine needles. If Zest commanded their grip to be weak enough, they wouldn’t pick up anything heavier than that. Zest could just sit back until they returned to the mulch heap and tell them to drop their load. Then she’d send them off in a new direction and that was that!

It was all too easy now! Zest got to spend the two hours playing fetch with Sparky instead.

She felt as if she was a pro-ghost already! She’d effectively become an orb master and gotten even a wraith under her command. Sparky jumped onto her affectionately every time he returned with the stick. All his anger issues were gone, thanks to Zest’s aura mastery.

Doing it the lazy way, her pile grew impressively large. On her first day, Zest had a pile a tenth this size after two hours of hard work. Now she had ten-fold the results with what amounted to zero effort.

“Heh!” Zest flicked her muzzle and smirked. “From now on, it’s easy street for me!”

Sugarcoat floated in soon after to find Zest had finished early. Zest leaned forward, curious. Another ability she’d developed was to passively sense Sugarcoat’s feelings.

Typically her mentor’s emotions could be described as ‘meh’ and today was no exception. Sugarcoat simply wasn’t an overly emotional pony.

Yet Zest got the occasional hit from Sugarcoat like bones thrown to a dog. So she knew deep down Sugarcoat took pride in her improvement. The rarity of it all made it a big deal when she did get her fix.

“Good,” Sugarcoat looked at the pile with no enthusiasm. “We have enough mulch for the garden next year. You’ll be starting a new chore now.”

“Guh!” Zest flung herself at Sugarcoat. “But I just got good at this!”

“Congratulations. Now you can get good at something else.”

To be fair, that was how training worked.

“Well, I guess I have gotten pretty good at telekinesis and aura control, huh?” Zest smiled and nodded with her eyes closed. “I’m basically a pro-ghost, eh?”

“Not exactly.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “You’ve gone from hopelessly weak to moderately below average.”

“That’s still an improvement, right?” Zest opened her eyes back up.

“Technically, yes. You’re recovering at a decent rate.”

High praise!

“I believe you’ve regained enough strength to move on to a more intense activity.” Sugarcoat created a ball of ice between her forehooves. “Your chores will be focused around ice magic from now on.”

Ice magic, she knew, was a power every ghost had. Even these miserable orbs sucked the heat out of the environment. That was why the inside of Shadowbolt Academy was always a balmy five below (not that Zest could feel cold anymore). It was also why you couldn’t work them into a free-energy device as Zest had once suggested.

Technically, she’d been using it herself this whole time without even thinking. Whenever she breathed or ate– that was ice magic. But if she could use it with thinking it could do so much more.

She’d seen Sugarcoat perform all manner of impressive feat with her ice. She could make seemingly any tool out of the stuff. Sugarcoat could make screwdrivers, knives, axes, hammers, and even scissors all from hardened ice.

She could make entire walls or small structures of ice. Then there was her ability to encase a solid object in ice and simply shatter the whole thing with her mind.

“After your aura, this is the second most important skill for you to practice,” Sugarcoat explained. “For one, it will give you more control over how much heat you take from a source. You can avoid snuffing out fires or killing ponies if you accidentally start feeding off one.”

Zest blushed a little. Admittedly, she did retain her habit of putting out fires. They were just so tasty and she couldn’t stop herself!

Sugarcoat levitated a second lump of ice that’d been there all along to her side. She held this up with her newly created one to compare.

Zest didn’t know where she’d gotten that second lump of ice but knew it was naturally formed. She could feel it in her aura and see it plainly enough. The enchanted ice shone a brilliant blue, practically an enchanted gemstone, while the ordinary ice remained coarse and clear.

“Second, it’s another way to protect yourself from ghosts. And we do have incorporeal enemies, sadly. If you recall, the ice we conjure is enchanted.”

To prove her point, Sugarcoat chucked the coarse ice at Zest as hard as she could. It went straight through and shattered on the wall behind her. No physical attack could harm Zest.

Next, she tossed the enchanted ice underhoof. It moved much slower in its arc, but actually hit Zest on her shoulder when it got there.

“Third, it’s a necessary skill for certain chores.” Sugarcoat turned to a nearby tree. “Your next task will be cutting wood and making charcoal. You’re going to fail to do it today so try not to feel bad when that happens.”

Sugarcoat held out her foreleg. Ice encased it and formed into a broad axe. She pulled her leg back, then slammed the axe into the tree, putting a sizeable cut into it. She only needed a few more blows to fell the whole thing.

Zest panicked briefly as the tree came down, only to remember that such things couldn’t touch her. The tree landed harmlessly.

“And of course, you can make more tools than just an axe.” Sugarcoat tossed her blade aside.

“Well I can already kind of make ice.” Zest looked between her hooves. “I just don’t know how to shape it.”

“I can assure you there’s far more than that you don’t know,” said Sugarcoat. “But go ahead and try to create ice for now.”

Zest put her forehooves together and focused her magic. A large chunk of ice formed easily enough, only hers was a shapeless ball. Previously, Sugarcoat would have stopped her from ‘overexerting’ herself at this point. To be fair, Zest used to get tired trying to make much smaller pieces of ice. Her first attempt, about a month ago, at making a chunk of ice the size of a golf ball left her feeling hamstrung.

To make a ball of it the size of her head! Zest really was getting stronger if she could do this without exhausting herself!

Sugarcoat shook her head and floated over to Zest. She stayed behind Zest as Zest formed the next one. The senior ghost helped her guide and shape it, acting as training wheels.

It took hours, but Zest needed less and less help with each attempt. Just after midnight, she’d finally formed her first, crude axe around her foreleg without assistance.

Zest gasped with delight as she looked over her shining axe. She held up the malformed weapon to let its dull blade shine in the moonlight. She felt like she’d just forged a legendary weapon!

Zest turned to her mentor, bobbing up and down. There it was, that tiny sliver of pride!

“Not good,” said Sugarcoat. “But it exists.”

And from her, that was a huge compliment!

“Whelp!” Zest turned to the tree with a sharp smile. “When you got an axe every problem’s a tree!”

Zest swung her ice blade at the tree as hard as she could. Her weapon took more damage than its target, shattering completely on impact. There ended the tale of the axe of legends.

“Huh?!” Zest looked down at her broken axe, then back to Sugarcoat. “Why did mine break?”

“It wasn’t cold enough nor did you put much magic into it. Ice becomes stronger the colder it gets. Compared to my axe, yours was burning hot.”

“Right.”

Zest took a deep breath. She formed another ice blade, but this time sucked as much heat out as possible. She knew this one was far colder than the first.

On the flip side, this made the ice more difficult to shape. Zest desperately tried to mold the ultra-hard ice. She only got a hunk that few would mistake for any sort of blade. Maybe a generous pony would call it a wedge.

Zest frowned at the ‘axe’.

“As you can see, you’ve arrived at the hard part,” said Sugarcoat. “Your new task is to make one hundred of these blades every day until you can cut down that tree. I’d suggest starting on the warm end, pushing the limits of how cold you can make a blade at least sharp enough to cut a blade of grass.”

Zest nodded with determination before turning back to that tree– her new mortal enemy. As Sugarcoat went back home, Zest forged a new axe and broke it against the tree.

She spent the rest of the day like that. She’d create a blade, test it against some grass, and if it could cut that she’d slam it against the tree.

And she didn’t go slinking back home until she’d shattered a hundred blades against that tree. A hundred and one, if you counted her first. By then, she felt exhausted and was glad the sun rose to signal bedtime.

Sugarcoat hadn’t been kidding when she said this training would be far more intense. For the next week, Zest had to take every other day off to rest. The first night left her so tired she literally slept through the entire next day.

That’d be more worrying as a predead, but ghosts were known for their heavy sleeping. Zest could just sleep as much as she wanted now. No worries about getting sore or needing to stretch these days.

Two weeks into the training, Zest finally began noticing some progress. Zest increased the number of blades she made each day to one hundred and fifty and felt only minor exhaustion the next day. She could at least read, whereas she’d been too tired for even that much prior.

Still, her decreasing fatigue from her daily routine was her only marker. Admittedly, Zest got frustrated enough at the tree a few times that Sparky would rush in clawing at the thing. That little guy did way more damage in ten seconds than she had in ten days!

Tempting as it was to let him slay her opponent for her, she had to send him off somewhere.

By the third week, she no longer needed rest days.

Finally, in the last week of June, she scored her first point against the forest.

Zest pulled back and slammed her latest axe against the tree, fully expecting the blade to chip with minimal damage the same as the last thousand or so. But this time it was the tree that chipped.

Her axe dug past the bark and into the actual wood, lodging itself inside.

Zest stayed perfectly still a moment, staring at the axe, still in the tree, barely able to accept that this had actually happened.

With her eyes wide, she pulled it out and held it up to the sky. That blue light that came from behind the stars cause it to shine brilliantly in the night. The corners of Zest’s mouth crept higher and higher as she accepted that this really happened.

Forget that pathetic pretender from before, this was the axe of legends!

Zest did a little flip in the air.

“Dun dununun dun dun dunun nu nuuuuu!”

Her little victory songs always drew in a crowd – typically about ten orbs and Sparky, who began circling her.

Zest laughed as she hacked away at the tree. Zest should have been a lumberjack! She had no idea cutting down a tree was this fun!

Though maybe ‘cutting down’ was a bit generous. Her manic rush left a sizeable gash, but it’d still take all day to fell this thing at her present rate.

Eventually, the axe did break before the tree. The darn thing snapped right in half just as Sugarcoat came floating out.

Zest looked down at the fallen axe of legends II, then up at her mentor. She frowned and tried to move between herself and it.

“I swear it was doing good a second ago!” Zest promised.

Sugarcoat inspected the sizeable cut made in the tree.

“When I felt how happy you were, I thought you’d actually cut it down.” Sugarcoat put her hoof on the bridge of her glasses. “But I suppose this is just good enough.”

“Hey, I’ll take ‘good enough’ any day of the week, boss!” Zest pointed both hooves at her, then slowly lowered them, remembering an important question. “But, uh, good enough for what again? I can’t cut down trees yet.”

“I suppose I need to explain something else first.” Sugarcoat gestured for them to head back inside. “If you’re going to do this next mission, you’ll need to learn to read ghost runes. It should only take a few days to memorize enough.”

“Ghost runes?” Zest followed her back to the school.

They phased through the wall and entered the gym. Already there was an orb here waiting with a fountain pen. The specter briefly stuck this in her mouth, then pressed it against the wall. She drew three circles, each one smaller and contained within the last.

What drew Zest’s attention was the color of this rune. It looked as though that pen etched a deep hole into the wall and light came pouring out from green flames far away on the other side. It was that same ‘phantom green’ she’d seen on the moon every day, one of those colors she doubted she could have described properly to her living self.

But there was one other place Zest had seen this color before. In fact, she’d seen this very symbol some time ago. It’d been such a strange sight to her she couldn’t forget it.

“Wait! I think I’ve seen this one before.” Zest put her hoof over the three circles. “This was written on the Maple Hill sign. Were you the one who wrote that? And the ‘don’t go south’ warning?”

“That was most likely one of mine, yes.”

“You could have been more specific, you know.”

“I made hundreds of those. It’s not going to be an essay.”

“I guess,” Zest sighed. “So what? Do three circles mean south? And the others mean dangerous.”

Zest couldn’t remember what the other symbols were.

“That’d be redundant. This is the symbol for July.” Sugarcoat drew two upside-down triangles underneath it. “And this means one. Together it means the first of July.”

“Okay.” Zest tilted her head. So it meant something happened on the first of July. That was only a few days from now. “I think there was at least one more?”

“There was.”

Sugarcoat drew a half circle and the memory of the complete sign returned to Zest. That was exactly what she’d seen back then!

“Ghosts have always been shy about meeting one another, recently more than ever. Specters leave these out at meeting points. If another ghost wishes to join a group, they’ll complete this sunrise symbol as such.” Sugarcoat drew a line under the half-circle, then three lines radiating out so that it made a crude sunrise. “And they’ll write the date they want to meet up. The date I’ve written is the time I intend to check the meeting points next.”

“Hm!” Zest nodded, feeling as though she belonged to some secret club now. One mystery down, anyway. “I got it! So we’re going to go check all the places you wrote this down on the first of July? To see if anypony wants to join the Shadowbolts?”

“Close. I’ll be checking most of them. You’ll be assigned a small number to check by yourself. Also, we’re not called the Shadowbolts.”

“Huh?” The orbs around Zest floated off. “I’m going off on my own? But what about you-know-who? Won’t she get me?”

Zest hadn’t once left the safety of Sugarcoat’s aura since she’d been on her own that first day.

Without a word, Sugarcoat pushed her aura out towards Zest, trying to force her to feel afraid. Zest drew her aura tight around herself reflexively. She was still shy about sharing her emotions like this.

A ghost could draw their aura in defensively or push it out wide. Zest knew for a fact that Sugarcoat could have effortlessly broken through this meager defense– her aura was six kilometers in diameter. But Zest’s aura cloak was enough to block this tiny push.

“As I said.” Sugarcoat gave up her ‘attack’ if you could call it that. “Just good enough. You’re thousands of kilometers away from her. Keep your aura up and she won’t be able to touch you here.”

Zest looked down at her hooves as she loosened her aura once more.

“And what about the other ghosts under her control?” Zest asked.

“Unlikely we’ll find any this far north just yet. They aren’t going further north than Manehatten for now.”

To be fair, Zest never considered how strong that effect really had been. Maybe drawing her aura up really was enough to protect her. If so, freedom was at last within reach! As were all the new friends she’d make on her mission!

“Heck yeah! Then I really am a pro-ghost now! I’m finally strong enough to go out on my own!” Zest snatched up a second fountain pen an orb brought. “This is gonna be great! So I just need to–”

Zest put the pen against the wall and tried to draw. Nothing happened. She looked down at the pen, finding its well empty. It didn’t look like an enchanted pen, either.

“What about ink?” Zest took the pen.

“We write with ectoplasm,” Sugarcoat said. “It’s an ideal ink to use. Any ghost can see it easily but predeads normally can’t. Plus, we can produce ectoplasm so we don’t need to carry a supply with us.”

Produce ectoplasm? She remembered that stuff came from her mouth.

“So wait. Wait. We write with spit?” Zest pointed at her mouth.

“It’s perfect for this. Only dippers with especially high psychic perception can see–”

“But it’s spit.”

“Rain won’t wash it off. It lasts for thirty years and you can tell how old the message is by how bright–”

“So I just spit all over stuff? That’s how we write? That’s the bedrock of ghost culture? Spitting all over the place?! We’re a civilization of spit?! A salivization?!”

“I suppose.”

Zest sat stunned, mouth agape and hooves upturned. Sugarcoat didn’t even miss a beat! She was completely immune!

“You put it in your mouth like this.” Sugarcoat stuck the pen back in her mouth. “Presh your tongue againsht it. Takesh a minute.”

Defeated, Zest sighed and capitulated to the spit-tocracy. She took out the second fountain pen and pressed it against her tongue. She was able to write the rune for ‘July’ after that.

“There are a few more runes you’ll need to know,” said Sugarcoat. “We use these for more than just meeting up.”

Sugarcoat wrote out the symbol for each month and how the ghost number system worked. Annoyingly, the number of symbols never matched up to the numerical value, as though the whole system was a half-assed attempt to fool somepony. Then she showed Zest the symbols for the four cardinal directions, one for up, and one for down.

She showed her the symbol for danger – the bottom half of a square with the top connected by an ‘m’ shape’. This one looked like a slice of bread to her. One that reminded her of a knife pointing down meant safety. One of the previous directions could be drawn in the empty spaces of those two symbols to show which direction to go or avoid.

So Zest made the moniker ‘Bread is dead. Knife is life,’ and nodded to herself.

Finally was a circle with arrows pointing up, down, left, and right from the edges. That meant immediate and immense danger and to leave that place as soon as possible.

With her study guide written on the wall, Zest had little choice but to hit the books. Or wall to be more specific.

Memorizing the handful of important runes Zest needed hardly took two days. There were plenty more she’d yet to learn, as the meeting spots were often used to give information about an area. You’d draw more S’s to show increasing amounts of predead activity, or an oval to show ghosts who had no problem freezing ponies lived nearby. These were the ones she could do without on the first mission, however.

Sugarcoat gave her two ghosts to take with her. The first was Sparky, for an extra bit of protection. Secondly, she was given an orb, whom Zest just now learned were like pack animals. Carrying things was more cumbersome for ghosts than predeads. You couldn’t just hitch a wagon or put on saddlebags. No, you’d have to carry stuff with your telekinesis the entire way.

Thankfully, orbs could carry objects for you. They could be told to follow easily enough as well. This one orb would be enough to hold a compass, a map, and a small fountain pen for writing ghost runes. It had one final item for her side mission. Sugarcoat gave Zest the bracelet they’d taken from the wight with instructions to throw it in a river she’d pass.

“Remember,” Sugarcoat gave Zest one last rundown before sending her off. “If you get lost or run into anything, just hide underground until I come find you. Oh, and if you do meet another high ghost please refrain from any ghost puns. I assure you they won’t appreciate it.”

So Zest set out with her companions in tow!

Out on her own again!

It’d been three months since Zest left Sugarcoat’s aura. She hardly remembered what that pull toward the south felt like, other than how she thought of it as a black wind blowing her along. Now she remembered why she’d labeled it as such.

The moment Zest left Sugarcoat’s protection, it returned. Strangely, it was at once both clearer and weaker. She could make out its suggestion as clearly as she could words and yet it held no sway over than any other whisper might. With a clearer head than before, she could feel something slightly sinister and off about its urging.

She felt herself a child who just learned smiles could be fake.

Or perhaps it still held more sway than she thought. Even now, having been told it was a trap, Zest felt the slightest of urges to follow it to Crater Cemetery. A sudden curiosity took her, to see this horrible monster and the chained ghosts herself.

Zest put up her own aura as Sugarcoat had shown her. The wind and the longing ended completely. Zest could no longer feel it through her thicker aura.

She’d grown strong enough to protect herself from this much. She was safe for now. Yet this was from thousands of kilometers away from their enemy and in no way aimed at Zest. She shuddered to imagine what it’d be like to be directly targeted at close range.

“It’s far too lonely out here,” said Zest. “I hope we meet some friends soon.”

With that, she flew off into the dark woods.

It felt like she’d crawled to Shadowbolt Academy in retrospect. She could fly so fast and free now, by comparison. Her first trip was from a town twenty kilometers north and it took her almost an entire day to get here.

But now? She’d already gotten five kilometers to the first meeting point in maybe a half-hour. Like Sugarcoat said, floating didn’t tire her out as much as galloping used to. The twenty-something kilometer marathon set up for her no longer sounded so daunting.

She circled the area, keeping low to the ground until she found the jack pine near a patch of rocks. A ghost could see that light ‘phantom green’ she now knew it as, from a good distance away.

She crouched down low, half underground, and watched the spot for a few minutes with Sparky by her side. Zest found no signs of other ghosts.

“It looks like the ghost is clear,” she whispered to Sparky.

Then she flew up to the spot and checked the writing.

Three progressively smaller circles each within the last? July. Two upside-down triangles? The first. Half circle? The invitation to meet.

Zest got a thrill at being able to read something that’d once been so mysterious to her. Yet sadly there was no sunset.

She erased the symbol for July first and replaced it with one for September first. That was the next expedition date.

The ‘meeting spots’ were universal, she was told, so other ghosts would know where to look. A jack pine by a cliff. The largest rock around an unused pond. Underneath an unpopular dock. Inside the crypt farthest from the gate of a cemetery. There were a few more lonely places like that to meet a ghost.

Zest flew off once more, wondering what the odds of finding a new friend were? Sugarcoat was checking a much larger area, so she was the more likely to find somepony.

Zest went from meeting point to meeting point with little luck.

The crypts in Farburrow and South Glenbrook?

No sunset.

Underneath a dock by the river border to Sugarloaf?

No sunset.

Though Zest did stop here to throw that bracelet into the river. That would bring it east and eventually out to sea, far away from Shadowbolt Academy.

A mist began settling in by now. Zest found her world much foggier in general. Not because of actual fog like this, but because minor light sources appeared as such. So she thought little of the mist.

Zest crossed the river into what was technically the province of Sugarloaf. You got trees other than pines down there, though not just yet. The only difference is that the trees were much taller now and she needed to be warry of the more populated towns.

Jackpine by a cliff to the west of that?

A sunset! Zest put her hooves on her headphones and bobbed her head back and forth.

A prospective friend had visited this spot and wanted to meet up!

“Dun dun dununun nu!” Zest put her hooves on her headphones and bobbed back and forth, singing her little victory tune, Sparky and her orb circling her once.

She looked to the date. Three circles, each inside another meant July. Four vertical lines meant six and a sideways S-like thing meant 2. They’d be here from the second to the sixth.

So they wanted to meet right away from the looks of things.

But Zest could only be too happy because they wrote an additional message underneath all of that. She remembered one of her monikers. ‘Bread is dead, knife is life’. This one had bread with an X inside it.

Danger to the west.

Picking up on her fear, Sparky came closer to her. The two lowered halfway underground as Zest looked off into the woods and stroked Sparky’s back.

The stranger hadn’t given the worst possible warning– the one to leave immediately. Still, something dangerous lurked somewhere out there. Zest wondered if her ice blades would be enough to fight this mysterious threat.

With any luck, they’d soon be friends with whoever wrote this warning. Then she’d at least know what she was up against.

“I think this is as far west as we should go,” she said to Sparky. “What do you think?”

Of course, he agreed with her with a small hiss. He couldn’t do anything else.

Zest underscored the two, promising to be back tomorrow, and turned tail to head back home before the danger could get her. By now the mist had grown considerably thicker, obscuring the path back home.

She rose up and over the trees, looking down to see that the mist flowing between the pines below, not reaching the treetops. Then she thought better of the plan. She didn’t want to be seen right now, not when potential danger lurked behind her.

Instead, she got down low, submerging herself entirely in the fog and halfway underground as she started back east.

The animals, she soon realized, knew something wasn’t right in this area. Creatures that shouldn’t be this active so late at night we're waking up and moving to the north or south. Maybe Zest would take the hint and follow them were her home not to the east.

Then she heard the cawing of a crow and saw the offending blackbird fly overhead.

Bad luck! That tiny one-in-a-million chance any given crow was a witch in disguise was enough to make them the bad omens.

“Ah, geeze!” Zest kept her head down as she passed the bird. “I sure hope my good luck cancels out the bad luck!”

She picked up the pace, flying forward as fast as she could.

Increasingly, she got the sense that something was following her. Every little noise she heard drew her attention. Yet the fog grew thicker and confirming it was nothing grew ever more difficult.

Her bad case of nerves was bleeding into Sparky. The wraith snapped and snarled at every living thing they passed, frightening them away. Having a guard dog around sure helped but Zest wished Sugarcoat were here.

The bad luck eventually won out. Zest reached the river she’d crossed earlier, but the abandoned run-down dock was nowhere in sight. For all she knew, she could be miles upstream or downstream. If she couldn’t find that dock again, she’d be lost.

Floating up did nothing, as mist covered the entire river now, making it impossible to see anything at a distance. She could smell the warmth of towns in any given direction. Yet she would find no refuge in any of them. To the living, Zest was the monster. Shadowbolt Academy was her only safe haven in the whole world.

As she came back down, Zest noticed something troubling about the river. Despite being summer, small chunks of ice began forming in the water. Great Pines was cold, but not that cold, not in July.

How cold was it? Zest couldn’t smell anything below room temperature and couldn’t feel heat at all, so there was no way for her to tell when things got truly cold.

These days, Zest associated any sudden coldness with her own kind.

What if it was a ghost following her?

Zest gulped what she assumed to be ectoplasm.

She had two options when it came to her aura. She could suck it in and wear it like a cloak, making it harder to push emotions on her and giving her stealth against other ghosts. Alternatively, she could pulse it outward. That was sure to find any other ghosts nearby but also meant alerting all of them to her location.

“If somepony really is following me, I’m pretty sure they already know I’m here,” Zest whispered to her pet, stroking Sparky’s back. “Get ready.”

Sparky bristled and his icicles grew longer as he snarled, ready for a fight.

Zest pulsed her aura outward. She felt a ghost, alright. It stood much further away from Zest than she expected but she could feel its presence all the same.

It felt enormous, but not in the same way a specter did. It was more like a balloon. Like a huge volume with low density, rather than being truly massive. Which type of ghost was huge again?

“A revenant?” Zest wondered. She’d read as much in that book, though had never seen one herself.

Whatever it was, the thing was hungry. Its desperate starvation consumed itself to the point it simply felt nothing else. All it wanted was to eat and freeze.

She looked at Sparky, recalling one other time she’d felt such single-minded emotions. Maybe it was a lesser ghost instead?

It appeared to be wandering aimlessly. Then, as if only now realizing Zest was here, it turned its single-minded hunger towards her and began moving in her direction.

“No! I’m not tasty at all!” Zest backed up and put her hooves up. Not that it’d do any good, given how far away it was. “I don’t have any heat at all!”

Zest pulled her aura back up as tightly as she could and look around desperately. Hiding underground wouldn’t work against another ghost. She needed to get out of here before that thing showed up!

Figuring it was at least in the right direction, Zest zipped out across the lake and rushed back in a general eastwardly direction.

Though it made her feel better in the short term, Zest soon realized rushing into the woods to escape was a mistake. Now she found herself surrounded by pines in every direction. The mist was thicker than ever and no landmarks were to be seen.

Zest nervously tapped her hooves together. She still had her compass, which she now carried herself, so she could tell which way was east.

Zest shook her head and rushed forward in the same direction, hoping to escape the mist before poking her head up again. Something that big couldn’t be too fast, right?

Zest took out the map, glancing at it, then back over her shoulder. She hoped to bump into something marked on the map, but low visibility made that nearly impossible.

“I can’t find any of these places!” Zest crumpled it up. “I think we're lost, Sparky! I don’t know if I’m passing the right towns or–!”

Zest stopped dead cold as something interrupted her little tantrum.

A pool of blackness formed on the ground just on the edge of Zest’s vision, blocking her path. From it, a pony began to emerge. Zest knew just looking at her that this really was another ghost for light went through her and she and no scent.

Her spikey, blue hair came up first. After that, it was her eyes alone that drew Zest’s attention. They were a brilliant yellow color, but monotone without an iris, and sunken in a way Zest didn’t know eyes could get. It was as if large pools of blackness were carved out into her skull so that only those glowing, yellow disks remained.

As the newcomer emerged, shadows and darkness seemed to drip off of her like water.

Was the ghost that was chasing her? It’d caught up if that were the case.

Then Zest felt it! A flood of aura from the new ghost to her! She tightened up her aura, knowing this had to be an auric attack, but for real this time!

7. Phantasmagorical

Zest screamed and pulled her aura as close as she could. She wouldn’t be mind-controlled that easily!

It seemed to work, as the new ghost’s influence didn’t push through at all!

Zest created an ice blade and threw it at the ghost. That made them sink back down into their inky abyss! The pool of darkness quickly evaporated.

Before she had the chance to think she won, Zest felt another tap of aura from her back. She tightened up even harder and swung around to throw her ice blade without even looking.

The new ghost had already formed another pool and emerged from it entirely. Zest could tell now that she at least used to be a pegasus. She looked even creepier than before, too! Those dark voids around her eyes formed spots all along her beige fur. Streams of dark steam rose up from those holes.

She was fast too, dodging out of the way, even going as far as to flip over Zest’s axe.

“Help!” Zest closed her eyes and shouted.

Not that there was anypony to come help her. Or was there?!

Sparky rushed in at the new ghost roaring and bearing its fangs.

“Yeah! Get ‘em, Sparky!”

“Gak!” The new ghost had to retreat slightly as Sparky rushed at her. “What are you–?!”

Then she crossed her forelegs and simply vanished from sight. Sparky pounced on the spot she had been a moment ago, even going through the ground. When he came back up, he looked around, unable to feel the attacker’s presence.

Zest surrounded both her forelegs with ice blades and straightened up. She looked around, unable to find any sign of the other ghost. Did she leave? Zest’s only way to tell was to pulse again. But then she’d be open to an aura attack.

“Can you calm down for like five seconds?!” An unfamiliar voice came from behind.

Zest turned all around but still couldn’t find the source.

“Where are you?!” Zest pointed one of her blades in the general direction of the voice.

“I’m invisible.”

She could turn invisible?! That wasn’t fair!

“That doesn’t answer my question!” Zest waved her blade at the spot.

“Not where you’re pointing.”

Zest adjusted her blade.

“Warmer.” Then after another adjustment. “Eh. Close enough.”

“What do you want?!”

“What do you think I want? You were yelling about how you were lost so I thought I’d help you. And then you go and attack me? No good deed goes unpunished, huh?”

“You tried to attack me with your aura!” Zest pulled her blades back into a more defensive position.

“I was saying hello! What? Were you abused or something?” She asked. “Such a weak aura shove ain’t gonna do anything but show you my intentions. Are you a total worm friend or what?”

Zest honestly didn’t know. Mostly because she had no idea what that word meant.

“I want to see if you have any chains.” Zest remembered one of the most important rules.

“Alright. Just promise not to freak out this time,” she said.

Zest nodded, then let her blades drop to the ground.

The mysterious ghost appeared, shrugging with her hooves turned up. She spun around once, allowing Zest to see there wasn’t a single chain on her.

Though Zest did notice this pony was grafted, too. She had a pair of flight goggles on, stuck raised over her forehead.

Was grafting common? Or was Zest’s luck just being weird again.

“There?” She completed her exhibition. “See? I’m not a filthy chain.”

“Oh!” Zest finally started to relax a little. “Sorry for throwing ice at you.”

She gave a feeble swipe of her hoof in Zest’s direction.

“Eh, it’s fine. I know I come out of nowhere. Ponies throw stuff at me all the time. Sides, no way you coulda actually hit me.” She rubbed the back of her mane and smiled wearily. “My name is Indigo Zap, by the way.”

“I’m, uh, Lemon Zest.” Zest let out a bit of nervous laughter. She was finally starting to calm down. Having another ghost around did wonders for her nerves. “I don’t normally panic that much. It’s just, you know, the mist and I felt a really big, hungry ghost coming at me. And all these rumors about chain-gangs. I guess I got spooked real good. Which is funny cause I am a spook.”

Indigo’s smile faded and she deadpanned at Zest instead.

“Seriously?”

Zest glanced behind her, then back to Indigo.

“Seriously what?” Zest tiled her head.

“You don’t get to say that word, worm!”

“What word?” Zest blinked. “Oh! You mean ‘spook’? But it’s okay for me to say that because I’m a ghost, right?”

“No it’s not, because you’re a worm!” Indigo came far too close, those creepy eyes taking up most of Zest’s vision now.

“Well if you’re so concerned about being polite, stop calling me a worm!” Zest threw her forelegs out.

“Holy–! ‘Worm Friend’ isn’t an insult. It means you just died like ten seconds ago.” Indigo rubbed what was left of her eyelids. “You know? Like the worms are still eating your body. So it’s like you’re friends with them.”

“That one’s a little morbid.” Though it did make sense. “Is it really that orbvious?”

Zest smiled, hoping she could lighten the mood however slightly. At long last, Zest got a reaction from one of her puns. Instead of laughing, Indigo looked down at Zest with a deep frown and utter disgust in her eyes.

For a second, Zest expected to get chewed out bad, but Indigo’s flash of anger broke.

“You’re lucky I’m too tired to deal with this, you filthy worm.” Indigo looked away, burying a hoof in her face. “Look, didn’t anypony tell you about the two-year rule? You don’t get to float around making stupid ‘jokes’ or using slurs until you’ve been dead for at least two years. Got it?”

Oh, crap! Sugarcoat had mentioned that! Zest didn’t even have an excuse now!

“I wasn’t exactly making fun of you.” Zest put her hooves up in defense. “I don’t even get how that was offensive!”

“Exactly! It’s not okay because you don’t get it!” Indigo jabbed her hoof on Zest’s chest. “And until you do, you can’t just fly around pretending like you do get it!”

“Eh-heh.” Zest lowered her head, looking up at Indigo apologetically. “Sorry.”

“And another thing!” Indigo pulled back slightly. “If you think a dangerous ghost is following you, you don’t pulse your aura to show it where you are!”

“Sorry!”

“Please tell me whoever you work for is smarter than you.” Indigo shook her head, turning away.

“Uh. Whoever I work for is smarter than me.” Zest nodded.

“Okay, good.” She sighed and turned back to Zest, beckoning with her hoof, eyes closed. “Now give me your map so I can get out of here.”

Zest clutched the map, then looked up at this pushy pegasus.

“I travel around a lot.” Indigo opened her eyes. “I know my way around the woods.”

Indigo lowered her brow and gestured again, harder. Zest finally forked it over, Indigo snatching it a bit too hard.

“Where are you trying to go?”

“Maple Hill?” Zest doubted she’d know where Shadowbolt Academy was.

Indigo sniffed and turned her head due east.

“Do you smell that town?”

Zest sniffed in the same direction. She could smell the heat above the town like lights off in the distance. At that, she nodded.

“That’s the one you want. We’re right about here” Indigo pointed to their location on the map. “Just go slightly north of east and you should see the road to that town soon. You’re only like five miles away.”

Miles? Apparently, Indigo was from down south.

“Anyway! Now I gotta loop all the way around because your stupid tail had to go and draw its attention.” Indigo pulled the bottom of her eyelids down with her forehooves and kicked her rear legs as she groaned. “You guys had better show up tomorrow night! I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

Without waiting another moment, Indigo flew off into another pool of darkness.

“Okay, but drew what’s attention?” Zest called out to the darkness.

If Indigo was still around, she didn’t answer.

“I think I blew that one, Sparky,” Zest whispered to her pet. “But hey, that could have gone a lot worse too!”

Zest miserably floated off towards where Indigo pointed her.

And it turned out those directions were completely unnecessary! Not long after she embarked in the right direction, Zest felt the pulse of Sugarcoat’s aura– which reached on for some amazing distance. Though to her credit, Indigo did at least give her accurate advice from the looks of things.

Of course, Sugarcoat felt her frustration and noticed her taking too long. No doubt she was speeding in Zest’s direction right now. She really should be more uncomfortable with another pony being able to read her like Sugarcoat did, but right now all Zest wanted was to get back inside Sugarcoat’s aura… where seeing her emotions would be even easier.

Maybe it really was natural, or maybe it was just Zest’s bad experience, but she like a shell-less hermit crab outside Sugarcoat’s massive aura right now.

So she rushed off to intercept Sugarcoat, glad there was at least one place she could retreat to.

Zest embraced Sugarcoat not far from Maple Hill. At least Indigo saved her from having to be rescued this time.

As they returned to the academy together, Zest hastily went over the story.

Broad daylight came to banish them to the basement by the time they’d settled in and finished comparing notes.

The windows of the basement had all been boarded up and covered to the point no light could possibly enter this sanctuary. Even though Zest was largely stuck inside, she somehow felt safe. Being inside during a sunny day was like being inside during a blizzard. As long as you didn’t have to go outside, it was fine.

Besides, Sugarcoat was here now.

“Like a giant, hungry balloon!” Zest held her forehooves as far apart as they would go. “That’s the best I can describe it!”

“How did you manage to find trouble?” Sugarcoat put her hoof on the bridge of her glasses and shook her head. “I merely sent you to the next town over.”

“I didn’t get in that much trouble this time.” Zest folded her forelegs. “I think. That other one had to be a lesser ghost, right? Those aren’t too dangerous, unless… that one was! Oh! Or what if Indigo Zap was a spy?”

“From your description, she sounded like a phantom,” said Sugarcoat. “Those do tend to be spies.”

Zest knew it!

“Of course, that’s no problem if she’s our spy,” said Sugarcoat. “Was the phantom the same ghost who was interested in joining us?”

“I–” Zest froze on the spot. “I may have forgotten to ask. But I’m pretty sure they were. How many ghosts can there be around here?”

Sugarcoat clicked her tongue. Zest felt the slight wave of displeasure.

“Well! You can beat up some lesser ghost and a phantom in the worst-case scenario anyway, yeah?” Zest asked.

“The way you described her is what worries me,” said Sugarcoat. “It implies things.”

“You mean her eyes?” Zest asked. “Or the way she was giving off fumes?”

Sugarcoat nodded.

“Those are signs of extreme exhaustion,” Sugarcoat said. “If you don’t eat or sleep, you begin to evaporate until there’s nothing left. At the point you’ve described to me, she may only have a few days before starving to death.”

“What?!” Zest forgot her little spat with Indigo upon hearing this news. She certainly didn’t want the other pony to die. “Then shouldn’t we go out there right now? We could build her a fire and–”

“It’s a bad idea to go out during the day.” Sugarcoat looked up at the ceiling. “Besides, if she were really on the verge of death, she would have begged you to take her with you or to light a fire for her. These actions suggest she has something more important on her mind than exhaustion.”

“Like what?” Zest asked. “And how did she even get that hungry? She was making fun of me for being so green but even I can make a fire at this point. So what’s her excuse?”

Sugarcoat thought about the situation for a moment longer, putting all the pieces together in her head.

“You said there was ice in the river?” Sugarcoat asked. “And that all the warm-blooded animals either ran or died in the mist?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Isn’t it obvious at this point?” Sugarcoat shook her head. “That other ghost you saw… it’s controlling the mist and eating any heat before she can. Perhaps it’s been hounding her for some time. Or else she’s stuck in that spot for some time. Yes, I’m going to make a prediction. When we return to that misty area, we’ll find dead animals if we go looking.”

Admittedly, Zest wouldn’t have noticed anything of the sort in her haste. What sort of monster could devour everything in such a wide area, though?

“Do you know what type that balloon ghost is?” Zest asked. Giving something a name went a long way to making it less terrifying.

“It is somewhat puzzling,” Sugarcoat admitted. “Your description of its aura sounds like a greater orb, but you saw what must have been a hungering mist.”

“So it’s a fusion ghost!” Zest slammed her forehooves together. “Is that a thing?”

“You’re reading too many comic books. Though I admit this is an unusual situation. We should get some rest and get ready for whatever’s waiting for us.”

Sugarcoat floated underground.

Not long after sunset the following day, the two of them set off for the meeting area.

The mist still lingered on the southern side of the Sugar River. Chunks of ice and frost lined the hazy side as well. Just as Sugarcoat predicted, they found a few dead birds, all of them frozen, lying about the trees. Few living animal remained in the foggy area now.

The fog only grew thicker, so that the tree with the ghost runes on them remained obscured as they approached.

On the off chance it was a trap, the two of them crept forward, keeping low to the ground. Zest felt only a single aura near the tree, Indigo no doubt. Sugarcoat searched the immediate area and, upon finding no other ghosts, nodded to Zest.

In her sorry state, Indigo was the one with more cause for anxiety over their meeting. Zest lay on her side, eyes closed as if sleeping on some invisible bed in the air. The steam came off her more intensely now and small and the black holes along her body were noticeably larger. Her hair, while not grey, had turned a much less vibrant shade of blue.

The sight of a ghost floating in the air as they slept seemed odd to Zest. She could never fall asleep above ground, nor had she ever seen Sugarcoat or Sparky manage such a feat. Zest wondered if she’d passed out.

Or perhaps it was all an act. Indigo opened her eyes and looked down at them as soon as they showed up.

“Hey! Finally!” Indigo opened her forelegs wide and floated down towards the two of them as though she were looking for a hug.

Not at the sight of Zest, but after looking around for a bit, Indigo dropped her forelegs.

“Hold up.” Indigo looked at Zest, then back to Sugarcoat. “Is this really the only other ghost you have? Please tell me there’s more!”

Sugarcoat shook her head.

“You have to start somewhere.”

“How is my luck this bad?!” Indigo rolled onto her back and kicked her forelegs, clutching her face. “I finally find a specter and this is what I get?! Aren’t flushes supposed to be good luck?”

“Ha! I know that one!” Zest pointed up at her. “Flush means, uh… well, me.”

Indigo deadpanned at her once more.

“Yeah!” Zest clung tight to Sugarcoat. “Well I may be an idiot but I’m an idiot under Sugarcoat’s protection! So if you’re too mean to me, she’s gonna beat you up!”

“Oh, yeah?” Indigo turned back to Sugarcoat. “You’re the one who’s hypothetically smarter than the worm friend, huh? I really hope it’s by more than a tiny bit.”

“I’m guessing a hungering mist has somehow been made to follow you, or else you’re trapped on this spot with it,” said Sugarcoat. “You haven’t been able to eat for some time because it’s been devouring any significant heat in this zone.”

“Hey! You got it!” Indigo gave the most lethargic hoof-bump to the air that Zest had ever seen. It ended with her foreleg limply dangling down. “Thank goodness you’re smarter than your worm friend. Maybe this isn’t completely hopeless.”

“Are you trying to get me to help you with something?” Sugarcoat asked. “If so, you’re not doing a good job.”

“Do you know how long it’s been since I slept?!” Indigo came closer. “I’m not gonna do a good job of anything right now, okay?!”

“I see.” Sugarcoat closed her eyes. “Well I’ll still need something of an explanation before I agree to anything. Where did you come from?”

“Guess I’m a wood sprite.” Indigo turned to look deeper into the woods.

“Wood sprite?” Zest asked. “I thought you were a phantom! Aren’t sprites basically animals? Like the wraith?”

Indigo gave her that disgusted look once again.

“Does she not know anything? What have you been teaching this worm again?” Indigo asked.

“How to function.” Sugarcoat turned to Zest. “It’s more slang. That’s a ghost who lives alone in the wilderness.”

“Oh.” Zest folded her forelegs and smirked, finally finding a chance to get one in on this cocky newcomer. “Heh. That sounds pretty pathetic. You really don’t have any friends?”

That got under Indigo’s skin a bit more than Zest meant to. She shot Zest a deathly look. As a ghost, Zest could feel the wave of anger crash over her. She instinctually hid behind Sugarcoat.

“Hey! I had plenty of friends, okay?” Indigo tried to get in Zest’s face but Sugarcoat came in between the two.

“Can you try not to provoke her again?” Sugarcoat requested. “The same goes for you, Indigo. If you want me to help you, try being less antagonistic towards us.”

Indigo raised her hoof and opened her mouth to say something stupid but thought better of it at the last second.

“Alright, sorry.” Indigo lowered her hoof and sighed. “Look, I haven’t slept for a month, you know. I ran halfway across the nation with hardly any rest or food. I’m not gonna be singing songs about friendship until I get some sleep.”

Maybe she had been too harsh with Indigo. Zest couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to stay awake for an entire month. Granted, sleep worked differently for the living, but Zest used to be barely function after just a day of no sleep.

“What are you two even fighting about?” Sugarcoat asked.

“She was making stupid ghost jokes.” Indigo pointed to Zest, though without much strength.

“Didn’t I specifically tell you not to do that?” Sugarcoat raised her brow.

“I–!” Zest had to retreat from her hiding spot. “I didn’t think you were being serious with that! I thought you just hated puns.”

“Look, it’s fine.” Indigo waved her hoof. “I’ll forgive just about anything right now. Can we just finish up here?”

Zest nodded.

“Well for your information, it wasn’t a lonely life at all,” said Indigo. “I met tons of ghosts on my travels. I’ve been to almost every forest, cavern, and mountain in Equestria. It’s never really been my style to stay in one place too long is all. I knew a bunch of other wood sprites who liked to stay put. I’d bounce around, living with this or that ghost for a few months at a time. It was great.

“There was this banshee who lived on top of the Redstone Spire. I knew this badass water elemental living in a cove out on the east coast, too. Both of them weren’t there when I went to check up on them. All my old wood sprite friends down south are… gone. We’re disappearing one by one.”

Indigo grew quiet and sullen for a moment.

“It’s not safe to live on your own anymore.” Indigo looked over her shoulder. “Not these days.”

Zest came close to remembering what the cold felt like. Suddenly, that distant threat felt much less far away and far more real. If it really was what she thought, that is.

“Was it those guys from Crater Cemetery?” Zest asked the obvious question.

“Obviously.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “Well, I dunno if the chains actually got them all. Maybe they went off hiding somewhere and didn’t wait up to give me the memo.”

Sadly, probably just wishful thinking.

“Crater Cemetery is picking off loners like me.” Indigo reached her hoof out towards Sugarcoat. “So I gotta stop being a loner. Friendship is the oldest self-defense technique, right? So come on! I can be useful to you.”

Zest frowned at Indigo. She felt bad for Indigo, but also didn’t want to live with her.

“Are we really gonna let her join?” Zest whispered to Sugarcoat. “She’s a bit too confrontational, isn’t she?”

“She’s a pegasus,” Sugarcoat said. “You just need to punch her, and you’ll be fine. They have a biological need to become friends with any pony they get into a fight with.”

“Hey!” Indigo flared her wings out in protest.

“I’m sure she’ll calm down if she gets some sleep, besides.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “More importantly, as she said, she’s a phantom. Those are incredibly important.”

“I thought I was incredibly useful!” Zest put her hooves on her chest.

“I haven’t contradicted that.”

“That’s right!” Indigo tried to straighten herself out. She pushed up on her goggles. “If I’m on your team, I can get all kinds of information for you. I can spy on the predeads and let you know what they’re up to. And no other ghost will be able to sneak up on you.”

Sugarcoat thought about the offer for what appeared to be a painfully long time for Indigo. Her face became more contorted in agony with each second until she couldn’t take it anymore.

“So come on!” Indigo whined in misery. “Just help me out and I’m all yours! Then I’ll get some sleep and we’ll all be cool, okay?”

“Are you desperate?” Sugarcoat asked. “You didn’t sound too impressed by what I’ve amassed so far.”

“Yeah, I’m a little desperate.” Indigo’s laugh came off as unhinged. “But who wouldn’t be? I’ve been running around like a headless chicken down south. Everypony freaked out after the Spectral Federation got slaughtered. They panicked and ran off to hide someplace. I had to run up to freaking North Equestria just to find a specter willing to meet up.”

Indigo looked down and shook her head.

“Though I gotta give you props for being the first specter I’ve seen in months with enough guts to leave these signs out!” Indigo gestured to the meeting sign. “I dunno when you’ve been to Equestria proper last, but it’s been dead silent since the Spectral Federation lost. I feel like I’m drifting through a post-apocalyptic wasteland down there.”

“I figure this far north should be safe from Crater Cemetery’s influence for some time,” said Sugarcoat. “Meltdown’s cowardice bought us a few years, at least.”

They lost Zest near the end of the conversation. She could merely turn to whoever was talking with no idea of what they meant, exactly. Now didn’t seem to be a good time to ask for history lessons, though. Indigo would likely laugh at her for not knowing, for one.

“If the other specters are hiding, then that makes it more important for me to build a refugee for those fleeing the south,” said Sugarcoat. “I’m at least brave enough to advertise my location locally.”

“Hey! I like that!” Indigo pushed her goggles up an inch, likely as far as they would budge, and smiled sharply. “The daring hero! Well, here I am. Go ahead and rescue me.”

Indigo held her forelegs out wide, eyes closed, ready to embrace sleep the moment the others agreed to take her in.

“Before I agree to anything, I want to know more about what’s following you.” Sugarcoat came closer. “Is it simply a hungering mist like I thought? Or is there more you’re leaving out? They don’t typically have the intelligence to hound a pony.”

With the reluctance of getting out of bed on a snowy Monday, Indigo groaned and opened her eyes back up.

“Okay!” Indigo turned her hooves up and floated backward. “Fine. There’s a part of the story I left out. But if you think about it, I didn’t have to mention that at all, so I’m still good, right?”

“What is it?”

“I had a small run-in with some ghosts from Crater Cemetery. Back in the mountains.”

“Did they follow you here?” Sugarcoat lowered her brow in a rare expression of anger, however slight it was.

“Not exactly.” Indigo rubbed the back of her mane. “I ditched them, of course, but they managed to tag me before I got away. They sent that lesser ghost to hound me. They can’t track it, but it won’t stop till it’s killed me, and I can’t lose it.”

“That’s much less worrying.” Sugarcoat’s face returned to its natural, neutral state. “Though it doesn’t make much sense for you to be so afraid of a lesser ghost. You should be strong enough to get rid of it without the help of a specter. They’re rarely significant opponents.”

“I can’t kill this one myself,” said Indigo. “I gotta find somepony else to do it.”

Sugarcoat waited for her to elaborate.

“See, my unfinished business is, uh–” Indigo tugged on her mane and bit her lip. “Well, it’ll sound weird if I blurt it out without context. But basically, I can’t kill that thing myself. I might die too if that happens!”

Sugarcoat watched Indigo critically for a moment.

“Can’t you just lead it into a town?” Zest asked. “The predead would almost certainly kill such a thing if it showed up.”

“Do you even think before you talk?” Indigo sighed and closed her eyes again. “They aren’t going to immediately attack any fog that comes to town. They’ll only realize something’s wrong once somepony starts freezing, possibly to death. I need to keep this thing out in the woods.”

That made sense, though she still wished Indigo didn’t have to be so rude about it.

“Very well.” Sugarcoat opened her eyes, her decision made. “I’ll destroy this ghost for you. If everything is as you said it was, I’ll take you in. However, if I feel you’ve lied to me afterward, you’re on your own. I have no need of servants I can’t trust. So if there’s anything else you’d like to tell me before we begin…”

“It ain’t exactly a lie, but what they got chasing me is a hungering mist,” said Indigo. “And not a normal one. It’s like… well you’ll see, but those chains are compressing its nexus together. I think it’s a bunch of them all tied together, but I can’t tell.”

“So it was a fusion ghost?” Zest whispered to Sugarcoat.

“I don’t think tying two ponies together counts as fusion,” Sugarcoat noted. “Is it a serious threat to us?”

“I haven’t even tried fighting that thing, as I said.” Indigo lowered her head and shook it miserably. “But it’s covered in those chains. A lot of them. You know what that means, don’t you?”

Sugarcoat nodded.

At least Zest would get to see those infamous chains at long last. Whatever that meant.

8. Ghost get

Zest couldn’t feel cold, but she could see it.

As the group neared the hungering nexus, the world became coated in ice. The grass along the ground became encased with it, taking on the appearance of so many tiny, sharp icicles along the ground. The trees too took on a frozen skin, transforming them into crude ice sculptures of themselves.

Though ice had no scent to it, Zest had one way of knowing just how cold it was. Practicing her ice magic had given her the ability to approximate the temperature of ice based on its hardness. She made a small blade with her own ice and scratched it against the tree as she passed.

Hers put a scratch in the other, but not without effort. If it was that cold, a living pony wouldn’t last long so close to the center.

Meanwhile, the mist grew only thicker. Soon, the ghosts found themselves trapped in a total white-out. Zest could no longer see the frozen grass when she looked down. That was two of her most important senses gone. Zest could rely only on hearing and aura sensing now.

“It’s like the middle of the day.” Zest complained under her breath. “I can’t see anything.”

There they were at last!

The target came to them, slowly but unrelentingly.

Through the white, Zest could clearly see the center– a ball of thick chains squeezing down on some unseen force that pushed back, causing them to rattle. Though mostly black, parts of the chains glowed dimly red, as though they were glowing hot but covered in a layer of thick ashes.

Most worryingly, Zest could feel the chains drenched in aura. Even with no warning, she knew she’d guess this to be a thing of pure evil. It seethed with malice unlike what she felt from even a wild wraith.

The single-minded hatred that consumed Sparky before Zest met him felt more natural, was a familiar sort of anger. But this felt otherworldly and wrong. Zest felt like an insect being forced to deal with the emotions of a pony.

Zest didn’t even recoil in fear. She merely gapped at the chains and their ill strangeness.

“Is it always like this?” Zest couldn’t possibly imagine the horror of being trapped in such a prison.

“Not for high ghosts,” said Sugarcoat. “This was made with a specific task. But you feel how strong they are, don’t you? You can’t reach its inner aura at all.”

Her aura never got blocked by a physical object before, but these chains? It felt as though she were blowing against a brick wall.

“So there’s a way to get out of there?” Zest hoped it to be the case.

“Sadly, the only easy option is death.” Sugarcoat extended her hoof in its direction. “Though in this instance, we’ll be forgiven. I believe if I destroy the correct one, the rest will come pouring out. Do you know how many are in there?”

“Not a clue.” Indigo shrugged. “But I’ll tell you they’re gonna come after me as soon as you get them out. The urge to kill me has been filling them for weeks now.”

Suddenly Zest recalled a ball of daddy long legs she’d once poked as a filly. All of them scurrying out of there at once– it made her shudder even now. At least these things didn’t have spindly legs. Though apparently, they could bite you.

“The two of you head south, away from civilization. If there’s too many for me to destroy all at once, they’ll head towards you,” said Sugarcoat. “If there’s more than two or three, I’d advise against you trying to fight them, Zest.”

Sugarcoat gestured for them to flee and they did. The specter remained behind, ready to face the worst of it alone.

They flew a good distance away, until Sugarcoat and the monster were out of sight. They only stopped when Indigo warned they were getting too close to the predeads.

So they turned back north and waited. Everything was too calm. They stood side by side in silence as they waited for something to happen.

Zest looked over at Indigo, who kept her eyes trained in the direction of their target.

In the end, Zest could only frown awkwardly, unsure of what to say. This was a terrible time to start a fight so she decided to just keep her mouth shut and embrace the awkwardness.

Without warning, a vicious wind tore through the woods. Zest braced for impact as what looked like a solid wall of mist came over them like a rockslide, only for it to harmlessly go through her.

The plants fared less well. Sticks, rocks, and shrubs were uprooted and thrown past and through Zest as they froze in midair. She turned to find Indigo facing the gust with indifference.

The fog had cleared out considerably once it’d rolled over. Zest could see more clearly now. It looked like a hurricane and then a blizzard had rolled through the area. Large branches dislodged and smaller plants were uprooted left and right. One or two of the smaller pines even fell from the force.

She wasn’t entirely sure where the snow had come from, maybe the moisture from the mist collapsed into it, but now a few inches of filthy snow covered the ground. The debris from the harsh gale left sticks and rocks poking out of the stained snow, reminiscent of the snowbanks that overstayed their welcome into late spring.

“That was more than I was expecting.” Zest blinked.

“Ah, crow!” Indigo pulled back. “I hope that didn’t draw any predead’s attention!”

“The predeads? What about Sugarcoat?!” Zest pointed to the center. “She was at the center of it all!”

“Does she feel hurt?”

Indigo had a point. Zest could hear trees falling and ice crashing in the distance, but she felt no sense of pain in Sugarcoat’s aura. Most likely, her boss was slaughtering them en masse with giant ice blasts and stuff!

So was that it? Zest didn’t even have to do anything this time?

She squinted and moved forward, hoping to get a glimpse of what was happening down there. Indigo was quick to grab her withers and pull her back.

Though it looked like an aftershock of fog was rolling in at them from all directions, Zest could feel each individual hungering mist now. She looked left and right, trying to count them but giving up after about thirty.

How common were these things? Zest had never once seen one before and now this?

Well they were just lesser ghosts, right? Her aura was strong enough to overpower them, she was sure!

She tried asserting her will onto one of them, the same way she did an orb, to tell them to sit still. When she did, she got that same feeling of planting her hoof onto a frying pan.

The hunger and will to kill Indigo was so strong! Breaking through it felt like trying to lift a mountain. Zest doubted she could make it budge no matter how hard she tried.

Worse, it was some blighted and burning mountain that sent a wave of sickness and pain through Zest the moment she tried to touch it. She had to pull back immediately, shuddering and feeling as though she might barf up ectoplasm or whatever was down there.

“That’s not gonna work,” Indigo warned. “The will of that bitch has been flooding into them for too long.”

And this wasn’t even directly from their enemy. Could she seriously be that strong?!

“What?!” Zest turned to her, eyes widening with horror. “So even if you get out, you’re still trapped?”

“It’d fade away in a few days, but we don’t have that long.” Indigo watched as they came ever closer. “Alright, I think it’s time we start running.”

Indigo flicked her muzzle in the right direction. They pulled back south for several meters. The mist wasn’t smart enough for basic pack-tactics. Instead of surrounding them, each one merely moved in a straight line from itself to Indigo.

All they needed to do was circle around that initial claw and most of the danger was gone.

Even then, Zest only realized how badly she’d underestimated the size of this horde once she got around the initial wave. Mists had been thrown off in every direction.

Their turn became increasingly wide. Soon, Zest saw mist in every direction save the outskirt of a town – its light visible in the distance. Going into a predead town was a bad idea but…

At last, Zest came close enough to see the center of one of these things. Really, they looked more like they’d be better classified as orbs than anything else. They had a semi-clear center to them – a ball of ethereal matter around which a strong wind blew, carrying the mists in a circle.

If she didn’t want to collide with one, she’d have to go to the outskirts of whatever town that was. It wouldn’t be so bad. She’d snuck into them at night before…

“Not too close to town!” Indigo rammed Zest from the side to force her closer to the center just as she veered off.

“But we’re going to run into one!” Zest looked in every direction. If they didn’t veer off into a town, there was nowhere else to go.

“Just smack it!” Indigo yelled.

Zest turned; forelegs covered in ice.

Zest charged forward. Coming close, she could feel the pain of the thing trying to dissolve her. A slight burning ran across her as though her hairs were being burnt off at the end. But she could endure it!

She slammed both blades into it. They lodged themselves inside the mist, sending it flying off to the side. The blades stayed inside, and the winds raged out of control, but Zest didn’t stick around to see if it exploded or what.

“There ya go!” Indigo cheered.

“Heh!” Zest smiled just a little.

The victory was short lived. Now five of those blocked their path.

“Okay, I can’t take this many!” Zest warned.

“Come on!” Indigo grabbed onto Zest.

Zest felt as though Indigo had pulled her underwater just then. The air grew so thick she could barely move. She could see Indigo pressing forward with a great deal of effort.

It seemed like a different world, with the colors and shadows distorted so that everything appeared to warble. It made Zest wonder if they really were submerged in water. Everything around them moved so slowly, but then so too did they. What was the point of doing this?

Then whatever magic Indigo used ended and suddenly they were meters ahead of where they’d been, on the other side of the blockade.

Zest turned back around to try and look at where she’d been a moment before.

“What was that?!” Zest asked.

“It’s cloaking! You’ve seen me do it before.” Indigo grabbed Zest and pulled her forward to remind her to keep moving.

“Okay, but I still have no idea what just happened.” Zest resumed her retreat.

“Well you’ll have to wait until later.”

“Why haven’t we been doing that this whole time?” Zest asked.

“Because I’m exhausted,” said Indigo. “I can only do that so much without passing out.”

“Yeah, how long do we have to keep this up again?” Zest lowered her head and looked around. There was no end to this.

A crash resounded behind them and a pillar of ice as tall as the trees shot up from underground. Several of the nexuses burst into gusts of wind as Sugarcoat came up from underground.

The specter sent a wave of her aura at them, forcing all the mists to disperse back in the other direction, then wound up for another attack.

“Heck yeah!” Indigo pumped her hoof in Sugarcoat’s direction. Zest too got caught up and cheered.

“Keep going,” Sugarcoat said before charging in at them a second time.

Perhaps she did cut off half of them, but there were still plenty to give chase.

They began a second loop around the center point of the woods. This time there were noticeably fewer mists coming to kill them and they were all in a much more orderly, straightened line. However, there was still no time to relax.

The chain behind them was no threat, but they had to watch out for the strays that got in their way.

Soon they were coming up on another one.

“Try stabbing it!” Indigo mimed poking it from both sides herself. “I’m gonna take us close.”

Zest nodded and formed spikes of ice around either hoof. Indigo pulled them back into that thick air. Then they reappeared a moment later less than a meter from the mist in their way.

This time, Zest was ready. The second they popped out; she stabbed her blades into either side of it. This time it actually burst into a rush of air, completely destroyed. She felt

“Ha!” Indigo slapped her on the back, then they were off again. “See? You’re getting it, worm!”

Zest didn’t even mind being called 'worm'. That time, it felt more affectionate.

They got back to the northernmost part of their loop, where Sugarcoat took another huge chunk of the mob off their backs.

They kept going around in circles like that, each loop becoming easier than the last. Before long, Zest felt more like she was out running a few snowballs than an avalanche. Any time a stray mist got in their way; Zest would effortlessly destroy it herself.

“She keeps on spinning me round and round in circles,” Zest started to sing the first song about circles that came to her head as they made their fifth pass. Not many remained by now.

“Hey. Kinda like this one.” Indigo bobbed her head left and right as Zest sang. “Or maybe I’m just delirious from exhaustion.”

“Yeah! This is kinda fun now!”

Zest had enough time to take pot-shots at whatever remaining ghosts they passed. She took the opportunity to help thin their numbers off with the occasional ice blade. Indigo cheered every time she took one out.

The mist at the center still burned her, but the small bits of her that dissolved from it reformed within a minute. At this point, the pain only seemed to serve to get her more pumped. Though now she wondered if ghosts even had something like adrenaline.

“Bam!” Indigo cocked her hoof at it as it exploded. “Another one!”

“I bet we could take out the rest of them by ourselves at this point!” Zest laughed.

“I know!” Indigo chuckled. “Those Crater Cemetery dorks just ended up wasting all these hungering mists to do nothing.”

“Yeah, they probably spent months setting this whole elaborate thing, and then we just smash it in a half-hour!”

The two of them laughed and laughed at how stupid their enemies were!

How many were even left? About fifteen were Zest’s estimate and that felt like a tiny fraction from before. There must have been hundreds at first!

“No, no! Not too close to any towns!” Indigo pulled her circle dangerously close to the hungering mists.

Zest swung two ice blades into a hungering mist that came too close. It managed to send a sharp pain through her side before getting blown back.

That clump was still too big, so she merely charged forward to keep up with Indigo.

“We don’t wanna get too close to these things, either!” Zest warned.

“Yeah. But there’s another reason I can’t lead it into a living city,” Indigo warned. “I haven’t eaten any body heat in over a week. I might lose control if I…”

Suddenly Indigo slowed and she turned her head off to one side. Her moth hung slightly agape and Zest saw the slightest bit of droll.

“Oh no!” Indigo swallowed and looked out into the woods. “Do you smell that?!”

It was the one thing you couldn’t avoid smelling. With each breath, Zest took in the scent of living ponies.

It was a whole herd of at least twenty of them, far away but approaching, armed with lanterns and who knew what else. It seemed all this commotion got the attention of some watch after all.

“You gotta get rid of those ponies right now!” Indigo pointed in their direction.

“Uh.” Zest stopped her forward momentum. “How?”

Zest blinked, worried by the look on Indigo’s face. Ghosts rarely actually drooled ectoplasm, but they drooled a lot when they did. Zest could see the streaks of green running down Indigo’s mouth.

Worse was the sense of rabid hunger radiation off Indigo. So intense was it that, Indigo forgot about the mists rushing in to try and eat her.

“Hey, maybe we should–” Zest gestured away from the predeads, but it was too late.

Indigo started towards them!

“You gotta fight it!” Zest grabbed Indigo and shook her as the mists came closer.

Maybe that was the wrong move. As soon as she did, Indigo began to struggle to break out of her grip.

The mist started closing in on them, but Zest couldn’t get away from her current spot!

There was no time! Zest held Indigo tight and started pulling her away from the predeads, inch by inch. But now the mist had caught up with them. There were still enough to blur her vision when they all came close like this.

She pulsed her aura, trying to push them away. It was too little. Zest wasn’t strong enough to keep them all away with that alone.

Zest felt the mists beginning to burn her and the heat got worse and worse. Yet with Indigo in her grasp and fighting against her, Zest could hardly outfly them.

She could let go of Indigo and let those idiots die or get eaten herself. No good choices today.

A pillar of ice shot through the ground, then a telekinetic blast scattered the mists into every direction.

“What are you two doing?” Sugarcoat looked down at them through her muzzle.

“She’s, uh–!”

Sugarcoat didn’t need an explanation and cut her off. She went straight to trying to get Indigo back to her senses with her aura.

Zest had never seen Sugarcoat struggle to keep a ghost under control before. It took significant effort, but eventually the change took hold. Indigo stopped shaking and starred off as though deeply surprised by something.

Then she buried her face in Indigo’s chest, clutching to her like a scared foal.

“I’ll chase them away,” said Sugarcoat. “Try to keep her under control. This won’t last long.”

Then she left.

Zest looked down at Indigo, still clinging to her. She started flying the two of them up and away from the predeads, hoping this would be resolved soon.

Zest felt ripples of fear moving over Sugarcoat’s aura moments later. They weren’t directed at her so Zest didn’t feel the impact, but whoever did get hit by that would be reduced to a quivering pile for a short moment.

But who was it directed at?

She remembered hearing rumors that Specters and other powerful ghosts could induce fear in predeads, that they kept living ponies away from their lairs with this effect. In her current state of mind, she only really had the association of auras working on other ghosts.

Was that ability also an aura manipulation technique that only strong ghosts could do? Or was it something else?

Zest sniffed to try and confirm her theory. Dang it if the predeads didn’t smell tasty to her as well! But she could tell most of them broke rank and retreated back to town already. Only two still soldiered on. One of them must have been a pegasus who chose to rush ahead, they were moving too fast!

Then she felt a buck.

Indigo let out a howl and clawed her hoof in the direction of the charging predead. Her mouth hung down and one eye opened wider than the others. Zest felt like she was holding a zombie back from a box of donuts.

Would Zest get like this if she didn’t eat animals often enough? She didn’t want to think about stuff like that right now!

Her own retreat ended, allowing the mists to catch up again.

Zest looked around, unsure of where to go. Underground would do nothing because they were ghosts too! She’d have to try and fight them off.

Encasing her foreleg in ice proved to be a mistake. Indigo grunted and slipped away as she tried to form an axe!

Then the phantom wrapped herself in shadows, this time without Zest at her side. The blackness shot along the ground, then Indigo was far ahead of her already! She continued to rush forward.

“At least she’s out of the way of the mist now!” Zest grunted to herself and gave chase.

Zest tried reaching out with her aura to make Indigo come back or become scared or anything, really. But she couldn’t reach her. It was like talking to a maniac. Whatever sense she had left for Sugarcoat to work with before was gone at this point.

She wasn’t fast enough to reach Indigo in time either!

Another pulse of fear moved through the aura, this time it was directed at the advancing predead, who stopped where they were.

But Indigo was within sight of them now! An orange pegasus sat stunned just meters away, easily seen in the darkness. She didn’t seem to notice the ghosts, though, her vision too poor when it was this dark.

Indigo had to be stopped right now!

Zest created a small block of ice and hurled it forward. It hit Indigo’s rear leg, forcing her to stop momentarily. That was all Zest needed to get ahead of her, but it wasn’t enough.

In a panic, Zest pulled back, encased her hoof in ice, and punched Indigo as hard in the face as she could.

It did more damage than she’d meant to. Indigo went spinning out of control in the opposite direction. A chunk of her head vanished, though thankfully reformed a moment later.

She turned back to the predead – now retreating even faster than they’d approached, then back at Indigo. The phantom sat stunned more than anything else.

“Are you okay?” Zest floated down to get a better look at her.

Zest didn’t entirely need to ask, as she could feel Indigo’s weak and trembling aura. Fatigue consumed her and dominated her emotions right now, covering that savage bloodlust from a moment ago.

Soon, all the predeads were a safer distance away and she seemed to regain her composure just enough to speak again.

“Yeah, I think I’m…” Indigo need to pant for a moment before she could continue. She shook her head. “I don’t think I have enough energy to… to move… Couldn’t chase somepony even if I lost control again… Thanks.”

Zest nodded, though now she was worried Indigo might collapse at any moment.

Sugarcoat returned shortly after. Indigo looked at her but could barely lift a hoof in greeting.

“Good work, but we need to get her some heat immediately,” Sugarcoat noted. “We’ll have to carry her back. She might not make it otherwise.”

Zest held Indigo in her forelegs. She half expected Indigo to fall through the ground if she didn’t. Would she even make it back?

“Why don’t we build a fire here?” Zest looked around. Some of this wood had to be dry enough.

“As long as she stays awake, we have hours, at least. But we need to get out of here.”

“Yeah, if any more predeads show up, we’re in trouble…” Indigo rested her head on Zest’s shoulder.

“But there’s still a bunch of those things out there.” Zest flicked her muzzle in their direction.

“They can take out a few of them without incident if they’re already prepared for a fight,” said Sugarcoat. “Besides, they won’t stop searching until they find something to explain all this commotion. If they don’t find any other ghosts, they’ll come looking and accuse us of some crime. Then we’ll be in serious trouble.”

“But I saved that pony’s life!” Zest complained. “That’s not fair! Can’t we just explain what happened?”

“It’s not always easy to explain that to the police,” said Sugarcoat. “And the law isn’t fair to ghosts. We need something else to take the blame for us.”

“Yeah.” Indigo feebly raised her hoof. “First rule of talking to the cops– don’t. Can we go already?”

Zest nodded and flew back towards home as quickly as she could. She’d wasted too much time.

Running away from the law again! Would life ever change? At least was this time she was innocent.

Though even when she was innocent, she was guilty now, if the others were to be believed.

The feeling was all too familiar, darting this way and that, keeping watch over her shoulder to confirm nopony was there. Crossing the river gave her some sense of security, but that wouldn’t stop a pegasus.

“And don’t let her fall asleep yet,” Sugarcoat warned.

“Right!”

Zest kept watch on Indigo’s eyes after that, shaking her roughly whenever she closed them. Indigo would mutter but make no other protest than that.

The trick to carrying stuff as a ghost was to never slow down. Building up the momentum was the hard part. Once you started moving, it was effortless to just glide forward no matter how heavy the thing you carried was.

