After taking a solemn walk through the hospital and reflecting on everything that had happened in the past few hours, Twilight and the others finally walked out into the warm atmosphere of midday Ponyville. The purple unicorn and her orange friend took a deep inhale of fresh air and savored it. Just a few minutes ago, the two ponies thought that they would never see the light of day again.

Upon taking a look around, Twilight noticed a wide array of ponies in the area around the group. Some were jogging around with urgent expressions, while others were watching the band of survivors exiting the hospital.

“Come on… your friends and the princess are waiting in the medical tent we set up over there.” Brimstoke spoke to the pair while pointing off into the distance. Twilight could just barely see the outline of a beige tent over in the grass away from the hospital.

“Thanks… I think we should rest for a while before we find out what to do next.” The purple unicorn said while following the group towards the medical tent. The others nodded in agreement to the suggestion while anticipating taking a moment to relax.

Twilight looked over to see Glitterball carrying the books she had found earlier. The lavender pony couldn’t help but wonder what useful secrets could be learned about their enemies from searching through the pages.

After a short walk, the group found themselves approaching the medical tent. As they gathered around the door, they could hear the muffled noises of their friends talking inside. Deciding to head in first, Twilight pushed the small flap of canvas aside and stepped in.

The inside of the tent was larger than it seemed when looking at it from the front, having several cots and tables inside. Numerous pieces of medical equipment and I.V stands were scattered around the tent and on the various tables.

Off to the back of the tent, there was a small gathering of ponies sitting beside another bed that had Nurse Redheart in it. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Princess Luna, and Fluttershy were huddled next to the bed while Glimmer Shine occupied Spike, Scootaloo, and Applebloom with idle conversation. Directly beside the nurse’s bed, Peppermint was fiddling around with an I.V bag that had a line connecting to the resting pony.

Upon noticing the entering group, everyone turned their heads and exclaimed cheerfully at seeing their friends return safely. Everyone except for Peppermint and Nurse Redheart, for obvious reasons, rushed over to greet the band of survivors.

“Twilight!” Spike exclaimed happily while rushing over to the purple unicorn. He practically jumped into her arms to give her a warm embrace. The lavender pony gladly held the dragon tightly as they both teared up from finally being reunited.

“Spike! I’m so glad you’re not hurt!” Twilight’s voice trembled from sheer emotion as she hugged the baby dragon closely. “I thought I would never see you again.” She sniffled once to rid herself of the excess emotion before looking at Spike and smiling happily.

“I felt the same way! I thought I would be stuck up there forever!” Spike wiped the tears off of his face before returning the unicorn’s smile. A short ways away, Applejack was running up to her sister and kneeling down to give her a gentle hug. The young filly still had her broken leg to deal with after all.

“Applebloom! Are you okay? How is your leg?” The orange mare asked in a soft tone while fighting back a wave of tears.

“Well, in all of the commotion I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but it does hurt a little more than it did before… Owch!” Applebloom almost fell as she suddenly felt shooting pain coming from her leg after putting weight on it. Applejack gasped in concern as she helped the filly lay down without hurting herself further.

“What’s wrong? Did you hurt your leg again?” The farm pony asked with concern and empathy as she frowned while watching the filly cringe in pain.

Peppermint walked over from the occupied bed and knelt down to examine the injured filly. After Applebloom yelped from the slightest touch, the stallion reeled back and left the injury alone. He shook his head sympathetically before looking up to Applejack.

“I think she might have full blown broken it back in the hospital. If I can’t set it here and recast it, then she is going to need to have it surgically corrected.” Peppermint explained with a somber frown. The orange mare gasped quietly while looking back to her sister with shock.

“How much pain will setting it here cause her?” Applejack asked apprehensively while placing a reassuring hoof on the filly’s shoulder. Peppermint sighed in frustration while observing the casted leg.

“Even with local anesthetics it would be… considerably uncomfortable…” The white stallion rubbed his arm anxiously as he delivered the bad news. Applebloom looked to her sister with understandable fear and concern. Before anyone else could speak up, Tom shrugged with resolve and stepped forward to look at the injured filly. He then looked over to Peppermint with a confident expression.

“Do you think you can get that cast off without hurting her?” The human asked with an anxious tone, as if he were mentally preparing himself for a challenge.

“Yeah… I can just cut it off, but why?” Peppermint asked curiously. He wasn’t sure where the slayer was going with this, but he was willing to do anything to help out an injured filly.

Tom shook his head and stretched his shoulders while taking a deep breath. He then held his hands out in front of his face and clenched his fist a few times while getting a feel for his strength level. Finally he looked back to the confused medic and smirked.

