The door to Twilight's castle library slammed open as the Princess of Friendship stormed in, followed by Zecora, the zebra wise-mare of the Everfree Forest, Starlight Glimmer, Twilight's personal student, and Rarity, one of Equestria's Defenders along with Twilight. The rest of their friends were preoccupied in Ponyville, helping repair the damage that was done by a rogue pegasus just thirty minutes prior.

The tool that said pegasus had used to cause such damage was firmly held in Twilight's magical grasp—A black metal amulet with a large red gem in its face and an overall design likened to that of an alicorn. This was the source of the terrible item's name: The Alicorn Amulet, and it granted whoever wore it untold magical power. Twilight stormed up to one of her tables and slammed the amulet into the table hard enough that it stuck before she groaned and rested her chin on the table, casting a glare at the troublesome trinket.

"This is the fourth time this thing has gotten into somepony's hooves," she groused before fixing Zecora with a weary look. "Where'd you say you hid it this time?"

"Seeing as craftier spots have all failed, I tested if simplicity instead would avail," Zecora replied as she tilted her head to examine the amulet from a few different angles. Twilight furrowed her brow and tilted her head as well.

"Meaning?" She pressed, earning a bashful smile from the zebra.

"Under a rock in front of my door," she chuckled with a shrug. "Certainly a place I have not tried before." Twilight blinked and then leveled an unimpressed frown at her.

"Well, clearly that didn't work," she sighed, before returning her attention to the amulet. "And it's not like we can destroy it." As she, Rarity, and Zecora stared at the trinket, Starlight rubbed her chin and trotted to one of the bookshelves that made up the walls of the entire room.

"Whatever do we do with it?" Rarity hummed.

"I dunno," Twilight murmured, shaking her head and furrowing her brow. "I wish we still had the Elements."

"Hey! I have an idea!" Starlight suddenly cried, drawing their attention to her as she trotted up to the table with an open book hovering before her. "Since it keeps popping up no matter where in Equestria you hide it, why not hide it outside Equestria?" She held a smile as she scanned her book's contents, but Twilight shook her head.

"So it falls into the hooves or claws of some other creature?" She asked, fixing the amulet with an annoyed frown. "No matter where on Equus we send it, it'll still be a problem." Starlight nodded and held the page she'd been reading up to Twilight.

"So, why don't we send it beyond Equus?" She offered. Twilight blinked and studied the page for a moment before slowly smiling.

"You might be on to something," she declared after a moment.

"Kramer!" I poked my head over the edge of the dumpster to scan the site for Josh. I saw his back just through the sliding door of the house we were tearing apart. "Got something you'll like!"

"Just a sec," I called back before returning my attention to the pile of junk we'd fished out already, specifically the sturdy metal pole that was wedged and causing a problem.

My name is Jacob Kramer. I don't know what my job title is, but I work for Hooke and Sons. We do renovations and trash removal. I grabbed the pole and bent at the knees before taking a breath. With a heaving twisting motion, I managed to get the pole unstuck, allowing the junk it was pinning weirdly to flow free, clearing more space in the bin. Sliding the pole all the way out and then hucking it atop the pile like a javelin, I pulled up on the edge of the dumpster and vaulted out, landing beside my portly middle-aged co-worker.

"Thanks, Jake," Luis chirped, reaching out and clapping hands with me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I replied, adjusting my belt as he and his little brother resumed hucking more busted pieces of wood and plaster into the bin. I checked my watch and blew through my lips upon realizing it was already noon. My jeans and shirt were already sagging from the sweat I'd worked up, and we weren't even half done. I looked at the three-story house we were tearing through as I made my way to where Josh had been—Some rich asshole had died a few years back and his kids absolutely trashed his house until the city got involved. Something like that.

I didn't really care for specifics. I just knew this was, at one point, a rich dude's house. And that meant I had a chance to indulge in my favorite pastime.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as I stepped through the door, blinking as my ears were immediately hammered from all sides by the echoing racket of hammers rolling through the whole house. Josh turned toward me, his heavy, bushy eyebrows high up on his forehead. In one motion, his arm swung out and hucked something my way. I caught it with both arms before turning it over and squeaking a gasp.

"Francis said there's a whole load of stuff like that stuffed in the attic," Josh explained, scratching his mustache with his thumb and then jabbing it upward. "They're looking through for anything we might need to turn over to the bank, but most of it's ruined like that." He pointed at the vase I had in my hands. It was certainly once a pricey little thing, but it now had a big ugly crack through it and was completely spray-painted over with all sorts of graffiti.

