Prologue
Deep beneath the crystalline caverns of Canterlot castle, a team of archeologists worked feverishly around an ancient archway. The crystals had covered it completely for five hundred years. It had taken the team over a year to simply uncover it with their strongest drills and most powerful spells. Finally, all of their hard work was about to pay off.
"Dr. Chisel! The archway is nearly uncovered!" a young earth pony mare with a light brown coat and powder blue mane said as she burst into the tent set up outside the dig site. The unicorn she spoke to sat the cup of tea he had been drinking on a saucer. His tent had been decorated with various scrolls and ancient hieroglyphs.
"Very good." He smiled at her, replacing his monocle and standing from his seat. "Let's see it, shall we?"
The older unicorn and his young assistant trotted to where a team of strapping stallions had just chipped away at the last bit of crystal obscuring an ancient stone archway. "Magnificent..." the doctor whispered in awe. "It is as I imagined it would be!"
"What do the symbols mean, doctor?" his assistant asked.
A moments silence entered the cavern as the stallions laid down their tools. "I cannot decipher every symbol, but I believe this is the legendary vault of Discord!"
The rest of his dig team gasped. "Doctor, you mean behind this seal lay the treasure of the Shining Path?"
"Indeed, these symbols indicate 'Discord', 'this one: 'followers.' This one: 'behind'. And this one: 'seal'," he explained, pointing to each hieroglyph respectively. "And the Princesses called me crazy! They insisted nothing was in the caverns!" he added proudly.
"You there, fetch a hammer and open this archway!" he instructed, though his assistant protested.
"Doctor Chisel, we can't just destroy it!"
"Ms. Pennyweather, think of the discoveries that may lay behind this seal! This could be on par with the discovery of the tomb of Trotankhamen!" He turned back to the large stallion holding a sledge hammer in his magic. "Proceed."
The worker began to pound away at the stone seal, chipping the stone slab as it began to crack. Slowly, Doctor Chisel's assistant began to back away, an uneasy feeling washing over her. Within moments, a chunk of the seal broke off, a shining light blasting through the hole it'd created.
Everypony shielded their eyes from the intense light as it reflected off the huge crystals in the caverns.
"It's glorious... Quickly, keep smashing!" Dr. Chisel insisted. His assistant backed away even further.
The workpony obeyed, continuing to hack away at the seal before a great rumbling shook the entire cavern. "Doctor, the cavern is collapsing!" Pennyweather shouted.
"Nonsense! We're on the verge of something huge here!" he insisted. If this was history in the making, Pennyweather wanted no part of it. She bolted down the narrow corridors, racing toward the ladder and the single shaft of light beaming down from certain safety.
Soon, the seal began to collapse on its own, the unicorn setting down his hammer. "This is it! The treasure of the ages lays before us!"
A furious wind tore through the cavern. A pulse of silver energy burst forth from the portal as a guttural roar echoed through the cavern. Multiple energy beams stretched from the ancient gateway, striking all the workers through the heart and wrapping the Doctor in its grip.
The color drained from Pennyweather's face as she galloped as fast as she could toward the shivering rope ladder, dodging chunks of falling crystal as she went. She began scurrying up the ladder as the silver energy snaked its way toward her. Right as her forelegs reached the hole they had used to descend, she felt a strong tug on her tail. Yelping, she glanced over her shoulder. A sea of at least one hundred ghosts clawed at her, trying their damnedest to pull her back into the pit.
She felt her hooves slipping as she struggled to grab hold of something. With all her strength, she threw herself out of the hole, flopping beside it as she pushed the rope ladder down into the cavern below. As she paused to catch her breath, she inched closer to the hole, daring to peek into its depths. What she saw puzzled her. The ghosts were gone! Hundreds of damned souls had simply vanished!
Was it all an illusion? Perhaps a hallucinogenic gas trapped inside the ancient archway and released all at once? With a sigh of relief, she turned away from the pit, and back towards civilization. That's when she saw it.