“I think I might be able to heal her using my powers… but I need to reach her leg to even try to do it.” Tom stated with a hint of doubt and apprehension, but he seemed happy enough to try to help. Everyone looked at the boy with hopeful optimism. They weren’t sure if his claim was true, but they wanted the filly to be healed above all else.

“Ok… if you really think you can do this, then we need to put her on a bed. Glitter, could you help us out?” Peppermint asked while looking over to the crowd of onlookers. The rainbow haired unicorn stepped forward and nodded with determination.

Everyone stood back as Glitterball lit up her horn and enveloped Applebloom with her magic. She slowly lifted the filly up and carried her over to a bed, being careful not to make any sudden movements. She then gently placed her down on her side so she wouldn’t hit her leg on anything. Once the filly was on solid ground, Peppermint reached onto his vest and grabbed a pair of medical scissors. He then carefully cut the cast on the side so he could slip it off without touching the injured leg too much.

“There, that should do.” Pepper stated while discarding the cast on a nearby table and replacing the scissors on his vest. He then took a look at the injured leg and cringed. The filly’s leg had turned blackish blue just below the knee. Her leg also seemed to bend at an unnatural angle that looked like it would be painful in its own right.

“Alright, I need to find where the break is first.” Tom said while preparing to examine the filly’s leg. Applebloom cringed instinctively as she watched the human hover his hands near her leg.

“It won’t hurt too much… right?” Applebloom asked timidly while staring at her injured leg with a concerned frown. Tom looked at her and smiled lightheartedly.

“Don’t worry… a happy side effect of my healing light is that it numbs pain completely. You won’t feel a thing, I promise.” The boy spoke in a cheerful tone. Applebloom felt a little better knowing that Tom was the one helping her.

After steeling himself for a moment, Tom’s hands began glowing a soft shade of blue as he channeled his light energy to his palms to remove any pain the filly might experience. He then gently placed his hands on Applebloom’s leg and felt around while following the contour of her bones.

Applebloom was surprised to see that no pain resulted from the boy moving her leg. Instead, only a slight warm tingling sensation occurred where Tom’s hands were. After a few moments of searching, he finally discovered the break he had been looking for.

“Alright… I need you to hold the bones in their proper alignment while I do this. The break is right here… just press on it gently and wait for it to join back together.” Tom instructed to the medic waiting beside him while holding a finger on the spot where the break was.

“Ok…” Peppermint replied while gently putting his hoof on the area to feel the broken bone. “The name’s Peppermint by the way.” He stated formally while observing the human’s next actions. Tom nodded to the medical pony before diverting his attention back to the filly.

“Broken bones are harder to heal than cuts and bruises, so bear with me while I concentrate.” Tom explained before taking a few deep breathes and placing his hand in position above the injury. Everyone watched with silent intrigue as they waited for the human to concentrate.

Suddenly, the familiar glow of Tom’s healing light softly emanated from his hand and shone down on the filly’s leg. Much to Peppermint’s surprise, he could feel the bones starting to move together as he softly pressed on them. Applebloom let a giggle escape from her mouth as she tried to cope with the strange tingling sensation overcoming her leg. It almost felt like she had been sitting on it for too long and it had fallen asleep.

As the process carried on, the group noticed that Tom was straining his muscles as if he were coping with a great discomfort. His hand was shaking slightly and he was gritting his teeth while he tried to maintain the flow of energy to his hand.

After a short wait, the leg was completely mended, letting the color return to the skin around it. Tom let out a huff of exhaustion and placed his hands on his knees to support himself while he breathed heavily. Applebloom frowned as she watched the boy recovering from his exhaustion.

“Are you okay Tom?” Applebloom asked with a sympathetically sad tone. Tom looked up to her in between breathes and realized that she was concerned for him. Not wanting to worry the filly, the boy took in a large inhale before standing back up and coping with his discomfort internally.

“I’m fine… just a little out of breath. How’s your leg?” The human asked, half to find out how good of a job he had done, and half to change the subject off of himself. Applebloom slowly bended her leg to see if it would hurt, she then moved it through its full range of motion a few times before smiling happily.

“It feels good as new… thanks Tom!” Applebloom exclaimed happily while jumping off of the bed and landing on all of her legs to safely distribute the force. The filly admired her ability to use all four legs for a moment before walking over to her sister confidently and huddling up next to her.

Peppermint marveled at the miraculous recovery of the filly in front of him. He and Glimmer Shine had been informed from Rainbow Dash and the others about what the human was capable of, but he had no idea that it would be so awe inspiring up close.

