Ghostbusters: A Different Adventure

by Chrome Masquerade

Prologue: A Rift Between Worlds

Prologue

It was some time after their second time saving the world. Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddamore and Peter Venkman decided to take some down-time. But something changed that! A portal suddenly opening up in the middle of the rec-room of their workplace!

“Ray? What's going on?” Peter asked, worriedly.

“Looks like a cross-dimensional portal! Level 8 at least!” came the reply, having to shout over the anomaly taking place

“So... what do we do?” Winston asked.

“I don't know! This is kind of a first for us!” Ray returned.

“My suggestion?” Egon put in, “TAKE COVER!”

“Good suggestion!” the other three said in unison, each hiding behind something heavy.

With a flash of purple energy, the portal dissipated.

“Now what was THAT?” Winston asked.

“Looks like a completely new kind of energy, far different than anything we've experienced before.” Egon replied, taking readings on the area. “Looks like a level 6, but since this is, much like I said, a far cry from PKE, I can't be entirely certain.”

“Uh... guys?” Winston called for the attention of the others, “There's something here.”

On the floor was a basket with a silk-wrapped bundle.

“This one's a level 4 on its own! Amazing!” said Ray, taking a reading. It may not be perfectly accurate... But it was better than nothing..

Inside the basket was a sleeping purple foal, snoring quietly, oblivious to what had occurred.

“Aww! Isn't she cute?” Peter said, taking the foal from the basket.

“Careful, Peter! Who knows what might happen?” Egon warned.

The foal, for her part, yawned cutely and turned over, still asleep.

“We got a crib around? We need to put her somewhere.” Peter asked.

“We.... might.” Winston said, scratching his chin. “Let me check.” he added, sliding down the long pole they had as an express route of sorts, moving to check the basement.

Just then, the foal woke up, babbling at them.

“I wonder what her name is?” Ray said aloud.

“Vesperum Lux!” she replied.

“A smart one, considering that she can't be more than 10 months old.” Egon noted.

“What'd she say?” Ray asked.

"That was Latin for evening light, so..."

The little baby looked around and then brought out a hoof and pointed to a picture they happened to have of a sun setting and a moon rising at the same time.

“Evening light... Oh! Twilight!” Peter said, much to the little one's delight.

“She appears to be equine in shape, but her DNA doesn't match any earthly creature known to us yet.”

“Egon.” Peter said, deadpan, “She just came through a cross-dimensional portal. I think we've established that.”

“Do you know where your parents are, little one?” Ray asked.

“Ray, i don't think she has-”

'Twilight' thought for a second or two, frowning, before saying “Non memini” Then her eyes widened. "Et vos eritis mihi in parentes?"

“That's latin for "I don't remember" and "Will you be my parents?" I believe she's imprinted on us.” Egon stated.

“Well, that's just great. I don't know anything about child care!” Peter said, exasperated.

“Neither me. We'll have to wing it somewhat, i guess.” Ray said.

Just then Winston came up carrying a small crib.

“Haha! Found it!” he said, putting it on the floor. “Beyond this, it should be much like caring for any other baby.” he said, unwrapping her so they could put her more comfortably into the crib.

"We have one of those... Why?" Peter queried, as an aside.

As the cool air brushed over Twilight, she shivered, her wings extending and, the blanket no longer there, her horn on full display. “Brrrr. Nunc ego Im frigus.” she said.

“Of course, I could be wrong!” Winston said, grimacing. "What'd she say, anyway?"

"She says that she's cold." Egon translated curtly.

"Oh." Winston said, returning the blanket to Twilight.

Just then, Janine came through the door.

“Hello! Anybody in... here?” She laid eyes on Twilight and immediately spuealed loudly, dashing over to hug the surprised Pony.

“Janine? JANINE!” Peter called out to get her attention.

“What?” she replied.

“She's just a babe. I think she needs her oxygen?”

Sure enough, Twilight was lightly tapping Janine's shoulder, mouthing "Aer! Aer!"

“Oh! Right! Sorry.” she quickly apologized, putting down the spluttering foal, who glared at Janine, annoyed.

“Well, gang. Looks like another screwed up day at the office.” Ray commented.

“And many more to come.” Egon affirmed.

---

Feeding Twilight was a conundrum at first, so they just gave her a little of everything. They found that she had a preference to the fruits and vegetables, some dairy products too, though she would also eat a bit of the meat and some sweets they proffered as well. When presented with Mexican food, she either was hesitant or outright evasive, so they decided not to go that route more than once.

When she learned to speak English, she started to call them different names, to tell them apart. She started calling Ray "Dad", Egon "Father", Winston "Uncle" -or some form thereof- and Peter "Pops". They thought up various nicknames for her and used them whenever they felt like it.

Over the next couple of years, little Twilight learned much from the crew. She learned about secretary work from Janine, learned about paranormal activity from Ray, watched TV with Peter or just played some games with Winston.