A single ghost, his face decayed and his eyes shrunken to beady black pits, his wispy grey beard blowing in an unseen wind. Some parts of his skeleton had been exposed by the ravages of time, and he wore shaman-like clothes, but certainly not of this century. Pennyweather froze, paralyzed by fear. The ghoul smiled, its rotten teeth just as transparent as the rest of him.
"Boo!"
"This is so unfair!" Pinkie complained from her hospital bed as the doctor looked over her charts.
"I'm sorry Ms. Pie, but the hospital in Ponyville didn't have enough beds, what with the cutie pox making the rounds at the schoolhouse," Doctor Scope* explained.
"Doctor, you don't understand! I've got tickets to the premier of Ghost Buckers! I had to order those tickets two weeks in advance! This movie has Bill-bucking-Murrneigh* in it for Celestia's sake!"
"I'm sorry Ms. Pie, but we can't risk you getting worse out in the cold, nor can we have you running around Canterlot infecting others," he said, setting her charts back at the end of her bed. "However, in a week or two you'll be all better, and you can go see your 'ghost busters' movie."
"Two weeks?! It'll be out of theaters by then!" she whined. "And it's Ghost Buckers!
Dr. Scope shot her a deadpan stare. It was already late, and he still had three more patients before his rounds were over. "Ms. Pie, I must insist you Pinkie Pie Promise you will stay in this bed until we release you. Is that clear?"
Pinkie huffed in annoyance. How did he know about her super secret promise? "Fine. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," she grunted, folding her forelegs and slumping back onto her bed.
"Very good. I'll be by tomorrow to see how our treatment is progressing. Goodnight, Ms. Pie," he said, leaving her room and closing the door. Pinkie was in quite the unusually grumpy mood as she flipped on the television and began changing the channels idly.
"Stupid sugar induced organ failure..." she muttered to herself.
"Are you sure this is the right place, Twilight?" Applejack asked as the other five Elements looked toward the imposing castle-looking structure.
"This is where they said she'd be," Twilight replied, double checking the address with the worn brass numbers on the outside of the iron gate.
"Did they have to send Pinkie someplace so... scary?" Fluttershy mumbled from behind Dash, cowering as though the building itself would attack her if she looked at it the wrong way.
"I'm with Fluttershy on this one, this place gives me the creeps," Dash agreed.
"C'mon now, just 'cause y'all have wings is no reason ta act chicken," Applejack teased.
"I'm not chicken!" Dash snapped. "I'm... just trying to make Fluttershy feel better."
Applejack smirked. "Sure."
"Come now, I'm sure Pinkie is miserable being cooped up in that dingy old building, the least we can do is cheer her up with our presence," Rarity chimed in as Twilight led them past the gates and into the overgrown courtyard.
"Geez, you think they'd hire some goats to clean up this lawn..." Applejack commented as they reached the old wooden doors.
Twilight lifted a hoof and knocked, the sound echoing beyond the door. After a few seconds, they decided to simply push the door open. Inside, a nurse sat at her desk, reading Pony magazine while blowing a rather large bubble with her gum. She didn't even notice the girls enter until they were right in front of her station. Without glancing up, she addressed them.
"Visiting hours are from noon to eight," she droned.
"We're here on royal business. We need to know which room Pinkamena Pie is in."
As Twilight spoke with the night nurse, Rainbow noticed Fluttershy nearly shaking with fright inside the darkened lobby.
"You know Flutters, I heard this place used to be a mental hospital, until one of the patients escaped into the air ducts," she said in an exaggerated 'creepy' voice.
"R-really?"
"Yeah, I heard his ghost crawls around the vents at night, kidnapping unsuspecting visitors and taking them... STRAIGHT TO TARTARUS!" she yelled, as Fluttershy squealed in fright and hid behind Applejack.
"Rainbow, you hush!" Applejack snapped, pulling fluttershy off her flank and hugging her. "Don't let RD scare ya Fluttershy, she don't know what she's talkin' about."