“You’re pretty good as a field medic Tom.” The red haired pony complimented the human with a friendly smile. Tom looked back to the stallion and chuckled to himself while smirking.

“You’re not so bad yourself… you took care of our friend there for us.” The boy stated while glancing over to Nurse Redheart. The resting nurse smiled while sitting up in the bed and watching the group in front of her.

“Hehe… just doing my job I suppose.” Peppermint said modestly while rubbing the back of his neck. This statement made the more uninformed members of the group burn with curiosity. Rarity and the others had only just arrived a short while ago after hearing about the situation at the hospital, so they weren’t given many details on the origins of the strange team of ponies.

“That reminds me… What is your job exactly?” Rarity stepped forward from the circle of onlookers and asked curiously. “I mean… we only learned your names when we first got here and you rushed off to help Twilight and the others.” She explained while looking over to her group of friends. Twilight seemed the most intrigued about learning more about the team.

“I think I should explain who they are to all of you.” Luna spoke up and stepped forward before anyone else had a chance. She walked in front of Twilight and the others and looked back to the gathering of suited up ponies beside them.

“My sister hadn’t told me about any of the strange black and purple substance that was showing up around Equestria. She wanted to keep it under control herself… I guess so as to not concern me. But when monsters attacked all of you out in the Everfree Forest, she knew that we were dealing with something much bigger than either of us could predict. We originally thought that Tom here would be enough to rid us of the new threat we were facing, but after the incident at the school came to my attention, I knew that something had to be done.” She explained with a serious expression on her face and a determined tone of voice.

“You see, I had known about some of these things a few months prior to the first appearance of the dark matter. A few books on the paranormal and occult rituals came to my attention one day. And after reading through the horrific contents of the books, I knew that we would need a safeguard in place if any of it should actually prove to be real. So, I started training a small team of ponies to deal with the possibility of any supernatural threat to Equestria and its inhabitants.” The princess stated while turning to face her team of paranormal exterminators.

“We are the Supernatural and Paranormal Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Intervention Team… or Spirit for short.” Brimstoke explained with a small twinge of excitement as he stated their team name. The acronym impressed and intrigued most of the group, while some just wondered who came up with the odd name.

“So who came up with that odd name?” Tom chimed in with curiosity and slight amusement before realizing that they at least looked the part of a team of supernatural enforcers while he was just dressed to go out for a morning jog.

“To be fair, Glitterball actually came up with it.” Brimstoke said humbly while looking over to the rainbow haired unicorn. Glitterball blushed with modesty while looking down with an awkward smile.

“We didn’t really have a name at first… so I just thought one up and the princess just accepted it.” Glitter stated while shyly looking over to the alicorn standing in front of her. Luna smiled at the embarrassed unicorn knowingly.

“Well I for one like it… Go team spirit!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly while raising a hoof to the sky enthusiastically. The others grimaced from the play on words, but couldn’t help but smile at the party pony.

“Right… well anyway.” Luna spoke up again to clear the air. “They were trained for three months with all of the occult knowledge we had, before I was forced to send them into the field early. I know that they might not be fully experienced, but I had no choice after the monster at the school popped up.” She explained with a slight frown of concern while observing the group.

“They did fine princess… if they hadn’t come in and helped us destroy that symbol down in the basement, it would have only been a matter of time until we all got captured… or worse.” Twilight said with a slight twinge of sadness as she thought back to her ordeal in the basement. Applejack frowned sadly from seeing her friend remember her awful experience. The unicorn and farm pony were surprised to see everyone else looking at Twilight sadly, as if they knew what had happened. Suddenly Princess Luna placed a caring hoof on the lavender pony’s shoulder.

“I am sorry about what happened in there Twilight… no pony should have to go through what you did.” The princess stated while sympathetically frowning at the slightly confused unicorn.

“But… how do you-” Twilight started to ask a question when she was interrupted by Nurse Redheart speaking up from her bed.

“I told them everything Twilight… I figured that they needed to know, and you seemed to be taking it badly… so I told them for you.” The white nurse explained sadly while looking down.

“It’s fine Redheart… I just feel bad because I couldn’t do anything more to save the others…” Twilight sighed while lowering her head gloomily.

“We were paralyzed Twilight… there wasn’t much you could have done. Just be thankful for what you did do.” Redheart stated with an almost cheerful smile on her face. Twilight softened up her expression for a moment as she remembered the books she had found. The unicorn glanced over to the table where Glitterball had placed the small stack of tomes and walked over to it.

