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 beg, 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.