//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Ghost Busting 3 // by Edguy0009 //------------------------------// With a ding, the elevator doors opened up with the Makuta and three fillies exited the elevator onto the third floor that contained shops with a revolving door to the immediate right that led to said shops, but it was locked leaving them no choice but to go left and search for the key with the alcove to the left really just paper with a chest behind the bars causing the Makuta rolling his eyes as Little Ghost grabbed the magic pouch and retrieved the bits inside before returning. "Maybe I should keep the pouch." She said. "You'll need a belt." Kratus pointed out, "I'm sure we can find one in one of the shops, but until then, Apple Bloom has the pouch." "What he said." Apple Bloom said with Little Ghost nodding and giving the pouch back the filly before they continued to the restrooms before ghostly filly noticed a hole in the ceiling that revealed another secret room with a chest with them having two options on how to access it, use the ledge overlooking the elevator, the second… "I found another chest in there. Should I or Makuta go? Or do we wait to pass by the ledge to the elevator.?" Little Ghost asked. Kratus looked at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle who did the same with the Makuta shrugging before Apple Bloom gave the okay and Little Ghost retrieved the bits inside the chest before they continued to the restrooms with the mare's condemned and found the key to the revolving door in a toilet in the stallions room with Sweetie Belle disgusted causing Apple Bloom tell her friend that she'd found a key in one before Little Ghost remarked about something Apple Bloom did back at the Gem Manor with Applejack laughing when her sister confirmed that it happened with the quadrio using the key to unlock the revolving door and used it to enter the shopping area with the shops closed with bars blocking them with the Makuta tempted to just destroy them, but he didn't know if that'd set off any alarms with the four of them heading to the escalator to head to the second floor of the mall before stopping at the sight of a light. It was Cruller, the clumsy, overweight ghost hiding beside the escalator while patrolling with them finding a button on his uniform before the purple stallion headed up the stairs, the group following him to take him by surprise if the ghost hadn't spotted them already. Though when they reached the top, the ghost was already halfway down the hallway leading to his office with the Makuta using his chameleon to hide with the fillies hiding in the walls, waiting for the ghost to turn around only for him to turn to his office and enter it. "Mister Cruller! Wait!" Sweetie Belle shouted, revealing herself causing the Makuta to facepalm as the stallion to drop his flashlight as he jumped in surprise and turned to the skeletal filly and spot her. Screaming in fear, he flew through the door while accidentally dropping a key with a diamond shaped head and closed the shutters to the office with Spike starting a conversation with the fillies until the Makuta spoke. "Come on, we have other things to do." He said, "And Sweetie Belle." He added, earning the undead filly's attention, "Great job on scaring Cruller away, you really are master of surprise." He said, the snark of his comment hidden by his tone as the group returned to the shops with Little Ghost opening a chest she spotted on a path above the shops. Upon reaching the shop with diamond symbols on the walls, they found that the key didn't work on the gates, but it did work on the cash register that contained a key with a heart-shaped head, though a blue ghost came out to punch her while holding the key with her slamming the ghost with her poltergust, though she broke the glass casings and shelves in the process. Why do I think that she'd grow up to be a delinquent if she wasn't dead? Kratus thought, seeing Little Ghost having a fun time vandalizing the shop before more blue ghosts appeared to help their friend with three attempting to perform a sneak on attack Kratus, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle from behind, the first ghost got shot in the face by the Makuta's skyblaster who didn't turn around with Sweetie Belle capturing it after dealing with the one attacking her with Little Ghost returning with a belt and the key from the wrecked shop. "I didn't know that wrecking shops could be so fun. I better learn how to understand poltergeists." The filly ghost said. "Just don't make a habit of it." Kratus said. "What he said." Apple Bloom said before reminding the ghost that there were three shops left, with Sweetie Belle voicing her concern about it until the Makuta spoke again. "From what I've seen, this hotel shouldn't've been in use at the state it's in. A demolition crew should've knocked it down." "If you say so." Sweetie Belle said before the Little Ghost vandalized the other two shops, finding a chest and a ghost that looked in a mirror along with dealing with the ghosts that interfered with the ghostly filly's fun with the four of them now heading to the barbershop before the mall shook with the escalators activating as they heard a deep laugh. "What was that?" Twilight asked. "I dunno." Kratus replied, "Stay alert, that laugh wasn't a blue ghost or Cruller." He told the fillies who nodded, before they used the escalator to go down with Little Ghost ransacking the barbershop without any ghosts attacking along with finding a key, though midway using the up escalator, it stopped, "It was probably the ghost who laughed earlier, so hurry, I got a bad feeling about this." He said before the escalator started moving down with ever-increasing speed with them landing on the floor with Sweetie Belle's bones scattered. "Is this what it feels like to reassemble myself?" She asked, annoyed as she reassembled herself. "I don't want to go through that again, it's too weird." "You might have to." Kratus said as the filly continued her reassembly, who looked confused before the Makuta pointed at something. A