Halfway between the river and home, Zest was certain there were no pursuers. She neither saw nor smelled anything living behind her for a great distance. They couldn’t possibly be scouring an area half this wide so soon.

Yet it wasn’t until she was back to the school itself that she could even begin to relax. Even though they’d do little to save her from the cops or a slayer, the orbs and Sparky gave her a certain level of comfort.

Zest darted halfway underground, keeping her head up to watch the forest for a moment just to confirm to her mind one last time the ghost was clear.

Finally, she let out a sigh and came back up.

“Is this where you guys live?” Indigo drifted along, her back to the ground, as she looked at all the orbs. “Think I’m gonna pass out now.”

Sugarcoat grabbed Indigo’s ear and pulled her back.

“In your condition, you might not wake up if you fall asleep before eating,” Sugarcoat said sternly.

“Yeah, yeah!” Indigo closed her eyes and chuckled. “I guess you’re right, Mom.”

It was good to know she was like that with everypony.

“Go get some charcoal for our new friend.” Sugarcoat kept her grip on Indigo’s ear as she turned to Zest. “A lot. And a propane tank.”

That last tug seemed to finally wake Indigo up, however slightly. She managed to keep her head up but stayed on her side.

“Yeah!” Indigo called after Zest as she went. “Like, thirty percent more than what you were just thinking about getting!”

She’d planned on getting three bags of charcoal, so Zest brought out four instead, along with a tank.

For the first time, she got to light one of the emergency propane tanks. That gave Indigo something to eat while the other two got the charcoal fires ready.

She couldn’t help but glance over at the blue flame Indigo drew heat from as she arranged the charcoal into three piles. As the name implied, these were for emergencies when you needed heat immediately. As such, Zest had never actually gotten to taste heat from flammable gas before.

Sadly, it’d have to wait even longer.

They arranged three charcoal fires in a half-circle around Indigo and stoked the flames until they were nice and hot. Normally, you’d start throwing herbs and choice pieces of wood on it to make the fire taste better at this point. Indigo asked her to not bother– she didn’t care about the taste right now. It made Zest wonder just how spoiled she was to have access to so many dried herbs.

Despite the heat being unseasoned, Indigo looked like she was in heaven smiling with avaricious as she tore the heat from the flames.

With that settled, Sugarcoat left and came back shortly with three turkeys in tow. The phantom devoured them all in seconds without the least bit of hesitation. Her shivering slowed down after that, but clearly, it wasn’t enough.

The other two built a fourth fire for themselves. It was only about then that Zest realized she was starving too, albeit it not at all compared to Indigo.

Watching her eat with such wild abandon, snuffing out the fires on occasion only to turn to the next and devour the heat like a savage. Is that what Zest looked like when she first got here?

At any rate, she felt far more sophisticated now, drawing the heat from her flames slowly like a proper lady.

Though crude, this method improved Indigo’s complexion almost immediately. Most notably, she stopped giving off steam. The holes began to fill back in and her colors re-saturated. Her eyes looked more normal, but still had darkness surrounding them. Already, Zest could tell her recovery would take days.

Eating food brought her back to the more agreeable and lively state she’d been in when the two of them were running around in circles. At one point, Zest got too close, and Indigo grabbed her, forcing Zest to sit next to her.

“They’re called black tongues. It’s cause water elementals curse all the time,” Indigo explained. “Cause they’re all sailors. Or used to be.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense!”

“What else?” Indigo leaned back trying to think of another important one.

When she got it, she rolled back forward.

“Oh, a dead body is called a blank. And when you kill somepony and they don’t turn into a ghost– that’s called blanking them, yeah?” Indigo pointed her hoof forward, then flicked it back in imitation of shooting a wrist-canon. “Blankers are ghosts who hunt down predeads on purpose. Not a lot of them around these days, but we don’t talk to that sort.”

Zest nodded, eager to absorb as much of this as she could and determined to start talking more like Indigo. If she wasn’t going anywhere else, she might as well get assimilated.

“How come you didn’t teach me all these words?” Zest asked.

“It’s not as important as the other things I’ve shown you,” said Sugarcoat. “And I assumed you’d be able to follow my orders and let me do the talking for now.”

Zest turned to her new friend, only to get a shrug from Indigo. Her ears drooped down, and she had no choice left but to lower her head in defeat. She’d felt like such a professional just yesterday morning and got slapped down so hard.

“I want to scold you for speaking out of turn and starting a fight,” said Sugarcoat, “though that is difficult now that you two are suddenly getting along.”

“Ah, yeah! It did work!” Zest was quick to press up against Indigo once again. “I guess we just needed to, uh… do whatever happened!”

“You see?” Sugarcoat kept her eyes closed as she gave a refined nod. “It’s as I said. All you had to do to get her to like you was punch her.”

Indigo puffed a cheek out and glared at Sugarcoat.

“Wait, is that true?” Zest leaned against Indigo and looked up at her. That was what happened. “Do you like me better because I punched you? Is it really that easy?”

“No, it isn’t that easy.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “Zest saved my life and I’m not dying of starvation anymore. That makes a difference!”

“Hey, thanks.” Zest nuzzled her. “But I don’t think I saved your life. I saved that mystery pony, and I don’t think she wants to be my friend.”

“Oh yeah!” Indigo slammed her hoof on Zest’s back, a little too rough. “I never explained my unfinished business to you – why I couldn’t kill that other ghost myself that is.”

“And what’s that?” Zest asked.

Indigo hummed and floated away a meter or so. She closed her eyes trying to think of a good way to put it.

“Well like I said, I’m going to sound like a psycho if I just blurt it out.” Indigo put a hoof up in her defense. “So let me put this in context, okay?”

Zest struggled to imagine where this was going but nodded along for now.

“See, I fought in the war.” Indigo folded her arms and nodded. “That’s how I got killed.”

She didn’t need to elaborate on which war. Equestria only fought another nation once in the past two hundred years. She meant the Toxco War against Manehattan.

“Wow! Really?” Zest asked. “You were there?”

“Yep! And guess what else?” Indigo flicked her nose and raised her head. “I was a big hero, too! I have my picture in this one museum and everything!”

“Wait! For real?” Zest moved closer. Having a war hero around sounded too good to be true. “What did you do?”

Indigo chuckled, building the tension for another moment.

“You see… I was the first pony who got killed!” And she puffed herself up, extending her wings like this was something to be proud of. “In the entire war!”

Zest struggled to keep her smile up.

“And before you ask, that was officially confirmed.” Indigo smirked. “I was posthumously given a ‘first blood’ medal recognizing that I died first. It’s in that museum I mentioned before and boy does it look fancy. Though I don’t know if taking it would count as stealing.”

Indigo chuckled. When she opened her eyes and saw the expression on the others’ faces, she dropped her own smile as well.

“What?” She lowered her wings. “Are you two not impressed?”

“I mean.” Zest looked over to Sugarcoat. She’d learned her lesson and kept her mouth shut for now, not wanting to start another fight.

“It could be argued that makes you the worst soldier.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses.

Good! She said it!

“Yeah.” Zest tilted her head. “Is getting shot first really something you brag about?”

“Of course it is!” Indigo threw her wings and forelegs out. “Bah! You two just don’t get it. See, I was in the elite alpha strike force! We were in an airship approaching all these artillery weapons they had on top of those skyscrapers. Long story short, the pilot made a bad move, and we were staring straight down the barrel of heavy artillery guns. Everypony else was too scared to move. ‘we’re all gonna die horribly,’ they said.”

Indigo flew up over the others in preparation for a speech.

“And I said, ‘you know what? Everypony dies horribly! But what really matters is whether you live horribly! If I die, I’m going down fighting!’ and I screamed and charged at the battery of cannons!” Indigo pointed forward. “I didn’t get close, mind you. I got shot like four hundred times. But that was all the inspiration the rest needed. One of my squad mates blew up some big artillery thing and lived to tell the tale of my heroism.”

Indigo nodded one more time before opening her eyes to face the others once more.

“So you see? I lead the charge and cleared things out for the next pony. Somepony had to do it and I was the only one with the guts. I basically won the war and saved the world!”

“I guess when you put it like that it sounds more heroic.” Zest turned to Sugarcoat.

“So considering my mindset at the time I died.” Indigo rubbed the back of her head. “My unfinished business is that I never scored a kill. If I kill anypony now, I die too. I haven’t found out if any type of lesser ghost counts yet.”

Zest wanted to say that was a bad one to have, but then again it wasn’t like she murdered somepony very often.

“Well that rules out one suspect if there’s ever a murder.” Zest laughed.

“Heh. Believe it or not, that did save me one time,” said Indigo. “So what’s your fraid called anyway?”

“I don’t know what that is,” Zest whispered to Sugarcoat.

“A group of ghosts is called a fraid,” Sugarcoat explained. “Specifically, the ones living with a specter.”

“So we’re a fraid of ghosts?” Zest gazed off into the horizon. Remembering herself, her eyes quickly turned back to Indigo.

“Ah, don’t worry.” Indigo pawed at the air. “You can’t not make that pun.”

“Well we don’t really have a–” Sugarcoat began only to be shoved aside a moment later.

“We’re called The Shadowbolts!” Zest pushed past her and beamed.

“Shadowbolts, huh?” Indigo rubbed her chin.

“We’re not called the–”

“I love it!” Indigo threw open her forelegs and flared out her wings. “Consider me sold, baby!”

“Yeah!” Zest pumped her hoof. “Ghost get!”

“Okay. I guess we’re the Shadowbolts now.” Sugarcoat sighed.

9. Fallout

On the crossroad of the abandoned street leading back home, Zest remained mostly underground with only her eyes poking out, waiting. The last of her dwindling contingency of orbs were her only company for now.

Zest hated coming here. They made sure to eat before approaching Maple Hill, but it was never enough. Always, that itch persisted at the back of her head. It wasn’t always terrible, but it never went away, and she couldn’t dare scratch it.

At least she had the easy job tonight. Zest acted as the second to last link in their relay chain. The others would head into town, scavenging what they could, then Zest would send the orbs back with the loot.

She’d been coming here once a week for months now, yet tonight was a little different than her previous runs. Until now, Sugarcoat would come back with little more than a few discarded newspapers, maybe a book or some small objects, and piles of cardboard.

Now that they had all the powers of a phantom at their disposal, they could delve much deeper into the more populated parts of the town without drawing attention. Indigo was the first to reach the Allgood Superstore located in the dead center of Maple Hill and, after a few days of espionage, discovered today was the day to make the big hit.

It sure felt as though they’d struck gold tonight. Already, Zest sent back boxes full of expired cooking oil, four board games that looked brand new, three new toasters, stacks of uninteresting books, a set of ugly porcelain bowls and kettles, an entire unassembled dresser drawer, and a big box of some brand of soap Zest had never heard of before.

All of this was much higher quality than the things Zest had become accustomed to seeing. Everything Zest owned these days were either dug out of the trash, decades-old, or hoof-crafted in the woods.

Sugarcoat and Indigo at last emerged from the town with their final haul of the night. Each carried two large bags filled with jackets. Zest briefly peered into one of the bags. The newness of the clothes filled her with doubt once again. They had no visible wear. The tags stuck to them were things she thought she’d never see again.

“And you’re a hundred percent sure you didn’t steal any of this?” Zest asked.

“Nah! I told you.” Indigo closed the bag back up. “Allgood’s trashes anything they can’t sell every three months all at once. You just gotta find the right day and you can get tons of free junk! This isn’t even half the stuff in that dumpster, believe me.”

“They just throw all this stuff out?” Zest asked. Somehow the excess of mainstream society seemed crueler to her now. “Aren’t we all supposed to be environmentalists? Didn’t we fight an entire war to stop pollution? Didn’t you, specifically, die in that war?”

“Blowing up Toxco didn’t stop all pollution and waste forever,” Indigo reminded her. “Just the worst of it. Sides, it’s good for us!”

“And what do we need clothes for, again?” Zest threw a jacket up over her head, letting it fall straight through her and to the ground.

“Raw material,” said Sugarcoat. “We can strip them down to make various bindings, among other things.”

“Yeah! Like Molotov cocktails!” Indigo spluttered. She stopped upon getting a look from the others. “Hey! You never know when you’re going to need to blow something up. Lucky for you two, I know how to make all kinds of explosives.”

Zest loaded up the remaining orbs, but still she was stuck carrying the last bag back home herself.

She sure spent a lot of time scavenging and scrapping these days. And now Zest was going to learn to make Molotovs? It felt vaguely familiar.

“Do you ever feel like we’re living in the Pinfall universe?” Zest asked.

“The what?” Indigo looked at her sideways, literally floating on her side to do so.

“Pinfall! How could you have not heard of those books?”

“I live out in the woods.” Indigo shrugged. “I’m not up to date on pop culture. What’s that one about?”

“It’s about this group of ponies who noticed the degeneracy and desensitization that playing pinball causes,” said Zest. “So they built this huge underground bunker and filled it with four hundred years’ worth of bonus buckets to starve out the inevitable collapse of society pinball will bring. But then four hundred years pass and their leader, Little Pip, has to go out into the now-wastelands of Equestria. And there’s like cannibals running around and you have to loot to survive.”

“Cannable predeads?” Indigo picked one issue of many. “I don’t know if you ever tried eating that much meat in life, but I’m pretty sure they’d be stuck on the toilet the entire next day.”

“No, no! See, the cannibal raiders have these ray guns,” Zest explained. “The laser turns you into oats and then they eat the oats. You don’t think something like that could actually happen, do you?”

“A ray gun that turns ponies into oats” Indigo considered it for the first time.

“No! Pinball causing Equestria to collapse!”

“Nah! They used to say the same thing about jazz music when I was a filly.”

“It wouldn’t affect us much either way,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“Well at least I don’t to worry about the stock market.” Zest folded her forelegs and nodded to herself. As if she ever had a portfolio. “Not when I’m living in the woods.”

“The woods are a fine place to be!” Indigo smiled. “Equestria has so many beautiful, wild places! And we have them all to ourselves now. It’s great.”

“Yeah!” Zest’s face brightened. “If civilization collapses we can just go hang out on a beach!”

She hadn’t seen a beach since dying and wondered what the ocean looked like now. To her ghostly eyes, water had this strange effect where the deeper it went, the brighter and clearer it became. It was as though it had a thin film of translucent blue on top of otherwise crystal clear water. Very deep down, it almost seemed to glow.

Would the bottom of the ocean be like what a bright sunny day used to be?

“Beaches are kinda gross to ghosts.” Indigo stuck her tongue out. “Especially during the day. Nah, you wanna go to a cavern. Those are the most beautiful places in the world.”

“A cavern?” Zest thought about it. They’d be nice and dark, at least. Zest admitted she like being underground, the basement was always the most comfortable part of her new home. Things like dust no longer bothered her anymore, but rather made a room feel more homely. “Do we have any big caverns in Great Pines?”

Zest turned to her fellow northerner, but to her surprise, it was Indigo who answered.

“You’ve never been to Goldmare Caverns?” Indigo shook her head. “It’s the one behind Goldriver Falls. Then there’s the Pinch Mines under Pinecastle. Those are old diamond dog mines that go on forever. You must have heard about that one, yeah?”

She’d never heard of any of those places! Not even that waterfall or Pinecastle! And she lived here!

“The only cavern I’ve ever been in is Deepheart Cavern.” Zest tapped her forehooves together. They made her go there on a field trip once. She assumed everypony in Great Pines did the same.

“We can’t go there,” Indigo warned. “Too many predeads around. But we should visit one of the others sometime!”

She’d even heard of the field trip place!

“Have you spent a lot of time in Great Pines?” Zest asked.

“Like I said, I’ve been all over the place!” Indigo smirked. “You could throw me in just about any forest in Equestria and I’d know more or less where I was. Only place I’d get lost in is Crystal Vale or north of that. There is literally nothing in Crystal Vale. No reason to ever go there.”

“I’m originally from Crystal Vale,” Sugarcoat said, her voice betraying no opinion on the matter.

“Oh.” Indigo stopped floating forward, allowing Sugarcoat to get ahead before zipping back to her side. “Then you get what I’m saying!”

“I admit it makes the towns of Great Pines look like so many metropolises in comparison,” said Sugarcoat. “There isn’t nearly enough lumber for us to live off of up there, either.”

Zest could only hold in her embarrassment that a southerner was more familiar with North Equestria than she was. She’d never gone to Crystal Vale herself. Though, as Indigo implied, why would you?

That was to say nothing of how she’d barely even been anywhere inside Great Pines and had never been to another Equestrian province save a few steps into Sugarloaf. The worst of it was she couldn’t even take inspiration from this realization. Indigo, a seasoned traveler, had given her own assessment that such adventures were no longer safe.

“I wish I could travel places!” Zest lamented. “But I’m gonna be stuck here forever, aren’t I? I get that everybody hates us, but is there really nowhere for us to visit?”

“Old Manehattan?” Indigo turned to Sugarcoat, smiling as if that name were a punchline.

Zest remembered it. That was the one ghost city left.

“I have been planning to visit there once more,” Sugarcoat said, “perhaps this spring.”

“Really?” Zest flew out in front of Sugarcoat.

She knew close to nothing about that place, but at the moment was eager to take this trip. Manehattan stood much farther south than Zest had ever been. At least, she assumed ‘Old Manehattan’ was close to there. It sounded like a great adventure.

“I imagine things have deteriorated since last I visited.” Sugarcoat kept her eyes on Indigo, carefully watching her reaction to the suggestion. “I have an actual fraid now. There may be ghosts willing to retreat to the north with us. Have you heard any news from them since thirty-four?”

“Last I heard about that place was two years ago,” said Indigo. “Wanna know why I didn’t go there for help? Cause last time Crater Cemetery had some of their goons stationed in that place. For all I know, it’s already been destroyed. We gotta be careful approaching it.”

That was a concern Zest wasn’t used to.

Fog of war wasn’t something Zest had given much thought to. She had plenty of predead newspapers, but if this city she kept hearing about exploded right now, she might not hear about it for months or maybe years.

All her life, she’d taken for granted that if anything important happened, she’d hear about it in the news. She could watch things unfold with daily updates from the safety of four or five degrees of separations – a constant tap of important but nonetheless useless information.

Yet now, on the first issue that truly and directly affected her, Zest found herself completely blind. For the first time, the news would have been helpful, and for the first time, the news was silent. Why was it held in such high regard again?

“How long is this… war or whatever it is going to last?” Zest looked ahead; Shadowbolt Academy was within sight. They’d be able to relax soon. “Like at the rate we’re currently going, how long would it take us to get enough ghosts to beat this pony up?”

The mood of the conversation had been getting increasingly solemn all along, but Zest only now noticed how far it’d shifted. The other two moved more slowly and silently, neither wanting to answer her question. Even Indigo, who Zest was sure would have been pumped at the mention of victory, could only scowl as if offended by the question.

The silence grew awkward before either spoke.

“It’s unlikely we’re going to win,” Sugarcoat said at last.

As if hoping to leave it at that, the others retreated inside the schoolhouse.

Zest lingered outside a moment, stunned as she stared at the wall of the school. Where did that come from? She couldn’t just accept defeat from an enemy she’d yet to even see up close so easily! Zest regained her composure and rushed inside.

The others were set about unpacking but Zest wouldn’t let them drop this.

“What do you mean?” Zest grabbed Indigo right away. “If we’re just doomed then what are we even trying to do out here?!”

“This is called a full retreat.” Indigo’s smile returned but not the same as before. “It’s not glorious, but it’s our best option.”

“But we beat one of them already!” Zest shook Indigo.

“Hey!” Indigo didn’t fight the shaking. “I was really happy to get to eat again, but that was a really minor victory. That bitch still doesn’t even know we exist. That’s the kind of win we got.”

“This monster is far beyond any wight, yeti, or whatever else has threatened you until now,” said Sugarcoat. “You have no idea how overwhelmingly outpowered we are. You can fight, but you can’t win. You can run, but the end will always draw nearer.”

“Sure, maybe she’s too strong for us right now, but–”

“Even if you became ten times stronger than I am, it wouldn’t be nearly enough,” Sugarcoat said. “You have no idea how powerful our enemy is. She could obliterate all three of us in a single second.”

“Obviously I’m not going to personally charge in there.” Zest put both hooves on her heart. “I’m saying all the other ghosts have to hate her too, yeah? So we all just join forces and beat her up!”

She thought surely Indigo, a pony who’d charged into certain death would at least show some enthusiasm for the plan. Indigo’s expression was little better than Sugarcoat’s, however, offering Zest only a solen shake of her head.

“You’re not the first pony to think of that,” said Indigo. “The Spectral Federation already tried that one and guess how it turned out.”

“The what?” Zest turned to Sugarcoat.

“That was our semblance of a ghost government,” Sugarcoat explained. “It was a coalition of the specters who ruled over the five ghost cities. They were the strongest of the specters for a long time.”

“Bah! They never did anything in the first place.” Indigo shooed the idea away with a flick of her hoof. “The league of inaction was never going to save us.”

“They maintained our old communications networks,” said Sugarcoat. “And they did gain several concessions from the Equestrian government. If none of this had happened, I’m sure they would have made more serious progress by now.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Indigo clicked her tongue to substitute for a pointless argument. “Anyway, after like fifteen years of politely asking Crater Cemetery if they could pretty please stop enslaving the rest of us, they decided to finally get off their stupid plots and do something.”

“Four of them, anyway,” Sugarcoat added.

“Yeah!” Indigo crossed her forelegs. “Meltdown, he’s the guy in charge of Old Manehattan, wussed out. The other four got every ghost they could and charged in.”

“And?” Zest leaned forward, knowing already they lost but daring to hold onto the hope they at least got close.

“It was a complete slaughter!” Indigo threw her legs open. “The Spectral Federation never had the slightest hope. All four of those guys are blanked now so there goes that idea. You won’t find any ghosts willing to charge in again after seeing a rout like that.”

“It’s impossible for us to raise an army half that size again,” said Sugarcoat. “Perhaps by some miracle you could convince Meltdown to fight, giving you a thousand ghosts. I’ll grant you a second miracle in finding another one thousand willing to join in addition. Yet even with two miracles we’d be hopelessly outnumbered and outpowered.”

Zest could feel the hope she’d clung to these past few months slipping away. The presumption of eventually getting this fraid large enough to resist Crater Cemetery had always been a plan of action she’d taken for granted, had never even bothered discussing until now.

Yet somepony had already exceeded her fantasies ten-fold and still they failed? It was like something had been ripped away from her.

Come to think of it, ghosts were at a unique disadvantage against this monster, who could overpower your aura in a second. An army of ghosts was never going to work to begin with.

But ghosts weren’t the only power that existed in this world. If anything, ghosts, as a faction, were relatively weak in the grand scheme of things. There was a reason Zest hid from the SA and not the other way around!

Though then again, the SA did exist to slay ‘monsters’ like Zest. Even without asking, she knew the response she’d get had she suggested asking them for help.

Zest shook her head. She couldn’t really let herself become jaded this fast, could she? She’d been a predead just a few months ago! She knew they weren’t all pure evil. Even among the S-ranked ponies of the SA, there were some who’d take sympathy on her plight.

One such pony came to mind immediately; a hero Zest had looked up to ever since she was a filly.

“What about Pinkie Pie?” The S-ranked slayer Zest admired most was the first pony to come to mine. “She’s the strongest psychic, right? And she’s always getting in trouble for breaking the rules, so I bet she’d at least hear us out! Then we could have the strongest psychic fight the strongest ghost!”

Zest mashed her hooves together. She looked left and right to see neither of them taking the bait. Indigo again remained unmoved.

“Pinkie’s in her fifties, now. And she’s been in a lot of fights.” Indigo bonked herself on the head. “Getting hit so many times in the head starts adding up. I dunno if you’ve ever seen a retired S-rank pony, but… well Pinkie’s not half as fast as she was in her twenties. She’s practically retired from actual adventuring, and they say she’s gonna step down as president of the psychic’s guild soon, too.”

“Even if Pinkie suddenly became young again, it wouldn’t be enough,” Sugarcoat added. “You would need a significant Equestrian force to approach the pale of hope. She might listen to us, but she can’t summon an army at will. And you would have better odds of Pinkie magically regaining her youth than the SA mustering the force needed for our sake.”

“Yeah, you know how long it took them to finally go after Toxco?” Indigo asked. “They waited five years even after finding out Spatial Tear was actively trying to destroy the ecosystem.”

“And that was when they were directly threatened,” Sugarcoat added. “They don’t care so much for anypony in this room.”

“One thing I gotta admit is that bitch is smart,” said Indigo. “She’s careful to only go after other ghosts for now, because she knows no one else will stand up for us. Once we’re gone, maybe she’ll start going after the werewolves or vampires or liches, or who knows.”

So that was the plan? To slowly tear at the fraying edges of society, devouring the outcasts until the majority realized too late there weren’t enough ponies left to stop her? Maybe they’d notice before it was too late, but Zest was first on the chopping block from the sound of things. There didn’t seem to be much hope left in this game.

No! Even now she wouldn’t give up hope! If Zest could no longer rely on heroes, there was still one other direction to go.

“Well if we can’t get a hero maybe we can get a villain?” Zest asked. “I know liches don’t have a good reputation, but some of them are almost as strong as witches, and they’re not stupid. I bet I could convince one that they’re next. That it’s better to help us now than to wait until they’re alone! Even if we can’t convince them, we can go to werewolves or necromancers or– I dunno! Maybe a witch?”

Indigo laughed and hit her on the back.

“I’m liking you more every day, worm!” Indigo held her close and laughed more. “You got guts! Most ponies get kinda depressed and give up at this point! I think I chose the right fraid to join.”

Finally! Zest could smile again, getting even the slightest bit of encouragement, seizing it like a drop of water in the desert. But Indigo was only the easier of the two to win over. Sugarcoat remained as apathetic as ever, but hope lay in her not shooting down the idea immediately.

“So is that a good idea?” Zest asked her.

“That course of action has merit.” Sugarcoat at last gave Zest something. “It’s perhaps our second-best option. But it’s not something to pursue recklessly. Gathering allies often means gathering enemies, especially if you’re talking about going to necromancers, cultists, and even witches for help. Drawing too much attention to ourselves or gaining too much power too fast can be dangerous.”

“I see.” Zest lowered her head in contemplation. “If we stand out too much, Crater Cemetery will destroy us.”

“Or the SA!” Indigo gave her one last smack on the back before breaking off. “Think. They hear about a group of ghosts, werewolves, and liches all amassing a force together? Of course they’re gonna get suspicious and send an S-ranker to investigate. Maybe we get lucky, and they send one like Pinkie who listens to us. Or maybe they send in one of their battle maniacs who charge in swinging for the fences. Remember, S-rank just means you’re strong.”

She remembered Sugarcoat had said moments ago, that this was only their second best option in her estimation.

“Then what is our best strategy?” Zest asked. “To just hide forever? And hope she never finds us?”

“Close. It’s to simply outlast her,” said Sugarcoat. “There are powers greater than her in this world. There’s something higher on the food chain. It’s only a matter of time before she ‘kills the wrong crow’, as they say, only literary.”

At the mention of crows, Zest’s ears twitched. She knew immediately that meant a witch– the absolute most powerful type of monster in the world.

“You mean a witch?” Zest whispered the idea. She’d suggested it herself not long ago, but hadn’t been entirely serious about it. Allying with one of them really would turn the world against them. Then again, with a witch on your side you could stand against the world. “You really think it’s a good idea to go looking for one?”

“No, I meant that she would find one herself eventually,” said Sugarcoat. “Victory never leaves tyrants satisfied, only restless. She’ll become overconfident, wanting to fight more and more enemies. Inevitably, the urges that draw her against us will bring down the wrath of a witch upon her. It’s only a matter of time.”

It did make sense. A creature like that would draw the attention of those with true power eventually. Even in her wildest dreams, Zest could only imagine their enemy being as powerful as a witch. Even in that scenario, eventually multiple witches would feel threatened and come to her.

But Crater Cemetery was being too careful and witches more often secluded themselves. Bringing death upon herself could take a long, long time.

“Can we seriously last that long?” Zest asked. “That could take decades.”

“It could.” Sugarcoat nodded. “But ghosts can sleep for a long time. If we can gather a great deal of heat, we can devour it and sleep for ten or twenty years somewhere in the far reaches with the hopes of awakening to better times. If we can’t make progress anywhere else, that is our nearest hope.”

“Our greatest hope is to just hide underground and hope they make a mistake?” Zest asked.

“At this moment, it would be,” Sugarcoat confirmed. “We aren’t ready for anything else. We have little strength, no one to turn to for help and no knowledge. We don’t know where the specter of Crater Cemetery and her great power came from or even her name. We are helpless against this tide if it ever turns against us.”

And Zest had felt like things had been going so well recently too. Now she could hardly think of another step to be taken. All of this hard work and she’d only managed to bump into the first wall, only now realizing what a dark labyrinth she found herself in.

Never the type to let herself give in to pessimism, Zest ruffled her own mane trying to think of something else to suggest, some other concrete plan that could make her feel better.

Nothing came. Perhaps all her attempts at strategy really were little more than attempts to draw attention away from that growing pit in her stomach, from her own helplessness.

Her ears began to droop and her gaze cast downwards.

“Hey, I get where you’re coming from.” Indigo draped a foreleg over her shoulder. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve been surrounded and without hope.”

Zest lifted her head to look up at her.

“I mean back in the war.” Inidigo gestured back towards the south, towards where her body presumably still lay. “There was a moment where all of us knew for sure we were going to be blown to pieces, you know.”

In the moment, Zest wanted to say she could relate to that feeling of hopeless dread but perhaps that was wrong. The danger was still so far away from her.

“What’s that like?” She asked instead.

“I think everypony reacts to it differently.” Indigo looked up. “I admit a lot of the other ponies just broke down. They didn’t follow me and died anyway. But… I was just so angry at the idea that I couldn’t do anything and that nothing mattered anymore. I wanted so badly to act, even if it was completely meaningless. That’s just what I felt like doing.”

Indigo pointed at her chest and smirked.

“Just because you can’t win doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight,” said Indigo. “Even if all I can do is be annoying before it’s all over, that’s what I’ll do! And it’s like they say. No matter how bad it gets, there’s always a ghost of a chance.”

10. A Long Rest

Not even a year ago, Zest didn’t even know what charcoal was. Embarrassingly in hindsight, she honestly thought you dug the stuff out of the ground, but no. It was made from wood.

In a short time, she became an expert at making the stuff. One just had to get a big, metal drum and seal up the top with only a small hole in the lid. Put the wood in there, put that in a bigger barrel, and light another fire outside. Then that was that! Just a bunch of waiting for it to char.

Zest became an expert on every facet of this art. She could name every type of tree around for miles and miles. She knew which were better for charcoal, which for pine tar, and which had other uses.

Finally strong enough to chop wood with her ice blades and skilled enough to start a fire with flint, Zest spent most of her days making excessive amounts of this stuff. It was an easy job, all things considered, and she was rewarded with a ridiculous food store by the end of summer.

The only problem was that hot metal had a disgusting smell to it. For that reason, they had to keep the charcoal production sight a good distance from the academy itself. Keeping a mound of dirt piled up around the barrels helped only to a small degree.

That’s why Zest found herself on the far edge of their territory. Tonight’s batch of charcoal was all but certainly done, yet she found herself looking out into the vast and dark woods of Great Pines. Once more, she saw that boundary as absolute.

She imagined herself as stronger than ever. Ghost Zest could likely beat up predead Zest from a year ago at this point. What was more, for the first time in her life she had all the skills needed to be self-sufficient. She could technically survive alone out there now.

Yet sadly it wasn’t merely love for her new friends that kept her here. Despite all her hard work and everything she’d learned, only the reason she didn’t dare to leave had changed.

Zest liked to think of herself as optimistic, but things really did feel hopeless recently. She escaped the cartel to find herself lost. She found a new home to find herself helpless. She became stronger to find herself under a curtain of threat. Where did it end?

She wanted to get back and it was almost time to return Zest didn’t have nearly enough friends to stand firm as she looked out into the endless danger. She felt a shiver and remembered what it was like to feel cold for a moment.

As far as she knew any minute–

Something suddenly popped up out of the ground as if to challenge that very thought!

Zest screamed and flew underground. She heard Indigo’s laughter and felt her aura unmasking itself a second later.

“Hey!” Zest shouted at her.

“I could feel you were scared about something.” Indigo smirked. “I thought I’d help out.”

“Jumping out at me isn’t going to help that!” Zest snapped back. “You’re only going to make me more scared.

“Of course it is! I switched out your bad, dread kinda fear for the fun, jump-scare kind!” Indigo booped her nose a little too hard. “Now come on! I actually heard something today!”

Then Indigo rushed off.

Zest rubbed her muzzle. She trembled slightly in leu of a heartbeat, but strangely Indigo’s trick (or whatever that was) worked. The adrenaline took priority over anything existential, allowing her to forget it all for a moment.

Or maybe it was just their company. Being next to another ghost always drew your own feelings two steps towards theirs. Sugarcoat made her mellow out. Indigo warmed her metaphorical blood and gave her courage. Both counteracted the malaise she found herself in these past few days.

Before leaving, she had her orbs grab onto the barrel of fresh charcoal and carry it back. It took only a few minutes to clean everything up.

Zest bit her lip as she flew after Indigo. She hoped this didn’t mean she was dragging down the emotions of the rest of her fraid.

When she returned to the storeroom in the boy’s dormitory, Indigo was already there, about to give the report she’d mentioned earlier to Sugarcoat.

Indigo went into town three times a week to spy on the living. Obviously, she never came back with any interesting news because nothing ever happened in small towns like Maple Hill. They’d already spent this year’s worth of excitement on the wight.

“Ah, there you are.” Indigo looked at Zest, then moved to lean on Sugarcoat’s shoulder. “Like I was saying! I heard stuff today. Word on the street is some weirdo’s been in town asking around about us.”

“A weirdo?” Zest’s ears twitched. “What kind of weirdo? Like were they from the SA? Or was it a necromancer or–?”

Zest stopped herself before making her final suggestion. The cartel couldn’t have possibly found her this fast, could they?

“No idea! But the good news is nopony in town talked!” Indigo smiled. “It sounded like they didn’t appreciate that outsider trying to stir up trouble and told her to get out. Apparently, she left a few days ago in frustration.”

Zest let out a sigh of relief. It was like Sugarcoat said, the ponies of Maple Hill really didn’t want to bother them if it could be avoided.

“I don’t get why she wouldn’t have just walked over here if she wanted something.” Zest looked to Sugarcoat, always good for an explanation.

“There are too many reasons.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Perhaps, as an example, if she is with the SA and hoping to gain prestige by defeating a specter, then she wouldn’t want to risk attacking an unknown opponent. In that scenario, she would have retreated to find another mark she wouldn’t be rushing in blind against.”

Zest nodded along with that explanation. That all made sense to her.

“Of course, that’s only one possibility.” Sugarcoat looked back to Indigo. “Do you have a description?”

“Green earth pony who was wearing some weird gear,” said Indigo. “All I got.”

“Well if either of you notices such a pony, we’ll need to be careful,” said Sugarcoat. “But I wouldn’t worry about it too much just yet.”

Zest had too much to worry about already! Part of her wanted to sleep, but–

She looked at the dorm room where they kept their charcoal as she added the latest batch. The entire room was nearly filled by now. She figured the rate at which she ate fire meant this would be enough to last her, personally, for at least a couple years. Would being asleep for that time make much difference?

“Hey. So like, how much charcoal would we need to sleep for twenty years?” Zest asked. She knew the more heat you absorbed, the longer you could sleep.

“For just the three of us?” Sugarcoat looked at the room filled with charcoal. “Much more than this, I’m afraid. We’ve certainly gathered enough to take a long rest without getting low on supply, though. I was thinking it might be best for us to sleep for about three months.”

“We’re gonna sleep for three months straight?” Zest blinked.

Compared to decades, that sounded short but compared to anything she’d managed prior it seemed like an eternity.

Since she’d first considered it, Zest bounced back and forth on whether sleeping for months at a time was a good thing. She’d think how terrible it’d be to skip over months of her life one minute. Then she’d imagine how great it’d be to take a vacation where you did nothing but sleep.

“You need sleep to recover,” said Sugarcoat. “Now that you’ve gone through your therapy, you’re ready to take a long rest to help heal. I think it’s best that Indigo rest for a long time, too. Neither of you are fully recovered.”

“I see.” Zest looked down at her hooves and smiled. “So when I wake up, I’ll have superpowers?”

“You’ll be approaching normal strength,” said Sugarcoat. “Which I suppose is a super-power compared to what you’ve had so far. I imagine you’ll be ready to start using your elemental powers by then.”

“Oh yeah!” Zest looked down at her forehooves, though a convenient crackle of lightning was not forthcoming this time. “I keep forgetting about that. It’s about time!”

At least she had something to look forward to.

“What’s it like sleeping for so long, though?” Zest asked.

“It’s pretty nice!” Indigo came up and grabbed her from behind. “Think of it like an adventure! You’re getting to do something for the first time. And we’re going to have a huge feast beforehand, yeah? It’ll be great!”

Yeah! Zest smiled again. Maybe it would be great.

The thought of their upcoming feast and long rest did much to keep darker thoughts out of Zest’s head in the following months.

The rest of summer faded fast until about the first of September when it suddenly slowed down. Sadly, they didn’t find any sunset runes on their meeting spots. The others said it might not be until the following year that more ghosts started retreating this far.

After that, the day of their big feast was within striking distance and the nights felt longer. Zest could hardly remember the last time she’d looked forward to a holiday even half this much. Excitement the likes of which she hadn’t felt in years filled her during that last week.

They spent a whole week getting ready for their feast, what would prove to be the biggest holiday of the year for them. In some senses, the holiday would last ninety days straight as that was how long they intended to sleep.

But lots of sleep required lots of food. So they prepared dishes in advance.

For the first week of September, they didn’t burn the corpses of the animals they froze but kept them ready. Zest spent hours making charcoal and drying out various plants. She chopped plenty of firewood and her senior ghosts showed her how to make mixtures of oils and dead plants for the big day.

The work had been hard, but what followed was the best party Zest ever had.

At any time, they had at least six fires burning. Inside they had one of charcoal and one of coal. Outside were the wood fires, one for cooking and the other two regularly doused with oils.

A ghost could gorge herself all but indefinitely on heat, so Zest never got full. She could just eat and eat all day long without any concern. Nopony got stuck on kitchen duty as, when it came to ghost food, you needed only throw your pre-made dishes into the fire and let it burn.

Indigo used some of the gunpowder to create a makeshift firework that let out a steady stream of sparks. You weren’t supposed to eat the actual fire burning at the center but try to catch and snuff out the sparks themselves as they flew.

Their flavor was intense but came in short bursts. Zest would have compared it to the spiciest pepper she’d ever tried – only the flavor didn’t linger on her tongue. Its sting lasted but a second then vanished without a trace.

It wasn’t filling, nor the tastiest, but catching sparks did make for a fun game.

At one point, Indigo snuffed out thirty sparks at once and challenged Zest to do the same. Zest got a third that many and was left coughing and sputtering at the explosive sting of flavor. All the while Indigo laughed and laughed.

They stayed up until the sun forced them to douse the fires outside and retreat in. Then they stayed up talking for a few more hours after that. Zest stayed up until ten in the morning – the latest she ever had as a ghost.

By then she felt so tired that she no longer doubted her ability to sleep for three months straight. She could hardly keep her ghostly eyes open and finally, it was time for the three of them to go underground for bed. Yet even then it felt like their holiday was only half over.

Compared to her old, pre-death life, eating was generally less pleasurable. You got those occasional moments of total bliss upon feeding off a pony’s blood, but those moments were few and far between. More typically, Zest ate the heat of charcoal or burning pine needles.

Nothing short of a rabbit was as pleasing as candy or a nice burger. She had less variety in her diet, too.

But sleeping? That was so much better as a ghost.

Your consciousness dimmed, but never faded entirely. Never did you awaken to be surprised at the time.

Despite sleeping for over a month straight, Zest never lost track of the days. She could feel the sun rising and setting above ground. She could smell a few, warm-blooded creatures wandering into their territory every few days. Her mind even buzzed once when yet another filly entered the school for her own test of courage.

In her current state, her mind simply didn’t deem them worthy of attention.

She felt the presence of her friends and even all the orbs they’d dragged underground with them at all times. Though they didn’t touch, she still felt like she was cuddled up in bed with the two of them and their dog, buried under a pile of plushies. Their calmness soothed her as well, making it easy to simply laze about and let time pass cozily by overhead.

Imagine a winter where you get to be snug and comfortable in bed the entire time. No work or chores could get her down here. She didn’t have to shovel snow, worry about school, or even adjust a thermostat. Like a dream come true, she could just sleep soundly the whole way through.

But of course, something interrupted it.

She knew very well it was the 67th day of her 90-day hibernation when the best slumber of her life got disturbed.

A predead entered their territory. At first, Zest thought nothing of it. Two had passed through here in the past month. She just let her nose and ears twitch.

But the pony stayed longer than normal. After some time, Zest realized the stranger had stopped moving to simply stand around on the very edge of Sugarcoat’s aura.

Then she smelled a strange source of heat – a type she’d yet to become familiar with. Yet the heat was hot enough that she feared it may have been a fire.

Sugarcoat became worried about this turn of events as well. Zest felt her concern first, then she felt Sugarcoat stirring awake. Their fearless leader began urging the others awake with her aura too.

Zest grumbled and tossed and turned. Then she awakened and rose above the ground as quickly as she’d fallen asleep.

Indigo didn’t need to be told anything. As the phantom, scouting things out was her job. She glided across the ground towards the source of the disturbance.

The others patiently waited a few minutes for her to return.

“One predead.” Indigo came rising back out of the ground. Even now she yawned and stretched. “Green earth pony. Sound familiar.”

Sugarcoat nodded. Zest kept her mouth shut, not wanting to admit she had no idea what they were talking about.

“Maybe it’s not necessarily the same one,” said Indigo. “She’s waving an orange flag around, and she brought a whole cart filled with stuff.”

“Stuff you say?” Zest asked.

“It was under a tarp.”

“She’s clearly trying to get our attention,” Sugarcoat concluded. “I suppose our visitor has something to say.”

Zest shooped halfway underground.

“You don’t think she’s trying to evict us, do you?” Zest asked.

“Nah!” Indigo let her confidence reassure Zest. “If she wanted to fight, she wouldn’t have made herself this visible to us.”

“There’s no telling what she brought, though,” said Sugarcoat. “I suppose we should go see, lest she be tempted to come any closer.”

Sugarcoat allowed them a few more minutes to wake up before they began heading off to see this mysterious intruder. They stayed mostly underground, though on this cloudy night Zest doubted it was necessary. A ghost could see with perfect clarity on a night like this, but a predead would be blind.

This was especially the case as this mare brought no source of illumination. Only shadows filled the forest, her flag the closest thing to a flame anywhere to be seen.

A single earth pony, green with a purple mane in something close to a bowl cut, stood alone on the hill at the edge of their territory. The earth pony held in her mouth a garish flag which she continued to wave back and forth.

Orange?

Zest only just now remembered that color existed. It’d been so long since she’d seen anything orange that she was beginning to think ghosts simply couldn’t perceive it at all.

This particular orange had the same look to it that ectoplasm did. It appeared like a deep hole in the world, with a light shining from far deep within.

Beside her sat a cart filled with goods hidden away by a tarp.

Yet the most striking aspect of this pony was the gear she wore.

Zest first noticed her lack of clothing before anything else. It must have been freezing outside, but this pony wore nothing for warmth, appeared perfectly fine standing knee-deep in the snow with only her short fur for warmth.

Her most odd accessory was the thickest pair of goggles Zest had ever seen. It looked more like she had a brick strapped to her face than anything else, the thing jutting out a few centimeters from her face. It needed three straps across her head just to stay in place. Yet the front of it was round and covered in a green-tinted glass. Zest had little idea if she could even see with that thing on her head.

Finally, she had equipped two heavy bracers on either foreleg. These each had vents along the front and buttons on the side. What they did, Zest couldn’t possibly imagine.

Though it was far too dark for a normal predead to see, and Zest had only the tip of her head above ground, this new pony noticed her immediately. She turned her head to look right at Zest.

Maybe those were night-vision goggles she was wearing?

The ghosts quickly fanned out to surround her on three sides as the predead slowly and carefully put her flag down.

“Greetings, oh great one.” She bowed down to Sugarcoat before anypony else could get a word in. “I’m glad to see that the rumors of a specter here are true. It is an honor to stand before one of your kind.”

Sugarcoat tilted her head, unused to this kind of reverence from a predead. She waited for elaboration.

“My name is Sunny Flare if it pleases you.” Sunny Flare got back up but kept her head down in respect. “I wish you no harm. I come here with an offer for you.”

Zest glanced over at Sugarcoat. This level of politeness and deference went a long way towards breaking through her icy exterior. Zest almost wondered if somepony primed this Flare pony on how to act.

“My name is Sugarcoat and these are my vassals Zest and Indigo,” Sugarcoat relented and gestured to each of them in turn. “I suppose our fraid is called the Shadowbolts. You are aware of why it’s dangerous for our kinds to be friends, I hope. I wouldn’t want such a polite mare to waste her time on delusional thinking.”

“I mean no disrespect when I say there isn’t any risk of me being frozen to death.” Flare stood and grabbed one of her cufflinks. “Or even of getting hypothermia.”

“Arrogant!” Indigo’s frown flashed into a smile. “I like that!”

Sugarcoat’s frown deepened.

“And what manner of creature are you to make such a boast?” Sugarcoat looked down through the brim of her glasses.

“I am a member of the Mad Science Institute or MSI as it is commonly known to us.” Flare stood resolute.

Sugarcoat’s aura tensed, without a word, she communicated to the others to move. Indigo sank slightly below the ground, reappearing behind Flare. Zest flew to her right side and Sparky went to her left. The mad scientist found herself surrounded.

Flare turned her head slightly to one side but showed little sign of fear.

Zest kept her head down, unsure of how worried she should be.

The Mad Science Institute had an infamous reputation. Locally, it stood in as a sort of boogeyman. Any odd occurrence that happened in Northern Equestria would half-jokingly be blamed on MSI.

Unseasonal weather invariably met with jokes about MSI tinkering about with some odd device. Sightings of unusual creatures were MSI releasing their experiments into the wild. Ponies who went missing, or even just ran late, were said to be abducted by that same institute.

Of course, these were simple jokes the vast majority of the time. More seriously, disasters caused by mad science in general dotted recent history. Though they most often kept to themselves, the Mad Science Institute was still a far off, dangerous, and forbidden place in Zest’s mind.

Far up past even Crystal Vale laid The Far Reaches. This was the catch-all name for Equestria’s vast and frozen arctic territories, though they had little control over it. Zest imagined the look of confusion she’d get were she to tell the snow pony tribes of The Far Reaches that they were Equestrian citizens. Only the most southern tribes paid Equestria tribute.

This was where the Mad Science Institute operated– surrounded by endless snow and wasteland. They created dangerous and unstable technology and bothered all those poor snow ponies and reindeer. The question wasn’t if they were bad, but to what degree.

“As I’ve said,” Flare said with a bow of her head, “I have no intention of fighting you.”

“Please!” Indigo called out to Sugarcoat. “I don’t think we should be making any deals with Toxco dogs!”

Sugarcoat kept her eyes locked on Flare. Nothing about her aura suggested the danger had passed, but she raised her hoof, signaling Indigo to give Flare a chance to talk. She nodded in thanks before turning her neck to look at Indigo.

“I was born years after Toxco was destroyed,” said Flare. “The Mad Science Institute was founded a year after the war ended and the majority of its founding members never worked for Toxco. I agree with you that Toxco was clearly in the wrong and that the mad scientists who worked for them were cowards blinded by greed. In MSI, we are taught as foals that the Toxco incident was a terrible misuse of our abilities.”

Indigo kept her frown and glare but said nothing. Zest could feel her, still angry but without an argument against a pony who agreed with her.

It was hard to tell if Flare was making eye contact with that strange visor on. She didn’t dare to lift a hoof.

“But they still do bad stuff today, yeah?” Zest kept her ears down as she turned to Sugarcoat. She pointed to Flare. “Aren’t they the guys who build killer robots?”

“Forgive me.” Flare bowed her head to Zest. “You’re thinking of the Mad Science League.”

“But didn’t you just say–” Zest’s hoof faltered?

“I’m with the Mad Science Institute.” Flare pointed at herself. “The Mad Science League are the ones who make robots. We have analytical engines but all our artificial general intelligence programs have been discontinued. The League is made up of ponies we kicked out specifically for the reason you mentioned. MSI is far more professional than those maniacs.”

“Oh.” Zest brought her hoof down entirely, then raised it in accusation a moment later. “Then you’re the ones who stitch blanks back together to make flesh golems?”

“That’s the Mad Science Association,” said Flare.

“Then…” Zest tilted her head. “The giant monsters?”

“The Mad Science Cartel are primarily responsible for those,” said Flare.

“How many of these are there?!”

“Four. Well, four that are worth mentioning.”

“Okay.” Zest floated closer. “Then what does the Mad Science Institute make? Since apparently, your kind respects the ‘dibs’ system.”

“The supernatural. The four sources,” said Flare. “Super radiation, the outer realm, witchcraft, and ghosts. This is the frontier that the Mad Science Institute primarily explores. We cast light on the darkest corners of Equestria.”

“And what does the Mad Science Institute want with us?” Sugarcoat asked. “I suppose I’ll allow you to say that much.”

“Knowledge is the only thing we ever want,” said Flare. “I listed those in the order of the attention they get from the Institute. Ghosts are the least supported field of study by far. It isn’t simply a problem with us, but there is sparingly little information on ghosts. There are perhaps four ghost researchers, besides me, in the entire world.”

“You realize why there are so few ghost researchers?” Sugarcoat asked. “It’s because they die. It isn’t safe for you to come here and study us or whatever you have imagined. We can only resist our addictions for so long. You’ll die if you remain too long.”

“She’s kinda right,” said Zest. She scratched at the back of her head, but it did nothing to help the addiction. “I got the urge to kill you right now. No offense. It’s not you, it’s me.”

“And please don’t tell me you’re taking all the risk yourself,” Sugarcoat added. “Killing another pony is not some casual inconvenience on my end. I don’t despise predeads enough to simply shrug off such an event.”

“Neither of us will be taking that risk,” Flare assured her. “This time is different.”

“Oh?” Sugarcoat raised a brow. “Do you think this is the first time a pony said that? Do you think you’re different from every other predead who has failed? Or do you think we’re different from all the other ghosts? I can assure you the latter isn’t true.”

“I understand what you’re saying and agree with the premise. I don’t think people can change. Technology, however, is a different matter.”

Flare hit one of the mysterious buttons on her gauntlets. Vents opened and scolding hot steam shot out of both cuffs. Zest realized, a moment later, that the heat of the steam came from Flare herself. As the steam left the gauntlets, Flare’s body temperature plummeted to dangerous levels.

Her body temperature dropped to near zero– to the point Zest could no longer pick up any scent from it.

“See?” Flare let out a single breath, sending out an icy mist. “My body has been heavily modified by the institute. Right now my body temperature is about five degrees, and I can remain like this for months at a time.”

She could feel the surprise of the others’ auras mirroring her own. Her ears twitched and Zest felt herself compelled to fly forward, to confirm this was even happening before allowing herself a proper reaction.

Both Indigo and Zest sniffed around, testing her claim. Flare had gotten rid of nearly all her heat. It wasn’t even just her surface or some barrier of cold, but Flare had chilled even her blood.

Zest’s ability to hear heartbeats and blood flow far surpassed that of any predead at this point. She didn’t need to get too close to tell that Flare’s circulatory system hadn’t shut down. Her heart rate had dropped considerably, to maybe thirty beats a minute, however.

“You smell just like a blank.” Zest flew back, a hoof on her lip. “A dead body, I mean.”

“Yeah. I’m not tempted to eat her at all.” Indigo turned to Zest. “How about you?”

Zest shook her head. They looked back at Sugarcoat who repeated the gesture.

Dead ponies were only tempting if they were still warm. Apparently, the same was true for predeads. All that drooling, hunger, and itching vanished with Flare’s body heat.

“But there’s no way you’re five degrees!” Indigo tilted her head. “Your blood would freeze!”

“She means five Celsius.” Zest rolled her eyes. “Sorry, she’s from the south. She doesn’t know how much a kilogram is.”

“Hey! It’s like how much a pound is on the moon or something!” Indigo shot back.

“And I can survive being frozen solid,” Sunny Flare added, extending a foreleg to the side. “I’ve seen my cells recover from as low as one-degree kelvin.”

Zest gave her a blank stare. She didn’t know how much that was but didn’t want to ask after mocking Indigo about units a second ago.

“That’s two hundred and seventy-two degrees below zero,” Flare mercifully explained. “Centigrade. It isn’t far from absolute zero.”

That sounded ridiculously cold. Though then again, Zest didn’t know how cold her ice blades were.

“It’s unlikely I’d live after being frozen that cold, but I know I can make it down to at least fifty kelvin. I’d lose consciousness at that temperature, but you’d need only leave me out in the sunlight to thaw and I would fully recover.”

Then this was it! No way Zest would accidentally freeze something that deeply, not even if she lost all control. This random pony had just broken the system!

In that moment, Zest felt as thought she’d retaken hope from the darkness.

“This is incredible!” Zest flew much closer than she normally got to predeads. “I mean, you just solved the entire problem, didn’t you? With the thing you invented, predeads and ghosts can live together! We have to agree to help her!”

“Please don’t get your hopes up.” Flare bowed her head and pawed at the air. “Gaining this ability required extensive surgery and body modifications– many of them dangerous. I doubt the number of ponies willing to go through with this extends far into double digits.”

Flare put a hoof on her cufflinks.

“Like you, I am ‘grafted’, I believe the phenomenon is called.” Flare tugged at them, and they didn’t budge. “These are attached to my body – directly to my bones and circulatory system. They can’t be removed any longer.”

Why was everypony Zest met grafted?

“I’ll admit this changes things,” Sugarcoat conceded. “However, I assume you have little knowledge of how this system you’d be relying on to survive works.”

Sunny Flare shook her head.

“I see you have some familiarity with how mad science works,” she said. “Yes. I couldn’t explain to you the exact workings of my new biology or how precisely I can survive such cold temperatures. It’s possible going through with this shortened my lifespan considerably. I simply have no idea.”

“But you made it!” Zest complained. “How could you have created something if you don’t know how it works?”

“That’s how mad science goes,” she said. “We do ‘dives’. We briefly enter the outer realm for a single second. The result is a sudden and immense burst of creativity, knowledge, and inspiration that lasts a few hours to a day. In that window, you’re indescribably prolific and can create technology far beyond what would otherwise be possible.”

“Yes,” Sugarcoat continued for her. “But your ramblings and writing are incomprehensible for the duration, and you forget all of it afterward. That’s why it’s dangerously unstable and unreliable. It’s why Equestria has banned the use of any device created via mad science.”

Zest watched Flare carefully for any sign of offense being taken. All she got was Flare’s unusually long pause before answering.

“I believe such laws are an overreaction,” Flare finally said. “I’ve been around technology created with mad science my entire life. It’s hardly an issue more often than normal technology is.”

“And your explanation for all the disasters caused by it in the past?” Sugarcoat asked. “Including by the Mad Science Institute specifically?”

“Ponies only create dangerous technology after their eighth dive,” said Flare. “’On the eighth’, as the saying goes. That is, in fact, its origin. Each dive makes you more unstable. Ponies didn’t understand this but one generation ago, but we do now. We’re capable of using this technique more reliably and safely these days, now that the art is more mature. My own technology was created with my first three dives. There should be no problems with it.”

“Should be. Are you sure you can rely on all this to protect you, even though nopony knows how it works or has ever used this before?” Sugarcoat asked.

“I fully understood what I was doing when I created this technology and when I altered my biology.” Flare opened her forelegs wide. “I am willing to trust my past self, and I’m willing to trust this art that I’ve relied on my whole life.”

Sugarcoat stared down Flare’s conviction for a long time with a stern smile. When it didn’t falter, she spoke again.

“I’m curious now.” Sugarcoat finally came over, her forelegs folded. “Why are you so interested in our kind that you’d be willing to go through all this?”

“This is the lowest extreme I can go to get what I want.” Flare hit another button on her device. “As to why? The honest answer is that nothing else excites me the same way. The net sum of scientific knowledge when it comes to ghosts can’t even fill a bookshelf. You are the most unknown and most unexplored corner of our world. Why would I want to go anywhere else?”

Indigo nodded approvingly as Flare gave her reasoning. Finally, Flare won over a small smile from her.

“I ain’t the science type,” said Indigo. “But I can sort of relate. I always felt the same way about the deepest caves.”

Meanwhile, Sugarcoat kept her frown.

“But I understand if it’s hard for you to believe I’m motivated by ideals alone.” Flare extended a foreleg towards Sugarcoat. “The potential benefits are innumerable. Nopony knows what, specifically, draws you to body heat. Imagine if I could find some way to bypass your addictions. Then there’s the fact that ponies who become ghosts can’t become zombies. My research could eventually lead to an end to the curse of undeath.”

“That’d be exciting, wouldn’t it?” Zest turned to Sugarcoat. “This is a huge opportunity here! Even if it does take twenty years, opening a new field like this could change the world.”

Sugarcoat closed her eyes and thought the matter over silently for a solid minute or two. She alone remained unconvinced at this point. Zest was about to urge her on when Flare played her next card.

“I’m not asking you to help me for free,” said Sunny Flare. “I could give you money, if you want, though I know you haven’t many places to spend it. The institute is willing to manufacture goods for you. We can offer you technology that not even the Equestrian government would be able to provide.”

Flare held up one hoof as though to ensure the ghosts she wasn’t about to try anything, then she slowly trotted back to her cart. At last, she pulled the tarp off from overtop it. Indigo and Zest both flew forward to look at what was on offer.

Zest’s jaw dropped! She latched onto one item in specific– a large music cylinder player with attached bass and stereo! She thought she’d never get to hear any music but her own singing ever again!

Looking over the cylinders, it became clear Flare had terrible taste in music. But she could likely request something better. At least that Zounds album was nowhere to be seen.

Glancing left, she saw Indigo had become preoccupied with a film projector and a few reels. Indigo had already taken a strip of film out to inspect.

“You got the negatives, too!” Indigo whistled. “Predeads never think about that kind of stuff. I’m actually kind of impressed.”

“The negatives?” Zest scooted up against her.

“Remember how our eyes work?” Indigo pointed at her own. “The black and white in movies are swapped so they don’t look normal unless you watch the negative reel.”

Zest hadn’t even thought of that kind of stuff! Maybe this Sunny Flare pony wasn’t just a poser and actually knew a few things about ghosts already!

The thought of getting to return to a more normal life filled Zest to the brim

Then a dark realization took her smile away.

“Ah, wait. But we don’t have any electricity to use this stuff.” Zest frowned at the record player.

Indigo blinked, then slowly turned her eyes to Zest.

“Huh?” Zest pointed at herself. “Oh, right! I’m electricity! I still haven’t done anything with that though! Give me a break!”

“Well, this would give you something to practice on, at least!” Indigo laughed and hit her on the back.

“I hadn’t accounted for one of you being a lightning elemental,” Flare admitted. “But I do have some other items that could be of use in powering them regardless.”

She removed something akin to a large, metal brick from the cart next. Zest had paid this one no attention until now as she had no idea what it could possibly be. Attached to it via a wire was a device with a crank on it.

“This is a lithium battery, capable of holding more energy than anything you’ll find in Equestria.” Flare placed her hoof on the large box. “I suppose your friend could charge it, or you could use this crank. If you agree to assist me, I’ll give you all of this today. We can discuss fair compensation for your continued assistance moving forward.”

Zest’s head spun with all the luxuries of civilization she left with her worm-eaten body. An enormous wish-list formed in her head. She wondered how long it’d take to get it all.

“I’m a little conflicted.” Indigo crossed her forelegs and tilted her head. “I don’t like that she’s only two degrees away from Toxco. But we could probably use her to secure the perimeter. I’d say give her a chance. But remember you’re on thin ice.”

Zest hadn’t even considered that perk, but Indigo raised an excellent point. She didn’t understand Sugarcoat’s hesitancy at this point, but still felt her mentor’s apprehension.

“I suppose the only other hold up is if we want the Mad Science institute to have any information,” Sugarcoat warned the others. “This research could eventually be used against us.”

“I’m going to find a ghost who will say yes eventually,” said Flare. “You’ll only delay me a few days by saying no.”

The three of them all shared a look. Without saying a word or using their auras they all thought of the worst-case scenario at once.

What if Sunny Flare went to Crater Cemetery next? What if she shared her research with their enemy? Things were already hopeless enough on that front.

Zest felt that alone was reason enough to accept the offer. She used her aura to silently share this thought with Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat brushed her aside, but Zest felt it was only because she’d already been convinced.

“Very well. I’ll accept your offer under one more condition,” said Sugarcoat. “I want you to give us a carbon copy of all your research and every journal you keep on this issue. I’d also like a short summary of everything you’ve done on the subject until now and a report every few months.”

Flare needed a moment to consider this addendum. After a pause, she nodded.

“That would be acceptable,” said Flare. “We have a deal then?”

“Yes.” Sugarcoat held her hoof out. Flare reached out to grab it, but of course passed through.

“Thank you, great one.” Flare bowed to Sugarcoat once again. “I promise you won’t regret this.”

11. The hope of science

Zest couldn’t get over the marvel of a predead she could safely get close to. She followed Sunny Flare closer than Flare’s own shadow.

Zest took a quick and keen interest in their new guest. Flare soon found herself assaulted by a barrage of questions, ending up giving more information than she’d come to get.

“Do you not feel cold at all?” Zest floated down low enough to look at her bracers.

“It’s difficult to describe.” She placed a hoof on one bracer. “Cold still feels the same and to a similar degree, it simply doesn’t bother me. Being deathly cold is about as bothersome as having a bag on my back. I forget about it after a few minutes.”

Zest’s eyes flicked upward.

“What’s up with your headgear?” Zest waved a hoof in front of it. “You’re wearing night vision goggles?”
“These are ghost vision goggles. I imagine I’d be an insufferable guest if I kept turning lights on in your home.”

“Ghost vision? But you can already see me, can’t you?” Zest pointed at herself.

“They don’t let me see ghosts; they let me see like a ghost. When I have these on, I see into the shadow realm just like you do.”

“Shadow realm?” Zest blinked. “I thought we saw darkness.”

“Seeing ‘darkness’ doesn’t make any kind of scientific sense as the dark is merely the absence of light. You’re looking into an alternate dimension overlaid on top of our own. The light of the material realm burns holes in the shadow realm. That’s why light appears as a void to you, because you are looking at an actual void.”

“Oh, yeah. That does sound a lot more scientific, I suppose. But you can’t seriously be seeing the way I do. Colors are all different to me. I got bonus colors now, even!”

“I think it’s a reasonable recreation of your vision with only a small number of exceptions.”

“What color is the sky, then?” Zest had no doubt the color she perceived the sky as was a new color. It was a blue that somehow appeared darker than pitch black.

“It’s stygian blue,” Flare’s answer came on reflex.

“What?” Zest realized she’d smiled too soon.

“Stygian blue is a shade of blue that appears darker than the darkest black,” said Flare. “It’s one of the impossible colors. More specifically, it is a chimeric color which includes self-luminous red. That’s the color you see blood as– a red brighter than pure white.”

“But–” Zest faltered. That was exactly right! Were her eyeballs not as magical as she thought? “But you can’t see them, can you?”

“Living ponies can see chimeric colors, but only as optical illusions.” Flare put a hoof on her glasses. “My ghost vision goggles can consistently induce this optical illusion for me.”

“Wait! So there aren’t any ghost colors?” Zest’s ears drooped. She felt like her birthday got canceled. “They told me there were!”

“Oh, there are.” Flare shook her head. “In addition to seeing forbidden and chimeric colors without assistance, you can see phantom colors. These are the colors I cannot see even with assistance. Ectoplasm, I believe, is phantom green. The color appears to come from a deep fissure in space.”

Zest nodded. That’s how she’d explain it to a predead, though doubted one would imagine them correctly at that description.

“Oh, wow!” Zest looked to Indigo with a big smile. “She can even see like we do! We all have so much in common!”

Indigo clearly was not going to answer that question.

Zest’s hope that they’d all become instant best friends was getting a bit of a reality check. The others refused to get anywhere near her for now. Indigo stayed off to the side and low to the ground, carefully watching Flare like a cat ready to pounce. Sugarcoat watched her silently from above, watching like Flare she was judging a rehearsal.

You didn’t need to have an aura to feel the tension in the room. Flare was still on short notice with the others.

Maybe it was just a habit. You spend twenty-plus years avoiding the living and it must get hard to approach one. Zest decided that, as a worm friend, she was the one who could bridge the gap between the living and the dead. At last, she felt the chance to be truly useful to her fraid!

Pelting her with all these questions had to make her appear more like a real pony in the eyes of the other ghosts. She smiled, already coming up with a smart way to help.

“What made you decide to join MSI in the first place?”

“I was born there,” said Flare.

“Eh?! You were born into a criminal organization?”

“Perhaps MSI is larger than you may have thought,” said Sunny Flare. “It consists of well over a hundred buildings. Our population is approximately four thousand. We effectively control the area around for kilometers, though that’s little more than a few tribes and barebone settlements.”

“Huh! So MSI is like its own town?”

“Indeed.” Sunny Flare nodded. “We have our own school system and everything. It’s all a bit self-contained. Every building is connected by a network of tunnels. We get a lot of snow up in the far reaches.”

“We get a lot of snow in Great Pines!” Zest’s fur prickled up. Laughing at ponies from the south being unable to deal with a couple of centimeters of snow was a common pass time in North Equestria. “All the colleges around here have the same thing going on. When I was in the sixth grade, we got clobbered by a hundred and fifty centimeters of snow one time.”

Maybe it was closer to a hundred and twenty, but still.

“Great Pines hardly gets that much snow.” Sugarcoat couldn’t resist the urge to join in at this point. Zest remembered too late that ponies from Crystal Vale laughed at them for thinking anything over a foot was a lot of snow. “In Crystal Vale, there’s sometimes snow on the ground in the summer. We’re much closer to the Crystal Lakes, so a meter of snow from a single storm isn’t noteworthy to us. Everypony there owns a sled.”

Sugarcoat smiled in smug victory. Unable to compete, Zest could only bow her head, lower her ears, and blush in total defeat.

“That’s still nothing compared to the far reaches,” Sunny Flare warned. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the earth before. More often than not, there’s too much snow to open the ground-level door. Our buildings have doors on the second and third stories because you can often walk out onto the snow from there.”

Worry began to overtake Sugarcoat’s smile.

“Then we have to deal with polar night. I know in Crystal Vale you likely have a day or two of solid night but for us, it lasts two months. It’s too bleak to go outside for the most part. To help us cope with the deary terrain, all of our buildings are overly bright colors on the outside. Inside we have fake grass, and the walls are covered in murals that look like more hospitable lands.”

Now it was Flare’s turn to smile with pride while the other two could scarcely hold their tongues at being showed up. Indigo looked from pony to pony, unable to comprehend what was even happening here.

“Yeesh!” Indigo threw her hooves up in frustration. “What is it with you northerners and bragging about how miserable the place you live is?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” said Flare.

“You don’t have the heart of the north in you!” Zest put a hoof on her own heart.

“You probably think eight centimeters of snow is a lot.” Sugarcoat turned her nose up.

“It is!” Indigo stopped to try and convert that in her head. “I think. Whatever! Flare, I declare you the winner. Your home sounds like the most horrible place in the world and I’d kill myself if I had to live there. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Flare lifted her head with smug satisfaction.

Zest smiled to herself a little too. She had gotten the others to at least talk to this pony a little.

“So are we just going to stand here awkwardly, or are you gonna do your experiment already?” Indigo asked. “I feel like it’s been forever!”

“I did bring something I’d like to try if you want to start now,” said Flare.

Sugarcoat watched her with careful suspicion as Flare went over to her cart. From this she produced a pile of thin, metal boxes. Each one had this little door in the front, making it look like a giant advent calendar, though Zest didn’t dare open them.

“The first pair of experiments I’d like to conduct are broad in scope.” Flare took out one of the metal boxes and put her hoof on the door. “Each of these containers contains a specially insulated blood sample. I simply wish to record your reaction to each of them. I’d like to know how they smell and taste if you’re willing to take the heat from them.”

Blood? Zest sniffed at the cylinders. She couldn’t smell the warmth of blood through these containers. Normally, she’d sense it through doors and from hundreds of meters away.

“There are two experiments, as I’ve said. The first is the blood has been allowed to cool, then reheated by various methods. The second set of blood samples each has had some component removed from them but are still warm from the natural body heat of the pony it was taken from.

“For example, I’ve removed the platelets from one of the samples of blood,” said Flare. “My goal is to eventually isolate exactly what it is about warm-blooded creatures that draw you to them. Of course, if one of them appears putrid to you in some way, you can simply decline to eat it.”

“That’s–” Zest slammed her hooves together. “That’s a brilliant idea! You could easily isolate what triggers our addiction like that! And – and then!”

Zest turned excited to Sugarcoat who did not at all mirror her enthusiasm.

“I suppose that sounds harmless enough.” Sugarcoat shrugged. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me.”

Zest reached her hoof out as Sugarcoat left, but even her pleading aura wasn’t enough to stop her from leaving. She just couldn’t understand how Sugarcoat couldn’t be more excited about such a promising experiment.

“No worries!” Indigo put a hoof on Zest’s shoulder. “Your big sis will stay here to make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

“Thanks.”