Meaning it was worthless.

Meaning it was up for grabs.

I offered Josh a malicious grin as I gently tossed the vase between my hands, at which he slowly nodded. "Yeah, figured you like to hear that," he declared before jabbing a finger at me. "You want any of it, you're dragging it out yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I hummed in response before bounding out of the building towards my truck. I slid to a stop beside it and yanked back the tarp across the truck bed. Underneath were some of the other things I'd been allowed to pull from the house: a few cracked chairs, a graffitied glass table Luis had helped me load, and a few old flower pots. Things like that. Things that would break real nice. Or which could catch fire easy. Things like that.

I carefully set my new addition down in the corner of the bed and moved to pull the tarp back over my collection. As I did, I heard a clank and paused to scan everything. Nothing seemed to have broken prematurely, causing me to scratch my forehead under my hard hat. I pursed my lips as I continued to look over everything before finally letting out a frustrated gasp when I found the culprit: The vase I'd just sat down had cracked somehow, and now a big shard had split right off its lip.

"Damn it," I grumbled, carefully rotating the vase to check for any further damage. It rattled a little, likely from the shard falling inside, but other than that it was fine. I grimaced with a shrug. "Eh." I threw the tarp back over the truck bed and returned to work.

Tonight was going to be fun.

I threw back the last of my coke before hucking the bottle into the midst of the quarry basin. The crash echoed through the entire pit, bringing a smile to my face just before I turned my attention to my truck bed. I'd managed to snag a dozen and a half other vases and little half-statues before we wrapped up for the day.

As I ogled my collection, the gentle roar of another vehicle approaching drew my attention to the top of the quarry. There, slowly rolling down the path to the bottom of the quarry where I waited, was a dumpy little van, currently without any plates as its owner didn't believe in registration. How he managed to avoid being arrested both for that and his numerous other infractions all just added to the beautiful mystery that was Bob.

I clapped and rubbed my hands, slowly pacing toward where he eventually came to park. He emerged from his car, his overlong beard flowing in the breeze and his sunglasses reflecting the sun's light.

"Robert, my bosom. Mmmbud-dy," I greeted as he waved and moved to the side door of his van, the windows of which were covered by an interior curtain. As he slid the door open, revealing his bed and his living supplies, he leaned in and pulled a crate out before setting it at my feet. I recoiled at its contents. "Shit, you came prepared." Bob nodded briskly as he reached down and plucked a single stick of the copious amount of dynamite he'd gotten ahold of.

"Tell you what, Man, talkin' 'bout Chum what used to gimme them got hisself cuffed, Man, talkin' 'bout old police, man," he explained, gesturing to his supply of explosives. He shook his head with a huff. "Yo, Man, talkin' 'bout his buddy talkin' Canada man, gimme all this 'afore he go'd, talkin' 'bout buy ten get ten free, Man."

"Nice!" I beamed with a cackle, rubbing my hands together. "Well! Come have a gander at what I've brought for the occasion!" I swept my arms toward my truck, at which he leaned to the side to get a better view and then whistled with a nod. We shared a look before both smiling and dragging the crate of explosives to my truck.

Piece by piece, we steadily unloaded my supply before blowing them straight to hell with Bob's supply. Working together, we'd hurled the glass table sideways, causing it to shatter on its corner and provide the broken glass platform that we set the rest of our private show upon. The quarry echoed and rumbled with each explosion as bits of broken glass or wood were sent sky-high.

Finally, out came the vases. At Bob's suggestion, rather than leave the dynamite resting against them as we'd done to most of the other stuff, we tried to lob the sticks and get them to land inside the vases themselves. We didn't make a single shot, but it was still fun as all hell.

I hucked my stick at the first vase Josh had let me take before ducking behind my truck for cover. The stick nailed the side of the vase and knocked it over, earning a grunt of satisfaction from me.

"Close!" I hissed just before the dynamite went off. Bob chuckled and slipped out from behind my truck to get to his van, where his drink cooler was, while I stood up and scanned my truck bed for what to destroy next. As I did, something caught my eye as the smoke cleared. I frowned and tilted my head to get a better look as the sun had clipped something and was glittering in the debris pile. I raised an eyebrow and made my way toward it, waving the fumes out of my face as I did.

There, in the middle of our scorched pit, was a smoking metal triangle. Reaching down to pick it up, I hissed and pulled my fingers back as the metal was still hot.

