Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death

Chapters

Chapter 1: Game Start!
Chapter 2: Room Cleaning
Chapter 3: Kitchen Mess
Chapter 4: Space Hijinks
Chapter 5: Musical Interlude
Chapter 6: The Library
Chapter 8: The North Wing Part 1
Chapter 9: The North Wing Part 2
Chapter 10: The North Wing Part 3
Chapter 11: Sports and Games
Chapter 12: The Trotting Dead
Chapter 13: The Abomination
Chapter 14: The Doll House
Chapter 15: The Mechanic
Chapter 16: The Wind Tower and the Maze
Chapter 17: The Ice Tower
Chapter 18: Shadow Play and Deathly Balance
Chapter 19: The Military Section
Chapter 20: Commander Hurricane
Chapter 22: Big Brain Part 2
Chapter 23: Big Brain Part 3
Chapter 24: Bad Organ
Chapter 25: Clover the Clever
Chapter 26: Ω
Chapter 27: Thanatos
Chapter 28: Aftermath
Epilogue: Commencement of New Adventures
Chapter 7: Toy Maker
Chapter 21: Big Brain Part 1

Chapter 1: Game Start!

Author's Note

Remember to use the plans here to help yourself while reading this story.

Reminder of the party:

Apple Bloom:
Earth pony filly alive
Physically stronger than average
Great fighting skills
Supreme Poltergust (possesses all the tricks of all the Poltergusts, including the ones from the three Luigi's Mansion, can fire elements and anti-ghost beams (Poltergun beams) of energy, can use air to make herself float above the ground and to propel stuff like an air-punch)
Applegoo (clone of goo vulnerable to fire and water and who can pass through bars, grids, and similar stuff)
Spectral Transmograftizer (can turn into a ghost for thirty seconds, has a cooldown of two minutes)
As a ghost, possesses great ghostly powers (lightning, levitation, plant control, portal opening, possession, and so on)
She's globally the fighter with an ultimate mode

Sweetie Belle:
Undead unicorn filly (ghost bound to her own body)
Magic (light levitation)
Supreme Poltergust
Sweetiegoo
Ghostly power of singing (boosting allies, controling weak ghosts, healing)
She's globally the support

Scootaloo:
Robot pegasus filly (ghost bound to a robotic body)
Can turn into a scooter (very fast and can roll on the walls and the ceiling with somepony on her)
Supreme Poltergust integrated into her body
Fast and agile
When she rolls as a scooter, can leave a trail of fire behind her (ghostly power)
She's globally the fast hitter hard to hit

Applejack:
Robot earth pony mare (ghost bound to a robotic body)
VERY strong physically
Lasso skill
Supreme Poltergust
Can smash her hooves on the ground to create a shockwave. Can also slightly control plants (ghostly power)
She's globally the muscle

Little Ghost
Ghost unicorn filly
Magic (that she never uses because she can do the same with her ghostly powers which are more powerful)
Has all the adventages of a ghost (intangible to anything physical (can still be hit if it's used by another ghost or infused with energy like magic or ghost energy), naturally floats, can turn invisible)
Supreme Poltergust
Possesses a mirror shield (can deflect some projectiles)
Great ghostly powers that she perfectly controls
She's globally the mage

Chapter 1: Game Start!

Because of Discord, Thanatos couldn't see what was going on in Evershade Valley, but the second Apple Bloom passed the portal and entered the Spiritual World, he knew it, and he knew why she was here. Using his power, he moved his castle not far from her position, then moved several platforms to form a path between her and the entrance. Grand Organ began to play. Oh, how Thanatos loved this guy and his dramatic organ songs.

So, Apple Bloom wanted to try her chance at capturing him? Very well! Thanatos accepted! This may be the most entertaining game so far, even more than the one against Eternal Rest. His castle is huge and full of dangers that will put to shame everything that was sent against Apple Bloom before now. Ooh... He could already see it, Apple Bloom facing his head scientist with all his crazy experiments, trying to survive against the insane Toy Maker, or doing everything she could to not be devoured by the Abomination.

He couldn't wait!

Seated on his throne, he did a wave with his right arm in front of him, spreading a purple smoke. When the smoke cleared, it left behind a table with a model of his castle. Beside him, another table materialized, this one containing a pile of pieces that looked like chess pieces.

He took one that was yellow with the head of Apple Bloom and stared at it, grinning. "So... The little filly ghost hunter..."

He placed the piece on one of the platforms forming the path to his castle, and the piece began to move by itself toward the entrance. The Apple Bloom piece was joined by four others, representing Applejack, Sweetie Belle, Little Ghost, and Scootaloo.

Thanatos then took another piece, a diamond one, entirely skeletal, representing him with a crown. "...wants to take down the big bad Spirit of Death." The superior part of the model moved aside, letting him place the piece in a model of the throne room.

He then looked at the piece still beside him, and smirked. "But first..." With a flick of a claw, he made all the pieces float. "You will have to get pass all of them." He made the table grow, the bowl formerly containing the pieces disappearing. The pieces then all dropped on it, separating into three groups.

Hundreds and hundreds, maybe over one thousand bronze pieces in ranks.

Dozens of silver pieces, also in ranks behind the bronze pieces.

Four golden pieces behind the silver ones.

"And now..." He took one of the silver pieces, this one possessing a dragon skull, and placed it in front of the entrance. "Let's see how you will fare against this guy. He's the gate keeper after all, so you will have to defeat him if you want to invade my castle."

The five colored pieces representing Apple Bloom and the others reached the silver piece.

"Poor fools who want to brave the domain of Death... Welcome to your new home," said the dragon skull guarding the entrance of the castle.

So it decided to talk now. Last time, it had just opened its mouth to let Apple Bloom enter the castle. Darn, did it mean that they will have to fight it to enter the castle? There was almost no land to walk on to avoid whatever it will send to attack them. The platforms forming the path were very small.

Thankfully, they had the brand new Supreme Poltergust. Fighting the dragon skull would have almost been impossible before, but now...

Hopefully, the ghost in it was possessing it, not bound to it, or the fight will take a little longer.

The skull began firing purple fireballs from its eyes, and some of the ponies had to step back on previous platforms to have the place to dodge them.

"Ah guess it's already time to go Spectral!" said Apple Bloom before she pressed the button of the Spectral Transmograftizer on her chest. In a flash of light, she found herself turned into a ghost, and she flew away, a fireball almost hitting her.

"What?!" shouted the skull before he was simultaneously hit by lightning energy fired by both Apple Bloom and Little Ghost, making it scream in pain.

"Aah! It's good to use my powers without a stupid amulet blocking them!" shouted the ghost filly.

"Nice to've them!" said Apple Bloom, keeping a careful eye on the countdown displayed by her visor.

"My turn!" shouted Sweetie Belle before she began to sing.

Applejack could already feel herself gaining in strenght. "Nice!" she shouted before she saw Scootaloo, as a scooter, roll beside her. She quickly jumped on her, standing awkwardly on one leg with how small the scooter was. Apple Bloom and Little Ghost then used their power to make the last platform before the skull tilt up, letting Scootaloo use it like a ramp to jump on the skull, avoiding by the same occasion a stream of purple fire fired by it from its mouth. Sweetie Belle quickly had to move to the side to avoid being burned.

Scootaloo landed on the skull, and Applejack jumped from her to smash her hooves on it, making the skull crack. Scootaloo continued to roll on it until reaching the front wall of the castle above the entrance door, then began to roll on it higher and higher. Near the top, she turned around and accelerated, charging back toward the skull, and pierced it thanks to her speed, damaging it even more.

Seeing the countdown reaching zero, Apple Bloom moved to float just above the skull and pressed the button of the Spectral Transmograftizer, turning back to normal. Despite this, she continued to attack the skull by punching it with blasts of air while Sweetie Belle fired ice shards with her Poltergust.

The skull roared and multiplied the number of fireballs fired from its eyes, making them rain a little everywhere on itself in the hope of getting itself rid of the ponies now punching it, but Little Ghost used her power to create a strong wind that sent the fireballs flying away, none of them hitting the ponies. Meanwhile, the cracks in it continued to spread with each punch and each ice shard it received, and it understood that it hadn't much time.

A ghost of a young dragon flew out of the skull inside its mouth to escape just before the skull began to crumble, but he quickly stopped when he saw Scootaloo in front of the entrance door targetting him with her Strobulb of her Poltergust. He didn't know about the Strobulb however, so he directly tried to attack her only to receive a big flash in the eyes, dazzling him. Apple Bloom and Applejack, who both landed beside Scootaloo, then activated their Poltergusts to suck up the ghost, joined by Little Ghost and Scootaloo. The dragon resisted, but then, the Power Surge gauge of the four Poltergusts totally filled, and the four hunters activated it, giving their Poltergusts a huge power surge that totally overpowered the ghost who ended up captured by Applejack.

"Wowee!" shouted the mare. "This fight's a breeze!"

"The moment ya landed on the skull, the fight was over," said Apple Bloom.

"I helped! I helped!" shouted Sweetie Belle who was still on the platform. "My singing worked!"

"It sure worked. Ah could've uprooted an oak," said Applejack.

"Did you see what I did?" shouted Scootaloo excitedly. "Too bad Rainbow didn't! It was awesome!"

"Yeah. Ah saw it!" said Apple Bloom. "Ya're incredible!"

"You were too, Apple Bloom," said Little Ghost. "Too bad you can remain a ghost only for thirty seconds. You and me form a really good team together."

"This castle will be a walk!" shouted Scootaloo. "Thanatos is screwed!"

"Darn right!" said Applejack as she opened the entrance door. "Let's go kick his bony butt, girls."

"Yay!" shouted the fillies as they passed the doors.

"Waiiit! You're forgetting me!" shouted Sweetie Belle from her platform. "i'm stuck here! I can't fly!"

Little Ghost came back looking sheepish. "Sorry. We got a little overexcited." The filly ghost then picked up the undead and dropped her in front of the doors. The two then entered the castle, leaving behind the remains of the dragon skull.

"Oooooh! Maybe they can do it, actually!" said Thanatos, more excited than ever. "I didn't think they would be able to go far, but maybe they have a chance. Mmh... Maybe I should actually up the game a little." At this, he added a few hundreds bronze pieces and two dozens silver pieces on the table. "Mmh... Maybe a little more." He added more pieces again. "That should do it."

Meanwhile, back in Evershade Valley, everyone gathered in front of a huge screen that had been placed outside, not far of Gloomy Manor. Everyone was there, the ghosts of the two versions of Evershade Valley, the ones from Eternal Rest's hotel and its counterpart from the Mushroom Kingdom, the Gem family, and all the others. They all wanted to see this adventure and to support Apple Bloom and the others. For the ghosts of Equestria, it was also in the hope of seeing the end of Thanatos' rule.

Even Mario, Peach, and Luigi were there, to the ponies' surprise. They didn't think they would be present.

"I want to be here for Apple Bloom," said Peach when asked about it.

An old moustached Toad with brown dots sitting beside her known as Toadsworth sighed. "Despite all my attempts to dissuade her..."

E. Gadd had installed a camera function on the Supreme Poltergusts, and hopefully, thanks to the Pixelator, he will be able to connect to them despite the dimensional barrier. He managed to connect it through time to his past self, so he could totally do it!

A few tinkering here and there annnnd.... done!

Images appeared on the screen.

Apple Bloom and the others had entered the entrance hall. The filly recognized it immediately from the first time she had entered the castle, with the big staircase leading to the second floor, but back then she hadn't taken time to look around.

The entrance hall wasn't that big compared to other entrance halls, it was barely bigger than the one from the Gem Manor, but it was certainly scarier, setting the tone of the place (even if the exterior already did a good job with all the spears and the many gargoyles on them and the walls).

There were two gargoyles at both sides of the staircase, the two of them looking as if they were staring at the intruders. More gargoyles, smaller ones, were present at the four corners of the room, and there were a few candlesticks hanging from the walls. A huge chandelier possessing at least had a hundred of candles was also present on the ceiling. All the candles were burning with ghostly purple flames, and some of them were resting on skulls. There was a pony skeleton slumped against the left gargoyle holding a sign with written on it "Welcome". Beside the double door at the top of the stairs that Apple Bloom had passed previously, there were also two other doors back in the first level, at the left and the right.

Apple Bloom was staring at the skeleton with the sign when an image of professor E. Gadd appeared in a corner of her visor. The old man visibly recoiled at the sight of the skeleton.

«Crimini! First images and already almost a heart attack!»

"Prof! Nice to see ya," said Apple Bloom. "So ya're able to make it work?"

«Of course! It wasn't hard!»

"Everyone's here?"

At her words, Twilight and the others gathered around E. Gadd.

«We are,» said the alicorn.

"Rainbow Dash! You missed something incredible!" shouted Scootaloo.

«What? Already? We barely left you guys for a few minutes!» said the rainbow maned mare.

"Turns out the dragon skull Apple bloom talked about wasn't just for deco," said Applejack.

«Aww. We already missed a fight,» said Pinkie Pie.

"Mario, Luigi, and Peach are also here?" asked Apple Bloom in wonder.

«We will try to help you as much as we can from where we are,» said the princess.

«If you want, I can send our green friend to help you,» said E. Gadd, and Luigi immediately looked panicked.

Apple Bloom laughed. "No need. Ah think this castle'd be a little too much for him." She waved at the skeleton to emphasise what she meant. "We're just at the entrance, and already there's a corpse.

«We're used to skeletons, it's not this that will scare him,» said Mario.

Suddenly, the entrance door slammed closed, making everyone jump in surprise as well as in fright for some. Once everyone calmed down, Applejack went to test the door and discovered that it was now locked.

"Welp, seems like he won't be able to come even if we wanted," said the mare (Luigi sighed in relief at this) before she turned to face her sister. "Where do we go, Apple Bloom?"

"The left door is open," said Sweetie Belle as she tested the left door.

"The right one too," said Scootaloo as she did the same with the right door.

"Hum... Let's try the double door first. Ah remember Ah went through it before," said Apple Bloom. She then looked up at the chandelier. "Wait a minute." She carefully walked under it, then quickly jumped back as the chandelier slammed on the floor.

"Hey! That's my trick!" shouted Little Ghost.

«I remember, it almost got us,» said Smart Spirit.

«It also almost got Luigi back then. Remember, fella?» asked E. Gadd to Luigi.

«How could I forget?» said Luigi.

"Alright girls. Rule number one: no walking under the chandeliers before testing them," said Apple Bloom.

"Or I could just do this," said Little Ghost before she fired some energy at the chandelier, destroying it.

«That's certainly more effective,» said E. Gadd in amusement.

The ponies giggled as they climbed the stairs, then they passed the double door, entering a hallway that Apple Bloom also recognized. Just in front of them was another double door, and not much else could be seen. The hallway was very dark, with only a few candlesticks lighting it every few meters with their purple flames. Some gargoyles were again present against the walls, as well as armors from various species like ponies, griffons, or minotaurs.

"Ah remember Ah went to the right, then turned to the left to reach the throne room the first time," said Apple Bloom. "But the throne room must be closed now. Ah don't think Thanatos'll let us reach him like that. Ah remember there were four keyholes on the door.

«Oh, I already see it,» began E. Gadd.

«You will have to explore the castle in search of the four keys,» finished Smart Spirit.

"It's obvious it'll be it," said Apple Bloom as she tested the double door by habit. To her surprise, the door wasn't locked, and she opened it.

The group entered a very huge room, and the first thing that they saw was the presence of a giant statue of Thanatos in the center, the statue looking down at them with an evil grin. The room was very decorated, with large purple curtains, huge chandeliers, gargoyles (again), and another dragon skull on the wall just above the door they passed.

"WELCOME TO MY CASTLE!" suddenly shouted who Apple Bloom recognized to be Thanatos from a balcony up on the left.

"Thanatos!" shouted Apple Bloom, growling.

"Missed me?" asked the draconequus with a grin. He then snapped his fingers, and the next instant, dozens of ghosts entered the room. There were servants, a few guards, two butlers, and many random ponies and other creatures of all professions, including some children and even some animals like a bear, some wolves, and even a freaking elephant. There were even some Pranksters and Tricksters among them, as well as more ghosts that looked exactly like them but of various colors. There were obviously more than Tricksters and Pranksters in the Spiritual World.

"A little welcoming committee just for you, to show how much I like you," said Thanatos with a laugh.

Chaos invaded the room as the ghosts began attacking. Apple Bloom's first target was a guard that swung a sword at her. She dodged the sword and fired a Poltergun beam at him, stunning him in pain. She then jumped, avoided a knife thrown at her by the same occasion, and went to punch the guard, only to expel a blast of air at him, sending him flying into many other ghosts including the one who threw the knife. A red version of a Prankster then tried to punch her, hoof covered in fire, but she caught him and slammed him on other ghosts surrounding her until he was captured.

Applejack charged at the elephant, then bucked its trunk as it tried to hit her with it, pushing it back. A servant slammed a plate on her head, but it didn't do much as Applejack immediately punched her in return. The robotic mare then ran around the elephant and managed to get behind it before she began to suck it up. The elephant immediately began to charge to get itself rid of her, which had for effect of making it ram many other ghosts, and even to crush a few ones under its feet

Sweetie Belle was almost rammed by the elephant as she captured a butler, and she quickly jumped to the side to avoid it. But a wolf then jumped on her, pinning her on the ground. Before the wolf could do anything, however, Sweetie Belle began to sing, and the wolf found itself under her control, and it released the filly. Sweetie Belle then climbed on it, and the wolf began to claw at the ghosts around it while Sweetie Belle fired lightning bolts and Poltergun beams left and right with her Poltergust, weakening a lot of ghosts for the others.

Applegoo and Sweetiegoo were both released and began to capture ghosts, trying to avoid the ones that used fire. Knowing how fragile they were, they worked together, watching each other's back.

Scootaloo, in her scooter form, rolled on the wall, then on the ceiling, destroying the chandeliers one after another, making them crash on many ghosts including the bear and the elephant. When all the chandeliers were gone, she let herself fall and turned back to normal as she went to capture the bear. She was joined by Apple Bloom who helped her, and together, they slammed the bear around.

Little Ghost, after capturing a griphon soldier, went to fire all she could at the elephant to weaken it. Already weakened after taking a chandelier on the head, it didn't take long for the elephant to finally lose enough strenght to be captured by Applejack. Little Ghost then sent a shockwave all around her, pushing back a lot of ghosts that had surrounded her before she found herself facing a thestral armed with a spear. The thestral turned into shadows that disappeared in the chaos of the battle. A few seconds later, as Little Ghost was sucking up a yak warrior, the thestral came out of the shadows behind her and attacked her. Little Ghost saw this however and slammed the yak on him. The thestral, however, returned into shadows.

He went to target Apple Bloom this time while the filly was busy capturing three ghosts at once (three ponies, including one who seemed to be a construction worker). Apple Bloom, however, let herself being dragged away to avoid being impaled by the spear. Before he could disappear into the shadows again, the thestral was suddenly hit by a Poltergun beam from behind, and he found himself caught by the neck by Sweetie Belle's wolf. But the thestral recovered and turned into shadows again. only to be rolled on by Scootaloo leaving a trail of fire. The fire hurt him despite his shadow form, so he quickly moved away only to be followed by Scootaloo who continued to roll on him again and again until he decided to come out to deal with her. But Scootaloo easily got him after a few slamming.

Thanatos toppled one of the silver pieces with a crescent moon. "Here goes one of my Nightmare Moon fanatics..." He then snapped his fingers a couple of times and pointed at the gargoyles.

The next instant, some of the ghosts took possession of the gargoyles and began to use them to attack the ghost hunters with claws and various weapons depending of what the gargoyles possessed. Applejack went to destroy them, easily dealing with them, and Little Ghost had no problems destroying a few mores with her powers. One of the gargoyles still managed to knock out the wolf under Sweetie's control.

A ghost then took possession of the dragon skull, and it began to float around before it targetted Apple Bloom and fired a laser from its mouth. Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost and quickly flew out of the way before she flew after the dragon skull and attacked it with energy waves. She avoided another laser, then rammed it, sending it crashing against a wall. At the same time, another ghost took possession of the statue of Thanatos, and the statue began to move toward Apple Bloom.

However, Sweetie Belle boosted Applejack with her singing, and the mare bucked the statue's right leg, damaging it. In return, the statue tried to crush her under its leg, but Applejack moved out of the way before she returning to buck it again until the leg was destroyed, causing the statue to topple. Despite this, the statue continued to attack, this time with its claws. At the same time, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo fired ice shards at the dragon skull as Apple Bloom was forced to return to normal. Applegoo and Sweetiegoo defended them against any ghost trying to attack them while they were busy. And Little Ghost levitated what remained of the chandeliers and sent them both at the statue and the skull while firing at them various projectiles.

Keeping an eye on the dragon skull, Apple Bloom went to help her sister against the statue, continuously firing Poltergun beams at it to destabilize it with the pain. This opened it more to Applejack's bucking, and the mare managed to destroy its right arm. The statue was heavily damaged by now, and the ghost possessing it decided to come out of it, revealing himself to be a grey earth pony stallion with a black mane. The pony immediately began to levitate parts of the statue to throw them at Apple Bloom and Applejack. He was however hit by a Poltergun beam, making him drop on the ground, vulnerable. He didn't last long after that.

Thanatos toppled another silver piece, this one with a boulder.

By now, the dragon skull started to lose pieces with how much it was cracked. It tried to fire a last laser at Apple Bloom, thinking of taking her by surprise, but Little Ghost suddenly rammed it, and with how cracked it was, the skull pretty much exploded. The ghost that was in it, a red unicorn mare with a yellow mane, was stunned by this turn of event, leaving her vulnerable to Little Ghost who began to suck her up. The mare tried to fire small energy beams at the filly ghost to escape, but Little Ghost easily avoided them, and the mare was captured.

Thanatos toppled yet another silver piece, this one with a dragon skull firing a laser. "They fall one after another, like flies." He looked back at the battle, seeing that the ghost hunters were just finishing capturing the last few ghosts in the room. When the last one, a bipedal cat, was captured, he toppled a dozen of the bronze pieces and shouted "Well done! Really well done!" He then threw something toward Apple Bloom. "Here are your reward! Four key!"

Apple bloom spotted the keys as they landed in front of her. "Four?"

"Yes. Four. As you guessed, to enter my throne room, you will have to find four special keys. I gave those four keys to four special, very powerful guardians. Explore my castle, defeat the guardians, get the keys, and come to my throne room. Each of these keys I just gave you lead to the beginning of one of the paths leading to the guardians. It's up to you which one you will use first. You can do them in any order, I don't care."

"How about we move directly to the point where we fight you? You're just here!" shouted Little Ghost before she fired a fireball at Thanatos.

The Spirit of Death easily dodged it. "Come on, it would be boring if the game finished so rapidly. The fight will happen in the throne room, nowhere else. Oh, and don't expect to enter by the door of this balcony, I will lock it, and it will be one of the few doors in this castle that you will never open. You won't even be able to pass the walls. The only way to enter will be by the door with the four keyholes. On this, I wish you good luck." Thanatos then walked through the door of the balcony, only for his head to poke out. "By the way, it would get boring really fast if I let you search the whole castle for the right doors, so I made something to avoid it. The keys will all let out a purple arrow that will guide you through the fastest path to the door it opens," he said before he disappeared behind the door for good.

Apple Bloom growled, then took the four keys. As Thanatos said, each of them had a purple arrow that showed the direction to take. One of the keys actually led to the second door of the left wall of the room while the three others led through the double door by which they came from.

«I must say, this fight was beyond anything Luigi went through. I fear to discover what is awaiting you,» said E. Gadd.

«Especially those guardians. I wouldn't be surprised if they reveal to be about as powerful as Eternal Rest,» said Twilight.

"It's what Ah fear, but with everything we've now, they shouldn't be as problematic," said Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo looked at the keys, then at the directions their arrows point at. "So, which one do we use first?"

Chapter 2: Room Cleaning

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3: Kitchen Mess

Apple Bloom and the others exited the laundry room of the East wing, finally finished there. The East wing had been pretty much like the West wing, like they expected. The only difference had been which ghosts they encountered in the rooms, and the rooms of the third floor had different decos. For exemple, one of the rooms looked like it belonged to some kind of game show designer, the room having many papers with plans of games, all of them looking deadly. There was also a room that clearly belonged to a composer.

There were also the now usual more-powerful-than-average ghosts who still weren't really challenging. One of them, encountered in the second floor, had been a dark magic user, but nowhere as powerful as somepony like Sombra. In one of the rooms of the third floor, they also encountered a griffon who had been able to send feathers from her wings like arrows, forcing Apple Bloom to take cover behind a knocked off table. Then, in the laundry room, another clothe golem was encountered with two Icys, a Puffer, and two Tail Spears. The Puffer had been really annoying because he prevented the ponies from approaching the other ghosts, and the golem was smart enough to not approach them, instead opting to simply throw stuff at them. Thankfully, the Puffer could only target one direction, so the ponies only had to separate to overwhelm him, capture him, and capture the others. Like in the other laundry room, wraiths appeared, four this time, but they were quickly eliminated.

Actually, at first, they thought that there had been more wraith, like, a dozen, but it turned out that some of the shadows were actually dark constructs, probably created by Thanatos to add some spice. Those constructs were easily destroyed by a Poltergun beam, but there was no doubt that in bigger number, or associated with other ghosts, those things will be dangerous. They will have to be really careful of the shadows now, at all times, not just when it suddenly turned cold like it usually happened in the presence of wraiths.

Nice way to turn them paranoid.

Anyway, now that the West and East wings were finished, they could return to the main dish.

Or will they?

"Do we do the North wing now?" asked Sweetie Belle hesitently.

...

"Later," answered Apple Bloom. "Not now."

Seeing that the key they just obtained led to the second floor of the main wing, they decided to use the only key that led to somewhere in the first floor for now: the one they got from the West wing. It wasn't far, they just had to return to the entrance hall, then take the West door, and the doors to open were just at the right. On the way, of course, they had to fight some possessed armors, some possessed gargoyles, many Wisps floating around, and a couple of guards, along with a few random pony ghosts who armed themselves with the weapons that were on the walls, including a colt who thought he was smart attacking them with a slingshot. The entrance hall also had some griffons and two Pranksters waiting for them.

No respite for the livings as they say, even if only one member of the group was truly alive...

They reached the first of the two doors that the key opened in the West hallway, and they unlocked it. However, where usually the key disappeared upon use, this one didn't disappear, probably so they could use it to unlock the second door just at the left. Little Ghost quickly went to unlock it while the others entered what revealed to be a mess hall, full of tables to eat.

And full of ghosts, waiters, a couple of cooks, and even three Big Brains ready to throw stuff at them. One of the waiters took possession of a huge cake that looked like it could be part of a wedding, and the next instant, the cake wanted to eat them.

«Oh no... Not the pony-eating cake! NOT THE PONY-EATING CAKE!» shouted Pinkie Pie.

At the same time, another waiter began to levitate ALL the cutleries present in the room (and there was A LOT) and pointed them at Apple Bloom who immediately knocked off a table to protect herself. But the cluteries were thrown with such force that they damaged the table, and some even traversed it (thankfully missing Apple Bloom)! Apple Bloom then turned herself into a ghost and flew from behind the table before charging toward the waiter.

Little Ghost went to deal with the cake, destroying it chunk by chunk with her powers as it was revealing to be more resistant than planned, when a ghost that reminded a little of Bogmire appeared and took possession of all the tables, chairs, and even of the closets where the plates, cutleries, salt shakers (not all ghosts were ponies) and pepper pots were stored.

Applejack immediately smashed her front hooves on the ground, creating a shockwave. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as well as the clones of goo jumped above it, and the shockwave went for a good distance, damaging a lot of objects including the cake before it disappeared. Applejack then went to attack the possessed objects helped by Scootaloo while Sweetie Belle simply went to target the more normal ghosts with the clones of goo.

Apple Bloom managed to capture her waiter just before she had to turn back to normal, and she went to try to capture the Bogmire-like ghost only for it to form a wall with some of the tables between it and her. The ghost then sent the wall of tables toward her, and Apple Bloom didn't have any hope to avoid it. But then, Applejack came and destroyed one of the tables, opening a hole in the wall that they used to avoid being rammed. Sweetie Belle and the clones of goo weren't so lucky however as they were too busy capturing ghosts.

Sweetie Belle growled as she recovered, then sang, getting one of the ghosts, a cook, under her control. She immediately sent the ghost to deal with the Bogmire-like ghost while she returned to capturing the ghosts with the clones of goo (who survived despite the hit). The ghost cook was armed with a pan and took the Bogmire-like ghost offguard, hitting it on the head as it was focused on pushing back Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Scootaloo with the objects it took possession of, which were beginning to seriously diminish in number.

Annoyed, the Bogmire-like ghost grabbed the cook and sent him toward the now almost destroyed cake. The cake saw him coming and... opened its mouth to devour the ghost. The cake then spat the pan at Little Ghost, successfully hitting her with it.

«D-d-d-did the cake just eat a ghost?!» shouted Twilight in horror.

«Yike! I didn't know it was possible for a ghost to be eaten,» said E. Gadd.

With Little Ghost away for now, the cake targeted Apple Bloom and bounced toward her, mouth wide open. Having no choice, Apple Bloom left Applejack and Scootaloo to finish with the Bogmire-like ghost and ran around the cake while firing fireballs at it with her Poltergust. Little Ghost thankfully quickly came back and helped her finish it with her powers. The cake was already well damaged, so it didn't take long to cause it so much damage that it simply melted, leaving two ghosts: the waiter who possessed it and the cook that had been devoured (who was very confused). The two were quickly captured.

Scootaloo managed to pass between the remaining tables at this moment and to reach the Bogmire-like ghost, beginning to suck it up with her Poltergust. Let's put it simply, the thing had power, but physically, it had almost nothing, so it barely resisted the vortex and couldn't stop itself from being slammed. It threw the remaining tables and chairs one after another to try to stop her, but Applejack protected her, resulting in the ghost being caught after two full-powered Power Surges. When it was captured, the few tables and chairs that weren't destroyed stopped moving, and the ones that were floating dropped.

The few ghosts that remained were easily captured after that, making a key appear. This key opened the two doors in the West wall, obviously the doors to the kitchen. Now that everything was calm, they could even hear someone singing in Bitalian.

So cliche. When it wasn't Prench, it was Bitalian.

«I don't know why, but I feel that there will be a big fight in the next room. Be careful,» warned E. Gadd.

Apple Bloom frowned. "Kitchens have always been problematic, excepted the ones in Evershade Valley. The cook back in the Gem Manor gave me nightmares for a few days."

"And I have bad memories of the kitchen of Eternal Rest's hotel," said Little Ghost.

«And now, this is Thanatos' kitchen... Things will be very messy, I don't doubt,» said Smart Spirit.

They just opened one of the two doors, entering the kitchen that looked pretty much like the one back in Eternal Rest's hotel, but a little bigger, with ovens, stoves, counters, sinks, and a lot of shelves.

A lot of ghosts were present, all cooks, mainly ponies, but also a few griffons, a minotaur, and even one of those bipedal cats. The one who was singing was a very fat beige earth pony stallion with a brown mane. He was actually busy stirring a broth with various things floating in it.

Including meat. And knowing this castle, the ponies weren't sure they wanted to know what kind of meat.

"Aaah. Our guests have arrived. I heard the commotion from the other room," began the chef before he stopped stirring the broth and looked at them with an unnerving smile. "I was waiting for you. You're just in time for dinner."

"Let me guess, Ah'm the main course?" asked Apple Bloom.

The chef gave a belly laugh. "You got it right! Many residents of this castle are quite fond of pony meat, including our Lord!" He then licked his lips. "And including me."

"Aaand it's the Bloody Cook all over again," sighed Apple Bloom.

The chef huffed. "Come on. I'm not that beast. I'm more refined. And my name is Buon Gusto, nothing to do with him."

«Buon Gusto? I think I heard about this guy. Wait a minute,» said Smart Spirit.

Gusto suddenly waved a hoof at the door from which the ponies came, and it suddenly closed before it was covered by a purple barrier.

"Come on, everyone, we have a meal to prepare for the Lord!" shouted the chef before all the other cooks went after the ponies, some of them arming themselves with pans, knives, and rolling pins. Some also levitated plates to throw them.

Despite their number, the cooks weren't powerful. The ponies just had to avoid the thrown plates (making quite a mess), approach the nearest cooks, trap them, and slam them on the others. A tactic that proved its effectiveness in the past and that still worked very well now. Still, Sweetie Belle decided to put her Poltergust to red mode to make the fight a little easier, because there were really many cooks, and they were joined by a few other random ghosts. There were even some of those shadow constructs that appeared, forcing the ponies to be more careful.

Surprisingly, Gusto didn't attack and had actually disappeared, which worried the ponies a lot.

"Somepony sees him?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Nope, but Ah'm keeping an eye open for him," answered her sister.

"Me too. I don't want him to come out of nowhere and to do like Cordon Bleu did to me," said Little Ghost.

"Too bad I wasn't here. It seemed funny to watch," said Scootaloo with a small laugh.

"It wasn't!"

Eventually, the last cook was captured by Applegoo, and Applejack captured a few Wisps that remained (those things were now almost everywhere) while Sweetie Belle destroyed the last Shadow.

"So the meal is fighting back. I didn't expect less," suddenly said Buon Gusto, his voice seemingly coming from everywhere. "I heard about your exploits, the most recent one being the capture of Eternal Rest herself! But remember what I said, I knew you were coming!" Suddenly, a large quantity of dough flew out of various containers a little everywhere in the room and began to gather in the air. "So I prepared myself to fight you! I may not be as powerful as Eternal Rest, but there's no way you will be able to defeat me! As he talked, more dough gathered, slowly taking shape of something. "After all..." Finally, the last drop of dough joined the rest to form some kind of giant pony-monster of dough that stared down at the ghost hunters with a big smirk, the dough forming sharp teeth. "How do you expect to fight something made of dough? MWAHAHAHAHA!"

«By eating it?» answered Pinkie Pie.

"Uh... We'd need at least a dozen ponies to devour that thing..." said Apple Bloom. "Or two dozens..."

"Make it three," corrected Sweetie Belle. "Unless the ponies are all like Pinkie, then yes, a dozen would be enough."

«You're underestimating Pinkie. She could devour the whole thing by herself,» said Rainbow Dash.

«Totally!»

«And somehow, she wouldn't even gain one pound,» complained Rarity.

At this moment, the dough monster swept the tables and the floor with one of its hooves of dough, catching everything on them. The next instant, dozens of big knives poked out of the hoof, making it look like a giant studded bat. It then went to punch Apple Bloom with it, and the filly quickly jumped out of the way.

"How do we fight a dough monster?"

"Isn't it obvious? We cook it!" answered Apple Bloom as she shot a stream of fire at the monster, causing a small part of it to start to harden.

"What?! You can use fire?! I will not let you!" shouted the monster before it turned itself into a wave of dough that caught everypony excepted Little Ghost, trapping them in its body. "Now, you will choke to death!"

But then, Apple Bloom came out of its body as a ghost, carrying Sweetie Belle. Little Ghost also sent a shockwave that destroyed a big part of the monster's body and forced Applejack and Scootaloo out. The dough monster however reformed and stared at Apple Bloom.

"You can turn into a ghost?"

"Eeyup," answered Apple Bloom as she dropped Sweetie Belle who immediately began to shoot fire.

Everypony else did the same from all sides of the dough monster excepted Scootaloo who turned into a scooter and went to roll on the dough, leaving a trail of fire wherever she passed. The clones of goo couldn't shoot fire however because of their vulnerability to it. The monster was totally burning, causing all the dough forming its body to harden more and more.

"Rngh... It won't be enough to defeat me. Even hardened, I can still move."

To prove its point, the monster tried to punch Apple Bloom again, the filly having returned to normal. Its body, totally hardened, now cracked as it moved, but it still was able to move its hoof. Apple Bloom still avoided the punch, and Applejack then came and bucked the hoof, destroying it.

"But now, we can do that!" shouted the mare.

"And that!" shouted Little Ghost as she sent a wave of energy hitting the head of the monster, destroying it.

The monster was now totally vulnerable, and the ponies began to hit it from all sides with air blasts, destroying it piece by piece. Gusto still managed to create two new eyes on the body, and he tried to attack with the monster's back legs, kicking left and right. Another wave of energy from Little Ghost finished it, what remained of the monster exploding into big piece of cooked dough, revealing Buon Gusto who stared at the ponies in disbelief.

«I have it! Buon Gusto, chef of a five star restaurant, one of the few that served meat for non-ponies. Guess what some of the meat was. Killed himself before he could be arrested.» informed Smart Spirit.

"So, somepony thought he'd escape justice?" smirked Applejack as she pointed her Poltergust at the now panicking fat stallion.

"What a mistake," said Apple Bloom with a giggle. "Alright, girls! At three!"

Gusto screamed and began to fly away.

"Three!" shouted Apple Bloom, and everypony activated their Poltergust. Despite his weight, Gusto wasn't able to escape five ponies, even if four of them were fillies. Scootaloo still fired a Poltergun beam at him to calm him down and make it easier, and together, they slammed him before they finished him with a Power Surge. The shield blocking the exit door disappeared, and no less than three keys appeared.

"Still, he'd a good idea. If we'd fought him with our previous Poltergusts, we'd have had more problems," commented Apple Bloom before she took the keys. "Three keys?"

Following the arrows, one opened the door in the North side of the kitchen, another opened the door in the South side, and the last one opened the second West door.

«The South door leads back to the hallway,» informed E. Gadd.

"So, a shortcut," said Sweetie Belle before she took the corresponding key and went to open this door while Little Ghost went to open the second door between the kitchen and the mess hall. Apple Bloom then gave the key to the North door to Scootaloo while she went to open the East door.

The North door revealed to lead to a staircase which, according to the map, led back to the Great Hall. As for the East door, it revealed a large room that seemed to be a storeroom with some tables, many chairs stacked on each others, and various sparing tools and furniture for the kitchen. There weren't much lights, but the ponies could already see the presence of only one door, at their left.

More waiters and cooks awaited them in this room, as well as a couple of maids, a guard with a crossbow, and a very muscled pony who already had a table ready to be thrown on the ponies. Three Tail Spears, a Bulky, and a dozen of Hidders were also present.

The thrown table was promptly avoided, and Applejack immediately went after the responsible while Apple Bloom targeted the Bulky (while keeping an eye on the Tail Spears). The Hidders were the most annoying in the end despite the arrival of a Sneaker, two Creepers, and a new black griffon-like ghost that was also invisible, and very dangerous because he actually tried to impale the pony he targeted with his very sharp claws.

He was given the nice name of Assassin.

The Hidders were the last ones to be captured, leaving the way open to the door that was at the left. Behind the door was a smaller room, also much colder. A cold room. Full of meat.

There were full carcasses. Of ponies. Somepony puked from E. Gadd's side.

Thankfully, there were only four Icys, a dog, and a cook present in this room, all rapidly captured. The ponies quickly took the key and exited the room.

"L... Let's forget about this room," said Applejack.

"Easy to say..." said Scootaloo.

"Once we're done with Thanatos, we'll destroy that castle of Tartarus," said Apple Bloom.

The key didn't lead far. It opened the first door in the East side of the kitchen. After sucking up a few Wisps that had appeared in the kitchen while they were away, they unlocked it, revealing a staircase leading down to what was obviously a cellar full of bottles of wine, barrels of whatever, bags of flour, and crates of food.

And a few skeletons on the ground...

No ghosts appeared when they entered excepted some Wisps and mice, but they quickly discovered that it was because they were invisible. Sneakers, Creepers, and Assassins. So the ponies went back to back and used the DLD to force the ghosts to appear and have an easier time capturing them. Shadows eventually appeared, one of them managing to bite Little Ghost's shadow, making her yelp in pain before she destroyed it in revenge. When the last Assassin was captured, a Bogmire-like ghost appeared and took possession of the skeletons, and wraiths appeared with the Shadows who continued to come. And as if that wasn't enough, Wisps appeared and entered one of the crates. The next instant, the crate opened, and apples floated out of it, the fruits now possessing big fanged mouths. More Wisps entered other crates, causing more fruits and other food to float out, ready to have a piece of pony.

While it made them more dangerous, they were still as easy to eliminate, the Poltergusts being able to suck up the fruits and other food, and the Wisps with them.

"An apple trying to eat an Apple. Ah've seen everything," said Applejack.

"Nope, ya haven't," replied her sister.

Then, when the Bogmire-like ghost was captured, something else appeared. The ponies weren't sure what it was, but it was the same purple as Bogmire and the other creations of Thanatos. This one, however, was a round blob of ectoplasm with four eyes, a big mouth, and a dozen tentacles. Some of the tentacles grabbed bottles of wine to use as weapons while others lifted crates, barrels, and bags to throw. One of the tentacles even tried to grab Apple Bloom, but she didn't let it and sucked up the tentacle instead, making the thing roar as the tentacle was teared off of its body.

So the ponies found themselves having to avoid everything that it threw at them while destroying the remaining shadows and capturing the remaining wraiths and Wisps. When everything was done, they all focused on the blob, beginning to suck up its tentacles one by one. When all the tentacles were sucked up, the blob was left totally vulnerable, only for it to open its mouth wide, revealing a long tentacle-like tongue that tried to grab Apple Bloom (probably to eat her). But like for the first tentacle, the filly managed to catch the tongue with her Poltergust. Applejack had to hold her however to avoid that she ended in the blob's mouth. Eventually, the tongue was entirely sucked up, and the blob followed.

And the key finally appeared.

"That thing's the creepiest ghost ever," said Apple Bloom. "It wasn't powerful compared to others like Bogmire, but it's really disturbing."

"Yeah, and who knows what other horrible things Thanatos created and are roaming this castle," said Scootaloo.

"Luigi did well to not come with us," commented Sweetie Belle.

"The poor guy would have had at least ten heart attacks by now," laughed Little Ghost.

«He already had some close calls just by watching,» said E. Gadd. «And, well, to tell you the truth, I think that everybody here is glad to not be in your place, excepted Mario.»

«And me!» said Discord. «You have no idea how much I want to be there with you to stop my brother.»

The ponies left the cellar and saw that the key they obtained led out of the kitchen by the South door. Before they could go, however...

"Wait. What about the last door in the mess hall?" wondered Sweetie Belle.

"Uh. Oh, right. There was a last door in the corner," said Scootaloo.

«Yes. And it seems to lead to a small place between the mess room and the entrance hall,» informed E. Gadd. «But I don't know if it's a locked door. Maybe, maybe not.»

"Mmh... We should verify," said Apple Bloom. "It's weird that we didn't get a key to open this door while we did the whole kitchen area."

They all nodded and returned to the mess hall. After dealing with the ghost of a deer that had wandered in the room for some reason, they went to the famous door, present in the Southeast corner of the room, just North of the entrance hall. They tested it, and it revealed to be unlocked.

Only for it to lead into a closet with some janitor stuff, probably to clean the mess hall and the kitchen once meal time passed.

"Well, no wonder we didn't get a key. There's nothing," said Scootaloo.

"Wait. What's that?" asked Little Ghost as she pointed at something partially hidden in a bucket in a corner.

Applejack looked into the bucket and grabbed a wooden thing that looked like a T. She scrutinized it, but found nothing that could indicate what it was, and what it was for.

«Something tells me that you should keep it. You don't find a T-shaped object hidden in a bucket in a closet without reason,» advised E. Gadd.

Applejack nodded. "Ah'll hold it."

Author's Note

After the Gate Keeper, the possessed statue of Thanatos, and the laser-shooting dragon skull, the first real boss of the story appears. Buon Gusto the Dough Monster, followed by a second boss, the Blob.

Chapter 4: Space Hijinks

The key from the cellar led the ponies to the first intersection of the West hallway, to the first door in the left wall of the hallway leading North. Thus, they entered a classroom full of ghosts, both young and old, sitting on chairs and learning 'how to scare someone to death'.

They all turned to look at them when they opened the door, exactly like that moment when you arrive late.

"Ah. Everyone, surprise test! Try to kill the filly with the bow with what you learned!" said the teacher happily.

Normally, students groan at this moment, but clearly those one couldn't as they mindlessly followed the teacher's instruction with their blank eyes. The ghosts separated and disappeared into the walls and the floor while a chilling wind blew from nowhere and blew the candlelights, plunging the room in darkness excepted for the light of the flashlights integrated in the Poltergusts (part of the Strobulb mode).

Silence fell in the room as the ponies looked around, searching for the ghosts, even using the DLD in case they turned themselves invisible.

"Mpf! If they think they'll scare us, they can dream!" said Scootaloo.

Hoofsteps began to be heard in the darkness, around them.

"Buuut I must admit, they're good. It would work, if I was less fearless," continued Scootaloo, her voice beginning to show the contrary.

A chair moved alone in the dark. Then, a child laughed.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Let's just get done with it already!" she shouted as she charged her Strobulb and gave a big flash, getting many ghosts dazzled and stopping their attempt to scare her to death. Apple Bloom then smirked, turned off her flashlight, and used the darkness and her visor in nightvision mode to creep toward the farthest ghost (the teacher) while the others began to capture the nearest ones. When she reached the emplacement of the ghost she targeted, she turned the flashlight back on, pointed up in front of her face, and said "Boo," making the ghost yelp in fear before she began to capture him.

When the room was emptied of ghosts and the candlelights were alight again, she giggled. "Ah fear no ghost. But Ah'm very good at scaring them. Ask Jump Scare."

In E. Gadd's side, many turned to look questioningly at the mentioned ghost who laughed sheepishly. "She's VERY good."

Back in the hallway, the key received in the classroom opened the second left door in it, and the ponies entered a room entirely empty excepted for a chandelier in the center, thankfully not dropping when they walked under it. Beside the door from which they entered, in the East side of the room, there were also three more doors, one in the North side, one in the West side, and one in the South side.

«Uh? According to the map, the South door should lead to the classroom, but there wasn't a door back there,» said E. Gadd. «Watch out, it's probably a trap door.»

«I remember,» said Luigi. «If it's a trap door, then you can destroy it with fire.»

«The DLD should work too,» said E. Gadd.

"Thanks," said Apple Bloom as she activated the DLD to make the door disappear. To everyone's surprise, however, the door didn't disappear. "Uh. it's a real door."

"What the heck?" said Little Ghost.

Applejack went to open the door, and suddenly, a wind caught everypony and forced them through the door which closed behind. They quickly recovered, and discovered that they were still in the room, but that they had somehow come out of the North door.

"Oh. I see. It's one of those rooms," said Little Ghost with a deadpan voice.

Suddenly, a little girl began giggling, the voice coming from nowhere. She then began to talk, almost whispering.

"Daddy was angry, so he left.
It was my fault, so I was down.
Mommy was right, I had to disappear.
So I left too.
I moved to the sunset.
Climbed the mountain.
And jumped the cliff.
This is where I am now."

The voice then began to repeat.

"What. The. Hay?" wondered Applejack.

«Is this how this filly died?» wondered Fluttershy sadly.

«Maybe it's just a message to give a clue of how to get out of this room,» said Twilight. «I hope...»

«I think it's the two,» said Smart Spirit. «This room is obviously a maze where you have to pass the doors in the right order to reach the end, and this filly must be using the way she died as the solution.»

"I think I understand. 'Daddy was angry, so he left'. 'Left', as in, the left door," said Sweetie Belle.

«Exactly!» said both E. Gadd and Smart Spirit.

"Okay but, uh... The left door from where we entered, or left, as in, the West door?" wondered Apple Bloom.

«Let's use the cardinal points first, it will be easier,» advised E. Gadd. «So, first, West. From there, it should be easy for you.»

Yeah, once the hidden solution was found, it was easy to understand.

'so he left': West
'so I was down': South
'Mommy was right': East
'So I left too': West.

After that, however, it was becoming a little tricky.

'I moved to the sunset' was obviously a figure of speech. The sun always set West.
'Climbed the mountain.' When you climb a mountain, you goes up. There, it corresponded to North.
'And jumped the cliff.' Same logic than with the mountain. You jump from a cliff, you go down. So, South.

Still, it was easy, and everypony found the full solution in less than a minute. So they passed the West door first, then the South door, then the East door. However, at this moment, ghosts appeared to impede their progression, and capturing them without losing track wasn't easy.

Two times West, more ghosts appeared. North, yet again more ghosts appeared, including a new, pegasus-like yellow ghost that coulp zap around like lightning, making him the fastest ghost encountered so far who could easily dodge their attacks. Teamwork still prevailed, and the ghost was captured.

They named the new ghost Zappy.

Finally, they moved South, and the ghost of a pink furred, yellow maned pegasus filly was now present, sitting in the center of the room.

"You found me!" cheered the filly. "My name is Little Candy! Nice to meet you!"

The ghost hunters didn't approach the filly despite her cheerful attitude. The ghosts in Thanatos' castle were either evil or controlled, so they knew not to trust this filly, even more when they saw that this filly clearly wasn't being controlled. She hadn't the eyes.

"This story, is it what happened to you?" still asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yup!" said Candy with a cheerful nod.

"Ya don't seem sad despite this," said Applejack.

"Oh, I was sad at first. But then, Lord Thanatos took me in, and now, I'm happy, because he's nice to me! And now, I'm gonna make him proud!"

Suddenly, a door appeared just under her, and she opened it before she passed it, the door closing and disappearing behind her. Then, many doors appeared all over the walls and the ceiling, many of them in weird angles. Candy then came out of a door in the North wall.

"I'm here!" she shouted before she closed the door. Another door then opened in the ceiling. "Nope! I'm here!" The door closed, and a door in the East wall opened. "Over there!"

Suddenly, a door opened in the West wall, and Candy flew out of it and charged right at Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom barely reacted in time to avoid her, and the ghost filly disappeared in another door before the ghost hunters could activate their Poltergusts.

"She's fast..." muttered Scootaloo.

"And she can come out of any of the doors," said Apple Bloom. "Everypony keeps an eye on a different wall. Little Ghost, you watch the ceiling."

"Roger!"

But then, all the doors opened at once, and ghosts began to come out of them, forcing the ponies to fight back, and so, to stop watching the doors. It didn't help that Candy continued to give false warnings, tricking them again and again before she charged at Apple Bloom again without warning, this time with a knife. Apple Bloom dodged her again, but she still got a small cut, and she wasn't able to catch Candy before she disappeared behind a door again.

She was ready for Candy's third charge. When the pink filly came out of a random door, Apple Bloom unleashed a big burst of air against the floor, creating a small shockwave that stopped Candy's charge and pushed her back a little along with all the other ghosts who were too close. Before Candy could fly away, Apple Bloom activated her Poltergust and caught her. Having some pity for the poor filly who had been manipulated, she didn't slam her, instead waiting for a Power Surge to do the job.

When Candy was captured, all the doors disappeared excepted one in the East wall, the original door. After that, it was just a matter of capturing the few ghosts that remained, and the key appeared.

"We'll have to find a way to convince this filly to stop following Thanatos. Ah'm sure she's redeemable," said Apple Bloom.

«She just wants love,» said Fluttershy. «I'm sure if we're here for her, she will listen to us and stop following Thanatos.»

«Since you're now a giant plushy, it should be easy for you,» said Pinkie with a giggle. «A hug, and she won't leave you. I want to hug you each time I look at you. You just look so huggable!»

«Uuuh... Th-thank you, Pinkie...»

"Now, to the next room," said Apple Bloom as she opened the exit door, key in her possession.

A few Wisps, a gargoyle, a Pyro, and two Shadows later, they reached the door that the key opened. They just had to go a little North from the previous door, then West, and it was the only door in the left wall.

When Apple Bloom opened the door, she stopped midway entering the room, staring at what was in it.

Furniture floating in the air without apparent reason. Everything floated. The table, the closets, the chairs, even the carpet. Everything.

One by one, they entered the room, looking in wonder at the floating objects when, suddenly, Apple Bloom was grabbed by Little Ghost and was dropped on the floating table. Just in time because, the next instant, spikes came out of holes they hadn't seen in the floor, entirely covering the ground. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applejack were impaled as a result, and while this didn't really affect them, it got them stuck in place. However, this did nothing to the clones of goo.

"Come on!" shouted Sweetie Belle as she tried to free herself.

"Are ya alright everypony?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Don't worry, we didn't feel anything," said Applejack who also tried to free herself. "Consarnit!"

Apple Bloom nodded, then thanked Little Ghost before she looked around, seeing ghosts appearing. Throwers, Hidders, Icys, and an unicorn ghost. Only ghosts who could attack from a distance, so remaining out of reach. This left Little Ghost and the clones of goo as the only ones able to attack them directly. Well, at first. Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost to join in the fun, and Sweetie Belle used her singing to take control of an Icy. At least, the others still could attack by firing elemental projectiles and Poltergun beams with their Poltergusts. Fire was particularly effective against the Icys.

The capture of the ghosts still took a little too long and Apple Bloom was forced to return on the table. Still, she discovered that she could use the air expelled by the Poltergust to move the table, and she used this to approach the remaining ghosts. The table was small however, so she had to be careful while capturing them to not be dragged over the edge, all the while avoiding whatever the ghosts threw or fired.

When the last ghost was captured, the key appeared on the table, and the spikes returned in their holes, freeing Sweetie Belle and the others. It still took a few seconds for them to regenerate the holes the spikes left behind. Once Apple Bloom took the key, she jumped from the table to join the others.

«You know, I wonder why they don't do more rooms with floor entirely covered in spikes. That's, like, the most effective trap ever. It almost got Apple Bloom,» said Rainbow Dash.

"Thanatos obviously doesn't want things to be too unfair for me," answered Apple Bloom. "It wouldn't be fun for him if there wasn't a way for me to survive. For him, it's a game, not an execution."

Applejack huffed. "He won't have fun for long."

Little Ghost nodded. "This 'game' will be his last."

After exiting the room, the key led them West, then at an intersection, South, to a door just at the left.

The new room was even weirder than the previous one. It was, like, six rooms in one, and it actually reminded of that room from the eleventh floor of the hotel, the one that had furniture on the floor, on the walls, and on the ceiling. It was pretty much the same thing here, tables, closets, vases and so on on every surfaces.

And as soon as the last pony entered the room, the door disappeared and the room began to turn, taking everypony by surprise. Before long, the ponies were forced to walk on one of the walls (now turned floor), and as it continued to turn the room changed direction. That was then that ghosts appeared, including many Huggers awaiting on all the surfaces for somepony to walk on them. Shadows were also present, as well as a couple of Zappys.

The ghost of a minotaur also appeared, the ghost holding a huge shield that he used to protect himself from the Poltergusts and to try to crush Apple Bloom against a wall in the chaos. Of course, this ghost had an easy weakness: he could only face one direction, so while Apple Bloom gained his attention and forced him to protect himself behind the shield, Applejack approached from the side and caught the ghost. It still wasn't easy with the room constantly turning and changing direction. At least, the furniture didn't move, slide, or drop, mainly playing the role of obstacles to impede the captures and to use as cover against projectiles.

«This room is making me dizzy...» said E. Gadd.

«It turns and turns and turns...» said Pinkie.

Thankfully, when the last ghost was captured, the room put itself back to its original position and stopped turning before the door reappeared along with the key.

"That was special," said Apple Bloom.

"And crazy," said Sweetie Belle. "How could the room turn?"

"Don't question. The answer is simple: ghosts," replied Apple Bloom.

"It's like magic. It's the answer to everything that's weird," laughed Scootaloo. "Actually, what's the difference between ghost powers and magic?"

«I can answer that!» shouted Smart Spirit. «Magic comes from our manapool, ghost powers come from our ghost energy. Both are linked to our soul, and in the end, can be used in a similar way. However, while magic depends of a lot of factors that princess Twilight would best explain, ghost energy has more to do with the power of your soul. For your info, you aren't forced to become a ghost to use ghost energy. Some gifted ponies can use mind powers that have nothing to do with magic, and it's a form of ghost power. You know, putting things on fire with your mind, being able to see with the eyes closed, telepathy, that kind of stuff.» Smart Spirit then stared at Little Ghost. «I'm surprised you never use that last one actually. You can communicate with everypony without problem.»

Little Ghost shrugged. "I prefer the more direct way. But I suppose that if we need to be stealthy, I could use it."

«Anyway,» continued Smart Spirit. «There's a main difference between magic and ghost powers. Magic can only be used by the ones who can use it. You will never see a donkey use magic for example, unless they have a magical artefact that allows them to use it. Ghost powers, however, can be used by all ghosts, no matter their origin. After, it all depends of how much ghost energy they have.»

"Translation: magic is racist, but not ghost powers," giggled Little Ghost.

Twilight's eye visibly twitched. Many ghosts laughed in the background.

The ghost hunters exited the turning room and followed the key's arrow, which led them South to the intersection leading to the West wing, then East toward a door at the left. To their surprise, however, the door led to a closet pretty much like the one back in the mess hall.

And it was as empty of ghost and key as the other. Only a few janitor stuff.

"Okay, now what?" asked Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom looked deeper into the closet. "Wait, there's a T-shaped hole in the back. AJ, give me the T thingy."

"Here ya go," said the mare as she gave the object.

Apple Bloom took it, then placed it in the hole. The next instant, the back wall of the closet opened like a door, revealing only darkness behind.

«Ah, I was wondering. There was a big hole in the map, the closet was too small to fill it and there weren't any other doors. It meant two possibilities: either it was a room only accessible by stairs, or it was a secret room,» informed E. Gadd.

The ponies entered the room, using the flashlights to light the way. But the light didn't help much, only showing more darkness, and the vision modes of the visors didn't work either. Worst, the map started glitching. No way to know where exactly they were. What was strange was that despite the darkness, they could still perfectly see each others even without the lights. And they were sure they should have reached a wall by now.

Then, there was a flash.

And darkness was suddenly replaced by...

A big maze of stairs and doors in all directions. Some of the staircases and doors were on their side or upside down, and some even moved!

Weirdest room so far, and by far. Space was already badly maltreated in some of the previous rooms, but this, it took the cake.

A bunch of Goosts appeared to block different paths with their big, fat gooish body. And to make matter worse, the ghost hunters were now somehow separated on different paths, even the clones of goo.

Apple Bloom looked at her sister and her friends one by one. Applejack was a few meters up to her left, on a staircase on its side. Sweetie Belle was at her right, on a staircase upside down. She couldn't see Scootaloo from where she was, but she heard her voice coming from below her. As for Little Ghost, she was actually floating in the air between a few staircases, trying to join somepony, but because of the distorted space she was finding herself unwillingly changing direction and would even float upside down sometimes. As a result, she was totally disoriented until she decided to settle on a staircase.

«Goodness gracious! That's some advanced and powerful space manipulation there,» said E. Gadd.

"We shouldn't have expected less from this castle full of powerful ghosts," said Apple Bloom.

«Try to find the exit. I'm sure that if one of you find it, this maze will disappear,» instructed E. Gadd.

«You may have to capture the ghost controlling this space however, if there's one,» said Smart Spirit.

"Ya'll heard them, girls. Let's find the exit," said Apple Bloom to the others.

After a round of agreements, Apple Bloom began climbing the stairs. She quickly captured a Goost with the help of the red mode, then reached a door. She then got an idea and punched the side of the door, creating a small crack.

"Girls, find a way to mark the doors you pass through."

«Oh! So we know if somepony already passed through the door! Good idea!» said Sweetie Belle.

After that, Apple Bloom passed the door and came out on another staircase, this one having a part that moved to link to various other staircases. Thankfully, the maze wasn't that big, and after a few minutes of random exploration, Apple Bloom found the exit door. She appeared on a lone staircase that seemed to go infinitely up, surrounded in darkness.

When she looked back, she panicked. There was literally a wall of purple with a big eye and a big mouth advancing, the mouth devouring the staircase.

"Oh, horseapple!" shouted Apple Bloom before she ran up the stairs. She quickly calmed down however to think of how to get out of this situation and defeat this ghost wall.

A wall with a big eye. She may have something.

She charged the Strobulb to its maximum, and flashed it at the wall. As she hopped, the wall screeched as it closed its eye, stopping advancing. Apple Bloom took the occasion to fire electricity at it, hopping to weaken the ghost enough to eventually reveal a weakness that she could use to capture it, because there wasn't any ghost tail visible for her to catch (and the tongue wouldn't work this time).