Flare opened the first container. The box let out a hiss and the door opened. The scent of the heat came gushing out now, like it’d been cramped in there too long. A rather large vial of blood revealed itself.

Zest sniffed it close. It certainly wasn’t body heat. No, it smelled watery with that sharp ting salt left behind.

“This one’s too easy!” Indigo rushed forward to give Zest a few hard smacks on the back. “I bet even our worm friend here can guess it.”

“Heh.” Zest smiled. “You put this vial in warm salt water, right?”

“Yeah! You got it!” Indigo grabbed her and held her close.

Flare wrote down their response, saying nothing in return.

“So? Did I get it right?” Zest flew around to her back to try and peek at Flare’s notes.

“I’m not sure yet.” Flare put down her pencil. “To remain unbiased, I can’t know which sample is which until I’ve written down my observations on it. I have a key to each one’s identity in the cart, but I won’t look at that until I’ve reviewed all of this information.

“Heh! We got it right.” Indigo crossed her forelegs and nodded her head, smiling. “Our noses are way better than you probably think. If you heat up an earthen pot over a campfire, I can even tell you what kind of wood you were burning. You know, unless it’s some incredibly rare wood nopony’s ever heard of.”

Zest couldn’t help but smile, too. She was impressed at her own ability to discern so easily something that would have struck her as impossible just a year ago. She felt like a pro ghost at last!

“I like this game!” Indigo announced. “I bet I can get them all! You gotta come up with harder ones than that if we ever do this again.”

“Part of my problem is I don’t know what’s difficult for you yet,” Flare admitted. “Perhaps we’ll repeat the experiment when I’m more knowledgeable. We can move to the next one.”

Flare took out her next little box.

Twenty-three samples into this little game and Zest felt like she needed to turn her pro-ghost card back in. Of them all, Zest got eight correct. Indigo had yet to stumble and took great satisfaction in showing off in front of a younger, less experienced ghost. It all seemed so easy to her that Zest would be shocked to learn any of her guesses were wrong later on.

On the twenty-fourth sample, they got to a vial that smelled completely alien to Zest. She couldn’t so much as hazard a guess in even the most general terms and turned to Indigo for help after a single whiff.

Indigo scrunched her nose and looked to the side, suddenly embarrassed at drawing a blank in front of her little sister.

“Uh! Sugarcoat?” Indigo turned back to the school and sent a feeling of distress out into the aura.

Unamused at being disturbed for this ‘side project’, Sugarcoat came back into the room and gave the two of them a slightly scolding look.

Zest and Indigo hid behind Sugarcoat as she sniffed the mysterious vial. Each kept one forehoof on her back as they peeked over her shoulder. Sugarcoat hummed briefly before answering.

“It was heated with radiation,” Sugarcoat concluded.

“What?” Indigo came out behind her. “I was there when the super colossal hyper reactor melted down. I’ll never forget what that smells like and this ain’t the same.”

“That’s shortwave super-radiation. This was longwave radiation. Perhaps microwaves?” Sugarcoat looked at Flare to get a nod.

“Impressive,” said Flare. “I’m surprised you even know what microwaves are. Yes, in MSI we have ovens that can quickly heat food using microwave radiation. I could give you one if you think it would be useful to you.”

“You heat things with radiation?” Indigo looked disgusted. “I’m immune to radiation and that stuff still scares me after what I’ve seen.”

“Longwave radiation isn’t ionizing,” said Flare. “It’s categorically different from the sort of radiation you’re thinking of. It has even less in common with super radiation.”

Indigo remained skeptical and kept her frown.

If Flare had been hoping one of these would smell like real blood, warmed by body heat, then she’d failed to ‘trick’ them. Zest supposed it couldn’t possibly be that easy or somepony would have figured this out centuries ago.

“I’m curious what good this test is gonna do,” said Zest. “This was fun, but all you learned is that we have a good sense of smell.”

“Perhaps nothing,” Flare admitted. “You can never know what information will be useful in the future. For now, I just want to amass as much information as possible. We’ll learn what was useful later. Though this is the only direct account of how various types of heat smell to you.”

Zest couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at that. She couldn’t possibly imagine her lame attempt to describe the scent of burning wood would ever be useful to anypony. Either way, the second half of the experiment promised to be far more interesting.

Flare took out the second set of containers – the ones with adulterated blood. It seemed such a brilliant idea to her! It wouldn’t be long until Flare figured out what specifically about body heat attracted ghosts. Once that was settled, well it’d just be a hop, skip, and jump to solving this problem forever!

The first container slid open with another hiss.

Zest’s eyes and mouth both opened wide. Warm, pony blood! It certainly smelled as such. The adulteration didn't change that. And this was one of those rare moments that Zest could indulge herself without guilt, too! The promise of getting something so delicious made her forget all about science for a moment.

Indigo leaned forward at the same time Zest did, so their heads bumped against one another. They looked into one another’s eyes with desperation.

“You said we can eat the blood, right?” Indigo left her mouth open, salivating slightly.

“If you want,” said Flare. “I’m not doing anything with it after this.”

Before Zest could propose a way to share, Indigo sucked out all the heat, freezing the blood solid. She smiled and hummed in delight. Zest could only puff her cheeks out, turn her ears back, and glare at her ‘friend’.

“Hehe!” Indigo smiled like it was no big deal. “You can get the next one! We’ll take turns.”

Zest’s expression softened as Flare wrote down the results and she took out the next container. Already, Zest’s brain was getting ready for the dopamine hit. She bounced up and down slightly as Flare fuddled with it.

The container opened and that glorious smell filled the air. Freezing animal blood already tasted so incredible, she could hardly imagine how amazing pony blood would feel! This was it, the ultimate pleasure a ghost could experience and nopony would die from it.

Zest glanced sideways at Indigo. From the looks of things, she didn’t have much time to eat before having this snack stolen too.

She inhaled and–

“Guh!” All of Zest’s excitement faded until she was left with only a whimper. “It tasted like water!”

“So it smelled normal but didn’t satisfy you,” said Flare. “Interesting. Have you encountered such a situation before? Or have a guess as to how the blood was altered?”

Indigo’s perplexed look of intense interest answered the question already. Still, after the pride she’d displayed during the first experiment, she was hesitant to say it out loud.

“Nope!” Indigo closed her eyes and turned her hooves up, defeated. “You got me there.”

Finally! This sounded promising! Even if making blood taste gross didn’t have any practical benefit, it was still something even a veteran ghost like Indigo didn’t know. Still, she shot Indigo a look, a reminder that the next sample was still hers, and Indigo backed off.

The next one was mercifully ‘normal’, and Zest finally got the experience she craved.

It was like having your being converted into pure bliss! Zest had nothing to compare it to. She wished she could have an entire vat of pony blood to eat and in that moment, she very nearly understood why some ghosts were willing to freeze predeads to death. That had to be even greater!

She sobered up soon enough and understood now why it wasn’t tenable for them to simply take frequent blood donations. She could already tell that feeding her addiction like that would only make it grow. The constant reminder would make her desire ever more to do away with mere snacking and devour an actual meal.

They went through vial after vial. Of the twenty-five samples, sixteen smelled and tasted normal. Five smelled normal but tasted odd. It was the last four that held promise. Three didn’t smell or taste like blood and the final sample had no scent to it but tasted normal.

“So like.” Zest pointed left with her right hoof. “If we can figure out the first group, we might be able to mask the addictive scent predeads have.” Zest pointed right with her left hoof, crisscrossing the two. “And if you figure out the second one, we can maybe make an artificial source of satisfying body heat!”

“Should I ask where you got all this blood?” Indigo asked. “All that was about what you’d get from bleeding three ponies dry.”

Zest tensed at the mention.

“The ponies in MSI are eager to support science.” Flare kept her eyes on the notebook. “They donate blood every day.”

Zest let out a sigh of relief.

“How can you two not be more excited about this?” Zest looked at each of them in turn. “This could be huge! Tell us what you did to those last four!”

“Forgive me.” Flare closed the book and bowed her head. “It will take some time to compile the results. As promised, I’ll give you a report but that might take a week or two.”

And now Zest felt like she was waiting for a holiday once more. Though at least that was better than waiting for death.

Training. Training.

Zest created a blade of ice around her foreleg and looked upon its flawless form. Not one nick or imperfection interrupted its razor edge. This one had the strength of steel and glowed softly with the magic she poured into it. At last, she had created a true blade.

Zest held it up to the void of the moon, watching little bits of its blue light stream upwards toward the sky. Zest hit the blade hard against the tree, slashing a large gash into it with little effort.

And she frowned.

Not long ago, she’d been so excited to be able to make anything. Even that pathetic excuse for an ax that shattered against a tree made her giddy. Back then, she’d imagined this very moment would fill her with such joy as to break out into song and dance.

It didn’t.

There was still a lot more she’d need to learn before declaring herself a proper ghost and a peer to the rest of her fraid. She didn’t know how to possess things. She couldn’t control her electrical powers. There were still so many aura and ice magic abilities to learn.

It was hardly that she was daunted by still having a ways to go that dulled her enthusiasm. She just wondered more each day what the point was to any of this.

Zest knew for a fact she could never win. It was like being asked to race a marathon where every other pony started only one kilometer from the finish line. Why bother?

Sure, there were ponies like Indigo who’d sprint like mad just to see how far they’d get before the end. There were times when Zest wanted to run alongside her friend. Yet, when she was alone she always found herself looking off in the direction of Crater Cemetery and thinking of how her days were numbered.

Instead of trying to cut down the tree, Zest merely tapped it repeatedly, pulling back, then smacking it with little enthusiasm.

Zest wasn’t the type to give up hope that easily, of course. She still wanted to do things. She merely saw another path laid before her that rendered her old one pointless. Flare’s research became her new hope.

And she had devoted herself to that well enough! Zest spent the last few days haunting Sunny Flare’s every waking moment. The two of them talked for hours every day. Zest eagerly detailed every aspect of the ghost experience to her until Flare had written a small biography about it.

They went through all the basic experiments that Flare had brought with her and quickly ran out. There was equipment back in MSI that she hadn’t intended to bring down here unless they agreed to help her.

Yes! Zest couldn’t possibly get strong enough to defeat the fraid of Crater Cemetery, but with the power of science, she could accomplish something! She still had some hope of turning things around!

Sugarcoat came up from underground to catch Zest zoning out again. Zest quickly straightened up and tried smacking her blade against the tree, only to embarrassingly miss in her panic. Her sharpest and most dangerous weapon yet flew off unhinged into the forest.

Zest twirled around, smiling as though she’d meant to do that. Sugarcoat appraised the situation with a deep frown.

“I think you’re ready to start honing on your elemental abilities,” said Sugarcoat. “We can start now if you want.”

“Huh?” Zest turned back to Sugarcoat surprised. She had no clue what part of that pathetic performance would make her think that. Even just a few days ago, Sugarcoat was talking like it’d be months still. “Maybe later. I had the idea to have Flare look at those chains! Like the ones that were around that hungering mist? She might be able to analyze them in some way.”

Sugarcoat watched her with a quiet frown.

“You were overly excited about getting to use them before,” Sugarcoat noted. “I thought you’d jump on this.”

“Yeah, well.” Zest put her hoof on the back of her head and looked out into the forest. “We can do that later! We only have a couple weeks until Flare goes back to MSI for a while.”

“You haven’t been putting your all into your training lately,” Sugarcoat went on. “Or your chores. You used to be so enthusiastic.”

“I guess.” Zest turned back, smiling. “Do I really need to try much harder with this? I’m self-sufficient now. What’s the point of doing any more than that. It won’t accomplish anything. We already lost.”

“Of course it matters.” Sugarcoat sighed. “There’s more to life than destroying Crater Cemetery. Even in the worst-case scenario, we still have years left.”

“But if that’s where we’re at, why don’t I just goof off all day and live it up till then? Building all of this up isn’t fun if I know it’s going to get destroyed.”

“I don’t want to see you giving up.”

“I probably help out more than anypony else!” Zest put her hoof on her headphones. “I’m the one helping Flare with all her research and earning money and stuff! You two barely even talk to her! And you know what? All her science stuff is more likely to accomplish something than just sleeping for twenty years or whatever!”

“I’m aware of this.” Sugarcoat flicked her glasses. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful for your contributions. I’m just… worried about you. It’s unlikely there will be some huge breakthrough in the matter of weeks like you seem to expect.”

“Look, do you want me to give in to despair or not?”

“I don’t want you to set yourself up for a fall,” said Sugarcoat. “You know I care about you.”

Sugarcoat extended her aura to Zest.

One good thing about being a ghost was that you never had to wonder if anypony else actually loved you. They could just show you they cared with their aura. Sugarcoat’s aura always felt like a blanket of safety and warmth being wrapped around her. Zest knew Sugarcoat wanted to protect her and help her grow, probably more than anypony else ever had.

But Sugarcoat wouldn’t be able to protect her in the end, not forever.

Sugarcoat felt this reaction and pulled her aura back.

“I’ll be back soon!” Zest smiled. “It’ll be fine.”

Zest rushed off to meet up with Sunny Flare before Sugarcoat could say another word.

Indigo suddenly decided she wanted to tag along, though Zest suspected Sugarcoat asked her to. Indigo was still wary of the predead.

Flare slowed them down a bit on their way back to the site of the battle. Mostly, it was her difficulty crossing the river. Daylight alone counted as rough terrain for Zest, so she often forgot about such things.

But they did manage to find the right spot.

The heap of chains still lay on the ground in a pile big enough to bury five ponies. Even as they sat there lifelessly on the ground, they had a sinister aura to them. They still glowed that faint red from far within and all the foliage close to them had withered and died. Zest had to remind herself that they had frozen to death, rather than having been corrupted by some fel magic of the chains.

And she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she could still feel something sickly radiating off them in her aura. It was enough for Zest to stay close to Indigo as they approached.

Flare didn’t need the location to be pointed out to her. She saw them immediately and trotted over, kneeling to get a better look.

“I have seen these before,” said Flare.

“Really?” Zest floated closer. What if this was a big reveal?!

“Yes,” said Flare. “These are the chains of the shadow realm. They aren’t actually in the material plane. See?”

Flare ran her hoof through the chains. They went straight through it, meeting no resistance. Zest realized she’d never tried to touch these before, but supposed a ghost must be able to make contact.

Slowly reaching forward, as if to touch a dead possum, Zest poked the chains. It was at once as though they were and weren’t there. She felt a rumbling sensation and a pulse of anger through her aura, but her hoof did phase through them.

“Don’t touch those too much,” Indigo warned.

“So both of you know what these are?” Zest asked. “I guess this is what happens when you drop out of highschool. What the heck are the chains of the shadow realm?!”

“Alicorns used the shadow realm as a sort of prison, you see,” Flare explained. “They’d dump anything they couldn’t deal with at the moment into this reality and seal them away with these very chains.”

“Eh?!” Zest pulled back and frantically looked around. As she’d learned, Zest saw only the shadow realm. “But I haven’t seen any monsters like that running around!”

“There aren’t that many,” said Flare.

“Most of them don’t run around,” Indigo added. “Because they’re tied up? If you go way down south to the Festering Scar, you can see The Darklord. He can’t talk to you, but he’s there.”

That was a relief.

She sighed, then turned to Flare with an excited smile.

“But this is still an amazing discovery, isn’t it?” Zest’s eyes sparkled. “There’s gotta be something we can do with this information!”

She turned to Indigo, hoping her more senior ghost might be able to take this further than she could.

“Sorry if I’m bursting any bubbles,” Indigo spoke up. “We know way more about the shadow realm than you predeads do. Living ponies have only known about it for a few decades, but ghosts have for thousands of years! We’ve known about these chains forever. Nopony’s figured out anything to do with this yet.”

“Have you pieced together how she manages to use these chains?” Flare asked. “Interacting with the shadow realm is notoriously difficult.”

“We got no clue where she came from or how she got so ridiculously strong.” Indigo shook her head.

But this revelation seemed so important that Zest refused to let it go. She turned everything she’d just heard over and over in her mind.

“Hold on!” Zest’s eyes widened. She turned to Indigo, throwing her forelegs wide open. “What if – what if the Crater Cemetery lady was one of the monsters sealed away in the shadow realm?! And she somehow got out!”

“That’s one theory, sure.” Indigo nodded. “But there’s no way to tell.”

“Well, what else could it possibly be?” Zest’s legs and ears deflated slightly.

“That’s an argument from ignorance.” Flare shook her head.

“Eh?”

“You can’t conclude anything based on your own lack of ideas and information,” Flare explained. “What you said may well be the case, but we can’t be sure just yet.”

“Oh.” Zest blinked. She guessed that made sense. “But do you have any other ideas?”

“Are you aware of the Crater Cemetery event?” Indigo asked.

“Well yeah. I’m not that uneducated,” said Zest. But now that she brought it up, the connection between that and the specter seemed obvious. “Oh, wait! Ove a hundred thousand ponies got killed by that! And that’s how specters are made, yeah?! So– so like–!”

“That would be the single largest mass death event in recorded history.” Flare turned to Indigo. “But I’m not aware of any correlation between the size of a mass death event and the power of a specter, are you?”

“Not unless you count their echo,” said Indigo. “It’d be pretty horrible if she could just summon an asteroid that big whenever she wanted, though. We got lucky the one that hit was in the middle of nowhere. Imagine if she dropped that thing on Canterlot.”

As if she wasn’t already intimidating enough! Zest couldn’t tell which of those two backstories would be more terrifying. Either their enemy could summon an asteroid, or they were some unspeakable, ancient horror.

“Either way, it’s clear she can control these chains,” Flare noted. “That’s a power generally only associated with alicorns. They have the power to contain even gods. If only there was a way I could discover how to use them, too.”

“Tch! Well good luck with that one.” Indigo smirked, looking in Zest’s direction as though she’d be in on the joke.

That got under Zest’s fur a little more than she would have said out loud. These two were being far too antagonistic towards Flare! They kept down-talking her research left and right!

“Flare is our best shot right now! Maybe we could be more supportive?” Zest asked.

“We’re selling her information cause I want a pinball machine.” Indigo shrugged. “It’ll be years until she even knows as much as I do and I’m an idiot who will never invent anything.”

Zest puffed her cheeks out and glared at her.

“Come on!” Indigo laughed, trying to change the mood. “Don’t get all angry on me. You did your work for the day, let’s go turn on that music cylinder thing and dance, huh? You know you want to!”

Truth be told, she kind of did, but she was still angry.

“No way! I still got stuff to do here!” Zest made a point of turning her back to Indigo.

“Well whatever. I helped out today so later. I’ll be over there when you change your mind.” Indigo left slowly at first, no doubt thinking Zest would follow, before moving more swiftly upon learning she was mistaken.

Help? Hardly?

“Can you believe how ignorant they are?!” Zest folded her forelegs in a huff. “This is just like back when ponies laughed at the mare who invented airships. They just lack vision and stuff.”

Zest turned back to Flare with a smile.

“Well we don’t need them right?” Zest came over to Flare’s side. “We’re going to figure out the source of the addiction in no time and then they’ll see!”

She hesitated, as for the first time, Flare took a step back from her and sighed.

“I wasn’t going to tell you this until I was ready to give my report in a few days,” said Sunny Flare. “But the only samples that didn’t trigger your addiction were the ones where nearly all cells were removed from the blood.”

“Right! So all we gotta do is…” Zest worked through the implications of that. “Have everypony remove all of their blood cells?”

Zest blinked a few times, realizing just how hopeless such a goal would be.

“Can you make a blood cell alternative?” Zest asked.

“At the moment, I assume I’d have to eliminate every cell in their entire body,” said Flare.

Zest put her hooves on her headphones and winced. This was not what she needed to hear right now, especially not from this specific pony!

“Okay. But even if I have to wait a few years, that’s still better than nothing! I probably have that long!”

Flare shook her head.

“Well– come on!” Zest ducked her head down, trying to look Flare in the eyes. “You gotta be close-ish to something useful, right?”

“I don’t expect this research to be finished within my lifetime,” said Flare. “I might not develop anything of practical use before I die. All I can do is gather as much data as I can. I’m too close to the starting line to even know what information is important, let alone reaching any such lofty goals.”

Zest closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Why did everypony want to take this away from her so much?! Why did she need every hope she ever had to get thrown into the mud?

Zest literally killed herself to escape the cartel only to become an accursed monster with no place in the world. She tried so hard to become a proper ghost only to learn she was playing an unwinnable game. Where the heck did it end?

She wanted so badly to hold onto hope. Hope had been the only thing she’d ever had. She’d always clung to that in the absence of something real.

“But then what’s the point?!” She shouted at Flare. “If you just know you’re going to fail… that you’re never going to get where you want to… then why even try?!”

Zest watched Flare breathlessly as she considered the question.

“I suppose.” Flare looked up. “I feel fortunate to even be at the starting line. It’s a privilege no other pony has ever had.”

“The privilege of being light-years away from your goals? The privilege of never truly escaping your own ignorance?”

“The only reason I was even able to begin this research is because of those that came before me. Mages experimenting with portals found a way to create micro-tears into the outer realm some two hundred years ago. The original pioneers of mad science died attempting to exploit this discovery, but the next generation learned from their mistakes until eventually, I was able to use it without fear.”

Flare looked down at her cufflinks, what allowed her to walk among ghosts, the products of somepony else’s hard work just as much as her own.

“So perhaps all I’ll accomplish is clearing the way of pitfalls and dead ends for whoever follows me. My predecessors did the same for me, and now it’s my turn to help the hero who will someday make these actual breakthroughs. I can’t call anything I learn useless because I have no idea what they’ll need when they finally arrive. I suppose that’s the hope that I have. That no matter how hopeless things are for me, they won’t be for someone else.”

Zest could merely watch her as she made this speech. The meaning of her tears changed from hopelessness and frustration to admiration. Flare knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to complete her research, but it didn’t matter to her. It didn’t matter to any of them.

Everypony else felt the same way, didn’t they? Zest fancied herself such an optimist and yet she was the only one who hadn’t found this forlorn hope.

“I guess I can’t tell what will be useful in the future either.” Zest sniffed and wiped away a tear. “It… it doesn’t matter if things seem completely hopeless, does it? Because I can never really know what good will come of my actions… even if I do lose.”

Yes.

It would still be worth it. Even if she lost, she could still accomplish something before the end. Maybe Zest, too, could eliminate one wrong turn for whoever got thrown into this horrible labyrinth next. Maybe someday, somepony would finally escape and undo their enemy…

And just like that, defeat seemed so much less intimidating. Nothing seemed useless anymore if she didn’t know what use it’d be in the future. She needn’t fear even a total rout, because if her goal was never to destroy Crater Cemetery, but to be the shoulders another pony could stand on one day… then she hadn’t really lost.

“I think I understand.” Zest smiled and looked up towards the stars. “I want to help whoever comes after me too.”

Maybe she’d never even meet them…

But any amount of hope was enough.

Zest continued her attempts to purposely direct her lightning. It was still too early, but Sugarcoat decided to allow her to attempt it anyway. Indigo directly supervised Zest as she crouched down low and focused hard on a tube they’d taken out from a light socket.

The fluorescent light flickered on. A white haze consumed the area around the two of them, hiding their presence briefly. Then it shut off.

Such a skill was useless. It had no practical value to anypony, especially not a ghost. And yet–

“I did it!” Zest put one hoof on her headphones and bobbed back and forth humming her little victory jingle.

Indigo laughed and embraced her.

“Cool. Cool. Now get all of them to light up.” Indigo pointed at the ceiling.

“Uh.” Zest looked up, faltering briefly. “Can I do that?”

“I’ve seen it.”

“Alright! Then I’ll get all of them to light up– I dunno, five times!” Zest turned back to the light with even greater concentration than before.

Sugarcoat watched all this from the top of the stairs overlooking the hallway with a small smile. She’d forgotten what it was like to have a younger pony around, how nice it was to see the world through their eyes not yet dulled by age or tragedy.

In truth, depression had fueled most of her productivity for that first, lonely year. Her hard work served as a distraction more than anything else. Though she built a suitable home in record time, she felt no sense of achievement from it. She knew another ghost would show up eventually, but as to whether she could actually take them in or not…

The interruption that was Zest annoyed her so much for the first few days, yet she couldn’t turn away another ghost in such terrible need. She regretted her decision to take her in less every day.

Twice now, Sugarcoat had lost everything. She hadn’t regretted crawling back to her feet either time. Not even now, when a sword dangled just before her head.

The alien sound of hoofsteps on the stairs alerted Sugarcoat to her guest’s presence. Sunny Flare stood even higher on the stairs than Sugarcoat.

“I wanted to thank you,” Sugarcoat kept her eyes on Lemon Zest.

“You’re welcome.” Flare stopped when she came to the same level. “But I’m not sure for what.”

“For the first few days, I feared you might accidentally crush Zest’s optimism,” said Sugarcoat. “False hope would have been the worst thing for her. But it seems you’ve done the opposite in the end. I may have been unfair to you.”

Flare smiled and looked down at the other two.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect before coming here. What sort of relationship specters had with the rest of their fraid, I mean. I can see you care about the other ghosts under you.”

“Do you have any younger siblings?” Sugarcoat asked.

“No.”

“Maybe you’re not old enough to understand.”

“I’m still not sure how old you are,” Flare noted. “Or how you died.”

Predeads always asked you that question with no filter when they met you. It was bothersome, but Sugarcoat decided Flare deserved a ‘reward’ of sorts.

“I’m ninety years old. I died in the great earthquake that flattened most of Horseshoe Bay. Nearly everypony I knew died horribly that same day. I saw my father and sister crushed to death before the same happened to me. I had a brother who survived at first, but tidal waves often follow large earthquakes and he ended up drowning. I tried contacting some family still back in Crystal Vale but that was a mistake.”

Flare listened with her head tilted and a small frown. Sugarcoat hoped she wasn’t just now realizing how sensitive a subject this could be.

“That’s older than I would have guessed,” she said.

“Ghosts spend a lot more time sleeping, it’s not as great an age as you might think. Still, I doubt I’ll ever get over seeing adults who weren’t even born in the 13th century.” Sugarcoat looked down at the younger ghosts. At least Indigo met that standard. Just watching them play with an electric light reminded her how much things had changed. “We didn’t even have light bulbs when I was a filly. It seemed a miracle since then, but ponies these days dismiss it as beneath their notice. There are so many wonders you have no gratitude for.”

“But light bulbs were invented in the 1180’s I believe. That should have been before you were born, too.”

“Objects don’t magically appear in every home the second they’re invented,” said Sugarcoat. “In Crystal Vale at the time, having an electric light meant you were one step down from Prince Crystallium. This one house that had a hundred electric lamps was like a tourist attraction and my family traveled for miles just to see it one time. They told me every room in Canterlot had electric lights in them and I could scarcely imagine such a thing.”

Yes. Back then she thought happiness would be as easy as having a few light bulbs. As a ghost, she had the opposite concern now.

Sunny Flare stifled a laugh.

“Sorry,” she said. “I suppose I live surrounded by advanced technology. The idea of a light bulb drawing pilgrims is amusing.”

“No technology is advanced for long.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses, then glanced sideways at Flare. “If that’s amusing, I have a few interesting, old articles I could show you in our library.”

“I would like that.”

Without another word, Sugarcoat flew through the floor and into the library. It’d take time for Sunny Flare to catch up.

12. On the Road to Old Manehattan

Electricity, ironically enough, became short in supply and high in demand shortly after Sunny Flare showed up. Those rechargeable batteries didn’t power the cylinder player for very long and keeping them charged in the winter was a hassle.

Zest put her will into an orb and had it turn the battery crank. The little guy started strong but quickly got tired and gave up. It simply didn’t have the energy to fully charge the battery.

Because orbs drew their energy from the ambient heat of the environment, they grew more lethargic the colder it got. Even in life, Zest knew orbs came out in the summer and slept in the winter. That was one reason they couldn’t travel to Old Manehattan while it was this cold. The orbs wouldn’t have the energy to work as pack animals.

More directly, this affected her ability to make them do chores for her. They slept through the coldest parts of the year, but even in March, Great Pines was cold enough that you couldn’t get very many spins out of these guys. Not unless, of course, you let them ‘warm up’ in the hot cafeteria for a while. That’s why it was preferable to sleep through the winter.

Of course, Zest had alternate means of charging the batteries. Though that was easier said than done for now.

Creating small blasts of electricity wasn’t so hard. Zest didn’t even need flint or a lighter anymore. Her small bursts were just enough to light some brush on fire whenever needed.

Powering a device was a different matter. She’d gotten too excited when she made that one light turn on for a second. That strategy soon proved unsustainable for two reasons. Firstly, a small burst of electricity could only maintain something for a second.

Secondly, as Zest was learning, there were different types of electricity now? Zest swore all electricity was the same until just a week ago. But no, you needed the voltage and amps to be just right for whatever you were powering, and you needed to alternate the current all to the right specifications or else…

Just outside the school, Zest held a lightbulb Indigo managed to scavenge between her hooves. Zest’s pool of magic was already nearly depleted from her exercises for the day.

The bulb ‘lit up’, darkness beginning to swirl around it. The light coming out was terribly inconsistent. The black mist vanished and grew in intensity from second to second. Zest smiled, impressed at how long she was able to keep this up. Then lightning sparks erupted from the bottom and a burst of purple flames announced the death of the bulb.

The little metal part on the bottom made it smell horrible, punishing her failure. Zest dropped the flaming bulb to the ground as purple replaced the blackness swirling around it. Rather than eat the heat, she merely smothered it with dirt.

That’s how it went so far. Zest had destroyed half the light bulbs and blenders Indigo got for her to practice on. Zest didn’t even want to touch something as expensive as these magic sci-fi batteries just yet.

After her latest attempt, Zest floundered and fell partially below the ground. The use of her elemental abilities was similar to that of her unicorn magic. If she still had it, her horn would be sparking and throbbing in pain right now.

Actually, as Zest looked up, she did still have her horn, only now her whole body was sparking.

“Guh! This is exhausting!” Zest collapsed onto Indigo, forcing the phantom to catch her. “Do I need to eat that much to have enough energy to shoot lightning bolts?”

“Think of it more like you’re working out a muscle you never used before,” said Indigo. “But if you’re at your limit, you gotta do at least two more!”

“Right!” Zest tried to shake off her weariness and picked up another lightbulb.

With renewed determination, Zest picked up another lightbulb. This one went much worse than before, Zest barely able to make any blackness swirl about it.

“Zest.” Sugarcoat appeared behind her, coming out of a wall.

Zest panicked the lightbulb exploded in front of her.

“Sorry! I know I still suck at this.” Zest rubbed the back of her head. “It’ll be a while before I can power all this.”

“I suppose you’re doing well enough all things considered.” That was high praise from Sugarcoat. “At any rate, we might be able to power these with or without you, thanks to our deal with Flare. Your true value comes from your ability to possess the devices Flare will bring to us.”

“Possession.” Zest tapped her chin and looked up at Sugarcoat. “I don’t think I’ve seen you possess anything before. But aren’t we supposed to be able to like– like go into a piano and give it teeth, then have the top part open into a big mouth and–”

“None of us are the type of ghost that can perform such a feat,” said Sugarcoat. “You need some type of geist if you want to manipulate inanimate objects like that. Dolls are the only objects that any ghost can possess.”

“Yeah, that one’s mostly just for sneaking up on predeads,” Indigo added.

Did they even have any dolls? Zest remembered seeing a few in the dorms now that she thought about it.

“But I take it I’m special?” Zest pointed to herself.

“Ghosts like you can possess objects infused with enough of their elementals,” said Sugarcoat. “Fire elementals, for example, can embody flames and take control of even massive infernos.”

“My old water elemental friend used to be able to possess an entire lake,” Indigo added. “Of course, you can barely control something that size, but he could still splash ponies with water or slowly suck the heat out of them like that.”

“And I can possess things that run on electricity?” Zest asked.

“Hypothetically.” Sugarcoat closed her eyes. “Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as another elemental would have it. Electric appliances haven’t existed very long in the scheme of things. This power was only discovered last century. With no other lightning elementals around you’ll have to pioneer much of the techniques yourself.”

Which did explain why no practical examples of why Zest would want to possess their cylinder player were forthcoming. Becoming one with the music sounded nice on a philosophical level, but the thing already played itself… if you kept that battery charged.

It seemed the three of them would have to discover ways to use that ability themselves. Realistically, there was only one decent shot at finding another lightning elemental coming up.

“What about in Old Manehattan?” Zest asked. “Is there another one of me living there?”

“There wasn’t one last time I checked,” said Sugarcoat. “Though it’s possible one moved in recently. He wouldn’t keep something like that hidden. As I’ve said, lightning elementals are considered good luck and can attract older ghosts.”

“Hah! Believe it or not, you’re one of our selling points!” Indigo jostled her.

Zest smiled, liking it when she got to be useful. She hoped all the ghosts down there would want to rub her head like that book said!

“I wonder what a ghost city is like,” said Zest. “Is there a lot to do there?”

“Oh, yeah! There’s so much to see down there,” said Indigo. “They make these seven-foot-tall, metal combat dolls down there. And they got the war museum, the ruins of the reactor, and Toxco HQ. And then you got the biggest F.U. wall in the world between Old and New Manehattan. It’s a hundred and eighty– uh, like fifty-something meters tall?”

“There are quite a few places I’m looking forward to showing you as well.” Sugarcoat smiled. “They have actual chefs down there and there’s a few spots I have fond memories of. I’d like to see them all once more before their destruction.”

Flare was coming out of the dorm where she slept with her wagon packed up with the things she’d be taking back to her. This was the last day she would be with them.

“I wish I could see a ghost city as well,” said Flare. “Sadly, the only one left is too toxic for me to enter. I suppose I’ll just have to listen to you talk about it later.”

Indigo’s smile dimmed whenever she showed up. Sugarcoat, at least, had warmed up to Flare. Indigo was still a little standoffish, rarely speaking to their guest. Zest tried suggesting Flare punch the pegasus and get it over with, only to be reminded that Flare’s hoof would go straight through Indigo.

“Oh no!” Zest tried to hug Flare, but her forelegs went straight through. “I’m gonna miss you! It’s so lonely out here!”

“I’ll be back soon enough.” Flare smiled and waved her off. “And from the sound of things, there might be more of you soon. How long are you going to be out for yourselves?”

“Don’t expect us to be back here until July,” said Sugarcoat. “If the city is still safe, we’ll likely stay there for over a month.”

“I kinda wish we could wait another year before going.” Zest looked down at the money she’d been paid. “It’d be nice to have more time to save up first.”

Flare had given them a substantial bribe just for agreeing to help, in addition to the payment Zest got for obsessively helping her. In all, she had maybe four thousand bits, more than she’d ever had at once in life. With zero living expenses and no ‘interest and insurance’ to pay, it all added up fast.

Zest figured she might as well blow it all in the city, having nowhere else to spend it. After this trip, her only option would be to buy stuff from Flare herself.

“Perhaps I can give you a chance before leaving,” said Flare. “I do have a request. Or maybe a bounty. It’s been exceedingly difficult for me to find demographic information on ghosts. I want to know the cause, time of death, age, and health conditions of as many ghosts as possible.”

Flare took out one last bag of money from her now nearly empty cart and placed it before Zest.

“If there are about a thousand ghosts in Old Manhattan, I’d be willing to pay about six thousand bits for that information. I’ll give you the money now and you can keep six bits for each profile.”

Zest’s eyes sparkled at the bag of hundred-bit coins. That was a whole lot in her mind! She wondered how hard that mission would be. Maybe the city kept a record she could peek at?

“I can already confirm what you likely suspect,” said Sugarcoat. “Ponies who die suddenly are significantly more likely to become ghosts than those who slowly succumb to a disease or age. It’s less common to become a ghost unless you die between your twenties and sixties.”

Zest hadn’t noticed it before, but all of the small numbers of ghosts she knew had died quickly as Sugarcoat said.

As for age… Zest had died at the age of 19. Did that make her a rarity? The other two looked only a little older than her.

“Thank you,” said Flare, “but I’d be willing to pay for solid demographic information either way. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading out. I’ll come back with more sophisticated instrumentation.”

Zest waved goodbye. She supposed it wouldn’t be much longer until she too left.

On the first day of May, they set out for what was easily the longest expedition of Zest’s life. Back in her smuggler days, she’d run ‘packages’ from the ocean to Trotonto. To be sure, that was long in itself, but the terrain was mostly the same and would still be less than half of what lay before her.

They loaded up a whole caravan of orbs, over fifty in total, mostly to carry the money and gold they intended to spend in the big city. So even with only three ponies and a dog, it felt like they were marching off in a big parade when the time came to leave.

They made it to the Carverstone River that separated Great Pines from Sugarloaf in an hour or so. Not long after that, Zest began setting a new record for the farthest she’d been from home every second.

It hardly felt special until the pine trees began giving way to barren ones with only small, budding leaves on their branches. Even leafless trees were something of a marvel to Zest. It was like being in the skeleton of a forest, with only hints that life may one day return here.

Mostly, it made her wish she could have come here in the fall. The leaves of southern trees turning orange was something she’d never seen in person before.

Finally, the thick woods Zest was used to give way entirely to rolling hills punctuated by huge tracts of farmland. As a ghost, there was safety in the dark woods that had always been Zest’s natural habitat. They needed to be far more cautious as they moved into these more densely populated areas.

Had they been normal ponies, this trip may have taken three or four days rather than ten. They needed frequent stops to assess the situation, scope out the farms they would pass over, or plan alternate routes.

Cutting through farms or the outskirts of towns was always the worst. Zest had to deal with the annoying sting of her addiction the whole time, but these places were hostile in a way that a town come to terms with a neighboring ghost was not.

Most of these outposts had anti-ghost precautions in place. Many had harsh, ultraviolet lights installed. These, Zest learned, burned her eyes badly and left floaters in her vision for hours. They were set up in trees and triggered automatically, sending scalding light down on them and scattering their orbs.

Maybe even worse were the metal rods they kept heated near their house. Zest knew beforehand that lonely places next to the woods often kept copper rods heated to ward off ghosts. The absolute stench was disgusting. It made Zest wish she could be back in her old body walking across a field of rotting corpses instead.

Being put on the receiving end of these made her want to ban these things! These ‘defenses’ did nothing but hurt wandering ghosts a little. Honestly, it all seemed petty more than anything else. Zest could have gotten past the foul smells and stinging lights if she wanted to. They weren’t nearly enough to turn back a ghost who’d lost control or actively wanted to hurt the farmers.

“Guh!” Zest covered her nose as she ran after the orb carrying her money. “You know, they’re only making us stay longer! If we didn’t have to chase down these orbs, we’d be gone already! They’re acting like we’re a bunch of crows to be scared off. You can’t seriously expect this to ward off anything with real intelligence.”

“Well get used to it,” said Zest. “Maple Hill is unusually friendly towards ghosts. It really depends on who the mayor is. Not every place will turn a blind eye to keep the worse ghosts out. Sometimes–”

An alarm sounded over the farmhouse in the distance, shattering the silence of the farm. Now Zest’s nose and ears were being assaulted! But even through the obnoxious scent of hot copper, Zest could tell living ponies were starting to gather.

“They saw us! We gotta go!” Indigo charged forward, stopping briefly to look back at her companions.

“Hurry!” Sugarcoat shoved Zest along.

Zest panicked. She grabbed her purse herself and ran off. They had no choice but to leave a few of their orbs behind, though Zest managed to save all their money at least.

They ran for hours until they were too tired to keep running. At least the predeads didn’t seem interested in chasing them down. It must have been nothing more than an attempt to scare them off, but it worked.

Zest was left shaken, and they stayed in the forests for the entire following night.

Coming back to another woodland trail or forest was always a relief, allowing Zest to relax slightly again. The few predeads they did pass didn’t have the courage to so much as investigate them in this terrain. They’d all run or hide the moment they suspected a ghost might be drawing near. It felt nice to be the one with the advantage this time.

Zest would have been utterly lost without her friends. She’d never been more than two steps into Sugarloaf and couldn’t name a single town save Montpony, its capital. Even if you plopped her down in Montpony, she likely wouldn’t even know she was there. Yet these two were familiar enough with the area to argue about which path to take.

Nothing familiar could guide her through these lands. She could only be thankful the other two were so much more traveled than her.

She began to wonder just how far south she could go without a fight as they entered Equestria proper, and the land became even more densely populated. Thankfully, she began to see signs their journey was coming to a close.

Manehattan made its presence known long before Zest could see any of its towers. The artificial lights of the city began to eat away more and more at her beautiful night skies. In retrospect, she’d seen it coming even earlier than this but hadn’t pieced together what was happening until now.

That stygian blue between the stars appeared to have a sort of flow to it, like water above a firmament. Normally, it flowed into the black twinkling lights of the stars creating an endless, swirling pattern. But as she approached the city, the flow became uniform in the direction of Manehattan.

At long last, the day they’d entered the city came and the sky above them became devoid of blue. The black stars refused to budge, and the moon still glowed green, but this was overtop a white backdrop. Already, Zest decided this was one downside to living so close to such a huge city.

The next sign of Old Manehattan’s approach was much more literal. The trees began to bear posted signs, warning against digging in this area. Indigo was of the mind that this forest wasn’t that polluted. The dangerous, heavy metals were buried under a solid amount of safe dirt by now.

They passed a fence with warnings of death to any who proceeded beyond that point. Soon after, the ground turned sour and the number of plants growing dropped precipitously until the Shadowbolts found themselves traveling over barren dirt and rocks. No animals came this far, and a few bones scattered about told why. A pony didn’t need any warnings to tell this place was dangerous.

It was also at this point that Zest could, at last, see the tall buildings. She knew they were the ones within Old Manehattan as they had not a single light inside.

They stopped in the wasteland to allow Indigo time to sneak on ahead and scope the place out. They could feel the distant edges of aura from the larger ghosts inside. Sugarcoat commented that she recognized what she felt as Meltdown’s aura, that this meant he hadn’t been chained up or killed just yet.

Still, they waited for Indigo’s report before proceeding. Upon getting the go ahead, they came upon a second barrier – a high, stone wall stretching as far as Zest could see in either direction.

“Is that the wall?” Zest looked up at it. No way that was fifty meters.

“Our side is smaller than their side,” said Indigo.

One could mistake this wall for being made entirely out of warning signs. The biggest and most numerous of these were massive yellow plates twice as tall as Zest with the biggest font she’d ever seen outside of neon signs.

Conditions beyond this point are unsurvivable. Trespassing will result in death.

It didn’t go into specifics, but that’s what the surrounding constellation of warning signs were for. They crowded the wall in a disorganized fashion, crawling over one another in morbid competition to prove their danger would kill you first.

Ionizing Radiation Zone. Super-radiation Zone. Extreme Haunting Zone. Mercury warning. Lead warning. Asbestos warning. Poison gas warning. Landmine zone. Toxic Fungal Growth. Toxic self-destructing zombies? Flesh-eating bacteria? Mutant Rampage Area?!

“Mutant Rampage Area?” Zest asked as soon as one that might affect her came along.

“Mostly farm animals by now,” Sugarcoat promised.

“Oh yeah.” Zest supposed they needed a source of body heat to stay sane. She floated up higher than the wall to get a better look. Her attention was immediately drawn to a discarded set of metal armor atop the wall. Pieces of such armor were scattered along the length of it. “So do we just float through the wall or–”

“Stop.”

Zest ducked back down as the armor came to life. It assembled itself as best it could but proved incomplete. A helmet, chest plate, and two boots were all it could muster. Yet the incomplete parts quickly filled themselves in with the semblance of a pony.

Unlike the ghosts she was used to, this pony’s body was totally black and far more transparent. His eyes, too, stood out as two pools of phantom purple broken only by black pupils whose shape never stayed consistent.

Two more sets of armor rose to the main one’s left and right. These, however, did not have any eyes or the suggestion of a pony underneath.

“I am Gate Watcher, the border guard. You may not proceed beyond this point without permission,” His voice came over the wind, overly breathy in a way Zest wasn’t used to.

In a panic, Zest kicked her forehooves in the air. She thought maybe she should go back down to the ground, but the other two joined her

“I recognize two of you.” Gate’s eyes moved to Zest. “I assume you’re going to vouch for this pony, Sugarcoat?"

Zest looked at the others. She knew they’d been here before but did this guard memorize every single ghost that visited? She supposed it wouldn’t be too hard, seeing as ghosts were so few in number.

“This is Lemon Zest.” Sugarcoat grabbed her tail and pulled her closer. “She died about a year ago. I take responsibility for her.”

“Very well. Then I won’t waste time telling her our rules.” Gate deemed Zest no longer worth his gaze and turned back to Sugarcoat. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again. Why are you here?”

“We’re going far to the north where we won’t be such a large target,” said Sugarcoat. “I want to see if any of the ghosts down here want to join us.”

“I see. You’re welcome to try. I doubt Meltdown will have any problem with that. He’s become increasingly,” Gate paused to think of the right word, “lethargic.”

Zest still had her connection to Sugarcoat’s aura but all that of any specter was massive. She could still feel Meltdown’s aura even if she was shielded from it to an extent. Already she got an inkling of what he meant. His aura was that of a dour melancholy, the sort that made Sugarcoat’s dull emotions seem exciting.

“I don’t suppose you would like to come with us when we return, then?” Sugarcoat asked. “You know this place won’t stand much longer. I don’t care what treaty Crater Cemetery has with Meltdown; they will destroy the city before long.”

“I agree, but I cannot leave.” Gate snapped his attention back to her. “I have dedicated myself to protecting Manehattan to atone for helping those that unleashed this calamity on my home. Even if I found myself surrounded by all the armies of the world, I would stand and defend this place until the end.”

So he died in the war too? Zest looked over at Indigo. It sounded like the two of them fought on opposite sides, but she wasn’t picking up any bad blood between them. Indigo nodded approvingly of his attitude even.

“By the way.” Zest came out from behind Sugarcoat. “I’m making a statistical, uh, thing about when everypony died. I don’t suppose you remember the date and time?”

“I suppose whenever Toxco started releasing the poison gas,” he said. “They killed ten of us for each Equestrian with their chemical weapons. Toxco sold us on the idea of fighting for ‘freedom’ but this is what they did to us and our city just to buy themselves time to escape! I don’t care what wealth they brought us; we never should have taken one taste of their poison.”

Zest could feel the tension ratcheting up as he spoke, though at least the anger wasn’t directed at her. She imagined she’d encounter a good chunk of ponies killed by Toxco during the war.

Zest knew most of the damage to Old Manehattan was actually done by Toxco and Spatial Tear themselves. From the version she got in school, they went ballistic when the Manehattan army started talking about surrender. Knowing they wouldn’t survive if what they did went to trial, they started dumping mercury into the streets, blowing up toxic waste containment centers, and firing all of their chemical weapons off as quickly as possible.

Even the reactor’s meltdown was done on purpose.

At least, from the sound of things, they wouldn’t find many pro-Toxco ponies here.

“June twelfth, 1305, at around one in the afternoon. That’s when they started using gas.” Indigo folded her forelegs and nodded with a smug little smile. “Yeah, I got the whole timeline memorized. They blew up the mercury depots two hours after that. The reactor was already melting down, but Spatial Tear didn’t open up the portals around it until three-thirty so nopony noticed yet.”

Zest wrote all of this down. That was six extra bits! Though she realized this would take a while to get the full six thousand at the rate she was going.

“I used to say that at least the worst was behind us,” Gate added. “But that might not be true any longer. I hope you are lucky, Lemon Zest.”

The three suites of armor collapsed back into a pile

“Where did he go?” Zest looked down at the wall.

“Don’t think about it.” Indigo floated over the top of it.

So they could just go inside now. Zest hung back a moment to watch the other enter before going in herself.

13. Old Manehattan

“Wah!” Forgetting safety for a moment, Zest flew deeper into the city, ahead of the others. If it was a bad idea, nopony bothered to stop her.

The buildings were enormous, even compared to those in Trotonto. It wasn’t just one or two towers that went up and up, they were everywhere! Even six meters in the sky, Zest felt as though she might as well still be standing on the ground.

Ascending became more difficult the higher you got. She wondered if she could fly to the top of one of these big ones. She started going up, only to have the rest of her fraid overtake her once again and rushed after them.

Many of them appeared in surprisingly good shape. She expected half this city to be a pile of rubble, but less than a quarter of the buildings lay in heaps on the ground. She quickly learned that if one building on a block went, they all did. With few exceptions, each block was made of either intact buildings or a heap of debris.

Did ghosts live inside these skyscrapers? Zest certainly wouldn’t trust them were she alive and it looked as though nopony was washing the dingy windows.

It didn’t take a genius to guess this place was haunted. Already, Zest saw more orbs than she’d ever seen in her entire life, including the part where she’d been a ghost herself. They made it to the top of the skyscrapers, floating around them like lethargic bees around a hive.

It shouldn’t have been so surprising, but snow blanketed much of the ground. A deathly hush complimented the snow and contrasted the enormity of the construction.

Building with entire chunks missing had been shorn up with walls of ice that filled in the missing gaps and broken windows. This place had to be freezing! Thankfully, Zest was immune to that along with all the other problems of the city.

It didn’t take long before Zest realized that every south-facing window in Old Manehattan had been blown out, likely from something Equestria fired at it.

“Did they shoot a giant, sonic bomb or something?” Zest pointed her observation out.

“Huh? Nah!” Indigo gestured up towards the roof of a surviving building, all too excited to explain. “See, Toxco mounted huge artillery weapons on top of these skyscrapers. One shot from a force canon would blow those suckers right off. But those things shattered windows like all get out.”

Zest swore Indigo talked about the war like it was a camping trip she’d gone on.

“We’re close. Let’s see.” Indigo surveyed the landscape. Her ears perked up upon finding the right spot. “Oh! Here!”

Indigo rushed down towards a block of destroyed buildings.

“This used to be the Toxco Shopping Tower. My body’s buried somewhere under all this. Smashed straight through the window before it collapsed a little while later.” Indigo slammed her hooves together. “We were going after that one.”

Indigo pointed up at one of the taller buildings. This one appeared to have had the top few floors ripped off by some mysterious force. Yet the other buildings on that block were fine, save the windows. Zest looked around, unable to imagine where the top part of that skyscraper landed.

“Should we try to get it out?” Zest moved closer to the rubble, coming close to the ground of this city for the first time.

“No digging,” Sugarcoat warned against her. “That’s one of the rules you have to follow in this place. And you can’t cross the red line by the large wall to the south.”

That sounded easy enough.

Zest noticed, just then, the orbs beginning to form a stream. She followed them a little way to find them joining a larger path that even more orbs were following. A little path had been cleared for the orbs to move along the path carrying small objects.

Zest counted three taught ropes making two little roads that the orbs stayed between. They all moved along so neatly, with those going left on one path and those going right on the other. Each orb floated at its own height, too, some of them going up as high as the second story.

“Oh, and no obstructing the orb highways,” Sugarcoat added. “If you put a physical object in the way, the orbs won’t be smart enough to go around and they’ll drop their packages.”

“Oh, wow!” Zest’s eyes sparkled as she watched the orbs move back and forth. “An orb highway? That’s an amazing idea!”

Indigo started giggling behind her.

“What?” Zest pointed at herself.

“This is like freaking out over seeing a road for the first time.” Indigo pressed her cheek up against Zest’s and smiled a little too smugly. “You’re so adorable!”

Indigo laughed and flew ahead, and Zest blushed in embarrassment. Sugarcoat came up from behind and gave her a reassuring pat on the head. But Sugarcoat had the barest hint of a smile, too! She could feel the slight amusement from her boss!

It was then Zest noticed the first high ghost of Old Manehattan, one peeking out at them from a high building. She felt a slight tension in this pony’s aura, wary of unfamiliar faces. Zest tried waving up to her, but she shied away and floated back into that building.

She wanted to follow, but…

“Come on.” Sugarcoat pushed ahead, following alongside the orb highway but never crossing it. “We need to talk to Meltdown before you can do anything else.”

Zest hurried along after that. She kept her eye on the orbs, wondering what they were carrying. Strangely, most of them seemed to be traveling without cargo.

As they approached the corporate district, Zest started seeing more high ghosts. She decided they all hung out mostly in this area. Unlike that first ghost, these spared them a passing glance at most and allowed them to continue.

A little after that, four or five ghosts started popping out trying to get the fraid to buy things. Sugarcoat quickly waved them all off, but something about this made Zest giggle.

After a year of having to creep about the world, the ability to freely move through a town felt so liberating. Part of her still told her to not move so boldly about in the open, but another part felt normal again.

Zest wanted to talk to all of them! But she’d also learned her lesson last time. She decided to keep her head down and ears up, waiting to see what the mood in this place was like first.

The corporate district brought with it plant life as well. Zest stood briefly surprised at the sight of any plants, having thought nothing could ever grow here. Perhaps the place would have looked better devoid of life, given the plants she did see, though.

The main species to get a foothold here were the most gnarly-looking vines Zest had ever seen. They appeared purple and fleshy to her but had hard, grey knots that caused their direction to change at sharp angles. All along the fleshy portions grew pustules with a thin membrane. Zest could only imagine popping one would kill any nearby predead.

Occasionally, mushrooms grew on top of these vines or out of the buildings. They weren’t normal mushrooms, either. Some of them had hairs that moved up and down to make it look like they were breathing. Others grew with a cluster of caps from a single stalk, making them appear like mutant brains.

Every plant she saw made her shudder.

As for fauna, she could smell animal life around her. Something with warm blood lived hidden away in the abandoned buildings and buried beneath the ground. She could scarcely imagine what sort of bizarre mutants stalked about her.

On further consideration, Zest decided she’d rather freeze one of these things to death than even a turkey. Though she’d yet to see one, she couldn’t conceptualize anything cute or happy in those buildings.

The mutants moved as little as could be afforded from the smell of things, Zest supposing anything living here knew not to come out during the night.

Finally, they got to their destination. They approached what was left of Toxco Corporate Headquarters. Zest had seen pictures of it when it still stood as the third largest structure behind Canterlot Castle and the colossal super reactor. It once had three skyscrapers built on top of a sloping base, the tallest of which broke 800 meters.

None of those towers remained, but the base of it that seemed so small in pictures was now a colossus in itself. She needed to crane her neck to look up at the incomplete pyramid. She counted ten stories as each floor had a recess leading deeper into the windows.

Looking left and right, she estimated it to be a full city blocks long in either direction. Running laps around this place sounded intimidating enough, let alone trying to destroy it while a literal witch and who knows what else was shooting back at you. How tough this fortress must have been to survive such a tall skyscraper collapsing on top of it! Though most of that debris had been cleared out from the looks of things.

Even after all that, only the far eastern part of the building was visibly damaged from the outside. A whole corner of the pyramid was melted and twisted by what must have been an incredible blow.

This, Zest was told, was where Meltdown kept his throne. Another ghost asked them a few questions and then they were allowed inside.

The place became less apocalyptic looking the deeper in you went. The entranceway was an enormous room covered with mostly intact marble. Between the stairs leading up was a huge bronze statue of... maybe a CEO? Zest couldn’t tell as it had its head cut off and vulgar graffiti was written all over it.

It felt so strange standing in the hideout of one of the most infamous witches in history. A bit of residual danger seemed to linger in this room, yet to decay. ‘The witch is dead, but I’m still shaking’. Zest knew the famous quote but not who said it. She understood it a little better now.

All the gilding and plenty of paintings persisted past the lobby. The graffiti and vandalism hadn’t made it far inside. All of it looked so expensive.

The final room was another wide-open space. A stairway led up to a large terrace that perhaps once was a meeting room. Meltdown had a literal throne made of a vulgar-looking metal at the end of the long table on this terrace.

Most striking were two large pools sat on either side of the stairs and terrace. They weren’t filled with water, but with liquid metal. Zest stared into it. It wasn’t hot or glowing, but it was still clearly liquid. She quickly realized the only possibility. This was all mercury!

She just barely resisted the urge to show everypony how green she was by recoiling at the realization. None of the other ghosts seemed to care. To them, the pools of mercury were nothing but decoration.

Zest knew immediately which of the ghosts was meltdown, though he had his whole entourage with him. The ghost at the throne had the same blue eyes Sugarcoat did, marking him as a specter, and his aura overpowered all the others.

The new specter wasn’t as imposing as Zest had feared. Meltdown was a purple unicorn, not particularly large for a stallion of his tribe. He looked a little gangly if anything, and more than tired. Zest could feel that coming off his aura, though he tried to hide it.

He didn’t want to deal with this, he didn’t have the energy, but he had no choice. Zest could feel a tinge of frustration at that lack.

“Sugarcoat.” Meltdown spread his forelegs wide, just barely managing a smile. “I honestly thought you were dead.”

Zest looked between the two, feeling she’d missed something. She’d probed Sugarcoat about her life, but other than talking about Crystal Vale, her boss never seemed interested trips down memory lane.

“I don’t blame you.” Sugarcoat held her glasses in place, her glare firmly on meltdown. “I barely escaped alive.”

“I hope you’re still not angry.” Meltdown shook his head. “Maybe I would have felt bad if the federation just barely lost, but I understand it wasn’t even close. You have to admit my being there wouldn’t have made any difference.”

“No, but it wouldn’t have been the slaughter it was had you not tried to appease our enemy,” said Sugarcoat. “Far more of us would have been able to retreat.”

“You were the ones who were stupid enough to directly defy her.” He rose from his mock-sitting position and moved across the table. “My city is the only one that still stands and I’ve saved far more ghosts than I’ve cost with this strategy. You simply can’t see past the inevitable loss of White–”

“Don’t say his name,” Sugarcoat warned.

Zest kept shifting her eyes left and right but didn’t dare speak out of turn. Who the heck was he talking about?

She had never seen Sugarcoat get this worked up before, not even when a wight was trying to murder them and that kid. Anger radiated off of her, filling the room. Zest got a second-hand high off of it and couldn’t help but feel some annoyance at this guy she hadn’t even met yet.

He’d clearly done something bad to Sugarcoat! Maybe it was just the aura talking but that seemed enough to put him on Zest’s list.

“It remains to be seen if you’ve ‘saved’ anyone,” Sugarcoat went on. “Delaying the death and enslavement of the ghosts here by three or four years is hardly worth the cost of your dignity and everypony you sacrificed. They’re probably having you inflict all manner of humiliation on yourself. I know you’re paying them tribute, funding the enslavement of our kind.”

Yeah! That was another reason to be angry at him! If he was sending money or whatever to Crater Cemetery then he was part of the problem! Though admittedly, Zest was kinda looking for excuses at this point.

Meltdown merely rubbed his temple and closed his eyes. Any fight left in him quickly faded. Just a slight twinge of humiliation was all that was needed to cow him, it seemed.

“And do you have any plan other than delaying the inevitable?” Meltdown asked. “I’d love to hear whatever brilliant ideas you have.”

“I don’t have any yet,” Sugarcoat admitted. “Perhaps I’ll think of something or perhaps I won’t. Perhaps something will save me or not. But I refuse to spend what time I have left kowtowing to Crater Cemetery and paying them tribute. I’ll outlast you without sacrificing my dignity and I’m sure others here want the same.”

Perhaps Meltdown was clever enough to keep up this sparing match, but Zest could tell he simply didn’t have the will for it.

“Well you’re welcome to take anypony who’d follow you.” Meltdown rubbed his face with his hoof. “It’s not like numbers will do me any good now.”

“And if there’s anything you’re hiding from me, anything you know about our enemy–”

“I’ve never even seen her,” said Meltdown.

“Hold on!” Zest couldn’t help but speak out of turn. Her hoof shot up and all eyes turned to her. “If you’ve never seen her, how do you know it’s a mare? Huh?”

All eyes stayed on her for an uncomfortably long time. Nopony answered long enough for Zest to realize she’d just asked one of her trademarked stupid questions.

“I’ve spoken to her enslaved emissaries more times than I’d have liked,” Meltdown at last explained. He paused as Zest lowered her hoof in defeat. “And they call her ‘my mistress’. I suppose you do have to be clever to piece all that together.”

“Eh heh.” Zest blushed and started backing up slowly. “I promise I was a lot dumber before Sugarcoat found me!”

Then she flew behind the other two, determined not to embarrass her fraid any further. She vowed a second time to keep her mouth shut.

Meltdown sized Zest up.

“Oh wait, is your new worm friend a lightning elemental?” Meltdown turned his hooves up and shook his head. “Seriously?”

Zest pointed to herself and then became perfectly still. Was he racist against lightning elementals? Were ghosts racist against other ghosts?!

“I spend all this time looking for a lightning elemental, then right after I find one a second simply shows up out of nowhere?”

“There’s another lightning elemental here?” Zest couldn’t help breaking her vow again.

“Oh, I have my own elemental strike force.” Meltdown clapped his hoof.

Four more ghosts quickly assembled behind him.

“What?! They have an elemental strike force?” Zest looked worryingly at Sugarcoat.

“Hot Streak!” To Zest’s surprise, this pony wasn’t on fire. She did look a little burnt-out, her hair black, and her fur brown. Small amounts of smoke billowed off of her.

“Max Voltage!” He was yellow even! He had green hair similar to Zest, but he embraced his static, using it to style his mane in the same sharp spikes that Zest struggled with.

“Shipwreck!” Zest decided this one was a pirate in a glance! He was big and covered in scars! He had his mane and tail in tight braids and a tri-corner grafted itself to his head.

“Rock Slide!” This green mare looked the most chill of the bunch. Zest got serious hippy vibes off her but nothing screamed ‘I got crushed by rocks’ exactly. Then again, she remembered that book saying eating poisoned berries could turn you into an earth elemental too.

“And their names match their elements?” Zest hissed at her mentor.

“They changed their names,” came Sugarcoat’s dull response. “Just like ‘Meltdown’ here.”

The lightning elemental caught Zest’s attention immediately. It wasn’t just that they were the same type of ghost. No, this stallion was cute! Max was a fairly large stallion but not entirely filled out, giving the impression he died around Zest’s age.

He had such a big, blocky, and handsome muzzle though! And his hair was so cool! Zest tried not to stare.

“For the last time, I did not change my name to Meltdown after the fact!” Meltdown glared down at Sugarcoat.

“And the rest of them just conveniently had those names already?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Alright, maybe there’s one or two…”

Sugarcoat and Meltdown kept talking for a while after that. Admittedly, it fast became boring, neither of them unveiling their backstory. Indigo wandered off, prompting Zest to look over to Max. She wonder if she should try flirting with him.

He might be over a hundred. Then again, they might be close to the same age!

Zest glanced at Sugarcoat, then began floating towards Max Voltage. She scooted as close to him as she could without it being weird, tapping her hooves together.

“So, uh. I noticed we’re both lightning elementals.” Zest turned her eyes to him and smiled

“Oh really?” He smirked and turned his chin up. “I’m surprised you managed that much.”

Zest stopped tapping her hooves.

“Er. Yeah.” Zest cast her eyes down. She really shouldn’t have spoken up before! Zest quickly recovered and turned “Um! You know, your mane is so cute! You really know how to use the static, huh? Do you know any cool places in the city for lightning elementals like us to, uh, hang out?”

The one and only thing that she learned in high school was that boys were oblivious. You needed to be as obvious as possible.

“Let me guess.” Max put her foreleg around Zest, getting a heavy blush from her. “You bit down on a wire trying to get psychic power, yes?”

“Wuh?” Zest glanced left and right. “No! I was, uh… no.”

“You can’t lie to me.” He placed a hoof on his chest. “Look, we’re not the same type of ghost, okay? I can smell a wirehead like you a mile away and you’re just not in the same league as us flushes. You guys put the dumb in dumb luck. Ponies who got struck by lightning are in a whole different league.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Zest threw his foreleg off of her, wanting nothing further to do with it. “I was struck by lightning. You bit down on the wire!”

“Hehe.” Max just shook his head. “That’s what they all say.”

“Well, then how do I know you’re not just saying it?!”

“As I said, flushes are on a whole different level.” He turned his hooves up in a shrug. “Here. You want me to show you?”

Max floated back to the wall, beckoning Zest to follow her. Her phantasmagorical brain assumed a pony moving to a wall was going to go through it. She paused in brief surprise when he led her to the wall itself rather than the next room.

Max gestured at something near the floor. A power outlet? Was he going to possess a power socket? Why would you do that?

“I can take you with me, even.” Max held out his hoof. “Grab my hoof.”

“Ew! No!” Zest turned her head away.

Max just grabbed her anyway. Before she would protest, Zest felt electricity surging through her. Her vision turned to white, reminding her of the time she’d been electrocuted to death. She felt constricted for a moment like she was being wrapped up with rope. But at the same time, a rush of adrenaline filled her

The sensation was so strange and so brief that Zest hadn’t time to even begin to wonder about it. Then the light faded. Zest shook her head and looked about.

They were floating over a small suburb. Zest smelt the sleeping predeads in the houses below, making her brain itch. She knew they weren’t close to Old Manehattan because the night sky was no longer whited out, but maintained some of that stygian blue.

“How did we–?” Zest turned back around and quickly realized the answer. They were right next to a transformer on an electric pole!

Did her really–? Could you–?

Max just smugged at her and grabbed Zest again. The effect repeated.

They were even further away now, in a more rural town with the night sky mostly restored. Once again, they were by an electric pole overlooking distantly spaced houses.

They seriously had traveled over the electric grid.

“H-how far did we?”

“We’re about eighty miles off already. I can travel closer to the speed of light than the speed of sound.”

“Eighty?!” Zest stared at him, stunned. She knew a mile was longer than a kilometer, too!

The return trip took a little longer. Traveling like this wasn’t instant. Now that Zest had more time and some idea of what was happening she could just barely make out little stops and turns as Max dragged them through the power cables.

But before she could study it any further, Zest found herself back in the room they started in.

Okay. Zest couldn’t help but double back around to thinking this pony was cool again.

“Yeah! That was amazing!” Zest grabbed him and looked at him with the biggest eyes she could manage. The possibilities that opened up with this power were staggering. “That’s the coolest ability I’ve ever seen! You gotta tell me how you did that!”

“Heh! As if!”

“What?!” Zest’s ears widened and teared up. “But I wanna!”

Why wasn’t this working?! Was Zest not cute enough?

“I can’t teach you how to use wires.” Max shook his head. “If the wireheads ever figured this out, you’d all go around doing stupid things until the predeads catch on to my ability to travel through the grid. And then they’d going to start putting up some kind of, I dunno, transistor or whatever to block me. Thankfully, I doubt you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.”

“Hey! I just can’t do that cause I haven’t had my powers as long!” Zest bristled. Her lightning embarrassingly flared up, messing up her mane and earning a snicker from Max.

“You can’t do it cause you’re a wire-biter. I really don’t have a problem with your kind as long as you don’t pretend to be flushes. Tell you what, admit I’m the better elemental and I’ll let you kiss me. That’s what you came over here wanting, right?”

Not anymore she didn’t!

“I got struck by lightning more times than you can count! Which is one! Because wireheads like you can’t even count that high!”

“Yeah, yeah. I get the joke.” He patted her on the head. “Alright. Then if you’re an actual flush, how are you going to prove it, exactly?”

“Yeah?! Well!” Zest tried to think of something she could compete with this guy on.

What was Zest good at again?! Nothing?! It was nothing, wasn’t it? She could sing pretty well but that wouldn’t help her here.

She looked across the room as if an idea would be hidden somewhere in the room. Thankfully, one was. Zest spotted a deck of cards!

Of course! There was always luck. The great equalizer.

“If you’re really a flush then you have to be even luckier than me, right?” Zest pointed at him.

“What are you proposing?”

Zest grabbed the deck of cards and brought it over.

“We do a poker. One hand, all the chips,” said Zest. “If I win, you gotta admit that I’m a flush and show me how to use the electric grid like that.”

“And if I win?” He turned his chin up, still trying to act all superior even here.

“Uh.” She struggled to think of anything as she started to shuffle the cards.

“Hm! How about this? If you lose, you have to be my girlfriend for the day. You gotta follow me around, saying how great I am for twelve hours straight. I really don’t mind as long as you admit you’re a wire-biter.”

Maybe she wouldn’t have even thought of that as a bad thing before this guy started with his attitude!

“Okay, fine!” Zest slammed the deck down on the table and let Max cut it.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Indigo asked.

“It’s like I said.” Zest kept her eyes trained dead on Max. “A lightning elemental’s greatest power is dumb luck and I got both.”

Indigo shrugged and backed off letting her go through with it.

Both ponies drew five cards. Zest put hers face on the table without looking at them as Max held his own close. This bold move drew the attention of even more lingering ghosts.

“You’re not even going to look?” Max asked.

“A true lightning elemental relies on her luck.” Zest closed her eyes and nodded.

“Whatever.” Max discarded two cards and drew two more.

He smirked the moment he saw them. Zest felt a brief moment of doubt.

“Tch! Strait.” He put down a five through eight.

That was pretty lucky… Zest looked down at her own hand, still face down on the table. She braced herself and turned over the cards one by one.

Heart. Heart. Heart. Heart!

Here she paused. Every ghost came in close and held their breath as all eyes turned upon that last face-down card. Even Max looked down at it with his smile in jeopardy of collapse.

As unlikely as getting to this point was, she now had a one in four chance of pulling this off.

Zest inhaled and turned over the last card.

Heart!

Everypony erupted into laughter, 'oo's and 'ah's, and ‘snap's. They staggered back from the table clapping their hooves.

“Bwahahaha!” Indigo laughed hard, falling into a backflip.

“Hahahaha!” Zest’s face lit up in absolute victory. She pointed to Max and laughed and laughed. “A literal flush! Just like me! Everypony call me Royal Flush from now on!”

