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Honestly, Jack had never expected to befriend a ghost unicorn.
Ghosts were just ectoplasmic scum, malicious creatures who thrived off of destruction. Jack had dedicated his whole life to discovering more about them, and, more importantly, how to destroy them. The years had gone by. He’d gone to college, met Maddie, settled down, had a family. But that interest in ghosts had never faded.
With Maddie by his side, they’d continued their pursuits, researching tirelessly, until finally, in the culmination of years upon years of dedicated work, they built their magnum opus: a full-size ghost portal. Jack could just imagine all they could see, the ghosts they could find, excitement ratcheting through him as he plugged it in. But their efforts were only met with sparks. “We can try again tomorrow”, Maddie had said, laying a hand across his back. It didn’t help the dejection.
They went out for dinner, where Jack drowned his sorrows in fudge. But shockingly, incredibly, when they returned to the lab that night, there was the portal, working. Working! The swirling green, it was better than he could have imagined. Both he and Maddie were ecstatic.
Then the ghosts, actual ghosts! They had come to Amity Park, proving everything he had always theorized. It was incredible.
One day, Jack was standing alone in the lab, hunched over their newest anti-ghost weapon, the Fenton Ghost Roper. Maddie was out shopping with both Danny and Jazz, so he had the house all to himself.
Jack was so absorbed in his task that he didn’t notice anything off until he felt something wet brush his neck. Immediately, he grabbed the Ghost Roper and whipped around, brandishing the weapon. “Freeze, ghost!”
His eyes were met with a... horse? A ghost horse, green and glowing all over with a flowing ghostly mane that rippled in a nonexistent breeze. It had backed up some, and stood a few steps away. It let out a soft nicker.
Wait... no. It wasn’t a horse. A long, swirled horn protruded from its forehead. It was a ghost unicorn!
The sight awakened the latent spirit of Jack’s ten-year-old self, deep inside. Oh, how he had always wanted a unicorn! The other kids had mocked him relentlessly for the dream, but Jack hadn’t heeded them. And now, there was a real live unicorn, right in front of him. Take that, Barney Carver!
Jack’s train of thought halted as a realization struck him. It wasn’t really a real live unicorn. It was a ghost. And ghosts were evil. Jack saddened as he realized he’d have to capture the beautiful creature, either to study or throw back into the ghost zone.
Jack drew back the Fenton Ghost Roper, preparing to nab the unicorn. But then it let out another nicker, widening those big black eyes. Slowly, it stepped forward, hooves clopping softly against the tile of the lab floor. It pushed its surprisingly cold nose into his neck, snuffling curiously.
Jack’s heart melted. Surely this unicorn couldn’t be evil? How could this creature be evil? It seemed so innocent, and those adorable eyes...
Slowly, he set down his weapon, before carefully bringing a hand up to pat the unicorn’s neck. The unicorn shook itself out before pushing into the contact. Jack began to smile.
The unicorn was the exception, Jack decided.
“You need a name, don’t you, buddy?”, Jack asked, moving his hand up to stroke the unicorn’s mane. It whinnied in response, which Jack took to be a yes.
Jack considered a moment. “How about… Benny?” The unicorn twisted its head around to gently lip Jack’s hand.
“You like that, huh?”, Jack said with a soft chuckle. The unicorn neighed.
“You want something to eat?”, Jack asked. “I can get you some carrots from upstairs! Stay right here, I’ll be back before you can say ‘ghosts’.” He gave Benny a final pat before hurrying up the stairs.
When he came back down, a carrot in hand, Benny was gone.
Jack was dejected after that. He didn’t so much as see anything of Benny for several weeks afterwards. Maddie asked what was wrong, but he brushed it off.
Then, one day, Benny returned. Jack was alone, again, the rest of the family out of the house, working down in the lab. The moment he heard that nicker, Jack knew the unicorn had returned, his face lighting up.
“Benny!”, he called. He got up from his workbench to stroke the ghostly unicorn’s nose. Wait, was Benny… bigger? Jack was sure that last time he’d only come up to Jack’s shoulder. Now his head was solidly on Jack’s level.
“I knew you’d come back, buddy”, Jack said. He had, in fact, not had any such knowledge, but he’d kept up faith. The unicorn snuffled softly in response.
Suddenly, Jack’s phone rang, buzzing noisily on the workbench where he’d left it. Benny spooked, letting out a shrill squeal and rearing up. Jack quickly backed away, not wanting to get hit by one of those hooves.
