//------------------------------//
// Chapter 19: The Military Section 
// Story: Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

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.