Nearly everypony was laughing now. They were all hitting Zest on the back or teasing Max as he stood there with this stupid mouth shut for once!

“And I’m never playing poker ever again!” Zest flew back with her hooves raised in the air. “Struck by lightning, baby! My cutie mark should have been a lightning rod!”

Zest and Indigo laughed all the way out the door.

Before they could leave this place and retire to their room, Sugarcoat dragged them on one last errand to see the few remaining battle dolls this city had.

“Crater Cemetery demanded we start disarming,” Meltdown explained on the way.

“And you're actually going to do it?!” Indigo gawked.

“I have no other choice.” Meltdown merely shook his head. “They won’t be nearly enough to defeat Crater Cemetery. Destroying them will delay our enemy longer than using them against her. Of course… if you just happened to steal one or two of them on the way out? Well, that really wouldn’t be my fault.”

The collection of dolls were assembled in three rows on a recessed balcony partially covered by a metal roof. Though they all looked similar, their sizes varied wildly.

The first row weren’t much bigger than a normal pony. The two that formed the second row were easily a meter and a half tall. And the lone doll in the final row was too big to fit in the building! Even lying down, with its chin against the ground, the things head was bigger than the two giants standing just in front of it!

Instead of hooves, its legs ended with vicious claws. The helmet had a hinge, allowing it to open up and create a mouth with huge fangs that remained visible even when it closed. On either side of its withers were two purple crystals. Zest recognized the same ones used by battle shafts to short blasts of magic at your targets.

If you told her these were robots, Zest would have believed you. Closer inspection revealed not much was under the metal plating other than some rods and ball bearings making up the joints. You must not need any sort of motor when you had a ghost possessing it.

They even had names! The biggest had ‘Crypt Keeper’ spray painted on its side. The next two biggest were ‘Ghoul’ and ‘Tombstone’.

At present, they stood perfectly still with nopony at home.

“Can you really embody something that huge?” Zest flew up to the largest one. She was a foal compared to the ‘medium’ ones but this thing made her look like a large insect.

“Bigger it is, harder it is to control,” said Indigo. “You’re not very agile in one of those big ones and need special training just to move it. It’s got all kinds of counterweights and stuff I don’t understand.”

But did you need agility if you were gigantic?

“We’re taking this big one, yeah?” Zest flew back to Sugarcoat, holding her hooves under her chin. “Nopony would mess with us if we had a giant, metal pony!”

“How would we get it back home?” Sugarcoat asked.

Zest’s ears flattened. Now that she thought about it, they couldn’t possibly go stomping through the countryside with something that huge without starting a fight. Even though galloping around in that huge thing sounded like so much fun.

“That one.” Sugarcoat pointed to a more reasonable, but still huge, two-meter battle doll. ‘Ghoul’.

“You can have it for two hundred fifty thousand bits, I suppose,” said Meltdown.

“A quarter million?!” Zest flew in front of Sugarcoat. “That’s insane! I thought you were giving it to us for free! You know, cause we’re stealing it?”

“That’s cheap.” Sugarcoat pushed her back to the side. “Normally, heavy weaponry like this sells for over a million.”

“But do we even have that kind of–” Zest blinked as Sugarcoat had one of the orbs bring her locked briefcase to her.

There were two huge gold bars inside and a few smaller pieces of gold surrounding them! Zest’s jaw hung open as Sugarcoat handed over the largest bar and three smaller ones, apparently enough to cover it.

Meltdown took the gold and flew to the other room to weigh it out.

“Don’t worry.” Sugarcoat turned her eyes back to Zest. “I left enough back at home to buy out your contract.”

Zest shook her head. She hadn’t even thought of that.

“I had no idea you were this rich!”

“It’s not that much.”

Zest nearly fainted! She had some questions for when they got back.

Author's Note

Entries ahve been added to Ponin's Spirit guide has been updated.

14. Tourist Traps

The three of them got to stay in a hotel room for free. With so many empty buildings around, one couldn’t reasonably charge rent. Even with most of the ghosts living in the same few blocks, there were still ten empty rooms per pony.

They couldn’t even offer you a ‘nice’ room as ghosts were hardly repulsed by the derelict. It hadn’t hit Zest until she came into the room how much her aesthetic preferences had changed.

The place they were staying wouldn’t be remotely acceptable to a living pony, even if they were somehow immune to all the city’s toxins. Thick dust covered everything. The wallpaper had peeled until it covered less than half the wall. The windows were painted over black and thick, mildewy curtains hung over them.

The place probably smelled like death, but Zest would never know. Dust looked almost appealing to her now. Nothing about it was remotely unsettling.

The only concern she had upon seeing the room was that it was five stories up. Zest had never once been able to sleep above ground nor had she ever seen another ghost perform such a feat. There were two large slabs of concrete, however, which she was assured would suffice.

The room didn’t let the slightest bit of light in between the black windows and heavy curtains. Zest could still sense it was a bright, sunny day outside, though. That feeling of being snowed in was familiar enough by now.

Outside, the thick aura of so many ghosts took the place of the nightly noises of a large city. No ghost would go out during the day. They had no choice but to settle down or go to sleep and Zest could feel the calm in the air.

Indigo had already sunk into one of the concrete beds and Zest felt through her aura that she was already asleep. Meanwhile, Zest was stuck getting lectured and combed by Sugarcoat.

Zest thought she looked so cool at the end of that little exchange. As it turned out, getting overly excited and going along for a ride with Max had left her hair a total mess. Her tail looked like something better suited for a raccoon and her mane converted into a clump of spikes jutting out at awkward angles. Even her fur stood up on end, making her look slightly fat.

Sugarcoat created a comb of enchanted ice – the only thing that could hope to tame Zest’s ethereal hair. Running it through caused sparks to shoot out, releasing static electricity and allowing her hair to become reasonable once more.

“You’re still far too much like a filly,” Sugarcoat told her. “Your entire exchange with Max was immature.”

“He started it,” Zest whined.

“That’s what a foal would say.” Sugarcoat clicked her tongue. “And you need to care more about your mane in public.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Mom.” Zest sighed.

“Hmph!” Sugarcoat jerked the comb to break through a tangle. “I might as well be. Your real parents didn’t seem to finish their job. If I had you from the beginning, you’d be a proper mare by now.”

“Yes, Mom.” It hurt because it was true.

Strange as it sounded, Sugarcoat was the best mother Zest ever had. If Sugarcoat had raised her, Zest doubted she would have been allowed to drop out of high school or turn to a life of crime. Maybe Zest would have ended up a little too strait-laced, but that sounded better than how she was now.

But then, ghosts never got to raise foals, did they? Zest wondered if she was the youngest pony Sugarcoat had ever taken in. She’d been keeping an eye out in Manehattan, and it seemed teenaged-looking ponies made up maybe one percent of the population.

Sugarcoat must have never gotten the chance to foal in life. Maybe Zest was the closest she’d ever get to that.

Zest supposed that meant she could never have her own foal either. That much was well enough. Zest couldn’t take care of a foal. Heck, she still needed somepony to take care of her.

“I’m guessing Indigo was the same way.” Sugarcoat spared a look for Indigo. “Foals who don’t get enough discipline and attention end up acting childish their whole life. At least you’re still young and impressionable enough for me to fix that.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Zest didn’t entirely mean that as a joke this time.

She closed her eyes and felt the brush moving through her mane. Cozy memories of being a filly drifted back into her mind. For a moment, it was no different than having a mother again. Even Sugarcoat began to relax in her sternness.

Everything felt fine for a moment.

Sugarcoat probably thought Zest’s mother was outright neglectful. Zest opened her eyes, unable to fully embrace the moment with that misconception in the air.

“It wasn’t her fault, though.” Zest turned her head aside, making Sugarcoat’s job ever so slightly more difficult. “She just got sick. I’m the one who did something stupid.”

Sugarcoat paused for a moment, giving Zest the chance to elaborate. When Zest failed at that, Sugarcoat grabbed her chin and pushed her head right back to its proper position.

“Oh?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Sugarcoat would have been able to feel her shame, too, which always made Zest even more embarrassed.

“Neh.” Sugarcoat tapped her temple with the comb. “You’re probably curious what Meltdown was talking about before.”

Zest’s ears perked back up. Was she talking about her life prior to Shadowbolt Academy? Sugarcoat didn’t like opening up about that either… which made Zest assume she’d been up to crime as well.

“I used to live in one of the ghost cities, Whitetail Cemetery, with another specter.” Sugarcoat closed her eyes. Zest’s mane was already fine at this point, but she kept brushing it in long, smooth motions. “His name was White Phoenix.”

“Really?” Zest didn’t know any famous ghosts. Now she was wondering how well-known Sugarcoat herself was. “What was he like?”

“I suppose he was like you in some ways.” Sugarcoat stroked her hair. “He was upbeat in the extreme. He was always optimistic and wanted badly to change the world. The Spectral Federation was his idea. I know Indigo was annoyed at the notion of losing our anarchy, but White Phoenix was the one ghost who got the predeads to listen to us.

“He could get just about anypony to listen to him, really. He always spoke with such passion and never lost sight of his goals. He made Whitetail Cemetery into such a vibrant place.”

Zest turned her eyes to catch a small smile on Sugarcoat.

“Did you two get along, though?” Zest imagined this guy as Sugarcoat’s polar opposite. Then again, so was Zest but they were friendly enough.

“I suppose the two of us were.” Sugarcoat looked up at the ceiling. “Well, we got married at one point.”

Zest blinked.

Sugarcoat had been married?! It was a strange, but overwhelmingly adorable idea to Zest!

“Wah!” Zest spun around, beaming and overcome with the urge to hug Sugarcoat. “So you did have a–”

Then she realized what must have happened.

Whitetail Cemetery had been part of the Spectral Federation. It had been destroyed. And Sugarcoat’s husband…

Her smile, her ears, the glint in her eyes, they all slowly drooped away into nothing.

“Oh no!” Zest ended up grabbing her hard anyway. “Then! Is he–?”

“He didn’t survive the battle. I was the only one who escaped with my mind intact.” Sugarcoat set the comb down. She looked through it, at some far-off point. “The enemy tried going after all the specters first. Getting me away was the closest thing to a win we had that day.”

Zest opened her mouth but found nothing to say. She wanted to comfort Sugarcoat so badly, but words seemed so little. Nothing could ever be appropriate. Not compared to losing everything.

If there was absolutely anything she could have done to help, she would have done it. But there was nothing.

Zest grabbed Sugarcoat tighter, sobbing more than the specter herself.

Sugarcoat patted Zest on the back. Even now she was the one doing the comforting.

“I’m sorry.” Zest buried her face in Sugarcoat’s chest. “You help me so much! I wish I could–”

“Relax.” Sugarcoat nuzzled her forehead. “I’m the ‘mom’ here, right? It’s normal.”

Sugarcoat put her hooves on Zest’s withers and pushed her back just enough to look her in the eyes.

“White Phoenix wanted me to keep going, he wanted me to live. I could just barely manage the first one, until… until I realized there were ponies like you who needed me. So you don’t need to apologize. You’ve already done enough.”

“Th-thanks, Mom.” Zest sniffed, then buried her muzzle in Sugarcoat’s chest again. “But I still want to help more. I want to be mature like you’re always saying!”

“That’s how I know there’s some hope for you.” Sugarcoat turned Zest around. She grabbed her tail to start setting that straight as well. “You’re still so young. I know one day, you’ll be the one helping somepony else.”

Zest nodded, determined to make the prediction come true one day.

They took breakfast the following sunset on the first floor of the hotel. Zest finally got to see the animals she’d been able to smell since she got here. She wasn’t expecting what she saw.

A tank filled with live lobsters sat on one side of the lobby. They were the biggest lobsters Zest had ever seen, bigger than a turkey. They were some nasty-looking customers too, purple with little spines running down their backs.

It’d be an intimidating sight, having one right in front of you, was it not bound up and Zest not incorporeal. Zest kept her eyes and ears pinned to hers as it squirmed in its restraints, trying to get off the plate.

Plates. Zest remembered plates.

“I thought you said lobsters were cold-blooded!” Zest complained.

“These ones aren’t.” Sugarcoat quickly froze hers.

Zest sniffed it again. Sure enough, their warmth tickled that itch.

“Yeah! It’s the super-radiation.” Indigo froze her lobster next. “It’s like how radiation only makes cockroaches stronger. Well, lobsters are just the cockroaches of the sea. I guess being warm-blooded counts as stronger.”

Sometimes, Zest felt disturbed at how quickly she became willing to eat animals. Zest didn’t feel bad about what she had to do at all now. A second later, the lobster was frozen solid, and the sweet relief of body heat washed over Zest.

Zest decided she liked these more than turkeys. Though with no ocean around, it’d be hard to keep a stock of them.

Then they moved on to the main course. Body heat helped with the addiction, but it wasn’t as filling as something exceptionally hot.

Finally, Zest would get to try an artesian fire made by a ghost chef! Had Zest even had good food before? She was about to find out.

The chef handed them their menus. Zest was a little disappointed to see it was only three pages. Even she could make a longer list living out in the woods.

She could feel a little surprise from the rest of her fraid, so this wasn’t normal. Soon she noticed that the guy was holding out on them! She saw a stack of much thicker menus sitting not too far away.

“What do we gotta do to use the good menu?” Zest asked him, pointing at it.

“I apologize for the reduced options.” He bowed his head. “The way things have been going, we’ve had a lot of shortages recently. There aren’t any other cities to trade with. All the smaller ghost settlements have vanished one way or another. Predeads talk to us less without the Spectral Federation. Certain ingredients are no longer obtainable.”

Disappointing! Zest wished she’d died a few years earlier.

Zest looked over what selection she did have, slowly realizing she had no idea what any of this tasted like. She knew what garlic was, but not what burning garlic would taste like. It wasn’t like she’d even know what to pick if she had the full menu. Maybe it didn’t matter, on second thought.

She decided to copy one of the other ghosts. Indigo would likely order the most exciting choice.

A sudden shock hit Zest through the aura waves, causing her to zip up a few centimeters and make a few hairs stand on end. It was like the shock of suddenly seeing a spider. The others sat at attention, clearly feeling it but not reacting as strongly. The chef alone paid it no heed.

She did, at least, give herself points for recognizing the feeling. That was a specter pulsing their aura in a particular way, the ghost equivalent of the emergency broadcast system. Sugarcoat only ever did it once in demonstration.

“Emergency?” Zest looked from pony to pony until settling on the chef. He’d be the one to know. “What’s the emergency?”

“It’s no big deal,” he said. “That means an envoy from Crater Cemetery arrived.”

Now Zest was the only one to underreact. The rest of her fraid moved back from the table, taking a stance as though ready to fight right now.

“Ah, don’t worry. They’re not here to kill us or anything.” He motioned for them to calm down. “They come over here once a month to do ‘inspections’ and spout nonsense about how we should all go get brainwashed.”

“You’re seriously not bothered by having those freaks out here?” Indigo refused to settle back down. “Spouting their propaganda? After everything they’ve done?”

“If somepony is seriously stupid enough to go get brainwashed and enslaved then I say good riddance.” He shrugged, completely resigned to it. “As I said, they’re not here to fight. We have nothing to worry about down here.”

“Yet.” Indigo narrowed her eyes.

“Not ever.” The chef laughed. “Even Equestria has been forced to sign treaties with us and give us special status, you know. We’re sitting on so much toxic waste that attacking the city would be suicide. Equestria has a huge military base right on the other side of the wall for a reason. If anything ever happened to us, they’d rush in to save themselves. Crater Cemetery can’t destroy the city without going to war with Equestria… so they’ll never invade.”

Indigo’s aura radiated indignation towards this chef. Zest could feel just how delusional that statement made him seem to her. It was always hard to avoid mimicking the emotions of one’s fraid, but Zest found herself agreeing.

Sugarcoat gave Indigo a calm look and that was enough to make her go back to her seat.

“I wouldn’t feel so safe,” Sugarcoat said. “I don’t think the predeads care that much about us and you’re underestimating our enemy. She can use less destructive means.”

“At the end of the day, Old Manehattan is the safest place you can ever be,” he said. “Nopony has ever attacked the city and nopony ever will. Mark my words.”

“As if you’ll still be around to eat them,” Indigo muttered.

So that was one pony who wasn’t coming with them.

That really was the best fire Zest ever had! They needed to find somepony who could cook better to bring back with them.

The meal left Zest feeling so warm and cozy inside that she found herself singing as they made the trek to the shopping district. This would be great! Zest hadn’t gotten to go shopping with her friends since middle school.

The place glittered like a shining metropolis compared to the post-apocalyptic world Zest had come to expect. As long as you stayed on this one block, it looked like the war had never even happened. The road was completely clear of debris and potholes, all the glass was fixed up, and even the signs looked new.

The strip didn’t go on very long, but to Zest she might as well have been in the largest mall in the world! Just about everything a ghost could want was sold down here. Sugarcoat mostly bought seeds and books, Zest putting the latter on the list of things to come back to. When you were limited to only books other ponies threw away, you didn’t always get the best.

From the sound of things, and the sight of a few empty stores, this place had been hit by shortages, too. Even still, Zest found a store that sold all kinds of wood carvings. She nearly blew a ton of money on some cute little monster toys. But then she remembered she was trying to be mature and restrained herself till she saw what else there was.

Then they got to an orb store.

“Why would you buy an orb?” Zest looked up at the ‘Orb R Us’ sign, complete with an orb sporting googly eyes. “I can find one in ten seconds back home.”

“There are rare types of orbs.” Sugarcoat went inside.

Upon following her, Zest remembered what Sugarcoat meant. They found themselves in a warehouse with at least a hundred orbs floating about. None of these were the common orbs that had become background noise at this point.

Zest could guess the names of a few after reading Ponin’s Spirit Guide.

The rumbling orb made an audible hum as it shook violently in place. These could be made to explode! The greater orb was twice the size of Zest and could lift much heavier objects than a normal orb. The purple gloom orb sucked the light out of rooms, making them darker and easier to see in.

The main one Sugarcoat wanted was a void orb, though. This orb appeared to be perpetually collapsing in on itself, forming long strands of light. According to Sugarcoat, it could hold objects in a small pocket dimension, allowing it to carry physical objects through walls. Though it couldn’t hold anything too large, sadly.

She bought one of these and two of the gloom orbs. As she was making the purchase, Zest leaned over the counter.

“Hey, orb lady!” Zest called to her. “You wanna come to the north with us to escape the inevitable destruction of the city?"

"I don’t see the point.” The merchant looked at her with supremely bored eyes… the eyes of a retail worker. “We already lost. We’re all gonna die or worse no matter what we do. Might as well die here where I still have some luxury in the meantime.”

“Ouch.” Zest backed off. She found the other end of the spectrum.

“Yeah, there’s nothing to be done at this point but accept our grim reality and face the fact that we’re all doomed and there’s nothing we can do.” The merchant stamped the receipt. “I don’t know what fantasy the three of you have, but whatever you’re doing is pointless.”

Hopefully, they could find somepony in the middle of the hope-despair continuum next. Otherwise, this wasn’t going to be easy. At least they technically left the store with more ghosts, albeit lesser ones.

Zest caught herself looking around for a clothing store next, only to remember her immunity to clothes. But she did find a jewelry shop of all things. Maybe she couldn’t wear the jewelry, but she could still look at it and pretend!

So Zest crossed the street to look over the stand of expensive items. A feeling of dread crept down her spine just as she began. The air felt heavier, the auras tenser. Sugarcoat kept her head down and her ears up, turning to look down the street.

Just as the feeling struck, her eyes settled on a golden necklace with a red gemstone inside it. It looked familiar…

“Wait.” Zest grabbed Sugarcoat. “This is the one I threw in the river! Sugarcoat, it’s part of that wight! What do we do?”

Sugarcoat looked back at her.

“Obviously, we’re not buying it,” she said. “It’s just as well we leave it here. It’ll find its way out of wherever we put it. You’ll likely see it again.”

Sugarcoat turned her head again.

So the wight was still following her around? If all the pieces got back together they’d have to fight it again.

The gemstone made all sense of safety flee from Zest. She felt empty and alone. She didn’t remember it having this effect on her last time.

“You know that necklace is part of a wight, right?” Zest couldn’t muster a convincing smile for the phantom running the booth, not with how heavy the air had become.

Instead of responding, he merely pointed to the label on the bin that read ‘cursed gemstones’.

With embarrassment to add to the list, Zest backed up to her friends, hoping the closeness would give her some comfort. “Does anypony else feel this thing in their aura?”

Sugarcoat hushed her and put out a foreleg to keep her in place.

Zest turned to look down the same street Sugarcoat did. She blinked, realizing that it wasn’t the necklace having that effect on her after all.

Two pegasi, one pink and one blue stood up on a pedestal giving a speech at the center of the shopping district. Zest could tell without looking both were ghosts, yet they looked alive. Both had physical bodies. From a distance, at least, they looked like normal predeads.

More importantly, she could see those blackened chains wrapped around the two of them. She once again recognized the same sickly wind when she strayed too far from Sugarcoat blowing through her aura.

These were the envoys the emergency alert system warned her about.

“Our mistress asks only for your supreme loyalty and love,” said the pink one. “In exchange for this, we will finally be able to overthrow the oppression of the predeads! She will bring about an age of darkness and cold in which ghosts alone reign supreme. You are the ones shackled by the world created by the living and–”

As promised, they were spouting what Zest could comfortably dismiss as propaganda. Most everypony did their best to just ignore these two. Part of their treaty meant they had to put up with these Crater Cemetery goons giving these speeches, she’d heard.

“Let’s come back later.” Sugarcoat gathered her fancy new orbs and started to leave.

“Wait, are those two… alive?” Zest squinted and moved a bit closer.

“We’re not talking to them,” Sugarcoat’s voice was even sterner than usual. She grabbed Zest to pull her back. “I forbid you to even go near those two. I don’t want you going off on your own at all as long as they’re around.”

Zest nodded. She didn’t need to be told it would be a terrible idea. Even if she knew nothing about Crater Cemetery, the feeling of dread radiating off those chains would have been enough for her to distrust them.

“But they look like predeads,” Zest whispered, staying close this time.

“Those are dolls they’re possessing,” said Sugarcoat. “Everypony in their family does that.”

“You recognize those two?” Indigo asked.

“Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk,” Sugarcoat named them. “Our enemy forces them to act like assassins.”

“Assassins?” Zest suddenly found concern to take this more seriously. Though surely nopony would be sending assassins after her, specifically.

“Lest you think they believe any of the things in that speech they’re being forced to do,” said Sugarcoat, “I know for a fact they’d turn against Crater Cemetery the second they were able to. Their family was always against her. They certainly have a history.”

“Which family is this again?” Indigo asked.

“The Sleep Sirens?” Sugarcoat waited for recognition that never came. “I suppose it was before your time. They were part of a small cult that worshiped Golden Feather’s sister and had something of a ghost-supremacist attitude. They were infamous among ghosts for some time. They knew things they wouldn’t tell the rest of us.”

“Things you say?” Zest moved closer.

“Think about this for a second.” Sugarcoat broke her own rule to glance back at them. “There were three of them, three biological sisters. A ghost of a chance is one in ten thousand. Yet all three of them became banshees after they died.”

“The chances of that–” Zest’s eyes widened.

“One in a trillion,” said Sugarcoat. “And it gets stranger. Every member of their family for generations has become a high ghost. That includes those who marry into it, lest you think this is genetic.”

“So that means there’s a way to guarantee you become a ghost when you die. And those two know about it?! But that’s huge!”

Zest turned around to try and look back. Sugarcoat grabbed Zest and turned her around.

“They won’t talk.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Even before all of this began. Even when they were actively against our enemy. They were always a secretive group.”

“But if we can free them from the mind control?” Zest asked.

“Death is the only way we know of,” said Sugarcoat. “Though it would certainly be useful.”

So a series of dominoes began setting up in her mind. Find a non-lethal way to free a high ghost, then get them to talk! Probably not as easy as it sounded, but having any path to take

“Hey.” An unfamiliar voice made Zest flinch.

She looked to see the phantom from the jewelry shop beckoning them to come back just a little.

“Are you interested in the Sleep Sirens?” He asked. He turned to look back at Aria and Sonata through narrow eyes. “I can give you a tip. Somepony here knows a lot about that family. Though it won’t be easy to get him to talk.”

Indigo and Sugarcoat shared a glance.

“Who is this pony, again?” Indigo asked.

“Puppet Troupe?” He looked to see if they recognized the name. “He’s the one who made those dolls for them. For everypony in that family. I doubt you’ll manage, but if you can beat any intel out of that guy it’d be great.”

“Oh, the creepy guy!” Indigo’s face lit up. “Yeah, I remember him now. We gotta go over there, either way! The dollmaker’s house is one of the places we’ve got to visit!”

Indigo turned to Sugarcoat, eager.

“I’m suspicious about these two, specifically, being here.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “I want to talk to meltdown about it.”

“Well maybe the two of us can head over there ourselves then.” Indigo grabbed Zest. “You know, while you go do your boring stuff.”

“I suppose that’s acceptable.” Sugarcoat turned to Zest. “Though I don’t want you wandering off on your own.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it, Mom.” Zest gripped her headphones.

And soon enough, Zest found herself being dragged off yet again.

Indigo brought Zest to a patch of shore where they found a beached battleship. Signs of ex-battleships littered the shore as well, but this one seemed nearly unscathed. Perhaps it got abandoned during the meltdown period.

“And here we got the creepiest place in Old Manehattan.” Indigo stopped just short of its hull. “The dollmaker’s house! I think this is the only one left in Equestria now!”

“Dollmaker?” Zest looked up at the sign draped over the ship’s cannon. It promised ‘dolls and puppets’ just as Indigo said.

Indigo darted through that useless armor without elaborating further. Zest was left alone to wonder how this would be any different from all the dolls and toys she saw back in the shopping district. With no other option, she flew inside as well.

In a cramped, metal room, Zest got her answer. They were the too-realistic kind of creepy, to the point Zest thought she’d entered into a room with actual predeads for a second. About twelve ponies simply sat there, totally motionless, in two rows. All of their eyes were wide open as they stared lifelessly at the opposite row with big smiles.

Zest floated up to one, hoping a closer look would give some flaw with the dolls. Yet they were perfect. Even the eyes… there was nothing glassy about them. They looked like actual eyeballs! The thought made Zest shudder.

The stillness and lack of body heat alone gave away their true nature. As if wanting to challenge this notion, a handsome, dark blue stallion she was inspecting blinked. His face twisted into motion and his smile moved from one kind of creepy to another.

Zest yelped and flew behind Indigo as the phantom laughed at her. Soon that stallion hopped off the chair and walked towards Zest. Now it looked exactly as if a predead was in the room with them.

She sniffed the air. No body heat confirmed it wasn’t a living pony. An aura coming from within clued her in on the truth – this was merely a ghost possessing the doll.

“Do you like my dolls?” The dollmaker, Zest presumed, asked her. “I am Puppet Troupe, though I assume you already knew that. It’s rare for somepony to come here without hearing about me first.”

“Heh! I’m impressed at how lifelike they are.” Zest smiled but kept her ears down. Never thought she’d be relieved to find out it was only a ghost possessing a doll.

“I believe the art of their creation has dwindled to but two of us. This is the most realistic body a ghost can possess.” Troupe caressed the cheek of his current doll. “You have tactile feelings inside things in one of these. Even a faint sense of your old taste returns to you.”

He opened his mouth to reveal a tongue, complete with the little ridges. Zest cringed at the sight of the inside of his mouth. It looked exactly as it should, with teeth and everything. A doll should never have teeth.

“But they aren’t cheap.” Troupe snapped his mouth shut. He sat down next to one of his other puppets and began petting its back in slow strokes. “Sixty thousand and you can pick any on display here. Or you can rent for a hundred bits a day.”

Zest could afford to rent one, at least. It’s been so long since she had her old senses, she’d imagine they’d be alien to her now. The chance to experience them again, even if only partially, excited her.

She looked over the dolls, thinking about which one she’d pick. One mare, in particular, caught her attention, a white unicorn with stunning, long blue hair.

That cute little muzzle, those fluffy ears, those big hips, that vibrant fur. Any mare with the money would pay to have a body like that! Zest could potentially look that cute for about a hundred bits a day. The initial shock of seeing dolls like this had already worn its course and Zest was increasingly drawn to the thought of trying one out.

The only thing keeping this place creepy was Puppet Troupe himself. He’d since grabbed the head of another mare and bobbed it up and down as he hummed. He was the type of stallion who still played with dolls.

“Actually,” Indigo interrupted. “We wanted to ask you some questions.”

“Oh what?” He stopped dopped his doll and frowned at Indigo. “Is it about the Sleep Sirens or did you want me to teach you my art? Those are the only two things anyone ever seems to want to talk to me about.”

Zest could believe it.

“Uh. First one.”

“I’ll tell you what I tell everypony else then,” the little bit of flamboyance his voice carried before was gone now. “All three of those sisters died of asphyxiation. They knew in advance they would become ghosts and came to me about making dolls for them while still alive. They were the last three members of the cult of the night feather, which is mythologically associated with Golden Feather’s sister. That’s all I’m going to say.”

How would he know how they died?

“But is that all you know?” Indigo asked.

“Well of course not.” He smirked.

“Come on, guy.” Indigo’s wings started to ruffle. “We’re on the same side. Stop being mysterious for no reason.”

“Yes, we have the same enemy. But are we really on the same side? I wonder.” Troupe hummed to himself. “Think of it this way. If you were on a sinking ship and knew where the only lifeboat was, telling everypony its location would be a liability, hm? They’d all crowd around and sink it. You knowing this information could be a liability to me and put certain other ponies in danger. I can only speak in full to those I know to be worthy, who won’t tip the boat so to speak.”

Prove herself worthy? Zest doubted she had the combat skills to do anything remotely close to that.

“Of course, if you can convince me knowing what I do would in any way harm the forces of Crater Cemetery I’d also change my mind,” he added.

How the heck was Zest supposed to prove she was some great hope against Crater Cemetery? In a movie, this was where the hero would give a big speech, but Zest couldn’t do anything like that.

There had to be something. What hope did Zest have again?

Sunny Flare!

“Should we mention Flare?” Zest asked Indigo, remembering to be more careful.

Indigo thought for a moment. She’d be able to phrase it more sensitively.

“We have connections to somepony researching ghosts,” said Indigo. “They’re better able to study ghosts than any predead before them. Would they be able to use what you know?”

“I think not.” He shook his head.

There went that plan!

“Then what would?” Zest asked.

“Hm.” Troupe turned his muzzle upwards in faux consideration. “Well the offer I make to everypony else applies to you as well, I suppose. If you can tell me the name of our enemy, I’ll consider you to have met the minimum threshold. Yes, I think that’s just challenging enough to prove yourselves.”

“That means you know their name?!” Indigo rushed forward, wings spread wide. “And you’re not going to tell us?!”

“You have my offer.” Troupe gingerly placed a hoof on Indigo’s muzzle and pushed her back. That was how Zest learned a possessed doll could touch a ghost.

“Yeah, great.” Indigo folded her forelegs. “’Figure everything out yourself and then I’ll help you’. How amazing.”

“Aren’t you already in danger?” Zest asked. “The enemy has assassins in the city right now. You could die at any second! Maybe you should help us before then?”

“I have my own escape plans,” he said. “I plan only to linger here a moment longer.”

“Guh! This guy’s the worst type of pony!” Indigo turned her back on him, shaking her head with disgust. “Let’s get out of here.”

She turned to leave.”

“Hold on.” Zest grabbed her tail. “He still makes really cool stuff. I wanna try one of these.”

Indigo snickered like she just remembered a funny joke.

“Oh, yeah.” Indigo turned back to him. “Hey, isn’t there a way we can get one of these dolls for cheaper?”

“Well, most of the price comes from finding a suitable body.” Troupe tilted his head. “If you bring me a usable corpse, I’ll convert it into a puppet for just ten thousand bits.”

“What?” Zest blinked.

She glanced over at Indigo, barely containing her laughter at some hidden prank, some joke Zest was on the cusp of getting.

Then it all clicked. Zest’s eye twitched. She scanned the rows of perfectly lifelike dolls on either side of her. She stared forward blankly at the dollmaker, smiling with those realistic teeth. Those real teeth.

“Oh, my.” He clasped his forehooves together. “Was there some misunderstanding? You see, I’m actually a taxidermist.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Indigo held her hooves and ducked down as Zest repeatedly pelted her.

Zest chased Indigo right out of there with soft blows to the back. Finally, she caught up and tackled Indigo, gnawing on her ear and growling.

“Owe! Look, this is just a rite of passage thing, okay?” Indigo stopped struggling and accepted her ear-chewing as punishment. “I didn’t know it’d freak you out this much!”

Zest let go of Indigo, letting the anger radiating from her aura tell the phantom this joke was not okay. But then again, there was no way Indigo could have known about her personal trauma. It probably seemed far less cruel to her.

“Fine.” Zest puffed her cheek out. “But I’m still angry at you. You better not try to ‘surprise’ me again.”

Indigo apologized a few more times as they continued forward, but Zest wasn’t listening. Images flashed into Zest’s mind that she quickly dismissed.

Everything was fine now! Zest was okay. Everything was okay.

“You alright?” Indigo tilted her head, no longer smiling in the least. “You’re way more shaken than ponies normally get about that.”

“It’s nothing.” Zest turned her head away.

“You sure you don’t want to talk about anything?” Indigo floated by on her side.

Zest shook her head too hard to convince anypony, but Indigo mercifully dropped it after that.

“Well if you still feel like it the last place to visit is that gigantic wall.” Indigo pointed up. “Maybe we can save that for tomorrow, on second thought. We’d probably get into a fight with those turtles.”

“No, I’m up to it.”

“I’m kinda tired.” Indigo’s smile was too weak.

“I know what you’re doing and I’m fine.” Zest zipped ahead of her, forgetting for a moment she had no idea where to go. “I’d rather end the day with something else.”

“If you say so. But I did warn you this time.”

Indigo led them as far south as they could go. Yet Zest couldn’t see the wall in question until they were close up.

They came around one final block and at last Zest saw the wall on the other side of a large field punctuated only by rubble. It stood not as one monolithic slab of lead, but as a series of thick sheets, all bolted to the unseen stone beneath.

She’d certainly believe it to be the world’s tallest wall. Indigo told her it was one hundred eighty feet tall, which she believed translated to almost sixty meters. From this angle and this distance, not one building from new Manehattan could be seen despite their towering height.

Atop the wall, Zest found plenty of signs of life. She could smell the heartbeats of living ponies.

Thin, metallic spires rose an additional ten or so meters above the wall along its length. One particular spire rose twice as high as the others and at its top rested an object glowing too brightly purple for Zest to make it out.

Her mind defaulted to thinking of these as weapons to use against herself. Perhaps the suggestion came from lookout stations hanging off the walls at even less frequent intervals. Though from her personal experience, a series of UV lamps would have been a better deterrence than a wall.

“They realize we can all fly, right?” Zest squinted up at it. “And go through or under the wall besides?”

“It’s really more to contain the pollution than us,” said Indigo. “See those trenches up there?”

A trench was dug around the base of the wall served to make its height even more imposing. She could tell from all the drains nearby that this existed more as a way to contain the rainwater than as some half-assed attempt to trap ghosts.

Indigo led them fearlessly into the open field where the advantage of the ponies on the wall would be infinite. Soon after, they arrived at the infamous ‘line’, painted yellow in parallel with the wall itself. Signs posted every ten meters bore the symbol of a skull and a warning that anypony who crossed the line would die.

And without a care in the world, Indigo floated over the line.

“What happened to the no crossing the line rule?!” Zest gasped.

“Nah, that’s the yellow line.” Indigo floated higher and pointed down. “You can’t cross the red line. And we’re legally allowed to kill any predead that crosses the yellow line. The place between the two lines is where anypony can go.”

Zest came to the very edge of the yellow line and flew higher. She didn’t dare cross it until she saw the red line herself. It felt like she was trying to jump into a cold pool all of a sudden. Zest braced herself and took the plunge.

And nothing bad happened! Zest laughed a little from the relief.

“In fact, well I wouldn’t recommend this, but you can go past the red line even.” Indigo laughed. “They just turn on the alarms and start shouting. But they won’t actually shoot until you get up to that trench down there.”

No way Zest was going over the red line. Her nerves were already maxed out for the day. Still, she was curious about how deep that trench went. Unable to get any closer, Zest instead flew up high.

A blaring noise came from the speakers, harsh enough to force Zest to cover her ears, or at least attempt to through the headphones.

“Attention! You are in violation of the treaty of Industrial Square. No ghosts are allowed past the line! We will open fire if you attempt to cross!”

Zest screamed and darted away from the wall and underground. She expected them to start shooting at that.

“I didn’t cross the line!” Zest complained to her senior, covering her eyes.

Indigo huffed up at the wall. Zest could feel the swell of anger in her.

“They’re just trying to scare you.” Indigo waved her hoof. “They won’t do anything. We call them turtles for a reason, you know? Heh. The lieutenant in charge of the wall is literally named Snapping Turtle. I ain’t gonna let them harass you like that. Come on.”

“Come where?” Zest kept no more than her head above ground just to be safe.

Indigo headed to a small shack Zest had dismissed earlier. Glancing over her shoulder, Zest realized there were a number of these stations throughout the neutral zone.

Desperate not to be left behind, Zest rushed after Indigo.

The tiny building housed a single, barren room. It would have been completely unremarkable was it not for the one object it housed– a phone mounted on the wall.

“Wait! A phone? They have a phone?!” Zest gawked at the borderline mythical object.

Indigo took the phone off the hook. Zest pressed her head close against the other ghosts’ to listen. She didn’t need to talk to an operator, the phone rang as soon as she picked it up. It must have only been connected to the military base.

“Why don’t we have a phone?” Zest complained. “Why doesn’t every ghost have a phone? We could talk to Maple Hill and–”

“Cause that’s not how things work, you worm.” Indigo flicked her tail.

“What do you mean?”

“Guh!” Indigo winced. “It’s like–”

“What is it?” A female voice said on the other end. Both ghosts leaned in.

“We didn’t cross the line, bitch!” Indigo shouted at her.

Zest staggered back. That was farther than she’d wanted to go.

“Maybe we shouldn’t use the B-word against the ponies with the giant military installation!” Zest hissed at Indigo.

“No worries!” Indigo laughed. “Cursing out these turtles is the most fun you can have for free in Manehattan. They’re under strict orders not to fire unless we cross the line. Don’t wanna stir up the dirt, you know?”

Zest came back to the phone. Maybe Indigo had taken the other pony aback with her rudeness? She hadn’t responded yet. She heard the mare clearing her throat.

“Well keep not crossing the line,” said the voice. “This line is for emergency purposes and diplomats only.”

“Yeah! And the loudspeaker is for yelling at ponies who break the rules. We can do whatever we want in the neutral strip. Don’t scare some poor worm like that for no reason.”

“If you have a problem with how I run things, talk to your superior. I’m willing to talk to your representative, but not some random ghost. I don’t think you even live here. I don’t recognize you two.”

So she could tell.

“I represent myself,” said Indigo. “And you don’t get to just harass one of my friends like that without getting any in return. I ain’t gonna let some turtle hiding in her little shell give us crap.”

“Oh. You don’t think I’ll come down there?” The mare yelled back at them.

“Heh.” Indigo turned to Zest with a smirk. “She totally won’t.”

Multiple unicorns teleported in at once with perfect synchronization. In a flash of purple light, Zest found herself nearly surrounded by predeads. Two stallions to her left, two mares to her right, and finally, standing much closer, one more mare right in front of them. Every one of them had a battle staff out, thankfully pointed down rather than at the ghosts. Only her backside, her path back to Old Manehattan, was unblocked.

They wore heavy hazmat suits, the kind Zest had only ever seen in comic books, with thick helmets and enormous tubes that went to air canisters on their backs. Though only a thin sheet of glass made their eyes visible. Zest could tell their genders by muzzle length alone.

The pony who stood the closest had a different insignia on her suit than the others – a golden horseshoe with a single vertical line through it. Indigo talked about the Equestrian military a good deal, so Zest knew this marked her as a chief lieutenant.

Zest could see little through the protective gear. Through the visor of the lieutenant, she saw the suggestion of a yellow, heavily freckled face.

Already, Zest could piece together that the ‘Snapping Turtle’ Indigo mentioned had been replaced by a much younger commander.

Author's Note

***SPECIAL DELETED SCENE!***

So I wrote out an additional segment where Indigo and Zest visit the super reactor, now converted to a war museum. I decided to cut it out because it doesn't help the plot on any level and was mostly just a ton of unneeded exposition.

That said, if you want to see it and hear some more background about the way anyway, here it is.

https://ponepaste.org/7423

15. On the Line

“Oh, hey! You actually came out!” Indigo spread her forelegs wide as if to hug the lieutenant. “I like you better than the last lieutenant already! What happened to the fat turtle guy, anyway? I’m guessing heart attack.”

“Lieutenant Snapping Turtle has been, shall we say, promoted to another location.” The new lieutenant sat down and moved her staff across her back yet remained resolute. “His methods gave abysmal results. Far too much unnecessary fighting broke out under his watch. My name is lieutenant Sour Sweet. Before you criticize me any further, I’d like to point out that there have been zero ghost or pollution-related casualties and no hostile engagements between Old and New Manehattan in the two years since I took charge.”

Indigo whistled, impressed by the stats.

Zest could see the brows of one of the soldiers drooping. Zest could just tell he was restraining himself from rolling his eyes like this was some talking point often used to nag him.

“I gotta admit, that’s better than old Turtle,” said Indigo. “Yeah, that guy sucked. You used to get an incident every month or so. Some poor idiot who breathed in the dirt he stirred up.”

“It was because you ghosts have no self-control,” one of the soldiers spoke up. “If you had even the tiniest bit of willpower to resist your urge to kill innocent ponies–”

“Look, you have no idea what it’s like,” Indigo’s voice began to freeze over.

“Yeah!” Zest nodded along with her. “I never hurt anypony. I do everything I can to avoid it.”

“I’m just saying. If I see a cake, I don’t kill anypony between me and it. So forgive me for not thanking a spook like–”

Zest shrank back underground upon hearing the S-word thrown so harshly against her for the first time.

“If I hear you speaking out of turn like that again, private.” Sour Sweet shot him a look as if trying to summon all of her restrained anger to just her eyes alone. “You know slurs are no longer tolerated. I’m sure the rest of your squad will thank you for landing them all mess duty. Everypony is dismissed. I’ll take care of these two myself.”

The other soldiers teleported out of there.

“I apologize for that.” Sour Sweet turned back to Indigo. “Changing the slovenly culture Snapping Turtle left behind will take some time to fix. I don’t stand by the statements he made.”

“Ha! She actually took our side!” Indigo clapped her forehooves together. “The last lieutenant never would have done that. I’ll give you that you’re better than him, but that guy kinda sucked so…”

“Yes, I’m aware of the reputation that I’ve inherited from him. I have no idea how one pony manages to be labeled both a coward and overly aggressive. The treaty signed between the two halves of the city says we’re allies yet he refused to treat you as such. I don’t blame you for being distrustful of me, but I will change things as much as possible.”

“Then why’d you yell at us for no reason before?” Indigo asked.

“For what it’s worth, I assure you I’m even more strict with my ponies. I want there to be minimal in-person contact but I’m working to install an entire phone system in Old Manehattan, connecting it to wider Equestria. You have no clue how much pushback I’m getting on that idea.”

Indigo nodded like she could relate. Zest was left wondering why anypony would have a problem with that idea.

“I understand being a ghost is more like a horrible disease afflicting you,” said Sour Sweet. “It’s not your fault you’ve become fallen beings. I wouldn’t hold the addictions of a drug addict against them, nor somepony’s disabilities.”

“Er. Thanks?” Zest tried to smile. It was more sympathy than she was used to from predeads.

“That’s what progress looks like, huh?” Indigo slapped Zest’s withers. “Another hundred years of this and we’ll be gold.”

“I do want to work with you all,” said Sour Sweet, “but sadly everypony seems to want to make that as difficult as possible.”

Working with them? It certainly felt nice to have a predead over the age of twelve who wasn’t shouting at her for a change.

Zest never once thought she’d be on such friendly terms with any part of the Equestrian military. Now that she was here, there was something Zest couldn’t possibly miss her opportunity for.

“Hey!” Zest dared to fly closer to her. “I know you’re just a lieutenant, but you guys need to be more worried about Crater Cemetery. Once they’re done with us, they’re coming for you predeads. You get that, right?”

“I do.” Sour Sweet nodded. “Believe me, you don’t have a stronger advocate in this city than me. The problem is I can’t get either side to cooperate. It’s not just New Manehattan. Most of the ghosts in this city still won’t speak to me. Getting information out of ghosts is like trying to organize a feline swimming team.”

“Gee. I wonder why we don’t like working with you guys.” Indigo put her hooves behind her head. “All you’ve done is make it illegal for us to go anywhere near you and pay ponies reward money for killing us and–”

“I’ll talk!” Zest raised her hoof. “Right now!”

“Alright.” Sour Sweet tapped the hilt of her staff against the ground. “I’m listening. What do you know?”

“Great!” Zest flew forward before Indigo could try and stop her. “Okay, so there’s this super-powered specter living in Crater Cemetery! She can mind control us with these chains from the shadow realm, the same ones the alicorns used to contain their prisoners! And maybe she’s from the shadow realm herself but also, it’s possible that big asteroid created her.”

“And?” Sour raised a brow.

“And uh.” Zest blinked then turned to Indigo. She’d thought that’d be more impressive!

When all she got from her senior was a shrug, Zest had no choice but to turn back to Sour and mirror the shrug with a deep frown.

“I already knew all of that but thank you for cooperating either way. If you learn anything new feel free to use the phone. If there’s nothing else.”

Sour Sweet raised her staff, getting ready to teleport away.

“Wait!” At the last possible moment, an idea came to Zest’s mind. “Maybe there is something you can look into for us?”

“Hm?” Sour Sweet lowered her staff.

“Do you know about Aria and Sonata?” “They used to be part of some cult that worships Golden Feather’s sister. Talking to everypony around here… it kinda sounds like they know something important or maybe are connected to Crater Cemetery in some way. We can’t research things as easily as you since we’re stuck out here in the post-apocalyptic wastelands.”

“Very well.” Sour Sweet gave them a nod. “Give me two days. I’ve been around you for too long already, but feel free to phone me whenever you have something to say. I’ll try to have a report ready for you in two days, miss…”

“Lemon Zest!”

She understood what Sour Sweet meant in cutting the conversation short, though. Zest could only spend so long around the living before the itch became painful. Already she felt like clawing out her brain.

Sour Sweet gave her a small salute and teleported away.

“That actually went pretty well.” Indigo nodded. “We accomplished stuff today! We’d better get back home before sunrise, though. It’s easy to get lost in the city during the day.”

Indigo flew out the door and Zest chased after her.

“You never answered my question,” Zest complained.

“Which one was that again?”

“Why don’t we have this setup everywhere? It can’t be that hard to get a phone line going to Maple Hill. I can go there for a little while. Heck, we could just hook ourselves up to the regular phone network and call whoever.”

“Because that’s not how things work.” Indigo shook her head.

“What do you mean?” Zest flew out into Indigo’s path.

“They don’t do it like this anywhere else because there aren’t any other massive death zones that they need ghosts to maintain for them.” Indigo pointed out towards their half of the city. “It’s like the second they need us it’s all ‘oh, now we can be reasonable!’ But every other instance, working with us is just ‘too risky’.”

“How can they still make that argument if cooperation is clearly working over here?” Zest asked.

“Look, the pony who called you a spook.” Indigo pointed back to the top of the wall. “Do you think he doesn’t want to cooperate with us because he’s seriously too stupid to think to use the phone that’s right in front of his face?”

Zest froze in place, stunned by the question, the implications slowly sinking in.

“Yeah, we’re dangerous to predeads. That’s the truth. But that’s not the reason these rules exist. Even the precious few ghosts who get over our addiction are treated no differently than you and me. It doesn’t matter if you change yourself or think of some gotcha way to live in harmony… because that’s not why they hate you.”

For a moment, all things appeared to be getting further away. A whole year of isolation did less to make the world of the living seem more distant than what Indigo had just said.

“Oh.”

Zest’s ears pinned to the side, and she looked back up at the wall. For the first time, she understood the reality of her situation. All those times she’d come up with ways to safely interact with predeads, only for the others to dismiss her made more sense. Something finally clicked with her.

It had never really been a matter of nopony coming up with clever tricks. That soldier who called her a spook would never be satisfied regardless of what solutions Zest came up with. Even having his superior trying to force him into cordiality wasn’t enough. None of that addressed the real problem.

“You know, I don’t think the S-word sounds silly anymore.” Zest lowered her head.

“There, see?” Indigo smiled, lightening the mood. “Now you can say spook.”

“Huh?” Zest snapped out of it. “R-really? Um! Spook.”

Zest whispered the word, half expecting Indigo to still get upset at her. Instead, she merely laughed and rustled Zest’s hair. Admittedly, that much did make her feel better. It was like she’d graduated in a way.

“But then how do we solve the actual problem?” Zest asked.

“Pfft! Already? You know, I like how optimistic you are!” Indigo laughed. “Most ponies would give up around now. But maybe you already helped a little today. She’s just a lieutenant, but you never know what’ll come from something like this.”

Sour Sweet could make a literal night and day comparison between Old and New Manehattan. She spent her nights on the north side of the wall, overlooking the mutilating scar the previous generation left on their once-proud nation. Twisted plants and mutants strangled each other over the choicest piles of trash in the nicest parts of Old Manehattan.

What little daylight Sour Sweet had was spent in New Manehattan, surrounded by perfect sterility. Not a single stain marred the polish of their glittering towers. Not a single piece of trash could be found on the smooth pavement of the city. Smog no longer blocked out the sky for any duration.

Hoping to draw comparisons to Toxco far away from them, no building would be caught without gardens hanging off its side and around its base. Trees lined all the streets so that the pristine glass of the buildings reflects verdant greens on the bottom and magnificent blues on top. Color and life surrounded Sour Sweet as she walked the streets.

She wanted to draw conclusions from the stark contrast between the two sides of the wall. From what little she gleaned, the ghosts preferred living in run-down buildings and toxic waste dumps, however. That much could hardly be called injustice.

As sunrise turned into morning, the streets of ponies just starting their days. Normally, Sour Sweet would get a chance to smile at the ponies whose work was just beginning while hers had drawn to a close. However, today she’d need to put in a bit extra before relaxing.

In truth, Sour Sweet’s wall was but a satellite of the main military base of the island of Manehattan. Albeit her station was far larger than the one she reported to. The office building she entered didn’t even stand as tall as her wall, let alone one percent of its length.

Even the interior of this office far outstripped the cramped and utilitarian confines of her own base on the border.

Well before noon, Sour Sweet found her way into the colonel’s office. He was the highest-ranked officer she’d be finding without going to the mainland.

The colonel sighed when he saw her. Sour Sweet took it as a point of pride that the colonel had grown to find her annoying.

For quite a while, they had something of a ritual to their meetings. The colonel would remind her that the lieutenant of the wall before Snapping Turtle had been killed by one of the ghosts. Now that she’d been in charge long enough to prove herself, to be able to counter that ghost-related deaths dropped significantly under her watch, he no longer wanted to have that discussion.

Sour Sweet had a similar resigned reaction upon entering the room, but not to the gruff colonel himself. It appeared her had something of a leech attached to him– a pony Sour Sweet recognized from the news and increasingly frequent visits to the base. A sleazy, black-haired stallion with his thinning mane slicked back had the colonel’s ear when Sour Sweet arrived. Being so close to the far larger colonel made him look almost sickly thin in comparison.

Sour Sweet recognized this second stallion. He was the head of the corporatist party. He’d been trying to weasel his way into the military’s ear after years of failing at politics. Thankfully, the colonel had taken his concerns with as little enthusiasm as he had for Sour Sweet. Yet at the same time, he’d never managed to get rid of him either.

“Sir!” Sour Sweet saluted the colonel.

The colonel motioned for her to be at ease.

“I hope it wasn’t some bit of activism that brought you here.” The colonel put out his cigar. “I’d prefer you do that on your own time.”

“My station is specifically to protect Manehattan from ghost-related threats,” said Sour. “That includes ghosts from Crater Cemetery. In my estimation, it’s the most significant threat. For that reason, I’ll take whatever action against them I can. Siding with Old Manehattan over them is the obvious decision.”

Second Term laughed at her statement. The arrogance in the chortle the senator gave made Sour Sweet’s eye twitch through her composure.

“Let me explain this, cutie.” The senator gave his rehearsed smile. “Crater Cemetery did us all a huge favor. The collapse of the Spectral Federation was a good thing. They were a major thorn in our side for years. Even just here in Manehattan– those spooks were able to strongarm our spineless senator into stopping construction on the Manehattan Yards project. Do you know how much money we lost because of that?”

‘We lost’. If it had been at all professional to roll her eyes, Sour Sweet would have done it.

Sour Sweet had plenty to say in response to all that but didn’t want to chew out a political figure in front of the colonel. That much, when she was on duty, was forbidden.

“Maybe I didn’t go to some military academy,” Second continued, “but I learned plenty about the art of war from business, Honey. When two of your enemies are fighting, you stay out of their way.”

Sour Sweet kept her mouth shut in a deep frown and merely turned her eyes to the guy.

Thankfully, the colonel took her side this one time.

“Thank you for your advice.” He waved him off. “Please continue, lieutenant.”

“Any action we take against Crater Cemetery now will pay off massively in the future,” Sour Sweet continued. “Turning a blind eye to a festering problem is exactly how Toxco–”

“The Manehattan Electric Company,” Second corrected her. “’Toxco’ is Equestrian propaganda. They weren’t blatantly evil villains who named themselves ‘Toxco’. Aren’t you a Manehattian? And yet the invaders have you spouting their propaganda? Do you see this colonel? What Equestria is doing to the minds of our foals in this government schools of theirs?”

Any Manehattian who still called them the Manehattan Electric Company was not to be trusted in Sour Sweet’s opinion.

A generation ago this pony would have been a corporate lord. With that door closed, he instead became a politician. Sometimes it was difficult to tell the distinction.

For a large portion of their history, the city-state of Manehattan had been an open and official corporatocracy, as opposed to nations that pretended to be a democracy. Those with the capital made the rules and wielded absolute authority. Near the end, Toxco had owned everything from the schools and media to the prisons and police. Anypony unconvinced by the former would have to deal with the latter.

After Toxco, most Manehattians believed that the experiment ended in disaster and wanted nothing further to do with the old system. The reaction to their collective trauma was to become overwhelmingly pro-Equestria and pro-democracy.

But ponies like him never went away. They were always looming in the background, waiting for a chance to seize power and restore authoritarianism. The Corporatist party had still yet to win an election, but they got closer every year as time healed the city’s wounds to sinister intent.

She hated to see him building any inroads at all with the military.

“Either way, we should have learned this lesson thirty years ago,” said Sour Sweet. “We didn’t want to go against Spatial Tear because it was more convenient for us to ignore her and look at the terrible price, we paid for that. Aren’t we just making the same mistake with Crater Cemetery?”

“False equivalency.” Second Term flicked his cigar, intending, but failing, to get some of the ash on Sour Sweet. “And you learned the wrong lesson, besides. The problem was that the Manehattan Electric Company sided with a witch, with the forces of darkness. You are the one refusing to learn from history, wanting to run in there and capitulate to these spooks.”

“The word spook is a slur.”

“I’m aware of that.” That smug little smirk!

“Do you have any idea how difficult ponies like you make my job?!” Sour Sweet raised her voice. “We could all be reasonable and cooperate and that’d save far more lives than your tough-pony act. But no! You have to–”

“Lieutenant.” The colonel didn’t raise his voice much.

Second was still smiling, thinking he’d ‘won’ that alteration. Sour Sweet had no choice but to let him believe that for now.

“Forgive me.” Sour Sweet composed herself.

“Thank you, again.” The colonel turned to his guest. “But I would prefer for you to wait outside.”

Thankfully, he felt victorious enough to oblige. Even with him gone, the colonel didn’t give her his full attention, instead of looking down at some papers.

“Believe me, I’ve heard your arguments.” He rubbed his forehead. “Unless you have something new to report–”

“I do. I finally managed to get one of the ghosts to cooperate with me.”

“Oh?” At last, the colonel straightened up and turned his ears to her.

Getting even that far was something the colonel had been utterly convinced was impossible. He told her as much two years ago when she’d been ‘promoted’ to wall duty. The deck had certainly been stacked against her, what with the reputation and culture Lieutenant Snapping Turtle had fostered.

The colonel didn’t need to know it was a worm friend who talked. He likely wouldn’t even know what that word meant had Sour Sweet brought it up.

“The cult of Night Feather appears to have close ties with the origins of Crater Cemetery,” Sour Sweet reported. “Two former members are in the city as we speak. My initial research shows we have a classified file on them. My station requires me to look into any ghost-related threats to our city. In light of that, I’m requesting access to the classified information we have on this cult.”

The colonel tapped his hoof a few times on the paper as he considered it. Each tap felt longer than the last as he let Sour Sweet’s shot dangle in the air.

“And are you going to turn around and give this classified information to the ghosts?” he asked.

“What? No! Of course not! Though I do think it would be helpful–”

“That’s enough.” He stopped her there. “I’ll have somepony else research this matter. Thank you for your report. Dismissed.”

“Sir! The chance to build a–”

“I said you were dismissed. Thank you.”

Sour Sweet clenched her jaw shut. She felt as though it were taking a vice grip to keep her face from contorting in anger.

Stiffly, she turned and marched out of there. The only thing keeping her from exploding as soon as she reached the other side of the door was the knowledge this wasn’t over. He may be too pig-headed to understand, but Sour Sweet wouldn’t stop here!

‘Save the activism for her own time’.

“Alright.” Sour Sweet sat down at her desk. She opened her draw roughly enough to scatter her supplies. She threw a piece of stationary down and picked up her pen. “Here I am on my own time.”

Nopony around here understood the importance of what Sour Sweet was trying to accomplish. Ponies were constantly working against her. If the colonel didn’t see the importance of this act, somepony else would. Sour Sweet could go over his head, over the military entirely.

At the end of the day, everypony knew it was the SA that called the shots. At the top of that hierarchy were the S-ranked ponies who had access to far more information than any colonel. The only question was which she should petition for aid.

One choice stood out as the most obvious. The youngest pony to ever reach rank S, known as a luminary prodigy. The most outspoken firebrand among them.

Dear Nailbat,

16. Recruitment

Zest knew how one of those ‘the end is neigh’ preachers felt. She had a sign to that effect near the edge of the shopping district. Sugarcoat had another stand on the other end while Indigo put up ads through the city and went actively looking for ghosts.

After a few hours and a dozen or so ponies laughing at her, Zest finally found an interested pony in Wallflower Blush. Interestingly, the green-on-green ex-earth pony came from the west, meaning she passed Sugarcoat but decided to talk to Zest instead. Zest got the impression this pony was too nervous to go straight to the specter.

Her demeanor could kindly be described as ‘shy’. Not once did her ears get to full mast. They struggled to rise out of contact with her head, even. She had awfully messy hair and kept her eyes perpetually downcast.

She had an unfashionable sweater grafted onto her. It looked itchy. Zest felt sorry for her based on that alone. Being stuck forever in an itchy sweater had to be a fate worse than death. Yet, it was like Wallflower Blush was trying to top it, pelting Zest with ever more pathetic beats of her life story.

“I think I was killed by like, a potato or something?” Wallflower tapped her hooves together.

“Uh.” Zest kept one hoof on her headphones, unsure of how to react to this increasingly sad story.

Zest understood more about ghost etiquette now. If the subject of their death wasn’t sensitive to them, they’d tell you shortly after introducing themselves. It wasn’t at all weird to announce it like that. Not telling you left a bit of suspicion in the air.

Either way, you did not ask another ghost how they died. Even the ones who were about to just blurt it out would get annoyed.

“But I lived out in the woods so nopony even noticed I died for over a year,” Wallflower carried on. “My body was still there when I came back the following winter. I had to bury myself.”

Zest could only frown and slowly tilt her head to one side. She’d exhausted her supply of ‘that sounds terrible’s for the day.

“Hold on. Somepony killed you with a potato?” Zest zeroed in on the one thing she could. At least, she didn’t think it was a faux pas to ask for clarification. “They must have thrown it pretty hard.”

“No.” Wallflower rubbed the back of her head. “It was my fault. I think. Anyway, my life didn’t change very much after I died. I never talked to anypony before so it was like–”

“You’re saying you choked on a potato?” Zest couldn’t help but interrupt again. “Those tend to be pretty mushy.”

“No. Like potatoes start emitting deadly solanine gas if they’re stored wrong. I just walked into my cellar and dropped dead. I can’t think of anything else it could have been. The potatoes looked like they went bad.”

“Ouch.” Zest had no idea potatoes could be so deadly.

“I came to the city but somehow I feel even more alone than before,” Wallflower said. “I wish I could go back into the woods and hide but it’s not safe anymore.”

“So like.” Zest’s head reached the furthest it could tilt. “Did you want to join the Shadowbolts or what?”

For a brief second her ears perked up until they were nearly level, but fell back down again.

“Yeah. I guess it’s gotta be better than here. Though I understand if you think I suck too much to join.”

“I don’t even know if there is a bar.” Zest considered the question for the first time. Sugarcoat just told her to bring back any ghost that wasn’t a psychopath. “You’re grafted, the rest of us are grafted so maybe that’s enough. What kind of ghost are you anyway?”

“I’m a schwarzgeist. We’re the only type of ghost that can possess living ponies. I guess that’s my ‘thing’.”

“Oh!” Zest smacked one hoof on top of the other. That was on the short list of ghosts Zest recognized even before dying. “I know that type! You guys show up in movies all the time! Like that one where the schwarzgeist possesses that narcolept and goes on a killing spree. Or in Goregeist where the geist makes sleeping ponies decapitate themselves in a killing spree. Oh! Or the one that’s literally called Killing Spree.”

“Yeah.” Wallflower put her forehooves together and inhaled. “Like in those movies.”

“You know, you don’t even notice ghosts are always the bad guy in movies until you become one.” Zest laughed, turning up a hoof. “That sounds like an incredibly useful power, though! It’s overpowered enough for you to be the villain of a hundred horror movies!”

“If you think about it, it’s not like– I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any practical–”

“Oh! Can you do the thing where you make their head spin around?”

“Yes? But I can’t even imagine a single situation where I’d ever–”

“And you can make them puke?”

“Maybe if I stuck something down their throats? I don’t normally need to make predeads vomit, though.”

“The possibilities are endless!”

“Not- not really? I mean. I can also possess animals but that’s also a little–”

“Okay! That settles it!” Zest grabbed the sleeve of her sweater. “You’re in! If Sugarcoat says so, I mean.”

Zest began shoving her in the right direction. Wallflower pulled her aura in close. She didn’t budge an inch as Zest pushed her down a block to where Sugarcoat waited.

Wallflower somehow found it in herself to shrink away even more the moment Sugarcoat began to size her up.

“Sugarcoat look! I got one!” Zest held Wallflower up for Sugarcoat to see. Ghosts were nearly weightless to fellow ghosts, so she was able to give her a little shake even. “Go on, tell her you want to be a Shadowbolt.”

“Uh!” Wallflower looked at Sugarcoat. Her mouth was open but nothing was coming out.

Sugarcoat looked at her, blinked, then flicked her eyes to Zest.

“She was working just a minute ago!” Zest waved her hooves. She flew out in front of Wallflower, desperate to turn her back on and save herself some embarrassment. “Are you scared of big ghosts like specters?”

“I just normally need time to prepare before talking to a new pony,” Wallflower said through her teeth. “Especially if it’s a specter.”

Wallflower winced and inhaled slowly.

“Okay!” Wallflower exhaled and straightened up. “I’m–”

“Hold everything!”

Indigo appeared out of nowhere. She was a phantom so that happened sometimes. The only question was how long Indigo had been nearby.

“Check out who I found!” Indigo pointed to the side with both hooves.

A black blur fell to the exact spot and from it rose an unfamiliar ghost. What struck Zest first was that this ghost had a comically strong shadow that kept its shape on the floor. Ghosts didn’t normally have shadows, let alone at night. Yet below this ghost was the exact outline of a pony on the ground without any light source to create or distort its shape.

This was the most heavily grafted ghost Zest had ever seen. Not only did she have glasses and tiny skull charms keeping her pigtails in place, but she had an entire black cloak and a set of boots on! Zest herself could feel it when somepony touched her headphones, so maybe she could still feel things through the boots?

Beneath the costume was another green pony, though her fur was much more yellow and her hair a shade bluer than Wallflower’s had been. She quickly spread one wing, revealing herself to be a pegasus, and commanding the shadows pooled around her to rise.

They rose up in streams, spiraling around her in a display reminiscent of a water fountain. The blackness pooled overhead, then fell to the ground in a spray of droplets.

The mist landed just before zest, forming a black pool. Then it began to rise again, taking on a much more solid shape this time. Zest quickly realized, thanks to the headphones, that it had become a silhouette of herself. It didn’t stop there either. The shape sharpened, then took on color so that Zest looked upon an copy of herself just a meter away.

Zest blinked and pulled her head back. Her doppelganger did the same in imitation. Zest moved closer, now seeing it more like a reflection that continued to copy her every move. She moved to touch hooves with it to discover this thing didn’t work exactly like a mirror.

The shadow image reached out its right hoof rather than the hoof on Zest’s right so that they wouldn’t meet. Just as she noticed this detail, the reflection broke the act entirely. It stuck its tongue out at Zest and melted back into shadows that pooled underneath the cloaked ghost once more.

“Oh, wow!” Zest’s eyes glittered at the newcomer. “That was really cool! Who is she?”

“It’s Juniper Montage!” Indigo announced.

Juniper took a small bow.

Meanwhile, Wallflower began to shrink into the background.

“Wait who?” Zest asked.

“Juniper Montage?”

“Er.” Zest tapped her headphones a few times. “Who?”

“Argh!” Juniper put a hoof on her forehead and tilted her head back far enough for her hood to fall off. “I’m not even ghost famous anymore?!”

“She’s one of the few ghosts who makes movies,” said Sugarcoat.

“I was a much bigger actor before I got shoved into the tiniest niche market on the planet!” Juniper flared her wings out, sending the cloak billowing behind her as she struck a pose. “I played Daring Do in the original Daring Do movie? Neither of you heard of that?”

“I never cared much for moving pictures,” said Sugarcoat. “They distract the younger generation away from reading.”

Juniper puffed her cheek out and looked at Zest, whose headphones dated her as recently deceased.

“Wasn’t that a silent film?” Zest could barely picture a scene or two from that in her mind.

Wallflower slowly raised a hoof but not nearly fast enough.

“Great! Too old and too young.” Juniper put her hood back on. “I’ll have you know that was the highest grossing silent film of all time. And I was going to be in the first full-length talkie, you know. Then that stupid, stupid bozo mixed up the real gun and the prop gun, and out went my brains! Death ruined my life.”

“And her unfinished business was that movie never being completed,” Indigo explained. “So the two of us snuck into that film vault and burned all the negatives of the footage. Now nopony can ever finish it! It was awesome.”

Juniper gave a curt nod.

“Me, her, and Ziggy must have done eight or nine stealth missions together.” Indigo nudged her with an elbow. “Cause we were all types of shadows.”

“Well, they would be stealth missions for the first few minutes.” Juniper rolled her eyes.

“We saved that rabbit without getting spotted!”

“A bit melodramatic to call that one a mission.”

Zest turned from Indigo to Juniper as they spoke in turn, her curiosity growing steadily.

“So wait.” Zest crisscrossed her hooves pointing to both of them at once. “You two know each other?”

“Yeah, sure!” Indigo put a foreleg over Juniper’s withers. “I’ve been all over the place. Thought they already got all of my old friends but I guess Juniper got here in time. And now we got a fourth member of the Shadowbolts!”

“Whoa.” Juniper pushed Indigo away. “I wanted to see your fraid. I never said I’d join.”

“Oh, come on. You’re seriously gonna stand in the middle of the bullseye?”

“I went from millions of ponies to watching my movies to thousands and now I’m lucky if I break a hundred after that little war.” Juniper huffed. “I’m not looking forward to downgrading to an audience of what? Three?”

“Four,” Wallflower squeaked.

“No matter where you live you ain’t gonna be a star again until all this business is settled,” Indigo argued. “But if you come with me, we can have some cool adventures again.”

“You may get more appreciation coming with us,” said Sugarcoat. “If that’s what you’re after, your abilities could be useful to us.”

This argument carried more weight than getting out of the line of fire did. Juniper took a moment to consider it.

“I’ll think about it.” Juniper looked off to one side.

Zest had a good idea where she was looking. When a ghost from Crater Cemetery was anywhere near Zest, she could tell what direction they were in. Juniper was looking towards them, not too far off.

“Look, I gotta go for now. We’ll meet up later.”

Juniper sank back into the ground. Zest had trouble telling which way she went.

“I’ll convince her to come with us.” Indigo crossed her forelegs. “Just give me a couple of weeks. Still counts as the first to find a new pony.”

“Not quite!” Zest found Wallflower, who’d backed away several meters, and pulled her over to Indigo. “Look what I got!”

Wallflower tensed up again as Indigo moved forward to inspect her. She poked an unflinching Wallflower a few times before turning to Sugarcoat.

“Are we letting her in?” Indigo asked Sugarcoat. “Do we have any kinda standard for newcomers?”

“Do you have anypony in the city who will vouch for your character, Wallflower?” Sugarcoat asked.