She also learned a lot of science related things with Egon, who discovered that she was practically a sponge for knowledge, learning how to fluently speak English by the time she was 1 & 1/2 years old! Not to mention having read through the crew's entire collection of books. (Except for a select few that she seemed rightly wary of.)

And by the time she was 4 years old, she was nearly as intelligent as Ray and Winston combined, with an IQ of 250, when tested! Only Egon was more so, though he declined to relate what his actual IQ was.

A few years later, they were practically on par with each other, Twilight often aiding Egon in his experiments. After a time they decided to call her Twilight Spengler Sparkle, as she more synced with the personality of Egon that any of the others.

Occasionally the guys would leave to take care of a problem, leaving Janine in charge of Twilight. Janine was okay with this, because it meant that she got to spend some “girl time” with the purple Pony, who was also good for business, customers feeling more relaxed after petting her.

After a particularly nasty mission, they brought home Slimer, a more or less benign spirit who was eager to meet Twilight as well. It served as an experiment as well, though after their first meeting Twilight was cautious around it.

Then she started to come into her powers, at first learning how to levitate objects many times her weight, teleport, generate fire or ice, turn her magic into objects (she learned that from a comic she read around that time) and more! Though she still "tried" not to be a burden on her adoptive parents. She even learned how to walk on two legs when she had to, to better aid them.

Then, by the time she was eight, they figured that it might be time for “Take your daughter to work” day.

---

“Alright, for today we'll start at 50% capacity.” Egon said. “That should keep any burning or tissue damage to a minimum.” he added.

“Great. Danger is our lives.” Ray deadpanned.

“Oh, hey! There's our girl!” Peter said as Twilight came up the stairs, having just had breakfast.

They got Twilight into a customized version of their typical outfit, sized for her.

"Lookin' good Sparks." Peter said, using one of his nicknames for her.

Suddenly a pulse of energy swept through the room, staggering the group.

“What was that?!” Egon exclaimed.

“Ray?” Peter queried.

“Looks like a pulse of psi energy; a wave of Necromantic energy. Powerful enough that we could see it. Substantial, too! Level 7 or more!”

Janine put in, “I probably don't want to know this, but i'm going to ask anyway. Is a level 7... whatever... bad or... VERY bad?”

“Well, on a scale of 1 to 10-” Egon started before being interrupted by Peter,

“Let me guess.” he said, Twilight joining in, “It's a 7.”

“Let's just say that we're about to get really busy.” Egon finished.

Suddenly there was a sound of glass shattering and Slimer escaped from the space he was contained in.

“Hey! Slimer's escaped!” Ray exclaimed in warning.

“No. Wait. Come back.” Peter said sarcastically.

Twilight literally flew down the staircase and rounded the corner, following Ray and Egon down the stairs to the basement. There they saw Slimer looking at their containment unit.

“He's been obsessed with it ever since Egon added the viewer to that.” Ray explained to Twilight.

“Now, you know what to do. Try to get the proton stream on him.”

Shifting to a two-legged stance, Twilight raised the Neutrona Wand toward Slimer and fired.

Slimer, of course, was aware of their presence and moved at the last moment, causing the blast to hit the containment unit instead!

“Oh no! Not the containment grid! That's some sensitive equipment you're disintegrating, kid!” Ray said.

Twilight flinched at the reprimand.

Just then a ghost escaped from the unit.

“Uh oh! You let one out!” Ray said.

“That's my fault.” Egon said. “I was doing some calibrations earlier. At least we know to reinforce the unit in the future. You two go after Slimer and that other one. I'll have this up and running again by then.”

As the two of them continued on, Ray, feeling that he had been a bit harsh, said, “Oh, by the way, the containment unit? Don't sweat it, kid. It wasn't your fault.”

Twilight beamed at this.

"Anyway, taking the proper precautions, Slimer's more or less harmless. The other guy? Not so sure. Still up for it, Sparks?"

"You know it, Dad!" Twilight beamed, raising the wand of her pack.

The two continued to the sub-basement, where they spotted Slimer.

“Alright, Twi. Remember: we break the process into three steps. You remember them?”

“Mhm.” Twilight said, nodding. “Sap, Cap and Trap.”

“That's right. All ghosts are made by a buildup of PKE, as you know. We need to disperse that.”

Twilight nodded and rose to two legs again, firing off the proton stream.

“Nice going, Twilight!” Ray said, firing his own.

Slimer tried to escape the stream, but at first wasn't able to, Eventually, though, he managed to slip through a nearby wall.

“Uh oh! We lost Slimer!” Ray stated.

Then the other ghost came up, laughing maniacally.

“Let's try this again, kid!” Ray coaxed Twilight.

“Right!” she replied, firing again.

This ghost was significantly harder to wrangle than Slimer was. At one point, it even tried to attack them physically. Twilight leaped and flipped 360 degrees before landing back on two legs, wobbling slightly before resuming the attack. A moment later, the proton pack enabled the Capture Stream.

