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 Southest, 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 hard 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 quikly 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 following 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 room 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:
TOY WING
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.