The Wall screeched in pain but eventually recovered and began to advance again. So Apple Bloom repeated the process of running while charging her Strobulb before flashing it at the eye. She then fired electricity again until the ghost recovered for the second time. This went on for a few minutes before the wall simply melted because of the electricity, leaving behind only a small, barely visible purple ghost with a single eye and a mouth. The ghost panicked and attempted to escape, but Apple Bloom caught it before it could, and since it was already weakened, she captured it very easily. She didn't even need to slam it or to use a Power Surge.

Almost as soon as the ghost was captured, the area flashed, and everypony appeared back in the closet, the backwall now closed and a key now present on the floor.

"Uh. So, somepony found the exit?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Me. But Ah'd to fight a literal ghost wall that tried to eat me," said Apple Bloom.

Little Ghost raised an eyebrow. "A ghost wall?"

"Thanatos created some really weird ghosts," replied Apple Bloom to this. "But electricity did the job against it."

"What next? A ghost floor? A ghost ceiling?" wondered Scootaloo.

"Eh. Why not a whole ghost room?" laughed Applejack.

"The worst part's that, after this, Ah really believe we can encounter a ghost room," said Apple Bloom with a roll of her eyes.

Author's Note

Meet Little Candy and The Wall. For The Wall, I was inspired by this boss from Terraria:

Chapter 5: Musical Interlude

The key from the secret room led the ponies to a double door just a little North and West of the door leading to the turning room. From behind the double door, they could hear an orchestra playing.

"Guess it's time for another musical battle," said Apple Bloom.

"And this time, we won't need to smash statues. We are prepared," said Sweetie Belle.

"We will rock this battle," giggled Little Ghost.

«Ba dum tss!»

"Thanks, Pinkie."

«Where did she get those drums and cymbals from?» asked E. Gadd.

«Don't ask,» answered many others.

At this moment, the ponies opened the double door, and immediately, the music stopped. Slowly, carefully, the ponies advanced, being in a path between tiers of seats. The stage was in front, elevated, with a staircase behind what seemed to be the conductor's stand. On the stage were all the instruments that you could think of for an orchestra, but no ghosts.

When the ponies reached the end of the path not far of the stairs to the stage, they could see more of the room, and it was far from the auditorium from Eternal Rest's hotel. It was much bigger, and darker, as dark as the rest of the castle. There were chandeliers on the ceiling, gargoyles against the walls, and a huge round window, like a stained glass, in the left wall. From what the map was saying, the room reached all the way to the third floor, and a balcony was present on the right side. Again, following the map, this balcony certainly led to Thanatos' throne room (so the throne room was in the third floor between the Great Hall and the auditorium). Behind, the seats reached the second floor, and the ponies could see two double doors at the top, behind the two sets of seats. Skeletons were present on some of the seats, silent, eternal spectators of whatever was played in this room.

Still no trace of any ghost. No Shadows. No Sneakers, Creepers, or Assassins. Nothing, which made the ponies paranoid.

One by one, they climbed on the stage, having nothing else to do.

And suddenly, elements of decor were placed around them by an invisible force. At their left, and at their right came cardboard water in the form of raging waves as if they were splashing against a cliff. Above them, cardboard dark clouds covered the ceiling. Finally, a cardboard background came against the back wall with painted on it a single path hit in both sides by the waves. The path was leading toward the sun, rising or setting, partially hidden behind the clouds.

And then, all around the ghost hunters, the instruments began to float and to play before they entered the background cardboard as it took life.

As in, suddenly, without even a flash, the cardboard elements became real. The stage was now a cliff against an infinite ocean, huge waves hitting it from the sides while it was illuminated by the sun in the distance.

Then, the ghost of an orange unicorn mare with a white mane curled in the sides and possessing a black dress appeared behind the instruments above the now existing path as she used a baton and hoof gestures to conduct the orchestra.

«It's Symphonia!» shouted Piano Virtuoso in shock in the background.

"THE Symphonia?!" asked Sweetie Belle in awe.

Symphonia suddenly gestured toward the ghost hunters, and instruments appeared from nowhere around them and began to attack them while her orchestra started to bombard the cliff with projectiles looking like musical notes in the rythm of the song.

"Ah knew it was too calm," said Apple Bloom as she destroyed a trumpet.

"At least, the song is epic!" said Scootaloo as she broke a violin.

"Let's go after Symphonia, girls!" shouted Sweetie Belle.

So they went after the ghost, running on the path (or floating in Little Ghost's case) while fighting the instruments that appeared on their way and avoiding the musical notes. They also had to be careful to not fall beyond the edge of the path and it wasn't easy because of some instruments like trombones blowing air at them, and some of the waves were so big that they simply threatened to sweep the ponies if they didn't watch out.

Little Ghost would have caught Symphonia if it wasn't for the constant barrage of projectiles and enemies she was victim of.

After some time, they reached a part of the path that was actually a column of rock forming a small arena. The path was then blocked by a wall of giant instruments coming out of the ground and the ghost hunters had to fight a small wave of instruments as well as a Puffer that tried to blow them beyond the edge. Once the wave of enemies was destroyed, the wall of instruments disappeared back into the ground, leaving the ponies to continue.

This repeated two more times, each time having to fight bigger waves, before they finally reached the end of the path, a huge arena in the middle of the ocean, high in the sky. Once they all reached it, the path crumbled behind them, leaving no way to escape.

A new wave of enemies then appeared, mainly instruments but also ghosts, including ghosts of ponies possessing instruments to make them more brutal. It still wasn't that hard to get them.

Things really became hectic with the second wave. A possessed piano appeared as well as ghost of ponies not possessing instruments but using them as weapons, for example attempting to smash a guitar on the ghost hunters' head. Some even used the instruments in the same way than Symphonia, by firing music notes at the ponies.

Applejack bucked the piano, sending it flying beyond the edge of the arena. However, the piano, damaged, floated back on ground and restarted attacking only for a Puffer controlled by Sweetie Belle to smash it with his big arms. Little Ghost then finished it with an explosive energy ball.

However, after the last ghosts were captured, a third wave came, this one with two pianos and even singers. The opera singers used their soprano voice to send sonic waves while the choir singers worked together to boost the other ghosts. There were even new instruments like electric guitars that sent fireballs when played or drums that caused lightning bolts to strike from the sky.

Apple Bloom decided to turn into a ghost to destroy the two pianos, leaving the others to deal with the rest. Actually, she got the idea of entering one of the piano, forcing the ghost possessing it out and taking control of it. She already trained to take possession of objects, but it still took her a few seconds to become used to be a piano. Once she was ready, she then levitated the keys and sent them to destroy some of the instruments around while she rammed the other piano, badly damaging it. She then jumped and dropped back on the other piano, smashing it and even creating a shockwave that the others had to avoid.

"Watch what you do, Apple Bloom!" shouted Applejack.

"Sorry!" said Apple Bloom as she left the piano and sent it toward the ocean with the remains of the other. Turning back to normal, she then joined the others in capturing the ghosts.

When the third wave was entirely destroyed, Symphonia became desperate. She sent her own orchestra to attack the ponies only for it to be easily destroyed, instrument by instrument. Not admitting defeat, the mare then charged toward Apple Bloom, attempting to stab her with the baton.

Apple Bloom simply stepped aside to avoid the baton, then activated her Poltergust, catching the ghost. After a few slams and a Power Surge, the ghost disappeared.

And everything returned to normal. They were back on stage with the ocean, the waves, the clouds, the path, and the sun becoming cardboard again, and a key was now present in the middle.

"I think I will never look at an opera the same way than before," said Sweetie Belle.

"Well, me, it made me want to go to one," said Scootaloo.

"Ya know that in real operas, the decor doesn't become real, right?" asked Apple Bloom.

"I know, but the music was epic, and I'm curious to see what else there's. And hey, maybe we could recruit Symphonia to do what she did if she reveals to be okay."

"Great idea! It will be a huge attraction for your future town, Apple Bloom," said Sweetie Belle.

"The only theater where the decor comes to life in the whole planet. Ponies and other creatures will come from everywhere!" said Little Ghost.

"You know, if this continues, your town will actually be a real city," said Applejack.

«Oh! Maybe it will even become the capital of a whole country that will be named Ghostopia and Apple Bloom will be the Queen of the ghosts!» said Pinkie Pie.

"Me? Queen? No thanks. Ah ain't seeing mahself ruling a country," said Apple Bloom.

"Anyway. Let's get this key," said Scootaloo.

Nodding, Apple Bloom took the key and saw that it opened the two double doors at the top of the seats, in the second floor.

Little Ghost then pointed at the Northeast corner of the stage. "Wait, what about this passage over there?"

The others turned to look and saw, hidden from the seats by a curtain, a passage indeed.

"It's probably where the decor elements are stocked," guessed Applejack. "Let's go see."

At this, the ponies went to the passage and entered another room, smaller but filled of stuff. As Applejack guessed, there were many cardboard cutouts to form various elements like pieces of a tower, pieces of a dragon, trees, bushes, and so on. There were also ladders, some tools, and paint buckets. There were even machines like one to shoot fire, another for smoke, or even one for bubbles.

Three Bulkys were present as well as a few rather muscled pony ghosts and some minotaurs. There were also ghosts of various species wearing disguises and costumes, a couple of instrument players (a bass and a flute), a janitor, and a few randoms including a filly. Some of the ghosts got the good idea of using the machine that can shoot fire.

Little Ghost went after those ghosts first while Apple Bloom and Applejack took care of the muscled ones, leaving the rest to Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and the clones of goo for now. Sweetie took control of the janitor, letting him use his broom to hurt the other ghosts, while Scootaloo used a hit and run tactic with air blasts to weaken them. An Assassin then revealed himself and tried to stab Apple Bloom from behind with his claw, but Applejack saw him and slammed a ghost on him, saving her sister.

Once Little Ghost was done with the ghosts using the fire machine, she went to help Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, finishing the ghosts that the pegasus weakened. With the three of them, they rapidly managed to capture all the ghosts, leaving only a minotaur and a Bulky as well as a second Assassin who was accidentally revealed by slamming a ghost on him. The minotaur tried to save himself by smashing the ground, creating a shockwave, but the ponies all jumped above it, leaving him no chance. One by one, the three remaining ghosts were captured, and the key appeared.

The key opened a door just beside the passage, back on the stage in the East wall. This led to a room that was clearly a dressing room for the artists. It was full of clothes and accessories like swords. There were obviously some mirrors, including some makeup dressers against the East wall.

And as a result, there were many artist ghosts present in the room; some actors, some instrument players, and some singers. One of the actors even gathered most of the clothes present in the room to create a clothe golem.

The ponies sent the clones of goo to deal with the golem while they captured the other ghosts. The golem was quickly destroyed, and the ghost who created it was captured, and almost immediately, a Bogmire-like ghost appeared and manipulated the objects in the room to throw them at the ponies, especially at Apple Bloom. The filly countered by turning into a ghost, using her speed in this form to dodge most of the objects while approaching the Bogmire-like ghost to capture it.

Apple Bloom thought that it was time to name those ghosts, so she named them Boggy.

After the capture of the Boggy, a key appeared.

"Uh, now, we've two keys," said Scootaloo.

«The first one you got is to open the doors at the top of the seats, right? I think it's a shortcut to the hallway back in the second floor,» said E. Gadd.

"Let's verify," said Apple Bloom.

It turned out that E. Gadd was right. The first key led to the hallway in the second floor, the same one that was leading to the Great Hall and the entrance hall.

As for the second key obtained in the dressing room, it led them North in the first floor, to the intersection before the hallway leading to the North wing. There, the key led them West, to the first door in the right wall.

They felt that they were approaching the first guardian.

Chapter 6: The Library

The new room was... disturbing. It was clearly a room for painting. There were five easels and many canvas hanging from the walls, and there were many stuff to paint, brushes, paint tubes filled or empty, and so on. Nothing anormal.

What was disturbing was the paintings on the wall. One was of a pony hanged, still alive but choking. Another was of a pony being devoured alive by a manticore. A third was of a pony melting in a bath of acide. And this continued, each painting depicting a pony dying in a horrible way, excepted five that were simply paintings of Thanatos in different poses.

Strangely, there weren't many ghosts in this room despite its size (the room was rather big), only some painters, a dozen Wisps, and a Thrower, all easily captured. However, the key didn't appear when the last ghost was captured, and no other ghosts appeared. Really, they verified with the DLD just in case.

So they began to explore the room, searching in the drawers, under the table, behind the canvases.

When Applejack looked behind one of the paintings of Thanatos, she found the number three painted on the wall.

"Hey! There's a 3 behind that there painting!" she shouted to the others.

They all looked at the mare in wonder.

"A 3?" asked Scootaloo.

"And behind a painting of Thanatos?" asked Little Ghost.

They exchanged looks, then went to look behind the other paintings of Thanatos. As they expected now, they found more numbers, from one to five.

"Are ya thinking what Ah'm thinking?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Duh! There're five paintings of Thanatos with numbers from one to five, and there're five easels in the room! We don't need to be Twilight to understand what we must do," said Scootaloo.

They all giggled.

"Alright," began Sweetie Belle. "First, let's align the easel," she instructed. Once they were done, she continued. "Now, let's place the paintings in the correct order. From one to five."

A few seconds later, the paintings were all placed, but nothing happened.

"What now?" asked Scootaloo.

"Uh... I don't know," said Sweetie Belle.

"Wait," suddenly said Applejack as she looked at the paintings one after another. "Don't y'all think that these poses look like... dancing moves?"

"Uh?" They all looked back at the paintings, and now that Applejack said it, the poses really looked like dancing moves.

"Don't tell me one of us has to dance like in the paintings," said Apple Bloom with a deadpan look.

"Or... Maybe we each just need to take one of the poses?" wondered Little Ghost. "Like, I would take the pose in the first painting, Apple Bloom would take the second, and so on."

"It's certainly one of the two. Let's try Little Ghost's idea first. It's the easiest," said Sweetie Belle.

They tried, and it didn't work, making all of them groan. Scootaloo then advanced.

"Let me do the dancing. I think I'm the only one here who knows how to dance. Certainly not Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom laughed sheepishly at being reminded of the disaster that was their show, especially her dancing. Maybe she should take some dance lessons.

"How come ya're good at dancing, by the way?" asked Apple Bloom. "Ah didn't see ya as the dancing type."

Scootaloo shrugged before she began to dance following the poses of the paintings. "Beat me. It always came naturally to me. Eh, I guess that if I hadn't gotten my Cutie Mark at stunts, I would have gotten one in dancing. But I always found dancing lame, so I avoided it." As she said it, she did the last pose, and the key appeared beside her.

"It's okay to dance, nopony will judge you for it," said Sweetie Belle.

"And Ah've seen enough dancing to know that ya can dance and still be 'awesome'," informed Applejack.

"Yeah, I saw some ponies doing some sick moves as they say today," said Little Ghost before she giggled. "Platinum Shoes saw it too and wanted to do like them. The look on Aunt and Uncle Shoes' face! Clearly not their style!"

"Ya'd make it a hobby, when ya aren't busy doing stunts or hunting ghosts with us," said Apple Bloom.

«And I will definitively not find it 'lame' if you start dancing. No matter what you choose to do, I will be with you,» said Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo thought about this for a moment. "Eh. I will see."

Key in their possession, they exited the room, and they were led to the next door down the hallway, to the West. A bigger door.

The new room was as big as the previous one and possessed many stone sculptures, along with the tools needed for sculpting and the tables on which some of the sculptures stood.

And all the sculptures took life when the ponies entered the room, a good dozen in total, either of Thanatos or of a muscled pony, griffon, or minotaur. Stone was solid, but the bursts of air still was effective to propel them against each other or against the walls to destroy them. When half of the statues were destroyed however, various ghosts arming themselves with sculpting tools appeared. So Applejack and Little Ghost went to deal with the remaining statues while the others captured the ghosts.

One of the ghosts revealed to have strong telekinetic powers as, when the majority of the statues were destroyed, he used his power to levitate the pieces around him, trying to make them ram the ponies, and it was almost impossible to approach him. Thankfully, the room being rather large, it wasn't hard to keep some distance that the ponies used to fire projectiles at the ghost to weaken him until he couldn't use his power anymore, leaving him vulnerable. A couple of Bulkys also appeared and started to throw the pieces, but they were easy to approach and capture thanks to the ponies' number.

When the last Bulky was captured, the key appeared and led them at a door at the end of the hallway, as big as the one leading to the sculpting room.

And it was easy to see why once they entered the room behind it. It was a storage room full of stone blocks to be transported to the sculpting room. There were also a lot of blank canvases piled, boxes of various stuff, and paint tubes here and there on the ground. Some cleaning stuff was present in the corner too, including a ladder. There were even some dismantled shelves. What for? No idea.

Suddenly, the stone blocks began to levitate, then gathered. Tools also levitated and began to sculpt the blocks as they assembled to form a huge stone golem that began to take the shape of a pony. At the same time, the canvases began to levitate too as the ghost of a purple earth pony mare with a blue mane appeared, and the canvases circled her. The mare then began to paint on the canvases, and whatever she painted took life and went to attack the ghost hunters. Mainly small objects, but also some rather weak ghosts. Nothing to the level of what Pyrite did. But where the mare failed in quality, she succeeded in number. In a few seconds, she was already painting a small army that threatened to overwhelm the ponies if they didn't work fast. And yet, they also had to deal with the stone golem at the same time.

And so, Apple Bloom turned into a ghost and used her great powers to rapidly destroy a good part of the small army of painted things, leaving the way mostly open for her friends and the clones of goo to capture the painter. While this happened, Applejack, boosted by Sweetie Belle's singing, bucked the golem while Little Ghost attacked it with everything she had. Thanks to Apple Bloom, the painter was the first to go down, but she had to return to normal before she could turn her powers to the golem. Stupid time limit.

The capture of the painter led to the appearance of two Boggys that began to throw stuff left and right, turning the room into chaos. A couple of Assassins also appeared, trying to take Apple Bloom by surprise. Because of all of them, the fillies couldn't go and help Applejack and Little Ghost destroying the golem. Not like they needed help at first glance. The golem was slow and its attacks were easy to avoid. Little by little, the mare and the filly ghost damaged it, causing cracks to spread all over it and small chunks to break. The Boggys caused them some problems for a moment, but it didn't last long when they were eventually distracted by the fillies going after them.

Finally, the golem was destroyed by a last buck from Applejack. The buck destroyed its leg, resulting in the very damaged statue to fall and break into a pile of rubble out of which flew the ghost who possessed it, another earth pony, a dark grey stallion with a black mane streaked with some white. It was easy for Little Ghost to capture him after that.

A few wraiths then came in the room after that, and one of them managed to stab the remaining Boggy who hadn't been captured yet, turning it into another wraith. The Boggy wraith kept its powers, but gained the dark magic that came with the transformation, turning it more dangerous. Some Poltergun beams, however, quickly took care of it, and the wraiths were captured one by one until nothing remained, and a key appeared.

Apple Bloom huffed. "Even Thanatos' creations aren't immune to wraiths. Better one of them than a real ghost."

"It was still horrible to watch it turning into one of those things," said Sweetie Belle in sadness.

"Ah know..."

They left the room with the key, only to be greeted by a new kind of ghost that had the same purple specific to the majority of Thanatos' creations. The thing was hard to describe, it was like a purple sheet that slithered around the ponies like a breeze before trying to attack one of them from behind. Two more of them came after the first one, and their slithering was really confusing, especially in number.

Thankfully, those things that Apple Bloom decided to name Slitherers weren't strong compared to Boggys, easy to capture once they were caught, but like the Assassins, there was no doubt that in the middle of a fight, they will be dangerous.

A few more Slitherers were encountered in the hallway as the ponies followed the arrow of the key, along with other known ghosts. The arrow led them back to the intersection, then North in the hallway leading to the North wing. However, instead of going all the way to the North wing like they feared, the arrow led them to a lone door in their left, not far of the intersection.

The key didn't disappear when they opened the door. Apparently, it opened another door in a floor above.

They quickly understood where they were when they entered the room: the castle's library, much to Twilight's joy. At the left of the ponies was the counter behind which the librarian would sit, and everywhere else, they could see shelves filled with books. At their right upon entering, Little Ghost spotted a staircase leading to the second floor blocked by a shelf. The only way to reach the stairs was to make a big detour through a small maze of shelves.

Or she could just use her powers to ~~blast~~ move the shelf, which she did.

But it didn't work. A force was keeping the shelf in place.

Little Ghost sighed. "It would have been too easy, uh?"

So they went for the maze of shelves, and as they expected, it was full of ghosts, and most of all, of possessed books. Thankfully, it was only a few dozens, not the whole library. For the first time, they also encountered Mini-Tricksters hiding in the shelves in great number. In the end, the maze wasn't hard to traverse, and before long, the ponies reached the staircase and climbed to the second floor.

There too was a maze formed by the shelves, but it revealed to be a little more complex. A shelf was blocking a staircase leading to the third floor, and another was blocking the way to the exit door of the second floor. And of course, there were more enemies, including possessed books that used magic to attack instead of simply attempting to devour the ponies. Slitherers also came back in force in this floor.

The ponies remarked that the shelves blocking the door and the staircase each seemed to miss a book while all the other shelves were absolutely full of them (without counting the books that flew out to attack), so it wasn't a stretch to understand that they had to find those missing books to make the shelves move. However, the books could be found nowhere in the library, not in the second floor, and not in the first floor. This left them no choice but to exit the library to search for the books, to their annoyance.

They weren't sure if the books would be found in rooms still locked, so they searched for any rooms already unlocked but that hadn't been explored yet, which forced them to test any doors beside which they passed, and on the way, to fight maaaany ghosts.

It turned out that there were two unlocked rooms in the hallway circling a staircase to the second floor, just South of the library, and some rooms were restrooms, one for mares and one for stallions. Each room was guarded by some ghosts, but they only found a book in the stallions' restroom, placed on the lid of a toilet bowl.

"Well, already one, but where could the other be?" wondered Sweetie Belle.

"Mmh... We haven't explored much of the second floor yet, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's here," said Little Ghost.

"I hope it's not somewhere in the North wing," said Scootaloo. If she was still alive, she would be shuddering.

Little Ghost revealed to be right in the end. After some exploring, they found themselves in the hallway of the second floor where the doors at the top of the seats in the auditorium led to. At both ends of the hallway was a closet, and the missing book was found in the western one.

But as they exited the closet, Apple Bloom gave a yelp and suddenly lowered her head, barely avoiding an arrow that instead planted itself in Sweetie's head.

"Heeey!"

The responsible revealed to be a pirate ghost with a crossbow further in the hallway. Nothing like Blackbeard, he was clearly just a crewmember of who knows which pirate ship sailed the oceans.

Welp, pirates entered the game. Twilight quickly searched for any info they had on all known pirates. Blackbeard was the most infamous of them, but it didn't mean that they will underestimate the other captains. Same for the bandits. They already encountered some of them in the hallways, but only minions, no leaders so far. But they didn't doubt that they will encounter bandit leaders and pirate captains sooner or later.

As for the pirate that just headshot Sweetie Belle, Sweetiegoo took care of him, the arrows doing nothing to the being of goo.

They returned to the library by the first floor, then climbed back to the second floor from there. Some ghosts had returned while they were away, but they quickly took care of them. Then, they placed the books found in their corresponding shelves, and as planned, the shelves moved to the side, freeing the door and the staircase to the third floor of the library.

The third floor, again, had a maze of shelves even more complex than the previous one, and there were many shelves that needed to be moved by placing books found here and there in the right places. Wisps were numerous there, resulting in many, many books being possessed and attacking the ponies. There were also a lot of ambushes, ghosts suddenly coming out of the shelves in rather big numbers and circling the ghost hunters to attack them from all sides.

They still were able to reach the stairs to the fourth floor where, and while the maze with the shelves having to be moved continued there, the ghosts were replaced by a great number of wraiths and Shadows creeping the shelves of the maze. Still, some Wisps dared to come despite the danger to take possession of some of the books. Could a Wisp even be turned into a wraith? They were really minor spirits, so it was hard to say.

Eventually, the ponies reached yet another staircase, and this one led on the roof of the library, and for the first time since they entered the castle, the ponies could have a good look of the exterior.

The castle really was impressive from outside. It really had a gothic style, with a lot of spires and pointed roofs. The only flat area they could see beside the roof of the library was a huge area a little South that reminded of the roof of the Gem Manor, without the pillars and the chimneys. Just East of it was a very tall tower, the tallest of the castle, which possessed a top larger than the rest of it. Beside it, they could spot some other towers, including one that was totally engulfed in a violent wind, making it impossible to see the top. It was hard to see behind the spires and towers, but further Southeast, they could also spot at least a windigo flying.

"Great, a windigo..." muttered Apple Bloom when she saw it.

In the East side of the castle, they could see a courtyard , and it was then that the ponies saw that the castle seemed to be surrounded by a rampart, and they could even see a waterfall coming from nowhere fall into a small tower at the East of the courtyard.

When they looked North, they could see the North wing which was a real architectural mess looking as if someone placed rooms without caring if the sizes didn't match and parts stick out, and it possessed two towers too, one taller than the other. At the right of the wing was the graveyard, which was huge! From there, they could see a big bridge go Northeast far in the distance toward what looked like a very, very tall dark tower.

West-Northwest of the library, the ponies discovered the existence of another, smaller wing. It seemed to be only accessible from the second floor because the first floor only had huge pillars supporting it. This wing had two particularities: there was a huge puppet head above the entrance door, and there was a large, round area that stick out in the back extremity of the wing.

Finally, a little far West of the castle, a stadium could be seen.

It dawned to the ponies how much they still had to explore. They felt as if they had already explored a lot, and yet, they hadn't even encountered the first guardian. At least, the third and fourth floors of the castle seemed to be smaller than the rest.

Oh, and there were still thousands of ghosts flying around the spires and the towers, making them realize too that what they fought until now was barely the tip of the iceberg.

Then, two giant cuckoo-clocks came from... somewhere and floated to the roof of the library. They were really big for cuckoo-clocks, as big as Applejack. The two circled the ponies before they settled side by side. The hands of both clocks then reached the 12, and two phoenixes revealed themselves, having taken the place of the cuckoos.

And the battle began with the clocks slamming themselves on the ground and creating shockwaves. At the same time, the hands began to rapidly turn, and when the minute hand reached the 12 again, the phoenix cuckoos came out and shot a certain number of fireballs all over the roof. When the phoenixes returned in the clocks, double doors at their bottom then opened, revealing portals out of which came a total of four ghosts; a cook, a guard, a Bulky, and a griffon.

Little Ghost immediately attacked the clocks with here powers, but they revealed to be fast and easily dodged whatever she threw at them. The only real occasion the ponies had to attack them was when they slammed on the ground, but they had to act fast and it wasn't easy between the shockwaves and the various ghosts that they unleashed from the portals.

Still, the fight wasn't really a problem... Until the ponies suddenly heard a loud rumble coming from the library. The next instant, thousands and thousands, maybe even dozens of thousand of papers came from the stairs and flew all over the roof before gathering in the center, forming a giant golem of paper that had a basic shape similar to Bogmire, without the face. The golem then grabbed the two clocks and began to use them like weapons, slamming them on the ground repeatedly or using the cuckoo-phoenixes to shoot fireballs while also sending ghosts from their portals. At the same time, the golem also attacked by sending streams of paper to try to push the ponies beyond the edge of the roof, or by sending papers in various patterns, generally in lines, to cut them.

However, the golem had two very obvious weaknesses: fire and water, and the ponies didn't hesitate to use fire to burn it. Whoever was possessing the golem was smart however and quickly expelled the burning papers from the golem's body to avoid being entirely burned. The ponies also continued to attack the clocks when they had the occasion, damaging them more and more. However, the golem then had the genius idea of sending the burning papers at the ponies, not wasting the paper anymore.

Then, the ponies managed to destroy a first clock, unleashing the phoenix that was in it. The bird, of course, began to attack with fireballs or by diving at the ponies, but it was quickly captured by one of them. The second clock followed, and the second phoenix was as quickly captured.

Without the cuckoo-clocks, it seemed at first that the golem had lost a lot of its offensiveness, but then, it began to use spare papers to form various objects. Giant paper balls that it threw to roll on the ponies, paper hammers to crush them, giant paper saws that swept the roof to cut them, and so on. However, all were easily destroyed with fire, and little by little, the golem was losing matter to attack until all that remained was the paper forming its body. From there, it was only a matter of time, the golem becoming smaller and smaller as the papers forming its body burned, before it was finally destroyed, revealing the ghost of a pale yellow unicorn pony with a red mane possessing some streaks of grey put in a bun and wearing glasses, probably the librarian.

The librarian still used whatever paper remained to attack, and even fired a few magic bolts, fighting to the very end before she was captured.

And a key appeared in the center of the roof.

"Welp, a new reason to not anger librarians," laughed Scootaloo.

«I recognized her. Celestia talked to me about her. That was Candle Shimmer, a previous librarian of the castle...»

«Candle Shimmer? Did she have anything to do with...» asked Rainbow Dash.

«Yes. She was Sunset Shimmer's mom. She apparently died from an incurable disease when Sunset was very young. Celestia took her under her wing not long after. I... suppose that I will have to send a word to Sunset...»

Not commenting on it, the ponies took the keys and followed its arrow back to the second floor. They passed the exit door of the library there, entering a new hallway that led North to the second floor of the North wing and South to who knew where. They followed the hallway South, then West (passing beside a single door there) before they went North toward a double door turned to the Northwest. The door was already unlocked however, so it wasn't it that they needed to unlock.

The door led them outside of the castle, on a bridge that the ponies had seen from the roof of the library, leading to that wing with the giant puppet head above the entrance, the head looking down at them.

Below the head was written:

TOYWING
a world of fun!

The ponies exchanged worried looks.

"Ah don't like it at all," said Applejack.

"Ya aren't the only one. Ah feel that we're approaching one of the guardians, and whatever we'll see in this wing'll be very ugly," replied Apple Bloom.

"I'm one hundred percent certain that we will face killer toys," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh boy... That's, like, one of the scariest stuff in horror stories," said Scootaloo.

Still, with a nod to show their resolution, the ponies unlocked the double door and entered the wing.

The door slammed behind them.

And the puppet head above the entrance suddenly laughed.

Author's Note

Next chapter, the first guardian, and one of the darkest passages of this story.

Chapter 8: The North Wing Part 1

Author's Note

We leave a dark part, we enter another... Be ready, this chapter and the following ones will have some very ugly moments.

Chapter 8: The North Wing Part 1

Apple Bloom and the others left the Toy Wing and its horrors behind without saying a word, traversing the bridge leading back to the main wing of the castle. They had thought they had seen the worst against Eternal Rest, but Toy Maker proved to them that there was always something worst.

Eternal Rest was a sadistic witch who took pleasure in making others suffer and enslaving them to feel great.

Toy Maker was a nice stallion who loved toys like his children and couldn't support to see them being mistreated, which broke his mind and turned him into that vengeful mad demon killer of children.

Toy Maker was tragic.

And the worst part was that with Toy Maker came the realisation that anybody, in the right circumstances, could become like him.

Everybody could be Toy Maker.

And that was scary.

However, it wasn't really the time to dwell on that thought. The ponies still had a big part of the castle to explore and three guardians to find and fight.

After Toy Maker, they didn't dare to imagine how were the other guardians.

But now, as the ponies entered the main wing, they were left with a choice, and as Apple Bloom took the three keys that she possessed beside the skull key, she asked "So, which one do we use, now?"

"If I remember correctly, one leads to the North wing, one leads to a room beside the entrance hall in the second floor, and one leads to... Erh... I don't think we ever verified where the third key leads to," said Little Ghost.

"Uhuh. We just know it leads somewhere in the second floor, or maybe even above," said Sweetie Belle.

"You know, after what we went through, the North wing doesn't sound so bad, creepy atmosphere or not," said Scootaloo.

"Uuuh... Maybe we should do a few less creepy rooms before we start the North wing," said Sweetie Belle. "You know, to rest our mind a little before we enter another potentially traumatizing part of the castle."

"Excepted that we never know when we'll enter a room that'll be as bad," said Applejack.

"Good point... So... North wing?" asked the undead.

The ponies exchanged looks before nodding, Apple Bloom saying "We'd as well do it sooner rather than later."

So they went to the North wing which wasn't far. They just had to return to the entrance of the library and continue North.

As they entered the wing, the atmosphere became like they felt earlier, oppressive and gloomy, but this time, they were ready. They were however greatly disturbed by the absence of ghosts attacking them. Until now, there was always at least a ghost in the hallways assaulting them, but in the darkness of the North wind, there was nothing.

They had to climb down a staircase and return to the first floor, the key opening the first door at the right here. Reaching the door, they hesitated a few seconds before they unlocked it and opened it.

The room they entered revealed to have its walls covered by dozens and dozens of swords of all kinds and of various designs, scimitars, claymores, sabers, or even giant swords the size of a grown stallion. And speaking of stallion, the ghost of a yellow, green-maned unicorn stallion was present in the room, smirking at them as he levitated many of the swords from the walls to him.

«Hey, I recognize this guy! It's Red Sword, that famous bandit leader that had finally been caught and killed a few years ago!» said Spike.

«And how do you know about him?» asked Twilight.

«I read the newspapers. While you passed days locked in your library, I informed myself on what happened in the outside world.»

The ponies had to stop listening as Red Sword attacked, sending his swords at Apple Bloom in a mortal dance that would have been really hard for the filly to avoid. Thankfully, air bursts were enough to repel them, and Little Ghost was particularly effective thanks to her powers, leaving the way open to capture the ghost of the stallion. Red Sword, however, levitated more swords to him, so the ponies formed a protective wall around Apple Bloom until the filly could reach and capture the bandit. Despite being sucked up, Red Sword still attempted to defend himself with his swords, but he was stopped by the constant slamming, and before long, he disappeared in the Poltergust.

"And one famous bandit leader down, one!" said Scootaloo.

"Ah feel like it's only the beginning..." said Apple Bloom.

Red Swod's defeat left the way open for the ponies to enter what must have been his chamber (a few swords littering the room) where they found a key on his bed. A door led to a bathroom (that also served as restroom) but there was nothing of interrest here so they returned in the hallway.

The new key led to the door just in front, and they entered a larger room that looked like a restaurant or a mess hall, with a few tables and a checkered black and white floor. Jst in front was a door, and the right of it, there was a small, empty hallway.

At the beginning of this hallway, someone in a yellow bunny costume was standing, staring at the fillies. Whoever it was tilted his head innocently, then signed for the ponies to come as he turned and walked down the hallway.

"It's SOO a trap," said Sweetie Belle.

"Not like we have much of a choice but to follow him," said Apple Bloom.

«Wait, somepony in a bunny costume? I thing I saw something like that in the archives. Let me search,» said Twilight.

While she searched, the ponies followed the bunny in the hallway until reaching a door at the end. Apple Bloom was the first to pass it, only for the door to close behind her, revealing the bunny who had hidden himself behind it and blocking the others outside. Then, the ghost of a purple pegasus stallion with a purple mane and a purple security uniform came out of the costume, the stallion holding a knife. He immediately tried to stab her only for Apple Bloom to deflect the knife with her leg. At the same time, Little Ghost passed through the door and headbutted the stallion from behind, leaving him open for the two fillies to capture him, making a key appear.

«There. Night Twister. A security guard who used the costume of the mascot of a restaurant chain to lure children to a backroom and kill them a couple of decades ago. Hanged himself in prison before his trial. Because of this, he was never officially declared guilty,» informed Twilight.

"Well, for me, he's totally guilty," said Apple Bloom as she took the key while Little Ghost pushed the bunny costume out of the way and opened the door.

Not needing to enter what was certainly Night Twister's chamber, the ponies returned in the hallway, the key leading to the second door of the right wall.

They entered a big room where they immediately spotted the ghost of a red earth pony mare with a purple mane. Behind the mare were a few crates full of bombs, and the mare herself was holding a couple of them while laughing like a loon.

«Oh, I recognize her. Red Blast, the mad bomber,» said Twilight.

«What? That mare who terrorized Manehattan for a few months with her bombs?» asked Spike.

The mare began to throw bombs at the ponies who quickly ran to avoid them. Eventually, Applejack bucked one of the bombs, sending it back at Red Blast, the bomb exploding on her face as she was about to throw another. because of the explosion, she was sent crashing into one of the crates with her lit bomb.

The bomb explosed, causing a chain reaction, all the bombs exploding and destroying a good part of the back wall of the room which revealed Red Blast's chamber. As for the mare, she was sent flying by the explosions, and she would have traversed the ceiling if Little Ghost hadn't been here to intercept her. The filly ghost caught her, then suddenly flew toward the ground to violently slam her. A couple more slams were enough to capture her.

«It seems like this wing is home to questionable people,» said E. Gadd.

«So... A mini-boss rush,» guessed Discord. «Bah, it still should be a breeze.»

"Well, that fight certainly was a blast," said Sweetie Belle, causing a few groans and some laughs.

The key was found on Red Blast's bed and led to the second door in the left wall back in the hallway. The room they entered immediately revealed something very horrifying: in the center, sitting on a chair, there was the corpse of a mare, throat sliced. The most disturbing was the presence of several cameras around her.

The ponies stared at the scene in horror when a masculine voice appeared.

"Do you like it? This is my art."

Then, the ghost of a male kirin with a dark yellow coat and a light blue mane appeared not far beside the ponies. He was holding several photos that he showed to them, the photos being of the mare as she was agonizing taken from various angles and distances.

"Look at them! Look at them! Aren't they beautiful? It is said that the flame of a candle glows brighter before disappearing, and life is like such a flame. So the last moment of a life? There's nothing more magnificent that I can think of!"

"What?!" shouted Applejack. "That's-"

"By the way. I'm Final Flash, war photograph, and I live to photograph the end of lives. Enchanted to meet you! So, we have a mare and four fillies. Mmh... Looks like four of you are already dead. Too bad. I suppose that I will have to do with just the earth pony filly, which is totally okay! I never tried my hoof with a foal until now, I can't wait to see-GAAAH!!"

"Ya'll do no such thing ya crazy buck!" shouted Applejack as she activated her Poltergust and trapped the kirin, revealing that he was hiding a knife. She was quickly joined by Apple Bloom, then by the others who all wanted to see this disgusting guy disappear as quickly as possible.

"Nobody ever understood meeeeee-" Pouf!

Applejack let out a growl. "That guy's place's in an asylum!"

"Agreed!" said the others.

With the kirin captured, the way was open for the ponies to enter his chamber and get the key.

The key led to the third door in the right wall of the hallway. In the room behind it, an unicorn stallion ghost in a red cloak was awaiting them. All they could see from him was his grey coat with his red glowing eyes and a dark red lock of his mane.

And also his tongue as he was licking his lips.

Then, without a word, his horn began to glow, and Apple Bloom almost immediately began to feel a huge burning pain coming from inside her body, from her head to her legs, and she fell on the ground yelling.

"Apple Bloom!" shouted everypony before they all turned to the ghost and charged at him to make him stop.

However, they hadn't seen that the room had many containers full of blood, and when they charged at the stallion, he destroyed all the containers, freeing the blood and using it to form various objects to attack the ponies or entrave their advance.

«He's a blood mage!» shouted Twilight. «Apple Bloom, turn into a ghost, quick!»

Despite the pain and the screaming, Apple Bloom heard her and was able to press the button of the Spectral transmograftizer, turning into a ghost. Immediately, the pain disappeared, to her relief.

"Thank ya, Twilight."

«He was probably using your blood to hurt you from inside. Quick! Capture him before you've to revert to normal!»

She didn't need to say it. Little Ghost already managed to repel the blood thanks to her power, giving her an opening to fire a Poltergun beam at the stallion. Thanks to the pain caused by the beam, the stallion lost his focus on the blood, freeing the way for everypony to reach him. By the time he recovered from the pain, it was too late to stop the ponies from activating their Poltergusts on him. He still tried to use the blood to attack them and force them to let him go, but Apple Bloom used her own powers to do like Little Ghost did, letting the others finishing the mage just before the filly had to return to normal.

Sweetie Belle immediately sang to heal whatever damage the mage caused to Apple Bloom's body with her blood.

«There aren't many blood mage known, thankfully. I think this one was Blood Thirsty. He boiled his victims' blood to cook them alive from inside... and eat them.»

"I'm not hungry anymore!" said Pinkie Pie.

"I'm surprised you were even hungry after everything we went through in this castle," said Little Ghost.

After getting the key in the mage's chamber, they unlocked the next door, which was the fourth in the right wall. The room it led to was a very normal living room excepted for one thing: the heavy presence of knives absolutely everywhere. In this room, awaiting them was the ghost of a yellow unicorn cold with a brown mane wearing a green and yellow striped sweater who was giving them a very... disturbing smile for a colt.

And he was armed of a knife.

Before anyone could act, the colt then did a cross slash with his knife, creating a cross-shaped red shockwave that went toward Apple Bloom who was quickly pushed out of the way by Scootaloo who received the attack in her place. Then, as Apple Bloom got up, a knife floated above her, and she quickly jumped to the side to avoid it as it planted itself in the floor. At the same time, many of the knives in the room began to float and where thrown at the ponies while a few others slashed the air in different patterns, sending more shockwaves.

And judging from Scootaloo's reaction at being cut by one of them, it was in their best interests to avoid all those attacks.

The ponies quickly countered the knives by sucking them up with their Poltergusts, destroying them, much to the colt's frustration. So he replied by multiplying trick attacks, trying to corner the ponies or to attack them from their blind spots as they were busy dealing with his frontal assaults, especially on Apple Bloom who was his main target.

But the ponies watched each others' back, and all his attacks failed, causing at best small cuts.

And eventually, enough knives had been destroyed that the ponies started a counter-offensive and charged at the colt while continuing to suck up his knives. Sweetie Belle then managed to trap the colt, but she still had to avoid his knives before he was finally captured.

"When a colt is the one giving us the most problems since we entered this wing..." commented Scootaloo.

"He's strong, that's clear," said Apple Bloom.

«Wasn't there a report about the disappearance of a colt a few years ago?» asked Spike. «If I remember correctly, the photo was of this colt.»

«You're right, Spike. What was his name? I didn't really pay much attention to it at the time.»

«Uh... I don't remember. Something to do with Character, I think. But what the heck happened to him?»

«No idea...»

Leaving it at this for now, the ponies took the key in the colt's chamber and went to the next room: the one behind the third door in the left wall, just in front of the colt's room.

It revealed to be a big empty cave-like room with only a couple of lights hanging from the walls. Because of this, the room was almost entirely plunged in darkness.

And in this darkness, the ponies could see a couple of dozens glowing pair of eyes glaring at them.

Applejack immediately recognized those eyes. "Changelings!"

She barely said this word that the ponies were assaulted by said changelings, all ghosts of course. Since they were ghosts, they couldn't shapeshift into Apple Bloom or the others who possessed a body, so the only they could correctly copy was Little Ghost.

But they couldn't copy her Poltergust, so in the end, it wasn't really useful. It caused some confusion at first, but the ponies quickly got over it when they saw this, and the changelings were all quickly captured.

Then...

"Mph... I was wondering what all that fuss was," said a feminine voice that showed disdain.

At this moment, in the light of the flashlights came what was clearly a changeling queen looking a lot like Chrysalis but with a shorter mane of a paler green.

"A changeling queen?!" said Applejack in wonder.

"Oh, so you lowlives know what I am. So you finally discovered our existence. Took your time."

"One of yers invaded Canterlot!" shouted the mare.

"So someling finally did it?" asked the queen as she looked at Applejack with happiness. "Tell me! Who was it?"

"Uh... Ah don't think we got her name. But she looked a lot like ya."

The changeling's smile became as wide as Pinkie's. "Oooh! One of my descendants! Ahahah! My daughter must be turning in her grave." She then suddenly frowned. "Too bad she seems to have lost. She's probably an idiot."

Applejack snickered. "She lost because she turned her back and gloated when she'd practically won."

"Leaving the ponies to do something behind her back to defeat her," finished the queen as she facehoofed. "She lost all my respect. She seems to have inherited everything from me excepted my brain. Queen of idiots. Anyway, I should present myself. I'm Cocoon, ex-queen of the changelings, and would be empress of the Changeling Empire if my daughter hadn't stopped me from invading Equestria by killing me."

This shocked the ponies, making Cocoon huff. "I know. Horrible, right? All because she wanted the changelings to keep their secrecy. That ungrateful pest."

But then, her smile returned as she stared at the ponies, more exactly at Apple Bloom. "But now, I will finally be able to let off some steam. 'Kill the pony' was my favorite sport back then."

Without warning, she then fired a beam of sickly green magic at Apple Bloom that the filly, who was expecting this, easily dodged with a side jump. Before the ponies could act in return however, Cocoon disappeared in the darkness of the room, not even her eyes glowing like it had been the case for the drones earliers. And speaking of drones, more appeared to attack the ponies, distracting them from the queen who fired at them from the darkness.

Sweetie Belle then got the idea of taking control of one of the drones with her singing, and she used his ability to see in the dark to spot where was Cocoon. Scootaloo then immediately turned into a scooter and charged toward the queen's position, taking her by surprise. The pegasus also left fire behind her to light more the room, giving a greater advantage to the ponies who less needed to use their flashlights as a result.

When Scootaloo reached Cocoon, she then jumped and hit the queen's face with her wheels. Little ghost took the occasion to rapidly fly to their position and activated her Poltergust on Cocoon, quickly joined by Scootaloo. The drones went to rescue their queen only to take Poltergun beams on their back from the three remaining ghost hunters as a result.

Cocoon resisted despite the two Poltergusts sucking her up, and she managed to send Little Ghost flying with a big bolt of green magic before she tried to do the same to Scootaloo only for a Power Surge to interrupt her and leave her open for some good slammings (Scootaloo taking the occasion to slam her on nearby drones). The others then ran to join her and help her however they could, either by capturing Cocoon or capturing the drones.

Cocoon still resisted with her magical blasts, but it was a losing battle, and like all the others before her, she was captured, the queen disappearing with a yell of rage. With her capture, the drones stopped coming, and before long, the ones that remained in the room were captured too.

"Heh. When they aren't boosted by love, they aren't that problematic to deal with," said Applejack.

«No doubt your Poltergusts helped a lot,» said Twilight.

"Eeyup. No matter what, it's a very effective weapon," said Apple Bloom.

Done with this room, they entered Cocoon's chamber which really was the one of a queen, with a queen-sized bed and all. They took the key that was on it and returned in the hallway where the key led to the fourth door in the left wall.

The new room had more light than the previous one, and was smaller. There was a desk with a feather, a bottle of ink, a candle and a parchment against the right wall surrounded by small shelves with some books.

And sitting on a chair in front of the desk was the ghost of a young unicorn stallion with with a yellow coat nearing white, a blue mare with a couple of purple stripes, and wearing small rectangular glasses.

He looked surprised at first when the ponies entered his room, but his expression quickly changed to a gentle one.

"Oh. Hello there. I wasn't expecting guests. Especially a living one. You managed to traverse Thanatos' castle and to reach my room? That's impressive."

The ponies, obviously, looked at him suspiciously. The stallion was acting gentle, but it was Thanatos' castle. The probabilities of encountering a friendly ghost were a big, fat 0%. They were either evil, mad, or controlled. And in this wing, all ghosts encountered had been evil or mad until now (except maybe the changeling drones who just followed their queen). So this stallion was raising a red flag.

The stallion saw how they looked at him and raised his forehooves in a calming gesture. "Hey, hey! You have nothing to worry about me. I'm just a student from Manehattan." He then lowered his hooves and gave them another gentle smile. "My name is Open Book. What is yours?"

Apple Bloom advanced. "Mah name's Apple Bloom." She frowned. "And yer act would've worked if it wasn't for two facts. First, Ya may be just a student, but Ah heard stories of student murderers. Second, we're in a place full of psychos. So, ya're planning to lower our guard with yer kindness only to backstab us?"

The Open Book's eyes widened before he recomposed himself. "But... Not at all! I wouldn't hurt a fly!"

While he said that, he grabbed the feather and lunged toward Apple Bloom, ready to stab the filly with it, only to be hit by a Poltergun beam from her, causing him to drop on the floor in pain.

Then, in green flames, Open Book transformed into a changeling, which actually surprised the ponies.

"Well, this, I didn't see it," said Apple Bloom.

The changeling chuckled. "How could you have? But yeah, you were partially right, but instead of stabbing my victims, I brought them to a desert place and trapped them in cocoons to suck them dry of their love. And only when I was done with them I would stab them and get rid of their bodies somewhere where they wouldn't be found before a long time. And no, I have nothing to do with Chrysalis, the queen who attacked Canterlot. I was a loner."

"Ya're surprisingly open," commented Scootaloo.

"Well, I'm doomed, so gotta leave a legacy before I disappear," chuckled again the changeling. "I was never discovered. I was only stopped because Chrysalis herself came to kill me after the failed invasion. Now, I will remain in memories."

Having enough of him, Apple Bloom captured him.

«I did hear that there had been a few disappearances in Manehattan,» then said Rarity. «Now, we know why. We will have to tell the princesses about it.»

"He could've at least told us where he hid the bodies," said Applejack in anger.

After that, they entered the changeling's chamber and took the key that was on his bed. Back in the hallway, it led to the fifth door in the right wall.

And the horror climbed back to eleven when the ponies discovered that the room was full of dolls. Just this was already creepy, but they quickly saw that there was a problem with the dolls: their eyes.

The eyes were real eyes, taken from real ponies.

The ponies were absolutely horrified by this.

"What sick..." started Applejack

"Oh. Hello, little one," suddenly said a feminine voice before the ghost of a pink unicorn mare with a blue mane appeared and looked Apple Bloom right in the eyes. "You've beautiful eyes. They remind me of my little sister's." The mare then floated a knife to her. "Can I take them?"

"Mmh... Nope!" shouted Apple Bloom before she flashed the mare.

"Arg!"

The five ghost hunters then activated their Poltergusts and rapidly captured the mare. The ponies then quickly entered the mare's chamber and took the key on the bed, beside a doll of a pink unicorn filly with a pink, near white mane that possessed eyes of the same colors than Apple Bloom's.

«I have something about this mare, Happy Doll» said Twilight before she sighed. «Her little sister died from an accident, and just after that, she began to take eyes from ponies, generally from fillies, and to put them in dolls. Some kind of eye obsession she developed after the death of her sister. Her favorites were fillies with the same eye colors as her sister, like yours Apple Bloom. She was discovered, judged mentally ill, and sent into an asylum where she died not long after of illness.»

A Toy Maker...

"So... What will this mean for her?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Ah don't know..." answered Apple Bloom. "Ah suppose Ah'll try to convince her to pass on. If she refuses, then Ah'll have to trap her like all the others. She's too dangerous to be left free."

With this, Apple Bloom gave the doll on the bed a last look before they all returned in the hallway and went to the next room, the fifth one in the left.

The inside of the room quickly revealed to be disturbing. There were eyes, organs, and other pony stuff inside glass jars on shelves, pony skins hanging from the walls, and sewing materials.

And in front of them was a pony who looked like he came out of a mad scientist lab. It was a stallion with patches of skin of various colors stitched everywhere on his body, his mane and tail were composed of locks of hair of different colors too as well as of different lengths, his left eye was green while the other was purple, he had a brown horn on his forehead, as well as a blue left wing and a pink right wing. He was also missing a lot of fur and feathers as well as some teeth, and there were spots where he was bald too.

And he was smelling like a rotting corpse!

"What now?" wondered Little Ghost, not paying attention to the comments of disgust from everyone in E. Gadd's side, especially Rarity.

The stallion gave them a Joker smile and laughed maniacally as he took a knife. "New materials! Give me! Give me!" he shouted before he charged at Apple Bloom.

Only to be bucked very hard on the face by Applejack, totally breaking his muzzle and causing one of the eyes to pop out as he was sent flying However, the stallion recovered, the damage he had taken healing, even the eye returning in its place. Once he totally recovered, he charged again, only to be pierced by many shards of ice fired by the ponies. Despite this, he continued to charge only to be bucked again by Applejack, which ended like previously.

"Ah think he's a ghost who bound himself to his own corpse," then said Apple Bloom.

«And he seems to be using... Hum... 'Materials' taken from other ponies to replace whatever part of his body is decomposed too much,» said E. Gadd.

"Ugh. I'm in the same situation than him, but I will never do this," said Sweetie Belle, disgusted.

"Well, you have Discord to make sure that you don't decompose," said Scootaloo. "Seems like this guy hasn't the same luxury."

"So, this means we've to do like against Toy Maker's toys? Destroy his body until he has no energy left?" asked Applejack.

"I can do something that will make this fight much faster," said Little Ghost with a chuckle before she used her power to force the stallion's ghost (revealing his true self: a brown unicorn stallion with a yellow mane) out of his body, to his surprise. "I couldn't do this to the toys because Toy Maker was more powerful than me, but this guy? No problem!"

"Great! Thanks Little Ghost!" said Apple Bloom as she immediately went after the stallion who started to have serious break down as he tried to return in his body only to be stopped by Little Ghost, repeating "I'm not dead!" over and over.

"Anything on him, Twilight?" asked Apple Bloom.

«Let's see... Let's see... A unicorn stallion with a brown coat and a yellow mane...» muttered the alicorn as they could see her searching in the archives. «Nothing on him. It seems like he did nothing wrong when he was alive. Or he was never discovered. I will have to ask Celestia once this is over.»

"Maybe he simply didn't want to accept that he died and did everything to keep the illusion of being alive," said Sweetie Belle.

«It seems in accordance with his reaction,» said E. Gadd. «Another poor fella who lost his mind.»

Once they took the key in the stallion's chamber, the ghost hunters entered the sixth room in the right of the hallway.

The new room looked like Discord was the one who decorated it. To put it simply, the room was like the interior of a church, but chaotic, and judging by the statue of Discord made of various stuff present on an altar near the end of the room, it was a church venerating him and his chaos.

«A discordian church?!» shouted many ponies in surprise.

«There are ponies worshipping me?» wondered Discord who seemed the most shocked of everyone. «And what is a church worshipping me doing in Thanatos' castle? He hates me!»

Apple Bloom thought about it. "Well, this wing's full of psychos, right? And what better psycho than somepony who worships Chaos? No offense Discord."

«None taken, I understand what you mean. ESPECIALLY if they worship the old me.»

"Which is very probably the case," said Sweetie Belle.

"Hey! There's somepony in front of the statue!" shouted Scootaloo as she pointed at a cloaked form facing the statue of Discord.

Carefully, the ponies approached until the cloaked figure turned his head to reveal himself to be an unicorn purple stallion.

"Wow! Visitors! That's unexpected!" he said before he fully turned to face the ghost hunters, revealing a pink mane. "Are you here to join my Church of Chaos? Please, say yes, it has been a little lonely there."

"Yeah... I don't suppose there are many ponies who want to join the chaotic side," said Sweetie Belle.

The stallion rolled his eyes. "Because they all have a stick in the butt and don't know to appreciate the true good stuff. Chaos is the real way of life! Without it, life is SO boring!"

«That's totally me before,» said Discord.

"Oh! I forgot to present myself! I am Upside Left! Great Priest of the Lord of Chaos Discord! So, do you accept to join Chaos?"

The ghost hunters exchanged looks, then Apple Bloom said "One moment!" before they gathered and began to whisper.

"What do we do?" asked Apple Bloom.

"We certainly won't join his chaos church, but if he's like Discord, then maybe he can be talked to," said Applejack.

"We will still have to capture him to continue," said Little Ghost.

"Maybe we should just capture him and let Discord talk to him?" proposed Scootaloo.

Sweetie Belle nodded. "I think I know what to do." Then, the undead filly turned to face the stallion who was passing time by 'swimming' in the air. "Excuse me mister, but we're actually ghost hunters who are trying to capture Thanatos, and he's leaving us no choice but to capture you to reach him. Will you let us capture you so we can continue, please? If you say yes, then once this is over, we will lead you to Discord. He's now free of his stone prison, and he's even helping us fighting Thanatos. He hates him, you see."

Upside Left eyed her. "I totally approve of trying to capture Thanatos, I don't like him too, but I can't believe that you are with the Lord. Even if the Lord hates Thanatos, he wouldn't help a bunch of ponies like that."

"Trust me. Thanatos did something that really angered Discord, so he wants to make him pay, even if it means that he must work with ponies. This castle is warded against Discord, so he has no choice."

Upside Left rubbed his chin. "If you say so... That's a good point. But I don't really fancy myself getting captured."

"It's for the cause of Discord," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oooh alright alright! If it's for the Lord's cause, and if I can talk to him afterwards, then I accept to let myself being captured without resistance," said Upside Left. "But before..." His horn suddenly glowed, and in a flash, the ponies found themselves with their colors mixed. Apple Bloom now had a coat of the same purple than Scootaloo's mane and had her mane and tail of the same white than Sweetie Belle's coat for exemple.

"Hey!" they all yelled at the stallion.

Upside Left began to laugh, and the ponies could also hear Discord laughing too.

"Ahahahah! Don't worry. It should disappear once you capture me, I just wanted to do a little chaos for fun."

«Oh, I like him! Once I convince him to be a little less 'extreme', he will be a good apprentice,» said Discord.

«Discord, with an apprentice?» said Twilight in horror.

Many others groaned at this.

At this, Upside Left was captured (like he said, the ponies returned to normal at this), and the ponies could enter his chamber, which was as chaotic as the church. Still, the key was awaiting them on his bed, and they could enter the next room, the sixth and last one in the left in this floor.

They entered a room that seemed to serve both as a living room, a dinning room, and a kitchen.

And again, the horror was here, in the presence of unicorn skulls around the table, as well as one on it, all open and with a spoon in the last one.

«Those skulls... That spoon...» said Smart Spirit.

Understanding, everyone alive felt ill, especially the unicorns.

At the same time, the ghost hunters had to defend themselves against the ghost of an unicorn stallion with a light green coat and a darker green mane who appeared through a wall and fired at them with his magic while also throwing really big knives. The magic was dodged, the knives were sucked up and destroyed by the Poltergusts, and a Poltergun beam was fired at the stallion, giving the ponies the occasion to approach and catch him.

«Mystic Star. Teacher in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns who wanted to reach the level of power of Starswirl the Bearded himself, and got in his mind somehow that eating the brain of unicorns would help him in reaching this goal.» Twilight sounded very, very disgusted as she recited what she found. «He foalnapped students from the school and ate their brain, but was found out. He resisted his arrest, but died in a magical explosion that he accidentally caused, taking with him a couple of royal guards. I can't believe that a teacher from CSFU would do something so... So...»

"Well then, Princess Celestia'll be pleased to hear that he's finally caught," said Apple Bloom.

With this, the ponies entered the chamber, took the key, and unlocked the last door in the wing's first floor: the seventh in the right.

The room was entirely white and possessed three beds separated by curtains, indicating it to be some kind of hospital room.

The presence of the ghost of a nurse confirmed it. She was a yellow earth pony with a pink mane in a bun, and possessed the usual uniform of a nurse.

Also, there seemed to be ponies in the bed, but they couldn't see from where they were.

"Oh? What are little ones doing in such a horrible places?" asked the nurse in wonder. "This castle is full of dangers. You must have escaped many near death experiences."

"Ya've no idea..." said Apple Bloom as she and the others eyed the mare with suspicion, like with Open Book.

"Well, you are welcome to remain in this room to rest as long as you want. My name is Peaceful Heart, and I will take care of you while you are here. You must be thirsty, I have water for you." As she said it, Peaceful Heart took two glasses from a shelf and filled them with a bottle of water that was on a nearby table.

While she was busy doing this, Little Ghost quickly flew to the nearest bed and hid behind it as she looked at who was in the bed. Then, as Peaceful Heart gave Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle the glasses of water, the filly ghost pointed at the nurse and made a cut throat sign.

With this confirmation, the fillies dropped the glasses, and before the nurse could act, the ghost hunters all activated their Poltergusts on her.

"Why are you doing this?!" asked Peaceful Heart as she tried to escape.

Not answering her, the hunters captured her with a collective Power Surge.

With the nurse gone, Applejack went to the bed that Little Ghost looked at earlier and uncovered the pony who was in it.

Revealing the skeleton of a foal. The two other beds also revealed corpses of foals, one of them not fully decomposed yet.

«Peaceful Heart. A nurse who saw the world as a horrible place and didn't want to let innocent children live in it to suffer, so whenever she was in charge of a filly or a colt, she secretly poisoned them to put them to rest... definitively. Poisoned herself when she was discovered,» said Twilight in sadness.

At this point, the ponies just accepted it without comments, recovered the bodies, and entered the chamber where they took the key.

Time to do the second floor...

