//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Power // Story: Apple Bloom's Mansion 3.5: Luigi's Mansion // by Lucar //------------------------------// They moved to the Mushroom Kingdom's Evershade Valley where they began to build two portals in Gloomy Manor's lab (they had to take most of the machines in there and put them in E. Gadd's bunker not far of the manor). Here was the first part of the plan: once they finished building the two portals, they would call Discord and ask him to send one of the portals to the Gloomy Manor's lab of Equestria's Evershade Valley along with Twilight and Smart Spirit. The two would then prepare their portal and activate it. The portals being linked to each other, then this should activate the other in the Mushroom Kingdom's Evershade Valley, opening a stable pathway between the two dimensions. While they worked, E. Gadd also added a last modification to Apple Bloom's Poltergust. More specifically to the headpiece to link it to the Spectral Transmograftizer so that when Apple Bloom pressed the button of the device to turn into a ghost, a countdown would appear in the visor to show her how much time remained before she had to press the button again and turn back to normal. However, the Spectral Transmograftizer device needed a cooldown after its use, something that the cabin version didn't have because there was more place to put the necessary stuff to avoid such a thing from happening. Turning someone into a ghost and back to normal needed a lot of energy! As a result, after each use, no matter how long Apple Bloom remained as a ghost, she needed to wait about two minutes to turn into a ghost again. E. Gadd also added this cooldown time for the visor to display. After that, having enough to train against simple holograms, E. Gadd sent the ghost hunters into real haunted mansions (there were some of them a little everywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom) full of jerk Boos who gave Mario some problems in the past. Those mansions were quite the challenge, not because of the ghosts (they were too easy to catch, even the Big Boos), but because, like said previously, they were mazes of illusions where the exit was often hidden. E. Gadd even sent them to an island not far of the Mushroom Kingdom: Delfino Island (named like this because the island had the shape of a dolphin in the middle of a jump out of water). The island was a beautiful tropical paradise where Mario apparently had a major adventure previously. Some of the main features were a volcano in the head, a park theme in a smaller island forming the tail, and a hotel present on the beach at the beginning of the tail. It turned out that the hotel was haunted, and it was time for some ghost hunters to clean it up. Beside, there was an unique species of Pink Boos in this hotel that E. Gadd was interrested to research. Apparently, if those Boos were hit by water, they turned into platforms for a few seconds. The manager, a member of one of the local species named Piantas, was delighted to finally have someone coming to catch the Boos. Those stupid ghosts were causing a lot of problems both to the staff and the customers. Nothing harmful, thankfully, but still enough that people were now coming to the building less often. If this continued, the manager would have been forced to close it for good. The hotel cleaned of ghosts (even receiving a very good pay for this), the ponies then took the occasion to have a small vacation there for a few days. In their mind, it was the best vacation ever. They never went to a tropical island before, and the Piantas really did everything to make their stay the best possible. Everything was good to explore, from Delfino Plaza with its many stands selling delicious fruits to Pianta Village, a charming village where they could discover some local customs, passing by the Bianco Hills with its mill, Gelato Beach, without forgetting Pinna Park. The fillies especially loved Pinna Park. Hard to imagine that Mario apparently fought a giant Bowser Bot right in this park. Once they were back in Evershade Valley, E. Gadd gladly took the pay given by the hotel's manager, then continued to work on the portals which by now were almost finished. The prof also thought about opening a ghost hunting business. If the pay given by the manager was anything to be judged on, it would add some serious benefice for his experiments and studies. In the end, almost a year had passed in the Mushroom Kingdom since Apple Bloom's arrival when the portals were finished. As planned, they called Discord and they explained to him what they wanted to do. Understanding, he then snapped his finger before he immediately looked a little tired. Everyone looked around to see what he did, only to see that nothing apparently changed. "What did you do?" asked Twilight. "I permanently slowed this universe's time to make it flow as rapidly as our universe's time. Imagine all the problems this would have caused if left like it was with our two universes now linked." "You can do that?!" "Of course. But it was very tiring. Doing something in an universal scale is very draining. Do you mind if I wait a few minutes before I transport you and the portal back to our dimension?" They didn't mind at all, so they waited, and when Discord was ready, he opened a portal back to Equestria's Evershade Valley in the fabric of space and transported Twilight, Smart Spirit, and one of the portals through it. A few minutes later, the portal left was activated, and Twilight came out of it, confirming that the two portals, and so the two dimensions, were linked successfully. Then began the second part of the plan to give Apple Bloom a huge boost of power as a ghost. As E. Gadd, Twilight, and Smart Spirit created the portals, they also created a machine just outside the prof's bunker. This machine was a capsule with many prods inside and outside. It's purpose was to give Apple Bloom the power boost she wanted. For this, Apple Bloom will have to enter the capsule. The machine will then, through the prods, absorb a small amount of ghost energy from all the ghosts gathered around it and put this absorbed energy into the filly. No