//------------------------------//
// Chapter 20: Commander Hurricane 
// Story: Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

It really wasn't hard to pass all those guards but rather repetitive. Trap, slam, power surge, capture, repeat, and occasionally move to avoid a projectile (Applejack and her metallic body being really good to use as cover). The room from which the guards came from revealed to be dormitories, full of bunk beds, enough to have over a dozen guards per rooms, and the ponies counted a total of seven rooms, six in the hallway to the fitness room and the seventh at the left before a dead end and some other unknown rooms. Once all the guards were captured, and that all other dangers were eliminated (a golem made of broken gargoyle parts, some abominations, a few other ghosts, a Metallion), the ponies decided to verify those last rooms just in case. The rooms, four in total, revealed to be unlocked, but were nothing else than shower rooms and restrooms empty of interest. They just ended up fighting more ghosts in them.

So they finally followed the arrow of the key to the double door at the end of the hallway, the one leading to the training yard.

That was it. Behind this door, Commander Hurricane himself was awaiting them with more guards.

Among the six Founders, there really were two that worried the hunters: Hurricane and Clover. The first was a skilled military. The second was a powerful mage. Both promised tough fights. But they weren't sure yet which one will be the worst.

They unlocked the door and opened it, finally entering the training yard.

It was a very vast space taking a good chunk of the Eastern side of the first floor filled with training dummies, targets, and racks filled with weapons. Just at the right of the entrance was a small habitation made of stone from which the distinctive sound of somepony regularly hitting metal with metal could be heard. A large stone wall closed the yard East and North, and two sets of stairs at both ends of the yard were present to access to the top. As they had seen from the windows earlier, many guards were training, and the hunters easily spotted among them the distinctive armor of Commander Hurricane who was observing the others as they trained.

Before the guards had even spotted them, the hunters began firing around with their Poltergusts, painfully interrupting their training. Hurricane turned toward the hunters but remained away, letting the guards attack. When he understood that the guards had no chance winning, he then looked at the small habitation and did a small sign with his head. The next instant, the sound of metal hitting metal stopped before Hurricane flew up to have a better view of the hunters as they were now surrounded by the guards. Wind then gathered around his wings and used them to send two waves of wind sharp enough to cut stone. The wind was however stopped by Little Ghost and her shield.

Then, some of the guards parted ways to let pass a grey minotaur wearing a leather apron and holding a huge hammer coming from the stone habitation. The minotaur didn't approach much however before he hit the ground with his hammer, creating a powerful shockwave that charged at the ponies who were all forced to jump (excepted Little Ghost). Before the minotaur could create another shockwave, the ponies judged it best to disperse. Apple Bloom charged toward the minotaur, Little Ghost flew toward Hurricane, and the others went to deal with the remaining guards.

As Apple Bloom approached the minotaur, she had to jump above another shockwave. Once she was close enough, the minotaur attempted to sweep her with his hammer but she avoided it with a jump to the side before she activated her Poltergust on him. However, he resisted the vortex with a groan and attempted to crush her under his hammer. Again, Apple Bloom jumped to the side to avoid it, then had to jump again to avoid a shockwave created by the hit. As Apple Bloom continued to weaken the minotaur little by little with her Poltergust, he continued to attempt to hit her, forcing her to move continuously.

Meanwhile, Little Ghost was against the commander who, while he wasn't as powerful as her, showed that he wasn't commander for nothing. He easily avoided anything she sent against him all the while doing his best to remain away so she couldn't catch him. When she teleported directly beside him however, he immediately attacked her with a slash of one of his wings sharpened by wind, forcing her in the defensive long enough for him to get out of range. there was still a moment, eventually, where she avoided the slash of the wing and was able to immediately counterattack by activating her Poltergust, catching the stallion. However, he rapidly freed himself by countering the vortex of the Poltergust with his own vortex, making them cancel each other.

He didn't even seem to take her seriously as he was regularly looking down to see how the battle below evolved. When he saw Apple Bloom capture the smithy minotaur and that less than one fourth of the guards remained, he frowned, huffed, then looked at the top of the wall. Having a bad feeling, Little Ghost followed his eyes and saw that on top of the wall many archers were ready to fire at Apple Bloom. Hurricane then gave them a small nod, and they all fired.

Little Ghost gave a panicked "Eep!" and teleported beside Apple Bloom before she used her shield to protect her as best as she could from the rain of arrows. Apple Bloom used bursts of air to repel any arrows that her friend didn't managed to stop. Seeing that the arrows weren't stopping from coming, she then turned herself into a ghost. She exchanged a look with Little Ghost, and they then both flew on the wall to deal with the archers, hoping to capture, or at least incapacitate a maximum of them before she would be forced to return to normal. They were quickly joined by Scootaloo who rolled up the wall to help them when she saw what was happening. As Apple Bloom returned to normal, the others joined them one by one, having finished with the guards in the yard, some taking the North staircase while the others took the East one, dividing themselves into two groups.

