//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Ghost Busting 3 // by Edguy0009 //------------------------------// Apple Bloom couldn't enter the caravan thanks to Applejack hugging her as a means of seeing that she was alright after the fight with Blackbeard. "That Blackbeard scared me there. I thought he'd kill ya." The mare said. "Thankfully, I had my friends with me." Apple Bloom replied while giggling, "I can't wait to tell Pipsqueak I fought Blackbeard." "He won't leave us alone after that." Sweetie Belle said. "I intend to sleep an entire week before that." Apple Bloom said with the group entering the caravan with ponies eyeing the Makuta wearily after the recent revelations about the deeds that made Blackbeard friendly, but they remembered his words about history judging him fairly, something that was for later. "So, is there going to be any side effects of being in that cage?" Twilight Sparkle asked Kratus, looking at the literal electric cage created by the Kraata, which was actually an electrical field that kept Rainbow Dash restrained. "She'll be a little numb, but that's it." The Makuta replied, mentally ordering the Stage Six Kraata to drop the field as he freed Rainbow Dash from her hypnosis, with her suddenly jumping up and took a hostile position, legs bent, wings extended while she looked around. "Where is she? Where's that… that... " She growled, but seeing the cause of her wrath wasn't there, but her friends were, she calmed down. "I assume you're talking about Eternal Rest?" Kratus asked. "Yes," Rainbow Dash replied, "Wait? We're back at." She began… then the headache and numbness set in, "That mare must've done something to me." "Other than hypnotizing you after she captured you she didn't, as far as I know." Kratus said. "Then, why am I numb with a headache?" "The second is a side effect of me freeing you, the first is a result of you trapped in an electrical field created by an Electricity Kraata." Kratus replied, with said Kraata crawling around, "Any how, anything you remember?" "Other than Eternal Rest revealing herself as a ghost after some captured us? Nothing." "Eternal Rest is a sadistic psychopath working for Thanatos that he sent to enact another one of his “Death Games“ against me and Apple Bloom. She captured everyone, except me, Apple Bloom, Applejack, Sweetie Belle and Little Ghost, and hypnotized you and the rest of those she captured, using you as a means to force me and Apple Bloom to do the game. So with the aid of Sweetie Belle and Little Ghost, me and Apple Bloom are climbing the floors of the hotel, one by one, to save everypony by defeating the ghosts protecting each floor. We've saved Twilight and Spike first, followed by Rarity, Pinkie Pie and now you." Kratus said. "What about Fluttershy and Scootaloo?" Rainbow Dash asked, her headache disappearing while regaining feeling in her body. “Fluttershy is probably on one of the three remaining floors, The worst-case scenario is that Eternal Rest guards her. As for Scootaloo? I'm sorry… she's dead, Eternal Rest killed her.” Kratus replied. It was as if the world ended for Rainbow Dash as she looked at Kratus, "She… killed… Scootaloo?" Kratus and Apple Bloom nodded. Rainbow Dash's expression turned from shock to hatred. "I'll kill her." "She will not go unpunished, Eternal Rest likely has Scootaloo's ghost held prisoner, along with Starlight Glimmer and many other innocents that came here before us. By the time the sun rises, we'll have saved them." Kratus said, internally vowing to give Eternal Rest a taste of her own medicine before giving her the mercy of oblivion. "But, what if she's already killed Fluttershy and Starlight?" Rainbow Dash asked, filled with dread. "We won't know until we find them." Twilight said before putting a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder, "I don't know if they're still alive, but Apple Bloom and Makuta will save them, no matter what. This nightmare is almost over, Apple Bloom and Makuta just finished the twelfth floor where they saved you, there's only three more floors left to go." "Can ya wait for a few more minutes?" Apple Bloom asked with a sigh, "I need to rest after the fight with Blackbeard, speaking of which." She added before she went to place Blackbeard and the other ghosts she captured into a crystal. "Wait, Blackbeard?" Rainbow Dash asked, "The Blackbeard? The captain that terrorized the seas a few centuries ago?" "The very one." Apple Bloom replied, "He's the one who guarded ya on the twelfth floor." "He didn't fail his reputation." Sweetie Belle said. Little Ghost nodded, "He threatened to kill you if we didn't surrender. He had a sword under your throat, ready to cut it until Twilight teleported you here." "After he found out that Makuta, especially me, don't play fair." Kratus replied. Rainbow Dash put a hoof under her throat horrified, "Wow. Well... thanks." "Pfft… it was nothing." Kratus said, brushing off the praise. "Besides, he was nothing more than another bump in the road, and compared to me, he's still in the wading pool." He added with the rest of those there remembering the Makuta's admission, and hoping how history will judge him for it before Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie told Rainbow Dash what happened before that. With a ding, the elevator doors opened, revealing the floor to the group, a