Chapter 9: The North Wing Part 2

At the end of the hallway were staircases leading to the second floor. So, instead of returning at the beginning of the hallway, they took them. In the second floor, the key still led them back at the beginning of the wing, so they had to traverse the hallway there.

Then, as they walked in the darkness, they suddenly heard children giggling further in the hallway.

This made the ponies stop before they exchanged looks and sighed in sadness. Encountering ghosts of children really was depressive.

They soon found the ghosts near the beginning of the hallway, two earth ponies, a filly and a colt, twins with a red coat and a blue mane (the filly having a lighter one than her brother). However, as soon as they could spot them in the darkness, the two ran excitedly and passed through a door, which was the one that the key unlocked, the first one at the right from the beginning of the hallway.

So they entered the room, and they immediately spotted the two foals awaiting them in the center of the room which revealed to be some playroom full of toys.

"Will you play with us?" the two foals asked innocently.

At the same time, the colt discretely pushed a small ball toward dominoes, starting a chain reaction that led to a crossbow firing an arrow to cut a rope that was stopping a big box full of sharp objects from falling, the box being on a shelf just above the ponies who entered the room. When the rope was cut, the box tilted, dropping all the sharp objects it contained on the ponies.

The ponies had seen it however and Applejack quickly pushed Apple Bloom out of the way, saving her from becoming a pincushion. The objects bounced off the robots and passed through Little Ghost and the clones of goo, but Sweetie Belle still ended as one even if it didn't matter for her in the end. Applejack got the box on her head however.

This comical scene made the two foals laugh.

Apple Bloom, however, began to run toward them, only for the ghost filly to send a toy chariot at her, causing Apple Bloom to walk on it. The toy rolled under her hoof, making her fall on the ground.

And the foals laughed again, the colt using the occasion to fire a sharp stone with a slingshot at Apple Bloom, only for the filly to stop the stone with the handle of her Poltergust as she was already getting up.

The foals, however, hadn't kept an eye on the others, and so, they were taken by surprise by Scootaloo and Little Ghost, the first reaching them in her scooter form. The two didn't wait to activate their Poltergusts and each capture one of the foals. The foals not being powerful, it was just a matter of seconds.

Applejack threw the box that had dropped on her head. "For foals, they're crafty," she commented. "But... Why...?"

«You will not like the answer,» said Twilight. «Nuisance and Burden came from an abusive family in which they developed an hatred of adults that developed into a sadistic need of 'playing' with them in a dangerous, harmful way that generally ended with the adults' death. You just got an example of their method. Their first victims were their own parents, and from there, they began to enter houses randomly, targeting whoever was inhabiting them before passing to the next. They were killed when one of their own traps turned against them. They had entirely trapped an abandoned house against royal guards who were trying to catch them and things went wrong.»

Applejack growled. "Why even have children if it's to name them 'Nuisance' and 'Burden' and to treat them like trash to the point of turning them into psychos?"

«Uh... Maybe they were... an accident?» proposed the alicorn.

This made it worst for Applejack. "Ah hope we'll encounter their ghosts so Ah can beat them senseless."

"Ah think we're all thinking the same thing, AJ," said Apple Bloom.

After that, they took the key from the twins' chamber and used it to open the door in the opposite side of the hallway.

It was strange. It was a totally normal-looking living room as you would expect to find in any houses, and there was no ghost awaiting them. So they continued into the chamber which was also like any chamber, shining by the absence of a key, and still no ghost. However, what was anormal compared to all the other chambers found in this wing was the presence of an additional door. There was the usual one leading to a bathroom, at the left, but there was also one in the back.

This door led to a balcony where the ghost of a pegasus mare awaited them. She had a coat of a silver gray with a short black mane, and she had the particularity of having the feathers of her wings replaced by feather-like knives of the same silver than her coat, making it hard to see their real nature.

The mare immediately attacked them, flying at the speed of a Wonderbolt to use her feather-knives to cut Apple Bloom's throat as rapidly as possible. She did some tricks to dupe them, using her speed at her advantage, until the ponies all used a Burst against the ground at the same time, creating a big shockwave of air that blew the ghost back, stopping her in her track. They then took the occasion to rapidly activate the Poltergusts and capture the mare before she could recover and fly away.

Upon her capture, the mare left behind the key.

«So... A pegasus who replaced her feathers with feather-knives... Ah. Found it. Steel Wind, a famous assassin for hire. Not sure how many she killed in total, but the number of confirmed kills are over one hundred, of all classes, species, and ages. She was however caught and executed by the griffons as she was about to assassinate one of their important members.»

"And we just finished the job," said Apple Bloom with a smirk.

They then took the key and went to the next door, the second in the right.

It was again a basic-looking living room, but they barely entered that the ghost of an old white unicorn mare with a light blue mane approached Apple Bloom with an expression full of kindness. After the last 'kind mare' trick however, Apple Bloom wasn't falling for it and didn't let the mare time to talk before she activated her Poltergust. This took the mare by surprise, and she was barely able to resist before she was captured.

"Still. Ah wonder what was this one's game," she wondered.

«I will try to find out,» said Twilight.

The ponies entered the mare's chamber only to discover that the key wasn't there, and that beside the door leading to the bathroom in their right, there was another door. It was just at the left of the entrance of the chamber, and it led to a room full of toys and games.

Half a dozen ghosts of fillies and colts were present in this room, looking very depressed. When they saw the ponies enter the room, they didn't even attack them. Instead, they looked surprised.

"Who are you?" asked one of the fillies.

"Wait. Are those... ROBOTS?!" asked a colt.

"You were able to pass Miss Star?" asked another colt.

The ghost hunters exchanged surprised looks, but remained suspicious.

"We captured her," said Apple Bloom.

Almost immediately after she said that, the foals cheered, some shouting "We're free!"

One of the fillies then flew to Apple Bloom and hugged her while repeating "Thank you!" The other ghosts then all followed her and each also hugged one of the ghost hunters, two of them hugging Applejack.

Scootaloo eyed the filly who was hugging her. "Won't you try to kill Apple Bloom like all the ghosts tried to do until now?"

The filly gave her a weird look in return. "What? Why would we try to kill one of you?"

"Duh!" said a colt who had been hugging Sweetie Belle. "Remember where we are?"

"Oh, right."

"Well, we can assure you, we aren't bad ghosts," said the filly who had been hugging Apple Bloom. "The only bad ghost here was Miss Star. She was keeping us here against our will."

«I just found the archive about her,» said Twilight. «Twinkle Star. She lost her two children in an accident, and she began to foalnap foals to forcefully keep them with her. She didn't hesitate to break their legs to ensure that they couldn't escape. Was found out, arrested, the foals were saved, and she was sent to an asylum where she died of old age.»

«Ah, yes, the Widow, I heard about her,» said Rarity. «Her actions were despicable, but I can't help but pity the mare.»

"So Twinkle Star foalnapped y'all?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Uhuh," nodded the colt who had been amazed at seeing robots. "We were just minding our business in the Spiritual World when she came out of nowhere and dragged us to this room. She used her powers to make sure we couldn't escape. We couldn't even pass the walls."

"Wow. I think you did well to take her by surprise, Bloom," said Little Ghost.

"So you're ghost hunters?" asked the colt who had hugged Sweetie Belle.

"Eeyup," answered Applejack. "On our way to beat Thanatos to a pulp."

At this, the ghosts exchanged hesitant looks.

"Don't worry. We will defeat him," said Sweetie Belle with assurance. "Now that you are free, you should get out of this castle before Thanatos forces you to attack us."

«Once they're out, I will be able to bring them here where they will be out of danger for good,» said Discord.

Apple Bloom repeated what Discord said to the foals. Some looked insure, but they all eventually nodded, wished the ghost hunters good luck, informed them that the wing was actually named the VIP Wing by informing them that it was the home of many of the worst beings that inhabited the world (this, the ghost hunters had already guessed), and flew through a wall. When the last foal was gone, the ghost hunters passed a last door that led to what was apparently the foals' chamber, finding the key on one of the beds.

Back in the hallway, it opened the second door in the left, just in front.

They were immediately welcomed by the sight of their friends' corpses in a room entirely red and distording. There was Twilight, impaled on a spike from her butt, the spike coming out of her mouth. Rarity, lying against a wall, beheaded, her head in her hooves. Pinkie Pie who looked like she had been partially devoured by something with a lot of sharp teeth. Rainbow Dash had her wings teared off and they had been used to stab her in the eyes with the bones. And there were others like Big Mac, Sweetie's parents, and some friends from school.

"What the..." said Applejack in horror.

«What? But that's not us! We're still here, and alive!» shouted Twilight.

Apple Bloom suddenly felt a chill from behind, turned around, and gave air burst punch in the face of the ghost of some blue unicorn stallion with a darker blue mane that had teleported just behind and had been about to attack her. The ghost was sent right through a wall, and almost immediately, the room took the appearance of a normal living room, the red, the distortion, and the corpses disappearing in a flash of light.

«Illusions. I should have guessed,» said Twilight.

"That coward used these as diversion to attack me from behind," said Apple Bloom in understanding.

The unicorn suddenly teleported just in front of her, his face facing hers, seemingly using an illusion to make himself look like a monster, with black eyes and sharp teeth. "Who are you calling a coward, you little bitch?"

Apple Bloom stared him in the eyes without flinching. "Ya, ya coward." She then fired a Poltergun beam at him at point blank, making the stallion drop on his back in pain. She then placed the end of her Poltergust on him and continuously fired electricity at him for many seconds until he couldn't even move anymore. Only then did she capture him, not giving him any mercy.

"Darn. Savage," said Scootaloo.

"After that illusion he gave us, he deserved it," replied Apple Bloom.

«I found something. Executor was a master illusionist very sadist who loved to use his illusions to make ponies suffer in the worst way imaginable. A predecessor of Shining Armor still managed to surpass his illusions and to kill him,» informed Twilight.

"Ya know, once we're done with Thanatos, we'd form some milice to track and capture ghosts of evil beings who haven't passed on," said Apple Bloom.

"I agree," said Sweetie Belle.

After getting the key in Executor's chamber, they used it to open the third door in the left of the hallway and entered a room that had been reconverted into a stage, two dozen chairs facing an elevated platform with curtains.

On the stage, the ghost of a white unicorn mare with a red mane partially covering her left eye smiled as she saw them enter, then began to sing. Apple Bloom almost immediately began to feel pain in her head, and she quickly pressed the button of her Spectral Transmograftizer to turn herself into a ghost, making the pain stop.

At this moment, the mare knew she was doomed. She still attempted to escape, but Little Ghost teleported in her way. The mare didn't stand a chance.

«So...» began Twilight once the mare was safely trapped in one of the Poltergusts. «Fatal Sonata. A singer who developped the ability to kill ponies just by singing. She would sing, and anyone hearing her song would die in ten seconds. She was forced to use earplugs however, because her singing could kill even her. It's actually how she died. As she sung, one of the royal guards who had come to arrest her managed to knock her earplugs off. So she died along with the guards.»

Apple Bloom returned back to normal. "Thanks again the ST."

"To think that I could use the same power if I wanted..." said Sweetie Belle.

"Not like it would be useful in this castle," said Little ghost.

Fatal Sonata's key led to the third door in the right, which led to...

A platform floating in space.

"What the buck...?" said Applejack in awe.

«Maybe another illusion?» proposed E. Gadd.

Scootaloo placed a hoof beyond the edge of the platform to test this theory only for her hoof to not touch any floor. "Uhuh. Not an illusion."

"So that's space stuff, again," concluded Apple Bloom with a sigh.

"Okay, and what now?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Now..." began Little Ghost as she pointed up. "We find a way to get up there."

Following the direction she pointed at, everypony saw another platform with what was probably the exit door.

"Mmh... Ya and Apple Bloom won't have any problem getting up there. Applegoo and Sweetiegoo can be recalled in their Poltergust. But me, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, however..." said Applejack.

"No problem!" said Little Ghost before she used her powers to move several platforms that were randomly floating around, some of which possessed furnitures like a table of a shelf, to form a path to the exit door before taking a proud pose. "This ghost thought they were smart. Too bad for them, I'm here."

"Apple Bloom too. She could have done the same in her ghost form," said Scootaloo.

"Uuuuuh... Ah didn't think about this," said Apple Bloom sheepishly.

"Still not used to having all those powers. They aren't just for throwing energy balls, you know?" stated Little Ghost with a smirk.

"Just give me time."

However, as they began to walk on the formed path, more platforms floating around flew at them one after another, and some of the platform forming the path began to move away. Little Ghost had to use her powers to maintain the path while the others began to run, avoiding the attacking platforms. Before long, they reached the door and passed it only to enter a very long room.

As the ponies traversed it, all kinds of traps activated on their path, from seesaws coming out of the ground to weapons flowing out of the walls and the ceiling. Arrows, spears, even spiked balls. So they continued to run, Apple Bloom keeping watch of the floor while the others protected her from the rest. When they reached the door, however, they only entered another, similar room. This one, however, had furniture getting in the way, and there was part of the floor collapsing under their hooves. Another room followed, this one having actually a huge staircase, and climbing stairs while avoiding sharp objects flying at you isn't easy.

Finally, at the top of the staircase, they passed another door and entered a chamber. In front of the bed was the ghost of a female griffon chick who was exhausted. She stared at them without moving and without saying a word. As the ponies approached, she remained there, not doing anything to make them stop or to escape. She just continued to stare at them, as if accepting her fate.

This made the ponies raise an eyebrow.

"Ya aren't gonna resist, or do anything?" asked Apple Bloom.

After a few seconds of silence, the griffon chick answered. "I don't see what I could do. I'm out of energy and you managed to get through everything I threw at you. Just capture me and take that stupid key that will appear once I'm gone."

The ponies exchanged looks before Sweetie Belle said "You don't seem as bad as the others we encountered in this wing... Who are you?"

The griffon gave a shrug in return. "Just call me Grima. That's all you need to know about me..."

She didn't need to say more. Applejack could see in her eyes that whatever happened to the young griffon in her life left her totally empty.

"Ah don't know what happened to ya, little one, just know that it's not with pleasure that we're forced to capture ya," said the mare before she gave the chick a warm smile. "Once we're done with this castle, we'll help ya. Ya clearly need help.

The chick just gave a huff in return before she looked down and closed her eyes. The ponies took it as their cue to activate their Poltergusts and capture her. A key then appeared on the bed.

Next room was fourth in the right, a room full of closets, chests, and boxes. There, the ghost of a gray earth pony stallion with a dark blue mane came out of one of the boxes and fired an arrow at Apple Bloom with his crossbow. Apple Bloom quickly jumped to the side to avoid the arrow and fired back at the stallion with a Poltergun beam, but the stallion returned in the box before he could be hit.

This continued like that for a little while, the stallion coming out of an object randomly before firing an arrow at Apple Bloom and returning in said object. So the ponies kept an eye on the objects to be ready each time that the stallion got out of one of them.

What they didn't expect was for the stallion to get out of the door behind them, attempting to stab Apple Bloom. The filly quickly acted however and used the handle of her Poltergust to parry the knife. this gave the ponies an opening to trap the stallion and capture him.

«Pickaboo. A sadist who loved to foalnap ponies to trap them in a building that was his 'playground'. He would then play some kind of hide and seek game with them where the victims would attempt to escape while he would hide in boxes, closets, and other stuff to ambush them and kill them. Was killed by one of the victims managing to turn his knife against him.»

"That's horror movie material, there," said Scootaloo.

The next room was just in front, the fourth in the left. A room with a counter on which were several pieces of meat. In the back was a table where the ghost of a green earth pony mare with a yellow and blue stripped mane was using a big knife to cut meat.

It wasn't hard to guess what was the origin of the meat. They even saw the mare eating a small piece of it before she turned to stare at Apple Bloom, brandishing her bloodied knife.

The mare, however, wasn't that big of a threat with just a knife. She just charged at Apple Bloom, ready to clean her head off her neck with the knife, only to be caught by the ghost hunters. She still threw the knife at the filly to try to plant it in her head, but the knife was sucked up by her Poltergust and was destroyed. The mare followed not long after.

Not looking at the meat, the ponies then walked around the counter and passed the door to the chamber in the back, taking the key here, before they quickly returned in the hallway.

«S-so... Hum...» began Twilight hesitantly. «Butchery Jeane. She passed some years with the minotaurs and learned to love meat with them. Back in Equestria, she opened a butchery and...»

"She started to kill ponies to eat and sell their meat..." guessed Apple Bloom.

«Yeah... She was sent in prison where she died several years later killed by another prisoner in a brawl.»

Fifth room in the right. A living room...

With the walls, floor, ceiling, and even the furniture entirely covered in blood with organs as decorations.

Apple Bloom immediately turned herself into a ghost to not puke.

It didn't take long to spot the responsible, the ghost of an old magenta unicorn stallion with a black mane possessing a red stripe. The guy was actually using a brush to cover a candle in blood.

The worst was that he was acting like he was just doing a regular painting.

The ponies didn't wait for the stallion to notice them. They didn't want to remain in this room longer than necessary. So they ran to the stallion, then as he saw them approaching, they activated their Poltergusts and captured him. Little Ghost then quickly entered the chamber, took the key, and came back before they returned in the hallway where Apple Bloom returned to normal.

"Worst room ever..." she said as she tried to stop thinking about said room. "This stallion... Urp..."

«I... I will just tell you that his name was Red Brush, also known as the Gorish Artist, that he had a serious mental problem, and that he died in an asylum from old age. I will leave it at that. Urg...» informed Twilight who was clearly as sick as everyone else.

Deciding to leave this room behind and to pass to the next one (hoping that it won't be as bad), they unlocked and opened the fifth door in the left.

And they entered a room full of dresses. at first glance, it was okay, but looking closer, the ponies could see that the dresses were made from pony skins.

Barely better than the previous room, and it totally horrified Rarity. How could somepony use pony skins to make dresses?!

A mad dressmaker, of course, as the ponies quickly discovered. There was the ghost of an unicorn mare in the room, the mare possessing a cream-colored coat with a purple and yellow mane, and she was wearing one of the dresses, a light blue one.

And when she saw Apple Bloom, she levitated scissors while smiling and saying "Hello sweetie. Can you come here? I need you for a dress."

"Alright, Ah'm coming," replied Apple Bloom as she approached the mare with a barely suppressed smirk despite her frown.

The others understood what she was doing, so they didn't interfere, but they remained on guard, ready to intervene. Scootaloo and Little Ghost still had to suppress a laugh. That mare was an idiot, and she was doomed.

As Apple Bloom approached, the mare's smile grew wider, and she began snapping the scissors while approaching them to the filly. But then, once she was close enough, Apple Bloom activated her Poltergust and sucked up the scissors before she trapped the mare. The others then joined her, and together, they easily captured the mare.

Twilight took a big breath and said «Prisma, a mare who saw the skin of creatures, especially of ponies, as perfect dress materials. Was killed by a scissor being planted in her neck by somepony in self-defense.»

«She almost disgusted me of my passion,» said Rarity. «I hope this witch will rot for eternity wherever you will put her, Apple Bloom.»

"Ah'll make sure of it, Rarity," said Apple Bloom.

Key in their possession, the ponies went to the next door: the sixth, and last, door in the right.

For the second time, they found themselves in front of a counter displaying something, and this time, that was baked goods like cupcakes. But before Pinkie could rejoice about it, they quickly saw that something was wrong with those baked goods.

They were all made with meat.

Twilight and the others quickly led Pinkie away the time of this room.

No trace of the ghost responsible for this horror however until she came out of a door in the ponies' left, holding a trail carrying more freshly made baked goods. She was a pegasus mare with a white coat and a puffy blond mane who looked a lot like Pinkie Pie, which made the situation worst in the ghost hunters' point of view.

The ponies immediately activated their Poltergusts on her before she could react to their presence, and in a few seconds, she disappeared inside one of the vacuum cleaners.

Twilight, who had come back, then said «Surprise, a crazy baker who drugged ponies to drag them into her basement where she... Well, you can guess what she did to them... Ponies investigated, and she ended up dying with a knife planted in her heart.»

Not able to stop her curiosity, Applejack opened the door from which the mare came from, seeing that it led to a kitchen. She quickly closed it. If she had still been alive, she would have felt sick from what she saw in there.

"Don't open this door," she warned before she went to retrieve the key in the chamber. The fillies just nodded at this, having a good idea of what she saw.

The key led to the last room in this floor, the sixth in the left. Apple Bloom couldn't stop an horrified gasp upon entering.

The room was full of creatures hanging from the ceiling in various states of decomposition.

And before she could react, a rope was suddenly put around her neck from nowhere, and the next thing she knew, she was hanging from the ceiling, hooves on the rope to try to get rid of it as she was suffocating. She quickly remembered however that she had the Spectral Transmograftizer, so she pressed its button to turn herself into a ghost, saving herself from becoming one of the corpses hanging in this room.

All of this passed so quickly that the others barely had time to act. They were as chocked as Apple Bloom at seeing the hanging corpses, so it took them time to react to the filly suddenly being hung by a rope that had come from nowhere without warning. In the end, Apple Bloom saved herself just before Little Ghost tore the rope.

As for the origin of the rope, the ponies quickly found it: the ghost of a male minotaur with a brown coat and a redder lower body. He was growling at Apple Bloom's escape from death, and he was beginning to retreat only to be rammed by Scootaloo in her scooter form. The ponies then all went on him, and while he offered some resistance thanks to his greater physical strength, he didn't last long against their collective might.

«Tight Rope, a minotaur who had a very sick hobby as you can see...» informed Twilight. «Was imprisoned, sent to the minotaurs, got the death sentence and was hung by them as punishment.»

"The irony," said Sweetie Belle as they entered the minotaur's chamber and took the key.

"Finally done with this floor!" shouted Scootaloo. "It was one horrible room after another!"

«Maybe you should take a break from this wing,» advised E. Gadd.

"Nope. Only one floor left. We'll finish this wing," said Apple Bloom with determination.

"I still hope that the last floor will not be as horrible as this floor..." said Sweetie Belle.

"Ah hope too..."

Chapter 10: The North Wing Part 3

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 11: Sports and Games

Following the arrow of Sombra's key, the ponies returned in the first floor and finally left the VIP Wing.

"Glad to be out of this place," said Sweetie Belle.

"We all are," said Apple Bloom.

"At least, the atmosphere felt a little better now that we have cleaned it of all the ghosts," said Little Ghost.

It was at this moment that they put hooves back in the Main Wing proper, beside the entrance of the library in the first floor. Almost immediately, they were assaulted by some ghosts, something that had stopped happening when they entered the VIP Wing.

To tell truth, it was a little refreshing. The ponies much preferred this than the oppressive atmosphere of the empty hallways of the VIP Wing that almost turned them paranoid. And it also helped them stopping to think about all the horrors they saw in this wing.

They fought their way toward the door that Sombra's key which was thankfully not too far. they just had to continue forward until reaching the staircase leading to the second floor beside the auditorium and they had it. A double door beside the restrooms here, toward the East.

The room the double door led to was a rather large L-shaped one that quickly revealed to be a fitness room with the usual equipment like treadmills, dumbbells and other kinds of weights, tatamis, and so on.

And as expected for a fitness room, it was full of ghosts using said equipment. Of course, when the ponies entered the room, all the ghosts stopped their activities to attack them, the more muscled ones throwing the weights at them. So Little Ghost, Scootaloo, and the clones of goo went after the weight throwers while the others dealt with the remaining ghosts.

The ghost of a stallion in judo clothes was quickly captured by Apple Bloom before she had to avoid the punch of a Trickster. A Tail Spear then attempted to impale her only to find himself with his tails stuck in the hole of her Poltergust. Before the ghost disappeared in her vacuum cleaner, Apple Bloom quickly slammed him on the Trickster who attacked her earlier. She then proceeded to capture said Trickster before she sent an ice shard at an Assassin who was about to grab Applejack's tail, giving time for the mare to buck him.

Apple Bloom then saw a treadmill thrown toward her and she quickly lowered herself against the floor, the treadmill passing just above her, before she looked at the ghost who threw it. It was a diamond dog-like ghost of the same kind as the Throwers and Hiders entirely brown. The difference however, beside the color, was that this ghost was much more muscled than the others, easily as much as a Buffy, and possessed four arms! Like a Buffy or a Creeper, he also possessed two tails.

Clearly this ghost will be a pain if his thing was to throw heavy objects. Apple Bloom could already see a ghost like him throw something like a closet or a bed, and with his four arms, he could throw more smaller objects at once.

She decided to give him the nice and totally unoriginal name of Super Thrower.

And he will be a tough one to capture by herself, so she called Little Ghost for help.

Together, they charged at the Super Thrower as he threw another treadmill at Apple Bloom. Again, she avoided it by lowering herself before she was able to reach him. Little Ghost had already reaching him before her and had already activated her Poltergust. The Super Thrower, however, resisted the vortex of the vacuum cleaner enough to still be able to attack, and he attempted to smash one of his paws on the filly ghost. She easily avoided it however and continued to capture him.

It was at this instant that Apple Bloom joined her and, after avoiding a swing of one of his arms, activated her Poltergust too, catching the ghost's second tail. Like against the Buffys, the two fillies then used their combined strength to slam the Super Thrower until he was captured.

As the two fillies had been capturing the Super Thrower, the others captured the remaining ghosts, and they got as a reward two keys.

Considering the two doors present side by side in the North-Northeast of the room, they quickly understood that each key opened one of them, and each door led to a shower room, one for stallions and one for mares.

Both shower rooms then led to the same room: a pool room.

At first, the room was entirely empty of ghosts, but after they took a few steps, the ghost of sea blue earth pony stallion with a golden mane and wearing the uniform of a lifeguard from a beach rose from the water of the pool, forelegs crossed with a smirk. All around him, the water of the pool began to rise too, enveloping him and forming a giant version of himself made of water.

Scootaloo couldn't stop a laugh from escaping. "This guy already doomed himself."

The others shared her thought but more controlled themselves, only smirking as they pointed their Poltergusts at the giant of water.

Then, as the stallion began to send small serpentine dragons made of water at them, the ghost hunters fired electricity at him. The stallion howled in pain but still continued to attack with his water, and the ponies had to move while continuing to fire at him. But in the end, he didn't resist long against the electricity, and the giant lost its shape before the stallion dropped into the pool. Little Ghost then flew in the pool, and after a small underwater commotion, got out.

"Got him!"

It wasn't over however. Three Big Brains appeared and began to levitate water into bubbles before throwing them at the ponies to wet them. Icys also appeared and began to attempt to freeze the ponies, the water covering them making the ghosts' power more effective. There were also a few unicorn ghosts who got the good idea of remaining in the center of the pool while firing magical beams at them.

Little Ghost went to deal with the Big Brains and the unicorns, quickly joined by Apple Bloom in ghost form. The others, meanwhile, fought the Icys and any ghosts that approached too close of the side of the pool. Two Puffers then appeared and began to blow air at the ponies in an attempt to make them fall into the pool's water, which would leave them at the mercy of the Icys.

As the ponies resisted the blown air and attempted to approach the Puffers, Apple Bloom, who had finished to capture her second Big Brain, flew behind one of them and returned to normal before she began to capture him. With just a Puffer left, it was just a matter for one of the ponies to walk around the pool to approach him from the other side while he was still trying to push the others into the water. Despite a Zappy and some Mini-Buffys attempting to stop her, Scootaloo managed to do this and got the Puffer.

Little Ghost captured an unicorn that remained above the water, and the key appeared only to fall in the pool. Rolling her eyes, Little Ghost flew in the water and took it.

«Can I go? Okay. So, the stallion was called Strong Wave. He was a lifeguard in one of the beaches of Manehattan. However, he would use his attractive appearance to convince mares to pass some time with him on the beach at night, when nopony else would be there to see them. Then, he would drown them, taking pleasure in watching ponies dying this way, before letting their bodies float away into the sea, some to be never found. An investigation about the disappearances found him as being the culprit, but he took a boat and escaped into the sea never to be seen again. I don't know what happened, but it seems he died in it. Probably a storm,» informed Twilight. «I will make sure to inform Celestia of this.»

"It's our pleasure to catch criminals who escaped," said Scootaloo.

The key led them through the back door of the pool room back to the West Hallway, in a section going East starting beside the auditorium's accessory room. Following the arrow, they went East until finding a double door in the South wall, not far of a door at the end of the hallway.

However, barely they entered that Apple Bloom found herself wrapped in ropes before she was levitated into a cage above a basin full of lava.

"Apple Bloom!" everypony yelled when, suddenly, projectors turned on and illuminated them.

It was then that the ponies finally remarked that the room they were now in seemed one for one of those quiz-shows. There was a small stage with a stand on it beside the basin of lava in the West side of the room away from the entrance and another stand in the East side of the room, not far of the entrance. and the whole room was decorated like in such a show, with a lot of colors and flashing lights

Then, as music and cheering started to sound from nowhere, the ghost of an aged mare with a green-yellow coat, an aquamarine mane, and wearing glasses appeared on the stage behind the stand.

"Welcome to Ten answers for a Life! My name is Question Mark and I will be your host. and if you try anything to attack me or free your friend, the cage will immediately fall in the lava so, for her health, retain yourselves."

The ponies growled at this (or would growl for the ones who couldn't) before Sweetie said "Let us guess. To free her, we will have to answer ten questions?"

"You guessed right. My, the little one has a brain! But to be more precise, only one of you will answer the questions while the others will remain behind to watch. And if you fail to answer just one question, then your friend will have the first lava bath of her life. Eh, she must regret not being a dragon right now. And no whispering the answers! Anyway, who will you choose to answer? A little advice for you, choose the one in your group with the more brain cells."

"Darn it... If only Twilight was there," said Applejack before she looked at her sister. "Don't worry, bloom! We'll get ya out of this cage!" she shouted.

"Choose Sweetie Belle! She's the smartest!" shouted back Apple Bloom.

Everypony stared at Sweetie Belle , Scootaloo saying "She's right, Miss Little Egghead."

Sweetie Belle lowered her ears. "I-I'm not that smart. What if I fail?"

Like Apple Bloom just said, we have nopony better, so we haven't really a choice," said Little Ghost.

«You all seem to forget that I can just give you the answer,» said Twilight confidently. «Question Mark will not hear anything. DON'T REACT TO WHAT I JUST SAID! You must not give her any sign that we're about to cheat. And I can't believe that I'm about to help somepony cheat at a quiz.»

The ponies had to retain themselves from smiling at this.

"You are right Little ghost. I guess I have no choice;" said the undead filly before she went behind the stand of the East side. "Hum... That stand is too tall for me," she then said after failing to place her forehooves on it.

Question Mark rolled her eyes. "Just place yourself beside it. It doesn't matter in the end."

Sweetie Belle did as instructed.

"Good. Now, know that you will have ten seconds to answer each questions. The timer will start as soon as I finish the question."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Okay."

"Alright. Now, we can start the quiz!" Cue more music and cheering from nowhere before the projectors settled on the undead filly and the ghost mare, the last one taking a card that was on her stand.

"First question. An easy one to start. What is the name of the mountain on which Canterlot is built?"

"The Canterhorn!" immediately answered Sweetie Belle, not even needing Twilight for this one.

"Good answer!" said question Mark before she took the next card. "Second question: Where is the famous five star hotel The Black Rose?"

"Vanhoover!" answered Sweetie Belle with a dreamy look. "I dream to visit it one day."

"And that's a good answer! Place to the third question: In which constellation is the Star of the Old Stallion?"

Sweetie Belle had to think for a couple of seconds for this one. Just as Twilight began to tell the answer, she then said "In the Constellation of the Alicorn. I think it's the point of the horn."

"Exact! You didn't need to give that last info but it's always good to show off. Now, the fourth question. How many years passed between the founding of Equestria and the arrival of the alicorn sisters on the throne?"

Sweetie Belle put a hoof under her chin as she remembered the dates. "24 years."

"Good answer again! Fifth question: Who wrote Cold Heart, the famous love story between a vampire and a mare?"

"Uuugh... Pink Feather. Gosh, that book was so stupid."

«How dare you, Sweetie Belle? Cold Heart is the best love story that I ever read!» said Rarity in indignation before she began to resume everything that makes this story good only to be shut up by Rainbow Dash.

"And thus you complete the first half of the quiz. See? It isn't that bad," said question Mark.

"Yeah... Too easy," said Sweetie Belle as she stared at the mare with suspicion. She waited for the other horseshoe to drop.

"Sixth question: For how long Nightmare Moon was banished in the Moon?"

"1000 years exactly."

"Yeah, this one was easy. Next one! Seventh question: Which hoofball team won the last Equestria Championship?"

Sweetie Belle facehoofed and muttered "Thanks daddy..." before she answered "The Red Bolts of Baltimare."

Question Mark looked surprised at this. "I didn't expect a filly to know the answer."

"I know. My father is almost as much in love of this game than he's of my mother. He couldn't shut up about the Equestria Championship for days after it ended."

"Poor girl. Anyway, eighth question: When was Manehattan founded?"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "For this one, I can thanks Rarity. It was first founded 12 years before the founding of Equestria, but back then, it was a griffon settlement of the Griffon Empire. It was taken by the ponies 5 years after Celestia and Luna got on the throne in one of the many wars between Equestria and the Griffon Empire and was then renamed Manehattan."

Question Mark was impressed. "Good answer."

«Wait. You did the research, Rarity?» asked Rainbow Dash.

«Of course! I wanted to know everything about my second favorite city after Canterlot! And I made sure that Sweetie Belle learn as much as possible too. I knew it would be useful to her some day.»

Then, Question Mark giggled before she posed the next question. "Ninth question: I will give you two series of six numbers. However, the second series will miss the last number. Here's a paper to take note." She then levitated a blank paper from her stand to Sweetie Belle with a feather, the point already covered in ink.

"Thank you."

"Now, the first series of numbers is: 1, 6, 8, 9, 40, and 68. Everything noted?"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Good. Now, the second series of number. 0, 1, 2, 1, and 2. What is the last number of the second series?"

«What? What is this problem? I can't think of any mathematics formula that could answer it! And no sequences that I know work too! Maybe there's something I missed. So, the first number of the first series is 1, and the first number of the second is 0... Easy. 0+1=1, which is exactly the second number of the second series, but then...»

While Twilight mumbled to herself to try to solve this problem, Sweetie Belle stared at the two series of number until you could almost see a light bulb appear above her head. "The last number is 3!"

"Good answer!" shouted Question Mark.

«WHAT?! How did you find out?»

"Uh... Dare to explain, Sweetie Belle?" asked Applejack.

Sweetie Belle looked at Question Mark to see if she could, and the ghost signed her to go on. "Come on. Show off again."

At this, Sweetie Belle looked at Applejack. "How to explain... It's not a mathematics problem. It's a logic problem. The numbers in the second series correspond to the number of loops formed by the numbers of the first series. Like, look at the first number, the 1. It doesn't form any loop, so it's 0. Then look at the second number, the 6. It forms one loop, so 1. And so, the last number was 68. How many loops there's?"

Applejack looked in awe. "Well, paint me red, it sounds so obvious now that you say it. The 6 has one loop and the 8 has two loops. So the correct number's 1+2=3."

The ponies could hear Twilight loudly facehoofing. «I thought so much on how to solve the problem that I didn't see the easy and obvious answer.»

«Yeah, it's one of those problems easily solved by children but that the adults have a hard time on because adults have the tendency to over think problems,,» said E. Gadd. «Children, however, still have a simple mind and don't complicate things any more than they are.»

«This is a lesson I will have to remember in the future,» said Twilight.

Sweetie Belle then looked back at Question Mark. "The last question?"

At this, the mare smirked. "Tenth question: How many stars is visible in the sky at night when the Moon is at its highest?"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened at this.

«2490! There's 2490 stars visible at once in the sky at night above Equestria!» quickly shouted Twilight.

"2490!"

Question Mark stared at Sweetie Belle in disbelief. "G-g-good answer..." she said as music and cheering resonated again.

«Why am I not surprised you counted the stars in the sky?» wondered Rainbow Dash.

«Because you know me too well,» replied the alicorn. «I listed all of them, by constellations, from North to South, from West to East, by size and by brightness.»

Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof toward Question Mark. "I answered all your questions! Free Apple Bloom!"

Question Mark frowned at the filly, but then smirked again. "I can't yet. A show isn't a good show without a final!"

"Oh, come on!"

Question Mark then levitated on the stage a wheel that was previously in a corner and that the ponies hadn't remarked previously. She placed it against the back wall of the stage, facing them. The wheel itself was almost entirely covered by a white area with written "LIFE", only leaving a small black area with written "DEATH".

"Spin the wheel, and if the arrow stop on the LIFE area, you win and your friend is saved!"

Sweetie Belle stared at the wheel and muttered "There's definitively something wrong with this wheel." She then looked briefly at her friends, her eyes settling on Little Ghost as she gave a small nod before she walked on the stage.

The filly and the ghost mare were now both facing the wheel, the mare still smirking. "Whenever you're ready!"

Without waiting, Sweetie Belle spun the wheel, and after many long seconds, it began to slow down. Anypony could see that the wheel would normally stop with the arrow on the LIFE area.

But it didn't stop. Slowly, ever so slowly, the wheel continued until the arrow reached the DEATH area.

It was only then that it stopped.

Cue a failure music with some booing as Sweetie Belle frowned. She knew it would happen.

"Oooh! That's so bad! Seems like your friend is gonna have a dive!" said the mare happily before she turned to the cage.

Only to see that it was now empty, the door open.

"What?!" she shouted before she looked at the group of ponies still in the other side of the room, Apple Bloom now present among them out of the rope.

Little Ghost cackled. "You turned your back on us! Did you really think I wouldn't take the occasion?" At this, she blew a raspberry at Question Mark.

The mare growled. "Why, you little... Aaah!" She was suddenly trapped in a vortex coming from behind her.

"And now, you turned your back on me!" shouted Sweetie Belle with a smirk. "The show is over"

And so, the mare was captured, and a key appeared on the stage.

Sweetie Belle immediately took the key and ran to hug Apple Bloom before she asked her if she was alright.

"Yeah, Ah'm alright. Thanks Sweetie. Ya're awesome."

«She's right. You were able to answer 9 questions out of ten by yourself. Little advice: you should participate in more quiz-shows. You have a chance,» said Twilight. «By the way, you will not believe it. Question Mark was the infamous Showtime Killer.»

Applejack's eyes widened. "Her?!"

«The serial killer who killed ponies in fake, rigged, mortal game-shows for her amusement? Who killed over one hundred ponies before she was caught?» asked Rarity.

«The very one,» said Twilight.

"Well, buck. That's quite the big piece we caught," said Applejack.

"And Ah thought we had gotten all the worst ones in the VIP Wing..." said Apple Bloom.

After that, they left the room and, following the key, walked (and fought their way) all the way back to the hallway in front of the auditorium. The key was opening the door at the very end of it, all the way at the West.

And they found themselves outside of the castle again, on a suspended bridge linking the Main Wing to a big floating island with the stadium on it.

Again, it was quite the view, but they didn't have the luxury of being able to look to long. Ghosts still came and attacked them on the bridge, the ones who could attack from a distance attacking far enough beyond the edges to not be bothered by the hunters who couldn't fly. So the ponies left them to Little Ghost and took care of the others.

Despite this, the ponies quickly reached the end of the bridge where the ghosts stopped assaulting them.

But they guessed that it would be a small respite.

They climbed the small slope that led to the entrance of the stadium, and they had to choose between three entrances. Panels said that the center one was for the sportstallions and led to the field while the ones at the sides were for the spectators and led to the bleachers.

So they took the center one. Little Ghost (and Apple Bloom) could deal with any ghosts who were on the bleachers.

After walking in a dark hallway barely lighted by torches between gargoyles, they passed a double door and entered the field. Slowly, they advanced toward the center, constantly looking around at the empty field and the empty bleachers.

Gosh, they didn't know that empty stadium could be so grim.

But the stadium didn't remain empty long. Dozens of ghosts of sportstallions and sportmares appeared all around them. There were ponies and other creatures from absolutely all kinds of sports; soccer, archery, judo, karate, gymnastics, weightlifting, triathlon, swimming, and so on and so on.

Already, the ones that possessed javelins began to throw them while others threw balls and pallets like in whatever sports they were coming from. Weightlifters threw weights, archers fired arrows, and any ghosts who didn't possess any means to attack from a distance charged at the ghost hunters.

"Red Mode everypony! They're too many to capture them the normal way! Watch out your gauge!" shouted Apple Bloom as she turned her Poltergust into Red Mode. She quickly lowered her head to avoid a baseball ball before she activated the vacuum cleaner. The others quickly followed her, and they began to suck ghosts by dozens. but more ghosts continued to come, and the ponies were forced to separate to take care of the ones attacking from a distance who were more and more numerous. Before long, they had to return to Yellow Mode.

Sweetie Belle quickly used and abused her singing to take control of ghosts and boost her friends, and even to debuff the enemy ghosts. Scootaloo turned herself into her scooter form and and began to roll everywhere to create walls of fire and hinder the ghosts. Applejack, buffed by Sweetie, smashed the ground again and again to create shockwaves after shockwaves. Little Ghost used her powers at their maximum to attack the ghosts. And Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost and did the same. By the time they could use the Red Mode again, the field had turned into a battlefield, with balls, pallets, arrows, javelins, and weights littering it when they weren't being sucked up and destroyed by the Poltergusts.

Most of it was cleaned by the Poltergusts in Red Mode again, but ghosts continued to come. Then, as she was busy capturing ghosts, sweetie Belle got her head absolutely destroyed by a ball thrown at her like a cannonball to the point that it was surrounded in fire. An orange earth pony stallion who was a pitcher revealed to be responsible of this.

Scootaloo would have gasped if she could. "That's Fire Ball! The greatest pitcher of all time! None of his balls ever got hit by a batter!" she shouted. She then quickly lowered her head to not get the same fate than the undead unicorn.

Then, a very buffed brown minotaur wearing boxing gloves appeared and smashed one of his gloves against the ground, sending a shockwave toward the ponies who all managed to jump above it (excepted Sweetie Belle as her head was still regenerating).

"Are ya foaling me?! Diamond Fist?!" shouted Applejack.

A white unicorn mare with a two toned pink mane then appeared, harmed of a rapier. Like the lightning, she struck, and Apple Bloom barely managed to avoid being impaled before she sent the mare flying with a burst of air.

Sweetie Belle, whose head just finished to regenerate, saw this and gasped. "Oh my gosh! It's Rose Thorn! She was so fast that rare were the ponies who could see her rapier when she thrust it!"

Apple Bloom looked around as more ghosts like those three appeared. "Seems like the champions're getting out. Be careful everypony!"

Constantly alternating between Red Mode and Yellow Mode, some of the ponies found themselves facing the powerful ghosts. and so, Applejack had to fight Diamond Fist while Scootaloo went to deal with Fire Ball. Apple bloom, however, managed to quickly capture Rose Thorn without too much of a fight before she had to fight another ghost, the one of a pegasus stallion who was apparently an ex-captain of the Wonderbolts named Lightning Falcon.

At least, when they could use the Red Mode, the fights were really short, and any ghosts who decided to face Little Ghost quickly regretted it.

One, toward the end of the battle as the number of ghosts started to diminish, revealed to be a particularly nasty piece of work. She was a tan unicorn with a brown and pink mane, and she was quickly revealed to be an ex-champion in many sports involving magic. She was named Sun Beam.

In short, an unicorn with a level in magic close enough to Twilight's or Starlight's. And with the various objects now littering the field, she had more than enough ammunition.

So she fired powerful beams, threw objects like cannonballs, and if somepony approached too much, she quickly hid herself behind a magical shield. So the ponies had to scatter and use projectiles to attack her from directions that she couldn't see. In the end, the fight lasted a few minutes before Sun Beam finally lost too much energy, leaving her open for the hunters to capture her.

After capturing some remaining ghosts, the key appeared.

Chapter 12: The Trotting Dead

The ponies left behind the stadium, traversing the bridge back to the Main Wing. After the huge battle that took place, they rested a few minutes to recover their energy, with how they used a lot of it to fight all those ghosts. Sweetie Belle had been especially spent. She did a lot of singing during the battle, and it took a lot of her. She will have to avoid singing for a little while.

Halfway through the bridge, they found themselves assaulted by the ghosts of the castle again. At least, it wasn't as bad as the battle of the stadium. The ghosts weren't as numerous, and while some of them could give some troubles, they were still quickly dealt with.

However, almost immediately after they entered the Main Wing, the hallway was suddenly flooded, and from a corner came a small ghostly boat with on it the ghost of a griffon armed with a harpoon.

"Yarr! The whale is in sight!" shouted the griffon with an excited smirk as he stared at Apple Bloom and prepared to throw his harpoon.

"Hey!" shouted back Apple Bloom indignant.

"Wait a minute. A captain griffon whaler?" said Scootaloo in recognition. "Captain Gachab? The griffon whaler who hunted that whale only to end trapped on its flank by ropes?"

"Himself!" shouted the griffon with a tilt of his hat.

"He's real? I thought he was only a story!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Apparently, not," said Apple Bloom.

She quickly jumped to the side to avoid a harpoon thrown by the griffon, then had to deal with a Prankster who had approached in the water. When an Icy appeared, she then immediately fired a Poltergun beam at him before he could freeze the water with them in it. Applejack then quickly captured the Icy before he could recover.

Little Ghost intercepted another thrown harpoon with her power, stopping it right in the air before she threw it back at Gachab with some added power. Instead of targeting Gachab directly, she targeted his boat, and when the harpoon impacted, it caused an explosion powerful enough to blow up half of it, sending the griffon flying in the air further down in the hallway. It was then that Scootaloo turned into a scooter and rolled ON the water toward the dazed sailor to quickly capture him before he could recover his senses.

When Gachab was captured, the remains of the boat and the water disappeared almost immediately like a mirage. With the water gone, the ponies could continue to their next destination.

The key from the stadium led them back to the section of the hallway with the back door to the pool room and the double door to the room with the quiz show. This time, it opened the first door on their left upon entering this section of the hallway.

A greenhouse, but without the wall of glasses to let the sun rays pass. Because, obviously, there wasn't any sun in this place. And so, the plants that could be seen in this room were either dead, nocturnal plants... or mutants.

Like, there were roses with red stem, as if instead of absorbing water, they absorbed blood.

There was a door in the back, and the ponies could see through windows that it led outside, probably to the graveyard. However, they couldn't see much because there were stuff blocking most of the view; a small wall between two pillars. There was another door in the right.

And tending for the plants was the ghost of an earth pony mare. An earth pony mare with a pale gamboge coat and a brilliant gamboge curly mane. When she turned to look at the ghost hunters, her glowing eyes revealed to be turquoise.

And Applejack's legs failed her as she recognized the mare, her face now entirely expressing shock as she said a single word. "Ma?"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened when she head this. "It's... it's Ma?"

The three other fillies stared at Apple Bloom with horror.

"Your mother?" asked Sweetie Belle as she placed a hoof on her mouth.

"She's here?" asked Scootaloo. "C-could this mean that your father is...?"

"W-why? Why are they here?" wondered Apple Bloom, her body beginning to shake.

Applejack let out a sound like a growl. "Thanatos. That's why. He probably captured them and forced them into servitude. All those years..."

Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Little Ghost exchanged looks, then gave each others a firm nod before they advanced in front of the Apples.

"Leave her to us," said Little Ghost. "We won't let you fight your own mommy."

But then, the mare, Pear Butter, used her power to make several vines grow from the plants. Several carnivorous plants also turned toward them, also raising their vines or ready to spit something probably poisonous or paralysing.

Sweetie Belle became worried. "Hum... This may complicate things..."

"That's nothing! We can burn them!" shouted Scootaloo.

"And they're nothing against me!" shouted Little Ghost.

But before they could charge into battle, Apple Bloom walked between them and stopped in front of them, facing her mother and ready to press the button of the ST, to everypony's shock.

"Are ya sure, sugarcube?" asked Applejack. "It's our Ma..."

"Ah know..." replied her little sister. "Ah... Ah won't fight her..." She looked determinedly at the mare sending the vines to attack her. "Ah'll save her." She pressed the button and turned herself into a ghost. She then flew up, avoiding the vines. "It's only right for one of her daughters to do this."

At this, Apple Bloom used her own power to supplant her mother's and take control of the plants. She quickly destroyed the carnivorous ones, then wrapped Pear Butter in the vines, only leaving out her ghost tail. Apple Bloom then approached and activated her Poltergust before she unwrapped the vines to free the mare from them so she could capture her. Once Pear Butter was captured, she then used the vines to entirely destroy to the greenhouse. Back to normal, she took the two keys that appeared and began to burn the plants.

Nothing will remain of what her mother had been forced to do for Thanatos.

Once all plants had burned, Apple Bloom returned to the others and said "One more reason to buck Thanatos' butt."

"As if there weren't already enough," said Scootaloo.

"There're never enough reasons to buck somepony's butt," said Little Ghost. "Each reasons add to our determination."

Sweetie Belle put a hoof on Apple Bloom's whither. "Are you alright?"

"AH... don't know... Ah finally got to see Ma but... Like that..."

Applejack went to hug her. "At least... Like ya said... Ya saved her... And if he's here, we'll save Pa too."

"Pa..."

Applejack gave her sister a warm smile. "And once it's over, Ah'm sure they'll want to spend some time with ya before they move on... If they decide to move on." Applejack let out a chuckle. "There's already a ghost in the family, so two more..."

Apple Bloom could easily hear the hope in Applejack's voice. Her sister clearly wants their parents to remain with them. And... Well, she hoped too. To finally have her parents back, even as ghosts...

But if they decide to move on, then it'll be their choice. They couldn't stop them.

Apple Bloom nodded to her friends to show them that they could continue, and she looked at the two keys that she took capturing her mother.

One led to the back door of the room, and the other led to the door in the right.

So they could now access the graveyard? As curious as they were to see what was up there, they decided to go to the right door first. They wanted to continue to clean the rooms until they were left with no choice but to go to the graveyard (not counting the other keys yet, the one they got from the game room beside the Great Hall and the one they got from cleaning the East Wing).

The new room quickly revealed to be a disturbing one that gave the colors of what was awaiting them: a coffin workshop. Coffins could be seen against the walls, and an unfinished one was in the middle of being built by a dark brown earth pony stallion with a pale grey mane.

The coffin was a foal-sized one, big enough for somepony like Apple Bloom to go in. When Apple Bloom understood that this coffin was her coffin, she couldn't stop herself from making a grimace, much to the stallion's amusement when he saw her.

The stallion, however, revealed to be as much of a threat as any other 'normal' ghosts, having no powers to speak of. He just tried to use a hammer to hit Apple Bloom. However, he was quickly joined by other ghosts; two Pranksters, one Trickster, one Bulky, one Zappy, one Assassin, and a couple of punk-like ponies armed with metal pipes. Some Shadows also came from the shadows of the coffins but were quickly destroyed before the battle itself even started.

Apple Bloom took care of the Zappy while Applejack went to deal with the Bulky. Sweetie Belle, who remained near Apple Bloom, got the Assassin as he attempted to attack the Apple filly from behind, Scootaloo went after the punks, and Little Ghost captured the dark grey stallion as well as one of the Pranksters.

But when only a Prankster and a Trickster remained, more ghosts came; four random ponies that immediately took possession of four of the coffins in the room, the possessed coffins attempting to devour Apple Bloom. But they were easily destroyed by Applejack, Scootaloo, and Little Ghost, leaving the ghosts vulnerable to be captured.

A Boggy then appeared and levitated the remaining coffins and the shards of the broken ones to throw them at Apple Bloom who avoided them as best as she could with jumps and rolls. It didn't take long however for the ponies to approach the Boggy and capture it, causing a key to appear.

Apple Bloom then destroyed the small coffin made for her, the only one that survived the battle. "Ah ain't gonna be buried anytime soon!"

After that, they used the key to open a double door that was in the eastern side of the workshop.

It was a bigger room, but mostly empty excepted for the presence of chairs here and there and of a table in the center. there were also several dresses and tuxedos against a wall as well as a box of makeup on a smaller table beside a stand with scissors, needles, and rolls of wire. On the table in the center was an open coffin with the body of a mare in it, dressed and made up.

And beside the coffin, looking down at the body with a big smile, was the ghost of a black unicorn stallion with a dark grey, near black mane, the mane covering part of his eyes. Still, the ponies could see them turning toward them when they approached, and the stallion's smile widened.

"Isn't she beautiful?" he asked. "A young mare taken in her prime. Look at her..." He gave a small caress to the body's left cheek. "You could almost believe she's just sleeping. An eternal beauty sleep. I could spend the whole eternity just admiring her." he fully turned his head to look at the hunters. "Don't you agree?"

"We agree that ya're sick," said Apple Bloom.

The stallion just chuckled at this. "Or I just have different tastes than you. Is being different being sick? Then, aren't we all a little sick?"

"There's being different, and there's being a weirdo who likes to admire corpses!" said Sweetie Belle.

"It's a hobby like any other," replied the stallion to this with another chuckle.

"Still a weirdo," said Sweetie Belle matter of factly.

«And a murderer. He was known as Undertaker, and he killed ponies so that when their body passed by his funeral home, he could satiate his... love of corpses, so to say,» said Twilight.

"Lovely..." deadpanned Apple Bloom before she pointed her Poltergust at Undertaker who floated backward, forelegs raised.

"Hey. Hey. I'm just an undertaker. No need to get violent over a small difference in our tastes."

"And a taste for killing too, apparently," said Scootaloo.

"Oh... Ooh..." said Undertaker at this with a small wince. "Well then..." Suddenly, he levitated the corpse of the mare to use her as a shield while he also levitated the scissors and needles in the hope to pierce Apple Bloom with them.

However, Sweetie Belle used her own body as a shield for her friend, not affected by being turned into a pincushion. Little Ghost then used her powers to force the body of the mare away from Undertaker, leaving the way open for everypony to capture the black stallion.

Little Ghost then gently dropped the body back in the coffin as Undertaker's capture caused six keys to appear beside the table.

"Six?!" shouted Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom took the keys and verified them one by one.

One opened a door in the southern wall of the room, back to the hallway, near the end of it.

Another opened a double door in the northern wall of the room, to the graveyard.

The four others all led to the graveyard.

«I guess it's time for you to go to the graveyard,» began E. Gadd. «You're already used to them, so it should be a breeze.»

"Yeeeeah... Ah'm not so sure. Ah's never lucky with graveyards in mah adventures, and do Ah need to remind ya where we're?" asked Apple Bloom.

«I meant that it will not be some little graves that will scare you, girly. I don't doubt that you will encounter some serious opposition here. But it still shouldn't be a problem with the five of you. however, I have a feeling that you're getting close to one of the three remaining guardians. You should ready yourself,» proposed E. Gadd.

"Ah'd that same feeling too. It starts to be a while since Toy Maker," said Apple Bloom.

«Anyway, whatever awaits you in the graveyard, I'm sure you will get them. You're a master ghost hunter now. Whatever is here should be scared of you. Good luck.»

So, finally, the ponies entered the graveyard.

And they already could say that it will be a huge piece of work.

At their left, they could see the entrance to the greenhouse. It was just under what seemed to be a terrace, and what they first thought was a wall was actually a staircase leading to it. Beside the terrace was the wall of the hallway leading to the VIP Wing which was just in front. Almost directly at their right was the edge of the floating island on which stood the castle.

They weren't really in the graveyard proper. Between the VIP Wing and the edge of the island, the path tightened before broadening at the level of what had been Red Sword's bathroom. The graveyard itself started not long after, and they knew it was huge with hundreds of graves littering the place, spreading to other, smaller islands connected to the main island by bridges. They couldn't see much however because there were also a lot of dead trees, and because of this, they could only spot a tomb on one of the two visible islands at the right, but if they remembered correctly, there was another tomb near the center of the graveyard, without forgetting the huge gate and the huge bridge leading to that huge tower visible in the distance.

And to make things worse, there was a fog, and Sombra's tower visible above finished to make the place one of the gloomiest ever visited by Apple Bloom.

«Huum... You know, if zombies come out of the graves, you should have Sweetie Belle start to dance. It should make a great diversion,» proposed Pinkie Pie.

«I'm not sure. She's not wearing red,» said Discord. «But I must admit it would be funny to watch.»

"What the hay are you talking about? How would me dancing in front of zombies would create a diversion?" asked Sweetie Belle.

The others shook their head and stopped listening as the group advanced toward the graveyard.

Once in the fog among the trees and the graves, Applejack said "Stay close, girls," as they continued to walk.

Soon enough, what they expected happened: zombies (of all species) started to come out of the graves. In just a few seconds, they already had five zombies surrounding them and probably more in the fog.

«Quick, Sweetie Belle! Dance! Discord, music!»

There was a snap! and music started blaring through the headpieces.

"STOP!" yelled Sweetie Belle, causing the music to end with a Scratch! "I'm not going to dance with zombies!" She saw one of the zombies staring questioningly at her and said "A weird joke from Discord and Pinkie."

It didn't help the zombie to understand, but he still nodded.

Of course, they weren't real zombies, but ghosts possessing corpses, so the ghost hunters just ha to damage the corpses enough to force the ghosts out and capture them. But damaging the body of a possessed undead pony wasn't as easy as damaging a possessed furniture, especially for the fillies. Only Applejack, with her strength, and Little Ghost, with her powers, were really effective against them. Scootaloo could also do some wonders with the trails of fire she could leave behind in her scooter form, and Sweetie Belle could still use her singing to take control of one of them. Sweetie Belle, however, tried to limit the use of her singing, still recuperating from the battle of the stadium and knowing that they weren't far from fighting a guardian. As for Apple Bloom, she could break bones, but that was pretty much everything she could do without turning into a ghost. Thankfully, there were the Poltergusts. And if she had to, she could turn into a ghost and use her powers to manipulate the trees around to do a carnage.

Among the zombies were some ghosts, a little of everything they encountered until now excepted wraiths. There were especially a lot of gardeners and gravediggers, all armed with some tools, mainly shovels. Possessed gargoyles were also present, as well as carnivorous plants on some graves.

Finally, after some exploring, they found the first tomb, the one near the center of the graveyard that they had seen from Sombra's tower. A small structure with a simple door that one of the four keys from Undertaker opened. The door immediately led to a staircase going underground. At the bottom, it led to a rather big room full of coffins in alcoves in the walls. twelve in total.

And twelve zombies broke out of the coffins to attack the ponies.

Again, Applejack was in the front line to deal with them, with Little Ghost behind with her powers. The others mainly used fire.

Before long, the twelve zombies were destroyed, and the twelve ghosts possessing them were captured.

Nothing appeared, but after some searching, the ponies found a small skull made of crystal in the remains of one of the coffins.

"A crystal skull?" wondered Scootaloo.

"Woah... Despite being a skull, it's so pretty," said Sweetie Belle in awe.

Apple Bloom smiled. "Ah think Ah understand what we must do." She showed the three remaining keys they got from Undertaker. "There're four tombs, and each tombs'll possess an object, probably more crystal skulls like this ones. And, if Ah ain't wrong, those skulls will be the keys to open the big gate leading to that huge tower."

«That's exactly what I was starting to think,» said E. Gadd. «And this would mean that the second guardian is in that tower.»

"This'll be quite the climbing. That tower was very high," said Little Ghost.

"And before that, there will be that very long bridge to cross," said Sweetie Belle.

"But first..." started Apple Bloom before she waved the three keys to show what she meant.

From then, it was just a matter of following the arrows created by each keys to find the three remaining tombs, starting with the one Southeast of here, and of fighting their way through hordes of zombies, possessed gargoyles, and ghosts.

Reaching them, however, revealed to not be as easy as the first one.

After crossing a small bridge, they reached a smaller island that they had seen earlier from the entrance of the graveyard. There weren't as many trees on this one, but there were still many graves.

And they encountered the ghost of a pale, tan mare with a two-toned green short mane with some yellow. A mare with very familiar clothes that made the ponies immediately recognize who she was.

Smart Cookie, one of the Founders.

And they had to fight her while dealing with the zombies and ghosts that continued to come. For a moment, they hoped that she wouldn't be as problematic as princess Platinum, but the mare quickly revealed some powers over the earth itself, managing to bend it to her will, more or less.

Enough to create spikes directly under the ponies. If she hadn't immediately pressed the button to turn into a ghost, Apple Bloom would now have a very big hole in her belly. She immediately charged at Smart Cookie, avoiding the boulders thrown toward her. Sweetie Belle fired a Poltergun beam at the mare to help her friend, but she managed to defend herself by using a boulder as a shield. It was still enough of a distraction for Apple Bloom, and she passed right through the boulder before she activated her Poltergust.