large, blocky, red ghost coming out of the escalators. "Sweetie Belle, Little Ghost, watch out. The punches from this one might hurt." Kratus warned. “He might crush my bones!” Sweetie Belle shouted in panic. From the elevator, the ghost charged Kratus to punch him after deeming him the greater threat, with the Makuta dodging out of the way while letting loose a barrage of bolts of shadow from his skyblaster and swiping with his sword, sending electricity at the ghost and shocked it before it could make the attempt to harm Little Ghost who activated her Poltergust, the size and rectangular shape of the ghost blocked the vortex, preventing its capture, Sweetie Bell however, managed to sneak up behind the ghost and caught one of the two tails in the vortex of her Poltergust, though the ghost moved around to escape, dragging the filly around. "Help!" The skeletal filly shouted, panicking with Apple Bloom capturing the second tail as the Makuta hammered away with bolts of shadow or using hunger to weaken the ghost, ending in its capture with escalators working normally with the three fillies bumping hoofs in excitement. "Wowwee! That was a hard one." Applejack said. "Especially since he could resist the Poltergust." Twilight pointed out. "Eh, my vacuum ability could do a better job than those vacuum cleaners." "Then why didn't you use it?" "And cause everything to fly towards me, including Sweetie Belle, whose bones would shatter against my armor?" Kratus asked rhetorically. "Besides, I'd also cause Apple Bloom to suffocate until I stopped." He added as the fillies held a conversation before the group headed towards where Cruller was. Still in his office, curled up in a chair behind his desk, shivering in fear until he saw the group entering and screamed, his sudden movement caused him to tip over the chair and him to fall with it. "Hand over the button peacefully, and we'll leave you alone." Kratus said, causing Cruller's head to pop over the desk. "I can't, I'm sorry, mistress told me not to give you the button." He said before looking over to his left where an adjacent room that was Lost and Found is. With said room locked by barred gates with the shops, then he rolled from behind the desk into the barred gate with the poor guy stuck in the bars before striking a proud pose, "Now you can't do anything to me!" He said, causing the Makuta to look unimpressed while Little Ghost facehoofed as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle groaned before the ghostly filly passed through the gate. "You forget, I'm a ghost too." She said, the stallion panicking, "And Makuta can just remove the bars." She added and as if to prove her point, the Makuta sliced through a bar with his sword, blade encased in plasma "Now last chance Cruller, give the button or I'll capture you." Cruller shook in fear before gulping and taking a deep breath, reached for the button, "Sorry little one." He said, grabbing a device from his belt and sent a beam of energy from it, causing Little Ghost to scream in agony as she landed on the floor, "But mistress is scarier than you." He added before he found that the bars fell with a clang after Kratus used his blade to cut them loose with him grabbing the ghost. "But she's not as scary as me." The Makuta said, his voice eerily calm as the shadows wiggled and writhed as a result of their Lord and Master's fury as he grew in height and grabbed the ghost who shivered in fear, "I assume that device is to be used against ghosts?" He said, the stallion nodding silently before explaining what it was with the Makuta grabbing the device and crushed it. "Now about this collection, I assume she has a means of trapping ghosts?" "Y-y-yes, but not in the way like a living body." "She binds them to something." The Makuta said, already knowing what the stallion meant. "A-a-anything, a statue, or a corpse, even her favorite doll. When you're a ghost and at her mercy, there're three possibilities for you. Either you work for her freely, you work for her hypnotized, or she binds you to a doll for all eternity to play with. And by that I mean torture. And if I let you have the button." The stallion said, gulping once more, shaking and almost crying, the Makuta felt pity for the ghost who continued to speak, "S-s-she has a room upstairs with over a hundred dolls, and I don't want to end up in one of those dolls… I'm sorry." He added, each word he said caused the Makuta to grow in fury, the three fillies backing away in fear, even Apple Bloom repeating the words he told her during their first adventure didn't help, though the stallion grew ever fearful of the one holding him captive. Saying he was livid would be an understatement. The mare they were hunting down was a sadistic psychopath. While yes, he can be a sadist when torturing others, but he never uses it as a punishment for failure or for not entering service. Does he drag it out as long as he can? Yes, but he gives the victim the mercy of oblivion afterwards, even when he does torture another, his preferred method is to attack their mind, even then, he never tortures the young. As for her leadership method? Fear is never an option for him, does he punish his agents when they mess up if the damage is reversible? No, he uses their failure as a lesson they can learn from and do better next time, which is why he pities the stallion held in his grasp, "I'm sorry, but we won't abandon the others." The Makuta said, "But I don't hold anything against you, just your enslaver." He said, dropping the stallion who ended up captured without resistance, though none of them knew if it was because if the stallion feared the Makuta more than Eternal Rest now or not. After giving the remains of the device to Twilight Sparkle who was upset about its destruction, they returned to the Grand Lobby only to find two blue ghosts and a red ghost with Sweetie Belle dealing with the latter with Kratus, Apple Bloom and Little Ghost dealing with the former with the Makuta acting as a distraction while the two fillies snuck up behind the ghost who didn't realize that focusing on the onyx colored