Hurricane, meanwhile, had moved between the two ballistas present on the Northeastern part of the wall and began to manipulate them with his power to make them fire at the hunters, each targeting a different group. Little Ghost rapidly destroyed the two of them with powerful explosive blasts. This made Hurricane huff again as he watched his archers disappear one after another. Eventually, he decided to fly toward the section of the wall beside the library tower. As soon as the hunters were done with the archers, they regrouped and followed him.

As they ran toward the library, passing beside the Wind Tower, some spires, and a balcony in the third floor from which they could slightly hear the organ play, ghosts regularly appeared to try to stop them, mainly guards but also armed and armored Pranksters and Tricksters as well as Bulkys, Buffys, Sneakers, Creepers, and Assassins. Sometimes, they would find  purple puddles, Huggers, awaiting on the path, and a Goost even blocked their path before the wall turned North toward the library.

Finally, they reached Hurricane in an intersection where the wall continued North until stopping before the roof of the North Wing but also went West toward the auditorium. As he face the hunters, Hurricane began to fly backward toward the dead end at the North, and stopped once he reached it, the ponies ready to attack him.

But then, Hurricane waved a leg, and the next instant, several Buffys appeared behind the ponies and formed a wall before they began to slowly advance. The ponies, cornered, couldn't escape as the wall of Buffys approached, and since the Buffys weren't affected by the vortex of the Poltergust if attacked from the front, then they had to find something else. Thankfully, they had many other ways to attack a Buffy by the front: elemental projectiles, Poltergun beams, Little Ghost's powers, and even Applejack's bucks all worked very well.

While they were busy dealing with the Buffys, however, Hurricane escaped again, flying toward the auditorium, but the hunters were hot on his tail soon enough. Before long, the wall turned South toward a staircase that led up to a section of the wall in a different level. Where the wall was until now at the third floor, this section on the auditorium was at the fourth, going around whatever room(s) was (were) situated above the auditorium. Hurricane awaited them on a larger squared section in the Northwestern corner.

Once they reached him, Hurricane waved a leg again, and several guards equiped of large shields appeared to block the two exits before more guards, archers this time, appeared behind them and began to fire at the sky, making arrows rain all over the squared section while protected by the shield users.

Well, darn. Unlike the Buffys, projectiles won't work on the shields. It will certainly be harder to get out of this situation. To make matter worse, two Puffers appeared and began to puff air at them, making dodging the arrows harder as they had to resist being pushed by the strong winds.

Applegoo and Sweetiegoo each took on a Puffer to stop them. Applejack and Little ghost, the powerhouse that they were, both charged at the two lines of shield users to get through them and attack the archers. The remaining hunters then used the holes opened in the defense lines to capture the rest. Seeing that their strategy had failed, the shield users separated and began to directly attack, attempting to bash the ponies with their shields. Hurricane himself began to send sharp winds with his wings. Because of the shields, it was pretty much impossible to attack their users from the front, so the hunters had no choice but target the ones that had their back turned to them as they faced a different hunter.

Capturing the ghosts while avoiding the sharp winds sent by Hurricane wasn't easy, but as soon as the clones of finished capturing the Puffers, they began firing Poltergun beams at the commander. He was hit by a first beam that made him grunt, but he managed to avoid the others before he decided to fly away toward the South. With Hurricane gone, the hunters had no problem capturing the remaining ghosts.

They then followed Hurricane again, fighting more ghosts on the way. They descended another staircase, returning in the third floor, and moved East, beside the squared tower, until they found Hurricane on the section of wall just above the entrance of the castle, between the two small towers that flanked it.

As soon as they reached the section, the door of the two towers suddenly opened and many guards and possessed armors came out and surrounded the hunters. As the hunters fought the ghosts, Hurricane then did another wave with his leg, and an adult dragon suddenly rose from the entrance of the castle.

The situation reminded Apple Bloom of the battle against the dragon on the balcony of the Gem Manor, excepted that there were less place to move around and the dragon wasn't alone. Thankfully, she wasn't alone too this time, she was better equipped, more skilled, and instead of statues, she could use the two towers as cover if the dragon breathed fire.