“You’re right Redheart… and besides, we’re going to make them answer for everything they have done, and these books should help us a lot.” Twilight said with a hopeful smirk on her face while looking at her band of allies. The unicorn had her fellow element bearers, the princess of the night, a team of ponies trained to combat the supernatural, and a slayer of evil born from a race of creatures long since extinct, all of them eager to help put a stop to the newfound threat to Equestria.

“We should head back to your headquarters and study these books… whoever did this might have used these to make that spell.” Twilight explained while looking to Brimstoke and his teammates.

“Uhh…” Brimstoke muttered awkwardly while nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “You see, we kind of don’t have a headquarters per say…” He finally explained while looking off to the side.

“What…? But you guys are a team of hardened ghostie busters! How do you not have a secret base?!” Pinkie huffed in shock while furrowing her brow at the apparently secret base-less band of novices. While the pink mare was leering at him doubtfully, Brimstoke continued speaking to explain, or perhaps justify their lack of a base of operations.

“Most of us are ex royal guard or emergency rescue team… we were trained after hours at the Canterlot guard station. Now that we’re out here, we don’t have anywhere to meet other than our living quarters.” The stallion stated while looking to his teammates for support.

“For the moment we can use the library as a meeting place. Once you discharge Nurse Redheart, we should bring those books down there and study them.” Twilight suggested while taking a few steps back towards the entrance to the tent.

“She should be alright to head home now, let me just remove the I.V line real quick.” Peppermint stated while walking over to the nurse’s bedside to remove the medical tubing sticking out of her arm. After she was free, Redheart climbed out of the bed and tested her strength for a moment.

“I feel much better now… I think I’m going to head on home, so good luck with catching whoever did this.” The nurse waved to the group of ponies before walking out of the tent and starting on her path home.

“Alright everyone… we’re heading out. Does anyone want to come help us study these tomes?” Twilight asked her band of friends, hopeful that at least some of them would come.

“Ah will, but first me and Applebloom will head back home so Ah can drop her off.” Applejack stepped forward to volunteer.

“Same here… I should walk Scootaloo home, but I will definitely drop by once I’m done.” Rainbow Dash suggested while looking down to the orange filly.

“Aww… I want to come too! Who knows? I might get my cutie mark by helping you guys out.” Scootaloo pleaded to be included in the research efforts. The cyan pegasus shook her head slowly to convey her disapproval.

“Sorry kiddo… I think you and Applebloom have had enough experience with the supernatural to last a life time.” Rainbow Dash spoke firmly with a sense of sympathy to the young pegasus. Scootaloo huffed in annoyance before sighing acceptingly.

“I’ll come too…*yawn*” Fluttershy droned tiredly. She had bags under her eyes and numerous other signs of fatigue. Everyone watched the yellow mare with worried frowns as she fought to remain awake on her feet.

“You alright sugar cube? You look like Ah did when that polter thingy kept us up all night.” Applejack asked in a concerned tone. Fluttershy had a brief expression of nervousness on her face as she thought about the orange mare’s words.

“Oh, it’s fine… err… I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired is all.” The shy pegasus said while returning a semi cheerful expression to her half asleep face. Despite Fluttershy’s obvious façade, everyone seemed to leave the subject alone for the moment.

“I would love to come help Twilight, but I won’t be able to stay for very long tonight. I have things that I need to finish up at home.” Rarity volunteered with a sincere smile on her face.

“I’ll come too!” Pinkie Pie suggested eagerly while bouncing forward to join the group. Twilight was very happy to see her friends volunteer to assist with the investigation. She had no doubt in her mind that they would be able to close the case and find those responsible in no time.

“Alright then… are you coming with us Princess?” Twilight asked while looking over to the dark blue alicorn.

“Sorry Twilight… I’m afraid that I can’t assist you with your research right now. Celestia is planning on making a speech in Ponyville in a few days to inform everyone about what’s going on. She is still a little shaken up from the encounter in the cave, so I need to help her get everything set up.” Luna explained with a slight frown on her face.

“That’s fine… I hope Princess Celestia gets better soon. In the meantime I promise that I will get to the bottom of this.” Twilight stated with confidence and determination. Luna was happy to see the unicorn was so adamant about her assignment from Celestia.

“I know my sister wouldn’t have picked just any pony to do the job… just be sure to let these guys help you out. Even if they don’t have as much training in the occult as I would like, they still know a thing or two about investigating.” The alicorn stated while looking over to her band of ponies and smiling. The members of team spirit nodded and smiled back confidently.

“Will do… now let’s head out everyone. We won’t catch those hooded ponies by standing around here.” Twilight stated to her troop with an inspiring tone before walking out of the tent. Everyone who was going to the library followed the purple mare outside.