“I.” Wallflower slowly lowered her hoof. “I don’t have a lot of friends.”

“Very well. Move into the hotel room across from ours and put yourself under my command for the rest of the month,” said Sugarcoat. “If you can conduct yourself with any decency for that period, then it will be enough for me.”

“I can probably do that.” Wallflower nodded.

“You know, this is going pretty well.” Zest nodded. “I kinda assumed we wouldn’t get any new members without going through some dangerous adventure. But I guess I was wrong.”

As the sun banished another night of wasted opportunity, Sour Sweet returned to her apartment to rest. It’d been four days since she requested Nailbat’s assistance. From what she heard, he was difficult to get a hold of.

She really shouldn’t be this impatient, but it felt like her opportunity was slipping away with each passing day she couldn’t provide the information requested of her. This should have been so easy and yet…

Maybe she’d write a few more letters just in case.

As Sour Sweet reached up to unlock her door, she paused at an unsettling realization.

The door was unlocked!

Sour Sweet never left the door unlocked. Something was wrong here.

Keeping her breath shallow, Sour Sweet placed her hoof on the nob and turned slowly, certain to make as little noise as possible. With her horn ready, she peeked inside. Nothing in the first room. Sour Sweet crept further inside.

Her apartment was always dark. Needing to sleep in the day made blackout curtains a good investment. Thick curtains all around meant nopony could see inside, either. Sour Sweet carefully swept the room with her eyes and ears both as she moved in deeper.

She opened the door to her study and jumped back. Somepony was in there!

Holding her breath and keeping her head lowered she again peeked into the room. The intruder wasn’t moving. Instead, he was sitting in her office chair. Sleeping rather, with his chin on her writing desk. He was much younger than Sour had expected.

Some colt had snuck into her house?

He couldn’t have been much more than a teenager. Sour Sweet would certainly struggle to call him a stallion. He was very green at any rate. Green fur, a mane of green with a third shade of green forming two stripes down the front.

What’s more, he looked like he’d come off the streets. He wore a ragged green hoodie, bundled tight. Heavy chains snaked around his right foreleg and dripped down into a pile on the floor. Anypony with a nose or eyes could tell he hadn’t bathed in a while

Sour Sweet briefly considered taking pity on what might have been some pauper looking for a place off the streets to sleep. Yet that much seemed unlikely. Manehattan had very little poverty so it struck her as odd to see even that much. It wasn’t even winter.

Before Sour Sweet could get too close, he opened his eyes and lazily drifted them in her direction. The way he looked at her, so casually and without any concern at all. Either he was completely insane or had been through far more tense situations than anypony his age should.

“I’m going to give you a chance to explain why you’re here,” said Sour Sweet. “Make any sudden movements and I’ll attack.”

“Didn’t you ask for my help?” He rubbed his eyes. “And no offense, but I don’t think you can take me.”

As he straightened up, Sour Sweet noticed a detail she’d missed at first. He had an SA pin attached to his hoodie. A red phoenix in a gold circle with an S on top of it.

Wearing that without being rank S was illegal, not that it would stop a pony willing to break into her house.

There was one thing he couldn’t fake, though. Nailbat possessed a trademark weapon, his own namesake, a baseball bat cursed by The Darklord himself. Sour Sweet followed the chain down to the ground and across the floor. There, at the end of it, she found the legendary weapon, a bat now covered in nails.

From what she understood, it could be easily swung at near the speed of light. Attempting to do so would tear the head or leg off any pony who tried to use it, the resulting shockwave and fireball killing them soon after. Nailbat alone had found means of wielding it with relative safety.

She doubted some foal had the resources to get a solid gold badge and a replica of the weapon that so perfectly matched the real one.

“Wait! You’re Nailbat?” Sour Sweet looked him over from hoof to mane once more, still struggling to believe it. “I heard you were young, but–”

How old was he again? 19? He looked young for even that age.

And yet he outranked the fifty-year-old colonel! Being rank S gave him arguably more power than even a top general.

That’s what you got in a system that propelled the strongest to the top with little regard for anything else. Nopony could deny that Nailbat was strong. He had been the one to stop the tarrasque when the behemoth came to Canterlot, blowing it clean off the mountain with that very bat.

He must have been only sixteen back then.

“Does this help?” He pulled the hood over his head. A glamor spell made most of his face disappear, all of it but his eyes which turned red and began to glow dimly. Now he looked as he did in all the photographs Sour Sweet had seen of him.

Sour Sweet nodded, no longer doubting his identity.

“This was faster than I was expecting,” Sour Sweet admitted. “I wasn’t expecting you to illegally break into my house, either.”

“I just happened to be in the area,” he said. “And no one else was expecting me to break into your house by the looks of things.”

Sour Sweet’s ears swiveled about the room on the implications of that.

“Would they?” She asked. “I mean, the only one breaking the law here is you.”

“I left the door unlocked. I thought that would be enough for you to figure it out. If you still haven’t pieced it together there’s a bit of a situation. I might be able to help you out with your thing, but I need to decide if you’re at all useful first.”

Nailbat motioned for her to take a seat. In her own house. Sour Sweet stood in place with her jaw shut tight. She turned her eyes to the couch, then sternly back to Nailbat.

Technically, Nailbat wasn’t in the military and Sour Sweet wasn’t on duty. Unlike with the colonel, she could be as frank as she wanted. But to have somepony so important this close… she held her tongue for now.

“What do you mean a situation?” Sour Sweet asked. “Are you going to give me the information I requested or not?”

“The question is more so how am I going to give it to you.” Nailbat leaned against the arm of the office chair. He began tapping the desk with one hoof. “For that, I need to understand your situation better. Please tell me everything that happened in as much detail as possible.”

Sour Sweet paused for a moment. She’d heard Nailbat was a schemer. She’d also heard he was some prodigious genius. Maybe the former wasn’t so bad so long as he was on the same side as you.

She went into her explanation. Nailbat began clicking a pen as he listened.

He constantly interrupted her story, asking her for all sorts of seemingly useless details. Part of Sour Sweet wondered if he was just asking them to stroke his own ego.

The questioning went on until the sun had risen into proper daylight. What should have taken five minutes lasted over an hour.

“If you were Crater Cemetery, how would you destroy Old Manehattan?” Nailbat seemed more preoccupied with the pen than with anything relevant. “They can’t attack the city directly and don’t want Equestria to declare war on them. So…”

The question came out of nowhere. He’d been asking her plenty about small details but this was in a completely different vein. Sour Sweet couldn’t shake the feeling that this was some manner of test. He waited for a long time, clicking the pen, not elaborating but giving Sour Sweet plenty of time to consider it.

She supposed the alliance with Equestria was the main barrier here, as other ghosts wouldn’t need to fear the pollution. Though ‘alliance’ seemed an exaggeration on most days. It was far too fragile to be troubling in Sour Sweet’s opinion.

And that was it, wasn’t it? The main security vulnerability.

“They could try to weaken our alliance?” Sour Sweet guessed.

“Ah, good enough.” Nailbat put the pen down at last. “Yes. Consider this. What if Crater Cemetery had Equestria destroy Old Manehattan for them? Things are already somewhat tense here. They have plenty of ghosts at their disposal.”

Again his attention wandered without further elaboration. Thankfully, Sour Sweet was just quick enough to see where this might be going.

“Hold on!” Sour Sweet shook her head. “Are you insinuating that they plan on having one of their ghosts… kill somepony or something? And blame in on Old Manehattan?”

“Aria Blaze…” Nailbat closed his eyes deeply, as though trying to get back to sleep. “Is a banshee sent by Crater Cemetery. She’s in the city right now. She was nearly forced, by mind control, to freeze some filly to death yesterday. I forced her to turn around but she’s still in the city.”

“If you witnessed an attempted murder–”

“She’ll be dealt with. Carefully.” He stressed the last word. “I’d rather not kill somepony who’s a victim herself. It wouldn’t solve the real threat besides. They can just keep sending more assassins.”

“Look, we’re not completely stupid! I’m confident we can at least tell the difference between two different cities. Especially if you know, specifically, who committed the murder.”

“Unless,” Nailbat leaned forward, “there were traitors about.”

Sour Sweet felt that same chill she had upon realizing her door was unlocked.

“Who are you talking about? If what you’re saying is true then we need to arrest them immediately. Don’t you have the authority to detain them?”

“Well I’m quite certain I already know one of them.” Nailbat jumped off the chair and walked over to the windows. He lifted one of the curtains just enough to peek outside. “But I don’t know all of them yet. I have reason to believe there are saboteurs on both sides of the wall. And merely arresting them won’t solve our real problem, will it? This festering distrust would remain. It would only be a matter of time until somepony else found use for it.”

He didn’t need to make any attempt to convince Sour Sweet. Normally she was the one making those talking points.

“I think, if we’re going to have any chance of stopping this enemy from advancing any closer, we’ll need to dial down the animosity between the two sides of the wall.” Nailbat pointed his chained hoof at her. “You can help with that.”

Sour Sweet opened her mouth to jump at the opportunity. Finally, somepony in power wanted to help her with what she’d been trying to accomplish all along. She had no hesitation.

Yet Nailbat stopped her from responding so quickly.

“I’m only going to give you one warning here. This is a major chance for you to make a change in the world. However, if you help me you’ll be making an incredibly dangerous enemy. You might not die today, but your life will be in danger so long as Crater Cemetery stands. Your chance of living until the end is maybe less than fifty percent. I can’t protect you the whole time.”

If Nailbat expected that to deter her in the slightest he was far off the mark. Sour Sweet understood how dangerous this ghost was. In her opinion, it threatened everypony regardless of whether they picked a fight or tried to hide.

“I was to do my part to fight against Crater Cemetery because they’re dangerous.” Sour Sweet stood resolute.

He made the tiniest little sound of acknowledgment.

“I suppose the first order of business is the information you requested,” said Nailbat. “Obviously, I can’t openly share those with your ghost friends. I’d rather hand over the information in a way that postures you as an ally and discredits those working against our aim... the would-be saboteurs specifically. You explained that someone else was given the job of ‘looking into’ this. Maybe it would be convenient for us if they just happened to misplace the files?”

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.”

18. Sting

Once again, Zest found herself in Meltdown’s throne room, pools of mercury at either side as his elemental strike force stood in assembly. She didn’t have much hope of any actual help, Meltdown’s haggard expression made it clear his patience with their constant pestering was nearing its end. But actual help wasn’t why they were here.

“The meeting is going to take place on the coast, near the shipwrecked battleships,” said Sugarcoat. “If we can get any support in this mission–”

Meltdown waved her off right there.

“I’m not going to do anything about this,” said Meltdown. “First of all, I wouldn’t be so eager to trust the ponies on the other side of the wall. We’ll always be beneath them. If she’s really so crafty, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re being manipulated just the same as the pony you intend to mug.”

“Come on!” Zest pleaded to Meltdown. “The whole world is in danger and we have a chance to do something about it.”

“I only have a responsibility to the ponies on my side of the wall,” said Meltdown. “I don’t have the resources to worry about the entire world.”

“Well maybe if you cared a little about them, they’d be more likely to care about you,” said Zest.

“Don’t both-sides this.” Meltdown deadpanned at her. “I’m not oppressing anyone. They’re the ones with the power to ‘be nice’ here. Go lecture your new friend.”

“But Sour Sweet says you won’t even talk to her,” said Zest, “and she’s willing to work with us! If we do nothing and they go through with their plans, Equestria could turn on us.”

“Equestria isn’t the real threat to us and frankly I hardly care what they think at this point.” Meltdown’s voice grew darker as he moved to the throne. “They’ll never be able to take our city. It is Crater Cemetery that concerns me. I can’t do anything that will encourage them to take action.”

“From the sound of things, they’re already trying to undermine you,” Sugarcoat warned.

Meltdown considered the idea but shook his head.

“I won’t stop you, either,” he said. “But understand that if anything happens, I’ll have no choice but to banish all of you forever. Believe me, I won’t hesitate to throw all of you under the train if things go poorly.”

“I suppose that would be worth it.” Sugarcoat bowed her head. “Thank you.”

Despite getting shut down, Zest couldn’t help but smile. The trap had been set!

They were going to tell each group that the sting operation was at a different location, carefully leaving out the part that a traitor might be lurking on their side as well. Of course, the traitor would inevitably hear and run off to tell Aria and Sonata. When one of the banshees went to investigate the fake spot, they’d reveal which group the traitor belonged to.

If they showed up near all those shipwrecked battleships, that meant it was one of the elemental strike force guys. Across from the collapsed department store would mean it was one of the water elementals, near the main predead base meant one of the regular guards.

And here, back in the shopping district where they’d gotten the attention of a small crowd.

“Anypony who’s interested should meet us at the far west end of the wall,” Zest called out to them.

Indigo stayed invisible to better take note of the ponies in the crowd. Wallflower moved off to the side, watching from another angle. She had an almost supernatural ability to disappear into a crowd. Sugarcoat focused on watching for any suspicious aura activity.

That left Zest to give the speech herself. They didn’t actually want a small army of ponies coming with them, so she purposely made it sound more dangerous than it was.

“I won’t pretend like this isn’t going to earn us the wrath of Crater Cemetery,” Zest warned. She could see that one line lost what little interest there was to start with. “But we may not get another chance to fight back against them!”

Predictably, no ghosts agreed to go along. But the trap was set if the traitor was among the crowd. The ponies dispersed without one argument Zest hadn’t already heard. That was fine, she knew she’d have to prove it to them.

Indigo and Wallflower returned, carrying notebooks where they recorded the cutie marks of each pony they’d seen near every location. Indigo was the more skilled of the two at espionage and had finished hers while Wallflower still struggled to jot hers down before the memory faded.

“Most of the city should have heard us by now.” Sugarcoat looked off to one side, the direction where the two banshees were. They’d been careful not to get anywhere near them. “There are still three spots I’d like to hit, but those two haven’t moved from the northern district for some time.”

“Sour Sweet’s way smarter than I thought she’d be,” Zest added. “It’s like we’re in a spy movie! But what if a whole bunch of ponies spread rumors to them?”

“Everypony here hates them,” Indigo pointed out. “Nopony but the idiot traitor would blab on us. Not this fast, anyway.”

Sugarcoat turned her head and Zest picked up why just a moment later. A ghost was rushing towards them.

By now, Zest’s aura sensing was good enough to recognize ponies she was familiar with. She could pick out Sugarcoat or Indigo easily enough. Meltdown only by how big his aura was. Other than that, she could just barely make out the distinction between Wallflower’s and that of one more pony.

Zest smiled upon seeing her guess was correct when the most heavily clothed ghost in town appeared through a building wall. Juniper joined the group with no real hesitation. Maybe she’d decide to be a Shadowbolt if this went well?

“I hear you’ve been running around giving speeches,” said Juniper. “Did I just miss one?”

She was one of the few ponies left who hadn’t heard them out yet, come to think of it. They estimated there were less than twenty left in the city.

“Juniper!” Indigo spread her forelegs and wings wide to receive her. “Surely you’re coming with us!”

“Coming where?” Juniper asked. “I thought you were staying here a few more weeks.”

“Maybe not. Might get banished, but it’ll be worth it. The mission we’re on could be our one chance to get a dig on Crater Cemetery.”

“You want me to do something that could get me banished?” Juniper asked. “We’re going to piss off Crater Cemetery and Old Manehattan this time?”

“When’d you become such a chicken?” Indigo swatted her hood. “I’ve accepted the fact I’ll probably get horribly slaughtered in the end. But if I get one point on that bitch on the way out, then I can die happy. Ziggy would feel the same way!”

Invoking that name managed to give Juniper some pause and left her unable to look Indigo in the eyes.

“Hey, who’s this Ziggy pony you keep mentioning?” Zest looked back and forth between the two of them. “Should we be looking for him?”

Indigo smiled a sad smile and shook her head.

“Ziggy is no longer with us.” Indigo bowed her head in respect, prompting Juniper to do likewise, then hit her chest twice with a hoof. “But he died the way he lived– a screaming maniac.”

“His last word was ‘blarg’,” Juniper added. The two shadows chuckled at that.

Juniper hummed as she kept her head and eyes down. After a moment of silence, she opened her eyes again.

“I suppose Ziggy would want me to go with you.” Juniper grasped one of her pigtails and stroked it as she agonized over the decision. “I guess anything I do at this point is stupid and dangerous by default. I was leaning towards leaving with you three anyway.”

Zest’s ears perked up.

“I’ll grant you sanctuary for as long as we can hold out,” Sugarcoat promised.

“Alright.” Juniper let go of her mane. “I’ll join the Shadowbolts so long as this ‘mission’ isn’t a total embarrassment.”

“Yeah!” Zest pumped her hoof in the air and did a little twirl. “Ghost get!”

Then Zest grabbed her headphones and started singing a little victory jingle consisting of ‘duns’ and ‘nuns’ as she bobbed her headphone back.

Juniper gave Indigo a curious look.

“Zest is cool!” Indigo put a foreleg over Juniper. “Just give her a shot. Heh! I’m glad I managed to keep one of my old friends around. We got a cool spot up north, you’ll see.”

“Another pony is joining?” Wallflower looked up from her book. The poor thing’s ears had been pinned down since they first learned of this dangerous mission, but they at last relaxed a little. “That’s good. I finished writing them all down. Here. Look.”

Wallflower handed the book to Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat flipped through the notebook while Wallflower nervously tapped her hooves together. She waited until the specter had finished to speak up.

“Uh!” Wallflower gestured over to Juniper. “She probably knows the names of the ponies in town better than the rest of us. Maybe we should ask her to write the ones she knows under the right cutie marks now? In case we have to run right away and can’t ask for Meltdown’s help later.”

“That’s a good idea.” Sugarcoat nodded and handed the book over to Juniper.

“Sure, fine.” Juniper took the book and flipped through the pages. She stopped to prod at one of the pages. “How long have you been here for, though? Shouldn’t you know who Bit Axe is, at least?”

“Who?”

“The lumber guy?”

“Oh.” Wallflower looked away to hide her embarrassment. “I know his face. I’ve been here over a year, but I don’t really… talk much.”

“Daw!” Zest had to rush over there and grab her new friend in a hug right away. “Don’t worry! It’s okay if you were too shy to make friends before because now you’re my friend!”

Zest gave her a single nuzzle and felt the tension in Wallflower.

“I-I am?” Wallflower slowly turned her eyes to Sugarcoat for confirmation as Zest continued to nuzzle her.

“I’m impressed you’ve managed to push yourself through this despite being so afraid.” Sugarcoat nodded. “If you stick to the course, I’ll allow you to be a Shadowbolt.”

“Yeah, you know I honestly expected you to complain or run away the second you heard about this.” Indigo gave her a playful jab. “But turns out you got more guts than Juniper!”

“Hey!” Juniper shut the book closed, then swatted it at Indigo’s head. It passed straight through, but Indigo made a pratfall, pretending to get hit anyway. That was all it took to placate Juniper.

Wallflower relaxed a little, Zest could feel it. She could see the slight smile on Wallflower’s face as that barrier eased up ever so slightly. Moments later, she sobbed and became aware of how big her tears had gotten.

The emotion was too much for her and she turned away.

“I’m sorry.” Wallflower whipped away her tears. “I’m just always so scared to talk to other ponies. I was never– I’ve never really felt like I was part of something before.”

“Ponies are a herd species,” Sugarcoat nodded. “I can understand how that could be painful.”

“But I won’t let you be alone again!” Zest put a hoof on her headphones and gave her slickest smirk. “You know, if we don’t die tonight.”

“We’ve wasted enough time talking about feelings.” Sugarcoat started towards their next location. “We don’t have long left.”

Juniper spent most of the next few hours fussing over that book. They knew that exactly one thousand two hundred and fifteen ghosts were living in the city from the record books. From their notes, they could confirm that the vast majority had heard them directly.

At long last, the time for the strike operation had come. Just after three in the morning, the Shadowbolts started moving in the general direction but didn’t get too close.

The Banshees had moved ahead of them, as predicted. Sugarcoat pulsed her aura to try and suss out their specific location. The others would move in once they saw.

“Something’s wrong.” Sugarcoat stopped them.

Sugarcoat looked to Indigo and Zest, gesturing them to move forward, then more sternly at the two new recruits, signaling them to stay put.

Zest looked straight ahead. But that would be the right meeting spot. She refused to think of what this might mean just right. There may have been a misunderstanding still.

The two of them moved underground for a way before popping their heads out in the shadow of the wall.

In the far distance, on the very top, stood a lone pegasus– pink with pigtails. Zest could smell warm blood that wasn’t being pumped by a heart– fresh blood on the ground. She could feel an aura coming from that lone pony and one more from the other side of the wall.

That pegasus, Aria, looked right down at them! She must have noticed their auras as well.

Indigo and Zest went back under and rushed back to Sugarcoat.

“Yeah,” Indigo confirmed their fears. “It’s her.”

But the only ghosts who knew the correct spot were the five ponies right here. That meant the traitor had to be one of the five of them!

Zest looked over her shoulder at Juniper and Wallflower, both with looks of horror on their faces.

Or more specifically, it was one of those two.

19. Non-living.

“It’s you!” Juniper turned and shoved her hoof against Wallflower’s chest. “It had to be one of the five of us! It can’t be those three since they’ve been gone for months! That leaves the two of us and I know it wasn’t me.”

“What! N-no!” Wallflower backed up and shook her head. “I mean! I know it wasn’t me so–”

“Don’t try to pretend this was Juniper!” Indigo joined her old friend’s side immediately. “I know Juniper isn’t stupid enough to get suckered in by their promises.”

“B-but!” Wallflower was already hyperventilating.

“Yeah!” Indigo pressed her muzzle against Wallflower’s. “And you know what else? I looked it up and that thing about potatoes releasing solanine gas probably isn’t true. I wasn’t going to say anything before but now?”

“What? But then what killed me?!” Wallflower shifted her eyes uncomfortable.

Wallflower trembled, terrified. She had nopony to be her advocate, not even herself, so Zest decided to give Wallflower that much just in case.

“We don’t know that for sure, yet!” Zest flew to Wallflower’s side. “Wallflower was with us the whole time. How could she have given a message to them?”

“That is a good question.” Sugarcoat looked to Indigo. “Whereas Juniper could have heard about it second-hoof. Though we’d need to explain how she knew of the correct spot before then.”

Indigo scrunched her nose, taking personal offense that one of her friends was being accused of something.

“Y-yeah! There’s no way I could have gotten a message to them.” Wallflower smiled and nodded. Then she looked right at the notebook Juniper was carrying, the one with their list of everypony who heard each location.

It was way too obvious. Zest felt like she knew where this was headed, but…

“The notebook!” Indigo snatched it from Juniper. She flipped through the pages rapidly. “I bet. There! Look here!”

Indigo held out the notebook. One of the pages had been torn out.

Oh no!

Zest knew exactly what happened now. This was her one area of expertise. But should she say something? Things might turn out better if she kept her mouth shut for a second.

“She cut out a page, wrote a note, and dropped it,” Indigo concluded.

“I don’t think that means what you think it does,” Sugarcoat sighed. “I checked the notebook before she handed it off to Juniper. There wasn’t a page missing back then.”

Indigo blinked, briefly stunned by the revelation.

“What?!” Juniper tore the notebook back and looked at the ripped page. “I did not–! This is some kind of trick! Slight of hoof! I would never–!”

“Yeah!” Indigo nodded her determination already back.

“But there’s no other way, right?” Wallflower looked back at the others. “It had to be–”

“As if! She’s trying to delay us.” Juniper shot Wallflower one last look and threw the notebook aside in frustration. “Come on, Indigo. We can’t wait here any longer or they’ll get away. Your other friends can play detective or whatever.”

Juniper charged off, forcing Indigo’s hoof.

The only thing that could tear Indigo away from one of her friends was another one of her friends. She looked torn between staying with the Shadowbolts and charging off with Juniper. Maybe getting into a fight sounded more appealing than being a detective because she ran off, though not without reluctance.

It could have easily been a trap but Sugarcoat simply watched them go. Had she figured it out yet?

“If they were taking advantage of you,” Sugarcoat turned to Wallflower, “then this will be your last chance to confess without serious consequence. If you tell us everything that’s going on, I’ll cover for you.”

Wallflower merely shook her head. It wasn’t going to be that easy.

“I’ll stay with her!” Zest offered. “That way if she’s the traitor, I can keep her from doing anything wrong.”

Sugarcoat frowned at the idea. When had she become so protective of Zest?

“Come on! I can easily beat up Wallflower!” Zest grabbed and jostled the mostly helpless Wallflower, who barely responded by letting her head go limp.

Sugarcoat nodded. Then she flew off, leaving Zest to guard Wallflower.

Zest let out a sigh and looked at the wall. Alright! She was in a good position now.

Stealth mission! It was kind of like the old days!

Indigo and Juniper were both shadows, both able to suppress their auras enough to sneak up on other ghosts and psychics. That was something normally far more difficult. Add to that their abilities, and they made a great stealth unit.

They traveled underground, Indigo shadow-stepping most of the way toward the trench resting beneath the wall. Now they poked their heads up out of it in a spot where the banshees wouldn’t be able to spot them.

Behind her, Indigo could feel Zest staying behind while Sugarcoat decided to move. They must have realized Wallflower was the traitor after all. She’d be sure to rub it in their faces not to insult one of her friends like that. It was so obvious.

Specters had huge auras. There was no way for Sugarcoat to sneak up on those two, so she didn’t try. But the boss was trying to cover for them, moving in from the opposite angle. That’d make it much harder for the banshees to tell they were here.

Still, they had to be careful and assess the situation.

Indigo noticed something worrying about the wall. A hole had been melted into the concrete, one big enough for something much larger than a pony to travel through. A perfectly circular ring had been removed but had since cooled.

Fire?

The only type of ghost that could do that was a fire elemental and those weren’t exactly low profile. Did they sneak one in?

Juniper didn’t say anything, but she did move her hoof in a wide circle. Indigo nodded. If a fire elemental melted through the concrete, it would have been all kinds of messed up, not a perfect circle.

Furthermore, this was way too big to be an entryway for ponies. And a ghost wouldn’t need to destroy the wall in the first place. Unless they had a battle doll in there. That would not be fun.

Worse, they had several objectives. They could go forward and try to intercept the meeting spot, go after the banshees, or…

Indigo sniffed. She could smell that the predeads in this base were in trouble. There was blood on the floor. Hearts were beating too slow and too fast. They were fighting something down there. There were maybe four or five predeads in the base. Four or five still living, that was.

Should she go help them? They’d still be in danger so long as the banshees were present. A banshee could death-curse the living, maybe they already had. Those two were a bigger threat to predeads than any battle doll or whatever that would fit in this place.

That was it! She had to attack the banshees and intercept the patsy with one stroke. And she could do just that.

She mimed some code to Juniper. They’d been through plenty together, she knew the plan. Lull her head to the side, ‘body’, blow slightly, ‘possess’, and pointing up was self-explanatory.

The two moved up through three levels before they were right underneath the Aria and Sonata. Sugarcoat had drawn their attention away. They were so close Indigo could hear their muffled voices.

The blue one, Sonata Dusk, always struck Indigo as the more pathetic of the two sisters so that’s the one she’d take out first. She could hear the older one talking for now.

“They could attack us at any moment so–” Aria began.

Perfect timing!

Indigo flew up from the ground, encased her hoof in ice, and punched Sonata as hard as she could.

“Gah!” Sonata tumbled back.

For a brief moment, Indigo saw her spirit partially thrown out of the body. The chains entangled around both her and it. Those kept her tied to the doll. While Indigo couldn’t get the chains off Sonata herself, she could at least throw them off the doll.

Then she could separate the two.

Indigo carried on by throwing two spikes of ice at Sonata’s wings. They collided and pinned her to the ground momentarily. With her pinned, Indigo charged in to body slam her.

Even with her wings pinned, Sonata managed to react. She curled up into a ball, ready to buck the incoming Indigo. Indigo tried swerving out of the way, only for Sonata to fly out of her body and spin around to get a surprise attack on Indigo.

She slammed a hoof into Indigo’s side, then went for a flurry of punches. Indigo was immediately put on the defensive, struggling to put up a barrier of ice just to protect herself.

Just as Indigo got it under control, Sonata kicked her rear legs forward, pulling her body off the floor via the attached chains. Normally, this wouldn’t collide at all with Indigo, but Sonata put a layer of enchanted ice over it as if flew forward, giving it the ability to hit ghosts.

Indigo flew out of the way, letting it fly past her. Sonata let the body carry her forward, giving her a second chance at punching Indigo. She just barely managed to dodge this one too, and once again, Sonata swung her doll back down at Indigo.

This time it hit, throwing Indigo back to the ground. It took all of her effort to keep herself from going through the floor to where Juniper still hid.

Crap! Indigo hadn’t intended for her to put up much of a fight! She wasn’t used to fighting like this!

Indigo glanced at Aria who appeared unconcerned with their presence.

“Sonata, you’ll have to fight that one by yourself.” Aria moved to the edge of the wall and pulled back her foreleg. “I need to focus on pushing that specter back.”

Sugarcoat was still far off. Aria threw blasts of ice down in her direction, intending to delay her approach as much as possible.

Indigo didn’t want to waste time waiting for Sugarcoat, even if it might only take another minute. She pressed the attack with Sonata.

But Indigo had one more trump card! Juniper was waiting just below for Indigo to give the signal. She just needed to get Sonata to throw her body

“Haha!” Sonata jumped back into her body and landed on the ground with a smile. “What are you even trying to do? You know you can’t win even if you beat me. And it’s not like those predeads will appreciate your help, will they? You’ll be a monster to them no matter how much you help them. This is completely pointless.”

Well she wasn’t wrong about any of that.

“I’m not fighting you because it makes sense!” Indigo threw a foreleg out to the side, encasing it in ice. “I’m doing it because I feel like it!”

Sonata laughed as Indigo charged forward, getting ready to counter. Then Indigo turned invisible.

“Dang it! I forgot they could do that!” Sonata looked in every direction, panicked. “Um!”

The one downside was that she’d still be able to see any ice Indigo created. So Indigo shot it forward at about the same speed she would have approached by anyway. Then she shadow-stepped around to Sonata’s left side.

She managed to hit Sonata with a hard hook to the face this time, followed by the ice spike slamming into her a moment later. Sonata reacted by swinging her body around, slamming it into Indigo.

Indigo managed to turn invisible a second time, but Sonata swung her body around in circles too wildly and too fast for Indigo to dodge. Her only option would have been to go underground, but that wasn’t the plan. Instead she took a few blows, letting Sonata push her back.

Indigo let the last blow carry her off to just the right spot. Sonata pressed the attack by slamming her body down at Indigo while simultaneously throwing forward a blast of ice to cover the escape routes.

“Rat!” Indigo yelled the signal.

Juniper flew up from underground, stabbing the chains connecting Sonata and the doll with a pillar of ice. Indigo jumped forward to hit it from the other angle. Alone, neither of them would be strong enough to pull the chains off the doll but together.

They snapped off hard, the tension sending them whipping about and hitting both of them in the head, momentarily dazing Indigo and Juniper both.

“Ack! Oh no!” Sonata tried flying back into her body, making it there in a second. “Haha! I can just reattach myself instantly so that did nothing! Ha! Ha!”

That was a lie. As if it wasn’t obvious enough, Indigo had seen this before. Now to go for the kill.

Indigo charged forward! She charged into Sonata full force, pushing her out of her body. Sonata didn’t try to dodge it, since it put her at such a huge advantage to intercept a wild attack like that.

The banshee grabbed Indigo with both forelegs, taking control of the force of the blow as she let Indigo push her out of her body. Sonata turned and launched Indigo into the air with the attack’s momentum. Then, knowing Indigo couldn’t regain control in time, threw her forelegs forward, creating a spear of ice.

“Ghek!” The ice hit Indigo hard in the gut! It hurt so freaking much!

A large gash tore off her right side. Most of that half of her torso, her right wing, and foreleg dissipated from the harsh blow. Threads of purple light drifted out of the wound's fuzzy edges as though Indigo were made of unraveling thread. She always wondered what that stuff was.

Thankfully, that would heal… provided she didn’t take a second serious hit and evaporate completely. There needed to be at least twenty-five percent of your ‘body’ left to head in the right direction. Otherwise, you’d slowly dissipate until nothing was left.

It still hurt like heck and her vision blurred slightly as she tried to regain control. Indigo willed herself to become invisible again to try and dissuade Sonata from pressing the attack.

Weary that this was indeed a trick, Sonata turned back to Juniper and now it was her turn to recoil. Not one, but two dolls rested on the ground. A few feet in front of her. Juniper floated just a few feet away, smiling.

That was the power of a shade. They couldn’t shadow step like phantoms, nor were they as good at becoming invisible, but they could project their shadow to create perfect illusions of ponies. There was no way for Sonata to know which was her real body.

Juniper crouched down, ready, not much farther away than Sonata. Sonata would still reach her body first, but if she went for the wrong one…

“So are you feeling lucky?” Juniper asked.

“Gah! I hate luck-based games! I always lose! What do you even want with my body, you sicko?” Sonata turned to Aria. “Aria! Which one do I pick?! Left or– ack!”

Juniper didn’t wait, she went for the one on Sonata’s left. In a panic, Sonata jumped towards the same body. She stopped just short.

“Wait! That’s what you want!” Sonata instead jumped to the body on her right.

The two of them reached their targets at the same time.

Sonata’s target rolled back and stuck its tongue out at her just before she reached it… then melted back into a shadow.

“No!”

Sonata waved her hooves, still trying to catch the fake. Meanwhile, Juniper, now in her body, got up to her feet.

“I got it,” Juniper called up to Indigo. Her voice sounded just like Sonata’s now. “Cover for me!”

“This is a serious violation of privacy!” Sonata shouted at Juniper.

She leaped forward to try and push Juniper back out, but Indigo came back down and smacked the banshee hard back in the head.

Juniper just laughed, slapped Sonata’s flank, then jumped off the wall.

“Aria!”

“I’m busy!” Aria pulled back her foreleg and punched forward just as Sugarcoat arrived.

She just barely managed to part the wave of incoming ice. The surface of the wall to her left and right became buried under four feet of solid ice, but Aria just barely avoided it.

Heck, Indigo barely avoided the attack despite not being the target! She had to shadowstep far to one side to get out of the way.

Sugarcoat created a huge pillar of ice beneath Aria. The banshee tried to avoid, but still got a large portion of he doll’s side torn. Some stuffing flew out as she tried to land on top of the block of ice.

This part of the fight was over. They wouldn’t be able to beat a specter just by themselves. Unless there was more. Aria didn’t look worried enough… something was wrong.

“Aria!” Sonata whined and pointed off at the predead half of the city. “She’s getting away with my body!”

“Let her go.” Arie cocked a smile as she turned to Sugarcoat. “It hardly matters. Does it?”

She smirked over at Indigo who’s heart dropped. Was… Juniper the real traitor? This would be the worst possible time for that to happen but–

Indigo shook her head. No way! Even if Juniper was the traitor, Indigo never turned her back on a friend. She’d drag Juniper back and savagely beat her until she was back to her senses if that somehow happened. But she wouldn’t even entertain the idea until it was beyond certain!

Indigo regained her confidence and faced Aria.

“Don’t look at me like that,” said Aria. “It’s impossible to go against our mistress. Our reason for coming here in the first place… has already been fulfilled. All you managed to do with this half-assed stunt was force us to pull the trigger a few weeks early.”

“Your real plan?” Sugarcoat asked, scanning the area.

“There are other dangers sleeping in this place. Ones that have been here before the ghosts,” said Aria.

A door flew open!

From a small hatch leading down into the wall below came a single pony. It was that lieutenant! Indigo remembered the freckles.

Sour Sweet breathed heavily with only a gas mask for protection. That battle staff levitated weakly by her side as she limped forward. He nose was bleeding, terribly since Indigo could see streaks of blood already down to her chin. And her heart was slowing down.

Poisoned! When whatever barged into the base, it must have brought toxic dust in with it. She might still survive if she got treatment in the next few hours. But already she looked on the verge of collapse. Her eyes lacked focus. She seemed to struggle just to keep them on Sugarcoat.

“It’s… you, right?” She panted.

“What’s happening?” Sugarcoat nodded.

“The – the sting!” Sour Sweet swallowed. “Forget about it! We have something far more urgent to worry about! We have to stop… If even one of them gets through!”

Behind her, Indigo heard a familiar sound, one she’d hoped to never hear again. The rapid ‘vzzzt’ and stomp. It sounded horrible and that was on purpose. Toxco made them sound loud, gave them the stereotypical glowing red eyes, did everything they could to make them as terrifying looking as possible.

Though she hadn’t done much with it, Indigo had spent nearly a month specifically training to fight these weapons specifically. Yet…

All of them were supposed to have been destroyed long ago! All of them but the ones smuggled out of the city.

But she couldn’t deny it right in front of her face. The blood red eyes glowing all too intensely in the darkness behind Sour Sweet. The smell of rapidly heating metal. Then the doorway melting to make way for its huge frame.

Zest took a deep breath before turning to Wallflower. Now that they were alone…

“Okay, I guess I have to interrogate you,” said Zest. She picked up the notebook and looked at how sloppily Wallflower had filled it out. She’d been writing way too fast, that was one of the signs. “You had two notebooks, didn’t you? You dropped the first one back there and handed Juniper one with the page torn out to frame her.”

“What?!” Wallflower shook her head way too rapidly. “No. No. No!”

“Look, I used to be a smuggler! I may not know about math and history or whatever, but I know how these tricks work,” said Zest. “Do you know how many times I’ve pulled almost this exact same thing?”

“You don’t understand!” Wallflower backed up.

“No, that’s the thing! I probably do,” said Zest. “Look, I didn’t immediately blow you out because I wanted to give you a chance, okay? I know what it’s like. I got pressed into working for some bad ponies too, you know.”

“You. Did?” Wallflower tilted her head.

“Yeah.” Zest closed her eyes. She didn’t like telling the story, but… well she still didn’t have to give all the facts. “They used to be part of the Bloodstorm Cartel before it broke up. When I was twelve, somepony offered me a job delivering packages around town. But it turned out the packages had illegal contraband in them. And they took pictures of me delivering it and started saying they’d turn all this evidence into the police if I stopped working for them and… I guess things got away from me after that. My ‘job’ seemed kind of normal. I didn’t know anypony outside the cartel anymore and…”

Wallflower watched her, ears lowered and sympathy enough to encourage.

“I started doing more and more messed up stuff. Each step seemed so small, but eventually, I got to a point where I’m running– well I got to a point I couldn’t live with myself I basically killed myself because that was the only way out I saw!” Zest ran a hoof through her mane. “So that’s why – well if something like that happened to you, then I get it! People like them take advantage of ponies like us. This sort of thing can sneak up on you. I should technically be in prison for two hundred years, so I can’t judge you. But I got out of it and I’ll help you get out too if you want.”

Zest held out her hoof, so sure in the moment Wallflower would rush to switch sides. That’s what Zest would have done had somepony, anypony, given her any kind of offer like this a year ago. If she could give that to somepony else, surely that would balance all of her bad deeds out!

“Why are you so sure they’re taking advantage of me?” Wallflower looked darkly to the ground.

“No offense.” Zest thought carefully of how to word this. “You have the same kind of, I dunno, doomed energy I did when I was working for the cartel? Look, you’re obviously lonely and I know what it’s like to have your entire social circle be deranged criminals who–”

“Everypony always thinks I’m so pathetic and helpless!” Wallflower shouted at her, suddenly far bolder than Zest had ever seen her. Still, she had tears in her eyes and was already panting just from that single outburst. “But I’m not some idiot being duped, okay? I… I believe in their cause!”

Wallflower swallowed and straightened up defiantly. Even still, Zest could hardly take such a declaration seriously.

“What cause?! The cause of getting us all killed? They’re going to enslave all the ghosts and kill everypony else. Even I know that and I’m an idiot.”

“No! See! They’re not going to kill anypony!” Wallflower smiled, wildly, desperately. “No one has to die. We’re going to save everypony.”

“Eh heh.” Zest’s eye twitched. Well, at least she admitted it. Clearly brainwashed or something, though. “I really think you were lied to.”

“No! Think about it. Those two know a way to make sure you become a ghost when you die. I’ve seen it like ten times. So… if that’s the case then we can all be ghosts! Everypony will become a ghost and they’ll live far longer and there won’t be any more hatred since we’ll all be the same.”

“Even if that’s true, we’d all be under mind control! Forced to be literal slaves for an evil god!”

“And is that really so bad?”

“Yes!”

“No! Because we’d all be part of something greater! Nopony would have to be alone anymore. Nopony would get left behind or – or be worthless because we’d all have a role assigned to us.”

“I really think you’re projecting here!” Zest shook her head. “This evil monster thing does not care about you. She won’t be nice and give you whatever you're imagining. Look, I was really lonely before I met Sugarcoat too. But you don’t gotta join a cult and give up your free will just to make friends. I’m right here! Just switch sides and we’ll be friends.”

That, of all things, was what finally gave Wallflower pause. She opened her mouth to shout back with the same relative intensity as before. But she fumbled.

“Come on! Are those two even nice to you?” Zest put her hooves on her chest. “Who would you rather be friends with? I’ll actually care about you. They can’t say that, can they?”

Wallflower really looked like she’d say yes. Zest knew she wanted to say yes. She watched Zest for such a long time before sparing a glance at the wall. Then she lowered her head, resigned more than anything else.

“You’re just going to lose either way. This is inevitable.”

Zest… could barely protest such an argument. She tried to summon some grand speech! Would selling her on going out swinging with dignity really work on Wallflower?

“You see?!” Wallflower looked offended that she didn’t respond in time. “You’re the worthless one, not me!”

She ducked back to the road, where something that might have once been a bench sat. From there she produced something like a watch.

Zest looked around as the sound of heavy machinery coming to life began to fill the air. She didn’t think they had enough electricity for something like that in Old Manehattan!

The windows of the abandoned buildings just beyond burst open as things started coming out of them. Not all of them were complete, just a mesh of limbs and parts, but the one that ran out the furthest was...

An armored pony? No!

Weren’t all of these destroyed?!

“A robot?!” Zest gasped.

It wasn’t just a pony made of metal! What had appeared to be a set of the edgiest black armor zest had ever seen was actually just its body. Its elongated helmet blazed with red light from within, and it opened up wide into a mouth filled with fangs. Its entire body was covered in sharp spikes and hooks.

All of them looked like that! Zest got that there had to be death bots, but did you really need this many ‘scary’ flourishes on all of these things? They all looked horrifying in their own way.

Many of them were rusted up and warped by time, but that just made them worse! It was like they were melting away.

Half of them only used to look like ponies with the rest appearing more like wheeled vehicles only partially functioning, covered in guns and blades.

The pony-like one let out a screech as a gun emerged from its side and fired at Zest.

This was it! She closed her eyes and…

Opened them again, remembering she was immune to gunfire now.

“Okay! But this is still bad!” Zest turned back as several of them rushed to the wall.

20. Black Knight

The black-knight-looking robot immediately struck Zest as a sort of leader. When it turned its aggression to Zest, so too did most of the others. The rest looked a bit unsteady as they fired off their guns, each as ineffective as the last.

“Well at least they aren’t smart,” said Zest.

“Do not insult my intelligence!” The black knight’s maw lit with fire when he spoke. His (the voice was way too low for Zest to think of it as anything else) voice was way too spooky. It was practically a growl in and of itself.

“You can talk?” Zest asked.

“I will not stand for such aggression as this continued verbal assault!” The black knight pointed an accusing hoof at her.

“You’re the one attacking me!”

“Only because I hated your face so much! This is your fault!”

“What? I don’t know what you want, buddy, but maybe we can not fight?” Zest asked. “Maybe this is a misunderstanding and friendship can–”

Zest stopped mid-reason as she watched the black knight slowly tilt its head to one side, the elongated helmet trembling as if in increasingly intense anger.

“Are you trying to reason with me?!” It demanded.

“Um. Maybe?”

“Blarg!” He actually screamed the word ‘blarg’ and charged at her. A drill emerged from his shoulder and he tried to stab her through as though it were a lance. Of course, it went straight through.

Maybe he didn’t have anything that could hurt her.

“It's your fault that didn’t work!” The black knight screamed at her.

“The heat rays!” Wallflower pointed at one of the other robots, one that was decidedly not talking, a gun on a set of tracked wheels. “Use the heat ray to fight ghosts.”

“Don’t you dare tell me how to do my job you worthless beast!” The black knight shook his head. Had he saliva, Zest expected it would have gone slobbering off in every direction just then. “I will not do this just to spite you! I will spite and kill everypony on this planet! Not necessarily in that order!”

“Whoops, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Admitting you made a mistake?! Such brazenness must be punished! I’ll kill you!” He turned the drill to Wallflower. Some invisible force kept him from advancing it. “Blarg! Blarg I say!”

Okay. Wallflower had something that kept it from attacking. Maybe not all of them were intelligent enough to talk! This was information!

But what kept it at bay? Clearly not any sense of comradery.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to get out of this guy,” said Zest, more to keep Wallfower talking than anything else. “But I don’t think he’s particularly loyal to you.”

“You question my loyalty?!” The black knight spat at Zest.

“Yes?”

“Those who answer rhetorical questions are the worst scum imaginable!”

“These guys feel nothing but anger,” said Wallflower. “They see everything you do as aggression so there’s no reasoning with them.”

“You expose my secrets to the enemy and insinuate I am incapable of reason?! This is unacceptable!” Green flames flared up in his maw once again.

“You would have gotten mad either way, it doesn’t matter,” said Wallflower.

“I despise such nihilism! If you wish to be nothing then you shall be nothing!” It shuddered, turning to Wallflower to try and attack her again.

“Whoa! Okay. That’s why they stopped making these, huh?” Zest let the robot stab through her again, insulted by that as well.

Wallflower watched the wall. Maybe sixty robots in total had emerged, half of them were headed to the wall while the other half surrounded Zest.

Wallflower let out a sigh, giving up on controlling the black knight.

“Whatever! You do your thing. I need to get to the wall.”

“My ‘thing’?! Such ineloquence drives me to murderous rage!” The black knight stomped his hoof and fired his guns off wildly in random directions.

“Wallflower, if robots like this reach the wall, they’re going to kill tons of ponies on the other side!” Zest complained.

“I already told you, nopony is going to die!” Wallflower shook her head. “They’ll just be ghosts, remember? This is perfectly safe.”

Zest noticed Wallflower clutch that watch thing she picked up. She held it tight as she started flying away. That was it! Well, it was the only thing Wallflower was holding onto.

Okay, the robots didn’t seem like a threat to Zest herself! She needed to go beat up Wallflower instead! She could totally beat up wallflower! Totally!

Zest flew right at her, catching up in mere moments. Wallflower turned back, eyes wide knowing she couldn’t win. A small burst and a sickening sound behind her made Zest crane her neck.

“Turning your back on me is unacceptable!”

A yellow, unsteady beam erupted from that nozzle, tearing through the ground, blowing sparks out of everything it collided with. The ray waved about like a rope, blue electricity running along its length. The strength of that beam seemed to make it too difficult for the black knight to control. As it wildly swept that particle beam around, it accidentally collided with one of the lesser robots, blowing it to bits in a small nova of sparks.

She watched it steady itself on two hooves before turning the beam off. It couldn’t control it, but on the other hoof, it left a trail of molten rock where the beam had been.

“And now you turn to face me?! That is even worse!” It pointed that weapon right at Zest!

Zest put up a barrier of ice!

She felt as though she might as well have been trying to stop a cannonball by holding up a piece of paper. The ice shattered before Zest even realized the shot had been fired. She felt something slam into her gut and her world became sparks and lights.

It wasn’t too dissimilar to that time she got electrocuted to death, only she could no longer feel heat. Once again, she felt locked in place only for a sudden blast to send her sailing through the air.

Indigo watched the monster come bounding out of the base, tearing through the frame of the door. This particular robot had the appearance of a distorted alligator, with the front part of its body opening up wide in imitation of a mouth made entirely of spikes, brutal hooks lining the rest of its back. Like all of them, it was black with only small amounts of red paint left over. It had large glass eyes, but they were shattered with small wires coming out of the cracks. It dragged itself forward on its belly using twisted claws as fire bellowed from that long mouth.

Most of them looked animalistic, either styled after nightmare versions of predators or twisted pony-like forms.

Basically, they were specifically designed to be as terrifying as possible. Nowadays, ponies thought they were twisted and rusted up because of age, but they looked like this when they were new. The spikes, the fire, the colors, the broken eyes with wires coming out of them, all of it was on purpose. They had two purposes, to kill and spread terror.

Indigo knew way too much about these stupid Toxco deathbots. They were the bane of her existence.

She’d spent six months painstakingly training to fight these stupid things only to get blown up by an artillery shell before even seeing one in the city. She totally got battle-cucked by these things! She swore to hunt down and destroy them all but…

Well some of them did survive the war. Some worked their way into the hooves of crime syndicates or mad science organizations. They were too widespread to get rid of anymore. But nopony actually used these things. They were too dangerous!

Indigo thought for sure she’d never see one again!

Sugarcoat wasted no time, creating a wave of ice larger than a normal ghost would have been able to. A miniature glacier forced the robot back and froze it partially. It really was good having a specter around.

“Sugarcoat. These are Toxco deathbots.” Indigo pointed to the wristband on Aria’s foreleg. Now that she knew to look at it, the thing was obvious. “They’re programmed to not attack anypony with one of those badges, but if they get enraged enough, they’ll ignore even that. And they can’t feel anything but anger, so–”

“Interact with them to make overstimulate their anger response. Then they’ll turn on their handler,” said Sugarcoat. “I know. This one’s clearly a drone. Do you know how to identify which one has a persona core?”

Indigo blinked. She knew exactly what Sugarcoat meant but was still confused.

Only a fraction of these robots had a ‘persona core’, or an actual robot brain. Those things could only be made with mad science, meaning a pony could at most produce four or five of them in their life before going on the eight.

The rest had very limited intelligence and needed an external controller to do anything more complex than basic tasks and tactics. That was either one of the smart robots or some huge ‘something-engine’ machine hidden somewhere. No way they had the latter so they needed to take out the former first.

But how did Sugarcoat know this? It wasn’t impossible to have read about it, but robots were rare. A slayer could encounter a hundred ghosts before meeting a single robot. Sugarcoat did cross her as well-read.

“Well the drones don’t talk,” said Indigo. “The real one will start shouting at us–”

“Unless they removed the voice box to confuse us,” said Sugarcoat. “You can’t possess ones with a persona core when they’re activated. That’s the only way to be sure.”

“How the heck do you know more about robots than me?!” Indigo stammered. “I took a whole training course on this!”

“Now’s a bad time. There’s more coming.” Sugarcoat looked over at the wall.

She was right! There were scores of them down there, the red eyes and disgusting smell of hot metal giving them away.

Indigo saw a stream of lightning or something down there, near where Zest was! And sadly, it looked way too intense to be something Zest created. Indigo would be lying if she cared more about Zest and Juniper than any of the predeads or all this political crap. She half wanted to call off the mission just to make sure those two were safe.

“How many more of these are in the base?” Sugarcoat asked Sour Sweet.

Sour Sweet slumped against the wall, trying to recover some amount of strength.

“We destroyed ten of them, there has to be at least ten more,” she said. “I don’t know which is the ‘real’ robot. None of them have spoken so far.”

Sugarcoat nodded.

There was probably more than one, Indigo suspected. One down there and one over here would be the bare minimum for this.

“We have to protect her from Wallflower,” said Sugarcoat. “I’m afraid this might be part of their plan. If she’s weakened, Wallflower could possess her. Then she can make Sour Sweet do something idiotic before dying, making it look like this was her fault. Her ideology’s fault.”

Sugarcoat kept her eyes on Aria and Sonata hiding behind the former, watching them carefully for any tell. Indigo regarded them with suspicion as well. They weren’t fighting back. That usually meant the enemy was trying to stall, and that time was on their side.

“Very clever,” said Aria. “It’s too late for you to stop us, though. All you can do is make the blow less severe. Just like all you can do is delay your defeat at the hooves of Crater Cemetery. If all this fighting is pointless, why not just give up? You could join the winning side right now, you know.”

“It’d hardly be ‘me’ joining, would it?” Indigo asked. “Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t hate that bitch’s guts if you got ten seconds to think for yourself?”

Aria smirked. She probably wanted to have this debate to waste time. But maybe she’d give out information if she wanted to stall and thought she’d already won.

“What are you even trying to do?” Indigo asked. “Those things are borderline useless as actual weapons. They kill more of your own guys in the long run. That’s why they stopped using them. What are you–?”

“Old Manehattan was allowed to stay here unmolested in exchange for doing work to keep the dangers of the ruins in check,” said Aria. “Encasing the reactor in cement, disposing of the mercury… destroying the remaining Toxco robots. So of course, if it turns out Old Manehattan didn’t keep their end of the bargain–”

“They did, though! The last of them in the city were melted down over a decade ago and–” Indigo realized what this had to mean. She’d seen robots outside the city before. Spatial Tear’s robot-making pony hid stores of them all over Equestria and some groups nabbed a bunch before Old Manehattan fell. “You brought these in from outside, didn’t you?! It’s so obvious now! I can smell the difference!”

That was right! The ones inside the city at the time would have been irradiated by the meltdown. Even after all this time, everything in the city still had a slight, sharp smell to it.

They clearly did something to these ones to cover it up, but the scent was off. It was way too strong and stood out against the backdrop of the city. Now that she was looking for it, the difference was clear.

Aria chuckled despite this revelation.

“Oh, come on! If I figured this out in ten seconds, you really think the predeads won’t?” Indigo pointed to herself.

“They won’t if whoever investigates this is on their side,” said Sugarcoat. “The truth won’t matter if somepony up high is looking for a pretext to get rid of us.”

“Huh?!” Indigo lowered her hoof and grit her teeth. She was totally right! That’s exactly what would happen.

That smug grin on Aria’s face, too!

They had to hope their predead friend really did manage to track down whoever this pony was. Or else…

Unlike her first electrocution, Zest didn’t die this time! At least, she didn’t think she did. She hadn’t realized she died for a solid five minutes the first time.

Zest looked over her body. When ghosts got injured, they didn’t bleed or anything. Instead, they kind of unraveled, with chunks of you going missing or fading away into little purple threads.

Looking herself over, Zest found no real sign of such injury. There’d been times Sparky pounced on her and left more of her fading away than this.

Okay! One of two options was at play here. Either Zest was resistant to electric attacks now or that gun was made to look way scarier than it actually was. That latter would certainly play into the whole ‘terror army’ motif they had going. Also, it would explain why nopony was using these sci-fi plasma rifle things.

That beam did little in the way of damage to Zest, but it did stun her long enough to let Wallflower get away. Zest could still sense her aura, but she was far away now, already near the wall. Zest wouldn’t catch up in time.

Right now, Zest saw the robots approaching the wall as the bigger threat. Indigo could likely take Wallflower out in one punch. But these things might be a problem.

Outraged by her continued existence, the black knight tried shooting her with that thing a second time. Zest managed to get underground just in time. She poked her head back out a safe distance.

She could probably avoid them and get to the wall. But was there any way to destroy them faster?

A group of four skeletal ponies jerking unsettlingly about as they trotted forward caught Zest’s eyes. Wires hung from their bellies, almost as though designed to look like intestines, sparking slightly.

That was right! Robots used electricity! And they were kind of like dolls! Maybe she could possess them?! Maybe this was her moment!

Zest flew right at it, trying to take control!

Possessing a living thing never worked out. Even if it was a freaking plant, you still got this feeling of being rejected, of being repulsed by the very cells of the organism kicking you out. Zest felt something similar when she grabbed hold of the skeletal robot.

Something with a savage, wild hatred that made her tremble. She’d encountered such things to not be dazed by it. Indeed, she was able to turn her head to find the source.

The black knight! He was imposing his will on the other robots just like a specter would on lesser ghosts. The others were largely mindless drones and this guy was like the queen ant or something!

Unlike a living entity, Zest could put up a struggle to control this robot! The two engaged in a tug of war, making the skeleton jitter about. She could feel the black knight’s frustration intensify until he could no longer take it. He all but lost control and shot that electric beam again, right at the skeletal robot.

It hit something, igniting a battery back or fuel tank or whatever powered this thing. And it exploded hard! Zest went spinning out of control with nothing physical to hold onto.

This time, the hit hurt a lot more! She figured it was more from the explosion than the electricity.

So much for friendship among deathbots.

“Such cowardly tactics!” It snarled at her, taking another step forward.

So that didn’t work. But Zest learned something important. That was the main robot guy… thing! He was the one she needed to take control of! If it was possible, of course.

Yeah, maybe this was a long shot, but if this worked maybe Zest could just force all the other robots to back off or something? Yeah! She felt like this was the most brilliant plan she’d ever come up with!

She whipped her muzzle off and stared the black knight in the eyes.

“Alright! Try that again!” She braced herself, ready for the attack.

“Confidence.” Those purple flames seemed to narrow. “I hate confidence more than anything else in the world!”

He pointed that canon right at her.

Now that she’d experienced it, Zest knew just enough about that electricity beam attack to use it against him! It wasn’t too different from the wires she was almost able to ride!

Sure, she’d yet to get the hang of this, but surely the adrenaline would push her past her limit!

The canon glowed and–

A wave of intense heat shot forward! Zest didn’t feel her body get hot, she felt something slam into her. She only knew this to be the ‘heat ray’ Wallflower mentioned earlier because of the overwhelming scent of radiation-based heat.

Her right side took the brunt of the assault. She’d broken that a few times in life and this felt about as bad for a second or two before mostly stopping. Only pain in her shoulder lingered.

Zest turned in horror to see her right foreleg missing completely!

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Zest grabbed it with her remaining foreleg, more a reflex than anything helpful. “It’ll grow back!”

She’d never ‘lost’ a limb as a ghost, but Indigo told stories of half her body being blown off and still recovering. She’d be okay! As long as she didn’t get hurt any worse than that.

Clearly, though, this wouldn’t be that easy.

21. Hopeless

Holding your nose as a ghost was more of a superstitious practice for the imperceptible good it did. But in the presence of this disgustingly hot metal, it felt necessary. So Indigo did so despite knowing it wouldn’t work.

That was the least of their problems. They were outnumbered two to three up on the wall, not counting the predead. And their odds were about to get a lot worse. Red eyes were swarming toward the wall.

“Haha! We got you losers so outnumbered at this point.” Sonata smirked. “I bet you wish–”

A stream of fire rushed in Sonata’s direction.

“Ack!” Sonata spun out of the way, seeing the robotic alligator was headed right towards her. “Why is it coming for me?!”

“No wristband.” Aria held hers up. “Nothing is stopping it from attacking you. Looks like it’s angry at you.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” Sonata flailed her wings as if she needed them while the gatorbot chased her in circles.

“That also makes it angry.” Aria smiled. “But it’ll change its mind once these two do anything. That also pisses it off.”

Aria turned to Sugarcoat and Indigo who remained stationary for now, not wanting to draw the robot back to themselves. Sonata Dusk hesitated to fight back. She didn’t seem bright enough to realize that running away from it and attacking it was seen as equally aggressive to a robot.

“What do I do?! What do I do?!” Sonata yelled.

Sugarcoat tapped the ground, covering the entire surface of the wall with ice. That’d make it harder for any of the ghosts to get inside and cause problems. It must have been more an attempt to stop Wallflower from coming through the ground and possessing Sour Sweet.

Another sweep of her hoof and Sugarcoat created another five feet of ice, extending the height of the wall on the far side. Sometimes Indigo forgot how much ice a specter could generate in such a short period.

“That should give you some security,” Sugarcoat said to Sour Sweet. “Be careful if the ice cracks. Stay with Sour Sweet, I’m going after these two.”

Sugarcoat flicked her eyes down at the ghost side of the wall, down to where Lemon Zest should have been. The kid was always her favorite and Indigo knew that Zest was Sugarcoat’s priority in her heart, no matter what her head told her.

Indigo’s heart told her to go fight the banshees, rather than babysit some predead. But she was already injured. She’d hang back at least for now. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to see what her new boss had.

“Heh! I get you’re a specter but it’s a little optimistic to think you can beat all of us by yourself,” said Aria.

She turned back at the rest of her team, still fighting amongst themselves.

“Override!” Aria held up her wristband. “Terminate target.”

The alligator stopped chasing Sonata. It flailed violently as if trying to resist the order, but did manage to turn on Sugarcoat.

“Why did you wait so long to do that?!” Sonata shouted down at her.

Sugarcoat’s aura rippled, focusing on Sonata. Normally, an aura-based attack from a specter to another ghost would be devastating, likely ending the fight right there. Even Indigo felt a slight tremor just from the slight collateral damage. But the chains acted as a suit of armor. She had to give up on that immediately.

The robogator came in first, exhaling a stream of fire that melted through the ice on the ground and barreled towards Sugarcoat. Such an attack wasn’t nearly enough against a specter. Sugarcoat’s cone of cold snuffed out the fire and covered the robot in frost but wasn’t enough to put out its internal flames.

Sugarcoat braced herself and threw it straight up, high enough into the air that it became difficult to make out its form.

A sharp pillar of ice rose beneath where the robot fell. The very tip of the ice smashed into its neck, the force severing the head completely!

The body twitched a moment longer as the broken head’s fire went out. Then it ceased to function.

The banshees took her drawn attention to get in close, coming at her from either side, each throwing her own spear of ice at Sugarcoat.

Sugarcoat surrounded herself with a wall of ice, recovering the ground in the process. She appeared trapped only for a second. Then the walls of ice exploded outward into a thousand tiny pieces of frozen shrapnel.

Aria smashed threw it with her psychokinesis. Sonata tried the same but yelped as she got cut up a little. Indigo only managed to block being so far away.

Indigo found herself duly impressed by her boss. She’d seen that attack before! The ice shotgun was considered one of the harder fighting techniques for a ghost to learn. Indigo herself could maybe do that seventy percent of the time, but not reliably.

“Impressive!” Aria smiled, levitating thirty or so of the intercepted chunks of ice. “That move’s pretty hard to pull off, even for a specter. Guess I don’t have to hold back the advanced techniques against you. Have you seen this one before?”

She made the thirty chunks, none bigger than a baseball, glow a bright blue before throwing them toward Sugarcoat. But instead of breaking into even smaller pieces, they grew until thirty spears were moving towards Sugarcoat. And she couldn’t simply go below ground to dodge!

Instead, Sugarcoat turned sideways, straightened up, lifted a foreleg, and brought an axe down to break only the spears that would have hit her.

More was coming. Indigo could see it in both of their eyes.

The spears behind Sugarcoat exploded into shrapnel and shot out, back the way they came. There must have been a thousand of them now, all generally pointed at Sugarcoat!

But the boss saw this coming. She pressed against the ground flung them into the air, up out of her way with telekinesis as they returned. And she made them glow and made them expand as Aria had. Maybe not into spears, but something like a small arrow.

She flipped in midair and brought the arrows crashing down around Aria. Instead of exploding, this time they expanded into a pile of ice that trapped Aria inside. She wouldn’t be able to leave her doll underneath that.

Sonata made a ‘gah’ sound and moved back an inch. Sugarcoat spun around and threw the weight of her aura into a telekinetic punch, one that slammed into Sonata’s gut, throwing her bouncing off the ice wall.

“Actually, I have seen that one before.” Sugarcoat turned back to Aria and tapped her glasses.

She watched Aria, frozen in a pile of ice for a moment longer.

“Careful. She can break out of there,” Sugarcoat warned Indigo. “It’ll shatter like mine did when she does.”

Not finished, she turned her attention to the other side of the wall.

Sugarcoat formed three more pillars of ice and exploded them scattershot down at the robots below. Destructive hail pelted the incoming robot army, but it was only enough to destroy the more worn-out robots. The remainder got a few harsh dings but carried on.

She threatened a second barrage, raising a second round of ice. Sonata was back on her again with an ice blade in tow. Sugarcoat tried firing off the hail and blowing Sonata back with a psychokinetic wave at the same time. The former worked, but Sonata turned her back and fired her ice blade at Sour Sweet.

Launching it like that gave her the forward momentum to merely be stopped by Sugarcoats blow. Indigo slammed it to the side. A move like that from what seemed like an idiot was enough to catch Sugarcoat off guard. Sonata did a flip. As her hind legs came down, a miniature glacier came crashing down on Sugarcoat’s head, slamming the specter between it and the enchanted floor.

These two were a good deal above average! Two-on-one wasn’t usually enough to match a specter.

“I might have to help her out for a second,” Indigo whispered to Sour Sweet. If it was between the two of them.

“It’s so cold.” Sour Sweet’s eyes were staring forward blankly.

Indigo smelled her. She was dangerously cold. Sometimes Indigo forgot how much all this ice magic brought down the temperature. It may very well have been ten to twenty below zero up here.

She was going to die if Indigo didn’t find a way to warm her up a little. Getting her inside wouldn’t be enough. Indigo could smell one source of heat – the most disgusting one. Though the robot was dead, flames still bellowed out of its neck.

Indigo looked up at the fight. Sugarcoat was bruised up now, but had Sonata Dusk pinned. She took the opportunity to shadow step over to the robot.

And of course, that was when Wallflower Blush showed up, poking her stupid head over the wall to try and get at Sour Sweet.

“You.” Sugarcoat switched her attention to Wallflower immediately.

Sugarcoated threw Sonata Dusk into the air and sent her hard into the wall a second time with another telekinetic punch. Then she resorted directly to another aura attack. Without the chains to protect her, Wallflower was immediately crushed by the overwhelming weight of a specter’s aura.

Wallflower’s jaw clenched, small amounts of ectoplasm dripping out. Her eyes peeled out in different directions and her body trembled. She was completely stunned.

Indigo rushed back to Sour Sweet’s side, placing the flaming wreckage a safe distance from her.

“What happened to Zest?” Sugarcoat’s voice remained calm, but Indigo could feel the ire in her aura.

When a specter went this hard against a ghost with a weak will, it was basically mind control. Wallflower would be forced to answer her questions. This kind of thing was a hard line to cross.

Being around a pony who could alter your emotions whenever they felt like was intimidating enough. A specter only needed to play this card a couple of times to destroy their reputation and any trust they built up.

“Yo, Sugarcoat!” Indigo called out to her, placing the fire next to Sour Sweet. “Maybe we can not go there?”

Sugarcoat pressed the attack anyway.

“Zest is.” Wallflower struggled to regain control of her eyes, to focus on anything. “The one that looks like a black knight is… he’s the persona. She’s… it’s going after her.”

Sugarcoat looked below, finding the robot in question immediately.

“And your plan?” She demanded.

Wallflower struggled a bit harder against this one, but she wouldn’t have been able to hold out for long.

“Dammit Sugarcoat!” Indigo shouted at her. She wasn’t going to watch this much longer.

Sugarcoat spared a look at Indigo. Then, regaining herself with a sigh, she let Wallflower go.

Even released, Wallflower remained stunned, drooling ectoplasm as she tried to regain control.

Aria at last came bursting out of the ice, launching hail in every direction. Indigo could only throw herself in front of Sour Sweet to block it.

“Are you okay?” Indigo turned back to her.

“I think I’m feeling just a little bit…” Sour Sweet fell onto her side.

“Dammit!”

“Wallflower!” Aria called out to her. “Take your mark!”

Aria charged straight for Indigo. She glanced from Wallflower to Aria, deciding to go for the latter. She went to punch but was a minute too late! Aria tackled her and Wallflower jumped down to possess Sour Sweet a second later.

Indigo bucked Aria off and pulled her hoof back, ready to punch Wallflower as she stood back up, now in control of Sour Sweet’s body.

“You can’t hit me!” Wallflower threw her forelegs out. It was Sour Sweet’s voice that came out. “If you attack, she’s going to die.”

Indigo had to restrain herself.

Wallflower really pushed it right then! She rushed forward and punched Indigo in the face. Possessing a body like that, she could do it. And Indigo just had to greet her teeth and take it. At least she punched like a little colt.

She felt the wall shake. A volley of strikes hit the wall! The robots were already here! Two of three of them were already at the edge of the wall, clawing their way on top. Indigo had no idea where to strike. There were too many targets now.

The hatch leading into the base opened, and a stallion

“Lieutenant! We restored the phone line. The colonel wants to speak to you!” He called out, seemingly ignoring everything else that was going on.

Wallflower nodded and ran in his direction!

“She’s possessed!” Indigo called out. “Don’t listen to her!”

The stallion smiled at her as Wallflower ran past and back inside.

He… he was on their side, wasn’t he?!

Indigo could beat the crap out of that stallion, at least! She charged at him only for Sonata Dusk to come in from the side, intercepting.

The blow sent Indigo over to the predead half of the city, a place she’d never expected to actually be. And then Sonata lunged onto Indigo.

Where the heck was Juniper?! What was taking her so long?!

Indigo turned invisible, but that only did so much when she was already grappled. Sonata shot down towards the ground, a blade pressed against Indigo’s neck. And a wall of ice formed behind Indigo as the two of them neared the pavement of the predead city.

Sugarcoat watched Indigo get swept away as the robots crashed into the wall. All she could do was hope Indigo could escape. Phantoms were good at slipping away. There was some chance there.

The best she could do to help was to keep the robots off. Sugarcoat braced herself and put all of her energy into creating two barriers. One extending the one on top of the wall and one near the bottom.

Both barriers of ice glowed brightly as Sugarcoat poured magic into them. They took heavy poundings from guns, rockets, fire, and claws. They would shatter in a moment if Sugarcoat didn’t keep blasting energy into them.

Aria looked her over, knowing her position was great.

“It looks like I have you.” Aria smiled. “Let’s see.”