picture of a dumbbell was on the floor, with one on a glass case with trophies in it to the left, a fountain of a buffy lifting the world on both sides of the elevator, the arrow to the elevator, a dumbbell, a picture of a stallion in a swimming pool. "Sports themed." Kratus said. "And I don't mind that." Rainbow Dash said, "But after what you told me, I was hoping for something more awesome, like a volcano." "A floor with a volcano? Seriously?" Applejack asked. "Come one, after the desert and ocean, it wouldn't be surprising if they found a way to put a volcano in there, even a small one." "Trust me, you don't want a volcano here, even small ones are dangerous." Kratus said before turning to the fillies, "At least we won't have too many problems. The worst-case scenario is that we fight more buffies than usual." He added before the group went through the only door which was inside the hall to the right with them entering what appeared to be a lobby. To their direct right, there was a bench next to a trash bin with magazines. Above it, on the wall, was a big, bronze disc with a dumbbell symbol. In the middle of the main part of the room was a check-in-desk. Behind it was a huge window with a pool seen through it. Through the window, they could see a brown furred, black maned pegasus stallion that was floating back and forth above the pool, panicking before he saw them, causing him to scream in horror before he placed a pile of towels in front of the door to the right, baring most of them entry from there, Kratus just rolled his eyes at the futile attempt to prevent them from entering. "Poor guy, he clearly doesn't want to be here." Apple Bloom said. "But, he's forced to by Eternal Rest." Sweetie Belle pointed out. "You don't say." Kratus said. "Well, we won't be able to reach the pool through that door." Little Ghost pointed out, "But through that door." She added, pointing to the door to the left. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Kratus said, the sarcasm not unnoticed by the fillies, "Now, let's get this floor cleared so Eternal Rest can get what's coming for her." He added, before the fillies explored the room and grabbed the bags of bits hidden throughout the room and found a key hidden among the towels, though after grabbing it, several tricksters and two creepers appeared, only for Kratus to used chain lightning on them, halting their attack with the fillies capturing her shortly. They used the key to unlock to door resulting them in entering the locker room with, throwers, mini-tricksters and mini-buffies ambushing them and attacked with punches with the Makuta shrugging them off before summoning tendrils of shadow that slammed the ghosts into the ground with the fillies capturing them shortly. "I do wish they'd stop attacking us." Kratus said. "Eternal Rest is forcing them to attack, so they won't stop attacking." Little Ghost said as she and the fillies found more bits in the lockers. "One can hope." The Makuta said as the group descended the small stairway leading to the second part of the room which held sports equipment, and if they could to trust the sign on the wall, the door on the right led to the pool with it blocked, though tempted to do so, Kratus refrained from punching through either the door or the wall as a means to show the stallion that the group were using the alternative route instead of going through the pathetic means of blocking their path as a courtesy. In the end, the group had to go through the door at the front of the stairs, finding a training room with two buffies, one using a punching bag, the other lifting three weights with the two ghosts seeing them enter, the first put its hands in front of its face, the other prepared to throw the weights, and judging by the cracks two out of four of the group had to avoid them. The buffy with the weights was the closest, and threw a weight with the Makuta grabbing it while it was airborne, then gained an evil grin before tossing the weight back at the ghost, the force of the impact sent it flying into the wall in the blink of an eye before Kratus sent plasma towards the second like a grenade. Frying, but not sending it to the afterlife with the fillies capturing the ghosts. After using the DLD to find a hidden chest on an elevated part of the room, where a weight lifting machine was. The group entered another room with a lot of treadmills. "Okay, it's more than a sports floor, it's a fitness center." Kratus said. "You should've expected a high class hotel to have one." Twilight said, "We expected to find one at the beginning, I'm surprised it came this late." Some tricksters and a single buffy were using the treadmills, stopping when they noticed the group. The buffy got the idea of throwing the treadmill it was using at the group, though it was a useless attempt at crushing the group as Kratus used disintegration on it, reducing it to dust with Little Ghost attacking the buffy, first creating a wave of power that slammed into the ghost before capturing it with the others dealing with the tricksters. After the fight, the group explored the room, looking for anything to grab before spotting a chest on a ledge on the other side of the window with Little Ghost grabbing the bits inside, with a key included. The door to the next room was to the right of the way they came in with it locked, making