While Apple Bloom captured Smart Cookie, the others, after recovering from being impaled for the ones who were hit, dealt with the zombies and the ghosts. Little Ghost had the particularly effective method of throwing the zombies who couldn't fly over the edge of the island to fall into the purple void, forcing the ghosts possessing them to leave to return to the fight.

With Smart Cookie captured, the way was (mostly) open for the hunters to cross another bridge toward a second island where one of the tombs was. Like in the first one, they had to go down some stairs to fight a bunch of zombies. However, this time, a Boggy appeared to use the remains of the coffins as projectiles. Despite this, it was quickly captured, and the ponies found a second crystal skull.

Back to the main island, they went North this time. Just before reaching another bridge however, they had to deal with a big bulbous plant that seemed to be made from the flesh of dozens of creatures. It sent fleshy vines to catch Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, but the ponies were able to catch them and suck them up with their Poltergusts, causing the plant to open and revealing sharp bone-teeth. The plant then jumped (!) right toward Apple Bloom in an attempt to eat her, only for Applejack to place herself in the way before bucking it with a powerful air blast, sending it flying far beyond the edge into the void.

No ghost came out of the plant. It really was a plant made of flesh somehow alive.

After dealing with the plant, they crossed the bridge to another island, quickly dealt with a Nightmare Moon fanatic, then entered a tomb that was on the eastern side of the island, the door just beside the edge. In the room inside it, they had to deal with more zombies as well as with some wraiths, getting possession of a third crystal skull.

"Three done, one to go," said Little Ghost as they got out.

"And the last tomb is not far!" said Scootaloo as she pointed to a similar structure on another island connected to the one they were actually on by another bridge.

But before they began to advance, Apple Bloom spotted somepony digging a grave near the edge further back beside the tomb.

She recognized him. She had seen him in photos.

She immediately bolted toward the bridge, quickly followed by the others who screamed at her to wait for them. She zigzagged to pass some zombies on the way, bucked one into the void, and crossed the bridge before she approached the stallion who was digging.

A stallion with a pale yellow coat and a red mane who possessed glowing green eyes.

When Applejack caught up to Apple Bloom and saw the stallion, she got a resigned look as she said just one word. "Pa..."

So Apple Bloom was right. This ghost was her Pa, Bright Mac...

Bright Mac stopped digging and flew out of the hole while staring at them. He then threw the shovel he was using right at Apple Bloom, but the filly easily avoided it by stepping to the side, the shovel planting itself in the ground. Bright Mac then strongly stomped the ground, causing a shockwave to spread. Apple Bloom jumped above it and charged at her father only for him to surround himself in stone from the ground, turning himself into a round boulder that began to roll to crush the filly. But Applejack then came and destroyed the boulder with a buck, forcing the stallion out. The two Apples then both activated their Poltergust, but the stallion proved that Big Mac didn't get his strength from nothing because he managed to resist the Poltergusts enough to smash the ground and create more shockwaves for Apple Bloom and Applejack to avoid while sucking up their father.

He didn't resist long in the end, and he joined his wife in Apple Bloom's Poltergust.

Apple Bloom sighed sadly. "Soon... Ya'll be free... Both of ya..."

Apple Bloom then looked at the grave that Bright Mac had been digging and saw in the gravestone written "HERE LIES APPLE BLOOM"

Buck. They had forced her own father to dig a grave for her.

Those monsters.

They hadn't much time to gloom over this however, zombies and ghosts still coming to attack them. Sweetie Belle and the others had managed to push them back to give the Apples some place, but Apple Bloom didn't want to let her friends fight by themselves too long. An Apple doesn't slack and let the others do all the job!

After pretty much cleaning the population of undeads on this island, the hunters entered the last tomb. In it, after fighting some more zombies, they had to face something that made Apple Bloom's fur stand.

The 'ghost' was just a giant floating eye with tentacle-like hairs that ended in smaller eyes.

"Hum... It doesn't seem to have a ghost tail. Can it still be captured?" wondered Sweetie Belle.

"Well, the wisps can be captured despite not having any ghost tails so... Maybe?" said Apple Bloom.

Suddenly, the thing started to fire lasers from all its eyes in all directions, sweeping the room randomly with them. The only laser that it fired directly on the ponies was the one of the main eye. However, before it could reach them, Little Ghost had quickly acted and teleported herself between the laser and Apple Bloom. She then used her shield, with some difficulty, to deflect the laser back at the main eye, greatly hurting the thing to the point that it was stunned for a few seconds.

Without a word, the ponies took the occasion to approach the thing and activate their Poltergusts. There, they discovered that they could suck up the tentacle-like hairs, diminishing the number of eyes that the thing had to fire its lasers.

It recovered and immediately flew away while firing its lasers In return, the ponies chased it and began to fire Poltergun beams. Little Ghost used her shield again to deflect the smaller lasers back at the thing. The smaller lasers weren't enough to stun it, but they did hurt. eventually, the thing fired another big laser from its main eye only to have it deflected too back at it. Stunned again, it couldn't stop the ponies from tearing off more of its eyes.

Now with most of its eyes teared off, the thing had almost nothing remaining to keep the ponies at bay, so instead of sweeping the room randomly with its lasers, it decided to directly attack them with everything excepted the big laser to avoid being stunned again.

But the ponies didn't need to approach. They just continued to attack, weakening the thing more and more. In the end, they didn't even need to capture it. Once it had taken enough damage, it simply burned in purple flames until nothing remained of it.

"First the plant, now this. Ah guess ghosts and possessed stuff aren't our only enemies in this castle," said Apple Bloom.

"Where does those abominations come from? Is it Thanatos who created them, like Bogmire?" asked Sweetie Belle.

«That's a good question. I don't know if Thanatos' powers include being able to create those things,» said Smart Spirit.

«If I remember correctly, there must be a laboratory somewhere in this castle,» reminded Twilight. «Who knows what kind of horrible experiments they must do in there. Maybe that's where those abominations come from.»

Apple Bloom shivered. "Oh boy... Ah can't wait to visit this place..." she said with sarcasm and dread.

Applejack returned with the fourth crystal skull. "Ah can't wait too... to destroy this place and capture the sicks that run it. Now, let's put those skulls in the gate."

With a general nod, the ponies left the tomb and returned in the main island. The skulls, unlike the key, didn't show were their destination was, but they remembered that it was East, so in their left after returning in the main island from the North bridge. they still had to do some exploration while being careful to not accidentally walk beyond the edge before they could find it.

And on the way, they had to deal with a giant ball made of countless zombies. A literal zombieball that tried to crush them and that followed them no matter where they ran. But dealing with it was actually quite easy. They just had to place themselves against the edge, wait the last second, and run to the side to avoid the ball before it fell in the void. They then just had to deal with the ghosts that flew out of the falling ball.

Not long after that, they found the gate. A giant black double door between two black towers that only served as supports. There were some gargoyles on it that took life and attacked, but they were quickly destroyed before the ponies placed the four crystal skulls in corresponding holes in the doors.

Almost as soon as the last skull was placed, the door opened, letting the ponies have a view of the giant bridge leading to the giant tower in the distance.

After exchanging determined looks, Apple Bloom said "Let's go!" before they passed the door.

And the door closed behind them in a loud SLAM!

Author's Note

I present to you Meduseye.
Next chapter, the second guardian.

Chapter 13: The Abomination

Thanatos saw the pieces representing the ghost hunters pass the Black Gate and rubbed his claws together. He then took one of the three remaining golden pieces, one that looked like a giant mouth about to devour the world, and placed it.

"You all know by now that I like being creative. I have created many ghosts since the beginning of my existence. A little hobby of mine that I inherited from my 'father'. I did many experiments to see what I could create, and one day, I wanted to see how far I could go.

I went too far.

I created something that was so dangerous that I was forced to imprison it. Normally, I don't mind unleashing something dangerous upon the world. It adds some spice, you see. But that thing...

That thing can devour beings, dead or alive, and add their energy to its. The more it eats, the more he becomes powerful. If I had let it roam freely, it would have eventually become so powerful that it could have devoured even me.

I name it the Abomination, but I probably could have been more creative and named it the Devourer or Gluttony or the World Eater or something like that. You see the point.

Now, it's trapped at the top of the Tower Prison, behind powerful wards and guarded by some feared ghosts. Wait until you see the 'guard dog'. Ahahahah!

So, will you join the many souls that are now trapped inside my little Abomination?

Are you ready to risk a fate worse than Death?

My poor Apple Bloom. I wouldn't want to be in your place right now. AAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH!!!"

Like for the Toy Wing, the gate closed and locked itself behind them, confirming that there was definitively a guardian further ahead, certainly at the top of the tower.

But first, they had to reach it.

And they had barely passed the door that the ghost of a full grown adult dragon dropped on their path.

Apple Bloom remembered when she fought the painted dragon back in the Gem Manor. It had been a very dangerous fight. Maybe even the most dangerous back then.

Back then. But now...

Red Mode ON for everypony, and as the dragon breathed fire at them, Applejack sucked it up, leaving the way open for the others who approached. Little Ghost still sent a powerful enough ball of energy at the head of the dragon to make it stop before Applejack's Poltergust would overheat. Meanwhile, the others attacked with Poltergun beams and continuous lightning bolts. The dragon attempted to crush them under a claw but they all ran out of the way and separated to attack from different directions.

Scootaloo, in her scooter form, was able to roll all the way to the dragon's ghost tail and activated her Poltergust. Apple Bloom did the same with the claw that the dragon used to attempt to crush them, and Little Ghost finally came to trap the head in her own vortex. Resisting the three vortexes, the dragon raised his other paw to crush Apple Bloom only to have it trapped by Sweetie Belle. And Applejack, followed by the clones of goo, ran around to join Scootaloo in attacking by the tail, just in time as the filly had to stop sucking up to not overheat.

With the seven of them, it only took a couple of minutes for the dragon to be captured.

But it was only the first of many fights. A few meters further, they had to deal with a chimera and two bugbears.

They got the feeling that they will use the Red Mode a lot on this bridge.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, each followed by a clone of goo, both dealt with a bugbear, leaving the chimera for Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Little Ghost, who each took a head. With the three of them, the chimera was quickly captured, and they helped Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo finish the bugbears.

After that, they were able to advance a little before they suddenly felt cold. The cold announced the arrival of nothing else than a windigo that was flying over the bridge toward them, spreading freezing winds. Before it could reach them, Little Ghost teleported above it and sent a shockwave, smashing the ice spirit on the bridge. The others quickly used this occasion to run toward it and activate their Poltergusts, not paying attention to the cold surrounding it. Again, with all of them together, what had been previously a rather hard fight was over in just a few seconds without troubles.

But they still had a long way to go before reaching the other end of the bridge, and already, they could see two rocs and another windigo approaching from the void.

They ran, trying to go as far as possible before they had to fight the ghosts who were joined by a cragadile. When the first roc reached them, they all fired Poltergun beams at it, making it crash on the bridge where they easily captured it. At this instant, the second roc swept the bridge with its claws, and they quickly got out of the way before they fired at it, sending it plummeting into the void.

They weren't sure how long it would take for it to recover and return, but they used this to quickly capture the windigo and the cragadile before they continued. But then, the head of a dragon rose from the edge of the bridge and breathed fire on them. Like before, Applejack sucked up the fire and the fillies and the clones of goo used this to trap the head of the dragon and smash it against the bridge. At this instant, the first roc returned, and they fired at it again before it could attack. As it crashed on the bridge, they trapped it and made it slam on the head of the dragon it was captured. The dragon quickly followed.

More running, and this time, they had to face a tatzlwurm that wrapped itself around the bridge, blocking their path. The giant worm was actually easy to deal with. It simply sent its tongues to try to devour the ponies, and the ponies just had to trap them with their Poltergusts (still in Red Mode), leaving the tatzlwurm no chance.

Then came a small group of manticores followed by another windigo and a sea serpent. Little Ghost immediately went to deal with the windigo while the others dealt with the direct menace, the manticores, while keeping an eye on the sea serpent. However, the sea serpent attempted to devour Apple Bloom by bringing down his head, and the ponies used this to trap it and make it slam on some of the manticores. Almost immediately after, Little Ghost slammed the windigo on more manticores. Weakened, the ghosts were captured one by one, and the ponies could continue until the next wave (which was just an hydra).

This continued like that for the whole bridge, the ponies having to fight waves after waves of ghosts going from 'rather big' to 'huge'. One time near the end of the bridge, they also had to fight a purple ghost that looked like Cerberus, but instead of just having three dog heads, it had nine heads each of a different creature: a dog, a cat, a dragon, a pony, an eagle, a praying mantis, a monkey, a fish, and a rabbit. The Cerberus-like ghost was also three times bigger than the original. Thankfully, apparently, the dragon head couldn't breath fire. It was already hard avoiding being bitten by all the heads while also avoiding being turned to shreds by the huge paws.

Each of the ponies (and the clones of goo) took on a head, but even with their combined force, it took a few minutes to capture the beast. The ghost revealed to have a lot of stamina, and the ponies had to regularly pause to not overheat their Poltergusts. There were also those times where the ponies had to run/fly away to avoid being body slammed by the ghost, and they also had to jump a lot to avoid the many shockwaves the paws created by smashing the ground.

But like all the others, the monstrous Cerberus yielded to the ponies, leaving the way open for them to finally step on the huge island on the center of which stood the huge tower that raised high into the void, even higher than the highest tower of the Main Wing. The tower was also large enough for a grown dragon to enter, the size not diminishing with height like some towers.

But they barely put a hoof on the island that they saw coming from behind the tower the ghost of a freaking ursa major!

"Are ya bucking serious?! An ursa major?!" yelled Scootaloo.

"Eeeh... That's a serious challenge even for me..." said Little Ghost.

"We may have to use the Super Suction," said Applejack.

"Let's try first without," said Apple Bloom. "We must not waste the Super Suction. We only each have one minute of it, remember. They're our last resort. And they may be best used against Thanatos himself." At this, she began to fire Poltergun beams at the ursa which slightly winced in pain at this.

It didn't stop it from approaching however, and the other ponies quickly began to fire at it too. And still, despite all the Poltergun beams, the ursa continued to advance, so the ponies ran away in the hope of remaining as far away as possible from the giant bear. But the ursa major was so huge that it still caught up to the ponies as they circled around the tower.

So the ponies separated into various directions. Little Ghost remained in front of the ursa major and fired powerful projectiles at it to gain its attention. The clones of goo also remained in front as diversion. Apple Bloom, her, moved under the ursa major with the goal of going behind it, hoping that the ursa won't simply slam its body against the floor to crush her. Thankfully, it didn't, too focused on Little Ghost. As for Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, they moved either to ursa's left or the right, attacking it from the sides.

It was so big that none of them even attempted to capture it yet. They wanted to make sure that it was weakened to the point that it couldn't move before that. But again, because of its size, it was taking a lot of time. The Poltergun beams were just insect bites to it. The only one who had some real effects on it was Little Ghost with her huge powers. At least, the ursa major hadn't any powers beside the basic shockwaves when slamming the ground.

But Apple Bloom decided to accelerate things with her ghost form, joining Little Ghost in assaulting the ursa major with powerful projectiles. Too bad for her that there weren't any plants, even dead, on this island. She could have used them.

By the time she had to return to normal, the ursa major was greatly weakened, but wasn't captured. And her attacks had gained its attention. So, now, a bear the size of a manor was facing her with rage.

It tried to sweep her with a paw, but the filly unleashed streams of air to rapidly propel herself upward, barely avoiding it. She then flew away to get out of range, and once she was far enough, she dropped back on the floor and resumed attacking the ursa major with Poltergun beams. Thankfully for her, Little Ghost managed to get back the ursa's attention to her, so it didn't chase the earth pony filly.

Once she could turn back into a ghost, Apple Bloom immediately did so, and her attacks coupled with Little Ghost's were finally enough to cause the ursa major to drop on the ground, extremely weakened. The ponies and the clones of goo then gathered behind it and activated their Poltergusts.

After a few seconds of struggles, the ursa major was captured, its capture propelling the pony who ended up capturing it, Scootaloo, a few meters away.

A giant key, as big as Big Mac, then dropped not far.

Little Ghost sat on the ground with a sigh. "If I wasn't already dead, I would die right now. I used almost everything against that oversized teddy bear."

"Yeah... Let's rest a little before we continue,' said Apple Bloom.

They all agreed and rested for a few minutes before they judged that they could continue. Applejack took the giant key and searched the door that it opened which was in the southern side of the tower. A huge double door about the size of the Cerberus-like ghost they fought earlier, heavily blocked by chains with at the center a lock shaped like Thanatos' skull. Using the key on the lock caused all the chains to be destroyed before the door opened.

The inside of the tower revealed to be entirely empty excepted for a spiral staircase against the wall going all the way to the top. Not wanting to lose time climbing the hundreds of stairs (which would probably tire Apple Bloom), Little Ghost then levitated everypony to the top. There, they climbed the remaining stairs through an opening in the ceiling, entering a small room with another double door, this one with a big "WARNING!" on it.

To open it, they had to lower four levers beside it first, unlocking it.

Finally, they entered a huge circular room entirely empty excepted for many levels of magical wards put on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. From those wards, countless purple chains of pure magic were coming, gathering above the center of the room into a giant ball.

Whatever the ponies had to fight was certainly trapped in that ball of magical chains. So it meant that they had to free it.

But the ponies were a little anxious at freeing something that needed all those wards and chains to be trapped, without forgetting all those ghosts that were guarding the path to this tower.

But they had no choice.

Freeing the thing revealed to be simple however. They just had to erase a few lines in the wards to weaken them enough for the thing to start to free itself. Little by little, the ball of chains began to grow, and after a few seconds, the chains began to break one by one until the ball exploded, the chains disappearing into nothingness, revealing whatever they were keeping trapped.

It was a giant floating spherical mass of purple ectoplasm. All over the surface of its body, to their horror, the ponies could see moaning souls trapped in it. Judging by the size of the thing, there were probably a few hundreds souls composing it.

Then, a part of the souls split apart to reveal a giant, drooling mouth.

It wants your soul for dinner
THE ABOMINATION

The five hunters then found themselves being levitated toward the mouth, and they quickly acted by firing Poltergun beams in it, forcing the Abomination to release them as it shrieked in pain.

«I saw many horrors in my life, I went through the invasion of the Shroobs, but that thing is on another level! A ghost that consumes others? Yike!» said E. Gadd.

"No wonder Thanatos had it locked like that," said Apple Bloom.

"How can we defeat that thing?" asked Sweetie Belle.

«Well, first thing, don't get yourself eaten. And secondly, just try to do as usual. We will see if it works. If not... Then try something else! There must be a way. You already have all the tools needed,» said E. Gadd.

Five tentacles made of souls suddenly shot out of the Abomination and went toward the ponies. Sweetie Belle, Little Ghost, and Applejack found themselves wrapped by three of them while the others were able to avoid them. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo immediately activated their Poltergust (still in Red Mode) and managed to trap the two remaining tentacles.

To their joy, they saw that the Poltergusts were able to suck up the souls out of the Abomination, destroying the two tentacles. Little Ghost also managed to use sharp waves to cut the three remaining tentacles and free herself and the others. However, the cut parts quickly returned to the ball, not leaving much time for the ponies to capture the souls in there.

Despite its lack of face, the ponies could clearly see that the Abomination was looking at them in disbelief just with its mouth, not believing that they were able to take some of its souls.

Outside of Thanatos, it clearly never encountered opposition.

Then, with a growl, it morphed. The ball slowly took on a different shape, becoming more like a giant floating worm with the big mouth at the extremity. Various tentacles then came out all along its body, some morphing to end in a claw or a scythe.

It charged at the ponies, mouth wide open, and they all ran/flew in different directions to avoid being devoured. Apple Bloom quickly had to lower herself to dodge a scythe only to be grabbed by a claw around her back legs. Thinking quickly, she pointed her Poltergust at the appendage that caught her and turned it on, sucking up the souls out of it and destroying it, freeing herself much to the Abomination's frustration.

It still managed to cut Scootaloo in half with one of its scythes, and while the filly repaired her robotic body, it grabbed the two pieces to eat them. But Little Ghost came again and did like Apple Bloom, using her Poltergust to suck up the souls and destroy what caught her friend. The clones of goo also began to suck up the souls directly from the Abomination's body, and it quickly flew away, a little smaller as a result.

It then faced the ponies again, opened its mouth, and charged energy before firing a huge purple beam. Again, the ponies had to run, Applejack taking the still repairing pieces of Scootaloo's body. The laser, however, chased Applegoo and destroyed her. She almost immediately came back out of Apple Bloom's Poltergust.

Once the Abomination stopped firing the purple beam, the ponies counterattacked by firing Poltergun beams. Shrieking in pain, the Abomination retaliated by sending several purple balls into the air. A few seconds after being thrown, those balls then exploded one by one, each unleashing beams that rained in a more or less big area directly under them.

As the ponies avoided the beams as best as they could (simply by running away from the areas under the balls once they understood the stuff), they continued to fire at the Abomination.

Until it suddenly contracted in pain before it puked a blob of souls, which caused it to shrink a little again. Seeing this, Little Ghost quickly teleported beside the blob and began to suck up the souls composing it. She wasn't able to get all of them however before she was forced to retreat to not be devoured by the Abomination who charged at the blob mouth wide open and swallowed it back.

Now having a strategy, the ponies resumed firing at the Abomination to force it to puke another blob, and the Abomination attacked in return by using its tentacle-scythes to send many sharp purple waves while firing another purple beam from its mouth, this time the beam not hitting anypony.

But then, many ghosts began to enter the room and to fly toward the Abomination, much to the ponies' shock. The Abomination smirked at this before it began to eat the ghosts, regenerating some of what it lost.

Apple Bloom growled. "Thanatos is sending ghosts to feed that thing and regenerate it! We must stop them!" she yelled before she began to capture several ghosts with her Poltergust in Red Mode.

Half of the team joined her in capturing the ghosts while the other half continued to attack the Abomination. Seeing that its food was being attacked, the Abomination began to rapidly fly around the room to eat as much ghosts as possible while attacking the ghost hunters when it had the occasion.

Occasionally, it got it in close enough range for the ponies to suck up some souls from its body or its tentacles before it could fly away. But then, taking everypony off guard, it opened a portal exactly like Eternal Rest and entered it before it closed. Another portal then opened not far of the group, and understanding what was about to happen, they quickly dispersed just before the Abomination charged out of it in an attempt of eating them. Again, the ponies took the occasion to suck up souls from it as it passed beside them. As it flew away, some of the ponies then resumed sucking up the ghosts still coming into the room. However, some of the ghosts began to attack them in return, making their job a little harder.

It did another attempt with the portals with the same result before it finally puked another blob of souls. This time, Little Ghost was joined by Scootaloo, and together, they managed to suck up the majority of the souls from it before the Abomination swallowed it back.

In rage, the Abomination gave a loud shriek before it fired a powerful energy blast at the ceiling directly above the ponies, causing a part of it to collapse. Little ghost quickly stopped the debris from falling on them and sent them to crash elsewhere. At this, the Abomination attacked the floor again and again, much to the ponies' horror as they understood what it wanted to do.

Quickly enough, the floor cracked and began to collapse. The ponies rapidly ran back to the exit door and returned on the staircase, the top floor now being totally destroyed.

as they ran on the stairs, the Abomination continued to spread destruction as it followed them, firing in all directions to cause everything to collapse; the ceiling, the walls, and the staircase. Some of the attacks targeted the ponies who did all they could to avoid them while running down the stairs and firing back at the Abomination. Eventually, the Abomination charged at them, and they barely avoided it as they jumped down some stairs. The section of stair it charged at was totally destroyed, and it even charged through the wall beside it, creating a huge hole.

It quickly returned and began to chase the ponies down the stairs behind them, destroying both the stairs and the wall beside them and causing more of the tower to collapse. It quickly caught up to the ponies only to take a huge energy blast in the mouth from Little Ghost. It barely slowed it down however, so Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost, passed through the wall beside the stairs with her, and together, they charged back at the Abomination. As soon as they hit it, they caused a big explosion that propelled it a few meters away from the stairs. As the Abomination was a little stunned by this, Apple Bloom and Little Ghost used this occasion to suck up many souls from it, destroying a few of its tentacles before Apple Bloom had to revert back to normal (she quickly had to return on the stairs before that). Little Ghost was forced to retreat as the Abomination attempted to grab her.

The Abomination, now smaller as a result, morphed back into a ball before it merged all its tentacles into two giant scythes. It then rapidly began to spin as it moved down following the ponies, its scythes constantly sending a sharp wave around it. The waves thus formed a double spiral that cut down the tower, and the ponies had no choice but to jump from the stairs, Applejack taking Apple Bloom on her back.

Despite having run down quite the number of stairs, they still had a long drop before reaching the base of the tower, so they expected to receive some damage from it, but at the last second, Little Ghost stopped their fall, and they landed on the ground none the worse for wear.

Looking up, they quickly dispersed as the Abomination, back in its worm form, charged at them from above in another attempt to eat them. As it hit the floor, it then stopped moving, and from all the claws that formed on its body, it fired many purple beams all around itself before it began to spin again, forcing the ponies to either duck or jump to avoid them depending of how high the beams were. The ponies also had to avoid a lot of debris raining from above resulting from the tower crumbling because of the Abomination's previous actions.

But despite the beams, the ponies continued to attack it and eventually forced it to puke a blob again, and this time, they all went at it, entirely sucking all the souls composing it leaving nothing for the Abomination to swallow back.

By now, the Abomination had lost enough size and power that the ponies began to be a little more bold, not hesitating to get close to suck more souls from it. However, the ghosts returned to regenerate it, and the Abomination went to devour them only to be stopped by the seven ghost hunters with all their Poltergusts in Red Mode. The ponies then slammed it repeatedly on the ground until they had to stop to not overheat. In that time, they managed to suck up a lot of souls and even forced the Abomination to puke another blob of souls on which the ponies immediately worked to suck up all the souls.

The Abomination was now just about three times bigger than Applejack, clearly soon running out of souls.

Getting desperate, the Abomination flew up out of range and used tentacles to grab and devour nearby ghosts and regenerate itself white spiting small balls of energy that exploded upon contact with the floor to attack the ponies and stop them from capturing the ghosts or from firing at it. It didn't work, and Little ghost even came to attack it directly, and the Abomination flew around to escape her.

But then, Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost again and took the Abomination by surprise by flying directly on its way before slamming it with a powerful energy shockwave that send the Abomination against the wall. Scootaloo took this to roll on the wall in her scooter form and get close enough from it to jump toward it, revert back to normal, and activate her Poltergust to trap it and suck up some of its remaining souls. With a growl, the Abomination did a desperate attack by attempting to crush Scootaloo between the wall and its body, but Scootaloo let herself fall to avoid this, and this left a big enough opening for Apple Bloom and Little Ghost to send another energy shockwave from above, sending the Abomination to crash on the ground.

The ponies immediately surrounded it (Apple Bloom returning to normal) and all activated their Poltergusts at it, sucking up the remaining souls from the Abomination until all that was left of it was a giant mouth on a featureless misty body.

as the abomination resisted the vortexes, it then shrieked and sent a shockwave that propelled back the ponies as well as all the ghosts still in the area. Shrieking again, the Abomination then began a series of powerful attacks that he blindly fired in all directions. Beams, sharp waves, explosive energy balls, purple lightning bolts, more beams, more explosive energy balls... and even literal explosions from its body.

As best as they could, the ponies avoided this storm of attacks, not able to approach.

But eventually, in a last explosion, the attacks stopped, and the Abominations dropped on the ground, having entirely spent all its energy. It couldn't move anymore.

So Apple Bloom approached it, and sucked it up, the Abomination not offering any resistance.

And a golden key with a draconequus skull appeared.

Thanatos flicked the golden piece, making it topple.

"Two left."

Author's Note

Inspired from that thing:

But instead of corpses, they're souls directly part of the body.

Chapter 14: The Doll House

Victorious, the ponies left the ruins of the tower and traversed the giant bridge back to the graveyard, feeling good about saving a few hundreds souls from an eternity of suffering trapped in a soul-eating abomination.

Too bad the souls will have to wait Thanatos' defeat to see freedom.

"What could be worse than that thing?" wondered Sweetie Belle.

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to know," answered Scootaloo to this.

"We'll have to make sure it'll never escape," said Apple Bloom. "It's too dangerous."

The others nodded, then Sweetie Belle asked "Where do we go, now?"

"We will just follow the arrows of the keys until we reach a door that we can unlock," answered Little Ghost.

"At least, if Ah understand well, all that remain's the Main Wing of the castle. We've cleaned everything else," said Applejack.

«We saw nothing else around the Main Wing while you were outside so I suppose,» said E. Gadd. «But you still have a lot of the Main Wing to explore, so it's far from being over.»

The ponies nodded again.

No ghosts attacked them on the bridge beside a few Wisps, but back in the graveyard, they had to fight their way through the remaining zombies along with a few gargoyles and some ghosts. They then returned inside the Main Wing by the greenhouse where a Puffer, some Huggers, and a few Slitherers awaited them.

Scootaloo and Sweetiegoo quickly captured the Huggers so nopony would accidentally walk on them or be pushed on them by the Puffer. Applejack then dealt with the Puffer while the others captured the Slitherers one after another.

Once out of the greenhouse, the ponies then followed the arrows of the two remaining keys they had (not counting the two skull keys) which both led back to the second floor of the Main Wing. On the way, it seemed like the ghosts decided to raise the difficulty now that the ponies had defeated two guardians, now appearing in greatest numbers, and more powerful than average ghosts appearing more often. Just on the way to reach the stairs beside the auditorium, they fought a Super Thrower, a bandit leader, and a group of killer clowns that used murderous versions of clown tricks to attack. Then, once they were in the second floor, they faced a minotaur who was constantly smashing the ground at the end of the hallway, creating many shockwaves, before they had to fight another Super Thrower.

Finally, they stopped beside the door of the room just West of the Entrance Hall, the one that the key they got from the game room unlocked. The other key was leading further East.

However, before they could unlock the door, they had to deal with a Slappy that was ambushed in front of it. The ghost of a rhinoceros used this to charge at them from down the hallway, but it was stopped in its charge by a buck from Applejack on the head, leaving it to be captured by the ponies.

Finally, they could unlock the door.

And after everything they went through, it was very welcome for them to finally enter what seemed to be a simple parlor, even if it was a very well decorated one. Decorated in the usual dark manner of the rest of the castle, of course. Some cupboards, a big round table with half a dozen chairs under a chandelier, some potted dead plants, and a gargoyle against each corners near the ceiling.

Then, ghosts came and took possession of everything, even the chandelier which began to send purple fireballs from its candles. It was immediately destroyed by an energy ball from Little Ghost while Sweetie Belle sang to boost Applejack who smashed the ground to create a shockwave. It destroyed all the chairs, the tables, and the potted plants, and badly damaged the cupboards, but the gargoyles all jumped above it. So while Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and the clones of goo dealt with the ghosts that came out of the destroyed objects, Applejack and Little Ghost destroyed the cupboards and the gargoyles one by one.

When all the objects were destroyed, a Boggy and a Big Brain then appeared and levitated the remains to throw them at the ponies, especially at Apple Bloom. But thanks to Sweetie Belle who used her own body as a shield, Apple Bloom wasn't hurt and both she and Scootaloo fired Poltergun beams back at the two ghosts, making them stop. They were then captured by Little Ghost, Applejack, and the clones of goo who had approached. They then just had to capture a few remaining ghosts that had possessed the objects to make the key appear.

The key opened the door to the room just West of the parlor which quickly revealed to be entirely empty excepted for the presence of a mirror covering the entire southern wall.

Almost as soon as they entered, the ponies felt something very wrong with this mirror.

And they were quickly proven right when their reflection suddenly stepped/flew out of the mirror, each of them smiling like a psycho who couldn't wait to plant a knife into someone (excepted the clones of goo because they don't have a face).

«Mmh... That's bad. If those clones have everything you have...» said E. Gadd.

«It's a classic battle against an evil clone! You will have to find a way to surpass them!» they heard Spike shout.

But before the ponies could think of a strategy, the clones began to attack them, each clone attacking their original. The clone of Little Ghost quickly revealed to be the most dangerous, as expected since she possessed all her powers, and Little Ghost had to counter whatever she was throwing to ensure the safety of her friends.

When Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost in the hope of getting the upperhoof, she found herself having the same problem as her clone did the same thing, and the only reason why the room wasn't destroyed by the time they both returned to normal was certainly thanks to Thanatos' power.

Both Sweetie Belles used their singing to boost their allies, but in the end, it didn't change anything excepted making the fight more dangerous with the Applejacks beginning to create shockwaves and the ghosts using more powerful attacks.

But then, as she avoided an ice shard fired by her double, Apple Bloom looked at the double of Little Ghost and got an idea. With a smirk, jumping to the side to avoid a lightning bolt from her double, she then quickly fired a Poltergun beam at the fake ghost.

The beam hit, and the clone was immobilised in pain. The real Little Ghost took the occasion to teleport beside her and trap her with her Poltergust. She then slammed her on the clone of Scootaloo. Thanking her friend, Scootaloo then fired water at the fake clones of goo, destroying them. Before they could come back, the real clones fired lightning bolts at the clones of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. The real Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle then both tackled their clone as they were shocked and destroyed their Poltergusts. The fake clones of goo still came out of their tubes, but now, the fake Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had lost their main mean of fighting. Meanwhile, Scootaloo had joined Little Ghost in capturing her double, slamming her continuously on the fake Scootaloo and not leaving time for her to recover. All this time, the Applejacks had continued fighting each other.

Then, cracks appeared all over the fake Little Ghost, and as she was slammed one last time, she broke into glass shards that disappeared into the air.

Free from having to deal with her clone, Little Ghost could unleash her power on the other clones, starting with the fake Apple Bloom before she could turn into a ghost again. One by one, the clones were destroyed like the fake Little Ghost, and when all of them were destroyed, Applejack bucked the mirror and destroyed it, its shards also disappearing into the air like the clones. And the key appeared.

"Well, that wasn't something Ah's expecting to have in this castle," commented Apple Bloom as she took the key.

«And it wasn't as hard to overcome as I thought,» said Rainbow Dash. «Aren't clone battles supposed to be very hard?»

«Obviously, those ones didn't know real advanced teamwork and revealed to be easy to destroy once disadvantaged,» said E. Gadd.

"Lucky for us," said Sweetie Belle.

Back in the hallway, they followed the arrow of the key that led them further West. On the way, however, they were stopped by the ghost of a dark brown earth pony stallion armed of a nunchaku. The stallion flew out of a wall, placed himself on their way, and began to show off his mastery of the weapon, doing figures with it in a clear attempt to intimidate them (or to impress them and feed his ego, hard to say).

Apple Bloom, however, just gave a deadpan look before she fired a Poltergun beam at him, stopping his show. They couldn't lose time watching him as other ghosts and possessed stuff were still regularly coming to attack them.

However, as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were capturing the stallion with the nunchaku, another ghost suddenly came and fired with a familiar cannon at Little Ghost. The beam that came out of it hit her and she was filled with pain for a brief instant, immobilizing her.

A Poltergun Cannon, exactly like the ones that some of the ghosts back in Eternal Rest's hotel used.

Apple Bloom quickly dealt with the ghost before he could fire again while Applejack defended Little Ghost as she recovered.

"Are ya alright, Little Ghost?" asked the mare.

"Ugh... Yeah... But I hadn't missed this," answered the recovering filly ghost.

"We'll have to watch out other ghosts with those cannons," said Little Bloom as she returned from capturing the ghost.

"We should have expected to meet some eventually," said Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah... And this means that you'll have to be careful when you turn into a ghost, Apple Bloom," said Little Ghost.

Apple Bloom agreed.

At this, they were able to continue until they reached the door that the key unlocked which, surprisingly, wasn't the first one West of the room they were in like previously, but the second one.

And the room it led to was totally empty. Like, really, there was nothing.

Seemingly.

But then, they heard the distinct sound of objects bouncing or dragging themselves on the floor, so the ponies activated their Dark Light Devices and discovered that the room was actually full of objects that were simply invisible. Because of this, Apple Bloom wasn't able to react in time to avoid being hit by a charging chair, and a flying book from a shelf rammed Little Ghost while Scootaloo barely avoided being eaten by a chest.

But after the initial surprise, the fight went pretty much like in the parlor. The objects were destroyed one by one, and the ghosts possessing them were captured. A dozen of Shadows and a Boggy came as reinforcements, but they were quickly destroyed and captured too, and the key appeared.

This one led to the next door West, and when they entered the room, which was the last one in the hallway just before it split North toward the auditorium and Southwest toward the West Wing, the ponies immediately heard a lot of laughs.

Sitting upside down against a wall on the ceiling was a pink earth pony stallion with a short, darker pink mane who was laughing like somepony told him the best joke of the world. His clothes immediately identified him as the famous Chancellor Puddinghead.

He wasn't the only thing laughing in the room. Hooked on the walls were masks and paintings/portraits, many of them tilted at various angles. A little everywhere were clown puppets, jack-in-the-boxes, and statues.

All of them were laughing.

The ponies were shocked at first by what they were seeing, but then, they started to laugh too, not able to stop themselves.

They laughed, and laughed, and laughed...

To the point that Apple Bloom was beginning to miss air, but she still continued to laugh.

She couldn't stop laughing.

If this continued, she would die of laughter. But she was laughing so much that she couldn't move.

However, there were two beings who weren't laughing. Applegoo and Sweetiegoo advanced toward Chancellor Puddinghead and, once they were close enough, they activated their Poltergusts. And before long, the chancellor was captured.

The key appeared, and all laughs in the room immediately stopped.

It took many seconds for Apple Bloom to recuperate her breath.

"Huff... Puff... Thanks... Applegoo... Sweetiegoo..."

The two clones of goo returned the thank you with a wave.

«To think that a ghost tried to kill you by making you die of laughter...» said E. Gadd.

«And not just any ghost. Chancellor Puddinghead, one of the Founders of Equestria,» said Twilight.

«Which makes three Founders out of six. Clover the Clever, Commander Hurricane, and Private Pansy remain,» said Spike.

«What do they have against me? First cake! Then, baking! Now, laughter! It's like they're using everything I love to kill! What next? Smiles?» shouted Pinkie Pie.

«How could you kill somepony with a smile?» wondered Rainbow Dash.

"Not sure, and if it's possible, Ah'm not sure Ah want to know," said Applejack. "But Ah'm sure that it's only a coincidence."

"Killing by dying of laughter... What else will they find?" wondered Scootaloo before they took the key and exited the room.

It led them East to the other side of the Entrance Hall, at the first door beside it (still in the second floor).

And they entered a room that looked like the typical entrance hall of a house. Coat hooks beside the door, a chest of drawers against a wall with a potted plant on it, another potted plant in the southwestern corner, some candles on the walls, and a small passage to another room without door in the southeastern corner.

And a few dolls sitting here and there, their heads turning to look at the ponies as they entered the room.

"Déjà vu," said Apple Bloom at this.

«Twisted Towers. That room with all the dolls,» said Pinkie Pie to this.

The dolls present then charged at the ponies, and were subsequently destroyed, and the ghosts who possessed them, captured. However, it wasn't over.

This entrance hall was only the first of a succession of rooms all full of dolls. First came a living room where a lot of dolls were playing dinette. Then, there was a kitchen with a lot of cook dolls armed with knives and other utensils. The kitchen itself was linked to a balcony from where more dolls came as the ponies were already busy with the cooks. A gargoyle even came from there in the middle of the battle. After the kitchen, they entered a dinner room where many dolls were pretending to have a small banquet. Lot of fake food was thrown in this room. After that came a bathroom where a few dolls were taking a bath.

Finally came the last room of this giant doll house: the chamber. There, a literal mountain of dolls was present on the bed. Then the mountain began to shake, and the dolls composing it began to break and twist, their parts merging to each others. Before the ponies eyes, the mountain of dolls was becoming some kind of golem entirely made of doll parts, which was really disturbing.

Especially when the eyes of all the dolls composing it turned to look at them, and when the dolls' legs all over its body moved as if they wanted to grab them.

If they weren't already used to that kind of stuff, it would certainly give nightmares. Not helped when some of the dolls began to repeat "Mama."

But even if it was a disturbing golem made of dozens of dolls, the strategy to destroy it remained the same. It was just taking more time, and it was more risky because the golem was obviously stronger. One swipe from it would be enough to send anypony crashing against a wall.

Fire worked well on it, burning the dolls composing it. Ice shards were also very good to destroy small chunks of doll parts. After, Applejack and Little Ghost remained the most effective to deal a maximum of damage to it.

Little by little, the doll parts composing the golem were destroyed, and the golem became smaller and smaller as a result, making it easier to fight. Eventually, a shockwave from Little Ghost blew what remained of it all over the room.

Excepted a single, still intact doll that had been in the center of it and that remained floating in the air. Many doll parts, the most sharp ones, then began to levitate around it, but before the doll could send them toward Apple Bloom, it was caught in the vortex of Applegoo's Poltergust and was slammed on the floor, destroying it.

Only for the doll to reform.

"Darn, the ghost possessing it is bound to it," said Scootaloo.

"No problem," said Little Ghost before she used her power to force the ghost out of the doll, the ghost revealing to be the one of a very young pegasus filly with a white coat and a grey mane. Despite being forced out, the ghost still attempted to send sharp doll shards at Apple Bloom, and the ponies used their Poltergusts to suck them up before they trapped the filly and captured her.

Two keys appeared.

"Any idea who this filly is?" asked Apple Bloom.

«Sadly, no. I can't find anything about her. Maybe she died of sickness, so she wasn't recorded in those archives I took,» said Twilight.

"Whoever was that filly, she could have been in a horror movie," said Scootaloo.

"Yeah. I hope we won't see more golems like this one," said Sweetie Belle.

At this, they took the two keys and used one of them to unlock the exit door in the northern wall of the chamber, returning in the hallway.

Following the arrow of the key, they found themselves with a choice: at the first fork, the key they got continued forward while the other they had, the one they got from the East Wing, was leading them to a different section in the right.

Now, they wondered if they should continue to follow the key they got or if they should finally go see where the other was leading to.

Chapter 15: The Mechanic

After a small discussion, it was decided to follow the path of the other key. Why not take the occasion to advance in both remaining paths after all? So, as long as the two paths remained in the second floor, and will complete as much of it as possible before they would have to go either to the first floor again or to the third floor.

To they took the hallway in their right which was surprisingly empty of doors. There was just one in the right at the beginning, but that was all. After that, it was just one long empty wall in the left (with a few gargoyles and armors), and a wall full of windows showing what seemed to be a military training yard in the right.

However, after a long walk interspersed of small fights against ghosts and possessed objects, when the hallway turned to the left, the left wall curved into a small arc of circle with a double door. At both sides of the door were mechanisms that seemed to miss something.

Clearly, it wasn't a key that would open this one.

Walking West in this section of hallway where the windows in the right now showed the graveyard, they then finally found the door that the key of the East Wing opened, the only door in the left wall.

So the ponies opened the door, but immediately stopped short of entering the room behind it.

Before the whole floor of the room revealed to be a conveyor belt, and a rather fast one. Walking on it without watching out like they almost did would have no doubt caused them to fall. The conveyor belt was going from East to West before disappearing under a huge roller that took the entire western wall. If they fall, then they would end up crushed by it.

At the East, the room ended in a circular wall, probably the same circular room than the door with the mechanisms was leading to. At the right of this wall, in the southern part of the room opposite from them, was the exit.

They will have to run on this conveyor belt until reaching the door, without falling.

And they guessed that it wouldn't be that easy.

There were also a lot of gears of various sizes a little everywhere on the walls, making the roller work. One of the gears traversed the circular wall, and another traversed the southern wall, indicating that there will be more mechanisms in the connected rooms.

"Reminds me of the Old Clockworks," commented Apple Bloom. "The gears, the conveyor belt..."

"Thankfully, Ah don't think we'll find any explosives here," said Applejack.

"Come on, we're in a castle, not an excavation site camouflaged as a clock factory," said Apple Bloom. "The only reason why there'd be explosives would be if the ghosts here used them to attack us."

"Which will NOT happen there!" suddenly shouted a feminine voice, getting the attention of the ghost hunters. Near the other door, the ghost of a mare was now present. She had a copper-colored coat with a rust-colored mane that had clearly not be brushed since forever, and she was wearing really weird glasses, gear-shaped with small lens. "There're already enough explosions because what I create sometimes blow up, I don't need to add bombs." She gave an exasperated shake of her head at this before she talked again. "Anyway, how about you hurry to go on that conveyor belt so I can start to try to kill you with my inventions? I can't wait to see them in action against you!" she said excitedly.

The hunters exchanged looks before Little Ghost said "How about I just fly over the conveyor belt to directly catch you?"

The mare took out a huge multi-barreled cannon and pointed it at the filly ghost. "Try if you dare! That thing can fire ten Cruciospectro-Beams per seconds! You will be on the floor yelling in pain before you know it! If I were you, I would remain with my friends where I'm safe!" She then hugged the cannon. "Oooh! Wait until I show this baby to Brainy! He will love it! Brainy is the one who came up with the Cruciospectro-Cannon, for your info," she added for the hunters.

"So what we call Poltergun beams are actually called Cruciospectro-Beams?" wondered Sweetie Belle. "I prefer the name we gave, less of a mouthful."

«Knowing what 'crucio' means, I prefer too. My name is less barbaric,» said E. Gadd.

"Ah fear to ask, but what does it means?" asked Applejack.

«It comes from 'cruciatu', meaning 'torture'. To be more exact, 'crucio' means 'I torture'.»

"Okay then, Ah prefer Poltergun beam too," said Applejack, and the fillies all nodded.

"WILL YOU GO ON THE CONVEYOR BELT, YES OR NO?!" yelled the ghost mare out of patience.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Sheesh..." She then fired a Poltergun beam, or Cruciospectro-Beam, whatever, at the mare.

Only for the mare to reveal that she was entirely surrounded by some kind of shield that absorbed the beam as she howled in laughter.

"AAAAH AHAHAAH! What do you think? A little gift I got from Brainy! Projectiles won't work against me! You have no choice but to come at me! SO GET ON THAT BUCKING CONVEYOR BELT!"

Apple Bloom frowned. "Alright. Ya're asking for it." She then jumped on the conveyor belt and began to run on it, followed by the others

"YES! FINALLY!" shouted the mare before she opened the door. "You can cooome~!" Then, several flying machines came through the door. Some of them were entirely round with a single propeller and a lens while others were more cubic with two propellers, two lens, and a gun at the bottom. Both kinds of drones regularly released steam.

Since the hunters were already busy running on the conveyor belt, Little Ghost was the only one who could attack those drones, but the mare began to fire at her with her multi-barrelled cannon, so the filly ghost had to cover herself behind the others. As she attacked the drones, she discovered that the round ones were bombs, causing huge explosions when they were destroyed while the others were simply drones with a gun. Because of those ones, Apple Bloom had move left and right to dodge their projectiles. At least, the drones could only fire once every few seconds.

In total, Little Ghost had to destroy seven bomb drones and four gun drones before they stopped coming, and once the ponies came too close, the mare passed through the door, deciding to wait them in the next room. It was not long after that the hunters reached the door and entered the next room.

Again an elongated room with the exit at the other end, but this time, instead of a conveyor belt, there was a small pit with spikes at the bottom, and the only way to pass it would be to jump from giant horizontal gear to giant horizontal gear.

And like before, the ghost mare was present at the exit. "Hey! I don't think I presented myself! I'm Copper Gear! The castle's super mechanic who provides the whole place with electricity! Well, mostly Brainy's laboratory. I think it's the only place that uses electricity here. Anyway, try to reach me again~!"

The hunters were more than happy to start, but they quickly understood that it won't be as easy to reach her as just jumping from gear to gear. There were other gears serving as obstacles, or causing stuff to move as obstacles. There were even some of the gears that served as platform that moved. Also, on the gears were some weird bots that looked like sledgehammers on springs, and there were some of the gun drones flying around.

Again, Little Ghost had to remain close to the others as she destroyed the drones to not be hit by the CS-Beams constantly fired by Copper Gear. Meanwhile, the others had to deal with the spring bots, doing their best to avoid being hit by their hammerhead while destroying them anything that worked, mostly electricity and water. Because of the spring, the direct blows were slightly less effective on them, the blows causing them to bend backward before balancing back at the ponies' face like a punching bag hit too hard.

At least, a good buck from Applejack was generally enough to explode them without causing the balancing stuff.

In the end, the most dangerous stuff in the room were the obstacles moving in the way of their jumps. One bad timing and it would be a drop to the spikes below. It wouldn't cause anything for Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, but for Apple Bloom, it would be an assured death, and she couldn't turn into a ghost because of Copper Gear constantly firing at them with her cannon. If she turned into a ghost, she would immediately be writhing in pain, hit by the CS-Beams.

So, instead, at least one of the others remained close to catch Apple Bloom if she missed her jump.

But she didn't miss any of her jumps in the end, and before long, they forced Copper Gear to fly to the next room as they got too close. Then, they reached the exit door and passed it.

In the next room which wasn't really large, the main danger quickly revealed itself. Like in the other rooms, gears were present, and those ones activated big crushers. Thankfully, there were no bots or drones this time, and Copper Gear couldn't fire through the crushers so Little Ghost was safe.

Again, passing the crushers was a question of timing. At least, there was a small space between each crushers so the ponies hadn't to rush.

After passing five crushers, they reached the end of the room where the exit door was, in the western wall.

And they entered a much bigger room...

Where a huge mechanical four-legged thing awaited them.

The ponies looked in awe at it. It was easily four times Applejack's size, a round pod lifted by four spider-like legs full of gears and constantly expelling steam that ended in four big feet that could crush a grown pony. Its main body was actually rather small in comparison, but hanging from it was a multi-barrelled cannon like the one that Copper Gear used. Two other, smaller cannons were present at the front, two arms ending in scythes were at the sides, and at the top, there was a cockpit with a chair, some levers, and some buttons.

And Copper Gear was in it, laughing maniacally.

However, she and the mecha weren't alone. There were also bomb drones, gun drones, and spring bots. But most astonishing of all was the presence of pony-shaped robots that were like the mecha, steaming and possessing some gears. Those robots were well armed, each possessing two mounted cannons.

"I'm so glad you weren't killed! Now, I can show off my Copper Gear REAPERTM! My little pet project! Be ready! Death is coming for youuu~!" shouted Copper Gear as she made the mecha advance before she began to randomly and joyously sing "Die die die diediedie die die~! Diiie diiie diiiiiie~!"

At once, the various robots in the room attacked too, and the hunters were forced to separate to deal with them, especially the pony robots who revealed that, of their two cannons, one was a cannon firing normal projectiles while the other fired CS-Beams. Speaking of CS-Beams, Copper Gear began to use her multi-barrelled cannon to fire at Little Ghost who had started to destroy the gun drones.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" shouted the mare with a big smile.

"I'm already dead!" shouted back Little Ghost who rapidly flew around the mecha near the walls without stopping to avoid the beams.

"I DON'T CARE! DIE! Die diediedie diediedie diedie~!"

Copper Gear was however calmed down by the clones of goo who fired electricity at her and her mecha, not bothered by any of the cannons. With a growl, the mare went to attack them, attempting reap them with the scythes or to crush them under the feet of the mecha.

The hunters used this distraction to destroy the various robots. Thankfully for the hunters, only a total of a little over two dozens were present in the room, and it took only a few seconds for all the bomb drones to disappear, reducing their number by about fourth, and the gun drones rapidly followed.

The pony robots were the more annoying to deal with. They were more solid than the others, tried to keep their distance as they fired with their two cannons, and if somepony managed to get close enough, they would reveal a blade extending out of their fore right hoof to defend themselves.

But they all had the same big weakness: electricity and water. None of the bots resisted long against these.

But Copper Gear eventually managed to destroy the clones of goo (who almost immediately came back out of their respective Poltergusts), and she turned to go after Apple Bloom, the two cannons at the front firing at her while she raised the scythes. Apple Bloom had to run to avoid the bullets, the cannons thankfully only firing one each per second, and she fired back electricity at the mecha.

Only for a two probes to come out beside the cannons, and Apple Bloom's bolts of electricity were absorbed by them. When the filly stopped firing, the probes then fired the electricity back at her, and the filly saved herself by turning into a ghost.

Which left her vulnerable to the multi-barrelled cannon at the bottom, but as it fired at Apple Bloom, the cannon was suddenly destroyed by an explosive ball of energy sent by Little Ghost.

Copper Gear looked down, understanding that her main cannon was gone. "Well... Crap..."

With the main danger destroyed, Apple Bloom and Little Ghost attacked the Copper Gear REAPER with everything they had, quickly joined by the others who had finished to deal with the robots.

Understanding that she had to do something, Copper Gear made the mecha erratically stomp around and also made it swing its scythes in all directions, making approaching it very dangerous. More than once, the ponies were almost crushed by the feet, and Applejack was beheaded by one of the scythes. But, rapidly, the mecha was damaged to the point that it stopped working and began immobile just before Apple Bloom had to return to normal.

Copper Gear pulled the levers and pressed the buttons, to no avail. "Come on! Come on! Resist! My best invention can't be destroyed that easily!" She was answered by the mecha dropping on the ground, heavily smoking. "Damn it!" she yelled before she turned to look at the ponies. "I spent years on it! You could have been more gentle with it, given it better chances, you heartless monsters!"

Apple Bloom gave the mare a deadpan look. "Do ya really think we care about a stupid mecha?"

"Stupid? STUPID?!" yelled Copper Gear before she took her multi-barreled cannon from her cockpit. "I'll show you stupid! That 'stupid mecha' was the result of years and years of hardship littered with explosions and failures! That 'stupid mecha' could have put to shame anything all those so-called inventors created until now! That 'stupid mecha' could have started a new era of technological wonders! It was EVERYTHING but STUPID!!!" she then yelled before she fired at Apple Bloom, hitting her with dozens and dozens of CS-Beams.

But the filly wasn't affected by them and she advanced toward the mare who was still firing at her, blinded by rage. Once she was clone enough, she activated her Poltergust and caught her, making her drop the cannon. After a few slamming and a Power Surge, Copper Gear was captured.

And a key appeared along with a note. When Apple Bloom took it, it read:

AH AH AH AH! If you read this note, then it means that you somehow managed to destroy my Copper Gear REAPERTM and to capture me! Well...

TAKE THAT!

While you passed the crushers, I unleashed my bots in the hallways of the castle! AH!

Signed: Copper Gear

Apple Bloom groaned. "Until the end..."

«Yeah, from what I read about her, she always made sure to have the last word. She was a mechanical genius, but she used that genius to rob and to kill. When she was caught, she destroyed absolutely all her inventions, schema, and even what she robbed before killing herself by stabbing her heart. Nothing could be recovered excepted her body and some remains of her projects. Still, from those remains, we were able to create the first engine ever,» said Twilight. «If she hadn't been so evil and crazy, she could have advanced Equestria's technology by a few centuries. Why do nine genius out of ten always turn evil?»

«Easy. Genius tend to develop an ego, and many go to the point that they estimate themselves worthy of ruling the others with their might,» said E. Gadd. «Or they estimate themselves to be above laws and morals and experiment with everything, even if it means torturing other beings, for science. Okay, I admit that I experiment on ghosts, but I make sure that the experiments have the best conditions for them. And the ghosts of Evershade Valley are willing. And I never go too far.»

Apple Bloom snickered. "This isn't what yer assistants told me."

«Don't listen to them, they easily scare over nothing. Unless my hands are forced, my experiments are never risky.... At worst, they get a burn, or a headache, or a sore back. Only I am risking my life, sometimes. But such is the life of a scientist!»

Apple Bloom giggled and joined the others who had gathered. With a nod, they passed the exit door at the Southwest of the room; entering a smaller room that was almost entirely empty excepted for a dead potted plant in a corner and a pony robot who attacked them and was quickly destroyed. There, there were two doors: one East and one South. The key they got was leading South.

South was a living room where two spring bots and a normal unicorn ghost attacked them.

At this moment, Apple Bloom decided to give names to the robots since they will apparently become regular encounters. So she named the robot ponies Metallions, the spring ones Springs, the bomb ones Bomber, and the last ones with the guns Hunters.

Once the threats in the room were gone, the ponies saw that the key actually opened a door in the western wall. However, if the map they had was to be believed, then this door was just leading back to the hallways. They hadn't visited this section of the hallway yet so it wasn't visible in the map, but it wasn't hard to guess because the entrance of said section was present further South, and one of the entrances of the Great Hall was just in front of the door (but was still locked).

However, since the key was just opening this door, then it meant that they had to search, or else, they would have nothing to continue this path (and this would mean that this whole ordeal with Cotter Gear would be for nothing).

Thankfully, there were two more doors in the living room, one East and one South, and there was also another one back in the previous room, in the eastern wall, so they knew where to search. The South door, however, only led to a bathroom.

This place seemed to be Copper Gear's apartments.

The East door of the living room led to Copper Gear's dinning room, and after dealing with more Springs and a Hunter as well as an earth pony servant ghost, they continued East into the kitchen.

There, on a table beside a sink, they found a wooden fan. After fighting the local threats (a Metallion, an unicorn cook, a Slitherer, and a Trickster), Applejack took it. Seeing the hole in its back, it could apparently be placed somewhere.

«I think I know where it goes. Remember that door with the mechanisms?» said E. Gadd.

"Oh, Ah see," said Apple Bloom as she looked at the fan. "We blow air at the fan, and it'll open the door."

"But it means there's a second somewhere," said Scootaloo.

"Which must be somewhere behind the door we haven't been through yet, in the other room," said Sweetie Belle.

"Eeyup," said Apple Bloom.

So they returned in the room between the arena where they fought Copper Gear and the living room, and they passed the East door there, entering what revealed to be Copper Gear's workshop. A lot of tables with gears, metal stuff, wires, tools, papers, robot parts, and some unknown other inventions were present. The ponies didn't dare to touch the inventions.

There were a lot of bots present in the room. Half a dozen Bombers, three Hunters, two Metallions, and four Springs, along with a pegasus ghost armed of a wrench. Probably another mechanic who had been helping Copper Gear. With electricity and water, it didn't take long to destroy all the bots, starting with the Bombers before they could explode on the ponies. However, a Boggy appeared and used the remains and all that was on the tables as projectiles to attack Apple Bloom. Some were too big to be sucked up by the Poltergusts, so Apple Bloom had no choice but to dodge until Applejack managed to capture the Boggy while Scootaloo got the pegasus.

This left the way open for the next, and last room: Copper Gear's chamber. And on the bed was the second fan.

But before, they had to deal with a small group of Pranksters, a Bulky, a Hider, and a Metallion. The Wraith that came during the fight gave them a small scare, but their Polterguns quickly forced it into submission before it could turn any of the ghosts into more Wraiths.

Once all the ghosts were captured, and the Metallion was destroyed, they finally took the second fan. They then returned to the living room where they returned into the hallway, and they began their trek back to the door with the mechanisms.

They decided to pass by the hallways rather than going all the way back through the rooms with the crushers, gears, and conveyor belts because it would be less dangerous.

Even if it meant fighting ghosts, possessed objects, and robots while holding the two fans.

Chapter 16: The Wind Tower and the Maze

Like Copper Gear said in her notes, her robots were now wandering the hallways of the castles along with the ghosts and possessed objects, adding some difficulty. Add to this the CS-Cannon users that were a little more frequent, and the ponies wondered for a moment if it wouldn't have been better in the end to walk back through the trap-filled rooms to return to the door with the mechanisms.

On the way, they even encountered some kind of patched up zombie/giant spider-thing right out of a horror movie that crawled on the walls and the ceiling and fired some poisonous darts at long distances. Probably another abomination right out of the lab like the flesh plant thing from the graveyard or the thing with the tentacle-eyes from the crypt.

The more they encountered of those abominations, the more the ponies wanted to find this lab to destroy it, and the more they feared to enter it too.

After an encounter with a small group of three Nightmare Moon fanatics easily captured with the help of the Polterguns followed by some golem made of destroyed gargoyle parts, the ponies reached the double door with the mechanism, and once they dealt with all the ghosts in the immediate vicinity, they put the fans in their place, one at both sides of the door. Apple Bloom and Little Ghost then blew air at the fans while the others kept watch.

This activated the mechanisms, each opening one of the doors.

