Who ya' Gonna Call? Part 4: Slime Bucket Spooning.

>The night was thankfully uneventful. You spooned up next to that bubbling bucket of ectoplasm like it was your girlfriend and you were going to prison tomorrow. You cuddled the slime, you stroked it gingerly, and whispered sweet nothings to it.
>It was about at that point you realized just how weird your job was sometimes. But you wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
>And if you played your cards right, you'd have a bucket full of positively charged ectoplasm.
>The stuff had a variety of uses: it was a wonderful toilet bowl cleaner, a fantastic lubricant, and it had a refreshing minty flavor with a rich banana aftertaste. Oh, and it could neutralize the effects of negatively charged slime and force ghost out of a host.
>In other words, shit be handy, yo!
>And if you were really clever, you could cultivate the stuff too. You read about it in the last edition of The Proton Stream, the Ghostbuster's official company magazine. Luckily, you saved that article on your phone, so hey! Project for later.
>”Hey, bro.. You awake?”
>You felt a clawed finger against your bare arm. You release a grumble, and curl up closer to the bucket of misunderstood, but not evil, goo.
>Clawed finger? Uh oh.
>Your eyes shoot open as you spy what looks like a tiny purple and green scaly creature staring at you.
“Ah!”
>”Ah!” It screams in surprise as you both jump slightly.
>Your mind reels as you hear a pair of giggling mares. You look over and spy Twilight and Fluttershy looking over at you. Twilight seemed to be snickering as you snuggled next to the bucket, while Fluttershy was doing her best to suppress her mirth. You sigh, sitting up and looking over at the purple and green reptilian creature.
“I'm Anonymous, and yes I'm awake now.”
>This just makes them giggle more as you look over to the purple and green creature.
>”Uh.. I'm Spike, nice to meet you?”
“Likewise, Spike... Did those two put you up to this?”
>The purple reptile nodded it's head, “Yeah. Twilight asked me to get you up for breakfast.”
>Oooh. Breakfast! Come to think of it, you were feeling a might bit peckish.
>Hopefully they ate things that you could digest. Or else your stay here was going to be relatively short and extremely painful.
“Sounds like a plan.”
>You nod to Spike, then look to Twilight and Fluttershy. Lets see if I can really get them to start laughing.
>Reaching over you pick up the bucket, and hug it tightly, kissing the metal exterior and cradeling it in your arms.
“Don't listen to them, oh bucket of slime, they just don't understand our love!”
>And ignition! Twilight almost falls over in a laughing fit, while Fluttershy begins to giggle uncontrollably... Spike on the other hand, just gives you a weird look.
“Its okay, Spike. I was joking.”
>You then caress the bucket with your hand, and give it another smooch.
“Or was I?”
>Spike raises a claw to say something, but just sighs and walks off toward the kitchen area.
“Don't judge me!”
>You say, snickering under your breath. While you did like hamming it up every now and then (it was almost a necessity to lighten the mood in your line of work), you did have ulterior motives: the more positive emotional energy that the bucket of ghost leavings was exposed to, the better chance of it changing its charge from negative to positive.
>As the two mares continued to snicker, giggle, and chortle, you dip the tip of your finger into the slimy substance. You examine it in the morning sunlight, and it looks like its no longer orange, but a dull pink.
>Wow, its already starting to look like happy mood slime! Usually it takes a couple days before makes the change. But, there is only one way to be sure that its made the jump... The dreaded taste test.
>Negative slime is quite possibly the most vile tasting thing ever to grace a living tongue, so if it hadn't changed quite yet you'd be tasting rancid maggots and old KFC double downs for the next week.
>You lightly tap it on the end of your tongue, preparing for the worst... And being greeted with a minty flavor and a rich aftertaste of banana. Success!
>”Uh.. Anonymous? What are you doing? Your not eating that stuff are you?”
>.. Oh right, there were two other people in the room.
“Oh, no no. I was just testing it to make sure its no longer negatively charged.”