Aria created a spear of ice and shot it forward, stabbing through Sugarcoat’s wither. Sugarcoat winced as it pierced her but kept focus.

Sugarcoat looked back at the wall. There was no way she could hold off against this kind of firepower and fight Aria. She either had to let the robots through or protect herself. She had a difficult decision to make.

Aria created ten more spears, all pointed at Sugarcoat.

“I admit, you’re a better fighter than I thought,” said Aria. “But if you’re struggling against me, you never really had a chance. Maybe it’s better if you just die now rather than drag things out, hm?”

Something grabbed one of Aria’s spears, turned it, and stabbed it through her doll’s neck while off guard. Aria’s eyes widened briefly as another ghost came in, slamming her to the ground, shattering ice weapons over her repeatedly while screaming.

Lemon Zest?!

Zest wasn’t anywhere near ready to fight somepony at this level! Sugarcoat never should have even involved her in this mission, to begin with!

Zest got a couple of good blows in, then suddenly Aria’s telekinesis flared up and threw her to the side.

“Are you trying to fight me?” Aria tilted her head, a look of absolute disdain across her face. “You’re not even a real ghost yet. I can tell you’re just a freaking worm friend, aren’t you?”

“Zest! Don’t do it!” Sugarcoat called out to her. “You can’t fight her! You’re not ready! Just run away!”

“I gotta try! I can’t leave you!” Zest called out.

“I think the word ‘try’ is being too generous.” Aria rolled her neck.

Zest covered her foreleg in a spike of ice and thrust forward.

Aria chilled her doll, making it take on an icy sheen. Zest blades collided, but broke against this armor of frost. Aria swiped hard right, smashing into Zest’s face, then she ran forward. She left the doll, leaving it to ram into Zest while Aria circled around.

The full weight of the doll hit Zest hard, sending her flying. But Aria managed to outfly her momentum. She slammed a hoof hard into Zest’s back, throwing her forward again. Then the banshee grabbed the chains tethering her to the doll and pulled forward, forcing Zest to collide with it from the other side.

Once again flying towards Aria, Zest had only just enough time to see the banshee rise above her and spike her down toward the ground.

Normally, one didn’t have to worry about things like crash landings, but now that sheet of ice on the ground made sense. Zest could collide with enchanted ice and she hit the ground hard!

Aria was already back on top of Zest, back in her body, as she pulled up her hoof to strike again. Aria held Zest pinned to the wall of ice as she repeatedly pummeled away. Zest couldn’t do anything! The blows just came too hard too fast.

The ice below Zest gave way before her form did, at last shattering and giving her the relief of falling through the ground. But Arai still pursued her, flying out of her body and underground after Zest. She grabbed the younger ghost by the collar and threw her above ground again.

A side hook sent Zest flying along the wall.

Finally, she got a brief moment to assess her situation. Looking down at herself Zest decided that it wasn’t good at all. Zest was ‘unraveling’ as the others called it. She’d seen this before when getting small cuts, just never to this level.

If you cut a ghost’s ear or leg off, these blue fiber-like lights would dance around the edge of the missing part. Normally, they moved inward and your form would slowly go back to the way it was. Right now, huge chunks of Zest were missing. She was more like a cheese elemental with all the holes Aria punched into her body!

None of her limbs were missing, but no part of her appeared unscathed. Little blue threads danced around the edges of her wounds and lightning arced between the gaps.

There was a point where you’d start unraveling rather than healing, eventually disappearing and dying. Zest never got a straight answer to how much of you had to be missing, nothing better than ‘it depends’ anyway. Hopefully it was more than half.

She could only hope she wasn’t past that point already.

Aria watched Zest as if expecting her to surrender or run away after getting whooped that badly. The power difference between the two of them was that extreme.

But Zest had no other option. If she was already doomed…

Zest straightened up and created an ice blade along her foreleg.

“Seriously? What are you even trying to do?” Aria rose a brow. “You can’t even beat me, but you want to fight somepony who could kill a hundred of me in a second?”

She began to trot closer to Zest.

“Do you honestly think you can stop this?” Aria asked. “You already lost, don’t you get it? This place is already destroyed. Everything you care about, everypony you want to protect. All of that’s already gone. All you can do is push back the inevitable by inches. Even if you do win today, Old Manehattan will be destroyed. You’ll never win for real.”

She wasn’t wrong. Zest couldn’t possibly imagine going against the real monster if things were already this bad.

“There’s only one way to save yourself.” Aria held out a hoof. “Just give up. It won’t be so bad. You already lost, it’s just a matter of accepting it. All this effort and hope isn’t going to do anything but hurt you. You’re going to lose. But all the pain can stop if you just give up.”

She probably wasn’t wrong about any of that either. But this wasn’t exactly news to Zest. She’d been thinking about this for months. Impending doom had hung over her shoulders for long enough that she was no longer a stranger to it.

She’d lose, but she had an answer.

“Maybe I’ll lose,” said Zest. “But I’ll never be a loser! If I'm already dead, that just means I have no excuse to quit!”

Aria grit her teeth.

“Fine! You want this to be painful? Then let me make this painful!”

She created a wall of ice behind Zest and pulled her hoof back. Aria slammed a spike of ice into Zest repeatedly until this wall shattered too and Zest went spinning out of control towards the sea of flaming metal below.

So much of Zest’s form was missing now! She was surrounded by an aura of blue fibers. This… might be it. She could barely move. Maybe only one of her legs even remained, the rest vanished.

To finish things off, Aria stepped to the edge of the wall. Seven spears of ice appeared behind her, ready to fire at Zest.

That was when the wall protecting Manehattan shattered. An injured Sugarcoat came in from behind and smashed Aria aside with an enormous club of ice. The cost, of course, was the robots escaping into the city.

Whatever happened up there, Zest couldn’t see. Maybe she’d never know. She felt straight through the ground shortly after.

She felt herself spreading out, the static that made up her being flowing outward like a pool of blood. She did think it was the end. It had to be.

Wallflower didn’t know his name, but the blue stallion was one of the traitors. He led her through the corridors much faster than she could have gone on her own, bringing her down to a conference room.

Wallflower never actually possessed a pony this badly injured before. It was actually difficult to make her legs move. Really she wasn’t even used to leg-based locomotion anymore in general. She had to stay focused. The patsy would do most of the work for her.

She could hear robots tearing through the lower corridors. There wouldn’t be much time until the base was overwhelmed.

Wallflower reached a boarded-up conference room where all the soldiers had holed up, ready with their battle staves. Even with all these barricades, there were just too many robots out there. They wouldn’t have long.

“Ma’am! We have Colonel on the line!” One of the soldiers offered the phone to her.

“I’d appreciate it if you kept the phone on speaker,” he said.

Wallflower knew why, but waited a minute before nodding, as instructed.

“Colonel!” Wallflower stood at attention. Her voice was exactly like Sour Sweets. “It’s true that several robots have attacked the wall. But the ghosts aren’t to blame! I’ve already done the test and the radiation levels they emit means they can’t have been in Old Manehattan this whole time.”

She looked at the other ponies, all of them with their battle staffs at the ready. It was probably best they were on edge, given what had to happen later.

“Oh?” Suspicion dominated the colonel’s voice. “Then how did they get here.”

“I think I’ve already managed to solve that mystery as well. The real perpetrators of the attack are the Mad Science Cartel! They’ve been shipping robots into the city for the past year. Their goal is to drive a wedge between Old and New Manehattan because if the ghosts are cleared out, they can be free to excavate the super-reactor.”

The colonel remained silent. Only a little more! Wallflower was breathing a bit too heavily for this part, but at least she wouldn’t have to pretend she wasn’t afraid much longer.

“But the ghosts stepped up to protect us!” Wallflower forced a manic smile onto her face. “The specter on the wall shouldn’t be attacked, sir. She’s on our side. I wouldn’t be surprised if your forces aren’t needed at all.”

“Oh, I know that specter is your friend.”

Wallflower took a long pause as she was instructed.

“What do you mean?”

“Sour Sweet… I know you’ve been making purchases from the Mad Science Cartel for the past year. I simply didn’t know it was this serious.”

“Wh-what?!” Wallflower didn’t actually have to pretend to be afraid. She was still shaking in terror from Sugarcoat’s death grip earlier. “No! No! That’s not true at all! Why… why would I ever do something like that?!”

“We’ve had enough evidence to arrest you for a few months now and we should have done so before it came to this,” the colonel spoke indignantly. “And I think I know why now too. You wanted to frame this incident as a call to your personal politics, that we need more unity, right? If your ghosts friends save us from some disaster we’ll be more accepting of them. Is that what you thought?”

Wallflower looked around the room, panicking. That was something she was good at. Then she exploded into her rehearsed diatribe.

“The ghosts do so much to help us and none of you appreciate it! If a pony stops an airship from crashing, no one notices. If they let the airship crash and pull a single survivor out, then they’re a hero. That’s how ponies see things!”

“You can’t just put other ponies' lives at risk to make some political point!” The blue stallion called her out.

“Ghosts are the ones being oppressed!” Wallflower shouted. “They can resort to whatever tactics they need to get the rights they deserve!”

“You’re seriously going to kill all these innocent ponies just for that?” The stallion asked.

“Destroying an oppressive regime is more important than a few lives,” said Wallflower. “This is the last bastion of ghosts outside Crater Cemetery. I need to protect them no matter the cost!”

“Lieutenant!” The colonel called out. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re surrounded.

Wallflower looked around, then pulled out her battle-staff, prompting all the other ponies to do the same.

“You’ll never take me alive!” Wallflower pointed the staff at the others!

This was it. All she needed to do now was die in a shoot-out.

All the ponies in this base would ‘die’ in just a little while. That was to say, they’d become ghosts. There was no way they could lose at this point!

She closed her eyes, and fired, ready for Sour Sweet’s body to be annihilated.

But no return fire came…

Slowly, she dared to open her eyes.

She opened her eyes and turned to see somepony who looked like he belonged on the streets rather than a military base. The rough-looking colt wore a green hoody and carried a heavy chain and baseball bat with him.

He had Wallflower’s patsy by the neck, a chain wrapped around his neck and strapping him to this new stallion’s foreleg, tight enough to make him struggle. All the other ponies in the room filed in behind him, acting as if he was the one in charge now.

“Actually,” the newcomer said. “I think you’re the one who’s under arrest. Colonel.”

This was a familiar feeling. Zest was in total darkness, unable to move her body, only her left foreleg able to twitch. She wasn’t actually on her back, but she may as well have been.

Only… this time things felt a little different.

Electricity was gushing out of her like blood, probably would have been quite the show were the ground not absorbing all of it. Though strangely… the electricity still felt as though it were a part of her despite leaking out.

She felt some of it reach the surface and began to electrocute something… metallic? Zest could feel the lightning leaking into whatever it was… she could feel herself leaking into it.

“Wait.”

22. Singularity

“Damn it all! I win again!” The black knight’s voice called up at the wall. “I hate it when I win! Why can’t something interesting happen instead?!”

No, that wasn’t the black knight Zest was ‘grabbing’ onto. But something metallic stuck to her. Certainly another robot. The thing was trying to move, but her electricity was pinning it down, sucking its hoof back every time it tried to lift it.

It almost seemed like her injured body wanted to flow right into it, to possess it without her even trying to.

Could she really pull it off in this state?

With a second wind, Zest redirected all of her electricity up onto the robot. Zest tried possessing it. Way more than normal came out, blasting from the ground up its leg.

It was easier like this! Maybe it could pull it off!

Zest sprang into motion, throwing her body and whatever electricity she could control onto the stuck drone.

Zest wrapped the drone in electricity, enough that lighting erupted from it in every direction. Shooting off all her energy like this had to be bad for Zest’s health, but she felt like she was dead either way.

The black knight turned its head, twitching and shaking, towards Zest. She felt its unbridled rage again. She felt its will trying to take over the drone’s programming. But it wasn’t enough this time!

The electricity Zest produced was simply too much. It must have shorted something out! Zest wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but she could feel her electricity filling every component of this droid past what was probably safe.

And then, in a moment of sudden relief, Zest staggered forward!

The feeling of reverse-weightlessness jarred her. Gravity normally didn’t work anymore. But here she was, standing on the ground. Zest looked left and right, realizing she was in full control of this metallic body.

She got one!

“I changed my mind!” The black knight turned on her. “I despise interesting things even more than I hate winning!”

The black knight started screaming a stream of obscenities at Zest. All the nearby drones turned to her and began to attack!

The mechanical body would at least keep her alive a little longer even through the assault.

“No, I’m coming for you next!” Zest ran forward at the black knight.

Various projectiles battered Zest’s temporary metal body, tearing through her armor, and slowly reaching the components beneath. One of her eyes went offline straight away, and one of her hind legs became unstable. She was melting from inside and out. This thing wouldn’t hold out much longer!

And probably neither would Zest. But it didn’t matter.

Maybe she was already dead, but who cared?!

Her front leg blew off. Zest stumbled to control her momentum, soon finding herself kicking her rear legs to keep going. One of those exploded as Zest gave one last kick!

She tackled the black knight.

Both Zest and the robot screamed as Zest forced the last of her electricity into its body. She felt the struggle of will. She felt its overpowering emotions pushing back against her.

It was like possessing a living thing! But Zest had one ability she didn’t normally have, the power to melt its brain.

She hesitated only for one moment as she realized what possessing the black knight would necessitate. She was seriously going to kill it!

But would that be a bad thing? It was like Sparky, like a wraith. Its existence was nothing but aggression and hatred, one of constant pain and stress. No, it was even worse because this thing was more intelligent than a wraith and could contemplate its suffering.

And unlike a wraith, Zest couldn’t possibly imagine a way to make things better for this robot. Maybe this really was the best thing she could do for it.

She couldn’t imagine what kind of sick freak would make this thing on purpose. Indigo was right about Toxco.

“Do you even want to live?” Zest asked it. “I can feel what you do! It’s horrible, all the time!”

“The only thing I hate more than living is the assumption that I want to die!”

“I have no idea what to make of that! Look, I’m sorry but you won’t be in pain anymore!”

“I hate those who have mercy on me! I hate those I hate!”

Its brain was already shutting down. Zest didn’t think she could stop it either way at this point.

“I hate the – those who despise! I loathe… kill! I… hate…”

And then, for one brief moment, the black knight managed to stop hating. It felt nothing. It stared out into the ruins of the town without despising anything. And it didn’t understand the two seconds of freedom it got out of life.

And then its willpower vanished completely. The robot's brain stopped. She’d put it out of its misery.

At least, she was pretty sure the black knight was out of its misery. The body started twitching around on its own, but that kind of thing happened when you cut the head off, right?

Zest stepped back.

She didn’t have a lot of strength left, but she didn’t need it. Actually, she felt strangely ‘stuck’ to this body now, wasn’t sure if she could get out so easily.

Zest looked around through her robot eyes, fully in control of the black knight’s body. She could feel so many of its parts but had little understanding of how they worked. She only needed one, and that was similar enough to communicating through aura Zest believed she could pull this off.

She sent out a message to all the robots.

Come back! Come to me! Come to me! Stop fighting! Come to me!

Sonata slammed Indigo down against the ground, covered in enchanted ice. Sonata raised an enchanted ice spear, ready to stab Indigo with deadly force.

“You already lost!” Sonata laughed. “The robots are destroying the…?”

Sonata looked up at the city. Her smile slowly melted away.

“Huh?!”

The robots once again went rushing past them. They had all about faced and were scrambling to get back onto the wall.

“What the?” Sonata shook her head, raising her spear. “Whatever! I’ll finish you off and then–”

“Hold up!” Sonata’s voice called out.

“Now what?!” Sonata looked back up again.

This time a second Sonata was standing not far off from them. Juniper in Sonata’s body.

Importantly. Indigo noticed the folder by her side.

“If you want this back,” Juniper put a hoof on Sonata’s cheek. “You’ll let her go. Otherwise I’m keeping it and making you wear all kinds of weird outfits.”

“Gah!”

Sonata looked from her body to Indigo Zap, groaning in protest.

“Alright.” Sonata released the spear.

Juniper floated out from the body, carrying the folder with her. The two of them circled around one another slowly, before both deciding they were close enough to their respective prize to go catch it.

Juniper rushed over to Indigo and Sonata jumped back into her body.

“Come on,” said Juniper, looking Indigo over. “We should get you back to safety.”

They flew cautiously back up toward the wall. Sonata yelled something behind them and rushed after.

“I think you should be getting a knock right about now,” Nailbat said to the phone.

“What is this?!” The colonel shouted.

Before long, the sounds on the other end devolved into chaos.

Wallflower hyperventilated as Nailbat turned his eyes on her.

“Wait!” Wallflower pointed the staff at her own head. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll kill myself! Or– you know what I mean!”

“The bomb, you idiot!” The stallion called out to her.

“Oh, right! Th-there’s a bomb in the bottom of the base! I can trigger it with this.”

“And where are you going to go, exactly?” Nailbat asked quietly.

“Um.” Wallflower had no idea! “T-to Aria and Sonata.”

“Alright. Let’s go talk to them.” Nailbat flicked his muzzle in the right direction.

Dammit! Was this part of his plan too?! Wallflower couldn’t think of anything else to do! Nailbat followed her calmly as she backed up towards the exit.

Sugarcoat letting the wall down was unexpected enough to catch Aria off guard. The robots had managed to break through, but it really had been her only option for saving Zest. And in her fight against Aria, this put her in a better position.

“Are you really abandoning the predeads?” Aria asked. “For the sake of that wirehead? So much for being the hero.”

“I decided that my subordinates have to come first,” Sugarcoat said. “I heard what Zest said just now. I agree I probably won’t win in the end, but until that happens I won’t compromise any of the things I care about. That’s the only thing that matters to me anymore. I care for my servants. Unlike the one you work for.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Aria smiled. “My mistress despises me. That’s why she’s making me do something I would have absolutely hated were I able to think for myself.”

“This brainwashing is deeper and more sickening than I thought.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “There’s no point talking to you in your current state, is there?”

“So that’s it, then? You’re only fighting me out of spite and have given up on winning?” Aria laughed.

Sugarcoat couldn’t deny that at this point. She’d hoped to fail a bit later than this, but if that was all that was left…

The wall shook as an explosion on the predead side sounded. Sugarcoat and Aria both went over to check. The robots had done an about-face and were coming back! Maybe it wasn’t so hopeless.

“The wristband is failing now of all times?” Aria grumbled.

They always did after a while, but Sugarcoat was lucky to have it happen so quickly. Sugarcoat could use this.

She went back to the ghost side of the wall and peered down. She couldn’t see Zest and injured like this it’d be hard to see her aura. She did see the black knight robot Wallflower warned her about, though.

It was acting strange for a robot. Usually, their attention kept bouncing around, but they seemed determined to get on the wall. It charged forward and tried to get up in a single jump, but crashed into the wall and fell into the ditch.

All the robots on that side of the wall had stopped firing too, merely standing at attention. To see them so calm…

Was it possible…?

The robots that could climb had gotten back on the wall. Sugarcoat turned, ready to make a fighting retreat towards going down to check on Lemon Zest. Aria too got ready for the chaos.

Sugarcoat pulled a foreleg back, covering it in ice. But then the robots all rushed past her and dog-piled onto Aria.

“What the–?!” Aria swung wildly, smashing the ones that got close but was quickly forced onto the defensive.

Every single robot went straight for her and only her. They weren’t out of control at all! Like Sugarcoat before, it was all she could do to maintain a wall of ice for protection.

With a successful jump, the black knight’s forelegs landed on the wall and it clawed itself up a moment later. Either Sugarcoat’s hunch was right or this was the one with the persona core. To be safe, Sugarcoat created a pillar of ice next to her, ready to scattershot if necessary.

“No! I’m one of you! I’m one of you!” It shook its head and waved its forelegs in a manner that Sugarcoat instantly knew it was Zest, despite its voice being five octaves deeper.

“Zest?” Sugarcoat came closer. “Your aura is so weak.”

“I managed to possess this guy! I think I killed him. It. But I can’t ponder if I should be traumatized right now!”

This was good!

“Listen, don’t leave that body for a while,” Sugarcoat said. “When you're injured, a doll like this can act as a cast, stabilizing your form. It may be the only thing keeping you alive.”

“Right, right! I got it.” Zest nodded.

“You can control the robots?” Sugarcoat turned.

“I think so?” Zest looked them over. “It’s not too unlike controlling lesser ghosts. Though they kind of want to go off on their own half the time.”

“It’s you!” Aria grit her teeth.

She chanced coming out from her shell to make a lunge at Zest.

The fire bellowing out from Zest grew to cover her and even Aria’s blade wasn’t enough to penetrate her new armor. Aria tried two more hits, but neither could get through. She wouldn’t be able to wind up for a blow with so many attackers nearby.

Zest threw a punch in Aria’s direction, suddenly finding herself able to punch must faster and harder than before. The punch distorted Aria’s head a little, leaving stuffing bursting out of the semes.

As Aria staggered back, Zest tried activating one of her weapons. That heat-cannon thing came out and fired! She was actually doing this!

Only her aim was terrible off. Aria tried to block it with a wall of ice, but struggled for a moment until the heat ruptured through her barrier. Zest skidded back, getting only a glancing blow on Aria’s shoulder.

Aria put a hoof over the burned area, glaring daggers up at the newly empowered Zest.

“Haha!” Zest laughed and pranced in place. “Looks like I’m a little bit more invincible now, huh?!”

“It looks like we have you surrounded,” said Sugarcoat. “Are you going to surrender?”

Zest had the robots relax for a minute, but it was clear the battle was over.

Something came up from the predead side of the wall!

Juniper and an injured Indigo joined them. And they had the folder!

But a second later, a chunk of ice hit Juniper in the back, knocking the folder and its contents to the ground. She moved in close, but Sonata came in soon after, ready to attack.

“Aria! We have a problem!” Sonata screamed.

“I know.”

The hatch to the base opened out and the possessed Sour Sweet came running out.

“Aria!” Wallflower yelled to her. “We have a problem!”

“I see that you idiot!” Aria looked around.

Following Wallflower was a punk-looking pony toeing a second stallion around by a chain. Then behind him came three more ponies brandishing battle-staves.

“My name is Nailbat,” the main pony said, then turned to Aria. “An S-ranker. I’m the one in charge here. I suspected there was a traitor in this city collaborating with Crater Cemetery and thanks to you, I found him. The colonel, right?”

Aria clicked her tongue.

“I’ve already arrested him and two more of your patsies.” Nailbat jerked the guy he was grappling. “They’re going to sell out the rest, I promise you.”

Aria considered her limited options quietly.

“Well we do have one last backup plan,” said Aria. “Not as slick one but… there are explosives planted at the base of the wall. Thanks to our friend there.”

The blue stallion cocked a smile.

“It’ll be pretty dangerous having the wall torn apart like that, won’t it?” Aria asked. “I don’t know if it will still start a fight like we wanted, but who knows? Wallflower.”

Wallflower held the staff up, trembling, but hesitant to set it off. Hopefully not just from fear of the noise.

“Wallflower! Set off the explosive!” Aria shouted at her. “You have the staff. It has to be you!”

“Do you have any idea how many ponies you’ll kill!” Zest shouted at her. “Just think about this for a second! You haven’t killed anypony yet but–”

“Don’t you get it? Nopony is going to die! You’re the ones putting lives in danger!” Wallflower shook Sour Sweet’s head and stepped back. “They know a way to ensure ponies become ghosts. None of the ponies here will die for real!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a trick?” Nailbat asked. “That claim sounds suspicious to me.”

“A trick? I’ve seen them do it twenty times!” Wallflower looked to Aria.

“It’s true.” Aria nodded. “We’ve demonstrated this several times in front of several ponies. We killed willing targets and they became ghosts.”

“Hm. I wonder.” Nailbat turned to Wallflower. “When she turned these ponies into ghosts… I’m going to guess you were in a large city each time, as you are now.”

Wallflower blinked, taken off guard by the question.

“Yeah? What does that have to do with anything?” Wallflower asked. “Even if there’s something about a city–”

“And were you the one who picked the ponies she’d convert? Or did she choose them?” Nailbat asked.

Aria’s smile was gone, replaced by a deathly serious look in Nailbat’s direction, hanging on his every word but saying nothing. Wallflower still struggled to draw the conclusion he wanted.

“I… Aria picked the pony out,” said Wallflower. “But that because we didn’t just murder random hobos. She picked out ponies who wanted–”

“I think not. It’s because she can’t turn just anypony into a ghost.” Nailbat shook his head. “In a town with less than ten thousand, there might not be a single pony who would turn into a ghost. So she had to take you to an area with more just to find one.”

“Don’t listen to him,” said Aria. “You have your orders!”

“What – what are you saying?” Wallflower ignored Aria.

“That you fell for the classic misdirection trick. I suspect Aria and Sonata can merely predict who will turn into a ghost upon death. I don’t know what, but they can see whatever quality determines who becomes a ghost. They find this pony, turn them into a ghost, then say it was thanks to some mysterious technique. But they don’t actually have the power to ensure any given pony becomes a ghost, do you?”

“Wait.” Wallflower’s eyes scanned the ground as the did the math. “No! Aria! That’s not true, right?”

Aria didn’t respond.

“Uh!” Sonata raised her hoof in Aria’s stead. “But everypony in our family become ghosts when they die. Even the ones who marry into it. You can’t possibly explain that except–”

“You only marry ponies you know will become ghosts.” Nailbat didn’t spare her a look.

“Guh!” Sonata winced, as though this obvious answer were some masterstroke. “But there’s still our actual bloodline! It’s not like our mom had thirty thousand daughters and threw all of them but the three of us off a cliff!”

“Then I suspect there really is something special about your bloodline,” said Nailbat. “Perhaps that’s even why you can see who will become a ghost. But besides you?”

“This is all just speculation,” said Aria. “Wallflower, kill the predead you’re possessing. I’ll ensure she becomes a ghost just like I promised. You'll see.”

“No. This one.” Nailbat jerked his captive, placing the blue stallion between him and Aria. “You’re working for them, right? Volunteer yourself to be killed. If you stick around here, you’re going to jail so it makes sense for you to become a ghost and run off, right?”

Aria kept her mouth shut as Sonata darted her eyes between her sister and this stallion.

“Fine by me,” the traitor said with undue confidence. “Show them. Make me a ghost!”

Aria hovered in midair, forelegs folded, watching him deep in thought. Sonata scrunched her muzzle and tried to look away.

“You’re–” the traitor looked between them, becoming increasingly worried. “He’s not telling the truth, is he?! The plan was for me to become a ghost and run off with you two in the first place! Remember?! But…”

His look became increasingly horrified.

“But if you can’t guarantee a pony becomes a ghost then… then…” He pinned his ears down and backed up.

“Yeah.” Aria finally landed and smiled again. “Guess there’s no way out of it. The plan was just to kill you and leave you to rot. Less loose ends, you know?”

“You can’t be serious! I’ll do whatever you want!”

“I’m under mind control and I was directly ordered to do this. How effective do you think pleading with me will be?” Aria stepped forward.

“Nailbat! I’ll confess everything! Just–” He reached his hoof out to Nailbat.

Aria reached out to try and freeze him. Nailbat jerked back on the chains at the last second, sending the stallion sliding across the ice behind him.

“Then those ponies would have actually died?!” Wallflower demanded of her. “You tried to trick me into killing all of those–”

“Yes,” said Aria. “About that part anyway. But you really can come with us and serve our mistress like you wanted to.”

Wallflower shook her head and stepped back.

“Listen, set off the explosives,” said Aria. “Right now. It’s your only chance of escape. These ponies aren’t going to forgive you for what you did, Wallflower. Remember what this specter did to you? They’ll kill you if you can’t escape with us. They might even torture you out of spite.”

Zest turned to Wallflower, hoping to say something, but Wallflower answered with far less hesitation than Zest expected.

“No!” Wallflower threw her staff down. “I… I can’t do this. Not if…”

Wallflower sat down, turning her hooves up.

“I surrender! I’m… turning myself in. I’ll do whatever you want. You can kill me or…” Wallflower turned away, tears in Sour Sweet’s eyes.

“Get the lieutenant inside and to the medical bay,” Nailbat commanded. “I’ll deal with you later. You three follow her.”

“Y-yeah.” Wallflower ran off without hesitation. His ponies went along.

Aria grimaced as Wallflower escaped. Their last trump card was gone now.

“You figured that out pretty quickly.” Aria flicked her eyes to Nailbat. “I wonder how.”

“It was obvious from your actions. You never went out offering to use this technique to save those dying of some illness.”

“Bullshit!” Aria pinned her ears back. “You just happen to have that ‘particular quality’ that allows predeads to become ghosts you know. I can see it, remember? It’s suspiciously strong with you.”

“Oh?” Nailbat’s expression betrayed nothing. “Then I suppose you’d have to kill me twice.”

“Please! You’re not as slick as you think. You messed up. You said that we can ‘see’ it. Not simply that we know how this works but specifically that we ‘see’ something. How did you figure that part out Mr. detective?”

“I didn’t necessarily mean it like that,” said Nailbat. “But thank you for telling me that–”

“How about you ‘deduce’ what it is we see?” Aria asked. “If your so smart, it should be easy for you to figure out what actually determines if a pony becomes a ghost. So what is it? Take a guess.”

Nailbat didn’t answer.

“I know exactly who you are,” said Aria, smiling like that was the exact reaction she wanted. “Let me guess. You were found in a wicker basket floating down the river, huh? I guess I’m a great detective too. What a coincidence.”

Sonata watched all this befuddled.

“I don’t get what we’re implying here, Aria,” Sonata said.

“Ugh!” Aria rolled her eyes and spared a moment to whisper something to Sonata.

Sonata nodded twice. Her ears twitched, then her eyes went wide.

“Wait!” Sonata pulled back and did a double take at Nailbat. “I mean, he’s got the hair! But I thought–”

Aria quickly grabbed Sonata and put a hoof over her mouth.

“Apparently not. Keep your mouth shut.” Aria waited for Sonata to nod before letting her go and turning back to Nailbat.

“What are they talking about, exactly?” Sugarcoat asked.

“I have no idea.” Nailbat stood his ground and shook his head.

“I mean he might not know that he’s–” Sonata began

“I thought I said to keep your mouth shut, sis.” Aria glared at her. “If I’m right, we can’t kill this guy. And I’m guessing he wouldn’t want to kill us either. We’re just being mind controlled right?

Nailbat met her gaze without speaking.

“So let us get away.” Aria shook her head. “I can still use my banshee wail to kill a ton of the predeads around here. That’s a good enough excuse, isn’t it?”

Nailbat watched them for a moment, then made a shooing motion with his hoof.

“That’s what I thought. Come on.” Aria began backing up. “But don’t think this is over! We only need to win once.”

“’You seriously want us to let those tow get away?!” Indigo shouted at Nailbat.

“Killing them won’t help,” said Nailbat. “They’re just two of a thousand ponies that could have been sent. And as she said, she was being forced to do this.”

Indigo considered it, before giving up in a moment of frustration.

The banshees flew off in defeat shortly after.

Nailbat walked over to the folder on the ground. He put the papers back inside, then tossed them to Sugarcoat before walking back inside.

23. Imperator

But they had to wait around for a good, long while after that. Though the smell of predeads got too much for them to take, so they went off to wait in one of the random buildings nearby. Injured as she was, the urge to freeze one of them was too much for Zest to bear. It was only exhaustion that kept her from actually attacking anypony. She could barely walk around for the hour or two following the fight.

Nailbat alone was brave enough to occasionally come down in a hazmat suit and give them updates. Sour Sweet was rushed to a hospital shortly after the fight. It sounded likely she would live, at the least.

Nailbat insisted on destroying the vast majority of the drones but did allow Zest to keep the robot she was currently possessing on Sugarcoat’s urging that it was medically necessary.

He came over one final time with Wallflower in tow. Wallflower’s defeat was absolute. She followed Nailbat like a condemned mare headed to the gallows.

“I finished interrogating her. We don’t have any facilities for locking up ghosts,” said Nailbat. “My only option for dealing with this one would be execution. That said, I’m fine with you taking her instead. No one will double-guess me if I just say I killed her.”

Sugarcoat rubbed her glasses, not wanting to take responsibility for Wallflower but not having much of a choice. She gestured for Wallflower to come over to them.

Wallflower meekly flew over to their side, only for Sugarcoat to stop her by jabbing a hoof on her chest. She instead pointed to a corner where Wallflower went instead.

Then Sugarcoat turned back to Nailbat.

“How much of this did you plan to happen, exactly?” Sugarcoat asked him. “The robots, Wallflower… I’m assuming you knew all of this?”

“I just got here a few hours ago,” said Nailbat, his expression hard to read through the helmet. “I was chasing after a lich named Ostracon, which is why I’m even here. Though sadly he got away because of all this. Maybe you’ll see him at some point. He did escape through Old Manehattan.”

Sugarcoat watched him through narrow eyes, taking note of that name he suddenly decided to drop out of nowhere. This guy was way too shifty.

“That’s all for now. I’d appreciate it if you talked to Sour Sweet before you leave for wherever you’re going, though.” Nailbat turned his back and waved his hoof once before heading off.

They gave him a minute to get away before talking amongst themselves.

“I don’t like that guy,” said Indigo. “He’s up to something.”

“He seems like he’s on our side, though.” Zest looked over at the cloth covering the folder they just stole. Sugarcoat kept telling her ‘no’. Zest was starting to feel like she was waiting to open her birthday presents. “Are we supposed to ask somepony about Ostracon now?”

“I’m impressed you picked up on that one.” Indigo chuckled.

“Hey!”

“We need to deal with her first.” Sugarcoat shot a look at Wallflower. “No folder until then. Is there anything you want to say for yourself?”

“If I knew they’d…” Wallflower choked on her own words. “Oh fuck… I… won’t defend myself. I’ll accept whatever punishment you want. Even…”

“Come on, she was clearly tricked.” Zest chugged her way over to Wallflower’s side.

“I’d really rather not take her back with us.” Sugarcoat’s expression didn’t soften one bit as she considered a punishment. “It’d be a serious risk.”

“We’re not really going to kill her are we?” Zest asked. “If we banish her, she’ll just get kidnapped and brainwashed into helping Crater Cemetery more. We can’t do that!”

“Meltdown is going to kill her if we turn her over to him,” Indigo agreed. “The only way she lives is if we take her.”

“Maybe, but frankly she’s proven herself untrustworthy to a great extent,” said Sugarcoat. “She put herself in danger by siding with someone so obviously evil. I never took responsibility for her and I’m not sure I trust her enough to do that going forward. Even deciding on a punishment for her isn’t really my responsibility.”

Zest really wanted to spare Wallflower, but didn’t have much of an argument against that… nothing but appeals to emotion.

“Hey, and speaking of trust.” Indigo’s eyes sharpened. “Are you feeling okay, by the way? You seemed a little out of it… before.”

Zest didn’t know exactly what this trump card implied, but it worked. Sugarcoat relented immediately.

“I should apologize for that,” Sugarcoat admitted. She bowed her head to Indigo, then to Wallflower so Zest had no idea which one she was sorry to. “I suppose if both of you feel I should give her another chance…”

Wallflower looked up, slightly more hopeful after that.

“But listen. If I take you with us, you’re going to be under house arrest indefinitely,” Sugarcoat warned. “You won’t be allowed to leave our base unescorted. You won’t be allowed to leave the basement during the day. And that’s after an even more strict period of probation. If I decide you’re up to something again, I’ll have no other option but execution at that point. And it will be my responsibility to do it. Do you understand?”

“I understand.” Wallflower kept her head down. “Thank you.”

“And I know this is old fashion. I don’t normally require it but given the circumstances.” Sugarcoat held up a hoof imperiously. “I want you to kiss my hoof. Bow down and swear your allegiance is to me and me alone for the rest of your life. You owe me a blood debt for sparing you from execution.”

Zest looked between the two of them. That was something from the really old days. You usually only saw stuff like that in movies about knights and stuff.

Wallflower was taken aback by the request, breathing some life back into her. But her determination to submit to punishment came back a moment later. She moved over and bowed down low to Sugarcoat.

“I acknowledge my blood debt and pledge my life to your service,” Wallflower said more or less what a pony in a movie would have said… then kissed Sugarcoat’s hoof.

Wallflower winced briefly, knowing what came next in this long-abandoned ritual. Sugarcoat slapped her across the face, though not too hard. Then, rubbing her cheek, Wallflower was allowed to rise.

“What? Is she like your knight now?” Indigo laughed. “I kinda want to be a knight, too!”

“And if anything happens to me,” said Sugarcoat. “Then your loyalty falls to Zest. Understand?”

“Eh?!” Zest craned her neck in surprise.

“Why not me?” Indigo pointed to herself absently.

“Yes. Um. Mistress?” Wallflower looked up at Sugarcoat unsure.

Sugarcoat didn’t correct her.

“Ah-ha! Another ghost get!” Zest’s voice boomed way too loudly. She lowered her head in embarrassment. “Well, I guess that means we’re up to five Shadowbolts. Oh, wait, six if you count Sunny Flare!”

“Not yet,” Sugarcoat shot down the idea. “Maybe if I’m convinced she really is loyal in a year or so…”

“I thought you were against the whole Shadowbolt label in the first place,” Zest teased.

Zest could have sworn she saw Sugarcoat blush slightly! But then again… not really.

“Speaking of that. I don’t want her seeing this just yet.” Sugarcoat gestured to Wallflower. “Juniper, keep an eye on her.”

“Taking orders from you now?” Juniper shook her head. “So this means I am officially a Shadowbolt?”

“Yes. We’ll tell you what we found later.”

That got a small smile out of her.

“You heard what the boss said.” Juniper prodded Wallflower away. “Let’s go.”

The two of them floated through a wall. The remaining Shadowbolts watched the spot they left through for a minute before deciding it was safe.

Sugarcoat took out the folder and opened it.

“Let’s see what’s in this.”

It had better be good.

Though… surprisingly, the first pages contained information about the banshees they had just fought?

It was a picture of a much younger Aria, dressed in the fanciest robe Zest had ever seen on a pony save Prince Crystallium, complete with a little tiara and scepter… only now Zest got to see her full name.

Imperator Aria Ardere Noctilucent III.

And two more ponies Sonata and… ‘Adagio’ apparently.

Regina Sonata Vespera Noctilucent.

Regina Adagio Fulgore Noctilucent.

“Ardere?” Zest squinted at the name. “I thought her name was Aria Blaze, not Aria Ardere. That is the same pony, right? What does ‘aredere’ even mean?”

“It’s Middle Equestrian for… I suppose you could translate it as a blaze. Her name is in Middle Equestrian,” Sugarcoat explained.

“Then why isn’t the Aria part in Middle Equestrian?”

“Aria is a Middle Equestrian word,” said Sugarcoat. “Half our language is Middle Equestrian words.”

“Oh… right.” Zest nodded. “But why’s her name in Middle Equestrian at all?”

“What’s the full name of the prince of North Equestria?”

“Regium Nova Crystallium LXIV,” Zest recited. Then it all clicked. “Wait!”

“Yes. Nobles continued to use Middle Equestrian names long after the language had shifted.”

“So then… they’re nobles? I thought our prince was the only noble who didn’t get the uh.” Zest ran a hoof over her neck. “Who survived the revolution.”

“Well this implies he wasn’t,” said Sugarcoat. Zest realized she’d been reading this the whole time! “Though the name, Imperator, implies a rank higher than even prince or princess, Regium.”

“What outranks a princess?” Zest asked.

“Queen is higher than princess.” Indigo reminded her. “The Queen of Equestria is Golden Feather, remember?”

“Imperator might more directly translate to empress,” said Sugarcoat. “But it’s the title Golden Feather would have used.”

‘Queen’ wasn’t a term ponies used very often. The term was specifically and only used for the legendary founder of Equestria, the oldest pony and the common ancestor of all pegasi, Golden Feather. And she didn’t come up too often in conversation so sometimes Zest forgot about her.

“So she’s calling herself a queen? On the same level as Golden Feather?” Zest asked. “You can’t be on the same level as her! Isn’t that a little arrogant?”

“Probably,” said Indigo. “But the royal family of Equestria proper used to use the title ‘Imperator’ back in the day, fancying themselves truer descendants of Golden Feather than the rest of us. And your guy uses ‘Regium’ because he was their vassal regent of the north. Even I know that. Come on.”

Zest put her hooves over her headphones and backed up in shame. This is what she got for dropping out of middle school. If she was a proper high school dropout, she’d be doing a lot better right now!

“So they’re claiming to be part of the Solaris imperial family,” Indigo concluded. “Though… wait no. They would have used the Solaris name if that was the case. What the hell is Noctilucent?”

“No, they claim to be descended from another pony of equal rank to Golden Feather,” said Sugarcoat. “The only pony not descended from Golden Feather… her sister Star Feather.”

Zest rushed back to Sugarcoat’s shoulder to try and read alongside her. There was no catching up now, so Zest only pretended to read, assuming Sugarcoat would just keep explaining it.

“From the looks of things, the Equestrian government has known about them for a long time,” said Sugarcoat. “The SA made a deal with them during the revolution. It seems…”

Sugarcoat’s eyes lingered on a picture, drawing Zest’s gaze straight to it.

The crater that Crater Cemetery was named for.

“They had a spell to summon an asteroid like this.” Sugarcoat nudged the picture of the crater. “I suppose they threatened to drop one on Canterlot if the SA came for them like they did the Solaris family… and the deal was that their family and clan would remain exiled in their secluded forest, allowed to do their own thing.”

They were the ones who summoned that asteroid?! That had to be one of the most devastating natural disasters in Equestrian history and it happened far from any populated area… or maybe it wasn’t a natural disaster after all.

If they seriously had that kind of power… and they still lost…

“Then– hold on.” Indigo shook her head. “You’re saying those two doofuses can summon asteroids like this?!”

“From the looks of things, Aria was maybe seven or eight when it happened,” said Sugarcoat. “So probably not them… some other pony in their family.”

Zest looked over the pictures herself. It was easy to see the birth order. ‘Adagio’ the oldest sister and Sonata is the youngest.

Which was weird. Why did Aria get the title of queen if she was the second oldest? Didn’t the firstborn normally become the heir apparent?

“Yes,” said Sugarcoat. “It confirmed my suspicion. Their grandfather was the one who summoned the meteor. But enough of their family died on that day that Aria was promoted to Imperator Aria. So she was the one who talked to the Equestrian government afterward.”

“About what?”

“Crater Cemetery.” Sugarcoat flipped the page again. There was only one more after this. “The asteroid was intended to kill our enemy… but it didn’t work.”

Zest shuddered to think of what else they could possibly throw at it if an asteroid wasn’t enough!

“They were asking for help, but the SA decided there was nothing they could do at the time. Still… they got some information out of the Noctilucent family.”

As Sugarcoat kept reading, she pulled out a photograph and her eyes widened. Zest did as well when she read the caption.

This was it! A photograph of… of the depths of Crater Cemetery!

It must have been shortly after the meteor impacted. The ground was still molten and a heavy mist of ash covered the area. The overall quality was poor… but they could make out a figure just shortly before the camera.

It was a pony, but elongated and warped. It was a winged unicorn… an alicorn.

Though which one, if that was true, Zest couldn’t possibly tell. There was supposed to be The Queen of Light and her seven sons. This one was female and it wasn’t The Queen of Light so… who or what?

Even still, Zest could also tell it was a ghost. Those same fibers she’d seen plenty of during the battle came streaming out of her edges. It made it look as though the form was burning away at the edges, extending into an infinite web of fibers that wrapped around the heavy chains arced around her back and legs.

Oddly it almost seemed like it was posing for the camera, wings flared out and looking straight at whoever took the photograph as though making sure they got all this.

“Did they seriously have this the whole time?” Indigo’s eyes nearly bugged out as she scanned the photograph over and over. “That’s it… that’s the bastard, isn’t it?!”

“It does seem strange they wouldn’t have released this more widely.” Sugarcoat studied the photograph through narrow eyes. “They usually like putting up pictures of their marks. Either they know something we don’t or…”

“What even is this, though?” Zest asked. “It can’t be an alicorn, can it? There’s only like eight of those and this isn’t one of them. So… it’s just a thing that looks like an alicorn?”

“A creature from outer space,” said Sugarcoat. “That’s what they claim she is. It appeared and demanded they worship her. They deemed it dangerous enough to summon the asteroid in an attempt to kill it. When that failed, they managed to seal it away. But the cost was most of their clan. Though the report sound skeptical.”

“So those bozos were really that powerful this whole time?” Indigo lifted her head in disbelief.

“Hey!” Zest remembered an important point. “Didn’t you say you already knew the family those two were from? So… you already knew about this ‘Imperitor’ stuff?”

“Not all of this is entirely new,” said Sugarcoat. “We’ve known about their family… the Hallow clan that lived in Hollow Shades for a long time. They were an extremely isolationist village that knew many dark secrets and believed in the absolute superiority of ghosts... and pegasi for that matter. But I certainly never knew their head family claimed to be high-royalty or anything like that.”

Zest still wasn’t sure what to make of all this… there was one page left, but Sugarcoat suddenly became too lost in thought to turn to it.

“Isn’t it weird that guy asked us for a name?” Indigo asked.

“Huh?” Zest blinked.

“The dollmaker,” Indigo reminded her. “If it’s just some random space monster and they have no idea where it came from… then why would it even have a name?”

“That’s a good question, actually.” Sugarcoat finally turned to the last page.

On this final page was a photograph of a shrine, one dominated by a massive statue… a statue of a female alicorn. And if it wasn’t the queen of light… it was the ghost of Crater Cemetery!

A shrine to their enemy. Only it didn’t look exactly like her… but similar enough that Zest assumed they were supposed to be the same.

Luna.

Yeah, it was the same pony alright! Her form wasn’t so warped and twisted. It was solid and clear, but there were just enough similarities that Zest guessed it was either the same pony or her twin sister or something.

So that was it… it must have been named ‘Luna’. But what did this shrine mean, exactly?

“Since when is there an alicorn named Luna?” Zest asked while Sugarcoat kept skimming much faster than Zest could have read.

“Who knows… but they worshipped her. The Noctilucent family, I mean. It says the SA did some spying afterwards and found the Noctilucent worshipped… whoever this is. And they concluded that the Ghost of Crater Cemetery was actually from a failed attempt to summon this… creature. Luna.”

“They tried to summon something from the outer realm?!” Indigo winced at the very idea. Everypony knew something like that was literal suicide. “So that crap about being from outer space was bullshit and it was really the Noctilucent family’s fault. It was those Hollow Shades assholes doing the most stupid religious ceremony in history! Those ponies were never any good! We should have slaughtered them all a hundred, no, two thousand years ago! This is why they killed the Solaris family!”

“We can’t be sure if it was really their fault,” said Sugarcoat.

“That’s what the SA concluded!” Indigo gestured to the last page. “And they didn’t even have the decency to pass that on to the rest of us?! Bah! Screw them too.”

Did the Noctilucent family really leave that part of it out to try and avoid blame? It seemed the most likely answer but…

“Something about this seems off,” said Sugarcoat. “If they had all this information, why hasn’t any of it leaked… and if the ponies of Hollow Shades had such intimate knowledge of how the shadow realm’s chains worked, enough to seal away this monstrosity in the first place, how could they have fallen victim to it so easily?”

“I think you’re right, actually.” Indigo glanced to the side, forgetting her anger a moment. “There’s no way they could have been that powerful but still get so horrible crushed afterwards. But… wait! I just had an idea!”

Indigo flew up higher than the others for a minute to propose her idea.

“What if they didn’t summon their god and it turned out to be evil… but they summoned it to fight this thing! And because the summoning ritual failed, this Luna alicorn was only able to hit it with a few chains before fucking off to the out realm.”

“But then why do they look like the same pony?” Zest asked.

“Uh.” Indigo floated down, unsure how to respond. “I dunno?”

“Well, we know the name Phantom Troupe likely wants to hear,” said Sugarcoat. “Maybe he can give us more information?”

“Hehehe! We’re so close!” Zest stomped a hoof. “This mission was a massive success! It’s all up from here, baby!”

“I wouldn’t get too excited,” said Sugarcoat. “This was a minor victory at best.”

“Minor victory? We saved the last bastion of ghost civilization. I can’t wait to see the look on Meltdown’s face when he hears that we saved the–”

“You’re all banished forever.” Meltdown flicked his hoof.

Indigo merely shrugged like it couldn’t be helped while Sugarcoat had almost zero reaction.

“W-what?!” Zest demanded. Her gravely voice made her sound vicious rather than stunned. “But we just saved your city!”

“I understand that, and you do have my thanks,” said Meltdown. “Which is why I’ll afford you all the time you need to leave and whatever assistance I can give you on the way out. But once you leave, you may not return… and I would appreciate you not linger here much longer.”

“But why?!”

“You defied Crater Cemetery too directly and your victory was too humiliating toward them,” said Meltdown. “I don’t know what will happen if you remain here too long.”

“What are you even worried about?” Zest asked. “That they’re going to kill you?! They’re already trying to do that! They tried just yesterday!”

“He’s probably right,” said Sugarcoat. “For our safety, even, I don’t think it’s a good idea if we return here again.”

“Okay…” Zest hung her head, not about to argue with her beloved boss. “But I still feel like this is unfair.”

“You bought me a little more time,” Meltdown corrected her. “This fight is still hopeless and my strategy is only to drag on the inevitable for as long as possible. To that end, I have to ask you to leave.”

“But what about all the information we gathered?” Zest asked. “Isn’t that… exciting or something?”

“And what are you going to do with it, exactly?” Meltdown asked. “That information doesn’t seem very useful to me at all. If anything, the lot of you are in a worse position than before as you’ve earned the attention of Crater Cemetery. Was it really worth it?”

Was it worth it to do something? Yes! Always!

But apparently, this guy didn’t think that way.

To be fair, they didn’t reveal much to him outside of the fact that they did get the intel. He was just kind of assuming it was useless because it didn’t give them a clear way to destroy their enemy.

“Of course, if there are any favors you want to ask me before you leave,” he said. “I may grant it.”

“Oh!” Zest’s hoof shot up. “The demographic information about the ghosts here! I want that!”

“There is something I want to ask you about later,” said Sugarcoat, eyeing the crowd of ponies that had gathered behind them. “In private.”

Zest really wanted to suck a favor out of this guy if that was really all she’d get out of this! She thought and thought and–

She almost forgot about her side mission from Sunny Flare to collect information.

Meltdown nodded, giving her that much. So that was two missions complete!

Better than nothing. But it didn’t make Zest feel any better as she left their main headquarters.

A crowd had gathered to watch all of this and one of the ghosts, some random stallion, broke from the herd to fly out in front of them.

“Excuse me. Did your fraid really get rid of those two banshees?”

Was this random doofus going to give them trouble, too?

“Yes,” said Sugarcoat. “Why?”

“You were talking about recruiting more ghosts before, right?”

Zest blinked.

After days of zero interest, suddenly there were five more ghosts who wanted to come back with them! Sugarcoat still wanted to talk to each of them one-on-one and maybe they wouldn’t all make the cut, but more were sure to ask. Zest assumed that meant five more joining.

So that was the three original members… plus Wallflower and Juniper… Sunny Flare probably counted and then five more…

They were up to double digits now! More than double what they had started with! The Shadowbolts were becoming a pretty serious organization!

Packing up their things to depart made Zest realize just how much stuff they had acquired too. Between her new body and that battle doll, that was like two combat mechs right there. Plus piles of books, weak magical artifacts, and Juniper’s recording stuff.

They were going back with a whole caravan this time! It was always nice to return in a more glorious fashion than you left.

“You can come out now,” said Sugarcoat, looking over Zest’s robot form. “I want to see how badly damaged you are.”

Zest nodded and flew out of the body.

Zest looked over herself. She still had some big holes along her body, any one of which would mean certain death on a predead. But more than half of them were gone and those that weren’t were half the size. Still, blue threads danced around her.

“You’re lucky you’re so young,” Sugarcoat sighed. “I don’t think I would have survived that much damage.”

“Hey, you got damaged the least but you’re still not better.” Zest poked the gash in Sugarcoat’s withers. Indigo had rematerialized most of her entire leg at this point but Sugarcoat hadn’t managed this? “Is that a specter thing?”

“Don’t you wonder why you haven’t seen any ghosts from a thousand years ago? Ghosts don’t live forever,” Sugarcoat explained. “We may appear to have eternal youth but that’s not entirely true. The older you are, the harder it is to maintain your form. You’re the youngest, so you rematerialize the quickest. With age, it takes longer to recover and less damage to make you unravel. Eventually, even small wounds become lethal.”

“What?! No!” Zest grabbed onto Sugarcoat, hugging her for dear life. “I don’t want you to die, Boss!”

“Zest, ghosts typically live somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred years,” said Sugarcoat. “I have another century and a half before this becomes a serious problem. In pony years, I’m maybe in my mid to late thirties.”

“Oh.” Zest sniffled, still crying a little. “Well I still don’t want you to die in a hundred years, either.”

Sugarcoat gave Zest one of her rarer sort of smiles and patted her subordinate on the back. She rustled Zest’s mane a little, then her smile and hoof were gone.

“Anyway.” Sugarcoat turned away. “I’ve decided that you’re officially no longer a worm friend. When we get back home, you can finally try some of that agarwood.”

“Really?” Zest looked up at Sugarcoat, her tears slowly shifting meaning. “So I’ve graduated to ‘actual ghost’ tier?”

Sugarcoat nodded.

“Heck yeah! It’s all straight up from here on out!” Zest pumped her hoof, flying up a little as she did. “I can’t wait to get back home! Let’s go!”

Zest pointed to the north.

“Don’t get carried away.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “There’s one or two more things we need to do before leaving this place. I want to talk to Sour Sweet when she wakes up. And we need to talk to the dollmaker again. We should take care of that second one presently.”

That was right!

He offered them information if they could guess the name of the head of Crater Cemetery. And… well they were pretty sure they had the answer now.

It wasn’t long afterward that Zest stood before the beached battleship that he made into his dwelling, and then inside the hall of dolls deeper inside. Zest hoped this would be the last time she found herself surrounded by preserved bodies like this…

This time she was ready. When one of the dolls suddenly came to life and stepped off its pedestal, Zest pointed an accusing hoof at him.

“Alright! Guess what, buddy! We solved the mystery!”

“Oh did you?” Troupe chuckled. “Well, you made quite the commotion… I hope whatever pittance you learned was worth it.”

Zest looked at Sugarcoat for permission to do the reveal. Sugarcoat sighed, but nodded.

“The name of the ghost of Crater Cemetery…”

Zest flew up higher to let the moment linger.

“Is Luna!” Zest pointed her hoof out at Phantom Troupe like she was a lawyer making a dramatic reveal. “The goddess of the Noctilucent family. They tried to summon her from the outer realm but it went bad and they dropped an asteroid and uh…”

His confidence gone. Troupe stopped to stare at Zest with the most dumbfounded look.

“Luna? Wherever did you hear this name?” Troupe came closer.

“It was in the report we stole,” said Zest.

“That can’t be possible.” Troupe shook his head. “We did not mention her name to them!”

“We?” Sugarcoat asked.

“How could they have…?!” He trotted around in a small circle, at a loss. “Did we really underestimate them that much?”

“That’s what the report says, so I guess.” Zest shrugged.

“I need to see this report!” Troupe held out his hoof with the desperation of a starving pony reaching for bread.

“Yeah, alright.” Zest took it out and offered it to him. “Go ahead.”

Sugarcoat tore the folder away from Zest.

“Not for free,” Sugarcoat sternly warned him.

Troupe retracted his hoof, considering what he would surrender for it. The pained expression on his face betrayed that the price he’d pay was steep indeed.

“I’ll give you one of my dolls in exchange.” Troupe gestured to the line of dolls. “Ten of them! And I’ll preserve anybody you bring to me free of charge from now on.”

“No,” said Sugarcoat. “Tell us something we don’t know. I’ll let you see the report if I feel it’s at all substantial.”

Sugarcoat waved the report while an injured Troupe glowered and strained to think of the bare minimum he could get away with.

“Well.” His look darkened. Troupe began pacing the ground in a small circle, considering the situation. He shook his head, his pacing coming to a stop. “Not Luna. That wasn’t the name I was looking for. No… so technically you didn’t pass the test.”

“Well then you technically aren’t going to see this folder.” Sugarcoat pulled the file back even further.

He made a low, grumbling sound, staring at the ground.

“Alright…” Troupe relented, switching to a smile awfully fast. “What about this exchange? I will tell you the answer to my question if you let me see this report. Give me the folder… and I will tell you the true name of our enemy.”

Now it was Sugarcoat’s turn to consider her options.

Zest felt the fur on her back standing up. Was this really it?

“Fine.” Sugarcoat nodded.

Sugarcoat held the folder out to him. Troupe took it immediately.

“The name I was looking for…”

He paused for a moment to flip through the files, confirming they weren’t trying to trick him with a fake report. He smiled at whatever he saw, raising his head to look at them with a bit of a smirk.

“Is Nightmare Moon.”

24. Chariot

Phantom Troupe snatched the folder away and began pouring over the material with increasing concern.

“Um!” Zest raised her hoof. “So how exactly do you know this? You’re so surprised the SA found out about Luna but… then how does some random taxidermist know?”

“I have a good guess,” said Sugarcoat. “You’re part of their family, aren’t you? You’re from Hollow Shades… you were probably there.”

“I suppose there’s no hiding it now…” Phantom Troupe trotted to the far side of his battleship, muzzle deep in his reading. “Yes. I am from the same clan as Empress Aria Ardere. I am her third cousin once removed.”

Zest had no idea what that meant.

“The preservation of bodies.” Phantom Troupe turned his head left and right, at either row of dolls. “It is not a technique I developed myself, but something passed down for generations through our clan. So much knowledge has already been lost and so much more can vanish with us, the last remaining members of our bloodline.”

He lowered the paper and shook his head.

“You can’t possibly imagine the pain I feel seeing the rightful ruler of Equestria degraded like this! It was already humiliating enough watching you all put on this degenerate display of ‘democracy’ under the SA. Aria should be the one ruling over all of you, but now… now the Noctilucent clan is doomed. No members of our clan survive that are not ghosts already.”

“Your angst aside,” said Sugarcoat. Her frown suggested little sympathy. “If you knew all of this from the very beginning, why haven’t you told anyone until now? This could have been very useful a few years ago, for example.”

“I seriously doubt that. Equestria doesn’t know the truth… or at least I assumed they didn’t.” Phantom Troupe looked over the folder. “I didn’t want them to know the truth. Nightmare Moon. Star Feather. Our goddess Luna. It may be difficult to tell the difference between them. And that’s a good thing.”

Phantom Troupe scrutinized the photograph of that shrine to Luna. His shrine, apparently.

He was right about one thing, though. The three names he just mentioned were all a slurry to Lemon Zest. Were they all the same pony or what?

“Yes. Yes, I’m certain they can’t tell where one begins and the other ends…” He smiled again. “I suppose hope isn’t lost just yet.”

“How is that good for you?” Sugarcoat asked. “Surely, information about our enemy leaking as widely as possible would be an advantage.”

“This world will soon end regardless.” Phantom Troupe closed the folder. “If there was any chance of stopping that, it was lost in the battle that created the crater. But there are people like you who will carry on the fight long after this becomes evident. I don’t want such people tempted by the existence of certain avenues. False hopes.”

“If every path leads to destruction,” said Sugarcoat, “what difference is it to you which I take?”

“There is likely a way to kill Luna… but that won’t mean the end of Nightmare Moon. Even knowing that, when things truly begin to unwind in about five years, I think many will be tempted to seize this low-hanging fruit if only for the chance to feel like they’re doing something. But this will not work. All you will accomplish is spiting those of us who would escape… and potentially yourselves.”

“Escape? You’re talking in terms of the destruction of the entire world.”

“This world will end in total darkness… but not all things. How would you like to escape? Just leave this world to its fate and go somewhere we’ll be safe?” Phantom Troupe held a foreleg at length and looked to each of them in turn. “There’s no shame in retreating to safety, is there?”

Sugarcoat stood in silent contemplation of that dilemma. At face value, that sounded better than dying in glorious combat which increasingly seemed to be their current endgame. But in books and movies, there was almost always a catch to taking a deal like that. Usually, because the main character didn’t ask enough questions.

“Okay,” said Zest. “But if we’re leaving ‘the world’, where are we going, exactly? To outer space?”

“No, no. There are other planes of existence,” said Phantom Troupe. “The outer realm… the shadow realm.”

Zest hoped he was talking about the second one. The outer realm was a place of unimaginable chaos that broke the minds of those who gazed upon it within seconds.

But the shadow realm… well she was already looking at that!

If Zest remembered the explanations of the others correctly, ghosts saw the shadow world that was closely intertwined with the physical realm they inhabited. That was how ghosts were able to ‘see’ darkness.

Zest knew there were various entities imprisoned there, but she hadn’t seen any just yet. The shadow realm didn’t look terrifying. It looked completely normal at this point. Tranquil, almost.

“If you’re interested in escaping with me… then perhaps we can make another deal. I can only save so many, but you’ve met the threshold for me. You can take perhaps fifty or so with you. They don’t have to be ghosts. If you agree to keep everything, even the name of our enemy, to yourselves I can give you a ticket to leave with us.”

“There isn’t any authority that can enforce that agreement,” Sugarcoat warned.

“No. Just this. If you do leak the information I’m telling you now, I will make sure the escape route is closed off to you.”

Sugarcoat nodded.

“Then I can choose my course of action after hearing your offer. That’s acceptable,” said Sugarcoat. “But I need to know exactly what you mean before I can make that decision.”

“The history of the universe, as my clan understands it is as follows. From nothingness, or true void, as we call it, emerged absolute chaos. But the true chaos created its undoing eventually, The Queen of Light, the living embodiment and god of order.”

Zest had at least heard of The Queen of Light before, the oldest and most powerful alicorn. Though her origins were more contentious than this guy made it sound.

“The Queen of Light created seven sons, the other alicorns… and two of them created Golden Feather and Star Feather, the first two ponies to ever exist. Do you follow?”

“I’ve heard this story before,” said Sugarcoat.

“Good. Then perhaps you also know that the father of Star Feather, of my ancestor, is the alicorn known as The Darklord,” said Phantom Troupe. “He may be portrayed as merciless, but he has some sympathy for his daughter. By extension for myself… and for you as well.”

“Why us?”

“For ghosts and for other creatures that Star Feather had some responsibility for the creation of. You are blessed by her, by our Goddess Luna. The Darklord would take you in as his children.”

“Blessed? What does that mean, exactly?”

“That isn’t important to my story, nor do I intend to tell you everything. Perhaps once we’ve escaped I can give you a proper education? What you need to know is this: The Darklord has some means of decoupling the shadow realm from the physical realm. Of all the alicorns, he alone lingers in our world to some extent… though imprisoned deep in the shadow realm. If he were to escape his confinement…”

“Then he’d be able to beat up Nightmare Moon?” Zest’s ears perked up.

An alicorn! Those were like… the highest gods, the top in terms of power. Only the incomprehensible gods of chaos could compare to them. Their power was reality-shattering! Cataclysmic on a cosmic level! They used to spin the freaking sun around the planet every day as casually as a normal pony would drink a cup of coffee.

And… actually, thinking about it maybe somepony like that showing up could also go wrong.

“Even if that were the case, it wouldn’t be without a steep cost,” Sugarcoat warned, nearly scolding Zest, who put her hooves on her headphones and retreated. “The power of an alicorn is too extreme. They warp the very nature of reality with their mere existence. Releasing an entity like that probably isn’t a good idea. You’ve nearly lost me, I have to warn you.”

“Him being free for even one second would irreversibly alter the very laws of physics of this world, yes.” Phantom stroked his chin. “He’d win but what would be left of this planet would be unrecognizable. But it will be doomed anyway and we’ve no intention of doing so until the very last second. It doesn’t matter either way. But we can escape before then. We can live freely in the shadow realm, start a new world, one better, free of all the chaos and horror of this one under his protection.”

“Hold up! I want to make sure I got this,” Zest interrupted him. “So The Darklord is the baby daddy of your god – Luna or Star Feather or whoever… and he created a bunch of spooky stuff like ghosts but he’s sealed away.”

Phantom Troupe listened to her recap with a look of disgust. His eye twitched but he didn’t say no.

“And if we unseal him, he can just blow up the entire planet, killing Nightmare Moon… and that’s okay cause we’ll just go, uh, live in the Shadow Realm with him forever?”

He didn’t dignify that with a response beyond an unamused scowl. But the answer was clearly yes.

“You’d have us trade one tyrant for another?” Sugarcoat asked. “We’d be completely at his mercy.”

“Hardly! The Darklord and my ancestor believe strongly in free will and self-determination. That is why Nightmare Moon is such an affront to their own existence. And you won’t have to make this decision blindly either. There will be a meeting of certain interested parties in the spring of next year. You’ll have a chance to speak to The Darklord… if you’re interested in coming.”

Sugarcoat grew quiet. It was hard to refuse an offer like that. Zest wondered what it would be like to talk to such a pony. If she was going to die… meeting this Darklord pony should certainly go on her bucket list. If nothing else, it’d be something interesting to see on the way out.

“Here. I’ll give you a present even.”

Phantom Troupe turned to one of his dolls, the cute pegasus mare with pink and white hair Zest had initially admired. It sprang to life and trotted over to him. He crumpled up a piece of paper and had the doll swallow it.

“That paper contains the exact time and location of the meeting place.”

The doll fell to the floor, lifeless again. They probably weren’t supposed to ‘open’ it until leaving Old Manehattan.

“There’s still a lot of questions I’d like to ask if you’re willing to answer them. About this Luna pony…”

“I think I’ve told you enough.” Phantom tossed the folder back at Sugarcoat’s feat. “I’ll be leaving now. I can’t stay here much longer.”

The rest of the dolls sprang to life and began moving about on their own accord. They rummaged through the abandoned battleship, swiftly packing away Phantom Troupe's possessions into saddlebags.

Zest craned her neck all about, watching the commotion. She had no idea you could do something like this! Maybe it was one of his other secret techniques…

Sugarcoat’s gaze was a bit more skeptical and calculating.

“Are Luna and Star Feather the same pony?” Sugarcoat guessed something Zest also suspected. “Does she merely have two names for some reason?”

Phantom Troupe ignored the question.

“Well, I assume Luna is ultimately the one responsible for all of this at any rate,” Sugarcoat tried a different approach. “You might not want to admit it, but–”

Phantom Troupe shuddered and lowered his head the moment Luna was accused of any wrongdoing. Sugarcoat’s accusation quickly became too uncomfortable for him to ignore.

“Luna is the only reason any of you are alive right now.” He suddenly snapped, turning back to them. “She is the one who chained Nightmare Moon to Crater Cemetery, who prevents that monster from moving and seals away the majority of its power. She holds Nightmare Moon back even now… but only for so long. She alone bought us this time!”

“I see. And are she and Star Feather… the same pony?”

Phantom Troupe stood before Sugarcoat, watching her with cautious indignation. Then he gave her a small smile and flicked his hoof.

“I need to leave this place.”

He watched his small army of dolls march out of the hatch carrying his possessions with them. There wasn’t much time left.

“I’d be willing to grant you sanctuary if you don’t want to stay here,” Sugarcoat offered. “You’d be safer with us.”

“Oh, no. Having both of us in the same place would move you too far up the list of priorities. Separate, each of us may avoid being targets for longer.”

“Are you going to be able to survive on your own for a whole year?” Sugarcoat asked.

“I’ve avoided them this long. I have my ways.” Phantom Troupe put his hoof on the porthole to leave.

But he did stop to consider his own words for a moment.

“Let me give you one more bit of information before I leave though.” He turned back. “There is a chance I might not live until next spring… so these are the names you need to pay attention to. The following ponies know about as much as I do. Pay attention.”

Zest got ready to commit them to memory, though Sugarcoat would do a better job.

“There is the witch Virgo Aurora who wields the fifth volume of The Book of Shadows and her student Sunset Shimmer. There is the lich Ostracon, likely somewhere in the far reaches for now. And there is the Apple family led by Bright Mac or perhaps Granny Smith. If I disappear, seek one of them out instead.”

“Ostracon?”

Phantom Troupe ceased his exit once more, taking a step back inside.

“You’ve met him already?” Phantom asked.

“No. But a pony named Nailbat made it sound important I should ask around about him.”

“I see. Well, you’ll meet him if you make it to next year. But I suppose this much is common knowledge… he’s been obsessed with perfecting a certain spell for some two hundred years now. He appeared in Old Manhattan not long ago to speak with Meltdown and me about just that.”

“And what was this spell?”

“A spell for erasing objects from existence completely, decomposing them into true void. The Azoth spell, he called it. He was under the impression this spell could destroy Nightmare Moon.”

“Hold on!” Zest threw herself between the two of them. “Is this an option now?!”

“Hardly,” said Phantom. “I don’t know if you’ve ever met someone like him before but… well let me just skip to the ending here. The spell would require seven hundred and twenty-eight billion ponies acting simultaneously to cast it.”

“Billion?” Zest put a hoof on her headphones.

“Billion, yes. Though I suppose he has a few fantastical ways he proposes to cast it anyway.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell us?” Zest asked.

“No. Go find him yourself if you’re interested in such a fool’s errand. I’ve said enough. Farewell.”

And he charged out before another question could be asked.

“The Far Reaches,” Sugarcoat repeated his location to herself. “That’s where Sunny Flare lives…”

They returned to the hotel they’d been staying at afterward.

Indigo was there, forelegs folded as she inspected the lineup of new recruits. She had them standing at attention as though they were cadets. Given Indigo’s background, maybe she’d been playing drill sergeant.