As they had suspected, they led to a circular room that revealed to be the base of a tower with a spiral staircase against the walls. Starting from the western part was a succession of gears going up, the first gear being the one they had seen going through the wall from the room with the conveyor belt. As the ponies walked up the stairs, the gears continued up before suddenly stopping near the top at the eastern part.

But where the gears stopped, the stairs continued, so the ponies climbed again until reaching the top of the tower where they passed the ceiling and got on the roof.

They immediately understood that this tower was inside the tornado they had seen from various other points outside the castle. They were literally in its eye, surrounded by winds exceeding hundreds of miles per hour. They could also see that the tower was actually some kind of giant fan, four giant palm turning thanks to the wind.

It wasn't hard to understand the whole mechanism from there. The wind pushed the palms, causing the gears inside the tower to turn. This activated the various traps and machines and produced the electricity for the laboratory. That was... clever.

But this tornado certainly wasn't natural. They were in the Spiritual World after all. There was no wind here!

So this meant that somepony, or something, was responsible.

And the responsible quickly revealed themselves to be an unicorn mare. An unicorn who revealed to have a particularity: her horn was curvaceous. Her coat was the same color than the sky, and her long flowing mane was various shades going from light blue to white passing by light gray.

«Ooooh... Ladies and gentleponies, I present to you Gusty the Great! Defeater of the mighty and feared Grogar!» said Discord.

«That's her?!» asked Twilight.

«Woah. Okay, she's no joke if she can pull off a tornado like that by herself,» said Rainbow Dash.

«And maintain it for who knows how long,» said Discord.

«Be careful. You're on an open roof. She could use that wind to sweep off your hooves and send you beyond the edge,» warned E. Gadd.

Just as he finished his warning, Gusty sent strong winds that threatened to sweep the ponies, especially Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle who were the lightest, off the roof. Before this happened, Little Ghost used her powers to maintain them in place.

"With my powers, this will not happen!" said Little Ghost.

This made Gusty frown before she doubled the power of her winds, causing the ponies to start to be pushed to the edge. Before Little Ghost could put more power to stop this, Gusty then sent winds compacted enough to be sharp and attacked everypony with them, especially Little Ghost, forcing her to protect herself. The others had no choice but to run to avoid being cut and also to resist against the wind constantly pushing them.

Gusty suddenly changed the direction of the wind, taking the ponies off guard for a moment, but not long enough for them to be pushed beyond the edge. It still caused them to be almost cut by the sharp winds several times.

Gusty was too high to be approached, and everypony was too busy running for their life to be able to fire something at her. The only one who was able to attack was Little Ghost, but the ghost mare easily avoided everything she was firing, and the filly couldn't use much of her powers because she had most of it focused in her friends to help them resist the strong winds.

In the end, Apple Bloom decided to turn herself into a ghost and she caught Gusty in her power before she slammed her on the roof where everypony could get her. This also caused the sharp winds to stop, but somehow, she was able to maintain the tornado and the wind pushing the ponies, so they still had to run against it to reach her.

This first to reach her, of course, was Apple Bloom quickly followed by Little Ghost, but as soon as they started to suck her up, the mare began to send small tornadoes to sweep them off the air and free herself, so the two fillies had to coordinate themselves to fly in the right directions to avoid them. They were eventually reached by the others one by one only for Gusty to send from her body a very strong gust of wind in all directions that pushed everypony away, freeing herself.

She then stopped sending the pushing wind and counterattacked by sending a new pushing wind... from above, crushing everypony, even Little Ghost and Apple Bloom (still in ghost form), against the roof to the point that they couldn't move.

But the ghosts didn't need to move. Again, Apple Bloom caught Gusty in her power and slammed her just beside her. Despite the wind continuing to crush her, she then managed to point her Poltergust at the mare and to activate it.

Funny enough, thanks to the strong wind maintaining her in place, she could barely be moved by Gusty struggling to escape, even when she used more winds to try to push her away. Gusty was also already very weakened by the previous attempt at capturing her, so it only took a few seconds before she finally disappeared in the Poltergust.

"Yes!"

The winds almost immediately stopped, just in time for Apple Bloom to return to normal before it was too late. One after another, the ponies then got back up while the tornado slowly disappeared, causing the palms of the giant fan to slow down. With time, the palms will eventually totally stop, cutting all supply of electricity to the lab and also stopping all the machines and traps from Copper Gear's rooms, making them safe to travel and making a nice shortcut from this portion of the castle to the Great Hall.

«Darn. Her control of wind surpassed most pegasi,» said Rainbow Dash.

«And thanks to it, she had some control over the weather,» informed Twilight. «But I don't think her power was that great at the time. Seems like it grew after her death.»

"Two words: ghost powers," said Apple Bloom. "Are ya alright everypony? Still in one piece?"

"Eeyup."

"I think I lost a few hairs, but no problem."

"I'm okay."

"Me too."

By the time all the ponies were up, the tornado had fully disappeared, revealing the view of the castle from this side of it. West, they had a nice view of the highest tower of the castle. To say how high it was, the tower they were on wasn't even half as tall as it. And the top floor (which was larger than the rest of the tower) seemed to be surrounded by a balcony. Southwest, next to the previous tower, was the second tallest tower, and certainly the largest and a balcony could be seen in its northern side. South was the ice tower, and from the tower they were on, they could perfectly see the two windigoes that were flying around it. Finally, East, back down, they had a great view of the training field, a large rectangular field (excepted for the northeastern corner) with a small stone house at the southwestern corner and two staircases leading to the wall surrounding the Main Wing on which they could see some ballistas. At the most eastern part of the wall was a small path leading to a small tower without roof. It was in this tower that the waterfall they had seen before was falling, probably meaning that this tower served as the water tank for the castle.

Back in the training field, a lot of ghost guards could be seen training, including a pegasus stallion in an armor more fancy than the others.

«This stallion... That's Commander Hurricane,» recognized Twilight.

«Woah... I can't believe I'm seeing him,» said Rainbow Dash.

«And he certainly promises a tough fight once you're down here,» said Smart Spirit.

«Normal, since he's a well trained military,» said Spike. «He must be as strong as Shining Armor.»

«I don't know, Spike. Without weather to use... And he wasn't really known for his speed.» said Rainbow Dash. «But he certainly knows how to fight. That's for sure.»

"So, now we know where Commander Hurricane's. All that remain are Private Pansy and Clover the Clever," said Applejack.

"Well, we have done over half of the job, so it shouldn't be long before we encounter them," stated Sweetie Belle.

"Who knows. Maybe we'll encounter them in the next room," said Apple Bloom as she picked up the key that had appeared in the center.

"Just after Gusty? I don't think so," said Scootaloo.

"We'll see," replied Apple Bloom to this before she began to walk down the stairs, rapidly followed by the others.

And yep, the gears inside the tower had almost stopped. No doubt that the various machines and traps of Copper Gear's rooms had slowed down too. It was a matter of minutes before they would stop.

Back at the bottom of the tower, they exited it, returning in the hallway. After a quick fight against some ghosts that were present to welcome them, they then looked at the two keys that were in their possession. The one they just got was leading South while the other (that they had gotten from the doll golem) was leading them back through Copper Gear's rooms. They choose South.

After much fighting including an encounter with a golem made of destroyed gargoyle parts as well as a Super Thrower using gargoyle parts, weapons, and pieces of armor as projectiles, they reached the intersection where the section of hallway they were in started, and the key led them to a door just at their right.

Whatever they entered, it was totally plunged in darkness.

"Night vision on," immediately said Apple Bloom as she turned her night vision on, followed by the others.

Thanks to it, they saw that they seemed to be in a smaller hallway quickly leading to an intersection where they had to choose North or West. However, they decided to go West, they could already see that they would immediately have to choose between continuing West or going South. Further West, they could see the start of another path to the North.

"Don't tell me we're in a maze," said Sweetie Belle with worry.

«You should explore more before you come to this conclusion,» proposed E. Gadd.

"Alright, but... Where do we start?" asked Little Ghost.

"Mmh... Let's continue North," decided Apple Bloom.

"Alright," said her friends.

«IF it reveals to be a maze, remember that you've a map to guide you. You won't get lost. You will just lose some time exploring to map the place until finding the right way,» said E. Gadd.

"Right," said Sweetie Belle.

Taking the North path, they followed it as it turned West, then South, before Apple Bloom suddenly stepped on a pressure plate. She immediately jumped back, barely avoiding an arrow.

"Darn. Traps," said the filly.

"And even with out night vision, seeing them is almost impossible," said Little Ghost.

"Mmmh... Maybe I should go first," said Sweetie Belle. "Better me than you, Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom nodded and moved back, placing herself between Applejack and Scootaloo.

With this new formation, the ponies continued to advance, Sweetie Belle activating another arrow trap. However, it wasn't long before they reached a dead end and had to turn back.

"It seems like your hypothesis is revealing to be exact, Sweetie," said Little Ghost.

"I would groan, but like E. Gadd said, we have a map, so that's not as bad as I first thought."

It was definitively confirmed as the ponies explored more, taking paths and walking into more and more dead ends. The paths were filled with traps, mainly arrow ones, but also some crushers, some spikes, and even a few saws coming out of the walls. At least, the saws were meant to behead adult ponies, so they passed above Sweetie Belle (she still had to lower her head a little to not get her mane cut).

Not long after they began exploring, ghosts also started to attack, mainly Assassins (coming one or two at a time) but also many Sneakers and Creepers as well as some Goosts that used their fat body as obstacles on the ponies' way. There was also a new kind of ghost that appeared in rather great number in there. Some shapeless purple ghosts that split into two to four smaller versions of themselves when they're about to be captured, threatening to overrun the ponies with their number if they didn't watch out.

They were named Splitters.

But then, when the ponies advanced well into the maze, they encountered something else...

It started with the sound of something big approaching, dragging on the ground while hitting the stone.

"What is that?" asked Scootaloo.

Then, out of a corner, it appeared.

A big purple crawling monster ghost almost as big as the paths of the maze. It just had one big, somewhat long body finishing in one big mouth filled with sharp teeth, and countless claws that they used on the ground, walls, and ceiling to crawl in the paths of the maze, ready to devour anything it encountered.

Apple Bloom immediately had the perfect name for that horror: Crawler.

"Red Mode! Now!" she yelled as she passed her Poltergust into Red Mode and activated it, catching the Crawler in its vortex.

The Crawler stopped for a time to resist it, but after a couple of seconds during which Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined Apple Bloom, the monster suddenly charged forward despite the vortex, attempting to get the ponies. Applejack and Little ghost quickly forced it to stop with their Polterguns. The monster roared in pain because of the beams and began to attack them with its claws. However, it was clear that it was blind (it didn't even possess eyes). because its claws only hit air most of the time. It still attempted to advance, but because of the pain caused by the beams, it was only by small pounces.

For a moment, Apple Bloom feared that she would have to return to Yellow Mode before the Crawler would be captured, but in the end, she didn't have to worry. With the help of her friends, the Crawler was captured before the Poltergust would overheat despite its size.

"One more addition to mah future gallery of horrors," said Apple Bloom.

"If this continues, it'll be the biggest gallery of your museum," said Applejack.

They continued to explore the maze Eventually, they discovered that there was a squared area inaccessible because it was entirely surrounded by walls. Some thought that it was nothing, but others rather thought that it was suspicious and that it certainly hid something.

After more exploration and another encounter with a Crawler, they eventually reached the northeastern corner of the maze. By then, they had explored, and mapped, most of it excepted the northwestern part. After following a path that went North, then West, then North, then East, they reached another dead end.

But contrary to all the other dead ends, this one had something: a lever.

"Ah think we finally found what we searched," said Applejack before she pulled down the lever. Almost immediately, they heard the sound of something heavy moving somewhere in the maze.

«I think I know what this lever cause,» said E. Gadd. «You should return to that mysterious squared area in the center of the maze.»

"Ah thought the same thing," said Apple Bloom.

So they returned to the squared area. With the help of the map, it was very easy. Here, they discovered that one of the wall, the eastern one, had moved North. As a result, however, it now blocked the most direct path, forcing the ponies to do a big detour during which they encountered and captured a third Crawler.

Finally, they entered the squared area by the path that had opened thanks to the lever, and found a chest.

"Eh. It's been a long time," said Apple Bloom.

"I think it's the first treasure chest we find in this castle," remarked Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah. Not a single treasure. Eternal Rest's hotel was full of them. But there? Nada," said Little Ghost.

"Thanatos and his goons don't seem to be the treasure types, contrary to Eternal Rest," said Applejack/

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Bah. That's okay. Ah'm already rich enough. Also, Ah'm sure this chest'll just contain the key to the next room," she said before she opened the chest to find, indeed, just a key.

«Ta dadadadaa!» shouted Pinkie Pie, making everypony laugh.

Chapter 17: The Ice Tower

Thanks to the map again, getting out of the maze wasn't a problem. Also, by now, all the traps had been activated, and no Crawler appeared to stop them, so the way out was like a walk in the park.

A walk in the park with some fights against ghosts but whatever.

From the exit, the key wasn't leading far: the door it opened was just at their left, the only door in the hallway leading to Gusty's tower, at the beginning of the East wall.

The room this door led into was a long, but not large one, barely as large as the hallway outside. More particularly, the walls of this room were filled with portraits, barely leaving any place on them.

Each portrait represented somecreature, whether they're ponies, griffons, zebras, or something else, males or females, young or old.

And as the ponies advanced, they felt as if the portraits were watching them.

"They're looking at us, I'm not going crazy," said Scootaloo.

"Of course they're looking at us. Remember where we're?" said Apple Bloom.

"Then what are we waiting to destroy them?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"For the horseshoe to drop," answered her friend.

And it dropped. As the ponies reached the center of the room, the portraits suddenly took life, a ghost coming out of each of them. In just a few seconds, the ponies were surrounded by dozens of cackling, threatening ghosts, and the portraits were all now blank.

Apple Bloom looked at the ghosts, smirked, and said "Nice of ya'll to come out of yer hiding places so we can capture ya'll easily. Girls, Red Mode!"

The ghosts stopped laughing.

In the following moment, all the hunters activated their Poltergusts in Red Mode, rapidly sucking up all the ghost as well as some of the blank portraits. In a few seconds, the room was entirely cleaned.

Excepted for a group of seven portraits on the back wall. However, they weren't really portraits. They were... strange.

Two were of an eye (a left one and a right one), one was of a smirking mouth, and four were of reptilian claws. The eyes gave the ponies the evilest glare they could give, the mouth showed its sharp teeth, and the claws came out of their respective picture, ready to strike.

"Erh... That's something," commented Apple Bloom.

«I say! This is certainly the most original foe I ever saw,» said E. Gadd. «I can't say if it's a ghost simply possessing the seven pictures or if the pictures are actually given life by some power.»

"In both cases, the solution seems simple," said Applejack. "We destroy them."

It revealed however to be really hard to approach. The four claws constantly attacked, the eyes fired little bolts of energy, and if somepony was getting too close, the mouth would try to eat them. This left them to use the ice shards as their main weapon, which wasn't as effective as a good buck. The only one who could do some real damage was Little Ghost with her powers, and also Apple bloom once she decided to join her friend as a ghost. The pictures, however, revealed to be more resistant than any normal ones to the point that when Scootaloo attempted to suck one up, it didn't even move.

But the ponies rapidly decided to focus their fire on one picture at a time, starting with one of the claws, and before long, the thing had only three claws remaining, making the fight much easier. They then destroyed the mouth so Applejack could approach and do her powerful buck without this danger to worry about, and after that, they destroyed the two eyes, turning the animated set of pictures blind. from there, it was child's play to destroy the three remaining claws that were randomly swinging in their attempt to hit them.

With the monster entirely destroyed, the key appeared at the end of the room.

Back in the hallway, it led East at the last door after the one leading to the chamber of the doll house and before the path leading to the East Wing.

In the new unlocked room, there was nothing excepted a big central pillar with a spiral staircase. However, Apple Bloom could feel that it was colder in there.

"Ah think we're at the base of that ice tower we saw," she informed.

"So, more windigo hunting," said Little Ghost.

"And maybe other ice stuff, like Icys," said Sweetie Belle.

"Ready to fire fire then," laughed Scootaloo as she fired a small stream of fire from her Poltergust.

They climbed the stairs and reached the room above. It was a circular room entirely covered in ice and without any windows in the walls. Despite the cold, there were some candles with the purple flames, and in the opposite side of the room from the entrance, another staircase started, certainly leading to another room above.

As expected, several Icys welcomed them, but there were also some ghosts of ponies in warm clothes and even a couple of polar bears. But most of all, there were a lot, and really, A LOT of penguin ghosts armed with ice spears or ice halberds.

The fight almost immediately started with the Icys throwing ice and the polar bears ferociously charging at the ponies.

Applejack went to deal with the bears while the fillies dispersed to fight the rest.

Apple Bloom was immediately surrounded by penguins and ponies, and she used a Burst against the floor to create a shockwave to push them back, stop their attacks, and get some place. Then, she caught one of the ponies, the biggest earth pony stallion of the lot, and spun, using him to hit the other ghosts around before she used him as a shield to stop an ice shard from one of the Icys. She then slammed him on two penguins who attempted to attack her from behind with their spears before he was captured with a Power Surge. She immediately fired fireballs at the Icys attacking her to stop them long enough so she could then capture some of the penguins, including the two she previously slammed the stallion on. The penguins were rapid to capture, so their number rapidly diminished before the Icys restarted to attack her only to be attacked by Little Ghost who decided to deal with them.

A group of penguins charged at the earth pony filly, but as she readied herself to fight them, they were suddenly rammed by one of the polar bears that was now revealed to be in control of Sweetie Belle who was riding it. As the bear rampaged among the penguins, Apple Bloom then went to help Scootaloo to deal with another group just as Applejack captured the other bear and started to fight a trio of unicorn ponies who had been firing magical beams at her. At the same time, the clones of goo were moving around dealing with any ghosts they approached to.

In a little over one minute, the room was entirely cleaned and the ponies could climb the staircase to the floor above.

The room there was exactly like the previous one, but instead of a small army of ghosts awaiting them, there was just one. Sitting on a throne of ice was an unicorn mare, coat blue like the ice, mane white like the snow, crowned with a tiara of ice. Her eyes were actually closed, but despite this, she knew that the hunters were here because she began to speak.

"So the hunters who are after Lord Thanatos are finally reaching my domain..." At this moment, of all things, sunglasses floated from behind the throne and put them before she took a more relaxed position on it, placing her right foreleg on a support and using it to support her head as she smirked. No doubt that if she still had back legs, she would cross them. "Welcome. I was awaiting you."

Apple Bloom looked at the 'cool' queen of ice perplexed. "Uh... Twilight? Do ya know a queen like her?"

«Mmmh... Not at all,» answered the alicorn.

The queen laughed. "I don't think anypony from Equestria knows about me. I lived deep in the Frozen North where only the suicidal would dare to go, in my own little cool kingdom away from Celestia."

"Oh? Then what were you ruling? Penguins?" asked Scootaloo with a small laugh.

The ghost of a penguin armed of a spear appeared just beside the throne, and the queen petted it as her smirk grew. "You guessed right." She then sighed. "I had SO many of them under my rule... Too bad they were so weak. I would have loved to invade Equestria to turn my little cool kingdom into a bigger cool kingdom. But Celestia would have roasted me." Many dozens of penguins then appeared around here. "But they should be more than enough against you. Attack."

The penguins charged to spear the ponies only for Little Ghost to create a small shockwave that blasted the ones in front away and stopped the others. The ponies then took the occasion to all put their Poltergusts to Red Mode and began to capture the birds, their number rapidly diminishing.

It was hard to judge the queen's reaction to this, her eyes still hidden behind her sunglasses. However, she lost her smirk, but it simply could be because she was observing.

Before long, all the penguins were added to the ponies now huge collection of captured ghosts, and the queen then decided to move, getting up from her throne and floating a few steps toward the hunters.

"Seems like I overestimated them. I didn't know they were THAT weak. Unless I underestimated you? I'm not sure. Anyway, it seems like I will have to do the work myself."

At this, she took off her sunglasses and threw them away before ice began to form on her body, first covering her legs and ghost tail before moving up to cover the rest, finishing with her head. This new body of ice was shaped to look like her if she was still alive, so it possessed back legs and a tail. The body then grew, more ice forming on it, until it was the size of Celestia, with wings and a longer horn now present.

"We already got a king, so Ah guess it's time to get a queen!" said Apple Bloom.

"I don't think so. I don't know who was that 'king', but I'm on another level."

To prove her point, she used her ice power to create a few dozens of ice ponies around herself.

"Could that king do that?"

"Erh... No," answered Apple Bloom. "But he didn't have that big weakness that we can use and abuse," she continued with an evil smile as she sent fired a small stream of fire into the air to show the queen how doomed she was. "Shall we start, Snow White?"

"Snow White?! It's Queen Frozen Heart! Remember this! Queen Frozen Heart!"

"Snow White it's," said apple bloom matter-of-factly with a nod and a smug smirk.

Her friends laughed.

The queen sent her ice minions to attack.

And there was FIRE!

The minions melted one after another under the streams only to be quickly replaced by new ones created by Frozen Heart who started to fire ice beams at the hunters, the beams creating ice upon impact, whether they were on the ground or on a pony. It didn't take long for them to get close enough of the queen that she took flight only to be bombarded of fireballs that slowly melted her ice body that she regularly had to reform.

She flew to the back of the room, formed a giant, perfectly spherical ice boulder, and kicked it to send it rolling toward the ponies to crush them. Applejack, boosted by a song from Sweetie Belle, quickly placed herself between it and the fillies and bucked it, sending it back at the queen and making it crush her instead before it bounced against the wall to start to roll around the room.

Frozen Heart quickly reformed her crushed ice body, snarled, and flew up the stairs. Careful of the still rolling ice boulder, the ponies followed her on the roof of the tower.

The queen was up in the sky, smiling smugly as the two windigos that the hunters had spotted at various occasions were circling around her.

"You know? I'm probably the only pony in history to have tamed windigos. Now, let's see how you will fare against my pets."

With a movement of her foreleg, she sent the two windigos at the hunters. They exchanged looks, then separated into two groups, put their Poltergusts into Red Mode again, and each group took on a windigo. When the two windigos were trapped, the two groups then slammed them against each other again and again Power Surge Slam until they were captured.

Twelve seconds, it was all it took to capture the two spirits, to the queen's very visible horror.

Little ghost used this to teleport directly behind the queen and hit her with enough force to send her crashing on the roof of the tower, destroying her ice body again. But Frozen Heart recovered and reformed her body. Only, this time, she made it huge, towering over the ponies, now the size of an ursa minor.

It made her a bigger, easier target for fireballs and fire streams, but it also made her more dangerous as she attempted to crush the ponies under her hooves or to slap them beyond the edge. She also used a lot of ice projectiles that the ponies had no problem to avoid or destroy (melt).

It was clear that Frozen Heart was using a lot of power because she lost control of it little by little, the attacks becoming easier to avoid and the ice body getting smaller. She began to materialize ice ponies, and penguins came to help her, but they were only a small distraction. A windigo also came from somewhere in the purple void probably to help its mistress, but it only served as ammunition for the ponies to slam on the queen's body.

Frozen Heart then let go of her shrinking body and formed instead a real blizzard that she sent at the ponies who began to get covered in ice, even Little Ghost and the clones of goo.

But Apple Bloom then turned herself into a ghost and sent with her own power a huge stream of intense fire at the queen. She was quickly joined by Little Ghost, turning the stream bigger and more powerful as it engulfed Frozen Heart who could only shriek in pain and fear.

When the stream disappeared, Frozen Heart, entirely burned to the point of being entirely black, dropped on the roof as the blizzard stopped. without the blizzard, the ponies had no problem breaking the ice that had partially covered them before they quickly captured the burned queen who couldn't even resist.

And a key appeared.

Another tower entirely cleaned, leaving another occasion for the ponies to contemplate the castle from outside, this time from the Southeast where they had a good view of the East Wing, of the training yard just North, the water tower just beside it with the waterfall, the Wind Tower where they fought Gusty, and the two huge towers near the center of the castle. They also could see a squared tower at the West that they had briefly seen before they entered the castle, near the entrance.

And as the ice around started to melt, the ponies took the key and left the tower.

"She was right about one thing. Princess Celestia would have totally roasted her. She really wasn't that powerful," said Scootaloo.

"A little, still," said Sweetie Belle. "She really had great control over ice."

They left the tower and went West, following the direction of the key they just got which was the direction the other key, the one they got from the doll house, was also leading. After a moment, and an encounter with another zombie pony-spider thing, they found themselves back in front of the door to the Great Hall, where the doll house key was leading, but they continued to follow the other key, having an idea where it was leading to.

There was only one door still locked in that direction: the third door from the one leading to the entrance hall, between the one leading to the room with the mirror and the one leading to the room with all the objects that had been invisible.

And judging by the position of the room compared to what they saw outside, it was probably the room at the base of the squared tower.

And after some Splitters, a Super Thrower, and a freaking bugbear among others, the ponies discovered that they were right.

It was a room totally empty bare for a staircase against the walls, leading up directly to the roof at what was certainly the fourth floor of the castle.

And once they were on the roof, they found themselves surrounded by a dozen guards, including a pegasus mare with a light orange coat, and two toned orange-red mane.

Private Pansy.

She was armed of a spear which, knowing about her Fluttershy-like personality, absolutely didn't suit her.

And she materialized a dozen spear made of pure energy and threw them at the hunters, starting the battle.

Dodging thrown spears while capturing more or less trained soldiers was not easy, but they quickly managed to diminish their number until only two remained while a couple more appeared. With this much manageable number, some of the hunters went after Pansy who began, in return, to materialize spears right out of the ground under their hooves, forcing them to constantly move.

Despite that show of power, Pansy really wasn't a fighter. So once they reached her, her direct attacks were very easy to avoid before she was trapped in a vortex. She still materialized spears to try to free herself, but the struggle didn't last long before the fourth Founder joined the three others captured so far.

Not long after Pansy was captured, as the hunters fought the guards that were still coming, a group of pegasi flew on the roof.

they weren't ghosts. they had flesh and blood bodies.

However, the pegasi had the disturbing particularity of having their head replaced by a giant eye from which they could fire lasers. classic.

Since they flew, Little ghost went to deal with them, followed by Apple Bloom in ghost form, while the others finished with the still coming guards (and other ghosts that began to appear). Thankfully, those... pegaseyes were as solid as normal ponies, and so, were easy to "kill" with the filly ghosts' huge powers.

As the roof was finally cleaned and the key appeared, Apple Bloom hoped they would soon find the laboratory so they could stop it from producing those abominations of nature.

Author's Note

I wanted Pinkie to make a reference to Let it go about Frozen Heart, but I didn't know how to place it.

Chapter 18: Shadow Play and Deathly Balance

It wasn't long before the ponies found themselves at a crossroad with the two keys they possessed. The one they just got from the squared tower was leading to the entrance hall while the other key was leading to the Great Hall.

They decided to go to the Great Hall because they still intended to finish the second floor if possible before they have to move to another floor.

So they entered the Great Hall, the remains of the skull and the statue still there, and the organ was still playing (has it played all this time?). Two Super Throwers were present, using said remains as projectiles, and between two to three dozens other ghosts, Zappys, Bulkys, Splitters, ponies, zebras, diamond dogs, griffons, and even some bipedal cats were dispersed a little everywhere in the room. There were also over one hundred Wisps, a few Shadows, and two manticores.

The Wisps closest to the hunters were the first to be captured before they dispersed to deal with the many ghosts present. Little Ghost flew around to capture the Wisps so the others wouldn't have to worry about them. Applejack, with Sweetiegoo, went to capture the manticores. Scootaloo in her scooter form, Apple Bloom riding her, decided to go directly fight the Super Throwers, using her speed to rapidly join them. Sweetie Belle and Applegoo moved around to attack the other ghosts and lower their number, soon enough joined by Little Ghost once she was done with the Wisps.

Applejack continuously slammed one of the manticores onto the other. Seeing that she didn't need help, Sweetiegoo instead began to target the Shadows. Meanwhile, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo each caught one of the Super Throwers, and they joined their friends in the cleaning. They were about halfway done when Applejack got the two manticores.

With the most bothersome ghosts out of the way, it didn't take long for the seven hunters to capture the remaining ones despite the arrival mid-fight of the ghost of a butler who opened the door to let enter half a dozen of those spider pony zombie abominations as well as two earth pony who had their four legs replaced by sledgehammers making their attacks as bone-shattering as Applejack's bucks.

When the danger was gone, they could continue to follow the arrow of the key which led to the third door in the Western wall of the Great Hall, near the end of it. A large one.

The door led to a big room full of piled up tables and chairs among other things, a storage room for the Great Hall.

Ghost mice and rats were present along with spiders and some other insects. Wisps, in lesser number than in the Great Hall thankfully, were floating around. Surprisingly, there were no other ghosts. However, the ponies barely started to clean that the Wisps began to gather into some kind of swarm. The Wisps forming the Swarm then seemingly merged their powers, normally too weak to do anything beside some burn upon contact, to send fireballs in quick succession, each fireball as big as Apple Bloom. The Swarm also advanced toward the ponies certainly to use the Wisps' burning contact to seriously harm them.

But it was a Swarm of Wisps, and so, it had a big weakness. When the ponies began to suck it up, the Wisps were torn from the Swarm one after another, which had for effect to weaken it. Before long, the remaining Wisps were forced to separate, destroying the Swarm as there accumulated power wasn't enough anymore for it to be effective.

However, more Wisps came and formed a new Swarm. Two Boggys then appeared to add some difficulty, the two of them levitating the many objects in the room to use as shields and projectiles. To fight them, the ponies divided themselves into three groups and the Swarm was rapidly destroyed.

Which was followed by the arrival of wraiths, and before the ponies knew it, one of them managed to sneak to one of the Boggys and to turn it. So Apple Bloom turned into a ghost and went to deal with the wraith Boggy while the others quickly captured the second Boggy before it could be turned and dealt with the wraiths.

And just when everything was calming down with all the ghosts captured, an Assassin using said calm to sneak behind Apple Bloom to attempt to back-stab her. Too bad for him, when the ponies saw that no key had appeared, they understood that at least one ghost remained, was discovered, and was captured.

And yet, no key appeared, but no more ghosts came... The ponies looked in the shadows just in case, and even used their visors, but found nothing.

Excepted an invisible door in the southern wall, near the southwestern corner of the room which previously was blocked by a pile of table that had been destroyed by the Boggys.

They already had an idea of the shape of the room, or rooms, it led to. By now, they had pretty much the whole second floor mapped, and they could say from it that the room behind this door will be an elongated one between the auditorium and the hallway with the staircase leading back to the first floor. And it was followed by a bigger room just in front of the base of the squared tower, of the room with all the invisible objects, and the room where they captured Puddinghead, and also in front of one of the second floor exits of the auditorium. Unless it was actually two rooms plus the elongated one?

But when they opened the door, Apple Bloom was immediately blinded by an intense light.

"What's this light?" she asked, a leg placed in front of her closed eyes.

Ghosts not being immune to intense lights when they aren't bound to a body, Little Ghost was also dazzled by it and couldn't stop herself from flying backward a little. She could use flashlights, but being on the receiving end of such a light really wasn't pleasant to her and her eyes. But the others could keep their eyes open without feeling the burn. Applejack and Scootaloo because they possessed robotic bodies, and Sweetie Belle because her dead body couldn't feel pain. The clones of goo weren't affected too.

Despite this, the light was so intense that they just couldn't see anything in the room beyond the door, so Applejack could only answer "Ah don't know," when she decided to answer her sister.

«You should use the infrared vision,» advised E. Gadd.

"Oh. Thanks, prof," replied Apple Bloom before she and the others activated the vision.

They still couldn't see much details, but they could see that the light was originating from hundreds of sources all over the room, said sources being a deep red compared to the yellow to light red of the rest of the room (because of the warmth of the lights). However, because of all those warm colors, they couldn't see any trace of blue that would indicate the presence of the cold furniture or whatever else could be there.

This meant that they had to advance cautiously as they entered, but in the end, they didn't have to worry. The room revealed to be entirely empty. They weren't even attacked, not that any ghost would or could attack them in there because of the intense light. Even if they were wearing sunglasses (or whatever) to protect their eyes, they still could see nothing, like the ponies.

And so, without encountering any obstacles, the ponies reached the opposite side of the room and eventually found and opened the door.

Once they passed it, they closed it, and Applejack deactivated the vision to see if it was now okay for Apple Bloom and Little Ghost.

"It's okay girls, ya can look without the vision. But be careful, there's still a big light."

A big light that they could see with the infrared vision, coming from the center of the room. When they deactivated the vision, they could see that the light was coming from some kind of small pillar. It was the only thing present in the room beside the ponies. As a result of the light and the absence of obstacles, the ponies' shadows were perfectly visible on the wall behind them.

At least, the light wasn't as intense as in the previous room, so Apple Bloom could directly look at it, only having to half close her eyes. However, it still was a problem for Little Ghost when she looked directly at it.

But then, Shadows and wraiths appeared, and the ponies immediately understood how dangerous this room was. With their shadows perfectly visible, and huge, on the wall, they were easy targets for the Shadows and the wraiths.

It was almost impossible to distinguish between the Shadows and the wraiths in their shadow form, but the objective remained the same: fire at them with a Poltergun beam. If it was a Shadow, it was immediately destroyed; if it was a wraith, it was forced out of its shadow form, ready to be captured at the first occasion. There were thankfully much more Shadows than wraiths, so the number rapidly diminished enough to let somepony capture the wraiths without too much risk.

But then, after the destruction of over two dozens Shadows and the capture of eight wraiths, the remaining Shadows and many others suddenly gathered, not unlike the Wisps earlier, to form a huge shadowy creature. Being just a shadow, it was hard to see what exactly the creature looked like, but the ponies could see a lot of claws ready to tear their shadows, and so them, to shreds.

It was certainly a weird fight that followed. The ponies had to fire at the shadow monster with their Polterguns to destroy it while using the shadows of the handles of the Poltergusts (or of Little Ghost's shield) to block the claws. But it still ended pretty quickly. With the ponies constantly firing at it (excepted when they were busy parrying the claws), the fight lasted not even one minute before the shadow monster was destroyed and a key appeared.

"First the Wisps, now the Shadows," said Apple Bloom before she took the key.

Apparently, fighting new ghosts every now and then wasn't enough anymore. Now, already known ghosts were using new tricks. What next? They will discover that a Bulky and a Buffy can merge? Those two ghosts were so lookalike that it was a real possibility. Or the Icys could start to use their ice power in a different manner, more like the Ice Queen.

Now, this will force them to be cautious around already known ghosts. Even ghosts as simple as Tricksters or Pranksters could have an hidden skill that they would decide to show now that the hunters had explored over half of the castle.

Infrared vision activated, they traversed the room with the light back into the storage room where three Yaks, a Super Thrower, and the ghost of a centaur awaited them.

The centaur was immediately targeted and captured, being the more serious threat. The others followed quickly enough, letting the ponies return in the Great Hall.

But just as they passed the door, everypony excepted Apple Bloom and the clones of goo found themselves trapped inside a circle with some symbols that had been painted just before it. Apple Bloom and Little Ghost immediately recognized it as some kind of ghost-trapping ward, a little like the one that was trapping Bogmire in the basement of the Gem Manor, or all those containers with possessed objects trapped in them in the attic. And it was a good one with how it trapped four ghosts including a really powerful one and three bound to something.

This meant one thing: somepony who knew how to trap ghosts was around, possibly somepony from the Gem bloodline.

And yep, there was the ghost of an old, white unicorn stallion with a prismatic mane not far of the circle.

They could hear several gasps from the spectators.

«It's Prismatic Gem!» shouted Smart Spirit.

In the background, Diamond Cup roared «How dares he control my son?!»

Well... Guess it's time to capture the last member of the Gem Family, thought Apple Bloom as she stepped out of the circle with the clones of goo.

A sudden coldness entered the room, signaling the arrival of wraiths, to everypony's horror.

Apple Bloom growled, understanding what Thanatos was playing there. "Applegoo! Sweetiegoo! Attack any wraiths that dare to approach Prism! Ah'll deal with him mahself!"

The two clones acknowledged her orders with a "YAY!" before Apple Bloom ran toward Prism, hoping to rapidly capture him. But the stallion made sure to keep his distance from her as he took out a crossbow and began to fire arrows at her as well as magical beams from his horn. In return, seeing no choice, Apple Bloom, as well as the ponies trapped in the circle, began to fire elemental projectiles with their Poltergusts, mainly bolts of electricity, but the stallion revealed to be good at dodging.

He was a ghost hunter alright. He probably spent the rest of his life fighting ghosts while preparing himself for the possible return of the Gem Manor and Bogmire. A good ghost hunter develops quite a dodging skill knowing that the ghosts can fire or throw all kinds of stuff at them with their powers.

And while Apple Bloom and Prism were busy firing projectiles and dodging them, the clones of goo guarded them from any wraiths that were approaching, firing countless Poltergun beams to force them out of their shadow form before capturing them in small groups. However, despite all their efforts, one or two managed to pass from time to time, and Apple Bloom was forced to deal with them.

Apple Bloom could turn herself into a ghost, but she wasn't sure if Prism had something prepared against her for such an occasion.

Thankfully, Prism wasn't able to dodge ALL the projectiles fired by Apple Bloom and the others and was regularly hit, so it was only a matter of time before Prism was eventually weakened enough for her to approach...

And capture him before he was turned by the wraiths, to everyone's relief.

Almost as soon as he was captured, the wraiths stopped coming, but the remaining one began to target everypony, including the ones who were still trapped in the circle. Thankfully, even trapped, they still could defend themselves with their Poltergusts, so it wasn't problematic, and before long, all the wraiths were captured.

And, surprisingly, a key appeared. When Apple Bloom took it, it revealed to unlock the only door in the eastern wall of the Great Wall, a shortcut leading just before the staircase to the third floor and just in front of the door to Copper Gear apartments.

But before unlocking it, she went to free the others by erasing some of the circle, hurrying up knowing that more enemies could come anytime.

"Thanks Bloom. Ah hope we won't encounter another ghost hunter," said Applejack.

"There may be more ghosts who know how to use those circles," warned Sweetie Belle.

«She's right, so watch out for fishy circles,» said E. Gadd.

At this, they unlocked the eastern door before looking at where the key they got just before led to, which wasn't far at it unlocked another door in the western wall, near the north end.

It led to a smaller room that seemed to be a break room, what with the few tables and shelves full of books. Certainly for the ones who would want some calm or rest during whatever events that could take place in the Great Hall. Just at the right of the entrance was another door.

Two gargoyles that were present in the far corners of the room near the ceiling took life, and a group of Pranksters appeared along with a Zappy. Some of the books also revealed to be possessed as they flew out of the shelves, and the ponies quickly discovered the presence of Sneakers, Creepers, and of at least one Assassin, and there were several purple puddles on the floor that were obviously Huggers.

The books were the first to go, destroyed by fire as they charged to bit them. The clones of goo then began to capture the ghosts who came out of the destroyed books while Applejack went to deal with the gargoyles. Apple Bloom remained close to her to deal with any ghosts who tried to attack her. The three remaining hunters formed a team: Scootaloo walked around to capture the Huggers while Sweetie Belle and Little Ghost remained close to protect her.

The gargoyles were rapidly destroyed, and their ghosts captured, so Apple Bloom and Applejack helped Sweetie Belle and Little Ghost in dealing with the Sneakers and Creepers, the Assassin having been captured earlier by Apple Bloom and no other having showed themselves up. By the time Scootaloo captured the last Hugger without getting herself trapped in one, all the other ghosts had been captured, and a key appeared which opened the door beside the entrance.

It led to a big room that was separated from the Great Hall by three tall double doors at the North. The ponies quickly understood that it certainly was the ballroom of the castle, the room possessing a lot of purple curtains, some chairs against the walls to rest, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and a well decorated floor. Windows covered the North wall, showing a terrace that was connected to the ballroom by three windowed doors.

They remembered the terrace. They had seen it from the graveyard. Well, from below, so it was the first time that they had a glance of what was on the terrace. If they remembered correctly, it was connected to the graveyard by a staircase.

There were also a lot of gargoyles on the walls near the ceiling, and a few suits of armor; and of course, they all revealed to be possessed. Many well-dressed ghosts (mainly unicorns, surprisingly) also came, certainly the kind who loved fancy dances before they were forced into slavery by Thanatos. Wisps were present in great number, enough that they formed three Swarms.

Not wanting to bother themselves with the number of enemies, Little Ghost and Apple Bloom as a ghost went to unleash their powers on the gargoyles and armors while the others used the Red Mode to rapidly capture the many enemy ghosts. However, not long after the last ghost was captured, the three doors to the Great Hall as well as the three windowed doors to the terrace suddenly opened, the first three doors letting enter possessed armors and the last three letting enter zombies.

By then, Apple Bloom was forced to return to normal, leaving Little Ghost as the only powerhouse.

It didn't mean that the others were defenseless of course, far from it, especially Applejack who didn't need anything but her bare hooves to reduce the zombies into pulp and the armors into piles of scraps. As for the fillies, they simply air punched the enemies to send them flying into each other or into the walls. Scootaloo also used her scooter form to create fire walls to burn them. As soon as a ghost was forced out, they were immediately captured.

And soon enough, all zombies and armors were destroyed, and the ghosts that possessed them were captured, letting to two keys to appear.

One opened the last locked door of the ballroom, in the western wall. The other led beyond it, into the hallway leading to the library, the North Wing, and the Toy Wing. It very certainly unlocked the door beside which they had passed when they went to the Toy Wing.

«Good news! Once you're done with whatever awaits you behind that door, you will be finished with the second floor of the castle!» informed E. Gadd gleefully.

"So... This'll leave about half of the first floor... The third floor... and the fourth floor," said Apple Bloom in joy, finally seeing the end of this adventure. There really was almost nothing left!

«And certainly an underground. It's a castle after all. The underground must be more than just that cellar you explored under the kitchen,» said E. Gadd.

Despite this info that surprised nopony (he was right after all), knowing that they were approaching of the end gave the fillies a small bounce in their steps as they went into the hallway and unlocked the last door of the second floor.

They entered a room that was quite normally furnished, with a round table, a couple of chairs, a shelf with some books and trinkets, some potted plants (dead, of course), a chest of drawers, and a few candles. However, as soon as the first pony, Apple Bloom, put hooves in the room, she felt it lower slightly, proved by the door that was now slightly up to the floor. and the more ponies walked in the room, the more it lowered.

At the left was an entrance to another room that was an exact copy of this one, excepted that where one room had descended, the other had ascended.

Like a balance.

And the ceiling was covered by spikes.

Then, a Goost appeared in the other room, the left room, causing it to lower and the right room to rise, getting the ponies dangerously closer to the spikes.

Apple Bloom immediately ran into the left room to deal with the Goost just as more ghosts appeared and began to attack of to take possession of the various objects in both rooms. The ones possessing objects in the right room then began to move to the left room, wanting to use the accumulated weight of the objects to make the left room rise so Apple Bloom would end up impaled on the spike.

So the ponies divided themselves into two teams, one going into the left room while the other remaining in the right room, destroying the possessed objects before they could gather in a room and capturing the ghosts. If they had to, they used the suction cups to move the objects from one room to another to balance the weight. When Big Brains appeared and began to use telekinesis to levitate pieces of destroyed objects into the other room, they were used a lot. Sweetie Belle also had to use her magic. A Goost regularly appeared either in the left room of in the right room to add some spice to the whole.

In the battle, the rooms constantly lowered, rose, lowered, rose, but never to the point that somepony was impaled. The ponies managed to keep the weight of the rooms balanced enough to avoid the worst. There was however a really close call when a trio of gargoyles suddenly entered the right room from the hallway. If a Goost had appeared at this moment, Apple Bloom would have finished on a spike... Or she would have just saved herself by turning into a ghost.

It was rather stressful to keep track of the situation, and Apple Bloom had to run a lot, changing room when she saw that it was becoming dangerous to remain in the current one.

In the end, only a Goost remained and was promptly captured, ending the battle.

And the last key of the second floor appeared.

After taking it, the hunters gathered, exited the room, and the fillies did a victory jump, Apple Bloom shouting "Oh yeah! Second floor completed!"

The end was near, she could feel it!

Author's Note

As I see it, there are 9 chapters remaining: there will be two chapters before the one where they will fight the third Guardian. There will be then two more chapters, then a sixth one with the fourth Guardian. The seventh chapter will be the fight against Thanatos, then there will be the aftermath, then the epilogue.

So yeah, we're two third in the story.

Chapter 19: The Military Section

Back in the Great Hall and after yet another big battle opposing them to all kinds of ghosts as well as to some of those spider-pony zombies abominations and even against some of Copper Gear's robots, the hunters had to make a choice.

One key, that they had gotten from the squared tower, would lead them back through the double door South of the Great Hall to the entrance hall where they would return to the first floor, probably to finish it.

The other key would lead them through the only eastern door of the Great Hall, very certainly to the staircase between the Hall and Copper Gear's apartments leading to the third floor that they hadn't started yet.

And they had already decided that they would finish the first floor before they would decide what to do from there. With the first and second floor over, along with all the secondary wings, the biggest of the castle would be done... Unless the basement reveals to be bigger than expected. At least, from what they had seen of the castle when they were approaching it at the beginning, they knew that the basement couldn't have more than one level, two in some places. The island on which the castle was built wasn't that thick. But who knew how much the basement would spread in the depths of this island? It could be even larger than the first floor, going so far as under some of the graveyard, the North Wing, the East Wing, and the West Wing.

If they had a choice, then they were wondering if they would go to the basement first, or complete the remaining floors before.

So they followed the arrow of the first key to the entrance hall, quickly destroying a Metallion in the hallway on the way. Once they were back in the first floor where they had to destroy a couple of possessed armors and capture their ghosts as well as the ghost of a griffon soldier, they then took the East door, entering the hallway leading to the East Wing.

After many fights against the ghosts (including many guards/soldiers, some of them armed of a cruciospectro gun), possessed objects (mostly possessed armors), abominations, and robots wandering this hallway, the key finally led them to their destination: the second to last door of the hallway.

The room they entered was a big one that took the ponies off guard as it revealed to be extremely dark and full of dead plants as if it was filled with a miniature (dead) forest. Strangest of all, a little everywhere on the trees were targets, all of them with at least one arrow planted right in the center.

«Those arrows and that near darkness give me a bad feeling. You should activate your infrared vision, or your night vision, whichever you prefer,» advised E. Gadd.

They all did so and looked around at the darkness, quickly spotting between the trees a silhouette turned toward them. It seemed to be a griffon and he was...

Apple Bloom lowered her head, barely avoiding an arrow that would have hit her right in the left eye. Seeing that he failed to hit, the griffon immediately moved to change place and do a new attempt. The ponies didn't let him a chance however and ran toward him, and the griffon began to float away while he fired at Apple Bloom with his bow. As the filly used a burst of air to knock the arrow away, the griffon immediately fired another arrow. However, to everypony's wonder, he fired at a tree. The arrow then bounced from the tree, then from a second tree, then from a third tree before moving right toward the back of Apple Bloom's head. Focused on the griffon as she was, she didn't see the arrow coming, but she was saved by Sweetie Belle who had followed the arrow with her eyes and placed herself in its trajectory.

Sweetie Belle took out the arrow from where it had planted itself in her body and shouted "Watch out Apple Bloom! He uses the trees to change the trajectory of his arrows!"

"Darn, the guy is an ace," said Scootaloo in awe at this.

The griffon certainly proved it the next moment by firing tree successive arrows at different directions, managing to make all of them bounce from trees so that they ended up threatening to hit Apple Bloom. The filly managed to avoid one, and the two other arrows were intercepted by Applejack. The griffon continued to fire arrows, but was quickly stopped by Little Ghost appearing beside him and trapping him in her Poltergust's vortex.

Apple Bloom decided to deactivate her infrared vision to have a better look of the griffon before he was captured, and she could see that he was a brown colored griffon wearing some kind of yellow hat that she wasn't sure how it was named. It was one of those wide-brimmed hat with a pointed front like the beak of a bird. Since he was an archer, he obviously had a bow as well as a quiver still full of arrows despite all the ones he fired.

«Wait a minute, I think Gilda once told me about this guy,» said Rainbow Dash just as the griffon disappeared inside Little Ghost's Poltergust. «Yeah, I remember. He's apparently very famous among the griffons. Like, the best archer of all time. What was his name...? Oh yeah! Gibron!»

«The legendary Gibron of the Woods?» asked Twilight.

«That very one!» replied Rainbow. «You were lucky you had those visions. Gibron was a real prodigy with a bow. And in a forest, if you were his enemy, he was your worst nightmare. Thankfully, he mainly hunted for food for the other griffons. But in a time of war, he would have been terrifying. The griffon military even asked for his help to deal with brigands if they were hiding in a forest. He could deal with a whole camp of them all by himself.»

"And ya aren't kidding. If Ah hadn't spotted him with mah night-vision, Ah'd be dead. Or even if Ah'd managed to avoid the arrow without seeing him, it'd have been a pain to find him in there," said Apple Bloom.

So that was one ghost that should have been a big pain in the flank easily countered thanks to their well prepared, advanced equipment. All those months of preparation really were paying off.

They still did have to search among the dead plants a few minutes to find the key that had appeared with the capture of Gibron. Once they had the key in their possession, they exited the room.

With a look at the map, they saw that the room they left went all the way to the hallway leading to the East staircase to the second floor. The last door of the East hallway was actually leading to a small room in what should have been the Southeast corner of Gibron's room, probably a closet. Just in case, they went to verify if there wasn't anything important in it. But they found nothing excepted an ambushed janitor.

So they followed the arrow of the key they just got which led them to the room just beside of the previous one. The room revealed to be a break room a little like the one back in the second floor beside the Great Hall, but much bigger, with much more tables, but without shelves full of books. Instead, there was some shelves full of drinks, and there were a few games like a couple of targets with some darts on a wall and many decks of cards or dices with or without goblets on most of the tables.

And many ghosts of guards of various species were present playing various games using those and/or drinking.

When the hunters entered the room, all activities immediately stopped as the guards went on the offensive. The hunters had to face all kinds of weapons, from swords to CS-guns passing by crossbows, halberds, axes, and spears, but it didn't mean anything against the power of the Poltergusts. Rapidly, the guards' ranks cleaned, the ghosts being captured small groups by small groups, and thanks to constant slamming, the hunters were pretty much untouchable, especially once the clones of goo took care of the ones armed of crossbows and CS-guns, leaving only the unicorns and their magic blasts to worry about. Some of the guards used the darts to attack from a distance, but the Poltergusts easily sucked them up, like any arrows that they managed to catch. Some of the guards also used their personal ghost powers to throw the cards as if they were shurikens, but it didn't work any better. Near the end, some of the remaining guards got the good idea of charging at Apple Bloom with a table, but that idea was destroyed, along with the table, by Applejack and her powerful back legs.

Once all the guards were captured, the key appeared. With it in their possession, they went North. they had to use the key of Gibron's room to open an exit door in the North wall of the break room, entering a different section of the East hallway leading right to the training yard through a double door. However, the key they got wasn't leading to it but at another double door in an intersection West of their position. But before reaching it, they had to fight an undead minotaur with sledgehammers for arms who came from an hallway just in front of the exit door of the break room. The minotaur was followed by a couple of spider ponies and a pony whose body now looked more like a giant praying mantis.

And to the hunters' horror, at the end of the hallway when it turned right, a part of the wall was covered in flesh with a big eye-ball looking right at them.

Little Ghost destroyed it with a ball of ghostly energy. She didn't want to be observed by a creepy eye-ball in a wall of flesh. And who knew what the eye-ball was connected to.

But now, at least, the hunters were almost certain that this hallway was leading to the laboratory.

After eliminating the abominations, they quickly went to the double door and unlocked it before more could come.

They entered what quickly revealed to be a fitness room full of sport devices, mainly weight-lifting ones.

And of course, who meant fitness room full of weight-lifting devices meant Bulkys, Buffys, and Super Throwers, but there were also some Zappys among the usual guards.

The room almost immediately turned into chaos with the Super Throwers throwing the devices at the hunters. This forced them to separate, and seeing the number of enemies, especially of Buffys and their annoying ability of resisting the Poltergusts if attacked from the front, they decided to use Red Mode. It still was a rather hard battle with the Bulkys creating shockwaves by punching the air and the Buffys and the few yak ghosts creating shockwaves by smashing the ground. A group of well muscled guards also decided to copy the buffaloes' strategy by gathering and forming a real stampede, but they were stopped by Scootaloo rolling and creating a wall of fire on their path. Sweetie Belle then used her singing to take control of one of the Super Throwers, making him throw the devices on the other ghosts adding to the chaos.

By the time all the ghosts were captured, it looked as if a tornado had traversed the room. Almost nothing was in its original position. No key appeared however, but it didn't look like any new ghosts were coming. After verification, they did find a Slappy ambushed in front of a door in the West wall of the room, but that was all, and still no key.

So they tested the door that the Slappy was guarding and it revealed to be already unlocked.

It led to a smaller room, a storage room where sparing devices for the fitness room were stored. Like any storage room they entered previously, it was rather dark, and quite a number of ghosts of big spiders and mice were present as well as Wisps. Thankfully, the Wisps didn't assemble into Swarms. A lot of Little Buffys hidden among the stored devices also revealed themselves, and those ones actually gathered to form a giant fist ready to punch the ponies through the wall. An energy shockwave from Little Ghost hitting the formed ghosts like a wall was enough to disperse them. Then, it was only a matter of capturing them, which didn't take long since the small ghosts just couldn't resist the vortex of the Poltergust. It was like sucking up dust.

Shadows then came with a Boggy and more Wisps. Two Puffers also appeared beside the Boggy, beginning to use their breath to stop the ponies from approaching the purple ghost. So the ponies began this second wave by dealing with the Wisps and the Shadows while doing their best to avoid what the Boggy threw at them. Then, they fired Poltergun beams at the Puffers to make them stop and quickly used the occasion to approach them and the Boggy despite the last one's tentative to keep them away. Finally, the hunters divided into three groups, each taking on one of the ghosts.

They were rewarded with a key and left the room. Back in the fitness room, they had a small battle against an army of Little Tricksters who had hidden themselves behind the devices, ready to ambush the ponies. Despite their huge number, they remained easy to capture for the five hunters, and before long, they were out of the room.

Back in the hallway, Apple Bloom was suddenly tackled and she found herself wrestling for her life against the modified body of a colt who now possessed a wide mouth full of teeth and was trying to bit her head off. Apple Bloom kicked the colt away with the help of an air burst, and the colt was propelled away with such force that it pretty much exploded against the ceiling. But it wasn't over as more similar fillies and colts were coming from the hallway probably leading to the laboratory and the others were already fighting them. They weren't tough, but with their number, it was easy to guess that they were made to overwhelm a pony and devour them piece by piece with their large mouth full of sharp teeth.

The best thing Apple Bloom could think of to compare them were piranhas.

While the ponies fought the monsters along with the few ghosts and other enemies present in the hallway, they slowly advanced toward their next destination, direction East toward the double door to the training yard. However, the key wasn't leading to the double door but to another door beside it, not far in front of the exit of the break room. Once all the monsters were eliminated, and as they passed in front of the hallway leading to the laboratory, Scootaloo rolled to created a fire wall to block it, not only on the ground but also on the walls and the ceiling knowing that those undead spider ponies could crawl on them, and who knew what else could come out of there.

The fire wall effectively stopped anything from passing, leaving the ponies enough time to reach the door and unlock it, entering what revealed to be an armory, a room full of all kinds of weapons and pieces of armors. It wasn't a big room but there were still enough to equip a regiment, maybe more.

A lot of armed and armored guards, Tricksters, and Pranksters were present. A few Tail Spears also revealed themselves among them. Despite all the weapons and armors, they weren't much trouble for the hunters. However, the hunters used the occasion to improve their equipment to better deal with the laboratory's abominations that were more and more numerous. The fillies (excepted Little Ghost who didn't really need a weapon) each took a dagger while Applejack, being bigger and stronger, took a sword. Thankfully, the weapons were coming with sheaths so the ponies didn't have to keep them in their mouth.

"I never thought I would end up having to use a dagger," commented Sweetie Belle.

"They're leaving us no choice," replied Apple Bloom. "Frankly, after a chainsaw, a dagger's nothing."

Once they finished equipping themselves, they took the key that had appeared and exited the armory. Back in the hallway, they immediately had to use their new weapons to kill another praying mantis pony and a small group of spider ponies that awaited them. Then, they returned to the intersection in front of the fitness room and went South, then West toward the entrance hall. After destroying a couple of gun drones, they reached their destination: the first door in the hallway, just beside the one leading to the entrance hall.

A simple office room, with a desk, a chair, and a shelf probably to store paperwork but that was actually empty. Really, it seemed that the room was made more for the heck of it. A nameplate on the desk indicated who it was for: Commander Hurricane. As for what awaited the ponies, surprisingly, they only encountered an unicorn maid and a pegasus guard as well as a small group of Little Tricksters coming out of the shelf.

To put it simply, the following battle only lasted a few seconds before the hunters could continue to the next room by a door in the East wall.

A living room. A well furnished one at that, with jars that were clearly precious, furniture made of the best wood, a golden chandelier, and even a golden statuette of Thanatos on the center of the table. There were three other doors beside the one from which they came; one leading back to the hallway, one in the North wall, and one just at the left of the one to the office room.

After dealing with a maid, a butler, a Hidder, two Tail Spears, and a wraith (capturing the last one as soon as they could before it could turn any of the other ghosts), they got the key which, however, only opened the door to the hallway. So they had to find out which door was already unlocked.

The North door revealed to be the one, leading to the dining room where a possessed cake like the one they fought in the mess room attacked them along with two other maids, some Pranksters, a Creeper, two Huggers, and two possessed armors that had been standing against the opposite wall, near the corners.

«What a waste of good cake,» said Pinkie grumpily.

"Knowing where we're, it's probably poisoned anyway," said Apple Bloom to this.

The Creeper was quickly taken care of by Applegoo while Little Ghost went to deal with the possessed cake with her powers. The others dealt with the remaining ghosts as they came, with Applejack prioritizing the armors to easily destroy them with her strength. Rapidly enough, only the Huggers remained and it didn't take long to capture them without other ghosts interfering. A Big Brain and some Throwers did appear after that to throw the cutlery on the table at the ponies, but they didn't last long against the bolts of electricity the Poltergusts fired at them to open them for capture.

The key they got from the dining room opened the last door of the living room. They had to deal with a couple of guards and a Tail Spear before that however. As they expected, the door led them to Hurricane's chamber. Like the rest of Hurricane's apartments, it was well furnished and well decorated. Surprisingly, however, the bed was a rather simple one, sized for one pony, but it remained a high quality one. Two doors were in the opposite wall, certainly leading to the restroom and the bathroom.

Only one ghost awaited them: an unicorn guard who manipulated a dozen swords with his magic, reminding Apple Bloom of Princess Rose and Red Sword. Clearly, however, the stallion wasn't as skilled as the two others. Apple Bloom had no problems avoiding the swords while approaching the stallion. When she began to capture him, making him drop the sword, more guard appeared and armed themselves with the dropped swords. So, as Apple Bloom captured the first guard, the others took care of the new arrivals who disappeared one after another. A last guard took possession of Hurricane's bed but it was quickly destroyed with a buck from Applejack, and the guard almost immediately joined the others.

With this last guard gone, the key appeared, and the hunters could leave the apartments.

Then, when they were back in the hallway and began to follow the arrow of the key into the hallway leading North toward the fitness room, all the doors at both sides of said hallway suddenly opened and dozens upon dozens of guards came out of the rooms, all armed and ready to attack.

"Ah think they don't want us coming near their commander," said Applejack.

"Too bad for them. They should've remained in their rooms," said Apple bloom with a smirk.

Chapter 20: Commander Hurricane

It really wasn't hard to pass all those guards but rather repetitive. Trap, slam, power surge, capture, repeat, and occasionally move to avoid a projectile (Applejack and her metallic body being really good to use as cover). The room from which the guards came from revealed to be dormitories, full of bunk beds, enough to have over a dozen guards per rooms, and the ponies counted a total of seven rooms, six in the hallway to the fitness room and the seventh at the left before a dead end and some other unknown rooms. Once all the guards were captured, and that all other dangers were eliminated (a golem made of broken gargoyle parts, some abominations, a few other ghosts, a Metallion), the ponies decided to verify those last rooms just in case. The rooms, four in total, revealed to be unlocked, but were nothing else than shower rooms and restrooms empty of interest. They just ended up fighting more ghosts in them.