>”Oh. And?”
“100% perfectly positive, p0nies.”
>”So spooning next to the bucket last night worked, huh?” Twilight inquired, a small smirk on her face.
“Appears that way.”
>You reach over and grab your underwear and jumpsuit you spread out on the floor. They're completely dry now, though you'll have to give them a good wash to get the salt out at some point, but they'll be okay for today. You instinctively reach inside one of the pockets of the khaki jumpsuit to check your phone... Still no service, no surprise there. Your not even sure your on Earth anymore.
>”Whats that?” Twilight inquires, trotting closer while Fluttershy watches at a distance. She is a bit of shy one, you guess.
“Oh, its my phone. Ghostbuster's edition! Water proof, sand proof, and ectoplasm proof...”
>”Oh. What does a phone do?”
>...Shit, they don't have phones here? How do they communicate? Letters?!
“Well, its a telecommunication device.”
>”Uhh..”
“We use them to communicate instantly over long distances. Though, this one has a variety of other functions.”
>Time to blow her little p0ny mind! Behold! The magic of technology and tremble! Hahahaha!
>Okay, that was little too dramatic.
“We can also store lots of data on them, anything from music, movies, books, videos, can be stored on this device.”
>Wow, Twilight looks really interested now, “Really? All of that can be stored on that little thing?”
>”Mmhmm.. Watch.” With a few quick gestures of your finger, you find what your looking for. Jackie Wilson -(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDVaKRApcg )
>As the music starts, Twilight and Fluttershy just stare in amazement... And then the bucket of slime begins to bounce.
>Oh yeah, positive slime tends to like Jackie Wilson for some reason.
“Don't worry, thats normal! Its just dancing. See?”
>The bucket responds by continuing to hop around on the floor, metallic clangs echoing throughout Twilight's home.
>Are you gonna be out-danced by a bucket? Hell no!
>After getting dressed, and playing them a few more songs, you head down to breakfast.
>In a stroke of luck, ends up p0nies eat stuff that you can actually eat. But, it appears that they're mainly herbivores, which means your probably not going to be getting any bacon anytime soon.. Oh well, you remember that one year where you survived off nothing but instant ramen and Doritos so this will be cake!
>After breakfast, you follow Fluttershy back to her house. Twilight decided to stay behind, apparently she had to write a letter to 'Princess Celestia'. Apparently, her teacher and she wanted to tell her all about you. Whats the worst that-
>No! Bad! Don't you even think of that phrase. Murphy's law, man.
>Right, follow the yellow pegasus back to her home. Time to figure out if that was just a random haunting, or if there was something more sinister behind it.
>Just in case, you brought the bucket of positive slime, but you left a little behind with Twilight. Ends up she fancies herself a scientist and is eager to examine the chemical makeup of the stuff.
>Good for her!
>As you made your way through the technicolor town, you drew a lot of attention.
>Mostly the p0nies either staring at you in wonderment, or hushed whispers about your exploits last night... And probably your nudity.
>You really should be more careful about that in the future.
>You two have a nice little chat about what Fluttershy does. Sounds like she acts sort of like a pet shop keeper, park ranger, and veterinarian.
>You dated a  veterinarian once... Till you found out she was actually married, and you were just her piece on the side.
>Her husband was pissed.
>Before long you make it to the her home, which looks like it was built onto a hollowed out tree.
“Wow. So, are like houses made out of hollowed out trees a thing here?”
>”Oh, well they're not common, but I wouldn't live in anything else. There is just something so natural feeling about living in a tree, and my animals seem to like it. What about you Anonymous?”
>You do a quick visual inspection of the property, then whip out your PKE meter, switching it on. Work mode, engaged.
“Well, I usually live in the company's station, but I do have a small one bedroom apartment.”
>”Oh.. Do you live with anyone?”
>You shake your head, still scanning the area.. Just normal amounts of background PKE, nothing too un-
>The PKE squeals loudly for a moment. It begins.