them doing a U-turn. Using the key they retrieved from the buffy, the group entered the next room, finding it to have yoga mats, some rolled up on the right wall. Doing yoga were tricksters, a buffy and a thrower with Kratus firing his skyblaster at the thrower, knocking it out with Little Ghost capturing it as the Makuta turned his attention to the buffy, creating a mini cyclone that weakened the ghost with it captured shortly. Once they were done with the ghosts, the group looked around before finding steam coming out of a vent above the door to the next room. "Room's next to the showers." Kratus said, "And that must mean that the next one's the pool." He added before the fillies moved the mats as a puzzle to open the hidden passage to the chest with them looking at the valley below, even finding the lake with the Makuta noticing how close they were to the last floor first, causing him to glare at said floor with the fillies' curiosity satisfied. The showers, as expected, had ghosts with said ghosts being a creeper, a thrower and a buffy using separate showers. And Kratus, unlike the rest of those there, had no problems with the steam blocking his vision. Using accuracy, he nailed each ghost with his skyblaster with the ghosts captured. Though once the group turned off the showers to stop the steam, a trickster that was hiding the steam whistled, calling a dozen tricksters and some creepers in an attempt to surround the group, with the key word being attempt as it was easier for the group to capture the ghosts in such a small room. Once the ghosts were gone, Kratus moved the pile of towels blocking the entrance to the locker room, with the door to the pool not locked, though once they opened the door, a cannonball came at them, though after Kratus used slow on it, the group found it was a water polo ball thrown like a cannon ball, and looked at the source of the ball, the muscular stallion with a dozen of those balls in the pool. "You will not get me! You hear?! I will not let myself be captured. I will not join Eternal Rest's collection!" The stallion shouted before throwing another ball at Little Ghost with Kratus, catching it with his Shadow Hand. "Eternal Rest made a mistake in challenging us, especially a Makuta who pushed the boundaries of what he could do with his power and the skill to use it. She might as well have signed her death warrant if she weren't already dead." The Makuta said, unamused before throwing the ball back at the stallion who dodged it as Sweetie Belle dived into the pool with the stallion leaving it to prevent the filly from capturing him, though Apple Bloom was still in range before the stallion slammed the ground, creating a shockwave that Apple Bloom and Kratus dodged by jumping above it while Little Ghost approached the stallion. Panicking, the stallion flew to the other side of the pool, throwing another ball at Little Ghost who dodged it with the Makuta sending it back at the stallion, using vacuum to increase the velocity of the ball he hit the stallion on the head. And thanks to him using accuracy to calculate where he needed to throw, stunned him with Little Ghost trapping him while apologizing before the stallion escaped, only for the Makuta to hit him with a burst of electricity that stunned the stallion long enough for Little Ghost to trap him again with Apple Bloom joining in as Kratus hammered away with his skyblaster with the stallion ending up in Apple Bloom's poltergust while dropping the button to the fourteenth floor with Little Ghost lift Apple Bloom out of the water. "That was easy." She said after gathering her breath, starting a conversation as the Makuta moved the towels out of the way with the group entering a small room and revealed a chest with the DLD with them preparing to place the elevator button with a certain purple cat snatching it. "I've had enough of that cat." Kratus growled, before a purple lightning bolt struck the bin in the corner before he destroyed it. The cat was about to leave the pool room until it heard a voice behind it, causing it to turn around, Kratus was there, having teleported behind it while leaving an illusion of himself still in the lobby "Not this time." He said, trapping the cat in a stasis field. After switching his skyblaster to use light ammunition, he hammered away at the cat after dropping the stasis field before grabbing the ghost in his Shadow Hand and squeezed it. Though after a purple lightning bolt hit the metal barriers, he turned to them. And using his heat vision, turned them into liquid before slamming the cat into the ground before picking it back up, each time Eternal Rest attempted to give life to an object, he destroyed it before continuing to slam the cat around as the fillies dealt with the ghosts that attempted to aid the feline with the Makuta even stomping on or holding it against the wall with his Shadow Hand and pummeled it with his fist until it was too weak to move with Apple Bloom capturing it in her poltergust. Once entering the lobby, the floor shook before stopping. With, as a result, Kratus reaching out through the shadows and "sensed" the room where Eternal Rest was and manipulated the shadows inside to form a message. "Be afraid, Eternal Rest, be very afraid. Because the shadows are closing in, for their lord and master is near, and there is nowhere I can't find you."