So they finally followed the arrow of the key to the double door at the end of the hallway, the one leading to the training yard.

That was it. Behind this door, Commander Hurricane himself was awaiting them with more guards.

Among the six Founders, there really were two that worried the hunters: Hurricane and Clover. The first was a skilled military. The second was a powerful mage. Both promised tough fights. But they weren't sure yet which one will be the worst.

They unlocked the door and opened it, finally entering the training yard.

It was a very vast space taking a good chunk of the Eastern side of the first floor filled with training dummies, targets, and racks filled with weapons. Just at the right of the entrance was a small habitation made of stone from which the distinctive sound of somepony regularly hitting metal with metal could be heard. A large stone wall closed the yard East and North, and two sets of stairs at both ends of the yard were present to access to the top. As they had seen from the windows earlier, many guards were training, and the hunters easily spotted among them the distinctive armor of Commander Hurricane who was observing the others as they trained.

Before the guards had even spotted them, the hunters began firing around with their Poltergusts, painfully interrupting their training. Hurricane turned toward the hunters but remained away, letting the guards attack. When he understood that the guards had no chance winning, he then looked at the small habitation and did a small sign with his head. The next instant, the sound of metal hitting metal stopped before Hurricane flew up to have a better view of the hunters as they were now surrounded by the guards. Wind then gathered around his wings and used them to send two waves of wind sharp enough to cut stone. The wind was however stopped by Little Ghost and her shield.

Then, some of the guards parted ways to let pass a grey minotaur wearing a leather apron and holding a huge hammer coming from the stone habitation. The minotaur didn't approach much however before he hit the ground with his hammer, creating a powerful shockwave that charged at the ponies who were all forced to jump (excepted Little Ghost). Before the minotaur could create another shockwave, the ponies judged it best to disperse. Apple Bloom charged toward the minotaur, Little Ghost flew toward Hurricane, and the others went to deal with the remaining guards.

As Apple Bloom approached the minotaur, she had to jump above another shockwave. Once she was close enough, the minotaur attempted to sweep her with his hammer but she avoided it with a jump to the side before she activated her Poltergust on him. However, he resisted the vortex with a groan and attempted to crush her under his hammer. Again, Apple Bloom jumped to the side to avoid it, then had to jump again to avoid a shockwave created by the hit. As Apple Bloom continued to weaken the minotaur little by little with her Poltergust, he continued to attempt to hit her, forcing her to move continuously.

Meanwhile, Little Ghost was against the commander who, while he wasn't as powerful as her, showed that he wasn't commander for nothing. He easily avoided anything she sent against him all the while doing his best to remain away so she couldn't catch him. When she teleported directly beside him however, he immediately attacked her with a slash of one of his wings sharpened by wind, forcing her in the defensive long enough for him to get out of range. there was still a moment, eventually, where she avoided the slash of the wing and was able to immediately counterattack by activating her Poltergust, catching the stallion. However, he rapidly freed himself by countering the vortex of the Poltergust with his own vortex, making them cancel each other.

He didn't even seem to take her seriously as he was regularly looking down to see how the battle below evolved. When he saw Apple Bloom capture the smithy minotaur and that less than one fourth of the guards remained, he frowned, huffed, then looked at the top of the wall. Having a bad feeling, Little Ghost followed his eyes and saw that on top of the wall many archers were ready to fire at Apple Bloom. Hurricane then gave them a small nod, and they all fired.

Little Ghost gave a panicked "Eep!" and teleported beside Apple Bloom before she used her shield to protect her as best as she could from the rain of arrows. Apple Bloom used bursts of air to repel any arrows that her friend didn't managed to stop. Seeing that the arrows weren't stopping from coming, she then turned herself into a ghost. She exchanged a look with Little Ghost, and they then both flew on the wall to deal with the archers, hoping to capture, or at least incapacitate a maximum of them before she would be forced to return to normal. They were quickly joined by Scootaloo who rolled up the wall to help them when she saw what was happening. As Apple Bloom returned to normal, the others joined them one by one, having finished with the guards in the yard, some taking the North staircase while the others took the East one, dividing themselves into two groups.

Hurricane, meanwhile, had moved between the two ballistas present on the Northeastern part of the wall and began to manipulate them with his power to make them fire at the hunters, each targeting a different group. Little Ghost rapidly destroyed the two of them with powerful explosive blasts. This made Hurricane huff again as he watched his archers disappear one after another. Eventually, he decided to fly toward the section of the wall beside the library tower. As soon as the hunters were done with the archers, they regrouped and followed him.

As they ran toward the library, passing beside the Wind Tower, some spires, and a balcony in the third floor from which they could slightly hear the organ play, ghosts regularly appeared to try to stop them, mainly guards but also armed and armored Pranksters and Tricksters as well as Bulkys, Buffys, Sneakers, Creepers, and Assassins. Sometimes, they would find purple puddles, Huggers, awaiting on the path, and a Goost even blocked their path before the wall turned North toward the library.

Finally, they reached Hurricane in an intersection where the wall continued North until stopping before the roof of the North Wing but also went West toward the auditorium. As he face the hunters, Hurricane began to fly backward toward the dead end at the North, and stopped once he reached it, the ponies ready to attack him.

But then, Hurricane waved a leg, and the next instant, several Buffys appeared behind the ponies and formed a wall before they began to slowly advance. The ponies, cornered, couldn't escape as the wall of Buffys approached, and since the Buffys weren't affected by the vortex of the Poltergust if attacked from the front, then they had to find something else. Thankfully, they had many other ways to attack a Buffy by the front: elemental projectiles, Poltergun beams, Little Ghost's powers, and even Applejack's bucks all worked very well.

While they were busy dealing with the Buffys, however, Hurricane escaped again, flying toward the auditorium, but the hunters were hot on his tail soon enough. Before long, the wall turned South toward a staircase that led up to a section of the wall in a different level. Where the wall was until now at the third floor, this section on the auditorium was at the fourth, going around whatever room(s) was (were) situated above the auditorium. Hurricane awaited them on a larger squared section in the Northwestern corner.

Once they reached him, Hurricane waved a leg again, and several guards equiped of large shields appeared to block the two exits before more guards, archers this time, appeared behind them and began to fire at the sky, making arrows rain all over the squared section while protected by the shield users.

Well, darn. Unlike the Buffys, projectiles won't work on the shields. It will certainly be harder to get out of this situation. To make matter worse, two Puffers appeared and began to puff air at them, making dodging the arrows harder as they had to resist being pushed by the strong winds.

Applegoo and Sweetiegoo each took on a Puffer to stop them. Applejack and Little ghost, the powerhouse that they were, both charged at the two lines of shield users to get through them and attack the archers. The remaining hunters then used the holes opened in the defense lines to capture the rest. Seeing that their strategy had failed, the shield users separated and began to directly attack, attempting to bash the ponies with their shields. Hurricane himself began to send sharp winds with his wings. Because of the shields, it was pretty much impossible to attack their users from the front, so the hunters had no choice but target the ones that had their back turned to them as they faced a different hunter.

Capturing the ghosts while avoiding the sharp winds sent by Hurricane wasn't easy, but as soon as the clones of finished capturing the Puffers, they began firing Poltergun beams at the commander. He was hit by a first beam that made him grunt, but he managed to avoid the others before he decided to fly away toward the South. With Hurricane gone, the hunters had no problem capturing the remaining ghosts.

They then followed Hurricane again, fighting more ghosts on the way. They descended another staircase, returning in the third floor, and moved East, beside the squared tower, until they found Hurricane on the section of wall just above the entrance of the castle, between the two small towers that flanked it.

As soon as they reached the section, the door of the two towers suddenly opened and many guards and possessed armors came out and surrounded the hunters. As the hunters fought the ghosts, Hurricane then did another wave with his leg, and an adult dragon suddenly rose from the entrance of the castle.

The situation reminded Apple Bloom of the battle against the dragon on the balcony of the Gem Manor, excepted that there were less place to move around and the dragon wasn't alone. Thankfully, she wasn't alone too this time, she was better equipped, more skilled, and instead of statues, she could use the two towers as cover if the dragon breathed fire.

Red Mode was a must against the dragon, and they also began to fire many Poltergun beams at the dragon to weaken him while they also dealt with the guards and the armors. Hurricane decided to help the dragon and restarted sending sharp winds, but the ponies firing at him in return persuaded him to just fly away and leave the matter to the dragon.

But the dragon didn't last long against the team, especially after they dealt with all the guards and possessed armors. Even a grown dragon can't resist long against seven Poltergusts in Red Mode, especially after being weakened by dozens of Poltergun beams help by some powerful attacks from a powerful ghost.

With the dragon captured, the way was open for the ponies to chase Hurricane. They passed beside the Ice Tower before the wall turned North, and before long, they were back at the section of wall East of the training yarn where Hurricane awaited them just in front of the water tower.

He looked very annoyed.

Then, as they approached him, he flew into the waterfall falling in the tower. Suddenly, probably using his ghost powers, a huge quantity of water vapor came out of the waterfall. Once he created enough vapor, Hurricane then came out of the waterfall and flew into the newly formed cloud of vapor that now covered a good chunk of the sky above this side of the castle. The cloud became darker, thunder started to rumble inside it, and winds slightly stronger than the one breathed by the Puffers blew. Lightning then started to randomly strike before Hurricane came out of the cloud. He then raised a hoof and lighting struck it. However, instead of electrocuting him, a part of the lightning remained on his hoof, forming what seemed to be a spear made of pure electricity. But then, he grabbed the other extremity of the bolt, revealing it to be actually more like one of those fighting rods.

He then finally flew down to fight the hunters directly, rapidly flying right in the middle of their group which took them off guard. As the hunters turned to face him, he thrust his lightning weapon at Apple Bloom who judged it best to dodge the attack rather than blocking it with her Poltergust, not wanting to take the risk of damaging it.

The Poltergust was lightning-proof, but a direct attack by a lightning weapon? She wasn't sure it would resist that well.

By then, the others activated their Poltergusts (Little Ghost ensuring that she wouldn't get caught by the others) and trapped the commander. As he resisted against all the vortexes, he raised a leg toward the cloud, and the next instant, all the hunters who had him trapped were suddenly struck by lightning. Only Apple Bloom was untouched as she hadn't activated her Poltergust.

As she saw her friends being electrified, Apple Bloom activated her Poltergust and trapped the commander. She then immediately jumped to the side, avoiding a lightning that struck not even a second later at her previous position. However, Hurricane used the same trick he used against Little Ghost and cancelled Apple Bloom's vortex with his own vortex. He then followed it by attacking Apple bloom several times with his lightning rod, and the filly had no choice but to use her Poltergust to parry him. Hurricane then suddenly flew behind her after a violent strike and thrust his weapon at her back, but as soon as he moved to fly behind her, Apple Bloom pointed the end of her Poltergust behind her and fired a Poltergun beam, hitting him, stopping his attack.

As Hurricane groaned in pain, Apple bloom then turned to face him, activated her Poltergust, and before he could do anything, slammed him. But as he was slammed, he still managed to free himself and quickly flew away as the others attacked him, avoiding a few beams. In the air, he then grabbed his weapon like a spear and threw it. surprisingly, he didn't target anypony and threw his weapon in the middle of the group. From the impact point, electricity then spread a few meters all around it, electrifying everypony excepted Little Ghost.

Little Ghost fired several beams at Hurricane in return, but he avoided all of them. She then approached him, and he quickly raised his leg, lightning striking it to materialize another lightning spear/rod. Rather than attempting to capture him again knowing that it wouldn't be effective, Little Ghost flew right in front of him and sent an energy blast right on his face. Despite the attack, Hurricane rapidly recovered and thrust his weapon at the filly ghost, piercing her and electrifying her. She teleported just behind him and fired several Poltergun beams at him, all of them hitting as she was just too close for him to effectively dodge. Without turning, Hurricane countered by thrusting his weapon backward just beside himself, taking Little Ghost by surprise and piercing her again.

Then, Apple Bloom, as a ghost, suddenly charged at him from below while holding his previous lightning weapon and pierced him, electrifying him. The weapon, however, also had for effect to electrifying her as it wasn't her weapon made with her power, and she hadn't learned to control electricity to ensure that she could avoid this.

Then, the others began to fire Poltergun beams at Hurricane from below.

Finally, Little Ghost freed herself from the weapon still piercing her and activated her Poltergust, making sure to trap only the stallion, not Apple Bloom who was just behind but rapidly flew away just in case but still left the weapon piercing the commander.

Hurricane couldn't free himself this time but still resisted. Despite everything, he turned and threw his weapon at Little Ghost, but she successfully avoided it by flying to the side. So Hurricane grabbed the weapon still piercing him and attempted to get it out, but he finally lost his strength and was captured.

Following his capture, the cloud lost its power and dispersed, and a key appeared back in the training yard.

Releasing a sigh, Apple Bloom flew back to the others and returned back to normal. With a groan, she then dropped on her belly, taking big breathes.

"Ah can't believe he made us run all around the castle..."

Scootaloo chuckled. "Looks like he wanted to give us a tour."

Little ghost approached them with a giggle. "It was worth it. The view wasn't that bad. Would have done without the electricity at the end however."

Apple Bloom groaned again. "And Ah still don't know if Clover'll be worst or not."

"At least, only him remains among the six," said Applejack before she placed a hoof on her sister. "Want me to lift you on mah back a moment?"

Apple Bloom smiled at her. "No thanks. Ah just feel sore everywhere because of the electricity. It'll quickly pass."

"Let me help about this," said Sweetie Belle before she sang, healing her friend.

"Thanks!"

They remained a couple of minutes to recover their energy, passing it talking about the fight and watching the waterfall, before they moved back to the training yard to take the key. Before following it, they used the key they got from Hurricane's chamber to open the other doors leading to the yard, one South to the hallway near the entrance to the East Wing, the other beside the North staircase to the North side of the first wind with the gameshow room, the funeral home, and so on.

Once done, they passed the door from which they entered the training yard and followed the arrow of the key they just got.

It led them in the hallway between the armory and the fitness room where they had to fight a praying mantis pony, a sledgehammer minotaur, and some ponies with their head replaced by giant eye-balls.

Speaking of eye-ball, the one that Little ghost had destroyed on the flesh covering some of the wall at the end had returned and was promptly destroyed again.

After the turn was a staircase leading down to the basement, into a dark, gloomy room totally empty. The only thing particular with this room was that the flesh covered some parts of the walls as well as a little of the ceiling and the floor, going from the staircase to the only door in the room, in the South wall. The door was a metal one with a small, bared window, and the wall surrounding it was entirely covered in flesh with half a dozen eye-balls present, all staring at the hunters as they approached, following them.

Apple Bloom gulped. She really wasn't ready for whatever horrors awaited them behind this door. The eye-balls and flesh covering some of the room were already disturbing enough.

Finally, they unlocked the door, and under the watch of the eye-balls, they passed it, the door closing behind them.

"Ṁ̸̢͓̥̙͓̠̼̀͑̆̈́̎͝͝ḿ̴̧͕̻̖͓̞̥̘͔̺͍̏̎̈́̀̚̕͝͝h̴̨͉̲̲̮̘̘̦̿͜͜.̸̧̞͚̥͓̺̥̣̅́̋̆̐̈̂̉.̸̘̖̾͒̍̋.̵̗̘͖̞̝͓̆̎͂̄̓̈́̔̒̋̎̓͝ ̵̢̨̲̳̺̬̝̙̩̪͙̞̻̋̈́̾͊͛̉̽T̵̨̠͚̪̯̖̮̥̦͈͛̃̂͊̽͛͌ͅͅḩ̴̢̥͎̝̱̫̳̳͖̙͕̬̔͗̓ę̶̪͖͖͈̳̋̈́͠ý̴͈̉͋̈́̔̑͊̈́̃͊̎ ̵̧̜̠͇͕̦̲͔̟̫̒̂͛͂̈́̀̓́͊̈́̏̐ͅa̸͚̦͙̍̄̈̑̽̃͑̈́̍̓̅͠͝r̸̨̯͈̩̯̦̽̎̏̈̿̂͒ṟ̵̨̛͚̣̲̩̥̝͙̯̅͌̅̋͌̔̔̚͘ͅị̵͓̟̱̂͒͑̿̽͝v̴̨̝̱̻͔̀̓̒͂̋̈͝e̸̙̰̮͉̣̅̓̽̓̄͗́͆̽͠ ̵̦͉͓͓̼͉͕̮̤̼̗̞́͌̾̇̀͊̈̑̈́̕͝ͅj̷̡͔͚̰̞̗͆̃̉̎̈́̄̂̃͗̐͘͝͝ụ̴̡̢̩̝̘̣͓̣̭̜̙̩̽͑̂͂̒̽̃̐͋̊̏ş̸͉̺̬͕̆͗̈́̂̐͋̇̌̀͒̽̒t̸̻͉̱̭̬̲̞̜̘̠̻̺̀͛̐̒̎̄̌͗͊̎ͅ ̶̢̧̛̗͔̪̝͈̤͍͓̔͂̑̏̊͆̂̕͜i̴̜̫̞̖̝͇̜͉͔̰̽̓̈̆̚͜͝n̵̡̺̮͈̝̟̣͖͍̬͚̊̕͜ ̵͕̦̮͑̇́̍͛͑̄͝ẗ̸͎̬̬̟̤͊̀̏i̷͕̝͍̲̟̇͜m̴̧̡̨̡̤͓͕̥͖̈́é̴̛̝̠̖̓̽̿͐̚.̴̬͓̤̄̆̌̊̆̀̕̕̕͝ͅ ̷͕͓̘̬͔͓̙̞̹̺͛͑̏̃̋̐͒̈́Į̶̩͙͓͎̝̖͎̾̉̀̀̀̍̽̉̕͝ ̸͎̞́̏̇͊̀͠w̵̗̺̠̩̠͎̩͖͕̮͌͊͒̃̆͒̀͒̚ͅͅa̶͚̞͙͈̗̽s̸̤̪͔͍̓ ̸̥̠̋̋̓͗̿á̵̡̛̺̗̑̌b̷͇̖̯̦͓̄͂͆͌̀͛́̆͛̐̌̂ó̶̮͛̇̈̕u̷̝̫̯͍̥͖̖͊̀̅͑̔̄̕t̶̛̹̫̫͓̟̣͎͎͓̉̽̈́̀̓̄͊̈̚͠ ̵̬͉̦̝̝̻̠͉͙̎̓̇̇̈̈́̈́͜͠͠͝t̴̡̛͈̭̯̫̟̳̦̹̟̭͌̇̉̏̇̈́̋̽̚͘͝ǫ̶̰̻͛̓͗̍͐̎́̚͘͜͝͝ ̴̡̫̼̱̙̭̻̔̆̋̍͋̔͝ŗ̶̺̞̝̦͉̦͎͒̂͒̈́̐͆̈́͆̍̈́̀͘͝ừ̵̛̪͕͕̊̈́̿̌͐̄̓̓͝n̶̨͔̪͚͖͎̪͙̍̌́̀͛ ̵̨̼̟̳͉̘̗̤̭͕̳̬̊̈́͛̈́̅́̑͂̍͐̆o̷̡̖̯͎̙̯̳̗͌̓͐́͆͋̅̃̆̚͝ͅũ̷̼̓̋̄̊̒̚t̷̟̽͊͗͗͗͆͆̇̀̚ ̴̛̥̫̣͖̾̽̋̑͌͊̑̎̕͝͝ô̷̙̘̲̺̣̊̃͗̓f̶̬̃̌̐̃ ̸̨̨̞͇̈́͗̂̀̈́̀̈́͋͆̕͠͝ģ̵͔͔̗̮̦͔͍̤̳̼̬̈́͌̈́̉̒̈́͌̐̈́̚ṵ̸̦̜͎̉͒̉ͅî̴̦̘̝̥̤͕̰̑̿͝͠ṉ̷̢̨̈͐̈́̋̈͑̈́͊͜͝ȩ̸̧̭͈̬͈̩̩͎̀͂́͂͒͐́̀̒̆͝a̶͚̥̞̒̑̔́̿̕ ̵̟̖̟͎̫̗͎͉̹̓̓͊́̚p̶̡̛̯͇̝̙͈̫̖͐̃̈́̀͑̓̅̀̍̚͝͝i̶̡̧̡̩͎̝̗̼̰̝̳̿̓̆̽̾̾͐͐͒̅̋̃͜͠g̸̨̢͉̮̺̲̗̽́͝s̵͎̳̜̻̣͔͔̝̫̈̐̄̉̎̍̊̂̈́̑.̸͔̱̝̇͋͆̇̎̕ ̷̨̡̧̢̟͍̝̜̭̪̹͔̬̒͛̓͌Ȇ̶͕̼̄̐̔̐̃̚͝h̷̛͎͈̃̄͛̔̈́͑̆͘͠ȩ̸̗̺͎̮̙̫̙͍̭̪͕͓̇̋̐͂̐̈́̈́̆͘͠ḣ̸̨̜̪̪̤̝̖̗̀̾́͐͐̈́̀̓͝è̵̢̞̥̝̝̭̩̤̉̽͑̃̔̏͐̽͊̈́͠ͅh̵̡̛͕̠̱͕̜͕͇̠͎͍̾̍̈́̐̓̍͛̄̑͆͊̕͜e̴̘͕͙̦͈͇̟̗̬͎̜̊̈́̔̓́͑͘͜ḧ̴͚̘̣̲̥́̈́͗͑͜ͅ.̶̛̯̩̥̞̻̟̈́͛̿̏̑̏͊̀̋͘͠"

Chapter 22: Big Brain Part 2

The ponies looked with disgust and horror when they looked at the new room. The walls, ground, and ceiling weren't as covered in flesh as the dungeon, but instead, they were a lot covered in blood. And the reason why was easily visible.

The room was full of torture devices. There were a few iron maidens against the North wall, some of them open to show the bloodied spikes in them. A brazen bull above a brazier was present, and not far beside it was one of these tables with two cylinders for quartering. Two things looking like trestles here, a table below a hook with a crank there, another table below a pierced water basin, the water dripping drop by drop on the head of the table... Those were just a few examples of what was in this room.

Also present were half a dozen ghosts of various creatures all hooded and armed of something that was clearly made to inflict intense suffering, and a Bogmire-like purple ghost who possessed many whip-like tentacles instead of arms.

«We should have expected a room like that...» said E. Gadd.

"As if we needed more proof that Thanatos is sick in his head," said Apple Bloom.

«And you can thank Grogar for that,» said Discord.

As the hunters began to fight the ghosts, Apple Bloom asked "What do ya mean?"

«Well... I suppose that it's backstory time. Did you know this? Grogar is our daddy, to Thanatos and me!»

"Say what?" said Applejack in shock, which got her whipped by the purple ghost as a result.

«I know, what a shock. Nobody ever guessed. I wonder why.»

«Yeah, we wonder why,» deadpanned Spike.

«Grogar created us, first me, then Thanatos. For Thanatos, he hesitated. He had already created a being that could create chaos, why would he need to create a being of death? But after a moment, he thought 'why not?' and here was Thanatos. Having more control over the dead was always nice, as if he hadn't already enough control with his necromancy. And you know what he did? As soon as Thanatos had seen the day for the first time, he killed him!»

There were many gasps. «Thanatos was alive?» asked Rainbow.

«Rainbow!» shouted Fluttershy.

Discord laughed. «Don't be mad at her, Fluttershy. I understand her. It can be really shocking. Yes, the Spirit of Death wasn't always dead. He had a flesh and blood body. And contrary to me, a rather banal one. But, you know, a Spirit of Death not dead... That wouldn't work. Or that was what Grogar thought. So he killed him barely ten seconds after his creation. Father of the millenium.»

"Ah think Ah understand now why there's a whole room for Grogar to be tortured," said Apple Bloom as she captured four of the torturers in one go after many slams.

«Yeah, Thanatos really doesn't bear Grogar in his 'heart'. And it wasn't helped that Grogar treated us more like slaves than sons. This is where Thanatos' sadism comes from. He started to take pleasure seeing others suffer like he suffered, and from there, it went from bad to worse. It's also because of how he was treated that he developed such a need to be always in control. He never want to be controlled and powerless against someone again. As for me, well, you saw how I was. But I'm proud to say that I'm the main reason why Grogar was defeated by Gusty.»

«Really? How so?» asked Twilight.

«I tripped him, giving time for Gusty to take his bell. That wasn't in your history books, uh?» At this, Discord laughed while the ponies looked at him in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the remaining torturers had been captured, leaving only the purple ghost who quickly was captured by Applejack with the help of Sweetie Belle and the clones of goo.

But no key appeared, so just in case, the hunters went to check the closet iron maidens.

"Well... Uh... Thanks, Discord, I suppose," said Sweetie Belle.

«Don't. You know what I did next. Equestria basically traded one tyrant for another. The ponies, if they had seen my act, wouldn't have thanked me long. And so, while I began turning Equestria into Chaosland, Thanatos settled in the Spirit World where, apparently, Grogar has been banished. From there, we began a kind of neutral relationship. We would do whatever we wanted as long as we didn't get on each other's way. And where I was eventually stopped, he obviously continued his 'fun' under the muzzle of the ponies.»

"Which he apparently got bored of," said Apple Bloom.

By then, they had checked the whole room to see if there was a ghost hiding somewhere, even using the DLD, but they found nothing. So this left them to choose between two doors: one East and one in West.

They tried East, and the door was unlocked. So they passed it and immediately began to fight the many torturer ghosts present as well as the two Bogmire-like ghosts with whips for arms (that Apple Bloom decided to name Whipper), the few Splitters, and the few disturbing creations of Big Brain (spider-like ponies and zebras, griffons with sharp tongues, a sledgehammer minotaur, and a donkey with five tails that acted like whips).

The room was bigger than the previous one and had essentially chains on the walls with torture tools here and there, not a table or other thing like the brazen bull present, so there was much more place for enemies to be in number.

"Little Ghost, can ya destroy the eye-ball here, please?" asked Apple Bloom.

With a nodded, Little Ghost began to destroy the few eye-balls present on the walls where there was flesh while attacking Big Brain's minions with her chainsaw.

Once the last eye-ball was destroyed, Apple Bloom, in the middle of slamming two torturers on a Whipper, said "Grogar'll receive the punishment he deserves. There's no doubt that he'll backstab us, at least after he gets his hooves on that power-absorbing device and we take care of Big Brain, so an eternity trapped in a portrait'll do him some good."

«You freed him knowing that, so I suppose you have something in mind to fight him,» said Discord.

"Well..." She smirked. "He doesn't know about mah ghost form."

Discord cackled.

Once all the ghosts were captured and Big Brain's minions were killed, the hunters went to the exit at the other end of the room and tested the door only to find out that it was locked. This left them no choice but to return in the previous room and test the last door there.

The door was unlocked, and they entered a smaller room full of torture devices and tools, leaving barely any place. The room was also full of webs. Well, the whole castle was usually full of webs from the many ghost spiders that called it home, but in this room, the webs were really everywhere and in such quantity that the hunters could barely see through some of them that looked more like veils of silk.

In the darkness, among the devices and webs, small forms could be seen moving. When the hunters moved the flashlights to see what they were, the forms revealed to be beheaded heads of various creatures, ponies, griffons, zebras, and so on, walking on spider legs. Like real spiders, some could be seen moving down threads of web coming from a little hole in their back. Some even had insect mandibles.

There were some shrieks from the spectators, but the hunters, while disgusted, immediately attacked the spider-heads, Applejack being so strong that she could crush the heads under her hooves while the others mainly sent them flying with powerful air punches or stabbed them with their weapons. Little Ghost was the exception, doing a bloody mess with her chainsaw. Some of the spiders sent threads of web at them, attempting to slow them down or even immobilise them, but the ponies constantly moved, sending the heads flying around dragged by the threads.

Over thirty smashed heads later, the room was empty of enemies, but still no key, to the ponies' wonder. So they began to search with the DLD again.

Eventually, Little Ghost encountered a section of wall that seemed to be on the bring of collapsing, in the Southwestern corner of the room. She blasted it with her powers, creating a hole through which she could see a new room with no other entrances.

"What was that, Little Ghost?" asked Apple Bloom as she and the others approached, having heard the blast.

"I found a secret room!" informed the ghost. "There was a badly made wall blocking it."

"Good job, Little Ghost!" said Sweetie Belle.

They entered the secret room that was totally engulfed in darkness, but thanks to their flashlights, they quickly found out that the room was full of skeletons.

'Living' skeletons. Probably possessed.

It wasn't hard to smash them into pieces, no ghosts surprisingly coming out of them. But then, like timberwolves, the pieces gathered to form a giant deformed skeleton with heads and legs poking out of everywhere and backbones and ribs going in all directions, some of the ribs even forming claws on the hooves or fangs in the mouths.

And it was promptly destroyed by a powerful energy blast from Little Ghost. Really, what did they expect? It was still a skeleton! And this time, the ponies sucked up the bones so their Poltergusts could destroy them before they could gather again.

But no ghosts still came out. Either they were sucked up with the bones, or there were no ghosts controlling them, meaning that they were given life by someone's power, probably Thanatos.

The key appearing at least meant that they had nothing to fear anymore in this room.

However, on their way to the locked door in the second torture room, they had to fight an armored minotaur with four arm-chainsaws in the first torture room. At least, with Little Ghost's chainsaw, it wasn't hard to cut off a leg before beheading it. A Boggy also attempted to stop them in the second torture room, throwing countless torture tools at the hunters, but they quickly dealt with it too.

They reached the door, unlocked it, and opened it.

They got quite the surprise.

The following room was entirely filled to the ceiling with water! And strangely, the water wasn't going through the open door, as if there was an invisible wall. It was also plunged in darkness, so they couldn't see much what was awaiting them in there.

Because of the water, the clones of goo had no choice but to return in their recipient.

Apple Bloom had no choice but to take a big breath before they entered the water-filled room and began searching for the exit. However, what they quickly found was the presence of many ghosts of fishes including a lot of piranhas, and a couple of sharks.

Apple Bloom didn't have the time to fight ghosts. So she left the fighting to her friends while she continued to search for the exit door, Little Ghost remaining at her side to protect her. Before long, she found the door in the North wall, near the northeastern corner, but it revealed to be locked. But then, she also discovered the presence of a hole from which the water was coming in the Eastern wall, near the ceiling, and below that hole was a red button.

She pressed it.

Outside of the castle, the water tower's roof then closed, stopping the waterfall from constantly supplying it. However, it didn't have any result at first as it took some time for the water tower to become empty. Apple Bloom was starting to think that she would be forced to turn into a ghost to avoid drowning when, finally, the water level of the room started to diminish as the water went into another hole in the ground. She quickly swam up to recover her breath.

The water gone wasn't a problem for the ghosts of fishes who could still swim, but in the air, but it certainly improved the mobility of the ponies, making the fight much easier, especially to avoid the jaw of the sharps. Soon enough, all the fishes were captured and the key appeared, letting the ponies unlock the door.

Next came a long and narrow room full of swinging axes, reminiscent of Gorros' castle. It was only a matter of timing to pass them, so they weren't much a problem, but the whole thing was made difficult by the poisonous darts sent by the few pony-spider things crawling on the ceiling. So Little Ghost went ahead to cut them with her chainsaw, having nothing to fear from the axes.

Then came a small arena-like room where the ponies had to fight a few abominations made from all kinds of animals. It was as if Big Brains wanted to make new kinds of chimeras, manticores or other hybrid-type animals, or cerberus like the one they fought on the big bridge. As the things were coming out of two entrances in the North side of the arena, in a jumble, there were snakes with feline legs and an extendable tongue, winged rats with a lot of fangs, wolves with chameleon skin, a chimera made from a rhinoceros, a bear, and a dragon, some weird cerberus with the head of a lion, the head of a tiger, and the head of a leopard, and even what seemed to be a disturbing failed attempt at recreating Discord.

Discord was very displeased by this last one.

The snakes and the rats could easily be sucked up and killed by the Poltergusts, but the remaining beasts were more problematic. With their chameleon skin, the wolves could easily hide themselves in the decor and forced the ponies to be constantly on guard. The chimera hit like a train without counting the dragon head/tail that could breath fire, the feline cerberus was very agile and deadly, and the fake Discord...

Well, the ponies almost had pity for the fake Discord. Without chaotic magic, the thing really wasn't a danger as long as the ponies remained careful of its eagle claw and lion paw. Also, the thing was very deformed, the various parts of its body having different proportions.

But with stabbing and cutting, the ponies still managed to kill all the abominations and continued their adventure to reach Big Brain.

They traversed a room where they had to jump fro platform to platform, all of them regularly coming out of lava before sinking back in.

Then came a long and narrow room full of holes in the walls and the ceiling from which came arrows as they traversed it.

Then there was a room where the ceiling slowly moved down, threatening to crush them. In this room, they had to play a deadly game of hide and seek, having to find eight Hiders hided in cupboards, closets, drawers, and pots before it was too late. When the last Hider was found and captured, the key appeared and they just the room a few second before the ceiling suddenly fell to the ground.

But they hadn't much respite. The following room was another long and narrow one with a boulder rolling in it, forcing them to run. And the following one was one where they had to traverse a pit full of spikes by jumping from moving platform to moving platform, some of them appearing and disappearing.

Then came a bigger room, another arena-like one where they had to fight more of those abominations in greater diversity. Some of them however looked more like monsters than modified animals. One was literally just an agglomeration of animals stitched together that just didn't want to die.

It took many minutes of constant electrocution and burning to kill that thing. There were just too many brains, hearts, and whatever else for simple weapons like the sword or the chainsaw to work.

But it was just the biggest example. There were many others that would have been worthy to appear in a horror story. Big Brain really went all out in trying to create new lifeforms, not caring for the final results and how good they looked.

It was a bloody and messy room that the ponies left to enter an even bigger room, yet another arena.

In this arena, however, they ended up fighting ghosts of alicorns which, they knew, should be impossible! There were no records of any alicorns existing before Celestia and Luna. And they were certainly not painting ghosts, Pyrite was still in his prison crystal in Tartarus. Unless there was another ghost with Pyrite's ability?

But something was clearly wrong with these alicorns, especially when the hunters remarked that they were all made of at least three colors without counting the manes and tails. One, for example, had red, blue, and brown fur with blue wings and a red horn. More shocking, there were males among them. Was it possible for male alicorns to exist? They weren't sure. Strangely, some of the alicorns looked more androgynous to the point that it was impossible to say if they were male or female. They also all had eyes that didn't match in color. Some eyes even were multicolored!

Twilight then gasped as she understood.

«They're merged ghosts! Big Brain used Grogar's powers to merge ghosts of ponies to create alicorns! That's... MONSTROUS! He MUST be stopped!»

«Grogar warned us when he said that Big Brain was using his powers to experiment on souls. I suppose they're the result,» said E. Gadd.

«But do they have the power of an alicorn?» wondered Smart Spirit. «Can Big Brain reproduce it?»

"We'll see soon enough," said Applejack.

Thankfully, the alicorns simply revealed to be winged unicorns slightly more powerful than the average unicorn, both in magical powers and in ghost powers, and physically stronger too thanks to their earth pony part. So they offered more resistance and more challenge than the usual pony ghost, but in the end, they were still captured the same way than the others.

However, it seemed that Big Brain didn't like seeing his masterpieces being so easily defeated because as soon as the first fake alicorn was captured, more ghosts came, all of them seemingly the result of an experiment some more stable than others. There were some very horrible amalgamates among them, and the ponies swore to find a way to separate the poor souls forming them.

The fact that there weren't THAT many ghosts, only a few dozens, made the hunters thankful that Big Brain had gotten Grogar's powers only a few days earlier. They didn't dare to think what would have happened if he had gotten it, like, one year ago.

Big Brain probably would have become the biggest threat, even bigger than Thanatos, with his army of ghost alicorns, deadly created lifeforms, and all the powers he would have absorbed.

When the last ghost was captured, the hunters could continue. Now going South, they passed a door and entered another large room.

A truly horrifying room.

The room had two platforms, one at the entrance, and one at the exit in the opposite side, and both of them had the top of a ladder going down.

However, they couldn't see the bottom of the ladder because the room's lower level was filled with a sea of body parts and other remains of creatures, whatever hadn't be used in the experiments to create all that they fought on the way.

And to reach the exit, the hunters now had no choice but to walk on those remains.

Also, the opposite end of the room was entirely covered in flesh, with quite the number of eye-balls staring at them.

Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her muzzle, the horrible stench of decomposing bodies almost making her throw up.

"There're so many... That monster..." she said in disgust.

"We... We will have to walk on that?" asked Sweetie Belle who wanted to turn around.

"No choice..." said Applejack.

"Lucky me, I can simply roll on the wall. If you want, I can take you with me, Sweetie Belle," proposed Scootaloo.

"Yes! Please!"

"I'm so glad to be a ghost..." said Little Ghost. "I can levitate you to the other side," she then proposed to Apple Bloom and Applejack.

"No need. Save yer energy for the fight against Big Brain," said Apple Bloom.

After a long moment of hesitation during which Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle called back the clones of goo, and very reluctantly, Apple Bloom and Applejack jumped down and landed on the sea of remains before Scootaloo turned into a scooter and let Sweetie Belle climb on her. The pegasus robot then rolled on the wall and quickly reached the exit platform.

Slowly, with hesitant steps, Apple Bloom walked on the body parts, Applejack remaining beside her. After a while, Applejack let her sister climb her and began to walk faster. But then, an alarm suddenly blared in the room as a red light activated, and the sound of something big and metallic slowly moving came from below the sea of remains. The level of the sea of remains lowering, starting by a straight line going from one platform to the other and slowly spreading to the sides, made Applejack understand that it was in hers and Apple Bloom's interest to start to run, but she still had a long way to go. But she continued to run toward the ladder and didn't stop.

When she saw that she wouldn't reach the ladder in time, she then propelled herself with a very powerful air blast and then used streams of air to quickly move forward, Apple Bloom clinging strongly on her back. Still, despite the air, she continued to drop little by little, but still managed to reach the very bottom of the ladder. She then quickly made sure that she had her four hooves filmy on the bars before she looked down.

Far below, the remains were dropping into the purple void beyond two giant metallic doors that constituted the floor of the room before they opened. Once nothing remained, the doors then slowly began to close.

As they closed, Applejack climbed the ladder and joined the others.

After hugs were exchanged between the friends and congratulations were given to Applejack, the hunters then opened the door.

Author's Note

Another cut. Battle against Big Brain in the next chapter.

I watched a video about torture before writing this chapter. It's a French video, but for the ones who are interested: Link. I think it possesses English subtitles so it shouldn't be a problem. Watch out, it isn't for children.

Chapter 23: Big Brain Part 3

Author's Note

For the ones who saw this blog, I was originally planning to use this theme for the battle against Big Brain, but I finally decided to use something else.
You will see.

Chapter 23: Big Brain Part 3

The ponies weren't sure what they expected to find when they entered the laboratory, but they sure weren't prepared for what they found.

The surfaces of the room were entirely covered in flesh, forcing the ponies to walk on it to their displeasure and disgust. Many machinery and tables (all of them bloody) were spread out as well as some cocoons here and there. Every few meters, some kind of luminous organ was present among countless eye-balls and big tentacles, many of them ending in something, scissors, scalpels, claws, more eye-balls, and all kinds of other stuff. About a dozen ghosts of ponies in lab coats were present, all of them facing the entering hunters.

But the centerpiece of the room was a brain four times bigger than the head of a pony hanging from the ceiling by a very long backbone and many, many nerves. The brain itself had some mechanical parts including a telescopic red eye.

Which, right now, stared at the ponies.

Then, one of the tentacles, holding some kind of device with a screen where a flat line could be seen, moved beside the brain. Out of the device came a monotonous voice that sounded charming but was clearly artificial.

"GREETINGS."

The hunters looked warily at the brain and at the various tentacles that had dangerously turned their sharp tools toward them.

"Big Brain?" asked Apple Bloom as she eyed the brain.

"INDEED, I AM BIG BRAIN, THANATOS' HEAD SCIENTIST. AND YOU ARE THE ONES DEFYING HIM IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN."

"Eeyup. And ya're the next in our list," said Apple Bloom.

"I HAD GUESSED THAT, OR YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. IT IS SAD, HOWEVER, THAT WE MUST COME TO THIS. I DO NOT MEAN ANY HARM TO PONYKIND, OR TO ANY SPECIES FOR THAT MATTER."

The hunters raised an eyebrow at this. "It isn't what all the abominations we fought on the way were saying," deadpanned Applejack.

"THEY WERE SIMPLY MY CONTRIBUTION TO THANATOS. AS HIS HEAD SCIENTIST, IT IS MY DUTY TO SUPPLY HIM WITH NEW MEANS TO HAVE 'FUN' AND TO SHOW THAT HE IS THE BOSS OF THIS PLACE. IN RETURN, HE LET ME DO WHATEVER I WANT IN MY RESEARCHES AND SUPPLIES ME WITH WHAT I NEED. MY GOAL IS NOTHING EVIL, I SIMPLY WISH TO UNDERSTAND AND CONTROL DEATH SO THAT NOBODY WILL HAVE TO FEAR IT ANYMORE. THIS INCLUDES DISCOVERING A MEAN TO BRING THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE AND FOR THE LIVINGS TO BECOME IMMORTAL. YES, THIS MEANS THAT SOME LIVES MUST BE SACRIFICED, BUT IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE AND FOR REACHING THIS GOAL, THIS IS NEEDED. WE CAN'T MAKE AN OMELET WITHOUT BREAKING SOME EGGS AS SOME SAY."

Little Ghost shook her head. "Death is a part of life, Big Brain. Stopping Death would destroy the harmony of the world and cause many problems."

"i AM NOT A FOLLOWER OF 'HARMONY'. I ONLY CARE ABOUT ADVANCING. AND THE GREATEST ADVANCEMENT WOULD BE FOR OUR SPECIES TO DEFEAT DEATH. IF IT CAUSES PROBLEMS, THEN I WILL WORK TO FIX THEM. EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION." Before the hunters could answer to this, Big Brain continued. "YOU CAN STOP TRYING TO 'TALK SOME SENSE' INTO ME, NOTHING YOU SAY WILL CHANGE MY MIND. I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU OR ANY OTHERS THINK. ESPECIALLY SIMPLE MINDED SUCH AS YOU WHO REFUSE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX AND TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS IS SIMPLY THE NEXT STEP TO OUR EVOLUTION. WHO SAID THAT THE CURRENT NATURAL ORDER MUST REMAIN UNCHANGED? WHO SAID THAT IT IS WRONG TO DESTROY DEATH? CELESTIA? SHE IS NOT ABSOLUTE. SHE HAS NO RIGHT TO SAY WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG. THERE IS NOTHING THAT SAYS THAT IT IS WRONG TO DO THIS. IT IS NOT WRITTEN IN THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE. WE CAN LIVE WITHOUT DEATH. AND IF YOU ATTEMPT TO STOP ME FROM MAKING THIS A REALITY, AND I KNOW YOU WILL, THEN I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION. NOT THAT I HAVE A CHOICE WITH THANATOS BREATHING DOWN MY NECK."

For science!
BIG BRAIN

The closest tool-holding tentacles attacked the ponies and Little Ghost and Applejack had to work together to cut them and protect the others who could at best stab, burn, or electrify them. However, they also had to work against the very ground in which they began to sink like the poor zebra back in the dungeon, so the hunters constantly had to move their legs to avoid an horrible fate.

At the same time, the scientists also began attacking, some of them using CS guns while the others used guns that fired normal beams. And to make things worse, the cocoons broke open, unleashing all kinds of abominations encountered until now by the hunters.

The fight barely started and the hunters were already threatened of being overwhelmed, and this time, the Red Mode wouldn't save them because they still couldn't suck up the flesh enemies and the tentacles. Apple Bloom could turn into a ghost, but she wanted to keep it secret in the very probable case that Grogar was observing them.

This forced Little Ghost to unleash her great powers that she consciously conserved since they entered the basement. She sent blasts that destroyed a lot of the tentacles and the minions, leaving her friends to deal with what remained, mainly the ghost scientists. Once the number of tentacles had greatly diminished, she then turned her powers toward the brain, but thanks to the long backbone that could easily bend like a snake, it had no problems avoiding the projectiles sent toward it while it fired in return a red laser from its red eye that Little Ghost had to dodge, guessing that it could hurt her. Then, she targeted the base of the backbone, on the ceiling, only for it to reveal that it could move all over it and escape.

The tentacles revealed to be able to do the same thing as some that were too far of the ponies moved closer. Some even entered the flesh of the walls to get out a few seconds later in another place. Those tentacles used this to take the hunters by surprise by appearing right from under them and trap them. This forced the hunters to remain close to help each others in case one was caught by a tentacle.

Then, more cocoons came out of the ground and broke open, unleashing more minions for the ponies to fight. At least, by then, all the ghost scientists had already been captured (or controlled by Sweetie Belle to attack the others), so the ponies had more openings to attack the brain, but it still remained hard to hit as it didn't stop moving.

"YOU KNOW HOW TO FIGHT," said Big Brain.

It was before more tentacles came out of the walls, all holding a weapon.

"BUT I STILL HAVE A LOT IN STOCK. SOONER OR LATER, YOU WILL FALL."

Most of the weapons revealed to be laser guns, firing sweeping lasers, cruciospectro or not. The result reminded the fifteenth floor of Eternal Rest's hotel that was full of those lasers that Apple Bloom and the others had to dodge and walk, crawl, and jump around.

Of course, Little Ghost immediately used her powers to destroy most of them, only for more tentacles to take their place while more cocoons were coming out of the ground (one of them releasing the zebra from the dungeon who now possessed two scythe-like appendages).

And the tentacles that hadn't used their weapon until now began to fire. The weapons were strange coil guns that fired a number of bolts of electricity over an area. The electricity wasn't that strong, but it was really hard to dodge. Another tentacle also came out and threw a pair of dynamite sticks connected to a clock by wires. The ponies quickly ran before the dynamites exploded (killing one of the minions).

Again, Little Ghost sent blasts that destroyed many of the tentacles and their weapons.

"HOW LONG WILL YOU BE ABLE TO CONTINUE?" asked Big Brain as the destroyed tentacles were quickly replaced by others. "I ADMIT, I AM GETTING LOW ON MINIONS, BUT I STILL HAVE HUNDREDS OF WEAPONS HIDDEN UNDER YOUR HOOVES."

One of the tentacles then threw a boomerang with a ruby. However, where a normal boomerang would bounce upon contact and fall on the ground, this one not only hit Apple Bloom on the head despite her attempt to avoid it, already revealing that it was a homing boomerang, but it also went to hit Sweetie Belle and the two clones of goo before returning to the tentacle that threw it. The boomerang thankfully wasn't sharp and only stunned Apple Bloom and did nothing to Sweetie Belle, but it still caused some damage to the clones of goo.

"AS THANATOS' HEAD SCIENTIST, I WAS ALSO TASKED TO DEVELOP ALL KINDS OF WEAPONS AND TO STUDY OTHERS HE GOT HIS CLAWS ON."

Before the tentacle could throw the boomerang again, it was burned by several streams of fire from the hunters. But then, another came and threw some kind of small disco ball. The next instant, music began to play, and the ponies who were too close to it (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetiegoo) and even the minions began dancing against their will.

"What?!" shouted Apple Bloom.

"Hey! I can't stop dancing!" shouted Scootaloo.

"THANKS TO HIS POWERS, THANATOS CAN GO INTO OTHER DIMENSIONS WHICH ARE FULL OF INTERESTING ITEMS AND WEAPONS SUCH AS THIS ONE THAT FORCES ANYONE CLOSE ENOUGH TO IT TO DANCE," said Big Brain as one of the tentacles holding a laser gun targeted Apple Bloom. "MAKING THEM VULNERABLE."

Apple Bloom was barely saved by Applejack lassoing her from out of range of the disco ball.

«What kind of weapon is that?» asked Twilight.

«I don't know, but it's effective,» said E. Gadd.

But then, a winged spiked blue shell was thrown by another tentacle and flew right at Applejack who barely had time to throw her sister away before she was hit, the shell creating a big blue explosion that sent the mare flying.

«Hey! That was a Spiny Shell!» said Mario.

Just at this moment, the disco ball exploded, freeing Scootaloo and Sweetiegoo who got their revenge by firing fire balls at the brain which was, by now, starting to have some visible damage from all the projectiles it took.

Again, Little Ghost sent energy blasts to destroy many of the tentacles, including one that was holding some kind of golden ball with a cross, making it drop and roll away.

But by now, Little Ghost was getting tired. She used a lot of energy since the beginning of this fight.

More tentacles replaced the ones destroyed, including one that possessed some red weapon shaped like a fireball that revealed to be a flame thrower.

"IT IS A MATTER OF TIME. I STILL HAVE A LOT OF ENERGY, BUT SOME OF YOU ARE REACHING THEIR LIMIT," said Big Brain. "DID YOU REALLY EXPECT-"

He was suddenly interrupted by Little Ghost destroying the device he used to talk.

"Shut up."

Without the device, everypony hoped that Big brain couldn't talk anymore, but he revealed that he could still talk from the brain. However, the words that came out were garbled, barely understandable, and gave chill.

"U̴̧̹̼̼͎̣̤͑̃͘ḧ̶͍͍̣̰̗̥̺́͋́͂̍̏̋̓͝ű̷̫͎̹̤̿͆̎̾̚h̵̭̘̳͕̓̉́̐̐̿ụ̶͍̬̘͆̏̏̎͗̉͠ͅh̸̝̮̱̯̎͆̀̉̈́̚u̸̗͍̦̖̤͈̝̳͗͑͜ḣ̶͈̺̮̦͔̖̙̽̂͛̑̀̏ͅ.̸̯̻̳́ ̶̯̏̅̀͐͋̐I̸͙̠̬̞͕̻͙̊̎ ̵̛͕̝̤̦͗́͑̂́͆́ͅḑ̷̡̨̻̼̱͔̳̪̐̓̆͆̀́͠o̸̢̧̡̧̜͖̟͛̂͜͝n̶̛̥͉̼͖̎͝'̶̛̳̭̊́̉͋̍͌̆̽ţ̸̪̠̰̟͓̰͍̏̍͜͝ ̷̺̘̜̰̝͍̜̂͜ͅt̸͔̟͍̦̞̿̈́̏̈́̆̉͑̈́̓h̸̨̛̲͈̐̊̿̄͐̿̚͝į̸̥̦͈̅n̵̙̙̯̑͊̃̄̈́̎̂k̶̜̱͎̼͂̄͜͜ ̸̡̖̤̇̅̾̐š̶̼̩̯̮̌̿o̶̧͔̔̈́̔."

A tentacle then came out of the flesh and placed some round, pyramidal device with a hole on the front of the brain.

"L̵̨̡̹̭͉̳͎̳̑̃̽̃͆͛̋̚͜ĕ̷̼͈͈͍̚t̴̡̲̫̻͐̈́̔́̚ ̴̢̛̑́m̷͙̝̭͌̏̒͊ȇ̴̹̤̥̪̮̯̹̦̘̇ ̴͙̋͗p̴̱͙̞͍̭̯̈́̆ŗ̷̼͇̈̌̀́ẹ̸̛̗͓̪̗̞̳̐̀̀s̸͕̲̻̦̗̰͛̊͑̀͛̄̾̚̕ͅe̸̖̞̺̦̣͑̅͂́̌͗̚n̸̖̱͕̼͖͉̆́̀̀̓ṱ̶̠͈̺̯̜̇̆̀̃̎͂͠ ̸̗̭͚͠͝t̶̘̪̖̓͊o̶̢̡̤͙̻̿̑͌ ̷̛̗̠͖̆́̿̓̊̂̕y̵̨̧̮͙͙̬̟͌̃̂̐̑̐̏̕ȏ̶̹͚͍̦͇̒̋̔̒̓̀͠ú̶̻͎͈̈̾̓ ̵̢̪̱̳͈̹̿ḿ̷̡̮̼̫̙̣̪͖̈́͗͗̀̋y̸̲̺͐̊̿͋̏̑̐ ̸̭͓̥̝̯͚̈́̀͋̚g̵̼̥̲̜̿̀̎r̸͇̋̔͋̕e̷̜̰̝̻͌a̴̻͚̯͆̃̒̈́̓͘͠ͅt̸̡̧͍̩̲̪̹͕̘̾̅̃͝é̵̟͚̞̦̬̳̺̘͊͘ş̵͕̮̇̐̿̊̓̆̄͠t̶̠̟̹͙̘̝͛̾͒̌̇̕ ̴̮̗̺̰̰̞̞̣̣̈́͛̄͒͆̂͌͗̇i̸̼̪̥͔̻͛̈́͛͜ņ̶͎͖͈̯͎̃̽̐̾̾̽̋͌ͅv̸̛̦̟̰̖͖̰̼̓̉͂̐̏̂͒̕ḙ̸̦̄͒͐͋͑̉̏̾n̸̡͉̹̫͎̐̂̊͑̈͘ͅt̴̟̰͂̂ͅǐ̵̡̢̛̘̣͓͎͍̜̇̐͗̈́̿͌̕ò̸͎͇̞̙̩͈̈̓̐̈́́̓͐̑͜n̴̖̤̮̈̒̽́̉̆͝.̶͉́͛̈͌̋̀̕͘͠"

Then, as the brain faced Little Ghost, the device began to emit light from the hole.

"I̶̡̥̗̣̹͙̙̓ ̸̮͋͌͐g̴̛̤̤̥͔̹̙̃͂̀̔̏͝ȁ̴̝̫͙̭̈́͑͜ͅv̴̨̠̱̋͛̏̔̀̾̇͘̕ë̶͙̼͈͇̳̭̻ ̴͎̦̫̦̘̓̅̌͜͝ȋ̸͈̟̙̞̞̫͖͇̿͒̇̈́ţ̶̜̪͕̮̝͚̐̓̈̉͐ ̶̠̫̼̲̠̑̈́̑t̸͈͊̈́̋͆͆̏̃̕͠h̷̡̭̤͈͍͋̿̆͋͝ḛ̴̲̫͚͈͆̀͌͋͋͊́̓͝ ̸̩͉͗͌̚͜s̷̡̢͎̩̳̼͚͒̂͊́́͋i̸̻͍̒ͅḿ̶̹̫̾p̵͙̱̆̃̊̈́͗̕͝l̶̨͓̘̼̹̻̘̖̼͂̚ë̵̡̖͇̖̹͇̖͜ ̶̘̱͌̆̊̆͛̄̇͘͠n̶̨͕̭̗͕̱̒̆̏͑͐̉̿̾ͅâ̷̧͎̱͖̼̫̞̙̥̈́̀͋̀̀̇̕m̵̡̨͚͚̹̗̳̝̝͘e̸̮͉̓͛ ̴̨̞͍̪̬̱̤̘̔͛͌̌̇͌̚͝ǫ̷̧͚͇̈̍́̑͒̕f̵̦̥͎̺̙͉̥̌͑̓͒͌̚ͅ ̷͈͙̗̖̫͎̀̎̄̍̾A̶̯̳̪͆͂̎̀̓̕ͅb̶͓̐́͝s̴̼̰̟̿͋̒̑̆͠͠ǫ̶̣̺͈̫͋͛̕r̷̡͚̽̇̑̅̍͜b̵̡͔͇̻͖̬́́̀͋̒͒͑̚͠e̴̠̱͔̐̍̎́̆̏͛͆ͅr̸̢̡̘̟͙̦̲̓̃̾̀͜.̶̨̭̪̥̦̞̤̺̑̎͊͑̀̔͛̏͝ ̶̼̙̪̮̦̩̓͑̋͠Y̷̡̛̛͙̯̺̤͌̈́͊̐̂̚o̴̡͎͓̗̘͕͑̏͋̎̐̕ū̸̡̡̨̧̲̲͈̱̰͋̒̍͂̈́̑͊ ̴̥̥̔͂͗̇̃̕w̵̛͚͓̗̪͉͓̏̐̄͛͊̈́̄i̶͕̣̓̃͑̆͝ľ̷̥̞͇̒̎͂͊̍͘͜͠ļ̸̺͓̗̼͕͙͇̊̊̆̀͐̏͘͝͝ͅ ̷̳̎̋̂̊̈́̔q̴̢̩͕͍̖͆̑́ư̵̢̧͖̱̣̬̬̩̔͂́̓͒ì̸̡̱̺̫̣͓̣͇͛̈́̾͗̾͠ĉ̸̠͇̪ͅḱ̵̗̻̙͖̖̺̈́͊̐l̶̜̟̹͈͘ͅy̸̢̧͓̫͓̟͔̣̋͒̓̀͑̈́̐͜͝ ̵̢̲͈̦̦̱̩̏̂ͅu̸̟͎̰͛̽̉n̸̢͙̥̳̤͕̤̊̕ḋ̴̰e̵̢̨͐́͝r̴͎̙̰̠͍̝̼͆̀̂͊̋̾̀s̷̺̐̂̆͊̍̈́̐̃͝t̸̘̐̄ḁ̵̡̖̝͈͍̘͇̈́͜ǹ̶̹͓̜̱͎͉̋̑͘̚̕͝d̸̡̧͖͈̺̤̬̼̄́͋ ̴̼̰̞̲̲̜̊̕w̵͓̗̰͈̟̮͈͒h̴̟͐́͜y̴̨̛̟̦̥̙̜͆́̄́.̸̩̣̟̮̬̒̎̈͂̌̇͝"

But just before he could demonstrate his device, Grogar came out of the ceiling and snatched the device before flying away.

"W̷̮͋̋h̸̢̥͙͇̠͓̙̯̼͑̐̒̀̒̀̆̔̎a̸̠͇͚̯̿t̵͓̜̿?̴̛͙̘͇̪͎͍̟̺̎̄͂̔̚!̸̛̟̪̀̀͂͊͗͋̈́" shouted Big Brain.

Once he judged he was far enough, Grogar faced the brain and smirked.

"Took your time, but I finally got it. Now, you won't be able to get more power."

"Y̶̢̝͓̖̿̑͝o̶͚̠̝͈͈̞̝̾̽ṳ̸̮̘̘̣̿͗͛̓̈́͊̂͝.̵̩̯̬̤̳̤̽̏̆͑͘.̶̯̀́̒̾̄̕.̷̖̹̩̱̼̽̐̃͆̕͜͜!̶̜̔͗̔̑̆"

While Big Brain was busy, Apple Bloom approached the golden ball with the cross that had been dropped earlier and took it, wondering how it worked and what it did. By now, the totality of Big Brain's eye-balls in the room were destroyed, so he didn't see her as the brain had its back turned toward her.

Having a hunch, she took the cross and successfully pulled it off, and the golden ball began to emit a ssssss.

Understanding what it was, she quickly threw the ball at the brain. A "HAAALLELUJAH!" suddenly came out of nowhere, getting Big Brain's attention.

But it was too late.

The ball, or rather, the bomb exploded, taking with it the brain and a good chunk of the room.

And all the tentacles stopped moving.

Everypony jumped in joy, but the fight wasn't over yet. The brain was destroyed, but Big Brain himself was still there. He just lost his envelope.

The cloud caused by the explosion cleared, revealing a white earth pony stallion with a messy black mane and round glasses.

A very enraged earth pony who began to send bolts of electricity in all directions, causing havoc all over the room. Despite the electricity, the ponies attacked by firing Poltergun beams, Big Brain now being vulnerable. Still, the stallion resisted the pain and retaliated with shockwaves and thrown objects.

Behind his back, Grogar traversed the ground and came back with another disco ball. The ponies saw this and moved away of the doctor before Grogar threw the ball. A different music played, but the result was the same. Big Brain began to dance, leaving him open without being able to do anything in return excepted curse.

Once Grogar judged that Big Brain was weakened enough, and before the disco ball stopped, he placed the Absorber on his chest and activated it (it had a mental activation). Like before, a light emitted from the hole of the device, and out of it came a beam of light that hit the scientist. Big Brain could do nothing but watch as his powers were stolen and absorbed by the ram.

Then, the disco ball exploded, and the ponies could finally approach to finish the job. Knowing that he had no chance, Big Brain attempted to escape, but he was stopped by Grogar who used his recovered necromancy power to force him to not move.

And so, he was easily captured by Apple Bloom.

And a golden key with a draconequus skull appeared.