>You walk toward the tree-style domicile as she continued to speak.
>”You live all by yourself? Doesn't that get lonely?” You can hear what sounds like concern from the pegasus' voice.
“Not really. You get used to it after a while. Besides, I spend most of my time working, so I have my coworkers to keep me company.”
>”You must be really brave, fighting those things all the time...”
>You just shrug in response. You weren't so much 'brave' as you were crazy. So sometimes you get scared, though you'd seldom admit it to anyone. It was your job to stare into the abyss and make sure the abyss blinked first.
“Well, after fighting those things for three years you get a little dull to fear of the supernatural. People depend on us to fight the unknown, cause when things get weird... Who ya' gonna call?”
>You begin to circle around the perimeter, the source of the PKE becoming more intense. Your directly behind the front of the house at this point, and your PKE meter is beeping wildly. You look around, but can't find the source of the- oh wait, never mind!
“Looks like you got some black slime.”
>You bend over, looking at the shallow puddle of pitch black ectoplasm, looking back at Fluttershy.
>”O-o-o-oh no! Does that mean my house is haunted?”
>You shake your head, putting your PKE meter away, and patting the bucket.
“Nah, this kinda stuff happens all the time back where I'm from. It tends to pop up in random places every now and then, without any real discernible trigger. In other words, sometimes weird stuff just happens. This puddle isn't that big though, so it'll be easy to close up. They only become a problem if you let them fester for too long. If you do, then they could act as a gate for any spectral creep to cross through.”
>You'll never be able to go back home.
>Your stuck here for all eternity.
>You should give up and die.
>Give in to the inevitable.
>And it had a habit of whispering in your mind. You hated dealing with black ectoplasm. If regular old slime wasn't bad enough, this stuff was like pure concentrated evil.
>”Do.. Do you hear voices..?” Fluttershy whimpered, looking around the immediate area with fearful eyes, “Th-th-they saying such mean things.”
“Just the slime trying to get into your head, just ignore it.”
>You grab the bucket and dump some of the contents onto the offending stain on this material plane. It hisses and shrieks as the positive wonder-slime works its magic. After a few more seconds, the sizzling and steaming stops, leaving only an inert puddle of sticky clear substance. You only had to use about half the bucket!
>No more voices in your head. Just the way you like it.
“Hear anymore voices, Fluttershy?”
>”N-n-n-no... Everything sounds okay, now.”
>You take out your PKE meter once again. Doesn't look like there are anymore anomalies in the immediate area.
“Alright, looks like your house is clean, Fluttershy. Is there anything else I can for you today, ma'am?”
>You stand up straight, and give her your best customer service smile.
>”Um-uh-no.. I-i-i don't think so.”
“Cool. I guess I'll head back to town and-”
>And suddenly the PKE meter is going nuts. What the hell is with this place?!
“Hold on. I'm getting something.”
>Might just be some interference. Sometimes cellphone towers can-
>Oh wait, they don't have phones here.
>You begin to tweak knobs, and adjust settings trying to zero in on the source of fluctuations.
>”I-i-i-is there another ghost nearby?” She squeaked out, beginning to cower.
“Maybe?”
>You hope not. You might be able to drive it off, but with your trap being occupied, its hardly a permanent solution. But these readings where all over the place. One minute, it was almost off the charts, then the next it wasn't even registering a blip!
>”Hithere!Youmustbethenewponyintown,hii'mpinkiepie!”
“AH!”
>”AH!”
>You scream as a high pitched, bubbly voice sounds behind you. In the blink of an eye you drop the PKE meter, reaching backward you draw your proton wand, flicking the pack to life, and spin around pointing it at the source of the unexpected greeting...
>Which is a bright pink p0ny with poofy pink mane. She was just grinning up at you, then tilted her head, “Oh gosh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you. I just heard there was a new p0ny in town and I had to go see for myself... Whats that thingy? Oh oh oh! Is it a party popper? I love party poppers!”
>You look over to Fluttershy.