It looked like she’d worked the number down to these five. Juniper stood close behind her and Wallflower floated halfway above ground some distance away, detached but on Indigo’s side.

“Hey!” Indigo called out to Sugarcoat as she approached. “We finished grilling the ponies who wanted in. These are the five I picked.”

Indigo pointed and called to each

“Alizarin Bubblegum.”

What the heck was an alizarin?! She was very pink, though! And grafted with glasses like Sugarcoat. Didn’t look much older than Zest, either.

“Jet Set.”

Also glasses! The grey stallion looked pretty serious and sophisticated. Also, he was tied for the first boy in the Shadowbolts.

“Melon Mint.”

She was green and… not grafted?!

“Citrus Drops.”

He was orange and way too normal looking.

“And Crystal Lullaby.”

The last one was purple and pretty enough for Zest to feel just a little intimidated.

“But I told Suri Polomare to get out. She was a bitch, right?”

Indigo looked at the new blood, now seven, all of whom made some noise of agreement.

Sugarcoat acknowledged her new minions with a curt nod.

“We’ll be leaving in two days and won’t be back,” said Sugarcoat. “If there’s anything you need to do before then this will be your last chance.”

Only one task remained before they left… debriefing with Sour Sweet.

Sour Sweet came to them in the same abandoned building they’d met Nailbat at, wearing her hazmat suit. She came alone and off the books. The pony was still recovering from her injuries, her movements more sluggish.

But it was difficult to tell the extent of her injuries through the thick outfit that hid all but her eyes.

Sour Sweet confirmed that Nailbat orchestrated all of this from the beginning. He’d even been leading her around by the nose.

It was a bit of a risk… but they decided to tell Sour Sweet everything they’d learned. They wanted at least one pony outside their group to know just in case. And they did have a bit of a backup plan if Phantom Troupe did catch wind of this…

“Something they were saying,” said Sugarcoat. “It appears Aria can tell if someone will become a ghost when they die… and I suspect Nailbat can as well.”

“That guy only gets more suspicious,” said Sour Sweet. “He knew even more than he let on with me. I trust you all more than I trust him right now… though I suppose we did get results. The traitors have all been caught on our side. Those were the most anti-ghost assholes too. They were willing to risk everything just to get rid of Old Manehattan.

“But now that they’re gone… I might be able to push the reforms I want more easily. I got promoted to captain for one.”

Sugarcoat nodded. That was nice, but wouldn’t be nearly enough in the face of what they were up against.

“One thing he did say though, or implied,” Sugarcoat continued. “Is that if you die, you’re likely to become a ghost.”

Sour Sweet grew silent.

“If that happens… well, to get around Phantom Troupe’s complaint about me giving this name out, I want you to promise something. If you do die, then you’re mine. You’ll seek me out. In that sense, you will be a Shadowbolt and part of our group.”

Sour Sweet considered it a moment.

“I’m not sure how to feel about that. I suppose it does mean I’m harder to kill if nothing else.” She shook her head. “Alright. I suppose if I do end up as a ghost, I don’t have anywhere better to go. I accept your offer.”

“Good.”

“Though I am surprised the SA knows so much.” Sour Sweet grew contemplative again. “If that’s the case… a lot of their actions don’t make sense.”

That had been weighing on Zest’s mind as well. Something was off here. The answer was just at the back of her mind until–

“Oh my gosh!” Zest flailed her forelegs. “Nailbat picked up the folder!”

Everypony turned to her without comprehension.

“Don’t you get it?! That’s why Phantom Troupe was so surprised about Equestria knowing stuff.. because they don’t! It’s just Nailbat and – and he switched out the folder!” Zest crisscrossed her forelegs.

“You’re saying you think Nailbat added information not originally in the folder?” Sugarcoat asked.

“He could have done it,” said Zest.

“And he would have done it,” added Sour Sweet. “That pony is up to something… I’m going to find him again. And I’ll pass on any information I can to you.”

“It would be dangerous to give you a way to contact us,” Sugarcoat warned. “We suspect you’ll become a ghost if killed… and our enemy could take control of you.”

“Please.” Sour Sweet bowed her head. “I want to help you! I want to fight against Crater Cemetery too! I don’t think Meltdown will ever help me but… maybe you.”

Indigo scratched her ear and looked off into space while Sugarcoat studied her quietly. Zest remembered that the older a ghost was, the less they seemed to trust predeads.

“My whole life I’ve been risking my reputation to fight for you,” said Sour Sweet. “And this is the greatest threat to you and to everyone else. I can’t just sit idly by while this is going on. Don’t you understand that?”

Indigo was the one to lighten up and approach Sour Sweet at her decleartion.

“You know, I’ll admit I didn’t like you at first.” Indigo came closer to Sour Sweet. “But you’re really willing to put yourself out to help us! I can’t be mad at you. You’re alright, Sour Sweet.”

Something about that sounded familiar…

“Really?” Sour Sweet’s smile was nearly visible through her helmet. “That’s the first time a ghost has said something like that.”

“You know what? I’m even giving you permission to say ‘spook’,” said Indigo.

“Um. Thank you for the gesture, but I’m not comfortable saying slurs either way.”

“So will we do it?” Indigo asked. “Also how?”

“Once Zest can move through wires,” said Sugarcoat. “She’s getting close. I’ll… have her contact you later. We’ll agree on a spot somewhere outside the city.”

“Thank you!” Sour Sweet bowed her head again. “I promise, I won’t stop pushing! I’ll make sure I’m worth the risk.”

Sugarcoat nodded.

“One last thing. I wanted to make Wallflower apologize to you for her actions.”

Sugarcoat motioned for Juniper to come out with Wallflower in tow.

“She wasn’t entirely aware of the truth,” said Sugarcoat. “But that doesn’t excuse her.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Wallflower bowed her head in apology to Sour Sweet. “I’m sorry. I’m going to spend the rest of my life in service of Sugarcoat trying to help in this fight. I won’t ask you to forgive me.”

Sour Sweet merely watched her with a stern expression.

“You can cut her a little slack.” Indigo put a foreleg around Wallflower. “I can tell when a pony is ready to change. I admit, I didn’t like Wallflower very much at first, either but–”

There it was again. This time Zest knew what it was!

“You said the same thing about me,” said Zest. “Wait. Is it because Wallflower punched you, too?”

“She said the same thing to me.” Juniper glanced at Zest, then back to Indigo. “You said I was ‘artsy fartsy’ when we first met, right?”

“Well–”

“And then I punched you and suddenly we’re best friends,” said Juniper.

“But–”

“And the same thing happened with Ziggy.”

“Oh, come on!” Indigo looked around for the least bit of sympathy and got none. “That stereotype is not true! Juniper, you’re a pegasus too!”

“Yes, but I’m not a stereotypical pegasus.” She gestured to her forehead. “With flight goggles grafted to me.”

“What?! But–” She turned to Sour Sweet in desperation. “Well, what about Sour Sweet?”

“We just established you said the same thing about me,” said Sour Sweet.

“Okay! But my point is she never punched me.”

“Actually.” Wallflower raised her hoof. “I punched you while I was in her body. So it kind of counts as both of us punching you.”

“Oh, that explains it!” Zest smacked her forehooves together.

“No, it doesn’t!”

“The second we get home, I’m going to have Sunny Flare punch you right in the face,” Zest said. “Then you’ll stop being so mean to her.”

“It’s the only way to be sure.” Juniper agreed.

“Gah!” Indigo put her hooves over her head, turned invisible, and flew underground.

The day to leave came. The entire previous day had been spent packing and getting everything ready to leave.

They were bringing a collection of less common orbs with them too. Zest wondered what happened to all the orbs back home. She knew she programmed Sparky to just sleep until they came back, but would their orbs all float away or was a lesser ghost enough to anchor them?

Zest approached Sugarcoat to ask, but found her leader looking up at the opposing battle doll. That thing made Zest’s robotic body look puny and non-threatening in comparison.

A purple pony-esque suit of armor with massive retractable claws and two channeling staves mounted onto its back stood before Zest. They’d strapped all of their junk, both the legacy and new members. It was loaded up with crates containing everything from film equipment to jewelry and musical instruments.

Suddenly, a more important question came to mind.

“How do we, uh, move this thing?” Zest asked. “Without drawing attention, I mean.”

“Bubblegum is a poltergeist. She should have no trouble animating it.” Sugarcoat motioned to Bubblegum, the other glasses-mare, who flew into the battle doll.

The massive thing sprang to life, giving a little shake to test its hold on the cargo. Bubblegum nodded the doll’s head in affirmation.

“There are some pros in traveling in a more intimidating group. Nearly everypony we encounter will run away,” said Sugarcoat. “No one is going to risk shining violet lights at us this time. Only a very dangerous opponent would attack. That said… we will need to move a bit slower and scout ahead more. Make sure we don’t encounter any such threat.”

Sugarcoat floated to address the rest of them.

“Zest, you take the robot. Lullaby, the doll we got from Phantom Troupe. Jet set, you watch Wallflower. Indigo is our forward scout. Juniper watches the rear. Mint and Citrus, you’ll handle our orbs. We can’t let any drift off this time. We’re heading out.”

The Shadowbolts hailed their leader and took their positions.

Zest and Lullaby were able to carry a bit more with the black knight and the taxidermized body respectively. It wasn’t long before they were over the wall, back into the withered forest, and then into the actual forest.

The leaves had long since bloomed, giving Zest her first look at a non-pine forest in person. They covered the sky so much more completely than the pines did, protecting what little sunlight they encountered on the return trip. Everything here was just so much more alive than when Zest had come down.

The white void of the night sky slowly returned to its rich ocean of blue as the Shadowbolts left the light pollution of Manehattan behind. Zest dearly missed the richness of that sky. The city had its conveniences, but the stars were a lot to give up.

And with triple the number of ghosts and way more resources, they were that much closer to matching the activity of the city. Zest would be returning to a far less lonely academy.

Though she did gaze on them with renewed wonder with her new knowledge. Were there stars in the shadow realm? Or was this sky merely an optical illusion? Perhaps The Darklord would tell her…

Zest hoped he’d turn out to be a nice pony. Though probably not.

The return trip was slower going as Sugarcoat promised. They had to frequently stop and wait for Indigo to return and give the go-ahead before proceeding.

With Indigo and Juniper away from the group so often, Zest found herself talking to Lullaby, her fellow embodied ghost, the most during the trip. She was the one who brought all the musical instruments. It’d be nice having somepony musically inclined and with a great singing voice around.

Lullaby started singing a song by Zounds at one point, only for Zest to scream at her to stop. Lullaby revealed her own unfinished business was never being able to become a professional musician. That meant no paying her for her talents and earning her keep in other ways.

As promised, nothing dared approach their new, improved fraid. There were even fewer instances than on the trip there, though it did take a few more days.

They proceeded through Sugarloaf, then across the river and back into the familiar pine forests.

At last, just two hours until dawn, they once again found Shadowbolt Academy sitting beneath those brilliant stars.

It did look like a good third of the orbs wandered off somewhere, far fewer than usual dancing about the school grounds. But they had fancier orbs to replace them with now.

“We made it!” Zest went bounding off ahead of the others, signaling for them to follow. “Wait until you see all of our stuff!”

She stopped not too far ahead of the school, when she called out for her beloved pet to awaken. Sparky rushed out from underground tackling Zest out of her robotic body.

Zest grabbed Sparky in a hug as another familiar face came trotting through the door of the school. Sunny Flare followed behind at a much slower pace.

“This is my pet wraith Sparky!” Zest hugged him. She broke one hoof free and pointed at Sunny Flare. “And that’s our personal mad scientist, Sunny Flare!”

“Your… what?” Wallflower backed up slightly.

“I take it your trip went well?” Sunny Flare looked over their much-improved party size. “Is that… a robot?”

Flare frowned at it. Zest knew those had a bad name up in MSI.

“It’s a dead robot! I learned how to possess it’s body!” Zest explained. “And uh… the big one isn’t a robot, just a doll! Don’t ask about that pink doll, though! Oh! And I got that demographic stuff you wanted!”

Zest rushed over to the saddlebag and pulled out the notes Meltdown had handed over.

“The entire city since its inception! Over a thousand entries!”

“My, this is even better than I hoped for.” Flare flipped through the book. “Thank you, greatly. I’m certain this will be useful.”

“I can’t wait to tell you about all the cool stuff we did! I got so much to talk about with everypony!”

Sugarcoat came out from behind to approach Flare.

“Sunny Flare,” said Sugarcoat. “We’ve become interested in a lich named Ostracon, who supposedly disappeared into the far reaches. Have you heard that name before?”

“I haven’t. But the Mad Science Institute effectively rules over what little there is in the far reaches,” said Sunny Flare. “Every tribe of snow ponies has some alliance with us. I’ll send a letter asking about him.”

Zest turned back to see her new friends all huddled together with Indigo out in front, like a bunch of fillies watching a diseased mouse. Even Wallflower had backed up behind the others.

“Hold on.” Juniper hung back with the others, talking to Indigo like Sunny Flare wasn’t even there. “Is that pony undead? Or what? I can’t smell her.”

“That’s Sunny Flare.” Indigo didn’t look at her directly. “Predead. She’s like… paying us to do experiments and stuff.”

Zest huffed, moving to Flare’s defense.

“She’s still alive.” Zest moved in front of Sunny Flare. “She's from MSI. She modified her body to survive the cold just so she could learn about ghosts.”

But that only put the rest of the Shadowbolts on edge.

“And she’s our friend! Sunny Flare is the one living member of the Shadowbolts!”

Zest looked them over, still failing to rectify the tension.

“Okay!” Zest pointed to Indigo. “We’re going with the plan. Sunny Flare, I need you to punch Indigo.”

Both Indigo and Flare turned to Zest with a ‘what’.

“It’s the only way to make her get over this!” Zest jabbed her hoof repeatedly at Indigo. “Trust me! It works!”

“She can’t even punch me!” Indigo moved her hoof through Sunny Flare. “We go straight through each other.”

“Actually.” Sunny Flare looked up at the stars.

Indigo blinked.

“I can survive being frozen alive,” said Sunny Flare. “If one of you were to freeze my foreleg solid, I’d be able to grab onto you with the enchanted ice.”

“That wouldn’t hurt?” Zest asked.

“I do feel sick after thawing, but mostly I just feel numb when frozen,” said Flare. “It wouldn’t kill any of my cells. I’ve honestly never frozen only one limb before… I’m curious if it’ll have the same effect.”

Sunny Flare held out a hoof to Zest.

“Yeah! We can do that, then!” Zest nodded.

“Hold on a second,” said Indigo.

Zest froze the hoof solid, encasing it in enchanted, blue ice. The flavor… like chewing on cardboard.

“I do feel a bit of a throbbing sensation.” Sunny Flare looked over her frozen limb.

“Great. So–” Indigo was caught off as Zest grabbed her from behind.

“Now punch her!”

“If you think it’s okay,” said Sunny Flare.

“It’s not okay!”

But it was too late. Sunny Flare jabbed Indigo in the belly. Zest let her go as Indigo sputtered and doubled over.

“It worked.” Flare nodded to herself.

“Geeze! You punch hard for a nerd!” Indigo clutched her stomach, quickly recovering. “Zest, how is this supposed to make me like her more? I already don’t trust her before she randomly punched me!”

“Well…” Zest was really sure that would have worked.

“I don’t understand why you can’t trust me yet,” said Sunny Flare. “I haven’t done anything. I even keep my quiet about your violations of safety.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The safe distance for ghosts to be from a settlement is seven miles. You’re much closer than that so–”

“Hardly! You hang around us for months and you don’t even know basic politics, huh?” Indigo smirked at her.

“You barely spoke to me at all!” Flare retorted. “I’m willing enough to learn that I modified my body for this. But I have no choice but to be ignorant if I can’t get you all to speak to me.”

She had a point. Indigo had been extremely cold towards Flare all this time. Indigo watched her with one eye before deciding Sunny Flare was the reasonable one after all.

“Oh, alright. I’ll try to teach you about what’s up.” Indigo nodded. “See, the actual safe distance for us is about three miles from a predead settlement, yeah? And that was the original distance we were allowed to live. But all kinds of lawmakers wanted to appear ‘tough on monsters’ so they just keep making the laws harsher and harsher. The current seven-mile rule is way more than it needs to be and causes all kinds of problems!”

“I see. So it’s an endless escalation of harsher laws,” said Sunny Flare. “Mad science suffers from a similar cycle, I’m afraid. But what are these other problems?”

“Well.” Indigo started to relax a little. “Like putting such harsh restrictions on us forces us to move around more often. Fraids of ghosts really shouldn’t be roaming around, that’s dangerous. But they force us to make stupid decisions like that and then act like we’re the bad guys when somepony gets hurt.”

“That really isn’t fair to you.” Sunny Flare shook her head. “I confess my ignorance to this. They really are creating more problems, then.”

“Yeah!” Indigo smiled and nodded. “You’re actually getting it. But you still don’t know the half of it! Another thing…”

The two of them started talking for a long time, Indigo eventually going off with Flare somewhere.

Zest crossed her forelegs and nodded as she smiled, smug as could be.

Everything was going to be just fine!

26. Vast

Once Zest finally figured out how to zap herself through wires, the world opened up to her.

It hadn’t been too hard once she had that ‘leakage’ experience. Bleeding out a little had opened her eyes to using her electrical powers and now she was, finally, a pro ghost.

Though Sugarcoat would probably disagree.

She only went north and west with her new powers. Sugarcoat forbid her to go further south than the 40-degree latitude, the line where Manehattan was. Zest didn’t always obey Sugarcoat’s orders to a T, but that was a dictate she’d have self-imposed even if completely alone.

And then she only went west because the ocean wasn’t far east.

But Zest did go further in those two directions than Sugarcoat wanted her to. Especially north.

Crossing the electric grid, Zest found the furthest northern point she could travel. There was a weather station a good way into the Far Reaches, one that only operated in the summer. So now, on the edge of winter, it was abandoned.

The whole of the Far Reaches could be seen as abandoned at first blush. Today was an unusually clear day, giving Zest a much further view of the area than she’d normally have.

Turn in any direction, it didn’t matter. They were all the same. Dunes of snow went on and on forever, that distance just ready to consume you. Not even the dunes themselves could serve as any landmark. They were too ephemeral in the harsh winds that blew all but constantly up here.

“You could get lost so easily in this place.”

Zest dared not venture out into that wasteland. Even this tiny station couldn’t serve as a landmark. The winds threw dunes up against it, covering this side and then that side. It would always be invisible from one angle. There was a chance it’d even get buried entirely if luck were poor.

She looked up at the sky. Having been here six times already, Zest had given up hope of seeing the stars. She’d asked Sunny Flare about that already and she said you got very few days of clear skies. Those were almost exclusively in summer when it was daylight 24/7 for a month or longer.

Only in the farthest north, the ‘dark circle’, a ring with a twenty-kilometer radius around the north pole, were you able to reliably navigate by stars. But that place was too intense. Nothing lived there. The snow pony tribes were so superstitious of the dark circle that they shunned anypony who set foot in it just once. Not even MSI and their insatiable curiosity dared venture there.

Zest shuddered and brought her head back inside.

The Far Reaches weren’t as monolithic as Zest had always assumed. It was divided into ‘circles’ of latitude. Everypony who lived there existed almost entirely on the far, southern strip of the Far Reaches, in the first circle. The majority in the southern tip of that circle too. Several enormous lakes marbled the snow, lakes that melted in tandem with geothermal activity more than the seasons.

The second circle was a place you only adventured to during the polar day, in the summer when the sun stayed up non-stop for three months straight. You never stayed there longer than you needed to. That was where Zest found herself now. The lakes here froze long ago and never thawed.

The third circle was rough terrain filled with glaciers. Nothing that could be called living existed there, but certain dangerous things still slept there, restrained by the deep cold. There were photographs of truly massive tentacled creatures, estimated to stretch out over a kilometer in length, imprisoned in the glaciers. Horror stories abounded about ponies who collected tissue samples from those creatures, only for it to mutate and come to life. Only the most hardcore thrill seekers ever went there.

And merely talking about the final, dark circle could cost you your reputation and credibility in the Far Reaches. Incidentally, there was very little information about what it was actually like. Only one pony had ever managed to photograph it.

Even this desolate field of ice was a warm, summer paradise compared to that place.

So of course, that was where Ostracon had wandered off to.

Zest heard getting a snow pony to talk about the dark circle was like getting them to talk about their secret fetish. MSI commanded their loyalty, though, and they did talk in the end, telling a story of a frighteningly powerful lich who had some business out there.

If only the telegraph lines had gone just a little bit further. If only there were a way to get some copper wire up here. That and a means to tell which way was north.

The snow ponies wouldn’t come out here this close to polar night. But it might just be possible to get someone from MSI to drop some off at the weather station…

The institute was connected to a small village in Crystal Veil by a telegraph wire. But one did not simply walk into a place like MSI. The Mad Science Institute was the dark circle of North Equestria if Zest were putting her new geographic knowledge to use.

So instead, Zest zipped her way back home to find her liaison writing down notes on the upper half of the library.

Sunny Flare shared so much of her research with them, reporting everything she found to Sugarcoat. Between that and her being radicalized into a ghost rights activist by Indigo over the last few months, it was easy to forget she was working for someone else.

Zest flew under the balcony to approach from below.

“Sunny?” Zest poked her head up through the desk and whatever Flare had been writing down. “How do you travel around in the Far Reaches? Without getting lost, I mean?”

“There’s a device called a seeking shell, like a compass but with multiple needles,” Flare explained. “There are so many magnetic deposits that the needles will start spinning all around rather than pointing north. But if you know where all the deposits are, you can interpret the spins to tell approximately where you are.”

So Zest could get by with a magnet!

“Like you have a map? And it points to the nearest deposit?” Zest came up, moving to the other side of the desk.

“No. It’s always spinning. I’m likely the worst pony to explain it to you.” Flare shook her head. “There are so many little nuances to it. I grew up using this system since birth. Half my knowledge is locked behind intuition. I wouldn’t know how to explain it to you. I just understand how to interpret the magnets like I know how to walk. Everypony who grew up in the Far Reaches is the same. We just know.”

“How did the snow ponies use to do it?” Zest asked. “They’ve been there a long time. MSI must have given them compasses only recently, right?”

“They were the ones who taught us how to do seeking shells, which they invented, in the first place,” said Flare. “Don’t look down on them so much.”

Zest put a hoof on her headphones and winced. She just did a racism!

“The compass was invented when a pony brought a seeking shell down to Canterlot and noticed all the needles always pointed north,” Flare explained. “So you could argue it was snow ponies who invented the compass. We think before they invented seeking stones, snow ponies simply circled the edges of lakes. Two tribes still refuse to travel out of sight of their lake.”

So finding north would be complicated. She’d need a seeking shell and somepony who knew how to use it. But most of those who knew how to use it would be in much more danger than a ghost in the Far Reaches. Especially this time of year. Zest could easily bring a second ghost with her, but not a living pony.

Flare tapped her pen repeatedly against the table as she watched Zest.

“You know, their mythology is filled with terror of becoming lost and warnings about wandering off on your own,” Sunny Flare explained. “An understandable fear given how easy it is to become disoriented. There are few landmarks in the shifting snow. A whiteout or deadly blizzard can happen at any time. And there are horrible things frozen in the ice. If you accidentally release one…”

“I got it.”

“There’s a phrase in their language, roughly translating to ‘going alone’ that’s a euphemism for suicide. Growing up there, I learned to respect their sayings. None of us leave MSI’s grounds alone. A group of snow ponies escorts me from Crystal Veil to MSI each time.”

“Okay. I get it. Yeesh.”

“And the dark circle is much worse,” Sunny Flare added one more.

Ostracon must be an insanely ambitious pony. That or he didn’t give a flying feather thinking he was already dead anyway.

“Is there any way I could visit MSI, though?” Zest asked.

“Hm?”

“I could relay messages for you a lot faster than your current method,” said Zest. “And I can be safe around predeads for long enough to do it.”

The current method was Sunny Flare dropping off a letter at Maple Hill that would arrive at another town the next day. A pony there would send a telegraph to MSI who’d eventually produce a return letter.

At its fastest, there was a two-day delay in communication. Zest could bring that down to under two hours tops.

“But obviously I’d need you to tell them that I’m with you,” said Zest.

“If it’s alright with Sugarcoat.”

Nice!

Truth be told, Zest had a growing desire to see all these forbidden places after her time in Old Manehattan. The number of outsiders who saw inside the Mad Science Institute was about equal to the number of ponies in the second circle.

Zest swung around to be on Flare’s side of the table.

“Did you learn anything good this week?” Zest asked.

Flare had gotten a letter back from MSI just two days ago. She gave regular reports to Sugarcoat on Saturdays, which was today.

“They received the samples from Sour Sweet, but it will still be some time until they can do a proper analysis on them,” said Flare. “Sour Sweet has provided us with an amazing opportunity. To be able to study someone we know will become a ghost. This is perhaps what I’m most excited about. My superiors moved the priority of my studies up a good deal in light of this. They’ll be running my list of recommended experiments immediately.”

There was a bit of a problem with studying the bodies of those who became ghosts. By law, all bodies had to be cremated within two days of death. The ever-looming threat of the undead necessitated such a policy.

This left a very small window of opportunity for someone interested in studying them to find and collect the body. So to have somepony still alive they were reasonably certain would become a ghost was a huge deal.

Flare sent an agent down south to meet up with Sour Sweet. They’d gathered a great deal of tissue from Sour Sweet. A process that made Zest cringe in pain, even if it was consensual.

Flare now had samples of her spit, sweat, two pints of her blood, a huge bundle of her fur and hair, a horn scraping, and a whole bunch of other things. Basically, if you could extract it, Flare got it. But they wouldn’t be staying here. Sunny Flare sent them further north, back to MSI where the equipment to properly study them was held.

“If I could somehow get a blood sample from Nailbat. Or from anypony I knew would become a ghost. I can only be so certain.”

“You’re not going to start a fight with him, are you?” Zest asked.

“We prefer bribery whenever possible. Like with you. I do have one other interesting thing I’m going to report, though. I found something statistically significant in the demographic data you gave me.”

Zest’s ears perked up and she drifted back over Flare’s desk to listen.

Their first guess, that it was based on family or lineage, turned out to be a bust. Sunny Flare confirmed near-immediately that your family, with the possible exception of the Noctilucents, did not correlate with becoming a ghost.

“Nearly a quarter of the ghosts were born during a full moon. Of the Shadowbolts, you, Sugarcoat, Juniper, Wallflower, Su-Z, and Sour Sweet if we’re counting her were born during full moons. Conversely, not one pony out of a thousand was born during a new moon. The distribution curve with the phases of the moon fits fairly well.”

“So the moon does it! If somepony is born during a full moon then–”

“That still only leaves a tiny fraction of those born during the full moon to become ghosts. Something else must happen merely related to the moon… they called it being blessed, right? The moon simply makes it more likely to occur, I think.”

“Yeah! You know, I’m more and more convinced that it has to be something you’re just born with!”

“Except this ‘blessing’ seems like it needs time to develop and fades over time. Remember ponies between twenty-five and fifty-five make up over ninety-five percent of ghosts.” Flare looked up from her desk and off to the side. “Luna… that name means ‘the moon’. It’s what inspired me to check the moon signs in the first place.”

“It does all seem to fit! I think we’re on to something! Science is the answer to everything!”

“That makes me wary of my conclusion.” Flare brought her gaze back down to earth. “As a scientist, you need to be very careful of cognitive bias and the danger of conjecture. You could, for example, find similar patterns in other astrological signs and events. The tides, for example, share a similar distribution curve. It could be the ocean that affects you. We know there are many sleeping things beneath the tides.”

“Ah, geese! I felt like we had it, too! Science ruins everything!” Zest put her hooves on her headphones and backed off. “Hey. Are we really the first ones to figure this much out?” Lemon Zest asked. “It seems kind of… simple? It being related to the moon, I mean. Nopony noticed that?”

“There were rumors before, but without actual data, one could simply dismiss them as superstition. There are too many claims connected to the full moon to take any of them for granted. Even if somepony did notice this correlation, they wouldn’t have been able to prove it. I’m likely the first to draw this relation with actual data.”

“Do you have any ideas for why Aria’s family are always ghosts?”

“Too many,” said Sunny Flare. “For one, they may know all the rules and say, induce birth during the full moon along with any other steps. We don’t have the birth dates for any of these Noclisent ponies, but I’ll predict that’s the case. Of course, they’re also all born in Hollow Shades so that may be a factor. Or their bloodline.”

They'd have to bring this up with Sugarcoat later. But...

The library had grown a decent amount. That snot-nosed colt from town started leaving books at the signpost in exchange for them leaving small bits of gold. The result was about five as many books as before.

At some point, Zest became self-conscious of her middle school dropout educational level. Sugarcoat seemed to know everything and Zest didn’t even know what trigonometry was, let alone how to do it!

Sugarcoat was very much on board with the idea, creating a reading list of things Zest needed to know to meet ‘the minimum threshold of basic literacy to function in society’. She even offered to make tests for Zest to take to see when Zest reached the level of a high schooler.

It was so weird. When reading and doing tests was actually important, Zest couldn’t even begin to try! Her grade was maybe twenty-something in the eighth grade, which made dropping out of school an easier decision. It just seemed so pointless to try when there was no way to dig herself out of that hole. One of her classmates calculated that even a perfect score on every test from then on would still result in her failing the eighth grade.

But now that nothing mattered? Now she was interested in learning about history and math and taking tests? Going through the list felt like a bit of an adventure.

Sugarcoat had always spent at least two to three hours a day in the library reading and Zest began joining her for that. She’d sit barrel to barrel with Sugarcoat as the two of them read. It was nice. She could tell Sugarcoat enjoyed it even if she’d never admit as much. Reading time was when Zest was the most likely to catch her boss smiling.

Or at least, Zest tried to read two hours a day. On a good day, she’d make it to maybe one hour of reading!

Right now she was reading about the revolution, where the SA overthrew the royal family, and the words were beginning to get away from her. She looked more and more at the page rather than anything written on it.

“How do you read for so long?” Zest whined. “My head starts to hurt after ten minutes!”

“Concentration and willpower are like muscles,” said Sugarcoat. “It hurts when you exercise a muscle you don’t normally use.”

“Guh! You saying I never concentrate on anything, Boss?”

“I thought that was obvious.”

Sadly, it was. Zest buried her muzzle in the book.

“Just keep concentrating on your reading, even if you’re not really getting it,” said Sugarcoat. “It will become less painful over time.”

Zest nodded, and went back to her book determined to make it to the two-hour mark no matter how bored she got! Sugarcoat gave her a pat on the head and that gave Zest endless motivation!

For the next ten minutes.

She made it ninety minutes, which was much longer than normal, at least. Sugarcoat was still going strong. Maybe a little too strong.

“Sugarcoat? Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?” She didn’t look up from the page.

“You seem.” Zest paused. She thought about what to say before coming here but still drew a blank. “How come you don’t want to go after Ostracon? You’re a lot more down recently. But we’re doing so well! So…”

Sugarcoat’s eyes drifted over the page too slowly. Then she answered.

“Our recent success. It frightens me.”

Now Sugarcoat was the one looking more at the paper than the words.

“That. Doesn’t make sense?” Zest shook her head. “I’m way stronger than I was before! And we managed to discover all of this stuff already! Shouldn’t you be more excited? I’m excited! Sunny Flare is excited. So… why not you?”

Another moment of contemplation. Another beat.

“I’m not sure if this is an odd thing to say.” Sugarcoat closed the book she was reading and let the moment linger as she remained silent, eyes closed. “Sometimes. I like to imagine that you’re the daughter the two of us could have had.”

Sugarcoat turned to Zest with such a sad look in her eyes.

The two?

“I like to think of myself as kind of your daughter too!” Zest grabbed onto Sugarcoat in a tight hug. “I would have loved it if I could have been raised by you and Pheonix instead.”

Sugarcoat said nothing and slowly stroked the Zest's back with a hoof as the two of them hugged.

“You’d take a lot more after him, of course. Your eyes are…” Sugarcoat pulled Zest’s head back to look into her eyes, a facsimile of an echo of her husband’s. “Zest. You really are a lot like he was. I pulled you out of a difficult situation. He did the same for me. And we grew strong together. All of this is nothing compared to the power I used to command as his wife. At the height of my power, I felt poised to change the world.”

“Mom…” Zest pressed her muzzle against Sugarcoat’s neck, looking up at her as Sugarcoat turned her gaze to the side.

“I can’t help but feel like… once again I stand at the height.” Sugarcoat closed her eyes and buried her muzzle into Zest’s mane. Zest felt her heavy breath against her head. “Zest. I don’t want you to get hurt. More than anything, that’s what I want. We could be safe for a long time if we just… be careful. Hide.”

“Mom.”

Zest shook her head and pulled out of the hug. Tears still lingered in her eyes but she tried to look strong.

“If White Pheonix really is like me. You know what I’m going to say!”

“I do.” Sugarcoat nodded. “And… that’s why I love ponies like you. But promise me you won’t try to get ahead of me. I should be the one putting myself in danger for you. The other way around is unnatural.”

“But I don’t want anything bad to happen to you either!”

“That’s not the way the world works, Zest. The older generation sacrifices for the younger. One day–”

“Don’t! We don’t know that!”

“I suppose things are dire enough that you’re right. But please. Promise me you won’t get ahead of me. And if you do something stupid behind my back, you’ll take Indigo with you. If you can’t convince even her, then your plan is overwhelmingly stupid and reckless.”

“Will you… promise to not give up?”

Sugarcoat paused. Then nodded.

“Alright. I know I still need you,” Zest admitted. “I promise I won’t do anything alone.”

“Good. Then. If that’s the case, I’ll give you permission to go to MSI.”

27. MSI

After a little back and forth a compromise was reached.

At first, MSI only wanted to allow Zest in. Of course, Sugarcoat wanted to go personally but they wouldn’t allow a specter inside their base. So they compromised by allowing Zest to bring one non-Sugarcoat friend with her.

There was some debate about who it should be. Sunny and Zest wanted it to be Juniper for the sake of a better first impression. Sugarcoat wanted it to be Indigo so somepony more skeptical of MSI would be with Zest.

Sugarcoat was in charge, so Indigo was the one to go with her.

At least MSI was putting a friendly face forward. The pony they chose to greet them was Sunny Flare’s mother, Steller Flare.

As it turned out, Sunny was the oldest of five foals and the only one to set off on her own so far. The rest of her family all lived up there. Despite knowing better, it was still hard for Zest to wrap her head around the fearsome MSI being a place where little fillies played.

Sunny Flare made sure to give Indigo a stern lecture in defense of her family before departure. Her excuse of having been born after the fall of Toxco wouldn’t work for either of her parents. Both of them had worked for the infamous Manehattan Electric Company.

But in the case of her father, he had been pressed into service and forced to create persona cores through repeated non-consensual ‘dives’.

Her mother, the pony they’d meet, had been the more intentional of the two. But Sunny Flare insisted Steller Flare had been strongly opposed to all of Toxco’s decisions. Toxco simply was the government of Manehattan at the time, with such unsurpassable influence that changing it from the inside was your only option... sans full-scale invasion.

But Steller was a great mare who did nothing wrong, Sunny assured them.

The two of them appeared in an interesting-looking room. Zest needed a moment to realize it wasn’t half as big as it first seemed. The walls were painted up to make it look as though long, sprawling coasts awaited you in every direction and gave the illusion of the room being vast. In reality, it was rather cramped with some electrical equipment.

Two ponies were in the room. They had the courtesy to turn the lights off, instead holding only a candle for their sake.

Steller stepped forward to greet them right away. The mare was almost the same color as Sunny Flare. Her colors were a bit more washed out by age and her figure a good deal plumper from five kids, but otherwise the resemblance was incredible.

“Hello. My name is Steller Flare, but I’m sure you know that.” She reached out a hoof as though the ghosts could touch it.

“Oh, wow! Sunny looks just like you.” Zest swung her hoof through Steller Flare. She got the point.

“Yes. If I showed you a picture of me when I was her age, you’d swear we were the same pony, even. We like to joke she was part of a cloning experiment.”

Indigo’s eyes wandered at the mention of experiments. Zest shot her a look. They agreed she’d give these ponies the benefit of the doubt.

“Well.” Indigo straightened up, eyes closed, and forelegs folded. “I gotta admit I respect your daughter. It’s rare you find a predead who’s down with our struggle, you know?”

“Yes.” Steller’s smile wavered slightly. “She’s been talking a lot about ghost rights these past few months. We don’t usually like getting involved in politics. We taught her to value science above all of that.”

“I wonder why,” said Indigo.

Steller’s expression soured further. Zest didn’t want them to get into an argument that fast! She pointed at the other pony in the room to interrupt.

“Who’s that?” Zest blurted out.

Zest could already tell she was a snow pony. They all kind of looked the same. For some reason, snow ponies were always a blotchy mishmash of various shades of brown, black, and white. The cost of their snow-proof coats had been a loss of color.

Snow ponies were these hyper-evolved earth ponies. Their long, shaggy fur puffed them up, making them look far stockier than they already were. And ponies were a stocky species, to begin with.

Their bodies were perfectly suited to living up here in the cold. A snow pony could easily swim through ice-cold rivers and lakes and run around all day in fifty-below weather with no need for clothes. Their fur was incredible stuff. Zest had a blanket made of it when she was young, and it was the warmest thing ever. And liquid just slid right off it, saving her more than once from an accidental spill.

The downside to this was that they couldn’t handle the heat so well. Anything over twenty centigrade made them badly uncomfortable. Much more than that and they started to cook themselves alive. So you rarely saw them south of Crystal Vale. Though Zest had seen groups of them before as far south as Trotonto.

“This is Frosty Flakes of the Bluehide tribe,” said Steller, Frosty taking a bow. “As I’m sure you can tell, she’s a psychic. We decided it’d be best to have her along as a safety precaution.”

Frosty being psychic would have been obvious even if Zest couldn’t feel her aura. She was the one levitating the candles with her mind.

Though now Zest was wondering if she’d ever see a snow pony ghost.

“Well,” said Steller, “they agreed to let me show you around a little, as your fraid is considered an ally of MSI now. But only on the condition that you not poke your heads through any walls. I’m afraid we still don’t trust you enough to give you all of our secrets.”

Zest had been a ghost so long that the concept of sticking your head through a wall being rude was totally alien to her. As part of a fraid you just came to understand that you never truly had total privacy. And got used to that surprisingly fast.

“That’s fair to me.” Zest looked up at the lights. “Not that it would matter.”

“What do you mean?” Steller asked.

“These types of overhead panels don’t cast shadows,” she explained. “I’d be blind in any room that had them on.”

“Ah! I never thought of that.” Steller turned, leading them down the hallway, candles floating by her side. “I suppose there are lots of things you don’t realize until you’ve spoken to a ghost in person.”

“Can’t stay too long, though,” Indigo warned. “We have maybe an hour. That’s how long we can usually last in places like this before it gets bad. Safeword is frosty shivers.”

Zest could already feel the urge, that itch in the back of her brain. The worst she had felt until now was being in Maple Hill. But here, ponies were stacked on top of one another to an even greater extent. Zest might have trouble lasting the full hour.

She could smell something else, however, a huge pool of heat. She remembered one of the first nights she was a ghost when Sugarcoat had given the lesson ‘This rock is extremely hot; this water has lots of heat’. She could appreciate that now and knew almost certainly there was a lot of hot water around somewhere… Maybe she’d get to see on the tour.

The two predeads led on, Frosty Flakes keeping the candles levitated in her aura. The next hallway was painted up to look more like a jungle, with the pipes painted green and brown like vines. The warm pipes gave a rather repulsive stench, but Zest tried not to say anything.

“We brought you up here so you’d get a better look at the place.” Steller stopped briefly at the end of the hall, a door sliding open for her.

Steller and Frosty Flakes stepped into an elevator, one with a glass wall that at last gave Zest a good overview of MSI. She rushed up to the edge of the glass and looked out, Indigo close behind. Though it was only four in the afternoon, it was already dark out here, the sun setting around three this time of year.

There might have been a taller building behind them, but not in front. They must have been at least ten stories up, as the four-story buildings looked tiny from here. That appeared to be the standard size of the concrete boxes that made up most of this town.

It was as if those buildings were mass-produced, they looked so similar! Though one thing that made them stand apart was the vibrant colors they were painted.

And they were the brightest, most saturated colors Zest had ever seen. They went in rings, red at the center, then orange, yellow, green, and blue, though the rainbow was not yet complete with a ring of purple buildings.

Zest wasn’t going to say it out loud, but it seemed awfully obtrusive to her. Then again, Sunny Flare seemed to love overly bright and colorful things, complaining everything she encountered was too washed out. Maybe growing up in a dreary place starved you for color, and made you crave this aesthetic.

She did find one noticeable exception, though. It seemed a group of Snow ponies decided they wanted to live next to MSI and had set up camp. The huge, fur-covered tents they were known for lined up along one edge of the facility. Zest could see the purple haze of several fires down there, yet the heat of those fires couldn’t compare to what was right next to them.

A lake! Not just melted, but actually boiling. It was far away so Zest had to stare at it for a few seconds to make sure she saw that right. Even from here, Zest could see the surface of the lake roiling over, the steam raising over it to create a blue cloud, and of course, could smell the massive heat it contained.

“Is that lake supposed to be boiling?” Indigo asked.

“It isn’t always boiling,” Steller explained. She hit a button on the elevator, letting it descend. “But it is always too hot to swim in. Believe it or not, there are a few things that can live in the water. And it makes a bit of an oasis, keeping nearby plants alive.”

Zest tried but couldn’t make out any plant life from this distance.

Without anything to possess, the two ghosts had to manually float down to keep from being left behind.

“There are many such lakes in the far reaches that melt from underground heat. This exact spot has particularly intense geothermal activity. It’s enough to supply most of our electricity.”

“Is there really enough life around that lake for the snow ponies to survive off of?” Zest asked.

“That’s the Bluehide tribe,” Steller explained. “They only settle down here for the winter. It’s safer to stay together during the polar night. We have a particularly good relationship with them.”

“And what’s in it for you?” Indigo asked, watching for Frosty Flakes's reaction.

“Control,” Steller admitted. “We can’t possibly live up here without their consent. So it’s something of a bribe.”

“We get much the same,” said Frosty Flakes. “Our alliance with MSI has allowed my tribe to become the largest and most influential in the region. Winter is dangerous for foals. We lose far fewer thanks to the creations of MSI. Maybe they are dangerous, but I can’t see them as evil.”

Indigo remained silent, unable to challenge their propaganda but not willing to be swayed by it.

As they descended, Steller gave them a few more facts. The population was typically about 4,500. But in the winter, it swelled to over 8,000 as the Bluehides and various smaller groups came to shelter for the polar night. Fringe satellite groups consolidated in a few spots like this when dark came.

They were getting close to ground level now.

“Ah!” Steller approached the glass and pointed to the ground excitedly. “School just got out a little while ago. That’s my youngest out there, Sunny’s little sister Gunsmoke out in the orange jacket.”

It took Zest a moment to realize which one, as there were many such orange foals. A smattering of groups of fillies and colts were moving about on the rubbery terrace just outside this building. All the non-snow ponies were dressed in layers of orange, red, and yellow so thick one could hardly see them. And they all had reflective tape and glow-stick necklaces strapped onto them to make them even more visible. Even the snow pony foals, otherwise naked, had reflectors and glow sticks.

It took Zest a moment to realize they had reflectors in the shape of a cutie mark or letter on their flanks. Gunsmoke, Zest presumed was the one with a gun reflector mark. Presently, she was busy playfully tackling a snow pony of similar size.

“Our foals,” said Frosty Flakes, “attend school here for two months of the year.”

“That must be fun,” said Zest. “Having friends who show up for the winter.”

The elevator stopped and opened up into a huge lobby!

At least, Zest assumed the room was huge. She could barely see a darn thing. Just a few shadows scattered here and there. But they were far enough away to tell her how spacious this place was.

Steller apologized for not being able to easily turn off the lights in this room and guided the two ghosts, by voice, to yet another room. Here, after making a brief announcement that it would be dark presently, Steller turned off the lights.

This room was also huge! It was partitioned into many smaller segments. Strange devices and objects in glass cases each had their own little spot on the grid.

“And here is one of our laboratories, where artifacts we created with mad science are studied,” Steller explained while they approached the next room. “A lot of the actual science we do is simply reverse engineering objects created by mad science.”

Zest craned her neck all around, not even beginning to understand what half of these things were. The first one she made out…

“That sword!” Zest paused to look at it. Too familiar! It made Zest shudder to see another piece.

“It belongs to a wight,” Steller said. “Not everything here was made by us.”

“I know! I’m the one who – Sugarcoat is the one who killed that thing! And now I keep seeing pieces of it. It’s trying to reform right in my face.”

“There’s no way to actually kill a wight,” she said. “If anything, us keeping it here for study will delay the inevitable. The sword can’t go anywhere unless something terrible happened to our facility.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Zest looked around for something else interesting but also easy to understand. There were quite a few ponies around here, mostly sitting around in the dark waiting for the ghosts to leave so they could get back to work.

Zest noticed a particularly odd specimen among those waiting. A zebra!

Zest tried not to stare, but it was so hard. Seeing one of them in Equestria, in North Equestria was so rare most ponies forgot they even existed half the time.

“It’s a zebra.” Indigo pressed up against Zest to whisper to her.

“I know. I’ve never seen one either.”

“How did it get up here?” Indigo asked.

“You mean she?”

“How can you tell with zebras? Their muzzle is all weird.”

Zest looked again. Indigo was right. Zest had no idea how to tell.

“Maybe when they turn around?”

Steller cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to her.

She now stood in front of a huge, metal pod. Surrounding it were four glass chambers filled with glowing purple, blue, green, and white liquid. The insides of the chamber were covered in so many needles, tubes, and injectors that Zest wouldn’t enter the thing even knowing none of them could touch her.

“This is a body modification chamber,” said Steller. “The same one my daughter used to uh, help her explore her odd obsession.”

She smiled too hard at that, making Indigo blow some air out her nose.

“We can only use these chambers under the influence of a dive,” Steller turned to it. “Otherwise, it is simply too dangerous. But their uses go beyond giving out a special power here and there. Once we understand the workings of these chambers better, we may be able to give ponies bodies that are resilient, and immune to nearly any disease including cancer, dementia… potentially aging. Super-regeneration has already been granted by one, so we know that much is possible.”

“I doubt all of it’s that straightforward,” said Indigo. “Don’t you modify ponies into super combat monsters, too?”

Steller watched Indigo carefully as she flew up to the chamber and eyed the inside.

“Yeah, that’s right! There’s like a whole island of bat ponies who were created by these things, right?” Indigo asked. “Out on the pirate coast? I think the Ghost Adder mercenaries use these to make their ponies into killing machines too.”

“That was all mostly done by the Mad Science Cartel.” Steller dropped her smile. “We may use it to increase some of our pony’s combat abilities… but it is always consensual, often done to themselves as was the case for Sunny. And such things are needed out here.”

“Right. But Toxco had these too.” Indigo crossed her forelegs and turned back to Steller.

“Yes.” Steller huffed but lifted her head to keep her composure. “It may be easy for you to judge us, but Equestria was hardly innocent in that fight either. Don’t pretend like the war wasn’t partially justified by a desire to annex Manehattan. It was a land grab.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” said Indigo defiantly.

“Neither did me or my husband,” said Steller. “Equestria doesn’t exactly take kindly to ponies who use mad science. Where exactly were we supposed to go or do?”

“Hey, I’ll be the first to admit the Equestrian government isn’t exactly open and accepting.” Indigo held her forelegs out. “They don’t exactly like me despite the fact I literally died for them. But I don’t use that as an excuse.”

Zest flew up to Indigo pushing her to the side.

“Hey!”

“Don’t start a fight, Indigo,” Zest scolded her. “This is why I wanted to bring Juniper! These ponies are on our side.”

“Sugarcoat sent me because we can’t be too sure of that,” Indigo muttered. “But fine, fine. I’m giving them a chance.”

Indigo held up her hooves, then flew away from Zest, back to Steller.

“I apologize,” said Indigo. “I’m still salty about everything that happened back then but I shouldn’t be starting fights. That was my bad.”

Steller watched her warily, not resisting or accepting the apology.

“I do legitimately respect your daughter.” Indigo straightened up and ran her hoof along her mane. “So… I guess you’re not so bad if you raised her.”

Steller had some difficulty staying mad while her daughter was being praised.

“Yes,” Steller said with eyes closed. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to earn the respect of somepony like you.”

“Oh.” Zest flew up, smacking one hoof into the other. “Actually it was really easy! See–”

Indigo shoved a hoof over Zest’s mouth.

“Nah! It took Sunny a while.” Indigo smiled. “But she did do it.”

“Well.” Steller licked her lips, just a little nervous. “There was one more pony we wanted to introduce you to.”

She kept walking towards the back of this room, leading the ghosts forward.

Zest felt the shock emanating off of Indigo before noticing anything else. Indigo had stopped dead, her expression frozen as she stared straight ahead. Zest looked but couldn’t see what Indigo did.

Then a sudden burst of anger came from Indigo and she pointed out the pony she’d seen.

“You!”

The pony she singled out was old enough to be Sunny Flare’s grandfather. His mane had turned white and his fur was greying badly, though its former purple still bled through. He sat unassumingly enough on a chair, watching them with eyes whose awareness had not been dulled by age.

At the challenge, he rose to shaking legs and made unsteady steps toward the ghosts.

But why would that upset her?

“What’s up?” Zest whispered.

“I know this pony.” Indigo pinned her ears and pushed Zest back a little. “Astral Codex.”

“I don’t think we actually met.” Codex gave the soft smile of a kind, elderly stallion. “But I’m going to assume you haven’t heard anything good?”

“Not one. You were on the special force’s ‘to kill’ list. Zest, he was Toxco’s number two mad scientist and worked directly underneath Star Slate… you know, one of the biggest mass murders in history? I don’t want any sob stories about ‘having no choice’ from you.”

“Oh, I won’t make any excuses.” Codex coughed and waved a hoof. “I take full responsibility for my part in that disaster. That is why I dedicated my life to establishing this place.”

“Seriously?” Indigo scrunched her nose. “You’re going to make amends by doing the exact same thing you were doing before?”

“Mad science isn’t simply going to vanish because Star Slate is dead. Many will continue to be tempted by it and will be driven insane like Star Slate was. That scenario will play out over and over again unless the younger generation learns from our mistakes. I made many horrible errors and history will rightly curse my name. I devote myself now to teaching others the mistakes we made. Would you not agree that Sunny Flare is more responsible than any mad scientist of my generation?”

Indigo didn’t want to give this pony any kind of credit but couldn’t deny his claim either.

Zest wasn’t sure what to make of it. She knew who Star Slate was, that was the pony who oversaw the creation of that robot army, the super-reactor, and many other things. But other than him, Spatial Tear, and the CEO, Zest wasn’t much familiar with the evil corporation’s command structure.

Star Slate was the only one of the three to be captured alive. But after thirty dives, he’d been left so brain damaged that he couldn’t stand trial and died just a few days into captivity.

“So hold up,” said Zest. “What exactly did you do?”

“More than anything else, I was in charge of the super-reactor’s creation,” said Codex. “I thought it would be used for good, but… Well, I don’t claim innocence. Your friend will certainly tell me that a pony in my position should have done more to stop the three of them. And she’d be right. Turning a blind eye, neglect, was my crime. I knew things were wrong and said nothing.

“But I never agreed with Star Slate. Not on one damnable thing. Certainly not with any of his mad plan to… reset the world.”

“So you admit Star Slate was evil?” Indigo asked.

“He truly did go completely insane towards once he went on the eighth.” Codex took in a wheezing breath. “He wrote a book called The Codex of Rationality filled with all sorts of mad ramblings. Started having delusions of negotiating with a super-advanced robot that hadn’t even been built yet but would endlessly torture him and many others if he didn’t build it.”

“Wait. How could the future robot torture him if he doesn’t build it?” Zest asked.

“I read his book and the reasoning makes no sense, I can assure you. He had many such hallucinations until the witch Spatial Tear convinced him in his vulnerable state that destroying all civilization was the only way to prevent these nightmares of the future coming true.”

So Star Slate built an army of evil robots to destroy the world… to prevent the creation of an even more evil army of robots that would destroy the world? Zest tried desperately to square that circle in her mind.

“Doesn’t that kind of thing happen to anypony who does more than eight dives?” Indigo asked. “You’re not going to get me to trust you by assuring me that the guy went insane doing the exact same thing you’re doing.”

“Star Slate was… disturbed from the beginning. Lots of ponies will tell you he seemed fine before he went on the eight, but I never liked that pony from the start. Fear ruled his heart, that was his problem. Ponies with more fear than ambition should not be using mad science, I’ve learned. The outcome is never good and I invariable turn such ponies away. But yes, if you want me to say it, Star Slate was evil. I always hated him and teach the younger generation to be nothing like him or his fear.”

It wasn’t enough. Indigo shook her head at that response.

“Look, it’s too easy for you to admit Star Slate was evil now. But you didn’t do it when it was hard or when it mattered. And as for all this?” Indigo turned toward the small lab. “I’m not some naïve foal. I know you’re showing us all the non-controversial, bright and happy parts of this place. If there’s a snow pony tribe that loves you, then there’s one that hates you. If there’s a project to help ponies, then there’s one to vaporize them.”

“Please, allow me to show you something slightly more controversial, then.” Codex gathered his strength and stood back up. “My presence here isn’t a coincidence. I wanted to propose a plan of action to you. I believe we have a common enemy…”

With a motion of his hoof, Codex motioned the other two to stay while he led them to another room, through a thick, metal door. Lights came on, only for Codex to turn them off so the ghost could inspect the room.

The room had rows of armor… no, robots! They didn’t look horrifying like robots were supposed to, though. No fangs for sharp edges, no wear or tear. These looked brand new! They were sleek and shiny, painted white and blue.

A row of spheres covered a shelf, one Zest recognized as persona cores, the same robot brains she removed from the body she took.

“You made more robots?!” Indigo sneered at the sight of it. “After what you just said?!”

“These are second-generation robots. Unlike first-generation robots, these can love as well as hate.” He trotted slowly to the shelf of persona cores and picked one up. “Sadly, that wasn’t enough. They were still too extreme, separating all things into absolute good and evil. We haven’t done anything with artificial intelligence since this failure… though I did pull the plug in time, I think. We keep these here, in a coma-like state, just in case we have some need for them in the future.”

“What kind of need?” Indigo watched him place the persona core back down through narrow eyes.

He turned again to Zest.

“You’re able to animate robotic bodies.” He moved to the closest one, placing a hoof on its back. “And what’s more, you can control the drone bodies while in that state. Do I understand correctly?”

“I can make them follow me, at least.” Zest nodded.

“Well then, here is my proposal,” he said. “I’d be willing to lend you some of these robot bodies. You can attach a spool of copper wire to their backs, allowing you to easily retreat if need be. Doing it like that, you could travel north in relative safety.”

That sounded nearly perfect already! Zest wasn’t even going to have to sell MSI on her expedition, they were already down with it.

“But what about finding north?” Zest asked. “I get this will make it easy to get back down south but finding the right way to go still sounds hard.”

“It shouldn’t be difficult to install a system to the robots for that,” said Codex.

“And what’s in it for you?” Indigo pushed Zest aside.

“We seem to have a bit of an alliance,” said Codex. “I trust you’d pass on any information you have on to us. That’s all I’d ask in return.”

“This sounds like a good deal to me.” Zest turned to Indigo. “We’re already telling them everything we know.”

“Sure. But…” Indigo searched for some flaw in this.

The phantom nudged Zest to the side with her muzzle.

“Well what’s wrong with the plan?” Zest asked. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“We could die, for example,” said Indigo. “This is still risky.”

Zest furrowed her browed, annoyed to hear this coming from Indigo of all ponies.

“We’re gonna die either way,” Zest reminded her. “I thought you were down for this sort of thing. When’d you get so wary?”

“Hey, don’t think I’m chicken or anything. I want to go to the Dark Circle too. It’s just this guy.” Indigo flicked her muzzle toward Codex. “For every motivation a pony like that gives you, there’s three they don’t.”

“I get the impression he learned his lesson,” said Zest. “This place is nothing like Toxco. If MSI were constantly stabbing their allies in the back, they wouldn’t have any. Right?”

“Learning a lesson doesn’t automatically make you a good pony,” Indigo cautioned. “He is up to something, I promise you that.”

“Even if you’re right, it’s still our best option,” said Zest. “But we’ll go over this with Sugarcoat and the others first.”

“Sugarcoat probably will agree to this plan,” Indigo relented. “Just keep what I said in mind. Keep your ears up for anything that might be shifty.”

Zest nodded. Now they were getting somewhere!

28. True North

Snow was a terrible place for a robot to be.

These robots were so heavy and the snow so loose, so shifty that the trek forward became arduous. Boring too, as there wouldn’t be anything to look at for some time.

Her robots would fall through the snow or go tumbling down dunes, spark mini-avalanches, or get half buried by a particularly vicious gust of air. Zest even lost a drone already, buried beneath the snow just enough to make digging them out not worth it.

Zest even had to build little igloos each day to shelter the robots from the snow drifts so they wouldn’t get covered while she slept back at home. Thankfully, MSI didn’t expect all the drones to return. Zest could just tell them the robots got savagely devoured by horrors beyond comprehension.

Had Zest the living tried to make this same trek, she’d be dead already. And this wasn’t even the truly dangerous part of the far reaches yet.

But at least she had company the whole way. Zest could carry one ghost through the wires at a time, so she rotated between companions. Usually, it was Sugarcoat, but sometimes Indigo or Juniper.

That and a little counter telling how much copper wire she’d unspooled was the only thing keeping her sane on the journey. It took days to get through seventy kilometers. Supposedly those glaciers would show up soon.

“You know,” Zest said to Sugarcoat, floating alongside her robot body through the latest blizzard. MSI gave her a girl robot this time, so she didn’t have to talk with a deep masculine voice. “At this point, I’d take a tentacled horror over this snow.”

“The moment one of them shows up, you’ll miss the snow,” said Sugarcoat.

“Yeah, but that’s life.”

Zest stopped a moment to look at what may have been an imposing giant in the distance, too obscured by snow to make out. Every so often she’d see such a figure, but they never got close.

There were massive purple worms that move through the snow. Really nasty customers whose front ends were repulsive tubes of twisting fangs flaring in and out, big enough to swallow a pony whole. She mostly smelled them and saw the snow dunes rippling out of sync with the wind.

But neither robots nor ghosts had anything they wanted. The purple worms would come up, drawn by the tremors of the robots, but always they’d decide it wasn’t worth it and simply fall still once close by.

“I can’t smell that thing,” said Sugarcoat. “So it’s either undead or perhaps one of the glaciers.”

“We should be getting close to the tenth parallel,” said Zest. “I bet it is a glacier!”

She sent one of her drones bounding forward. Zest was getting a little better at this. She could actually use the communication synchro… chip… well she didn’t know what it was called but she could use it to briefly see through one of her drone’s eyes.

And the image wasn’t particularly good. It was all blurry and ‘snowy’ (for lack of a better word) even when there wasn’t snow. Also, everything was green for some reason.

So after having it scout ahead a good two or three kilometers Zest got back a mental image and…

“Glacier!” She jumped in place, sinking barrel deep in snow. She awkwardly pulled herself back out. “Uh. It is glaciers.”

And then it was safe to proceed.

The air and ground changed before the ponies saw the glaciers themselves.

The ground here was solid ice. Despite having just walked through a blizzard, barely a snowflake had drifted up here. It was as though the snow was too afraid to come to this place, and knew better than Zest through ages of experience.

Or rather covered in solid ice. That gave the same effect as water, having a blue glow the deeper it went. Thanks to this, Zest could see the long-forgotten land below. She wondered how long it’d been since anypony had seen this dirt.

There wouldn’t be any daylight here for some months.

Even as a worm friend, Zest wouldn’t have thought a land of perpetual night was great for a ghost. Two days in would be enough to dispel that notion. The sun felt gross and made it hard to see, sure, but it also made sleep much easier and cozier. It’d be harder to rest up here.

And much harder to eat. Nothing that could be burned, no animals with blood to freeze.

Never had Zest seen such an utterly scentless place before. Usually, the ground and air had this tiny tinge of acidic scent to it from the heat absorbed through the sun. Even in those snowy dunes, there were creatures here and there with tightly held warmth.

But here? Absolutely nothing but supreme, smothering cold. Zest could probably smell a lit match from a mile away in a place like this.

The blurred figures came into view as they approached, becoming towering glaciers. They were hardly mountains of ice, not even as big as skyscrapers. they were slender like skyscrapers too. There was a twisted mess of them, thrust into the ground at odd angles, forming something not unlike a thorn bush leading far off into the distance.

Their strange shape made Zest wonder if glacier was even the correct term.

“Hey,” Zest whispered. “Aren’t glaciers supposed to be tiny guys on top and huge under the water? Or…?”

“You’re thinking of icebergs.” Sugarcoat gave her that look.

Zest was glad robots couldn’t blush.

“Then what makes something a glacier?” Zest whispered the question to Sugarcoat.

“That it moves.” Sugarcoat gestured to the ground just before one of the massive pillars.

Now Zest thought of these glaciers as swords some huge pony scraped through the icy ground. Little fissures were torn through the ice, scars on the land, each one trailing behind one of the artic swords. And all the glaciers were moving away from the two ponies, towards the north poll from the looks of things.

Though obviously at a glacial pace.

“Though I’m curious why these cracks don’t fill with snow.” Sugarcoat looked down at them, then up at the nearest glacier. “Or what exactly is making them move.”

“Hm.” Zest looked around. “Well I don’t think there’s any wind up here to push the snow in. The snow was blowing so hard just a little bit ago but now there’s nothing.”

“You’re right.” Sugarcoat looked back down south. “And now that you mention it…”

Sugarcoat‘s ears swiveled about.

“Can you feel that? Something like an aura only…”

“Only what?” Zest trotted closer to her mentor. Sugarcoat’s massive aura protected Zest from outside influences but also made it impossible to feel nuanced changes on the other side. “I only feel yours.”

“I might be imagining it,” said Sugarcoat. “No. I think I figured it out. The black wind, Nightmare Moon’s aura. It doesn’t reach this far. It’s been so long I nearly forgot what it was like to be completely free from it.”

“It’s good to know it doesn’t cover the entire planet,” said Zest. “Guess even her aura has its limits. Though that doesn’t explain why everything is so still up here. The fastest moving thing is these glaciers.”

Zest took a tiny bit of snow still lodged on the back of one of her drones and dropped the powder. It went straight down, confirming the total lack of wind.

“Unless.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “The black wind does reach this far, yet something is merely blocking it. Like how you can’t feel it when you’re inside my aura.”

“I really don’t want to consider the possibility something even worse is living up here!” Zest shook her head.

“If there is, it’s in a very deep slumber.” Sugarcoat pressed forward. “So don’t do anything to wake it up. Or anything else for that matter.”

They continued onward. Without the snow under hoof it became much easier to walk. Yet at the same time, Zest was less and less comfortable with each step. Adding to lack of scent and wind to this place, Zest noted the total silence. Normally, her robot parts were too quiet to hear them move. This was the first time she heard the mechanical sounds of their joints.

“So where do we go, exactly?” Zest looked at each of the passing glaciers. “This place is still pretty big. Do we carve little adverts into the ice, hoping Ostracon will see one?”

“That might actually be a decent idea,” Sugarcoat admitted. “But first we need to set up a relief camp. And we’d need to be careful carving into the ice. It’s well known the creatures in the ice aren’t dead.”

Yeah. MSI warned them about that. Be careful about what ice you dig into.

Still. Zest had yet to see any of these…

Zest saw one!

In one of the pillars of ice was the creepiest freaking thing she’d ever seen.

It was like… an eyeball hydra! From a gooey, stumpy body came eyestalks, long strings of nervous tissue, each with an eyeball at the end. Seven such eyeballs came out from where the thing’s neck should be, emerging from a tangled mess of nerves. And one of the eyeballs opened up to reveal a fanged mouth within.

Zest stumbled back, spooked at the sudden appearance. But the eye-dra was frozen solid under five feet of ice. She couldn’t tell if it was an optical illusion or if those eyes were following her.

“Try not to look at it,” Sugarcoat reminded her.

Zest nodded. Another warning they gave. If it had eyes it could see you… but only if you made eye contact. Don’t gaze too long into their eyes. Zest averted her gaze and continued forward but felt those eyes in particular were still upon her.

To be safe, Zest didn’t give any of them more than a glance after that. The glimpses she had were bad enough. Tentacles with spikes instead of suckers. Balls of fur covered in mouths. She’d still yet to see any of the truly enormous creatures of legend.

She did notice a trend. They were always inside the glaciers, but never the thick layer of ice that made up the ground. And they always looked like they’d been in motion just before they got frozen.

“Hey,” said Zest. “Do you get the impression there was some kind of fight here? Maybe I just see ice and think of fighting now, but…”

“I thought the same thing,” Sugarcoat acknowledged. “A ghost would be biased toward that conclusion, of course. These all look like ice blades to me.”

“Does anypony know what all of… this is?” Zest glanced at another one of the bizarre creatures before putting her eyes forward again.

“The snow ponies don’t know,” said Sugarcoat. “Equestria only discovered this place two hundred years ago. If ponies had been here before then, it must have been in the early Royal Era before reliable historic records exist. And whatever happened was long before that.”

“I don’t like that at all.”

“Wait.” Sugarcoat motioned for Zest to halt. “That formation looks like a good spot.”

There was a row of five thin glaciers close enough together to form a wall. Two more had collapsed together, atop one another and against that wall. The effect was to create a sort of cave.

And at least from this distance, Zest didn’t notice any creepy crawlies inside these glaciers. Most didn’t have one in general.

As they came even closer, they saw something unexpected. A small camp was already there!

It wasn’t much, just a large tent. A tent within a tent as Zest soon found. The outer tent had a small table, a chest, a sled, and a smattering of nick knacks.

The inner tent was made out of a thick, puffy cloth. It had a little chimney coming out of it and a canister of fuel just outside. Must have been a little stove or oven. The inside of that was a nest of heavy blankets.

“Hardly anypony comes up here, but we just happen to bump into their camp?” Zest asked.

“We started at the weather station,” said Sugarcoat. “The furthest north building Equestria has. And we went directly north from there. It’s a strategy that makes sense. If somepony else had the same idea, they would have passed through this exact spot. Seen this formation.”

“You don’t think this is Ostracon’s camp, do you?” Zest flew around the outer tent, looking over some papers on the table.

“I doubt an undead pony would need this much insulation,” said Sugarcoat. “Or heat. It’s likely a predead. We should be careful as anypony who comes up here is likely to be dangerous.”

“But if it was a predead maybe they left for the winter?” Zest remembered the weather station was abandoned this time of year.

“We can’t assume that. No normal living pony would be here in the first place.”

Well they might be able to find out who it was by reading this stuff. Zest rifled through it. Sugarcoat was about to warn her not to mess with a potentially dangerous stranger’s possessions when Zest scored a promising find.

“Hey! They left us a map!” Zest lifted it up.

Sugarcoat came close to look it over with her.

It was of the nearby area, textured with glacier concentrations and landmarks, but not exactly to scale.

A few locations were marked up with notes, but those tended to be single numbers. The legend wasn’t immediately visible. There was a pile of notebooks, but Sugarcoat forbid Zest from riffling through even more things until they scoped out the area. One notable exception to this system stood out.

One spot, not too far to the west, was marked as ‘Surprise’s body’. Around this was a wide circle, stretching past their current location. A series of smaller and smaller circles, each within the last one, cascade into the general direction of this location.

“It looks like they were homing in on something over here,” Sugarcoat concluded, pointing to the smallest circle, ‘Surprise’s body’ off to one side of it. “Slowly narrowing their search.”

“Were they looking for her body, maybe?” Zest guessed.

“That name does sound familiar,” said Sugarcoat. “Yes. There was a famous slayer by that name who lived some centuries ago. A white pegasus. I’m not sure what became of her, so it is possible for all I know.”

She looked over the map again.

“But it seems unlikely our map maker found what they were looking for,” Sugarcoat concluded. “You don’t stay up here any longer than you need to. If they found it, they would have left. They wouldn’t have marked what they came for on the map after they got it, either. Perhaps they were just using that as a landmark. Or… they expect something to be close by wherever she died.”

“Maybe we should go over there?” Zest asked. “If there’s something important in that area, Ostracon might show up over there at some point. We gotta find another place to set up our camp, anyway.”

Sugarcoat agreed.

They backtracked a little, not wanting whoever set up camp here to see their wires, then started forward again, hoping to reach the marked landmark. It was only another three kilometers. They’d go back home and rest for a day after that.

Getting just a little closer, both ghosts perked up.

They smelled something!

It wasn’t a living pony, so not whoever that tent belonged to. It was fire. A very odd sort of fire Zest hadn’t smelt before.

“It’s enchanted flames,” Sugarcoat told her. “Fire summoned with magic. Send in a drone.”

Zest sent it running towards the smell. She only got a brief image as always but…

“There’s a pony over there!” Zest warned. “He’s pinned against one glacier and the one across from him is melting! I think something’s coming out of it.”

“Is that pony moving?” Sugarcoat asked. “If we can’t smell them they’re either dead or undead.”

Zest concentrated to take a second look. Doing it in quick succession like this hurt her head but she managed.

The image she got was nothing but a dozen eyes in that creepy green filter all looking at her.