But before the ponies could grab it, Grogar turned the Absorber toward Little Ghost and activated it again. Before it could fire the beam of light, Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost.

"Wha-"

Apple Bloom suddenly teleported just in front of Grogar, punched him on the muzzle with all the energy she could gather around her hoof, and at the same time, snatched the Absorber as Grogar was sent flying.

As the ram recovered from the punch and stared at Apple Bloom in rage, the other hunters fired at him. Grogar however resisted the pain and attacked Apple Bloom with powerful projectiles of energy that the filly countered in the same way, resulting in the projectiles exploding on each others.

When the smoke cleared, he was surprised to see Apple Bloom charging at him, and before he could act, the filly activated her Poltergust.

In Red Mode.

Grogar still was able to resist and used his powers to attempt to free himself, failing. In the end, Apple Bloom had to stop as her Poltergust was about to overheat, and she also had to return to normal. But as Grogar had been busy with Apple Bloom, the others had taken the occasion to approach and take over.

But Grogar then got the good idea of escaping by moving through the floor.

It was so simple and effective that it was surprising that no ghost did the same thing before.

Grogar came out at the opposite side of the room and gathered a lot of energy into a big ball that he sent at the group of hunters. They ran away in an attempt to escape, but the ball exploded upon contact with the ground and they were all caught in the explosion which sent them flying and crashing against the wall.

At least, the walls being made of flesh cushioned them, even if it was still disgusting.

The ponies quickly recovered and restarted firing Poltergun beams at the ram who materialized a shield to defend himself. Seeing this, Scootaloo turned into a scooter and quickly rolled to approach Grogar, getting his attention on her as he attempted to stop her from approaching.

The others used this occasion to disperse in the room to avoid being all hit again if Grogar decided to use another giant explosive ball, and also to ensure that, if Grogar flew away again, then there would always be somepony close enough to attack him directly within a few seconds.

As Scootaloo got close, Grogar attempted to keep the distance, but she really was too fast. She eventually close enough to turn back to normal and activate her Poltergust, but she was rapidly stopped by a shockwave sending her flying.

Grogar then flew to an end of the room and used his power to create a powerful tornado that he sent to sweep the room, the tornado attracting what remained of the machines and tables and sending them flying in all directions. At least, the ponies ran far enough in the sides of the room to avoid the same fate, but they still had to avoid the objects sent flying by the tornado.

All the while, Apple Bloom kept an eye on the countdown before she could become a ghost again.

By the time she could transform again, not much had changed as Grogar continued to attack and the ponies continued to dodge as best as they could while attempting to weaken him. With Little Ghost still tired from the battle against Big Brain and the others starting to feel drained, the timing really was perfect.

As a ghost, Apple Bloom unleashed her full power on Grogar and forced him to keep all his attention on her, giving the others the occasion to approach him and attempt to suck him up. But again, Grogar escaped by the floor.

But when he came out, he got the bad surprise of seeing the Absorber placed on Apple bloom's chest, under the Spectral Transmograftizer, activated and ready to fire the beam of light.

Before he could do anything, he was caught again in the vortex of Little Ghost's Poltergust.

And so, he could do nothing to avoid being hit by the Absorber's beam of light.

And his powers were absorbed by Apple Bloom.

Powerless again, Grogar was then captured by Little Ghost.

Finally, it was over, and the hunters used the calm to recover and celebrate their victory over Big Brain and Grogar.

And Apple Bloom decided to keep the Absorber thinking that it will be very useful against Thanatos.

Chapter 24: Bad Organ

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 25: Clover the Clever

There wasn't already much left to explore in this part of the third floor. Without counting the throne room, only two doors remained, and once they saw that the key was unlocking the one leading to the base of the big tower and that the map was updated to add the new circular room, the hunters understood that the other door (near Eternal Rest's apartments) was probably leading to the third floor's janitor's closet. A quick verification revealed it to be true, and of no importance (excepted for the presence of a Hugger).

The entrance of the tower didn't have much excepted a chest of drawers, a mirror, a coat hanger with a couple of cloaks, and many candles. After dealing with the many Shadows that guarded the place, the hunters climbed the curved staircase leading to the room above which possessed a small round table below a chandelier with a chair at the center. One side of the room simply had a closet and some empty shelves while the other side was a small kitchen, with an oven, cupboards, and all.

A Goost appeared and fell right on the table, destroying it, and several Tail Spears surrounded him, but the fight was rapidly over. Applejack went after the big ghost while the fillies dealt with the smaller ones. And it wasn't the two Super Throwers that came just after that made it harder.

Next room just above, a bedroom. Surprisingly, however, no enemy came, leaving the hunters to continue to the last floor of the tower, a room with a desk and chair, some bookshelves, and some kind of magic circle at the center below a chandelier. Still no enemy, but an opening North led to a balcony with a telescope, where the ghost of an old light brown unicorn stallion with a darker brown mane was sitting against the guardrail. As the hunters approached, the stallion then rose his head to look at them.

Twilight gasped. «That's him... Clover the Clever...» she said in awe as Clover rose in the air.

"The last of the Founders, finally," said Applejack.

«I heard that he was skilled in magic, but I'm sure that it will be nothing for you by now. Ohohohohoh!» said E. Gadd.

While he talked, Clover began to use his magic to fire several beams, and he materialized a mirror that he used to randomly deflect some of them. When the hunters fired projectiles in return, he then materialized a shield around himself, stopping all of them. Little Ghost easily broke it with a powerful enough energy ball.

Clover immediately teleported into the room, and the next instant, the chandelier dropped right on the magic circle. He then bent the branches until they were all straight before he began to make it spin faster and faster, the candles letting out streams of fire. The hunters had no choice but to move to the balcony to avoid this attack, excepted Scootaloo who rolled on the walls and Little Ghost who flew.

The filly ghost thus had the occasion to attack Clover, which she took, approaching him and activating her Poltergust. Before she could weaken Clover too much, however, she was suddenly hit by one of the branches of the chandelier. But then, the stallion was hit on the head by Scootaloo dropping on him, and she quickly took her pony-form before she activated her Poltergust and took over from her friend. But like before, it wasn't long before she was hit by one of the branches of the chandelier. Clover manipulated these things very well, even while struggling to escape from the vacuum cleaners!

All the while, the other hunters had attacked from the balcony with elemental projectiles, and since Clover had been busy with Little Ghost and Scootaloo, he didn't protect himself from them and was hit several times, but he resisted. Once he escaped Little Ghost and Scootaloo, he then took a book among the many ones in the shelves and teleported back to the balcony. There, he grew the book in size and began to attempt to crush Apple Bloom between the now giant book's pages. But the book was quickly destroyed with fire.

This left him open to the others who took the occasion to all catch him at the same time. Too far of the chandelier to use it to escape, he however sent a beam of magic at the balcony, and the next instant, it was bending downward until everypony except Little Ghost began to slide. This forced Apple Bloom to turn into a ghost to levitate the others back into the tower, leaving Little Ghost alone to deal with the mage. With only one filly left, it wasn't hard for Clover to find a way to escape: he levitated two bookshelves from the inside of the tower and crushed her between them. Because Little Ghost was a ghost, it wasn't as effective on her as it would have been on somepony who still possessed a physical body, but it was still enough to stop her from sucking him up.

While Little Ghost recovered from this, Apple Bloom, still a ghost, took over and materialized dozens of balls of spiritual energy all around the stallion who had to choice but to teleport to escape from the coming onslaught. However, when he reappeared, the filly immediately attacked him again with a second round, and this time, the balls hit him before he could react. With only a few seconds remaining before she had to return to normal, and since the balcony was still bent downward, Apple Bloom then flew back into the tower while continuously firing a storm of projectiles at Clover before he could even recover from the previous attack.

While Apple Bloom was forced to return to normal, forcing herself to remain in the tower since the balcony was still bent, Little Ghost had recovered from being crushed by the bookshelves. Once her friend's onslaught had stopped, she then moved so that when she fired a blast of energy at Clover, the stallion was sent flying into the tower so the others could attempt to catch him together.

But Clover began to make the chandelier spin again, only for Applejack to buck it and send it crashing into the ceiling (the chain holding it making it move up) before it could start to spew fire. However, as a result, the chandelier began to move like a pendulum, forcing the ponies to be careful as they now had to deal with the many books from the bookshelves that Clover was now throwing at them. When the bookshelves were empty of books, Clover then made several wooden spears from their wood and attempted to pierce the hunters with them.

When it didn't work too, and Clover was now terribly weakened, his horn then glowed brighter, and the next instant, the walls on stone of the room were destroyed. In consequence, the ceiling dropped on the hunters. Little Ghost barely had time to send Apple Bloom toward the stairs where she fell down before it crashed on them. Thankfully, the damage didn't go beyond the last floor of the tower beside some parts of the floor collapsing into the bedroom.

Nothing on Apple Bloom, luckily. However, seeing that she managed to escape, Clover followed her and attempted to repeat what he did. So Apple Bloom fired a Poltergun beam at him to make him stop, and she activated her Poltergust in Red Mode, finally managing to capture him.

Rather than taking directly the key that appeared beside her, she looked up at one of the holes in the ceiling caused by the collapse, blocked by debris. She wasn't really worried for the others -they were already dead, after all- but she wondered how they'll be able to join her. Little Ghost could traverse the floor (and Applegoo had returned in her container), but not the others which, she was sure, still had their physical bodies. But then, the debris were levitated away, and a few seconds later, the others all dropped through a hole.

"Ya alright, Bloom?" then asked Applejack.

"Eeyup. Only a few bumps from falling down the stairs," answered the filly.

"Let me help about this," said Sweetie Belle before she healed her friend with her singing.

"So, you got Clover?" asked Scootaloo,

"Within a few seconds after he followed me down there."

"Sorry I couldn't join you, I was freeing the others," said Little Ghost.

"That's okay. He's very weakened, it wasn't hard."

«Well, that's it, the last of the Founders is captured. Good job everypony. Now that they're free, they will be able to rest in peace if they decide to,» said Twilight.

«Not before they defeat Thanatos,» reminded Spike.

«Which is soon enough. Not much of the castle is left,» said E. Gadd. «But before, there's that last guardian.»

As she listened, Apple Bloom grabbed the key that appeared. "Only what's up the staircase beside the Great Hall is left to explore." She then got an expression of determination. "It's almost over..."

They all nodded.

Then, they exited the tower (the clones of goo getting out of their containers before) and returned in the Great Hall. In there, the giant skeletal claw returned, but this time, it wasn't alone as there was a second claw. And so, not only they used the same attacks than previously, but they also acted together to do a few more, like attempting to crush the hunters between them the same way you attempt to crush a fly. There was also that attack where the two claws placed themselves side by side and linked each other with rope-like bolts of purple electricity before they moved in tandem, attempting to hit somepony with the electricity.

But again, it only took some Poltergun beams to force one to retreat, and the second rapidly followed, letting the ponies enter the staircase beside the Great Hall. They climbed them until they were back in the third floor, in the last section still unexplored.

Not minding the locked door leading to the back of the throne room, they used the key they obtained from Clover to unlock the other door in the West wall.

They entered a large, very well decorated hallway, but not that long with not a lot of choice. A narrow space beside the staircase led to what was certainly another closet for janitors, and there were only two other doors, one North in the middle of the hallway and the other at the end. Surprisingly, however, the hallway was empty of enemies. Finally a moment of calm!

They had to find out which door was the one already unlocked, which revealed to be the one at the end. It led to a chamber that looked a lot like Clean Order's room back in the Gem Manor, but creepier and with furniture of much better quality (and without all the burn marks and the ashes). There was also a door South.

A Boggy and some Slitherers appeared, the Boggy using the objects in the room to attack and defend itself. Despite this, it was quickly captured, but its capture was followed by a couple dozens of Shadows, so while some of the hunters dealt with what remained of the Slitherers, the others destroyed the new arrivals. Five wraiths then appeared near the end but didn't last long.

No key appeared however, but they didn't need one as the South door revealed to be already unlocked.

It led to a bathroom that also served as a restroom, with the bathtub filled. There again, wraiths came but were rapidly captured before what looked like a Wisp but purple colored appeared. The next instant, the purple Wisp (?) surrounded itself in the water of the bathtub, creating a golem of water that began to use water tentacles to attempt to drown Apple Bloom. But the hunters used electricity to electrify the golem, and so, the purple Wisp inside it. Ice was also used to freeze the tentacles and break them, reducing by the same occasion the size of the golem.

Eventually, they just froze the whole golem and destroyed it, forcing the purple Wisp out. It was then easily captured, making the key appear.

Back in the hallway, they used it to unlock the North door and enter a dinning room, with a very long table and some furniture full of plates and cutlery. One of the chairs, at one of the extremities of the table, was more shaped like the throne in the throne room, so it was certainly Thanatos' personal dinning room.

Only the ghost of a butler was present, a purple unicorn stallion with a black mane who possessed a much better-looking uniform than all the other butlers encountered until now. Probably the one that lived in the other room, the... head-butler?

"I'm glad to finally encounter you," started the butler. "I would have preferred to welcome you the moment you entered the castle, but my Lord told me to wait for you to reach this place. I am Flawless Tool, the housekeeper of this castle and Lord Thanatos' personal butler. You see, when we have guests in the castle, it is my duty to... take care of them." He then disappeared, but his voice continued to be heard, resonating all over the room. "So, please, let me do my job. It will be over quickly."

"Yeah, no thanks," said Apple Bloom before she used the Poltergust's visor and rapidly spotted the ghost attempting to approach her from behind.

In answer, despite the shock of being discovered, Flawless Tool threw a knife and quickly flew away. He couldn't escape from the visors however, so the hunters chased him. To stop them, Flawless Tool made the plates and cutlery fly everywhere in the room, distracting them so he could attempt to sneak again. But it wasn't enough and he was caught by Scootaloo while the others sucked up the flying objects. So the butler sent instead a chair to hit the filly robot and free himself. But Sweetie Belle took over her friend, and she was rapidly joined by Applegoo and Applejack, leaving no chance for Flawless Tool to escape.

He was soon enough captured, making the key appear.

"Again, our equipment made this fight too easy," said Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom chuckled. "We won't say the same thing once we'll fight the fourth guardian directly followed by Thanatos."

At this, they took the key and returned to the staircase that they climbed again until reaching the fourth floor. The last floor of the castle without counting the roof and the towers.

The key unlocked the door at the top of the stairs, letting them pass it.

And it closed behind them.

Chapter 26: Ω

Thanatos was very excited as he watched the hunters enter his apartments. He then took the last golden piece, a pony skull, and placed it.

"My greatest creation... Powerful, but totally loyal to me, unlike another creation which I won't name. Deadly, but magnificent. He was made to be the End.

He is the result of centuries of perfecting my powers. I'm even proud enough of him to consider him my son! And he already started to play with you, that little rascal!

Now, be ready to face... the Ω!"

Door closing and locking itself behind them? Yup, they were near the last guardian!

But it will still take some time before they could fight whatever it will be. The part of the fourth floor they were in only had one hallway traversing it South to North before turning West at the end, and from what they could see thanks to the visors despite the near total darkness of the place, there was a total of seven doors.

Suddenly, five of those skeletal claws came out of portals in the hallway and faced the hunters. One of them signed them to approach while another did a rude gesture and a cackle came out of the portals before they each passed through a door (the portals following them so they could move). The only doors where none of the claws went through were the last one in the right and the last one in the left.

Understanding what they had to do, the hunters entered the closest room: the first one in the right. It led to a more private dinning room worthy of a king with a small table and only one chair below a chandelier, along with a clock beside a window, a picture of an army of skeletons playing trumpets, and a portrait of Thanatos. There was also a door in the East side, near the Northeastern corner.

Then, the claw which was present in the room pointed a finger at the picture with the skeletons, and said skeletons came out of it and began to attack the hunters with music notes fired from their trumpets!

That thing could give life to pictures, like Pyrite!

Thankfully, the skeletons were easy to destroy. The main difficulty was that the claw was attacking them at the same time, notably by throwing the table around without even breaking it. So, even if they destroyed some of the skeletons, the hunters mainly targeted the claw to make it stop. Once the claw retreated through the East door, they then finished the skeletons, ending the fight in this room.

The hunters then passed the East door and entered a balcony where they had a more basic fight against the claw, like in the third floor. The claw attacked them with different attacks they were starting to get used to, and the hunters countered with the Poltergun beams until it disappeared into its portal.

The hunters then went to the next room, the first one in the left of the hallway, the living room, with a very comfy couch in front of a fireplace with a giant portrait of Thanatos on it. A small round table with a tea set was at the left of the couch, and there was a bookshelf full of books against the South wall. Some potted dead plants in the corners and a few stuffed heads of ponies hanging from the walls finished to decorate the room.

And the claw in the room used its powers to give life to the books, to the couch, to the pony heads, and to the fire in the fireplace!

"That's Eternal Rest all over again!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Excepted that Eternal Rest never animated fire," said Apple Bloom before she fired water at the animated fire.

AJ dealt with the couch, and the clones of goo burned the books, leaving only the pony heads which were disturbingly floating around trying to headbutt the hunters. Little Ghost made short work of them, and the claw decided that it was time to retreat.

"How will we be able to capture that thing if it continues to disappear into these portals?" wondered Scootaloo.

"If we continue to push his claws back, he'll be forced to show himself," said Apple Bloom.

"But he may not be the only danger. I don't know if you remarked, but I think that we're in Thanatos' apartments," said Little Ghost with a small movement of her head toward Thanatos' portrait on the fireplace. "Who knows what he has hidden there."

Apple Bloom shivered at this.

They exited the living room and passed the next door, the second one in the left side of the hallway. They entered a room with four wardrobes and some shelves full of shoes, hats, and even some wigs. Between two of the wardrobes was a body-sized mirror on the wall, and there was even a mannequin of Thanatos in the center of the room.

Mannequin that was given life by the claw in the room. But the claw did more than that, he also animated the wardrobes and even the clothes to make them look as if they were worn by someone invisible.

The hunters remarked that some of the clothes were made of fur, and none of them wanted to know from where that fur had come from.

At least, the clothes, like the books in the previous room, were easy to destroy. A lot of fire was involved while Applejack and Little Ghost destroyed the wardrobes with, respectively, mighty bucks and powerful blasts of energy.

They discovered at this that one of the wardrobes was actually the entrance to another room.

The claw entered said room, leaving the hunters to deal with what remained, which didn't take long. They then followed the claw to the other room, which revealed to be some kind of treasure room full of, not gold or jewels, but artefacts. Amulets, staffs, weapons of all kinds, shields, robes, masks, and so on.

The claw then animated the masks before it used its powers to take the staffs, weapons, shields, and amulets. It then disappeared with them in its portal.

"Darn. He will power himself up with all these artefacts," said Sweetie Belle.

Then, one of the masks flashed, and the next instant, the ponies dropped on the ceiling and walked upside down on it.

«Oh my Celestia! The Gravity Mask!» shouted Twilight. «Wait, I recognize all these masks. I saw all of them in books. Be careful of the red one. If it places itself on your face, your body will explode the next few seconds. It was a trap mask.»

"There's one who just disappeared," said Applejack.

«The Invisibility Mask. Use your visor to spot this one. Beside the invisibility, it doesn't have any other power, but it still could be a nuisance. As for the last mask... Well, avoid to have it placed on your face too. It turns whoever wears it into an enraged beast. Saddle Rager full berserker.»

«Ouch...» said Spike at this.

«I don't think it will work on a robotic body, so Applejack and Scootaloo should be safe from it. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, however...»

"Thanks Twilight. So, me and Scootaloo'll deal with that last mask," said Applejack before she walked with Scootaloo toward their target which was already approaching them with the red mask.

"Applegoo and Sweetiegoo should go after the red mask. Even if they explode, they will come back," said Sweetie Belle.

"The problem is that they do whatever they want and don't always listen," said Apple Bloom.

But she didn't have to worry in the end. Applegoo and Sweetiegoo followed Applejack and Scootaloo to deal with the red mask and the berserker mask.

"Well, that's good. Little Ghost, ya'd deal with the Gravity mask. Ya won't be affected if it changes gravity again," instructed Apple Bloom.

"Yes ma'am!" replied the filly ghost.

"This leaves the Invisibility Mask to us, Apple Bloom," said Sweetie Belle before she started to look around with her visor. "Here it is!"

"Ah see it too! Let's go deal with it," said Apple Bloom.

The masks were hard to hit, but they weren't too hard to destroy thankfully. The Gravity Mask was the first to be destroyed thanks to a simple energy ball from Little Ghost, returning the gravity to normal. The Berserker Mask then went after Apple Bloom while Applejack and Scootaloo recovered from the fall that resulted, but the filly saw it coming and used the handle of her Poltergust like a bat to hit it and send it flying away, making it crash into a wall. It wasn't enough to destroy it, but Scootaloo finished it by rolling on it in her scooter form. Meanwhile, Applejack barely avoided the red mask and attempted to punch it, only for it to avoid her before trying to get on her face again. But it was then hit by an ice shard fired by Sweetiegoo, giving the mare the opportunity to break it. At the same time, Sweetie Belle caught the Invisibility Mask, placed it on the ground, and smashed it.

"Well, these masks weren't that hard," said Sweetie Belle.

«Of course. Their purpose was to be worn,» said Twilight with some sadness. These masks were priceless, especially the Gravity Mask.

"But now, the guardian has all these artefacts. Have you recognized some of them, Twilight?" asked Little Ghost.

«I recognized the Dark Sword. It was a sword made by Sombra, full of dark magic. There was also the Sea Lord Trident, but it won't be of much help here. Whoever possesses the trident has total control over the oceans, but there are no oceans in the Spiritual World. The Shield of White Sun, a shield that can absorb magic and other projectiles of energy and fire back the accumulated energy into a powerful attack. The Fireshield Amulet which augments the bearer's protection against fire. The Windcutter, a sword that can cut even the air. The Dragon Slayer, another sword that can cut though the scales of a dragon as if they were butter. The-»

Having seen the number of artefacts the claw took, the hunters had the feeling that this would continue many minutes, so they decided to go to the next room while Twilight talked.

It was much further down in the hallway, the second door in the right side. It led to a big bathroom with a huge bathtub that was filled with water. Water that the claw in the room animated before flying through the South wall where there was another door.

And while the hunters froze and destroyed the golem of water, Twilight continued to list the artefacts she recognized.

«The Eternal Shield, which is said to be totally indestructible. The Feather Amulet, which makes you lighter to the point that you can walk on water. The-»

«I think you should stop there Twilight. They can't listen correctly while they fight,» said Rarity.

«But they need to know all the artefacts that thing took!»

«Then tell them while they don't fight,» said Rainbow Dash.

«Mmh... I suppose it will be better. Alright. They shouldn't take long to destroy that water golem anyway. Aaand they're done.»

Applejack bucked the frozen golem, destroying it. Then, before Twilight could restart to list the artefacts, the hunters passed the South door. And she didn't start in the next room because she was has shocked as everyone else at seeing what was in there: a pool.

A pool of blood.

Thanatos had a pool of blood in his apartments.

"Ugh... This guy's no limit..." said Apple Bloom. Then, she saw the claw pointing a finger at the pool and paled. "Wait... It'll-?"

And yes, it did. The claw fired a bolt of energy at the pool, and the next instant, the blood formed a giant golem.

"That's one golem that I never wanted to encounter..." said Sweetie Belle.

The claw then flew away again, passing through the South wall and leaving the hunters to fight its creation. But even if it was bigger and made of blood instead of water, the golem could still be frozen, so the hunters began to fire ice at it while avoiding the tentacles of bloods and projectiles of blood.

Because of its size, freezing it took time, so the hunters broke the frozen pieces to reduce its size and make it easier. They also made sure to throw the pieces through the windows in the East wall to ensure that the golem wouldn't reabsorb them.

Eventually, the golem was destroyed with an energy blast from Little Ghost.

"I thought we had gotten past the bloody stuff after the North Wing and the dungeon!" shouted Scootaloo.

"We'll get past the bloody stuff once we're out of this castle," replied Apple Bloom.

At this, they followed the claw again. They passed the door at the South and entered a sauna. It was very hot in there, and there was so much vapor that the ponies couldn't see beyond their muzzle. Thankfully, they had the infrared visor to see where it was cold so they could see the emplacement of the claw (because it was well known that it was cold around ghosts). But even with this, they could barely see the attacks coming, so some of the hunters sucked up the vapor while the others attacked the claw. Before long, they could see well enough without visor that they could fight and force the claw to retreat into its portal without taking much hits.

This left only one claw.

«Ok, Twilight, you can continue while they move to the last Bony Hand,» said Pinkie Pie.

«Bony Hand?» asked Rainbow Dash.

«Somepony had to name these things. Apple Bloom hadn't done it yet.»

"Ah's waiting to name whatever they belonged to," said Apple Bloom.

«At least you now have a name for these things instead of just calling them 'things' or 'claws'.»

«Anyway, I will do like you said, Pinkie, and restart my list where I stopped it while you go fight the last claw... Uh... Bony Hand,» said Twilight. «So, there was...»

And so, while Twilight continued, and finished, the list of artefacts she saw the Bony Hand take, the hunters returned in the hallway and passed the third door in the left side behind which the last Hand awaited them.

And the room... It was probably the worst room of the castle.

Yes, worst than any other room the hunters explored in this castle until now, even the North Wing and the dungeon.

What if a torture room also served as a game room (like the one beside the Great Hall in the second floor, but worst) and also as an art room? It was this room.

A part of this room was full of objects made from body parts. For example, there was an harp made from bones and skin, the strings were catgut, and the head of a pony decorated the top.

The other part of the room was full of corpses, victims killed in various ways, messages depicting how they died or why Thanatos did this, like "This one didn't escape the water tank in time!" beside a locked water tank with a body inside, or "Made a tournament to see which one lived longer. Without surprise, the pegasus won. Should have cut the wings to make it more fair. The earth pony lost first." beside the hanging corpses of an unicorn, an earth pony, and a pegasus.

Thanatos at his best! Or rather, his worst! He plays with his victims, and then he uses them as material to satisfy his artistic fibre!

For a moment, the ponies almost forgot the Bony Hand in the room.

It animated the corpses and the objects! In the few cases where the animated corpses were trapped (like the one in the water tank), the claw also freed them.

The ponies were used to fighting animated corpses by now, the graveyard had been full of them after all, and they were more than happy to destroy these abominable objects. Some still targeted the Bony Hand first to force it to retreat to make it stop from attacking them.

With the number of objects and corpses in the room, Little Ghost decided to use attacks that could hit wide areas. Sweetie Belle used her singing to boost Applejack's strength so she could create more powerful shockwaves. Thanks to them, the battle was quickly over, turning the room into a bloody mess.

So, once they were done there, the ponies quickly left the room.

They thankfully didn't have to search where to go next. Immediately when they returned in the hallway, a Bony Claw came out of a portal where it turned West and signed the ponies to follow it before it flew away. The ponies immediately followed it down the hallway and saw it pass through a door at the end of it.

And so, they entered the room that was just above the auditorium, which was just as large, but not as tall (only one level, and the ceiling was sloping in the extremities because they were just under the roof). It could have been an attic for the castle, but it revealed to be used for another purpose.

There were stuffed ponies and other creatures a little everywhere, like statues. Beings that were killed by Thanatos and that were left there like trophies. And apparently, Twilight recognized some great historical figures that had mysteriously disappeared.

Then, Apple Bloom saw something and gasped.

In the middle of the ground was Applejack's body! Reconstituted, but still trapped in crystal in the monstrous form it possessed when she had been killed! Like all the other bodies in the room, it was on a pedestal, a very small one because the body was already almost reaching the ceiling, and on it was a plate with written:

"The Element of Honesty, Applejack
Killed by her own sister"

Beside the pedestal was another one, taller, with a plate on which was written:

"The Greatest Ghost Hunter of All Time, Apple Bloom
Lost to one of my games"

Apple Bloom growled. "He dares use Applejack's body as a trophy?"

Applejack also growled. "And he's planning to do the same to ya if ya die."

«Nice of him to at least acknowledge your competence. He doesn't do that often,» said Discord.

"Uh... Don't you forget about something?" asked Little Ghost before she pointed at the Bony Hand floating beside Applejack's body.

Apple Bloom's growl deepened. "If that thing dares..."

The Bony Hand suddenly fires a bolt of energy at Applejack's body, animating it, crystal included.

"It dared. That thing definitively joins mah list of beings Ah hate most with Thanatos, Eternal Rest, and Pyrite," said Apple Bloom. "Ah CAN'T wait to fight him, now. Ah really can't."

While she talked, the Hand animated the other bodies in the room. There was a little of everything. Ponies, zebras, minotaurs, griffons, yaks, the bipedal cats whose ghosts she had fought from time to time, and so on. But Applejack's body, because of its condition, was by far the most dangerous. At least, there wasn't any dragon.

For this one, Apple Bloom decided to turn herself into a ghost. She wanted this to be over quickly. So she blasted Applejack's body with enough power to make it explode, and then, she teleported beside the Bony Hand and cut it with her new necromancy powers, making the thing it belonged to yell in pain before the portal closed. The now disembodied Bony Hand then disappeared before Apple Bloom returned herself to normal.

With the two main threats gone, the other animated bodies were easily defeated.

«Crimini, Apple Bloom! You sure made him regret what he did! I didn't even know it was possible to dismember a ghost,» said E. Gadd.

«It's part of the power of necromancy. Necromancy can shape a soul, so dismembering it... or even killing the soul...» said Discord.

"Wait, what? Ah can kill a ghost, now?" asked Apple Bloom in shock.

«That's really one of the top powers of necromancy. You can turn the soul back into the energy it was born from, thus totally erasing it. But don't worry, it's not something that can be done just by beheading the soul. It's more... complicated.»

"Okay... Ah don't need to know. Ah don't intend to erase anybody from existence, not even Thanatos. Ah've something else in mind for him." Apple Bloom then looked around at the pieces of Applejack's body. "Isn't there something we can do about AJ's body?"

«Not unless you get the pieces out of the castle. The only other way is to get rid of the castle's ward that's interfering with my magic,» answered Discord. «If you capture Thanatos, this should be easy.»

Apple Bloom nodded, and at this, the hunters left the room and returned to the first part of the hallway. Only two doors remained, and after verification, the last one in the left side of the hallway simply led to a restroom, so the ponies opened the last door in the right side and began to climb the spiral staircase that started just behind it.

The last tower of the castle, the tallest one.

They climbed.

And climbed.

Every now and then, they passed a window that showed good views of the castle below. That they managed to explore all of it still was very impressive for them.

Then, they reached the top of the stairs and entered what seemed to be Thanatos' chamber. A super king-sized four-poster bed was present in the West side of the room. The columns and panel on top were made from bone tissue, with a pony skull decorating the front of the panel. Not far in front of the bed was a small table below a chandelier made of bones, and there were tapestries on the walls depicting Thanatos. Finally a door-window leading to a balcony was present in the East side, not far of the stairs. Above it was the skeleton of a pony holding a scythe hanging from the wall like a gargoyle.

A Bony Hand then came out of a portal, now equipped with some of the stolen artefacts (only amulets, around the fingers), and animated the skeleton above the window-door before attacking. Some of the amulets only boosted its already great powers while others added protections, so the claw was much more dangerous than the previous times, but it still was only one Hand against seven hunters. While it was busy sending dozens of projectiles of energy at Apple Bloom, the others, who had already destroyed the skeleton, attacked it from the sides and from behind. Some well-placed shots even managed to destroy one of the amulets.

Then, the Bony Hand stopped attacking before it was enveloped in a purple aura. Its palm then faced upward, and it clenched its fingers. The next instant, the walls and the ceiling were enveloped in the same purple aura before they were levitated and thrown away, freeing space and revealing that the balcony surrounded the round room. Then, five more Bony Hands, all of them equipped with artefacts, came out of portals and surrounded the hunters.

"Try to destroy the artefacts, girls!" shouted Apple Bloom.

«Remember that some of them are indestructible!» said Twilight.

"Watch out the shield that can absorb energy, Little Ghost!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Which one is it?" asked the filly ghost.

«The one with the white sun symbol,» answered Twilight. «Energy attacks don't work on it, but physical attacks still do. As much as it pains me to say this, if you hit it with enough force, you should break it.»

Some of the artefacts, mainly the swords, staffs, and shields, floated beside the Hands so they could still attack normally, and they didn't hesitate to abuse it, attacking both with the artefacts and with beams, lasers, and other projectiles, or with attempts at crushing the hunters or pushing them beyond the edge of the balcony.

Twilight's advices really were indispensable. Knowing which artefact did what helped the hunters from avoiding bad surprises such as that sword that could charge energy to send it in the form of a wave or that shield with a face that could fire a laser from its mouth.

Applejack was able to destroy the Shield of White Sun with a buck boosted by Sweetie Belle's singing, leaving the way open for Little Ghost to do a carnage without too much risks. Thanks to her, the artefacts were destroyed one after another, making the fight easier and easier. The ponies had less difficulties firing at the Hands, but in return, the Hands did some new team attacks like that one where they all smashed the ground repeatedly at the same time, repeatedly creating six shockwaves.

One of the Bony Hands created a big energy ball and sent it at another Hand. The second Hand then punched the ball and sent it toward a third Hand which did the same thing. One after another, the Hands punched and punched the ball, each time making it go faster and faster until one of the Hands finally sent it to crash on the ground in the center of the arena where it created an explosion that caught Sweetie Belle. While the Hands had been busy with the ball, the hunters attacked without remorse and destroyed a few more artefacts.

So, when the Hands finished with the ball, they retreated into their portals, giving a moment of calm for the ponies to recover.

It didn't last long. A huge portal suddenly opened above the castle, and out of it came a giant skeletal purple ghost. The hunters couldn't make out the details because of how fast the ghost was flying as he slithered between the spires and towers of the castle, but they could already see that he was like a giant snake that was so long that he could probably wrap the main wing of the castle with his body. He possessed six very long arms (it looked like the one that Apple Bloom cut regenerated), and a head that didn't seem to be snake-like. Actually, the upper body looked more like the torso of a minotaur.

After it wrapped some of the spires and towers of the castle, the ghost then flew toward the tower the hunters were on and began to climb it from the base while wrapping it. He rapidly reached the balcony and revealed himself to his full glory to the ponies.

Just the torso was almost as big as a dragon, and the arms reminded more of spider legs ending with the claws the hunters were now used to fight. The head was the one of a pony proportionate to the torso, but it had the particularity of having two curved horns more like the ones of a goat, and he only had one big eye! And his mouth was filled with very sharp fangs! And then, two giant bat wings revealed themselves on his back, obscuring part of the sky. Also, all the artefacts that hadn't been destroyed yet were still presents, either floating around him or worn around his fingers or his horns.

Because of his skeletal body, it was hard to say if he was smiling or not, but the ponies could easily guess as the thing cackled before saying "MY NAME IS Ω! REMEMBER THIS AS I DESTROY YOU, BODY AND SOUL!"

He then roared at the sky, and dark purple clouds materialized and began to swirl far above before purple lightning bolts started to rain everywhere on the roof of the castle.

Your End
Ω

Ω looked down at the ponies, cackled again, and began to smash the balcony alternatively with two of his claws, each hit creating a shockwave which forced the ponies to continuously jump as they began to fire at him with everything they had.

One claw began to sweep the area with lasers from its fingers, another fired homing projectiles of energy randomly at the hunters, a third one fired spear-like projectiles at the sky so they rained randomly all over the area, and the last claw directly attempted to slap the ponies. With all this, the ponies also had to be careful of the purple lightning that hit the area every now and then.

The fight already revealed to be the hardest so far. Not only there were more attacks to avoid, but what served as the arena was much smaller than all the previous ones, and they had to watch out to not fall down the stairs or beyond the edge of the balcony. Already, Applegoo had been destroyed once.

Red Mode was a must, but they had a hard time reaching the head (excepted Little Ghost) so they simply continued to attack from a distance. Regularly, Ω changed attacks, using everything he previously used when he had just shown his claws as well as whatever the artefacts could do (the Dark Sword was as dangerous as Twilight told them). At a moment, he lowered himself so his eye was at the level of the balcony and fired a big laser from his eye, moving it back and forth and changing its height so the ponies either had to jump or to duck to avoid it.

More artefacts were destroyed, but this didn't seem to change much as Ω remained very powerful. With a swing of an arm, he created several dark crystals that moved through the arena. Using his fingers like guns, he fired at the sides groups of giant balls of purple fire that changed direction to traverse the arena. And he even created entities from shadows that were, thankfully, easy to destroy.

Then, he caught Little Ghost, and he enveloped the claw holding her in purple electricity. The filly ghost's scream could be heard from everywhere.

Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost and did like in the trophy room; she cut the claw, freeing her friend and making Ω yell in pain. The claw almost immediately regenerated and Ω slapped Apple Bloom with it, sending her crashing into a spire. She however teleported right behind his head and slammed herself into it, making him faceplant on the balcony. She then returned to normal and activated the Red Mode, catching Ω's head, and she was rapidly joined by the others.

But then, as she was about to overheat and to stop sucking up, the tower began to shake.

Ω's tail, still wrapping the tower, squeezed it more and more until it broke it at several places, making the whole tower collapse. Little Ghost quickly acted and levitated everypony while the tower broke into pieces that fell on the roof around, destroying some of it as well as Clover's tower that was just beside it. Because of this, a good part of the fourth floor and a small part of the third floor were now without roof, in ruin.

Little Ghost quickly moved to make everypony land among the ruins, back in the fourth floor, but Ω went after her. So she fired a powerful explosive ball at his face. By the time he recovered from this, the ponies had landed in what remained of Thanatos' bathroom. But they quickly had to deal with Ω grabbing a spire with his tail and using it like a club! Little Ghost had to use a lot of energy to destroy it before it could hit them!

The good part was that it left the tail in range of their Poltergusts in Red Mode, and they gladly took the occasion. They made sure to take turns to avoid that they all overheated at the same time, leaving some of them the possibility to protect the others by attacking the head. It didn't last long however as Ω swept the floor with one of his arms, hitting almost all the hunters and freeing his tail.

When they recovered, the ponies restarted attacking the head, Apple Bloom keeping an eye on the Spectral Transmograftizer's cooldown. As they ran from room to room to avoid Ω's many attacks, the cooldown eventually reached zero, and Apple bloom immediately transformed. As a ghost, she then flew to Ω's face and sent him flying with a giant energy blast. She then took a page from his book and levitated a spire that she used to impale him, making sure to put in some necromancy magic so it REALLY hurt him.

While Ω recovered from this, she then took his tail with her power and brought it back to the others so they could restart capturing him. And before Ω could stop them, she attacked him by cutting one of his arms again. He raised one of his arms to the swirling clouds above and unleashed a huge column of electricity on her. Despite the pain, Apple Bloom resisted and sent some of this electricity at Ω before she sent another huge blast at his face.

She then quickly flew back to the others to return to normal, and she joined them in capturing Ω while he recovered from the blast. He was very weakened by now, but he still recovered and sent purple bolts of electricity from his six claws at them to force them to stop.

Some of them yelled in pain, but despite this, they continued to suck up, taking turns to avoid overheating. After a few seconds, Ω began to charge energy in his eye.

He didn't get to finish. His tail began to disappear inside Applejack's Poltergust, to his shock. He grabbed a nearby spire in an attempt to avoid his fate, to no avail as the spire broke. He still made several more attempts as he moved between towers and spires the more he was sucked up, but they all failed.

"I AM Ω! I AM YOUR END! YOU CAN'T BE MY END! NOOOOO!!!"

His torso entered the Poltergust, then his head, and last came his claws, and he was no more.

The last golden key with draconequus skull appeared beside the hunters.

And the swirling purple clouds disappeared.

Victorious, the hunters smiled at each other, then did a group hug.

"It's almost over! Almost!" shouted Apple Bloom.

Thanatos chuckled as he threw away the piece representing Ω. All the brown pieces that remained also disappeared with a snap.

"Yes, Apple Bloom. It's almost over."

He looked at the last piece, the diamond skeletal one in the throne room, grinning.

"Come. Let's end this game."

Author's Note

Ω was easily final boss material.
Scratch that, all the guardians were final boss material.
And yet...
Thanatos IS the final boss, not them.
Next chapter.

Chapter 27: Thanatos

The hunters were standing in front of the only door of the castle that was still locked: the entrance to the throne room, with its four locks. To reach it, they had to clear some of the debris of the roof that had crumbled in the third floor's hallway during the fight against Ω. On the way, they didn't encounter a single ghost. Either they all flew away, or Thanatos ordered them to leave the hunters come now that they had the four Skull Keys. The hunters were perfectly alright with that, it let them recover from the fight against Ω, they had needed it.

After taking a big breathe, Apple Bloom inserted the four keys one by one, and a few seconds after the last one was in place, the double door opened by itself, letting the hunters enter the throne room, their goal.

And there, sitting on his throne beside a model of the castle, awaiting them, was the Lord of Death, Thanatos.

With a wave of his left claw, he made the model disappear in purple smoke, and he began to talk.

"Well, congratulation, you managed to defeat my guardians, the four most powerful ghosts in this castle beside me. I'm really... impressed, I must say. A few weeks ago, you and your friends struggled against Eternal Rest, and here you are today, capturing ghosts of equal or superior power and making it look easy even if you still struggled a little. You really came prepared to fight me, uh?"

"Eeyup. Ah had to stop ya, and Ah wanted to've all the chances in mah side. Time to end yer stupid games once and for all, Thanatos."

Thanatos chuckled. "Hey. It's not my fault if I'm bored and you're the best source of entertainment since forever. I like the thrill of seeing you fighting my minions to save your friends and your life. And you fighting Ω and the others is a spectacle that I will not forget anytime soon. Thank you for your participation. My castle has taken some hits, and I'm now a little low in powerful minions to send after you, but it was really worth it. Once we're done here, and I have replenished my reserve of minions, I will be happy to call you for a second round. I already can't wait for next time."

"There won't be a 'next time', Thanatos!"

"How cute. You really think you're prepared enough to capture me? Well then, try. But don't be surprised if it ends like last time."

"Last time was different. Ah knew nothing about ya and Ah's alone. But now..."

Thanatos rose from his throne, and the room began to shake. "But now, you still know nothing about the full extend of my powers! Last time, I was merely playing with you! Not this time!"

Lord of Death
Thanatos

"Jump!" yelled Apple Bloom before she jumped, just in time to avoid being impaled by dozens of bones coming out of the ground just under her in a large area. The others (excepted the clones of goo) followed her word and jumped too, avoiding the same fate. The bones simply passed through the clones of goo. Apple Bloom then landed on the bones and began to run on them to approach Thanatos who began to fire dozens of purple fireballs from his claws and the many candles present in the room. Apple Bloom and the others jumped from bone to bone to avoid them while they still approached.

Since she flew, Little Ghost was the first to reach Thanatos, but before she could activate her Poltergust on him, a sudden powerful shockwave of energy from him propelled her back to crash into a wall. He then teleported right beside Apple Bloom and slapped her on the cheek with the back of his claw, also sending her flying, but not as far.

He frowned (it really was surprising how expressive he was despite his head being a skull) when he saw that Apple Bloom still moved. "Mph. I should have known that my brother would do something so you could survive me touching you."

While he talked, he was surrounded by the five remaining hunters who all activated their Poltergusts on him, in Red Mode because this was Thanatos. He still quickly freed himself with an explosion of energy followed by purple electricity spreading all around him, electrifying the five hunters at the same time. A wave of energy then sent all of them crashing into walls and pillars.

The hunters, quickly recovering, then began to fire Poltergun beams at him, but Thanatos quickly teleported, again just beside Apple Bloom, and attempted to grab her, probably to do like Eternal Rest did to Scootaloo. Apple Bloom avoided his claw with a jump and she followed it with an air punch on Thanatos' face, sending him flying.

Sweetie Belle caught him and immediately slammed him before he could free himself.

"That's for killing me! With a boop! A boop!"

Thanatos freed himself and grabbed Sweetie Belle by the neck and used her as a shield to protect himself from the beams fired at him. Thankfully, the beams didn't hurt Sweetie Belle since she was inside a physical body. "Come on. I always dreamed of booping a pony to death. You ponies just ask for it with these muzzles of yours."

He then saw Little Ghost charging at him, probably to save her friend, and he slammed Sweetie Belle on her. But he was then rammed by Scootaloo in her scooter form. Just after ramming him, Scootaloo returned to her basic form, activated her Poltergust, caught Thanatos in its vortex, and slammed him on a nearby pillar.

"That's for what your fanfilly did to me!"

Thanatos laughed as he grabbed the Poltergust's handle and used it to slam Scootaloo on the same pillar. "So I'm paying for somepony else's actions?"

Scootaloo got up and stared at him, imitating a growl (robots couldn't really growl). "She worked for you! You sent her for your 'game'!"

Thanatos shrugged. "I didn't order her to kill you. She was free to do what she wanted, and she chose to kill you. Now, I would like to debate my implication in your death with you, but we're in the middle of a fight." At this, he levitated Scootaloo and threw her toward Applejack who managed to catch her.

"The same goes for me! It's because of ya that Ah'm dead!" shouted the mare.

"Wrong!" shouted the draconequus as he moved a finger left and right. "Your death was an accident. I hadn't planned for you to be impaled by the horn of a statue. But I don't complain, it was funny to watch."

"Ya're still responsible! If it wasn't for ya..."

Thanatos was suddenly punched by Little Ghost charging at him from the side. "If it wasn't for you, Bogmire would have never existed and I would have lived a normal life with my family!"

Thanatos just smirked before he impaled Little Ghost with a finger. "Alright, I'm at the origin of all your sufferings, you, your family, and your friends, but look at it the other way. If I hadn't created Bogmire, you would have never met Apple Bloom and the others." He turned to look at Apple Bloom, avoiding her as she charged at him in her ghost form. "You, Apple Bloom, would have never become a ghost hunter. You would have never made all these friends. Gone to another dimension!" He then blasted away both Little Ghost and Apple Bloom before he turned to look at Applejack and Scootaloo both firing at him (while still keeping an eye at Apple Bloom. As long as she was in her ghost form, she was dangerous). "And you two became robots! It was worth dying, don't you think?"

"Well, being a robot is cool, but I would have preferred not dying," said Scootaloo.

This just made Thanatos huff before he spreed his arms and teleported to avoid powerful bolts of lightning fired by Apple Bloom. "So, you see, despite all the bad I'm responsible of, some good came out of it! I think I deserve some thanks! But I guess that ponies prefer to focus on the bad side of things. But in the end, I don't care. All that matters to me..." He smirked. "is to have fun!"

Dozens of scythes made of purple energy then materialized around him and began to fly randomly all over the room while spinning. Apple Bloom, still a ghost, broke one of the pillars and levitated it, using it as a club to hit Thanatos who, however, had no problem destroying it. Apple Bloom was then forced to return to normal. Thanatos then levitated the pieces of the destroyed pillar and threw them at the ponies who quickly covered themselves behind other pillars.

As soon as the bombarding stopped, the ponies restarted firing at Thanatos, but they seemed as effective to him as bugs' bites. Maybe it was time to use the batteries for the Super Suction Mode. It looked like it will be the only thing really effective against him.

Thanatos didn't wait for them to decide. He suddenly sent a shockwave that destroyed all the pillars in the room and that sent everypony on their back. But Apple Bloom immediately got up, took her battery, and plugged her Poltergust to it before activating it, creating a HUGE vortex that began to suck up everything that was caught in it, even the debris of the pillars.

"What the-?! AAAAAAHH"

Thanatos was totally caught off guard by the power of the Super Suction and didn't react in time to even attempt to resist it. He was sucked up in just a couple of seconds, and Apple Bloom immediately stopped to not use all the energy of the battery.

But before she could scream victory, her Poltergust shook violently, and Thanatos came out of it.

«What?!» yelled E. Gadd in shock. «He escaped from the Supreme Poltergust so easily?! Despite everything we did to make it as hard to escape from as possible?!»

Apple Bloom sighed. "Darn it..."

Thanatos flew away from Apple Bloom, dusting himself off just for the show. "You got me there. So you had an ace up your sleeve. Well, I will remember this for next time. See you until then."

"Not this time!" yelled Apple Bloom before she took the Anti-Portal Gun and fired at a portal that Thanatos just opened, closing it. "Like Ah said, there won't be a next time!"

Thanatos was very shocked at seeing his portal being closed, and then, he frowned at Apple Bloom. "So it seems... You really want a fight to the end, uh?"

"Until Ah capture ya! Or Ah die trying!"

Thanatos stared at Apple Bloom a few seconds, then looked at the other hunters one after another, seeing that they all plugged their Poltergusts to a battery too. Turning back toward Apple Bloom, he said "Very well," before he snapped his claw. The next instant, a spiral staircase made of solidified energy leading to the ceiling appeared. "I guess the time for games is over. Climb those stairs, and you will see that you should have passed this portal. You will face the true power of Death."

Thanatos then flew to the ceiling, opening a hole at the end of the staircase.

"Let's go after him!" shouted Scootaloo.

"Come on! We can get him!" shouted Little Ghost.

As they began to climb the stairs, E. Gadd then said «Remember, your batteries only have enough power for one minute of Super Suction. Use it with parsimony.»

"One minute, that's a lot seeing how effective it was," said Sweetie Belle. "It only took a few seconds to capture Thanatos."

«But he was caught off guard, so it won't be as easy next time. He knows what's coming now,» said E. Gadd.

The ponies climbed and reached the hole at the top, getting on the roof of the castle. A very large arena in open sky, perfect for the final battle, even if some pieces of Thanatos' tower fell on it at the Eastern extremity.

The hole closed behind the hunters, so there was no going back. In front of them was Thanatos, and above them, flying in all directions, were countless ghosts. Thousands, maybe even millions of them.

Thanatos then said "So, do you think you will be able to fight me..." He pointed a finger up at the many ghosts above them. "and them?"

Apple Bloom sweated. "Uh... With the Super Suction, Ah'm sure we can."

Thanatos chuckled. "If you're sure, then..."

One finger snap, and the next moment, the army of ghosts came down on the ponies.

"We'll take them, Bloom! Go after Thanatos!" shouted Applejack as she readied herself.

Apple Bloom looked at her, nodded, and ran toward Thanatos along with the clones of goo. While they ran, the others all activated the Super Suction, beginning to suck up hundreds of ghosts per second. The clones of goo took care of any ghosts that managed to approach Apple Bloom despite this, and many others surrounded the hunters. Soon enough, countless projectiles of magic or ghost energy were sent at them from all directions.

Apple Bloom got close enough of Thanatos to activate her Super Suction, but like E. Gadd said, this time, Thanatos was ready for it and resisted the powerful vortex long enough to send a storm of purple energy balls at her. The filly ran left and right to avoid them until Thanatos eventually disappeared inside her Poltergust again after about ten seconds, only for him to escape for the second time.

Thanatos then opened several portals out of which came skeletons that Apple Bloom and the clones of goo had to destroy with air punches or by slamming ghosts on them (Apple Bloom making sure to not use the Super Suction against the simple ghosts). While the hunters dealt with the skeletons, Thanatos raised a claw, and then, meteors, or rather, boulders normally floating here and there in the void of the Spiritual World rained all over the arena, and the castle.

Meanwhile, Applejack and the others decided to stop using the Super Suction, and to use the Red Mode instead. They wanted to keep some juice just in case. And so, they began to fight the ghosts the normal way and some of them went to help Apple Bloom to deal with the skeletons, all the while avoiding the falling boulders, and firing at Thanatos whenever they had the occasion. Little Ghost unleashed her full power at this occasion, the power that Apple Bloom fought that first time. Sweetie Belle sung like never before, Scootaloo rolled everywhere to create walls of fire, and Applejack created shockwaves after shockwaves.

With their help, Apple Bloom had the opening to approach Thanatos again, only for him to teleport away. From the opposite side of the arena where he appeared, he then sent big columns of purple energy at them by lines, the columns moving left and right while moving toward them. He also began to send spinning scythes made of energy at them regularly.

Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost for the second time in this fight, sent a shockwave to propel the enemy ghosts away from her, and teleported beside Thanatos before she activated the Super Suction, sucking him up for the third time, this time sending electricity at him at the same occasion.

But he escaped again, and Apple Bloom had to avoid a purple beam fired from one of his fingers, only for him to teleport in front of her and to punch her. She recovered and headbutted him on the torso, but Thanatos repelled her with a wave of energy. But then, he was caught from behind in Little Ghost's Super Suction, and for the fourth time, ended up inside a Poltergust, but still escaped. But as soon as he got out, he took a powerful projectile of energy from Apple Bloom before the filly had to return to normal and was forced to deal with some ghosts attacking her.

A spire beside the arena was then levitated by Thanatos who threw it toward Apple Bloom. The filly quickly ran as fast as she could to get away and barely avoided the spire which destroyed a part of the arena where it crashed. Several more spires were levitated and thrown at Apple Bloom one by one. She was saved by Scootaloo who joined her and let her ride on her before escaping with her speed. All of this caused many debris to float around, and Thanatos, Little Ghost, and some other ghosts began to use them as projectiles or shields.

And then, Thanatos was caught in a Super Suction again, this time from Applejack. He attempted to resist and attacked her with purple lightning, but the mare resisted the pain and captured him, only for him to escape again.

Growling, Thanatos snapped his fingers, and Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo found themselves forced out of their bodies. Before they could understand what was going on, Thanatos levitated their bodies and threw them into the void, their Poltergusts with them (it was even more bad for Applejack and Scootaloo since their Poltergusts were integrated in their bodies)!

"Horseapple..." said Applejack at this in horror.

This forced Little Ghost to reactivate and use what remained of her Super Suction to protect them, only for her and the others to be hit by purple lightning bolts from Thanatos with his right claw. Then, with his left claw, he fired more bolts at Apple Bloom to stop her from approaching. The filly was busy defending herself from enemy ghosts anyway. Even with the help of the clones of goo, always there, the enemies were just too many.

She had no choice but to use the Super Suction, but she used it only by small dose when needed to capture big groups of ghosts, leaving her openings to approach Thanatos. When he saw that she was managing to approach despite everything, Thanatos stopped attacking Applejack and the others and focused all his powers on Apple Bloom, but this left him open to a counterattack from behind.

An explosive projectiles on the back of his head followed by a strong punch from Applejack left him open for Apple Bloom to activate her Super Suction on him and capture him yet again. Applejack flew away just before to avoid the same fate.

But Thanatos still escaped, and enraged, he pointed his claws directly at the arena. The next instant, the whole castle began to shake, and cracks appeared and spreed everywhere more and more. Thanatos used his power to destroy the whole castle, including the island it was built on! The building broke apart piece by piece, the towers collapsing, the roof breaking open, debris floating away into the void!

The part of the roof/arena Apple Bloom was on slowly began to spin while it floated, and the filly could only watch in horror as she began to slid. Thankfully for her, she saw the Spectral Transmograftizer's cooldown reach zero, and she immediately pressed the button. But at the same time, she didn't see Thanatos charging at her, right claw enveloped in purple energy as it was ready to impale her.

Just as she pressed the button, the claw hit her right on the device, destroying it in an explosion of ghost energy that expelled Thanatos away from Apple Bloom who was enveloped in it.

The filly survived this, but it didn't stop her from sliding, and eventually, falling into the void as she hadn't transformed into a ghost.

Only to suddenly turn into one in her panic!

When she realized this, Apple Bloom looked down at herself. Somehow, without the Spectral Transmograftizer, she managed to turn into a ghost.

It was as if the device exploding because of Thanatos' energy while she pressed the button gave her the device's power. But what did that mean? Did she still have the thirty seconds limit? The cooldown? Could she turn into a ghost whenever she wanted?

Well, right now, she could only hope that the limit was gone with the device, because returning to normal was too dangerous right now. Debris of various sizes, pieces of rooms, spires, and furniture now floated everywhere, and none of them were stable enough for her to remain on.

She had no choice but to remain a ghost, which was good since she had access to all her powers like this.

But even with this, the situation really wasn't good. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applejack didn't have their Poltergusts anymore, the clones of goo couldn't get out of their containers without somewhere to walk on, Thanatos didn't seem to get tired, and there were still millions of ghosts flying everywhere ready to attack.

And she was almost out of juice for the Super Suction.

But then, as she was getting surrounded by the enemy ghosts, she was joined by the others, and to her surprise, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applejack had a Poltergust again!

"What?! Where did you get these Poltergusts?" asked Apple Bloom.

"From me!" suddenly said a familiar voice behind her.

Apple Bloom turned around and got the surprise of seeing Discord. "What?"

"Discord?!!" yelled Thanatos who approached again. "How are you here?!"

In answer, Discord inflated his lion paw and gave him a giant punch that sent him flying through several floating debris.

"THAT'S FOR FLUTTERSHY!!!" he yelled through a megaphone. "AND TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, LOOK AROUND YOU! YOUR CASTLE IS DESTROYED! AND WITH IT, THE WARD THAT WAS KEEPING ME AWAY!" Done yelling in the megaphone, he threw it away and turned toward Apple Bloom. "I recovered Sweetie Belle's Poltergust and brought new ones for our metal friends. The brainiacs built a lot of spare Poltergusts, so you won't run out of them anytime soon. Don't worry, I also recovered their bodies. Oh, and I also came with the cavalry!"

Before the ponies could ask what he meant, Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly, EVERY ghosts who were friends with Apple Bloom appeared around them! The Gem family! The ghosts from the Evershade Valley! And the ones from the hotel! All of them were ready for some action, and some of them were even equipped with a Poltergust!

"He has an army? Well, you too! We will deal with his ghosts while you deal with Thanatos!" said Discord just as the allied ghosts began to fight the enemy ghosts.

"Wait. 'We'? As in them and you?" asked Apple Bloom. "Shouldn't ya been the one fighting Thanatos?"

"Maybe," answered Discord before he winked at her. "But I think this is more your fight than mine. Beside, I must make sure that the few wraiths among the enemies don't do anything bad. Also, maybe you should put some electricity into that battery. Just a friendly advice. Come on, you four, let's leave her have a one on one with her nemesis," he said to Applejack, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Little Ghost.

"Ya're sure?" asked Applejack.

"Don't worry, she has it. Let's help the others."

Apple Bloom looked as Discord led her sister and her friends to fight the enemy ghosts, then looked at the battery for the Super Suction, wondering why Discord said that. But then, she understood. Of course! She could recharge the battery with the electricity she can use as a ghost! She will be able to use the Super Suction as much as she wanted!

A smile spreed on her muzzle.

"Mph. I don't know what he thinks leaving you alone to face me," she then heard Thanatos say as he had returned from the hit he took and looked around at the huge battle opposing his minions to Apple Bloom's friends.

"That's because he knows that Ah'll win," said the filly

This made Thanatos laugh.

Despite this, Apple Bloom continued to smile. "We'll see who'll laugh."

And then, she used electricity to recharge the battery.

Thanatos understood what she did and frowned before he threw one of the few spires that still floated around.

Apple Bloom destroyed it, then flew to the side to avoid a wave of energy before she began to approach. Thanatos sent everything he had to stop her, but she just flew between the projectiles until she was close enough to catch him, capturing him a first time.

After he escaped, he teleported away and threw countless debris at her, only for Apple Bloom to suck up all of them with the Super Suction before she did like him and threw what she recognized was a part of the graveyard at Thanatos. The Lord of Death destroyed it, and Apple Bloom teleported right beside him before she used the Super Suction to capture Thanatos again.

She quickly captured him a third time despite his attempts to stop her by sending purple lightning bolts in all directions. This made Apple Bloom laugh. Thanatos was extremely powerful, but there wasn't much he could do against the Super Suction. Again and again, she captured him, rapidly reaching ten times.

The ghost of a dragon came to help his master only to be smashed by Ooga. Other ghosts under Thanatos' control attempted to do the same but were stopped by Apple Bloom's friends. Debris and projectiles flew in all directions, Poltergust vortexes moved up, down, left, and right to capture as many ghosts as possible, and the whole chaos was made worst by Discord. Apple Bloom could count on her friends to make sure that she wasn't bothered while she fought Thanatos.

And the ones who weren't fighting encouraged her from Evershade Valley.

«Yeah! You got him again!» shouted Rainbow Dash as Apple Bloom captured Thanatos for the eleventh time since the beginning of this paranormal battle. But like all the previous times, he escaped.

«Come on, Apple Bloom! He will eventually tire!» shouted Mario.