“It’s okay, buddy!”, Jack called softly. Quickly, he ran over and silenced the phone, declining the call. He put his hands out, trying to calm Benny down. It didn’t work. Suddenly, Benny leapt into the air, spinning wildly before galloping back into the ghost portal. Jack wanted to follow him, but Danny and his friends had wrecked the specter speeder and he and Maddie hadn’t gotten around to repairing it yet.
Jack stood there dejectedly for a few minutes. Would he have to wait weeks to see Benny again?
He didn’t. Just a few days later, everyone was out of the house again. Maddie had taken Jazz to some big academic summit for geniuses for the weekend, and Danny was out doing something with his friends (his boy was out so much nowadays). This time, Jack took the time to do some needlepoint rather than work down in the lab.
That’s why it startled him all the more when he was jerked out of his focus by something wet on his neck.
“Benny?” Jack turned around, and sure enough, there was Benny, standing right in the middle of the living room.
“What’re you doing up here?”, Jack asked. The unicorn nickered.
“Well, whatever the reason, I’m happy to see you, buddy.” Jack gently stroked a hand down Benny’s smooth back. Wait… his back was higher up than it had been before, Jack was sure of it. No matter.
After that visit, Jack realized the pattern: Benny only came when Jack was alone in the house. So Jack did his best to make that happen more often, taking all opportunities to get the house to himself. And Benny kept coming.
Jack didn’t tell anyone. He loved Maddie, but knew she wouldn’t understand. Heck, he hardly knew why he trusted a ghost, unicorn as it may be. And he didn’t need to get his kids involved. Plus, it felt… special, to have Benny all to himself, the bond that they shared. Jack had even begun riding him.
A couple of weeks in on a chill evening, Benny was prancing around the lab, poking his horn into stacks of inventions, while Jack tinkered at his workbench.
“Can you help me? Fear me.”
Jack’s turned around, looking for who had spoken. “Huh?”
His eyes widened as he spotted Benny, standing before him. Looped over his horn was the Fenton Ghost Gabber. Man, Jack hadn’t touched that thing for ages. “Are you trying to communicate with me, buddy?”, he asked, astonished.
Benny nickered again. “Can you help me? I am a ghost. Fear me”, the Ghost Gabber piped out.
Jack immediately grabbed a notebook and pen, hunkering down to listen. “Of course I’ll help!”
Benny snuffled, nudging the Ghost Gabber. “Family. Trapped. Fear me.”
“Your family? They’re trapped somewhere? Where? How?”
“White-suits. Need to find them. Captured. I am a ghost. Bow before me.”
Jack puzzled over the words for a moment, before speaking slowly, writing as he spoke. “Do you mean the Guys in White? They captured your family.”
Benny stamped a hoof. “Yes. Yes. White-suit men. Big building. Find them. Free them. Fear me.”
“You want me to help you free them?”, Jack asked.
“Yes. Yes. Fear me.”
Jack stood up, a look of determination crossing his face. “Of course I’ll help you.”
Benny shook out his mane and turned his head around in a gesture towards his back. Jack took that to mean he wanted to mount him. He quickly grabbed a shoulder strap and loaded up on ecto-weapons and then obliged. Before Jack even had a chance to get settled, Benny was off, letting out a long cry and leaping into the air. “Woah!”, Jack yelped as he grabbed a fistful of the ghostly unicorn’s mane. It was always strange to grab, wispy and thin, almost like air. There was a tingling feeling, and Benny shot straight for the wall. Jack’s eyes widened. He was going to hit it!
Then a tingling feeling came over his whole body, and both the man and the unicorn phased straight through. Jack gasped as feeling returned, and then they were galloping into the sky. It was exhilarating. The sun had just set, and the first few stars were just appearing in the sky. Below, Amity Park stretched, the streetlights gradually beginning to wink on. He… had never imagined it could be this beautiful. And by way of a ghost, too. Jack chuckled and gave Benny’s neck a pat.
“Wow. So this is how you ghosts see it, huh?” He shook his head, at a loss for words.
Benny carried him over the whole town, all the way to the outskirts. Without the ambient light of the city center, Benny’s own glow was much more pronounced, providing most of the illumination.
That is, until they came upon the facility.
It was the GIW, alright. A huge concrete building, illuminated all around by glaring floodlights. Surrounding it was a high, chain link fence.
Benny brought them down to the ground, landing lightly and letting Jack off. He let out an angry snort and shook his head.