Red Mode was a must against the dragon, and they also began to fire many Poltergun beams at the dragon to weaken him while they also dealt with the guards and the armors. Hurricane decided to help the dragon and restarted sending sharp winds, but the ponies firing at him in return persuaded him to just fly away and leave the matter to the dragon.

But the dragon didn't last long against the team, especially after they dealt with all the guards and possessed armors. Even a grown dragon can't resist long against seven Poltergusts in Red Mode, especially after being weakened by dozens of Poltergun beams help by some powerful attacks from a powerful ghost.

With the dragon captured, the way was open for the ponies to chase Hurricane. They passed beside the Ice Tower before the wall turned North, and before long, they were back at the section of wall East of the training yarn where Hurricane awaited them just in front of the water tower.

He looked very annoyed.

Then, as they approached him, he flew into the waterfall falling in the tower. Suddenly, probably using his ghost powers,  a huge quantity of water vapor came out of the waterfall. Once he created enough vapor, Hurricane then came out of the waterfall and flew into the newly formed cloud of vapor that now covered a good chunk of the sky above this side of the castle. The cloud became darker, thunder started to rumble inside it, and winds slightly stronger than the one breathed by the Puffers blew. Lightning then started to randomly strike before Hurricane came out of the cloud. He then raised a hoof and lighting struck it. However, instead of electrocuting him, a part of the lightning remained on his hoof, forming what seemed to be a spear made of pure electricity. But then, he grabbed the other extremity of the bolt, revealing it to be actually more like one of those fighting rods.

He then finally flew down to fight the hunters directly, rapidly flying right in the middle of their group which took them off guard. As the hunters turned to face him, he thrust his lightning weapon at Apple Bloom who judged it best to dodge the attack rather than blocking it with her Poltergust, not wanting to take the risk of damaging it.

The Poltergust was lightning-proof, but a direct attack by a lightning weapon? She wasn't sure it would resist that well.

By then, the others activated their Poltergusts (Little Ghost ensuring that she wouldn't get caught by the others) and trapped the commander. As he resisted against all the vortexes, he raised a leg toward the cloud, and the next instant, all the hunters who had him trapped were suddenly struck by lightning. Only Apple Bloom was untouched as she hadn't activated her Poltergust.

As she saw her friends being electrified, Apple Bloom activated her Poltergust and trapped the commander. She then immediately jumped to the side, avoiding a lightning that struck not even a second later at her previous position. However, Hurricane used the same trick he used against Little Ghost and cancelled Apple Bloom's vortex with his own vortex. He then followed it by attacking Apple bloom several times with his lightning rod, and the filly had no choice but to use her Poltergust to parry him. Hurricane then suddenly flew behind her after a violent strike and thrust his weapon at her back, but as soon as he moved to fly behind her, Apple Bloom pointed the end of her Poltergust behind her and fired a Poltergun beam, hitting him, stopping his attack.

As Hurricane groaned in pain, Apple bloom then turned to face him, activated her Poltergust, and before he could do anything, slammed him. But as he was slammed, he still managed to free himself and quickly flew away as the others attacked him, avoiding a few beams. In the air, he then grabbed his weapon like a spear and threw it. surprisingly, he didn't target anypony and threw his weapon in the middle of the group. From the impact point, electricity then spread a few meters all around it, electrifying everypony excepted Little Ghost.

Little Ghost fired several beams at Hurricane in return, but he avoided all of them. She then approached him, and he quickly raised his leg, lightning striking it to materialize another lightning spear/rod. Rather than attempting to capture him again knowing that it wouldn't be effective, Little Ghost flew right in front of him and sent an energy blast right on his face. Despite the attack, Hurricane rapidly recovered and thrust his weapon at the filly ghost, piercing her and electrifying her. She teleported just behind him and fired several Poltergun beams at him, all of them hitting as she was just too close for him to effectively dodge. Without turning, Hurricane countered by thrusting his weapon backward just beside himself, taking Little Ghost by surprise and piercing her again.

Then, Apple Bloom, as a ghost, suddenly charged at him from below while holding his previous lightning weapon and pierced him, electrifying him. The weapon, however, also had for effect to electrifying her as it wasn't her weapon made with her power, and she hadn't learned to control electricity to ensure that she could avoid this.

Then, the others began to fire Poltergun beams at Hurricane from below.

Finally, Little Ghost freed herself from the weapon still piercing her and activated her Poltergust, making sure to trap only the stallion, not Apple Bloom who was just behind but rapidly flew away just in case but still left the weapon piercing the commander.

Hurricane couldn't free himself this time but still resisted. Despite everything, he turned and threw his weapon at Little Ghost, but she successfully avoided it by flying to the side. So Hurricane grabbed the weapon still piercing him and attempted to get it out, but he finally lost his strength and was captured.