need to precise that it will be very painful, but they hadn't any other way. "Why not power up a ghost already powerful like Little Ghost?" one would ask. "Why not do this to ALL the ghosts?" another would wonder. Yes, a powered up Little Ghost could probably kick Thanatos' bony butt, and having a whole army of powered up ghosts would be even better! BUT! This machine only worked with the Spectral Transmograftizer. All the absorbed energy will be stored in the device, and once Apple Bloom will press the button to turn into a ghost, all that stored energy will be transfered into the filly during the transformation process. As for why they had to build the portals and link the two dimensions first, it was to be able to gather as much ghosts as possible to transfer their energy into Apple Bloom. The more ghosts present and the more powerful they're, the more powerful she will become. And between the two dimensions, Apple Bloom and the others made a LOT of ghost friends, including some powerful ones (Little Ghost being at the top). Gathering them took some time however. They had to go to all the places where there was at least a friendly ghost and tell them about the plan. Most of them were in the two Evershade Valleys, in E. Gadd's hotel, in Apple Bloom's mansion, and in Ponyville, but there were some who were in other places, haunting small houses, cemeteries, hospitals, and so on. All ghosts bound to an object were included, even if there weren't many left. After finding where Apple Bloom was, Discord freed all the ghosts that were trapped in dolls (most of them passing on). Everypony was happy to see them again and to see, especially, that Apple Bloom was alright. Many were surprised when they remarked that the filly had grown a little (one year passed for her, after all). And all couldn't stop laughing when they saw Eternal Rest trapped in a portrait, Apple Bloom placing it in her chamber in her mansion (she had a chamber in the mansion, and one in the farm, without counting the one she now had in E. Gadd's hotel). They weren't the only one happy to see Apple Bloom back however. In the spiritual world, Thanatos was also very happy and couldn't wait to start a new game with her. However, he was curious to see what she was planning first. Why was she gathering all the ghosts? Then, he heard the plan and he smirked. Oh. This will be interesting! he thought. Thousands and thousands of ghosts from both dimensions were now gathered around the machine, Apple Bloom in it. E. Gadd was beside the machine, looking at all the ghosts gathered. That was a lot more than he expected. Apple Bloom wasn't kidding. She really befriended a lot of them in her hunts. He actually began to worry that the Spectral Transmograftizer won't be able to handle all that energy without exploding. Apple Bloom was worried too, but she was still determined as she looked at him and nodded, ready to press the button of the device on her chest. E. Gadd nodded back, then looked again at all the ghosts who readied themselves as he placed his hand on a big red button on the side of the capsule. He pressed it, and the machine activated. A couple of seconds later, it began to absorb the energy of the ghosts, only 1% of each. The energy came out of the ghosts (who groaned a little in pain), traversed the air, entered the machine by the prods outside of it, then was sent into the Spectral Transmograftizer by the prods inside the captule. Apple Bloom almost immediately felt pain as the device began to overheat, burning her. Having no choice, she pressed the button, beginning the transformation into a ghost. However, where it usually only took one second to transform with only a small light emitting when it happened, the transformation took this time a dozen of seconds, continuing until the machine stopped absorbing energy. Almost as soon as she pressed the button, a blinding light emitted from the capsule, forcing everyone to look away, especially the ghosts from E. Gadd's dimension who were more vulnerable to light. Then, the light disappeared not long after the machine stopped absorbing energy, revealing Apple Bloom in her ghost form, eyes closed and teeth clenched in pain before she passed through the capsure and on the ground. E. Gadd quickly pressed the button of the Spectral Transmograftizer to turn her back to normal before he helped her to get back on her hooves. They were quickly surrounded by everyone, closest friends and family at the front. "Are ya alright?" asked Applejack worriedly. Apple Bloom took some big breaths. "Y-yeah. The pain's already disappearing." "How do you feel?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom frowned in thought, then sat before looking at her front hooves. "Not... different, actually. Guess Ah'll have to wait to turn into a ghost again to see if it worked." "Well then..." began Little Ghost before she whistled. Some of the ghosts nodded and flew away before they came back, transporting various objects, from small ones like plates to big one like closets. When Twilight saw that there were some books among the objects, she quickly took them, glaring at the ghosts for even thinking of using books to experiment Apple Bloom's power. When they were done, forming a huge pile of objects, the Spectral Transmograftizer had long since cooled down. so Apple Bloom pressed the button and turned into a ghost again. She still couldn't feel anything different at first, but when she began to gather energy, she remarked that she definitively had more of it. Quickly thinking, she threw the energy toward the pile of objects, not in the form of a ball, lightning bolt, or anything else however, but as an invisible force that sent ALL the objects flying up in the air in all directions. "Woah..." said Apple Bloom and many others as they looked up at the objects that went high in the sky. Then the objects began to drop back. "Uh oh..." said Apple Bloom. "TO THE BUNKER!" yelled E. Gadd before he began to run toward the entrance of his bunker not far. Everyone with a physical body followed him to avoid the rain of objects, Apple Bloom having to turn back to normal on the way. More training to come to control that new power...