“I don’t think I can see.” Zest shook her head. “There’s absolutely something coming out of the ice. What do we do?”

Sugarcoat bit her lip, having little time for hesitation.

“We should try to freeze it again, either way, see what that heat source is. This could make our trip impossible even if there isn’t anypony to help over there.”

Sugarcoat straightened up and held her forelegs wide, signaling to Zest. They practiced this move. Zest flew out of her robot and grabbed Sugarcoat from behind. Holding on to her like this, Zest could use lightning to swiftly move while Sugarcoat focused only on the attack.

“But we’re only going to try and freeze it once,” said Sugarcoat. “If it doesn’t work, we’re running away immediately.”

Zest nodded and bolted forward, carrying both of them to the top of a distant glacier with a single blast of lighting.

They appeared overtop the scene in under a second.

Now Zest saw a truly enormous monstrosity. This one was all eyes – one gigantic eyeball with countless normal-sized eyes covering its back. Thankfully, it was still almost completely frozen.

An object covered in flames had been pinned into the ice just before it, slowly melting that ice. Only a tiny little crack had opened, exposing just the thinnest part of this abomination to the air. From that crack, like a vine, grew a long stalk of meaty nervous tissue, more eyes coming off of it like grapes.

And that vine continued to grow rapidly.

Wasting no time, Sugarcoat froze the entire appendage in solid ice. It stopped growing at its repulsive rate.

“Did we get it?” Zest clung to Sugarcoat as they flew down a few meters.

Sugarcoat held her answer a moment.

“No.”

The eyes on the vine all turned up towards them. Sugarcoat swung her foreleg, shattering the ice and everything inside with it. That would have killed nearly any living thing but Zest had no confidence it would work here.

Sugarcoat froze the broken shards with a second layer of ice, even colder.

“I’m not sure why,” said Sugarcoat. “Maybe my ice isn’t cold enough? Zest. I’m going to hit that flaming object. As soon as I do, we retreat.”

Zest nodded, not wanting to be here when more of that stuff got freed.

Before that she glanced behind her, just to make sure.

“Hold on! I see the pony!” Zest called out. “He’s um…”

There was a skeleton wrapped in a black cloak with forelegs spread out wide to either side, pinned up by two fancy swords. The way all this was set up, it seemed to Zest the skeleton guy was an offering but… what if that was Ostracon?

Older liches were often skeletons. And they had fancy magical artifacts.

“I found the pony I saw. It’s a skeleton, but–”

“I got it. On the count of three, I’ll try to snuff out the fire, you hit it with electricity. If it's undead that might wake it up. Either way, we retreat.”

Sugarcoat counted down and they launched their attacks of ice and lightning.

Ice swirled around the source of the fire in a violent torrent, successfully quelling the flames. Zest’s lightning hit the skeleton, jolting the body in a way that a normal skeleton wouldn’t have. That was it! It must have been Ostracon.

She saw two blue whisps of light appear in his eye sockets, tiny, the size of pupils only. Those two makeshift pupils moved upward to Zest.

“Um.”

“Fallback!” Sugarcoat reminded her.

Zest took the advice, blasting off the way they came. Only to crash into something halfway back.

She assumed it had been a wall of ice, but no! In their way stood that skeleton, fully animated with both swords drawn, one held in front as though he had blocked the lightning bold. To have moved faster than lightning…

There was no doubt in Zest’s mind this was a lich now, that this was Ostracon.

One of his swords looked almost made of ice and gave off a steady blue mist. The other was a deep purple, with a white feather hanging off the hilt. It was the latter he blocked them with and the latter he now swung forward, sending the two ghosts flying off.

Zest lost her grip from Sugarcoat but there was only a small gap between them!

Ostracon, who Zest realized had been floating in the air this whole time, landed on a nearby glacier. He turned his gaze first to the escaped pieces of the monster. With another swipe of his sword, a black vortex appeared over the new ice. Then the whole pile was devoured by black ice that didn’t melt, but disintegrated the ice and everything inside.

With that done, he turned back to the ghosts. Zest and Sugarcoat tried rejoining, but he swung his sword a second time. Now a wave of fire came forth, pushing the two apart.

“What’s your problem, guy?! We just saved your life!” Zest made her body crackle with electricity.

They weren’t going to beat this buy, but they didn’t need to get far to escape. The robot was already in sight. Zest would literally bolt the first chance she got.

Ostracon merely hummed as he watched Zest prepare.

“You interrupted me,” said Ostracon. “I was in the middle of something important.”

“Interrupted what?! Being devoured?!”

“I was attempting to put myself in a hopeless situation where survival was impossible,” said Ostracon.

“Wait, what?”

Zest dropped her cowl of electricity.

“Don’t do it!” Zest reached her forelegs out to him. “You have so much to live for! Like!”

Ostracon watched her, nonplussed while Zest gapped, unable to think of anything to say.

“Flowers?” She guessed, then shook her head. “Look, I just met you! I’m not going to have specific examples!”

“I wasn’t trying to commit suicide. I was certain something would have saved me. But a specter?” Ostracon turned to Sugarcoat. “Of course a specter would show up now. This is another one of its jokes, isn’t it?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” said Sugarcoat.

“You.” Ostracon lifted the purple sword, the feather swaying about. “How did it bring you here, exactly? Were you teleported?”

“If only,” said Sugarcoat. “Tell me, are you Ostracon?”

He paused.

“Perhaps. Answer my question.”

“We’re enemies of Nightmare Moon. Phantom Troupes said you were the same.”

“Interesting.” Ostracon lowered his sword and relaxed his stance. “I wonder what he saw in the likes of you to have given you such information. Still, your meeting him must have happened some time ago. Could it really…?”

He planted both swords in the ground and started muttering to himself. It was the same kind of way Sunny Flare muttered when doing calculations.

“So it seems it won’t allow my situation to become completely hopeless. That’s its game?” Ostracon looked off towards some other glacier. “It really is pointless then… unless the test is to see if I’ll attempt this again either way? But then again, I risk angering it.”

Sugarcoat watched him with her head tilted, Zest scratching her headphone.

“Are you asking me?” Zest pointed to herself. “Because I have no idea what you’re even talking about.”

“I apologize if we interrupted anything,” said Sugarcoat. “But I don’t think our actions were unreasonable.”

Ostracon turned back to them as if just now remembering he had company.

“I suppose you did give me a conclusion to my experiment, either way. I can’t be angry at you for that. But why, specifically, did you come looking to me?” Ostracon asked. “I have a great many tasks to complete. Know I don’t normally give ponies this much of my attention. Only this recommendation from Phantom Troupe keeps me here.”

“Are you not interested in working with others?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Allies are rarely worth the cost. I find myself too often carrying fools.” Ostracon held up his sword, letting that feather dangle in front of his face. “Oh, I could have used you not five days ago. After months of trying to convince one to come here with me, one simply comes here on her own. But now?”

“We have connections to the Mad Science Institute,” said Sugarcoat. “And some information on an alicorn name Luna, connections to ponies she may have. Besides that, given that there seems to be some connection between our enemy and ghosts, it would be a good idea to have a specter willing to work with you at hoof. You admit you needed one before.”

“Perhaps that last part is true.” Ostracon conceded with a nod of his head. “But this place is far too dangerous for even one such as yourself and especially your minion. There is nothing you can do for me here. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

That was better than nothing… It still felt like such a waste to come up here just for that. Sugarcoat hadn’t given up yet but struggled to think of any other cards to play.

“Well you know what else is dangerous?” Zest moved forward on Sugarcoat’s hesitation. “Being hunted down by some unkillable nightmare god! I’ll admit I’m an idiot but everywhere is too dangerous for me, so I don’t see how this is any different. Leave us to die if it comes to that but we’ll be the ones to decide what risks we take!”

“I can respect dying on your own terms, but such acts are ultimately meaningless,” said Ostracon.

“Well what isn’t?” Zest asked.

“Zest has a point,” Sugarcoat retook the lead. “We don’t exactly need your permission to be here. It sounds like there’s something important here in relation to our mission. We’re not simply going to stop investigating because you refuse to help us.”

Ostracon pulled his swords back out of the ice.

“There are certain treasures here that I’m not willing to share,” he warned. “I will kill you to prevent you from entering the place I’ve been.”

“As your allies, we’ll respect that,” said Sugarcoat. “Tell us and you’ll have my word.”

He watched Sugarcoat suspiciously.

“You’re really going to…”

Ostracon paused like he just remembered something. He lifted the hilt of his sword to look at the white feather, then over at Zest, then back to the feather.

“I see. Perhaps I’m too strong. Is that it?” Ostracon murmured to himself. He pointed the feather sword at Lemon Zest. “You there! Perhaps we can make an arrangement after all. There’s an experiment that could move us towards our common goal of the destruction of Crater Cemetery. But there is something I need to see first. You heard of Phantom Troupe's plan to escape to the shadow realm?”

“Yes?” Zest nodded.

“I want you to swear here and now, loudly and clearly, that you will not escape no matter what happens, that you’ll continue this fight until the bitter end, no matter how hopeless it becomes.”

29. Ostracon

“Um. Okay.” Zest shrugged. “Sounds easy.”

“Wait.” Sugarcoat stopped her. “This isn’t a good place to be swearing any vows. We don’t know what’s listening.”

Zest covered her mouth. Sugarcoat had a point!

“So what is listening?” Sugarcoat watched Ostracon suspiciously.

Ostracon watched her back, considering, waiting. Then he spoke.

“I came here exploring avenues of powering the azoth spell, which I intend to destroy Nightmare Moon with, or at least die with the satisfaction I got as close as possible,” said Ostracon.

“And you got one?!” Zest flew close to him, hooves on her chest.

Ostracon paused another second, looking back north, back to the dark circle.

“I suppose as a show of good faith, I’ll tell you what you asked of me before. The place I have been and do not want you to go to is the tomb of Lord Lexigraph. There is treasure there beyond your wildest imagination and I see myself as the rightful heir to it. I will consider any alliance between us over if you enter that place.”

“We have no need for treasure,” Sugarcoat promised. “If there’s anything there that could destroy Nightmare Moon, I’m sure you’ll use it to that end.”

“Am I supposed to know who Lord Lexigraph is?” Zest whispered to Sugarcoat. That name sounded familiar, somewhere from her history studies.

“He was the original lich,” said Sugarcoat. “The one who came up with the idea of putting your soul in an object and the one responsible for his order. I’ve read he sided with the royal family during the revolution and retreated somewhere never to be seen again when his side lost.”

“Lord Lexigraph is the wisest, most intelligent pony who ever lived,” Ostracon added a part Zest doubted she’d find in a history book. “He was unfairly denied the title of master witch despite being more worthy of it than any other, merely because his foresight was too great for the other witches to understand. His writings, his illuminations, could only have been created by an erudite genius not seen once every ten thousand years.”

And this guy was part of his fan club. Great.

“Do you have any idea the power a master witch possesses?” Ostracon asked. “Those now alive are mere mid journeymen. And they are already considered beyond reproach. There are none currently alive at his level.”

“That part isn’t entirely accurate,” Sugarcoat corrected him. “There is one other master witch alive, isn’t there? Twilight Sparkle?”

“Twilight Sparkle has sealed herself away from the world,” said Ostracon. “The curse will only allow one to find her if they arrive on both the 13th and 31st of October at the same time. Temporal meta-positioning is difficult at 18 seconds. 18 days is impossible.”

“But can’t you break those curses with some cheeky technicality?” Zest started trying to think of some way you could technically be there on two days at once. “Like uh. Um. Huh. I got nothing. But maybe a smart pony could figure it out?”

Zest turned to Sugarcoat who shook her head.

“If there were,” said Ostracon, “somepony would have figured it out in the past three hundred years. Many geniuses have already tried and failed. We must accept that finding Twilight is simply impossible at this point. Lord Lexigraph is our only option on this front.”

“Is he an option?” Sugarcoat asked. “Lord Lexigraph would have lived during the revolution, thirteen centuries ago. Surely he isn’t still alive.”

“Not entirely alive, no. But not dead. Merely… waiting. Yes, perhaps I’ll tell you just a little more. There is something buried beneath the ice of the dark circle.” Ostracon carved small circles in the ice beneath him with that purple, feathered sword. “Can’t you sense it?”

Zest could only feel a shudder.

“I noticed there is an unsettling presence to this place,” Sugarcoat offered a more definite answer. “Nightmare Moons aura is being blocked by… what is it?”

“I’m uncertain. Just that it’s been there a long, long time. He has been siphoning fel-energy from it, slowly, building up a massive pool of magic. He planned to take over once society collapses from the advent of democracy.”

“Wait.” Zest counted the centuries in her head. “But we switched to democracy thirteen hundred years ago and pretty much everypony agrees things are way better now than back in the Royal Era.”

“Well…”

“Well what? You just said this guy was an infallible air... uh…” This was one of Zest’s vocabulary words, too. “Genius. Didn’t you?”

“Alright. I suppose nopony is completely perfect. But he is the greatest genius who ever lived, at the least.”

“Uh-huh.” Zest crossed her forelegs, growing ever more skeptical of this mystery tyrant.

“If you’re suggesting waking him up, that could pose a problem in its own right,” said Sugarcoat. “We may just be trading one tyrant for another.”

“Lord Lexigraph is a pony whose wisdom is beyond compare,” said Ostracon. “He would be a great ruler.”

“Oh yeah? Like what’s his economic policy?” Zest asked.

“His economic policy is a sort of ‘sudden death libertarianism’. He believes that a completely unregulated market has enormous benefits, but one fatal flaw. It allows power to accumulate and consolidate until eventually, a few hyper-powerful corporations strangle out all competition. To solve this, he will brutally execute anyone who gets too close to a monopoly in the most horrific way possible. This will be done without warning or chance for appeal. And he’ll continue to slaughter those involved in the would-be megacorporation until it has lost suitable power. By doing so, he can curb anti-competitive behavior and the rise of mega-corporations you see.”

“Uh.”

Zest backed away slowly toward Sugarcoat. She hadn’t processed a single word of what this guy just said!

“So? What do you think of sudden death libertarianism?” Ostracon asked.

“I uh.” Zest shrugged. “I just remembered I don’t know anything about the economy.”

“Then why did you ask?” Ostracon seemed to narrow his eyes despite having no face.

“It was supposed to be a gotcha question! I didn’t think people like you had actual answers to this stuff!”

“For your information, he has written a great many books on his policies,” said Ostracon. “I wouldn’t consider this if I didn’t know anything about him.”

“I can’t read a great many books.” Zest put her hooves over her headphones and retreated behind her superior. “Sugarcoat, did that make any sense to you? Are we going to risk waking up the mystery guy?”

“I’d be very hesitant. But tell me. You’re saying this well of power enough to destroy Nightmare Moon?” Sugarcoat asked. “And if so, why haven’t you used it?”

“Yeah! And what does this have to do with me?” Zest leaned out from behind Sugarcoat. “Can this Lexigraph guy hear me? Is that it?”

“It still wouldn’t be enough.” Ostracon dismissed Zest’s question for now, instead producing a small notebook from his cloak. Inside was a diagram depicting six gemstones. A line moved from each gem to the other, creating a hexagon filled with crisscrosses. “I’ve made the spell more efficient. Dividing it into six sources of power rather than… well you’ve heard what it was before. Lord Lexigraph could provide one of those points. I have a second here.”

Ostracon lifted the sword with the feather attached to it.

“And a third is nearby.” He swept the sword slowly in a wide arc. “I believe I can use you to try and recover it.”

“Whoa! Is your sword really that powerful?” Zest inched closer once more.

“The feather.”

“The… feather?” Zest looked at the white feather dangling from the hilt back to the blade. “I always heard that the sword is mightier than the feather, though. You’re saying you can kill Nightmare Moon with a feather?”

She looked back to Sugarcoat who shook her head, unable to make sense of it either.

“With six, perhaps.” He lowered his sword. “This is the feather of an alicorn, of the Queen of Light. Only six still exist in this world in any form. It is a treasure worth more than all the land in Canterlot combined.”

Sugarcoat considered this more seriously while Zest continued to stare at the innocuous pegasus-clipping with disbelief.

“Really? What does it… do, exactly?” Zest asked.

“In its current state?” Ostracon shook his head. “But it can be used as a reagent to create something truly extraordinary, such as the artifact I seek. Have either of you heard of… an element of harmony?”

Elements of harmony. Elements of harmony.

“Nope.”

“No.”

“I wasn’t sure if you found that camp nearby,” said Ostracon. “It is a crystallized version of an alicorn feather, the embodiment of some aspect of reality, a god unto itself. One of them already forged, the Element of Laughter, I know, is not far from this very spot. That is truly an object of immense power.”

“And what does that do?” Zest shifted her eyes.

“It is said that the wielder can never fail so long as they do not give in to despair, sorrow, hopelessness, etc. That the more hopeless your situation becomes, the more strength you will be given to rise to it. Again, so long as you remain undaunted in your quest.”

Zest’s situation was pretty hopeless right now. That sounded like the best possible weapon to bring to such a lop-sided fight!

Then again, just hearing about the existence of such a thing gave Zest hope. Did that mean her situation was no longer so hopeless that it wouldn’t work? Or? Her head started to hurt going around in circles like that.

Zest shook herself out of her self-induced dizziness. Maybe this, the Element of Laughter, was it. The thing that would give them an actual chance other than running away!

“And more importantly, it is one of the few artifacts capable of powering the azoth spell,” Ostracon added.

“We did see a camp on the way here,” said Sugarcoat. “It appears some other pony, and now you had a great deal of trouble finding this object despite knowing where it is. Why is that?”

“It has a mind of its own,” said Ostracon. “Only those deemed worthy may find it. The fool from the camp you found spent years wandering about this place without realizing that. ‘Worthy’ in this sense is someone who never losses their optimism. I was trying to prove myself worthy by putting my life in its hands, in the hope that it would come to me. I believe your appearance was its way of rejecting me. However.”

Ostracon pointed the sword back at Zest. The feather swayed about whenever the sword pointed at Zest, she now realized.

“This feather also has some will to it,” said Ostracon. “It wants to be with the other feathers, its sisters if you will, and I have held it long enough to feel that it thinks you have something to contribute to that end. So I suspect, perhaps, that the Element of Laughter finds your personality more… to its tastes.”

“Really? Me?” Zest pointed at herself. “I could wield something like that?”

Zest had never seen herself as particularly strong, just useful to Sugarcoat given her rare abilities. The temptation to try and wield something of truly legendary power, to rise above what she was, in this situation?

She turned her head back to Sugarcoat.

“Maybe. I don’t know everything about it. The only characteristic I know it to favor is that of optimistic boldness. So if you display that, the willingness to fight to the end, then perhaps.” Ostracon pointed his sword to a distant pillar of ice. “Surprise's body is pinned against that glacier. I suspect it’s still around her neck. I know at least she was the last wielder of this artifact. Perhaps, if you go there alone, with the optimism to succeed, it will allow you to see it.”

“Yes!”

Zest nodded her head as rapidly as she could before spinning around to Sugarcoat. This was the first time Zest thought, however distantly, that there was even a path to victory!

“We gotta do this!” Zest pumped her hoof up. “Or… I gotta! Just wait here for me.”

“No.”

Sugarcoat grabbed Zest as she tried to fly off.

“What?! Why?!” Zest flailed her forelegs, pretending she was trying to get free. “We don’t have any idea even as tenth as good as this one!”

“This isn’t something we’re going to rush into.” Sugarcoat stopped her. “You need to be careful when dealing with anything related to the gods. I want to ask around about this element of laughter first. The pony at that base camp must have been looking for that, from the sounds of things.”

Zest frowned. Sugarcoat had a point, but…

“You can take what you will from there,” said Ostracon. “That pony is already dead. He was sent by the pirate kind Bloodstorm to find the element decades ago. This was as close as the fool got.”

“Has that stuff been there for… what? Fifty years?!” Zest looked to Sugarcoat.

“Things would rot exceedingly slowly in such a dim, still, and cold place,” Sugarcoat said. “I think we’re going to return home for now. Thank you for the information, Ostracon. We’ll decide what to do soon.”

“For my part, I would recommend rushing into things,” said Ostracon. “From my understanding, it despises the wary and favors those who hold onto hope. That’s why I think it best if Lemon Zest goes alone, without a pony such as yourself.”

Zest nodded along with all that but deflated when she found Sugarcoat again undaunted.

“If it’s at all reasonable, it will understand that I’m the one being wary,” Sugarcoat told her. “If it’s not reasonable then we don’t need it.”

“I guess that makes sense, but…”

Zest looked towards where Surprise’s body should be.

But she really wanted to try.

“I will linger in this place for some time,” said Ostracon. “I do have much more I can show you if you’re interested. Your underling has got my curiosity.”

Those blue flames that made up his eyes moved towards Zest and he gave a hum. For the briefest of moments, Zest thought she understood Sugarcoat’s cautious wisdom.

“We’ll keep that in mind.”

Sugarcoat bowed her head and led Zest back towards their robots.

25. Supernova

Over twenty-four hours, Supernova Zap, or Su-Z as she was more typically called, had gone from being chased by a ghost to being chased by something far… far worse.

The yellowish pegasus had never been this exhausted in her life. It was like every part of her body had broken down, not even one organ left to burn for fuel. Though her eyes remained wide open, almost bugging out, as she drifted aimlessly forward through the late autumn forest.

This was the end, wasn’t it? The end… again.

She brushed some of her purple and blue hair out of her eyes as her momentum pushed her on through the dark woods more than anything else. But the pitch-black woods no longer looked dark. Shadows had become light to her.

And another, more sinister sense had emerged… the ability to smell heat. She could smell her pursuer getting closer and closer. The one who would kill her for real… her best friend K-lo.

“You know I have to do this!” K-lo was already close enough for Su-Z to hear her voice! She was far off… but Su-Z couldn’t outrun her anymore. “I promised I wouldn’t let you become a monster! Stop being a coward and get back here!”

Supernova Zap looked down at her trembling hooves. Hooves that were now slightly translucent. She had recently died a horrible death while fighting a fraid of ghosts. A death made all the more horrible in its lack of finality. She’d become the very thing she’d sworn to fight – a ghost!

She had an itch in her brain whenever she got too close to something warm-blooded. The first night she thought it was no big deal. It was something she could easily ignore for as long as necessary.

What would it be like in a week? In a month? Would it still be getting worse after a year?

Part of her thought it would be best to simply let K-Lo fulfill the blood pact the two of them had made when they started working together. She knew it was selfish to allow herself to exist as such a dangerous monster, but she just couldn’t bring herself to die!

Even those words encouraging Su-Z to simply turn herself in and let K-Lo do what needed to be done only spurned on a slight push forward again.

It wouldn’t be enough! All she could do… her only chance was to hide underground! K-Lo was right behind her now, she could smell it! So Su-Z flung herself just beneath the surface, trying to let a thin layer of dirt act as her last shield against true death.

Then a surge of magic. Su-Z’s body was thrown higher into the air until she looked down upon her attacker.

Below her stood her ex-best friend. K-Lo, was a blue unicorn with a rather large, blue mane. She was much bulkier than the tiny Su-Z but that never intimidated the latter until now.

K-Lo’s ghost-hunting staff, once brimming with light, now appeared submerged in total darkness and drained the color of the nearby trees.

Where she’d once been so strong, Su-Z now found herself with the strength of a kitten. Becoming a ghost left you powerless for days, a ‘worm friend’ as the spooks called it.

“Stop being a coward!” K-Lo pointed the staff at Su-Z next. “I’m doing this for your own good. Do you really want to be such a horrible monster?”

“I’m scared!” Su-Z closed her eyes tight to keep the tears at bay.

K-Lo hesitated, her ears falling flat.

“I’ll make it quick.” K-Lo lifted the staff once more. Darkness began pooling at its tip. “I’m sorry it had to be this way. Believe me! I wish you had lived but… you’re already dead.”

There was nothing Su-Z could do at this point! Even if she wanted to live…

A peel of lightning struck the ground just before the beam fired, narrowly missing its chance to obliterate Su-Z.

Su-Z gaped at what she thought an impossible stroke of luck, regaining focus when she realized that wasn’t the case. A new pony stood between the two of them, her body brimming with electricity.

A second shot! The beam from the staff appeared to tear a hole through reality as it shot forward, leaving behind a stream of white void. Su-Z’s impromptu guardian concentrated the lightning around her, making it collide with the incoming attack.

The lightning won out and the void was once again filled with darkness.

Su-Z could get a better look at this green-haired, pink unicorn… wearing headphones for some reason.

She was floating despite being a unicorn. Then it clicked. This was another ghost.

“Hey!” The ghost turned back to her. “Name’s Lemon Zest. I felt your fear so I came to check on you. You’re a worm friend, right?”

“I–” Su-Z managed a shudder.

“Oh!” Zest shook her head. “A new ghost I mean. Like you just died?”

She knew what that was! She wasn’t an amateur!

“Get out of my way!” K-Lo summoned a pillar of purple flames beneath Zest this time.

Zest literally bolted out of the way, a burst of electricity carrying her off until she collided with a tree, putting a sizable hole in it.

“This has nothing to do with you!” K-Lo pointed the staff at her again. “I’m not letting either of you kill a single pony.”

“I’m not killing anypony. I’m just trying to help my fellow spooks, here,” Zest promised, keeping her voice slow and calm. “I’ll take this one with me to a faraway place. She won’t hurt anypony if she has a fraid to help her. You’d rather come with me than get busted, yeah?”

Zest turned her head back to look at Su-Z.

“Uh!” Su-Z stumbled but found herself nodding with little hesitation. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be anywhere but here. “Yes!”

“There! That’s reasonable, right?” Zest turned back to K-lo with a smile.

K-Lo’s gaze didn’t soften. Su-Z slowly drifted behind the senior ghost to shelter herself from it.

“No.” K-Lo pointed the staff at her friend, the black hole growing wider. “I promised my friend I wouldn’t let her become a monster. We vowed that if either one of us ever became a ghost or any other creature of darkness, we’d save the other.”

Su-Z had made such a pact, it was true. It certainly seemed reasonable and virtuous at the time. It had been so easy to curse the darkness until now that she was forever trapped inside it.

Now Supernova found herself torn. She looked towards Zest, towards life, then back to the death K-Lo promised her. The latter was likely the right choice and yet…

“I don’t want to kill other ponies!” Supernova called to Zest.

“You know, you really won’t have to kill anypony if you come with me. Do you really want to let her kill you even then?” Zest asked.

“I don’t!” Su-Z shook her head, her instincts taking over from anything else.

“Living like this is wrong!” K-Lo took a step forward, more pleading than aggressive. “You’re a danger to Equestria and innocent ponies everywhere. Are you going to turn your back on everything we fought for that easily?”

Su-Z covered her head and sobbed. She didn’t want to do either!

“If she wants to live, then I can teach her how to do that without being a threat to anypony.” Zest threw her forelegs out protectively over Su-Z. “It’s not for you to decide what she chooses.”

Zest turned back to Su-Z again with a much softer look.

“So?” Zest asked.

Su-Z nodded.

“I want to live!” She exclaimed.

Zest gave a single nod and grabbed onto her.

K-Lo fired on their position, but Zest pulled them off into the forest. It was a sharp, jerk that sent them off. Su-Z hadn’t even noticed the lightning carrying them off until they’d already landed by a splintering tree.

Another flash and they were at an even more distant point. It seemed Zest had to crash into something to stop. Looking back, Su-Z noticed K-Lo refusing to give up the chase. She shouted and teleported after them.

How far could they travel like this? Su-Z knew they were headed back to town, which seemed the opposite direction to go.

But just as they neared. Su-Z saw where they were headed now.

An electric pole? Was the lightning elemental going to do something with it?

With another blast, they appeared just inches away from the transformer.

K-Lo stood right behind them! The blackness of the staff absorbed all the light around the area, submerging K-Lo in darkness! Or, maybe that meant it was shining with light!

Su-Z was about to alert Zest to the incoming attack, but K-Lo’s resolve faltered at the last moment. Su-Z saw tears in her eyes. The staff shook and the swirling darkness at its tip dimmed. Trembling, she lowered it a few degrees.

The last thing Su-Z saw was K-Lo falling to her haunches and dropping the staff entirely. Then a flash of light sent them far, far away.

With a flash, they appeared somewhere far away. Su-Z found herself surrounded by pine trees stretching far off in every direction. But she saw no power lines, just one of those electrical boxes.

Had Zest taken her to the middle of nowhere? And how? Through… the wires? Could they really do that?!

Su-Z could feel something other than that black wind blowing toward the south now. Almost like something sheltering her from it. Looking in that direction…

A building! A few of them even. There were only three or four but this much civilization was more than Su-Z ever expected to see again. No lights were on despite being the dead of night and she saw enough orbs floating about to know right away this place was haunted.

“We buried a wire going way, way out there.” Zest pointed into the dark woods and traced a line up to the transformer box they’d materialized next to. “I can zip all over Equestria like that! I keep checking around for lost ghosts and stuff. You’re the fourth I managed to pick up like this.”

“Where are we?” She asked.

“I can’t tell you exactly where we are without the boss’s approval. But I’ll tell you this much!” Zest zipped out ahead far faster than Su-z could hope to move. “Welcome to Shadowbolt Academy. Home of the Shadowbolts!”

Academy?

Hobbling just a bit further ahead, Su-Z recognized it as a school.

“That’s us!” Zest jabbed a hoof at herself. “The Shadowbolts. Uh.”

Zest realized that she was in a group of one and turned back to the school. A sudden burst of that invisible ‘wind’ came from the senior ghost.

Seconds later, a pool of darkness opened on the ground, and from it emerged a pegasus ghost – a phantom if Su-Z identified her has. She had a pair of flight goggles on her forehead.

“Whoa! You actually found one?” Goggles asked.

“This is Indigo Zap.” Zest gestured to her new friend. “You might want to punch her so–”

“Don’t!” Indigo grabbed Zest from behind, covering her mouth. “Listen to her.”

“How many of you are there?” Su-Z asked.

Zest squirmed out of Indigo’s grip. Indigo gave up and instead decided to start floating around Su-Z, scrutinizing everything about her.

“With you, we’re up to fifteen!” Zest declared. “Sixteen if you count our liaison. We’ve got a pretty good operation going on over here these days! And uh. Oh, wait! I never even asked your name.”

“Huh?” Su-Z tried to ignore the phantom. “It’s Supernova… Zap.”

Supernova Zap and Indigo Zap locked eyes for a moment. Probably no relation.

“Or Su-Z,” she continued. She looked at the main building, more and more sure that was the source of this feeling. Given what she knew about ghosts, that meant only one thing. “There’s… a specter here?”

“Uh, huh! You’ll need her approval to stay but Sugarcoat is a lot nicer than she seems at first so no worries,” said Zest. “Wanna look around first?”

Su-Z kept her eyes locked on the school, shuddering at the thought. She’d stood before four specters. Those were the worst ghosts of all… her mortal enemies.

With her mortality a bit further away, she was thinking a bit more clearly now. She didn’t want to die. But was she really going to end up swearing her loyalty to such a despicable creature as that? Su-Z supposed she was a wretched monster not much better now…

“I’m not sure about this.” Su-Z shook her head. “I… I don’t want to kill anypony.”

Zest blinked at her. Su-Z… she was pretty sure she could feel the concern. Indigo looked a little peeved at the suggestion, though.

“I’ve never killed anypony,” said Zest. “We mostly just kill turkeys. We set up an entire turkey farm over this way. Can you smell it? Follow us!”

Zest beckoned and floated backward off away from the building, along with her fellow ghosts. As creepy as the school was, the thick pine forest surrounding it looked infinitely more dangerous! So Su-Z let out a sigh of relief when they reached the farm without leaving eyeshot of the buildings.

She supposed she had little to fear from ghosts now… she was one.

She could tell what they led her to used to be a sports field of some kind from the rusted bleachers overlooking it. The field had been fenced in with some shoddy wooden poles that wouldn’t hold anything determined to escape.

Su-Z counted a great number of turkeys along with a small garden for them to feed off of. Her brain was split about which side of the farm was food. She knew, sadly, it wasn’t the plants any longer.

Just the scent of those warm turkeys made her mouth water. She swallowed… something… and fought back the urge to rush in and freeze one of them. That horrible itch tormented her as her new instincts tried to get her to give in.

Zest, presumably having surrendered to her new, twisted form long ago, tilted her head with innocent confusion.

“Do you want one?” Zest asked. “I can feel how hungry you are.”

“Civilized people don’t eat animals!” Su-Z whipped her lips dry.

“You were worried about us killing people though,” said Zest. “I felt the same way you do, but this is the only way to keep yourself from hurting a pony. You get used to it way faster than you’d expect.”

“She’s right,” Indigo agreed. “If you resist for too long, you’re going to go insane. That’s usually how ghosts end up killing predeads. You don’t have to do it right now, but if you’re trying to go vegan, we’re kicking you out.”

Su-Z turned back to the turkeys. Zest was certainly correct that feeding off them would be more ethical than devouring actual ponies. Yet knowing it was the lesser of two evils was no balm to her heart.

Committing this one act even once would be giving in to the darkness and cold, accepting her fate to become one of the vilest types of monsters. Was she willing to cross that line? Her ‘body’ certainly wanted her to.

At least she’d be killing a turkey. Turkeys, while afraid of adults, did attack foals whenever the opening presented itself. They were the least honorable of all birds.

“I’m not…” Su-Z kept her head down and shuddered. “I’m not ready… You said I could wait.”

Zest turned to Indigo, who turned her hooves up.

“I say we give her two days,” said Indigo.

Two days to make up her mind…

“Can I meet the specter in charge before deciding all of that?” Su-Z asked.

“Of course! In fact, you have no choice!” Zest started floating backward towards the school itself. “But I got a lot to show you on the way. Outside of Old Manehattan, this is the biggest nexus of ghost culture and technology on the planet, you know!”

“Technology?” Su-Z asked. “No offense but ghosts don’t have technology. You don’t have enough ponies for that. No ghost has ever invented something useful. Ghosts just can't innovate.”

“Oh, we have advanced technology beyond what even most Equestrians got!” Zest flew backward, gesturing for Supernova to follow.

Curious, Su-Z followed all the way up to the schoolhouse. Zest went straight into the building, not even bothering to go near a door.

Su-Z still wasn’t used to going through solid objects. That Indigo pony smirked at her hesitation to just throw herself into a wall. Grumbling, she managed to get over the psychological barrier and float through.

She was in… maybe some kind of music hall with steeped, stair-like platforms. And it really did look high-tech! Way more than anything she’d seen from a ghost compound before. A tangle of wires sprawled across the floor, connecting an assortment of devices.

There seemed to be one large, central device acting as the nexus which everything else was plugged into. But that thing just looked like a huge black monolith with a row of blinking, green lights on one side. Maybe it was some kind of battery or power source?

Su-Z could recognize some of the other things, though.

They had four pinball machines and not the old-fashioned kind, either. These were the ones that took electricity, had buzzers and flashing lights, and an electronic score on the top. They looked so new, too! Normally ghosts only had stuff they salvaged from a dump. Normally, they lived in garbage!

And that wasn’t it, either. They had a brand-new music cylinder player with big speakers not far away, complete with a whole stack of cylinders. And then… Su-Z didn’t recognize the rest too well. Were they really things she wouldn’t know about?

But the one Zest drew her attention to was a little box with an opening door and a tray inside. Su-Z wasn’t sure what to make of it when Zest threw an old piece of bread inside and turned it on. The thing started up noisily.

“Check this out, it’s called a microwave oven!” Zest stuck her hoof right through the little door. “It gets this old bread real hot real fast! But it tastes worse each time you heat it back up. Should be a bit of kick left in this one.”

Su-Z sniffed. It was getting hot in there fast! With a ding the door opened and Zest held out a loaf of exceptionally warm bread. Though the scent of it was odd. Slightly… acidic? Su-Z couldn’t think of a better word to describe it.

With a nod of encouragement, Su-Z sucked the heat out of it. She was so hungry that… it tasted great to her!

Unfamiliar technology… electricity? She still couldn’t believe it.

“Wait, wait. You have pinball machines, cylinder players, and electricity?” Su-Z looked up at the lights, remembering that ghosts would never use them even if they got them working.

Ghosts usually did not have anything like that. She’d broken up plenty of their bases before.

“I am electricity.” Zest spread her forelegs wide and let lightning ripple through her.

Su-Z knew enough about ghosts to identify her as a lightning elemental. Those were rare. Rare enough that Su-Z had never seen one in person before. Seeing one gave you cred among ghosts busters.

“But how, though?” Su-Z asked. “I’ve never seen ghosts with electricity before. Not outside one of those cities.”

“Well my body can convert charcoal into electricity and then I can charge the battery.” Zest pointed to the monolith, confirming Su-Z’s suspicion. “But we also have a crank you can turn, though that takes forever. And Sunny Flare has this thing on the roof that turns sunlight into electricity… but that also takes forever to charge the battery. So it’s mostly me.”

“Who’s Sunny Flare?”

“She’s our mad scientist friend.” Zest stuck her head out the door. Without opening it that was. “Hey, Sunny! Get over here! You gotta meet the new ghost!”

“Wait! A mad scientist?!” Su-Z flew back.

She’d never heard of a mad scientist ghost before! There were so few of them to start with. And with a 1 in 10,000 chance of becoming a ghost when you died, it must have happened incredibly infrequently.

“Ah, don’t worry. The Mad Science Institute isn’t as evil as all the rumors suggest,” said Zest. “At least, Sunny isn’t. Oh! And we have a robot, too!”

“You what?!” What was this nexus of horrors?! “Robots are insanely dangerous! They feel nothing but hatred and–”

“It’s a dead robot! Here!” Zest threw the door open, then zipped down the hall in a flash.

Heavy footsteps came chugging down the hall shortly afterward. A pony-like robot made of the deepest black metal bounded down the hallway, its gnarled mouth bellowing green flames.

“See?!” the robot… maybe Zest was possessing it? Its voice was incredibly deep! “Are you impressed?!”

“Uh…” Su-Z had no idea what to make of it… ghosts shouldn’t have this kind of stuff… what was going on?

More hoofsteps drew her curiosity. Another smaller robot?

Su-Z turned to the door to find not a robot… but a normal unicorn walking inside.

“You found another one so soon?” What may have been Sunny Flare asked.

“What?! A real pony is living here too?!” Su-Z looked her over. But her nose was what noticed the oddest thing of all. “Wait! You’re freezing cold! Don’t tell me these spooks are – are farming you?! Bringing you to the brink of death over and over again to harvest your warmth?! Oh, what did I sign up for!”

“Watch it!” Indigo suddenly snapped at her.

Suddenly everypony was looking at her with dangerous look. Even the real pony looked just as offended as them.

“Uh.” Su-Z tried backing up.

“Psst!” Zest whispered in her ear. “Just so you know, we really don’t like it if you say ‘spook’ before you’ve been dead for a year or two. Also, try not to do any ghost puns. I made that mistake.”

Great! The spooks were sensitive little snowflakes.

“O-okay.” Su-Z’s eye twitched. She used the word ‘spook’ so often there was no way it wouldn’t accidentally come out. “But… I mean I am a ghost so–”

“You don’t understand how offensive that word is to them,” it was the living pony out of all of them that spoke up. “What matters isn’t if you’re alive. It’s that you said it with derision.”

“Heh!” Indigo folded her forelegs and floated to the real pony’s side, beaming with pride. “See? The predead knows what’s up!”

“And another thing, you called me a ‘real pony’, implying that my friends aren’t.” Sunny shook her head. “I hope you don’t have a problem with ghosts. They aren’t monsters like the SA wants you to think. That’s just a convenient narrative for them.”

Indigo nodded proudly as Sunny lectured her.

“Hey. Were you with the SA?” Indigo raised an eyebrow. “We’re gonna figure it out…”

“I, uh.”

The jig was up! They would totally find out. Maybe it was best to get it over with before running into the specter. Specters were tough as ice and could force you to talk anyway.

“Okay.” Su-Z whimpered and lowered her head. Might as well get it over with. “I um… yeah, I was a slayer. Specifically, I was a um… a ghost buster.”

All of them, even the pred- normal, actual pony- recoiled at that. Even Zest, who seemed so friendly up until now backed away.

“Don’t look at me like that! Ghosts are dangerous and you know it!” Su-Z decided she might as well stand her ground. “Ghosts kill ponies all the time! Hell, a ghost is what killed me in the first place!”

“Did they attack you for no reason?” Indigo asked. “Ghosts who hunt down predeads are pretty rare. Especially these days. Most can’t deal with the consequences even if they want to.”

“Well. Okay, me and my partner were trying to evict them.” Su-Z crossed her forelegs and huffed. "But the law was on our side!"

“Were they doing anything bad?” Indigo asked.

“They were too close to town!” Su-Z pointed deeper into the forest. “Ghosts aren’t allowed into townships and they can’t live within seven miles of one! I told them, with the legal authority of Equestria, the nation we’re in, that they had to leave those caves.”

“It kinda sounds like you started the fight.” Indigo said. “Who attacked first?”

It was Su-Z. Or her partner rather.

“Well!” Su-Z held her breath, not wanting to admit as much. “They started it by breaking the law. I was just doing my job, okasy? I don’t see what the big deal is. One smelly cave is the same as another. They can just move. You all live in piles of filth no matter where you go so who the hell cares? Ghosts are just unreasonable and overreact to everything!”

Indigo bristled, Su-Z ready to call her out if she started yelling. But it was Sunny who stepped in to save Indigo from proving Su-Z right.

“It’s not that simple,” Sunny explained. “You don’t understand the situation. Right now, it’s nearly impossible for ghosts to uproot from the place they’re living and go searching for a new home.”

“Why not?!”

“Because Crater Cemetery is hunting the ghosts down,” said Sunny. “That cave was likely a great hiding spot for them and you flushed them out, forcing them into the open where they could easily be enslaved and put under mind control. Looking for another home would take months of being exposed and be an enormous risk.”

“But... they were living too close to town! They can’t be within seven miles or–”

“It’s actually three that’s the safe distance,” said Sunny, getting showed with ever more approving nods from that phantom. “It used to be that, but Equestrian politicians kept expanding the distance just to make it look like they were ‘tough’ on ghosts.”

They were maybe four miles out, meaning…

“Well.” Su-Z held her breath, trying to think of another defense. “Look, I don’t make the law! I just enforce it! If you don’t like it then blame the ponies who make the laws, not me!”

Su-Z turned her head quickly, blushing with humiliating defeat.

Indigo laughed and laughed.

“Holy fuck! There’s just something so satisfying about a predead who gets it.” Indigo flew in front of Sunny, thrusting her hoof upwards. “You know, Sunny Flare. I gotta admit I didn’t like you at first but…”

Indigo froze. Zest was back out of the robot, giving her the smuggest grin.

Indigo shrank and floated down through the floor.

“Okay, but how are you doing that?” Su-Z asked Sunny, desperate to get off the subject. “The whole not freezing to death thing. Your body must be forty degrees.”

She could tell these ponies were North Equestrians from the slight disconnect of that statement. Though it didn’t narrow down much where Su-Z was.

“The Mad Science Institute modified my body to withstand extreme cold,” said Sunny Flare.

So she really was with MSI! This place just got eviler and eviler…

“Well I’ll admit this is more impressive than most ghost dwellings I’ve seen,” said Su-Z. “At least you spooks aren’t living in some cave.”

Zest rapped her on the nose.

“No! No saying ‘spook’ until you get it.” Zest puffed her cheeks out, offended.

“Okay… you s-words.” Su-Z grumbled and rubbed her muzzle.

“Good!” Zest bounced back to her cheery self. “And you still don’t know how not a smelly cave this is yet. Because we’re also a center for art and culture, you see!”

“Oh, wow. Ghost Culture.” Su-Z couldn’t feign enthusiasm for that if her life depended on it. Ghosts had no culture. Just a twisted mockery of whatever they carried on from life.

“Hey, hey! Don’t be like that! We have our own film industry and everything! I’m sure that art can enrich your heart and change your mind. Wanna see the movie studio?”

“What?” Su-Z straightened up at the mention.

She’d heard of ghost films. Held on, even.

But somehow that ghosts would need a movie studio to make that happen never crossed her mind. It wasn’t easy to imagine such monsters creating art.

“Yeah! Come on! I’ll show you!” Zest rushed deeper into the school

But she did and found herself in a gymnasium.

They had some surprisingly impressive film equipment! Like, actual movie cameras and rolls of film.

The props weren’t ‘good’ as they mostly only had discarded cardboard boxes to make the backgrounds out of. But they were technically in a high school and it matched that aesthetic.

There was a badly grafted ghost in the corner developing some film. Su-Z wanted to wonder why she wasn’t doing that in a darkroom before remembering that every room was a dark room for them.

She looked a little annoyed when Zest beckoned over to her.

“Who’s this worm?” The green pony eyed Su-Z skeptically.

“New Recruit,” said Indigo. “Supernova. She was a buster.”

And just like that this new pony was lost to her!

“Are you impressed the Shadowbolts have their own film industry?” Zest flew behind Juniper and put her hooves on her withers. “Juniper here is–”

“Wait.” Su-Z floated forward, eyes widening at that name. “Juniper? Are you that Juniper Montage? The one who makes all those ghost movies? Like The Skull in the Woods?”

Juniper blinked and all her apprehension faded into surprise, forgiving all possible transgressions.

“You actually heard of me? You saw my films?” She floated forward, pointing to herself.

“Yeah! Well no, not myself. But I’ve held them.” Su-Z gestured to the film reel still in her camera.

“You’re a fan of the film reels themselves?”

“No, no! Sometimes the ghosts we evict would have one of your movies on them see. And we’d–”

“Beat them up and loot all their things?” Indigo asked.

“Yeah, it’s gonna sound bad when you put it that way! But it was legal, you know? And the important part was that there’s a couple of ponies in Canterlot who collect them and they pay big time for ones they don’t have a copy of. One of them I found sold at auction for four hundred thousand bits.”

“What?” Juniper could only watch her wide-eyed and expressionless.

“Of course that got split five ways and after all the fees and stuff.” Su-Z shrugged.

“And where could we find these collectors?” Zest floated slowly to Juniper’s side.

“Better not.” Indigo shoved her aside.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” said Su-Z. “Why are you even making films if you didn’t know pred- normal ponies would ever see? It’s not like there’s anypony to watch them.”

“Basically, we’re all going to die. I still got this list of twenty movies I want to make before then, though. So I’m just going to try and get as far as possible by then,” said Juniper. “You want to be in one of them?”

“Be in your movie?” Su-Z asked. “So what? You already forgave me for being your mortal enemy my entire life up to this point?”

Were ghosts really that forgiving?

“I like the way you look,” said Juniper. “Besides, I give you two days.”

“Two days until what?!” Su-Z was getting tired of this teasing.

Su-Z felt a stir in the aura! The orbs that floated about them all blew off course as though a wind had blasted through the room! Su-Z ducked halfway underground, but none of the other ghosts seemed to care.

That could only mean one thing. The specter was on the move!

She was getting closer!

“I think Sugarcoat noticed us,” said Zest. “Oh! The boss is named Sugarcoat! Don’t be scared of her, okay? She’s actually a big softy.”

As if Su-Z could just not be scared! The last time Su-Z bumped into a specter, it was a massacre! Three ponies on her team got frozen to death. K-Lo was in the hospital for a week and Su-Z just barely escaped death!

But like it or not, Su-Z was playing for the other team now…

“You ponies are taking awfully long,” said the specter. “You’re supposed to bring new ghosts straight to me.”

“Sorry,” said Zest.

“You.” The Sugarcoat’s uncaring eyes fell upon Su-Z. “Above ground.”

Su-Z didn’t have much choice. She reluctantly rose for the specter to critically examine. Her life was this pony’s to throw away.

“Name. And how did you die?” Sugarcoat asked.

“I um…”

“Supernova,” Indigo answered for her. “She was trying to ‘evict’ some ghosts and they killed her trying to defend their home from her.”

“Hey, should I try to find these evicted ghosts?” Zest suggested.

Su-Z panicked at the idea! No way she could live with the ponies she’d just fought to the death.

“Later… as for you, Supernova. You’re far from the first of your kind I’ve encountered,” said Sugarcoat.

“I am?”

“About that, boss?” Zest rested her chin on the specter’s withers. “What is the standard operating procedure for ghosts who hate ghosts? This seems like it could be a problem.”

“Nah, the rubber band effect will hit in a few days,” said Indigo. “Then she’ll be on our side.”

“The what?” Zest asked.

“You think this is the first pony who hated ghosts and then became one?” Indigo asked. “Nah! And they all cope with becoming the very thing they hate in the exact same way. They flip from being racist against ghosts to being racist against predeads.”

“And like a rubber band,” said Sugarcoat, “the more they hated ghosts beforehand, the more they hate predeads afterward. The most extreme anti-life ghosts all used to hate ghosts before turning. She’ll actually become over-zealous in her loyalty to me in… perhaps two days.”

“Oh, so it’s like shooting a rubber band!” Zest nodded. “I get it.”

“I’m not going to just start hating the living out of nowhere!” Su-Z declared. “Not in two freaking days!”

“I’m pretty sure you are,” said Indigo.

“I’ve seen this a hundred times,” said Sugarcoat. “Nopony has ever escaped the rubber band effect. Just accept that you hate predeads now so I can start convincing you to let it go.”

“Yeah, you better not be mean to Sunny Flare once you become racist against her!” Indigo flicked Su-Z’s ear. “You ain’t on my friend list yet, and I don’t put up with anypony messing with my friends.”

“Why would I be mean to the only pony here who isn’t a monster?!” Su-Z looked at each of the ghosts in horror.

“Cause of the rubber band effect, worm.” Indigo jabbed her hoof on Su-Z’s chest. “Pay attention.”

Su-Z puffed her cheeks out.

“Will you swear your loyalty to me now?” Sugarcoat asked. “Or do I have to wait two days?”

“It will not take me two days to change my mind on this! And I’m not bowing down to a specter! Not ever!”

“I’ll ask you to stay here for a few days until you change your mind.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “In fact, you’re not allowed to leave until then. If it doesn’t happen, you’re free to go. But I don’t want you doing anything stupid during your… transition.”

“You people are acting like I’m a robot! Geez! I guess I have no choice but to stay here for the next few days. Just don’t expect me to start simping for you out of nowhere!”

Two days later.

Supernova was simping hard for Sugarcoat. She’d sworn her loyalty to the specter early that day and was now following her around, enthusiastically tripping over herself to follow Sugarcoat’s commands.

“Yes, ma’am!” Su-Z enthusiastically saluted her new boss. “Is there anything else you need, ma’am?”

“Zest is going to be meeting up with Sour Sweet today. So I’ll–”

“Guh! Why do we talk to so many filthy predeads?!” Supernova growled. “They’re all a bunch of violent maniacs who just want excuses to kill ghosts! They can’t understand that not everyone who isn’t exactly like them is evil! I don’t care if Sour Sweet says she’s a ghost advocate! The injustice of their–”

Sugarcoat patted her on the head and floated off, silencing Supernova just like that.

Zest blinked a few times, staring off into the distance.

“Huh. Rubber band effect.”

(Extra) Ponin's Spirit Guide - A Ghost Bestiary

Lesser Ghosts:

A. Orbs
[A1] Common orb
Greater orb
Accursed orb
Spider orb
[A5] Rumbling Orb
Prismatic Orb
Wisp
Will’o’wisp
Ball lightning

B. Amorphous:
Funnel ghost
Hungering cold
Stalking blight
[B4] Ectomold

C. Apparitions

D. Sprites:
Bogey
Bogle
Pixie
Kodama
Wraith
Hermit wraith
Blight wraith
Myling
Grimalkin

High Ghosts:

E. Harbingers

Banshee
Nightmare
[D3]Specter

F. Geists

[F1] Poltergeist
[F2] Schwarzgeist

G. Spirits

Hellion
Doppelganger

H. Shadows

Shade
Gloom
Umbrian
[ H4]Phantom

I. Proto-physical

Lemure
Valkyrie
Dullahan

J. Revenants

K. Elementals:

[K1] Water
[K2] Fire
[K3] Earth
[K4] Lightning
(Wind)

Proto-ghosts

Psychics

Ragamuffin

Demons

Ectoplasm

[A1]Common Orb

Just as a pony can leave behind more than one bone when they die, so too can they leave behind more than one orb. Some ponies do not produce any where some can produce as many as thirty. It appears being killed by magic generates the greatest number of orbs as it scatters the magic of the deceased needed to create the orb.

Unlike common depictions in art, a pony does not immediately expel an orb directly above them upon death. Instead, the magic dispelled from their body takes time to coalesce in the air before becoming a visible orb. It takes some two to five days for the resulting orbs to appear and they may be as far as ten miles from the corpse upon inception.

In fact, due to this method, it is possible to knock an orb out of a pony without actually killing them. In some cases of extreme magical injury, an orb has been measured as ‘spinning out’ while the pony still survived.

Orbs do not last forever, otherwise an enormous number of them would pollute the atmosphere. Without heat, an orb will rapidly become dimmer and harder to see before finally dying in a burst of light. Even orbs that consume heat will eventually meet with the same fate, albeit slower.

Common orbs can last some seventy years. The rarer sort last half that long at best, with a rumbling orb never making it past three years of existence.

[A5] Rumbling Orb:

The rumbling orb is easily spotted by its own namesake. They vibrate constantly, generating a low rumbling noise.

Though it is not known with complete certainty if a rumbling orb can be produced through a dying pony, the rumbling orb is a well-documented product of magical spells and energies.

The correlation between rumbling orbs and spells was know since antiquity, the ancients noting that many appear in the days following a large battle. However, they hypothesis was not confirmed until the eleventh century of the democratic era. The experimented provided reliable, though uneconomic, means of generating a rumbling orb on demand.

Rumbling orbs are unstable compared to other orbs, decaying within three years. They are not, as some may suggest, floating bombs waiting to go off. Though they can explode at any moment, it is rare for them to do so without a clear trigger.

Triggers can include useage of excessive magic, so use of magic should be avoided if a rumbling orb is present. Even pegasus flight has been known to set them off, though rarely. High ghosts can also command them to explode or move however they please, so treat them as a weapon if you are anywhere near a fraid.

A rumbling orb will contract shortly before exploding. If you see such a contraction, press yourself against the ground to mitigate any damage from debris.

Sugarcoat’s addendum: Rumbling orbs can be kept stable for a long time, so long as they remain in an aura. Usually a specter's aura is needed. The longer they remain kept, the larger the explosion will be when they go off.

We most often use them to expand cave. Rumbling orbs can go straight through solid obects, allowing you to insert them directly into the rock or cave wall you want to explode.

[B4]

[B4]~~Ectomold is commonly believed to be the result of decomposed orbs, but here I will argue that…~~

Sugarcoat’s notes: This entire section is almost entirely inaccurate speculation.

Ectoplasm is produced in a ghost’s mouth and is similar to saliva. It’s more of a waste product than anything else. The reason we ‘drool’ around predeads is that its building up to get expelled.

We don’t know exactly what ectoplasm is or does, other than that eating causes it to build up and you have to spit it out to absorb more heat. It slowly evaporates, cooling the area nearby, but you can find a significant amount of ectoplasm near a fraid.

‘Ectomold’ is the result of a condition some ghosts have. A few of us produce far too much ectoplasm and need to cough up huge amounts of it. We dig holes for them to vomit into a good distance away from our homes. When it fills up we cover the hole. But some comes seeping back up out of the ground nearby making it look as though it’s growing like mold.

I really have no idea how the predeads didn’t figure that one out by the time Ponin lived. They seem to understand at the time I’m writing this, however.

[C1]

As with ectoplasm, some debate exists over whether an apparition should be classified as a ghost. They have similar properties to other ghosts and are created in the wake of a pony’s death. However, they appear to have even less intelligence than an orb, already mentally on par with a plant.

Unlike other lesser ghosts, an apparition looks exactly like the pony who created them. Once created, the apparition will repeated the exact sequence of events shortly before death. Once the sequence is completed, they will vanish only to reappear at the start.

The delay between vanishing and repeating will grow until it is so infrequent that the apparition functionally no longer exists. Some debate exists as to whether they merely cease or, after the twentieth repeat, the apparition simply repeats only once every million years or so.

Either way, the apparition would be unobservable at the time when it does occur. The image becomes fainter and less detailed every time. Apparitions do not consume heat, nor anything else. Perhaps as a result their longevity is not great. One should expect an apparition to be effectively gone after a few months at best with only a few increasingly rare instances afterward.

Confounding the matter further is the fact that one does not need to die to create an apparition. Occasionally, when an injury places the pony close to death, an apparition will be created yet she will later survive. Invariably, the creation of an apparition from such an injury heralds that pony will develop psychic abilities. However, not every psychic will create an apparition of themselves.

Finally, apparitions do not possess auras, making their presence undetectable to other ghosts or psychics. As such, ghosts find no utility in them. They cannot be trained as pack animals like orbs or other lesser ghosts can. The sight of an apparition should not be taken as a clue other ghosts could be near by.

Sugarcoat’s addendum: Apparitions are more like rocks than anything else. We don’t consider them ghosts and they are useless to us. Scientists stopped classifying them as such a few decades ago, but they may change their minds about that again.

There is an interesting story about an apparition that Ponin didn’t live to see. They attempted to film the reemergence of one in Canterlot by filming the same spot for sixty years straight. After sixty years of waiting, it did reappear, but at the exact moment they were replacing the film.

The estimate for its next reappearance is set for 375 years from now. I suppose only then will it be confirmed if apparitions keep coming back for centuries.

[D3] Specter

The specter is the most terrifying and dangerous ghost of all. One will have little doubt they’re standing in the presence of a specter. Their lairs are ice cold and filled with ghosts both high and lesser. Anypony with even the least bit of psychic perception can feel them from miles away. But if you have any doubts as to which ghost is a specter, you can look for their tell-tale blue sclera.

I do not recommend fighting a specter under any circumstance. Even if you’re an extreme outlier in strength, it is often not worth it to engage. You should attempt to escape instead or negotiate if remotely possible.

A specter is created only when a mass death event kills at least one thousand ponies. Occasionally such an event will not create a specter, but it will never create more than one. The most hoffigying power a specter has is to recreate an ‘echo’ of the event, essentially summoning the very disaster that killed them to wreak havoc on the innocent.

Thankfully, if this echo kills more than a thousand ponies, it will not create a new specter.

The second terrifying ability they have is their enormous auras. This is the reason specters are surrounded by other ghosts and almost always the leader of any fraid. They often force other high ghosts to love and worship them, enslaving them to do their evil bidding and…

Sugarcoat’s addendum: “Often” is far too strong a word here. Specters who attempt to force other ghosts to love them do exist, but have limited success. Sending your servants off to do some errand for you becomes impossible, for example, because it necessitates them leaving your aura. Such specters tend to make far too many enemies too fast.

In reality, specters such as myself rarely exert our auras on our underlings. Less frequently than normal ghosts, even. Other ghosts come to us not because we draw them in, but to seek the protection of our auras. It becomes much more difficult to force your aura on another ghost when inside a specter’s aura.

To that end, its generally considered socially unacceptable for us to use our emotional influence on anypony, even our enemies save to leave them stunned. I generally only use mine for the sake of communication or else in emergencies.

[F1] Poltergeist

Poltergeists are a common form of ghost not associated with any method of death. They are not easily identified by appearance and appear nearly identical as they did in life.

Like all geists, they are distinguished by their ability to embody objects other than dolls. Poltergeists, specifically, can possess nearly any non-living objected object. They do not appear to have size limit, but they give up an equal measure of control for increased size.

While inside and object, that host becomes malleable in an unnatural way, twisting it out of shape. This can go as far as making fangs and a mouth appear on nearly any object. A poltergeists can turn the rests of a chair into arms and run about on its legs.

Once a poltergeists has left an object it will near instantaneously revert to its original shape. ~~They cannot permanently alter the shape of any object.~~ The snap back can be intense and dangerous. If a blade is bent out of shape, its reversion can hit an unaware pony with incredible force.

Sugarcoat’s addendum: Poltergeists can permanently alter the shape of an object. It merely takes a significant amount of time and energy to keep the new shape. I shouldn’t be surprised predeads don’t know this, as they’d rarely expend that kind of energy in a fight.

This is perhaps their most useful ability in a fraid. With little access to crafting equipment, forges, etc., poltergeists become the easiest way to twist scrap and trash into more useful forms. They are, in effect, the craftsponies of ghost society.

Though they are the most common, as Ponin said, they are not uniformly skilled. Without practice they cannot create fine, lasting, details. An artisan poltergeist is perhaps more useful than a fire elemental for forging metal. An unskilled fire elemental would be easier to find and better than an unskilled poltergeist, however.

[F2] Schwarzgeist:

Schwarzgeist are a common form of ghost not associated with any method of death. They are not easily identified by looks alone.

Poltergeists have the ability to posses nearly any non-living object and Schwarzgeist alone have the ability to possess living things.

Their ability to twist their host is not as great as the poltergeists. Possession of an animal may be limited to increasing the size of its claws or changing its teeth to fangs. They can cause a tree to twist about but appear unable to make its limbs become spiked, for example. Any manipulation of form will revert immediately after the ghost departs.

But the ability these wretched spooks are most feared for is their ability to possess ponies and other intelligent species. Only those with psychic powers are immune to this ability.

When a living pony is possessed, they will behave erratically. Both the ghost and the pony will be in control of the body and without cooperation they are left incapacitated.

If a schwarzgeist appears to be in total control of a pony, this is because that pony was not awake at the time of possession. This may be the case even if the ghost has their victim’s eyes open. You should first attempt to awaken the sleeper with loud noises, water, etc.

If they still do not regain control, then the pony was knocked unconscious before being possessed. The only way to expel the ghost without harming the host is with psycho waves produced by an expert psychic.

[ H4] Phantoms:

The phantom is believed to be the most common type of ghost. When encountering a fraid of ghosts, it is best to assume at least one phantom is present and hiding off to the side even when none is readily observable.

Being common, they are also the most well-known and many now reading can already state most of their characteristics. Though there are several common misconceptions I will not correct.

Phantoms are not permanently invisible but instead become invisible on will.

Psychics and other ghosts cannot see a phantom when they become invisible.

Phantoms do, in fact, have auras. They are merely faint and difficult for psychics to pick up on.

Phantoms are not always grafted into a cloak. This misconception comes from Royal Age artists choosing to use cloaks to designate their subject as a phantom.

There is no evidence to suggest a pony is more likely to become a phantom when dying a ‘lonely’ or ‘unseen’ death.

Detecting a phantom can be difficult even for a psychic. One can easily follow your group around for days at a time, waiting for the ideal time to kill you in your sleep. Your best means of locating a phantom is to wait for it to drop its guard. Even the strongest of them can only keep their aura suppressed for so long and will make occasional slips over long periods. If you feel the brief presence of a ghost, it is a good indication that a phantom is stalking you.

[K1] Water elementals:

Ponies who drown or are crushed by large waves may become water elementals. These are by far the most common type of elementals. They are easily identified by their perpetually wet manes and fur.

Water elementals can control water and are most dangerous in heavy rain or by large bodies of water. Of course, they rarely leave such places.

Water elementals appear to attract one another. Those who die in fresh waters perhaps follow the river out to sea where they meet in larger numbers. This effect can culminate into entire ghosts ships filled with spooks. Such a sight is rare, but formidable…

Sugarcoat’s addendum: We typically split water elementals into salt and freshwater ghosts. These two groups tend to dislike one another.

Those who die at sea are overwhelmingly sailors and pirates. As such, a certain surliness is found among them. They swear constantly and keep to themselves and their own kind. They hate staying in one place and wander the ocean floor with a new crew of fellow water elementals and an occasional straggler ghost of another kind.

I think there’s only been two authentic accounts of ghost ships in the past five hundred years, though. They prefer to conglomerate around sunken ships and stay deep underwater.

Ponies who die in fresh water are not typically sailors and are less inclined towards adventure. They’re often wood sprites, feeling a strange attachment to the lake or river they died in, rarely wishing to leave it.

Essentially, freshwater elementals feel the salts give them a bad reputation. The saltwater elementals see the fresh waters as a bunch of wusses and are quick to mock them. It’d be very rare for a fresh water to ‘follow the river out to sea’, if only because they want to avoid the ridicule of dead pirates and the like.

It’s not as easy to identify a water elemental as pony makes it sound. Ghosts can restyle their manes and water elementals typically tie up their manes and tales to make them look more normal. If you’re looking for a water elemental, you’re better off looking for buns and braids.

[K2] Fire elementals:

Ponies burnt to death may become fire elementals.

It’s a misconception to expect a fire elemental to appear as a pony made of flames. This is rarely the case. Instead, you should look for a pony who looks burnt, after a fashion. Their fur is most usually intact but their hair universally takes on a black color. Their eyes have a blackish sheen and they emit small amounts of smoke endlessly. They are some of the few ghosts with a scent, a smokey one.

The ability of fire elementals to create flames is limited beyond common expectation. They must consume heat to produce heat. They consume flames to be released later. As such, they can only produce so much flame before exhausting their supply. Their store isn’t great and once they run out, they a significantly reduced threat.

Instead, the greater threat comes from their ability to possess flames. Fire elementals can embody even a towering inferno. As living flames, they can move rapidly. They will attempt to spread and surround you. The more momentum they gain, the deadlier an advisory they become.

When engaged in combat with a fire elemental, you must not allow them to gain this initial foothold against you. Focus on defense, on stopping the spread of the fire, and they will quickly run out of stored flames.

If you do find yourself encountering a living inferno, remember to aim always for the base of the fire. The fire triangle…

Sugarcoat’s addendum: Ponin appears to think fire elementals store their fire in some kind of fire dimension? This really isn’t very accurate. Creating fire is simply one of the most exhausting things a ghost can do. Fire elementals get tired quickly when creating fire. They don’t ‘run out’ of it. One never assumes a fire elemental is ‘out of ammo’ as even a completely exhausted pony can find some last ounce of strength lying about somewhere.

Really, better advice against them in combat would be a warning against their ability to blind you. They can blind ghosts with bright flames and the living with excessive smoke. I’m surprised this isn’t mentioned anywhere.

[K3] Earth Elementals:

Earth elementals are not necessarily ponies crushed by rocks. Indeed, being poisoned by certain plants or killed by certain animals can also lead to the creation of an earth elemental. It is presently unknown the specifics and limitations of the creation of an earth elemental, but these constitute the majority of their genesis.

Earth elementals have only limited control over the earth itself, as plants tend to absorb the magic out of the ground. However, these spooks can manipulate the elemental magics absorbed into the living creatures themselves. They are both able to call animals to themselves and make plants rapidly grow and mutate.

The later is their more formidable ability, allowing them to rapidly produce toxic spores and flood an area.

Thankfully, the more intelligent the lifeform, the less control they can exert over it. Though they can control insects and reptiles to a certain degree, mammals and birds can only be commanded to the slightest degree. Ponies, especially pegasi, can hardly feel a tingle from an earth elemental’s effects.

One potential exception are reports of young earth ponies, due to their stronger connection with the earth, being lured out into the woods by a faint curiosity only to be killed by the earth elemental…

Sugarcoat’s addendum: Contrary to these claims, with the exception of psychics, a ghost’s aura cannot affect a living pony outside of intense waves of fear or anger. Even these are difficult for anything but a harbinger to produce. An earth elemental cannot make you ‘curious’ about anything.

It’s also not the case that earth ponies are more effected by them than pegasi. I suppose an earth pony could employ magic that uses earth elemental magic. It would be easy for an earth elemental to overpower them in this scenario but that’s as far as it goes.

I want to call such reports fear mongering, though I’m sure if an earth elemental could perform such a feat, they would have exploited it by now.

Earth elementals are most valued for their ability to provide food. Animals to eat will never be in short supply around one. Sadly, their ability to make plants grow is limited. A dramatic explosion of plant life is possible, but they will need days to recover and is not a reliable source of wood to burn. Nonethless, it is still useful in acquiring a wider variety of herbs for variety in the flavor of our fires.

[K4] Lightning Elemental:

Lightning elementals are perhaps the rarest form of ghost. When one considers the rarity with which ponies die of lightning, coupled with the aforementioned one in twenty thousand chance of an elemental being created upon death, it becomes easy to see the singularity of their inception.

A mere fifty ponies are killed by random lightning strikes each year, the majority of them pegasi. Added to this is another two thousand killed by various monsters, mages or pegasi capable of wielding lightning as a weapon. One may conclude that a lightning elemental is created, on average, perhaps once every ten years.

Other ghosts appear to place a high premium on their ability to generate electricity and will seize any opportunity to recruit them. If one does encounter a lightning elemental, it should be assumed that a host of additional ghosts are not far. Like the specter, they are seldom alone.

Fighting against a lightning elemental is not wholly dissimilar to facing a pegasus specialized in wielding lightning….

Sugarcoat's notes: Ponin’s calculations of the odds of how many exist are a far underestimation, due to this being written before much electrical infrastructure was built. This was also before ponies decided that electrocuting themselves was the best way to get psychic powers. A better estimate at the time of this writing is one every two years or so.

To the living, they may be a borderline mythical finding, but ghosts attract one another rather than repel. Among our own kind, they are a merely uncommon sight.

Their hair can be easily made to stand up. Specifically, rubbing their heads until this happens is considered to give one good luck.

Ghosts who died from being struck by lightning are given the nickname of ‘royal flush’ or ‘flushes’ in general. They are considered to be a herald of astounding fortune. The problem, of course, is that every lightning elemental claims they died from being struck by lightning whereas most of them these days ‘bit the wire’. The nickname for this more common category is ‘dumb luck’.