Following his capture, the cloud lost its power and dispersed, and a key appeared back in the training yard.

Releasing a sigh, Apple Bloom flew back to the others and returned back to normal. With a groan, she then dropped on her belly, taking big breathes.

"Ah can't believe he made us run all around the castle..."

Scootaloo chuckled. "Looks like he wanted to give us a tour."

Little ghost approached them with a giggle. "It was worth it. The view wasn't that bad. Would have done without the electricity at the end however."

Apple Bloom groaned again. "And Ah still don't know if Clover'll be worst or not."

"At least, only him remains among the six," said Applejack before she placed a hoof on her sister. "Want me to lift you on mah back a moment?"

Apple Bloom smiled at her. "No thanks. Ah just feel sore everywhere because of the electricity. It'll quickly pass."

"Let me help about this," said Sweetie Belle before she sang, healing her friend.

"Thanks!"

They remained a couple of minutes to recover their energy, passing it talking about the fight and watching the waterfall, before they moved back to the training yard to take the key. Before following it, they used the key they got from Hurricane's chamber to open the other doors leading to the yard, one South to the hallway near the entrance to the East Wing, the other beside the North staircase to the North side of the first wind with the gameshow room, the funeral home, and so on.

Once done, they passed the door from which they entered the training yard and followed the arrow of the key they just got.

It led them in the hallway between the armory and the fitness room where they had to fight a praying mantis pony, a sledgehammer minotaur, and some ponies with their head replaced by giant eye-balls.

Speaking of eye-ball, the one that Little ghost had destroyed on the flesh covering some of the wall at the end had returned and was promptly destroyed again.

After the turn was a staircase leading down to the basement, into a dark, gloomy room totally empty. The only thing particular with this room was that the flesh covered some parts of the walls as well as a little of the ceiling and the floor, going from the staircase to the only door in the room, in the South wall. The door was a metal one with a small, bared window, and the wall surrounding it was entirely covered in flesh with half a dozen eye-balls present, all staring at the hunters as they approached, following them.

Apple Bloom gulped. She really wasn't ready for whatever horrors awaited them behind this door. The eye-balls and flesh covering some of the room were already disturbing enough.

Finally, they unlocked the door, and under the watch of the eye-balls, they passed it, the door closing behind them.