“Nice! We got him winded. Keep him that way until the slam meter you'll notice charges. The higher the charge, the more damage it'll do, so keep that in mind! Then, slam him around to make him dizzy!”

As they did so and drained the ghost's PK Energy, Ray threw out a trap, allowing them to capture it, Ray turning his off part way, long enough to let Twilight go the rest of the way.

"Nice job, kid!"

Ray's PKE meter buzzed. When he picked it up, it turned out that Egon was on the line.

“Did you catch them?”

Turning to Twilight, Ray said, "The PKE meter will also act as a communications device." then returned to Egon.
“We're batting .500. Twi bagged her first one, though. REALLY nasty customer.” Then he turned to Twilight again. “By the way, always remember to retrieve your trap. And also, on crossing the streams. In a word: Don't.”

“Seriously.”

Egon added.

“It can really sting, too.” Ray added.

"Hmm..." Twilight thought to herself.

------------------------Slightly Later--------------------------------------

"Hey, why does Twily get to carry new equipment?" Peter asked.

"Two reasons." Egon said. "One: her unique physiology won't allow her to carry one of our regular packs, so it just felt right to modify the design somewhat anyway." he looked up at Peter. "Secondly: she's something of an... Experimental Equipment Technician."

"She gets a cool title, too?!" Peter asked, a touch louder than necessary.

"It means" Ray cut in, "that she's carrying around a bunch of -albeit tamer- sensitive equipment that, if handled poorly, could launch her into New Jersey."

"Our eight year old daughter gets to carry stuff that if handled wrong could blow her into New Jersey." Peter snarked. "Keep the title, kid; It'll work hard for you."

A few minutes later, Ecto 1B was prepared to go.

“Where do you think the little spud will go, Ray?” Peter asked.

“The Sedgewick Hotel. That's where we first found him.” Ray replied.

“Right. His original manifestation point.” Egon affirmed.

“They have a nice buffet, there.” Ray added as an aside.

“It is a GREAT one. Tell Winston that after he's done, we'll be at our... usual table.” Peter put in.

“Training's on the job, this time.” Egon said to Twilight. “Let's go.”

Comments

[TheDriderPony]

The idea is interesting, but everything is way way rushed. Spread this one chapter out to maybe 5 or 6, jumping a couple of years each time, and that would probably help the pacing.

[Thule]

Twilight as the ''Rookie''?
ehh...
This seems like an cheap copy/paste where you more or less replace the words with:
Rookie - Twilight
walked - cantered
ran - galloped
screamed in panic - neighed in panic
and so on.....
There is just too many of these stories on this site!
Don't just be another one of them....

Prepare thyself for info-dump!

I think it would have been better to have the original Rookie in it, and make him & Twilight a type of 'dynamic due', Thus truly making this your story!

Even if Twilight is a fast learner and very intelligent.... she is still young and lack general experience and simple 'know-hows'.
Where the original Rookie (in the game his character was bland and grey, this would let you go wild with his character build!) would be the one guy who trips into the situation, with the somewhat snarky 'why me' attitude.

This would then open up more opportunities for character development between them and separate:

- Maybe even give them half each of the special equipment, so they would be reliant on each other and forced to work as a team!

- Twilight acting a little arrogant (backed by knowledge fro Egon and caused by quirks adopted from Peter)
but in the field..... well she may loose her head quickly when plan don't go accordingly.
Enter the improvising Rookie! There is always a way, and if there aren't one.... he will MAKE ONE!

- The Rookie being older, and thus (from his POV) feeling he's stuck on babysitting-duty....
But of course Twilight ain't just your regular 'run of the mill' adorkable unicorn.... She quite smart and have the answer/solution to nearly any question/situation.

- Then there is the separation parts where you can just use one or both POV's, which can really be exploited for some real groundbreaking Chara.Dev. after or when they reunite through hardships!

- Then when the understands and recognize each others and their own flaws and abilities they bring to the 'two-man-team'

- The true team-bond gets born before the 'big bad'-event, and they finally work in Harmony!

- Sequel!?!? ''My little Ghostburster: The Manehatten/Ponyville Branch''
Where Twilight must help Rookie to get back to Earth, and decide which family she wants to stay with....
kitodiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/7-sequels-we-are-still-waiting-to-see-866493.jpg
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There is the reason to why so many different medias use a 'main-duo', and that is to use one character to build the other and to add more depth to the story....
Kinda like like how we got two eyes.... seeing trough one eye will let you see what is in front of you, but seeing through both will let you see the depth of it all and in better detail!

[Bryan Luna]

I have wanted to see a story like this for quite a while.

Pacing issues aside, it is interesting.

So here, have this. bbts1.azureedge.net/images/p/full/2020/06/4d51ec92-0189-4cc2-9f26-3ade60138dcb.jpg