“Friend?”
>”Y-y-y-yeah. Thats just Pinkie Pie.”
>”Of course I'm a friend! I'm everyp0ny's friend.” The pink one said, bouncing around you like happy french skunk.
>”Omigosh! I haven't thrown you a welcome to P0nyville party yet! I have to invite everyp0ny!” And with that, she was off. She didn't run off, she just sort of vanished in a cloud of dust. Leaving you completely dumbfounded.
“Is she normally like that?”
>Fluttershy nods her head slowly.
“Mother of God.”
==========
>Your Jethro Simmons.
>You've been staring at your cell phone for the past hour, trying to will yourself to call your best friend's mom to tell her she wouldn't be seeing her son anymore.
>But every time you type in her number, you stop at the last digit.
>Come on Jethro, you have to do it. She deserves to know what happened to her son.
>..Goddamnit Anonymous, why did you have to die?
>Take in a deep breath. Alright.
>9.0.4.5.5.5.1.3.2...
>Just as your finger hovers over the four, you drop your phone in frustration.
>”..Still haven't made the call yet, Jeth?”
>You look over to your right and see Lisa wrapped in a white towel. If this were any other day, you'd be making fun of her for shaving lightning bolts into her armpit hair, but right now...
“...No. Ah just.. Ah just can' do it, Lisa.”
>You look at your hands. Each scar tells a story about a cracked engine block that needed removing, a leaking exhaust manifold, or catching ghost while water skiing. You always thought they were fairly strong hands, but right now they trembled like leaves in the wind.
>You feel Lisa's hand on your broad shoulder, “Hey, its alright big guy. We.. We all lost someone special to us last night. I don't think Frank has even come out of his office yet. Probably reeks of nerd funk.”
>You can't help but chuckle a little.
“Prolly. I just can' believe he's gone ya' know? Ah mean, ah always thought tha' I'd be tha' one ta'... Well..”
>Lisa sighed, and flicked your ear, “Don't talk like that, Jethro. Your gonna be around forever, who else will keep me distracted? Besides, he could still be alive.”
>You turned to Lisa, giving her your patent deadpan stare.
“... Ya' saw him too, Lisa. He disappeared. Nothin' left. Not even ashes.”
>”Well, yeah... But that could just mean he got transported or something. I mean, according to the Ghostbuster's handbook, its possible.”
>You sighed, shaking your head. You knew that she secretly had a crush on the guy, but had she gone completely delusional?
>”Oh don't give me that look Jethro. I know one way to can find out.”
>She wasn't thinking of using that, was she?
>From the way she smirked, you knew that she was, “The payphone. I managed to sneak Frank's key to the live sample room. We go in, dial up his cellphone, and see if he picks up.”
>You wanted to say 'Thats the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.' or 'Are you crazy?! Curse objects always have some sort of horrible catch.'
>So, why weren't you?
“...Just one try?”
>”One try. Just to know for sure.”
>Come on, this is a bad idea. A really bad idea.
“I'll search the couch for some quarters.”
============
>Your Anonymous, and after heading back through town, your back in Twilight's home (which is actually a library.. Which would explain why all of the walls are filled with books).
>She just finished sending that letter of to Celestia. She didn't put it in the mailbox outside of her door, oh no! Spike, a baby dragon, belched fire on it and off it went.
>How is it that this place has never seen a single ghost until last night?! It can't be possible. There is more PKE energy running around here than in the entirety of North and South America!
>Hell, your convinced that Pinkie Pie is secretly a Class Seven divine trickster. That would at least explain the teleporting. And the obsession with parties.
>And Twilight had been asking you questions about humans from just about every aspect to human life. Well, she thankfully, left out reproduction. You really didn't feel like discussing the birds and bees with anyone at the moment. And worse of all?
>You still hadn't figured out how to empty your trap.
>”Hey Anonymous.. Are you alright? You look stressed.” Twilight ask, looking up at you from her ever growing pile of scrolls. Spike was doing his best to keep up.