"Ṁ̸̢͓̥̙͓̠̼̀͑̆̈́̎͝͝ḿ̴̧͕̻̖͓̞̥̘͔̺͍̏̎̈́̀̚̕͝͝h̴̨͉̲̲̮̘̘̦̿͜͜.̸̧̞͚̥͓̺̥̣̅́̋̆̐̈̂̉.̸̘̖̾͒̍̋.̵̗̘͖̞̝͓̆̎͂̄̓̈́̔̒̋̎̓͝ ̵̢̨̲̳̺̬̝̙̩̪͙̞̻̋̈́̾͊͛̉̽T̵̨̠͚̪̯̖̮̥̦͈͛̃̂͊̽͛͌ͅͅḩ̴̢̥͎̝̱̫̳̳͖̙͕̬̔͗̓ę̶̪͖͖͈̳̋̈́͠ý̴͈̉͋̈́̔̑͊̈́̃͊̎ ̵̧̜̠͇͕̦̲͔̟̫̒̂͛͂̈́̀̓́͊̈́̏̐ͅa̸͚̦͙̍̄̈̑̽̃͑̈́̍̓̅͠͝r̸̨̯͈̩̯̦̽̎̏̈̿̂͒ṟ̵̨̛͚̣̲̩̥̝͙̯̅͌̅̋͌̔̔̚͘ͅị̵͓̟̱̂͒͑̿̽͝v̴̨̝̱̻͔̀̓̒͂̋̈͝e̸̙̰̮͉̣̅̓̽̓̄͗́͆̽͠ ̵̦͉͓͓̼͉͕̮̤̼̗̞́͌̾̇̀͊̈̑̈́̕͝ͅj̷̡͔͚̰̞̗͆̃̉̎̈́̄̂̃͗̐͘͝͝ụ̴̡̢̩̝̘̣͓̣̭̜̙̩̽͑̂͂̒̽̃̐͋̊̏ş̸͉̺̬͕̆͗̈́̂̐͋̇̌̀͒̽̒t̸̻͉̱̭̬̲̞̜̘̠̻̺̀͛̐̒̎̄̌͗͊̎ͅ ̶̢̧̛̗͔̪̝͈̤͍͓̔͂̑̏̊͆̂̕͜i̴̜̫̞̖̝͇̜͉͔̰̽̓̈̆̚͜͝n̵̡̺̮͈̝̟̣͖͍̬͚̊̕͜ ̵͕̦̮͑̇́̍͛͑̄͝ẗ̸͎̬̬̟̤͊̀̏i̷͕̝͍̲̟̇͜m̴̧̡̨̡̤͓͕̥͖̈́é̴̛̝̠̖̓̽̿͐̚.̴̬͓̤̄̆̌̊̆̀̕̕̕͝ͅ ̷͕͓̘̬͔͓̙̞̹̺͛͑̏̃̋̐͒̈́Į̶̩͙͓͎̝̖͎̾̉̀̀̀̍̽̉̕͝ ̸͎̞́̏̇͊̀͠w̵̗̺̠̩̠͎̩͖͕̮͌͊͒̃̆͒̀͒̚ͅͅa̶͚̞͙͈̗̽s̸̤̪͔͍̓ ̸̥̠̋̋̓͗̿á̵̡̛̺̗̑̌b̷͇̖̯̦͓̄͂͆͌̀͛́̆͛̐̌̂ó̶̮͛̇̈̕u̷̝̫̯͍̥͖̖͊̀̅͑̔̄̕t̶̛̹̫̫͓̟̣͎͎͓̉̽̈́̀̓̄͊̈̚͠ ̵̬͉̦̝̝̻̠͉͙̎̓̇̇̈̈́̈́͜͠͠͝t̴̡̛͈̭̯̫̟̳̦̹̟̭͌̇̉̏̇̈́̋̽̚͘͝ǫ̶̰̻͛̓͗̍͐̎́̚͘͜͝͝ ̴̡̫̼̱̙̭̻̔̆̋̍͋̔͝ŗ̶̺̞̝̦͉̦͎͒̂͒̈́̐͆̈́͆̍̈́̀͘͝ừ̵̛̪͕͕̊̈́̿̌͐̄̓̓͝n̶̨͔̪͚͖͎̪͙̍̌́̀͛ ̵̨̼̟̳͉̘̗̤̭͕̳̬̊̈́͛̈́̅́̑͂̍͐̆o̷̡̖̯͎̙̯̳̗͌̓͐́͆͋̅̃̆̚͝ͅũ̷̼̓̋̄̊̒̚t̷̟̽͊͗͗͗͆͆̇̀̚ ̴̛̥̫̣͖̾̽̋̑͌͊̑̎̕͝͝ô̷̙̘̲̺̣̊̃͗̓f̶̬̃̌̐̃ ̸̨̨̞͇̈́͗̂̀̈́̀̈́͋͆̕͠͝ģ̵͔͔̗̮̦͔͍̤̳̼̬̈́͌̈́̉̒̈́͌̐̈́̚ṵ̸̦̜͎̉͒̉ͅî̴̦̘̝̥̤͕̰̑̿͝͠ṉ̷̢̨̈͐̈́̋̈͑̈́͊͜͝ȩ̸̧̭͈̬͈̩̩͎̀͂́͂͒͐́̀̒̆͝a̶͚̥̞̒̑̔́̿̕ ̵̟̖̟͎̫̗͎͉̹̓̓͊́̚p̶̡̛̯͇̝̙͈̫̖͐̃̈́̀͑̓̅̀̍̚͝͝i̶̡̧̡̩͎̝̗̼̰̝̳̿̓̆̽̾̾͐͐͒̅̋̃͜͠g̸̨̢͉̮̺̲̗̽́͝s̵͎̳̜̻̣͔͔̝̫̈̐̄̉̎̍̊̂̈́̑.̸͔̱̝̇͋͆̇̎̕ ̷̨̡̧̢̟͍̝̜̭̪̹͔̬̒͛̓͌Ȇ̶͕̼̄̐̔̐̃̚͝h̷̛͎͈̃̄͛̔̈́͑̆͘͠ȩ̸̗̺͎̮̙̫̙͍̭̪͕͓̇̋̐͂̐̈́̈́̆͘͠ḣ̸̨̜̪̪̤̝̖̗̀̾́͐͐̈́̀̓͝è̵̢̞̥̝̝̭̩̤̉̽͑̃̔̏͐̽͊̈́͠ͅh̵̡̛͕̠̱͕̜͕͇̠͎͍̾̍̈́̐̓̍͛̄̑͆͊̕͜e̴̘͕͙̦͈͇̟̗̬͎̜̊̈́̔̓́͑͘͜ḧ̴͚̘̣̲̥́̈́͗͑͜ͅ.̶̛̯̩̥̞̻̟̈́͛̿̏̑̏͊̀̋͘͠"