"Hey, Bob! C'mere!" I called. I worked the hem of my shirt around my hand and grabbed it again as Bob finally arrived behind me. "I think this was in one of the vases. Kinda crazy it didn't get blown up." I held the little triangle up, looking it over. It was almost entirely black and had a big red jewel in its face, along with a crazy unicorn design. Bob, being the consummate metalhead, hummed in appreciation of its design and color.

"Talkin' 'bout lil' old jewelry, Man, lil' old tie clip, Man," he declared, leaning back and gesturing to me. "Thinkin' 'bout 'does he have it?' Man." Catching his meaning, I nodded before blowing on it and carefully hooking it onto the collar of my shirt.

"How's it look?" I asked with a smirk. Bob snorted and whistled with an 'okay' gesture, drawing a laugh from me.

"Hello," another voice suddenly peeped, drawing my attention to my side. My shadow was stretched to the side by the sun's angle, and there was now a little shadowy lump sticking out of it. It had two little red dots with which it was looking back at me. "Don't be afraid."

"Jesus?" I asked. Its dots blinked and it shook a little.

"No," it replied in a voice I was pretty sure was feminine. I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head back.

"Satan?" I demanded, causing it to almost grimace, if shadows can do that.

"No. Just me," 'she' sighed with a nod. "Hello." I held my narrow-eyed glare for a moment before tilting my head toward Bob.

"Bob, my trusted amigo," I said with a slow nod. "I think the fumes are getting to me." He hummed as he took a sip from his soda.

"Talkin' 'bout oh no, compadre, talkin' 'bout seeing ghosts?" He sighed, shaking his head.

"Yeah," I replied.

"I'm not a ghost," my ghost huffed.

"Oh, she says she's not a ghost," I explained. Bob nodded for a moment before examining the air I was staring at.

"She hot?" He finally asked.

"Kinda smokey," I replied, earning a disappointed hum from him. My ghost blinked and shook her head.

"Alright, listen," she hissed, bubbling and then slithering up to my eye level. "You like to destroy things, right?"

"Ye," I replied, causing her to nod.

"I can help you do that," she declared.

"'Kay," I declared back. A shadowy tendril slithered into view and pointed at me.

"But I need you to help me first," she added. I narrowed my eyes harder.

"With what?" I demanded. She hovered closer and nodded.

"I'm going to start leaking some magic into your brain, okay?" She said causing me to frown.

"Uh," I said before a warm, buzzing feeling began washing through my skull. It felt like the inside of my head meat was getting dunked in a nice, hot bath and I slowly brought my hands to the sides of my head. "Bob. The ghost is microwaving my brain." He recoiled and snorted.

"Talkin' 'bout get 'em to not, Man," he replied, causing me to slowly shake my head.

"No, I think I like it," I hummed before it suddenly stopped.

"Okay! Now, look into my eyes," my ghost demanded, leaning closer so I could see her little eyes better. "Focus." I furrowed my brow and did as she asked, and to my surprise pictures started flooding into my mind. Colorful pictures of a colorful little countryside. Almost like a painting or a Saturday morning cartoon show. I blinked when the image suddenly faded and the ghost nodded.

"You see that? You got that image memorized?" She asked.

"Yeah," I declared, still able to recall the general look of what she'd shown me.

"Good!" She chirped before swirling around me and whispering. "Focus on that feeling the magic gave you and that image. Focus hard!" I narrowed my eyes again, bringing my fingers to my temples and ignoring Bob as he took a generous and noisy sip of his soda. Focusing on the feeling and the image, I almost didn't notice when the air started to feel tingly. Like a whole bunch of static was dancing up my skin. Bob, however, noticed something was up and took a few steps back with his eyebrows raised. I heard a buzzing followed by a crackle as streaks of red lightning raced out from below my chin and through the air before doubling back and coiling up my body.

The wind howled and the sky suddenly became overcast as I was slowly lifted off my feet. I gasped as I tumbled and spun, steadily rising higher and higher, until finally the air split with a thunderous boom. As I was tumbling, I caught only the scarcest glimpses of what looked like a giant red vortex swirling just above the quarry, toward which I was now flying.

"YES! Eat it, Princess!" My ghost cheered as I gasped and sputtered. "Equestria here we come!" As I rolled through the air, I spied Bob down below, looking up at me in surprise, and reached out for him.

"BOB!" I screamed, sucking in another breath. "GET THIS ON CAMERA!" He stared at me for a moment before patting himself down and shrugging.

"Talkin' 'bout ain't had one!" He replied causing me to hiss.

"Damn it!" I spat before screaming in earnest as I tumbled into the vortex.

Author's Note