"B-but what if the crazy pony's ghost gets me and d-drags me to—"
"Stop all that talk, silly filly. Ain't no such things as ghosts," she whispered comfortingly to the petrified pegasus, idly stroking her mane to calm her down. "Ain't that right, Rainbow?" she growled.
After Dash had her laughs, she relented. "Yeah, there's no such thing as ghosts. That was just an old campfire story anyway."
Fluttershy had managed to gather herself as Twilight turned to the group. "She's in room 504, the elevator is down the hall."
With that, they set off down the darkened corridor and found the creaky old elevator. It struggled up the shaft until coming to a stop on the top floor.
"What a dreadfully rickety elevator! I wasn't sure it was going to make it to the fifth floor!" Rarity commented, stepping out into the sterile hallways of the observation wing. As they made their way towards Pinkie's room, the nurse in charge of the floor stopped them. After repeating their credentials, they started towards Pinkie's room.
"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, nudging her way into the room.
"Hey girls!" their friend said happily, sitting up in bed. "I'm so glad you're here! I was bored to tears by myself!"
"Well, that's why we showed up!" Applejack said happily, though Rainbow was not as enthusiastic.
"Yeah, we're skipping the midnight premier of Ghost Buckers to hang..." Rainbow moaned.
"What?" Pinkie exclaimed. "You guys can't miss the premier just because I can't go! It's got Bill Murrneigh in it!"
"That's what I said!" Rainbow agreed, happy with her brief vindication.
"Pinkie, dear, we couldn't possibly go without you, it was your idea to buy the tickets in the first place," Rarity insisted.
"Right, remember the lesson I learned about not doing something unless all of my friends were able to accompany me?" Twilight asked.
"That's different! You guys have your tickets, you should be able to watch the movie," Pinkie replied.
"Aw, it wouldn't be the same without you, sugarcube," said Applejack.
Pinkie smiled hopefully. "I know it wouldn't, but maybe if I get better in time, I can catch it while it's still in theaters."
Rainbow looked at the clock on the wall. "There's still thirty minutes until the movie starts, we can still make it!" she pled.
Twilight looked back to Pinkie. "Are you sure you don't mind?"
"I'd be a pretty big selfish sally if I kept you guys from having fun just because I couldn't," she said softly. "But promise you'll comeback tomorrow and tell me all about it?"
Twilight hugged her. "I promise we will."
"Yes! Pinkie, you rock!" Rainbow shouted happily, fluttering into the air and pumping a hoof. "Now let's go so we can still sit together!"
The girls left Pinkie's room as she got back to her only source of entertainment; television. As she flipped through the channels, she noticed the air duct in her room begin to rattle.
Though the group arrived late, they still managed to find five seats next to each other. Rainbow munched on her popcorn while Fluttershy hid behind her wings for at least half the movie. Applejack's eyes were glued to the screen, as were Rarity's, while Twilight had actually brought a note pad and was scribbling with a quill every so often.
After the movie, the five ponies made their way out of the theater and back toward their waiting cab. "I still wish Pinkie could have come with us," Fluttershy mumbled.
"Yeah, this was her idea..." Rainbow agreed.
They walked in silence before Twilight had an idea. "Hey, I know what we can do for her!" Twilight said, stopping on the sidewalk. "She had a pretty spacious hospital room, why don't we reenact it for her?"
Everypony seemed to be in agreement. "Yeah, that'd be awesome!" Rainbow added.
"Oh, I could design the costumes!" Rarity chimed in happily.
"And I took notes on the proton packs they used in the movie!" said Twilight.
"Then it's settled. We'll meet at Twilight's tomorrow to get ready, then we'll make Pinkie feel like she really saw the movie!" Applejack smiled as she flagged down a taxi.
"See you guys tomorrow!" Rainbow bid them goodbye as she took off towards Ponyville with Fluttershy.
The others piled into the cab, excited about the smile they were sure they'd bring to their bed-bound friend.
Author's Note
*Dr. Steth O. Scope
*The best pony.
