//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: The Abomination // Story: Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death // by Lucar //------------------------------// 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."