“Don’t worry, Benny”, Jack soothed. “We’ll find them.” He couldn’t imagine if it had been his family, trapped inside. Of course, his family weren’t ghosts, so that would never happen, but still, if it had been him in Benny’s shoes (horseshoes?) he would move heaven and earth to get them out.
Slowly, they crept up towards the facility. Jack brought a hand to his chin. “How will we get in-”
He was interrupted from his quiet puzzling when Benny nudged his snout under Jack’s hand, and that tingling feeling returned. With a soft nicker, Benny nudged Jack’s hand up to his neck and pulled the man forward through the fence. Right, Benny was a ghost, after all.
Silently, Benny led Jack through the layers of security, past guards and checkpoints. For a so-called ghost agency, their anti-ghost defenses are terrible, Jack thought. Take that!
Finally, they stopped in a hallway lined with thick, massive doors. Jack looked around. “Want to phase us into the one with your family, buddy?”, Jack asked. Benny whinnied, shaking his head vigorously. “You can’t phase through these ones?” Benny whinnied again, which Jack took as a yes.
“Do you know which cell they’re in?”, Jack asked. Benny trotted up to a door and pawed at it. “Alright, buddy. Let’s see what I can do.”
Jack pulled away the wiring panel. The lock was actually pretty simple, and he made quick work of it. Giving a final tug, the light above the door turned green, and it slid open with a hum.
Benny immediately galloped in, neighing loudly. Fainter answering neighs came from within. Jack peeked in.
The unicorns inside were in an appalling state. According to their research, ghosts weren’t supposed to need food or water, but the conditions in the cell couldn’t have been healthy. There were a couple of dirty globs of ectoplasm sitting atop a thin coating of straw, upon which sat three unicorns, all disheveled. Their auras were dim, manes hanging limply.
Jack’s heart grew hard. How could anyone do this to such beautiful creatures? Sure, they were ghosts, but anyone could see they meant no harm.
The GIW were going to pay for this.
“Let’s get you guys out of here”, Jack said soothingly. Benny was nudging the unicorn sitting in the farthest corner. Her eyes were dull. Benny bent down to touch his horn with hers. There was a little green spark, and the other unicorn blinked. Slowly, she rose.
Benny did the same for the other two members of his trapped family. He looked a little more tired, but afterward, all the unicorns were standing and ready to go. It was clear they wouldn’t have the strength to make a clean, stealthy escape like their entrance had been. Just as well, Jack supposed.
“Let’s teach the GIW a lesson!”, Jack bellowed, charging out into the hall. Immediately, security caught on, waves of the white-suited buffoons emerging into the hallway.
“This is a code U, I repeat, a code-” the dude at the head began speaking into his earpiece, but was abruptly cut off when Jack raised the Fenton Foamer, shooting dead on and leaving him covered in goo.
The man began to splutter, but more GIW agents came to overtake him. Jack didn’t miss a beat as he fired shot after shot. His accuracy wasn’t perfect, but he certainly caused chaos.
Behind him, Benny let out a shrill whinny. He then lowered his head and began shooting green energy beams out of his horn. “You didn’t tell me you could do that before!”, Jack said, swept up in the exhilaration. Benny nickered in response and charged forward. Jack hadn’t realized how big Benny had really gotten. He plowed through the GIW agents, bowling them over like a hurricane. The three other ghost unicorns followed behind him, with Jack bringing up the rear. He showed no mercy as he shot down agent after agent.
They didn’t bother following hallways. Instead, they just busted through the building’s thick walls until they were out in the night air again.
“Freeze!”, someone called over a megaphone.
“Never!”, Jack bellowed. He began shooting wildly, as did Benny, lighting the night up like some bizarre disco ball.
“Let’s go”, Jack said, promptly mounting Benny. The unicorn let out a shrill cry, and the other three unicorns responded in kind, and all four launched into the air, looping around to fly over and away from the GIW headquarters.
Jack held a hand out, bidding Benny to halt. “Wait." Benny slowed to a hover with a questioning neigh. “I have one final surprise.”
Out of one of the pockets in his jumpsuit, Jack pulled a small, spherical device. He’d been saving it for a special occasion, and this seemed perfect. With a grunt, he drew back his arm and launched it straight into the heart of the facility.
“Go, go, go!”, Jack cried. Benny whinnied and took off back towards Amity Park as the device began loudly beeping, the beeps slowly getting faster and faster. Then, the facility exploded, in a spectacular blaze of ectoplasm-green glory.