Makuta was a mistake until it was too late with Sweetie Belle dealing with the blue ghosts shortly with the fillies deciding to name the ghosts, though when mentioning history books for naming ghosts with Twilight mentioning that they won't be the only thing that the books would them know for. "Just make sure to leave me out of them." Kratus said. "What? Why?" Twilight asked. "Last time I got credit I didn't deserve caused a betrayal I never knew of until it was too late." The Makuta replied, his face saddening while remembering his greatest failure. "And because of that betrayal, I never took any credit for the deeds of others, even if they acknowledged that I helped." "I dunno, that doesn't seem honest for us ta leave ya out of it." Applejack said. "She's right, everycreature deserves recognition for their deeds, no matter how small." Twilight said in agreement. "No, things are better that way. They get the glory, I remain hidden in the shadows." "But-" Twilight began only for Apple Bloom to interrupt. "Even if it ain't honest, I say we respect his wishes." "Like ya said Apple Bloom, it ain't honest, so it ain't right." Applejack protested, ignoring the last part. "Y'all didn't see it, but I did." "Saw what?" Twilight asked. "He looked sad when he mentioned that betrayal, which meant that somepony very close ta his heart betrayed him, and it broke him inside." Apple Bloom replied, not knowing how right she was and how close the traitor was and still is to the Makuta who shook his head, banishing thoughts of events eons ago. "What's done is done, we have better things to do than talk about my past and what I want." He said with the quadrio finding out that the key didn't work on the door next to the ballroom, but it did work on the door to the left in the ballroom, finding it was a hallway that had two doors, one leading to a storage room and the other a dressing room, the group decided to check the former with it containing draped objects including a chest with bits and a piggy bank on the shelf along with a safe that contained gems and bits. And thanks to Polterpup, who was there a small area behind the shelf that had another chest that held bits, gems and a key with them ambushed by the blue ones that the fillies dubbed tricksters, five normal sized tricksters and twelve of the smaller tricksters, all armed with iron bars with one carrying one of those devices that Cruller used on Little Ghost, with Kratus rolling his eyes before melting the device with his heat vision and slicing the iron bars with his sword in a blink of an eye with the ghost captured shortly before leaving the room to the next. The dressing room looked like, well… the typical dressing room, a large mirror, three tables, a coat rack that had the uniforms with the disguises on the tables, though they found a safe behind a purple coat and thanks to the mirror, a hidden chest with bits, gems and a key, all taken by the fillies with more of the tricksters appearing three dozen of the smaller sized ones and two of the normal sized ones, both having a device that affected ghost and possibly the Makuta's Antidermis, with them shooting at Little Ghost who dodged the shots before sending a wave of energy at them, knocking the devices out of their hands with the Makuta stomping on both devices, crushing them beneath his Protosteel based MCC foot as the fillies captured the ghosts.before holding a conversation about strategy and what she and the Makuta went through the two times they were together along with the features of the hotel, that as the Makuta said before, needed demolishing with said Makuta focused on the main goal, Eternal Rest.   The restaurant in the east wing was a mess thanks to all the tricksters making the mess by eating the food they didn't need before Little Ghost interrupted their mess making and wound up with a plate thrown at her with the plate hitting with everyone there taking cover as the tricksters armed themselves with the eating utensils, or used the plates and trays as shields, with bowls for helmets, with others preparing to throw food with Apple Bloom coming up with a plan and told what the group would be doing. "FOR EQUESTRIA!" The filly shouted, charging as she and the others went to do their assigned objectives. Apple Bloom engaged in CQC, using the plate she grabbed from Little Ghost as a shield. Little Ghost went to the ceiling and dove behind the tables to capture the food throwers. Allowing Sweetie Belle to enter the fray and join Apple Bloom with a ghost stabbing the former where her heart used to be. As for Kratus? "BOOM! Headshot!" The Makuta said, nailing a ghost in the face while acting as a marksman in the support role, picking off ghosts with his skyblaster, performing crowd control to prevent the ghosts from overwhelming the fillies, and before the long the fillies captured the last of the ghosts before heading into the kitchen and found the cook holding a button, but when he refused to give said button the group and gave his reason. "Can't defeat her you say?" Kratus asked. "That's what I said." "That's where you're wrong. She is nothing compared to what I've faced. For I have fought alicorns to a standstill, forced titans to flee, destroyed every army that stood in my way through my power alone, and now that power is turned against her and with it, her downfall and any who stands in my way shall be made to crawl before the power of shadow." Kratus replied, the shadows gathering around their lord and master's sword before unleashed with a single swipe of the blade followed by a wave of compressed air that slammed the cook into the wall, stunning him with the fillies using their Poltergusts on the ghost, causing him to drop the button, only for a mouse to make an attempt to flee with the button and found itself slowed down before the Makuta used his Rahi Control to force the rodent to drop the button with the onyx and gun metal Makuta grabbing the button to the fourth floor before the quadrio left the kitchen. Be afraid of the shadows Eternal Rest, be very afraid. For nothing will save you from them. He thought.