Apple Bloom expertly avoided a slap of the back of Thanatos' right claw, then avoided his tail, only to be hit by a blast fired from his mouth! While she was propelled backward by it, Thanatos then fired from his claws several homing shots that Apple Bloom blocked by placing a big boulder on their path. She then threw the boulder at Thanatos, followed by dozens of ice shards. Thanatos destroyed all of them with a shield, but Apple Bloom teleported behind him, only for Thanatos to suddenly turn and grab her by the neck. As he prepared to pierce her with the other claw, she quickly materialized a small blade made of energy (the same way Thanatos created his scythes) and used it to cut the claw holding her. She then attempted to behead Thanatos, but he ducked only to be caught by Apple Bloom activating the Super Suction, and to be captured for the twelfth time.

They both teleported around a few times, throwing projectiles at each others. Thanatos' projectiles were more powerful than Apple Bloom's, so each times they clashed, his won, but they were mainly diversions for Apple Bloom to teleport near Thanatos and capture him again.

And again.

After the fifteenth capture, Thanatos began to throw really everything that he could throw, especially the giant pieces of the castles still floating around. Whole rooms, the Ice Tower still mostly intact, a large part of the laboratory and its fleshy walls... He even began to throw his ghosts at her! But she either avoided them or made short work of them with the Super Suction. That thing could suck up a whole house!

«Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom!» repeated Pinkie Pie like a cheerleader.

Escaping after his eighteenth capture, Thanatos immediately teleported away and materialized hundreds of bones and skulls that he threw at Apple Bloom. Again, Apple Bloom used the Super Suction to suck them up, but then, Thanatos teleported behind her and clawed her back before sending her flying with a blast. She barely avoided a bone by moving to the side before she teleported beside Thanatos again and captured him for the nineteenth time.

Before he escaped, Apple Bloom materialized several balls of energy that she let float around her. When he got out of her Poltergust, she immediately sent one of the balls at him, the ball causing a big explosion that stopped him from teleporting away, letting Apple Bloom capture him again. From there, each time that he escaped, she hit him with one of the exploding balls before capturing him again.

"ENOUGH!!!" he suddenly yelled after a few more captures before a black hole suddenly came out of his body, engulfing both him and Apple Bloom. At the same time, all the enemy ghosts that hadn't been captured flew into it, and when the last one entered, the hole disappeared with no trace of Apple Bloom and Thanatos.

"Apple Bloom?! Where's she?!" shouted Applejack.

«I lost contact with her. I think she was sent to a pocket dimension by Thanatos,» said E. Gadd. «Now, we can only wait.»

Apple Bloom recovered her senses floating above an endless ocean of blood full of skeletons of all kinds of creatures. Above her, the sky was just an empty void of the darkest black.

She looked around, searching Thanatos, but couldn't find him.

Then, something huge began to come out of the ocean. Slowly, it rose, revealing more of its horrible body.

It was a giant skeleton of a draconequus, hundreds of meters high, entirely made of souls. A dark, near-black purple-green mist escaped from the orifices of some of the souls constituting the skeleton, wrapping it to look like a cloak that hid most of it, head included. The skeleton was holding a giant scythe entirely made of bones, big enough that it could slice a building from Manehattan.

"I wanted to have you at my side, but I will just destroy you!" yelled Thanatos as he readied his scythe.

"Woah!"

Apple Bloom quickly teleported, barely avoiding being sliced in half along with a big part of the ocean behind her. She appeared in front of the skull and began to use the Super Suction, sucking up hundreds of souls out of the skeleton, and when she saw the skull opening its mouth, she teleported again just before a giant beam came out of it.

As Apple Bloom began to fly around the colossal skeleton, sucking up countless ghosts out of it, Thanatos made even more ghosts come out and sent them after the filly in the form of conscious, moaning winds. She flew away, then up, left, back, and began to suck up the ghosts with the Super Suction. The ghosts, however, were coming from all sides, so she had to constantly move.

But suddenly, with a move of an arm, Thanatos manipulated the blood of the ocean to make it form hundreds of long needles, some of which successfully impaled Apple Bloom. Thanatos then attempted to slice her again with his giant scythe, but Apple Bloom freed herself from the blood needles by destroying them with an explosion of energy and teleported away.

When she appeared and restarted sucking up the ghosts composing the giant skeleton while avoiding the ones sent at her, she kept an eye on the ocean of blood in case Thanatos repeated the needle attack. What she saw instead was the skeleton of a dragon suddenly rising from the blood and attempting to eat her. Or at least to really hurt her with its sharp teeth.

She blasted it into piece, but was slapped by Thanatos' giant claw, sending her into the ocean of blood. As she recovered, she was then swarmed by hundreds of skeletons attempting to grab her and to drag her to the abysses, which would certainly result in her being trapped for eternity. With another explosion of energy, she destroyed the skeletons that were too close and teleported away just in time as Thanatos slashed again with his scythe.

As soon as she appeared, she charged toward the skull, accumulated energy, avoided the ghosts sent at her, some projectiles of blood, a giant beam fired from the mouth of the skull, rammed it, and unleashed the accumulated energy, destroying a part of the skull and knocking back the giant skeleton. Countless ghosts were freed from the skeleton, and Apple Bloom immediately began to suck them up before Thanatos could force them to reform the skull.

The skull was still reformed by souls coming from the body, and Apple Bloom teleported away as soon as Thanatos had recovered to avoid a new slash from the scythe. She then began to fire giant explosive projectiles all over the body of the skeleton to knockout as many ghosts forming it as possible, ghosts that she then moved to capture.

The sky was then covered by giant purple clouds that appeared from nowhere and began to unleash a storm of purple lightning bolts. Between this, the ghosts that continued to be sent toward her, the blood manipulated to form various projectiles and weapons, and the skeletons in the ocean beginning to climb on each others to try to reach her, Apple Bloom didn't have any time to rest. She was constantly moving and teleporting while attacking and sucking up ghosts.

Thankfully, the giant skeleton was beginning to shrink, Thanatos running out of ghosts to replace the ones captured.

It only made Thanatos double the intensity of his attacks.

He gathered all the clouds into a sphere above Apple Bloom and made it follow her as it unleashed real columns of electricity many meters wide, one by one. Apple Bloom flew as fast as she could to avoid them, but Thanatos then began to slash with his giant scythe again and again, faster and faster.

Apple Bloom decided to teleport away and appeared behind Thanatos, but then, Thanatos manipulated the ocean of blood again and turned it into a giant bed of huge spikes. Apple Bloom was lucky that she wasn't impaled by any of them, but then, Thanatos separated the surface of ocean in two, moved them far enough at opposite directions, turned them 90° so the spikes faced Apple Bloom, and smashed them together. Again, Apple Bloom barely escaped with a teleportation.

All these attacks must cost a lot of energy to Thanatos, and it could be seen as some of the ghosts constituting the skeleton began to break out, making holes form in the 'bones' while the cloak of dark green-purple mist was losing shape. Of course, Apple Bloom made sure to capture the ghosts that broke out as they could still be used by Thanatos in other ways, or they could be harmed by his attacks.

Thanatos still wasn't giving up and fired homing purple fireballs from his eyes while sweeping the ocean with a huge laser from his mouth, chasing Apple Bloom with it as she flew around him, not sucking up the ghosts, but electrifying him to weaken him further. By weakening him, more ghosts broke out anyway, ready to be captured. Even his scythe seemed ready to crumble.

Spikes of blood forced Apple Bloom to fly away, and Thanatos took the occasion to attempt to slice her again with his scythe. But this time, instead of teleporting or dodging, Apple Bloom activated the Super Suction. The scythe barely holding together, it had no chance resisting it. Piece by piece, it was sucked up, starting by the blade before Apple Bloom moved up the handle and sucked up the giant skeleton's claws by the same occasion.

Thanatos roared in rage and sent ALL the ghosts still forming what remained of the skeleton to attack Apple Bloom. Again, she activated the Super Suction, and the ghosts flew right into it. For several seconds, a constant stream of ghosts came and disappeared into the hole until every single one of them was captured.

Excepted one.

Thanatos was still there, facing Apple Bloom, growling.

Then, Apple Bloom took the Absorber and placed it on her chest, and Thanatos' eyes widened.

"Game over, Thanatos."

A beam of light came out of the Absorber and hit Thanatos, letting the filly absorb his powers.

It was over in a few seconds.

When it was done, Thanatos wasn't a skeleton anymore. He now looked normal, with a skin covered in pale gray fur or made of pale gray scales.

He looked at himself in shock, then closed his eyes before he let out a slow chuckle. "You win..." Then, he looked at Apple Bloom. "But I wonder now how long it will take for you to become like me."

Apple Bloom had changed too. She was now just a ghost skeleton, like Thanatos had been, excepted that she still was a pony instead of a draconequus. After looking at herself, she frowned and stared at Thanatos. "Ah'll never become like ya."

Thanatos chuckled again. "Eternity is a very long time. A lot can happen. Who knows."

Apple Bloom just gave a huff at this before she pointed her Poltergust at him. "At least, Ah know what Eternity'll be for ya." And at this, she activated the Super Suction one last time, capturing the draconequus.

This time, he didn't escape.

And the whole dimension flashed around her.

Author's Note

That Reaper form disturbed even me. It was perfect.

Goodbye, Thanatos.

Chapter 28: Aftermath

The ghosts remained silent as they continued to look at where Apple Bloom and Thanatos disappeared. The wait was unbearable! Especially for Apple Bloom's closest friends and Applejack who were really worried. She was all alone against the Lord of Death after all. Even if she seemed to have the advantage thanks to the Super Suction, who knew what Thanatos had up his sleeves, especially with this army of ghosts he took with him?

Suddenly, there was a flash, and the next instant, a small pony skeleton-ghost appeared. The only thing that revealed her identity was a pink bow somehow remaining on her head despite the absence of hair.

But no trace of Thanatos. Did it mean...?

Apple Bloom blinked, and then looked around, seeing that she was back in the Spiritual World, among her friends who all stared at her.

She smiled before she did a few circles and took a victory pose. "WHOOO!!! AH CAPTURED THANATOS!!!"

That did it. One after another, Applejack and the others smiled and flew to her, ending up in a giant group hug full of congratulating words.

Discord remained away, looking at the ponies with a big smirk. "And it looks like you did more than capturing him."

Hearing him, Apple Bloom looked at him and understood what he meant as she looked down at her new skeletal form. "Eeyup. Ah took all his powers with the Absorber. There's no way he'll be able to escape now. He's totally powerless." And to ensure that he would never recover these powers, she then took the Absorber and destroyed it. Thanatos will never be a threat again.

"Well then... Hail to the new Lady of Death!" shouted the draconequus before he materialized dozens of copies of himself and they all began to cheer and clap.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Nuhu. No thanks. Ah won't be the Lady of anything."

"So that's why you now look like a skeleton?" asked Scootaloo.

"Eeyup. But it's not because Ah look like a skeleton that Ah'm gonna be the new Lady of Death."

"Too late. You got the title with the powers. But it's just a title. It doesn't mean that you will start to rule over the dead like Thanatos did. You could just use your new Death powers to do what you want," said Discord.

"Or help others," added Apple Bloom. "Which is what Ah'll do with them. Ah won't be like Thanatos."

Discord smiled. "I don't doubt it. Now, how about we leave this place and return to the valley to celebrate your victory and the end of Thanatos' bloody reign?"

"Shouldn't we deal with all these ghosts we captured first?" asked Sweetie Belle. "There must be thousands!"

"Hundreds of thousands, which would take a reeeally long time to sort them," said Discord.

"Yeah. Party now, sorting later, please," pleaded Scootaloo. After everything they went thought, she wouldn't mind having a few days of rest and fun. The captured ghosts could wait.

Apple Bloom nodded. "We'll put them in the vault and go have fun. Then, Ah'll start building my Ghost Portrificationizer with E. Gadd, Smart Spirit, and Twilight while ya guys'll sort the ghosts."

"Ugh... Very well," said Little Ghost.

When they returned in Evershade Valley using the portal they first took to enter the Spiritual World, Apple Bloom and the others were welcomed with loud cheers and congratulations from the ones who hadn't be able to come and help, so Twilight and her friends (excepted Applejack of course), and the inhabitants from the Mushroom Kingdom.

The festivities almost immediately began all over the valley, prepared by Pinkie Pie. Discord brought back Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applejack's body for them to return in, and Apple Bloom succeeded in reforming her physical body, proving that she could now switch back and forth between life and death at will. She wasn't sure if it was a result of absorbing Thanatos' powers or if she would still have been able to do it without them despite remaining a ghost beyond the time-limit. Having gained this ability from the Spectral Transmograftizer exploding just as she pressed the button while being hit by Thanatos' claw, she didn't know if the time-limit had remained. At least, one way or another, this limit was gone.

But her physical body had a few differences: Her fur, mane, and tail were much paler, closer to white than to their original color, and on her Cutie Mark, a purple pony skull seemingly made of energy had appeared on the red shield, and her eyes had a strange purple glow behind the iris. Also, her skeleton could be seen through her skin, which somewhat disturbed some of the others.

Instead of joining in the festivities, Apple Bloom went to a vault that had been placed not far of the portal. A newly built vault made with the help of both magic and technology for greater efficiency that also had the same function than Smart Spirit's computer. Thanks to a screen and a keyboard on it, they could select the ghosts in it and separate them into three groups, green, yellow, and red. The selected ghosts then could be released or transferred into a crystal, a Poltergust, another vault, or, in the near future, to Apple Bloom's Ghost Portrificationizer to be turned into portraits.

She transferred all the ghosts she captured in it. Once she was done, she let the others plug their Poltergusts one by one to do the same, Discord plugging the ones that Scootaloo and Applejack used after they lost their robotic bodies. Once all the ghosts were inside the vault, Apple Bloom activated the screen to look at them.

"All there. Thanatos... Grogar... Toy Maker..."

"I can't wait to study these ghosts created by Thanatos," said E. Gadd.

"Ya should've enough time to study them while we work on the Ghost Portrificationizer," replied Apple Bloom.

"Yes. It will take a few months to build," said Smart Spirit. "It should also give enough time for the others to sort the ghosts and free the ones that don't deserve to be turned into portraits. The ones that followed Thanatos out of fear, that were manipulated, or that were controlled by him."

"I'll help! So many new friends to make!" shouted Pinkie Pie as she suddenly raised a leg. "Now, let's go party!"

The festivities over Thanatos' capture lasted... well, not all night, because the night lasted forever in Evershade Valley, but many hours. But Apple Bloom didn't participate much as she quickly fell asleep, exhausted, and she was transported to sleep in Gloomy Manor's bedroom. As time passed, the livings went to sleep one by one, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toadsworth returned in the Mushroom Kingdom, Spike fell asleep first and Twilight put him on the bed of the chamber in the first floor of the Haunted Towers before going to bed herself in the Flower Sisters' chamber, quickly joined by Rarity. Rainbow Dash went on a cloud, and Pinkie Pie was the last one once she saw that things were calming, taking the last bed of the Flower Sisters. E. Gadd went to Gloomy Manor's lab with Smart Spirit where they began to study the ghosts created by Thanatos, having brought the vault. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Applejack, Little Ghost, Fluttershy, and Starlight, having nothing better to do, began to sort the captured ghosts with the help of some of the others, Discord remaining at Fluttershy's side.

Any ghost that they immediately knew wasn't evil was immediately released, like the Tricksters, Pranksters, Bulkys, Buffys, and so on. The new kinds of ghosts encountered in the castles, like the Icys or the Puffys, were carefully checked before they determined that they weren't bad too, they were just following Thanatos because they had no choice. Any ghost created by Thanatos, being inherently evil, was immediately put in the red group, excepted some that were transferred for E. Gadd and Smart Spirit to study. The wraiths too, but they eventually decided to put them in a fourth, special group after thinking that now that Apple Bloom had Thanatos' powers, maybe she could do something to 'heal' them. Not all wraiths were evil beings, some were just misguided creatures that let their hate get the better of them, like the leaders of the pony tribes (excepted Princess Rose who really had been horrible), and many others were victims that had been turned into wraiths by other wraiths.

Then there were the remaining ghosts. Ponies, griffons, zebras, and so on. Those were where things became complicated as it wasn't known for many where they were standing in regard of Thanatos. There were some they knew that deserved to go to red, like most of the ghosts captured in the VIP Wing, or Toy Maker, Big Brain, and Grogar, and there were others they knew could be released, like the Founders or Gusty the Great, but many others were uncertain and needed to be talked to to determine their fate. These ghosts were put in the yellow group. The green group was for ghosts they knew were innocent but couldn't be released for some reason, like because they were controlled. But with Thanatos out of the picture, there were no such ghosts.

They won't start talking to the ghosts of the yellow group before they will be done with the others however, and with the huge number of ghosts captured, they weren't even finished releasing known good ghosts or putting known evil ghosts in the red group when the first ponies started to wake up many hours later, Apple Bloom being the last. The filly then began to work of the Ghost Portrificationizer with Twilight, E. Gadd (who eventually went to sleep), and Smart Spirit while the others finally began to sort the ghosts of the yellow group, starting by the filly Candy, attempting to get her out of Thanatos' influence. Some hugs, soothing words, and other proofs that she will be loved and taken care of were all it took to convince her to forget the draconequus. They also promised her to investigate potential abuse from her mother.

They, however, eventually had to leave the valley and return to Ponyville to return to their life. There was still school for Apple Bloom and her friends after all, the Main 6 still had work, and Twilight needed to report to Celestia that Thanatos won't be a problem anymore. To avoid creeping out her classmates, Apple Bloom asked Twilight to put a charm on her to make her look like she was before, deciding that she will reveal her new nature to everypony little by little.

The princesses were very pleased to hear about Thanatos' capture and both Celestia and Luna personally came to congratulate the heroes, and also to see for themselves Apple Bloom's new nature. They also went to Evershade Valley to see that Thanatos was indeed in the vault, now looking like a simple draconequus ghost. They were impressed at seeing the number of ghosts that had been captured, and at who some of the ghosts were. Many of the most infamous criminals of Equestria, and even the world, Grogar, Sombra, the Founders... They regretted to not witness all this, and they were happy to talk to Clover the Clever and the others who wanted to remain there a little to see what had become of Equestria before they would move on.

For the next months, the ponies regularly returned in Evershade Valley to sort the ghosts or work on the Ghost Portrificationizer, which they began to build in the basement of Gloomy Manor after they finished with the plans. Along the way, Apple Bloom tested her powers to see if she could heal the wraiths. Thanatos' powers were about Death and souls, so maybe she could manipulate the soul of the wraiths to get them rid of their hate and get them back to normal. She had to train a long time to get a feel of these new powers until she had more or less the hand of them, and she felt she could do it.

And, after a few tries, it worked. She healed a first wraith who turned back into an unicorn stallion. However, the guy quickly revealed to be a specist murderer, and he was quickly sent into the red group. But like they thought, not all wraiths were like him, and many, after healing, revealed to just be poor souls traumatized by their time as wraiths. Many almost immediately decided to move on, but some remained in Evershade Valley to recover.

At the same time, Apple Bloom began to use her fortune to build the ghost town she had talked about before. With the new arrivals, it was very needed, the buildings in the valley and her own manor overflowing with ghosts, to the point that many returned in the Spiritual World while waiting to have somewhere to haunt. Others decided to explore the world, resulting in a huge increase of paranormal activities a little everywhere, much to the joy of the paranormal lovers.

Then, a few more months later, the Ghost Portrificationizer was finished.

It was a much improved version of E. Gadd's Ghost Portrificationizer. It started with the vault out of which the selected ghosts will be sent to be turned into portraits. The main modification was that several ghosts could now be turned into a single portrait, instead of having only one, two, or three ghosts for just one portrait. They intended to use this to turn, for example, all the captured Boggys into a single portrait, and do the same for the Slitherers, the Crawlers, and all the other kinds of ghosts created by Thanatos. One portrait per kind. Turning all of them into portraits only once at a time would have taken much too long, without forgetting that the ponies would have had to find place for them after. As a result, they also had to modify the GP so that it could do not only simple portraits, but also up to wall-sized ones that could contain hundreds, or even thousands of ghosts at once.

The ponies had to dig to extend the basement to get the necessary place for said portraits coming out of the GP which was also, as a result, very large at the end.

Getting such huge portraits out of the basement won't be a problem. A simple shrinking spell will do the job, and then, the portraits will all be stored in the various buildings of Evershade Valley while waiting for their finale resting place to be built: the museum.

An heavily guarded museum, of course. This will also serve as a prison, after all.

In the case they needed to deportrify someone, the vault could be disconnected, leaving place for the deportrified person to come out of the pipe. They knew that the Dark Light Device could deportrify, but who knew...

Apple Bloom smirked. "Ready, everyone?"

After everyone present confirmed, the filly then pressed a button.

The next instant, a ghost was transferred through a pipe from the vault to the Ghost Portrificationizer, and the ghost went through all the steps of being turned into a portrait, mixed, flattened, electrified, and finally put into a frame inside the last, huge machine.

The portrait that came out was a beautiful platinum-framed one three times larger than the classic ones. It was of Thanatos, sitting on a throne made of bones, at the top of a hill made of skeletons, with a black background where purple energy could be seen swirling.

Turning into her ghost form, Apple Bloom took the portrait, smirking again as some of her friends cheered. "Welcome to yer new home, Thanatos."

Epilogue: Commencement of New Adventures

It was surprising how fast something could be built with the help of both magic and an army of ghosts. In just a few months, a town appeared in Evershade Valley, mainly going from the forest of the Haunted Towers to the desert area of the Old Clockword, and some buildings were even built on the mountain of Secret Mine. And it was only a matter of time before they would spread to the mountains visible around the valley.

The town was given the name Spookane.

All buildings were unique. They all had different shapes and sizes, and some were even built as if the plans had been drawn by a foal. The ghosts just built what they wanted, and as long as it stayed up and they liked the result, they considered it a home. And with dozens, or even hundreds of ghosts sharing the same house, some results could easily be passed as creations of Discord.

Despite this, some buildings were standing out, like the theater, the hotel that was as big as Eternal Rest's hotel (but with a friendlier design, with a giant apple at the top that the ghosts insisted to place), or the newly finished museum that was just beside the hotel.

The museum wasn't as tall as the hotel, but it was easily the largest building of Spookane, and still had several floors. After all, it served as jail for the thousands of evil ghosts captured and turned into portraits, so it wasn't surprising that it was that big, and it could become even bigger if more ghosts-turned-portraits come in the future. Some day, it could even be taller than the hotel.

Apple Bloom was standing in front of it, ready to cut the red ribbon in front of a huge crowd mainly of ghosts but also of a few livings, mainly her family (including her now freed parents) and friends (including E. Gadd and other inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom), but also residents of Ponyville, the princesses, reporters, paranormal lovers, and art lovers, without forgetting Discord (and his new disciple Upside Left).

After a small speech to remind what the building really was, the filly cut the ribbon, letting the crowd enter after a big cheering. She then waited with her family and friends while the biggest of the crowd entered, and once everyone was inside, they finally followed.

Apple Bloom had already seen most of the museum before the opening, so she wasn't searching to explore, not with how crowded it now was. But it didn't stop her to look around at the many portraits littering the walls.

All the portraits were behind glasses, and there were so many that almost no place was left. Each portrait also had a small description below it depicting who was the ghost trapped inside, when they could find info about them. Most portraits were the classic size that E. Gadd's original Ghost Portrificationizer used most of the time, but some were bigger.

Each time that Apple Bloom found the portrait of one of the ghosts she fought in her adventures, she briefly stopped to admire them. She first found Frozen Heart, glaring menacingly as she was sending a blizzard. Beside her portrait was a much bigger one where all the captured windigos had been gathered. A little further was doctor Green Hoof, watering a carnivorous plant. She didn't stop, however, when she passed in front of the stallion who had tried to... do stuff to her. It was with some nostalgia that she admired the portrait of Red Steel, the first really evil ghost she caught, now eternally cloaked in the shadows, only his face being seen, and she got chills when her eyes fell on the portrait of Sharp Knife the Bloody Cook (or Cook of Tartarus), licking his knife while staring in hunger. Blackbeard's portrait was the last one before a staircase leading to a basement, the most feared pirate of all time looking like a demon as he was in a roaring pose, cannon fuses lit and saber brandished. To note that his whole crew had been gathered in a single portrait beside his.

After admiring him, Apple Bloom descended the stairs to the basement. Once in there, she traversed a small hallway only possessing one portrait, Grogar (who was giving a machiavellian laugh) before she entered a huge room.

In this room, on the entrance wall, were Bogmire, Death Widow, Wild Oak, Final Hour, Nature's Wrath, and Dark Magic, all having the same pose, but different backgrounds related to what they did (spiders for Death Widow, trees for Wild Oak, clocks for Final Hour, the four elements for Nature's Wrath, and purple colored magical energy for Dark Magic. Bogmire, however, only had a dark background).

The left wall had a giant portrait of the Abomination (they learned its name from ghosts that worked for Thanatos) in its spherical mass of purple ectoplasm, and on the opposite wall was an as huge portrait of Ω, his long body wrapped around the towers of the castle while purple lightning rained all over it.

Finally, on the last wall, first, at the left, was Toy Maker, the crazy stallion smiling as he was in a pile of toys hugging him. Then, at the right, was Big Brain in his simple pony-self, looking very snobbish while also giving a sadistic smile as he was holding a scalpel.

And in the middle, at the left, Pyrite, the stallion painting a treasure chest while having a look showing that he wished that the chest was real.

At the right, Eternal Rest, now with her Polterkitty (they got her out and put her in a new portrait with the cat). The mare, a shadow of herself, was hugging the cat while visibly growling and crying, her mess of a mane hiding her eyes.

And, in the center, Thanatos, on his throne of bones, but far from looking regal as he was bent, defeated, hopeless.

Apple Bloom could come here everyday to admire this.

And they won't escape anytime soon. The portraits were behind glasses and lasers, normal ones and cruciospectro ones, runes had been graved in the walls so that ghosts couldn't traverse them and no magics could be used, and there was a dozen cameras all around constantly keeping watch.

And even if they escaped, Apple Bloom, with her new powers, would be there to make them regret to not have stayed in their portraits.

They will never be a threat again.

A few hours later, Apple Bloom was returning to her home...

Only to spot a blue and white seafaring-like airship with a star emblem on its bow slowly descending toward Ponyville.

What now?

"Yes, Discord, she has arrived."

«Finally! You want me to bring the popcorn, Discord?»

"Yes. And bring a lot!"

To be continued

Author's Note

This is the end for the saga of Apple Bloom's Mansion, but Apple bloom's adventures will continue in Ultimate Multiverse Explorers! The common sequel to this story, The Phantom Filly, and A Sweetie Dreamland! Very soon!

Chapter 7: Toy Maker

Thanatos smirked as he saw the pieces enter the Toy Wing. Then, he took one of the four golden pieces, the one that looked like a jack-in-the-box, and placed it.

"If there's someone who scares even me, it's Toy Maker. He loved toys when he was a colt, and he kept that love when he grew up. He loved to play with them, and he loved to create new toys for little ones to play. He considered the toys he created like his children, and he relished at seeing them do what they were created for: to be played and to make ponies happy.

However, Toy Maker was naive, very naive. He didn't know what happened to the toys he created, he thought that they lived happily ever after.

But one fateful day, everything changed when he saw one of his toys in a trash can, broken and abandoned. He recognized it. He remembered the filly he had given it.

He began to stalk the ponies to who he had given toys, observing them, following them, discretly. And again, and again, he saw that the majority of his toys finished broken. Children are just so careless... And the worst? Most of the children would be sad at first at losing a toy, but they would quickly forget about the broken toy and replace it by a new one, as if the previous one had never existed.

It broke him, to the point that he killed himself.

But in death, he gained the power to make those brats pay!

And now, he wants to play... With you!

Aah ahahahahahahahah! AAAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"

A creepy version of a familiar melody played as the ponies entered the first room of the Toy Wing. Before they could get a good look of the place, the door suddenly slammed shut behind them, and they heard a mad laugh coming from outside.

Scootaloo tested the door, seeing that it was now locked. "Well, we're stuck here."

"At least until we're done with this place, Ah guess," said Apple Bloom as she began to look around.

The room was barely lit, and the walls looked as if a child had drawn on them, with a grassland under a blue sky. There were flowers, some trees, a few clouds, the sun, and a rainbow. The last two were in the North wall, and "WELCOME!" was written on the rainbow in bright colors.

In front of the rainbow were toys, dolls, plushies, and puppets, all facing the ponies in a cheering position, the smallest (the size of a foal) at the front and the biggest (the size of Big Mac) at the back.

And under the rainbow, drawn on the wall, was a white earth pony stallion with black and white stripped legs and a black mane. It was impossible to see his eyes under his long and messy mane, but it was hard to miss his wide smile surrounded of black. All around the stallion, foals were drawn, some of them snuggling against him, all of them smiling, happy.

Strangely, some of the foals drawn looked like some of the toys present in the room. For example, there was a sky blue, red maned pegasus colt present among the foals, and one of the toys, a toy soldier, was a sky blue, red maned pegasus.

Arrows were also drawn in red, pointing at a door at the right of the toys.

And while they looked, the creepy music didn't stop looping.

"I would so nope the hay out of here if I had the choice," said Scootaloo. "And that music isn't helping."

«Be careful of those toys, I have a very bad feeling,» said Twilight.

"Well, when in doubt..." said Apple Bloom before she nodded toward Little Ghost.

The filly ghost understood and sent a huge ball of energy that exploded, destroying many of the toys and sending the others against the walls, damaging them.

However, none of the toys released a ghost. The ponies were relieved by this, only to look in horror as the toys began to reconstitute themselves. Before long, all the toys were repaired, as good as new, and they all turned to stare at the ponies, the ones that could smile giving the exact same smile than the drawn stallion. Some then began to laugh while others started to repeat "Naughtyyyy~."

"Naughty toy breakers~."

"Naughty fillies must be punished~."

Then, the toys charged at the fillies in a cacophony of wood and squeaky noises. The ponies fought them with air blasts, excepted Little Ghost who used her powers. The toys weren't that many, but some still managed to reach the ponies and began to attack them with whatever they had. It wasn't helped that they continued to repair themselves, so the ponies began to use elemental projectiles effective against the toys to weaken the ghosts bound to them more rapidly. When a ghost was weakened enough, they couldn't repair their toy body anymore and all it took then was to damage the body enough that the ghost will be forced out despite the bound. Normally, Little Ghost could use her power to force the ghosts out like she did back in the Gem Manor, but whoever bound the ghosts to those toys was apparently more powerful than her. Very certainly one of the guardians.

And as they feared, the first ghost to be forced out revealed to be the one of a foal, a filly. All the toys had the mind controlled ghost of a filly or a colt bound to them.

It was only when the battle was over, all toys destroyed into tiny bits, all ghosts captured, that the ponies let the horror sink in.

This guardian was even worse than Eternal Rest! At least, Eternal Rest didn't mind control the dolls! And this guy seemed to target foals specifically!

How bad the other guardians must be then?

Still, now that the room was littered with bits of destroyed toys, it looked even more gloomy than previously, so the ponies decided to advance, trying to not mind the music that was seriously starting to get on their nerves, never mind that it was making the place even more creepy.

After the door was a small hallway going West, entirely empty. The only thing of interest was more red arrows along the walls leading the ponies to the end of hallway where the exit door was.

The next room, however, was definitively not empty at all. There were several rows of sits facing a small puppet theater, and toys were sitting on some of the chairs while there were a few puppets in the theater, hanging from strings. When the ponies entered, all the toys immediately turned to look at them, still with those creepy smiles.

"The naughty fillies are here~."

"Let's play with them~."

"Let's bring them to Daddy~."

"Toy Maker makes all the foals smile~
With his toys made with style~.
But the foals fill them with holes~.
Pop! So go the foals~."

"And now they start singing..." said Sweetie Belle.

"Toy Maker... We know who's our target," said Apple Bloom.

"We just have to find him now," said Little Ghost.

A new battle began against the toys in the room, including the puppets who were able to free themselves. But now, the ponies knew what to do, so they fired at will at the toys. One by one, the toys were destroyed, and one by one, the ghosts possessing them, all foals, were captured.

"So, a toy maker who kills foals because they break toys?" wondered Applejack.

«And traps their ghost into toys,» finished E. Gadd.

«That's... There are no words...» said Twilight.

The door to exit the room was behind the theater and led to a long room that was absolutely filled with hundreds of toys of absolutely every kinds imaginable.

"D-don't tell me he killed that many foals," said Sweetie Belle in horror.

"Well, who knows since when he's 'working'," said Apple Bloom.

"And we're gonna have to fight all of them?!" asked Scootaloo.

As if on cue, all the toys in the room turned toward the ponies, smiling creepily, giggling, singing, repeating things about the fillies being naughty and what them and Toy Maker will do with them.

"Eeyup," said Apple Bloom before she turned into a ghost. She and Little Ghost then unleashed their full power to destroy as many toys as possible. If possible even, to totally disintegrate them to not give them a chance to repair themselves.

Meanwhile, the others had to deal with any toys that managed to approach. Thus, Applejack crushed the head of a doll shaped like a red maned colt in overalls armed with a knife, then tossed the body away as it started to repair. Sweetie Belle punched a pink and white teddy bear smelling like strawberries, and Scootaloo rolled over an army of small toy soldiers, making sure to leave fire wherever she rolled. Eventually, Apple Bloom had to return to normal, and she was almost immediately jumpscared by a monkey with cymbals that she promptly bucked into a potato-like toy that lost its face and limbs as a result.

The first ghosts began to be captured, but there were still many to come. At least, the ghosts could be used as weapons to slam on the toys to destroy them. The ponies didn't like to do this to brainwashed foals, but they weren't much given choice. Still, they had to puff air at the toys with their Poltergusts in red mode to send them away when there were too many circling them.

There were still many toys to come however, and the fight lasted long enough that Apple Bloom could turn into a ghost again, resuming her carnage that she started earlier with Little Ghost's help.

If only she mastered her powers, she could have certainly forced the ghosts out of the toys despite the binding. She was THAT powerful now.

More than once, the ponies were almost overwhelmed by the number of toys in the room, and a couple of times, one of them disappeared under a mass of toys before being saved by the others. Apple Bloom made sure it never happened to her because she wouldn't survive such a situation. And they stopped counting how many times the clones of goo were sent back into their tube.

But after a long battle, the toys were all destroyed, and it only took a few more minutes to capture all the ghosts.

"I never want to see a toy again!" shouted Sweetie Belle who was absolutely beaten, slowly regenerating. "Apple Bloom, do you want me to heal you?"

Apple Bloom looked over herself, seeing the many injuries she gained in this battle. Her body was hurting everywhere, and she was barely standing. "Eeyup, please."

Sweetie gave a nod, then began singing, successfully healing her friend who sighed in relief.

"Thanks."

"I'm surprised you need healing only now," said Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom gave a shrug with a giggle. "Ah'm that good Ah suppose."

"Hey, leave the ego to Scoot," laughed Little Ghost, making the pegasus pout.

After that, they finally looked around at the room, which was really empty now that the toys were destroyed. All that remained were two big puppets hanging against the far wall, both sides of a huge double door. The one at the left was holding a crank, but not the right one because the crank was missing.

This left them with only one door in the North wall, near the center.

It led into a much smaller room, about the same size than the theater room from earlier. This one, however, had various little sets like a castle, or an island surrounded in fake water with a pirate ship on it. Each sets had corresponding toys, like princess dolls and toy soldiers, as well as a few nutcrackers for the castle, and a spring dog was guarding it. Dinosaur toys were gathered in a corner, there were all kinds of animals in another, and even a collection of dolls at the effigy of the Wonderbolts.

"We all love Daddy Toy Maker~
He loves us like his foals~.
But if foals're troublemakers~
Pop! So go the foals~."

More singing came as the toys in the room turned toward the ponies. The battle that followed was thankfully easier than in the previous room, the toys being far less numerous. It still took a few minutes to definitively destroy all of them and to capture the ghosts, leaving the way open for the ponies to go to the next room by a door at the right.

The next room had even less toys, thanks Celestia. It was a living room, with a small round table in front of a chair, a shelf with some toys including a ballerina on a music box that played the same song that hadn't stopped playing since the ponies entered the Toy Wing, and a vase with a withered flower in a corner. A Jack-in-the-box was present on the table, currently playing the song, crank slowly turning. There was also a creepy clown doll with long limbs sitting on the chair, and a couple of plushies, a blue rabbit and a yellow bird, sitting on a couch against the East wall.

The ponies didn't wait for the Jack-in-the-box to come out to attack it, and the clown doll retaliated immediately by stretching one of its limbs toward Apple Bloom, wrapping it around her neck to strangle her. Applejack however teared the limb off, saving her sister. All the other toys then attacked, but were rapidly destroyed with the help of the elemental projectiles.

There was a door to the South leading to a restroom (nothing in it), and another North leading to a smaller room that just had a table surrounded by some chairs, a toy sitting on each of the chairs excepted the one at the head of the table. Once the toys were destroyed, the ponies then had to choose between a door at their left and another at their right. The left one, however, revealed to be closed, leaving no choice but to pass the right one which led to the kitchen.

It was a basic kitchen, table to prepare the food, shelves full of plates, food, and other stuff, drawers with cutlery, and so on. The only thing that wasn't normal was the presence of dolls armed with knives quickly destroyed, making a key appear. With the key, the ponies were able to unlock the door in the previous room and enter the chamber.

The missing crank was there, on the bed, but it was guarded by a family of puppets with, at their head, a puppet stallion wearing a tuxedo.

"If you want to reach Daddy Toy Maker, you will have to go through us first," said the puppet before he jumped at Apple Bloom, followed by all the others. Apple Bloom immediately turned into a ghost and sent a shockwave to repel the puppets, leaving them vulnerable to a violent counterattack from the ponies. It still took a few minutes to destroy them, especially the puppet with the tuxedo who revealed to have a lot more energy than the rest, to the point that he could even self-levitate and send some projectiles of energy.

Still, the puppet was destroyed for good, and the ghost who had been trapped in it, a pre-teen blue colt, was easily captured (made easier by him already being weakened). This left the crank free to take for the ponies. Before returning to the big room to put the crank back in place, however, the ponies still went to see what was beyond a last door present in the West wall of the chamber, which only led to a bathroom with a couple of rubber ducks in the bathtub. The ducks weren't even possessed.

So the ponies returned to the big room, and Little Ghost placed the crank back in its place. A couple of seconds later, the puppet beside it grabbed it, and both puppets began turning them, causing the large double door to open and letting the ponies enter the huge room that will be the arena of their battle against the dreaded Toy Maker. A huge round room where it was impossible to see the ceiling because it was covered in darkness.

The first thing they spotted was a giant box in the center of the room with a crank slowly turning, playing that same song.

The second thing they spotted was a work-desk with, on it, five puppets at the effigy of Apple Bloom and the others.

Toy Maker had already created toy bodies to trap them.

Then, the music of the box suddenly stopped, and the box opened, letting out a giant head on a black and white spring. The head was exactly the same as the one of the stallion that was drawn on the wall back in the first room, entirely white with a messy black mane covering its eyes and a wide, creepy smile surrounded in black. However, the ponies could also see the eyes, which showed pure madness as the head began to laugh crazily.

Wanna play?
TOY MAKER

The thing towered the ponies and constantly bounced up and down on its spring as it looked down at them.

Then, it lunged at Apple Bloom, mouth wide open, and the filly barely jumped back in time as the mouth snapped shut where she had been half a second earlier. It was at this moment that the ponies began to attack, mainly using elemental projectiles. Despite all this, Toy Maker suddenly managed to jump all over the arena with its box, each jump creating a shockwave that the ponies had to avoid with a jump.

Toy Maker eventually stopped jumping and lunged again, this time at Sweetie Belle, and she was saved from being beheaded by Scootaloo who pulled her tail. The head then began swinging left and right while keeping its mouth wide open, and it fired from it purple lightning bolts that caught the ponies off guard. Despite the pain caused by the lightning bolts, the ponies continued to attack without stopping.

However, despite its size, the giant Jack-in-the-box was surprisingly hard to hit. The head was constantly moving, bounced in all directions by the spring, and the only thing that was easy to hit was the box when Toy Maker wasn't jumping around. Speaking of jumping, it jumped again, this time jumping directly toward the ponies to crush them under its box. The ponies still managed to get out of the way, but Toy Maker then chased Apple Bloom, jumping after her, each jump creating a shockwave. It even went so far as to fire lasers from its eyes, sweeping the ground with them! Apple Bloom still managed to avoid all this, but couldn't attack as a result, being too busy running away.

Toy Maker did a sudden long jump and landed in front of Apple Bloom. As the filly jumped to avoid the resulting shockwave, Toy Maker then lunged at her, and Apple Bloom quickly turned herself into a ghost to avoid being devoured. The filly quickly attacked the head with her ghostly powers, causing some damages to it.

Then, Toy Maker returned in the box, and a few seconds later, the box exploded, letting out a giant, lanky, black and white puppet that now possessed the white head that was previously on a spring. The puppet was bipedal, with claws both for hands and for feet, and the body seemed to be very flexible, like the body of a snake. The puppet laughed, then placed a claw just above Applejack.

Purple strings suddenly came from the claw and attached themselves to the mare, to everyone's surprise. The next instant, Applejack was being controlled like a puppet, and there was nothing she could do to stop it as Toy Maker began to force her to attack Apple Bloom who had returned to normal.

"Bloom! Watch out!" she yelled.

Apple Bloom quickly jumped to avoid the punch of her sister, then ran to escape her as the mare followed her against her will. As this happened, the others did everything they could to save Applejack, attacking the puppet, and more specifically its claw. In return, the puppet slammed its other claw on the ground, then moved it toward the nearest ghost hunter, Scootaloo, while scraping the floor with the fingers, sending sharp energy waves toward her. The robotic filly quickly moved to pass between the energy waves and continued to attack, only to have to run when the puppet tried to just stomp her. At the same time, the puppet fired lasers from its eyes at the others, managing to destroy Applegoo thanks to them. Thankfully, the clone of goo was quickly back.

The arm manipulating Applejack was then destroyed, freeing the mare, but it didn't deter Toy Maker who then began to slither on the floor like a snake, trying to ram the ghost hunters this way and even trying to eat Apple Bloom again on the way. When it stopped and got up, a new arm then came from the ceiling and replaced the one that had been destroyed.

This meant that the only way to stop Toy Maker was to destroy the head, or weaken him enough that he would be forced to leave the puppet.

So the ponies attacked the head with everything that could damage it, and the puppet began to erratically move to make their job harder while it attacked by firing purple lightning bolts from its claws. After receiving some damage, the puppet then snapped its fingers, and the next instant, a couple dozens of toys were dropped from the ceiling a little everywhere in the arena, and they began to attack the ponies. As they were busy against the toys, the puppet took the occasion to place a claw above Apple Bloom, and purple strings came from it and attached themselves to the filly, taking control of her body.

Instead of using her to attack the others, the puppet placed her in front of a toy armed with a big knife, leaving her at its mercy. The toy was quickly rammed by Scootaloo before it could do anything however, but the pegasus filly was rewarded by a punch from Apple Bloom.

Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Little Ghost attacked the arm controlling Apple Bloom and eventually managed to destroy it and to free the filly. Then, before the arm could be replaced, the body of the puppet, well damaged by then, was also destroyed by a well placed energy ball from Little Ghost. Without body, the head dropped on the floor and rolled a little before stopping. The ponies thought that it was the occasion to destroy it, but then, the head began to float by itself.

It didn't even need a body to move.

So, as the ponies finished the last few toys, the head began to chaotically float in the air all over the arena, firing lasers and projectiles of energy from its eyes. After a while, however, it stopped and went to the ceiling, into the darkness. A few seconds later, it came back, dozens of limbs ending in claws now attached to it, like some kind of mutant pony-headed spider.

Oh, and the head was upside down.

It became incredibly difficult to hit the head, most projectiles hitting the limbs instead, and it wasn't helped that the thing was now randomly running in all directions, and it was very rapid! The ponies had to constantly move to get away from it. And to make it worst, with all its limbs, it could attack a lot, sweeping the ground with them, firing projectiles, or even trying to grab one of them.

Still, one by one, the limbs were destroyed, leaving more places for the projectiles to hit the head.Each destroyed limb also made the fight easier. Toy Maker became slower, had less means to attack, and just was more vulnerable.

And so, after a few more minutes, the head finally crumbled into little bits, and the remaining limbs dropped.

With the head destroyed, Toy Maker was left vulnerable.

The stallion was exactly like depicted by the drawing. A white earth pony with a messy black mane, black and white striped limbs, and a large crazy smile. However, contrary to the puppet whose eyes showed pure madness, Toy Maker's eyes were entirely black and were leaking a black liquid. Black tears?

Despite his situation, Toy Maker laughed.

"My children are all suffering~...
They're falling in pieces~...
Naughty foals must be punished~..."

Suddenly, he charged at Apple Bloom, gathering a dark energy around his hoof, ready to strike.

"Pop! Goes the filly!"

Apple Bloom suddenly flashed her Strobulb at max power on his face, making him stop and yell. She then activated her Poltergust, caught him, and slammed him around until she could use the Power Surge at max power.

And Toy Maker finally disappeared in her Poltergust.

The next instant, a golden key with a draconequus skull appeared.

Apple Bloom grabbed it.

"Pop! Goes Toy Maker..."

Thanatos flicked the golden piece, making it topple.

"One down... Three to go."

Author's Note

yes, I know that the last verse sang by Toy Maker didn't rhyme, it's on purpose. Toy Maker's mind was so lost that he didn't care if he rhymed or not.

Chapter 21: Big Brain Part 1

Thanatos, seeing the pieces enter the basement, prepared the pop-corn and took one of the two remaining golden pieces, one looking like a brain, before placing it.

"Say anything you want, you ponies can spawn some really sick characters, not that I'm complaining. Big Brain has a love of sciences beyond anything you can think of, and his curiosity has absolutely no limit. He particularly loves researching on the matter of life and death, and actually gained the obsession of defeating death, or even of controlling it.

After doing a lot of researches on paranormal, he decided to kill himself, judging that he would do better in death. I immediately contacted him. I knew what he wanted to do, but I knew too that that poor fool was in over his head.

Nobody can control Death after all excepted the truly immortal gods, and Big Brain is certainly NOT a god.

But he was still a genius far in advance of his time, so it was the perfect occasion for me. So I made a deal with him: he could do whatever he wanted, I would even help him by supplying him with guinea pigs, but in return, he had to become my head scientist.

He accepted.

And I must say, he impresses me. I could even go so far as to say that I'm proud of him. He doesn't control Death, but he certainly comes close! The guy is very determined and has absolutely no scruples to do whatever needs to be done...

For science.

the ponies barely had time to acknowledge what was in the room that they were attacked by the body of a minotaur whose arms had been replaced, not by sledgehammers, but by chainsaws! Also, the minotaur was slightly taller than the usual ones, had four chainsaws, his head was entirely covered by an helmet spiked all over its surface and leaving only the eyes to be seen, and his body had a full body armor that seemed to be very thick.

The minotaur, who was guarding the next door, gave a terrifying roar and charged at the ponies, chainsaws ready to cut them into bloody or metallic pieces. He was quickly pushed back by a small explosion of energy from Little Ghost. The ghost followed this by charging toward the head of the minotaur as he was regaining his balance and she planted her dagger in the slit of the helmet in front of the eyes. It didn't kill the minotaur but it left him open for Applejack to charge at him with her sword in her mouth without being cut by the chainsaws. When she was close enough, she jumped and she swung her weapon at the neck, at the opening between the helmet and the armor. However, she missed and hit the helmet instead, and the sword bounced on it, leaving only a small scratch.

"Cut one of the legs!" shouted Little Ghost as she took her dagger and planted it again on the minotaur, this time targeting the opening between the helmet and the armor. It still wasn't enough to kill the monster however.

Following Little Ghost's instruction, Applejack avoided the swing of one of the chainsaws and ran around the minotaur until she was behind him, and she swung her sword at one of the legs. Despite all her strength, she was only able to cut to the bone however, and the minotaur immediately turned around to attack her with one of his chainsaws. Applejack lowered her head to avoid being beheaded and swung again at the same leg, and this time, she was able to cut it, making the minotaur topple. That made it easier for Applejack to target his neck and behead him, Little Ghost using her power to stop him from moving his head.

While Little Ghost and Applejack fought the minotaur, the other hunters had to deal with a couple of ghost guards who had been sitting around a table in a corner. One of them attempted to fire a SC-Beam at Little Ghost from behind and was quickly stopped and captured.

Once the calm returned in the room, the hunters remained vigilant and looked around in case more ghosts came, especially invisible ones like the Assassins, or ones like the Shadows and the wraiths that were expected to be encountered in number down there.

As they briefly saw during the fight, the room was partially covered in flesh, like the previous one, going mainly from the entrance door to the exit but also spreading here and there, often ending with one of those eye-balls that watched them. It was clear by now that this flesh and those eyes were connected to something, but they feared to know what. Also, like the entrance door, the exit door, in the West, was a metallic one with a small barred opening at the top. And the gloomy of the previous room had followed them here. No doubt that this will follow them for the remaining of their stay in the basement. That and the disgusting flesh that squished when the ponies walked on it during the earlier action.

Eww...

Deciding to do as if the flesh wasn't present, Apple Bloom looked at the beheaded minotaur and got an idea.

"Applejack, can ya use yer sword to disarm him?"

There were several groans and laughs at her pun before Applejack looked questioningly at her sister and accepted. so, using her sword, she cut the chainsaws from the minotaur's body one by one.

"What are ya planning?" she asked as she did that.

Instead of answering, Apple Bloom inspected one of the chainsaws to see how they could be turned on. The chainsaws had seemingly been made so that they could be activated by the minotaur with just one thought, and there were no buttons or switches.

"Mmh... Little Ghost, maybe ya'd activate one with yer powers? Ya could then use it to better fight those things," she proposed, understanding that this minotaur was only the beginning.

"I can try," replied the ghost before she grabbed the weapon with some difficulty. She was very small, and the chainsaw was rather heavy. But thanks to her powers, she could lift really heavy things. Then, she poured some of her energy into the chainsaw and effectively activated it. She couldn't stop herself from giving a big smile at this.

Apple Bloom smiled too before she calmed herself. "Ah'd probably use one in mah ghost form too, but Ah don't know how Ah'd hold it."

"You should avoid taking one," said Sweetie Belle. "Yes, having a chainsaw will help a lot against those monsters, but as long as she will hold it, Little Ghost won't be able to use her Poltergust. Unless she uses her levitating power, but then, it would constantly drain her of energy and she will need it to fight the next guardian who must be really close now. " She eyed the eye-balls on the walls at this last statement. "At least, even if she can't use the Poltergust, Little Ghost will still be able to use her powers if they're needed."

Apple Bloom and Little Ghost both nodded, agreeing with Sweetie Belle. This meant that Little Ghost won't be able to capture ghosts as long as she was holding the chainsaw, but against all those monsters, she will make a carnage.

More ready to face what was awaiting them, the ponies opened the room, entering what was certainly the heart of the basement: the dungeon. A corridor separating four large cells that could each hold dozens of prisoners. The walls separating them from the corridor were made of bars so the ponies could see that they were all empty excepted the Southwestern cell where the hunters could see a zebra lying on the floor, but it was hard to see if the zebra was still alive or not. Between the cells, the corridor was leading, beside East where the ponies were coming from, toward West, North, and South, each to a metallic door with a barred opening.

The flesh was covering a lot more space here, especially inside the cells where the ground was entirely covered. Dozens of eye-balls were everywhere inside and outside the cells, their attention centered on the hunters, but one continued to look at the zebra in the cell.

Guarding the cells were a couple of griffon bodies. When the hunters entered, they immediately began to approach. When one of them was close enough, he opened his beak, and out of it came a long tongue that ended sharply, threatening to pierce Apple Bloom's head. Apple Bloom avoided it by moving to the side, then grabbed it to stop it from returning inside the griffon's beak. Little Ghost then used her chainsaw to cut the tongue, depriving the griffon of his main weapon and leaving him vulnerable. The other griffon was still there however, approaching, and Applejack went to deal with her with her sword.

The zebra, who wasn't dead, was awakened by the commotion, but before she could understand what was going on, still groggy, she suddenly started to sink in the fleshy ground. When she saw this, then saw the ponies in the corridor killing the griffon monster guards, she called for them, panicked.

"Help!"

At her call, the ponies saw what was going on and gasped.

"Little Ghost!" shouted Apple Bloom.

"On it!" replied the ghost before she teleported just above the screaming and struggling zebra to save her. But it was already too late, and the zebra disappeared just in front of her into the flesh.

Not giving up, Little Ghost blasted the flesh, revealing more flesh under the ground, but no trace of the zebra. She was already gone who knew where. And seeing the abomination the hunters had to fight, they had a good idea of what was her fate, if it wasn't simply to be devoured alive by whatever was that flesh.

"Buck!"

«You did what you could,» said E. Gadd sadly.

It still somewhat ruined the moral of the hunters for a short time while they finished the two guards and fought the few Shadows that came after, but it quickly rose back with one thought: never again. They didn't know since when that nightmare was happening, but it will stop now. They will make sure of it.

When the last Shadow was destroyed, a key appeared and led them to the South door.

When the hunters entered the large semi-circular room, the first thing they saw was the ghost of a bulky yellow earth pony stallion with a hood entirely covering his head piercing a blue ram chained against the wall with a metallic bar heated to white. The ram let out a groan of pain, but surprisingly resisted from yelling, but the stallion still chuckled at this. There were various instruments clearly made to inflict pain around the stallion, and the ram was covered in injuries and scars, some still bleeding.

The ram then remarked the presence of the hunters and turned his to look at them, his eyes widening slightly in surprise.

Several of the ponies watching gasped.

«That's Grogar! What is he doing here?» shouted Twilight.

There wasn't time to wonder about the presence of Grogar however. The ram wasn't the only one who remarked the hunters' presence. The torturer brusquely turned around and threw the metallic bar like a spear at Apple Bloom. The filly, and the others behind her, all moved out of the way and the bar bounced off the door. The stallion then grabbed a big hammer and approached, ready to attack.

Everypony immediately activated their Poltergust, and despite his bulk, the torturer couldn't resist long and was rapidly captured. The door then burst open and another ghost torturer and two of those griffons with the long sharp tongues entered, the torturer armed of some kind of pincer. The griffons were promptly killed by Applejack and Little Ghost while the other hunters took care of the ghost, and the key appeared.

"Impressive," then said Grogar who stared at them with interest.

He had a lot of questions, but the fact was that a group of ponies came and managed to defend themselves against Thanatos' minions. Machines that could capture ghosts? How much has the world advanced while he was trapped in this place for someone to invent something like that? And those ponies managed to come all the way to this place, probably fighting who knew how many of Thanatos' servants. He couldn't pass this occasion.

But some of those ponies were strange. The filly with the bow was clearly alive, and the smallest one was a ghost. The white one seemed to be an undead. But then, there was the orange pegasus and the mare who were made of metal, and there were these two that reminded him of the Smooze but looked like the living filly and the undead filly. A curious group, but it didn't change anything in the end.

The ponies stared at him, and seeing their expressions of mistrust among the pity, they knew who he was, making him smirk.

"I don't know how much time passed since my banishment, but it seems that I retained my reputation." He then stared at one of the eye-balls present in the room. "Destroy those eye-balls and we will talk. Big Brain use those to watch us."

"Why should we obey you?" asked Applejack. "We could simply leave ya here to yer fate. We know who ya're, Grogar, and we know that ya're the greatest evil that the ponies ever encountered."

"True. But I could help, and you have nothing to fear from me. I have lost all my powers, and you will lose nothing listening to me. I suspect that we have the same enemy."

The ponies looked at Grogar was suspicion, then exchanged looks before they nodded. They then dispersed to destroy the eye-balls, using their weapons to pop them. Once all the eyes were destroyed, they walked back toward Grogar and sat in front of him (excepted Little Ghost who remained floating in place).

"Alright, talk," said Apple Bloom.

«Don't trust him. Whatever he says, never trust him,» warned Discord.

"So, am I correct in assuming that you aren't in this place for sightseeing?" asked Grogar.

"Eeyup. We're here to deal with Thanatos and his minions," said Apple Bloom.

"You do know that Thanatos is in a different league than the simple ghosts, right?"

"We came prepared, as ya saw."

"Even so, capturing him will not be a simple task," said Grogar before his smirk grew. "But I know of a mean to make it easier for you."

The ponies' eyebrows raised at this before Applejack said "Go on."

"Big Brain, the head scientist, created something not long ago that allows a ghost to absorb the powers of another. It is what he used to absorb my powers, and since then, he uses them to help himself in his experiments. I haven't seen the result, but I know that he is using my necromancy to experiment on souls, advance in his researches in Life and Death, and create new minions for his master. Doing those things on simple physical bodies wasn't enough for him, he had to go further."

Apple Bloom paled. "So we're up against a mad doctor with necromancy powers?"

"Yes, and he will probably use that invention on you if you end up fighting him. And since it worked on me, then it will very certainly work on you and your friends."

"Even ghosts bound to bodies?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yes, even them," answered Grogar, making the ponies exchange worried looks. "But it seems to work only on weak and weakened ghosts, so if any of you possesses a minimum of power, you should have nothing to fear at first. But with my powers, Big Bain became really powerful and will have no problems weakening you enough to strike. He could, for example, send against you legions of the poor souls now under his control until you're too tired to resist. But! If you free me, I could ensure that it won't happen. Really, it will be easy. Just kill me, and as a ghost, I will remain hidden until you fight him and he takes out that thing, and then, I will rob it from it. With that invention in our possession, we will be able to absorb all the powers we want until we've enough to deal with that bonehead."

The ponies looked at him in shock. "Ya're asking us to kill ya? We can't!" shouted Applejack.

Grogar gave them a deadpan stare. "Look at me. I barely have meats on my bones, I lost so much blood that it's only thanks to my will that I'm not unconscious, and I am powerless. I will not be able to do anything in that body. This is the only solution for me. I must die." He smirked again. "And remember that I am the most powerful necromancer of the world. Once I recuperate my powers, creating myself a new body will be child's play."

The ponies exchanged looks again before they heard Discord huff.

«He will turn against you at the first occasion. I can already see it. As soon as he get his hooves on that power-absorbing device, he will use it on that Big Brain guy to recuperate his powers and whatever other powers Big Brain possesses. He will then backstab you, absorb your powers, probably take you under his control, absorb the powers of any ghosts he could find, go deal with Thanatos, and unleash his wrath on Equestria,» said Discord.

Doing as if he hadn't just talked, Apple Bloom looked back at Grogar before nodding. "Okay."

Everypony looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Are ya sure?" asked Applejack.

Apple Bloom nodded. "Eeyup. Ah don't know how the fight against Big Brain'll go with that device of his, so it'll be nice to've a back up plan. We can always deal with him if he tries anything."

This made Grogar chuckle. That girl was a clever one but there was no way for her to win against him. "Well, go on. take that dagger and plant it right in my heart. It will do the job."

But Apple Bloom hesitated then. She really wasn't willing to kill someone. Even if that someone was Grogar asking her to kill him. "Uh... How about we free ya and... ya stab yerself?"

Grogar rolled his eyes at this and muttered "Typical..." before he simply nodded.

So Little Ghost reluctantly used her powers to free Grogar from the chains, and the ram dropped on the ground. Too weak to stand, he simply asked Apple Bloom to give him the dagger, which she did before immediately walking away just in case Grogar would attempt to stab her. Grogar then rolled on his back and pointed the dagger at his heart. Just before he planted it, the ponies turned their head, not wanting to witness his death.

A few minutes later, it was over, and the ghost of Grogar now floated above his body.

"Do you have a mean to destroy it?" he asked the ponies as he threw the bloody dagger at Apple Bloom's hooves. She hesitated to take it. "I don't want Big Brain to use it to create one of his things."

"We... We can burn it," said Applejack.

They all nodded, then pointed their Poltergusts at the corpse before they let out streams of fire. After a few seconds, they stopped and simply stared at the body as it burned.

"Good. Now you should continue your job while I go into hiding," said Grogar. "We will see each others again in the fight against Big Brain." At this, he flew into a wall, leaving the ponies.

They stared at the burning body again for a few more seconds before they finally got themselves to take the key that appeared earlier and exit the room. Back in the dungeon, they quickly dealt with a couple of wraiths and another of those griffon things before they went to the North door and unlocked it.

Author's Note

I decided to cut the chapter in two. If you saw the map of the basement, then you know that we barely started.