“Yeah. While I don't mind answering all your questions, my mind is still trying to digest exactly what kind of situation I'm in. I've got a few immediate problems.”
>”Well, would it help to talk about it?”
“Don't see how it could hurt.”
>You reach over to your proton back, unhooking the trap and setting it on the table.
“My most pressing issue right now is this finding a way to contain the ghost I have captured inside of this trap.”
>”I thought it was already contained... Inside the trap?”
“Yeah, but its designed for temporary transport. And this model, while it can contain damn near anything, has a maximum occupancy of one. So, if another ghost shows up...”
>”Oh. That could be a problem.”
“Mmhmm. I need to figure out some alternate way of storage... I don't suppose you have any ideas, do you?”
>Twilight was rubbing her chin, “Well... All this talk of ghost and spirits, I thought I'd do some research on the subject.”
>That sounded promising. Maybe they did have some experience with this stuff before.
“Anything interesting?”
>”Well, it was mostly old stories, but lots of books said that shamans and healers used to capture evil spirits in gemstones and crystals. Maybe you could do the same thing?”
>Actually, she was dead on. Before Egon designed the containment grid, he found out that you could store spirits in diamonds, rubies, and other precious gemstones. The problem: it wasn't cost efficient, so he scrapped that idea and went onto something else.
>It wouldn't be that difficult, either! Frank did something similar before, when he jury rigged a jewelry store to act as a make-shift containment grid to capture an entire town of caspers.
>But there was still the cost problem.
“Not a bad idea, but where I'm from gems are really expensive, and even if I could get to my bank account, I doubt my money would be good here... Unless Visa managed to cross dimensions when no one was looking.”
>Wouldn't be the first time a big corporation tried to profit off inter-dimensional rifts. Apple tried to do it with their new I-Phone. Three precincts of Busters had to run in and clean up the mess. On the plus side, Ghostbusters got a 50% discount at the Apple Store... The majority of GB offices used Android still.
>”Uh.. I don't think so. But I know a p0ny who has plenty of gems, and I'm sure she'll let us have some.”
=================
>Rarity was her name. A white unicorn with a purple mane, and a very high-class style.
>Apparently, she heard about what happened last night, was more than happy to help.
>”Dahling, I'd be more than happy to give you a few gems. But, I think there is a more pressing situation at hand.” The white unicorn spoke, levitating a small wooden box over to Twilight.
>”Whats that, Rarity?” Twilight blinks, as her horn lights up and takes hold of the wooden box.
>“Why, its Anonymous! He's looks absolutely filthy, and his clothes smell like sweat and salt water. We cannot allow our new friend to wander about P0nyville looking so dreadful.”
>Your face twist into a frown. You didn't smell that bad.
>...Just in case.
>You take a quick whiff of your underarm and.. HRRK!
“I think she's got a point. I could probably use a bath.”
>Or five.
>”Of course you could, and I'd be more than happy to let you use my tub while I wash your clothes.”
“Oh.. Alright. I guess I'll meet you back at the library, Twilight?”
>”Actually, I would like to record human bathing behaviors. For, you know, scientific reasons?”
>..You looked over at Twilight. She looked serious.
>While you weren't necessarily a prudish person, someone watching you bath kind of made you feel uneasy. Besides, you needed some alone time to decompress and think, and a nice warm bath would give you plenty of opportunity.
>But, Twilight looked pretty damn determined.
>... Time for a crazy idea. You liked crazy ideas.
“Twilight... I didn't know you felt that way about me.”
>You tried your best to look timid, and a little embarrassed.
>Twilight instantly turned several shades of red. Rarity must have caught onto what you were doing, because she giggled, “Oh my.. Twilight! But you just met him yesterday.”
>”Oh my, look at the time, I think Spike is done with note taking for now, see you back at the Library!” And off Twilight went, right out of the front door.
>You look over to Rarity, and begin to laugh. She joins you soon afterward.
>You think your going to like Rarity.